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Sunday, April 18, 2010

Suicide bomb at police station kills 7 in Pakistan


A suicide bomber rammed a truck loaded with explosives into a police station in Pakistan on Sunday, killing a child and six other civilians, police said. The attack at Saddar police station in the Kohat region wounded 26 people, said Abdullah Khan, the deputy inspector general in Kohat. Twin suicide attacks in the same region Saturday targeted refugees who were fleeing the Orakzai tribal area where Pakistan's army is fighting militants. That attack killed 41 people as they lined up to register for food and relief supplies. The victims of the police station bombing were mostly civilians, said Dilawar Khan, the Kohat police chief. Six of the wounded were police. The truck was loaded with up to 250 kilograms of explosives, he said. It struck a concrete barrier in front of the building, which was heavily damaged as was an adjoining school. The victims were among around 200,000 people who have left the Orakzai region along the Afghan border since the end of last year, when the Pakistan army began offensive ground and air operations against militants based in the remote, tribally administered region. The attacks in Kohat were a reaction to the army offensive in Orakzai, Diliwar Khan said.

I was marrying a person, not a Pakistani: Sania Mirza


In her first interview with CNNpost marriage Sania Mirza said "I was marrying a person, not a Pakistani, people try to make it political but we were very clear that we were two individuals who were getting married just like normal people." Sania and Shoaib are the first major Indo -Pak celeb couple to tie the knot setting in motion a hue and cry from both the countries. "Everyone had an opinion, everyone wanted to have a say, but the most important thing is that now we are relieved as we are married." she said. The newly- weds are planning to live in Dubai, away from the subcontinent in a probable attempt to be away from media scrutiny. Sania might have tied the knot but tennis continues to be her focus. "My immediate goal is to play in Commonwealth games in India. I have played in Asian games before but this time it's in India so it'll be more special for me, I am more excited about it, I'm also going to play in Wimbledon, " she added. When asked about the change in her life post-marriage, the tennis star says that she's clear about the fact that marriage is not going to change anything for her. "I never thought I would get married so soon." she added.

UN declares Pakistan as a terrorist state?

At last the United Nations has overtly admitted that Pakistan fueled anti-Bharat activities in Kashmir. According to a UN report, Pakistan’s spy agency ISI (Inter-services Intelligence) and military has used terror groups’ services to drum up anti-India passion in Kashmir and in entire country. The report is submitted by the panel headed by Chile's UN ambassador Heraldo Munoz, which was appointed by the United Nations to probe the assassination of former Pakistan Premier Benazir Bhuto. The panel found out that the Pakistan Government had formulated a policy to use terrorists as a tool to achieve its strategic objective against its neighbors, especially India.This resulted in active linkages between Pakistan Government and Islamic terrorists at the expense of national forces.  The panel also pointed out some past actions of the Islamic state to substantiate their observation. In 1996, the Pakistani military masterminded, and supported the Taliban acquisition of Afghanistan, the report said. The panel observed that Pakistan has been using similar techniques in Kashmir against India since 1989. The terror activities in Kashmir border are mentored by ISI, Lashkar-e-Toiba and HUJI (Harkat-ul-Jihad Islami). These terror outfits have close links with Pakistan Army and Government. The panel observed that the bulk of anti-India movement by Pakistan in Kashmir still remains in full swing. The 65-page report stated that the jihadi organizations are Sunni groups based largely in Pakistan's Punjab. The report said Qari Saifullah Akhtar, one of the founders of the extremist HuJI, was reportedly one of the ISI's main links to the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and is believed to have cultivated ties to Osama bin Laden, who lived in Afghanistan during that period. “Akhtar's one-time deputy Ilyas Kashmiri, who had ties with the Pakistani military during the Afghan and Kashmir campaigns, had been a senior aide to bin Laden's deputy Ayman al Zawahiri,” the report observed. With this the UN effectively established Pakistan as a terrorist state, a state which is becoming a serious threat to neighboring nations.In this situation, one should also analyze Pakistan’s stand on Mumbai terror during the recently concluded Nuclear Summit in Washington. Pak Prime Minister Yoosaf Raza Gilani yet again asked for more evidences to support the alleged involvement of Lashkar-e-taiba in 26/11. India has already given enough evidences about LeT role in the attacks to Pakistan, but still they are asking for more proof. Dear Manmohan Singh, How can a country, which is ruled by Islamic terrorists take action against an Islamic terror outfit. So don’t ask them to take action. Do what you can. If you are so committed to save India from terrorists, you should go for a real terror hunt in Kashmir and in the entire country without considering the minority appeasement policy of your Italian boss. Do you have the courage to do this? For starting an effective hunt against Maoist terrorists, P Chidambaram, Minister, Home Affairs has been isolated within the Congress party. So, I request my fellow-countrymen to not expect a nationalist approach from the present Government.

