At least 25 people have been killed and dozens injured in four suspected suicide bombings in the Afghan city of Kandahar, police say.

The first blast was heard at about 1530 GMT and was followed by three other attacks across the city.

LAHORE: Another blast near crowded Moon Market of Lahore.

The blast took place near Shah Noor Studio located in Iqbal Town at Multan Road.

Lahore, Pakistan :-  Five explosions have been reported in Iqbal town Lahore, Pakistan. The first blast occurred in a open plot near Moon Market where the explosive was dug in the ground. Rescue teams and police have cordoned the area.

The second and third explosion took place in Kashmir Block, one of which was outside Group Captain Inam-ul-Haq’s home. A car exploded in front of his house. The forth explosion was reported at Zeenat Block. While the fifth one was reported at Karim Block. Panic and fear among the masses.

No causality has been reported. Cracker bombs have been used in the blasts. It was the seventh terror attack of the day in the city as a pair of suicide bombers targeting army vehicles detonated explosives within seconds of each other earlier today, killing at least 40 people in A R Bazar and wounding nearly 130.

MEXICO CITY: An American citizen, two policemen, four young men and a local government official were among those killed in attacks scattered across Mexico, as a wave of violence associated with powerful drug cartels continues.

Police identified U.S. citizen German Norman Hall on Thursday as one of two men murdered by gunmen with assault rifles in the border town of Piedras Negras across from Eagle Pass, Texas. Police said Hall was shot eight times in the Wednesday attack.

Four men sitting down to eat in the Mexican state of Sinaloa died when attackers burst into the restaurant with assault rifles and sprayed them with gunfire.

One victim tried to fire back with a handgun before he was killed in the Wednesday afternoon attack, said Martin Gastelum, prosecutor for drug-plague state on Mexico’s West Coast.

The killings don’t represent a new wave of terror _ about 17,900 people have been killed since President Felipe Calderon launched an offensive against drug trafficking in December 2006.

But they reflect the ongoing wars for local turf and drug routes to U.S. markets among entrenched gangs.

Much of the attention in recent weeks has been centered around the border town of Reynosa _ across from McAllen, Texas _ where federal authorities warned residents to avoid certain neighborhoods after three people were killed in two separate shootings Wednesday.

In Chilpancingo, capital of Mexico’s southern Guerrero state, two commanding police officers were killed Wednesday when gunmen opened fire on the car they were riding in, peppering it with more than 70 bullets, according to police reports. Their murders follow the killings of six other police officers in the region since last weekend.

Soldiers killed a government employee and arrested three other men, including a former politician, during a Wednesday shootout in northeastern Nuevo Leon state.

Mexican military officials say the men were traveling in the town of Apodaca in a pickup that had been reported stolen and were armed with pistols. The shootout erupted after soldiers tried to stop them. Instead of pulling over, the pickup truck driver opened fire and tried to flee.

Empty shell casings were found scattered around the vehicle following the pre-dawn attack. Apodaca Mayor Benito Caballero confirmed the dead man, aged 20, was an events organizer for the city.

“It’s regrettable that an a local official was involved in this type of activity,” Caballero said.

Chile Earthquake March 11, VALPARAISO: The largest aftershock since Chile’s devastating earthquake rocked the South American country Thursday minutes before the inauguration of President Sebastian Pinera.

The 7.2-magnitude aftershock was stronger than the Jan. 12 quake that devastated the Haitian capital. It happened along the same fault zone as Chile’s magnitude-8.8 quake on Feb. 27, said geophysicist Don Blakeman at the U.S. Geological Survey in Golden, Colorado.

“When we get quakes in the 8 range, we would expect to see maybe a couple of aftershocks in the 7 range,” he said.

Blakeman said Chile now can expect to feel “aftershocks of the aftershock.”

“It’s not a sign of anything different happening. But what does occur when you get these large aftershocks, typically we have a whole series of aftershocks again,” Blakeman said.

The temblor rocked buildings and shook windows in the capital, and provoked nervous smiles among dignitaries arriving for the ceremony at the congressional building in coastal Valparaiso. Bolivian President Evo Morales seemed briefly disoriented and Peru’s Alan Garcia joked that it gave them “a moment to dance.”

Buildings emptied and streets crowded with people seeking higher ground in coastal Constitucion, a city wiped out by the tsunami that followed the quake. Pinera planned to visit the city shortly after his swearing-in.

Story: Muncipalty Ghatkopar, a street kid in Mumbai, finds a two-month baby abandoned on the steps of a children’s home. He begins a hunt for the infant’s mother because he does not want him to grow up motherless like him. His friends, other street kids, help him in this towering mission.

Movie Review: It is important to point out one fact that might help you view Thanks Maa with a totally different perspective. Irfan Kamal’s film on slummy street kids was first screened at the International Film Festival at Goa in 2008. Which means, it was made before Slumdog Millionaire, the film that swept the world with its take on Indian kids who survive and succeed despite the mean streets of Mumbai.

