A top leader of the ruling coalition, Asfandyar Wali Khan, chief of the Awami National Party (ANP), narrowly escaped a suicide bomb attack in his residence that killed at least five persons, including his gunman, and wounded 18 others, today.

“Khan is safe and unhurt,”provincial police chief Malik Naveed said on telephone. Besides the bomber, two policemen and a bank manager, who had gone to greet the SNP chief on Eid, were among those killed.

The bomber, a young fellow, tried to force his way into Asfandyar’s Charsadda residence, known as Wali Bagh named after his father Khan Wali Khan.

Vowing to fight out terrorists, Khan said today he narrowly escaped death when his guard threw himself on the suicide bomber, who kept advancing even after a policeman and the guard fired at him. “He was about 20 feet away from me,” Khan told newsmen while giving details of the attack. He said about 30 guests were in the tent where he had come to greet him on Eid. Later, all of them got up and he came out of the tent to see them off.

“I must warn the terrorists that they cannot deter us,” Khan said, adding that the extremists would not succeed in driving them away from the path chosen by Badshah (Ghaffar) Khan and my father Wali Khan to cleanse our soil of the enemies of Pakhtoons,” he said. Khan said the government was prepared to talk to only those who would lay down their arms and accept the writ of the state.

“I saw one young man come toward us after forcing himself into the security gate. The police guards had a problem because the attacker had come between us and the police. Somebody fired from the side and hit the attacker. My gunman Alla Bukhsh Zamin also fired at him, but he kept advancing at which the gunman threw himself on the attacker. Both fell down and the bomb went off blowing both of them up,” Khan said.

Malik Naveed confirmed that Khan was the target and had been receiving threatening calls for quite some time. Militants in Swat and Bajaur agency had warned him of dire consequences for supporting the military operations.

Moscow, October 2
Battling to insulate former Communist nation’s nascent economy from the global financial meltdown, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has blamed the US for showing “irresponsibility” while managing the crisis.

“We see an inability to take appropriate decisions. This isn’t the irresponsibility of particular individuals, it is the irresponsibility of a system that as we know had claims to leadership,” Putin said in his televised remarks at the cabinet meeting yesterday.

Putin said Russia could no longer remain unaffected by the “infection” originating from the US.

“Everything that is happening in economics and finance started in the US,” Putin said.

He, however, underscored that Russia could not abandon its national development plans due to crisis.

“The US not only can’t assume leadership, it can’t even take appropriate and absolutely essential measures for overcoming the crisis,” Putin said.

He pledged extra $50 billion to a previously announced $100 billion of funds for the banking industry on September 29 and said Central Bank will provide loans without collateral to banks, widening access to funding.

The liquidity package may boost inflation by as much as two percentage points, according to Alexei Ulyukayev, first deputy central bank chairman. — PTI

New York/Washington, October 2
The Indian American community today welcomed the Senate approval of the Indo-US nuclear deal and hoped that it will boost economic ties between the two countries.

“This would give an impetus to the second and third generation Indians to join the political mainstream which is so essential for any community to ensure that the issues of its concern are taken care of,” said chairman of the Indian-Americans for Democracy Sant Singh Chatwal.

Notably, leaders of the Indo-American community have been pushing for the deal for the last three years, lobbying hectically with the US lawmakers.

“It’s mission accomplished and feels great. What a gift to our country on Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday. We will continue to play a vital role to strengthen ties between US and India,” said Ashok Mago, chairman of the Dallas-based US- India forum, said in a statement.

Indian National Overseas Congress (INOC), USA, described the passage of the deal as “victory for the people of both nations.” “The deal would usher in a new era of cooperation between the two nations and lead to even stronger relationship in years to come,” said its general secretary George Abraham. — PTI

Brussels, October 2
Customs authorities at Brussels airport have seized over two million counterfeit medical pills from India, which were bound for Africa, the biggest such seizure ever in Europe, officials said today.

Blister packs of the fake medications — copies of Tramal, a strong analgesic made by German pharmaceutical company Grunenthal, and Swiss-based Roche’s anti-malarial treatment Fansidar were discovered in large bags, the customs service said in a statement.

