JAMRUD: A suicide bomber killed at least 50 people when he blew himself up in a crowded mosque near a security check post in Jamrud town of Khyber Agency on Friday.The attack came hours before U.S. President Barack Obama was scheduled to announce a new strategy for the Afghan war, an approach U.S. officials said would also recognise Pakistan as a key part of the conflict.Police, paramilitary forces and government officials were among the congregation in the mosque, about 30 km (20 miles) from the Afghan border. The bomber set off his explosives as a cleric began prayers."So far we have counted 50 bodies," Tariq Hayat Khan, the top administrator in the Khyber region, told Geo news, adding the toll could rise.Between 250 and 300 people were in the mosque and about 125 wounded had been taken to Sherpao, Lady Reading and other hospitals in Peshawar, he said."It was a suicide attack. The bomber was standing in the mosque. It's a two-storey building and it has collapsed," he said. Worshippers searched through piles of bricks, pulling out bodies and carrying them to ambulances in sheets and on rope beds.There was no claim of responsibility but militants had earlier threatened to blow up the police post next to the mosque, residents of the area said."It's surprising, those who claim that they are doing jihad and then carry out suicide attacks inside mosques during Friday prayers," Khan said."They are infidels. They are enemies of Pakistan. They are enemies of Islam," he said.
Friday, August 14, 2009 MUMBAI: A 26-year-old woman died Thursday of H1N1 swine flu in the southern city of Bangalore, raising India's death toll from the virus to 20, authorities said.The death was the first reported in India's information technology capital, the Press Trust of India reported.Meanwhile in Pune, the worst-affected in India, two more victims of the virus died Thursday, raising the death toll in that western city near Mumbai to 12, the report said. The victims were an 11-month-old boy and a 75-year-old old woman.US media reported movie halls, schools and colleges were ordered closed Thursday for three days to a week in Mumbai, the commercial and financial capital of the country, as fear of the pandemic spread.Prajakata Lavangare, a spokeswoman for the government of Maharashtra state of which Mumbai is the capital, said similar orders were issued in Pune, which is also located in the state.The woman who died in Bangalore was identified only as Roopa, a teacher in...
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