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25 Shia pilgrims killed near Pak-Iran border A woman wounded in a suicide attack at a hotel in Taftan, located near Iranian border, is helped by her relatives at a hospital in Quetta on Monday. Reuters Bombers hit Afghan police base, 1 dead |
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Russia: India can reprocess fuel from Kudankulam plant Wound healing devices seized from Karachi attackers Russia
will ‘react’ to NATO build-up near borders 5 dead in Las Vegas shooting
Iran, US hold direct N-talks in Geneva
Syria’s Assad announces general amnesty: TV Libyan top court says PM’s election invalid
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25 Shia pilgrims killed near Pak-Iran border Karachi, June 9 The attack took place yesterday when 10 buses carrying the Shia pilgrims stopped at a hotel in Taftan near the Iranian border. Six of the attackers were killed by security forces after heavy exchange of fire, Home Minister Mir Sarfaraz Bugti, told reporters. "As soon as the pilgrims came out of the buses to go to the hotel first a group of militants first opened indiscriminate fire on them and also threw hand grenades before rushing into the hotel and taking refuge there," Bugti said. Quetta Commissioner Qambar Dashti told PTI that 25 persons were killed in the attack and condition of some of the injured was critical. Authorities said there were 10 women among the dead. Sunni-militant group Jaish-ul-Islam has claimed responsibility for the deadly attack. A purported spokesman for the group, Azam Tariq, called Quetta-based journalists from an undisclosed location to claim credit for the deadly attack. Home secretary of the province, Akbar Durrani, confirmed to PTI that security forces were able to overpower the attackers after a few hours of heavy exchange of gunfire as the masked militants had come heavily armed and prepared for a siege. "The bodies of the pilgrims are being shifted to hospitals and the injured are also getting treatment," Durrani said. "There were explosions after the buses were parked outside the hotels where the pilgrims were going to stay overnight before they commenced their journey back the following day," Durrani said. Attacks on Shia pilgrims have increased in recent years in the Baluchistan province where in the past also such attacks have killed dozens and injured scores of pilgrims. Two devastating bombings in Quetta killed nearly 200 Shias last year and were claimed by banned Sunni extremist group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) which has links to Al-Qaida. — PTI
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Bombers hit Afghan police base, 1 dead Kabul, June 9 No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack but the Taliban have recently staged a series of high-profile bombings ahead of the June 14 runoff in the country’s presidential election. The attack on the police base in eastern Behsud district took place late yesterday, said Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, the spokesman for the provincial governor of Nangarhar province. A suicide car bomber first blew himself up by detonating his vehicle at the entrance to the parking lot. Two other attackers then stormed in, shooting at the security forces. The police killed both attackers but at least 25 fuel tankers and logistic trucks caught on fire and were burned during the fighting, Abdulzai said. Officials are concerned there could be more violence ahead of the balloting on Saturday, though the first round of the election on April 5 passed relatively peacefully. Last Friday, Abdullah Abdullah the front-runner in the election narrowly escaped assassination when two suicide boomers attacked his convoy during a campaign event in the capital. — AP
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Russia: India can reprocess fuel from Kudankulam plant Moscow, June 9 “Spent fuel is important to India and it has its own facility with a highly qualified staff. We don’t have the responsibility of the spent fuel from the Kudankulam plant and India can reprocess its spent fuel or even store it,” said Anzhelika Khaperskaya, Chief Manager of Spent Nuclear Fuel System Creation of Rosatom. She was responding to a question on whether Russia will reprocess India’s spent fuel from the KKNPP units. The country is constructing a facility under which it will take spent fuel from 14 other countries, extract vital elements from it to use it for its Fast Breeder Reactors and other purposes. She added that as far as India was concerned, India was not on its agenda in this project. “Under the existing agreement, India has to take care of its spent fuel. If India wants Russia to reprocess its spent fuel, then there has to be a separate agreement under which modalities have to be specified,” she said. Under its three-stage nuclear programme, India, too, requires spent fuel and considers it as a vital fuel for its Fast Breeder Reactors. — PTI |
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Wound healing devices seized from Karachi attackers
Karachi, June 9 “These devices are used to stop bleeding and heal gunshot wounds in 15 to 20 seconds,” a source in the paramilitary rangers told PTI. The security forces found XStat or Faxziat devices from the bags of these terrorists who are said to be of Uzbek-origin. “Clearly they came with a long siege of the airport in mind,” he added. The device, normally used by military medics and emergency services, is an applicator filled with dozens of tiny sponges that soak up a ton of blood when injected into an open wound. At least 28 people, including 10 terrorists, were killed in the attack before security forces eventually regained control over the key facility. The outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has claimed responsibility for the attack which began just before midnight on Jinnah International Airport. — PTI |
