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US: Taliban facing financial crisis Fight on against Israel, Iran Prez Ahmadinejad tells Palestinians Ipoh (Malaysia), September 3 At least 24 Indian men who were found locked up in a house in a Malaysian town have been rescued and two Pakistani men allegedly involved in a human trafficking racket have been detained, a media report said Friday. Major fire in Krishna temple in UK
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Now, Quetta bleeds At least 73 persons were killed and over 100 injured in a deadly bomb attack on a rally in Balochistan capital Quetta to mark the annual Al-Quds day on Friday in expression of solidarity with the Palestinian people. The rally was organised by Shia Imamia Foundation to commemorate the day first declared by Irani's spiritual leader Imam Khomeini in the 1979 as expression of solidarity with Palestinian people in their struggle for establishment of an independent Palestinian state. The extremist banned anti-Shia outfit Lashkar-i- Jhangvi has claimed responsibility of the attack. The bomber detonated his explosive vest when the rally reached Meezan Chowk, a busy square in Quetta, shortly before 3 pm. Dramatic footage aired on Geo News captured the blast, which occurred as the marchers were shouting slogans. The driver of a TV channel was killed while seven reporters and cameramen of various channels were among the injured. People screamed in panic and ran helter-skelter after the blast. Several men cowered in fear and tried to hide behind cars and motorcycles. Armed youths who were part of the procession started firing after the blast. Balochistan police chief Malik Iqbal confirmed the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber. He said police had asked the organisers of the rally to change the route due to fears of a terrorist attack. Witnesses said the powerful blast was heard from several kilometres away. They said they had seen blood and body parts at the site of the explosion. A mob set on fire several shops, buildings and cars near the site of the blast. Thick black smoke rose over the area as people rushed the injured to hospitals in private vehicles. The explosion caused widespread tension across Quetta, which has been affected by ethnic and sectarian tensions over the past few months. People rushed home as markets across the city closed down. Earlier in the day, militants targeted a police van with a roadside bomb on the outskirts of Peshawar in northwest Pakistan, killing a constable and injuring three others. One person was killed and two more were injured when a suicide bomber targeted an Ahmedi mosque at Mardan, also in northwest Pakistan, in the afternoon. No group claimed responsibility for both attacks. Today’s attacks were the latest in a wave of assaults targeting religious minorities. Nearly 40 people were killed when two suicide bombers targeted a Shia procession in Lahore on Wednesday. Taliban commander Qari Hussain, considered the trainer of suicide bombers, claimed responsibility for that attack. Interior Minister Rehman Malik had yesterday asked the Shia community not to organise processions in open places to avoid suicide attacks. “How can police provide security to a gathering of 15,000 people?” he told reporters. He said Shia leaders had been asked to organise processions at selected places and not to come out in markets and streets. Jaffaria Alliance President Allama Abbas Kumaili, a leading Shia cleric, said it would not be possible for the community to abide by such restrictions. He said the community had been “expecting” an attack like the one in Quetta. “They are trying to stop our rallies and gatherings, but we are not afraid of dying. We will fulfil our religious obligations. We can take care of security for our processions if the government cannot do so,” Kumaili said. — PTI
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US: Taliban facing financial crisis Washington, September 3 "We have intelligence that indicates to us that he (Taliban) has got a financial crisis on his hands," the US Marine Corps Major General Richard Mills said in a video-briefing from the province to the Pentagon press room. The targeting of the Taliban's opium "treasury" and various steps to undermine the terrorist organisation's opium profits has led to shortage of funds, he said. As a result, Mills said, based in sensitive intelligence, he believes that local insurgency in the Helmand province has less than one-half of what they had last year in operating funds. "He (the Taliban) has a cash-flow problem," Mills said, adding that the Taliban does not have the money needed to buy the weapons needed in order to continue conflicts. The insurgency in the region, he said, has been reduced from the use of rather expensive Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) to simple bullets, which are cheaper and easier to get. — PTI
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Fight on against Israel, Iran Prez Ahmadinejad tells Palestinians
