Scores missing after ferry sinks in Bangladesh

Dozens of people were missing on Friday after a ferry carrying around 100 passengers collided with a barge and capsized in Bangladesh’s Meghna River, officials said.

Scores of people were missing after a ferry carrying around 100 passengers sank following a collision on a river in Bangladesh Friday, the latest in a series of disasters blamed on lax safety standards.
The small vessel was ferrying passengers on the Meghna river, close to the town of Gazaria in the central Munshiganj district, at around 8:00 am (0200 GMT) when it collided with a barge laden with sand to be used for construction.
While some passengers managed to swim to safety as the wooden boat went down rapidly, many others remained unaccounted for, said officials involved in the rescue effort.
"So far we have gathered that the ferry was carrying around 100 people. A maximum 40 people are feared missing," local police chief Jahangir Hossain told AFP.
Munshiganj's district administrator Saifuddin Badal said that more than 50 people were still unaccounted for after the disaster.

Afghan forces banned from requesting NATO strikes

Afghan forces will be banned from requesting NATO air strikes "under any conditions", President Hamid Karzai told a Kabul military academy on Saturday. The move comes days after 10 civilians died in a joint NATO-Afghan raid on a Taliban hideout.

Afghan security forces will be banned from calling for NATO air strikes in residential areas to help in their operations, President Hamid Karzai said on Saturday, three days after 10 civilians died in such a strike in the country’s east.
NATO air strikes and civilian casualties have become a significant stress point in the relationship between Karzai and his international backers. The issue threatens to further destabilise a precarious international withdrawal, to be completed by the end of 2014.
Addressing a conference at Kabul’s National Military Academy, Karzai expressed his anger about the strike and said he would issue a decree on Sunday preventing any resort to such measures by his forces.

UN nuclear watchdog fails to reach deal with Iran

UN inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency failed to reach an agreement with Iranian officials in Tehran on Thursday following talks aimed at curbing the Islamic Republic’s nuclear programme.

U.N. inspectors returned on Thursday from talks in Tehran with no deal on access to Iran’s nuclear sites and no date for new talks, failing to produce even a small signal of hope for wider big power diplomacy aimed at averting a war.
“Despite its many commitments to do so, Iran has not negotiated in good faith,” said a Western diplomat accredited to the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna who was not at the talks. “It appears that we now have to ask ourselves if this is still the right tactic.”
The deadlock is a chilling signal for a wider effort by six major powers to get Iran to curb a programme that they fear could give it the capacity to build a nuclear bomb, something Israel has suggested it will prevent by force if diplomacy fails.
The IAEA and Iran “could not finalise the document” setting out terms for an IAEA inquiry into possible military dimensions of Iran’s nuclear programme, chief U.N. inspector Herman Nackaerts said at Vienna airport after returning from Iran.

Scores killed by bomb blast in Shiite area near Quetta

The death toll from a bombing at a market in Hazara town, a Shiite-dominated area outside Quetta in southwestern Pakistan, climbed on Sunday with at least 81 people killed and another 164 wounded, police said.

The death toll from a horrific bombing that tore through a crowded vegetable market in southwestern Pakistan climbed to 81 with many of the severely wounded dying overnight, a Pakistani police official said Sunday.
Police official Fayyaz Saumbal said 164 people also were wounded by the explosion Saturday in the city of Quetta just as people shopped for produce for their evening meal. The bomb was hidden in a water tank and towed into the market by a tractor, Quetta police chief Zubair Mahmood told reporters.

Bangladesh tense amid war crime protests

Bangladesh continues to face political and social unrest over trial of opposition Jamaat-e-Islami leaders accused of involvement in murder and other atrocities during country's liberation war in 1971.

Police on Monday shot dead a protester in demonstrations in eastern Bangladesh amid a nationwide strike called by the Jamaat-e-Islami party.

Authorities kept schools and colleges open and many businesses reopened on Monday.
Jamaat, the country's largest Islamic party, called the strike to protest against the death last Friday of four of its activists in police shooting in the southeastern city of Cox's Bazaar.

At least 14 people have been killed so far during protests against government trials of Jamaat leaders.

Monday’s violence erupted in the town of Chouddogram, a day after Bangladesh parliament amended war crime laws to allow groups, not just individuals, to be prosecuted for war crimes.

