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Sunday, March 21, 2010

Pakistan's push for new role in Afghanistan


Afghanistan's punishing war is entering a new phase and Pakistan has made it clear it can and must play a leading role. The sudden significant capture of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, second in charge in the Taliban hierarchy, comes at a crucial point. Talk of negotiation is now taking centre stage, a strategy in parallel to a powerful military assault against Taliban strongholds in southern Afghanistan. "There has been a change in Pakistan's attitude," said Pakistani author Ahmed Rashid, who has written extensively about the close links between Pakistan's military intelligence, the ISI, and Taliban leaders. "Pakistan now wants to dominate any kind of dialogue that takes place." Mullah Baradar, reported to have been picked up by Pakistani and US intelligence agents in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi, may have become too independent. Sources in Kabul say he and his envoys have been involved in secret talks with the Afghan president in Kabul, his representatives in southern Afghanistan and outside the country. One senior Afghan official who, like others, is not commenting publicly for now, said: "This may be good for public opinion but, for us, it can have a negative impact. "It was easier for us to talk to him." Unlike the Bush administration, Barack Obama's team has been urging Pakistan, privately and publicly, to take action against the Taliban leadership and their sanctuaries in the tribal areas, as well as in cities like Quetta and Karachi.

Iraq election commission rejects calls for vote recount


Iraq's election commission has rejected calls from the president and prime minister for a recount of votes cast in the general election on 7 March. An election official said a recount of all votes would be impossible and was unnecessary because of checks on fraud. Earlier, President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Nouri Maliki backed calls for a manual recount of votes. Partial results indicate a close race between Mr Maliki and former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi. But the long delay in announcing the full results has led to growing allegations of fraud.

US House to vote on health care reform bill


The US House of Representatives Sunday would vote to overhaul health care system. During an address in this regard in Washington, Obama urged the US lawmakers to vote for the people for America. The President urged that it is time to pass the bill, which has seen decades of false starts and a year of tough negotiations. The a package of reforms is aimed at imposing new controls on the practices of insurance companies and extending coverage to more than 30 million Americans who lack health insurance. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO), a non-partisan arbiter of legislative costs, last week estimated that the reforms will cost 940 billion dollars over 10 years and expand coverage to about 32 million more Americans. The costs will be offset by a mix of new taxes and savings from within the system. The CBO predicted the entire bill would actually lower the federal budget deficit by 138 billion dollars over the next 10 years, and by 1 trillion dollars in the following decade.

Air strikes kill 15 Taliban in Pakistan: officials


Air strikes killed 15 Taliban in restive Pakistani northwestern tribal areas on Sunday, where militants beheaded three tribesmen accusing them of spying for the United States. Pakistan's rugged tribal regions have been wracked by violence since becoming a stronghold for hundreds of Taliban and Al-Qaeda rebels who fled across the border to escape the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001. Separately, a bomb targeting a senior police official killed three people in southwestern Baluchistan province and another bomb damaged an oil tanker carrying fuel for NATO forces stationed in neighbouring Afghanistan. Five of the militants were killed in air strikes on a village in Orakzai tribal district, where militants fleeing a military operation in South Waziristan tribal district have taken refuge. "Two jet fighters carried out air strikes at a militant hideout at Ghiljo. Five militants were killed," a senior paramilitary official told AFP. In a second air strike in Kurram, another tribal district, 10 militants were killed, the official and local administration chief Fazal Qadir said. The death toll could not be verified by independent sources as the area is under military operations. In North Waziristan, another tribal district and known as a hot bed of Taliban, militants Sunday beheaded three tribesmen they accused of spying for US forces stationed across the border in Afghanistan.

Dialogue offer to Iran still intact: Obama


US President Barack Obama reaffirmed on Saturday that his administration would pursue dialogue with Iran over its nuclear issue. ‘Our offer of comprehensive diplomatic contacts and dialogue (with Iran)stands’, said Obama in a videotaped address to Iranians to mark an ancient Iranian festival celebrating Nauroz. However, he warned that the US government is working with the international community to ‘hold the Iranian government accountable because they refuse to live up to their international obligations’, according to excerpts of the address released by the White House. Obama also noted that the Iranian should have free access to the internet, adding that the US would continue to give them the new technology of software and IT to enable them get in touch with the international community.

