Landslides kill over 90 in Philippines

MANILA: More than 90 people were killed in a series of landslides brought about by heavy rains in mountainous provinces of the northern Philippines, local officials said on Friday. Sixty-nine people died in Benguet province as landslides struck on Thursday night and Friday morning in five different towns, provincial governor Nestor Fongwan said. In the mountain resort city of Baguio, 17 people were killed as landslides buried whole houses in different parts of the city, said city administrator and civil defence official Peter Fianza. A landslide also left five dead and 32 missing in Mountain Province, said provincial governor Maximo Dulag. The northern Philippines has been pounded by heavy rain since Typhoon Parma hit the country on Saturday.

30 perish, 100 hurt in Peshawar explosion

PESHAWAR: At least thirty people have been killed and over 100 injured in a bomb explosion in Karachi Bazaar, part of Khyber market nearing NWFP assembly here in Peshawar on Friday morning, police sources said. According to hospital sources, 30 people have lost their lives while scores others have been injured, meanwhile, emergency has been imposed in all city hospitals. Mian Muhammad Iftikhar, provincial information minister, has confirmed the causality has mounted to 30 people while 100 others are hurt and 15 of them said to be critical in condition. The blast hit a shopping area close to the city's main Khyber Bazaar and ambulances rushed to the scene, said local police official Asghar Hussain. "At least 30 people were killed and around 100 wounded in the bomb blast," local administration chief Sahibzada Mohammad Anis told reporters. "We have declared an emergency in the hospitals," he added. "The bomb was planted in a car parked in the market," said Mian Iftikhar Hussain. It was not immediately clear if it was a remote-controlled device or a suicide attack. "We are investigating whether it was a suicide blast or the device was planted in the vehicle," the minister told reporters. Many vehicle nearby parked have been shattered completely while as many as 100 more injured people have been rushed to Lady Reading and various other hospitals for medical attainment, sources added. The dead and injured people included children, women, ladies, young and elderly people, hospital sources confirmed. The blast occurred at some time after 12:00 noon while, more causality might be reported, official sources feared. Police and army soldiers have cordoned off the entire area, meanwhile, the rescue efforts are underway, witnesses said. Also, the passenger on a bus passing near bazaar also came under attack whereas the DCO Peshawar has confirmed 30 people have been killed in explosion. Apparently the bomb was planted in a white car but some witnesses termed the explosion as suicide attack, however, no official version on the blast has appeared as yet, sources maintained.

Taliban claim deadly UN office blast in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistani Taliban on Tuesday claimed responsibility for a blast at a United Nations office in the capital which left five aid workers dead, a spokesman for the insurgents told AFP.

"This attack was launched by us -- we claim responsibility," Taliban spokesman Azam Tariq told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location.

Four Pakistanis and an Iraqi were killed Monday when a man dressed in military uniform breached strict security measures and detonated explosives in the heavily-fortified office of the World Food Program in Islamabad.
The attack pushed the U.N. to temporarily close its offices in the country and exposed the vulnerability of many international relief agencies working to provide aid to millions of civilians affected by the fight between the government and Islamic militant groups.

"The WFP is promoting the U.S. agenda. They are silent on massacres and do not comment on killings in Waziristan and other areas," Tariq said, referring to a lawless tribal district where the U.S. has launched missile strikes.

Pakistan's military has said it is readying for an assault on the northwest tribal belt near Afghanistan, a bastion of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan movement and an alleged hideout and training ground for al-Qaeda fighters.

"Pakistan has been threatening a military operation. We also reserve the right to retaliate. We will give them a befitting response," Tariq said.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik has already blamed the blast on Taliban militants, saying they were avenging a military push against them in northwest Swat valley launched in late April which left more than 2,000 militants dead including their leader Baitullah Mehsud who died in a U.S. drone attack on Aug. 5.

India to station all MiG 29s along Pak border

NEW DELHI: To beef up air defence capabilities and react in quickest possible time along the international border with Pakistan, the Indian Air Force has decided to station all its MiG 29 squadrons at Adampur, the second largest Air Force base in the country.
The Adampur Air Force station, which is also known as home of MiG 29s, already has two frontline fighter squadrons and will see another squadron moving from Jamnagar in Gujarat soon.
“We consider ourselves to be a strategic air power establishment of the IAF in the western sector, ever ready for operations. We are fully geared up to operate in any given time frame like any other Air Force stations of the country,” said Air Commodore HS Arora, Air Officer Commanding of the Adampur air base.
To extend the service life of MiG 29 by 25 to 40 years, the RAC MiG aircraft corporation signed a contract with the Ministry of Defence to upgrade over 60 fighters in service with the IAF since the 1980s.

Iran has know-how for atom bomb: report

IAEA to inspect new Qom site Oct. 25: ElBaradei
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DUBAI: Iran has “sufficient information to be able to design and produce a workable” atom bomb according to the tentative conclusions of a confidential report by the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the New York Times reported late Saturday.
The conclusions, according to unnamed European officials, came from intelligence agencies and its own investigations and go beyond the public positions taken by many governments, including the United States, that Tehran had halted its nuclear weapon program.
In 2007 the U.S. intelligence community determined that in 2003 Iran stopped its alleged efforts to design a nuclear warhead and last month the International Atomic Energy Agency said it “has no concrete proof” that Iran ever sought to make or perfect nuclear arms.
IAEA chief Mohammed ElBaradei, due in Iran on Saturday for talks, was quoted Saturday as saying in India that “a major question” about the evidence’s authenticity prevented the agency from “making any judgment at all” on that point.
A senior U.S. official said last week the U.S is revaluating its assessment, said the Times.
The latest report, titled "Possible Military Dimensions of Iran’s Nuclear Program," came just days after Iran revealed a secret underground nuclear enrichment center under construction near the holy city of Qom.
It describes a complex program, started in 2002 by Iran’s Ministry of Defense, "aimed at the development of a nuclear payload to be delivered using the Shahab 3 missile system," which can strike the Middle East and parts of Europe, according to the paper.
But the IAEA report does not say how far work has progressed and is careful to caution in its introduction that the “conclusions are tentative and subject to further confirmation of the evidence,” according to the Times report.
Tehran has repeatedly denied it is developing nuclear weapons and insists its program is for peaceful purposes only. On Thursday Iran met with the six world powers in talks aimed at resolving the standoff over its nuclear program.
From conspiracy to cooperation
Meanwhile the IAEA's ElBaradei said on Sunday the agency will inspect Iran's new uranium enrichment site in Qom on Oct. 25.
ElBaradei said at a news conference with Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, that Iran's relations with the West were moving from "conspiracy" to "cooperation" and that the nuclear dispute could be solved through diplomacy.
"It is important for us to have comprehensive cooperation over the Qom site. We had dialogue, we had talks on clarification of the facility in Qom, which is a pilot enrichment plant," ElBaradei said, adding Iran should have informed the IAEA of Qom when it decided to build the site.
Salehi praised his talks with the U.N. agency chief as "very successful."