Kandhar (Afghanistan), July 28
Suicide bombers armed with guns killed at least 19 persons and wounded 35 others when they attacked government buildings in Afghanistan’s southern Uruzgan province today, public health officials said.

The attack was the deadliest in the south in nearly six months, and comes shortly after the killing of a string of powerful regional leaders, including a former governor of Uruzgan, who was gunned down in his home in Kabul this month.

Up to six suicide bombers stormed the provincial governor’s compound and the police chief’s compound in Tirin Kot, capital of Uruzgan, said Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi.

Three bombers had detonated their explosives and police were engaged in a gun battle with the remaining attackers, he added. Uruzgan is a largely rural and mountainous province north of Kandahar, to which it has many cultural and tribal links, and the Taliban have long had a presence there.

“Nineteen persons have been killed,” said Khan Agha Nehakhil, head of Uruzgan’s health department, adding that security forces and civilians, including one journalist, were among the dead.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack and spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi said six militants were involved. Engineer Farid, head of regional state television channel, Uruzgan TV, said he had heard one blast inside the channel’s offices and that two suicide bombers had entered the building, which is located around 100 m from the governor’s compound.

A reporter who worked for Pajhwok, an Afghan news agency, and for the BBC was among the dead. “Unfortunately one hour ago we got the news that our reporter in Uruzgan, Omid Khpalwak (25), was killed. He was in Uruzgan TV station to arrange an interview,” said Danish Karokhil, chief editor for Pajhwok News Agency. “He was trapped there for three hours and couldn’t escape from the battle.”

It was the deadliest attack in southern Afghanistan, the Taliban's heartland, since a February assault on the provincial police headquarters in the city of Kandahar that killed 19.

It comes in the wake of several high-profile assassinations and just a day after a suicide bomber killed the mayor of Kandahar city. — Reuters

London, July 28
An Indian couple has sought a judicial review of Britain immigration rule requiring immigrants to be able to speak English before they can move to Britain to join their spouse, saying the rule is a breach of human rights, a High court has heard.

Rashida Chapti (54) - a British citizen - wants the law scrapped so that her 57-year-old husband Vali, an Indian national who cannot speak English, can join her. The couple is married for 37 years and has six children. Chapti has reportedly been travelling between India and England for 15 years and has now asked for her husband to join her.

Under immigration rules which came into force last November, he cannot do so due to an English language requirement, thought to be part of the government’s pledge to reduce net migration.

The Chaptis and two other couples have begun proceedings to contest the rule. Speaking from her home in Leicester, Chapti told the Daily Telegraph her husband was too old to learn English.

“I just want to be with my husband. I miss him,” she said. “I believe he has every right to be with me.” At the High Court in Birmingham, Manjit Gill, who is representing the Chaptis, told the court that the requirement to speak English contravenes several articles of the European Convention on Human Rights.

He said individuals have “certain core rights”, such as the right to marry, to find a family, to cohabit and to live in a family unit, a family being an essential building block of society. — PTI

Lahore, July 28
A showdown between Pakistani judiciary and the civilian government appears imminent as Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry has made it clear that the Gilani government will have to submit to its orders or be ready to “face the music”.

Chaudhry today extended the deadline by 24 hours to reinstate establishment secretary, Sohail Ahmed, who notified posting of Inspector-General of Police (Gilgit Baltistan) Husain Asghar in the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to probe the multi-billion Hajj scam also involving Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani’s elder son Abdul Qadir Gilani.

Chaudhry has vowed to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution”, saying that any deviation from it under any circumstances must be resisted.

Chaudhry made the remarks at a full court meeting last night convened at a time when legal experts, opposition leaders and former judges feared the government is heading towards a direct clash by not-implementing orders of the apex court to end corruption in government departments.

Gilani told his partymen that "there is a limit to everything and the situation has reached an extent such as there is an intervention in my authority and I will not allow this.”

Quoting Gilani, an outspoken member of PPP Babar Awan said: “We will follow the Supreme Court orders but will not allow anyone to encroach our authority and start running a parallel system of governance.”

The Prime Minister in a meeting with his allies has reportedly sought their support in case a ‘final showdown’ with superior judiciary is inevitable. “The PML-Q and ANP leadership has assured their support,” Awan said.

“I do not think we are heading to judicial martial law in Pakistan,” President Zardari’s aide Fauzia Wahab said.

She wondered as to why the Supreme Court was focusing only on a couple of cases related to the PPP supporters. — PTI

Tikrit (Iraq), July 28
Two suicide bombers killed at least 15 persons and wounded more than 30 in Iraq’s Tikrit city as the police and soldiers were collecting their salaries at a local bank, police and hospital officials said today.

The attacks were the latest to target local Iraqi security forces as the last US troops prepare to pull out of the country more than eight years after the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

One suicide bomber detonated his explosives among officers who were gathered outside the Rafidain bank in the centre of Tikrit and moments later another blew up a car when emergency workers arrived, the police said.

“Just a few minutes after I entered I heard a huge explosion, we ran outside to see what was happening, I saw bodies and the wounded all over the place,” said Assam Dhiyab, a policeman who was collecting his unit’s wages in the bank.

A Tikrit hospital official said at least 15 persons were killed and more than 30 wounded in the blasts. Most of the casualties were Iraqi soldiers.

“Initial indications are that the first explosion was a suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest with a large amount of explosive,” said police lieutenant Mohammed Naif, an explosives expert in Tikrit.

According to witnesses the bomber was targeting a group of soldiers and officers of the Iraqi army. Tikrit, Saddam’s hometown, is dominated by Sunni Muslims. — Reuters