First female officer killed in Afghanistan died defusing daisy-chain of bombs

Captain Lisa Jade Head was fatally injured while clearing an alley laced with IEDs Photo: PA

 

Captain Lisa Head is believed to be the first ever female bomb disposal officer to be killed on operations after she died from wounds sustained on Monday.

The officer was clearing an alleyway laced with IEDs (Improvised Explosive Device) for a patrol of paratroopers in one of the most dangerous parts of Helmand when she received the fatal injuries.

Colleagues said she “placed herself into danger so that others may be kept safe”. A fellow officer called her “the bravest and most courageous woman I have ever met”.

In a statement her parents and sister said: “We are extremely proud of Lisa. Lisa always said that she had the best job in the world and she loved every second of it. Lisa had a fantastic life and lived it to the full.”

Capt Head, 29, who had worked in Northern Ireland’s counter-IED teams, had already safely defused one hidden bomb when she was hit while dealing with the second. The string of devices were placed in alleyway used by both Afghans and men from 2nd Bn The Parachute Regiment from Patrol Base Four in the Nar-e-Saraj district. She was 22 days into her six month tour of Afghanistan.

The officer is the second British female soldier to be killed in Afghanistan following the death of Cpl Sarah Bryant who died with three colleagues who were blown up in a Snatch Land Rover in 2008. Six servicewomen were killed in Iraq.

Capt Head, of 11 Explosive Ordnance Disposal Regiment, Royal Logistic Corps, received praise from a range of colleagues after she died in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham on Tuesday.
She was admired for her “selfless commitment” in dealing with the “most dangerous of threats in Afghanistan”.
The officer was described as a “strong-willed Yorkshire lass” who enjoyed banter with colleagues while having a cigarette.
Her boss Major Al Brown said she displayed an “easy confidence about undertaking the most demanding and nerve testing of jobs anywhere in the world”.
Lt Col Adam McRae, her commanding officer, said: “Lisa deployed to Afghanistan with the full knowledge of the threats she would face. These dangers did not faze her.
“Her potential was considerable and she will be an enormous loss to us all.
“She sits proudly along side our recent fallen, several of whom were her close friends which I know inspired her to deploy to Afghanistan.
Capt Head, who studied human biology at Huddersfield University, originally trained as an Air Transport Liaison Officer, deploying to Iraq in 2006 and Afghanistan in 2007.
She then made a dramatic career change by choosing to pursue a bomb disposal career. She passed the Ammunition Technical Officer course then went on to become one of the few women to pass the coveted High Threat Operators Course which set her at the pinnacle of the bomb disposal profession.
Her loss was called a “tragedy at every level” by Lt Col Andrew Harrison, 2 Para’s commanding officer.
“Having just arrived in our area, she immediately took on the task of clearing devices from one of the most dangerous areas in Helmand Province.”
He added that her “cool, considered valour defined her nature”.
“Lisa died to make this world a safer place for all.”
Liam Fox, the Defence Secretary, said: We owe a great debt of gratitude for her bravery and her commitment in her professional role, and for the sacrifice she has made to defend our national security.”
Her death brings the total number of British dead in Afghanistan to 364.

 

David Cameron under pressure to block EU demand for £400 per British family

Last year, Mr Cameron promised to fight for a 'cut or a freeze' in the 2011 EU budget, but was eventually forced to settle for a rise of 2.9 per cent Photo: AFP/GETTY IMAGES

The additional payment would take Britain’s annual EU contribution to more than £10 billion in 2012, the equivalent of £400 for every household.

The demand from the European Commission started a war of words, with Downing Street calling the request “ludicrous” and George Osborne, the Chancellor, accusing EU officials of having lost touch with reality. Last night the Government refused to say what, if any, increase in Britain’s contributions ministers were prepared to accept, prompting charges that they would eventually “roll over” and agree to hand over more taxpayers’ money.

In 2009, Britons paid £5.3 billion to the EU budget, with the payment rising to £9.2 billion in 2010.

Last year, Mr Cameron promised to fight for a “cut or a freeze” in the 2011 EU budget, but was eventually forced to settle for a rise of 2.9 per cent, costing Britain another £450 million.

The Commission has made a formal request to members for a £5.5 billion budget rise that would take EU spending next year to £117 billion.

Mr Osborne said the demand for more money was “completely unacceptable”, especially at a time when Britain was cutting spending to balance its own budget. “The European Commission need a reality check,” he said. “Europe needs to get in touch with reality and Brussels needs to look at what is happening in countries like Britain, and other countries as well in Europe, where we are all having to live within our means.”
British officials said Mr Cameron would seek to form an alliance with leaders from countries including France, Germany, Holland and Sweden to fight the planned rise. Last night a Downing Street source said: “The Commission has come up with a ludicrous figure. We see this is an opening salvo, but we have already begun reviving the group of leading nations to combat it and demand a lower figure.”
German and French leaders last year backed Mr Cameron’s call for a freeze in the 2011 EU budget, but after a power struggle with the Commission and the European Parliament, the leaders were eventually forced to accept the rise.
Wary of raising false expectations on this year’s budget fight, government spokesmen were yesterday careful not to say what, if any, increase Britain was prepared to accept. Douglas Carswell, a Conservative MP, said he was concerned that ministers would ultimately agree to pay more to Brussels: “I fear it’s a question of 'when’ and not 'if’ they roll over.”
Nigel Farage, the leader of the UK Independence Party, said: “The Commission have shown they have no respect for the British taxpayer with their latest demands so it’s time for Mr Cameron to stop with the talking and take action.”
The Commission demand ignores pleas from Mr Cameron, plus Angela Merkel of Germany and Nicolas Sarkozy of France for the EU to reduce Brussels’ expenditure in line with national cuts.
Critics of the EU claim it is more interested in enlarging European bureaucracy than in tackling the economic crisis in eurozone countries. Anger is growing among Europe’s governments over Brussels’ rocketing spending, especially with the creation of new institutions such as the EU foreign service.
Janusz Lewandowski, the EU budget commissioner who announced the increases yesterday, mocked British comments about austerity measures.
“Someone is criticising us, I have to say the UK budget is growing this year. Is this austerity?” Mr Lewandowski asked.

