LAHORE: At least 24 people including 13 FIA officials were killed and dozens others were injured when two bombs that ripped through a federal police headquarters and an advertising agency in the Pakistani city of Lahore on Tuesday, police said.

The blasts were the latest in a wave of violence across Pakistan that has left more than 600 people dead this year and posed a serious challenge to an incoming coalition government that won elections on February 18.

The first attack demolished part of the federal investigation agency (FIA) office in the eastern Pakistani city, exposing the inside of the building and leaving piles of blackened rubble and burning cars.

A police investigator said that the blast was a suspected suicide attack. "We believe the suicide attacker came in a vehicle and hit the reception counter. We have recovered only a few pieces of the car which was used in the attack," investigations superintendent Babur Bakht Qureshi saud.

Pools of blood and small pieces of human flesh lay scattered on the ground outside the eight-storey building, along with clothes and pairs of shoes that were abandoned by people as they ran away.

Police cordoned off the area while emergency workers carrying stretchers scrambled over the rubble. A car was set ablaze by the force of the blast and others were covered in downed electricity cables and rubble.

The building was evacuated because of fears it could collapse, television channels reported.

The second near-simultaneous blast hit an advertising agency in an upscale neighbourhood of the city killing another four people, Qureshi said. He said there were no further details.

The latest explosions came a week after two suicide bombers blew themselves up at a prestigious naval college in Lahore, killing at least five people and wounding 19, officials said.

The city, close to the Indian border, had previously seen little of the violence that has rocked other Pakistani towns, although it also suffered a major suicide bombing in January that killed 20 people, mostly police.

Pakistan has been rocked by six major blasts since the February 18 polls, which were won by the parties of slain ex-premier Benazir Bhutto and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

The parties at the weekend signed an agreement on forming a coalition government.
Pakistan has been combating an Islamist insurgency led by Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters since President Pervez Musharraf joined the US-led "war on terror" in 2001, but the violence has soared since the start of 2007.

Around 600 people have died since the start of this year in suicide attacks, roadside bombings and clashes, mainly along the Afghan border in troubled northwestern Pakistan but also in major cities.

Many of the attacks have targeted the armed forces, police and security forces. The army's top medical officer, Lieutenant General Mushtaq Baig, was killed in a suicide attack in the garrison city of Rawalpindi on February 25.



http://www.geo.tv/home/15081.htm

In what seems to be the worst accident to be ever recorded in the history of the United Arab Emirates, more than 200 cars were involved in a massive pile-up on the Abu Dhabi-Dubai Road that according to early estimates might have claimed three lives.

About 284 people were also reported injured, 15 were in critical condition and 67 had sustained moderate injuries. The dead included two Indians and one Sudanese national.

The injured, some of them in critical condition have been rushed to the Khalifa Hospital. Rescue teams from Dubai and Abu Dhabi swung into action immediately as ambulances, helicopters and patrol cars were rushed to the scene.

Police sources have blamed poor visibility condition brought about by the fog for the crash.

Two eyewitnesses on the scene of the mishap recounted the tragedy as it unfolded before their eyes. Zeeshan Javed a regular commuter on the stretch says that he just escaped ‘by a whisker’ as the cars in front of smashed into each other. “It was a big pile up. I personally counted about eighty cars that had been wrecked beyond recognition. Even though emergency units were quick to respond the fact remains that there have been casualities. I have never seen an accident of this magnitude. Some cars that had caught fire were charred beyond recognition. This has to be the worst ever.”

Mobi Sher another commuter said that he was stuck in the traffic jam as a result of the accident for almost four hours. “The scene was absolutely ghastly. All around me the cars were lying in a massive wreck.” While the poor visibility conditions have been blamed for the mishap, Sher said that the presence of oil residue from cars on the road probably contributed to the massive pile-up. “I have noticed that most motorists tend to speed on this stretch and that could contributed to the entire mess. It was horrific.”

For Imad Eldin it was a nightmare that had come rather early in the morning. Eldin who travels to Dubai everyday to his job in Al Quoz cannot bring himself to talk about the horrendous scenes he witnessed. “There were cars littered all over, ambulance sirens wailing, it was absolutely unreal. I was stuck in the same spot for three hours. I saw people sitting motionless in front of their steering wheels. There were others that were lying on the road and still others with injuries waiting to be attended to by the paramedics. I hope they were alright though the cab driver kept insisting that they were dead. It is terrible. I personally saw about eight completely wrecked vehicles. I had only heard about these tragedies, but today I have seen one for myself. I wish I hadn’t.”




JERUSALEM - A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip hit southern Israel on Tuesday just hours after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert visited the area and cautioned residents not to expect a lull in Palestinian attacks to last.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine claimed responsibility for the rocket strike, the first against Israel since Sunday, saying its “battle against occupation is continuing”.

Such attacks have tailed off sharply since Israel ended a Gaza offensive eight days ago and Egypt stepped up truce mediation efforts. Israel has not raided the Gaza Strip since the five-day assault that killed some 120 Palestinians.

A police spokesman said the rocket fell in open ground south of the major Israeli city of Ashkelon, causing no injuries.

A few hours earlier, Olmert visited Ashkelon, hit by longer-range rockets during a recent surge of violence, and told residents there were no guarantees Katyusha salvoes from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip would not resume.

“Don’t think it was a one-time experience,” Olmert said about Katyusha attacks that put Ashkelon within range of rocket-launching squads in the Gaza Strip, seven km (four miles) away.

