Woman pulled out alive 17 days after Bangladesh building collapse!

Seventeen days into Bangladesh's worst-ever industrial tragedy, rescuers on Friday made a miraculous rescue when a female worker named Reshmi was pulled alive from the piles of rubble of the collapsed building at Savar on the outskirts of capital Dhaka .

"We left the hope of finding any more survivor since the rescuers on April 29 failed to pull out alive Shahina, who we believed was the last remaining survivor of the collapsed building, " Fire department Operations Director Major Mohammad Mahbub told Xinhua.

"We have not found any more survivor after Shahina," he said.

"Thanks to Allah there was no mistake this time. we pulled out her alive at about 4:00 p.m. (local time) from a corner of a mosque in the basement of the building where she was sitting."

As the rescuers neared, "Reshmi shook a pipe to draw their attention and made small sounds," he said.

"She was rushed to a hospital shortly after being pulled out of the rubble by rescuers with hectic efforts for half an hour."

Rescuers had earlier pulled alive more than 2,437 people after the building crumbled on April 24 morning. The tragedy has so far left more than 1,000 dead.

Kris Kross rapper Chris Kelly's funeral held!

The rapper was known as Mac Daddy while in Kris Kross, who shot to fame in 1992 with their hit single Jump.

Producer Jermaine Dupri and rapper Da Brat wore their trousers backwards in homage to the duo, who were known for wearing their clothes back to front.

Bandmate Chris Smith delivered an emotional tribute to his "true friend".

"It's been a struggle for me every day, but there was a peace that came over me this morning because I know he's in heaven," Smith said.

Smith was supported in the church by Dupri, who discovered the 1990s teenage duo in an Atlanta shopping centre.

Kelly's mother Donna Kelly Pratte continuously wept throughout the two hour service.

Numerous photos were shown of Kelly po

sing with music stars including Michael Jackson, Gerald Levert and Patti LaBelle.

Kris Kross topped the US charts in May 1992 and reached number two in the UK with their single Jump. The song stayed at number one in the US for eight weeks, selling four million copies.

Smith and Kelly were reunited in February to perform at a show celebrating the 20th anniversary of their record label So So Def.

Kelly's official cause of death will not be known until a toxicology report has been completed.

Man arrested with N106m fake condoms, drugs!

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control has arrested a trader, Olisaemeka Osefoh, for importation of counterfeit medicines into Nigeria.

The suspect was also arrested with fake Rough Rider condoms.

PUNCH Metro learnt that the estimated street value of the goods was N106, 210, 000.

Some of the drugs seized include, Mycoten cream, Neurogesic ointment and Skineal cream.

In his statement, the suspect said he was in partnership with a cartel based in China, where the products were sourced, before being shipped to Nigeria.

The Director General of the agency, Dr. Paul Orhii, while parading the suspect, said Osefoh was arrested after a tip off.

He said the suspect had also given investigators information on how the goods were illegally cleared through Tincan Island Port, Lagos.

He said, “Operatives of NAFDAC’s Investigation and Enforcement Directorate raided a warehouse located at Progressive Traders Market known for the sales of jewellery and cosmetic products.

“During the raid at Trade Fair Complex, Badagry Expressway, Lagos, 158 cartons of Skineal cream, 43 cartons of Funbact- A Cream, 719 cartons of Mycoten Cream, 131 cartons of Neurogesic ointment, 56 cartons of Rough Rider Condoms, 20 cartons of Iman Luxury Powder and 205 cartons of Heal Balm were impounded.”

Orhii said investigations revealed that drug counterfeiters no longer specialised only in foreign products but also in Nigerian-made drugs.

He said most of the fake drugs being imported were from China while India was second. He however said the agency was having talks with the Chinese Embassy on the issue.

He said, “I can say for sure that most of the fake drugs we have in the country now are from China while India comes second. The Indian government is giving us full cooperation but we are still having talks with China.

“NAFDAC is working with the Chinese Embassy in Nigeria to track down the criminal company in China that connived with the suspect to ship the fake medicine into the country.”

The NAFDAC boss seized the opportunity to warn landlords who rent out their warehouses to dealers in fake drugs.

He said henceforth, landlords would be arrested and charged to court if their properties were used for such illegal acts.

He advised consumers not to patronise traders who sold drugs secretly in their shops but should use proper pharmacies instead.

