W O R L D

Seven killed in UK’s worst road mishap in 20 years
Over 50 injured as 34-vehicle pile-up sparks massive fireball
London, November 5
A “horrific” pile up of vehicles on an arterial motorway claimed at least seven lives and injured over 50 in one of Britain’s worst road accidents that saw speeding cars and lorries crashing into each other, sparking huge balls of fire.

FIREBALL MISHAP: A fire caused by a massive crash on the M5 motorway near Taunton in southwest England on Friday. — AFP

Colombian rebel leader Cano killed
Bogota, November 4
Alfonso Cano, the top leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, was killed by Colombian troops during an anti-guerrilla operation, officials announced. “The military has thus achieved one of its most important goals,” Alberto Gonzalez Mosquera, governor of Cauca department, told local radio.

Seven killed in UK’s worst road mishap in 20 years
Over 50 injured as 34-vehicle pile-up sparks massive fireball

London, November 5
A “horrific” pile up of vehicles on an arterial motorway claimed at least seven lives and injured over 50 in one of Britain’s worst road accidents that saw speeding cars and lorries crashing into each other, sparking huge balls of fire.

The UK police confirmed that at least seven persons were feared dead in last night’s mishap that involved 34 vehicles. The death toll is expected to rise further. As many as 51 people were injured, with injuries being described as ‘life-changing’.

Britain has not witnessed a road mishap of this scale since 1991, officials said, who described lorries and cars crashing into each other at high speed amidst poor weather conditions on the M5 motorway near Taunton in Somerset as “horrific”.

Fires broke out instantaneously, in what was described by the Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service as the worst traffic collision rescue workers could remember. The seven persons all died at the scene of the crash, the police said.

Assistant Chief Constable Anthony Bangham praised the bravery of witnesses who had tried to rescue those trapped, before they were beaten back by the intensity of the flames.

"There was some real bravery from people trying to help others," he said. "The intensity of the fire, it was a fireball on the carriageway, made it incredibly difficult for people to approach. But people did their very best."

The cause of the accident remains unknown, though some witnesses said the conditions had been foggy and wet. Many of the vehicles were burnt beyond recognition. "It is a real mash of many, many vehicles," Bangham said.

"It was obviously a very considerable impact. (It is) quite unusual to have such a fireball, and certainly the intensity." The motorway, the main gateway to England's south west, is likely to remain closed in both directions until at least Sunday, he said. — PTI

Colombian rebel leader Cano killed

Bogota, November 4
Alfonso Cano, the top leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, was killed by Colombian troops during an anti-guerrilla operation, officials announced. “The military has thus achieved one of its most important goals,” Alberto Gonzalez Mosquera, governor of Cauca department, told local radio.

He added that Cano had died in the western part of his department located in the southwest of the country. A military intelligence source also confirmed the death of the FARC leader to AFP.

“We have been able to confirm that Cano has been killed,” said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “We don’t know yet all the details, but his death is a fact.” Cano assumed the direction of the FARC in March 2008, after the death of Manuel Marulanda Velez.

The FARC is Colombia’s oldest and largest guerrilla force, believed to have some 8,000 members. The leftist group has been at war with the government since its founding in 1964.

It began its campaign of kidnappings in the mid-1980s and army hostages were to serve as bargaining chips for FARC prisoners. By the late 1990s more civilians and political leaders were being snatched as well, winning the group greater notoriety but also increased influence with its government interlocutors.

The FARC suffered a serious loss in 2008, when its number two man, Raul Reyes, died during a Colombian raid in Ecuadoran territory. — AFP

Benazir Killing
Former top cops among 7 indicted
Afzal Khan in Islamabad

A Pakistani anti-terrorism court hearing the Benazir Bhutto assassination case on Saturday indicted seven persons, including two former top police officers responsible for providing security to the ex-Premier. However, the court spared former President Pervez Musharraf in the case ignoring a request by the prosecution.

The Rawalpindi ATC heard the case in Adiala jail where the accused were presented before the court. The accused denied the charges against them on which the court instructed to present witnesses in the next hearing fixed for November 19.

Former Rawalpindi police chief Saud Aziz and ex-Superintendent of Police Khurram Shahzad were indicted by the court along with five alleged members of militant groups who were identified as Hasnain Gul, Rafaqat Hussain, Sher Zaman, Aitzaz Shah and Abdul Rasheed. The two former police officers have been accused of negligence in providing security to Bhutto.

