| Viva Result of Community Health Care Provider (CHCP) Posted: 24 May 2011 12:08 AM PDT 
www.nasmis.dghs.gov.bd/mis_h/chcp_res/ |
| Tornado leaves 89 dead in US Posted: 24 May 2011 12:00 AM PDT 
CHICAGO: A massive tornado that swept through the Missouri town of Joplin has killed at least 89 people, the city manager announced early Monday. "We have 89 confirmed dead due to this tornado," City manager Mark Rohr said in a statement. The tornado struck the town of Joplin near the border with Oklahoma and Kansas on Sunday evening, less than a month after a horrific tornado outbreak left 354 dead across seven US states. It was the deadliest of 46 tornadoes reported to the National Weather Service in seven states on Sunday. "It' s a war zone," Scott Meeker of the Joplin Globe newspaper told reporters. "We' ve got hundreds of wounded being treated at Memorial Hall (Hospital), but they were quickly overwhelmed and ran out of supplies, so they' ve opened up a local school as a triage centre," Meeker said. People clawed through the rubble looking for friends, family and neighbors after the storm tore buildings apart and turned cars into crumpled heaps of metal. Flames and thick black smoke poured out of the wreckage of shattered homes, and water gushed out of broken pipes as shocked survivors surveyed the damage, early photos showed. A tangled medical helicopter lay in the rubble outside St. John Regional Medical Centre, which took a direct hit. An unknown number were killed in Joplin on Sunday night, and officials struggling to communicate without power and cellphone service were leery of putting a hard figure on a death toll they feared would rise after daybreak. City spokeswoman Lynn Onstot said grimly that officials were "afraid it may be more. ... Our fear is that' s a low number." The Missouri National Guard planned to search for the injured throughout the night. "You see pictures of World War II, the devastation and all that with the bombing. That' s really what it looked like," said Kerry Sachetta, the principal of a flattened Joplin High School. "I couldn' t even make out the side of the building. It was total devastation in my view. I just couldn' t believe what I saw." The same storm system that produced the Joplin tornado spawned twisters along a broad swath of the Midwest, from Oklahoma to Wisconsin. At least one person was killed in Minneapolis. But the devastation in Missouri appeared to be the worst of the day, eerily reminiscent the tornadoes that killed more than 300 people across the South last month. Onstot said the twister — believed to be between one-half to three-quarters of a mile wide — was on the ground for nearly four miles. It hit a hospital packed with patients and a commercial area including a Home Depot construction store, numerous smaller businesses and restaurants and a grocery store. Jasper County emergency management director Keith Stammer said an estimated 2,000 buildings were damaged in this city of about 50,000 people some 160 miles south of Kansas City. Details about fatalities and injuries were difficult to obtain even for emergency management officials, because the tornado knocked out power, landline phones and some cellphone towers, said Greg Hickman, assistant emergency management director in Newton County. Among the worst-hit locations in Joplin was St. John' s Regional Medical Centre. The staff had just a few moments' notice to hustle patients into hallways before the storm struck the nine-story building, blowing out hundreds of windows and leaving the facility useless. In the parking lot, a helicopter lay crushed on its side, its rotors torn apart and windows smashed. Nearby, a pile of cars lay crumpled into a single mass of twisted metal. Matt Sheffer dodged downed power lines, trees and closed streets to make it to his dental office across from the hospital. Rubble littered a flattened lot where a pharmacy, gas station and some doctor' s offices once stood. — AFP/AP |
| Starting today, NY outdoors a no-smoking zone Posted: 23 May 2011 11:57 PM PDT 
WASHINGTON: New York City is all set to implement a new law that goes into effect Tuesday, banning smoking outdoors - at beaches, boardwalks, parks, and pedestrian plazas. The ban is not universally popular. "It' s not fair. I' m a smoka. That' s my choice. I smoke. It' s not gonna make me stop," CBS News quoted a New Yorker as saying. New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg pushed for the law that aims to drastically reduce exposure to second hand smoke. "I feel like everywhere I go, people are outside smoking. And I have to steer my stroller out of the way of second hand smoke," said Shari Dorfman. |
