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Sunday, February 28, 2010

S Arabia urges Pak political leadership to collectively fight militancy


Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said on Sunday he was heavily concerned with growing insecurity in Pakistan and urged Islamabad to collectively fight militancy. Al-Faisal's remarks came after he held talks with an Indian leaders in Riyadh. "Pakistan is a friendly country to us and therefore any time that one sees a dangerous thing in our friendly country, one is not only sorry but worried. We believe it is the duty of all political leaders in Pakistan to unite together, to see that extremism should not find its way to achieve aims in the country. And this can only happen by a united political leadership in Pakistan and we hope that this will be achieved," al-Faisal told a news conference attended the Indian delegation. Al-Qaeda-linked Pakistani militants have carried out numerous attacks on members of the security forces over the past couple of years. They stepped up strikes after the army launched an offensive on their main bastion in South Waziristan in October last year. The Pakistani Taliban, allies of the Afghan Taliban, have lost much ground in the army offensives over the past year. Pakistani action against militants on the border is seen as crucial for efforts to bring stability to Afghanistan, where the US forces are spearheading one of NATO's biggest offensive against the Taliban in Afghanistan. Security forces have also carried out several other operations aimed at pushing back militants threatening towns and cities such as Peshawar, the main city in the northwest. Al-Faisal distanced his government from the Taliban insurgents. "There is no relation between Saudi Arabia and Taliban. Relations were abrogated when Taliban gave sanctuary to Al-Qaeda and since that time till today there has been no relationship between Taliban and Saudi Arabia and that indicates the seriousness we give to that issue," he said. Saudi Arabia and Pakistan were among the few states, which recognised Taliban government in Afghanistan, but severed ties after 9/11 when Taliban provided safe havens to Al-Qaeda. Saudi Arabia is also worried about growing penetration and increased leverage of Al-Qaeda in adjoining Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine.

Chile quake leaves hundreds dead



At least 300 people have been confirmed dead after a devastating earthquake struck Chile and triggered tsunami warnings across the Pacific ocean. The 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck early on Saturday 92km northeast of Concepcion, Chile's second largest city, at a depth of 63km at 3:34am local time (06:43 GMT). The quake, which lasted for one minute, damaged buildings and caused blackouts as far away as Santiago, 320km northeast of the epicentre. Michelle Bachelet, the outgoing president, declared a "state of catastrophe" and warned that more deaths were possible. "I want to call on all the people of Chile to remain calm ... There have been some aftershocks, but so far our national organisations are still up and running," she said. Jason Mitchell, a freelance journalist in Santiago, told Al Jazeera: "A new president takes over Chile in about 12 days time, so this was a transitional time. "Sebastian Pinera, the incoming president ... His ministers have all met with the outgoing ministers and they're trying to build a co-ordinated response." He continued: "Chile's a country that has earthquakes before, so it was reasonably well prepared for this. The country has some of the most strictest building laws in the world."

Manmohan urges Karzai to protect Indians


Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed “outrage” over the killing of at least six Indians in the bomb blasts in Kabul aimed at two guest houses favoured by foreigners. In a telephonic conversation with Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, Dr. Singh appreciated the timely medical assistance to those injured in the blast and requested him to ensure full protection of Indians working there on humanitarian projects. Mr. Karzai had called up Dr. Singh to express his condolences on the death of Indian nationals in the attacks in Kabul. Government sources familiar with the incident said the violence was targeted at “foreigners in general and Indians in particular” at the guest house they were known to frequent.

Danish newspaper provokes uproar with apology over Muhammad cartoon


A Danish newspaper was accused yesterday of betraying the freedom of the press after it apologised to Muslims for offence caused by its reprinting a cartoon showing the Prophet Muhammad with a bomb-shaped turban. Politiken, a leading Danish newspaper, had printed the cartoon as a gesture of solidarity after three people were arrested for planning to kill the cartoonist, Kurt Westergaard. It broke ranks with its rivals to issue the apology after settling with a Saudi lawyer who is representing eight Muslim groups that complained after the cartoon was reprinted by eleven Danish newspapers. Outrage at the move was led by Lars Løkke Rasmussen, the Danish Prime Minister, Mr Westergaard — who survived an alleged attempt on his life by an Islamist axeman at his home last month — and by other newspapers including Jyllands-Posten, which first printed the cartoon. The Muslim organisations come from Australia, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the Palestinian territories and represent 94,923 descendants of the Prophet. They have asked for an apology, a promise not to republish the drawings and for them to be removed from websites.

Underwater Plate Cuts 400-Mile Gash

The magnitude 8.8 earthquake that struck off the coast of Chile early Saturday morning occurred along the same fault responsible for the biggest quake ever measured, a 1960 tremor that killed thousands in Chile and hundreds more across the Pacific. Both earthquakes took place along a fault line where the Nazca tectonic plate, the section of the earth’s crust that lies under much of the Eastern Pacific Ocean south of the Equator, is sliding beneath another section, the South American plate. The two are converging at a rate of about three and a half inches per year.  Earthquake experts said the strains built up by that movement, plus the stresses added along the fault line by the 1960 quake and smaller ones in the intervening years, led to the rupture on Saturday along what is estimated to be about 400 miles of the fault. The quake generated a tsunami, with wave heights of about five feet recorded along the Chilean coast and larger waves forecast for Hawaii and elsewhere in the Pacific. The quake was centered about 140 miles north of the center of the 1960 earthquake, which ruptured more than 650 miles of the fault and was measured at magnitude 9.5. The fault is a thrust fault, in which most of the ground motion during a quake is vertical. Experts said the earthquake appeared to have no connection to a magnitude 6.9 quake that struck off the southern coast of Japan on Saturday. The Chilean event also had no connection to the magnitude 7.0 quake that occurred in Haiti on Jan. 12. That quake, which is believed to have killed more than 200,000 people, occurred along a strike-slip fault, in which most of the ground motion is lateral.

