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At a meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home, Congress MP from Kurukshetra (Haryana) and leading industrialist Naveen Jindal came down heavily on the Home Ministry for unilaterally changing the rules governing grant of arms licence to individuals. Jindal, incidentally, is a shooter of repute.
After his verbal attack, Union Home Secretary G K Pillai thought it best to leave the discussion for another day and said he needed more time to prepare on the issue.
London, May 21 (ANI): ‘Telephone’ hitmaker Lady Gaga is said to have fired her entire security staff after a fan managed to get on stage in Japan.
She also threw her wardrobe assistant for not locking her dressing room door.
“She went potty. She couldn”t believe they could let these things happen so she fired them on the spot. She goes out of her way to make her shows perfect and expects the same from her people,” the Sun quoted a source as saying.
“Some thought she would calm down but she put them straight on a plane home,” the source added. (ANI)
Bangkok, May 21 (ANI): Bangkok is in a state of anarchy following the Thailand government’s forced eviction of the UDD demonstrators’ rally site that has left 52 dead in the last six days.
The damage wreaked by disgruntled Red-Shirts has far exceeded the Government’s projections.
Parts of Bangkok’s glitzy commercial centres are now barely recognizable, as they have been gutted by fires started by the looters and arsonists.
Thirty-six buildings were burnt in Bangkok alone, some of them, such as the CentralWorld shopping centre, that sustained massive damage in the fire that raged on for 20 hours.
Meanwhile, the establishment maintained that there was no scope for a resolution, “The Prime Minister never said he would sit down to talk. He said the [time for] negotiation had passed,” the Bangkok Post quoted the country’s deputy Prime Minister Korbsak Sabhavasu, as saying. (ANI)
Damage estimated at tens of thousands of dollars has been caused by a fire at the Floreat Forum shopping centre.
Fire and Emergency Services say people had to be evacuated but no one was injured in the blaze about 8:00 pm last night.
It took firefighters about half an hour to put the fire out.
Fire and Emergency Services say the cause of the fire is still being investigated but it does not look suspicious.
Contaminated water from a fire at a frozen food factory at Wingfield has been flowing into wetlands in northern Adelaide.
The fire at Rand Refrigerated Logistics is estimated to have left a damage bill of up to $10 million.
The company has moved to offices nearby and says frozen food supplies to supermarkets will not be disrupted despite the loss of stock.
Clive Jenkins from the Environment Protection Authority says water used to fight the blaze is now contaminated as it flows into the Barker wetlands.
“The quality of the water was mainly organic chemicals in nature, dairy products and plastic containers,” he said.
“The wetland is well and truly capable of assimilating those so there’s very little risk.”
The Metropolitan Fire Service says the blaze smouldered all weekend but is finally out.
New York, May 18 (ANI): The world’s oldest sex toy, a 30,000-year-old pre-historic siltstone phallus, was also used as a tool to ignite fires.
The relic, discovered in a cave in Germany, has marks suggesting it was used for striking against flints.
Experts at the University of Tubingen insist the purpose of the stone was to light fire apart from providing sexual pleasure, reports Independent Online.
It also features carved rings around one polished end.
The scientists joined the phallus from more than a dozen fragments found in the cave, reports the New York Daily News.
The multitasking tool had been discarded after being broken. (ANI)
Seoul, May 16 (DPA) Two North Korean naval boats crossed into South Korean waters Saturday, but retreated after warning shots by the South Korean navy, Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said Sunday.
Military officials said a North Korean boat crossed the Northern Limit Line (NLL) in the Yellow Sea at 10:13 pm and ventured 2.2 km South Korean waters, Yonhap news agency reported.
It said the North Korean boat retreated back across the maritime border about 30 minutes later, the South navy had sent a warning communication.
Another North Korean patrol boat crossed the sea border less than an hour later, about 2 km into South Korean waters, the report said. It retreated minutes later after the South’s navy fired two rounds of warning shots.
Officials said it was the first time since the sinking of a South Korean warship near the western sea border March 26 that a North Korean vessel has violated the NLL.
The de facto maritime border was drawn by a US military commander at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War that ended in a truce. The North claims that the line should be drawn farther south, the report said.
