IGIHE

Tag: InternationalNews

  • Bayern Appoint Guardiola as Manager

    {{Former Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola will takeover as Bayern Munich head coach for the 2013/14 season, the Bundesliga giants confirmed Wednesday, with the Spaniard offered a contract until 2016.}}

    The 41-year-old Guardiola, who has twice coached Barcelona to the Champions League title, will replace current Munich boss Jupp Heynckes, whose contract expires in June, just after his 68th birthday.

    Guardiola, who is currently living in New York with his family, resigned as Barcelona coach last year after four years coaching the Spanish giants but chose to snub the English Premier League in what will be seen to be a major coup for the rival German Bundesliga.

    He had been linked with Manchester rivals United and City as well as European champions Chelsea since taking a break from the game at the end of last season.

    Agencies

  • Pakistan Official Blocks Court Order to Arrest Prime Minister

    {{Pakistan’s anti-corruption chief refused an order by the country’s top court to arrest the prime minister in a graft case on Thursday, saying he did not have sufficient evidence.}}

    The government and the Supreme Court have repeatedly clashed over the last year, and the chief justice’s demand on Tuesday that Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf be arrested set the stage for a new round of political crisis in Pakistan, a key U.S. ally in the fight against Islamic militants and efforts to stabilize neighboring Afghanistan.

    Fasih Bokhari, chief of the National Accountability Bureau, told the Supreme Court that the initial investigation into the case was flawed and that he needed more time to determine whether the prime minister should be arrested.

    The case involves kickbacks that Ashraf allegedly took during his time as minister of water and power that were related to private power stations built to provide electricity to energy-starved Pakistan.

    The prime minister has denied the allegations.

    The investigating officers “were not able to bring incriminating evidence but relied on oral statements which are not warranted in the court of law,” said Bokhari.

    One of the judges, Sheikh Azmat Saeed, chided Bokhari, saying he was acting more like a defense lawyer than a government prosecutor.

    Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry questioned why the anti-corruption chief needed more time since the case against the prime minister has been pending for about a year.

    He ordered Bokhari to bring the case files back to the judges later in the day so they can determine whether there is incriminating evidence.

  • USA Orders Dreamliners Grounded

    {{Although Rwanda and other countries have future plans of acquiring the Dreamliner Planes, recent reports indicate that the world’s most advanced jetliner has safety problems.}}

    The US federal government has declared that U.S. airlines cannot fly the 787 again until the risk of battery fires is addressed.

    The Federal Aviation Administration’s emergency order affects only United Airlines, the lone U.S. carrier to operate 787s.

    United said it would put passengers on other aircraft and work closely with the FAA and Boeing to review its fleet of six Dreamliners.

    Agencies

  • Facebook Graph Search Explained

    {{On Tuesday Facebook made headlines with the announcement of its new social search tool called Graph Search, And while Facebook insists that Graph Search is in no way another web-search-engine or a Google copycat, the company clearly intends to make optimum use of all that it knows about you and your friends. }}

    So here’s looking at what Graph Search is all about, along with snapshots from the big launch.

    The tool, which the company calls graph search, is Facebook’s most ambitious stab at overturning the Web search business ruled by its chief rival, Google.

    It is also an effort to elbow aside other web services designed to unearth specific kinds of information, like LinkedIn for jobs, Match for dates and Yelp for restaurants.

    Facebook has spent over a year honing graph search, said Mark Zuckerberg, the company’s co-founder and chief executive, at an event here at Facebook’s headquarters introducing the new product.

    He said it would enable Facebook users to search their social network for people, places, photos and things that interest them.

    That might include, Zuckerberg offered, Mexican restaurants in Palo Alto that his friends have “liked” on Facebook or checked into – though not status updates as yet. It might be used to find a date, a dentist or job, other Facebook executives said.

    “Graph search,” Zuckerberg said, “is a completely new way to get information on Facebook.”

    Graph search will be immediately available to a limited number of Facebook users – in the “thousands,” Zuckerberg said – and gradually extended to the rest.

  • French Army begins Ground Attack Against Mali Rebels

    {{French troops are set for their first major ground combat with Islamist rebels in Mali after heading out from the capital, Bamako.}}

    A convoy of about 30 armoured vehicles set out on Tuesday for Diabaly, 350km (220 miles) to the north, a town captured by the rebels on Monday.

    The first units of an African force will arrive today (Wednesday) to bolster the French.

    France intervened last Friday to halt the Islamists’ drive to the capital.

    Islamists entered Diabaly on Monday, taking the town from Malian forces. French war planes have since attacked the rebel positions.

    French army chief Edouard Guillaud said on Wednesday that ground operations had now begun.

    “In the coming hours – but I cannot tell you if it’s in one hour or 72 hours – yes, of course, we will be fighting them directly.”

