The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	iraq, Afghanistan continue to be rocked by violence Blasts kill 17 in Baghdad Baghdad, May 31 Six explosions hit neighbourhoods across Baghdad on Thursday, killing at least 17 people and wounding dozens more in the most deadly attacks on the Iraqi capital in more than a month. The attacks — a truck bomb in a market, a car bomb and roadside explosives — broke weeks of relative calm in Baghdad just as Iraq's government, shared among Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish blocs, wrangles over a crisis that risks reigniting sectarian tensions. In the largest blast, a bomber detonated a vegetable delivery truck packed with explosives near a restaurant in a market, killing at least 13 people and wounding 38 in the mainly Shi'ite Shula district, police and witnesses said. "The pickup truck came into the market and the driver left it, saying he was going to get people to unload vegetables," said Haider Fadhil, one of the wounded. "It was a huge explosion, I was knocked out and woke up in a car on my way to hospital." A car bomb exploded near the vehicle of one of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's advisers, killing one civilian and wounding three in western Baghdad, police and hospital officials said. It was not clear whether the adviser was targeted. Two roadside bombs also exploded in Amiriya district, killing two people and wounding four more, while roadside bombs killed one and injured 15 more people in other mixed neighbourhoods in western and southern parts of the capital. Violence in Iraq has fallen sharply since the height of the sectarian slaughter triggered a few years after the 2003 US-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein. Suicide bombings and blasts claimed hundreds of lives daily in 2006-2007. In the last major attacks, 20 bombs hit cities and towns across the country in mid-April, killing 36 — including 15 people in mainly Shi'ite areas in Baghdad — and raising fears of renewed sectarian strife. Since the last US troops pulled out in December, Sunni Islamists have often targeted local security forces and government buildings, but have also sought out Shi'ite victims in an attempt to stir sectarian tensions. Many Iraqi Sunnis say they fear Maliki wants to shore up Shi'ite power by sidelining Sunni leaders from the power-sharing government set up over a year ago after inconclusive 2010 elections. Al-Qaida's local affiliate, Islamic State of Iraq, claimed responsibility for April's attacks, saying they were in response to detentions and confiscations it said the Shi'ite-led government had carried out in Sunni areas. — Reuters Suicide attack, explosion kill 7 Afghan policemen Kandahar, May 31 A suicide car bomb attack and a separate blast at a checkpost in Afghanistan killed at least seven policemen today, officials said. In the first, a suicide bomber rammed an Afghan police checkpost, killing at least five policemen and wounding six others in the southern province of Kandahar, an official said. The attacker drove his explosives-laden car into the checkpoint at the district police headquarters of Arghistan district, provincial governor spokesman Jawed Faisal told AFP. "Five policemen were martyred and six others injured in this cowardly attack," Faisal said. Kandahar is the largest city in southern Afghanistan and the birthplace of the Taliban, who have been waging a bloody insurgency since being ousted from power by the US-led invasion in late 2001 that followed the 9/11 attacks. In the second incident, an explosion at a police checkpost in the capital of eastern Nangarhar province killed at least two policemen. Nangarhar (East) provincial governor spokesman Ahmad Zia Abdulzai confirmed the incident, but said security forces were still investigating the cause of the blast. Militants frequently target Afghan police and military, who are due to assume responsibility for the country's security from North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) by the end of 2014. The attacks come weeks after the Taliban announced their "spring offensive", a campaign of bombings and attacks that picks up every year as weather conditions improve. There are presently 130,000 US-led North Atlantic Treaty Organisation forces fighting the Taliban-led insurgency. — AFP
	Nepal SC judge gunned down Kathmandu, May 31 Motorcycle-borne gunmen today shot dead a Nepalese Supreme Court judge, facing corruption charges, in an audacious attack in the heart of the capital, shattering an uneasy peace amid growing political uncertainty in the country. 64-year-old Justice Rana Bahadur Bam, who received six bullets, died in the hospital while two others, including his security guard, were being treated for bullet wounds. Bam was going to the court when his car was sprayed by bullets by unidentified assailants riding a motorbike who blocked his path on the banks of Bagmati river in Sankhamool area of the city, police said. Kathmandu police spokesman Rabi Raj Shrestha said the judge was shot as he emerged from the Baglamukhi temple after morning prayers at 11 am. The judge, his bodyguard and one more person in the car were rushed to nearby Norvic International Hospital for treatment where he succumbed to his injuries. — PTI
	NY allows headgear for Sikh, Muslim transit employees New York, May 31 Muslim and Sikh employees of New York's transit system will now be able to wear their religious headgear freely, without attaching a government agency logo to them, in a major legal victory after new uniform rules were imposed following the 9/11 attacks. The US Justice Department yesterday reached a settlement with the New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA) eight years after it had filed a complaint in September 2004 in US District Court for the Eastern District of New York alleging that NYCTA engaged in a pattern of religious discrimination. Under the agreement, the NYCTA would be required to adopt new uniform headwear policies, allowing employees working in public contact positions, like operating buses and subways, to wear khimars, yarmulkes, turbans, kufis, skullcaps, tams and headscarves without attaching the logo of the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) to the headwear. MTA is the parent agency for the rail and bus operator NYCTA. — PTI
	Artefacts’ smuggling baffles Lankan police Chandani Kirinde in Colombo A spate of robberies of ancient artefacts including of some that were housed at Sri Lanka’s National Museum recently have left the police baffled and have led to allegations by opposition politicians that higher-ups in the government are linked to the incidents. A dramatic robbery occurred at the Colombo National Museum in March this year in which many items such as ancient swords, jewellery and parchments were robbed. This was followed a few weeks later by the murder of two Buddhist monks at a temple in a suburb allegedly to rob some artefacts hidden there. These bizarre incidents as also the arrest of groups of treasure hunters in several areas in the country have led to the matter being discusssed in the country’s Legislature. Opposition legislators allege there is a search for an ancient sword which is said to have been used by the most revered ancient Sinhalese king of Lanka named Dutugemunu (161-137 BC) as there is a superstition that the person who possesses it would be king for life. “We have heard of the hunt for Dutugemunu’s sword but whether this is true or not, there is an obvious complicity of groups linked to the government in these incidents,” an opposition MP Anura Dissanayaka said. So far, the police has not made a breakthrough in the Museum robbery after nearly three months and the missing items have not been recovered. Minister of National Heritage Jagath Balasuriya denied there is any government complicity, adding that all efforts are being made to apprehend the wrong-doers. Many artefacts have been smuggled out of Sri Lanka. These largely include statues of the Buddha which are a big attraction in western nations, a customs official said.
	Pak test-fires Hatf-VIII missile Rawalpindi, May 31 Pakistan has successfully conducted a test flight of the indigenously developed Air Launched Cruise Missile Hatf-VIII (Ra'ad) on Thursday, said an Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) statement. The Ra'ad Missile has a range of over 350 km, enabling Pakistan to achieve a strategic standoff capability on land and at sea, reports The News. The state of the art Ra'ad Cruise Missile with stealth capabilities is a low altitude, terrain-hugging missile with high maneuverability, and can deliver nuclear and conventional warheads with pin-point accuracy, stated the paper. According to the Inter Services Public Relations statement, a major additional feature of the test was the effective employment of the National Command Authority's fully automated Strategic Command and Control Support System (SCCSS). It has enabled robust command and control capability of all strategic assets with round the clock situational awareness in a digitised network centric environment to decision makers at National Command Centre (NCC). The system has the added capability of real time remote monitoring of missile flight path. President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani congratulated the scientists and engineers on their outstanding achievement. — ANI