Tuesday, 24 May 2011

China denies citizens held hostage in PNS Mehran attack

Taliban gunmen assaulted the naval base in Karachi on Sunday, blowing up two aircraft and besieging a building in what the group said was an attack to avenge the death of Osama bin Laden, the leader of al Qaeda killed by US special forces. — File Photo

BEIJING: China’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday denied that any of the country’s citizens was held hostage in an attack by Taliban militants on a Pakistani naval base, although it said Chinese technicians were moved to safety because of the assault.
The hostage issue is the latest episode of uncertainty in a Sino-Pakistani relationship that is close, sometimes secretive, and also prey to confusion.
Beijing’s denial followed news reports that it had confirmed Chinese nationals were held by militants in the weekend siege.
Taliban gunmen assaulted the naval base in Karachi on Sunday, blowing up two aircraft and besieging a building in what the group said was an attack to avenge the death of Osama bin Laden, the leader of al Qaeda killed by US special forces.
Pakistani news reports at the time said Chinese nationals were taken hostage by the militants.
“The spokeswoman has already said, ‘It’s my understanding that no Chinese people were taken hostage’,” a staff member from the Foreign Ministry spokesperson’s office said by telephone, citing what he said was a comment by the spokeswoman Jiang Yu.
On Tuesday, spokeswoman Jiang told a news conference that Chinese companies’ “technical personnel were moved to safety” because of the attack. But she did not say whether those personnel were held hostage or were even on the navy base.
A transcript of the news conference on the ministry’s website (www.mfa.gov.cn), however, later inserted her direct denial that hostages were held.
On Monday, the ministry had also said “no Chinese nationals were taken hostage in the incident”. The Pakistani government has said the same.
China and Pakistan call each other “all-weather friends” and their ties have been underpinned by longstanding wariness of their common neighbour, India, and a desire to hedge against US influence.
China has been Pakistan’s biggest supplier of conventional arms and Chinese engineers and technicians have helped build infrastructure in Pakistan, including nuclear power plants.
But there are limits to how far Beijing is willing to back Islamabad and risk a rift with Pakistan’s long-time foe, India, and the United States, which remains a key regional presence.
Beijing has voiced concern about Chinese nationals working in Pakistan, especially after several workers were killed in militant attacks in past years.
On Tuesday, China said it had not even heard of Pakistan’s proposal for Beijing to help it build a naval port, pouring cold water on an earlier announcement by Pakistani Defence Minister Ahmad Mukhtar.

Suicide blast kills five policemen in Peshawar

Soldiers, police officers check a police building after it was attacked by a suicide bomber, Peshawar, May 25, 2011. — Photo by AP

PESHAWAR: A Taliban suicide bomber rammed a truck bomb into a Pakistani police station at dawn Wednesday, flattening the three-storey building in a massive explosion and killing five people.
The country’s main Taliban faction claimed responsibility for the attack in the protected military zone of the northwestern city of Peshawar, saying it was their fourth reprisal for the US killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.
Five policemen died in Wednesday’s explosion, a relatively low toll given the enormity of the blast, but officials said the building normally had only a skeleton staff at the time of the attack.
An AFP reporter saw flames from the stricken building, shattered glass on the ground, pancaked rubble, burning tyres and the charred remains of at least three vehicles, including a small truck.
Constable Farid Khan, who had his shoulder fractured in the attack and was admitted to a hospital told AFP that he was saying his morning prayers inside the police station when a deafening explosion took place.
“The roof of the building collapsed with the impact of the blast,” he said, adding he could not get up because of his shoulder injury and his colleagues later took him to the hospital.
Rescuers were trying to reach four or five people believed trapped alive in the rubble, police official Mohammad Ijaz told AFP.
“It was a huge blast which completely destroyed the three-storey building,” Ijaz added, saying there were usually 10 to 15 people present at that time in the police station.
Police said another 23 people, including nine policemen and a child, were wounded in the blast.
The razed building housed the police Criminal Investigation Department and was located in the Peshawar Cantonment area just 150 metres from the US consulate. The area houses military families and security is normally tight.
Police said the attack was carried out with a small truck containing at least 200-250 kilograms of explosives, and that body parts were hurled more than 300 metres away from the blast.
“We will further step up these attacks to avenge Osama bin Laden’s martyrdom,” Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location.
“These attacks will continue until the US drone strikes and ongoing Pakistani military operations are stopped in the tribal regions,” he added.
The military rushed to seal off the area around the Peshawar police station after the 4:38 am blast.

