world news | Islamic country news| india pakistan news: May 2013

Thursday, May 30, 2013

Blow to Congress in Andhra Pradesh as three MPs decide to quit and join TRS

New Delhi: In a major jolt to the Congress in Andhra Pradesh, Keshav Rao, the party's most prominent face in Telangana, threatened to quit along with two other MPs, Dr M Jagannath and Dr Gaddam Vivekanand.

BEIRUT: The Syrian president has told Lebanon's Hezbollah-owned TV station that Damascus received the first shipment of Russian air defense missiles, according to remarks released on Thursday.

Bashar Assad's comment on the arrival of the long-range S-300 air defense missiles in Syria will further ratchet up tensions in the region and undermine efforts to hold UN-sponsored talks with Syria's warring sides.

LONDON: Ripples from last Wednesday's explosive Woolwich murder of soldier Lee Rigby have now been felt in one of Britain's maximum-security prisons.

Three jailed Islamic extremists in Full Sutton prison in East Yorkshire carried out a brutal attack on a warder after an imam reportedly called on them to pray for Rigby. The trio snatched the warder from the high-security prison and held him hostage for four hours, beating him to a pulp.The victim, who is in his thirties, was locked in a cleaning room where he was beaten with mop handles.

KARACHI: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Agha Siraj Durrani was elected as the speaker of the Sindh Assembly on Thursday, Express News reported. He will be the 16th speaker of the provincial assembly.

Durrani secured 87 out of a possible 155 votes. He took oath under the supervision of the outgoing speaker Chaudhry Nisar Khoro.

KARACHI: Unknown miscreants opened fire at a local school owner that killed her on the spot in Karachi’s area of Orangi Town, reported Express News on Thursday.

The female gunned down was the owner of Al Qaim school.

Police officials will verify the name of the victim after the body is shifted to a nearby hospital for autopsy.

The graft-ridden Democratic Party remains optimistic in its bid to secure 15 percent of the total votes in the 2014 presidential election, 6 percent less than the total that the party bagged in 2009.

“We are sure that we will reach the 15 percent mark, and maybe even exceed it,” Syarief Hasan, the party’s managing chairman, said on Wednesday.

“Surveys may show lower numbers, but with enough hard work, we’re optimistic about reaching the target.”

Kolkata: Award winning Bengali filmmaker Rituparno Ghosh passed away in Kolkata, he was 49. Heart attack is said to be the reason of his death.

Ghosh was born on August 31, 1963 in Kolkata. His father was a well known documentary filmmaker.

Rituparno Ghosh came to prominence with his 1994 film 'Unishe April'. He won multiple National Awards and several acclaimed international awards.
Ghosh, who started his career in advertising, was one of the most innovative Bengali filmmaker.

“It seems like time has stopped. I never thought I would bury my grandson, the same child who held my fingers as a toddler and learnt to walk,” said Nizam*.

An elderly gentleman, Nizam survived one of the deadliest attacks on minorities in Pakistan three years ago.

The attack, carried out in Lahore’s Model Town and Garhi Shahu localities simultaneously on May 28, 2010 against a group of unarmed Pakistanis, left 86 dead and over 150 men and children injured. The Punjabi Taliban took responsibility for the attacks.

DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Pakistani intelligence officials said the Pakistani Taliban's deputy leader has been buried after his death in a US drone strike.

The killing of Waliur Rehman has not been confirmed by the White House or the official Pakistani Taliban spokesman. But it would be a major blow to the militant group.

The US had accused Rehman of involvement in a 2009 suicide attack in Afghanistan that killed seven CIA employees.

QUETTA: Former military ruler Pervez Musharraf filed a pre-bail arrest plea in the Akbar Bugti murder case in Quetta’s anti-terrorist court, DawnNews reported.

The application was filed by Musharraf’s counsel and the court was to discuss and rule on the plea on June 6.

Earlier, former interior minister Aftab Sherpao requested the bench to summon Musharraf to appear before the court in the Bugti murder case. A notice was subsequently issued by the ATC to the former army strongman.