US sees Pakistan 'strategic shift' in war on Taliban


The United States has seen a "strategic shift" by Pakistan in the past months during its fight against Taliban militants, a senior US official said Friday. Under US pressure, Pakistan is waging multiple military offensives against Islamist militant havens. Washington brands the country's northwest tribal belt as the most dangerous place in the world and the chief sanctuary of Al-Qaeda. "In the last nine months we've seen a significant strategic shift in Pakistan," a senior administration official said. "That strategic shift is the decision by the Pakistani security forces to take the fight against the Pakistani Taliban." He highlighted the situation in the Swat valley in the northwest tribal areas of Pakistan, which have served as a rear base for Afghan Taliban militants. "If you go to Swat today, there are two Pakistani (army) divisions. They're doing classic counterinsurgency." Another senior US official told reporters that recent arrests of Afghan Taliban members and leaders in Pakistan was a clear signal of the close cooperation taking place on the ground. "There have been a number of commanders as well as leaders taken off the battlefield in the last several months," the official said. "Based on the recent captures and kills, it demonstrates that there are fewer places to hide... as well as more broadly across the Afghan Pak region." Highlighting the recent capture of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the official stressed the cooperation with Pakistan against the Taliban. "Cooperation and collaboration of both of those governments and their services, I think continue to improve and strengthen across the board, in terms of thwarting attacks as well as capturing and killing if necessary," he said. "We're working very closely with the Pakistanis on individuals that are of interest to us and are terrorists. The trendline is strong, positive. "We're pleased with the Pakistani ability to move into areas that had been safe havens." Agents from Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) reportedly joined US spies in a recent operation that captured Afghan Taliban military commander Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar in the Pakistani metropolis of Karachi. And senior US general David Petraeus, who heads the Central Command, visited Islamabad on Tuesday and hailed "important breakthroughs" in Pakistan. President Barack Obama has put a high priority on nuclear-armed Pakistan as he sends thousands more troops to Afghanistan in a bid to root out Islamic extremism. The US media have reported that four senior Taliban leaders have been captured in the past week in Pakistan.

UN commission probing Benazir assassination to submit report on March 31

Islamabad, Feb.27 (ANI): Head of the three member UN Commission probing the assassination of former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, Heraldo Munoz has said that the commission would submit its final report to the Pakistan government on March 31.The commission's findings would be submitted to the US Secretary General Ban ki Moon, and would also be shared with the Pakistan government, a UN spokesperson said. The inquiry commission was to submit its report by 31st December 2009 , but it had sought an extension in its term, as its work was severely affected by the poor law and order situation in Pakistan. Earlier this week, the commission met several high profile persons in Pakistan, including the Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) Director General Lt.Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha. The commission had also grilled former President General Pervez Musharraf, who is currently in London. Pakistan had called for a UN commission to probe the assassination of the two-time Prime Minister who was killed at a campaign rally at Rawalpindi on December 27 2007, after her supporters were angered by conflicting accounts from the then-government of how she died.

India, Pak dialogue: New round, old story


India and Pakistan fell short of bridging the post-Mumbai divide on Thursday. During the first official talks in 14 months, New Delhi said Islamabad needed to do more about terrorism. Islamabad said it could only do more if the two sides resumed full dialogue. While they agreed to keep channels of communication and Pakistan extended an invitation for another round, no dates were announced. Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said the talk was in line with  “our graduated and step by step approach with modest aims”.  However, she said, Pakistan had not done enough about those behind Mumbai. “Pakistan looks forward to reversing the tide of regression that has taken place in its relationship with India,” said Pakistan foreign secretary Salman Bashir. Declining to specify any new anti-terrorist measures by his country, he noted “Pakistan is not desperate” about holding a dialogue. Though Bashir at one point dismissed India’s dossiers on LeT founder Hafiz Saeed “as literature, not evidence”, he later said he had meant this in a legal sense and he was “sorry” for any confusion the expression had caused. The two held over three hours of talks-including an 80-minute one-on-one discussion between the two foreign secretaries.

Manmohan reaches S Arabia on 3-day visit


Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrived in Saudi Arabia on Saturday on the first visit by an Indian premier to the kingdom in 28 years, with an aim to boost economic ties and defence and security cooperation. He was welcomed by Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, the official Saudi Press Agency said. Singh was scheduled to hold talks with Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah on bilateral relations, and discuss regional and global issues including Afghanistan, according to Lalitha Reddy, secretary in India's External Affairs Ministry. He has said there was great opportunity for opening new frontiers of cooperation with Saudi Arabia in the areas of security, defense, science and technology, space, human resources development and knowledge-based industries. "The Gulf region is an area of vital importance for India's security and prosperity," said Singh, who was accompanied by several ministers and a 25-member delegation of business leaders. The prime minister also planned to address the Shoura Council, an influential body of Saudi intellectuals, and the Saudi Chambers of Commerce and Industry. He was also expected to meet members of the Indian community. Apart from being the largest supplier of crude oil, Saudi Arabia is also home to an Indian community numbering at least 1.8 million. Bilateral trade between India and Saudi Arabia during 2008-09 was more than $25 billion.

