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| April 26, 2006 | Wednesday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 27, 1427 |
Updated round-the-clock, with major updates after 10:00 PST (05:00 GMT)
Pakistan, India expect nuclear safety pact in July ISLAMABAD, April 26 (Reuters) Nuclear powers Pakistan and India said on Wednesday they would finalise an agreement in July to reduce risks of nuclear accidents. "Both sides discussed the modalities for further securing the foreign secretaries' hotline," a joint statement issued after the Islamabad talks said."The two sides held detailed discussions on the draft text of an agreement, the objective of which is to reduce the risk from accidents relating to nuclear weapons, and agreed to work towards its finalisation," the joint statement said."Finalisation of the agreement would take place during the next round of foreign secretary level talks in New Delhi in July," Pakistan's Additional Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Tariq Osman Haider, said at a joint press briefing with K.C Singh, Additional Secretary of the Indian External Affairs Ministry. Singh said India's nuclear doctrine was based on a policy of no first use. More talks scheduled for Thursday would focus on non-nuclear issues, specifically a draft agreement relating to prevention of incidents at sea and ensuring safe navigation by vessels and aircraft.(Posted @ 19:15 PST)
Reshuffling in cabinet to enhance performance: PM Aziz ISLAMABAD, Apr 26 (APP): Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz Wednesday said the induction of new ministers and the reshuffling in the cabinet has been made in the best national interest and it was not related to any specific reason. He expressed the hope it would enhance the performance of the cabinet. Talking to newsmen here at Al-Shifa Hospital after inaugurating a training academy for paramedics, Aziz said the government has reposed full confidence in the ministers and it was up to them to fulfil their responsibilities with hard work, honesty and total impartially. Replying to a question, he said the changes in the cabinet were made after consultations among the coalition partners and through mutual consultations. He added that the change in the port-folios was not an indication of any change in the political set up of the country. About the PML elections, he said PML President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain has already announced that these elections would be completed by August this year.(Posted @ 17:10 PST)
Musharraf urges tribesmen to help thwart terrorism, extremism PESHAWAR, April 26 (APP): President General Pervez Musharraf Wednesday called upon tribesmen to help frustrate terrorism and extremism in their areas and maintain peace. Addressing a grand tribal jirga here at the Governor's House, he urged the tribal elders to curb terrorism and extremism through the traditional jirga system so that the federal government can minimize its deployment of security forces and eventually withdraw them from their tribal areas. "The nation demands sacrifice and solidarity and I am sure you will not hesitate to play your role in the sacred task," he told the tribal jirga. Musharraf advised the tribesmen to differentiate between their well-wishers and foes and said that the foreign terrorists were using "our soil for the fulfilment of their nefarious designs and putting them (tribesmen) in trouble and danger." He promised that he would double the annual development programme for FATA from rupees five billion to rupees ten billion annually provided peace and tranquillity was maintained. He also promised that they would be accorded duty free access to market for their industries and there would be other developmental projects in the areas. The jirga was also addressed by the NWFP Governor Khalilur Rehman while the address of welcome was represented by Malik Waris Khan Afridi. The elders assured the President of their support.(Posted @ 19:00 PST)
President performs ground-breaking of Diamir-Bhasha dam DIAMIR, Apr 26 (APP): President General Pervez Musharraf on Wednesday performed the ground-breaking of the $6.5 billion Diamir-Bhasha dam and declared that all dams including Kalabagh will be built under the "2016 Water Vision". "Water and energy are matters of life and death for us. We have to build all dams," he said at the ceremony. "We need water to develop our agriculture while cheap energy is needed for the industrial development," he added. He regretted the fact that Pakistan was producing a mere 6000 mw electricity through hydropower against the available capacity of generating 40,000 MW.(Posted @ 18: 35 PST)
Iranian bus plunges into valley, killing 13 TEHRAN, April 26 (Reuters) A bus plunged 160 metres off a winding mountain road in southern Iran on Wednesday, killing 13 passengers and injuring 22, state television quoted police as saying. Police blamed a slippery road and the speed of the bus for the crash near the town of Ardal 560 kilometres south of Tehran.(Posted @ 18:30 PST)
