W O R L D

Blast at Shi'ite shrine in Kabul kills 59
Kabul, December 6
A suicide attack killed 58 Shi'ite Muslims at a crowded Kabul shrine on Tuesday, and four others died in a smaller blast in a key northern city, in the worst sectarian violence Afghanistan has seen since the fall of the Taliban.
A young girl smeared in blood stands shrieking amid crumpled bodies of dead 
and injured children after Tuesday’s explosion in Kabul. — AFP

US hails Gilani overture to rebuild ties
Washington, December 6
Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani's statement to rebuild strained ties with US has been welcomed by Washington, which said the bilateral relations were vital to their national security interests.
Yousuf Raza Gilani, Pakistan PM

Bashir set to be Pak’s next High Commissioner to India
Islamabad, December 6
Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir is set to become Pakistan's High Commissioner to India as part of the biggest reshuffle of envoys approved by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.

Confirmed: Earth 2.0; could hold life
London, December 6
American astronomers have confirmed the existence of an Earth-like planet, dubbed Kepler 22-b, in the "habitable zone" around a star similar to the Sun.

Protests, arrests rock Moscow as Putin loses sheen
Moscow, December 6
Putting up a brave front after being hit by a poll debacle, allegations of ballot rigging and massive demonstrations denouncing his leadership, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin today said the election losses were, but "inevitable" for an incumbent party.

World’s oldest living dog dies at 26
Tokyo, December 6
Pusuke, the world’s oldest living dog, has died in Sakura in Japan at the age of 26 years and 9 months, its owner said today. The male cross breed, recognised by the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s oldest living dog, lived a life equivalent to over 125 years old in human age.
                                                                       Long life: Pusuke

 

 

Blast at Shi'ite shrine in Kabul kills 58
Hundreds had gathered for the festival of Ashura 4 killed in explosions in Mazar-i-Sharif, Kandahar

Kabul, December 6
A suicide attack killed 58 Shi'ite Muslims at a crowded Kabul shrine on Tuesday, and four others died in a smaller blast in a key northern city, in the worst sectarian violence Afghanistan has seen since the fall of the Taliban.

Bodies and blood were scattered across a street after the blast in the heart of old Kabul where hundreds had gathered for the festival of Ashura. Over 100 were injured.

The Kabul bomb was the deadliest in the capital since 2008, and punctured any lingering sense of optimism from a conference on Monday where Western allies made firm but not specific promises to support Afghanistan after troops leave in 2014.

Doctors and police struggled to count the dead from one of the bloodiest attacks in the Afghan capital since the fall of the Taliban government in 2001. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. The Taliban condemned the violence as the brutal work of "enemies".

"This is the first time on such an important religious day in Afghanistan that terrorism of that horrible nature is taking place," Afghan President Hamid Karzai told journalists in Germany, where the conference on Afghanistan's future was held.

"Now the number of dead has reached 58 and number of wounded 160, some of them in critical condition," said Sakhi Kargar, a spokesman for the ministry of health.

Afghanistan has a history of tension and violence between Sunnis and the Shi'ite minority. But since the fall of the Taliban, the country had been spared the large-scale sectarian attacks that have troubled neighbouring Pakistan.

The noon bomb in a riverside shrine appears to have set a grim new precedent. "Afghanistan has been at war for 30 years and terrible things have happened, but one of the things that Afghans have been spared generally has been what appears to be this kind of very targeted sectarian attack," said Kate Clark from the Afghanistan Analysts Network.

Outside a hospital in central Kabul, mourners cried near a pile of bloodied clothes and shoes. A woman in a dark headscarf clutching a bloodstained sports shoe said her son, in his early 20s, had died in the attack. "They killed my son... this is his shoe.”

Shortly after the Kabul blast, a bicycle bomb exploded near the main mosque in northern Mazar-i-Sharif city, killing four and injuring 17 others. The city's streets were filled with people celebrating Ashura, but it was not immediately clear if that attack was targetting Shi'ite worshippers.

A motorbike bomb in southern Kandahar city also injured three civilians, but it had not been placed near any shrine and appeared unrelated to the Kabul attacks.

Ashura marks the martyrdom of Prophet Mohammad's grandson Hussein in the battle of Karbala in Iraq in the year 680. — Reuters

US hails Gilani overture to rebuild ties

Washington, December 6
Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani's statement to rebuild strained ties with US has been welcomed by Washington, which said the bilateral relations were vital to their national security interests.

Gilani said that despite his country’s boycott of the international conference in Bonn on Afghanistan's future, he was committed to establishing peace in Afghanistan.

US-Pakistan ties had deteriorated following the May 2 US commando operation to kill Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and the November 26 NATO airstrike that killed two dozen Pakistani soldiers in Mohmand Agency further strained ties.

