Taliban militant and wife staged attack on DI Khan police

PESHAWAR:

A Taliban militant and his wife carried out a suicide bombing on a police station in Pakistan on Saturday that killed 12 policemen, a Taliban spokesman said on Sunday.

The pair, armed with assault rifles and hand grenades, raided the compound and took a dozen policemen hostage forseveral hours in a town near the region of South Waziristan, amajor al Qaeda and Taliban sanctuary on the Afghan border.

Ehsanullah Ehsan, a Pakistani Taliban spokesman, said the assault was carried out in retaliation for Bin Laden’s killing and government attacks against militants.

“The attackers were a husband and wife. We will keep carrying out attacks with different strategies,” he told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location.

Under siege in DI Khan: Bombers storm police station

Heavily-armed Taliban insurgents, some of them dressed in burqas, stormed a police station and held over a dozen policemen hostage before commandos recaptured the building after a several hours long standoff in the southern Dera Ismail (DI) Khan district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa on Saturday.

At least 10 policemen and five attackers — three of them wearing suicide vests — were killed in the afternoon assault, police said. At least 14 policemen held hostage in the Kolachi police station compound were also rescued by the police commandos.

The Kolachi police station is situated some 50 kilometres northwest of DI Khan city. The area borders Frontier Region Tank which serves as a buffer between the South Waziristan tribal region and DI Khan district.

The region’s top police officer Syed Imtiaz Shah confirmed to the media that at least 10 policemen, among them station house officer of the police station, were killed and 14 wounded in the attack. He said five attackers – three of them suicide bombers – were also killed.

Shah said that two of the bombers detonated the explosives strapped to their bodies during the commando operation and the third one was shot dead before he could detonate the charge. He added that there was one woman among the suicide bombers.

Another police official told The Express Tribune that the attackers were dressed in burqas and armed with hand grenades and automatic weapons. The siege began when the attackers pulled out guns at the station’s main gate and killed the policemen deployed there.

The militants then damaged the boundary wall with hand grenades, enabling more rebels to follow them into the building. About 17 policemen were on duty at the time and were taken hostage by the militants once they ran out of ammunition, Shah said.

Soon afterwards, police and paramilitary reinforcements reached the site to regain control of the police station. The attackers held off the reinforcements for around four hours before the police commandos decided to mount the final assault.

“Two of the suicide bombers blew themselves up when a police armoured personnel carrier (APC) rolled into the police station building, while the third one was hit by a rocket,” police officer Shah said. “The remaining three attackers were killed in exchange of fire with the police commandos.”

An APC, two police patrol vans and five other vehicles parked inside the police station were also destroyed in the suicide blasts.

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain also confirmed the casualty figure, saying that “police have taken control of the police station.”

Hussain said the burqa-clad attackers had hoped to secure the release of other militants. “The attackers had come prepared for days of siege and hostage-taking to secure the release of other militants,” Hussain told AFP.

“Police have found the bodies of three militants and the heads of three suicide bombers,” Hussain said, adding that half of the police station building had been destroyed.

Television footage showed thick black smoke billowing from the roof of the fortress-like police station and security forces and police firing at militants.

A spokesperson for the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in a telephone call to media outlets claimed responsibility, saying it was the latest in a series of attacks to avenge the killing of al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.

“We sent one male and one female suicide bomber to participate in the attack, because we want to liberate our people from the slavery of America,” TTP spokesperson Ehsanullah Ehsan said. (With additional input from Wires)

Taliban militant and wife staged attack on Pakistani police

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan: A Taliban militant and his wife carried out a suicide bombing on a police station in Pakistan on Saturday that killed 12 policemen, a Taliban spokesman said Sunday.

The pair, armed with assault rifles and hand grenades, raided the compound and took a dozen policemen hostage for several hours in a town near the region of South Waziristan, a major Al-Qaeda and Taliban sanctuary on the Afghan border.

The operation further tarnished Pakistan's security establishment, which has suffered one setback after another since the killing of Osama bin Laden by U.S. special forces on Pakistani soil on May 2.

The Taliban rarely use women suicide bombers. The attack on the police station suggests they are adopting new tactics in a campaign to topple the U.S.-backed government.

The Taliban husband and wife team shot dead five policemen and later blew themselves up after being attacked by commandos, killing seven more policemen who died of their wounds overnight, police said.

