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30 killed in Lahore blast
Policemen and rescuers search for victims in the rubble of a destroyed police building following the suicide car bomb attack in Lahore on Wednesday. — AFP
B’desh Rifles Mutiny
NKorea threatens to attack SKorea if ships are searched
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Court rejects Suu Kyi’s defence witnesses
Canadian wins Man Booker Prize
Indo-American kids hot contenders
for Spelling Bee
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30 killed in Lahore blast
A car bomb blast in Lahore killed at least 30 persons and injured 80 on Wednesday.The city headquarters of Pakistan's main security agency, the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) was targetted, officials said.
It was one of the most devastating and audacious suicide attacks Lahore has witnessed so far. It is one of its busiest centres where key officials, commercial buildings, including the provincial assembly, are located. Most of these buildings were damaged. The latest explosion was the third major strike in Lahore in as many months. Earlier, in March the Sri Lankan cricket team was targeted and two weeks later suicide bombers occupied a police training centre near Lahore killing several policemen.
The attackers used guns and grenades to shoot their way into the ISI building but failed to overcome barriers and guards. Instead they detonated about 120 kg of explosives in their van outside the newly built three-storey rescue police building that collapsed instantly burying dozens of policemen.
Provincial law minister Sanaullah said 14 policemen, including an inspector and some ISI staff, were among those killed in the blast. Authorities claimed to have arrested five suspects from the scene of the blast who were whisked away to an unknown place for interrogation. The Punjab government will pay Rs. 3 million to each family of the dead. Top government officials immediately described the incident as a fallout of the ongoing military operations in Swat and tribal areas (FATA) which, they said, was expected. President Asif Zardari termed it as "dying kicks" of an enemy on the run. Interior minister Rehman Malik said militants facing defeat in Swat and FATA in the ongoing operations are making last gasp efforts to terrorize people and destabilise the country. Eye witnesses said the attackers arrived at the ISI centre at about 10 am when the traffic was heavy on Fatima Jinnah Road where the offices of ISI and police are located. "I saw two persons coming out of a red van,' said an elderly man." They opened fire and lobbed grenades on police guards and pedestrians crossing the road." Then there was suddenly a huge blast, he said.
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B’desh Rifles Mutiny
A Bangladeshi government inquiry into the February 25 Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) mutiny found frustrations over wages and army superiority in the force led to the carnage that killed 74 people, including 57 army officers.
These findings disprove earlier statements made by the ministers that Islamic militants could be behind the carnage. However, no evidence was found.The probe, headed by former bureaucrat Anisuzzaman Khan also found that tensions stemming from lifestyle and benefit differences between the army officers and the regular jawans contributed to the ill feeling. "There was anger among the border guards over the lifestyle of their seniors in the army," Khan told reporters at the publication of the report.
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NKorea threatens to attack SKorea if ships are searched
Seoul, May 27 In Moscow, news agencies quoted an official as saying that Russia is taking precautionary security measures because it fears mounting tensions over the test could escalate to war.Adding to mounting tension in the region, South Korean media reported that Pyongyang had restarted a plant that makes plutonium that can be used in nuclear bombs. North Korea's latest threat came after Seoul announced, following the North's nuclear test on Monday, it was joining the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative, launched under the George W. Bush administration as a part of its "war on terror". "Any hostile act against our peaceful vessels including, search and seizure will be considered an unpardonable infringement on our sovereignty and we will immediately respond with a powerful military strike," a North Korean army spokesman was quoted as saying by the official KCNA news agency. He reiterated that the North was no longer bound by an armistice signed at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War because Washington had ignored its responsibility as a signatory by drawing Seoul into the anti-proliferation effort. Interfax news agency quoted an unnamed security source as saying a stand-off triggered by Pyongyang's nuclear test on Monday could affect the security of Russia's far eastern regions, which border North Korea. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, who called him on Wednesday, that Russia would work with Seoul on a new UN. Security Council resolution. Japan's upper house of parliament denounced the test and said in a resolution the government should step up its sanctions. — Reuters
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Court rejects Suu Kyi’s defence witnesses
Yangon, May 27
The court allowed only one of four witnesses requested by Suu Kyi's defence team, advocate Kyi Win, who will testify on Thursday when the trial resumes. "It is very unfair," Nyan Win, one of Suu Kyi's lawyers, said after Wednesday's closed session inside Yangon's Insein prison. Critics say the trial is a charade to keep the charismatic National League for Democracy (NLD) leader in detention during the Junta's promised 2010 election. Opponents say the poll will entrench military power after nearly a half century of rule. On Wednesday, the court rejected Win Tin, a senior member of Suu Kyi's NLD, the party's vice-chairman Tin Oo, who has been under house arrest since 2003, and another lawyer from acting as defence witnesses. Prosecutors were allowed 23 witnesses, but called only 14."If the trial goes this quickly, we can expect a verdict on Friday," Nyan Win said. Suu Kyi (63), is accused of breaking the terms of her house arrest by allowing an uninvited American intruder to stay for two days after he swam to her home on May 4. Activists say a guilty verdict is inevitable in a country where more than 2,000 political prisoners are behind bars and courts routinely bend the law to the suit the generals. — Reuters
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Canadian wins Man Booker Prize
London, May 27 The panel, which comprised writers Jane Smiley, Amit Chaudhuri and Andrey Kurkov, praised the 77-year-old for the originality and depth of her work. “Alice is mostly known as a short story writer and yet she brings as much depth, wisdom and precision to every story as most novelists bring to a lifetime of novels,” they said. “To read Alice is to learn something every time that you never thought of before." Alice, who was born and still lives in Canada, published her first collection of stories, “Dance of the Happy Shades”, in 1968, which won Canada’s prestigious Governor General’s Award. The Man Booker International Prize is affiliated with the Booker Prize, one of the world’s most prestigious literary awards, but is unique as it can be won by an author of any nationality providing their work is available in English. Munro will receive the prize at a ceremony in Dublin on June 25. — AFP
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Indo-American kids hot contenders
for Spelling Bee
Washington, May 27
The three, Kavya Shivashankar, Sidharth Chand and Vaibhav S. Vavilala, are among 35 Indian-American and other South Asian students vying for the top honours in Thursday's finals here with a record 293 spellers.
Scripps Bee is America's largest and longest-running educational promotion, administered on a not-for-profit basis by the E W Scripps Company and 287 local spelling bee sponsors.
As the preliminary round of the contest begins Wednesday afternoon at the Grand Hyatt Washington, the question uppermost in the minds of Indian Americans is whether history will be repeated.
Spellers of Indian descent have won six out of the last 10 years, but girls have won only twice in the last decade. — IANS
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injured 80 on
Wednesday. The city headquarters of Pakistan's main security agency, the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) was targetted, officials said.
Canadian short story writer Alice Munro has won this year’s Man Booker International Prize worth $95,000, the judges said today.
The panel, which comprised writers Jane Smiley, Amit Chaudhuri and Andrey Kurkov, praised the 77-year-old for the originality and depth of her work. “Alice is mostly known as a short story writer and yet she brings as much depth, wisdom and precision to every story as most novelists bring to a lifetime of novels,” they said.