'Shaming' her in-laws costs 19 year old her nose, ears


"When they cut off my nose and ears, I passed out," 19-year-old Bibi Aisha of Afghanistan says with chilling candor. Her beauty is still stunning and her confidence inspiring. It takes a moment for the barbaric act committed against her to register in your mind and sight. Wearing her patterned scarf and with roughly painted nails she shares her story. "It felt like there was cold water in my nose, I opened my eyes and I couldn't even see because of all the blood," she remembers. It was an act of Taliban justice for the crime of shaming her husband's family. This story began when Aisha was just 8 years old. Her father had promised her hand in marriage, along with that of her baby sister's, to another family in a practice called "baad." "Baad" in Pashtunwali, the law of the Pashtuns, is a way to settle a dispute between rival families. At 16, she was handed over to her husband's father and 10 brothers, who she claims were all members of the Taliban in Oruzgan province. Aisha didn't even meet her husband because he was off fighting in Pakistan.

Making the Iraq war disappear


The American media loves anniversaries of major events because these provide the ideal news pegs to do follow-up stories. You would think that they would have pulled out the stops for the seventh anniversary of the US war on Iraq, a conflict that was described by the Pentagon in its first days as a "cake walk" and designed as a quick intervention modelled after the in-and-out combat of Operation Desert Storm ending Baghdad's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. However, not only did US plans not work out that way, but the news commitment faded and, in the process - as one would expect - so did public attention. The networks went from 'all the war, all the time,' to withdrawing troops long before the military did.  As a result, the situation was uniformly described as "quiet" with no real assessment offered on the costs, casualties and consequences of what just about everyone considers a botched and failed mission. This has been a war which Washington still seems unable to end despite the campaign promises of a new president.

What next for Pakistan cricket?


The Pakistan Cricket Board has dropped a bombshell: Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf, Shoaib Malik, and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan have been banned. While Yousuf and Younis have been banned indefinitely for causing in-fighting, Malik and Naved will only be eligible to play for Pakistan after a year. Meanwhile, Shahid Afridi’s ball-biting antics have landed him a six-month probation and a three-million-rupee fine. Kamran Akmal and Umar Akmal have also been fined three million and two million rupees, respectively, for theirtantrum-throwing and injury-feigning episodes during the Australia tour.

Cellphone-operated tractor invented in India


Two students of India's northern Punjab invented a tractor that can be operated with the help of a mobile phone. Pavittar Singh Baraad, one of the inventors, said the tractor could be operated with mobile buttons from anywhere. "With the help of this project, one need not drive a tractor, as the tractor can be operated with the help of the buttons of our mobiles. No matter one is in United States or Canada, the tractor can be operated with the buttons. The steering, clutch, brakes, everything can be controlled through it," said Baraad. Mentioning its advantages, Jaskeer Singh, a farmer, said that the tractor would help the farmers of Punjab as they would be able to operate the tractors from anywhere. This innovative step shall help the farmers to a great extent and will also save their time and effort.

Israeli fire kills Palestinian teen



Israeli forces have killed a Palestinian teenager during violent clashes in the occupied West Bank, medics have said. Muhammad Qadus had been taking part in a demonstration on Saturday, in which stones were thrown at Israeli soldiers in the West Bank city of Nablus. Palestinian hospital officials said the 16-year-old was struck in the heart by a bullet fired by Israeli forces. Qadus was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at a local hospital. Medical sources said that the Red Crescent ambulance sent to collect him was delayed by Israeli forces.

Taliban arrests had 'negative impact'


The arrest of Taliban leaders has had a "negative impact" on efforts by the Afghan government to broker a peace deal with the insurgents, a spokesman for President Hamid Karzai says. Recent arrests in Pakistan of the Taliban's second-in-command, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, and others in the Islamists' hierarchy slowed down Afghan government peace initiatives, Siamak Hirawi told AFP on Saturday. "We confirm the negative impact of the arrests on the peace process that the Afghan government has initiated," said Hirawi, Karzai's deputy spokesman. His was the first official confirmation from the Kabul government that there had been contact with the Taliban, with the intention of discussing an end to the insurgency now in its ninth year. He also confirmed that the former UN envoy to Afghanistan, Kai Eide, had held peace talks with Taliban figures and said Eide had kept the Afghan government informed of his actions. Hirawi said Eide's talks with the Taliban were part of a process initiated by the UN to help the Afghan government's peace plan. "Of course, he was keeping the Afghan government informed of his talks," he said. "Mr Kai Eide's efforts were a supplement to Afghan government's (peace) efforts," he said, adding that Karzai's government has led the process. "The Afghan government has been leading this process and the United Nations has tried to help efforts to solve the Afghan problem through talks, and the international community has also agreed with us," he said. "The international community has agreed with us that those Afghans who are not linked to foreign intelligence or terrorist organisations (can be part of the peace process)," he added, in an apparent reference to Pakistan and al-Qaeda.