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| May 01, 2008 | Thursday | Rabi-us-Sani 24, 1429 |
Updated round-the-clock, with major updates after 10:00 PST (05:00 GMT)
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 Pakistan coalition leaders agree on reinstating judges: Sharif DUBAI, May 1 (AFP) - Former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif said on Thursday after crucial talks with coalition partner Asif Ali Zardari that a reinstatement of judges that had threatened their alliance will take place as previously agreed. “It has been decided and reiterated that the restoration of the judges will take place as per the Murree declaration,” Sharif said after the conclusion of two days of talks with Zardari in Dubai. He was referring to their agreement in March to reinstate the judges sacked by President Pervez Musharraf. “There is no ambiguity, there is no doubt about it. You will soon see the results of the discussions,” Sharif told reporters. “The committee has made substantive progress on this issue,” Sharif said of the negotiators from both sides, who met at a Dubai hotel. “The restoration will take place through a (parliamentary) resolution. The details will be revealed tomorrow ... You won't have to wait too long,” he said. Sharif will fly back to Pakistan on Thursday evening, an aide said. Zardari, Co-chairman of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), left the negotiations before Sharif, telling reporters only that the talks were meant to improve their relationship. “This is Dubai, no politics,” he said when reporters pressed him for an explanation. After seven hours of talks in Dubai on Wednesday, Sharif and Zardari had decided to meet again on Thursday to thrash out the remaining differences. (First Posted @ 18:38 PST Updated @ 19:40 PST)  30 injured in Pakistan suicide attack PESHAWAR, Pakistan, May 1 (AFP): A suicide bomber attacked the offices of a pro-Taliban group at a seminary in northwest Pakistan’s Khyber tribal district’s Takia Chowk neighbourhood Thursday, local officials said, wounding 30 people. Only the bomber was killed in the attack, local official Rafaqat Gul said, revising an earlier toll of 10 dead given by senior security officials based in Peshawar. The attack Thursday targeted the offices of Tanzeem Amar Bil-maruf wal Nahi Al-munkar (Organisation for the Promotion of Virtue and Suppression of Vice), led by pro-Taliban cleric Haji Namdar, who escaped unharmed. “The bomber entered the madrassah and blew himself up among dozens of people,” Gul told AFP. Earlier, two high-ranking security officials based in the provincial capital Peshawar said 10 people had been killed and 15 others wounded in the attack. “The first report we received after the blast said 10 people were killed and around a dozen wounded,” one security official said. Another official confirmed the account. Local officials said it was the first attack on a pro-Taliban outfit which could be linked to a turf rivalry between militant groups in northwest Pakistan’s tribal areas. (First Posted @ 10:10 PST, Updated @ 14:00 PST)  Dubai negotiations successful: Khwaja Asif ISLAMABAD, May 1 (APP): Dubai negotiations have been successful and deposed judges would be reinstated. However, details would be announced by the former Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif on Friday in Lahore. Minister for Petroleum Khawaja Mohammad Asif said Thursday PML-N was satisfied with the outcome of the talks in Dubai and the nation will hear good news on Friday. Constitutional guarantees would be ensured for an independent and free judiciary, he said. (Posted @ 21:34 PST) US air strike kills Al-Qaeda leader in Somalia MOGADISHU, May 1 (AFP) - A US air strike in Somalia killed at least 12 people on Thursday, including a man said to be Al-Qaeda's military leader in the war-torn country, Ethiopian officials and rebels said. The militant leader was named as Moalim Aden Hashi Ayro who trained with Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and had been linked to the deaths of foreign aid workers in Somalia. He had been a target of a US air strike in 2007. In Washington, the Pentagon confirmed an attack on an Al-Qaeda military leader in Somalia