A suicide bomber rammed an explosive-packed car into the building of a security agency in Lahore, killing 13 people and wounding about 70 early Monday morning.

The bomber attacked the gate of the Special Investigation Agency (SIA) office building where some high-profile Taliban and Al-Qaida suspects were being interrogated. It was not immediately known whether the dead or wounded included any of the suspects.The office was located in the posh residential area of Model Town. The office building collapsed at the first explosion while several adjacent houses were also damaged.

This was the first terrorist attack this year in the most-populous province Punjab. The province had witnessed several deadly blasts last year killing 145 people, mostly from police and security agencies. “There were three terrorists in the vehicle used in the attack,” police chief of the area Rana Ayaz told reporters. “Two of them slipped out of the car and disappeared from the scene before the third struck the gate, setting off the explosion.” Interior minister Rehman Malik said the attack bore all the hallmarks of an operation by Al-Qaida-backed Pakistani Taliban militants seeking to topple the government. He insisted that army operations in Swat and Waziristan have effectively broken the back of the Taliban militants though occasional suicide attacks could not be ruled out as yet.

“It’s clear that the office of the investigation agency was the target,” Commissioner Lahore Khusra Pervez said. A doctor at the Jinnah hospital treating victims said the dead included a woman and a child. The blast left a huge 18-feet deep crater outside the office gate.

A close-circuit television video run by some private TV channels showed pictures of a man covered in blood trapped in a car, with passersby trying to help him out while rescuers searched through the rubble. Angry residents have been urging the government to remove the offices of sensitive agencies from residential areas without any response.

Miffed at being asked to undergo a full-body scan at an American airport during a domestic flight there, a six-member parliamentary delegation from Pakistan’s tribal areas returned home on Monday cutting short their visit to the United States.

The group of lawmakers had been invited by the US government and had reached Washington on February 28 on a 15-day visit. The delegation that included both senators and members of the National Assembly, boarded a Kuwait Airways flight at Washington’s Dulles airport on Sunday after the dispute.

On Saturday the tribal lawmakers were scheduled to fly to New Orleans as part of their tour. But when they arrived at the airport, two of them were marked for random checking, which included a body scan.

They refused to accept the demand, saying that they would rather go home than submit to the proposed scanning. Senator Abbas Khan Afridi, a senior member of the delegation, later told journalists that other lawmakers backed their colleagues and told US officials that they too would go home if their colleagues were not exempted.

The parliamentarians protested against inclusion of Pakistan in a select batch of countries whose citizens are liable to body scan.

Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit in Islamabad regretted the incident but said the Obama administration has assured Pakistan that it would review the practice of screening Pakistani citizens. He said Pakistan got this assurance when it protested against its inclusion in the list when it was made public.

US State Department officials took the lawmakers back to their hotel in Washington where Pakistan’s deputy chief of mission and other senior US officials joined them.

They tried to persuade the lawmakers to change their mind, telling them that all passengers in the United States had to go through random checking. Even US Generals, members of Congress and senior officials are not exempted. But the lawmakers did not accept their argument.

Afridi said the lawmakers considered the scanning order an insult to the parliamentarians of a sovereign country and decided to call off their visit.

He claimed that officials at the US Embassy in Islamabad had assured them that they would not be subjected to a body scan and that’s why they reacted so strongly to the proposed search.

While the State Department issued no statement on the incident, officials claimed that the lawmakers had signed a document in Islamabad which explicitly said that they would have to go through the normal procedure, which would include body-scan, and that there would be no exceptions.

Kathmandu, March 8
The Nepal police detained a top representative of the Dalai Lama and security beefed up in the capital today to prevent anti-Beijing protests, ahead of the anniversary of the failed uprising against communist rule by the Tibetans in 1959.

Nepal is home to around 20,000 exiled Tibetans and the capital has been the scene of several anti-China protests since the unrest in Tibet last year.

Since the failed uprising against the Chinese rule on March 10, 1959, Tibetans have launched several anti-China protests in Kathmandu demanding freedom and human rights in Tibet.

The Nepal police briefly detained Thinley Gyatso ahead of the ‘Tibetan Uprising Day’ on March 10. He was warned not to instigate anti-China agitations in the country.

“The police on Sunday took Thinley Gyatso, the representative of the Dalai Lama in Nepal, in a bid to prevent anti-China rallies,” said Bigyan Raj Sharma, spokesperson of the Nepal police.

He was taken to the district administration office in the capital where chief district administrator Laxmi Prasad Dhakal warned him not to organise anti-China rallies in Kathmandu, Sharma said, adding Gyatso has agreed to the request made by the authorities. They, however, said they would allow the exiled community to carry out religious activities without any obstruction.

Tibetans have intensified their anti-China protest in Nepal in the past few years, amid stepped up pressure on the government from Beijing to halt such activities.

“Security has been tightened and we will take stern action against Tibetans if they stage anti-China demonstrations,” the police said.

“We have increased vigilance along the Nepal-Tibet border in view of possible protests,” officials said.

Nepal supports ‘one-China policy’ that views Tibet as an integral part of China. It has repeatedly assured its giant northern neighbour that it will not allow its territory to be used against the communist nation.

Despite tight security enforced by the Nepalese and Chinese government in the border areas, every year 2,500 Tibetans cross the border on their way to meet the Dalai Lama in the Indian town of Dharamshala, where he is based since fleeing from his motherland in 1959. — PTI

Beijing, March 8
China will surpass the US in three years as the country having the world's largest network of highways, the government has said.

Despite the global financial crisis, China’s fixed-asset investment for development of transport topped $ 165.4 billion in 2009, contributing 0.5 percentage points to the GDP growth, Li Shenglin, Minister of Transport was quoted as saying by the official news agency, Xinhua.

By the end of 2009, China had 65,000 kilometres of highways, second only to the United States, which has more than 80,000 kilometres across the country. — PTI

BRIEFLY

500 killed in Nigeria communal violence
Abuja: Fulani tribesmen allegedly killed over 500 people in renewed communal violence in the northern Nigerian city of Jos, prompting the government to declare a red alert and deploy troops to ensure clashes did not escalate. — PTI

Husain surrenders Indian passport
Dubai: Legendary painter MF Husain, who was recently granted Qatari citizenship, has surrendered his Indian passport to the country's mission in Doha, the Gulf Times reported on Monday. — PTI

Key Al-Qaida militant held
Karachi: An American national said to be member of Al-Qaida was captured in a raid in this southern port city, but Pakistani officials later changed their version that the man picked up was the terror outfits US born spokesman. The American suspect was identified as Abu Yayha Adam. The Pakistani intelligence had earlier claimed he was Adam Gadahn, one of US’s most wanted fugitive, who has operated for long as spokesman for Al-Qaida. Though the man did not turn out to be the elusive Gadahn, the capture of an American national caused concern in Washington. — PTI

57 killed in Turkey quake
ANKARA: A strong earthquake, with a preliminary magnitude of 6, hit eastern Turkey on Monday, killing at least 57 people and knocking down houses in at least three small villages, the government said. Mayor Bekir Yanilmaz, of the town of Kovancilar said the victims were from the villages of Okcular, Yukari Kanatli and Kayali, where the quake toppled stone or mud-brick homes and the minarets of mosques.The government's crisis centre said around 60 people were injured in the quake, which occurred at 4:32 am (0802 IST) in Elazig province, about 550 km east of Ankara. — AP