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Friday, February 27, 2009

Zardari leading nation toward mid-term polls: Nawaz

LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-N chief Mian Nawaz Sharif has said that President Asif Ali Zardari wants to drag the nation toward mid-term elections. In an exclusive interview with Geo News today (Friday) after his disqualification, Nawaz Sharif said that no third force could come into power if the government showed maturity and responsibility. “I will not come in their way if President Zardari restores the deposed judges,” he said. He further said that Zardari had backed out from the promises he made with his Nawaz League. The democratic revolution could rise in the days to come and it must happen, he added. Former prime minister said that deposed judges were not being restored due to the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO).  “We have not closed the door to contact the Prime Minister,” he said.Mr. Sharif said that President Zardari should become the descendant of Benazir Bhutto, not of former president Pervez Musharraf.

Rice: U.S. will seek to end any 'illicit' nuclear ambitions by Iran


UNITED NATIONS The Obama administration will work to stop any "illicit" nuclear aspirations by Iran, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice told the U.N. Security Council on Thursday.Rice spoke briefly about Iran in her speech, which was primarily focused on the Obama administration's approach to Iraq and its people. She called on the international community to provide greater support to the millions of Iraqi refugees who have been displaced because of the war. Her comments on Iran came toward the end of her speech, when she mentioned that the United States plans to pursue a "comprehensive strategy" in the Middle East, including relations with Syria, Israel and the Palestinian people. The United States "will seek to end Iran's ambition to acquire an illicit nuclear capability and its support for terrorism," Rice said. President Barack Obama has said the United States is looking for opportunities for "face to face" dialogue with Iran, though he has "deep concerns" about Tehran's actions.

For sale: One life in China

BEIJING, China Chen Xiao had pretty much given up making her own decisions and so decided to throw open her life to the whims of China's hundreds of millions of Internet users, known in China as netizens."It's your right to arrange Chen Xiao's life, and it's my obligation to serve you," read her online shop.Since December, Chen has been allowing others to decide what she will do each day, because, for the most part, last year was awful, she said. Her hometown was hit by blizzards, her country rocked by a devastating earthquake, friends divorced and her clothing shop went bankrupt. "Every time I had a plan for what I wanted my life to be like, nothing would come of it. It was very disappointing. I figured if other people came up with things for me to do, I might stumble upon something new and better,"

Pakistan paid Taliban $6 million for the cease fire

US Policy On Pakistan As The Paki Army-ISI Capitulated (?!) To Swat Taliban (t9:11!!)

West Indies v England 4th Test

Barbados: Strauss (142) was dropped on 58 but made an eye-catching 16th Test century as he and Cook (94) put on 229.

But West Indies fought hard and took the morale-boosting wickets of Strauss, Cook and Owais Shah (7) after tea.

Kevin Pietersen was joined by Paul Collingwood and the pair led England to 301-3 at stumps on day one in Barbados.

England should be pleased with their position going into day two but they must hope Pietersen (32no) and Collingwood (11no) can guide them towards an imposing total.

Clinton promises team effort on Afghanistan, Pakistan

WASHINGTON Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pledged Thursday to work closely with Afghanistan and Pakistan as a team to root out extremism within their borders.Clinton met this week with Pakistani Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin D. Spanta, who were in Washington leading delegations for a strategic review of U.S. policy to stabilize Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan. Clinton hailed the three days of talks as "in-depth, very specific, open, forthright and, I believe, extremely useful." "If we had met with our Pakistani friends, if we had met with our friends from Afghanistan, that would have been important. But what makes these last three days especially meaningful is that they were trilateral," she said. "We have all been working together."

Afghanistan + More Troops = Catastrophe (Full Video)

Obama to pull combat troops from Iraq by August 2010

WASHINGTON President Obama told congressional leaders Thursday he's planning to pull all combat troops out of Iraq by August 2010, which falls short of his campaign promise to bring all combat forces home within 16 months, according to three congressional officials.Under this scenario, all combat troops will be withdrawn within 19 months of Obama's January inauguration, three months longer than his promise on the campaign trail. In a meeting at the White House Thursday evening, Obama also told lawmakers that he plans to keep a range of 35,000 to 50,000 support troops on the ground in Iraq after combat troops are out, the officials said. All U.S. troops have to be out of Iraq by December 31, 2011, under an agreement the Bush administration signed with the Iraqi government last year. White House officials confirmed the president will deliver a speech about Iraq to troops at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina on Friday, his first visit to a military base since being sworn into office.

