Peru trapped miners: rescue operation 'could take days'
The operation to free nine Peruvian miners trapped underground by a rockfall at a depth of more than 200m (650ft) could take up to three more days, the government has said.
Fresh collapses at the Cabeza de Negro mine are responsible for the delay, said cabinet chief Oscar Valdes.
The miners, who have been trapped since Thursday, are not injured and are being given oxygen and drinks through a tube.
The mine is located in Ica, some 300km (185 miles) south of the capital, Lima.
Rescuers, including police officers and firefighters, have communicated with the miners, who are aged between 22 and 59, through the tube and although none of them is hurt, some are feeling anxious or desperate.
Heavy machinery
An improvised camp, comprised of the miners' family members and the emergency services, has sprung up near the mine as the rescue operation has unfolded.
However, as of yet, rescuers have been unable to get heavy machinery to the mine.
Rescue worker Erin Gomez told the AFP news agency: "They're alive, but we can't use diggers because of the difficulty of getting them up the steep hill.
"Due to the cave-ins late Saturday we don't know exactly the distance between rescuers and the miners but communication has been maintained constantly."
Besides Mr Valdes, the government has also sent Peru's Mining and Energy Minister Jorge Merino to the scene.
Cabeza de Negro is one of Peru's many wildcat mines, where miners take high risks to extract copper and other metals.
Last year, more than 50 people died in accidents in Peru's silver, gold and copper mines.
Iran 'blocks' official London 2012 Olympics website
Iran appears to have blocked the official website for the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Users in Iran have tweeted that they are unable to connect to london2012.com and are instead redirected to peyvandha.ir - a site offering stories from Iran's official news agencies.
The blockediniran.com website confirms that most users in Iran are unlikely to be able to see the Olympics web pages.
Iran's ministry of foreign affairs did not reply to a request for comment.
Nima Akbarpour, the presenter of the BBC's Click Farsi programme, said such website bans are not uncommon, but it is hard to know exactly who is responsible.
"The blocking process in Iran is not related to a single specific organisation," he said.
"It happens every day - even affecting pro-government sites and blogs. The Iranian government's Internet Filtering Committee is in charge of the process, but individual judges can also order a web filter to be imposed."
Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, recently ordered officials to set up a new body to co-ordinate decisions regarding the net.
Citizens have also been told they would need to show IDs and give their full name when visiting an internet cafe.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has also discussed plans to create a "clean web" within Iran with its own search engine and messaging service.
Logo row
Iran had previously signalled it might boycott the Olympics over claims that the official logo says the word "Zion" - a Hebrew word used to refer to Israel or Jerusalem.
In February 2011 the Iranian authorities called for the logo to be withdrawn and the designers "confronted".
However, a follow-up letter later made clear its athletes would still "participate and play gloriously".
The Iranian weightlifting superheavyweight, Behdad Salimikordasiab, is expected to be among those taking part.
He previously won gold in the Asian Games in 2010 despite being affected by swine flu.
--BBC
Body of Late Malawi President to Return Thursday
Malawi says the body of late president Bingu wa Mutharika will arrive back in the country Thursday.
The Office of President and Cabinet said Mr. Mutharika's body will return from South Africa, where he was taken after suffering a heart attack last week.
Meanwhile, the late president's party has named his brother, Peter Mutharika, as its leader. The move comes amid several high-profile defections from the former ruling Democratic Progressive Party.
As of Sunday, 24 members of parliament had switched to the People's Party of President Joyce Banda, who was sworn into office on Saturday. The defections include the deputy speaker of parliament and the country's labor minister.
Also Sunday, President Banda replaced Malawi's national police chief, but did not give a reason for the move.
Ms. Banda is Malawi's first female president and served as vice president under Mr. Mutharika.
Shooting, Bombing Kill Dozens in Northern Nigeria
Police in northeastern Nigeria say suspected members of the radical Islamist group Boko Haram shot dead a 6-year-old girl and wounded two infants Sunday, after a suicide car bombing earlier in the day killed at least 36 people.
A Yobe state police spokesman told VOA the gunmen stormed the house of a police corporal in the town of Potiskum and shot three of his children. The spokesman said the officer narrowly escaped the attack.
The bombing happened earlier Easter Sunday in the city of Kaduna, where witnesses said security personnel prevented the attacker from reaching a group of several churches.
Saidu Adamu, Kaduna state's information commissioner, told VOA the explosion damaged several buildings on the city's main road and struck an area where motorcycle taxis do business. He said it appeared the bomb had detonated prematurely, and that despite the casualties, the attack could have been much worse.
