Libya: Senior Western leaders call for Nato to target Gaddafi
‘Liberated’ Moulana of hurriyat Conference takes on separatists
Drone strikes: Pak may approach UN against US
Pakistani drones protest keeps NATO trucks at bay
No secret talks with Pak army chief, says Indian PM Office
Roadside bombs kill 3 NATO troops in Afghanistan
Oz Christian lobby chief’s anti-gay, Muslim tweet sparks outrage
Fatwa has no legal force: Barrister Rafique of Bangladesh Supreme Court
Police Foil Bomb Plot in Jakarta Targeting Christians
500 Taliban escape in huge Afghan jail break
Besieged Yemeni Prez to end 32- year reign
Syria death toll rises to four
At least 105 dead this week in Southern Sudan’s wave of violence
Many Holes in SIT’s inquiry: Gujrat (India) Sr. Police Officer
Al-Qaeda threatens nuclear hellstorm if Osama is caught or killed
No evidence linking LeT to 2009 attack on Indian embassy: Pak army
Pakistan: Making Sense of Nasr Ballistic Missile Test
'Gaddafi playing dirty tricks': Libyan rebels
Palestinian cop kills Israeli at West Bank tomb
Easter blast near Baghdad church wounds 4
Jordan indicts 146 on terror charges
Syrian armour shooting militant in Daraa
Iran: Free Opposition Leaders and Their Families
Israel: Worshipper Killed In West Bank Shooting Attack
Libyan tribes negotiate rebels exit from Misrata
Bombing destroys presidential building in Tripoli
Saleh defiant, day after agreeing to handover plan
US released ‘high-risk’ Guantanamo detainees
Nigeria rights group says over 500 killed in riots
Yemen: Protests Demand President Quit Immediately Despite Transition Plan
Syria: Calls For World To Impose Sanctions On Leadership
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
http: https://newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/libya-senior-western-leaders-call/d/4516
Libya: western leaders call for Nato to target Gaddafi
April 25, 11
Senior western leaders called for Nato to adopt an assassination policy against Col Muammar Gaddafi to salvage the bombing campaign in Libya from a descent into stalemate.
The calls came as Col Gaddafi was reported to have strengthened his grip on power by repatriating billions of dollars in overseas assets that should have been frozen by UN sanctions.
On Sunday, there was growing pressure on Coalition forces to directly target Col Gaddafi with military strikes.
Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican member of the Senate Armed Services committee, said that the quickest way to end the emerging stalemate was to "cut the head of the snake off". He said: "The people around Gaddafi need to wake up every day wondering, 'Will this be my last?'
Senator John McCain, who visited Libya at the weekend, also said that the Libyan dictator should be targeted but argued that it was more important to increase American firepower over Libya. He said: "It's pretty obvious to me that the US has got to play a greater role on the air power side. Our Nato allies neither have the assets, nor frankly the will - there's only six countries of the 28 in Nato that are actively engaged in this situation."
William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, also on Sunday refused to rule out using remote-controlled American drones to assassinate Col Gaddafi. Mr Hague said "who and what is a legitimate target depends on their behaviour." However, he denied that there was a stalemate in Libya and ruled out proposals to partition the country.
Mr Hague said he was still hopeful about sanctions beginning to undermine the regime, despite the reports of Libya circumventing the UN-led financial crackdown.
The European Union and United States have barred access to more than $60 billion in Libyan bank accounts and funds but other nations have done little or nothing to prevent Col Gaddafi and his associates sustaining themselves.
Col Gaddafi has moved billions of dollars back to Tripoli since the rebellion began in mid-February, according to European, American and United Nations officials who spoke to the Los Angeles Times.
The full scale of sanctions-busting is unknown, partly because many investments in companies and financial institutions hide Col Gaddafi's identity.
Libya's circumvent of the sanctions has complicated Nato's efforts to end Col Gaddafi's four decades in power. His ability to siphon off cash has also hampered attempts to persuade his advisers and military commanders to flee.
Officials said the case was a cautionary one about the limits of sanctions and could be compared with Saddam Hussein's success at getting around international sanctions in the years before the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Kenya and Turkey are among the countries with strong economic ties to Libya that have resisted carrying out the freeze, mandated by UN Security Council resolutions in February and March. A number of other African countries have also been reluctant.
China, India and Russia, three of the world's biggest economies, have resisted European and American attempts to expand the sanctions. They argue that such actions could damage their own industries.
A UN diplomat told the "Los Angeles Times" that "only a handful" of governments had reported back to the Security Council enforcement committee, which oversees the sanctions, that they had blocked access to Libyan assets.
"We've done pretty well," the diplomat said. "But when you're dealing with somebody as sophisticated as Gaddafi, with such sprawling commercial interests, this has been an uphill struggle.... It's been hard." Under UN rules, governments don't have to report their efforts to comply with sanctions until late June.
This four-month delay "is a major weak flank in the system", the diplomat said, and Gaddafi "understands the system".
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‘ Liberated’ Moulana of hurriyat Conference takes on separatists
April 25, 2011
Naseer Ganai
MOULANA Abbas Ansari has been expelled from the Hurriyat Conference and surprisingly he has no regrets. “ I am a liberated man now,” he said on Saturday.
