Pakistan's efforts towards rooting out militancy and terrorism

Gillani raised the issue with Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke, who is on his fourth visit here since becoming the U.S. envoy to the region, according to a statement from the prime minister's office. Pakistan has asked before for the capability to carry out its own drone strikes, so as to avoid the public outcry that regularly follows attacks by U.S. unmanned aircraft.

The drone attacks in the tribal regions bordering Afghanistan "have seriously impeded Pakistan's efforts towards rooting out militancy and terrorism from the area," the statement said. Pakistan has cooperated with the U.S. drone missions despite its public position against them, and many Pakistani officials privately say that the attacks are helpful. Analysts have expressed doubt that the United States would comply with Pakistan's request to share the drone technology. "America has been saying, 'This is one of those technologies that is a critical technology, and we haven't even provided it to other allies,' " said Talat Masood, a retired Pakistani general.


For further details visit as : www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/22/AR2009072202224.html?hpid=topnews

Heavy rains lashed the financial capital

Mumbai (PTI): Heavy rains lashed the financial capital on Thursday, leading to water logging in several parts of the city and its suburbs. However, the transport system remained largely unaffected by the downpour. According to the Meteorological department, the city received 40 mm of rainfall till 0830 hours on Thursday. The weather bureau has predicted spells of rains with possibility of heavy downpour in the next 24 hours. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is gearing up to drain out excessive rain water accumulating in the city and its suburbs if heavy rains coincide with the 5.01 metre high-tide in the afternoon.


Source: www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/002200907231151.htm

Pakistani news report in a leading newspaper

A day after Pakistani media carried reports of a dossier presented to the Indian PM carrying details of India's alleged role in fomenting trouble in Balochistan and other areas, sources in the PMO have rubbished the reports saying Pakistani allegations are ‘baseless’. On Wednesday, a Pakistani news report in a leading newspaper quoted official sources suggesting that Manmohan Singh agreed to the mention of Balochistan in the joint statement after his Pakistani counterpart confronted him in Sharm-el-Sheikh with a dossier detailing India's covert subversion in the restive province of Balochistan. The report in Dawn claimed the dossier also had details about India fomenting trouble in other areas of Pakistan. The report said India was responsible for the attacks on the Sri Lankan cricket team and the Manawan police academy, and that it maintains a ‘terror training camp’ in Kandahar from where trained Baloch insurgents are sent into Pakistan. The report further said that the dossier had also been handed over to the US and Afghanistan. Indian government sources have on Thursday called these allegations baseless. The government sources have denied that any such dossier was shown to the Prime Minister at Sharm-el-Sheikh. Sources said ever since the formation of the Joint Terror Mechanism at the Havana summit, Pakistan has continually made allegations citing names and places, and India has chased these clues and found them to be baseless.

for further details visit as : timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/India/Pak-allegations-baseless-India/articleshow/4810501.cms

President Obama bluntly accused the police

WASHINGTON — President Obama bluntly accused the police of acting “stupidly” by arresting the Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. last week after an officer had established that Mr. Gates had not broken into his own home in Cambridge, Mass. A photo taken by a neighbor of the arrest last week of Henry Louis Gates Jr. in Cambridge, Mass. Mr. Obama stopped short of accusing the police department of racial profiling, as Mr. Gates has done. But during a prime-time White House news conference that was otherwise largely devoted to health care, Mr. Obama weighed in full bore on the Gates case and suggested that the police should never have arrested him. He added that African-Americans and Hispanics in the United States have long been familiar with racial profiling by law enforcement. “There’s a long history in this country of African-Americans being stopped disproportionately by the police,” Mr. Obama said. “It’s a sign of how race remains a factor in this society.”


