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19 killed, 60 hurt as blasts rock Pak
Peshawar/Karachi, March 14
Pakistani soldiers and others react at the site of a bomb explosion in Quetta on Friday At least 19 people were killed today and nearly 60 injured in two separate blasts that rocked Peshawar and Quetta cities in Pakistan.
Roadside bomb kills six in Afghanistan

Pakistani soldiers and others react at the site of a bomb explosion in Quetta on Friday. afp

Pak court issues arrest warrant for Musharraf
The special court, constituted for the trial of former military ruler General Pervez Musharraf on treason charges on Friday issued his non-bailable arrest warrants after he failed to appear with his counsel citing security threat.

New law paves way for Assad’s re-election
Damascus, March 14
Syria's exiled opposition will be barred from a presidential election to be held before July, virtually ensuring Bashar al-Assad's reelection three years into an uprising against his family's four-decade rule.

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	19 killed, 60 hurt as blasts rock Pak In Peshawar, suicide bomber targets police van; security forces’ vehicle bombed in Quetta Peshawar/Karachi, March 14 At least 19 people were killed today and nearly 60 injured in two separate blasts that rocked Peshawar and Quetta cities in Pakistan. In the first blast in restive northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Peshawar city, nine people were killed and over 30 others injured. The victims included women, children and policemen. DSP (City) Banaras Khan said the blast appeared to have targeted a police mobile van and was carried out by a suicide bomber. The explosion took place in the Sarband area of the city near a petrol pump. Peshawar lies next to Pakistan's tribal areas which are a haven for Al-Qaida and Taliban militants in the country. The city has seen frequent attacks by militants in recent years, with targets ranging from civilians to policemen and other law enforcement personnel. In the second blast, at least 10 people were killed and around 30 injured when a patrol vehicle of the Frontier Corps was bombed in Quetta, the capital of southwestern Balochistan. The police said explosives were installed on a motorcycle and detonated by remote when the FC vehicle passed close by on Prince Road. "The casualties have risen to 10 while around 30 injured people have been shifted to hospitals for treatment," city police chief Mir Zubair said. He said the blast was so intense that glasses of nearby buildings and vehicles in the vicinity were damaged. — PTI Roadside bomb kills six in Afghanistan Kandahar: A senior Afghan government official says a roadside bomb in the southern Helmand province has killed six civilians, including two women and two children. Mohammed Sharif, district chief of Musa Qala district in Helmand, said on Friday that the bomb ripped through a vehicle the previous night, killing everyone inside. No one has taken responsibility for the attack. AP
	Pak court issues arrest warrant for Musharraf Afzal Khan in Islamabad The special court, constituted for the trial of former military ruler General Pervez Musharraf on treason charges on Friday issued his non-bailable arrest warrants after he failed to appear with his counsel citing security threat. The court, however, deferred compliance of the warrants till March 31 if Musharraf refuses to be present in the court for indictment by the deadline. It adjourned till March 20 the hearing of his various petitions for exemption from appearance; inclusion for trial as accomplices of nearly 300 civil and military leaders whom he claims to consulted before imposing emergency in 2007 for which he is being tried; permitting him to leave the country for treatment abroad and removing chief prosecutor Akram Shaikh dubbing him as biased person. The former military ruler faces treason charges under Article 6 for suspending, subverting and abrogating the Constitution, imposing an emergency in the country in November 2007 and detaining judges of the superior courts. A special court led by Faisal Arab, was constituted for the purpose as provided under the 1973 that prescribes maximum death sentence if found guilty. As the hearing of the treason case started today, a team of the federal police reached the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology in Rawalpindi to pick the former President up to take him to the court. It withdrew after a couple of hours when it became apparent he would not leave the hospital where he is lodged for past over 75 days. Rs 200 million spent on ex-Prez’s security Chief Prosecutor Akram Shaikh told the special court that the government had so far spent Rs 200 million on Musharraf’s security and more than doubled the strength of security personnel from 11 to nearly 2,500. Such level of security he did not enjoy even as President, he said.
