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The maker of the explosives discovered aboard air-cargo services last week may have also supplied devices that targeted a U.S. airliner on Dec. 25 and a Saudi Arabian prince in August 2009, President Barack Obama’s top counterterrorism adviser said.

“The indications are right now, based on the forensics analysis, that it’s an individual who has been responsible for putting these devices together,” John Brennan said yesterday on ABC’s “This Week,” without naming the suspect. The bombmaker “is a very dangerous individual, clearly somebody who has a fair amount of training and experience,” he said.

Authorities are focusing on Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, the al-Qaeda bombmaker behind plots to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight and to kill the prince spearheading Saudi Arabia’s antiterrorism effort, said a U.S. official who asked not be named because the investigation isn’t complete.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told CNN Oct. 30, that the devices discovered last week appear to contain PETN, the same explosive substance found in the underwear of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who allegedly tried to take down the Northwest airplane.

The packages found last week in the U.K. and Dubai, both originating from Yemen and bound for Jewish synagogues in Chicago, triggered an examination of three United Parcel Service Inc. planes Oct. 29 and confiscation of a FedEx Corp. parcel. Both companies halted service from Yemen.

Sophisticated Bombs

The UPS bombs were sophisticated in their construction and in the way they were concealed, Brennan said yesterday on “CNN’s State of the Union.”

Investigators have to “presume” other devices may still be out there, though there is no specific evidence, Brennan told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Yemeni security forces yesterday released a woman who was arrested with her mother on suspicion of attempting to send two parcel bombs, local NewsYemen website reported, citing the woman’s father.

Authorities had taken the daughter into custody in Sana’a, the capital of Yemen, the defense ministry said in a mobile- phone text message two days ago. Abdulrahman Barman, a member of the National Organization for Defending Rights and Freedom, a Yemeni human rights group who said he represents the suspect, identified the younger woman as 22-year-old Hanan al-Samawi, an engineering student at Sana’a University.

Hundreds of Sana’a university students protested in solidarity with their arrested colleague. The students who gathered at the gate of the university said al-Samawi is innocent and has no connection with any suspicious groups.

Al-Qaeda Suspected

The attempted bombings appear to be the work of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the Yemeni branch of the international terrorist organization that took credit for the Sept. 11, 2001, airplane hijackings in the U.S., Brennan said.

The sophistication of the bombs “shows that it was an al- Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula effort,” Brennan said on the ABC program. “It’s not just these two individuals. We’re looking for a lot more.”

The parcel intercepted in Dubai included a computer printer with explosive materials hidden inside the ink cartridge and an electric circuit connected to a mobile phone’s SIM card, the United Arab Emirates’ state-run WAM news agency said, citing a statement from Dubai police.

Mobile-Phone Detonator

One of the two intercepted packages was set to be detonated by a cell phone and the other by a timer, said a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing. Authorities don’t rule out other potentially lethal packages having been shipped, the person said.

Brennan said authorities are pursuing all leads to find out more about the bombs. Police in Dubai said officials intercepted and defused one at a FedEx facility in the emirate on Oct. 29.

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula claimed responsibility for the Dec. 25 attempt by Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian, to blow up the Northwest transatlantic flight, and the Aug. 27, 2009, suicide bombing targeting Prince Muhammad bin Nayef bin Abdel Aziz, the assistant interior minister. The prince suffered non- life threatening injuries from the Jeddah attack.

Authorities also are “looking very closely” at whether the crash of a UPS plane in Dubai in September is related to the cargo-bombs plot, Brennan told “CNN’s State of the Union.”

Obama said he and his top intelligence aides concluded there was “a credible terrorist threat against our country” and pledged to “destroy this al-Qaeda affiliate” in Yemen. The president spoke Oct. 30 about the plot with British Prime Minister David Cameron, according to a White House statement.

Yemen Rejects Intervention

As police surrounded the house of Al-Samawi, the student, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh held a press conference to declare he wouldn’t accept any outside attempt to deal with al- Qaeda operatives in his country.

“We will not accept any intervention in our internal affairs,” Saleh said. “We do not want anybody to hunt down al- Qaeda, for we will chase down al-Qaeda wherever they are, using our own planes and equipment.”

Yemeni authorities expect to begin screening 100 percent of air cargo leaving the country, Mahamed Abdul-Kader, deputy chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority, told reporters yesterday at a conference in Doha, Qatar.

