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| March 03, 2007 | Saturday | Safar 13, 1428 |
Updated round-the-clock, with major updates after 10:00 PST (05:00 GMT)
Govt to check poverty in the country, says Musharraf PINDI GHEB (ATTOCK), Mar 3 (APP) President General Pervez Musharraf on Saturday said that the government has adopted a comprehensive strategy to check poverty and ensure the provision of basic life amenities to the people including education, health, electricity and clean drinking water. Addressing a gathering here at Khunda, Pindi Gheb, the president said there was no paucity of resources and funds for development projects anywhere in the country. He said that during the last three to four years, an amount of Rs1.6 billion was allocated for development projects in district Attock alone. Referring to the law and order situation in the country, the president said that the activities of extremist and terrorist elements will be checked to ensure the continuity of development projects in the country. Musharraf said there was no external threat to the country but there was a need to tackle internal unrest being created by these extremist elements. The president appreciated the role of Madrassahs and said that only some of them were providing militant training, which should be immediately stopped. “There is a need to project the real image of Islam, as some elements are associating Islam with terrorism which is a wrong concept,” he added. (Posted @ 22:00 PST)
Iran's Ahmadinejad visits Saudi Arabia RIYADH, March 3 (AFP) Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in Saudi Arabia on Saturday for talks with King Abdullah expected to focus on Iraq, the crisis in Lebanon and Tehran's nuclear row with the West. Before leaving Tehran, Ahmadinejad said he would discuss how Iran and the kingdom can work together to reduce tensions in the Middle East. (Posted @ 21:24 PST)
BBC gagged over UK political funding scandal LONDON, March 3 (Reuters) The British Broadcasting Corporation has been barred from running a story about a political funding scandal that has cast a shadow over Prime Minister Tony Blair's final months, police said on Saturday. The government's top lawyer, Attorney General Lord Peter Goldsmith, obtained a court injunction stopping the broadcast late on Friday following a request by police probing whether political parties awarded state honors in return for loans. Police sought the injunction “because of their concern that disclosure of certain information at this stage would impede their inquiries,” a joint statement from the Metropolitan police and Goldsmith said. (Posted @ 20:56 PST)
Pakistan police arrest five militants HYDERABAD, Pakistan, March 3 (Agencies) Pakistani police arrested five militants on Saturday and recovered a cache of arms and explosives in southern Sindh province, a senior police official said. The men were captured as they tried to plant a bomb on a railway track to blow up a train in Hyderabad. “They have links with the Sindh Liberation Army, which has carried out subversive activities in the past in the province,” a senior police official said. Police also recovered 17 kg of explosives and five pistols in the raid in the Qasimabad neighbourhood of Hyderabad city. “These people were getting aid from a foreign country to carry out terrorism to destablise the country,” the official said without naming any country. (First Posted @ 18:46 PST Updated @ 18:56 PST)
Pakistan arrests 12 Indian fishermen KARACHI, March 3 (AFP) Pakistan said Saturday its coast guard has seized five Indian boats and arrested 12 fishermen for illegal fishing in the country's territorial waters in the Arabian Sea. The Indian fishermen were caught late Friday when they advanced 38 kilometres inside Pakistani territorial waters, a Maritime Security Agency official said. (Posted @ 18:50 PST)
Pakistan denies US claims of authorization for hot pursuits ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, March 3 (AP) Pakistan on Saturday vehemently denied the U.S. military's claim that coalition forces in Afghanistan have the authority to pursue Taliban fleeing across the border into Pakistani territory. “There is no authorization for hot pursuit of terrorists into our territory,” Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad, spokesman for the Pakistan Army said. “Whatever actions are needed to fight terrorism, we are taking them,” Arshad said. Also Saturday, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry rejected an assertion by Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute, chief operations officer for the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff that his forces routinely fire on and pursue Taliban into Pakistan. “No foreign forces are allowed to cross into our territorial border,” said ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam. “Pakistan and United States are partners in the war on terror, not adversaries.” (Posted @ 18:44 PST)
