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| June 12, 2008 | Thursday | Jamadi-us-Sani 07, 1429 |
Updated round-the-clock, with major updates after 10:00 PST (06:00 GMT)
 Blood and shredded uniforms at Pakistan air strike site GORA PRAI, Pakistan, June 12 (AFP): Hours after the air strikes that destroyed a Pakistani checkpost, local tribesmen were still removing pieces of flesh from nearby trees, an AFP photographer said. The strike killed 11 Pakistani troops. Witnesses said US forces had directly targeted the border post in Mohmand region. Zaheer Khan, a clean-shaven 18-year-old civilian receiving treatment at a hospital in Peshawar city, said the coalition first attacked the Pakistani post and then dropped bombs in the populated area. “What was my crime, why did they attack me? I am not Taliban and I was not armed,” he told AFP. His uncle Mohammad Ilyas, 46, said coalition soldiers first came to the Soran Pass, which lies across the border, “on seeing them, tribesmen chased them. The jets then bombed Pakistani soldiers and attacked civilians.” “We were in our village when two Pakistani soldiers came and informed us that their post had been bombed, that their colleagues were wounded and they needed help to evacuate them,” said a 17-year-old student. Villagers rushed to help the wounded soldiers but they were attacked from the air, wounding several more people, he said from his bed in a Peshawar hospital. His relative said, “this is tyrannical, the government should retaliate. The coalition says they attacked miscreants. So are the Pakistan soldiers miscreants, why did they kill them?” (Posted @ 16:25 PST)  US looking into Pakistan strike: White House ROME, June 12 (AFP): The White House said Thursday that it was still looking into accusations that US-led forces in Afghanistan killed 11 Pakistani soldiers in an air strike, but that it would be “very saddened” if true. “We're still trying to get to the bottom of what happened. And reports, quite frankly, even from sources within the United States government, are conflicting at this point,” said US national security adviser Stephen Hadley. (Posted @ 20:30 PST)  Lawyers’ long march to Islamabad begins LAHORE, June 12 (AFP): Thousands of lawyers and political parties’ workers began a “long march” from Lahore to Islamabad on Thursday to demand the restoration of judges sacked by President Pervez Musharraf. The leader of PML-N, Mr Nawaz Sharif addressed the rally and said his party was committed to the restoration of judges. Police said around 8,000 flag-waving protesters had gathered in the centre of Lahore, before setting off on their journey. “The lawyers' struggle has entered a decisive phase. We are heartened by the support from civil society and political parties,” said Munir Malik, a leader of the lawyers' movement. Earlier deposed chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry was given a rousing welcome by a large crowd on his arrival in Lahore overnight. The caravan will pass through different towns during its 270 kilometre journey from Lahore to Islamabad, where it is expected early Friday. (First Posted @ 10:40 PST Updated @ 21:00 PST) US State Department sad at loss of Pakistani troops WASHINGTON, June 12 (APP): The US State Department described the incident on Pakistan-Afghanistan border as regrettable, saying it is sad over the loss of Pakistani security officials. “This is a regrettable incident. We are sad to see the loss of life among the Pakistani military who are partners in fighting terror,” spokesman Gonzalo Gallegoz said. Pakistan strongly condemned the air strike in its Mohmand tribal area and termed it as “unprovoked and cowardly.” However, he claimed, there was notice of engagement with militants in the area. This is a reminder that better cross border communications between forces is vital, Gallegoz added. “We are sure that military on both sides will look into the matter and review how to prevent recurrence and how to prevent the Taliban from using the area,” he stated. Quoting the air force officials in Afghanistan, he claimed early indications say they acted in self-defence. (Posted @ 12:05 PST) Top US court deals Bush blow on Guantanamo rights WASHINGTON, June 12 (AFP): The US Supreme Court Thursday ruled detainees held in the US military base at Guantanamo Bay have the right to appeal to federal courts in a blow to the Bush administration. The