“Recent discovery has revealed that drug counterfeiters now operate from markets that deal in other commodities so as not to draw the attention of law enforcement agencies to their nefarious activities,” he said.

British sailor and Olympian Andrew Simpson dies after yacht capsizes!

The British Olympic sailor Andrew Simpson died on Thursday after his team's ultra-modern yacht capsized in the San Francisco bay and trapped him underwater during training for the America's Cup.

The 72-foot Artemis catamaran tipped over at 1.15pm local time, plunging its 13-strong crew into the water and trapping Simpson under the vessel's platform for about 10 minutes.

Rescuers pulled Simpson, 36, into a support boat and an officer from the San Francisco police department's marine unit tried to resuscitate him. He was declared dead about 20 minutes later, said San Francisco fire chief Joanne Hayes-White.

Simpson won a gold medal in the 2008 Beijing Olympics as a crew member in the star class, and he also took silver last year at the London Games.

"The entire team is devastated by what happened," said Artemis chief executive Paul Cayard, a sailing world champion and America's Cup veteran. "Our heartfelt condolences are with Andrew's wife and family."

One other crew member was hurt but his condition was not said to be serious. The rest of the crew escaped unharmed and was taken to its nearby base at Alameda, where members were said to be in tears.

The coastguard said winds were a little above normal when the boat capsized half a mile north of Treasure Island. It was flying under a Swedish flag in preparation for the 34th America's Cup, sailing's most prestigious prize.

Simpson, nicknamed Bart, was born in Surrey, and lived in Dorset. He had temporarily moved to San Francisco for the training. "Moving the family to San Fran for 6 months is pretty hectic!!! The cup should be fun though!!" he tweeted in March.

He was recruited to the Artemis team, named after the Greek hunting goddess, as a strategist.

The crew reported glitches with the boat, which can reach speeds of 45mph, after it launched last November, according to a posting on the America's Cup website, nd it needed to be modified earlier this year.

Coast Guard Lt Jeannie Crump said the cause of the accident was unclear.

The America's Cup race is scheduled to run from July through to September. The Louis Vuitton Cup for challengers starts on 4 July, with the final in September.

Adieu!

Prince Harry visits U.S. for first time since his Las Vegas hijinks!

A buttoned-down Prince Harry joined Michelle Obama in honouring military families Thursday and toured an exhibition in Congress about land-mines, opening a weeklong U.S. visit devoted to the wounded victims of war. Shrieking onlookers gave him the pop-star treatment, but he was all royal business.

The British soldier-prince had one of America's most storied wounded warriors, the wisecracking Sen. John McCain, at his side as he viewed a display of land-mine photos, maps and mine-detection equipment, staged by a charity held dear by his late mother, Princess Diana.

As the prince entered the rotunda of the Russell Senate Office Building near the Capitol, he was greeted by a roar and shouts of "Harry!" from a crowd of about 500 people, nearly all of them women. They crowded a roped-off hallway and stairway with a view of the exhibit, hoisting their cellphones and tablets to get a picture. Harry didn't visibly react except to give a polite wave.

McCain, with a laugh, said he told Harry "I've never seen, in all the years I've been here, such an unbalanced gender crowd."

From there it was on to the White House for a previously unannounced visit with the first lady, Vice-President Joe Biden's wife, Jill, and military mothers and children at an afternoon tea. Harry joined with the children in helping the kids make Mother's Day gifts from tulip and rose bouquets, vegetable chips and edible dough jewelry gathered in the State Dining Room.

For the prince, the Washington settings were a world away from the Afghanistan war zone where he recently served for 20 weeks as a co-pilot gunner in an Apache attack helicopter. It was just as far removed from his hijinks in a Las Vegas hotel room last summer, when fuzzy photos got out of a naked Harry playing strip billiards.

McCain, R-Ariz., who was shot down over North Vietnam and tortured as a captive, said he told the prince that "he was probably a much better pilot than I was."

As for the prince's reputation for cutting loose on occasion, McCain joked that the British diplomatic reception and dinner later in the evening was sure to be a "wild and raucous affair."

On Friday, the prince visits Arlington National Cemetery and Walter Reed National Military Medical Center before flying to Colorado for the 2013 Warrior Games in Colorado Springs. More than 200 wounded servicemen and women from the U.S. and Britain will participate.

Harry will also visit parts of New Jersey afflicted by Superstorm Sandy and stop for events in New York City before capping his visit by playing in the Sentebale Polo Cup match in Greenwich, Conn., on Wednesday.