Tehran, September 3 US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who hosted the first session of talks between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Washington, voiced confidence that this latest attempt to bring peace to the region could succeed where so many others have failed. Ahmadinejad said that the talks, seeking to end a conflict that has boiled for six decades, would once again fail. He criticised some Muslim leaders for not providing all-out support to the Palestinians in their revolt against Israel. "Palestine's issue cannot be resolved through talks with the enemies of the Palestinian nation. Resisting is the only way to rescue the Palestinians," Ahmadinejad told worshippers at Tehran University in a live broadcast to mark the annual Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day in the Islamic Republic. "How can these talks succeed when the mediators are those who created this conflict," he added. Netanyahu and Abbas have agreed to meet again on September 14-15 with Clinton also present. In Gaza, whose Islamist rulers are backed by Iran, several thousand Hamas and Islamic Jihad supporters rallied to mark Jerusalem Day and condemn the peace negotiations. They waved portraits of the late Ayatollah Khomeini and Iranian flags. "Jerusalem cannot be liberated through negotiations or dialogue ... resistance and Jihad is the only way to liberate Jerusalem from the dirt of the Zionist occupation," said senior Hamas figure Ismail Al-Ashqar. — Reuters Tehran: Iran’s military chief of staff says Tehran could strike Israel's nuclear facility if the Jewish state were to attack Iran's nuclear sites. The semiofficial Mehr news agency quoted Gen. Hasan Firouzabadi as saying Iran hopes there won't "be a need to target the nuclear facility of the Zionist regime," but if there is Israel would receive "dreadful retribution."
— AP
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24 Indians rescued from traffickers in Malaysia Ipoh (Malaysia), September 3 Malaysian police found a clue to the Indian men's detention from an Aug 30 media report from India and rescued the men from Sungai Siput town, 30 km from here, last Monday. Dzuraidi Ibrahim, chief of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Perak state, Friday said the raid was carried out following a tip-off that the house was used as a transit point for Indian nationals before they were sent to work in a factory in Penang, New Straits Times reported. "Investigations revealed that the men, aged between 20 and 30, are from Uttar Pradesh. It is believed they came here via Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) four months ago,” he said. — PTI
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Major fire in Krishna temple in UK London, September 3 Temples authorities said all those present in the temple were safe, and had been accounted for. However, some individuals received minor injuries to their hands and faces from the shrapnel. Firefighters were searching the wreckage of the temple and crews were using specialist equipment to enter the damaged building. Eyewitnesses said windows had been blown out in the blast. The police cordoned off the area mainly inhabited by the Asian community. Leicestershire fire spokeswoman Amanda Pike said fire crews had managed to complete a thorough search of the outside of the building, looking for casualties using thermal imaging cameras. A technical rescue team was sent to search through the rubble and there are fears that the building has become unstable. Search and rescue dogs were also being used. Eyewitness Fatima Khatri told BBC: “We were all working and we suddenly heard a big bang and for one split second we thought it was a bomb, so we all ran to the window. “Suddenly we heard the other bang and we saw all these flames coming out and we just could not believe it because the whole street was shaken up”.
— PTI
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Castro makes first speech in 4 yrs Havana, September 3 He spoke from the same steps of the University of Havana where 60 years ago he stirred fellow students to political action in the beginnings of the revolution that eventually put him in power in 1959. About 10,000 people, mostly students, filled the steps and nearby streets to listen to the man, who led Cuba for 49 years before the illness that forced him to resign the presidency and, Castro said in a recent newspaper interview, nearly killed him. They shouted “Fidel, Fidel Fidel” and applauded at several points during his nationally-televised address. His speech was the latest in a string of appearances since the 84-year-old Castro reemerged in July from four years of seclusion. His renewed public presence has raised questions about whether he could resume a larger role in running the country, now, officially led by his younger brother, President Raul Castro. As he has all summer, Castro warned that nuclear war is inevitable if the United States, in alliance with Israel, tries to enforce international sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme. — Reuters
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