Obama cites India to plug 'open government'

Citing the example of Indian villages getting their voices heard with new information technology tools, President Barack Obama has urged emerging and established democracies to make their governments more transparent. The US will also launch a new online tool that will allow Americans to petition the White House directly.

He said the technology will be made available to other governments.
"From Tanzania to Indonesia - and as I saw firsthand during my visit to India - rural villages are organizing and making their voices heard, and getting the public services that they need," he said Tuesday at the United Nations.
"Governments from Brazil to South Africa are putting more information online, helping people hold public officials accountable for how they spend taxpayer dollars," Obama said inaugurating an "Open Government Partnership" co-chaired by the US and Brazil.
Eight founding members in the partnership, including Mexico, Indonesia, South Africa, the Philippines, have pledged to be more transparent, allow greater citizen participation in government, and increase access to technology.

Obama said the moment is ripe for the initiative, with people across the Middle East and North Africa pushing for their governments to represent and benefit their citizens, and with emerging democracies across the world showing how "innovations in open government" can increase prosperity and justice.
He said an additional 40 countries have begun working toward joining the partnership next year.
The US was also joining a global initiative in which oil, gas and mining companies disclose more information about how much they're paying to extract natural resources.
Source: IANS

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Former Afghan President Rabbani killed during peace talks

A suicide bomber posing as a Taliban peace envoy assassinated a former Afghan president who for the past year headed a government council trying to negotiate a political settlement with the insurgents.

Tuesday's attack, carried out in former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani's Kabul home by a militant who detonated explosives hidden in his turban, dealt a harsh blow to efforts at ending a decade of war.
President Hamid Karzai cut short a visit to the U.S., calling on Afghans to remain unified in the face of Rabbani's "martyrdom." Rabbani's death came days after a daytime assault by insurgents on the U.S. Embassy and NATO headquarters, deepening a sense of insecurity in the capital.
NATO said in a statement that two suicide bombers were involved in the attack on Rabbani, both of them men who had feigned a desire to reconcile with the government. It was unclear if a second bomber was able to detonate his explosives.
Afghan officials, however, insisted there was only one attacker. Four of Rabbani's bodyguards also died and a key presidential adviser was wounded in the bombing, they said.
Fazel Karim Aimaq, a former lawmaker from Kunduz province and a friend of Rabbani's, told reporters outside the former president's home that Rabbani had come back from a trip to Iran in order to meet with a man who had been described as a high-ranking Taliban contact. The visitor was shown into the house but not fully searched, Aimaq said. When Rabbani appeared, the man shook the former president's hand and bowed as a sign of respect, Aimaq said.

"Then his turban exploded," he said. Police confirmed that the bomb had been hidden in the turban.
Rabbani's death will dent efforts to keep in check the regional and ethnic rivalries that partly feed the insurgency. As one of the wise old men of Afghan politics and the leader of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance, Rabbani's role in the attempts to seek a political deal with the Taliban -- with U.S. blessing -- will be hard to replace soon. His death could unleash a well of resentment among some senior Northern Alliance members, who accuse Karzai of colluding with the Taliban.
Already Afghanistan's ethnic minorities have begun to rearm in the face of negotiations with the Taliban. Rabbani's death is likely to accelerate that process and lay the foundation for a possible civil war once U.S. combat troops leave the country or take on support roles by the end of 2014.
President Barack Obama said the killing will not deter the U.S. and Afghanistan from helping that country's people live freely. He said the former president's death is tragic because he was a man who cared deeply about Afghanistan. Obama commented at the start of a meeting in New York with Karzai.
Shukria Barakzai, a lawmaker from Kabul, was visibly shaken as she stood outside Rabbani's house in the Wazir Akbar Khan area of the city, near the U.S. Embassy and NATO headquarters.
"We don't want the whole peace process to get stuck," she said. "We have to continue, we have to."
Rabbani, who was about 70 years old, headed the country's High Peace Council, set up by the Afghan government to work toward a political solution to the decade-long war. It had made little headway since it was formed a year ago, but it was backed by many in the international community as an important first step toward a settlement.
British Prime Minister David Cameron said Rabbani had played a key role in the peace process.
"He was a respected former president of Afghanistan and played a vital role as the chairman of the Afghan High Peace Council," Cameron said. "He will be sorely missed but the work of the Peace Council will go on. We remain determined to see Afghanistan prosper."
Rabbani was president from 1992-1996, heading the Afghan government that preceded the Taliban rule. After he was driven from Kabul in 1996, he became the nominal head of the Northern Alliance, mostly minority Tajiks and Uzbeks, who swept to power in Kabul as a U.S.-led invasion toppled the Taliban regime in late 2001. Rabbani, an ethnic Tajik, headed the Jamiat-e-Islami political party.

