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| July 31, 2006 | Monday | Rajab 4, 1427 |
Updated round-the-clock, with major updates after 10:00 PST (05:00 GMT)
Rescuers recover 25 bodies in south Lebanon BEIRUT, July 31 (Reuters) - Rescue workers retrieved the remains of 25 civilians from the rubble of collapsed houses in three south Lebanon villages on Monday, Lebanese Red Cross sources said. They said 12 bodies were recovered in the village of Sreefa, nine in Zibqeen and four in Qleileh, and rescuers were looking for more people believed buried under the rubble by Israeli air strikes over the past three weeks. (Posted @ 20:28 PST)
Bloodiest ground battle tests Sri Lanka's threadbare truce, toll 44 COLOMBO, July 31, (AFP) - Sri Lankan troops and Tiger rebels Monday fought their bloodiest ground battle since a 2002 truce, with the military reporting at least 44 combatants killed, but monitors said it was still not full-scale war. The army's ground offensive was backed by Israeli-built Kfir jets which bombarded positions of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the military said. (First Posted @ 20:22 PST Updated @ 23:20 PST)
Pakistan foreign minister warns UN authority at stake as Lebanese fighting rages on ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, July 31, (AP) _ Pakistan's foreign minister warned on Monday the U.N. risks losing its moral and legal authority because the Security Council has not called for an unconditional cease-fire in the Lebanon conflict. ``This could lead to a very dangerous situation,'' Foreign Minister Khursheed Kasuri said. Despite the loss of lives, the Lebanon crisis could be an opportunity to settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he said. (Posted @ 23:52 PST)
Pakistani president calls for cease-fire in Lebanon ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, July 31, (AP) _ Pakistan's president called Monday for an immediate cease-fire in Lebanon, as his foreign minister said the U.N. risks losing its moral and legal authority because the Security Council has not stopped the fighting. ``The issue has to be resolved through talks and the Palestinian people have got to get their own homeland,'' President Pervez Musharraf, a key ally in the U.S. war on terror, told a group of military cadets in Chakwal, about 110 kilometers (70 miles) outside the capital, the state-run APP news agency reported. (Posted @ 23:35 PST)
Red Cross finds 12 bodies by south Lebanon roads TYRE, Lebanon, July 31, (AFP) - Lebanese Red Cross teams recovered 12 bodies, among them an eight-year-old child, on roads in the south of the country Monday, a spokesman said. The bodies "had been there for several days in cars on roads in the Jibbain and Klaileh region" near the coast, said the Red Cross spokesman. (Posted @ 23:28 PST)
Security Council extends Lebanon peacekeeping force mandate UNITED NATIONS, July 31, (AFP) - The UN Security Council on Monday extended the mandate of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) for one month, to give world powers more time to discuss a new international force for the conflict-stricken country. (Posted @ 23:26 PST)
Israeli jets raid Lebanon-Syria border, five wounded MASNAA, Lebanon, July 31, (AFP) - Israeli warplanes raided on Monday Lebanon's Masnaa border crossing with Syria for the third time in as many days, wounding four customs employees and a civilian, security sources said. A missile struck a pick-up full of vegetables near the customs building while another missile slammed just after the last building of the crossing point to Syria, they said. (Posted @ 22:46 PST)
Hezbollah claims attack on warship, Israel denies TYRE, Lebanon, July 31, (AFP) - Hezbollah guerrillas fired a missile on an Israeli warship off the coast of the southern Lebanese port city of Tyre on Monday, police said, but the Israeli army denied the claim. It claimed in a statement that its guerrillas had "destroyed a Zionist warship ... off Tyre." "At 4:30 pm (1330 GMT), the Islamic Resistance attacked with its blessed missiles an Israeli SAAR 4.5 (fast attack missile boat), with a crew of 53 officers and soldiers, off the coast of Tyre," it said. "It was hit and destroyed. (Posted @ 22:30 PST)
Bush resists Mideast ceasefire calls MIAMI, July 31, (AFP) - US President George W. Bush on Monday resisted calls for an immediate ceasefire in the Middle East, saying instead that the UN Security Council would work this week for a "sustainable" peace. "I assured the people here that we will work toward a plan at the UN Security Council that addresses the root causes of the problem," Bush said during a trip here. "We want a long-lasting peace, one that is sustainable," the president said after an Israeli airstrike killed 52 civilians in the southern Lebanese town of Qana. (Posted @ 22:15 PST)