India agrees to invest in Uzbek energy fields TASHKENT, April 26 (Reuters) Uzbekistan agreed on Wednesday to open up its oil and gas sector to India and invited one of the world's biggest energy consumers to invest in new fields. Speaking after talks with visiting Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Uzbek President Islam Karimov, standing beside Singh in the capital Tashkent, said "Uzbekistan's vast oil and gas reserves are attractive to India which needs resources to ensure its energy security". During the visit, Uzbekistan and India signed three framework agreements specifying India's role in Uzbekistan's energy and minerals sector. Karimov said he was ready to offer India new exploration sites under a production-sharing agreement, but gave no details.(Posted @ 18: 20 PST)
Artist claims she caused London bomb alerts LONDON, April 26 (Reuters) A "performance artist" sparked a major security alert on Wednesday when she left five suspect packages, one with nails sticking out of it, across a busy area of London during the morning rush-hour, police said.Police, fearing a possible repeat of last July's suicide bomb attacks which killed 52 commuters on the capital's transport system, rushed bomb squad officers to the scene and threw a large cordon around the area. About an hour later, the operation was scaled down after the woman went to police and claimed responsibility.(Posted @ 18: 15 PST)
Four Afghan soldiers killed by roadside bomb JALALABAD, Afghanistan, April 26, 2006 (AFP) Four Afghan soldiers were killed and three were wounded after their vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb in Daywagal, a village in Kunar province, a provincial governor said on Wednesday.Separately in the capital Kabul a rocket hit a neighbourhood close to the US embassy and wounded three civilians late Tuesday, police said.(Posted @ 17:45 PST)
Iran’s Ahmadinejad vows to ignore Security Council TEHRAN, April 26, 2006 (AFP) Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed Wednesday to resist any UN Security Council demands for a halt to the Islamic republic's nuclear programme. "We won't back down one iota on our lawful and inalienable rights," the president was quoted as saying by the official news agency IRNA. He also said the UN bodies should "fulfil their duty lawfully so that the Islamic republic will not need to reconsider its relations with them."The rest of the world must "accept Iran as a nuclear country, which is an undeniable fact", he added.(Posted @ 16:30 PST)
Chinese scientists clone mad cow-resistant calf BEIJING, April 26 (Reuters) Chinese scientists have succeeded in cloning a cow with gene cells resistant to mad cow disease, the official Xinhua news agency said on Wednesday. The birth of the 55-kg calf in the eastern province of Shandong comes three years after a team led by now-disgraced South Korean scientist Hwang Woo-suk cloned cows with a protein structure resistant to bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).(Posted @ 16:30 PST)
U.S. officer to be charged over Abu Ghraib abuse-NYT WASHINGTON, April 26 (Reuters) The U.S. Army plans to charge a high ranking officer in connection with the abuse of prisoners at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison, The Washington Post and The New York Times reported on Wednesday, quoting his lawyer. The papers said in their online editions that Lt. Col.Steven L. Jordan, the former head of the interrogation unit at the jail, was expected to be charged on Friday with dereliction of duty, lying to investigators and conduct unbecoming an officer. He would be the highest-ranking officer at Abu Ghraib to face criminal charges in connection with the abuse of inmates at the prison.(Posted @ 16:30 PST)
Two suicide bombings in north Sinai CAIRO, April 26 (Reuters) Two men blew themselves up in Egypt's north Sinai on Wednesday, one near an airport used by an international observer force, security sources said. A spokesman for the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO), said the first bomber appeared to target observer force vehicles but there were no MFO injuries. Egyptian security sources had said two members of the multinational force were injured.(Posted @ 16:30 PST)
Abbas calls for Mideast peace conference 'immediately' OSLO, April 26, 2006 (AFP) Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas called on Wednesday for an international conference to be held "immediately" to negotiate a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "An international conference should be summoned immediately, in which direct negotiations take place, on the basis of international UN resolutions and signed agreements," Abbas said in a speech at the Nobel Institute in Oslo. "The international group, whether it is the Quartet (the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations), or any other international framework, would play the role of the broker and arbitrator at the same time," he added. "I believe that to resolve the conflict, both sides should not be left alone with this imbalance of occupier and occupied," Abbas said. (Posted @ 15:20 PST)
