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| June 05, 2008 | Thursday | Jamadi-ul-Awwal 30, 1429 |
Updated round-the-clock, with major updates after 10:00 PST (06:00 GMT)
 Two children killed in Pakistan bridge blast QUETTA, Pakistan, June 5 (AFP) Two children were killed when suspected militants blew up a railway bridge on the outskirts of Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province early Thursday, police said. The bridge was badly damaged disrupting train service, senior police officer Manzoor Tarin said. “The bridge was blown up by militants using heavy explosives,” he said, adding that its metal parts fell on a nearby house killing a nine-year-old girl and five-year-old boy. Controller of the state-run Pakistan Railways, Mohammad Mansha, said several trains had been delayed. “Repair work is underway and we hope to restore the traffic soon.” No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. (First Posted @ 11:40 PST Updated @ 11:58 PST)  2 wounded in shootout between Pakistani police, suspected militants PESHAWAR, Pakistan, June 5 (AP) - Police raided a suspected militant hideout in the city of Nowshera in North West Frontier Province on Thursday, triggering a shootout that wounded one police driver and one militant. Local police chief Akhtar Ali Shah said an unspecified number of militants later managed to flee when police halted fire to avoid civilian casualties. “We are trying to trace and arrest them,” Shah said. He said shooting broke out when officers surrounded a house in a congested residential district and asked the suspects to surrender. He said police recovered arms including grenades and an assault rifle. Shah said the injured driver and the wounded gunman had been transported to a hospital. He provided no details about the alleged militants. Meanwhile, on Thursday, authorities in Bajur tribal region found the bullet-riddled body of tribal police officer Syed who disappeared a day earlier, said Javed Khan, a local security official. Khan said Syed might have been targeted by militants to avenge the killing of one of their associates, who died in a shootout with security forces in the area on Wednesday. (Posted @ 12:30 PST) Al-Qaeda claims attack on Danish embassy in Islamabad WASHINGTON, June 5 (AFP) - Al-Qaeda Wednesday claimed in Internet statements to have carried out a suicide attack on the Danish embassy in Islamabad which left at least six dead, SITE monitoring services said. Monday's attack was said to be in revenge for the publication in Danish newspapers of blasphemous cartoons, SITE said. “One of the heroes of 'Qaedat al-Jihad' carried out a suicide operation on the morning of Monday,” said the statement signed by one of the terror network's leaders, Mustafa Abu al-Yazid. The attack was “in revenge against the state of infidelity, called 'Denmark', that posted cartoons hostile to the messenger of Allah,” he added, according to an English translation provided by the SITE intelligence group. “This operation is a warning to the infidel state and those who ride with it, so that they are deterred from their sin... and so that they apologize for what they did,” Yazid added. SITE, a US-based group which monitors Islamic militant Internet websites and chat rooms, said the message was posted Wednesday on several forums. Danish intelligence officials said earlier Wednesday that the attack had been meticulously planned for a “long time.” ”Preliminary information gleaned from the car used in this suicide attack seems to indicate that it had been planned for a long time with precision,” said the PET intelligence service in a statement. Denmark's secret services have sent three experts to Islamabad as part of their investigation. One Danish citizen of Pakistani origin and two Pakistani employees were among the dead in the blast that badly damaged the embassy and the offices of a UN-backed aid agency. (Posted @ 09:45 PST) Pakistan defends UN rights body against newspapers' accusation it stifles press freedom GENEVA, June 5 (AP) - A senior Pakistan official said Wednesday that the U.N. Human Rights Council was right to protect religions from criticism, even if that means curtailing freedom of the press. Imran Ahmed Siddiqui, director of human rights at Pakistan's Foreign Ministry, said countries whose laws permit “defamations of religions and sacred personalities, particularly in Islam, are basically strengthening the hands of those who want to divide humanity.” He was responding to a resolution at a world newspapers' meeting on Tuesday that urged the rights council to “defend freedom of expression and not to support the censorship of opinion at the request of autocracies.” The 47-nation Human Rights Council resolved in March to have its expert on free speech investigate individuals and news media for negative