Kandahar, February 17
A suicide bombing at an outdoor dog fighting competition killed 80 persons and wounded many today, an Afghan governor said, in what appeared to be the deadliest terror attack in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

Officials said the attack apparently targeted a prominent militia commander, who had stood up against the Taliban. He was believed to have died in the attack.

Several hundred persons, including Afghan militia leaders, had gathered to watch the event on the western edge of the southern city of Kandahar. Witnesses reported gunfire from bodyguards after the blast; it was not immediately clear how many of the casualties might have been caused by the bullets.

Kandahar Governor Asadullah Khalid said 80 persons had been killed in the attack. Abdullah Fahim, a health ministry spokesman, said 90 were wounded.

Kandahar, the Taliban’s former stronghold and Afghanistan’s second largest city, is one of the country’s largest opium poppy producing areas. The province had been the scene of fierce battles between NATO forces, primarily from Canada and the United States, and Taliban fighters over the past two years.

Dog-fighting competitions are a popular form of entertainment around Afghanistan. The fights attract hundreds of spectators, who cram into a tight circle around the spectacle.

The blast crumpled several Afghan police trucks and left bloodstains around the barren dirt field. Afghan soldiers donated blood at Kandahar’s main hospital after the attack, said Dr Durani.

“There are too many patients here,” he said. “Some of them are in very serious condition,” he said.

Wali Karzai, brother of President Hamid Karzai and the president of Kandahar’s provincial council, said the target of the attack was Abdul Hakim Jan, the leader of a local militia, who was killed in the attack. — AP

Mogadishu, February 17
Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf escaped unharmed today when suspected Islamist insurgents hit his presidential compound in Mogadishu with mortar bombs for a second day, one of his aides said. Witnesses said the shelling wounded at least five people.

A presidential aide told Reuters that Yusuf was safe and the mortars did not land anywhere near his private quarters.

“Five mortars were fired at the president’s house, one of them landed outside the gate of the palace wounding two women and three men,” witness Abdulahi Mohamed told Reuters by phone.Another fell inside while others exploded at the corners of the palace.”

Yusuf’s interim government and its Ethiopian military allies are battling gunmen loyal to an Islamist movement that ruled Mogadishu and much of southern Somalia for six months in 2006, before being ousted by the allied forces.

Residents in the coastal capital say the violence has worsened in recent weeks with increased insurgent attacks against military positions and police stations.

A presidential spokesman blamed Saturday’s shelling on the al-Shabab military wing of the sharia courts group. Residents said insurgents killed an official in north Mogadishu late on Saturday and hurled a grenade at a cinema in Hodan district in the south.

“Four men armed with pistols shot dead Banadir’s regional director-general for public affairs while leaving a mosque in Yaqshid on Saturday evening,” Yaqshid district chair Muhidin Hassan Jusus told Reuters by phone.

Suspected insurgents were blamed for a grenade attack on a cinema that killed a young boy and forced others to scatter as they were watching an English soccer match, witnesses said.

“The gunmen entered the cinema after the blast and began destroying the television equipment. Insurgents warmed the cinema owners twice last week to close down the cinema,” witness Shafi Abdulahi told Reuters.

“We were watching an exciting football game between Manchester United and Arsenal. I have never been scared like last night. I’ve decided not to go to a cinema ever again.” — Reuters

About three dozen National Assembly constituencies across the country will be in the spotlight with Monday’s elections promising a close contest among high-profile candidates.

Most of these, about two dozen, are in Punjab, four in Sindh, three in the North-West Frontier Province and one in Balochistan.

The contestants include some prime ministerial hopefuls though none has a national standing or international recognition. The assassination of Benazir Bhutto and disqualification of former premier Nawaz Sharif has removed from the contention two of the most eligible candidates for the coveted slot.

The only politician publicly projecting himself as future Prime Minister if his Pakistan Muslim League (PML-Q) and other allies win the majority is former Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervez Elahi.

He enjoys President Musharraf’s tacit blessing and is contesting from three constituencies, all in Punjab, including Attock, Yazman (Bahawalpur) and Chakwal. The Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and PML-Nawaz have fielded candidates against him on all three seats.