They were sent in three shipments by a company based in Mumbai and were bound for two companies in a western African country after transiting in Casablanca, Morocco, it added.

“To our knowledge, this is the biggest seizure of counterfeit medicine ever carried out in Europe,” Lieven Muylaert, spokesman for the Customs and Excise Department said, adding that he could not immediately evaluate the cargo’s worth on the open market. Customs officers' suspicions were aroused first because the pills were not transported in boxes, and then by spelling mistakes on the packaging.

According to World Health Organisation estimates, fake medicines represent 10 per cent of the global pharmaceutical industry at some 45 billion euros and have started to penetrate drug markets in the developed world. — AFP

New York, October 2
In the midst of the housing mortgage crisis gripping the US, a Chicago woman has won an online bid to acquire a home in Michigan for just $1.75.

Noting that the price of the home in Saginaw, Michigan, was less than the price of a McDonald’s value meal, a media report said that it received total eight bids on eBay.com and was sold for $1.75 on Wednesday evening.

However, the winner of the bid, 30-year-old Joanne Smith of Chicago, would have to pay about $850 towards pending taxes and yard clean-up costs, the Saginaw News reported.

The winner herself, however, does not want to move to the house and wants to sell it further. “I am going to try and sell it,” she told the newspaper, adding, “I don’t have any plans to move to Saginaw. I don’t have any plans of moving out from Chicago.” Smith has not yet seen the property. “People from whom I bought the house are not giving me any information about it,” the report quoted her saying. “I know that the property is abandoned and that there are taxes owed on the house, but all I have is their e-mail,” she added.

The newspaper reported that it could not reach the seller, Southern Investments LLC, for comment. “I was trying to go and see it, but I am not going to make a 300-mile trip if I can’t go in the house and see inside,” Smith told the daily, adding, “It could be haunted or something.” “She will pay additional charges, aside from the dollar, to win the auction. Back taxes and a trash/weed clean-up will set the final price tag around $850. The fee is due by Tuesday, March 31, or the city will foreclose on the property,” the report said. — PTI

BRIEFLY

Heaviest man to wed in Oct
MONTERREY: Manuel Uribe, world's most obese man, says he will wed longtime girlfriend Claudia Solis on Oct 26 in Monterrey, Mexico. Uribe is unable to walk and is on his specially made bed. This year the Guinness Book of World Records declared Uribe, who tipped the scales at 560 kg in 2006, the world's heaviest man. He has shed about 250 kg since with the help of Solis. The two met four years ago. — AP

Indian artistes to sparkle UK fest
LONDON: Two Indian light artistes will participate in an international festival of lights organised by the city of Durham, north-east England, in November. The festival, names “enlightenment”, will feature four ambitious installations, two of them by the Indian artistes-Sanchayan Ghosh and Nandita Palchoudhury. — PTI

UN urges rebels to free 90 kids
KINSHASA: The UN has urged rebels from the Lord’s Resistance Army to free 90 schoolchildren abducted two weeks ago in eastern Congo. The UN children’s agency, UNICEF, and the UN special representative for children in armed conflict, Radhika Coomaraswamy, reminded the rebels that the abduction and use of children in armed groups is a crime against humanity. — AP

Suicide bombers kill 22
BAGHDAD: Twin suicide bombings near Shiite mosques in Baghdad on Thursday killed at least 16 persons as worshippers celebrated Eid al-Fitr, officials said. Another six persons were shot dead in an ambush in a restive city north of the capital, they said. In the second attack, a bomber slammed his explosives-filled car into an Iraqi military armoured vehicle at a checkpoint near a mosque in the nearby neighbourhood of Zafaraniyah, the officials said. — AFP

Extra-marital affair ‘can kill you’
London: Men, beware! An extra-marital affair can do more than just killing your marriage - it could kill you too, particularly if you are prone to bad headaches. Researchers have found that the strain of juggling married life and a secret lover leads to stress and tension for the cheating partner, which can can lead to migraine that could cause ballooning in a blood vessel in the brain. In their study, the researchers studied hundreds of patients across Italy who reported migraines and found that some of the worst affected were having affairs. Researchers advice for frazzled adulterers was to “take a time-out from the affair and have a brain scan.” — PTI