One dies, four hurt in Karachi road mishaps

KARACHI: Reckless driving claimed life of young woman, while four others sustained injuries in different road incidents on Saturday.

A 20-year-old Rozina died when a dumper hit her in Orangi Town No 1 in the jurisdiction of Orangi Town Police Station. Police arrested driver, impounded the dumper and registered the case.

Separately, a 35- year-old motorcyclist Shahdab was hit by unknown taxi at Bilal Colony in North Karachi. The victim was rushed to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, where his condition was termed precarious.

In third incident, one Abdul Shakoor, 35, Samia, 28 and Ameera, 10 were seriously hit by unknown car at Shahra-e-Faisal near Awami Markaz.

source : jang.com.pk

One hurt in Beirut bomb blasts

BEIRUT: Lebanese police say one person was hurt when two hand grenades exploded in two neighborhoods of Beirut overnight in renewed tensions sparked by the weekend death of a demonstrator.

Police say unknown attackers hurled a grenade on a road underpass in the Shiite-populated south Beirut suburb of Tayyouneh early Tuesday.

Another grenade exploded near a cafe in the south Beirut suburb of Jnah, injuring one.

source : jang.com.pk

Australia wildfire arsonist given in police custody

MELBOURNE: Australian police called for calm Monday as a suspected arsonist was named in court after a swarm of wildfires killed more than 180 people and destroyed hundreds of homes.

A magistrate lifted an order suppressing the name of 39-year-old Brendan Sokaluk, who prosecutors say started a fire that killed some 11 people and razed about 200 homes.

Sokaluk, who has been charged with arson causing death and intentionally lighting a bush fire, did not appear in court and was remanded in custody until the next hearing on April 14.

He faces a maximum sentence of 25 years in jail if convicted on the arson charge.

Sokaluk was arrested in a small country town last Friday over a bush fire near Churchill east of Melbourne before being transferred to the Victoria state capital for his own safety.

Earlier, state police chief Christine Nixon had appealed to the public to stay away from the court.

“We hope that we don’t have to deal with a gang of people who are angry and concerned about this arrest. We know people are,” state police commissioner Christine Nixon told reporters.

“Coming to court and protesting is not an appropriate thing to do.

“We will make sure he is protected and can go before the justice system, as he should, and be dealt with through that process.”

There was a heavy police presence in court for the hearing Monday, but no angry protesters turned up.

Police are still investigating some of the other fires that raged through Victoria state, with arson suspected in at least one other major blaze that destroyed the town of Marysville and killed up to 100 people.

“Our teams are working hard. We hope to be able to come to some conclusions about that fire (Marysville), particularly, in the not too distant future,” Nixon said.

Firefighters were still battling eight blazes burning out of control as the government announced Monday that a national day of mourning for the victims would be held.

The death toll of 181 is expected to rise as more bodies are found in the charred rubble of homes and towns, police say.

source : jang.com.pk

Bus-truck collision kills 16 in Egypt

CAIRO: Sixteen people were killed when a bus collided with a truck in Egypt on Sunday.

Police said that this accident happened due to speedy driving on a highway between two cities of Egypt – Ismailia and Abu Hamad.

The 16 killed also included four children and the dead bodies and the wounded were shifted to a hospital in Ismailia.

Road accidents are common in Egypt due to speedy driving and pathetic condition of roads.

source : jang.com.pk

Suspect charged in deadly Australian fire

MELBOURNE, Australia – Authorities charged a man Friday with lighting one of the wildfires that killed a total of more than 180 people in Australia, and whisked him into protective custody to guard him from public fury.

Police said the suspect was charged with one count of arson causing death and intentionally lighting a wildfire near the town of Churchill that killed at least 21 people. It was one of hundreds of fires that raged through southeastern Victoria state Feb. 7, leaving 7,000 people homeless and razing entire towns.

The suspect also was charged with possessing child pornography.

The disaster’s official death toll is 181, but efforts to find and identify victims were continuing and officials expected the final tally to exceed 200. More than 1,800 homes and 1,500 square miles (3,900 square kilometers) of forests and farms were burned.

The suspect’s identity was being kept secret for his own safety, Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner Dannye Moloney told a news conference. He was brought to the state capital of Melbourne from Morwell, 75 miles (120 kilometers) to the east and near the the town of Churchill.

“He has been moved from that area and moved to the Melbourne metropolitan area for security reasons,” Moloney said.

Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported from Morwell that the suspect was formally charged in the town’s magistrate’s court, but that he did not appear. He was ordered to be held in custody and to undergo psychiatric evaluation, the broadcaster said.