Gold and Silver Rates in Pakistan:

City	Gold			Silver
	24K 10 Grams	24K Per Tola	22K 10 Grams	10 Grams
Karachi	Rs. 42,257.00	Rs. 49,300.00	Rs. 38,735.00	Rs. 1,054.28
Hyderabad	Rs. 42,257.00	Rs. 49,300.00	Rs. 38,735.00	Rs. 1,054.28
Lahore	Rs. 42,257.00	Rs. 49,300.00	Rs. 38,735.00	Rs. 1,054.28
Multan	Rs. 42,257.00	Rs. 49,300.00	Rs. 38,735.00	Rs. 1,054.28
Islamabad	Rs. 42,257.00	Rs. 49,300.00	Rs. 38,735.00	Rs. 1,054.28
Faisalabad	Rs. 42,257.00	Rs. 49,300.00	Rs. 38,735.00	Rs. 1,054.28
Rawalpindi	Rs. 42,257.00	Rs. 49,300.00	Rs. 38,735.00	Rs. 1,054.28
Quetta	Rs. 42,257.00	Rs. 49,300.00	Rs. 38,735.00	Rs. 1,054.28
Last Updated: May 24,2011 (Source: Karachi Saraf Jewellers Association)

Gold Rates in Pakistan - Find Today's current Gold rates in Pakistan and it major cities like Karachi, Lahore, and Islamabad. PakBiz.com Finance offers live online Bullion prices (24K gold bullion rates) of Pakistan in Pakistani Rupees, US Dollars and other major currencies in per once and per tola. Here you can also find gold price chart and current silver rates (silver bullion prices) along with international goldrates.

Dozens of flights grounded as ash cloud reaches Britain

A plane flies past smoke plume from the eruption of the Grimsvotn volcano, under the Vatnajokull glacier in southeast Iceland May 21, 2011. Airlines began cancelling flights to Britain late on Monday because of an ash cloud from an Icelandic volcano reaching its airspace. – Reuters Photo

LONDON: Airlines halted dozens of flights on Tuesday after a plume of ash from an erupting volcano in Iceland blew over Britain, even forcing US President Barack Obama to revise his travel plans.
Barely a year after a similar eruption in Iceland forced the biggest closure of European airspace since World War II, Britain’s flagship carrier British Airways was the first to suspend flights from London to Scotland.
Dutch airline KLM, Irish carrier Aer Lingus and budget liner Easyjet then followed suit while some flights into the northeastern English city of Newcastle were cancelled.
Forecasters warned that the plume could reach the European mainland later in the week, threatening to disrupt planning for events ranging from the G8 summit to the Champion League final between Barcelona and Manchester United.
Low-budget airline Ryanair meanwhile said it would challenge advice from the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) not to operate flights to Scotland until lunchtime.
“Following forecasts of significant volcanic ash in Scottish airspace, (we) have decided as a precaution that it will not operate any flights between London and Scotland on Tuesday … that arrive in Scotland before 2:00 pm or depart from Scotland before 2:00 pm,” a BA statement said.
“At present all other flights are unaffected,” it added.
The most high-profile victim of the chaos was Obama who was forced to leave Ireland a day ahead of schedule on Monday night to avoid being stranded there.
Obama is among the leaders of the world’s leading industrialised nations due to attend a summit in northern France from Thursday which could well be disrupted if the cloud goes further south.
Spanish football giants Barcelona said they would make a decision Tuesday regarding their travel plans for the Champions League final in London’s Wembley Stadium on Saturday.
When an Icelandic volcano erupted last year, the plume of ash arrived in Scotland before spreading quickly across Britain, shutting down the whole country’s airspace.
The ash then drifted across most of Europe, sparking the biggest shutdown of airspace in the post-war era.

