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Monday, January 6, 2014

Iran offers to help Iraq in fight against al-Qaeda

A senior Iranian military official said on Monday Iran is ready to help Iraq battle al-Qaeda “terrorists” in the neighbouring country’s Sunni-dominated western Anbar province.

Iraqi troops have been trying to dislodge fighters from the al-Qaeda group known as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant from two key cities the militants overran last week.

ISLAMABAD: The special court, hearing the treason trial against Gen (r) Pervez Musharraf, granted exemption to the former military ruler from attending today's hearing of the case while adjourning the hearing until tomorrow, DawnNews reported.

The court also instructed for medical reports of the former military strongman to be submitted before it by 11:30 am tomorrow.

JALALABAD: Six Taliban suicide attackers launched an assault on a joint Afghan-Nato base in the east of Afghanistan on Saturday, killing one Nato soldier during a prolonged firefight, officials said.One attacker in an explosives-packed vehicle blew himself up at the entrance of the base in Nangarhar province, and five other insurgents were shot as they tried to storm the facility.

Top Al Qaeda commander dies in Lebanese jail

BEIRUT: A Lebanese army general says the leader of an Al Qaeda-linked group that has conducted attacks across the Middle East before shifting its focus to Syria's civil war has died in custody in Lebanon.The general says the detainee, Majid al-Majid, died on Saturday after suffering kidney failure. The general spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

FALLUJAH: Iraq has lost Fallujah to al Qaeda-linked fighters, a senior security official said Saturday, putting militants back in control of the city in Anbar province where American forces repeatedly battled insurgents.And fighting in Anbar killed 65 people on Saturday – eight soldiers, two government-allied tribesmen and 55 militants from al Qaeda-linked group the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), security officials said.

KARACHI: In a no holds barred attack on his party’s former coalition partners, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain on Friday evening said if their demands are unacceptable to the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) then Urdu speaking Sindhis should be given a separate province.

At least three gunned down in Karachi violence

KARACHI: In an incident of firing by unknown armed assailants early on Saturday, at least three people were killed and four injured near Maskan Chowrangi, DawnNews reported. In the Gulshan-i-Iqbal area of Karachi, on a juice shop situated near Maskan Chowrangi, unknown armed persons opened fire which killed the owner of the shop and two of the workers while injuring four in the assault.Also, the injured persons were taken to a private hospital where two persons were reported to be in critical condition.

The Awami League (AL) has secured majority in the 10th parliamentary election of Bangladesh, winning 105 seats out of the 147 seats up for election on Sunday, media reported.

The Election Commission has received final results of 139 seats out of the 147 in 159 districts where vote was held, as 153 others had returned uncontested winners.

Jatiya Party won 13 seats, Workers Party got four seats and JaSaD seats, Twarikat Federation and BNF won one seat each, bdnews24.com reported citing results announced by the poll panel.

SRIHARIKOTA: For a nation that has grappled with high-end cryogenics for two decades, Sunday marked the triumphant end of a long wait propelled by resilience in the face of repeated failures. ndian Space Research Organization's (Isro's) GSLV-DF rocket, powered by an indigenous cryogenic engine, injected into orbit a telecommunication satellite, GSAT-14, with clockwork precision.

BEIRUT: Jihadists killed at least 50 rival rebels on Sunday in a new front in Syria’s brutal war, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, citing insurgents and medics.

The rebels were killed in fighting, car bombings and also summary executions by forces loyal to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

ISIL, an Al Qaeda affiliate, moved into Syria in late spring last year amid the armed uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.

BEIJING: Fourteen people were killed and 10 injured in a stampede during a gathering at a mosque in northwest China's Ningxia region, state media reported on Monday.

The stampede occurred around 1pm on Sunday while traditional food was being handed out to people attending an event to commemorate a late religious leader, Xinhua news agency said, citing the local government.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Jan. 5 he would favor retrials for hundreds of military officers jailed for coup-plotting.

