A British national employed by the UN in Afghanistan has been arrested and is being questioned by police after a bomb exploded in a colleague's bedroom causing the victim serious burns, the UN and British embassy has said. The Briton and the victim of the attack, an Albanian national, were both employed by a United Nations-sponsored disarmament program, which collects illegal weapons, including explosive devices, from around the country.
The device hidden in the Albanian Muslim's room in a guesthouse in central Kabul exploded at around shortly before midnight on October 12 (local time), the owner of the establishment told AFP. "The explosion resulted in one member of staff receiving extensive burns on his body," UN spokesman Aleem Siddique told AFP. "That member of staff has been evacuated for medical treatment in New Delhi and is currently recovering. His injuries are not life-threatening.
"Another member of staff is currently helping Kabul police with their investigations," Mr Siddique said, confirming the man was being held at the Pul-i-Charki jail on the outskirts of Kabul.
Asked about the incident, a British embassy spokesman said: "A British national has been detained by the Afghan police and is helping with their enquiries."
The blast was powerful and caused serious damage, the owner of the Ajmal Wali guesthouse told AFP. The room and the furniture inside it were destroyed as was a car outside that was hit by debris from the blast, Mohammed Tamin said. It was unclear where the bomb was placed - perhaps under a bed or a table.
A cleaning lady had seen the arrested man enter his colleague's room hours before the explosion, he said.
The motive for the attack was unclear but colleagues said the men, both believed to be in their 30s, had differences at their work at the Afghanistan's New Beginnings Program disarmament drive.
The detained Briton is an ammunitions expert. "The police are trying to pin down what happened," Mr Siddique said.
#8
Ummm,Yeah
Found some unexploded ordinance did you?
The motive for the attack was unclear but colleagues said the men had differences at their work at the Afghanistan's New Beginnings Program disarmament drive.
The detained Briton is an ammunitions expert.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
10/22/2006 15:15 Comments ||
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The Dutch Cabinet decided on Friday to deploy 130 additional soldiers in the Afghan province of Uruzgan. Some 65 soldiers will be sent to the region and a further 65 security troops and logistical personnel who were to be pulled out will remain on duty there. They will be deployed to offer better security to troops assisting in the province's reconstruction.
There are currently 1,400 Dutch soldiers deployed in Uruzgan as part of NATO's ISAF mission. Dutch soldiers have been involved in several gun battles with Taliban fighters in recent days. The Defence Ministry also said Apache helicopters and F-16 fighter jets have been involved in action involving Canadian troops in Kandahar.
Defence Minister Henk Kamp said the additional deployment does not require permission from Parliament. The left-wing opposition parties have demanded an emergency debate about the matter.
I thought Afghanistan was the war that the Left supported.
The Netherlands takes over control of the Nato-led peacekeeping mission in southern Afghanistan on 1 November, at which point a further 200 troops will be deployed.
#1
Well, maybe I was wrong on the Verdonk story - and the Dutch are turning the corner, sorta. Apologies, anon!
They still have the same Tranzi hurdles that we do, prolly x10, so how many troops they can field and how effectively they can be employed to actually pull some of the weight will be up in the air for awhile, I guess. But my thanks to DefMin Kamp for trying and doing what he can.
Somali government troops chased fighters loyal to the country's newly powerful Islamists from a key southern town, raising the spectre of a head-on clash between the Horn of Africa rivals. Bur Hakaba was a potential flashpoint town because it put the Islamists within 30km of the government's base in Baidoa. It lies on the road from the capital Mogadishu, which the Islamists seized from US-backed warlords in June. "Heavy fighting took place early this morning between government troops and a local militia loyal to the Islamists," said Abdihakim Ahmed, a local resident. He said the militiamen later tried to retake the town.
One militia was killed and another wounded when they tried to recapture the town...
"One militia was killed and another wounded when they tried to recapture the town," Ahmed said.
Nearly 400 government troops and about 30 "technicals" - pick-up trucks mounted with heavy weaponry - were stationed at a bridge 5km west of town on the Mogadishu road, with the local militia facing them there, Ahmed said. Ali Jama Jangali, the administration's information minister, said government forces had taken action to restore security. "Bur Hakaba is calm, it is very secure and our troops are in control," Jama told reporters in Baidoa.
