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| February 29, 2008 | Friday | Safar 21, 1429 |
Updated round-the-clock, with major updates after 10:00 PST (05:00 GMT)
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 25 killed, 50 injured in Pakistan police official's funeral bombing PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Feb 29 (AFP) - At least 25 people were killed and 50 wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up Friday during the funeral for a police official in Mangora town of Swat valley in northwest Pakistan, hospital officials said. “Fifteen bodies have been brought to the hospital and there are 40 others injured,” hospital official Hakeem Khan earlier told AFP. Hundreds of people were attending the funeral of Deputy Superintendent of Police Javed Iqbal when the bombing took place, security officials said. (Posted @ 22:00 PST Updated @ 23:16 PST)   Bomb blast at Pakistan police official's funeral; heavy casualties PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Feb 29 (AFP) - A bomb exploded Friday during a funeral for a police official who was killed earlier in the day in a blast in northwest Pakistan, security officials said. The bomb late Friday exploded in the northwestern town of Mingora, the native town of Deputy Superintendent of Police Javed Iqbal who was killed, alongwith his driver and two guards, earlier in Lakki Marwat. “Several casualties are feared after a bomb blast exploded during the funeral prayers attended by hundreds of people,” a security official told AFP. Officils said that DSP Javed Iqbal was targeted Friday morning through a remote control device while on a routine patrol in Lakki Marwat district of North West Frontier Province. On the other hand, the suicide bomb attack was made after the funeral prayers in Mangora town of Swat valley and about the time when a police guard of honour was being presented for the slain officer, private TV channels reported. The TV report said that there were more than 50 casualties among the mourners, including many who suffered serious injuries. However, there was no exact count of those killed in the suicide bombing when last reports came in. (First Posted @ 11:05 PST Updated @ 21:44 PST) ANP nominates Amir Haider Hoti as CM NWFP PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Feb 29 (APP): Awami National Party (ANP) Friday nominated Amir Haider Khan Hoti for the slot of Chief Minister and Bashir Ahmad Bilour as Parliamentary leader in the NWFP Assembly. Provincial President of ANP Afrasiab Khattak told a press conference that ANP had emerged the leading party in the province with 45 members besides MPAs-elect Akhtar Nawaz and Adnan Wazir who have already extended their support to the party. “We have not yet decided about the cabinet members but soon the party will take the decision”, he added. Amir Haider Khan Hoti was elected from PF-23 Mardan constituency. He is son of ANP leader and former Federal Minister for Communication Azam Khan Hoti. (Posted @ 17:30 PST) 
 Powerful blast rocks suburb of Quetta QUETTA, Pakistan, Feb 29 (APP): A bomb in open ground exploded in Killi Khezi in the jurisdiction of airport police station in suburb of Balochistan capital Quetta on Friday evening, police said. No loss of life or property was reported. (Posted @ 23:34 PST) PPP will not seek confrontation with Musharraf ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Feb 29 (AP) - Slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People’s Party set to form Pakistan's next government indicated Friday it will not seek a confrontation with President Pervez Musharraf, who is facing calls from other parties to step down. Shah Mahmood Qureshi, a front rank PPP leader, said his party would move cautiously to prevent fresh turmoil. “Relations with the presidency is a challenge, because as you know the PPP has been talking about a balance of power between the parliament and the presidency,” Qureshi told Dawn News television. “One has to tread carefully ... we do not want confrontation.” At the same time, the PPP wants to clip Musharraf's wings _ primarily by repealing the constitution's Article 58(2)b, which gives the president the right to abolish national and state assemblies. “We will move ahead with a positive mind-set and will try our best to tackle all issues purely on constitutional grounds,” said Makhdoom Amin Fahim, PPP's likely candidate for the prime minister's post. (Posted @ 21:54 PST) Crisis if establishment did not accept Feb.18 mandate: Hashmi MULTAN, Pakistan, Feb 29 (PPI): Pakistan Muslim League (N) chairman Makhdoom Javed Hashmi Friday warned that crisis would emerge if the establishment did not accept the Feb.18 mandate. He told newsmen on telephone that president Musharraf's meetings with the PML-Q leadership and appointment of Nawab Zulfiqar Magsi as Balochistan governor, besides recent increase in the prices of ghee and cooking oil, reduction in wheat quota for flour mills and such other steps suggested that the establishment had not accepted the election results wholeheartedly. He agreed with SCBA chief Aitezaz Ahsan that restoration of the sacked judges