comments on Islam. Pakistan sponsored the resolution on behalf of Muslim countries. The World Association of Newspapers and World Editors Forum, meeting in the Swedish city of Goteborg, said the March decision “opened the door to the restrictions of freedom of expression by governments on the grounds that it might offend religious sensibilities.” “This is just propaganda,” Siddiqui told The Associated Press. “It is insensitive to the concerns of millions of Muslims and will threaten the stability of many societies, including in the West,” he said. Siddiqui singled out the film “Fitna” by Dutch politician Geert Wilders as an example of unacceptable use of freedom of expression. “In our countries people will not accept defamation of religion, or defamation of Islam,” said Siddiqui, who helped draft the rights council resolution in March. “(Defamation) is happening, and it has to be stopped. This is the abuse of a fundamental right,” he said. (Posted @ 10:55 PST)  Pakistan army 'fighting bravely' against terrorism: Admiral Mullen ISLAMABAD, June 5 (AP) Pakistan's army is “fighting bravely” against terrorism, U.S. Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said after a visit to the country to discuss joint efforts against the Taliban and Al Qaeda. The outgoing American commander of NATO troops in Afghanistan this week urged Pakistan to confront militants or risk seeing the insurgency spread like a “brush fire.” But Mullen said the Pakistan army remained committed to combating terrorism. In a statement distributed Thursday by the U.S. Embassy at the end of his third trip to Pakistan since February, Mullen said Pakistani paramilitary forces were making “strides.” “There is much work yet to do, of course, and the United States military stands ready to assist in any way the Pakistani government finds appropriate,” said Mullen, who left Pakistan Wednesday. “Pakistan and the U.S. remain steadfast allies, and Pakistan's military is fighting bravely against terrorism,” he said. (Posted @ 15:50 PST) Turkish court annuls headscarf law ANKARA, June 5 (AFP): Turkey's Constitutional Court Thursday annulled a law allowing women to wear Islamic headscarves in universities, on grounds that it violated the country's secular principles, a court statement said. The 11-judge tribunal ruled against the law because it ran counter to constitutional provisions which say Turkey is a secular republic and that this principle is unalterable, the brief statement said. The headscarf amendment, pushed through by the ruling Justice and Development Party in February, was central to a separate case that seeks to ban the party on charges that it is covertly seeking to replace the secular order with an Islamist regime. (Posted @ 23:30 PST) Iran says 12 terrorists killed near Iraq: report TEHRAN, June 5 (Reuters): Iran said 12 terrorists and four border guards were killed in a clash near the Iraqi border, a news agency reported on Thursday, in an area where security forces have in the past clashed with Kurdish guerrillas. Fars news agency said the armed group had planned to carry out “terrorist activities” in the Islamic state. It did not make clear when the clash happened and did not give details about the identity of those killed. (Posted @ 22:30 PST) Yemen arrests Al-Qaeda operative from Asia SANAA, June 5 (AFP): A suspected Al-Qaeda operative from a country in Asia has been arrested in Yemen, the defence ministry newspaper reported on Thursday. “The person arrested is considered a dangerous element of the Al-Qaeda network and has provided important information during interrogation,” the weekly 26 September newspaper said, without giving further details. It said the security services had made several arrests in southern Yemen folllowing a rocket attack last Friday targeting Aden's oil refinery that was claimed by Al-Qaeda. The attack caused no casualties. (Posted @ 22:00 PST) Indian engineer killed in Afghan suicide blast: governor HERAT, June 5 (AFP): An Indian road engineer was killed in a suicide attack in Afghanistan's southwestern province of Nimroz Thursday, the provincial governor told AFP. “A suicide attacker detonated his explosives near a vehicle of Indian road construction workers in Khashrod district in which an Indian engineer was killed,” Nimroz province governor Ghulam Dastageer Azar told AFP. (Posted @ 21:00 PST) 250 Tibetan exiles detained during anti-China protest in Kathmandu KATHMANDU, June 5 (AP): The Nepalese police broke up an anti-China protest Thursday by more than 250 Tibetan exiles, including many Buddhist monks and nuns, detaining all of them. The protesters managed to break past a police line and reached the gates of the Chinese Embassy's visa office in Kathmandu before being pushed back by police. A police official said all 250 protesters were detained. They