UK calls for G8 financial aid for 'Arab Spring'

Leading nations' financial support for the so-called Arab Spring will reduce extremism and immigration, UK Prime Minister David Cameron has said.

The UK is giving £110m over four years for political and economic development in North Africa and the Middle East.
At the two-day G8 summit in France, the UK and US are pushing for other pledges of financial support.
Mr Cameron said the summit should send a message to the countries of the Arab Spring that "we are on your side".
The £110m from the UK will come out of the existing Department for International Development budget.
The money constitutes the UK's contribution to calls for the G8 group of leading industrialised nations to do all they can to encourage the so-called Arab Spring.

The Foreign Office said up to £40m would be spent over the next four years to improve political participation, the rule of law and freedom of the press.

A further £70m will go towards economic reform, helping to boost youth employment, strengthen anti-corruption measures and promote private sector investment.
'Pressures of immigration'
Speaking in Deauville, where the G8 summit is taking place, Mr Cameron said: "I want a very simple and clear message to come out of this summit, and that is that the most powerful nations on Earth have come together and are saying to those in the Middle East and North Africa who want greater democracy, greater freedom, greater civil rights, we are on your side.
"We will help you build your democracy, we will help your economies, we will help you build trade. We will help you in all the ways we can because the alternative to a successful democracy is more of the poisonous extremism that has done so much damage in our world."
The UK commitment is a significant increase on the £5m of funds announced for the Arab Partnership Initiative in February by the foreign secretary.
Mr Cameron added: "What I'd say to everybody about the issue of overseas aid and the money that will be pledged at this summit is that there is a real case for saying, if we can secure greater democracy and freedom in countries like Egypt and Tunisia, that is good for us back at home.
"That will mean less extremism, it will mean more peace and prosperity, and it will mean there won't be the pressures of immigration that we might otherwise face to our own country."
The wave of uprisings in the Arab world began in Tunisia in January and led to the fall of the government there, and subsequently in Egypt.
There have also been pro-democracy demonstrations in countries including Syria, Bahrain and Yemen, and the suppression of a similar movement in Libya has led to the intervention of Nato to protect civilians.
International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell said: "Today's announcement of a new UK Arab Partnership recognises that poverty and disenfranchisement are the major drivers of the demand for change.
"It helps to address key grievances, providing people with better education and economic opportunities and improved access to global markets.
"We know that economic transformation alone without real political change - which gives people a voice, dignity, security and justice - won't work. And that is why we will focus on the twin tracks of economic and political reform."

Libya Apache deployment approved by David Cameron

If called upon, they will allow for swifter attacks on a wider range of smaller targets in urban areas.
The Apache helicopters, normally based at Wattisham, in Suffolk, are expected to go into operation within days.
Downing Street says intelligence suggests Col Muammar Gaddafi is "on the run" and hiding in Tripoli hospitals in the belief he will be safe there.
The Apache helicopters and their pilots, who are part of the Army Air Corps, are currently on exercise in the Mediterranean.
There had been speculation about the move to deploy them since Monday after France said it would be deploying French Tiger helicopters and the UK would be sending Apaches.
A Downing Street spokesman said: "Ministers have given clearance in principle for the deployment of attack helicopters in Libya. It is a matter now for military commanders to make decisions on deployment."
Vulnerable
The final decision rested with David Cameron, who earlier on Thursday had requested more information about possible risks, while he was en route to the G8 Summit in France.

BBC political editor Nick Robinson says the prime minister is determined that the move will not be seen as a desperate attempt to break military deadlock but instead as an example of the UK turning up the heat on the Gaddafi regime.

More than two months after he ordered military action, Mr Cameron has taken another decision which he knows is fraught with risks, adds our correspondent.
The deployment of Apaches in Libya means there will be less chance of civilian casualties in operations that currently rely on the use of Tornado and Typhoon aircraft.
But the Apaches could be targeted themselves as they operate at lower altitudes and Libyan forces loyal to Col Gaddafi still have access to thousands of surface-to-air missiles.
The deployment was discussed at a meeting of the UK's National Security Council at Downing Street on Thursday.
Shadow defence secretary, Jim Murphy, said it marked a serious intensification of Britain's military commitment in Libya.
Civilian disguise
"It's a totally different order from those in a fixed wing aeroplanes thousands of feet up in the air. These are close combat, fast attack helicopters, vulnerable to ground attack," he said.

Apache AH Mk1

• Crew: 2
• Main weapon: 16 Hellfire anti-tank missiles
• Length: 17.76m (58ft 3in)
• Rotor span: 14.63m (48ft)
• Cruising speed: 161mph (259km/h)
• Range: 334 miles (537km)
• Max mission duration: 2h 45min

Source: AgustaWestland

"So the government's got to reassure itself and reassure the public about the safety and the risk to our pilots. And in doing that they also have to be clearer about what's the exit strategy, what's the end game in Libya? What's the politics that goes alongside the military effort?"

Col Richard Kemp, former commander of forces in Afghanistan, told BBC Breakfast that Apaches can target individual soldiers, or groups of soldiers, on the ground as opposed to tanks or artillery or buildings.
"They are much more use at dealing with Gaddafi's latest tactics, which include using individuals in civilian clothes," he said.
"They are going to be critical in taking the campaign further and possibly unlocking what is not far off stalemate at present."
Retired Rear Adm Chris Parry, a defence analyst, said there was the potential for the Apaches to escalate the mission in Libya.
"It really depends how you want to use the Apaches. If you use them for protecting civilians, for defensive operations and for interdicting Colonel Gaddafi's re-supply convoys, then I would guess not.
"If you use them for assault operations and in reinforcing the rebels in their attacks on the Gaddafi regime I would say, yes, it is.
UN Security Council Resolution 1973 authorised air strikes to protect Libyan civilians from attacks by forces loyal to Col Gaddafi.
The UN vote followed the violent suppression of protests against Col Gaddafi's regime and military strikes against Col Gaddafi's forces in support of the rebels began on 19 March.

Anti-Baath committee chief Ali al-Lami killed in Iraq

The head of the committee charged with purging Iraqi institutions of those linked to the regime of Saddam Hussein has been killed in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, officials said.

Ali al-Lami was shot dead at the wheel of his car in eastern Baghdad by unidentified gunmen, officials said.
Under the de-Baathification policy, Lami banned scores of Sunni candidates from parliamentary polls last year.
Correspondents say he had almost certainly made plenty of enemies.
'Intercepted'
Entifadah Qanbar, a politician and friend of Lami's, said he was shot dead driving home in what he described as a "well-planned operation".
"He was going from Palestine Street to his house in east Baghdad. His brother was driving. He was followed carefully by a car, then he was intercepted," Mr Qanbar told AFP news agency.
"He was shot in the head with silenced pistols, and pronounced dead in the hospital about 20 minutes after that, at 2000 (1700 GMT) tonight (Thursday)."
The Justice and Accountability Commission (JAC) - which Lami headed from 2004 - was responsible for vetting Iraqis seeking government jobs for connections to Saddam Hussein's Baath Party, which ruled Iraq for decades before it was overthrown in the US-led invasion.
The body was criticised last year after excluding hundreds of Sunni candidates from standing for parliamentary seats in the March elections. Lami ran in the elections himself but was unsuccessful.
In 2008, Lami was arrested by US and Iraqi forces for alleged ties to Iranian-backed Shia militias, and was accused by US officials at the time of being involved in a bombing in Baghdad.
Friends of Lami said they believed Baath party loyalists were behind the assassination.
The shooting is the latest in Iraq's wave of targeted killings against politicians and officials. Although violence in Iraq is down from the peak of the insurgence, almost daily attacks continue.

Poverty, al-Qaeda, tribal conflict: Yemen's problems

Yemen matters, and sadly for mostly the wrong reasons.

