Suicide bombers attack US base in Afghanistan

Suicide bombers tried unsuccessfully to storm a US military base near Afghanistan-Pakistan border in a daring attack on a major American installation, officials said Tuesday. Six insurgents detonated their vests after being surrounded.

The attack came a day after a suicide bomb outside the same base killed 10 civilians and wounded 13 others. The fighting was still going on early Tuesday, said US coalition spokesman 1st Lt Nathan Perry. There have been no American deaths, he said.

The militants failed to gain entry to Camp Salerno in Khost city after launching waves of attacks just before midnight on Monday, said Arsallah Jamal, the governor of Khost. The base is just a few miles from Pakistan's border.

Gen Mohammad Zahir Azimi, the Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman, said Afghan soldiers, aided by US troops, chased and surrounded a group of insurgents, and that six militants blew themselves up when cornered. Seven other militants died in those explosions and a rolling gun battle, he said.

"(The Afghan National Army) is saying that anytime we get close to them, they detonate themselves," Jamal said.

At least 13 insurgents and two Afghan civilians died in the attack, officials said. Five Afghan soldiers were wounded in the fighting, Azimi said.

The Taliban appeared to confirm the account. Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, said 15 militants had been dispatched for the attack on Salerno. Seven blew themselves up and eight returned to a Taliban safehouse, he said.

Jamal said the bodies of at least two dead militants were outside the checkpoint leading to the base's airport, both of whom had on vests packed with explosives, Jamal said. It wasn't clear if those militants were among the dead in Azimi's count.

Militants have long targeted US bases with suicide bombers, but coordinated attacks on such a major base are rare.

The attack comes a day after the top US General in the region, Maj Gen Jeffrey J Schloesser, issued a rare public warning that militants planned to attack civilian, military and government targets during the celebration of Independence Day on Monday.

More than 3,400 people � mostly militants � have been killed in insurgency-related violence this year, according to an Associated Press count based on figures from Western and Afghan officials.

Mush`s fate hangs in balance as Pak coalition meets to decide successor

After quitting as the President of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf now faces an uncertain future.

The former Army Chief announced his exit in a televised address on Monday to avoid the threat of impeachment charges by the ruling PPP-PML(N) coalition government, nine years after he grabbed power in a bloodless military coup.

Speculation swirled that Musharraf's decision came after a deal brokered by Pakistan's powerful military and the United States to avoid criminal charges, but it remained unclear where he would spend his retirement.

Where�s Mush headed?

Musharraf is expected to travel to Saudi Arabia soon with his family to perform a pilgrimage to Mecca, following which he will decide whether to live outside Pakistan.

Reports said today that Musharraf will remain in the country for some time before travelling to Saudi Arabia. He does not want to give the impression that he is fleeing the country to avoid charges that were levelled against him by the coalition.

After announcing his resignation during a televised address yesterday, Musharraf left the Presidency in the heart of Islamabad and went to his camp office in the nearby garrison city of Rawalpindi, where he is expected to stay for a few days.

Following his trip to Saudi Arabia for Umra, a pilgrimage to Mecca that can be performed at any time of the year, Musharraf will spend some time outside Pakistan. This could include a trip to the US to see members of his close family, a source said.

Musharraf's younger brother Naved, a doctor, lives in Chicago, while his son Bilal has a residence in Boston.

A senior coalition official said that Musharraf might also head to London or Turkey, but his aides insisted he would return after his religious duties in the Gulf Kingdom.

Reports have suggested that Musharraf resigned following an agreement with the ruling coalition, which would provide him security and not try him after declaring any of his actions as unconstitutional.

The US, Britain, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan Army Chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani are guarantors to the agreement.

Musharraf initially wanted to stay in Pakistan and demanded protection from the government but changed his mind after his close aides convinced him that he might never be safe in the country.

New software allows blind people surf the Internet from any PC

Richard Ladner, a professor of computer science at the University of Washington (UW), revealed that the software – dubbed WebAnywhere – can read aloud Web text on any computer with speakers or headphones. “This is for situations where someone who’s blind can’t use their own computer, but still wants access to the Internet: At a cyber caf, a school, at a friend’s house, etc,” said Ladner. Doctoral student Jeffrey Bigham developed WebAnywhere under Ladner’s supervision. Unlike current screen-reading software, WebAnywhere is the first accessibility tool to be hosted on the Web – meaning it doesn’t have to be downloaded onto a computer.It processes the text on an external server located in UW, and then sends the audio file to play in the user’s Web browser.“You don’t have to install new software.

So even if you go to a heavily locked-down computer, say at a library, you can still use it,” Bigham said.While testing, the researchers asked a few visually impaired people to use it to do three things – check email, look up a bus time table and search for a restaurant’s phone number. People using WebAnywhere – which, so far, works only in English – were able to successfully complete all three tasks, using a variety of machines and Internet connections.

Farm worker receives double arm transplant

Cool News:

Surgeons have performed the world’s first double arm transplant.

