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| March 17, 2006 | Friday | Safar 16, 1427 |
Updated round-the-clock, with major updates after 10:00 PST (05:00 GMT)
Musharraf vows to build maximum shelters within two years in quake zone ISLAMABAD, March 17 (APP): President General Pervez Musharraf Friday vowed to build "maximum number" of destroyed houses by next winter and improving the infrastructure within two years. He was addressing a seminar on "Earthquake 8/10: Learning from Pakistan's Experience," jointly organized by the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad and Federal Relief Commission. "The survivors are being provided financial assistance and expert guidance on raising quake-resistant houses under an owner-driven strategy,” Musharraf informed the audience. "While education edifice, health infrastructure and government buildings will not just be reinstated but reconstructed on modern lines under a need-based strategy," he said. He also hinted at merging the Federal Relief Commission with the Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority to effectively pursue the phases of reconstruction and rehabilitation. He also thanked the international community for its timely assistance in rescue and relief efforts; he especially appreciated Turkish and British rescue teams, Cuban and Turkish medical teams, and the NATO planes and US Chinook helicopters. Musharraf expressed the hope that the US dollars 6.2 billion pledges made at the donors' conference in November 2005 would be realized. "I guarantee the international community that all assistance will be spent transparently and efficiently for the well being of the survivors in the reconstruction and rehabilitation processes," he said.(Posted @ 16:55 PST)
Landmine kills one, bomb wounds four in Pakistan QUETTA, Pakistan, March 17 (Reuters) A landmine blew up a bullock cart in Jafaraabad district, some 240 km southeast of Quetta, killing one man on Friday, police said. Four passersby were also wounded when a bomb planted outside a shop went off in Machh town, 70 km east of Quetta.(Posted @ 17:24 PST)
First trial run bus service reaches Jalalabad from Peshawar ISLAMABAD, Mar 17 (APP): First trial run bus service reached Jalalabad from Peshawar on Friday. The bus carrying 52 passengers including government officials left Peshawar Friday morning at 09:00 am. Formal bus service between the two countries will start from April 15. As per schedule five buses from private sector and one from PTDC will daily leave from Peshawar to Jalalabad and six from Jalalabad to Peshawar. A bus service from Peshawar to Kabul is also planned after completion of the second phase.(Posted @ 22:46 PST)
Cabinet reshuffling in two weeks: PM ISLAMABAD, Mar 17 (APP): Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Friday said the reshuffling in the Federal Cabinet would be completed within two weeks. Addressing a press conference here at Prime Minister House, he said, discussion and negotiations among the allied parties were continuing to fill the vacant portfolios in the Federal Cabinet following the Senate elections. Replying to a question, he said besides filling the vacant portfolios in the Cabinet, the portfolios of some ministers would be changed.(Posted @ 22:42 PST)
Pakistan looking all options to meet its energy needs: PM Aziz ISLAMABAD, Mar 17 (APP): Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz Friday said Pakistan has been looking at all options to meet its energy needs for its growing economy and fulfil the domestic requirement. Addressing a press conference here at Prime Minister House, he said, Pakistan was working on three different options to get gas for its energy needs. Currently negotiations were going on with various countries for gas pipelines including Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India and Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline projects. He said Oil and Gas Development Corporation (OGDC) has also been asked to expedite its exploration work(Posted @ 22:36 PST)
US general sees Iraq forces getting more territory WASHINGTON, March 17 (Reuters) Iraqi security forces will control about 75 percent of Iraq by the end of summer, up from under 50 percent now, as the United States turns over more responsibilities to allow a reduction of its forces, a senior U.S. commander said on Friday. Army Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the No. 2 U.S. commander in Iraq, said the plan was for U.S.-trained Iraqi government security forces to control about 75 percent of Iraqi territory by "the end of summer." Chiarelli declined to be more specific about the time line and did not specify the actual territory involved.(Posted @ 22:35 PST)
India seeks greater nuclear cooperation with Russia NEW DELHI, March 17, 2006 (AFP) Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Friday that visiting Russian Premier Mikhail Fradkov has endorsed New Delhi's request for 60 metric tonnes of uranium for two nuclear power reactors in the western town of Tarapur in Maharashtra state. Singh also sought Russia's help in the construction of a proposed seven-billion-dollar gas pipeline from Iran via Pakistan, saying India was "desperately short of hydrocarbon resources". The Indian foreign ministry said the two sides signed seven other agreements including a pact between the national space agencies of the two countries which will open the door to the launch of Russian navigation satellites by Indian space rockets.(First Posted @ 17:32 PST Updated @ 22:26 PST)
