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| July 13, 2008 | Sunday | Rajab 9, 1429 |
Updated round-the-clock, with major updates after 10:00 PST (06:00 GMT)
 15 bodies of FC personnel handed over to Jirga: Nazim HANGU, July 13, (APP) - The bodies of 15 FC personnel, who were martyred by the militants on Saturday in an ambush on their convoy here at Zargari area were handed over to peace Jirga on Sunday, District Naib Nazim Haji Gul Karim said. Later, the bodies were shifted to FC headquarters Hangu for collective funeral, he told reporters. The jirga led by Naib District Nazim Haji Gul Karim and former MNA Akhunzada Muhammad Saddique held negotiations with militants to handover the bodies of martyred troops. It may be recalled that District Officer FC, Karim Jan Khattak along with FC troops were shot dead when militants attacked on the security convey who was in a peace mission in restive Hangu. Gul Karim Khan said that jirga comprised local Ulema and elders are making hectic efforts to ease the tension and bring peace to the restive district. (Posted @ 21:36 PST)  Hangu clash leaves 22 dead, including 17 FC men Peshawar, July 13 (PPI/AP) The death toll in the militants ambush of a FC convoy in Hangu district of North West Frontier Province on Saturday has risen to 22 including 17 security personnel alongwith a senior administration official Karim Khan, well informed sources told PPI on Sunday. According to these sources at least three militants were also killed but local Taliban spokesman Maulana Shaheen claimed that one of their men named Zarim Khan was killed and two others were seriously injured. Officials are still trying to retrieve bodies from the clash Saturday. Afzal, the mayor of Hangu district, said Sunday that after funerals, officials will try new negotiations with militants. Hangu district has experienced unrest since the recent arrest of a suspected militant leader known as Rafiuddin. Separately, sources said that Naib Nazim Abdul Aziz and his guard were also kidnapped by unidentified armed persons from Doaba area of district Hangu. (Posted @ 10:40 PST) US not hunting Osama bin Laden on Pakistan territory NEW YORK, July 13 (AP) Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said Saturday there are no U.S. or other foreign military personnel on the hunt for Osama bin Laden in his country, and none will be allowed in to search for the al-Qaida leader. In an interview with The Associated Press, he said his nation's new government has ruled out such military operations, covert or otherwise, to catch militants. “Our government's policy is that our troops, paramilitary forces and our regular forces are deployed in sufficient numbers. They are capable of taking action there. And any foreign intrusion would be counterproductive,” he said. “People will not accept it. Questions of sovereignty come in.” Qureshi described Pakistan's counterterrorism efforts as a “grassroots” approach. “Our strategy is that the military option alone is not enough,” he said. “This war has to be fought besides the armies, with the help of the people, by winning hearts and minds.” Does he believe bin Laden is in Pakistan? ''I don't think so. I'm not sure,” he said. “Nobody's aware of that. Nobody can speak with certainty. But our policy's very clear. We are allies in this war. And if Pakistan has actionable information vis-a-vis Osama bin laden or any other high value target, Pakistan will immediately take action.” (Posted @ 10:35 PST) Dr. A.Q. Khan case 'closed': FM NEW YORK, July 13 (AP) Pakistan's foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Saturday ruled out any future investigation into whether his nation's military helped Pakistani nuclear scientist Dr A.Q. Khan spread nuclear weapons to rogue nations. He told the AP that the case was closed and there would be no further comment or future investigations. “What had to be found out, was found out. The steps that were required, were taken,” Shah Mahmood Qureshi said in an interview at his hotel across from the United Nations. “The idea was to keep the world secure, and to keep the assets secure, and to make sure that an incident of this nature does not happen in the future. And all those objectives have been met,” he said. “A.Q. Khan, as far as we are considered, is history. A.Q. Khan no longer has any official status. The network that he put together has been effectively broken.” “He has no access to any vital information, or to our vital assets any more, so he is neutralized vis-a-vis any proliferation activity,” Qureshi said. (Posted @ 10:15 PST)  Cricket: South Africa 242-1 against England LONDON, July 13, (AFP) - South Africa, following-on, were 242 for one in their second innings at stumps on the fourth day of the first Test at Lord's here on Sunday, still needing 104 more runs to make England bat again. Neil McKenzie was 102 not out and Hashim Amla 20 not out. This is the first of a four-Test series. (Posted @ 23:38 PST) Israel-Hezbollah prisoner swap set for Wednesday JERUSALEM, July 13, (REUTERS) - Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah group will exchange prisoners on Wednesday under a U.N.-mediated deal, Israel's Prisons Service said on Sunday. Lebanese security sources said last week that under the agreement, Israel will release five Lebanese prisoners and Hezbollah will hand over two Israeli soldiers seized in a cross-border raid that triggered the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah. (Posted @ 20:40 PST) Gunmen kill 2 policemen in Russia's north Caucasus MOSCOW, July 13, (REUTERS) - Gunmen killed two policemen in the south Russian region of Karabino-Balkaria on Sunday, Russian news agencies reported, the second attack on security forces this month in the area. Karabino-Balkaria is a few hours drive from Chechnya, the centre of fighting between rebels and Russian forces in two wars since 1994. The attackers shot the two policemen as they guarded a scientific research station in a remote village in the Caucasus mountains, Interfax news agency said. (Posted @ 19:22 PST) Olmert says