Israeli officials gave no indication whether the military would respond to the latest rocket strike. A spokesman for Olmert said Hamas, in charge of the Gaza Strip bore overall responsibility for attacks from the territory.

“We have no illusions as to the extreme, violent and hateful agenda of Hamas,” spokesman Mark Regev said.

Hamas Islamists, who seized control of the Gaza Strip from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction in fighting last June, have been holding their fire against Israel for the past seven days.

__________________
Regards,
P.R.

U.N. Alleges Nuclear Work By Iran's Civilian Scientists

By Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 11, 2008; A01


Iranian nuclear engineer Mohsen Fakhrizadeh lectures weekly on physics at Tehran's Imam Hossein University. Yet for more than a decade, according to documents attracting interest among Western governments, he also ran secret programs aimed at acquiring sensitive nuclear technology for his government.

Experts at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have repeatedly invited Fakhrizadeh to tea and a chat about Iran's nuclear work. But for two years, the government in Tehran has barred any contact with the scientist, who U.S. officials say recently moved to a new lab in a heavily guarded compound also off-limits to U.N. inspectors.

The exact nature of his research -- past and present -- remains a mystery, as does the work of other key Iranian scientists whose names appear in documents detailing what U.N. officials say is a years-long, clandestine effort to expand the country's nuclear capability. The documents, which were provided to the IAEA, the U.N. nuclear agency, in recent months by two countries other than the United States, partly match information in a stolen Iranian laptop turned over by Washington.

IAEA officials say these documents identify Fakhrizadeh and other civilian scientists as central figures in a secret nuclear research program that operated as recently as 2003. So far, however, Iran is refusing to shed light on their work or allow U.N. officials to question them. After being presented with copies of some of the new documents, Tehran denied that some of the scientists exist.

"When the allegations are raised, Iran simply dismisses them," said a Western diplomatic official familiar with the agency's dealings with Iran. "It insists that the documents are mostly fakes."

The standoff over interview requests has cast a shadow over a five-year U.N. effort to excavate the truth about Iran's nuclear past. In that search, Western anxieties have been compounded by Tehran's reluctance to clarify the history of its interest in technologies that could be used for either nuclear power or weapons.

A similar set of uncertainties helped provoke the U.S. war with Iraq, which the Bush administration justified partly by positing that Baghdad was deliberately concealing nuclear weapons research from U.N. inspectors. The outcome of that invasion suggests caution, however, since U.S. troops were unable to find any convincing evidence of banned weapons work, and deposed Iraqi officials said they had been secretive to conceal from regional opponents that they had ended such work, not continued it.

In Iran's case, U.N. officials say, the new evidence does not prove that the scientists carried out plans to build a nuclear device, but shows that Fakhrizadeh and other scientists struggled to master associated technologies. Several of the scientists, including Fakhrizadeh, appear to have moved freely between military and civilian research venues.

The documents purport to show advanced research into a variety of nuclear-related technologies, including uranium ore processing, warhead modification and the precision-firing of high explosives of the type used to detonate a nuclear device. Other documents point to attempts by civilian scientists to purchase sensitive equipment of the kind Iran would eventually use in its uranium enrichment plants.

Some of the new documents came from inside Iran, according to European officials familiar with them. None specifically include the word "nuclear," and IAEA officials say there is no evidence that any of the plans advanced beyond the paper stage.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran, a major opposition group that claims to have informants inside Iran's government, contends in materials provided to The Washington Post that nuclear weapons design work persists and has migrated to universities and schools. But U.S. and U.N. officials say they cannot corroborate the group's claim.

Instead, U.S. intelligence officials have said that Iran worked on weapons design in the past but halted the research in 2003. But government officials and weapons experts acknowledge concerns over Iran's refusal to answer questions or explain what key scientists are doing now.

"It's not the first time we've seen individuals who seem to wear white hats but are working on very different projects behind the scenes," said Leonard Spector, a former Energy Department nonproliferation official who is now deputy director of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies. He noted that other countries, particularly Pakistan, have used civilian scientists as cover for secret nuclear research.

Although the IAEA has not publicly described the contents of the new documents, the U.N. Security Council adopted new sanctions against Iran last week, in part because of what European leaders described as Tehran's "abysmal" performance in answering the IAEA's questions about past nuclear research.

"As long as Iran's choice remains one of non-cooperation, we for our part will remain determined to demonstrate the costs and consequences of that choice," British Ambassador Simon Smith said in a statement last week on behalf of Britain, Germany and France, which have taken the lead in trying to persuade Iran to stop making enriched uranium, a critical ingredient used in both nuclear weapons and nuclear power plants.

Calls placed to Iran's U.N. mission in New York were not returned.

Fakhrizadeh is prominent in several of the documents, according to two officials who have seen them. A personnel chart listed him as the senior authority overseeing all the research projects. Another paper, purportedly signed by Fakhrizadeh, establishes spending guidelines for the research programs, while a third sets rules for communication among scientists, suggesting, for example, that researchers avoid putting their names on correspondence that might eventually become public, according to a Europe-based diplomat who viewed the documents.

Fakhrizadeh, 47, who became a Revolutionary Guard Corps member after the overthrow of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in 1979, is a former leader of the Physics Research Center, which U.N. officials say was heavily involved in drawing up plans and acquiring parts for Iran's first uranium enrichment plant. He was among eight Iranians placed under international travel and financial restrictions under the terms of a U.N. resolution adopted last year because of his alleged ties to "nuclear or ballistic missile" research, U.N. records show.