court ruled that detainees in the US jail in southern Cuba “have the constitutional privilege of habeas corpus,” in the third ruling on Guantanamo against the current administration of President George W. Bush. By a vote of five to four, the court found that even if the base was officially on Cuban territory, it was in fact operating as if it were on American soil and therefore the detainees had the same constitutional rights as all Americans. White House reviewing Guantanamo ruling: The White House on Thursday said it was reviewing the US Supreme Court's ruling that detainees at the US military base at Guantanamo Bay have the right to appeal to federal courts. Aides to US President George W. Bush “are reviewing the opinion,” said spokeswoman Dana Perino, who declined immediate comment on what was seen as a blow to the administration's “war on terrorism” policies. (Posted @ 21:12 PST) Army called out in India’s famous Darjeeling after unrest KOLKATA, June 12 (Reuters): Protesters clashed with police in India's famed Darjeeling hills on Thursday as a strike over demands for a separate state triggered violence and forced the government to call for the army, police and witnesses said. Gorkhas, who are ethnic Nepalis, demand a separate state called “Gorkhaland” be carved out of West Bengal state to protect their culture and heritage. Supporters of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (Gorkha People's Liberation Front) asked tourists to leave Darjeeling town to avoid getting caught in the strike. On Thursday, supporters of the ruling communist government said tourists had been beaten by Gorkhas and called a parallel strike in Siliguri. They also beat ethnic Nepalis, triggerring clashes that police tried to contain. (Posted @ 23:28 PST) Cricket: India beat Bangladesh by seven wickets in tri-series June 12, (REUTERS) - India beat Bangladesh by seven wickets in the final round-robin match of a triangular one-day series at the Shere Bangla National Stadium on Thursday. India will play in the final of the series against Pakistan on the same ground on Saturday. Scores: Bangladesh 222 all out in 49.5 overs (R. Hassan 89) v India 223-3 in 35.1 overs (Gautam Gambhir 107 not out, Virender Sehwag 59). (Posted @ 23:02 PST) Afghan police seize 237 tonnes hashish, may be world's biggest haul KABUL, June 11 (Reuters): Afghan police have seized 237 tonnes of hashish in what NATO-led forces and the British government called the biggest narcotics haul in history. The cannabis product had an estimated wholesale value of $400 million, a statement by the NATO-led ISAF force said on Wednesday. It was found in a series of trenches in southern Kandahar province, which were then set on fire. “This was the largest ever single find of narcotics in history,” British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said in a statement. The ISAF statement said police had also seized about 5.1 tonnes of opium, with an estimated value of $30 million, and arrested 13 drug dealers in Helmand province. (Posted @ 22:42 PST) 70 detained in occupied Kashmir protests against India fuel hike SRINAGAR, occupied Kashmir, June 12 (AFP): Police in Indian occupied Kashmir detained 70 people as protests against a rise in fuel prices announced by the national government continued for a fourth day on Thursday. Police used batons and water cannons to repel government employees shouting “roll back fuel prices” as they tried to march on the office of Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad in Srinagar. “Some 20 protesters received minor injuries while 70 others were detained,” a police officer told AFP. (Posted @ 22:05 PST) Sri Lanka jets bomb Tiger weapons stock: military COLOMBO, June 12 (AFP): Sri Lankan war planes destroyed a suspected Tamil Tiger rebel arms manufacturing facility in the island's north on Thursday as ground battles killed 15 people, the defence ministry said. The air force hit an “arms and ammunition manufacturing yard” of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the ministry said in a statement. “Sri Lanka air force jets raided one of the main LTTE arms and ammunition manufacturing yards in Mullaitivu district,” the ministry said. It said pilots had reported direct hits. The air attack came a day after fighting in the district of Vavuniya left 13 rebels and two soldiers killed, the ministry said. (First Posted @ 