Obama: Israel Has Right to Defend Itself
Age Islam News Bureau
18 Nov 2012
North America
• Obama: Israel Has Right to Defend Itself
• Even With a ‘Light Footprint,’ It’s Hard to Sidestep the Middle East
• Diplomat on the Rise, Suddenly in Turbulence
• In Benghazi testimony, Petraeus says al-Qaida role known early
India
• "Victims of State-Led Injustice”: CPM Demands Relief for Framed Muslim Youth
• Bihar CM for people-to-people contact between India, Pakistan
• Gaza violence: India calls for direct Israel-Palestine talks
• MFN-status to India: Pak Parliament panel voices reservations
• Bal Thackeray shared strong bond with his Muslim physician
• India seeks speedy probe into Savita case
• Bodoland Territorial Council member held with weapons, 5 more killed
Africa
• Al Qaeda sends reinforcements after Mali Tuareg attack
• Second Islamist dies in Tunisian prison after hunger strike
Mideast Asia
• 'Gaza invasion would cost Israel international support'
• Israel ready to ‘significantly expand’ Gaza operation: Netanyahu
• Hackers down hundreds of Israeli sites over Gaza
• Israeli raids kill children despite rocket fire lull
• Girl among 2 killed in strike on Gaza City camp: Hamas
• 'Gaza truce possible today, tomorrow'
• Iran holds Syria reconciliation conference
• Kurd Militants End Hunger Strike in Turkey, Deal Seen
• Israel bombards Gaza Strip, shoots down rocket
• Office of pro-Hamas TV bombed by Israel, 3 injured
South Asia
• Bangladeshi man, convicted of killing a Syrian, beheaded in Saudi Arabia
• Myanmar security forces killed Muslim villagers
• More Taliban Prisoners May Be Released
• Situation in the Maldives of no concern for India: President Waheed
• Govt to ban Jamaat if people want: Bangladesh Awami League
Arab World
• Syrian rebel coalition names ambassador to Paris
• Car bomb kills seven Shia pilgrims in Iraq
• Netanyahu unveils his elections war- room
• Indications of Hamas-Israel truce 'soon': Mohamed Morsi
• Syrian rebels 'capture airport'
• Egypt's new Coptic pope enthroned
• The Arab Spring and disqualifying the Islamist myth
Europe
• Dublin remembers Savita with a “Never Again” march
• France to Let Syria Council Establish Ambassador
• Turkmenistan pushes ambitious trans-Afghan pipeline
• UN attack helicopters hit rebels in eastern Congo
• Azerbaijan police crackdown on opposition protest
Southeast Asia
• PAS dials down on Hudood, concedes it can’t rule alone
• Asian leaders want Myanmar to end sectarian violence
Pakistan
• MQM Chief seeks Muslim states conference to mull over Israeli aggression on Gaza
• ‘The Unbearable Manto: Prophet, Pariah or Pervert’
• Studying with the rattling of shackles and gunfire
• Blast in Waziristan kills two security personnel, injures seven
• Tribal clash claims 4 lives in Bolan district
• Roadside bomb kills five soldiers near Miranshah
• Pakistan racing to develop armed drones: experts
• Pakistani plane with 183 people catches fire, lands safely
• Over 9,000 cases against govt pending in Islamabad based courts
• Arrested ‘TTP militant’ warns of Muharram attacks
• Musharraf calls for India and Pak to ‘bury the hatchet’
• Lashkar front JuD into mobile gaming?
• Pak govt files review petition against Supreme Court verdict
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
Photo: 'Gaza invasion would cost Israel international support'
URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/obama-israel-right-defend-itself/d/9343
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North America
Obama: Israel Has Right to Defend Itself
2012/11/18
BANGKOK (AP) — President Barack Obama says Israel has a right to defend itself from missiles being aimed at the country by militants in the Gaza Strip.
Obama says "no country on earth would tolerate missiles raining down" on its people and says any effort to resolve the conflict in Gaza "starts with no missiles being fired into Israel's territory."
Obama's comments come as Israeli strikes hit two media centers in the Gaza Strip on Sunday as violence continues to escalate. Palestinian militants meanwhile fired at least one more long-range rocket at Tel Aviv, the fourth day in a row the city has come under fire.
The rocket was intercepted by Israel's "Iron Dome" missile defense system.
Obama spoke at a news conference Sunday in Bangkok. He's on a three-country tour of Asia.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2012/11/18/world/asia/ap-as-obama-israel.html?hp&gwh=8F58293D3DDFE8321568B6937CE3B67B
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Even With a ‘Light Footprint,’ It’s Hard to Sidestep the Middle East
By DAVID E. SANGER
2012/11/18
The eruptions in the Middle East have posed perhaps the severest, most direct test yet of the limits of President Obama’s signature foreign policy innovation during his first term, what the White House hails as the “light footprint” strategy.
Sensitive to public sentiment that a decade of war had debilitated America, and eager to focus on economic problems at home, President Obama quickly embraced a mix of remote-control technology and at-a-distance diplomacy to contain the most explosive problems in the Middle East, South Asia and Africa. Strikes by unmanned drone aircraft increased sixfold, secret cyberweapons were aimed at Iran, and special forces killed the world’s most-wanted terrorist and made night raids the currency of American force.
For a while it worked. As Mr. Obama’s newly fallen director of central intelligence, David H. Petraeus, asked so succinctly a year ago, “Who wouldn’t want a light-footprint strategy?”
But implicit in Mr. Petraeus’s arch question was the recognition that the strategy has limited utility. And now Mr. Obama is under more pressure than ever to become engaged in the Middle East in a way that he avoided during the presidential campaign. In his own party, there are rumblings that he should intervene more directly to halt the slaughter in Syria — by placing Patriot missiles around the region to take down President Bashar al-Assad’s air power — and to renew efforts in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process as soon as the current missile barrages can be contained.
Overarching all those problems is the question of Iran, which has fueled the Syrian conflict in part to show that it will not sit idly while sanctions eat away at its oil revenue. Mr. Obama has already declared that he wants to start direct negotiations with Iran — but it is a last-ditch effort, his own aides acknowledge, to avert a military confrontation that they fear could come by the middle of 2013.
Mr. Obama had hoped not to be preoccupied with these crises in the last weeks of his first term. The hope four years ago was that by now he would be reaping the peace dividends of extracting America from Iraq and withdrawing from Afghanistan, even if the mission was far from complete, so he could turn to what during the campaign he frequently characterized as “some nation-building at home.”