According to the Iranian opposition group, in addition to holding the university post, Fakhrizadeh recently was appointed the director of a new Center for Readiness and New Defense Technology, which is in Tehran and is under direct military command. Several of his deputies have been reassigned to nuclear departments at ostensibly civilian schools such as Shahid Beheshti University, also in Tehran.

"Fakhrizadeh is a key person, but he is not the only player," said Mohammad Mohaddessin, chairman of the opposition group's foreign affairs committee.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...003097_pf.html

Bush Vows He Will Upgrade Poland's Air Defenses

By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 11, 2008; A12


President Bush promised yesterday to upgrade Poland's antiquated armed forces with a plan to be developed before he leaves office in January as he sought to secure an agreement that would allow the United States to establish an antimissile system in Eastern Europe despite vigorous Russian objections.

Meeting with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk at the White House, Bush appeared to boost efforts to get his missile defense program on track in the face of deep skepticism in Warsaw. Tusk came to office in November far cooler to the idea of stationing U.S. interceptors on Polish soil than his predecessor, and until recently talks had bogged down.

Poland has maintained that its air defenses must be upgraded before it accepts any U.S. system, particularly given Russian threats to target the country if American interceptors are based there. Bush implicitly linked the two issues yesterday. "Mr. Prime Minister, before my watch is over, we will have assessed those needs and come up with a modernization plan that's concrete and tangible," he told Tusk in front of television cameras in the Oval Office.

Tusk interpreted that as a deal, saying that he and Bush "came to a conclusion . . . that the missile defense system and the modernization of the Polish forces . . . come in one package." He called it "a breakthrough" that the president and his administration "understand quite clearly our expectations." Although neither leader detailed what might be done to upgrade Poland's air defenses, Warsaw has sought Patriot missile systems, which are used to take down incoming missiles.

White House press secretary Dana Perino later rejected an explicit linkage because Washington would naturally help Poland as a fellow NATO member. "It's certainly not a quid pro quo because, as we would with any ally, we would help them modernize a different part of their defense system," she told reporters.

Either way, the emerging agreement appeared to clear a key hurdle, building on progress last month by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski. Bush also met last month with Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek to discuss building a radar station in his country, but Poland has been seen as a more reluctant partner.

"We've gotten past the impasse and started the engines again," said Julianne Smith, head of the Europe Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank. "It doesn't mean we've got all the details settled, but both sides are moving again."

Bush repeated yesterday that the missile defense system is intended as a deterrent against Iran or other threats, not against Russia, whose nuclear arsenal could easily overwhelm the 10 planned interceptors. But his meetings with Polish and Czech leaders, coming just weeks before he will see Russian President Vladimir Putin at a NATO summit in Bucharest, are sure to further rile the Kremlin, which sees the prospect of an antimissile system in its former satellite countries as a direct threat.

Just last month, Putin said Russia would target missiles against Poland and the Czech Republic if they allow U.S. installations.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...002546_pf.html

Sudan questions use of fresh peace deal with Chad

By Daniel Flynn and Lamine Ghanmi
Reuters
Tuesday, March 11, 2008; 1:58 PM


DAKAR (Reuters) - Sudan wants peace with its neighbor Chad but doubts the value of signing a fresh reconciliation pact after a string of previous accords failed, Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir said on Tuesday.

His remarks, at a news conference at the end of an official visit to Dubai, raised questions over Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade's invitation to Bashir and Chadian President Idriss Deby to initial a new accord in Dakar on Wednesday.

Wade hopes the agreement will end the hostility that has often brought the two nations close to all-out war.

Their common border has become a battleground for Sudanese and Chadian rebel groups fighting both in Sudan's war-torn Darfur region and over the border in eastern Chad. Khartoum and N'Djamena accuse each other of supporting hostile insurgents.

"We want to confirm that we want peace. We have no claims in Chad," Bashir said in Dubai. "Our country is big and we do not need an extra country because any addition will mean additional problems before additional territories or resources," he added.

Bashir said he and Deby made a solemn peace commitment last year during a pilgrimage to Mecca, Islam's holiest shrine, under the auspices of Saudi King Abdullah. They shook hands on the deal inside the Kaaba, an ancient stone shrine in Mecca.

"If that agreement happened inside the Kaaba and the Chadian president did not implement it, can we expect him to implement an agreement in Dakar?" Bashir said.

Wade has announced the signing of a Chad-Sudan peace pact for Wednesday in Dakar on the eve of a summit of the 57-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), which groups the world's Muslim community. Both Chad and Sudan are members.

Sudanese Minister of State for Foreign Relations Al-Samani al-Wasiyla told Reuters in Dakar that Bashir was coming "with an open mind." But neither he nor a foreign ministry spokesman in Khartoum would confirm that Bashir would sign a deal with Deby.

FIVE AGREEMENTS FAILED

Bashir said five previous agreements had been signed with Chad, brokered either by Libya or Saudi Arabia, but they had all failed to reconcile the two sides.

The hostility between the two neighbors flared again in early February when Deby said that rebels who attacked his capital N'Djamena were backed by Sudan which wanted to topple him. Khartoum denies this.

Senegal's Wade had said the peace deal would be signed on Wednesday morning in Dakar, but Sudanese officials said Bashir was expected to arrive much later in the day. Deby was expected to arrive in Dakar on Tuesday.