13:25 PST Updated @ 20:26 PST) Afghanistan busts child porn, abduction ring: officials KABUL, June 12 (AFP): A criminal group which abducted and raped schoolchildren then recorded the abuse to make pornographic videos has been busted in Kabul, intelligence officials said Thursday. The gang of four people had kidnapped five children as they went home from school in the city, said a spokesman for the Afghan National Directorate of Security. “They were abducting children, raping them and video recording the sexual abuse for networks they were in contact with,” he told reporters. He said the men had confessed to their crimes. (Posted @ 20:16 PST) Zimbabwe opposition chief detained by police: party HARARE, June 12 (AFP): Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was detained by police on Thursday while campaigning near the central town of Kwekwe, his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party said. “We were arrested as the campaign bus was approaching Kwekwe and are now being taken to Kwekwe police station,” Tsvangirai's spokesman told AFP by phone from the scene. It is the third time that Tsvangirai, has been detained by police in the last eight days. (Posted @ 20:04 PST) 40 injured in road mishap near Tando Mohammad Khan TANDO MUHAMMAD KHAN, June 12 (PPI): Forty passengers including women and children were injured on Thursday as a speeding Badin-bound passenger bus overturned. Eye witnesses said the driver of the vehicle laws driving rashly and lost control of the vehicle and it turned turtle. The injured passengers were taken to different hospitals. (Posted @ 19:48 PST) Police fire rubber pellets at Swiss fans following Switzerland's Euro 2008 defeat BERN, June 12 (AP): Police fired rubber pellets at Swiss fans rampaging and clashing with security forces in Bern after the last-minute Swiss defeat at the European Championship, a spokesman said Thursday. Police arrested 20 people for property damage and theft on Wednesday night, said Juerg Mosimann. Up to three dozen football fans were involved in the clashes near the main train station, he said. (Posted @ 19:40 PST) Cricket: Pakistan sacks cricket official after email leak LAHORE, June 12 (AFP): Pakistan on Thursday sacked a high-profile cricket official, who said he had been accused of leaking a confidential email to the media which criticized the team. The Pakistan Cricket Board confirmed that former fast bowler Salim Altaf, who was overseeing the 2011 World Cup to be hosted in the subcontinent, was fired but the official played down the incident. “Altaf's services were no more required but I would not say he was accused of leakage to the media,” Pakistan Cricket Board chief operating officer Shafqat Naghmi told AFP. But Altaf said he was sacked. (Posted @ 19:10 PST) Nepal's former rebels pull out of govt, demand prime minister resign KATHMANDU, June 12 (AP): Nepal's former communist rebels quit the interim government Thursday to force the current prime minister out and allow them to form a new administration. The former rebels, called Maoists, don't have a clear majority in the newly elected Constituent Assembly, but enough support from other political parties to form a coalition government. The current prime minister, Girija Prasad Koirala of the Nepali Congress party, has refused to step down and make way for a new government. (Posted @ 19:00 PST) Austria: 1 killed, 19 injured in fire at home for asylum-seekers VIENNA, June 12 (AP): Officials in southern Austria said a fire that swept through a building, housing asylum-seekers killed one person and injured 19 others. Police in Klagenfurt city said one of two people who jumped from a second-floor window to escape the flames was killed. They say the second jumper suffered serious injuries. Investigators were trying to determine what caused the early morning fire on Thursday. (Posted @ 18:56 PST) Syrian president to make maiden India visit DAMASCUS, June 12 (APP/AFP): Syrian President Bashar al-Assad travels next week to India on a maiden visit and the first by a Syrian head of state to the South Asian nation in 20 years, officials said on Thursday. The official Tishrin newspaper said that Assad would discuss with Indian officials “bilateral relations and topics of interest to the two friendly nations.” Tishrin said the visit would take place next week. (Posted @ 18:50 PST) Car bomb kills three in Baghdad