|
| October 6, 2005 | Thursday | Ramazan 1, 1426 |
Updated round-the-clock, with major updates after 10:00 PST (05:00 GMT)
Pakistan local polls end, largely peaceful ISLAMABAD, Oct 6 (Reuters) After violence and killings in earlier rounds, the final phase of Pakistan's local elections passed off largely peacefully on Thursday as thousands of newly elected councillors voted for powerful district chiefs. Some unofficial results were expected within hours of the close of polls, and most should be known by Saturday. For Thursday's vote, paramilitary forces were deployed in constituencies regarded as highly sensitive, and with one notable exception there were few reports of violence. Six policemen were wounded in a clash between rival supporters in southern Sindh province. Chief Election Commissioner Abdul Hameed Dogar told reporters in Karachi that the third and final phase had been conducted peacefully. Islamist parties, the main losers in the first two rounds, and the secular opposition denounced the elections as rigged. "The government has massively rigged the elections. Today's election of nazims is a repeat of what happened in the first two phases," said Liaquat Baluch, deputy secretary-general for the alliance, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA). Dogar said he had not received any complaints. (Posted @ 19:15 PST)
Kurd rebels end ceasefire against Turkey DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, Oct 6 (Reuters) Kurdish rebels said on Thursday they had ended a unilateral ceasefire against Turkey and said that now the European Union had opened entry talks with Ankara this was a problem not for Turkey but for the whole EU. The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels declared a one-month ceasefire in their fight against Turkish security forces in August and extended it till Oct. 3, the day Ankara won EU approval to start accession negotiations. (Posted @ 21:35 PST)
President asks government and traders to check price hike during Ramazan RAWALPINDI, Oct 6 (APP): Taking note of complaints on the increase in prices of essential commodities with the onset of Ramazan, President General Pervez Musharraf asked the federal and provincial governments to enforce a check on price hike. "The common man should be able to purchase the essential food items at reasonable rates, therefore, it is important to ensure that rates fixed by the market committees are maintained during the holy month," he said Thursday.Musharraf also appealed to the traders community to shun hoarding and profiteering in accordance with the holy month's teachings. (Posted @ 20:15 PST)
Eight killed, three hurt in road accident near Multan Multan, Oct 06 PPI: At least eight passengers were killed and another three seriously injured when a van carrying 18 passengers rammed into a parked truck at Retra Village in Taunsa Sharif, some 150-kms northwest of Multan on Thursday. An official attributed the incident to reckless driving. (Posted @ 20:05 PST)
India, France sign 2.4 billion euro submarine deal NEW DELHI, Oct 6 (AFP) India and France on Thursday signed a deal in New Delhi for the purchase of six Franco-Spanish Scorpene submarines and pledged total transparency in the 2.4-billion-euro (three-billion-dollar) contract. "The first submarine will be ready for induction within seven years of signing of the contract. The remaining five will be delivered at intervals of one year each thereafter," an Indian defence ministry statement said. India also signed a separate contract with the French arm of the European MBDA weapons firm to arm the Scorpenes with Exocet missiles which can be tipped with nuclear warheads. (Posted @ 19:50 PST)
Iran not interfering in Iraq: Iraqi prime minister TEHRAN, Oct 6 (Reuters) Iraq's Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari on Thursday rejected accusations that Iran was interfering in Iraq's internal affairs. Jaafari told Iranian state television that "such accusations are baseless and we do not agree with them at all." He added that "some people want to harm our existing friendly relations with Iran. But we will not let them do so. We are determined to expand our relations every day." British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Thursday that evidence pointed to Iran or its Lebanese Hizbollah allies as the source of explosives used in roadside bombs in Iraq, although Britain did not have conclusive proof. Meanwhile the Hizbollah group also rejected the British charges on Thursday as ‘lies’. (Posted @ 19:30 PST)
Afghanistan wants more Taliban arrests in Pakistan KABUL, Oct 6 (Reuters) Afghanistan hopes neighbouring Pakistan will hunt down more Taliban militants, a government minister said on Thursday, while Pakistan said it would consider handing over the insurgents' spokesman arrested this week. Afghan Defence Minister Abdur Rahim Wardak praised Pakistan for what he described as its renewed security cooperation. Wardak said he has no list of Taliban figures the Afghan government wanted Pakistan to arrest. (Posted @ 17:50 PST)
Iraqi tribunal denies reports of Saddam trial delay BAGHDAD, Oct 6 (Reuters) Saddam Hussein's trial will start on time on Oct. 19, Iraq's special tribunal said on Thursday, denying comments by a British official who said it could be put off until December. "That is certainly not true," a member of the tribunal's media office said. "It will start on Oct. 19." (Posted @ 17:50 PST)
