Updated at: 1416 PST, Wednesday, September 16, 2009
TOKYO: Japan's parliament has formally elected Yukio Hatoyama as the country's new prime minister after his party swept general elections last month.

Parliament convened in a special session on Wednesday to formally select the new prime minister after Taro Aso and his cabinet resigned earlier in the day.

Aso's Liberal Democratic Party suffered a heavy defeat in the August 30 elections to Hatoyama's Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), ushering in a centre-left government after more than five decades of conservative rule.

In a landslide victory last month, the DPJ won 308 of the 480 seats to take control of the body's lower chamber, which selects the prime minister.

In Wednesday's vote, Hatoyama won 327 of the 480 votes in the lower house.

"I'm thrilled with the joy of creating history, and at the same time I feel the very grave responsibility for creating history," Hatoyama told reporters.

His first task would be to name a cabinet.

Updated at 16:24 GMT, Wednesday, 16 September 2009

Karzai condemns EU's fraud claims

Hamid Karzai was the winner barring a miracle, his spokesman said
Afghan President Hamid Karzai's campaign team has condemned as "irresponsible" claims by EU monitors about the extent of election fraud.

The row came as the final preliminary result gave Mr Karzai victory with 54.6%. The result is not yet official.

EU election observers earlier said about 1.5m votes - about a quarter of all ballots - could be fraudulent.

The claims came amid a growing strain in the international community about how to deal with the election fallout.

Earlier, the head of the UN mission in Afghanistan admitted his deputy had left the country after a row between them over the election.

But Kai Eide, a Norwegian diplomat, denied reports he had ordered his US deputy, Peter Galbraith, to leave.

Also on Wednesday, US President Barack Obama said there was "no immediate decision pending" on sending more troops to tackle a mounting Taliban insurgency.

"You have to get the strategy right and then make the determination about resources," Mr Obama said.

His comments came a day after the top US military officer, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm Mike Mullen, told the Senate that more troops might be required.

Although Wednesday's results announcement represents a complete tally of votes, the final declaration of a winner is not likely to be made for some weeks.

Mr Abdullah was listed second with 27.8% and turnout was confirmed as 38.7%.

'Interfering'

Mr Karzai's team reacted angrily to the statement of the EU monitors.

A statement from his campaign office said: "Today's announcement of the number of suspected votes, by the head and deputy head of the EU Election Monitoring Commission, is partial, irresponsible and in contradiction with Afghanistan's constitution."

This is the end of the vote count - but the election is far from finished. President Karzai may have a commanding lead in the initial results. But allegations of fraud still need to be investigated.

And how many votes are annulled will have a huge bearing on what happens next. The Electoral Complaints Commission says it is recounting votes cast at 10% of all the polling stations.

As things stand, the incumbent won't have to face a run-off. But if President Karzai's share of the vote drops below a majority - he will face a second round against his closest challenger Abdullah Abdullah.

The statement said the monitors should be referring their findings to the Independent Election Commission and the Electoral Complaints Commission.

"We believe the only way we can have a legitimate result out of the current process is to allow the legal institutions to complete the process and refrain from interfering in their affairs," the statement said.

Asked about the preliminary result announcement, Karzai spokesman Waheed Omar said it still needed to be confirmed by the watchdog.

But he added: "Unless a miracle happens, we are the winner."

Dimitra Ioannou, from the EU monitoring mission, had said that of the suspicious votes cast, 1.1m were for Mr Karzai and 300,000 for his main challenger, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah.

"Massive fraud was taking place at polling station level and when all these ballot boxes arrived at the tally centres, instead of being quarantined and investigated, they were accepted as good results."


AFGHAN POLL FRAUD
15 Sep: ECC chief says 10% of votes need to be recounted
8 Sep: Poll complaints body orders some recounts nationwide
8 Sep: IEC says votes from 600 polling stations "quarantined"
3 Sep: Claims 30,000 fraudulent votes cast for Karzai in Kandahar
30 Aug: 2,000 fraud allegations are probed; 600 deemed serious
20 Aug: Election day and claims 80,000 ballots were filled out fraudulently for Karzai in Ghazni
18 Aug: Ballot cards sold openly and voter bribes offered

The BBC's Martin Patience in Kabul says the allegations could put pressure on the complaints commission to widen its investigation into voter fraud.

The EU-Karzai row was apparently mirrored in the rift within the UN mission.

Mr Eide and Mr Galbraith reportedly disagreed over the extent to which vote recounts were necessary.

Mr Galbraith was said to have advocated a wholesale recount.

Such a move would probably mean a second-round run-off, potentially leaving Afghanistan in political limbo for months.

