afghanistan articles

Wednesday, 15 January 2014

Egyptians defeat ‘dark terror’

CAIRO: Egyptians lined up in numbers to vote Tuesday on a new constitution many said they had not read but would approve anyway in support of the army’s ouster of President Muhammad Mursi.

Polling at most stations got off to a smooth start, but 10 people were killed in clashes between Mursi supporters and police and anti-Mursi groups in central and southern Egypt, security officials said.

The referendum has been billed by authorities as the first in a series of polls that will restore elected government by the end of the year.

Chandigarh/Amritsar: Amid claims that the Margaret Thatcher government might have helped Indira Gandhi plan Operation Blue Star, the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal in Punjab on Tuesday said this had exposed a "major conspiracy" of the Congress against Sikhs.

"The party (Congress) had even gone to the extent of compromising the national sovereignty for political gains," SAD secretary Daljit Singh Cheema said in a statement in Chandigarh.

CAIRO: Egyptians vote for a new constitution on Tuesday in a referendum seen as a test of support for a presidential bid by army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, almost seven months after he toppled Mohamed Morsi.An Islamist coalition led by Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood has called for a boycott and "civilised peaceful protests" during the two-day referendum, but the interior ministry has pledged to "decisively" confront any attempts to disrupt voting.

KARACHI: In a bid to thwart any untoward terrorist incident on the occasion of Eid Milad-un-Nabi, mobile phone services were suspended in most parts of Pakistan on Tuesday whereas security was beefed up in all major cities of the country, DawnNews reported.Muslims across the country celebrate the birth of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) on 12 Rabi-ul-Awwal, which falls on Tuesday, January 14 this year.Over 100 Ulema, Mashaikh and scholars of the Sunni Ulema Board have urged people to maintain peace.

BAGHDAD: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged Iraqi leaders to address the “root causes” of a surge in bloodshed as security forces clashed on Monday with gunmen in violence-racked Anbar province.

General Bikram Singh says army must stay and have special powers in view of possible "terrorist spill-over" into region.

India’s top miliatary general has argued for the continuing presence of soldiers in Indian-administered Kashmir in view of the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan that may result in a "terrorist spill-over" into the disputed region.

US explains nuclear deal with Iran

WASHINGTON: Iran will receive $4.2 billion from blocked overseas funds and about $7 billion of benefits from sanctions relief for concluding an interim nuclear deal with the P5+1 countries, US officials said on Monday.The first instalment of $550 million will be released on Feb 1 and the rest will in six instalments. The entire fund, blocked in the West due to a nuclear dispute with the West, will be transferred to Iran by July this year.

SRINAGAR, India: Indian law enforcement officers killed two suspected militants in a gunbattle Monday in the Indian-controlled portion of the disputed Kashmir region, police said.

Indian police and paramilitary forces also trapped a third suspected rebel in the shootout in Sopore, about 55 kilometers (34 miles) northwest of Srinagar, the main city in Indian-ruled Kashmir, area Police Chief Abdul Qayoom said.

PARIS: Ahmad Jarba, the leader of Syria’s opposition National Coalition, said on Sunday that the US-led “Friends of Syria” grouping had agreed that President Bashar Al Assad and his family will have no role in the country’s future.

Jarba did not announce whether or not the opposition would take part in peace talks with representatives of Assad’s regime due to start next week in Switzerland. The coalition, which is under intense pressure to confirm its participation, has said it will decide on the issue on Jan.17.

Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates is the most admired person on Earth, while retired cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar is fifth on the list of the 30 most admired people, compiled from 13 countries.

The survey 'world's most admired people' was conducted by YouGov for The Times, in a survey sample of almost 14,000 people in the US, Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia, India, China, Australia, Pakistan, Brazil, Egypt, Nigeria and Indonesia.

Saudi Arabia announced on Sunday that it would continue to impose a 20-percent cut in foreign pilgrims and a 50-percent reduction in domestic pilgrims during the upcoming Haj season.

