The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

20 dead in Afghan hotel siege
Taliban storm party at lakeside resort
Terrified guests jump into water to flee

Kabul, June 22
Elite Afghan police backed by NATO forces ended a 12-hour siege today at a popular lakeside hotel outside Kabul, leaving at least 20 dead after Taliban gunmen stormed the lakeside building, bursting into a party and seizing dozens of hostages.

The night-time assault on the hotel with rocket-propelled grenades, suicide vests and machine guns again proved how potent the Islamist insurgency remains after a decade of war.

The commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan said the attack bore the signature of the Taliban-linked Haqqani group that he said continued to operate from Pakistan, a charge that could further escalate tensions with Islamabad.

At the hotel, terrified guests jumped into the lake in the darkness to escape the carnage, Afghan officials and residents said. Up to 300 persons had been inside the hotel when the attack began.

Afghan interior ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said 12 to 15 civilians, two hotel guards and a policeman were killed in the gunbattle at the Spozhmai hotel, overlooking Qargha Lake. Five attackers were also killed.

The attack, quickly claimed by the Afghan Taliban, again showed the ability of insurgents to stage high-profile raids even as NATO nations prepare to withdraw most of their combat troops by the end of 2014 and leave Afghans to lead the fight.

"Afghan National Security Forces and coalition military sources acknowledge that this attack bears the signature of the Haqqani network, which continues to target and kill innocent Afghans and blatantly violate Afghan sovereignty from the safety of Pakistan," General Allen said in a statement.

Blood was splattered over the hotel floor and the crumpled body of a man lay in the garden. Women and children were among the wounded. "We heard a heavy explosion from a rocket-propelled grenade. We tried to escape, but we were surrounded by suicide bombers. We hid ourselves behind a tree until morning. God protected us," said Abdullah Samadi, 24.

Elite Afghan quick-response police backed by NATO troops freed at least 35 hostages in an operation that only began in earnest after sunrise to help security forces avoid civilian deaths in night-time confusion.

The Taliban complained wealthy Afghans and foreigners used the hotel, about 10 km (6 miles) from the centre of Kabul, for "prostitution" and "wild parties" ahead of the Friday religious day holiday.

Launching their annual offensive this spring, the Taliban threatened to attack more government officials and rich Afghans, but the hotel assault was one of few in which multiple hostages were taken since the start of the war, now in its 11th year.

President Hamid Karzai said attacking a place where people went for picnics was a sign of defeat for the enemies of Afghanistan.

Television pictures showed several people wading out of the lake onto a balcony and clambering over a wall to safety. NATO attack helicopters could be seen over the single-storey hotel building and a balcony popular with guests for its sunset views, while a pall of smoke rose into the air. — Reuters

Cradle of revolution vents anger at military rule
Tahrir Square erupts as Egypt awaits result

Supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood take part in a protest at Tahrir Square in Cairo. — Reuters

Cairo, June 22
Thousands of flag-waving protesters filled Cairo's Tahrir Square for Friday prayers as Egypt's presidential candidates, an Islamist and former general, accused each other of trying to steal an election whose result is still not known five days on.

The Muslim Brotherhood, whose candidate Mohamed Morsy says he has already won, called on supporters to mass in vigil at the birthplace of last year's Arab Spring revolt until the ruling military council rescinds orders that curb the new president's powers and also dissolved the new, Islamist-led parliament.

The delay in announcing the results of two days of voting which ended on Sunday has also raised fears that the army may try to swing the election to Ahmed Shafik, a former air force commander whom Mubarak made prime minister just before his fall.

A result is not expected until Saturday or Sunday, giving the country a tense weekend, although the vast majority, many not greatly enamoured of either candidate in the run-off, were staying at home and passing Friday's Muslim weekend as normal.

For many, both in the organised mass Islamist movements and in the more fragmented secular, liberal opposition, a Shafik victory, coupled with the military council taking powers over legislation and drafting a constitution, would mean that the six decades of army rule they thought were over, will in fact go on.

"This is a classic counter revolution that will only be countered by the might of protesters," said Safwat Ismail, 43, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood who came from the Nile Delta. "I am staying in the square until the military steps down."

Mahmoud Mohammed, 31-year-old marine engineer from Alexandria among a group from the more fundamentalist Salafist movement camping on the square insisted they were not looking for a battle, but wanted to see democracy installed.

Around him, the broad traffic interchange by the Nile in central Cairo was filled with makeshift tents offering shade from the midday sun, hawkers offering an array of goods from tea to "I Love Tahrir Square" T-shirts and a mostly devout crowd of men. — Reuters

Scientists grow primitive eye, rudimentary liver in Japan

Washington, June 22
Scientists in Japan claim to have developed a rudimentary human liver and a precursor of a human eyeball in the lab using stem cells, a feat they say could be a boon for the future organ replacement.

At Yokohama City University in Japan, a team led by stem cell biologist Takanori Takebe grew a small, rudimentary liver using a recipe of just three types of cells.

The trick was figuring out when to introduce each element into the mix of cells: “It took over a year and hundreds of trials,” LiveScience quoted Takebe as telling journal Nature.

