12 die in attacks in northwest Pakistan: officials

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Two separate militant attacks left at least 12 people dead, including children, in Pakistan's troubled Khyber tribal district on Saturday, officials said.

Some 18,000 people last month fled their homes in Khyber, near the Afghan border, amid fears of a fresh onslaught of fighting between the army and Islamist militants tied to the Pakistani Taliban.

"At least six people including two children and a woman were killed when a mortar fired by militants fell on a house in Tirah valley," a senior local administration official, Saeed Ahmad Jan, told AFP.

He said that the militants apparently wanted to target a nearby checkpost of security forces but missed.

And in Bara town a group of 20-25 militants from the Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) group attacked a checkpost of the paramilitary Frontier Corps, triggering a gunfight.

"The exchange of fire left six militants dead and 10 others wounded," Jan said, adding that troops arrested all the injured rebels.

Pakistan's army has previously launched a series of offensives targeting the LI, a Taliban-allied militant group waging a local insurgency.

Pakistan's seven tribal districts on the Afghan border are rife with a homegrown insurgency and are strongholds of Taliban and Al-Qaeda operatives.

Pakistan has launched operations along parts of the lawless belt but has withstood US pressure to wage battle with the Haqqani network, which is blamed for some of the worst attacks in Afghanistan.

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Jail for Pakistan cricketers a "wake-up call"

 

Tough jail sentences handed down to disgraced former Pakistan cricketers and their agent by a British judge were welcomed Friday as a "wake-up call" for the game as well as a tragedy for the youngest player involved in the fixing scandal.

Former captain Salman Butt, 27, looked aghast as he received a 30-month sentence at London's Southwark Crown Court, where he and fast bowler Mohammad Asif were found guilty on Tuesday of fixing parts of the August 2010 Lord's Test match against England.

Asif, 28, was jailed for a year, while prodigious 19-year-old bowler Mohammad Aamer, who admitted involvement in pre-arranging no-balls for shadowy South Asian betting rings, was sentenced to six months in a young offenders' institution.

Their corrupt British agent Mazhar Majeed, 36, who had also pleaded guilty, was given the longest sentence -- two years and eight months.

The Guardian's editorial recognised the waste caused by 18-year-old Aamer's detention, but reasoned that the game's reputation was too important for sentimentality to prevail.

"It's no time to surrender. A beefed-up International Cricket Council (ICC), longer bans, greater powers to investigate. The fightback starts now," it declared.

Former England captain and Times cricket correspondent Michael Atherton called Aamer's plight "tragic" and claimed all three custodial sentences "bordered on harsh".

"There are those who want to see blood spilt, of course, those for whom no punishment is too severe," he wrote in Friday's edition. "Their careers are already over. What more do people want?"

The former opening batsman questioned what was to be gained in sending Aamer to London's notorious Feltham Young Offenders Institute, which, according to its latest inspection, was a place where 'fights between young people were frequent and vestiges of youth gang culture were inevitably imported'.

"There is only sadness and the hope that, for Amir, redemption can be found," he concluded.

The Telegraph's Paul Kelso echoed Atherton's concerns, calling it a "hollow victory" in the battle to clean up cricket.

"So much of this case is singular that the prospect of three UK cells being filled by foreign cricketers can only be greeted with sadness," he wrote.

"It is one of many singularities of the case that Aamer's no-balls came in the midst of a devastating spell of four for none that reduced England to their knees and set up one of the greatest days of competitive cricket Lord's has seen.

"No-one who saw him send the England top-order packing could suggest he was not trying," he argued.

Tim May, head of the Federation of International Cricketers' Associations (FICA), which co-ordinates the activities of national players' associations, said it should be a wake up call to anyone contemplating cheating.

"The real possibility of spending time in prison is a further compelling argument for players to distance themselves from those who seek to profit illegally from the game," the Australian said in a statement.

