bomb attack on Pak court, two police officers killed

PESHAWAR, May 10 (agencies): A bomb attack targeting a court in northwest Pakistan on Tuesday killed two police constables including a female officer and wounded six other people, police said. "It was a bomb blast. Two police constables including a policewoman were killed and six others were wounded. There are two police officers among the injured," said Qureish Khan, district police chief in Pakistan's Nowshera district. The attack took place at the main entrance of the district courts in the town of Nowshera, about 35 kilometres (22 miles) east of Peshawar. The district courts are located close to several military and other government buildings. The target of the attack was the district courts, Khan said, adding that bomb disposal experts had informed him that a remote-controlled device was planted at the main gate of the district courts. A doctor in Nowshera's main hospital said they had received two dead bodies and six injured. There was no claim of responsibility, but Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants have been blamed for bombings targeting civilian and government security targets across Pakistan that have killed more than 4,240 people. Meanwhile: Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani is to visit China next week as Islamabad sinks deeper into a domestic and international crisis over the US killing of Osama bin Laden on its territory. Gilani will begin the four-day visit on May 17 and hold talks with Chinese leaders on "important bilateral and region issues", a Pakistani government official told AFP. In Beijing, foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu confirmed Gilani will meet President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao. "Leaders of the two countries will exchange views on bilateral relations and promote practical cooperation across the border as well as other issues of common interest," she said. The spokeswoman described China and Pakistan as "good neighbours, friends, partners and brothers". "We are satisfied with the status quo of our bilateral relations and we are full of confidence in the prospects of China-Pakistan relations." Pakistan's leadership has been all but paralysed since May 2 when elite Navy SEALs flew in, seemingly undetected, identified and killed bin Laden in the town of Abbottabad and flew off with his body. Pakistanis are up in arms at the perceived impunity of the raid, and are also furiously asking whether their military was too incompetent to know bin Laden was living close to a major military academy, or, even worse, conspired to protect him. In a speech taking veiled swipes at the United States and denying charges of incompetence or complicity over bin Laden, Gilani on Monday hailed China as Pakistan's "all weather friend" during an address to parliament. Meanwhile: Pakistan may let U.S. investigators question the wives of Osama bin Laden, a U.S. official said, a decision that could begin to stabilize relations between the prickly allies that have been severely strained by the killing of the al Qaeda leader. However, a senior Pakistani government official in Islamabad said on Tuesday no decision had been taken on the U.S. request. Bin Laden was shot dead on May 2 in a top-secret raid in the northern Pakistani town of Abbottabad to the embarrassment of Pakistan which has for years denied the world's most wanted man was on its soil.