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| August 04, 2006 | Friday | Rajab 8, 1427 |
Updated round-the-clock, with major updates after 10:00 PST (05:00 GMT)
Israel kills 33 farm workers in Lebanon air strike CHTOURA, Lebanon, Aug 4 (Reuters) - At least 33 farm workers, including many Syrian Kurds, were killed on Friday when Israeli aircraft attacked trucks being loaded with fruit at a farm on Lebanon's border with Syria, security sources said. The farm near the village of Qaa in the northern tip of the eastern Bekaa Valley, was trgetted by Israeli fighters. At least three rockets hit the trucks, which were being loaded with peaches and plums. Most of the dead and about 20 wounded were evacuated to hospitals in Syria, they said. The death toll is one of the highest in a single strike since a 24-day-old Israeli assault.The deadliest strike killed 54 civilians, mostly children, in the village of Qana last week. (First Posted @ 17:12 PST Updated @ 20:06 PST)
Hizbollah rockets hit Israel; Lebanon bridges bombed BEIRUT, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Hizbollah fired dozens of rockets at Israel on Friday and Israeli air strikes destroyed four highway bridges north of Beirut, while fierce fighting raged in the south as Israeli troops tried to expand seven small border enclaves they control. Hizbollah rockets into northern Israel killed three Israelis and wounded several others, medics said. The bombing of bridges in the Christian heartlands north of Beirut cut off the main coastal highway to Syria. More than 150 Israeli air strikes hit targets across the south and artillery pounded border areas as Hizbollah tried to stop new Israeli incursions near Markaba and a strategic hill near the coastal town of Naqoura, security sources said. Hizbollah fighters, setting roadside bombs and firing anti-tank missiles, killed five Israeli soldiers near Markaba, Al Arabiya television said. Israel said two of its soldiers and 10 Hizbollah guerrillas were killed. Five people, including a Lebanese army soldier, were killed and 12 wounded in the bombing of the bridges, the Red Cross said. Another soldier was killed in overnight strikes on the Ouzai slum area near Beirut airport, the army said. (Posted @ 17:10 PST)
Pakistan parliament slams Israeli 'crime against humanity' ISLAMABAD, Aug 4 (AFP) - Pakistan's parliament called on the United Nations Friday to declare Israeli attacks on Lebanon as a "crime against humanity", state media said. A resolution adopted unanimously by the mainly Muslim country's National Assembly -- the lower house of parliament -- strongly condemned Israeli aggression, the Associated Press of Pakistan reported.It also urged rights organisations to take notice of what it called human rights violations by Israeli forces during the three-week-old conflict in the Middle East. The resolution was tabled by Liaquat Baloch, a senior leader of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, an alliance of six Islamic opposition parties. It "condemned the Israeli atrocities against innocent Lebanon people and urged the world body to take it up as a case of crime against humanity." No international peacekeeping force should be deployed in Lebanon unless the Jewish state completely withdraws its forces from the south of the country, the resolution said. The National Assembly also urged the United Nations to act before its credibility was harmed, and appealed to the international community to mount pressure on Israel for an immediate ceasefire. Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz told an emergency Organization of the Islamic Conference meeting in Malaysia on Thursday that continued inaction would have "incalculable consequences" for regional and world security. (Posted @ 16:25 PST)
U.S. slaps sanctions on N.Korea, India, Russian firms WASHINGTON, Aug 4 (Reuters) - The United States has imposed sanctions against seven companies from North Korea, Russia, India and Cuba for their arms deals with Iran, a State Department official said on Friday. "The sanctions apply to the specific entities and their successors, sub-units or subsidiaries and not to their respective countries or governments," a State Department official said of the sanctions against the companies. (Posted @ 23:10 PST)