Indonesian cities may soon be a bit quieter, as an influential Islamic body has announced it will issue a ban on the amplification of mosque services.

“We’re discussing the technical detail and the concept,” said Jusuf Kalla, head of Indonesian Mosque Council (DMI), on Tuesday, as quoted by Kompas.com.

Jusuf, who’s also a former vice president of Indonesia, said that it’s alright for the mosque to use the loudspeaker for azan (call for prayer) but not for other purposes.

New Delhi: India may get access for the second time to Mumbai attack terrorist David Headley and his accomplice Tahawwur Hussain Rana, currently in the custody of the United States, for questioning. The positive indication was given by Washington to New Delhi during a recent bilateral meeting held in America.

Government sources said following New Delhi's consistent persuasion, the US has indicated to interlocutors that India could be given access to Headley, who carried out a recce of the 26/11 targets for the Pakistan-based terror outfit

The $3 billion new bridge to be built over Istanbul’s Bosphorus will be named after Yavuz Sultan Selim, one of the prominent and notorious sultans in Ottoman history.

The sultan, known as Selim the Grim in English, was famous for his conquests in the eastern world, and Turkey’s contemporary border with what is now Iran was determined following the 1514 Battle of Çaldiran against Sah Ismail of the Safavids.

PESHAWAR: At least 17 militants were killed and several others injured when Pakistani jets bombed militant hideouts in the Kurram tribal region during a security forces operation on Thursday, DawnNews reported.

The militants were killed when four insurgent hideouts were destroyed in the action in central Kurram's Tabay area. Moreover, several militants were also injured, official sources told DawnNews.

Israel warns Russia over Syria arms delivery

Israel has said it will act if Russia delivers promised anti-aircraft missiles to its ally Syria, in an apparent allusion to another air raid on the neighbouring country.

Moshe Yaalon, Israeli defence minister, issued his warning on Tuesday shortly after a senior official in Moscow said the Russian government reserved the right to provide Syria with state-of-the-art S-300 air defence missiles

At least 14 people were killed and 36 others injured in a collision between a private bus and a tanker at Medvan Khind on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Highway on Wednesday.

The collision between the private luxury bus and the tanker took place around 7 a.m., police said.

Resident Deputy Collector Manoj Gohad said rescue operations have already been launched.

NEW DELHI : Bollywood megastar Shah Rukh Khan has undergone surgery for a shoulder injury suffered while doing stunts for his new movie "Chennai Express."

Sanjay Desai, his doctor, said Khan's surgery in a Mumbai hospital on Tuesday was successful but he will need to rest for two months.

PARIS:Evidence gathered by French authorities suggests the Muslim convert suspected of stabbing a soldier near Paris was acting in accordance with his religious beliefs, a state prosecutor said after the suspect's arrest on Wednesday.

Prosecutor Francois Molins told a news conference the suspect was seen on video surveillance camera "saying a Muslim prayer" minutes before an attack which came three days after the May 22 murder of a British soldier on the streets of London.

Mohamed al-Megaryef, the president of Libya's top political body, resigned on Tuesday to comply with a new law banning Kadhafi-era officials from government jobs.

"Everyone must obey the law out of respect for legality and democracy. I tender my resignation... in conformity with the law," Megaryef told a plenary session of the General National Congress.

Megaryef was Libya's ambassador to India in the 1980s under the regime of now slain dictator Moamer Kadhafi before he defected to become a leader of the exiled opposition for three decades. "I leave with my head held high and my conscious clear," said Megaryef, who stressed he was the first of Kadhafi-era officials to conform to the law.

Turkey’s miserable international form continued on May 28, as the national football side was forced to settle for a 3-3 draw against Baltic outsiders Latvia during a friendly in Duisburg, Germany.

With hopes of reaching the 2014 World Cup effectively in tatters, Turkish coach Abdullah Avci entertained a number of different options throughout the match, making five substitutions during the match.

ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry took suo motu notice of the tragic explosion in a school van in the outskirts Gujrat on May 25 which had claimed the lives of at least 15 children, DawnNews reported.

Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry taking notice of the tragic incident fixed June 4 as the date of hearing over the case.

A Malaysian court on Wednesday charged four people with sedition as part of what critics have decried as a crackdown on accusations that the government cheated to win recent elections.PKR vice-president Tian Chua (C) and student activist Safwan Anang (R) arrive at the High Court in Kuala Lumpur on May 29, 2013.

YANGON, Myanmar: A police officer and a monk in the remote Myanmar city of Lashio have confirmed that a mob burned down a mosque, a Muslim orphanage and shops in the northeastern town after rumors spread that a Muslim man had set fire to a Buddhist woman.

According to the policeman and the Buddhist monk contacted by telephone Wednesday morning there were no fatalities after violence erupted the night before in the northeastern city.

ISLAMABAD: With the United States eager to establish a working relationship with the incoming PML-N government, its special envoy for the region will soon be visiting Islamabad.

A meeting with Special Envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan James Dobbins would probably be the next government’s first direct, face-to-face, and formal engagement with any senior Obama administration functionary.

KABUL: Afghan security forces killed six suicide bombers who attacked the Panjshir provincial governor's office early Wednesday, officials said, in an assault on one of the most stable areas of the country.

Panjshir, an ethnically Tajik area northeast of Kabul, was a bastion of anti-Taliban resistance during the extremists' 1996-2001 regime, and has been among the most peaceful provinces in Afghanistan since they were ousted.

ISLAMABAD: Nato Military Committee Chairman Gen Knud Bartels met Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Chairman Gen Khalid Shameem Wynne and Chief of Army Staff Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani on Tuesday to discuss withdrawal of coalition forces from Afghanistan and the post-2014 Pakistan-Nato relationship.

According to the ISPR, Gen Bartels discussed during the meetings the security situation in Afghanistan, coordination measures between Nato and the Pakistan Army and the post-2014 situation.

Afghan police defectors return to fold, kill seven colleagues

Two Afghan police officers who had recently rejoined the force after defecting to the Taliban, shot dead seven of their sleeping colleagues on Tuesday, a police chief said.

The killings came during a particularly bloody 24 hours for Afghan forces, with another 16 soldiers, police and bodyguards killed in different attacks, underscoring concern about government forces as foreign troops prepare to leave.

PESHAWAR : The World Health Organisation suspended its polio eradication campaign in a Pakistani city on Tuesday after two young workers were shot as they administered drops, the latest attack aimed at the U.N.-backed operation.

The victims of the shooting in the violence-plagued northwestern city of Peshawar were aged 18 and 20. Police said both had died, but medical sources said one had died and one was seriously wounded.

More than 70 people were killed in a wave of bombings in markets in Shi'ite neighborhoods across Baghdad on Monday in worsening sectarian violence in Iraq.

No group claimed responsibility for the blasts. But Sunni Muslim Islamist insurgents and al-Qaeda' s Iraqi wing have increased attacks since the beginning of the year and often target Shi'ite districts.

BAALBECK, Lebanon: Armed men killed three Lebanese soldiers near the Syria border overnight, an official said Tuesday, in the deadliest such attack since the start of the Syrian revolt more than two years ago.

“Three soldiers were killed by armed men while they were in a four-wheel drive vehicle east of Arsal,” the security official told AFP, referring to a town in northeastern Lebanon where most residents support the Syrian uprising.

TOKYO: India is committed to taking "hard and difficult" decisions in the long-term interest of the economy, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Tuesday, while assuring Japanese industry that the long-awaited Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime facing hurdles from states will be in place in an "appropriate type" by 2014.

LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) decided on Monday to convene a core committee meeting before June 1 in which names for members of the cabinet, speaker and deputy speaker for the National and Punjab assemblies would be finalised, The Express Tribune has learnt.

