today news: 2013

Tuesday 15 January 2013

NY approves sweeping gun control package

New York on Tuesday became the first state to approve a comprehensive set of gun control laws in response to last month’s mass shooting at a Connecticut elementary school, amid concerns among gun owners that the spate of changes to local and state gun laws could make them targets of overzealous politicians and prosecutors.

The New York Assembly gave final approval to the bill late Tuesday afternoon -- Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed it within minutes.

New York’s new laws will expand the state's ban on assault weapons and include new measures to keep guns away from mentally disturbed individuals. Under the new law, ammunition magazines would also be restricted

US plays down media report that chemical weapons used in Syria

WASHINGTON: The United States on Tuesday poured cold water on a media report that chemical weapons had been used in the Syrian conflict, but reiterated that if the regime of Syrian PresidentBashar al Assad did resort to chemical weapons, it will be held accountable.

US House approves $50.7 billion in superstorm Sandy aid

WASHINGTON: The Republican-controlledHouse of Representatives approved $50.7 billion in emergency relief for Superstorm Sandyvictims on Tuesday night, ending an episode that exposed painful party divisions more than 10 weeks after the storm brutalized parts of the heavily populated Northeast.

Sandy roared through several states in late October and has been blamed for 140 deaths and billions of dollars in residential and business property damage, much of it in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

The vote was 241-180, and officials said the Senate was likely to accept the measure early next week and send it to President Barack Obama for his signature. Democrats supported the aid in large numbers, but there was substantial Republican backing, too, in the Republican-controlled House.

WASHINGTON: The United States has said it favours a democratically elected civilian government in Pakistan and noted it is for the people of the country to determine their future in a just and transparent manner. "Our view is that internal political issues in Pakistan need to be resolved by Pakistanis in a just and transparent manner that accords with the rule of law. "We stand strongly in favour of a democratically elected civilian government in Pakistan," the State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland told reporters on Tuesday at her daily news conference when asked about the current atmosphere of political instability in that country.

"We're obviously not taking a position with regard to the march and all of those —the various issues —political issues that the marchers are out in the streets for," she said in response to a question.

WASHINGTON: The United States has said it favours a democratically elected civilian government in Pakistan and noted it is for the people of the country to determine their future in a just and transparent manner.

"Our view is that internal political issues inPakistan need to be resolved by Pakistanis in a just and transparent manner that accords with the rule of law.

Nebraska governor is latest to propose ending state income tax

Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman on Tuesday became the second Republican governor in the last week to propose ending his state's income tax, saying he wants to make Nebraska more competitive with its neighbors by eliminating the tax on both individuals and corporations.

Heineman said that if a complete elimination of the two taxes could not be passed, he would push to lower rates on both individuals and corporations. He promised to make up the lost revenue by reducing business exemptions to the sales tax.

Last week, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal said he wanted to eliminate all personal and corporate income taxes in his state. Louisiana's personal income tax rate is 3.9 percent.

Shares rebound around the world

NEW YORK: World equity markets pared losses on solid U.S. retail sales data on Tuesday, even as safe-haven Treasury debt rose, spurred by a looming battle in Washington over a limit on the government's borrowing.

The yen was on track for its biggest one-day gain against the dollar in eight months as a warning from a Japanese minister about the disadvantages of excessive yen weakness prompted investors to pare back bearish bets.

Most U.S. stocks rebounded in a late-day rally after data showed retail sales in December increased 0.5 percent, following a 0.4 percent rise the prior month, beating economists' expectations for a gain of only 0.2 percent.

Consumer discretionary stocks led the broad S&P 500 index higher, followed by financial stocks. Technology shares fell, led by a 3.1 percent decline in Apple shares.

"The retail sales numbers were really good, much better than expected this morning and that is helping the whole retail group," said Paul Mendelsohn, chief investment strategist at Windham Financial Services in Charlotte, Vermont.

