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18 dead in Iraq blasts
Can do a repeat of Abbottabad if need arises, says Obama
US had inside info of Osama hideout: Malik |
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After 8 yrs, British forces fly back home
Gunmen barge into Afghan govt building, kill six
Volcanic eruption forces Iceland to close main airport
A cloud of smoke and ash is seen over the Grimsvoetn volcano in Iceland on Saturday. The cloud emanating from Grimsvoetn as a result of the eruption was first seen around 1900 GMT and in less than an hour it had reached an altitude of 11 km. — AFP
‘Chindustan’, the new slogan for India-China friendship
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Baghdad, May 22 The series of attacks comes just days after blasts against the police in a tense northern city killed 29 persons, with just months to go before all US forces must withdraw from Iraq amid questions over whether local security forces are up to the task of maintaining stability in the war-wracked country. A total of 12 roadside bombs, three vehicles packed with explosives and one suicide attacker struck in the spate of morning blasts on Sunday, although it was not immediately clear to what extent, if any, the violence was coordinated. The deadliest attack saw 12 persons killed and 23 wounded in a suicide bombing in the town of Taji, 25 km north of the capital, an interior ministry official said, on condition of anonymity. A defence ministry official put the toll at 14 dead and 28 wounded in Taji. A car bomb had initially gone off at around 9:00 am in the town and when residents and ambulance crews arrived at the scene, the suicide bomber blew himself up, causing the casualties, the interior ministry official said. Eight policemen were killed while four cops and three soldiers were wounded in the incident. The interior ministry official said the initial car bomb had exploded as a US army convoy was passing through Taji, but an American military spokesman said he had received "no indication" of any such attack. — AFP
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Can do a repeat of Abbottabad if need arises, says Obama
London, May 22
He said, “Our job is to secure the United States. We are very respectful of the sovereignty of Pakistan. But we cannot allow someone who is actively planning to kill our people or our allies’ people. We can’t allow those kind of active plans to come to fruition without us taking some action.” The raid on May 2 in Abbottabad has raised hackles in Islamabad and generated tension between the US and Pakistan. Obama said the killing of bin Laden could be a “wake-up call where we start seeing a more effective co-operative relationship” with Pakistan. He said the US is actively investigating if Osama had any backing-official or non-official-in Pakistan that sustained him there for over five years. “What we know is that for him to have been there for five or six years probably required some sort of support external to the compound. Whether that was non-governmental, governmental, a broad network, or a handful of individuals, those are all things that we are investigating, but we’re also asking the Pakistanis to investigate,” he said. He said Pakistanis were “troubled” by the incident and it was “incumbent” on the establishment to thoroughly probe the circumstances surrounding bin Laden’s stay in the country. Obama also credited Pakistani for its cooperation in the war on terror, pointing out that “we’ve killed more terrorists on Pakistani soil than anywhere else”.
