Kabul, August 19
Gunmen stormed a bank building in the Afghan capital and battled police for hours on Wednesday on the eve of a cliffhanger election, which Taliban militants have vowed to disrupt.

The brazen early morning raid was the third major attack in Kabul in five days, shattering the calm in a city, which had been secure for months but is now tense and dotted with police checkpoints.

Polls show President Hamid Karzai leading but likely to fall short of the outright majority needed to avoid an October run-off, most likely against his main challenger, ex-foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah.

Violence could raise the chance of a run-off by suppressing turnout in southern areas where Karzai draws his support - or even jeopardise the legitimacy of the poll altogether.

Analysts say a run-off in turn increases the chances of more violence. In southern Kandahar province, the birthplace of the Taliban, two election workers were killed in a bomb blast, an election official said. Fearing more election-related violence, officials in Kandahar city said they would close roads to normal traffic for Thursday's poll, allowing only election workers and observers, vehicles transporting voters, and the media to travel freely.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said five gunmen, some wearing suicide bomb vests, carried out the Kabul raid.

The police said three fighters were involved. Security forces took reporters into a nearby compound and showed them the bullet-riddled bodies of three fighters killed in the clash.

A police source initially said three members of the security forces were also killed, but the Interior Ministry later said in a statement there were no government casualties. — Reuters.

Baghdad, August 19
A series of explosions killed at least 75 persons and wounded more than 300 in central Baghdad on Wednesday, the deadliest day in the Iraqi capital since US troops withdrew from urban centres in June.

At least six bombs and mortar rounds struck near government ministries and other sensitive targets in quick succession, the latest in a series of attacks in the capital and Iraq's north that raised doubts about the ability of Iraqi security forces to cope up without the US help. One blast shattered windows in Iraq's parliament building in the heavily guarded Green Zone government and diplomatic complex, television footage showed. It occurred near the Foreign Ministry, just outside the Green Zone.

"The windows of the Foreign Ministry shattered, slaughtering people inside. I could see ministry workers, journalists and security guards among the dead," said a distraught ministry employee who gave her name as Asia.

The Baghdad government said this month most of the city's blast walls would be removed within 40 days, a sign of confidence in its security forces ahead of national elections due in January.

Wednesday's violence undermined confidence in the government's ability to ensure security, on which Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has staked his reputation.

The blast site near the Foreign Ministry was a twisted heap of smouldering cars as firefighters fought to put out the flames. The police said it involved a truck bomb.

Such coordinated large-scale explosions near heavily guarded state buildings are relatively rare. Mostly Shi'ite Muslim venues such as mosques have been targeted by bombings in the past two months in the capital and northern Iraq, where insurgents such as the Al-Qaida has exploited disputes between the region's Kurds and Arabs.

Baghdad's security spokesman Major-General Qassim al-Moussawi said Iraqi forces had foiled another car bomb attack and had arrested two members of the Al-Qaida.

A truck bomb in Baghdad's Waziriya district near the Finance Ministry killed three persons and wounded seven, and caused widespread destruction, the police said. Part of a raised highway near the building collapsed, a Reuters witness said.

Another explosion was close enough to Reuters' offices in central Baghdad's Karrada district to burst open windows and doors. — Reuters

Lahore, August 19
A Pakistani court has asked the police here to explain as to why they refused to register a criminal case against Pervez Musharraf for "illegally" ordering a crackdown on judges during emergency in 2007, more than a week after the ex-military ruler was booked by the Islamabad police on same charges.

The Additional District and Sessions Judge here yesterday issued a notice to the chief of Islampura police station to explain by September 2 as to why he had not registered a case against Musharraf on the basis of a complaint from lawyer Syed Azhar Ali Shah.

The court issued the notice after a petition was filed by Shah, who asked the Judge to direct the police to register a criminal case against Musharraf.

In his petition, Shah claimed Musharraf had issued an illegal order during the emergency for a crackdown on judges and lawyers across the country. Law enforcing agencies trespassed into courts and the homes of judges and forcibly arrested and baton-charged lawyers, he said.— PTI 

Islamabad, August 19
Notwithstanding the dossiers of information handed over by India, Pakistan's intelligence agency believes there is nothing to implicate Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, a key accused in the Mumbai terror attack, a media report said here quoting an ISI official.

Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief Saeed, who was also the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba, was last month let off by a Pakistani court, which said there was no evidence to link him to the 26/11 carnage. "We could not find anything to implicate Hafiz Saeed as such," the unnamed ISI official was quoted as saying by the News Daily. The ISI official said he had studied the first dossier provided by India on the Mumbai terror attacks, which killed nearly 180 persons, and found nothing that linked banned JuD chief Saeed to the assault.

The official confirmed that, according to the ISI's probe, the attacks were perpetrated by the Lashker-e-Taiba "which has been active in the occupied Kashmir".

The official claimed the LeT had "broken off" from the JuD long ago and had been "operating independently ever since". — PTI 

Islamabad, August 19
An anti-terrorism court in Pakistan's troubled Swat valley today declared local Taliban chief Maulana Fazlullah and six of his aides as “proclaimed offenders” or fugitives from law.

Judge Khalil Khan Khalil ordered Fazlullah and his associates to appear in the local police station or in his court within seven days, failing which action would be taken against them. Over 100 cases, including several of murder and attempt to murder, had been registered against Fazlullah, whose whereabouts are not known.

Local courts in Swat began functioning after the army restored order in most parts of the scenic valley located 160 km from the federal capital.

Melbourne, August 19
Australia is all set to introduce stricter laws to weed out ‘shonky’ operators in a bid to rebuild the image of its battered overseas education sector.

Education Minister Julia Gillard today introduced in parliament the amendments to the law regulating schools that provide courses to the nearly half-a-million overseas students who come to Australia every year.

“The message to providers is, if you’re not providing your students with a quality education in a safe environment, clean up your act or risk being shut down,” Gillard informed the parliament, according to an AAP report.

She said the sector had grown too fast, with insufficient checks and balances, which attracted a small number of unscrupulous operators.

“We need to weed out the shonky operators,” she said.

The main changes will require all institutions now registered on the Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students to re-register under tougher criteria by the end of next year and make the use of education agents “more transparent and accountable”.

Gillard said requiring re-registration would restore confidence in the quality of Australian education that has come under severe criticism after blanket media coverage on bashing of Indian students and claims that some training schools were ripping off overseas students.

The new registration criteria would help reduce the number of high risk providers, Gillard said.

Gillard said all providers would have to publish a list of the agents they use, whether within or outside Australia.

Agents should be trained and registered in their home countries, provided such a requirement existed. The government may also ask the providers to develop websites to allow students to make anonymous comments about agents.

Gillard recently appointed former Liberal MP Bruce Baird to review the laws covering overseas student services. — PTI

Washington, August 19
Lauding India’s technical education system, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton believes the country is one of the best in this field, though it faces a challenge of providing adequate primary education to millions of children.

“You can look at the very best in Indian education, and it’s the best in the world. You can look at the technical education and it is to be envied. It is so effective,” Hillary said in response to a question which was text messaged to her during her recent trip to India.

Answers by the top US diplomat to select questions have now been posted on the State Department's website.

Hillary said millions of children in India, however, don't have adequate primary education or secondary education or, certainly, college education.

“India faces the challenge of so many people to serve in very rural areas, often without adequate infrastructure, so you have to come to grips with how you actually produce the schools that are needed, the teachers who will be dedicated, the curriculum and materials that are required,” she said.

“It is truly up to all of us - families, governments, businesses and educational institutions ensure that every child gets a chance to grow up and fulfill his or her potential,” Hillary said. — PTI