Police said in a statement that Magistrate Clive Allsop banned publication of any details or photographs of the man that could identify him. Another court hearing was scheduled for Monday.

If found guilty, the man faces a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison for the deadly arson charge, and a maximum of 15 years on the second arson charge.

Police have said they believe foul play was the cause of at least two of the deadly blazes, including the Churchill fire. Those suspicions disgusted the country and prompted Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to describe the fires as possible mass murder.

Ruth Halyburton, whose home in the town of Marysville was burned to the ground, said Friday she could not comprehend why anyone would want to light wildfires.

“Words can’t describe how I feel about them,” Halyburton told The Associated Press at a relief center in nearby Alexandra. “I’m a Christian, but I don’t think to kindly of people if they go light a match and destroy people’s property and lives. They don’t have a brain in their head.”

Marysville, a town of some 500 people, was almost completely destroyed Saturday by one of the fires — but not the Churchill blaze.

Firefighters still struggled to contain about a dozen blazes and one of them flared up Friday and menaced the town of Healesville, coming within less than a mile (1 kilometer) and sending embers dropping like rain over houses.

The threat was downgraded after a few hours, but it served as a reminder that the disaster may not be over yet.

“You can’t see anything. All you can see is smoke, and you can’t even see where the fire is actually coming from,” plant nursery owner John Stanhope told ABC radio from Healesville during the flare-up. “It’s just thick smoke everywhere and everyone is just very much on edge.”

Firefighters raced to take advantage of cooler weather, rain and lighter winds and lit controlled burns Friday in efforts to prevent further breakouts.

The catastrophe’s scale became clearer Friday. Officials raised the tally of destroyed homes by 762 to 1,831, and the number of people left homeless or who fled their homes and have not returned was raised by 2,000 to 7,000.

Officials said the nation had pledged more than 75 million Australian dollars ($50 million) in donations to various charities for survivors. Rudd ordered military bases to be opened to house some of the homeless.

The disaster increased the urgency for a nationwide fire warning system, which has been snarled for years in bickering between state and federal officials.

“I am determined to see this thing implemented across the nation,” Rudd said late Thursday. “If it means cracking heads to ensure it happens we’ll do that.”

Officials partly blamed the dramatic death toll on the number of people who appeared to have waited until they saw the fast-moving blazes coming before trying to flee. Many bodies were found in burned-out cars.

source : news.yahoo.com

Australian wildfire death toll rises to 181: police

SYDNEY: The death toll in Australia’s worst ever wildfires has risen to 181, police said Tuesday.

65 dead in Australian wildfires: police

SYDNEY: The death toll from wildfires raging through southeastern Australia has soared to 65, police said Sunday.

Afghan blast kills US nationals: police

KANDAHAR: A remote-controlled bomb exploded in Afghanistan’s southern province of Helmand Sunday, killing four people, including two US nationals, a police commander said.

Gunmen kill family, including six women, in Iraq

BAGHDAD: Gunmen shot dead eight members of a family, six of them women, in an overnight raid on their home in Iraq’s volatile northern Diyala province, police said.

The attackers then abducted two other family members, a man and woman, from the house in a village of near the town of Balad Ruz, 90 km (55 miles) north of Baghdad. Diyala is still one of Iraq’s most violent provinces, a place where Sunni Islamist al Qaeda and other militant groups still roam despite repeated attempts to stamp them out. Police did not know who was behind the attack or why the family, all Arabs from the Sunni sect, were targeted.

source : jang.com.pk

Police probe Fla. fraud claim, missing fund leader

MIAMI – A Florida hedge fund manager accused of defrauding investors out of millions is missing and his family is worried because he left a note indicating he was “distraught,” police said Saturday.

Authorities were interviewing investors and looking into claims that Arthur G. Nadel stole from them, said Sarasota Police Capt. Bill Spitler. It was too soon to say exactly how much was invested, but there were reports the hedge fund could be out $350 million.

“The victims that I know of, I know some of them personally, they have no reason to lie,” Spitler said.

Nadel, who operated under the name Scoop Management Inc. in Sarasota, was last seen Wednesday morning by his wife. She reported him missing later that day. Nadel, 75, left a note for his family, although authorities nor his wife would divulge its contents.

“The reason we were called was because he was distraught and they became concerned,” said Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Lt. Chuck Lesaltato.

Peg Nadel said she was cooperating with the authorities and all the investors, but wouldn’t go into any detail.