China, Russia, Central Asians plan anti-terror drill BEIJING, April 26 (Reuters) China, Russia and four Central Asian states have agreed to hold anti-terrorism drills in Russia next year, China's official Xinhua news agency said on Wednesday. The six nations of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) announced the exercises after a one-day meeting of their defence ministers in Beijing. (Posted @ 15:19 PST)
CIA kidnapped terror suspects in the EU: top EU lawmaker BRUSSELS, April 26 (Reuters) A top European Union lawmaker on Wednesday backed allegations the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency had kidnapped and illegally detained terror suspects on EU territory and flown them to countries who used torture. "The CIA has, on several occasions, clearly been responsible for kidnapping and illegally detaining alleged terrorists on the territory of (EU) member states, as well as for extraordinary renditions," Claudio Fava said in his first interim report of the European Parliament's probe into the alleged CIA abuses. Claudio Fava said in his report that it would be very unlikely that the Italian authorities or secret services were not aware of the case of Abu Omar who was seized in broad daylight in 2003 before flying him to Egypt. Fava's report also refers to the case of two Egyptian terrorism suspects who were handed over to U.S. agents and flown home aboard a U.S. government-leased plane in 2001. (Posted @ 15:19 PST)
U.S. Secretary of State Rice arrives in Iraq BAGHDAD, April 26 (Reuters) U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made an unscheduled visit to Baghdad on Wednesday just after U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld went to Baghdad in a show of support for Iraq's new leadership.Rice arrived on a military plane from Turkey, breaking off from a tour of several European countries. Rice said that the joint visit with Rumsfeld was aimed at building on the political movement achieved by the formation of a national government under new Prime Minister-designate Jawad al-Maliki. (Posted @ 15:18 PST)
Pakistani tribesmen find headless "U.S. informer" DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan, April 26 (Reuters) -Pro-Taliban militants beheaded a cab driver on suspicion of being an informer for the United States, the fourth such killing in Waziristan region this month, officials said on Wednesday. The body was found late on Tuesday by the roadside in Shavai Kainari, 25 km south of Wana, the main town of South Waziristan that borders Afghanistan in an area where U.S.-led forces are hunting al Qaeda militants and their allies. An intelligence official in Wana, requesting anonymity, said the driver was kidnapped last week.(Posted @ 11:55 PST)
Saudi boycotts tribunal, calls U.S. God's enemy GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba, April 26 (Reuters) -A Saudi charged with being part of an al Qaeda bomb-making cell branded the United States on Tuesday as an enemy of God and rejected its right to try him in a military tribunal. Jabran Said bin al Qahtani, an electrical engineer captured at an al Qaeda safe house in Pakistan in March 2002, appeared for a pretrial hearing near the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, wearing the beige prison garb given to detainees classed as "compliant." But when questioned by the hearing's presiding officer,Qahtani said he wanted no part of tribunal and refused to accept the military defence lawyer assigned to his case. "I don't want an ttorney. I don't want a court," said Qahtani a father of two in his late 20s, with bushy dark hair and shaggy beard. "A nation that is an enemy of God is not a leader and annot be a leader," added the detainee, who spoke through a court translator. "You judge me and you sentence me the way youwant, if this is God's will."(Posted @ 11:45 PST)
British Deputy PM Prescott admits affair LONDON, April 26 (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Tony Blair, mired in a sleaze row over his Labour Party's conduct, suffered a new blow on Wednesday when his deputy admitted an affair with one of his secretaries. Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott said he regretted the relationship, which ended some time ago. "I have discussed this fully with my wife Pauline who is devastated by the news," he said in a statement. "I would be grateful if Pauline and I can now get on with our lives together."