Thirteen dead, fears for 19 more after flash floods in Afghanistan JALALABAD, Afghanistan, July 31, (AFP) - Flash floods caused by heavy unseasonal rains have killed at least 13 people with another 19 feared dead in eastern and southeastern provinces of Afghanistan, officials said Monday. Thirteen bodies were recovered after floods Sunday caused by torrential rains in eastern Nangarhar province on the border with Pakistan, the provincial administration director told AFP. Five people had been injured and seven were still missing, Ghulam Sayed Khogiani said. (Posted @ 19:45 PST)
Israel vows to ramp up Hezbollah offensive JERUSALEM, July 31, (AFP) - Israel vowed Monday to step up its offensive on Hezbollah, saying an immediate truce would only spur on the militant group that has repeatedly lobbed rockets at the Jewish state despite the three-week blitz on its positions across Lebanon. Defense Minister Amir Peretz said Israel could not accept an immediate ceasefire, although it has agreed to halt air strikes for 48 hours amid global outrage over the killing of at least 52 people, most of them children, in the Lebanese village of Qana. (Posted @ 18:26 PST)
UN seeks security guarantees to boost Lebanon aid JERUSALEM, July 31 (Reuters) - The United Nations will need further security guarantees from all sides before boosting relief efforts in southern Lebanon, saying a 48-hour partial suspension of Israeli air strikes did not go far enough. "A suspension of aerial activity in southern Lebanon, if it were to be implemented, would fall short of this urgent requirement, though it would at least be a start," a U.N. official said on Monday. (Posted @ 17:08 PST)
Six killed, ten wounded in occupied kashmir violence SRINAGAR, occupied kashmir, July 31, (AFP) - Six people were killed in shootings and 10 wounded in a grenade attack on a bus carrying Hindu pilgrims in occupied kashmir, police and the army said Monday as a group of a dozen militants gave themselves up to troops. Indian soldiers shot dead four rebels during a fierce gunbattle. "The four were killed during a gunbattle that erupted late Sunday in the Gurez sector," said army spokesman Hemant Joneja. (Posted @ 16:20 PST)
Explosion rocks key Pakistani weapons factory near capital; no injuries ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, July 31 (AP) An explosion rocked a key Pakistani weapons-making complex Monday but no one was hurt, an official said. The blast in an underground building used to fill munitions shells with explosives partially damaged some storage facilities at the Pakistan Ordnance Factories in Wah, a town about 40 kilometers west of the capital Islamabad, the state-run facility said in a statement. ``There was no human loss or damage to the plant or machinery. Only some buildings were partially damaged'' in the early morning explosion, the statement said. The building was unoccupied because workers had not returned from their weekend break, an official at the complex said. Authorities have ordered an investigation to determine what caused the blast, the official said. (Posted @ 14:55 PST)
Gunmen kidnap 25 people in central Baghdad BAGHDAD, July 31 (Reuters) Gunmen wearing camouflaged uniforms of Iraqi security forces kidnapped 25 people from a company in central Baghdad on Monday, police sources said. The gunmen pulled up in 15 four-wheel-drive vehicles and kidnapped employees and customers of the company on a commercial street in the Arasat district of the capital. (Posted @ 14:55 PST)
Israeli airstrike suspension not enough: French PM MANTES-LA-JOLIE, France, July 31 (Reuters) French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin welcomed on Monday Israel's pledge to suspend airstrike in neighbouring Lebanon for 48 hours, but said it was not enough. "It is, for France, a first step, but an insufficient step given the current stakes," he told reporters at Mantes-la-Jolie, a suburb west of Paris, at his regular monthly press conference. (Posted @ 14:50 PST)
Three Israeli soldiers hurt in new Lebanon fighting JERUSALEM, July 31 (Reuters) Three Israeli soldiers were lightly wounded on Monday in fighting with Hizbollah fighters in the Kafr Kila area near the border in southern Lebanon, the army said. An army spokesman said a Hizbollah anti-tank missile hit an Israeli armoured personnel carrier. A tank that went in to rescue the troops was also hit by a missile and three soldiers were lightly wounded, the spokesman said. Hizbollah said it had destroyed Israeli two tanks in the fighting and damaged a third. (Posted @ 14:45 PST)
