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| June 13, 2008 | Friday | Jamadi-us-Sani 08, 1429 |
Updated round-the-clock, with major updates after 10:00 PST (06:00 GMT)
 Pakistani lawyers' Long March hits Islamabad ISLAMABAD, June 13 (AFP) - Tens of thousands of Pakistani lawyers and activists began arriving in Islamabad early Friday night after a cross-country “long march” to demand the reinstatement of judges sacked by President Pervez Musharraf in November last year. Flag-waving crowds chanting slogans against the US-backed leader gathered in the capital to welcome the caravan of hundreds of cars and buses, which left the eastern city of Lahore late Thursday on the final leg of its trip. About 20,000 people were taking part, a senior police official monitoring the rally said. One of the protest organisers, lawyer Ramzan Chaudhry, of the Pakistan Bar council, said the figure was 50,000. The police official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the first vehicles were arriving in Islamabad and the main convoy was still snaking through the neighbouring garrison city of Rawalpindi. “We received a big ovation en route but the welcome in Rawalpindi crossed all limits. I am overwhelmed with emotions,” said protest leader Aitzaz Ahsan. Ahsan, the chief of the Supreme Court Bar Association and a former minister, told AFP that “parliament must now respect the sentiments of people, the people have spoken and they want the restoration of the judges.” Around 6,000 paramilitary troops and police were deployed ahead of the arrival of the lawyers after their 256-kilometre journey from Lahore, the culmination of a nationwide journey that began on Monday. Military helicopters flew low over the protesters. Authorities used barbed wire and shipping containers to block the parliament building in the capital and stationed armoured personnel vehicles at several points. Top interior ministry official Rehman Malik told reporters the government would not block the march and authorities have a “sufficient” number of security forces deployed to protect the capital. The authorities have also made arrangements for food and water at the venue of lawyers meeting which was expected to formally begin after the main leadership arrives. (First Posted @ 12:10 PST Updated @ 21:04 PST)  U.S., Pakistan agree on joint U.S. attack probe; Rice expresses regrets PARIS, June 13 (Reuters)- U.S. and Pakistani armed forces have agreed to conduct a joint investigation into a U.S. air strike that killed 11 Pakistani soldiers this week, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher said on Friday. “There is an understanding between the militaries that they will conduct a joint investigation and the foreign ministers agreed that was the right way to go,” he told reporters after a meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi. During the talks Condoleezza Rice also expressed regrets to her Pakistani counterpart at the loss of Pakistani soldiers’ lives, Boucher said. Pakistan, an U.S. ally, has denounced Tuesday's attack on a border post in the Mohmand tribal region as “unprovoked and cowardly” and said it could undermine their cooperation in the battle against al Qaeda and the Taliban. (First Posted @ 19:45 PST Updated @ 20:08 PST) Pakistan seeks US cooperation after border attack PARIS, June 13 (AFP) - Pakistan wants more information-sharing with the United States to prevent future “uncalled for” attacks like the one that killed 11 Pakistani soldiers in an area along the Afghan border, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said Friday. “We have to see whether the mechanism that is already there is adequate or inadequate and how we can improve on it so that such incidents are not repeated,” Qureshi told a breakfast meeting with reporters. “If they have actionable information, they should share it with us. They should share it with us and Pakistan will be willing to cooperate,” he added. “Innocent lives were lost,” said Qureshi. “Pakistani soldiers were there to do a job. This sends a wrong signal.” He argued that the air strike played into the hands of extremists, saying such “uncalled for incidents” are used by “extreme elements ... to question the policy that the government is pursuing.” “We feel that such a lack of coordination can result in misunderstandings and it can defeat the government's purpose of giving this whole