Iran council asks for more time for vote complaints
Iran’s top legislative body urged Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Tuesday to extend the deadline to receive complaints of defeated presidential candidates, state television reported.
“We are urging you to allow us to extend the deadline to receive further complaints five more days,” the Guardian Council said in a letter.
The Guardian Council has rejected demands for a rerun from two losing candidates, former prime minister Mousavi and pro-reform cleric Mehdi Karoubi.
The legislative body said the extended deadline would pave the ground for removing any ambiguities over the disputed vote.
“As the legal deadline to review the complaints ends on Wednesday, extending the deadline will help the council to remove ambiguities,” the letter said.
Ten days of protest against elections that confirmed hardline anti-Western President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in office have produced unprecedented protests and a public split in the Islamic establishment.
Defeated candidates accuse the authorities of rigging the election and have demanded a rerun.
Moderate cleric Karoubi, defeated in the 12th June poll, signaled on Tuesday opposition would continue, calling on Iranianas to hold ceremonies on Thursday to mourn those killed at protests. (BJ-24/06)
At least 10 were killed in the worst violence on Saturday, and about seven more early last week.
Traces of ancient lake found on Mars
US researchers have uncovered traces of an ancient lake on Mars boosting hopes of discovering evidence that billions of years ago the Red planet hosted life.
The lake which dates back some 3.4 billion years appears to have covered as much as 207 sq kilometres and was up to 500 metres deep, said the team from the University of Colorado.
“This is the first unambiguous evidence of shorelines on the surface of Mars,” said Boulder research associate Gaetano Di Achille in a study published in the latest edition of Geophysical Research Letters.
“The identification of the shorelines and accompanying geological evidence allows us to calculate the size and volume of the lake which appears to have formed about 3.4 billion years ago.”
Analysis of the images has shown the water carved out the canyon in which it was found which then opened out into a valley depositing sediment which formed a delta.
“Finding shorelines is a Holy Grail of sorts to us,” said assistant professor Brian Hynek adding it showed the lake existed at a time when Mars was thought to have been cold and dry.
“Not only does this research prove there was a long-lived lake system on Mars but we can see that the lake formed after the warm, wet period is thought to have dissipated.”
Yet another warning for Iran opposition
Iran’s opposition leader received another stern warning on Saturday not to encourage his supporters to take to the streets a day after the country’s top leader sought to end the deepening election crisis by effectively declaring President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the winner.
Supporters of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi have planned a massive rally in Tehran later on Saturday, but it was unclear if he would attend and how large the rally would be after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ordered opposition leaders on Friday to end street protests or be held responsible for any “bloodshed and chaos” to come.
Iran’s Interior Ministry reiterated the warning to Mousavi on Saturday, saying he would “be held responsible for the consequences of any illegal gatherings.”
The ministry also accused the 67-year-old former prime minister of supporting protests that “have lead to the disruption of security and public order,” State Security Council secretary, Abbas Mohtaj, said in a statement on the ministry’s website.
The warnings place Mousavi at a pivotal moment. He can either back down or risk a crushing response from police and the forces at Khamenei’s disposal - the powerful Revolutionary Guard and their volunteer citizen militia, the basij.
Tiananmen: Then and now…
Fight for democracy: In this file picture, Chinese citizens and students of Chengdu hurl stones at troop on June 4, 1989 during a rioting following the proclamation of the martial in the city. A series of pro-democracy protests was sparked by the April 15 death of former communist party leader Hu Yaobang. In a show of force, China leaders vented their fury and frustration on student dissidents and their pro-democracy supporters. Several hundred people were killed and thousands wounded when soldiers moved on Tiananmen Square during a violent military crackdown ending six weeks of student demonstrations, known as the Beijing Spring movement. The world will mark the twentieth anniversary of China’s bloody crackdown on the pro-democracy protests on June 4, 2009 . (AFP)
Storms hamper lost plane search
“Terrible” weather conditions are hampering efforts to find the Air France Airbus lost over the Atlantic on Monday, French officials say.
Ships and planes from many nations are continuing to scour the sea. France’s defence minister said the search would go on for as long as necessary.
The Air France Airbus was heading from Brazil to Paris when it disappeared.
Brazilian media reports are coming in that Brazil’s air force has spotted signs of debris in the ocean.
The cause remains a mystery, and analysts say searchers will be anxious to find the black box flight recorder.
The black box, which is crucial to establishing what happened, will emit a signal for 30 days.
French Defence Minister Herve Morin said that so far there was “no evidence whatsoever” of the cause of the incident.
