Bugti murder: Musharraf told to appear in court

ISLAMABADl A Pakistani anti-terrorism court on Monday issued warrants for former military ruler Pervez Musharraf to appear before it in connection with the Nawab Akbar Bugti murder case.

During the hearing of the case in Quetta, former interior minister Aftab Sherpao and former provincial home minister Mir Shoaib Nowsherwani appeared in the court, while the officials of Crime Branch presented report relating to the non-availability of Musharraf.

The court then ordered for the production of Musharraf and also issued directives for the concerned jail officials in this regard.

Later, the court adjourned the hearing until October 22 and the hearing of bail petitions of Aftab Sherpao and Shoaib Nowsherwani was also put off until then.

Musharraf's lawyers have said he faces security risks and hence the case should be moved out from Quetta.

Meanwhile, the All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) of Musharraf protested against the continued detention of the former military dictator terming it "a part of an elaborate political conspiracy contrary to justice and the rule of law."

In a statement, Musharraf's political adviser Chaudry Sarfraz Anjum Kahlon stated that the former president "was being punished for protecting the unity and integrity of Pakistan against violent actors."

"All cases currently registered against Musharraf are politically orientated and devoid of any reality or legal merit. It is a grave injustice that the former president has been incarcerated for near to six months and serious questions are being raised about the validity of the legal process."

Kahlon added "those political forces behind the unjust and illegal detention of Musharraf are inadvertently emboldening extremists, terrorists and foreign backed separatists in Pakistan". A Pakistani anti-terrorism court on Monday issued warrants for former military ruler Pervez Musharraf to appear before it in connection with the Nawab Akbar Bugti murder case.

During the hearing of the case in Quetta, former interior minister Aftab Sherpao and former provincial home minister Mir Shoaib Nowsherwani appeared in the court, while the officials of Crime Branch presented report relating to the non-availability of Musharraf.

The court then ordered for the production of Musharraf and also issued directives for the concerned jail officials in this regard.

Later, the court adjourned the hearing until October 22 and the hearing of bail petitions of Aftab Sherpao and Shoaib Nowsherwani was also put off until then.

Musharraf's lawyers have said he faces security risks and hence the case should be moved out from Quetta.

Meanwhile, the All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) of Musharraf protested against the continued detention of the former military dictator terming it "a part of an elaborate political conspiracy contrary to justice and the rule of law."

In a statement, Musharraf's political adviser Chaudry Sarfraz Anjum Kahlon stated that the former president "was being punished for protecting the unity and integrity of Pakistan against violent actors."

"All cases currently registered against Musharraf are politically orientated and devoid of any reality or legal merit. It is a grave injustice that the former president has been incarcerated for near to six months and serious questions are being raised about the validity of the legal process."

Kahlon added "those political forces behind the unjust and illegal detention of Musharraf are inadvertently emboldening extremists, terrorists and foreign backed separatists in Pakistan".

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Car bombs kill 51 across Baghdad

BAGHDAD: A wave of car bombs struck mainly in Shiite neighborhoods of Bagdad on Monday morning, killing at least 51 people and wounding dozens more, officials said, the latest in relentless violence roiling Iraq in recent months.

The country's interior ministry blamed al-Qaida-linked insurgents, saying they are exploiting the political infighting and security shortcomings to stage attacks.

The deadliest of the day's bombings was in the eastern Sadr City district, where a parked car bomb tore through a small vegetable market and its parking lot, killing seven people and wounding 16, a police officer said.

That was followed by a total of 10 parked car bombs, which went off in quick sequence in the Shiite neighborhoods of New Baghdad, Habibiya, Sabaa al-Bour, Kazimiyah, Shaab, Ur, Shula as well as the Sunni neighborhoods of Jamiaa and Ghazaliyah.

The 10 other explosions also struck at outdoor markets or parking lots, killing 44 people and wounding 139, according to other police officers. Medical officials confirmed the causality figures in Monday's attacks. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the deadly wave, which bore the hallmarks of al-Qaida's local branch in Iraq, known as the Islamic State of Iraq.

Iraqi security forces sealed off the sites of the attacks as fire fighters struggled to extinguish fires that broke out. Twisted wreckage of cars and remnants of the car bombs littered the pavement.

"Our war with terrorism goes on,'' interior ministry spokesman Saad Maan told The Associated Press. "Part of the problem is the political infighting and regional conflicts ... There are shortcomings and we need to develop our capabilities mainly in the intelligence-gathering efforts.''

Iraqi militants often target crowded places such as markets, cafes and mosques, seeking to inflict huge numbers of casualties.

Monday's attack were the biggest since the Sept. 21 suicide bombings that struck a cluster of funeral tents packed with mourning families in Sadr City, killing at least 104 people.

On Sunday, a series of bombings in different parts of Iraq _ including two suicide bombings in the country's relatively peaceful northern Kurdish region _ killed 46.

Violence in Iraq surged after government troops moved against a protest camp of Sunni demonstrators in April, triggering deadly clashes nationwide. Although overall death tolls are still lower than at the height of the conflict, the cycle of violence is reminiscent to the one that brought Iraq to the brink of civil war in 2006-2007.

More than 4,500 people have been killed since April.

Al-Qaida is believed to be trying to build on the Sunni minority's discontent toward what they consider to be second-class treatment by Iraq's Shiite-led government and on the infighting between political groups, to ignite a sectarian warfare.

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39 still missing after Kenya mall attack: Red Cross

NAIROBI, Kenya: More than three dozen people remain unaccounted for almost a week after the end of the four-day terrorist attack on Nairobi's Westgate Mall that killed at least 67, the head of the Kenyan Red Cross said on Monday.

The Red Cross's report of 39 missing people conflicts with the government's contention that there are no remaining missing people from the attack that began on Sepember 21, and suggests that the death toll could still rise as investigators dig through the rubble of the partially collapsed mall.

"The numbers with us are what we are still showing as open cases that are reported to us," Red Cross head Abbas Gullet told Associated Press by telephone.

"The only way to verify this is when the government declares the Westgate Mall 100 percent cleared - then we can resolve it," he said.

The Red Cross number has been dropping over the past week as bodies have been positively identified and as some missing people have been reunited with their families, Gullet said.

The Red Cross said on Friday the number of missing people stood at 59.

As of Monday, however, the Nairobi city morgue had no remaining bodies from the Westgate attack, he said.

On Sunday, Interior Minister Joseph Ole Lenku told reporters that police had no missing persons reports from the mall attack, and that authorities did not believe there were any hostages in the mall building when it partially collapsed.

He left open the possibility, however, that things might change.

"We think - unless the forensic investigation shows otherwise - we really do think that there were weren't any hostages," he said.

FBI agents, along with investigators from Britain, Canada and Germany, are participating in the investigation into the attack and are aiding Kenyan forensic experts poring through the mall complex. Results are not expected until later this week at the earliest.

In addition to the 61 civilians and 6 security troops reported killed in the attack, the government has said five of the attackers were killed by gunfire and at least one more is thought to be in the building's rubble.

The militant group al-Shabab has said it carried out the mall attack to punish Kenya for sending its troops into neighboring Somalia to fight the al-Qaida-linked militant group that had seized large parts of that country for years before being dislodged from the capital, Mogadishu.

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Harvard honours Malala Yousafzai

LONDON: The Taliban is afraid of women's power and the power of education, said Pakistani teenager activist Malala Yousafzai as she has been honoured by the prestigious Harvard University.

Yousafzai, 16, an outspoken proponent for girls' education who survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban, was at Harvard on Friday to accept the 2013 Peter J Gomes humanitarian award.

Harvard president Drew Gilpin Faust said she was pleased to welcome Malala because of their shared interest in education.

Malala was shot in the head last October. Militants said she was attacked because she criticised the Taliban, not because of her views on education.

"The so-called Taliban were afraid of women's power and were afraid of the power of education," Malala told hundreds of students, faculty members and well-wishers who packed Harvard's ornate Sanders Theater for the award ceremony.

According to a report in the Guardian, the teenage activist said she hopes to become a politician because politicians can have influence on a broad scale.

She spoke nostalgically about her home region, the Swat valley, and said she hopes to return someday.

She called it a "paradise" but described a dangerous area where militants blew up dozens of schools and sought to discourage girls from going to school by snatching pens from their hands.

Students, she said, reacted by hiding their books under their shawls so that people wouldn't know they were going to school.

Malala highlighted the fact that very few people spoke out against what was happening in her home region.

"Although few people spoke, but the voice for peace and education was powerful," she said.

Malala also described waking up in a UK hospital, where she was taken for emergency treatment following the assassination attempt in Pakistan.

"And when I was in Birmingham, I didn't know where I was, I didn't know where my parents are, I didn't know who has shot me and I had no idea what was happening," she said. "But I thank God that I'm alive."

The chairman of the Norwegian Nobel peace prize committee, Thorbjorn Jagland, paid a special tribute to Malala in a message read publicly during her award ceremony.

"Your courage," Jagland said in the tribute, "is sending a strong message to women to stand up for their rights, which constitutes a precondition for peace."

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Sudan refuses to cut back fuel price despite unrest

KHARTOUM: Sudan vowed on Sunday to stand firm on its decision to hike fuel prices, despite days of deadly protests and criticism from within the ruling party and from hardline Islamic leaders.

Authorities say 33 people have died since the near-doubling of petrol and diesel prices last Monday sparked the worst protests in the history of President Omar al-Bashir's regime.

Activists and international human rights groups say at least 50 people were gunned down, most of them in the greater Khartoum area.

There was no confirmation of fresh protests on Sunday but an AFP correspondent in Khartoum's twin city Omdurman said riot police and security forces were on the streets in large numbers.

Information Minister Ahmed Bilal Osman told AFP there was no going back on the fuel price hikes.

"No, it is not possible at all. This is the only way out," he said in a telephone interview.

Bilal said authorities had to intervene when crowds turned violent. "This is not (a) demonstration," he said. "They attacked the gas stations. They burned about 21."

Bilal said the government knew "riots" would occur if the cost of fuel went up but the reduction of subsidies would save billions of dollars.