Bhutto, the first female Prime Minister in the Muslim world, was killed in a gun and suicide attack in 2007 in one of the most shocking events in Pakistan's turbulent history. The charismatic Bhutto was killed on December 27, 2007 as she waved to a crowd through the sunroof of a sports utility vehicle following an election rally in Rawalpindi weeks after she returned to Pakistan from a self-imposed exile after striking a deal with then military ruler Pervez Musharraf.

Musharraf's government had blamed Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud for the killing. Mehsud was killed in a US drone strike near the Afghan border in 2009.

(With inputs from agencies)

Pak ‘shuffling nukes’ frequently in low security vans

Washington, November 5
Fearful of a surprise US raid, Pakistan is shuffling its nuclear arsenal frequently in low security vans on congested roads, making them more vulnerable to snatch by Islamic terror groups.

Nuclear bombs capable of destroying entire cities are being transported in delivery vans on congested and often unmarked roads to hide them from the US, the country that funds much of Pakistan's military budget, two US magazines reported.

The Atlantic and the National Journal, in a joint report said that Pakistan's Strategic Plants division (SPD), which is charged with safeguarding Pakistani nukes has been ordered to shuffle the arsenal often to keep the location of nuclear weapons and components hidden from US and India.

Quoting American and Pakistani sources, the journals said the US raid on Abbottabad to kill Al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden had provoked anxiety among the Pakistani army hierarchy about their weapons leading to increasing the pace of movements of the arsenal.

The journals said that before the American raid Pakistanis were moving the nuclear weapon components by helicopter and in armoured well defended convoys, but now the SPD was indulging in subterfuge, by moving the war heads in civilian vehicles.

US intelligence officials said that Pakistanis were not only using low security methods not only to transfer merely "de-mated" components, but also "mated" nuclear weapons, raising widespread concerns in the west.

The western nuclear experts, the journal said are more worrisome as Pakistan is now building small tactical nuclear weapons for quick deployment.

"In fact not only is Pakistan building these devices, but it is also now moving them over roads" the journal said, adding that the pace of dispersal movements has increased.

The magazines said there is evidence to suggest that neither the Pakistan army, nor the SPD itself considers 'jihadism' the most immediate threat to the security of its nuclear weapons: indeed, Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kayani's worry as expressed to the SPD chief Gen Kidwai after Abbottabad, was focused on the US.

Quoting sources in Pakistan, the journals said Kayani believes that the US has designs on Pakistani nuclear programme, and that Abbottabad raid suggested that the Americans have developed the technical means to stage simultaneous raids on Pakistan's nuclear facilities.

Kidwai assured Kayani that the counterintelligence branch of the SPD remained focused on rooting out American and Indian spies from the Pakistani nuclear-weapons complex, and on foiling other American espionage methods.

The Pakistani air force drills its pilots in ways of intercepting American spy planes; the Pakistani military assumes (correctly) that the US devotes many resources to aerial and satellite surveillance of its nuclear sites.

In their post-Abbottabad discussion, General Kayani wanted to know what additional steps General Kidwai was taking to protect his nation's nuclear weapons from the threat of an American raid.

Kidwai made the same assurances he has made many times to Pakistan's leaders: Pakistan's programme was sufficiently hardened, and dispersed, so that the US would have to mount a sizable invasion of the country in order to neutralise its weapons; a raid on the scale of the Abbottabad incursion would simply not suffice.

US and western intelligence agencies are now very fearful of terror groups in Pakistan being able to lay their hands on nuclear weapons which would compound threats to the free world. Western intelligence experts say that any theft of a nuclear weapon could lead to a nuclear 9/11 type attack on Mumbai or New York, as also transfer of a nuclear weapons to a state like Iran. — PTI

67 dead in Nigerian attacks
Radical Muslim sect Boko Haram claims responsibility

Lagos, November 5
At least 67 persons died in a wave of bombings and shootings carried out in northeast Nigeria overnight, officials said today, as frightened mourners left their homes to begin burying their dead.

A radical Muslim sect known locally as Boko Haram claimed responsibility today for the attacks, which represent the most coordinated and wide-ranging assault yet in their increasingly bloody sectarian fight with Nigeria's weak central government.

The sect, which wants the strict implementation of Shariah law across the nation of more than 160 million people, promised to carry out more attacks.

The fighting centered around Damaturu, the capital of Yobe state, Nigerian Red Cross official Ibrahim Bulama said.

