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| September 26, 2006 | Tuesday | Ramazan 2, 1427 |
Updated round-the-clock, with major updates after 10:00 PST (05:00 GMT)
Russia to ship fuel for Iranian nuclear plant by March MOSCOW, Sept 26 (AP) _ Russia will ship fuel to a controversial atomic power plant it is building in Iran by March under an agreement signed Tuesday _ a deal that should allay Iranian suspicions that Moscow is dragging its feet but add to Western fears over Tehran's nuclear ambitions. Russian news agencies reported that Sergei Shmatko, head of the state-run company Atomstroiexport, and Mahmoud Hanatian, vice president of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, signed an additional protocol setting out a time frame for starting up the US$800 million (euro630 million) Bushehr nuclear plant _ Iran's first. ``The document provides for supplying Russian fuel for the atomic energy plant in March, physical startup in September 2007 and electric generation by November 2007,'' Hanatian was quoted as saying by ITAR-Tass. Shmatko said about 80 tons of fuel would be supplied, according to Interfax and ITAR-Tass. (Posted @ 20:16 PST)
Suicide bombing in south Afghanistan kills 18, Italian soldier killed in Kabul LASHKAR GAH, Sept 26 (AP) _ A suicide bomber struck outside the compound of the governor house in Lashkargah, Halmand province, on Tuesday, killing 18 people, including several pilgrims seeking Hajj papers, and injuring 18 others, officials said. Those killed included nine Afghan soldiers and nine civilians, but governor Mohammed Daoud Safi was inside and was not injured in the attack. Meanwhile, a bomb attack against a three-vehicle NATO convoy just south of Kabul killed an Italian soldier, officials said. Chief Corp. Maj. Giorgio Langella was killed in the blast, and five Italian soldiers were wounded, two seriously, the Italian Defense Ministry said in Rome. A child riding in a car behind the NATO convoy was killed, while four other civilians in the car were wounded. In another incident, a suicide bomber on foot killed himself Tuesday while trying to attack a vehicle carrying security workers to the border in Khost province. No one else was injured in the blast. (Posted @ 17:54 PST)
New Japan PM Abe pledges muscular diplomacy, reform TOKYO, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Japan's new prime minister, Shinzo Abe, pledged on Tuesday to boost the country's role in global affairs and revive respect for traditional values at home. He also said he wanted to improve ties with and keep economic reforms on track while addressing voter concerns about widening social disparities. "I want to pursue an assertive diplomacy," Abe told a news conference. Abe reiterated his call for tighter ties with Washington, pledged to work towards rewriting Japan's pacifist constitution and put more discipline in classrooms. In a new cabinet announced earlier in the day, outspoken Foreign Minister Taro Aso, kept his portfolio, while former defence minister Fumio Kyuma, was named to the defence post. Koji Omi, a former economic planning agency chief, was named finance minister, while economics professor Hiroko Ota takes over as economics minister. (First Posted @ 09:00 PST Updated @ 20:46 PST)
Hosts India demand Hair-less Champions Trophy MUMBAI, Sept 26 (AFP) - Hosts India have asked the International Cricket Council not to consider controversial umpire Darrell Hair for next month's Champions Trophy. Indian cricket board secretary Niranjan Shah told AFP that a letter had been sent to the ICC asking that Hair be kept out to avoid any trouble during the 10-nation tournament. "We have nothing against the man, but since there is so much controversy surrounding him, it may be better that Hair is not appointed for the Champions Trophy," Shah said. "We don't want any trouble during the tournament." Pakistan have already demanded that Hair be kept out of their matches in the Champions Trophy, but with the hosts going further and asking he not be allowed to travel to India, the ICC may be forced to keep Hair at bay. (Posted @ 19:44 PST)
Bush counterattacks on Iraq-terrorism link WASHINGTON, Sept 26, (AFP) - US President George W. Bush on Tuesday on charged that it was "naive" and "a mistake" to think that the Iraq war fueled global terrorism, rejecting the reported conclusions of US spy agencies. "My judgment is, if we weren't in Iraq, they'd find some other excuse," he said during a joint public appearance with Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai after talks at the White House. In an angry election-year counterattack, Bush said he would make public parts of a secret US intelligence report tying Iraq and terrorism and blasted weekend news accounts of the assessment as politically motivated leaks. "Once again there's a leak out of our government, coming right down the stretch in this campaign in order to create confusion in the minds of the American people," he fumed, referring to November legislative elections. (Posted @ 22:56 PST)
