Russia denies spying on G20 leaders

ROME, Oct 30: Russia has denied reports it attempted to spy on foreign powers meeting at the G20 summit in St Petersburg earlier this year, denouncing the allegations as a “clear attempt to divert attention” from revelations concerning the United States’ National Security Agency.

Two Italian newspapers claimed on Tuesday that USB flash drives and cables to charge mobile phones that were given to delegates – including heads of state – at the September meeting were equipped with technology to retrieve data from computers and telephones.

The St Petersburg summit on Sept 5 and 6 came at a particularly delicate point in relations between the Kremlin and the White House. Tensions were high over the possibility of military strikes on Syria, as well as over Russia’s decision in August to grant asylum to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The revelations from his dossier of leaked material continue to shake Washington DC and inflame parts of Europe.

According to La Stampa and Corriere della Sera, the first person to raise the alarm over the Russian devices was Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European council, who allegedly went to intelligence services in Brussels and Germany for advice on whether they were what they seemed.

Initial tests carried out by the German secret services reportedly revealed the devices to be equipped with “Trojan horse” programmes “capable of illicitly picking up computer and mobile phone data”, according to a warning allegedly sent subsequently to guest countries represented at the G20 summit.

Delegates were urged “to take every possible precaution in the event of these objects having been used and, if they have not been, to hand them over to the security services for further tests”, according to Corriere. It said further tests were ongoing.

It was unclear how many delegates and leaders had received the gifts and even less clear whether any of them had actually used the flash drives and chargers, the newspapers wrote.

Dmitri Peskov, spokesman for the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, denied the allegations, saying they were “a clear attempt to divert attention from a problem that really exists: the US’s spying, which is now a subject of discussion among European capitals and Washington”.

He told the Ansa news agency that Russia does not know the sources of the reports, adding that in any case they were baseless.

But the eyebrow-raising claims of what La Stampa termed “Putin’s poisoned gift” appeared to have prompted the Italian government to take action on the growing number of allegations regarding covert spying operations. In a statement on Tuesday, it said the country’s prime minister, Enrico Letta, had called for the inter-ministerial security committee to meet on Thursday to discuss “questions pertaining to the security of telecommunications in the light of the Datagate [NSA] affair and the revelations on the last G20”.

The Italian reports are not the first to have accused a G20 host nation of spying on its guests. In June, the Guardian disclosed that foreign politicians and officials who took part in two such meetings in London in 2009 had their computers monitored and phone calls intercepted on the instructions of their British government hosts.

By arrangement with the Guardian

Syria peace talks face delay as big powers split

AMMAN: International powers are unlikely to meet their goal of convening peace talks on Syria in Geneva next month as differences emerge between Washington and Moscow over opposition representation, Arab and Western officials said.Failure of the main Syrian National Coalition to take a clear stance over the talks, which aim to find a political solution to Syria’s 2-1/2 year civil war, are also expected to contribute to a delay of up to one month, the officials said.

“A clearer picture will emerge when the United States and Russia meet next week, but all indications show that the Nov 23 goal will be difficult to meet,” said one of the officials involved in preparing for the talks.

US, Russian and UN envoys are due to meet in Geneva next Tuesday as part of the preparation for the long-delayed peace conference, which was first proposed back in May.

A main point of contention, the official said, is the role of the Western-backed opposition coalition - an issue which has flared up since a meeting in London last week of Western and Gulf Arab countries opposed to Assad.

They announced that the Geneva negotiations should be between a “single delegation of the Syrian regime and a single delegation of the opposition, of which the Syrian National Coalition should be the heart and lead, as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people.”

Russia sees the coalition as just one part of the opposition and has suggested that several delegations, including Damascus-based figures tolerated by the government, could represent President Bashar al-Assad’s foes.

That position was echoed by Hassan Abdul Azim, head of the opposition National Coordination Body, who said after meeting international peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi in Damascus that delegates should attend not under the banner of the coalition but as part of a united “Syrian National Opposition”.

A communiqué at the end of the London meeting also said Geneva would aim to establish a transitional government by which time “Assad and his close associates with blood on their hands will have no role in Syria”.