“We think Yemen is able to handle” security, said Saif al-Suwaidi, director general of the United Arab Emirates’ general civil aviation authority. “This could have happened anywhere,” al-Suwaidi said, speaking at the same conference.

British Response

British Home Secretary Theresa May said Oct. 30 that steps will be taken to stop all unaccompanied cargo entering the U.K. from Yemen after interception of a device at East Midlands Airport the previous day. The package seized was viable and could have exploded on board an aircraft, she said.

The U.K. threat level was at “severe,” though there was no indication “that another attack is imminent,” May said.

Authorities in Yemen were searching for more packages and had examined 24 suspect parcels in Sana’a, the Associated Press reported, citing a Yemeni security official.

The Oct. 29 discoveries triggered examinations of three cargo flights that landed in Philadelphia and in Newark, New Jersey.

Brennan notified Obama about the potential threat at 10:35 p.m. Washington time on Oct. 28, setting in motion a response that included the Central Intelligence Agency, the Homeland Security Department and the Federal Aviation Administration, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

Additional steps are being taken by the U.S. to screen cargo, Obama said in remarks at the White House. Brennan said it is “prudent” to ensure that packages from Yemen are “looked at very carefully, and that’s what we’re doing right now.”

The incident spurred UPS and FedEx to put an embargo on shipments from Yemen. The U.S. Postal Service also suspended acceptance of international mail originating in Yemen.

By bloomberg.com

Emirates and UPS cargo planes sit on the tarmac of Dubai airport on October 31. Photographer: Karim Sahib/AFP/Getty Images

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono visited the tsunami-hit islands

Hopes are fading for more than 300 people still registered missing after Monday’s tsunami in Indonesia, as the death toll climbs to 394.

Disaster official Ade Edward says the 3m (10ft) surge is likely to have carried many of the missing out to sea, or buried them in the sand.

The first major aid ships reached the worst-hit Mentawai Islands on Thursday.

The government has pledged millions of dollars for the relief effort, but activists say more needs to be done.

Aid agencies said people on the islands still urgently needed to food and shelter, three days after a 7.7-magnitude undersea earthquake triggered the tsunami.

Indonesia is also struggling with the devastation caused by this week’s eruption of Mount Merapi in central Java, which killed more than 30 people.

As the scale of the tsunami disaster became clear on Thursday, Mr Edward painted a bleak picture of the chances of finding more survivors.

“Of those missing people we think two-thirds of them are probably dead, either swept out to sea or buried in the sand,” he told the AFP news agency.

“When we flew over the area yesterday we saw many bodies. Heads and legs were sticking out of the sand, some of them were in the trees.”

He estimated that a further 200 people may have been killed.

Indonesia’s state-run news agency Antara reported that 468 houses had been completely destroyed by the wave.

Village chief Tasmin Saogo told the BBC’s Indonesian service that the islanders have begun to bury their dead.

“In the village of Sadegugung, there aren’t any body bags. In the end we just lifted them and we buried 95 people today,” he said.

“There are still may bodies lying about, underneath coconut trees and in other places.”

Meanwhile, the party of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has been trying to defuse a growing political row over comments made by one of its senior members

In comments translated on the Jakarta Globe website, House of Representatives Speaker Marzuki Ali suggested relocating people living next the sea, adding: “Anyone who is afraid of waves shouldn’t live near seashore.”

Rival politicians criticised his statement as insensitive, and the party has apologised.

Earlier, Mr Yudhoyono cut short a trip to Vietnam to oversee the rescue effort, flying in a helicopter loaded with food and other basic necessities to the remote and inaccessible islands.

Indonesian officials said locals had been given no indication of the coming wave, as a high-tech tsunami warning system installed in the wake of 2004’s giant Indian Ocean tsunami was not working.

The vast Indonesian archipelago sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire, one of the world’s most active areas for earthquakes and volcanoes.

More than 1,000 people were killed by an earthquake off Sumatra in September 2009.

In December 2004, a 9.1-magnitude quake off the coast of Aceh triggered a tsunami in the Indian Ocean that killed a quarter of a million people in 13 countries including Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand.

By bbc.co.uk

Survivors have been moved into temporary shelters

CAIRO– Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden threatens in a new audio tape to kill French citizens to avenge their country’s support for the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan and a new law that will ban face-covering Muslim veils.