Since 2009, Mr. Obama has tried to avoid getting sucked into the vortex of Middle Eastern conflict and dysfunction that drained so many of his predecessors. It was a deliberate choice from the start, his aides say. Fresh to the presidency, he asked his national security staff to reassess where America was overinvested and underinvested around the world.
The answer, his national security adviser, Thomas E. Donilon, recalled last week, came back quickly: “We were overweighted in some regions, such as our military commitments in the Middle East,” and underweighted in regions where America’s future prosperity lay, notably elsewhere in Asia.
That helps explain why Mr. Obama is moving ahead this weekend with a trip to Thailand, Myanmar and Cambodia rather than burying himself in the Situation Room in a running conference call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and President Mohamed Morsi of Egypt, whom Mr. Obama is leaning on to contain the militant Palestinian party Hamas and stop the predictable escalation of missile attacks.
“We never considered scrapping the trip,” one of Mr. Obama’s top aides said on Friday. “It’s the difference between keeping focused on what’s important in the long term and the urgent crisis du jour, which will always be there.”
To Mr. Obama’s critics, the root of the seeming absence of American leverage in the Middle East today is a light footprint that was simply too light.
“I think the way to understand Obama’s approach — I wouldn’t call it a strategy — is that he has a uniform preference to keep most problems at a distance,” said Eliot A. Cohen, a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies who worked for Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign and helped develop Mr. Romney’s critique of Mr. Obama’s approach. “That is what the light footprint has been all about. And it’s run out of gas.”
Libya has become Exhibit 1 in that argument. Mr. Obama reluctantly committed air power to the ouster of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi over the objections of the secretary of defense at the time, Robert M. Gates, who warned that there was no direct American interest in the outcome. Instead, the president urged the Arab League and NATO to “put skin in the game.”
They did, but Mr. Obama’s reluctance to put American forces on the ground during the fight, and his decision to keep America’s diplomatic and C.I.A. presence minimal in post-Qaddafi Libya, may have helped lead the United States to miss signals and get caught unaware in the attack on the American mission in Benghazi. Military forces were too far from Libya’s shores during the Sept. 11 attack to intervene.
At the end of the current investigations, that fact, more than any other, seems most likely to emerge as the answer to the question of why so little firepower was available to protect the ambassador and other Americans after they came under attack.
Syria has already become the next argument over the utility of the light footprint. Mr. Obama long resisted getting involved in that conflict even from the air, as he did in Libya. The international community was too disorganized; there was no NATO or Arab League effort; and the Russians and the Chinese blocked effective action at the United Nations.
Also, with the election looming, Mr. Obama had no interest in immersing America in a new war just as he was exiting two others. “We’re not going to do a damn thing until the election is over,” one of his senior diplomats fumed in the summer.
But with about 40,000 dead as a result of the conflict in Syria, the pressure on Mr. Obama is building, even from some Democrats. A proposal is circulating to put Patriot missile batteries in Turkey and Jordan, capable of shooting down Mr. Assad’s airplanes as they attack rebel strongholds.
“It’s not a fair fight,” Senator Mark Udall, a Colorado Democrat, said on Saturday at the Halifax International Security Forum in Nova Scotia. “The election is over, and while I’m not endorsing a no-fly zone today, we can’t stand idly by” and risk having the rest of the region inflamed.
Senator John McCain of Arizona, who ran against Mr. Obama in 2008 and has been among the most vocal advocates of greater intervention, argues that “every bad thing that we predicted would happen if we intervened — instability in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey — is already happening anyway.”
There seems to be no chance of an American ground intervention; even Mr. McCain, the Senate’s strongest hawk, stops short of advocating that. But Mr. Obama’s own aides acknowledge that his hope that he could hold back and let those with more direct interests take the lead has been dashed. The light footprint of the future may not be so light.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/18/world/middle-east-challenges-obamas-light-footprint.html?ref=world&gwh=032B5ED4183258DF598A3D3D7F33B5FD
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Diplomat on the Rise, Suddenly in Turbulence
By MARK LANDLER
2012/11/18
WASHINGTON — Susan E. Rice was playing stand-in on the morning of Sept. 16 when she appeared on five Sunday news programs, a few days after the deadly attack in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton would have been the White House’s logical choice to discuss the chaotic events in the Middle East, but she was drained after a harrowing week, administration officials said. Even if she had not been consoling the families of those who died, including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, Mrs. Clinton typically steers clear of the Sunday shows.
So instead, Ms. Rice, the ambassador to the United Nations, delivered her now-infamous account of the episode. Reciting talking points supplied by intelligence agencies, she said that the Benghazi siege appeared to have been a spontaneous protest later hijacked by extremists, not a premeditated terrorist attack. Within days, Republicans in Congress were calling for her head.
In her sure-footed ascent of the foreign-policy ladder, Ms. Rice has rarely shrunk from a fight. But now that she appears poised to claim the top rung — White House aides say she is President Obama’s favored candidate for secretary of state — this sharp-tongued, self-confident diplomat finds herself in the middle of a bitter feud in which she is largely a bystander.
“Susan had a reputation, fairly or not, as someone who could run a little hot and shoot from the hip,” said John Norris, a foreign-policy expert at the Center for American Progress. “If someone had told me that the biggest knock on her was going to be that she too slavishly followed the talking points on Benghazi, I would have been shocked.”
At the United Nations, and in posts in President Bill Clinton’s administration, Ms. Rice, who turned 48 on Saturday, has earned a reputation as a blunt advocate, relentless on issues like pressing the government in Sudan or intervening in Libya to prevent a slaughter by Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi.
She was a Rhodes scholar, has degrees from Stanford and Oxford, a Rolodex of contacts and a relationship with Mr. Obama sealed during his 2008 campaign. So her ascension to lead the State Department would be less a blow for diversity — she would, after all, be the second black woman named Rice to hold the job — than the natural capstone to a fast-track career.
Yet the firestorm over Benghazi raises more basic questions: Is Ms. Rice the best candidate to succeed Mrs. Clinton as the nation’s chief diplomat? Does she have the diplomatic finesse to handle thorny problems in the Middle East? And even if Mr. Obama gets the votes for her confirmation, has the episode so tainted her that it would be hard for her to thrive in the job?