Sudan's al-Wasiyla said his country wanted to see the full implementation of a bilateral peace agreement signed in Libya in 2006, in which the neighbors agreed to joint patrols on their common border.

"What we expect is to agree on a vision over guarantees and a commitment to implement past agreements," he added.

Chadian Foreign Minister Ahmat Allam-Mi said after meeting Wade that Chad would respect any engagements made in Dakar. "We hope that after Dakar we'll reach a definitive accord to solve the Chad-Sudan conflict," he said.

Wade has said that establishing a lasting peace between Chad and Sudan is an essential first step towards disentangling the interlocking conflicts enveloping Darfur, where 200,000 people have been killed in political and ethnic fighting since 2003.

More than 2.5 million people have been forced from their homes by the violence, which has spilled over into both Chad and Central African Republic.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...101528_pf.html

__________________
Regards

Aarwaa

Pakistan is ruled by three As - Army, America and Allah.

OIC seeks new role to fight Islamophobia

March 12, 2008

DAKAR: Facing “Islamophobia” in the West, the world’s biggest Islamic body is seeking to re-brand itself this week as a forum for settling conflicts peacefully and for redistributing wealth to the world’s poorest states.

At a summit on Thursday and Friday in Senegal, the 57-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) will seek to agree on a modern charter that will give it a more active, influential role as the voice of Islam in a globalised world.

OIC leaders meet in Dakar at a time when suspicion in the West about the Muslim world remains high, still coloured by the September 11, 2001 attacks carried out by Al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden.

Subsequent attacks by Islamic militants in Spain and Britain, coupled with the US-led “war on terror” in Iraq and Afghanistan and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, have stoked fears of a global clash of civilisations.

OIC Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu called for a concerted effort by the group to promote dialogue and mutual respect with the non-Muslim world to fight hatred and bigotry.

“Combating Islamophobia is and will continue to be one of the biggest challenges faced by the Muslim World,” he told OIC foreign ministers meeting in Dakar.

With its members spanning the Middle East, Africa and Asia, differences of race, language and history, and even religious observance, have often prevented the world Islamic community from acting as a unified, cohesive force.

The OIC groups some of the planet’s richest countries, such as oil producers Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar, with poor African nations like Guinea Bissau, Niger and Burkina Faso who languish at the bottom of UN development rankings.

Senegal, hosting its second OIC summit in 17 years, wants the Ummah to harness its geographical reach and immense resources so it can punch at its full weight in the world arena and assist its poorest members, mostly in Africa.

“The OIC has existed for 30 years but is still trying to find itself,” host President Abdoulaye Wade told Reuters ahead of the March 13-14 summit in Dakar, whose roads and avenues have been given a face-lift for the Islamic gathering.

Fight against poverty: The octogenarian Senegalese leader thinks the group can do much more to foster aid, trade and investment.

“I would like to propose that this summit be the basis for a determined and effective fight against poverty,” Wade said.

Wade wants this week’s meeting to top up a special OIC fund — the Islamic Solidarity Fund for Development, initially projected at $10 billion — to finance anti-poverty projects mostly in Africa, but also in other parts of the Islamic world.d.

“I think we can find much more money than that,” Wade said.

Only $2.6 billion has been committed to the fund so far, according to the Islamic Development Bank.

Wade is urging the Islamic group to play a more decisive, active role in solving conflicts affecting its members, whether in Sudan’s Darfur or the enduring conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.

“We need to bring peace to the Ummah ... and it’s not just by making declarations that we’re going to do that,” he said. But several OIC heads of state are staying away, among them Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi and President Pervez Musharraf.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default...2-3-2008_pg7_4

__________________
Marwatone.

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan’s security forces missed the militant hideout they were aiming for and killed 11 civilians in an artillery barrage that landed in a residential area in the restive tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, local media reported Wednesday.

Those killed included two women and about a dozen were wounded, the English-language newspaper The News reported.

The paramilitary troops fired artillery and mortars on suspected militant locations in Nawagai area of Bajaur tribal district after one of their colleagues was wounded by an improvised explosive device late Tuesday.

Local residents said most of the shells fell in residential areas and caused serious damage to houses, The News reported.

Fighting then erupted between security forces and tribal militant forces and continued for several hours. Both sides then ceased fire for about one hour allowing locals to burry their dead and pull their wounded out from destroyed homes and take them to safer areas.

Pakistan’s tribal areas are safe-havens for Al Qaeda militants and Taleban fighters who continue to launch cross-border attacks on international forces into Afghanistan. Recently they have turned inward and launched regular raids against Pakistani security forces and rival tribesmen.

Civilians are often caught in the middle, from both suicide attacks targeting security forces or artillery fire and helicopter gun ships attacking militant positions.



PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Two policemen were killed as they tried to defuse a roadside bomb in troubled northwestern Pakistan, while two Islamic militants died in a blast at their house, officials said.

The incidents occurred in the picturesque Swat Valley, a former tourist spot where security forces have been battling Taleban and Al Qaeda linked militants led by a radical cleric since late last year.

A police patrol spotted the roadside bomb planted near Charbagh village on the main road through the valley, local police officer Jan Bahadur said.

‘A police bomb disposal unit was trying to defuse it when it exploded, killing two officials and wounding two others,’ Bahadur told AFP.

The police official added that two militants were killed overnight in an explosion in their house in Kabal district in the Swat region.