The amendment will "empower the tribunals to try and punish any organisations, including Jamaat-e-Islami, for committing crimes during country's liberation war in 1971", Shafique Ahmed, Bangladesh law minister, said.

Amendment cheered
Tens of thousands of demonstrators have been camping in the central Shahbag Square in the capital, Dhaka, for the last couple of weeks demanding capital punishment for those found guilty.

The protests come after a tribunal this month sentenced a prominent Jamaat-e-Islami leader to life in prison in connection with Bangladesh's 1971 war of independence from Pakistan.
The opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) of Begum Khaleda Zia, former prime minister, and its Jamaat allies have been boycotting sessions almost since her rival, Sheikh Hasina Wajed, the current prime minister, took office in 2009.
Protests erupted after Abdul Quader Mollah, Jamaat's assistant secretary-general, was sentenced to life for murder, rape and torture.
Lawyers said Sunday's amendment sets a timetable for the government to appeal against Mollah's sentence and secure a retrial.

Malala stable after surgeries

Hospital statement says surgeries to restore hearing and reconstruct skull of the Pakistani schoolgirl have gone well. Last Modified: 03 Feb 2013 17:44

At 11-years-old, Malala began to keep a blog about life in the Swat Valley under the Taliban [AFP]

Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl who was shot in the head by the Taliban, has undergone two successful surgeries to reconstruct her skull and restore her hearing. A statement released on Sunday by Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital, the British hospital where the 15-year-old is being treated in, said Yousafzai is currently in stable condition.    "She is awake and talking to staff and members of her family," said the statement, adding that she would continue to recover in the hospital until she is well enough to be discharged. The teenager drew the world's attention by being shot and critically wounded by Taliban fighters on October 9, as she walked home from school in northwestern Pakistan. The group said they targeted her because she promoted girls' education and "Western thinking". At age 11, Malala began to write a blog under a pseudonym for the BBC about life under the Taliban in the Swat Valley, where she lived.    After Pakistan's military ousted the Taliban in 2009, she began publicly speaking out about the need for girls' education. She appeared frequently in the media and was given one of the country's highest civilian honours for her bravery. Malala was airlifted to Britain from Pakistan in October to receive specialised medical care and protection against further Taliban threats.    She is expected to remain in the UK for some time after her father, Ziauddin, was given a diplomatic post based in the English city of Birmingham. So far, doctors say she has made very good progress. She was able to stand, write and return home, and doctors said they have seen minimum signs of brain damage.

Dozens arrested after Azerbaijan protests

Activists held after protests against President Aliyev's government, following earlier crackdown in northern town. Last Modified: 26 Jan 2013 23:19

Police have arrested about 40 activists demonstrating in Azerbaijan's capital Baku against President Ilham Aliyev's government, and in support of residents of a northern town were protests were crushed earlier this week.
More than 100 protesters gathered in central Baku on Saturday, some chanting "Freedom!" and calling for the resignation of Aliyev.
Police swiftly stopped the protest, forcing demonstrators out of a park and then arresting some in the street.
The protest was triggered by unrest in Ismailli, about 200km northwest of Baku, where police used teargas and water cannon on Thursday to disperse hundreds of protesters demanding the resignation of a regional leader.
Cars were torched and a hotel set ablaze in a night of rioting.
Unrest in Ismailli reflected frustration at what some Azeris see as an overbearing government, corruption and a large divide between rich and poor in the mostly Muslim Caspian Sea nation of nine million where many lack jobs, money and prospects.
Aliyev succeeded his father in 2003 and has tolerated little dissent in the oil-producing former Soviet republic.
"Our patience came to an end. People are very unhappy with this regime. We demand a change of power in our country," demonstrator Malakhat Nasibova said at the protest in Baku.

Afghan suicide bomber kills anti-terror chief

Counter terrorism police chief, traffic chief and several other police officers killed in suicide attack in Kunduz. Last Modified: 26 Jan 2013 18:23

A suicide bomber has killed several Afghan officials and civilians in a crowded area of the northeast city of Kunduz, provincial authorities said. Officials among the victims included "the city's counter terrorism police chief and head of traffic police chief", the Kunduz provincial governor's spokesman Enayatullah Khaleeq told AFP news agency on Saturday. Kunduz police spokesman Sayed Sarwar Hussani confirmed the casualties and the attack. Shortly after 12:30GMT a man driving a motorbike detonated a large bomb at a busy roundabout in the north city of Kunduz near a group of police officers, provincial police chief spokesman Sayed Sarwar Hussaini said.