Ms. Rice’s supporters say she has compiled a solid record at the United Nations, winning the passage of resolutions that impose strict sanctions on Iran and North Korea. Diplomats praise her energetic negotiating style, though her peremptory manner has bruised some egos. But even those who back her tend to emphasize factors like her ties to Mr. Obama, an advantage that Mrs. Clinton, for all her celebrity, did not have.
“Given that he’s probably the most withholding president on foreign policy since Nixon, if anyone can get him to delegate, not dominate, it’s Rice,” said Aaron David Miller, a longtime Middle East negotiator now at the Woodrow Wilson Center. “That would be good for her, and for our foreign policy.”
While some in the State Department are wary of her, recalling her blustery style as assistant secretary for African affairs in the Clinton administration, Ms. Rice has a core of support among Mr. Obama’s aides, particularly those who worked with her on the 2008 campaign. They insist that Benghazi will not derail her chances. Some analysts said Mr. Obama’s defense of her at a news conference last week was so impassioned that he had left himself little room to put forward an alternative, like Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts.
Still, other longtime Washington observers question if Mr. Obama would risk a battle over his secretary of state when he needs to cut a deal with Republicans on the budget and taxes.
Certainly, the vitriol between him and Senator John McCain, who charged last week that Ms. Rice had misled the public and called her “not qualified” for the State Department post, suggests that a confirmation vote for her would be a toxic affair. She has other powerful defenders, like Senator Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat and chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, who said that Ms. Rice had done nothing wrong and was a victim of character assassination.
Ms. Rice, who has kept a low profile since her TV appearances, did not comment for this article.
“The attacks are patently unfair and mean-spirited,” said Tommy Vietor, a spokesman for the National Security Council. “Susan’s record at the U.N. is exceptional.” In addition to Ms. Rice’s early support and advice on foreign policy, he said, she had been a friend of Mr. Obama’s for a long time.
A scrappy point guard in high school — she was also valedictorian at the National Cathedral School — Ms. Rice is one of several basketball players in Mr. Obama’s inner circle. He and his wife, Michelle, recently invited Ms. Rice and her husband, a Canadian-born television producer, Ian Cameron, to the White House for a celebratory, postelection dinner with Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts and other friends.
Even before such invitations, Ms. Rice had an entree to elite Washington. The daughter of Emmett J. Rice, a Federal Reserve System governor, and Lois Dickson Rice, an education policy expert, Ms. Rice spent her childhood mixing with family friends like Madeleine K. Albright, another secretary of state.
At 28, she was an aide in President Bill Clinton’s National Security Council, where she once questioned embracing the term “genocide” in Rwanda because it could put Mr. Clinton in an awkward position in midterm elections. At the State Department, diplomats recall her lecturing leaders in Africa decades her senior.
As a campaign surrogate in 2008, Ms. Rice could be withering. When Mr. Obama made a trip to the Middle East, she mocked an earlier visit Mr. McCain had made to a market in Baghdad, during which he wore body armor. She said of her candidate, “I don’t think he’ll be strolling around the market in a flak jacket.”
Ms. Rice’s relationship to Mrs. Clinton as secretary of state also began on chilly terms, officials said, in part because Ms. Rice embraced Mr. Obama’s candidacy rather than Mrs. Clinton’s. In the early days of the administration, one former aide said, their offices would occasionally issue competing statements on the same topic.
But over time, representatives of both women say, they have developed a good rapport. They see plenty of each other, with Ms. Rice keeping an office at the State Department and commuting between New York and Washington, where she and Mr. Cameron have two children. Her schedule has led to some criticism that she has missed debates in New York.
While there, Ms. Rice has had little use for the bland artifice of diplomatic language. When Russia and China blocked a resolution condemning the crackdown in Syria, Ms. Rice wrote on Twitter, “Disgusted that Russia and China prevented the U.N. Security Council from fulfilling its sole purpose.” At the White House, she tangled with Mr. Obama’s special envoy to Sudan, J. Scott Gration, and became so immersed in that country’s looming split that subordinates termed her the “Sudan desk officer.”
By her own account, Ms. Rice’s fervor is fueled by the Clinton administration’s inaction in Rwanda. Years later, she told Samantha Power, then a journalist writing about the episode, that “I swore to myself that if I ever faced such a crisis again, I would come down on the side of dramatic action, going down in flames if that was required.”
Last year, working with Ms. Power (now herself in the National Security Council), Mrs. Clinton, and other officials, Ms. Rice helped persuade the president to back NATO military intervention in Libya.
In some ways, friends say, Ms. Rice’s appearance on the Sunday shows underlines how she has evolved from a headstrong young staffer into a disciplined senior member of Mr. Obama’s team.
“She’s really tough, but there is a difference in how she’s tough,” said Harold H. Koh, the State Department’s legal adviser. “During the Clinton administration, there was a feeling that she had to be tough to earn her place at the table. Now she’s more comfortable.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/18/world/susan-e-rice-caught-up-in-furor-over-
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In Benghazi testimony, Petraeus says al-Qaida role known early
Nov 17, 2012
WASHINGTON: Former CIA director David Petraeus told Congress on Friday that he and the spy agency had sought to make clear from the outset that September's deadly attack on the US diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, involved an al-Qaida affiliate, lawmakers said.
Petraeus told lawmakers that "there were extremists in the group" that launched the attack on the diplomatic mission, describing them as affiliates of al-Qaida and other groups, said Representative C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, the top Democrat on the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee.
Full report at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/In-Benghazi-testimony-Petraeus-says-al-Qaida-role-known-early/articleshow/17258413.cms
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India
"Victims of State-Led Injustice”: CPM Demands Relief for Framed Muslim Youth
By Rakhi Chakrabarty
Nov 18, 2012
NEW DELHI: The CPM on Saturday took its protest against targeting and persecution of the Muslim youth to President Pranab Mukherjee and demanded the Centre take immediate steps to help "victims of state-led injustice". CPM general secretary Prakash Karat met Mukherjee with a seven-member delegation that included three youth who were arrested in terror cases, spent years in jail and then acquitted by courts.
Mohammed Aamir from Delhi and Syed Maqbool Shah from Srinagar — both acquitted after languishing 14 years in prison — and Kanpur's Syed Wasif Haider, released after eight years, were part of the delegation.
In its memorandum, the CPM demanded compensation and rehabilitation for the innocent implicated in such cases and special courts with time-bound procedures to settle cases within a year. "Policemen must be held accountable and action must be taken against those found fabricating evidence," Karat told TOI.
