Taliban Vow Revenge Against Sick Minded American Savages
New Age Islam News Bureau
12 March 2012
• Obama vows to probe US soldier's Afghan massacre that killed 16
• Keeper of Islamic Flame
Rises as Egypt’s New Decisive Voice
• Forty-seven women, children
dead in Syria ‘massacre’, UNSC Emergency Meeting sought
• A Woman Saudi scientist
who began her career with a fib
• India wants to normalize ties with Pakistan: President of India
• Pakistani woman hurls acid
at her former suitor
• Al-Qaeda creates
terrorists’ base in Nigeria
• Malaysian minister to quit
over graft scandal
• US fears reprisals after
Afghan shooting rampage
• Hit list on gays in Iraq
raises alarm, 58 killed in 6 weeks
• Pakistan lacks strategy to
tackle radical Islamists: Daily Dawn
• New York police face
censure for Muslim community surveillance
• Nation of Islam leader’s speech at U.S. University creates stir
• Afghan shooting: Killing
of civilians tragic and shocking, says Obama
• Egypt acquits ‘virginity
test’ military doctor
• In Assessing the Damage,
Fears of an Emboldened Taliban
• Annan ends Syria trip with
no deal
• Afghanistan suspect’s U.S.
base ‘most troubled’
• US seeks to contain damage
from Afghan shooting
• Deaths hit 21 on 4th day
of Gaza fighting
• US fears reprisals after
Afghan massacre in Kandahar
'• Many dead' in fresh Homs attacks
• Israel kills two militants
in new air strikes on Gaza
• Car bomb kills girl,
wounds 25 in southern Syria
• Avalanche kills 45 in
Afghan province
• Boxing champion shot dead
in Syria
• ISI behind Indian mission
blast in Af: UK Intel ex-chief
• Pak Govt ‘revising’ list
of banned terror groups
• Sharifs say Younus Habib
is Zardari’s man
• Britain’s Hague sued over
Pakistan drone attacks: Legal firm
• akistan vitally
important: US
• Parliament, not PM,
decides on Presidential immunity: Gilani
• UK’s Hague faces suit over
Pakistan drone strikes Peter Griffiths
• German Chancellor Angela
Merkel on unannounced visit to Afghanistan
• Iran, India pledge to
boost trade ties
• Egypt parliament to
consider ending aid from U.S
• Military Points to Risks
of a Syrian Intervention
• Embassy Row: Yemenis
denounce envoy
• 890-km fence to secure
northern border in Saudi Kingdom
• Saudi students in the US
models of good conduct
• Rents, food prices weigh
on Saudi inflation
• Kingdom’s trade balance
surplus to reach SR915bn
• Abu Dhabi to issue new
hotel licenses selectively
• Kingdom calls for global
efforts to halt Syria war
Complied by New
Age Islam News Bureau
Photo: Taliban vows revenge
against “sick minded American savages”
URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/taliban-vow-revenge-sick-minded/d/6829
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Taliban Vow Revenge
Against Sick Minded American Savages
Mar 12 2012,
Afghanistan's Taliban
insurgents today vowed revenge against "sick minded American savages"
for the weekend rampage by a US soldier who killed 16 villagers in their homes.
The Taliban would
"take revenge from the invaders and the savage murderers for every single
martyr", they said in a statement on their website.
The US soldier walked off
his base and broke into the homes of villagers in Kandahar province's Panjwayi
district before dawn yesterday, killing 16 people, including women and
children.
A soldier has been
detained and the United States has offered condolences to the families and
pledged that action will be taken against anyone found guilty of the massacre.
Kandahar is considered the birthplace of the Taliban.
"A large number from
amongst the victims are innocent children, women and the elderly, martyred by
the American barbarians who mercilessly robbed them of their precious lives and
drenched their hands with their innocent blood," the Taliban said.
"The American
'terrorists' want to come up with an excuse for the perpetrator of this
inhumane crime by claiming that this immoral culprit was mentally ill.
"If the perpetrators
of this massacre were in fact mentally ill then this testifies to yet another
moral transgression by the American military because they are arming lunatics
in Afghanistan who turn their weapons against the defenceless Afghans without
giving a second thought."
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/taliban-vow-revenge-against-sick-minded-american-savages/922753/
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AFP
ALKOZAI,
AFGHANISTAN Mar 12, 2012: President Barack Obama promised a speedy
investigation into the "shocking" killing of 16 Afghans by a rogue US
soldier, which fuelled tensions after the burning of Korans at a US-run base.
Obama
telephoned Afghan President Hamid Karzai to convey his condolences after the
soldier gunned down civilians, including women and children, in their homes in
a pre-dawn rampage in the southern province of Kandahar.
The
US embassy in Kabul sent out an alert to its citizens in Afghanistan warning
that as a result of the shooting, "there is a risk of anti-American
feelings and protests in coming days".
Relations
plunged to an all-time low last month after the burning of Korans at an
American-run military base sparked days of anti-US protests, which left some 40
people dead and prompted an apology from Obama.
Sunday's
massacre poses an acute new test of the US-Afghan alliance, as the two
countries pursue difficult talks on securing a strategic pact to govern their
partnership once foreign combat troops leave Afghanistan in 2014.
Obama
described the massacre as "tragic and shocking", the White House
said, and assured Karzai of Washington's "commitment to establish the
facts as quickly as possible and to hold fully accountable anyone
responsible".
In
an angry statement after the Kandahar shootings, Karzai said that "when
Afghan people are killed deliberately by US forces, this action is murder and
terror and an unforgivable action".
Kandahar
province is a stronghold of Taliban insurgents fighting to oust Karzai's
government, which is supported by some 130,000 US-led NATO troops.
US
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta also called Karzai and assured him that a
"full investigation" was under way. In Brussels, NATO chief Anders
Fogh Rasmussen expressed shock and offered his "heartfelt
condolences".
Australia,
which has about 1,550 soldiers in Afghanistan, also offered condolences but
vowed to stay focused on the mission.
"Of
course, an incident like this is a truly distressing one but it is not going to
distract us from our purpose in Afghanistan. We know what we're there to
do," Prime Minister Julia Gillard said.
In
Sunday's shooting, the US soldier entered the homes of villagers in Kandahar
province's Panjwayi district and killed 16 people including nine children and
three women, according to a statement from Karzai.
It
quoted a wounded 16-year-old, who was shot in the leg, as telling Karzai by
phone that the soldier entered their home in the dark before dawn, woke up his
family members and then shot them.
A
reporter at the scene of the killings counted the bodies of 16 people,
including women and children.
In
one house, he saw 10 people killed and burned in one room. Another woman was
lying dead at the entrance of the house and there were at least two children
just two or three years old among the dead.
In
one house, an elderly woman screamed: "May God kill the only son of Karzai,
so he feels what we feel."
Western
sources said the rampage began after the soldier walked off his base in the
early hours of Sunday morning, apparently heavily armed and carrying
night-vision equipment.
He
was arrested outside the base by members of the Afghan National Army, the army
corps commander in southern Afghanistan, Abdul Hameed, said.
Deteriorating
US-Afghan relations risk complicating the track towards the scheduled end of
US-led foreign combat operations in 2014.
The
proposed strategic pact would likely cover the legal status of any US troops
remaining in Afghanistan to help Kabul with intelligence, air power and
logistics in the fight against Taliban insurgents.