Mr Eide said Mr Galbraith would "leave the mission for a while and then he'll come back".

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I don't give anyone a reason to HATE ME. They create their own drama out of PURE JEALOUSY...!!!

Talks only way forward for Indo-Pak peace: Zardari [Geo TV] 17 Sep, 2009



LONDON: President Asif Ali Zardari Thursday said the negotiations are the only way which could ensure the peace between Pakistan and India.

Talking to a UK-based newspaper in an interview, he said,In our view, the resumption of a sustained engagement and dialogue with India could ally each others'' concerns. Both Pakistan and India need to avoid hostile propaganda and confrontation against each other

The president continued, Pakistan is ready to cooperate with India to punish the perpetrators of terror attacks in Mumbai. Pakistan has assured that it would not allow its territory to be used against India for any acts of terror.

Zardari underscored that India must also reciprocate and address our concerns which are very genuine, adding the dialogue is the only way forward; absence of dialogue leads to tension.

President Zardari said soon after re-election as prime minister in May, 2009, Manmohan Singh accused Pakistan of involvement in [the] Mumbai incident, adding these allegations were rejected by Pakistan.

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Jo ALLAH karay c .. o sohna karay c
jab bhi kaam aaya mera PARVARIGAAR kaam aaya

Updated at: 2300 PST, Thursday, September 17, 2009
ISLAMABAD: The Federation and the four provinces have decided to jointly approach the Supreme Court of Pakistan over the issue of sugar crisis and file a petition in this regard at SC on Friday.

The decision was made at a 3-hour long meeting chaired by the Prime Minister of Pakistan here at Prime Minister House on Thursday.

During meeting, the Prime Minister said the apex court will be apprised about the situation arising as a result of the government’s decision in connection with the fixation of sugar price.

It was decided that steps will be taken to ensure smooth supply of sugar to the people on the eve of Eid-ul-Fitr.

The meeting also reviewed the available stock of sugar in the country

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Life is a tale told by an idiot...

Last updated at 23: 04 GMT, Friday, 18 September 2009

Anger at Iranian Holocaust denial

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly denied the Holocaust
The Iranian president's latest denial of the Nazi Holocaust has drawn strong condemnation from Western powers.

Speaking in the capital, Tehran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the Holocaust was a "a lie based on an unprovable and mythical claim".

Germany said the comments were a "disgrace to his country" while the US said they would "isolate Iran further".

Mr Ahmadinejad made the remarks at an annual rally where opposition supporters clashed with police.

Reformists, who have been banned from holding demonstrations since disputed presidential elections in June, defied warnings not to use the pro-Palestinian Quds (Jerusalem) Day marches to stage protests.

'Unacceptable and shocking'

As part of the Quds Day events, President Ahmadinejad delivered a speech in which he repeated previous assertions that the Holocaust was a lie.

"The pretext [the Holocaust] for the creation of the Zionist regime [Israel] is false," he told worshippers at Tehran university.

"It is a lie based on an unproveable and mythical claim."

In reaction, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs cited President Barack Obama's assertion in a speech to the Muslim world that "denying the Holocaust is baseless, ignorant and hateful".

"Promoting those vicious lies serves only to isolate Iran further from the world," Mr Gibbs said.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said: "This sheer anti-Semitism demands our collective condemnation.

"We will continue to confront it decisively in the future."

A French foreign ministry spokesman called the remarks "unacceptable and shocking", while British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said the denial was "abhorrent as well as ignorant".

"It is very important that the world community stands up against this tide of abuse," Mr Miliband said.

Reformists attacked

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Tehran that it also risked further isolation and economic pressure if it did not provide answers soon about its nuclear ambitions.

Western powers suspect Iran wants to develop nuclear weapons, though Iran insists its programme is purely to generate power for civilian uses.

UN Security Council powers and Germany are due to hold talks on the programme at the UN General Assembly next week.

The BBC's Kim Ghattas reports from Washington that despite Mr Ahmadinejad's Holocaust comments and Iran's disputed election, the US offer to engage diplomatically with Iran is still on the table.

Even so, the US ambassador to the UN said there would be no meeting between Mr Obama and Mr Ahmadinejad at the UN.

At the rally in Tehran, thousands of opposition supporters turned out, shouting slogans in support of defeated presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi.

Reports say there were clashes between police and protesters as the march progressed, with some arrests. Stones were thrown, and police used tear gas.

Iranian state-run channel Press TV showed footage of an opposition rally, with many supporters wearing green, the colour adopted by supporters of Mr Mousavi.

