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| April 26, 2008 | Saturday | Rabi-us-Sani 19, 1429 |
Updated round-the-clock, with major updates after 10:00 PST (05:00 GMT)
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 Pakistan accords high priority to its relations with China: PM Gilani ISLAMABAD, April 26 (APP): Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani Saturday said Pakistan accords high priority to its close relationship with China and was keen to further expand these in all spheres. Talking to Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, Gilani said Pakistan and China enjoy a broad-based relationship and the two countries were actively cooperating in political, diplomatic, economic and defence fields. He said China was Pakistan's strategic partner and a time-tested friend. During the meeting there was unanimity of views regarding increasing trade, investments and cooperation in the fields of defence, science and technology, and education besides enhancing people to people contact. The Prime Minister said Pakistan was confronting challenges in the food and energy sectors and the government was working on short and long term measures to overcome these. He said his government would welcome Chinese cooperation to effectively deal with these problems at the earliest. Referring to the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with China, Gilani said FTA would open up new avenues between the two countries to further enhance trade. On the issue of terrorism, Gilani said Pakistan was committed to curb terrorism and extremism in all its forms through a multi-pronged strategy including political engagements, economic development and security measures. Jiechi said his government and the people of China regarded Pakistan as their true friend and hoped that existing relations between the two countries would further gain momentum in future. He said his government would encourage big Chinese companies to invest in various sectors in Pakistan. The Foreign Minister said China would continue its cooperation with Pakistan in the field of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. (Posted @ 15:25 PST)   Nawaz Sharif warns against dissolution of newly elected parliament ISLAMABAD, April 26 (AP): Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif warned Saturday against dissolving the newly elected parliament and called for the restoration of judges fired by President Pervez Musharraf. Sharif said the judges should be restored before April 30, which he said was a deadline the parties set after he signed an accord with Bhutto's party before joining the coalition government. Sharif's comments came a day after his top aide Javed Hashmi warned that ministers from their party would quit the Cabinet if the government did not restore the judges. However, he said his party would remain an ally of the government. Sharif said he still wanted the government to complete its five-year term. (First Posted @ 16:05 PST Updated @ 18:28 PST) Three more Balochistan ministers sworn in ISLAMABAD, April 26 (APP): The number of ministers in the Balochistan cabinet reached 41 as three more provincial ministers were sworn in Saturday. Governor Balochistan Nawab Zulfikar Ali Magsi administered the oath to new ministers at the Governor House in Quetta, private television channels reported. Cap. (Retd) Abdul Khaliq of Pakistan Muslim League-N, Sardar Masood Loni of PML-Q and Mohammad Amin Umrani of Pakistan People's Party took oath as provincial ministers. (Posted @ 16:20 PST) Nine members of a family gunned down in Punjab village Bahawalpur, April 26 (PPI): Nine members of a family including four children and two women were shot dead by armed men late on Friday night in Kadia Shah village near Vehari some 80km from Bahawalpur. Police said the murders were committed due to an old feud running between two families. (First Posted @ 12:25 PST, Updated @ 17:59 PST) Sri Lanka arrests 9 over bus bomb blamed on Tigers COLOMBO, April 26 (Reuters): Sri Lanka arrested nine people on Saturday over a suspected rebel Tamil Tiger bomb that claimed 26 lives on a packed bus in the capital, police said. The blast in a residential suburb in the Friday evening rush hour follows a bloody week in Sri Lanka, where government forces and Tiger rebels, known as the LTTE, are locked in a violent new chapter of a 25-year civil war. (Posted @ 23:28 PST) Fourteen killed in Mexico drug battle on US border TIJUANA, April 26 (Reuters): Fourteen Mexican drug gang members were killed and eight others were injured in a gun battle near the U.S. border on Saturday, one of the bloodiest shootouts in Mexico's three-year-long narco-war. Rival factions of the local Arellano Felix drug cartel in Tijuana on the Mexico-California border fought each other with rifles and machine guns in the early hours of the morning, police said. Two men were arrested but the remaining survivors escaped, the officer said. Last year, there were more than 2,500 drug killings and there have been more than 900 this year in Mexico. (Posted @ 22:04 PST) 39 people injured after accident at church concert ABBOTSFORD, British Columbia, April 26 (AP): At least 39 people were injured, three of them seriously, when the floor of a local church filled with teens collapsed during a concert. Police said about 1,000 youths were at the Central Heights Church in Abbotsford, British Columbia, to hear the Christian rock band Starfield when a large area in front of the stage gave way Friday night, sending people in the crowd falling into the basement below. (Posted @ 21:22 PST) British oil and gas pipeline set to close over strike LONDON, April 26 (AFP): A North Sea pipeline which supplies around 40 percent of Britain's oil and gas as well