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ARY NEWS

AFP

  • Huge explosion leaves at least 50 wounded in China’s Tianjin: state media

    The official Xinhua news agency said the blast happened at around 11:30 pm (1630 GMT), when a deafening bang was heard and plumes of flame lit up the night sky, scattering dust dozens of metres into the air.

    “An explosion ripped through a warehouse storing ‘dangerous goods’ in north China’s Tianjin City late Wednesday night, injuring at least 50 people,” Xinhua said.

    Videos posted on Weibo, a Chinese social network, showed a fireball shooting into the air and at least two separate explosions. Xinhua said shockwaves from the blast could be felt several kilometres (miles) away.

    Photos posted on Weibo showed people in the street apparently covered in blood, but the veracity of the pictures could not immediately be confirmed.

  • McDonald’s France apologises for ‘don’t feed the homeless’ note

    The note was revealed on Twitter by consumer group “60 Million Consumers”.

    “Following an incident on July 25, it is formally forbidden to give food to tramps,” says the note, which is signed by “the management”.

    “As a reminder, staff meals must be eaten on the premises. Staff meals are a personal benefit and should only benefit the staff member in question,” the note continued.

    “McDonald’s is not here to feed all the hungry people in the country!” concluded the note.

    The association cited on its website a McDonald’s employee who said he had given some of his food to homeless people outside the restaurant last month.

    “The smile of the people to whom I gave my meal was priceless,” the consumer group quoted the staff member as saying.

    The fast-food chain responded in a statement: “After a serious incident with homeless people on the evening of July 25 in front of the McDonald’s in Hyeres, the restaurant sent out a note to prevent these incidents and to ensure its clients’ safety.”

    “The procedure and the wording was clumsy and the management swiftly withdrew the note. McDonald’s contacted the restaurant to apologize to anyone who might have been shocked by this note and to recall that the chain is there to serve any client, without distinction,” the firm added.

  • India seeks $100m in damages from Nestle

    The government said Wednesday it has filed a suit with the country’s top consumer court for 6,400 million rupees ($98.6 million) in damages from the Indian arm of the Swiss food giant.

    India’s food safety watchdog in June banned Nestle from making or selling noodles in the country after tests by some states found lead levels exceeded statutory limits.

    Nestle has withdrawn the product in India but continues to sell it elsewhere, and has always denied the charge.

    “We filed the complaint with the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) yesterday and have sought around 6,400 million rupees in damages,” G, Gurcharan, Additional Secretary at the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, told AFP.

    “Our complaint is over their unfair trade practices and the court will now issue them notices to hear their response,” Gurcharan added.

    A Nestle India spokesman said the company had not yet received official notice about the complaint with the NCDRC, a semi-judicial body that has the power to fine companies.

    “We shall be able to provide substantive response after we receive the official papers,” said Himanshu Manglik.

    Nestle India is challenging the ban on Maggi noodles in the Mumbai high court.

    It had been selling the brand for over three decades in India, and had 80 percent of the country’s instant noodle market before the ban.

    Several celebrities have endorsed Maggi over the years, including Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan.

  • Danish nurse charged with fourth patient murder

    The woman has been in custody for almost six months, and the Nykobing Falster district court in southern Denmark extended her detention for four weeks as police continue to investigate the case.

    The woman was detained on March 1 following three deaths during her night shift on February 28 at the Nykobing Falster provincial hospital.

    Prosecutors on Tuesday charged her with a fourth murder that allegedly took place in 2012.

    The woman, whose name has not been disclosed, has denied all charges and immediately appealed her continued detention.

    According to media reports, unusually large amounts of stesolid and morphine were alleged to have been found in the bodies of some of the deceased.

    The Danish Broadcasting Corporation quoted defence attorney Jorgen Lange as telling the court that there had not been an unusually high level of use of the two drugs on the ward in question.

    “Being accused of something you haven’t done is horrible. There are a lot of rumours about all sorts of things and my life has been destroyed. My family  is suffering a lot, not least my 7-year-old daughter,” the accused woman told the court, tabloid B.T. reported.

    According to other media reports, police are investigating a further 10 deaths and want the nurse held in custody to prevent her from contacting witnesses.

    Prosecutor Jeanette Andersen meanwhile argued to the court that “an unusual number of deaths happened during the accused’s duty,” the Danish Broadcasting Corporation reported.

    She said the nurse was employed at the hospital in 2009 when there were 87 deaths at the ward.

    In 2011 there were 95 deaths and in 2012, when the nurse stopped working in October of that year, there were 75 deaths.

    In the following two years when the nurse was not at the ward, 51 people died.

  • Woman drowns in Dubai after father blocks rescue to save ‘honour’

    Emirates 24/7 reported that Dubai police arrested the unnamed man.