BAGHDAD, June 12 (AFP): A car bomb struck an Iraqi police commando patrol in central Baghdad on Thursday, killing three people and wounding more than a dozen, a security official and a medic told AFP. The attack occurred at around 1100 GMT in Al-Allawi district. One commando and two civilians were killed, and 15 people wounded, 12 of them commandos, the security official confirmed. Late on Wednesday, a roadside bomb killed three security personnel from the Kurdish peshmerga forces deployed in Diyala province, north of Baghdad, a security official told AFP. The attack took place in Jalawla town in Diyala. Five other people were seriously wounded in the attack, he added. (Posted @ 18:46 PST) One dead in migrant centre riot in Turkey: report ANKARA, June 12 (AFP): A riot at a Turkish centre for illegal immigrants left one person dead and four others, including two police, injured, Anatolia news agency reported. Migrants at the centre in Kirklareli province, northwestern Turkey, began rioting to protest the detention conditions, setting their beds on fire and stealing the guns of two police officers trying to quell the unrest, the report said. Police and paramilitary troop reinforcements were called in when the migrants began firing the guns. One migrant, whose nationality or gender was not specified, died in the scuffles, Anatolia said. (Posted @ 18:30 PST) Four dead, 25 injured in blast in Gaza house GAZA, June 12 (Reuters): An explosion destroyed a Hamas bomb-maker's house in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, killing at least four people, including a baby, in what Hamas called an Israeli air strike and Israel described as an internal blast. The explosion, which also wounded about 25 people, destroyed the two-storey dwelling and damaged several other homes in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya, an area from which militants frequently fire rockets into southern Israel. Hamas said an Israeli aircraft attacked the house belonging to Ahmed Hamouda, whom it described as one of its senior bomb-makers. An Israeli military spokeswoman denied any Israeli involvement. (Posted @ 18:22 PST) Earthquake strikes Crete ATHENS, June 12 (AP): An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.5 struck the southern Greek island of Crete early Thursday, the Athens Geodynamic Institute said. No injuries or damage were reported. The quake struck at 0020GMT and had an epicenter 385 kilometers southeast of Athens, in the Zakrou area of eastern Crete, the institute said. (Posted @ 18:10 PST) Six killed by tornadoes ripping through US Midwest DES MOINES, Iowa, June 12 (Reuters): Tornadoes killed four people at a boy scout camp in Iowa and two others in Kansas late on Wednesday as more than 30 twisters ripped through the U.S. Midwest, rescue officials said. The deadly twisters were among more than 30 that roared through four Midwestern states, including one that struck the Little Sioux Scout Ranch in western Iowa about 6:35 p.m. CDT (2135 GMT), killing four and injuring at least 20, authorities said. The tornadoes in Kansas touched down after 0330 GMT Thursday. The tornadoes were accompanied by baseball-sized hail and vicious winds, and came in addition to rampant flooding. (First Posted @ 09:30 PST, Updated @ 17:40 PST) Huge blast kills one, injures 35 in China: police BEIJING, June 12 (AFP): One person was killed and 35 others injured in a huge blast in eastern China believed to have been set off deliberately, police said Thursday. The blast struck late Wednesday at a public square used as a gathering place for migrant workers in Yiwu city, Zhejiang province, local police said on the city's website. Police believe this is a criminal case involving a man-made explosion. Preliminary estimations ruled out a terrorist attack. (Posted @ 17:25 PST) Two dead in Israeli air strike in Gaza: Hamas GAZA, June 12 (Reuters): An Israeli aircraft attacked a house belonging to a Hamas member in the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday, killing at least two Palestinians and wounding at least 20 others, Hamas and medical workers said. There was no immediate Israeli comment on the incident in which Hamas said several women and children were among the wounded. (First Posted @ 13:05 PST, Updated @ 17:00 PST) Four killed in south Thailand YALA, June 12 (AFP): A Buddhist man was gunned down in front of his terrified