Mr Mousavi was forced to leave the rally after his car was attacked, the official Irna news agency reported, while former President Mohammad Khatami - also a reformist - was reportedly pushed to the ground and had his turban knocked off, before police intervened.

==============================================

Last updated at 19:10 GMT, Friday, 18 September 2009

A senior UN envoy says the situation in Sri Lankan camps for Tamils displaced by the recent war is putting reconciliation at risk.

Lynn Pascoe, the UN's political chief, was speaking at the end of a two-day visit to the island.

Earlier, President Mahinda Rajapaksa said he expected 265,000 refugees to be resettled by the end of January.

He also said displaced Tamils were to receive day passes from camps so they could go to work outside.

Mr Pascoe, a deputy to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, said the UN was devoting special energy to the displaced Tamils, most still interned in camps, because the issue was critical for the country's future.

He said the current situation risked breeding resentment that would undermine the prospects for political reconciliation.

He told the BBC there had to be a mechanism for addressing claims of human rights breaches during the civil war, despite Sri Lanka's repeated dismissal of such suggestions.

"The real issue here is the long-term viability of Sri Lankan democracy, the direction the society is heading," he said.

"Frankly, one has to deal with the past to move on to the future, which is exactly what Sri Lanka should be doing."

Mr Pascoe also described as "shabby" the treatment of some UN staff in Sri Lanka.

Two Sri Lankan members of staff have been under arrest since June and a Unicef spokesman is facing expulsion.

The government has been tackling some of the diplomat's criticisms head-on.

Speaking earlier, President Rajapaksa said he expected the resettlement to be complete by the January deadline.

A statement on the government website said he was also sticking to the government's target that most of them - he gave a figure of at least 70% - should be out by late November.

According to UN figures, nearly 265,000 people remain in camps, most of them at one huge site, and fewer than 15,000 have so far left.

UN sources have meanwhile confirmed to the BBC that some refugees permitted to leave the biggest camp a week ago have in fact been placed in transit camps nearer to their homes in eastern Sri Lanka.

It is not clear how long they are to remain there but officials say the people are undergoing further security vetting and instructions on their release are awaited from the capital.

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I don't give anyone a reason to HATE ME. They create their own drama out of PURE JEALOUSY...!!!

Stop blaming Pakistan FM tells UK

The British Government should stop “passing the buck” by repeatedly blaming Pakistan for home-grown terror plots targeted at the UK, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has warned.

Qureshi In an interview in London to The Independent said Pakistan could offer the West crucial help in ending the war in Afghanistan but stressed that, to achieve a lasting settlement in the region, Britain in particular, had to demonstrate “more sensitivity” to the political difficulties Pakistan faces in maintaining domestic support for its fight against extremism.

Qureshi claimed recent military victories against the Taliban in the Swat Valley were a sign Pakistan was managing to “turn the tide” against the insurgency.

But in a sign of the frustration felt in Islamabad at being lectured to by Britain on the perceived failure to root out extremism, he delivered the blunt message: “We need to change the language.”

The return of civilian government after years of military rule, and the commitment of President Asif Ali Zardari to ending militancy, had brought strong gains in the struggle to defeat jihadist groups, he said. For the first time, there was a “political ownership” of the war on extremism.

“We need to recognise the change that has come about in Pakistan,” he said. “The problems we have are not solely of our creation. The rest of the world helped to create this menace; now we are saying, ‘Help us to eradicate this menace, this evil’. If we are allies and friends we have got to work together. We need each other’s co-operation but I do think we have to be more sensitive.”

“It is easy to pass the buck”, Qureshi told the newspaper, “but [the liquid bomb plotters] were British citizens. They went to school here, they are part of the British system, they live here. If they do something extraordinary is it fair that Pakistan should be blamed?”

He acknowledged that Pakistan’s military was not yet ready to deliver on US demands for a massive ground assault on South Waziristan. But such an operation was “in the pipeline”, he said.

Despite the West’s nuclear stand-off with Tehran, there is also an important role for Iran in the search for reconciliation in Afghanistan, he stressed.


Regards

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Main ne Allah ko apne iradon ke tootne se pehchana ... !!

Another time, another anthem [Dawn News] 19 Sep, 2009




Most people are unaware that prior to Hafeez Jullundhri’s Persianised lyrics being adopted as the national anthem in the 1950s, Pakistan had a national anthem — commissioned and approved by no less a person than Mohammad Ali Jinnah.

