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The death toll has risen to 30 following a massive terrorist attack in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore on Wednesday night, and the government of Punjab province has declared three days of mourning starting from Thursday, reported local media.

All the public and private institutions across the province will be closed during the three-day mourning, according to a statement issued by the provincial government.

More than 200 people have been injured in three blasts that went off among large crowds of Shiite Muslims marching in the city to mark the death anniversary of Ali, the son-in-law of Prophet Muhammad.

A Punjab-based terrorist group named Lashkar-e-Jhangvi which comprises Sunni Muslims have claimed the responsibility for the attack.

According to the reports, the first blast, which is a low- intensity explosion, took place at about 6:50 p.m. local time during a religious procession at Karbala Gamay Shah area of Lahore city, injuring a number of people.

All hostages have been freed after an armed man who held them in a commercial building in the U. S. state of Maryland was shot dead by police officers on Wednesday, local police said.

“Our tactical units moved in … They shot the suspect. The suspect is deceased,” Thomas Manger, police chief of Maryland’s Montgomery County, told reporters.

Manger said that all three hostages are safe and out of the Discovery Channel building in Silver Spring, Maryland, where the hostage-taking took place.

Manger, who had earlier refused to confirm the condition of the suspect, said the police took actions because the suspect pointed his handgun at one of the hostages.

Local police shot the suspect after more than two hours of telephone negotiations with him, ending a four-hour dramatic standoff which dominated coverage of major U.S. television networks throughout Wednesday afternoon.

The suspect, who was reportedly upset with the programming of the Discovery network, entered the Discovery Channel headquarters through the main entrance at 1 p.m. EST on Wednesday.

The man wore what appeared to be a metallic canister device strapped to his front and back and waved a handgun, according to earlier briefings by Manger.

Speaking to reporters shortly after the suspect was shot, Manger said the device may have been detonated.

Law enforcement sources identified James J. Lee as the suspect, saying that an investigation is underway.

Lee, 43, once protested outside the Discovery Channel building in February 2008, local officials said.

The president made the remarks as he was delivering a statement to the press in Rose Garden, which borders the Oval Office and the West Wing of the White House.

“This path is open to the Israelis and Palestinians,” Obama said, adding that the Middle East peace talks should help solve all final status issues and lead to a Palestinian state.

The U.S. government will host Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for direct negotiations starting on Sept. 2, the first direct talks between the two sides in about 20 months.

Since he took office in early 2009, Obama has made the Middle East peace process one of his top diplomatic priorities, as his administration believes solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict concerns the national interests of the United States.

“I urge Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Abbas to recognize this as a moment of opportunity that must be seized,” Obama said.

New York’s first responders, hospitals and emergency planners are taking precaution measures on Wednesday for the coming Hurricane Earl as heavy winds and rains are predicted this Thursday night.

The Office of Emergency Management in New York City is checking its supplies and evacuation center provisions for the first time since last year’s hurricane season. The agency has held conference calls with hospitals and agencies that visit the elderly and homebound to make sure they’re ready if Earl heads here.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center predicts Earl, now designated a Category 3 hurricane after dropping from Category 4 status on Wednesday, will head north along the East Coast around Thursday before curving back out to sea.

The center said a “dangerous storm surge will raise water levels by as much as three to five feet above ground level within the hurricane warning area. Near the coast, the surge will be accompanied by large and destructive waves.”

New York is particularly vulnerable to hurricanes because a storm could push water into New York harbor, inundating low-lying areas in all five boroughs.

An 1893 storm sent water lapping above elevated subway tracks in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, and a December 1992 storm that fell short of hurricane strength still inundated the subways and put a LaGuardia Airport runway under water.

French President Nicoals Sarkozy held phone talks with his American counterpart Barack Obama to discuss the recent developments of the relaunch of Israeli- Palestinian peace process, President Sarkozy’s office reported on Thursday.

“USA President Barack Obama called this afternoon the President of the Republic to inform him of the progress of discussions started yesterday in Washington as part of the resumption of direct negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians,” it said in a statement.

Sarkozy reiterated Paris support to Washington efforts to push further the stalled peace talks between Palestine and Israel, unveiling “the intention to take strong initiatives to help them to set a fair, balance and sustainable peace settlement.”

At least one person was confirmed dead in a small plane crash on Thursday in a lagoon in the Redwood Shores area in the U.S. state of California, local authorities said.

The plane, a twin-engine Beech 65 Queen Air, crashed around 11: 51 a.m. local time, just 30 seconds after taking off from San Carlos Airport, located about 30 kilometers south of San Francisco.

The body of a woman in her 40s has been pulled out of the water and rescuers believed more people may have been aboard the plane.

“It was quiet and then all of a sudden it sounded like a dive bomb followed by a deep thud,” Josh Butler, who saw the crash from his office, told Xinhua.

“When we looked up we saw it upside down in the water and as it sunk, pieces from inside the cockpit were floating around outside in a big oil slick,” Butler said.

India will test-fire the newly improved medium-range ballistic missile Agni-II+ around the end of this month to strengthen the aerial strategic deterrent capability, local media reported on Thursday.

The Agni-II+ will be launched from an interim test range on the coast of the eastern Indian state of Orissa by the Indian Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO), the Orissa government-run website Orissadiary quoted an official of the DRDO as saying.

The missile is a completely new version of the Agni-II with several advanced technologies adopted in its design. In comparison to its previous version, Agni-II+ has the extended range of 3,000 kilometers, bridging the gap between the 2000km-range Agni-II and 3500km-range Agni-III medium-range ballistic missiles, said the official.

Agni-II+ weighs about 17 tons with the length of 21 meters. It could carry a nuclear warhead of over one ton for long-range strike, according to the official.

Robert Gates, US Secretary of Defense, said, “Our men and women in uniform believe we have accomplished something that makes the sacrifice and bloodshed not to have been in vain. That we have accomplished, that our men and women in uniform have accomplished something really quite extraordinary here. How it all weighs in the balance over time I think remains to be seen.”

Fewer than 50-thousand US troops remain in Iraq. Their main role now is to help train Iraqi forces over the next year. But Gates said the United States would consider keeping some military forces in place beyond next year, if the Iraqi government requests it.