indian affairs: July 2013

Tuesday, 30 July 2013

Telangana: CWC meeting tomorrow, D-Day likely for Andhra Pradesh

HYDERABAD: In what could be D-Day for Andhra Pradesh, the Congress has finally called for the meeting of its highest policy making body, the Congress working committee (CWC) on Tuesday evening. In a morning of swift developments on Monday, the Congress also decided to advance the meeting of the UPA coordination committee from Wednesday to Tuesday.

At least six FC men killed in South Waziristan road accident

PESHAWAR: At least six security men were killed Monday in a road accident near Gomal Zam dam on the border of South Waziristan tribal region.

Official sources said a security forces' vehicle carrying Frontier Corps (FC) personnel coming from Tank towards the Gomal Zam dam turned turtle near the latter when it was negotiating a sharp turn and fell into a ravine.

Sources added that six FC soldiers died in the accident.

TUNIS: Pro and anti-government demonstrators clashed in two Tunisian cities on Monday, witnesses said, as tensions rose over opposition efforts to oust the Islamist-led government.

Angry opposition protesters tried to storm municipal offices in Sidi Bouzid and stop employees there from working, residents said, sparking clashes between them and supporters of the Islamist Ennahda party, which leads the transitional government.

NEW DELHI: The sentencing of Batla House encounter convict Shahzad Ahmed has been deferred for Tuesday.

A Delhi court on Monday reserved its order on quantum of sentence to suspected Indian Mujahideen operative Shahzad in the 2008 encounter case for Tuesday.

Additional sessions judge Rajender Kumar Shastri had on July 25 found Shahzad guilty of assaulting police officers and obstructing them from doing their duty.

ISLAMABAD: US Secretary of State John Kerry is expected to arrive in Islamabad on July 31, sources told DawnNews on Monday.

Kerry had accepted an invitation to visit Pakistan, extended to him by Adviser to Pakistan's Prime Minister on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz during a meeting held on the sidelines of the 20th Ministerial Meeting of the Asean Regional Forum on July 2.

KANDAHAR: A roadside bomb blamed on the Afghan Taliban tore through a police vehicle in southern Afghanistan at the weekend, killing nine people and wounding 15, officials said on Monday.

The bombing took place late Sunday in the Shahjoy district of Zabul province, on the main Kabul-Kandahar road which is a hotspot of the Taliban insurgency.

ROME: A tour bus filled with Italian pilgrims plunged off a highway into a ravine in southern Italy and smashed into several cars that had slowed in heavy traffic, killing at least 36 people, said police and rescuers.

Flashing signs near Avellino, outside Naples, had warned of slowed traffic along the stretch of the A116 autostrada, a major highway crossing southern Italy, before the crash occurred last night, said highway police and officials, speaking on state radio.

At least 50 people have been killed in bombings and shootings across Iraq. In the deadliest attack, a bomb in a parked car exploded in a busy market killing 14 people in central Muqdadiya, 80km (50 miles) northeast of the capital Baghdad ."I was sitting in my neighbour's shop when suddenly we heard a big explosion," said eyewitness Salim Aziz.

"I had no time to see anything, and when I opened my eyes, I found myself at the hospital and I was injured in my right hand and left leg, surrounded by dozens of wounded people," he added.A car bomb targeted a market in the centre of southern city of Basra killing at least three people, security sources told Al Jazeera.

KAPURTHALA: In a case of wrongly transferring Rs 15 lakh from the account of a NRI woman to ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, Kapurthala, has ordered the local branch of ICICI Bank not only to refund the entire amount to the woman with 9 % interest but also pay compensation of Rs 50,000 for harassing her, along with Rs 10,000 as litigation cost.

KOLKATA/NEW DELHI: Exactly 58 days after he "stepped aside" as BCCI president, the decks have been cleared for N Srinivasan's return to the helm of the richest cricket body in the world.

A report submitted by a two-member panel that probed allegations of betting and spot-fixing against Srinivasan's son-in-law Gurunath Meiyappan, India Cements Ltd (owner of Chennai Super Kings) and Jaipur IPL Pvt Ltd (owner of Rajasthan Royals), found no direct evidence of wrongdoing on the part of any party. The panel consisted of two former judges of the Tamil Nadu high court, Jayaram Chouta and R Balasubramanian.

Twin blasts near courthouse in Libya's Benghazi: sources

Two powerful explosions went off near the courthouse in Libya's second city of Benghazi on Sunday night, leaving 10 people injured and causing damage, witnesses and a security source said.