‘They were probably making a bomb when it exploded prematurely, killing the house owner and another man staying with him,’ Bahadur said.

The mountainous, snow-capped Swat region is renowned for its ancient Buddhist relics and once attracted large numbers of foreign and local tourists, but has recently been beset by violence.

Last year the army moved in after an uprising led by Maulana Fazlullah, a cleric who demanded Islamic law in the area. Fazlullah is known as ‘Mullah Radio’ for broadcasting fiery speeches over his private FM radio station.

The army said in February that it had secured 90 percent of the region near the Afghan border, with more than 230 militants and 36 Pakistani soldiers killed during operations.



ISLAMABAD - Pakistan has asked India to explain why one of its nationals, who went to India to watch a cricket match in 2005, was arrested and later died in an Indian prison, a Foreign Office spokesman said on Wednesday.

Khalid Mahmood, 30, died on Feb. 12 but his family in Pakistan was only informed of his death on March 4, according to family members, who said he had been imprisoned as a spy and was tortured to death.

A Foreign Office spokesman said Indian authorities had not informed Pakistan about Mahmood’s arrest until he died in what the spokesman said were mysterious circumstances.

“The death of Mr Khalid Mahmood in custody should be condemned in the strongest terms,” spokesman Mohammad Sadiq told a regular briefing.

“We approached ... Indian authorities to give us a detailed report of the circumstances, the reasons for which he was arrested, the circumstances of his death,” he said.

Mahmood’s body was sent back to Pakistan on Monday and one of his brothers told Reuters on Tuesday Indian authorities had not informed the family how his brother died but his body bore signs of torture.

The brother said Mahmood had lost his passport while in India to watch cricket and was later picked up by Indian police.

Old rivals India and Pakistan have improved their relations after nearly going to war on fourth time in 2002 but they are still deeply suspicious of each other.

On March 4, Pakistan released an Indian, Kashmir Singh, who spent 35 years on death row in Pakistan on spying charges but was released after President Pervez Musharraf accepted his mercy plea.

Sadiq said Singh had been released on humanitarian grounds and Pakistan had hoped the gesture would be reciprocated.

“It is very unfortunate that very soon we received a dead body of a Pakistani national from India,” he said.

But Sadiq said the incident would not affect a peace process the neighbours launched in early 2004.

As part of the peace process, both sides began sending cricket teams to each other’s country and thousands of fans have travelled back and fourth to watch the teams clash since then.



DUBAI - In a first move of its kind anywhere in the world, His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, has ordered to set up a museum, entirely dedicated to the life of the Last Messenger of God, Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him).

The project aims to shed light on the life and legacy of the Holy Prophet and the divine message he lived for, thus introducing the message of eternal love and peace islam gave the entire mankind.

Shaikh Mohammed entrusted the Dubai Culture and Arts Authority with the tasks of supervising and implementing various phases of the pioneer project, giving the museum a facade which will reflect the personality of the last Prophet who was appointed by God to teach humanity the eternal divine message.

The Dubai Culture and Arts Authority was set up a few days ago by a decree from Shaikh Mohammed with Shaikh Mayed bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum as its Chairman.

The colossal project taken up by the Dubai Government aims at introducing to all nations of the world, the inspiring life of Prophet Muhammad and how he changed the course of human history, transforming humanity from ignorance and darkness into the most exalted form of civilisation.

Prophet Muhammad’s life meticulously reconciled the mundane and spiritual aspects and gave comprehensive teachings on individual, social, political, economic, cultural, scientific and educational aspects of human life.

Shaikh Mayed said: “We deemed it wise to begin the activities of the authority with a museum dedicated to the life and message of the last Prophet, who gave the teachings of love and tolerance.

The project also clearly indicates that Dubai is keen on playing its role not only as a bridge between the East and the West, but also between the Islamic world and the rest of the world.

The museum project will be implemented in three phases, as the first two phases will chronicle the life of the Prophet, beginning from the political and economic situations of the world before his birth and then his blessed birth.

The museum will be set up in such a way that a visitor will move on learning about the different mile-stones in the Prophet’s life, his marriage, the beginning and continuation of God’s revelation, his propagation of the divine message, the first migration of his followers to Habasha (Ethiopia), the sorrowful events Prophet passed through like the demises of his wife Khadijah and his uncle and guardian, the happenings of Isra and the Ascension, the Aqaba Treaty, Prophet’s migration to Madinah, the propagation of Islam around the world, the conquest of Makkah, the farewell pilgrimage and finally the passing away of God’s Last Messenger.

There will be a special wing shedding light on the meaning of the rituals of pilgrimage (Haj) and the fundamentals of the religion of Islam, thus creating an opportunity for visitors to understand the true spirit of fraternity, peace and tolerance islam stands for.

The third phase will be an expansion of the first two phases, based on need. Managing Director of the Dubai Culture and Arts Authority Dr Omer bin Suleiman said that in a city where more than 200 various nationalities live, the museum will represent an edifice of civilisation.

He added: “In the history of Dubai, this museum will stand as a shining milestone as it will give the world an opportunity to learn about the life and message of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).



ANKARA - Turkey plans to invest up to $12 billion in its impoverished, mainly Kurdish southeast region as part of efforts to drain support for separatist PKK rebels, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan was quoted as saying on Wednesday.

In an interview with the New York Times, Erdogan said his government would also dedicate a state television channel to Kurdish language broadcasting, a measure long sought by Turkey’s large ethnic Kurdish minority.