Three killed, 12 hurt in occupied Kashmir SRINAGAR, Oct 6 (AFP) Three people were killed and at least 12 hurt in separate attacks in occupied Kashmir on Thursday, police said. A State Bank of India cashier was killed when the van in which he was travelling hit a landmine near the southern town of Anantnag. Four security guards in an escort vehicle were also hurt, a police spokesman said, who blamed the attack on freedom fighters. In another incident, five policemen and a prisoner were hurt when explosives seized from militants went off accidentally at a police station in Srinagar, police said. Elsewhere, suspected militants shot dead one person, hanged another, shot and wounded two others in separate incidents across the state. (Posted @ 17:45 PST)
New Delhi not serious to resolve the Kashmir issue: Mirwaiz Srinagar, Oct 06 (PPI) Chairman of All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC), Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, accused India of not taking proper steps to prove its seriousness for the solution of Kashmir issue, Kashmir Media Service reported Thursday. Mirwaiz while speaking at a seminar on the topic "Global Discourse on Kashmir" in Brussels said that “I feel sorry (to say) that New Delhi has not yet taken any practical step in this direction to prove its seriousness.” A 16-member delegation of European Parliament is expected to visit both sides of Kashmir shortly, he informed. Mirwaiz urged the European Union (EU) to form a separate Kashmir contact group like OIC so that it can play an effective role in the Kashmir solution. He also made a plea to EU to pressurize the government of India to allow international human rights organizations particularly Amnesty International and Asia Watch to visit Kashmir to assess the human rights conditions there. (Posted @ 16:20 PST)
Israeli high court bans use of 'human shields' JERUSALEM, Oct 6 (Reuters) Israel's army must stop using Palestinian civilians as "human shields" in operations against suspected Palestinian militants, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled on Thursday. Palestinian and Israeli human-rights watchdog groups had sought the ruling. "The army has no right to use civilians as human shields. It is cruel and barbaric," Supreme Court Justice Aharon Barak wrote in a 20-page judgment. An army spokesman declined comment on the ruling (Posted @ 16:07 PST)
Suicide bomber kills at least 10 near Iraq’s Oil Ministry BAGHDAD, Oct 6 (Reuters) A suicide bomber in a car blew himself up near Iraq's Oil Ministry in Baghdad on Thursday, killing at least 10 people and wounding eight, police said. (Posted @ 16:04 PST)
Gunmen kill five Iraq Oil Ministry security guards KIRKUK, Iraq, Oct 6 (Reuters) Gunmen shot and killed five Iraqi Oil Ministry security guards who were driving to the northern city of Kirkuk on Thursday, police said. (Posted @ 15:59 PST)
Pakistan to consider Afghan request for Taliban ISLAMABAD, Oct 6 (Reuters) Pakistan will consider handing over Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi to Afghanistan if the Afghan government makes a formal request, the foreign ministry said on Thursday. "We have seen the reports in the newspapers but we have not (yet) formally received a request from Afghanistan for the extradition of Mr. Hakimi," said a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said. "When we receive the request, we will consider it," she added. (Posted @ 15:36 PST)
Six-year reform agenda has strengthened the economy: PM ISLAMABAD, Oct 6 (APP): Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Thursday attributed the growing strength in Pakistan's economy to the six-year reform process. While talking to Jeuergen Fitschen, Member of Executive Committee group Deutsche bank, who called on him at the PM House, he said that liberalization, deregulation and privatization formed the major planks of the reforms process. Jeuergen Fitschen termed his discussions with the Prime Minister as frank and useful and expressed the confidence that if the country can move ahead with the current growth rate, there would be a major transformation. He also said that the German companies were interested in investing in Pakistan. (Posted @ 15:30 PST)
Ex-Marine denounces US brutality in Iraq in new book PARIS, Oct 6 (AFP) - US military training has created troops so desensitised to violence that battleground brutality in Iraq is rampant and has helped fuel the bloody insurgency seen there today, a new book released Thursday in France by a former Marine says. Jimmy Massey, a former staff sergeant, told AFP that the daily attacks now doled out to US-led forces and Iraqi civilians are "because of the brutality that the Iraqi people saw at the start of the invasion." In his book, "Kill! Kill! Kill!", he says he and other Marines in his unit killed dozens of unarmed Iraqi civilians because of an exaggerated sense of threat, and that they often experienced sexual-type thrills doing so.The book was being released first in France because, he said, "I didn't find an American publisher."(Posted @ 13:50 PST)
