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| April 8, 2006 | Saturday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 9, 1427 |
Updated round-the-clock, with major updates after 10:00 PST (05:00 GMT)
Rebel group surrenders in southwest Pakistan QUETTA, Pakistan, April 8 (AFP) - A group of about 40 militants rebels laid down arms and surrendered Saturday to authorities in the town of Sui in the province of Baluchistan, officials said. "A total of 40 Bugti tribesmen including five of their commanders have surrendered with weapons and explosives in the town of Sui," the region's administrator Abdus Samad Lasi said. "They surrendered unconditionally," he added. The government was considering the offer of an amnesty to those fighting for tribal chief Nawab Akbar Bugti who were not wanted for laying landmines and attacks on security forces and government installations, Lasi said. APP adds: The fugitives hailing from Habib Bani and Hijwani clans were from Gandoi and Dadi Sheri Darbar Ferari Camps. They said they had been fighting for Nawab Bugti for long due to his fear as he used to kidnap their family members besides imposing fine of Rs two million on them in case of their refusal to fight for him. "We are satisfied with the steps taken by the government for establishing government's writ in Dera Bugti and feel pleasure on getting rid from Nawab Bugti", they said. (Posted @ 16:55 PST)
President pledges "better than before" reconstruction MANSEHRA, Apr 8 (APP): President General Pervez Musharraf Saturday promised to reconstruct the quake ravaged area better than before. "We will reconstruct the homes, health, education facilities and infrastructure better than before... and now you will have more schools and basic health units," he said addressing a large gathering at the picturesque Kodar village (Siran valley), in the suburbs of Mansehra. Earlier, the President launched the restoration work of the historic Kodar Jamia masjid and performed the ground breaking of a primary school that was destroyed in the earthquake. The President also announced Rs 100 million for development projects in Mansehra and asked the local representatives to provide detailed development projects where the money was needed and assured prompt response from the government. He also supported the demand for mini-dams and said all the villages in the area will be electrified while efforts were being made to provide natural gas to as many areas as possible. He also assured full support for the reconstruction of Hazara University which was completely damaged in the earthquake.(Posted @ 17:32 PST)
Anti-Muslim bias dangerously high in Europe-EU VIENNA, April 8 (Reuters) - Prejudice against Muslims is dangerously high in Europe and can lead to a vicious circle of isolation and radicalisation of immigrant youths, the head of the European Union's racism observatory said on Saturday. European countries have enough laws to foster integration, but they are not well implemented and real issues are often avoided, Beate Winkler, head of the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia, told over 100 imams from all over Europe at the meeting in Vienna. European Muslim prayer leaders at the session, organised by Austria during its presidency of the European Union, supported the goal of integrating their communities and Islam itself into European life, but said this needed time and creative thinking. "The level of discrimination against Muslim communities in Europe remains dangerously high," Winkler told the meeting. Winkler gave no statistical evidence but said her agency would soon publish two reports on Islamophobia in Europe. "This is an absolutely crucial moment in intercultural and interfaith relations in Europe," she told the meeting, noting "renewed attention in the so-called clash of civilisations." "Europe is home to an estimated 20 million Muslims," she said, denying any clash was inevitable. "Islam is as much a part of modern day Europe as it has been part of its history."(Posted @ 21:10 PST)
Death toll in Djibouti sinking reaches 113 DJIBOUTI, April 8 (Reuters) - Rescuers in Djibouti found 41 more bodies on Saturday from an overloaded boat that sank two days ago, bringing the death toll to 113 in one of the Red Sea nation's worst disasters, officials said. The bodies were pulled out of the water near the port in Djibouti, where the wooden boat capsized on Thursday carrying some 250 people to a pilgrimage.(First Posted @ 17:08 PST Updated @ 21:10 PST)
Elections in Pakistan in February 2008: Sher Afgan ISLAMABAD, April 8 (PPI): General elections in the country will be held in February 2008, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Dr Sher Afgan Niazi Saturday said. Talking to newsmen he said the present assemblies would complete their term on November 15 next year and the elections will be held within 90 days.(Posted @ 20:50 PST)
KHUZDAR: Road blockades in Surab, Khuzdar, Wadh KHUZDAR, April 8(PPI): Quetta-Karachi seciton of RCD highway was blocked Saturday by angry protestors at various places. According to sources protestors blocked the highway at Surab, Khuzdar and Wadh but putting up road blocks etc . The blockade lasted till late in the afternoon. Markets also remained closed in Khuzdar.(Posted @ 20:42 PST)
