Putin says 2012 polls important to him

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has said the 2012 Russian presidential elections are of greater concern to him than to anybody else, in an interview with Kommersant newspaper.

Ever since Dmitry Medvedev replaced Putin as president in 2008, there has been widespread speculation that Putin plans to return as president at the 2012 elections.

Putin has refused to be drawn on his plans for the election, in contrast to Medvedev. Speaking at Stanford University during his landmark U.S. visit in June, Medvedev said he may run for a second term if he secures enough public support.

"[The 2012 presidential elections] are of concern to me, just like they are to everybody, but actually of greater concern to me than to anybody else. But I am not making a fetish out of them," Putin said.

"On the whole, the country is developing steadily," he said. "I can't see any major problems; the crisis has hampered us a little, of course, but on the other hand, it has helped [us] concentrate on our priorities."

"It is important that the 2012 problem doesn't pull us away from this path of steady development," he said.

Despite growing public dissatisfaction with the government, most recently over the state's apparent inability to take control of the wildfires that ravaged central Russia this summer, Putin continues to be the country's most popular politician.

Opinion polls show that most people in Russia believe that it is he who actually runs Russia, not President Medvedev.

Putin said he was not bothered by the recent fall in the approval ratings of Medvedev and himself.

"I don't follow [the ratings] but I see that they are wobbling; it is the crisis. After all, so many people have fallen on hard times, I understand them," Putin said.

Source http://en.rian.ru/russia/20100830/160392890.html

14 killed in Nepal plane crash

All 14 people aboard a small plane heading for the Everest region, including four Americans, a Japanese and a Briton, were killed when the plane crashed in bad weather near the Nepalese capital on Tuesday.

"Our teams have now reached the site and I can confirm that there are no survivors. All 14 people are dead," said Bimlesh Lal Karna, head of rescue operations with the civil aviation authority.

The Agni Air plane was returning to Kathmandu after it was unable to land at Lukla, its intended destination in a popular trekking spot in the Everest region of eastern Nepal, home ministry spokesman Jayamukunda Khanal told AFP.

Thousands of travellers fly into Lukla, 140 kilometres (90 miles) northeast of Kathmandu, every year to access the stunning Himalayan range that forms Nepal's northern border with Chinese-controlled Tibet.

Local villagers said they saw the plane crash into a field next to a school about 15 miles south of Kathmandu and break up on impact. The cause of the crash was not immediately clear.

"There are small pieces of the plane all over the field and you can see body parts. We are all so shocked," villager Pratap Lama told the Kantipur radio station.

Relatives of some of the passengers gathered at the airport in Kathmandu to wait for news.

"My cousin is a trekking guide and he was flying up to take a group of tourists to Everest base camp," Ganesh Rijal, 40, told AFP.

"He got married recently and his wife is in deep shock. I have been waiting here for hours, but nobody has been able to tell me anything."

The 550-metre-long (1,800 feet) sloping airstrip at Lukla, perched on a hillside 2,757 metres above sea level, is considered one of the most difficult landings in the world.

The last major accident there was in 2008 when a Twin Otter plane carrying 18 people crashed killing everyone on board.

The airport is used by climbers heading for the heights of Everest, though now is the low season for both mountaineering and trekking.

Tourism is a major foreign currency earner for impoverished Nepal and the number of visitors has increased since a civil war between Maoist guerrillas and the state ended in 2006.

Earlier this year, the government announced an ambitious plan to attract a million tourists to the country in 2011 -- around twice the number that visited in 2009.

Source http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gtiAaTkf3kwJPgxqc8jl-XPIYBYg

Bus accident kills 22 in Pakistan

At least 22 people were killed and several others were reported missing when flood waters swept away a bus in Pakistan’s central Punjab province on Monday.

The Peshawar-bound bus turned turtle when it was hit by strong torrents of water in Rajanpur district of Punjab.

Officials said 22 people were killed while 15 were rescued.

A search had been launched for others who were missing, they said.

“The road was closed near Khad Buzdar village due to the danger of water torrents from nearby hills. But the driver ignored the warning and drove on,” a rescue official said.

He said the death toll could rise further.

Last week, over two dozen people were killed in the flood-hit Muzaffargarh district of Punjab when a tractor trolley carrying 40 displaced people was swept away by flood waters.

The devastating floods sweeping Pakistan have killed over 1,700 people and affected 20 million.

Source http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/article589599.ece

43 whales dead in NZ mass stranding

Rescuers have failed in their first attempt to refloat more than a dozen pilot whales stranded on a remote beach in the north of New Zealand.

Dozens of volunteers tried in vain to refloat the whales at high tide on Karikari beach.

The volunteers are surrounded by 43 dead whales that are thought to have washed up on the beach earlier today.

Polly Raharuru-Toby has been on Karikari beach and says only 15 whales are still alive.