With power slipping slowly away from President Ali Abdullah Saleh and armed clashes killing dozens of people since Monday, there are fears the country could disintegrate into a series of inter-tribal conflicts with repercussions throughout the region.
Yemen is already home to al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), a small but dangerous group that tried to blow up a US airliner over Detroit and which sent bombs on cargo planes bound for the US last year.
Until this spring, AQAP had been coming under mounting pressure from the government's counter-terrorism forces, backed and trained by the US and Britain, and air strikes by US unmanned aerial drones.
But with President Saleh having to battle for his own survival, the pressure is partly off al-Qaeda, which has been re-arming itself in the chaos.
Yemen's Gulf neighbours, the six Arab Gulf states that make up the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC), are deeply worried by the deteriorating crisis.
They fear the country's weak economy could collapse altogether which, coupled with an upsurge in fighting, could trigger a wave of refugees across the borders into Saudi Arabia and Oman.
The GCC, encouraged by Britain and the US, has made repeated attempts to get President Saleh to sign a handover deal that would see him step down in exchange for immunity from prosecution by the unity government that succeeds him. So far he has refused.
No Plan B
Yemen is beset with problems that go far beyond the leadership crisis or al-Qaeda.
The poorest country in the Arab world, its oil reserves are shrinking, and so is the capital's water table, prompting fears it could be the first world capital to run out of water.
Southern Yemen, which tried unsuccessfully to break away from the more powerful north in 1994, has an active separatist movement.
A long-running Shia insurrection in the far north has dragged in Saudi forces and, according to Yemen, has also led to meddling by Iran.
Unemployment is high, there are too many guns in private hands, and much of the adult population wastes precious income and most of their afternoons chewing the narcotic qat leaf. On top of this, Yemen is finding itself supporting thousands of Somali refugees.
International sympathy and attention focused briefly on Yemen during the London conference of January 2010, but much of the promised billions of dollars in aid has yet to reach the people who need it most.
The Arab world and the West would like to see a broad-based unity government take over followed by a reinvigoration of the economy, but there does not appear to be a Plan B for President Saleh refusing to hand over power.

Hillary Clinton pledges US 'commitment' to Pakistan

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has expressed Washington's "strong commitment" to relations with Pakistan.

She was speaking as she arrived in Islamabad on a previously unannounced visit aimed at soothing tensions between the two countries.
It is the first such high-level visit to Pakistan since the killing of al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden on 2 May.
Hillary Clinton has met senior Pakistani leaders during her visit
The American special forces raid on Bin Laden's hideout in Abbottabad prompted protests from Islamabad.
Mrs Clinton's visit comes a day after the US announced it was withdrawing some of its troops from Pakistan, at Islamabad's request.
In what correspondents say was perhaps an attempt to smooth ruffled Pakistani feathers over the killing, Mrs Clinton acknowledged the ''sacrifices made every single day by the men and women Pakistan's military and its citizens".
US officials say that Mr Clinton's visit had been planned for about two weeks, but Washington was waiting for the right time "for this critical conversation".

The ground was prepared by Senator John Kerry and the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Marc Grossman. The decision to visit was taken on Wednesday but kept under wraps for security reasons.

The BBC's Kim Ghattas - who is travelling with Mrs Clinton - says that she arrived in Pakistan under intense security, her 20-car armoured motorcade racing through the city to the presidential palace and helicopters flying overhead.
Officials say that she has come to Pakistan to gauge Islamabad's commitment to fighting Islamic extremism.
They say that it would not have been taken place if there was not a sense that "we could build on some of the signs that we have been receiving".
Stone-faced
Relations between US and Pakistan are always complex and fragile but they are particularly volatile at the moment.
Our correspondent says that Mrs Clinton has met all of Pakistan's top officials several times before and is usually adept at smiley conversation for the cameras.
But this time she sat fairly stone-faced at the start of her meeting with Pakistan's president, prime minister, foreign secretary and army chief.
The secretary of state is accompanied by chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen.
They are expected to demand more co-operation from Pakistan in the fight against al-Qaeda and Taliban militants.
Some in Washington believe that Pakistani intelligence works closely with violent extremist groups. Suspicion is rife that some in Pakistan knew of Osama Bin Laden's hiding place all along.
Meanwhile, US media reports say that Pakistan will allow the CIA to examine Bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad.
A forensics team is expected to arrive within days along with sophisticated equipment to find material that may be embedded behind walls, inside safes or buried underground.

N Korea 'to release US citizen Eddie Jun Yong-su'

North Korea says it is releasing an American citizen it has been holding for six months on unspecified charges.

Eddie Jun Yong-su would be freed on humanitarian grounds following repeated requests by visiting US officials, the KCNA state news agency said.
South Korean newspapers have said the Korean-American was involved in Christian missionary work.
The officially atheist North views organised religious activity as a potential challenge to the leadership.
The quote from North Korea's news agency said Mr Jun was being released for humanitarian reasons, after three separate US-led delegations to Pyongyang had asked for forgiveness.
The US special envoy for human rights, Robert King, is visiting North Korea at the moment to assess the country's appeal for food aid.
According to the report, Mr King had expressed regret for the incident and said he would do his best to stop it recurring.
Two other American-led delegations visiting North Korea in a private capacity during the past few weeks have also pressed for his release, says the BBC's Lucy Williamson in Seoul.
North Korea has accused Mr Jun of committing a "grave crime" in North Korea, one - the agency said - that he himself had frankly admitted to.
It is believed he may have been carrying out missionary work while visiting the Communist state on business trips.
The North Korean news report stresses that Mr Jun was well-treated during his time in custody, and was allowed diplomatic contact, as well as family phone calls and hospital treatment.
It is not clear when Mr Jun - who is the latest in a series of Americans to be detained by Pyongyang - would be released.

The unloved US investment in Pakistan

Since Pakistan joined the "war on terror", it has received billions of dollars from the United States. When Osama Bin Laden was found here, there were those in Washington who said aid to this country had to stop.

But it is not just Americans questioning the current levels of financial assistance here, many Pakistanis are also debating the wisdom of accepting such large sums of US handouts.
Muzaffar Khakwani, who grows mangoes in the southern part of Punjab province, is a direct recipient of American aid.

In the scorching heat he shows off his trees, heavily laden with green fruit, still a few weeks away from being harvested.

"The US assistance in this area has gone primarily into education of mango farmers like me," Mr Khakwani says. "How to grow better mangoes in terms of quality and yield, how to market our mangoes better, and also into trying to create the conditions to increase exports of our mangoes."
He says the Americans have contributed to the building of a processing facility on his farm.
"I guess the idea is that because southern Punjab has had problems with militancy, if they invest here it will become prosperous and the money will trickle down to the poor so they won't become militants," says Mr Khakwani.
Unwanted aid
Over recent years much of the American money to Pakistan has gone to the army, but about $1.5bn a year has been assigned to civil projects too.

The US has invested in a number of mango orchards in Pakistan

Not far away from Mr Khakwani's farm, is the site of another civil assistance project being funded by the US.
The Americans have invested in the thermal power station, increasing its capacity so it serves thousands more homes.
But in a market in the nearby city of Muzaffargarh some of the intended beneficiaries of the aid told us they did not want it.
"Our country's got so many problems," one man told me. "America is the cause.  If they damage our country, or kill our people, we don't accept their money." All around nodded in agreement.
If the aid is a tool to "win hearts and minds," it is not working here.
But the head of the USAID (US Agency for International Development) mission to Pakistan, Andrew Sisson, says the highs and lows of the US-Pakistan relationship should not detract from the long term goals.
"Well, of course, we would like a more favourable Pakistani perception of the US government and our assistance but that's not the main reason we're here," says Mr Sisson.
"We're here to promote development, stability, to help this place become less susceptible to extremist tendencies."
Mr Sisson said America had committed itself to much more investment in sectors that would improve the lives of Pakistanis.
'Hired gun'
But there is another face of American involvement here, its military operations. It includes the US drone missile strikes against suspected militants in Pakistan's tribal areas close to the Afghanistan border.

