Eight Pakistani soldiers killed in cross-border attack

    More than 100 Taliban fighters crossed over from Afghanistan and attacked three Pakistani military posts Sunday night, killing at least eight soldiers, Pakistani military officials said.

At least 15 Taliban fighters were killed in firefights that followed the attacks in the district of Upper Dir in northwest Paksitan, Colonel Wasim Ahmed told CNN.

Pakistani Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told CNN the Afghan Taliban carried out the attacks. The Pakistani Taliban helped with reconnaissance and information before the attack, Ehsan said.

Three other Pakistani military officials confirmed the attack but asked not to be named because they are not authorized to speak to the media on the record.

Sunday's attacks were the latest in a series of cross-border assaults from regions in eastern Afghanistan where U.S. troops began pulling out last year.

In 2011, cross-border attacks by militants killed scores of Pakistani soldiers and increased tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Kabul and Islamabad have long accused one another of not doing enough to secure the border.

Washington has almost always sided with Afghanistan in the finger-pointing, often blaming some of the deadliest attacks against western targets in Afghanistan on militants based in Pakistan's mostly ungoverned tribal region.

Malaysian court: Iranian can be extradited to Thailand over Bangkok blasts

A Malaysian court has ruled that an Iranian man suspected of being involved with a series of bombs that went off in Bangkok in February can be extradited to Thailand.

Masoud Sedaghatzadeh is wanted by the Thai authorities for his alleged involvement in the Bangkok blasts along with several other Iranians.

It is not yet clear when Sedaghatzadeh will be extradited, as he plans to file an application to a higher court in Malaysia, seeking his release from prison.

The explosions in Bangkok did not cause any deaths, but the Thai authorities have said they were intended for Israeli diplomats. The devices used explosive materials that are not available in Thailand and were most likely smuggled in, the police have said.

The Bangkok blasts came a day after a device attached to an Israeli Embassy van in New Delhi exploded, and another device, found on an embassy car in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, was safety detonated.

Israeli officials blamed Iran for the attacks, but Tehran has denied the accusations.

On Monday, the Malaysian judge, Justice S.M Komathy Suppiah, ruled that Sedaghatzadeh be remanded in prison for as many as 15 days, pending an extradition order from the Minister of Home Affairs.

"In my view, the conduct of the respondent is inconsistent with that of an innocent man," she said, referring to Sedaghatzadeh. "I'm allowing the application for extradition and the respondent is to be detained in prison pending an order from the minister for his render."

The Malaysian prosecutor, Kamal Baharin Omar, said Sedaghatzadeh, 31, was arrested at Kuala Lumpur airport on February 15, a day after one of the bombs went off at a house in Bangkok.

Mr. Kamal said the Thai police had CCTV footage showing Sedaghatzadeh entering and leaving the house where the explosives were detonated.

He questioned why Sedaghatzadeh would leave the house and flee to Kuala Lumpur if he was not connected to the explosives.

"All the actions subsequent to the explosion do not show the innocence of the respondent," he said.

Sedaghatzadeh's lawyer, Mohamad Nashir Hussin, argued that the Thai police had not been able to show that the respondent was involved in the incident.

"There's no evidence that the respondent had any contact or had even seen the explosives in the house," he said.

Sedaghatzadeh, who was handcuffed and dressed in a polo shirt and jeans, told the court that he would file a habeas corpus, an application asking to be released from prison.

"I require more time to defend myself," he said through a translator.

The Thai authorities have detained two Iranian suspects in the case: Saeid Moradi, 28, whose legs were blown off by his own bomb; and Mohammad Khazaei, 42, who was taken into custody at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport as he tried to board a plane to Malaysia. Both are being held at a Bangkok prison until their next court appearance.

They and Sedaghatzadeh face charges that include joint assembly of explosive devices, joint possession of explosive devices without permits and causing an explosion injuring other persons. Moradi also faces charges of attempted killing of state officials on duty and the intentional attempted killing of other persons.

Two other suspects in the case are still at large, according to Gen. Pansiri Prapawat, the deputy national police chief who is heading the investigation into the bombings.

They are Nikkahfard Javad, a 52-year-old Iranian man, and Rohani Leila, an Iranian woman.

Thailand has issued an arrest warrant for the suspects and sent their names to Interpol's wanted list, Pansiri said.

Chinese women push for a place in space

On Saturday at 6:37 p.m. (6:37 a.m. ET), China is scheduled to launch its first female astronaut into space as part of a three-person crew.

Liu Yang will join Jing Haipeng and Liu Wang as part of a three-person crew aboard the Shenzhou-9 spacecraft, which, if successful, will conduct a historic docking with China's orbiting space module.

Like Wang Yaping, the other woman considered for the coveted slot, Liu Yang is married, in her early 30s and chosen among China's first batch of women astronauts because of her strong flying record and mental toughness.

The launch of China's first woman taikonaut (which combines the Chinese "taikong," or space, and the Greek "nautes," or sailor) into space would come exactly 49 years to the day that the former Soviet Union put its first woman, Valentina Tereshkova, into space.

It's about time.

Facebook now lets you edit comments

 

 

 We've all done it. Your friend uploads a picture of their new puppy to Facebook, and you somehow manage to leave a comment congratulating them instead on their "new pappy."

