Pakistan plans to relax visa policy in bid to revive tourism
Reuters, Islamabad
Pakistan is planning to ease visa restrictions for visitors from 55 countries, including most European nations, in a bid to revive tourism that was devastated by Islamist violence in the fallout from the 9/11 attacks in the United States.
“We are reviewing our visa policies. We are trying to bring 55 countries into a visa-free region, which includes most of the European countries,” Pakistan’s information minister, Fawad Chaudhry, told Reuters.
Palestinian shot by Israeli forces dies
AFP, Gaza City
An 18-year-old Palestinian shot by Israeli forces died of his wounds Saturday, the fourth fatality in clashes along the Gaza border a day earlier, health officials in the Hamas-run enclave said. Ayman Shehr was shot in the stomach in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza, health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra told AFP.
Three other Palestinians, including a 16-year-old, were killed on Friday by Israeli fire during protests and clashes along the Gaza border, according to the ministry.
Iran executes businessman
convicted of fraud
AFP, Tehran
Iran today executed a trader known as the “Sultan of Bitumen” over charges of fraud and large-scale smuggling of the oil product, the judiciary’s news agency Mizan online reported. Hamidreza Bagheri Dermani is the third businessman to be executed since an anti-corruption drive was launched over the summer.
He was convicted of “corruption on earth”, Iran’s most serious capital offence, after swindling over 10 trillion rials (around $100 million at the current rate) through “fraud, forgery and bribery”, Mizan reported.
23 dead in Nepal student bus crash
AFP, Kathmandu
Twenty-three people died in western Nepal when a bus carrying school students and teachers back from a botanical field trip plunged into a gorge, police said. The students were aged mostly between 16 and 20. Two teachers and the driver also died in the accident early evening on Friday in a remote area.
The vehicle was carrying 37 people, with 22 killed at the scene and another in a nearby hospital. Fourteen people were treated for injuries.
