Four IM men plotting strikes in India in return for ISI hospitality

NEW DELHI: They had fled to Pakistan to escape the long arm of the law in India. Now, they are plotting terror strikes on India with unflinching regularity as a trade-off for their own safety.

Four top Indian Mujahideen (IM) operatives - Riyaz Bhatkal, Iqbal Bhatkal, Amir Raza Khan and Fayyaz Kagzi - have been enjoying Pakistani spy agency ISI's hospitality with a quid pro quo of carrying out attacks on their homeland.

The rein of IM's terror machines is in the hands of the quartet, who have been operating through their commanders, including head of India operation Yasin Bhatkal, in various Indian cities.

Besides, there are others who keep shuttling between Pakistan (mainly Karachi) and Gulf countries (Saudi Arabia and UAE) on Pakistani passports. Their job is to establish contact with Indians who have been working in those countries, and are tasked with developing them as unsuspecting conduits to send remittances to India. The funds are used for creating sleeper cells for plotting future strikes.

They have been working in sync with the charter of the IM that was set up by ISI as an Indian proxy of the Pakistani terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) to project to the world at large that terrorism in India is homegrown in both form and content. Consequently, most of the recruits in IM are Indians, who have been reporting to their bosses in Pakistan.

Indian security agencies, however, suspect that eight out of 15 key IM absconders continue to be in the country. "Couple of them must be in Nepal and keep coming to India," said a senior government official, adding India had shared dossiers on these fugitives with both Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

Though Saudi Arabia had cooperated and helped deport three terrorists, including Abu Jundal (26\11 Mumbai terror attack accused) of LeT and Fasih Mohammed (IM operative), Pakistan has been in denial over the presence of Indian fugitives on its soil.

Faces of terror

Amir Reza Khan: The mobster of Kolkata (36) who along with the American Centre attack convict Aftab Ansari and two Bhatkal brother - Iqbal and Riyaz - had formed IM and been instrumental in carrying out a numbers of attacks across the country between 2005 and 2008. After fleeing India, he used to operate from Dubai, Riyadh and Oman. But, later he had shifted his base to Pakistan and largely confined to Karachi under ISI patronage after an Interpol Red Corner Notice (RCN) issued against him.

Riyaz Bhatkal: An engineer by profession, the Karnataka-born terrorist (36) had lived in Kurla, Mumbai, where he used to run a tannery business of his father before turning to the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). He was known to Mohammed Sadique Israr Sheikh, a known criminal who worked for both Amir Reza and Aftab Ansari. He had fled India in 2008, when his name first cropped up in Bangalore and Ahmedabad blasts the same year.

Iqbal Bhatkal: Elder brother of Riyaz, Iqbal (44) is considered an IM ideologue, who was responsible for the August, 2007 serial blasts in Hyderabad along with his younger brother. He is a master in imparting instructions via electronic means to the terror outfit's cadres without leaving a trail. He is the one who has been supplying written\pictorial materials to the cadres to motivate them to carry out attacks on Indian soil.

Fayyaz Kagzi alias Abu Amir: He is the youngest (31) among the top four IM fugitives who have been running the show from Karachi. Originally a resident of Beed in Maharashtra, Kagzi was involved in a blast at Ahmedabad railway station. He had fled to Pakistan via Iran after his name cropped up in the Aurangabad arms haul case in 2006. Later, he had shifted his base to Saudi Arabia in 2008. He again moved to Pakistan when Saudi authorities had started cooperating with India in identifying and deporting Indian fugitives.

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Mediterranean-style diets found to cut heart risks

Pour on the olive oil, preferably over fish and vegetables: One of the longest and most scientific tests of a Mediterranean diet suggests this style of eating can cut the chance of suffering heart-related problems, especially strokes, in older people at high risk of them.

The study lasted five years and involved about 7,500 people in Spain. Those who ate Mediterranean-style with lots of olive oil or nuts had a 30 percent lower risk of major cardiovascular problems compared to those who were told to follow a low-fat diet but who in reality, didn't cut fat very much. Mediterranean meant lots of fruit, fish, chicken, beans, tomato sauce, salads, and wine and little baked goods and pastries.

Mediterranean diets have long been touted as heart-healthy, but that's based on observational studies that can't prove the point. The new research is much stronger because people were assigned diets to follow for a long time and carefully monitored. Doctors even did lab tests to verify that the Mediterranean diet folks were consuming more olive oil or nuts as recommended.