PM Aziz announces decrease in edible oil prices ISLAMABAD, March 3 (PPI) Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Saturday announced reduction in edible oil and ghee prices of up to six rupees per kg that would be available at all Utility Stores in the country from the tenth of this month. Addressing a news conference here, the prime minister said the relief had been given despite the fact that there was a thirty-six percent increase in the palm oil and soyabean oil prices in the international market. Aziz said that cooking oil would now be available at the rate of Rs67.30 per kg, and that 20,000 tons of this edible oil would be provided to the utility stores each month under this package. Regarding flour prices, he said it was available in utility stores at Rs13 per kg. (Posted @ 17:12 PST)
President Musharraf calls for modernizing Pakistan Railways ISLAMABAD, Mar 3 (APP) President General Pervez Musharraf on Saturday called for the development of Pakistan Railways (PR) on modern lines. “We need to be ready for the future and plan for trains that can travel up to 300 km an hour and divert road and air travelers to use this efficient mode of travel,” the president told a gathering here at the Golra Railway Station after inaugurating a museum of PR. Musharraf stressed the need to further improve the pace of development in PR. “Today the world is moving on to magnetic levitation trains and monorails for mass transport, we need to go for these,” he added. The president referred to his vision for PR, and spoke of plans to link Chamman to Kandahar in Afghanistan and to build a rail track from Havelian to the Khunjerab Pass to connect with China. “Both the governments of Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan have expressed a desire to join this rail link as it will provide them an access to the Gwadar Port,” he said. The President said new rail tracks were also being developed between Gwadar and Quetta, Peshawar and Zhob and Bostan and Zhob, besides the dualisation of the Karachi-Peshawar mainline. He also called for increasing the pace of the mass transport systems for Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi/Islamabad. (Posted @ 16:58 PST)
US, Pakistani agents interrogate Taliban leader ISLAMABAD, March 3 (AFP) US and Pakistani agents were interrogating the Taliban's former defence minister Saturday in the hope that he can help them hunt down other militant leaders, security officials said. Mullah Obaidullah Akhund was arrested with four other suspects Wednesday in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta. Pakistani officials said Akhund was flown to Islamabad by helicopter after his capture. “He is being interrogated by a joint team of Pakistani and US officials in Islamabad,” a senior security official said requesting anonymity. (Posted @ 14:28 PST)
Two teens and three men killed in Thai south YALA, Thailand, March 3 (AFP) Five people, including two teenage girls, were shot dead in southern Thailand, police said Saturday. The girls, aged 16 and 17, were shot dead early Saturday in a drive-by shooting in Narathiwat. Also Saturday morning, a 53-year-old man was shot and killed in Pattani province, while in nearby Yala province a 43-year-old man was shot dead at his rubber plantation. (Posted @ 13:15 PST)
Four militants killed in southern Philippines JOLO, Philippines, March 3 (AFP) Four Abu Sayyaf gunmen were killed in fresh fighting in the southern Philippine island of Jolo, officials said Saturday. “Based on intelligence reports on the ground, four rebels were killed and six of my soldiers were wounded,” in fighting Thursday, said local army commander Colonel Mark Supnet. (Posted @ 12:25 PST)
Roadside bomb kills two, injures six in Afghanistan HERAT, Afghanistan, March 3 (AFP) A roadside bomb fixed on a bicycle exploded Saturday in western Afghanistan killing two civilians and injuring six others, police said. The bomb was planted on a bicycle left near a road in the city of Herat. (Posted @ 11:48 PST)
One policeman killed, two wounded in east Afghanistan ambush KABUL, Afghanistan, March 3 (AP) Insurgents attacked a police post in eastern Afghanistan, leaving one police officer dead and two wounded, officials said Saturday. Some 30 militants using heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades attacked the police post in the Sirkanay district of Kunar province late Friday, police said. Also Friday, a mortar round landed on a U.S. military outpost in the same province, wounding 12 civilian Afghan workers and two Afghan soldiers, NATO's ISAF said. (Posted @ 11:13 PST)
Moderate quake strikes Indonesia's Papua JAKARTA, March 3 (AFP) A moderate 5.3-magnitude earthquake struck Indonesia's Papua island Saturday, seismologists said. The meteorological agency received reports of cracks in some buildings but no other serious damage. The quake hit land, 67 kilometres southeast of Manokwari, the provincial capital of West Irian Jaya, at 1:04 pm, at a depth of 33 kilometres, the meteorological agency said. (Posted @ 10:50 PST)
