|
| February 04, 2008 | Monday | Muharram 25, 1429 |
Updated round-the-clock, with major updates after 10:00 PST (05:00 GMT)
|
Satellite Parameters for DAWN NEWS Satellite: Intelsat 10, Band -C Downlink Frequency: 4126.05 Mhz Symbol rate: 3255 Ks/s FEC: 3/4 Polarization: Horizontal 
Audio
|
Suicide bombing in Rawalpindi kills at least six RAWALPINDI, Feb 4 (Agencies): A suicide bomber on a motorcycle rammed into a bus carrying defence forces personnel, detonating a blast Monday that killed six people and wounded 30 others in Rawalpindi's R.A.Bazar area, police said. The bomb went off during the morning rush hour outside the army's National Logistics Cell, where the army has its headquarters. The bus was destroyed and several people wounded in the explosion, police official Abdul Waheed said. Several vehicles were badly damaged. An eye witness said a bus carrying army medical trainees had been targeted. He said about 25 people had been injured. Television footage showed the mangled wreckage of the vehicle, which troops later covered with a white tent. (First Posted @ 08:45 PST, Updated @ 19:55 PST)
India, Pakistan sign security exchange accord NEW DELHI, Feb 4 (AFP) India and Pakistan Monday signed an agreement to exchange security information, officials said. The accord clears the way for regular contacts between India's military-funded Institute of Defence Studies and Analysis (IDSA) and Pakistan's state-run Institute for Strategic Studies (ISS). “The purpose is to build channels of communication at the level of scholars, because exchanges of security studies had been limited because of the strained ties we have had,” ISS director Shireen Mazari said at a signing ceremony in New Delhi. IDSA head Narendra Sisodia, a former Indian defence secretary, said the accord was a landmark because “except for contacts at international forums, we never had open discussions on security issues.” The pact stipulates that the two think tanks will send experts to participate in state-sponsored workshops in India and Pakistan and later engage in joint military research projects. Sisodia cautioned, however, that Monday's accord between the IDSA and the ISS would not replace any official dialogue. (Posted @ 14:05 PST)
Ali Ahmad Kurd re-detained QUETTA, Pakistan, Feb 4 (AFP) Pakistani authorities Monday detained a second leading anti-government lawyer just days after he was freed from nearly three months under house arrest, police said. Ali Ahmad Kurd was first held in November when President Musharraf imposed emergency rule. He was released last week but has now been detained again. “Mr Kurd was trying to leave Quetta. He has been served a detention order and he will be under house arrest for 30 days,” senior police official Rehmatullah Niazi told AFP. Kurd said that he had tried to go to address lawyers in Lahore, but authorities feared that he would cause trouble. “The rulers are scared that I will create problems for them and under this fear they have again detained me. This detention is illegal,” Kurd said. “Our struggle for the independence of judiciary will continue and such steps cannot deter us,” he said. (Posted @ 15:33 PST)
Suicide bomber strikes Israel’s nuclear-reactor town: Three killed, ten injured DIMONA, Israel, Feb 4 (Reuters/AP) A Palestinian carried out a suicide bombing in Israel Monday, killing three persons including a woman and injuring 10 others in the desert town of Dimona where a top-secret nuclear reactor is located. Police said they prevented a second blast in the town’s shopping centre by shooting dead an accomplice before he could detonate an explosives belt. A source in the Palestinian Fatah faction said the “Army of Palestine” wing of Fatah's al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades launched the attack along with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the Dimona bombing but also levelled censure at an earlier military raid by Israel in the occupied West Bank. Police said the suicide bomber blew himself up, killing himself and the others. “The second terrorist was shot in the head as he tried to set off his bomb belt,” police chief in Israel's southern Negev region said. Israel's Dimona nuclear reactor, where it is widely believed to have produced atomic bombs, is located in a heavily guarded, fenced compound on the outskirts of the town. (First Posted @ 14:00 PST, Updated @ 20:00 PST)