During a party meeting, PML-N members decided against appointing the incumbent Punjab Assembly Speaker, Rana Muhammad Iqbal, and Deputy speaker Rana Mashood Khan to the posts in the next term.

SWAT: A bomb blast took place in Swat’s Mingor area killing Burgat Ali, son of a PML-N leader and peace committee member Sher Ali, on Tuesday.

Moreover, police said 10 people were injured in the explosion and the bomb was detonated through a remote controlled Improvised Explosive Device (IED).

BRUSSELS: European Union foreign ministers Monday agreed to lift an arms embargo in order to be able to supply weapons to Syrian rebels, British Foreign Secretary William Hague announced.

Announcing the agreement after more than 12 hours of tough talks, Hague said the EU would maintain the remainder of a far-reaching package of sanctions against the Assad regime that had been set to expire Friday at midnight.

He stressed that Britain had "no immediate" plans to supply weapons to rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

Cross-border mortar shells from Syria killed one person and wounded another near the eastern Lebanese town of Hermel on Monday.

AFP reported that three mortar shells hit residential neighborhoods on the outskirts of the town in the Bekaa region, a stronghold of the Hizbullah terror group.

A security official told the news agency that a 17-year old girl was killed and another woman was wounded by the shells.

New Delhi: A high-level team of officials of anti-terror agency NIA on Monday reached the deadly Naxal attack site in Chhattisgarh and began its probe to find out possible lapses on the part of the central forces or the state government.

Ahead of its arrival, Minister of State for Home RPN Singh told reporters, “Action will be taken if anyone is found guilty.”

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag has suggested that “pro-al-Assad” Iran-based militant group Hezbollah should change its name to “Hezb-evil,” as it has declared jihad against innocent women, children, and old people.

“Hezbollah needs to change its name to ‘Hezb-evil.’ They call themselves Hezbollah but they declare jihad [Islamic war] against innocent women, children, and old people ... Isn’t it nonsense?” Bozdag said, during a speech at the 6th International Risale-i Nur and Islamic Unity Symposium in Ankara.

London: Islamist extremists attacked a group of kissing protestors at a metro station who were protesting against a morality campaign by Ankara.

The protest was primarily against the Ankara municipality run by Turkey''s ruling Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP), which admonished a young couple for kissing in public.

News.com reported that 200 people were staging the kissing protest against the officials when Islamists chanting ''Allah Akbar'' and carrying knives attacked the demonstrators and stabbed one person.

Islamabad: The outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan have issued a fresh threat to assassinate former President Pervez Musharraf, currently detained in his palatial farmhouse over a string of high-profile cases.

In a video posted on the jihadi website Umar Media, Pakistani Taliban spokesman Ihsanullah Ihsan said, "Soon we will punish this Satan (Musharraf) to death for his wicked deeds."

"From Balochistan to Waziristan, Musharraf engulfed this country in blood and fire. He is the killer of hundreds of innocent students of Lal Masjid," Ihsan said.

International efforts to end the conflict in Syria accelerate on Monday with key talks in Brussels and Paris, amid a push for a new peace conference despite growing divisions within the Syrian opposition.

US Secretary of State John Kerry will meet his Russian and French counterparts in Paris to advance an initiative for an international conference on ending the more than two-year conflict.

Energy-hungry Turkey has offered to cooperate with its oil and gas-rich southern neighbors for the exploration and transportation of their hydrocarbon products to world markets via Turkey. It has particularly called out to Israel and Cyprus, which recently had problems over the legality of the licenses issued for petroleum exploration in the eastern Mediterranean.

QUETTA: The spokesman for the provincial chapter of the PML-N rejected on Sunday reports that the party leadership had agreed to offer the post of Balochistan’s chief minister to the National Party (NP) and insisted that it had decided that the post would go to the PML-N.

Talking to reporters at the press club, Santosh Kumar said the PML-N had acquired majority in the provincial assembly and the voters had empowered it to head the provincial government.

