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| March 04, 2007 | Sunday | Safar 14, 1428 |
Updated round-the-clock, with major updates after 10:00 PST (05:00 GMT)
Saudi and Iran agree to counter Sunni-Shiite strife RIYADH, March 4 (AFP) - Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Saudi King Abdullah agreed to counter attempts to fuel Sunni-Shiite strife during a visit by the Iranian leader to Saudi Arabia, official media said here Sunday. Ahmadinejad said he concurred with Abdullah during talks on Saturday that Iran and the kingdom would work together to thwart “enemy” plots seeking to divide the Islamic world. According to the Saudi SPA news agency, Ahmadinejad also endorsed Riyadh's efforts to resolve the political crisis in Lebanon. It said the two leaders stressed the need to preserve Iraq's national unity and ensure equality between its citizens. “The two leaders affirmed that the greatest danger presently threatening the Islamic nation is the attempt to fuel the fire of strife between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, and that efforts must concentrate on countering these attempts and closing ranks,” SPA said. Ahmadinejad told reporters after returning to Tehran that he discussed with Abdullah “the plots carried out by the enemies in order to divide the world of Islam.” ”Fortunately we and the Saudis were fully aware of the threats of our enemies and we condemned them,” he said. He did not specify who the enemies were. The two leaders affirmed that they were keen on preserving “Iraq's independence, national unity and equality between its citizens,” it said. “We discussed the Palestinian and Iraq issues comprehensively. We have common views in this regard,” Ahmadinejad told reporters at Tehran's main airport. Ahmadinejad “voiced support for the (Saudi-authored) Arab peace initiative endorsed by the Arab summit in Beirut in 2002,” SPA said without elaborating. Under the plan, the Arab world would normalise ties with Israel in exchange for a full withdrawal from Arab land occupied since 1967 and the establishment of a Palestinian state. (Posted @ 09:35 PST)
President, PM send goodwill messages to Syed Ali Gilani NEW DELHI, March 4 (APP) - President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz have sent goodwill messages to Syed Ali Gilani, an eminent Kashmiri leader who was admitted to Apollo Hospital here on Saturday for medical tests. In Lahore Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan ameer Qazi Hussain Ahmad has appealed to the nation to pray for the recovery of ailing veteran Kashmir freedom struggle leader and APHC chairman Syed Ali Gilani. (Posted @ 23:02 PST)
Maoists kill Indian MP, five others at Hindu festival RANCHI, India, March 4, (APP/AFP) - Maoist rebels shot dead Indian parliamentarian MP Sunil Mahto and five others Sunday at a celebration of the Hindu festival of Holi in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand, police said. (Posted @ 21:44 PST)
Prime Minister inaugurates Urs of Hazrat Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai HYDERABAD, Mar 4 (APP) - Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz Sunday inaugurated the 263rd annual Urs celebrations of great sufi poet and saint Hazrat Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai at Bhitshah, some 50 kilometres from here. (Posted @ 20:38 PST)
Algerian bus explosion kills 3 Algerians, 1 Russian ALGIERS, Algeria, March 4, (AP) - A bus hit two land mines in Algeria, triggering explosions that left three Algerians and a Russian dead, as well as five others wounded, authorities said. The vehicle explosions occurred Saturday night near Ain Defla, about 145 kilometers west of Algiers, El Khabar newspaper reported. (Posted @ 19:02 PST)
PM calls for political solution of Talibanization in Afghanistan KARACHI March 4 (APP) - Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has said that Talibanization is an indigenous problem of Afghanistan which requires a political solution as it cannot be resolved through military means alone. He was speaking at a dinner hosted by the American Business Council (ABC) at a local hotel on Saturday night. (Posted @ 17:58 PST)
Prime Minister expresses satisfaction on law, order situation in Sindh Karachi, March 4 (PPI) - Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has expressed satisfaction over the law and order situation in Sindh province and stressed need for more concerted efforts in order to curb street crimes. He said this while presiding over a high level meeting Sunday in Karachi which reviewed overall law and order situation in the province. (Posted @ 16:34 PST)
Kuwaiti cabinet resigns KUWAIT CITY, March 4, 2007 (AFP) - The Kuwaiti cabinet, which has been in office for barely eight months, submitted its resignation to the emir on Sunday ahead of a no-confidence vote against a senior minister, a lawmaker said. The move came after the government failed to secure enough support in parliament to avoid voting Health Minister Sheikh Ahmad Abdullah al-Sabah out of office in a session scheduled for Monday. (First Posted @ 15:40 PST; Updated @ 15:50 PST)