Sweden confirms H5N1 bird flu on game farm -EU BRUSSELS, March 17 (Reuters) Sweden has confirmed the lethal H5N1 strain of bird flu in a duck on a game farm in the east of the country, the second case on a commercial farm in the European Union, the EU executive said on Friday.(Posted @ 22:20 PST)
Syria opposition forms united front to oust Assad BRUSSELS, March 17 (Reuters) Exiled Syrian opposition leaders announced the creation of a united front on Friday with the aim of forming a transitional government to replace President Bashar al-Assad. Former Vice-President Abdel-Halim Khaddam, who broke with Assad last year after serving under his late father Hafez al-Assad, told a news conference: "All factions of the Syrian opposition and activists have come to the conclusion that the regime in Syria has to be changed." He was speaking after a two-day meeting of opposition groups in Brussels including the Muslim Brotherhood, liberals, communists and Kurds.(Posted @ 22:18 PST)
UK "quartermaster" for Lashkar-e-Taiba jailed LONDON, March 17 (Reuters) A British man, who bought equipment which might have been used in attacks on coalition troops in Afghanistan, was jailed on Friday after he admitted being a "terrorist quartermaster", UK police said. Mohammed Ajmal Khan, 31, bought material that was sent to and used by Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), a militant group fighting in Occupied Kashmir. British police said Khan had provided material for the group when it was planning and conducting operations in Afghanistan in 2002-3. London's Snaresbrook Crown Court heard that Khan had access to more than 20,000 pounds to buy equipment, which included 1,000 sq metres of Kevlar -- a material used to make armour plating for vehicles and for bullet proof armour. He was also involved in buying remote high tech videos and a global positioning system which were used to test an unmanned aerial "drone". He had been trying to buy night vision and thermal imaging equipment when arrested in 2003 and also worked closely with Masaud Khan and Seifullah Chapman -- both given long jail terms in the United States in 2004 for terrorism-related offences. Mohammed Khan received eight years for conspiring to enter into "an arrangement as a result of which money or other property is made available or is to be made available for the purposes of terrorism". He was also given a further year in jail for being in contempt of court.(Posted @ 22:16 PST)
Bodies of four Albanians found, five Afghan policemen killed KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, March 17, 2006 (AFP) Afghan police found Friday the bodies of four Albanians the Taliban claimed to have executed a week ago as five policemen were killed in a bomb blast. The bodies of the men the Taliban said they kidnapped last Saturday were found in an area between southern Kandahar and Helmand provinces, Kandahar governor said. "One police vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb -- five policemen were killed and three wounded," he said later. It was unclear if the vehicle that was hit by the blast was the one carrying the Albanian bodies. A purported spokesman for the Taliban claimed the bomb attack.(Posted @ 21:34 PST)
Gunmen on motorcycle kill ex-police chief in Afghanistan KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) Gunmen firing from a motorcycle killed a former police chief, while an explosion hit a peacekeepers' convoy in the north, officials said Friday. Abdullah Khan was killed Thursday afternoon while driving his car in Argandab, a town in the southern Zabul province about 160 kilometres northeast of Kandahar, police said. No motive was known for the slaying of Khan. Police late Thursday also raided a home and detained three suspected Taliban members in Zabul's provincial capital of Qalat. They arrested three more suspects on Friday after a tip-off from local people in Zabul's Mizan district, police added. Meanwhile, a roadside bomb planted by a bridge hit a convoy of NATO peacekeepers in the northeastern city of Fayzabad, the capital of Badakhshan province, damaging one vehicle but hurting no one, an official said. The official did not reveal the nationalities of the people in the convoy, but said German personnel run a reconstruction team in the province. The German Defense Ministry confirmed the explosion.(Posted @ 18:48 PST)
Czech NATO troops to control Kabul airport, officials say PRAGUE, Czech Republic (AP) Czech troops will be assigned to control Kabul's airport at the end of the year as NATO's peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan expands, officials said Friday. Czechs have increased their contribution to the ISAF peacekeeping mission this year to 150 troops and one part of it will control the airport for four months starting in December, the country's chief of staff Lt. Gen. Pavel Stefka said.(Posted @ 18:45 PST)