Ansari, one of the founder members of the Hurriyat formed in the early Nineties, was “ punished” for going against Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq’s diktat that the “ separatist” leader should not meet the Centre- appointed interlocutors.
Ansari rejected the advisory and met the interlocutors when the latter visited him on Wednesday. The Mirwaiz expelled the Ithad- ul- Muslemeen, the party Ansari heads, from the Hurriyat seconds after chief interlocutor Dilip Padgaonkar made the meeting public.
However, Ansari is least bothered.
“ The Mirwaiz meets anyone who visits him including parliamentarians and other Indian dignitaries. He has never sought permission from anyone before meeting them, why this binding on others,” he said.
He had more to say. “ Gun is no solution, stone- pelting is un- Islamic and dialogue is must,” the influential Shia cleric, who has studied theology in Iraq, added.
“ You tell me what has stone- pelting given us? Only our youth died and got injured. It has not helped us anyway. And all these I couldn’t say as part of the Hurriyat. I was first to oppose stone- pelting and I still oppose it,” he said.
He became the first separatist leader to meet the interlocutors at his Nowkadal home in Srinagar.
And he is ready to meet them again. “ If they come again to meet me, I will meet them,” Ansari said.
The interlocutors were happy with Ansari’s defiance to the Hurriyat’s moderate faction, which had instructed its executive members and constituent parties not to meet the central team of Padgaonkar, M. M. Ansari and Radha Kumar.
The Mirwaiz dismissed the meeting as “ gatecrashing”. “ Since their appointment, the interlocutors failed to bring any political ( separatist) leader on board. So they gatecrashed our former chairman Moulana Abbas Ansari’s house to give impression they are engaging the Hurriyat. It was desperate act to give credence to their exercise. These desperate tactics will not help,” he said.
The Mirwaiz could be right.
But in the coming days, given the present tone of Ansari’s voice, it is bound to become louder.
“ Moulana Showkat Shah was killed. Who killed him? Insiders killed him. Who killed Abdul Gani Lone, who killed Mirwaiz Moulvi Muhammad Farooq? We are going towards the path of destructions, and now out of Hurriyat fold I am saying it. Hurriyat has liberated me,” he said.
In 2004, Ansari became chairman of the Hurriyat Conference.
And as chairman he led the Hurriyat delegation to meet then deputy Prime Minister L. K. Advani despite opposition from hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani.
Now it has to be seen whether a “ liberated” Ansari takes the Sajjad Gani Lone path.
He significantly never opposed when Lone fought the general elections in 2009.
HURRIYAT ‘ PETREL’
Moulana Abbas Ansari was born on August 18, 1936, in Srinagar in an influential family
After his preliminary education in a Srinagar school, he graduated from the Oriental College, Srinagar
He then studied at Lucknow. After spending years in Lucknow’s Sultanul Madaris, he went for higher studies in the holy city of Najaf, in Iraq, in 1954
He studied Arabic literature, Philosophy, Hadith and Tafseer, Islamic Jurisprudence and Political Science for eight years in Iraq
On March 27, 1962, he founded the Ithadul- Muslemeen with the main object of keeping the various sects of Muslims united.
http://epaper.mailtoday.in/epaperhome.aspx?issue=2442011
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Drone strikes: Pak may approach UN against US
April 25, 2011
Islamabad : Pakistan is mulling approaching the UN Security Council to mount diplomatic pressure on Washington for halting drone strikes inside its tribal regions bordering Afghanistan, a media report claimed today.
"We have decided it in principle. We will soon be preparing our case for approaching the UN on these attacks," a federal minister told The Express Tribune daily requesting
anonymity.
The move comes amid protests in Pakistan against the attacks by the American CIA-operated pilot-less aircraft in North and South Waziristan tribal regions.
The paper quoted another unnamed official as saying that "since the UNSC resolution that allowed international forces' attack Afghanistan back in 2001 did not sanction any hot pursuit inside Pakistan, we have a solid case."
Though it is still not decided how the UNSC would be asked to use its influence to stop drone attacks, the Minister said the preferred methods might be to send a letter to the council through a cabinet panel.
The Cabinet Committee on National Security had decided in a meeting last year that Pakistan should add "aggression" in its pursuit to secure Islamabad's "vital" interests in Afghanistan by disseminating some "rough and tough" messages to Washington, the daily said.
"That is what we want to do ahead of the Afghan endgame... our decision to go to the UNSC is a part of the policy of sending rough and tough messages," the paper quoted the unnamed minister as saying. The drone strikes have become a bone of contention between the two nations.
US officials privately argue that these strikes are helpful in taking out "high-value targets" from al-Qaeda and affiliated groups allegedly hiding in the tribal badlands. However, officially, the Americans don't own drone attacks.
But Pakistani leaders are opposed to these strikes, saying that they complicate the country's counter-terror efforts by alienating the local tribal population, the daily said.
There has been a significant rise in diplomatic tensions between Islamabad and Washington over these unilateral strikes despite several high-level contacts between the top diplomatic and military officials from both sides.
It was Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani who told the National Assembly recently that Islamabad would pile up diplomatic pressure on Washington for putting an end to drone hits.
