Karzai vows to confront Pakistan over Kabul attack

KABUL: Afghan President Hamid Karzai blamed Pakistani extremists on Wednesday for an unprecedented attack on Shia Muslims in Kabul that killed 55 people, demanding justice from the government in Islamabad. By pointing the finger at the Lashkar-i-Jhangvi militant group, Karzai threatens to ratchet up tensions with neighbouring Pakistan just days after Islamabad boycotted the Bonn conference on the future of Afghanistan. Afghan officials fear that Tuesday’s killings in Kabul and the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif could unleash Iraq and Pakistan-style sectarian violence ahead of the scheduled departure of Nato combat troops in 2014. On Wednesday, another 19 people died in a roadside bombing in the southern province of Helmand,...

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Japan quake caused double-wave tsunami

TOKYO: THE massive earthquake off the coast of Japan in March caused a rare "merging tsunami" in which two waves combined to amplify the destruction after landfall, according to NASA. For the first time ever, US and European radar satellites captured images of the two wave fronts, confirming the existence of the long-hypothesised process, which forms a "single, double-high wave far out at sea." "This wave was capable of travelling long distances without losing power. Ocean ridges and undersea mountain chains pushed the waves together along certain directions from the tsunami's origin," NASA said in a statement on its website. "The discovery helps explain how tsunamis can cross ocean basins to cause massive destruction at some locations...

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Bomb kills 12 in south Afghanistan

LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan: A suicide attacker killed 12 Afghan policemen and a child in the southern city of Lashkar Gah Sunday when he detonated a car bomb, the country’s Ministry of Interior said. The attack in the heart of a city which was recently handed over to Afghan security forces was a reminder of the Taliban’s reach, even at a time of stepped up pressure from U.S. and Afghan troops. The explosion happened near the police chief’s compound in the provincial capital and appeared to target a joint Afghan police and army patrol. The Ministry of Interior condemned the attack and in a statement described it as “un-Islamic and inhumane.” It said the toll was 12 dead policemen and a child. Twelve people were wounded...

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Afghan victims buried as fingers point to Pakistan

KABUL: Afghans were Wednesday burying 59 people killed in unprecedented bombings against Shia Muslims as officials blamed Pakistani militants, accusing them of trying to whip up Iraq-style sectarian violence. Investigators are poring over who was behind the coordinated attacks in the Afghan capital Kabul and northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif that the Taliban, the main faction leading a 10-year insurgency, have denied carrying out. An Afghan official claimed Wednesday that the bomber who attacked a shrine in Kabul was a Pakistani, affiliated to the Lashkar-i-Jhangvi group, which has been blamed for killing thousands of Pakistani Shias. The faction, which is alleged to have links with Al-Qaeda, — the terror group blamed for igniting sectarian...

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Nato allies meet amid tensions with Russia, Pakistan

BRUSSELS: Nato allies meet Wednesday hoping to calm Russian fears over their missile shield project but US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton angered Moscow by criticising its parliamentary elections. Clinton is joining her 27 alliance counterparts in Brussels for two days of talks that will also touch on the Afghan war amid tensions with Pakistan after a Nato air strike on the Afghan border last month killed 24 Pakistani troops. They will then meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday to tell him the missile shield will go ahead but that Nato still wants to negotiate a cooperation deal with Moscow, alliance diplomats said. A diplomat said Nato wants to “calm things down” after Russia activated a radar warning system...

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