Pakistan calls Kashmir settlement 'essential' UNITED NATIONS, Oct 6 (APP)- Stating that there was no alternative to the principle of self-determination in the process of de-colonization, Pakistan on Wednesday underscored the need for settling the long standing Jammu and Kashmir dispute with India. Speaking in the UN General Assembly's DecolonizationCommittee, Pakistan's delegate Asim Iftikhar Ahmad renewed the call to give hope for peace to the Kashmiri people in their legitimate quest for self determination. "For that it is essential to find a just solution of the dispute over Jammu and Kashmir, acceptable to Pakistan, India and, above all, to the people of Kashmir," he said as the committee opened a general debate on decolonization questions.(Posted @ 13:05 PST)
Car bomb explodes in Sri Lanka capital COLOMBO, Oct 6 (APP/AFP) - A powerful explosion ripped through a parked van here Thursday, wounding a pedestrian and causing damage to several buildings, police said. " Initially it looked like a grenade that went off in a van," the officer said. "Now it seems a more powerful device had been planted in the vehicle." A pedestrian was wounded and a newspaper office run by ruling coalition Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP) was damaged, he added.(Posted @ 12:55 PST)
Rockets kill three civilians in Pakistan tribal zone MIRANSHAH, Pakistan, Oct 6 (AFP) - Militants fired rockets at a Pakistani military base in a remote tribal town near the Afghan border Thursday but missed and killed three civilians, including a woman and child, officials said.In a pre-dawn attack the insurgents launched at least three rockets at the Datta Khel military base in North Waziristan. One rocket hit a nearby house in which three people including a woman and a child were killed, but there were no military casualties. Residents said troops at the base retaliated and thuds of gunfire continued for about half an hour.(Updated @ 12:40 Last Posted @ 11:00 PST)
Qaeda militants start their own news bulletin DUBAI, Oct 6 (AFP) Al-Qaeda linked militants using the Internet as a weapon of choice in their "jihad" are posting a weekly news bulletin to tell the world about their exploits and the "atrocities" committed by their foes. In the second edition of "a nation's weekly harvest," the anchor of the Voice of the Caliphate channel a hooded gunman with an automatic weapon at his side took his audience from "occupied Palestine to ... proud Afghanistan" and on to Iraq before revisiting the hungry of "Muslim Niger".(Posted @ 12:40 PST)
Pakistan to consider handing Taliban spokesman to Kabul ISLAMABAD, Oct 6 (AFP) - Pakistan said Thursday it would consider extraditing Abdul Latif Hakimi,the captured spokesman of Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime, if formally approached by Kabul, an official spokesman said. "We have not received any request from Afghanistan" for the extradition of Hakimi, foreign ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam told AFP. "We will consider the matter when the request is made," she said.(Posted @ 12:35 PST)
NATO to send over 10,000 extra troops to Afghanistan KABUL, Oct 6 (AFP) - NATO will send more than 10,000 extra troops to Afghanistan, the 26-nation group's Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said Thursday, which would double its force in the insurgency-hit country. The expansion of the NATO-lead International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) into the volatile southern part of the country "will of course lead to the arrival of certainly a few thousand extra NATO forces," he told reporters. "I can't give you the exact numbers, but you may say it will be well over 10,000, between 13 and 14, 15,000," he said after talks with President Hamid Karzai.(Posted @ 12:30 PST)
Hurricane Stan kills 162 in Mexico, Central America TECPAN, Guatemala, Oct 5 (Reuters) - Huge mudslides,flooding and four days of torrential rains from Hurricane Stan have killed at least 162 people in Central America and southern Mexico,rescue workers said on Wednesday.The death toll more than doubled on Wednesday when riversburst their banks in southern Mexico, and emergency teams found dozens more victims buried under banks of mud in remote Guatemalan towns. By the evening, the death toll in Guatemala stood at 79 but unconfirmed reports said hundreds may have been killed in an isolated region in the west of the country.(Posted @ 09:55 PST)
Six killed in Bangladesh flash floods DHAKA, Oct 6 (AFP) - Flash floods caused by monsoon rains in northwestern Bangladesh killed at least eight people and forced thousands of people to take refuge in temporary shelters, reports said Thursday. Met Office data showed that the worst affected part of Rajshahi division recorded 452 millimetres (1.4 feet) of rainfall in the 24 hours to Thursday morning.(Posted @ 09:55 PST)
US Senate passes measure to prevent detainee abuse WASHINGTON, Oct 5 (AFP) - The US Senate on Wednesday explicitly barred US soldiers from torturing or mistreating prisoners in a measure outlining strict military interrogation guidelines that passed by 90 votes to nine, despite White House opposition. The measure aims to prevent "cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment of persons under custody or control of the United States government."(Posted @ 09:15 PST)
Forex update: KARACHI, October 6 : The Pakistani Rupee was traded at Rs 60.15 to the US Dollar in the open market. (Bureau Report) (Updated @ 14:10 PST)
Founder: Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah
Editor: Tahir Mirza
The DAWN Group of Newspapers
Haroon House, Dr. Ziauddin Ahmed Road, Karachi 74200, Pakistan.
Phone:+92 (21) 111-444-777 Fax: +92 (21) 569-3995
webmaster@dawn.com
Make sure to reload these pages so you're viewing the current version.
|
|
|
Contributions |