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4 killed in raids on Pak posts
US troops kill 8 insurgents in Iraq
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Islamic extremists behind Bali blasts
Alleged bomb plot mastermind held in Dhaka
32 feared dead in Nepal floods
Indians among 28 illegal migrants held in Turkey
3 Indians killed in Nepal road accident
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4 killed in raids on Pak posts
Miranshah, Pakistan, October 2 Pakistan has been trying to clear militants from its lawless tribal areas on the border since early last year. Hundreds of militants and Pakistani soldiers have been killed. The latest round of clashes began last week. In the first attack militants firing rockets launched a pre-dawn raid on a paramilitary check-post near the town of Miranshah in the troubled North Waziristan tribal region. “The rockets were fired from a nearby mountain ... two soldiers were killed and four wounded,” said a security official, who declined to be identified. Many Al-Qaida militants and their Taliban allies were believed to have slipped into Pakistan after US-led forces ousted the Taliban government in Afghanistan in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. Pakistani forces, backed by helicopter gunships, launched a fresh offensive in North Waziristan on Thursday and at least seven Pakistani soldiers have been killed since then.
— Reuters |
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US troops kill 8 insurgents in Iraq
Qaim, October 2 About 1,000 US troops, backed by attack helicopters and warplanes, began the offensive in the western village of Sadah yesterday, also hoping to close insurgent supply routes and stem violence ahead of Iraq’s crucial vote on a new constitution this month. The US aircraft firing missiles struck houses and cars, sending palls of smoke into the sky as the forces moved into Sadah, according to residents. Elsewhere, insurgents kidnapped the brother of Interior Minister Bayan Jabr Solagh, the Shiite official who heads police forces, in Baghdad yesterday, and the son of another top ministry official was kidnapped north of the capital.
— AP |
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Islamic extremists behind Bali blasts
Indonesia, October 2 Powerful bombs ripped apart three restaurants packed with Saturday night diners, bringing scenes of carnage and chaos to the paradise island and raising fears of a renewed surge of Muslim extremist violence in the region. Leaders around the world condemned the attacks as suspicion fell on Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), which has been blamed for a spate of bombings in Indonesia, including the Bali blasts three years ago that left 202 people dead. “The modus operandi is very similar to the previous bombings,” said Ansyaad Mbai, Indonesia’s top anti-terrorism official. He said remnants of backpacks, often used by suicide bombers, had been found in the wreckage. “We found bodies whose heads and legs are missing,” he said. More than 100 people were wounded, some of them gravely, by the almost simultaneous blasts at two beachfront seafood restaurants in Jimbaran and a third in a pedestrian neighbourhood in Kuta packed with shops and visitors. The island, a Hindu enclave in the world’s most populous Muslim nation, was just beginning to recover from the 2002 bombings which left 88 Australians dead and devastated Bali’s tourism industry. One Australian teenager was confirmed dead in yesterday’s attack but Australian Prime Minister John Howard, a staunch ally in the US "war on terror" who sent troops to Iraq, denied his country had been the target. The JI group, which wants to carve out an Islamic state across Southeast Asia, has been blamed for more than 50 bombings or attempted bombings since April 1999, including a Christmas Eve attack in 2000 on churches and priests that killed 19 people. Experts say the group aims to destabilise the region and bring Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore and the southern Philippines under a fundamentalist Islamic
umbrella. — AFP |
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Alleged bomb plot mastermind held in Dhaka
Dhaka, October 2 It said Hannan had been in hiding since July 2000 after the police found a powerful bomb, believed to be planted by Harkatul Jihad activists, near a rally that former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina addressed in the western Kotalipara area. The police recovered the remote-controlled bomb before it could be detonated and Hasina was not hurt. Yesterday night, members of elite Rapid Action battalion, made up of police and armed forces, arrested Hannan at a house in the Dhaka’s Madhya Badda area and also seized explosives and bomb-making materials. “Hannan is being interrogated,’’ a senior police officer said, but would provide no further details.— Reuters |
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32 feared dead in Nepal floods
Kathmandu, October 2 “At least 32 persons were missing and feared dead in the inundation and landslides caused by recurrent torrential downpours in Sirsha village of the district in the past few days,’’ the Kantipur said quoting local reporters. Only 10 bodies have been recovered so far, it added. “No government official or security personnel except teams of Nepal Bar Association and Red Cross were there to rescue the flood and landslide victims,’’ it said.
— UNI |
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Indians among 28 illegal migrants held in Turkey
Jerusalem, October 2 The border patrol teams captured the “illegal” migrants from India, Pakistan, Mauritania, Palestine, Algeria and Morocco during road checks in Bosnakvy and Jpsala in the northwestern Turkish province of Edirne, Turkish Daily News reported. All of these are being processed for deportation. A Turkish national, also caught with them, has been sent to a local public prosecutor’s office.
— PTI |
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10th planet has a moon
Los Angeles, October 2 While observing the new, so-called planet from Hawaii last month, a team of astronomers, led by Michael Brown of the California Institute of Technology, spotted a faint object trailing next to it. Because it was moving, astronomers ruled it was a moon and not a background star, which is stationary. The moon discovery is important because it can help scientists determine the new planet’s mass. In July, Brown announced the discovery of an icy, rocky object larger than Pluto in the Kuiper Belt, a disc of icy bodies beyond Neptune. Brown labeled the object a planet and nicknamed it Xena after the lead character in the former TV series “Xena: Warrior Princess”. By determining the moon’s distance and orbit around Xena, scientists can calculate how heavy Xena is. For example, the faster a moon goes around a planet, the more massive a planet is. But the newly discovered moon, nicknamed Gabrielle after Xena’s faithful travelling sidekick in the TV series, likely will not quell the debate over what exactly is a planet and whether Pluto should keep its status. The problem is, there is no official definition for a planet and setting standards like size limits potentially invites other objects to take the “planet” label. Possessing a moon is not a criterion of planethood since Mercury and Venus are moonless planets. Brown said he expected to find a moon orbiting Xena because many Kuiper Belt objects are paired with moons.
— AP |
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3 Indians killed in Nepal road accident
Kathmandu, October 2 The ill-fated bus with 42 Indian passengers was heading to Kathmandu from Birgunj in southern Nepal when it overturned in the Baireni area of Dhading district after it was hit by a loader, a heavy vehicle belonging to local road construction department, last evening, an army official said. Two women and a man were killed and 39 injured in the accident. However, the identity of those killed was not known yet. The injured passengers received first aid at the district’s Army Brigade office and were brought to Kathmandu for further treatment, the army official said. The bus passengers were heading to Kathmandu after visiting Manakamana Temple in Gorkha district.
— PTI |
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