Dozens die in Indian landslide, Pakistan blast

AN unknown number of people have been killed after a landslide triggered by torrential seasonal rains swept through a hilly region in southern India and a suspected suicide car bomber struck a congested traffic circle outside Peshawar.

The blast happened in Charsadda, which is located about 18 miles (29 km) north of Peshawar.

It occured just as Charsadda District Police Chief Mohammed Riaz Khan was leaving the area, and Khan told CNN he believes his convoy was the target of the attack.

The landslide, according to the Associated Press (AP) yesterday, demolished nearly 300 tin-roofed mud huts on Monday in the Ooty and Coonoor region of Tamil Nadu state.

The region is nearly 1,800 kilometres south of the capital, New Delhi. Rescuers found 14 bodies in the debris on Monday and another 28 yesterday, the official said, adding that eight injured people were hospitalised.

The death toll was expected to rise further with the rescue operation continuing in the region, an Indian official said.

Ooty is a popular tourist destination, but none of those killed or injured were foreigners, he said.

India's June-September monsoon season causes severe flooding and kills hundreds of people across the country. But the annual monsoon brings rains that are vital to agriculture in India. It is common for the southern parts of the country to receive heavy rains in November and December.

In recent days, Peshawar - the capital of North West Frontier Province - has come under increasingly frequent attacks. A suicide bombing at a police checkpoint on Peshawar's Ring Road killed at least three people on Monday. A suicide car bombing on Sunday killed 17 people in the city, including an area mayor.

On October 28, a massive car bomb tore through the heart of a bustling marketplace in Peshawar, killing at least 100 people and wounding at least 200 others. It was the country's deadliest attack in two years.

Pakistan has blamed the violence on Islamic militants who have vowed to avenge an intense military offensive to rout them from their haven along the country's border with Afghanistan.

Japan yesterday said it would give Afghanistan up to $5 billion in new aid, ahead of United States President Barack Obama's visit this week.

Tokyo and the Washington also agreed to set up a working group to examine plans to relocate a U.S. military base on Japan's southern island of Okinawa, a feud over which had raised concerns about the security alliance between the world's two biggest economies.

It is the first big test of ties between Washington and a new Japanese government that wants a more equal relationship with its closest security ally.

Hatoyama is expected to present the aid package to Obama, who is reviewing U.S. strategy for Afghanistan, at a summit on Friday in Tokyo. The aid would be delivered over five years.

The aid package, which comes ahead of a planned halt to Japan's naval refueling mission in support of U.S.-led operations in Afghanistan, will focus on civilian steps including job training for former Taliban fighters.

Television footage broadcast yesterday showed insurgents handling what appears to be U.S. ammunition in a remote area of eastern Afghanistan that American forces left last month following a deadly firefight that killed eight troops.

The U.S. military said the forces that left the area said they removed and accounted for their equipment.

Al-Jazeera broadcast video showing insurgents handling weapons, including anti-personnel mines with U.S. markings on them. The television station reported that insurgents said they seized the weapons from two U.S. remote outposts in Nuristan province. It was unclear when the video was filmed.

Nuristan was the site of an October 3 battle in which some 200 fighters bombarded a joint U.S.-Afghan army outpost with small arms, rocket-propelled grenades and mortar shells. Eight U.S. troops died - as well as three Afghan soldiers - in one of the heaviest losses of U.S. life in a single battle since the war began.

Meanwhile, the mother of a soldier killed in Afghanistan has confronted the British Prime Minister about an alleged lack of equipment.

Jacqui Janes had accused Gordon Brown of "insulting" her son Jamie, 20, by spelling his name incorrectly in a personal note of condolence.

When Brown phoned her to apologise, she challenged him over a shortage of helicopters, the Sun reports.

He told Mrs. Janes, from Brighton, he had "tried his best" for troops.