"Our economy cannot tolerate such support," he said. "We have to carry on. We know it is a bit heavy for the people."

Arab-spring style calls for the regime's downfall began after pump prices rose last Monday to 20.80 Sudanese pounds ($4.71) a gallon from 12.50 pounds ($2.83), while diesel jumped from 8.50 pounds a gallon to 13.90 pounds.

Sudan's most popular newspaper, which has been an outspoken critic of the decision to cut subsidies, said it had been ordered to stop publishing.

Al-Intibaha is run by Bashir's uncle, Al-Tayeb Mustafa, who told AFP that state security agents gave no reason for the suspension.

Journalists have complained of worsening censorship since the protests began.

Fuel prices had already almost doubled last year after a partial lifting of subsidies.

Sudan lost billions of dollars in oil receipts when South Sudan gained independence in 2011, taking with it about 75 percent of the formerly united country's crude production.

Since then the north has been plagued by inflation, a weakened currency and a severe shortage of dollars to pay for imports.

The country falls near the bottom of a United Nations human development index measuring income, health and education.

It also ranked among the lowest of 176 countries in Transparency International's index of perceived public sector corruption last year.

Officials in the Khartoum area on Sunday extended a school closure, in effect since the protests began, until October 20, official media said.

Classes had been expected to resume on Monday. Residents say they have been struggling with rising prices for two years. Yet, until last week when thousands began protesting mainly in the capital, the poor had largely failed to take to the streets.

"People have accepted price increases before without much annoyance. But I think it's the overall bleak picture of the economy, and of the country's mismanagement," said Magdi El Gizouli, a fellow at the Rift Valley Institute.

Reformers in Sudan's ruling National Congress Party on Saturday told Bashir that the deadly crackdown was a betrayal of his regime's Islamic foundations.

Hardline Islamic religious leaders called on the government to reverse the fuel price increase.

In a statement late Saturday they advised the regime "to turn back to God and provide justice".

The information minister said that even though fuel subsidies have been cut, financial support will remain on wheat and medicine.

He added that compensatory measures aim to ease the burden as fuel prices rise. About 700,000 poor families receive handouts of about 150 pounds a month along with medical insurance, he said.

In their letter to Bashir, the ruling party reformers sought an independent investigation into the shooting of civilians.

Bilal said a probe was being conducted especially into what happened on Friday when "some innocent people" were shot dead.

Gizouli, the analyst, dismissed the government's portrayal of the other protesters as "vandals".

"The government's calculation is... if you shoot enough, they will be scared and go back home," he said.

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Skepticism amid hope for Iran solution

WASHINGTON: Always scrutinized, Iran now will be under even greater watch as the US looks for signals the Islamic Republic's new president is serious and powerful enough to pursue detente with Washington and an end to the painful economic penalties imposed over its nuclear program.

A burst of euphoria followed news of Friday's telephone conversation between President Barack Obama and Iran's Hassan Rouhani, and the first top-level contact between the countries in 34 years led to talk of a historic breakthrough in relations.

But already the exuberance is being tamped down in Washington, where the dark cloud of skepticism over Iranian intentions won't lift quickly or easily, and in Tehran, where there is no rush to say relations might be restored soon.

Even the most upbeat inside the White House, while saying they have new hope for progress, insist that Rouhani must quickly reinforce his repeated declarations over the past week about being ready for compromise with actions proving his country is not seeking a nuclear weapon.

Iran has a chance to demonstrate its seriousness at the next round of nuclear talks with world powers, set for Oct. 15-16 in Geneva.

Confronting suspicions about his readiness to deal, Rouhani told a news conference before leaving New York on Friday that his government would present a plan in three weeks on how to resolve the impasse.

``I expect this trip will be the first step and the beginning of constructive relations with countries of the world,'' said Rouhani, who attended the UN general assembly's ministerial session last week.

Until then, a senior Obama administration official said, Obama's foreign policy team will watch for signs that Rouhani truly is engaged in a ``different calculation'' — trying to decide whether defying the US and others on the nuclear issue is worth the pain of sanctions that have damaged Iran's economy.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal White House thinking.

The United States, through the United Nations and unilaterally in some cases, has been the driving force behind the penalties that have isolated Iran from the world economy.

"Now the big question is can the Iranians hold it together to make the very painful political concessions that will be necessary to win sanctions relief," said R Nicholas Burns, a Harvard professor and career US diplomat in both Democratic and Republican administrations who formerly served as lead negotiator on Iran's nuclear program.

Rouhani insists that Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the gatekeeper for every decision on matters of state, has given his government the power to negotiate an end to more than three decades of US-Iranian estrangement.

But that cannot happen, Washington and its close allies say, as long as Tehran refuses to open its nuclear program to international inspections and proves its claim that it is enriching uranium only to fuel domestic energy and medical research programs. Uranium enriched to low levels can be used to produce energy; at higher levels, it can be used for a weapon.

Sanctions are linked to Iran's refusal to halt uranium enrichment, and Rouhani said in his UN speech last week that Iran has the right under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to continue to enrich uranium. It was one of the reminders of how difficult it will be to bridge the gaps with the West in nuclear negotiations.

In Obama's address to the General Assembly, he said no nation wanted to deny Iran a nuclear energy program. What remains at issue are deep suspicions that Iran is enriching uranium to levels far beyond what is needed to fuel electricity-generating reactors or to produce medical isotopes.

Israel is particularly skeptical of Iran's intentions, citing past declarations by Iranian officials that the Jewish state should be wiped from the map.

Israel is constantly on guard against the Shiite militant group Hezbollah, which virtually rules southern Lebanon along Israel's northern border. The powerful Iranian Revolutionary Guard has armed Hezbollah with increasingly sophisticated rockets that could strike deep into Israel.

The Revolutionary Guard, which has tentacles deep in the Iranian economy and has been the enforcer of its hostile policies toward the West and Israel, could try to undermine Rouhani's opening to the West.

So the rapidly shifting political ground raises questions about how the Guard might react to a policy that could challenge its regional footholds not only with Hezbollah in Lebanon but also its deep support of Syrian leader Bashar Assad in that country's civil war.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu will need assurances of American skepticism when he visits the US this week. Netanyahu said Sunday he is going to the United Nations to "tell the truth in the face of the sweet-talk and the onslaught of smiles," a reference to Iran's diplomatic overtures to the West.

As is always the case in the Middle East, one event -- hopes for a solution to Iran's nuclear program, for example — is tangled in the threads of politics elsewhere in the region. That's particularly so now.

Having threatened Assad with a unilateral military strike over the use of chemical weapons, Obama backtracked and sought congressional approval first. But then the Russians stepped in as guarantors of a plan to have Assad turn his weapons over the international inspectors for destruction.

Russia also had blocked US requests for UN resolution against Syria, before reversing course and, with the rest of the UN security council, supporting a measure that includes the threat of penalties should Assad renege on the agreement.

That resolution, adopted Friday, gives breathing room and certainly will draw in the Iranians, given their deep involvement with Assad, while the US and Russia work toward a political solution in Syria.

Obama insists the military option against Syria remains on the table, but domestic hawks aren't satisfied.

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UK Conservative party member held over rape charge

LONDON: A top member of Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative party has been arrested on suspicion of raping a teenage girl, British police said on Saturday.

Party vice-chairman Alan Lewis, 75, was arrested in London on Friday after a woman claimed he raped her in the 1960s in the city of Manchester, north-west England, police said.

Lewis, a self-made tycoon who has earned millions through his luxury clothing chain Crombie, was appointed vice-chairman by Cameron in 2010 and has been honoured by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to British business.

"A 75-year-old man was arrested following a complaint received earlier this year of an historic rape that occurred in the Manchester area in the late 60s," said a spokesman for Greater Manchester Police.

"The man was later bailed pending further inquiries. Specially-trained officers are providing support and welfare to the victim."

The arrest comes just ahead of the Conservatives' annual party conference in Manchester, which runs from Sunday until next Wednesday.

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Leaders of far-right Golden Dawn party held in Greece

ATHENS: Greek police arrested the leader and more than a dozen senior members and lawmakers from the far-right Golden Dawn party on Saturday after the killing of an anti-fascist rapper by a party supporter triggered outrage and protests across the country.

The party's leader Nikolaos Mihaloliakos, spokesman Ilias Kassidiaris, two other lawmakers and 10 members were arrested on charges of founding a criminal organisation. They are due to appear in court this weekend to be charged formally.

Police confiscated two guns and a hunting rifle from the home of Mihaloliakos, saying he did not have a licence for them.

Golden Dawn, ranked Greece's third most popular party, is under investigation for the murder of Pavlos Fissas, who bled to death after being stabbed twice by a party sympathiser.

"Shame on them, the people will lift Golden Dawn higher," Ilias Panagiotaros, a Golden Dawn lawmaker told reporters before his arrest.

Several hundred party supporters gathered outside police headquarters chanting slogans and waving Greek flags. The party on its website called for protests in solidarity with its leader.

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras's government has so far resisted calls to ban the party, fearing it could make it even more popular at a time of growing anger at repeated rounds of austerity measures and instead, it has tried to undermine the party by ordering probes that could deprive it of state funding.

Samaras ruled out snap elections after the arrests.

Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras said Greece did not face the risk of political instability and Justice Minister Haralambos Athanassiou said all Golden Dawn members who had been arrested would receive a fair trial.

Tactic to impress

The move to arrest the party members surprised some Greeks wary of political theatre in a country where little has been done to rein in a party widely viewed as neo-Nazi.

"It's good that they arrested them, but I'm afraid that we will start killing each other now," said Dimitra Vassilopoulou, a 58-year old housewife.

"Does the government actually mean it or is it just a tactic to impress us? Why didn't they do anything when the immigrants were killed? How come they just discovered that Golden Dawn is a criminal organisation?"

The party has denied any links to the killing and Mihaloliakos has warned the party could pull its lawmakers from parliament if the crackdown does not stop.

If potential by-elections were won by the opposition, as some polls indicate, Greece's fragile two-party coalition would become politically untenable, Mihaloliakos has argued.