First, the team placed genetically reprogrammed human skin cells, called “induced pluripotent stem cells,” on growth plates in a specially designed chemical bath. After nine days, the cells began developing into hepatocytes, or liver cells.

At that point, the researchers added cells taken from an umbilical cord, which would develop into the lining of blood vessels, and cells from bone marrow that can differentiate into bone, cartilage or fat.

Two days later, the cell assortment had self-organised to form a three-dimensional “liver bud”-a 5mm-wide chunk of tissue that performed basic liver functions. When they grafted the liver bud into a mouse, the team said the tiny organ’s blood vessels worked correctly and it successfully metabolised some drugs that human livers metabolise but which mouse livers normally cannot.

Takebe said a more developed version of the liver could eventually be used for long-term organ replacement, as well as serving as a short-term graft for patients whose damaged native livers are expected to recover.

Meanwhile, Yoshiki Sasai and colleagues at the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology in Kobe, reported that they had managed to induce human stem cells called “retinal precursor cells” to develop into a central component of the human eye called an optic cup.

In a petri dish, the cells spontaneously bulged to form a bubble called an eye vesicle, which folded back on itself to create a half-millimeter-wide pouch layered with retinal cells - the optic cup.

Most impressively, outside experts said, this process unfolded correctly without any external guidance by the team. “The morphology is the truly extraordinary thing,” said Austin Smith, director of the Centre for Stem Cell Research at the University of Cambridge in the UK.

In fact, the scientists didn’t even know quite how optic cups developed until Sasai and his team watched it happen spontaneously in the lab. The achievement lends hope to the possibility of restoring vision in humans who have lost their sight, they said. — PTI

Dramatic reversal of fortune: Ashraf is 25th Pak premier

Islamabad, June 22
Forced to resign last year as a minister after his name cropped up in a scam, PPP leader Raja Pervez Ashraf in a reversal of fortune has become Pakistan’s 25th premier, notwithstanding an ongoing probe against him.

A strong loyalist of the Bhutto family, Ashraf hails from a family of agriculturists and remained in his occupation until he joined Pakistan Peoples Party of Rawalpindi in Punjab.

Before joining active politics, 61-year-old Ashraf was an agriculturist and businessman by profession. He obtained his undergraduate degree from University of Sindh and did his diploma from UK in Industrial Management.

Ashraf, who was PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari’s second choice for the post of premier, became the main candidate after an arrest warrant was issued against party nominee Makhdoom Shahbuddin for alleged irregularities during his tenure as Health Minister.

Interestingly, Ashraf is facing a probe by the National Accountability Bureau for alleged corruption in rental power projects during his tenure as Water and Power Minister.

He was secretary-general of the PPP (Parliamentarians), a party formed in 2002 by the PPP for the purpose of complying with electoral rules governing Pakistani parties.

The party contested the 2002 elections while former prime minister Benazir Bhutto was living in self-imposed exile.

Ashraf, who was elected to the National Assembly from Gujar Khan constituency in Rawalpindi district — both in 2002 and 2008 — served twice in the cabinet of Yousuf Raza Gilani, who was disqualified by the Supreme Court.

He resigned from Gilani’s cabinet in February last year after allegations of corruption in power projects.

He returned to the cabinet in April this year when he was appointed minister for Information Technology.

Ashraf’s candidature was backed by PML-Q, a major ally of the PPP with more than 50 seats in the National Assembly. — PTI

14 killed, over 100 injured in Baghdad market blasts

Baghdad, June 22
Two bombs today tore through a market full of shoppers in Baghdad, killing 14 persons and wounding more than 100, the latest attack in Iraq's deadliest month since US troops withdrew at the end of last year, authorities said.

The explosions, timed within minutes of each other, came at midmorning in the open-air market in the mostly Shiite Muslim neighbourhood of Husseiniyah in the northeast part of Baghdad.

The bloodshed highlights the struggle the Iraqi leadership and security forces face in defeating al-Qaida-linked insurgents hoping to destabilise the government and stoke tensions between Shiite and Sunni Muslim communities. The government itself is deadlocked over sectarian-tinged political conflicts.

Mohammed Hussein al-Jizani said he was haggling with customers in his shoe store in the open-air market, where stalls line the streets, when he heard a loud blast and ran outside.

"Three minutes later, there was a second explosion as people and policemen were rushing to the site of the first bomb," al-Jizani said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. — AP

Japan protests over restarting N-plants

Tokyo, June 22
About 20,000 people gathered in front of Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's residence in Tokyo late today to protest his decision to restart two nuclear reactors.

"No to the restart!" shouted the protestors, who were led by investigative journalist Satoshi Kamata and Nobel Prize-winning author Kenzaburo Oe, who started an anti-nuclear petition that has so far gathered more than 7.5 million signatures.

Last Saturday, Noda gave the green light to start work to put back online two reactors at the Oi plant in western Japan, despite public distrust in the technology since last year's meltdowns at Fukushima.

Japan had been left without nuclear power since early May when the last of its 50 working reactors was shut down. — AFP