through two-third majority parliamentary vote would amount to legitimizing the action. He also said that the PPP and PML-N had agreed to the reinstatement of judges and only the modalities were to be finalised. (Posted @ 18:34 PST) Prince Harry pulled out of Afghanistan LONDON, Feb 29 (AFP) - The British military decided Friday to pull Prince Harry out of Afghanistan “immediately” after news of his deployment leaked out in foreign media, the Ministry of Defence said. “Following a detailed assessment of the risks by the operational chain of command, the decision has been taken... to withdraw Prince Harry from Afghanistan immediately,” it said in a statement. The 23-year-old prince, a junior officer in the Household Cavalry, was posted in mid-December to the restive Helmand province under a cloak of secrecy following an unusual agreement reached between the media and the army but the arrangement collapsed after news was leaked on the US website, on Thursday. The ministry urged the media to maintain a news blackout until the prince returned to Britain. (Posted @ 20:00 PST) Turkey pulls troops out of northern Iraq ANKARA, Feb 29 (Reuters) - All Turkish troops involved in a major ground offensive against Kurdish PKK rebels inside northern Iraq have withdrawn to Turkey, Iraq's foreign minister Hoshiyar Zabari told Reuters on Friday. “All the Turkish troops have withdrawn and gone back to the Turkish side of the international border. We welcome this, we think this is the right thing for Turkey to do,” he said. (Posted @ 16:40 PST) PPP was not consulted in Magsi's appointment ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Feb 29 (PPI): Pakistan Peoples Party Friday said it was not consulted in the matter of appointment of Nawab Zulfiqar Magsi as Governor of Balochistan. “The PPP was neither consulted nor did it play any role in Magsi's appointment to the post,” Sherry Rehman, PPP’s Central Information Secretary said in a statement .She took serious notice of spate of high-profile appointments made in recent days including the appointment of PIA Chairman and others in the Information Ministry and said: “The caretaker government is not entitled to make such crucial appointments. The next government will review each and every appointment once the government is formed.” (Posted @ 18:10 PST) 
OIC, GCC denounce Gaza 'massacres' RIYADH, Feb 29 (AFP) - The Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Friday condemned deadly Israeli raids on the Gaza Strip and urged the United Nations to rein in Israel. “The massacres perpetrated by the Israeli government are a blatant violation of international laws and norms,” OIC secretary general Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu said in a statement released by the 57-member organisation. He accused Israel of “deliberately killing Palestinian civilians” and urged the UN Security Council and the UN Human Rights Council to “act speedily to halt the ongoing Israeli aggression.” The Palestinian issue will take centre stage at an OIC summit in Senegal next month, Ihsanoglu said. GCC secretary general Abdulrahman al-Attiyah also urged the international community and the Security Council, “especially the United States,” to “rein in the Israeli aggression machine unleashed against unarmed Palestinians. “It is as if (the deaths) of the innocent Gaza residents who perished in the past six months as a result of Israel's policy of blockading and starving the Palestinian people was not sufficient to satisfy the Israeli forces' lust for murder,” said Attiyah. “They are now continuing their aggression against those innocent and unarmed people in full view of the whole world,” he said in a statement carried by Saudi SPA news agency. The GCC groups six pro-Western oil-rich Gulf Arab states. Israeli air raids have killed more than 30 Palestinians, including six children, since Wednesday. Israeli officials say they are considering a major ground operation against Gaza to stop the firing of rockets by militants from the Hamas-run territory. (Posted @ 21:00 PST) Harry 'doesn't like England,' LONDON, Feb 29 (AFP) - Prince Harry may be returning from the Afghan frontline to a hero's welcome, but he seems far from happy with England, notably life on the media frontline, according to remarks released Friday. The Ministry of Defence said the 23-year-old was being pulled out of Afghanistan “immediately” after a US website breached a media blackout on his presence in the violence-scarred southern province of Helmand. Officials have praised the British media for strictly adhering to the embargo on reporting Harry's deployment, but Harry, third in line to the British crown, didn't seem overly happy with his homeland's press, who have given generous coverage in recent years to his partying escapades in the nightclubs of London and elsewhere. “I don't want to sit around in Windsor,” he said in a pooled interview in Afghanistan last week, released after the blackout on his whereabouts was broken. “But I generally don't like England that much and, you know, it's nice to be away from all the press and the papers and all the general shite that they write.” Harry's