"We lost our leader. We lost our leader," Habibullah, a close friend of Rabbani's, said as he stood crying outside a hospital.
Karzai's adviser Mohammad Masoom Stanekzai was wounded in the attack. A relative who answered Stanekzai's phone said that the wounds did not appear to be life-threatening, but that Stanekzai was in the hospital. The relative declined to give his name because of the sensitivity of the situation.
Stanekzai is a top official with the High Peace Council and the head of a reintegration program for mid- and lower-level Taliban back into Afghan society. The program has so far managed to reintegrate only about 2,000 of the estimated 25,000-40,000 insurgents in Afghanistan.
Reintegration was the other half of reconciliation, which aims to broker a peace deal with the senior Taliban leadership.
Last week, Rabbani led a conference of provincial governors and officials who met in the southern city of Kandahar to develop policies for reintegrating insurgents who want to give up the fight. At the conference, he urged those in the provinces to counter insurgent propaganda claiming that international forces were invaders in Afghanistan.
Pakistan's Prime Minister Yusuf Reza Gilani and President Asif Ali Zardari condemned the assassination. They conveyed their "extreme anger and shock" to the Afghan government over the killing, according to a statement released by the Pakistan government.
Taliban factions based in northwest Pakistan and allegedly supported by elements of the Pakistani security forces have been blamed by Afghan and U.S. authorities for high-profile attacks in Afghanistan, especially in Kabul, over the past three years.
Barakzai said that residents of Kabul were tired of the constant attacks in the city, including a 20-hour assault against the U.S. Embassy and NATO headquarters in Kabul that finally ended Sept. 14. That attack killed 16 Afghans -- five police officers and 11 civilians, more than half of them children. No one at the embassy or NATO was killed.
"Every single week we have such an attack," she said.
U.S. and Afghan officials have blamed the Pakistan-based Haqqani network for carrying out that attack and others in the capital and openly stated that the insurgent group has ties to the Pakistani government -- a rare public shot at the role Afghanistan's neighbor to the east plays in bolstering the insurgency.

Abdullah Abdullah, a Tajik leader who lost to Karzai in the 2009 presidential election, said Rabbani's death was significant.
"He was a jihadi leader. From the beginning to the end of his life he did his best to bring peace and stability to this country, and it is a big loss for all Afghan people," Abdullah said.
Abdullah, who has been critical of Karzai's attempts to reconcile with the Taliban, said "we should recognize and know our enemy from lower ranks up to the top officials of the country because by any means, by any way, they are trying to kill us and eliminate all high-ranking officials and jihadi leaders."
The Taliban have been targeting senior officials in the government and close associates of Karzai.
On July 27, an insurgent with a bomb under his turban killed the mayor of Kandahar, Ghulam Haider Hamidi. Five days earlier, a close associate gunned down Karzai's powerful half brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, at his home in Kandahar. During Karzai's funeral a turban bomber killed a prominent cleric.
That same month, Karzai's inner circle suffered another hit when gunmen in Kabul killed Jan Mohammad Khan, a presidential adviser on tribal issues and a former governor of Uruzgan province, which is also in the south.
The killings prompted Karzai to urge Afghan religious leaders to condemn the use of turban bombs.
Source: AP

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After 18 years, US lifts ban on gays in American military

Washington: The US military today formally lifted a ban on gays openly serving in the armed services, ending an 18-year-old practice that had resulted in the dismissal of some 14,000 service members.

"We are prepared for repeal," Pentagon spokesman George Little told reporters on the issue which has witnessed years of court battle and political debate.
The 1993 law had banned gays and lesbians from serving openly in the US military.
"No one should be left with the impression that we are unprepared. We are prepared for repeal. The force is well aware that this is coming. They've had the training. It's been in the press for months. The September 20th day is not a mystery," Little said.
"This is something that has been known for a long time. We've gone through a process to certify repeal," he said.
US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta and Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, are scheduled to address a joint press conference on the issue.

While applicants are not asked, or required to, reveal their sexual orientation, statements about sexual orientation will not be a bar to military service or admission to service academies, or any other accession programme, Little said.
"Openly gay or lesbian applicants will be evaluated according to the same criteria and requirements applicable to all others seeking entry into the military," he said.
The spokesman said 2.3 million service members have been trained on the repeal of the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy.
"The services provided commanders and experts in the field with the training tools to educate the force on what is expected in a post-repeal environment. The training focused on the changes in policy affected by the repeal of DADT, and on expectations that service members will continue to treat each other with dignity and respect," he said.

Meanwhile, reports said gay rights groups have planned celebration events across the country and in overseas military communities to mark the repeal date.
One of them is at the Stonewall Inn in New York, which is the site of the 1969 riots viewed by many as the start of the gay rights movement.
"Our military will no longer be deprived of the talents and skills of patriotic Americans just because they happen to be gay or lesbian," US President Barack Obama had said on July 22, when he announced he has certified that the armed forces are ready for its repeal.
"As commander in chief, I have always been confident that our dedicated men and women in uniform would transition to a new policy in an orderly manner that preserves unit cohesion, recruitment, retention and military effectiveness," Obama had said.
Source: PTI

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Haqqani network receives protection from ISI: expert

Washington: The Haqqani network, which is blamed for the recent attack on American embassy in Kabul, receives protection and support from the Pakistani spy agency ISI, an influential think-tank has told US lawmakers.

