China quake kills scores in rural Sichuan
A powerful earthquake has killed at least 160 people and injured at least 5,700 in China's rural south-west, officials say.
The 6.6-magnitude tremor sent people fleeing from buildings across Sichuan province, which was devastated by a massive quake five years ago.
Villages close to the epicentre in Lushan county were left in ruins.
The rescue operation is being hampered by collapsed roads, broken telephone lines and regular aftershocks
Thousands of troops have been sent to Sichuan, and Premier Li Keqiang has arrived in the area.
"The current most urgent issue is grasping the first 24 hours since the quake's occurrence, the golden time for saving lives," Mr Li was quoted as saying by Xinhua state news agency.
Rescuers have been able to pull some bodies and survivors from the rubble of devastated villages.
There have been at least 710 aftershocks, further damaging buildings and leaving them dangerous.
Power and water supplies have been knocked out in Lushan county.
The quake struck at 08:02 local time (00:02 GMT) on Saturday, with the China Earthquake Administration categorising it as a 7.0 magnitude, and the US Geological Survey (USGS) reporting it as 6.6.
Its epicentre was 115km (70 miles) west of provincial capital Chengdu, according to the USGS.
A square outside the Lushan county hospital has been turned into a triage centre, with dozens of people being treated in tents.
State broadcaster CCTV showed images of bloodied people being treated in tents.
One injured man told the channel: "We still live in our old house, the new one is not ready yet. Our house just collapsed. Everything collapsed."
The quake was measured at 12km below the surface - a shallow depth that usually indicates extensive damage.
CCTV footage suggested entire villages around the epicentre had been flattened.
Source-BBC
Syria crisis: US steps up aid to rebels at talks in Turkey
US Secretary of State John Kerry has announced a doubling of US aid to Syria's rebels and told a Friends of Syria meeting its members were committed to a peaceful transition.
Mr Kerry told the meeting in Istanbul that the US would provide Syrian rebels $123m (£81m) in new, non-lethal aid.
He said President Barack Obama was committed to a "democratic, unified, post-Assad Syria".
More than 60,000 have died in the two-year uprising against Bashar al-Assad.
'Transitional government'
Mr Kerry also announced that all aid from the 11 countries known as the Friends of Syria would now be channelled through the Turkey-based Free Syrian Army group headed by Gen Salim Idris.
The meeting in Istanbul brought together the foreign ministers of countries opposing the government of President Assad.
Mr Kerry said the meeting had brought significant advances.
He said: "The situation in Syria is horrific. It is horrible." He accused the Assad government of "using ballistic missiles against innocent people" and "using his air force to rain down terror on the people of his country".
Mr Kerry said Mr Obama had instructed him to step up efforts with the opposition and that the Friends of Syria were committed to a "mutually consented transitional government and then an elected new leader".
The rebels have been pushing for military supplies and insisted in Istanbul that any weapons they received would not "fall into the wrong hands".
The US and EU have so far refused to supply the rebels with weapons.
The Western allies are concerned that they may end up in the hands of Islamist extremists inspired by al-Qaeda.
Before the Istanbul talks, the main opposition expressed its frustration with the lack of support, urging allies to act more decisively.
In a statement quoted by the AFP news agency, the Syrian National Coalition said: "It is the moral imperative of the international community, led by the Friends of Syria, to take specific, precise and immediate action to protect Syrian civilians from the use of ballistic missiles and chemical weapons."
It also called for "surgical strikes" on positions it alleged were being used by Syrian government troops to fire missiles.
Both Damascus and the rebels accuse each other of using chemical weapons.
UN Secretary Ban Ki-moon has recently announced an investigation into the allegations, and a team of UN-led experts is now in Cyprus awaiting permission to enter Syria.
Source-BBC
ROOSEVELT SKERRIT CONGRATULATES NICHLOS MADURO
Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit has offered his personal as well as official congratulations to Venezuela’s newly elected President, Nicolas Maduro on his recent victory at the polls, calling it “well deserved”.
“In many respects, this has brought closure to the process of rejuvenating Venezuela and Venezuelans, following the loss of your late revered leader, President Hugo Chavez,” the prime minister wrote in a letter to Maduro.
Calling Chavez a true visionary, the Prime Minister noted that Chavez endorsed Maduro to lead the influential South American nation prior to his untimely death.
Prime Minister Skerrit is known to have enjoyed a close personal relationship with President Chavez.
“The Government and people of the Commonwealth of Dominica stand in solidarity with you and your new administration. We are committed to working in furtherance of the policies and philosophy for Venezuelan and hemispheric development, as enunciated by the late leader and yourself over the years,” Skerrit wrote.