Rail track blown near Noshki QUETTA, Apr 8 (PPI): Railway track near Noshki was damaged by an explosive device in the small hours of Saturday. According to officials, the militants planted explosive device along the Quetta-Zahidan railway line near Ahmadwal, some 40 Km from Noshki. It tore apart a two to two and half feet piece of track. Railways sources said that repair of the damaged track had been undertaken. In another incident, an explosion damaged the boundary wall of Government High School at Wadh, about 38 miles south of Khuzdar.(Posted @ 20:40 PST)
Three die in Russia hostel fire-Interfax MOSCOW, April 8 (Reuters) - Three people died in Russia on Saturday when their workers' hostel caught fire, Interfax news agency reported. Fireman rescued a seven-year-old girl from the hostel by throwing her from a fourth-floor window. Rescuers on the ground used a carpet to catch the girl. Nearly 300 people were evacuated from the building, in the Ural mountains city of Yekaterinburg, Interfax reported. Cause of the fire was unknown.(Posted @ 20:34 PST)
Two Taliban commanders killed in Afghanistan KABUL, April 8 (AFP) - Afghan and US-led coalition forces killed three Taliban, including two commanders, and captured five more in a series of operations in Helmand province, the coalition said Saturday. The first commander was killed on Friday in Helmand's Musa Qala district, while the second commander, described as an "operational-level terrorist leader", was killed early Saturday in Helmand's Sangin district, where the base was attacked. A lower level Taliban was also killed in Saturday's operation in which "coalition forces used close-air support to destroy an insurgent headquarters..." "Once our ground forces seized the objective, we confirmed that two Taliban were killed, and we captured two terrorists," coalition commander Major General Benjamin C. Freakley said. Afghan and coalition forces meanwhile also captured three Taliban insurgents Saturday in neighbouring Kandahar province, a separate statement said.(Posted @ 20:32 PST)
Kasuri urges NSG for adopting non-discriminatory approach towards Pakistan ISLAMABAD, Apr 8 (APP): Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri Saturday urged the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) for adopting a non-discriminatory approach towards cooperation with Pakistan in the civilian nuclear field. At a meeting with Lars Danielsson, State Secretary Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister of Sweden, he shared with the visiting diplomat Pakistan's perspective on the India-US deal on civil nuclear cooperation and stressed that a package approach would, besides meeting legitimate energy needs of Pakistan, promote strategic balance in the area and prevent arms race. The two leaders also discussed matters of bilateral and regional interest including UN reform and expansion of Security Council, greater access for Pakistani products in EU market and peace process with India. The two sides also discussed ways and means of strengthening cooperation in various field including economic cooperation and Defence. The Foreign Minister also briefed the Swedish Minister about the progress in talks with India covering all outstanding issues including Kashmir and said the solution of Kashmir problem would ensure peace in the region.(Posted @ 20:15 PST)
Quake survivors still need international assistance: boxer Amir Khan visits camp ISLAMABAD, Apr 8 (APP): Thousands of earthquake survivors in Pakistan are still in need of assistance, BBC reported. According to Oxfam more support is now needed as thousands of displaced people are moving from official camps to their home areas, while authorities begin to implement plans for rehabilitation and reconstruction. Faruqi Stocker, the agency's head in Pakistan, said "This process must be safe, voluntary, dignified and informed." There are plans to rebuild parts of Muzaffarabad, and there are also proposals to build a new town a few kilometres from Balakot, one of the hardest-hit areas in October 8 quake. Meanwhile, British boxer Amir Khan, who met survivors during a visit to Azad Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday said :"We all need to work together to give them as much help, care and time as they need to rebuild their homes and their lives." The 2004 Olympic silver medallist visited camps near Muzaffarabad and, referring to a previous visit in December, said: "Six months after the quake, we have made a lot of progress but there is still a lot to do."(Posted @ 20:05 PST)
Fire damages third floor of Al-Falah building LAHORE, April 8 (APP): A big fire on the third floor of the five-storey Al-falah building on Saturday afternoon damaged about two dozen offices but caused no loss of life. "All the people on the floor were rescued in time; only property was damaged," a fire brigade official said adding that an old man fainted due to suffocation. The fire was extinguished in about three hours. The cause of fire is being investigated.(Posted @ 20:02 PST)