Musharraf stresses for more incentives for small farmers RAWALPINDI, Aug 04 (Agencies): President General Pervez Musharraf has stressed the need of providing small farmers with incentives to increase agriculture and livestock production to help alleviate poverty at grassroot level. At a presentation by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries Friday he said the goals set by the ministry in its 10-year plan must be completed on schedule. For this purposes he emphasized upon the need for greater co-ordination between federal and provincial governments. He said progress should be reviewed on quarterly basis. (Posted @ 21:08 PST)
Israel kills 3 Palestinians in Gaza-medics GAZA, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Israel killed three Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Friday as it launched a series of air strikes that wounded four other people, witnesses and medics said. Two Palestinians were killed and another was wounded when a tank shell landed near a house in Rafah shortly after daybreak on Friday. A Hamas militant was also killed on Friday in an Israeli air strike, medics said. Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, in a speech during Friday prayers in Gaza, described Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip and in Lebanon as a "war on Islam". "It is a fight against Islam ... It is a war against the belief of the nation, it targets its religion and it targets those who adopted Islam as a way of life," Haniyeh said. (First Posted @ 09:50 PST Updated @ 20:15 PST)
Arab foreign ministers to meet in Beirut Monday CAIRO, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Arab foreign ministers will hold an emergency meeting in Beirut on Monday to press for a ceasefire between Israel and Hizbollah, the Egyptian foreign ministry said Friday. Arab foreign ministers called for a ceasefire on July 15, three days after the start of the conflict in Lebanon. Under pressure from public opinion, they wantthe fighting to end at once, even without a political agreement. (Posted @ 20:08 PST)
Hundreds of South Koreans begin to leave Afghanistan KABUL, Aug 4, 2006 (AFP) - About 400 South Korean Christians were flown out of Afghanistan's capital Friday following orders to leave after their presence caused security fears. The Afghan government put on special flights to take them from Kabul to Mazar-i-Sharif and to Herat from where they would leave the country by land -- the same way they entered, a South Korean official said. "We flew some 400 people either to Mazar or Herat ... we have some left because some of the planes were too small," he said on condition of anonymity. The remainder of 600 due to depart Friday would likely leave Saturday. Hundreds more were expected to follow, including some who had flown in from Almaty, Dubai and New Delhi and would be sent back the way they came. The government ordered them out amid fears for their safety, with some Muslim clerics already complaining they were preaching Christianity -- which is illegal in this country. The group began arriving in Afghanistan over the past few days for what they said was a trip to get to know the country and help with its reconstruction. The visit, labelled "Rejoice! Afghanistan!", was to have culminated in a now-cancelled "peace festival" in Kabul at the weekend to have showcased sporting and cultural events. (Posted @ 19:40 PST)
10 including 4 children killed as heavy rain lashes Malakand SWAT, Pakistan, Aug 4 (Agencies): At least 10 persons were killed including 4 teenage students as heavy rain lashed Malakand division, Friday. A woman and her son and daughter lost their lives when roof of a house collapsed in village Dankol in Martoong area. Two other female members of the family were injured. Four teenage students of Kando Maachala village were swept away in the strong currents of a nullah, a woman was drowned in Rega area, one person was killed and two others were injured in house collapse in Hisar village, and another person was reported killed in rain-related accident in Changlai, also in Malakand division. (Posted @ 20:45 PST)