Sri Lanka strikes kill 12 in east, Tamilnet says COLOMBO, April 26 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka military strikes on Tamil Tiger positions in the east of the country killed at least 12 civilians, the pro-rebel Tamilnet Web site reported on Wednesday. The bodies, including those of women and children, were recovered from Muttur, in the eastern district of Trincomalee, where Sri Lanka's military hit with air strikes and artillery on Tuesday in retaliation for Tiger attacks.(Posted @ 10:40 PST)
China arrests 12 human traffickers, rescues 28 children BEIJING, April 26, 2006 (AFP) - Chinese police rescued 28 children and arrested 12 people for kidnapping as they busted a cross-province human trafficking gang in southern China, state media said Wednesday. The children were reunited with their parents on Tuesday after being rescued by police in the southwestern province of Yunnan and the southeastern province of Fujian, China News Service reported. China's strict "one child" birth control policy, coupled with the country's long tradition of favouring boys, are seen as major factors behind the nation's child trafficking problem. While some children are kidnapped, many kids that end up being trafficked are girls abandoned by parents who want another chance at trying for a son.(Posted @ 10:24 PST)
Two civilians killed in Tamil Tiger attack in Sri Lanka COLOMBO, April 26 (AFP) - At least two civilians were killed and eight wounded Wednesday in a mortar attack launched by Tamil Tiger rebels in response to air strikes by Sri Lankan security forces, the military said. Military officials earlier said an Israeli-built Kfir jet accidentally dropped a bomb on Muttur jetty in northern Trincomalee district while attacking suspected Tamil Tiger positions. "Tigers fired mortars at the Thakwanagar naval detachment and that is when the civilians were wounded," a military official said, adding two Sri Lankan navy sailors were among the eight wounded.(Posted @ 10:23 PST)
Rumsfeld arrives on surprise visit to Baghdad BAGHDAD, April 26 (AFP) - US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld flew to Baghdad Wednesday to size up new Iraqi leaders who will play a big part in defining the US role in the next four years.(Posted @ 09:15 PST)
Zarqawi appears in Internet video, vows to defeat US PARIS, April 26 (AFP) - Al-Qaeda's feared Iraq frontman Abu Musab al-Zarqawi vowed to defeat the United States in a website video Tuesday, in a rare public appearance by one of the world's most wanted militants."By God, America will be defeated in Iraq," the man identified as Zarqawi warned in the video message. "America will be chased out of the Land of Two Rivers defeated and humiliated," he vowed. A bearded, beefy Zarqawi, with a black scarf wrapped around his head, was shown gripping an automatic rifle and meeting with fighters briefing him on events in the restive Iraqi town of Ramadi.The fighter said that the mujahedeen in Ramadi's western Al-Anbar province had developed two rockets they would use soon -- one was dubbed "Qaeda 1", with a range of 40 kilometers , while the other was an armour-piercing rocket dubbed "Quds (Jerusalem) 1". In the message, Zarqawi, who said the video was filmed April 21, also vowed to carry on his fight against the Americans across the Middle East.(Posted @ 09:15 PST)
Twenty-six Commonwealth Games participants seek asylum in Australia SYDNEY, April 26 (AFP) - Twenty-six athletes and officials who participated in last month's Commonwealth Games in Melbourne have sought asylum in Australia, an official said Wednesday. They include members of teams from the African countries of Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria and Sierra Leone as well as Bangladesh, an immigration department spokesman said.(Posted @ 09:10 PST)
US court finds Pakistani-American guilty of Al-Qaeda training SAN FRANCISCO, April 26 (AFP) - A Pakistani-American man was found guilty in a California court Tuesday of undergoing Al-Qaeda training just hours after a mistrial was declared in his father's trial in the same case. Jurors declared Hamid Hayat guilty of providing "material support" to the enemy by training in Pakistan as a terrorist and of lying about it to FBI agents, according to the US Attorney's Office. Hayat faces up to 39 years in prison and is to be sentenced on July 14.(Posted @ 09:10 PST)
Karachi Stocks down 31.54 points: KARACHI, Apr 26: At close of trading KSE-100 index was at 11910.28, down 31.54 points. (Bureau Report) (Updated @ 14:30 PST)
Forex update: KARACHI, Apr 26: The Pakistani Rupee was traded at Rs 60.37 to the US Dollar in the open market. (Bureau Report) (Updated @ 10:00 PST)
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