Akmal, Rana under match-fixing scanner


The International Cricket Council (ICC) has provided match fixing proves to Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) against alleged involvement of wicket keeper Kamran Akmal and medium pacer Rana Naveed-ul Hasan. PCB chairman Ijaz Butt on Friday made the startling revelation that ICC had provided PCB with the concrete proves of their alleged involvement in match fixing. Despite repeated questions, Ijaz Butt had refused to name the players.  On investigation, a highly placed official in PCB exclusively told Voice of America on the condition of anonymity that “the two players were wicket keeper Kamran Akmal and medium pacer Rana Naveed-ul Hasan.” Wicket keeper Akmal had come under heavy fire for his repeated fumbles on the Australian tour. Its worth mentioning that both players were dropped from the T-20 series against England recently played in Dubai. When asked if the proves were so concrete, why PCB included Akmal and Rana in the initial list of 30 players for the T-20 world cup, the source said that “both will be missing from the final list for the T-20 WC.  The source further insisted that “PCB has announced an additional wicket keeper Zulqarnain Haider along side Kamran Akmal and Sarfaraz Ahmed in 30 initial players which indicates that Akmal would not feature in the final squad for T-20 WC to be played in West Indies in April.

Chile earthquake: tsunami fears as death toll hits 147


At least 147 have been killed and nearly a quarter of the globe put on urgent tsunami alert after one of the most powerful earthquakes of modern times hit South America. A tremor with a magnitude of 8.8 devastated large parts of southern Chile and sent huge waves racing at up to 400 miles an hour across the Pacific. Isolated ocean islands were reported to have suffered severe wave damage, and tsunami warnings were issued across a vast area stretching from Russia and Japan through to the Philippines and New Zealand. In the Chilean capital, Santiago, some five million woke up to "hell" as the earthquake, which struck in the small hours of Saturday morning, collapsed tower blocks and bridges and swallowed cars as it ripped cracks in the roads. Rescue teams worked throughout the day to dig out people buried alive in the rubble. Residents of Santiago's many tower soaring blocks spoke of their terror as the buildings swayed and shook in the middle of the night. "We are lucky to be alive," said Lloyd Edmondson, 27, a British businessman resident in Santiago. "We live on the 19th floor, the top floor of our building, and it was swinging like crazy. All the glasses, cabinets, paintings were smashed to pieces and the lift in the building fell from the 6th floor to the bottom floor and is ruined. Thank goodness nobody was in it. "The noise of the rumbling was the most surreal thing. We could hardly even make it to the emergency stairs because the building was moving so much." The Chilean government, which declared a state of "national catastrophe", put the death toll at 147 people. But with large parts of the country cut off, that figure is expected to rise. There were also unconfirmed reports of tsunami-related deaths on the sparsely-populated Juan Fernandez islands, off Chile's 2,700-mile long coastline. The archipelago, said to be the location that inspired Daniel Defoe's castaway novelRobinson Crusoe, was right in the tsunami's path and had little time to react to warnings.

US unveils Bagram handover plan



Afghan officers will begin to take charge of the prison facility at Bagram, currently run by the US military, from next week. Addressing a news conference at the jail near the capital Kabul on Saturday, US and Afghan officials said the handover of the prison would be gradual over the coming year as Afghan officers still require training. "This is the start of the process," Mohammad Qaseem Hashimzai, Afghanistan's deputy justice minister, told reporters. "As a first step we will soon send a team of judicial officials [and] in three months the Afghan national army will take control of the prison facility," he said. "By January 2011 we'll be in full control of the prison." General Mohammad Akram, the deputy defence minister, said that in two years the facility would pass from army control to the ministry of justice.

Monday, February 22, 2010

Major Taliban Operative Captured


Mulvi Kabir, the former Taliban governor in Afghanistan's Nangahar Province, and a key figure in the Taliban regime was recently captured in Pakistan, two senior US officials tell Kabir, considered to be among the top ten most wanted Taliban leaders, was apprehended in the Naw Shera district of Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province by Pakistani police forces. A senior U.S. military official in Afghanistan called Kabir a “significant detention”. The intelligence that led to Kabir's capture was gathered from Mullah Baradar, the Taliban’s second in command, who was picked up roughly two weeks ago in Karachi, Pakistan by a joint CIA and Pakistani intelligence operation. Baradar’s capture has been followed by a series of major detentions within the Taliban’s ranks in recent days, individuals U.S. officials are describing as “shadow governors” who operate from the safety of Pakistan’s frontier and tribal regions. Aside from Kabir, Mullah Salam of Afghanistan’s Kunduz province and Mullah Mohammad, who reportedly controlled the Baghlan province, are two of the most notable captures since Baradar was detained.

Israel Unveils New Drone Fleet That can Reach Iran


Israel's air force has introduced a fleet of large unmanned planes that it says can fly as far as Iran. Air force officials say the Heron TP drones have a wingspan of 86 feet (26 meters), making them the size of passenger jets. They say the planes can fly 20 consecutive hours, and are primarily used for surveillance and carrying payloads. The drones, built by state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries, were first used during Israel's Gaza war last year. At an inauguration ceremony Sunday, Israeli officials refused to say how large the new fleet is or whether the planes were designed for use against Iran. Israel believes Tehran is trying to develop nuclear weapons and has repeatedly hinted it could strike Iran if diplomatic efforts to curb the nuclear program fail.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Search for Madeira missing begins


Rescue workers are hunting for missing people after torrential rains caused flooding and mudslides on the Portuguese island of Madeira. Around 40 people are believed to have been killed, officials said. Francisco Ramos, the regional government social affairs secretary, said on Sunday that the toll was likely to rise as more emergency teams arrive from the mainland. "We are going to continue to search for bodies, we are waiting for the teams which are due to arrive ... in order to continue working on the ground," he said  There are fears that more bodies will be found in the mud that tore down the Atlantic island's roads, sweeping away people and vehicles, on Saturday. Portugal has sent medical teams, rescue workers, divers and relief supplies to the island, about 1,000km southwest of Lisbon, the capital. 

