Karachi, May 16
Four motorcycle-borne Taliban militants today shot and killed a diplomat of Saudi Arabia, a staunch US ally, claiming it was to avenge the killing of Osama bin Laden and continued drone attacks in Pakistan's volatile north-west.

The incident came days after explosives devices were lobbed at Saudi Arabia's consulate here. The Saudi diplomat, identified in media reports as Hasan MM Al-Kahtani, was attacked by four gunmen riding two motorcycles while he was driving to work. He was said to be head of security at the consulate.

Police officials said the gunmen intercepted the car and sprayed over a dozen bullets at the victim.

“The diplomat was driving a vehicle with diplomatic plates when two motorcycle riders unleashed a hail of gunfire at Khayaban-e-Shahbaz in Defence,” city police chief, Fayyaz Leghari said.

“We are investigating if it was linked to the Abbottabad operation or was an isolated incident,” he said. Leghari said the man killed was apparently a junior level officer at the consulate. The entire staff of the Saudi Arabian consulate in the city was shifted to a unknown destination in high alert after the killing in the posh Defence housing authority area.

The banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan said it had carried out the attack on the Saudi diplomat in retaliation for the US attacks on the Al-Qaida, TV channels reported.

The TTP said it would continue to carry out attacks until America stops chasing Al-Qaida and stops drone strikes in the tribal areas.

A Taliban spokesman called the media to take responsibility. The police said soon after the diplomat was killed the security agencies moved the entire staff including Saudi nationals to a five star hotel for security reasons. — PTI

Islamabad, May 16
US Senator John Kerry today conveyed to Pakistan’s civil and military leadership the “grave concerns” back home over the presence of Osama bin Laden in the country and the existence of sanctuaries for militants. Kerry, the first senior American official to visit Pakistan since the Al Qaida chief was killed on May 2, also said Pakistan and the US have agreed on a “series of steps” to get their relationship back on track though “real differences" persisted between the two sides in the wake of the American raid that killed bin Laden.

The Senato was in Pakistan on a mission to ease out tensions that have escalated following the unilateral Abbottabad operation. Kerry said he had conveyed to the country's top civil and military leadership “as clearly as possible the grave concerns in the US over bin Laden’s presence in Pakistan and the existence here of sanctuaries for our adversaries in Afghanistan”. — PTI

Tripoli, May 16
Muammar Gaddafi’s regime offered a truce in return for an immediate NATO ceasefire, as the International Criminal Court (ICC) today considered arrest warrants for human rights abuses in Libya.

Gaddafi’s Prime Minister proposed the truce yesterday to the visiting UN special envoy to Libya, Abdul-Ilah al-Khatib, as an anti-regime revolt entered a fourth month.

Prime Minister Baghdadi Mahmudi, quoted by JANA state news agency, said after meeting Khatib that Libya wants “an immediate ceasefire to coincide with a stop to the NATO bombardment and the acceptance of international observers.” Libya, he added, was committed to the unity of its territory and people and that Libyans had the right to “decide on their internal affairs and political system through democratic dialogue away from the bombing threat”. Mahmudi accused NATO, which is enforcing a UN-mandated no-fly zone over Libya, of “abuses and violations”.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon spoke by telephone with Mahmudi yesterday, but no details were given of their discussions. The UN leader has made repeated calls for a ceasefire, including in a stormy telephone discussion with Gaddafi. The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor, meanwhile, said yesterday he was “almost ready” for a Libyan rights abuse trial, as he prepared to apply for arrest warrants. Luis Moreno-Ocampo is expected to ask ICC judges in The Hague to issue three arrest warrants today, when the names of the accused could be revealed. Diplomats have said Gaddafi would likely head the list. — AFP

Islamabad, May 16
Pakistan’s nuclear weapons programme is expanding at a rapid pace and the country is expected to soon have a fourth operational reactor to ramp up the production of plutonium, according to a media report. According to new commercial satellite imagery obtained exclusively by Newsweek magazine, Pakistan is “aggressively accelerating construction” at the Khushab nuclear site, about 140 miles south of Islamabad.

The images prove Pakistan will soon have a fourth operational reactor, “greatly expanding plutonium production for its nuclear weapons programme”, analysts told the magazine. The development comes at a time of “unprecedented misgiving between Washington and Islamabad” in the wake of the killing of Osama. The White House declined to comment but a senior US congressional official said intelligence estimates suggest Pakistan had already developed enough fissile material to produce over 100 warheads and manufacture between eight and 20 weapons a year. “There’s no question it’s the fastest growing programme in the world,” the official said. Pakistani officials were quoted as saying the build-up is a “response to the threat from India, which is spending $50 billion over the next five years on its military”. — PTI 

BRIEFLY

Last leg: Picture-perfect liftoff for Endeavour
Houston: NASA's space shuttle Endeavour had a picture-perfect liftoff on Monday from Florida's Kennedy Space Centre on the next-to-last flight of the shuttle era before heading to retirement at a Los Angeles museum. Endeavour roared off the launch pad at 8:56 a.m. ET carrying a six-member crew to the International Space Station. Endeavour is the baby of NASA's shuttle fleet. It was built to replace the Challenger, lost in a 1986 launch accident. Endeavour first flew in 1992 — it ended its first mission 19 years ago. — PTI