Canadian Oil, Gas company to invest $ 200m in Pakistan New York, Sept. 26 (PPI) A leading Canadian Oil and Gas company has signed an agreement with Pakistan to explore, develop and produce Coal Bed Methane in Thar. President Pervez Musharraf was also present at the signing ceremony. The two hundred million dollars project would generate fifty thousand direct jobs. The Oil Company Cathay which plans to invest over two billion dollars in the project over five years will produce and commercialize up to seventy thousand barrels Coal Bed Methane per day for about twenty years. (Posted @ 22:16 PST)
Sudden surge in 500 KV Barotha Grid circuit caused breakdown LAHORE, Sept. 26 (APP) - Federal Minister for Water and Power Liaqat Ali Jatoi Tuesday said the massive countrywide power breakdown on Sunday occurred due to sudden surge in a 500-KV Barotha Grid Circuit at a time when another circuit from Tarbela to Lahore was under maintenance. This resulted in transmission bottleneck to transmit about 4700-MW power from Tarbela and Ghazi Barotha resulting in cascade tripping of power plants, he told newsmen after chairing a high level meeting. (Posted @ 21:00 PST)
Shahnaz Sheikh to continue as chief hockey coach: Secretary PHF LAHORE, Sept 26 (APP) - Ex-Olympian Shahnaz Sheikh will continue as the chief coach of Pakistan hockey team till Asian Games in Doha in December, PHF Secretary Akhtar ul Islam said after a meeting with the PHF President Mir Zafar ullah Khan Jamali here Tuesday. " Some of players including Muhammad Saqlain, Rehan Butt, Sohail Abbas and Wasim Ahmad have informed us that they plan to take part in hockey leagues aborad and we will name the captain after knowing who is available ",he said. (Posted @ 20:52 PST)
EU gives green light for Bulgaria, Romania to join in 2007 STRASBOURG, Sept 26 (APP/AFP): The European Commission on Tuesday gave Bulgaria and Romania the go-ahead to join the European Union in January, but with strict surveillance in problem areas. (Posted @ 20:44 PST)
Army officer, 2 militants killed in occupied Kashmir SRINAGAR, Sept 26 (AP) _ An army officer and two suspected militants were killed Tuesday in a fierce gunbattle in Sumlar vilage, 80 kilometers north of Srinagar, an army spokesman said. Indian soldiers came under heavy gunfire as they cordoned off the village. An army officer was killed in the ensuing gunbattle, which raged for five hours before troops killed the gunmen, he said. Two houses were destroyed in the fight. (Posted @ 20:22 PST)
25 killed, scores injured in Iraq BAGHDAD, Sept 26 (AFP) - Five people were killed Tuesday when a suicide bomber on a motorcycle blasted the Baghdad headquarters of the Iraqi communist party, while 20 people died in other violence across Iraq, officials said. At least 15 people were also injured when the booby-trapped bike rider blew himself up at the party's headquarters in central Baghdad's Al-Andalus square. All those killed and injured were non-partisans, a communist official said. In other violence, insurgents destroyed a police station south of Baghdad in a sustained attack with mortars and a car bomb, the prime minister's office said Tuesday. The blast and a subsequent mortar barrage killed three officers and wounded several more, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said in a statement. In the nearby town of Mahmudiya, a pair of bombs exploded not far from an Iraqi army base, killing five civilians and wounding eight. Another roadside bomb, this time in Latifiyah, killed one man and wounded five others. In Baghdad’s neighborhood of Zayuna a car bomb exploded, wounding three people and attracting a mix of police and bystanders who then fell prey to a second explosion, killing two and injuring 23 others, including eight policemen. Clashes between armed groups in Baghdad’s neighborhood of Amil resulted in three deaths and 10 wounded, according to police. Meanwhile, there were a number of attacks on oil industry, including the pipeline shipping crude from Kirkuk to the massive refinery in Baiji which was blown up. It disrupted the Baiji refinery and power plant causing electricity cuts in Kirkuk. (Posted @ 20:14 PST)