Pakistan landslides, floods kill another 37 PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Aug 4 (AFP) - Monsoon rains triggered fresh landslides and floods in northern Pakistan Friday, as another 37 people had died in weather-related incidents. Twelve people were killed Friday and seven were missing after a flash flood swept their minibus into a canal as they travelled to a religious school near Rawalpindi, state media said. Another four people drowned in a swollen river near Tatta Khel, a town in North Waziristan, which borders Afghanistan, local officials said. In district Mansehra 31 people were killed in the past four days, mainly in landslides. District mayor Sardar Yousaf said around 20 of the deaths had occurred around Balakot, a tourist town devastated by the October 8 quake. A further 300 families lost tents or temporary shelters in landslides and were being shifted to refugee camps. A key road from Balakot to the mountainous Kaghan Valley that was only recently reopened after the earthquake had been cut again, Yousaf said. Landslides at the weekend also blocked the only route between Muzaffarabad and the scenic Neelum Valley. The UN refugee agency says landslides and floods have forced 6,000 quake survivors to return to emergency camps and that nearly 20,000 others are set to do so. "The likelihood of larger displacement due to the ongoing monsoon is very grave," Kilian Kleinschmidt, UNHCR's senior emergency coordinator for the South Asia earthquake, said late Thursday. Incidents blamed on the annual monsoon rains have now claimed more than 140 lives in Pakistan since. In neighbouring India they have killed more than 300 people. (First Posted @ 19:14 PST Updated @ 19:20 PST)
PM meets Thai counterpart BANGKOK/ISLAMABAD, Aug 4 (Agencies): Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz during a stop over in Bangkok while returning home, met Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and discussed with him matters of mutual interest including the situation in Lebanon. The two leaders condemned Israeli aggression on Lebanon and urged the UN Security Council to fulfil its responsibility and take steps to ensure immediate, unconditional ceasefire in Lebanon. Mr Shaukat Aziz arrived at Chaklala air base Friday afternoon. (First Posted @ 15:20 PST Updated @ 18:16 PST)
Eleven killed in Vietnam passenger bus plunge HANOI, Aug 4 (Reuters) - A passenger bus carrying 64 people plunged off a mountain pass into a 25 meters deep ravine in central Vietnam, killing 11 people and seriously injuring 53, the official Vietnam News Agency reported on Friday. (Posted @ 17:34 PST)
Three killed in rocket attack on northern Israel JERUSALEM, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Rockets fired by Hizbollah guerrillas in Lebonan rained down on Israel on Friday, killing three persons including one women and causing several injuries, medics said. Police said more than 33 rockets landed across northern Israel, including the Druze-Arab village of Maghar, where the woman was killed in a direct hit on her house. A man was seriously injured when a rocket landed near his car on the outskirts of Israel's northernmost town of Kiryat Shmona. An injury was also reported in the town of Safed. A Reuters witness said rockets continued to fall, mainly in the Safed area. Hizbollah rockets killed eight people in northern Israel on Thursday. (Posted @ 17:15 PST)
Six die in village gunbattles in occupied Kashmir SRINAGAR, occupied Kashmir, Aug 4 (AFP) - Five freedom fighters and an Indian soldier were killed and four soldiers hurt in a series of village gunbattles in revolt-hit occupied Kashmir, police said Friday. Three militants and the soldier were killed when fighting erupted in Gundana village of southern Doda district late Thursday after the Indian army backed by counter-insurgency police raided a suspected hideout. "As the troops raided the hideout militants opened fire killing a soldier and wounding four other troopers," a police spokesman said, adding that in the retaliatory "night-long offensive troops killed three militants". Another two militants were killed in gunbattles in Kangan, northeast of Srinagar, and Helmatpora in Kupwara district on Friday, the spokesman said. The insurgency against Indian rule has left more than 44,000 people dead by official count since it was launched in 1989. (Posted @ 16:52 PST)
India, Iran, Pakistan to appoint consultant on pipeline pricing NEW DELHI, Aug 4 (AFP) - India, Iran and Pakistan agreed Friday to appoint a consultant to resolve a row over the price of Iranian gas to be sold to the South Asian nations through a multi-billion dollar pipeline, Indian Petroleum Secretary M.S. Srinivasan told reporters at the close of the talks, according to the Press Trust of India. Further talks will be held once the consultant has presented a report a month from now, the PTI report said. (Posted @ 16:48 PST)