Bedri Hassan, a senior Islamist information officer, said Islamist forces were gathered around Lego, a town 55km west of Bur Hakaba on the road to Mogadishu, and would strike the government troops if they remained in Bur Hakaba.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/22/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Islamist forces were gathered around Lego, a town 55km west of Bur Hakaba on the road to Mogadishu
famous for it's snap-together buildings and small people with smiling yellow faces
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/22/2006 9:36 Comments ||
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#2
Ya beat me Frank. Of course you get up at 0500 on Sunday and I get up at 0900 ADT.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/22/2006 13:42 Comments ||
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#3
Gee, AP - that's about the same time I get up -around 0900 ADT. Of course, I'm in the Mountain Time Zone...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/22/2006 13:56 Comments ||
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#4
Ya beat me Frank. Of course you get up at 0500 on Sunday and I get up at 0900 ADT.
Mr. Paul, Frank never gets up early.. he stays awake every week end, Fri thru Sunday.
»:-)
/dem engineers have dem special snap-together buildings ways!
Somali government troops and heavily armed Islamist fighters have gathered on Sunday around Burhakaba, a strategic southern Somali town, a day after it was captured by government troops.
Reports say that the residents of the town are fleeing as a conflict between the Somali government troops and the Islamic militia have become imminent as the Islamists have threatened to launch a counter-attack to recapture the town if the government troops does not withdraw. The interim government has in turn refused to withdraw its forces from Burhakaba.
The capture of the Burhakaba town by the interim government troops is seen as a challenge to the authority of the Union of Islamic Courts of Somalia who controls most of the country.
Hundreds of Islamists pledging to recapture the town of Burhakaba have converged on the nearby town of Lego. The UIC Islamists have accused Ethiopia of supporting the forces of the weak interim government of Somalia, but both Somalia's interim government and Ethiopia have denied any direct Ethiopian involvement in the capture of Burhakaba.
However diplomatic sources say that at least 6,000 Ethiopian troops are now inside Somalia supporting the interim government of Somalia. Sunday's stand-off is the closest the two sides have come to a full-scale confrontation.
The Rapid Action Battalion arrested six young men with a revolver from Borhanuddin Friday night. Rubel, Aslam, Noman, Monir, Ceazar and Hasan all in early 20s and identified as BNP cadres were sent to prison when they were produced before the court on Saturday, the police said.
The police said the ruling party cadres were gossiping on the Munshibarir Darjar Bridge at 9:00pm when a RAB patrol team challenged them.
The Borhanuddin upazila BNP president, Anwar Bhuiyan, said those arrested were not workers of the ruling party. It was an attempt malign the BNP at the fag end of its rule.
"We don't know 'em. Please don't kill me!"
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/22/2006 01:17 ||
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#1
I was wondering why Rubel, Aslam, Noman, Monir, Ceazar and Hasan had joined the British National Party. Note to self: Always study the graphic carefully before reading.
French police and youths clashed in a Paris suburb on Sunday as tensions mounted ahead of the anniversary of riots last year that shocked the country and provoked renewed debate about the integration of immigrants.
A police spokesman said 30 to 50 individuals were involved in the clashes in Grigny south of Paris that started after youths set several cars on fire and torched a bus after ordering its passengers off.
"There are still some sporadic incidents, mostly stone throwing," he said.
In a statement, the Action Police CFTC police union urged the government to deploy "a visible and large number" of riot police to discourage youths from constantly attacking patrols. In recent days police patrols in a number of towns across the country have been attacked by petrol bombs. "This latest clash marks the progressive start of a repeat of the riots of November 2005," the statement said, referring to the incident in Grigny.
#4
This now has become a daily occasion in Gay Paree, suggesting that what France is experiencing is something akin to a low intensity conflict launched from within by a Jihadist Fifth Column as well as opportunistically-inclined criminal elements.
#5
Thwe police should respond with live ammo. Nothing else will stop this but some dead "youths". It's the only thing that works and will restore order. The fear of police power is something that is understood universally because it get applied sommetimes. The French "authorities" don't seem to understand this concept. The heathen youths will if they just do it.
#6
Ah, yes, the "youths" are rioting. I wonder if they are named Jean-Luc and Chantal, or Abdul and Mahmood? (That little minx Fatima had better be at home cleaning her hijab if she knows what's good for her....)