The lyricist was the Isa Khel (Mianwali)-born Jagannath Azad, son of the renowned poet Tilok Chand Mahroom (who won accolades for his rendering of naat at mushairas). A few bloggers have made mention of this in the past but I learnt of it recently through an unexpected source — an article on the history of Pakistan’s flag and national anthem in PIA’s monthly Hamsafar magazine (‘Pride of Pakistan’, by Khushboo Aziz, August issue).

‘Quaid-i-Azam, being the visionary that he was, knew an anthem would also be needed, not only to be used in official capacity but [to] inspire patriotism in the nation. Since he was secular-minded, enlightened, and although very patriotic but not in the least petty, Jinnah commissioned a Hindu, Lahore-based writer Jagannath Azad three days before independence to write a national anthem for Pakistan. Jagannath submitted these lyrics:

Ae sarzameene paak

Zarray teray haen aaj sitaaron se taabnaak

Roshan hai kehkashaan se kaheen aaj teri khaak

Ae sarzameene paak’

(‘Oh land of Pakistan, the stars themselves illuminate each particle of yours/rainbows brighten your very dust.’)

As Jaswant Singh’s recent book on Mr Jinnah created ripples in mid-August, The Kashmir Times, Jammu, published a short piece, ‘A Hindu wrote Pakistan’s first national anthem — How Jinnah got Urdu-knowing Jagannath Azad to write the song’ (Aug 21, 2009). The reproduction of a front-page report by Luv Puri in The Hindu (Jun 19, 2005), it drew on Puri’s interview of Azad in Jammu city days before his death, published in Milli Gazette, New Delhi (Aug 16-31, 2004).

Azad told Puri that he was working at a literary newspaper in Lahore ‘when mayhem had struck…. All my relatives had left for India and for me to think of leaving Lahore was painful.... My Muslim friends requested me to stay on and took responsibility [for] my safety.’ On the morning of Aug 9, 1947, he received a message from Pakistan’s first governor-general, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, through a friend working in Radio Lahore ‘who called me to his office. He told me ‘Quaid-i-Azam wants you to write a national anthem for Pakistan’.’

Azad felt it would be difficult to do in five days, but agreed upon his friend’s insistence as the request had come from the Quaid.

Why him? Azad thought the answer lay in Jinnah’s speech of Aug 11, 1947, stating that if everyone saw themselves ‘first, second and last a citizen of this state with equal rights, privileges, and obligations … in the course of time, Hindus will cease to be Hindus and Muslims will cease to be Muslims, not in the religious sense because that is the personal faith of each individual, but in the political sense as citizens of the state’.

‘Even I was surprised when my colleagues in Radio Pakistan, Lahore approached me,’ recalled Azad. ‘… They confided in me that ‘Quaid-i-Azam wanted the anthem to be written by an Urdu-knowing Hindu’. Through this, I believe Jinnah Sahib wanted to sow the roots of secularism in a Pakistan where intolerance had no place.’

Mr Jinnah approved Azad’s lyrics within hours, and the anthem was broadcast on Radio Pakistan, Karachi.

Increasing insecurity forced Azad to migrate to Delhi in mid-September 1947. He returned to Lahore in October, says his son Chander K. Azad in an email to this writer. ‘However, his friends advised him against staying as they found it difficult to keep him safe.... He returned to Delhi with a refugee party.’

Azad had a distinguished career in India — eminent Urdu poet, journalist and editor, authority on Allama Iqbal, author of over 70 books, government servant (retired in 1997), and recipient of numerous awards and honours. His last wish, he told Puri, would be to write a song of peace for both India and Pakistan.

His lyrics survived in Pakistan barely six months beyond Mr Jinnah’s death in September 1948. ‘The people and the constitutional bodies of the country wanted to have a more patriotic and more passionate national anthem that depicted their values and identity to the world,’ explains Hamsafar.

The National Anthem Committee (NAC), formed in December 1948, took two years to finalise a new anthem, finally choosing NAC member Hafeez Jullundhri’s poem from among 723 submissions.

The anthem commissioned by Mr Jinnah was just one of his legacies that his successors rejected, along with the principles he stressed in his address to the Constituent Assembly on Aug 11, 1947 — his political will and testament according to his official biographer Hector Bolitho.

Pakistan’s inherited problems that Mr Jinnah outlined in that speech included the maintenance of law and order (the state must protect ‘the life, property and religious beliefs of its subjects’), the ‘curse’ of bribery and corruption, the ‘monster’ of black-marketing, and the ‘great evil’ of nepotism.

This speech, literally censored by ‘hidden hands’ as Zamir Niazi documents in Press in Chains (1986), also contains the famous ‘fundamental principle that we are all citizens and equal citizens of one state’, where religious identity becomes secondary and where religion, caste or creed ‘has nothing to do with the business of the state....’