In the tape obtained by satellite television station Al-Jazeera and then posted on its website on Wednesday, bin Laden said France was aiding the Americans in the killing of Muslim women and children in an apparent reference to the war in Afghanistan. He said the kidnapping of five French citizens in the African nation of Niger last month was a reaction to what he called France’s oppression of Muslims.

“How can it be right that you participate in the occupation of our lands, support the Americans in the killing of our women and children and yet want to live in peace and security?” said bin Laden, addressing the French.

“It is a simple and clear equation: As you kill, you will be killed. As you capture, you will be captured. And as you threaten our security, your security will be threatened. The way to safeguard your security is to cease your oppression and its impact on our nation, most importantly your withdrawal from the ill-fated Bush war in Afghanistan.”

The authenticity of the tape could not be immediately verified but the voice resembled that of the terror group leader on previous tapes determined to be genuine. France’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Tapes by bin Laden and his top lieutenant, Egyptian-born Ayman al-Zawahri, have recently been posted on Al-Jazeera website rather than on sites run by militant Muslims as has been done for years. The shift appears to reflect the unexplained technical difficulties or closures experienced by the militant sites in recent months.

France has about 4,000 troops deployed in and near Afghanistan.

“You need to think of what happened to America as a result of that unjust war,” bin Laden said, again addressing the French and referring to the war in Afghanistan. “It’s on the verge of bankruptcy … and tomorrow it will retreat to beyond the Atlantic.”

France passed a law this month that will ban the wearing of face-covering burqa-style Muslim veils in public starting in April. Many Muslims have expressed fears the law would stigmatize them.

“If you deemed it your right to ban (Muslim) women from wearing the hijab, then should not it be our right to expel your invading men by striking their necks?” bin Laden said.

Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, an offshoot of bin Laden’s group, has claimed responsibility for the abductions of five French citizens in Niger and is believed to have taken them to neighboring Mali. The French hostages, as well as a Togolese and a Madagascar national were kidnapped on Sept. 16 while they were sleeping in their villas in the uranium mining town of Arlit.

“The kidnapping of your experts in the Niger is a reaction to your oppression of Muslims,” said bin Laden.

Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb grew out of an Islamist insurgency movement in Algeria, merging with Al Qaeda in 2006 and spreading through the Sahara and the arid Sahel region. It has increasingly been targeting French interests.

In July, the group said it executed a 78-year-old French aid worker it had taken hostage three months before. It said the killing was retaliation for the deaths of six Al Qaeda members in a French-backed military operation against the group.

Also in July, the French military said it provided technical and logistical assistance to help Mauritanian forces thwart an attack by suspected Al Qaeda members in northwest Africa. It said the operation left six extremists dead.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy later described that operation as a “turning point” and said France would provide training, equipment and intelligence to local troops working to fight militants in the Sahel.

A series of warnings has put France and other European countries on high alert in recent weeks, prompting the U.S. State Department to advise American citizens living or traveling in Europe to take more precautions. Speculation on the source of a potential terror threat in France has focused on Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

By foxnews.com

Oct. 7: This image, made from a video broadcast, shows Usama bin Laden at an undisclosed location. The Al Qaeda leader threatened to kill French citizens in a new audio tape posted Oct. 27 to avenge their country's support for the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan.

The death toll from a tsunami that slammed the Mantawai islands off Indonesia’s Sumatra two days ago may rise as rescue agencies struggle with disrupted telecommunications and difficult search conditions.

At least 113 people were killed and 150 others missing, Mujiharto, head of the crisis center at the Health Ministry, said in a mobile-phone text message last night. The National Disaster Management Agency said 31 people were confirmed dead and 174 missing as of late yesterday. The agency received its information from the regional disaster office on Sumatra, Maryadi, a spokesman at the national agency, said by phone.

“The numbers may be different because information is coming in remotely at different times,” Mujiharto said today by phone in Jakarta.

The 7.5-magnitude temblor struck the Kepulauan Mentawai region of Indonesia, about 240 kilometers (150 miles) from Padang, the provincial capital of West Sumatra, and 640 kilometers from Singapore at 9:42 p.m. local time Oct. 25, the US Geological Survey said. The quake triggered a 3-meter (10- foot) tsunami that that reached 400 meters inland, the agency said yesterday.

A 7.6-magnitude earthquake in the same area in October 2009 left more than 1,000 people dead in Padang, many of whom were buried in mudslides and the rubble of collapses buildings. Less than a month earlier, a magnitude-7 temblor south of Java on Sept. 2 left 82 people dead.