No records of terrorists’ fingerprints found at NADRA

A guard helps an Army official lay flowers on the grave of navy officer Lieutenant Yasir Abbas, who was killed during a gun battle against militants at the Mehran naval aviation base in Karachi a day earlier, after his burial in Lahore on May 24, 2011. - Reuters Photo

Last updated: 3 hours ago

Headlines:

White House vows to further tighten screws on Iran

No records of terrorists’ fingerprints found at NADRA

DAWN.COM

Yesterday

ISLAMABAD: Identification records of the dead terrorists involved in the attack on PNS Mehran base in Karachi could not be found, DawnNews reported on Tuesday.
SP Investigation Niaz Ahmed Khoso said that the police had earlier sent the terrorists’ fingerprints to NADRA, however NADRA officials said that they could not find any record of the fingerprints in their databases.

Regarding identification through DNA testing, Khoso said that DNA samples had already been dispatched to Islamabad. However, NADRA databases do not have the capability of identification through DNA samples, footprints or eye-scans.
Khoso further added that judging from their physical appearances, the attackers did not seem to be locals.

British Asians ‘targeted by terror laws’

Police are using a power, granted under the Terrorism Act 2000, which allows them to stop people at ports and airports for up to nine hours without the need for reasonable suspicion of involvement in a crime. – File Photo

LONDON: British police are up to 42 times more likely to use counter-terrorism powers to stop and search people of Asian origin than white people, a report said on Tuesday.
Police are using a power, granted under the Terrorism Act 2000, which allows them to stop people at ports and airports for up to nine hours without the need for reasonable suspicion of involvement in a crime.
More than 85,000 such stops were carried out in 2009 and 2010, according to figures obtained by the Federation of Student Islamic Societies.
An analysis by The Guardian newspaper found that people of Asian origin — normally people from south Asian countries such as India and Pakistan — were up to 42 times more likely than white people to be stopped.
Asked by lawmakers on Tuesday whether people of Asian origin in Britain felt they were being singled out, senior police officer Nick Gargan said there was “no shortage of evidence” to back up the claim.
“There is the perception that that’s precisely how communities feel,” he said.
A total of 2,201 of the stop and searches lasted more than an hour and fewer than one in 100 resulted in an arrest being made, according to the figures.
People of Asian origin made up 41 per cent of these stops, white people 19 per cent, black people 10 per cent and others 30 per cent.
Asians make up five per cent of Britain’s population, while white people make up 91 per cent.
Police denied they were singling out any specific groups.
Existing rules ensure “that the examination of a person cannot be based solely on perceived ethnicity or religion,” said John Donlon, of the Association of Chief Police Officers.
“Activity is intelligence-led and officers deployed at ports do not single out particular ethnic groups for examination.”

Pakistan returns US helicopter from bin Laden raid

This picture taken on May 11, 2011 shows a general view of Pakistan's hill Abbottabad city where slain Al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden was killed in a US Naval Seals special operation on May 2. - Photo by AFP

WASHINGTON: Pakistan has returned to the United States wreckage of a US helicopter destroyed during the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, a Pentagon official told Reuters on Tuesday.
The delivery of the wreckage meets a key US demand of Pakistan in the wake the May 2 mission to kill the al Qaeda leader, which Islamabad branded a violation of its sovereignty.
Pakistani officials were kept in the dark about the US raid in Abbottabad, only 30 miles (50 km) from Pakistan’s
capital.
“It (the wreckage) was returned over the weekend and is now back in the United States,” Pentagon spokesman Colonel Dave Lapan said.
The US Navy SEAL team blew up the helicopter damaged during the raid to prevent sensitive technology from falling into enemy hands.

Hakim Ali Zardari died(Asif Zardari father died)

Hakim Ali Zardari died(Asif Zardari father died). He died at the age of 89 lining 3 kids behind including President Asif Ali Zardari. He will be moved to Nawab Shah for Jannaza . He is know as Rais Hakin Ali Zardai in Sindh. Sardar Hakim Ali Zardari was on ventilator for the last 70 days in PIMS hospital Islamabad.
Hakim Ali Zardari was selected on peoples party ticket in 1970.
Nawaz Sharif gives his condolences to Asif Ali Zardari for sad demise of his Father

Tuesday, 24 May 2011

No records of terrorists’ fingerprints found at NADRA

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