Elahi’s cousin PML-Q chief, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain is contesting from two seats, one in his hometown Gujrat and the other in the adjacent district of Sialkot. In Gujrat, he is locked in a fierce electoral battle against traditional rival and former commerce minister Ahmed Mukhtar of the PPP.

Other potential aspirants for the Prime Minister's Office are Makhdoom Amin Fahim of PPP, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, secretary general Muttahida Majlise Amal, former interior minister Aftab Sherpao, ANP chief Asfandyar Wali Khan and Makhdoom Javed Hashmi of PML-N as a standby for Nawaz Sharif. Fahim has an easy run in his home constituency of Hala in Sindh where his family has a spiritual following as well.

Fazl alienated his other allies in the MMA including its president Qazi Hussain Ahmed, by unilaterally rejecting all pleas for boycott. He expects to capture enough seats in a hung Parliament to hold the balance and be a formidable candidate for the post. He is contesting from two seats - in his hometown Dera Ismail Khan and adjacent Bannu district. In D.I. Khan, other political parties have joined hands against him to support PPP candidate Faisal Kundi.

The most exciting contest is set in the capital's twin city Rawalpindi where Musharraf's favourite - former information minister Shaikh Rashid Ahmed - is locked in a fierce three-way fight against an inveterate Musharraf foe Javed Hashmi of PML-N and Amir Piracha of PPP.

Rashid won the five previous elections since 1985 and is regarded as a genuinely grassroots politician but is facing the toughest battle of his career. Hashmi is running for two other National Assembly constituencies, Lahore and Multan. In Multan, top PPP leader Shah Ahmed Mehmood is contesting against him. PPP's secretary general Raja Pervez Ashraf faces a challenge from PML-N's Chaudhry Riaz in Rawalpindi (Gujjar Khan).

Former foreign minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri is having a tough time in Kasur against another former foreign minister Sardar Assef Ahmed Ali of the PPP.

In a last-minute push for popular votes, Pakistani politicians indulged in wild mutual attacks and made conflicting high claims of success as election campaign marred by violence ended yesterday, 36 hours ahead of Monday’s general election.

Top leaders of main political parties, including PPP’s Asif Zardari, PML-Q’s Chaudhry Pervez Elahi, PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif and MQM’s Altaf Hussain, directly or indirectly addressed rallies and appeared in TV interviews. Militants launched sporadic bombing attacks and rivals clashed at various places in the country resulting in several casualties.

President Pervez Musharraf in Islamabad while launching a project to upgrade the Korakoram Highway, promised free and fair elections and expressed the hope that it would lead to a stable democratic government.

Army chief Gen Ashfaq Kayani met President Musharraf and briefed him on the deployment of the army to help the civil administration maintain peace and order during the polls. About 81,000 troops have been deployed but Kayani said they would play no role in supervising the polls and would move only when called by the civil authorities.

PPP co-chairman Asif Zardari met Nawaz Sharif in Lahore on Saturday with both agreeing to coordinate their moves in the post-election period for the formation of a national government in case of victory and a united movement if the elections were rigged. The two, however, failed to agree on a last-minute seat adjustment in high profile contests to jointly face the pro-Musharraf PML-Q candidates.

Zardari cancelled, on security concerns, his scheduled appearance at a reference in the honour of Benazir Bhutto organised by the South Asia Free Media Association (SAFMA) in Lahore.

Former Punjab chief minister, Chaudhry Pervez Elahi, who led the election campaign of the pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League (PML-Q) and aspired to be its candidate for the Prime Minister, claimed that the PML-Q and allies would sweep polls in all four provinces.

PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, who has been personally advocating conservative policies often at odds with Musharraf’s even in the past, has promised in an interview to reverse Musharraf’s US-driven policy by seeking a negotiated solution to the conflict in Waziristan.

Nawaz Sharif and brother Shahbaz Sharif addressed series of rallies on the last day of campaign. Nawaz said the ‘King’s Party’ would bite the dust and meet worst defeat despite efforts to rig the polls.