Local authorities were working with the Securities Exchange Commission and FBI in the ongoing fraud investigation.

Arthur Nadel was prominent in local social and philanthropic circles in the beach town along the central Gulf Coast. His investors ranged from individuals to the local YMCA Foundation, The Sarasota-Herald Tribune reported.

Neil Moody, who said he employed Scoop as a trader for three funds in which he was a general partner, has told several investors interviewed by the newspaper that the hedge funds value was $350 million. He said Saturday that he has also lost millions.

“My family is over $12 million at risk,” he said. He would not give any further information.

Moody, a director of the YMCA and first vice chair, told the group’s local president Thursday that the money was gone and resigned from the board, the newspaper reported.

Another investor said he was not optimistic about getting the $730,000 he invested back.

“I feel abused. I feel beaten. I don’t know who to believe,” said Dr. Brad Lerner, an internal medicine physician.

source : news.yahoo.com

Thai PM vows end to army, police abuses in south

PATTANI: Thai Prime Minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva vowed on Saturday to end human rights abuses by security forces in the Muslim far south where a rights group said suspected insurgents are routinely tortured. “In an area with 50-60,000 soldiers, it might happen, “Abhisit said in response to allegations by Amnesty International that soldiers and police used beatings, electric shocks and simulated suffocation.

source : jang.com.pk

Hangu: 4 policemen killed in checkpost offensive

HANGU: At least four police officials have been killed, one sustained injuries while three others have gone missing in an onslaught from unknown miscreants on a police checkpost in Dilan jurisdiction of Hangu on early Wednesday, Geo T.V reported.

According to sources, miscreants resorted to missile attack, which ripped through checkpost completely and left it on blazes.

Meanwhile, dead bodies and injured have been shifted to hospital while sources also added, “Three more police officials have gone missing since the incident took place” however, they feared, “The missing unfortunates either have been killed or abducted by militants”.

It is also pertinent to mention that as many as 136 reserve police officials were deployed on the checkpost while the curfew for an indefinite period had been imposed in the area last evening.

Army officials have taken the area under its control.

source : jang.com.pk

Five killed in southern Thailand violence: police

NARATHIWAT: Separatist militants shot dead five people in Thailand’s Muslim-majority south, where a bloody insurgency marked its fifth anniversary at the weekend, police said Tuesday.

An unknown number of militants attacked a military base in troubled Pattani province early on Tuesday, sparking a 10-minute gun battle that left a 47-year-old ranger dead, said police.

A Buddhist man was killed in a drive-by shooting in the same province late Sunday, they said.

In nearby Yala province, militants shot dead a Muslim defence volunteer and wounded two others on Monday.

Separately in Narathiwat province a police sergeant was fatally shot and another critically injured in a clash with militants early Monday.

A Muslim man was killed in a drive-by shooting later the same day in Narathiwat and his wife was wounded.

More than 3,500 people have been killed since separatist unrest erupted in southern Thailand five years ago.

Tensions had simmered since Thailand annexed the mainly Malay sultanate in 1902, but erupted into the current rebellion on January 4, 2004, when militants raided a southern army base, killing four soldiers.

New Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva vowed soon after he was elected by parliament on December 15 to ease the southern tensions. His Democrat Party counts the south as one of its strongholds.

source : jang.com.pk

4 accused arrested in encounter at Sohrab Goth

KARACHI: The police after an encounter arrested four accused and seized weapons and vehicle from them at Sohrab Goth here.

Police said that a police party on patrol signaled two suspected vehicles to halt in the jurisdiction of Sohrab Goth Police Station, while the vehicle riders trying to runaway opened fire on the chasing police party, which the police retaliating overpowered and arrested the four accused Habibur Rahman alias Aashiq, Shahpur, Fateh Muhammad and Azizullah after recovering 4 TT pistols and one vehicle, while 5 accused in the other vehicle managed to escape. Police said that the arrested accused persons were wanted in different street crimes. Police after registering a case have started further investigations.

source : jang.com.pk

Autopsy planned in death of John Travolta’s son

NASSAU, Bahamas – An autopsy is planned for John Travolta’s teenage son, who died after apparently hitting his head on the bathtub while the family was vacationing at their home in the Bahamas, authorities said.

Jett Travolta, 16, had last been seen entering the bathroom on Thursday and had a history of seizures, Police Superintendent Basil Rahming said in a statement.

A house caretaker found the teenager unconscious in a bathroom late Friday morning. He was taken by ambulance to a Freeport hospital, where he was pronounced dead, the statement said.