daughters early Thursday, as separatists staged raids that left four dead across Thailand's south, police said. Late Wednesday, a 36-year-old Buddhist man who worked in the local government was also gunned down in Pattani, police said. In Yala province, two Muslim men -- a public school teacher and a rubber tapper -- were shot dead late Wednesday, police said. More than 3,300 people have been killed since separatist unrest broke out in January 2004 in the south. (Posted @ 16:00 PST) Rwanda arrests four officers over clergymen murders KIGALI, June 12 (AFP): The Rwandan army said Thursday it has arrested four officers, including a brigadier general, over the murder of 13 senior Catholic clergy during the 1994 genocide. The four were arrested Wednesday. The arrests were made after a joint investigation by the ICTR and Rwandan prosecutors into the killings of the Roman Catholic clergy on June 5, 1994, an army spokesman said in a statement. (Posted @ 14:55 PST) Nine dead in escalating Djibouti-Eritrea clash DJIBOUTI, June 12 (Reuters): Border clashes between Eritrea and Djibouti have killed nine Djiboutian soldiers and wounded 60 others in three days of fighting between the Horn of Africa nations, a defence official said Thursday. Eritrean and Djiboutian troops have exchanged fire along a part of their shared border overlooking strategic shipping lanes in the Red Sea. “The fighting is still ongoing. The dead and injured are more today, up to nine dead and 60 wounded,” said a Djiboutian military official, requesting anonymity. Djiboutian state media said the Red Sea state had captured 100 Eritrean prisoners. Eritrea has dismissed Djibouti's versions as “concocted animosity.” The Foreign Ministry said it would not “get involved in an invitation of squabbles and acts of hostility.” And there was no word on any Eritrean casualties. The clashes erupted Tuesday after a nearly two-month face off along their frontier. (Posted @ 13:55 PST) Somali airport shelled as president flies out MOGADISHU, June 12 (Reuters): Somali insurgents fired mortars at Mogadishu's main airport Thursday just after President Abdullahi Yusuf took off, officials said. “The president's plane had taken off for Addis Ababa five minutes before insurgents began shelling the airport,” a presidential aide told Reuters. (Posted @ 13:50 PST) US coalition releases video of Pakistan air strikes KABUL, June 12 (AFP): The US-led coalition in Afghanistan Thursday deflected accusations that it killed 11 Pakistani soldiers in an air strike, releasing video footage which it said shows its forces targeting insurgents. The coalition said the video footage showed “precision” strikes on a group of seven insurgents who sought refuge in Pakistan after attacking a coalition patrol in eastern Afghanistan. The footage, taken by an unmanned drone, shows a first strike targeted at men hiding behind a rock, and three subsequent attacks on men seeking cover in a ravine. “It is clear there are no structures or (Pakistani) outposts in the impact area,” a voice said off-camera. (Posted @ 13:35 PST) Tigers kill two in Bangladesh DHAKA, June 12 (AFP): Two people were killed by tigers Wednesday in southwest Bangladesh, forest conservator Rajesh Chakma told AFP Thursday. “One of them entered the forest for fishing at a canal while the other was collecting honey when they were attacked,” he said. The incidents occurred in the Sunderbans, the world's largest mangrove forest. (Posted @ 13:20 PST) Lynch mob kills nine robbers in Bangladesh DHAKA, June 12 (AFP): A group of nine armed robbers were beaten to death or shot in northern Bangladesh Thursday by a mob of angry villagers, police said. Some 500 villagers surrounded the robbers after they were spotted in a field in the northern district of Natore, local police chief Mohammad Abubakr told AFP. “At least eight robbers were caught by villagers and beaten mercilessly as they tried to flee the village by shooting at the mob,” he said, adding that the bullet-riddled body of another robber was found nearby. (Posted @ 13:15 PST) At least five killed in Mogadishu fighting MOGADISHU, June 12 (AFP): Insurgents attacked Ethiopia-backed Somali forces in Mogadishu Thursday, sparking fierce clashes that killed at least five civilians, witnesses said. Rival sides pounded each other with machine guns, rocket propelled grenades and mortars after insurgents ambushed forces