Full report at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/CPM-demands-relief-for-framed-Muslim-youth/articleshow/17261722.cms
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Gaza violence: India calls for direct Israel-Palestine talks
Nov 18, 2012
NEW DELHI: "Deeply concerned" at escalation of violence between Israel and Palestine, India on Sunday asked both sides to exercise maximum restraint and avoid taking any action that may further exacerbate the situation.
India also said it was necessary that direct talks begin between the two sides without any further delay.
"We are deeply concerned at the steep escalation of violence between Israel and Palestine, focused around Gaza, that threatens the peace and security of that region," the official spokesperson in the ministry of external affairs said on the violence in Gaza.
Full report at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/middle-east/Gaza-violence-India-calls-for-direct-Israel-Palestine-talks/articleshow/17268541.cms
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Bihar CM for people-to-people contact between India, Pakistan
By Faizan Ahmad
Nov 18, 2012
PATNA: Chief minister Nitish Kumar returned on Saturday after his weeklong visit to Pakistan and was happy over the successful and fruitful journey during which he interacted with officials and leaders of different parties of the neighbouring country.
Nitish began his Pakistan visit with floral tributes to Pakistan's `Rashtrapita' Mohammad Ali Jinnah in Karachi and rounded off the tour by paying respect to great saint Hazrat Data Saheb Ganj Bakhsh in Lahore where he also visited the mausoleum of great philosopher and Urdu poet Dr Sir Mohammad Iqbal who penned the famous patriotic song "Saare jehan se achchha Hindustan hamara".
Full report at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Nitish-Kumar-for-people-to-people-contact-between-India-Pakistan/articleshow/17261449.cms
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MFN-status to India: Pak Parliament panel voices reservations
Nov 18 2012,
Islamabad : A top Pakistani Parliamentary panel has expressed reservations about the government's move to grant the Most Favoured Nation-status to India, with some of its members claiming that the measure would "destroy" the domestic agriculture sector.
Members of the Public Accounts Committee, which is headed by the ruling PPP lawmaker Nadeem Afzal Chan, voiced their reservations during a meeting and sought a detailed briefing on the matter from the Commerce Ministry after 'Muharram' holidays.
The PPP-led government has repeatedly said it is committed to phasing out a negative list regime for trade with India by December 31 and granting MFN-status by the beginning of next year.
Full report at:
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/mfnstatus-to-india-pak-parliament-panel-voices-reservations/1032790/
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Bal Thackeray shared strong bond with his Muslim physician
November 18, 2012
He was considered a right-wing Hindu leader -- but Shiv Sena patriarch Bal Thackeray, who died on Saturday, had full faith in a Muslim doctor, who was treating him for the last four years.
One might never to able to solve the mystery as to why Thackeray trusted his family's health on Jalil Parkar, but the meticulous chest physician ensured that the trust was never broken.
In 2009, when Thackeray had severe breathing difficulty, it was this doctor, trained in the United States, who came to his aid and over a period of time became a permanent visitor to Matoshree-- the Thackeray residence.
Full report at:
http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/Mumbai/Bal-Thackeray-shared-strong-bond-with-his-Muslim-physician/Article1-960984.aspx
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India seeks speedy probe into Savita case
Mail Today/ New Delhi
Nov 18, 2012
NEW Delhi maintained diplomatic pressure on Dublin on the death of an Indian dentist in Ireland, with anger mounting in India over the issue.
Debashish Chakravarti, the Indian ambassador to Ireland, met the deputy Prime Minister and foreign minister Eamon Gilmore on Friday to convey India’s concern at the death of Dr Savita Halappanavar, the Galway- based dentist.
Full report at: Mail Today
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Bodoland Territorial Council member held with weapons, 5 more killed
By Prabin Kalita
Nov 18, 2012
GUWAHATI: Assam Police have arrested a key administrator of Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) with two AK 47s and ammunition hours after five villagers were shot dead in Kokrajhar on Friday night. Since November 10, 11 persons have died in renewed ethnic violence.
Unidentified gunmen raided Jiabari village near Kokrajhar at 11.30 pm on Friday night and shot dead four of a family, including three women, and left a child injured. Another woman, who was shot earlier in the evening at Barkhas Nalbari, also died at a Bilasipara hospital. In curfew-bound Kokrajhar, miscreants fired at a Special Police Officer (SPO) while he was guarding National Highway 31 at Serfanguri at 6 pm on Saturday and snatched away his self- loading rifle. The SPO, Biraj Das, has been admitted to a private hospital in Bongaigaon in a critical condition.
Full report at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Bodoland-Territorial-Council-member-held-with-weapons-5-more-killed/articleshow/17261177.cms
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Africa
Al Qaeda sends reinforcements after Mali Tuareg attack
November 18, 2012
BAMAKO: Al Qaeda’s North African branch has sent hundreds of fighters to reinforce its rebel allies in the tense Gao region of northeastern Mali, witnesses said Saturday, after Tuareg rebels launched a failed offensive a day earlier.
Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and its allies initially fought alongside the nomadic Tuareg people’s Azawad National Liberation Movement (MNLA) to seize control of Mali’s vast desert north in the wake of a March 22 military coup. But the rebels, whose goals include imposing strict Islamic law, soon turned on their more secular Tuareg allies, who are fighting to establish an independent state.
Full report at:
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2012\11\18\story_18-11-2012_pg4_6
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Second Islamist dies in Tunisian prison after hunger strike
November 18, 2012
TUNIS: A second Tunisian Salafist held in custody since protesters ransacked the US embassy in Tunis in September has died after a hunger strike, his lawyer and the Justice Ministry said on Saturday.
Muhammed Bakhti died in hospital on Saturday, two days after 26-year-old student Bechir Gholli. They were among dozens of Salafists, hardline Muslims, on hunger strike over prison conditions. “It’s a shame that Tunisians die in prison after the revolution,” Bakhti’s lawyer, Anouar Aouled Ali, told Reuters.
Full report at:
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2012\11\18\story_18-11-2012_pg4_5
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Mideast Asia
'Gaza invasion would cost Israel international support'
November 18, 2012
A ground invasion of the Gaza Strip would lose Israel much international sympathy and support, British foreign secretary William Hague warned on Sunday.
Hague told Sky News television it was much more difficult to limit civilian casualties in a ground assault and it would threaten to prolong the conflict.