“I want to believe that we are so lucky that possibly the person who was carrying the bomb could not reach his target, and the bomb's timer was against him.”
He noted that the city's streets are mostly empty on Sundays and said it was “lucky” the attack did not come on a work day.
A second blast hit later Sunday in the central city of Jos, wounding several people. The explosions came after foreign diplomats warned of possible attacks on one of the holiest days on the Christian calendar.
Four bombs killed 44 people in Nigeria on Christmas Day last year, including more than 30 at a Catholic church near the capital, Abuja.
Adamu said authorities stationed 30 to 50 security personnel at Kaduna churches Sunday, and that the measures were “highly effective.” He also said citizens play an important role in maintaining security.
“Without peace we can never have any municipal government, so I want to assure that Kaduna state government will continue to do its best, but I also want to call on people to understand that security is a business of all.”
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Sunday's attacks.
The radical Islamic group Boko Haram has killed hundreds of people this year in Nigeria and claimed responsibility for the Christmas Day bombings.
Boko Haram, which means “Western education is a sin” in the Hausa language, is fighting to turn northern Nigeria into a strict Islamic state.
--VOA
Turkey: Gunfire From Syria Wounds Three
Turkish officials say Syrian forces fired across the border at a refugee camp, wounding a Turkish translator and at least two Syrian refugees, in the first such incident since Turkey began sheltering thousands of refugees last year.
Monday's attack occurred near the southeastern town of Kilis where Turkey has set up a camp for Syrians fleeing a bloody crackdown on a 13-month anti-government uprising. About 25,000 refugees are currently housed in camps in Turkey's three provinces bordering Syria.
International envoy Kofi Annan will visit a camp for Syrian refugees in Turkey on Tuesday, in a previously scheduled trip.
Meanwhile, activists said Syrian rebel fighters killed at least six members of President Bashar al-Assad's security forces in fierce clashes close to the Turkish border. Syrian forces are escalating attacks across the country as they attempt to crush the revolt against Mr. Assad.
In Beijing, China's Foreign Ministry urged the Syrian government and opposition groups to abide by pledges for a cease-fire. The appeal was issued after Syria's demand for written guarantees from its opponents threw doubt on the prospects that a cease-fire brokered by Mr. Annan would take hold.
Separately, a leading international rights group said Syrian forces have summarily executed more than 100 people, most of them civilians. Monday's report by Human Rights Watch said this includes several mass executions in the restive provinces of Homs and Idlib. The New York-based group says it only included cases corroborated by witnesses, but has received more reports of similar incidents. The executions took place over the past four months, mostly in March.
On Sunday, Mr. Assad's government said it wants iron-clad “written guarantees” that insurgents would stop fighting before it withdraws troops from cities.
A Foreign Ministry spokesman said Syria would not allow a repeat of what happened during the Arab League's observer mission in January, when he said the government pulled its forces back only to see rebels re-arm and take control of entire neighborhoods.
But the commander for the rebel Free Syrian Army, Riad al-Asaad, said Sunday that while his group is ready to abide by the truce set for April 10, it will not give guarantees to the Syrian government.
An escalation of violence Sunday killed at least 45 people across Syria. The country's main opposition group said nearly 130 people – mostly civilians – were killed Saturday.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has sharply criticized the Assad government for its continued assault on civilians and said the cease-fire deadline “is not an excuse for continued killing.”
U.N. officials say more than 9,000 people have been killed in Syria since the uprising began 13 months ago.
Foreign Press Shown North Korean Rocket
North Korean space officials took the rare step Sunday of allowing foreign journalists to see a rocket, that, despite the objections of the United States and South Korea, is being prepared for launch this week.
The rocket viewing came as South Korean intelligence photos, obtained by VOA, showed what appear to be preparations for a third North Korean nuclear test.
Reporters said all three stages of the Unha-3 rocket were on the launch pad at the new Tongchang-ri space facility in North Phyongan province on the west coast. The reporters were also shown a command center where white-coated technicians labored over computer terminals.
Pyongyang maintains that the rocket, to be launched between April 12 and 16, will carry only a weather satellite, but the U.S. and South Korea say the event is a test of a ballistic missile.
Jang Myong Jin, general manager of the launch site, told reporters that under the Space Treaty, every country has the right to develop space technology for peaceful purposes.
“The United States-sponsored United Nations Security Council resolution did talk about the technology of ballistic missile launches. However, there is a more important treaty than this resolution and that is the Space Treaty. The Space Treaty clearly states that every country has the right to develop space technology and explore space for peaceful purposes.”
But South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said at a news conference in Seoul that his government sees the launch as a provocation.
