KABUL: Enayatullah Balegh is a professor at Kabul University and preaches on Fridays in the largest mosque in central Kabul, where he advocates jihad, or holy war, against foreigners who desecrate Islam. After a fundamentalist US pastor presided over the burning of a copy of the Quran last month, there has been a growing perception among ordinary people that many of the foreigners in Afghanistan belong in just one category: the infidels. Protests in Kabul against the Quran-burning have not become violent but there are many other mullahs in the overcrowded capital whose sermons are filled w...
Published On: 2011-04-10

KABUL: A roadside bomb in western Afghanistan has killed three tribal elders who were on their way to a meeting with other tribal representatives. Farah province’s deputy governor says bomb ripped through the station wagon the men were driving through Balak Buluk district. All three were killed on the spot. ...
Published On: 2011-04-10

PESHAWAR: Pakistani officials today said troops shot dead at least seven militants who infiltrated the northwestern district of Swat to escape an offensive in the neighbouring tribal belt. The gunfight took place when troops intercepted the group trying to enter the Dherai area of Swat, where Pakistan carried out a sweeping military operation in 2009 that brought to an end two years of local Taliban control. When militants were ordered to stop and identify themselves they fired back and wounded two soldiers, a military statement said. “Resultantly own troops engaged them and killed al...
Published On: 2011-04-10

NEW DELHI: An Indian septuagenarian whose 98-hour hunger strike against corruption ended with big concessions from government today said he had no idea his campaign would win national support. “I did not know that this protest would spread throughout the country,” said Anna Hazare, a day after his demands for changes to a new anti-graft bill were accepted. Hazare began the hunger strike in New Delhi on Tuesday, winning wide support amid rising public anger over rampant corruption. Hazare’s main demand was that activists be included on a committee tasked with drafting an omb...
Published On: 2011-04-10

JERISALEM: Israeli and Palestinian officials floated a ceasefire today to end an upsurge of violence in Gaza, as Israel warned of a stronger response if rocket fire from the coastal enclave continues. Speaking shortly after a rocket fired from Gaza struck near the southern city of Ashkelon, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that any further attacks would be dealt with harshly. “If the criminal attacks against Israeli military and civilians continue, Israel will respond with even more force,” he told public radio. But both Israeli and Palestinian officials expressed supp...
Published On: 2011-04-10

AJDABIYAH: Moammar Gadhafi’s artillery heavily bombarded Ajdabiyah and his forces forced their way inside today in their most determined assault on the strategic eastern town for at least a week. Rebels cowered in alleyways from sustained artillery, rocket and small-arms fire and appeared to be losing control of the town, which is gateway to their stronghold of Benghazi 150 km up the Mediterranean coast to the north. Ajdabiyah had been the launch point for insurgents during a week-long fight for the oil port of Brega further west and its fall would be a serious loss. Rebels said Gadhaf...
Published On: 2011-04-10

BANGKOK: Thousands of red-shirted anti-government protesters today gathered in Bangkok’s old quarter to mark the one-year anniversary of a violent confrontation with the military in which 26 people were killed and more than 800 wounded. No one has been declared responsible for the violence that began on April 10 last year when soldiers fought with thousands of protesters near the Phan Fah bridge and Rajdumnoen Road in Bangkok, near government buildings and the regional UN headquarters. The red-shirted supporters of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, a graft-convicted populist bi...
Published On: 2011-04-10

TOKYO: Tokyo’s governor won re-election today, exit polls showed, despite a gaffe in which he suggested a March earthquake and tsunami were “divine punishment” for Japan. Shintaro Ishihara, 78, had been expected to secure his fourth four-year-term in the gubernatorial race, and polls by public broadcaster NHK confirmed his victory after voting finished today. Election official Yuji Miura said official results would be available on Monday. Just days after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami swept over the country’s northeast, Ishihara caused a stir with his comments. ...
Published On: 2011-04-10

BAGUIO: A small plane carrying six people today crashed in a popular mountain resort city in the northern Philippines, killing two of those on board and injuring the others. The six-seater Piper Aztec plane crashed and burst into flames on a hilly horse-riding trail in Camp John Hay, a former US military recreation centre, a few minutes after taking off from Baguio city’s airport, regional military commander Lt Gen Gaudencio Pangilinan said. One passenger was killed instantly and another died later in a hospital, officials said. Renee Gabuyog, a horseback-riding guide, said he saw the ...
Published On: 2011-04-10

TOKYO: Prime Minister Naoto Kan paid another visit to Japan's tsunami-devastated coast Sunday, promising officials in a fishing-dependent city that his government will do whatever it can to help. Kan visited Ishinomaki, a coastal city of 163,000 people in Miyagi, one of the prefectures (states) hardest hit by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that killed as many as 25,000 people, destroyed miles of coastline and left tens of thousands homeless. "The government will do its utmost to help you," Kan, dressed in blue work clothes, told local people gathered near the sea. "We wil...
Published On: 2011-04-10