Until now Pakistan has been negotiating with the US to stop these attacks bilaterally. But now Islamabad has decided to use multilateral forums, like the UN, to put diplomatic pressure on the US administration to end them.
http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/781025/
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Pakistani drones protest keeps NATO trucks at bay
April 25, 2011
RIAZ KHAN
PESHAWAR, Pakistan: Pakistanis sang, danced and shouted for an end to US missile strikes Sunday, the second day of protest along a major road that has halted supply trucks heading to US and NATO troops fighting across the border in Afghanistan.
The demonstration is set to end Monday and only around 2,000 people came out. But it has drawn broad attention in this nation at a time of increased tension between Islamabad and Washington, and it has underscored the vulnerability of the Western supply route that runs through it.
As some youth shouted and danced to drum beats, others held banners with slogans such as “Our blood is not for sale” and “Stop drone attacks, stop genocide of innocent Pakistanis.” Others sang along with nationalist songs, while many took shelter from the scorching sun inside hastily built tents.
The demonstration was sponsored by the political party of Imran Khan, a former captain of Pakistan’s cricket team. He has called for peace talks with the Pakistani Taleban and opposes the US missile strikes against militants in Pakistan’s tribal regions.
“America itself is a champion of democracy, so it should listen the voice of people of Pakistan and stop the genocide of the Pashtuns” — the main ethnic group in Pakistan’s tribal regions, said Ali Khan, 39, a social worker from Peshawar.
On Saturday, authorities halted the NATO supply shipments as the protest began on the outskirts of Peshawar, around 57 kms from the Afghan border. The border crossing at the edge of Khyber tribal region is normally closed on Sunday anyway.
Much of the non-lethal supplies for foreign troops in landlocked Afghanistan come through Pakistan. Militants often attack the convoys, and last September Pakistan closed the border for 20 days to protest a deadly NATO helicopter strike inside its borders.
The US and NATO normally say such interruptions have little to no impact on the supply line. But they have been turning more to other roads into Afghanistan from the north in recent years.
Tensions between Pakistan and the United States have risen since late January, when an American CIA contractor shot dead two Pakistanis he said were trying to rob him. Since then, the military has taken a tough line on the missile strikes.
The US rarely discusses the covert, CIA-run program, but officials have insisted it is mostly militants who are killed by the drone-fired missiles.
http://arabnews.com/world/article371733.ece
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No secret talks with Pak army chief, says Indian PM Office
April 25, 2011
NEW DELHI: The government on Sunday denied a sensational British media report that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had appointed an envoy to start secret unofficial talks with Pakistan army chief General Ashfaq Kayani to kick off an engagement that resulted in the cricket bonhomie last month.
In a statement, PM's media adviser Harish Khare said, "We have seen media reports quoting a British newspaper saying that PM Manmohan Singh contacted Pakistan army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani before the Mohali meeting between the two prime ministers. The report is false."
The PMO's denial came along with the opposition BJP issuing a cautionary note on starting unofficial talks with the Pakistan army, which it said was the institution most hostile to India.
Nevertheless, the media report raises many questions.
First, there has been a longstanding feeling within the government and outside that India should open talks with the Pakistan army, which is the real centre of authority, much more than the civilian government which India deals with.
Kayani, who now only meets defence ministers, prime ministers and presidents, has reportedly ignored feelers from the Indian envoy in Islamabad to exchange views.
There is a strong concern in India about the "inequality" of the interlocutors, which has prevented them from bringing the Pakistan army into the dialogue process. So, while it's not unusual for India to start talks with Kayani on an unofficial basis, it would have to be at a fairly high official level.
Second, what would the talks be about? If Pakistan's civilian government doesn't have his go-ahead, they wouldn't be engaging in dialogue with India anyway. So that's out. The Pakistan army is under pressure on the western border, which means it might make sense for them to open up a channel of communication on the eastern border. A more important subject of conversation with the Pakistan army would be Afghanistan, where both Pakistan and India have deep interests, all divergent from each other. The endgame there is still a while away, though.
Third, India has an unfortunate history of back-channel talks. In the Vajpayee years, the government had used R K Mishra of Observer Research Foundation to start talks with Pakistan before Kargil, which, according to sources in government then, was an unhappy experience. Later, it was national security adviser Brajesh Mishra who started unofficial talks with Pervez Musharraf's adviser, the late Niaz Naik, and later, Tariq Aziz.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/No-secret-talks-with-Pak-army-chief-says-PMO/articleshow/8075778.cms
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Roadside bombs kill 3 NATO troops in Afghanistan
April 25, 2011
KABUL: Roadside bombs killed three NATO service members and a gunman shot dead a prominent local official in southern Afghanistan, where thousands of Afghan and international troops are bracing for an expected spring resurgence of Taliban attacks, officials said on Sunday.
NATO said one service member died in a blast on Sunday and two others were killed in an explosion on Saturday. Earlier, the alliance said that a fourth foreign service member died on Saturday when a coalition helicopter crashed in Alasay district of Kapisa province in the east.
It did not provide any further details, or the nationalities of the service members. The deaths brought to 134 the number of NATO troops killed in Afghanistan so far this year.
