The bomber struck near the main gate of the Zalai Fort and the explosion occurred as Frontier Corps troops gathered nearby, said Major General Athar Abbas.

Day six of jury deliberations in the closely watched Venezulean suitcase came and went on Friday—without a verdict.

Jurors in the federal trial of a wealthy businessman accused of working as an illegal agent for Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez remain deadlocked, but will now return Monday morning to begin a seventh day of deliberations in the trial dubbed ``Suitcase-gate.’‘

U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard had told jurors to try to reach a verdict after they told her on Wednesday they could not agree on a verdict.

They are deciding whether Franklin Durán came to South Florida last year on behalf of the Venezuelan government to silence a business associate about a cash-filled suitcase intended for an Argentine politician.

The first account came from the police: In a September raid on a fourth-floor apartment in a crowded Muslim neighborhood, authorities stumbled upon the heart of a militant network behind a series of bombings.

They shot two militants, arrested dozens over the following weeks and gutted the network of much of its leadership, authorities bragged.

Then there’s this version: “It was fake, everybody here knows that,” said Shahabuddin Hafeez, who owns a small shop in the neighborhood known as Jamia Nagar. “They needed an encounter so the politicians could say they were taking care of the problem.” Around him, a group of men nodded. All agreed the shooting — an “encounter” in Indian terminology — was staged.

India has been wracked by deadly bomb attacks in recent years, which police blame on Muslim militants intent on destabilizing this largely Hindu country. Since October 2005, nearly 700 people have died in the bombings. And since May a militant group calling itself the Indian Mujahideen had taken credit for a string of blasts that have killed more than 130.

The Defense Ministry fired Gen. Toshio Tamogami, chief of staff of Japan’s air force, late on Friday night, only hours after his essay was posted on a private company’s Web site. The quick dismissal seemed intended to head off criticism from China, South Korea and other Asian nations that have reacted angrily to previous Japanese denials of its militarist past.

The decision will allow an estimated 500,000 children and grandchildren of civil war-era exiles to seek to return.

That number is believed to include 300,000 people in Argentina alone, Spain’s government says.

The European Commission says Croatia is on track to become the 28th member of the European Union, despite a wave of mafia-style violence.

A draft commission report seen by the BBC gives - for the first time - a timetable for concluding accession talks with Croatia by the end of 2009.
Provided it meets all the EU conditions, Croatia could join in 2011.

The report, set to be adopted next Wednesday, also calls on Turkey to resume political reforms.

After a wave of mafia-style violence, including the killing of a prominent journalist, Croatia has to show it is cracking down on organised crime and corruption.

Police said two cars and mobile phones used to detonate bombs in Assam had been traced to four men while the remaining two were picked up for possible links with the attackers.

A police officer said two of three cars used as bombs in Guwahati had been identified.

“One of the vehicle owners has been picked up for questioning,” said Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta, an inspector general of police.

... Most Indian Moslems are loyal citizens, and well aware that Moslems in neighboring states are worse off, politically and economically, than the Moslems of India. But Islamic radicalism appeals to the young and poor, and many seek to fight for the establishment of an Islamic religious dictatorship in India.

In Pakistan, the army and police have arrested thousands of suspected Taliban and al Qaeda during several months of fighting along the Afghan border. In Bajaur, nearly a thousand arrests have been made, and about a third of those were foreigners (mainly from Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan.) These captives have been an excellent source of information on the inner workings of the Taliban, which turn out to be not as well organized as was generally thought. ...