US diplomat Negroponte arrives in Beijing BEIJING, March 3 (AFP) US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte arrived in Beijing Saturday for talks expected to focus on how to hold North Korea to last month's breakthrough nuclear disarmament deal. The three-day visit is the second leg of a trip that took Negroponte to Japan and will include a stop in South Korea. All three are US partners in the six-nation effort to get Pyongyang to give up its weapons. (Posted @ 10:32 PST)
Twelve killed, dozens missing in Indonesian landslides JAKARTA, March 3 (AFP) At least 12 people were killed and dozens left missing in landslides triggered by heavy rains on the eastern Indonesian island of Flores, officials said Saturday. “In Cibal subdistrict, 43 people were buried under the landslide and 12 of them had been found dead,” an official said on ElShinta radio. “Meanwhile in the Lambaleda subdistrict 11 houses were washed away with their owners inside, we have not received reports how many people were affected by that incident,” he said. Heavy rains have been inundating the area for the past five days before the landslides hit late Friday. (Posted @ 09:50 PST)
Ammunition factory blast kills two, injures 45 in Slovakia BRATISLAVA, Slovakia, March 3 (AP) An explosion in a Slovakian ammunition factory Friday killed two people and injured 45, five of them seriously, an official said. Defence Ministry spokesman Vladimir Gemela said the accident took place in a factory run by the ministry where military equipment is repaired outside the town of Novaky, 120 kilometers northeast of Bratislava. Of the 25 people who were working in the building or nearby before the blast, six were missing. The explosion levelled the building and several other buildings in the factory complex also collapsed. (Posted @ 09:43 PST)
Danish police detains 100 after Copenhagen clashes COPENHAGEN, March 3 (Reuters) Danish police detained about 100 people during fresh violence in Copenhagen early Saturday, two days after the eviction of left-wing squatters from a youth centre sparked a wave of protests. One demonstrator was injured when a peaceful demonstration and street party with live music in the multi-ethnic, working class Norrebro neighbourhood turned into clashes after midnight in St Hans Square. “Some 100 people were taken into custody so far,” said Copenhagen police spokesman Flemming Steen Munch. (Posted @ 09:30 PST)
Gunmen kill seven in Nigerian oil city PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria, March 3 (AFP) Seven people were shot dead Friday and 10 others were seriously wounded when gunmen opened fire in a crowded district of Nigeria's oil capital Port Harcourt, the police said. The unidentified gunmen entered the city aboard two buses, and blocked a busy junction before shooting sporadically at passersby. The shooting happened in the Port Harcourt's crowded market district known as “Mile 1.” (Posted @ 09:20 PST)
Pakistan tests short-range missile ISLAMABAD, March 3 (Reuters) Pakistan successfully test-fired a short-range nuclear-capable, surface-to-surface Haft-II Abdali ballistic missile Saturday with a range of 200 km, the military said. “The test was aimed at validation of the desired technical parameters which has been successfully achieved,” the military said in a statement. (Posted @ 09:10 PST)
US Army secretary resigns WASHINGTON, March 3 (AFP) US Army Secretary Francis Harvey resigned Friday, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said, amid a scandal over poor treatment of soldiers convalescing at a military hospital from wounds suffered in Afghanistan and Iraq. “I have accepted his resignation,” Gates announced at a hastily arranged appearance at the Pentagon press briefing room. An investigation by The Washington Post found that soldiers convalescing from war wounds at Walter Reed Medical Centre were subjected to a morass of bureaucratic red tape and housed in a decrepit building just outside its gates. (Posted @ 09:10 PST)
Six die in US bus crash WASHINGTON, March 3 (AFP) A bus carrying a US college baseball team toppled off a highway ramp Friday in Atlanta, Georgia, killing at least six people and seriously injuring 29 others, US media reported. Authorities said the bus crashed through a fenced barrier on an exit ramp before it fell onto Interstate 75 in the southern state of Georgia, US television reported. The charter bus was carrying a baseball team from Bluffton University in Ohio and was headed south to Florida for a tournament. (Posted @ 09:10 PST)
Thirteen hurt in Indonesian port blast AMBON, Indonesia, March 3 (AFP) At least 13 people were injured in a bomb blast in Indonesia's Ambon island Saturday, police and witnesses said. The explosion went off at around 9:00 am at the busy Yos Sudarso ferry terminal in Ambon, injuring port labours and travellers, they said. No immediate explanation was given for the blast. (Posted @ 09:10 PST)
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