	New law paves way for Assad’s re-election Damascus, March 14 Syria's exiled opposition will be barred from a presidential election to be held before July, virtually ensuring Bashar al-Assad's reelection three years into an uprising against his family's four-decade rule. The third anniversary of Syria's revolt, which began as a series of mass protests calling for democratic change but deteriorated into an insurgency and then a civil war after the regime launched a crackdown on dissent, falls tomorrow. Assad has remained in power despite fighting that has killed more than 140,000 people and driven millions from their homes, as rebels have seized large swathes of the country and entire neighbourhoods have been reduced to rubble. — PTI
	Ukraine crisis: US-Russia talks end in impasse London, March 14 Top US diplomat John Kerry arrived in London today on an 11th-hour mission to head off a possible Russian annexation of Crimea on the heels of a breakaway vote by the Ukrainian region. With the clock ticking down to Crimea's referendum on Sunday, Kerry was to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov seeking to put the brakes on any moves by Russian President Vladimir Putin to swiftly annex the peninsula. Shortly before leaving the United States, the secretary of state admitted that it was all but impossible to stop the referendum organised by Crimea's self-declared leaders from going ahead and warned there was no question that the pro-Russian ethnic majority would vote to move closer to Moscow. Shortly after arriving in London, Kerry paid a visit to British Prime Minister David Cameron at his Downing Street residence ahead of his talks with Lavrov. Kerry said: “I think we're all hoping that we don't get pushed into a place where we have to do all this. But we'll see what happens." World attention is now focused on what moves Putin may make on Monday following the vote. There are growing concerns that he may have further ambitions to seize other swathes of Ukraine. — AFP Russia reiterates threat to invade Ukraine SEVASTOPOL: Russia shipped more troops and armour into Crimea on Friday and repeated its threat to invade other parts of Ukraine, showing no sign of listening to Western pleas to back off from the worst confrontation since the Cold War. The Russian Foreign Ministry repeated President Vladimir Putin's declaration of the right to invade to protect Russian citizens and "compatriots".
	5 dead in fresh knife attack in China Beijing, March 14 A knife-wielding attacker hacked five persons to death before being shot dead by police in a central Chinese city, reminiscing a slashing spree at a railway station by militants from the restive Xinjaing province that claimed 33 lives. A knife fight broke out between two vendors reportedly from volatile northwestern Xinjiang province at an outdoor market in Changsha City, the capital of Hunan province. A vendor fatally attacked and killed another after a heated debate. He then started attacking innocent bystanders, killing two persons and injuring two others, before being shot dead by the police. The two injured later died in hospital, Changsha police said. The vendors were said to be from Xinjiang, home to the mostly-Muslim Uygur minority, media reports said. Police had cordoned off the site and primary school in a north Changsha neighbourhood has been closed, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. China remains nervous after a deadly stabbing incident at the railway station in Kunming, the capital of southwest Yunnan province, on March 1 in which 33 people were killed and 143 wounded. The government blamed the Kunming attack on militants from Xinjiang region where the native Muslim Uygur community is opposed to settlements of people from the majority Hans from the rest of the country. — PTI
	Man sentenced to 249 years for temple slaying Phoenix, March 14 A man convicted of killing nine persons, including six monks, during a robbery at a Buddhist temple where his mother and brother belonged was sentenced today to 249 years in prison. Johnathan A. Doody was found guilty in January of first-degree murder in the deaths of six monks, one nun and two helpers who were shot in the back of the head and were placed face-down in a circle in August 1991 at the Wat Promkunaram temple west of Phoenix. Doody's brother and mother were not there the night of the shootings. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Joseph Kreamer said it's difficult to fathom the murders. "These people were peace-loving," Kreamer said. — PTI
	India's role in Kabul critical: Gen Dunford Washington, March 14 India has a critical role to play in Afghanistan as it is the most important partner of the war-torn country in the region, the commander of the US-Nato forces in Kabul has said. "I think India's role in Afghanistan is critical. India is a very close partner to Afghanistan, and from an economic perspective and from a trade perspective, probably their most important partner in the region right now," Gen Joseph Dunford. "They (India) are not providing lethal aid to Afghanistan, as a result of the dynamics in the region. Pakistan would certainly be concerned with that," Dunford said in response to a question during a Congressional hearing on Afghanistan. Dunford said India can play a very important role. — PTI

