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Baghdad, June 12
Gunmen killed a top Iraqi diplomat today in the first high-profile assassination in Iraq since an interim government took over on June 1. Attackers fatally wounded Mr Bassam Qubba, the Foreign Ministry’s Director-General, as he was on his way to work from his home in Baghdad’s mainly Sunni Muslim Adhamiya district.
7 hostages freed
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Pak warplanes attack Al-Qaida targets
Farewell to Ronald Reagan
Hooch claims 13 lives in Iran
Rebels bomb factory
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US firm fined
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Baghdad, June 12 Attackers fatally wounded Mr Bassam Qubba, the Foreign Ministry’s Director-General, as he was on his way to work from his home in Baghdad’s mainly Sunni Muslim Adhamiya district. US officials say insurgents, who often target Iraqis seen as cooperating with the Americans, are likely to step up attacks before Iraq’s occupation formally ends on June 30. Mr Qubba, a Shia, was appointed to his post two months ago. He was a veteran career diplomat who served as ambassador to China during Mr Saddam Hussein’s Baathist rule. Gunmen killed another career diplomat, Ms Aqila al-Hashemi, in September 2003, just weeks after she became a member of Iraq’s US-appointed Governing Council, which is now defunct.
— Reuters |
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Baghdad, June 12 The Turks, who were kidnapped in Fallujah on June 7, were being taken home to Turkey, the diplomat said. It was not clear who had abducted them. Meanwhile, Iraqi kidnappers killed a
Lebanese and two of his Iraqi colleagues. The body of Hussein Ali
Alyan, 28, from Qalawiya in south Lebanon, and those of the two Iraqis
were dumped on a road between Fallujah and Ramadi, west of Baghdad,
sources said. — Reuters |
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Pak warplanes attack Al-Qaida targets
A bomb exploded in Dera Ismail Khan town, 130 km east of the heart of the battles between the army and militants around Wana, killing one person and wounding four at a house of a senior official in Pakistan’s paramilitary border force. After fighting had raged through the night, the dawn rose with jets screaming through the skies and helicopters hovering above the Shakai area of South Waziristan, residents said. Up to 600 foreign militants, including Arabs, Chechens and Uzbeks linked to Osama Bin Laden’s Al-Qaida network, have been hiding out in Pakistan’s lawless tribal areas, protected by Pakistani tribesmen. The fighting had spread into neighbouring North Waziristan agency where militants fired rockets at paramilitary checkposts during the night and soldiers returned fire, the residents said. “I woke up to the roar of jets. Then I saw three helicopters flying in the direction of Shakai,” said a resident. “There was a lot of firing like a guerrilla battle going on all night,” said a resident of Shakai. In Miranshah, the capital of North Waziristan agency, one checkpost outside the town was damaged but no casualties were reported, officials said. While gunships have been used in earlier operations in the tribal areas that have failed to net any senior Al-Qaida or militant leaders, air force jets were sent in for the first time this week to bomb houses where militants had been spotted. Pakistani forces had destroyed the house of a tribesman where one unidentified Al-Qaida member had taken refuge in the past, military spokesman Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan said. They had also targeted a militant training camp and an Al-Qaida safe house. The government suspected a link between the fighting and an attempt to kill the military commander in Karachi on Thursday, Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat said yesterday. — Reuters |
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1 killed in Pak blast
Islamabad, June 12 A powerful bomb exploded outside the residence Ghani-ur Rehman, commander of Frontier Constabulary in Dere Ismail Khan city near the South Waziristan tribal region, where Pakistani forces are engaged in a fierce fight against Al-Qaida extremists and sympathisers. According to police reports, Rehman was unhurt, but a government official, crossing the road when the blast occurred, died on the spot. Four others, including two security guards stationed at the Commander’s residence were injured in the blast. |
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Farewell to Ronald Reagan
Simi Valley (California), June 12 The casket, accompanied by a stoic Mrs Nancy Reagan, arrived at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in the late afternoon yesterday following a flight from Washington and a slow, 40-km motorcade from the navy air station at Oint Mugu. Hundreds of well-wishers cheered Mrs Reagan when she left the plane, and crowds along the motorcade route waved flags, held their hands over their hearts and applauded as the hearse passed. The casket was then carried to the burial site, where final prayers were offered, an artillery battery and riflemen fired salutes, and a bugler played “Taps.”
— AP |
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Tehran, June 12 An official from the southern city’s university hospital, Mohammad Baqer Lankarani, told state television that 23 of those admitted for care were in a critical condition, “and doctors are not very optimistic”. Up to six of the victims have reportedly been blinded. The production and consumption of alcohol has been banned in Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution. Nevertheless, the making of potent home brews and the illegal import of booze is common in a country once known for its fine wines. Authorities said the locally-produced tipple appeared to contain methanol, a highly poisonous industrial alcohol used in the manufacture of dyes and anti-freeze. Small quantities of the chemical can kill, blind and cause serious damage to the liver and kidneys.
— AFP |
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Kathmandu, June 12 No group has claimed responsibility
for the city's second blast in less than a week. "We are
investigating and believe it was the work of Maoists," a police
spokesman said. The factory was closed at the time of the blast. —
Reuters |
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Washington, June 12 District Courts Judge Phyllis
Hamilton of San Francisco pronounced the sentence on Wednesday after
the company, Berkeley Nucleonics Corp (BNC), pleaded guilty. |
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US national shot
Riyadh, June 12 ''The victim is believed to be an American male. There has been a shooting death,'' a US embassy spokeswoman said. Witnesses said the man was shot inside his car as he parked in front of his house in Maathar district.
— Reuters |
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Wana, June 12