“The Russians are furious at the strong stance taken in London and that the communiqué went a long way towards satisfying the demands of the coalition,” a Western official said.Preparations for the Geneva talks were thrown into further confusion on Tuesday by the dismissal of Syria’s Deputy Prime Minister, Qadri Jamil, after he met senior US diplomat Robert Ford in Geneva on Saturday.

Another diplomatic source said Russia had backed the idea, but that the coalition would not have agreed to sit on the same side of the table as Jamil in any negotiations.

“It will take time between Russia and the United States to resolve their differences. We are looking now at Geneva between Nov. 23 and Christmas,” he said.

Differences between Moscow and Washington are not the only obstacles to the peace talks going ahead.

Ahmad Jarba, president of the opposition coalition, has publicly resisted calls to commit to attending the Geneva conference, saying the coalition will not take part if there is any chance Assad might cling to power.

“He was speaking to his constituency and his public stance differs from what he told us privately,” one delegate at last week’s London meeting said, trying to play down the significance of Jarba’s stance.

“We assured Jarba that an understanding had been reached with the Russians for Geneva to produce a transitional governing body with full powers over the army and security apparatus and that Assad would not be allowed to retain power under any special clauses. But his fate will not be specifically discussed at Geneva,” the delegate said.Even if Jarba were to attend, he has no authority over the rebel brigades battling to overthrow Assad. Many have rejected any negotiations not centred around Assad’s removal and said they would charge anyone who attended them with treason.

Opposition sources said Jarba, who is backed by Saudi Arabia, travelled there in recent days to meet King Abdullah.

Jarba will preside over a coalition meeting in Istanbul on Nov 9 to discuss taking a position on Geneva.

“The meeting will likely stretch for up to a week as usual. What is required is for the coalition to forget rhetoric and come up with a strategy, road map and a detailed policy,” one envoy said.

US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Washington was still planning for a November conference but “no date or details is set or final until the United Nations announces it.”

There was no immediate comment from officials at the United Nations or in Moscow.

Several officials, including Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby, have said they expect the Geneva 2 conference to convene on Nov. 23, though the United States, Russia and the United Nations have all said no date has been officially set.

“A date has not been officially set because no one wants it to be officially postponed,” a Western diplomat said. “But it has been clear all along the aim was Nov 23. It looks now that it will be de facto postponed.”—Reuters

NAB to reinvestigate high-profile cases

ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has decided to reinvestigate all high-profile cases, including those against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and former president Asif Ali Zardari, even if some of them have been partly decided by courts.

The bureau took the decision at a meeting held here on Wednesday to analyse whether investigations conducted into such cases had been fair or affected by pressure or favouritism.

Two corruption cases against the Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Khursheed Shah will also be reinvestigated under the directives of the Lahore High Court.

Bureau spokesman Ramzan Sajid said that NAB chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry had decided to constitute a combined investigation team for cases which might have been partly decided by the accountability courts of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. “The team will look afresh into different aspects of the cases to ensure that they are vigorously prosecuted.”

He quoted the NAB chief as having said that the bureau could afford no favouritism and would handle each case on merit, irrespective of present or previous position of an accused. Cases against Mr Zardari and Prime Minister Sharif are also being tried in the courts of Rawalpindi and Islamabad.

Earlier, NAB had formed a special committee to review cases pending for more than three years.

Asked about the members of the team, the spokesman said it comprised officials of different wings of the NAB. Sources in the bureau told Dawn that most of the team members had not been previously involved in investigations into high-profile cases.

They said some of the cases against Mr Zardari had been partly decided and the main accused in them had been acquitted. PPP leaders hope Mr Zardari will also be acquitted because he is only co-accused in these cases.

The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf on Tuesday challenged the appointment of NAB chairman in the Supreme Court on the ground that the leader of opposition in the National Assembly had not taken the PTI into confidence during the process of selection of Mr Chaudhry for the post.

Some circles in opposition parties see the NAB chairman as a ‘loyalist’ to Prime Minister Sharif and believe that he has been appointed under a ‘shifty deal’ between the ruling PML-N and the main opposition PPP which expects that cases against the PPP leaders will not be touched.

The under-trial cases against the prime minister and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif include the Hudaibya Paper Mills case, the Ittefaq Foundry (wilful loan default) case and a case related to assets beyond the known sources of income.

