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| March 13, 2008 | Thursday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 4, 1429 |
Updated round-the-clock, with major updates after 10:00 PST (05:00 GMT)
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 Oil hits new record of $111 on dollar slump LONDON, March 13 (Reuters): Oil rose to a fresh record high on Thursday, hitting new peaks for the seventh trading day, as a weak dollar overshadowed an increase in U.S. crude inventories. U.S. crude for April delivery struck a new high of $111.00 a barrel. It was trading at $110.93, up $1.01 by 1502 GMT. (First Posted @ 18:40 PST Updated @ 20:32 PST)  
Gold price strikes 1,000 dollars per ounce for first time LONDON, March 13 (AFP): The price of gold soared to a record high 1,000.45 dollars per ounce on Thursday, as the precious metal benefited from the weak dollar and its safe-haven status amid fears of rising inflation. (Posted @ 19:58 PST) Pakistan protests after US strike kills four civilians MIRANSHAH, Pakistan, March 13 (AFP): Pakistan lodged a protest with coalition forces in Afghanistan Thursday after two Pakistani women and two children were killed by US fire from across the border, the army said. The US-led coalition confirmed that it had launched a “precision guided” strike on Pakistani territory but said it targeted a militant compound. Chief Pakistani military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said coalition artillery fire destroyed the victims' house in the tribal region of North Waziristan. “The coalition forces were firing at a group of militants when five shells landed in Pakistan, destroying a house and killing two women and two children,” Abbas told AFP. “We have lodged a very strong protest with the coalition forces across the border,” he said. Local officials said the house in the town of Lwara Mundi belonged to a local tribesman. In Kabul, a spokesman for the US-led coalition said it could not comment directly on the Pakistani account but confirmed it had launched a strike on the other side of the porous 1,500-mile frontier. “We can confirm a precision-guided ammunition strike on March 12 on a compound connected with Haqqani network 1.5 kilometres (about a mile) across the border in Pakistan,” coalition spokesman Major Chris Belcher told AFP. “I do not have any information on any casualties that may have occurred,” the spokesman said. Belcher said that “The information I have is that the government of Pakistan was notified immediately following the strike.” (First Posted @ 14:00 PST, Updated @ 16:05 PST)  India claims dead Pakistani had “sensitive documents” ISLAMABAD, March 13 (Reuters): India's High Commission in Islamabad said in a statement that Khalid Mehmood was arrested on May 17, 2006, more than a year after his four-day cricket visa had expired. The high commission also claimed “sensitive documents were recovered from Mr Mehmood's possession, which he was carrying to Delhi to deliver to some persons who were travelling to Pakistan.” It did not elaborate on the nature of the documents. (Posted @ 22:26 PST) India to hold mly exercises only 60 kms from Pakistan border NEW DELHI, March 13 (APP): India will hold military exercises 60 kms from Pakistan’s border in Rajasthan. At least 94 military attaches from 60 nations including China, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, US, UK, France and Germany have been invited to witness a day long army-air force exercise codenamed Blazing Chariots in Rajasthan’s Thar Desert on March 19. Asked about Pakistan's absence from the large group of military attaches, a senior Indian army officer briefing newsmen said, “we have not reached that confidence-building level and cooperation with them.” (Posted @ 22:10 PST) Gunmen kill three in Dera Murad Jamali DERA MURAD JAMALI, March 13 (PPI): Armed men killed three persons including two children near Nasirabad on Thursday. Reports said gunmen forced their entry in a house in Goth Dr Mushtaq Ahmad in the jurisidiction of Police Station Manjho Shori. They opened fire killing a man and two children. A woman was injured in the firing. (Posted @ 22:04 PST) 