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Imran Khan: "I tell the Americans that we don't want your aid"

The opposition politician, Imran Khan, says the drone attacks and the Pakistani army offensives against militants are precisely the things that are fuelling extremism here.
"It's because we're perceived as an American hired gun, we're being paid," Mr Khan says.
"I have never seen such anti-Americanism in Pakistan as now, why? If they were our ally we should be friends.  It's because the majority of the people feel that we're being used in someone else's war and we are being destroyed by it."
Imran Khan is leading a vociferous campaign advocating an immediate end to both military co-operation with the US, and to Pakistan's acceptance of American aid.
"Things cannot get any worse. Every day Pakistanis are dying," he says. "So we might as well try another policy where we, as a sovereign country, try and reform rather than rely on aid. Better to start the process now and stop this bloodshed going on in this country."

Though Mr Khan passionately insists it is the right strategy, the task of going it alone in dealing with the estimated tens of thousands of militants here is a daunting one for Pakistan.

The kind of reforms needed to revive an economy that has become dependent on aid are also huge.
Lost opportunities
The head of USAID here, Andrew Sisson, says it would affect many people if the aid programme stopped.
"Millions of Pakistanis, children in particular, but also adults, will lose the opportunity for economic improvement in their lives, as well as better health and education or better services like clean water."
Back at his mango farm, in southern Punjab province, Muzaffar Khakwani told us it would affect him personally if the aid was cut.
"The research stations and the experts will not be available and they have been of great use, and it would have an effect on all the work to build the capacity of the farm."
But even he has reservations about what accepting American aid may be doing to the country.
"It may be holding us back," he says. "Should the aid stopped we would have to find ways to survive, we did in the past. It might be good for us, but only if the Pakistani leaders make the right decisions to get us back on our feet. But that's a big 'if'."

Nepal's political deadlock reaches crisis point

Nepal's politicians have admitted they will not be able to meet a 28 May deadline to draw up a new constitution. As negotiations for an extension continue, the BBC's Joanna Jolly in Kathmandu reports on how the country is reacting.

On Kathmandu's main shopping street, a group of 50 men and women stand silently.
Many have stuck pieces of paper to their chests bearing the words "no work, no pay".
After a few minutes, the demonstration ends in a round of applause and an impromptu meeting begins.
These young, middle-class Nepalis have gathered to protest against the lack of progress by the country's constituent assembly - the 601-member body tasked with writing Nepal's new democratic constitution.
Over the past few weeks, public protests like this have flared up across the capital, organised through the internet and social media sites.
For many, it is the first time they have demonstrated in public.
"We don't have a very long history of democracy in our country," says Prashant Singh, who is a founding member of the Facebook group called Nepal Unites.
"People lack trust that they can actually come out on the streets and have their say, without having a political party behind them," he says.
The mobilisation of Nepal's previously complacent urban elite highlights the growing frustration felt by Nepalis against the country's stalled peace process.
Power struggles
More than four years after a ceasefire between Maoist rebels and the state, politicians are set to miss another deadline to finish drafting a new national charter.

A wide cross-section of people have taken to the streets

Under the 2006 Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended 10 years of conflict, politicians pledged to write a new constitution by May 28 2010.
However, this deadline was extended by one year after it became clear that many key constitutional issues had not been resolved.
Despite this extension, power struggles both within and between the three main political parties have meant that little progress has been made.
Politicians have still to agree on what system of government to adopt and how many provinces the country will have.
Although last minute talks continue, it is still unclear whether Nepal's squabbling political parties will be able to agree on the terms for another extension.
If the 28 May deadline passes without resolution, the country will face a constitutional vacuum.
"There may be presidential rule," says Gagan Thapa from the opposition Nepali Congress Party.
"Nothing is clear. Things may go out of our control as the state is very fragile."
The sticking point to negotiating an extension is what to do with more than 19,000 former Maoist soldiers who are living under supervision in camps throughout the country, their weapons locked away in containers.
The Maoists, who hold the most seats in the assembly, say they are ready to integrate half this force into a new national security force and rehabilitate the rest to civilian life.
Significant influence
Although there is general agreement over integration and rehabilitation, the opposition Nepali Congress Party is also insisting that the Maoists hand over their weapons as part of the deal to extend the constitutional deadline.

A new constitution is unlikely to be promulgated despite public pressure

But the Maoists are under pressure from hardliners within their own party not to make this concession.
"This is not the time for the major political parties to put forward demands and keep the constituent assembly hostage," says Maoist Vice-Chairman Baburam Bhattarai.
"The responsible political parties should sit down, have a dialogue and reach consensus," he says.
Many feel that reaching a deal is further complicated by the involvement of Nepal's giant southern neighbour, India.
It has been at the heart of Nepal's peace negotiations since 2005 and still exerts significant influence in Kathmandu.
"Over the past two years it's been quite clear that India has been suspicious of Maoist intentions," says Nepalese journalist Prashant Jha.
"While not revealing its cards openly, India seems to be backing the opposition to use this moment to pressurise the Maoists to do what they say," he says.
History shows that political deals in Nepal are often not struck until the last minute and this one is unlikely to be an exception.
But the country's embattled politicians are running out of time to agree on a compromise that will convince their people they are serious about completing the constitution and securing peace.

Sri Lanka President Rajapaksa defends military's role

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has defended the conduct of the military during fighting at the end of the country's protracted civil war.

He was speaking at a huge military festival in Colombo to mark the two-year anniversary of the government's defeat of the Tamil Tiger rebels.
A UN panel of experts recently accused both sides of war crimes during the last days of the conflict in 2009.
The president rejected calls for an independent international inquiry.
The BBC's Charles Haviland in Colombo said that it was a defiant speech from a president who still garners great public support from the war victory.
President Rajapaksa did not refer directly to the UN-commissioned report, but said that his forces followed international human rights law as they fought the rebels.
"Our forces carried the firearm in one hand and the human rights charter in the other. Our forces never harboured hatred towards any community or individual," he said.
"Looking at how other countries fight wars, we are proud of the humaneness of our military campaign."
The military went out of its way to help the families of killed Tamil Tiger leaders, the president said.
He said that revisiting the past would "simply reopen old wounds".
The UN-commissioned report said that tens of thousands of civilians died in the final phase of the war - most of them killed in shelling by government forces.

Bomb kills seven US soldiers in southern Afghanistan

Seven US soldiers have been killed by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan, US officials say.

The incident is the deadliest single attack on foreign troops in a month. Nato initially confirmed the deaths but declined to disclose the nationalities.
Earlier, a Nato helicopter crashed in eastern Afghanistan, killing one soldier, officials said.
Almost 200 foreign troops have been killed by militants in Afghanistan so far this year.
Tafsir Khogyani, commander of the border police for southern Afghanistan, told the BBC's Bilal Sarwary in Kabul: "According to our initial information, Coalition and Afghan police went to destroy a Taliban container which had some explosives and weapons. As soon as the helicopter landed and other Isaf forces were patrolling, the explosion took place.
"It took place in Shorabak district 19km (12 miles) from the Pakistani border."
Shorabak district lies between the districts of Registan and Spin Boldak.
Spin Boldak police chief Gen Abdul Raziq told the BBC that insurgents had been cleared from the area only two months ago.
Disputed claim
Meanwhile, Nato-led forces say they have pushed back Taliban fighters in a district in the eastern province of Nuristan.
Local officials said up to 500 insurgents seized the district of Doab on Wednesday.
The international security mission disputes the account given by local leaders. "At no point was the district centre overrun, the Taliban were never in control," said Isaf spokesman Maj Tim James.