A tsunami generated by a magnitude-9.1 earthquake off northern Sumatra in December 2004 left about 220,000 people dead or missing in 12 countries around the Indian Ocean.

By bloomberg.com

Women and children flee to higher ground in Padang, West Sumatra, on Oct. 25. Photographer: Rus Akbar/AFP/Getty Images

MULTAN, Pakistan — A bomb planted on a motorcycle exploded at the gate of a famous Sufi shrine in central Pakistan during morning prayers Monday, killing at least five people, officials said.

The blast at the Farid Shakar Ganj shrine in Punjab province was the latest in a string of attacks targeting Sufi shrines in Pakistan. Islamist militants often target Sufis, whose mystical practices clash with their hardline interpretation of Islam.

The dead from Monday’s blast included at least one woman, said Maher Aslam Hayat, a senior government official in the Pak Pattan district where the shrine is located. At least 13 others were wounded in the explosion, he said.

The bombing significantly damaged a row of shops outside the shrine, said Hayat. But the shrine itself, which is dedicated to a 12th century Sufi saint, was largely undamaged, he said.

Local TV footage showed the twisted and charred body of the motorcycle on which the bomb was planted. It also showed large piles of broken wood and chunks of concrete from the shops damaged by the blast.

After the attack, a top Sufi scholar, Mufti Muneebur Rehman, criticized the government for not doing enough to protect the Sufi population. Pakistan is 95 percent Muslim, and the majority practice Sufi-influenced Islam.

“Our rulers are too busy serving foreign masters and have not prioritized protecting the people and sacred places from terrorists,” said Rehman.

Earlier this month, two suspected suicide bombers attacked a beloved Sufi shrine in Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi, killing at least eight people and wounding 65 others.

A suicide attack in July killed 47 people at the nation’s most revered Sufi shrine, Data Darbar in the eastern city of Lahore. That attack infuriated many Pakistanis, who saw it as an unjustified assault on peaceful civilians.

The government has waged a sustained military campaign against militants based in its semiautonomous tribal region along the Afghan border who have declared war against the Pakistani state. But militant violence remains a problem.

A roadside bomb struck a passenger van in the Orakzai tribal region on Monday, killing three people and wounding two others, said Aurangzeb Khan, a local government administrator. The blast tore apart the vehicle, which was passing near the village of Tanda.

The Pakistani military declared victory in Orakzai in June after pounding Taliban militants in the area for months with airstrikes and artillery. But militant attacks and military operations in the area have continued.

Army helicopter gunships pounded suspected militant hideouts in Orakzai on Sunday, killing 15 alleged insurgents, said Jehanzeb Khan, another local government official.

By foxnews.com

Oct. 25, 2010: In this photo released by China's Xinhua news agency, people gather at the blast site in Pak Pattan, a city in Pakistan's Punjab province, early Monday morning

Gunmen sprayed bullets into a family birthday party in the violent Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez, killing 13 people and wounding 20, authorities said on Saturday.

It was the second massacre at a party this month in Ciudad Juarez, which borders El Paso, Texas, and is one of the world’s most violent cities as drug cartels battle security forces and each other over smuggling routes into the United States.

“I threw myself down on the floor and then a lot of other people piled on top of me,” a young man who survived the shooting late on Friday told Reuters, declining to give his name out of fear of reprisals.

The celebration was for a boy’s 15th birthday, he said.

At least four of the people killed at the house party were teenagers and a 9-year-old boy was among the wounded, officials said.

“A group of heavily armed men arrived in two minivans. At least 10 men burst into the party,” Carlos Gonzalez, a spokesman for state prosecutors, told the Reforma newspaper.

It was not clear whether the shooting was related to Mexico’s drug war, which has killed more than 6,900 people in Ciudad Juarez alone since early 2008.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon condemned the shooting, saying it caused “deep outrage.”

Calderon is under pressure to show the military-led campaign he launched against the powerful drug cartels in December 2006 is working. With the death toll at nearly 30,000 people over the last four years, Washington and foreign investors are on edge as the violence escalates.

On Saturday, a man used buckets of water and a broom to clean the blood-stained patio where the gunmen opened fire.

“I don’t know what happened. I was here with my son, who is a boy,” said the man, who declined to be identified.

Earlier this month in Ciudad Juarez, gunmen raided a party and killed six people. After that shooting, Calderon flew to the city to inaugurate parks and hospitals as part of the government’s plan to increase social spending and rebuild the depressed city.