For further details visit as : www.nytimes.com/2009/07/23/us/politics/23gates.html?hp

American soldiers were killed eastern Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan — Four American soldiers were killed by a roadside explosion in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, making July the deadliest month for American service members in the country since the 2001 invasion and underscoring the frightening rise in the sophistication and accuracy of roadside bombs. With the four newest fatalities, at least 30 Americans have died in the first three weeks of July, surpassing the highest previous monthly toll, 28, reached in June 2008. Part of the reason for July’s sharply higher fatalities — for American troops and for British and other NATO forces — is the three-week-old offensive in opium-rich Helmand Province, where United States Marines and British soldiers are trying to take control of areas dominated by the Taliban. But the most significant factor is the increasing power of roadside bombs employed by guerrillas in eastern and southern Afghanistan, including Helmand. The bombs are generally not as powerful as the improvised explosive devices, or I.E.D.’s, used by Iraqi guerrillas, who drew on huge stockpiles of artillery shells the Pentagon left unguarded. In later years, Shiite insurgents also employed explosively formed penetrators, a more precisely machined bomb that launched a fist-size molten ball that could pierce the thickest armor.

for further details visit as : www.nytimes.com/2009/07/21/world/asia/21afghan.html?hp

4 policemen were killed while two others sustained injuries

ISLAMABAD, July 20 (Xinhua) -- At least 4 policemen were killed while two others sustained injuries in an attack on a police mobile in northwestern Pakistan's Peshawar on Monday, local police said. Police said that the unknown militants attacked the police mobile when it was on a routine patrolling at Sarband area in the outskirts of Peshawar, the capital city of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP). Two policemen including a sub inspector were killed on the spot while two injured policemen died on their way to hospital. The injured were rushed to a nearby hospital for the treatment. As the repatriation process of the internally displaced persons(IDPs) of Malakand Division, due to the army operations against Taliban militants, have entered in a decisive phase as on Sunday a total of 11,715 families left for Buner and Swat districts from various relief camps in NWFP, the security situation in the conflict-ridden northwest is still unstable and fragile. Last week, an official of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was killed in a firing in Peshawar. The gunmen fled after the attack. No group claimed responsibility for the attack.

For further details visit as : news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-07/20/content_11739397.htm

Muslim Uighurs descended into violence in the regional capital

BEIJING — The top legislator from China's riot-hit Xinjiang said authorities will speed up local legislation against separatism in the western region that has a long-running independence movement by minority Uighurs, state media reported Monday.

China faced its worst unrest in decades this month when tensions between the dominant Han Chinese and the Turkic-speaking, Muslim Uighurs descended into violence in the regional capital of Urumqi. Nearly 200 people died in the unrest. The chairman of the Standing Committee of the Xinjiang Regional People's Congress blamed the July 5 riots on "three forces" — extremism, separatism, and terrorism — both at home and abroad, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. Eligen Imibakhi said the public's lack of understanding about laws is an "urgent problem," adding that the government plans to distribute legal booklets in ethnic minority languages to farmers and herdsmen across the region. China already has a national law against secession, though there are no similar regional laws. Xinjiang is working on legislation that would "provide legal assistance to Xinjiang's anti-secession struggle and the cracking down on violence and terrorism," Imibakhi said. The violence began when police in Urumqi intervened at a peaceful protest by Uighurs, who went on a rampage, smashing windows, burning cars and beating Han Chinese. Two days later, vigilante groups of Han took to the streets and attacked Uighurs. The government says 197 died in the unrest, with more than 1,700 hurt. Most of the dead were Han Chinese, though Uighurs say they believe many more of their community were killed in the ensuing government crackdown.



For further details visit as : www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j794twyjYyjeOIdsKWwzCUhsgvUAD99I0AHG0

Southern Afghanistan on Monday

KABUL, July 20 (Reuters) - A military aircraft used by NATO-led forces crashed shortly after take-off from a major base in southern Afghanistan on Monday, alliance officials said, the second crash at the base in as many days. First thought to have been a helicopter, a spokeswoman for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan later said the crash involved a fixed-wing aircraft with a small number of crew. "The incident will be investigated, however, insurgent activity has been ruled out," ISAF said in a statement. The ISAF spokeswoman said the crew ejected safely but had suffered some injuries. "Those injuries are being treated," the spokeswoman said. Few other details were immediately available about the crash at the Kandahar Air Field, the alliance's main military base in southern Kandahar province, a Taliban stronghold. The aircraft was on fire after the crash and Afghan forces were closing off roads leading to the sprawling base, just south of Kandahar City, officials said. The ISAF spokeswoman said some people were being evacuated from the area for their own safety.

