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TEHRAN Nov 27 (Reuters): At least 10 people were killed and many more injured when an earthquake razed mud-brick villages on the Gulf island of Qeshm off Iran's south coast Sunday, officials and state media said.
Iran's official news agency IRNA said the quake, with a magnitude of 5.9, shook southern Iran for about 10 to 15 seconds at 1:53 pm (10:23 am British time) and the island's main hospital was full of injured people.
"The earthquake was really strong and people poured into the streets in panic. My husband immediately rushed off to one of the stricken villages," said Sara Sadeqi (22), a housewife in Qeshm City, the island's capital.
India set to lure more investors
NEW DELHI (Agencies): Business opportunities in India are in the spotlight at a conference in Delhi attended by business leaders and policy makers from around the world.
More than 400 companies from 33 countries are at the three-day event organised by the World Economic Forum.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P.Chidambaram will address the summit.
India is one of the world's fastest growing economies, and is attracting increasing amounts of foreign funds.
Pakistan lobbying for access to US textile market
ISLAMABAD (Pakistan Link): Pakistan is actively pursuing the Bush Administration to grant market access to its textile sector in the wake of October 8 earthquake.
Before this earthquake, the Bush Administration had refused to grant market access in the textile sector because their strong internal lobbies were the staunch opponents to the idea of granting market access to anyone, especially in the textile sector.
Pakistan had already asked the Bush Administration to allow Qualified Industrial Zones (QIZs) along with bordering areas of Afghanistan for proving incentives to products meant for export purposes. Israel and Jordan are currently enjoying the QIZ facility for providing incentives to their exportable products.
China's water supply resumes after five-day shutdown
BEIJING (AP): Running water was restored in a major Chinese city Sunday, five days after a shutdown caused by a chemical spill, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
Water supplies resumed in Harbin at 6:00 pm, Xinhua said in a short dispatch. It did not give any more details.
Resumption of service occurred five hours earlier than scheduled but it was not immediately clear if it would continue or if it was for the whole city.
Xu Guangwei, a spokesman for the Harbin city government, could not confirm the Xinhua report.
Water service had been suspended since Tuesday after authorities feared that the Songhua River had been contaminated by toxins spewed into the water after a November 13 chemical plant explosion.
Local authorities said Sunday that chemicals in the water had fallen back to safe levels.
The Harbin disaster began with the explosion at the chemical plant in Jilin, a city about 120 miles outheast. Five people were killed and 10,000 evacuated.
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