Libya: British photographer killed in Misurata

Mr Hetherington, who had won a World Press Photo of the Year award for his coverage of Afghanistan and had also made prize-winning film documentaries, was said by friends and colleagues to have died from a mortar round while on the front line.

The photographer, who was on assignment for the news agency Panos, is the first known British casualty of the Libyan conflict.

An American colleague, Chris Hondros, a photographer for Getty Images, died after being seriously wounded, according to Getty's director of photography, Pancho Bernasconi. Two other journalists were said to have been injured in the incident.

One of those injured was reported to be Guy Martin, a British photographer with Panos, who was receiving treatment in hospital last night.

The photographers were among a group caught by mortar fire on Tripoli Street, the main thoroughfare leading into the centre of Misurata, according to reports.

Spanish photographer Guillermo Cervera said: “It was quiet and we were trying to get away and then a mortar landed and we heard explosions.”
A colleague who was with them and was at the hospital confirmed the death on a Facebook page, prompting condolences from other foreign correspondents.
Mr Hetherington, 40, who was from Liverpool but had dual British and American nationality, read English literature at Oxford University before becoming a photographer and film-maker.
He spent eight years in West Africa, covering the Liberian and Sierra Leone civil wars there, before working in Afghanistan.
His first film, Restrepo, which covered the lives of a platoon of soldiers in Afghanistan, which was last year nominated for an Oscar.
Mr Hondros, 41, had been nominated for a Pulitzer prize in 2004 and also lectured and wrote on war in the United States.
Both men lived in New York.
James Golston of ABC-TV News USA, who worked with Mr Hetherinton on Nightline, a documentary about the war in Afghanistan, described him as “one of the bravest photographers and filmmakers I have ever met”.
He said: "During his shooting for the Nightline specials he very seriously broke his leg on a night march out of a very isolated forward operating base that was under attack.
“He had the strength and character to walk for four hours through the night on his shattered ankle without complaint and under fire, enabling that whole team to reach safety.”
Mr Hetherington last year described some of his experiences in Afghanistan as “pretty traumatic events”.
He said: “The thing about the wars in Afghanistan, they've been known as the ghost wars, you know, because not often does one really see the enemy.”
Mr Hetherington wrote on his Twitter profile last night: “In besieged Libyan city of Misurata. Indiscriminate shelling by Qaddafi forces. No sign of Nato.”
A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We are offering consular assistance to the family.”

Afraid of devolution?

WONDERS never cease. In the second decade of the 21st century, the transfer of power to the units of a federation has been made controversial! Efforts are being made to help the centre retain the privileges that rightfully belong to the provinces.
No student of politics will deny that Pakistan broke up in 1971 largely as a result of the policies designed to make the centre strong at the expense of provincial rights and aspirations. Nor can anyone forget that the failure to restore to the provinces what has always been due to them poses the greatest threat to the state’s integrity today.
We are also familiar with the arguments employed while calling for making the hands of one ruler or another strong. It was said the country faced so many threats that a centrally organised security edifice alone could preserve its integrity. The centre alone had the mental and physical wherewithal to achieve economic progress. In an Islamic state there could be only one centre of power and Pakistan had a special reason to crush centrifugal forces and fissiparous tendencies which were being fanned by the enemies of the state — democrats, secularists, advocates of the nationalities’ rights, separatists, et al.
For six decades, the politics of Pakistan revolved around the federal question. Any stratagem that could prevent the state
from becoming a federation was in order — the fiction of parity, the abolition of provinces in the western part of the original state, the imposition of martial law and the state’s declaration of war against the majority nationality and the smallest nationality both. No wonder almost all democratic movements in the country have had their origins in the federating units’ struggle for self-government.The central demand was that the centre should keep only three or four subjects such as foreign affairs, external security, currency and communications. All other subjects — internal security, local government, planning, education and social welfare — were to be restored to the provinces.
It is in this context that one should examine the national consensus on re-designing the polity by meeting some of the main demands of the federating units. The endorsement of the 18th Amendment by all shades of opinion in parliament is nothing short of a miracle. It not only marks a giant stride towards realising the promise of the 1973 constitution, in several respects it surpasses the 1973 consensus.
The 18th Amendment act may not be a perfect piece of constitutional legislation but the transfer of subjects from the centre to the provinces is not one of its blemishes. Indeed, that is the point of the highest merit in the whole scheme. Unfortunately, the amendment has not received from the people, especially civil society organisations that bear the heavy responsibility of guiding them, the attention it deserves, and the factors contributing to this situation need to be considered.
First, the process of demonising the politicians begun by the praetorian rulers in 1958 continues to this day. Although the politicians’ contribution to their fall from grace has not been insignificant they have been sinned against more than they have sinned. Some of the mud flung at them has rubbed off on parliament, and the people have developed a bias against it and against anything it does. Additionally, the professional critics of the government believe they must run down the 18th Amendment as part of a strategy to demolish it.
Secondly, the debate on a single article included in the amendment has overshadowed the nearly 100 other points of the reform. At the same time, the point on which the amendment could be criticised has been ignored — that it has bypassed the provinces’ right to judicial autonomy and ignored the plea for making the high courts the final courts in a large number of matters.
Thirdly, all those who claim to speak for the people have not adequately explained to them the link between a democratic constitution and their rights — to life, liberty, security, employment, development and peace. Most of them are wallowing in the belief that they have nothing to do with constitutional amendments because they are up to their nose in the battle to keep hunger and disease away from their doorsteps.
Fourthly, the provinces are considered tenants of the central rentier state and not its co-equal coordinates by Dicey’s definition.
These factors lend the voices of the denigrators of the scheme of devolution acceptability in the public they do not deserve on merit.
The most important argument against the devolution plan is that the provincial authorities do not have the capacity to discharge their added responsibilities. There is an element of truth in this contention just as it was there in the British argument for denying the South Asian people independence. The argument is as invalid today as it was 70 or 100 years ago.
Besides, the provinces cannot acquire the capacity for administering their affairs unless they are assigned this task. To say that devolution may wait till the provinces acquire the required capacity amounts to blocking their rights for ever.
Those who rely on this argument also miss the fact that fair governance is impossible until power is devolved from the provinces to local government institutions. The latter too are hit by the same argument. Any delay in the transfer of power to the provinces will also delay the empowerment of local bodies and communities.
Another argument is that there are matters of rights, equality and uniformity in development that can only be dealt with at the central level. This plea is valid only to the extent that citizens in all parts of a federation should have equal rights but the argument that the federating units cannot guarantee this is a presumption not backed by evidence and it also amounts to condemning the provincial communities unheard.
Besides, within the framework of an equality paradigm, different provinces have a right to address their social development with reference to their cultures and social sensibility. Those opposing devolution can invite the charge of ignoring Pakistan’s cultural and social diversity and the demands of a pluralist outlook.Nobody is mentioning the fact that those who have lorded over the people because of their grip over the levers of power at the centre and their beneficiaries have a vested interest in declaring that the heavens will fall if the provincial kamdars get a share of power. No surprise there. After all, the Raj and the regimes of Ayub and Ziaul Haq still have their defenders.
This is not to deny that like any major initiative devolution poses some teething problems but these problems do not cancel out the principle of democratic self-rule, which is the best form of governance known to humankind. These problems can be, and should be, solved through a sober dialogue. Nobody should be afraid of devolution; what we should be afraid of is the intrigue of vested interests to preserve a centralised state whose failure is choking the whole nation.