Bird flu spreads in Pakistan ISLAMABAD, Feb 4 (Reuters) Pakistani authorities confirmed Monday a fresh outbreak of the H5N1 strain of bird flu at a poultry farm on the outskirts of Karachi, the second case in four days in the country's biggest city, a government official said. The new outbreak was found on a farm only 300 metres from where an outbreak was detected last week. “Samples taken from it were tested and found positive for H5N1,” said Food and Agriculture Ministry official Rafiqul Hassan Usmani. “Some 500 to 600 birds died of the virus and the remaining 5,500 chickens at the farm are being culled now.” Tests were also being done on samples taken from poultry farms in Punjab province but no outbreak had been confirmed, a government spokesman said.(Posted @ 18:28 PST)
Amin Fahim for recovery of missing persons Khipro, Sindh, Pakistan, Feb 04 (PPI): Senior Vice Chairman of Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Makhdoom Amin Fahim Monday said his party would take steps for the recovery of all missing persons of the country if voted to power. Talking to newsmen he said the registration of fake cases against PPP workers and transfer and postings of government officers on the eve of elections were underway but Election Commission seemed to be helpless in this regard. Makhdoom Amin said inflation had broken the back of the poor masses. “The provision of justice without independent judiciary is not possible,” he further said.(Posted @ 19:46 PST)
Motorcyclist fires at PPP rally in Karachi KARACHI, Feb 4 (AP) A gunman on a motorcycle opened fire Monday in Karachi’s Lyari area on a gathering of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People’s Party, wounding one person, police said. The shooting occurred at a rally of about 100 supporters, police officer Mohammad Pervez said. After the attack, party activists pelted police and nearby shops with stones but no one was injured, he said. Party officials claimed 10 people were hurt. Meanwhile, in the eastern city of Multan, about 4,000 supporters of a coalition of opposition political parties staged a rally in support of the ousted judges of the superior judiciary and for the boycott of February 18 elections.(Posted @ 19:26 PST)
One dead, three wounded in Gaza-Egypt shooting: medics RAFAH, Gaza Strip, Feb 4, 2008 (AFP) One Palestinian was killed and three others were wounded on Monday as Egyptian policemen opened fire to disperse a protest after the Gaza-Egypt border was sealed, medics and witnesses said. Witnesses on the Egyptian side of the border told AFP that three policemen were also shot and wounded in the incident. The Palestinian sources named the dead man as Hamed al-Qadi, 40. Twelve other people were treated for tear-gas inhalation, medics said.(Posted @ 23:15 PST)
Tennis-Mirza to boycott Indian tournaments NEW DELHI, Feb 4 (Reuters) Sania Mirza will boycott all Indian tournaments, including next month's WTA Bangalore Open, after being dragged into a series of controversies at home in the last two months. The 21-year-old Asian number one said she had been advised by her manager and mixed doubles partner Mahesh Bhupathi to skip the tournament starting on March 3. “At this moment, I have been advised by my manager not to play,” she told reporters on Monday in her hometown of Hyderabad.(Posted @ 23:06 PST)
20 hurt in Pakistan road mishap NAWABSHAH, Pakistan, Feb 04 (PPI): Twenty people were injured when a Peshawar-bound coach overturned on National Highway near Qazi Ahmed on Monday. The coach was coming from Karachi and turned turtle after its tie-rod broke down.(Posted @ 20:31 PST)
Bush proposes 3.1 trillion-dollar budget WASHINGTON, Feb 4 (AFP) - US President George W. Bush proposed Monday a 3.1 trillion-dollar budget for fiscal 2009 that widens the government deficit with an economic stimulus and expenditures for the war in Iraq. Bush's spending plan, sent to Congress for the fiscal year starting October 1, forecasts heavy deficits for the government -- 410 billion dollars for the current year and 407 billion for the coming fiscal year. It is the first budget plan over three trillion dollars.(Posted @ 20:18 PST)
Iran rocket test 'unfortunate' - White House WASHINGTON, Feb 4 (AFP) - The White House on Monday branded Iran's firing a rocket into space “unfortunate” and warned that it would further isolate the Islamic republic from the international community.(Posted @ 20:15 PST)
