Islamabad, February 5
Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has invited Chairman of the breakaway faction of the All-Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) Syed Ali Shah Geelani to visit Pakistan “for a dialogue on the Kashmir issue.”

Prime Minister Aziz assured Geelani that Pakistan “would never abandon the people of Kashmir.”

Mr Geelani, who still supports armed struggle for resolution of the Kashmir issue, had formed his own APHC faction after developing serious differences with Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and other Hurriyat leaders.

The Mirwaiz, who visited Pakistan last month, has been asking Kashmiri militants to give up armed struggle and join the dialogue process.

‘The News’ quoted Mr Aziz as saying here that Pakistan is in constant contact with the Kashmiri leaders across the divide.

He said out of box proposals put forward by President Pervez Musharraf like joint management of Kashmir could become a “solid base for dialogue on the issue.”

He said Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri is to visit India this month for talks with his Indian counterpart on the composite dialogue progress.

Negotiations were also underway from other channels and “all these efforts would yield positive results,” Mr Aziz said. — UNI

London, February 5
A letter bomb exploded at a London office today, injuring one woman employee.

The police said the area in Victoria Street in central London was cordoned off after they received reports of a suspicious package.

“Our crews treated a female patient for minor injuries and conveyed her to hospital,” a London ambulance spokesman said. — Reuters

Seoul, February 5
Hyundai Motor Co. Chairman Chung Mong-koo was convicted today of embezzlement and other charges and sentenced to three years in prison over a slush fund scandal that has weighed on the world's sixth-largest automaker.

Prosecutors, who have been taking a hard line on corruption in South Korea, last month sought a six-year jail term, calling Chung's alleged crimes "grave".

But Judge Kim Dong-oh said the lesser sentence was justified because of Chung's "big contributions to the development of the country's economy" and noted his involvement in charity to atone for his actions.

Still, Kim said Chung's actions were "clearly criminal acts" that "greatly undermined the transparency and soundness of business management and had many adverse effects on our business culture." Chung plans to appeal the verdict.

"We are greatly dissappointed by the court's ruling and it is Chairman Chung's intention to file an appeal," Hyundai Motor said in a statement.

Chung "retains full operational control and decision-making authority," it said, adding that Hyundai Motor said its domestic and overseas operations "will continue to function as normal".

The 68-year-old Chung will remain free for the time being and doesn't face immediate detention. He missed more than two months of work after being jailed following his April arrest and entering a hospital for a health exam. He was granted bail in June and returned to work in July.

Chung had apologized for his actions and his lawyers argued he be given a suspended sentence. — AP

Nairobi, February 5
About 70,000 children have been conscripted into Somalia’s fighting factions, exposing them to attacks and separating them from their families, a Somali government official said here.

“These children have been recruited over time and now about 70,000 are involved in this conflict, on all sides,” the official, Qamar Aden, was quoted as saying by the Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN), a part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Aden, who is the chairperson of Somalia’s parliamentary committee on human rights, said the figure was provided by the UNs Joint Needs Assessment team for Somalia.

Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, in its 2004 report, had estimated that 2,00,000 children had been recruited into the different factions of Somalia’s conflict over a 14-year period.

Aden said the government had released all child soldiers captured in the fighting with the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC). However, those released do not undergo any form of rehabilitation because of a lack of capacity in Somalia’s United Nations-recognised Transitional Federal Government (TFG).

“Currently we have no policy on the released children. We just give them amnesty and let them go. They are basically back on the street, since we don’t have the means to help them,” she said, adding: “Now we are asking the international community to help us rehabilitate these children.”

Aden, along with high level government delegation, was on en route to France to attend the ‘Free Children From War’ conference, convened by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and UNICEF on February 5 and 6 to examine the protection and reintegration of children with armed forces and groups. — IRIN

Islamabad, February 5
Two pro-government tribal elders were killed in a roadside bomb explosion in Bajaur region of Pakistan today.

The bomb was detonated in the Charmang area of Bajur tribal region by remote control when the tribesmen were walking along a road, Geo television reported.

Another man was injured in the blast. No one claimed responsibility for the attack but anti-government militants are blamed for such attacks.

Pakistani air strike on a religious seminary had killed some 80 persons in Bajur in October last year.

The government had said they were militants and were getting training in the seminary but the locals said that all those killed were students and some were in the age of five years.

The area, bordering Afghanistan, has been tense since the seminary attack and Islamic groups have staged anti-government rallies in the region.

Bajur region has seen bomb blasts and attacks on government buildings and officials as well as members of non-governmental organisations in recent months.

Two women and another man from an NGO were injured when a roadside bomb hit their car in Bajur four months ago. — PTI

Kathmandu, February 5
The deepening petroleum crisis due to the ongoing violent protests in Nepal’s Terai region has forced the government to impose rationing of fuel in the Kathmandu Valley.

An emergency meeting of the Supply Management Committee headed by Baman Prasad Neupane, joint secretary at the Ministry of Home Affairs, imposed the rationing on petroleum products, fixing two litres for motorcycles and five litres for cars at one time from a service station.

It was also decided to activate alternative routes to import petroleum products such as Bhairahawa-Sunauli and Nepalgunj-Rupadiya, since the major import point at Birgunj-Raxaul in India remained closed for the 19th day. They also considered importing petroleum through Kakarbhitta-Panitanki route in eastern Nepal.

Although the Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) has claimed it pumped out 84,000 litres of petrol yesterday, which was higher than on previous days, dealers said the service stations dried out amid soaring demand, The Himalayan Times daily said today.

“Most pumps out of a total of 114 in the valley have already gone dry. The few ones still distributing fuel are facing problems due to long queues,” said Shiva Prasad Ghimire, president of Nepal Petroleum Dealers’ Association. — PTI