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Saturday, 04 February 2012

Author / Source : Agencies

7 Pak soldiers killed in Taliban attack
PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Feb 3: Seven Pakistani soldiers were killed and three others wounded in a Taliban attack on their check post in the country’s northwestern tribal belt, security officials said Friday.
The overnight attack on Shidano Dand post in the Kurram region triggered clashes in which 18 militants were also killed, according to a senior military official.
“Armed militants stormed the post around midnight and killed seven soldiers,” said the official, who did not want to be named, adding that troops retaliated killing 18 militants.
Other security officials also confirmed the attack.     AFP

2G: Thackeray questions Sonia’s silence 
Mumbai, Feb 3: Criticising Congress president Sonia Gandhi for being “quiet” on the 2G spectrum scam, Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray on Friday hit out at Home Minister P Chidambaram, saying he should resign immediately.
“The ‘Yuvraj’ of Congress (Rahul Gandhi) is very vocal over the corruption by Mayawati. However, he is not saying anything about the corruption by his own government,” Mr. Thackeray said in an editorial in party mouthpiece Saamana. “His mother (Sonia Gandhi) is also quiet on the issue. The Prime Minister is also not opening his mouth. The truth is hidden in the silence,” the Sena chief added.     PTI

train-vehicle collision kills 15 in India
NEW DELHI, Feb 3: At least 15 people were killed and 50 injured when a passenger train hit a road construction vehicle at an unmanned crossing near the capital of the northeast Indian state Guwahati Friday morning, said witnesses and officials.
The passenger train was coming from New Bongaigaon station in lower Assam to Guwahati when it hit a JCB vehicle at Mirza, 15 km from Guwahati at around 09:45 a.m.local time. At least five coaches behind the engine were reported to have derailed after the accident, a witness told Xinhua by phone.
The driver of the JCB was killed on the spot.     Xinhua

Kuwait voting results show opposition gains
KUWAIT CITY, Feb 3: Early results from Kuwait’s parliamentary elections suggest strong gains by opposition groups including hard-line Islamists favouring stricter social codes in the Western-allied Gulf nation.The final figures are expected later Friday. But partial returns give a strong edge to anti-government factions, which also include liberals inspired by the Arab Spring.Some analysts predict opposition groups could take more than 30 seats in the 50-member parliament.        AP

Khmer Rouge chief jailer gets life in prison
PHNOM PENH, Feb 3: The Khmer Rouge tribunal’s Supreme Court on Friday ordered the regime’s chief jailer to serve out the rest of his life in prison because of his “shocking and heinous” crimes against the Cambodian people.
The surprise ruling increased a lower court’s 19-year sentence that had been appealed by prosecutors as too lenient and that had outraged survivors who feared the man who oversaw the killing of thousands could one day walk free.       AP

Taiwan man dies playing video games
Taipei, Feb 3: A Taiwanese man died while playing video games at an Internet cafe as dozens of other patrons carried on for hours afterwards apparently unaware that they were sitting near a corpse, according to police.The 23-year-old checked in at the cafe in New Taipei city on Tuesday night and was found dead but still sitting rigidly on a chair with his hands stretched out the following night by a waitress, police said.    AFP          

woman jailed    for breaking babies’ legs
TOKYO, Feb 3: A woman who broke the legs of four babies because she was jealous of their mothers’ happiness has been jailed for four-and-a-half years in Japan. Yuko Soutome would search out mothers and their babies in supermarkets or in shops selling children’s goods. A court in Utsunomia, north of Tokyo, heard how on four occasions the 30-year-old asked to hold the tots and then snapped their legs as she cuddled them. AFP

Gunmen kidnap two US tourists in Egypt
CAIRO, FEB 3: Gunmen in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula kidnapped two American women on Friday in an apparent attempt to hold them for ransom, security sources said. Security in the isolated desert region has deteriorated since the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak in a popular uprising last February. South Sinai's Red Sea coast is a major tourism hub for Egypt.
The two tourists were among a party of five travelling from Saint Catherine's monastery in central Sinai to the resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh when a vehicle carrying men armed with machineguns stopped their small bus, the sources said.    Reuters

World court upholds German immunity in Nazi cases
THE HAGUE, Feb 3: The U.N.’s highest court confirmed Friday that Germany has legal immunity from being sued in foreign courts by victims of World War II Nazi atrocities.
The International Court of Justice said that Italy’s Supreme Court violated Germany’s sovereignty in 2008 by judging that an Italian civilian, Luigi Ferrini, was entitled to reparations for his deportation to Germany in 1944 to work as a slave laborer in the armaments industry.     AP

Putin campaign focuses on working classes
TIKHVIN, Russia, Feb 3: Clad in a bomber jacket, Vladimir Putin walks briskly into a new railway car plant, greets workers and pushes a button to launch production.
The prime minister’s tightly choreographed appearance at the factory in the northwestern city of Tikhvin got top billing on all three Kremlin-controlled networks — and points to his campaign strategy as he tries to recapture the presidency in March.     AP

About 100 feared trapped in sunken PNG ferry
PORT MORESBY, Feb 3: Over 100 missing passengers were feared to have been trapped inside an overloaded ferry when it sank off Papua New Guinea, an official said Friday, as rescuers scoured the seas for more survivors.    AFP

Smoking tied to higher psoriasis risk

USA, Feb 3: Smokers have an increased risk of developing the chronic skin condition psoriasis, and that appears to be true both for people who currently smoke as well as past smokers, according to a US study.
The findings, based on a study of thousands of people and published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, do not prove that smoking causes psoriasis in some people—but it is clear the smoking came before the skin condition, said senior researcher Abrar Qureshi.
“I think if there’s one message, it’s that for now, smoking seems to be a risk factor for new-onset psoriasis,” added Qureshi, at the Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. Experts believe psoriasis is caused by an abnormal immune system attack on the body’s own cells, and some studies have suggested that smokers are more vulnerable, possibly because smoking can affect immune activity.
But most research has looked at people only at one point in time, which makes it hard to be sure the smoking came before the psoriasis.
For the current study, researchers used data from three large, long-running studies of U.S. health professionals, following nearly 186,000 men and women for 12 to 20 years.
Of those, 2,410 developed psoriasis during that time.
People who were current smokers at the study’s start were almost twice as likely as lifelong non-smokers to develop psoriasis. Past smokers had a 39 percent higher risk than non-smokers.     Reuters

Time running out for peace deal, says UN
HERZLIYA, Feb 3: U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon warned Thursday that time is running out for a Mideast peace deal and urged Israel to make goodwill gestures, including easing its blockade of Gaza, to help lure the Palestinians back to negotiations.
Ban attended a security conference in Israel just hours after visiting Gaza, where dozens of Palestinians pelted his armored convoy with shoes and sticks, accusing him of being unfairly biased toward Israel.
Ban met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas this week to try to salvage low-level talks on borders and security arrangements between Israel and a future Palestinian state.
Israel says it’s ready to continue, but Abbas has said Israel’s proposals were not enough to warrant a further round of meetings. Abbas insists formal negotiations can only resume once Israel freezes settlement building on occupied lands. Netanyahu rejects the idea of a freeze, saying all issues should discussed in negotiations.     AP