A magnificent 101 off 60 balls from Suresh Raina fired India to a 14-run victory over South Africa on Sunday which booked their place in the Super Eight stage of the Twenty20 World Cup.
Raina’s score is the third highest innings in a Twenty20 international and included nine fours and five sixes as he peppered the ball around the field with superb timing and placement.
The 23-year-old enjoyed a big slice of luck in the fifth over, though, when he was caught off a no-ball from Albie Morkel.
Yuvraj Singh’s 37 contributed to a key 88-run partnership with Raina, who brought up his ton with a massive six over mid-wicket in the final over before he was caught off the next ball from Albie Morkel.
South Africa found themselves struggling to keep up with the run rate. Jacques Kallis, opening the batting, made a smart 73 off 54 balls but with the tempo too slow, a lot of work was left to the middle order.
AB de Villiers made a great attempt to snatch victory, hitting three sixes in his 31 off 15 balls before he was caught in the deep.
India won their opening group C match against Afghanistan on Saturday leaving South Africa now needing to beat the tournament’s minnows to make sure of advancing.
(Reporting by Simon Evans in Miami; Editing by John Mehaffey;
To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)
A magnificent 101 from 60 balls from Suresh Raina fired India to an impressive total of 186 for five in their Twenty20 World Cup match against South Africa on Sunday.
Raina’s score is just the third century made in a Twenty20 international and included nine fours and five sixes as he peppered the ball around the field showing superb timing and placement.
The 23-year-old enjoyed a big slice of luck in the fifth over though when he was caught off a no-ball from Albie Morkel.
Yuvraj Singh’s 37 contributed to a key 88-run partnership with Raina who brought up his ton with a massive six over midwicket in the final over before he was caught off the next ball from Morkel.
(Reporting by Simon Evans in Miami; Editing by Clare Fallon;
To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)
Guwahati, Apr 30 (ANI): Police have beefed up preventive security measures in Guwahati following an intelligence alert over a possible strike by the rebel United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA).
“There are intelligence inputs that ULFA may try to do some subversive activities in Guwahati, so our police is taking care of,” said Himanta Biswa Sarma, Health Minister of Assam.
However, he dispelled panic over the warning as he said that the might of the rebel group has waned after the arrest of some top ULFA leaders, including its Chairman, Arabinda Rajkhowa.
“I think now police has developed its network very well and we are confident that ULFA is no longer such a force to be scared of any more,” Sharma added.
The ULFA is one among the two dozens of armed ultra factions operating in the northeastern region, either fighting for independent homeland, or more political autonomy.
They accuse New Delhi of plundering the region”s mineral and forest resources, neglecting local economy and giving them back nothing in return.
State Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has reiterated that the government is ready to hold dialogue with the ULFA leaders on all issues within the ambit of Indian Constitution.
He is reported to have said that he would not ”wait indefinitely” for the elusive ULFA commander-in-chief, Paresh Baruah, to come forth for the dialogue. (ANI)
The former president of the Jeeralang Hazelwood Bushfire Recovery Committee has praised the work of Christine Nixon in helping Gippsland communities since last year’s fires.
Former committee president Tony Ferguson says the organisation has now been able to change its focus to more a community-based role.
He says the state’s former police chief commissioner, Ms Nixon, played an important, professional role in the recovery process.
“Without VBRA [Victorian Bushfire Reconstruction and Recovery Authority] and in particular Christine Nixon, who we had access to personally, helping us, we wouldn’t have achieved what we’ve achieved,” he said.
“We’ve been running for about 14 months and we believe our tasks are largely completed but without VBRA and Christine Nixon there we would have been going for another two years.”
Ms Nixon has been under scrutiny in the Bushfire Royal Commission for not staying at the incident control centre on Black Saturday.
Eighteen greens in regulation in the opening round meant that Lee Westwood has made his best-ever start to a Masters campaign at the 11th time of asking.
The European number one had seven birdies and two bogeys en route to a 5-under-par 67 that gave him a share of the lead and confirmed his position as one of the favourites for the tournament.
It was, he said, “easily the best” he had played over the famed Augusta National Golf Club course.