| News of Taliban leader, one- eyed Mullah Omar, being killed in Pakistan has been doing the rounds. But the Taliban in Afghanistan have rejected the report. Posted: 23 May 2011 11:56 PM PDT 
KABUL/ISLAMABAD: An Afghan television channel on Monday said Taliban leader Mullah Omar was killed in Pakistan, a claim promptly denied by the Taliban. "Mullah Omar was killed on way from Quetta to North Waziristan," said Xinhua citing Afghanistan' s TOLO television news. There were no details on how the one-eyed Taliban chieftain was killed and by whom. A Pakistani security official confirmed the alleged killing, saying: "It' s correct that Mullah Omar has been killed." The Mullah was Afghanistan' s de facto head of state from 1996 to late 2001. Soon after the news broke, the Pakistani Taliban said, "Tehreek-e-Taliban strongly denies that Mullah Omar was killed as claimed by the Afghan intelligence agency and as a section of the media has reported." "We can confirm that he has disappeared from his hideout in Quetta, (the capital of the southwestern Pakistani province) Baluchistan," said Lutfullah Mashal, spokesman for Afghanistan' s intelligence service, National Directorate of Security (NDS). Reports of Mullah Omar' s death spread quickly in Kabul after Tolo television, a major news channel here, citing an unnamed source inside the security directorate, reported on Monday that he had been shot dead two days ago as he was being moved from Quetta in southern Pakistan to North Waziristan by the former Pakistani intelligence chief, Lt Gen Hamid Gul. When contacted by the New York Times over telephone in Pakistan, Gul laughed at the reports and called them completely baseless. "Was I killed, too?" he said. "Am I speaking to you from heaven?" Gul said he was in Rawalpindi two days ago, though it was not clear whether the Afghan security directorate believed he was physically with Omar or was orchestrating the move from elsewhere. According to US National Terrorism Centre, Mullah Omar' s Taliban regime in Afghanistan sheltered Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida network in the years before the September 11, 2001, attacks. Osama was gunned down on May 2 by US commandos in Pakistan' s Abbottabad hill station. Although Operation Enduring Freedom launched post-9/11 removed the Taliban regime from power in Afghanistan, Mullah Omar was at large. The US has declared a $10 million reward on information leading to his capture or death. "These reports were spread by Afghan intelligence. I don' t know whether Mullah Omar is dead or alive. If Afghan or Nato troops have killed him, they should come up with credible evidence," said Pakistan' s interior minister Rehman Malik in Karachi. "It' s propaganda of US and its puppet government in Afghanistan. Mullah Omar is alive and leading a campaign against the evil forces in Afghanistan," said Shakirullah Jan, TTP spokesman in Mohmand Agency. Five days ago, the TTP deputy chief Waliur Reham Mehsud released an audio tape in which he endorsed Mullah Omar as the supreme commander of TTP as well. Afghan intelligence has reported the killing Mullah Omar earlier as well, which have proved to be untrue. |
| News of Taliban leader, one- eyed Mullah Omar, being killed in Pakistan has been doing the rounds. But the Taliban in Afghanistan have rejected the report. Posted: 23 May 2011 11:55 PM PDT 
KABUL/ISLAMABAD: An Afghan television channel on Monday said Taliban leader Mullah Omar was killed in Pakistan, a claim promptly denied by the Taliban. "Mullah Omar was killed on way from Quetta to North Waziristan," said Xinhua citing Afghanistan' s TOLO television news. There were no details on how the one-eyed Taliban chieftain was killed and by whom. A Pakistani security official confirmed the alleged killing, saying: "It' s correct that Mullah Omar has been killed." The Mullah was Afghanistan' s de facto head of state from 1996 to late 2001. Soon after the news broke, the Pakistani Taliban said, "Tehreek-e-Taliban strongly denies that Mullah Omar was killed as claimed by the Afghan intelligence