Negotiations
over the pact received a boost last week when Washington signed a deal on
Friday transferring to Kabul control of the controversial Bagram prison -- the
site of last month's Koran burning.
In
Iraq, Washington abandoned its pursuit of a strategic partnership deal and
pulled out all its combat troops, leaving no residual force, after failing to
get Baghdad to grant its soldiers legal immunity.
Afghan
resentment of US forces has also been exacerbated by a video posted online in
January showing US Marines urinating on the bloodied corpses of slain Afghan
insurgents -- an incident condemned by the Pentagon.
And
in November, the ringleader of a rogue American military "kill team"
charged with murder for shooting civilians for sport was found guilty and
sentenced to life in prison by a military panel.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/south-asia/Obama-vows-to-probe-US-soldiers-Afghan-massacre-that-killed-16/articleshow/12228804.cms
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---------
Keeper of Islamic Flame
Rises as Egypt’s New Decisive Voice
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
March 12, 2012
CAIRO — For more than a
dozen years, Khairat el-Shater guided his family of 10 children, his sprawling
business empire and Egypt’s largest Islamist movement, the Muslim Brotherhood,
all from a prison cell.
Each week, he held court
behind prison walls as young Muslim Brothers delivered to him dossiers about
the organization that sometimes were as long as 200 pages. His corporate
employees paid regular visits for strategic advice about his investments in
software, textile, bus manufacturing and furniture companies and other enterprises.
And before consenting to the marriages of his eight daughters, he met in prison
with each of their suitors. Some of the grooms were prisoners with him, others
made the pilgrimage, and five said their vows in his presence, behind bars.
Now Mr. Shater, 62,
commands far wider influence.
One year after the
overthrow of Hosni Mubarak brought Mr. Shater freedom, he has emerged as the
most decisive voice in the leadership of the Brotherhood, the 83-year-old
fountainhead of political Islam, at the moment when it has established itself
as the dominant power in Egyptian politics.
With firm control of
Egypt’s Parliament, the Brotherhood’s political arm is holding talks to form
the next cabinet while Mr. Shater is grooming about 500 future officials to
form a government-in-waiting. As the group’s chief policy architect, Mr. Shater
is overseeing the blueprint for the new Egypt, negotiating with its current
military rulers over their future role, shaping its relations with Israel and a
domestic Christian minority, and devising the economic policies the Brotherhood
hopes will revive Egypt’s moribund economy.
With power he could only
dream of when he padded around Mr. Mubarak’s prisons in a white track suit, Mr.
Shater meets foreign ambassadors, the executives of multinational corporations
and Wall Street firms, and a parade of United States senators and other
officials to explain the Brotherhood’s vision. To the Brotherhood, he tells
them, Islam requires democracy, free markets and tolerance of religious minorities.
But he also says that
recent elections have proved that Egyptians demand an explicitly Islamic state.
And he is guiding its creation from a position that his critics say may
undercut his avowed commitment to open democracy: he sits atop a secretive and
hierarchical organization, shaped by decades of working underground, that still
asks its members — including those in Parliament — to swear obedience to the
directions of its leaders, whether in the group’s religious, charitable or
political work.
“The Islamic reference
point regulates life in its entirety, politically, economically and socially;
we don’t have this separation” between religion and government, Mr. Shater said
in a lengthy interview. “The Muslim Brotherhood is a value-based organization
that expresses itself using different political, economic, sportive,
health-related and social means. You can’t take one part from one place and
another part from another — this isn’t how it’s done.”
A former leftist and a
millionaire businessman who is also the Brotherhood’s chief financier, Mr.
Shater was known for years as the group’s most important internal advocate for
moderation and modernization.
In prison, he talked
radical Islamist inmates into renouncing violence. He helped chart the
Brotherhood’s first steps into electoral politics, initially in Egypt’s
professional associations of doctors, lawyers, engineers and the like. Then he
was at the forefront of its more transformative drive to win seats in the
Mubarak-dominated Parliament; the experience did more than anything to moderate
the group as it forged coalitions and courted the mainstream. And over the past
decade he also oversaw its stepped-up outreach to the West through Web sites in
Arabic and English.
“No need to be afraid of
us” declared the headline of a 2005 article he wrote from behind bars for the
British newspaper The Guardian. “The Brotherhood,” he wrote, “believes
democratic reforms could trigger a renaissance in Egypt.”
Moving Toward a New Model
But in the new context of
Egypt’s fledgling democracy, his critics — including both liberals and
Islamists — charge that he is using the Brotherhood’s all-encompassing
understanding of Islam as a tool for political power. Against dissidents
arguing that in a free society the Brotherhood should allow its members to
decide for themselves how to apply Islam to politics, Mr. Shater has enforced
the group’s traditional view of itself as the guardian of a single,
take-it-or-leave-it vision.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/12/world/middleeast/muslim-brotherhood-leader-rises-as-egypts-decisive-voice.html?ref=global-home
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Forty-seven women, children
dead in Syria ‘massacre’, UNSC Emergency Meeting sought
12/03/2012
DAMASCUS: Syria’s
opposition on Monday accused security forces of massacring 47 women and
children in the restive city of Homs and urged the UN Security Council to hold
an emergency meeting to discuss the killings.
Hadi Abdallah, a Syrian
activist in the besieged central city, told AFP the bodies of 26 children and
21 women, some with their throats slit and others bearing stab wounds, were
found in the Karm el-Zaytoun and al-Adawiyeh neighbourhoods.
“Some of the children had
been hit with blunt objects on their head, one little girl was mutilated and
some women were raped before being killed,” he said.
The main opposition group,
the Syrian National Council (SNC), called for an emergency UN Security Council
meeting to discuss the “massacre”, which it said took place on Sunday.
“The Syrian National
Council is making the necessary contacts with all organisations and countries
that are friends with the Syrian people for the UN Security Council to hold an
emergency meeting,” the SNC said in a statement.
And in a clear reference
to Russia and China, the SNC said that allies of Syria’s President Bashar
al-Assad shared responsibility for the “crimes” committed by his regime.
State television blamed
“armed terrorist gangs” for the killings, saying they had kidnapped residents
of Homs, killed them and then made video footage of the bodies in an attempt to
discredit Syrian forces.
News of the killings came
after UN-Arab League peace envoy Kofi Annan left Damascus on Sunday without
managing to secure an accord to end bloodletting monitors say has claimed more
than 8,500 lives since March last year.
Annan departed at the end
of a two-day mission during which he said he presented Assad with “concrete
proposals” to halt the unrest that has rocked Syria since pro-democracy
protesters rose up against his regime on March 15, 2011.
On the ground, more than
150 people — 61 of them civilians caught in the crossfire — were killed weekend
clashes between armed rebels and regular soldiers in various flashpoint areas,
according to figures of rights monitors.
Most of the deaths
occurred in a ferocious assault by regime forces against rebel bastions in the
north-western Idlib province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said,
adding that fighting also occurred Sunday in the central city of Hama, the
nearby province of Homs, and in the Damascus countryside.
Annan on his first mission
to Syria to attempt to secure a halt to the violence, had emerged positive from
talks on Sunday with Assad, a follow-up to their first meeting the previous
day.
