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| October 12, 2005 | Wednesday | Ramzan 7, 1426 |
Updated round-the-clock, with major updates after 10:00 PST (05:00 GMT)
American, British journalists abducted in Gaza GAZA, Oct 12 (Reuters) - Masked Palestinian gunmen kidnapped two foreign journalists, an American and a Briton, in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday. The two, both working for Knight Ridder newspapers, were Kidnapped by armed men who stopped their car near the town of Khan Younis and took them away at gunpoint, their Palestinian translator said.There was no word on the motive for the kidnapping. The journalists' names were not immediately known.(Posted @ 20:15 PST)
Sri Lanka school principals killed in tit-for-tat attacks COLOMBO, Oct 12 (AFP) - Two school principals were shot dead Wednesday in northern Sri Lanka in what appeared to be tit-for-tat attacks in worsening guerrilla factional fighting, defence officials said. The head of the Jaffna Central College, K. Rajadurai was shot dead by suspected Tamil Tiger gunmen in the Jaffna peninsula Wednesday, the defence ministry said in a statement. It said the killing came hours after, N. Sivakadasam, a pro-rebel chief of another school in the same region, was gunned down by a suspected breakaway faction of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).(Posted @ 20:05 PST)
21 people reported killed in Afghanistan attacks as Rice visits KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Oct 12 (AFP) - Twenty-one people were killed in an upsurge of attacks in Afghanistan as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited the country Wednesday to show American support for the battle against extremists. Five Afghans working for a non-government organisation were killed in an ambush near Kandahar while they were on a mission to a refugee camp in the area, a colleague said. Three other employees of another NGO were wounded, including a woman doctor.Hours before she arrived, there were four rockets attacks in the heavily fortified city, one of them wounding two guards at the Canadian ambassador's home. Afghan and US officials, meanwhile, reported that at least 10 militants were killed and three civilians wounded in an air strike by US fighter planes and helicopters on a suspected Taliban hideout in Uruzgan province . "We did kill several enemy forces," said US Sergeant Marina Evans, adding that three civilians were injured. Uruzgan governor said Monday's attack was against a group of about 50 Taliban fighters who had attacked his policemen earlier in the week. Six policemen were killed in that ambush, the governor said.(Posted @ 19:25 PST)
Suicide bomber kills 30 in Tal Afar BAGHDAD, Oct 12 (Reuters) - A minister escaped bomb attack in Baghdad and at least 30 people were killed and 35 wounded when a suicide bomber strapped with explosives blew himself up in a crowd of Iraqi military recruits at an army base in the northern town of Tal Afar, police said. In all, 33 persons were killed and 52 injured on Wednesday. Two U.S soldiers were killed and one wounded when their vehicle rolled over while conducting a combat logistics patrol near Balad, 90 km (55 miles) north of Baghdad, the U.S military said in a statement. In Baquba, seven Iraqi soldiers and two civilians were wounded when a suicide car bomber attacked an Iraqi checkpoint in Baquba, northeast of Baghdad, police said. A major pipeline for transferring crude oil from Kirkuk wells to the oil refinery at Baiji was set on fire when a bomb planted under the pipeline exploded in Fatha, 95 km southwest of Kirkuk, an official at the North Oil Company said. The minister of state for the provinces, Saad Nife al-Herdan, escaped death when his convoy was struck by a suicide car bomber in southwestern Baghdad, police said. Four bodyguards and three civilians were wounded in the incident. Gunmen on Tuesday killed Hikmet Mumtaz al-Baz, the sheikh of the Albu Baz tribe, in Samarra, 100 km (60 miles) north of Baghdad, local authorities said. U.S. forces shot dead Umran Hamed, a lecturer at Tikrit University, in Duuz, about 100 km (60 miles) north of Tikrit, local authorities said.(Posted @ 17:50 PST)
Kurd rebels kill 5 Turk soldiers, clashes continue TUNCELI, Turkey, Oct 12 (Reuters) - Kurdish rebels killed five Turkish soldiers on Wednesday after troops tracked down a group of guerrillas in a steep valley during a large operation in the east of Turkey, a military official said. Some 8,000 Turkish soldiers, backed by helicopters, began an operation throughout the mountainous province of Tunceli late on Sunday and came across a large group of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels near the village of Cirali overnight. Five soldiers were killed in the ensuing gunbattle, the military official said. More soldiers were being airlifted into the Kutuderesi valley, a long gorge stretching north of the town of Tunceli passing Cirali village. Clashes were continuing, the official said. Three rebels were also killed(Posted @ 17:30 ST)
Syrian interior minister commits suicide-agency DAMASCUS, Oct 12 (Reuters) - Syrian Interior Minister Ghazi Kanaan committed suicide at his office on Wednesday, the official Syrian News Agency SANA said. Kanaan, who was Syria's top official in Lebanon for two decades until 2002, had been interviewed two weeks earlier by U.N. investigators probing the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri. "The minister of interior died in his office this afternoonafter committing suicide and the authorities are investigating the incident," SANA said in a report.(Posted @ 17:15 PST)
Schroeder says won't have role in next government BERLIN, Oct 12 (Reuters) - Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who has led Germany since 1998, said on Wednesday he would not be a part of the next government under conservative leader Angela Merkel. "I will not be a part of the next government – definitely not be part of it," a visibly moved Schroeder said in a speech to union members in his home city of Hanover. He was speaking two days after senior members of his own Social Democrats (SPD) said Schroeder was ready to step down to allow Christian Democrat leader Angela Merkel to front a "grand coalition" of SPD and conservatives.(Posted @ 17:15 PST)
