PML-Q demands governorship of Punjab: Sources

ISLAMABAD:
The Pakistan Muslim League – Quaid (PML-Q) on Thursday demanded the governorship of Punjab as a condition for joining the government.

According to sources, the PML-Q has proposed the name of Maqsood Leghari as Governor of Punjab. Leghari has also reportedly met the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leadership in Islamabad.

The PML-Q has agreed to join the PPP-led government, but a final decision will be taken at the party’s general council meeting in Islamabad on April 25, sources said.

The PPP has begun wooing major political parties to form a stable, broad-based government ahead of next year’s Senate elections.

The PML-Q’s wish-list also includes half a dozen ministries in the federal cabinet and some assurances on politics in Punjab where it is facing serious threats from the PML-N. Other demands include the disqualification of the breakaway ‘unification bloc’ and accommodation in the Senate elections.

The government has planned expansion in the cabinet in two phases. In the first phase, it wants to induct some PPP members in the cabinet while in the second phase its potential allies would be accommodated.

Source: Demand of PML-Q

ISLAMABAD: The top US military officer accused Pakistan’s intelligence agency of maintaining ties to militants in Afghanistan during a trip to Islamabad on Wednesday that was focused on easing diplomatic tensions.

Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Pakistan’s perceived foot-dragging in tackling strongholds in North Waziristan belonging to the Haqqani network and its continuing relationship with it was “the most difficult part” of the US-Pakistani relationship.

“It’s fairly well known that the ISI has a longstanding relationship with the Haqqani network,” he said in an interview with Pakistan’s daily Dawn newspaper.

“Haqqani is supporting, funding, training fighters that are killing Americans and killing coalition partners. And I have a sacred obligation to do all I can to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

“So that’s at the core – it’s not the only thing — but that’s at the core that I think is the most difficult part of the relationship,” Mullen said.

Pakistan’s powerful Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has long been suspected of maintaining ties to the Haqqani network, cultivated during the 1980s when Jalaluddin Haqqani was a feared battlefield commander against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.

“I don’t know what kind of relationship he’s talking about,” a senior Pakistani intelligence official told Reuters. “If he means we’re providing them with protection, with help, that’s not correct. Even if you are enemies, you have a relationship.”

He said that Pakistan had attacked Haqqani’s positions and raided his mosques in the past. “Right now, we are not attacking him because we are fully engaged against another group, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP),” he said.

Pakistan has been criticised in the past for distinguishing between “good” Taliban militants and “bad” ones, with the Haqqani network falling squarely into the former category.

While based in Pakistan’s wild North Waziristan area on the Afghan border, Haqqani refrains from attacking the Pakistani state and is seen as a way to maintain Pakistani influence in any future political settlement in Kabul.

The TTP, on the other hand, is a declared enemy of the Pakistani state and has been at war with the its army since 2007.

Before the trip, Mullen acknowledged that “we’ve had a very turbulent time,” but added that despite the tensions, all sides acknowledged the relationship was vital.

“I think that all of us believe that we cannot afford to let this relationship come apart,” Mullen said, referring to US and Pakistani military and intelligence chiefs.

“It’s just too dangerous. It’s too dangerous, in each country, for each country. It’s too dangerous for the region.”

He acknowledged that the relationship was difficult, but added: “We walk away from it at our peril, quite frankly.” – Reuters


Pakistan

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New provinces are needed in Sindh: Shahbaz Sharif

LAHORE:
Chief Minister Punjab, Shahbaz Sharif said on Sunday that new provinces were not only needed in Punjab, but were are also needed in Sindh.
The Punjab Cheif Minister made this comment while talking to the media during his visit to Dera Ghazi Khan. His statement comes against the backdrop of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani’s recent demand for a Seraiki province in the PPP manifesto.

Reactions

ANP and MQM rejected the division of Sindh proposed by CM Punjab saying that this statement is an effort to play down the demands of Seraiki province in Punjab.

Secretary general ANP, Sindh Bashir Jaan said that only Sindhi people have the right to demand the formation of new provinces. He said the Seraiki area has never been part of Punjab and its people have the right to demand a new province. He added that the people of Hazara Division also have the right to demand a new province.

Member of MQM coordination committee in Karachi, Qasim Ali Raza said that the people of Sindh and Karachi have never demanded division of the province. However in Punjab thousands of people are demanding new provinces.