More than 20,000 rally against blasphemous cartoons in Lahore LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) More than 20,000 protestors held a peaceful rally against the publication of blasphemous cartoons on Friday in Lahore. ``The government should have taken a harder stance against those countries where these cartoons were published to insult our beloved Prophet,'' Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, the leader of Jamaat al-Dawat group, told the mass gathering at a park in the city. Several other clerics, including Hafiz Hissain Ahmad, Maulana Samiul Haq, and a former head of Inter-Service Intelligence agency, Hamid Gul, also addressed the rally. Police and independent observers said over 20,000 people attended the rally, but the group's spokesman insisted that more than 50,000 people had turned up.(Posted @ 18:42 PST)
US accuses Iran of "unhelpful activities" in Iraq BAGHDAD, March 17 (Reuters) U.S. officials in Iraq on Friday again accused Iran of meddling in its neighbour's internal affairs. A U.S. embassy statement said Washington was "concerned about unhelpful Iranian activities in Iraq. These concerns are well known and we have talked about them." Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council reiterated on Friday that Iran favoured an end to Iraq's occupation by U.S.-led forces as a step toward Iraq's full sovereignty. "Iran's motivation is to help establishment of permanent security in Iraq and get out of suppression by the occupiers," the official IRNA news agency quoted Larijani as saying. "We insist to have transparent talks (with Washington) and reiterate once again that we would do whatever needed to aid the sovereign Iraqi government." (First Posted@15:47 PST Updated @ 17:40 PST)
UN tribunal says Milosevic not poisoned THE HAGUE, March 17 (Reuters) The U.N. war crimes tribunal said on Friday that preliminary results of blood tests showed no indication Slobodan Milosevic's death was caused by poisoning. "So far no indications of poisoning have been found," Judge Fausto Pocar, president of the U.N. war crimes tribunal, told a news conference. "I would like to stress that these are provisional results."(Posted @ 16:46 PST)
Bomb explodes inside bus in Baghdad, one dead BAGHDAD, March 17 (Reuters) A bomb exploded inside a small bus in Baghdad on Friday, killing one person and wounding four, police said. The blast took place in eastern Baghdad.(First Posted @ 15:47 PST Updated @ 16:42 PST)
H5N1 virus found in Israel, one hospitalised TEL AVIV, March 17 (Reuters) Israel hospitalised one person with suspected bird flu on Friday after officials said they had found the country's first cases of the H5N1 virus in thousands of turkeys and chickens found dead on two farms. The patient, a Thai national who was admitted after complaining of flu symptoms, worked at infected coops at a collective farm in southern Israel hit by H5N1, a hospital spokesman said.( First Posted@11:21 PST Updated @ 16:34 PST)
Norway names new Sri Lanka peace envoy OSLO, March 17 (Reuters) Norway appointed a new peace envoy on Friday to help mediate between Sri Lanka's government and Tamil Tiger rebels. Foreign ministry peace expert Jon Hanssen-Bauer, 53, would take over from Erik Solheim, who became Norway's International Development Minister in October 2005 after six years focused only on Sri Lanka. "Solheim ... will lead the work, visit Sri Lanka regularly and have responsibility for Norway as facilitator of the peace process," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.. (Posted @ 15:47 PST)
North Korea wants Norway to broker nuclear deal-paper OSLO, March 17 (Reuters) North Korea wants Norway to mediate in its dispute with the United States over the development of its nuclear industry, the daily Norwegian newspaper VG said on Friday. ”We hope Norway can contribute as conflict solver in the ongoing nuclear dispute between the U.S. and North Korea," North Korea's ambassador to the Nordic region said. (Posted @ 15:07 PST)
U.S. continues assaults in Iraq BAGHDAD, March 17 (Reuters) U.S.-led forces on Friday pressed on with a major offensive against suspected guerrilla targets near the northern Iraqi town of Samarra, witnesses said. The sound of what appeared to be heavy U.S. machineguns crackled in the village of Jillaam overnight as a fire raged and flares arched overhead, witnesses said. There was no sign of a counter attack by insurgents. It was not clear if U.S. and Iraqi troops had also attacked other parts of their target area northeast of Samarra. The military also said 41 insurgents had been detained and weapons had been found in "Operation Swarmer" and that the mission would last for several days. (Posted @ 15:07 PST)
Afghan bandits kill 21 in Iran TEHRAN, March 17, 2006 (AFP) A group of armed bandits from Afghanistan killed 21 people and injured another seven innocent people in Iran's south-eastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan, state television reported Friday, quoting police. Police forces from the province and the neighbouring provinces are hunting the assailants, it added. (Posted @ 15:07 PST)