He said he had mixed emotions about the verdict in London's Southwark Crown Court, saying he was concerned that spot fixing still appeared to be prevalent despite cricket authorities spending millions of dollars to stamp it out.

But he said he felt "satisfaction that the prosecution has been able to identify corruption and deliver a loud and clear message to players of all sports that if you are caught cheating the integrity of sport you will be prosecuted and face severe penalties".

In passing sentence judge Jeremy Cooke said the offences "regardless of pleas, are so serious that only a sentence of imprisonment will suffice," adding they would each serve half their sentences and then be released on licence.

He said the players were motivated by greed despite the fortunes they could earn legitimately, and said he hoped the sentences would deter other cricketers and agents from following their "hugely detrimental" example.

The judge also condemned the "insidious effect" of their actions on the sport of cricket itself, "the very name of which used to be associated with fair dealing".

"It's the insidious effect of your actions on professional cricket and the followers of it which make the offences so serious," he told the packed courtroom.

Its "image and integrity" stands "damaged in the eyes of all, including the many youngsters who regarded three of you as heroes".

Despite their status, he said the players had "procured the bowling of three no-balls for money to the detriment of your national cricket team, with the object of enabling others to cheat at gambling".

Any surprising event in a cricket match will now be suspect to suspicion, he said.

The world of cricket has reacted with dismay to the worst fixing scandal since South Africa captain Hansie Cronje in 2000, but the head of the anti-corruption unit of the International Cricket Council, Ronnie Flanagan, denied that corruption was rampant in the sport.

"The vast, vast majority of cricketers are not only wonderfully talented, but wonderfully ethical people," he said.

The ICC has banned Butt for ten years, with five suspended, Asif for seven years, with two suspended, and Aamer for five years straight, sanctions which they are appealing against.

Butt, whose wife gave birth Tuesday, intends to appeal, his lawyer said outside court. Aamer also intends to appeal, the BBC reported.

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7 miners rescued from China mine, 50 still trapped

 

BEIJING (AP) — Rescuers pulled seven injured miners to the surface Friday and were trying to reach 50 others trapped after a cave-in at a coal mine in central China, state media reported.

Four miners were killed when the cave-in blasted rock into the mine shaft Thursday evening and 14 managed to escape, the official Xinhua News Agency said. The rock explosion happened just after a small earthquake shook near the mine in the city of Sanmenxia in Henan province.

State broadcaster CCTV showed rescuers with helmets and oxygen tanks carrying the seven found alive Friday afternoon from a mine elevator as waiting officials applauded and medical staff rushed to attend to them.

The rescued miners lay on stretchers, wrapped with blankets with their eyes covered by towels to prevent them from being damaged by the sudden exposure to light after hours of being trapped.

Xinhua said six had minor injuries but one was seriously hurt.

At least 200 workers were digging a small rescue tunnel about 1,650 feet (500 meters) deep to try to reach the trapped miners, the People's Daily newspaper said. There have been no reports of communication with the trapped miners.

The mine belongs to Yima Coal Group, a large state-owned coal company in Henan, the State Administration of Work Safety said on its website.

Luo Lin, head of the administration, said a magnitude-2.9 earthquake occurred near the mine shortly before a "rock burst" was reported.

The phenomenon occurs when settling earth bears down on mine walls and causes a sudden release of stored energy. The exploding chunks of coal and rock, or the shock waves alone, can be lethal.

Survival depends on the intensity of the rock explosion and if ventilation can be provided, a local official told The Associated Press.

"If it was not very strong, it might have caused the tunnel to get narrower, but we might still be able to send some air in there to ensure ventilation," said the Yima city Communist Party's head of propaganda, who would give only his surname, Tian, as is common with Chinese officials.

"But if the impact was pretty strong and caused the tunnel walls to collapse, then the ventilation was probably cut off immediately, suffocating the people trapped there," he said.

Tian said it was difficult to determine how deep in the mine the trapped workers were.