Turkish army says kills 10 PKK militants ISTANBUL, March 13 (Reuters): Turkish soldiers have killed 10 members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in an operation near the border with Iraq this week, the military said on Thursday. The General Staff said in a statement on its Web site that soldiers had confiscated hand grenades, explosives and food from the rebels in the border province of Sirnak. (Posted @ 21:52 PST) Seven killed in D.R. Congo village raid GOMA, D.R. Congo, March 13 (AFP): Seven villagers were killed and six wounded in a night raid at Kibaki in the Democratic Republic of Congo's eastern Nord-Kivu province, the UN Mission in DRC (MONUC) announced Thursday. “Seven people were killed and six sustained bullet wounds” in the attack on Tuesday night, a MONUC military spokesman told AFP, adding that “there are children among the victims”. (Posted @ 21:42 PST) Israel “ethnic cleansing” in Jerusalem: Abbas DAKAR, March 13 (Reuters): Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing” in Arab East Jerusalem by banning the building of Palestinian homes and cutting the city off from the occupied West Bank, Abbas told a summit of the 57-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), being held in Senegal's capital Dakar. “Our people in the city (Jerusalem) are facing an ethnic cleansing campaign through a set of Israeli decisions such as imposing heavy taxes, banning construction and closing Palestinian institutions in addition to separating the city from the West Bank by the racist separation wall,” Abbas said. “What is taking place on the ground today is in total violation of (the peace process),” he said. (Posted @ 20:30 PST) Cruise ship with 280 aboard runs aground near Athens ATHENS, March 13 (AFP): Greek rescue crews on Thursday mounted an operation to evacuate 280 passengers on board a cruise ship that ran aground and was taking water off the island of Poros, near Athens. “The passengers are being transferred to other vessels,” a ministry official told AFP. The Greek-flagged ship is believed to have hit a reef three nautical miles from the port of Poros. (Posted @ 20:04 PST)
OIC summit opens in Senegal ISLAMABAD, March 13 (APP): The two-day summit of the leaders of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) was inaugurated at Dakar, the capital of Senegal on Thursday. Islamophobia among the Western nations is the main point of agenda of the summit. Foreign Minister Inamul Haq is representing Pakistan. Addressing the inaugural Ministerial session of the summit, OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu and Foreign Minister of Senegal said that the summit would discuss the challenges facing the Ummah, including the core issue of Kashmir. At the Ministerial session, two resolutions were passed unanimously regarding extension of the United Nations Security Council, Resolution of the Kashmir dispute and reforms in the UN. (Posted @ 12:30 PST) 115 Austrian troops arrive in Chad to help EU mission VIENNA, March 13 (AP): Austrian military officials say 115 Austrian troops have arrived in eastern Chad to assist an EU peacekeeping mission. The commander of the Austrian contingent said the troops had moved from the Chadian capital of N'djamena to their “operational area” in the east. (Posted @ 19:34 PST) 11 die after heavy downpour in Angola LUANDA, March 13 (AFP): Eleven people died on Thursday after a heavy downpour in Angola's coastal province of Benguela, about 500 kilometres south of Luanda, state radio RNA reported. The extent of destruction is still unknown as authorities are waiting for the rain to subside to enable relief and rescue work to start in the affected areas. (Posted @ 19:22 PST) UAE tries Jordanian for trade in nuclear component DUBAI, March 13 (Reuters): A Jordanian man on trial in the United Arab Emirates for trading in a metal used in nuclear reactors told the court on Thursday that he did not realise he was breaking the law. The suspect remains in custody and the magistrate scheduled the next hearing for March 25. The authorities foiled an attempt to import for re-export 240 kg of zirconium as part of its efforts to keep the region clear of weapons of mass destruction, the official WAM news agency said Wednesday. (Posted @ 19:20 PST) Car bomb kills 18, wounds 64 in central Baghdad BAGHDAD, March 13 (AFP): A parked car bomb exploded in a commercial district of central Baghdad on Thursday, killing 18 people and wounding another 64, police said. The bombing took place off a bridge in Tahrir Square, a district of clothing shops just outside the heavily fortified Green Zone, which houses the U.S. Embassy and much of the Iraqi government, an Iraqi police official said. (Posted @ 18:44 PST Updated @ 19:10 PST) Suicide car bomb kills eight Afghans near Kabul airport KABUL, March 13 (Reuters): A suicide car bomber killed eight Afghan civilians in an attack on U.S. troops near the airport in Kabul Thursday, a NATO spokesman said. Thirty-five civilians were wounded in the attack, but the four U.S. soldiers inside the two vehicles targeted were wounded slightly. The Taliban claimed responsibility. A roadside bomb killed three Afghan police officers and wounded four more in Wardak province, just southwest of Kabul, on Thursday, a provincial intelligence official said. (First Posted @ 09:50 PST, Updated @ 15:35 