Traffic from airfields in the south has increased dramatically since thousands of U.S. Marines and British soldiers launched major operations against the Taliban in neighbouring Helmand province earlier this month.


For further details visit as : in.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idINSP23480920090720

Six people have been killed-Indonesian capital Jakarta Luxury hotels

At least six people have been killed in two separate explosions at luxury hotels in the Indonesian capital Jakarta, police say.The country's Metro TV reported that one blast hit the Ritz-Carlton and the other, the Marriott Hotel. Television footage showed the facade of one of the hotels had been torn off by the blast. The BBC's Karishma Vaswani, outside the Marriott, said ambulances are present and security is extremely tight. South Jakarta police Col Firman Bundi said four people who died were foreigners, reported AP.Map "There were explosions heard from two separate places, one the JW Marriott, the other in the Ritz Carlton," he said. "We are still trying to check because right now we are still helping the victims," he said. Myra Junor, who witnessed the blasts from a nearby building, told Reuters windows on the lower floors of the Ritz-Carlton had shattered. Ambulances are continuing to arrive on the scene and there is a heavy police presence, says our correspondent. The two hotels are in Jakarta's central business district. The explosions come two weeks after presidential elections in Indonesia.

For further details visit as : news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8155084.stm

Al Qaeda in retribution for a Chinese government

BEIJING, July 15 (Reuters) - China has warned its citizens in Algeria about possible attacks from al Qaeda in retribution for a Chinese government crackdown in the Muslim region of Xinjiang.

The Chinese embassy in Algeria on its web site urged all Chinese people and organisations to be more aware of safety precautions and to strengthen security measures "in consideration of the situation after the July 5 incident in Urumqi".
The warning came after London risk consultancy Stirling Assynt said in a report to clients that al Qaeda might target Chinese workers in northwest Africa, citing "chatter" after the July 5 ethnic riots in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang.
"China has been reminding overseas Chinese to pay attention to their safety and enhance self protection ... China will take any necessary measure to protect the safety of Chinese organisations and citizens overseas," Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters on Tuesday when asked to comment on the report.
Security is heavy in Uighur neighbourhoods of Urumqi and other cities in Xinjiang after ethnic riots killed 184 people and wounded more than 1,600. About 1,000 people have been detained. [ID:nPEK56356]
Two knife-wielding Uighurs were also shot dead by police this week when they attacked another Uighur.
Exiled Uighur organisations said they opposed all forms of violence and condemned the reported al Qaeda threat.
The Uyghur (also spelt Uighur) American Association and the World Uyghur Congress are "extremely disturbed by reports that the North African wing of Al Qaeda has threatened to attack Chinese workers in Africa in revenge for the deaths of Uyghurs in East Turkestan", the exiled groups said in an emailed statement.



For further details visit as : www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSPEK193325

The number of policemen killed in an attack by suspected Maoist rebels

The number of policemen killed in an attack by suspected Maoist rebels in India's Chhattisgarh state has risen to 29, police say.

The attack took place in Rajnandgaon, 90km (56 miles) from capital Raipur.
Two officers were killed initially, and a larger force sent to the scene was then attacked, according to police reports
The district police chief was also killed in what is said to be one of the worst attacks by rebels in the state.
Maoist rebels are fighting for communist rule in a number of states. The conflict has killed more than 6,000 people in 20 years.
Convoy ambushed The first attack took place in Madanwada early Sunday morning in which two policemen were killed.
Superintendent of police for Rajnandgaon, Vinod Kumar Choubey, was killed when he was leading police reinforcements to the area, the deputy inspector general of police, Pawan Dev, said.
His convoy was ambushed between Khoregaon and Karkoti villages. Between 200 and 300 rebels attacked the police convoy.



