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40 killed,
160 hurt in suicide blast
Plan to
renovate Pakistan-India rail track
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Zimbabwe
set to return to CHOGM Philippines
lifts ban on death penalty
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40 killed, 160 hurt in suicide blast in train Moscow, December 5 At least 10 kg of TNT equivalent of explosive tied to the suicide bomber’s belt was triggered by the female terrorist travelling in the coach, the Interior Ministry said. However, according to Federal Security Service (FSB) spokesman Col. Sergei Ignatchenko it was premature to say about the involvement of female suicide bombers in the blast which occurred near the resort town of Essentuki at around 7.40 local time (10.10 IST) in Stavropol region (South Russia). Rescuers have recovered 31 bodies from the wreckage, an official of the Russian Emergency Situation Ministry told Itarr-Tass. A total of 103 persons have been hospitalised with 20 of them stated to be in serious condition. Rest of the injured have been discharged after first aid. Investigators have recovered the fragments of the body of suicide bomber along with at least 10 unexploded hand grenades, Itar-Tass reported quoting FSB security service sources. The Prosecutor General’s Office in Moscow said detectives were investigating many scenarios, including those linked to Sunday’s election for Russia’s lower House of Parliament. Twin blasts rocked the same commuter line two months ago, killing four and injuring 32, many of them teenagers travelling to attend
university classes in the town of Pyatigorsk. Today’s blast took place in Russia’s most popular mineral water spas in the Caucasus close to the war ravaged Chechnya.
— PTI |
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Plan to renovate Pakistan-India rail track Islamabad, December 5 The Pakistan Railways plans to renovate and upgrade Mirpurkhas railway station in Sindh province, a senior official told IANS. “The government has agreed to the initial plan for renovation of the station,” said a railway official. The Mirpurkhas railway track links Khokrapar in Sindh with Monabao in Rajasthan. The distance between Khokrapar and Monabao is just 15 km. The railway official said Rs 550 million had been sought for the initial phase of the project to renovate and upgrade the station. The official said the whole track might be upgraded. He said the completion of buildings and platforms might take about three months. However, he said, the Pakistan Railways could make the track suitable for passenger trains within 10 days while work on a new track could go on simultaneously. Presently, the average train speed on this track is just 35 km per hour. But after some minor changes, the speed may be enhanced up to 70 km per hour. That will enable a train to cover the 132-km distance between Mirpurkhas and Khokrapar within three hours. A large number of families which migrated from Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh during Indian Partition in 1947 live in Sindh and want the border point reopened. A four-member delegation of the Pakistan Railways will leave for New Delhi on December 17 for talks on the resumption of the Samjhauta Express between Lahore and Amritsar.
— IANS |
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Indians in China wish Ami luck
Beijing, December 5 “So far it has been a wonderful experience for me to be with friends from over 100 countries,” Vashi told PTI in a telephonic interview ahead of tomorrow’s final of the Miss World 2003 pageant in Sanya, a picturesque city in the tropical island province of Hainan in South China. Asked about her preparations for the D-day, she said, “There is a sense of nervousness. There is always going to be nervousness because of the pressure.” “But we have to perform our best. I am looking forward to the day. I am keeping my fingers crossed. All I can do is try my best and the rest is really up to god,” said the 22-year-old financial consultant-turned-social worker from Gujarat when asked about her chances of being crowned Miss World 2003. Vashi is already one of the 10 most popular contestants, the official website of the Miss World 2003 pageant said this week. “I am excited and honoured to be part of this contest because there is only one representative from all of India. It is a great honour even to be here,” Vashi, who works for Pratharn, a non-governmental organisation which provides education to the underprivileged, said. Meanwhile, the small-but-growing Indian community in China is eagerly awaiting the outcome of tomorrow’s event. “We are proud to be Indian and waiting for you to make us more proud,” R.K. Singh, president of the Indian Community in Beijing (ICB), an organisation for some 300 Indians here in the Chinese capital, said.
— PTI |
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Zimbabwe set to return to CHOGM Abuja, December 5 The deliberations after the formal inauguration of CHOGM by Queen Elizabeth sent out strong signals that Zimbabwe’s charge of the white nations adopting a racist position on its re-entry seems to have worked. A restricted session of heads of government decided to expand the size of the group of three, set up after the Coolum summit in Australia last year. While Nigeria and South Africa wanted the suspension to be lifted, Australia took a rigid position citing Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s poor human rights record as the reason for his country’s continued exclusion from the organisation of former British colonies. The restricted session requested India, Jamaica and Mozambique to help the troika comprising Nigeria, South Africa and Australia to examine Zimbabwe’s case afresh. The six-member group will submit its report tomorrow. External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha, who briefed the Indian media, threw a broad hint about the possibility of Zimbabwe’s return to avoid the possibility of the organisation being divided on racial lines. He said it would not be in the interest of the Commonwealth to get divided on the issue of Harare’s re-entry. Ironically the guidelines that have worked against Mugabe are the ones that were adopted at the Harare summit of the Commonwealth. He said India would work for evolving a consensus on the issue. India, he said, favoured a “flexible” stand. However, India is yet not prepared to support Pakistan’s case with the same passion. To a question why Zimbabwe and Pakistan are receiving different treatment, Mr Sinha said it was unfortunate that Pakistan’s re-entry was sought to be projected as a bilateral matter. |
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Philippines lifts ban on death penalty Manila, December 5 The move follows a series of kidnappings targeting the ethnic Chinese community that have added to the perception that the Arroyo government is failing to curb rampant crime. It also risks alienating her supporters within the powerful Roman Catholic Church ahead of elections next May. “I shall no longer stand in the way of executions scheduled by the courts for January, 2004,” Arroyo said in a statement. The decision to lift the moratorium she imposed in October, 2002, comes only days after Arroyo rejected calls from the Filipino-Chinese community to reimpose capital punishment, saying an effective criminal justice system was the key to fighting crime.
— Reuters |
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