Most of these people were taking medicines for high cholesterol and blood pressure, and researchers did not alter those proven treatments, said one study leader, Dr. Ramon Estruch of Hospital Clinic in Barcelona.

But as a first step to prevent heart problems, "we think diet is better than a drug" because it has few if any side effects, Estruch said. "Diet works."

Results were published online Monday by the New England Journal of Medicine and were discussed at a nutrition conference in Loma Linda, Calif.

People in the study were not given rigid menus or calorie goals because weight loss was not the aim. That could be why they found the "diets" easy to stick with — only about 7 percent dropped out within two years. There were twice as many dropouts in the low-fat group than among those eating Mediterranean-style.

Researchers also provided the nuts and olive oil, so it didn't cost participants anything to use these relatively pricey ingredients. The type of oil may have mattered — they used extra-virgin olive oil, which is minimally processed and richer than regular or light olive oil in the chemicals and nutrients that earlier studies have suggested are beneficial.

The study involved people ages 55 to 80, just over half of them women. All were free of heart disease at the start but were at high risk for it because of health problems — half had diabetes and most were overweight and had high cholesterol and blood pressure.

They were assigned to one of three groups: Two followed a Mediterranean diet supplemented with either extra-virgin olive oil (4 tablespoons a day) or with walnuts, hazelnuts and almonds (a fistful a day). The third group was urged to eat a low-fat diet heavy on bread, potatoes, pasta, rice, fruits, vegetables and fish and light on baked goods, nuts, oils and red meat.

Independent monitors stopped the study after nearly five years when they saw fewer problems in the two groups on Mediterranean diets.

Doctors tracked a composite of heart attacks, strokes or heart-related deaths. There were 96 of these in the Mediterranean-olive oil group, 83 in the Mediterranean-nut group and 109 in the low-fat group.

Looked at individually, stroke was the only problem where type of diet made a big difference. Diet had no effect on death rates overall.

The Mediterranean diet proved better even though its followers ate about 200 calories more per day than the low-fat group did. The study leaders now are analyzing how each of the diets affected weight gain or loss and body mass index.

The Spanish government's health research agency initiated and paid for the study, and foods were supplied by olive oil and nut producers in Spain and the California Walnut Commission. Many of the authors have extensive financial ties to food, wine and other industry groups but said the sponsors had no role in designing the study or analyzing and reporting its results.

Rachel Johnson, a University of Vermont professor who heads the American Heart Association's nutrition committee, said the study is very strong because of the lab tests to verify oil and nut consumption and because researchers tracked actual heart attacks, strokes and deaths — not just changes in risk factors such as high cholesterol.

"At the end of the day, what we care about is whether or not disease develops," she said. "It's an important study."

Rena Wing, a weight-loss expert at Brown University, noted that researchers provided the oil and nuts, and said "it's not clear if people could get the same results from self-designed Mediterranean diets" — or if Americans would stick to them more than Europeans who are used to such foods.

Dr. George Bray of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La., said he would give the study "a positive — even glowing — comment" and called it "the best and certainly one of the largest prospective dietary trials ever done."

"The data are sufficiently strong to convince me to move my dietary pattern closer to the Mediterranean Diet that they outline," he added.

Another independent expert also praised the study as evidence diet can lower heart risks.

"The risk reduction is close to that achieved with statins," cholesterol-lowering drugs, said Dr. Robert Eckel, a diet and heart disease expert at the University of Colorado.

"But this study was not carried out or intended to compare diet to statins or blood pressure medicines," he warned. "I don't think people should think now they can quit taking their medicines."

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Online:

Journal: http://www.nejm.org

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Marilynn Marchione can be followed at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP

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Secret Vatican Dossier for 'Pope's Eyes Only'

Feb 25, 2013 9:05am

ROME – Pope Benedict XVI decided to keep secret the contents of an investigative report on the “Vatileaks” scandal, ruling that the only person who will get to see it will be the next pope.

The top secret dossier details the findings of an internal investigation the pope launch last April into the so-called Vatileaks affair, in which Benedict’s former butler leaked confidential documents stolen from the papal chambers.

Italian newspapers have claimed — without attribution — that the investigation revealed a sex and blackmail scandal inside the curia.