By reuters.com

Forensic workers carry a body at a crime scene in Ciudad Juarez October 23, 2010. Credit: Reuters/Gael Gonzalez

An outbreak of severe diarrhea in rural central Haiti has killed at least 135 people and sickened hundreds more who overwhelmed a crowded hospital Thursday seeking treatment.

Hundreds of patients lay on blankets in a parking lot outside St. Nicholas hospital in the port city of St. Marc with IVs in their arms for rehydration. As rain began to fall in the afternoon, nurses rushed to carry them inside.

Doctors were testing for cholera, typhoid and other illnesses in the Caribbean country’s deadliest outbreak since a January earthquake that killed as many as 300,000 people.

“What we know is that people have diarrhea, and they are vomiting, and [they] can go quickly if they are not seen in time,” said Catherine Huck, country deputy for the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs. She said doctors were still awaiting lab results to pinpoint the cause.

The president of the Haitian Medical Association, Claude Surena, said his unofficial count based on information from doctors and hospitals in the region indicated as many as 135 people had died and 1,500 were infected. He said the cause appeared to be cholera, but that had not been confirmed by the government.

“The concern is that it could go from one place to another place, and it could affect more people or move from one region to another one,” he said.

Cholera, a bacterial infection that spreads through contaminated water, causes severe diarrhea and vomiting that can lead to dehydration and death within hours. Treatment involves administering a salt- and sugar-based rehydration serum.

Drank from public canal

The sick at St. Nicholas hospital have come from across Haiti’s rural Artibonite region, which did not experience significant damage in the Jan. 12 quake but has absorbed thousands of refugees from the devastated capital, Port-au-Prince, 70 kilometres south of St. Marc. Government figures list a total of 54 people dead and 619 ill, said Yolaine Surena, a co-ordinator for Haiti’s civil protection department.

Some patients said they drank water from a public canal, while others said they bought purified water. All complained of symptoms including fever, vomiting and severe diarrhea.

“I ran to the bathroom four times last night vomiting,” said 70-year-old Belismene Jean Baptiste.

Trucks loaded with medical supplies, including rehydration salts, were to be sent from Port-au-Prince to the hospital, said Jessica DuPlessis, a UN spokeswoman. Doctors at the hospital said they also needed more personnel to handle the flood of patients.

Elyneth Tranckil was among dozens of relatives standing outside the hospital gate as new patients arrived near death.

“Police have blocked the entry to the hospital, so I can’t get in to see my wife,” Tranckil said.

The U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince issued an advisory urging people to drink only bottled or boiled water and eat only food that has been thoroughly cooked.

By cbc.ca

People receive rehydration serum in the parking lot of the St. Nicholas hospital in Saint Marc, Haiti, on Thursday. Health officials say an outbreak of severe diarrhea has killed at least 54 and sickened hundreds more. (Dieu Nalio Chery/Associated Press)

China has evacuated more than 150,000 people and recalled more than 50,000 fishing boats to port as its southern coast braces for Typhoon Megi, state-run media said Thursday.

More than 150,000 people have fled for safety in Fujian province, the Xinhua news agency said.

Megi, which killed at least 11 people in the Philippines, is expected to reach Guangdong province Saturday, according to the Hong Kong Observatory. As of 5 p.m. Thursday, Megi was about 420 kilometers (261 miles) southeast of Hong Kong, according to the observatory.

Officials in China have issued the highest of four warnings, bracing for possible devastation in coastal areas such as Guangdong and Fujian, Xinhua said.

The warning allows local officials six hours to evacuate residents, close schools and airports, and recall vessels that are considered at risk.

Megi may be the strongest typhoon to hit China this year, Xinhua has said.

On Thursday in the Philippines, lawmakers placed the province of Pangasinan under a state of emergency, to help municipalities recover from Megi, which was known in the Philippines as Typhoon Juan.

The typhoon affected an estimated 258,844 Filipinos, leaving thousands homeless.

By edition.cnn.com

Fishing boats sit moored in a typhoon shelter in Hong Kong on October 21, 2010.

The United States plans to sell up to $60 billion worth of military aircraft to Saudi Arabia, the U.S. State Department announced on Wednesday in a move designed to shore up a region overshadowed by Iran.

Andrew Shapiro, the assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs, told a news conference the U.S. administration did not anticipate any objections to the sale from Israel, traditionally wary of arms sales to nearby Arab countries.

“We think it will enhance regional security and stability rather than diminish it,” Shapiro told a news conference.