The attack started Friday with a car bomb exploding outside a three-story building used as a military office and barracks in the city, with many uniformed security agents dying in the blast, Bulama said.

Gunmen then went through the town, blowing up a First Bank PLC branch and attacking at least three police stations and some churches, leaving them in rubble, he said. Gunfire continued through the night and gunmen raided the village of Potiskum near the capital as well, witnesses said, leaving at least two people dead there. — AP

Greek PM wins confidence vote

Athens, November 5
Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou survived a confidence vote today, calming a vicious revolt in his Socialist party with an emotional pledge to step aside if necessary and seek a cross-party government lasting four months to safeguard a new European debt agreement.

Papandreou won the critical parliamentary confidence motion 153-145 after a week of drama in Athens that horrified Greece’s European partners, spooked global markets and overshadowed the Group20 summit in Cannes.

The threat of a Greek default or exit from the common euro currency has worsened the continent’s debt crisis, which is already struggling under bailouts for Greece, Ireland and Portugal.

Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos, who warned that the debt-ridden country still faced “mortal danger,” said the new government would last until the end of February.

But conservative opposition leader Antonis Samaras demanded immediate elections. He did not say whether he would join coalition talks, due to be formally launched later Saturday when Papandreou meets the country’s president. “The masks have fallen,” Samaras said.

“Papandreou has rejected our proposals in their entirety. The responsibility he bears is huge. The only solution is elections.” Midway through its four-year term, Papandreou’s government came under threat after his disastrous bid this week to hold a referendum on a major new European debt agreement. — AP

26/11 trial: Pak court summons 4 witnesses

Islamabad, November 5
A Pakistani anti-terrorism court conducting the trial of seven suspects charged in the Mumbai attacks case summoned four prosecution witnesses today to record their statements at the next hearing on November 19.

Judge Shahid Rafique, who is conducting the trial in Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail for security reasons, summoned the witnesses to depose as proceedings got underway again following a delay of several weeks.

The case had been held up due to a petition filed in the Lahore High Court by Lashkar-e-Toiba commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, the main accused in the case.

Lakhvi had sought the transfer of the case from Rawalpindi to Lahore, saying he had no confidence in Judge Rafique.

The Lahore High Court dismissed Lakhvi’s petition on October 31, saying the matter came under the jurisdiction of the Islamabad High Court. The court said Lakhvi could approach the Islamabad High Court. Lakhvi’s counsel Khwaja Sultan said his client had not yet decided whether to approach the Islamabad High Court.

Prosecution lawyer Chaudhry Zulfiqar said the anti-terrorism court had already dismissed Lakhvi’s petition for shifting the case to Lahore.

The Pakistan government recently said a judicial commission will soon visit India to interview key persons linked to the probe into the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks. The date for the commission’s visit is yet to be announced.

Interior Minister Malik said last year that it was necessary for the commission to visit India and interview a magistrate and police officers who were involved in the investigation of the Mumbai attacks.

The testimony of the Indian officials is needed to proceed with the prosecution of the Pakistani suspects, he had said. — PTI

Canada introduces 2-year ‘super visa’ for families

Montreal, November 5
Canadian officials announced a new two-year, multi-entry "super visa" for parents and grandparents of immigrants settled in Canada.

The multiple-entry "Parent and Grandparent Super Visa" will be valid for up to 10 years, officials said, and allow applicants to remain in Canada for 24 months before needing seek visa renewal. The new visas will begin on December 1 and will be issued, “on average, within eight weeks,” officials said.

The move came after wait times for sponsorship of "family class" applications had grown to an unwieldy seven years or longer. "Without taking action, those times will continue to grow, and that is unacceptable," said Canadian minister Jason Kenney. — AFP

Bid to hurl shoe at Musharraf in UK

Islamabad, November 5
A man attempted to hurl a shoe at Pakistan’s former military ruler Pervez Musharraf while he was addressing a gathering near London, according to a media report today.

The incident occurred while Musharraf was addressing a group of Kashmiris in Luton, a town located 50 km north of the British capital, Geo News channel reported.

The man attempted to hurl shoe at Musahrraf but was taken out of the venue by security guards. Another man who was in the gathering shouted slogans against Musharraf, who has been living in self-exile outside Pakistan since early 2009.

This was the second such incident this year involving Musharraf, who quit as President in 2008 to avoid being impeached by the Pakistan People’s Party-led government. — PTI