“It’s going to be tough,
it’s going to be difficult, but we have to have hope. I am optimistic,” Annan
told reporters, while stressing the urgency of finding a solution.
“The situation is so bad
and so dangerous that all of us cannot afford to fail,” the former UN chief
warned, in response to a suggestion that dialogue with the government was
futile.
Assad had insisted during
their first meeting on Saturday there would be no dialogue until the “terrorist
groups” he claims are fomenting the violence are disbanded.
Opposition figures in
their meeting with Annan however were adamant that the regime troops pressing
the crackdown on dissent must first return to barracks before talks can begin.
Diplomats at the United
Nations in New York had expressed pessimism about the prospects for Annan’s
mission after troops poured into Idlib city, which lies in the province by the
same name, late on Saturday just hours after his first meeting with Assad.
Annan told the media
conference that he had on Sunday discussed with Assad ways to halt the unrest
rocking Syria.
“I presented a set of
concrete proposals which would have a real impact on the situation on the
ground and which will help launch a process aimed at putting an end to this
crisis,” the former UN chief said.
“The realistic response is
to embrace change and reforms,” he added.
After seizing Idlib city
on Saturday, troops fanned out into rural areas of the province on Sunday,
notably the Jisr al-Shughur district, said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the
Britain-based Observatory.
“The army is also
preparing to launch an offensive against the rebel district of Jabal
al-Zawiya,” a range of hills close to the Turkish border, where fighters of the
Free Syrian Army have been particularly active, he added.
The military crackdown in
Idlib came after the Homs neighbourhood of Baba Amr was stormed on March 1 after
a month-long blitz in which hundreds of people died.
http://www.dawn.com/2012/03/12/forty-seven-bodies-found-after-massacre-in-homs-syria-activists.html
--------
A Woman Saudi scientist
who began her career with a fib
Mar 11, 2012
Scientist Hayat Sindi is
one of two Saudis who have been named alongside prominent figures such as US
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on a list of the 150 most fearless women in
the world by a leading US magazine to mark International Women’s Day.
Manal Al-Sharif, who hit
the headlines when she openly flouted a Kingdom ban on driving, is the other.
The Daily Beast, which
published the list, commended Sindi’s biotechnology research that has the
potential to save millions of lives in the developing world, as well as running
a foundation to support scientists in the Middle East.
Sindi is co-founder of
Harvard’s Diagnostics for All, the organization developing a disease-diagnosing
paper that changes color when dabbed with bodily fluids from a patient. The
idea is to make it simple even for someone who is not a doctor to quickly and
cheaply diagnose disease in places where doctors or clinics might be
nonexistent.
“Hayat Sindi’s career as a
scientist began with a fib. Keen to continue her studies abroad after high
school in Saudi Arabia, she told her father she had been accepted at a
university in London. Her traditional Muslim father said it would tarnish the
family name living overseas alone. Still she persuaded him, and off she went,”
the publisher of the list said.
“The truth was she hadn’t
been accepted at any university. But upon arriving in London she got herself in
to King’s College, and later to Cambridge,” it added.
The list also includes
Nobel laureate Tawakkol Karman of Yemen, Nobel nominee Hawa Abdi of Somalia,
Iman Al-Obeidi of Libya, Tal Al-Mallohi of Syria, Demad Dewerdash of Egypt and
Noorjahan Akbar of Afghanistan.
“They have been featured
in the list because of their trailblazing service to the women in the world and
fostering a brave new generation. From Detroit to Kabul, these women are making
their voices heard,” the magazine said.
Sindi has also been listed
among 100 most powerful women in the Arab World in 2012 by the CEO magazine.
Sheikh Lubna Al-Qasimi awarded her the prize in a function in Dubai recently.
Sindi currently is a
fellow at PopTech, a US-based nonprofit that provides fellowships to scientists
in an effort to foster global innovation.
She has also founded the
Institute for Imagination and Ingenuity, which aims to help scientists write
business plans and find investors for their ideas.
Sindi believed a major
obstacle for Middle East scientists was that they were not savvy about putting
together a business plan. As a result, venture capitalists in the region were
wary of investing in science.
“I'm very proud of where I
come from. Sometimes people think they need to completely discard their
culture. But you have to hold on to your identity,” said Makkah-born Sindi, who
is working mostly in the United States.
Sindi was honored for her
pioneering work at a function in Riyadh Schools last week.
http://arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article586306.ece
---------
India wants to normalize
ties with Pakistan: President of India
March 12, 2012
NEW DELHI - Expressing
commitment to resolving all outstanding issues with Pakistan through dialogue,
India Monday said it looks forward to building upon progress made so far while
being mindful of the need for Islamabad to take credible action against terror
groups and infrastructure.
Addressing the joint
sitting of Parliament on the opening day of the Budget Session, President
Pratibha Patil said the government has been pursuing a policy of promoting
peace and cooperation in India's immediate neighbourhood and beyond to enable
the country to achieve its goals of socio-economic development and national
security.
"We wish to see all
nations in South Asia prosper, enjoy stability and realise their true potential
through the broadening of regional economic cooperation, trade and
infrastructure development," she said.
For Full Report At:
http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2012/03/12/news/national/indian-wants-to-normalize-ties-with-pakistan-patil/
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Pakistani woman hurls acid
at her former suitor
March 12, 2012
Hell hath no fury like a
woman scorned -- a young woman in Pakistan's Punjab province threw acid at a
former suitor after he began ignoring her, a media report said Monday. The
20-year-old woman has been arrested, police said. The incident took place
Sunday at a village near Faisalabad
Mohsin, 21, told police
that he was standing near a bus stop when Nabeela, 20, threw acid at him and
escaped, reported Dawn.
He said he had begun
ignoring Nabeela.
Zahid Gondal, a police
official, said that the woman has been taken into custody.
Pakistan is facing the
scourge of acid attacks, in which women have been left badly scarred.
Pakistani documentary
maker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, who went on to win an Oscar for her film
"Saving Face", Saturday asked Pakistanis "to do their bit for
fighting injustice".
Her film focuses on the
work of Pakistani British plastic surgeon Muhammad Jawad, who travelled to
Pakistan to perform reconstructive surgery on women who have been victims of
acid attacks, mostly by their husbands.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/Pakistan/Pakistani-woman-hurls-acid-at-man/Article1-824062.aspx
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Al-Qaeda creates
terrorists’ base in Nigeria
Monday, 12 March 2012
THE terrorism challenges
facing Nigeria may have been complicated by credible reports indicating that
Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb has established an operational base in the
North-Western part of the country to source for funding through high-profile
hostage business.
This is coming at a
time the United States Department is said to be considering adding
the Boko Haram sect to the official list of terrorist organisations in the
world.
Reliable intelligence
sources disclosed that the old Sokoto axis is now home to a very violent arm of
Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb, which, during the last week, claimed responsibility
for the bombing of the headquarters of the Algerian-led joint military command
fighting the group in the Sahel region.
Contrary to reports that
it was Boko Haram that kidnapped the hostages, Nigerian Tribune learnt that
Maghreb group had shifted attention to Nigeria to expand its hostage taking
operations, which was said to account for large part of Al-Qaeda operational
fund worldwide.
According to the source,
more foreigners may be targeted in the North with possibility of extension into
some southern zones, because of the belief that Nigeria is a centre for big
foreign construction and oil operations.
