The Albania authorities are still coping with the aftermath of a series of huge explosions at an army ammunition depot that near the Albanian capital, Tirana. The first blast occurred as contractors were disposing of large stocks of bombs, shells and bullets dating back to the Second World War. A doctor treating the casualties told the BBC at least six people had been killed, hundreds more were injured. Here is our Bodkins correspondent Helen Fawkes.
More than 100 people were at the army depot when the first explosion happened, according to the office of the Albania Prime Minister Sali Berisha, he said that he feared that the number of those killed would be considerable. It appears that the initial blast set off a series of huge explosions which local media say were still being heard many hours later. It may be sometime before the scale of the disaster was known. Albanian officials claim it’s too dangerous to go near to the scene.
The police in the Pakistani capital Islamabad say a bomb exploded at a restaurant popular with foreigners. A Turkish woman was killed. United States embassy staff and a British diplomat were among the injured. Barbara Plett reports from Islamabad.(wWw.hxen.net)
The bomb exploded in the back garden of an Italian restaurant popular with foreigners, one of the few in the capital which serves alcohol. The blast went off at the height of the dinner rush. It overturned chairs and tables, blew out windows and left a crater in the ground. The injured included nationals from Japan, Canada and Germany, staff from the British High Commission and from the US Embassy. It’s not clear who did this, but a wave of bombings over the past year has been blamed on Islamist militants taking revenge for security operations against them.
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Partial results from the first round of parliamentary election in Iran suggest conservative allies of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will maintain control of the Assembly. But critics of the President within the conservative factions are also said to have made a strong showing in some areas. Reformist Iranian factions said they, too, have done better than they expected.
A court in Ukraine has sentenced three former policemen to between twelve and thirteen years in prison for the murder of a journalist Georgiy Gongadze eight years ago. The death of Mr. Gongadze who was a critic of the former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma caused widespread protests. His decapitated body was found dumped in a forest and those responsible for ordering his death have never been identified.
The Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan says a bid by the country's chief prosecutor to shut down his political party is against the will of the nation. He rejected the prosecutor's judge that the AK party which has Islamist rules was a threat to Turkey secular system. A member of the European commission Olli Rehn criticized the prosecutor's action, saying it was difficulty to see how it respected democratic principles.(wwW.hxen.net)
"The wills of the European commission has discussed the proceedings uNPRecedented by the chief prosecutor of Turkey against AK party. I'm saying that in a normal European democracy, political issues are debated in the parliament and decided through the ballot box, not in the court rooms. "
A large construction crane has collapsed in central New York City, almost completely demolishing a low-rise apartment building. At least four people were killed and several others injured when the fifteen-storey high crane collapsed without warning in midtown Manhattan. Rescue teams are searching through the rubble and have evacuated
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