news digest

SW Pakistan bike bomb kills three

QUETTA, Mar 21: A remote-controlled bomb attached to a bicycle on Sunday killed three people and wounded 14 others in Quetta city, capital of the southwestern Pakistani province of Baluchistan. The blast, which targeted a senior policeman, occurred on a main road in Quetta. It killed the senior policeman's driver and a security guard as they drove past, but the policeman was not in the car at the time, police official Hamid Shakeel said. The vehicle was also badly damaged, he said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but similar bombings have been blamed on separatist, secular tribal rebels in Baluchistan. —AFP

Japan planning 14 nuke plants

TOKYO, Mar 21: Resource-poor Japan is planning to build at least 14 nuclear power plants over the next 20 years to reduce its reliance on other countries for its energy needs, a report said Sunday. The world's second biggest economy, which wants to double its provision for its fuel consumption, will make an announcement in June on whether it indends to press ahead with the plants, the Nikkei business daily said. Japan has few energy resources and relies on nuclear power from 53 plants for nearly one third of its domestic electricity needs. The government is eager to boost its energy self-sufficiency ratio, which stands at 18 percent at home and at 38 percent with government and corporate interests overseas taken into account, the report said. — AFP

Pak Taliban kill 4, calling

them US spies

MIR ALI, Pakistan, Mar 21: The bullet-riddled bodies of four Pakistani tribesmen, killed by the Taliban for allegedly spying for the United States, were found Sunday in a semiautonomous tribal region near the Afghan border, witnesses and officials said. Meanwhile, in the tribal region of North Waziristan, officials said the four dead men were kidnapped by the Taliban about 10 days ago. Gul Akber Khan, who lives in the village of Srakhula, just outside of Mir Ali, said he heard gunshots in the middle of the night. When he went to the mosque for morning prayers a few hours later, he found the bodies dumped along the road into Miran Shah, the main city in North Waziristan. — AP