18 dead as fresh storms hit India
Asif OK’d to ‘contest’
NEW DELHI, June 2, (Agencies): Fresh wind storms swept across northern India killing at least 18 people and leaving a trail of damage, officials said Saturday.
The latest in a series of freak storms that have left hundreds dead battered Uttar Pradesh state late Friday with winds of 100 kms (60 miles) an hour toppling walls, power pylons and thousands of trees.
Sixteen people died in the state, according to T.P. Gupta, a spokesman for the Uttar Pradesh disaster management department. He said most of the deaths were caused by falling trees and walls.
There was one more death blamed on the storm in New Delhi and another in the northern city of Chandigarh.
India’s most populous state has been battered by storms since April that have killed more than 200 people. More than 100 have died elsewhere in the country from the dust and wind storms.
Storms are customary during the summer months but the intensity and death toll has been higher than normal this year.
The Indian Meteorological Department under its Director General Dr K.J. Ramesh has warned that more storms could hit in coming days as temperatures soar across the country ahead of the annual monsoon season.
The temperature in Rajasthan’s Churu district hit 49.7 Celsius (121 Fahrenheit) on Friday, according to private weather forecaster Skymet.
The monsoon arrived in the southern state of Kerala on Tuesday and should bring cooler weather as it moves north, weather experts said.
Ramesh
Police fire at mourners:
Government forces in Indian-controlled Kashmir fired shotgun pellets and tear gas at hundreds of mourners Saturday during a funeral march for a man killed when he was run over by a paramilitary vehicle during a protest.
The angry mourners were marching with the man’s body to a graveyard in Srinagar on Saturday when police and soldiers used force to stop them. Police said the marchers were defying a government order that bans assembly of more than four people in the city.
Residents said youths from the funeral regrouped in the winding streets of the city’s downtown and threw stones at troops while chanting slogans in favor of rebels and demanding an end to Indian rule over disputed region. Fierce clashes broke out in several places in the city.
Forest fires rage:
Helicopters doused forest fires raging near the drought-stricken Indian resort of Shimla on Friday as more police were deployed to guard water tankers in the historic Himalayan town.
Shimla’s water shortage has been worsening for years but reached crisis point when supplies ran out last month, just as the population of 175,000 started growing by up to 100,000 for the summer season. The former British colonial summer capital is normally packed with visitors as temperatures in the rest of India rise to 45 degrees Celsius (113 Fahrenheit) and above, and it is also an escape for many Indian tycoons and celebrities.
Foreign tourists have started cancelling reservations, officials said, while a court has ordered authorities to stop supplying water to hotels that have not paid their bills.
Asif allowed to contest:
Former Pakistani foreign minister Khawaja Asif will be allowed to contest a July 25 general election after the Supreme Court on Friday overturned his disqualification from politics, in a boost to the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party.
Asif, a staunch ally of ousted prime minister and PML-N founder Nawaz Sharif, was disqualified from parliament by a lower court in April as he was deemed not “honest” under a constitutional provision also used to oust Sharif.
Asif was removed for not declaring his employment and a source income from a United Arab Emirates (UAE) company, but the top court overturned the earlier ruling, which carried a lifetime ban from politics.
Gunmen kill official, wound 3:
A Pakistani official says gunmen have shot and killed one of his staff and wounded three security guards in the restive tribal region along the Afghan border.
Mohammad Ayaz Khan, the top administrator in North Waziristan, says Hamidullah Khan’s vehicle was ambushed in a mountainous area late Friday night, and that a fourth guard is missing. The two are not related.
Hizbul Ahrar, an offshoot of the Pakistani Taleban, claimed responsibility for the attack.
A number of tribal officials have been assassinated in recent months as residents return to the area following a yearslong military offensive aimed at rooting out extremist groups.
Maldives urged to hold poll:
The European Union and some Western nations on Friday urged the Maldives to hold a credible and transparent presidential poll, after police executing a court order disrupted an opposition effort to pick a candidate for the September election.
The Maldives foreign ministry, however, said in a statement that actions taken by the government to stop illegal activities and to maintain law and order should not be seen as aimed at curtailing fundamental freedoms.
The Maldives, home to 400,000 people and best known as a tropical paradise for tourists, has experienced political unrest since Mohamed Nasheed, its first democratically-elected leader, was forced to quit amid a mutiny by police in 2012.
Nasheed, the sole candidate in this week’s primary election held by his Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), was convicted of terrorism charges in 2015 and sentenced to 13 years in prison after a controversial and widely criticised trial.