For further details visit as : news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8147097.stm

Gordon Brown will try to rally faltering public support

Gordon Brown will try to rally faltering public support for the war against the Taleban today, as ministers insist that sending more troops would not cut British casualties in Afghanistan.

The Prime Minister said yesterday that the offensive was gaining ground, despite the loss of eight soldiers in one 24-hour period last week. While the Government promised that money would be found for equipment, ministers denied that a lack of troops was behind the growing death toll.There are 9,000 servicemen in Afghanistan but that will drop to 8,300 after the presidential elections next month.
A senior government source said: “We are losing more men because we are taking the fight to the Taleban and more troops are being put in harm’s way. But it is just not true to say that fewer would be killed if more were there. The opposite could be true. Many of our men have been killed by roadside bombs. Having more there would not prevent that happening.”
General Lord Guthrie of Craigiebank, former Chief of the Defence Staff, has accused the Treasury of being unsympathetic to the war and called for more troops. His views echo those of General Sir Richard Dannatt, the outgoing Chief of the General Staff, who asked in March for at least 2,000 more troops. General Sir David Richards, who will succeed General Dannatt next month, is also in favour of sending reinforcements. However, the Ministry of Defence insisted that the brigade commander in Helmand had not requested more men.




For further details visit as : www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6695598.ece

Urumqi, capital of the far-west Xinjiang region

URUMQI, China (Reuters) - The potential dark side of China's future was on show last week when crowds of Han Chinese, clutching clubs, axes and mobile phones, sought revenge after a rampage by minority Uighur Muslims.

The ethnic violence in Urumqi, capital of the far-west Xinjiang region, was also a product of the new China, with its increasingly mobile and sometimes assertive population.
Enmity between Uighurs and Han Chinese mixed with high-tech communications and sometimes fumbling state security to stoke the strife in Urumqi, which the government says killed 184 people.
There are many unanswered questions about the tumult that began with a student protest over Uighurs killed at a factory in far southern China. Not least, how many died in the subsequent violence by Uighurs and then rioting by Han Chinese residents.
But the mayhem has also highlighted how China's market economic transformation is changing society in ways the ruling Communist Party and its security forces may struggle to master.
"There are deep faultlines behind the veneer of stability in China," said Nicholas Bequelin, an Asia expert with Human Rights Watch who has long studied Xinjiang.



For further details visit as : www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE56C0P020090713

Sonia Sotomayor has decided advantages long legal career, a nationally televised

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sonia Sotomayor has decided advantages as she begins the most important trial of her long legal career, a nationally televised consideration of her nomination to be the first Hispanic and just the third woman on the Supreme Court.

Beginning Monday, she will tell her compelling up-from-poverty personal story to a jury tilted strongly in her favor — Democrats hold a comfortable majority on the Senate Judiciary Committee and a filibuster-resistant 60 votes in the Senate.
Still, Republicans signaled that they will press the 55-year-old New Yorker and veteran federal judge to explain past rulings involving discrimination complaints and gun rights, as well as comments that they say raise doubts about Sotomayor's ability to judge cases fairly.
The sharpest comments about her so far came Sunday from Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the senior Republican on the committee.
Sotomayor has said repeatedly in speeches over the past 10 years that personal experiences influence a judge's decisions, Sessions said.
"She has criticized the idea that a woman and a man would reach the same result. She expects them to reach different results. I think that's philosophically incompatible with the American system," Sessions said on CBS' "Face the Nation."
Her defenders have portrayed her as a meticulous judge who has strictly followed the law in her 17 years on the federal bench.


For further details visit as :www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5huyApqmCqq9U5Hw9jP5IYR1gSQEwD99DB38O1

Japan's prime minister expected to call a general election Aug 30

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's embattled Prime Minister Taro Aso is expected to call a general election for August 30, a ruling party official told reporters on Monday.