"Our position on a retrial is a favourable one," he told reporters in Istanbul before taking off on a tour of Asia.

PESHAWAR: A suicide bomber blew himself up outside a government school in northwest Pakistan on Monday, killing a teenage boy, officials said.

The incident happened in the Shia-dominated Ibrahimzai area of Hangu district and has not yet been claimed by any group.

“A suicide bomber blew himself up near the main gate of a government boys school, killing a young student aged 14,” district police chief Iftikhar Ahmad told AFP.

Hyderabad: Telugu actor Uday Kiran has allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself at his home in Hyderabad.

The 33-year-old actor was found hanging from a ceiling at his flat in Srinagar Colony late last night.

"His wife Vishita and some neighbours rushed him to Jubilee Hills Apollo hospital where he was pronounced dead," a police official said.

Ahmedabad City Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) have registered an FIR against social activist - Teesta Setalvad, her husband Javed Anand, son of slain Congress MP Ehsan Jafri Tanvir Jafri and two other survivors of 2002 Gulberg Society Massacre case accusing them of breach of trust, cheating and criminal conspiracy. Terming the FIR as 'vindictive action' of Gujarat Police, Setalvad has alleged that 'timing of the FIR replete with a threat of arrests' is nothing, but 'efforts to prevent prompt filing of appeal in the Zakia Jafri case against Narendra Modi and 59 others'.

A Pakistani court today rejected a petition to bar possible exit of former military ruler Pervez Musharraf from the country for treatment but made it clear that he could not leave without permission from the courts.

Rejecting the petition, Islamabad High Court Justice Shaukat Aziz said that it is the job of the courts ~ that provided bail to Mr Musharraf ~ to ensure his appearance.

Palestinians killed in Israeli arrest raids

The Israeli army has shot dead two Palestinian men in separate raids in a town and a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, sources on both sides said.

One of the victims, a member of the Palestinian security forces, was killed during an overnight arrest raid early on Thursday in the northern town of Qalqilya.

"During an ambush organised to arrest an armed man... who had fired on Israeli soldiers several times in recent weeks, the man opened fire on soldiers, who fired back," the Israeli army said.

Sunil James, a Merchant Navy Captain who was in jail in Togo, western Africa, for the last five months was released today, the ministry for external affairs said. He is expected to be in India latest by tomorrow.

Another sailor who had been imprisoned along with Captain James, Vijayan, has been released too. Mr Akbaruddin said the two men were released after India's High Commissioner in Ghana K Jeeva Sagar met Togo's President Faure Gnassingbe.

Militants dressed in army uniforms attacked the house of an anti-Al Qaeda militiaman in Iraq on Thursday, killing him, his wife and their three children, security officials said.

The attack took place in the Abu Ghraib area, west of Baghdad, the officials said.

Violence in Iraq has surged this year to levels not seen since 2008, when the country was just emerging from a brutal sectarian conflict.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has issued a No Objection Certificate (NOC) to Turkish energy firm Karkey Karadeniz ElektrikUretim A.S. (Karkey) to sail one of its power-vessels to Dubai for maintenance purposes.

Karkey was one of 12 rental power companies that were awarded contracts in 2009. However, the Supreme Court cancelled all contracts in March 2012 after learning about lack of transparency and the companies’ failure to produce power in the required quantity despite having received money in advance.

RIYADH: A Saudi court has jailed a man for 15 years after convicting him of recruiting 14 nationals to join Al Qaeda's affiliate in neighbouring Yemen, Al-Hayat newspaper reported Thursday.

A Riyadh court specialising in security cases convicted the unnamed Saudi national of recruiting the militants online after he held meetings in Yemen with Al Qaeda leaders, the daily said.

The defendant helped the recruits reach Yemen and issued fake Yemeni identity cards for seven of them, it said.

MIRAMSHAH: At least 23 suspected militants were killed late on Wednesday during a clash with security forces in the country's troubled northwest, officials said.