India gang-rape suspects plead not guilty

start of the trial.

The gang rape case ignited nationwide demonstrations by protesters demanding better safety for women [AFP]
Five men have pleaded not guilty to charges they gang-raped and murdered an Indian trainee physiotherapist, in a
case that led to a shake-up of laws against sexual crimes after protests about a rising number of attacks on women.
The men on Saturday entered the court room with their faces covered, and lawyers in the case said they were read 13
charges including murder, which carries a maximum penalty of death. They left after 15 minutes.
"After the judge read out the charges, the five pleaded not guilty and walked out" said A.P. Singh, a lawyer defending
two of the accused, Vinay Sharma and Akshay Thakur.
Singh said the next hearing will be held on February 5, when the prosecution will call three witnesses to the formal
A sixth person police say was part of the gang that attacked the woman and her friend is a juvenile and will be tried
separately.
Police say the gang lured the 23-year-old physiotherapy student onto a bus, where they repeatedly raped and
assaulted her with a metal bar before throwing her bleeding onto a highway. She died of internal injuries two weeks
later.
The case ignited nationwide demonstrations by protesters demanding better safety for women.
Harsher punishments
On Friday, India's cabinet approved harsher punishments for rapists, including the death penalty.
The changes, which must be approved by President Pranab Mukherjee to become law, include doubling the minimum
sentence for gang-rape and imposing the death penalty when the victim is killed or left in a vegetative state.
"We have taken swift action and hope these steps will make women feel safer in the country," Law Minister Ashwani
Kumar told reporters late on Friday.2/3/13
3/3
Source: Agencies
"This is a progressive piece of legislation and is consistent with the felt sensitivities of the nation in the aftermath of
the outrageous gang-rape," he added.
The gang-rape victim's brother on Saturday praised the cabinet's decision to make sentences tougher for attackers,
calling it a "positive initiative", according to the Press Trust of India news agency.
The changes to the rape laws were expected to be approved by Mukherjee as early as this weekend but must be
ratified by parliament or they will lapse.
Under the changes, the minimum sentence for gang-rape, rape of a minor, rape by policemen or a person in authority
will be doubled to 20 years from 10 and can be extended to life without parole.
Under the current law, a rapist faces a term of seven to 10 years, The cabinet has also created a new set of offences
such as voyeurism and stalking that will be included in the new law

Pakistan court orders PM arrest over corruption

Pakistan’s Supreme Court ordered the arrest of the prime minister on Tuesday in connection with a corruption case, hours after police in Islamabad clashed with followers of a mysterious anti-corruption cleric seeking the government’s dismissal.

Pakistan’s Supreme Court gave authorities 24 hours to arrest Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf and 16 others in connection with a corruption case linked to power generation schemes, Pakistani television channels reported on Tuesday, plunging the country into fresh political turmoil.
The move came as populist Sufi cleric Tahirul Qadri, who is believed to be backed by the military, demanded the resignation of the US-backed civilian government in protests attended by thousands of followers in the heart of the capital Islamabad.

Nepal Maoists vow no return to warfare

party's chairman.

Party that fought armed rebellion said it will back independent prime minister to hold democratic
elections.
Last Modified: 02 Feb 2013 16:502/3/13
2/3
Around 3,000 delegates and 100,000 supporters attended the party's first general convention in 21 years [AFP]
Nepal's Maoists have vowed to never to guerilla warfare and said they are willing to back an independent prime
minister, after holding their party's general convention.
Party leaders said at the general convention in Hetauda on Saturday that they would step down from government to
seek a popular mandate to lead a "socialist revolution", six years after a decade-long armed rebellion which toppled
the world's last Hindu monarchy.
"Let's agree on an independent person who will lead the government. And we will endorse this concept of a
government led by an independent person to hold the election through this convention," said Pushpa Kamal Dahal, the
Around 3,000 delegates and 100,000 supporters at the party's first general convention in 21 years in the southern
town of Hetauda were greeted by a rousing opening address from Dahal, still known by his nom-de-guerre Prachanda.
"We were forced to launch the insurgency after adopting Marxism as a guiding principle. But we don't follow any
ideology in its mechanical form. It's a science and it can be adapted," Prachanda said.