He noted that ALBA and Petro Caribe have withstood “the test of time and have been a marked success in building regional unity and cooperation” and said Dominica will continue to support these initiatives.
China Tells Japan to Cool Tensions in East China Sea
China is accusing Japan of increasing tensions over a groups of disputed islands.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying Thursday called on Japan to stop scrambling fighter jets over the East China Sea.
The spokesperson said, "We believe the Japanese side should not be sending out more aircraft but show more sincerity and take practical steps to work hard with China to find a way to appropriately manage and resolve the problem through dialogue, talks and consultations."
Japan said Wednesday it had scrambled fighter jets 306 in the 12-month period ending in March in response to Chinese planes approaching the islands - twice as many as it had in the previous 12 months.
The islands, known as Di-ao-yu in Chinese and Sen-kaku in Japanese are uninhabited.
Last September, Tokyo nationalized the islands, which have been the focus of a decades-long dispute.
Provo Church Softball league in full swing
The Provo Church Co-Ed League that started on the 6th of April 2013 with a total of six churches is creating a buzz in Providenciales.
Churches that are apart of this years league are the Methodist Church, St. Monica's Church, Jericho Baptist Church, Abundant Life Ministries, Paradise Baptist Church, Bethany Baptist Church and Prophecy Church.
Since the league has kicked off other churches are asking to join the prestigious league.
RTC Sports has gathered that on April 6th 2013, St. Monica's Church won their first game by forfeit over Methodist, the other two games for the day were rained out.
On April 8th, Prophecy Church beat Paradise Baptist Church 9- 1 while
St Monica's Church defeated Abundant Life 10-8.
Then on the 12th April Bethany Baptist won by forfeit over Methodist
while Jericho Baptist defeated Prophecy 16-10.
Abundant Life defeated the Methodist church on Monday 15-6 while
Prophecy 5 had a close shave over Monica's 4.
Games will continue at the National Stadium with the Jericho Baptist taking on Paradise at 6:30 and Bethany challenging Prophecy at 8:15.
Venezuelans Vote for Chavez Successor
Polls have closed in Venezuela where voters made their choice Sunday for the South American country's next president, after the death of former president Hugo Chavez last month.
After a brief and bitter campaign, the divided, oil-rich nation waits for electoral authorities to announce the victor in the race between Mr. Chavez's hand-picked successor Nicolas Maduro, who is acting president, and challenger and opposition leader Henrique Capriles.
Maduro, a 50-year-old former bus driver and foreign minister, began the campaign with a double-digit lead in the polls that shrank considerably in the lead-up to the election.
Capriles is a 40-year-old state governor who lost to Mr. Chavez by 11 percentage points in last year's presidential election. He accuses Maduro and the Chavez government of doing little to solve Venezuela's economic problems, food shortages and soaring crime rate.
Maduro touts his working-class roots and says the middle-class Capriles cannot identify with the poor. Maduro says he will continue what he calls the Chavez revolution, which supporters say used oil wealth to lift millions out of poverty.
Mr. Chavez died last month after a two-year battle with cancer.
He was a staunch socialist who was first elected president in 1998. He earned the enmity of the United States and others for such policies as nationalizing major companies and courting world leaders like Cuba's Fidel Castro, Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Libya's Moammar Gadhafi.
The opposition accused him of becoming a dictator, but he was revered by many of Venezuela's poor.
Kerry Offers Talks with Pyongyang if it Moves to Scrap Nukes
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has offered to negotiate with North Korea for a peaceful resolution of tensions on the Korean peninsula if Pyongyang takes steps toward abandoning nuclear weapons.
The top U.S. diplomat said Pyongyang has a "clear course of action available to it" and will find a "ready partner" for negotiations in the United States.
Kerry made the comment Sunday, at a news conference with Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo. Both called for North Korea to act first by resuming a process of scrapping its nuclear weapons program.
But in separate remarks to a group of reporters, Kerry said he will have to consult with colleagues in Washington about what specific actions they believe Pyongyang must take.
Kerry also reiterated Washington's commitment to the defense of Japan, a key U.S. ally. North Korea has made repeated threats to attack the United States and its regional allies including Japan and South Korea in recent weeks.
Pyongyang has been angered by joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises that it sees as a prelude to an invasion of the North. Washington and Seoul have insisted the drills are defensive. North Korea also has reacted angrily to the latest U.N. sanctions imposed on it for carrying out a nuclear test in February. The United States and South Korea were among the main advocates of the sanctions.
Kerry is due to meet Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Monday. The two are expected to discuss North Korea's weapons programs. Speaking Sunday on a visit to Iwo Jima, Mr. Abe said the international community must send Pyongyang a message that "provocative" acts will not bring any benefit to the North Korean people.