but declined to identify him and would not initially say whether the mission had been successful. (Posted @ 21:26 PST) Low-intensity tremor jolts Nagarparker in southern Pakistan MITHI, Pakistan, May 01(PPI): An earthquake of mild intensity jolted Nagarparker area of district Tharparker in Sindh province Thursday evening. It was at 5:17pm, residents said adding that no damage was reported. (Posted @ 21:10 PST) Oil falls below $112 LONDON, May 1 (Reuters) - Oil fell sharply on Thursday as the dollar rose and disrupted Nigerian supplies were expected to resume following a deal with unions to end a workers' strike. U.S. crude fell for the third day, dropping by $2.53 to $110.95 a barrel by 1516 GMT. It fell to as low as $110.46, the lowest since April 14, after rising to $115.23 earlier. London's Brent was $2.22 lower at $109.14. Gold hit a three-month low and metals also slid on the dollar's gain. “It is a large fund liquidation across all commodities,” a trader said. (Posted @ 21:02 PST) Twenty people feared killed in occupied Kashmir landslide JAMMU, occupied Kashmir, May 1 (Reuters) - At least 20 road workers were feared dead after a landslide smashed into trucks transporting them in occupied Kashmir on Thursday, officials said. “Two or three trucks carrying an unspecified number of road workers ... came under a massive landslide,” Riyaz Ahmed Zargar, district magistrate of Kishtwar, told reporters. “So far six bodies have been recovered.” Officials believed around 28 workers were caught in the landslide. (Posted @ 20:58 PST) May Day: worldwide clashes and anger over food prices ISTANBUL, May 1 (AFP) - Police clashed with union activists on Thursday as workers worldwide made soaring food prices their May Day battle cry. Clashes erupted as hundreds of police surrounded the main square in Turkey's biggest city Istanbul to stop a planned May Day rally. Police fired pepper gas and water cannon and detained 505 people. Volatile crowds also staged rallies in the Philippines' capital of Manila and Indonesia's Jakarta, carrying signs demanding “Jobs, Justice, Food” and “Lower Food Prices Now.” In Greece, transport and public services ground to a halt as unions called a 24-hour May Day strike against a privatization drive and pensions reform. In Morocco, the government announced it would go ahead with scheduled pay rises. About 44,000 people attended a rally in Tokyo, and in China, business came to a standstill as China celebrated the national holiday. Huge traffic jams blocked some roads out of Beijing and the expressway to the Great Wall had tailbacks at least 20 kilometres long. (Posted @ 20:54 PST) Afghanistan: 3 Pakistanis among 9 killed by double mine blasts SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan, May 01-(PPI): Nine persons, three of them Pakistan nationals, were killed in two landmine explosions near the border with Pakistan, a senior Afghan police official said Thursday. In the first incident, a vehicle ran over a mine on a dirt road near Spin Boldak, in Kandahar province, local police chief Abdul Khaliq Khan told newsmen. Four civilians lost their lives and three were wounded. In the other incident another car was struck by a land mine, killing five persons and injuring four, he added. Spin Boldak police chief said three of the deceased were Pakistan nationals. (Posted @ 20:10 PST) May Day observed in Pakistan RAWALPINDI, May 1 (APP) : Federal Minister for Local Government and Rural Development Ghulam Ahmed Bilour Thursday said the working class are the real force who have been shedding their blood to strengthen the foundations of the country. He was speaking at a function to mark the International Labour Day which included a rally from Rawal Town to Rawalpindi Press Club, participated among others by political and trade union leaders. May Day rallies were also held across the country and were marked by seminars, symposia and workshops. (Posted @ 20:02 PST) Israeli troops kill two Palestinians in Gaza Strip GAZA, May 1 (Reuters) - Israeli forces on Thursday killed two Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, including Hamas commander Mansour involved in the 2006 capture of an Israeli soldier, local medics and the army said. Hamas and