Quake jolts northwest Pakistan

PESHAWAR: A moderate earthquake of 5.0 magnitude jolted northwest Pakistan near the border with Afghanistan on Thursday but there were no immediate reports of casualties, an official said.

The quake struck at 2:27 pm (0927 GMT) with its epicentre in the Hindu Kush mountain range, meteorological department chief Arif Mehmood told AFP.

Tremors were felt in several cities in northwestern province Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and its capital Peshawar, he said.

Pakistan was hit by a 7.6-magnitude earthquake on October 8, 2005 that killed more than 73,000 people and left about 3.5 million homeless, mainly in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir and parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

UN Office in Afghan City Under Attack: Officials

HEART: The United Nations office in the western Afghan city of Herat came under armed attack on Saturday, officials said.

“The incident is ongoing. We are working closely with local authorities,” Dan McNorton, media officer for the UN in Kabul, said.

Another UN official, who asked not to be named, said: “There appears to have been an attack of some kind.”

A reporter of a French news agency on the scene said small arms fire and explosions could be heard from inside the UN compound, just outside the city centre.

The attack began at 12.30 pm (0800) GMT, he said.

Interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary confirmed that an attack on the compound was underway. “Yes, there has been an attack against the UN office in Herat,” he said, adding: “Police have cordoned off the area.”

The UN official who asked not to be named said there were no casualties.

“We’re working closely with local police and security, and at this stage there are no casualties,” he said.

Herat, Afghanistan’s second biggest city, is near the border with Iran. It has until recently been relatively peaceful though the security situation has been deteriorating.

Residents say that the road to the airport is controlled after dark by criminal gangs. Some districts of the city, notably those dominated by ethnic Pashtuns, are controlled by Taliban insurgents, they say.

CIA Acknowledges “Missteps” led to officers’ Deaths

WASHINGTON: The CIA on Tuesday acknowledged “missteps” and “shortcomings” that allowed a would-be informant to enter a U.S. base in Afghanistan and blow himself up on December 30, killing seven CIA officers.

The mistakes included failing to act on warnings about the assailant, a double-agent from Jordanian intelligence, or take security precautions that may have prevented the second most deadly attack in agency history, according to an internal investigation.

Suicide bomber Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi tricked the CIA into believing he could be a useful tool in the battle against al Qaeda, and was invited inside a well-fortified U.S. compound in Khost province in southeast Afghanistan, near the border with Pakistan.

“He had confirmed access within extremist circles, making a covert relationship with him — if he was acting in good faith — potentially very productive,” CIA Director Leon Panetta said in note to agency employees. “But he had not rejected his terrorist roots. He was, in fact, a brutal murderer.”

Panetta cited mistakes by the agency revealed in the investigation, notably the CIA’s failure to properly vet Balawi, who made a suicide video released after his death calling on militants to launch more attacks.

But they also included critical security lapses and communication breakdowns.

One of the biggest mistakes may have been the failure of a CIA officer in Jordan to pass along concerns raised by Jordanian intelligence about Balawi’s ties to al Qaeda.

“The Jordanians raised concerns about Balawi,” said a U.S. intelligence official.

“Those concerns were weighed against the information he had already provided, and his potential to lead us to the most senior figures in al Qaeda.”

Immediately after the bombing, Panetta defended the agency against accusations of a security blunder.

In a column written for The Washington Post in January, he said the bomber detonated his explosives just before security guards were about to search him. He said no one ignored the hazards, and it “was not a question of trusting a potential intelligence asset.”

On Tuesday, Panetta suggested the shortcomings within the agency were too broad to isolate blame.

“These missteps occurred because of shortcomings across several agency components in areas including communications, documentation and management oversight,” Panetta said.

“Responsibility cannot be assigned to any particular individual or group.”

Tropical Storm Matthew hits Nicaragua, Honduras

TEGUCIGALPA: Tropical Storm Matthew hit Honduras and Nicaragua on Friday, forcing hundreds of residents and tourists to evacuate and threatening damage to Central America’s coffee and sugar crops.

Rains soaked Honduras’ isolated Mosquitia coast, only accessible by boat or plane, where poor indigenous groups live in precarious wood houses on riverbanks or near the sea. Many people left their homes to wait out the storm in temporary shelters.

“I’m stocking up on food because they say the storm will cause serious damage. Later on we won’t be able to leave the house, or there won’t be any goods in the stores,” Zoila Solorzano said at a shop in the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa.

Matthew, with winds of 45 mph (75 kph), moved inland over Nicaragua’s Atlantic coast near the border with Honduras and is set to bring six to 10 inches (15 to 25 cm) of rain over the

Obama welcomes Iran’s release of U.S. hiker

WASHINGTON: U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday welcomed Iran’s release of American hiker Sarah Shourd and said he remained hopeful that Tehran would demonstrate “renewed compassion” by freeing two other Americans.