According to a security official who requested anonymity, the suspected militants tried to ambush a convoy of security forces which was returning back from Khajuri checkpost area in Mirali Tehsil of North Waziristan tribal region.

The convoy had gone in the area to rescue soldiers who were injured in a suicide bomb attack yesterday.

SHARJAH: Pakistan's interim cricket chief Najam Sethi on Wednesday reiterated his stance to revive ties with arch-rivals India, saying his team was ready to go across the border.

India stalled all bilateral ties with Pakistan in the wake of the 2008 terrorist attacks on Mumbai, which New Deli blamed on militants based in Pakistan.

Tokyo's governor, one of the main faces of the mega-city's successful bid to host the 2020 Olympics, resigned Thursday after admitting he was naive for accepting an undeclared $500,000 from a hospital tycoon.

Naoki Inose, who was elected head of one of the world's biggest conurbations a year ago, had faced weeks of intense pressure over suspicions that the money amounted to a bribe in an attempt to influence policy.

A former imam of the Grand Mosque in Makkah was stopped from traveling to Britain as he boarded his plane in Riyadh bound for London on Wednesday.

Sheikh Adel Al-Kalbani had performed the noon and afternoon prayers together just before the boarding announcement at King Khaled International Airport’s departure terminal.

“I was stopped at the door of the plane and told that the authorities received a message from the British Embassy saying that I was not allowed to enter Britain,” Al-Kalbani told Arab News.

Over 10 injured in Diyarbakir demo in reaction to Yüksekova protesters’ death

At least 10 people sustained injuries in the southeastern province of Diyarbakir today after a police crackdown on a protest organized by the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) to denounce the death of two demonstrators in the eastern province of Hakkari two days earlier.

The march began under extreme tension at the BDP’s Diyarbakir headquarters as police initially refused to give permission to the march on the grounds that some of the banners were illegal and that some people were wearing scarfs obscuring their face.

KABUL: Pentagon chief Chuck Hagel heads to Pakistan on Monday for talks as Washington seeks to defuse tensions over controversial US drone strikes and Islamabad's role in Afghanistan.

In the first visit by a US defence secretary in nearly four years, Hagel will fly from Kabul to Islamabad to meet Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and other top officials, including the country's new army chief.

Ties between Washington and Islamabad have been seriously strained over US drone strikes in Pakistan's tribal belt as well as Afghan Taliban sanctuaries inside Pakistan's borders.

KABUL: US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel on Saturday said he had received assurances during a visit to Kabul that a long-delayed deal allowing US troops to stay in Afghanistan after 2014 would be signed “in a timely manner”.

BAGHDAD: Iraqi authorities say a bomb at an outdoor market in Baghdad has killed at least five people.Police officials say the blast went off Sunday morning at the crowded market in the primarily Shia neighborhood of Amil in southwestern Baghdad.The police said 12 other people were wounded in the attack. Medical officials confirmed the casualty figures.

Israeli Environment Minister Amir Peretz yesterday offered an olive branch to Turkey during his visit to Istanbul, saying the people of both nations were expecting “reconciliation” from their governments very soon. Peretz arrived in Istanbul late on Dec. 4, launching the first visit from an Israeli government official since the
Mavi Marmara raid back in May 2010, which badly damaged relations between the former allies.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Friday that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad must stand down to allow for any peaceful settlement to the 33-month-old conflict in his country."We have always been very clear that a peaceful solution in Syria must require the departure of President Assad," Hague told a press conference in Kuwait City after talks with his Kuwaiti counterpart Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Sabah.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan met with Nato envoys on Friday to clarify his party’s position on drones and the blockade of supplies through Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.Accompanied by Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Shireen Mazari and Naeemul Haq, the PTI
chairman met the envoys during a dinner meeting at the residence of the Greek ambassador.

UNITED NATIONS: The U.N. General Assembly elected Jordan to the Security Council on Friday to replace Saudi Arabia, which rejected the seat it won in an unprecedented act to protest the council´s failure to end the Syrian and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts.