His comments came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the armed forces were ready to 'significantly expand' their operation against militants in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip as it entered its fifth day.
Britain has said that Hamas bears the principal responsibility for the crisis due to perpetual rocket attacks on Israeli territory.
Full report at:
http://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/Europe/Gaza-invasion-would-cost-Israel-international-support/Article1-960987.aspx
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Israel ready to ‘significantly expand’ Gaza operation: Netanyahu
November 18, 2012
JERUSALEM: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel is ready to “significantly expand” its operation against militants in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip as it entered its fifth day.
“The army is prepared to significantly expand the operation,” Netanyahu said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting. “The soldiers are ready for any activity that could take place.”
His remarks came as thousands of Israeli troops and hardware gathered along the border, fuelling concerns that the Jewish state was poised to expand its relentless aerial bombing campaign into a ground operation.
Full report at:
http://dawn.com/2012/11/18/israeli-gaza-raids-continue-hitting-media-centre/
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Hackers down hundreds of Israeli sites over Gaza
November 18, 2012
TEL AVIV: Online activist group Anonymous said on Saturday it had taken down the websites of dozens of Israeli state agencies and a top bank in protest over the Jewish state’s deadly air assault on Gaza.
The hackers said their operation “OpIsrael” had either damaged or completely erased the databases of more than 650 private and public institutions, including the Bank of Jerusalem — one of Israel’s main finance houses.
“Bank of Jerusalem database has been deleted,” the group said in a tweet next to a link to the lender’s non-functioning website.
Full report at:
http://tribune.com.pk/story/467508/hackers-down-hundreds-of-israeli-sites-over-gaza/
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Israeli raids kill children despite rocket fire lull
November 18, 2012
Israeli raids killed three children and critically wounded two more in Gaza early Sunday even as the army said there had been no rocket fire all night amid growing talk of a truce. Aircraft also hit two media centres in Gaza City, wounding at least eight journalists, including one who
lost his leg, emergency services said, as Egypt and France pressed efforts to broker a ceasefire and prevent an all-out ground war like that of 2008-9.
A senior Palestinian official in Gaza told AFP that amid serious efforts to end the violence, a deal could be reached later on Sunday or on Monday.
Full report at:
http://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/RestOfAsia/Israeli-raids-kill-children-despite-rocket-fire-lull/Article1-960938.aspx
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Girl among 2 killed in strike on Gaza City camp: Hamas
November 18, 2012
Two people were killed, one of them a child, when an Israeli missile hit a beachfront refugee camp in Gaza City on Sunday, the Hamas-run health ministry and witnesses said.
"The death toll has risen to 52 after two people were killed in an attack on Shati camp -- a man and a
girl," health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said.
Hospital officials named the victims as 13-year-old Tasneem al-Nahal and Ahmad al-Nahal, 25. Both were from the same family but the relationship between them was not immediately clear.
Full report at:
http://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/RestOfAsia/Girl-among-2-killed-in-strike-on-Gaza-City-camp-Hamas/Article1-960981.aspx
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'Gaza truce possible today, tomorrow'
November 18, 2012
Talks on the possibility of a truce to end five days of violence in and around Gaza are under way, and a deal could be reached "today or tomorrow," a Palestinian official said on Sunday.
"There are serious talks to reach a truce, and it is possible that understandings will be reached today or tomorrow," the senior official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The official's comments were confirmed by an Egyptian security source, who said: "Egypt has continued meetings and intensive communication with all parties to reach a truce as quickly as possible.
Full report at:
http://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/RestOfAsia/Gaza-truce-possible-today-tomorrow/Article1-960923.aspx
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Iran holds Syria reconciliation conference
November 18, 2012
Iran held on Sunday a conference to reconcile Syria’s government with opposition factions and end the country’s civil war, the official IRNA news agency reported.
The report said the one-day meeting of some 200 opposition members and Syria’s National Reconciliation Minister Ali Haidar could be a step toward a future, broad-based opposition gathering, although it did not say if any of Syria’s major rebel or exile groups had attended. Most of those groups distrust Iran, a key ally of their adversary President Bashar Assad.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi warned at the opening of the meeting that providing opposition groups with heavy arms could put the entire region at risk of “organized terrorism.”
Full report at:
http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/iran-holds-syria-reconciliation-conference/article4108515.ece
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Kurd Militants End Hunger Strike in Turkey, Deal Seen
2012/11/18
ISTANBUL/DIYARBAKIR (Reuters) - Hundreds of Kurdish militants ended a hunger strike in jails across Turkey on Sunday in response to an appeal from their leader, fuelling hopes a deal had been struck that could revive talks to end a decades-old conflict.
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan called on his supporters to end their protest after holding a series of discussions with Turkish MIT intelligence agency officials, according to one media report.
Full report at:
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2012/11/18/world/middleeast/18reuters-turkey-
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Israel bombards Gaza Strip, shoots down rocket
Nov 18, 2012
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip: Israel destroyed the headquarters of Hamas' prime minister and blasted a sprawling network of smuggling tunnels in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday, broadening a blistering four-day-old offensive against the Islamic militant group even as diplomatic efforts to broker a cease-fire appeared to be gaining steam.
Hamas officials said a building used by Hamas for broadcasts was bombed and three people were injured. The injured were from Al Quds TV, a Lebanon-based television channel. The building is also used by foreign news outlets including Germany's ARD, Kuwait TV and the Italian RAI and others.
Full report at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/middle-east/Israel-bombards-Gaza-Strip-shoots-down-rocket/articleshow/17262787.cms
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Office of pro-Hamas TV bombed by Israel, 3 injured
XINHUA
November 18, 2012
The Gaza office of a pro-Hamas broadcaster was bombarded by Israeli forces in the wee hours of Sunday, and at least three staffers there were injured. The building wrecked by the bombing, houses the office of al-Quds television, along with the local offices of Germany’s ARD, Kuwait TV and the Italian RAI and other foreign press organizations.
The office of the Lebanon-based al-Quds was on the 11th floor of the building, and the attack halted radio broadcasting in the area, witnesses said. Meanwhile, Israeli warplanes also raided the northern part of the Gaza strip, leaving one child dead and 15 others wounded. According to Gaza health authorities, since Israel launched “Operation Pillar of Defence” against Hamas targets in Gaza Strip on Wednesday, more than 40 Palestinians have been killed and over 350 others
http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/office-of-prohamas-tv-bombed-by-israel-3-injured/article4108066.ece
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South Asia
Bangladeshi man, convicted of killing a Syrian, beheaded in Saudi Arabia
November 18, 2012
Saudi Arabia yesterday beheaded a Bangladeshi, who had been convicted of killing a Syrian man, the interior ministry said.