Source: New Provinces in Sindh

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Pakistan: Karachi blast strikes naval bus

28 April 2011 Last updated at 04:39 GMT
A blast has hit a bus carrying navy officials in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi, wounding at least 15 people in the third such strike this week
The attack took place in the early hours of the morning in the Karsaz area of the city.Two days ago, Taliban militants attacked two buses carrying Pakistani naval staff, leaving four people dead and 56 wounded.The militants warned that further attacks would follow.A spokesman for the Sindh provincial government, Sharfuddin Memon, said the bomb had been detonated on the roadside as the bus, packed with navy officials, passed by."We have reports that 15 people have been injured," said Mr Memom.Police officials at the scene say they suspect the bomb was planted in a motorbike found near the blast site.A police officer told the BBC that the vehicle was targeted as it left a naval facility in the city, which is the headquarters for the country's navy.Tariq Naveed said the nature of the bombing "appears similar to the attack on two navy buses two days ago. But we will know for sure once the scene of the attack has been fully examined."Witnesses said the force of the blast was such that the explosion was heard at least one kilometre away and it caused considerable damage to other nearby vehicles and a petrol station.

Timothy Roemer, top US diplomat in India, resigns

28 April 2011 Last updated at 05:20 GMT US Ambassador to India Timothy Roemer has announced his resignation, a statement from u.s embassy said.
Ambassador Roemer, who arrived in India two years ago, is leaving for "personal, professional and family considerations," the release said.
Ties between India and US have grown stronger in recent years.
Last year, US President Barack Obama said the relationship between the two countries will be "one of the defining partnerships of the 21st century."
Ambassador Roemer is expected to leave India in June, the statement said.
"When I accepted this job two years ago, I told President Obama that I would serve for two years but that family considerations would be front and centre after that," Ambassador Roemer was quoted as saying in the news release."The US-India relationship - what my friend President Obama calls the defining partnership of the 21st century - has progressed to the global stage," he added.Ambassador Roemer's resignation comes on the day when the Indian media has been reporting that India has rejected two US companies bidding for a lucrative $10bn deal to buy fighter jets.
Neither the Indian or the US government have confirmed these reports.
Syria: EU push for UN condemnation fails

28 April 2011 Last updated at 06:19 GMT
A deeply divided UN Security Council has failed to agree on an EU-proposed statement condemning Syria's violent crackdown against protesters.
A draft proposed by France, Britain, Germany and Portugal was opposed by several within the 15-member council.Russia insisted that events in Syria did not constitute a threat to international peace.More than 450 people have allegedly been killed since the pro-democracy protests began nearly six weeks ago.China and India called for political dialogue and peaceful resolution of the crisis, but stopped short of condemning the violence.
Alexander Pankin, Russia's Ambassador to the UN, warned that a "real threat to regional security could arise from outside interference in Syria's domestic situation".Moscow has increasingly opposed military action in Libya, arguing that operations against Col Gaddafi's forces have been exceeded the scope of a Security Council resolution.Syria's ambassador to the UN, Bashar Jaafari, said his government would resist external intervention in his country's affairs.
"As a government, we cannot accept that some claim to value the lives of our sons more than we do. The policies of interfering in affairs of other states through various justifications and pretexts have always proven to be erroneous," he said.

