Blast kills 25 in Landi Kotal

Taliban deny involvement

Peshawar—Continuing their dirty game in Peshawar and surrounding areas, the terrorists in yet another deadliest blast in Khyber Agency, killed over two dozen innocent people and seriously wounded more than sixty others Saturday morning. A few minors were among the killed. The doctors at Peshawar’s major hospitals that received around 65 injured, apprehended the death toll would go much higher as the condition of a large number of wounded was critical. Fire broke out after the huge explosion. Around six shops and eight vehicles were also gutted. Reports from Khyber agency said the unknown miscreants had planted an explosive device, believed to be radio controlled, in a passenger vehicle parked at Zakha Khel bus stand in Tehsil Landikotal, which went off with a big bang before noon that played hell in the area. Initial reports said more than a dozen shops and vehicles parked nearby were destroyed or damaged.

NA Secretariat submits reply in SC

Islamabad—The National Assembly Secretariat has filed reply in Supreme Court regarding the ruling of the speaker National Assembly on Saturday. According to sources, joint secretary legal National Assembly Altaf Qureshi submitted the reply in apex court stating that the ruling of speaker is according to the law and constitution because court has not declared Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani ineligible in its verdict given in the contempt of court case, adding that the PM has already completed his sentence.

Govt to foil conspiracies against democracy: PM

Mardan—Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani Saturday said conspiracies are being hatched against the democracy in the country and warned that the present government will foil all such conspiracies and protect the democratic system. “There are conspiracies against the democracy and to damage the democratic system but the Pakistan People’s Party will protect the democracy at all cost and will not allow anti-democratic forces to derail the democracy,” said the Prime Minister while addressing a public meeting here. A large number of people attended the public meeting despite bad weather disturbed arrangements of the public meeting due to strong winds and listened to the speech of the Prime Minister with dedication, devotion and enthusiasm. The Prime Minister said the PPP government had been facing conspiracies since 2008 when it took over the rule but faced these challenges and conspiracies with the support of the masses. He said despite all the efforts of the anti-democratic elements, the PPP faced these conspiracies and succeeded to present its fifth consecutive budget this year.

1 killed in Holy Qur’an protest near Quetta

Quetta—A mob attacked a police station here on Saturday demanding a man detained for allegedly desecrating the Quran be handed over, leaving one person dead and 19 with gunshot wounds. Violence erupted after police arrested a “mentally retarded” man said to have burnt pages of the holy book in Kuchlak, about 16 kilometres north of Quetta. “Angry protesters, mostly Afghan refugees, torched several vehicles and pelted police with stones,” Dashti said.

China sends first woman, 2 men into space

Jiuquan (China)—China launched its most ambitious space mission yet on Saturday, carrying its first female astronaut and two male colleagues in an attempt to dock with an orbiting module and work on board for more than a week. The Shenzhou 9 capsule lifted off as scheduled at 6:37 p.m. (1037 GMT) from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre on the edge of the Gobi Desert. All systems functioned normally and, just over 10 minutes later, it opened its solar panels and entered orbit. The launch was declared a success by space program chief Chang Wanquan, a People’s Libera-tion Army general who sits on the ruling Commu-nist Party’s powerful central military commission — underscoring the program’s close military ties. Female astronaut Liu Yang, 33, and two male crew members — mission commander and veteran astro-naut Jing Haipeng, 45, and newcomer Liu Wang, 43 — are to dock the spacecraft with a prototype space lab launched last year in a key step toward building a permanent space station. All three are experienced pilots and officers in the Chinese air force. Two of the astronauts will live and work inside the module to test its life-support systems while the third will remain in the capsule to deal with any unexpected emergencies. China is hoping to join the United States and Russia as the only countries to send independently maintained space stations into orbit. It is already one of just three nations to have launched manned spacecraft on their own.

Zahid Malik deeply grieved

Islamabad—Editor-in-Chief, Pakistan Observer, Zahid Malik, editorial staff and management of the newspaper have expressed heartfelt grief and sorrow over the sad demise of Crown Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia. Condoling the death of the Saudi Arabian Crown Prince, Zahid Malik said Crown Prince Nayef played pivotal role in promoting brotherly relations between his country and Pakistan. He was a true and sincere friend of Pakistan.

Dunya TV lodges FIR of TV footage theft

Islamabad—Dunya TV, Saturday, lodged the First Information Report (FIR) with Kohsar Police against the unidentified thief/thieves who stole the unedited TV footage of a controversial talk show ‘Dunya Special with Malik Riaz’ from the Dunya TV office in F-6/3. The leakage has caused irreparable damage to the TV channel’s credibility and one of its two anchors, his job. Zulfiqar Masih, the administration officer of the TV channel stated in his application the TV footage was stolen on June 13 from the TV channel’s office a day after the programme was aired, some unidentified thief/thieves stole away the footage and later uploaded it on social media network Facebook, Youtube etc.