Madhaheb Shanadra had been found guilty of beating Nabil al-Awdat with a hammer before stabbing and hacking him to death over a dispute, the official SPA news agency quoted the ministry as saying.
Full report at:
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=257934
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Myanmar security forces killed Muslim villagers
November 18, 2012
BANGKOK: Myanmar local security forces killed Muslim villagers and assaulted people trying to flee a fresh outbreak of sectarian violence in western Rakhine state last month, a rights watchdog said Sunday.
Local forces killed ethnic minority Kaman Muslims in the town of Kyauk Pyu while government troops “stood by and watched”, according to New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW).
Soldiers from the local border guard force meanwhile “severely beat” dozens of displaced Rohingya Muslims arriving by boat near the Rakhine state capital Sittwe from violence-hit local villages, it said.
Full report at:
http://tribune.com.pk/story/467591/myanmar-forces-accused-of-attacks-on-muslims/
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More Taliban Prisoners May Be Released
By ROD NORDLAND
2012/11/18
KABUL, Afghanistan — Many of at least a dozen Afghan Taliban prisoners being released by Pakistan are significant figures, according to officials on all sides, and Afghan peace representatives were exultant on Saturday as they announced that more releases might follow.
The releases are expected to help bolster the efforts of the High Peace Council, the Afghan government’s negotiating body, to start talks with the insurgents. Prisoner releases have been a core demand of the council, and Pakistan’s move was seen as a good-faith effort to advance the moribund peace process as Western military forces prepare to withdraw from Afghanistan in 2014.
Full report at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/18/world/asia/taliban-leaders-among-prisoners-freed-in-
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Situation in the Maldives of no concern for India: President Waheed
By Minivan News | November 18th, 2012
India does not need to be concerned about the current situation in the Maldives, according to President Dr. Muhammad Waheed Hassan Manik.
Speaking on the day of the initial anti-GMR ultimatum date (November 15), Dr Waheed told Indian News Agency, Press Trust of India (PTI) that affairs within the Maldives were well, and India had no reason to be concerned.
Full report at:
The Statement also said that India had registered its concerns with the Maldivian authorities.
http://minivannews.com/category/news-in-brief
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Govt to ban Jamaat if people want: Bangladesh Awami League
November 18, 2012
Awami League Joint General Secretary Mahbubul Alam Hanif said on Sunday the government will ban the politics of fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami if the countrymen want.
“If people of the country are united against the politics of Jamaat and demand it’s banning, the government will response positively,” said Hanif, who is also a special assistant to the prime minister.
Full report at:
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/latest_news.php?nid=42547
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Arab World
Syrian rebel coalition names ambassador to Paris
November 18, 2012
France invited Syria's new opposition coalition to send an ambassador to Paris, but remained cautious on the issue of supplying weapons, as Israel said it fired shells into Syria after gunfure hit an army vehicle in the Golan Heights.
Rebels meanwhile seized control of the key Hamdan airport in Deir Ezzor province on the border with Iraq, said activists monitoring the conflict.
In Paris, French President Francois Hollande met the National Coalition leader Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib on Saturday and afterwards told reporters he planned to let the group appoint an ambassador to France.
Full report at:
http://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/Europe/Syrian-rebel-coalition-names-ambassador-to-Paris/Article1-960881.aspx
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Car bomb kills seven Shia pilgrims in Iraq
November 18, 2012
BAGHDAD: At least seven Shia Muslim pilgrims from Iran and Pakistan were killed in Iraq on Saturday when a car bomb went off by a restaurant in a city north of the capital, police and hospital sources said.
The attack took place a few days into the holy month of Ashura, which is of special significance to Shia Muslims, who are targeted by al Qaeda’s Iraqi affiliate and other radical Islamic insurgents.
Police said a parked car blew up near a restaurant on the outskirts of Balad, 80 km north of Baghdad, killing the pilgrims, who were travelling back to the capital from Samarra.
A further 25 people were wounded in the blast, medics said.
http://dawn.com/2012/11/17/car-bomb-kills-seven-pilgrims-in-iraq-including-pakistanis/
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Netanyahu unveils his elections war- room
Rohan Venkataramakrishnan
SOME people react to their friends losing with magnanimity. And some politicians start election campaigns with appeals to statesmanship.
Binyamin ' Bibi' Netanyahu has done neither. Stung by the fact that ' his man' didn't make it to the White House, and facing elections in January, the Israeli President took the easy route, if you can call it that. He started a war.
The intent was made very clear in the opening gambit. The Israeli Defence Force ( IDF) -- which has morbidly been live- tweeting its bombing of an occupied community -- proudly announced the assassination of Ahmed Al- Jaabari. Head of Hamas' military wing as he was, Al- Jaabari was also the chief negotiator with Israel over Gaza militancy.
Full report at: Mail Today
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Indications of Hamas-Israel truce 'soon': Mohamed Morsi
Nov 18 2012
Cairo : Egypt's President Mohamed Morsi said his government was in touch with both Israelis and Palestinians and there were indications they could "soon" reach a truce, but there were no guarantees.
"There are some indications that there could be a ceasefire soon," Morsi said at a joint news conference yesterday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, adding that there were still "no guarantees."
He said his country's government was in "vigorous" communications with both the Palestinians and Israel.
A senior Hamas official had earlier told AFP his movement was reluctant to agree a truce because it doubted the terms of the ceasefire could be guaranteed.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/indications-of-hamasisrael-truce-soon-mohamed-morsi/1032723/
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Syrian rebels 'capture airport'
Syrian rebels say they have captured an airport near the border with Iraq.
The airport of Hamdan in Deir al-Zour province, near the town of Albu Kamal, had been converted by government forces for military use.
The Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, an activist network, said rebels now controlled "large swathes of land".
Full report at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-20380557
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Egypt's new Coptic pope enthroned
November 18, 2012
The new pope of Egypt’s Orthodox Coptic church was enthroned on Sunday in an elaborate ceremony lasting nearly four hours, attended by the nation’s Muslim prime minister and a host of Cabinet ministers and politicians.