'Abhorrent violence'
The BBC's Barbara Plett, at the UN headquarters in New York, says that, apart from Libya, the UN Security Council has not responded very much to revolts across the Arab world.She adds that Russia's growing uneasiness about the international intervention in Libya - which Moscow says is going beyond its UN mandate to protect civilians - had probably hardened its position on Syria.But the US ambassador called on Syria to stop what it called the government's abhorrent violence, and on the international community to act."My government calls on President [Bashar] Assad to change course now and heed the calls of his own people," said Susan Rice."We also call on the international community to respond to this brutal crackdown and to hold accountable those who are perpetrating these gross human rights violations," she added.Both the US and the Europeans warned that, unless the demands for reform are heeded quickly, they will be pressing for additional sanctions.The text proposed by the European states at the Security Council condemned the violence against civilians and backed UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's call for a "transparent" independent investigation into deaths in the protests.
Communications cut
On Wednesday, five EU nations - France, Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain - jointly summoned Syrian ambassadors to condemn Damascus' crackdown.
There were reports of further shooting in the southern city of Deraa where the rallies first erupted last month and more tanks were said to be headed towards the city, where army troops have attacked protesters.President Assad's government disputes the Western view that the demonstrations have been non-violent.In a statement carried by the official news agency, it said it had sent troops to several cities on the request of citizens who were worried about "armed extremists". Opposition leaders say the protests are peaceful.Footage posted on the internet appeared to show Syrian tanks heading towards Deraa to reinforce troops who moved into it on Monday.
Amnest international quoted eyewitnesses as saying army snipers were shooting at wounded residents lying in the streets and that other people were trying to save them.But with communications apparently cut off from Deraa, it is hard to be sure what is happening there, the BBC's Jim Muir in neighbouring Lebanon says.On Wednesday, a human rights activist said he had documented the case of a soldier being shot by the army for refusing to fire on protesters in Baniyas.The army blamed radical Islamists for his death, but mourners at the soldier's funeral "openly accused the security forces of shooting that soldier", Wissam Tarif, director of the Syrian human rights organisation Insan, told the BBC.On Friday, the UN Human Rights Council is due to hold an emergency session to consider a draft resolution demanding an immediate end to President Assad's efforts to crush the challenge to his rule.The text also calls on Syria to lift its ban on nearly all foreign media and ease its restrictions on the internet and telecommunication

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Israel rejects Palestinian unity government with Hamas

28 April 2011 Last updated at 10:24 GMT

Israeli officials have criticized a reconciliation deal between rival Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas.The foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman warned that Israel would not negotiate with the new unity government.The US also responded coolly, saying the government that resulted must recognize Israel and renounce violence.Under the agreement brokered in Egypt on Wednesday, an interim Palestinian government will be formed and a date fixed for elections.Palestinians hope the move will end infighting that was politically damaging and caused hundreds of deaths.The Fatah party of the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas - which runs parts of the West Bank - and Hamas, which governs Gaza, have been divided for more than four years.Their surprise deal, announced and brokered in Cairo, came after months of failed"It needs to be clear that such an agreement crosses a red line," Mr Lieberman told Israeli military radio on Thursday."The significance of the agreement is that... hundreds of terrorists will flood the West Bank and therefore we need to prepare for a different situation," he added.He threatened measures to restrict the freedom of movement of Mr Abbas and the Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and freeze the transfer of taxes collected by Israel for the PA.Earlier the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, warned that the PA could not have peace with both Hamas and Israel."I hope the Palestinian Authority will make the right choice - peace with Israel," he said.Hamas has carried out bombings and rocket attacks against Israel for years and does not recognise its right to exist. Public pressureThousands of Palestinians protested in Gaza this month, calling for reconciliation.The protests were inspired by uprisings elsewhere in the Middle East and North Africa. Further demonstrations were planned for 15 May.The split between Fatah and Hamas occurred when violence erupted a year after Hamas won Palestinian elections in 2006. Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007.The BBC's Jonathan Head in Cairo says that if the deal goes ahead, it will end the bitter hostility between the two sides and remove a significant barrier to the Palestinian campaign for statehood.But he says there are many difficult issues to resolve - such as how the two factions will share security, how Gaza and the West Bank, separated by Israeli territory, will be governed, and whether the international donors will be willing to recognise Hamas.Fatah and Hamas had been close to a deal last year but Hamas withdrew, saying the terms had been revised without its agreement. Mr Abbas has since been pushing for reconciliation.The BBC's Wyre Davies in Jerusalem says the Netanyahu government has repeatedly said it will not sit down and talk about a two-state solution if Hamas is any way involved.Mr Netanyahu told the Palestinian Authority on Wednesday: "There cannot be peace with both [Israel and Hamas] because Hamas wants to destroy Israel and says so openly. It shoots missiles at our cities, it fires anti-tank missiles at our children."I think that the idea of reconciliation shows the weakness of the Palestinian Authority and raises the question whether Hamas will take over Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] as it has taken over the Gaza Strip."US National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said: "The United States supports Palestinian reconciliation on terms which promote the cause of peace."Hamas, however, is a terrorist organisation which targets civilians. To play a constructive role in achieving peace, any Palestinian government must... renounce violence, abide by past agreements, and recognise Israel's right to exist."Violence between Israel and militant groups in Gaza escalated this March following a rocket attack on an Israeli school bus that killed a teenage boy.Israel also launched a full-scale ground operation - named Cast Lead - in the Gaza Strip that began in December 2008 and ended in January 2009 rounds of talks.

