Yemen PM to return from Riyadh after attack on Saleh

RIYADH: Yemen’s prime minister will return home later on Tuesday from Saudi Arabia, where he has been recovering from injuries suffered in a June assassination attempt on President Ali Abdullah Saleh, a government source said.

Quetta: Three killed in explosion

At least three people were killed while ten others wounded in a bomb blast that occurred near a police vehicle parked near Balochistan University on Quettas Sariab Road on Wednesday, Dunya News reported.
Unknown assailants targeted the vehicle with a hand grenade which resulted in the explosion, killing one policeman and two bystanders.
Law enforcement agencies threw cordon around the blast site while rescue efforts are underway.

Cylinder explosion kills one in Karak

Staff Report

KARAK: At least one person has been killed and four others wounded when an explosion took place in a shop, SAMAA reported Monday.

According to police, the explosion was caused by a gas cylinder blast in a puncture shop situated in village Mandha Wah.

The local people turned frightened and harassed as explosion was so powerful.

The dead body of the one deceased victim and four other Injured have been shifted to the district hospital of Karak. SAMAA

India: land-mine explosion kills 6 police personnel

A land-mine explosion has killed at least 6 police personnel in the Indian state of Bihar, leaving many others injured.
According to the Police officials the explosion was planned by Mao rebels. The explosion took place at a time when a patrolling police party was coming back from a routine patrolling from the Shiyampur Police station.
The police cordoned off the area after the explosion and started a search operation.

Fireworks explosion in Narowal kills two

Staff Report

NAROWAL: An explosion at a shop selling fireworks in Punjab’s city of Narowal killed two people, police said.

The blast took place in Domala area of Narowal last night.

A fire broke out in the shop after the explosion.

According to Rescue 1122 sources, the explosion was so powerful that it blew up the shop’s ceiling.

The shop owner, Shahid, died straight away and one of the several injured died shortly after in Sahara Hospital. SAMAA

Gas cylinder injures two brothers in Hyderabad

Staff Report

HYDERABAD: Two brothers were injured on Hali Road when a gas cylinder exploded in a Rickshaw Spare Part factory, SAMAA reported Wednesday.

The explosion was so powerful that people from the area came out of their houses. The walls of the factory collapsed injuring two brothers, Yousuf and Riaz, seriously.

Both brothers have been taken to Civil Hospital.

Police cordoned off the area soon after the explosion which occurred due to gas pressure, police informed. SAMAA

Girls’ primary school blown up in Peshawar

Staff Report

PESHAWAR: Suspected militants blew up a government-run girls primary school on the outskirts of Peshawar late Sunday night, police said.

According to police, the explosion took place near the outer wall of the school in Lundi Arbab area, partially damaging the school’s building and some nearby houses.

The militants had planted explosives along the school’s wall.

However, no causalities were reported. SAMAA

23 militants perish in Lower Dir: forces

DIR: At least 23 militants have been killed while many others injured in fierce clashes with security forces here on Monday morning, Geo news reported.

Meanwhile, curfew is put in place in Yel Balam Butt and Medan Road.

Security forces re-launched attack on militants in Upper Medan and Kalpani areas after a suicide attack on a scouts’ security checkpost occurred late on Sunday night, security forces told media.

According to forces, as many as 23 militants have been killed while scores others wounded while search operation is also underway in many adjoining areas to determine the militants’ hideouts.

Curfew is clamped in tehsil Balam Butt and in Medan Road since yesterday.

No causality in blast in Mohmand Agency

PESHAWAR: A blast has occurred in Tehsil Haleem Zai of Mohmand Agency on Tuesday morning but no loss of live or injury was reported, Geo news quoted official sources as saying.

Sources said, the explosion took place a few minutes after a security forces’ caravan went through the place as the bomb had been planted on roadside.

Security forces opened fire following explosion, however, the areas was declared clear after a little while.

Meanwhile, upon suspicion charges, a total of 15 persons have been booked and moved to unidentified location for investigation, sources told media.

Astronomers glimpse distant planet”s lethal moods

PARIS: A planet named after ancient Egypt”s Lord of the Dead is a place where human beings would be simultaneously boiled, poisoned and ripped apart by superstorms, astronomers reported on Wednesday.

The distant world, orbiting a bright star in the constellation of Pegasus 150 light years from Earth, is known officially as HD 209458b, but has been nicknamed Osiris, the god of the Egyptian underworld.

The label is espeially fitting, given insights into the planet”s climate system reported in the science journal Nature.

Osiris races around its yellow, Sun-like star at a distance of around seven million kilometres (4.37 million miles) — less than a twentieth of the distance between Earth and the Sun — which means its “year” is just three and a half days.

On one side its surface is heated to a scorching 1,100 degrees Celsius (1,800 degrees Fahrenheit), although the other side is far cooler.

The planet”s atmosphere is laced with poisonous carbon monoxide and prey to storm winds that blow from 5,000 to 10,000 kph (3,100-6,200 mph), says the paper.

“HD 209458b is definitely not a place for the faint-hearted,” quipped Ignas Snellen of Leiden Observatory, the Netherlands, who led a team of astronomers in the probe of the planet.

Snellen”s team observed Osiris for five hours last August, using the European Southern Observatory”s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in the desert of Chile.

The mission was to get a snapshot of the planet”s atmosphere, using the VLT”s infrared spectrograph, as the far-off world swung between its host star and Earth.

For three precious hours, the planet”s transit in front of its sun caused telltale changes in starlight received by the Earth-bound telescope. These tiny alterations were then transcribed as signatures of atmospheric physics and chemistry.

A total of 462 exoplanets — worlds in solar systems other than our own — have been logged since the first was detected in 1995. None, though, is even remotely similar to our own planet, which is rocky and has water existing in liquid form.

HD 209458b is one of the most-studied exoplanets. It has previously been measured at 60 percent the mass of Jupiter, the gas giant that is the biggest planet of our own star system.

But it is far hotter, given its searing proximity to its own sun.

The very precise measurements of carbon monoxide shows that the gas flows at extraordinary speed from the hot side to the cool side of the planet.

“On Earth, big temperature differences inevitably lead to fierce winds and, as our new measurements reveal, the situation is no different on HD 209458b,” said team member Simon Albrecht.

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