Pope Tawadros II, 60, was elected Nov. 4, but the official enthronement ceremony was held Sunday at the Coptic cathedral in Cairo. He replaced Shenouda III, who died in March after leading the ancient church for 40 years.
Full report at:
http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/egypts-new-coptic-pope-enthroned/article4108419.ece
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The Arab Spring and disqualifying the Islamist myth
18 November 2012
AL ARABIYA INSTITUTE FOR STUDIES
At the time when idealizing and romanticizing the Arab Spring was the dominant narrative for the masses, neighboring governments and western analysts worried about the Islamists filling in the vacuum. The elections in Egypt caused the most concern as Mohammed Mursi became the country’s fifth president enchanting his supporters while leaving many others greatly concerned and suspicious of his ‘religious agenda.’
Full report at:
http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/11/18/250326.html
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Europe
Dublin remembers Savita with a “Never Again” march
HASAN SUROOR
November 18, 2012
Hundreds of protesters, carrying banners embossed with Savita Halappanavar’s picture, on Saturday marched through Dublin and held a candlelit vigil outside the Irish Parliament in memory of the young Indian dentist who died after being refused a potentially life-saving abortion by doctors at a government hospital.
In a symbolic move, they gathered at the Garden of Remembrance dedicated to the memory of Irish freedom fighters, and walked to the parliament building with banners saying, “Never Again”, “No More Tragedies” and “Abortion Rights Now”.
Full report at:
http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/dublin-remembers-savita-with-a-never-again-march/article4106502.ece
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France to Let Syria Council Establish Ambassador
By STEVEN ERLANGER
2012/11/18
PARIS — Days after recognizing the newly formed Syrian opposition council as the “sole representative” of the Syrian people, President François Hollande of France met with its leaders in Paris on Saturday and agreed to install a new Syrian ambassador in France.
The French move comes even before the new council, the National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, has established a provisional government, which is expected to happen soon.
Full report at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/18/world/middleeast/syrian-opposition-council-to-
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Turkmenistan pushes ambitious trans-Afghan pipeline
November 18, 2012
ASHGABAT: Turkmenistan is pushing ahead with plans to build a hugely ambitious pipeline to transport its gas through conflict-torn Afghanistan to India and Pakistan, despite concerns about the viability of the project.
Turkmen officials speaking at this week’s Oil and Gas Conference in Ashgabat took every opportunity to talk up the pipeline while showing less interest in a similar project that would transport gas across the Caspian Sea to the EU.
The TAPI (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India) natural gas pipeline, which is backed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), is regarded with suspicion as a wildly ambitious pipedream by some analysts.
Full report at:
http://dawn.com/2012/11/18/turkmenistan-pushes-ambitious-trans-afghan-pipeline/
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UN attack helicopters hit rebels in eastern Congo
November 18, 2012
KINSHASA: United Nations attack helicopters hit rebels positions in eastern Congo on Saturday after insurgents gained ground in heavy fighting, the UN said.
The clashes to the south of the town Kibumba mean the rebels have got to within 30 km of Goma, the closest they have been to North Kivu’s provincial capital since a rebellion began there eight months ago. North Kivu governor Julien Paluku said the army retreated to the southern outskirts of the town after M23 rebels received support from neighbouring Rwanda.
Full report at:
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2012\11\18\story_18-11-2012_pg4_2
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Azerbaijan police crack down on opposition protest
November 18, 2012
BAKU: Police in Azerbaijan arrested around 30 opposition activists who tried to stage a protest in the capital Baku on Saturday to demand the president’s resignation and dissolution of parliament.
Police officers in helmets and wielding truncheons pushed some of the demonstrators on to city buses. Azerbaijan’s weak opposition has been trying to drum up support by staging regular protests since a series of bigger demonstrations in Baku last year which were inspired by the Arab Spring.
Full report at:
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2012\11\18\story_18-11-2012_pg4_15
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Southeast Asia
PAS dials down on Hudood, concedes it can’t rule alone
By Zurairi AR
November 18, 2012
KOTA BHARU, Nov 18 — Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang appeared today to admit that PAS may never entirely abandon its plans to impose Hudood for Muslims and had only softened its approach on the matter as the Islamist party knew it could not rule without its non-Muslim allies in Pakatan Rakyat (PR).
But the PAS president (picture) offered his word that if implemented, the controversial Islamic penal code would not be imposed on the non-Muslims, shooting down a suggestion yesterday by former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
Full report at:
http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/pas-dials-down-on-Hudood-concedes-it-cant-rule-alone
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Asian leaders want Myanmar to end sectarian violence
November 18, 2012
Southeast Asian leaders will put pressure on Myanmar to resolve violence between Buddhists and minority Muslims, a senior regional official said on Sunday, after unrest left scores dead and as many as 100,000 people displaced since June.
Myanmar President Thein Sein has blamed nationalist and religious extremists for unrest in June and October that killed at least 167 people, but has faced criticism for failing to address underlying tensions in Rakhine State, where an estimated 800,000 Rohingya Muslims are not recognised as citizens.
Full report at:
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/latest_news.php?nid=42546
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Pakistan
MQM Chief seeks Muslim states conference to mull over Israeli aggression on Gaza
November 18, 2012
KARACHI: Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain has strongly condemned the Israeli attacks on Gaza and other Palestinian cities and termed it as blatant aggression.
In a statement on Saturday, he expressed his heartfelt grief and sorrow on the martyrdom of many innocent Palestinian people in the attacks and urged Secretary General UN Ban Ki-moon and US President Barack Obama to use their influence to stop the Israeli aggression or the world may slide into a third world war.
Full report at:
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2012\11\18\story_18-11-2012_pg12_4
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‘The Unbearable Manto: Prophet, Pariah or Pervert’
November 18, 2012
ISLAMABAD: The rewriting of history to make revered figures more acceptable to the rightwing was a focal point during a lecture titled ‘The Unbearable Manto: Prophet, Pariah or Pervert’. The lecture, held at Nomad Art Gallery on Saturday, was delivered by Raza Naeem, a social scientist and literary critic.
Naeem lamented that Manto has been reduced to just a short story writer by critics, the government and the public alike. He compared the treatment of the late writer with other literary figures of the country such as Allama Iqbal and Ghalib, who were widely appreciated in their time instead of being ridiculed like Manto. “Within literary circles and in the public perception, we see Manto as a realist on sex and partition. The facts that he was an admirer and sympathiser of the Russian revolution and had a socialist sensibility are conveniently side-stepped,” said Naeem.