media image will certainly benefit from his adventures in Afghanistan. Top-selling daily The Sun described him as “a man of outstanding courage who has risked having his head blown off by the Taliban so he can serve his country with his mates.” British Prime Minister Gordon Brown described him as an “exemplary soldier (who) is serving with dedication in the finest tradition of our armed forces.” (Posted @ 20:52 PST) Burns hopeful democracy and press freedoms will advance in Pakistan WASHINGTON, Feb 29 (APP): US Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns, applauding democratic progress in last week's parliamentary polls, voiced the hope that democracy and press freedoms would further advance in Pakistan that remains “among the most important” partners in the fight against terrorism. “We hope very much that the trends can be positive in Pakistan, that a coalition government, a new government can be formed. We certainly hope that this process of democratisation and of press freedoms can advance in Pakistan,” Burns told a briefing at the Foreign Press Centre Thursday afternoon. (Posted @ 13:45 PST) NA-37 (Kurram agency) polling on March 3 PARACHINAR, Pakistan, Feb 29 (APP): Polling in NA-37 Kurram Agency constituency would be held on March 3 (Monday), an Election Commission spokesman said Friday. The total number of registered voters in the constituency is 141,190 (78,418 male voters and 62,772 female voters) for which 123 polling stations and 225 polling booths have been set-up. Polling in the said constituency on February 18 was deferred due to law and order situation and imposition of curfew in the area. (Posted @ 17:40 PST) Pakistan lawyers urge new parliament to restore deposed judges LAHORE, Pakistan, Feb 29 (APP): Members of the Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) and Lahore District Bar Association (LDBA) Friday staged a rally and sit-in protest against the dismissal of Superior Courts judges and urged the newly elected parliamentarians to restore the deposed judges as their first task. The rally was joined on the way by hundreds of workers of political parties including Jamat-i-Islami,Tehrik-i-Insaf and Khaksar Tehrik. They marched to Faisal chowk, in front of Punjab Assembly building, where they chanted slogans and staged a sit-in protest. Imran Khan, Chairman, Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf, addressing the protesters said the first task of elected political parties should be to restore the Constitution of 1973 and the reinstatement of the deposed judges. Earlier, the meetings of general bodies of both LHCBA and LDBA were held at which the lawyers vowed to continue their struggle (Posted @ 17:25 PST) Eight dead in Bulgarian train blaze SOFIA, Feb 29 (AFP) - A fire on a Bulgarian train has claimed eight lives, officials said Friday, adding that the toll could rise. The train was travelling from Sofia to the northeastern town of Kardam when it caught fire on Thursday night. Nine people were also injured in the blaze which gutted two sleeping cars. The interior ministry said a broken lamp may have caused the fire. (Posted @ 20:06 PST) Pakistan Rangers hold meeting with Indian Border Force officials KARACHI, Feb 29 (APP): A high level delegation of Pakistan Rangers (Sindh) led by Brig Syed Khushnood Hussain Friday held a meeting with the officials of Indian Border Security Force (BSF) led by Deputy Inspector General Shri N.D. Parsad at Monabao boder town (India). During the 4-hour meeting matters relating to joint patrolling along the border, defence construction, adjustment of security lights and issues of inadvertent border crossers were discussed in detail. (Posted @ 19:42 PST) 
U-19 World Cup cricket: Pakistan-South Africa semi-final stopped by rain KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 29 (AFP) - Heavy rain brought play to an early end in the under-19 World Cup semi-final day-night clash between Pakistan and South Africa here Friday. The teams will return to finish the match on Saturday, with Pakistan, chasing a revised target of 252 from 47 overs, on 86-2 after 18.5 overs. They will resume with opener Ahmad Shehzad on 40 and Umar Amin on 22. Earlier, South Africa made 260-8 after being sent in to bat under overcast conditions. The winner will play India in Sunday's final. Brief scores: South Africa 260-8 after 50 overs; Pakistan 86-2 after 18.5 overs. (Posted @ 19:26 PST) Cricket-South Africa 405-0 v Bangladesh CHITTAGONG, Bangladesh, Feb 29 (Reuters) - South Africa were 405 for no loss at close of play on the opening day of the second test against Bangladesh in Chittagong on Friday. Score: South Africa 405-0 (G. Smith 223 not out, N. McKenzie 169 not out) v Bangladesh. (Posted @ 19:18 PST) Pakistanis demand end to Denmark ties over cartoon KARACHI, Feb 29 (Reuters) - Protesters in Pakistan called on Friday for ties with Denmark to be severed over the republication of one of several blasphemous cartoons that led to violence in Muslim countries two years ago. Rallies were held in Karachi, Quetta, Multan, Hyderbabad, and the capital, Islamabad, where protesters shouted slogans against Denmark and burned