“We want to clarify that it (the launch) is a provocation that threatens the peace and stability of the Korean peninsula and northeast Asia. We (the South Korean military) are fully prepared to protect the South Korean people and respond firmly against any acts of provocation (by North Korea) that threaten the peace and stability of the Korean peninsula.”
China's Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi acknowledged that Beijing — Pyongyang's most important ally — is troubled by the launch plan. At a press conference after talks Sunday with his Japanese and South Korean counterparts, he called for more diplomacy.
“We considered and exchanged views about the situation on the Korean peninsula, including the announcement by the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) that they plan to launch a satellite. The Chinese side once again pressed our point. The China side is troubled by the developments, and strongly encourages everyone involved on all sides, at high and low levels, to remain calm and reasonable. These issues need to be worked out in a diplomatic and peaceful manner.”
VOA meanwhile has obtained South Korean intelligence photos showing that North Korea appears to be preparing for a third nuclear weapons test.
An accompanying intelligence document, first disclosed Sunday by Yonhap news agency, says the images show workers digging a new tunnel at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site in the northeast. The North conducted two previous nuclear tests in tunnels at the site — first in October 2006 and again in May 2009.
The report says it appears the tunnel work is in its final stage.
North Korea agreed in February to stop nuclear tests, uranium enrichment and long-range missile launches. At the same time, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced U.S. plans to provide the impoverished North with more food aid. That aid was canceled following the announcement of this week's rocket launch.
The United States, China, Russia, South Korea and Japan have jointly negotiated with the North to end its nuclear program. But those talks broke down in late 2009, when Pyongyang expelled international inspectors and then conducted its second nuclear test.
CRIME REPORT FROM THE TCI
PROVO
Police are appealing for witnesses following a break in at a property in the New Subdivision, Five Cays.
A Blackberry Torch cell phone was taken during the incident which happened between 12:30am and 7:30am on Tuesday April 3.
Items valued at more than $2,000 were taken during a burglary at Palm Circle Drive, Leeward Palms, sometime between 8:45am and 1:30pm Tuesday April 3.
A Samsung Laptop Computer and a quantity of jewellery were taken after intruders broke into a property in Blue Hills, yesterday.
Police are appealing for information following a break-in at a house in Juba Sound.
Intruders ransacked a number of rooms after forcing their way into the property sometime between 8pm on Tuesday March 3 and 5:50am the following day.
A man was arrested on suspicion of wounding following an incident in Provo on Tuesday.
GRAND TURK
Grand Turk Police are questioning a man on suspicion of disorderly conduct on a liquor licence premises.
Dr. Ewing eyes PNP Leadership
Former Director for Health Services and Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Rufus Ewing appears to be eying the leadership of the Progressive National Party (PNP), but for right now would rather settle for securing the one of the five At-Large places on the party’s ticket in anticipating for the announcement of national elections that is expected later this year.
Dr. Ewing, who was a leading voice for civil servants especially during the twilight months as President of the Civil Service Association, promised The SUN that he would declare his hands during an address at the PNP Headquarters that was scheduled for this past Friday, March 30.
Ewing said that, while he was interested in the leadership of the party, he would not be challenging the current leader Clayton Greene, but would readily avail himself in the event that Greene decided to call it a day.
“I would not announce my candidacy for leadership; that is not up in the air as yet. There is a leader right now in that position, but if he steps aside, I would consider running, but my intention now is to run At Large,” Dr. Ewing pointed out. In the recent past, few voices have come forward urging Greene to demit office, as a result of him being charged with money laundering by the United Kingdom-commissioned Special Investigation and Prosecution Team (SIPT). Greene was charged earlier this year, and like most of the others who had been charged, made one court appearance.
When he was first notified by the SIPT of possible charge, the party leader said that in the event that he was charged, he would consider on whether or not to demit office. But since charges were formally brought against him, at least two prominent figures – talk show host Robert Hall and QC attorney Carlos Simons - had raised objections to Greene remaining as leader.
And while he did not respond to Hall, Greene and Simons veered off into a war of words that was played out through the internet. At that time Greene hinted that he would not be forced the party’s top job, but would rather make up his mind in the interest of the party on whether or not to toss in the towel.
But Dr. Ewing said while he was interested in the party leadership position, now was not the time for having a public jostling, but rather to focus on the future of the country, while endeavor to burnish the image of the PNP so that it would be attractive enough to form the next government.
“Basically, I am willing to speak to the PNP as an organization and the achievements over the years. We will speak to where we ought to be going and where we ought to go, and where we will go in the future. From my perspective, some of the major areas that we ought to be focusing on are education, jobs and employment opportunities and health care issues,” Ewing said.