The Vatican spokesman today underscored that the contents of the dossier are known only to the pope and his investigators, three elderly prelates whom the Italian papers have nicknamed “the 007 cardinals.”

Pope Benedict met today with Cardinals Julian Herranz of Spain, Jozef Tomko of Slovakia, and Salvatore De Giorgi of Sicily in a private audience.

According to the Vatican, the pope thanked them for their work and expressed satisfaction with their investigation.

“Their work made it possible to detect, given the limitations and imperfections of the human factor of every institution, the generosity and dedication of those who work with uprightness and generosity in the Holy See,” read a Vatican statement.

The Vatican statement pointedly added: “The Holy Father has decided that the acts of this investigation, known only to himself, remain solely at the disposition of the new pope.”

Many here had expected the investigating cardinals, who are too old to participate in the conclave, would brief the voting cardinals about their findings.

Today Vatican officials clarified the investigating cardinals will be free to discuss their investigation with the other cardinals, as the voting members of the conclave seek to understand the challenges the next pope will face.

But the dossier itself will remain “For the Pope’s Eyes Only.”

SHOWS: World News

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Gloomy Italians vote in election crucial for euro zone

ROME (Reuters) - Italy voted on Sunday in one of the most unpredictable elections in years, with many voters expressing rage against a discredited elite and doubt that a government will emerge strong enough to combat a severe economic crisis.

"I am pessimistic. Nothing will change," said Luciana Li Mandri, 37, as she cast a ballot in the Sicilian capital Palermo on the first of two days of voting that continues on Monday.

"The usual thieves will be in government."

Her gloom reflected the mood across Italy, where many voters said they thought the new administration would not last long, just the opposite of what Italy needs to combat the longest slump in 20 years, mounting unemployment and a huge public debt.

The election is being closely watched by investors whose memories are fresh of a debt crisis which forced out scandal-plagued conservative premier Silvio Berlusconi 15 months ago and saw him replaced by economics professor Mario Monti.

"I'm not confident that the government that emerges from the election will be able to solve any of our problems," said Attilio Bianchetti, a 55-year-old building tradesman in Milan.

Underlining his disilluion with the established parties, he voted for the 5-Star Movement of comic Beppe Grillo.

An iconclastic, 64-year-old Genoese, Grillo has screamed himself hoarse with obscenity-laced attacks on politicians that have channeled the anger of Italians, especially a frustrated young generation hit by record unemployment.

"He's the only real new element in a political landscape where we've been seeing the same faces for too long," said Vincenzo Cannizzaro, 48, in Palermo.

Opinion polls give the centre-left coalition of Pier Luigi Bersani a narrow lead but the result has been thrown open by the prospect of a huge protest vote against Monti's painful austerity measures and rage at a wave of corruption scandals.

A weak government could usher in new instability in the euro zone's third largest economy and cause another crisis of confidence in the European Union's single currency.

Television tycoon Berlusconi, showing off unrivalled media skills and displaying extraordinary energy for a man of 76, has increased uncertainty over the past couple of months by halving the gap between his centre-right and Bersani.

"I am pessimistic. There is such political fragmentation that we will again have the problem of ungovernability" said Marta, a lawyer voting in Rome who did not want to give her family name. "I fear the new government won't last long."

Another Roman voter, lab technician Manila Luce, 34, said: "I am voting Grillo and I hope a lot of people do. Because it's the only way to show how sick to the back teeth we are with the old parties."

Voting continues until 10 p.m. (4 p.m. EST) and resumes on Monday at 7 a.m. Exit polls will be published shortly after polls close at 3 p.m. on Monday. Full official results are expected by early Tuesday.

Snow in the north was expected to last into Monday and could discourage some of the 47 million eligible voters. Authorities said they were prepared for the weather and in the central city of Bologna roads were cleared of snow before voting started.

TOPLESS FEMINISTS

Several bare-breasted women protested against Berlusconi when he voted in Milan. They were bundled away by police.

The four-time premier, known for off-color jokes and a constant target of feminists, is on trial for having sex with an underage prostitute during "bunga bunga" parties at his villa.

Most experts expect a coalition between Bersani and Monti to form the next administration, but whatever government emerges will have to try to reverse years of failure to revitalize one of the most sluggish economies in the developed world.

The widespread despair over the state of the country, where a series of corruption scandals has highlighted the stark divide between a privileged political elite and millions of ordinary Italians struggling to make ends meet, has left deep scars.