as international markets will shut down within hours because of a strike, operator BP said Saturday. The Forties pipeline in Grangemouth, west of Edinburgh, Scotland, is being closed as a knock-on effect of industrial action by 1,200 workers at a neighbouring oil refinery in a row over pensions. It is the first time in more than 70 years that a British refinery is being closed by a strike. (Posted @ 19:58 PST) Philippine communist rebels kill four soldiers, abduct two NABUNTURAN, April 26 (AFP): Communist guerrillas killed four soldiers and abducted two more at a gold rush area in southern Philippines, police and provincial officials said Saturday. About 30 ultra-leftist New People's Army (NPA) rebels set up a roadblock on a dirt road leading to Mount Diwata mining area early Friday. Two army sergeants were taken from their vehicles in the hamlet of Mabatas. On Saturday, a team of soldiers hunting for the two sergeants, were ambushed by NPA, leaving four dead and three wounded, a police report said. (Posted @ 19:32 PST) 15 killed in Zimbabwe post-poll violence, police detain 215 in opposition raid: report HARARE, April 26 (AFP): At least 15 opposition supporters have been killed in political violence in Zimbabwe since elections last month, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) told AFP on Saturday. “So far we have recorded 15 but the carnage is worse than that because of the iron curtain that has been imposed on the villages. People are being killed like flies and buried in the villages,” said an MDC spokesman. The police detained 215 people in a raid on the MDC headquarters in the capital Harare, a police spokesman was quoted Saturday. “Police rounded up 215 people at Harvest House” on Friday, the state-controlled Herald newspaper quoted a police spokesman as saying. (Posted @ 17:05 PST)
Zimbabwe opposition says parliamentary victory confirmed HARARE, April 26 (AFP): Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said Saturday it had retained a historic victory over President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party following a partial recount of ballots. “The news we're getting is that the election result of March 29 has been confirmed. What we hear is that nothing has changed in all the constituencies,” MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa told AFP. (Posted @ 16:20 PST) 10 demonstrators injured in scuffle with Japan police outside Myanmar Embassy in Tokyo TOKYO, April 26 (AP): Ten out of some 150 demonstrators demanding that all Myanmar citizens living overseas be given the right to vote in an upcoming referendum were injured in a scuffle with Japanese police Saturday outside the Southeast Asian country's embassy in Tokyo, said Tokyo Fire Department spokesman Yoshinori Nagashiki. (Posted @ 15:35 PST) Roadside bombs kill four in latest attacks on Afghan police KABUL, April 26 (AP): Roadside bombs killed four Afghan police officers Saturday, officials and a witness said. A remote-controlled bomb destroyed a police vehicle in Waghaz district of central Ghazni province, said deputy provincial police chief Mohammed Zaman. An Associated Press Television News cameraman at the scene saw three burned, mutilated corpses. Four other police were wounded. Separately, in Farah province’s Bala Buluk district, a bomb blast hit a police vehicle, killing one officer and wounding another, provincial police chief Khalil Rahmani said. (First Posted @ 12:20 PST, Updated @ 15:10 PST) Palestinian girl killed, 10 people wounded in clashes with Israeli troops in Gaza GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip, April 26 (AP): Israeli forces entered the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya early Saturday and seized local Hamas leader Talat Hassan Marouf from his home amid heavy fighting with Palestinian gunmen, Hamas militants and a Palestinian Health Ministry official said. Marouf’s 14-year-old daughter was killed in the fighting while his wife was injured. Nine Palestinian gunmen were also wounded in the fighting, three of them critically, said Dr. Moawiya Hassanain, a Palestinian Health Ministry official. (First Posted @ 10:20 PST, Updated @ 14:05 PST) Four injured in Pakistan as bus collides with truck GHARO, Pakistan, April 26 (PPI): Four persons were seriously injured Saturday when a Sakro-bound bus collided with a truck near Gharo in Sindh. The bus was carrying passengers from Gharo when the accident occurred. (Posted @ 13:55 PST) Turkish warplanes strike PKK targets in northern Iraq ISTANBUL, April 26 (Reuters): Turkish warplanes struck Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) targets inside northern Iraq Friday and Saturday, the General Staff said. Turkish soldiers also fired on the PKK targets from the ground, it said in a statement on its website Saturday. (Posted @ 13:50 PST) New clashes in Baghdad militia bastion kill eight BAGHDAD, April 26 (AFP): Fierce overnight clashes between Shiite militiamen and US and Iraqi forces in Baghdad's Sadr City killed at least eight people, including two children, a local medic told AFP Saturday. He said a firefight that erupted at around 8:00 pm Friday continued until 8:00 am Saturday. “Those killed include two children and a woman,” he said requesting anonymity. Witnesses told AFP the clashes broke out as security forces were putting up concrete barriers in the southern section of the district in east Baghdad. (Posted @ 13:45 PST) Police say top Qaeda militant killed in Iraq SAMARRA, Iraq, April 26 (AFP): US forces have killed a top militant from the Al Qaeda in Iraq group and three accomplices - one a Saudi Arabian - in the centre of the country, a local police officer said Saturday. Mohammed Jahim al-Harbuni, an Iraqi, was killed Friday in the Al-Jillam