PST) Four killed in India police firing GUWAHATI, India, March 13 (AFP): Four people were killed and four injured when police opened fire on a violent mob protesting the demolition of an office in the country's insurgency-hit northeast Thursday, an official said. The incident occurred in Assam state, where more than 2,000 people clashed with officials over the planned demolition of an office said to have been illegally set up by a rebel outfit. (Posted @ 17:30 PST) Atlas rocket blasts off from California Air Force base carrying secret US satellite VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, California, March 13 (AP): An Atlas 5 rocket carrying a secret U.S. satellite lifted off before dawn Thursday, officials said. The 58-meter-tall booster blasted off from the southern end of the Central Coast air base at 3:02 a.m. ''It went great,'' said Mike Rein, a spokesman for United Launch Alliance, which made the rocket. But Rein said he could not confirm whether the satellite had successfully reached orbit, ''because of the nature of the launch.'' The Atlas 5 carried a classified satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office, the agency that oversees the nation's constellation of spy satellites. (Posted @ 17:25 PST) Kidnapped Iraq archbishop dead ROME, March 13 (Reuters): Paulos Faraj Rahho, the Chaldean Catholic archbishop in Iraq who was kidnapped last month, has been found dead, an Italian Catholic news agency quoted an Iraqi bishop as saying Thursday. “Archbishop Rahho is dead. We found his lifeless body near Mosul. The kidnappers had buried him,” Bishop Shlemon Warduni of Baghdad was quoted as telling SIR, the news agency of the Italian Bishops' Conference. Rahho was seized on February 29 after gunmen attacked his car in eastern Mosul, 390 km north of Baghdad, killing his driver and two guards. (Posted @ 17:20 PST) Parked car bomb kills eight, wounds 41 in central Baghdad BAGHDAD, March 13 (AP): A parked car bomb that exploded in a commercial district of central Baghdad killed eight people and wounded another 41 Thursday, police said. The bombing took place off a bridge in Tahrir Square, a commercial district just outside the heavily fortified Green Zone, which houses the U.S. Embassy and much of the Iraqi government, an Iraqi police official said requesting anonymity. (Posted @ 16:50 PST) Militants behead three soldiers in Somalia MOGADISHU, March 13 (Reuters): Militants beheaded three Somali soldiers south of Mogadishu Thursday. “This morning the mujahideen attacked the so-called government troops guarding the roads for the Ethiopian forces. We killed three of them,” said Muktar Ali Robow, a senior commander of the militants' Shabab youth wing. Witnesses in the area said they saw three headless corpses near Lego town, 130 km south of Mogadishu. In a separate attack, gunmen killed a police official and two body guards, also wounding two local employees of Medecins Sans Frontieres-Spain, some 30 km north of Mogadishu. (Posted @ 16:30 PST) Sri Lankan military says 27 rebels killed in northern fighting COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, Match 13 (AP): A wave of new fighting in northern Sri Lanka has left 27 Tamil rebels dead, the military said Thursday. The worst fighting centred on the Vavuniya district, where 20 rebels were killed Wednesday. In one battle in the town of Karampachchikulam, six rebels where killed when government troops ambushed the tractor they were riding on, the military said. Fighting also broke out in the Welioya and Mannar districts, where seven rebels were killed, the military said. Rebel spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan could not be immediately be reached for comment. (Posted @ 15:40 PST) 
Iranian military shells Iraqi villages SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq, March 13 (AFP): The Iranian military Thursday subjected three Iraqi border villages to an early-morning barrage of shelling, causing no injuries or damage, an Iraqi official said. The shells were apparently aimed at bases of militant Kurdish rebel group Pejak, said Azad Wassu, the mayor of Zarawah, a frontier town in northeastern Iraq. Pejak (Party of Free Life of Kurdistan) is accused by Tehran of launching deadly attacks on security forces in northwestern Iran. (Posted @ 14:40 PST) Bomb kills two, injures 34 in China BEIJING, March 13 (AFP): Two people were killed and 34 injured, six of them critically, when a bomb exploded in a crowded bar in southern China early Thursday morning, Xinhua news agency reported. The blast occurred just after 2:20 am at a bar in Qinzhou city in Guangxi region, Xinhua said. (Posted @ 14:25 PST) Two die, two injured in Karachi road accident Karachi, March 13 (PPI): Two men died and two