Nawaz Sharif said Musharraf is planning to flee the country sensing defeat for his supporters, despite massive rigging. “But we will not let him sneak out of Pakistan,” he said. 

Attorney-General (AG) Malik Qayyum has served a legal notice on Human Rights Watch(HRW) for circulating a defamatory report about him in which he reportedly predicted massive rigging in elections.

The HRW claimed that it had an audio recording of an alleged conversation of the AG with an unidentified man in November last year, during which he had stated that the elections in Pakistan would be rigged.The legal notice said the HRW report was "extremely malicious, defamatory and baseless, as was the alleged recording it claims to be based upon."

It said the alleged conversation was clearly fabricated and Malik Qayyum did not, at any juncture, have that conversion. The notice demanded immediate removal of the recording and the news item from the HRW website and a public apology with the same degree of prominence as well as payment of Rs 300 million as damages for defamation, which Malik Qayyum has publicly undertaken to use for a charitable purpose. It also asks the organisation to indicate its source for the fabricated audio conversation so that appropriate action could be taken.

The notice has been served on director, Asia region(HRW), Brad Adams, and HRW advocacy director in Washington, Tom Malinowski, as well as on Ali Dayan Hasan through the organisation, claiming Rs 300 million in damages for defamation unless it tendered an unconditional apology within 30 days.

At least one person was killed and over 70 others sustained injuries, two seriously, in Nepalgunj, in mid-western Nepal, on Sunday while the cadres of agitating Madhesi groups scuffled with the riot police.

According to J. Panday, a local correspondent of The Kathmandu Post, a leading English daily in Nepal, Gulzar Khan who was sustained injures in the police firing died while being taken to Bheri Zonal Hopital.

The police baton-charged and used teargas shells to disperse the protesters and then fired live rounds after they could not control the crowd. During the clashes, 27 demonstrators, 29 police personnel have been injured while exchanging brickbats. The police reportedly arrested scores of demonstrators.

Following the violent clashes between the police and cadres of United Madhesi Democratic Front, the Banke district administration office has clamped curfew in Nepalgunj municipality and adjoining eight village development committees from 2 pm.

“As the situation turned tense after the agitators pelted stones on the police, the curfew order was issued,” Panday quoted chief district officer Narendraraj Sharma as saying.

Meanwhile, a report from Mahottari district in central Tarai said, over three dozens of agitators were injured in the clashes between the agitators and the police in the district headquarters Jaleshwor today. The agitators also set fire to a police van during the clash.

As per the UDMF’s decision to continue its agitation on fifth consecutive day of its indefinite general strike, its cadres padlocked the offices, including local administration offices, agriculture, land revenue, forest, drinking water and urban development in Mahottari, Siraha, Sarlahi, Parsa, Bara and Rautahat district at 10:30 am.

Washington, February 17
White House hopeful Senator Hillary Clinton has clashed with rival Barack Obama over how the Democratic Party should choose its presidential nominee, saying unelected delegates were free to make up their own minds and not bound by the popular vote.

Trailing Obama in the nomination race after losing eight straight contests to the Illinois senator, Clinton and her advisers suggested hundreds of "superdelegates" -- party activists and elected lawmakers attending the Democratic convention in August -- were not bound by the results of voting in their states,the US media reported.

"Superdelegates are a part of the process," Clinton was quoted as saying by the Washington Post."They are supposed to exercise independent judgement," Clinton said yesterday while campaigning in Wisconsin, which holds primaries on Tuesday.

Clinton and her advisers made clear their view that the 795 unelected “superdelegates” could clinch the nomination for her even if Obama prevails among voters in primaries and caucuses.

Obama, who has won the popular vote so far, has argued that “superdelegates” should back the candidate who wins the most delegates based on primaries and caucuses in states across the country. He now has a slight lead in pledged delegates after a string of victories and hopes to extend his winning streak in Wisconsin and in caucuses in Hawaii on Tuesday. — AFP

Eau Claire (USA), February 17
Barack Obama is wearing a wristband in memory of a soldier killed in Iraq, given to him by a mother who said she wants the Democratic presidential candidate to keep others from dying.