district northeast of the central town of Samarra, Captain Ala Jassim said. The other two dead were also Iraqis, he said. Harbuni was Al Qaeda’s operational head in Salaheddin province. (Posted @ 13:00 PST) Chinese rail link to Nepal via Tibet in five years KATHMANDU, April 26 (Reuters) - China will extend its railway link from Tibet to Nepal's border in five years, Nepali officials said on Saturday, helping Nepal reduce its heavy dependence on India for everything from oil to motor parts and medicines. Ai Ping, director general of China's international department, met Nepali Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala on Friday and told him that the rail link would bolster their diplomatic and trade ties, officials said. The planned railway project would link Tibetan capital Lhasa with Khasa, a border town near China-Nepal border. (Posted @ 11:20 PST) Karzai wants US to stop arresting Taliban suspects WASHINGTON, April 26 (AFP) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai urged US forces Saturday to stop arresting suspected Taliban and their sympathizers, arguing that these arrests and past mistreatment were discouraging Taliban from laying down their arms. The New York Times said the Afghan president, in an interview, also criticized the allied conduct of the war and demanded that his government be given the lead in policy decisions. Karzai said the real terrorist threat lay in sanctuaries of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in Pakistan. He argued that civilian casualties needed to end completely. (Posted @ 11:15 PST) Small plane carrying drugs crashes at Spanish banker's estate, killing 2 MADRID, Spain, April 26 (AP) - Police are investigating a small plane loaded with 200 kilograms of hashish that crashed Friday at the estate of one of the country's most prominent bankers, killing two people on board, an Interior Ministry representative said. A number of vehicles had arrived at the estate, apparently waiting to unload the hashish from the plane, a police spokesman said. He said one of the drivers was detained and that others may have escaped. Police are combing the area in search of other people who might have been involved in the suspected drug smuggling. (Posted @ 10:25 PST) Brazil police kill 11 in Rio de Janeiro slum raid RIO DE JANEIRO, April 26 (Reuters) - Police killed at least 11 people in a raid on Friday in the city slum claiming that the people killed were suspected drug traffickers and one was a woman who lived in the neighborhood. Two women were also wounded during the shootout between police and the suspected traffickers, who had taken refuge in a house in the slum. (Posted @ 10:10 PST) 
Obama calls for windfall tax on oil profits as gas prices soar WASHINGTON, April 26 (AFP) - Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama called for a windfall tax on oil company profits Friday, as pump prices in the United States hit a new record high. “For the well-off in this country, high gas prices are mostly an annoyance. But to most Americans, they're a huge problem, bordering on a crisis,” he told reporters at a gas station in Indiana, where he is campaigning. The average price of a gallon (3.78 liters) of gas reached a record 3.58 dollars Friday. Obama proposes oil companies be taxed on windfall profits from oil sold at or above 80 dollars a barrel, and the revenue be used to help relieve the burden of rising prices on working people. He also wants more transparency in the way pump prices are fixed, a tax cut for the middle classes that would benefit families by up to 1,000 dollars a year, and a 150-billion-dollar investment over 10 years in clean energy. (Posted @ 10:05 PST) Lay off China, Olympics chief tells West LONDON, April 26 (AFP) - IOC president Jacques Rogge told Western countries to stop hectoring China over human rights in the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Games, in an interview with a British newspaper published Saturday. “We owe China to give them time,” the IOC boss told the Financial Times. Rogge said that while he understood the strength of feeling in the West, expectations of how quickly China can change were overblown. “It took us 200 years to evolve from the French Revolution. China started in 1949,” the 65-year-old Belgian told the FT business daily. (Posted @ 09:55 PST) Torch relay ends in Japan NAGANO, Japan, April 26 (AFP) - The Japanese leg of the Olympic torch relay ended Saturday after completing a four-hour course. Hundreds of people waving either Chinese or Tibetan flags were waiting under close police watch at the final point of the relay. Nagano, the host of the 1998 Winter Olympics, was set to hold an invite-only final ceremony for the torch, which moves on Sunday to Seoul. (Posted @ 09:55 PST) Conservatives win in Iran's second round voting TEHRAN, April 26 (AFP) -Iranian conservatives won a new victory in the second round of general elections both in the capital and the provinces according to partial results, state television reported Saturday on its website. The conservatives were on their way to winning 10 of the 11 seats up for grabs in Tehran while a reformer, Alireza Mahjoub, looked like winning the 11th in Friday's voting. If the results are confirmed, conservatives would control 29 of the capital's 30 seats. In the countryside, less than 10 out of 36 seats went to reformers, according to official results. The conservatives had already won a comfortable majority in the first round of voting on March 14. Complete results were to be announced later Saturday, the interior ministry said. Turnout was around 25 percent. (Posted @ 09:50 PST) 
Founder: Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah
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