medical workers said a missile fired by an Israeli aircraft killed Nafez Mansour, a local field commander, as he was walking through Rafah refugee camp near the Gaza Strip's border with Egypt. (Posted @ 19:26 PST) Car bomb kills at least 9 in Baghdad; US troops kill 17 militants BAGHDAD, May 1 (AP) - A parked car bomb aimed at a U.S. patrol Thursday in Baghdad killed at least nine Iraqi civilians and wounded 26, while American troops killed 17 militants amid escalating fighting in Sadr City. The explosion occurred in a crowded commercial area in eastern Baghdad, police officials said. The U.S. military said three American soldiers were wounded in the attack. Officials also said clashes in Sadr City killed eight people and wounded 18 others. In fighting late Wednesday and early Thursday in Sadr City, U.S. soldiers killed five militants ides three other militants who attacked American troops with shoulder-fired rockets on Wednesday evening, the military said. An unmanned drone also fired Hellfire missile, killing two militants. Three militants who planted a roadside bomb were killed in another airstrike, and three other militants were killed in separate clashes. A roadside bomb struck an Iraqi patrol car on Thursday, killing two Iraqi soldiers in the northern city of Mosul, police said. The U.S. military reported early Thursday that a soldier had been killed by an explosion Wednesday near a patrol in Ninevah Province. (Posted @ 18:30 PST) Nine killed in S. Africa mine accident JOHANNESBURG, May 1 (Reuters) - Nine workers were killed on Thursday in an accident at Gold Fields' South Deep mine in South Africa, the trade union Solidarity said in a statement. The accident occurred when a cage carrying the workers plummeted two levels down a shaft at the mine near Carletonville outside Johannesburg, the union said. (Posted @ 17:46 PST) 
Ex-councillor gunned down by highwaymen in Pakistan GHARO, Pakistan, May 1 (PPI): Six unidentified armed bandits gunned down an ex-councillor on Babra-Ghulamullah Road in Sindh province in the wee hours Thursday. Former councillor Rais Bago Khan Gorai Baloch and his nephew Abdul Latif were intercepted by the assailants who started looting them. The bandits shot Bago Khan dead and kidnapped Abdul Latif. On receiving information, police reached the scene, followed the bandits and recovered the kidnapped nephew tied with a rope in a nearby forest. (Posted @ 15:05 PST) 18 dead after Hong Kong coach overturns HONG KONG, May 1 (AFP): Eighteen people were killed and at least 44 injured when a coach taking elderly passengers to a religious ceremony overturned near Hong Kong’s eastern town of Sai Kung Thursday, police and local media said. “The coach was approaching a roundabout and appears to have lost control and overturned,” a police spokesman said. The driver said the brakes failed while he was travelling downhill towards the roundabout, causing the bus to smash into a barrier, local broadcaster RTHK reported. (First Posted @ 09:20 PST, Updated @ 15:00 PST) Avalanche kills five French on Italian Alps ROME, May 1 (Reuters): An avalanche killed five French nationals hiking in the Italian Alps, local authorities said Thursday. Alpine emergency services retrieved the bodies on the Gran Paradiso mountain in the Piedmont region. Their surviving guide, also a French national, was rescued late Wednesday. (Posted @ 14:00 PST)
Blasts in Afghanistan kill one NATO soldier, eight civilians KABUL, May 1 (AP): Roadside bombs struck a NATO patrol and two civilian vehicles in Afghanistan, killing nine people and wounding 10 others, officials said Thursday. A blast targeting a NATO patrol in Logar province, south of Kabul, killed a NATO soldier and wounded four others Wednesday, the military alliance said in a statement. In Kandahar province, between Spin Boldak and Maruf, roadside bombs hit two civilian cars Wednesday, killing eight civilians and wounding six others, provincial police chief Sayeed Agha Saqib said. (First Posted @ 12:55 PST, Updated @ 13:50 PST) At least nine dead in Egypt tourist coach inferno ISMAILIYA, Egypt, May 1 (AP): At least nine people were killed and 28 injured when a coach carrying European and North Americans overturned and caught fire