Posted by: facta non verba ||
10/22/2006 16:58 Comments ||
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#8
How can this be? We were repeatedly told by the press during the Afghan war, that Ramadan was considered a "time of peace" therefore we could not attack the Taliban during the holy month of Ramadan. Clearly French members of the Religion of Peace could not possibly be rioting during Ramadan. Must be another one of those plots by the Jooooooooosss.
#9
Anyone speak French well enough to translate that video ?
5089 ? Facta ?
Do your average French Yutes normally do Ramadan ?
Where were the burning cars ?
#10
I'm just curious - I really don't know the answer. Is the "anniversary of the riots" the same as the conclusion of ramadan?
Ahh! Youth! No eatin' nuttin' for a month and then ya getcha first sugar rush!
What memories!
Posted by: Almost Anonymous5839 ||
10/22/2006 18:04 Comments ||
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#11
If that crap happened in my neighborhood, the private guns would come out first, and the police second. French cops are afraid to pull their guns in defense of self and property, because the Islamo-Socialist state does not let cops do their protective job.
I wonder if the collective Frog brain will grasp the fact that this crap is going to repeat every year until Muslims take control of the Gallic surrender entity? Probably not.
That number of arsoned cars would have a profound effect on insurance rates. Are Frogs willing to pay this Muslim terror tax?
#12
JD the voices are heavily accented -- not regular French but Arab immigrants (most likely 2nd generation). Rough translation follows.
At the beginnig someone says "we're going to show you what happens to you if you're like them...". Someone says "inshallah". Then "ok whip them" as everybody's moving into the building.
Before the beating starts, something about how they were able to pay for expensive jewels, then "now steal their sweaters". There are some French-Arabic slang words I don't understand.
During a lull in the beating, the man filming says "start hitting again, I said hit! hit!"
#17
Snease Shaiting3550, it isn't that the French police are afraid, but their rules of engagement include things like, "Don't hurt the suspect's feelings" and "Do nothing to provoke the youths into criminal behaviour." The police have been put in an impossible situation.
Terror suspects Samir A. and Noureddine El F. wanted to obtain materials in Germany to make a bomb belt and carry out a suicide attack in the Netherlands, the Amsterdam trial court was told on Friday.
Crown witness Lahbib B. who also stands accused in the Piranha investigation said Samir A. asked him in the summer of 2005 shortly after the arrest of El F. to travel to Germany with him. He said A. wanted to see how many checks were carried out along the border. B. said further that Samir A. wanted to obtain the "ingredients of a bomb belt" in Germany.
El F. who was arrested with a loaded automatic pistol in Amsterdam West allegedly showed the witness on CD-ROM how to make a bomb belt. B. could not tell the judge how the suicide attack would be carried out.
B. has also said that the Syrian spiritual leader of the Hofstadgroep had said that attacks in the Netherlands were permitted
B. has also said that the Syrian spiritual leader of the Hofstadgroep which A. and El F. were members of had said that attacks in the Netherlands were permitted because of Dutch support given to the US. The members of the group later spoke frequently about jihad in the Netherlands. The witness said Samir A. and El F. regularly played with weapons. B. gave his witness testimony in a closed room because he did not wanted to be identified by visitors to the court for safety reasons.
Indian troops killed seven suspected Islamist militants in an operation to flush out insurgents in Indian-held Kashmir (IHK), police said on Saturday. "The seven were killed during separate operations in Doda, Baramulla and Kupwara districts on Friday night," a police spokesman said. Police said that one of the slain insurgents was functioning as "sectional commander" of Hizbul Mujahedin. "Three of the militants killed in Baramulla district were believed to have infiltrated into our (Indian) side from the Pakistani side a few days back," an army spokesman said.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/22/2006 00:00 ||
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KHAR: Political authorities in Bajaur Agency freed nine suspected Al Qaeda militants on the personal guarantee of a tribe, officials said on Saturday. The suspects were arrested in a pre-dawn raid on Damadola village on May 4 this year. The raid was meant to arrest militant commander Maulana Faqir Muhammad, but he was not there.
PESHAWAR: The death toll from the Peshawar bomb blast rose to nine on Saturday, after two more people died of injuries, police said. "Seven people died yesterday (Friday) and two more in hospital died of wounds on Saturday," Peshawar police officer Malik Saad said. Police had yet to make headway in their investigations, he said, adding that security had been beefed up in the city.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/22/2006 00:00 ||
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PESHAWAR: Investigators suspect that Fridays blast in Peshawar could have originated from Afghan and Indian intelligence collaboration in Kabul. DIG (Operations) Malik Saad told Daily Times that police were looking for clues to determine whether the man who executed the attack was a local or an Afghan. Injured gypsy women in Lady Reading Hospital told investigators they had seen the man for the first time in the area, but they could not identify whether he was a local or an Afghan. A counter-intelligence official said the blast was linked to a wider regional conflict suggesting that the mastermind was from across the (western) border.
