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| October 17, 2007 | Wednesday | Shawwal 4, 1428 |
Updated round-the-clock, with major updates after 10:00 PST (05:00 GMT)
Supreme Court resumes hearing of petition challenging Musharraf's re-election ISLAMABAD, Oct 17 (AP): The Supreme Court on Wednesday resumed hearing of a petition challenging the legality of General Pervez Musharraf's re-election as president. The opposition lawyers requested that all the court's justices decide whether Musharraf should be disqualified. Eleven judges are currently hearing the case. “This is a historic burden and the entire court should share it,” said Hamid Khan, attorney for retired judge Wajihuddin Ahmed who contested the presidential election. The court said it would pass the request to Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry. Earlier, about 2,000 supporters of exiled former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and former cricketer turned politician Imran Khan marched in separate processions to the court building. The Supreme Court is to hear later on Wednesday a petition from Nawaz Sharif, arguing that he should be allowed to come back. (Posted @ 11:45 PST)
India accuses Pakistan of inciting Sikh radicals NEW DELHI, Oct 17 (AFP): India's top national security official has accused Pakistan of trying to stir up Sikh militancy in East Punjab, reports said on Wednesday. The allegation by National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan came after a bomb blast on Sunday in a packed cinema in Ludhiana that killed six people and injured 32 others. “There has been a manifest attempt in Pakistan to build up a radical Sikh environment,” Narayanan was quoted as saying by the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency. “We had intelligence that a lot of effort was going into attempts to foment militancy,” he claimed. A home ministry official and the state's former police chief, Kanwar Pal Singh Gill, earlier this week also blamed Sunday's attack on Sikh separatists, who he claimed had links to Pakistan. The allegations come ahead of a scheduled October 22 meeting in New Delhi of Indian and Pakistani officials on efforts to combat cross-border militancy. (Posted @ 11:15 PST)
Bangladesh army chief denies political ambitions DHAKA, Oct 17 (AFP): Bangladesh's army chief has denied he wants to become president of the country, rejecting questions about his political ambitions, a report said on Wednesday. “Many questions are lurking in people's minds, but time will give answers to all those questions ... I have no desire to become president,” the private UNB agency quoted General Moeen U. Ahmed as saying. (Posted @ 12:20 PST)
Seven Tamil rebels killed in Sri Lanka COLOMBO, Oct 17 (AP): A series of battles between government troops and Tamil separatists across northern Sri Lankan has killed seven rebels, the military announced on Wednesday. The rebels disputed the figure. (Posted @ 12:15 PST)
Eight Myanmar nationals seek refugee status in Japan TOKYO, Oct 17 (Reuters): Eight Myanmar nationals applied for refugee status in Japan on Wednesday, an immigration official said, a day after Tokyo cut aid to the impoverished state in protest at a crackdown on pro-democracy protests. An official at the immigration office in Nagoya, central Japan, said all eight were men, but declined to give further details. (Posted @ 12:00 PST)
Seven Iraqi policemen killed in roadside blast BAGHDAD, Oct 17 (Reuters): Seven Iraqi police officers were killed when their vehicle was hit by a powerful roadside bomb south of Baghdad, police said. The ambush occurred east of Diwaniya city, 180 km south of Baghdad, just after midnight. The policemen were rushing to a police station in Ifach town that was under attack by gunmen armed with machineguns and rocket-propelled grenade launchers. (Posted @ 11:08 PST)
Bomb attack foiled in Philippines COTABATO, Philippines, Oct 17 (AFP): Police on Wednesday foiled a bomb attack in the southern Philippine city of Tacurong, disarming three home-made bombs found at a public square, the city police chief said. Civilians alerted police to an abandoned package outside a shop. Experts recovered three home-made bombs fashioned from mortar shells, he told AFP. (Posted @ 11:05 PST)
Japan's ruling party backs smaller Afghan mission TOKYO, Oct 17 (AFP): Japan's ruling party approved a bill Wednesday to scale back support for US-led forces in Afghanistan, but the move was unlikely to placate the opposition, which wants to end the mission entirely. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party approved a new bill to continue the mission, a party official said. Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's cabinet was due to give its formal backing later in the day to send the bill to parliament. (Posted @ 10:35 PST)
Amnesty denounces conditions of Palestinians in Lebanon BEIRUT, Oct 17 (AFP): Amnesty International has issued a damning report Wednesday on the living conditions of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and urged the government in Beirut to act to end their suffering. The 31-page document titled “Exiled and suffering: Palestinian refugees in Lebanon” denounced the appalling conditions in which most of the 300,000 refugees live with little or no prospect of ever finding a better future. (Posted @ 10:30 PST)
Powering nanoelectronics with light PARIS, Oct 17 (AFP): Scientists have developed solar cells 200 hundred times thinner than a human hair that they believe will power the nanoscale gadgetry of tomorrow, according to a study released on Wednesday. From consumer devices to bioterrorism monitors to in-body diagnostics, this ultra-microscopic technology is poised to take centre stage in less than a decade. (Posted @ 10:25 PST)
S.Korea to decide on troops in Iraq this week SEOUL, Oct 17 (AFP): South Korea's defence minister said on Wednesday that the government would decide this week whether to extend the stay of its troops in Iraq. He said that a timetable on the mission of 1,200 South Korean troops stationed in Iraq would be submitted to the National Assembly by Friday. (Posted @ 09:50 PST)