Afghan and Nato troops arrived in the district on Wednesday afternoon and carried out a number of air strikes, he said.
"The area remains calm with Afghan and Nato troops very much in control," added Maj James.
It is very hard to confirm Nato's claims or how far their control extends in the district. The provincial governor says nearly 30 insurgents were killed on Wednesday - but questions remain over the whereabouts of hundreds of others.
Our correspondent says the mountainous area has many hiding places.
Officials in Nuristan have been warning for more than a year that the government and Nato should do more to counter the militant threat in the area, he adds.

India TV channels told not to air sexy deodorant ads

Television channels in India have been ordered not to broadcast "overtly sexual" deodorant adverts that use female models in racy storylines.

The channels have been given five days to modify the offending adverts or take them off air.
"The ads brim with messages aimed at tickling libidinous male instincts," India's information ministry said in a statement.
None of the companies named by the ministry have so far responded.
The ministry said that the adverts offended "good taste and decency" and appeared "indecent, vulgar and suggestive" by subtly sending a message that the products "arouse women's sexuality".
It said that they portrayed women as "lustily hankering after men under the influence of such deodorants".
"The depiction and portrayal of women in these ads is overtly sexual."
The ministry argued that the adverts violate India's advertising code, which states that "cable operators should ensure that the portrayal of the female form... is tasteful and aesthetic and within the well established norms of good taste and decency".
Correspondents say that none of the companies concerned is likely to respond in public to the ministry's move because of the sensitivities surrounding the issue.
'Not objectionable'
There are several advertisements in question, including one in which a woman finds a man's deodorant so stimulating that she begins to undress.

The adverts depict women lusting after men who are wearing deodorant

The ministry told the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) to ensure that the adverts were modified or taken off air within five days.
A statement on the ASCI's website says that there have been a large number of complaints about deodorant adverts in the last two years and that it has acted in some cases.
But the statement says that "in many cases, it has been decided that the advertising is not objectionable".
"At ASCI, there are very specific guidelines. Any visual that is not likely to cause grave or widespread offence is not a cause of concern. Most of these deodorant ads are played after 11pm on TV, outside family viewing timing," the statement said.
Brands affected by the ban include Wild Stone, Addiction Deo and Axe.
Last year the ministry suspended Fashion TV (FTV) for 10 days for showing topless models during a show.
Officials said that FTV had violated several provisions of the Cable Television Networks rules by showing women in an "obscene" manner.

Air ambulance crash kills 10 in India

Authorities in India are investigating the crash of a small medical ambulance aircraft near the capital, Delhi, which killed 10 people.

The plane crashed on Wednesday night in a residential area in Faridabad town in the northern state of Haryana.
The dead included seven people on board the aircraft and three women who were in the house on which the plane fell.
The craft was flying a critically ill patient from the state of Bihar to a hospital in Delhi.
Reports said a team of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) was at the site of the crash, sifting through the wreckage of the plane.
A senior DGCA official said the plane had been in contact with air traffic control before suddenly vanishing, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.
Minutes before hitting the ground, the plane broke into two and caught fire, burning parts of the house on which it landed.
Mangled remains of the aircraft lay strewn at the site of the crash and a damaged propeller was also seen.
"When the plane crashed, massive fire erupted and the public started running for the rescue of the victims," Reuters news agency quoted Sanjay Kumar, an eyewitness, as saying.
Police said two people injured in the crash had been admitted to hospital.

US to withdraw troops from Pakistan

The US military has announced the withdrawal of a number of its troops from Pakistan.

The Pentagon said it had received a request from the Pakistani government to reduce its presence in the country.
The request came after a raid by US special forces killed al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden in early May.
The US has more than 200 troops in Pakistan helping to train the army. But there are said to be intelligence and special forces operating there.
A spokesman at the Pentagon said that within the last two weeks Pakistan had asked the American military to reduce its footprint, and the Americans were doing so, pulling out some troops. The numbers are quite small.
It is not clear if any of the American intelligence and special operations forces that are said to be in Pakistan clandestinely are also being pulled out.
Volatile relations
The request would appear to be a sign of Pakistan's discontent at the manner in which the raid on Osama Bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad was conducted without Islamabad's knowledge.
Relations between Washington and Islamabad are always complex and fragile but they are particularly volatile at the moment.
In Washington, suspicion is rife that some in Pakistan knew of Osama Bin Laden's hiding place.
And there is grumbling about continued US military aid.
A trial underway in Chicago may shed light on the relationship between Pakistani intelligence and violent extremist groups.
And to top it off, Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has just been to China, buying fighter jets and reaffirming a strategic alliance the US finds troubling.

England made to toil by Sri Lanka in Cardiff Test

Dilshan and Paranavitana made a 93 partnership for the first wicket

Late wickets for Graeme Swann and James Anderson gave England a much-needed boost after Sri Lanka made a strong start to the opening Test in Cardiff.

After showers delayed play until 1530 BST, Tillakaratne Dilshan and Tharanga Paranavitana (58) made light of testing conditions with an opening stand of 93.
Swann, not used until the 27th over, made the breakthrough for England when he bowled captain Dilshan for 50.
Anderson had Kumar Sangakkara caught behind as the tourists closed on 133-2.
It was a relatively flat start to an important summer for Andrew Strauss and his team, whose stated aim is to use their historic Ashes triumph in Australia as a springboard to becoming the world's best Test side.
But it was a far cry from the euphoria of Sydney in January, as seamers Anderson, Stuart Broad and Chris Tremlett - preferred to Steven Finn - were made to toil by Sri Lanka's in-form openers.
That said, the dismissals of key men Dilshan and Sangakkara gave England a fillip late in the day and further breakthroughs on Friday morning could yet swing the balance in the home side's favour.
"I thought we started pretty well considering we spent most of the day in the dressing room, it sometimes can be quite hard to get yourself up for that kind of start time," said Anderson.
"But I thought we did brilliantly in the first hour. We could have got a few wickets, we beat the bat a couple of times but they played pretty well too and left well.
"I thought we got some deserved wickets in the evening."
After winning the toss and choosing to bat, Dilshan and Paranavitana made an impressive start as the clouds finally gave way to sunshine midway through the afternoon in the Welsh capital.
Both batsmen got their boundary count under way in the second over as Broad was flayed for 11 runs, with Dilshan sending a perfectly decent delivery straight back past the bowler for a sumptuous four.
Concentration was the order of the day, with the ball moving around in the air, but after scoring centuries in both Sri Lanka's warm-up games, Paranavitana and Dilshan looked in fine nick and coped admirably in unfamiliar conditions.
Broad, playing Test cricket for the first time since the second Ashes Test in early December, looked particularly rusty, struggling for a consistent line on a blustery afternoon. Anderson, in contrast, was straighter and more accurate, beating the bat on numerous occasions without reward.
The tea break seemed to herald a more positive approach from Dilshan, who cracked three boundaries from the first two overs after the interval.
A switch to round-the-wicket almost brought a breakthrough for Anderson as the left-handed Paranavitana clipped a rising delivery in the air, but the ball fell just short of Eoin Morgan at point.
Dilshan reached his 17th Test half-century from 92 balls only to be dismissed by Swann two balls later as he chopped a turning delivery that kept low onto his stumps.
The off-spinner had been ignored by Strauss until the 27th over of the innings but he showed his value to the side with a wicket in his fourth over.
Sangakkara, who can regain top spot in the Test batting rankings with a strong showing in Cardiff, hit one trademark cover drive to the fence before he was dismissed in controversial circumstances.
A fine delivery from Anderson had England appealing for a caught behind but umpire Aleem Dar gave it not out.
Captain Strauss sent the decision to the third umpire for review and, after a lengthy delay, Hot spot confirmed a faint edge, forcing Dar to overturn his decision, much to the obvious annoyance of Sangakkara.
"With the strong breeze across, the guys in front weren't convinced but the slips were convinced and Straussy had no hesitation," claimed Anderson.
Paranavitana reached his sixth Test half-century in the third over before the close with the fifth boundary of a largely watchful innings.
Sri Lanka will look to the left-hander and former skipper Mahela Jayawardene (4 not out) to propel them towards an imposing first innings score in the morning.
A satisfied Dilshan said his side would be looking to amass a score over 400.
"If we can out some runs on the board, I think more than 350 or 400 would be a good score on that wicket, we can try and put pressure on the England side," he said.
"I'm very happy with 133 for two, although personally I am very disappointed that after getting in I played a bad shot and got out, but otherwise I am happy with the performance.
"I thought the three England quicks bowled well, they bowled a good line, but Paranavitana batted really well and overall I am very happy."
Anderson believes the Cardiff wicket, which some had suggested may offer little to the bowlers, has enough in it to give encouragement to the home attack.
"There's more life than we thought here," he said. "We were delighted that there is some movement there and a little bit of bounce for the taller guys.
"If you bend your back you can get something out of the pitch so it's a good cricket wicket.
"It's going to be a hard contest tomorrow I think and further on in the game."

