Kabul, Afghanistan – President Hamid Karzai offered on Saturday to meet with the Taliban leader and give militants a government position hours after a suicide bomber attacked a military bus, killing 30 people – nearly all of them Afghan soldiers.
Karzai said he was willing to meet with Mullah Omar and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a former prime minister and factional warlord leader.
Meanwhile, four employees with the International Committee of the Red Cross, kidnapped last week while negotiating the release of a German hostage, were freed Saturday, the ICRC said. The four men said they were treated well.
Climber killed, others stuck in Himalayas
Lucknow, India – A mountain climber has died and more than 100 people were stranded in northern India’s Himalayas after heavy snowfall, an official said Saturday.
Authorities lost contact with the climbers Friday when their satellite phones apparently went down, said P.C. Dandriyal, an official in the northern state of Uttarakhand.
It had been snowing heavily in the mountains for more than 36 hours, and weather forecasters expected more snow over the weekend.
The trekkers included four Russian climbers, seven Germans and one Australian. The rest were Indians.
“Idol” slur on radio sparks riots
Calcutta, India – An angry mob set dozens of vehicles ablaze in riots after a radio host made derogatory comments about the winner of the popular television show “Indian Idol,” officials said Saturday. More than 60 were hurt.
The violence broke out Friday. Supporters of Prashant Tamang, the recent winner of the TV singing competition, took to the streets of the town of Siliguri in the eastern state of West Bengal to protest what they perceived as a radio host’s ethnic slur, said a police official. Tamang is an Indian citizen of Nepalese origin.
A new twist in thievery
Berlin – Police have arrested a man for taking more than
1 million screws from his employer and selling them online.
Police said the assembly worker at an unidentified firm squirreled away screws in a specially designed hiding place and took up to 7,000 home every day when he left work. Over a two-year period, he stole screws with an estimated value of $155,000.
