W O R L D

Pakistani rescuers and policemen at the blast site in Rawalpindi on Thursday. — AFP

Gaza truce takes hold but both sides wary
Gaza City, November 22 
An Egypt-brokered truce took hold in the Gaza Strip today after a week of bitter fighting between militant groups and Israel, with both sides claiming victory but remaining wary.

BACK HOME: Members of the Palestinian al-Attar family, displaced during the conflict with Israel, return to their home in the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday. — AFP

37 killed in Pak terror attacks

Islamabad, November 22
At least 37 people have been killed in Pakistan as Taliban terrorists, including suicide bombers, targeted security forces and Shia processions in the Pakistani garrison city of Rawalpindi and Karachi during the Islamic month of Muharram.

In the Rawalpindi incident, the bomber blew himself up when people tried to prevent him from entering the procession that was on its way to an imambargah (Shia prayer hall) shortly before midnight last night, officials said today.

They said the devastating attack left 23 people dead and 68 injured.

Shia processions organised during the month of Muharram have often been targeted in the past and two blasts, including one involving a suspected suicide bomber, outside a Karachi imambargah last evening killed two persons and injured 16 others, including media representatives and securitymen.

The suspected bomber's explosives went off when his motorcycle collided with an auto-rickshaw outside the Karachi imambargah.

As rescuers and security personnel gathered at the site, an improvised explosive device went off, injuring more people. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attacks in Rawalpindi and Karachi. A Taliban spokesman told the media that the militants had a "war of belief" with the Shias.

Branding the minority sect as "blasphemers," the spokesman said the Taliban would continue attacking them.

Separately, four policemen, including a senior officer, were gunned down by militants at Bannu in the northwest yesterday while five persons were killed and 20 injured when a security forces vehicle was targeted with a roadside bomb in the southwestern city of Quetta.

The attacks prompted authorities to beef up security for the Developing Eight (D-8) Summit beginning here today.

Leaders from Iran, Egypt, Malaysia, Nigeria, Turkey, Bangladesh and Indonesia are attending the meet, which Pakistan is using as an event to position itself as a key player in the Islamic world. — PTI

36 suspected militants held

Lahore: Pakistani police on Thursday arrested over three dozen suspected militants, most of them activists of the banned Sipah-e-Sahaba group, from Lahore and Sargodha in Punjab province on charges of plotting attacks on Shia Muslims during the Islamic month of Muharram. Explosives and weapons had been seized from them. — PTI

Gaza truce takes hold but both sides wary

Gaza City, November 22
An Egypt-brokered truce took hold in the Gaza Strip today after a week of bitter fighting between militant groups and Israel, with both sides claiming victory but remaining wary.

In Gaza City, there was a semblance of normality in the streets following a week of relentless Israeli air strikes and a night of celebrations that began as the truce came into effect at 12:30 IST yesterday.

Foreign Minister Mohammed Kamel Amr of Egypt, which sponsored the marathon talks that resulted in the ceasefire, announced the cessation of hostilities at a joint news conference in Cairo with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The UN Security Council urged Israel and Hamas to respect the ceasefire while joining with US President Barack Obama in praising Egypt's President Mohamed Morsi for mediating an end to the bloodshed.

As calm returned to the skies after a week of unstinting air strikes which began on November 14 when Israel killed a top Hamas commander, jubilant Gazans flooded into the streets to celebrate. — AFP

Oz cracks down on sham marriage scheme involving Indians

Melbourne, November 22
Authorities have cracked down on an alleged immigration racket in Queensland under which sham marriages were organised between Indian men and Australian women to obtain visas.

Authorities have estimated that up to 50 visa applications could have been used for such weddings, a report in 'Sunshine Coast Daily' reported.

A probe into the allegations against a Queensland couple for allegedly running the scam led to search operations by Australian Federal Police and the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) at a few properties.

Nine of the properties were seized and some bank accounts linked to the scam were also said to be frozen, the report said.

It said that police and authorities believed that a property was allegedly used to arrange and perform some of the bogus ceremonies.

A DIAC spokesman said the scheme would arrange the fake marriages between Indian men and Australian women to get the Indian men into the country under spouse visa applications.

"DIAC treats allegations of immigration fraud seriously. Activities that undermine the integrity of the visa regime will not be tolerated by Australian authorities," the DIAC spokesman said.

"The operation was part of an ongoing investigation into allegations that a Queensland man and his wife, among others, allegedly operated a sophisticated scheme to arrange fraudulent weddings between Indian men and Australian women," he said.

"The Australian women were allegedly paid money by the organisers of the scheme and the Indian men lodged visa applications to stay in Australia using the fraudulent marriages as the basis of their claims," he added. — PTI 

Irish Prez intervenes in row over Savita death inquiry

London, November 22
Irish President Michael D Higgins has intervened in the row over the inquiry into the death of Indian dentist Savita Halappanavar, saying the probe must meet the needs of her family as also the state. 

The move will increase the pressure on the government to recast the investigation in response to Savita's husband's demand for a full public probe. — PTI

BRIEFLY

Wisconsin gurdwara shooter had white supremacist tattoos 
New York: Michael Wade Page, the gunman who killed six Sikhs at a Wisconsin gurdwara in August, was drug-free when he went on the shooting spree and had a number of white supremacist tattoos on his body declaring support for Adolf Hitler, according to his just-released autopsy report. — PTI

US Finne Antti Rahko stands next to his self-made ‘Finnjet’ during preparations for the Essen Motor Show in Germany on Thursday. The vehicle with eight wheels, offers 10 seats, weighs 3,4 tons and is worth about $ 1 million. — AFP

Anuj Bidve’s murderer loses appeal 
London: Kiaran 'Psycho' Stapleton, the man convicted of the murder of Indian student Anuj Bidve has failed in his attempt to have his life sentence reduced. Stapleton, 21, was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Bidve in Salford on December 26 last year. He was ordered to serve a minimum of 30 years before he is even eligible for parole. — PTI 

‘Rebels seize strategic Syrian town’ 
Beirut: Rebel fighters seized the town of Mayadeen in eastern Syria today, a monitoring group said, adding that a large area on the Syrian-Iraqi border is now under control of insurgents. "The area east of the city of Deir Ezzor, on the Iraqi border, is now the largest area in the whole country that is out of army control," said Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman. — AFP

Israel, US to jointly fight arms smuggling 
Jerusalem: Israel and the United States have agreed to work together to prevent the smuggling of weapons from Iran to militant groups in the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said. “Israel cannot sit idly by as its enemies strengthen themselves with weapons of terror so I agreed with President (Barack) Obama that we will work together — Israel and the United States — against the smuggling of weapons to terror organisations, most of which comes from Iran," he said on Wednesday in a televised address. — AFP