Challenge of rural poverty

SUCCESSIVE governments in Pakistan have taken numerous policy initiatives to alleviate poverty, yet the latter has continued to increase.
The International Fund for Agricultural Development’s Rural Poverty Report 2011 says that poverty is widespread in Pakistan and is predominant in the rural areas, holding that “nearly 80 per cent of the country’s poor people live in rural parts of the country”.
Agriculture is the heart of the rural economy. The sector is not just a source of food but also foreign exchange earnings and has done well in the past few years. Nevertheless, small landholders and landless peasants, whose work makes the country produce a surplus of grain, live in abject poverty, the basic reason being the unequal land distribution, particularly in Sindh.
Instead of the size of landholdings decreasing, in this province many feudal and neo-feudal families have been multiplying their acreages. In that race, they have not spared the riverine belts and common grazing grounds in arid areas. Whether in power or out of it, it is this class that benefits from governmental subsidy policies, extension of services and most importantly, has access to water. The powerful bring their entire holding under cultivation by usurping the water rights of small farmers and tail-enders.
Improving the lot of the rural poor would involve focusing on increasing yields per acre, generating self-employment activities and encouraging industrialisation. Additionally, there is a need to provide quality education and better health facilities, making potable water available and delivery services efficient. Yet in the interior of Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, challenges include the declining fertility of arable lands, high input costs, shortage of water and vulnerability to natural disasters. Thus bringing about improvements in the agricultural farming sector alone will not bring about real change.
There is a need to search for alternate sources of income, preferably indigenous ones with which rural people are familiar. Of these, the most common is livestock farming. Animal rearing is traditional in rural societies.
Sindh alone has over 35 million milch and meat animals, including a number of breeds at par with international standards. It is rich in milk production and yet cannot meet even half the milk demands of big cities in the province. Balochistan has more that 50 per cent of Pakistan’s estimated total of 26.488 million sheep. During Eid, there is a surge in demand for camels both in the Gulf and local markets. Sindh and Balochistan possess more than two-thirds of the estimated one million camels in
Pakistan. Given their location, they could attract greater attention from milk and meat importers in Muslim countries, particularly the Gulf where fresh deliveries can be ensured at low carriage cost.
Despite all these positive indicators, the livestock sector has been neglected. Small farmers, who contribute about 80 per cent of the milk production, have never been a priority with successive governments. Assistance and the extension of services have remained restricted to big farmers. Small-scale farmers do not have unfettered access to grazing fields and fodder, let alone feed that is rich in protein.
Federally funded projects such as the Pakistan Dairy Development Company and the Livestock and Dairy Development Board have failed to reach small farmers. The same state of affairs applies to provincial livestock departments. The Sindh Dairy and Meat Development Company Ltd, a first of its kind, multi-million project for small farmers that was launched using savings made by abandoning duplicate schemes in 2008, is still in limbo. Similarly, USAID and Japan International Cooperation Agency projects related to the livestock sector have yet to take off. Neither can much be expected from the recently launched Rs3.539bn Poverty Reduction through Smallholder Livestock Development project since the stakeholders were not involved
at the decision-making and implementation stages.
Still, the livestock sector is performing relatively well, particularly in Punjab. While other development sectors experienced saturation and decline, there was a 17.8 per cent increase in livestock. The Economic Survey of Pakistan 2009-2010 reports that the “livestock sector contributed approximately 53.2 per cent of the agriculture value-added and 11.4 per cent to the national GDP”.
Clearly, there is massive potential to enhance milk and meat production by focusing on small livestock farmers. These people need better services, support in obtaining soft loans for purchasing animals and leases of land on which to grow fodder. Much could be achieved by making available breed bulls and scientific methods of cross-breeding. Conveniently located milk sale centres and awareness-raising programmes could help bring small livestock farmers into the cooperative farming net.
Meanwhile, there is the need to prioritise vulnerable populations at the tail end of the canal networks and in arid or flood-ravaged areas where poverty is on the increase.
The key to the success of any project depends on the judicious selection of those running it. Meanwhile, organisational austerity must be observed by avoiding extravagances such as purchasing large vehicles or furnishing offices. Projects must be effectively monitored and audited.
It is important to keep in mind the advice issued by the UK’s National Audit Office to its Department for International Development in terms of rural poverty reduction initiatives: “It should concentrate its efforts on what it knows works well and avoid what does not work well in practice.”
Livestock farming projects that focus on small farmers are sure to work well in rural Pakistan if undertaken with commitment and transparency.
The writer is a former secretary of Livestock & Fisheries, Sindh.

