Roadside bomb kills five policemen in Afghanistan

 

A roadside bomb hit a police vehicle on patrol in southern Afghanistan, leaving five policemen dead and one wounded, a senior police official said Saturday.

 

The bomb hit the pickup truck in Trin Kot, the capital of Uruzgan province, late on Friday, senior provincial police officer Gulab Khan told AFP.

 

“Five policemen were killed and one wounded,” he said.

 

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but roadside bombs are frequently planted by Taliban insurgents fighting a decade-long war against NATO-led foreign troops and Afghan government forces.

 

Afghan police are particular targets for the insurgents, as the country prepares to take over full responsibility for security from some 130,000 foreign troops by 2014.

 

On Friday afternoon, a car was also hit by a roadside bomb in the Khinjak area of the provincial capital of Uruzgan province, killing one person and wounding two others, according to police spokesman Farid Ail.

 

Southern Afghanistan remains a key battleground between the insurgents and foreign forces despite a surge of US troops in 2010 and 2011.

 

Around 80 percent of the 3,000 Afghan civilians killed in 2011 were victims of attacks by the Taliban, who were toppled in late 2001 by a US-led invasion, according to a UN report released last week.

 

The Taliban announced last month that they planned to set up a political office in Qatar, widely seen as a move towards peace negotiations with Washington and its Western allies.
 

Assad’s wife ‘defends’ Syria crackdown

LONDON: The British-born wife of Syria’s president has spoken in support of her husband for the first time since the 11-month uprising against his regime began, a British newspaper reported Tuesday.

“The President is the President of Syria, not a faction of Syrians, and the First Lady supports him in that role,” The Times quoted Asma al-Assad as saying in an email sent via an intermediary from her office.

The email is her first communication with the international media since the uprising against Bashar al-Assad’s regime began, The Times said.

“The First Lady’s very busy agenda is still focused on supporting the various charities she has long been involved with and rural development as well as supporting the President as needed,” the email reportedly continued.

“These days she is equally involved in bridging gaps and encouraging dialogue. She listens to and comforts the families of the victims of the violence.” it added.

The statement came after Syrian forces pounded protest hubs with rockets and shells, killing 79 civilians on Monday, according to activists, and as Britain recalled its ambassador to Syria “for consultations”.

Unlike her husband, a minority Alawite, the 36-year-old First Lady is a Sunni Muslim who originally hails from Homs — the central Syrian city rocked by some of the worst carnage since the revolt began in March last year.

Stylish and charismatic and with a degree from King’s College in London where she was raised, the former investment banker had helped promote the soft side of an iron-fisted regime.

But she has virtually disappeared from the public eye since the revolt broke out and had drawn criticism for her silence on a crisis that has left more than 5,000 people dead in her country.

Last month she appeared with two of her children to support her husband of 12 years as he spoke at a pro-regime rally, but did not speak herself. AGENCIES

US, Australian filmmakers killed in copter crash

LOS ANGELES: Cinematographer Mike deGruy and Australian television writer-producer Andrew Wight have died in a helicopter crash in eastern Australia, their employer National Geographic said Sunday.

Police said two people — an Australian pilot and an American passenger — died Saturday when their helicopter crashed soon after takeoff from an airstrip near Nowra, 97 miles north of Sydney, but they did not immediately release the victims’ identities.

National Geographic and “Titanic” director James Cameron confirmed the victims’ identities in a joint statement that said “the deep-sea community lost two of its finest” with the deaths of the two underwater documentary specialists.

David Bennett, president of Australia’s South Coast Recreational Flying Club, said the pair had set off to film a documentary when they crashed.

DeGruy, 60, of Santa Barbara, California, won multiple Emmy and British Academy of Film and Television Arts, or BAFTA, awards for cinematography.

Wight, 52, of Melbourne, was the writer-producer of the 3D movie “Sanctum,” which took in $100 million and was Australian cinema’s biggest box office hit of 2010.

The joint statement said deGruy spent 30 years producing and directing documentary films about the ocean. An accomplished diver and submersible pilot who spent many hours filming deep beneath the sea, he was the director of undersea photography for Cameron’s 2005 “Last Mysteries of the Titanic,” the statement said.

“Mike and Andrew were like family to me,” Cameron said. “They were my deep-sea brothers and both were true explorers who did extraordinary things and went places no human being has been.”

After spending three years at the University of Hawaii in a Marine Biology Ph.D. program, DeGruy moved to the Marshall Islands, according to his website. He spent three years there, working as the manager of the Mid-Pacific Marine Lab, with his knowledge of and fascination with the ocean growing rapidly.