Rice says US will stay in Afghanistan as long as needed KABUL, Oct 12 (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Wednesday said US troops would stay in Afghanistan as long as needed, as Washington tries to bolster its influence in the region as an antidote to Islamic extremism.In a meeting with President Hamid Karzai, Rice said the US goal was peace."There has to be an antidote to extremism and terrorism -- and it is prosperity and peace and democracy. Our forces are here for those purposes," Rice said. "The Afghan people will have partners through NATO and coalition forces, and through American forces, as long as they are needed and in whatever number to make certain we defeat terrorists and Afghanistan becomes a place of stability and progress," she said.(Posted @ 16:10 PST)
China's women weightlifters beat 11 world records BEIJING, Oct 12 (AFP) - Women weightlifters had shattered at least 11 world records at the China National Games by Wednesday, with more expected in the final day of competition. Despite the achievements, none of the records will be recognised by the International Weightlifting Federation, which only approves marks set at events on its official calendar. The China National Games is not included.(Posted @ 16:05 PST)
Rice to visit France, Britain later this week: spokesman ISLAMABAD, Oct 12 (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will visit France and Britain later this week following her tour of Central Asia, her spokesman said here Wednesday.Rice, who is in Pakistan for talks with President Pervez Musharraf in the wake of the devastating South Asian earthquake, will arrive in Paris Thursday for talks the following day, said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.She will head to London late Friday where she will meet with her British counterpart Jack Straw as well as Prime Minister Tony Blair, he said.(Posted @ 16:00 PST)
Thai insurgency backed by 3,000 Libyan-trained militants: Thai general BANGKOK, Oct 12 (AFP) - Some 3,000 "core militants" received military training in Libya before joining the Islamic insurgency in Thailand's Muslim-majority south, a top general said Wednesday. "The militants have advanced over the last 20 years, as the core members went to receive military training in Libya for four years, just like our soldiers train," General Panlop Pinmanee told a seminar of 100 security officials. "When they returned they became the chief operators in the south. Those militants have (the) same capacity as our commandos. There are 1,000 of them in each province and all together there are 30,000 sympathisers across three provinces," he said.Panlop, an advisor to Thailand's defense minister and head of the Internal Security command, which oversees military operations on Thai soil, said the military has so far proved powerless to stop the insurgency."We cannot do anything," he said.(Posted @ 16:00 PST)
Condoleezza Rice arrives in quake-hit Pakistan ISLAMABAD, Oct 12 (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Pakistan on Wednedsay to meet President Pervez Musharraf in the wake of the devastating South Asian earthquake, the US embassy said.(Posted @ 15:55 PST)
At least 60 injured as thousands storm Brazilian soccer stadium SAO PAULO, Brazil Oct 12 (APP/AP) _ At least 60 people were injured Tuesday when thousands of people stormed an already packed soccer stadium in northern Brazilian town of Belem to watch the national team train for a World Cup qualifying match against Wednesday night's game against Venezuela is the final World Cup qualifier for Brazil, which has already clinched a berth in the 2006 Cup in Germany. Venezuela is out of contention. (Posted @ 13:40 PST)
Quake halts historic Kashmir bus SRINAGAR,occupied Kashmir, Oct 12 (APP/AFP) - The historic trans-border bus service launched this year in divided Kashmir has been suspended indefinitely because of major quake damage to a highway connecting the two zones, officials said Wednesday. (Posted @ 12:10 PST)
China launches second manned space mission: Xinhua JIUQUAN, China, Oct 12 (AFP) - China Wednesday launched its second manned space flight, carrying two astronauts on a five-day mission, the official Xinhua news agency reported. Shenzhou VI blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in remote Inner Mongolia at 9 am (0100 GMT). Some forty seconds after the launch the craft disappeared into the clouds. Television pictures showed the four booster rockets disengaging from the carrier vehicle. Unlike the first manned mission two years ago, the two astronauts will leave their capsule for lengthy experiments in the orbital module at the nose of the spacecraft. (Posted @ 10:05PST)
Indonesia commemorates deadly bombings amid hunt for new attackers KUTA, Indonesia, Oct 12 (AFP) - Amid intensely tight security Indonesia on Wednesday commemorated the third anniversary of the devastating Bali bombings, as the hunt for this month's suicide attackers on the resort island intensified. The flags of 21 nations fluttered at the monument to victims of the 2002 nightclub blasts, signifying the 21 nations which lost people in the terror attack . About 1,000 guests at the ceremony passed through metal detectors and bomb-sniffing dogs were deployed, along with armoured cars. (Posted @ 09:25 PST)
Karachi Stocks up 169.64 points: KARACHI, October 12: At close of trading, the KSE-100 index was at 8792.07 , up 169.64 points from Tuesday's close. (Bureau Report) (Updated @ 14:15 PST)
Forex update: KARACHI, October 12: The Pakistani Rupee was traded at Rs 60.15 to the US Dollar in the open market. (Bureau Report) (Updated @ 14:15 PST)
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