"It's our fault, Italian citizens. It's our closed mentality. We're just not Europeans," said voter Li Mandri in Palermo.

"We're all about getting favors when we study, getting a protected job when we work," she said. "That's the way we are and we can only be represented by people like that as well."

ECONOMIC AGENDA

Even if Bersani wins as expected, Analysts are divided over whether he will be able to form a stable majority that can force through sweeping economic reforms.

His centre-left is expected to have firm control of the lower house, thanks to rules that give a strong majority to whichever party wins the most votes nationally.

But a much closer battle will be fought for the Senate which is elected on a regional basis and which has equal law making powers to the chamber.

Berlusconi has clawed back support by promising to repeal Monti's hated new housing tax, the IMU, and to refund the money. He relentlessly attacked what he called the "Germano-centric" policies of the former European Union commissioner.

Think-tank consultant Mario, 60, said on his way to vote in Bologna that Bersani's Democratic Party was the only group serious enough to repair the economy: "They're not perfect," he said. "But they've got the organization and the union backing that will help them push through structural reforms."

Despite Berlusconi's success, Grillo has tapped into the same public frustration as the conservative tycoon and pollsters say his 5-Star Movement of political novices could overtake the centre-right to take second place in the vote.

Rivals have branded Grillo a threat to democracy - a vivid image in a country ruled by fascists for two decades until World War Two. Several voters who spoke to Reuters said Grillo was not the answer because of his lack of concrete policies and the inexperience of those who will sit in parliament for 5-Star.

"Grillo is a populist and populism doesn't work in a democracy," said retired notary Pasquale Lebanon, 76, as he voted for Bersani's Democratic Party in Milan.

"I'm very worried. There seems to be no way out from a political point of view, or for being able to govern," said Calogero Giallanza, a 45-year-old musician in Rome as he also voted for Bersani.

"There's bound to be a mess in the Senate because, as far as I can see the 5-Star Movement is unstoppable."

(Additional reporting by Cristiano Corvino, Lisa Jucca, Jennifer Clark, Matthias Baehr, Jennifer Clark and Sara Rossi in Milan, Stephen Jewkes in Bologna, Wladimir Pantaleone in Palermo, Stefano Bernabei and Massimiliano Di Giorgio in Rome; Writing by James Mackenzie and Barry Moody; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)

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Calls mount for US action against Chinese hack attacks

WASHINGTON: Calls mounted Sunday for stiffer US action against Beijing for cyber spying and massive theft of US industrial secrets, allegedly by the Chinese military.

Mike Rogers, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said it was "beyond a shadow of a doubt" that the Chinese military was behind a growing wave of hacking attacks on US businesses and institutions.

"They use their military to steal intellectual property from American businesses and European businesses, repurpose it, and compete in the international market against the United States," he said.

"It's unprecedented," he said on ABC's This Week. "And I'll tell you, it's bad as I have ever seen it. It's getting worse. Why? There's no consequence for it."

In the most detailed account yet of the cyber spying, a report this week by the Mandiant security firm said it traced back attacks by one group of hackers to a building on the outskirts of Shanghai that houses a unit of the People's Liberation Army.

The report said the hackers, known as "APT1" or "Comment Crew," had stolen data from at least 141 organisations across 20 industries.

Last month the New York Times and other American media outlets reported they had come under hacking attacks from China, and a US congressional report last year named the country as "the most threatening actor in cyberspace."

China has called the charges "groundless," and state media has accused Washington of scapegoating Beijing to deflect attention from US economic problems.

Eliot Engel, the top Democrat in the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said US lawmakers raised the issue with top Chinese officials during a recent visit to Beijing.

"And they just let it roll off their back. They pooh-pooh it. They don't admit to it," he said on ABC.

But he said it was "fundamental" to the US relationship with the Chinese.

"I think we have to make it very clear to them that this cannot be business as usual. If they're going to continue to do this to the extent that they're doing it, there's a price to pay," he said.

Rogers drew a distinction between cyber espionage to steal state secrets, which he said all states engage in, and the theft of blueprints and industrial secrets from US companies for economic reasons.

He said the United States should respond by "indicting bad actors," and suggested that Washington deny visas to individuals in China who are involved in the hacking and their families.

"I'm arguing let's start the indictment process to send a message to China that you cannot, if you want to be an international player, you can't act like a thief in the night," he said.