For Full Report At:
http://tribune.com.ng/index.php/front-page-news/37425-al-qaeda-creates-terrorists-base-in-nigeria
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Malaysian minister to quit
over graft scandal
03/11/2012
Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul
Jalil said Sunday she will step down as Women, Family and Community Development
Minister when her term as senator ends on April 8.
However she will remain as
Wanita Umno chief.
In a response later
Sunday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak expressed his gratitude to
Shahrizat for her decision and urged Wanita Umno members to continue giving
their full cooperation to their leader.
He said in Pekan that
although there was no proof that Shahrizat did anything wrong, she had made the
right decision so as to not burden the Government.
Shahrizat told reporters:
“I want to stress that I made the decision on my own. I love this nation and
have the greatest respect for the government and the prime minister.
"I have nothing to do
with NFC (National Feedlot Corporation). I just happened to be married to the
chairman.
“I've been in politics a
long time, and it is the right thing to do,” she told reporters at Desa Water
Park.
For Full Report At:
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2012/03/11/malaysian-minister-quit-over-graft-scandal.html
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US fears reprisals after
Afghan shooting rampage
March 12, 2012
KANDAHAR: US officials
warned on Monday of possible reprisal attacks after 16 Afghan villagers, mostly
children and women, were killed in a likely “rogue” shooting by a US soldier
that weakens the West’s tenuous grip on a decade-old war.
Washington has rushed to
distance the shootings, blamed on a lone US soldier, from the efforts of the
90,000-strong US force in Afghanistan, but the rampage in southern Kandahar
province is certain to inflame anti-Western anger once again.
It comes less than three
weeks after US troops inadvertently burned copies of the Quran, the Muslim holy
book, at the main Nato base in Afghanistan, sparking widespread protests in
which 30 people were killed.
“The US Embassy in Kabul
alerts US citizens in Afghanistan that as a result of a tragic shooting
incident in Kandahar province involving a US service member, there is a risk of
anti-American feelings and protests in coming days, especially in the eastern
and southern provinces,” the embassy said in an emergency statement on its
website.
Kandahar is the birthplace
of the Taliban, toppled by US-backed forces in late 2001. Southern and eastern
provinces have seen some of the fiercest fighting of the war, increasingly
unpopular among Americans and their European allies.
Early on Monday, the
embassy said on its Twitter feed restrictions had been placed on the movements
of all embassy personnel in the south.
For Full Report At:
http://tribune.com.pk/story/348910/us-fears-reprisals-after-afghan-shooting-rampage/
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Hit list on gays in Iraq
raises alarm, 58 killed in 6 weeks
Mar 12 2012
Young people who identify
themselves as so-called Emos are being brutally killed at an alarming rate in
Iraq, where militias have distributed hit lists of victims and security forces
say they are unable to stop crimes against the subculture that is widely
perceived in Iraq as being gay.
Officials and human rights
groups estimated as many as 58 Iraqis who are either gay or believed to be gay
have been killed in the last six weeks alone, forecasting what experts fear is
a return to the rampant hate crimes against homosexuals in 2009. This year,
eyewitnesses and human rights groups say some of the victims have been bludgeoned
to death by militiamen smashing in their skulls with heavy cement blocks.
For Full Report At:
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/hit-list-on-gays-in-iraq-raises-alarm-58-killed-in-6-weeks/922540/
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Pakistan lacks strategy to
tackle radical Islamists: Daily Dawn
Mar 12, 2012 |
Pakistan has no coherent
strategy to deal with sectarian and radical Islamist groups that practice and
preach violent jihad, said a leading daily that warned about 'the shrewdness of
these outfits'.
An editorial in the Dawn Monday
said three more religious groups with links to militancy had been banned by the
government, taking the total number of proscribed groups in the country to 38.
"But this is no
belated move that is worthy of applause, for the experience with the first 35,
banned through various notifications since 2001, suggests that simply outlawing
groups either pushes them further underground or, as is increasingly the case,
the groups resurface with a new name soon enough," it said.
For Full Report At:
http://www.asianage.com/international/pakistan-lacks-strategy-tackle-radical-islamists-daily-229
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New York police face
censure for Muslim community surveillance
March 11, 2012
While the death of Osama
bin Laden might have brought closure to some of those associated with the
life-changing events of 9/11, a legacy of suspicion against the Muslim
community has lingered and has possibly coloured even law enforcement agencies
such as the New York Police Department with deep-seated prejudices.
At least this is what
appeared to be the case in the unfolding saga of an AP news agency scoop, which
over the last few months has revealed details in a series of secret reports by
the NYPD showing that the police had collected information on businesses owned
by second- and third-generation Americans specifically because they were
Muslims. “They show in the clearest terms yet that police were monitoring
people based on religion, despite claims from Mayor Michael Bloomberg to the
contrary,” AP argued, citing statements in the top-secret documents indicating
that police “put the names of innocent people in secret files and monitored the
mosques, student groups and businesses that make up the Muslim landscape of the
Northeastern U.S.
For Full Report At:
http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/article2982396.ece
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Nation of Islam leader’s
speech at U.S. university creates stir
By AL ARABIYA WITH
AGENCIES,
12 March 2012
Nation of Islam Minister
Louis Farrakhan’s speech to hundreds at the University of California Berkeley
on Saturday has created controversy for his statements about Jews dominating
the slave trade.
Farrakhan opened the
African Black Coalition Conference at UC Berkeley on Saturday, to bring
together black students and educators around the issues from colleges across
the country.
The 78-year-old minister
advised students to depend on themselves in finding jobs and learn more about
black history. He also discussed a controversial book that alleges Jews
dominated the slave trade according to US - KTVU news agency.
He told students that in
order to succeed you need to have good relations with Jews because they
controls government and media sectors. When Noah Ickowitz, a UC Berkeley
African Student UC Senator said “to me, that was just so hateful and horrible”,
Farrakhan responded saying “this is not hate, this is actual facts.”
Outside the campus hall,
some students passed out petitions expressing their discontent with Minister
Farrakhan’s speech and presence on campus. “I believe the (Black Student Union)
had every right to bring Farrakhan, but we are hurt by his words,” Ickowitz
said to students outside the auditorium.
For Full Report At:
http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/03/12/200200.html
---------
Afghan shooting: Killing
of civilians tragic and shocking, says Obama
Mar 12 2012,
Deeply saddened by the
killing of 16 Afghan civilians, mostly women and children by a US soldier in
Kandahar, President Barack Obama today described the incident as "tragic
and shocking", which does not represent American values.
"This incident is
tragic and shocking, and does not represent the exceptional character of our
military and the respect that the United States has for the people of
Afghanistan," Obama said in a statement.
White House officials said
Obama was briefed on the tragic incident in Kandahar that killed 16 Afghan
civilians, which included nine children and three women.
"I am deeply saddened
by the reported killing and wounding of Afghan civilians. I offer my
condolences to the families and loved ones of those who lost their lives, and
to the people of Afghanistan, who have endured too much violence and
suffering," Obama said.
For Full Report At:
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/afghan-shooting-killing-of-civilians-tragic-and-shocking-says-obama/922730/
---------
Egypt acquits ‘virginity
test’ military doctor
March 11, 2012
By Hamza Hendawi
The court denied the
humiliating tests even took place, despite a ruling by another court and
admissions by generals quoted by a leading rights group.