"They receive protection and support from facets of Pakistan's intelligence agency ISI, which continues to drag its feet on taking action against the Haqqanis because they see the network as a useful proxy to expand their influence and establish footholds in Afghanistan," said Frank J Cilluffo, Director of the Homeland Security Policy Institute at the George Washington University.
"Because the Haqqani network is seen by parts of Pakistan's government as a valuable ally, the government has refused to take action in the tribal regions of Waziristan which creates safe havens, not only for the Haqqanis but for al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups, with which the Haqqanis are intimately involved," Cilluffo told lawmakers at a Congressional hearing last week.
Noting that the network poses a significant threat to US and India, he observed that "strangely, and inadvisably" it has not been designated a foreign terrorist group.
It is believed that the group is a powerful insurgent force in Afghanistan, one that targets coalition forces as well as Indian investments and interests in the country, he said.

Siraj Haqqani, the son of the famous anti-Soviet fighter Jalaluddin Haqqani, is the current leader of the network. The group originated in the 1970s and has formed significant ties with al-Qaeda and Taliban in the years since its inception. Today, it is operationally based in North Waziristan, the remote border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Cilluffo said Lashkar-e-Toiba too receives support from the Pakistani establishment.
"Before the United States can take actions to assume a lighter footprint (especially in Afghanistan), it is paramount that we hold Pakistan accountable to take action against the extremist forces festering under their watch," he said.
"The litmus test here is whether Pakistan will sever its historic ties to its proxies, namely LeT in India and the Haqqani Network in Afghanistan. While we acknowledge the fact that there are some factions in Pakistan that will never cut these ties, we must also realize that some in Pakistan recognize the threat these groups pose," he said.
"Those individuals are motivated to cooperate with the US, and we should continue to do all we reasonably can to encourage and support their efforts. This is not only in the best interests of the US and India, but also of Pakistan," Cilluffo added.
Source: PTI

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Defiant Obama seeks new taxes on wealthy to cut debt

Striking a confrontationist posture, President Barack Obama has proposed $1.5 trillion in new taxes for the wealthy to cut the national debt by $3.2 trillion over the next decade.

In a White House address Monday he also threatened to veto any debt reduction legislation that cuts benefits like Medicare and Medicaid, government provided healthcare for the elderly, and doesn't include higher taxes on the wealthy.
"I will not support any plan that puts all the burden on ordinary Americans," he said abandoning earlier compromises as the Washington Post suggested.
Obama has "adopted a posture that cedes far less ground in cutting the nation's social safety net and demands much more in terms of new levies on millionaires, other wealthy Americans and some industries," it said.
"Rather than trying to identify common ground, the president is taking the same kind of tough stance that Republicans adopted in the debt-ceiling debate," said the influential New York Times.

The proposal drew an angry response from key Republicans, underscoring the considerable opposition to his plan on Capitol Hill as a special bipartisan committee on deficit reduction ramps up its work in coming weeks.
The special committee must find $1.2 trillion to $1.5 trillion in savings by Nov 23 or the federal budget will automatically be reduced by $1.2 trillion starting in 2013, a deep cut that would be split between defence and domestic spending.
Obama even introduced the "Buffett Rule" for millionaires-named after investor Warren Buffett, who has frequently argued that the very rich are not taxed enough.
All told, the White House estimates Obama's plan would reduce debt to 73 percent of the size of the economy by 2021, well below the nearly 91 percent it's on track to hit without any budgetary changes. It also estimates the annual deficit that year would fall to 2.3 percent of GDP, down from the 5.5 percent currently projected.
Source: IANS

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अंगोला की लीला लोप्स बनीं मिस यूनिवर्स

PTI

अंगोला की लीला लोप्स मिस यूनिवर्स 2011 का खिताब अपने नाम कर लिया। यूक्रेन और ब्राजील की सुंदरियां दूसरे और तीसरे स्‍थान पर रहीं। पिछले साल की मिस यूनिवर्स रही मेक्सिको की जिमेना नवरेते उन्हें ताज पहनाया।

ब्राजील के साओ पाआलो शहर में आयोजित 60वें सालाना विश्व सुंदरी समारोह में लोपेज (25) ने कहा कि मैं खुद को आंतरिक सौंदर्य की धनी समझती हूं। मुझे मेरे परिवार से बहुत कुछ सीखने को मिला है और अब ये आदर्श जीवन भर मेरा साथ निभाने वाले हैं। यह उत्तर उन्होंने जजों के उस सवाल के जवाब में दिया जिसमें उसने पूछा गया था कि अपने बाहरी सौंदर्य के बारे में क्या ऐसी चीज होगी जो वह बदलना चाहेंगी।

इस दौरान उन्होंने मुस्कुराते हुए अपनी निकटतम प्रतिद्वंद्वी यूक्रेन की ओलशिया स्तेफ्को को गले भी लगाया। इसके बाद उन्हें विश्व सुंदरी का ताज पहनाया गया।

प्रतियोगिता के फाइनल में पहुंचने वाली टॉप टेन प्रतियोगियों में फिलीपीन्स, चीन, ऑस्‍ट्रेलिया, कोस्‍टा रिका, फ्रांस, पुर्तगाल और पनामा की सुंदरियां भी शामिल थीं। जबकि परंपरागत फाइनलिस्‍ट मिस यूएसए और मिस वेनेजुएला इस बार आखिरी 10 में भी जगह बनाने में नाकामयाब रहीं।