others sustained injuries on Shahrah-i-Faisal, Karachi, near Cantonment Board Thursday. The Edhi Information Centre told PPI that a UTS bus hit a motorcycle and a car. As a result, two men died on the spot, while other two sustained injuries. Meanwhile, a bullet-riddled body was found in Karachi’s Akhtar Colony. (Posted @ 13:45 PST) 41 Taliban militants killed in battle, airstrikes in southern Afghanistan KANDAHAR, March 13 (AP): Afghan and international forces have killed 41 Taliban militants in a battle in southern Afghanistan, Nimroz Gov. Ghulam Dastagir Azad said. He said the insurgents were travelling through neighbouring Helmand province Wednesday when the joint forces attacked them, adding that 17 of the dead were from Nimroz province, including a commander. (Posted @ 13:20 PST)
US soldiers ‘accidentally’ kill Iraqi child BAGHDAD, March 13 (Reuters): U.S. soldiers accidentally shot and killed a child Wednesday in Iraq's Diyala province, the U.S. military said Thursday. (Posted @ 13:15 PST) 23 saved after ship sinks off China BEIJING, March 13 (AFP): A passing fishing boat rescued 23 Chinese crew members of a cargo ship that sank early Thursday in waters off east China, Xinhua news agency said. The fishing boat rescued the crew of the Hong Kong-owned “New Hangzhou” after finding the sailors in a life raft off the coast of China's Zhejiang province, Xinhua said. The boat sank early Thursday morning while carrying 9,000 tonnes of cargo from China's northern port of Tianjin to Vietnam. (First Posted @ 11:00 PST, Updated @ 13:10 PST) Iran to sign gas deal with Pakistan in April Bangkok, March 13 (PPI): Iran will sign a final agreement to export gas via pipeline to Pakistan in April, Vahid Zeydifard, a senior pipe-lines expert at National Iranian Gas Company, said in an interview at Gastech conference in Bangkok. Iran has completed half of pipeline, which will have a capacity to carry 110 million cubic meters of gas a day to Pakistan, he said. “Negotiations are at a final stage,” Zeydifard added. (Posted @ 12:40 PST) Cricket: Aussies set to play in Indian league, says players' union MELBOURNE, March 13 (AFP) - Australia's Test players are set to be allowed to play in the lucrative Indian Premier League before preparing at home for the May tour to the West Indies, the players' union said Thursday. The Australian Cricketers Association said Cricket Australia has indicated there will be no objection to Test stars Ricky Ponting, Brett Lee, Andrew Symonds, Matthew Hayden and Michael Hussey playing in the first 14-16 days of the six-week IPL tournament, which starts on April 18. They will then be required back home for a team camp before the touring party sets off for the West Indies in the second week of May. (Posted @ 12:25 PST)
Dollar hits 12-year low vs yen, euro sets new record TOKYO, March 13 (AFP) -The dollar slumped to a 12-year low against the yen and to a new all-time nadir versus the euro in Asian trade Thursday as traders bet on a hefty cut to US interest rates next week, dealers said. The dollar was bid as low as 100.23 yen in Tokyo afternoon trade, the lowest level since December 1995 and down sharply from 101.79 yen in New York. The euro briefly hit 1.5590 dollars -- eclipsing its previous record high of 1.5570 set in New York on Wednesday. “The dollar is totally out of market favour now,” said Kenichi Yumoto, vice president of foreign exchange sales at Societe Generale in Tokyo. He said it was “fully possible” that the dollar would fall below the key 100 yen level. (Posted @ 11:05 PST) Three U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq BAGHDAD, March 13 (Reuters) - Three U.S. soldiers were killed and two others wounded in an apparent rocket or mortar attack near Nassiriya in southeastern Iraq on Wednesday, the U.S. military said. (Posted @ 10:40 PST) Islamic Jihad fires rockets into Israel, vows more GAZA, March 13 (Reuters) - Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad fired rockets from Gaza into Israel on Thursday in what it described as an “initial” response to Israeli forces' killing three of its members a day earlier in the West Bank. The salvo of at least four rockets against the Israeli border town of Sderot ended a week-long suspension of such attacks by Islamic Jihad. An Israeli military spokesman said a house was damaged but there were no casualties. (Posted @ 10:40 PST) Flu outbreak shuts Hong Kong schools for two weeks HONG KONG, March 13 (Reuters) - More than half a million Hong Kong schoolchildren stayed at home on Thursday after the government shut all kindergartens and primary schools for two weeks to contain an outbreak of flu. A government-appointed panel of experts is probing the deaths of three children, aged 2, 3 and 7, over the last