Egypt unrest: Alert as mass protests loom

Breaking News Egyptian security forces are on high alert, with thousands of people expected to join anti-government rallies after Friday prayers.

The government says it is open to dialogue but also warned of decisive measures as the fourth day of violent protests loomed.

Widespread disruption has been reported to the internet and mobile phone messaging services. There are also reports of arrests of opposition figures overnight.

The reported crackdown on the largest opposition movement, the Muslim Brotherhood, came after it said it would back the Friday protests.

On Thursday, Egyptian opposition figure and Nobel laureate Mohamed ElBaradei returned to Cairo, promising to join the demonstrators. Overnight clashes between protesters and security forces have been reported in Suez.

Egypt: Deadly Car Bomb Blast Outside a Church Claims 9 lives

At least nine people were killed when a car bomb exploded outside a church in the northern Egyptian city of Alexandria.

The bomb went off as worshipers were gathering to mark the New Year. More than 20 others were reported to be injured in this incident. The attack triggered clashes between Christians and Muslims who pelted each other with rocks. Some cars were also set ablaze as a result of these clashes. Authorities stepped up security after a group linked to Al-Qaeda in Iraq threatened the church in Egypt. The Egyptian Interior Ministry says an investigation into the bombing is underway.

Egypt detains 156 Christian protesters after clashes

CAIRO: Egypt’s public prosecutor on Thursday accused 156 protesters arrested in clashes between Christians and police of planning to kill policemen and ordered their detention for two weeks.

The protesters were arrested during bloody clashes with police in Cairo on Wednesday over the government’s refusal to grant them a permit to build a church. One demonstrator was killed in the violence and dozens were wounded.

A judicial source said the protesters were accused of “planning to kill policemen” and illegally demonstrating to prevent the authorities from doing their work.

They will remain in custody for questioning for two weeks and will then either be formally charged or have their detention renewed if they are not released.

The Coptic Christians who clashed with the police on Wednesday had been protesting against an official decision to stop them

Man kills wife, son in Lahore

Staff Report

LAHORE: A man has seriously injured himself after strangling his wife and a son during an attempt of suicide in Punjab’s provincial capital.

According to police, a resident of Gulshan-e-Ravi, Liaqat, has chopped his wife, Aasia, and son Waleed, 6. Later on, Liaqat injured himself seriously while committing suicide. Liaquat has been admitted in the Services Hospital.

An uncle of slain wife, Aasia, has informed that domestic clashes between the wife and husband were a common routine and during quarrels Liaquat often warned Aasia of divorce.

The SP of Gulshan-e-Ravi police station, Romail Akram, has said that the initial report has indicated that Liaquat has killed his wife and son. SAMAA

Tribal clash leaves 13 more dead in Kurram Agency

Staff Report

KURRAM AGENCY: Fierce clashes between two rival tribes killed 13 people in Kurram Agency on Sunday.

According to reports, clashes continue to take place among armed members of Tangi and Shalozan tribes over some water dispute for the last 16 days in Shalozan area of Upper Kurrram Agency.

In fresh clashes, 13 people were killed and 15 others injured as 16-day death toll rose to 115.

On the other day, political administration managed to hold ceasefire with the help of local jirga members. However, fighting started again after security forces asked them to withdraw their militia.

Meanwhile, security forces left the area as soon as tribesmen resumed fighting.

According to sources, most of the dead were the terrorists who came from Afghanistan. SAMAA

India orders probe into protest deaths in Held Kashmir

SRINAGAR: The state government in Indian Occupied Kashmir said Wednesday it had ordered a judicial probe into the recent deaths of 17 people in clashes between anti-India protesters and security forces.

The Muslim-majority Kashmir valley has been wracked by angry demonstrations since June 11, when a 17-year-old boy died after being hit by a police tear gas shell.

Since then another 16 people, many of them teenagers, have been killed.