LAHORE: The provincial leader of the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ), Maulana Shamsur Rehman Muavia, was shot dead Friday by unknown gunmen in Lahore.

According to initial reports, unknown gunmen opened fire on the ASWJ leader's vehicle in the Ravi Road locality of the provincial capital.

The government on Friday announced a five-day state mourning as a mark of respect to Nelson Mandela.

A decision to this effect was taken at a special meeting of the Union Cabinet, which condoled the death of the anti-apartheid icon.

"Mandela was the tallest leader of not only his generation but possibly this entire paradigm. The role that he personally played in dismantling the apartheid is something exemplary," information and broadcasting minister Manish Tewari said after the meeting.

DUBAI: Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) Friday claimed an attack on a Yemeni defence complex that killed 52 people, in a statement published on the Internet by its media arm.

The defence ministry complex was “stormed and attacked on Thursday... after the mujahideen (holy fighters) proved that it accommodates drone control rooms and American experts,” it said on Twitter.

“As part of a policy to target drone control rooms, the mujahideen have dealt a heavy blow to one” in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, added the statement by the Al-Malahem foundation.

The decades-long Cyprus dispute dominated yet another meeting of the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee yesterday, which turned into an ugly slanging match between committee members.

“[EU Minister] Egemen Bagis reminds me of a small salesman. He is waiting idle as he has no customers. There is a saying in Turkish: ‘The idle shopkeeper weighs blah blah.’ I hope you accept this as a joke,” a Greek Cypriot member of the European Parliament (EP), Takis Hadjigeorgiou, said while addressing the committee meeting.

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Friday expressed its dissatisfaction over a report submitted by the Federal Minister for Defence Khawaja Asif before it which listed details of missing persons and ordered the production of 14 of the 35 missing persons in court tomorrow and the remaining on Dec 9, DawnNews reported.

A three-member bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, resumed the hearing over the missing persons case.

Two gunmen kidnap schoolgirl in Assam

JORHAT: Two unidentified gunmen kidnapped 11 schoolchildren of Nazira Kendra Vidayalaya by hijacking the school van in which they were returning home at Simaluguri in Sivsagar district near the Assam-Nagaland border on Wednesday afternoon.

However, the van driver's presence of mind and courage helped in saving 10 of the students from the clutches of the abductors. The miscreants forced the driver to drive towards Nagaland, but the latter immobilized the vehicle by driving it into a drain in the Chantak tea estate, some distance from the kidnapping spot. The kidnappers then left behind 10 of the children there, and took away one — a girl — towards Nagaland.

SANAA: A suicide bomber rammed an explosives-packed car into the Yemeni defence ministry complex on Thursday, followed by an armed assault in which 52 people died, including seven foreign medical staff, officials said.

The brazen daylight attack on the sprawling facility followed a spate of hit-and-run strikes on military personnel and officials, as the country struggles to complete a thorny political transition.

"This terrorist act has killed 52 people," Yemen's supreme security committee said.

Cutting across party lines, members of the Odisha Assembly today condemned Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for his reported statement that Kashmir is a flash point which "can trigger a fourth war" with India.

The MLAs, belonging to the ruling BJD and Congress, favoured a censure motion against the Pakistan Prime Minister for his "dreams" of a "fourth war" against India.

JOHANNESBURG: It was not the nip in the air but the murderous blade of South African batsmen and the hostility of their pacers that sent a chill down the spine as the hosts first slaughtered India's toothless attack to post a formidable tally of 358/4 and then bowled India out for 217 in the first ODI to win by a massive 141-run margin. This result might just be the prelude to a torrid December.

Chasing a massive target under lights, the Indian top-order was clueless against pace and bounce extracted by South African pace quintet of Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, Ryan McLaren, Lonwabo Tsotsobe and Wayne Parnell.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan fast bowler Bilawal Bhatti has been waylaid in Dubai since Tuesday after landing in the United Arab Emirates with an expired visa.