भारतीय प्रतिभागी बासुकी भी कस्टम की परेशानी के कारण परंपरागत भारतीय परिधान नहीं पहन पाईं। उन्होंने ट्विटर पर बताया कि उनकी ड्रेस एक हफ्ते तक कस्टम में अटकी रही और इस वजह से उन्हें परंपरागत परिधान वाले राउंड में अन्य परिधान पहनना पड़ा। (एजेंसी)

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KGB tried to recruit me but I failed the test: British PM

Moscow: Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron has revealed that Russian spy agency KGB tried to hire him when he was a student, but he failed to pass the test. 

The British PM, who was in the Russian capital on Monday, said that though the KGB tried to recruit him, he apparently failed to pass the "interview" during the bizarre incident on a gap-year trip to the Black Sea coast in 1985.
"I first came to Russia as a student on my gap year between school and university in 1985. I took the Trans-Siberian railway from Nakhodka to Moscow and went on to the Black Sea coast.
"There, two Russians, speaking perfect English, turned up on a beach mostly used by foreigners," 'The Daily Telegraph' online quoted Cameron as telling the students at the Moscow State University.
The British PM said, "They took me out to lunch and dinner and asked me about life in England, and what I thought about England."

A naive Cameron apparently did not immediately realise what had happened at the resort of Yalta until returning to Britain. He is understood to have been travelling with a friend, Anthony Griffith.
He said: "When I got back, I told my tutor at university and he asked me whether it was an interview. If it was, it seems I didn't get the job."
When told of the incident, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Cameron would have made a "very good KGB agent."
"David would have been a very good KGB agent, but in this case he would never have become a prime minister of the UK," the Russian president said.
Source: ANI

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Pakistan has been an unreliable ally: US Vice President

Washington: Vice President Joe Biden has called Pakistan an “unreliable ally” in the war against terror and said Islamabad had failed “on occasion” when forced to choose between the US and al-Qaeda. 

Biden, who spoke to CNN on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks, said it was in Pakistan's interest to cooperate more.
The price of Pakistan's choices has been the "loss of life of American soldiers in Afghanistan," he said.
The interview was aired late last night.
Islamabad has "been very helpful in other times," he added. "But it's not sufficient. They have to get better. We need a relationship that is born out of mutual interest. And it's in their interest that they be more cooperative with us."
"We are demanding it," he said.
The US-Pak relations had dipped to the lowest level since the May 2 US military operation that killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan's garrison city of Abbottabad.
Pakistani authorities insist they did not know bin Laden's location.

Despite troubles in Pakistan and elsewhere, the US is "getting close" to bringing about an end to organised, legitimised terrorist activities, Biden said.
"We have done great damage to... al-Qaeda," he said.
"Satellite organisations" have emerged in Somalia and elsewhere, he said, but "they are less coordinated" and "less capable".
"And we're relentless in pursuing them," he added. As a result, Americans are safer today than they were a decade ago, Biden asserted.
Regardless, the Vice President cautioned "there is always a possibility of a lone wolf" attack within the US or elsewhere.
"There's always a possibility of an incident occurring, but I do not believe there's anyone right now capable of putting together the kind of extremely complicated planned operation that took place on 9/11," he said.
Source: PTI

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Rockets fired at U.S. embassy in Afghan capital

Kabul: Afghan police said insurgents were firing rockets at the US Embassy as gunbattles shake downtown Kabul and its diplomatic quarter.

The US embassy area in Kabul.

Police official Mohammed Zahir said a large group of gunmen are firing from positions in a tall office building that is under construction near the embassy.
Blasts and gunfire echoed through the Afghan capital as the Taliban said several attackers armed with rocket-propelled grenades and suicide vests were targeting government buildings near the embassy district.
At least six loud explosions were interspersed with gunfire around the middle of the day. Television pictures from near the attack showed a burned out minivan, a bicycle lying in the middle of the street and people running away.
Police and other security officials blocked roads around the US embassy and other diplomatic missions, and said the attack had happened at a nearby square.

There are several armed attackers in Abdul Haq Square, said Mohammad Zahir, head of Kabul's Crime Investigation Unit.
Several Taliban attackers armed with rocket-propelled grenades, AK-47s and suicide vests have taken up positions in Kabul, near the embassy district, to attack government buildings, a spokesman for the insurgents said.
The primary targets of the attackers are the intelligence agency building and a ministry, Zabihullah Mujahid said.
He said he could not comment on how many attackers there were while the operation was going on.
The attack in Kabul follows a huge truck bomb at a NATO base in central Afghanistan in which four Afghan civilians were killed and 77 US troops wounded, on the eve of the anniversary of the Sept. 11 2001 attacks.
Violence in Afghanistan is at its worst since US-backed Afghan forces toppled the Taliban government in late 2001, with high levels of foreign troop deaths and record civilian casualties. Heavy blasts and gunfire were heard throughout the Wazir Akbar Khan area, which is home to the American and other embassies.
Source: AP

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I saw Delhi High Court blast, 9/11: Nepal psychic

A 34-year-old unemployed man from central Nepal claims to have "seen" the explosion before New Delhi's high court last week that killed 13 people, the 9/11 carnage in the US a decade ago and scores of other scenes of devastation worldwide -- in his mind.