“The government will continue to request foreign countries to slash the quota of their Haj pilgrims by 20 percent due to ongoing expansion works in Makkah and the holy sites,” said Haj Minister Bandar Hajjar.

Speaking to the Turkish Haj mission, he said the measure was taken upon directives issued by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah to ensure the safety and security of pilgrims.

ISLAMABAD: India and Pakistan are set to resume secretary-level trade talks in New Delhi Jan.14, a media report said on Monday.

According to a Dawn report, the meeting will only maintain the "momentum of talks" as part of the composite dialogue process.

The meeting starting Tuesday is likely to agree on fresh timelines for implementing the road map for removing bottlenecks in trade liberalisation, the report said.

Jerusalem: Israeli security forces were put on high alert today ahead of former premier Ariel Sharon's funeral in the southern Negev desert which is likely to be attended by thousands including US Vice President Joe Biden, given its close proximity to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

Sharon, who died on Saturday at the age of 85 after remaining in coma for eight years, will be laid to rest beside his wife Lily at Anemones Hill nearby the family's northern Negev Sycamore Ranch this evening.

ADEN: Armed tribesmen attacked an army post in southeast Yemen on Sunday and killed six soldiers in the latest assault targeting security forces in the area since December, a military official said.

The attack took place near Shahr in Hadramawt province, which has been hit by protests against the central government since last month, after the army killed tribal chief Said Ben Habrish and his bodyguards at a checkpoint.

Taliban bombing kills senior police officer Chaudhry Aslam

KARACHI: A powerful explosion targeted a convoy of police vehicles in Karachi on Thursday killing senior police official Chaudhry Aslam Khan.

Chaudhry Aslam, who had survived numerous assassination attempts in the past, died along with two other officers when the bomb targeted the convoy on the Lyari expressway in Karachi.

Senior police officer Iqbal Mehmood confirmed to reporters that SP CID Chaudhary Aslam Khan died in the attack, which took place around 4:40 pm near the Essa Nagri area.

AMMAN: The al Qaeda-linked Islamist State of Iraq and the Levant executed dozens of rival Islamists over the last two days as the group recaptured most territory it had lost in the northeastern Syrian province of Raqqa, activists said on Sunday.

One of the activists, who spoke from the province on condition of anonymity, said up to 100 fighters from the Nusra Front, another al Qaeda affiliate, and the Ahrar al-Sham brigade, captured by ISIL in the town of Tel Abyad on the border with Turkey, the nearby area of Qantari and the provincial capital city of Raqqa, were shot dead.

Libya's deputy industry minister, Hassan al-Droui, was shot dead during a visit to his hometown of Sirte, east of Tripoli, security and hospital sources said.The identity of the shooters was not immediately known, but the official's death was the first assassination of a member of the transitional government since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi's government in October 2011.

United Nations: The UN Security Council on Friday gave strong backing to an Iraqi government campaign to retake provincial strongholds from al Qaeda-linked militants.The 15-nation council agreed a statement backing Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki amid mounting concern over the battle for Anbar province, which runs from the western suburbs of Baghdad up to the border with Syria.

ISLAMABAD: An attempt by former president retired General Pervez Musharraf to avoid his possible indictment on Jan 16 came to naught on Friday when the special court seized with his treason trial dismissed an application seeking suspension of his summons.“This court has no jurisdiction to modify, alter or change its orders, except correcting the clerical mistakes,” observed the three-judge court, headed by Justice Faisal Arab of the Sindh High Court.

QUETTA: An 18-inch Sui gas pipeline was blown up on Saturday by unknown miscreants in the Dera Murad Jamali district of Balochistan, DawnNews reported.Police personnel stated that due to the gas pipeline explosion, gas supply was disrupted to Quetta and several other districts of Balochistan.

NEW DELHI: India's most wanted terrorist Dawood Ibrahim is in Pakistan and joint efforts with the US were being made to nab him, Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde said on Friday.

"As per our information, Dawood is in Pakistan. When I went to America last year to discuss inland security, I met the Attorney General who looks after the FBI.

PESHAWAR: Police say gunmen have shot to death two workers at a small Sufi Muslim shrine in Peshawar.

