A burqa-wearing suicide bomber struck at a police checkpost in northwestern Pakistan yesterday, killing at least 16 people including four policemen, officials said.
The blast happened on the outskirts of Bannu, a key garrison town near Pakistan's troubled tribal areas bordering Afghanistan where the army is battling al-Qaeda and Taliban militants.
It was the latest in a string of deadly attacks in Pakistan since government troops stormed the al-Qaeda-linked Red Mosque in Islamabad in July, and comes days before Pakistani President-General Pervez Musharraf seeks re-election.
"A man disguised in a burqa got out of an autorickshaw when police stopped the vehicle for a search at a checkpoint. He then blew himself up," police officer Asar Islam told AFP.
Some news agencies reported that the suicide bomber was a woman.
The government is monitoring online rumors that a pneumonic plague outbreak has spread from Russia into China, and it might enhance quarantine measures, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. During a legislative meeting, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) said that rumors had circulated that the disease had spread across several Chinese provinces. He asked Cho whether the government was prepared to prevent the disease spreading to Taiwan, given the volume of traffic between the two sides, and how concerned the government was about the alleged outbreak. The Ministry of Health and Welfare had implemented border quarantine measures after briefing the Executive
EAST OF GUAM: Tropical Storm Champi is forecast to strengthen into a typhoon, but its effect on Taiwan is uncertain due to the presence of a high-pressure system Tropical Storm Champi formed yesterday and has the potential to increase in strength, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Forecasters are closely monitoring a Pacific high-pressure system that would dictate whether the storm turns north or moves toward Taiwan next week, the CWA said. The most likely scenario is that it turns northward after passing the Ryukyu Islands, CWA forecaster Cheng Chieh-jen (鄭傑仁) said. As of 8pm yesterday, Champi was east of Guam moving west-northwest at 20kph, CWA data showed. It had maximum sustained winds near the center of 72kph and gusts of up to 101kph, the data showed. If the Pacific high-pressure system
RIGHT TO DIPLOMACY: Under the UN Charter, every state has the right to conduct foreign policy free from external pressure, Belize said in a statement Belize and Paraguay on Monday condemned Beijing sanctions over their countries’ ties with Taiwan, saying China’s actions create unnecessary tensions. Earlier on Monday, Beijing announced sanctions against Paraguayan Minister of Information and Communication Technologies Gustavo Villate and Belizean Minister of Foreign Affairs Francis Fonseca. The Paraguayan Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it rejected the sanctions, writing on X that they created unnecessary friction. It added that it reaffirmed its support for Taiwan and its commitment to democratic values and principles. Villate told the Spanish-language Paraguayan daily ABC Color the sanctions were “predictable” and linked them to several cooperation projects between Taiwan and Paraguay. The projects
Sanctions imposed by China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) on a firm owned by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) father are an egregious attempt to pressure Taiwanese society and interfere with Taiwan’s democratic elections, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. Hong Kong’s Ta Kung Pao (大公報) and Wen Wei Po (文匯報) on Tuesday reported that VWAY Co — a company owned by Shen’s father, Shen Tu-cheng (沈土城) — was still earning money in China after Sicuens International Co (兆億), also owned by Shen Tu-cheng, was sanctioned in June last year. VWAY trade totaled about US$700,000 in about 10 months
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