effort local ownership,” said Qureshi. “We are trying to engage people and we are trying to mobilise support for this activity.” Top US military chief Admiral Michael Mullen insisted the operation, carried out early on Wednesday, was “very much by the book.” The incident is the worst of its kind since President Pervez Musharraf sided with the United States in 2001 against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. (Posted @ 16:15 PST) Pakistan should rethink relationship with US after deadly airstrike: NWFP CM Haider Khan Hoti ISLAMABAD, June 13 (AP): North West Frontier Province(NWFP)’s chief minister Haider Khan Hoti said Pakistan should rethink its relationship with America after a U.S. airstrike killed 11 Pakistani troops. Hoti said the strike was “absolutely naked aggression.” “After condemnation, we should do some serious rethinking of the ties that we have because on the one side in the war on terror we are expected to offer them cooperation and on the other hand our security forces are being targeted,” he told reporters in Peshawar. According to a defence official, who requested anonymity, a B-1 bomber dropped nine bombs, including three 2,000-pound precision-guided “smart bombs.” At least one of the three larger bombs was launched early on and is shown in the initial part of the incident’s video released by the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan, but the bulk of the B-1 bombings are not shown. F-15E fighter jets dropped the four bombs fired after the militants had moved further inside Pakistan, killing a number of the militants, the official said. Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said Thursday that the army was analyzing the coalition video and statements by U.S. officials and had yet to formulate its response. (Posted @ 09:40 PST)  Militants kill five Pakistan tribesmen MIRANSHAH, Pakistan, June 13 (AFP) - Taliban militants have shot dead five Pakistani tribesmen they suspected were spying for foreign forces in neighbouring Afghanistan, a local official said Friday. The victims were staying in a house in Dattakhel town in troubled North Waziristan tribal district when the Taliban attacked them late Thursday, the official, who did not wish to be identified, told AFP. One of them was a contractor who supplied food to US-led troops based in Afghanistan, the official added. “We believe they were killed because Taliban suspected them of spying for the coalition forces in Afghanistan,” he said. (Posted @ 16:20 PST) Pakistani tribes reach for guns after U.S. attack GHALANAI, Pakistan, June 13 (Reuters) - Fiercely independent tribesmen, angered by a U.S. air strike that killed 11 Pakistani soldiers earlier in the week, vowed to raise a militia to help Pakistan's army defend the border with Afghanistan. Elders from ethnic Pashtun tribes in Mohmand, one of seven semi-autonomous tribal regions, issued a statement late on Thursday condemning the attack as “naked aggression” and said they were ready to raise a “lashkar”, or tribal army. “It's the duty of the government to protect and defend the frontiers and we are ready to raise a lashkar to help our army in their cause,” the elders said. “We are ready to fight for our homeland as we fought in Kashmir in 1948,” it said, referring to the first war between Pakistan and India, a year after their independence. Chanting slogans of “Down with America” and “Down with Bush”, about 250 activists of a hardline Islamic group paraded on the roads of Ghalanai, Mohmand's main town, to protest the attack. “We should wage jihad to teach a lesson to America for this aggression,” prayer leader of the main mosque of Ghalanai, Abdul Khaliq, told the crowd. (Posted @ 16:48 PST) Pakistan demands probe after India returns bodies of 2 Pakistani prisoners LAHORE, Pakistan, June 13 (AP) - Pakistan's government called Friday for Indian authorities to investigate the deaths of Pakistanis in its custody after the bodies of two prisoners were returned by New Delhi. Pakistani border official Col. Tariq Janjua said the bodies were handed over to relatives at the main international checkpoint between the two countries at Wagha near the eastern city of Lahore. Janjua identified the dead as Abdul Halim, 31, who was arrested in 2001 after crossing into India from southern Sindh province, and Shahida Bibi, a 60-year-old woman accused in 2005 of smuggling drugs. He said the