U.S. and Danish flags. A protest rally was held in Karachi by about 700 people. Separately, a group of up to 50 Christians also held a rally in Karachi where speakers said the publication of the cartoons was an attempt to disrupt world peace and hinder efforts for interfaith harmony. Last weekend, Pakistani authorities ordered internet service providers to block YouTube Web site after it ran material deemed insulting to Islam. The ban was lifted on Wednesday after YouTube removed the material. (Posted @ 19:00 PST) Thousands of Gazans protest deadly Israeli raids GAZA CITY, Feb 29 (AFP) - Tens of thousands of Gazans on Friday protested against Israeli raids that have killed more than 30 Palestinians. The demonstrators poured into the streets throughout the impoverished and isolated territory to denounce Israel's air strikes whose victims included several children. “Gaza today faces a real war, a crazy war led by the enemy against our people,” said Ismail Haniya, the premier in a Hamas-led government which Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas fired after the Islamists seized control of Gaza. Haniya lashed out at the US administration, which he claimed backs the Israeli attacks by portraying them as “legitimate self-defence.” He also accused the Arab world of “encouraging the Israeli aggression” through its silence. In Israel, Deputy Defence Minister Matan Vilnai told army radio that “we will not shy away from any action” to halt the near-daily rocket fire from Gaza. Israel, he said, “will have no choice” but to launch a widescale ground operation. On Friday, six people, including three children, were wounded in Israeli raids. (Posted @ 18:50 PST) 
India hikes defence budget to 26.40 billion dollars NEW DELHI, Feb 29 (AFP) - India on Friday jacked up defence spending by 10 percent to 26.4 billion dollars, the steepest hike since independence to fund a mammoth modernisation programme. Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram boosted expenditure for the fiscal year ending March 2009 from the previous allocation of 24 billion dollars. India plans to spend at least 30 billion dollars until 2012 to modernise the military with an immediate purchase of 126 warjets costing 12 billion dollars followed by ships, submarines, artillery and other hardware in coming years. Chidambaram set aside 12 billion dollars for arms purchases during the current fiscal year. The 1.23-million-strong army, the world's fourth largest, received nine billion dollars to help modernise mechanised divisions, artillery and air defence units. He committed 1.85 billion dollars to the navy which is shopping for six submarines in addition to the six it bought last year for three billion dollars. He also allotted 2.71 billion dollars for the airforce while the remaining funds were marked for research development and ordnance factories which are in the process of deploying India's guided and ballistic missiles that can carry nuclear warheads. The increase was likely to be closely monitored in Pakistan which has accused the nuclear rival of sparking an arms race by spending almost three percent of GDP on its million-plus military forces. For the current fiscal year which ends March 31, India increased defence spending by 7.8 percent. (Posted @ 16:25 PST) Musharraf orders release of Indian “spy” condemned to death ISLAMABAD, Feb 29 (Reuters): President Musharraf has accepted a mercy plea from an Indian national who spent 35 years on death row on spying charges, and ordered his release, Ansar Burney, Minister for Human Rights, said Friday. Kashmir Singh was arrested in Rawalpindi with another Indian in 1973 while trying to smuggle goods from Pakistan to India. The other man was sentenced to 10 years in jail and has been sent back to India, but a military court sentenced Singh to death. Burney said Singh would be released Monday and handed over to Indian authorities. Contact has been made with his family through Indian politicians, he said. (Posted @ 12:00 PST ) South Asia peace linked with Kashmir dispute resolution SRINAGAR, occupied Kashmir, Feb 29 (PPI): Maulana Abbas Ansari, Acting Chairman, All Parties Hurriyet Conference, has said that peace and security in South Asia was linked with the resolution of Kashmir dispute in accordance with the aspirations of the people of Kashmir. Addressing a public meeting in Chattabal, during his mass contact tour, he said unless it is resolved either through implementation of UN Resolutions or tripartite talks between India, Pakistan and Kashmiris, peace would continue to elude the region. Meanwhile, APHC leaders, Nayeem Ahmad Khan, Syed Saleem Gilani and others also visited various parts of Jammu as part of the campaign. (Posted @ 18:14 PST) Blast in Peshawar, no damage ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Feb 29 (APP): Peshawar city was rocked with a blast Friday morning; but there was no loss of life or property. Police said unidentified persons had planted about 20kg explosive material on the roadside at Budhaber on the outskirts of Peshawar city which exploded but there was none within its reach. (Posted @ 18:02 PST)
