MQM decides to join opposition

April 13, 2008
KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement has decided in principle to sit on the opposition benches.
According to Geo News sources, MQM has decided to join opposition in center and province and MQM Raabta Committee has completed process of consultations in this regard. Sources said the decision to appoint Shoaib Suddle as new IG Police Sindh was one of the reasons for this decision.

Nine killed in Iran mosque attack

April 13, 2008
TEHRAN: Nine people were killed and over 100 were wounded when a bomb ripped through a mosque in Iran's southern city of Shiraz, in an unprecedented strike on a non-frontier Iranian urban centre on Saturday, officials said.

The massive bomb explosion in the men's section of the mosque took place at around 9: 00 pm (1630 GMT) during an evening prayer sermon by a prominent local cleric.

"One hundred and five people were wounded and nine were killed in the bomb attack in Shiraz,” a hospital source said, adding all the city's medical facilities had been mobilised to deal with the casualties.

The death toll was set to rise as many of the victims were in a critical condition. There have been deadly attacks in Iran's border cities with ethnic minority populations in recent years but such a strike in a city such as Shiraz is unprecedented in recent decades.

The normally placid city is not in a border zone, nor is it home to any significant population of ethnic or religious minorities.

"Around 9:15 pm, after the sermon, the sound of an explosion resounded in the section reserved for men and a cloud of dust billowed up to the sky," witness Saideh Ghorbani said.
Deadly attacks in Iran have become extremely rare events in the past two decades, although the first years after the 1979 Islamic revolution were marked by a succession of bomb blasts in Tehran by outlawed opposition groups.

The last major attack in Iran was a February 2007 strike by suspected Sunni rebels in the city of Zahedan in the southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan border province that killed 13 members of the elite Revolutionary Guards.

That attack was the deadliest such strike to have hit the Islamic republic in years.
There were also deadly attacks in 2005 and 2006 in the southwestern city of Ahvaz which has an Arab population and Iranian officials blamed them on Britain and Arab separatists. There has also been unrest in northwestern Kurdish-populated provinces.

World Bank meeting today as rising food prices spark unrest

April 13, 2008
WASHINGTON: The World Bank meets here Sunday as rising food prices spark deadly unrest in developing countries, underscoring the urgency of getting food aid to desperate people.

The World Bank meeting comes against a backdrop of a mounting global financial crisis, a US economy teetering on recession, high-energy prices and currency market imbalances.

Policymakers of the anti-poverty bank are due to discuss a massive, coordinated international plan to reduce hunger announced less than two weeks ago by the head of the bank, Robert Zoellick.

The 185-nation bank's sister institution, the International Monetary Fund, issued a dire warning Saturday about the food crisis.

"Food prices, if they go on like they are doing today, the consequences will be terrible," IMF managing director said. Development gains made in the past five or 10 years could be "totally destroyed," he said, warning that social unrest could even lead to war.

Skyrocketing prices on rice, wheat, corn and other staple foods like milk particularly hurt developing nations, where the bulk of income is spent on the bare necessities for survival.

In recent months, rising food costs have lead to violent protests in Egypt, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Ethiopia, Madagascar, the Philippines, Indonesia and other countries in the past month. Thirty-seven countries currently face food crises, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization.

India asks Pak to take early decision on concessions under SAFTA

April 13, 2008
NEW DELHI: India has said it may be compelled to withdraw concessions to Pakistan if it does not take an early decision to implement South Asia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA).

"We have provided a series of concessions to Pakistan under SAFTA. Pakistan has not provided to India. We are looking at the situation," Commerce Minister Kamal Nath told reporters on the sidelines of a function on Foreign Trade Policy.

Noting that Pakistan has sought more time on the issue, he said "if they don't take a decision on this, then India may be compelled, we will consider it, to withdraw the concessions."

However, with the new government assuming office in Pakistan, Nath said "we are hopeful. Last six to eight months, there has been inactivity on this front. We understand. But we are hoping, in the next couple of months, to resolve this."

http://www.geo.tv/4-13-2008/16709.htm

__________________
Time is the longest distance between two places.