    When two lifeguards tried to help the drowning 20-year-old, her father “started pulling and preventing the rescue men and got violent with them”, it reported.

    “He told them that he prefers his daughter being dead than being touched by a strange man,” said Lieutenant Colonel Ahmed Burqibah, deputy director of Dubai police’s search and rescue department.

    The Asian man “considered that if these men touched his daughter, then this would dishonour her. It cost him the life of his daughter,” Burqibah said, quoted by the website.

    Dubai police later arrested the father for having blocked rescue teams from doing their job and saving his daughter’s life.

  • Italian mother reunited with World War 2 baby after 71 years

    The elderly woman, originally from Novellara, a small village in northern Italy, was working in Germany during World War II, when she became pregnant by a married German soldier.

    After she gave birth, the father’s family took the baby — named as Margot Bachmann in the media reports — and raised it in Germany.

    The girl had been told her birth mother was Italian, but that she had died during the war.

    But when her father died last year, Bachmann, now 71, decided to look for her mother through the International Tracing Service (ITS), a German centre for WWII documentation.

    With the help of the Italian Red Cross, the ITS discovered that Bachmann’s mother was still alive and the two were reunited at the weekend.

    “When I began to look into the whereabouts of my mother to find out a little more, I never imagined that I would one day be able to hug her,” Bachmann told Il Quotidiano newspaper.

    “My father had forbidden me from looking for her, but after his death and thanks to the wonderful help of my own daughter, I have found her.”

    Italian Red Cross spokeswoman Laura Bastianetto, who has present at the reunion, described it as “a small miracle”.

    “It is rare for a mother and daughter to find each other after 71 years, it’s far more common for brothers and sisters to be reunited as there are so few World War II survivors,” she said.

  • Afghan president slams Pakistan over recent Kabul attacks

    “The last few days have shown that suicide bomber training camps and bomb-producing factories which are killing our people are as active as before in Pakistan,” Ghani told a news conference.

    “We hoped for peace but we are receiving messages of war from Pakistan.”

    Pakistan has historically supported the Taliban insurgents and many Afghans accuse it of nurturing militant sanctuaries on its soil in the hope of maintaining influence in Afghanistan.

    Since coming to power last year Ghani has courted the Pakistanis, expending substantial domestic political capital in the process, in hopes Islamabad will persuade the Taliban to come to the negotiating table.

    But his comments on Monday are the strongest yet against the neighbouring country.

    “In my telephone call with Pakistan prime minister (on Sunday), I told Pakistan to see terrorism in Afghanistan the same way it sees terrorism in Pakistan,” he said, referring to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

    “I ask the Pakistani government if the mass killings of Shah Shaheed had happened in Islamabad and the perpetrators were in Afghanistan, what would you do?” he said, referring to a Kabul neighbourhood that suffered a fatal truck bombing on Friday.

    At least five people were killed Monday when a Taliban suicide car bomber struck near the entrance of Kabul’s international airport.

    The attack follows a barrage of deadly bombings in the Afghan capital on Friday, which struck close to an army complex, a police academy and a US special forces base and killed at least 51 people.

  • Man gored to death filming Spanish bull run on his mobile

    “The young man was on the path of a bull run which he was filming with his mobile phone,” said Jesus Hijosa, mayor of Villaseca de la Sagra, where the accident occurred.

    “A bull surprised him from behind and gored him in the neck,” he told AFP.

    Villaseca de la Sagra is one of many towns across Spain that host annual festivals where crowds of people run ahead of a herd of bulls.

    Another young man was killed during a 2010 bull run in the town.

    One of the most famous bull runs is in Pamplona, which was immortalised by US author Ernest Hemingway in his 1926 novel “The Sun Also Rises”.

    The 32-year-old man who died Sunday was from a neighbouring village and had come with friends to Villaseca de la Sagra on Saturday for the run, the mayor said.

    “This sends shivers down our spine… we organise these events as a tradition, so that people can enjoy them, but these things happen,” Hijosa said.

    “Bulls are dangerous animals and when there are a lot of people some don’t pay attention… you have to have your wits about you.”

    Fifteen people have been killed in bull runs in Pamplona since 1911, where many foreign tourists join in the tradition.

  • Cech fluffs lines on Arsenal bow, Liverpool win

    Cech’s arrival from Chelsea has been acclaimed as a signing that could turn Arsenal into title contenders, but he was found wanting as Arsene Wenger’s side opened their Premier League campaign with a home defeat for the second time in three years.

    Cech’s rash charge allowed Cheikhou Kouyate to head West Ham in front from debutant Dimitri Payet’s 43rd-minute free-kick and the Czech international’s slowness to get down saw him beaten at his near post from 25 yards by Mauro Zarate shortly before the hour.