Tens of thousands of Iraq's Shiites march for Hezbollah BAGHDAD, Aug 4 (AFP) - Tens of thousands of people dressed in the symbolic white shrouds of martyrdom marched through Baghdad's Sadr City suburb on Friday, demonstrating in support of Lebanon's Hezbollah movement. The protesters carrying pictures of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah as well as Moqtada al-Sadr chanted slogans and were later addressed by Hazem al-Aariji who expressed anger at lack of action by Arab governments. A separate march of women swathed in the traditional black abaya cloak merged with the main crowd. (Posted @ 16:28 PST)
Insurgents kill at least 23 Iraqis in new day of attacks BAGHDAD, Aug 4 (AFP) - Insurgents killed at least 23 Iraqis, most of them police officers, in a wave of bombings across the country Friday, as hundreds of thousands of people in the capital marched in support of Hezbollah militia in Lebanon. Mosul woke to a dawn blitz of six bombs and a hail of mortars, which killed at least nine police officers and triggered a six-hour gunbattle in which an unknown number of insurgents were killed. "The situation is still volatile, and clashes are continuing in parts of the city," a senior police officer said. Further south in Nineveh, in the town of Al-Hadrah, a suicide bomber ploughed an explosives-laden car into group of police protecting a football match, killing three officers and seven civilians, police said. Earlier, in Baquba, a roadside bomb killed a pregnant Iraqi woman and her husband as they raced to hospital to deliver her child. The cab driver and the man's sister-in-law were injured in the blast. The killings came a day after the top US commander for the Middle East, General John Abizaid, told US lawmakers that Iraq could slide into civil war, three years after a US-led invasion overthrew Saddam Hussein's regime. (First Posted @ 14:43 PST Updated @ 16:22 PST)
NATO escapes two bombs in Afghanistan, 25 Taliban killed KANDAHAR, Aug 4 (AFP) - Two bombs exploded Friday near NATO patrols in Kandahar province in Maiwand district area that saw a series of bloody attacks a day earlier, while security forces said they had killed 25 rebels. The early morning bombs caused no damage or casualties to the force, a spokesman said. Separately, the US-led coalition said its forces and Afghan troops killed 25 Taliban on Thursday in Helmand province, after they attacked the security force with small-arms and rocket-propelled grenades during a coalition "cordon and search" mission in a village. Operations were continuing in the area on Friday to secure a major east-to-west highway running through it. The same road was the site of the attacks on the NATO troops on Thursday.(Posted @ 15:50 PST)
Bush pushes for change in Cuba HAVANA, Aug 3 (Reuters) U.S. President George W. Bush called on Cubans Thursday to work for a democratic change. "We will support you in your effort to build a transitional government in Cuba committed to democracy and we will take note of those, in the current Cuban regime, who obstruct your desire for a free Cuba," Bush said. His comments were the first public declaration on Cuba since Fidel Castro ceded power on Monday temporarily to younger brother Raul Castro because of surgery for gastrointestinal bleeding. (Posted @ 11:25 PST)
Five civilians killed in Sri Lanka clashes COLOMBO, Aug 4 (AFP) Five Muslim civilians were killed in shell attacks in the Sri Lankan town of Muttur Friday, raising the death toll from clashes between the army and Tamil rebels to 26, a legislator said. (Posted @ 10:50 PST)
Israelis bomb major power station in Lebanon BEIRUT, Aug 4 (AFP) Israeli warplanes Friday bombed a major power station that serves the south of the eastern Bekaa Valley and much of southern Lebanon, police said. Electricity was immediately cut in the region. The scale of damage was not immediately known, and there was no word of victims. (Posted @ 10:50 PST)
Two marines killed in Iraq's Anbar province BAGHDAD, Aug 4 (Reuters) Two U.S. marines were killed in action in separate incidents in Iraq's Anbar province west of Baghdad, the U.S. military said. The marines, assigned to Regimental Combat Team 5, died on Thursday. (Posted @ 09:40 PST)
Karachi Stocks up 105.09 points: KARACHI, Aug 04: At close of trading, the KSE-100 index was at 10772.58, up 105.09 points. (Bureau Report) (Updated @ 16:05 PST)
Forex update: KARACHI, Aug 04: The Pakistani Rupee was traded at Rs 60.82 to the US Dollar in the open market. (Bureau Report) (Updated @ 14:35 PST)
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