Local police official Iqbal Khan says the bodies of the men were found on Friday at the shrine of Ghazi Shah Baba in the northwestern city of Mardan in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Mardan lies 50 kilometers (30 miles) east of the northwestern city of Peshawar.

Earlier in the week, militants killed six people at a shrine of a Sufi saint in the port city of Karachi.

KARACHI: Three militants, including Amanullah Mehsud who operated as chief of the Tehrik-i-Taliban in Karachi's Quaidabad area, were killed in a police encounter in the city's Musharraf Colony on Friday, DawnNews reported.

The militants, including Mehsud, were affiliated with Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), police said.

Mehsud was the chief of the Taliban in Quaidabad and the other two militants have been identified as Mirza Ali and Sher Mohammad.

Bangkok: In their latest push to unseat PM Yingluck Shinawatra, Thai protesters on Monday blocked all major roads leading to the capital to shut down Bangkok in a bid to disrupt the snap elections scheduled for Feb 2.

Ratcheting up their campaign against the PM, the protesters donning T-shirts with “Shutdown” inscribed on them, thronged the major intersections in the country.

LAHORE: Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan Thursday reiterated his stance of negotiating with banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) following the killing of SP CID Chaudhry Aslam in Karachi, which was claimed by the terrorist group, DawnNews reported.

Condemning the assassination of the top Karachi cop, while speaking to reporters in Lahore, he said that prevailing violence and killings in the country would not end without pulling out from ‘someone else’s war’.

New law: Visa traders to be deemed human traffickers

The Ministry of Labor plans to introduce a new law that would punish visa dealers as human traffickers.

Speaking at a business forum at the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI) on Thursday, Abdullah Abu Thunain, undersecretary for inspections, said the ministry had found 8,000 firms involved in irregularities since the inspection campaign began two months ago.

He said the inspection campaign would continue with about 1,000 trained inspectors.

Energy Minister Taner Yildiz denied Turkey had any interest in enriching uranium through the nuclear deal with Japan, claiming a demand for uranium enrichment allowance was only aimed at learning about the nuclear fuel production process.

“We don’t have any project regarding nuclear fuel and [uranium] enrichment,” Yildiz told a group of reporters on a plane flying from Japan to Singapore on Jan. 8, Anadolu Agency reported.

BAGHDAD: A suicide bomber killed 13 Iraqi army recruits and wounded more than 30 in Baghdad on Thursday, police said, in an attack on men responding to a government appeal for volunteers to help fight Al Qaeda-linked militants in Anbar province.

Police said a man with an explosive vest had blown himself up as recruits were registering their names at the small Muthanna airfield, now used by the army in the Iraqi capital.

ISLAMABAD: Two buses collided and fell down in a 30 ft river leaving at least 15 people dead in Salgiran near Murree on Wednesday evening, Express News reported.

According to Rescue 1122‚ at least 25 injured passengers have so far been shifted from the wreckage to the PIMS and Polyclinic Hospital in Islamabad, reported Radio Pakistan.

Nato soldier killed in Afghan multiple suicide attack

JALALABAD: Six Taliban suicide attackers launched an assault on a joint Afghan-Nato base in the east of Afghanistan on Saturday, killing one Nato soldier during a prolonged firefight, officials said.One attacker in an explosives-packed vehicle blew himself up at the entrance of the base in Nangarhar province, and five other insurgents were shot as they tried to storm the facility.

ISLAMABAD: The special court, hearing the treason trial against Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf, granted exemption to the former military ruler from attending today's hearing of the case while adjourning the hearing until tomorrow, DawnNews reported.

The court also instructed for medical reports of the former military strongman to be submitted before it by 11:30 am tomorrow.

A senior Iranian military official said on Monday Iran is ready to help Iraq battle al-Qaeda “terrorists” in the neighbouring country’s Sunni-dominated western Anbar province.

Iraqi troops have been trying to dislodge fighters from the al-Qaeda group known as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant from two key cities the militants overran last week.