The proceedings in the cases were adjourned sine die by the accountability court in 2001 when the Sharif brothers were in exile. After their return, NAB filed an application to seek reopening of the cases in 2007 and a court allowed it to do so. But, the trials were adjourned sine die in 2010 by the court which observed that these could be commenced if an application signed by the NAB chairman was submitted.

On Friday, a court in Islamabad reopened six cases against Mr Zardari which had remained dormant because of immunity enjoyed by him as the president. His five-year term as the president ended on Sept 8.

The cases are related to kickbacks and commission allegedly received from SGS PSI Company for pre-shipment inspection, grant of licence to ARY Gold causing huge a loss to the exchequer, illegal gratification and commission in purchase of Russian tractors under the Awami Tractor Scheme, illegal award of a contract to Cotecna for pre-shipment inspection, assets beyond known means and kickbacks from Sajjad Ahmad, a former chairman of the Pakistan Steel Mills.

KHURSEED SHAH CASE: The two corruption cases against Khursheed Shah to be reinvestigated were filed on the order of former president Pervez Musharraf in 2002 but closed by NAB during the PPP government.

US taps links to Google, Yahoo data centers: report

WASHINGTON: The US National Security Agency has tapped into key communications links from Yahoo and Google data centers around the world, the Washington Post reported Wednesday.

The Post, citing documents obtained from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden and interviews with officials, said the program can collect data at will from hundreds of millions of user accounts, including from Americans.

The report said the program dubbed MUSCULAR, operated jointly with NSA's British counterpart GCHQ, indicated that the agencies can intercept data flows from the fiber-optic cables used by the US Internet giants.

The Post report suggests this is a secret program that is unlike Prism, which relies on court orders to obtain data from technology firms.

According to a top secret document cited by the newspaper dated January 9, 2013, some 181 million records were collected in the prior 30 days, ranging from metadata on emails to content such as text, audio and video.

The document shown by the Post indicates that the NSA intercept takes place outside the United States, and that an unnamed telecommunications provider allowed the secret access.

A graphic in the document suggested that the interception at Google came at a point between the public Internet and Google “cloud” servers. The hand-drawn graphic depicted an image of the two Google servers and a smiley face with a note saying, “SSL added and removed here.” SSL refers to secure sockets layer, a cryptographic protocol.

Acting outside US territory would give the NSA more latitude than within the United States, where it would require court orders, the Post noted.

NSA chief General Keith Alexander, asked about the allegations during a Washington conference, said he was unaware of the report but argued that the allegations appeared to be inaccurate.

“That (activity) to my knowledge, this never happened,” he said at the conference sponsored by Bloomberg Television.

“In fact there was this allegation in June that the NSA was tapping into the servers of Yahoo or Google, that is factually incorrect.”He added that NSA gains access to data “by court order” and that it would not be “breaking into any databases.”Google chief legal officer David Drummond said the Internet giant was not involved in any such activity.

“We have long been concerned about the possibility of this kind of snooping, which is why we have continued to extend encryption across more and more Google services and links, especially the links in the slide,” Drummond said in a statement.

“We do not provide any government, including the US government, with access to our systems. We are outraged at the lengths to which the government seems to have gone to intercept data from our private fiber networks, and it underscores the need for urgent reform.”Yahoo said in a statement to AFP that “we have strict controls in place to protect the security of our data centers, and we have not given access to our data centers to the NSA or to any other government agency.”The report comes amid a storm of protest about NSA surveillance both at home and overseas of phone and Internet communications.

On Tuesday, US officials said reports that American spy agencies snooped on millions of Europeans were false.

Alexander told lawmakers that in many cases European spy agencies had turned over phone call records and shared them with US intelligence.

Petrol price likely to be reduced

ISLAMABAD: The government is likely to reduce the price of petrol by more than Rs2 per litre but keep the rates of other petroleum products almost unchanged for November, according to sources.

The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) sent a summary to the petroleum ministry on Wednesday under which the price of petrol was proposed to be reduced by Rs2.48 a litre — from Rs113.25 to Rs110.77. The authorities had raised petrol price by Rs4.12 per litre on Oct 1.