"It's just sad to see the whales come up. It's hard to see them die there when we're trying to get them all back out again," she said.

Another attempt will be made to refloat the surviving whales at first light tomorrow.

If unsuccessful they will be lifted into trucks and taken to a more sheltered beach a kilometre away.

Marine mammal specialist Anton van Helden says mass strandings are often triggered by a single whale in distress calling out to other whales for help.

"It's a pretty good survival strategy out in the open ocean, for these oceanic animals, that if an animal's in trouble or ailing in some way, that they essentially communicate with other whales to help, so that other animals come and attempt to buoy them to the surface," he said.

It is not the first time there has been a mass stranding of whales on the beach.

In 1997, 101 whales were stranded on Karikari beach.

Source http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/08/20/2988829.htm?section=justin

Petrol bomb gang attack UK ministers in Pakistan

A petrol bomb hurling mob forced two Cabinet ministers touring floodravaged Pakistan to be airlifted to safety.

A five-car convoy carrying Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell and Tory Party Chairman Baroness Sayeeda Warsi was caught up in a violent demonstration against fuel price increases.

Witnesses said the convoy was pelted with petrol and stones before being re-routed to a nearby airbase. The group were later flown out of the area in an army helicopter.

The ministers, returning to the capital Islamabad, were attacked near the town of Nowshera in a region known for its links to the Taliban.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: "The ministerial party was re-routed to avoid a large, ongoing public protest as a precaution and are now continuing their programme."

Read more: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/08/19/petrol-bomb-gang-attack-uk-ministers-in-pakistan-115875-22497606/

9/11 families criticise Obama for backing mosque near Ground Zero

Family members of 9/11 terror attack victims have criticised US President Barack Obama for backing a proposal to build a Muslim community centre and a mosque near Ground Zero, citing the Constitution and principles of religious freedom, ahead of the trial, and added that he absolutely has his "priorities confused".

"I think the President absolutely has his priorities confused," Fox News quoted Debra Burlingame of 9/11 Families for a Safe and Strong America, as saying.

"He should be focusing on putting Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his cohorts on trial and allowing them to plead guilty as they said they wanted to do, rather than lecturing the families of those firefighters and their children about religious tolerance at ground zero," she added.

A White House spokesman, however, said politics wasn't a factor in Obama's comments about the proposed mosque near Ground Zero.

"The President felt obligated to make sure all Americans are treated fairly, regardless of their religious views," Deputy White House Press Secretary Bill Burton said. (ANI)

Source http://news.oneindia.in/2010/08/17/911families-criticise-obama-for-backing-mosque-nearground.html

Pakistan floods cause 'huge losses' to crops

The overflowing Indus river is wreaking havoc in Punjab and Sindh provinces

Pakistan's floods have caused "huge losses" to its crops, the country's food minister has told the BBC.

Nazar Muhammad Gondal said significant amounts of the grain, sugarcane and rice harvests had been washed away.

Meanwhile a senior religious scholar has said that flood victims living in difficult conditions should not have to fast over the Muslim Ramadan period.

And Pakistan's UK envoy has denied that most of the money given for flood defences has been lost to corruption.

High Commissioner to London Wajid Hasan dismissed the allegation by pressure group Transparency International, and insisted his government was doing all it could to help people in need.

Floodwater triggered by heavy monsoon rains is still surging south along the Indus River, forcing people from their homes.

Food Minister Gondal said grain stocks had been destroyed in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly North West Frontier) province, but some remained in southern Punjab province.

"We have losses in cotton, in sugarcane, in rice, in pulses and in tobacco - these are huge losses for the future," he told the BBC's World Today programme.

"These are the nation's cash crops which will really affect the economy of Pakistan."

Mohsin Leghari, a member of the Punjab regional assembly, told the World Today aid workers were being attacked by desperate, starving people.

"Their crops have gone, their livestock has gone, the infrastructure, the roads are gone," he said. "Right now our land link with the rest of the country is gone."

Mufti Muneebur Rehman, one of the country's top religious scholars, told the AP news agency that flood victims can perform their Ramadan fast later in the year.

The Ramadan period began on Thursday. Muslims throughout the country go without food from dawn to dusk each day for a month to control their desires and show empathy for the poor.

'God's punishment'

Pakistan's meteorological service warned of floods in Hyderabad, Sindh province, and Kalabagh and Chashma in Punjab.

But forecasters also said the monsoon system should ease over the next three days.

The UN has launched an appeal for more than $450m (£290m) to help the 14 million Pakistanis affected by the floods. At least 1,600 people have died and many more are missing.

The US, which has already committed $55m to relief efforts, announced it was contributing another $16.2m to the UN refugee agency and the International Red Cross.

But in a statement this week, the Pakistani Taliban described the floods as God's punishment on the country for accepting secular leaders. They urged Pakistanis to boycott foreign aid.

Source http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-10948275