Israeli missile hits militant car in Gaza, two dead GAZA, April 8 (Reuters) - An Israeli missile hit a car ferrying Palestinian militants back from a rocket attack in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, killing two of them, Palestinian and Israeli officials said. "We identified a cell from the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades firing rockets into Israel," an Israeli army spokesman said. "They fired the rockets, they got into the car and we hit the car," the spokesman added.(Posted @ 19:40 PST)
Two dead, 500 hurt in Bangladesh storm DHAKA, April 8 (Reuters) - At least two people were killed and over 500 injured when a storm lashed several villages in Bangladesh on Saturday, police and witnesses said. Nearly 500 houses were flattened and crops were damaged when the storm winds up to 100 km per hour swept through Bhuapur, 130 km northwest of Dhaka. The two dead were killed in a house collapse. Other people were injured by flying debris.(Posted @ 19:30 PST)
ElBaradei and inspectors in Iran for nuclear talks TEHRAN, April 8 (AFP) - UN atomic watchdog inspectors were Saturday visiting a key nuclear facility in Iran ahead of a visit by IAEA chief Mohahamed ElBaradei to persuade Tehran to prove its atomic programme is peaceful. The IAEA inspectors began their work by visiting the uranium enrichment facility in Natanz, after arriving in Tehran on Friday. Iran's representative to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltaniyeh, said the visit was "routine". It was not related to a United Nations Security Council resolution which requires Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment related activities by the end of April 2006, he said.(Posted @ 19:15 PST)
Lord Nazir fully supports Musharraf's Kashmir policy KOTLI, Azad Kashmir, April 8 (APP): Lord Nazir Ahmad has expressed full confidence in President Pervez Musharraf's Kashmir policy and criticized India's stubborn attitude in the resolution of regional issues especially Kashmir dispute. Addressing a news conference here Saturday he supported Musharraf's proposal of demilitarization and self-rule in Kashmir and asked India to give positive respose to Pakistan's sincere efforts to resolve the issue without loss of time.(Posted @ 17:35 PST)
Car bomb kills six pilgrims in Iraq MUSAYIB, April 8 (Reuters) - A car bomb killed at least six pilgrims south of Baghdad on Saturday. The blast near a Shi'ite shrine in the town of Musayib also wounded 16 people, said police Captain Muthana al-Ma'amouri. Just two hours earlier, influential Shi'ite leader Abdul Aziz al-Hakim had urged his followers to stand firm against what he called an al Qaeda campaign to ignite sectarian civil war with bombings like one on Friday that killed at least 70 people.(Posted @ 17:14 PST)
Tornadoes kill 11 in Tennessee: report WASHINGTON, April 8 (AFP) - Tornadoes spawned by a series of violent storms have killed at least 11 people in the southern US state of Tennessee and caused significant damage, The Nashvillee Tennessean reported Saturday. Eight of the deaths Friday were in Sumner County and the other three in Warren County, the paper said. The twisters spun homes off their foundations, snapped trees and tossed automobiles like they were toys, the report said. Last Sunday, a tornado killed 24 people in Dyer and Gibson counties in West Tennessee, the paper said.(Posted @ 17:10 PST)
OCCUPIED KASHMIR: JKLF reiterates call for polls boycott Srinagar, occupied Kashmir, April 08 (PPI)In occupied Kashmir, the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) has reiterated its call for total boycott of the so-called assembly by-elections, being held in four constituencies on the 24th of this month. According to Kashmir Media Service, a JKLF statement issued I Srinagar quoted leaders of the Front, while addressing a public gathering in Sangrama, urging the people to not take part in sham elections and demonstrate to the world that Kashmiris will not allow India to sabotage their liberation movement by polls ploy. The JKLF also appealed to the world human rights organizations, particularly the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) to exert pressure on India to end atrocities against innocent Kashmiris. (Posted @ 16:06 PST)
13 customs agents killed when gunmen open fire on them in Algeria ALGIERS, April 8 (AP) _ Gunmen attacked a convoy of customs agents travelling through the desert in Ghardaia region, 1,200 kilometers south of Algiers, killing 13 and injuring eight others, the official APS news agency reported. The attackers opened fire with machine-guns on vehicles transporting the customs agents to a seminar, then set the vehicles afire, according to a report on daily Liberte's Web site. (Posted @ 15:27 PST)
Bush signals opposition to automatic citizenship for illegals WASHINGTON, April 8, 2006 (AFP) - US President George W. Bush on Saturday expressed his opposition to granting automatic citizenship to those who had crossed the US border illegally after a Republican-sponsored immigration reform plan collapsed in the US Senate. "We must ensure that those who break our laws are not granted an automatic path to citizenship," Bush said in his weekly radio address.The comment appears to place Bush at odds with two key proposals considered by the Senate over the past weeks, which offer legalization -- and eventual citizenship -- to all or most of an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants currently living in the United States. (Posted @ 15:16 PST)
