Afghanistan says finds 1.8 bln barrel oilfield

KABUL: Afghanistan said on Sunday it had discovered an oilfield with an estimated 1.8 billion barrels in the north of the war-ravaged country, where US and other foreign forces are trying to tame a Taliban-led insurgency.

The discovery of the basin between northern Balkh and Shiberghan provinces was made after a survey conducted by Afghan and international geologists, said Jawad Omar, a spokesman for the ministry of mines.

“I do not know its price in the market. But the initial survey says there are 1.8 billion barrels of oil and I think there will be more than what it is estimated,” he told Reuters.

Various estimates of Afghanistan’s hidden wealth have been made in recent years, but the challenge of exploiting the resources in a country at war and with little mining infrastructure is daunting for most investors.

Omar gave no more details on how the estimates were made but said the country will offer the reserves for development along with other minerals in the coming months.

Afghanistan hopes that untapped mineral deposits valued at $3 trillion could help reduce the need to rely on Western cash for bankrolling its impoverished economy and for its soldiers to maintain security when foreign troops draw down numbers.

But ravaged by three decades of foreign interventions and civil war, the central government now faces the Taliban insurgency and relies on foreign forces for control of many parts of the vast Central Asian country.

The US Department of Defence estimated earlier this year that Afghanistan's mineral resources could top $1 trillion, but experts say the fragile security situation could delay seeing the benefits of this wealth for years.

Omar said an earlier plan for the tender of a 1.6 billion barrel Afghan-Tajik oil block in early 2011 was still on track.

He said Afghanistan will retender by year-end a deposit of iron of 1.8 billion tonnes it had scrapped earlier this year due to the global recession and changes in the world markets.

The untapped mineral resources include iron ore, copper, lithium, oil gas and gems which Afghanistan hopes to put for developing in coming years despite rising insecurity in recent years, the bloodiest period since US-led troops ousted the Taliban in 2001.

China’s top integrated copper producer, Jiangxi Copper Co and China Metallurgical Group Corp, in 2007 became the first major investor in Afghanistan.

They are involved in the exploration of the vast multi-bilion dollar Aynak Copper Mine to the south of Kabul.

Omar said the actual exploration of the mine will start after three years. – Reuters

Policeman hurls shoe at Omar Abdullah

SRINAGAR: A policeman flung a shoe at Indian-administered Kashmir’s Chief Minister Omar Abdullah at an independence day event Sunday, which saw thousands of Kashmiris in the streets protesting against Indian rule.

Security was tight across the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley for the annual national holiday, which separatists traditionally mark as a “black day”.

At the main official function in a sports stadium in Srinagar, Abdullah had just unfurled the Indian national flag when the show was thrown.

The minister was not hit and the policeman, who had chanted “we want freedom”, was quickly overpowered by bodyguards.

“Hurling a shoe is better than hurling a stone,” Abdullah commented after the incident. Abdullah heads the National Conference, the main pro-India party in Kashmir.

Stone-throwing protesters have been defying almost daily curfews over the past two months and clashing with police in Srinagar and other towns in the valley.

The unrest has claimed 57 lives, most of them young men or teenagers killed in police firing.

On Friday and Saturday, security forces shot dead six protesters and bystanders in clashes with demonstrators.

One of the young men killed on Saturday was from the southern town of Anantnag, where thousands of residents — men and women — held night-long anti-India demonstrations, witnesses said.

Night protests were also held in Narabal, on the outskirts of Srinagar, where another protester was killed Saturday.

India's highest representative in Kashmir, state governor N.N. Vohra, has urged the security forces to “revisit their strategies and tactics of crowd control for securing maximum protection of human life”.

The recent surge in anti-India protests began when a teenage student was killed by a police tear gas shell on June 11 in Srinagar.

In his Independence Day speech on Sunday, which he delivered to a half-empty stadium, Abdullah expressed his personal grief at the heavy death toll.

“My heart bleeds,” he said. “The victims of the unfortunate events are my own brothers and sons and I am in gloom and bereavement.”

Acknowledging the sense of frustration among young Kashmiris, a huge number of whom are unemployed, the chief minister announced plans to provide 50,000 government jobs in the next few months.

Resentment against Indian rule in Kashmir boiled over into an armed separatist insurgency in 1989 which has since claimed tens of thousands of lives.

The recent unrest is the worst for two years.

UN chief appeals for aid as flood crisis worsens

SUKKUR: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the world to provide more aid to flood-ravaged Pakistan on Sunday as the 20 million people made homeless grew increasingly desperate and new torrents inundated villages.