But no, it did not have the backing of Hollywood, the roar of the Oscars, the international marketing blitzkrieg…hence it’s relative obscurity and its delay in the release which unfortunately, for no fault of its own, might just give it a has-been feel. But don’t let the strange marketing logic of unconventional Indian cinema beguile you, because Thanks Maa is a film that will make you cry and laugh, even as it fills you with admiration and warmth for the next decrepit kid you see on the red light, running nose et al.

What strikes you at the onset is the authenticity of the film. Having used a sterling cast of kids literally drawn from the underbelly of Mumbai, the film anchors their story too in the grime and dust of the megapolis that seems to be brimming over with jagged and broken souls. So, you have our heroes — the bunch of street kids — living off the local train stations, picking pockets, polishing shoes and sharing their booty on an abandoned terrace before retiring for the night at home: a dilapidated car in a junk yard.

It’s here that young Muncipalty (Shams) brings his foundling and tries to hide him from the tough cops with the help of his buddies, Dedh Shana, Cutting, Sursuri and Soda. His objective is to re-unite the baby with the mother who abandoned him. Indeed, a journey that takes him through the dregs of the city and has him meeting pimps, hookers, incestuous dads, adulterous husbands (Ranvir Shorey), drug addicts doubling over as cabbies (Sanjay Mishra), models who abandon illegitimate kids (Rukhsar), distraught mothers, paedophile caretakers (Alok Nath) of juvenile homes or what you will….All this without losing their basic goodness and innocence. For despite drawing out the devilish map of uncaring Mumbai, the director manages to retain the humaneness of the story by showcasing his protagonists as little heroes, standing up for the good and the right.

Watch out for the kids. They leave you spellbound with their guttural, gutsy act. Surprisingly, and thankfully, the Censor Board has displayed a sense of maturity too by letting them speak in hardcore street lingo (read abusive). The film, ostensibly inspired by Tsotsi, Gavin Hood’s film that won the Oscar, does get a bit long-winded in the second half and the climax might seem schmaltzy, but these are forgivable in view of the sledgehammer impact of the film. It fills you with a yearning to do something, anything….

The participants of Tour-de Pakistan cycle race have reached Rahim Yar Khan. Sabir Ali of Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) won the seventh stage from Bahawalpur to Rahim Yar Khan. Sabir covered the 200-km distance in 5 hours, 39 minutes and 26 seconds. Imtiaz Hassan from Afghanistan was second while Zahid Gulfam of Pakistan WAPDA stood third.
The race comprise of eleven stages, tomorrow is rest day while on March 10 the participants would leave for Sukkur.

GENEVA: UN Expert Criticizes FIFA over World Cup Housing, A U.N. human rights investigator has criticized FIFA for failing to ensure that cities staging the World Cup explicitly commit to protecting housing rights.

Raquel Rolnik says football’s world governing body hasn’t responded to repeated demands to make housing rights a key part of the bidding process for hosting the event.

Rolnik told reporters in Geneva on Monday that she has received reports over 20,000 residents from a makeshift settlement near Cape Town were moved to impoverished areas at the edge of the city.

FIFA didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

BERLIN: Egypt’s long-standing President Hosni Mubarak said Thursday former UN atomic watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei could run in the 2011 presidential election as long as he respected the constitution.

ElBaradei, emerging as Egypt’s most high-profile dissident, has called for an amendment of the constitution which includes rules that would make it difficult for him to challenge Mubarak at the ballot box.

“If he wants to join a party, he could choose whichever one he wants,” Mubarak told reporters during a visit to Germany, according to a translation of his comments in Arabic.

“If he wants to be a candidate for that party (at the presidential elections), he could do that. If he wants to stand as an independent candidate, he could do that,” he said.

“The only thing is that he must respect the constitution,” he said, adding the country “does not need a new hero”.

Under Egyptian law, a presidential candidate is required to have been a leading member of a party for at least one year and for the party to have existed for at least five years.

As an independent, ElBaradei would need the backing of at least 250 elected officials from parliament’s upper and lower houses and from municipal councils — all bodies dominated by Mubarak’s National Democratic Party.

ElBaradei last month he flew to Cairo to a rapturous welcome from supporters and formed the National Association for Change, before leaving Egypt again. He is due to return.

He has said he would run for president on condition that the constitution is amended.

The 67-year-old former chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency has also called for democratic reforms of the Egyptian regime which Mubarak, 81, has headed for nearly three decades.

Mubarak met journalists after talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

He is due to have medical tests in the city of Heidelberg Friday after suffering gall bladder pain, Egypt public television announced Thursday in a rare statement on the leader’s health, which is almost taboo.

Kolkata, The Kolkata Municipal Corporation has decided to felicitate batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar for his contribution to cricket.

Announcing this here today, city Mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya said Tendulkar would be felicitated by the KMC at the Town Hall but the date was not finalised yet.

The date would be fixed according to his availability in the city, he said.

The KMC would also felicitate theatre personality Shobha Sen, folk singer Amar Paul and actress Sabitri Chattopadhyay for their contribution to their respective fields on March 6, Bhattacharya said. (PTI)