Taliban resistance fading in Marjah

Taliban resistance to a military offensive in the Afghan town of Marjah has begun to ease amid reports that the group's fighters are running out of ammunition. About 15,000 US, Nato and Afghan troops have been battling Taliban fighters in an attempt to take Marjah and the surrounding areas, but after a week of fighting Afghan sources said the firing had died down. Al Jazeera's James Bays, speaking from Lashkar Gah in Helmand, said that there were "only small-arms engagements taking place" on Sunday. "What we are hearing from Afghan sources is that they believe that the Taliban who have been fighting and putting up their heavy resistance in the north and east of Marjah, are running low on ammunition," he said. "The heaviest battles took place on Thursday. That's the day the Nato forces lost their largest number of troops - six killed on Thursday alone. Since then the battles seem to have died down a little. "They are still getting return fire from the Taliban, but they believe they may be running low. They say that that's because they intercepted some of the Taliban's internal radio messages calling for more ammunition."

Friday, February 19, 2010

Taliban and Afghan Govt held peace talks in Maldives


Maldives hosted perhaps their most unusual guests ever during three days of clandestine peace talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government. According to the presidential spokesman, the three-day talks were held at the end of January this year, in which steps to find out peaceful ways for Afghanistan war. He said the Maldivian government was not involved directly in the talks, in which a dozen Afghan government’s representatives, and as many Taliban participated. Reportedly, Gulbadin’s son was also present during the talks.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Pakistan captures two senior Taleban leaders


Pakistan has captured two more leaders of the Afghan Taleban, Afghan officials revealed today, in the latest indication of a new level of cooperation between US and Pakistani intelligence agencies. Mullah Abdul Salam and Mullah Mir Mohammad were the “shadow governors” of the northern Afghan provinces of Kunduz and Baghlan respectively, running the Taleban’s increasingly powerful parallel administrations there. They were detained 10 days ago by Pakistani intelligence agents in Quetta, the capital of Pakistan’s south-western province of Baluchistan, according to Engineer Mohammad Omar, the official governor of Kunduz. “Two other Taleban who seem to be their bodyguards were also captured with them,” he told. The capture of Mullah Salam, 35, is especially significant as he had commanded the Taleban across all of northern and north-western Afghanistan and masterminded many attacks on German forces based in Kunduz. Mohammad Dawood, the head of Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security in Kunduz, also said that Mullah Salam had been arrested by Pakistani intelligence agents. The two men’s detention appears to have coincided with that of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar - the Taleban’s second-in-command - in a joint US-Pakistani raid in the south-western city of Karachi. The US, Afghan and Pakistani governments have yet to comment on the reported arrest of the two men, who both reported to Mullah Baradar - the Taleban’s military chief. But if confirmed, it would reinforce views that Pakistan has finally bowed to US pressure to take action against Afghan Taleban leaders who US officials say have been sheltering on its territory for years. The apparent breakthrough comes as British, US and Afghan forces are engaged in Operation Moshtarak - billed as their biggest assault on the Taleban since the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. One possible reason for Pakistan’s change of heart is that it fears the operation could trigger a flood of militants and refugees across the border to Baluchistan, destabilising a region already racked by a decades-long separatist insurgency. Yousuf Raza Gilani, Pakistan’s Prime Minister, raised the matter today in talks in Islamabad with Richard Holbrooke, the US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, according to Mr Gilani’s office. Mr Gilani expressed hope that, “Pakistan’s concerns on account of spill-over of refugees and militants from Helmand into south-western Baluchistan and the northwest will be kept in view”. He called for “enhanced coordination and cooperation” with Pakistan’s armed forces and pressed for a quicker release of the $7.5 billion in aid that the United States has pledged to Pakistan over the next five years. Pakistan backed the US-led War on Terror in late 2001 and has received more than $12 billion in American aid since then in exchange for cooperating in the fight against al-Qaeda and Taleban militants. But US officials have often accused elements in Pakistan’s military of shielding the Afghan Taleban leadership either because they share its radical Islamist ideology or want to use it as a proxy after foreign troops leave Afghanistan. US officials had frequently alleged over the last few months that Taleban leaders were sheltering in Quetta and Karachi, prompting fierce denials from Pakistani military and civilian officials. Some analysts say General Ashfaq Kayani, Pakistan’s army chief, has finally been persuaded that at least some Taleban leaders represent a threat to Pakistan’s national security. However, Pakistan’s foreign minister denied today that the arrest of Mullah Baradar was done under US pressure. “We have done it because it is in our interests to do so,” said Shah Mehmood Qureshi in the first comments about the arrest from a senior Pakistani official. “We do not want to see the Talebanisation of Pakistan,” he said. “This is service in a common cause.” Underscoring the continuing Taleban threat to Pakistan, a bomb blast at a mosque in the north-western Khyber region killed 29 people including some militants today. Meanwhile, at least three more people were killed in a suspected US missile strike on a house in the tribal region of North Waziristan - now considered the main militant stronghold in Pakistan.