Survivors fought over food being handed out from a relief vehicle close to the town of Sukkur in hard-hit Sindh province, ripping at each other's clothes and causing such chaos that the distribution had to be abandoned, according to an Associated Press reporter at the scene.

''The impatience of the people has deprived us of the little food that had come,'' said Shaukat Ali, a flood victim waiting for food.

Pakistan's worst floods ever have killed about 1,500 people and damaged 7.9 million acres of cotton, sugar cane and wheat crops. The International Monetary Fund has warned of dire economic consequences in a country already reliant on foreign aid to keep its economy afloat.

The UN has appealed for an initial $460 million to provide relief, but only 20 per cent has been given.

UN chief Ban visited the country for talks with government leaders and to see the flood zone.

''I am here to see what more needs to be done and to urge the world community to speed up the assistance to the Pakistani people,'' he said.

Waters five feet deep washed through Derra Allah Yar, a city of 300,000 people on the border of Sindh and Balochistan provinces, said government official Salim Khoso. About 200,000 had fled the city.

''We have to feed them, but we don't know how,'' he said.

But in a televised address to the nation Saturday, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said 20 million were now homeless. He did not elaborate, and it was unclear how many of those people were briefly forced to leave their homes and how many had lost their houses altogether.

Authorities said more flood surges were coursing down the River Indus and other waterways in southern Sindh province, inundating hundreds of other villages. While local charities and international agencies have helped hundreds of thousands of people with food, water, shelter and medical treatment, the scale of the disaster has meant that many millions have received little or no assistance.

The United Nations said the rate of diarrhoea continued to increase among survivors.

Cholera, which can spread rapidly after floods and other disasters, had also been detected in the northwest, where the floods first hit more than two weeks ago after exceptionally heavy monsoon rains.

''We are here like beggars,'' said Mukhtar Ali, a 45-year-old accountant living on the side of a highway along with thousands of other people. ''The last food we received was a small packet of rice yesterday and 15 of us shared that.''

The United States has so far donated the most to the relief effort, at least $70 million, and has sent military helicopters to rescue stranded people and drop off food and water.

Two additional US Navy MH-53E Sea Dragon helicopters arrived in Pakistan on Saturday to support flood relief efforts, the US State Department said. That brings to seven the total number of aircraft in Pakistan from the USS Peleliu, which is positioned in international waters in the Arabian Sea.

Local Al-Qaeda leader surrenders in Yemen

SANAA: A local Al-Qaeda leader in Yemen who sheltered foreign militants, including Saudis, has surrendered to authorities, a Yemeni security official said on Sunday.

Jamaan Safian was responsible for the organisation’s activities in the Al-Jawf province, northeast of the capital Sanaa, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The source did not provide details on how the surrender was negotiated, or when it took place.

Sufian’s name does not appear on the Yemeni government list of most wanted Al-Qaeda militants.

In the past, Yemeni tribal leaders have negotiated agreements for the surrender of Al-Qaeda members.

The local branch of Osama bin Laden's organisation is especially active in Yemen’s east.

The Sanaa government has intensified its operations against Al-Qaeda, under pressure from Washington, since the network's local affiliate claimed the attempted bombing of a US-bound airliner on Christmas Day last year. – AFP

Rush hour blasts kill four in Baghdad

BAGHDAD: A series of rush-hour bombings across Baghdad hit commuters on their way to work, killing four and injuring at least 16, Iraqi police said.

Sunday's deadliest strike came when a roadside bomb exploded at 7:15 a.m. local time next to a minibus heading from the Shia neighbourhood of Sadr City into downtown.

Police said three people were killed, including a police officer, and nine were wounded.

A hospital worker confirmed the casualties.

Earlier, three bombs planted a few meters away from each other in a downtown business district blew up simultaneously. Police and hospital officials said a bystander was killed and seven injured. — AP

Pakistan must act to move peace talks forward: India PM

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh markedIndia’s independence day with a warning to Pakistanthat a recent resumption of dialogue would go nowhere unless Islamabad cracks down on militancy.

“As far as Pakistan is concerned, we expect from them that they would not let their territory be used for acts of terrorism against India,” Singh said in his address from the ramparts of the Red Fort in Old Delhi.

“If this is not done, we cannot progress far in our dialogue with Pakistan,” Singh said.

India suspended a peace dialogue with Pakistan in the wake of the November 2008 Mumbai attacks, which claimed 166 lives, and the two countries have only recently begun to explore a resumption of structured talks.

India accuses Pakistan of failing to crack down sufficiently on militant groups that operate from bases on its territory, such as the Lashkar-i-Taiba, which New Delhi blames for the Mumbai carnage.

