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| June 19, 2005 | Sunday | Jumadi-ul-Awwal 11, 1426 |
Updated round-the-clock, with major updates after 10:00 PST (05:00 GMT)
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Rice presses drive for Mideast reforms AMMAN, June 19 (AFP) - Fresh from renewed efforts to spur the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pressed Sunday the wider US campaign to promote democratic reform throughout the Middle East. Rice flew in from Jerusalem to begin a swing of key Arab allies the United States has been pushing for political change in line with President George W. Bush's vow to spread liberty worldwide. The top American envoy was traveling Monday from Jordan to Egypt and Saudi Arabia to hammer home Washington's message that freedom was the best antidote to Islamic extremism and terrorism.(Posted @ 23:40 PST)
Government has launched several programmes to improve life June 18, (APP) Shaukat Aziz said the government has launched several programmes to improve the life of common man. He said under government's micro finance scheme, small loans will be provided to the people to start small scale business. He said the government will strengthen the local government system to involve the people at grassroot level in decision-making process.(Posted @ 23:35 PST)
Cricket-Australia beaten by England in one-dayer LONDON, June 19 (Reuters) - England beat Australia by three wickets in Bristol on Sunday in the triangular one-day series. Scores: Australia 252-9; England 253-7.(Posted @ 22:55 PST)
Local Bodies election schedule soon: Sheikh. Rashid MIANWALI, Jun 19 (APP): Minister for Information and Broadcasting Sheikh Rashid Ahmed on Sunday, brushing aside the rumours, said that the schedule for the Local Bodies Elections would be announced soon. "Local Bodies elections would be held soon and rumours about their postponement are baseless and unfounded," he said while addressing a function at the local press club. Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Dr Sher Afgan Niazi was also present.He said for the transitonal period, appointments of the Administrators would be made against the posts of District Nazims to fill in the gap during electoral process.(Posted @ 22:52 PST)
Kyrgyzstan's former parliament speaker arrested BISHKEK, June 19 (AFP) - The former speaker of Kyrgyzstan's parliament Mukar Cholponbayev was arrested Saturday and accused of orchestrating an attempt to overthrow the government during a demonstration in the capital two days ago, the Bishkek police chief said Sunday." Cholponbayev is accused of organizing the massive demonstrations and an attempted coup d'etat," said the police chief, Omourbek Souvanaliev. The chief referred to Friday's protests where he said the former lawmaker "using a mobile phone" directed the protesters "not to disperse and to occupy all the floors at the government's headquarters."(Posted @ 22:50 PST)
CIA's Goss has 'excellent' idea where bin Laden is WASHINGTON, June 19 (Reuters) - CIA Director Porter Goss said he has an "excellent" idea where Osama bin Laden is hiding, but the al Qaeda leader will not be brought to justice until weak links in counterterrorism efforts are strengthened, Time magazine reported on Sunday. In his first interview since becoming head of the CIA last year, Goss also told the magazine the insurgency in Iraq was not quite in its last throes, but close to it. Goss did not say where he believed bin Laden was hiding, but intelligence experts have said the al Qaeda leader who has evaded an extensive U.S.-led manhunt is probably in the border region of Pakistan and Afghanistan. "I have an excellent idea of where he is. What's the next question?" Goss said in the interview.(Posted @ 22:15 PST)
Polls close in fourth round of Lebanese elections Tripoli, Lebanon (dpa) - Polling in the fourth and final round of Lebanon's parliamentary elections ended Sunday evening with voters in the north of the country deciding the last 28 deputies for the new Lebanese parliament. Polling stations opened at 7 a.m. (0400 GMT) and closed at 6 p.m. (1500 GMT). Official results were not expected until Monday, although previous rounds have been conceded on the evening of polling day. Election experts told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that turnout in the Moslem regions improved throughout the afternoon, reaching 42 per cent in the northern city of Tripoli.(Posted @ 22:10 PST)
NWFP announces 2.307 billion deficit budget for 2005-06 PESHAWAR June 19, 2005 (PPI) NWFP senior minister and minister for Finance, Sirajul Haq Sunday announced Rs 2.307 billion deficit budget for the year 2005-06 before the provincial assembly here this after noon. In the budget 2005-06, presented before the assembly total revenue of the province for the year 200506 will be Rs 84.199 billion while the expenditure estimated for the financial year 2005-06 will be Rs 86.507 billion. The minister said budget for 2005-06 was divided into welfare, administrative and developmental sectors. He announces Rs 36.2 billion for welfare sector, Rs 9.8 billion for administration and Rs 20 billion for development sector.(Posted @ 20:55 PST)