BRIEFLY

Gang-rape victim sets herself ablaze in Pakistan
Islamabad: A girl, who was allegedly gang-raped on January 5, set herself on fire outside a police station in Muzaffargarh after one of the accused was given bail on Friday. The police had lodged a case of attempt to rape against the five accused. One of them, who was arrested Thursday, had already obtained a pre-arrest bail. TNS

Spanish police bust jihadi network: Policemen arrest a man belonging to a jihadist cell in Melilla city of Spain on Friday. The police have busted a Spanish and Moroccan network suspected of sending jihadist fighters to Syria. AFP

Indian stabs Saudi man to death
Riyadh: An Indian in Saudi Arabia allegedly stabbed a Saudi man to death at a rest house, a media report said on Friday. The Indian told investigators that he acted in self-defence when the victim, threated to shoot him at his rest house on Riyadh-Dammam highway. PTI

Indian gets $11.7 mn relief in Saudi Arabia
Dubai: An Indian businessman in Saudi Arabia will get a hefty compensation of $11.7 million from a local citizen over a business project dispute, a Saudi court has ruled. The Indian, an investor at a medical facility, had originally come up with an idea to launch a full-scale hospital , the Arab News reported. PTI

US Government threat to Internet: Zuckerberg
Washington: Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg, in a post on his own social networking site, has said he had called President Barack Obama to complain that the US Government is undermining confidence in the Internet with vast, secret surveillance programmess. PTI

UK's Labour Party stalwart Tony Benn passes away
London: Tony Benn, a committed British socialist who had an affinity for India, died here on Friday. He was 88. A Labour cabinet minister in the 1960s and 1970s, Benn had been seriously ill. Benn had inherited an affinity for India from his father who introduced him to Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. PTI

Legendary voice-over artist Hal Douglas dies
Lovettsville: Legendary voice-over artist Hal Douglas, 89, who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2010, has died at his home in northern Virginia. Douglas' sonorous delivery starred in trailers for thousands of movies and documentaries. He died March 7 at his horse farm with his wife and daughter at his side. AP

US man held for breaking into police station!
Boston: Most crooks want to break out of police stations, but a man in the US has been dubbed as "America's Dumbest Criminal" for breaking into one. Michael Naughton, 24, from Somerville, Massachusetts, was arrested after being busted for allegedly trying to break into a Boston police station. PTI

World’s first solar-powered toilet set for India launch
Washington: A revolutionary waterless toilet powered by the Sun, developed to help some of the 2.5 billion people lacking sanitation around the world, will be unveiled in India this month. Built using the grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the toilet converts human waste to biochar, a highly porous charcoal. PTI

Om Puri to play General Kayani in Malala biopic
Karachi: Om Puri has revealed that he will be starring as General Kayani in an upcoming Malala Yousafzai biopic. Kayani, the chief of army staff, had played an important role in saving the Pakistani education activist's life. Puri told The Express Tribune that he was excited to portray him in the film. ANI

Dalai Lama is a political opportunist: China
Beijing: China on Friday accused the Dalai Lama of being a "political opportunist" and said his ulterior agenda of disintegrating the country may prove to be a "disaster" for the world. "A disintegrating China, with Tibet independent, would be a disaster for everyone," state-run Xinhua news agency said. AFP