An armed Kuwaiti eluded police and stormed a packed mosque in the oil-rich Gulf emirate to call for jihad (holy struggle) before to he was trounced and arrested by cops coming up outside, a newspaper reported on Sunday.

Police had tried to stop the man when they saw the gun in his hand but let him drive away after he started to shoot in the air and threaten passers-by.

As they chased him, he bunged his car near a mosque which was packed for Friday’s prayers and stormed in subdue waving the gun at them.

SANGHAR: Motorcycle-riding assailants gunned down an activist of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement in Tando Adam on Monday, which led to the sudden closure of the town by enraged activists.

Arif Shaikh, zonal in-charge of the MQM, told Dawn that Shahid Shaikh who had remained taluka naib nazim of Tando Adam was targeted on M.A. Jinnah road near Jama Masjid close to his house. He said the assailants who wore masks and were riding a motorcycle shot him dead from a close range. It was a targeted killing, he said, adding that the victim succumbed to injuries when he was being taken to Hyderabad.

ISLAMABAD: PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain has presented himself for trial under Article 6 of the constitution for having supported former president retired Gen Pervez Musharraf’s decision to proclaim the state of emergency on Nov 3, 2007.

Crown Prince Salman, Deputy Premier and Minister of Defense, discussed expanding Saudi-American military cooperation during his meeting with Gen. Lloyd Austin, commander of US Central Command, in Riyadh on Sunday.

The two discussed latest Middle East developments emphasizing the strong relations between Saudi Arabia and the United States.

FALLUJAH: Iraq has lost Fallujah to al Qaeda-linked fighters, a senior security official said Saturday, putting militants back in control of the city in Anbar province where American forces repeatedly battled insurgents.And fighting in Anbar killed 65 people on Saturday – eight soldiers, two government-allied tribesmen and 55 militants from al Qaeda-linked group the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), security officials said.

The two discussed latest Middle East developments emphasizing the strong relations between Saudi Arabia and the United States.

Civil Defense teams rescued 12 female teachers trapped in flash floods in a valley south of Makkah on Sunday.

Col. Saeed Sarhan, the department’s spokesman, said “The teachers were taken to a secure place before reuniting them with their relatives.” He said the rescue operation began after the department’s officers received a call from the teachers’ relatives.

ISLAMABAD: The special court, hearing the treason trial against former military ruler Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf, reserved its judgement over the absence of the former president from today's hearing of the case while the the next hearing until tomorrow, DawnNews reported.

A three-member bench, led by Justice Faisal Arab, resumed the hearing of the 'high treason' case under Article 6 of the Constitution against Musharraf, who has been charged by the government charged of abrogating, subverting, suspending, holding in abeyance and attempting to conspire against the 1973 Constitution by declaring emergency and overthrowing the superior judiciary in November 2007.

SC orders production of 14 missing persons in court tomorrow

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Friday expressed its dissatisfaction over a report submitted by the Federal Minister for Defence Khawaja Asif before it which listed details of missing persons and ordered the production of 14 of the 35 missing persons in court tomorrow and the remaining on Dec 9, DawnNews reported.

A three-member bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, resumed the hearing over the missing persons case.

Two gunmen kidnap schoolgirl in Assam

JORHAT: Two unidentified gunmen kidnapped 11 schoolchildren of Nazira Kendra Vidayalaya by hijacking the school van in which they were returning home at Simaluguri in Sivsagar district near the Assam-Nagaland border on Wednesday afternoon.

However, the van driver's presence of mind and courage helped in saving 10 of the students from the clutches of the abductors. The miscreants forced the driver to drive towards Nagaland, but the latter immobilized the vehicle by driving it into a drain in the Chantak tea estate, some distance from the kidnapping spot. The kidnappers then left behind 10 of the children there, and took away one — a girl — towards Nagaland.

SANAA: A suicide bomber rammed an explosives-packed car into the Yemeni defence ministry complex on Thursday, followed by an armed assault in which 52 people died, including seven foreign medical staff, officials said.

The brazen daylight attack on the sprawling facility followed a spate of hit-and-run strikes on military personnel and officials, as the country struggles to complete a thorny political transition.

