Burqa-clad suicide bomber kills 41 in Pakistan

KHAR - A female suicide bomber detonated her explosives-laden vest killing at least 41 people at an aid distribution center in northwestern Pakistan on Saturday while army helicopter gunships and artillery killed a similar number of Islamic militants in neighboring tribal regions near the Afghan border, officials said.

The bombing appeared to be the first suicide attack staged by a woman in Pakistan, and it underscored the resilience of militant groups in the country's tribal belt despite ongoing military operations against them.

The bomber struck in the main city in Bajur, a region near the Afghan border where the military has twice declared victory over Taliban and al-Qaida insurgents. It also came a day after some 150 militants killed 11 soldiers in a coordinated assault in the adjoining tribal region of Mohmand where the army also has carried out operations.

Top government official in Mohmand, Amjad Ali Khan, said helicopter gunships backed by artillery pounded militants hideouts on Saturday, killing 40 militants.

In Bajur, the bomber, dressed in a traditional women's burqa, first lobbed two hand grenades into the crowd waiting at a checkpoint outside the food aid distribution center in the town of Khar, local police official Fazal-e-Rabbi Khan said. The attacker then detonated her explosives vest, he said.

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack through its spokesman, Azam Tariq. He did not give a reason for the attack.

Khan said the victims were from various parts of the Bajur tribal region who gather daily at the center to collect food tokens distributed by the World Food Program and other agencies to conflicted-affected people in the region. The people were displaced by an army offensive against Taliban militants in the region in early 2009.

Islamist militants battling the state have attacked buildings handing out humanitarian aid in Pakistan before, presumably because they are symbols of the government and Western influence.

Local government official Tariq Khan said the blast also wounded 60 people, some of them critically, of about 300 who were at the scene.

Officials said most of the people attacked belonged to the Salarzai tribe, which was among the first set up a militia to fight the Taliban in 2008. Other tribes later formed similar militias to resist the militants.

Tariq Khan and another local official, Sohail Khan, said an examination of the human remains has confirmed the bomber was a woman.

Hasan Askari Rizvi, a Lahore-based security and political analyst, said the suicide bombing appeared to be the first carried out by a woman in Pakistan.

"It is no surprise. They can use a woman, a child or whatever," Rizvi said. "Human life is not important to them, only the objective they are pursuing" of undermining state power, he added.

Male suicide bombers often don the burqa — an Islamic head-to-toe dress that also covers the woman's face — as a disguise. In 2007, officials initially claimed Pakistan's first female suicide bomber had killed 14 people in the northwest town of Bannu but the attacker was later identified as a man.

Akbar Jan, 45, who sustained leg wounds in the bombing, said from his hospital bed that people were lining up for the ration coupons when something exploded with a big bang.

"We thought someone had fired a rocket," he told The Associated Press. He said within seconds he saw the ground strewn with the wounded.

"I realized a little later that I myself have suffered wounds," he said. "Everybody was crying. It was blood and human flesh everywhere."

Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani condemned the bombing and said Pakistanis are "united against them."

Bajur is on the northern tip of Pakistan's semiautonomous tribal belt, bordering Afghanistan and the so-called "settled" areas in Pakistan. It has served as a key transit point and hideout for al-Qaida and the Taliban.

Bajur and other parts of the tribal regions are of major concern to the U.S. because they have been safe havens for militants fighting NATO and American troops across the border in Afghanistan. The U.S. has long pressured Pakistan to clear the tribal belt of the insurgents.

The military first declared victory in Bajur following a six-month operation launched in late 2008. But the army was forced to launch a follow-up operation in late January this year and declared victory again about a month later. Still, violence has persisted in the region.

The army also has taken steps to clear Mohmand, a tribal region next to Bajur that also has witnessed militant activity. On Friday, however, around 150 insurgents attacked five security checkpoints in that region, killing at least 11 soldiers and wounding a dozen more in a show of their ongoing strength.

