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Thursday, March 12, 2009
Hamas vows to 'act against' those firing rockets into Israel
German school shooter gave Internet chatroom warning
Police detain protestors in fierce clashes
Activists to launch nationwide protest
Number of billionaires plummets, Forbes magazine reports
West Indies survive to win series
Sangakkara is Sri Lanka captain
A nation mourns after school bloodbath
Recent school slayings worldwide |
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Pyongyang announces satellite launch for early April, reports
Hundreds held in massive crackdown! No more violence, US tells Pak
Pakistan detains opposition members
Pakistani authorities have launched a crackdown on lawyers and political activists before a planned protest march in the eastern province of Punjab, police say. Dozens of people were detained or placed under house arrest during overnight raids which continued into Wednesday. "Raids are being conducted at various places in the city and some arrests have been made," Amjad Saleemi, a senior police official, told AFP news agency. "The government has provided lists of people to police and raids are being made to arrest them." Those detained include members of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), which is headed by Nawaz Sharif, a former prime minister who last month was disqualified from running in elections. Anti-government lawyers and opposition parties are expected to launch a cross-country protest rally from Punjab to the capital Islamabad, known as the long march, on Thursday. The parties are calling for the reinstatement of Iftikhar Chaudhry, a former supreme court justice, and other judges dismissed by Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's former president.
Launch of Discovery mission to space station set for Wednesday
Sehwag smashes NZ to seal series
HK's Cathay Pacific loses $1.1bn
Hong Kong based airline Cathay Pacific has reported a loss of US$1.1bn, on the back of falling cargo demand and volatile fuel prices. Announcing the loss on Wednesday, the airline said it was bracing for "an extremely challenging year in 2009". In a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange, Christopher Pratt, Cathay's chairman, said high oil prices in the first half of the year had hit the carrier's bottom line. The loss - the airline's first since the Asian financial crisis of 1998 - compares to a profit of US$900m for 2007. Pratt said that the tumbling oil price in the second half of 2008 had also caused heavy losses from hedging contracts taken out to protect it against the previously high cost of fuel. "Having made a painful adjustment to high fuel prices, the aviation industry now has to adjust to a severe economic downturn," he said.
US calls on Hamas, Hezbollah to recognise Israel
Arab leaders aim to boost relations
King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has hosted a four-way meeting of Arab leaders aimed at closing ranks ahead of an Arab summit in Qatar at the end of the month. The meeting between king Abdullah, Bashar al-Assad, president of Syria, Hosni Mubarak, president of Eypt and Sheikh Sabah al-ahmad al-Sabah, the Emir of Kuwait, was taking place at a Riyadh air base, the Saudi state news agency SPA said. "Bilateral relations ... and ways of strengthening them in various fields in addition to regional and international issues of common concern" will be discussed, SPA reported. The visit by Assad marks a relaxing of tensions between the Syrian and the Saudi government after years of differences over Damascus' links to Iran and Hezbollah, a Lebanese Shia organisation.