Krishna Pandey, a welder from Dhading district, sought the help of the media in Kathmandu Sunday to draw attention to what he claims is his psychic power that enables him to get random previews of disasters taking place worldwide.
The son of a poor farmer, Krishna says he began to "see" incidents of devastation 10 years ago, starting with the massacre of Nepal's royal family June 1, 2001.
"I heard gunshots in my mind one day," Pandey said. "I heard the gunfire coming from the palace and I told people it was a bad omen. The royal family should be shifted from the palace. But no one listened to me."
Pandey says though he tries to alert the authorities when he has his visions, no one takes him seriously because he has no money or contacts.
"I don't even watch TV or read papers regularly," he says. "I can't afford to. I have just a tiny radio I bought while working in Oman and that's my sole link to the world."

In 2008, when Nepal held a historic election that saw its Maoist guerrillas emerge as winners, Pandey says he predicted the election results to one of the then election commissioners in Dhading.
Last month, he was attending a media programme in Kathmandu when he had a vision.
"I saw a man digging a hole in a place full of garbage near the gate of a building, and minutes later, I heard a big bang," he says. "Later, when I saw photos in newspapers, I realised that I had had a vision of the explosion in front of the New Delhi high court gate."
His over 250 other predictions, Pandey says, are about the 9/11 attack in the US, the tsunami in Japan, aircraft disasters in Nepal and the terror attacks in the UK.
He also claims to have seen in his dreams that the group sentenced to death for the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi would get a reprieve and Sonia Gandhi going abroad for medical treatment.

However, the visions, instead of getting him fame and riches, have had him branded as a "crackpot" by the people he tries to convince.
He was once arrested in Dhading when he tried to get the ear of the chief district officer and had to cool his heels for a night in the local lock-up.
For now, Pandey has a prediction for the new government of Nepal.
He says he dreamt that Baburam Bhattarai, the new prime minister, would initiate sweeping changes after returning to Kathmandu from attending the 66th UN General Assembly meet in New York in end-September.
While the Bhattarai government would not fall soon, the psychic however warns that the new premier would not be able to deliver a new constitution by November-end; nor would he be able to rehabilitate the Maoist guerrilla army with its nearly 20,000 fighters within that time.
Source: IANS

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Pak's 'we are terror victims' ad a joke: Americans

New York: An advertisement by Pakistan in America's leading daily the Wall Street Journal on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks has not gone down well with readers here with some calling the ad a "joke" and questioning how a country where Osama bin Laden was hiding safely for years can "claim to be a victim of terrorism". 

File photo. Image is a mere representation of the news report.

Readers posted their reaction to the half-page advertisement in 'The Threat Matrix,' a blog of the Long War Journal, which is a publication focused on providing reporting and analysis on the global war on terror.
"This is quite humorous. They could do a hell of a lot for world peace by destroying their plethora of militant groups. Does any other nation have such an inflated sense of self worth (sic)," reads one of the over a dozen comments posted on the blog.
Another reader comments, "It would be nice if you would purge the ISI of Taliban/ al Qaeda sympathisers, then launch assault into the FATA supported by heavy weapons and armour".

File photo. Image is a mere representation of the news report.

In the advertisement, which has a picture of assassinated former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan asks, "Which country can do more for your peace".
It goes on to give statistics of bomb blasts, assassination plots against Pakistani leaders and civilian and military casualties that a "nation of 180 million" suffered while "fighting for the future of world's seven billion".
One reader comments, "Still no explanation how Osama bin Laden happened to live comfortably for a decade in a garrison town. Or the Haqqani network or the Quetta Shura, or their fertiliser factory providing the fuel for IEDs in Afghanistan".
Another says, "a country, which is the epicentre of global terrorism, on record of running terrorist training camps since the 1980s, protecting the Afghan Taliban that kills NATO soldiers, claims to be a victim of terrorism??!!"

File photo. Image is a mere representation of the news report.

"The sheer audacity of this advert comes from the fact that the Pakistani government and military leaders cannot or do not show any inclination to properly protect(ing) their own citizens let alone the worlds, as they continue to clandestinely support radical and extremist groups at the cost of their civilians lives".
One reader called the ad a "joke" and "downright offensive," saying if there was one day when Pakistan should stop with the "pretence of being our ally, it was yesterday".
He said a newspaper of the stature of the Wall Street Journal should not have published such an ad.
"Is this an ad or acceptance of a failed state. If one is not able to contain terrorism it is your own problem not of others. Pakistan has made a mockery of itself by broadcasting such an ad," read another comment.
Source: PTI

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Lashkar-e-Toiba is conducting commando training inside Pakistan: FBI

The Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) is engaged in imparting commando training to its recruits. According to an FBI complaint, these recruits, which include teenagers, provide religious indoctrination and commando training at its terror camps inside Pakistan.