Taliban seize district in eastern Afghan province

Officials in Afghanistan say insurgents allied to the Taliban have taken another district in a strategically important province in the north-east.

Nuristan Governor Jamaludin Badar told the BBC that 10 insurgents and three policemen had been killed.
Nato-led forces now say they and Afghan troops provided air support on Wednesday.
Local officials say they are trying to re-take the western district of Doab which Nato denies is in Taliban hands.
At least three districts in Nuristan are now under Taliban control. In others, the government presence is either weak or limited.
"We had intelligence reports that close to 500 Arabs, Chechen, Pakistani and Afghan fighters wanted to attack and take the districts," Mr Badar told the BBC.
"The fighting is still going on. Our weapons are no match to those of the insurgents. We have no hand grenades, mortars or heavy machine guns.
"We have asked for help from the defence ministry but they have not responded to us."
The insurgents control key routes into the provincial capital, Parun, allowing them to impose a blockade on the city.

Nuristan is a remote mountainous region and communications are poor. There are concerns that the blockade could mean food shortages for the local population but that is hard to confirm.

The central government did recently promise military reinforcements but the sense within Afghanistan is that Nuristan has inadequate security forces and is not getting the help it needs.
It is not traditionally a stronghold for the Afghan Taliban. But it does have a history of tribal extremism and militancy.
Nuristan borders Pakistan's tribal areas and there seem to be growing alliances between local leaders and Pakistani Taliban groups.
That makes Nuristan strategically important in the wider conflict as an entry point into Afghanistan - and a potential haven for Pakistani militants.
It also shares an interior border with Kunar province to the south. That too lies along the border with Pakistan and is important in the battle against the insurgents.
The United States has invested heavily in building infrastructure in Kunar and will be keen to protect it.
Nuristan is hard to defend and has not so far been a priority for the central government.
Afghan intelligence officials in Nuristan say that they have repeatedly warned the government and Nato about the worsening security situation.
"If you don't come and deal with this mess. You will be dealing with another Waziristan and al-Qaeda's next home inside Afghanistan," one official told the BBC.

Shahid Afridi pulls out of Pakistan series in Ireland

Former captain Shahid Afridi has withdrawn from Pakistan's squad for two one-day internationals in Ireland because his father is ill.

A Pakistan Cricket Board spokesman said: "Afridi informed us his father has been admitted to hospital for liver treatment and he wants to be with him."
The all-rounder, 31, was last week replaced as one-day skipper by Misbah-ul-Haq, who also leads the Test side.
The two games in Ireland take place at Stormont on Saturday and next Monday.
And Pakistan have decided not to replace Afridi in the squad, instead relying on the other 15 players initially named for the trip.
Afridi, one of the most charismatic and exciting players in world cricket, captained the one-day and Twenty20 teams from early 2010.
The decision to relieve him of the job came as something of a surprise after he led Pakistan to the semi-finals of the World Cup and a 3-2 victory in the West Indies.
He criticised team management after the series in the Caribbean, but the board insisted the decision to replace him was in line with their policy of appointing a captain "on a series to series basis".
Pakistan squad to face Ireland: Misbah-ul-Haq (capt), Younis Khan, Taufiq Umar, Mohammad Hafeez, Asad Shafiq, Azhar Ali, Mohammad Salman (wk), Saeed Ajmal, Abdur Rehman, Umar Akmal, Umar Gul, Wahab Riaz, Tanvir Ahmed, Junaid Khan, Hammad Azam.

India prime minister pledges billions to Africa

India will offer $5bn (£3.1bn) credit to African nations to help them meet development goals, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said.

Speaking at a meeting with African heads of state in Ethiopia, Mr Singh also pledged to support African education and infrastructure.
He is in Africa in a bid to expand India's trade with the continent.
Analysts say India is lagging behind its rival China in trying to invest in and access African markets.
Mr Singh is at the beginning of a six-day visit to the continent.
India's commerce with Africa is worth $40bn (£25bn) a year, but it is dwarfed by China, which does roughly three times as much business with the continent.
Manmohan Singh spoke of a unique relationship between India and Africa, which he said owed its origins to a common struggle against colonialism, apartheid and poverty.
He said Africa had the potential for major growth.
"Africa possesses all the prerequisites to become a major growth pole of the world. There is good news in the struggle against HIV and Aids, as well as in improving literacy, reducing infant mortality and building institutions of representative government," he said.
The BBC's Will Ross, in Nairobi, says that despite the global downturn, India and Africa have been fairly resilient - economies are steadily growing although many of the poor would say they are not feeling the benefit in their own pockets.
While India's economy expanded by more than 8%, India's business links in Africa are also growing - one example being Bharti Airtel spending $10bn (£6.2bn) in 2010 to take over mobile phone operations across Africa from the Kuwaiti firm, Zain.
The challenge for African leaders, our correspondent says, is how to boost the trade and move away from an over-reliance on single commodities - the continent's raw materials.

Alternate energy policy draft to be launched in June

KARACHI: The draft of new alternate energy policy which included other renewable resources is ready and will be launched in June this year.
This was stated by the CEO Alternate Energy Development Board (AEDB) Arif Alauddin while talking to media persons on the 3rd and concluding day of POGEE Conference 2011 on “Energy Solutions” at Karachi Expo Centre here Thursday.
He said the new expanded alternate energy policy also accommodates other renewable resources like biogas, hydel, off-grid and net metering technology to give a bigger canvas for investors. All the imports relating to renewable energy have been made duty free, he added.
He said that AEDB has cancelled all the allotments of land of those wind energy projects which failed to meet deadlines and these lands have been re-allotted to 13 potential investors who have deposited guarantees.
About 17, out of 20 allotments were cancelled for not meeting deadlines and 13 of them were restored upon the payment of $ 250,000 for a new deadline of August 31, 2011, he added.
He pointed out that 7 to 8 wind projects will be having a financial close this year and about 20 more wind energy projects are in the pipeline.
Alauddin said that the financial close of Fauji Foundation wind energy project will be achieved next week as they have signed most of the necessary agreements including purchase power agreement (PPA), bank guarantee. Tapal and Beacon are also in the process of financial close, he noted.
Similarly, China Wind Electric (CWE) has signed production contract and they will start manufacturing of turbines in Pakistan.
To a question, he said that India had started renewable energy project in 1982 and they had developed a full fledged manufacturing facility for wind and solar technology long ago.
He said that the implementation of upcoming wind projects could be delayed, if land was not provided to them by Sindh government, in time.
Earlier, speaking at the conference, Alauddin said that political support and public support was vital for the take off of renewable energy in the country.
Thar coal potential
Senior Vice President, Delta Engineering San Diego USA Zahoor Abbasi, while speaking on Thar coal as an alternative energy source, said that about 38 trillion cubic feet of coal bed methane can be extracted from Thar coal field.
Quoting a report prepared by a Canadian firm, the said that this means that about 900 million cubic feet of natural gas per day can be injected to the existing piped gas network, he added.
He said that USA was getting 7.1 billion cubic feet of gas per day from two coal fields in Colorado and Wyoming states. The USA is driving 10 per cent of natural gas from coal, he opined.
He said the water from Thar coal field can be desalinated for drinking and irrigation purposes. About 10,000 acres of land can be cultivated from this desalinated water, he observed.
A wind energy consultant Furqan Habib said that Pakistan can start local production of wind turbine with foreign collaboration under technology transfer or licensed production.
Director AEDB Imran Ahmed talked about the investment opportunities and policy support in the renewable sector and said that lucrative incentives are offered under renewable energy policy.
National network coordinator of ENERGIA Pakistan, Sherin Fayyaz said that mostly women are victims to indoor pollution caused by the use of inferior mode of energy in the country.