The moves follow a major eight-day Turkish army ground offensive against PKK guerrillas across the border in northern Iraq as well as months of heavy aerial and artillery bombardment of rebel positions in the mountainous region.

“The fight against terrorism is not only this (military measures). It also has a socioeconomic part, a psychological part, a cultural part,” Erdogan told the New York Times.

Turkey will spend $11 billion to $12 billion over a five-year period to build two large dams and a system of water canals, complete paved roads and remove landmines from fields along the Syrian border, he said.

The new television channel will also include Persian and Arabic and will be running within several months, Erdogan added.

“This will be the most important step providing cultural rights to the region,” he said.

The European Union, which Turkey aims to join, has urged Ankara to boost the language and cultural rights of its Kurdish citizens and to do more to develop the economy of the southeast, long hamstrung by the PKK conflict.

Ankara blames the PKK, the Kurdistan Workers Party, for the deaths of nearly 40,000 people, mostly Kurds, since the group began its armed campaign for an ethnic homeland in southeast Turkey in 1984.

The EU and the United States, like Turkey, brand the PKK a terrorist group. Washington provided intelligence to Turkey during the recent army offensive against the rebels inside Iraq.

But even Turkey’s generals now say military measures alone cannot end the PKK threat and that they must be accompanied by improvements in the social and economic life of the region.

Turkey is home to around 12 million Kurds, a sixth of the total population. Many Kurds backed Erdogan’s centre-right AK Party instead of Kurdish nationalist parties in parliamentary elections last year in the hope of improved living standards.



GAZA - Hamas publicly set its terms on Wednesday for a ceasefire with Israel, calling for an end to Israeli raids in Palestinian territory and a reopening of Gaza border crossings. Egypt has been trying to broker a truce that would also end Gaza rocket attacks against Israel by militants from Hamas and another Palestinian group, Islamic Jihad.

“There must be a commitment by Israel, to end all its aggression against our people, assassinations, killings and raids, and lift the (Gaza) siege and reopen the crossings,” Hamas’s Gaza leader Ismail Haniyeh said in a speech.

A ceasefire deal, he said, should be “reciprocal, comprehensive and simultaneous” and apply both to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

“We will not abandon you, our people in the West Bank,” Haniyeh said. “Aggression against you is aggression against us.”

There was no immediate Israeli comment on Haniyeh’s remarks.

He delivered the address several hours after Israeli troops killed an Islamic Jihad militant in the occupied West Bank, an incident which a Hamas official said showed that Israel “was not interested in calm”.

A truce could be key to the success of U.S.-brokered peace talks between Israel and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose Fatah faction lost control of the Gaza Strip to Hamas Islamist fighters last June.

The number of cross-border rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip has decreased sharply since Israel ended an offensive in the territory nine days ago after killing 120 Palestinians, about half of whom have been identified as civilians.

Egypt has stepped up truce efforts -- amid Israeli leaders’ insistence they are not negotiating with Hamas, which has spurned Western demands to recognise Israel and renounce violence.

Israel tightened its Gaza border restrictions, a move Palestinians said has turned the territory into a large prison, after the Hamas takeover nine months ago.

A deal to reopen crossings could also include a prisoner exchange involving Palestinians held in Israeli jails and an Israeli soldier seized by Gaza militants in 2006.





http://www.khaleejtimes.com/index00.asp

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Regards,
P.R.

France's last World War I veteran dies

Paris (AP): France's last World War I veteran, Lazare Ponticelli, has died at the age of 110.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy expressed ``deep emotion'' at Ponticelli's death in a statement on Wednesday. No cause of death was given. France planned a national funeral ceremony honoring the last ``poilu'' _ meaning hairy or tough _ as French World War I veterans were known. Germany's last veteran from the war died on New Year's Day this year

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Devil-may-care

Second Muslim elected to US Congress

March 13, 2008

WASHINGTON: Andre Carson has become the second Muslim elected to the US House of Representatives.

Carson, grandson of the Democrat Julia Carson, who died in December 2007, was elected in a special election to serve what remains of her term. Carson, 33, converted to Islam around 10 years ago. He beat Republican Jon Elrod and a third party candidate with 52 percent of the vote to 44 percent for Elrod. He will join Rep Keith Ellison of Minnesota, a Democrat in his first term, who was the first Muslim in Congress. Carson will face a strong challenge against other contenders in a May primary, which will determine who runs in November for the next full two-year term in the district which covers most of the city of Indianapolis, Reuters reported. The fact that Carson is a Muslim did not figure in the special election. His Democratic opponents then are expected to be two state legislators - Carolene Mays, an Indianapolis newspaper publisher, and David Orentlicher, a lawyer and doctor who is a professor of law and medical ethics at Indiana University School of Law and Indiana University Medical Center.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default...3-3-2008_pg7_9

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Marwatone.