Mass funerals in Pakistan after Taliban raid

Funeral prayers have been held in the northwestern Pakistani town of Bannu for nine solders killed in an attack at an
army post that killed at least 35 people.
Taliban fighters wearing suicide vests fired automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades at the base in Serai
Naurang in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in a pre-dawn raid on Saturday, officials said. At least 10 civilians and
12 fighters were among the dead.
The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for Saturday's attack. Spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan told The
Associated Press that the attack was in retaliation for the recent deaths of two Taliban commanders in US drone
strikes.
He accused the Pakistani army of helping with the attacks.2/3/13
Source: Al Jazeera and agencies
Pakistani officials often criticise drone operations as a violation of the country's sovereignty, but are known to have
assisted some US strikes in the past.
A police official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to brief the media, said he saw
the bodies of three attackers with their suicide vests intact.
The raid came a day after a suicide bombing at a Shia mosque elsewhere in the northwest that killed 24 people,
police said. The blast at the mosque was the latest in a rising number of sectarian attacks in the country.
The Pakistani Taliban also claimed responsibility for that attack.
The Taliban and allied armed groups have stepped up the pace of attacks in Pakistan in recent months, an indication
of their strength despite numerous army operations against their strongholds in the northwest.

Taliban suicide attack rocks Kabul police compound

Taliban suicide bombers attacked Kabul traffic police headquarters before dawn on Monday, launching a nine-hour gun battle that killed at least three policemen, in the second insurgent assault in the Afghan capital in less than a week.

Two Taliban suicide bombers blew themselves up at the gates of the Kabul traffic police headquarters early Monday before another group of militants stormed the compound, battling security forces for nine hours in an attack that left three policemen and all five attackers dead, authorities said.
The coordinated assault was the second brazen raid in the heart of the Afghan capital in less than a week, a sign that the insurgency is determined to keep carrying out such spectacular attacks even as the U.S. and Afghan governments try to coax the Taliban into holding peace talks.
Nine hours after Monday’s insurgent attack began with two of the five attackers blowing themselves up, police commandos killed the last two insurgents holed up in the police headquarters, Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqi said. He added that four traffic policemen and 10 civilians were also been wounded in the fighting.

Twenty dead after Kazakh flight crashes near Almaty

A passenger plane crashed near Kazakhstan's main city of Almaty on Tuesday, likely killing all 15 passengers and five crew members on board, SCAT airlines said in a statement. The area around Almaty has been shrouded in fog for days.

A passenger plane crashed Tuesday near Kazakhstan’s principal city, Almaty, likely killing all 20 on board, Kazakhstan airline SCAT said.
Almaty and surrounding areas have been shrouded in fog for the last two days and the accident appears to have been caused by limited visibility.
A SCAT statement said 15 passengers and five crew members were aboard the plane.
Visibility was limited, forcing the plane to make a second approach to Almaty airport, the airline said.

Deadly Taliban attack on Pakistani checkpoint

At least 23 people were killed on Saturday after Taliban militants attacked an army checkpoint in northwestern Pakistan. The assault comes a day after a suicide bombing at a Shiite Muslim mosque that claimed the lives of two dozen people.

Taliban militants wearing suicide vests and firing automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades attacked an army post in northwestern Pakistan before dawn on Saturday, killing 23 people including 10 civilians, officials said. Twelve attackers were also reported killed in the assault.
The raid followed a suicide bombing at a Shiite Muslim mosque elsewhere in the northwest on Friday that killed 24 people, police said. The blast was the latest in a rising number of sectarian attacks in the country.
The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for both attacks. The group has been waging a bloody insurgency against the government for years and also has sometimes targeted the country’s minority Shiites, whom the militants consider to be heretics.
The Taliban and allied militant groups have stepped up the pace of attacks in Pakistan in recent months, an indication of their strength despite numerous army operations against their strongholds in the northwest.