LAHORE: Lahore High Court on Tuesday rejected the appeal of Mumbai attacks’ accused Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi.

Lakhvi appealed the court to release him because there were insufficient proofs against him therefore he should be released against the decision of the anti-terrorists court.

The court rejected his appeal and retained the verdict of the anti-terrorist court.

The court said that the statement of Ajmal Kasab’s statement could not be refereed as proofs in Pakistan.

Lahore, Pakistan:- Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani on Tuesday extended service of Director General Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), Lieutenant General Shuja Pasha, for one year. Summary in this regard was sent to the Prime Minister 15 days ago which was accepted.

Pasha was scheduled to retire from service on March 18, 2010.

Manila: Ferry Sinks in Philippines; 3 Dead, 22 Missing, At least three people drowned to death while 22 went missing after a ferry sank in south of the Philippines’ capital.
According to the Coast Guard, some 63 people have been rescued so far, while the search operation continues with the backing of three vessels. The ferry was carrying 88 people and nine cargo trucks when it set off from Calapan on the central island of Mindoro for a two-hour trip to the Batangas port on the main Luzon Island late on Saturday. About 30 minutes later, it began tilting after taking in water from its bow, coast guard Lieutenant Commander Armand Balilo said, adding the ferry sank minutes later. The sea mishap occurred just two days after yet another ferry with 73 people on board collided with a fishing boat off Limbones Island in Cavite province. Three people were killed in the incident and twenty-four others remain missing.

India: Indian Generals Guilty of Rs 290-crore Scam, In one of the biggest corruption scandals to hit the Indian Army; now it’s clear that three top generals were involved.
The case involves 70 acres of land, owned by the Army, in Siliguri in North Bengal. An army inquiry has found that the three generals colluded to lease this land to a group of businessmen for a project worth 290 crore. The same project had been rejected by their predecessors on security grounds, pointing out that any building on this land would overlook helipads and other sensitive army installations.
The biggest offender is Lieutenant General Avadesh Prakash, the Military Secretary, one of the eight Principal Staff Officers at Army Headquarters. The court of inquiry says he took undue interest in the Siliguri project, possibly because of old links with businessman Dilip Agarwal. Prakash then pressured the then-Commander of the 33 Corps, Lieutenant General PK Rath to clear the 70-acre. And then there’s Lieutenant General Ramesh Halgali. At the time of the scam, he was a Major General, and deputy to Rath. He’s been found guilty on administrative grounds – not giving his boss the correct advice.
None of them faces any punishment yet as this was only a court of inquiry. The Army Headquarters and Ministry of Defence will have to take a final call whether one or more of them could face a court martial once the report reaches Delhi from the Eastern Command.

Major reshuffle in Pakistan Army, RAWALPINDI Pakistan: Administrative transfers and postings were made by the Pakistan Army on Saturday.

According to Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR), Lieutenant General Nadeem Khalid Lodhi was posted as Corp Commander Bahawalpur.

Lt Gen Muhammad Yousuf was made President National Defence University and Lt Gen Muhammad Aalam Khattak was posted Chief Logistic Staff in GHQ.

Furthermore, Let Gen Sardar Mehmood Ali was posted as DG Joint Staff in Joint Staff Headquarter.

KARACHI, PAKISTAN: According to the sworn undertaking of ISI’s former chief Lieutenant General (rtd) Asad Durrani, which he took before Supreme Court (SC) on July 24, 1994, that he was instructed in September 1990 by the then Chief of Army Staff (COAS), the former General Mirza Aslam Baig for provision of Logistic Support to embezzle money donated for election preparations from some Karachi traders and use the same donation money for Islami Jamhuri Ittehad (IJI) party.

Asad Durrani was told that the instructions to misappropriate donation money were backed by the then government of Pakistan, according to his affidavit statement before SC.

Subsequently, in pursuit of the instructions he received, he was forced to open some fake bank accounts in Karachi, Quetta and Rawalpindi while one donator from Karachi, by the name Younis Habib, deposited as much as 140 million rupees and the money from all accounts were transferred to other places according to the need for extension of logistic support to IJI party while the remaining money was transferred to a special fund, his sworn statement added.

His statement further added, Rs10 million were given to Mir Afzal in NWFP province, Rs3.5 million to Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif in Punjab, Rs5.6 million to Lieutenant General (rtd) Rafaqat for advertisement on media, Rs5 million to Jamat-e-Islami, Rs1 million to Begum Abida Hussain, Rs0.5 million to Altaf Hussain Qureshi and Mustafa Sadiq, Rs3.3 million to small groups, Rs5 million to Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi in Sindh, Rs5 million to Jam Sadiq, Rs2.5 million to Muhammad Khan Junejo, Rs2 million to Pir Pagara, Rs0.3 million to Molana Salahuddin, Rs5.4 million to small parties, Rs1.5 million to Humayun Muree, the son-in-law of Bugti, Rs4 million to Jamali, Rs1 million to Kakar, Rs0.7 million to Jam Yousuf, Rs0.5 million Bazinjo and Rs1 million were given to Nadir Mengal.

It is pertinent to mention that the value in rupees of 12 grams of gold was Rs33 at the time when money was misappropriated while it stands at Rs29,000 today.

BAGHDAD: A powerful car bomb killed at least 30 people in Iraq’s main northern city of  Mosul on Friday in a wave of attacks targeting Shiites that also left four dead in the capital Baghdad.

Police said a further 72 people were wounded in the Mosul suicide bombing, the latest in a spate of deadly attacks against Shiites which have stoked fears of a return to the sectarian conflict which swept the country in 2006 and 2007.

The bomb targeted a Shiite mosque used by members of the Turkmen minority in the mainly Sunni Muslim city 370 kilometres (230 miles) north of Baghdad, a police official told a foreign news agency.

There was carnage when the explosives were detonated as worshippers left the building after the main weekly prayers.

The force of the blast levelled the mosque and several adjacent buildings, and police said they were sifting through the rubble searching for casualties.

“When we arrived, there was blood everywhere and pieces of flesh all over the ground and walls,” police Lieutenant Khaled Rajab said. “The mosque and several houses were flattened and we began searching through the rubble.”

Friday’s bombing came as a string of attacks in the capital targeted Shiites returning from the central shrine city of Karbala after a key religious ceremony, an interior ministry official said.

A roadside bomb at the entrance to the sprawling Baghdad Shiite district of Sadr City ripped through a bus, killing three pilgrims and wounding eight, the official said.

“The inside of the bus was covered in blood,” trader Abu Mohammed said.

Local resident Abbas Jumaa, 27, said: “I saw women and old men… They are only pilgrims and they don’t carry guns. So why would anyone attack them?”

A second bombing at the edge of Sadr City an hour later wounded another five people travelling in a minibus from Karbala.

One person was killed and five wounded in a separate roadside bombing on a minibus carrying pilgrims in the Zayune neighbourhood of central Baghdad, the official said.

Roads to and from Karbala have been crowded with pilgrims in vehicles or on foot this week as Shiites commemorate the birth of the Twelfth Imam, a disappeared ninth century Muslim leader revered as a coming messiah.

Despite the marked reduction in violence in recent months, attacks against security forces and civilians remain common in Baghdad, Mosul and the ethnically divided northern oil city of Kirkuk.

The number of violent deaths fell by a third from the June figure of 437 to 275 in July, the first month Iraqi forces have been in charge of security in urban areas since the US-led invasion of 2003.

The figure in May was 155, the lowest of any month since the invasion.

A string of six powerful bombs targeting Shiite worshippers in Baghdad last week killed 28 people and wounded 63.