Kabul car bomb attack kills six

There has been an increase in attacks in recent months
Six people have been killed and at least 15 injured in a car bomb attack near the airport in Afghanistan's capital Kabul.
Officials say a car pulled up alongside an armoured vehicle used by coalition forces during rush hour and exploded. Witnesses say the car was destroyed.
The airport road is regularly used by foreign troops deployed in the country.
No coalition forces are reported to have been injured in the attack. US and Afghan forces cordoned off the area.
The BBC's Sanjoy Majumder says there has been a sharp increase in violence in Afghanistan in recent months with suicide bombings becoming increasingly common.
Last month a car bomb attack in southern city of Kandahar killed more than 100 people. It was the worst single attack since fall of Taleban in 2001.
A UN report published this week said there were 8,000 conflict-related deaths in 2007 - a fifth of which were civilians.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7293414.stm






PAKISTAN police overnight handed over the remains of at least 20 victims of the suicide bomb strikes on Benazir Bhutto's homecoming procession to officials of her Pakistan People's Party
PAKISTAN police overnight handed over the remains of at least 20 victims of the suicide bomb strikes on Benazir Bhutto's homecoming procession to officials of her Pakistan People's Party.
The dead were among at least 139 people killed in a twin suicide bombing on the opposition leader's convoy in the port city of Karachi on October 18.
"The police handed remains to People's Party officials for burial after conducting their DNA tests," Arif Ahmed Khan, home secretary of southern Sindh province, said.
The remains were later taken to a graveyard in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh, Bhutto's home town, for burial.
"These remains are to be buried tonight near Bhutto's grave in accordance with the desire of our slain leader," a provincial party official, Waqar Mehdi, said.
Bhutto was later killed in a gun and suicide attack on December 27 in the garrison city of Rawalpindi after addressing an election rally.
Mr Mehdi said 25 people were still missing after the October 18 attacks, which also injured hundreds.
Some relatives of those who are missing believe their remains may be among those being buried.
"I don't know exactly whether my nephew is one of these 20 victims but I believe his remains will be among those being buried," Mohammad Hashim, uncle of missing Sakhawat Ali, 18, said.
Farooq Awan, a party supporter, however, said that his teenage brother Rizwan, who was near the scene of blast, was not among the dead.
"He had been carried with an operation of appendicitis days before the incident and doctors told me that none of these bodies had that indication," Mr Awan said.
Kept in 20 boxes wrapped in the PPP's tricolour - red, green and black - flags, the remains were put in 20 ambulances owned by private charity the Edhi Foundation, which had kept the bodies in its mortuary for five months.
Scores of cars and vans followed the ambulances to the graveyard about 450km northeast of Karachi

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sto...005961,00.html

Nawaz takes party leadership into confidence on issues | PML-N to back any PPP nominee for PM

Iqbal Choudhry



ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has held a detailed discussion over its share in federal cabinet and has also discussed the future Punjab government setup, The Post has learnt reliably.
PML-N Chief Mian Nawaz Sharif presided over an important party meeting on Wednesday at Frontier House. PML-N has decided to share future cabinet as per seat formula under which PPP has 120 seats and PML-N has 90 seats in the National Assembly. Similarly, it will go with the coalition partners in Punjab province on seat basis too. Whereas, PPP top leadership agreed to give 30 per cent share in the future cabinet to PML-N, as per agreed power-sharing formula. Remaining 70 per cent would be distributed between PPP and ANP and is expected MMA with independent candidates would be the part of next cabinet if they agreed with coalition partners. Initially, PML-N hasn't show much interest in future cabinet but the top leadership decided after the regular insistence of PPP.
During Wednesday's meeting, the top leadership of PML-N decided to accept ministries on seat basis. The names of Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Khawaja Muhammad Asif, Ahsan Iqbal, Hanif Abbasi and Ishaq Dar are included in the list of future ministers from PML-N side. The names of other aspiring parliamentarians of PML-N for federal and provincial cabinets are under consideration and would be finalised during next meeting of parliamentary party. During the meeting, Nawaz took his party leadership into confidence over various important issues. The meeting decided that discussions among three coalition partners should be continued to avoid any confusion.
It was decided that the PML-N and its allies would support the PPP's nominee for prime minister whosoever he might be.
Meanwhile, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President and former Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif has advised the newly elected members of the provincial assembly to maintain cooperation with the coalition partners.
MPA-elect Ziaullah Shah told reporters the PML-N president gave the advice during a meeting chaired by him here on Wednesday.
The meeting was attended by the MPAs belonging to Rawalpindi Division. He said the meeting discussed matters relating to formation of the coalition government in the Punjab in accordance with the power-sharing agreement between PML-N and PPP signed at Murree on March 9.
Replying a question he said at the present time the focus was on forming coalition government. In the second phase the party would finalise a strategy to bring up no-confidence motions against such district and tehsil nazims who were not enjoying majority at local level.

http://thepost.com.pk/Ba_ShortNews.a...status=Current

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Time is the longest distance between two places.

Pakistan protests at US shelling

13 March 2008

Pakistan's military has criticised US-led forces in Afghanistan for firing artillery shells across the border, killing two women and two children.

Five shells fired by coalition forces fighting militants landed in North Waziristan region, Pakistani army spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas said.

The US military said the strike was in response to an "imminent threat".

US and Pakistani forces have been battling Taleban guerrillas along the rugged Afghan-Pakistan border.

The border is not clearly marked in many places and is frequently traversed by the ethnic Pashtun tribesmen who fill the Taleban's ranks.

The Pakistani army spokesman said a shell fired from Afghanistan had struck a house in the village of Kangrai in North Waziristan.

"The coalition forces were firing at a group of militants when five shells landed in Pakistan, destroying a house and killing two women and two children," Maj Gen Abbas told AFP news agency.

He said Pakistan had complained about the incident but did not believe it was intentional.

A US military spokesman in Afghanistan told the BBC the attack had taken place in response to an "imminent threat" in Pakistan.

Maj Chris Belcher also said the US had carried out similar cross-border strikes in the past.

