The Star Online: World Updates
The Star Online: World Updates |
- Suspected suicide bombing kills 34 in Pakistan
- Berlusconi faces another test with Italy referendums
- Fighting in Zawiyah shuts Libya road to Tunisia
| Suspected suicide bombing kills 34 in Pakistan Posted: 11 Jun 2011 09:11 PM PDT PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - At least 34 people were killed in a suspected suicide bombing in the Pakistani city of Peshawar late on Saturday, the latest attack since Osama bin Laden's killing last month.
The bombing took place near a building that houses several newspaper offices as well as apartments. The attack occurred when a large number of people were dining in the nearby restaurants. No one claimed responsibility for the attack but Taliban militants have vowed to avenge the killing of al Qaeda chief bin Laden by U.S. SEALS in a secret raid in the northwestern town of Abbottabad on May 2. A small blast preceded a big one, which senior police official Banaras Khan said police suspected was carried out by a suicide bomber. "After the second blast, a fire broke out. Several charred bodies were lying on the ground while some wounded people were crawling away from the site," witness Naeem Ahmed told Reuters. Television footage showed twisted window frames, shards of broken glasses and fallen electricity cables strewn on roads as rescue workers were loading wounded men on stretchers into ambulances. Mian Iftikhar Hussain, information minister of the northwestern Khyber Pukhtunkhuwa (KP) province, told reporters that doctors had said the death toll was 34, "but it may rise as many wounded people are in critical condition". Peshawar is the capital of KP, which borders Afghanistan. Hospital officials said 100 people were wounded, 21 of them seriously. Several journalists and policemen were among the wounded. "As I arrived here, one of the wounded man cried 'please take me to hospital, I am alive'," another witness told Express television at the site of the attack. Since bin Laden was killed, militants have attacked a heavily guarded naval base in Karachi; killed nearly 100 people in twin suicide bombings at the headquarters of a paramilitary force in the northwest; attacked U.S. consulate convoy in Peshawar and killed a Saudi diplomat in Karachi. (Additional reporting by Kamran Haider; Writing by Zeeshan Haider; Editing by Alison Williams) (For more Reuters coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan, see: http://www.reuters.com/places/pakistan) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. | ||
| Berlusconi faces another test with Italy referendums Posted: 11 Jun 2011 09:11 PM PDT ROME (Reuters) - Italians vote in four referendums on Sunday and Monday that could strike a new blow against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who is still stinging from heavy local election losses last month.
The centre-left opposition has been leading a spirited campaign to get the voters out to cast their ballots on the questions, which concern the privatisation of water utilities, nuclear energy and whether government ministers can be exempt from attending trials against them. A central issue will be whether enough voters turn out to ensure the necessary quorum of 50 percent plus one vote. But if they repeal existing laws by voting yes, the result will likely have repercussions on his fractious centre-right coalition. Saturday newspapers said the opposition was confident that the quorum would be reached, which would be a setback to Berlusconi because his ministers have urged voters to either boycott the polls or vote no. For some, the votes will be a way to demonstrate their disappointment with Berlusconi himself, who is facing a lurid sex scandal and three fraud trials. The referendum on nuclear power is the most emotive of the four, in the wake of the disaster at Japan's Fukushima reactor in March. Polls say most Italians are against nuclear energy, which they consider unsafe in a country prone to earthquakes. Berlusconi is a big proponent of nuclear power, which the centre right says is indispensable for the future of a country that imports nearly all its energy. Last year the government passed a law to re-start a nuclear energy programme, which was halted in 1987 by another referendum. Aware of the likely backlash following Fukushima, the government has suspended the plans but a referendum could block atomic power for decades. Another referendum would repeal the so-called "legitimate impediment" that allows ministers to skip trial hearings against them on if they are on government business, which Berlusconi's critics say is for his personal benefit. Two others concern the privatisation of water utilities. The government says privatisation is essential to finance better services. Opponents say it would just lead to higher prices. Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. | ||