Canada proposes 2011 exit from Afghanistan OTTAWA, Oct 17 (AFP): Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Tuesday proposed maintaining Canada's military in Afghanistan until 2011 rather than its current commitment till February 2009, as opposition parties warned of a possible snap election if troops do not exit soon. The minority Conservatives' timetable was unveiled in an address to parliament delivered by Governor General Michaelle Jean. (Posted @ 09:50 PST)
Powell says Iran's nuclear row can be resolved diplomatically SEOUL, Oct 17 (AP): Former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell expressed hope on Wednesday for a peaceful and diplomatic resolution to Iran's nuclear row. “I think we can handle that one diplomatically,” Powell said in a keynote speech at a Seoul forum. His comments came a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a veiled warning against any attack on Iran as he began the first visit by a Kremlin leader to Tehran in six decades. (Posted @ 09:45 PST)
Young sister of U.S. army plot suspect assaulted PRINCETON, N.J., Oct 16 (Reuters): The 12-year-old sister of a Muslim charged with plotting an armed assault on a New Jersey army base was attacked and referred to as a terrorist by a teen-ager, family members said on Tuesday. The girl, a seventh-grade student at a school in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, was on her way to class when she was grabbed around the neck from behind by a male teen-ager, her sister told a news conference held by the Council on American-Islamic Relations. The teen-ager then told the girl, “There's a terrorist on the loose,” and then punched her in the face and insulted her. A spokeswoman for the school’s district, said the police were not informed immediately of the incident because of a misunderstanding among school officials. “It should have been reported and wasn't,” she said. (Posted @ 09:35 PST)
Cheney and Obama are distant cousins: Mrs Cheney WASHINGTON, Oct 17 (Reuters): There's no sign of a family reunion planned, but U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney and Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama are distant cousins. So says the vice president's wife, Lynne Cheney, who said she discovered that her husband of 43 years is eighth cousins with the senator from Illinois. Mrs Cheney told MSNBC on Tuesday that it was “an amazing American story that one ancestor ... could be responsible down the family line for lives that have taken such different and varied paths.” The common ancestor was Mareen Devall, who the Chicago Sun-Times said was a 17th century immigrant from France. (Posted @ 09:25 PST)
Floods kill three, leave two missing in Vietnam HANOI, Oct 17 (AP): Floods triggered by heavy rains in central Vietnam killed three people, left two others missing and forced tens of thousands of people from their homes, disaster officials said on Wednesday. (Posted @ 09:20 PST)
2 dead, 16 hurt in Los Angeles 12-car pileup LANCASTER, California, Oct 17 (AP): A blinding sandstorm that caught drivers by surprise caused a 12-car pileup on Tuesday on a highway in the high desert north of Los Angeles, killing at least two people and injuring 16, authorities said. Two victims were in critical condition. (Posted @ 09:15 PST)
Man sentenced to death for throwing five-year-old girl to alligators MIAMI, Oct 17 (AFP): A man who threw a five-year-old girl into a Florida swamp to be devoured by alligators after trying to strangle her mom has been sentenced to death by a Florida court. A jury found Harrel Franklin Braddy guilty of murder and attempted murder in July. He was accused by the mother who survived his attack, the online edition of The Miami Herald reported on Tuesday. (Posted @ 09:55 PST)
New Zealand all rounder McMillan retires WELLINGTON, Oct 17 (Reuters): New Zealand all rounder Craig McMillan is retiring from cricket for health and personal reasons. McMillan, 31, said he wanted to end his career on a high after strong performances in the recent Twenty20 World Cup, in which he was New Zealand's highest scorer. “I have decided that the time is right for me to retire from cricket to spend more time with my family, as well as look after my health, as I have had ongoing issues related to diabetes,” McMillan said in a statement on Wednesday. (Posted @ 08:50 PST)
Romania extradites two to U.S. in terrorism case NEW YORK, Oct 16 (Reuters): Two men facing U.S. terrorism charges for suspicion of supplying Colombian rebels with weapons were extradited from Romania to the United States on Tuesday, U.S. authorities said. It was the first time Romania has extradited anyone charged with terrorism to the United States, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan said. (Posted @ 08:40 PST)
Hungarian boy killed by parent's dogs BUDAPEST, Oct 17 (AFP): A Hungarian toddler, missing for two months, was killed by the dogs of his parents who buried his body in a field, police said on Tuesday. The body of two-year-old Dominik was found in a field in Monorierdo, about 42 kilometers south of Budapest after the parents confessed. (Posted @ 08:35 PST)
French WWI veteran turns 110 BRIOUDE, Oct 17 (AFP): One of only two surviving French veterans of World War I celebrated his 110th birthday Tuesday at his home in Brioude in central France. Louis de Cazenave signed up for service in 1916 and served with the fifth Senegalese battalion. He saw active service from December 1916 to September 1917 and took part in the notorious “Ladies' Way” battle as the French attacked the German lines. On returning to civilian life in 1919 he became a railwayman. The other surviving French WWI veteran, Lazare Ponticelli, will celebrate his 110th birthday in December. (Posted @ 08:33 PST)
Karachi Stocks down 59.11, points: KARACHI, Oct 17:The KSE-100 index was at 14404.67, down 59.11, points. (Bureau Report) (Updated @ 12:00 PST)
Forex update: KARACHI, Oct 17:The Pakistani Rupee was traded at Rs 60.68, to the US Dollar in the open market. (Bureau Report) (Updated @ 12:00 PST)
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