Many dead' in India bus attack

Maoist rebels have attacked a bus in central India, officials say, with many people feared dead.

Reports say the bus was bombed in Chhattisgarh state's rebel stronghold of Dantewada district, and that police officers were among those on board.

Officials told the AFP news agency that at least 20 people had died; other reports gave much higher death tolls.

The rebels routinely target security forces, and thousands of people have died in their decades-long fight.

Reports said the bus was carrying both civilians and police as it travelled through Dantewada district.

The rebels are said to have detonated a landmine, destroying the front of the bus.

Local TV stations reported that as many as 50 people may have died in the attack.

Worst-hit areas

Earlier on Wednesday, the bodies of six villagers were found with their throats slit in the forests of Chhattisgarh.

Maoist rebels had kidnapped the six on the weekend, accusing them of spying for the government.

Dantewada is one of the areas worst affected by the insurgency.

Last month, the district was the scene of the worst attack the rebels have yet carried out when 75 police officers were killed.

The Maoists, also known as Naxalites, say they are fighting for the rights of rural poor who have been neglected by the government for decades.

The Maoist insurgency has been described by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as the country's biggest internal security threat.

Somali pirates hijack Russian China-bound oil tanker

A Russian warship is rushing to assist an oil tanker bound for China which has been hijacked by Somali pirates.

Numerous pirate groups are holding more than 350 hostages

The Marshal Shaposhnikov was heading towards the Moscow University, which was attacked 900km (560 miles) off the Somali coast, officials said.

The 23 Russian crew on board are reported to have locked themselves in the ship's radar room.

Big prize

Shots were fired at the 96,000-tonne tanker from two speedboats in the dawn attack, the ship's owner said.

The BBC's East Africa correspondent Will Ross says the oil tanker is a big prize for the pirates who, based on previous hijackings, are likely to release the cargo and crew only once a multi-million-dollar ransom has been paid.

While the international war ships have prevented some attacks in the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden, it is widely felt that the solution to ending piracy is on land, he says.

Over the weekend an Islamic insurgent group took control of one of the main pirate bases on the Somali coast.

The pirates had already fled and our correspondent says is not yet clear whether this was part of a wider effort by the insurgents to stamp out piracy.

For now the pirates have moved towards other bases along the coast and at sea the hijackings continue, he says.

Numerous groups of pirates are currently holding more than 350 hostages as well as about 20 ships at various bases around the country.

Pakistani-American Arrested For Times Square Bomb Linked To Taliban?

Shahzad Faisal, a Pakistani-American, was arrested at John F Kennedy airport, a few hours ago, in connection with the attempt to set off a bomb in Times Square New York. The suspect is believed to have been trying to leave the country when authorities swooped.

Faisal, a naturalised American who had immigrated from Pakistan, had recently returned from a trip to Pakistan to his home in Connecticut which will be of major concern in light of videos received recently.

On Sunday the Pakistani Taliban released a video on the Internet in terms of which they claimed responsibility for the car bomb attempt on Times Square, New York.

In a second video, which was released by the Taliban in early April, their leader promised an attack on major U.S. cities "in some days or a month." The video does not make specific reference to the New York attack but the U.S. group monitoring terrorist traffic believes that the video is credible.

In the first video the Pakistani militants confirm that Times Square was revenge for the death of its leader, Baitullah Mehsud, and the recent slaying of al-Qaida leaders Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and Abu Ayyub al-Masri, in Iraq.

Police and FBI agents said that they were looking for a second suspect, a man filmed on a tourist’s video camera running from the car shortly after it was parked in Times Square on Saturday.

They also want to identify a white man, aged in his forties, who was videotaped on surveillance cameras removing a shirt and putting it in a backpack.

The authorities will not have missed the fact that Faisal is from Pakistan the home of the Taliban who are threatening to wreak havoc on the U.S.