Rohingya 'crackdown' in Bangladesh


The aid organisation Medecins San Frontieres has said  that ethnic Rohingya refugees from Myanmar are suffering an increasingly violent crackdown in Bangladesh. An MSF report released on Thursday said the stateless group are being driven from their homes in the Cox's Bazaar district of Bangladesh, by local authorities and residents. The report also accused the country's military of trying to forcibly repatriate some Rohingya back to Myanmar. Thousands of Rohingya are now seeking refuge at a makeshift camp at Kutu-palong, MSF said. The camp has grown by 6,000 people since October, and doctors say a humanitarian crisis is imminent. About 220,000 Rohingya live in Bangladesh.

US president meets Dalai Lama


Barack Obama, the US president, has met the Dalai Lama, despite a warning from China that talks with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader could strain ties. The meeting, which took place at the White House on Thursday, was intended to be a low-key affair closed to the media. But it is likely to affect ties with Beijing, which have already been affected by disputes over US arms sale to Taiwan and Chinese internet censorship. The Dalai Lama's visit could also complicate Obama's efforts to secure China's help on key issues such as imposing tougher sanctions on Iran, resolving the North Korean nuclear standoff and forging a new global accord on climate change. But Robert Gibbs, the White House spokesman, dismissed concerns over Sino-US relations. "Chinese officials have known about this and their reaction is their reaction," he said on the eve of the meeting, insisting that the two nations have a "mature relationship" capable of withstanding disagreements.

Interpol alert over Dubai suspects


Interpol, the international police agency, has placed 11 members of an alleged hit squad suspected of assassinating Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a senior Hamas commander, at a luxury Dubai hotel last month, on its most-wanted list. Interpol issued the red notices, its highest-level alert, on Thursday on the request of Dubai authorities. Interpol said it had reason to believe the suspects had stolen the identities of real people, using them as aliases to commit the murder. Interpol's "red notices" are not international arrest warrants but are put out after national authorities issue a warrant to help with finding suspects so they can be arrested or extradited.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Kayani wants US assurance over no Pak spillover of Helmand offensive

Pakistan Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani has asked for assurance from the United States that the planned massive offensive against the Taliban and other extremist groups in Helmand, Afghanistan would not have any effect on the country. ccording to well-placed military sources, Kayani raised apprehensions over the planned offensive with top US officials, including National Security Advisor General James Jones and International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) Commander in Afghanistan General Stanley McChrystal, who met Kayani separately at the General Headquarter (GHQ). During the meeting Kayani said that the US-led military actions should remain within Afghanistan's boundary, and also emphasised the need for intelligence sharing with Pakistani security forces, The Nation reports. A statement issued by the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) said the visiting top US officials only discussed matters pertaining professional interests, but sources privy to the meeting revealed that host of other issues were also discussed during the talks. Kayani's apprehensions came just before thousands of American, Afghan and British troops launched an attack on the watery Taliban fortress of Marja. The massive operation initiated today (Saturday) morning would witness foreign troops move by land and through air to destroy the Taliban's largest haven. Just after midnight, aircraft bombed the southernmost portion of Marja, where officials believed foreign fighters were hiding. The invasion of Marja is being touted as a crucial part of a larger campaign to secure a 200-mile arc that would bisect the major cities in Helmand and Kandahar Provinces, where the Taliban are the strongest. That campaign, which is expected to last months, is designed to reverse the Taliban's momentum, which has accelerated over the past several years.

Foreigners killed in Indian restaurant blast: police


An Italian and an Iranian were among the nine people killed in a bomb attack on a restaurant in the western Indian city of Pune, police said. Pune police commissioner Satyapal Singh told a news conference that 12 foreigners were also among the 60 people injured, while the rest of the victims were Indian, he said. The bomb, hidden in a backpack under a table, exploded at about 7.30pm Saturday (local time) at the German Bakery restaurant, which is a magnet for young Indians and foreign tourists. The eatery is near an ashram, or religious retreat, popular with overseas visitors, and a Jewish cultural and religious centre run by the orthodox Chabad-Lubavitch movement. No arrests have yet been made, Singh told reporters, and India's government said it had little idea who was behind the bombing.

'Civilians die' in Afghan offensive



At least 12 Afghan civilians have been killed during a major military offensive in the south of the country, the Nato-led military force said. The victims died after a rocket hit their house on Sunday, the second day of Operation Moshtarak, which aims to wrest control of the town of Marjah and neighbouring areas in Helmand province from the Taliban. "Two rockets from a High Mobility Artillery Rocket System [HIMARS] launched at insurgents firing upon Afghan and Isaf forces impacted approximately 300 metres off their intended target, killing 12 civilians in Nad Ali district," the International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) said in a statement. The statement said that the intended target of the rocket had been a Taliban compound from which fighters had shot and injured one Nato and one Afghan soldier. The Nato-led force said that General Stanley McChrystal, the US and Nato commander in Afghanistan, had apologised to Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, over the deaths.