Full report at:
http://tribune.com.pk/story/467328/manto-was-a-political-animal-not-just-a-realist-short-story-writer/
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Studying with the rattling of shackles and gunfire
By Riazul Haq
November 18, 2012
ISLAMABAD: In the middle of an outdoor class at a local school, handcuffed prisoners walk out of a police van. A little earlier, the students saw government officials do the same. This has been going on for years, and along the way brawls and scuffles have become commonplace.
This is Government Degree College for Boys Kallar Syedan, situated in a far-flung part of Rawalpindi.
The college and its grounds cover 57 kanals, but half of its building and premises have been occupied by the local court and the revenue department, forcing classes to be held in the playground due to the shortage of classrooms available.
Full report at:
http://tribune.com.pk/story/467343/turning-a-blind-eye-studying-with-the-rattling-of-shackles-and-gunfire/
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Blast in Waziristan kills two security personnel, injures seven
November 18, 2012
PESHAWAR: A bomb targeting a security forces’ convoy exploded in Mir Ali area of North Waziristan, killing two security personnel and injuring seven others, DawnNews reported on Sunday.
While talking to Dawn sources, the Tehrik-i-Taliban’s Jundullah group claimed responsibility for the blast and claimed that the attack was to avenge the death of their slain comrade Ahmed Bengali who was earlier killed in a drone strike in North Waziristan.
Full report at:
http://dawn.com/2012/11/18/blast-in-waziristan-kills-two-security-personnel-injures-seven/
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Tribal clash claims 4 lives in Bolan district
November 18, 2012
QUETTA: Four people were killed and two others injured in a clash between two groups in Shoran area of the Bolan district on Saturday.
According to the Levies sources, armed men belonging to the Rind and Kahiri tribes took positions in Hafat-Wali area of Sanni Shoran and opened fire on each other with heavy weapons.
Full report at:
http://dawn.com/2012/11/18/tribal-clash-claims-4-lives/
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Roadside bomb kills five soldiers near Miranshah
November 18, 2012
MIRANSHAH: A roadside bomb targeting a military convoy killed five soldiers and wounded seven others Sunday in North Waziristan, officials said.
The device was planted along the route of the convoy in the Mir Ali area 35 kilometres (21 miles) east of Miranshah, the main town in the North Waziristan region, they said.
“The explosion killed at least two soldiers and injured seven others,” a security official in Miranshah said on condition of anonymity.
Full report at:
http://tribune.com.pk/story/467587/roadside-bomb-kills-two-soldiers-near-miranshah/
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Pakistan racing to develop armed drones: experts
November 18, 2012
KARACHI: Pakistan is secretly racing to develop its own armed drones, industry experts say, but is struggling in its initial tests with a lack of precision munitions and advanced targeting technology.
One of Islamabad’s closest allies, China, has offered to help by selling Pakistan armed drones it developed. But industry experts say there is still uncertainty about the capabilities of the Chinese aircraft.
Full report at:
http://dawn.com/2012/11/18/pakistan-racing-to-develop-armed-drones-experts/
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Pakistani plane with 183 people catches fire, lands safely
Nov 18, 2012
ISLAMABAD: A London-bound Pakistani plane made an emergency landing Sunday after it caught fire during take off from Jinnah International Airport in the port city of Karachi. There was no immediate report of anyone being injured.
The Karachi-Lahore-London flight PK 787, reportedly carrying 167 passengers including the airline officials, landed safely at the airport.
Full report at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/Pakistani-plane-with-183-people-catches-fire-lands-safely/articleshow/17266095.cms
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Over 9,000 cases against govt pending in Islamabad based courts
November 18, 2012
ISLAMABAD: Over 9,000 cases of different ministries are pending in various courts based in the federal capital. This was said on Thursday by Farooq H Naek, minister for Law and Justice, in response to a question from Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz lawmaker Anusha Rahman Khan during the question hour session.
Full report at:
http://tribune.com.pk/story/467347/over-9000-cases-against-govt-pending-in-islamabad-based-courts/
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Arrested ‘TTP militant’ warns of Muharram attacks
November 18, 2012
KARACHI: Four suicide bombers are ready to carry out attacks at Muharram processions in Karachi, a suspected militant has told intelligence officials during interrogation.
Akhtar Mehsud, an alleged member of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), was arrested in a raid in Kunwari Colony of Manghopir. A suicide jacket, one walkie-talkie set, a few cameras, computers, hand grenades and weapons were also seized in the operation, police sources told The Express Tribune.
Full report at:
http://tribune.com.pk/story/467428/arrested-ttp-militant-warns-of-muharram-attacks/
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Musharraf calls for India and Pak to ‘bury the hatchet’
Nov 18, 2012
NEW DELHI: Former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf said on Saturday that nuclear-armed India and Pakistan need to "bury the hatchet" and settle their differences to reduce poverty and ease tensions in the region.
He added that the Pakistan army, widely seen as anti-India , was in favour of peace with New Delhi and stressed that the Kashmir issue, "the root cause of dispute" , must be resolved as it provides fuel to extremism in his country.
Full report at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/Musharraf-calls-for-India-and-Pak-to-bury-the-hatchet/articleshow/17262409.cms
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Lashkar front JuD into mobile gaming?
Nov 18, 2012
ISLAMABAD: Having established its presence on Twitter and Facebook, the Lashkar-e-Taiba's charity front Jamaat-ud-Dawah has sought help from computer programmers to develop develop games and mobile phone apps that it intends to launch next year.
The first hint about the JuD's plans came in the form of tweets from JuD_Official, the group's Twitter account.
Full report at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/Lashkar-front-JuD-into-mobile-gaming/articleshow/17262667.cms
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Pak govt files review petition against Supreme Court verdict
Nov 18, 2012
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan government has challenged a recent Supreme Court verdict that suggested the President could not indulge in politics as he is expected to be non-partisan and disengaged from all political activities.
Deputy attorney general Dil Muhammad Ali Zai yesterday filed a petition seeking a review of parts of the apex court's ruling on former air force chief Asghar Khan's petition against the rigging of the 1990 general election.
The government stated in the review petition that the Supreme Court did not have the authority to issue such an order regarding the President.
Full report at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/Pak-govt-files-review-
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URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/obama-israel-right-defend-itself/d/9343