Siamese twins

Madhya Pradesh's Siamese twins to be separated

Betul, Madhya Pradesh: There's an air of anxiety and cheer in a small hospital in Madhya Pradesh's Betul district. 11-month-old conjoined twins Aradhana and Stuti who have been living in the Padhar hospital since birth will be separated, in an operation performed by 23 doctors and 11 nurses from India and Australia. This procedure could last up to 10 hours. This made possible after NDTV viewers and ndtv.com users donated more than Rs. 10 lakhs for them.

Doctors say, the surgery to separate them involves separating the girls' livers which are fused together and also their hearts covered inside a common membrane. "We have a fantastic team for that. It is a complex operation entailing separating the heart and splitting the liver," explains Rajiv Chaudhury of the Padhar Hospital.Just a day before they are separated, their mother says she's waiting to take them home. "I will be in the hospital for the next four days, I am happy that doctors from faraway places have come to operate on them, but I am still tense," their mother Maya Yadav told NDTV.

Ironically, Aradhana and Stuti were abandoned and left in the hospital after they were born. Born into a poor family in Betul in Madhya Pradesh, their father, a farmer with barely two acres of land and their mother, said they were unable to figure out how to treat their twin daughters, who were joined at the chest. Since then, the girls have been looked after by the hospital nurses, doctors and staff.

Doctors will have to wait a week before declaring the separation successful and there maybe years of plastic surgery to normalize the wounds. But for now, a crucial beginning will be made tomorrow.

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Nigeria church bombings

52 killed in Nigeria church bombings

Abuja, Nigeria's dreaded Islamist militant group Boko Haram today claimed responsibility for three deadly attacks on churches that left at least 52 people dead and 131 others wounded. Boko Haram, which wants to impose Islamic sharia law in Nigeria, said yesterday's attacks in the cities of Zaria and Kaduna were retaliation on Christians for destroying mosques and, according to the group, turning others into "beer parlour and prostitution joints." "Let them know that now it's the time for revenge God willing," the group said in a statement. "From now on, they either follow the right religion or there will be no peace for them." Government and Red Cross figures on the death toll in yesterday's attacks differed. The Red Cross said the at least 52 people were killed and 131 others wounded in the attacks.

Analysts say Boko Haram is trying to trigger clashes between Christians and Muslims in the country which is equally divided between the two faiths. The series of attacks began when a suicide bomber drove at high speed through a barricade at the EWCA Goodnews Wusasa Zaria church early morning. A Kaduna state official, who asked to remain anonymous because he was not authorised to speak to the media, said that blast killed at least 24 people and injured 125. The Nigerian Red Cross Society, however, reported that two people died and 22 were injured in the attack. Within minutes, another explosion occurred at the Christ the King Catholic Church in Zaria, according to Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency.

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Nigeria suicide attack

Nigeria suicide attack, reprisal killings toll rises to 75

From Paul Ohia Abuja, Nigeria's dreaded Islamist militant group Boko Haram today claimed responsibility for three deadly attacks on churches, that led to reprisal killings, leaving at least 75 people dead and 120 others wounded. Reprisal attacks that followed the bombing of churches yesterday in Nigeria's northern state of Kaduna has caused a rise in number of deaths to 75 and injured to 120, hospital sources said. A resident of the city, Blessing Audu told PTI that more than 30 bodies were dumped in a single cemetery located in Kaduna even as charred bodies littered the streets. Some murdered persons were dumped inside deep wells by the angry Christian youths, she said, adding that one could see corpses along major streets of the city.

An emergency worker who opted to remain anonymous said the number of dead may be higher According to him, in St Gerald Hospital alone, more than 40 bodies were kept at the morgue even as 70 others were being treated for wounds. People besieged the hospitals today in search of their missing relations. At the Barau Dikko Memorial Hospital, sources said 12 deaths were recorded with 2 others receiving treatment.

At the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABUTH) Zaria, an official of the Kaduna State Emergency Management Agency who on condition of anonymity said the death toll has gone up from 18 to 23. Radical Boko Haram sect claimed responsibility for the attack by suicide bombers on the churches located in cities of Kaduna and Zaria stating that their objective is to revenge for past killings of Muslims and desecration of holy places. "Today Almighty Allah has given us victory against Christian Churches in Kaduna and Zaria which led to the deaths of many Christians and security operatives," the spokesman for the group, Abu Qaqa said threatening more attacks.