Afghanistan’s spring fighting season is expected to be in full force by the end of this month or early May. Before last winter set in, tens of thousands of US and NATO reinforcements routed the Taliban from their strongholds, captured leading figures and destroyed weapons caches, especially in the east and south. The terrorists, known for their resiliency, have responded with high-profile attacks across the nation.
Full report at:
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2011\04\25\story_25-4-2011_pg7_9
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Oz Christian lobby chief’s anti-gay, Muslim tweet sparks outrage
April 25, 2011
Canberra : Australian Christian lobby chief Jim Wallace has sparked off an online outrage by saying on Twitter that the country’s soldiers did not fight and die for gays and Muslims.
Wallace, who is well known for his hostile views on gay marriage, made the comments on Anzac Day, the day Australia remembers soldiers who died during First World War.
"Just hope that as we remember Servicemen and women today we remember the Australia they fought for - wasn't gay marriage and Islamic,” news.com.au quoted Wallace, as saying.
The retired brigadier's comment invited immediate condemnation.
"Jim Wallace of the Australian Christian Lobby should be ashamed, using Anzac Day to push a homophobic and racist agenda," wrote a Twitter user in response to Wallace’s remarks.
Wallace apologized about an hour after he posted the tweet. “Ok, you are right, my apologies this was the wrong context to raise these issues. Anzac mean too much to me to demean this day, not intended,” he wrote.
http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/781013/
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Fatwa has no legal force: Barrister Rafique of Bangladesh Supreme Court
April 25, 2011
Barrister Rafique-ul Huq
Eminent jurist Barrister Rafique-ul Huq on Monday told the Supreme Court that fatwa (religious edict) is a kind of opinion which has not any legal force.
Nobody can punish anyone in the name of fatwa, he said while placing opinion as amicus curiae (friend of court) before the Appellate Division during hearing an appeal against a High Court verdict that had declared fatwa illegal.
A six-member bench headed by Chief Justice ABM Khairul Haque adjourned the hearing till Tuesday.
Rafique-ul Huq said if anybody instigates others to commit a criminal offence by giving fatwa, the aggrieved person can move to the court.
Full report at:
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/latest_news.php?nid=29506
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Police Foil Bomb Plot In Jakarta Targeting Christians
April 25, 2011
The Indonesian Police seem to have foiled a bomb plot, which was to target Christians on Good Friday ( April 22,2011), following the arrest of 19 suspects—many of them university students — during an investigation into some recent incidents in which unidentified elements had sent improvised explosive devices (IEDs) concealed in books to some persons in different parts of the country, including police officers.
While the arrests were made initially in connection with the investigation of the book bombs, the interrogation of those arrested led to the detection of a plot by some of the very same elements to cause an explosion in a Catholic church at Tangerang on the outskirts of Jakarta during Good Friday prayers through a timed IED to be activated through a mobile phone. Confirmation of the details of the plot as ascertained during the interrogation of some of the arrested suspects came when the police recovered about 150 kilos of explosives at a spot near the church.
Full report at:
http://www.eurasiareview.com/police-foil-bomb-plot-in-jakarta-targeting-christians-analysis-24042011/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+eurasiareview%2FVsnE+%28Eurasia+Review%29
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500 Taliban escape in huge Afghan jail break
April 25, 2011
KABUL: Nearly 500 Taliban prisoners have escaped from Kandahar prison in southern Afghanistan through a tunnel hundreds of metres long, officials said.
The Taliban said it was behind the huge jail break and that all of those who escaped were members of the militant organisation.
"A tunnel hundreds of metres long was dug from the south of the prison into the prison and 476 political prisoners escaped last night," said prison director General Ghulam Dastageer Mayar.
The acting police chief of Kandahar, Shair Shah Yousufzai, also confirmed the escape, saying: "Last night some political prisoners broke out of the prison and have escaped."
Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi said the militant Islamists were responsible for the mass break-out.
Full report at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/south-asia/500-Taliban-escape-in-huge-Afghan-jail-break/articleshow/8077919.cms
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Besieged Yemeni Prez to end 32- year reign
April 25, 2011
YEMEN’S embattled president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, has agreed to a proposal to step down within 30 days and hand power to his deputy, in exchange for immunity from prosecution.
But the protesters on Sunday demanded Saleh’s immediate departure. “ There is a consensus on rejecting the initiative proposed by the Gulf Cooperation Council ( GCC),” Abdulmalik al- Yusufi, a leading activist at a sit- in demonstration in capital Sanaa’s University Square, said.
The plan, negotiated by Gulf Arab mediators, is a major about- face for the despot who has ruled Yemen for 32 years — but whose regime has been rocked by months of violent protests.
The Gulf plan would see Saleh submit his resignation to the parliament within 30 days, after forming a national unity government and handing power to his deputy. A presi- dential vote would then be held within two months.
But in a gesture of defiance, in a speech to supporters in Sanaa, Saleh accused protesters of “ acts of riot and sabotage” and insisted that any handover of power would be orderly.
The day before this announcement, protesters had staged the largest of two months of demonstrations, with a five- lane boulevard across the capital teeming with hundreds of thousands of people.