American Sarah Shourd was released after more than a year in prison in Iran, television reports in the country claimed.

“Iran has released US national Sarah Shourd,” flashed a banner on Press TV.

Ms Shourd, 32, with fellow Americans Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, were apprehended by Iranian security forces near the border with northern Iraq on July 2009. They have been accused of spying.

Iran’s judiciary granted 500,000 US dollars (£324,400) bail for Ms Shourd on Sunday for health reasons, though her family had said they could not afford it and the US said it would not pay it.

Ms Shourd’s mother said her daughter has been denied

Iran releases American woman

TEHRAN: American Sarah Shourd has been released after more than a year in prison in Iran, television reports in the country claimed.

“Iran has released US national Sarah Shourd,” flashed a banner on Press TV.

Ms Shourd, 32, with fellow Americans Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, were apprehended by Iranian security forces near the border with northern Iraq on July 2009. They have been accused of spying.

Iran’s judiciary granted 500,000 US dollars (£324,400) bail for Ms Shourd on Sunday for health reasons, though her family had said they could not afford it and the US said it would not pay it.

Ms Shourd’s mother said her daughter has been denied treatment for serious health problems, including a breast lump and precancerous cervical cells.

Iran accused Ms Shourd and the two American men she was detained with of spy-related charges, which could mean

Chaudhry Nisar unhappy with Govt.’s reaction to Altaf’s statement

Staff Report

ISLAMABAD: The opposition leader in the National Assembly, Chaudhry Nisar, has said that the silence of the government on the statement of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) Chief Altaf Hussain is dubious.

During his news conference on Saturday, Nisar said that it is the responsibility of the government to reply to the MQM chief’s statement. He said that Hussain’s statement was meant to be a direct hit to the government.

He said that the motion presented by his party, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) meant to raise a voice against anti-democratic thinking.

He asked why the MQM did not raise it’s voice against corruption during Pervaiz Musharraf’s tenure. SAMAA

Five killed in U.S. strike in Pakistan

PARACHINAR: U.S. drone aircraft have attacked suspected militants in northwest Pakistan, near the border with Afghanistan, killing five people, Pakistani officials said on Saturday.

Shots were also fired near the U.S. consulate in the northwestern city of Peshawar and an unknown number of gunmen were surrounded in a building but there had been no casualties, authorities said.

The drone attack, in the Kurram ethnic Pashtun tribal region, was the latest in a U.S. campaign aimed at eliminating al Qaeda and Taliban militants who base themselves in northwest Pakistan and attack U.S-led forces in Afghanistan.

“There were attacks in three different places on Friday evening,” said a government official in the region, who declined to be identified.

Two of the missiles hit vehicles carrying suspected militants. It was not clear if the three attacks were carried

Taliban seize key district in Afghan east

KABUL: Taliban guerrillas have captured a strategic district from the Afghan government after days of clashes in eastern Nuristan province, officials said on Sunday.

Separately, the Afghan government said it was checking reports by locals saying some 40 Afghan civilians were killed in a raid by foreign forces in Sangin district of southern Helmand province on Friday.

In Nuristan”s Barg-e Matal, dozens of Taliban fighters and up to six Afghan police were killed during days of clashes before the district fell to the Taliban overnight.

Barg-e-Matal is important for the government and militants because of its location and has regularly changed hands.

Lying near the border with Pakistan, the rugged district has been used as a supply route for arms and fighters for the Taliban in three provinces, most importantly for Badakhshan where the Taliban have mounted a series of deadly attacks recently.

Afghan police forces withdrew from Barg-e-Matal to avoid high casualties and in the face of sustained Taliban pressure after days of skirmishes, interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary told reporters.

“Right now the police forces in Nuristan are working to recapture it,” he said.

The Taliban have yet to comment about the fall of the district and the reported losses in their ranks.

In Helmand province, where the Taliban insurgency is strongest, Bashary said provincial authorities were checking reports by residents that dozens of civilians were killed in a raid by foreign forces on Friday.

Further details were not immediately available.

10 N.Koreans killed in bus crash in Kaesong: report

SEOUL: About 10 North Koreans are believed to have been killed in a traffic accident at a South Korean-funded joint industrial estate just north of the border, a report said Wednesday.

The accident happened last Friday evening when a bus carrying homebound North Korean workers at Kaesong crashed into another bus at a crossroads in heavy rain, Yonhap news agency said.

The agency, citing an unidentified police official at South Korea”s Paju city near the border, said around 10 North Koreans were killed and 40 injured. No South Koreans were hurt.

The South”s unification ministry, which handles cross-border relations, confirmed the July 2 accident but it said it had no details. Police in Paju told media they could not confirm the Yonhap report.

Kaesong is the last joint reconciliation project still operating, after relations worsened in recent years between the two Koreas.

About 44,000 North Koreans work for more than 120 South Korean companies producing goods such as textiles, footwear, watches and kitchenware.

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