The party has 18 of parliament's 300 lawmakers and scored 14 percent of voter support in opinion polls before the stabbing. A poll this week showed this had fallen as low as 6.7 percent.

Greek lawmakers do not lose their political rights or seats unless there is a final court ruling against them but the government has proposed a law that could block state funding for Golden Dawn if police find links to Fissas's murder.

Golden Dawn, whose emblem resembles a swastika, rose from obscurity to enter parliament last year after promising to mine Greece's borders to prevent illegal immigrants from entering. Its members have been seen giving Nazi-style salutes but the party rejects the neo-Nazi label.

Human rights' groups have accused the party of being linked to attacks on immigrants but this is the first time it is being is investigated for evidence linking it to an attack.

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Merkel ally attacks left's plan to poll members over tie-up

BERLIN: The head of Angela Merkel's allies in Bavaria has attacked a plan by the opposition Social Democrats (SPD) to put any decision on forming a "grand coalition" with her to a vote of its members, warning against tactics that risk stability.

The SPD decided late on Friday it would poll its 472,000 grassroots members if it ends up deciding to join Merkel, a union many in the party oppose, in what could be an unwieldy process that could complicate the creation of a new government.

Bavaria State Premier Horst Seehofer said Germans had expressed the wish in last Sunday's ballot for a government led by Merkel, and to torpedo attempts to create a coalition on tactical grounds would damage the politics and the SPD itself.

"The heads of the parties all have a mandate and the responsibility to ensure stability," Seehofer said, in an interview with newspaper Bild am Sonntag, to appear on Sunday.

"We are not a bunch of rabbits, running round a field because we are too scared to form a government."

Germany should aim for a new coalition within the next two months, he said, otherwise it risked making itself look ridiculous in the eyes of the world.

Merkel's Christian Democrats emerged as the dominant party from Sunday's election but her party fell short of a majority, winning 311 seats in the 630-seat parliament while the SPD took 192. The Greens got 63 seats and the radical Left party have 64.

Her conservatives need a new coalition partner and would prefer a grand coalition with the SPD, a reprisal of the right-centre alliance she led from 2005 to 2009. But SPD leaders and party members fear a loss of identity.

In an extraordinary meeting on Friday 200 SPD leaders gave embattled chairman Sigmar Gabriel a green light to begin exploratory talks with the conservatives to see if there is scope for full-fledged talks.

Ordinarily a party chairman or a small group makes decisions to enter talks but Gabriel, under pressure for another election drubbing, is being cautious and seeking party endorsements for all key decisions.

Exploratory talks with Merkel and her conservatives could start on Monday or next week. Based on past experience full-fledged talks would take up to two months.

According to the decision on Friday, all 472,000 SPD members would be given the chance to vote on any decision to form a grand coalition in mid-November, before the annual SPD party congress in Leipzig set for Nov. 14-16.

An opinion poll on Friday showed two-thirds of SPD members oppose a grand coalition because they fear the party could wither further in the shadow of the popular chancellor.

The right-left coalition would nevertheless be the most popular constellation in Germany, the poll also found. More than half of Germans said they would welcome a grand coalition.

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Iran, UN agency nuclear probe talks positive

VIENNA: Iranian and UN officials are upbeat at the end of talks on resuming a UN probe to determine whether Tehran worked on atomic arms, in a sign that Iran's new president is serious when he says he wants to reduce nuclear tensions.

Herman Nackaerts of the UN's nuclear agency says the talks were "very constructive." Iranian envoy Reza Najafi speaks of a "constructive discussion." Both say the talks will resume October 28, with Nackaerts saying they will be "substantive".

The two spoke on Friday at the end of talks aimed at ending a nearly two-year stalemate. The UN agency wants access to a site it suspects was used to test conventional explosive triggers meant to set off a nuclear blast.

Iran denies working on, or interest in, nuclear arms.

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Pakistan SC rejects Musharraf's request for release

ISLAMABAD: In a major set-back to Pakistan's former president Pervez Musharraf, the country's Supreme Court on Friday rejected his request for release in the murder case of Balochistan leader Nawab Akbar Bugti, a media report said.

A Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Nasirul Mulk rejected Musharraf's verbal request for release, saying that he must be present in person before the court for its judgment, reported the DawnNews.

Musharraf is also facing other charges, including conspiracy to kill former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

Nawab Akbar Bugti was killed Aug 26 during a military operation ordered by Musharraf, who was at that time Pakistan's president and the army chief.

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Polish church apologizes for child sex abuse

WARSAW, Poland: A high official of Poland's Catholic Church apologized on Friday to the victims of pedophile priests while prosecutors said they will probe allegations that two Polish priests, including a Vatican envoy, sexually abused boys in the Dominican Republic.

Secretary of the Episcopate Bishop Wojciech Polak told a news conference that "sorry" was the least that was owed to the victims, and that the church was seeking to make amends and work on prevention.

But he said that any legal responsibility and financial compensation rested with the convicted wrongdoer, not with the church. He was addressing reporters in relation to both the allegations in the Dominican Republic and those in Poland, where some 27 priests have been convicted since 2001.

Mateusz Matyniuk, spokesman for the prosecutor general, said that Poland has obtained sufficient information from Dominican investigators to open a probe into pedophilia allegations against two Poles, one of whom has diplomatic status. He gave no names, but Dominican prosecutors have identified them as papal nuncio Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski and the Rev. Wojciech Gil, a parish priest.

The whereabouts of the two priests remain unknown to Poland's church, according to Polak.

The Holy See recalled Wesolowski, on August 21, and relieved him of his mission as apostolic nuncio after learning of the allegations against him from Dominican church authorities.

Gil was in Poland on vacation from his Dominican parish of Juncalito when the allegations surfaced in May, and hasn't returned to the Dominican Republic, even though his superior has told him to face the Dominican justice system, according to the Rev Tadeusz Musz, spokesman for Gil's order.

Polish media reported that Gil brought Dominican altar boys on vacation to Poland several times and lodged them at his mother's house and at the local parish house.

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Al-Shabaab launches fresh attack in Kenya

NAIROBI, Kenya: The Islamic extremist group that killed scores of people at a Nairobi mall attacked two Kenyan towns near the Somali border, killing three people. The leader of the Somali group affiliated with al-Qaida said the attacks will continue until Kenyan troops are withdrawn from Somalia.

The leader of al-Shabaab said in a message that there is no way Kenya can "withstand a war of attrition inside your own country."

"Make your choice today and withdraw all your forces," said Mukhtar Abu Zubeyr, also known as Godane, in a new statement posted on the internet late on Wednesday. "Otherwise be prepared for an abundance of blood that will be spilt in your country, economic downfall and displacement."

Al-Shabaab attacked Nairobi's upscale Westgate mall on Saturday and held it for four days in a siege in which at least 67 people were killed. Forensic experts from around the world, including the US, Britain and Germany, continued their work on Thursday reconstructing events in the crime scene including by carrying out fingerprint, DNA and ballistic analysis.

Early on Thursday, Al-Shabaab fighters attacked the border town of Mandera, killing two police officers, injuring three others and destroying 11 vehicles, said regional police chief Charlton Mureithi.

On Wednesday night, al-Shabaab attacked the border town of Wajir, 390 kilometres (240 miles) southwest of Mandera. One person was killed and four wounded after a gunman opened fire and threw grenades.

Kenya has suffered many such attacks by al-Shabaab along its 682 kilometres (423 miles) border with Somalia but they take on new significance following the Westgate Mall attack.

The Kenyan government said the international response is being coordinated by the international police agency Interpol, which sent an incident response team that arrived in Nairobi on Wednesday.

Interpol official Jean-Michel Louboutin said his team includes disaster victim identification and data specialists who will carry out real-time comparisons of evidence collected inside the mall against the France-based agency's database on DNA and fingerprints from its 190-member country network.

"Whether it be through comparison of information against Interpol's global databases, or the issuance of a notice to identify a victim, locate a wanted person, or seek additional information about suspects, we will offer all necessary assistance to help bring those responsible to justice," Louboutin said in a statement.

He added that Interpol is also ready to mobilize additional support if needed, including from its counterterrorism and criminal analysis units

Al-Shabaab said the Nairobi mall attack was not only directed at Kenya, but was also "a retribution against the Western states that supported the Kenyan invasion and are spilling the blood of innocent Muslims in order to pave the way for their mineral companies," according to the statement from Godane.

There has been a global response to the mall attack, with forensic experts from several Western countries working Thursday to investigate the mall site, said Kenyan police spokeswoman Gatiria Mboroki. She said she had no details on what the experts had found so far in the bullet-scarred, scorched mall and that their work was expected to take a week.

Washington is providing technical support and equipment to Kenyan security forces and medical responders, said US ambassador Robert Godec. The US is assisting the investigation to bring the attack's organizers and perpetrators to justice, he said on Wednesday.

At least 18 foreigners were among those killed when the militants entered the Westgate Mall on Saturday, firing assault rifles and throwing grenades, including six Britons and citizens from France, Canada, the Netherlands, Australia, Peru, India, Ghana, South Africa and China.

In addition to those killed at the mall, another 175 people were injured, including more than 60 who remain hospitalized.

Morgue officials in Nairobi have been preparing for a large influx of bodies still in the mall. Officials have told The Associated Press that the shopping center could hold dozens more bodies.

Authorities have said at least five al-Shabab attackers were killed and another 11 suspects have been taken into custody.

In his statement, Godane said only that "some" of his fighters had been killed, possibly suggesting that others escaped.

During the four-day fight, the mall roof collapsed, causing massive destruction. The collapse came on Monday, shortly after four large explosions rang out followed by billows of black smoke. A government minister said the terrorists had set mattresses on fire, causing the roof to collapse, but it seemed unlikely the fire would have caused the massive destruction.

Al-Shabaab, whose name means "The Youth" in Arabic, first began threatening Kenya with a major terror attack in late 2011, after Kenya sent troops into Somalia following a spate of kidnappings of Westerners inside Kenya.

The mall attack was the deadliest terrorist attack in Kenya since the 1998 al-Qaida truck bombing of the US embassy in Nairobi, which killed more than 200 people.