The ruling further infuriated
the country’s revolutionary youth movements, who have said claims of the
virginity tests were the first sign that the generals who took over from
deposed President Hosni Mubarak 13 months ago were carrying on his repressive
practices.
Less than four months
before the military is scheduled to hand over power to a civilian
administration, Sunday’s verdict was likely to lend credibility to widespread
suspicions that the generals were trying to remove any legal basis for
prosecution for crimes committed during their rule after they step down.
Activists are calling for the generals to face charges for human rights abuses.
Samira Ibrahim, one of
seven women who said they were forced to undergo examinations to determine if
they were virgins while detained by the military a year ago, won a civilian
court ruling last year that affirmed the tests were taking place at military
jails and ordered they be halted.
For Full Report At:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/mar/11/egypt-acquits-virginity-test-military-doctor/
---------
In Assessing the Damage,
Fears of an Emboldened Taliban
By DAVID E. SANGER
March 11, 2012
WASHINGTON — The outrage
from the back-to-back episodes of the Koran burning and the killing on Sunday
of at least 16 Afghan civilians imperils what the Obama administration once saw
as an orderly plan for 2012: to speed the training of Afghan forces so that
they can take the lead in combat missions, all while drawing the Taliban into
negotiations to end more than a decade of constant war.
Pete Souza/The White
House, via Reuters
President Obama spoke with
Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, while in Chevy Chase, Md., on Sunday.
For Full Report At:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/12/world/asia/obamas-plans-in-afghanistan-complicated-by-recent-events.html?_r=1&ref=global-home
---------
Annan ends Syria trip with
no deal
11 MARCH 2012 22:01
Annan said he presented
President Bashar Assad with concrete proposals “which will have a real impact
on the ground.” “Once it’s agreed, it will help launch the process and help end
the crisis on the ground,” he told reporters at the end of his two-day visit to
Syria.
Annan, who also met with
Syrian opposition leaders and businessmen in Damascus, said he was optimistic
following two sets of talks with Assad, but acknowledged that resolving the
crisis would be tough. “It’s going to be difficult but we have to have hope,”
he said. The former UN chief called for reforms that would create “a solid
foundation for a democratic Syria,” but added: “You have to start by stopping
the killing and the misery and the abuse that is going on today and then give
time for a political settlement.”
The ongoing bloodshed cast
a pall over the UN efforts to end the country’s yearlong conflict, with both
the regime and the opposition refusing talks with the other. In his discussions
with Assad on Saturday, Annan made several proposals to end the political
crisis and start a political dialogue. He was rebuffed by the president who
rejected any immediate negotiations with the opposition, striking a further
blow to already faltering international efforts for talks to end the conflict.
For Full Report At:
http://www.dailypioneer.com/world/48958-annan-ends-syria-trip-with-no-deal-.html
---------
Afghanistan suspect’s U.S.
base ‘most troubled’
March 12, 2012
OINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD
(WASHINGTON),
A U.S. soldier suspected
of killing 16 Afghan villagers comes from one of the largest military
installations in the United States and one that has seen its share of
controversy and violence.
Joint Base Lewis-McChord
in Washington state, home to about 100,000 military and civilian personnel, was
the home of four soldiers convicted in the deliberate thrill killings of three
Afghan civilians in 2010.
The military newspaper
Stars and Stripes called Lewis-McChord “the most troubled base in the military”
that year.
Catherine Caruso, a
spokeswoman for Lewis-McChord, said she could not comment on reports that the
soldier involved in Sunday’s shootings was based there. A U.S. official
speaking on the condition of anonymity told The Associated Press that the
shooter was a conventional soldier assigned to support a special operations
unit of either Green Berets or Navy SEALs engaged in a village stability
operation in Afghanistan.
It wasn’t immediately
clear if the soldier was with Lewis-McChord’s 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry
Division, which sent about 2,500 soldiers to Afghanistan in December for a
yearlong deployment. The brigade had deployed to Iraq three times since 2003;
this is its first deployment to Afghanistan.
For Full Report At:
http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/article2986766.ece
--------
US seeks to contain damage
from Afghan shooting
Mon, 03/12/2012
U.S. officials were
scrambling to contain the damage caused when an American soldier in Afghanistan
wandered off base and allegedly gunned down more than a dozen villagers.
President Barack Obama and
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta both called Afghan President Hamid Karzai on
Sunday to express their condolences and vowed to hold those responsible
accountable. Afghan officials reported that 16 people were killed including
nine children and three women.
"This incident is
tragic and shocking, and does not represent the exceptional character of our
military and the respect that the United States has for the people of
Afghanistan," Obama said in a statement released by the White House.
Caitlin Hayden, a
spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council, said Obama called
Karzai shortly after meeting Sunday afternoon with his top national security
advisers.
Panetta said a full
investigation was already under way.
"A suspect is in
custody, and I gave President Karzai my assurances that we will bring those
responsible to justice," he said.
For Full Report At:
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2012/03/12/us-seeks-contain-damage-afghan-shooting.html
--------
Deaths hit 21 on 4th day
of Gaza fighting
By IBRAHIM BARZAK Mar 12,
2012
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip:
Israeli airstrikes killed two Palestinian militants and a schoolboy in the Gaza
Strip on Monday as Palestinian rocket squads barraged southern Israel, in
escalating fighting that has defied international truce efforts.
The cross-border violence,
touched off by Israel’s killing of a top militant leader on Friday, has been
the worst exchange of fire between Israel and the Hamas-ruled territory in
months. The fighting has killed 21 Gazans, including 18 militants, seriously
wounded two Israelis, and disrupted the lives of 1 million Israelis living in
Gaza rocket range.
The Israeli military said
it carried out nine air attacks against rocket-launching sites and a weapons
storage facility early Monday. Islamic Jihad said two of its militants were
killed in two separate raids, one while he was riding a motorcycle. A
16-year-old boy wearing a school uniform was killed when a group of five
civilians was struck in another attack, Gaza health official Adham Abu Salmia
said.
For Full Report At:
http://arabnews.com/middleeast/article586486.ece
---------
US fears reprisals after
Afghan massacre in Kandahar
12 March 2012
US troops in Afghanistan
have been placed on alert following the killings of 16 Afghan civilians by a US
soldier.
US officials warned of
reprisals after the soldier went on a rampage in villages near a base in
Kandahar. Nine children were among those killed.
President Barack Obama
phoned his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai to express condolences. But Mr
Karzai has said the massacre is "unforgivable".
And Taliban militants have
vowed to avenge the deaths.
US Defence Secretary Leon
Panetta has said a full investigation is under way.
The soldier, believed to
be a staff sergeant, is reported to have walked off his base at around 03:00
Sunday (22:30 GMT Saturday).
In the villages of Alkozai
and Najeeban, about 500m (1,640ft) from the base, he reportedly broke into
three homes.
At one house in Najeeban,
11 people were found shot dead, and some of their bodies set alight. At least
three of the child victims are reported to have been killed by a single shot to
the head.
For Full Report At:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17336074
---------
'Many dead' in fresh Homs
attacks
12 March 2012
Activists believe as many
as 47 people have been killed in an attack by pro-government militia in the
embattled Syrian city of Homs.