Tracy Jopek of Merrill, Wisconsin, gave Obama the bracelet at a rally on Friday night in Green Bay, and Obama was still wearing it yesterday as he campaigned across the state before Tuesday's primary.

The bracelet has her son's name, Sgt Ryan David Jopek, and the date the 20-year-old was killed in Iraq by a roadside bomb, Aug 2, 2006. "All gave some -- He gave all, it says. "She gave me this wristband, which I'm very grateful for," Obama told the Green Bay audience, halting and lowering his voice from his normally upbeat presentation.

"I meet mothers and family members all over the country who are still mourning for their children but are also thinking about the young men and women who are still over there and wondering when it will end." Obama has not made a point of showing it to reporters or others on the campaign trail. A campaign staffer described it as black metal band with silver lettering.

Jopek said she and her daughter briefly met the Illinois senator at the rally and showed him a picture of a smiling Ryan dressed for battle. She said the senator hugged her and her daughter, asked a couple of questions about Ryan and told her how much he appreciated the bracelet. — AP

Los Angeles, February 17
An attorney, who claims to represent Britney Spears, has filed papers to move her conservatorship case from the Los Angeles County Superior Court to the federal court, but legal experts question whether his legal strategy is viable and whether he can represent the troubled pop star at all.

In a document filed in the US District Court in Los Angeles, attorney Jon Eardley writes that Spears has not “received the benefit of a single hearing before the court,” and “is being confined by the conservator to the private prison of her own home,” in violation of her civil rights.

After more than a year of bizarre behaviour and two stints in a psychiatric hospital this year, Spears was placed under a conservatorship by a superior court commissioner at the beginning of February. Conservatorships are established when a court determines someone cannot take care of themselves or their affairs.

In his federal court filing, Eardley asks “whether an adult child may be subjected by her parents to their complete and total control” and claims her conservators - her father, James Spears, and attorney Andrew Wallet - control what prescription medications she takes. Commissioner Reva Goetz has found that under the terms of the conservatorship, Britney Spears lacks the capacity to hire her own lawyer without the approval of her conservators. — AP

Kuala Lumpur, February 17
Former Malaysian deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim today criticised the authorities for using water cannon and teargas against ethnic Indians protesting against alleged discrimination.

Yesterday’s rally was the latest in a series of street demonstrations that had rocked this multicultural nation as political parties maneuvered to win the hearts and minds of voters ahead of general elections on March 8.

More than 300 persons defied a police ban, gathering in downtown Kuala Lumpur to present roses to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and protest against alleged discrimination before the police fired tear gas and water cannon to break up the rally.

“This is clearly a police state,” said Anwar. “I mean a group marching peacefully to present flowers to the Prime Minister, what kind of treatment did the government give to these people?” he asked.

“It was very high-handed,” said the de facto opposition leader.

The police detained 160 persons in scuffles during the rally and later outside a Hindu temple nearby, the capital’s police chief Muhammad Sabtu Osman told the official Bernama news agency.

Most have since been released but lawyers claimed that a female protester, one of nine, who were being held till Monday, was abused in custody.

“While being detained, she said she was beaten up by the police,” said lawyer Gobind Singh, who is representing the nine.

“Although she was in pain, she did not receive any medical treatment,” he added. — AFP

London, February 17
An Indian student, studying law at Newcastle, has been jailed and faces deportation to India for making indecent exposure and sexual assault.

Amit Shivrain, 26, was jailed by magistrates in Newcastle in north England, for four months and will be on the sex offenders’ list for seven years. He was in the UK on a student visa.

Shivrain allegedly attacked a woman as she walked to work and exposed himself near a primary school in Newcastle.

Paul Doney, prosecuting lawyer, said: “He stopped her to ask for the time. Because she was not wearing a watch she stopped to get her mobile phone from her rucksack.” While she was activating the phone, Shivrain allegedly exposed himself. The woman walked away and phoned the police when she got to work.

The woman identified him when he was placed in a video line-up, and said in a statement the incident had left her very distressed and frightened to go out alone, reports from Newcastle said.