two weeks. The two older children were infected with seasonal flu, while the cause of illness in the youngest child is unknown. The health scare has not been linked to H5N1 bird flu but the government's decision on Wednesday night to close the schools brought back memories of 2003, when an outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome hit Hong Kong. (Posted @ 10:35 PST) Cricket-Jayasuriya axed for West Indies one-day series COLOMBO, March 13 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka have axed explosive batsman Sanath Jayasuriya and rested spinner Muttiah Muralitharan for a three-match one-day series in West Indies next month. “We have three years left to groom a team for the 2011 World Cup and it is essential that younger players must be given a chance,” chief selector Ashantha de Mel told reporters. The one-dayers will be played in Port of Spain (April 10 and 12) and at St. Lucia (April 15). Sri Lanka squad: Mahela Jayawardene (captain), Kumar Sangakkara (wk), Tillakaratne Dilshan, Chaminda Vaas, Chamara Silva, Upul Tharanga, Chamara Kapugedera, Malinga Bandara, Kaushalya Weeraratne, Nuwan Kulasekara, Ajantha Mendis, Jehan Mubarak, Ishara Amerasinghe, Mahela Udawatte, Thilan Thushara. (Posted @ 10:30 PST) Cricket-England 291-5 vs New Zealand in 2nd Test WELLINGTON, March 13 (Reuters) - England were 291 for five at the close of play on the first day of the second test against New Zealand at the Basin Reserve on Thursday. Scores: England: 291-5 (T. Ambrose 97 not out, P. Collingwood 48 not out, A. Cook 44; J. Oram 2-25) (Posted @ 10:25 PST) Helicopter disappears in Peru with 10 on board LIMA, March 13 (AFP) - The Peruvian Air Force Wednesday said it located the wreckage of a helicopter that went missing a day earlier in the mountains of northern Peru with 10 people on board, none of whom apparently survived. The helicopter had two pilots and eight passengers on board. (Posted @ 10:15 PST) Three dead pulled from Canadian warehouse after snow laden roof collapses MONTREAL, March 13 (AFP) - Three people were pulled from the rubble of a warehouse after its roof collapsed due to heavy snow and sparked a fire in the building northwest of Montreal, police said. Some 45 warehouse employees managed to escape the cave-in, said local media. Several storms dropped heaping amounts of snow on Quebec this winter, breaking records throughout the region. Another snowfall this weekend added several dozen centimeters (inches) to an already thick snowpack. (Posted @ 10:10 PST) China hits back at US on human rights, says Iraq war a disaster BEIJING, March 13 (AFP) - China on Thursday accused the United States of human rights hypocrisy, as it branded the US invasion of Iraq the “greatest humanitarian disaster” of the modern world. In an annual response to Washington's criticism of China's human rights record, the Chinese government labelled the United States arrogant, and highlighted what it said were widespread US failures at home and abroad. “(America's) arrogant critique on the human rights of other countries are always accompanied by a deliberate ignoring of serious human rights problems on its own territory,” said the report, released by the state Xinhua news agency. “The United States has a notorious record of trampling on the sovereignty of and violating human rights in other countries,” it said. “The invasion of Iraq by American troops has produced the biggest human rights tragedy and the greatest humanitarian disaster in modern world.” On the global front, it also criticised civilian deaths in Afghanistan, secret prisons and torture of detainees. (Posted @ 10:05 PST) Muslim woman aimed to blow up Chinese plane BEIJING, March 13 (AFP) - Chinese authorities have alleged a 19-year-old Muslim woman aboard a commercial airliner heading for Beijing planned to blow the plane up, state press reported Thursday. The woman intended to explode a petrol bomb in the toilet of a China Southern Airlines flight from Urumqi city in the country's far northwest on Friday last week, the official Xinhua news agency and the Global Times said. The woman had sneaked two cans of a popular soft drink that had been filled with gasoline on to the plane, according to the Global Times, which belongs to the ruling Communist Party's mouthpiece, the People's Daily. (Posted @ 10:00 PST) Karachi Stocks down 96.68 points: KARACHI, March 13: At close of trading, the KSE-100 index was at 15074.74, down 96.68 points. (Bureau Report) (Updated @ 14:15 PST) Forex update: KARACHI, March 13: The Pakistani Rupee was traded at Rs 63 to the US Dollar in the open market. (Bureau Report) (Updated @ 14:15 PST)
Founder: Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah
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