2 former presidents join big Manila rally calling for Arroyo ouster MANILA, Philippines, Feb 29 (AP) - Two former presidents, Corazon Aquino and Joseph Estrada, once bitter foes, joined forces Friday to press for President Arroyo's resignation as tens of thousands of protesters turned out for an interfaith rally. It was the largest crowd yet since Arroyo's latest crisis erupted weeks ago over an alleged corruption scandal that has riveted the Philippines. The Senate has heard testimony, shown on live TV, linking her husband to multimillion-dollar kickbacks in a government telecommunications deal. The rally was organized by a loose coalition of opposition groups, business people, left-wing activists, Roman Catholic church-backed organizations and a large evangelical group, the Jesus is Lord Movement. (Posted @ 17:00 PST) Cricket-Sri Lanka beat Australia by 13 runs MELBOURNE, Feb 29 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka beat Australia by 13 runs in their triangular series one-day international on Friday. Scores: Sri Lanka 221 all out from 50 overs (T. Dilshan 62, Jayawardene 50; Bracken 4-29); Australia 208 all out from 48.1 overs ( Gilchrist 83; I Amerasinghe 3-44) (Posted @ 16:30 PST) US says it has signed agreement on military hotline with China SHANGHAI, Feb 29 (AFP) - The United States and China on Friday signed an agreement to establish a telephone hotline between their militaries, a US defence department official said. The deal was signed in Shanghai alongside another one giving the United States access to China's military archives to search for missing servicemen from the Korean War and other conflicts, the official said.(Posted @ 16:05 PST) Avalanche kills five in Kyrgyzstan BISHKEK, Feb 29 (Reuters): An avalanche killed five people in Kyrgyzstan’s eastern Issyk-Kul region near its border with China, the emergencies ministry said Friday. (Posted @ 13:10 PST) Iraq approves execution of Chemical Ali BAGHDAD, Feb 29 (AFP): Iraq's presidency has approved the execution of Chemical Ali, executed dictator Saddam Hussein's most notorious henchman, a top Iraqi official told AFP Friday requesting anonymity. “The presidency has approved Chemical Ali's execution,” the official said, adding the timing of the actual execution is still not decided. Ali Hassan al-Majid, the former defence minister, was nicknamed Chemical Ali after he ordered gas attacks on Iraqi Kurds in the 1980s. He was convicted on genocide charges over the slaughter and initially sentenced to death in June last year. (First Posted @ 12:20 PST, Updated @ 12:30 PST) Militants attack army post at Thai school NARATHIWAT, Thailand, Feb 29 (AFP): Insurgents attacked an army post at a primary school in southern Thailand’s Narathiwat province Friday, killing two teenage rangers in an hour-long gun battle, police said. The two rangers died when at least 10 militants raided the base overnight on the school’s campus. (Posted @ 10:10 PST) Explosion rocks Illinois shopping plaza; at least nine injured WAUKEGAN, Illinois, Feb 29 (AP): An explosion possibly caused by a gas leak ripped through a suburban Chicago shopping plaza Thursday, injuring at least nine people and rattling nearby buildings, fire officials said. The blast struck around lunchtime in the business district about 40 miles north of Chicago, shattering windows and collapsing the roof of the plaza. Authorities believe the cause was a gas explosion, Deputy Fire Chief Dan Young said. (Posted @ 09:55 PST) Bangladesh salvages sunken ferry, toll rises to 39 DHAKA, Feb 29 (Reuters): The death toll from a Bangladesh ferry disaster rose to 39 after eight more bodies were recovered from the sunken vessel during a salvage operation Friday, an officials said. The ferry carrying more than 100 people sank in the Buriganga river near Dhaka Thursday when it was hit by a cargo vessel loaded with sand. A salvage ship pulled the sunken ferry from the river bed at dawn Friday. Police said at least 10 people were still missing. (Posted @ 09:05 PST) Bomber kills self, wounds seven near port in Sri Lanka capital COLOMBO, Feb 29 (Reuters): A suicide blast shook a building in Colombo’s Modhara quarter near the port early Friday, killing the bomber and wounding seven people, the military said. Officials initially reported two people were killed. The explosion occurred during a search and cordon operation by police aimed at flushing out Tamil Tiger rebels seeking to mount attacks in Colombo. “They were searching houses in that area and had gone into a house and wanted them to open a door. Then the suicide bomber came out and exploded himself,” said military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were not immediately available for comment. (Posted @ 09:00 PST) Karachi Stocks down 143.89 points: KARACHI, Feb 29: At close of trading the KSE-100 index was at 14934.30, down 143.89 points. (Bureau Report) (Updated @ 16:00 PST) Forex update: KARACHI, Feb 29: The Pakistani Rupee was traded at Rs 62.6 to the US Dollar in the open market. (Bureau Report) (Updated @ 16:00 PST)
Founder: Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah
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