The aspirant leader told The SUN that one of his main missions was to craft ideas on how to make a push towards independence, so that the Turks and Caicos Islands would be able to chart its own destiny not too long from now. “Another area that I will be focusing on is the push and drive towards independence for sometime in the near future. Right now we should be preparing ourselves for independence, and as time goes by, beginning with the meeting, I will be outlining my vision in that regard,” Ewing asserted.
In the meantime, Ewing pointed out that he was leaving the sector with his head held high, since he had worked tirelessly to make the lives of Turks and Caicos Islanders much better in terms of health care. “Some of them (health care plans that he put in place) people would understand; some of them my staff would understand more that the average man on the street, which include the plan to the strengthening the Ministry of Health to ensuring that there was adequate staff to carry out the Ministry of Health’s policies – that was under my direction and guidance.
The health care system, as it stands now, even though it was put in place by other persons such as Floyd Hall and the PNP, I would still take some responsibility for what is there, even though the policy direction to shape all of it was not my decision, but in terms of having to drive that process, I would take that as well as the health insurance plan.
“There are some challenges with them, and those challenges need to overcome. And those challenges are there partially because of the policies that were implemented, and some of them, because the British Administration just does not know how to manage it, and has not put the policies in place to support it to serve the best interest of the people,” Ewing noted.
He also hailed his passion for the civil service, which he revived and headed up until his last day as a civil servant, as another of his signature achievements. Ewing said he got the Interim Administration to realize how important the civil service was to the running of any country. He last day in office as Director for Health Services and Surgeon came to an end on Friday, March30.
The SUN
Kim Kardashian's Low-Key Dinner With Kanye West
Romance rumors refuse to leave Kim Kardashian and Kanye West alone. Just one day after the alleged couple went to see "The Hunger Games" together, they were seen going out again for a low-key dinner. Both PEOPLE and Hollywood Life have details of what's going on during the particular outing.
On Thursday, April 5 night, 31-year-old Kardashian and 34-year-old West spent an evening at Cafeteria, a swanky Chelsea restaurant in New York City. Per PEOPLE, they were joined by three friends, including makeup artist Joyce Bonelli, and shared a plate of fried chicken, waffles and macaroni and cheese.
"They entered through a secret door and dined in Cafeteria's brand new [private dining room] to have some privacy," one source informed the magazine. Offering more details, the source dished on, "Kim and Kanye sat together, and she kept taking pictures of him on her cell phone. It was cute. They had fun, but were very low-key."
Another eyewitness spilled to Hollywood Life that Kardashian and West "requested to sit in the private dining area in the back of the restaurant." The observer added, "They made the staff block it off so no other diners could see them. We get a lot of celebs in here, but they were pretty demanding about maintaining their privacy. It was pretty weird since they've been spotted all over NYC together."
While Kardashian came wearing a creme-colored blouse and sky-high black heels, Hollywood Life's source said the reality star "looked pretty plain" for the dinner, noting that "she wasn't all glammed up like she usually is." The source went on to say, "She seemed really comfortable with him. I saw Kim grab his hand when she was leading him to the back area."
Earlier the same day, Kardashian and West were seen smiling at each other the whole time they were together at FAO Schwartz. According to Life & Style, they played a duet of "Heart and Soul" on the toy store's giant piano, browsed children's books and watched the demonstration of a magic trick.
The next day, on Friday, Kardashian stopped by the "Today" show. When asked about the dating rumors, she told host Ann Curry, "I completely respect and understand that you have to ask these questions, but as I've said before, Kanye and I have been friends for years," before adding, "You never know what the future holds or where my life will take me."
AceShowbiz
Keri Hilson Accidentally Exposes Nipples in See-Through Top
Another celebrity has fallen victim to wardrobe malfunction while hitting the red carpet. A little over a month after Adrienne Bailon accidentally flashed her private parts at Caesars Entertainment's "Escape to Total Rewards" event, Keri Hilson unintentionally put her nipples on display at the Hennessy Wild Rabbit campaign launch event in New York City.
Coming to the Thursday, April 5 night event, the 29-year-old singer donned blue, orange, white and black color-blocked sheer top that she paired with a black skirt, yellow nails, round white granny glasses and bright orange lipstick. Her top, however, went completely see-through under the flashbulbs, giving also a glimpse of her belly button.
Hilson isn't the only celebrity who had been caught going braless while wearing a sheer top though. Both Miley Cyrus and Rihanna have also left little to the imagination during separate outing. The former was snapped wearing nothing under her black v-neck top after dinner with boyfriend Liam Hemsworth in January, while the latter wore a sheer black mesh top when going for dinner in March.