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Russia will ‘react’ to NATO build-up near borders Moscow, June 9 The comments come amid a deep crisis between Russia and the West over Ukraine and days after US President Barack Obama offered increased military support for eastern European NATO members to ease their concerns over Moscow. "We cannot see such a build-up of the alliance's military power near the border with Russia as anything else but a demonstration of hostile intentions," Deputy Foreign Minister Vladimir Titov told Interfax in an interview. Speaking last week in NATO-member Poland, Obama unveiled plans to spend up to $1 billion on supporting and training the armed forces of alliance states bordering Russia. The White House also said it would review permanent troop deployments in Europe in the light of the Ukraine crisis, but fell short of a firm commitment to put troops on the ground, as sought by Poland as a security guarantee. "It would be hard to see additional deployment of substantial NATO military forces in central-eastern Europe, even if on a rotational basis, as anything else but a direct violation of provisions of the 1997 Founding Act on relations between Russia and NATO," Titov said. "We will be forced to undertake all necessary political and military measures to reliably safeguard our security." — Reuters
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Las Vegas, June 9 The two uniformed patrol officers, later identified as Alyn Beck, 41, and Igor Soldo, 31, were ambushed without provocation inside a CiCi’s Pizza shop, authorities said. One of the two officers managed to return gunfire before the suspects fled to an adjacent Wal-Mart, where they killed a bystander inside the front door, then exchanged gunfire with police who pursued them further into the store, Clark County Sheriff Douglas Gillespie said. Moments later, the female suspect shot her accomplice to death, then took her own life, Gillespie told reporters at a late-afternoon news conference. A city police spokeswoman, Laura Meltzer, earlier told Reuters the two suspects died after they “engaged in what is being described as a suicide pact.” She also said the suspects had grabbed the fallen officers’ weapons before fleeing to the Wal-Mart, which Gillespie confirmed. Meltzer said preliminary information received by police at the scene showed one or both of the suspects had yelled a statement: “This is a revolution” as they carried out the initial attack. Gillespie said in the statement this was unconfirmed. He said investigators were also at a loss to explain the attack. “What precipitated this event we do not know. My officers were simply having lunch when the shooting started,” he said. He added: “It’s a tragic day, a very difficult day. But we still have a community to police, and we still have a community to protect. We will be out there doing it with our heads held high but an emptiness in our hearts.” — Reuters
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Iran, US hold direct N-talks in Geneva Geneva, June 9 For the Islamic republic, the goal is to make a leap towards ending the international sanctions that have battered its economy. Washington and its allies are seeking solid commitments that will ensure Iran's stated desire for a peaceful atomic power programme is not a covert attempt to build a nuclear bomb. The two-day Geneva meeting began this afternoon, Iranian media reported. US officials said there were no plans to brief reporters, who were left guessing about the venue. Time is running out for the negotiations between Iran and the so-called P5+1 group. A deadline of July 20 has been set to turn a temporary deal struck in November into a permanent agreement. The Geneva meeting marks the first time since the 1980s that Tehran and Washington have held official, direct talks on the nuclear issue outside of the P5+1 process. — AFP |
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Syria’s Assad announces general amnesty: TV Damascus, June 9 The amnesty decree is the most wide-ranging since the beginning of a revolt against Assad in March 2011, and for the first time extends to those accused under Syria's controversial July 2012 anti-terrorism law. The government has dubbed all those opposed to Assad's rule, armed opposition fighters and peaceful activists alike, of "terrorism", and used the law to imprison high-profile dissidents. Should the amnesty be applied, tens of thousands of prisoners held because of their opposition to the regime are expected to be freed. — AFP
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Libyan top court says PM’s election invalid
Tripoli, June 9 “The court has judged the election of Miitig at the General National Congress (the interim parliament) as unconstitutional,” a judge said. Outgoing premier Abdullah al-Thani had said he would await the judiciary’s ruling before deciding whether to hand over power. Thani had announced his resignation earlier this year after an armed attack on his family, but he insisted that his successor should be chosen by a new parliament rather than its contested predecessor and refused to recognise Miitig’s cabinet. Miitig, 42, an independent backed by the Islamists, had been due to lead the country for a short interim period until June 25, when the country is due to hold an election to replace the GNC. — AFP |
Iraq attacks, bombs at Kurdish offices kill 29
Indian in Bahrain may reunite with family after 25 yrs Indian scientist inducted into elite group of professors Bombs against Kurds, other attacks in Iraq kill 33
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At least 25 Shia pilgrims, including 10 women, were killed when suicide bombers attacked their buses in Pakistan's troubled Balochistan province as they were returning from Iran, officials said today.
Three suicide bombers attacked a parking lot at a police base in eastern Afghanistan, killing a guard and setting 25 trucks ablaze, an Afghan provincial official said today.
India can reprocess its spent fuel from the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant
(KKNPP) as it has its own facility with highly qualified staff, Russia said today.
“Spent fuel is important to India and it has its own facility with a highly qualified staff.
Russia
would consider any further expansion of NATO forces near its borders a
"demonstration of hostile intentions" and would take political
and military measures to ensure its own security, a senior diplomat was
quoted on Monday as saying. The comments come amid a deep crisis between Russia and the West over Ukraine and days after US President Barack Obama offered increased military support for eastern European NATO members to ease their concerns over Moscow. 
Las Vegas, June 9
