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| February 16, 2006 | Thursday | Muharram 17, 1427 |
Updated round-the-clock, with major updates after 10:00 PST (05:00 GMT)
Thousands hold mass rally over blasphemous cartoons in Karachi KARACHI, Feb 16 (Reuters) Tens of thousands of protestors some wielding sticks and waving green flags rallied in Karachi against blasphemous cartoons on Thursday, the latest in a wave of protests in which five people have died. A crowd of up to 50,000 rallied in the main commercial district of the sprawling southern city, and some torched effigies of U.S. President George W. Bush and Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen. The crowd was dispersed peacefully at the end, in contrast to the violence seen in Islamabad, Lahore and Peshawar earlier this week. A branch of U.S.-based Citibank, and an office of the German company Siemens, hung black flags to mask their logos, as did a Christian hospital and several cinemas on the rally's route. Urging participants to stay peaceful, Mufti Muneeb-ur-Rehman, a leader of the rally, called on Pakistan to sever ties with European countries that published the cartoons.(First Posted @ 12:10 PST Updated 15:25 PST)
Bomb ruptures gas pipeline in southwest Pakistan QUETTA, Pakistan, Feb 16 (AP)A bomb exploded Thursday at Pir Koh gas field in southwest Pakistan, rupturing a gas pipeline and cutting supply to several cities, an official said. No one was injured by the blast that occurred before dawn, said Abdul Samad Lasi, the top district administrator in the area. The explosion ruptured a 40-centimeter-diameter (16-inch-diameter) pipe connecting a well to a compressor plant and disrupted supply to several cities, Lasi said. The cities included Multan, Bahawalpur and Faisalabad in the Punjab province. No one claimed responsibility. Authorities suspect local tribesmen who attack gas fields and security forces in a campaign for increased royalty payments for resources extracted from their territories. Lasi could not say when the pipeline would be repaired and supply restored. Authorities will first have to clear land mines near the pipe before workers can go to the site to begin repair work, he said. Lasi accused tribesmen of planting land mines to stop security forces from patrolling in the area.(Posted @ 10:05 PST)
Pakistan will gain from Afghan stability: Karzai ISLAMABAD, Feb 16 (Reuters) Afghan President Hamid Karzai appealed to Pakistan's powerful military on Thursday to help make his country a strong, stable partner, or risk Pakistan's own progress being hobbled by an unstable neighbour. "Preventing progress in Afghanistan is…preventing progress in Pakistan," Karzai told Pakistani army officers at the National Defense College in Islamabad. "The stronger, the better, the more prosperous Afghanistan, the stronger, the more prosperous is Pakistan," he said. Karzai said an unstable Afghanistan would feed terrorism. Asked if he was in favour of building a border fence, as Pakistan proposed last year to stop infiltration, Karzai said a fence was not the way to end terrorism. "Fencing is not a solution," he said. "Going to the roots of terrorists and bad elements, finding them where they get trained, finding them where they get equipped and so drying out the resources of their financial support is the solution." (First Posted@17:40 PST Updated @ 18:36 PST)
Aziz, Karzai discuss steps to take Pak-Afghan ties to strategic level ISLAMABAD, Feb. 16 (APP): Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and Afghan President Hamid Karzai Thursday discussed steps to raise the bilateral relations to "strategic level" through increased security, diplomatic and economic cooperation. During their meeting at the Prime Minister house, the two leaders had 45-minute exchange of views before their foreign and interior ministers and ambassadors joined them. The two sides agreed to increase contacts between foreign ministries of the two countries and consult each other on major issues. They also discussed steps take to increase their ties at all fronts. The issue of arms and production of drugs in Afghanistan also came under discussion. Aziz and Karzai also strongly condemned the publication of blasphemous sketches and said no one should be allowed to insult other faiths in the name of freedom of press.(Posted @ 21:45 PST)
Hamas leader holds Mideast talks in Turkey ANKARA, Feb 16, 2006 (AFP) A top Hamas leader met Turkish diplomats here Thursday during a surprise visit to Ankara. Khaled Meshaal, Hamas's exiled supreme leader, is on a tour of Muslim states to muster support as Western powers step up the pressure on the party that won last month's Palestinian elections. "The expectations of the international community following the Palestinian elections will be clearly conveyed during the talks," a Turkish foreign ministry statement said, adding that Hamas had asked to send a delegation to Turkey.(First Posted@16:40 PST Updated @ 21:40 PST)