In the complaint submitted before a federal US court in Virginia yesterday, the FBI said this is reflected in the communication of Jubair Ahmad, 24, a Pakistani national who has legal permanent residency in the US. Jubair has been arrested on charges of providing material support to the LeT
The FBI said a review of immigration records indicated that Jubair was born in Sialkot and resided in Pakistan until the age of 19.
According to admissions he made during a number of communications analysed by the FBI, he received indoctrination and training from LeT, while he lived in Pakistan.
"These communications demonstrate that, as a teenager, in or about 2004, Jubair attended an LeT training course known as 'Dora Suffa' where he received instruction in religious dogma and proselytising," the complaint said.
Thereafter, Jubair attended LeT's basic training camp known as 'Dora A'ama', where he received additional religious indoctrination, physical conditioning and weapons instruction. For example, when describing his training at Dora A'ama, Jubair stated in one of the communications that recruits 'listen to lectures, offer your prayers, exercise, study guns, fire them' and added that 'where I got training from they do the commando training there now,' the FBI said.
Subsequent to attending Dora A'ama, Jubair reported for the next stage of LeT training -- the commando course known as Dora Khasa.
"He spent only a week at that course, however, because an instructor at the training camp told Jubair that he was too young, that he needed to continue his studies, and then he could return to complete Dora Khasa," said the complaint signed by FBI Special Agent, Daudshah S Andish.
The FBI said Jubair was given a visa by the State Department on October 16, 2006 based on the fact that his father was related to a US citizen. He along with his father, mother and two younger brothers entered the US on February 19, 2007.
According to the compliant, the FBI started an investigation after it received information that Jubair might be connected with the LeT.
Investigations by the FBI have revealed that Jubair provided material support to LeT by producing and posting a LeT propaganda video glorifying violence.
Source: PTI

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US Sikh group highlights post-9/11 bias with video wall

The Sikh Coalition, a community advocacy group, has launched a video wall inviting website visitors to upload videos and written accounts of backlash discrimination and violence in the post-9/11 environment.

Called Unheard Voices of 9/11 (www.unheardvoicesof911.org), the initiative commemorates the tenth anniversary of the Sep 11, 2001 terror attacks.
One year after the 9/11 attacks, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) recorded a 1600 percent increase in the number of reported hate crimes based on bias toward Muslims and those perceived to be Muslim, the coalition said.
To this day, Sikhs continue to be targeted for hate crimes, employment discrimination, and school bullying by ordinary citizens, and profiling by law enforcement agencies, it alleged.
This discrimination occurs because the popular image of the Sikh turban and beard being the face of a terrorist has hardened over the past ten years, the coalition said.
"Members of the Arab, Muslim, Sikh, and South Asian American communities were twice victims of 9/11," said Amardeep Singh, programme director of the Sikh Coalition.
"Like all Americans we endured a horrific attack on our country by terrorists. We also continue to endure backlash discrimination and violence by our fellow Americans. The Unheard Voices project is designed to ensure that our history is documented and that our voices are not ignored."
Source: IANS

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NATO woos India, says ties important

Stepping up its efforts to woo India as a partner nation in a post-Cold War world, NATO says its fledgling relations with New Delhi are "important" to ensure global safety and security.

"I think it is important to have a dialogue (with India) and deepen that dialogue," US Permanent Representative to NATO Ivo H. Daalder told a group of Indian journalists on a tour of the 28-nation military alliance's headquarters here.
"It is through dialogue, through understanding each other's perceptions and perhaps by working on misperceptions that may exist that we can strengthen the relations between India and NATO.
NATO was originally formed as a military alliance to counter Russia and the east European Warsaw Pact countries. It has undergone a sea-change after the end of the Cold War beginning with the demolition of the Berlin Wall in 1989. The alliance, which now includes many of the erstwhile Warsaw Pact countries, has an established dialogue with India, with its secretary general holding talks with Indian leaders in recent years and its deputy secretary general visiting New Delhi in 2010.
Daalder left it to India's political leadership to give a direction to the dialogue and relationship.
"Ultimately, the decision of what India's role with respect to NATO is going to be is India's decision...So the relationship that India wants with NATO is for India to decide," he said when asked about what he thought about the ties.
"Where this relationship will go will largely depend on where India would like it to go," he added.
The importance of the relationship, according to him, was that the concepts of national and international security of both India and the alliance were in consonance with each other.
"What I think is it is important for India and the countries of NATO -- and indeed of this alliance as an organisation -- to have a dialogue at every level...societal, opinion forming at official level.