agency and as a section of the media has reported." "We can confirm that he has disappeared from his hideout in Quetta, (the capital of the southwestern Pakistani province) Baluchistan," said Lutfullah Mashal, spokesman for Afghanistan' s intelligence service, National Directorate of Security (NDS). Reports of Mullah Omar' s death spread quickly in Kabul after Tolo television, a major news channel here, citing an unnamed source inside the security directorate, reported on Monday that he had been shot dead two days ago as he was being moved from Quetta in southern Pakistan to North Waziristan by the former Pakistani intelligence chief, Lt Gen Hamid Gul. When contacted by the New York Times over telephone in Pakistan, Gul laughed at the reports and called them completely baseless. "Was I killed, too?" he said. "Am I speaking to you from heaven?" Gul said he was in Rawalpindi two days ago, though it was not clear whether the Afghan security directorate believed he was physically with Omar or was orchestrating the move from elsewhere. According to US National Terrorism Centre, Mullah Omar' s Taliban regime in Afghanistan sheltered Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida network in the years before the September 11, 2001, attacks. Osama was gunned down on May 2 by US commandos in Pakistan' s Abbottabad hill station. Although Operation Enduring Freedom launched post-9/11 removed the Taliban regime from power in Afghanistan, Mullah Omar was at large. The US has declared a $10 million reward on information leading to his capture or death. "These reports were spread by Afghan intelligence. I don' t know whether Mullah Omar is dead or alive. If Afghan or Nato troops have killed him, they should come up with credible evidence," said Pakistan' s interior minister Rehman Malik in Karachi. "It' s propaganda of US and its puppet government in Afghanistan. Mullah Omar is alive and leading a campaign against the evil forces in Afghanistan," said Shakirullah Jan, TTP spokesman in Mohmand Agency. Five days ago, the TTP deputy chief Waliur Reham Mehsud released an audio tape in which he endorsed Mullah Omar as the supreme commander of TTP as well. Afghan intelligence has reported the killing Mullah Omar earlier as well, which have proved to be untrue. |
| Mullah Omar: Dead or alive? Posted: 23 May 2011 11:53 PM PDT 
KABUL/ISLAMABAD: An Afghan television channel on Monday said Taliban leader Mullah Omar was killed in Pakistan, a claim promptly denied by the Taliban. "Mullah Omar was killed on way from Quetta to North Waziristan," said Xinhua citing Afghanistan' s TOLO television news. There were no details on how the one-eyed Taliban chieftain was killed and by whom. A Pakistani security official confirmed the alleged killing, saying: "It' s correct that Mullah Omar has been killed." The Mullah was Afghanistan' s de facto head of state from 1996 to late 2001. Soon after the news broke, the Pakistani Taliban said, "Tehreek-e-Taliban strongly denies that Mullah Omar was killed as claimed by the Afghan intelligence agency and as a section of the media has reported." "We can confirm that he has disappeared from his hideout in Quetta, (the capital of the southwestern Pakistani province) Baluchistan," said Lutfullah Mashal, spokesman for Afghanistan' s intelligence service, National Directorate of Security (NDS). Reports of Mullah Omar' s death spread quickly in Kabul after Tolo television, a major news channel here, citing an unnamed source inside the security directorate, reported on Monday that he had been shot dead two days ago as he was being moved from Quetta in southern Pakistan to North Waziristan by the former Pakistani intelligence chief, Lt Gen Hamid Gul. When contacted by the New York Times over telephone in Pakistan, Gul laughed at the reports and called them completely baseless. "Was I killed, too?" he said. "Am I speaking to you from heaven?" Gul said he was in Rawalpindi two days ago, though it was not clear whether the Afghan security directorate believed he was physically with Omar or was orchestrating the move from elsewhere. According to US National Terrorism Centre, Mullah Omar' s Taliban regime in Afghanistan sheltered Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida network in the years before the September 11, 2001, attacks. Osama was gunned down on May 2 by US commandos in Pakistan' s Abbottabad