causes of death were unclear. Pakistan's Foreign Ministry expressed “deep concern” over the treatment of Pakistanis in Indian jails and called for a thorough investigation into the deaths. It noted that India had returned two other bodies of Pakistani prisoners earlier this year. (First Posted @ 19:30 PST Updated @ 21:18 PST) Cricket: Case of Pakistan's Asif to be heard June 22 KARACHI, June 13 (AFP) - A top Dubai legal officer will begin an inquiry in the Gulf state next week into the drug case against Pakistan paceman Mohammad Asif, an official said Friday. The attorney general of the emirate, where the 25-year-old paceman was detained June 1 as he was returning home from India after featuring in a cricket event, will conduct the inquiry. “Our lawyer has confirmed that Asif's case will start on June 22 and no charges have yet been lodged against him,” said Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chief operating officer Shafqat Naghmi. Asif has appeared before Dubai prosecutor, Mohammad Ali Rustan, who was quoted in Gulf media as saying opium was found in the cricketer's possession. (Posted @ 18:20 PST) 12 hurt in grenade attack in occupied Kashmir SRINAGAR, occupied Kashmir, June 13 (AFP) - Nearly a dozen people were injured Friday in revolt-hit occupied Kashmir in the first grenade attack by suspected militants in months, police said. The grenade was hurled in Baramulla town, 55 kilometres north of Srinagar, at an army vehicle driving on a busy road but missed its target and hit civilians, police said. “Nearly a dozen people were hurt, two seriously,” police officer Imtiaz Ahmed said by telephone from Baramulla. (Posted @ 19:50 PST) Cricket-West Indies clean up Australian tail in quick time BRIDGETOWN, June 13 (Reuters) - West Indies cleaned up Australia's tail in swift fashion on Friday with the tourists bowled out for 251 on the second day of the third test. After resuming on 226 for seven, the tourists lost three more wickets for the addition of just 25 runs. Edwards, Taylor and Dwayne Bravo all finished with three wickets apiece. (Posted @ 21:14 PST) At least 20 dead in wave of Russia violence NAZRAN, Russia, June 13 (Reuters) - Russia's volatile North Caucasus experienced one of its worst eruptions of violence in months with at least 20 people killed in a series of attacks across the region, officials said on Friday. In Nazran, the biggest city in the Ingushetia region, four people were killed on Friday in an explosion that destroyed a building, emergency services said. In next-door Chechnya late on Thursday, at least 25 armed rebels raided the village of Benoi-Vedeno, killing three locals and setting several houses on fire, Russian news agencies quoted officials as saying. An internet site said the rebels had killed 11 armed men linked to Ramzan Kadyrov, Chechnya's pro-Moscow president. In Dagestan, a remote-controlled bomb killed a jogger in a park in the capital, Makhachkala, local police said. A passerby was injured and taken to hospital. (Posted @ 20:26 PST) Violence claims 17 in Sri Lanka: military COLOMBO, June 13 (AFP) - At least 17 people have died in fresh violence between government troops and Tamil Tiger rebels in northern Sri Lanka, the defence ministry said Friday. In the northern town of Vavuniya, two soldiers were shot dead by rebels while manning an army sentry point, a statement said. Artillery duels in the area on Thursday also killed at least 11 rebels and two soldiers, it added. Separately, in Jaffna peninsula suspected rebels fired at a prison bus and killed two inmates, the ministry said. (Posted @ 20:06 PST) Pakistan launches hunt for kidnapped Iranians QUETTA, Pakistan, June 13 (AFP) - Pakistan on Friday launched a search for 16 Iranian security workers kidnapped by suspected militants near a border check post in Iran Thursday, a government official said. “We have received a request from the Iranian government to trace the militants and secure a safe return of their officials,” he said. “We have alerted the border security and asked them to send forces to the suspected areas along the Iranian border.” (Posted @ 19:55 PST) One dies, 12 hurt in road mishap near Jacobabad JACOBABAD, Pakistan, June 13 (PPI): A young man was killed and twelve others injured on Friday in a road mishap near Thul taluka in Sindh province. According to police the accident occurred when a bus carrying a marriage party