See a map of the plane’s route
“All possibilities must be examined. We cannot, by definition, exclude a terrorist attack, because terrorism is the main threat for all Western democracies,” he said, quoted by AFP news agency.
Clashing fronts
France believes there is little or no hope of finding survivors from among the 228 passengers and crew aboard the flight.
Vessels from France, Spain, Senegal and Brazil are involved in the search, while the United States is said to be offering help with satellite reconnaissance.
But French military spokesman Christophe Prazuck said storms and heavy clouds were severely limiting visibility.
“We didn’t find anything, but the weather was terrible, with what we call a tropical convergence front,” he said, quoted by AFP news agency.
He was describing a situation in which weather fronts from the northern and southern hemispheres clash violently.
Plane crews have narrowed their search to a zone half-way between Brazil and west Africa, said Pierre-Henry Gourgeon, chief executive of Air France, late on Monday.
Their work may be aided by the Airbus’s Argos beacons, which will emit signals for several days, he added.
Up to a dozen reports of electrical failures were sent from the plane before it vanished over the ocean.
French officials believe it may have been disabled by a storm
Most of the missing people are Brazilian or French but they include a total of 32 nationalities. Five Britons and three Irish citizens are among them.
One of the Brazilians on board was Pedro Luis de Orleans e Braganca, a direct descendent of the last Brazilian emperior, Dom Pedro II, a spokesman for the family said.
French President Nicholas Sarkozy said he had told friends and relatives waiting at the Charles de Gaulle “the truth” - that the chances of finding anyone alive were “very small”.
If no survivors are found, it will be the worst loss of life involving an Air France plane in the firm’s 75-year history.
‘Bright spots’
Cap Prazuck said two French military aircraft were searching the suspected area where the plane was lost.
One of them was a surveillance plane which had flown out from the Cape Verde Islands, off the African coast, along the Airbus’ flight path to its last known position.
Brazilian aircraft were involved in an overnight search and more are thought to have joined efforts in the morning. Spain and Senegal have also sent planes to help in the search.
Maria Celina Rodrigues, the Brazilian consul in Paris, said the depth of the ocean would make it difficult for searchers.
“They are hoping they can find debris, pieces, lifejackets that eventually float, but that takes some time,” she told the Associated Press.
The Brazilian authorities have also said they are investigating a possible sighting of wreckage in the area, reported Reuters news agency.
The crew of a TAM Linhas Aereas flight travelling over the area in the other direction shortly after the Airbus’ last signal had reported seeing “bright spots” in the ocean about 1,300 km (800 miles) from the Fernando de Noronha archipelago off Brazil’s north-eastern coast.
‘Unprecedented situation’
The plane’s automatic reports were generated at around 0200 GMT on Monday, about four hours after Flight AF 447 left Rio de Janeiro, and as it was heading through turbulence towards the west African coast.
“A succession of a dozen technical messages” showed that “several electrical systems had broken down” which caused a “totally unprecedented situation in the plane”, said Mr Gourgeon.
“It is probable that it was shortly after these messages that the impact in the Atlantic came,” he told reporters at Charles de Gaulle airport, where the airliner had been due to land.
Flight AF 447 was flying at an altitude of 10,670m (35,000ft) shortly before it went missing.
A meteorologist who spoke to AP said tropical thunderstorms in the Atlantic could tower up to 15,000m (50,000ft).
French officials have stressed that the plane’s captain was very experienced, clocking up more than 11,000 hours of flight.
Crisis centres have been set up at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris and Rio’s Tom Jobim international airport.
French plane lost over Atlantic
An Air France plane carrying 228 people from Brazil to France has vanished over the Atlantic after a possible lightning strike, airline officials say.
The Airbus sent an automatic message at 0214 GMT, four hours after leaving Rio de Janeiro, reporting a short circuit as it flew through strong turbulence.
It was well over the ocean when it was lost, making Brazilian and French search planes’ task more difficult.
Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris has set up a crisis centre.
“The plane might have been struck by lightning - it’s a possibility,” Francois Brousse, head of communications at Air France, told reporters in Paris.
France’s minister responsible for transportation, Jean-Louis Borloo, ruled out hijacking as a cause of the plane’s loss.
‘Long search’
Flight AF 447 left Rio at 1900 local time (2200 GMT) on Sunday. It had 216 passengers and 12 crew on board, including three pilots. The passengers included one infant, seven children, 82 women and 126 men.