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US had inside info of Osama hideout: Malik London, May 22 Top US officials said after the raid that they were only partially certain of Osama's presence inside the mansion, but Malik says only definitive information could have led them right to the room where bin Laden was killed, according to a report in The Sunday Times. The report also says bin Laden's Saudi wives believe it was his younger Yemeni wife Amal who betrayed him. “In my experience of years as an intelligence officer, I think someone from inside may have given information,” said Malik, also former head of Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency.—PTI
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After 8 yrs, British forces fly back home
Baghdad, May 22 * A small number of staff will remain at the British embassy in Iraqi capital of Baghdad * A total of 179 British personnel lost their lives in Iraq in the past eight years * The navy's role involved training 1,800 Iraqi personnel on 50 different courses ranging from oil platform defence to handling small arms * British forces will continue to support NATO's officer training
programme, while some Iraqi soldiers will attend the army's officer training college at Sandhurst “Their contribution was most appreciated and valuable," Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told AFP. "They have given many sacrifices to stabilise (Iraq) and they were the second-largest force of the coalition. “Mistakes were made, not only by them, but by all of us," Zebari added, declining to give specific details. "But that doesn't diminish their valuable contribution to training, capacity building and, recently, for the protection of our oil ports at the tip of the Gulf." Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said in a text message that the British naval training mission had "finished" and, when asked to confirm that there were no more British soldiers or sailors left in Iraq, he replied: "Yes." Some 46,000 British troops were deployed to Iraq in March and April 2003, at the height of combat operations that resulted in Saddam's overthrow and eventual execution for crimes against humanity. In the aftermath of the invasion, the country was engulfed in a brutal sectarian war which peaked in 2006 and 2007. Tens of thousands of Iraqis died. — AFP
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Gunmen barge into Afghan govt building, kill six
Kabul, May 22 Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack in Khost province in a text message to The Associated Press. The attack came a day after a Taliban suicide bomber slipped inside the capital's main military hospital and killed at least six Afghan medical students worrying reminders of militants' ability to infiltrate locations thought to be secure. In today's attack, four men armed with assault rifles and wearing explosives drove shortly before dawn into a compound that houses the provincial traffic department on the edge of Khost city, provincial Police Chief Gen Abdul Hakim Ishaqzai said. Guards opened fire on the attackers, but the men were able to occupy the upper floor of the building, Ishaqzai said. The attackers shot at Afghan security forces from their vantage point as a fire raged through the structure. Two of the attackers detonated their bomb vests during the fighting, with one bomber killing two Afghan soldiers, said Gen Raz Mohammad Oryakhail, the army commander for Khost province. — AP
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Volcanic eruption forces Iceland to close main airport
Reykjavik, May 22 Spokeswoman Hjordis Gudmundsdottir said the ash plume was covering Iceland, but “the good news is that it is not heading to Europe”. She said the ash was blowing west toward Greenland instead. She said officials were investigating whether Iceland's other airports could take Keflavik-bound flights. Trans-Atlantic flights were being diverted away from Iceland, and there was no sign yet that the eruption would cause the widespread travel disruption triggered last year by ash from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano. Sparsely populated Iceland is one of the world's most volcanically active countries and eruptions are frequent. Eruptions often cause local flooding from melting glacier ice, but rarely cause deaths. The Grimsvotn volcano, which lies under the uninhabited Vatnajokull glacier, began erupting Saturday for the first time since 2004.It also erupted in 1998, 1996 and 1993. The eruptions have lasted between a day and several weeks. — AP
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‘Chindustan’, the new slogan for India-China friendship
Beijing, May 22 Peking University, China's most prestigious institution of higher learning had a Hindi flavour today as over 100 Hindi students and Professors from all over China converging in the campus to celebrate “India Day”. "Hindi is being taught in nine universities in China with the steady increase of students, while India will be introducing Chinese language in CBSE syllabus from next year, which will make us all the 'Chindustanies'”, Prof Jiang Jingkui, Head, Department of South Asian Studies of the Peking University said. Several Chinese students who took part in the meeting feel confident of getting absorbed by business houses, cashing in on the rapidly increasing bilateral trade, which crossed USD 61 billion last year. "The job prospects of translators and communicators was rising as India-China business is rapidly growing and we want to tap this potential,” Mao Lei, a Hindi graduate student who came from Loyang along with 10 of his class mates said. The South Asian Studies in Peking University has Indian Study Centre headed by Hindi scholar from India, Prof Davendra Shukla and a host of Chinese professors, specialising in teaching Hindi, besides Sanskrit and Tamil — PTI
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Britain concluded its naval training mission in Iraq today, more than eight years after it contributed the second largest contingent of troops to the US-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein. Despite having pulled out the vast majority of its troops in mid-2009, Britain's Royal Navy has continued to train Iraqi personnel to defend their territorial waters and offshore oil installations.
Reykjavik, May 22
Speaking to the BBC on the eve of his visit to Britain, Obama said that he was mindful of Pakistani sovereignty but the US could not allow “active plans to come to fruition without us taking some action”. Asked what he would do if one of
Al-Qaida’s top leaders, or the Taliban leader Mullah Omar, was tracked down to a location in Pakistan or another sovereign territory, he said the US would take unilateral action if required.