- AFP/jc

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PM expresses solidarity with blast victims

HYDERABAD: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday expressed solidarity with the people of the city, shaken by the twin bomb blasts in Dilsukhnagar on Thursday. After visiting the blast site and the hospitals where the injured were being treated, the PM lauded the people for refusing to be provoked.

Singh, who flew to Hyderabad from Delhi in a special IAF plane, paid a visit to Disukhnagar following which he met the injured at Omni and Yashoda Hospitals, and assured the families of the victims all help from the centre. "I have come to share the grief of the people of Hyderabad. I express condolence for the families of the bereaved and wish speedy recovery for the injured," Singh said after meeting the blast victims at the hospitals.

Before leaving for Delhi, the PM held a review meeting with chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy and his cabinet ministers during which DGP V Dinesh Reddy briefed him about the progress of the investigation into the case. The police chief is understood to have told the PM that six investigative teams have been formed and that the case would be cracked at the earliest.

Singh was received on Sunday morning at Begumpet airport by Andhra Pradesh Governor ESL Narasimham, the Chief Minister and his cabinet colleagues.

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FDA approves new targeted breast cancer drug

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Food and Drug Administration has approved a first-of-a-kind breast cancer medication that targets tumor cells while sparing healthy ones.

The drug Kadcyla from Roche combines the established drug Herceptin with a powerful chemotherapy drug and a third chemical linking the medicines together. The chemical keeps the cocktail intact until it binds to a cancer cell, delivering a potent dose of anti-tumor poison.

Cancer researchers say the drug is an important step forward because it delivers more medication while reducing the unpleasant side effects of chemotherapy.

"This antibody goes seeking out the tumor cells, gets internalized and then explodes them from within. So it's very kind and gentle on the patients — there's no hair loss, no nausea, no vomiting," said Dr. Melody Cobleigh of Rush University Medical Center. "It's a revolutionary way of treating cancer."

Cobleigh helped conduct the key studies of the drug at the Chicago facility.

The FDA approved the new treatment for about 20 percent of breast cancer patients with a form of the disease that is typically more aggressive and less responsive to hormone therapy. These patients have tumors that overproduce a protein known as HER-2. Breast cancer is the second most deadly form of cancer in U.S. women, and is expected to kill more than 39,000 Americans this year, according to the National Cancer Institute.

The approval will help Roche's Genentech unit build on the blockbuster success of Herceptin, which has long dominated the breast cancer marketplace. The drug had sales of roughly $6 billion last year.

Genentech said Friday that Kadcyla will cost $9,800 per month, compared to $4,500 per month for regular Herceptin. The company estimates a full course of Kadcyla, about nine months of medicine, will cost $94,000.

FDA scientists said they approved the drug based on company studies showing Kadcyla delayed the progression of breast cancer by several months. Researchers reported last year that patients treated with the drug lived 9.6 months before death or the spread of their disease, compared with a little more than six months for patients treated with two other standard drugs, Tykerb and Xeloda.

Overall, patients taking Kadcyla lived about 2.6 years, compared with 2 years for patients taking the other drugs.

FDA specifically approved the drug for patients with advanced breast cancer who have already been treated with Herceptin and taxane, a widely used chemotherapy drug. Doctors are not required to follow FDA prescribing guidelines, and cancer researchers say the drug could have great potential in patients with earlier forms of breast cancer

Kadcyla will carry a boxed warning, the most severe type, alerting doctors and patients that the drug can cause liver toxicity, heart problems and potentially death. The drug can also cause severe birth defects and should not be used by pregnant women.

Kadcyla was developed by South San Francisco-based Genentech using drug-binding technology licensed from Waltham, Mass.-based ImmunoGen. The company developed the chemical that keeps the drug cocktail together and is scheduled to receive a $10.5 million payment from Genentech on the FDA decision. The company will also receive additional royalties on the drug's sales.

Shares of ImmunoGen Inc. rose 2 cents to $14.32 in afternoon trading. The stock has ttraded in a 52-wek range of $10.85 to $18.10.

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Pistorius' Brother Facing Own Homicide Trial

The attorney for Oscar Pistorius' family said today that the Olympian's brother is facing a culpable homicide charge relating to a 2008 road accident in which a motorcyclist was killed.