Security increased near Amitabh Bachchan’s home after anti-migrant clashes in Mumbai MUMBAI, India, Feb 4 (AP) - Actor Amitabh Bachchan’s Mumbai home was under guard Monday after Raj Thackeray, leader of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena or Maharashtra Reconstruction Party, criticized him at an anti-migrant rally for funding a college in another state, sparking violence in Mumbai, police said. Raj Thackeray told supporters at a rally Friday that actor Amitabh Bachchan, 65, should have built the women's college in Mumbai, the city where he lives and works, rather than in his home state of Uttar Pradesh. Thackeray also called for action to prevent Indians from other states from taking jobs in Maharashtra, blaming the migrants for increasing unemployment in the state. Thackeray's comments sparked clashes in Mumbai late Sunday between supporters of his party and the Socialist Party, which Bachchan's wife Jaya represents in India's parliament. Four people were injured and police arrested 25 more, police commissioner K.L. Prasad said. Reports said vandals threw glass bottles at Amitabh’s house but the actor and his family were not home at the time.(Posted @ 19:07 PST)
Fire at German nuclear plant put out FRANKFURT, Feb 4 (Reuters) German daily newspaper Die Welt reported on its website Monday that a fire had broken out at the 1,402 MW Kruemmel nuclear plant, closed since June last year after a fire in its transformer, but the local government said soon afterwards that it had been extinguished.(Posted @ 18:39 PST)
Bird flu spreads in Bangladesh, compensation to rise DHAKA, Feb 4 (Reuters) Bird flu has spread to two more districts in Bangladesh, taking the number of affected districts to 36, a livestock official said Monday, as the government pledged to raise compensation to farmers for culled poultry. The latest cases were reported in southern Bagerhat and western Kushtia districts while the virus has re-emerged in several others, an official in the livestock department said. More than half Bangladesh's 64 districts are affected by bird flu. The official said the interim government had decided to increase the amount of compensation for poultry farmers to encourage them to report and cull sick birds. Farmers currently receive between 60 and 80 taka for each culled chicken.(Posted @ 18:36 PST)
Cargo train derails in China, burying six BEIJING, Feb 4 (AFP) - A cargo train derailed in Qujing, a mountainous area in Yunnan province in southwest China early Monday, destroying several houses and burying six people, Xinhua news agency reported. The 17-car train went out of control shortly after leaving Geyitou station, jumping off the track and plowing into a number of houses, according to the agency. The report did not say what happened to the six people who were buried.(Posted @ 18:05 PST)
Iran launches first space centre TEHRAN, Feb 4 (AFP) Iran inaugurated a space centre aimed at launching its first home-built research satellites Monday. A rocket was fired into space at the remote desert centre in northern Iran to mark the opening. “We witness today that Iran has taken its first step in space very firmly, precisely and with awareness,” declared President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as he gave the order for the launch. The space centre includes an underground control station and launchpad which will be used to fire an Iranian satellite named Omid (Hope) into space, the IRNA news agency reported.(Posted @ 17:51 PST)
US wants Bangladesh emergency rule lifted, elections DHAKA, Feb 4 (AFP) - The United States on Monday urged Bangladesh authorities to lift a year-long state of emergency and hold elections before the end of 2008. “The sooner the emergency is lifted the better, and the sooner the elections can be held the better,” said visiting US deputy assistant secretary for South Asian affairs after talks with Foreign Minister Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury and the country's army chief, General Moeen U. Ahmed. He later met the head of the country's emergency government Fakhruddin Ahmed, who reiterated his pledge to stage timely polls -- a reference to an earlier statement that elections would be held in late 2008.(Posted @ 17:23 PST)
13 killed, 17 injured on S.Lanka’s Independency Day COLOMBO, Feb 4 (AFP) - Thirteen people were killed in two roadside bombings in Sri Lanka on Monday, as the island's president marked independence day by insisting he was winning the war against Tamil Tiger rebels. A bomb in the northeast killed 12 bus passengers and wounded 17 others, the military said, adding that a soldier was killed in a similar bomb attack against a military vehicle in the south. Two more blasts just outside the capital earlier Monday did not cause any casualties, but an electricity transformer was destroyed in one of the attacks, police said.(Posted @ 11:05 PST, Updated @ 17:19 PST)