U.S. House Okays $91.9 billion for wars, Gulf Coast WASHINGTON, March 16 (Reuters) The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday approved $91.9 billion President George W. Bush sought for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and Gulf Coast hurricane relief. The emergency spending bill also contained language barring a state-owned Arab company, Dubai Ports World, from managing American ports, although the company has pledged to pull out of the deal the administration initially approved. The House passed its bill by 348-71, despite the cost concerns expressed by lawmakers. The Senate's version of the bill has not yet cleared its Appropriations Committee. The bill included $67 billion for military operations, bringing the wars' costs so far to nearly $400 billion; $19 billion for the Gulf Coast, bringing that to about $90 billion, and $4.1 billion in emergency foreign aid. (Posted @ 13:10 PST)
Tribesmen clash with Pakistani forces near Afghan border WANA, Pakistan, March 17, 2006 (AFP) Tribesmen exchanged fire with security forces Friday in Khamranz, 40 kilometres northeast of Wana, the main town in South Waziristan, but there were no immediate reports of any casualties, officials said. "The miscreants fired five rockets at the post and then attacked it using small arms early Friday," a local security official said. He said forces responded with fire and repelled the attack. "A hunt is on for the attackers in the area." Separately a paramilitary soldier was wounded when militants fired several rockets at a security checkpost in Speenwan town in North Waziristan late Thursday. (Posted @ 12:44 PST)
Malaysia begins bird flu poultry slaughter KUALA LUMPUR, March 17, 2006 (AFP) Malaysian officials have begun slaughtering poultry and monitoring residents after discovering two outbreaks of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu in the same state, they said Friday. "Since last night we killed 39,588 birds. It includes ducks and chickens," an officer from the state Veterinary Department said. Health officials have also began visiting homes within 300 metres of the two outbreak areas. (Posted @ 11:22 PST)
Australian PM leaves door open on selling uranium to India SYDNEY, March 17, 2006 (AFP) Prime Minister John Howard hinted after talks with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Friday that Australia could sell uranium to India following New Delhi's nuclear deal with the US. Howard told a joint news conference: "There isn't going to be any immediate change in government policy. Obviously, like all policies, you never say never." Howard said he had told Rice that Australia has a policy of selling uranium only to signatories to the NPT. "However, we would send in the next little while a team of officials to India to get some more information regarding that agreement and that group would go on to the United States," he said. (Posted @ 10:00PST)
Pakistan warns against U.S.-India nuclear deal: FT SINGAPORE, March 17 (Reuters) Pakistan has said a civilian nuclear energy deal between its arch rival India and the United States would wreck international agreements to stop the spread of nuclear weapons, the Financial Times reported on Friday. The daily quoted Foreign Minister Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri as saying that the U.S. decision to give nuclear technology to India would encourage other nations to follow suit. "The whole Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty will unravel. It's only a matter of time before other countries will act in the same way," Kasuri told the Financial Times in an interview. "Nuclear weapons are the currency of power and many countries would like to use it. Once this goes through, the NPT will be finished. It's not just Iran and North Korea. Brazil, Argentina and Pakistan will think differently," he said. Kasuri said the United States should not treat the two countries differently. "We demand equality of treatment and we will continue to pursue it. We have a large population and a fast-growing economy. If the Indian deal goes through, there are some things we will do," he said, without elaborating. (Posted @ 09:53 PST)
Iran-U.S. talks on Iraq would be "useful": Rice SYDNEY, March 17 (Reuters) U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Friday she believed talks with Iran on the issue of Iraq would be "useful" but would not be expanded to included to cover Tehran's nuclear ambitions. "These talks might be useful ... but those talks are limited to questions concerning the country at issue, so in this case it would be limited to questions about Iraq," Rice told a joint news conference with Australian Prime Minister John Howard in Sydney. "We will see when and if those talks take place." (Posted @ 09:48 PST)
Indian police say kill four men in Gujarat NEW DELHI, March 17 (Reuters) Indian police shot dead four men overnight in the western state of Gujarat. Police were conducting routine searches in the main city of Ahmedabad after midnight when they were shot at and returned fire, state police chief said. "We have not yet been able to establish their links or motives. Some arms and ammo also found. Two of them are Pakistanis and the other two Kashmiris," he said. He did not explain how police determined the identities of the dead. (Posted @ 09:42 PST)
Karachi Stocks up 261.88 points: KARACHI, March 17: At close of trading, the KSE-100 index was at 10951.08, up 261.88 points. (Bureau Report) (Updated @ 16:15 PST)
Forex update: KARACHI, March 17: The Pakistani Rupee was traded at Rs 60.4 to the US Dollar in the open market. (Bureau Report) (Updated @ 12:00 PST)
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