Mass break out at Malaysian immigration centre KOTA KINABALU, Malaysia, April 8 (AFP) - Sixty-four foreign migrants escaped Friday night from a immigration centre in Sabah state in eastern Malaysia after hundreds of detainees staged a noisy protest, police said Saturday. The migrants escaped by scaling a perimeter fence and tearing down a zinc wall. Earlier, some 1,400 detainees held a noisy protest after claiming a guard was rude to a fellow inmate. A massive air and ground search had been launched for the escapees who are mainly from the Philippines and Indonesia, police said. They were awaiting deportation after serving their sentences for immigration-related offences. (Posted @ 15:11 PST)
Turkish security forces kill six Kurdish rebels ISTANBUL, April 8 (Reuters) Turkish security forces have killed six militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in a large operation in the mainly Kurdish southeast, security sources said on Saturday. (Posted @ 14:20 PST)
Davis Cup results: India 2 Pakistan 1 MUMBAI, April 8, 2006 (AFP) Results from the Asia-Oceania Group One Davis Cup play-off tie between India and Pakistan at the Brabourne stadium here on Saturday: Doubles: Leander Paes/Mahesh Bhupathi (IND) beat Asim Shafik/Jalil Khan (PAK) 6-2, 6-3, 6-1. (Posted @ 14:17 PST)
Suicide blast at Afghan NATO base, three dead KABUL, April 8 (Reuters) A suicide attacker detonated a car filled with explosives outside a base of NATO-led peacekeeping troops in western Afghanistan’s Heart city on Saturday. An Afghan guard outside the base and a passer-by were killed, as well as the bomber, a security official said. There was no immediate report of any casualties among troops from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), a force spokesman said. ( First Posted @ 10:25 PST Updated @ 12:32 PST)
US to consider use of nuclear weapons against Iran: report WASHINGTON, April 8, 2006 (AFP) The administration of President George W. Bush is planning a massive bombing campaign against Iran, including use of bunker-buster nuclear bombs to destroy a key Iranian suspected nuclear weapons facility, The New Yorker magazine reported in its April issue. The article said that Bush and others in the White House have come to view Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as a potential Adolf Hitler. "That's the name they're using," the report quoted a former senior intelligence official as saying. A senior unnamed Pentagon adviser is quoted in the article as saying that "this White House believes that the only way to solve the problem is to change the power structure in Iran, and that means war." One former defense official said the military planning was premised on a belief that "a sustained bombing campaign in Iran will humiliate the religious leadership and lead the public to rise up and overthrow the government," The New Yorker reported. One of the options under consideration involves the possible use of a bunker-buster tactical nuclear weapon, such as the B61-11, to insure the destruction of Iran's main centrifuge plant at Natanz, the report added. (Posted @ 11:44 PST)
Two Palestinians die in tunnel collapse - medics GAZA, April 8 (Reuters) At least two Palestinians were killed on Saturday by the collapse of the tunnel they were allegedly trying to dig from the Gaza Strip to Egypt, medics said. Medics said at least four other people were hurt when the tunnel collapsed in the Rafah border area. (Posted @ 11:35 PST)
Twelve killed in Maoist attacks in Nepal KATHMANDU, April 8, 2006 (AFP) Nine Maoists and three security men were killed in overnight clashes in west Nepal, the army said Saturday. Nepal's government also imposed a day curfew in Kathmandu and its neighbouring areas on Saturday and some mobile phone services were disrupted, hours before a planned rally against King Gyanendra's rule. (First Posted@09:49 PST Updated@ 10:28 PST)
Israeli policies will spark new war: Abbas LONDON, April 8 (Reuters) Israel's unilateral plan to impose final borders in the West Bank will lead to another war in a decade, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said in an interview published on Saturday. Abbas told Britain's Guardian newspaper that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will jeopardise the prospect of long-term peace if he refuses to negotiate an agreement Palestinians see as just. Abbas said any such Israeli demarcation of borders in the West Bank will only prolong the Palestinian struggle. "They want our state within the wall without negotiations ... Nobody will accept it. The struggle will continue," Abbas said. (Posted @ 10:00 PST)
US Marine shot dead by Iraqi soldier BAGHDAD, April 8, 2006 (AFP) A US Marine was allegedly shot dead by an Iraqi soldier at a base of coalition forces near Al-Qaim, close to the Syrian border, the US military said Saturday. The Iraqi soldier was seriously wounded in the incident which took place on Thursday, the military said. It did not offer other details about the incident. The latest fatality brought the US military death toll in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion to 2,348 according to an AFP count based on Pentagon figures. (Posted @ 09:41 PST)
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