Gunmen kill 18 in bus ambush in northern Pakistan

Gunmen opened fire on a passenger bus in the northern Pakistani district of Kohistan in an apparent sectarian attack on Tuesday, killing 18 people, police officials said.

A bomb exploded at a bus station in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar

The attackers flagged down four buses, climbed on board asking passengers whether they were Shiite or Sunni Muslim, then dragged out the Shiites and shot them dead in cold blood, police said.

Another eight people were wounded, including two women and three children, in the attack in northern Kohistan district near the town of Harban, 130 miles (210 kilometres) north of the capital, said Kohistan police chief Mohammad Ilyas.

"The motive was sectarian. The gunmen were wearing army uniform, they were disguised as soldiers," Ilyas told AFP.

One bus and three minibuses were travelling from Rawalpindi, the city where the Pakistan army is headquartered, to the northern town of Gilgit.

"They checked the identity of the passengers, got the Shiites off the vehicles and shot them dead," Ilyas said. "The dead were all male."

Kohistan administration chief, Aqal Badshah, said 18 people were killed by eight attackers armed with Kalashnikovs and wearing military dress.

Human rights groups have heavily criticised the Pakistani government for failing to crack down on sectarian violence between the country's majority Sunni and minority Shiite Muslim communities that has killed thousands.

Local MP Abdul Sattar Khan linked the ambush to the murder of two Sunni Muslims a few days ago in Gilgit.

"The people of the area had vowed they would take revenge," Khan told AFP by telephone.

Authorities had been initially slow to confirm the motive and insisted Islamist militants were not active in the area. Kohistan borders Swat, where Pakistan in 2009 managed to put down a two-year Taliban insurgency.

Three bombs have targeted Pakistan's northwest in recent days, raising fears that violence linked to a Taliban insurgency directed against a government allied to the US-led war against terror is again on the rise.

More than 530 bomb attacks have killed around 4,900 people across Pakistan since government troops in July 2007 stormed a mosque in Islamabad where Islamist extremists were holed up, provoking a local Taliban-led insurgency.

Man arrested over vicar's murder

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  A general view of St Mary's Church in Thornbury, south Gloucestershire, where a clergyman was found dead in suspicious circumstances

Police have been given more time to question a 43-year-old man arrested on suspicion of murder after a clergyman was stabbed to death at his vicarage.

The Rev John Suddards, 59, was found with multiple wounds in Thornbury, South Gloucestershire, said Avon and Somerset Police.

As the community mourned, a senior clergyman said the murder should act as a warning - that when clergy open their churches and homes to people, they become "vulnerable".

The Ven Geoffrey Sidaway, archdeacon of Gloucester, said: "Sadly, this event highlights the vulnerable nature of parish ministry in some of our communities today.

"Many clergy on a daily basis open their homes and their churches to people and clearly that can put them in a vulnerable situation."

The alarm was raised by workmen who arrived at the building on Tuesday morning and realised it was locked.

Detective Chief Inspector Simon Crisp, who is leading the investigation, said: "I am in a position to confirm now that the body found yesterday in the vicarage was Reverend John Suddards.

"He suffered multiple stab wounds, and therefore this is now a murder investigation. A 43-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder."

Appealing for the help of Thornbury villagers, he said police "do not have a good understanding of his friends and family at the moment".

He said detectives were asking churchgoers to come forward to tell them what they knew about him, who visited him and who he associated with.

Families 'numb' over farm deaths

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  Gardai at the scene in Ballycormack, Bagnalstown, Co Carlow, where two related men have been found dead on neighbouring farms

The family of two brothers-in-law found dead on neighbouring farms in a suspected murder-suicide have been devastated and numbed by the tragedy, a local priest said.

Firefighters who battled for four hours to control a huge blaze at haysheds at Ballycormac House, near Bagenalstown, Co Carlow, found the body of George Rothwell, 71, at the large farmhouse where he lived alone. It is thought the award-winning cattle breeder and well-known local musician died from gunshot wounds. A firearm was discovered close to his body.

Several hours later around 9am, as the barns still smouldered, his sister Hilda found her husband Michael Jordan, 51, hanging in an outbuilding on their neighbouring farm. It is believed he had taken his own life.

A small amount of livestock was also killed in the fire while around 30 cattle were rescued from one of the barns.

Fr Paddy Byrne, a local priest, comforted Hilda and relatives at the scene.

"They are devastated," he said. "This is a very difficult place for anyone to find themselves to be, in terms of the tragic loss of life.

"There is shock, a numbness, an environment where people are trying to come to terms with exactly what happened."

Fr Byrne said both farmers were well-known and well-respected and he said of the close-knit community: "There's a sense of absolute numbness. When things you often hear about far away come to reality close by it's very difficult.

"It's a sad day for the area, it's a huge loss for the community and our immediate concern is to support the families and be close to them. We're trying to comfort and be there for them."

It is understood the Jordans had no children. Mr Rothwell, a bachelor and only sibling of Hilda, was a member of the Church of Ireland.