| Fighting in Zawiyah shuts Libya road to Tunisia Posted: 11 Jun 2011 09:11 PM PDT ZAWIYAH, Libya (Reuters) - Libyan troops loyal to Muammar Gaddafi fought gun battles with rebels in the town of Zawiyah on Saturday, witnesses said, shutting the coastal highway that links the capital Tripoli with Tunisia. Two Reuters reporters travelling via the town, which lies just 50 km (30 miles) outside of Tripoli, on two separate trips six hours apart, were diverted via backstreets with a police escort while the fighting raged on. They said the highway was deserted except for lots of soldiers, police and armed men in civilian clothes. One heard bursts of gunfire coming from the direction of the city. "The situation is very bad in Zawiyah. There's been fierce fighting since the morning," said the resident, who gave only his first name, Mohammed, fearing reprisals. Four months since Gaddafi's forces crushed a popular uprising against his four-decade rule that then morphed into an armed rebellion, Libya's civil war is in stalemate. Nearly three months of bombings by NATO war planes against Libyan military targets have failed to unseat Gaddafi or enable the rebels to launch an offensive on his territory in Tripoli. Several explosions were heard in Tripoli throughout the afternoon, as late as 8 p.m. (1800 GMT), suggesting NATO was ramping up attacks after a quiet morning. Libya TV reported that "the imperialist aggressors" had bombed several sites in and around the Libyan capital, in the town of Yafran, then showed footage of what it said were children wounded in past NATO bombings, to violin music. Rebel spokesman Ahmed Bani said a senior Gaddafi aide had been wounded in a NATO strike on a city close to Tripoli on Saturday evening and was in hospital. There was no independent confirmation and Libyan officials were not available to comment. ENCIRLE The rebels control the east of Libya, the western city of Misrata and the range of mountains near the border with Tunisia. They are seeking to encircle the capital and cut it off, an aim that would be advanced if they manage to capture Zawiyah. The highway has been used throughout the conflict by Gaddafi's officials -- including fleeing defectors -- to reach the outside world, and by trucks bringing in food and other supplies to territory under Gaddafi's control. After a lull in fighting in the western, rebel-held city of Misrata, pro-Gaddafi forces which have besieging it started shelling its port late on Saturday, Al Jazeera TV reported. A doctor at the Hekma hospital said 31 people were killed and 110 wounded in shelling by Gaddafi forces on Friday. Pro-Gaddafi troops encircled the city of Zlitan, 160 km east of Tripoli, on Saturday, rebels said, after fighting broke out there that could also open up the coastal road to the capital. Some clashes between Gaddafi's forces and rebels continued in the city, rebel spokesman Bani said, after the rebels took some parts of it. The toll remained 22 rebels killed. Government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim played down the clashes. "There is no serious fighting going on in Zawiya or Zlitan. What has happened is that we've had small groups of rebels who have made their way from Zintan and the Western Mountains to cause trouble in these areas," he told Reuters. Zlitan is one of three towns that are largely government controlled between the rebel-held Misrata and the capital. Were it to fall, it could allow the anti-Gaddafi uprising to spread from Misrata, the biggest rebel outpost in western Libya, to Gaddafi's stronghold in Tripoli. DIPLOMACY FALTERS, FIGHTING INCREASES World powers have given mixed signals on how the war might play out, with Russia trying to mediate reconciliation. Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday he had offered a "guarantee" to Gaddafi if he left Libya, but received no reply. Gaddafi has refused to step down, describing the rebels as al Qaeda terrorists and Western intervention as an oil grab. As diplomacy falters, several new battle fronts have opened. Gaddafi's forces also shelled for the first time the UNESCO world heritage-listed city of Ghadames, 600 km (370 miles) southwest of Tripoli, on the Tunisia and Algeria borders, overnight, opening a new front in the war, rebels said. Rebels said the oasis town, with a population of about 7,000 people, mainly Berber, was under attack after an anti-government protest in the old Roman city on Wednesday. "This is a retaliation for anti-regime protests," spokesman Juma Ibrahim said from the rebel-held town of Zintan. The report could not be independently verified. The old town was de-populated by Gaddafi in the 1990s and its inhabitants moved into modern buildings. It was not clear if the attack hit the old town, a labyrinth of narrow, underground passages and houses known as the "Pearl of the Desert". U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Friday some NATO allies of failing to pull their weight: "The mightiest military alliance in history was only 11 weeks into an operation against a poorly armed regime in a sparsely populated country -- yet many allies are beginning to run short of munitions," he said. (Additional reporting by Mussab Al-Khairalla in Tripoli, Sherine El Madany in Benghazi, Joseph Nasr in Rabat and Tarek Amara in Tunis; Writing by Tim Cocks; Editing by Alison Williams) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
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