Seven dead in strong Philippine quake

Manila, Feb 6 (AFP): A 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck off  the coast of the central Philippines today, killing at least seven people and causing widespread panic in cities where buildings shook violently.

The powerful quake hit in a narrow strait between the heavily populated island provinces of Negros and Cebu, leaving fissures on roads, damaging bridges, and shutting down the power supply, officials said.

In Cebu city, a popular tourist destination, hotel guests scrambled to higher floors as unfounded rumours of a huge tsunami heading to the metropolis of 2.3 million spread on mobile phone text messages.

Among the casualties were two elementary school children who were crushed to death by collapsed walls.

"They are all victims of collapsed walls and fences," Civil Defence Chief Benito Ramos said of the seven killed.

A three-storey building in Negros also collapsed, while huge cracks appeared on highways and at least seven bridges, rendering them impassable, local authorities said.

Ramos said the violent shaking of buildings in Cebu city  -- 50 kilometres from the epicentre -- led to broken windows and cracks on some walls, but no high rises were believed to have sustained major damage.

Local residents said there was panic in the country's second-biggest city, but there were no immediate reports of casualties or major damage there.

"There is news going around of tsunami waves, so we are doing our best to keep everybody calm," Barbi Patino, a spokesman for the 17-story Parklane International Hotel in Cebu told AFP.

"We are completely safe inside the hotel, but we could see people on the streets now rushing away from the area."

Gilani wants Pakistan to emulate Indian democracy

Islamabad, Feb 6 (PTI): Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani  cited India's flourishing democracy and its "stark difference" from Pakistan as he lamented that no elected government had been allowed to complete its term in his country.

Highlighting the importance of maintaining democracy in Pakistan, Gilani said the completion of parliament's term is in the interest of the country but conspiracies were being hatched against his government to prevent the holding of elections to the Senate next month.

Pakistan and India were created on the same date but there was a "stark difference in how they have continued" with their democratic systems, Gilani told reporters on the sidelines of an official function in the federal capital.

For a long time, not a single government in Pakistan was allowed to complete its term, he remarked.

This had led to a spate of problems for Pakistan and the completion of parliament's term is in the interest of the country, he said.

Gilani said "lots of conspiracies" were being hatched to disrupt the polls to the Senate or upper house of parliament and the government had faced lots of difficulties.

"Even now, one party has gone to court to stop the Senate polls," he said, in an apparent reference to Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf, which has approached the Supreme Court to stay the elections.

Gilani's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) is widely expected to win a majority of the 54 Senate seats for which polls will be held next month.

The premier has repeatedly alleged that elements opposed to his government have been hatching conspiracies to disrupt the elections.

The premier said his government is holding talks with its allies and opposition parties for the unanimous passage of a constitutional amendment to legitimise recent by-polls.

All previous amendments in the recent past had been passed with consensus in parliament and the government wants the 20th amendment to be cleared in the same manner, he said.        Democracy has never been able to institutionalise in Pakistan as the country witnessed a series of military coups starting from 1958, the last one being Pervez Musharraf's  overthrow of Nawaz Sharif's elected government in 1999.

The country has spent several decades under military rule.

'Human safaris': UK MPs call for road closure

London, Feb 6 (PTI): Concerned over reports of 'human  safaris' in the Andaman Islands, British lawmakers have tabled a motion in the parliament calling upon the Indian government to close the Andaman Trunk Road that cuts through the Jarawa tribe's reserve.

The 'early day motion' (EDM) on the controversial subject has been tabled by MPs Andrew George and Dan Rogerson in the House of Commons.

Expressing concern over reports that tourists were treating the recently contacted Jarawa tribe like attractions in a 'human safari park'; the motion "notes that the abuse was carried out on the Andaman Trunk Road which was ordered to be closed by the Supreme Court of India in 2002".

The motion expresses concern that the Indian government was allegedly yet to act on the Supreme Court's ruling despite the current storm of protest, and urged the government to provide an alternative route, "and to take immediate action to close the Andaman Trunk Road in compliance with the law".

EDMs are used for reasons such as publicising the views of individual MPs, drawing attention to specific events or campaigns, and demonstrating the extent of parliamentary support for a particular cause or point of view.

Although there is very little prospect of EDMs being debated in the House, many attract much public interest.

On Sunday, The Observer published details of two new videos allegedly showing police and military men being involved in 'human safaris'.

Sir Graham Watson, Member of the European Parliament and Chair of the Parliament's Delegation to India, has described the Jarawa's exploitation as a 'disgrace', adding he would take up the issue with Indian officials.

Survival International, the London-based charity organisation that has campaigned on the issue of 'human safaris', today called on people to write emails through its website, urging the Indian government to take immediate action.

No plans to review India aid, says UK

London, Feb 6 (PTI): Britain today defended its multi- million pound aid to India, amid demands by ruling Conservative party MPs and others to end it, saying "now is not the time to quit".

International aid is among few areas that have not been subjected to deep funding cuts by the economically-strapped David Cameron government, which has faced much ridicule and more for continuing to send aid to an increasingly prosperous India.

The passionate debate was reignited on Sunday with the re-publication of remarks by Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, who said in 2010 that in the overall context of funds that India spends on development, British aid was "peanuts", and one that India could do without.

A spokesperson of the Department for International Development (DFID) told PTI today that there were no plans to reconsider the aid programme to India.

He said: "We reviewed the India programme last year. There are no plans to review again".

Conservative MPs Philip Davies, Douglas Carswell and Peter Bone joined a critical chorus, urging Prime Minister Cameron to immediately end aid to India in view of Mukherjee's re-published remarks, but International Development secretary Andrew Mitchell defended the aid.

Mitchell said: "We will not be in India for ever but now is not the time to quit. Our completely revamped programme is in Indian's and Britain's national interest and is a small part of a much wider relationship between our two countries".

