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8 killed in attack on NATO convoy in Pak
Eight persons were killed, five injured and dozens of containers carrying NATO supplies to Afghanistan were burned in a deadly attack by unidentified militants on Islamabad-Peshawar highway just when they were ready to start journey to Afghanistan late last night. NIA continues to grill Headley
Scribe gets 30-year ban on writing
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United Nations/Tehran, June 9 In the 15-member Council, 12 countries, including the US and Britain, voted in favour of the resolution, with Lebanon abstaining and Brazil and Turkey voting against. The new resolution, which is fourth against Iran to be adopted by the UNSC, creates new categories of sanctions like banning Iran's investment in nuclear activity abroad, banning all ballistic missiles activities, blocking Iran's use of banks aboard and asset freezes for members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The resolution will blacklist entities that includes 15 enterprises of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, three entities owned by the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines and 23 industrial companies. The international community accuses Iran of seeking to develop an atomic weapon. But, Tehran has been maintaining that its uranium enrichment program is for peaceful civilian purposes. India has been maintaining that it is opposed to such kinds of sanctions as it will affect the common people more than the establishment. Russia and China, which have previously raised objections against such sanctions, supported the resolution and said they were happy with the text of the resolution as long as it did not have any negative impact on the people. Turkey and Brazil were apparently upset after they brokered a fuel-swap agreement with Iran that they hoped would address concerns that Tehran may be enriching uranium for nuclear weapons and avoid new sanctions. Speaking from Ecuador, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton yesterday described the resolution as the “the most significant sanctions that Iran has ever faced.” US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said the resolution would allow individual countries to pursue their own measures against Tehran. “This is not a resolution comprised of voluntary measures, there are many serious, new binding measures in this new resolution and we feel very pleased with its content," said Susan Rice, US ambassador to the UN, after the final discussion yesterday. Meanwhile, Iran voiced defiance after the U.N. Security Council imposed new sanctions on Wednesday, saying it would not halt uranium enrichment and suggesting it may reduce cooperation with the U.N. nuclear agency. "Nothing will change. The Islamic Republic of Iran will continue uranium enrichment activities," Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's envoy to the U.N. nuclear watchdog in Vienna, told reporters shortly after the U.N. vote in New York. In Tehran, a senior lawmaker said Iranian MPs would review the level of the Islamic Republic's cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). "The parliament will review Iran's cooperation level with the agency as an extra-urgent matter," Alaeddin Boroujerdi was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency. Iran's parliament has the power to oblige the government to change its cooperation with the IAEA, as it did in 2006 after the Vienna-based agency voted to report Iran to the U.N. Security Council. Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman said the U.N. sanctions resolution was a "wrong" measure, Iran's Arabic language al-Alam television reported. — Agencies
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8 killed in attack on NATO convoy in Pak
The police said about six suspected militants riding a motor cycle and two vehicles attacked a convoy of oil tankers, trailers and containers carrying fuel, heavy machinery and goods to NATO forces based in Afghanistan. The drivers and others travelling in the convoy who had fled the scene when militants sprayed bullets on them, reassembled on Wednesday morning and blocked traffic on the Grand Trunk Road while demanding the immediate police action against assailants, payment of compensation to families of the dead and provision of effective security to them. Interior Minister Rehman Malik condemned the episode and suspended chief of the area police Hakim Khan on initial report that found the police security negligent. “The convoy comprising over 35 vehicles was on its way to Peshawar when gunmen attacked it in Dhoke Paracha, near Sangjani, 15km west of Islamabad,”said SHO Shah Nawaz. The suspected militants also torched the oil tankers and containers. The fire quickly engulfed the convoy and more than 15 oil tankers and the trailers burned down. Ambulances and fire fighters from Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Taxila and Wah cantonment were called, but they could not put out the flames. A heavy contingent of police commandos and other security personnel started combing the area to track down the attackers, who were believed to be hiding there.
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NIA continues to grill Headley
Chicago, June 9 The National Investigation Agency (NIA) team, led by Loknath Bahera, has been questioning Pakistani-American Headley face-to-face, eliciting information about his role in the Mumbai attacks, the wider conspiracy and all those involved in the carnage, sources told PTI. The interrogation of Headley, who is accused of having conducted a recce for the Mumbai attacks, is expected to shed more light on the LeT’s plans regarding terror attacks in India. The questioning of 49-year-old Headley, currently being held in the federal lock-up Metropolitan Correctional Centre here, revolved around the places he had visited in the run-up to the Mumbai terror attacks of November 2008 and the people he had been in touch with. “The interrogation is going on. Its details can’t be revealed as this is not cricket where ball-by-ball account can be provided,” a source
familiar with the developments said. The team is coordinating with its American counterparts with regard to the investigation. It would return home next week and compile a report on the basis of which further steps would be taken, the sources said.
— PTI
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Aquino is new Philippine prez
Manila, June 9 Aquino, who formally takes office on June 30, crushed his rivals after promising to tackle the pervasive graft and grinding poverty that have long afflicted the sprawling Asian archipelago of more than 90 million people. The 50-year-old bachelor also drew on the enormous public support for his democracy hero parents, who remain revered for their efforts in ending the 20-year dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos. Aquino secured just around 42 per cent of the total, according to final results released by the parliament yesterday, following the May 10 election.
— AFP
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Scribe gets 30-year ban on writing
Tehran, June 9 “Baniyaghoob, 39, has been sentenced to one year jail and banned from journalistic work for 30 years,” moderate daily Shargh said. Baniyaghoob, who had been working for a string of best-selling but now closed reformist newspapers, was arrested on June 20 last year along with her husband and released on bail two months later. She was charged with propaganda against the Islamic regime over her reports on last year's disputed presidential election and the protests which followed the official results, the Kaleme.Com website of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi said. The International Women's Media Foundation gave Baniyaghoob Journalism Award in 2009. Her husband, who is an economic journalist, has been jailed for five years on security charges over his articles in reformist newspapers.
— AFP
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Eight persons were killed, five injured and dozens of containers carrying NATO supplies to Afghanistan were burned in a deadly attack by unidentified militants on Islamabad-Peshawar highway just when they were ready to start journey to Afghanistan late last night.