Palestinian peace deal closer than ever PARIS, July 13, (REUTERS) - Israel and the Palestinians have never been as close to peace as they are now, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Sunday during a French-hosted regional conference. “It seems to me that we have never been as close to the possibility of reaching an accord as we are today,” Olmert told reporters standing alongside Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and French President Nicolas Sarkozy. (Posted @ 18:16 PST) Hamas chief in Yemen to discuss Palestinian talks SANAA, July 13, (REUTERS) - Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal arrived in Yemen for top-level talks on Sunday on reviving Yemeni efforts to broker reconciliation between the two main Palestinian factions after a previous attempt faltered in March. Meshaal made no comment to the media on arrival. He was due to meet Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh and Foreign Minister Abubakr al-Qirbi later in the day. (Posted @ 17:34 PST) Suicide blast kills over 20 Afghans, many children KABUL, July 13, (REUTERS) - A suicide bomber targeting a police vehicle in a bazaar killed at least 17 civilians, most of them children, and four police on Sunday in Afghanistan's southern province of Uruzgan, police said. “Seventeen civilians and four policemen died in the attack. Thirty seven more civilians and five police have been wounded,” provincial police chief Juma Khan Himat said by phone, adding the death toll could rise. The interior ministry in Kabul said 24 people, four of them police, including a senior police were killed in the attack. (First Posted @ 13:45 PST Updated @ 16:40 PST) Sri Lankan military says 31 Tamil rebels, 2 soldiers killed in northern fighting COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, July 13 (AP) New fighting in Sri Lanka's civil war killed 31 Tamil Tiger rebels and two government soldiers, the military said Sunday. In the worst clash Saturday, 18 rebels and a soldier were killed in Mannar district, seven rebels and a soldier were killed in Vavuniya and six guerrillas died in Welioya, it said. (Posted @ 12:35 PST) Afghan parliamentarian kidnapped; ISAF soldier killed Kabul, July 13 (Reuters) Unidentified gunmen abducted a member of the upper house of parliament Abdul Wali Ahmadzai on Sunday from Logar province which lies to the south of capital Kabul, officials said. Earlier, Taliban insurgents killed two women detective police officers and dumped their bodies in a ditch in a graveyard in Ghazni province on Saturday evening, a senior provincial police officer said. Separately, a NATO-led ISAF soldier died on Saturday from injuries he had suffered in a blast in Baghlan province, the alliance said. On the other hand, four Taliban insurgents were killed and six more were wounded in an operation by Afghan forces in Nuristan on Saturdayl. (Posted @ 12:30 PST) NATO force takes casualties in Afghan battle KABUL, July 13 (AFP) The NATO-led force in Afghanistan said it had taken casualties in battles Sunday with Taliban-linked insurgents in the remote and mountainous east of the country. The ISAF could however not give further information as the battle in the province of Kunar was continuing. “The fighting started early today and it's still ongoing. We have taken casualties,” ISAF spokesman Captain Mike Finney told AFP. The clashes were near an ISAF base in Wanat close to the province of Nuristan, an Afghan official said. ISAF soldiers had recently moved into the base after quitting one in Nuristan. (Posted @ 12:20 PST) Bodies of seven kidnapped persons found in Iraq Baghdad, July 13 (Reduters) Police found the bodies of seven people, including a woman and a child, in Tal Afar, about 420 km northwest of Baghdad, the town's mayor, Major-General Najim Abdullah, said. They had been kidnapped two days ago. Meanwhile, a roadside bomb wounded six people in northern Baghdad, while Iraq's deputy head of traffic police escaped unharmed when a bomb attached to his car exploded in eastern Baghdad, police said. In Mosul, a roadside bomb killed a civilian when it hit his vehicle while gunmen ambushed a police patrol, killing two policemen and wounding a traffic policeman, police said. Separately, a roadside bomb killed one person and wounded three others, including Kirkuk police patrol director Colonel Ahmed Shamirani, in Kirkuk, while a roadside bomb wounded two people in Baghdad's southern district of Doura, police said. (Posted @ 10:05 PST) Iran is not seeking nuclear weapons: Assad PARIS, July 13 (AFP) Iran is not seeking to obtain nuclear weapons, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said Saturday following talks with President Nicolas Sarkozy. Speaking at a press conference, Assad said Tehran had “no intention to possess nuclear weapons.” The French president called on Syria to use its relations with Iran to help end the stand-off over Tehran's suspected nuclear weapons drive. “We ask Syria to convince Iran to provide proof, not just intentions, but proof”, Sarkozy said. (Posted @ 09:50 PST) US considers additional troop pullouts from Iraq: NYT WASHINGTON, July 13 (AFP) The administration of President George W. Bush is considering withdrawal of additional combat forces from Iraq beginning in September, The New York Times reported on its website Saturday. Citing unnamed administration and military officials, the newspaper said that one factor in the consideration is the pressing need for additional American troops in Afghanistan, where the Taliban and other fighters have intensified their insurgency. Although no decision has been made, one or as many as three of the 15 combat brigades now in Iraq could be withdrawn or at least scheduled for withdrawal, by the time President Bush leaves office on January 20, the report said. Even the most dramatic scenario would still leave 120,000 to 130,000 US troops in Iraq, down from the 170,000 deployed in the country late last year after Bush ordered a military “surge” there. (Posted @ 09:35 PST)
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