sourceBBC News - Israel rejects Palestinian unity government with Hamas

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Yorkshire's Gibson breaks English first-class record

Yorkshire's Barney Gibson has become the youngest English first-class cricketer - aged 15 years and 27 days.
Wicketkeeper Gibson took two catches during an 81,2 per shint behind the stumps in the three-day game against Durham University on Wednesday.
Previous record holder Charles Young was 104 days older when he played for Hampshire against Kent in 1867."For the first couple of overs I felt a bit shaky, then I tried to be myself, stand there and catch it," Gibson said. "It feels excellent to have gone into the history books," added the Leeds-born gloveman, who spent four years with the academy of Championship football side Leeds United as a goalkeeper prior to pursuing a career in cricket.The teenager, a pupil at Crawshaw School in Pudsey, was given special dispensation to play in the match, which also featured England pace bowler Ajmal Shahzad."On a normal Wednesday I would have had science three times, maths and RE (religious education) so it was not a bad day to miss. The school set me work to do while I am here so I will have to get cracking on some business studies," Gibson explained.

Coach Martyn Moxon was not surprised by the teenager's smooth elevation to the first team."He did really well. He has kept in our second XI for a few games this year and a couple at the end of last season and not been fazed by it," the former England batsman told BBC Radio 4's Today programme."He's very unflustered, he knew exactly what he needed to do in terms of preparation and got on with it without any fuss which is a measure of how mature he is."It's a fantastic achievement which will take some beating. He's got to get his school work out of the way first but he's a tremendous lad and hopefully he'll do well in his career."
India chooses European fighters over US rivals

India has shortlisted two European fighters and ruled out two US rivals for a key $11bn military contract.
The Indian defence ministry picked the pan-European Eurofighter and France-based Dessault's Rafale ahead of jets made by Boeing and Lockheed Martin.The US ambassador in India said the US was "deeply disappointed" by the news.President Barack Obama had personally lobbied on behalf of the US defence contractors, as had European leaders on behalf of the European jets."It is confirmed Eurofighter and Rafale have been selected and the remaining four are off," said the Indian defence ministry. The other two companies to miss out were Sweden's Saab and the Russian makers of the MiG 35.'Political setback'The ambassador, Timothy Roemer, said: "We are reviewing the documents received from the government of India and are respectful of the procurement process."
He added that the US "looked forward to continuing to grow and develop our defence partnership with India".However, some commentators suggested there could be some political fallout from the decision.
"The Americans will be very unhappy and people who have been backing the contract will say India has not sufficiently taken into account the political relationship with the US," said former Indian foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal."That is a political setback for relations."Mr Roemer announced separately that he was resigning from his post for "personal, professional and family considerations".Big spendersA report published last month said that India had overtaken China to become the world's largest importer of arms.The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said India accounted for 9% of all weapons imports between 2006 and 2010.With a $32.5bn (£19.5bn) defence budget, India imports more than 70% of its arms.The $11bn deal for 126 fighter jets is part of plan to spend $50bn over the next five years on modernising its armed forces.

YouTube founders buy Delicious from Yahoo

The founders of video-sharing site YouTube have bought bookmarking service Delicious from Yahoo.Chad Hurley and Steve Chen will use Delicious as a key part of their next net venture called Avos. The startup is thought to be based around tools that help people get to grips with the vast amount of information generated by web sites and services.How much the pair paid to acquire Delicious has not been revealed. Data deluge,Delicious describes itself as a social bookmarking system in which members flag and tag sites, articles and media they find interesting.These can then be shared with other Delicious users. Its name derives from its desire to find the "tastiest" bookmarks on the web.Delicious was acquired in 2005 by Yahoo and in late 2010 the web giant decided to sell it off or close it down if no buyer came forward. Now Mr Hurley and Mr Chen have acquired Delicious to form part of the technology underpinning their new firm Avos.Details about Avos and what it will do are scant. A statement from Chad Hurley following the Delicious acquisition said the company will aim to help people manage the information gushing from the web services they use."We see a tremendous opportunity to simplify the way users save and share content they discover anywhere on the web," Mr Hurley said.The pair sold YouTube to Google in 2006 for $1.76bn (£1.06bn). Steve Chen left YouTube in 2008 and Mr Hurley quit working for Google in late 2010.Delicious will continue in its current form until July 2011. Users are being asked to login to the service and agree to let Yahoo move their account to the new owners.
Russia to freeze petrol exports for month of May