Public broadcaster NHK said earlier Aso had reached agreement on the poll timing in a meeting with executives from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). The LDP official said the lower house would be dissolved on July 21.
Some Japanese media questioned whether the election timing was a done deal, noting opposition to the move was strong inside both Aso's LDP and the junior party in the ruling coalition.
Moves within the LDP to dump Aso were expected to grow after the ruling party and its junior partner lost their majority in a Tokyo assembly vote on Sunday. The opposition Democratic Party won the most seats.
A Democratic Party victory in the national parliament's lower house would end half a century of nearly unbroken rule by the business-friendly LDP and raise the chance of resolving political deadlocks as Japan tries to recover from its worst recession since World War Two.
Aso told ruling party lawmakers on Sunday he planned to dissolve the lower house as early as Tuesday and was set to unveil that plan on Monday, Kyodo news agency had reported earlier.
Many in the LDP and its junior coalition partner, the New Komeito, are opposed to holding an election too soon after their defeat in the Tokyo poll, seen as a barometer for a national election due by October.
"It's clear if parliament is dissolved now, the result would be the same as the Tokyo election," the New Komeito's policy chief, Natsuo Yamaguchi, told a TV Asahi program.


For further details visit as : www.reuters.com/article/newsMaps/idUSTRE56B01A20090713

Blocking ousted President Honduran coup leaders faced further isolation

TEGUCIGALPA (AFP) — Honduran coup leaders faced further isolation, after blocking ousted President Manuel Zelaya from flying into the capital's airport, where soldiers killed two of his supporters, according to police.

Zelaya's attempt to return to the polarized nation one week after he was kicked out of power came as tensions reached breaking point, with tens of thousands of his supporters massed at the heavily-militarized airport.
As soldiers fired shots and tear gas at rock-throwing protesters, two people died, according to police. The local Red Cross reported one death.
Moments later, Zelaya's plane swooped over the runway as military vehicles blocked it from landing.
"I'm doing everything I can," Zelaya said live on Venezuela's Telesur television. "If I had a parachute I would immediately jump out of this plane."
"From tomorrow the responsibility will fall on the powers, particularly the United States," Zelaya added.
International pressure was set to increase on the heels of aid freezes, ambassador withdrawals and temporary trade blockages.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Zelaya's key backer, has said he suspended key shipments of oil to Honduras, which he said would drive up gasoline prices.
To add to the country's isolation, the Organization of American States (OAS) voted to suspend Honduras late Saturday, in the first such move since the exclusion of Cuba in 1962.
Members of the pan-American body slammed the leaders of the coup which saw the army remove Zelaya at the height of a dispute with the courts, politicians and the army over his plans to change the constitution -- which opponents said included an attempt to stand for a second term.
After the dramatic attempt to land in Tegucigalpa, Zelaya met with OAS chief Jose Miguel Insulza and the presidents of Argentina, Ecuador and Paraguay in neighboring El Salvador late Sunday, before heading to Nicaragua.
Insulza said at a joint news conference that he was prepared to continue working on resolving the crisis.



For further details visit as : www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i3yeuQj-lTVZbsNPau3un7IGIODg

The governor of California has declared a fiscal emergency in the US state

The governor of California has declared a fiscal emergency in the US state to address a budget deficit of some $24.3bn (£14.5bn).Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger also ordered many state offices to close for three days each month until June 2010, with staff unpaid for those days. California has been one of the US states hardest hit by the recession. The moves comes after state legislators missed a 1 July deadline to approve a budget for the coming financial year. State Controller John Chiang has said the failure to meet the deadline means the state deficit will increase by up to $6.5bn by September. Mr Chiang told the BBC that many vulnerable people had been put in harm's way by the state's failure to agree the budget and to provide "essential dollars to help these people pay their rent, to put food on the table or to pay their utility bill". He had earlier warned that drastic measures would have to be taken to conserve cash, including delaying payments to companies working for the state and to those relying on benefits and grants. Under the emergency measures, some state offices will be closed on the first, second and third Friday of every month until June 2010, with staff not paid for those days.

for further details visit as : news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8129840.stm