Kuwait bans fish imports from Iran, Pakistan KUWAIT CITY, Sept 26, 2006 (AFP) - Kuwait Tuesday slapped an indefinite ban on all fish imports from Iran and Pakistan on health grounds, Minister of Commerce and Industry Falah al-Hajeri said. The ban was attributed to a suspicion that some fish imports from the two Asian nations could contain bacteria that cause cholera, the minister told the state-run KUNA news agency. (Posted @ 19:56 PST)
Blair denies British foreign policy stirs terrorism MANCHESTER, Sept 26 (AFP) - British Prime Minister Tony Blair Tuesday denied that his government's foreign policy, including the war in Iraq, was to blame for terrorism. "This is a struggle that will last a generation or more," Blair told the Labour Party conference, his last as prime minister. (Posted @ 19:52 PST)
Pan-Islamic body calls for worldwide Ramdan truce JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia, Sept 26 (AFP) - The Organisation of the Islamic Conference called Tuesday for all conflicts in the Muslim world to end, if only temporarily, during the fasting month of Ramadan. "The OIC declares the month of Ramadan a month of serenity and calm in zones of conflict everywhere in the Muslim world, including in (Sudan's) Darfur and in Iraq," Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu said in a statement from its headquarters in Jeddah. (Posted @ 19:48 PST)
Bollywood star's painting auction money for Pakistan hospital Mumbai, Sept 26 (PPI): A painting by Indian Bollywood actress and former Miss Universe, Sushmita Sen, was auctioned for a whopping $50,000 - a price usually reserved for some of India's most popular artists. The money, raised at charity fund-raising event in Dubai, will go to Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital & Research Centre in Lahore, set up by former Pakistan cricket captain, Imran Khan. (Posted @ 18:30 PST)
Six killed in accident on Raiwind road LAHORE, Sept 26 (APP): Six persons including three women were killed in an accident on Lahore-Raiwind road early Tuesday morning. The driver lost control of the truck after a tyre burst, and hit two young sisters on the bus stop, killing them on the spot. Meanwhile, a car coming from behind rammed into the truck, and its four occupants died while two others were injured. (Posted @ 18:20 PST)
Six Arab migrants die off Turkish coast-agency ANKARA, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Six Arab migrants -- three Tunisians, one Iraqi, one Algerian and one Palestinian --heading for Greece died when their boat sank off Turkey's Aegean coast on Tuesday, the state Anatolian news agency said. Turkish coast guards rescued 31 people off the city of Izmir and were searching for two others. (Posted @ 18:06 PST)
Israel withdraws from about 90 percent territory in south Lebanon JERUSALEM, Sept 26 (AP) _ Israel has withdrawn from about 90 percent of the territory it held in south Lebanon during its 34-day war and hopes to be out completely within days, officials said Tuesday. (Posted @ 18:02 PST)
Swiss pilots' strike leads to 122 flight cancellations across Europe KLOTEN, Switzerland, Sept 26 (AP) _ Dozens of flights from and to Switzerland were canceled Tuesday after members of the Swiss Pilots Association called a one-day strike, Swiss European Air Lines said. Swiss said least 122 flights between Switzerland's main cities Geneva, Basel and Zurich, and dozens of European and Mediterranean destinations had been canceled. (Posted @ 17:56 PST)
Saddam trial adjourned until October 9 BAGHDAD, Sept 26 (AFP) - The genocide trial of Saddam Hussein was adjourned Tuesday for nearly two weeks to give defendants time to contact their absent lawyers or hire new ones. The stormy session was marked by a revolt of the defendants, who were eventually all ejected from the dock by the judge while the trial proceeded quickly, hearing seven witnesses. (Posted @ 17:52 PST)
Bin Laden's friends say he is alive: Afghanistan's Taliban KANDAHAR, Sept 26 (AFP) - Afghanistan's Taliban movement said Tuesday that friends of Osama bin Laden had told it he was still alive, after a weekend newspaper report suggesting he had died of typhoid. "We actually don't have any direct contacts with Al-Qaeda in the battlefields because of the current situation," a Taliban spokesman Mohammad Hanif told AFP. "But according to some of Osama's friends we've contacted, he's alive," he said. The report has already been dismissed by top US and other officials. (Posted @ 16:30 PST)
