China blasts toll rises to 85

________ A to Z kerala .......... [kvk] [www.atozkerala.in , www.atozkerala.blogspot.com]

Beijing: The toll from the massive warehouse explosions in China's Tianjin city have risen to 85, rescue officials said on Saturday.

A total of 721 others were hospitalised, including 25 critically wounded and 33 in serious condition, the Global Times reported.

The victims included 21 firemen, the officials added.

Two explosions, 30 seconds apart, rocked the Binhai New Area of eastern Tianjin at around late Wednesday. The initial blaze broke out at Tianjin Dongjiang Port Ruihai International Logistics warehouse, which deals with compressed gas, flammable liquid and toxic chemicals -- some of which become highly explosive when mixed with water.

Officials from the anti-chemical warfare corps of the Beijing Garrison Command took samples of the explosives at the blasts site. The samples have been sent for analysis.

According to the ministry of environmental protection, as harmful cyanide compounds were found in drains near the site, workers have sealed off two outlets for rainwater and wastewater so as to prevent the spread of contamination.

The country will launch a nationwide inspection program of businesses working with dangerous chemicals and explosives.

In an emergency notice, the State Council Work Safety Commission said Tianjin's deadly blasts revealed a lack of safety awareness among businesses and implementation of safety regulations.

The city has opened 12 schools and three apartment buildings to accommodate 6,300 homeless residents.

IANS

Expert panel to study spread of cancer in Kerala

________ A to Z kerala .......... [kvk] [www.atozkerala.in , www.atozkerala.blogspot.com]

Kozhikode: The government has deputed an expert panel to conduct a study to find the reasons for spread of cancer in the state and also to prepare the cancer registry.

The panel has Regional Cancer Centre director Dr Paul Sebastian as convener. Dr P V Gangadharan, Malabar Cancer Centre director Dr B Satheesan, Dr P Gangadharan of Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Dr Eliamma Mathew of RCC, Dr Ajy Kumar of Kozhikode Medical College and Dr Syam Sundar, consultant, health services are other members.

A government order issued in this regard dated August 1, has asked the panel to submit the report within six months.

Earlier, Mathrubhumi had published a series on spread of cancer in villages of Kerala.

As of now, Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam districts have the cancer registry based on population while the Malabar Cancer Centre is preparing the same for Kannur district. Against this background, the panel has been instructed to prepare the cancer registry for the entire state.

Presence of Saudi women at London stadium sparks debate

________ A to Z kerala .......... [kvk] [www.atozkerala.in , www.atozkerala.blogspot.com]

JEDDAH: The presence of Saudi women at the Saudi Super Cup match between Al-Hilal and Al-Nasr in London on Wednesday has a sparked a debate among Saudis on social networking sites.
As usual, liberals and conservatives had different points of view on the issue. While some have argued that the participation of Saudi women at the match is a reflection of their personal freedom, others disapproved of their presence, claiming they “appeared gaudy with too much makeup.”
Women’s rights activist Kholoud Saleh Al-Fahed wrote on Twitter that these opinions no longer have relevance or impact on the Saudi women.
“The world has turned away from discussing the finer points of the match and are now busy analyzing the Saudi woman, her rights and her face cover,” said Samar Khan, a researcher and doctor in London.
Walid Al-Howairini said: “Women who expose themselves and remove their cover are disobeying God, as wearing the hijab is a form of worship.”
“The incident has challenged the perception that young men act like animals and girls are always the victims,” said Ahmed on a social networking website.
According to Abdullah Al-Shaibani, if women attended the match wearing makeup, this does not grant anyone the right to speak of their behavior and intention. “Speaking poorly of others is worse than wearing makeup,” he said.
“The true embarrassment,” adds Ali Al-Mansour, “is that Saudis attended the match with no harassment or problems in the UK, where anti-harassment laws exist, but covered women in our country are constantly harassed.”
“Unfortunately, the match has led to the publication of photos of Saudi women without their knowledge or approval,” wrote Abdulsalam Al-Yemeni.
Some, like Abdullah Al-Dawood, have gone as far as questioning whether the event was purely a coincidence or pre-planned.
For the game’s enthusiasts, Al-Hilal emerged victorious, winning the match 1-0.