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Bombing at Baghdad market kills 21

BAGHDAD: Bombs ripped through outdoor markets in and near Baghdad on Thursday, killing at least 21 people and wounding dozens, the latest in a deadly wave that has hit Iraq in recent months, officials said.

Three bombs went off simultaneously in the Shia village of Sabaa al-Bour, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) north of the Iraqi capital. The explosions — two at the market entrance and one inside the shopping area — went off as the place was packed with shoppers.

Three women and two children were among those killed in the village market, according to police and hospital officials.

The attack came shortly after a bomb blast hit the al-Athorien market in Baghdad's southern neighborhood of Dora. Police said that seven people, including two women, were killed there and 17 people were wounded.

Insurgents in Iraq often target crowded places such as markets, cafes and mosques in order to inflict huge casualties. More than 4,000 people have been killed in violence during the past few months.

All officials giving the casualty tolls for Thursday's attacks spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to talk to the media.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks but they bear the hallmarks of al-Qaida's local branch in Iraq, known as the Islamic State of Iraq.

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Divers find bodies from spot of Concordia shipwreck

ROME: Divers on Thursday found what they believe to be the last two missing bodies from the sea where the Costa Concordia cruise liner sank last year off the Italian island of Giglio.

The huge ship was carrying more than 4,000 holidaymakers and crew when it capsized after striking rocks on Jan. 13, 2012, killing 32 people, including two whose bodies were not recovered.

The head of the civil protection agency Franco Gabrielli told reporters the remains discovered on Thursday were "absolutely consistent" with the two missing people, an Indian man and an Italian woman.

However, their identities could be definitively confirmed only after DNA testing, he added.

After lying on its side in shallow water ever since capsizing, the Costa Concordia was hauled upright last week in a complicated 19-hour salvage operation.

Recovering the submerged bodies after 20 months under the weight of the 114,500 tonne vessel was "almost a miracle," Gabrielli said.

It is due to be towed away from the Mediterranean holiday island, probably by next spring, and eventually broken up into scrap.

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Pak university fines girls for wearing jeans: Report

ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani university has fined girl students for wearing jeans on the campus, a media report said on Wednesday.

The National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST) made it compulsory for female students to wear dupatta and imposed a ban on wearing jeans in the university premises, the Dawn reported citing sources.

The NUST authorities, however, denied the report, saying they only instructed the students to wear "decent" dresses, the report added.

According to a notice posted on the university notice board, at least seven students were fined for not wearing dupatta or wearing jeans.

Some girls were fined Pakistani Rs 500-Rs 1,000 for the offence, the report said.

It added that the university's style of functioning was very strict as all important administrative posts were held by retired army officers.

"Male and female students are not allowed to sit together and they are fined for violation. Teachers and students know that they will be fired and rusticated if they do anything against the will of the administration," the Dawn report quoted a faculty member as saying on condition of anonymity.

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Berlusconi's 28-yr-old girlfriend: I courted him

ROME: Silvio Berlusconi's 28-year-old girlfriend says she courted the 76-year-old former premier relentlessly until he finally surrendered and is now just waiting for him to agree to marry her.

In an interview published on Wednesday in the Italian edition of Vanity Fair, Francesca Pascale described two years of pain and jealousy as Berlusconi responded to the failure of his second marriage by throwing lavish parties for young women. His relationship with a 17-year-old guest at the "bunga bunga" parties eventually got him convicted of paying for sex with a minor and pressuring public officials to cover it up.

Both he and the woman deny having sex and an appeal is under way.

Pascale said she met "B," as she calls him, in 2006 while working for his political party, though she confessed she set him in her sights much earlier, when she was under 18. "At home my mother said "We admire him as well, but he could be your father,'" she said.

She nevertheless persisted and professed her love for him in 2009 while he was in a Milan hospital recovering from an attack during a political rally by an unstable man. By then they were close, but she said they never spent time in private together because he was still married and she wanted to respect his family.

"He told me: 'Don't even talk about it, you're too young, I can't give you the future you deserve.'"

Pascale said she continued insisting, even while Berlusconi went through the "bunga bunga" phase after his marriage to Veronica Lario fell apart in 2009-2010. Lario divorced him, citing his infatuation with younger women.

"It was a period of diffidence, of disillusion, he was incapable of showing true love for a woman," Pascale was quoted as saying. "For him that emotion didn't exist anymore. And in his eyes, I was a dreamer. It wasn't an easy time for me. And I never went to those dinners, because I wouldn't have been able to control myself."

Her persistence paid off; she said Berlusconi presented her with a diamond ring on Christmas 2011.

"He completely rejected me," she said of her initial volley. "But mine is an unending courtship. It's still going on today. Even when he gave me the ring, it's not like he made a declaration of love."

Pascale, however, has been a constant beside Berlusconi's side as he has gone through some of the most trying times of his life: Italy's high court in August upheld his tax fraud conviction and the Senate is considering whether to strip him of his Parliament seat as a result.

The Court of Cassation also recently upheld a ruling that his family's investment company pay a nearly 500 million euro ($660 millon) fine for corruption relating to the purchase of the Mondadori publishing house, which became a key step in the creation of Berlusconi's media empire in the 1990s.

Pascale defends Berlusconi fiercely, both in his judicial woes and his reputation as a womanizer.

"My president isn't a saint, but he is absolutely unable to treat women like objects," she told the magazine.

Recently she wrote on Facebook "for richer and poorer, until death do we part," prompting speculation that wedding bells were in the air.

"The norm has been that I always make the first move," she said. "I sought him out, I courted him, I made him fall in love and I made him my boyfriend. Practically I've done everything: he only has to say 'yes.'"

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Dubai in World Heritage Site race

DUBAI: Dubai Municipality is making its final preparations before the visit of experts from Unesco who will assess the eligibility of Dubai Creek to be named a World Heritage Site.

"We submitted the proposal last January, which has already been reviewed by officials from Unesco and another expert will be visiting the creek in October," Rashad Bukhash, director of the architectural heritage department of the Dubai Municipality, was quoted on Wednesday as saying.

"To fulfil the requirements of a World Heritage Site, we will set up a tourist office that will provide tourists and residents with everything they need to know about the creek's importance in Dubai," he added.

He also described how Dubai Creek has played an important and vital role in making Dubai what it is now.

Located in the heart of Dubai, the creek is a natural seawater inlet of the Arabian Gulf, 14 km long and between 100-500 metres wide.

The creek divides the city into two parts and has played a major role in the economic development of the region throughout history.

According to media reports here, the final announcement about the creek's eligibility to enter the prestigious list is expected to come in June 2014.

Before that, lighting, signage, landscaping, waste collection and toilet facilities will be upgraded.

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16 killed in Afghanistan attacks

KABUL: At least 16 people have been killed in violence in Afghanistan, authorities said on Sunday.

Four pro-government militiamen and three Taliban militants were killed in clashes at Hazrat-e-Sultan in Kunduz city, Xinhua reported citing a police officer.

In an overnight operation in Wardak province, police killed two militants and arrested four.

One civilian and six militants were killed in an attack on a police checkpoint in Nazyano district of eastern Nangarhar province Saturday night. Four people were injured, including a policeman.

The Taliban-led insurgency has been rampant since the militant group launched an offensive in April against Afghan government forces and NATO-led troops stationed in the country.

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US drone strike kills 6 militants in northwest Pakistan

PESHAWAR: At least six militants were killed and four others injured in a US drone strike on two rebel compounds in northwest Pakistan's restive tribal region on Sunday, security officials said.

The drone fired four missile targeting two compounds in Shawal area of North Waziristan Agency, killing six militants and injuring four others.

The reports said that dead militants were of foreign-origin.

The US has not stopped its drone campaign despite repeated protests from Pakistan, which describes the attacks as violation of its sovereignty and counter-productive for the war on terror.

US officials maintain the strikes have eliminated a lot of high-ranking al-Qaida and Taliban militants.

Earlier, US secretary of state John Kerry had hinted towards an end of the drone campaign in the tribal areas of Pakistan, as he said on August 1 that the signature strikes could end "very soon".

This was the first time that a senior US official had indicated that there could be a definitive end to the programme, which the CIA has in the past called an effective counter-terrorism weapon.

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170 German Islamists have gone to Syria: Spy chief

BERLIN: Germany's domestic spy chief says at least 170 Islamic extremists have traveled to Syria from Germany and some are thought to be actively participating in the fighting.

Hans-Georg Maassen told Deutschlandfunk radio in an interview broadcast on Sunday that about 50 extremists have gone from Germany to Syria in recent months alone.

The head of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution says he is concerned that some of these extremists may return to Germany with plans for terror attacks.

German security agencies claim to have foiled a number of planned attacks by Islamic extremists in recent years.

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6 killed in Nairobi mall gun attack

NAIROBI: Masked gunmen stormed a teeming upmarket mall in Nairobi on Saturday, sprayed gunfire and killing around 20 people before holing themselves up in the complex with hostages.

Police were going shop-to-shop to evacuate terrified people from the Westgate shopping mall, which is popular with wealthy Kenyans and expatriates and generally packed on weekends.

Witnesses said the gunmen spoke Arabic or Somali and executed shoppers, in what appeared to be the worst attack in Nairobi since an Al-Qaeda bombing at the US embassy killed more than 200 in 1998.

The Red Cross said that some 20 people had been killed and another 50 wounded in the attack.

As security forces were trying to secure a multi-screen cinema complex on the mall's top floor, a police source said it had been confirmed that the attackers were holding at least seven hostages.

An AFP reporter said she saw at least 20 people rescued from a toy shop. Dozens of wounded, some of them bleeding children, were stretchered away from the mall.

A shop manager who managed to escape said at one point "it seemed that the shooters had taken control of all the mall".

"They spoke something that seemed like Arabic or Somali," said a man who escaped the mall and gave his name only as Jay. "I saw people being executed after being asked to say something."

Shocked people -- black, white and Indian -- could be seen running away from the Westgate centre clutching children while others crawled along walls to avoid stray bullets.