Jett apparently hit his head on the bathtub, said a police officer who declined to be named because she was not authorized to speak on the matter.

Family attorney Michael Ossi said in a statement that Jett died suddenly on Friday. Publicists Samantha Mast and Paul Bloch released the statement but could not be reached for additional comment.

Obie Wilchcombe, a parliament member and former tourism minister in the Bahamas, said that an autopsy is planned for Monday, and “we expect a quick resolution.”

“John spoke with the minister of health and the doctors and police are at the hospital. They’re very, very quick to resolve things,” he said.

Wilchcombe said Travolta “spent a tremendous amount of time with Jett.”

“He always brought him along. There was a close affectionate relationship and lots of love,” Wilchcombe told “Larry King Live” in a live telephone interview. “People in the old Bahama community today are in shock.”

Travolta, 54, and his wife, actress Kelly Preston, 46, also have an 8-year-old daughter, Ella Bleu. The family had arrived in the Bahamas on a private plane Tuesday and was vacationing at their home in the Old Bahama Bay resort community.

Preston and Travolta have said that Jett became very sick when he was 2 years old and was diagnosed with Kawasaki disease, an illness that leads to inflammation of the blood vessels in young children. She blamed household cleaners and fertilizers, and said that a detoxification program based on teachings from the Church of Scientology helped improve his health, according to People magazine. Both Travolta and Preston are practicing Scientologists.

“I was obsessive about his space being cleaned. We constantly had the carpets cleaned,” Travolta said in a 2001 interview with CNN’s Larry King, a portion of which was rebroadcast on the “Larry King Live” show Friday night. During that interview, when Jett was 9, Travolta spoke of how his son nearly died when he was 2.

It is unclear whether Jett was taking any medications for his seizures.

The Scientology Celebrity Center in Los Angeles declined to comment.

A spokeswoman for Rand Memorial Hospital in Freeport said she could not release any information because of privacy concerns.

Travolta’s corporate and commercial attorney, Michael McDermott, said the actor had a very strong relationship with his son.

“There was unspoken communication between the two. … It’s just so hard,” he said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. “Kelly is very quiet and both are grieving.”

McDermott said his family and other friends are with the couple in the Bahamas. The group came for a two-day New Year’s celebration and had planned to return to Florida on Sunday.

“We’re are all here and trying to help in any way we can,” McDermott said. “Their pain is so evident.”

Travolta, who gained fame as Vinnie Barbarino on the 1970s television show “Welcome Back, Kotter” and the 1977 film “Saturday Night Fever,” went on to become one of Hollywood’s biggest names. He married Preston in 1991.

A television actress, Preston appeared with Travolta in the 2000 film “Battlefield Earth,” based on a novel by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.

___

Associated Press Writers Josh Dickey in Los Angeles, Lisa Orkin Emmanuel in Miami and Kathy Corcoran in Mexico City contributed to this report.

source : news.yahoo.com

Israel strikes Gaza in 2nd day of attacks

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Israeli warplanes pressing one of Israel’s deadliest assaults ever on Palestinian militants dropped bombs and missiles on a top security installation, a mosque, a TV station and dozens of other targets across the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Sunday.

Some 280 Palestinians have been killed and 600 people wounded since Israel’s campaign to quash rocket barrages from Gaza began at midday Saturday, a Gaza health official said. Most of the dead were Hamas police. Israel launched some 250 airstrikes in the first 24 hours.

Israel’s prime minister said the campaign could last longer than initially anticipated and the Israeli Cabinet approved the callup of thousands of reservists at its weekly meeting Sunday. Infantry and armored units were already headed to the Gaza border for a possible ground invasion.

Militants, unbowed, kept up the pressure on Israel, firing dozens more rockets and mortars at Israeli border communities Sunday. Two rockets struck close to the largest city in southern Israel, Ashdod, some 38 kilometers (23 miles) from Gaza, reaching deeper into Israel than ever before. The targeting of Ashdod confirmed Israel’s concern that militants are capable of putting major cities within rocket range. No injuries were reported.

The Palestinians’ moderate President Mahmoud Abbas, a fierce rival of Hamas, urged the Islamic militant group to renew a truce with Israel that collapsed last week.

In New York, the U.N. Security Council expressed serious concern about the escalating situation in Gaza and called on Israel and the Palestinians to immediately halt all violence and military activities. The U.N.’s most powerful body called for a new cease-fire between Israel and Hamas and for opening border crossings into Gaza to enable humanitarian supplies to reach the territory.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak allowed limited supplies of fuel and medicine to enter Gaza.