The sources said the Ogra summary was based on prices in the international market during the last 25 days.

The summary proposed that the prices of High Speed Diesel (HSD), Light Diesel Oil (LDO) and kerosene oil be raised slightly.

The price of HSD, the most widely consumed petroleum product in the country, was proposed to be increased by 18 paisa per litre, bringing it to Rs117.13 from Rs116.95 per litre. This fuel’s price was raised by Rs4.69 per litre for October.

The summary proposed an increase of 64 paisa a litre in the price of LDO, which is used to run tubewells and pumps in the industrial sector. The fuel’s proposed price is Rs101.88 per litre as compared to Rs101.24 previously.

The price of kerosene, which is used for cooking in remote areas, may go up by 57 paisa per litre, taking it to Rs108.7 from Rs108.13 a litre. The price of high octane blending component (HOBC) may be reduced by Rs2.67 per litre, to Rs141.23 from the existing rate of Rs143.9.

The prices of aviation fuels are largely proposed to remain unchanged, according to the sources.

The authorities will notify the new prices after approval by the prime minister on Thursday (today).

Shakil Afridi re-trial request: Fata tribunal seeks case record

PESHAWAR: The Federally Administered Tribal Areas Tribunal hearing the case of Dr Shakil Afridi, who helped the CIA track down former Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, sought on Wednesday all record pertaining to the case from commissioner FCR and the political administration of the Khyber tribal region, DawnNews reported.

The main counsel for Dr Afridi, Barrister Samiullah Afridi, told reporters after the hearing that denial of bail to his client amounted to violation of his basic human rights and that he had sought a fresh-trial for the jailed doctor.

During the hearing, Barrister Afridi submitted an application before the tribunal seeking the release on bail of his client, who is accused of colluding with banned militant outfit Lashkar-i-Islam and its chief Mangal Bagh, and a fresh re-trial of the case.

The tribunal sought all records pertaining to Dr Afridi's case from commissioner FCR and the political administration of the Khyber tribal region and adjourned the hearing of the case until Nov 5.

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had said that the issue of Dr Shakil Afridi was sub judice and the court would decide it according to Pakistani law.

Dr Afridi was convicted and sentenced to 33 years last year in May for involvement in anti-state activities by a tribal court.

A judicial official overturned the 33-year jail sentence in August this year but Dr Afridi remains in detention.

Eight dead as Kenya train hits bus: Red Cross

NAIROBI: At least eight people were killed and several others injured Wednesday when a passenger train in Kenya's capital smashed into a bus at a crossing, Red Cross officials said.

The train crashed into the side of the bus, killing at least eight people, Kenya Red Cross said.

An AFP photographer at the scene said the bus was buckled around the front of the train engine.

“The bus crossed the line as the train came at a high speed... several others are in hospital,” said Nairobi police chief Benson Kibui.

The accident, in Nairobi's Eastlands district, took place as the roads were crowded with passengers in the morning rush hour.

Several injured have been taken to hospital, some in a critical condition, Kenya's national disaster response centre said.

Four Frenchmen leave Niger after three years in Qaeda captivity

NIAMEY: Four Frenchmen kidnapped by Al Qaeda militants in Niger were on their way back to France Wednesday after more than three years in a “nightmare” of captivity.

The four men, who were kidnapped by Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in northern Niger in 2010, took off around 0600 GMT in a white government plane bound for Paris where they were expected to be met by President Francois Hollande.

Hollande was to greet the quartet on their arrival at an airport outside Paris after what he called “three years of suffering for the families who lived through a nightmare”.

“I want to express my gratitude to Niger's president, who was able to obtain the release of our countrymen,” Hollande added.

The exact circumstances of their release were not immediately clear. But the French government said there had been no military assault to free them and that no ransom had been paid, while Hollande credited decisive help from his Niger counterpart.

Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told AFP the hostages had been freed in neighbouring Mali, and were in “very good shape”.

“They have been hostages for three years and the nightmare is finally over,” he said.

The four men appeared thin but otherwise in good health, an AFP reporter at the scene said.