Women and children are
said to among those who were reportedly tortured and killed on Sunday night in
the neighbourhood of Karm el-Zaytoun.
The Syrian government
acknowledged the deaths, but blamed "armed terrorists".
The attack happened hours
after UN-Arab League peace envoy Kofi Annan ended his two-day mission to
Damascus.
Homs has been under
assault for weeks as government forces have tried to root out rebel fighters.
Parts of the city are devastated.
The main opposition group,
the Syrian National Council (SNC), has called for an emergency UN Security Council
meeting to discuss the killings, the AFP news agency reports.
'Burned alive'
Hundreds of families fled
the Karm el-Zaytoun area of the city on Monday after reports of the attack in
their neighbourhood overnight, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human
Rights said.
For Full Report At:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-17336560?print=true
---------
Israel kills two militants
in new air strikes on Gaza
12 March 2012
Israeli air strikes have
killed two Palestinian militants in Gaza as violence entered a fourth day.
Palestinian medical
sources say a schoolboy was also killed in an explosion, but the circumstances
of his death are not clear.
Twenty-one Palestinians
have been killed since fighting began on Friday, with 65 others injured.
Israel says at least 140
rockets fired from Gaza have struck Israel, seriously wounding two Israelis.
The US condemned the
rocket attacks as "cowardly"; the Arab League called the Israeli air
strikes "a massacre".
The UN and the European
Union have appealed for calm.
The two militants died in
separate dawn raids close to Khan Yunis, in the south of the Gaza Strip.
For Full Report At:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-17336559?print=true
---------
Car bomb kills girl,
wounds 25 in southern Syria
Mar 12, 2012
AMMAN: A car bomb killed a
schoolgirl on Monday and wounded 25 others at a school in the southern Syrian
city of Daraa, the scene of sporadic street fighting between Free Syrian Army
rebels and President Bashar Assad’s troops, an opposition activist said.
“The car exploded at nine
in the morning in Al-Kashef neighborhood in front of Al-Mahatta High School for
Girls, which has been active in (anti-Assad) demonstrations,” Maher Abdelhaq
told Reuters from the city on the border with Jordan.
http://arabnews.com/middleeast/article586533.ece
---------
Avalanche kills 45 in
Afghan province
12 March 2012
KABUL - At least 45 people
were killed Monday when an avalanche razed 13 houses in eastern Afghan province
of Nuristan, an official said.
”The incident happened in
Guru and Koshan villages of Madol district in the early hours of Monday and so
far 45 people including women and children have been confirmed dead,” deputy to
provincial governor Qazi Mohammad Nabi Ahmadi told Xinhua.
He also said that the casualties
could go up as rescue operation is going on in the remote area of the province
some 180 km east of capital city of Kabul.
More than 50 people had
been killed when snow avalanche hit neighbouring Badakhshan For Full Report At:
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/displayarticle.asp?xfile=data/international/2012/March/international_March443.xml§ion=international&col=
--------
Boxing champion shot dead
in Syria
March 11, 2012
SANAA: A Syrian boxing
champion, Ghiath Tayfour, was shot dead on Sunday in the northern city of
Aleppo, which has been largely spared the unrest sweeping the country, the
state news agency SANA reported.
An armed “terrorist group
… targeted boxer Tayfour while he was passing near the courtyard of Aleppo
University in his car,” it said.
“They opened fire on him
and he was immediately martyred as five bullets entered his head.”
Tayfour was national
boxing champion from 1984 to 1998, SANA said.
Authorities have blamed
the year-long protests and bloodshed in the country, which monitors say has
cost more than 8,500 lives in a regime crackdown, on armed, foreign-backed
terrorists.
http://tribune.com.pk/story/348551/boxing-champion-shot-dead-in-syria/
----------
ISI behind Indian mission
blast in Af: UK intel ex-chief
Ashis Ray, TNN
LONDON: Mar 12, 2012, The
former head of Britain's Special Intelligence Service, Nigel Inkster, on Sunday
categorically said Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) was behind the
2008 suicide bomb attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul , which killed 60 people.
Inkster, speaking at a
seminar that London School of Economics (LSE) , said the "evidence of
ISI's involvement in the bombing was clear cut" . Inkster is a decorated
espionage specialist. The seminar was on the BBC documentary, 'Secret Pakistan'
, and its findings.
While India has always
suspected ISI's involvement in the bombing, Islamabad has denied any such hand.
In 'Secret Pakistan' , US intelligence officer Mike Waltz had accused
"Pakistanis" of being behind the attack. Waltz, now with the US vice-president's
office, had said, "Pakistanis were behind the Haqqani Network (which
carried out the mission)."
Waltz stressed that he had
seen American intelligence intercepts of exchanges between the ISI and the
Haqqani Network on the subject.
Inkster said the unit
within ISI which routinely colluded with organisations like the Haqqani Network
and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) was a "pretty big cell" .
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/uk/ISI-behind-Indian-mission-blast-in-Af-UK-intel-ex-chief/articleshow/12227325.cms
--------
Pak Govt ‘revising’ list
of banned terror groups
11/03/2012
ISLAMABAD - Government on
Monday invited Islamist militant groups including the Taliban for peace talks
and said banned organisations would be delisted if they "closed down their
militant wings".
So far government has
banned more than 30 militant outfits, including Al-Qaeda, Tehreek-e-Taliban
Pakistan and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the group blamed by New Delhi and
Washington for the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
"If the proscribed
organisations assure us that they have closed down their militant wings and
abandoned extremism, then we would like to meet them in next few days,"
Interior Minister Rehman Malik told reporters.
For Full Report At:
http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2012/03/12/news/national/pakistan-revising-list-of-banned-terror-groups/
--------
Sharifs say Younus Habib
is Zardari’s man
12/03/2012
ISLAMABAD - Denying
allegations leveled in Mehran Bank scandal, the Sharifs have claimed the bank
chief Younus Habib is President Asif Ali Zardari’s man.
Pakistan Muslim League-N
chief, Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, and his brother Chief Minister Shahbaz
Sharif seemed to be in the soup over former banker’s revelations he made a
couple of days ago in Supreme Court of Pakistan.
The SC on Friday heard a
15-year old case in which Habib disclosed that he doled out $1.5 million bank
funds to politicians and ISI officers on the orders of then army chief General
Aslam Beg and President Ghulam Ishaq Khan, who was considered close to the
army, preventing PPP success in 1990 elections.
On Monday, PML-N said in a
statement that “Younus Habib in Zardari’s man and leveling allegations on his
(Zardari’s) behest.
“There is no truth in such
baseless charges. Those who have a track record of lies and frauds are
attempting to hoodwink the nation,” the PML-N statement said.
http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2012/03/12/news/national/sharifs-say-younus-habib-is-zardari%E2%80%99s-man/
--------
Britain’s Hague sued over
Pakistan drone attacks: Legal firm
12/03/2012
LONDON - A British law
firm said on Sunday it was to sue Foreign Secretary William Hague on behalf of
a Pakistani man over claims that British intelligence was used to assist US
drone attacks.
London-based Leigh Day and
Co confirmed they would issue formal proceedings at Britain's High Court on
behalf of Noor Khan, whose father was killed by a US strike in Pakistan.
Lawyers will claim that
civilian intelligence officers who pass on intelligence to the US are not
"lawful combatants", therefore cannot claim immunity from criminal
law and could be liable as "secondary parties to murder".