“That was a 67 that could have been a 64 or anything today,” he said.
“You go out here, every green in regulation, I missed seven by about that far (indicating two feet) and 13 by that far away (an inch).
“Each time I missed it the right side. Eighteen greens in regulation around here – I don’t think people often do that.”
Westwood knows that this year he is expected in many quarters to finally win the major title that has eluded him in the past, notably last year when he missed getting into a play-off for the British Open by one stroke and at the 2008 US Open.
His form has been consistently good over the last 12 months, winning the Race to Dubai in November and then producing his best-ever start to the season this year.
And Augusta, he believes, is a course that suits him down to the ground.
“It does feel like a golf course that ought to suit me,” he said.
“Over the last few years, I’ve gradually found a way to plod my way around and feel more comfortable.
“I was saying to Billy (Foster), my caddie, coming up the last, that although it’s the best I’ve ever played around here, it’s the most comfortable I’ve felt on the golf course.
“I’m gradually working out a way for me to get around this golf course in as few shots as possible.”
Ian Poulter also worked his way onto the leaderboard with a 4-under 68 which put him into a four-way tie for seventh, level with Tiger Woods.
A man has been charged over a fire which destroyed a Salvation Army depot at North Parramatta in Sydney’s west.
The 29 year old from Toongabbie was arrested at a nearby car dealership shortly after the fire began and has now been charged with malicious damage by fire, as well as break, enter and steal.
The man is due to appear at Parramatta Bail Court on Saturday.
Seventy firefighters from 15 stations spent more than two hours putting out the blaze at the charity’s two-storey North Parramatta store in western Sydney this morning.
Surrounding factories were evacuated and bus services diverted away from Church Street, but no-one was inside the Salvation Army building at the time of the blaze and there were no injuries.
The Salvation Army’s western Sydney area manager, Ted Greenaway, says the charity had planned to leave the shop for bigger premises in the next couple of months and the fire will hit the charity hard financially.
More than $100,000 worth of goods destined for needy families were lost in the blaze, and Mr Greenaway says the Salvos will have to pay the first $100,000 of any insurance claim plus other costs.
He says the fire has devastated staff.
“It’s really set us back in terms of moving to the new shop,” Mr Greenaway said.
“I’ve told all the staff to go home and take a few days off, come back next week maybe and we’ll take it from there.”
Tasmanians will no longer need a permit to carry out fuel reduction burns after tonight.
The Tasmanian Fire Service’s fire permits period has been brought to an end by cooler nights and rainfall across the state.
Deputy Chief Gavin Freeman says the risk of bushfires burning out of control has eased.
“We consider very carefully before we remove fire permits,” he said.
“The fires generally won’t burn overnight now because of the cooler nights.
“There’s a little bit of dew and we still encourage people, of course, to register any fire they’ve got burning and that allows us to monitor what fires are burning around the state and prevent unnecessary turnout of brigades to those fires.”
A 29-year-old man has been arrested over the latest in a series of suspected arson attacks that haved destroyed several Salvation Army stores.
Seventy firefighters from 15 stations spent more than two hours putting out the blaze at the charity’s two-storey North Parramatta store in western Sydney this morning.
The man was arrested just after the fire broke out on Daking Street around 8:00am and is being held at Parramatta Police Station.
Surrounding factories were evacuated and bus services have been diverted away from Church Street. No injuries have been reported.
Fire Brigades spokesman Ian Krimmer says the fire was “very vicious” because there were many flammable substances inside the store.
The Salvation Army estimates the damage bill to be more than a quarter of a million dollars.
When the fire broke out this morning, the charity’s general manager Neville Barrett was working on reopening another store in Greenpoint, on the NSW central coast, that was destroyed by an arsonist just before Christmas.
Mr Barrett says five Salvation Army stores have been hit by suspected arson attacks in the past six months.
“It’s not a regular occurrence but just recently it has been something that’s been very concerning for us,” he said. “But we don’t believe [the fires] are in any way attached to each other.”
He says in most of the cases, arsonists lit furniture that had been dumped outside the charity’s stores.