India and Pakistan have fought three wars since the division of the sub-continent in 1947 and their relationship has always been beset by mutual mistrust. – AFP

Raging waters enter Jaffarabad

QUETTA / HYDERABAD / SUKKUR: Floodwaters invaded large swathes of Balochistan’s Jaffarabad district on Saturday morning, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to abandon their homes and seek safety under open skies.

The administration started advising people to evacuate Dera Allahyar, a town in Jaffarabad district, as breaches in a number of embankments on theIndus sent torrents of water forcing their way into Balochistan.

Officials said train services between Quetta and the rest of the country had been suspended again because of inundation of a track between Dera Allahyar and Jacobabad, Sindh.

Several villages in Bhand area of Chitin Pati were under six feet of water. Many people took shelter on rooftops.

“At least four localities in Dera Allahyar, including Bhatti colony, Shaheed Murad Jamali colony, have been submerged,” Nasirabad division Commissioner Sher Khan Bazi said, adding that dozens of mud houses were collapsed. He said the colonies had been evacuated and people shifted to Dera Murad Jamali, Sibi and other areas.

Around 80 per cent of Dera Allahyar and its surrounding areas have evacuated. However, in some areas people have refused to leave their houses despite the flood warning.

Irrigation officials said that a 10km area between the Sindh and Balochistan border was under the floodwater. “Floodwater is entering central areas of Dera Allahyar from three sides,” they added.

Sources said the Sindh irrigation authorities had on Friday late night tried to breach the Jamali bypass to divert the floodwater to Jaffarabad to save Jacobabad and other areas of the province.

They said that officials of the Sindh irrigation department and federal Sports Minister Ejaz Jakhrani along with a contingent of police and heavy machinery had come to the site to breach the bypass, but the Jaffarabad Deputy Commissioner rushed to the area and foiled the attempt.

Former prime minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali along with his armed tribesmen also reached the area. He said the Sindh government would not be allowed to divert the floodwater to Jaffarabad and any attempt in this regard would be resisted.

The local administration, police and Jamali tribesman are guarding the bypass.

According to the sources, Mr Jakhrani said that breach was necessary to save the historic town of Jacobabad and the Shahbaz airbase as the floodwater of Todi bund and Mirwah canal was threatening the area.

Deputy Commissioner Saeed Ahmed Jamali said the next 24 hours were critical for Jaffarabad.

The sources said that police and the local administration were informing people on loudspeakers about the flood and asking them to move to safe places, adding that a large number of people had abandoned their houses and were moving to Dera Murad Jamali and Sibi and Quetta.

However, the sources said, most people in Dera Allahyar had decided to stay in the town.

A large number of families have taken refuge at the Jamali bypass and along the banks of Khirtar, Pat Feeder and Rabi canals.

GUDDU BARRAGE

The water level started rising again at the Guddu barrage on Saturday after showing a receding trend over the past three days while the Kotri barrage upstream saw a surge of 13,000 cusecs.

The flow of water recorded a consistent rise at the Dadu-Moro bridge — a point between Sukkur and Kotri barrages.

According to a television report, a high flood tide coming from a breach in the Tori embankment invaded Jacobabad, where 80 per cent of the population has been evacuated.

It quoted Jacobabad DCO Kazim Jatoi as saying that water was rapidly entering Noorwah, exerting a fearsome thrust on the canal.

At the Guddu barrage, the flow upstream and downstream stood at 1,011,300 cusecs on Saturday evening. At the Sukkur barrage, upstream was 1,079,000 cusecs and downstream 976,000 cusecs.

Irrigation officials said the pressure on various embankments had started releasing and the situation was now under control. They said the flood had reached up to Larkana and would pass through the Kotri barrage within a few days.

The people affected by floods in Ghauspur and Karampur have taken shelter in relief camps set up in Kashmore, but are awaiting for relief goods and medicines. The district administration claimed that ‘treated water’ was being supplied to the affected people.

Shortages of food and medicines were reported from different villages of Ghauspur area. People are still stranded in villages of Dari, Khayas Bhayyo, Tori Bungalow, Jam Sanwaro Chachar, Dost Mohammad Sabzoi and Jangal Mirani. Fifteen people have taken shelter in a temple in Ghauspur.

Sukkur barrage’s chief engineer Haroon Memon said that late arrival of peak flow at Kotri upstream was because water had scattered in kutcha areas.

“But a peak of 700,000 to 800,000 cusecs will reach Kotri soon,” he said, adding that all main canals were getting their indented supplies.

Army officials rescued hundreds of people from kutcha areas near Bhai Khan Shobcho and Saeedabad in Matiari district, but a large number of people are still stranded in the area.

A young boy drowned near Bhanote bund in Kari Keti.