India protests killing of fisherman by Pakistan forces NEW DELHI, Feb 16, 2006 (AFP) India said it protested Thursday to Pakistan over the shooting death of an Indian fisherman by officers aboard a Pakistan Maritime Shipping Agency vessel. The 21-year-old fisherman was allegedly killed Monday on a boat off the coast of the western Indian state of Gujarat, Indian foreign ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna said. "The Pakistan deputy high commissioner (ambassador) was summoned today (Thursday) ... and a protest was lodged on the killing of the unarmed fisherman," Sarna said, without giving details.(Posted @ 20:18 PST)
Pakistan's parliament condemns new photos of Abu Ghraib prison abuse ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) Pakistan's upper house of parliament on Thursday passed a resolution condemning mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners at the U.S.-guarded Abu Ghraib prison, a state-run news agency said. The resolution, moved by leader of the house Wasim Sajjad and backed by other lawmakers, demanded punishment for those responsible for maltreating prisoners.(Posted @ 20:12 PST)
Pakistan protests alleged Indian airspace violation ISLAMABAD, Feb 16, 2006 (AFP) Pakistan said Thursday it had lodged a protest with New Delhi after an Indian aircraft violated its airspace over the Arabian Sea. The "provocative" violation occurred on February 13 when an Indian maritime aircraft and two Indian coast guard fast patrol boats crossed into Pakistan's zone, a foreign ministry statement said. The Indian plane made a number of low altitude passes over a Pakistani Maritime Security Agency vessel which was chasing Indian fishing boats poaching inside Pakistani waters, according to the statement. Two Indian Coast Guard Fast Patrol Crafts also approached "in a provocative posture with manned armament pointing towards the Pakistani vessel," it said.(Posted @ 20:10 PST)
Blasphemous cartoon row won't affect US image in Pakistan: envoy MUZAFFARABAD, Azad Kashmir, Feb 16, 2006 (AFP) United States has a good image in Pakistan despite recent anti-Western riots sparked by a global row over blasphemous cartoons, Ambassador Ryan Crocker told reporters Thursday. "I certainly don't think that the push that this cartoon issue is getting through some agitators is changing the fundamental perception of the United States, its people, its soldiers, its civilian air workers, that's been generated through an awful lot of hard work since the earthquake," Crocker said. The envoy was in Muzaffarabad to attend a ceremony for the handover of the last US MASH field hospital to Pakistan. He added that US President George W. Bush had no plans to cancel a visit to Pakistan in March.(Posted @ 18:32 PST)
US must shut Guantanamo prison, UN report says GENEVA, Feb 16, 2006 (AFP) The United States must shut down its detention centre at Guantanamo Bay without delay, a UN human rights report published Thursday said, pointing to violations it said amounted to torture and urging Washington to try or release more than 500 detainees held in legal limbo. In their 54-page report, five independent experts charged that the US administration currently "operates as judge, prosecutor and defence counsel of the Guantanamo Bay detainees," adding that such a situation led to "serious violations" of the right to a fair trial. "All special interrogation techniques authorized by the Department of Defence should immediately be revoked," it added. The report pointed to cases of "excessive violence" during transportation of detainees and force feeding of hunger strikers. It also pointed to interrogation techniques based on religious discrimination. It also urged Washington to refrain from expelling, returning, extraditing or transferring Guantanamo detainees to states where there were "substantial grounds" for believing they would be at risk of torture.(Posted @ 18:30 PST)
China orders Pakistan to catch killers, ensure security BEIJING, Feb 16, 2006 (AFP) - China's leaders have asked Pakistan to catch the killers of three Chinese engineers gunned down in the southwestern province of Baluchistan, state press said Thursday. Pakistan has also been told it must ensure the safety of other Chinese nationals working in the country, Xinhua news agency reported. Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao issued the orders, which Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing relayed to his Pakistani counterpart Khurshid Kasuri, in an "urgent" 1:00 am phone call on Thursday. Gunmen on motorcycles Wednesday shot dead three Chinese engineers working for a cement plant and their driver in the industrial town of Hub.(Posted @ 09:10 PST)
Two car bombs kill seven Iraqis in Baghdad BAGHDAD, Feb 16 (Reuters) Two car bombs exploded in Baghdad on Thursday, killing seven Iraqis and wounding 16, police said. One of the blasts ripped through a crowded Baghdad market in Shula district at about 11 a.m., killing six civilians and wounding 13, police said. The second bomb exploded as an Iraqi police patrol drove by in Baghdad's Karrada district, killing one bystander and wounding two policemen, police said.(First Posted@ 12:00 PST Updated@ 16:35 PST)