Carl Pistorius, who sat behind his younger brother, Oscar, every day at his bail hearing, will now face his own homicide trial for the accident five years ago, which his attorney, Kenny Oldwage, said he "deeply regrets."

Carl Pistorius is charged with culpable homicide, which refers to the unlawful negligent killing of another person. The charges were initially dropped, but were later reinstated, Oldwage said in a statement.

Full Coverage: Oscar Pistorius Case

Pistorius quietly appeared in court on Thursday, one day before his Paralympic gold-medalist brother was released on bail, Oldwage said. His next appearance is scheduled for the end of March.

Liza van Deventer/Foto24/Gallo Images/Getty Images

'Blade Runner' Murder Charges: Oscar Pistorius Out on Bail Watch Video

Oscar Pistorius Granted Bail in Murder Case Watch Video

It was the latest twist in a case that has drawn international attention, after 26-year-old Oscar Pistorius, a double amputee who ran in both the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games, was charged with the premeditated murder of his model girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.

On Saturday, Carl Pistorius' Twitter handle was hacked, according to a family spokeswoman, prompting the Pistorius family to cancel their social media accounts.

Steenkamp's parents speak about the Valentine's Day shooting that ended their daughter's life in a sit-down interview on South African television tonight.

On Saturday, the model's father, Barry Steenkamp, told the Afrikaans-language Beeld newspaper that Pistorius will have to "live with his conscience" and will "suffer" if his story that he shot Steenkamp because he believed she was an intruder is false.

RELATED: Oscar Pistorius Case: Key Elements to the Murder Investigation

After a four-day long bail hearing, Pistorius was granted bail Friday by a South African magistrate.

The court set bail at about $113,000 (1 million rand) and June 4 as the date for Pistorius' next court appearance.

Pistoriuis is believed to be staying at his uncle's house as he awaits trial. As part of his bail conditions, Pistorius must give up all his guns, he cannot drink alcohol or return to the home where the shooting occurred, and he must check in with a police department twice a week.

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Fighting rages in northern Mali after suicide bombs

BAMAKO: Tuareg militias battled Arab rebels in northern Mali Saturday, while French jets, US drones and Chad's elite desert forces were also in action in a major push to stamp out resistance from pockets of Islamist fighters.

After recapturing the north's cities from the Al Qaeda groups that had controlled them since April 2012, the six-week-old French-led offensive took the fight to the retreating Islamist insurgents' toughest desert bastions.

The Arab Movement of Azawad (MAA), a group formed in March last year, said it had attacked Tuaregs of the Azawad National Liberation Movement (MNLA) at In-Khalil, near the northern town of Tessalit -- the same area where suicide car bombers killed three people on Friday.

Boubacar Taleb, one of the MAA's leaders, told AFP: "We attacked In-Khalil at 0400 GMT and took control of the area."

Fighting in the area, which lies near Mali's border with Algeria, had stopped late Saturday afternoon, said Mohamed Ibrahim Ag Assaleh, a spokesman for the MNLA based in Burkina Faso.

Assaleh claimed the MNLA, which has been cooperating with French forces to flush out Islamists from northern Mali, had fought off "jihadist fighters" from the "Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), the MAA and Ansar Al-Charia" rebel groups that are vying for control of northern Mali.

MNLA had taken nine prisoners, he said, "six who claim to be from Mujao and three from Ansar Al-Charia".

According to a source at the MAA and regional security sources, French airstrikes in support of MNLA hit an empty vehicle belonging to the MAA near In-Khalil.

France's campaign will receive a boost with the imminent arrival of several Predator drones and 100 military personnel sent by the US to Niger to fly surveillance missions in support of French forces in Mali.

Earlier Saturday, the Al-Qaeda-linked MUJAO claimed responsibility for Friday's bombings and said it was specifically targeting the MNLA.

"Through the car bombings against MNLA elements in the In-Khalil zone, the MUJAO is committed to pursuing jihad against infidels," group spokesman Adnan Abu Walid Sahraoui said in a statement sent to AFP in Bamako.

On Thursday, MUJAO also claimed an attack in the northern city of Kidal where a vehicle exploded near a camp occupied by French and Chadian troops.

The mountainous Ifoghas region between Tessalit and Kidal is strategically important, seen as a stronghold for many Tuaregs and used by Islamists as a hideout from French forces.