He added: "We are changing our approach to India.

We will target aid at three of India's poorest states, rather than central Government. We will invest more in the private sector, with our aid programme having some of the characteristics of a sovereign wealth fund."

25 killed in Syria as regime presses crackdown

Beirut, Feb 6 (AFP): At least 25 people were killed in Syria today as regime troops rained down explosives on the central protest city of Homs and opened fire in Damascus, Aleppo and Zabadani, activists said.

Upwards of 17 civilians were killed and dozens wounded as security forces renewed their bombardment of Homs, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The Britain-based group said the death toll was likely to rise because many of the wounded had suffered critical injuries.

The shelling, which began at dawn, was mainly targeting the neighbourhoods of Khaldiyeh, Baba Amro, Inshaat and Bab Sbaa, the Observatory said.

Syrian state television said "an explosion killed several terrorists who were preparing bombs in a building in Khaldiyeh."

Opposition groups and activists had reported a "massacre" overnight Friday in Homs, saying that more than 200 civilians were killed during a heavy tank and mortar bombardment by regime forces.

"Nail bombs" were also reported to have been used against civilians.

Yesterday, activists reported more shelling in the city, with at least 23 civilians killed.

Elsewhere, two civilians were killed today when their car came under fire from security forces at Sarghaya, near Damascus, the Observatory said. One was reportedly a child.

It added that in the country's second city of Aleppo in the north, a 45-year-old male passenger aboard a bus was shot dead.

The army also launched an attack on the town of Zabadani, northwest of the capital and near the border with Lebanon, the rights watchdog said, adding that one civilian was killed in the neighbouring town of Madaya.

2 killed, nearly 60 feared trapped in Pak building collapse

Lahore, Feb 6 (PTI): Two persons were killed and 50 to 60 thers feared trapped in rubble after a factory in a  residential area of this eastern Pakistani city collapsed following a boiler explosion today, officials said.

Two deaths were confirmed by Fahim Jahanzeb, the spokesman for the state-run Rescue 1122 service.

He told PTI that another 50 to 60 people were believed to be trapped in the debris of the factory at Multan Road.

Witnesses said the bodies of a man and a woman had been found in the rubble.

Police officials said 10 people, including four women and two children, had been pulled out by rescue workers. Women and children were among those trapped in the debris, they said.

Officials said the three-storey factory building collapsed after a boiler exploded. Three houses next to the factory also collapsed, they said.

Rescue workers and local residents initially dug through the rubble with their hands as heavy machinery took some time to reach the site due to the narrow streets in the area.

One police official said 50 people had reported for the morning shift at the factory though local residents claimed up to 100 people were in the building at the time of the blast.

Local residents said the factory, which made pharmaceutical products, had been sealed in the past. They said they had complained to authorities for over a decade for the factory to be shifted out of the residential area.

Lahore police chief Malik Ahmad Raza Tahir confirmed to reporters that the factory had been sealed twice in the past.

"Such factories should not be run in residential areas," he said.

Footage on television showed the building had been reduced to a huge pile of bricks and twisted metal.

Witnesses said the roofs of two storeys had collapsed following the blast that went off at 8.15 am.

Mathai arrives in Washington; likely to meet Clinton

Washington, Feb 6 (PTI): Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai,  who is here to discuss a host of bilateral and regional issues including Iranian sanctions and Af-Pak situation, with top US officials, is also expected to meet Secretary of State Hillary Clinton this week.

A meeting with Clinton, which was not initially on the cards, has been added at the last minute, and signifies the importance being attached to India-US relationship by the Obama Administration, top Indian diplomatic sources told PTI.

During his three-day stay here, Mathai is scheduled to hold a series of meetings with top officials of the Obama Administration including in particular those at the State Department and the White House.

Mathai, who arrived here yesterday on his first bilateral visit to the US as Foreign Secretary, will meet Clinton at the Foggy Bottom headquarters, officials said.

According to the official, there is also a possibility of a meeting with National Security Advisor Tom Donilon when Mathai drives down to the White House this week for his scheduled meeting with Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economic Affairs Michael Froman.

Mathai is scheduled to meet Burns; Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman, and Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Robert Blake.

Last week, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the US officials would be discussing with Mathai all of the issues that fall under their strong bilateral relationship, as well as many global issues.

Among the issues top on the list, officials said are the Iranian sanctions, Af-Pak situation, implementation of the civilian nuclear deal and the upcoming India-US Strategic Dialogue in Washington later this year.

India voted on Syria resolution after getting draft amended

Washington, Feb 6 (PTI): India and other like-minded countries in the UN Security Council decided to support a Western-backed draft resolution on Syria only after it was agreed to explicitly remove provisions of regime change, threat of sanctions and military intervention.

The draft resolution on Syria, introduced by Morocco and supported by the Arab League, failed to be adopted by the UN Security Council as two of its permanent members, Russia and China, vetoed it.

Indian diplomats, who negotiated with their counterparts from other nations in the UNSC, explained that it was only after Indian conditions and those of the other like-minded countries were met by the promoters of the draft resolution that New Delhi decided to vote in its favour.

The other like-minded countries were South Africa, Azerbaijan and Pakistan.

Officials said after the final round of negotiations it was clear that Russia and China would support it.

The Russian decision to oppose the resolution came only at the last minute after the Munich meeting between US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

It is believed that the last minute Russian suggestions or conditions were neither shared during the negotiations or with any other members of the Security Council but were discussed bilaterally only with the United States.

The developments surprised many diplomats.

"Explicit provision for handing over of power by (Syrian) President Bashar Al-Assad to his Vice President had to be removed before India and likeminded countries decided to support the resolution," a senior Indian diplomat told PTI.