INDIA MUST TAKE STEPS FOR KASHMIR SOLUTION: BAZAZ Srinagar, June 19 (KMS): In occupied Kashmir, President of Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Front (JKDF), Pandit Bhushan Bazaz has stressed the need that steps must be taken on the part of India to include Kashmiris in the peace process with Pakistan aimed at resolving Kashmir dispute. According to Kashmir Media Service, speaking at a seminar on 'Kashmir Problem" here Sunday, he lamented that despite Pakistan's peace overtures, India was not sincere in resolving the dispute by still sticking to the policy of suppressing Kashmiris' voice through military might'. Bhushan Bazaz underscored the imperative need of peace and stability in occupied Kashmir, which had been suffering from worst human rights violations by Indian occupation forces since decades. He said there is growing need among Kashmiris that this lingering dispute must be resolved through means of consultations and not through military might.The JKDF president called for greater unity among Kashmiris to help resolve Kashmir dispute. (Posted @ 20:50 PST)
Israel, Palestinians agree to demolish Gaza settler homes JERUSALEM, June 19 (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice secured an agreement from Israel and the Palestinians for settler homes to be razed after the Gaza Strip pullout, hailing the withdrawal as an historic chance for peace.Wrapping up a brief tour of Israel and the West Bank that saw her meet leaders on both sides, Rice reiterated the need to work more closely over the pullout which should begin in eight weeks.(Posted @ 19:10 PST)
Goods trains collide in eastern Sudan, six killed KHARTOUM, June 19 (Reuters) - Two freight trains collided near Sudan's main port killing six people and injuring three, a local official said on Sunday. Salah Ali Adam, minister of information in the Red Sea state, told Reuters the crash occurred at the small station of Saloum about 39 km (24 miles) west of Port Sudan, in the east of Africa's largest country. "There was a problem with the monitoring at the station which caused the crash," he said. "Port Sudan is, of course, the area which sees a lot of train movement because of exports and imports which go through the port," he added. He said the collision was accidental.(Posted @ 19:00 PST)
Three officials killed in southern Afghanistan ambush: security chief KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, June 19 (AFP) - Suspected Taliban militants ambushed and killed a judge and two other officials in the latest violence to hit Afghanistan's south, an official said Sunday. The judge, an intelligence official, and an employee in Helmand province's education department were killed as they returned home from a dinner in the Nad Ali district to Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand."As they were coming from a dinner party they were ambushed and killed on their way back to Lashkar Gah," provincial security chief Amanullah told AFP."It was the the work of the enemies of Afghanistan -- Taliban and their terrorist allies," he added.(Posted @ 17:30 PST)
Suicide bomber kills 20 in Baghdad restaurant-police BAGHDAD, June 19 (Reuters) - A suicide bomber killed up to 20 people including five policemen and many plain-clothes security guards at a Baghdad restaurant close to the Green Zone government compound on Sunday, several police sources said. A further 20 were wounded after the bomber walked into the restaurant during lunchtime on a street protected by numerous police checkpoints and a few hundred metres (yards) from one of the main public entrances to the fortified Green Zone. The Iraqi parliament was in session inside the vast compound, which once housed the presidential palace of Saddam Hussein.(Posted @ 17:25 PST)
Nearly a dozen illegal immigrants dead near the Canary Islands Las Palmas (dpa) - As many as 11 illegal immigrants from Africa died in an attempt to reach Spain in a small sailing craft just off the Canary Islands, Spanish media reported Sunday. According to reports, the victims died from exhaustion and dehydration around 200 kilometres from the coast of Gran Canaria. An addition 13 survivors (12 men and a woman) were also aboard the vessel. They had been travelling for two weeks in the Atlantic, the survivors said, adding that they tossed the dead overboard. The migrants were spotted by a passing ship which alerted emergency sea rescue service. The incident is the second tragedy of its kind in a week. On Monday, at least 14 Africans attempting to reach Spain drowned near the Moroccan port city of Tangiers.(Posted @ 17:20 PST)
Suicide car bomber kills four at checkpoint north of Iraq's capital BAGHDAD, Iraq, June 19 (APP/AP) - A suicide car bomber struck an Iraqi military checkpoint north of Baghdad on Sunday, killing two soldiers and two civilians, officials said. Twelve others were wounded. The suicide attack occurred at 9:45 a.m. (0545 GMT) in Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown 130 kilometers (80 miles) north of Baghdad, Army Capt. Muhanad Ahmed said. The civilians killed were employees at the security checkpoint. (Posted @ 15:04 PST)