Israeli fire kills one Lebanese soldier, wounds three TYRE, July 31 (Reuters) Israeli fire on a Lebanese army post on the main coastal road in south Lebanon on Monday killed one soldier and wounded three, security sources said. They said it was not immediately clear if Israeli aircraft or warships carried out the attack on the post in Qasmiyeh village north of the port city of Tyre. (Posted @ 14:45 PST)
Cricket-Sri Lanka crushes South Africa by an innings and 153 runs COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, July 31 (AP) Sri Lanka beat South Africa by an innings and 153 runs Monday in the first cricket test at Sinhalese Sports Club ground. Scores: South Africa 169 and 434. Sri Lanka 756 for five wickets declared. (Posted @ 14:25 PST)
British Foreign Secretary calls Qana tragedy 'Appalling' LONDON, July 31 (AFP) The "appalling" tragedy in Qana raises pressure for a United Nations agreement this week aimed at ending hostilities between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah, British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said Monday. "The important and urgent thing is to make sure that this is the basis for an agreement and all the effort, and all the pressure goes on to getting an agreement now, this week," Beckett told BBC Radio. (Posted @ 13:25 PST)
Governor survives blast, four killed in Afghanistan JALALABAD, Afghanistan, July 31 (AFP) An Afghan governor survived an apparent bomb blast in eastern Afghanistan Monday that killed four people and injured five children, a correspondent said. A parked car exploded as the governor of the eastern province of Nangarhar walked out of a mosque, the correspondent at the scene said. Four people in the car, two of them in police uniform, were killed, he said. Five children nearby were hurt and taken to hospital. The governor, Gul Agha Sherzai, was unhurt. (Posted @ 12:10 PST)
Rice believes can forge Lebanon truce this week JERUSALEM, July 31 (Reuters) U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Monday she believed a ceasefire to end fighting between Israel and the Hizbollah guerrilla group in Lebanon could be forged this week. Rice told reporters in Jerusalem that she would call for a U.N. resolution this week on the ceasefire and also the establishment of an international stabilisation force for Lebanon. (Posted @ 10:40 PST)
Roadside bomb targets U.S. convoy in Iraq BAGHDAD, Iraq, July 31 (AP) A roadside bomb exploded near a U.S. military convoy in eastern Baghdad’s residential area early Monday, damaging a Humvee and inflicting American casualties, Iraqi police said. Police had no other details, and the U.S. military command in Baghdad did not release any information immediately. (Posted @ 10:35 PST)
Israeli warplanes strike in eastern Lebanon BEIRUT, July 31 (Reuters) Israeli warplanes launched raids on eastern Lebanon on Monday, Lebanese security sources said, hours after the Jewish state suspended aerial bombardment of south Lebanon for 48 hours. The sources said at least two air strikes hit roads near the border with Syria in the early hours. (Posted @ 09:20 PST)
Help Afghanistan or terrorists will breed: NATO chief HONG KONG, July 31 (AFP) NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer warned Monday that Afghanistan could again become a breeding ground for terrorists without greater international help. "NATO should never become the exit strategy for the rest of the international community," De Hoop Scheffer said in an interview with London's Financial Times (FT) newspaper. The NATO chief called for greater aid from the European Union, the United Nations, the G8 and bilateral donors. While acknowledging that NATO needed to do more to train Afghan soldiers, he also said he felt "the EU should be much more active in training the Afghan national police". NATO is scheduled to take over from a US-led coalition later Monday at a small ceremony in Kandahar. (Posted @ 09:10 PST)
Karachi Stocks up 144.14 points: KARACHI, July 31: At close of trading, the KSE-100 index was at 10497.66, up 144.14 points. (Bureau Report) (Updated @ 14:20 PST)
Forex update: KARACHI, July 31: The Pakistani Rupee was traded at Rs 60.95 to the US Dollar in the open market. (Bureau Report) (Updated @ 14:20 PST)
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