Israeli air force attacks Gaza militant GAZA, Feb 4 (Reuters) Israel's air force attacked a senior Palestinian militant as he drove through the northern Gaza Strip Monday, wounding him and several others, a Hamas source said. (Posted @ 16:18 PST)
Two killed, nine wounded in attacks across Thai south YALA, Thailand, Feb 4 (AFP) Two people were killed and nine wounded Monday in a string of bombing and shooting attacks in southern Thailand, police said. Six people, including three police officers, were wounded when a bomb exploded around midday outside a shop in Yala town, one of the region's main cities, police said. The five-kilogram bomb had been planted near a motorcycle parked outside the shop, police said. An hour later, a second bomb exploded outside a school in nearby Pattani province, killing one government official and wounding two others and a policeman, they said. Later in the day, a 30-year-old man was shot dead in a drive-by attack in Yala province, they added. (First Posted @ 14:10 PST; Updated @ 16:10 PST)
10 people killed in raids by foreign, Afghan troops KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Feb 2 (AP) Afghan and foreign troops conducted separate raids on the homes of suspected Taliban militants Monday, leaving 10 people dead, including women and children, police said. In the Bakwa district of western Farah province, foreign and Afghan ground forces attacked the home of suspected Taliban member Mullah Manan, killing nine people, including two women and two children, said district police chief Khan Agha. He said the troops acted on intelligence indicating that insurgents were meeting at his house. Manan escaped the attack. In Helmand province, foreign troops raided the house of another Taliban suspect near Lashkar Gah, killing him and wounding his 8-year-old daughter, said provincial police chief Mohammad Hussein Andiwal. It was not immediately clear which foreign troops participated in the raids. (First Posted @ 14:15 PST, Updated @ 16:00 PST)
Turkish warplanes bomb Kurdish area along Iraq-Turkey border IRBIL, Iraq, Feb 4 (AP) Five Turkish fighter jets bombed suspected Kurdish rebel hideouts Monday in northern Iraq, a senior Kurdish official said. No casualties were reported. The raid lasted one hour early Monday, in an area inside Iraq along the country's northern border with Turkey, said Jabbar Yawar, an undersecretary for the ministry governing Kurdish protection forces known as peshmerga. On Sunday, Turkish troops killed 10 separatist Kurdish rebels in clashes in southeastern Turkey, according to a Turkish military official. (First Posted @ 09:15 PST, Updated @ 15:45 PST)
Rebels out of Chad's capital, 200 reported wounded NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 4 (AP) Chadian rebels said Monday they withdrew voluntarily from Chad's capital overnight, but it was unclear if they succumbed to the force of helicopter gunships and tanks deployed by government forces. Dozens of civilians have been wounded in fighting. Rebel spokesman Abderaman Koulamallah told The Associated Press ''we decided to retreat to give the population a chance to get out.'' Chadian Gen. Mahamat Ali Abdallah Nassour charged Sudanese troops were involved and called it a ''declaration of war'' from Sudan. Sudan has repeatedly denied any involvement. A spokesman for Medecins sans Frontieres in Paris said the Chadian Red Cross had told MSF doctors that they had counted about 200 wounded. Hundreds of people are fleeing the fighting, crossing the Chari River to Kousseri, in neighbouring Cameroon, the U.N.'s refugee agency said. (First Posted @ 11:55 PST, Updated @ 13:55 PST)
Nine killed in German house fire BERLIN, Feb 4 (Reuters) Nine people, including five children, were killed in a fire in a house in the western German city of Ludwigshafen, police said Monday. A further 24 were taken to hospital and it was possible that more bodies would be found in the house, which was in danger of collapse, a police spokesman said. It was unclear what had caused the fire, the spokesman said, adding that 52 people, mostly Turkish citizens, were registered as living in the house. (Posted @ 13:30 PST)
Trial of ex-Bangladesh PM adjourned after courtroom row DHAKA, Feb 4 (AFP): The corruption trial of former Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed was adjourned Monday after defence lawyers accused the judge of bias, lawyers said. “They hurled abuse at the judge, accusing him of taking sides... The judge left the court after telling the lawyers that he would report their behaviour to the Supreme Court,” state prosecutor Mohammad Borhanuddin said. Sheikh Hasina's lawyer, Kamrul Islam, accused the judge of refusing to allow the defence to cross-examine the plaintiff in the case, a businessman who says the former premier and her cousin extorted 435,000 dollars from him. (Posted @ 12:35 PST)