Call to regulate entry of visitors to schools

________ A to Z kerala .......... [kvk] [www.atozkerala.in , www.atozkerala.blogspot.com]
JEDDAH: Education Minister Azzam Al-Dakhil has directed all the education departments across the Kingdom to appoint a guard at each school for boys and girls in order to regulate the entrance of parents or visitors.
He stressed the need to document the data and information of each visitor, including the entry and exit time, to prevent them from roaming around or entering classrooms for educational or other purposes, local media reported on Thursday.
Visitors, including parents, are only allowed to meet the school principal or his deputy, or the student’s guide or teacher the school administrator’s office, and not in the classroom, he said.
The minister stressed the zero tolerance policy toward any visitor intending to enter schools and said that guards should document and check all information concerning the visitors.
“Parents leave their children in our custody, entrusting us with their safety and wellbeing. We should take up this mission with diligence in order to safeguard their safety and to protect the parent’s peace of mind,” said the minister. 
The Ministry of Education recently approved new incentives for employees who will assume the tasks of documenting visitors’ data and information. Such a task should be taken by one of the school faculty members, such as clerk, supervisor or administrative assistant. 
Majed Al-Harbi, director of security and safety department at the Ministry of Education, said that the ministry will implement a program to provide 33,000 security and safety personnel from some of the ministry’s departments and divisions, by giving incentives of about 15 percent of the original salary to them.

Souq Okaz gets off to a colorful start

________ A to Z kerala .......... [kvk] [www.atozkerala.in , www.atozkerala.blogspot.com]

• 
  FESTIVAL OPENING: Makkah Gov. Prince Khaled Al-Faisal welcomes guests at Souq Okaz Festival in Taif on Thursday. (SPA)

  

JEDDAH: Makkah Gov. Prince Khaled Al-Faisal and head of the supervising committee of Souq Okaz opened the activities of the ninth edition of the festival on Wednesday.

A number of intellectuals, poets, academics, artists and craftsmen from the Kingdom and abroad attended the event.
The governor announced a new prize on Thursday as part of Souq Okaz annual prizes for the cognitive business entrepreneurship, saying that the prize would be equal to Souq Okaz prize for poetry.
Iraqi poet Hizabr Mahmood Ali was decorated at the event. He was presented with the Okaz 1436 plaque and SR300,000 in cash after emerging triumphant in a competition that had 26 poets from Saudi Arabia and a number of Arab countries.
Saudi poet Hassan Muhammad Tawashi was named as Okaz Youth Poet. He was decorated with a plaque and SR100,000 in cash.
Many artists were honored in other categories, such as Arabic calligraphy, photography and painting.
The governor said the festival will take place again next year. “Souq Okaz is not only a festival for poetry. It is our link with the past,” he said.
“We want to have a window on the future and the Saudi individuals need to see their future through that window,” he said. “We are talking about an intellectual, cultural and creative communication window, which enhances the communication between us and the whole world.”
“People should see that humanity needs to work on elevating the status of humans on the face of this earth. Through his adherence to the Arab and Islamic laws, Saudi Arabia can be the best model on this earth,” he said.
Souq Okaz represents a unique and important tourism landmark in the Kingdom. The present day Souk Okaz was re-created on the same location where the ancient Souq Okaz used to be held historically.
The current souq reveals all of the glorious past and the modernity of the present.
The importance of the souq lies in its historic symbolism as the original source of Arabic central culture as a destination for ancient Arab intellectuals and poets and people passionate about culture and literature.

ICRC chief reviews Yemen situation

________ A to Z kerala .......... [kvk] [www.atozkerala.in , www.atozkerala.blogspot.com]

ADEN: The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Sunday, visited the Old City of Sanaa, a Unesco World Heritage Site, to assess the damage of the war on the second day of a three-day visit.

After touring damaged buildings and a hospital, ICRC chief Peter Maurer told reporters he had come to Yemen for a “view on the impact of the recent warfare.”

“It’s an illustration of just one element of how people are affected by the warfare,” Maurer said.

The ICRC has said Maurer would hold talks with leading officials, without identifying them, during his visit to Yemen.

Rebel officials said he would meet Houthi leaders and their allies.

Sanaa’s Old City has been inhabited for more than 2,500 years and was a major centre for the propagation of Islam, boasting more than 100 mosques, 14 public baths and more than 6,000 houses built before the 11th century.