Full report at:
http://epaper.mailtoday.in/epaperhome.aspx?issue=2542011
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Syria death toll rises to four
April 25, 2011
Syrian security forces shot dead four people and wounded several others on Sunday in the Mediterranean town of Jableh, a human rights activist said. The activist, updating an earlier toll of one dead, said the security forces ringed the town and started to open fire after a visit by a new regional governor who met local dignitaries in the mosque. In the wake of the killings, about 3,000 residents of nearby Banias held a sit-in protest blocking the main road which links the port city of Latakia to Damascus.
120 dead in two days.
Damascus Security forces raided homes across Syria, arresting regime opponents, as funerals were held on Sunday for protesters and mourners killed in a bloody crackdown which activists said cost 120 lives.
Full report at:
http://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/restofasia/Syria-death-toll-rises-to-four/Article1-689240.aspx
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At least 105 dead this week in Southern Sudan’s wave of violence
April 25, 2011
At least 105 people have died in violence between government forces and rebel militias in Southern Sudan this week, an official said, raising concerns of southern instability ahead of the region’s independence declaration in July.
Brig. Malaak Ayuen, the head of the Southern Sudan’s Army Information Department, said Sunday that fighting on Saturday between a group of rebels led by Maj. Gen. Gabriel Tanginye in Jonglei state and southern government forces led to 57 people being killed and scores being injured.
Ayuen said that five days of fighting between government forces and those loyal to another rebel chief, Peter Gatdet, in Unity state which is northwest of Jonglei, led to the deaths of 48 people. He did not give a breakdown of the number of civilians, rebels and the army killed in both incidents.
Since its January independence referendum, Southern Sudan has seen a wave of violence that has killed hundreds.
The south voted nearly unanimously to secede from the north, but there are many issues that still remain unaddressed including the sharing of oil revenues, the status of southerner and northerner minorities living on both sides of the border, and who controls the disputed border region of Abyei, a fertile area near large oil fields.
Full report at:
http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/article1765801.ece
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Many Holes in SIT’s inquiry: Gujrat (India) Sr. Police Officer
April 25, 2011
GUJARAT Police officer Sanjiv Bhatt is not the first person raising serious concerns about the functioning of the Special Investigation Team ( SIT) which was set up by the Supreme Court to probe nine cases of violence against Muslims in Gujarat during February- March 2002.
Zakia Jafri, on whose petition the apex court had ordered investigations into the larger conspiracy behind the Gujarat riots involving chief minister Narendra Modi, has formally complained against the SIT. Zakia is one of the victims of the Gulbarg society massacre in 2002, in which 69 people, including her husband and former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, were killed.
In her complaint to Justice D. K. Jain, Justice P. Sathasivam and Justice Aftab Alam, Zakia said the SIT was not functioning properly. Her claim was substantiated when special public prosecutor R. K. Shah and his assistant in the Gulbarg massacre trial P. P. Nayana Bhatt resigned in March 2010, claiming the SIT members were trying to protect police officers.
Shah told SIT chief R. K. Raghavan in his letter that the SIT had not yet produced crucial evidence such as the CDs of phone call details given by IPS officer Rahul Sharma in the court.
Sharma was Bhavnagar’s superintendent of police in 2002 and prevented a mob from killing 400 Muslim students who had taken shelter in a madrassa . Immediately afterwards, on April 8, 2002, Sharma was transferred out of Bhavnagar to the post of deputy commissioner of police ( DCP) in the Ahmedabad police control room.
Full report at:
http://epaper.mailtoday.in/epaperhome.aspx?issue=2442011
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Al-Qaeda threatens nuclear hellstorm if Osama is caught or killed
April 25, 2011
Washington : Al-Qaeda terrorists have threatened to unleash a "nuclear hellstorm" on the West if their leader and world's most wanted terrorist Osama bin Laden is nabbed.
A senior al-Qaeda commander has claimed that the terror group has stashed away a nuclear bomb in Europe which will be detonated if bin Laden is ever caught or assassinated, according to new top secret files made public by internet whistleblower WikiLeaks.
The documents are secret details of the background to the capture of each of the 780 people held at or have passed through the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba, along with their medical condition and the information they have provided during interrogations.
The documents have been released to select European and US news outlets and reveal that the day 9/11 terror killings took place in United States, the core of al-Qaeda was concentrated in a single city of Karachi in Pakistan.
The author of September 11 attacks watched the horrifying scenes of the planes crashing into the twin towers of World Trade Centre beamed live on TV with key al-Qaeda commanders at a safe house in Karachi.
Full report at:
http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/780992/
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No evidence linking LeT to 2009 attack on Indian embassy: Pak army
April 25, 2011
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani authorities have no evidence linking the Lashkar-e-Taiba to the 2009 suicide bomb attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul or suggesting that the banned group has "global aspirations", the country's chief military spokesman has said.
"There is no evidence that the LeT has global aspirations or was involved in the attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul," Maj Gen Athar Abbas, the head of the Inter-Services Public Relations, said during an interaction with a group of Indian journalists.
The LeT is a "banned group that is being contained", he said without giving details.
There is also no evidence with Pakistani authorities linking the LeT to militant groups operating in Pakistan's tribal areas, Abbas said in response to questions.