"The dialogue should be on how India's concept of its own security and of international security fits in with NATO's concept of international security and how NATO as an actor and India as a country can work together to promote security," he said.
Daalder cited the example of troubled Afghanistan, where India had committed $2 billion for development works and NATO is spearheading an international security forces operation, and the anti-piracy measures in the Indian Ocean, where the Indian Navy has an active role and NATO has a task force.
"We already do so (cooperate) in places like Afghanistan, where NATO has a presence and India has a presence. We can think about other places we may be doing that.
"We do it in the Indian Ocean, when we are dealing both with the scourge of piracy and we cooperate actively. There your ships are part of the effort to deal with pirates and NATO has an operation there," he said.
Noting that NATO's relationship with other nations was not limited to the group's geographical area, Daalder said the alliance had relations with Australia, which is far away from Europe and the Americas.
"The NATO has relations with countries further away from where we are, like Australia. That relationship has evolved over time. That relationship was quite stand-offish until quite recently.
"Today, Australia is the 10th largest contributor to our operations in Afghanistan and a very active participant in the day-to-day operations," he said, indicating that future ties with India for the alliance had a lot of potential.
Source: IANS

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US issues travel alert ahead of 9/11 anniversary

The US has issued a worldwide travel alert for American nationals ahead of the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks.

The warning - issued by the State Department - said no specific threats had been identified, but terrorist groups had a tendency to launch attacks on significant dates in the past, Xinhua reported.
The State Department urged Americans overseas to take precautions, encouraging them to register with the State Department website to receive the latest security information.
America remains at heightened vigilance against possible threats, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano said Friday.
"As we approach the 10th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the safety and security of the American public remains our highest priority," Napolitano said in a statement.
"While there is no specific or credible intelligence that Al Qaeda or its affiliates are plotting attacks in the US to coincide with the 10-year anniversary of 9/11, we remain at a heightened state of vigilance and security measures are in place to detect and prevent plots against the US should they emerge," she said.
Nearly 3,000 people were killed Sep 11, 2001 when Al Qaeda terrorists hijacked four passenger planes and crashed them into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, and the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. One plane crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania after passengers attempted to retake control of the aircraft.
Source: IANS

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India critical to US success: Republican aspirant

A Republican presidential hopeful has suggested that the US negotiate a bilateral free trade agreement with India to strengthen its relationship with a friend critical to America's success in the 21st century.

Jon Huntsman, former governor of Utah, who resigned as US ambassador to China last April hoping to challenge President Barack Obama in 2012, Thursday proposed talks with India as part of his jobs plan and fix the US economy.
As 95 percent of the world's customers live outside US borders, and with the US party to only 17 of more than 300 trade agreements worldwide, he said "opening more markets for American businesses should be a commonsense tool to spark immediate growth."
Huntsman said he would make three trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama a top priority.
"Washington must also immediately start discussions with India to end in a bilateral free trade agreement strengthening our relationship with a friend who will prove to be critical to America's success in the 21st century," he said.
Suggesting that Obama's economic record has been marked by failure, he said: "As the Obama Administration has dithered, other nations are making the choices necessary to compete in the 21st Century."

But much like Obama citing competition from emerging economies like India, China and Brazil, Huntsman said: "In Brasilia and Beijing, New Delhi and Seoul, our competitors are making the hard choices that will help assure their children a better life,".
"If we fail to do the same, we are robbing our children of an inheritance every previous American generation has had."
Huntsman said he was running for President "because I'm prepared to lead the American people to that better and brighter future."
Source: IANS

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Libyan rebels capture Tripoli, Gaddafi's son detained

Libyan rebel forces have taken control over the capital city of Tripoli, earlier held by Muammar Gaddafi, while Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam has been captured by rebel troops, senior rebel leaders said.

Abdullah Almayhop, a senior leader of the rebel National Transitional Council (NTC) said Gaddafi's eldest son Mohammed has also surrendered to the rebels, Xinhua reported.
Rebel troops were seen waving opposition flag in Tripoli's Green Square, where most of the government departments are located.
Mustafa Abdul Jalil, head of the NTC, said in an TV interview Sunday night that Gaddafi's second son Saif al-Islam has been captured and was under custody in a safe place.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor's office later confirmed that Saif al-Islam has been detained.
The ICC had issued arrest warrants in June for Gaddafi, Saif al- Islam and intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi, charged with crimes against humanity.
Jalil said Gaddafi's guards in Tripoli had surrendered to the opposition troops.
NTC vice chairman Abdel Hafiz Ghoga told Al Jazeera TV channel in an interview that Libya has entered into a new era by overthrowing the Muammar Gaddafi regime.

"Tonight is historical," said Ghoga.
He said Gaddafi was still in Libya and that he hoped to arrest him and bring him to trial soon.
Meanwhile, Gaddafi said in an audio speech broadcast Sunday that all tribes should march to Tripoli to "purify" the city, according to state TV.
"The west will not protect you. Tripoli will be destroyed," he said.
He said he was in Tripoli and would defend the city. He called on his supporters to defend the capital from the rebels and pledged to "emerge victorious" rather than surrender.
Gaddafi urged all the imams (clerics) of mosques to guide people to protect the capital.
Moussa Ibrahim, spokesman for Gaddafi's government, said around 1,300 people were killed in the fighting in Tripoli since Sunday noon.
He said at a press conference in Tripoli that 5,000 people were wounded in the battle and the NATO should be held responsible for the bloodshed.
He said the country needs Gaddafi and people should be encouraged to fight for him.
Al Jazeera TV channel reported that residents of the city began to stream into streets to welcome the opposition troops, despite Gaddafi's call urging people to take up arms to guard his rule.
Thousands of people also flocked into the streets in rebel-held Benghazi, ready to celebrate for the collapse of Gaddafi's rule.