Bangladesh Mutiny Ends After Tanks Enter Capital

Blaze erupts at Marriott Hotel in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan A fire broke out at a major international hotel in Pakistan's capital Islamabad Thursday, five months after it was hit by a deadly suicide bombing.Smoke could be seen pouring from the upscale Marriott Hotel, close to the country's presidential palace. Reports said five people were evacuated with injuries following the blaze, which came two months after the hotel was reopened following repairs to the bomb damage. The suicide bombing at the hotel in September 2008 left 57 people dead in what officials called the biggest attack in the country in seven years.Reports said Thursday's fire broke out on the second floor of the building where repair work was underway. The hotel is now surrounded by a large bomb-proof wall and extra security has been put in place to prevent further attacks. 

Ice in East Antarctica a Bigger Threat Long Term

TROLL RESEARCH STATION, Antarctica —  Antarctica's western ice sheet is pushing ever faster into the sea, but scientists know an even greater long-term threat lies here in the vast, little-explored whiteness of east AntarcticaAn "absolutely titanic" store of ice that sits atop the east Antarctic plateau should be more closely monitored by glaciologists, the world's thinly spread corps of ice specialists, says Ted Scambos, a leading U.S. expert whose team last weekend finished a two-month scientific expedition across the forbidding plateau.

Bomb kills civilian, injures 3 Afghan soldiers

KANDAHAR: A civilian was killed and five others were injured including 3 Afghan soldiers in a bomb explosion in Kandahar province.

According to Kandahar police chief that the explosion was carried out by a remote detonated bomb, killing a civilian and injuring five others including 3 Afghan soldiers.

According to an estimate around 4,000 people were killed in Kandahar by bomb blasts last year.

Rice turns author

WASHINGTON: Former US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, has signed a $2.5-million deal to write a trilogy that will chart her rise from a segregated neighbourhood in Alabama to the top ranks of the White House. The 54-year-old Rice's yet untitled first book will be a memoir of her years in the Bush administration.

“Ms Rice will combine candid narrative and acute analysis to tell the story of her time in the White House and as top diplomat of US and her role in protecting American security and shaping foreign policy during the extraordinary period from 2001-2009,” a statement issued by the publishers said. 

Sources inside the publishing house told the newspapers that the deal is worth at least $2.5 million, with the first book scheduled to appear in the markets in 2011. The second book will be about her family, scheduled for a 2012 release.

Child Stars in Slumdog movie getting homes in Mumbai

MUMBAI: Indian newspapers celebrate Slumdog Millionaire's Oscar achievements. Two of the child stars of the Oscar-topping movie Slumdog Millionaire are to move from the Mumbai slum in which they have spent their lives into apartments provided by the local government.  In what will be seen as either an act of kindness or a cynical ploy designed to secure public support before elections, officials in the city's housing authority have sought approval from the chief minister to provide two flats for the child actors Azharuddin Ismail and Rubiana Ali Qureshi.  The children, who flew to Los Angeles to experience the red-carpet excitement of Sunday night's Oscar ceremony, live in the Garib Nagar slum, an area riddled with narrow alleys of shanty homes, open sewage and rubbish. Azhar lives with his sick father in a makeshift cloth shelter and Rubiana lives in a small room. But officials at the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) have requested two apartments for the families from a specially reserved batch of government properties.  Amarjeet Singh Manhas, the MHADA chairman, said he had been contacted by the regional head of the Congress Party to obtain the flats. He said: "We had a meeting of Congress leaders and we felt that since the children have made the nation proud, they must be given free houses. We have recommended it. We are 100 per cent sure the chief minister will clear it." The decision has delighted the children's families. Azharrudin's father, Mohammed Ismail, who reportedly has tuberculosis, told The Times of India: "We have barely got any money from the film-makers. In fact, whatever came, has already been spent. We do not even have a proper wall in this shanty and our future is equally uncertain."

Drone strikes inside Pakistan successful: CIA Chief

WASHINBGTON: CIA Director Leon Panetta said that U.S. aerial attacks against al-Qaeda and other extremist strongholds inside Pakistan would continue, despite concerns about a popular Pakistani backlash. He added the drone strikes have so far turned successful in accomplishing goals. "Nothing has changed our efforts to go after terrorists, and nothing will change those efforts," Panetta said in response to questions about CIA missile attacks, launched from unmanned Predator aircraft.  Although he refused to discuss details of the attacks -- and the CIA will not confirm publicly that it is behind the strikes -- Panetta said that the efforts begun under President George W. Bush to destabilize al-Qaeda and destroy its leadership "have been successful."  "I don't think we can stop just at the effort to try to disrupt them. I think it has to be a continuing effort, because they aren't going to stop," Panetta said in his first news briefing since taking the job. The CIA has launched about three-dozen Predator strikes in Pakistan since late last summer, two of them during the Obama administration.