The sale, which had been expected, includes 84 new Boeing F-15 aircraft and 70 upgrades of existing Saudi F-15s. It also includes 70 of Boeing’s Apache attack helicopters and 36 of its AH-6M Little Birds.

In addition, the deal will include 72 Black Hawk helicopters built by Sikorsky Aircraft, a unit of United Technologies Corp..

Shapiro said the total value of the package would not exceed $60 billion, although he emphasized that Saudi Arabia may choose not to exercise all of its purchase options during the program, which will last from 15 to 20 years.

Alexander Vershbow, the assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, said the United States had discussed the matter with Israel, and concluded that it would not undercut Israel’s qualitative military edge in the region.

“We have consulted with Israel as this sale has taken shape … based on what we’ve heard at high levels, Israel does not object to this sale,” he said.

‘DANGEROUS NEIGHBORHOOD’

Vershbow and Shapiro both stressed that bolstering Saudi Arabia’s own defense capabilities would improve U.S. security in a vital part of the world where fears are growing over Iran’s nuclear program.

“This is not solely about Iran,” Shapiro said. “It’s about helping the Saudis with their legitimate security needs … they live in a dangerous neighborhood and we are helping them preserve and protect their security.”

Vershbow said the sale would improve Saudi Arabia’s ability to coordinate with the United States on shared security challenges “so it means we may have to station fewer forces on a continuing basis in the region.”

U.S. and international concern about Iran’s growing military capability includes advances in a nuclear program the West believes is aimed at developing atomic weapons — accusations Tehran denies.

The United States has also flagged concern about Iran’s growing missile capabilities and has been quietly helping Arab states boost their missile defenses.

That includes the expected sale of the THAAD missile defense system manufactured by Lockheed Martin Corp to the United Arab Emirates. Similar talks are underway with Saudi Arabia.

U.S. officials are also discussing a possible deal to upgrade Saudi Arabia’s navy, which one official estimated could be worth an additional $30 billion.

By reuters.com

A Saudi air force jet flies in formation during a graduation ceremony for air force officers at King Faisal military college in Riyadh December 27, 2009.

At least 32 killed in multiple attacks in Karachi where recent unrest is raising fears of instability.

At least 32 people have been killed in shootouts in Pakistan’s southern city of Karachi, police have said.

In the deadliest attack on Tuesday, at least 13 people were shot dead when six armed men on motorbikes opened fire in the Shershah Kabari market.

“The attackers came on motorcycles and started indiscriminate firing,” Raja Riyasat, a police official, told the AFP news agency.

Several others were injured and Arif Razzaq, a second police official, said the death toll may rise as some of the wounded were in critical condition.

Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder, reporting from the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, said the scene of the attack was a scrap market normally frequented by labourers from other parts of the country.

“This would have been a busy area because in Pakistan, scrap dealers make a lot of money,” he said. “It’s a country where everyone cannot afford to buy brand new automobile parts.”

He said sporadic gunfights were ongoing in different parts of the city and had resulted 19 more deaths.

Election violence

About 60 people have been killed in Karachi since Saturday when violence erupted ahead of a by-election to replace a provincial legislator murdered in August.

It was not clear whether Tuesday’s attacks were related to that violence.

Our correspondent said the recent unrest stemmed from a political power struggle.

“For the last few months, various political parties have been battling for control of Karachi.

“The Awami National Party and MQM [Muttahida Qaumi Movement] are fighting what appears to be a turf war,” he said. The Awami National Party is MQM’s main rival for political posts and control of the city.

“The people of Karachi have been held hostage by these political groups.”

The MQM, which is the dominant political force in Karachi, has stepped up pressure on the government to stem the last days’ violence, saying its workers were among those killed.

Some sources said the MQM threatened over the weekend to pull out of the federal coalition government with the Pakistan People’s Party to protest the violence.

The move, which party sources say was put “on hold” on assurances of strong action to contain the violence, could lead to the government losing its National Assembly majority, or even its downfall if the MQM sides with the opposition.

Karachi has long been plagued by political and ethnic violence and there is concern that the city is being used as a haven for the Taliban. Some violence in the city is also linked to criminal gangs.

At the same time, Karachi is the commercial capital of Pakistan. It generates 68 per cent of the government’s revenue and 25 per cent of Pakistan’s gross domestic product.

By aljazeera.net

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Around 50 people have been killed in Karachi since Saturday when violence erupted ahead of a by-election [AFP