meer.parihar@gmail.com

Insecure politics, illegal orders

PAKISTANI politics has been revolving around slogans — more so today than ever before. The thinking of political leaders whether elected or converts from the military has not penetrated the spring of human needs and aspirations.

This kind of politics places the common man in a dilemma that can be put in no better or simpler words than those of philosopher Bertrand Russell in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech: “If one man offers you democracy and another offers you a bag of grain, at what stage of starvation do you prefer the grain to the vote?
The smooth advent of military men — Ayub Khan, Yahya Khan, Ziaul Haq and Pervez Musharraf — shows that the people repeatedly preferred grain. At today`s higher level of starvation and a dysfunctional democracy, their preference for cheap food is unmistakably evident. roti roti,
When Z.A. Bhutto swept Ayub Khan aside, it was more in the hope of , not a socialist order. Mr Bhutto wholly misread the people`s mind when he embarked on a ruthless and senseless nationalisation of trade and industry ranging from rural rice hullers to shipping, banking and insurance, and in later years went all out to appease the clerics. Denied the promised the starving multitudes prompted by orthodox elements, dislodged Bhutto at a time when he thought he was at the peak of his political power.
In subsequent coups or elections, parties and leaders — going out or coming in — concerned themselves only with issues of power ignoring the basic needs of the common man and his expectations of a better tomorrow. Blaming history or inheritance is pointless. For reducing once the most promising nation of the region to a violent, impoverished state is the cumulative responsibility of all regimes, civil or military.
Asif Zardari is misreading the situation now the same way the founder of his party did in the 1970s. The chief cause of today`s mass discontent is the high price of food at a time when the national granary is overflowing. Nobody is demanding the change of a system that Mr Zardari keeps harping on but lacks the will and means to bring about. All that the common man wants is a job enabling him to buy the grain that is being exported for profit while he starves.
Nothing in the present constitutional arrangement stops Mr Zardari from administering public affairs efficiently and impartially that he should feel persuaded to talk of changing the system. It is hard to imagine what Mr Zardari`s government would be able to do after the change which he cannot bring about right away. It is harder still to imagine how his ally Altaf Hussain`s `revolution` would rid Karachi of target killers and land grabbers when the two parties, the MQM and the PPP, with their joint might and resources cannot.
The culprit is their brand of democracy which prevents them from giving the city, and the country, a neutral administration that follows the law and not party interests or directives. No system change, much less a revolution is required — political will is enough to recruit policemen on merit on whom they must rely to control murders, encroachments and extortion.
That they are not inclined to do. Otherwise, just a few months ago, they wouldn`t have divided all the police posts between themselves — a fact widely reported but not denied. The same goes for postings all the way from SHO up to IG.
As an official of the last generation, who was closely associated with the law and order and land affairs of Karachi for a number of years at various levels, I have no doubt that if the administration even in its present depleted, hodgepodge state were to be allowed to work under professional command, organised crime and racketeering would stop in a matter of months. A message has just to go out to gangsters and their political patrons.
The chief justice of Pakistan`s recent advice to civil servants not to comply with illegal orders is timely and is bound to have some effect. But more effective would be a warning to ministers and legislaters, and through them to their acolytes, that issuing illegal orders will disqualify them from holding public office. Civil servants then shall have to contend only with oral orders emanating from menacing figures in the shadows.
In dealing with illegalities, the protected judges should know better than the vulnerable officials how difficult it is to make politicians comply with even legal orders. The majority of civil servants among them would surely resist illegal and even improper orders if the terms and tenures of senior civil servants, say, joint secretary and the equivalent in all cadres, were to be constitutionally protected the way judges are.
They, in turn, would stand by their subordinates as, indeed, they did until Mr Bhutto summarily dismissed 1,400 of them (including some dead and retired), broke the services into groups and left their careers to the mercy of the political winds.
Before that, when Ayub Khan pitched against the formidable Fatima Jinnah in the presidential contest requiring the political agents and deputy commissioners of the Frontier Regions to caution, nothing more, the tribal maliks against voting for Miss Jinnah, all of them declined. No harm came to them. But all that could have happened was transfer to a distant area. Governor Kalabagh spared them even that ordeal. n
As a constitutionally protected district magistrate I stayed on in Karachi through four turbulent years brooking no interference. As an unprotected chief secretary, I could survive for less than a year while orders poured in every moment of the day. The government then lasted but for another year. But no politician ever learns his lessons. Eight more governments came and fell before Gen Musharraf rode in to public acclaim and judicial approval.
kunwaridris@hotmail.com

Pakistan-US talks to seek resolution of issues: Haqqani

“We look forward to moving forward,” the Pakistani envoy said in reference to difficulties in bilateral ties. — File Photo

