It is twenty-three hours thirty Universal Time and here is the news in Special English. ▼ Pakistani officials say a car bombing at a police headquarters in northwest Pakistan has killed at least twenty people. More than fifty others were wounded. The explosion took place in the town of Kohat in Kyber-Paktunkhwa province. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack. But a Pakistani Taliban spokesman said Tuesday that the militant group will attack security forces. Officials say the attack took place as families were eating a meal as part of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. A local police chief said the powerful explosion destroyed homes in the area and many women and children were among the victims.
American actress Angelina Jolie visited Pakistan Tuesday and asked for more international help for the people of that country. Ms Jolie is a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Refugee Agency. She met with Afghan refugees, Pakistani flood victims and aid workers in the northwestern province of Kyber-Paktunkhwa. The actress said the flooding is something that the world cannot ignore.
Pakistan has released one hundred forty-one Indian fishermen who had been charged with illegally crossing into its territorial waters. The men were the last of four hundred fishermen to be released to India. A three-member delegation from Pakistan is in India seeking the release of over one hundred Pakistani fishermen.
The head of American and NATO forces in Afghanistan has criticized a plan by an American religious group to burn the Muslim holy book on September eleventh. General David Petraeus said the plan to burn copies of the Quran on the ninth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the United States could help the propaganda aims of the Taliban. He said it could incite anti-American feelings, not only in Afghanistan, but across the Muslim world. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said during a visit to Washington that such acts could harm the security of troops. The Obama administration has said the plan of the Dove World Outreach Center should not take place. Clergyman Terry Jones and his followers plan to burn the Qurans although local officials in Florida have denied them permits to do so.
Two American soldiers were killed in northern Iraq and nine others wounded when a gunman wearing an Iraqi army uniform opened fire on them. The United States military says the attacker was shot and killed. The American soldiers were guarding one of their commanders. An Iraqi Defense Ministry spokesman says the attacker was a soldier in the Iraqi army. He says the attack happened after an argument. The attack took place at an Iraqi army base near the city of Tuz Khormato in Salah ad-Din province. The two deaths were the first for the American military in Iraq since President Obama announced last month that combat operations there had ended. About fifty thousand American soldiers remain in Iraq to train Iraqi security forces.
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Iran says it is increasing the amount of gasoline it makes to fight measures put in place by other countries. Oil minister Masoud Mir Kazemi says his country has increased its production of gasoline by fifty percent over the past few weeks. He did not say how that had been done. Iran is one of the world's largest exporters of oil, but the country has been importing up to forty percent of its gasoline because it lacks centers for refining or purifying oil. Earlier this year, the United States and the European Union announced measures to reduce the amount of gasoline shipped to Iran. That happened after the United Nations Security Council approved a resolution against Iran for its refusal to stop uranium enrichment.
Gunmen have attacked a prison in northern Nigeria that is holding suspected members of an extremist Islamic group. Police say gunmen fired on the Bauchi Prison Tuesday evening. It is not known if any prisoners were freed or if anyone was injured in the attack. Police say they believe the gunmen were members of the Boko Haram group. They say the attackers were attempting to free members of their group.
A human rights group is calling for China to release two Tibetan reporters arrested in June after they wrote about protests in Tibet. Reporters Without Borders says Buddha and Kalsang Jinpa wrote for the Tibetan magazine Shar Dhung-Ri. They wrote about protests in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, in March two thousand eight. The men were arrested in the city of Xining in Qinghai province and accused of separatism.
Sales of passenger cars in China increased eighteen percent in August from the same period last year. Government aid and price cuts helped dealers sell more than one million cars in the month. China is the world's biggest car market. The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers says a record ten million vehicles may be sold in China this year.
Top American health officials say one in five American adults smokes although the dangers of smoking are well known. A report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says more men than women smoke in the United States and more than thirty percent of smokers are poor. The CDC says more than ninety million non-smokers have measurable levels of poisonous chemicals in their bodies from cigarette smoke. Thomas Freiden says smoking remains the leading preventable cause of death among Americans. ▲ And now briefly, here again is the major news of the hour.
Pakistani officials say a car bombing at a police headquarters in northwest Pakistan has killed at least twenty people. The head of American and NATO forces in Afghanistan has criticized a plan by an American religious group to burn copies of the Quran on September eleventh. And, two American soldiers were killed in northern Iraq, nine others wounded, when a gunman wearing an Iraqi army uniform opened fire on them.
That's the news in VOA Special English from Washington. Source: VOA Special English September 7, 2010 2330UTC
