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Sunday, January 15, 2012

Arfa Karim laid to rest in ancestral graveyard


World’s youngest Microsoft Certified Professional, Arfa Karim, has been laid to rest in her ancestral graveyard in Faisalabad. Earlier, her dead body was shifted to Faisalabad from Lahore after offering of funeral prayer at Cavalry Ground Lahore on Sunday Morning. In Faisalabad, Army officials, local politicians, Arfa’s class fellows and many other citizens and children of school attended her funeral prayer at D ground. In Lahore, Government officials including Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif attended her funeral prayer. Arfa Karim, breathed her last after being in coma for over 26 days at the Combine Military Hospital (CMH). She remained in intensive care unit at Combined Military Hospital (CMH) after suffering an epileptic seizure and cardiac arrest a few weeks ago. Arfa, 16, is a daughter of retired Lt. Colonel of Pakistan army. Born in 1995, Arfa Karim became the youngest Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) at the age of nine in 2004. She kept the world title till 2008. She was invited by Bill Gates to visit the Microsoft headquarters in the USA when she was only 10-year-old. In August 2005, Arfa was also awarded the Fatima Jinnah Gold Medal in the field of science and technology by then Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz. She also received the Salaam Pakistan Youth Award again in 2005 set up by Pakistan’s only Nobel laureate Dr Abdul Salam. She is also the recipient of the Presidential Award for Pride of Performance.

18 killed in Khanpur, Pakistan Chehlum procession blast


A bomb blast ripped through a religious procession on Sunday, killing 18 people and wounding at least 20 others in Khanpur town of Rahim Yar Khan, police said. Hundreds of Pakistani Shiites had gathered in the town of Khanpur in Punjab province for a traditional procession to mark the end of 40 days of mourning following the anniversary of the martyrdom of Hazrat Imam Hussain. The explosion went off as the mourners came out of a mosque, said District Police Chief Sohail Chatta. The bomb appeared to have been planted ahead of time in the path of the procession, he said. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. Police officer Ghazanfer Ali said the crowd of mourners started throwing rocks at police after the blast and officers had to lob tear gas canisters into the crowd to control them. Officials had originally thought the explosion came from a malfunctioning electric cable, but later found that there had been a bomb, he said. Punjab law minister Rana Sanaullah said police investigators were still examining the area for clues. Security had been provided for the procession, but it had been breached, Sanaullah said. 

Mossad operating in Balochistan, Pakistan


Agents with Israel s Mossad agency posed as American CIA agents in operations to recruit members of the Pakistani militant group Jundallah, a report in Foreign Policy magazine said Friday. Using American dollars and US passports, the agents passed themselves off as members of the Central Intelligence Agency in the operations, notably in London, according to memos from 2007 and 2008, said the report. Jundallah (Soldiers of God) says it is fighting for the interests of the southeastern province s large ethnic Baluch community, whose members, unlike most Iranians, mainly follow the Sunni branch of Islam. The Baluch straddle the border with neighboring Pakistan and Afghanistan and Jundallah militants have taken advantage of the unrest in the region to find safe haven in the border region. In July it claimed responsibility for attacking the Grand Mosque in the provincial capital Zahedan, reportedly targeting members of Iran s elite Revolutionary Guards Corps, killing 28 people. "It s amazing what the Israelis thought they could get away with," a US intelligence officer told Foreign Policy. "Their recruitment activities were nearly in the open. They apparently didn t give a damn what we thought," said the official. The memos were written during the last years of then-president George W. Bush s administration -- the former US leader Bush "went absolutely ballistic" when briefed on the memos, said the magazine. "The report sparked White House concerns that Israel s program was putting Americans at risk," an officer told the magazine. "There s no question that the US has cooperated with Israel in intelligence-gathering operations against the Iranians, but this was different. No matter what anyone thinks, we re not in the business of assassinating Iranian officials or killing Iranian civilians," said the official. The Mossad activities could further jeopardize the already tense relationship of the United States with Pakistan, which is an official ally in the fight against Al Qaeda, which had been pressed to take action against Jundallah, said Foreign Policy. Tensions in the US-Iran relationship have also spiked, most recently following the assassination of an Iranian nuclear scientist. Foreign Policy said there was no evidence of a link between the scientist s killing and Jundallah.

Iraq suicide bomber kills 53 at pilgrimage climax


The killings have cast a pall over the climax of a Shiite pilgrimage that draws hundreds of thousands from around the world. The attack on devotees on the outskirts of the port city of Basra, which left 137 wounded, came with Iraq mired in a political row and infighting. The violence was the latest in a spate of attacks against pilgrims in the two weeks leading to the conclusion of Arbaeen, which marks 40 days after the Ashura anniversary commemorating the slaying of Imam Hussein, one of Islam s most revered figures. The bombing killed 53 people and wounded 137, according to Riyadh Abdulamir, head of Basra province s health department. He said women and children were among the casualties, but did not give further details. The death toll was the highest since attacks on pilgrims in Baghdad and southern Iraq killed 70 people on December 5. The attacker, who had been distributing cake and other food to pilgrims walking to the Khutwa Imam Ali, a site on the outskirts of Basra venerated by believers for its associations with one of the key figures of their faith, blew himself up near a security checkpoint. "I saw a soldier take hold of the attacker to take him to the officer in charge," said Kadhim Nasser, who was in charge of a nearby rest stop for pilgrims. "As he was pushing him, something happened and the soldier fell to the ground." "Immediately, he blew himself up. When he did that, women and children were passing by. I saw dozens of women and children among the wounded," the 42-year-old added. Pilgrims in southern Iraq who cannot visit the central shrine city of Karbala to mark Arbaeen typically make the shorter trip to Khutwa Imam Ali, which lies around 12 kilometres (seven miles) west of Basra. Hundreds of thousands did make it to Karbala on Saturday amid massive security in face of the insurgent threat.

Iran mulls punishing US, Israel, UK for killing


This was said by a senior military official on Saturday, pointing the finger at the United States, Israel and Britain. "We consider committing a terrorist act of killing a scientist to be a threat to the nation... We are looking at punishing those who were behind the scenes of the martyrdom  of Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan (pictured)," the deputy chief of Iran s joint armed forces, Masoud Jazayeri, was quoted as saying by several media. Iran s response will be "tormenting" for those responsible, he said, adding: "The enemies of the Iranian nation, such as the United States, Britain and the Zionist regime, should be made accountable for their actions." Ahmadi Roshan, a 32-year-old deputy director of Iran s main uranium enrichment plant, was killed along with his driver on Wednesday when assassins on a motorbike fixed a magnetic bomb to his car. He was the third nuclear scientist to have been murdered in similar circumstances in Tehran over the past two years. Iran s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Thursday that the "abominable" killing was committed "with the planning or support of the intelligence services of the CIA and Mossad" of the United States and Israel. Khamenei said in a statement that Tehran would "continue with determination" its nuclear activities, which Western governments suspect mask a drive for a weapons capability despite repeated denials. Some media close to Iran s conservatives have called for "retaliation" against Israeli officials. Washington has strongly denied any involvement with the assassination. Israel, widely seen as the prime suspect, has neither denied nor confirmed involvement, in line with its policy of not commenting on intelligence matters. Tehran has formally demanded that the UN Security Council condemn the "terrorist" killing. Its foreign ministry has also sent letters to the US and British governments accusing them of involvement in the scientists  assassinations, newspapers reported on Saturday.