These explosions are taking place to destabilise Pakistan, he said. An improvised explosive device was detonated in a pushcart, and investigators are gathering evidence to get to the attackers, said Saad before a meeting that was presided over by IG Riffat Pasha. Police sources said that at the meeting, all security agencies had pointed their fingers across the border. The sources said that police were finding it hard to make headway into the investigation or dig up evidence to substantiate their suspicion. There has been no breakthrough so far.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani also presided over a meeting to review the security situation following a series of blasts in Peshawar. We will identify them, and will not spare them, Durrani told the meeting. Police investigators are also looking at a possible link with the North Waziristan peace deal, as all five explosions in Peshawar took place after the accord was signed on September 5.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/22/2006 00:00 ||
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India said Saturday it had arrested an army sergeant for allegedly handing secret military papers to a Pakistan High Commission employee, sparking a new spy row between the nuclear-armed rivals. "Anil Kumar Dubey, a sergeant in the Indian army was arrested yesterday (Friday) while passing classified documents to Mohammad Farooq of the Pakistan High Commission," New Delhi Deputy Commissioner of Police Alok Kumar told AFP.
Police said the army sergeant was being held under India's Official Secrets Act and that police had acted on "intelligence inputs." Pakistan charged that Indian security illegally detained and manhandled the embassy employee in New Delhi.
"The government of Pakistan has lodged a strong protest with the Indian government over the illegal detention and manhandling of Mr Mohammad Farooq%u2026by the Indian security personnel," the foreign ministry said in a statement, adding, "The harassment of a Pakistani official is a violation of international conventions as well as diplomatic norms."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/22/2006 00:00 ||
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"The harassment of a Pakistani official is a violation of international conventions as well as diplomatic norms."
"But fully understandable, given their duplicitous behavior"
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/22/2006 11:11 Comments ||
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#2
must be a muslim no loyalty to their own country anywhere in the world!!!!
AMARA - Troops deployed to quell trouble on the streets of Amara on Saturday as the uneasy balance of power between Iraqs security forces and Shiite militias threatened to break down in violence. Government negotiators managed to broker a ceasefire in this southern city, restoring order after two days of bloodshed, but more clashes erupted further north as informal gangs of gunmen tested the governments resolve. The Iraqi army is on the main streets and intersections, said Shirwan Al Waili, Iraqs minister of state for national security, who rushed to Amara on Friday on the orders of Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki. The police are back in their barracks and there are no militia on the streets, he told reporters in the city.
The medical director of Amaras health department, Zamil Al Oreibi, told AFP that a total of 24 people had been killed in the fighting and 150 wounded, a mixture of police, militia and civilian bystanders.
Armed militiamen left the streets overnight, troops deployed in numbers and life was slowly returning to normal in this overwhelmingly Shiite city of around 350,000 people. British military spokesman Major Charlie Burbridge said 2,300 Iraqi army troops had deployed in Amara, with 700 more waiting just outside town, and confirmed that the police had returned to barracks. The situation is definitely calm, but its very tense. We suspect that there is a capacity for it to brew up again without any warning, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/22/2006 00:00 ||
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Only yesterday, the militias were claiming total control of Amara, and challenging outsiders. They were also threatening Basra and UK troops. Now Iraq security forces hold the city. The terrorists talk the talk; they can't walk the walk.
FOUR people have been killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a bus carrying holiday shoppers from a market, scattering children's toys across a highway bridge, security officials have said.
It was packed with families preparing for the festival marking the end of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan. Fifteen people were also wounded, and were reported to be mostly women and children.
The bus caught fire on the bridge leading from the Baghdad's vast Shorja market after a man triggered a bomb on board. It was packed with families preparing for the festival marking the end of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan. Fifteen people were also wounded, and were reported to be mostly women and children.
"We heard an explosion and rushed to the scene, where there was a bus on fire just 50 metres from an army checkpoint," said one witness. "We evacuated the women and children and there was this old woman among the wounded who said she was just coming from the market."
