The New Nation - Internet Edition

Police ordered to shoot protesters in Kashmir: Protests spread to more Indian cities

AP, Srinagar

Indian police say they have issued orders to shoot protesters defying a curfew in Indian-controlled Kashmir.

Senior police official Hemant Lohia said the order was given Wednesday following widespread curfew violations the day before in which 15 people were killed.

Violence has roiled the Himalayan region since June 23 when Muslims and Hindus began tit-for-tat protests over a government proposal to transfer land to a Hindu shrine in India's only Muslim-majority state.

"Curfew has to be implemented fully and we've ordered shoot at sight to discourage protests," says Lohia. "This last option becomes the first in order not to let the situation go out of hand."

Meanwhile, Riots erupted across Indian-controlled Kashmir on Wednesday as Muslims mourned 15 people killed in a day of bloody violence, as the protests spread to other parts of India.

Violence has roiled the Himalayan region since June 23 when Muslims and Hindus began tit-for-tat protests over a government proposal to transfer land to a Hindu shrine in India's only Muslim-majority state.

Several thousand protesters took to the streets of Srinagar, the main city in the region, attacking police posts and chanting slogans calling for revenge.

"Blood for blood" and "We want freedom," they chanted as they ransacked sandbagged police bunkers across the city. There were also reports of protests in other cities across Kashmir as special prayers were being held in mosques and homes for those killed on Tuesday, the bloodiest day since the unrest started. Police fired at hundreds of rock-throwing protesters at Fateh Kadal, a suburb in Srinagar, said a police officer on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak with media. Three people were wounded, he said. There were no other immediate reports of casualties.

Separatist political leaders called for three days of mourning and urged people to keep their protests peaceful.

"Kashmiris will continue to agitate peacefully and we should not give Indian oppressors any chance to use brute force," said Mirwaiz Omer Farooq, a separatist leader.

On Wednesday, the protests spilled over to other parts of India, with Hindu nationalist groups blocking traffic and railway lines for several hours in New Delhi, Mumbai and the tourist hub of Agra, home to the Taj Mahal.

In New Delhi and Mumbai several dozen activists from the World Hindu Organization, known as the VHP, blocked roads for up to two hours, demanding that the land allocated to the shrine be restored. The plan had been shelved after widespread Muslim protests.

"The central government must give the land to the Amarnath shrine board. Otherwise, our protest will continue," said VHP General Secretary Pravin Togadia, warning that they would launch a "nationwide movement." Some 50 protesters were detained in Mumbai, said police officer Pran Gokhale.

Meanwhile, in Agra, activists blocked railway lines for several hours disrupting rail schedules across northern India, said railway official Nirmal Sharma.

Musharraf won’t quit despite pressure

Reuters, Islamabad

Pressure mounted on Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf on Wednesday to resign or face impeachment but aides rejected media speculation he was about to step down.

Musharraf has been at the centre of a political crisis since early last year that has raised fears among the United States and its allies for the stability of the nuclear-armed Muslim country, which is also a hiding place for al Qaeda leaders.

The ruling coalition government, led by the party of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, said last week it aimed to impeach the former army chief and firm U.S. ally for years of misrule.

Speculation has been rife that Musharraf, who seized power in a 1999 coup, would quit rather than face impeachment.

Politicians across the country have been calling on him to face a vote of confidence or be impeached. More added their voices to the chorus of opposition on Wednesday.

The Daily Times newspaper cited an unidentified politician from a pro-Musharraf party as saying the president would announce a decision to quit on Independence Day on Thursday.

But Musharraf's spokesman denied the report.

"Newspapers in Pakistan, I'm afraid, dream up things then start writing about them. There's no such thing," said the spokesman, retired Major General Rashid Qureshi.

The prospect of a showdown is unnerving investors, with the rupee setting a new low of around 75.05/15 to the dollar and stocks hovering near two-year lows.

A crucial question is how the army, which has ruled for more than half the 61 years since the country's creation, will react, but coalition leaders said on Tuesday the army and its main security agency would not intervene to back their old boss.

Suspected US missile strike kills 10 in Pakistan

AFP, Peshawar

A suspected U.S. missile strike on an Islamist training camp in a Pakistani tribal area bordering Afghanistan killed at least 10 militants, officials said on Wednesday. The U.S. denied the accusation.

Four missiles slammed into two buildings in the camp in Baghar village in the troubled district of South Waziristan on Tuesday night, a senior security official said.