STOCKHOLM: A cleaning lady stole a train and drove it off the end of the tracks and smashed into a house in Sweden on Tuesday, injuring only herself in an incident police are investigating.

It was not clear how the woman, around 20, got access to the key needed to start the train. She was taken to hospital with serious injuries, but the train was carrying no other passengers as it was in the early hours and no one in the house was hurt.

"The cleaner drove the train at high speed, considerably higher than normal on that stretch, to where the rails end and crashed into a house," said Jesper Pettersson, spokesman at Stockholm Public Transport (SL).

Oil prices up in Asian trade

SINGAPORE: Oil prices rebounded in Asian trade Wednesday on stronger US demand for heating oil but an impending showdown in the US Congress over the debt ceiling could limit gains, analysts said.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in February was up 15 cents to $93.43 a barrel and Brent North Sea crude for February delivery climbed 22 cents to $110.52.

Islamabad: D-Chowk security ramped up

ISLAMABAD: Hoping to keep the Tehrik Minhaj-ul-Quran’s (TMQ) marchers at bay, a third layer of shipping containers was being lined up between D-Chowk and the sit-in site, Geo News reported.

The authorities in federal capital are trying their best to stop the thronging sit-inners from making inroads towards the Parliament House or other sensitive establishments that fall in the Red Zone.

On the other hand dozens of TMQ‘s stick-wielding activists kept a vigil about the sit-in site all night long.

Earlier on Tuesday the TMQ leader Dr Tahirul Qadri said

Home internet access increses,but not everywhere

WASHINGTON, -- Just under a third of adults worldwide report having home Internet access, a U.S. poll indicates.
The Gallup survey conducted in 148 countries found 32 percent of adults saying they had Internet access, up from 29 percent in 2010, 25 percent in 2009, 23 percent in 2008 and 21 percent in 2007.

Mourners gather at Villiers le Bel, north of Paris, for a memorial ceremony for the three Kurdish women shot dead last week, 15 January

Thousands of Kurds have attended a memorial near Paris for three activists shot dead in the city, amid reports of Turkish air strikes on the PKK.

Carrying flags and posters of the three dead women, they followed the coffins across frozen ground to a community centre where they were put on display.

The victims, a senior official in the separatist PKK group and two political activists, will be buried in Turkey.

Jets reportedly bombed PKK targets in Iraq despite peace talks.

Japan grounds 'Dreamliner' jets after series of issues

TOKYO – All Boeing 787 planes in Japan are being grounded for safety checks in the latest blow for the new passenger jet, the country's transport ministry said Wednesday.

One of the 787s operated by All Nippon Airways made an emergency landing Wednesday in western Japan after a cockpit message showed battery problems -- the latest in a series of problems including a battery fire and fuel leaks. No one has been seriously injured.

The ministry said it got notices from ANA, which operates 17 of the jets, and Japan Airlines which has seven, that all their 787 "Dreamliner"aircraft will not be flying.

The grounding was being done voluntarily by the airlines.

China's new Politburo Standing Committee members (from L to R) Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, Zhang Dejiang, Yu Zhengsheng, Liu Yunshan, Wang Qishan and Zhang Gaoli, arrive to meet with the press at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, November 15, 2012. REUTERS/China Daily

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's new leaders must stabilize the economy this year to keep employment high while avoiding a surge in housing prices and inflation that could undermine reforms needed to overhaul the country's export-oriented growth model.

Without stability, incoming President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang, who are set to be confirmed in March, have no chance of delivering a slew of reforms they say are needed now to tackle a host of financial, industrial and income imbalances that threaten China's future.

Two people are killed and three injured after gunmen open fire at colleges in Kentucky and Missouri.

Two people have been shot dead at a community college in eastern Kentucky as a gunman injured himself and an administrator at another college in Missouri

Qadri's march, PM's arrest order masterminded by Pak military'

Pakistan's Supreme Court ordered the arrest of the prime minister on Tuesday on corruption allegations, ratcheting up pressure on a government that is also facing street protests led by a cleric who has a history of ties to the army.