Many of its ancient storeyed houses that rise like modern-day skyscrapers were damaged in fighting, leaving residents homeless.

Forces loyal to Yemen’s exiled government recaptured a southern provincial capital from Shiite rebels and their allies on Sunday as they pressed an advance from second city Aden.

Zinjibar, capital of Abyan province, had been held by troops of the renegade 15th Brigade which remains loyal to ousted strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh who is allied with the rebels.

Troops entered the coastal town, some 50km east of Aden, after overrunning the brigade’s barracks outside with support from Saudi-led air strikes, military sources said.

Residents of Zinjibar forced out by fighting that devastated their city also returned on Sunday to take stock of the damage, a relief official said.

But many, including loyalist fighters, lost their lives as they treaded on mines planted by the rebels before they withdrew from the city.

At least 19 people were killed and 163 wounded on Saturday and Sunday in Zinjibar and the surrounding area, Aden health chief Al Khader Laswar said.

The United Nations says nearly 4,000 people have been killed since March, half of them civilians, while 80 per cent of Yemen’s 21 million people are in need of aid and protection. The ICRC says 1.3 million Yemenis have been displaced by the conflict. Mines and unexploded ordnance have caused similarly high death tolls in Aden itself since the rebels’ pullout last month, with dozens of civilians reported killed and hundreds wounded.

Zinjibar is the third southern provincial capital from which the rebels have been driven out. The loyalists secured Aden in mid-July and Lahj provincial capital Huta on Aug.4.

Aden was the last refuge of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi before he fled into exile in neighbouring Saudi Arabia in March. Riyadh has since led a bombing campaign and air and sea blockade against the rebels and their allies in a bid to restore his authority.

It has also provided training and equipment to loyalist forces and earlier this month reportedly deployed hundreds of ground troops to Aden.

The capture of Zinjibar came three days after tribal and military sources said Saudi Arabia sent tanks, armoured vehicles and personnel carriers to back the loyalist forces.

Hundreds of Yemeni soldiers trained in the oil-rich kingdom were also sent to bolster Hadi’s forces, the sources said on Thursday.

The recapture of Zinjibar is expected to strengthen the position of loyalist forces as they expand their zone of control in southern Yemen and could pave the way for an attempt to pursue rebels further north.

Agence France-Presse

 

AD CP receives Indian PM’s note

________ A to Z kerala .......... [kvk] [www.atozkerala.in , www.atozkerala.blogspot.com]
ABU DHABI: His Highness Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, has received a letter from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, focusing on expanding bilateral ties.

The note was delivered to Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Foreign Minister, by visiting Foreign Secretary at the Indian Ministry of External Affairs 

Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, during a meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Sunday.

Sheikh Abdullah and Jaishankar discussed various means of bolstering joint cooperation in all fields in a manner that serves the mutual interests of both countries. They also exchanged views on the latest regional and international events and developments.

Also, Reem Bint Ibrahim Al Hashemi, Minister of State, and Mohammed Mir Al Raisi, Undersecretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, attended the meeting.

WAM

Five killed in Kabul airport road blast

________ A to Z kerala .......... [kvk] [www.atozkerala.in , www.atozkerala.blogspot.com]
KABUL: At least five people were killed on Monday when a Taliban suicide car bomber struck near the entrance of Kabul's international airport, the latest in a wave of lethal bombings in the Afghan capital.

The Taliban, which claimed responsibility for the blast, have stepped up attacks amid a bitter leadership transition following the announcement of the death of their leader Mullah Omar.

Observers say the upsurge in violence represents a bid by new leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour to distract attention from the crisis as planned peace talks falter.

“The explosion occurred at the first checkpoint of Kabul airport,” said deputy Kabul police chief Sayed Gul Agha Rouhani.

Five civilians were killed and 16 wounded including children, said Kabul police spokesman Ebadullah Karimi. The toll was confirmed by Kabul CID chief Fraidoon Obaidi, who said the explosion was caused by a suicide car bomb.

Smoke billowed from the scene of the explosion, which occurred during the busy lunchtime period.

Ambulances with wailing sirens rushed to the area and were seen removing bodies from the area, which was strewn with the twisted and mangled remains of vehicles.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said two vehicles belonging to foreign coalition forces were the target of the attack. The attack follows a barrage of deadly bombings in the Afghan capital on Friday, which struck close to an army complex, a police academy and a US special forces base and killed at least 51 people.