WASHINGTON: Foreign Secretary, Salman Bashir will begin a series of meetings with senior US officials Thursday during which the two sides will focus on “strategic convergences” and resolve recent grievances to keep the strategic partnership on track, Islamabad’s ambassador to the United States Hussain Haqqani said.
The envoy said neither side wants to jeopardize the critical relationship and sounded confident on approaching differences in perceptions and resolving recent issues to the satisfaction of Pakistan.
Foreign Secretary, Bashir will spearhead Pakistani delegation in two rounds of meetings of a steering group. The meetings will be held at the State Department and the Pakistani embassy.
US Special Representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan, Marc Grossman will lead the American side.
“We are trying to focus on strategic convergences and both sides will share their strategic vision, try to resolve any difference of perceptions,” said Haqqani.
The envoy also felt confident that there would be resolution of “recent grievances to the satisfaction of Pakistan and in accordance with Pakistani national interests,” Haqqani said.
The meetings take place in the backdrop of tensions that arose from CIA contractor, Raymond Davis killing of two Pakistanis and Islamabad’s objections to frequent drone strikes in Pakistani tribal areas.
Both sides will issue a joint statement at the end of the meetings, also to be attended by Assistant Secretary of State, Robert Blake and Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources Thomas Nides.
“We look forward to moving forward,” the Pakistani envoy said in reference to difficulties in bilateral ties.
“There is realization that neither country can afford or accept any major problem in the relationship, that the level of trust reached in the last two years is maintained, this relationship has internal strength,” said Haqqani, who in his remarks referred to positive statements of Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman Joint Chiefs Staff and John Boehner, Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Responding to a question, he said relations between friends are based on shared interests and mutual accommodation.
The discussion is expected to cover efforts towards resolution of the Afghan conflict and regional situation with reference to Pakistan’s eastern neighbor India.
A reconciliation process in Afghanistan for end to conflict “will inevitably include Pakistan” and “the US realizes that,” the ambassador said.
Pakistan has strategic interests in Afghanistan.
He also stated that the US has accepted that their actions have led to some difficulties but at the same time said the best recourse is to resolve grievances, while keeping national interests supreme.
“We should try to seek a resolution of our grievances and issues rather than generating an environment of anti-Americanism that render diplomacy difficult,” he said in reply to a question. He noted that anti-Pakistan lobbies in the United States exploit a situation of antagonism between the two countries.

In answer to a question, Ambassador Haqqani said Pakistan always keeps its national interests ahead of all other considerations in pursuing its foreign policy.

Haqqani said the meetings during Foreign Secretary Bashir’s visit will “reset the priorities in the relations” in a manner in which apparent trouble of last few months would be put behind.
The ambassador expected bilateral visits by presidents of both countries and also the next round of strategic dialogue taking place in Islamabad in the near future.

Pakistan army chief defends anti-militant struggle

Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani statement was issued after the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff accused Pakistan’s military-run spy agency of links to a powerful militant faction fighting in Afghanistan. — Reuters Photo

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s army chief is rejecting claims that the military is doing too little to stop militants.
Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani statement was issued after the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff accused Pakistan’s military-run spy agency of links to a powerful militant faction fighting in Afghanistan.

While visiting here on Wednesday, Adm. Mike Mullen said Pakistan’s ties to the Haqqani network are at the heart of its tensions with the US Kayani’s statement on Thursday didn’t directly mention Mullen’s complaint, but it acknowledged the two sides have a trust deficit.

The Haqqanis have bases in Pakistan’s North Waziristan region. Pakistan says it has severed ties to the Haqqanis that were forged during the 1980s Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

Three Afghan civilians die in Nato air strike

ASADABAD: A child was among three civilians who died in a Nato air strike in eastern Afghanistan which also killed 14 insurgents, local officials said Wednesday.
The attack by the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) happened late Tuesday in the Dangam district of Kunar province, provincial governor Fazlullah Wahidi told AFP.
“Fourteen militants, among them some Arab and Pakistani nationals, and three civilians have been killed in last night’s air strikes,” Wahidi said.
District governor Hamish Gulab said the civilians were two women and a child who died when a missile hit a gathering of insurgents in a house.
An ISAF spokesman confirmed that its troops had carried out air and ground operations on targets in Dangam, but added: “We are still gathering information.”
The issue of civilian casualties is a cause of serious tension between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his Western backers and is highly sensitive in Afghanistan, triggering frequent protests.
Kunar province, which borders Pakistan, has seen a string of civilian casualties as foreign forces target insurgents, including the deaths of nine children in another air strike for which the US apologised last month.
There are around 130,000 international troops in Afghanistan fighting a Taliban-led insurgency which has lasted for nearly ten years.