Shivrain’s lawyer Gregg Stephens said this “moment of madness” had ruined his client’s life. He said his client had come to the UK to study to be a lawyer and that he would now have to return to India.

“We have got a man of previous good character with a good upbringing, he has come to this country to study and pursue a career in law. He fully appreciates the way he behaved was unacceptable,” Stephens said.

“There is no chance of him getting a career as a lawyer or a barrister now. He has already punished himself as a result of committing this offence. It seems that his visa is unlikely to be renewed. The defendant has effectively ruined his life in a moment of complete madness,” he said. — PTI 

Colombo, February 17
Rubbishing frequent claims by Sri Lankan government that the elusive LTTE supremo Vellupillai Prabhakaran has been injured in a military raid, his key aide has said the people would soon realise the “futility” of army’s claims of success against the rebels.

“A false propaganda saying our leader Prabhakaran is injured is being carried. Nobody can approach our leader,” LTTE political head B. Nadesan told the Tamil Daily Thinakkural in an interview yesterday.

While the Sri Lankan security forces were claiming success in their clashes against LTTE, Nadesan said the “people of Sri Lanka will realise the futility of such a claim in times to come”.

Lankan Air Chief Marshal Roshan Goonetilleke had said that fighter jets had dropped 20 bombs on Prabhakaran’s bunker on November 26, 2007 and had claimed that the rebel leader could have been injured in the attack. The LTTE denied the claim. — PTI

Toronto, February 17
In his battle to overturn a rule making safety helmets mandatory, a devout Sikh in Canada underwent a trial to prove that the turban didn't come at high speeds.

Brampton-based Baljinder Badesha, who has challenged the helmet rule for motorcyclists, performed 110-km speed trials on a highway last year to counter prosecution argument that turbans came off in high winds.

His high-speed driving images were presented in the court on Friday by his lawyers to discount theories put forward by prosecutors that turbans came off at high speeds, exposing riders to serious risks.

To prove their point, prosecutors also presented their own test in which a mannequin head was tied on a stick and then exposed to a high-wind tunnel.It proved that turbans came off in 100-km winds.

However, when confronted by Badesha's lawyers, prosecutors admitted that their experiment "grossly miscalculated" the force of the wind aimed at bashing the mannequin head.

Scott Hutchison, a lawyer with the Ontario Human Rights Commission that is assisting Badesha, said they carried out their own turban trial at 110-km speed to demolish prosecutors' argument.

The 39-year-old Sikh said the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms allowed him to practise his Sikh religion.He said he knew that driving a motorcycle without a helmet on highways was a dangerous thing. But he was willing to take that risk for his faith, he said.

He gave the example of Sikh soldiers never wearing helmets.

Badesha, who owns a motorcycle dealership in Brampton suburb here, was charged for breaking the rule in September 2005 and fined $110. He has not driven a motorcycle even as part of test-driving at his dealership since then.

Sikhs are allowed to wear a turban instead of a helmet while driving in the provinces of British Columbia and Manitoba.—IANS

Dhaka, February 17
The West Bengal government has offered 111 truckloads of rice and other relief material for the victims of recent cyclone in Bangladesh, days after the Indian envoy ruled out easing of a ban on export of cheap rice to allow supplies to Dhaka.

“Being a neighbouring country we feel great attachment with Bangladesh for similarity of language,” West Bengal minister for transport, sports and youth Subhash Chakravarty said after handing over relief material to Bangladesh’s food and disaster management ministry yesterday.

The relief goods for the victims of the November cyclone included 1,010 tonnes of rice, 50 tonnes of wheat, 7,500 pieces of blankets, 10,000 pieces of sarees and 6,000 mosquito nets.

The minister, who was accompanied by litterateurs Sunil Ganguly and Abul Bashar, actor Biswajit, Sumitra Mitra, Amar Pal and other eminent personalities, promised to construct 1,000 houses in cyclone-affected areas.

The gesture came two days after Indian High Commissioner here defended New Delhi’s decision to re-impose restrictions on the export of the foodgrain priced below $510 a tonne. — PTI