They will also argue that
the immunity clause does not apply as Pakistan is not currently involved in an
"international armed conflict".
"There is credible,
unchallenged evidence that (Hague) is operating a policy of passing
intelligence to officials or agents of the US government and that he considers
such a policy to be in 'strict accordance' with the law," Richard Stein,
head of human rights at Leigh Day, said in a statement.
For Full Report At:
http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2012/03/12/news/national/britains-hague-sued-over-pakistan-drone-attacks-legal-firm/
--------
Pakistan vitally
important: US
Monday, March 12, 2012
WASHINGTON: The Pentagon
expressed the confidence that United States and Pakistan would be able to find
more common ground to forge close cooperative ties, as a top general
acknowledged the importance of America’s relationship with the key South Asian
country.
US Central Command head
Gen James Mattis, who recently called on Islamabad’s Ambassador to the United
States Sherry Rehman, said the US relationship with Pakistan had been vital to
American security efforts in Afghanistan, despite some differences between the
two countries. “It is a crucial relationship but it’s been a challenging one,
and it’s been prone to recriminations on both sides. But the bottom line was
that this was a critical relationship,” Mattis told US lawmakers during a
testimony this week.
This week US State
Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland also underlined the importance of US
ties with Pakistan, saying that Washington wanted to see the bilateral
relationship improve. The US administration was seeking congressional approval
for over $2 billion in economic and security assistance for Pakistan in the
overall budget for the new fiscal year beginning October 1.
For Full Report At:
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2012\03\12\story_12-3-2012_pg7_1
---------
Parliament, not PM,
decides on Presidential immunity: Gilani
11 MARCH 2012
Gilani, who has been given
a March 21 ultimatum by the Supreme Court to write to Swiss authorities to
revive the graft cases against President Asif Ali Zardari, said he did not
deserve to be charged with a contempt case and the matter should have been left
to parliament to decide. “Had we wanted to write the letter (to Swiss
authorities about reopening the cases against the President), we would have
done it a long time ago. I will follow the Constitution of Pakistan as it gives
immunity to the office of the President,” Gilani said.
“All over the world there
is immunity for the President, Prime Minister and Foreign Minister as long as
they are in office. I have no prerogative to decide the immunity of the
President. It rests with the Parliament,” he said while talking to a group of
journalists here.
http://www.dailypioneer.com/world/49042-parliament-not-pm-decides-on-presidential-immunity-gilani.html
---------
UK’s Hague faces suit over
Pakistan drone strikes Peter Griffiths
11 March 2012
LONDON - Lawyers for the family of a man
killed in a U.S. drone attack in Pakistan said they would begin legal action
against Britain’s Foreign Secretary William Hague on Monday, accusing him of
complicity in strikes they say broke international laws.
London law firm Leigh Day
& Co said it had “credible, unchallenged” evidence that Hague oversaw a
policy of passing British intelligence to U.S. forces planning attacks against
militants in Pakistan. It plans to issue formal proceedings against Hague at
the High Court in London on behalf of Noor Khan, whose father was died in a
drone attack last year.
Malik Daud Khan was part
of a local “jirga”, or council of elders holding a meeting in the tribal areas
of northwest Pakistan when a missile fired from the drone hit the group, the
law firm said.
For Full Report At:
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/displayarticle.asp?xfile=data/international/2012/March/international_March435.xml§ion=international&col=
---------
German Chancellor Angela
Merkel on unannounced visit to Afghanistan
Mar 12, 2012
German Chancellor Angela
Merkel arrived on Monday in Afghanistan on a previously unannounced visit to
troops stationed at Mazar-i-Sharif, a spokesman said.
Merkel had wanted to visit
Kunduz but had to give up on the idea due to heavy snowfall, the spokesman
added.
The chancellor last
visited Afghanistan in December 2010, to meet German soldiers just before
Christmas. On that occasion she described the fighting there for the first time
as ‘war’.
Germany, the third
supplier of troops in the NATO-led international force ISAF after the United
States and the United Kingdom, had 4,900 soldiers in Afghanistan as of February
1.
A complete German troop
withdrawal is planned by 2014.
http://www.asianage.com/international/german-chancellor-angela-merkel-unannounced-visit-afghanistan-234
---------
Iran, India pledge to
boost trade ties
Mar 12, 2012
Iranian and Indian
business leaders have pledged to boost trade ties. Currently, the bilateral
trade is worth $15 billion and expected to hit $25 billion by 2016.
Mohammad Mehdi Rasekh, the
secretary general of Tehran's Chamber of Commerce, said Sunday the existing
potentials are way beyond the current bilateral trade volume.
An 80-member Indian
business delegation is currently in Iran for discussions.
Bilateral economic and
political cooperation will not only benefit Iran and India but also help
promote peace and security in the region and the world, said Rashid Alvi, head
of the delegation that arrived here on Friday.
Iran, as a long-standing
friend to India, has made considerable progress in all sectors and is a
promising country, which India hopes to boost ties with, said Alvi, also a
spokesperson of India's Congress party.
For Full Report At:
http://www.asianage.com/international/iran-india-pledge-boost-trade-ties-183
---------
Egypt parliament to
consider ending aid from U.S.
11 March 2012
Egypt's parliament has
called for a vote on stopping U.S. aid.
Sunday's move by the
People's Assembly was sparked by the March 1 departure of six U.S. defendants
in a case of 43 employees of nonprofit groups accused of using illegal foreign
funds to foment unrest in Egypt, AP reported.
The U.S. threatened to cut
off aid to Egypt over the issue. Now the parliament is moving to take the
initiative, by voting to reject further American aid.
The exit of the Americans
kicked off a storm in Egypt, prompting many to accuse the ruling generals of
bowing to U.S. pressure and intervening in the work of the judiciary.
In Sunday's session,
lawmakers complained the U.S. is disregarding Egypt's sovereignty. They also
called a vote on a no-confidence motion in the government.
On Friday, security forces
clashed with Egyptians protesting about U.S. interference in Egypt's internal
affairs near the U.S. Embassy in Cairo.
Hundreds of protesters,
shouting slogans against the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF)
and the United States and calling for the departure of the U.S. ambassador,
threw stones at the security forces, who threw the stones back at the crowd and
used other heavy-handed tactics to disperse the demonstrators.
For Full Report At:
http://www.tehrantimes.com/component/content/article/96305
---------
Military Points to Risks
of a Syrian Intervention
By ELISABETH BUMILLER
March 11, 2012
WASHINGTON — Despite
growing calls for the United States to help stop the bloodshed in Syria, senior
Pentagon officials are stepping up their warnings that military intervention
would be a daunting and protracted operation, requiring at least weeks of
exclusively American airstrikes, with the potential for killing vast numbers of
civilians and plunging the country closer to civil war.
The officials say that
Syria presents a far larger problem than did Libya, which required a
seven-month NATO air campaign last year in which hundreds of aircraft dropped
and fired 7,700 bombs and missiles.
Although the United States
has the military capability to launch sustained airstrikes in Syria — “We can
do anything,” the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin E.