DeGruy spent much of his early film career traveling the world, shooting films for clients including the BBC, PBS and National Geographic, his website says. He later began producing and hosting the films.

Arab League seeks Beijing, Moscow support on Syria

 

Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi is fighting an uphill battle to court Russia and China to win their support at the United Nations for the latest Arab plan aimed at ending the bloodshed in Syria.

 

Russia has made it clear that regime change in Damascus constitutes a “red line,” but Arabi said on Sunday as he left for New York that his organisation was in talks with Moscow and Beijing.

 

He hoped the two veto-wielding countries would change their stand on a draft resolution under discussion at the UN Security Council, based on an Arab proposal for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to hand over power to his deputy.

 

The Arab League chief, accompanied by Qatar Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem Al-Thani, is to present details of the plan to the council on Tuesday.

 

Qatar says the plan foresees the “peaceful departure” of the Syrian regime.

 

It also calls for an end to the violence and a power transfer, with Assad handing over responsibilities to his deputy, before the launch of negotiations between the government and the opposition.

 

The Syrian authorities have flatly rejected this formula.

 

And Moscow, which along with Beijing represents one of Damascus s staunchest allies, remains hostile to the Arab proposition, saying it crosses its clearly drawn lines.

 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Sunday also slammed the Arab League s decision to suspend its hard-won monitoring mission in Syria.

 

The Arab League suspended its observer mission the previous day saying it took the decision in response to an “upsurge of violence whose victims are innocent civilians.”

 

Russia and China vetoed a previous European-backed draft resolution at the Security Council last October that would have condemned Damascus, accusing the West of seeking regime change.

 

The League s decision to turn to the Security Council, experts say, aims to step up the pressure on Assad s regime but it is not likely to put a stop to the violence.
 

Faulty drugs toll reaches 104

 

More than hundred heart patients have died after spurious drugs intake provided by Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC) and dozens more are in a critical condition in hospital.

 

Today, a patient named Muhammad Gulab, 60, passed away at Meo Hospital in Lahore.

 

Punjab Chief Ministers Sharif has ordered autopsies of the drug victims and samples of the suspect drugs have been sent to laboratories for tests.

 

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Medical Association’s Lahore chapter has asked the Punjab government to establish a drug regulatory authority, change the policy of purchase of free medicines in the public-sector health facilities and upgrade the drug testing laboratory.
 

Iranian border guards kill 6 Pakistanis

 

The district administration of Gawadar said that the victims of Iranian firing belong to Turbat, Jeewani and Awaran areas of balochistan.

 

Official sources said that the Iranians killed these people inside their area while they were carrying cattle into Iran illegally. The bodies of the victims have not been handed over to the Pakistani authorities yet.

 

Earlier in the month, police charged three Iranian border guards for murdering a Pakistani man in a cross-border attack.

 

But later these guards were handed over to the Iranian authorities.
 

Target killing: Three lawyers gunned down in Karachi

TrendPK.com

KARACHI: In apparently a target killing incident, three lawyers were shot dead by armed assailants at Pakistan Chowk in Karachi, TrendPK reports Wednesday.

Police said the lawyers were on their way in a car when unidentified gunmen riding in motorbikes targeted them at Pakistan Chowk near City Court, killing three law practitioners on the spot and injuring another.
 
The attackers managed to flee from the scene afterwards.

The slain lawyers are identified as Shakeel Jafferi, Kafeel Jafferi and Badar Munir.

“It was a target killing incident, they all were lawyers. Two of them are father and son,” a police official told TrendPK at the spot, adding that the dead bodies and injured have been shifted to civil hospital Karachi for medico-legal formalities where an injured, Babar, was in critical state.

“Doctors are trying to save the life of an injured. The victims have received bullets in arms, heads and chests,” Medico Legal Officer (MLO) civil hospital told reporters outside the hospital.

Police and Rangers arrived at the scene soon after the incident and collected evidence from the site.

AGENCIES ADD: The victims included a father and his son. Armed motorcyclists sprayed bullets at their car in the city’s southern Arambagh neighbourhood, police said.

“All the victims are lawyers, two of the dead are father and son,” police official Mohammad Naeem told AFP.

Another police official described the victims as members of Pakistan’s minority Shiite Muslim community.

Manzoor Wassan, home minister of southern Sindh province, of which Karachi is capital, said the attack was sectarian.

“We have noticed a few sectarian killings lately, which are aimed at creating chaos in Karachi,” he told AFP.

The Supreme Court Bar Association said they would protest against the killings by observing a country-wide boycott of court proceedings on Thursday.

Karachi last year endured its worst ethnic and political unrest in 16 years. The southern port city is used by the United States to ship supplies to NATO troops fighting against the Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan.

