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Taliban attack Pak jail, free 400 inmates Security officials at the damaged main entrance of a prison following an attack by armed militants in Bannu, Pakistan, on Sunday. — AFP |
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Tornadoes pound US, five killed
UN approves Syria observer force
N Korea shows off new missile at military parade
Iran, big powers agree to keep talks going 'Dethroned Nepal king to be
jailed'
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Taliban attack Pak jail, free 400 inmates
Bannu, Pakistan, April 15 Pakistan's Taliban movement, which is close to the Al-Qaida, said it was behind the brazen assault by militants armed with rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47 assault rifles. A police official said most of the escapees from the jail in the northwestern town of Bannu were militants. "I don't remember the exact time, but it must have been way past midnight. There were huge explosions. Plaster from the ceilings fell on us," said prisoner Malik Nazeef, speaking by mobile phone to Reuters from the jail in the town of Bannu. “Then there was gunfire. We didn't know what was happening." While the Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan have staged several jail breaks, such attacks are rare in nuclear-armed Pakistan, a strategic US ally and one of the most unstable countries in the world. "We have freed hundreds of our comrades in Bannu in this attack. Several of our people have reached their destinations, others are on their way," a Taliban spokesman said. The
claim could not be immediately verified. The attackers fired rocket-propelled grenades at the black, metal gates of the prison, blowing them open. Debris was strewn on the ground inside, including locks that were shot off doors. Walls were pockmarked with bullet holes. An assault of this scale will likely generate fresh questions over Pakistan's progress in fighting militancy since joining the US-led campaign against militancy, launched after the September 11, 2001, attacks. Pakistan's performance has come under more intense scrutiny since US special forces in May last year found Osama bin Laden in a Pakistani town, where he had apparently been living for years, and killed him in a secret raid. Pakistani officials describe Bin Laden's long presence in the town of Abbottabad as a security lapse and reject suggestions that members of the military and intelligence service were complicit in hiding him there. The prison break could deal a psychological blow to security forces following repeated government assertions that security crackdowns have weakened militant groups. Pakistan is seen as critical to US efforts to stabilise Afghanistan yet Pakistan faces its own daunting security problems. The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), or Taliban Movement of Pakistan, is seen as the biggest threat, staging suicide bombings and attacks on military compounds. In the unruly ethnic Pashtun tribal areas near the Afghan border, the Taliban control large pockets where they use floggings and beheadings to impose their version of Islamic law. The Pakistani Taliban are closely linked with the Afghan Taliban. They move back and forth across the unmarked border, exchange intelligence, and provide shelter for each other in a region US President Barack Obama has described as "the most dangerous place in the world".
— Reuters
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Tornadoes pound US, five killed Oklahoma City, April 15 Storms skipped across what is often called "Tornado Alley" in the US Central and Southern Plains and more were forecast. But casualties appeared limited because many of the twisters hit sparsely populated areas, and during daylight hours or evening when people were still awake. In Oklahoma, a twister struck the northwest city of Woodward early on Sunday morning after lightning apparently disabled its storm warning system, Mayor Roscoe Hill said. Two children died at the Hide A Way mobile home park on the west side of Woodward, while two adults were killed outside the city limits, Hill said. Details of the fifth death were not immediately known. — Reuters
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UN approves Syria observer force United Nations, April 15 In the resolution, brought by eight countries, including France, Germany, the UK and the US, the 15-nation body said it has decided to authorise an "advanced team of up to 30 unarmed military observers to liaise with the parties and to begin to report on the implementation of a full cessation of armed violence in all its forms by all parties." The resolution called upon President Bashar Al Assad's Syrian government as well as the opposition to ensure that the advance team is able to carry out its functions. Voting in favour of the resolution, India said it has consistently supported all efforts to resolve the Syrian crisis through an inclusive Syrian-led political process that meets the legitimate aspirations of all sections of Syrian society. India's Permanent Representative to the US Hardeep Singh Puri told the UN Security Council, which met here to vote on the resolution yesterday, that Minister of External Affairs SM Krishna spoke to UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan earlier in the day and "underscored India's support for his mission". "We have voted in favour of the resolution today so that an advance team of the UN supervision mission may be deployed expeditiously to monitor the cessation of violence. We hope that all parties, including the opposition, will implement their commitment and cooperate with the mission," Puri said. He added that it is necessary that the mission carries out its work "impartially, fairly and independently". — PTI
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N Korea shows off new missile at military parade Pyongyang, April 15 The missile, displayed during celebrations for the centennial of the birth of late North Korea founder Kim Il Sung, appears to add to an arsenal that has raised international worries heightened by the country's simultaneous development of nuclear weapons. The celebrations come two days after North Korea fired a rocket widely viewed abroad as a provocative test of missile technology. The rocket failed about a minute after lift-off. Military analysts in Japan and South Korea said the missile on display today appeared to be something newer and possibly bigger than what had previously been displayed. But they said further examination would be required to tell whether it was an intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM, that North Korea has reportedly had in the works for quite some time. A number of North Koreans at the parade said it was the first time they had seen the new missile. The exact design could not immediately be confirmed by military
officials." It looked like more than a mock-up, and like it could be intended as an ICBM, but it is very hard to tell at this point," said Isaku Okabe, a private Japanese military specialist. Sohn Young-hwan, a South Korean rocket scientist who heads the privately funded Institute of Technology and Management Analysis in Seoul, said the missile was possibly an intermediate-range ballistic missile, but not an ICBM. Analysts have speculated for months that North Korea is working on a rocket that is bigger and stronger than the Unha-3 that failed Friday. — AP
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Iran, big powers agree to keep talks going Istanbul, April 15 With threats of war hanging over an already unsettled Middle East, the US and other Western diplomats welcomed an Iranian willingness in Istanbul on Saturday to discuss their nuclear activities - something they had refused since early last year. But though they will meet again, in Baghdad on May 23, they remained poles apart. Iran called for a lifting of sanctions and recognition its uranium enrichment is for purely peaceful ends; the United States demanded urgent action to prove the Islamic Republic is not seeking the potential nuclear arsenal which Washington and ally Israel threaten to eliminate by force.
— Reuters
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'Dethroned Nepal king to be jailed' Kathmandu, April 15 Madhav Kumar Nepal, the former Prime Minister and senior leader of CPN-UML, warned Gyanendra that he would be sent to jail if he tried to disrupt the 2006 peace process and drafting of a new constitution. — PTI
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Dozens of Islamist militants stormed a prison in Pakistan in the dead of night early on Sunday and freed nearly 400 inmates, including one on death row for trying to assassinate former President
Pervez Musharraf, police officials said.
Dozens of tornadoes tore through parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa overnight and one twister killed at least five persons early on Sunday as storm sirens failed to sound.
Storms skipped across what is often called "Tornado Alley" in the US Central and Southern Plains and more were forecast. But casualties appeared limited because many of the twisters hit sparsely populated areas, and during daylight hours or evening when people were still awake.
North Korea today unveiled what appeared to be a new missile at a military parade in Pyongyang.
The missile, displayed during celebrations for the centennial of the birth of late North Korea founder Kim Il Sung, appears to add to an arsenal that has raised international worries heightened by the country's simultaneous development of nuclear weapons.