In a brief remark to AFP at the airport, one of them, Thierry Dol, 32, said: “It was very difficult but it was the test of a lifetime.”Francoise Larribe, who was kidnapped along with her husband Daniel before she was freed in February 2011, said on learning of her husband's release:

“It's an emotional wave, a tsunami.””I have never lost hope, even though there were moments of dejection, fear and anguish,” she said.

Dol, Larribe, Pierre Legrand and Marc Feret were kidnapped on September 16, 2010, from a uranium mining compound in Arlit, north-central Niger. They work for French nuclear giant Areva.

Speaking as he met the ex-hostages, Niger President Mahamadou Issoufou said his country had worked for their release, but provided no details.

“Since the kidnapping of the hostages three years ago, Niger has worked on obtaining their release. Now it's done,” he said, congratulating the hostages for “regaining their freedom after months of difficult trials”.

Legrand's mother, Pascale Robert, told BFMTV: “Now we're waiting for them to physically return, to see them, to touch them.”

'Negotiations in Mali desert'

The news of their release came days after regional security sources in the town of Gao in Mali reported the presence of envoys in the Sahel “to speed up negotiations towards freeing the French hostages”.

France had officially denied sending envoys.

According to a high-ranking Nigerien source, the four were taken to Niamey by a French plane from Anefis, in northeastern Mali near the Algerian border.

That was the site of final negotiations which included Mohamed Akotey, a former Tuareg rebel who is a senior executive with an Areva subsidiary in Niger.

The hostages were apparently held in different locations to prevent them being freed in any French assault, and were brought together just days before the release.

A Malian security source also said that “the final negotiations took place in the Malian desert”, adding that “eminent Malians in the north provided timely assistance”.

Mali's government welcomed the release but made no mention of any negotiations or whether it took part. Three other people who were kidnapped at the time, Francoise Larribe, a Togolese and a Madagascan, were freed in February 2011.

AQIM had demanded at least 90 million euros ($124 million) for the release of the remaining hostages. At least seven French hostages remain in captivity around the world, including two snatched in Mali, one in Nigeria and four in Syria.

AQIM grew out of a movement launched in the late 1990s by radical Algerian Islamists who sought the overthrow of the Algiers government.

The organisation allied with Al Qaeda in 2006 and has spun a network across tribal, clan, family and business lines that stretches across the vast Sahel region abutting the southern Sahara desert.

70 suspects arrested during Rawalpindi operation

RAWALPINDI: At least 70 suspects were arrested by police personnel during search operations in different areas of Rawalpindi on Wednesday, DawnNews reported.

Security men conducted raids in the areas of Mandi Mor, Chur Chowk, I.J. Principal Road situated in Pirwadhai as well as several others areas.

During the operations, police arrested 70 suspects. The arrested persons could not produce any documents pertaining to their identification or area of residence.

The interrogation of the suspects is still underway.

Bomb kills two soldiers in South Waziristan

ISLAMABAD: A bomb explosion on Wednesday killed two Pakistani soldiers and wounded four others in village situated in South Waziristan tribal region near the Afghan border, security officials said.

The explosion took place in a village in the South Waziristan tribal region.

A senior security official told AFP that two soldiers were killed and four others were injured when an improvised explosive device planted by terrorists exploded on roadside in a village.

Homemade bombs are a major weapon for militants who attack government forces in Pakistan's northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and the tribal districts bordering Afghanistan.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Wednesday's blast.

South Waziristan is one of the seven semi-autonomous tribal areas.

Egypt arrests senior Muslim Brotherhood leader

CAIRO: A key figure in the Muslim Brotherhood was arrested after months on the run, Egypt's Interior Ministry said.

The ministry said Essam el-Erian, the deputy leader of the Brotherhood's political arm, the Freedom and Justice party, was apprehended in the early hours Wednesday in an apartment in an eastern Cairo suburb.

El-Erian is one of the few senior Brotherhood figures still on the run.

The media-savvy el-Erian was among the group's more moderate figures but turned hard-line and went into hiding after the July 3 coup that ousted President Mohamed Morsi, who hails from the same group.

Egypt's new, military-backed authorities have cracked down on the group, arresting hundreds of Brotherhood figures and putting top leaders on trial on charges of inciting violence and murder.