The blast came as Iraq's religious leaders meeting in the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia issued a call to stop the sectarian bloodletting gripping the country. "Is this the Mecca document? Killing children and those buying toys for them?" roared Abu Sajad, a stocky, white-bearded man in his 50s.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/22/2006 00:00 ||
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MASKED gunmen killed a senior Fatah militant in a Gaza Strip refugee camp today in what appeared to be another deadly episode of an increasingly violent power struggle with the governing Hamas movement.
Fatah blamed Hamas for the attack that killed Mohammed Shahadeh, commander of al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in the Bureij camp, and ordered its forces across the Gaza Strip to go on alert, Fatah officials said. There was no immediate comment from Hamas.
Red on red or Israeli led, so long Mo'.
At least 19 Palestinians have been killed this month in internal violence that has raised fears of civil war.
Masked gunmen shot Shahadeh, who also served in the Preventive Security service loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, at the door to his home, residents and Fatah officials said. Residents said Fatah militants then torched several cars belonging to Hamas members.
#3
Masked gunmen shot Shahadeh, who also served in the Preventive Security service loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, at the door to his home, residents and Fatah officials said. Residents said Fatah militants then torched several cars belonging to Hamas members.
Civil war? Tut-tut! How dare we impose our westernized notions of propriety on the Palestinians. For all we know this may just be the way that they conduct their form of democracy. Who are we to judge?
Members of the Palestinian security services blocked streets and burned tyres in Gaza City as they protested over non-payment of salaries. Demonstrators stopped cars from entering the city's main shopping district and stores closed down.
Wassafi Batala, an officer in the national security service, said members had not been paid for six months. The Hamas-led Palestinian Authority has struggled to pay municipal salaries since it came to power in March. Mr Batala added that the Muslim festival, Eid el-Fitr, was taking place on Sunday and he complained that he and his colleagues had no money for the feast.
Tyres were burned close to the home of Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, while shop owners claimed that they were told to close down. An outbreak of shooting occurred in Gaza on Friday after rival Palestinian groups Hamas and Fatah reached a deal to end factional fighting.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/22/2006 00:00 ||
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We need a huge canister of bug spray and a high altitude bomber to deliver it. Our gift to you and your on this Eid el-Fitr.
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/22/2006 15:10 Comments ||
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#7
Whoever's got the Zippo franchise in Gaza must be a multimillionaire by now. Every five minutes those guys are whipping out their lighters and torching something.
Military officials in Sri Lanka say the navy has destroyed two Tamil Tiger rebel boats off an island in the country's restive north, killing six rebels. The military says navy patrol boats opened fire on the rebel vessels Saturday after they were spotted heading toward a naval base on Kayts Island near the volatile Jaffna Peninsula.
On Friday, officials said the navy destroyed at least seven rebel boats off Jaffna, killing at least 35 rebels. The battles are part of a recent increase in attacks across the country that have left hundreds of combatants dead. On Wednesday, Tamil Tigers posing as fishermen blew up two boats in a suicide attack on a naval base on the southern coast, killing at least one sailor along with 15 rebels.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/22/2006 00:00 ||
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#5
Fear not, I'm familiar with how Carlton has raped this once honorable brand. I was just resorting to a Pythonesque bit of versifying. Yer talking to someone who associates Barry Humphries more with Bazza MacKenzie than Dame Edna, emkay?
A few decades ago, Foster's was one of the better lagers to be had on a global basis. Sadly, today only the bitters has any character to it at all. Of course, I still retain one or two of the old steel oil cans in my beer collection.
#9
Angie Dickinson is a recipient of the state of North Dakota's Roughrider Award.
She was married to Burt Bacharach but then again who hasn't been?
I was trying to find info on WW II actresses who contributed to the war. One helped invent something to do with radar or decoding as I recall hearing the story. Another was involved in the French resistance. However, I can't recall their names and can't find anything on the internet. Anyone else hear these stories and know the names?
#12
First, Angie. "Not much meat on those bones but, what's there is cherse." (I know that's about Katherine Hepburn.)
Next, WW2 trivia, maybe you're thinking of Julia Child, alledgedly was an agent for the OSS.
Posted by: Almost Anonymous5839 ||
10/22/2006 18:16 Comments ||
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#13
IIRC, Julia Child wasn't an agent but a secretary. She went to cooking school while stationed in France because she met and married a gentleman who loved good cooking, and Julia couldn't so much as boil an egg.