They were the first major attacks since Mullah Akhtar Mansour was named as the new Taliban chief in an acrimonious power transition after the insurgents confirmed the death of longtime leader Mullah Omar.

Agence France-Presse

Child abuse scandal shocks Pakistan, families angry at police

________ A to Z kerala .......... [kvk] [www.atozkerala.in , www.atozkerala.blogspot.com]
HUSAIN KHAN WALA (Pakistan): Parents at the centre of a growing child abuse scandal in Pakistan accused police on Monday of failing to do enough to break up a paedophile ring in Punjab province, the prime minister's political heartland. 

Accounts of abuse in the central Punjabi village of Husain Khan Wala were splashed across the front pages of Pakistani newspapers over the weekend, and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is expected to be questioned on the topic in parliament. 

Villagers told Reuters that a prominent family there has for years forced children to perform sex acts on video. 

The footage was sold or used to blackmail their impoverished families. 

Rubina Bibi says her 13-year-old son was a victim, but when she tried to file a report at the Ganda Singh Wala police station a month and a half ago, "the police station clerk told me to get lost and I was thrown out." "My son ... is in the videos, he is a victim," she said. 

"Our children were forced into this. They were humiliated. But the police are treating them like criminals."

Another mother, Shakila Bibi, added: "I went to the police station to file a complaint, but instead of registering a (report), they took my son into custody."

Her 15-year-old son is still in jail, she said. 

If an inquiry found inadequate police work or complicity, the scandal could engulf the provincial government, headed by the prime minister's brother. 

District Police Officer Rai Babar said the force would act decisively. 

"I assure you that we are taking this very seriously and there will be a fair and very transparent investigation," he told Reuters. 

On Sunday, Sharif said in a statement: "(The) Prime Minister ... has expressed extreme sadness ... the culprits will be given the harshest possible punishment." 

CONFLICTING ACCOUNTS

Villagers say hundreds of children were affected, although they were unable to give names of particular families. 

Police have arrested seven suspects, but downplayed the scale of the abuse, suggesting a land dispute may have sparked accusations. 

"It's a very murky situation," said Babar. He added that seven cases involving 11 children had been registered. 

Activist Mobeen Ghaznavi says many children were abused and that he had 130 video clips containing abuse. "People are afraid. They are being threatened and intimidated," he said. 

Suraiya Bibi said that when she complained to police, her family was threatened by the abusers. 

"One day some women in the village showed me these videos. My son was in them. My world collapsed," she said. 

"Kids were being intimidated in these videos with weapons, they were drugged. Kids as young as five years old were made to perform oral sex."

In one clip seen by Reuters, a boy cowers and cries before putting his hands over the camera lens. 

In another, a groggy boy is beaten and abused as a man tells him, "I will not stop until you smile."

Three 15-year-old boys told Reuters they were abused for several years. 

Two said they was threatened with weapons that included knife, an axe and a gun. 

"He threatened me if I did not compromise, he would kill me on the spot," one said. 

One 18-year-old told Reuters he had been abused since he was 10. He stole cash and jewellery from his family after his abusers blackmailed him, he said. 

"I was going to school one day when these boys picked me up and beat me up badly. Then they drugged me, and when I woke up, they showed me these videos they had made of me," he said. 

"They told me that they would bury me alive if I told anyone ... I thought about killing myself every single day." 

Reuters 

Abu Dhabi Crown Prince offers condolences

________ A to Z kerala .......... [kvk] [www.atozkerala.in , www.atozkerala.blogspot.com]

ABU DHABI: His Highness Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces offered condolences on the death of Ahmed Saeed Menhali and four of his family members who died on Friday morning as a result of a mishap that occurred on Adam-Salalah road in Oman.

This came during a visit by Sheikh Mohamed on Sunday to the family’s home in Shamkha area in Abu Dhabi.

He expressed his sincere condolences and sympathy to the father of the deceased and his brothers, calling Allah Almighty to rest them in peace.

He was accompanied by Sheikh Nahyan Bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Culture, Youth and Community Development; Dr Sultan Ahmed Bin Sultan Al Jaber, Minister of State and Mohammed Mubarak Al Mazroui, Undersecretary of Abu Dhabi Crown Prince’s Court who offered their condolences to the Al Minahali family.