In March 1949, the Objectives Resolution laid the basis for recognising Pakistan as a state based on an ideology.

In all these deviations from Mr Jinnah’s vision, perhaps discarding Azad’s poem appears minuscule. But it is important for its symbolism. It must be restored and given a place of honour, at least as a national song our children can learn. After all, Indian children learn Iqbal’s Saarey jahan se accha. Such symbolism is necessary if we are to resurrect Mr Jinnah’s vision of a nation where religion, caste or creed ‘has nothing to do with the business of the state’.

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Jo ALLAH karay c .. o sohna karay c
jab bhi kaam aaya mera PARVARIGAAR kaam aaya

Saturday, 19 september, 2009, 19:53 GMT

’ہنگو کے ناظم اعتکاف میں قتل‘

صوبہ سرحد میں پولیس کا کہنا ہے کہ ایک حملے میں ضلع ہنگو کے ناظم حاجی خان افضل ہلاک اور ان کے تین رشتہ دار زخمی ہو گئے ہیں۔

ضلع ہنگو پولیس کے ترجمان فضل نعیم نے بی بی سی کو بتایا کہ حاجی خان افضل وچ بازار کے علاقے میں اپنے گھر کے قریب واقع مسجد میں اعتکاف میں بیٹھے ہوئے تھے۔ عشاء کی نماز کے بعد وہ وضو کرنے غسل خانے کے قریب پہنچے کہ اس دوران دھماکہ ہوا۔

پولیس کے مطابق دھماکے میں حاجی خان افضل موقع پر ہلاک جبکہ ان کے تین رشتہ دار زخمی ہوگئے جن کی حالت خطرے سے باہر بتائی جا رہی ہے۔

انہوں نے مزید کہا کہ ابھی تک ملزمان کا پتہ نہیں چلایا جاسکا ہے اور نہ ہی کسی پر شک ظاہر کیا گیا ہے۔ تاہم ان کے مطابق یہ قتل ملک میں جاری دہشت گردی کے وارداتوں کے سلسلے کی ایک کڑی ہے۔

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I don't give anyone a reason to HATE ME. They create their own drama out of PURE JEALOUSY...!!!

Updated at: 55 PST, Monday, September 21, 2009

Musharraf to return Pakistan under good circumstance

PHILADELPHIA: Former president Pervez Musharraf said he will not retaliate against those, who are demanding to try him under Article 6.

Talking to Geo News Sammi Ibrahim after Eid prayer in Philadelphia, he said he will return Pakistan when circumstances improve.

Former president ruled out the possibility of another coup, however said that he will return home under pleasant conditions.

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I don't give anyone a reason to HATE ME. They create their own drama out of PURE JEALOUSY...!!!

India launches seven satellites: space agency [Geo TV] 23 Sep, 2009



BANGALORE: India successfully launched seven satellites including six from foreign countries on Wednesday, officials said, underlining the country''s ambitions in the space business.

About a month after its first moon mission was aborted, the country''s space agency announced that the seven satellites had been put into orbit about 720 kilometres (447 miles) above the earth.

India will use one of the satellites, Oceansat-2, for monitoring ocean patterns, backing up the first Oceansat, which was launched in 1999.

Of the six foreign satellites, there are four from Germany and one each from Switzerland and Turkey.

"It was a perfect launch," Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman G. Madhavan Nair said from the spaceport Sriharikota, about 80 kilometres north-east of Chennai.

The cost of the launch was two billion rupees (40 million dollars), including 1.3 billion rupees for the satellite and 700 million rupees for the rocket, Satish said.

India began its space programme in 1963, developing its own satellites and launch vehicles to cut dependence on overseas agencies.

It first staked its claim for a share of the global commercial launch market by sending an Italian satellite into orbit in 2007.

India launched an unmanned satellite and put a probe on the moon''s surface to great fanfare and national pride late last year, but controllers lost contact with the space vehicle last month and aborted the mission.




FoDP conference today in New York [Geo TV] 24 Sep, 2009



NEW YORK: Friends of Democratic Pakistan (FoDP) conference is being held today in New York.

President Asif Ali Zardari, US President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown will jointly preside the meeting.

Canada, Australia, China, France, Germany, Denmark, Italy, Japan, Norway, UAE, Holland, Korea, Saudi Arab, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, Asian Development Bank, Islamic Development Bank, World Bank and delegates of UN will attend the conference.

The conference will discuss how to back Pakistan to win war against terror and overcome the rising challenges

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Jo ALLAH karay c .. o sohna karay c
jab bhi kaam aaya mera PARVARIGAAR kaam aaya