'I saw people being executed'

The mall -- which has several Israeli-owned businesses, is a hub for Nairobi-based Westerners and one of the foremost symbols of Kenya's affluent classes -- has long been considered a potential terror target.

Kenneth Kerich, who was shopping when the attack happened, described scenes of panic.

"I suddenly heard gunshots and saw everyone running around so we lied down. I saw two people who were lying down and bleeding, I think they were hit by bullets," he said.

"Initially we thought it is police fighting thugs. But we could not leave until when officers walked in, shot in the air and told us to get out."

An eyewitness who survived the assault by gunmen said he saw the body of a child being wheeled out of the mall.

"The gunmen tried to fire at my head but missed. At least 50 people were shot. There are definitely many casualties," mall employee Sudjar Singh told AFP.

"I saw a young boy carried out on a shopping cart, it looked like he was about 5 or 6. It looked like he was gone, he was not moving or making any noise."

Vehicles riddled with bullet holes were left abandoned in front of the mall as the Red Cross appealed for blood donations and police instructed residents of the Westlands neighbourhood to stay away.

"Our officers are on the ground carrying out an evacuation of those inside as they search for the attackers who are said to be inside," Inspector General of Police David Kimaiyo said.

"We have managed to evacuate some people to safety. We urge Kenyans to avoid the area as we pursue the thugs," Kenya's interior ministry said on Twitter.

The Westgate mall, which opened in 2007, has restaurants, cafes, banks, a large supermarket and a cinema that attract thousands of people every day and have made it a Nairobi landmark.

It is popular with the large expatriate community living in the residential neighbourhoods around it, including with foreign staff from the United Nations, which has its third largest global centre nearby.

Security agencies have regularly included the Westgate shopping centre on lists of sites they feared could be targeted by Al Qaeda-linked groups.

The Somali insurgents from the Shebab group have repeatedly threatened to strike at the heart of Kenya in retaliation for Nairobi's military involvement alongside the government they are trying to overthrow.

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60% turnout in SL northern region polls

COLOMBO: A turnout of nearly 60 per cent was recorded on Saturday in the first polls in 25 years in Sri Lanka's Tamil-majority Northern Province, four years after the military defeated the LTTE to end decades of ethnic conflict.

No major violence was reported from the war-ravaged region. Results are expected by Sunday.

Nearly 60 per cent of the 715,000 voters exercised their franchise in the five districts of the province, election authorities said. They said counting of votes had begun at 478 counting centres at 6 pm (local time).

Election Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya said all measures had been taken to ensure a free and fair election and all results will be released by 6 am on Sunday.

The landmark election is being seen as a test to decide whether the predominantly Tamil province wants more opportunities for developments or the people want more autonomy.

The election is also expected to give minority Tamils a chance at self-rule after decades of ethnic conflict that left over 100,000 dead.

The main Tamil party - Tamil National Alliance (TNA) - is expected to win the Northern Provincial Council while the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance (UPFA) of President Mahinda Rajapaksa is expected to win in the Sinhala-dominated Central and North Western provinces.

Earlier, voting at some 850 stations began on schedule at 7 am (local time) amid tight security to elect the provincial administration in the war-affected region once dominated by the Tamil Tigers until their defeat by the military in 2009.

Soldiers patrolled the streets with police, election observers said. Polling ended at 4 pm.

More than 2,000 local and foreign observers, including from India, were deployed in the Northern Province, where people voted to choose a 36-member council for a five-year term.

Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Mannar, Mullaithivu and Vavuniya districts form the provincial council's jurisdiction. For decades, these districts were the main strongholds of the LTTE.

The run-up to the election saw allegations of voters being intimidated by the army. The charge was firmly denied by the military.

There were 906 candidates for the polls in the Northern Province, which is witnessing its first election after councils were created under the 13th Amendment, a byproduct of the 1987 Indo-Lanka Accord.

In the first north and east provincial council elections in 1988, only one political party participated due to the LTTE's armed campaign to set up a separate Tamil homeland.

"My family and I want to maintain the peace here," an elderly man said after voting in Jaffna. He said he was supporting President Mahinda Rajapaksa's Tamil ally, Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP), which is a part of the ruling coalition.

"Tamils have a lot of problems which are yet to be resolved," said a trader who did not want to vote.

The TNA maintained that Tamils were keen to vote but were prevented from doing so by the military, which had intimidated them.

It also complained that fake propaganda material, which said leading TNA candidate Ananthi Saseetharan had defected to the ruling coalition, had been distributed by government supporters.

Posters appeared in several areas warning that a vote for the TNA would be a return to the period of terror when the LTTE ran its parallel administration. It was not known who put up these posters.

A TNA candidate's vehicle was attacked at Jaffna's Kodikamam sector while another attack against the TNA was reported in Chavakachcheri area, local monitors said.

The TNA seeks a self-autonomous administration in the Northern Provincial Council. However, the central government has the powers to control provincial councils through the executive powers of the President.

One of the election monitoring groups, The Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV), predicted a low turnout for the Northern Provincial Council election due to widespread disillusionment with the poll process and unacceptable long distances to polling centres.

Ironically, in the run-up to the polls, the northern election campaign was fought not in the north but from the capital Colombo and the rest of the south.

The reason was the government's blistering attack on the TNA's manifesto.

It was the Vadukkodai resolution which inspired slain LTTE chief Velupillai Prabakaran to wage his bloody separatist campaign for a separate Tamil homeland in the north.

President Rajapaksa accused the TNA of trying to drag the island back to LTTE's demand for separation.

The TNA manifesto also vowed to retain the existing system of provincial councils through their mandate.

This would strike a chord with India as New Delhi had urged Colombo to shelve its plan to dilute the provincial powers that became part of the Sri Lankan constitution due to the Indian intervention in 1987.

The TNA is expected to win in the northern region. Its main rival is the ruling UPFA.

The rebels were defeated in May 2009 but the final phase of that conflict remains dogged by war crimes allegations and the government's rights record since then has come in for criticism.
The ruling UPFA candidates have been arguing that President Rajapaksa deserves credit for ending the war and bringing development to the region.

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North Korea postpones reunions of war-torn families

SEOUL: North Korea on Saturday ordered the indefinite postponement of a scheduled series of reunions for families divided since the 1950-53 Korean War, dealing a setback to months of efforts to improve ties between the Korean neighbours.

Six days of meetings between family members still separated six decades after the war had been due to start on Wednesday in the Mount Kumgang resort, just north of the militarized border.

They had been seen as a step in furthering months of thaw in chilled relations compounded by the North's refusal to abandon its nuclear programme, described as its "treasured sword".

South Korea said the pullout by Pyongyang "broke the hearts" of Koreans grieving for relatives they were unable to see.

Jang Choon, a South Korean who had been looking forward to meeting his surviving brother and sister from across the border and had bought them lots of presents, said his feelings at the unexpected news could not be put into words.

"I cannot describe how I feel now, what else I can do?" the 82-year-old told Reuters at his home. "But I will not give up the hope of meeting my brother and sister some day."

The North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea accused the South of poisoning dialogue, in a statement carried by the KCNA news agency. It said it could never tolerate Seoul misusing such dialogue to heighten conflicts.

"The reunions of separated families and relatives between the North and the South will be postponed until there can be a normal atmosphere where dialogue and negotiations can be held," said a spokesman for the committee, which oversees ties with South Korea.

The reunions would have been the first in nearly three years.

North Korea also said it was putting off planned talks on resuming tours of Mount Kumgang, suspended after a North Korean guard shot dead a South Korean tourist in 2008. The talks had been set for October 2

South Korea's Unification Ministry said North Korea's change of heart was "very regrettable".

"North Korea should be criticised for its inhumane behaviour that broke the hearts of all families separated by the war and of all South Koreans in general," ministry spokesman Kim Eui-do told a briefing.

No travel or communications

The neighbours remain technically at war, as the 1950-53 war ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty. The conflict left millions of families divided, with travel across the border all but impossible and nearly all forms of communication barred.

The abrupt announcement upended an easing of tension in recent months.

The two sides this week reopened a jointly-run industrial complex just over the border in the North that Pyongyang authorities had shuttered during weeks of high tension in April.

Yang Moo-jin, a professor at Seoul's University of North Korean Studies, said Pyongyang authorities were trying to secure more concessions from the South, in a recurrent tactic. Concessions this time, he said, were aimed particularly at lucrative tourism to Mount Kumgang.

"This is intended to urge the South Korean government to take a clear stance on Mount Kumgang tours," said Yang. "For North Korea, the tours come first and family reunions come later. It is the opposite for South Korea."

At the height of the tension in April, North Korea issued daily threats to engulf both South Korea and its ally, the United States, in a nuclear war in response to new UN sanctions against Pyongyang.

The UN security council adopted the punitive measures after the North conducted its third nuclear test in February.

The North also denounced weeks of joint South Korean military exercises with the United States.

Tension has since waned, although a US research institute and a US official this month said satellite imagery suggested North Korea had restarted a research reactor at its Yongbyon nuclear complex.

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Body of US pilot found in Chinese lake

BEIJING: Divers have found the body of a missing US stunt pilot whose plane crashed into a lake in northeast China while attempting a tricky maneuver in the rain, the head of the team searching for him said Friday.

David Riggs, whose US pilot's license had been suspended, had been missing since Tuesday's accident outside the city of Shenyang in which his young female Chinese translator died. Riggs was in China to take part in an air show and was apparently rehearsing one of his tricks when the accident occurred.

Zhang Fang said Riggs' body was found during a search of the bottom of Lake Caihu by divers from the Dalian branch of the Beihai Rescue Bureau.

"It's likely he was killed on impact, but we don't know for sure yet,'' Fang said by telephone from the accident scene.

Riggs' high-performance single-engine Lancair 320 plane broke into pieces after hitting the lake and some parts had been recovered, including one of its two seats. The cause of the accident remains under investigation. The plane was not equipped with a "black box'' recorder because of its small size.

Zhang said Riggs crashed while attempting a stunt in which the wheels of his plane were to drag along the lake surface at high speed. He had just taken off in a light rain, but there was no indication he had violated any flying regulations, Zhang said. Other reports said Chinese officials had urged Riggs not to take off, but Zhang said he had no information about that.