At least two killed in Port Vila clash PORT VILA, March 4, 2007 (AFP) - At least two people have died in violent clashes between rival groups of islanders in the Vanuatu capital, locals said Sunday. Vanuatu's Prime Minister Ham Lini and chiefs from the affected communities were holding a crisis meeting Sunday to try to calm the situation following the fighting, sparked by a dispute between the residents of two of the archipelago's 83 islands. (Posted @ 15:40 PST)
Hair salons, music shop bombed in Pakistani tribal area KHAR, Pakistan, March 4, 2007 (AFP) - Two hair salons and a music shop were targeted by blasts in tribal northwest Pakistan, where pro-Taliban militants have warned barbers not to shave off beards, officials said Sunday. Six other shops were damaged but there were no casualties in the overnight attack at Inayat Kali market, Muwaz Khan, a local security official said. (Posted @ 14:10 PST)
Iraqi newspaper editor killed in Baghdad BAGHDAD, March 4, 2007 (AFP) - Gunmen shot dead Mohan al-Dhahr, editor of the Al-Mashriq newspaper, in front of his west Baghdad home on Sunday, the secretary general of the Iraqi Journalists Union said. “They knocked on his door and when he came out they opened fire,” said Moaed al-Lami, adding that Dhahr's death brought the number of journalists killed in the four years since the US invasion to 190. There was no initial word on which of Baghdad's myriad of death squads, militias, gangs or insurgent groups might have been behind the murder. He was killed in Jamiaa, a well-to-do mainly Sunni district of west Baghdad. Dhahr is a Shiite from southern Iraq and Al-Mishraq, which has been published daily since 2003, describes itself as an independent newspaper. (Posted @ 13:00 PST)
Super Highway being converted into six-lane Motorway ISLAMABAD, Mar 4 (APP): Hyderabad-karachi Super Highway will be converted into a six-lane Motorway (M-9) within two years, a source in National Highway Authority told APP on Sunday. He said the road would form part of a wider network connecting the principal and populous cities of the country. The project will cost Rs 6.3 billion and would have eleven interchanges and 10 pedestrian underpasses. (Posted @ 12:20 PST)
U.S. military says 16 Afghans killed after attack KABUL, March 4, (REUTERS) - The U.S. military in Afghanistan said on Sunday 16 Afghan civilians were killed after a “complex” Taliban ambush on a U.S. convoy involving a suicide car-bomb attack and militant gunfire. U.S. troops had returned fire in defence, the U.S. military said in a statement, although it did not make clear how the 16 civilians were killed and 24 wounded. Afghan police said earlier eight civilians had been killed and more than 30 wounded when U.S. troops opened fire after the suicide car-bomb attack. (Posted @ 18:40 PST)
Suicide bomber hits NATO convoy, 16 Afghans reported dead; 2 NATO soldiers killed in south KABUL, Afghanistan, March 4 (AP) - A suicide car bomber attacked an American convoy in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday and as many as 16 Afghan civilians died in the blast or ensuing U.S. gunfire, sparking a large protest, officials said. Two NATO soldiers were killed, meanwhile, during combat in the south on Saturday. The suicide bomber hit the American convoy with a minivan, said Noor Agha Zawok, the spokesman for the governor of Nangarhar province. Zawak said U.S. soldiers opened fire after the attack, killing or wounding some Afghan civilians. A police spokesman said It wasn't clear if the Afghans died from the suicide blast or gunfire from U.S soldiers. The spokesman for the provincial police chief, Ghafoor Khan, said hundreds of Afghans gathered in a large protest after the violence, throwing stones at police. In southern Afghanistan, meanwhile, two NATO soldiers died in fighting Saturday. NATO's ISAF did not identify their nationalities or say where the violence happened. (Posted @ 12:15 PST)
Two Bangladesh elite security officers shot dead DHAKA, March 4 (AFP) -Two officers of a special Bangladesh security force were shot dead in gruesome killings in the suburbs of the capital Dhaka, a senior officer for the force said Sunday. The two officers from the Rapid Action Battalion were shot Saturday at Aminbazar, 30 kilometres west of Dhaka. (Posted @ 12:08 PST)
Foreign troops raid East Timor rebel base; four killed DILI, East Timor, March 4 (AP) - International security forces raided a rebel base they had been surrounding in East Timor, the country's president said. Four people were killed in the raid early Sunday, but President Xanana Gusmao did not identify them. Gusmao said rebel leader Alfredo Reinado escaped the raid in the mountain town of Same (Posted @ 10:10 PST)
Nine die in Morocco bus crash RABAT, March 4 (Reuter) - At least nine people were killed and 45 injured in northern Morocco on Saturday when a packed bus veered off the road and crashed into a mountainside, officials said. Authorities said a mechanical failure may have caused the accident, which occurred in the rugged Jbel Bouhayati area near Khenifra, 300 km northwest of Rabat. (Posted @ 10:05 PST)