Ehsanullah Ehsan, a Pakistani Taliban spokesman, said the assault was carried out in retaliation for bin Laden's killing and government attacks against militants.

"The attackers were a husband and wife. We will keep carrying out attacks with different strategies," he told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location.

On Sunday, a bomb planted on a stationary motorcycle just outside a police station in the eastern city of Multan wounded four policemen, police said.

The Pakistani Taliban movement, which is close to Al-Qaeda, has stepped up violence in Pakistan since the death of bin Laden, in operations that have embarrassed the military.

The group said it was behind an assault on a major navy base in the city of Karachi last month. The Taliban killed nearly 100 people in a suicide bombing at a paramilitary compound.

Large groups of Pakistani Taliban fighters have also staged large-scale shooting attacks on security forces in other parts of the northwest.

The United States has been piling pressure on Pakistan to crack down harder on militancy since it was discovered that bin Laden may have been living in Pakistan for years.

More Pakistani cooperation is needed as Washington seeks to wind down the U.S.-led war in neighboring Afghanistan and defeat Al-Qaeda and its allies.

But Pakistan's generals are furious because the United States kept them in the dark over the bin Laden raid.

eru cancels mine approval after six killed in clash

Peru’s government cancelled approval for a Canadian—owned silver mine in the southern highlands on Friday after six people were killed and at least 30 wounded when police fired on mostly indigenous protesters opposing the project.

Protesters also attacked a police station and a state bank in a second city.

The bloodshed occurred when police turned back protesters who tried to take over an airport near the city of Juliaca in Puno state, an area they have paralyzed with road blockades since May 9 in a bid to cancel the Santa Ana mine as well as a proposed hydroelectric project on the Inambari river.

The outgoing government of President Alan Garcia announced after leftist military man Ollanta Humala won the presidential election June 5 that it was scrapping the Inambari project. In April, it cancelled a huge copper mining project in another southern state after three protesters died in clashes with police.

Mining accounts for two—thirds of Peru’s export earnings and has been the underpinning of a decade of robust economic growth, but the rural poor have benefited little from mining and complain it contaminates their water and crops.

Dr. Percy Casaperalta, who directed the evacuation of wounded after Friday’s clash at Manco Capac airport, said at least 4,000 protesters were involved. He provided the toll of six dead and at least 30 wounded by telephone from the local hospital Carlos Monge Medrano.

Television images of the airport showed its perimeter walls breached and tyres burning on the tarmac.

Speaking with journalists in Lima, Interior Minister Miguel Hidalgo said police in Azangaro, about 40 miles (68 kilometers) from Juliaca, were “in a difficult situation.” Local radio reports said about 500 protesters angry over the deaths at the airport burned tyres and threw rocks at the local police station and a state bank.

Hours after the violence, Deputy Mining Minister Fernando Gala announced that the government had revoked a 2007 decree granting approval to Bear Creek Mining Corp. of Victoria, British Columbia, to mine silver at Santa Ana in Puno. The decree was required because the mine site is within 50 miles of an international border, in this case with Bolivia.

Bear Creek’s director, Andrew Swarthout, told The Associated Press that the company had not received formal notification of the decree’s revocation.

He said any government attempt to cancel the project would be illegal and amount to “expropriation.”

“We followed all the rules. We got public consent. We’re in the middle of an environmental impact statement. It was due process. Everything was within the letter of the law,” Mr. Swarthout said.

The company has said it already spent $96 million on the Santa Ana project.

Mr. Swarthout has warned previously that any attempt to end the project would give pause to international investors who have announced their intention to plough more than $40 billion into Peru’s mining sector in the coming decade.

Afghan drugs find market at home

Heroin and opium are two of the world's most addictive drugs, and now they have come back to haunt Afghanistan, the country that produces almost all the global supply.

The United Nations says Afghanistan produces 90 per cent of the world's opium, most of which goes to Europe and the United States.

But the country is also becoming a major consumer of heroin, with just a handful of clinics and little community support for opiate users - estimated to be as many 1.5 million.

Al Jazeera's Bernard Smith reports from Kabul.

Yemen president to appear in media within 48 hrs

(Reuters) - Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh will make a media appearance within the next 48 hours, his media secretary said on Sunday.

"The president will appear within the next 48 hours despite our fear that the burns on his features and on different parts of his body will be an obstacle given that his appearance will not be as the media expects it," Ahmed al-Sufi said in a statement.

