Prince Charles has sent a personal message of condolence to the family of a 63-year-old Sikh shopkeeper who was brutally murdered by some youths for free cigarettes and alcohol. “This country can ill-afford to lose such special people”, Charles said in his message to the family of Gurmail Singh Hayre, who migrated to Britain in 1962 from Nakodar in Punjab.

Two young Asian men — Muawaz Khalid, 20, and Nabeel Shafi, 18 — have been found guilty of murder and face several years in jail when they are formally sentenced next month. Gurmail, a father of three and grandfather of five, settled in the West Yorkshire town of Huddersfield and worked for the local Hepworth Iron Company for 20 years until he was made redundant a few years ago.

Gurmail subsequently used his life savings to open a small corner shop where he was bludgeoned to death when Khalid and Shafi grabbed wine bottles from the shelves and repeatedly hit him on the head. They then ran out of the shop after stealing £80 (Rs 5,600), some cigarette packets, sweets and a few bottles of alcohol. A third member of the gang, Umare Aslam, 20, has been convicted of robbery and a fourth, Shoaib Khan, 18, has admitted assisting an offender.

The case has attracted nation-wide attention because of Gurmail’s popularity. His funeral earlier this year at the Huddersfield gurdwara attracted a record 1,000 mourners who came from all communities and religions, including Hindus, Muslims and Christians.

Kabul, October 22
Mid-level Taliban insurgency commanders do not believe their leaders have begun tentative peace talks with the Afghan government, with many vowing today not to give up the fight after nearly 10 years of war.

NATO and Afghan officials have confirmed preliminary contacts between President Hamid Karzai's government and the Taliban, although doubt surrounds when those contacts were made, who they were made with and what, if any, progress was made.

Karzai is pushing a negotiated settlement to the conflict and has launched a High Peace Council which has said it is prepared to offer concessions to bring insurgents to the table, although Kabul and Washington are adamant they must renounce violence. — Reuters

BRIEFLY

WikiLeaks plans ‘major’ announcement in Europe
London: The WikiLeaks website appears close to releasing what the Pentagon fears is the largest cache of secret US documents in history, hundreds of thousands of intelligence reports compiled after the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In a message posted to its Twitter page on Thursday, the organisation said there was a "major WikiLeaks press conference in Europe coming up." WikiLeaks has not commented publicly on the imminent announcement. — AP

Two rape suspects flee to India
MELBOURNE: The Australian police will consult the Indian authorities in an effort to trace two men who were accused in a “vicious” rape in Melbourne earlier this month but fled to India before being questioned. The pair whom the police want to question for physically and sexually assaulting a woman in Melbourne on October 3 fled the country last Sunday and returned to India, Australian news agency AAP reported quoting the Victorian police. — IANS

Cholera epidemic in Haiti, 135 dead
Saint Marc: A cholera epidemic in northern Haiti has claimed 135 lives and infected 1,500 persons over the last few days. The epidemic has not yet reached the major displaced persons camps in and around the capital Port-au-Prince, which was ravaged by a 7.0-magnitude earthquake in January that left 1.2 million people homeless. — AP