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| November 17, 2007 | Saturday | Ziqa’ad 06, 1428 |
Updated round-the-clock, with major updates after 10:00 PST (05:00 GMT)
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Musharraf tells Negroponte emergency to stay till security improves ISLAMABAD, Nov 17 (AFP): President Musharraf told US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte Saturday that emergency rule can only be lifted once the law and order situation in Pakistan improves, a presidential aide said. “President Musharraf made it clear to the visiting US envoy that the emergency can only be lifted once the situation regarding law and order improves,” Musharraf's aide told AFP. “He told the envoy that the emergency is meant to reinforce and strengthen the law enforcement apparatus in the fight against militancy and extremism,” the aide added. (First Posted @ 14:15 PST, Updated @ 15:25 PST)
Musharraf warns on nuclear weapons LONDON, Nov 17 (Reuters): President Pervez Musharraf, defending his decision to declare emergency rule, in a BBC interview Saturday said that if elections were held in a “disturbed environment”, it could bring in dangerous elements who might pose a risk to control of Pakistan's nuclear weapons. “They cannot fall into the wrong hands, if we manage ourselves politically. The military is there - as long as the military is there, nothing happens to the strategic assets, we are in charge and nobody does anything with them,” he said. Musharraf cited rising militancy and a hostile judiciary as reasons for declaring emergency rule. He dismissed opposition leader Benazir Bhutto's chances of winning elections and blamed her for ruining chances of a deal which would see her serving as prime minister under his presidency. “She disturbed the entire environment. She comes on a total confrontationalist approach,” Musharraf said. “It is she actually who may not be wanting elections in Pakistan and it is she who may want to go on to the agitational mode because her party is not in a state to win at all,” he added. “Therefore I will certainly go for the election despite of any agitation by her.” He promised that political opponents would be released from house arrest “in a few days” but said he was considering all options regarding holding elections under emergency rule. Musharraf also hit out at foreign criticism of his rule since March. “Before March I was very good. Suddenly did I go mad after March or suddenly my personality changed, am I Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde or what is it?” he said. “Am I such a person? “Please go into the details, the causes. What I am doing? Have I done anything unconstitutionally legal? Yes, I did it on 3rd November. Did I do it before? Not once.” (First Posted @ 16:10 PST, Updated @ 16:50 PST)
Pakistan poll date to be unveiled Nov 21 ISLAMABAD, Nov 17 (AFP) - Pakistan's election commission is to announce the date for general elections on November 21, after the country's provincial assemblies are dissolved, commission secretary Kunwar Dilshad said Saturday. “Yes, the provincial assemblies are being dissolved on November 20 and the election schedule will be announced immediately thereafter,” he said when asked if the date would be given on November 21. Major political parties have been invited to the election commission on November 19 to discuss a code of conduct for the elections, Dilshad said. (Posted @ 18:04 PST)
Pakistan supreme court to hear Musharraf election case ISLAMABAD, Nov 17 (AFP) - Pakistan's supreme court will resume hearings on the legality of President Pervez Musharraf's re-election from Monday in a case that will decide when Musharraf quits as army chief, attorney general Malik Mohammad Qayyum said Saturday. The verdict is crucial because Musharraf has vowed that he will step down as army chief before he is sworn in for a second term as president, so long as the court approves his election win. Qayyum told AFP that the new chief justice Abdul Hameed Dogar had appointed a new 10-judge panel to begin hearing the case on Monday. He had said earlier this week that he expected the verdict in the next two or three weeks and that Musharraf would therefore hang up his uniform by December 1. Another seven-member bench has been put together to hear petitions challenging emergency rule, Qayyum said. (Posted @ 20:28 PST)