Saleh was forced to leave Yemen for treatment in a Saudi hospital after an attack on his palace earlier this month. (Reporting by Mohamed Sudam, Writing by Isabel Coles)

China offers huge opportunities, says UK minister

Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt has said China offers the UK "huge opportunities", as its Prime Minister Wen Jiabao starts a three-day visit.

Mr Wen has been to Stratford-upon-Avon for a Shakespeare performance and will visit the MG car plant at Longbridge, in Birmingham, one of his country's most high-profile British investments.

Mr Hunt said it was important to have a full dialogue with China.

Business deals are expected to be announced during his three-day UK tour.

Mr Hunt, who accompanied the life-long Shakespeare admirer Mr Wen to Stratford-Upon-Avon said: "We want to have a broad-based relationship with China which encompasses political, economic and social dialogue.

"It's obviously an incredibly important economic power and a massive investor in the UK.

"But what this visit is about is saying that it's not just about jobs, it's also about a broader cultural relationship which is the best possible way to make sure we understand each other and avoid the kind of misunderstanding that so can bedevil relationships, as has happened in the past."
Deals

While at Longbridge, Mr Wen will attend the launch of the MG6 Magnette, which is designed in Britain but assembled from parts manufactured in China.

The Longbridge plant used to make MG Rover cars but is now owned by the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation.

With China having overtaken Japan as the world's second largest economy, many European companies are looking for investment, while Chinese acquisitions in Europe have also been increasing.

Mr Wen is thought to be leading a Chinese bid for work on the HS2 high-speed rail line between London and Birmingham.

Chinese ambassador Liu Xiaoming said last week China was looking for "flagship projects" and had "the knowledge, expertise and experience" to assist with HS2.

On Monday, Mr Wen will attend the annual UK-China Strategic Summit and meet his British counterpart, David Cameron.

That meeting will also involve David Cameron, the Foreign Secretary William Hague and the Chancellor George Osborne.

Mr Wen will also hold talks with Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and business leaders, before leaving for Germany on Monday.
Euro support

Mr Wen flew into Birmingham airport on Saturday night, and was met by Trade Minister Stephen Green and Britain's ambassador to Beijing Sebastian Wood, the Foreign Office said.

He had come from Hungary, where he was asked about the debt crisis in Europe, and especially the situation in Greece.

"China will consistently support Europe and the euro," Mr Wen said.

He said he was confident the eurozone could overcome its problems.

"Europe's debt crisis is expanding. Trust is more important than currency and gold and now, during the debt crisis, we again bring trust to Europe.

"I have total trust in Europe's economic development," he added.

China has foreign reserves of about $3tn and is believed to be diversifying some of its holdings from US dollars into euros and other currencies.
Human rights

While economic, commercial and political ties are the focus of the visit, Britain remains concerned about China's human rights record and the issue is expected to be raised in talks, says the BBC's Adam Mynott.

Last week dissident artist Ai Weiwei was released from custody in China, heading off protests which might have greeted Mr Wen's visit to Britain.

On Saturday news broke that another prominent Chinese dissident, Hu Jia, had been released from prison and reunited with his family.

He had campaigned for the environment and in support of patients with Aids.

But the Free Tibet pressure group has promised to hold demonstrations outside Downing Street when Mr Wen goes to meet Mr Cameron.

Germany to take up rights issue with Wen: minister

BERLIN - GERMANY will press human rights issues at its first joint cabinet meeting with China this week, including the conditions of artist Ai Weiwei's release, Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said on Sunday.

He told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper that hopes for stronger economic ties with the world's number two economy did not preclude a frank discussion with Premier Wen Jiabao and his ministers.

'The quality and depth of our relations allows us to talk about difficult topics,' Mr Westerwelle said, pledging to underline 'how important freedom of expression, media freedoms and respect for human rights are to us.'

He said he would take up in particular the case of Ai, who was freed on Wednesday after nearly three months in jail on tax evasion charges, followed by the release of dissident Hu Jia on Sunday.

Ai's detention - which came during a major government crackdown on activists launched in February - sparked furious criticism led by Western governments including Germany which repeatedly urged his immediate release.

However his bail conditions prevent him from leaving Beijing and he has told foreign media that he cannot accept interviews. -- AFP