The blasts came a day after 1,000 inmates escaped during a prison riot in the restive eastern city, birthplace of the 2011 armed uprising that ousted and killed dictator Moamer Kadhafi.On Friday night, hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Benghazi to condemn the assassination in the city earlier the same day of Abdessalem al-Mesmari, an anti-Islamist lawyer who campaigned for a civil state.

KARACHI: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan has confirmed speculations doing the rounds in the country in the run-up to the May 11 elections that there was a plot to assassinate him and that the fall off a forklift at a Lahore rally on May 7 that nearly killed him “had quite possibly saved my life”.

In an article carried by Britain’s MailOnline on Sunday, Mr Khan wrote he had been told he was number one on the terrorist hit-list. There are perhaps 25 militant groups which call themselves ‘Taliban’ and any one of them could have been hired by his political opponents.

NEW DELHI: After Congress spokesperson Raj Babbar and Rajya Sabha MP Rasheed Masood's claim of 'super cheap' food available on the streets of India, another minister is of the view that one can have a filling meal for just Re 1.

Union minister of new and renewable energy and National Conference party leader Farooq Abdullah said that one can fill his stomach for just Re 1.

CAIRO: An investigating judge has ordered the detention of Egypt's ousted president over alleged contacts with Hamas to help in his escape from prison in 2011, the official state news agency reported Friday in the first official word on his status since a military coup on July 3.

The MENA news agency said Mohammed Morsi has been detained for 15 days for investigation into the charges. His detention can be extended as the inquiry continues.

The news agency indicated that Morsi has already been interrogated.

BEIJING: Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met on Wednesday with Pakistan's Ambassador to China Masood Khalid and received a humanitarian donation of one million U.S. dollars from the Pakistani government.

A 6.6-magnitude quake hit northwest China's Gansu Province on Monday morning, leaving 95 dead and 1,001 injured.

"A friend in need is a friend indeed," said Wang, calling Pakistan a devoted friend of China.

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) on Friday announced its decision to boycott the upcoming presidential election, DawnNews reported.

PPP's former Law Minister of Sindh, Ayaz Soomro, informed the Chief Election Commissioner in writing about the party's decision to boycott the presidential election.

Addressing a press conference in the federal capital city PPP's presidential candidate and senior leader Senator Raza Rabbani said that his party was left with no other option but to boycott the poll.

KUALA LUMPUR :A Malaysian court on Thursday ruled against the 2009 conversion of three Hindu children to Islam without their mother's knowledge, a verdict welcomed by non-Muslim groups.

A high court in the northern city of Ipoh declared the conversion of Ms Indira Gandhi's children, now aged five, 15 and 16, by their father to be unconstitutional, said Indira's lawyer K. Shanmuga. The judge ruled that the father failed to take the mother and children to Islamic authorities for their consent to the conversion, in a rare verdict in the multiracial but Muslim-majority nation, Mr Shanmuga said.

CAIRO: Egypt's army threatened on Thursday to shoot those who use violence in a stark warning before what both sides expect will be a bloody street showdown between Islamists and opponents of deposed President Mohamed Mursi.

An army official said the military had set Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood an ultimatum, giving it until Saturday to sign up to a plan for political reconciliation which it has so far spurned.

One child killed; five injured as mortal shell explodes in Peshawar

PESHAWAR: At least one child was killed and five others injured Thursday night when a mortar shell appearing to be a toy exploded in Peshawar's Bajaur Agency when the children were playing with it, official sources said.

A political administration official said the explosion occurred in the Nisarabad Kausar area of Khar in Bajaur Agency when a child took a toy-like mortar shell home and it went off.

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama saluted Muslim Americans on Thursday for their contributions in helping build the United States as business entrepreneurs, technology innovators and pioneers in medicine.

Obama spoke at a White House dinner he hosted to celebrate the Islamic holy month of Ramzan. The meal, or iftar, breaks the day of fasting when Muslim families and communities eat together after sunset.

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Bahraini security forces have destroyed Sheikh Fadhel al-Asfari Mosque in Bilad al-Qadeem suburb of the capital Manama.

Saudi-backed security forces in Bahrain demolished the mosque in a wave of attacks on mosques and holy places in and around Manama.

NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Thursday ruled that 2008 Batla House encounter was genuine and convicted lone suspected Indian Mujahideen operative Shahzad Ahmed for killing Delhi police inspector MC Sharma.

Additional sessions judge Rajender Kumar Shastri had on July 20 reserved the judgement after conclusion of final arguments by the prosecution and the defence.