Facebook and Microsoft battle child porn

SAN FRANCISCO: Facebook and Microsoft on Friday formally unveiled an alliance to ferret out child porn and those that share such images at the world’s leading online social network.
Facebook will use PhotoDNA technology developed by Microsoft and Dartmouth College computer science professor Hany Farid to search for matches to pictures in a National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) database.
“We think this is a game changer and we are thrilled to be a part of this partnership,” Facebook assistant general counsel Chris Sonderby said in broadcast streamed at the social network.
PhotoDNA has evaluated more than two billion digital pictures at Microsoft services, finding 1,000 matches on SkyDrive and 1,500 matches through Bing image indexing, according to Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit associate general counsel Bill Harmon.
“It is very efficient technology and will not slow down a network,” Farid said during the live-streamed presentation.
“It has scanned over two billion images without a single false positive.”
PhotoDNA will scan the hundreds of millions photos uploaded daily to Facebook, blocking pictures recognized as child porn and, hopefully, leading police to the sources, according to Sonderby.
If caches of such imagery are seized, new pictures will be “fingerprinted” and made part of the PhotoDNA net, according to NCMEC chief executive Ernie Allen.
“This is a problem that is global in nature,” Allen said. “We think with Facebook we will be able to identify perpetrators preying on kids all over the world.”
The California-based social networking service is reported to have more than 600 million members around the planet.
“Facebook is becoming a model for the entire Internet industry,” Allen said, who expressed hope that pressure would be put on other online services to employ the child-porn-detecting technology.
PhotoDNA will also be scouring Facebook uploads for pictures of children reported missing, since youths tend to stay connected with friends at the social network even if they are dodging family, according to police.
“Facebook joining us is just a fantastic step forward,” Harmon said in the webcast.
“We plan to keep deploying and hope more partners and make this really big and help children in a large way.”
Each month Facebook users share more than 30 billion pieces of content including pictures, news stories, blog posts, and Web links, according to Microsoft.
“Identifying graphic child pornography in a sea of content like that is a daunting task, but PhotoDNA is helping to find the proverbial needle in a haystack,” Harmon said in a blog post.

Scientists: Iceland’s Grimsvotn volcano erupting

REYKJAVIK, Iceland: Iceland’s most active volcano has started erupting, scientists said Saturday _ just over a year after another eruption on the North Atlantic island shut down European air traffic for days.
Iceland’s Meteorological Office confirmed that an eruption had begun at the Grimsvotn volcano, accompanied by a series of small earthquakes. Smoke could be seen rising from the volcano, which lies under the uninhabited Vatnajokull glacier in southeast Iceland.
One eyewitness, Bolli Valgardsson, said the plume rose quickly several thousand feet (meters) into the air.
Grimsvotn last erupted in 2004. Scientists have been expecting a new eruption and have said previously that this volcano’s eruption will likely be small and should not lead to the air travel chaos caused in April 2010 by ash from the Eyjafjallajokul volcano.
Sparsely populated Iceland is one of the world’s most volcanically active countries and eruptions are frequent.
Eruptions often cause local flooding from melting glacier ice, but rarely cause deaths.
Last year’s Eyjafjallajokul eruption left some 10 millions of air travelers stranded worldwide after winds pushed the ash cloud toward some of the world’s busiest airspace and led most northern European countries to ground all planes for five days.
Whether widespread disruption occurs again will depend on how long the eruption lasts, how high the ash plume rises and which way the wind blows.
In November, melted glacial ice began pouring from Grimsvotn, signaling a possible eruption. That was a false alarm but scientists have been monitoring the volcano closely ever since.
The volcano also erupted in 1998, 1995 and 1993. The eruptions have lasted between a day and several weeks.

Japan ‘plans solar panels for all new buildings’

TOKYO: Japan is considering a plan that would make it compulsory for all new buildings and houses to come fitted with solar panels by 2030, a business daily said Sunday.
The plan, expected to be unveiled at the upcoming G8 Summit in France, aims to show Japan’s resolve to encourage technological innovation and promote the wider use of renewable energy, the Nikkei daily said.
Japan has reeled from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami and the nuclear crisis they triggered as it battles to stabilise the crippled Fukushima Daiichi atomic power plant.
On Thursday, the first day of the two-day summit in Deauville, France, Prime Minister Naoto Kan is expected to announce Japan’s intention to continue operating nuclear plants after confirming their safety, the Nikkei said without citing sources.
But he is also expected to unveil a plan to step up efforts to push renewable energy and energy conservation.
Kan believes that the installation of solar panels would help Japan realise such goals, the Nikkei said.
He hopes that technological innovation will drastically bring down costs of solar power generation and thereby make the use of renewable energy more widespread, it said.

1967 borders reflect long-standing policy: Obama

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama defended his endorsement of Israel’s 1967 boundaries as the basis for a future Palestine, telling America’s pro-Israel lobby that his views reflected long-standing US policy that needed to be stated clearly.
He also said Sunday that the Jewish state will face growing isolation without ”a credible peace process.”
Obama tried to alleviate concerns that his administration was veering in a pro-Palestinian direction, placing his Mideast policy speech Thursday in the context of Israel’s security.
He told the American Israel Public Affairs Committee that those border lines must be subject to negotiated land swaps and said these principles reflected US thinking dating to President Bill Clinton’s mediation efforts.
”If there’s a controversy, then it’s not based in substance,” Obama said in a well-received speech at a Washington convention center. ”What I did on Thursday was to say publicly what has long been acknowledged privately.
I have done so because we cannot afford to wait another decade, or another two decades, or another three decades, to achieve peace.”
The event was eagerly anticipated after Obama outlined his vision for the changing Middle East at the State Department on Thursday and then clashed in a White House meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a day later.
The speech came ahead of a weeklong trip for the president to Europe, where he will tend to old friends in the Western alliance and look to secure their help with the political upheaval across the Arab world and the decade-long conflict in Afghanistan.
Netanyahu said in a statement after Obama’s remarks that he supported the president’s desire to advance peace and resolved to work with him to find ways to renew the negotiations. ”Peace is a vital need for us all,” Netanyahu said.
The Israeli leader’s tone was far more reserved than last week, when he issued an impassioned rejection of the 1967 borders as ”indefensible” and even appeared to publicly admonish Obama after their White House meeting.
Netanyahu was to address the pro-Israel lobby Monday night and Congress on Tuesday.
Obama didn’t retreat from his remarks on what it would take to reach a two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians. Repeating a large section of his Thursday speech, he said the result must come through negotiation, and that Israeli border security and protections from acts of terrorism must be ensured. An Israeli withdrawal from territory should be followed by Palestinians’ responsibility for security in a nonmilitarized state.
”By definition, it means that the parties themselves _ Israelis and Palestinians _ will negotiate a border that is different than the one that existed on June 4, 1967,” Obama said. That was before Israel seized the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, and a half-million Israelis settled on war-won lands.
”It is a well-known formula to all who have worked on this issue for a generation,” the president said. ”It allows the parties themselves to account for the changes that have taken place over the last 44 years, including the new demographic realities on the ground and the needs of both sides.”
Obama’s emphasis on what is meant by ”mutually agreed land swaps” reflected a part of the equation Netanyahu largely disregarded when he vociferously rejected the 1967 borders as a basis for peace.
Palestinians have expressed willingness to let Israel annex some of the largest settlements closest to the demarcation, as long as they are compensated with Israeli land equal in size and quality. In the last serious negotiations in 2008, the sides split over how much West Bank land Israel would keep in the trade.
Leading Republicans seized on Obama’s Mideast remarks, insisting that he was imperiling Israel’s security.
”This is the very worst time to be pushing Israel into making a deal,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky told ”Fox News Sunday,” citing the uncertainty in neighboring Egypt and Syria.
Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said the US shouldn’t apply any pressure on Israel in light of the recent reconciliation agreement between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ US-backed government and the Islamic militant group Hamas, which controls Gaza.
”How do you have peace with a Hamas organization whose stated goal is the destruction of Israel and driving every Israeli out of the country?” Gingrich asked on CBS television’s ”Face the Nation.”
Obama acknowledged that he had touched nerves by outlining his principles for peace and that ”the easy thing to do, particularly for a president preparing for re-election, is to avoid any controversy.” But he said peace efforts needed to gain ground quickly.
”The march to isolate Israel internationally _ and the impulse of the Palestinians to abandon negotiations _ will continue to gain momentum in the absence of a credible peace process,” he said.