“The illegal dumping is quite a considerable part of our concern because when items are left outside our stores after hours, there is an element in the community that sees an opportunity to create a little bit of menace,” he said.
“And next thing, the items are set fire to and of course, they’re right up hard against our buildings.”
Mr Barrett is pleading with the community not to let the arsonists strike again.
“This has caused devastation,” he said.
“If you leave donations after hours, if it’s good-quality items, they’re stolen and if they’re not good quality items, that last year caused a $6 million blow-out in the Salvation Army’s budget because it cost us that much to dispose of the rubbish that was left after hours.”
Neville Barrett says the Salvation Army was already looking for a new site for its North Parramatta store and has now locked one in.
But he says the store was particularly important to the local community and staff are “totally devastated”.
Bushfires that had been burning for months in the Dundas Nature Reserve in the Western Australian Goldfields have been extinguished.
The fires have burnt through more than 320,000 hectares of land since the first one started in late January.
The Department of Environment and Conservation says the blazes were in remote bushland and did not pose a threat to lives or property.
Motorists are being advised that Telegraph Track, between Fraser Range Road and Parmango Road, remains closed while fallen timber is removed.
Police have warned a group of children after they were allegedly caught blowing up deodorant cans at a Kalgoorlie park.
Officers were called to Kingsbury Park yesterday after reports up to 30 children were causing small explosions by setting the cans on fire.
Police say the explosions started a number of small scrub fires in nearby bushland which had to be extinguished by fire crews.
Sergeant Matt Froude has described the children’s actions as extremely dangerous.
“We definitely don’t advocate this sort of behaviour, especially when you have members of the public go to the park because there is a skate park and slides and children’s equipment there,” he said.
“So the chance of injury to an innocent member of the public is certainly of paramount concern to us, so we certainly don’t advocate this sort of behaviour by anyone.”
Former Victorian police chief Christine Nixon has apologised for going out to dinner on Black Saturday, saying in hindsight she might have done things differently.
Ms Nixon, now the head of the Victorian Bushfire Reconstruction and Recovery Authority (VBRRA), has been under intense pressure since it was revealed she went out for dinner on the night of February 7 last year as deadly bushfires devastated large areas of the state.
Ms Nixon told the Bushfire Royal Commission that she left the integrated emergency coordination centre around 6:00pm without spelling out that she had gone out to meet friends at a Melbourne hotel.
In an open letter published in several Melbourne newspapers, Ms Nixon says she does not believe the outcome of the fires would have been different if she had stayed.
“I understand that some of my decisions on that day have upset some people, in particular my leaving the control centre in the evening, and for this I apologise,” she said.
“In hindsight, would I have done some things differently on that day? Yes I would.”
Ms Nixon says while she went out briefly, she was always contactable.
“I continued to receive updates and consider my priorities for the next day when we could comprehend the scale of the disaster,” she said.
“We would all like to go back and change what happened but I believe that what I personally did or didn’t do, and where I physically was on February 7 would not have changed the tragic outcome.”
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Victorian Premier John Brumby have both backed Ms Nixon and have rejected calls for her resignation from VBRRA.
Mr Brumby says she made an “error of judgment” but that does not affect the great work she has done as chair of the bushfire authority.
Survivors’ support
Last night, Ms Nixon was cheered on by bushfire survivors in a surprise appearance at a concert to thank Victorians for their help.
Kinglake CFA volunteer Trish Hendrie said she was not bothered by Ms Nixon’s actions on Black Saturday.
“Look Christine couldn’t have done anything. Nobody could do anything and at 6:00pm, that’s when it hit Kinglake,” she said.
“What was she going to do? It wouldn’t have made any difference.”
Another CFA volunteer, Ginny Hollyoak, also said Ms Nixon was not at fault.
“Everyone did something wrong that day. You know if you were in the area, you did something wrong,” she said.
David Modonesi once had a “run-in” with Ms Nixon at a public meeting about new building regulations, but even he is not concerned that she left her post.
“There were a lot more heads that should have rolled before hers, I reckon,” he said.
The Prime Minister and the Victorian Premier have both backed the state’s former police chief commissioner, Christine Nixon, after it emerged she went to a pub for dinner on Black Saturday.