TRIPOLI: Unidentified assailants fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the United Arab Emirates embassy compound in the Libyan capital Tripoli on Thursday, the latest in a series of attacks on foreign targets in the North African country.

Security sources said the attackers drove up to the compound, which houses both the embassy and ambassador's residence, in the Siahia neighbourhood in Western Tripoli before fleeing immediately.

PESHAWAR: Unknown gunmen on motorbikes Thursday ambushed the Deputy Commandant (DC) of Frontier Reserve Police (FRP) Gul Wali in Peshawar's Gulbahar area, injuring him and killing his bodyguard and driver.

“The deputy commander of Frontier Reserve Police Gul Wali Khan was going to his office from home when four people on two motorbikes lay in wait on both sides of the road,” police official Imran Shahid said.

“They opened fire on his vehicle. His bodyguard and his driver have been killed,” Shahid told AFP.

Vladimir Putin to visit Iran for nuclear talks: report

President Vladimir Putin is to visit Iran in August to try and restart talks on Tehran's controversial nuclear programme, Russia's Kommersant daily reported today.

Putin's visit is planned for mid-August, shortly after Iran's new president Hassan Rowhani formally takes office on August 3, Kommersant reported, citing sources in the Kremlin and the Iranian foreign ministry. It will be Putin's first trip to Iran since 2007.

Beijing: At least two people were killed and 19 others injured when a huge explosion reportedly caused by leaking gas blew up a bakery in downtown Beijing on Wednesday.

The explosion in the Golden Phoenix Bakery store caused extensive damage. Windscreens of several cars parked in the Guangming Road, Dongcheng District, where the bakery is located were damaged.

CAIRO: A blast Wednesday at a police station in a Nile Delta city killed one person and wounded 28, a medic said, in the latest incidence of violence sweeping Egypt since president Mohamed Morsi's ouster.

Mohamed Sultan, deputy head of the emergency services, told AFP an explosive device went off very early in the morning outside a police station in the city of Mansura, in Dahqaliya province.

Militants kill nine police in Iraq's north: officials

BAGHDAD: Militants have killed nine policemen in an attack in the Iraq’s north, police said.

A police officer said an unspecified number of militants attacked a police headquarters outside the northern city of Mosul early on Wednesday.

He said the attack triggered a shootout that left nine policemen dead and two wounded.

There were apparently no casualties among the attackers, the police officer said.

Mumbai: Actor Salman Khan will be tried for culpable homicide not amounting to murder in the 2002 hit-and-run case as a Mumbai court on Wednesday framed charges against him. Salman faces up to 10 years in jail if found guilty in the case.

New Delhi: The controversy over Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's US visa has got more twists and turns. CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury has been denied signing the letter sent to US President Barack Obama against a visa to Modi while MPs say he must have forgotten that he signed it.

Yechury, whose name figures at number 9 on the letter written in late 2012, on Tuesday had refuted claims that he was one of the MPs who has reached out to Obama to halt Modi's visit. He had said, "I would be the last person to write to the US Administration and to do something like this. We don't want anyone to interfere in the internal affairs of the country. Secondly, it is up to the US government to decide on giving visa."

The Brihan mumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) authorities have asked people not to step out of their house unless absolutely necessary, as heavy rains are predicted in Mumbai in the next 72 hours.According to television channel reports, Mumbai's Colaba area has so far recorded 158.6 millimeters of rain in the last 20 hours, while Santa Cruz has recorded 168.6 millimeters of rainfall since Tuesday.

The temperature in Mumbai has dipped to a minimum of 22 degree Celsius due to the continuous rainfall.As heavy rain lashed the metro this morning, the Brihan mumbai Municipal Corporation advised parents to take children already in school back home.

KARACHI / ISLAMABAD: The Muttahida Qaumi Movement filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against Imran Khan, chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, claiming damages of Rs5 billion for allegedly defaming and maligning MQM chief Altaf Hussain.

The PTI announced that it also would file a defamation suit against the MQM and its leaders.

It is not merely the faith or oil that flows out of Saudi Arabia. The oil-rich Arab state and its neighbours are busy financing Wahabi and Salafi militants across the globe.

A recent report by the European Parliament reveals how Wahabi and Salafi groups based out of the Middle East are involved in the "support and supply of arms to rebel groups around the world." The report, released in June 2013, was commissioned by European Parliament's Directorate General for External Policies.

Pakistan wants arms supply to Syrian sides stopped,

UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan strongly criticised on Tuesday the continued infusion of arms in Syria and asked the Security Council and the big powers to take steps to halt arms supplies to all sides in the country.

