Medvedev blames security lapse for Moscow blast

MOSCOW: President Dmitry Medvedev placed the blame on Tuesday on a lapse in security for allowing a suspected suicide bomber to kill at least 35 people and wound scores at Russia’s busiest airport.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Monday’s attack at Moscow”s Domodedovo airport, but the action bore hallmarks of militants fighting for state in the North Caucasus region on Russia”s southern frontier.

“It’s obviously a terrorist act that was planned well in advance in order to cause the deaths of as many people as possible,” said President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday.

“What happened shows that there were clear security violations,” he said. The attacker evaded security to carry the explosives into the airport’s arrival hall.

North Caucasus rebels have threatened attacks against cities and economic targets in the run-up to parliamentary elections this year and 2012 presidential polls. The choice of Domodedovo, resulting in the deaths of several foreigners, suggested the attackers sought to raise uncertainty beyond Russia”s borders.

Russia is due to host the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, on the edge of the Caucasus, which some rebels consider part of the territory they aim to include in separate state.

Medvedev, due to open the World Economic Forum on Wednesday, delayed his departure to the Swiss city of Davos and was due to hold a meeting with his security services on Tuesday. On Monday he vowed to track down and punish those behind the blast.

IHK: Forces advised to shoot anyone defying curfew

At least three more people were killed in in battles between troops and protesters in the Occupied Kashmir. Indian police threatened to shoot anyone defying a round-the-clock curfew. Still, hundreds of anti-India protesters took to the streets of the region’s main city of Srinagar and more than a dozen other places in the region. All Pakistani channels have also been banned in the valley.
Earlier Indian paramilitary personnel killed at least 19 civilians and injured over 200 others when hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in several parts of the held valley, demanding of India to vacate the territory without any further delay in Indian occupied Kashmir. Those killed included three teenaged boys, a woman and district president of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front-R. The killings took place in Bandipore, Tangmarg, Cherare Sherief, Budgam,Pampore, Sopore and Islamabad. Another youth who was injured on September 6 in the firing of police personnel succumbed to injuries in a Srinagar hospital on September 12.
With fresh killings the death toll of protesters in the ongoing uprising mounted to 96 since June 11. On the other hand, Indian troops during crackdown operations martyred three innocent civilians at Lashkoot in Bandipore.
Meanwhile, an indefinite curfew was imposed in Poonch town while protest demonstrations were also held in Jammu, Doda, Ramban, Banihal, Batote, Kastigar and Mandi areas.

Advocate Sardar Murtaza found dead in Garden

Staff Report

KARACHI: The bullet-ridden body of Advocate Sardar Murtaza was found in Garden area of Karachi on Saturday, police said.

The deceased was gunned down by unknown persons in the limit of Garden Police Station.

Police said unknown gunmen intercepted Advocate Murtaza’s car in Garden area and opened fire, killing him on the spot.

After receiving information about the incident, office bearers of the Karachi Bar Association (KBA) and lawyers reached Civil Hospital.

Meanwhile, lawyers have stopped work in City Court in protest against the murder of Sardar Murtaza. SAMAA

Mian Iftikhar warns of more militant attacks

PESHAWAR: Information Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mian Iftikhar Hussain said on Saturday that militants are taking advantage of the nation’s existing flood disaster and planning more attacks.

While talking to media about the incident of a militant attack on an army office in Peshawar Cantt., Mian Iftikhar Hussain feared more such attacks and terror activities.

“We are still trying to find out how militants entered in the territory and what their intended target is,” said KP Information Minister.

“They have been surrounded by security agencies and so far there are no casualties,” he told reporters.

He urged the people to unite to fight against militants.

Suspected militants attacked an army intelligence office in Peshawar, officials said, setting off a gunbattle that paralyzed parts of the city.

The area where the assault happened is

Manmohan links talks with Pakistan’s action against militants

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh linked resumption of talks with Pakistan to the latters crackdown on the militants.
Manmohan marked Indias Independence Day with a warning to Pakistan that a recent resumption of dialogue would go nowhere unless Islamabad cracks down on militancy. As far as Pakistan is concerned, we expect from them that they would not let their territory be used for acts of terrorism against India, Singh said in his address from Red Fort in Old Delhi. If this is not done, we cannot progress far in our dialogue with Pakistan, Singh maintained. India suspended a peace dialogue with Pakistan in the wake of the November 2008 Mumbai attacks, which claimed 166 lives, and the two countries have only recently begun to explore a resumption of structured talks. India accuses Pakistan of failing to crack down sufficiently on militant groups that operate from bases on its territory, such as the Lashkar-i-Taiba, which New Delhi blames for the Mumbai carnage. India and Pakistan have fought three wars since the division of the sub-continent in 1947 and their relationship has always been beset by mutual mistrust.

Rajar elected unopposed at NA-235

ISLAMABAD: Election Commission of Pakistan announced Thursday that Haji Khuda Bux Rajar has been elected unopposed at the constituency of the National Assembly.

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Rajar elected unopposed at NA-235

President proposes Adib Rizvi for Nobel prize

KARACHI: President Asif Ali Zardari said on Thursday that Pakistan will nominate prominent surgeon Dr Adib Rizvi for Nobel peace prize in recognition for his meritorious services in the field of organ transplantation.

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President proposes Adib Rizvi for Nobel prize

Peres: blockade ends when Hamas leaves terror

BRDO PRI KRANJU, Slovenia: Israeli President Shimon Peres says the blockade of Gaza will end when the territory abandons terrorism.

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Peres: blockade ends when Hamas leaves terror

Two killed in attack on Russian power station

MOSCOW: Two security guards were killed in a suspected “terrorist act” when an explosion struck a hydroelectric power station in the Kabardino-Balkaria region of Russia”s North Caucasus on Wednesday, officials said.

A powerful blast ripped through part of the Baksanskayaplant, Rushydro , Russia”s largest hydroelectric power producer which runs the station, said in a statement. Media quoted Emergencies Ministry workers as saying it took almost three hours to contain a fire that followed the blast.

“According to preliminary information, a terrorist act was the cause of the explosion and of the fire. Two guards died, two other people have been taken to hospital,” Rushydro said. Media quoted security sources as saying the two guards had been killed in a shootout with rebels. Rushydro said power supplies to consumers had not been interrupted.

Wars raised terror threat to UK: Ex-MI5 chief

LONDON: The invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan led to a huge surge in the terrorist threat to the United Kingdom, the former head of MI5 said.

Giving evidence to the official inquiry into the war, Baroness Manningham-Buller said the service struggled to cope with the number of plots in the aftermath of the invasion in 2003.

She added: “Our involvement in Iraq radicalised a whole generation of young people not a whole generation, a few among a generation who saw our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan as being an attack on Islam.”

She said many UK-born individuals were attracted to the ideology of al Qaeda after the invasion and added that the number of Britons who became involved in terrorist plots took MI5 by surprise.

Manningham-Buller said the toppling of Saddam Hussein had enabled al Qaeda to establish a foothold in Iraq which it had never managed before.

Manningham-Buller said there was clear evidence that Britain’s involvement in the Iraq war was a motivating factor in terrorist attacks on the UK.

Manningham-Buller said MI5 was given a budget increase after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the US and again in 2002, but still needed far greater resources as a result of the Iraq invasion.

She suggested that the threat to the UK might have been reduced if there had been better plans for post-invasion Iraq.

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