Germany closed Kabul embassy over security fears

BERLIN (AP)  - German officials say the country has temporarily closed its embassy in the Afghan capital due to fears of a possible attack.

Defense Minister Thomas de Maiziere said Friday there were indications of plans for an attack and that "precautionary measures are being taken," the news agency dpa reported. He didn t give details.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Schaefer said the embassy in Kabul is currently closed but he couldn t go into greater detail "for security reasons." It wasn t immediately clear when the embassy would reopen for business.

Germany is one of the biggest contributors to the international security force in Afghanistan. It currently has some 3,860 soldiers there, stationed largely in the north of the country.

German officials say the country has temporarily closed its embassy in the Afghan capital due to fears of a possible attack.

Defense Minister Thomas de Maiziere said Friday there were indications of plans for an attack and that "precautionary measures are being taken," the news agency dpa reported. He didn t give details.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Schaefer said the embassy in Kabul is currently closed but he couldn t go into greater detail "for security reasons." It wasn t immediately clear when the embassy would reopen for business.

Germany is one of the biggest contributors to the international security force in Afghanistan. It currently has some 3,860 soldiers there, stationed largely in the north of the country.

Archeologists discover pre-Christian religious monument

STOCKHOLM (AFP) - Swedish archaeologists said Friday they have discovered the country s largest Iron Age monument in Old Uppsala, a pre-Christian religious site in central Sweden.

The remains of two rows of wooden pillars appeared as researchers dug before the construction of a new railway line.

Lena Borenius-Joerpeland, archaeologist at the Swedish National Heritage Board, said the monument, found about 200 metres (660 feet) from an important Iron Age burial site, is likely to be from the 5th century.

The larger row stretches about one kilometre (0.6 miles), with 144 pillars, and the shorter one is at least half as long.

"We believe the pillars were high, maybe even up to 8 or 10 metres (26 to 32 feet)," said Borenius-Joerpeland.

"They were visible from a long distance and might have flanked the access to Old Uppsala."

Only some wooden remains of the pillars and the holes they were inserted in are left today.

The researchers have found horse, cow and pig bones in the postholes, which indicates animal sacrifices took place there.

Who built the monument and to what purpose remains unclear however.

"It could be a territorial mark or a religious demarcation," Borenius-Joerpeland said.

During the Iron Age, Old Uppsala was a major centre for trade, religion, handicraft and justice administration.

Swedish archaeologists said Friday they have discovered the country s largest Iron Age monument in Old Uppsala, a pre-Christian religious site in central Sweden.

The remains of two rows of wooden pillars appeared as researchers dug before the construction of a new railway line.

Lena Borenius-Joerpeland, archaeologist at the Swedish National Heritage Board, said the monument, found about 200 metres (660 feet) from an important Iron Age burial site, is likely to be from the 5th century.

The larger row stretches about one kilometre (0.6 miles), with 144 pillars, and the shorter one is at least half as long.

"We believe the pillars were high, maybe even up to 8 or 10 metres (26 to 32 feet)," said Borenius-Joerpeland.

"They were visible from a long distance and might have flanked the access to Old Uppsala."

Only some wooden remains of the pillars and the holes they were inserted in are left today.

The researchers have found horse, cow and pig bones in the postholes, which indicates animal sacrifices took place there.

Who built the monument and to what purpose remains unclear however.

"It could be a territorial mark or a religious demarcation," Borenius-Joerpeland said.

During the Iron Age, Old Uppsala was a major centre for trade, religion, handicraft and justice administration.

Saudi Arabia rejects UNSC seat

RIYADH (AP) - Saudi Arabia is rejecting its seat on the UN Security Council and says the 15-member body is incapable of resolving world conflicts.

The move came just hours after the kingdom was elected as one of Council s 10 nonpermanent members.

In a statement carried on Friday by the official Saudi Press Agency, the Saudi Foreign Ministry says the Council has failed in its duties toward Syria.

It says this alleged failure enabled Syrian President Bashar Assad s regime to perpetrate the killings of its people, including with chemical weapons, without facing any deterrents or punishment.

The Ministry also says the Council has not been able to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict over the past decades and has failed to transform the Middle East into a zone free of weapons of mass destruction.

Saudi Arabia is rejecting its seat on the UN Security Council and says the 15-member body is incapable of resolving world conflicts.

The move came just hours after the kingdom was elected as one of Council s 10 nonpermanent members.

In a statement carried on Friday by the official Saudi Press Agency, the Saudi Foreign Ministry says the Council has failed in its duties toward Syria.

It says this alleged failure enabled Syrian President Bashar Assad s regime to perpetrate the killings of its people, including with chemical weapons, without facing any deterrents or punishment.

The Ministry also says the Council has not been able to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict over the past decades and has failed to transform the Middle East into a zone free of weapons of mass destruction.

Thousands in Paris protest deportation of foreign students

PARIS, Oct 18, 2013 (AFP) - Thousands of students protested in France and shut schools across the country on Friday in continued demonstrations against the deportation of foreign pupils.

In Paris, organisers said 12,000 students marched in protest, some clashing with riot police. Police said 4,000 students took part.

Student groups said at least 170 high schools across the country were disrupted or forced to close. Entrances to about 45 schools in the Paris region were at least partially blocked, police said.

