January 2012 ~ The News Time

Friday 6 January 2012

Chile blaze claims six firefighters

SANTIAGO: Chilean President Sebastian Pinera invoked anti-terror legislation Thursday after at least six firefighters died in a wildfire he believes was started deliberately.
An unusually hot and dry start to the Chilean summer has seen more than 50 wildfires, fanned by high winds, burn down scores of homes and destroy some 50,000 hectares (123,000 acres) of woodland and brush over the past 10 days.
Authorities suspect several fires that erupted almost simultaneously in the forest regions of Biobio, Maule and Araucania, some 500 to 700 kilometers (310 to 435 miles) south of the capital Santiago, were the work of criminals.
Ten firefighters, private contractors for forestry company Mininco, were trapped Thursday when the blaze they were tackling in a mountain forest near Carahue in Araucania suddenly changed direction.
Six firefighters perished in the flames, two were rescued by helicopter but suffered bad burns, and another is still missing.
The 10th firefighter, Hector Herrera, managed to escape himself.

Rupee at record low for 3rd consecutive day

KARACHI: The rupee traded at a record low of 90.70 to dollar for the third consecutive trading session on Friday.
In inter bank market, rupee traded at 90.70 to dollar while in open market it was at 90.80.
The rupee traded at a record low of 90.42 on Thursday and at 90.35 to the dollar on Wednesday.

Nawaz stresses redressal of Balochistan grievances

QUETTA: PML-N chief Mian Nawaz Sharif is in Quetta for 2-day visit where he met with the delegation of National Party lead by Senator Dr Abdul Malik Baloch at MPA hostel.
While addressing the delegation, Nawaz regretted the military operation in Balochistan and said that people of the province were not treated fairly and their sentiments were hurt but it is the time for accountability and address their issues.
He questioned the PPP government that what steps were taken to solve the problems of Balochistan including the issues of target killings, kidnappings, and recovering missing persons. He also asked what did the government do to address the murder of Nawab Akbar Bugti.
The PML-N chief also highlighted that no action had been taken after the Kharotabad incident, where five foreigners were killed by security forces. He said that without addressing these issues, peace cannot be restored in the province and that the Balochistan package is not enough to solve its problems.
Nawaz said that he had many plans for the province and pledged for serious efforts to uplift the province if elected again.
He said that Balochistan’s Gawadar port had the potential to compete with Dubai and other Gulf countries. He said it was his dream to develop Gawadar and that he does not know who stopped the developments.
The PML-N leader also said that everything in Balochistan had been destroyed, and that this had ended up hurting the people of this province.

MQM threatened to stage walk out from the assembly along with coalition partners

ISLAMABAD: Muttahida Qaumi Movement raised voice on the issue of new provinces and threatened to stage walk out from the assembly along with coalition partners.
MQM leader Haider Abbas Rizvi, on point of order, said that resolution of new provinces was not included again in today's agenda of the assembly.
On this, Deputy Speaker Faisal Karim Kundi said how could it be included when the resolution was not presented in the NA.
Farooq Sattar warned that if voting was not held on the resolution, MQM would boycott the session along with FATA, PML-Q and JUI MNAs.
Ghulam Ahmed Bilour of ANP said it is not even a year that the provinces were empowered and now the conspiracies were being hatched to reverse that. Today, if Punjab and KP were shattered, tomorrow it would be Sindh's turn.
Federal Law Minister Mola Bux Chandio said division of Sindh would not be tolerated.
Khursheed Shah said government would bring Hazara province bill and for that consensus would be made, adding that voting on new provinces could not be carried out in National Assembly.
MQM MPs continuously raised slogans during this.