Two retired judges will “inquire into all the 17 incidents… in which fatalities had occurred on account of action by the security forces,” a government statement said.

The inquiry will submit its report within three months.

The government also said it would review the cases of all people detained recently for taking part in the protests.

A 20-year freedom fighting against Indian occupation in Kashmir has left thousands dead in a region where anti-India sentiment runs deep.

All refugees returned to Kyrgyzstan after unrest

BISHKEK: All of the around 75,000 Kyrgyz refugees who fled to Uzbekistan following this month”s deadly inter-ethnic violence have returned to their homeland, Kyrgyz authorities said Saturday.

“All the (Kyrgyz) refugee camps in Uzbekistan have now been closed,” the deputy director of Kyrgyzstan”s frontier police, Cholponbek Turusbekov, told journalists.

He said that 75,380 refugees had returned to Kyrgyzstan. Around 380 others are still in Uzbekistan because they have been hospitalised there, Turusbekov said.

Deadly clashes between the majority Kyrgyz and minority Uzbek populations forced hundreds of thousands from their homes earlier this month and prompted the imposition of a round-the-clock curfew in the region.

In total around 400,000 people fled their homes southern Kyrgyzstan, with many seeking refuge in Uzbekistan.

Around 2,000 people were killed in the clashes, Kyrgyz authorities said, with many observers fearing that a referendum on a new constitution set for Sunday could herald a return to bloodshed.

Five injured in DG Khan poll violence

DERA GHAZI KHAN: Polling has been underway at Dera Ghazi Khan constituency PP-240 as polling suspended at two polling stations after clashes between the supporters of two candidates left five persons injured.

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Five injured in DG Khan poll violence

Heat wave persists across the country

KARACHI: Most parts of the country remained in the grip of hot weather with power cuts, made life miserable for common man.

Temperature has touched 43 degrees centigrade mark in Sibbi Thursday. Meteorological Office has forecast that rain with gales will likely hit upper parts of the country especially Islamabad, upper Punjab and upper Khyber Pakhtoonkhaw whereas heat wave will be reduce after rain spell.

Temperature recorded Thursday included Jacobabad 43 C, Islamabad 33 C, Rawalpindi and Lahore 38 C, 44 C, Multan 36 C, Karachi 30 C, Bahawalnagar, Bahawalpur, Sialkot, Gujranwala 35 C, Larkana 37 C, Mohanjo Daro 36, Mianwali, Mandi Bahauddin, Faisalabad and Jehlum 34, Sukkur and Badin 33, Rahim Yar Khan, DI Khan and DG Khan 32.

Taliban leader Fazlullah killed in Afghanistan?

KABUL: Taliban leader Maulvi Fazlullah has been killed in a clash with Afghan forces near the border, Geo News quoted Afghan border police as claiming Thursday.

Maulvi Fazlullah, the head of a Taliban faction in Pakistan”s Swat Valley, was reportedly killed along with six of his comrades in the Barg Matal district of Afghanistan”s Nuristan province, which lies close to the border with Pakistan, said Mohammad Zaman Mamozai, chief of the Afghan border force for the eastern region.

“Maulvi Fazlullah was killed in direct clash with Afghan border police…last night,” he said.

He did not have further details. The Afghan Taliban have confirmed the fighting, but insist no foreign militants were involved.

The news of Fazlullah”s death comes after reports of several days of clashes between Afghan forces and militants in Barg Matal.

Maulvi Faqir Mohammad, who heads a Pakistani Taliban faction based in the Bajuar tribal region, denied media reports that Fazlullah was leading any assault in Afghanistan.

“He could be in Nuristan because the Taliban have been moving back and fourth along the (Pakistan-Afghan) border,” he said prior to reports of Fazlullah”s death.

“He may be living in Nuristan but he is not engaged in any fighting there,” he said.

In a BBC interview in November, Fazlullah said he had escaped to Afghanistan after a Pakistani military offensive against the Taliban in his Swat Valley stronghold in April last year.

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