were expected to be released later in the day without charges. (Posted @ 20:30 PST) US Marines imprisoned for beating taxi driver in Okinawa TOKYO, June 5 (AFP): Two US Marines were each sentenced to several years in prison Thursday for beating up a taxi driver and fleeing without paying him the fare on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa. The incident was one of a series of crimes committed by US troops in Japan that has led to public outrage in the nation closely allied with Washington. (Posted @ 20:10 PST) Spanish judge charges 11 with plotting suicide attack in Barcelona MADRID, June 5 (AP): A Spanish judge charged 11 Muslim men with plotting suicide attacks against the public transport network in Barcelona. Judge Ismael Moreno of the National Court said in an indictment that the cell had planned to attack Spain's second-largest city some time between Jan. 18-20 of this year. The indictment released Thursday charged the men with belonging to a terrorist organization and possessing explosives. The suspects are nine Pakistanis, one Indian and one whose nationality was not given. (Posted @ 19:50 PST) Former king of Romania returns to family palace after 60 years BUCHAREST, June 5 (AP): Romania's former king is returning to his family's mountain palace after 60 years. Michael I, who is 86, says his return to Peles Castle, a 160-room palace in the Carpathian Mountains, rights a historic wrong. A few hundred people gathered Thursday to welcome him. Michael was born on the estate and spent most of his childhood there. The palace was confiscated when the Communist regime forced him to abdicate in 1947. Communism fell in 1989. In 2007 the government decided to return the estate to the former king. Michael says his family will maintain the main palace as a museum while living in a smaller palace on the estate. (Posted @ 19:00 PST) Palestinian girl, Israeli killed in fighting JERUSALEM, June 5 (AP): Palestinian doctors said a 4-year-old girl was killed and her mother wounded in an Israeli airstrike on the Gaza Strip. Hamas security said an Israeli aircraft targeted a group of Palestinians in the southern Gaza Strip but missed them. Relatives of the girl said that she and her mother were in the yard of a house that was hit by the errant missile. Israel did not immediately confirm the airstrike. The violence dealt a new setback to Egyptian efforts to mediate a truce between Israel and Hamas. (Posted @ 18:15 PST) Heavy fighting kills 45 in Sri Lanka: military, rebels COLOMBO, June 5 (AFP): Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers said Thursday they had killed 10 soldiers while security forces said they killed 35 rebels during the latest heavy clashes across the island's north. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said their fighters had beaten back an army attempt to break through their forward defence lines near Vavuniya during a six-hour battle on Wednesday. “The Sri Lanka army has suffered casualties, at least 10 killed,” the LTTE was quoted as saying by the pro-rebel Tamilnet.com website. The rebels did not disclose details about their own casualties. The country's defence ministry countered by saying a total of 35 rebels had been killed on Wednesday -- 20 in the Vavuniya area, and 15 others in Weli Oya, Mannar and Jaffna. One soldier was killed, the ministry added. (First Posted @ 11:05 PST; Updated @ 18:06 PST) Cricket- Mohammad Asif appears before prosecutor KARACHI, June 5 (AFP): Paceman Mohammad Asif appeared before a Dubai prosecutor Thursday on charges of possessing an illegal substance and will remain in detention until at least Sunday, an official said. The 25-year-old Asif was seized at Dubai airport Sunday while returning home from India after featuring in a domestic cricket event. “Asif appeared before the prosecutor today and recorded a statement in which he said the drug found in his possession was a medicine given to him by a hakim (herbal medicine man) in Pakistan,” a Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) official told AFP. “Since Friday and Saturday are holidays here in Dubai, so we expect a decision on Sunday,” the official, who requested anonymity, said. PCB chief operating officer Shafqat Naghmi said the board had received medical reports on Asif ordered by Dubai authorities “but it is not proper for us to disclose their nature.” (Posted @ 17:25 PST) Danish team in Pakistan after embassy blast: FM Qureshi ISLAMABAD, June 5 (AFP): A team of Danish diplomats and technical staff has arrived in Islamabad to liaise with Pakistani police after a suicide bombing outside Denmark's embassy, the foreign ministry said Thursday. The Danes, who flew in on Wednesday, will also carry out a damage assessment following Monday's devastating car bomb which killed six people including a Danish