Sectarian clashes kill 45 in northwest Pakistan PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Nov 17 (AFP) - The toll in sectarian clashes in Parachinar in northwestern Pakistan has risen to 30 killed (45 according to PPI news agency) and scores injured, officials and witnesses said Saturday. Authorities clamped an indefinite curfew after fighting erupted in this main town of Kurram tribal district bordering Afghanistan, administration official Fakhre Alam said. “Both sides are using heavy and light weapons and we have called in paramilitary forces,” Alam told AFP. Official casualty tolls were not immediately available but residents, witnesses and state television figures indicated that about 30 people had been killed and more than 100 wounded. “I have seen 22 bodies myself,” a resident said. Another 10 people travelling in a van were shot dead by unknown gunmen in Shasho village, witnesses and state television reported. Interior ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema said clashes were continuing in Parachinar and surrounding areas, but gave no figure for casualties. (Posted @ 18:08 PST)
APNS, CPNE for urgent restoration of all TV news channels KARACHI, Nov 17 (PPI): “The All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS) and the Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE) have noted with alarm the rapidly deteriorating environment of freedom of express and freedom of press in Pakistan as the 15th day of the Emergency draws to a close. Hameed Haroon, President of APNS and Syed Faseih Iqbal, President of CPNE in a joint statement Saturday stated that the single most important step which needs to be taken today by the government is an urgent restoration of all television news channels in Pakistan. “This alone will allow an immediate return to process of constructive dialogue between government and civil society for which, a free press and a free electronic media are arbitrators or referees”. (Posted @ 19:52 PST)
Foreign Office denies BBC report based on Musharraf interview ISLAMABAD, Nov 17 (APP): Pakistan Saturday denied a BBC report that claimed President Pervez Musharraf had told the network in an interview that the country's nuclear weapons could fall into wrong hands. In the interview the President had stated that these weapons could not fall into wrong hands, the Foreign Office spokesman said while commenting on the BBC report. “This report is a complete distortion of the President's interview,” the spokesman said. The spokesman said that contrary to the report, President Musharraf had reiterated that the nuclear weapons “cannot fall into wrong hands”. “He (President) had argued that because the military organization is responsible for their safety and security, our strategic assets are totally secure and in no danger of falling in wrong hands,” the spokesman said. (Posted @ 19:48 PST)
Pakistan army to launch big push in Swat valley RAWALPINDI, Pakistan, Nov 17 (Reuters): Pakistan's army will soon launch a big operation in the northwestern Swat valley to clear out militants who have infiltrated from Afghan border strongholds, head of the military operations, Major-General Ahmed Shuja Pasha told newsmen in Rawalpindi Saturday. He said up to 500 well-armed militants, led by a hard core of 40 to 50, including Uzbek fighters, had infiltrated from the Waziristan border region and from Afghanistan, in support of cleric Maulana Fazlullah. General Pasha said during heavy fighting this week - in which about 100 militants were killed - the army had been “shaping the environment”, blocking a militant escape route. About 15,000 soldiers would take part in the offensive which would involve what he described as surgical attacks to avoid civilian casualties, he said and hoped the valley would be open to the tourists by the end of December. (First Posted @ 14:25 PST, Updated @ 16:25 PST)
Divided OPEC meets for rare summit RIYADH, Nov 17 (AFP) - OPEC heads of state met in Riyadh on Saturday for a rare summit, with the organisation divided over the falling US dollar and attempts to give a political impetus to the oil-exporting cartel. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in the Saudi capital to join fellow leaders from OPEC oil-exporting countries for only the third gathering of heads of state in the organisation's 47-year history. The event comes at a time of tension on world oil markets, with the cartel under pressure to increase its output to help calm record crude prices that had threatened to breach 100 dollars a barrel 10 days ago. The talks are intended to map out the strategic direction of OPEC, but the 12 members of the cartel, which includes an anti-US bloc of Iran and Venezuela, are divided on a number of issues. (Posted @ 21:32 PST)
S. Africa 272-2 in reply to New Zealand's 188 CENTURION, South Africa, Nov 17 (AP) - Jacques Kallis notched his 29th test century Saturday, scoring 131 with South Africa reaching 272-3 at stumps on the second day of the second test against New Zealand. (Posted @ 21:24 PST)
35 decomposed bodies found near Baghdad BAGHDAD, Nov 17 (AFP) - Thirty-five decomposed bodies of men killed in apparent sectarian attacks were found on Saturday in the suburb of Hawr Rijab in the southern outskirts of Baghdad, a security official said. “The 35 decomposed corpses were found in buildings that were just half constructed,” he said. “The men were killed at least seven months ago,” he added. (Posted @ 21:16 PST)