On Friday, Chad, which also has troops in Mali, suffered its heaviest losses so far after clashes with Islamists in the Ifoghas region. The Chadian army said 65 Islamist fighters and 13 of its own were killed.

French President Francois Hollande praised the courage of the Chadian troops which he said was proof of "African solidarity toward Mali".

Speaking at the Paris Agriculture Show on Saturday, he said: "Our Chadian friends launched an offensive that was very tough, and with significant loss of life."

"These battles will continue. This now is really the final stage of the process...," he said.

France sent in troops on January 11 to help the Malian army oust Islamist militants who last year captured the desert north of the country.

Since then, thousands of soldiers from African countries have also deployed, and France plans to start withdrawing its troops next month.

In Saturday's statement, the MUJAO spokesman warned that future suicide attacks are planned in Mali's capital as well as in the capitals of Burkina Faso and Niger, whose troops are part of the African force in Mali.

He also demanded that the groups holding French hostages in the Sahel region and in Niger kill their victims in revenge against France, which he accused of "staging a crusade against Islam and Muslims".

Seven members of a French family, including four young children, were seized by kidnappers in Cameroon on Tuesday and are believed to have been taken over the border into Nigeria.

France's foreign ministry on Saturday warned travellers to West Africa, and Benin in particular, to be on high alert for kidnappings and attacks.

French-led forces met little resistance during the initial offensive that drove the Islamists from the main northern centres of Gao, Kidal and Timbuktu.

Now, however, they are facing a guerrilla campaign that includes sudden raids, suicide attacks and land mines.

- AFP/jc

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Polls: Meghalaya, Nagaland witness high voter turnout

DIMAPUR/SHILLONG: Despite a boycott call by a militant outfit, Meghalaya saw a high turnout of over 85 per cent voters in the assembly polls on Saturday. In Nagaland, the other northeastern state to go to the polls along with Meghalaya, more than 83 per cent of the electorate cast their votes.

Defying the 36-hour bandh called by the Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) to keep people away from voting, a large number of voters turned up to cast their votes since morning. The HNLC, an underground outfit, has been fighting for a separate Garoland for a long time. "Polling was peaceful across the state," said Meghalaya CEO Prashant Kumar Naik. There were 345 candidates for the 60-member assembly. Compared to the Khasi and Jaintia Hills, the turnout was low in Garo Hills. The BSF had sealed Meghalaya's borders with Bangladesh to ensure peaceful polling.

Incumbent chief minister Mukul Sangma (Congress) cast his vote in Ampatigiri constituency of the Garo Hills from where he is seeking reelection. Opposition leader and contender for the CM's post, Conrad Sangma, is fighting on a National People's Party ticket from Selsella constituency. He is the son of NPP founder and former Lok Sabha speaker PA Sangma.

Meghalaya, a matrilineal state, saw more women than men waiting to cast their votes at the state's 2,485 booths. In stark contrast, the number of women contestants was just 25. Last time, only one woman had been able to win the election.

In Nagaland, voting was by and large smooth even though reports of violence poured in from different areas. Polling in one constituency was deferred because of the death of a Congress candidate. There are 60 seats in the Nagaland assembly.

"Polling was by and large peaceful in the state," said Nagaland chief electoral officer (CEO) J Alam. Voters turned up at poll stations about an hour before voting began at 7 am. In Dimapur, the state's commercial hub, miscreants opened fire in the air to disrupt polling at the Nagarjan Higher Secondary School booth. A similar incident took place at the nearby Mao Colony, too. Security personnel intensified patrolling in the Nagarjan area.

At Singrijan, 14 vehicles were damaged during a clash between Congress and Naga People's Front (NPF) supporters. Two persons have sustained bullet injuries.

There were also reports of minor scuffles between political activists at some places.

Chief minister Neiphiu Rio (NPF), who is eyeing a third consecutive win, cast his vote at the Tuophema Base booth in Northern Angami II constituency. "NPF is confident of crossing the halfway mark on its own. We will form the next government in collaboration with the BJP and the JD(U)," he said. Speaking on similar lines, Tokheho Yepthomi, Congress's candidate from Dimapur-III constituency, said, "We will emerge as the single largest party and form the next government along with other parties."

Repolling has been ordered in atleast three Nagaland booths following reports of damage to EVMs.

Election Commission officials said the percentage of voting might go up in the two states as reports from many remote booths were yet to arrive.

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