Month: March 2015

Papua New Guinea hit by 7.7 offshore quake: USGS

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A 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Papua New Guinea today, US seismologists said, with “hazardous” tsunami waves possible within 1,000 kilometres of the epicentre.

The quake hit at a depth of 65 kilometres, some 54 kilometres from the nearest city of Kokopo on New Britain island and 789 kilometres from the capital Port Moresby, the United States Geological Survey said.

“Based on preliminary earthquake parameters… Hazardous tsunami waves are possible for coasts located within 1,000 kilometres of the earthquake epicentre,” the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said.

Two policemen injured in drive-by shooting in Riyadh

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Two Saudi police officers were wounded in a drive-by shooting in the capital Riyadh, a police spokesman has said.

“A security patrol was carrying out its duties in Riyadh when it came under fire from an unknown vehicle” in an attack that “left two policemen wounded,” the spokesman said in a statement published on the official SPA news agency yesterday.

The two were hospitalised and “their health situation in stable,” the statement said.

Authorities are investigating the incident, it added.

Syria forces regroup after Islamists seize Idlib city

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Syrian troops regrouped today after a coalition including Al-Qaeda’s local affiliate seized the city of Idlib, the second provincial capital to fall from government control.

The capture is a blow to the government and raises the prospect that Idlib will become the effective capital of territory held by Al-Qaeda’s Syrian wing, Al-Nusra Front, analysts said.

Today, the city in northwestern Syria was largely quiet, after sporadic government aerial bombardment overnight, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.

Apology for wrong anthem for El Salvador before game in US

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Organizers of a soccer match in the US capital apologized to El Salvador today for playing the wrong national anthem before an exhibition game against Argentina.

Salvadoran team members looked confused when what was supposed to their anthem blared from loudspeakers at FedEx Field last night. Several slowly dropped their hands from their chests. Many of the Salvadorans in the crowd whistled in disgust.

Curfew in Bauchi, NE Nigeria, after Boko Haram fighting

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An indefinite lockdown was ordered on three areas in northeast Nigeria today after troops battled scores of Boko Haram fighters outside the Bauchi state capital, Bauchi city, the authorities said.

Soldiers supported by two fighter jets intercepted the militants who were in 20 pick-up trucks at Dungulbe village, seven kilometres (four miles) from the city, and engaged them in fierce fighting.

Iranian negotiator says nuclear deal ‘doable’

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A nuclear deal between Iran and world powers was “doable”, Tehran’s lead negotiator said in crunch talks in Switzerland today, with “two or three” issues still to be resolved.

Abbas Araqchi however ruled out sending Iran’s nuclear stocks abroad, a key demand of world powers, while insisting that all UN Security Council resolutions and sanctions must be lifted.

“Getting to an accord is doable. Solutions have been found for numerous questions. We are still working on two or three issues… The talks are in their final phase and are very difficult,” Abbas told reporters in Lausanne.

Global powers, Iran to hold full session tomorrow: Tehran

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World powers seeking to pin down a nuclear deal with Iran will hold their first full session of these negotiations tomorrow, a senior Iranian official said.

Tehran’s lead negotiator Abbas Araqchi said the full plenary session would now be held tomorrow morning, after being pushed back today.

“Tomorrow morning there will be a plenary meeting,” Araqchi told reporters.

“Getting to an accord is doable. Solutions have been found for numerous questions. We are still working on two or three issues… The talks are in their final phase and are very difficult,” he added.

16 killed, 7 injured in road accident in Egypt

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At least 16 people were killed and seven others injured after three vehicles collided on a desert highway in Egypt.

The accident took place on Sohag-Red Sea desert road, killing 16 people and injuring seven others, local media reported.

The injured have been admitted to a hospital.

Egypt has one of the world’s highest accident rates owing to careless driving and poor road and vehicle conditions.

The WHO ranks Egypt as the world’s tenth worst country in road accidents.

Top 25 Indian designers bring end to AIFW

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Amid Rohit Bal’s impromptu gig and other A-lister designers including Sabyasachi and Ritu Kumar walking the runway, the 25th edition of Amazon India Fashion Week (AIFW) tonight concluded here.

This was the first time that 25 top Indian designers teamed up to pay an ode to the rich “Crafts of India”, at the AIFW, which celebrated its silver jubilee.

Blow for ruling Socialists as French right leads local

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French voters looked to have given the ruling Socialists a drubbing in run-off local polls today, while boosting the prospects for former president Nicolas Sarkozy and the far-right ahead of 2017 presidential polls.

Right-wing parties, spearheaded by Sarkozy’s UMP, took between 64 and 70 councils out of a possible 98, according to projections, as voters punished the socialist government of President Francois Hollande for failing to revive the slumping economy.

Body found at site of collapsed New York buildings

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New York police recovered today a body from the Manhattan site where four buildings were destroyed or damaged earlier this week in a massive gas explosion.

Two people had been reported missing from a sushi restaurant ravaged by the Thursday blast, which blew the front off a commercial and residential property on Second Avenue in East Village and led to a multi-building fire.

NYPD Sergeant Lee Jones told AFP that a body had “been recovered” around 1:00 pm (1700 GMT), but did not identify who it was or exactly where it was found.

Iran deal ‘can be done’, must put bomb out of reach: UK

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British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said late today he believed a nuclear deal with Iran could be reached, but insisted it must put an atomic bomb “beyond reach.”

“We are here because we believe a deal can be done,” Hammond told reporters waiting in the rain outside a Lausanne hotel as he became the last of the foreign ministers to arrive for talks with world powers.

“It’s in everyone’s interests that a deal does get done. But it has to be a deal which puts the bomb beyond Iran’s reach,” he said.