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Osama vengeance: Al Qaeda vows 100 attacks in Iraq

Baghdad: An Al Qaeda-linked group has vowed to launch 100 attacks in Iraq to avenge the death of terror mastermind Osama bin Laden, a media report said.

The Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) - the terror outfit's front in the country - said Saturday the attacks would begin from the middle of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, Xinhua reported.
Bin Laden was killed in May in a US special forces operation in Pakistan's Abbottabad city.
The Islamic State of Iraq said in a statement posted on an Islamic website that its attacks would vary from suicide bombings, roadside bombs, sniper shots and silenced weapons attacks in all cities, rural areas and provinces.
"We have started this stage with an invasion called Revenge for Sheikh Osama Bin Laden and senior leaders," the statement said.
"The campaign started in the middle of the fasting month of Ramadan (middle of August) and, if god wills, will end after exactly 100 attacks," the statement said.
On Aug 15, a series of bomb attacks in seven provinces killed nearly 70 people and left more than 250 wounded.

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Nine bodies found on Mexican highway

Mexico City: The bodies of nine people with gunshot wounds were found Saturday on a highway in the western Mexican state of Nayarit, officials said.

The corpses were found on the Tepic-Aguamilpa highway near the small town of Mora, the state Public Safety Secretariat said.
The Nayarit press, which published photos of the corpses, said the victims were found with their hands tied and eyes bandaged and with multiple gunshot wounds.
That Pacific coast state was the scene of a massive gun battle in May between members of the Sinaloa and Los Zetas drug gangs that left 29 dead.
Elsewhere, five bodies, three of them decapitated and another two dismembered, were found in the Mexican Pacific resort city of Acapulco, which has been wracked by a wave of drug-related violence in recent months.

The bodies of four men and a woman were discovered by Guerrero state authorities in two points of the city, one of the most popular destinations for domestic tourists.
The decapitated bodies of two men and a woman were found Friday night inside an abandoned SUV on one of Acapulco's main thoroughfares, the state Public Safety Secretariat said Saturday in a statement.
Police later found the dismembered bodies of two men early Saturday near the entrance to a shopping center.
The victims have not been identified and authorities said the deaths may be related to a gangland settling of scores.

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Plane crash in Canadian Arctic kills12

Resolute Bay, Nunavut: A chartered Boeing 737 plane crashed yesterday afternoon in Canada's Arctic region, killing 12 people, police said.

In this July 15, 2009 photo, a Boeing 737 (737-200) jetliner is on a runway in Canada. (Photo: AP)

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said the plane went down near the hamlet of Resolute Bay in the Arctic territory of Nunavut. The First Air charter flight was travelling from Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories to Resolute Bay, and was scheduled to continue on to Grise Fiord on Ellesmere Island.
RCMP Constable Angelique Dignard said 12 people died in the crash and three people were injured. The plane was carrying 15 people, including four crew members. Police did not have any information about the condition of the three survivors.
First Air said in a news release that the plane last reported communication at 12:40 pm local time when it was about five miles (eight kilometres) from Resolute Bay airport.
The crash site is less than 1.2 miles (1.9 kilometres) west of the Resolute Bay community and is in rough terrain accessible by all-terrain vehicles, Dignard said.
Witnesses said the plane crashed into a small hill near the airport runway. Local residents rushed to the site on their ATVs to see if they could help pull people from the flaming wreckage.
"You could see parts of the plane everywhere ... tail, nose, everything," said Saroomie Manik, a former mayor of the community who went to the site.
Manik said there were two young girls on the plane, the grandchildren of a local inn owner. One of the girls died, while the other survived and was airlifted to a hospital in Iqaluit, the capital of
Nunavut, Manik said. The hotel's cook was also on the plane, she added.
On its website, First Air says it serves the cargo and travel needs of remote northern communities in Canada's Arctic, connecting 30 northern communities with some of Canada's bigger cities.

Resolute Bay is an Arctic waterway in Nunavut. The population of the hamlet is about 230, many of whom are aboriginal natives known as Inuit people.
Hundreds of military personnel were already in the region to take part in the Canadian military's annual northern training exercise, Operation Nanook.
Major Gerald Favre at the northern search and rescue centre at Canadian Forces Base Trenton said its aircraft were already in the area for the training exercise and were able to assist in the rescue operation. He said the plane that crashed was not part of the exercise.
Chris Krepski, spokesman for the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, said investigators were already in Resolute Bay for next week's military exercise and arrived on the scene soon after the crash.
Krepski said it was too soon to say what caused the crash.
"At this point it's gathering as much information as we can from the accident scene, from interviewing witnesses, speaking to air traffic control, getting weather records, maintenance records from the company, that kind of thing," he said.
An airport worker, who wouldn't give his name, said there was a low cloud ceiling at the time of the crash. It lifted about 10 minutes later.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper is scheduled to travel to Resolute Bay tomorrow for his annual trip to the Arctic while Governor General David Johnston, who is currently touring the Arctic, was scheduled to hold events in Resolute Bay this weekend.

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