Six rebels killed in would-be Afghan suicide attack KHOST, Sept 26 (AFP) - Six suspected rebels were killed in Paktika province when they were escorting a suicide bomber whose explosives detonated early, governor Mohammad Akram Ikhpolwak said Tuesday. Meanwhile, in Khost province on Tuesday, a convoy of US-led coalition troops narrowly escaped a suicide blast when the would-be bomber exploded before reaching his target, the coalition and police said. Khost police chief Mohammad Ayoob claimed the man was shot dead by troops as he attempted to launch himself at the convoy. A second man believed to be the bomber's companion also exploded just a few metres from the convoy, he said. (Posted @ 16:24 PST)
Saudi Arabia denies contacts with Israel RIYADH, Sept 26 (AFP) Saudi Arabia Tuesday rejected as "fabricated" reported contacts between Saudi and Israeli officials, including a purported meeting between Israel's Premier Ehud Olmert and King Abdullah. (Posted @ 13:45 PST)
13 bullet-riddled bodies found in Baghdad BAGHDAD, Iraq, Sep 26 (AP) The bodies of 13 men were found scattered across the eastern part of Baghdad on Tuesday, police said. All bullet-riddled bodies showed signs of torture and had their hands and feet bound, police added. (Posted @ 13:30 PST)
Palestinian rocket wounds soldier in Israeli town JERUSALEM, Sept 26 (Reuters) Rockets were fired at the Israeli border town of Sderot on Tuesday, wounding an off-duty woman soldier, the Israeli army said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Tuesday's attack. (Posted @ 11:15 PST)
Rice says she would not back gas embargo on Iran NEW YORK, Sept 26 (Reuters) U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she did not support a gasoline embargo on Iran as a way of punishing Tehran for refusing to give up its uranium enrichment program. In an interview for publication in The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, Rice said there were "limitations on the oil card" against Iran. In an interview with The New York Times, Rice said the United States was willing to give Solana more time to see if he could find a formula by which the Iranians agreed to suspension, thus allowing negotiations to begin. But if these talks did not work, Rice told the Journal she was optimistic that China and Russia would support punitive measures against Iran. (Posted @ 11:11 PST)
EU, Iran close to deal for Iran nuclear talks WASHINGTON, Sept 26 (Reuters) Iran is close to a deal that would include a temporary suspension of uranium enrichment and clear the way for nuclear talks but Tehran wants to keep the agreement secret, The Washington Times reported on Tuesday. The deal could be completed either Tuesday or Wednesday when EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Iranian negotiator Ali Larijani are set to meet in Europe, the report said, citing Bush administration officials. Times said under the agreement Iran would halt uranium enrichment for 90 days so additional talks could be held with several European nations. (Posted @ 11:10 PST)
Earth within whisker of hottest climate in million years: NASA WASHINGTON, Sept 25 (AFP) The Earth's rapid warming has pushed temperatures to their hottest level in nearly 12,000 years and within a hairbreadth of a million years, a study by the US space agency showed Monday. According to the study, published in the September 26 of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, by James Hansen, a leading climatologist at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, Earth was now within about 1.0 C (1.8 F) of the maximum estimated temperature of the past million years. "But if further global warming reaches 2.0 or 3.0 degrees Celsius, we will likely see changes that make Earth a different planet than the one we know," Hansen warned. (Posted @ 10:35 PST)
US jails Pakistani man for 18 years in missile plot SAN DIEGO, Sep 26 (AP) A Pakistani man was sentenced Monday to more than 18 years in prison for conspiring with an Indian-born U.S. citizen to obtain and sell Stinger anti-aircraft missiles to Taliban and al-Qaida. Syed Mustajab Shah, 55, pleaded guilty last March in federal court admitting that he tried to sell five tons of hashish and a half-ton of heroin in exchange for cash and four shoulder-fired Stinger missiles, which he and the other defendants intended to sell to Taliban. Ilyas Ali of St. Paul, Minnesota, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in India, was sentenced in April to more than five years in prison for his role in the plot. (Posted @ 10:25 PST)
Karachi Stocks up 53.48 points: KARACHI, Sept 26: At close of trading, the KSE-100 index was at 10305.63, up 53.48 points. (Bureau Report) (Updated @ 13:00 PST)
Forex update: KARACHI, Sept 26: The Pakistani Rupee was traded at Rs 60.68 to the US Dollar in the open market. (Bureau Report) (Updated @ 13:00 PST)
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