The protests began on Thursday after the high-profile deportation of a 15-year-old Roma girl, Leonarda Dibrani, and the expulsion of another 19-year-old student to Armenia on Saturday.

Amid rising anger, Interior Minister Manuel Valls cut short a visit to French territories in the Antilles, rushing back to Paris to deal with the fallout of the protests.

Sources in President Francois Hollande s government said it would make a statement about Dibrani at the weekend, after an investigation into how her expulsion was handled.

Valls said he would be given the results of the investigation on Saturday.

The Socialist government has raised the possibility of changing policy so that currently enrolled students cannot be expelled from France.

Much of the anger has focused on how Dibrani was forced to get off a bus full of classmates in the midst of a school outing before she was deported with the rest of her family to Kosovo.

Protesters were demanding that Dibrani and the other expelled student, Khatchik Kachatryan, be allowed to return to France to continue their studies.

At the Lycee Charlemagne secondary school in Paris s Marais district, rubbish bins were piled up in front of the entrance and a banner had been unfurled reading: "Charlemagne is mobilising for Leonarda and Khatchik".

"These are students just like us. They must absolutely be allowed to return to France," said one of the protesters, Heloise Hakimi.

"We are creating a movement that is growing in France to demand their return," she said.

Student groups said that as well as the Paris march, another 10,000 protesters took part in demonstrations in cities across France, including in Marseille, Grenoble and La Rochelle.

Some of the Paris protesters at one point threw projectiles at police but there were no serious injuries. Four people were arrested, police said.

Education Minister Vincent Peillon has urged the students to return to classes and stop preventing other pupils from attending school.

Some of the protesters have also called for the resignation of the controversial-yet-popular Valls, who has defended the expulsion and sparked anger last month by saying Roma migrants could not integrate into French society.

Dibrani was deported after being detained on October 9 in the eastern town of Levier, though her case only came to light Wednesday when a non-governmental organisation highlighted the incident.

Her family was deported after all of their formal requests for asylum were rejected.

The case has been complicated by revelations that Dibrani s father Resat had lied about his family s Kosovo origins to have a better chance to obtain asylum.

In an interview with AFP on Thursday, Resat Dibrani, 47, said only he had been born in Kosovo and that his wife and five of his six children, including Leonarda, were born in Italy.

Muslim pilgrims ritually stone devil as hajj nears end

Throngs of Muslim pilgrims took part in devil-stoning ritual for a second day Wednesday in Saudi Arabia's Mina Valley, as the annual hajj neared its end.

Around two million men, women and children from 188 countries are attending this year's pilgrimage, according to Saudi Arabia's public statistics office.

This is down from 3.16 million last year, after the kingdom cut the quotas over fears of infections from the MERS respiratory virus and because of massive projects to expand the capacity of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Islam's holiest place of worship.

The number of foreign pilgrims was 1.38 million compared to 1.75 million in 2012. Pilgrims said the stoning ritual, one of the most dangerous aspects of the hajj in the past, had proved easier to perform this year due to the lower numbers.

Engro Fertilizers Apprenticeship Training Program 2013

Engro Fertilizer Private Limited is Pakistan renowned industrial group for the production of fertilizers. This group has other plants relating to power and food.

Two Years Apprenticeship training Program




Engro fertilizers Pakistan has announced apprenticeship training program for following trades:-

1- Chemical Plat Operator
2- Mechanist. Mill wright,  Pipe Fitter, Auto technician, Electronics/Instruments, Electrician, Welders, Draftsman (Mechanical)
3- Laboratory Assistants
4- Inspection Technicians

Apply Online ate following web link:-

President, PM condemn DI Khan Suicide Blast

Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday condemned the suicide blast near the home of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Law Minister Sardar Israrullah Gandapur in Kolachi area of DI Khan on Wednesday, in which a number of persons were killed or injured.

Israrullah Gandapur also embraced martyrdom in the blast.

In a statement, the Prime Minister condemned the suicide blast and expressed his deep sense of shock and grief over the loss of precious human lives.

Plane crashed in Laos, 39 people killed

BANGKOK:  An aircraft crashed into the Mekong river in Laos on Wednesday and 39 people were killed, media reported.

A Lao Airlines plane on an internal flight from the capital, Vientiane, to the south of the country, crashed into the Mekong in the late afternoon, China's Xinhua state news agency said, citing the airline.

KPK Law Minister Israrullah Gandapur killed in suicide attack

DERA ISMAIL KHAN: At least 10 people, including Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Law Minister Israrullah Gandapur, were killed and scores of others wounded in a suicide blast here on Wednesday, police say.

The blast took place in Kulachi tehsil of Dera Ismail Khan at the residence of Israrullah Gandapur when he was greeting party supporters and workers as part of Eid celebrations.

The death toll could mount as many of those injured are in critical condition.

According to police, Gandapur’s brother has also been injured in the terrorist attack.

The injured have been shifted to city hospitals.

Gandapur was elected as member of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly from PK-67, Dera Ismail Khan. He later joined the PTI.

In a statement, Imran Khan strongly condemned the attack and directed his party-led provincial government to arrest those involved in the mayhem.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has also denounced the terrorist attack.