Dempsey, told the Senate last week — defense officials say they are concerned
about four tough challenges: the risks in attacking Syria’s plentiful and
sophisticated Russian-made air defenses, which are located close to major
population centers; arming a deeply splintered Syrian opposition; the potential
for starting a proxy war with Iran or Russia, two crucial allies of Syria; and
the lack, at least so far, of an international coalition willing to take action
against the government of President Bashar al-Assad.
For Full Report At:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/12/world/middleeast/us-syria-intervention-would-be-risky-pentagon-officials-say.html?ref=global-home
---------
Embassy Row: Yemenis
denounce envoy
March 11, 2012
By James Morrison
Thousands of protesters in
the troubled country of Yemen over the weekend demanded the expulsion of U.S.
Ambassador Gerald Feierstein, accusing him of interfering in the domestic
affairs of a nation convulsed by a year-old uprising.
Reports from the capital,
Sanaa, said the activists pledged to continue protests until “all their demands
are met.” They are angered over the makeup of a transitional government that
took power last month with strong U.S. support.
President Abdu Rabu
Mansour Hadi, the former vice president, was the only candidate on the ballot in
the Feb. 21 election. He took over from Ali Abdullah Saleh, the ailing autocrat
who had ruled Yemen for more than 30 years.
Mr. Saleh stepped down
last month and flew to the United States for medical treatment. He was severely
injured last year in an attempted assassination.
Mr. Feierstein, who has
released no comments about the latest unrest in the capital, met last week with
Mr. Hadi to urge a national dialogue between the new government, which includes
many of Mr. Saleh’s cohorts, and the opposition.
They also discussed the
continuing threat from al Qaeda terrorists who have taken over parts of the
south of the strategic country bordered by the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden,
according to news reports.
For Full Report At:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/mar/11/embassy-row-818261944/
--------
890-km fence to secure
northern border in Saudi Kingdom
By JEDDAH: MD AL-SULAMI
Published: Mar 11, 2012
Preparations are currently
under way to launch the 890 km-long northern borders security project. It is
considered the first phase of strategic schemes the Ministry of Interior will
implement along the Kingdom's borders to curb illegal infiltrations and
smuggling, spokesman of the Border Guards Col. Salem bin Saleh Al-Sulami
announced yesterday.
"This project will
represent a quantum leap in the concept of border watching. It will consist of
mud walls and barbed wires with international specifications," he said.
The Kingdom is bordered in the north by Iraq and Jordan.
He said centers for rapid
deployment would also be established as part of the project to protect the
northern borders.
For Full Report At:
http://arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article586342.ece
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Saudi students in the US
models of good conduct
By JEDDAH
Mar 11, 2012
Most Saudi students who applied
for US citizenship have subsequently abandoned their attempt to change
nationality, a Saudi diplomat said.
“Only 13 students applied
for citizenship in the United States. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has taken
firm steps against such actions such as stopping their scholarships. As a
result most of the students gave up their attempt,” Cultural Attaché in the
United States Muhammad Al-Isa said while participating at the International
Book Fair in Riyadh on Friday.
Al-Isa said those who
wanted US citizenship would have to find their own means of income, adding they
would also be liable for a 40 percent income tax rate in the country, Al-Yaum
daily reported yesterday.
“We don’t intend to invest
in girls and boys who plan to remain in their host countries for the rest of
their lives. The goal of our scholarship program is to enable our students to
return home and serve their nation, families and their religion,” the official
said.
Regarding the number of
Saudi students committing violations in the US, the attaché said out of 62,000
students studying in the country, less than 100 have cases pending against
them.
For Full Report At:
http://arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article586341.ece
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Rents, food prices weigh
on Saudi inflation
By KHALIL HANWARE Mar 11,
2012
JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia's
inflation rose to a 14-month high of 5.4 percent in February 2012 compared to
the same period last year, the Central Department of Statistics said yesterday.
Compared to January 2012, the cost of living index increased by 0.3 percent
from 139.1 to 139.5, it added.
Most components of the
cost of living index rose in February, owing to strong domestic demand. Most
significantly, rents rose again. At 9.3 percent, rental inflation was at its
highest since May 2010.
"This increase is the
result of rising disposable incomes among the national population; specifically
some of those with jobs or new sources of income from government programs may
be entering the rental market, or at least landlords are raising rents on the
assumption that this will happen. At the same time, additions to the supply of
housing continue to be small," Paul Gamble, head of research, at Jadwa
Investment, said.
However, he pointed out
that work on new housing construction is picking up, but it will take some time
for this to reach the market.
For Full Report At:
http://arabnews.com/economy/article586257.ece
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Kingdom’s trade balance
surplus to reach SR915bn
Mar 11, 2012
Since oil plays an
overwhelming role in Saudi Arabia's economy, it figures that oil receipts and
hence the current account plays a dominant role in the balance of payments
account. Unlike 2009, the transfer of capital for portfolio and other
investments, the reserve assets and direct investment led to a net outflow in
capital and financial account during 2010. Due to a surge in oil prices in
2010, the dramatic drop in current account surplus in 2009 has recovered past
stature, growing over 3 folds during 2010, according to a report by Global
Investment House (Global).
As per our expectations,
the current account and trade balance surpluses that dipped in 2009 experienced
an impressive recovery in 2010 with current account & trade balances
estimated reaching SR250.3 billion & SR576.4 billion respectively in 2010.
The same are expected to increase by 139 percent and 59 percent respectively in
2011 to reach SR598 billion and SR915 billion respectively. Both the current
account and trade balance surpluses, in terms of GDP, stood at an average
(2000-10) of 16.7 percent & 32.7 percent.
For Full Report At:
http://arabnews.com/economy/article586353.ece
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Abu Dhabi to issue new
hotel licenses selectively
Mar 11, 2012
ABU DHABI: Abu Dhabi has
not halted the issuance of new hotel licenses in the capital of the United Arab
Emirates but will be selective in the number it issues, a tourism official said
on Sunday.
"We have not
completely stopped issuing licenses. We still receive applications and are
studying them on a case-by-case basis," Naser Al-Riyami, director, tourism
standards division at the Abu Dhabi Authority for Tourism & Culture said.
"We have our criteria
for licensing," he told Reuters by phone.
Alroya Al-Eqtisadiya, a
local newspaper reported on Sunday that Abu Dhabi will not issue new hotel
licences in the capital of the United Arab Emirates, citing al-Riyami.
"That report is not
correct," said Al-Riyami, adding there are areas in Abu Dhabi and nearby
where hotels need to be built, citing Saadiyat Island as one.
For Full Report At:
http://arabnews.com/economy/article586225.ece
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Kingdom calls for global
efforts to halt Syria war
By RIYADH Mar 11, 2012
Foreign Minister Prince
Saud Al-Faisal yesterday called for international efforts to focus on ending
the war in Syria launched by Bashar Assad’s regime.
He also called for more
efforts to send emergency relief supplies to Syrian people with the support of
global organizations.
In a joint press
conference with his German counterpart Guido Westerwelle, Prince Saud expressed
hope that Iran would end its policy of escalation and conduct serious
negotiations with the 5+1 group to remove all doubts about its nuclear program.
“We have discussed how to
resolve the nuclear standoff with Iran peacefully as well as Iran’s flagrant
interference in the internal affairs of Arab countries,” Prince Saud said on
his talks with Westerwelle.
For Full Report At:
http://arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article586311.ece
URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/taliban-vow-revenge-sick-minded/d/6829