UAE calls for Iran to ‘respect’ Gulf neighbours

ABU DHABI: Iran should respect the unity of its Arab neighbours in the Gulf, the United Arab Emirates foreign minister said on Wednesday at a time of heightened regional tension.
“Iran should reconsider its policies in the region,” Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahayan, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the Gulf Cooperation Council, told a news conference in the UAE capital of Abu Dhabi.
And it “should respect the unity and sovereignty of Gulf countries,” he said at the end of an annual GCC-European Union ministerial meeting.
“I’m trying to choose my words carefully. I don’t want to act like some Iranian officials who throw their words in an abrasive and indecent way,” Sheikh Abdullah said.
“All I wish for is that Iran view its neighbours with responsibility and respect.” Tension has been running high between Iran and its Arab neighbours across the Gulf, with the two sides locked in a war of words since Shiite-led protests against Bahrain’s Sunni dynasty broke out in mid-February.
A Saudi-led Gulf force including UAE police rolled into Bahrain on March 14, freeing up Bahraini security forces to crush the protest movement in the only Shia-majority Arab state of the Gulf, in a move condemned by Iran.
A joint GCC-EU statement issued after Wednesday’s meeting backed the deployment.
It said the two blocs played up “the importance of respect for the sovereignty of GCC member states and recognised the GCC is entitled to take all necessary measures to protect” their citizens.
On Monday, Bahraini Foreign Minister Khaled bin Ahmad Al-Khalifa said the Gulf troops had entered his country “to deter an external threat,” a reference to Iran.
“We have never seen such a sustained campaign from Iran on Bahrain and the Gulf as we’ve seen in the past two months. Usually it’s short-lived and then they back off; this time is something different,” he said.
“We wrote a letter to the secretary general of the United Nations, and in that letter we have a full attachment on the threats and all the evidence we have against Iran and Hezbollah,” the Lebanese Shiite group backed by Tehran.
And on Wednesday, Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Mohammed Sabah al-Salem Al-Sabah confirmed that Iranian diplomats accused of spying have been expelled, in another spat between Iran and its Gulf neighbours.
Iranian state television had previously said three of Tehran’s diplomats and an embassy employee were expelled from Kuwait, but Sheikh Mohammed’s remark on Wednesday was the first official confirmation from the Kuwaiti side.
Sheikh Mohammed had said on March 31 that Iranian diplomats were to be expelled for alleged links to a spy ring working for Tehran, reportedly ever since the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.
The foreign minister charged the diplomats had proven links to a spy ring, three alleged members of which a Kuwaiti court condemned to death on March 29.
Strains in relations across the Gulf date back to the 1980s when the Arab states, notably Saudi Arabia, backed Saddam Hussein’s Iraq in an eight-year war against Iran.
The GCC has more recently voiced concern over Tehran’s alleged ambitions for regional dominance and its nuclear programme.
In other disputes, Iran has in the past claimed Bahrain as part of its territory and it controls three islands in the southern Gulf that are also claimed by the UAE.

Indian ‘Doctor Death’ loses Australia appeal

SYDNEY: An Indian-born doctor jailed in Australia over fatally bungled surgeries lost an appeal against his conviction and sentence Thursday with a court saying his crimes could “hardly be more grave”.
Dubbed “Doctor Death” by the local press, Jayant Patel was jailed for seven years last July after a jury found him guilty of criminal negligence resulting in the deaths of three patients and permanent injury to a fourth.
The deaths occurred during Patel’s time at Queensland’s Bundaberg Base Hospital between 2003 and 2004, and prosecutors successfully argued the operations were either unnecessary or inappropriate.
Patel, 60, was convicted of gross negligence in the United States prior to working in Australia but failed to disclose the finding to his employers.
He asked the Supreme Court appeals bench to quash his conviction and sentence — of which he must serve just three-and-a-half years — arguing that he did not receive a fair trial and that the jail term was too harsh.
Queensland’s attorney-general launched a counter-appeal calling for the sentence to be increased.
Both bids were rejected by the Court of Appeal, which on Thursday upheld Patel’s conviction and sentence.
“Serious medical criminal negligence like that of which the appellant has been convicted, is not easy to investigate or to prove. Its effect on its immediate victims could hardly be more grave,” the court said.
“It had the potential to undermine the Queensland public’s confidence in its hospital system.”
Though his crimes were severe the court said Patel’s case also had “significant mitigating features” which made sentencing him a “novel and difficult exercise”.
“It is plain that the time he spends in prison in Queensland will be particularly difficult for him because his family does not reside here and his notoriety will make prison life especially stressful,” the court said.
“His professional career is in tatters. His reputation has been destroyed. He is now 60 years old and is unlikely to ever work again as a surgeon.
“In our view, the sentence imposed properly balances the exacerbating and mitigating features of this unique case.”
Patel’s victims and their families packed the court to hear the judgment and expressed relief that he would remain behind bars.
“We’ve had a harrowing time here over the years,” Beryl Crosby, head of a support group for the surgeon’s ex-patients, told reporters.
“It’s always sweet when we win because we fought for so long.”
Patel’s lawyers said they would consider taking their case to the High Court — their final legal avenue.

QuitoQUITO: A 23 year old American tourist has been reported missing in the Amazon region of Ecuador, the US embassy in Quito said Wednesday.

Harry ReidBEIJING: A high-powered US Senate delegation led by lawmaker Harry Reid was in Beijing for talks with top Chinese leaders Thursday expected to touch on thorny economic issues and human rights.

On Wednesday, the delegation discussed global security issues, human rights and a range of other subjects with Vice Premier Wang Qishan, Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and central bank head Zhou Xiaochuan, a Senate statement said.

The delegation was expected to meet Thursday with parliamentary chief Wu Bangguo and Vice President Xi Jinping, who is widely expected to succeed President Hu Jintao as China's top leader by 2013.

"The relationship between the United States and China is important for our two nations, but it is also important for the world," Reid, the Democratic senate majority leader, said in the statement.

"How the United States and China work together on commerce, currency and clean energy will help determine the future health of the global economy."

Also on Thursday, the delegation will ride a high-speed rail line from Beijing to the coastal city of Tianjin and visit a clean-energy company.

The delegation includes Democratic Senators Dick Durbin, Barbara Boxer, Chuck Schumer, Frank Lautenberg, Jeff Merkley and Michael Bennet as well as Republicans Richard Shelby, Mike Enzi, and Johnny Isakson.

They were expected to spend a week in China, and will leave Beijing on Friday for stops in the southwestern city of Chongqing and the ancient Chinese capital of Xian.

US tourist missing in Ecuador's Amazon region

QuitoQUITO: A 23 year old American tourist has been reported missing in the Amazon region of Ecuador, the US embassy in Quito said Wednesday.