Japan has deployed missiles around Tokyo to intercept any North Korean rockets launched toward its territory.
In a message broadcast Sunday, North Korea dismissed the South's latest offer of dialogue as a "crafty trick." Pyongyang's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said there will be no talks unless Seoul abandons what it called a "confrontational attitude."
South Korea proposed the dialogue on Thursday, as a way of ending a crisis at the North's Kaesong industrial zone, where South Korean businesses employ cheap North Korean labor near the inter-Korean border. North Korean authorities withdrew the zone's more than 50,000 workers last week and blocked South Korean access to it, leading to a shutdown of manufacturing.
The zone is the last remaining site of inter-Korean economic cooperation.
Prior to Tokyo, Secretary Kerry visited Beijing, where he and Chinese foreign policy chief Yang Jiechi pledged to work together to resolve the Korean crisis. The two diplomats said Saturday they support the goal of a nuclear-free Korean peninsula.
Thousands Protest Spain's Monarchy
Thousands of Spanish protesters marched through the streets of the capital, Madrid, to demand the abdication of the monarchy and the return to a democratically-elected government.
Sunday's protest marked the anniversary of the country's last democratically-elected republic, which was overthrown by an army uprising, followed by a civil war and nearly four decades of dictatorship under General Francisco Franco.
King Jaun Carlos took over as head of state following Franco's death in 1975 and is credited with steering the country towards a constitutional democracy.
The royal family has come under intense criticism following a series of recent scandals, including last year's controversial elephant hunting trip by the 75-year-old king, and a corruption investigation involving his daughter, Princess Christina.
Anti-Thatcher song tops British chart
The BBC is in a bind after opponents of Margaret Thatcher pushed the song Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead to the top of the British charts in a posthumous protest over her divisive policies.
The online campaign to drive the Wizard of Oz song to the No 1 spot on the UK singles chart was launched by Thatcher critics shortly after the former prime minister died Monday of a stroke at age 87. As of Friday, the song was No 1 on British iTunes.
Still, many people say the campaign — which aims to see the song played this weekend on the BBC's Official Chart Show -- is in bad taste. Some have called on the BBC to promise it won't broadcast the song.
John Whittingdale, a lawmaker from Thatcher's Conservative party, told the Daily Mail tabloid that many would find the ditty "deeply insensitive."
"This is an attempt to manipulate the charts by people trying to make a political point," he said.
In a statement, the BBC said it had not yet decided on whether it would feature the song on its show — which normally plays all the week's best-selling hits.
"The Official Chart Show on Sunday is a historical and factual account of what the British public has been buying and we will make a decision about playing it when the final chart positions are clear," the taxpayer-funded BBC said.
Not all Tories agreed that the song should be yanked.
"No song should be banned by the BBC unless its lyrics are pre-watershed," said former Conservative lawmaker Louise Mensch, referring to British restrictions on adult content.Mensch, a prominent Conservative voice on Twitter, said in a message posted to the site that Thatcher, famously known as "the Iron Lady," would not have wanted it any other way.
"Thatcher stood for freedom," she wrote.
Source-BBC
TRINIDAD'S SHURWAYNE WINCHESTER DELVES DEEP INTO REGGAE
Fresh from his performance at this year's Bacchanal Beach J'ouvert on March 30 and again as part of the Smirnoff truck at Bacchanal Jamaica's Road March on April 7, Trinidad's soca artiste, Shurwayne Winchester, is on a roll.
The lanky artiste is wasting no time. He recently recorded and released two new reggae singles, Body Calling and My Music.
Body Calling, recorded on the Luv A Dub riddim is being described as a groovy reggae ballad with catchy lyrics and an understated sexy style, while My Music, on UIM Productions' 4 Play riddim is said to take the listener a little closer to Winchester as he shares what he views as the power of his music.
Winchester noted that he is seeking to expand his fan base in Jamaica and elevate the reach and appeal of his music.
"Jamaica is a second home to me and I admire many artistes in the genre. I want my fans in Jamaica, old and new, to see me as more of a talented, diverse singer, songwriter and performer and less of a seasonal soca artiste. I am first and foremost a soca artiste, yes, but I have so much music within me and so much I want to do and this is just one step toward achieving greater success with my music", stated Winchester.
This is not the first time that Winchester has ventured into the reggae genre.
He has worked alongside many Jamaican artistes and producers in the past and may be most known for his contribution to the Overproof Riddim, Wine On It.
His die-hard soca fans will also know and love him as the powerhouse behind some staples including Dead or Alive, Don't Stop and Can't Wait.
Winchester is currently producing the video for the My Music single, being shot in Trinidad and Jamaica.
Source-JamaicaObserver