    BBC

  • Cuba Admits Cholera Outbreak

    {{Cuba’s Public Health Ministry on Tuesday acknowledged 51 new cases of cholera in the capital amid growing concerns about the illness’ spread and disappointment in the diplomatic community over the government’s lack of transparency.}}

    The ministry said nobody had died from the latest outbreak, which began Jan. 6, and stressed that preventive measures already taken had put the disease “on the way to extinction.”

    It said cholera was first detected in the capital’s Cerro neighborhood, and then spread elsewhere.

    No other areas of the capital were mentioned, but there have been unconfirmed reports of cases in the leafy Playa neighborhood that is home to many foreign embassies.

    The island has a well-organized civil defense system capable of rapidly mobilizing government agencies and citizens groups.

    Brigades of workers go door to door, noisily fumigating homes and admonishing residents to eliminate standing water where mosquitos bearing another tropical disease, dengue, could breed.

    ABC

  • Helicopter Crashes in Central London

    {{A helicopter has crashed in central london this morning killing two people and sending people into panic.

    Emergency workers rushed to the scene of a helicopter crash at south of the River Thames in central London, authorities said.}}

    London’s Metropolitan Police said they were called to an incident at Vauxhall Bridge in the morning, but could not confirm whether there were casualties.

    Pictures from the scene show billowing smoke and flames.

    The incident occurred at 8 a.m. local time, when many commuters would be traveling through the area.

    Many emergency workers are on the scene and roads in the area have been cordoned off.

    Vauxhall, not far from Westminster, is where a new U.S. Embassy is being built.

  • 18 Human Heads Impounded at Chicago Airport

    {{Officials scrambled Tuesday to get 18 human heads off to their final destination, a crematorium, after they were seized by US customs inspectors before Christmas at Chicago‘s main O’Hare airport.}}

    The heads, each tagged with a name plus place and cause of death, had originated in the United States for use at a research facility in Rome, spokeswoman Mary Paleologos of the Cook County medical examiner‘s office said.

    “The heads were anatomical specimens used for research, properly preserved, wrapped and labeled when they arrived” back on US soil as regular cargo in three sealed containers on a Lufthansa flight for final disposal.

    But as the embalmed heads passed through an X-ray machine at O’Hare, one of the busiest airports in the United States, they were confiscated by customs agents who determined the accompanying paperwork was unclear.

    “Right now, they‘re getting the paperwork cleared up” to enable the heads to proceed to their final destination, a cremation service in the Chicago area, Paleologos told AFP.

    In the meantime, the heads remain in storage at the Cook County morgue.

    Paleologos was unable to identify the research facility in Rome.

    The United States, where human remains can be willed to science, is a major center in a growing international trade in body parts used for medical research.

    AFP

  • Woman Steals Train Crashes into Building

    {{A woman stole an empty commuter train from a depot Tuesday and drove it to a suburb of Stockholm where it derailed and slammed into an apartment building, officials said.}}

    The woman was seriously injured in the early morning crash and was flown to a Stockholm hospital, police spokesman Lars Bystrom said. No one else was injured.

    Bystrom said the woman was arrested on suspicion of endangering the public.

    Tomas Hedenius, a spokesman for train operator Arriva, said the woman, born in 1990, stole the four-car train at a depot outside Stockholm.

    She then drove it about a mile (1.6 kilometers) to the end station on the railway line, where it jumped off the tracks, careered for about 30 yards (25 meters) and crashed into a three-story building.

    Photographs from the scene showed the crumpled front car of the train buried deep into the structure.

    “There were three families inside the apartment building, but no one was injured. At least not physically,” Hedenius said.

    The motives of the woman, who worked for a company contracted to carry out cleaning for the train operator, were not immediately clear.

    “We have only heard good things about her. We’re investigating how this could happen, and why she did what she did,” Hedenius said.

    AP

  • Pakistan Supreme Court Orders PM be Arrested

    {{The Pakistani Supreme Court has ordered the arrest of Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf in connection with a corruption case, officials say.}}

    The court ordered the arrest of PM Ashraf on Tuesday morning, in relation to a case relating to contracts for the purchase of rental power plants by the federal government when Ashraf was the federal minister for water and power.

    The Prime Minister, in his capacity as minister for water and power “violated the principle of transparency, therefore, his involvement in getting financial benefits out of the same by indulging in corruption and corrupt practices cannot be overruled”, the order said.

    The Supreme Court ordered the arrest of 16 people, including the prime minister, and directed authorities to present Ashraf in court on Thursday, Aamir Abbas, a lawyer for the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), said.

    “The chief justice ordered that all concerned, regardless of their rank, who have been booked in the case be arrested and if someone leaves the country, then chairman of anti-corruption watchdog- NAB will be held responsible along with his investigating team,” Abbas said.

    Fawad Chaudhry, an adviser to the PM, condemned the court’s order, calling it “unconstitutional”.

    Asif Ali Zardari, the Pakistani president and co-chairman of Ashraf’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), called a meeting of all parties of the ruling coalition in Karachi on Wednesday in the wake of the announcement.

    Aljazeera