"There is no doubt that Qadri's march and the Supreme Court's verdict were masterminded by the military establishment of Pakistan," Fawad Chaudhry, an aide to Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, told Reuters.

While many students had stopped going in for classes, they were sitting exams at the time

Twin explosions struck a university campus in Aleppo today as students gathered for mid-term exams, killing as many as 83 people in one of the bloodiest single incidents in the struggle for control of Syria's biggest city.

The blasts – the cause of which remains unclear – came just minutes apart this afternoon. Both sides traded blame, with activists saying the destruction had been caused by a regime airstrike and Syrian state television claiming "terrorists" had fired rockets at the campus.

SC orders arrest of PM Ashraf in RPP case

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the authorities to arrest Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, television reports said.

The apex court ordered the prime minister’s arrest during a hearing of the rental power projects case.

The bench ordered the arrest of 16 persons, including the premier, and directed the authorities to present Prime Minister Ashraf in court tomorrow.

“The chief justice ordered that all concerned, regardless of their rank, who have been booked in the case be arrested and if someone leaves the country, then chairman of National Accountability Bureau will be held responsible along with his investigating team,” lawyer Aamir Abbas told AFP.

“The sixteen include Raja Ashraf,” said Abbas, referring to the prime minister.

The prime minister’s adviser, Fawad Chaudhry, condemned the court’s order, calling it unconstitutional, the Associated Press reported.

The prime minister has been accused of receiving kickbacks and commission in the RPPs case as minister for water and power.

In the case, nine RPPs firms were accused of receiving more than Rs22 billion as a mobilisation advance from the government to commission the projects but most of them did not set up their plants and a few of them installed them but with inordinate delay.

In March 2012, the Supreme Court had held the RPP contracts non-transparent and ordered that these be rescinded.

The court had also ordered National Accountability

US urged to reconsider drone policy

—File Photo

WASHINGTON: “As the frequency of drone strikes spikes again, some questions must be asked: How many of those targeted were terrorists?

Were any children harmed? And what is the standard of evidence to carry out these attacks?” says US Congressman Keith Ellison.

“The United States has to provide answers and Congress has a critical role to play,” he argues.

Mr Ellison, the only Muslim member of the US Congress, is a Democrat from Minnesota and has been a member of the House of Representatives since January 2007.

This incident comes in the aftemath of a horrendous gangrape of a 23-year-old in Delhi. Five men and a teenager have been charged with her rape and murder, who died 13 days later in a Singapore hospital from horrific injuries. – File Photo

PANAJI: A seven-year-old girl has been raped in a school toilet in the Indian holiday state of Goa, sparking mass protests and the arrest of her headmistress, police said on Tuesday.

The incident was reported in the city of Vasco da Gama on Monday, sparking a massive manhunt to trace the accused, thought to be in his early 20s.

The picture shows a scene from the Colorado theatre shooting in July 2012. – File Photo

NEW YORK: New York has taken a big step toward becoming the first US state to enact tough new restrictions on assault weapons in the wake of the elementary school massacre in Connecticut exactly a month ago.

Lawmakers in the state Senate voted by a 43-18 margin on Monday in favour of what were billed as the toughest such measures in the United States, the upper house said on Twitter just before midnight.

Sri Lankan lawyer J C Weliamuna (C) speaks during a press conference against the controversial sacking of chief justice Shirani Bandaranayake, in Colombo, Jan 14, 2013. — Photo by AFP

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s president on Tuesday appointed the government’s senior legal adviser as a replacement for the impeached chief justice, despite protests by lawyers and a chorus of international criticism.

Mohan Peiris was sworn in before President Mahinda Rajapakse shortly after parliament approved his appointment with immediate effect.