Malaysia probes rural town after deadly landslide

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian authorities on Monday investigated the rural town where a landslide slammed into an orphanage, leaving 16 dead, for fear another disaster could hit the slip-prone region.
A 34-year-old caretaker and 15 boys, aged between eight and 19 years old, were killed and 10 others were hospitalised in the tragedy at Hulu Langat town just outside the capital Kuala Lumpur.
The boys were attending a drum rehearsal held in a tent when an avalanche of rocks, sand and mud came crashing down on Saturday after days of heavy rain.
Teams from the Public Works Department and geologists from a university institute are surveying hillside developments in the town, where clusters of traditional ethnic Malay-style houses line the country road next to a river.
Ibrahim Komo, director of the Southeast Asia Disaster Prevention Research Institute which is carrying out a week-long probe, said the orphanage was situated near a hill that had been sliced off and left without any support system such as a retaining wall.
“If people were aware of the signs of a landslide, they will know that this slope is unstable, and it’s only a matter of time that this slope will fail,” he told AFP.
“For this particular slope, we know for sure that the cutting of the slope was the cause.”
There are many, many houses built close to the slope,” he added. “The community, villagers, they seldom put any support system so all this cutting the hill at the bottom of the slope has some risk of slope failure.” An official from the Public Works Department could not say what remedies would be taken if any more buildings are deemed unsafe.
The orphanage is believed to have been built a decade ago without official approval.
Housing and Local Government Minister Chor Chee Heung said that in those days landowners were not required to submit building applications, but that the rules on slope developments have now been tightened.
Malaysia has suffered a series of landslide disasters over past decades.
In one of the worst incidents, a huge mudslide brought on by heavy rain led to the collapse of a 12-storey residential building in suburban Kuala Lumpur in December 1993, killing 48 people.

US urges Yemen’s Saleh to accept deal to step down

WASHINGTON: The United States is disappointed that Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has rejected a deal to step down, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said late on Sunday, urging him to sign the agreement.
“We urge him to immediately follow through on his repeated commitments to peacefully and orderly transfer power and ensure the legitimate will of the Yemeni people is addressed. The time for action is now,” Clinton said in a statement.
Despite intense diplomatic pressure from Yemen’s Gulf Arab neighbors and Western mediators, Saleh rejected a deal to step that would have given him immunity from prosecution.
The mediators were hoping to bring an end violence in which more than 170 Yemeni demonstrators have been killed.
“The United States is deeply disappointed by President Saleh’s continued refusal to sign the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) initiative,” Clinton said.
It was the third time an agreement for him to leave after 33 years in power had fallen through at the last minute.
“President Saleh is now the only party that refuses to match actions to words,” Clinton said, adding that the other parties to an agreement already had signed off on it several times.
Clinton said the United States was also outraged to learn that gunmen loyal to Saleh had surrounded the United Arab Emirates embassy in Sanaa, trapping inside US Ambassador Gerald Feierstein and other Gulf and Western ambassadors who were working to resolve the crisis.
“We condemn this action and call on President Saleh to meet his international obligations to ensure the safety and security of all foreign diplomats and their staffs working in Yemen,” Clinton said.
The diplomats were reported to have left by helicopter, after the UAE urged Yemeni authorities to secure its embassy.

Man held in Times Square bombing probe deported to Pakistan

BOSTON: A Pakistani man arrested during the investigation of the failed New York Times Square car bombing was deported to Pakistan, federal authorities said.
Aftab Ali Khan, 28, was accompanied Sunday by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers on a flight from Logan International Airport to Islamabad, the agency said in a statement.
Khan, his uncle and a man in Maine were arrested on immigration violations nearly two weeks after the failed bombing attempt on May 1, 2010.
Khan pleaded guilty last month to immigration and illegal money-transfer charges and was sentenced to time served. He did not face terrorism-related charges.
Khan, who lived in Watertown, came to the US in August 2009 on a 90-day visa to get married.
Prosecutors alleged that Khan gave $4,900 to Faisal Shahzad, of Bridgeport, Connecticut, who was later convicted in the bombing attempt. They said it was part of a transaction to get an equivalent amount of money to Khan’s family in Pakistan.
Khan is not accused of knowing what Shahzad would do with the money. But investigators say they uncovered fraudulent immigration documents and that Khan lied to them while they were investigating the Shahzad case.
Shahzad, who admitted leaving an SUV rigged with a homemade bomb in busy Times Squares, was arrested trying to leave the country on a Dubai-bound flight two days later. He was sentenced to life in prison.

North Korea’s Kim tours east China with economic ties in focus

YANGZHOU, China: North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-il toured east China on Monday, continuing a secretive visit that has highlighted the bond between his isolated regime and Asia’s biggest economy.
This time, Kim appeared to be making a fresh show of interest in China’s economic success, which Communist Party leaders in Beijing have repeatedly prodded him to emulate and open North Korea’s state-dominated economy to more outside investment and market forces.
Premier Wen Jiabao told South Korean President Lee Myung-bak in Tokyo that Kim was travelling through China to study “economic development”, Yonhap News reported on Sunday, citing a South Korean presidential aide.
Wen said Kim’s trip would “offer the opportunity to understand China’s development and utilise it for North Korea’s development”, according to Yonhap.
Kim’s latest journey began on Friday and has so far taken him through the China’s northeast to Yangzhou, a small, scenic city in the eastern province of Jiangsu, where his father, Kim Il-sung, met the then-president of China, Jiang Zemin, in 1991.
The English-language edition of the Global Times, a Beijing newspaper, cited unnamed sources as saying “Kim was received at the local train station by a number of Yangzhou government officials” when he arrived on Sunday.
His visit was “an apparent move to seek economic cooperation between Beijing and Pyongyang”, the report said.
Although neither Beijing nor Pyongyang has officially confirmed Kim’s visit, the unscheduled movements and tight security of a distinctive North Korean train have echoed the past trips by 69-year-old Kim, who travels only by train and visited twice last year to woo his powerful neighbour.
His latest visit overlapped with a weekend summit that brought together China, Japan and South Korea. Kim may have timed his visit to make a point to the region that his country still enjoys Beijing’s support.
Washington, Tokyo and Seoul have long urged China to apply more pressure on North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons ambitions and defuse tensions with its neighbours.
China, however, also sees North Korea as a strategic bulwark against the United States and its regional allies, and Kim’s string of visits since last year have underscored that bond.
In recent years, Beijing has sought to shore up ties with the North with more aid and trade and visits there by leaders.
Economic links to China have become increasingly important for North Korea’s survival, because of international sanctions and deteriorating ties with South Korea. In 2010, trade between China and North Korea was worth dollar 3.5 billion, up 29.6 percent from 2009, according to Chinese customs statistics.