The Airbus 330-200 had been expected to arrive in Paris at 1110 local time (0910 GMT).
It is reported to have disappeared 300km (186 miles) north-east of the Brazilian city of Natal.
Brazilian air force spokesman Col Henry Munhoz told Brazilian TV it had not been picked up by radar on the Cape Verde Islands on its way across the Atlantic, and confirmed that Brazilian air force planes had left Fernando de Noronha to search for the missing airliner.
A French military plane also flew out of Senegal to take part in the search.
Mr Borloo said the airliner would already have run out of fuel.
“Nothing on Spanish radar, nothing on Moroccan radar, nothing on French radar - we seriously have to fear the worst,” he added.
Douglas Ferreira Machado, head of investigation and accident prevention for Brazil’s Civil Aeronautics Agency, said the search would take “a long time”.
“It could be a long, sad story,” he told Brazil’s Globo news. “The black box will be at the bottom of the sea.”
An Air France spokeswoman said there had been no radio contact with the plane “for a while”.
Crisis centre
An Air France official told AFP that people awaiting the flight would be received in a special area at the airport’s second terminal.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been informed of the incident and has expressed his deep concern, his office said.
He has demanded that the relevant authorities do everything they can to find the plane and “shed light on the circumstances surrounding its disappearance as rapidly as possible”.
This is the first major incident in Brazilian air space since a Tam flight crashed in Sao Paulo in July 2007 killing 199 people.
Air France has opened a telephone hotline for friends and relatives of people on the plane - 00 33 157021055 for callers outside France and 0800 800812 for inside France.
Rly station ransacked, 3 train set on fire in Bihar
Incensed over Railway’s decision to withdraw stoppage of several trains at Khusrupur station in Bihar, angry locals on Monday ransacked the station and attacked three trains including the Intercity Express and uprooted rail lines under Danapur division, about 32 km from Patna. The trains which were attacked were Vikramshila Express, Patna-Rajgir Express and Danapur-Jainagar Express.
As the protests turned violent, the Railway Board withdrew the order cancelling train halts. In a statement, the Board said that trains will continue to stop at designated stations.
Most of the train stops were introduced by former Railway Minister Lalu Yadav.
Earlier, hundreds of people from nearby villages stormed the Khusrupur railway station Monday morning, ransacked the station and burnt it down, according to Deputy Superintendent of Government Railway Police (Patna East) Rajendra Singh.
They were protesting the East Central Railway’s announcement in newspapers pertaining to withdrawal of stoppage of several express trains, including Rajgir-New Delhi Shramajivi Express and Kosi Express, at Khusrupur.
Locals also attacked the 3226 down Danapur-Jainagar Intercity Express at Baikatpur village near the station, and torched its three bogies– two general coaches and an air conditioned chair car, Singh said.
They also uprooted the railway lines in a stretch of several meters under Danapur division of East Central railway.
Fire tenders fought for hours to douse the flames, Singh said.
The mob also destroyed several electronic and other railway operation equipment and signal system, besides the ticket booking counter, Singh said.
Reinforcements were sent to Khusrupur station to control the situation, he said.
Senior railway and police officials have reached the spot and patrolling was intensified as tension ran high in the area, Singh added.
Obama ‘makes Supreme Court pick’
US President Barack Obama intends to nominate Sonia Sotomayor to serve on the Supreme Court, officials say.
Ms Sotomayor, 54, would be the first Hispanic to take the position.
A New York appeal court judge, she would replace Justice David Souter, who announced his retirement from the top US court earlier this month.
Reports said Mr Obama would announce his nominee later on Tuesday. Any presidential pick must be confirmed by the Senate.
If approved, Ms Sotomayor would join Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg as the second woman on the current Supreme Court.
She had been widely tipped as a frontrunner in the race to succeed Mr Souter.
White House officials told the Associated Press that Ms Sotomayor would bring more judicial experience to the Supreme Court than any other justice confirmed in the past 70 years.
The Supreme Court is the highest court in the US, and has the authority to strike down any state or federal law it deems unconstitutional.
Mohammad Asif has decided to challenge the ban IPL
LAHORE: Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has decided here on Thursday to form themselves a three-member committee to probe into reasons and causes of the Oval Test dispute. This committee will review the loss of the PCB and the Pakistan … Published: on February 12th, 2009 By: Admin in: Sports News .
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Mohammad Asif has decided to challenge the ban IPL
India made 363 runs against Sri Lanka in 50 overs
Good Eveing friends, something I like to share. India made 363 runs against Sri Lanka in 50 overs.
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