According to Xinhua, workers were digging a tunnel about 2,500 feet (760 meters) long, but after the rock burst, the tunnel appeared to have "basically folded" a little more than halfway down the passage, at 1,580 feet (480 meters). It was unclear what the condition of the tunnel was beyond that point, Xinhua said.

China's coal mines are the deadliest in the world, although the industry's safety record has improved in recent years as smaller, illegal mines have been closed. Annual fatalities are now about one-third of the high of nearly 7,000 in 2002.

Last Sunday, a gas explosion at a coal mine in central China's Hunan province killed 29 workers, the worst accident in recent months.

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Two Britons killed in Kabul attack

Two British contractors were among 13 foreigners who died when a Taliban car bomber struck a NATO convoy in the Afghan capital Kabul on Saturday, the Foreign Office in London said.

Officials had said they were all Americans, but a spokeswoman for the Foreign Office said on Sunday that NATO now believed the 13 included two Britons and the Canadian soldier whose death had previously been announced. Four Afghans also died.

"We have learned that two British nationals were among the 13 killed in yesterday's attack in Kabul," a Foreign Office statement said.

"Next of kin have been informed. Our thoughts are with the families of all who died, ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) personnel and contractors, Afghan forces and civilians.

"Consular staff in Kabul are in close touch with the employer of the deceased. We stand by to provide any consular assistance to their families."

On Saturday, the Afghan interior ministry said three bystanders and a policeman were killed in the attack, while NATO's alliance force said at least 13 foreigners died -- five troops and eight civilian employees.

US officials said these 13 were all American but the latest information from ISAF appears to contradict that, the Foreign Office spokeswoman said.

"We believe it was 13 people, and two of those were British nationals. Because of the nature of the incident, it has been difficult to identify some of the nationalities," she said.

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Assad predicts disaster if West meddles in Syria

 

AMMAN - Western powers would cause an "earthquake" in the Middle East if they intervened in Syria, President Bashar al-Assad said in an interview published on Sunday, after protesters demanded outside protection from a crackdown that has killed 3,000 people.

Syrian officials were to hold more talks in Qatar with delegates of the Arab League, which wants to convene a dialogue in Cairo between the Syrian authorities and their opponents.

The League's two-week deadline for the planned dialogue to start expires Sunday, with Assad showing no signs of easing the crackdown, which is drawing increasing international outrage and criticism even from previously cautious Arab countries.

Syria, as Assad noted in his interview with Britain's Sunday Telegraph, sits at the heart of the volatile Middle East, where it borders Israel, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and Jordan.

"It is the faultline, and if you play with the ground, you will cause an earthquake," he said. "Do you want to see another Afghanistan, or tens of Afghanistans?"

Assad's remarks signal determination to hang onto power against a popular uprising that repression has failed to crush.

Mass protests have also failed to dislodge him, creating an unstable stalemate, which could perhaps be upset by the impact of Western sanctions or any surge in army and police defections.

Syria, a mostly Sunni Muslim country of 20 million, is ruled with an iron fist by members of Assad's minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, who also dominate the military, key sectors of the economy and a pervasive security apparatus.

After Syrian security forces killed 40 anti-Assad protesters Friday, Arab ministers issued their strongest reaction yet.

The Arab League's committee on the Syrian crisis sent an "urgent message to the Syrian government expressing its severe discontent over the continued killing of Syrian civilians."

A Foreign Ministry source, quoted by state media, said the statement was "based on media lies" and urged the committee to "help restore stability in Syria instead of stirring sedition."

Saturday, security forces and pro-Assad militiamen killed at least 10 civilians, mostly in Homs, 140 km (85 miles) north of Damascus. At a big funeral for six of them in the city's Bab Amro district, mourners linked arms and sang old ballads.

"Tears are falling from the eye, my mother cries for Syria's youth," they chanted.

Syria has barred most international media, making it hard to verify conflicting accounts from activists and authorities.