Barca four points clear after 3-0 win at Celta

MADRID: Barcelona followed up Saturday's win over Real Madrid with another victory when Alexis Sanchez set the champions on their way to a 3-0 success at Celta Vigo on Tuesday that put them four points clear at the top of La Liga.

Unbeaten Barca have 31 points from 11 matches, with second-placed Atletico Madrid on 27 ahead of their game at Granada on Thursday. Third-placed Real, who are five points behind Atletico, host Sevilla on Wednesday.

Barca coach Gerardo Martino rested several key players for the game at Celta's Balaidos stadium, including Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Neymar, but the champions were still far too strong for the struggling Galician side.

In-form Alexis, who netted a brilliant chipped effort in the 2-1 'Clasico' victory against Real at the Nou Camp, grabbed the opener in the eighth minute.

Cesc Fabregas, who had a hand in all three Barca goals, stole the ball in Celta territory and when his low shot was saved by goalkeeper Yoel Rodriguez, Alexis was on hand to clip home the rebound.

Barca were 2-0 ahead three minutes after the break when a Fabregas snapshot from outside the area cannoned off the bar on to Yoel and ricocheted back into the net.

The former Arsenal captain put the game beyond the hosts in the 54th minute when Lionel Messi sent him clear on the left of the penalty area and he finished clinically into the corner.

“Maybe again we were not effective enough up front, myself included,” Fabregas said in an interview with Spanish television broadcaster Canal Plus.

“But the important thing is to create chances and play well and then the goals will come and I think today's performance was pretty comprehensive,” he added.

“There are enough games that everyone will get their chance and the priority is to make sure we are champions again at the end of the season.”

Argentine World Player of the Year Messi had a relatively quiet night and failed to score for three straight La Liga matches for the first time in more than two years.

Celta, coached by former Barcelona midfielder Luis Enrique, came closest to a goal in the 67th when Nolito, a graduate of the Barca academy, crashed a free kick against the bar.

In Tuesday's other match, eighth-placed Espanyol and struggling Malaga, who are mired down in 15th, played out a 0-0 draw at Espanyol's Cornella-El Prat stadium in Barcelona.

Polio outbreak in Syria threatens whole region, WHO says

GENEVA: Polio has broken out among young children in northeast Syria after probably originating in Pakistan and poses a threat to millions of children across the Middle East, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Tuesday.

The crippling disease, which is caused by a virus transmitted via contaminated food and water, could spread especially fast in Syria, where civil war has led to falling vaccination rates.

Twenty-two children in Deir al-Zor province bordering Iraq became paralysed on Oct 17 and the polio virus has been confirmed in samples taken from 10 victims. Results on the other 12 are expected within days.

“This virus has come over land which means the virus is not just in that corner of Syria but in a broad area,” Bruce Aylward, WHO assistant director-general for polio, emergencies and country collaboration, told Reuters in an interview.

“We know a polio virus from Pakistan was found in the sewage of Cairo in December. The same virus was found in Israel in April, also in the West Bank and Gaza. It... is putting the whole Middle East at risk quite frankly,” he said by telephone from Oman.

Polio, which invades the nervous system and can cause irreversible paralysis within hours, can spread rapidly among children under five, especially in the unsanitary conditions endured by the displaced in Syria or crowded refugee camps in neighbouring countries.

It is endemic in just three countries — Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan — raising the possibility that foreign fighters imported the virus into Syria, where Islamist militants are among the groups battling to oust President Bashar al-Assad.

Genetic sequencing of the virus found in Syria is expected within the next days, which will identify the geographic origin of the first polio outbreak in the war-torn country since 1999.

“Everything suggests this virus will be linked to the virus that originated in Pakistan,” Aylward said.

“We are looking basically at re-infection of the Middle East. Syria is the canary in the coal mine,” he said.

Vaccinations

Most of the 22 Syrian victims are under two years old and are believed never to have been vaccinated or to have received only a single dose of the oral vaccine instead of the three which ensure protection, WHO spokesman Oliver Rosenbauer said.

“Immunisations have started in that area,” Rosenbauer said, referring to Deir al-Zor, whose main city is partly controlled by Assad forces while rebels hold the surrounding countryside.

