Peshawar, March 4
Ten worshippers, including a child, were killed and 30 others injured when a powerful bomb blast ripped through a mosque within a Sufi shrine at Nowshera in northwest Pakistan today.

The explosion targeted the mosque inside Akhun Punjo Baba mazar (shrine) in Akbarpura area of Nowshera, about 15 km from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa capital Peshawar.

Scores of people were offering Friday prayers at the mosque while hundreds had gathered to take food from a 'langar' or community kitchen. Ten worshippers, including a child, were killed, the police said.

At least 30 others were injured and the condition of eight was described by the officials as serious.

The injured were taken to hospitals in Nowshera, Pubbi and Peshawar. A witness told Geo News channel that the blast occurred just after the prayers ended. “The blast occurred within the mosque,” he said.

He estimated that over 1,000 persons were present in the shrine. No group has claimed responsibility for the blast. The explosion was heard from several kilometres away.

Reports said the blast was caused by a remote controlled bomb hidden in a cupboard within the mosque.

Footage on television showed caps and shoes strewn within the mosque. Windows were blown out by the blast, which also caused extensive damage to the walls of the mosque.

Witnesses said many worshippers were hit by shrapnel. They added that there was almost no security at the shrine complex.

The Pakistani Taliban are opposed to the practice of worshipping at Sufi shrines and consider it “un-Islamic”. The Taliban have claimed responsibility for several recent attacks on Sufi shrines in cities across Pakistan, including Lahore and Karachi.

President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani condemned the bomb blast in the mosque.

In a message, Zardari described the attack as an “abhorrent act” and said its perpetrators were the enemies of Islam.

“The government would continue to take a firm stand against extremist and terrorist elements across the country and would not be cowed down by such acts of violence,” he said. Nowshera has been targeted by militants in the past too.

On June 12, 2009, at least six persons were killed and over 90 injured when a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden truck into a mosque within an army supply depot in the city. — PTI

Washington, March 4
Vikramaditya Singh, son-in-law of Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) leader Ajit Singh, has been sentenced to six months of home confinement by a US court and now faces deportation after he was caught in a federal sting operation selling military grade microwave radios to Iran.

Vikramaditya (34), an Arizona-based electronics dealer, owns Orion Telecom Networks. He was targeted by undercover agents of US Homeland Security in Philadelphia as a follow-up to a sting involving Iranian arms broker Amir Ardebili.

Reacting to the sentence, sources close to RLD supremo Ajit Singh said in New Delhi today that Vikramaditya Singh was not aware of end user agreement needed to be signed before the selling of equipments in question. Vikramaditya Singh is owner of Orion Telecom Networks in Delaware.

District Chief Judge Gregory M Sleet sentenced Vikramaditya Singh to three years’ probation, including six months’ home confinement, and a $100,000 fine for exporting items he believed were destined to Iran. The sentence means Singh is likely to be deported this year.

However, Singh’s sentencing is lenient than requested by either his attorney or federal prosecutors. Singh’s lawyer Danny C Onorato sought a one-year term and asked the US District Judge to consider his client's otherwise exemplary life and the fact that others who had committed similar crimes had received sentences of less than a year.

“Mr Singh understands that his reasoning was legally flawed and morally wrong,” Onorato said, “and he feels immeasurable remorse.” Assistant US Attorney Robert F Kravetz had sought a sentence of 18 months. He said Singh's conduct was “not merely careless or a product of poor judgment but knowingly unlawful,” in part because Singh knew from his business dealings that the radios involved were also deployed on US military bases.

On November 23, 2010, Vikramaditya Singh pleaded guilty to one count of causing and attempting to export to Iran, digital microwave radios, without the required authorisation from the Office of Foreign Asset Control, Department of the Treasury. 

Ending month-long uncertainty about the stability of Nepal Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal-led government, the Unified CPN-Maoists - the single largest party with 237 members in the 601-member parliament - on Friday joined the government.

A month after he had assumed the executive post, Prime Minister and chairman of the CPN-UML Khanal today expanded his cabinet inducting four Maoist leaders led by Krishna Bahadur Mahara into his government.

Earlier, Prime Minister Khanal was caught between the devil and deep blue sea after the national media exposed him by carrying reports that he had reached controversial seven-point agreement with Maoists chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal secretly on February 3 where he had agreed to allot home portfolio to the Maoists. As a result, his rival faction from within the party forced him to review the agreement with the Maoists and retain home portfolio within the party that ultimately annoyed the Maoists and they announced not to join the government unless Khanal expressed commitment to adhere to the agreement.

But giving up their rigid stance, the Maoists standing committee met on Wednesday and reviewed its past decision and decided to join the government without taking charge of the home ministry, the bone of contention between the Maoists and the UML.

On Tuesday, Maoist chairman Dahal and Khanal agreed to expand the cabinet by ending the political deadlock on power sharing

Rania Cairo, March 4
Hundreds of protesters seeking the ouster of Muammar Gaddafi took to the streets as forces loyal to the embattled Libyan leader fired tear gas in his stronghold Tripoli and launching fresh air strikes on the rebel-held eastern parts of the country.

Over 1,000 anti-Gaddafi protestors marched onto the streets soon after Friday prayers in the heart of the capital, demanding the end of his 41-year-rule, chanting “Gaddaf is the enemy of God,” witnesses said.

Waving the red, black and green flag of Libya's pre-Gaddafi monarchy, adopted as the banner up the rebellion, large number of protesters marched out of a mosque in the eastern district of the capital.

Ahead of the protests, forces still loyal to 68-year-old Gaddafi searched vehicles in Tripoli, where they set up many check points to deter the protests, Al-Jazeera channel reported. Media reports said the protesters tore down posters of the Libyan leader and spray-painted walls with graffitis such as: “Down with Gaddafi” and "Tajoura will dig your grave." — PTI 

Islamabad, March 4
Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik today said he along with ruling PPP leaders Sherry Rehman and Fauzia Wahab was on the top of the list of persons who could be targeted by militants and extremist elements like the Taliban. “Today I am under threat. Number one is me, maybe next time you may not find me here,” Malik said while responding to a debate in the National Assembly or lower house of Parliament on the assassination of Minority Affairs Minister Shahbaz Bhatti.

“Sherry Rehman is at number two (and) Fauzia Wahab is at number three,” Malik said, referring to political personalities who faced threats from militant groups like the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan.

“We have the intercepts, but that doesn't mean that will scare us. It gives me more strength and we will fight till the last Taliban is eliminated because that is the survival of our country,” he said.

Bhatti, the only Christian member of the federal cabinet, was gunned down by Taliban militants near his home here on Wednesday.

The banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan had claimed responsibility for the assassination, saying Bhatti was killed for challenging the country's controversial blasphemy law.

Former minister Sherry Rehman, a close aide of slain ex-premier Benazir Bhutto, has faced threats from militants and extremists since she called for changes in the blasphemy law last year. — PTI