Gilani's comments came days after US President Barack Obama called his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari and expressed his condolence over the death of 24 Pakistani soldiers in a NATO airstrike last week and said the "regrettable" incident was not a "deliberate attack".

"We, of course, welcome Prime Minister Gilani's positive statements on the US-Pakistani relationship," State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters at his daily news briefing yesterday. He said from the very moments after cross border firing incident, the US has been clear that "this is a relationship that's vital to US national security interests.

"It's vital to Pakistan's national security interests; it's vital to the region's interests that we work together productively; and that we're committed to addressing the issues between us and moving forward," Toner said.

Responding to questions about Pakistan's absence from the Bonn conference, Toner said the US has been pretty clear that it wanted Pakistan to be a part of the conference. He said it is "pretty clear" that it was in Pakistan's interest to participate in Bonn. — Agencies

Bashir set to be Pak’s next High Commissioner to India

Islamabad, December 6
Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir is set to become Pakistan's High Commissioner to India as part of the biggest reshuffle of envoys approved by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.

Bashir, 59, who is due to retire next year, will replace High Commissioner Shahid Malik, whose current contract is valid till the second quarter of next year, according to a media report today.

Malik retired some time ago and his contract has been periodically renewed for six months at a stretch. He could be replaced by Bashir before the expiry of the contractual period of the High Commissioner, The News daily quoted its sources as saying.

Gilani had decided that no envoy who is currently on a contract would be given further extensions. As part of the reshuffle, Pakistan will have new envoys in Russia, the Netherlands, Brazil, Germany, Egypt, Algeria, Cuba, Nepal, Kenya, Yemen, Tunisia, Chile and Serbia apart from India. — PTI

Confirmed: Earth 2.0; could hold life

London, December 6
American astronomers have confirmed the existence of an Earth-like planet, dubbed Kepler 22-b, in the "habitable zone" around a star similar to the Sun.

The new planet, confirmed by the astronomers using the US space agency's Kepler telescope, contains both land and water and has the right atmosphere to potentially support life.

The planet, initially glimpsed in 2009, lies about 600 light years away and is about 2.4 times the size of Earth, and has a temperature of about 22 degrees Celsius, BBC reported. This is the closest confirmed planet to the Earth. However, the team does not yet know if Kepler 22-b is made mostly of rock, gas or liquid.

Scientists from NASA's Ames Research Centre said they spotted some 1,094 new candidate planets. The team had to wait for three passes of the planet before upping its status from "candidate" to "confirmed".

"Fortune smiled upon us with the detection of this planet," said principal investigator William Borucki. A space telescope was designed to look at a fixed swathe of the night sky, staring intently at about 1.5 lakh stars.

Kepler 22-b was one of 54 candidates reported by the team in February. More such planets similar to Earth are likely to be confirmed in the near future.

Kepler 22-b lies at a distance from its sun about 15% less than the distance from the Earth to the Sun, and its year takes about 290 days. — IANS

MEET Kepler 22-b The most Earth-like planet beyond the solar system, Kepler 22-b is located 600 light years away The planet’s sun puts out about 25% less light, keeping the planet at a temperature that would support the existence of liquid water A year at Kepler 22- lasts 290 days but it's not yet known what it's mostly made of

Protests, arrests rock Moscow as Putin loses sheen

Moscow, December 6
Putting up a brave front after being hit by a poll debacle, allegations of ballot rigging and massive demonstrations denouncing his leadership, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin today said the election losses were, but "inevitable" for an incumbent party.

Putin's statement came a day after his United Russia party lost its parliamentary majority in Sunday's Duma polls that were marred by accusations of fraud by independent observers.

An anti-Putin wave seemed to have swept Moscow following the results as thousands of protesters, the largest in over a decade, took to the streets chanting a "Russia without Putin!" and "Down with the Party of Swindlers and Thieves!"

Even as hundreds were arrested and thousands of troops were deployed to prevent another demonstration in the capital, Putin sought to play down the election reverses. "Yes, there were losses, but they were inevitable," the 59-year-old Russian strongman, a former KGB agent, said. — PTI

World’s oldest living dog dies at 26

Tokyo, December 6
Pusuke, the world’s oldest living dog, has died in Sakura in Japan at the age of 26 years and 9 months, its owner said today.

The male cross breed, recognised by the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s oldest living dog, lived a life equivalent to over 125 years old in human age.

Pusuke had been showing a good appetite and kept up with its daily morning and evening strolls until Monday morning, when it suddenly refused to eat and appeared to have breathing difficulty, owner Yumiko Shinohara, a housewife, said.

The dog died peacefully in the afternoon. Pusuke was born in March 1985 at the home of one of Yumiko's relatives. Pusuke was certified for the Guinness title in December last year. The previous record was held by a 28-year-old US-based beagle that died in 2003. — PTI