A previously planned immunisation campaign was launched in Syria on Oct 24 to vaccinate 1.6 million children against polio, measles, mumps and rubella, in both government-controlled and contested areas, the WHO said on Tuesday.

Anthony Lake, executive director of the UN Children's Fund (Uunicef), said he had held “businesslike and encouraging” talks with Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi in Damascus.

He called for the estimated half a million Syrian children who have not been vaccinated against polio and other debilitating diseases because of the war to be vaccinated.

Syria has about three million under-5s in total.

As well as Syria, Aylward said at least six other Middle East nations — Egypt, Iraq, Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and the Palestinian territories — plan polio immunisation campaigns.

“This will cover over 20 million children in the next months,” he said.

The campaigns are likely to begin in early November and to last at least six to eight months, the WHO said in a statement.

About 4,000 refugees flee the war in Syria every day, mainly crossing into Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan and Turkey.

Before the conflict, which began with peaceful protests in March 2011 and led to a civil war, 91 per cent of Syrian children had been vaccinated against diseases including polio, but the rate has fallen to about 68 per cent, Rosenbauer said.

“So it makes sense that very young kids would get it.”

India bus crash kills 44 in inferno: police

NEW DELHI: At least 44 passengers were killed when a fierce blaze triggered by an exploding fuel tank engulfed a bus in southern India early Wednesday, police said.

The fire broke out after the bus crashed into a central reservation on a highway between the cities of Bangalore and Hyderabad around 5:00 am, said local police spokesman Venkateshwarlu.

“The number of dead, which includes children, is 44,” Venkateshwarlu, who uses only one name, told AFP.

Out of 49 people on the bus, five, including the driver and the bus cleaner, broke windows and escaped before the flames engulfed the vehicle, killing the rest, police said.

“The driver and the cleaner tried to run, but the police caught them and they are now in our custody for questioning,” said Venkateshwarlu, adding that three others were taken to a local hospital.

A total of 131,834 people died in road accidents in India in 2011, according to the government's National Crime Records Bureau, which works out at 15 an hour.

Bad roads, speeding vehicles and poor driving are among the contributing factors, and bus crashes with a double-digit death toll are far from rare.

In May, at least 33 people died when an overcrowded bus skidded off a road into a fast-flowing river in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh.

The World Health Organisation's global status report on road safety 2013 found that eight per cent of India's road user deaths were bus drivers or passengers while 32 per cent were riders of motorbikes or three-wheelers.

CNG sector reacts sharply to minister’s statement

ISLAMABAD: The CNG sector has reacted sharply to a statement by Petroleum Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi that gas will not be available to any sector in Punjab in coming winter months.

Talking to journalists after attending an India-Pakistan young entrepreneurs’ summit here on Tuesday, the minister said the country would face gas shortage in December, January and February not because of a reduction in supply but due to increased demand among domestic consumers.

“But we are confident that the shortfall will be overcome with the import of LNG next year, while Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline will be functional the following year,” Mr Abbasi said, adding that there would be no gas supply to any sector in Punjab, including CNG stations and industries, during winter months.

“Proposal to close CNG stations in winter is illegal which will affect investment, spark inflation, create transportation issues and force millions of people to starve,” Ghiyas Abdullah Paracha, Chairman of the All Pakistan CNG Association’s Supreme Council, said.

“The authorities seem least interested in abiding by the law or ensuring just use of natural gas while putting all the blame on the unfortunate CNG sector.”

He said that instead of focussing on the CNG sector to offset the shortage, the government should stop theft, illegal provision of gas to influential sectors, extra use by some industries and massive leakages.

The association alleged that illegal supply to some powerful sectors, including textile industries, by the petroleum ministry and Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Ltd had created shortage of gas.

“The CNG sector has been facing discrimination at the behest of many mafias, including the highly connected and powerful oil import mafia. We pay the highest gas tariff but get low-pressure supply,” Mr Paracha said, adding that the decision to stop supply to the CNG sector would result in increased import of petrol and trigger unemployment and other social problems. Besides, he said, the government had increased prices of petroleum products to an extent that running vehicles on petrol was becoming unaffordable.

“There is no shortage of gas in the country, but supply is being diverted to influential sectors,” he added.