Hugh Graham Murray was first reported missing on Monday, officials said, after he disappeared following a trip to the remote town of Macas in the southeast of the country.

Murray was born October 20, 1987 in Canada, but holds dual nationality with the United States, said US officials, declining to give additional details.

Syed-Qaim-Ali-ShahKARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah on Wednesday held a meeting with seven-member Chinese delegation here at the CM House.

UNUNITED NATIONS: The UN Security Council on Wednesday gave a 10 year extension to its main legal weapon to prevent nuclear, chemical and biological weapons falling into the hands of terrorist groups.

The UN non-proliferation committee, first set up by Resolution 1540 in 2004, is normally renewed every three years, and diplomats said the 10 year extension given this time is a sign of the urgency of the campaign.

The White House hailed the decision, saying the new mandate would allow the committee "to continue its valuable work, including through adoption of effective laws, security measures, border controls, and financial controls."

The 15 nation council said it remained "gravely concerned" about the threat of terrorist attacks carried out with weapons of mass destruction.

Resolution 1540 is considered a landmark measure because it was the first to recognize the nuclear threat from terrorist and militant groups.

It forced countries to pass laws restricting trade in nuclear, biological, chemical and radiological weapons and components.

North Korea is among a small number of countries which have not yet reported to the United Nations on efforts under the resolution.

Richard E Grant unravels origins of The Arabian Nights

The Arabian Nights introduced readers the world over to a bewitching world of magic, genies, evil spirits and iconic heroes. Actor Richard E Grant investigates their origins and examines their enduring appeal.

The Arabian Nights story that most transfixed me as a boy was Ali Baba and The 40 Thieves.
It appealed because there were caves near the house where I grew up in Swaziland, so a story that featured a cave full of hidden treasure, that could be "opened and closed" with the magic words "Open Sesame" seemed more immediate than other fairy stories I had read.

Word of mouth

• The tales have their roots in oral storytelling thousands of years ago including folk tales from India and mystical stories from Persia
• They were carried and spread by traders travelling on the great trade routes of the East where they began to take shape
• The oral stories were collected and written down in the great cities of Baghdad, Damascus and Cairo
• In the 10th Century, an Arab historian recorded the tales and called them A Thousand Nights
• The earliest manuscript of the tales is in Arabic and was written in Syria in the 14th Century
• French traveller and scholar Antoine Galland translated it from Arabic in to French in the 1600s
• He began with Sinbad the Sailor, which was an immediate sensation in Parisian high society
• After fans stood outside his house and demanded more, he is believed to have written more stories and embellished others, such as Ali Baba and Aladdin
• In 1706 an anonymous translation of Galland's book called The Arabian Nights arrived in Britain
• Records show the first theatrical performance of Aladdin was held in 1788 in London's Covent Garden

Its horror content, specifically Aladdin's brother Cassim who forgot the magic words to get out of the cave - resulting in him being murdered by the returning thieves and his body being cut up into pieces - was monstrously pleasing and terrifying to me at that age.

It was also a good bogey-man image to conjure up when my father warned me about what would happen if I stole anything.
The story of the old tailor Baba Mustafa secretly sewing Cassim's body back together again for his funeral has haunted me ever since.
As has the servant girl Morgiana outwitting the villains by pouring hot oil over their heads while hidden in oil jars.
It was surprising to discover during the making of a documentary for the BBC, that the veracity of Ali Baba has been questioned.
When Antoine Galland, the much-feted French Orientalist translator of the Arabian Nights, charmed Parisian society in the 18th Century with his translation, Ali Baba was one of the most popular tales.
Antoine Galland claimed that he had heard the tale from a Middle Eastern storyteller from Aleppo, Syria.
Other academics have claimed that Galland invented the story, although the celebrated explorer and Orientalist Sir Richard Burton also confirmed that the story was part of the original Arabic manuscript (see box).
Galland's original manuscript is a small black book, kept under lock and key at the National Library in Paris.

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Watch: Richard Grant explores how the Arabian Nights burst onto the scene

The proprietorial curator wore surgical gloves to handle the book.
Unlike 18th Century English, it was easily readable in French, which does not seem to have changed much in the past three centuries.
She explained that there was academic controversy about the provenance of Ali Baba, but that whether it was an invention of Galland or not, it fitted within the canon of the tales.
Trying to pin down the origin of stories that have passed down orally is akin to juggling with water.
The tradition of oral storytelling and embellishment down the centuries makes perfect sense when you consider that tribes of nomadic people travelled across North Africa to the Middle East and beyond to India, putting storytelling centre stage around camp fires in the evenings.

Conservatives in Egypt tried to have the tales banned for being anti-Islamic

Anyone who has ever played that game where one person whispers the beginning of a story into someone else's ear and they then have to repeat and add to it, will know how a story evolves and expands very quickly.
Likewise, the oral tradition of repeating the stories that make up The Arabian Nights, told by different people over a period of 10 centuries, will be hugely variable.
Many stories involve poor people defying tyrants, genies, evil spirits and adverse physical conditions to win the hearts of their true love or monetary riches.
Spending any time in the Sahara desert makes it clear how the elements can conjure up sand or wind storms in an instant, and it does not take rocket science to work out how these acts of nature could be re-configured or interpreted as the actions of Djinns (genies).

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The elements can conjure up sand or wind storms in an instant... these acts of nature could be... interpreted as the actions of Djinns (genies)”

End Quote Richard E Grant

Two years ago, religious conservatives in Egypt attempted to ban The Arabian Nights on the grounds that they were too sexually permissive and anti-Islamic.