Pakistani PM plays down crisis; opposition pounces


Pakistan's prime minister sought to defuse tension Sunday over a Supreme Court decision to strike down a presidential order appointing two top judges, saying the dispute would not threaten political stability. But the country's leading opposition figure, Nawaz Sharif, sought to play up the issue to pressure President Asif Ali Zardari, saying his decision to appoint two judges opposed by the court showed he was "the biggest threat to democracy." Zardari has clashed with Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry in the past, and the court's decision to reject the appointments late Saturday, only hours after they were announced, sparked fears that the conflict could destabilize Pakistan at a time when it is battling a raging Taliban-led insurgency. "Today, if there is really a danger to democracy, it is through these kinds of acts by Zardari," Sharif told reporters. "The government is attacking the judiciary to protect its corruption." Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira responded by saying Sharif had spoken in anger and would "certainly correct his position." The president's push for judges opposed by the court came about two months after it struck down an amnesty protecting Zardari and several other senior politicians from graft charges. But Prime Minister Yousaf Reza Gilani denied the appointments had anything to do with the court's previous ruling and seemed to take a moderate stance on working through the latest disagreement. "I want to give a message to the nation that the country's institutions are strong, and we will work within our domains," Gilani told reporters. "Let the court interpret." The government is scheduled to present its case before the court on Feb. 18.

Clinton addresses Muslim world


Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of State, has echoed a call from Barack Obama, the US president, for a fresh start with the Muslim world, but she warned that forging a stronger relationship would take time. Addressing an annual US-Islamic World Forum in Doha, Qatar on Sunday, Clinton said the Obama administration's efforts in the region have often been "obscured by suspicion and misunderstanding". "It is time, as President Obama said in his speech in Cairo, for a new beginning based on a commitment to open dialogue and equal partnership. A new beginning that confronts the tensions between us and commits all of us to doing the hard work necessary to resolve them." Clinton also addressed concerns that Obama's call during his speech last June was "insufficient and insincere". "Building a stronger relationship cannot happen overnight. It takes patience, persistence and hard work from all of us," she said. "We are and will remain committed to the president's vision for a new beginning."

Security and Eager Crowds Greet Bollywood Film

With thousands of police officers providing security, the latest blockbuster from Bollywood’s biggest star opened Friday, despite threats and protests from a radical political party that had vowed to block the film in this capital of India’s movie industry. The Mumbai police arrested at least 50 members of the Shiv Sena political party on charges of rioting and unlawful assembly after they tried to disrupt the screening of the film, “My Name is Khan,” Indian news outlets reported. Some smaller theaters, anxious about possible violence, chose not to screen the film, but the city’s major multiplexes went ahead and were rewarded by packed audiences. People flocked to the film in other cities across India. Both sides claimed victory on Friday. Shiv Sena leaders said their protests forced many theaters to cancel screenings, while the film’s star, Shah Rukh Khan, who is attending an official premiere in Berlin, sent a message to his fans via Twitter saying he was “humbled by this show of love & kindness.” The controversy is rooted in a standoff between Mr. Khan and Shiv Sena’s leader, Bal Thackeray. For years, Mr. Thackeray has intimidated Bollywood with threats to disrupt movie openings. Eager to excite his base of supporters in the Hindu right wing, Mr. Thackeray and his son, Uddhav, pounced on a recent comment by Mr. Khan about Pakistani cricket players. Last month, a controversy erupted after no Pakistani players were selected in the recent draft of the Indian Premier League. Mr. Khan, who owns a team in the league, said some should have been included, a sentiment expressed by others, including India’s home minister.

Troops Take Positions in Taliban Haven


US-led Nato troops have launched a long-expected attack on the biggest Taliban-held town in the south of Afghanistan. Helicopter-borne US marines and Afghan troops backed by British forces swept into Taliban-held town of Marjah, in the centre of Helmand province, early on Saturday. Thousands of US and Afghan troops are taking part in the offensive, which seeks to undermine support for the Taliban and re-establish government control in the area. The offensive, known as Operation Moshtarak, the Dari word for "together", is the biggest joint Afghan-international offensive of the war. It is the largest combat operation since Barack Obama, the US president, ordered 30,000 US reinforcements to Afghanistan last December. Danish, Estonian and Canadian troops are also involved in the campaign.

