March 19, 2010
ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Rehman Malik said youth wings of some political parties provoked protestors in Rawalpindi and Islamabad.
Talking to media outside Parliament House here on Friday, Interior Minister said stern action will be taken against those involved in violent incidents. Government is in touch with administration, student leaders and transporters. Strict measures will be taken to restore law and order, he added.
International
March 19, 2010
TOKYO: Facing mounting pressure from Washington, Japan's centre-left Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama on Friday suggested a disputed US military base could stay on the southern island of Okinawa.
Hatoyama, who was elected last year promising a less subservient relationship with Washington, has been reviewing a 2006 pact to relocate the Futenma airbase within Okinawa prefecture and suggested in the past it may be moved off the island instead.
International
March 19, 2010
MOSCOW – Top international diplomats on Friday called on Israel and the Palestinians to return to peace negotiations with a goal of reaching a final settlement that would create an independent Palestinian state within 24 months. They reiterated their condemnation of Israel's latest move to add Jewish housing in disputed east Jerusalem but did not escalate criticism of the Jewish state.
The so-called Quartet peacemakers met in the Russian capital and issued a formal statement read by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
International
March 19, 2010
OTTAWA: Canadian core inflation stayed unexpectedly high in February and retailers posted solid sales gains in January, according to reports on Friday that helped push the Canadian dollar closer to parity with the greenback.
The data shows the economy is heating up, putting pressure on the Bank of Canada to raise interest rates from record lows although markets still expect the bank to follow through on its pledge to sit on the sidelines on rates until July.
International
March 19, 2010
SEOUL, South Korea – The North Korean's note, scrawled in pen, was simple: "I want to go to South Korea. Why? To find freedom. Freedom of religion, freedom of life."
The ex-logger, on the run from North Korean authorities, handed the note over to a South Korean missionary in the Russian city of Vladivostok last week in hopes it would lead to political asylum.
International
March 19, 2010
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – One of the heaviest rainfalls since Haiti's Jan. 12 earthquake swamped homeless camps Friday, sweeping screaming residents into eddies of water, overflowing latrines and panicking thousands.
The overnight downpour sent water coursing down the slopes of a former golf course that now serves as a temporary home for about 45,000 people.
There were no reports of deaths in the camp, a town-size maze of blue, orange and silver tarps located behind the country club used by the U.S. Army 82nd Airborne as a forward-operating base.
International
March 19, 2010
BAGHDAD – Almost seven years after the first bombs in the war to oust Saddam Hussein, Iraqis went about their business Friday with little observance of the anniversary, looking to the future with a mixture of trepidation and hope.
The seven-year anniversary comes as Iraqis await results from the country's second nationwide parliamentary election, a key milestone that will determine who will oversee Iraq as U.S. forces go home.
International
March 19, 2010
MADRID – The wreckage of Spain's economic growth model stands neatly aligned on the roads leading out of Madrid — row after row of unsold houses, windows dark, for-sale signs out front.
Spain and other countries on Europe's financially stricken fringe are groping for a new basis from economic growth to put people to work and pay down crushing deficits and debts. In Spain's case, something to start generating jobs for 4 million unemployed people amid the rubble of an unsustainable construction and housing boom.
International
March 19, 2010
LONDON: British Airways management and union leaders are meeting Friday in a last-ditch attempt to avert a three-day strike by cabin crew due to begin Saturday.
Arriving for the talks, Unite union joint leader Tony Woodley said there was goodwill on both sides and he was confident a deal to resolve a dispute over pay and working conditions would be reached in time.
Woodley spent most of Thursday in talks with BA Chief Executive Willie Walsh.
International
March 19, 2010
LONDON: The arrest of key Taliban leaders in Pakistan put a halt to secret peace talks with the United Nations, the former UN special representative to Afghanistan said Friday in an interview.
Kai Eide, who stepped down from the post earlier this month, confirmed for the first time that he had held talks with senior Taliban figures but said these ended when Pakistan made a series of high-profile arrests.
"Of course I met the Taliban leaders during the time I was in Afghanistan," said the Norwegian diplomat, talking to the broadcaster at his home in Oslo.
International