Osama bin Laden's Facebook account disabled


Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's profile on social networking website Facebook has been shut down, after a security expert raised the issue with the website's U.S. owners. According to reports, Osama had a Facebook page named "The leader of the Mujahideen, Osama bin Laden", and he used it as a platform to show videos and speeches to Islamic militants.  Talking about the decision, Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes said that the company could not ascertain if the profile belonged to Osama or was fake. 

Bomb strikes IPL cricket match in Bangalore, police say


A bomb has exploded outside a cricket stadium in the southern Indian city of Bangalore, police say. At least eight people were injured in the explosion. The blast happened shortly before the start of an Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket match. Police say the device was hidden in the perimeter wall. The match went ahead with about 40,000 people in Chinnaswamy Stadium. The Mumbai Indians beat the Royal Challengers Bangalore. Bangalore captain Anil Kumble brushed aside suggestions that some of his overseas players had refused to take the field following the explosion. The game started after security staff carried out an inspection of the grounds.

Pakistan 'failed to protect Bhutto'


The 2007 assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the former Pakistani leader, could have been prevented and Pakistani officials failed to properly investigate her murder, a United Nations commission has found. In a damning report released on Thursday, the three-member UN panel investigating the killing blamed failures at all levels of the Pakistani government and said security measures to protect her had been "fatally insufficient." "Ms Bhutto's assassination could have been prevented if adequate security measures had been taken," the inquiry's 65-page report said. It added that the panel, headed by Heraldo Munoz, Chile's UN ambassador, believed the Pakistani police's failure to probe the slaying effectively "was deliberate." "These officials, in part fearing intelligence agencies' involvement, were unsure of how vigorously they ought to pursue actions, which they knew, as professionals, they should have taken," it added. Farhatullah Babar, a spokesman for Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party, said the findings of the UN report were in line with the party's own views on the killing. "It is quite obvious that the suicide bomber did not act alone," he told. He said the party would be issuing a detailed comment on the report once it had studied the document in detail.

US indicts 5 Blackwater ex-officials


US Federal prosecutors charged the former president of Blackwater Worldwide and four other former senior company officials on Friday with weapons violations and making false statements in the first criminal inquiry to reach into the top management ranks of the private security company.  The executives were some of the closest advisers to Blackwater’s founder, Erik Prince, and helped him steer the company during its swift rise to become the leading contractor providing security for American diplomats in Iraq and Afghanistan, working for the State Department, the CIA and the Pentagon. They were also the senior executives in charge during the company’s most turbulent period, after its security guards were involved in a series of shootings, including one in Baghdad in 2007 that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead. Prince, who was not charged, remains at the helm of the company, now known as Xe Services, while many other executives have left as the company has sought to reshape its public image in the face of mounting legal and political scrutiny. 

Islam forbids use of nuclear weapons: Ayatollah Khamenei


Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei termed the use of nuclear weapons as forbidden in Islam while President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad urged formation of a new organization to stop nuclear proliferation. Addressing used an international conference in Tehran, Ahmadinejad proposed the foundation of a new body to supervise nuclear energy worldwide, and suggested that the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) should be reviewed by independent countries not possessing nuclear arms. Ahmadinejad called to expel countries that used or threatened to use nuclear weapons from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), including the US.

Deaths in Pakistan twin blasts


At least 38 people have been reported killed following two explosions at a camp for displaced people in northwest Pakistan. Police said scores of others were wounded when the blasts detonated minutes apart on Saturday at a camp in the Kacha Pukka area of Kohat, a tribally administered region close to the Afghan border.

Ash may hover for days over uncertain Europe


The Icelandic volcano that has kept much of Europe land-bound is far from finished spitting out its grit, and offered up new mini-eruptions Saturday that raise concerns about longer-term damage to world air travel and trade. Facing days to come under the volcano's unpredictable, ashy plume, Europeans are looking at temporary airport layoffs and getting creative with flight patterns to try to weather this extraordinary event. Modern Europe has never seen such a travel disruption. Air space across a swath from Britain to Ukraine was closed and set to stay that way until Sunday or Monday in some countries, affecting airports from New Zealand to San Francisco. Millions of passengers have had plans foiled or delayed. Activity in the volcano at the heart of this increased early Saturday, and showed no sign of abating.Scientists say that because the volcano is situated below a glacial ice cap, the magma is being cooled quickly, causing explosions and plumes of grit that can be catastrophic to plane engines, depending on prevailing winds. In Iceland, winds dragged the ashes over new farmland, to the southwest of the glacier, causing farmers to scramble to secure their cattle and board up windows.In Iceland, torrents of water have carried away chunks of ice the size of small houses. More floods from melting waters are expected as long as the volcano keeps erupting — and in 1821, the same volcano managed to erupt for more than a year.