The Pakistan Cricket Board says in a statement it has made arrangements for Bhatti to stay at a hotel inside Dubai airport and has applied for a new visa. The board is hopeful the issue will be resolved within 24 hours and Bhatti can continue his journey home.

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Thursday served a contempt of court notice to the inspector general of the Frontier Corps (FC) for not complying with its order in a case relating to the 'missing persons' of Balochistan.

This is the first time that a serving general has been issued a contempt of court notice. The court had previously warned IG FC Maj-Gen Ijaz Shahid that he may face contempt charges if he fails to appear before it on Dec 5.

PESHAWAR: Militants killed one policeman and wounded another in an attack on a checkpost in northwestern Pakistan, officials said on Thursday.

The attack took place on the outskirts of Bannu town, in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, which has seen several terrorist attacks in the past — many of them targeting security officials.

KIRKUK: Iraqi police stormed a mall in a northern city that gunmen used to launch an attack on a nearby police station, killing three militants and ending an hours-long standoff that trapped some storekeepers inside, authorities said Thursday.

Militants held off police from their rooftop position on six-story Jawahir mall in Kirkuk overnight, throwing down grenades and firing on officers and civilians who tried to flee the fighting.

Washington: The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps has arrested 16 persons for providing material to anti-government websites that are reportedly seeking to topple the country's Islamic ruling system, state media reports.

The official IRNA news agency quoted a local prosecutor in southeast Iran, Ahmad Ghorbani, as saying that all 16 activists are facing charges of cooperating with Western and anti-Iran news networks, Fox News reports.

At least 20 soldiers were killed and dozens of others injured when suicide car bombings rocked the Yemeni defense ministry in the capital Sanna on Thursday morning, officials told Xinhua.

An official of the defense ministry said anonymously that the explosions were caused by suicide car bombings that damaged part of the wall of the ministry in downtown Yemen, adding that first car bomb hit the western gate of the ministry and the second one broke into the gate and exploded inside the ministry complex.

IMPHAL: Eleven militants have been arrested during combing operations in Manipur, police said on Wednesday.Five militants, including two women, were arrested by 24th Assam Rifles battalion personnel at Khudengtabi area in Chandel district after they had crossed the Indo-Myanmar border and were proceeding to Imphal on Tuesday, they said.

England were left to rue missed chances as Australia shaded the opening day in Adelaide. Having won the toss, Australia found progress through two solid partnerships but England created enough chances to get on top - only to drop three catches.Three wickets frittered away in an extended afternoon session undermined Australia's workmanlike intent to build on their victory in the first Test at the Gabba by posting an unassailable first-innings score on a placid Adelaide surface. Instead, as Shane Watson and Chris Rogers fell in successive overs, then Steve Smith succumbed to the last ball before tea, England reached the break in an optimistic frame of mind they could barely have imagined.

DHAKA: Bangladesh's former military dictator Hussain Muhammad Ershad threatened to kill himself Thursday after security forces besieged his home following his decision to boycott next month's elections.

“I have loaded four pistols and I've told the government that if they play any tricks with me, I will kill myself,” Ershad told a local television crew during an interview inside his home in the early hours.

“I will die before the RAB (Rapid Action Battalion) or the police can lay a finger on me,” he said, before making a trigger-pulling gesture towards his head.

PATNA: A district court on Wednesday awarded life sentence to former RJD parliamentarian Vijay Krishna and three others found guilty in the murder case of a JD(U) leader four years ago. The court of Additional District Judge (ADJ) Nand Kumar Shrivastava awarded life sentence to the four.

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court Thursday announced its verdict in the case pertaining to the distribution of development funds among parliamentarians by former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, declaring the dispensation as illegal and ordered authorities to take appropriate action as per the law, DawnNews reported.

A three-member bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, announced its verdict which was reserved on July 22.

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