Many of Israel’s Western allies urged restraint on both sides, though the U.S. blamed Hamas for the fighting.

U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, Israel’s closest ally on the Security Council, said “the key issue here was not to point a finger at Israel. The key issue was to urge all parties to end the violence and address the humanitarian needs of the people of Gaza.”

Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Gabriela Shalev said that in the face of constant rocket attacks, Israel had “no choice but to go on a military operation and the only party to blame is the Hamas.”

The offensive began eight days after a six-month truce between Israel and the militants expired. The Israeli army says Palestinian militants have fired more than 300 rockets and mortars at Israeli targets over the past week and 10 times that number over the past year.

Streets were empty in Gaza City on Sunday as most residents stayed home, fearing more airstrikes. A few lined up to buy bread outside two bakeries. Schools were shut for a three-day mourning period the Gaza government declared Saturday for the campaign’s dead.

Hamas police kept a low profile, wearing jackets over their dark blue uniforms and walking close to walls, hoping to evade the detection by Israeli pilots.

Aircraft struck one of Hamas’ main security compounds in Gaza City — a major symbol of the group’s authority. Health officials said four people were killed and 25 wounded in the attack.

A column of black smoke towered from the building and some inmates of the compound’s prison fled after the missiles struck. Hamas police nabbed some of them.

One prisoner trapped under the rubble waved his hand in the hope of being rescued. Two other prisoners helped a bleeding friend walk through the debris.

Minutes after the strike, Hamas police defiantly planted the movement’s green flag in the rubble.

“These strikes fuel our popular support, our military power and the firmness of our positions,” said Mushir al-Masri, a Hamas legislator. “We will survive, we will move forward, we will not surrender, we will not be shaken.”

Senior Hamas leaders went into hiding before the offensive began, shutting off their phones. Hamas’ Gaza prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, spoke on a televised address on Saturday evening but it was not immediately clear where the address was taped.

Earlier, Palestinians said Israeli bombs destroyed a mosque outside Gaza’s main hospital in Gaza City; the military called it a “base for terrorist activities.”

In southern Gaza, aircraft targeted a Gaza tanker truck, touching off a blaze that raged out of control and spread to about a dozen nearby houses. One of the main medicine warehouses supplying local pharmacies in southern Gaza was attacked in another sortie.

Local residents said the tanker and the warehouse contained supplies that had been smuggled in from Gaza through underground tunnels with Egypt, suggesting Israel was widening its offensive to go after businesses that are a source of income for Hamas.

Warplanes attacked the headquarters of the local Hamas television station early Sunday, but it continued to broadcast from a mobile unit.

The initial waves of attacks Saturday focused on key Hamas security installations and rocket-launching pads.

Gaza health official Dr. Moaiya Hassanain said at least 280 people were killed, including 183 members of Hamas’ uniformed security forces. It was not clear how many of the others were gunmen or civilians.

The civilian casualties included a 15-year-old boy who died in southern Gaza on Sunday in an attack on a greenhouse near the border. At least 644 people were wounded, Hassanain said.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said it was unclear when the operation would end. The situation in southern Israel “is liable to last longer than we are able to foresee at this time,” he told his Cabinet.

Benayahu said Israel’s objective was not to halt all rocket attacks but to cripple militants’ intention and motivation to assault Israel. “To change the situation, we don’t have to go after the last of the rocket launchers,” Benayahu told Army Radio.

The rockets that struck close to Ashdod, extending the militants’ reach closer to Israel’s heartland, landed some 23 miles (38 kilometers) from Gaza. Gaza’s Hamas rulers have been stockpiling weapons in recent months, including medium-range missiles. Until Sunday, the deepest targets inside Israel had been the city of Ashkelon and the town of Netivot, which are about 12 miles (20 kilometers) from Gaza.

Since the campaign began, around 150 rockets and mortars have bombarded southern Israel, according to the military’s count.

In Ashkelon, a city of 120,000 people about 11 miles (17 kilometers) from Gaza, bustling sidewalks immediately emptied after a rocket fell downtown. “I am afraid to walk,” said Tzipi Moshe, 59, nervously puffing a cigarette as she ran into a building for cover.

The Palestine Liberation Organization, dominated by Abbas’ Fatah movement, called a one-day commercial strike through the West Bank and urged Palestinians to take to the streets in peaceful protests.

Israel’s military was on alert for possible disturbances in the West Bank. The campaign has inflamed public opinion across the Arab world, which has responded with protests and condemnations.