The 16-hour operation was carried out last Friday on a farm worker who lost both arms in an accident.

The 54-year-old man was given the arms of a teenage boy who is believed to have died in a road crash.

Plastic surgeon Professor Edgar Biemer and his colleague Christof Hoehnke led a surgical team of 30 to perform the operation at a clinic in Munich.

The patient, who lost his arms in a threshing machine six years ago, is said to be recovering well from the surgery. Doctors said he regained consciousness on Sunday and smiled at his wife.

Naina Devi temple stampede: 129 bodies idenitifed

Anandpur Sahib, August 4: As many as 129 out of 150 people killed in the stampede at Naina Devi temple in Himachal Pradesh's Bilaspur district have beenidentified and the bodies handed over to their relatives, officials said on Monday.

"Identity of 129 deceased have been known and their bodies were handed over to their relatives. Efforts are on to identify the remaining 17 bodies," Ropar Deputy Commissioner B Purshartha said.

At least 146 devotees, including 30 children and 38 women, were killed and more than 50 injured yesterday in a stampede at the temple shrine triggered by rumours of a landslide.

"The Punjab Government is providing all kind of assistance to the relatives of victims for transportation of bodies from Bhai Jaitta civil hospital here," he said.

As many as 104 dead were from Punjab. While 58 from Patiala, ten belonged to Sangrur and nine Bathinda. Six dead were from Barnala, eight from Mansa, two each from Ropar and Ferozepur, one each from Muktsar and Ludhiana.

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, who visited the hospital and the site of the incident, assured that the state government in coordination with the Himachal Pradesh will improve the infrastructure at the shrine to ensure "maximum safety" of the pilgrims.

The Himachal Pradesh Government has ordered a commissioner-level inquiry into the incident.

Both the Punjab and Himachal Pradesh Government had already announced an ex-gratia of Rs one lakh each to the dead and free treatment for the injured.

This was the second such incident at the hill shrine as in 1981, as many as 53 pilgrims lost their lives after a similar stampede.

Sex and the city forbidden, but let the Games begin

Vikas Katoch, Aug 4: Whatever happened to the Mongolian prostitutes? Where have all the "money boys" gone?

Looking for a high-class hooker in the lobby of a five-star hotel? It could be a tough assignment.

Anyone hoping for some readily available sex-for-sale in Beijing during the Olympics may be in for a shock. China is clearly keen to portray a squeaky clean image at the Summer Games and picture postcard Beijing is a top priority.

Prostitution is illegal in China. Banished after the Communist revolution in 1949, it returned with a vengeance in the 1980s when the country embarked upon economic reforms and started opening to the outside world.

For prostitutes and pole dancers alike, pickings now are slim. They cannot wait for the Olympics to end.

Climbing down from her pole in a sparsely populated bar in Beijing's Sanlitun area, 22-year-old Yang Shuo sighed.

"Business is OK but it could be better," she said. "It's the Olympics, you know. Police are cracking down on places like this."

Looking out on a tacky bar filled with a handful of customers, she said: "I am looking forward to the Olympics finishing."

For the oldest profession in the world, drumming up clients at the Olympics is hard work.

"Business is terrible," confessed one prostitute as she strode up to a passing westerner in a downtown Beijing street offering "Sex, Sex, Sex".

"We have been thrown out of the hotels," said the woman in her mid-30s, wearing a low-strung orange top. "We have to do our business on the streets and cut our prices."

CLOSED FOR RENOVATION

She normally charges 600 yuan ($90) for three hours. The special Olympic price is now down to 500 yuan.

Another student found dead in Asaram Bapu's school

A five-year-old boy was found dead Thursday in the bathroom of a residential school of spiritual leader Asaram Bapu in Chhindwara town of Madhya Pradesh, the police said. This is the second death of a student in the school in the past three days.

According to police, Vedant Kumar was found unconscious in the bathroom of the 'gurukul' in Parasia road locality in Chhindwara town, 275 km from here.

On Tuesday evening, another five-year-old, Ramkrishna Mohan Yadav, was found dead in similar conditions in the gurukul.

A large number of people, many of them anxious parents, gathered outside the school but were not allowed by the authorities to meet the students. There are 371 students studying in the school.

"We will arrange the meeting of children with their parents and guardians as soon as the situation normalises. We are worried that clashes may occur in the town as has been the case in Ahmedabad, where two children died in mysterious circumstances," Deputy Inspector General of Police K. Beaphay told IANS.

Two students Deepesh Vaghela, 10, and his cousin Abhishek Vaghela, 11, of a gurukul run by Aasaram Bapu's ashram went missing July 4 in Ahmedabad. Their bodies were found from the nearby Sabarmati riverbed July 6. Allegations of shoddy police probe led to widespread protests and clashes in the city.

"Apparently both the deaths appear to be accidental and no injury marks have been found on the body of either child. We are, however, inquiring into the matter," the official said.