At the same time, Abbas said that militant commander Ilyas Kashmiri - described by Indian and US officials as a key suspect in the Mumbai terror attacks - had played an "instrumental" role in planning an attack on the Pakistan Army's General Headquarters in Rawalpindi in October 2009.
Kashmiri was also involved in two attempts to assassinate former President and army chief Gen Pervez Musharraf in late 2003, Abbas said.
He indicated that Kashmiri, who led a "splinter" group or breakaway faction of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, was working with the local Taliban.
Full report at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/No-evidence-linking-LeT-to-2009-attack-on-Indian-embassy-Pak-army/articleshow/8075320.cms
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Pakistan: Making Sense Of Nasr Ballistic Missile Test
April 25, 2011
News reports have it that Pakistan has successfully conducted a test of a surface-to-surface short range Hatf IX (Nasr), described as a multi-tube ballistic missile with a ‘shoot and scoot’ capability. The statement of the Director-General of the Strategic Plans Division, Khalid Ahmed Kidwai, that the flight consolidated Pakistan’s strategic deterrence capability at all levels of the threat spectrum indicates that Nasr is nuclear capable.
To Pakistani analyst, Dr. Shireen Mazari, ‘It (Nasr) will act as a deterrent against use of mechanised conventional land forces. This was essential in the wake of India’s adventurist war-fighting doctrine formulations, which envisaged the use of rapid deployment of armed brigades and divisions in surprise and rapid attacks.’ She believes, ‘Indian dreams of a limited war against Pakistan through its Cold Start strategy have been laid to rest. This will allow for a reassertion of a stable nuclear deterrence in the region.’ This article analyses if Dr. Mazari is right.
Pakistan is the weaker side in the India-Pakistan dyad. Recognising this structural factor, its military, which also runs the state, has been constantly innovative in addressing what it perceives as an asymmetry. It has resorted to external balancing in renting out its strategic location for geopolitical use by external powers. It has forged a close relationship with China to balance India and help China in its strategic purposes in relation to India. For over quarter of a century, it has tried to gain ‘depth’, forward of its defences, by rendering rear area security problematic for Indian forces through its proxy war. It has attempted internal balancing by reportedly training five lakh irregulars for making India’s stabilisation operations untenable, even at the risk and cost of the backlash it is currently enduring. This explains the utilisation of the development of Nasr for purposes beyond merely doctrinal.
Full report at:
http://www.eurasiareview.com/pakistan-making-sense-of-nasr-ballistic-missile-test-analysis-24042011/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+eurasiareview%2FVsnE+%28Eurasia+Review%29
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'Gaddafi playing dirty tricks': Libyan rebels
April 25, 2011
MISRATA: Libyan rebels accused Muammer Gaddafi of playing dirty games in Misrata where salvos of Grad rockets exploded on Sunday in apparent contradiction of his regime's vow to halt fire in the western city.
In a Misrata hospital, meanwhile, two captured pro-Gaddafi soldiers said that loyalist forces were losing their grip in the battle for the western port, and that their morale was sinking.
"Many soldiers want to surrender but they are afraid of being executed" by the rebels, said Lili Mohammed, a Mauritanian mercenary hired by the Gaddhafi regime to fight insurgents in the country's third city.
"Gaddafi forces are losing" in Misrata, said Misbah Mansuri, 25, another wounded loyalist fighter who said he was forcibly enlisted 45 days ago.
Both Mohammed and Mansuri spoke to AFP separately from their hospital room in the presence of a doctor, saying officers had abandoned the troops and their supply lines were cut.
Full report at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/middle-east/Gaddafi-playing-dirty-tricks/articleshow/8077168.cms
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Palestinian cop kills Israeli at West Bank tomb
April 25, 2011
NABLUS: A Palestinian policeman fired on a group of Israelis in a Palestinian-controlled area of the West Bank on Sunday, killing one and injuring four, the Israeli army said. The shooting occurred early in the morning near Joseph’s Tomb, a flashpoint shrine under Palestinian control and off limits to Israelis except on army-organised, escorted trips. In a statement, the Israeli military said Palestinian officials confirmed the shooter was a Palestinian policeman who opened fire “after identifying suspicious movements.” Israel’s Magen David Adom medical service said shots were fired at three vehicles, which evacuated to the nearby settlement of Har Bracha. “After attempts at reviving him, a man in his 30’s was declared dead. A 20-year-old man was seriously injured and a 17-year-old youth was moderately wounded. Two others were lightly wounded,” the medical service said. One of the men hurt in the attack suffered a gunshot wound to the stomach and was in a serious condition, while the second was shot in the shoulder and was in moderate condition, hospital medics said.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2011\04\25\story_25-4-2011_pg7_14
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Easter blast near Baghdad church wounds 4
April 25, 2011
BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb exploded near an entrance to a Catholic church in Baghdad on Easter Sunday, wounding two police officers and two civilians, an Interior Ministry source said. The blast struck a police vehicle providing security at the Sacred Heart church in Baghdad's central Karrada district, the source said.