World economy can withstand $100 oil price -Kuwait

CAIRO - The global economy can withstand an oil price of $100 a barrel, Kuwait's oil minister said on Saturday, as other exporters indicated OPEC may decide against increasing output through 2011 as the market was well supplied.

Analysts have said oil producing countries are likely to raise output after crude rallied more than 30 percent from a low in May because they fear prices could damage economic growth in fuel importing countries.

European benchmark ICE Brent crude for February closed at $93.46 on Friday after hitting $94.74 a barrel, its highest level since Oct. 2008.

Arab oil exporters meeting in Cairo this weekend said they saw no need to supply more crude as stocks were high and prices had been inflated temporarily by cold weather in Europe.

Asked by Reuters if the world economy could stand a $100 oil price, Kuwaiti Oil Minister Sheikh Ahmad al-Abdullah al-Sabah said: "Yes it can".

Iraq's new oil minister and the head of Libya's National Oil Corporation both told Reuters that $100 was a fair price, while Qatar's Minister Abdullah al-Attiyah said he did not expect OPEC to increase production in 2011.

"I do not expect an OPEC meeting before June because oil prices are stable," he said.

Some delegates even called for exporters to comply better with agreed production limits. OPEC members' compliance with promised cutbacks reached 56 percent in November, according to Reuters estimates.

When asked if output could be raised, Kuwait's Sheikh Ahmad said: "No. More compliance, more compliance".

MARKET "WELL SUPPLIED"

Housewife saves husband from wolf - paper

DUBAI - A housewife has saved her husband from the clutches of a wolf in rural Saudi Arabia, local daily Arab News reported on Saturday.

The woman went out to look for her husband after he did not return from tending their goats to find him being attacked by the wolf, according to the newspaper.

The woman ran back to their house and returned with a kitchen knife and stabbed the animal to death, Arab News reported.

The husband, in his 70s, had been fending off the wolf for more than an hour before his wife turned up, according to the newspaper. The report did not give wife's age.

The family have hung the wolf’s body from a tree in front of the house to scare off other wolves, a custom in rural areas, Arab News reported.

Leaks, "Wikileaks" appears critical after U.S. execution of Saddam Hussein

Show document published site "Wikileaks" Critical U.S. resulting from the circumstances surrounding the execution of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, and especially the words of one of the guards: "Go to hell", while the officials took photographsMobile phones.

These actions prompted the then U.S. Ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, to say that supporters of Saddam buttons to push in order to confirm that the trial were not fair.

According to the document dated in January 2007, the Deputy Attorney General savior of Pharaoh, described the behavior of the guard during a meeting with Khalilzad as disgraceful.

The author commented that the document did not reveal his identity on the death penalty, saying, "The Iraqi government lacked a clear plan and coordinated control of witnesses, and carried out the executions hastily amid the chaos."

And raised the execution of Saddam in December 2006, a sensation in international circles after being circulated on websites, in view of the contents before they die.

And Pharaoh said to Khalilzad, said he saw officials took photographs with their mobile phones by their attendance at the execution, even though it was forbidden, according to the document.

He added that when Saddam was performed the last prayer before his execution, witnesses echoed by a loud "Moqtada Moqtada, Moqtada," referring to the Shiite leader.

The footage showed that broadcast networks, the Internet and mobile phones after selling in the streets of Baghdad just days after the execution of Saddam, angry, standing on a platform in a dark room, while his hands were tied and wrapped the noose around his neck.

And clearly heard chanting the name of Moqtada al-before you open the platform on which he stood by Saddam to fall Mpharka life.

The document noted that the list of witnesses the execution has changed "several times and included in one of the times between twenty to thirty people."

The document cited Khalilzad said to Pharaoh, that "Saddam's supporters will take advantage of a pretext to condemn the death penalty trial is fair and equitable."

In response to a question by Khalilzad, the changes in the execution of other operations, "said Pharaoh The only witnesses who will be allowed to attend the law, they are the prosecutor and judge and a man of religion and director of the prison," according to the document.

"The seal of Pharaoh, stressing that this will prevent unacceptable behavior and the controversy is unnecessary."

Source: YAHOO