Homs province, which borders Lebanon and is home to one of Syria's two oil refineries, is emerging as a center of armed resistance to Assad's rule after months of peaceful protests that often drew a violent response from security forces.

One activist group said fighters thought to be army deserters had killed 30 soldiers in clashes in Homs city and in an ambush in the northwestern province of Idlib Saturday.

INVOKING THE PAST

In the interview, Assad compared the unrest with the 1980s, when his father, Hafez al-Assad, crushed Islamist and leftist challenges to his rule, killing tens of thousands of Syrians.

Many thousands were killed in 1982 in Hama, a city where an armed wing of the Muslim Brotherhood had made its last stand.

Opposition figures say Islamists played no part in starting the anti-Assad uprising that erupted in March.

Forty-one years of Assad family rule have stifled political party life and public debate in Syria, making it hard to predict how Syrians would vote if their country became a democracy.

Some argue that Islamists are unlikely to win power, citing secular traditions among Syria's majority Sunnis, who live alongside Christian, Alawite and Druze minorities.

Burhan Ghalioun, a main figure in the opposition Syrian National Council, formed in Istanbul in September, is a secular, Western-educated professor. The council also includes Islamists.

"We've been fighting the Muslim Brotherhood since the 1950s and we are still fighting with them," Assad said in the Sunday Telegraph interview, adding that Western countries "are going to ratchet up the pressure, definitely."

NATO military intervention in Libya played a decisive role in toppling Muammar Gaddafi, the third Arab leader to be overthrown after the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt.

Western nations, which have been tightening sanctions on Syria to include the oil sector, have shown no appetite to repeat their Libyan operation in Syria, but demonstrators are increasingly calling for a "no-fly zone" to protect them.

"Any problem in Syria will burn the whole region," Assad warned. "If the plan is to divide Syria, that is to divide the whole region."

Syrian authorities have blamed the unrest on foreign-backed "terrorists" they say have killed 1,100 soldiers and police.

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2 blasts wound at least 11 in southern Philippines

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Suspected homemade bombs exploded in a budget hotel and at a cockfighting arena in the southern Philippines on Sunday, wounding at least 11 people, officials said.

The nearly simultaneous blasts ripped through a room inside the hotel and at the cockfighting arena at around noon in Zamboanga city, which was celebrating an annual Roman Catholic festival, said Zamboanga Mayor Celso Lobregat, who rushed to check on the wounded at a hospital.

It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the blasts. The city has been hit by deadly bombings by al-Qaida-linked militants in the past.

Army Col. Buenaventura Pascual said one suspected bomb went off in a room at the Red Palm Pension House, which sits beside a bus terminal. A second suspected bomb blast wounded five people in a cockfighting arena in the city's San Roque village.

Lobregat said investigators reported at least 11 people were wounded in the bomb explosions, which prompted him to convene an emergency committee to try to prevent more attacks.

"We will do everything to pinpoint who are responsible for these despicable acts and bring them to justice," Lobregat said.

The military and police were on alert and publicly visible because the bustling city of about 700,000 people was celebrating a religious festival. The attackers chose what officials thought were unlikely targets, he said.

Lorna Heramis said she and her three employees were preparing to open her food stall when a loud blast ripped through the arena about an hour before it was to open for weekend cockfighting, which usually draws large numbers of spectators. The blast damaged the roof of her stall, but she and her employees managed to escape uninjured.

"We heard a deafening explosion, then there was darkness and a fire," Heramis told The Associated Press by telephone. "I hugged my employees, and we saw three bloodied men running away from the cockpit arena."

Zamboanga city, where U.S. counterterrorism troops have been based for years to train local troops, has been hit by deadly bombings blamed on al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf militants, who are based on nearby Basilan island.

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Israeli government the problem, not the people: Turkish PM

Istanbul, Oct 3 (IANS) Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan Monday said his country has problems with the Israeli government but not its people.