In a separate interview with AFP, Maj Belcher said the attack had targeted militants led by a Taleban commander, Sirajuddin Haqqani.

He told the agency the Pakistani government had been notified of the attack immediately after it happened.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7293680.stm

Kidnapped Iraqi Archbishop Is Dead

March 14, 2008

The body of Chaldean Catholic archbishop, Paulos Faraj Rahho, who was kidnapped by gunmen in Mosul last month as he drove home from afternoon Mass, was discovered on Thursday buried in the southeastern part of the city.

Church officials said they received a call telling them where to find the body. The area is known as a haven for gangs and criminal activity.

The body showed no signs of violence, said Meshaal al-Rahho, an official from the morgue in Mosul. Mr. Rahho added that the archbishop, who suffered from health problems, including high blood pressure and diabetes, probably died of natural causes.

“The body was not tortured or shot,” Mr. Rahho said.

In the kidnapping on Feb. 29, Archbishop Rahho’s car was sprayed with bullets and two of his bodyguards were killed.

Archbishop Rahho, who led the Chaldean church in Mosul, was shot in the leg during the abduction and shoved into the trunk of a car, church officials said on Thursday. But in the darkness, he managed to pull out his cellphone and call the church, telling them that they should not pay any ransom for his release “as he believed that this money would not be paid for good works and would be used for killing and more evil actions,” the officials said.

The church is known in Mosul as Safina or the Ship, but is called Holy Spirit Church by the parishioners.

Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly, the patriarch of the Baghdad-based church, said that he was too overcome with grief to talk about the archbishop’s death. But he said that the morgue had released the body to the archbishop’s relatives and that a funeral would be held near Mosul on Friday.

In the last few years, Mosul has been a difficult place for Christians. The archbishop’s kidnapping followed a series of attacks in January on Christian churches. Last June, a priest and three companions were shot and killed in the same church. In January 2005, Archbishop George Yasilious, of another Catholic church in Mosul, was kidnapped and later released. In October 2006, an Orthodox priest, Polis Iskander, was beheaded after he was kidnapped and attempts to ransom him failed.

The number of Chaldeans, members of an Eastern Rite church affiliated with Roman Catholics and the largest of the Christian groups in Iraq, has dropped by at least a million since the end of Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship. Christian priests have estimated that fewer than 500,000 remain in the country. Other Christian sects include Assyrian Christians, Armenian Christians and Sabeans, an ancient sect.

Younadim Kanna, a Christian member of the Iraqi Parliament, denounced the kidnapping of the archbishop and said, “This man was a victim of his opinions,” adding that the archbishop had called for unity in Iraq and had stood up against sectarian violence.

The Vatican confirmed the death in the form of a telegram to cardinals. Pope Benedict XVI called it “an act of inhumane violence that offends the dignity of human beings and gravely damages the cause of fraternal coexistence among the blessed people of Iraq.”

The pope’s spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said, “Unfortunately, the most absurd and unwarranted violence keeps tormenting the Iraqi population, in particular the small Christian community, which the pope and all of us are particularly close to, with our prayer and solidarity at this time of great sorrow.”

The discovery of the archbishop’s body in Mosul came on a day of continuing violence in Baghdad and across Iraq.

In the capital, a car bomb exploded on a crowded shopping street just across the Tigris from the so-called Green Zone, killing nine people and wounding 48 others, according to officials from Iraq’s Ministry of the Interior. Many of the victims were street vendors who sold belts and tea, witnesses said.

Ali Falih, 22, who owns a shoe store on the street, said that about 2 p.m., a Toyota sedan parked in front of his shop and two men got out.

“I told them they are not allowed to park here,” she said, “but they insisted that they were going to buy something and come back quickly.”

Mr. Falih said that he ran after the men, but was thrown to the ground by the explosion. “I got up and saw the street vendors all on the ground and bleeding severely,” he said. “Some of them were already dead because I saw an arm here, half a body there. My brothers were wounded, but thank God they were inside the shop.”

The blast ripped apart the fronts of 12 stores and sent broken glass and pieces of the vendors’ carts flying. Five cars were engulfed in flames.

Abbod Habeeb, 45, the owner of a tailor’s shop, said, “We who work here demanded that the security forces block the alleys, but they didn’t because we are poor people who just want to live, and not officials or political party members.”

He added, “The tea seller who just died in the explosion is 57 and has six kids to feed.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/14/wo...ld&oref=slogin

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Marwatone.

Friday, March 14, 2008
RAWALPINDI: The Accountability Court has acquitted Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari in all case filed by National Accountability Bureau against him.

Rawalpindi Accountability Court-3 on Friday acquitted Zardari in BMW case and in this way Asif Ali Zardari has been acquitted in all cases filed against him.

Rawalpindi Accountability Court-3 judge Saghir Ahmed passed this order on the ground that no evidence was found in the BMW case against Zardari.


Friday, March 14, 2008
KARACHI: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) held a demonstration on Friday in favour of PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari to become Prime Minister of Pakistan.

The PPP chanted slogans “Prime Minister Asif Zardari” and called upon Zardari to become the Prime Minister

Friday, March 14, 2008
RAWALPINDI: The Accountability Court has acquitted Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari in BMW case.

Rawalpindi Accountability Court-3 Saghir Ahmed passed this order on the ground that no evidence was found in the case against Zardari.

In this way Asif Ali Zardari has been acquitted in all cases filed against him

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Time is the longest distance between two places.