hill station. Although Operation Enduring Freedom launched post-9/11 removed the Taliban regime from power in Afghanistan, Mullah Omar was at large. The US has declared a $10 million reward on information leading to his capture or death. "These reports were spread by Afghan intelligence. I don' t know whether Mullah Omar is dead or alive. If Afghan or Nato troops have killed him, they should come up with credible evidence," said Pakistan' s interior minister Rehman Malik in Karachi. "It' s propaganda of US and its puppet government in Afghanistan. Mullah Omar is alive and leading a campaign against the evil forces in Afghanistan," said Shakirullah Jan, TTP spokesman in Mohmand Agency. Five days ago, the TTP deputy chief Waliur Reham Mehsud released an audio tape in which he endorsed Mullah Omar as the supreme commander of TTP as well. Afghan intelligence has reported the killing Mullah Omar earlier as well, which have proved to be untrue. |
| Naval base attack: Big blow to Pakistan's snooping capabilities Posted: 23 May 2011 11:52 PM PDT 
NEW DELHI: Pakistan has lost almost half of its sophisticated long-range maritime snooping and strike capabilities in just one well-targeted jihadi attack on naval base PNS Mehran in Karachi that ended on Monday after a 15-hour gun-battle which left 10 security persons and four attackers dead. At least two of the five P-3C Orion long-range patrol aircraft, supplied to Pakistan Navy by the US, were destroyed in the attack. The irony is stark. Pakistan got the P-3C Orions, packed with radars and weapons like the E-2C Hawkeye 2000 airborne early-warning suites and anti- ship Harpoon missiles, from the US as part of the around $15 billion military aid in the name of the global war on terrorism over the last decade. India cried foul, holding that Orions as well as other weapons like F-16s were clearly meant for conventional warfare, not counter-terrorism. Al-Qaida or the Taliban, after all, did not have an air force or a navy. And now, in a role reversal, the Pakistan Taliban has destroyed at least two, if not more, of the four-engine turboprop Orions, probably seeing them "as legitimate targets". "It's quite a significant loss for Pakistan Navy...almost 50% of its long-range maritime patrol capabilities has suddenly been taken out," said an Indian Navy officer. As per Pakistan-watchers here, Pakistan is slated to get a total of 10 upgraded Orions, with eight of them supposed to arrive by 2012. "They had five as of now, two older ones which were upgraded and three newer ones. If the two destroyed in the attack are the newer platforms, the loss will be even more significant," said another officer. India, of course, has been wary of the Orions for quite some time. With "a loiter time" extendable to over 10 hours, they pose a significant threat to Indian warships in the entire Arabian Sea due to their long radius of operations. An Orion, which can cost well upwards of $100 million depending on its configuration, incidentally can also carry nuclear weapons in its internal bomb bay under the front fuselage. Indian Navy, in fact, had pushed for installation of the Israeli Barak anti-missile defence systems on 14 of its frontline warships like aircraft carrier INS Viraat, destroyer INS Mysore and stealth frigate INS Shivalik to counter the Harpoon and Exocet missiles acquired by Pakistan. There are lessons for India to also learn from the jihadi attack to ensure its precious air and naval assets are protected in a much better manner. IAF, incidentally, came up with its own version of special forces, the Garuds, in 2004-2005 after facing fidayeen (suicide) attacks on its crucial airbases like Srinagar and Awantipora. "Security of our airbases should be further upgraded," said an officer. The US had also offered to sell eight P-3C Orions, manufactured by Lockheed Martin, to India under the foreign military sales programme some years ago but the deal did not materialize. Instead, India is now going for 12 Boeing-manufactured P-8I long- range maritime reconnaissance aircraft for around $3.1 billion, with the first slated to arrive in early-2013. At present, the Navy is making do with five Russian-origin upgraded Ilyushin-38s and eight ageing Tupolev-142M maritime patrol aircraft, backed by a fleet of Dornier-228s, to keep tabs on the entire Indian Ocean region. |
0 comments:
Post a Comment