Ms Nixon failed to mention her night out at the Bushfires Royal Commission on Tuesday when she was grilled over why she left the emergency control centre at 6:00pm rather than staying to brief the Emergency Services Minister.
Her evidence left the impression that she monitored the unfolding disaster from home.
The Victorian Opposition and some federal MPs are now demanding that Ms Nixon be sacked from her role as head of the Bushfire Reconstruction and Recovery Authority.
On ABC local radio Ms Nixon defended her decision to dine at the North Melbourne pub on the night of the fires.
“I certainly wasn’t intending to mislead anybody,” she said.
“I did say in the statement I gave the commission that I had a meal and I didn’t say obviously at the time that I had gone to a local hotel and had a meal with two friends.
“And that’s all it was. It was a very quick meal and I went back home again and received many calls and obviously monitored the situation.”
Ms Nixon admitted at the Royal Commission that she should have done more on Black Saturday to make sure that adequate warnings were being given to communities under threat.
She was aware that people had been killed and others were missing when she left the emergency control centre.
But she said she did not believe that going out for dinner affected her ability to monitor the emerging disaster.
“Technology these days is very capable of finding where you are,” she said. “Clearly I had my phone with me and was able to be contacted.
“I simply had a meal. There was no celebration, there was nothing else and I think this is just a way to attempt to undermine me, to portray it in this fashion.
“I didn’t mislead the Royal Commission but people are going to make that judgment.”
Resignation calls
Four days after Black Saturday Ms Nixon was offered the job as head of the Bushfire Reconstruction and Recovery Authority.
She had already resigned from the police force. She says that despite realising she should have done more on Black Saturday, she had no hesitation in accepting the job.
“When the Premier asked me and the Prime Minister asked me, then I felt like they had faith and I believed that I could do it,” Ms Nixon said.
But Victorian Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu is outraged by Ms Nixon’s performance on Black Saturday.
“I think Christine Nixon’s position is now untenable and I think it’s untenable because I don’t think she can maintain the confidence of the very people she has to work with as the head of the reconstruction authority,” he said.
“I think Christine Nixon should go.”
Some federal politicians have joined Mr Baillieu in calling for Ms Nixon’s resignation.
The seat of McEwen was hard hit by the bushfires and local member Fran Bailey is seething.
“My office tells me the phone is running off the hook. My constituents are very angry. I don’t think that they could believe it,” Ms Bailey said.
“And I can understand their feeling like that because how could anyone walk out of a command centre with the information that was starting to be gathered about Australia’s worst natural disaster and go home firstly, but secondly then to blithely go out to dinner with friends in a pub?”
Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says it is not a good look for Ms Nixon.
“I’m here to listen rather than to pass judgment. I respect the judgments of my colleagues,” he said.
“Fran and Ted are much closer to all this than I am. For me this is really my first day of intensive involvement with the aftermath of the terrible bushfires.”
But Premier John Brumby has backed Ms Nixon.
“If you look back on that day, she, I think, probably made an error of judgment. She should have stayed at the incident control centre,” he said.
“But there were many people I guess across the state that day who, if you said in hindsight, would you do things differently? They have said that they would do things differently.
“So she made an error of judgment, but I don’t think that affects the great work that she’s done as chair of the bushfire authority.”
A statement from a spokesman for the Prime Minister did not refer to Ms Nixon’s performance on Black Saturday, saying only that Kevin Rudd had full confidence in Ms Nixon and the work she was doing leading the bushfire reconstruction.
Survivors of the Black Saturday bushfires will thank the people of Victoria today, at an all-day concert in Melbourne.
Free buses will run from Kinglake and surrounding towns to the concert at Federation Square.
The 10-hour event will showcase bands, storytellers and visual artists from the bushfire-affected areas areas.
Organiser, Wally Spezza, says he decided to put on the free concert in appreciation of the donations made by thousands of Victorians.
“There was all this generosity coming from the people of Melbourne and Victoria that really motivated us to get up and do something,” he said.
“It wasn’t just the money, it was the generosity and knowing that so many people were thinking about us and trying to help us.”
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