patrolling a road near the presidential palace. Several witnesses said the clashes were spreading to other areas in southern Mogadishu. (Posted @ 13:15 PST) 60 injured in Russian train derailment MOSCOW, June 12 (AFP): A train came off its rails and overturned Thursday in Russia's far eastern Amur region injuring 60 people, news agencies quoted emergency officials as saying. “Sixty people were injured....six of them are seriously injured. Twenty suffered moderate injuries,” a press official for the emergency situations ministry told Interfax news agency. The train was travelling from the Siberian town of Neryungri to the city of Khabarovsk. (Posted @ 13:10 PST) Eastern US heat wave claims 17 lives PHILADELPHIA, June 12 (AP): The East Coast heat wave has claimed the lives of 17 people, and most of the victims were elderly. Eight people died of heat-related causes in the four days of scorching temperatures, the Philadelphia medical examiner's office said. Six others died in New York City and two died in Maryland. A 65-year-old man also died of sunstroke in the Philadelphia suburb of Pottstown, Pennsylvania. (Posted @ 11:20 PST) Six workers die inhaling toxic fumes at Sicilian plant ROME, June 12 (AFP): Six workers died Wednesday from inhaling toxic fumes in a vat which they were cleaning at a plant in southeast Sicily, police told AFP by telephone. “It seems likely that the workers were killed by sulphuric acid, a by-product of the fermentation in the vat,” said Giuseppe Spagnoli, an expert in workplace security. They were working on a five-metre high vat where waste water from the town is treated, ANSA news agency said. (Posted @ 10:25 PST) Floods kill five, leave thousands homeless in Mexico MEXICO CITY, June 12 (Reuters): Floods in central and southern Mexico killed five people including a 4-year-old girl and an American tourist, rescue workers said Wednesday. Around 7,000 people were evacuated in the southern state of Oaxaca, where the tourist drowned in fierce waves off a Pacific coast beach, a state civil protection official said. (Posted @ 10:15 PST) Militant killed, two soldiers hurt in gunfight in south Lebanon refugee camp BEIRUT, June 12 (AP): A shootout between Lebanese troops and militants on the edge of a Palestinian refugee camp left a gunman dead and two soldiers wounded, security officials said. The shooting occurred when gunmen riding in a car opened fire as they tried to run away from an army checkpoint at an entrance to the Ein el-Hilweh camp in southern Lebanon. The soldiers returned fire, killing a gunman and injuring another. An army officer and a soldier were wounded in the Wednesday night gunfight, officials said. (Posted @ 10:10 PST) Canada apologizes for failing natives OTTAWA, June 12 (AFP): Canada's prime minister Stephen Harper Wednesday officially apologized to natives for more than a century of abuses at boarding schools set up to assimilate its indigenous peoples. “The government of Canada sincerely apologizes and asks the forgiveness of the aboriginal peoples of this country for failing them so profoundly,” Harper said in the House of Commons. “We are sorry.” Flanked by MPs, native leaders in traditional garments and Indian Residential School alumni, Harper said: “The treatment of children in Indian Residential Schools is a sad chapter in our history.” He acknowledged “two primary objectives of the residential school system were to remove and isolate children from the influence of their home, families, traditions, and cultures and to assimilate them in to the dominant culture. “These objectives were based on the assumption that aboriginal cultures and spiritual beliefs were inferior and unequal,” he said. “The government now recognizes that the consequences of the Indian Residential Schools policy were profoundly negative and that this policy has had a lasting and damaging impact on aboriginal culture, heritage, and language.” (Posted @ 10:00 PST) Helicopter rescues hikers from Washington state's Mount Rainier; one killed in freak blizzard LONGMIRE, Washington, June 12 (AP): A helicopter rescued two hikers from high on Mount Rainier Wednesday after they were caught in a freak blizzard that caused a third hiker's death. An Army Chinook helicopter rescued the hikers at about 6:15 a.m. from Camp Muir, a staging area for climbers about 10,000 feet up the 14,410-foot volcano in Washington state, authorities