___

Additional reporting by Aron Heller in Ashkelon. Amy Teibel reported from Jerusalem.

source : news.yahoo.com

Santa gunman was in bitter divorce, lost job

COVINA, Calif. – A man who carried out a Christmas Eve massacre and arson dressed as Santa at the home of his former in-laws apparently intended to flee the U.S., but his plans were dashed after the inferno he created severely burned his arms and melted his red costume onto his body, police said Friday.

Bruce Jeffrey Pardo, a laid-off aerospace worker, apparently shot some of his nine victims execution-style in a plot to destroy his ex-wife’s family after a costly divorce that was finalized last week. He had an airline ticket for a Christmas morning flight to Canada and $17,000 in cash on his body, some attached to his legs with plastic wrap and some in a girdle, Covina police Chief Kim Raney said. He did not know the Canadian destination.

Armed with four guns, wearing the Santa suit and carrying a fuel-spraying device wrapped like a present, Pardo showed up at the home at 11:30 p.m. Wednesday as a party of about 25 people was under way.

Raney said Pardo, 45, fired a shot into the face of an 8-year-old girl who answered the door and at first fired indiscriminately, then apparently targeted relatives of his ex-wife as other guests fled.

“There’s some information that he stood over them and shot them execution-style,” Raney said.

Pardo retreated to the front door and retrieved a device that mixed carbon dioxide or oxygen with high-octane racing fuel, police said. Fleeing guests saw him spraying the fuel inside the house when the vapor was ignited, possibly by a pilot light or a candle, and exploded.

“Mr. Pardo was severely injured during that explosion,” Raney said. “He suffered third-degree burns on both arms and it also appears that the Santa Claus suit that he was wearing did melt onto his body.”

Pardo was able to drive to his brother’s home in the Sylmar area of Los Angeles, broke in and shot himself in the head. His brother discovered the body early Thursday.

Before the suicide, Pardo used remnants of the Santa suit to booby-trap his rental car to explode, the chief said.

Raney said Pardo wired the suit so when it was lifted it “would pull a trip wire or a switch, ignite a flare inside the car that would then ignite black powder and he had several hundred rounds of handgun ammunition inside the car.”

The device went off as a bomb squad worked to disarm it Thursday, but no one was hurt.

Police said Pardo had no criminal record or history of violence, and neighbors and others knew him as a friendly man who walked his dog and was a volunteer usher at his parish church.

Authorities released 911 calls filled with frantic appeals for help: “My mom’s house is on fire!” said a caller phoning from a neighbor’s house. “He’s still shooting at them!”

The fire was so intense that no bodies have been identified because of charring, but police Lt. Tim Doonan said all were Pardo’s former relatives. He declined to say whether his ex-wife and her parents were among them, but said they were unaccounted for. The victims were believed to range in age from 17 to 80.

Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center spokeswoman Adelaida De La Cerda said the 8-year-old girl who was shot in the face was released from the hospital Friday. Her mother had been at the hospital and was “extremely traumatized,” De La Cerda said.

Her cousin, a 16-year-old girl brought in for observation, had superficial injuries and was released Thursday. The teenager’s mother was Bruce Pardo’s ex-wife, De La Cerda said. Also injured was a woman who broke her ankle when jumping from a second-story window.

David Salgado, a neighbor, said he saw the 8-year-old victim being escorted to an ambulance by four SWAT officers as fire devoured the house. He identified the owners of the home as Sylvia Pardo’s parents, Joseph and Alicia Ortega.

“It was really ugly,” Salgado said.

When the fire was extinguished early Thursday, officers found three charred bodies in the living room area. Investigators found five more bodies amid the ashes later in the day. Coroner’s Lt. Larry Dietz said a ninth body was found Friday morning.

Police found two handguns at the home of Pardo’s brother, and two more in the Covina home. All were empty.

A search of Pardo’s own home in Montrose, a suburb northeast of Los Angeles, turned up racing fuel, five empty boxes for high-powered semiautomatic handguns and two high-powered shotguns.

The police chief said Pardo had no military experience, and in a resume he claimed to have a bachelor’s and master’s degree in electrical engineering.

Court records show Pardo’s ex-wife Sylvia Pardo, 43, filed for a dissolution of marriage on March 24, 2008, and they were legally separated after about two years of marriage. The two reached a settlement on Dec. 18.

Bruce Pardo owed her $10,000 as part of the settlement, according to court documents that detailed a bitter split. He also lost a dog he doted on and did not get back a valuable wedding ring.