Diana highlighted the work of the mine-clearing charity HALO Trust when she was pictured wearing a face mask and protective clothing during a visit to a minefield being cleared by the trust in Angola in 1997. Fiona Willoughby, marketing manager of the trust, said the prince's tour of the trust's exhibit raises the profile of the issue once again.

"People have forgotten about it, and we think Prince Harry, following in his mother's footsteps, is a worthy cause and will raise the profile of what we are doing," she said.

Harry closely quizzed trust officials on mine-detection techniques and photos of amputees, keeping a sombre if animated tone despite the swooning throng held back from the exhibit area.

Ladies, women wait for Harry's arrival

The prince "seemed to be a little -- the word isn't embarrassed -- it was, I think, a normal reaction," McCain said. "I'm sure it's not the first time."

Gunmen Kidnap Ex-Premier's Son in Pakistan!

Gunmen on Thursday kidnapped candidate Ali Haider Gilani—the son of a recent Pakistani prime minister—as he campaigned for Saturday's election, in the latest attack to mar a vote that is shaping up to be the bloodiest in the country's history.

Ali Haider Gilani spoke Thursday during a campaign meeting at a house on the outskirts of Multan before his abduction by unidentified gunmen

No one claimed immediate responsibility for the attack, which left one person dead when gunmen seized Mr. Gilani in the city of Multan in southern Punjab, where he was at a rally to support his provincial legislature bid.

The Pakistani Taliban have repeatedly said they would target politicians from the three secular-leaning parties of the outgoing government coalition. Such attacks over the past month have left more than 100 people dead.

Mr. Gilani is the son of Yousuf Raza Gilani, who served as prime minister in the Pakistan Peoples Party government of President Asif Ali Zardari.

Supporters gathered Thursday at the site of Mr. Gilani's abduction.

Gunmen on a motorcycle attacked the younger Mr. Gilani and gunned down his secretary before escaping with their captive, said Malik Deharr, a prominent PPP official in Multan who served in the outgoing Punjab provincial legislature.

"We are all very sad and sorry," said Mr. Deharr. "We demand from security forces to take action and make an urgent response."

Pakistani TV stations reported from Multan that the kidnapped politician appeared to have been injured during the attack. The secretary was killed, officials said.

Officials from the PPP and its two secular coalition partners have repeatedly complained that the neutral caretaker government, which took over from the PPP-led administration to oversee the elections, hasn't provided them with enough security, constraining the party's campaigning to the benefit of its rivals.

"It's not a fair game. The level playing field is not there," said Lahore-based political analyst Salman Abid.

The Taliban haven't targeted the campaigns of the party widely predicted to emerge with the largest number of votes in Saturday's election, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, or PML-N. The insurgents also have spared the rallies of former cricket star Imran Khan, whose party may overtake the PPP as the nation's second-largest political force on Saturday, according to analysts and diplomats.

Messrs. Sharif and Khan, in return, have refrained from criticizing the Taliban and have pledged to open peace negotiations with the militants. Thursday was the last day of campaigning, and Messrs. Sharif and Khan both called massive final rallies. Mr. Khan addressed his supporters via video-link after falling down and injuring his back earlier this week.

The two brothers of the kidnapped candidate—themselves running for office—told Pakistani TV channels Thursday that the PPP wouldn't allow elections to be held in Multan if Ali Haider isn't recovered. But the party later said the election will proceed as planned.

Taliban violence has stymied PPP's campaign. The party's chairman—24-year-old Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who is the son of President Zardari and former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated in 2007—was supposed to spearhead its re-election bid. But he has largely stayed away from public view and is waiting out the election abroad.

Saturday's vote, if successful, would mark the first time since Pakistan's establishment in 1947 that a civilian government is succeeded by another elected administration.

Lightning strike injures 39 at party in Germany!

A lightning strike injured 39 people, eight of them severely, at a Father’s Day party in eastern Germany.

More than 500 people were attending Thursday’s event in a village near the city of Schwerin when lightning struck a group of trees and a nearby switch box on the village fairground around 1 p.m.

Police spokesman Joerg Bruhn said many visitors at the fairground suffered burns and were treated for shock. Two rescue helicopters were called to the village of Dabel as well as several ambulances.

On Father’s Day in Germany, men traditionally go on day trips or simply get together to drink lots of beer, without their families.