How to talk to the Taliban


Lately, there’ been a lot of talk about talking to the Taliban, and talking to the Taliban about talking to the Taliban. I wonder what high-level policy think-tank came up with this harebrained scheme; after nearly a decade of violence, someone sitting in a conference room must have snapped their fingers and said, “I’ve got it! Why don’t we ‘talk’ to the Taliban?” There must have undoubtedly been a flurry of official documentation, and policy ruminations about why talking to the Taliban would be a stronger strategy than indiscriminate bombing. Well what can I say other than ‘Wow!’ I mean all this advanced industrial infrastructure, these exquisite academic institutions, and all that jazz, and it took them this long to do a 180-degree policy turnaround after shamelessly going for a completely failed strategy for this long. And together with Osama Bin Laden’s surprise eco-friendly green message for the American people, compared to last year’s prediction of mortgage market meltdown, I’m beginning to wonder if we’re actually in a Bizarro World. One where iTunes sells Osama audio clips for 99 cents a piece, where the Taliban are part of a hit Broadway burqa-flashing musical, and where the Pakistani administration has forgotten all about Afghanistan and has gone hunting for “strategic depth” in all sorts of places like Kirghizstan and Botswana. If only this were the case it would be so much easier to make sense of the world-as-bizzaro-reality. But sadly this isn’t so, the strange and the unruly all get meshed up into the very real in the here-and-now, and this isn’t some messed up dream of a science fiction columnist in a gossip rag. Coming back to reality, bizarre as it may be, America seems to be in uncharted territory, as eight years of the Bush Doctrine has made legislators, policy makers, and diplomats completely forget how to even go about ‘talking with the terrorists’ let alone actually go about ‘negotiating’. So as the Obama administration had initially come up with this simplistic yet extremely radical formula of good Taliban and bad Taliban, it seems things have become more complicated. Probably because the good Taliban must have told them to talk to the bad Taliban first, and talking to the bad Taliban first would definitely make the US come off as stupid. In order to avoid this humiliation, it seems the formula has been made a little more complex as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently said, “We’re not going to talk to the really bad guys.” Okay, so let me get this straight: in the wild wild west of the Afghan bad-lands there’s good guys, there’s bad guys, and there’s the really bad guys. She could’ve easily stuck to the gung-ho cowboy mentality and said “Oh, don’t worry, we’re not going to talk to the ugly ones.” So now it seems that, just like the ‘I-raqi people’, the ‘Af-gan people’ are responsible for the way their country goes. And after that sham election even dictators are ashamed of referring to as an election… oh wait, don’t I mean the one that was supposed to empower liberal institutions in Afghanistan? It must’ve really come as a shocker to US decision-makers when they discovered that Afghanistan doesn’t have any institutions, let alone liberal, with everything being conducted through warlords. You’d probably have to go through a warlord to pay your electricity bills – assuming they still have electricity. And whatever happened to that idea of the Afghan National Army being the force for peace and prosperity in the region (a.k.a protracted civil war)? It only took a few well infiltrated bombings here and there for American strategicians to scrap that idea and go back to the drawing board. And all they could come up with is a massive marketing operation to rebrand the good and the ‘not that bad’ Taliban as the new reformulated Afghan National Army, by throwing out buckets full of money. And if the Taliban are nothing more than money-grubbing buggers, then wouldn’t it be easier if the Americans had just offered the then Taliban administration a fraction of the cost of the war in exchange for Osama bin Laden back in 2001. Wouldn’t that, in retrospect, have been so much simpler than this fiasco we’ve had to witness over the first decade of the twentieth century? Now after all the bombs and the shelling, epidemics of firebrand conservatism and blow yourself LIVE on TV performance art, it seems the Taliban have suddenly learnt how to talk. Oh wait, maybe I’m getting this wrong. We might need to revisit this. Remember when Bush said, “We’re gonna bomb ‘em to the Stone Age!” Well, he really wasn’t kidding about that. Those cluster bombs were actually designed to backtrack millions of years of evolution, so by the end of the ‘bombing to the stone age’ the Taliban had not only lost lingual capabilities, they’d also almost washed their hands with opposable thumbs and other evolutionary conveniences. This momentary lapse of language wasn’t to stop the Taliban from re-integrating themselves with the modern societies around them. So what they did was put themselves on the extra-fast, fast-track to reintegration. The amazing feat of rediscovering millions of years of genetic memory in less than a decade was achieved by the intense ratta learning method of the madrassah establishment in Afghanistan – one whip lash if you get a word wrong, two whip lashes if you get the word wrong with a smile on your face. The Taliban really haven’t failed us or themselves. By rediscovering language they have put themselves in a position to once again converse with the civilized world; now they can re-integrate, and become a part of the marvelous modern spectacle. Now President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton can just pick up the phone and call the Taliban (but not on a conference call, for the Taliban might get confused as to how two different voices are coming out of the same box). Negotiation will obviously have to be monosyllabic at first, basic requests phrased in very basic terms filled with praise, “O You Taliban! Mighty people of this great land.” And since the Taliban don’t yet have a concept of money, maybe favors can be bartered with them instead; 50 million goats and 20 million lambs in exchange for their cooperation and a guided tour of their fabulous land. One wouldn’t want to re-introduce them to money all too quickly though, their untarnished minds might get befuddled by the dollar bills, and the conspicuous shade of green might bring back traumatic memories which might inspire them to wage war on the evil specter of capitalism all over again (without knowing exactly why, or what, they’re fighting for, but fight they must!). And with everything peaceful on the Afghan front, the Pakistani “dis-establishment” would be wondering how they lost all that “strategic depth,” and how was it that they were left with all the “strategic shallowness” instead. Maybe what they thought of as deep wasn’t really that deep, but a pretence of depth just to let them feel smart about themselves: “Oh yes, we’re deep, not only deep, but strategically deep.” I bet they feel stupid now, as all their depth dissipates. Especially after the Obama administration didn’t let them utter a word to the Taliban on their own side of the border. “No! You cannot talk to terrorists,” came the dictum over an overseas call. “You must bomb the terrorists!” And bomb we did, not quite back to the Stone Age – since we’re not as technologically advanced, our bombing took them back to the Middle Ages instead. Maybe we should try calling up our Taliban and try talking to them, they might respond in Shakespearian Middle English, but that’s nothing expert negotiators like Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman shouldn’t be able to circumvent. But sadly, the Pakistan government wants too much to be like its big bad-ass brother, the United States, so instead of talking to our own Taliban, we go ahead and say, “We also want to talk to the Afghan Taliban.” Claiming that the Pakistani Taliban just aren’t bad-ass enough for us, “Oh come on, they just learnt how to talk again, we’re neighbours, don’t you think we should get to know them better?” Thinking “strategic depth” all the while, repeating that mantra in our heads. We can never get enough of the stuff at home, we have to go around forking stuff in other countries to feel good about ourselves. I bet the Pakistani Taliban feel left out of the equation though. No one wants to talk to them, not even the Afghan Taliban. But then again, they might be able to go the route of washed up celebrities and get their own reality show. Maybe they could get a Big Brother style house, but all the members in it have to abide by the Taliban Code of Ethics, otherwise they get flogged on camera. The Pakistani Taliban are going to be bigger and more famous than ever. They’ll have it all: picture on the cover of Time magazine, on a few of those 100 sexiest people list, on The Late Show with David Letterman, showing off their green turbans to fashion gurus on the red carpet ceremony of the Academy Awards. Of course, the Pakistani civilian “mis-administration” and military “dis-estabilishment” won’t feature in too much of the fame, maybe in a couple of gossip rags with headlines like “We Talked to Afghan Taliban in 2010 Too.” Or maybe they could author some of those cheap paperbacks, with titles like, “The Taliban and Us: Memoirs from a Time Forgotten.” Maybe they would feature for a few minutes in a posthumous documentary about how the Taliban made it to the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame. “Well yes, we always knew they would have extreme potential, extreme obviously because they were such extremists, we always knew they had potential. Why we did not act on it, we do not know, we could’ve made some money off of them, but you know how the times change. Yes they were a great bunch, those were great fun days.”