Taliban fire rockets on southern Afghan city, no casualties: official KABUL, June 19 (AFP) - Taliban guerrillas fired at least three rockets, one of them near a US military outpost, into Afghanistan's southern city of Kandahar early Sunday but no one was hurt, an official said. One landed near the former home of the Taliban's fugitive leader Mullah Omar, said General Salim Khan, deputy police commander of Kandahar. The home is currently used by US Special Forces. The two other rockets exploded around the city but caused no damage, Khan said. (Posted @ 12:18 PST)
British, US warplanes bomb insurgent hideouts in Iraq BAGHDAD, June 19 (AFP) - US and British warplanes dropped bombs on suspected insurgent hideouts near the Syrian border Sunday as US and Iraqi forces pressed on with a double offensive in Iraq's restive Al-Anbar province. In fresh violence elsewhere two policemen were gunned down in Baghdad as they left their homes to go to work, security sources said. A suicide car bomb exploded outside a US military base in Tikrit but there was no immediate word on casualties. On Saturday three insurgents were killed in a firefight outside a mosque in the town. In the crossfire ten Iraqis, including two women, were wounded when insurgents entered the homes of families in the area and used them as "human shields." "Marines and Iraqi soldiers were unaware of civilians being located in the homes," the military said. (Posted @ 12:15 PST)
Rice hails 'historic' Gaza pullout as key to Mideast peace JERUSALEM, June 19 (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon met Sunday and described Israel's pullout from Gaza as an "historic step" that should boost the flagging peace process. Flanked by Sharon, she called the pullout "an historic step that can lead to the eventual resolution and the eventual ability to get to a two-state solution" "The state of Israel stands on the threshold of an historic step," said Sharon adding that "this step is a very difficult one for Israel, very difficult," but pledged to carry it out and said the US had an "important role" in facilitating the withdrawal. (Posted @ 12:03 PST)
Taliban say execute police chief among 31 held KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, June 19 (Reuters) – Taliban guerrillas said on Sunday they executed a district police chief who was among 31 people they were holding prisoner in a southern district. "At 8:30 this morning we executed Nanai Khan, police chief of Kandahar province's Mian Nishin district, after a fatwa from the mullahs," Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi said. Hakimi said the body had been dumped at a village in Mian Nishin named Shai Khan. "The government can come and pick up his body," he said. Hakimi said the 30 others being held, who included the chief of the district, were still alive. "Their trial is going on." A senior police officer in Kandahar confirmed on Saturday that the main government building in Mian Nishin, capital of the district of the same name, was under Taliban control after attacks on Thursday and Friday night in which 30 police officers and the district chief were captured. (Posted @ 11:53 PST)
Prayers, calls for freedom in Myanmar on Aung San Suu Kyi's birthday YANGON, June 19 (AFP) - Buddhist monks in Myanmar recited prayers before dawn to mark the 60th birthday Sunday of detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, while veteran politicians called for her release from house arrest. As her supporters around the world prepared a day of protest and activities to draw attention to the Nobel laureate's plight on her birthday, events in Myanmar were low-key with the military junta tightening security for the occasion. (Posted @ 09:22 PST)
Cargo ship arrives at International Space Station MELBOURNE, Fla., June 18 (Reuters) - An unmanned Russian cargo ship slipped into a berthing port at the International Space Station on Saturday with food, water, supplies and equipment to support the space shuttle's arrival next month. Working from inside the station's Zvezda service module, station commander Sergei Krikalev took over remote control of the Progress spacecraft as it neared the outpost and carefully steered the 24-foot (seven-metre) -long vessel toward a docking port. The station was flying 225 miles (360 km) above China at the time. The Progress carries more than 2 tons of cargo for the station, including equipment to help with shuttle Discovery's arrival next month. (Posted @ 08:49 PST)
S.Korea soldier kills eight colleagues, wounds two SEOUL, June 19 (Reuters) - A South Korean soldier in a front-line army unit killed eight of his colleagues and wounded two others early on Sunday after being abused by a senior officer, the defence ministry said. The private, identified by his surname "Kim", opened fire on his seniors and colleagues after throwing a hand grenade at his guard post in Yonchon, about 60 km (40 miles) north of Seoul, a spokesman for the ministry said. "Private Kim, who had suffered verbal violence and molesting from his senior, threw the grenade when he entered his barracks after overnight duty," he said (Posted @ 08:47 PST)
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