Police detain 47 men over murders of Chinese in southwest Pakistan QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) Police investigating the murders of three Chinese engineers and their local driver in Balochistan province detained 47 men Thursday in pre-dawn raids in villages surrounding the crime scene, an official said. Police had no direct evidence linking any of the men with the crime. No charges have been filed and authorities have not blamed any specific group for the attack. In a message to Chinese President Hu Jintao, Musharraf said the engineers were killed in a ``dastardly terrorist attack,'' a Foreign Ministry statement said. ``In fact, it will further strengthen our resolve to pursue with even greater vigor our campaign against terrorism in all its forms and manifestations,'' the statement quoted Musharraf as saying. The bodies of the Chinese engineers were taken Thursday to a morgue in Karachi before being flown to China, said Rauf Siddiqi, home minister for Sindh province.(First Posted @ 12:05 PST Updated @ 15:45 PST)
Malaysia's Anwar calls cartoons a throwback to religious ignorance of Dark Ages KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 16 (AP) Malaysia's ex-deputy leader Anwar Ibrahim on Thursday accused Western newspapers that published the blasphemous cartoons of manifesting what he called the religious ignorance of the Dark Ages. But Anwar currently a lecturer on inter-religious understanding at Georgetown University in Washington urged Muslims to seek a ``dignified'' way to protest the cartoons, saying violence wouldn't resolve the dispute. ``Such acts clearly constitute a regression into the cultural prejudices of the Dark Ages,'' Anwar said. ``Not only are Muslims angry, but a great number of people of other faiths are also outraged by such callous hypocrisy.''(Posted @ 12:30 PST)
Iraq probes claims police have been running death squads< BAGHDAD, Feb 16 (AP) Iraq's Interior Ministry launched an investigation into allegations that a police death squad has been operating in Iraq, a top official said Thursday. The probe was launched as police found the bodies of 10 more men who had been shot dead execution-style and dumped in three different areas of Baghdad's predominantly Shiite suburb of Shula. Maj. Gen. Hussein Kamal, Iraq's deputy interior minister said the probe was launched following U.S. military claims that they had detained 22 men wearing police uniforms who were about to kill a Sunni Arab man. A U.S. general said American forces had found evidence of a death squad operating in Iraq's Interior Ministry, the Chicago Tribune reported on its Web site Wednesday evening. An American military official in Baghdad confirmed the report but declined to provide further details. Maj. Gen. Joseph Peterson, who commands the civilian police training teams in Iraq, said the 22 men were employed by the Ministry of Interior as highway patrol officers. The bodies of Sunni Arabs, bound and gagged and shot in the head, have been turning up in Baghdad for months, fueling allegations of sectarian killings, which Sunni Arab leaders say often are carried out by Shiites in army or police uniforms.(Posted @ 12:30 PST)
Rival Tamil Tiger factions clash in eastern Sri Lanka, one dead, two wounded COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, Feb 16 (AP) Rival factions of the Tamil Tiger rebels clashed in eastern Sri Lanka, killing one combatant and wounding two others, police said Thursday. The fighting took place in areas controlled by the mainstream rebel group in Batticaloa district, a police officer said on condition of anonymity. A senior military officer in Colombo confirmed that troops in the area heard gunfire late Wednesday, but could not confirm the casualties.(Posted @ 12:15 PST)
Bomb Attack injures two journalists in a Bangladesh town< DHAKA, Bangladesh, Feb 16 (AP) _ Two journalists were wounded late Wednesday after a bomb was hurled at a bicycle they were riding in Chuadanga town in western Bangladesh. Journalists Mahfuz Mamun and Babul Ahmed, both working for local Bengali-language daily Dainik Mathabhanga, underwent brief surgery for shrapnel wounds in their legs before being sent home early Thursday. A police official said the two wrote articles about growing drug trafficking in the town close to the Indian border. Journalists in Bangladesh are often targeted for writing about corruption, political violence or organized crime. At least 10 journalists have been killed and dozens wounded in Bangladesh since 1997, media rights groups say.(Posted @ 12:05 PST)
Four killed in new Taliban attacks KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Feb 16, 2006 (AFP) - Suspected Taliban rebels killed two policemen in Afghanistan while a bomb blast claimed the lives of two militia soldiers working with security forces, officials said Thursday. About 60 suspected Taliban rebels armed with machine-guns and rockets raided the police post in Nimroz province on Wednesday, killing at least one policeman and injuring four others, the provincial governor said. Some Taliban fighters also appeared to have been killed in the nearly two-hour gunfight, judging by blood and ripped clothes and shoes left at the scene, governor Ghulam Dastagir Azad said. A Taliban spokesman confirmed the clash but said the guerrillas did not suffer any casualties. "Yes, we carried out that attack but we had no casualties. We believe four police were killed," Qari Yousuf Ahmadi told AFP by satellite phone from an unknown location. Ahmadi said the Taliban were also behind two attacks in central Ghazni province Wednesday in which another policeman and two militia soldiers were killed. The policeman was shot dead by two men on a motorbike, provincial governor Haji Sher Alam said. The two militiamen were killed in a remote-controlled bomb blast, he said.(Posted @ 12:00 PST)
