The Death toll rises to 11 in flooding in Europe

WARSAW, Poland  The death toll in flooding in central Europe rises to 11 as Poland’s interior minister said Sunday that two more people had died in the southwestern region of the country.The flooding has struck an area near the borders of Poland, Germany and the Czech Republic.Heavy rains in Poland caused flooding in the southwestern town of Bogatynia and one person was already reported dead on Saturday.In the northern Czech Republic, five people were found drowned over the weekend.

Another three people drowned in the eastern German state of Saxony on Saturday. Several roads and villages there were flooded by swelling Neisse river and hundreds of people were evacuated with rubber boats by rescue workers from their homes in the city of Goerlitz.Polish Interior Minister Jerzy Miller refused to give details about the three deaths in his country because he said he wasn’t yet sure if their relatives had all been informed.

The worst-hit town in Poland was Bogatynia, where a bridge was destroyed and many were left without electricity and running water.It is the third time this year that Poland has been affected by flooding. A first wave in May was the most severe. It caused widespread damage to homes and killed more than 20 people.

In the Czech Republic, at least a thousand people had to be evacuated Saturday, some from areas below two dams threatened by rising waters. People in the towns of Chrastava and Frydlant were rescued by police and military helicopters from the roofs of their homes.Three summer camps for children were evacuated.(AP)

Pakistani military confirmed on Wednesday that the Taliban's top military commander Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar had been captured

ISLAMABAD The Pakistani military confirmed on Wednesday that the Afghan Taliban’s top military commander, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, had been captured.U.S. and Pakistani officials who declined to be identified said on Tuesday Baradar had been captured in the Pakistani city of Karachi in a raid by Pakistani and U.S. agents.”At the conclusion of detailed identification procedure, it has been confirmed that one of the persons arrested happens to be Mullah Baradar,” the military said.It declined to say where he had been caught or to give other details, citing security reasons.The capture came as U.S. forces spearhead one of NATO’s biggest offensives against the Taliban in Afghanistan in an early test of U.S. President Barack Obama’s troop surge policy.U.S. officials and analysts said it was too soon to tell whether Pakistan’s cooperation against Baradar would be extended to other top militants on the U.S. hit list.The arrest followed months of behind-the-scenes prodding by U.S. officials who saw inaction by Islamabad as a major threat to their Afghan war strategy.

Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik had on Tuesday declined to confirm Baradar’s capture, saying a large number of people had fled operations by NATO forces in Afghanistan to Pakistan and many had been picked up.He denied that there had been any joint operation by Pakistani and U.S. agents.Though nuclear-armed Pakistan is a U.S. ally, anti-U.S. sentiment runs high and many people have long been suspicious of the U.S.-led campaign against militancy and oppose any U.S. security operations in Pakistan.

“HE IS WITH US”A Pakistani intelligence official said security agents had been searching for Baradar in the southwestern city of Quetta, where the United States says a Taliban leadership council is based.

“Sensing that he might be arrested, he somehow slipped out of Quetta and into Karachi, maybe in disguise. That’s where we arrested him, about four days back,” said the official, who declined to be identified.”He is with us and is being interrogated.”Asked if the United States was involved in the questioning, he said: “Yes of course. We have that sort of cooperation with them.”Baradar’s arrest comes amid a renewed drive for peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban.Asked if the Taliban commander could help with any reconciliation process, the Pakistani agent said: “It might lead to that eventually … Anything is possible but so far we have not come to that.”Pakistan is anxious to have a say in post-war Afghanistan in order to limit the influence of old rival India there.Anger in Pakistan toward the United States has been exacerbated by attacks by pilotless U.S. drone aircraft on militants in lawless enclaves along the Afghan border.

In the latest strike, a U.S. drone fired a missile into the North Waziristan region on the Afghan border, killing at least three militants, Pakistani intelligence officials said.The drone targeted a militant compound in the village of Tapi, about 15 km (9 miles) east of Miranshah, the main town in the region, which is a hotbed of Taliban and al Qaeda militants. It was the second attack on the village this week.There was no information about the identity of those killed or of three men wounded in the strike, they said.Pakistan objects to the drone strikes, saying they are a violation of its sovereignty and complicate its efforts against militancy.The Pakistani army has made gains against militants battling the state over the past 10 months but it has ruled out a major offensive against Afghan Taliban factions on its soil, saying its forces are already stretched.(Reuters)

A blast at a gas station in a Damascus,Syria

DAMASCUS, Syria

DAMASCUS, Syria – A blast at a gas station in a Damascus suburb killed three people Thursday, gutting the back of an empty bus and blowing out nearby windows, officials said.