“No counseling or delay could help restore this marriage,” the settlement stated. “There are irreconcilable differences which have led to the complete breakdown of the marriage.”

The couple had no children together, but Bruce Pardo had a son from a previous relationship, Raney said.

Bruce Pardo had been employed at ITT Electronic Systems, Radar Systems, in Van Nuys from February 2005 to July 2008, according to court documents. Raney, however, said Pardo was terminated in October, and according to family members disappeared for a month while possibly traveling to the Midwest or East Coast before returning this month.

Pardo’s resume also claimed he worked at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory from 1985-1994, the police chief said. The lab could not confirm the claim Friday.

Bruce Pardo wrote in a legal declaration that he was laid off in July and had been denied state unemployment payments in August. He said he was “desperately seeking” work with many companies.

“I was not given a severance package from my last employer at termination and I am not receiving any other income. I am desperately seeking work and have since applied to many companies, resulting in several job interviews,” he wrote. “I ask for support just until I gain employment.”

Bruce Pardo complained in a court declaration that Sylvia Pardo was living with her parents, not paying rent, and had spent lavishly on a luxury car, gambling trips to Las Vegas, meals at fine restaurants, massages and golf lessons.

Documents from the divorce show Bruce Pardo got their house, which was valued at more than $500,000, but the couple only had $106,000 in equity in it. The mortgage was $2,700 a month, a declaration said.

He complained in a filing that he had monthly expenses of $8,900 and ran a monthly deficit of $2,678.

In June, the court ordered him to pay $1,785 a month in spousal support and put him on a payment plan of $450 a month for $3,570 that was unpaid.

His attorney, Stanley Silver, told The Associated Press his client had trouble making the support payments after he lost his job in July, but spousal support was waived in the settlement last week. Bruce Pardo was trying to pay $10,000 to finalize the divorce proceedings, Silver said, and he never showed any anger or instability.

“All of my dealings with him were always pleasant and cheerful,” said Silver, who heard from him last on Tuesday.

Friends and neighbors described Bruce Pardo as a cheerful man who seemed upbeat and doted on a big, brown Akita he owned with his former wife.

Jan Detanna, head usher at the Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in Montrose, said Pardo signed up to usher during the Christmas Eve service and always volunteered as an usher at the 5:30 p.m. Sunday service — the children’s Mass.

“He was very outgoing, he was very friendly. He always greeted you with a smile, he was a pretty big guy and had a firm handshake,” said Detanna, who didn’t know Pardo was going through a divorce. “It’s a shock to everybody that knew him. You just don’t know what’s going on sometimes.”

Pardo’s neighbor, George Tataje, 39, said his dog and Pardo’s Akita would play together at a park, but he didn’t speak to him much. Other neighbors frequently saw him working on his lawn and walking his dog.

At his home in Montrose, Christmas lights decorated the roof and plastic nutcracker soldiers and striped candy canes were attached to a fence that edged a neatly trimmed lawn.

___

Associated Press writers Daisy Nguyen, Anthony McCartney, Shaya Tayefe Mohajer, Robert Jablon and Gillian Flaccus in Los Angeles and Solvej Schou in Montrose contributed to this report.

source : news.yahoo.com

Indian spy held by Intelligence Agencies

LAHORE: Intelligence agencies late Wednesday arrested an Indian secret agent and two others who were allegedly involved in the blast of GOR area in Lahore on Wednesday morning, Geo T.V reported Wednesday late night.

He was identified as Sutish Anand Sharma a resident of Indian city Calcutta, while confessing his hand in GOR blast, he also disclosed about his other three associates hiding somewhere in Pakistan, police said.

Police have recovered three fake national identity cards, three letters and other explosive material and devices from his possession. Agencies arrested him from GOR Lahore by tracing and tapping his telephone calls, added agency sources.

Police sources said that Indian held terrorist was a former employee of Indian High Commission in London and was currently living in Pakistan in disguise of Muneer.

In course of preliminary investigation, the heinous Indian terrorist informed that he along with his other associates were also plotting to strike terrorist attacks on innocent Christians on the eve of Christmas in different cities of Punjab.

source : jang.com.pk

Pakistan: Car bomb kills 1 near border with India

LAHORE, Pakistan – Suspected Islamist militants detonated a car bomb in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore on Wednesday, killing one woman and wounding four other people, police said.

Separately, suspected extremists shot and wounded a Chinese engineer as he shopped at a market in the northwest, where a wave of militant attacks has taken place.

