Foreign dignitaries killed on us soil

Ravi was working in a 10-foot-deep pit for the Metro rail project near Puzhuthivakkam CHENNAI A 45-year-old worker was killed after soil caved in while he was working in a 10-foot-deep pit for the Metro rail project in Vanuvampet near Puzhuthivakkam. Police said the victim had been identified as K. Ravi, 45, of Vazhapadi, Salem district. Police said the private contractor had engaged men who were tasked with shifting the sewer pipeline to facilitate Metro rail work. So Ravi had climbed down a 10-foot-deep pit without any protective gear and was engaged in laying a pipeline. Suddenly at 1.30 p.m., the soil caved in, and he was trapped under the earth. The others who were around the area at the time, pulled him out from the pit and attempted to resuscitate him. Later, he died on the way to a hospital. The Madipakkam police have registered a case under Section 304-A (causing death due to negligence) and arrested Bojan and Govindaraj — the contractors and Mohan, site engineer. They … [Read more...] about Man killed as soil caves in at Vanuvampet

Beirut: Turkish reprisals killed 16 Syrian soldiers in the battleground northwestern province of Idlib on Friday after a bombardment Ankara blamed on Damascus killed 33 Turkish soldiers, a monitor said. The retaliatory drone and artillery strikes hit Syria army positions in southern and eastern parts of the province which were recaptured by the government in a nearly three-month-old offensive against the rebel enclave, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Also on Friday in Idlib, four members of a single family, two of them children, were killed in air strikes, the Britain-based monitoring group said. There was no immediate confirmation from Damascus of the 16 deaths or any comment on the flare-up with Ankara that prompted NATO to call an urgent meeting of its ruling council for later Friday. "Sixteen regime fighters were killed in Turkish bombardment," Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP. Turkey had said it retaliated "from the air and ground" for the … [Read more...] about Turkish Reprisals Kill 16 Syrian Soldiers in Idlib Province in Drone and Artillery Strikes

Afghan finance and central bank officials from the Taliban-led government departed for Qatar on Wednesday to meet with a U.S. Treasury department official, after last week’s deadly earthquake highlighted how critical relief efforts have stumbled under the weight of the country’s spiraling economic woes. Last week’s devastating earthquake in southeastern Afghanistan killed around 770 people, according to UN figures, though the Taliban put the death toll at closer to 1,150, with thousands injured. The UN says 155 children are among those killed in what was the deadliest earthquake to hit the impoverished country in two decades. The quake struck a remote, deeply impoverished region of small towns and villages tucked among rough mountains near the Pakistani border, collapsing stone and mud-brick homes and in some cases killing entire families. Nearly 3,000 homes were destroyed or badly damaged in Paktika and Khost provinces. News of a meeting between Taliban government officials … [Read more...] about Taliban and U.S. officials to meet amid quake relief efforts

World Hamas Gaza Palestine Liberation Organization Israel No place in the Arab world could be more different from the Gaza Strip than Abu Dhabi. The affluent emirate on the Gulf has shimmering skyscrapers, a Grand Prix racetrack and its own Louvre . Yet Mohammed Dahlan, the 53-year-old Gaza native and exiled political leader, seems comfortable here. His home is a glossy mingling of marble and glass, with chandeliers hanging from high ceilings and framed paintings on the walls. On a sunny winter day recently, he worked in his garden dressed in jeans and soft loafers, then greeted me on his waterfront patio. But for all its luxuriousness, Abu Dhabi is only temporary, Dahlan says—a staging area where he now plots his comeback. He's lived in this city for four years, ever since Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas expelled him from the governing Fatah party and charged him with corruption and defamation. The rift between them cut short a political career that seemed … [Read more...] about Exiled in Abu Dhabi, Mohammed Dahlan Dreams of Gaza