"This terrorist act has killed 52 people," Yemen's supreme security committee said.

Cutting across party lines, members of the Odisha Assembly today condemned Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for his reported statement that Kashmir is a flash point which "can trigger a fourth war" with India.

The MLAs, belonging to the ruling BJD and Congress, favoured a censure motion against the Pakistan Prime Minister for his "dreams" of a "fourth war" against India.

JOHANNESBURG: It was not the nip in the air but the murderous blade of South African batsmen and the hostility of their pacers that sent a chill down the spine as the hosts first slaughtered India's toothless attack to post a formidable tally of 358/4 and then bowled India out for 217 in the first ODI to win by a massive 141-run margin. This result might just be the prelude to a torrid December.

Chasing a massive target under lights, the Indian top-order was clueless against pace and bounce extracted by South African pace quintet of Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, Ryan McLaren, Lonwabo Tsotsobe and Wayne Parnell.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan fast bowler Bilawal Bhatti has been waylaid in Dubai since Tuesday after landing in the United Arab Emirates with an expired visa.

The Pakistan Cricket Board says in a statement it has made arrangements for Bhatti to stay at a hotel inside Dubai airport and has applied for a new visa. The board is hopeful the issue will be resolved within 24 hours and Bhatti can continue his journey home.

PESHAWAR: Militants killed one policeman and wounded another in an attack on a checkpost in northwestern Pakistan, officials said on Thursday.

The attack took place on the outskirts of Bannu town, in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, which has seen several terrorist attacks in the past — many of them targeting security officials.

KIRKUK: Iraqi police stormed a mall in a northern city that gunmen used to launch an attack on a nearby police station, killing three militants and ending an hours-long standoff that trapped some storekeepers inside, authorities said Thursday.

Militants held off police from their rooftop position on six-story Jawahir mall in Kirkuk overnight, throwing down grenades and firing on officers and civilians who tried to flee the fighting.

Washington: The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps has arrested 16 persons for providing material to anti-government websites that are reportedly seeking to topple the country's Islamic ruling system, state media reports.

The official IRNA news agency quoted a local prosecutor in southeast Iran, Ahmad Ghorbani, as saying that all 16 activists are facing charges of cooperating with Western and anti-Iran news networks, Fox News reports.

At least 20 soldiers were killed and dozens of others injured when suicide car bombings rocked the Yemeni defense ministry in the capital Sanna on Thursday morning, officials told Xinhua.

An official of the defense ministry said anonymously that the explosions were caused by suicide car bombings that damaged part of the wall of the ministry in downtown Yemen, adding that first car bomb hit the western gate of the ministry and the second one broke into the gate and exploded inside the ministry complex.

IMPHAL: Eleven militants have been arrested during combing operations in Manipur, police said on Wednesday.Five militants, including two women, were arrested by 24th Assam Rifles battalion personnel at Khudengtabi area in Chandel district after they had crossed the Indo-Myanmar border and were proceeding to Imphal on Tuesday, they said.

England were left to rue missed chances as Australia shaded the opening day in Adelaide. Having won the toss, Australia found progress through two solid partnerships but England created enough chances to get on top - only to drop three catches.Three wickets frittered away in an extended afternoon session undermined Australia's workmanlike intent to build on their victory in the first Test at the Gabba by posting an unassailable first-innings score on a placid Adelaide surface. Instead, as Shane Watson and Chris Rogers fell in successive overs, then Steve Smith succumbed to the last ball before tea, England reached the break in an optimistic frame of mind they could barely have imagined.

DHAKA: Bangladesh's former military dictator Hussain Muhammad Ershad threatened to kill himself Thursday after security forces besieged his home following his decision to boycott next month's elections.

“I have loaded four pistols and I've told the government that if they play any tricks with me, I will kill myself,” Ershad told a local television crew during an interview inside his home in the early hours.

“I will die before the RAB (Rapid Action Battalion) or the police can lay a finger on me,” he said, before making a trigger-pulling gesture towards his head.

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