Bangladesh cyclone toll reaches 1,723 DHAKA, Nov 17 (AFP) - Bangladesh said Saturday that 1,723 people had been confirmed dead in the cyclone-hit south of the country, with the toll from the disaster expected to rise further. “We have so far confirmed 1,723 deaths and still more are coming in,” said Salina Shahid of the relief and disaster management ministry control room. Officials have said they expect “thousands” of bodies to be recovered over the coming days as relief workers reach badly hit areas. (First Posted @ 08:55 PST Updated @ 20:10 PST)
Indian troops kill four innocent Kashmiri youth ISLAMABAD, Nov 17 (APP): In occupied Kashmir, Indian troops martyred four more innocent Kashmiri youth, two of them at Sonapandi and one each at Gund-e-Manchar in Kupwara district and Damhal Hanjipora. The Killing of a pedestrian in the wake of indiscriminate firing by the troops at Damhal Hanjipora triggered anti-India demonstrations in the area in which police used batons and fired teargas shells to disperse the crowd resulting in several casualties, including some policemen. (Posted @ 20:50 PST)
At least 5 killed in gas explosion in Algeria ALGIERS, Algeria, Nov 17 (APP/AP): A gas explosion ripped through an old residential building in a historic quarter of Annaba, 600 kilometers east of Algiers on Saturday, leaving at least five dead and eight injured, emergency officials said. Part of the two-story building collapsed. (Posted @ 20:48 PST)
Two NATO soldiers, 33 rebels killed in Afghanistan KABUL, Nov 17 (AFP) - Two NATO soldiers and their interpreter were killed and another three soldiers injured when their vehicle struck a bomb in southern Afghanistan Saturday while officials reported that 33 Taliban-linked rebels died in new operations. In a separate attack, a suicide bomber blew himself up near an ISAF patrol in Nangarhar province, killing a civilian and slightly wounding a soldier, the force said. Two other civilians were hurt. Elsewhere, more than 10 Taliban were killed, police said, in an operation launched Saturday in Zahri district of Kandahar province. The fighting continued into Saturday evening, Kandahar police chief Sayed Agha Saqeb said. The US-led coalition, which operates alongside ISAF, announced meanwhile that its soldiers killed 23 fighters in Garmser district of Helmand province on Thursday in an operation targeting Taliban weapons suppliers. (Posted @ 20:34 PST)
Ahmadinejad dismisses war talk in Bahrain visit MANAMA, Nov 17 (AFP) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Saturday dismissed the prospect of war over his country's nuclear drive during a brief visit to key US ally Bahrain, whose ties with Tehran have often been strained. “We don't expect a new war in the region... and don't wish war to break out... But we have made all the preparations to face this eventuality (although) we don't expect (military conflict),” he told reporters. (Posted @ 20:14 PST)
Gilani for taking kashmir movement to its logical end SRINAGAR, occupied Kashmir, Nov 17 (PPI) - Veteran Kashmiri Hurriyat leader, Syed Ali Gilani has urged the people of Kashmir “to remain firm on their resolve for taking Kashmir movement to its logical end”, reports Kashmir Media Service. Addressing a public meeting in Sher-Bagh, he said: “We must boycott the so-called elections, as we cannot do business on the blood of Kashmiris who sacrificed their lives for the goal of freedom”. (Posted @ 19:28 PST)
Pro-Musharraf party SG urges end to emergency ISLAMABAD, Nov 17 (AFP) - Mushahid Hussain, secretary general of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, which was in government until parliament dissolved on Thursday, said his party did not need a state of emergency to win the elections. “I personally feel that it should be appropriate and internationally welcomed to lift the emergency before elections,” he told Dawn News. “We do not need emergency to either contest the election or win the election,” he said. “Lifting the emergency would create a positive atmosphere. The emergency has a negative impact at home and abroad.” (Posted @ 17:38 PST)
Gas pipeline project: Iranian team due next week ISLAMABAD, Nov 17 (APP) Iran's ambassador to Pakistan Masha Allah Shakeri Saturday said a high level delegation from Iran will visit Pakistan next week to finalise the gas pipeline project. Addressing a press conference at the Iranian embassy he said Iran is also ready to provide electricity to Pakistan for domestic and commercial purposes as it is also a feasible project to promote relations between the two countries. (Posted @ 17:24 PST)