rammed into a tree at Dore Road. (Posted @ 19:40 PST) Ambassador Patterson lauds PM Gilani's 'Forward-Looking Agenda' LAHORE, June 13 (PPI): The U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan, Anne W. Patterson, has lauded Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani's “forward-looking 100-day agenda”. Addressing senior bureaucrats at the National Management College on Friday she said: “The new government under Prime Minister Gilani has set forth a good strategy for continued growth and advancement. It is an ambitious program that offers dramatic improvements in the lives and prospects of people throughout the country, at all levels of society.” Accomplishing this agenda will require “political will and cooperation,” she said adding that as a long-term friend and ally “we are committed to helping Pakistan solve these problems.” (Posted @ 19:36 PST) Gates appeals for more NATO support as Afghan death toll exceeds Iraq's BRUSSELS, Belgium, June 13 (AP) - U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates appealed for NATO allies to step up their efforts in Afghanistan on Friday as he reported that the number of coalition soldiers killed in action there exceeded the death toll in Iraq for the first time last month. U.S. officials said 18 coalition troops, including 13 Americans, were killed in action last month in Afghanistan, compared with 16 killed in Iraq, of which 14 were Americans. The figures reflect the threat from Taliban militants and their al-Qaida allies who are increasingly adopting the suicide attacks and roadside bomb tactics used by insurgents in Iraq. (Posted @ 19:26 PST) Dozens killed in clashes across Afghanistan Kabul, June 13 (Reuters)- A soldier serving with NATO-led forces and an Afghan policeman were killed in separate Taliban ambushes on Friday in Zabul province, a police official said. Five policemen and three foreign soldiers were also wounded. Separately, seven Taliban fighters were also killed in a NATO air strike in Ghazni province on Thursday night, an official in the province said. In neighbouring Paktia, two women and more than a dozen Taliban militants, were killed in air bombardment by U.S.-led forces late on Thursday. Also in Paktia, four U.S. soldiers were wounded in a clash with Taliban insurgents on Thursday while five Taliban insurgents were killed in a clash with police on Friday in Farah province. Meanhile, a suicide bomber failed to hit a convoy carrying foreign troops in Nangarhar province on Friday. Only the bomber was killed. Seventeen militants were killed on Thursday when they attacked a patrol of Afghan and U.S.-led troops in Tirin Kot in Uruzgan province, the U.S. military said in a statement. It did not say if there were any casualties among the Afghan or U.S. troops. Reuters could not establish contact with the Taliban to seek their comments about any of the incidents. (Posted @ 19:04 PST) Hockey: Pakistan draw 3-3 against England DUBLIN, June 13 (APP): Pakistan rallied to a 3-3 draw against England in their second match of a 4-Nation hockey tournament here on Thursday under lights. In another match of the day, Ireland played a 3-3 draw against Canada. (Posted @ 17:08 PST) Romanian soldier killed, other 3 wounded in Afghanistan BUCHAREST, Romania, June 13 (AP) - The Defense Ministry says one Romanian soldier was killed and three others were wounded when the vehicles in which they were riding came under attack Friday on the highway between Kabul and Qalat, a town near Kandahar. They were about 50 kilometers from Qalat when they were attacked with grenades, and two vehicles were hit. (Posted @ 16:54 PST) 43 workers trapped after China coal mine explosion BEIJING, June 13 (AFP) - Forty-three workers were trapped after an explosion at a coal mine in northern China on Friday. The blast occurred at a mine in Xiaoyi city in Shanxi province, one of China's main coal-producing areas. Fifty-eight people were underground when the explosion occurred, and 15 escaped, officials said. (Posted @ 16:25 PST) Maverick Republican Ron Paul abandons White House bid WASHINGTON, June 13 (AFP): Maverick Republican White House candidate Ron Paul, a rival to his party's presumptive nominee John McCain, announced late Thursday he is dropping out of the US presidential race. Paul, a Texas congressman who rallied thousands of Americans around a message of minimal government regulation, a