Pakistan’s rights bodies said more than 1,000 people had been killed in violence in Karachi last year, including more than 100 in one week alone in October. TrendPK/ AGENCIES

Omar Abdullah apologises for rape victime list

Indian-held Kashmir s chief minister apologized Friday after his government revealed the names of some 1,400 women raped in the insurgency-hit state during the last five years.

“I tender an unconditional apology to the victims and their families. There is a deep sense of shame over the revealing of names (of the victims),” Omar Abdullah told the state legislature.

On Thursday a written reply by the state s home department to a lawmaker s query contained a list of nearly 1,400 women raped since 2006, giving out their names, parentage and residential addresses.

Abdullah, who heads the department, pledged that “such a thing will never take place again” and said he would “look into the matter”.

He made his apology after the main opposition People Democratic Party protested over the issue.

Kashmir, a predominantly Muslim state, has been in the grip of an insurgency since 1989 that has left thousands dead so far.

The violence has declined sharply since India and Pakistan, which hold the region in part, started a peace process in 2004.

1.2m homes destroyed, 4.5m acres flooded, 230 people dead

This has been estimated by the local officials and Western aid groups. More than 300,000 people have been moved to shelters. Some 800,000 families hit by last year s floods are still homeless. Aid groups have warned of a growing risk of fatal diseases.

Last year, the military took charge of rescue and relief efforts, along with aid groups. The army is active again in the latest disaster. But some Pakistanis are growing impatient with it as well. Juman and his extended family fled when water as high as 12 feet (3.6 metres) raged through their village. Home has been a thatched hut on a roadside for several weeks in another village called Mohammad Yusuf.

“We go to the army and we have been asking for food, but they beat us with sticks and told us to leave,” said Juman, who added he was turned away because the army camp was already overwhelmed. “They scared us away.” The military, which has ruled Pakistan for more than half of its history, is seen as the only institution that can handle crises in the nuclear-armed South Asian nation.

Pakistan s cash-strapped government already faces many challenges, from growing frustration over power cuts to a stubborn Taliban insurgency. Disillusionment with the state can drive young men to join militant groups waging a violent campaign to topple the U.S.-backed government. Some flood victims are turning to the Al Khidmat charity which is linked to the most influential Islamist party in Pakistan, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI).

JI is not believed to have ties with the Taliban or other banned groups. Nevertheless, its relief efforts in last year s floods and other natural disasters helped discredit the government because of its relative efficiency. At a camp consisting of rows of white tents, green and blue JI flags flutter. Organisers wearing bright orange vests and badges organise flood victims.
People have to drink rain water and wash clothes in it but there is some relief.

“When we arrived there wasn t a camp here. They set the camp up and gave us the tents,” said Shabira, 35, holding her baby. “Now we are getting food every day.” Pakistani leaders are facing pressure on the diplomatic front as well. Islamabad s ties with Washington have been heavily strained since a unilateral US raid killed Osama bin Laden in a Pakistani garrison town in May.

There were signs that ties were under repair when the allies recently spoke of counter-terrorism cooperation. But fresh tension has emerged. A US warning on militants based in Pakistan, blamed by Washington for this week s attack on the US Embassy in Kabul, works against counter-terrorism cooperation between the two allies, the Pakistan Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.

It was referring to comments by US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta that Washington would do whatever it takes to defend American forces in Afghanistan from Pakistan-based militants Gilani may have wanted to meet senior American officials on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly to try to patch up ties with Washington, the source of billions of dollars in aid.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar is expected to meet US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the United States on Sept. 18. She will be addressing the General Assembly in Gilani s place.

Torrential rains affect millions in Sindh

BADIN/NAWABSHAH: Unending wave of torrential rains have devastated widespread areas of interior Sindh.

Hundreds of villages of Badin, Naushero Feroze, Nawabshah and Sanghar are under water, leaving million of people homeless.

Flood victims are crying for help but the administration seems to be unmoved by their miseries.

As many as 321 villages, including Khadim Chandio, Hashim Phal, Jan Muhammad Barohi, Panhal Faqir and Muhammad Changal Dehri, have been inundated in Naushero Feroze.

Hundreds of homes have either collapsed or damaged while thousands are without shelter. Thousands of acres of ready crops are faced with destruction.

Nawabshah has also suffered huge losses due to flash floods. More than 60 villages have been affected. Thousands of homeless people are lying under open sky without any help.

In Sanghar, several areas of Tando Adam, Shahdadpur, Ali Sanjhoro and Khipr Shah are faced with devastation. The devastation has forced thousands to migrate to other areas. TrendPK

Next Page »