The energy ministry in Russia has banned the export of petrol during the month of May after fuel ran out in parts of the country.The crisis stems from when Prime Minister Vladimir Putin moved to restrain pump prices in February.Fuel companies in turn sought higher prices in other countries.Russia is renowned as one of the world's biggest exporters of crude oil but is not so well known for selling refined petrol.In the first quarter of this year the amount of petrol exported by rail was 40% higher than in the same period last year.The knock-on effect of that emerged this month when fuel stations in parts of Russia including St Petersburg started running dry. So now the government has stepped in again


BBC NEWS

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Syria tried to build nuclear reactor: IAEA chief


PARIS: The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said for the first time that a target destroyed by Israeli warplanes in the Syrian desert in 2007 was the covert site of a future nuclear reactor, countering assertions by Syria that it had no atomic secrets.
Previous reports by the International Atomic Energy Agency have suggested that the structure could have been a nuclear reactor.Thursday’s comments by IAEA chief Yukiya Amano were the first time the agency has said so unequivocally.By aligning Amano with the US, which first asserted three years ago that the bombed target was a nuclear reactor, the comments could increase pressure on Syria to stop stonewalling agency requests for more information on its nuclear activities.Amano spoke during a news conference meant to focus on the Fukushima nuclear disaster after a visit to the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development to discuss clean-up efforts at Japan’s tsunami-ravaged nuclear plant.”The facility that was … destroyed by Israel was a nuclear reactor under construction,” he told a full news conference in response to a question from The Associated Press, repeating to the AP in taped comments afterward: ”It was a reactor under construction.”
Suggesting that Amano had erred in making the public comments, the IAEA later put out a statement that he ”did not say that the IAEA had reached the conclusion that the site was definitely a nuclear reactor.”
The rollback reflected previous, more circumspect, IAEA language. In a February report, Amano had said only that features of the bombed structure were ”similar to what may be found at nuclear reactor sites.”
Israel has never publicly commented on the strike or even acknowledged carrying it out. The US has shared intelligence with the agency that identifies the structure as a nearly completed nuclear reactor that, if finished, would have been able to produce plutonium for the fissile core of nuclear warheads.Syria denies allegations of any covert nuclear activity or interest in developing nuclear arms. Its refusal to allow IAEA inspectors new access to the bombed Al Kibar desert site past a visit three years ago has heightened suspicions that it had something to hide, along with its decision to level the destroyed structure and later build over it.Drawing on the 2008 visit by its inspectors, the IAEA determined that the destroyed building’s size and structure fit specifications that a reactor would have had. The site also contained graphite and natural uranium particles that could be linked to nuclear activities.The IAEA is also trying to probe several other sites for possible undeclared nuclear activities linked to the bombed target but Damascus has been uncooperative on most counts, saying that most of the sites are restricted because of their military nature. – AP
SOURCESyria tried to build nuclear reactor: IAEA chief | World | DAWN.COM

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Pakistan conducts flight test of Hatf-8 missile

Pakistan conducted a successful flight test of the indigenously developed air launched cruise missile, Hatf-8 on Friday.

The nuclear-capable missile test was conducted as part of the continuous process of improving the technical parameters of the weapon system. The Ra’ad missile, with a range of over 350 km, has been developed exclusively for launch from aerial platforms.

This missile system has enabled Pakistan to achieve a greater strategic stand-off capability on land and at sea. ‘Cruise technology’ is extremely complex and has been developed by only a few countries in the world.

The state of the art Ra’ad cruise missile with stealth capabilities is a low altitude, terrain-hugging missile with high maneuverability, and can deliver nuclear and conventional warheads with great pinpoint accuracy.

The successful launch has been appreciated by the president and prime minister of Pakistan, and chairman joint chiefs of staff committee who have congratulated the scientists and engineers on their outstanding achievement.

Earlier this month, Pakistan successfully conducted the first flight test of the newly developed short range surface to surface multi-tube ballistic missile Hatf-9 (NASR).

Source: Hatf-8 Missile

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Source: BBC-Urdu

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