“There can’t be any compromise about that,” Hammond insisted.

Thousands call for vote re-run in Nigeria’s Rivers state

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Thousands of supporters of Nigeria’s main opposition party today demonstrated in the oil-rich state of Rivers, calling for the cancellation of elections locally because of alleged irregularities.

The demonstrators from the All Progressives Congress (APC) converged on the local offices of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the state capital, Port Harcourt.

“We are here to register our protest that there was no election in Rivers state yesterday,” Rivers state governorship candidate Dakuku Peterside told the crowd.

100 NDRF personnel to rush to Kashmir Valley

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Two NDRF teams comprising 100 personnel will be rushed to Jammu and Kashmir tomorrow as part of contingency measures in the wake of the flood alert in the state.

The two National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams, comprising 50 personnel each, will take an early morning IAF plane tomorrow from Bhatinda in Punjab to Srinagar.

“We are pre-positioning two of our teams in the Kashmir Valley tomorrow in order to combat any situation in the wake of flood alert.

“Jammu and Kashmir DGP had made a request to us in this regard,” NDRF Director General O P Singh told PTI here.

3 West African countries increase fight to end Ebola

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The West African countries hit hardest by Ebola are ramping up efforts to eradicate the deadly disease using lockdowns, restrictions on burials and a warning to survivors about the potential dangers of unprotected sex.

The region’s Ebola outbreak has killed more than 10,000 people since cases were first recorded more than a year ago, with most of the dead coming from Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

AIMIM slams Congress for fielding Rane for Bandra bypoll

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Slamming the Congress for fielding Narayan Rane as its candidate for the Bandra bypoll, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) legislator Akbaruddin Owaisi today said they would not have fielded a candidate for the bypoll if a Muslim candidate would have been fielded in his place.

“If the Congress would have fielded an Arif Naseem Khan or an Amin Patel, we would not have fielded a candidate. Didn’t the Congress, that calls itself secular get a Muslim candidate to contest the poll,” AIMIM leader Akbaruddin Owaisi said while addressing a gathering here.

Before leak, NSA mulled ending phone programme

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According to current and former intelligence officials, the National Security Agency considered abandoning its secret programme to collect and store American calling records in the months before leaker Edward Snowden revealed the practice.

Some officials believed the costs outweighed the programme’s counterterrorism benefits.

Even after the leak and the collective surprise around the world, NSA leaders strongly defended the phone records program to Congress and the public, but without disclosing the internal debate.

Former Najafgarh MLA shot dead, 2 PSOs critical

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Former INLD MLA Bharat Singh was shot dead and two of his associates critically injured when some unidentified persons opened indiscriminate fire at them in south west Delhi’s Najafgarh area here this evening.

The incident took place at around 8:10 PM when Singh was attending a religious programme at Abhinandan Vatika in Najafgarh, from where he was elected MLA in 2009.

38-year-old Singh was attacked by over six armed men who had reached the spot in a SUV. At least 15-20 rounds of bullets were fired.

Uzbekistan’s election sees turnout at 91 per cent

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Uzbekistan’s election commission said 91 per cent of eligible voters cast ballots in today’s presidential election, where victory by longtime authoritarian leader Islam Karimov is a foregone conclusion.

The 77-year-old Karimov has led the former Soviet republic in Central Asia since the late 1980s and ruthlessly quashed all opposition to his rule.

Robbers loot tourists in Bengal, 7 arrested

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Seven persons were arrested today in South 24 Parganas district for allegedly robbing a group of tourists at a hotel, with West Bengal’s Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim alleging hand of Bangladeshi criminals in the crime.

However, police said that the arrested accused belonged to Kultali area here.

Four families, comprising 15 members, were attacked at a hotel in Piyali tourist spot by about 12 dacoits who looted about Rs 75,000, gold ornaments, mobile phones and watches from them last night, police officials said.

MPF seeks dismissal of Cong government in Meghalaya

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Opposition Meghalaya People’s Front today urged Governor K N Tripathi to dismiss the Congress government headed by Mukul Sangma in the state for allegedly making a ‘mockery’ of the constitutional process in the House.

The MPF alleged that the Deputy Speaker Sanbor Shullai was forced to resign and the Chief Minister nominated his own wife to the Panel of Chairmen, a day after the No-Confidence motion against the Speaker A T Mondal was admitted for a test on the floor of the House.

Air Canada plane skids off Halifax runway after ‘hard’ landing

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An Air Canada plane made a hard landing in bad weather and skidded off the runway at the airport in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and the airline said today that 25 people were taken to hospitals for observation and treatment of minor injuries.

The airline said Flight AC624, an Airbus 320 that left Toronto late yesterday, had 133 passengers and five crew members. Airport spokesman Peter Spurway said the aircraft touched down in stormy conditions at 12:35 a.M. Today.

Greece seeks ‘happy ending’ as creditors mull loan deal

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Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said in remarks published today he hoped key talks with international creditors would yield a “happy ending” in the standoff over the country’s crippling debt crisis.

Athens is set to present a list of economic reform proposals to international creditors this week in a bid to unblock a new 7.2 billion euro (USD 7.8 billion) tranche of EU-IMF loans and avoid a debt default.

Josh Duhamel celebrates wife Fergie’s 40th birthday

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Josh Duhamel has posted a gorgeous photo of his wife Fergie celebrating her 40th birthday.

The “Glamorous” singer looked amazing as she blew out her birthday candles at her bash in a silver one-shoulder dress and a bold red lipstick, reported Us magazine.

The couple – married since January 2009 – were joined by 100 of their closest friends and family. They drank up and noshed on the tasty dessert, which was covered in strawberries and blueberries.

Fergie and Duhamel welcomed son Axl in August 2013.