Drug-related fighting kills 8 in Mexico

As many as eight people have been gunned down in separate drug-related shootouts in the Mexican city of Juarez as the country scrambles to snuff out drug trafficking.

Five men were killed at a tire repair shop in Juarez on Sunday and three others were slain in a house on the outskirts of the border city in a separate incident. Meanwhile, the Mexican army found the bodies of five men in a graveyard south of Palomas, Chihuahua. The upsurge of drug-related violence comes despite efforts by Mexican President Felipe Calderon, who launched a war on drug cartels in the country in 2006.

Drug-related violence has so far claimed some 31,000 lives in spite of Calderon’s deployment of about 50,000 troops across the country.

At least eight die in minibus blast in Turkey

DIYARBAKIR: At least eight people were killed and three wounded when an explosive device ripped apart their minibus in southeast Turkey on Thursday, local officials said.

The blast occurred near the village of Gecitli in Hakkari province near the borders with Iraq and Iran.

Resul Kaya, mayor of the nearby town of Durankaya, told Reuters nine people died when the minibus hit a landmine. Security officials said it was a remote-controlled explosive device left in the road.

Those officials earlier said that at least 10 people had died. The Hakkari governor’s office put the death toll at eight people, state-run Anatolian news agency reported.

Separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants have frequently carried out similar attacks in the past. However, such attacks are generally on military targets and the PKK declared a ceasefire last month,

Eight convicted over Bhopal gas leak

NEW DELHI: A court in the Indian city of Bhopal has convicted eight people over the gas plant leak that killed thousands of people more than 25 years ago.

The convictions are the first since the disaster at the Union Carbide plant, the world”s worst industrial accident.

The eight convicted face up to two years in jail for causing “death by negligence”. They are expected to appeal. Sentences are due shortly. Campaigners say the court verdict is too little too late.

Forty tonnes of a toxin called methyl isocyanate leaked from the Union Carbide pesticide factory and settled over slums in Bhopal on 3 December 1984.

At least 15,000 people were killed within days, and that the horrific effects of the gas continue to this day.

The eight people convicted include former senior officials of the Union Carbide company, including Keshub Mahindra, who was the chairman of the Indian arm of the company when the incident happened.

Although Warren Anderson, the chairman of Union Carbide at the time of the incident, was named as an accused and later declared an “absconder” by the court, he was not mentioned in Monday”s verdict.

At least seven dead in attack in Russia”s Dagestan

MOSCOW: At least seven people were killed on Thursday in an attack in Russia”s troubled southern region of Dagestan, the local branch of the Federal Security Service said.

“Seven or eight people were killed in the attack,” the official said, adding that the victims were workers who were repairing a television transmitter but without specifying the nature of the attack.

“Police were sent to the scene and a shootout is currently in progress with the attackers,” he added.

The local pro-Kremlin authorities in Dagestan and other North Caucasus regions are battling to defeat an Islamist insurgency that has already left scores of civilians and police dead.

Karachi police bust gang of drug dealers

KARACHI: The Karachi police on Thursday arrested a gang of eight drug dealers, including a woman, with hashish and heroin worth million of rupees in their possession.

Acting on a tip off, the police raided a house located in Gharibabad Goth and recovered 12 kilograms of heroin and 17 kilograms of fine hashish.

According to police authorities, eight people were apprehended from the scene. They are believed to have links with inter-provincial gangs of drugs dealers.

Meanwhile, the police registered an FIR against the accused and initiated further investigation. The case was also handed to investigation police for the arrest of their accomplices.

DIG, DCO sacked after Abbotabad tragedy

PESHAWAR: The Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Hazara Division and District Coordination Officer (DCO) Abbotabad have been sacked over death of eight people in police firing on Monday.

According to Geo, DIG Imtiaz Altaf and DCO Munir Azam have been suspended.

Dr. Salman has been appointed new DIG while Zahir Islam has been made Abbotabad DCO.

Eight People Dead In Mexico

MEXICO CITY: An American citizen, two policemen, four young men and a local government official were among those killed in attacks scattered across Mexico, as a wave of violence associated with powerful drug cartels continues.

Police identified U.S. citizen German Norman Hall on Thursday as one of two men murdered by gunmen with assault rifles in the border town of Piedras Negras across from Eagle Pass, Texas. Police said Hall was shot eight times in the Wednesday attack.

Four men sitting down to eat in the Mexican state of Sinaloa died when attackers burst into the restaurant with assault rifles and sprayed them with gunfire.

One victim tried to fire back with a handgun before he was killed in the Wednesday afternoon attack, said Martin Gastelum, prosecutor for drug-plague state on Mexico’s West Coast.

The killings don’t represent a new wave of terror _ about 17,900 people have been killed since President Felipe Calderon launched an offensive against drug trafficking in December 2006.

But they reflect the ongoing wars for local turf and drug routes to U.S. markets among entrenched gangs.

Much of the attention in recent weeks has been centered around the border town of Reynosa _ across from McAllen, Texas _ where federal authorities warned residents to avoid certain neighborhoods after three people were killed in two separate shootings Wednesday.

In Chilpancingo, capital of Mexico’s southern Guerrero state, two commanding police officers were killed Wednesday when gunmen opened fire on the car they were riding in, peppering it with more than 70 bullets, according to police reports. Their murders follow the killings of six other police officers in the region since last weekend.

Soldiers killed a government employee and arrested three other men, including a former politician, during a Wednesday shootout in northeastern Nuevo Leon state.

Mexican military officials say the men were traveling in the town of Apodaca in a pickup that had been reported stolen and were armed with pistols. The shootout erupted after soldiers tried to stop them. Instead of pulling over, the pickup truck driver opened fire and tried to flee.

Empty shell casings were found scattered around the vehicle following the pre-dawn attack. Apodaca Mayor Benito Caballero confirmed the dead man, aged 20, was an events organizer for the city.

“It’s regrettable that an a local official was involved in this type of activity,” Caballero said.

CIA Suicide Attacker ‘Was Jordanian Informant’

TrendPK.com WASHINGTON: The suicide attacker who killed eight people in an attack on a CIA base in Afghanistan was a Jordanian who had been recruited by Jordanian intelligence as a double agent, US media said Monday.
NBC News cited western intelligence officials as saying the Jordanian, identified in the report as Humam [...]