citizen. “A Danish delegation comprising diplomats and some technical support staff arrived in Islamabad on Wednesday,” foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Sadiq told a press briefing. “They are assessing damage to the Danish embassy building and meeting Islamabad police officials,” he said, adding however that “there are no investigation experts in this team.” Sadiq would not comment on the Al-Qaeda claim. Footage from the embassy's video surveillance cameras has been handed over to Pakistani authorities as part of their criminal enquiry, said the PET intelligence service in a statement. The video showed “a car with a man at the wheel arriving at high speed, passing in front of the embassy's entrance before the explosion several seconds later,” PET added. (Posted @ 17:15 PST) Gunbattles between rival clans leave 12 dead in northeastern Uganda KAMPALA, Uganda, June 5 (AP): Gunbattles between rival clans left 12 people dead in Uganda's northeastern region, police said. Senior police officer William Amuge said 100 men from the Bokora clan armed with assault rifles attacked the rival Jie clan Wednesday in a remote area of the Kotido district, 320 kms northeast of the capital, Kampala. The Bokora men killed six people, Amuge said. Hours later, Jie clan members counterattacked, but another six were killed, he said. (Posted @ 16:40 PST) Philippine Maoist rebels raid port, burn trucks MANILA, June 5 (Reuters): About 50 heavily armed communist rebels raided a port in the central Philippines and burned trucks and robbed workers of money and jewellery, police said Thursday. Isagani Cuevas, regional police chief on the central Panay and Negros islands, said no one was hurt in the raid Wednesday night. Cuevas said the rebels burned three delivery trucks of a company, because it declined to pay monthly “revolutionary taxes” to the guerrillas. (Posted @ 16:25 PST) No compromise on territorial sovereignty and national interests: FM Qureshi ISLAMABAD, June 5 (AP) Parliamentarians Thursday concluded a debate about an apparent missile strike by a U.S. drone that killed about a dozen people in Pakistan’s Bajaur tribal region last month. Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said Thursday that Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani conveyed Pakistanis' “concern and anxiety” about violations of the country's airspace to U.S. President George W. Bush when they met recently in Egypt. Qureshi said Pakistan was aware of its international obligation to fight terrorism, but would not compromise on its territorial sovereignty and national interests. (Posted @ 15:55 PST) Turkey and Iran launch coordinated strikes against Kurdish rebels in Iraq ANKARA, June 5 (AP): Turkey and Iran have carried out coordinated strikes against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq, CNN-Turk television quoted senior Turkish military commander Gen. Ilker Basbug as saying. Basbug said the two countries share intelligence against the rebels and plan to launch more coordinated operations against the group in the future. The Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, has been fighting for self-rule in southeastern Turkey since 1984 from bases in northern Iraq. (Posted @ 15:25 PST) Georgian soldier killed by land mine in Iraq TBILISI, Georgia, June 5 (AP): Georgia's Defence Ministry said a soldier died in a land mine explosion in Iraq Wednesday. The incident occurred as Sgt. Irakly Kordzaya was on patrol with his unit in Diyala province, north of Baghdad. (Posted @ 15:20 PST) One killed in Gaza rocket attack on Israel JERUSALEM, June 5 (AFP): One person was killed Thursday and three more were wounded - one seriously - when a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip hit a kibbutz in southern Israel, medics said. (Posted @ 15:15 PST) Asian worker hurt in Kuwait chemical plant fire KUWAIT CITY, June 5 (AFP): An Asian labourer was injured Thursday when a fire broke out in a chemicals plant of a private oil company, apparently as a result of a blast, in Kuwait's oil-rich southern region, officials said. The fire apparently broke out when chemicals in one of the rooms exploded, the fire department said, cited by Kuwait TV. A security source told AFP the blaze occurred at the plant in Mina Abdullah. He said one Asian worker was injured. (First Posted @ 14:50 PST, Updated @ 15:00 PST) Nine Taliban killed in Afghanistan KABUL, June 5 (AFP): Militant attacks on international soldiers in Afghanistan Thursday left several civilians wounded and nine rebels dead in return fire that included air strikes, officials said. In one attack, a suicide bomber ran at a NATO patrol in the town of Qalat, the capital of Zabul province, and detonated explosives that he was carrying, deputy police chief Faridullah Khan told AFP. Four civilians were