return to a non-interventionist foreign policy and the elimination of income taxes, announced the decision in a letter to supporters posted on his website. “I have decided to end my campaign for the presidency of the United States,” wrote Paul, a 72-year-old libertarian leaning former obstetrician who surprised experts with his showing in some early Republican primaries in the 2008 race. (Posted @ 12:25 PST) Ecuador foils plot to kill President Correa QUITO, June 13 (Reuters): Ecuadorean police arrested four men accused of plotting to kill leftist President Rafael Correa, the country's attorney general Washington Pezantes said Thursday. Pezantes said police were interrogating the suspects, three Colombian citizens and one Ecuadorean, caught in Quito. Local media reported the men were found with photos of the presidential palace and maps of the nearby streets. (Posted @ 10:50 PST) Zimbabwe opposition number two Tendai Biti faces treason charge; Tsvangirai released HARARE, June 13 (AFP): The Zimbabwean opposition's number two, Tendai Biti, faced a treason charge following his arrest minutes after arriving back in the country Thursday to campaign for a June 27 presidential run-off election. Police also detained opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai twice in the same day in central Zimbabwe, holding him for some two hours the first time and about four hours the next along with around 20 people in his entourage. He was released without charge in both instances. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) secretary-general, Tendai Biti, could face the death penalty if convicted of the treason charge which centres around claims he plotted to rig his party's victory in the first round of the election in March. National police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena said Biti would be charged for allegedly authoring a document which is said to have contained details of a plot to fix the election outcome. (Posted @ 10:25 PST) US military reports two troop deaths in Iraq BAGHDAD, June 13 (AP): An American soldier was killed by a roadside bomb in Baghdad and a Marine died in a non-combat related incident elsewhere in Iraq, the U.S. military said. A military statement said a soldier died of wounds in the blast that occurred about 3:30 p.m. Thursday in western Baghdad. A separate statement said a Marine died in a non-combat related incident Wednesday. (Posted @ 10:15 PST) Two British soldiers killed in Afghanistan LONDON, June 13 (AFP): Two British soldiers were killed and a third was injured after coming under enemy fire in Afghanistan Thursday, the defence ministry in London said. The soldiers were conducting “a routine foot patrol in the vicinity of their base” in Helmand province “when they came under enemy fire, tragically killing two of the patrol party.” (Posted @ 10:10 PST) Three soldiers killed, two missing during Swiss military training exercise SPIEZ, Switzerland, June 13 (AP): A boating accident during a Swiss military exercise Thursday killed at least three soldiers and left two others missing, the army said. Five soldiers were injured, two seriously, in the accident on the Kander River, army spokesman Felix Endrich said at a news conference. Two inflatable vessels were involved in the accident, which occurred near Wimmis, about 25 miles south of the capital, Bern. The cause of the accident was under investigation, military justice spokeswoman Silvia Schenker said. (Posted @ 09:30 PST) Seven killed in Gaza house blast GAZA, June 13 (Reuters): An explosion destroyed a Hamas bomb-maker's house in the Gaza Strip Thursday, killing at least seven Palestinians, including a baby, and wounding 25 others, in what Hamas called an Israeli air strike and Israel said was an internal blast. Hamas said it was the house of Ahmed Hamouda, whom it described as one of its senior bomb-makers. The explosion destroyed the two-storey dwelling and damaged several other homes in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya. (Posted @ 08:55 PST) Karachi Stocks down 84.08 points: KARACHI, June 13: At close of trading, the KSE-100 index was at 12941.56, down 84.08 points. (Bureau Report) (Updated @ 13:32 PST) Forex update: KARACHI, June 13: The Pakistani Rupee was traded at Rs 68 to the US Dollar in the open market. (Bureau Report) (Updated @ 13:32 PST)
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