Last October, 52 people died in an assault on a Syrian Catholic cathedral in central Baghdad. The attack was the bloodiest against Iraq's Christian minority since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
Full report at:
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/Apr/24/Easter-blast-wounds-4-near-Baghdad-church.ashx#axzz1KVsWUGE9
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Jordan indicts 146 on terror charges
April 25, 2011
ABDUL JALIL MUSTAFA
AMMAN: The public prosecutor of Jordan’s State Security Court (SSC) on Sunday officially charged 146 suspects with plotting to carry out “acts of terrorism” that harmed 83 policemen earlier this month, judicial sources said.
The defendants, who belong to Salafist groups, were also accused of “conducting riots and provoking sectarian sedition,” according to the indictment statement.
The suspects were arrested last week in the wake of clashes with policemen in the city of Zarqa, 30 kilometers east of Amman, on April 15, when the authorities accused them of launching a ”premeditated attack” on security men.
About 300 Salafists then held a rally at a mosque to press for the release of about 200 of their comrades who are serving jail terms after the SSC condemned them of involvement in terror activities.
Full report at:
http://arabnews.com/middleeast/article371731.ece
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Syrian armour shooting militant in Daraa
April 25, 2011
NICOSIA: Hundreds of Syrian troops backed by armour early Monday moved into the flashpoint southern Syrian town of Daraa where heavy shooting was heard, a political militant on the scene told AFP.
http://www.thenews.jang.com.pk/NewsDetail.aspx?ID=14657
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Iran: Free Opposition Leaders and Their Families
April 25, 2011
(New York) - Authorities should immediately release two prominent opposition leaders and their family members and allow them to engage in peaceful political activity, Human Rights Watch said today. The government is holding Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, their wives, and one of Karroubi's sons. Authorities recently transferred the two leaders and their wives to another location after restricting their movement and placing them under house arrest for more than two weeks, opposition members said.
The house arrests began after the leaders called for demonstrations in support of protesters in Tunisia and Egypt and to voice displeasure with conditions in Iran. On or around February 24, 2011, after opposition websites called for protests over their house arrest, security forces transferred Mousavi and Karroubi and their wives, Zahra Rahnavard and Fatemeh Karroubi, to Heshmatiyeh prison, a detention facility on a Revolutionary Guard base in Tehran, according to several media reports and an opposition member who spoke to Human Rights Watch. Their detention does not comply with Iranian law, Human Rights Watch said. They have not been told why they were arrested, nor have they been brought before an independent judge and charged with any crimes, a spokesman for Mousavi said.
Full report at:
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2011/03/02/iran-free-opposition-leaders-and-their-families
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Israel: Worshipper Killed In West Bank Shooting Attack
April 25, 2011
At least one Israeli worshipper died and two were hurt in a shooting attack at a shrine in the West Bank city of Nablus on Sunday, the Israeli army said.
The shooting by Palestinians occurred before dawn at a site known as Joseph’s Tomb, the army said.
Ultra-Orthodox Jews frequently defy a military ban on entering the shrine that is in Palestinian controlled territory.
According to AFP, Palestinian witnesses said the army had sealed off the area and were conducting searches.
http://www.eurasiareview.com/israel-worshipper-killed-in-west-bank-shooting-attack-24042011/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+eurasiareview%2FVsnE+%28Eurasia+Review%29
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Libyan tribes negotiate rebels exit from Misrata
April 25, 2011
Libyan tribal leaders are trying to get rebels in the city of Misrata to lay down their arms within 48 hours, a Government official said early on Sunday, after a day of fierce clashes between opposition fighters and Gaddafi’s forces.
If negotiations fail, tribal chiefs may send armed supporters into the city of 300,000 to fight the rebels, said Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Kaim. In the meantime, the Libyan military is halting operations in Misrata, he said.
Full report at:
http://www.dailypioneer.com/334060/Libyan-tribes-negotiate-rebels-exit-from-Misrata.html
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Bombing destroys presidential building in Tripoli
April 25, 2011
TRIPOLI: Libyan leader Muammer Gaddafi's office in his immense Tripoli residence was destroyed in an air strike early Monday, an AFP journalist said.
A Libyan official accompanying journalists at the scene said 45 people were wounded, 15 seriously, in the bombing. He added that he did not know whether there were victims under the rubble.
"It was an attempt to assassinate Colonel Gaddafi," he affirmed.
A meeting room facing Gaddafi's office was badly damaged by the blast.
NATO warplanes had already late Friday targeted the Bab Al-Aziziya district, where the presidential compound is located.
Heavy explosions shook the centre of Tripoli early Monday as warplanes overflew the Libyan capital. The blasts, the strongest to have hit the city so far, shook the hotel in which foreign correspondents here are staying not far from downtown.
Full report at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/middle-east/Bombing-destroys-presidential-building-in-Tripoli/articleshow/8077300.cms
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Saleh defiant, day after agreeing to handover plan
April 25, 2011
Sanaa : Yemen's veteran president Ali Abdullah Saleh has struck a defiant tone in an interview, a day after his government said he had accepted a Gulf Arab plan to hand over power within weeks.
Saleh has faced down three months of street protests as well as pressure to go from his main backers Saudi Arabia and the United States, and opposition groups fear his verbal acceptance of the plan may be no more than a tactic.
"We are going to stick to constitutional legitimacy. We won't accept 'constructive chaos'," he told BBC Arabic television Sunday, using language that some fear means he intends to see out his presidential term to September 2013.