Prompting public outcry and fierce opposition, especially from academics, the ban was overruled.
The Egyptian Attorney General ruled it was one of humanity's greatest treasures.
The more violent and sexual aspects of the stories were watered down in Galland's translation, and the panto versions we are so familiar with from childhood are testimony to this self-censorship.
However, the mixture of exotic locations, paupers and tyrants, magic and malarkey has proved to be a potent combination and accounts for the Nights' continuing popularity.

CIA reveals invisible ink recipes used by WWI spies

World War I spies engraved messages on toe-nails and used lemon juice to write invisible letters, classified documents released by the CIA reveal.

The six documents, amongst the oldest secret papers to be held by the agency, disclose a number of spying techniques.
The nearly century-old records include instructions "to suspect and examine every possible thing".
Recent advancements in technology have made it possible to release the documents, the CIA said.
One document suggests soaking a handkerchief, or any other starched substance, in nitrate, soda and starch, in order to make a portable invisible ink solution.
Putting the treated handkerchief in water would release a solution that could then be used to write secret messages, the records say.
A document written in 1914 in French, exposes a German formula for making secret ink, suggesting that French spies had managed to crack the enemy's code.
'Spies and smugglers'
One memorandum, compiled by a hand-writing expert in California, suggests painting invisible messages on the human body.
"To make them appear, develop a suitable reagent sprayed with an atomizer" the record states.
The document warns of "other methods used by spies and smugglers, according to the skill and education of the criminals", such as "engraving messages and credentials on toe-nails".
The secrets have been made obsolete by advances in the chemistry of secret ink and the lighting methods used to detect it , the CIA said.
The CIA declassified more than a million historical documents last year. They are available on the agency's website.

Have Oman and Qatar escaped the Arab revolts?

After revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, uprisings in Yemen and Syria, and serious unrest in the Gulf state of Bahrain, The World Tonight's Robin Lustig reports from Oman and Qatar on whether it is likely there could be more revolts there.

Usually when you see the word Oman, it is preceded by the word "sleepy".
It lies on the south-eastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula, and for centuries it has been valued for its strategic location at the mouth of the Strait of Hormuz, linking the Gulf to the Indian Ocean.
But over the past few weeks, Oman has been stirring from its slumber.
In late February, at least two people were killed during clashes in the city of Sohar between security forces and protesters demanding more jobs.
Ticking time-bomb
"Oman's stability was always just a cover," says activist Basma al-Kiyumi.
She gives credit to the country's ruler, Sultan Qaboos bin Said, for having responded promptly to protesters' demands, but says his words must now be followed by actions.
"Oman," she says, "is still a bomb waiting to explode."
Unemployment is relatively high in Oman, which has only limited oil reserves and is one of the poorest of the oil-producing countries.

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Hear Robin Lustig reporting from Oman and Qatar weeknights on The World Tonight at 2200 BST on BBC Radio 4

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Outside the Majlis al-Shura, the consultative assembly, there is a permanent encampment of protesters demanding jobs. They say they will not budge until their demands are met.

Sultan Qaboos has ruled as an absolute monarch for the past 40 years.
He has a reputation as a pro-Western reformer who introduced paved roads, schools and hospitals into what had been a remote and seriously under-developed nation.
But he is now facing unprecedented challenges from the streets as a direct result of the wave of uprisings that has swept through the region.
When I visit Sultan Qaboos university, the country's only publicly-funded university, students are celebrating the launch of Oman's first student newspaper.
"Just within the past few weeks, we've seen much more press freedom," one of them tells me. "You can write things about ministers that never used to be said publicly. There really has been a big change."

Student journalists launching a paper in Oman are happy there is more press freedom already

The Sultan has been credited with reacting speedily to the protests in February and March.
He sacked 12 of his ministers, increased the minimum wage, and promised to create 50,000 new jobs.
His richer Gulf neighbours are providing cash to help him - after all, none of them wants to see chaos in a country where, because about 40% of all the world's tanker-borne oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz, stability is so vital to their own wealth.

Continue reading the main story

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If you have everything you need, who needs democracy?”

End Quote Qatari student

As soon as you mention wealth you think of Qatar, a tiny pinprick of a country half way up the Gulf, sticking out like a thumb from the Arabian peninsula, and now reckoned to be the richest country in the world.

Its total population is around 1.6m, but of those, only about 250,000 are Qatari. The rest are foreign workers who keep the place going, build its gleaming high-rise offices and hotels, and staff its service industries.
Qatar is awash in oil and natural gas, and if you ask why there have been no protests in Qatar, the answer you get is: "Because there's no reason to protest."
Game plan
On the other hand, even if jobs are not a problem in a country with an economic growth rate approaching 20% a year, Qatar is still an absolute monarchy, with a ruler, Emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, whose family have run the place since the mid-1800s.
So why are Qataris not demanding democracy, in the same way as so many others are elsewhere in the Arab world?

"Brand Qatar" is recognised as its strategy of spending wisely and giving generously

The reply I get from a Qatari student is simple enough: "If you have everything you need, who needs democracy?"
But wouldn't they at least like a public debate over the Emir's decision to send Qatari warplanes to join the Nato-led military operation in Libya?
There is no need, I am told, because just about everyone agrees that it is right for Qatar to help fellow-Arabs in their hour of need.
As for the paradox of a country with no semblance of democracy sending warplanes to help people fighting for democracy thousands of miles away - there's no paradox at all, I am told.
The involvement in Libya is simply designed to help save lives. It has nothing to do with democracy.
Qatar prides itself on its ability to make friends (how many countries can you think of who manage to remain on good terms with both the US and Iran?).
"Brand Qatar" is what some people call it - spend wisely, give generously, and keep your name in the public eye.
And if it helps you to win the right to host the World Cup football tournament in 2022, well, no-one in Qatar is complaining.