Friday, February 12, 2010

Date set for India-Pakistan talks


India and Pakistan have set a date to restart diplomatic talks for the first time since the 2008 attacks on the Indian city of Mumbai. High-level diplomats from the two countries are scheduled to meet on February 25 in New Delhi, more than a year after the attacks that India has blamed on Pakistan-based fighters. Mani Shankar Aiyer, a former Indian envoy to Pakistan, said the relaunch of talks is of "overriding national importance". "In my view [it is] the highest priority in Indian foreign policy that we arrive at some way of being able to run our relationship with Pakistan on a smooth track," he told Al Jazeera. New Delhi suspended a four-year-old peace process with Pakistan following the co-ordinated attacks at several Mumbai locations in November 2008 that left more than 160 people dead. India says the attacks were carried out by the Pakistan-based armed group Lashkar-e-Taiba and has demanded Islamabad bring the culprits to justice before talks can resume. India and Pakistan launched talks in 2004 to resolve several disputes between the two countries, including the dispute over the region of Kashmir. Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan, who both claim sovereignty over all the territory. But increasing tensions in the Himalayan region threaten to overshadow the relaunch of talks. Clashes erupted in Srinagar, the capital of Indian-administered Kashmir, on Thursday, between Indian security forces and demonstrators protesting against the death of a teen by police during an earlier protest in the region on Sunday. Armed Muslim groups have been fighting for independence from India or a merging with its neighbour Pakistan since 1989, with almost 70,000 people being killed during the conflict.Some armed groups say the issue of Kashmir should be central to any talks between India and Pakistan. Syed Salahuddin, supreme commander of the separatist Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, said there would be no result from the talks unless the issue of the status of Kashmir is "addressed and focused upon". "The talks must be Kashmir-centric, tripartite and there should be a time frame. Then it is useful to go and get engaged, otherwise not," he says. Al Jazeera's Preena Suri, reporting from New Delhi, said opposition leaders in India are also opposing the relaunch of talks, arguing that Pakistan must first crack down on armed fighters "Domestic political parties are now upping the pressure on the ruling government, saying that [if] Pakistan doesn't clamp down on these groups, these talks will prove to be futile," she said. "Using this to their political advantage are parties like the right-wing Hindu BJP, who say India is bowing to American pressure to resume dialogue."

Violations test Yemen's shaky truce


Yemen's government has accused fighters in the country's north of breaking a ceasefire with the army and killing several soldiers, just hours after the agreement was put into place. Officials told Al Jazeera on Friday that Houthi fighters killed three soldiers and destroyed a government building in the country's north, violating the terms of the fragile truce. Al Jazeera's Hashem Ahelbarra, reporting from the capital, Sanaa, said there are concerns that the ceasefire could collapse completely if the situation further deteriorates. "There are reports of sporadic gunshots in different parts of Saada province. But we have to wait for an official reaction from the Houthi rebels, who haven't made any statement," he said. "This isn't a major surprise, because we know this is a very complex political landscape in Yemen.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

US plays down chances of atomic deal with Iran


U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Saturday he saw no sign a deal was close between Iran and Western powers on exchanging some of its low-enriched uranium (LEU) for higher-grade fuel, suggesting it was time to move forward with sanctions. "I don't have the sense that we're close to an agreement," Gates told reporters in Ankara where he met Turkish leaders. His comments stood in contrast to those by Iran's foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, who said on Friday he saw good prospects for clinching a deal with world powers on exchanging LEU for higher-grade fuel it can use in a reactor producing medical isotopes. "If they are prepared to take up the original proposal of the P-5 plus one of delivering 1,200 kilograms of their low enriched uranium, all at once to an agreed party, I think there would be a response to that," he added, referring to the five permanent U.N. Security Council members plus Germany. Gates said President Obama had taken unprecedented steps to engage with Iran, describing the response so far as "disappointing".

Thousands protest boy's killing in Srinagar


Thousands of demonstrators shouting “blood for blood” and “we want freedom” protested in revolt-hit Indian-administered Kashmir Saturday against the killing of a second teenage boy in a week. Witnesses said 17-year-old Zahid Farooq was killed Friday when security forces opened fire after a group of boys refused to leave a high-security area. Police in the Muslim-majority region where a revolt against Indian rule began two decades ago said they were investigating the death. Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah vowed strong action over the boy's death. “Incidents of unprovoked or innocent killings will not be tolerated and whosoever is involved in such killings will be brought to book and doled out exemplary punishment,” Abdullah said in a statement. But Abdullah's promise failed to placate residents of Brein, the suburb of state summer capital Srinagar where the killing took place. Thousands of men, women and children took to the streets, shouting pro-freedom and pro-Islamic slogans.