“As we meet in this chamber, Syria is burning. Bloodshed continues.

Nineteen dead in Thai bus smash: authorities

BANGKOK: Nineteen people were killed and 20 hurt Tuesday when a double decker coach collided with a truck in central Thailand and burst into flames, authorities said.

“Altogether there are 19 dead — 18 died at the scene and another one died at the hospital,” said an official from the national institute for emergency medicine in Bangkok, who asked not to be named.

She added that 20 people were injured in the early morning crash in central Saraburi province.

France's interior minister said Sunday security forces would remain in place "as long as necessary" after a second night of violence in the Paris suburbs sparked when police stopped a woman for wearing a veil.

Manuel Valls told French radio he would keep in place "a significant police presence until a lasting calm is restored" in and around the satellite town of Trappes, south-west of Paris.

CAIRO, Qahirah: Clashes between supporters and opponents of Mohamed Morsi killed four people on Monday as the ousted Egyptian president's family vowed to sue the army over his ouster.

At least 28 people were also injured in the violence between the rival groups of demonstrators in Cairo and the nearby town of Qalyub, emergency services said.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani authorities claimed to have foiled a plot to target Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif by busting a terror network planning to launch a suicide attack on his residence in Raiwind on the outskirts of Lahore.

The plot was unearthed by a Joint Investigation Team of police and intelligence officials probing into the abduction of Ali Haider Gilani, son of former premier Yousuf Raza Gilani, who was kidnapped during election campaign in May.

Four Spanish climbers were missing in northern Pakistan, their tour operator said on Tuesday.

The missing mountaineers were part of an 11-member Spanish team attempting to climb the 8,068-metre Gasherbrum 1, said Syed Anwar from Lela Peak Expedition, which organised the tour.

Hassan, Karnataka: Eight people drowned when a Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation bus plunged into Vishnusamudra lake at Belur today, with police and locals rescuing 40 passengers.

Eleven passengers were admitted to a local hospital where two were stated to be critical, police said.

Representational image. PTI Representational image. PTI

The bus proceeding from Sakleshpur to Belur had several students on board, police said. There were reports that the bus was carrying 50-60 passengers.

Srinagar: Security forces in Kashmir today killed terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed’s (JeM) top commander, Qari Yasir, in an shootout in the wee hours of morning in north Kashmir’s Lolab area.

Yasir was gunned down by security forces at a village in Kupwara district, police said.

Yasir had been the JeM chief in Kashmir for the last three years, Abdul Ghani Mir, Inspector General of Police, told Firstpost.

A classified Pakistani government document has revealed that scores of civilians died in dozens of CIA-led drone strikes between 2006 and late 2009 in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) and that Pakistani officials were “aware of those deaths for many years”.

The secret government document was quoted by the London Bureau of Investigative Journalism (LBIJ) in a report and reveals for the first time the Pakistani government’s evaluation of numerous drone strikes. It was prepared through field research by government officials and field agents stationed in Fata.

GHAZNI: A suicide bomber rode a donkey Tuesday into an Afghan and Nato military convoy, killing three Western soldiers and their Afghan interpreter, officials said.

Nato’s International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) confirmed three casualties in a bombing in eastern Afghanistan but gave no details.

The "Shabiha", a loyalist militia drawn largely from the Syrian president's Alawite sect, is systematically looting and then destroying the homes of any Sunnis who have fled the province, a key battleground in the country's civil war.

"They pushed out the rebel fighters and now they are trying to push out all the Sunnis," said Bilal, a 23-year-old from the Sunni village of Talkalakh in Homs province. "They took our houses, threatened us, destroyed our villages."

Heavy firing continued between Indian and Pakistani troops on the Line of Control (LoC) Tuesday in Poonch district of Jammu region.A defence spokesperson said Pakistani troops resorted to unprovoked firing at Indian positions in Digwar sector along the LoC in Poonch district late Monday night.

"The unprovoked firing at our positions started at 10 pm yesterday. We retaliated and the exchange continued till 2 am on Tuesday morning.

ISLAMABAD: With two days remaining for submission of nomination papers for the presidential election, the PML-N is reported to have narrowed down the list to three candidates.

Senior PML-N leaders told Dawn that former governor of Sindh and party loyalist Mamnoon Hussain was the front-runner followed by PM’s adviser on foreign affairs and national security Sartaj Aziz and former chief justice of Pakistan Justice Saeed-uz-Zaman Siddiqui.

LAHORE: A World Bank (WB) mission visited the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) on Monday to discuss the issues in Indo-Pakistan trade through land route.