wounded, he said from the town which is about 400 kilometres south of Kabul. Also in Qalat, Taliban militants attacked a joint Afghan and ISAF patrol on the main road travelling through the province, Khan said. The ambush sparked a clash and ISAF aircraft were called in. “Nine Taliban were killed in the aerial bombing. Their bodies were left at the battlefield and we have the bodies,” Khan said. (First Posted @ 11:05 PST, Updated @ 14:50 PST) China's quake zone rocked by aftershock BEIJING, June 5 (AFP): An aftershock with a magnitude of 5.3 Thursday jolted an area of southwest China that was devastated by last month's earthquake, the US Geological Survey said. The aftershock rocked Qingchuan county in Sichuan province at 12:41 p.m., the USGS reported on its website. The China Earthquake Administration said the aftershock measured 5.0 on the Richter scale. Two other aftershocks measuring 4.2 and 4.0 on the Richter scale also rocked Qingchuan in the early hours of Thursday, the China Earthquake Administration said. No damages were immediately reported from Thursday's aftershock, which is one of over 10,000 to have hit Sichuan since the May 12 quake that registered 8.0 on the Richter scale. (Posted @ 13:25 PST) UAE foreign minister arrives in Iraq DUBAI, June 5 (Reuters): United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahayan arrived in Iraq Thursday in the first visit by a Gulf Arab foreign minister since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, a UAE source said. The UAE withdrew its top envoy from Iraq in May 2006 after one of its diplomats was kidnapped and held for nearly two weeks by militants. It has maintained only low level representation in Iraq since. (Posted @ 13:25 PST) Four Polish miners killed, 20 injured in pit accident WARSAW, June 5 (Reuters) - At least four miners were killed and more than 20 others injured in an explosion late Wednesday night at Borynia mine in southern Poland, officials said on Thursday. The head of the company that runs the mine said the accident was probably caused by a methane explosion. (Posted @ 12:25 PST) Oil falls below $122 on growing demand concerns SINGAPORE, June 5 (Reuters) - Oil edged down on Thursday, adding to the past two sessions' $5 losses, as India and Malaysia's decisions to raise fuel costs, together with weaker U.S. consumption, heightened worries about falling oil demand. U.S. light crude for July delivery fell 38 cents to $121.92 a barrel, having settled down $2.01 on Wednesday at $122.30, its lowest settlement in almost a month. London Brent crude fell 45 cents to $121.65. (Posted @ 10:25 PST) Abbas calls for dialogue with Hamas RAMALLAH, June 5 (AFP) - Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas called on Wednesday for a national dialogue toward reconciliation between his Fatah party and Hamas, which seized the Gaza Strip from forces loyal to him last June. “For the sake of unity and following calls from Arab and friendly countries to return to the situation that prevailed in Gaza (before the takeover), I call for a comprehensive national dialogue based on the Yemeni intitiative,” he said in a speech. (Posted @ 10:20 PST) Abbas slams Obama for remarks on Jerusalem RAMALLAH, West Bank, June 5 (AFP) - Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas criticised UN Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama for saying on Wednesday that Jerusalem should remain the undivided capital of Israel. (Posted @ 10:20 PST) US Marine acquitted of all charges in Haditha killings LOS ANGELES, June 5 (AFP) - US Marine Lieutenant Andrew Grayson, 27, on trial for his role in the deaths of 24 civilians in Haditha in Iraq in 2005 was on Wednesday acquitted of all charges by a jury, said a spokesman for Camp Pendleton, the military base where the court martial began on May 28. Greyson had been charged with obstruction of justice, making false statements and attempting to fraudulently separate from the Marine Corps. He was the first to go on trial of eight soldiers and officers initially charged but six of the eight men have now had charges against them dropped, while charges of murder were replaced by the lesser offense of manslaughter in the case of squad leader Frank Wuterich, who faces trial later this year, along with Colonel Jeffrey Chessani. The killings in Haditha are the most serious war crime allegations leveled at US forces since the 2003 invasion to topple Saddam Hussein. (Posted @ 09:55 PST) Karachi Stocks down 35.51 points: KARACHI, June 05: At close of trading, the KSE-100 index was at 13053.99, down 35.51 points. (Bureau Report) (Updated @ 14:17 PST) Forex update: KARACHI, June 05: The Pakistani Rupee was traded at Rs 68.5 to the US Dollar in the open market. (Bureau Report) (Updated @ 14:17 PST)
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