Riggs was a well-known Hollywood stunt pilot, and the center of considerable controversy over a string of legal problems and penchant for self-promotion.

Riggs' website touts his credentials as a holder of several aviation speed world records, but doesn't mention the fact his US pilot's license had been suspended twice.

The first time was after buzzing the famed Santa Monica pier in Los Angeles in his Vodochody L-39 Albatros jet trainer. Riggs was sentenced to 60 days of community service and 60 days in jail for reckless flying.

He lost his license again in November for selling rides in his plane without permission. The prosecution came after a plane piloted by a business partner crashed, killing both people on board.

Riggs had a stack of other legal problems, including convictions for bank, wire and passport fraud. He aroused such contempt among some pilots that a website _ aviationcriminal.com _ was devoted to chronicling his misdoings.

His website describes him as CEO of California-based Mach One Aviation, Inc. and as a "Hollywood stunt pilot, movie producer and world aviation speed record holder.'' It said his aerial performances had featured in movies and television shows including "Iron Man,'' "Jarhead,'' and the James Bond film "Casino Royale.''

Despite his license suspension, he was hired by the organizers of the AOPA-China Fly-In 2013 air show as one of its star attractions.

China's official Xinhua News Agency said other U.S. flyers scheduled to take part in Friday's opening ceremony had pulled out of the show. Pilots and aircraft from Sweden, France and Lithuania were due to take part in the show.

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Explosion hits Sunni mosque in Iraq, killing 18

BAGHDAD: Two bombs hidden inside air conditioners exploded on Friday in a Sunni mosque packed with worshippers north of Baghdad, killing at least 18 people in the latest outburst of violence to hit the country.

Iraq is weathering its worst bout of attacks in half a decade. The violence has risen significantly since April, intensifying fears the country is slipping back toward the widespread bloodshed and sectarian fighting that marked the years following the 2003 US-led invasion.

The past several months have been the deadliest since 2008. More than 4,000 people have been killed since the start of April, according to UN figures.

Friday's attack took place in the city of Samarra, where the deputy head of the municipal council said bombs were placed inside two of the mosque's air-conditioning units. The explosions went off around midday, during Friday prayers. The official, Mizhar Fleih, said the explosion also wounded at least 21 people.

Fleih said that the Musaab Bin Omair mosque was heavily damaged in the attack.

"We are worried that the attacks on Sunni and Shiite mosques aim at reigniting the sectarian strife in this country," he added.

Samarra, 95 kilometers (60 miles) north of the Iraqi capital, is largely Sunni Muslim and is home to a revered Shiite shrine.

There has also been a spike in attacks on Sunni mosques in recent months. While it is possible that Sunni extremists could be to blame, Shiite militias that had been largely quiet for years may also be behind those assaults.

Last week, a similar attack on a Sunni mosque in northeast of Baghdad killed 33 worshippers.

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Syria submits chemical weapons data

THE HAGUE, Netherlands: Syria has sent the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons an "initial declaration" outlining its weapons program, the organization said Friday.

Spokesman Michael Luhan told Associated Press that the declaration is "being reviewed by our verification division." The organization will not release details of what is in the declaration.

The OPCW, which polices the treaty outlawing chemical weapons, is looking at ways to fast-track moves to secure and destroy Syria's arsenal of poison gas and nerve agents as well as its production facilities.

However, diplomatic efforts to speed up the process are moving slowly. A meeting initially scheduled for Sunday at which the organization's 41-nation executive council was to have discussed a US-Russian plan to swiftly rid Syria of chemical weapons was postponed on Friday and no new date was immediately set.

No reason was given for the postponement.

Under a US-Russia agreement brokered last weekend in Geneva, inspectors are to be on the ground in Syria by November. During that month, they are to complete their initial assessment and all mixing and filling equipment for chemical weapons is to be destroyed.

All components of the chemical weapons program are to be removed from the country or destroyed by mid-2014.

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Top Afghan official defects to Taliban

KABUL: A former Afghan lawmaker and district governor has defected to the Taliban in the northern province of Sar-e-Pol, officials said on Thursday.

Qazi Abdul Hai served as a senator during 2004-08 and was later made a district governor in Sar-e-Pol.

Hai is believed to have defected to the Taliban with two bodyguards.

He is thought to be the highest ranking Afghan civilian official to have joined the Taliban, the BBC reported.

The deputy governor of Sar-e-Pol province said he did not know why Hai had defected.

The move came against the backdrop of foreign combat forces preparing to withdraw from Afghanistan in 2014 and ahead of elections.

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Greek PM warns neo-Nazi party after singer murder

ATHENS: Greece's prime minister vowed to rein in the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party after the murder of an anti-fascist singer by one of its supporters sparked nationwide outrage.

"This government is determined not to allow the descendants of the Nazis to poison our social life, to commit crimes, terrorise and undermine the foundations of the country that gave birth to democracy," Antonis Samaras said in a televised address.

The murder early on Wednesday of popular hip hop artist Pavlos Fyssas, who wrote music under the nickname Killah P, led to mounting calls for a check on the organisation's activities.

As the Greek press on Thursday called for tighter control of Golden Dawn, whose provocative behaviour has escalated in recent months, rights groups faulted the authorities for allowing the group to operate with near-impunity.

"The cold-blooded murder of a citizen by a Golden Dawn supporter must awaken everyone," the liberal newspaper Kathimerini said in an editorial.

"There must be zero tolerance towards the criminal activity of this neo-Nazi organisation," it said.

"The monster of Nazism kills -- resist", centre-left daily Ethnos urged Greece's mainstream parties.

The calls came a day after police and protesters clashed as thousands demonstrated against fascism.

The 34-year-old, who was laid to rest on Thursday, was fatally stabbed in the working-class Athens district of Keratsini the previous day by a 45-year-old truck driver who later allegedly confessed his Golden Dawn affiliation to police.

The victim's family said that Fyssas and a small group of friends were ambushed by a large gang of Golden Dawn supporters outside a cafeteria.

The Hellenic league for human rights on Thursday said that the neo-Nazi group's acts of violence were escalating "with impunity, as a rule."

"The stance of Greek authorities betrays tolerance or distance owing to fear," the league said.

The killing came amid the latest wave of anti-austerity strikes in Greece, with thousands also out in the streets on Wednesday to protest against reforms the government has agreed to undertake in return for international bailout funds.

Following news of the murder, those demonstrations quickly morphed into protests against fascism, with police firing tear gas at protesters in Athens, the northern city of Thessaloniki and the western city of Patras.

Many experts have argued that current legislation would make it difficult to slap an outright ban on Golden Dawn.

Greece's police minister, Nikos Dendias, said the government would toughen legislation on organised criminal activity to rein in Golden Dawn, which has been implicated in migrant beatings and attacks on rival party members.

Just days before Fyssas's killing, members of the Communist party were assaulted by alleged Golden Dawn supporters whilst putting up posters.

Golden Dawn has repeatedly denied involvement in these incidents and its ratings have steadily risen in a country weary of austerity and political corruption.

The party currently ranks third in opinion polls, its popularity undiminished by the disruption of political events and a recent attempted assault on Athens Mayor George Kaminis by one of its lawmakers.

"There is a tolerance to violence (in Greece)," Sophia Vidali, a criminologist at the University of Thrace, told AFP.

"The political system operates selectively against violence and justice does not do its job properly," she said.

Golden Dawn's spokesman, Ilias Kasidiaris, was recently acquitted of aiding an assault on a left-wing student in 2007.

He now faces another trial for striking a Communist lawmaker during a 2012 talk show.

Golden Dawn's activity has exposed Greece to international criticism just four months before it assumes the rotating European Union presidency in January 2014.

On Wednesday, the leader of the Socialists and Social Democrats group in the European parliament, Hannes Swoboda, expressed his concern.

"If the Greek government... fails to put a stop to the hate-filled behaviour of Golden Dawn... it will be an unacceptable presidency and not likely to bring any progress, either for Europe or for Greece," he said.

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Forces storm pro-Morsi town in Egypt

KERDASA: Security forces and militants fought gun battles on Thursday during a government operation to wrest back control of a town near Cairo dominated by Islamist supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsi.

A police general was killed by gunfire and at least nine policemen and soldiers were wounded by a hand grenade in the clashes in Kerdasa, 14km (9 miles) from the capital.

Dozens of police and army vehicles entered the town at daybreak but met resistance from gunmen.

It was the second operation this week to restore control over areas where Islamist sympathies run deep and hostility to the authorities has grown since the army overthrew the Islamist Morsi on July 3.

Eleven police officers were killed in an attack on Kerdasa's main police station on August 14. The building was hit with rocket-propelled grenades and torched after police had stormed pro-Morsi protest camps in Cairo that day and killed hundreds of his supporters.

There had been little or no sign of state authority in Kerdasa since then.

"The security forces will not retreat until Kerdasa is cleansed of all terrorist and criminal nests," interior ministry spokesman Hany Abdel Latif told state media at the start of the operation.

MENA state news agency said 65 people had been arrested so far, quoting a security source. Dozens of weapons, including rocket-propelled grenades had been seized, security sources said.

At the start of the raid, security forces in body armour and armed with automatic rifles fanned out in the town. Army checkpoints were set up at its entrances and militants set fire to tyres to obstruct the operation.

Heavy gunfire was heard in a village near Kerdasa as police chased a group of men into side streets, television footage showed.

State television showed around a dozen residents dragging a man towards an army checkpoint, yelling "We caught one". After handing him over to soldiers, they chanted "the army and the people are one hand".

They said he had been caught in a car with weapons.

The television showed two men cowering in a van crying as policemen stood by, and a bearded man with his hands raised being led out of a building by police.

It also showed policemen entering buildings and courtyards with rifles raised and pointing them at windows. Helicopters hovered over the deserted streets.

Attacks increasing

Militant attacks have been on the rise since the overthrow of Morsi, Egypt's first freely-elected president.

The army-installed authorities have launched a crackdown, saying they are in a new war on terror against the Islamists. State media have labelled the Muslim Brotherhood — the group that propelled Morsi to power last year — as an enemy of the state.