said. One hiker died of exposure on the mountain, park spokeswoman Monica Magari said. (Posted @ 09:55 PST) Pakistan will hit bin Laden if it finds him: Ambassador Haqqani WASHINGTON, June 12 (Reuters): Pakistan would attack Osama bin Laden the moment it had reliable intelligence on the Al Qaeda leader's whereabouts, Ambassador Husain Haqqani said on Wednesday. Haqqani also said he was confident Pakistan could help foil any Al Qaeda plans to attack the United States, although he did not know of any right now. “A cooperative effort between all the allies, and that includes Afghanistan, Pakistan and the United States and NATO - I think we can thwart any potential plans for an attack,” Haqqani said in an interview with Reuters. He said Pakistani intelligence had helped defeat many of the “several dozen” Al Qaeda plots detected worldwide since the September 11, 2001, attacks, but government officials knew of no immediate threats to the United States. Haqqani said Pakistan would act on its own against Al Qaeda if necessary. “If Pakistan, Afghanistan or the United States had specific intelligence on the location of Osama bin Laden, they would have acted on it. No reservations would have come in the way of action on that, and none will even in the future,” he said. “If any of us had that actionable intelligence we would all act. We would act separately, we would act in tandem, we would act cooperatively - we would act.” He said, however, the three countries' intelligence services needed to overcome any disagreements or “lack of trust” among them. Haqqani spoke after a U.S. air strike killed 11 Pakistani soldiers at a border post near Afghanistan. He called for an inquiry but said Pakistan did not see it as a hostile act. Pakistan resists U.S. military operations on Pakistani soil and prefers to fight its own antiterrorism campaigns, Haqqani said. “We do not want more theaters of war in which U.S. and NATO troops are involved, with less and less results.” But he suggested intelligence operations, such as the U.S. Predator missile strikes on al Qaeda targets, were considered differently than operations by regular military forces. Haqqani declined to discuss any understandings with Washington over Predator attacks. But he said Pakistan hoped that “if there is need to deploy technical means available to any of the partners, that that is done with mutual understanding, and not unilaterally.” (Posted @ 09:45 PST) Bangladesh ex-PM Hasina Wajed departs for medical treatment in US DHAKA, June 12 (Reuters): Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, released from jail on parole, left Dhaka Thursday for the United States for medical treatment. She boarded a British Airways flight to London, en route to the United States, officials said. Hasina has been suffering from high blood pressure, eye problems and hearing impairment caused by grenade blasts at a rally she addressed in Dhaka in August 2004, which killed 23 people. Bangladesh's military-backed government arrested Hasina in July last year for alleged corruption, but it granted her eight-week parole on Wednesday for treatment abroad. (Posted @ 09:30 PST) China, Taiwan begin historic talks BEIJING, June 12 (AFP): China and Taiwan began their first formal talks in a decade here Thursday, according to an AFP photographer. Delegations from semi-official bodies belonging to the two sides began their dialogue shortly after 9:00 a.m. at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse. The delegation chiefs shook hands for a big group of photographers before the press was ushered out of the room and the talks began. The talks were expected to focus on establishing regular direct flights between China and Taiwan for the first time since the two sides split in 1949 at the end of a civil war. Allowing more mainland Chinese tourists to visit Taiwan would also be on the agenda, both sides said previously. The talks were held only between semi-official bodies because China and Taiwan have no formal government relations. (Posted @ 08:40 PST) Karachi Stocks up 9.26 points: KARACHI, June 12: At close of trading, the KSE-100 index was at 13025.64, up 9.26 points. (Bureau Report) (Updated @ 14:17 PST) Forex update: KARACHI, June 12: The Pakistani Rupee was traded at Rs 68.1 to the US Dollar in the open market. (Bureau Report) (Updated @ 14:17 PST)
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