'Our comments are not against the people of Israel and especially not against our own Jewish citizens but against the current Israeli administration,' Erdogan told reporters in Turkey's largest city before departing on a visit to South Africa.

He said the Israeli administration has chosen to be alone by sacrificing its friendship with Turkey and that this is due to its own internal wrangling.

Turkish-Israeli relations have been severely strained over Israel's refusal to apologize and pay compensation for the deaths of eight Turkish nationals and a US citizen of Turkish origin killed in a Gaza-bound aid flotilla by Israeli commandoes in 2010.

Turkish and Israeli officials have been exchanging tough rhetoric in the past few weeks since the release of the UN-commissioned report on the incident.

The report was rejected by Turkey because it concluded that Israel's maritime blockade of Gaza was in compliance with international law, although the military measures it took to stop the Turkish vessel were 'excessive and unreasonable'.

Turkey has said it will not normalize ties with Israel until it apologizes and pays compensation to the families of the victims of the Mavi Marmara incident and lifts its blockade on Gaza.

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Filipino militants free US woman, still hold son

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Muslim militants freed a Filipino-American woman after 2 1/2 months of captivity in the jungles of the southern Philippines but are still holding her 14-year-old son and another relative, authorities said Monday.

Gerfa Yeatts Lunsmann was dropped off by boat late Sunday at a wharf and walked to nearby Maluso township on southern Basilan Island, where she was picked up by a patrolling police team, said military spokesman Lt. Col. Randolph Cabangbang.

Lunsmann was "physically healthy" but visibly traumatized by her ordeal and was worried that her son remained in captivity, Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo told The Associated Press. She did not reply at times when people tried to talk to her or ask her questions, he said.

Lunsmann appeared gaunt and worried, clasping her hands, when she appeared before reporters with Philippine officials and FBI agents. She was not allowed to talk and was later flown to Manila, where she underwent a medical checkup.

Suspected Abu Sayyaf militants snatched Lunsmann, her son and her nephew on July 12 while they were vacationing with relatives on an island near southern Zamboanga city. In a July 17 cellphone call to the captives' relatives in Virginia that was traced to Basilan, the hostage-takers demanded a huge ransom, according to Philippine officials.

Robredo said the kidnappers had talked with Lunsmann's family in the United States and at one time allowed her to talk on the phone as proof that she was alive.

The U.S. and Philippine governments did not pay any ransom for her release, Robredo said, but added he was unaware if any private group paid for her freedom.

The U.S. Embassy said in a statement that Lunsmann's release "could not have occurred without the concerted efforts of Philippine government officials" and Zamboanga Mayor Celso Lobregat's personal engagement.

Lunsmann, a 41-year-old veterinarian who lives in Virginia, was born to a Muslim family near Zamboanga. She was adopted by an American couple as a child and grew up in the United States. She has visited her Philippine home province at least five times before, police said.

Ransom kidnappings have long been a problem in the impoverished region and are blamed mostly on the al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf, a group also notorious for beheadings and bombings.

Two Philippine security officials, however, said former Muslim rebels who have turned to kidnappings for ransom may have abducted the Lunsmanns and brought them to Basilan, where they held them with the help of the Abu Sayyaf and rogue members of a larger rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

Muslim militants and outlaws have resorted to such loose underground alliances in recent years, underscoring their desperation for funds, said the two officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters.

The Abu Sayyaf was founded on Basilan in the 1990s as an offshoot of a violent Muslim insurgency that has been raging for decades. U.S.-backed offensives have weakened the group, which is blacklisted by Washington as a terrorist organization, but it remains a key security threat.

Hundreds of U.S. troops are stationed in the southern Philippines, including Basilan, to train and equip Philippine forces but are prohibited from engaging in local combat.

The Abu Sayyaf, which is estimated to have about 380 fighters, still holds an Indian, a Malaysian and a Japanese convert to Islam, along with a number of Filipino hostages.

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