In a similar operation earlier this week, the security forces moved into the town of Delga in the southern province of Minya — another area known for Islamist sympathies and a major theatre for an insurrection waged by Islamists in the 1990s.

The army is also mounting an operation in the Sinai Peninsula against al Qaida-inspired groups. Shootings and bomb attacks have also taken place in the Nile Valley — two members of the armed forces were shot dead in the Nile Delta on Tuesday.

In Cairo on Thursday, explosives experts defused two primitive bombs on the metro public transport system.

The August 14 attack on Kerdasa's police station was triggered by the security forces' assault on the pro-Morsi protest camps in Cairo that same day.

In a spasm of violence, more than 100 members of the security forces were killed as well as the hundreds of Morsi supporters, and a spate of attacks targeted the Coptic Christian community.

Mass arrests have netted at least 2,000 people, mostly Morsi supporters, since his overthrow. The former president and many Brotherhood leaders have been jailed on charges of inciting violence.

Egypt has been in a state of emergency since August 14 and large parts of the country remain under a nighttime curfew. The government on Thursday shortened the hours of the curfew to start at midnight instead of 11pm from Saturday. It will still start at 7pm on Fridays, traditionally a day of protest.

A pro-Morsi alliance, the National Coalition to Support Legitimacy, called for nationwide protests to take place on Friday under the banner "The youth are the pillar of the revolution".

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Syrian 'proof' of rebels' chemical use

MOSCOW: Syria has turned over materials to Russia which aim to show that a chemical weapons attack last month was carried out by the rebels, a top Russian diplomat visiting Damascus says.

The August 21 attack precipitated the current high tensions over Syria's chemical weapons and sparked a plan under which Syria is to abandon the weapons. A report by UN investigators confirmed that chemical weapons were used Aug. 21 but did not say by which side in Syria's civil war.

The ITAR-Tass news agency on Wednesday quoted deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying that Syria told Russian officials the material "bears witness to the rebels participating in the chemical attack" but that Russia has not yet drawn any conclusions.

Ryabkov was meeting on Wednesday with Syrian President Bashar Assad, Russian news agencies reported. There were no immediate details on the talks.

Russia has been Syria's main ally since the start of the conflict in March 2011, blocking proposed UN resolutions that would impose sanctions on Assad's regime and opposing an attempt to authorize the use of force if Syria does not abide by the agreement to get rid of its chemical weapons.

Assigning responsibility for the August 21 attack has become a heated international diplomatic issue. Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov and his French counterpart Laurent Fabius sharply differed on the topic after meeting in Moscow on Tuesday. Lavrov said Moscow has reason to believe the attack was a provocation staged by the rebels, while Fabius said the evidence clearly implicates the government side.

Russia also has repeatedly claimed that a chemical weapons attack in Syria on March 19 was committed by the rebels.

The reports did not specify the nature of the new material turned over by Syria to Russia, which Ryabkov said would be closely analyzed.

"But considering that earlier we came to the corresponding conclusion about the incident of March 19, we are inclined to treat with great seriousness the material from the Syrian side about the involvement of the rebels in the chemical attack of Aug. 21," Ryabkov said, according to ITAR-Tass.

The fighting in Syria has killed more than 100,000 people, according to activists and the U.N., and has forced 7 million to flee their homes. Five million Syrians have been displaced inside the country and more than 2 million have sought refuge in the neighboring countries of Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq, according to the UN.

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Many try to leave storm-hit Acapulco

ACAPULCO, Mexico: Thousands of exhausted, hungry and increasingly despondent tourists lined up late into the night on a muddy road outside a military base for a chance to get home on one of two precious air bridges out of this famed beach resort isolated by landslides set off by Tropical Storm Manuel.

With the twin roads to Mexico City closed down, at least 40,000 tourists saw a long holiday beach weekend degenerate into a desperate struggle to get weeping children, elderly parents and even a few damp, bedraggled dogs back home.

Two of Mexico's largest airlines were running about two flights an hour from Acapulco's still-flooded international airport on Tuesday, with priority for those with tickets, the elderly and families with young children.

Everyone else who couldn't wait for the government's promise to reopen the roads within two days flocked to Air Base 7 about 20 minutes north of Acapulco, where a military air bridge made up of barely more than a dozen aircraft ferried tourists to Mexico City. The normally quiet beachfront installation was transformed into a scene from a conflict zone.

Families in shorts and sandals waited for as long as eight hours outside the gates of the base, held at bay by rifle-toting soldiers until they were allowed to drag suitcases, pet carriers and red-eyed children across the tarmac, where they jostled furiously for a chance at one of the 150 seats on the next departing Air Force Boeing 727.

Military officials said only two of the passenger planes were in service, although a few hundred people got seats on one of the five helicopters or seven cargo planes also pressed into emergency duty.

Many told of spending the weekend trapped by torrential rains inside their hotels, emerging to discover there was no way back home.

"It's probably one of the worst holidays I've ever been on," said David Jefferson Gled, a 28-year-old from Bristol, England, who teaches English at a private school in Mexico City. "It wasn't really a holiday, more of an incarceration."

By sunset Tuesday night, 24 hours after most vacationers were supposed to be back, fewer than 700 people had been flown out to Mexico City. Many times that number waited miserably on the runway or, worse, with thousands of other sweating, blank-eyed people in a roughly quarter-mile-long line outside the base.

"It's horrible. We haven't eaten anything since nine in the morning," said Lizbeth Sasia, a 25-year-old teacher from Cuernavaca. "They keep telling us we'll be on the next flight, but the next flight never comes."

Adding insult to injury, a few immaculately dressed families skipped the line and were escorted to private jets by soldiers, to the incredulous stares of the sweltering masses.

"We're cooking here, burnt. We're tired, desperate," said Irma Antonio Martinez, a 43-year-old housewife from suburban Mexico City who came to celebrate the three-day Independence Day weekend with 12 relatives. "We just want to get home to our poor house. Our families are waiting for us."

Asked how she felt, Juana Colin Escamilla cradled her toddler daughter and was able to get out one word, "bad" before she burst into tears.

A handful of big-box stores were looted Tuesday and cash machines along Acapulco's coastal boulevard were low on bills, but most of the city's tourist zone appeared back to normal, with roads clear, restaurants and hotels open and brightly lit and tourists strolling along the bay in an attempt to recover some of the leisure time lost to three days of incessant rains.

Gavin McLoughlin, 27, another teacher at Mexico City's Greengates School, said he went to Acapulco on a late-night bus Thursday with about 30 other teachers at the school, many of whom are in their 20s.

"We had no idea of the weather," the Englishman said. "We knew there was a hurricane on the other side but not this side."

Interior Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio Chong told the Radio Formula that 27 people had died because of Tropical Storm Manuel in the Pacific coast state of Guerrero, where Acapulco is located, and 20 other people died nationwide, many as a result of Ingrid, which struck the Gulf coast on Monday. Mexican meteorologists said it was the first time since 1958 that two tropical storms or hurricanes had hit both the country's coasts within 24 hours.

Federal officials said it could take at least another two days to open the main highway between Mexico and Acapulco, which was hit by more than 13 landslides, and to bring food and relief supplies into the city of more than 800,000 people.

City officials said about 23,000 homes, mostly on Acapulco's outskirts, were without electricity and water. Stores were nearly emptied by residents who rushed to stock up on basic goods. Landslides and flooding damaged an unknown number of homes.

The coastal town of Coyuca de Benitez and beach resorts further west of Acapulco were cut off after a river washed out a bridge on the main coastal highway.

Meanwhile, remnants of Manuel were regaining force as a tropical depression Wednesday near another resort, Los Cabos at the tip of the Baja California peninsula. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said it was expected to once again become a tropical storm.

___

Michael Weissenstein on Twitter: -https://twitter.com/mweissenstein
Ch Sushil Rao, TNN

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5 killed in shootout along Pakistan-Afghanistan border

QUETTA: Pakistani and Afghan officials say security forces killed five people in southeastern Afghanistan near the two countries' border.

There were conflicting claims, however, about whether the dead men were militants or Pakistani cattle farmers who strayed across the border.

Pakistani official Taj Mohammed says the men had crossed the porous border to get fodder for their cattle when Afghan security forces killed them on Wednesday. Mohammad is a deputy commissioner in Zhob, which is located about 470 kilometres (280 miles) west of Quetta, the capital of southwestern Baluchistan province.

But police chief for Afghanistan's Paktika province, Daulat Khan Zadran, said the men were Taliban militants killed in a confrontation with Afghan security forces.

Zadran said the bodies of three of the slain men were still in Afghanistan.

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Prince Harry sleeps in freezer to prepare for polar trek

LONDON: Prince Harry has spent over 20 hours in a giant freezer to simulate the freezing conditions he will face when he treks 208 miles to the South Pole this winter.

The 29-year-old fourth in line to Britain's throne, who will race with a team of injured British servicemen and women against United States and Commonwealth groups in November, was subjected to ambient temperatures of minus 35 degree Celsius, with wind speeds of 45mph.

According to the 'Daily Telegraph', Harry joked that it was a cold night's sleep and when asked what the worst part had been, the patron of the Walking With The Wounded charity, said: "Going in."

The prince's cold chamber was at Mira in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, where cars and military vehicles are put through their paces.

Alongside his four team-mates, all of whom have amputated limbs after sustaining injuries in Afghanistan, Harry practised with the clothing he will wear on the expedition and learned how to avoid frost-nip and frostbite in the inhospitable climate in Antarctica.

After emerging from the huge testing facility, in which temperatures dropped to as low as minus 55 degree Celsius with wind-chill, the prince blew into his hands and rubbed them together to warm up as he chatted with his team-mates over tea and biscuits.

The charity race is expected to last around 15 days and the teams will trek between nine miles and 12 miles each day.

Swedish actor Alexander Skarsgard will head the US team, while English actor Dominic West will race alongside the Commonwealth team.

The prince, who took part in the Walking With The Wounded trek to the North Pole in 2011 for five days, is patron of the Antarctica expedition.