Afghan desert just before daybreak, 300 US Marines

CAMP DWYER, Afghanistan (AFP) — In the cool of an Afghan desert just before daybreak, 300 US Marines rustled in sleeping bags beside a helicopter pad as the wake-up orders were whispered from man to man.Dawn broke over Camp Dwyer in southern Afghanistan, and Fox and Echo company of the 2/8 Infantry Battalion were quickly up and ready for the biggest Marine operation since the second battle of Fallujah in Iraq in 2004.Loaded up with backpacks, rifles and water, the men lined up to board grey CH-53 helicopters taking them behind enemy lines in Taliban-held territory of the Helmand River valley.A few hugged each other, but the atmosphere was business-like and restrained. Men fussed and patted a couple of Labradors that would be used to sniff out explosives.As the first of the helicopters took off, billowing dust into the low sun, Brigadier General Larry Nicholson, commander of Operation Khanjar -- which means a double-edged dagger in Dari and Pashtu -- arrived to wish his men well.Shaking hands and chewing gum, he looked focused but relaxed."I've been flying all night from place to place," he told AFP. "I've got staff back at the base that allow me to move around. Anyone in my position now just hopes they have made all the right decisions."1/5 (Infantry Battalion) went into Nawa cleanly and quietly this morning. So far, we have picked the right spots to go into."The eight helicopters involved in the lift from Camp Dwyer -- just one small part of the overall operation -- kept their rotor blades churning as they waited on the tarmac.With a simple hand wave, each line of men was given the "go" signal and walked briskly to the choppers and through the back doors. Within minutes, they had disappeared into the desert haze.

for further details visit as :www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iXT8JxrlENUN1nnJaoeh8As2E7tw

Comoros was reunited with her father back in France early on Thursday

MORONI (Reuters) - The sole survivor of a Yemeni jet that plunged into deep water while attempting to land on the Indian Ocean archipelago of Comoros was reunited with her father back in France early on Thursday.Bahia Bakari, who can barely swim, clung on to floating debris for more than 12 hours before search teams spotted her struggling in rough seas.Rescuers have failed to find any of the remaining 152 passengers and crew since the Yemenia Airbus A310 crashed in rough weather in the early hours of Tuesday morning.American and French military aircraft continued to scour the crash site on Thursday as hopes of another miracle find faded fast and efforts turned toward locating the wreckage thought to be in waters up to 500 metres (1,640 ft) deep.Local doctors, who marveled at Bakari's escape with little more than cuts, bruises and a fractured collar bone, said she was discharged on her father's request."It was on the demand of her father in France. The girl was regaining her spirit and was in a satisfactory physical state," said Dr Jean Youssef, lead doctor at the disaster unit on Grand Comore.Television images showed her lying weakly in a poorly-equipped intensive care bed, unaware her mother had died in the crash.Youssef said Moroni's El Marouf hospital lacked the facilities needed to properly scan the teenager's body for any internal damage.Bakari returned to France on a French government jet with French Cooperation Secretary Alain Joyandet.

for further details visit as : www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE55T0LQ20090702

combing operations in 22 villages of Lalgarh

Security forces worked to further consolidate their grip over Maoist-held areas in West Mindapore district and launched combing operations in 22 villages of Lalgarh.

With Kantapahari recaptured, all borders of Lalgarh had been sealed, a senior police officer said.
"Now we want to ensure that the extremists do not come back to the area. We are consolidating the position we have gained so far," said one police officer.
He said the Maoists might have left West Midnapore district and retreated into neighbouring Jharkhand after Kantapahari, the ultras' last stronghold in Lalgarh, fell to security forces on Monday.
As the operations against the Maoists entered the 13th day, central forces and police are now engaged in sanitising all 22 villages of Lalgah.
On Monday, the forces searched Baropelia, Chotopelia, Dalilpur chowk and other villages for suspected Maoists and possible arms and ammunition.



For further details visit as : www.indianexpress.com/news/Combing-operations-going-on-in-22-Lalgarh-villages/483135