Syria’s interior minister, Said Mohammad Sammour, ruled out a terrorist attack.

Sammour said on state-run Syrian TV that the Iranian bus driver and two Syrian gas station workers were killed when a tire they were pumping air into exploded.

Witnesses reported seeing flames, but it was not immediately clear how the fire started.

The back of the bus, where the engine is located, was gutted and charred along with the rear seats. The worst damage appeared to be to the outside of the bus. The explosion also blew out the windows of a gas station office.

The blast happened in Sayyida Zainab, a Damascus suburb popular with Iranian and other Shiite pilgrims. It is the site of a shrine dedicated to the granddaughter of the Prophet Muhammad.

Syrian TV quoted Sammour as saying “there were no explosives involved” in the accident and that there were no pilgrims nearby.

Another explosive detonated near the site Russian train derailment

Moscow, Russia Another explosive detonated Saturday near the site of a deadly Russian train derailment, an incident caused by what authorities say was an “act of terror.”Investigators say an improvised explosive device caused the express train to derail on Friday night, killing at least 26 people and injuring about 100 others.”Elements of an explosive device” have been found at the site, authorities said, and the explosion made a small crater.Later Saturday morning, Russian Railways head Vladimir Yakunin told Russian TV that a second device went off in the area on the parallel track of the railway in the opposite direction. He said no one was injured in what was a smaller explosion than the first one, but it prompted the need for some repairs.

“One can say with certainty that that was indeed an act of terror,” Vladimir Markin, spokesman for the investigative committee of the Russian prosecutor’s office, told CNN about Friday’s derailment.He wouldn’t elaborate on exactly what kind of “elements of an explosive device” the investigators discovered earlier, but said the crater found beneath the railroad bed was “1.5 meter by 1 meter in size.”He said investigators were “studying the site of the accident, questioning the witnesses and conducting all kinds of forensic and technical examinations.”

Federal Security Service Director Alexander Bortnikov said “criminology experts have come to a preliminary conclusion that there was an explosion on Friday night of an improvised explosive device equivalent to seven kilograms of TNT.”Several leads are being pursued now. A criminal case has been opened under Article 205 (“terrorism”) and Article 22 (“illegal possession or storage of weapons or explosives”) of the Russian Criminal Code.”There was no immediate word on who or what group might have been behind the action. But Russian Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev said on TV that there were possible suspects in this crime.

“There are several people who could be involved in this crime,” he said. One of them, he said, is a “stocky-built man of about 40 years old, with red hair.””There are some traces left at the crime scene which could help in the investigation,” he said. “We are getting a lot of information now, and I am very thankful for people who have responded to our requests to render their assistance in investigating this crime,” he said.

“I would also like to say that we have (collected) a lot of material evidence that could give us leads to resolving the crime.”A total of 681 people — 20 of them employees were on the Nevsky Express as it traveled from Moscow to St. Petersburg on Friday night. The Nevsky Express is Russia’s fastest train, equivalent to a bullet train.The crash happened at 9:25 p.m. (1:25 p.m. ET), when the train was 280 kilometers (174 miles) from St. Petersburg, Russian state radio said.

At least three carriages carrying more than 130 people derailed and turned on their sides, and emergency workers were working to free anyone who may still be trapped inside.Yakunin told Russian TV that the company will pay a compensation of 500,000 rubles ($17,240) to the victims’ families and 200,000 rubles ($6,897) to those injured.

The crash happened 44 minutes after another high-speed train, the Sapsan, had successfully traveled from Moscow to St. Petersburg on the same rails, a representative of the Russian Transport Police said Saturday.In August 2007, an explosion on the tracks derailed the Nevsky Express, injuring 60 people in what authorities called a terrorist act. Some 27,000 passengers on 60 trains were facing delays on Saturday as a result of the derailment, Russian State TV reported.