The WB team, headed by Ms Diep Nguyen-van Houtte, senior operations officer of South Asia Regional Integration, discussed the facilities at Wagah border with the LCCI.

She said that the proposals and suggestions given by the LCCI members would help the bank to develop early the much needed infrastructure at the crossing points between Pakistan and India.

New Delhi: Nobel laureate Amartya Sen has come out strongly against Gujarat Chief Minister and BJP poll panel chief Narendra Modi saying he would not like to see Modi as the Prime Minister of India.

Speaking exclusively to CNN-IBN Deputy Editor Sagarika Ghose, Sen said, "As an Indian citizen I don't want Modi as my PM, he has not done enough to make minorities feel safe."

Six of a family killed in Okara road mishap

At least six members of a family, including women and minor children were killed in a road accident here in Okara late on Sunday night.

According to details, the accident took place at Okara bypass where a speedy private car carrying six people of a family got out of control due to slipperiness caused by rain and rammed into a trailer parked by roadside.

As a result of accident the six occupants of the car including Khalid Hussain, his wife Kalsoom, mother, sister and two minor children died on the spot.

Pakistan condemns attacks on Holy sites in Syria

Pakistan on Monday strongly condemned the deliberate and wanton attack on the holy sites including the recent attack on Sayyeda Bibi Zainab’s shrine in Damascus.

Foreign office Spokesman Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry in a statement said the trend of desecration of the holy sites has hurt the sentiments of Muslims in Pakistan as indeed the world over. Such violations, which also fan sectarian strife, are most reprehensible.

Pakistan on Sunday sent its top diplomat to offer further assistance to Afghanistan's efforts to reach a deal with Taliban to end 12 years of war.

Foreign affairs adviser Sartaj Aziz held talks with Afghan Foreign Minister Zalmai Rassoul and met Karzai to deliver in person the invitation from new Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif -- already extended twice by telephone.

On Monday the president's office said Karzai accepted the invitation "in principle".

As an Indian, I don't want Narendra Modi as my PM: Amartya Sen

Six of a family killed in Okara road mishap

Pakistan condemns attacks on Holy sites in Syria

China quake death toll more than doubles to 54, hundreds hurt

The death toll from a 6.6 magnitude earthquake in China's western Gansu province on Monday more than doubled to 54 people, the municipal government said, with hundreds injured as many homes in affected areas collapsed.

The quake hit Minxian and Zhangxian counties, about 170 km (105 miles) southeast of the provincial capital of Lanzhou, at 7.45 on Monday morning, the official Xinhua news agency said.

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Monday issued a notice to Congress leader Sajjan Kumar on an appeal of the CBI challenging his acquittal in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case relating to the killing of five Sikhs by a mob.

A bench of justices G S Sistani and G P Mittal asked the Congress leader to file his response to the petition of the probe agency and fixed the matter for further hearing on August 27.

Besides CBI, victims' family members Jagdish and Nirpreet Kaur had also challenged the trial court order in the case and their plea would be taken up on August 27 by the same bench.

A suicide bomber attacked an Iraqi army convoy in the northern city of Mosul early on Monday, killing at least 22 soldiers and three passers-by, police said.

The bomber drove a vehicle packed with explosives up to a military convoy in the eastern Kokchali district of Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, before blowing himself and his car up."A suicide bomber was following the convoy and when it stopped in the middle of road, he detonated his vehicle right behind it," said a policeman at the scene who declined to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Protest rallies against attack on Hazrat Zainab’s (RA) shrine

Demonstrators on Sunday took to the streets in Karachi and twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi against a rocket attack on the shrine of Hazrat Zainab (A.S) in Syria.

In Islamabad, hundreds of people marched and presented a memorandum to officials of Foreign Office.

The rally, which was taken out from from Sector G-6/2 Imambargah to Radio Pakistan Intersection, was led by Aleema Amin Shaheedi, Deputy Secretary General of Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen (MWM).

“It was not attack on the shrine of Bibi Zainab, it was an assault on the unity of Islamic ummah,” one of the protesters remarked.

LONDON: A video showing women in burqas at a weapons training camp in Pakistan’s lawless tribal region has prompted fears that militant groups are recruiting women to frontline terrorist roles.

The minute-long footage, passed to The Sunday Times, shows five women being trained to use AK-47 assault weapons and fire rocket-propelled grenades.

The remote setting suggests the film was shot in the Waziristan region bordering Afghanistan that has become a safe haven for the Taliban, Al-Qaeda and other militant groups.

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