Month: July 2009

Providenciales, July 28: – A vessel carrying as many as 200 Haitian migrants capsized and sank near the Turks and Caicos Islands on Monday, the U.S. Coast Guard said. One survivor said the boat struck a reef as they tried to elude police.

About 70 passengers were stranded on a reef and four bodies were recovered, said Petty Officer Third Class Sabrina Elgammal, a Coast Guard spokeswoman in Miami. The rest of the passengers were missing and feared dead.

“Our main goal right now is just to get everybody out of the water and get medical attention for those who need it,” Elgammal said.

Kathmandu, July 28: At least 28 people have died and 15 others gone missing due to landslide and other mishaps across Nepal, police said today. Fifteen people, including two sisters aged 12 and 14, died in a landslide due to incessant rain in Sikidim village in Sankhuwasabha district, they said.

Six passengers were killed when a bus in which they were travelling met with an accident at Dumbara in Myagdi district in north of Nepal. In a separate incident, seven pilgrims were drowned in Kamala river in southern Nepal”s Siraha district, a report in Nayapatrika daily said.

Kathmandu, July 28: Nepal attaches “great importance” to its relations with India which are based on mutual respect, goodwill, understanding and cooperation, Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal has said.

“We have very extensive, close and cordial relations with India at people’s level as well,” the Prime Minister said, addressing a function organised by the Council of World Affairs, Nepal.

He said the Himalayan country attached great importance to its relations with its immediate neighbours India and China.

Washington, July 28: Pledging a new era of engagement with the world, US President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama served “chicken samosa” among other mouthwatering dishes at a White House reception hosted for scores of ambassadors, including new Indian envoy to the US Meera Shankar.

Washington, July 28: US Middle East peace envoy George Mitchell called on Arab states on Monday to fully normalise ties with Israel, after meeting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on the latest leg of a regional tour.

Mitchell told reporters after the talks that Washington was asking countries in the region to set the “context” for comprehensive peace negotiations between Israel and the Arab world.

London, July 28: Britain announced the end of a bloody offensive against the Taliban in Afghanistan, as a poll showed Tuesday that most Britons think military operations there are “unwinnable.”

Prime Minister Gordon Brown praised the “heroic” efforts of British forces in the southern Helmand province, where the troop death toll has surged since the assault was launched late last month.