Israeli troops kill two Palestinians in West Bank JERUSALEM, Feb 4 (AP): Israeli special forces killed two members of Islamic Jihad and seriously wounded a third in a pre-dawn raid Monday into a West Bank village, Palestinian and Israeli officials said. Last month Israeli forces killed an Islamic Jihad commander in the same village. (Posted @ 10:50 PST)
US military ‘accidentally’ kills 9 Iraqi civilians near Baghdad BAGHDAD, Feb 4 (AP): The U.S. military said Monday that it accidentally killed nine Iraqi civilians during an operation targeting Al-Qaeda. The civilians were killed Saturday near Iskandariyah, 50kms south of Baghdad, a U.S. navy official told The Associated Press. Three more civilians were wounded and taken to nearby U.S. military hospitals nearby, he said. (Posted @ 10:10 PST)
US soldier killed by grenade in Baghdad; another dies of non-combat cause BAGHDAD, Feb 4 (AP): A U.S. soldier was killed by a rocket-propelled grenade last week in Baghdad, the military said Sunday. The Multi-National Division Baghdad soldier's vehicle was struck while on patrol in eastern Baghdad on Thursday, according to a statement. It did not say why the death was not reported earlier. The military also reported that a U.S. soldier assigned to Multi-National Division North died Saturday of non-combat causes in Ninevah province. (Posted @ 10:00 PST)
Eleven dead in gun battle at Nigerian pipeline LAGOS, Feb 4 (Reuters): Three soldiers and eight militants were killed in a gun battle at an oil pipeline hub operated by Royal Dutch Shell in Nigeria's southern state of Bayelsa, the navy said on Sunday. Shell said the Tora manifold, which sends oil to the Bonny export terminal, was not damaged in the attack late on Saturday and oil production in Nigeria, the world's eighth largest oil exporter, was unaffected. “Some militants attacked the Tora manifold where we had some men. There was an exchange of fire and they killed three of our men. The militants lost eight,” a navy spokesman said. (Posted @ 10:00 PST)
Weekend Kenya violence claims at least 70 lives despite peace plan NAIROBI, Feb 4 (AFP): Weekend clashes in Kenya left at least 70 dead as tribal violence in the country since flawed polls a month ago showed no sign Sunday of abating despite a peace plan set in place by Kofi Annan. “A total of 13 people were killed overnight” along the Kisii-Kalenjin tribal border and nearby areas in western Nyamira district, a police commander told AFP. Later on Sunday, an AFP photographer said hundreds of fighters armed with bows and arrows and rocks fought pitched battles as police struggled to contain them. (Posted @ 09:10 PST)
Lebanese killed by Israeli fire TYRE, Feb 4 (AFP): One Lebanese man was killed and another wounded on Sunday when Israeli troops opened fire on them near the divided border village of Ghajar, a Lebanese security official told AFP. “The two men were hit by Israeli gunfire and transported to the hospital in Marjayoun,” the official, said. An Israeli army spokesman claimed the Zionist troops had come under fire from the Lebanese side as they carried out a patrol. (Posted @ 09:05 PST)
Five dead in Philippines troops clash with militants MANILA, Feb 4 (Reuters): At least five people were killed on a remote island in southern Philippines on Monday when troops clashed with militants holding two people hostage, an army spokesman said. He said troops were on a mission to rescue the two hostages, including the daughter of a wealthy local trader, when they clashed with the Abu Sayyaf rebels on the island of Jolo. “We lost two men but we killed three on their side,” the spokesman said, adding five soldiers were also wounded in the hour-long gunbattle. (Posted @ 08:45 PST)
Karachi Stocks up 20.59 points: KARACHI, Feb 04: At close of trading, the KSE-100 index was at 13995.00, up 20.59 points. (Bureau Report) (Updated @ 14:20 PST)
Forex update: KARACHI, Feb 04: The Pakistani Rupee was traded at Rs 62.7 to the US Dollar in the open market. (Bureau Report) (Updated @ 14:20 PST)
Founder: Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah
Editor: Abbas Nasir
The DAWN Group of Newspapers
Haroon House, Dr. Ziauddin Ahmed Road, Karachi 74200, Pakistan.
Phone:+92 (21) 111-444-777 Fax: +92 (21) 569-3995
webmaster@dawn.com
Make sure to reload these pages so you're viewing the current version.
|
|
|
Contributions |