Shujaat expands PML Parliamentary Board for general elections ISLAMABAD, Nov 17 (APP) President Pakistan Muslim League Chaudhry Shujat Hussain, on Saturday nominated seven additional members to the Central Parliamentary Board of PML for the forthcoming general elections. The total strength of parliamentary board has risen to 18 members. The newly appointed members are Ejazul Haq, Mian Manzoor Wattoo, Rao Sikander Iqbal, Faisal Saleh Hayat, Yar Mohammad Rind, Liaqat Ali Jatoi and Amanullah Khan Jadoon. (Posted @ 17:12 PST)
US troops kill six suspects, capture 10 in raids across central and northern Iraq BAGHDAD, Nov 17 (AP): U.S. troops killed six suspects and detained ten others Saturday in raids across central and northern Iraq, the military said. In one operation northeast of Samarra, U.S. soldiers killed two armed suspects in a house believed to be used as an al-Qaeda in Iraq propaganda base, the U.S. military said in a statement. Four other suspects were seen running into an adjacent building, the statement said. U.S. forces called for them to come out, but no one responded, so the Americans ''engaged the armed men, killing four'' of them, it said. (Posted @ 15:25 PST)
Poland to end Iraq mission in 2008: defence minister WARSAW, Nov 17 (AFP): Poland will end next year its mission in Iraq, where it currently deploys 900 soldiers, new Polish Defence Minister Bogdan Klich said Saturday. “I can confirm that in 2008 the Polish military contingent in Iraq will be withdrawn,” the minister, who took up his post in the new liberal government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Friday, told public radio Jedynma. He said the details of the withdrawal would be announced next Friday when Tusk outlines his government's policies in parliament. (Posted @ 14:25 PST)
Asian leaders aim for green region, promote nuclear energy SINGAPORE, Nov 17 (AFP): Asian leaders from 16 countries will pledge to increase the region's forest cover by 2020 and promote the use of nuclear energy during their annual summit here next week. A draft statement obtained by AFP on Saturday said the leaders due to meet on Wednesday will also throw their support behind a UN plan as the “core mechanism” to tackle global warming. (Posted @ 14:05 PST)
16 Tamil rebels killed in Sri Lanka COLOMBO, Nov 17 (AP): Sri Lankan soldiers overran two Tamil Tiger rebel bunkers in the north and destroyed them Saturday, killing five insurgents, the military said. Earlier 11 Tamil Tigers were killed in two battles in other areas of the north, the defence ministry said. (First Posted @ 09:10 PST, Updated @ 13:20 PST)
Bad light stops play, Sri Lanka 30 for 0 HOBART, Nov 17 (AFP): Sri Lanka were 30 without loss in reply to Australia's 542 for five declared when bad light stopped play late on the second day of the second cricket Test at Bellerive Oval here Saturday. Marvan Atapattu was 18 not out with Michael Vandort on 12. Earlier Australia declared their first innings closed at 542 for five just after tea. (First Posted @ 11:00 PST, Updated @ 11:50 PST)
Widow of slain Pakistani reporter killed in blast ISLAMABAD, Nov 17 (Reuters): The widow of a Pakistani journalist, shot dead last year after reporting that an Al-Qaeda leader was killed by a U.S. missile, was killed in a bomb blast on Saturday. The bomb planted outside the family house in Mir Ali town, in North Waziristan near the Afghan border, went off early in the morning, killing Mehr-un-Nisa, on the spot. “All her five children who slept in the same room survived miraculously,” said her brother-in-law, Ihsanullah Khan. Mehr's husband, Hayatullah Khan, was found dead in June 2006 nearly seven months after he was abducted shortly after reporting on an explosion in a militant hideout near the Afghan border that killed Abu Hamza Rabia. Hayatullah who reported for various publications, was the first journalist to photograph fragments found at the scene that appeared to be from a U.S. missile. (Posted @ 10:40 PST)
Prime minister dismissed in Georgia TBILISI, Nov 17 (AP): President Mikhail Saakashvili has dismissed Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli and his government and nominated an influential banker to the premiership in a move seen as a populist gesture to win votes ahead of a hastily called presidential election.The announcement came shortly after Georgia lifted a state of emergency that had been imposed Nov. 7 after police violently broke up a large opposition protest gathering. (Posted @ 09:55 PST)
Russian police detain Deputy Finance Minister MOSCOW, Nov 17 (Reuters): Russian police detained Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak on criminal charges, a senior police source told Reuters Friday, declining to give details. Ekho Moskvy radio station and Interfax news agency reported, quoting unidentified sources, that Storchak was to fly to South Africa on Thursday for a meeting of finance ministers of the 20 most industrialised and important emerging economies, but did not show up on the government plane. The Finance Ministry was not available for comment. (Posted @ 09:08 PST)
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