China plans 17.8 pct defence budget rise-spokesman BEIJING, March 4 (Reuter) - China plans to boost military spending by 17.8 percent in 2007, continuing the emerging power's stretch of double-digit annual increases in money for missiles, tanks and the building blocks of military modernisation. Jiang Enzhu, spokesman for the National People's Congress, told a news briefing on Sunday that the planned allocation for the People's Liberation Army (PLA) for 2007 was 350.92 billion yuan, or about $44.94 billion, an increase of 17.8 percent from last year. Jiang said the increased spending would be used to raise salaries and benefits for military personnel and to boost the military's defensive combat capability using high-tech systems. (Posted @ 10:00 PST)
Chorus of 1,000 barking dogs launches Alaska's Last Great Race ANCHORAGE, Alaska, March 4 (AFP) - A chorus of a 1,000 dogs barking echoed through the streets of Anchorage, Alaska Saturday as the Iditarod dog sled race pulled into action. Tens of thousands of people lined up along downtown streets blanketed with trucked-in snow as in a festive atmosphere 82 dog sled teams launched the 35th Last Great Race.Only about half of those dogs are expected to reach the finish line in Noam, Alaska over the next 9 to 20 days as they race across 1,100 miles (1,800 kilometers) of jagged mountain ranges, desolate tundra and wind-swept coastland where temperatures are routinely a bone-chilling 40 below. (Posted @ 09:55 PST)
Princess Alexandra marries Danish photographer COPENHAGEN, March 4 (AFP) - Princess Alexandra, 42, the former wife of Prince Joachim of Denmark, married royal photographer Martin Joergensen, a Dane 15 years her junior, in a private ceremony in Copenhagen on Saturday, the Danish press reported. The Hong Kong-born princess, who divorced Prince Joachim in 2005 after almost ten years of marriage and after having two children, is now no longer a member of the royal family and will be known as the Countess of Frederiksborg. (Posted @ 09:50 PST)
Strong quake strikes Indonesia's Moluccas JAKARTA, March 4 (AFP) - A strong 5.9-magnitude earthquake struck Indonesia's Moluccas Saturday, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties. (Posted @ 09:40 PST)
Major powers send Iran nuclear issue to UN envoys for talks: US WASHINGTON, March 4 (AFP) - The United States and five other world powers agreed Saturday to send the issue of Iran's disputed nuclear program to their UN representatives, after failing to resolve differences, the US State Department said. Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns and political directors from China, Russia, France, Britain and Germany held new discussions by phone and “discussions will now move to New York where our United Nations permanent representatives will take up work on this issue,” spokesman Kurtis Cooper said in a statement. “There is still some work to be done on a few outstanding issues, but all parties remain committed to a second resolution in the near future,” he said. (Posted @ 09:35 PST)
Bangladeshi released from Guantanamo alleges torture MOINDH, Bangladesh, March 4 (AFP) - Bangladeshi Mubarak Hussain Bin Abul Hashim held at the US prison camp in Guantanamo Bay says he was tortured with electric shocks and accuses his guards of desecrating the holy Quran. Hashim, 32, a former madrassa student, was freed last Thursday after being returned from the United States in December and detained in Bangladesh for a further two months. Describing his five years at Guantanamo as a “living hell,” Mubarak, who denies any militant links, said he was one of about 400 “enemy combatant” suspects detained at the base and later released after investigators there found no evidence he had links to Islamic militants. No terrorism charges were ever filed against him. “They (the guards) kicked the holy Quran and threw it in the toilet,” he told AFP. During interrogations, Mubarak also said he received electric shocks, was deprived of food and subjected to cold temperatures at Guantanamo. “They used to give electric shocks, saying I had links with international terrorist groups. They gave electric shocks for a few seconds, several times in a day when they took me for interrogation,” he said. “There were air conditioners above the interrogation cells and they used to put us inside the cell at a cold temperature. Some prisoners used to be kept for months in those interrogation cells at low temperatures. I was kept for two days straight without food and without any clothes,” he added. (Posted @ 09:30 PST)
Tigers accuse Sri Lanka troops of killing six civilians COLOMBO, March 4 (AFP) - Tamil Tiger rebels Sunday accused Sri Lankan forces of killing at least six civilians in the embattled north-east as police investigated the “execution-style” murders of five men near the capital on Saturday. LTTE said that five civilians, including a businessman, were killed by security forces while the sixth, a student, was killed in a mortar bomb attack by troops.The LTTE in a statement gave details of the incidents over the weekend. The military denies any involvement in the killings. (Posted @ 09:15 PST)
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