The fresh violence came amid tensions between Pakistan and its neighbor India over the deadly attacks in Mumbai last month, which New Delhi has blamed on Pakistan-based militants.

The target of the Lahore blast was likely a police officer who headed an operation that led to the death of a leader of the al-Qaida linked militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi in 2002, said Umer Virk, the head of the Crime Investigation Department.

The officer, Deputy Inspector Gen. Javed Shah, lived close to where the blast took place in the Mazang Chungi area, a heavily guarded Lahore district where many top government officials reside, said Virk.

The explosives were planted in a parked mini-truck, he said. The blast killed a woman and wounded four other members of a Christian family who were driving to a Christmas function, Virk said.

The vehicle that exploded bore an official government registration plate. It was obliterated, with pieces scattered for 200 yards (meters), while the wall of a nearby house collapsed.

Police officer Pervez Rathore said the truck apparently gained access to the neighborhood because of its official plates. The area is walled off and filled with guards.

Lashkar-e-Jhangvi is a Sunni Muslim militant group blamed for killing hundreds of minority Shiites across Pakistan. Its members have also been accused of attacks against Westerners in Karachi, the slaying of U.S journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002 and the September truck bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad.

Islamist militants have carried out hundreds of bombings in the past two years, seeking to destabilize Pakistan’s U.S.-allied secular government. Most of the attacks occur in its northwest regions bordering Afghanistan, where the army is fighting al-Qaida and Taliban militants.

The Chinese engineer was with a bodyguard when he was attacked in the market in the Malakand area of the northwest, said police officer Nawab Khan.

Khan did not know the name of the victim, who worked at a hydroelectric power plant, nor the extent of his injuries.

Militants in the northwest regular attack foreigners working or traveling there.

source : news.yahoo.com

India arrests Pakistan soldier, deploys troops in Kashmir

SRINAGAR, India, Dec 23 (Reuters) – Indian police said on Tuesday they had arrested three militants, one of them a Pakistani soldier, for allegedly planning a suicide attack in Indian-controlled Kashmir.

The arrests came as India deployed thousands of troops in the main city of Kashmir, a day before a crucial last phase of state polls on Wednesday..

Muslim-majority Srinagar, Kashmir’s summer capital and the heart of a nearly 20-year-old separatist campaign against Indian rule, goes to the polls on Wednesday as does the Hindu-majority city of Jammu, the state’s winter capital.

Police said they had been conducting raids in the entire state over the past few days to thwart trouble ahead of the polls.

During the raids, they arrested three members of the banned Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad militant group on suspicion of planning suicide bombings in Kashmir during polling.

“One of the three has been identified as Ghulam Farid alias Gulshan Kumar, a sepoy (soldier) of Pakistan Army,” Kuldeep Khuda, director general of Kashmir police, told a news conference.

On Monday, two policemen were killed when suspected separatist militants fired at a police patrol in north Kashmir.

Kashmiri separatists, many of them in jail, have called for a boycott of the seven-stage polls saying India portrays voting as an endorsement of its rule over the disputed Himalayan region.

Cyprus probes suspect package at U.S. embassy

NICOSIA (Reuters) – A suspect package was sent to the U.S. embassy in Cyprus on Monday and authorities were carrying out tests to determine what it contained, officials said.

The sealed package roused embassy staff suspicions and police were called in. It was collected by the fire brigade for further tests for possible toxins.

“We discovered a suspicious package which had arrived in the mail,” said embassy spokesman James Ellickson-Brown.

American embassies in 18 countries have received envelopes with white powder since December 8. At 16 of the missions the letters were found to be harmless, while envelopes sent to embassies in Prague and Tokyo last week were being tested for toxins.

U.S. authorities have been on alert for such letters since 2001, when envelopes laced with the anthrax toxin were sent to media outlets and to U.S. politicians, killing five people.

Ellickson-Brown said he could not comment on specifics of the case or from where the package had been dispatched.

“The work has been done, the package is no longer here at the embassy,” Ellickson-Brown said. He said it could take several days to complete inquiries.

Reuters witnesses saw fire brigade personnel in the compound of the heavily fortified embassy, which lies in the western suburbs of the capital Nicosia. They were wearing protective gear.

“The fire service took an envelope which has been sent to health services for further tests,” a spokeswoman for the fire brigade services said.

She said it was sealed and authorities did not know what it contained.

Parts of the embassy had been disinfected, she said. Earlier, police and fire brigade sources said the envelope was thought to contain a suspect powder.

source : news.yahoo.com