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Andhra Pradesh

Six killed in Andhra road accident

Sangareddy Six persons including two women and a child were killed today and seven others injured in a car-lorry collision near Didi village in Medak district of Andhra Pradesh, police said today. The victims, all belonging to Purani Haveli locality of the city here, were proceeding to Bidar for fixing the marriage of one of their relatives when the mishap occurred this evening, Zahirabad police said.

The car, carrying 13 passengers, collided with the lorry coming from opposite direction resulting in killing of six persons on the spot, police said. The deceased identified as Mushtaq Qureshi, Noorjahan Banu, Shafi Banu, Samina Banu, Muzammil and Ashraf Qureshi. The injured have been admitted to a nearby hospital, police added.

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Eight pilgrims killed in accident

Eight pilgrims killed in accident

Belgaum (Karna), At least eight pilgrims, including six women, were killed today when a bus went out of control and ran over them on the Bangalore-Pune Highway near here, police said. The victims, who were walking on the roadside, were on "Dindi Yatra" to Pandharpur in Maharashtra, as part of the annual 'Devashayani Ekadasi' fair at the abode of Lord Panduranga. The driver of the bus has been arrested, Yamankanmardi Police Sub-Inspector Basvaraj said. The bus was heading to Belgaum from Chikkodi. Several other injured pilgrims were admitted to Belgaum Civil Hospital, police said.

Thousands of devotees from north Karnataka and adjoining Maharashtra take up this traditional march along the highways to Pandharpur as well as Tuljapur, abode of Goddess Tulja Bhavani, during the season of 'Ashadi Ekadashi',an auspicious day of Lord Vishnu and is a festival of religious processions which is celebrated during June-July.

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I always respected Kalam

'I always respected Kalam,' says Karunanidhi

DMK chief M Karunanidhi, who had said naming of A P J Abdul Kalam in the presidential race has led to chaos, today maintained that he always respected the former President. "Some people are trying to divert the issue. Abdul Kalam himself knows how much I value and respect him and the high post he held. I would always respect him," Karunanidhi told reporters here.

The DMK patriarch had on Friday said, "Kalam in Tamil also means chaos. Anyhow, chaos has broken out in the Presidential election." Announcing UPA's Presidential candidate Pranab Mukherjee's visit to Chennai on June 30, he said, "For the first time, Pranab Mukherjee would come to Chennai on June 30 to meet the electors. He would seek votes from MPs and MLAs. Arrangements have been made for a reception." Chances of Mukherjee becoming the President are "bright", he said.

He declined to comment on senior BJP leader L K Advani's observation that there was confusion in the Congress over the Presidential polls.

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Salman

Salman likely to be new Saudi heir as Nayef buried

Mecca, Saudi Arabia was today preparing to bury Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz amid worldwide condolences, as defence minister Prince Salman appeared poised to become the new heir apparent. An aircraft bearing the body of Prince Nayef left Geneva early today for the kingdom's western city of Jeddah, Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya television reported. The funeral of the Gulf nation's security czar is expected to take place later in the Muslim holy city of Mecca after sunset.

He will be buried in Al-Adl cemetery near the Grand Mosque, where several members of the royal family and prominent Islamic scholars are interred, the Okaz daily said. "Crown Prince Nayef devoted his life to promoting the security of Saudi Arabia," said UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, while US President Barack Obama praised his cooperation in the fight against terror that "saved countless American and Saudi lives."

French President Francois Hollande said his country had lost a "friend" and the president of the Swiss Confederation, where Nayef died, offered Bern's "deepest condolences." The 79-year-old prince died of "cardiac problems" while at his brother's residence in Geneva, a medical source in the city who asked not to be identified said.

Nayef's death, just eight months after he replaced his late brother Sultan as crown prince, raises the issue of succession because of the advanced age of the first line of apparent heirs, in a time of turmoil rocking the Arab world. King Abdullah himself is 88 and ailing, and nobody is officially in line to replace Nayef. However, his brother Prince Salman, 76, who took the defence portfolio after Sultan's death, appears to be a strong candidate. "Prince Salman is the most likely successor," Saudi political scientist Khaled al-Dakheel said.

Jane Kinninmont, a senior research fellow for the Middle East and North Africa at London's Chatham House, said Salman is "generally assumed to be the next in line."

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