Supreme Court of Pakistan. — Photo by AFP

ISLAMABAD: During Tuesday’s hearing of a case pertaining to electoral reforms, Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry said that regardless of what anyone does, the general elections would take place on the scheduled time, DawnNews reported.

Qadri gives 11am deadline to dissolve govts, parliament

ISLAMABAD: Tehrik-e-Minhajul Quran chief Dr Tahirul Qadri at 2:15 am on Tuesday gave an ultimatum for the dissolution of the federal and provincial governments and national and provincial assemblies by 11 am, otherwise the people will take their own decisions.

He said after the gathering of a huge people number of people after his long march, morally the president, the PM and all the ministers have become ex-officials.During his brief speech at the end of the long march, Dr Qadri congratulated the participants of the march for being part of such a huge event.

He said that the long march has now ended, and the revolution has begun. Oppression, cruelty, corruption, injustice, rigging will come to an end. The rights of the people which have been “usurped by the privileged class and so called elite, dacoits and thieves, will be taken back and returned to the masses”.

Some commentators have unfavourably compared Mr Obama to past presidents like Lyndon Johnson

President Barack Obama has dismissed the perception that he is aloof and disdains the backslapping bonhomie a US leader sometimes requires to drive his priorities through Congress.

Mr Obama put his often polarising differences with Republicans down to politics rather than personal antipathy, arguing that though

The number of US troops committing suicide set a record in 2012, exceeding the number of combat deaths

The Pentagon said 349 active-duty troops killed themselves in 2012,

The oldest woman in the world has died in Japan less than one month after assuming the title.

Koto Okubo died on Saturday at the age of 115 at a nursing home in the city of Kawasaki, south of Tokyo, city officials told local media.

Okubo lived in the nursing home with her 88-year-old son, who was quoted in the Asahi newspaper as saying she died of pneumonia. Officials have declined to provide further details.

Born on December 24, 1897, Okubo only became the oldest known woman in the world on December 17, when Dina Manfredini died in Iowa on December 17.

Manfredini had herself only held the title for two weeks.

Japan has one of the longest-lived populations in the world and the number of people aged 100 or older surpassed the 50,000 level in 2012 for the first time ever.

North Korea 'preparing for new nuclear test'

North Korea vowed on Monday to strengthen its defences amid concerns the country may conduct a nuclear test as a follow-up to last month's long-range rocket launch.

Shia Muslims in south-western Pakistan began burying the victims of a devastating bomb attack after a four-day protest ended when the government sacked the local political administration.

Riot police patrolled the city, closing off roads and using containers to shield diplomatic missions.

The emergence of Tahir-ul-Qadri – who lived quietly in Canada until a month ago - has electrified the country's political scene, sparking frantic manoeuvring by a government

Thousands of African troops are preparing to join the fight against Islamist rebels in Mali, as France said it wanted African forces to take over the offensive as quickly as possible.

Mali: al-Qaeda have numerous options for retaliation

Rafale fighter planes struck bases used by Al-Qaeda-linked fighters in Gao Photo: AFP

1:28AM GMT 15 Jan 2013

Some 600 soldiers from Nigeria are expect to arrive before next week, with Burkina Faso, Ghana, Niger, Senegal and Togo sending 500 troops each in the coming days.

Gerard Araud, France's UN ambassador, said

U.N. rights chief seeks international investigation of North Korea

GENEVA (Reuters) - U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay called on Monday for an international investigation into what she said were decades of serious violations in North Korea, including torture and executions of political prisoners held in shadowy camps.

Islamist rebels in Somalia say a second French soldier has died of his wounds after a failed rescue attempt.

COLOMBO — Sri Lanka's lawyers Monday announced a legal challenge to the impeachment of the chief justice and vowed to keep up a battle for judicial independence.

The Lawyers' Collective, which includes most of Sri Lanka's 11,000 attorneys, said they would also contest through the courts any appointment to replace