MEXICO CITY: A bus apparently went out of control after a blowout and turned over, killing 16 people in central Hidalgo state, Mexican authorities said.

State attorney general's spokesman Fernando Hidalgo said the accident happened Sunday afternoon as a group of tourists was returning to Mexico City from a weekend trip to the thermal baths in the town of Santa Maria Amajac.

In the feudal world of cricket, an Associate nation has never beaten a Full Member in an international series, but Ireland came desperately close to beating Pakistan before a breathtaking partnership took the game, and series, away.

Kamran Akmal and Wahab Riaz came together with just under 100 needed off 13 overs. Kamran is experienced in Irish conditions, having played with the Limavady club in 2002 and 2003, and with his young colleague he went about repairing the early damage wreaked by the Irish seamers. But Kamran is a wily performer and eased into destructive mode as the bowlers struggled to find their lengths.

Mumbai Indians 148 for 9 (Pollard 60*, Bravo 4-42, Morkel 2-12) beat Chennai Super Kings 125 for 9 (Dhoni 63*, Johnson 2-19, Harbhajan 2-14) by 23 runs

Kept alive by Kieron Pollard's fighting 60 off 32, the Mumbai Indians bowlers attacked their way to a first IPL title. Mumbai were struggling at 52 for 4 in the 10th over, but Pollard batted through the innings to take them 148 even as wickets kept falling as the other end. Lasith Malinga and Mitchell Johnson then were too good for the Chennai Super Kings batsmen, yorking and bouncing them out.

MQM chief Altaf Hussain has restructured his party’s central decision-making Rabita Committee. He announced the names of 23 members of the new central coordination committee and 10 members of Karachi Tanzimi Committee on Sunday evening.

The reorganisation of these vital organs of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) comes after reports that a strong group within the party had been challenging the main leadership and the move was part of Altaf’s efforts to flush out these ‘troublemakers’.

Jordan moves to expel Israel’s ambassador

The Jordanian Parliament voted unanimously on May 8 to ask the government to expel Israel’s ambassador to Jordan, Daniel Nevo, in protest at what the members of parliament say are Israeli violations during incidents at the Masjid al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem. Earlier on May 8 Israeli soldiers prevented Palestinians from going into Masjid al-Aqsa on the occasion of the “Jerusalem Day".

Bangladesh building collapse toll hits 931

SAVAR, Bangladesh: The death toll in Bangladesh's worst industrial disaster on Thursday rose to 931 as rescuers overnight pulled out 97 more decomposed bodies from sandwiched floors of the ill-fated eight-storey building that collapsed last month."Ninety seven more bodies were retrieved since last night ... the figure now stands at 931," an official of the makeshift army control room told as the military-led salvage operation entered the 16th day on Thursday.He said 2,443 people were rescued alive so far but 13 of them succumbed to their wounds as they were being treated at different hospitals.Hundreds of bodies are still trapped under the debris of the illegally constructed Rana Plaza building as many have remained missing, local media reported.

NEW DELHI: CBI chief Ranjit Sinha on Thursday accepted the Supreme Court's observation that the country's premier investigating agency was a "caged parrot" that "speaks in its master's voice".Asked by reporters about his views on the apex court's caged parrot remark, Sinha said: "Whatever Supreme Court said is correct.

BEIJING: External affairs minister Salman Khurshid arrived here on Thursday on a two-day visit for talks with Chinese leaders, just days after the resolution of a row over Depsang Valley in Ladakh where the troops of People's Liberation Army intruded recently.Besides talks with his counterpart Wang Yi, Khurshid is expected to meet new Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, who is planning to visit India later this month, making it the first stop of his maiden foreign tour.

LAHORE - Lahore Development Authority (LDA) plaza on Thursday caught fire.According to details, the fire erupted on the seventh floor of the building. Rescue officials reached the scene and efforts were being made to evacuate people from the building. However, officials said that the rescue efforts were hindered because of the amount of smoke in the building.

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