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Car bomb hits Syria-Turkey border

BAB AL-HAWA: A car bomb exploded at the main entrance to Syria's rebel-held Bab al-Hawa border crossing into Turkey on Tuesday, a monitoring group said.

"A car bomb hit the main gateway to the Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Turkey," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which could not immediately verify whether there were any casualties.

Tuesday's was the second car bomb attack on the crossing. On February 11, one exploded in the area that lies between the Turkish and Syrian control posts and killed 13 people, among them three Turks.

Elsewhere in Syria, loyalist troops seized control of parts of a town located on the strategic road linking Damascus to the international airport, said the Observatory.

Clashes pitting rebels against troops raged on in the town of Shabaa, where fighting on Monday killed at least 11 opposition fighters.

State news agency SANA said loyalists "seized control last night of the town of Shabaa, after a special operation that was speedy and surgical, and which was aimed at capturing the most dangerous terrorist groups there".

Pro-Damascus Lebanese channel Al-Manar, the mouthpiece of President Bashar al-Assad's ally Hezbollah, said loyalists found "a 500-metre (yard) tunnel parallel to the Damascus airport road, that the terrorists were using to hide and fire ... from".

Al-Manar screened footage it said was taken inside Shabaa. It also showed footage of the advancing army, whose tanks fired at buildings in the town.

The Syrian army has struggled for months to stamp out rebels positioned around Damascus.

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Say goodbye to welfare state, Dutch king says

AMSTERDAM: King Willem-Alexander delivered a message to the Dutch people from the government Tuesday in a nationally televised address: the welfare state of the 20th century is gone.

In its place will be a "participation society" in which people must save and invest to create their own social safety net with less help from the national government.

The king travelled past waving fans in an ornate horse-drawn carriage to the 13th-century Hall of Knights in The Hague for the monarch's traditional annual address on the day the government presents its budget for the coming year. It was Willem-Alexander's first appearance on the national stage since former Queen Beatrix abdicated in April and he ascended to the throne.

"The shift to a `participation society' is especially visible in social security and long-term care," the king said, reading out to lawmakers a speech written for him by Prime Minister Mark Rutte's government.

"The classic welfare state of the second half of the 20th century in these areas in particular brought forth arrangements that are unsustainable in their current form," he said.

He said that nowadays, people expect and "want to make their own choices, to arrange their own lives, and take care of each other."

Rutte may provide details later in the day on what the shift to a "participation society" will entail, but it appears part of a long-term effort to rein in the costs of government-funded entitlements. Benefits such as unemployment compensation and subsidies on health care have been regularly pruned for the past decade.

Rutte may be hoping that the pomp and ceremony surrounding the king will provide a diversion from the gloomy reality of new cuts.

Though specifics are not yet available, a review of the government's plans by the country's independent analysis agency Monday showed that the budget deficit will widen in 2014 to 3.3 percent of GDP despite new spending cuts intended to reduce it.

Eurozone rules specify that countries must keep their deficit below 3 percent, and Rutte has been among the most prominent of European leaders, along with Germany's Angela Merkel, in insisting that Southern European countries attempt to meet that target.

After several consecutive years of government spending cuts, the Dutch economy is expected to have shrunk by more than 1 per cent in 2013, and the agency is forecasting growth of less than 0.5 per cent next year.

"The necessary reforms take time and demand perseverance," the king said. But they will "lay the basis for creating jobs and restoring confidence."

A series of recent polls have shown that confidence in Rutte's government is at record low levels, and that most Dutch people — along with labor unions, employers' associations and many economists — believe the Cabinet's austerity policies are at least partially to blame as the Dutch economy has worsened even as recoveries are underway in neighboring Germany, France and Britain.

Dutch media are also expecting new defense spending cuts, following a 2011 decision to cut 12,000 jobs — one out of every six workers in the military — between 2012 and 2015. However, the government is expected to say Tuesday it has decided once and for all not to abandon the US-led "Joint Strike Fighter" program to develop new military aircraft. The program has suffered cost overruns and created divisions within Rutte's governing coalition.

The debate in parliament that follows the presentation of the budget Tuesday will be crucial for the future of the coalition, as it does not command a majority in the upper house, and it must seek help from opposition parties to have the budget approved.

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Baby number 17 on way for UK's biggest family

LONDON: Britain's biggest family is just getting a little larger as it prepares to welcome their 17th baby home.

Supermom Sue Radford, a baker's wife, is expecting again - just 11 months after giving birth - and she and her husband Noel will welcome the latest addition in April next year.

Sue, 38, and Noel, 41, from Morecambe, Lancashire, have added to their brood once every 17 months on average for 23 years, the 'Daily Express' reported.

The couple is "absolutely thrilled" that Sue is expecting again. The family became famous when they were featured in a 2011 documentary '15 Kids And Counting'.

Their total count rose to 16 in October last year when Sue gave birth to son Casper, the report said.

"We are so excited to announce Radford baby number 17 will be joining this family," Sue wrote on her Facebook page.

The Radford family puts up in a nine-bedroom home and use a minibus to travel around. Sue and Noel work in their own bakery.

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Italy cruise ship wreck freed from rocks

GIGLIO ISLAND: The Costa Concordia cruise ship wreck began emerging from its watery grave on Monday in an unprecedented salvage operation on a stunning Italian island that has raised concern of a toxic waste spill.

The 290-metre (951-foot) could be seen gradually turning upright from the sideways position it has been in ever since foundering off the Tuscan coast in January 2012 in a tragedy that claimed 32 lives.

The side of the 114,500-ton ship that had been underwater was rusty and brownish, contrasting with the white of the exposed side, although officials said the shift in the angle was only one or two degrees.

The biggest salvage of a passenger ship ever attempted was initially delayed by several hours because of storms. It began after a strict maritime exclusion zone was established around the site on the island of Giglio.

"The senior salvage master gave the order to activate the commands," the civil protection agency, which is overseeing the project, said in a statement.

Salvage coordinators say the lifting could last up to 12 hours and warn there will be some spillage of the ship's waste into the pristine Mediterranean waters.

But they have played down environmentalist fears of thousands of tons of toxic waste pouring into the sea, saying they are ready to clean up any spill.

"The concentrations will be limited. There is no contamination problem," said Giandomenico Ardizzone, a marine biology professor working on the project.

Ardizzone estimated that 29,000 tons of waste will pour out but said the quantity of toxic material will not be sufficient to cause permanent damage.

The bigger concern for the salvage workers is whether the weakened hull of the ship can withstand the enormous pressure it will be under as it is winched up.

They have however ruled out the possibility of a split.

The man giving the orders from a control room on a barge next to the Costa Concordia is Nick Sloane, a South African salvage master with years of experience on spectacular shipwrecks around the world.

Islanders whose lives have been turned upside-down by the wreck said they were relieved that the time when the ship will finally be removed was drawing closer.

Even if the ship is lifted upright, they will have months more to wait, as the towing away is not planned until spring of next year after winter storms.

The ship will then be cut up for scrap.

Special prayers were held in a local church on the eve of the operation on Sunday for the victims of the wreck and for the success of the salvage.

"The sooner it happens, the better," said the parish priest, Father Lorenzo Pasquotti, who opened his church to survivors on the night of the disaster.

The Costa Concordia was once a floating pleasure palace filled with entertainment and sporting facilities, including four swimming pools and the largest spa centre ever built on a ship.

It struck a group of rocks off Giglio after veering sharply towards the island in a bravado sail-by allegedly ordered by captain Francesco Schettino.

Dubbed "Captain Coward" and "Italy's most hated man" for apparently abandoning the ship while passengers were still being evacuated, Schettino is on trial.

Four crew members and the head of ship owner Costa Crociere's crisis unit were handed short prison sentences of up to 34 months in prison earlier this year for their roles in the crash.

The ship had 4,229 people from 70 countries on board when the crash happened and many people were sitting down for dinner on the first night of their cruise.

It keeled over in shallow waters within sight of Giglio's tiny port but the order to abandon the vessel came more than an hour later -- a fatal delay.

By that time, lifeboats on one side of the ship were virtually unusable because of the tilt and there was panic as people rushed for the remaining ones.

Hundreds were forced to either jump into the water in the darkness and swim ashore or lower themselves along the exposed hull of the ship to waiting boats.

The salvage operation has already eaten up 600 million euros ($798 million) and insurers estimate it could cost more than a billion dollars by the end.

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South Korea troops kill man trying to swim to North

South Korean troops shot dead a man trying to swim across a border river into North Korea on Monday after he ignored repeated warnings to turn back, the defence ministry said.

A ministry spokesman said he was carrying a South Korean passport that identified him as Nam Yong-Ho, 47.

According to the spokesman, Nam had approached the bank of the Imjin river that makes up part of the western border with North Korea at around 2:30pm (0530 GMT).

He was spotted by soldiers manning a nearby guard post, who fired warning shots and shouted at him to turn back.

"He jumped into the Imjin river, ignoring repeated warnings to stop," the spokesman said. "The soldiers opened fire and his body has been retrieved."

The spokesman said Nam was believed to have been trying to defect to the North, and had jumped into the river with a flotation device to help him get across.

His passport indicated that he had been deported from Japan in June. Defections from South to North Korea are very rare, and there has been no incident in recent memory where South Korean troops have shot anyone attempting the crossing.

There was no immediate reaction from Pyongyang. The incident came at a time of easing tensions between North and South Korea, who were on a virtual war footing just a few months ago following the North's nuclear test in February.

Hours before the shooting, hundreds of South Korean factory supervisors drove across a nearby border crossing into North Korea after both sides agreed to reopen a joint industrial zone shut down in April.

Because the 1950-53 Korean War concluded with an armistice rather than a peace treaty, North and South Korea technically remain at war.

Four kilometres wide and 248 kilometres long, the Demilitarised Zone dividing the two neighbours is a depopulated no-man's land of heavily-fortified fences bristling with landmines and listening posts.

While the number of confirmed defections from South to North has been tiny, more than 23,500 North Koreans have escaped the other way since the end of the war.

But virtually all avoid any attempt to cross the land border, with most escaping to China and then to a third country where they request resettlement in the South.

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