Held Kashmir Leader Omar Abdullah to meet President Musharraf next month New Delhi, Feb 16 PPI: National conference president Omar Abdullah will undertake his maiden visit to Pakistan next month during which he will meet President Prevez Musharraf and discuss various options for resolving the Kashmir dispute. The meeting would take place in second week of March on the sidelines of the conference on Kashmir being organised by Pugwash, a European think-tank engaged in finding solutions to problems in South Asia. When approached to confirm about his visit and meeting with Musharraf, Omar said: "I have received a word through intermediaries that I will be meeting leadership of Pakistan including President Musharraf to discuss various solutions that have been put forth with a view to resolve decades old issue." Omar’s grandfather Sheikh Abdullah visited Pakistan in early 1960's. About his agenda for talks with President Musharraf, he said "National Conference is clear that a solution to Kashmir issue is to be found on the pattern on autonomy resolution passed by Jammu & Kashmir assembly and by involving all three regions of the state."(Posted @ 11:00 PST)
Pakistani man and son sentenced to U.S. prison for heroin trafficking GREENBELT, Maryland, Feb 16 (AP) _ A Pakistani man was sentenced to life in prison and his son was given a 30-year term Wednesday for running a heroin trafficking ring that shipped hundreds of kilograms of the drug worldwide. Muzaffar Khan Afridi, 59, and his son, Alamadar Khan Afridi, 29, were sentenced by U.S. District Judge Alexander Williams. They were convicted in December of charges that include conspiracy and drug distribution. According to prosecutors, an informant bought drugs from the Afridis, who live in Peshawar, Pakistan. The Afridis sent deliveries of heroin to Beltsville, Cameroon and London. They were arrested in 2003 when federal agents lured them to Thailand. Five other men have pleaded guilty in the case. Another is a fugitive and believed to be in Pakistan, while charges are pending against a seventh.(Posted @ 10:50 PST)
U.S. military says goodbye to its last MASH _ the field hospital ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Feb 16 (AP) _ The U.S. Army will Thursday stop running its last MASH, or Mobile Army Surgical Hospital. However, it will continue operating because the U.S. military is donating the 84-bed medical unit to Pakistan. For the past few months, the MASH has been treating victims of the Oct. 8 earthquake that killed about 80,000 people in northwestern Pakistan and Kashmir.``Although it's the last MASH in the U.S. inventory, it will get to live on here in Pakistan under a new name, so it's kind of special for us,'' said Navy Rear Adm. Michael LeFever, the senior U.S. commander of the humanitarian mission in Pakistan. The MASH _ with a total cost of US$4.5 million (euro3.7 million) includes a surgical suite with two operating tables, two intensive care units, pharmacy, laboratory, radiology units and a power generation system, the military said. Many were first introduced to the MASH by the 1970 film of the same title. The TV show began in 1972 and was almost cancelled because of low ratings during its first season. But it took off the next year, making the top 10 list, and the series continued until 1983. The half-hour show took on the delicate task of finding humour amid the horrors of war. It pulled it off by being a ``dramady'' that used multiple plot lines, with some being comedic and others being dramatic.(Posted @ 10:45 PST)
US House votes to withhold Palestinian aid WASHINGTON, Feb 15, 2006 (AFP) - The House of Representatives voted Overwhelmingly, 418 to one, Wednesday to withhold direct US foreign aid from the Palestinian Authority unless Hamas revokes its call for the destruction of Israel. The Senate has yet to vote on the measure.The House measure approved Wednesday states that "no United States assistance should be provided directly to the Palestinian Authority if any representative political party holding a majority of parliamentary seats within the Palestinian Authority maintains a position calling for the destruction of Israel."(Posted @ 09:15 PST)
Karachi Stocks down 81.38 points: KARACHI, Feb 16: At close of trading ,the KSE-100 index was at 11177.91 , down 81.38 points. (Bureau Report) (Updated @ 14:45 PST)
Forex update: KARACHI, Feb 16: The Pakistani Rupee was traded at Rs 59.95 to the US Dollar in the open market. (Bureau Report) (Updated @ 14:45 PST)
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