    “We were not convincing offensively or defensively,” said Wenger, whose side beat champions Chelsea 1-0 in the Community Shield last weekend.

    “The players were maybe too nervous and put too much pressure on themselves. Today we have been hurt mentally and it is a good opportunity to respond.”

    West Ham’s win echoed Aston Villa’s 3-1 success at the Emirates on the first day of the 2013-14 campaign and enabled Slaven Bilic to crown his first league game as manager with a famous victory.

    “We are all very pleased and it is a great start for us — not only for the three points, but points against a team that are title contenders,” said the Croatian, who is a former West Ham defender.

    “If you add to that a London derby, it makes it an even bigger win. This is very special. I am very proud of the second-half performance.”

    Bilic named 16-year-old Reece Oxford in midfield and saw the teenager turn in a commanding display as West Ham bounced back from their Europa League elimination at the hands of Romanians Astra Giurgiu last Thursday.

    Wenger sent on Theo Walcott and Alexis Sanchez as Arsenal sought to claw back their two-goal deficit, but the closest they came to scoring was a deflected first-half shot by Aaron Ramsey that hit the bar.

    Coutinho stunner

    Philippe Coutinho scored a stunning 30-yard winner in the 86th minute as Liverpool partially atoned for their 6-1 drubbing at Stoke City on the final day of last season with a 1-0 win at the Britannia Stadium.

    Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers gave starts to new signings Nathaniel Clyne, Joe Gomez, James Milner and £32.5 million ($50.4 million, 45.9 million euros) striker Christian Benteke, while Roberto Firmino came off the bench in the second half.

    But the game was drifting to a goalless draw until Brazilian playmaker Coutinho picked the ball up in the inside-left channel, turned, and arrowed a glorious, bending strike into the top-right corner.

    Rodgers admitted afterwards that he had been contemplating taking Coutinho off before the Brazil international struck.

    “He did a wonderful spin to get away from Steve Sidwell and then got the shot off to beat Jack Butland, who is an excellent ‘keeper,” Rodgers told Sky Sports.

    “It was a wonderful goal to cap a really good performance.”

    Meanwhile, Dutch midfielder Giorginio Wijnaldum scored on his competitive Newcastle United debut as former England head coach Steve McClaren began his St James’ Park tenure with a 2-2 draw at home to Southampton.

    After Graziano Pelle had given the visitors the lead, goals from Papiss Cisse and £14.5 million new recruit Wijnaldum put Newcastle in front, but Southampton substitute Shane Long headed in a 79th-minute equaliser.

    Chelsea opened their title defence with a 2-2 draw at home to Swansea City on Saturday, with Manchester United edging Tottenham Hotspur 1-0.

    Manchester City, runners-up last season, travel to West Bromwich Albion on Monday.

  • Australians rally in support of same-sex marriage

    More than 4,000 gathered in central Sydney Sydney in a colourful march, chanting “Put the bill, pass the bill, marriage rights now!” and carrying banners reading “Love is love”.

    “We’re going to come back to the streets again and again until we win,” march organiser Rachel Evans from activist group Community Action Against Homophobia told the cheering crowd.

    Similar rallies were held in Perth on Sunday and in Brisbane and Hobart on Saturday. Supporters of marriage equality will hold rallies in Melbourne and Adelaide next weekend.

    “This is the height of the campaign,” Evans told AFP in Sydney. “It’s one of the largest rallies.”

    One of those taking part, Matthew Higgs, said he was raised by his mother and her partner and wanted equal rights for them.

    “She’s been with her partner for a long time,” he told AFP.

    Sally Rugg, with activist group GetUp, told the crowd that support for the issue went beyond marriage rights and sent a message to the community that gay people were accepted.

    A backbencher from the ruling Liberal Party — seconded by an opposition Labor representative and with co-sponsors from other parties — was set to introduce a marriage equality bill as parliament resumes this week.

    Prime Minister Tony Abbott, a staunch Catholic who opposes changes to the Marriage Act, last month played down prospects of the private member’s bill being debated and voted on in parliament.

    His conservative government is opposed to gay marriage and the party has previously refused to allow a conscience vote among its members, in contrast to the Labor opposition.

    A vote on the issue in 2012 was defeated 98-42 after Abbott — whose sister Christine is gay — did not allow his MPs, then in opposition, to break party lines.

    But there has been increasing support for same-sex marriage, with a poll last year finding those in favour of equal rights had reached a record high of 72 percent.

    There has also been growing pressure on the issue following the US Supreme Court’s recent ruling legalising same-sex marriage nationwide, and Ireland’s referendum in favour of gay marriage.

    Local celebrities including Hollywood actor Hugo Weaving are set to star in a series of “We Can Do This” television advertisements airing from Sunday and supported by gay rights group Australian Marriage Equality. – AFP