#15
Hedy Lamarr co-patented a radio spread spectrum frequency hopping guidance system for torpedos, and offered it to the Navy at the beginning of WWII. Great concept, but a problem in functional development.
#16
Today Hollywood, for the most part, has a bunch of nitwits. We don't find actors or actresses such as Clark Gable, Lee Marvin, Jimmy Stewart, Hedy Lamar and many others who fought for and supported this country during WW II.
#17
Julia Child joined the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) after being turned down by the US Navy for being too tall.
She worked at the OSS Emergency Sea Rescue Equipment Section in Washington, D.C., where she was a file clerk and also helped in the development of a shark repellent. She was aalso stationed in Ceylon and China, where she received the Emblem of Meritorious Civilian Service as head of the Registry of the OSS Secretariat.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
A British national employed by the UN in Afghanistan has been arrested and is being questioned by police after a bomb exploded in a colleague's bedroom causing the victim serious burns, the UN and British embassy has said. The Briton and the victim of the attack, an Albanian national, were both employed by a United Nations-sponsored disarmament program, which collects illegal weapons, including explosive devices, from around the country.
The Dutch Cabinet decided on Friday to deploy 130 additional soldiers in the Afghan province of Uruzgan. Some 65 soldiers will be sent to the region and a further 65 security troops and logistical personnel who were to be pulled out will remain on duty there. They will be deployed to offer better security to troops assisting in the province's reconstruction. 
Somali government troops chased fighters loyal to the country's newly powerful Islamists from a key southern town, raising the spectre of a head-on clash between the Horn of Africa rivals. Bur Hakaba was a potential flashpoint town because it put the Islamists within 30km of the government's base in Baidoa. It lies on the road from the capital Mogadishu, which the Islamists seized from US-backed warlords in June. "Heavy fighting took place early this morning between government troops and a local militia loyal to the Islamists," said Abdihakim Ahmed, a local resident. He said the militiamen later tried to retake the town. 
The Rapid Action Battalion arrested six young men with a revolver from Borhanuddin Friday night. Rubel, Aslam, Noman, Monir, Ceazar and Hasan all in early 20s and identified as BNP cadres were sent to prison when they were produced before the court on Saturday, the police said.
French police and youths clashed in a Paris suburb on Sunday as tensions mounted ahead of the anniversary of riots last year that shocked the country and provoked renewed debate about the integration of immigrants.
Terror suspects 
KHAR: Political authorities in Bajaur Agency freed nine suspected Al Qaeda militants on the personal guarantee of a tribe, officials said on Saturday. The suspects were arrested in a pre-dawn raid on 
PESHAWAR: Investigators suspect that Fridays blast in Peshawar could have originated from Afghan and Indian intelligence collaboration in Kabul. DIG (Operations) Malik Saad told Daily Times that police were looking for clues to determine whether the man who executed the attack was a local or an Afghan. Injured gypsy women in Lady Reading Hospital told investigators they had seen the man for the first time in the area, but they could not identify whether he was a local or an Afghan. A counter-intelligence official said the blast was linked to a wider regional conflict suggesting that the mastermind was from across the (western) border. 
all security agencies had pointed their fingers across the border. The sources said that police were finding it hard to make headway into the investigation or dig up evidence to substantiate their suspicion. There has been no breakthrough so far. 
India said Saturday it had arrested an army sergeant for allegedly handing secret military papers to a Pakistan High Commission employee, sparking a new spy row between the nuclear-armed rivals. "Anil Kumar Dubey, a sergeant in the Indian army was arrested yesterday (Friday) while passing classified documents to Mohammad Farooq of the Pakistan High Commission," New Delhi Deputy Commissioner of Police Alok Kumar told AFP.
FOUR people have been killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a bus carrying holiday shoppers from a market, scattering children's toys across a highway bridge, security officials have said. 
MASKED gunmen killed a senior Fatah militant in a Gaza Strip refugee camp today in what appeared to be another deadly episode of an increasingly violent power struggle with the governing Hamas movement.
Military officials in Sri Lanka say the navy has destroyed two Tamil Tiger rebel boats off an island in the country's restive north, killing six rebels. The military says navy patrol boats opened fire on the rebel vessels Saturday after they were spotted heading toward a naval base on Kayts Island near the volatile Jaffna Peninsula.