in Egypt's Sinai peninsula Thursday, a security official said. The coach, with 40 people on board, was travelling from the Sinai resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to Cairo when it left the road, hit a concrete barrier, rolled over and burst into flames about 70 kilometres south of Suez. The official said the dead were “probably Canadian and British.” The injured include 13 Russians, four British, two Romanians, two Canadians, two Italians, a Ukrainian and two Egyptian police as well as the Egyptian driver and guide. The accident occurred at about 6:00 am while the coach was negotiating a sharp bend, Egypt’s MENA news agency said. (First Posted @ 09:27 PST, Updated @ 13:50 PST) Fighting kills 73 in Sri Lanka; army takes rebel base COLOMBO, May 1 (Reuters): A roadside bomb suspected to have been planted by Tamil Tiger rebels killed two police commandos on Thursday while Sri Lankan troops captured a rebel base in the north west, the military said. The capture of the rebel camp in Mannar comes after a week of the bloodiest battles in the country's long civil war in the same area. The military said fighting in the far north a day earlier, killed 25 Tamil Tiger rebels and injured 37 while four solders died and 14 were injured. (First Posted @ 10:55 PST, Updated @ 11:20 PST) US soldier killed in Iraq BAGHDAD, May 1 (AFP): A US soldier was killed in a blast during a patrol in northern Iraq's Nineveh province, the American military said on Thursday. The soldier was killed on Wednesday. The latest death brought the number of US troops killed in Iraq this month to 50 and to 4,062 the military's total losses since the March 2003 invasion, according to an AFP count based on independent website www.icasualties.org. (Posted @ 11:00 PST) Quake hits Iran, about 100 lightly injured: TV TEHRAN, May 1 (Reuters): An earthquake measuring 4.7 on the Richter scale hit an area southwest of the Iranian capital on Thursday, lightly injuring about 100 people, state television reported. It said those injured in the quake, which struck at 0015 GMT, were treated on the spot. The tremor hit an area around the city of Boroujerd, about 320 km southwest of Tehran, it said. (Posted @ 10:30 PST) Abu Sayyaf leader wounded, son killed in Philippine offensive JOLO, May 1 (AFP): A leader of the militant Abu Sayyaf group was wounded and his son was among several killed in a major Philippine military offensive in southern Jolo island, an official said Thursday. Military reports on the ground said Abu Sayyaf leader Isnilon Hapilon was shot in the hand when troops attacked early Wednesday, but he managed to flee. His son, Tabari, was “fatally wounded in the head and abdomen,” a regional military spokesman said. (Posted @ 10:15 PST) Three explosions in Spain’s Basque region MADRID, May 1 (AP): Three bombs exploded Thursday in the Basque region in suspected attacks by the separatist group ETA but no one was injured, officials said. All three blasts targeted government buildings dealing with labor issues, and came on the May Day holiday. The Basque regional police said one of the bombs went off in Arrigorriaga near Bilbao and the other two in San Sebastian. (Posted @ 09:35 PST) 5 killed, 9 injured as boats collide in Sydney Harbour SYDNEY, May 1 (Reuters): An overloaded cabin cruiser on a night-time joyride in Sydney's famous harbor collided with a fishing trawler Thursday, killing five young people and injuring nine, authorities said. Four women and a man, all in their late teens or early 20s, died when the vessels slammed together in the dark shortly before 3 a.m., police and hospital officials said. (Posted @ 09:20 PST) Venezuela ex-general sentenced for 2003 embassy bombings CARACAS, May 1 (AP): A Venezuelan court sentenced a dissident former general to more than 10 years in prison for bombing attacks on Spanish and Colombian diplomatic missions in Caracas. Venezuela's state-run Bolivarian News Agency reported Wednesday that former National Guard General Felipe Rodriguez was convicted of conspiracy and aggravated burning of property for the 2003 attacks. (Posted @ 09:05 PST)
Founder: Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah
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