"Who should I hand power over to? Insurrectionists?"
Saleh has ruled in Yemen for nearly 33 years, overseeing the unification of North and South Yemen in 1990.
Growing popular discontent with endemic poverty, corruption and lack of opportunity has been galvanised into mass protest by the success of revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt. Scores of demonstrators have been killed in the unrest.
Full report at:
http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/780934/
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US released ‘high-risk’ Guantanamo detainees
April 25, 2011
WASHINGTON: The United States released dozens of “high-risk” Guantanamo inmates and held over 150 innocent men for years, a fresh trove of classified military files showed Sunday.
The 779 documents, part of a massive cache of secret memos leaked to whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks last year, were made available to a select group of US and European media outlets, including The New York Times, The Daily Telegraph, El Pais, Le Monde, Der Spiegel and La Repubblica.
Thousands of pages of files were said to reveal that most of the 172 prisoners who remain at the US naval base in southeastern Cuba — 130 of them — have been rated as posing a “high-risk’ threat to the United States and its allies if they are freed without being rehabilitated or supervised as needed.
Even more of the George W. Bush-era “war on terror” suspects — about a third of the 600-some men who have already been transferred to third countries — were also branded “high-risk” before being released or handed to other governments, the Times noted.
Full report at:
http://www.dawn.com/2011/04/25/us-released-%E2%80%98high-risk%E2%80%99-guantanamo-detainees-wikileaks.html
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Nigeria rights group says over 500 killed in riots
April 25, 2011
LAGOS More than 500 people were killed in post-election violence last week in the mostly Muslim north, a Nigerian human rights group said on Sunday, and it warned of further unrest during state elections.
At least 11 recent college graduates who helped run polling stations as part of the country’s national youth service corps were among those killed and other female poll workers have been raped, police also said.
Authorities have sought to reassure members of the National Youth Service Corps that it will be safe for them to take part in Tuesday's gubernatorial elections being held in 29 states.
Youths launched protests in northern towns and cities after President Goodluck Jonathan, a Christian from the south, was declared the victor of an April 16 election, defeating former military ruler and northern Muslim Muhammadu Buhari.
Observers and many Nigerians say the vote was the most credible in Africa’s most populous nation for decades and world leaders have congratulated Jonathan. But Buhari says the count was rigged and his supporters have refused to accept defeat.
Nigeria’s Civil Rights Congress (CRC) said more than 500 people were killed on Monday and Tuesday in three towns alone — Zonkwa, Kafanchan and Zangon Kataf — in the southern part of Kaduna state, one of the worst-hit areas.
“The victims were encircled, raided and hacked to death and their homes burned,” CRC president Shehu Sani said in a report based on testimony from the group’s members in the communities.
Full report at:
http://arabnews.com/world/article371746.ece
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Yemen: Protests Demand President Quit Immediately Despite Transition Plan
April 25, 2011
Protesters in Yemen are calling for the immediate departure of President Ali Abdullah Saleh despite a transition plan brokered by Persian Gulf nations under which he would step down.
Hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets across the impoverished Arabian Peninsula state on Sunday, with the biggest demonstrations taking place in the capital Sanaa.
The protesters are demanding that Saleh leave immediately despite a deal drawn up by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), a bloc of six oil-producing Gulf nations, under which he would leave office within 30 days, and presidential elections would follow a month later.
Saleh has yet to sign the agreement, which would also provide complete immunity for him and his family.
Full report at:
http://www.eurasiareview.com/yemen-protests-demand-president-quit-immediately-despite-transition-plan-24042011/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+eurasiareview%2FVsnE+%28Eurasia+Review%29
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Syria: Calls For World To Impose Sanctions On Leadership
April 25, 2011
The United Nations should set up an international inquiry into the fatal shootings by Syria’s security forces of peaceful protesters, Human Rights Watch said today after the killing of protesters in 14 separate towns on April 22, 2011. The inquiry should also examine other human rights violations committed since anti-government protests began in mid-March.
The US and European Union should also impose sanctions on Syrian officials who bear responsibility for the use of lethal force against peaceful protesters and the arbitrary detention and torture of hundreds of protesters, as well as request an urgent briefing of the UN Security Council on the spiraling situation in the country, including shootings on April 22.
“After Friday’s carnage, it is no longer enough to condemn the violence,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Faced with the Syrian authorities’ ‘shoot to kill’ strategy, the international community needs to impose sanctions on those ordering the shooting of protesters.”
On April 22, Syria’s security forces killed at least 76 protesters, and possibly as many as 112, according to lists compiled by local human rights activists. Human Rights Watch interviewed protesters in the towns of Homs, Ezraa, Douma, and Maadamiya, who reported that security forces opened fire on them without warning. On April 23, security forces shot at funeral processions in Barza, Douma, and Ezraa, killing at least 12 additional mourners, according to media reports.
Full report at:
http://www.eurasiareview.com/syria-calls-for-world-to-impose-sanctions-on-leadership-24042011/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+eurasiareview%2FVsnE+%28Eurasia+Review%29
http: https://newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/libya-senior-western-leaders-call/d/4516