"At least 10 militants were killed in the strikes," the official said. He did not specify whether they were from the Taliban or al-Qaida, both of which operate in the area.

"This is their work," he said, referring to U.S.-led coalition forces deployed across the border in Afghanistan.

In Kabul, the U.S. military said the missiles were not fired by either NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) or the U.S.-led coalition.

"This is not true. We have no reports of missiles being fired into Pakistan," U.S.-led coalition spokesman Lt. Nathan Perry said.

US against any Israeli strike on Iran

AFP, Jerusalem

The United States is at present opposed to any Israeli military strike against Iranian nuclear facilities, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said on Wednesday.

"The Americans are not ready to allow us to attack Iran," Barak told army radio. "Our position is that no option is to be taken off the table but in the meantime we have to make diplomatic progress."

Israel, the region's sole if undeclared nuclear power, considers Iran its main strategic threat because of its nuclear programme, which Israel and its US ally suspect is aimed at developing weapons. Iran has repeatedly denied the allegations, insisting its the programme is aimed solely at providing electricity for its growing population when its fossils fuels run out.

Fresh floods in Vietnam kill teenager, toll 120

Reuters, Hanoi

Fresh floods triggered by rains swept away a teenager in northern Vietnam and several boats were destroyed, the government said on Wednesday, as it struggled to deliver aid to thousands of people hit by the worst floods in four decades.

At least 120 people have been killed after days of heavy rains triggered by the remnants of a tropical storm. Another 44 are missing.

On Tuesday, rescue workers found the body of a 13-year-old boy in Quang Ninh province after it was hit by torrential rains from a tropical low-pressure system, the government said in a report.

Another four people were missing.

25 die in China bus accident

AFP, Beijing

Twenty-five people, mostly youth, died when a bus overturned in China's northwest Xinjiang region, state media said Wednesday.

Seventeen people died at the scene of Tuesday's accident, while eight others later succumbed to their injuries in an area hospital, Xinhua news agency reported.

The five remaining people on the bus were receiving medical treatment. The bus overturned on a remote mountain road leading to Artux city. Many of the passengers were high school students from Han Chinese families as well as the Kirgiz ethnic minority, Xinhua said.

US air force chief promises to raise nuclear standards

AFP, Washington

The US Air Force's new chiefs vowed Tuesday to restore "perfection" as the standard for the control of US nuclear forces, in the wake of a series of embarassing blunders that cost their predecessors their jobs.

"It is a mission where anything less than perfection is not acceptable. And that is the standard," said General Norton Schwartz, the air force chief of staff. "That certainly is the standard of the folks that brought that to us through the years, and we will return to that standard," he said at a news conference with Mike Donley, the new air force secretary.

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates sacked their predecessors in June after an investigation into the nuclear mishaps found an erosion in standards and a loss of focus in the air force's handling of nuclear weapons.

We're no friends of Israelis: Iran parliament speaker

AFP, Tehran

Iranian parliament speaker Ali Larijani said on Monday Iran is no friends of the Israelis, reacting to remarks to the contrary by an aide of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Fars news agency reported.

"We are not friends with the Israeli people and Iran has a logic which is what the (supreme) leader (Ayatollah Ali Khamenei) has said," Larijani was quoted as saying.

Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, a deputy of Ahmadinejad, has insisted that Iran is "friends with the Israeli people."

Rahim Mashaie first made statements to this effect in July. More recent remarks reaffirming his position in unequivocal terms were printed in several local newspapers on Monday.

"I had said this before that we do not have any hostility against the Israeli people and I still say the same thing proudly," Rahim Mashaie was quoted as saying by Kargozaran newspaper.

Georgia, Russia agree to peace plan

AFP, Tbilisi

Georgia and Russia agreed Wednesday to a French-brokered peace plan after Moscow ordered a halt to its military onslaught, but there was scepticism whether the conflict is truly over.

"There is a text. It has been accepted in Moscow, it was accepted here in Georgia. I have the agreement of all the protagonists," French President Nicolas Sarkozy said at a news conference, flanked by his Georgian counterpart Mikheil Saakashvili. The six-point plan, which obliges the parties to halt fighting, will be reviewed by EU foreign ministers at a meeting in Brussels on Wednesday, according to Sarkozy. Saakashvili insisted the deal does not compromise Georgia's territorial integrity, and a contentious reference in the plan to negotiations on the "future status" of breakaway South Ossetia and Abkhazia was changed to discussion on how to ensure "security and stability" there instead.