So what do you do? Until now, the only thing Facebook would let you do to correct the error was delete the comment and start again.

But starting Thursday the site is also now offering the ability to edit your comment — and change that pappy back to the puppy you intended in the first place. The edit option appears in the form of a small pencil icon on the right side of your comment. Clicking on the pencil will bring up a drop-down menu with the option to edit your comment as well as the option to delete it entirely.

Facebook told Mashable the site will also be "showing the editing history for a comment so that subsequent commenters or likers have the full context of the conversation." That way if someone responds to a comment that gets edited commenters in the future can see the history of the conversation and not get lost.

The editing ability went live on Thursday evening, and will be gradually rolling out to all users over the next few days.

Has the comment editing system kicked in for you yet? Let us know in the comments.

adjective clause

At a certain point in your writing in English, you should be able to identify every sentence you write as simple, compound, or complex.  Two additional structures, adjective clauses and appositives, will give you a much greater sentence variety within which to accomplish your writing objectives.  This page contains a small amount of information about adjective clauses along with just ten very difficult exercises.  First, we will define what adjective clauses are and how they work.

An adjective clause is a dependent clause that modifies a noun.  It is possible to combine the following two sentences to form one sentence containing an adjective clause:              

The children are going to visit the museum.
They are on the bus.

example:

The children who are on the bus are going to visit the museum.
                  | adjective clause |

In the sentence above, there are two other ways to write the sentence correctly using the second sentence as the adjective clause. 

The children that are on the bus are going to visit the museum.
The children       on the bus       are going to visit the museum.

Some other sentences can be combined into a sentence using adjective clauses in a variety of ways, and they are all correct.  Note the variety of ways in which the following two sentences can be combined.

article:

Against this backdrop, Murdoch's claims never to have sought to capitalize on that reach for his own benefit are disingenuous at best, Barnett said.

"Time after time, Murdoch insisted on denying that he ever used his newspapers either for commercial advantage or for political advantage, which is quite extraordinary -- and frankly as a claim is pretty ludicrous," said Barnett, who attended the hearing in London.

"When you look at the history of the way in which he increased his empire and the legislative and regulatory decisions that have been made in his favor, it just doesn't stand up to scrutiny."

In his role as chief executive of a multinational media giant, it would have been remiss of Murdoch not to seek the ear of power if it would benefit his shareholders, Barnett said, and his claim that he never did is "frankly beyond belief."

At the same time as Murdoch was testifying, Prime Minister David Cameron told the House of Commons: "I think we all, on both sides of this house, did a bit too much cozying up to Mr. Murdoch."

Going back to the Thatcher era, Barnett points to the government's decision not to refer Murdoch's acquisition of the Times and Sunday Times to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission, despite his ownership of other titles, as a prime example of things working in the press baron's favor.

 

India boycotts EU aviation carbon charge

Indian airlines are not going to pay the EU carbon charge, civil aviation minister Ajit Singh insists

Indian airlines will not comply with the European Union's (EU) carbon charging scheme, according to civil aviation minister Ajit Singh.

The EU has directed Indian carriers to submit the emissions details of their aircraft by 31 March.

But Mr Singh told parliament that "no Indian carrier is submitting them in view of the position of the government".

Last month, China said its airlines would not pay the EU charge.

Many other countries, including Russia and the US, have also objected to the scheme, under which airlines that exceed tight emission limits must buy carbon credits.

They see this as a tax on CO2 emissions from aircraft flying to or from destinations outside Europe and say it fails to comply with international law.

Brussels has insisted the carbon charge is essential if it is to meet its obligation to reduce emissions by 20% by 2020.

In December 2011, the European Court of Justice ruled that the EU charge was legal.

The charge, which the EU says could make long-haul flights up to 12 euros ($16; £10) more expensive, was introduced in January, though airlines will not have to start paying it until next year.

China to end organ donations from executed prisoners

China has pledged to end the practice of taking organs from executed prisoners within the next five years, state media report.

Officials say the country would instead rely on a new national donation system for organ transplants.

Prisoners account for two-thirds of China's transplant organs, according to previous estimates from state media.

Human rights groups say death row inmates are pressured to donate organs - China denies such allegations.

Correspondents say that China has long said it intends to reduce reliance on prisoners for organ donation, but the sheer volume of organs needed may make this difficult to achieve within the timeframe set out.

Official figures from the health ministry show that about 1.5 million people need transplants, but only 10,000 are performed annually, by state-run agency Xinhua says.

Huang Jiefu, vice minister of health, was quoted by Xinhua as saying that a trial system for public organ donation has been launched in some areas.

"The pledge to abolish organ donations from condemned prisoners represents the resolve of the government," he said.

He added that organ donations from prisoners were not ideal because infections are usually high, affecting the long-term survival rates of those who undergo the transplants.

Rights groups estimate that China puts to death thousands of prisoners a year.

Official figures, however, remain a state secret, according to the BBC's Martin Patience in Beijing.

He adds that the country faces a severe shortage of organ donors, partly because many people do not want to donate organs due to the cultural belief of that they should be buried whole.

This has led to a thriving black market. Officials outlawed organ trafficking five years ago, but it still remains a problem.

The Red Cross Society of China has also said that guidelines would be issued regarding financial aid to families of the deceased organ donors to help curb the illegal organ trade.