Obama departs for Europe trip, explores Irish roots

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama kicked off a multi-nation European tour on Sunday, departing for Ireland, where he will explore his Irish roots in a town that once was home to a distant relative.
Obama and his wife, Michelle, took off from Andrews Air Force Base late on Sunday for a weeklong trip that will include stops in Britain, France and Poland.
Obama is expected to press US allies to help advance the movement for democratic change offered by the “Arab spring” uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa during the tour.
But he starts off on a nostalgic note, visiting a country where 37 million Americans claim ancestry and going to Moneygall, a sleepy village that was the birthplace of his great-great-great grandfather, Falmouth Kearney, a shoemaker.
Town residents lined up for up to six hours last week to get a ticket to see the president, who has been affectionately renamed “O’Bama” for his Irish sojourn. An exclusion zone will be in place around the town on Monday and only people with tickets will be let in.
Obama, the first African-American US president, is the son of a Kenyan father and Irish-American mother.
After Ireland Obama heads to Britain, where he will be feted by Queen Elizabeth at a formal state dinner. He then attends the Group of Eight summit in France before concluding his trip in Poland, where he will meet with leaders from eastern Europe.

Bashir to hand over Gilani`s message to Karzai

ISLAMABAD: Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir will deliver a ‘special message’ from Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Monday (today).
“Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir will reach Kabul tomorrow to deliver the prime minister’s special message to Afghan President Hamid Karzai,” a brief statement issued by the PM’s Office said on Sunday. No details were given.
The message from Mr Gilani follows his meetings with Chinese leaders in which Pakistan and China agreed to coordinate efforts on the situation in Afghanistan.
A close aide of the prime minister said that through his message Mr Gilani intended to take Mr Karzai on board about his discussions with Chinese leaders on Afghanistan.
Diplomatic sources suggest that Prime Minister Gilani has lately been pursuing a plan to forge a regional alliance between Pakistan, Afghanistan and China. Though this idea has been discussed with Afghan and Chinese leaders in the past, it is said that Islamabad may strive to fast-track it after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Kabul during which India and Afghanistan announced a strategic partnership. The spokesperson for the Foreign Office wasn’t available for comments.

Mass protests if probe body not formed: PML-N

ISLAMABAD: The opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) is still hoping the government will constitute an independent commission on Abbottabad operation in line with the unanimous resolution adopted by the joint sitting of parliament on May 14.

When asked about the party`s strategy in case the government failed to fulfil the commitment of forming the commission, a number of PML-N legislators and office-bearers said the party would launch a public protest.
“We will have no option but to go to the people, if the government does not form the commission,” said PML-N`s Senator Raja Zafarul Haq.
Senator Haq, however, said that unlike in the past it would be difficult for the government to run away from its commitment, which it had made not only with the opposition but with the parliament and the whole nation.
Through the resolution passed during the in-camera joint session of the parliament after a detailed briefing by the top military officials on the May 2 US covert operation and a lengthy consultation between the PPP and the PML-N, the parliament “called upon the government to appoint an independent commission on the Abbottabad operation, fix responsibility and recommend necessary measures to ensure that such an incident does not occur (again)”.
Modalities for the formation of the commission, according to the resolution, were to be settled after consultation between Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan.
A source in the PML-N told Dawn that Chaudhry Nisar had already sent a letter to the prime minister suggesting names of the persons from among the retired judges, journalists, politicians and civil society activists who could be appointed as members of the independent commission. During a news conference last week, Chaudhry Nisar had even disclosed some of the names including that of Justice (retd) Shafiur Rehman, Justice (retd) Nasir Aslam Zahid, Justice (retd) Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim, chief of Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party Mehmood Khan Achakzai, Asma Jehangir and Majeed Nizami.
The opposition leader had sent the letter at a time when the prime minister was on a four-day official visit to China. The party has so far not received any reply from the government even though the prime minister returned to the country on Friday night.
Mr Haq told Dawn that his party had been waiting for a response from the prime minister and expressed the hope that the Pakistan People`s Party (PPP)-led ruling coalition would soon take practical steps towards constitution of the commission on this very important matter. Another PML-N leader, Khwaja Saad Rafique, said the party could not wait for an indefinite period and would certainly take measures to put pressure on the government to fulfil its commitment. “Obviously, we will not wait for long and definitely put pressure on the government to form the commission,” Mr Rafique said.
He said that keeping in view its experiences, the party would have no choice but to lodge a strong protest inside and outside parliament and to go for mass mobilisation against the ruling party in case it did not fulfil its promise.
When contacted, a senior PPP leader presently holding a government office said the PPP-led coalition would have to form the commission as it had been given this responsibility by the parliament. Moreover, he said, the party leadership believed that if the commission was not constituted, it would cause irreparable damage to the party`s image and could provide an opportunity to the other forces to politically exploit the issue.
He, however, said there could be a little delay in the formation of the commission as the government would want to finalise the terms of reference and mandate and scope of the commission as well before its formal announcement.

Afghan Taliban reject reports Mullah Omar killed

KABUL: The Taliban in Afghanistan rejected on Monday as “propaganda” unsourced media reports that its reclusive leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, had been killed in Pakistan, saying he is alive and in Afghanistan.
Security officials in Pakistan and diplomats, US military commanders and government officials in Afghanistan all cast doubt on reports that Omar, one of the most-wanted men in the world, had been killed while travelling between Quetta and North Waziristan in Pakistan.
“He is in Afghanistan safe and sound,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location. “We strongly reject these baseless allegations that Mullah Mohammad Omar has been killed.”
“This is the propaganda by the enemy to weaken the morale of fighters,” Mujahid said.
The heavily bearded, one-eyed Omar is rarely seen in public and fled with the rest of the Afghan leadership to the Pakistan town of Quetta after their government was toppled by US-backed Afghan forces in late 2001, where they formed the “Quetta shura”. A shura is a leadership council.
The Taliban were toppled for refusing to hand over al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden after the Sept. 11, 2001, hijacked airliner attacks on the United States.
Bin Laden was killed by a US Navy SEAL team in a garrison town not far from the Pakistan capital, Islamabad, in the early hours of May 2, ending a search that had dragged on for more than 10 years.
Bin Laden’s killing came as a blow to an already splintered al Qaeda but its effect on loosely allied groups like the Afghan and Pakistan Taliban movements has been less clear.
In Afghanistan, the Taliban have already vowed to step up attacks as part of their long-awaited “spring offensive”, and violence has spiked with a series of assaults on major targets in recent days.
A senior Pakistani security official said he could not confirm media reports, including on Afghanistan’s private TV station TOLO, that Omar had been killed by members of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) spy agency.
According to one media report, a former ISI chief Hamid Gul had been moving Omar from Quetta to North Waziristan when Omar was killed, although Gul denied the report.
“I am in Muree with my wife and I have no involvement in this, whether he is dead or alive,” Gul told Reuters by telephone from a hill town north of the Pakistani capital.
“We don’t know if he is dead or not. My sense is he is alive.”
In Kabul, senior diplomats and US military officials also could not confirm the report and would not comment publicly.
Some described the reports as “speculation”.
An intelligence official for Afghanistan’s National Directorate of Security, who asked not to be identified, said the NDS was aware of reports that Mullah Omar had been killed by agents from Pakistan’s ISI while being moved from Quetta to North Waziristan.
NDS spokesman Lutfullah Mashal said the agency’s “intelligence gathering” had seen reports Mullah Omar had been killed on the way to North Waziristan.
“But I cannot officially confirm that he was killed,” Mashal said.
There have been reports in the past that Omar and other members of the Quetta shura had been killed or captured. Last week, some Pakistani media reported the Afghan Taliban leader had been captured in Pakistan.