

M WAQAR..... "A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary.Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death." --Albert Einstein !!! NEWS,ARTICLES,EDITORIALS,MUSIC... Ze chi pe mayeen yum da agha pukhtunistan de.....(Liberal,Progressive,Secular World.)''Secularism is not against religion; it is the message of humanity.'' تل ده وی پثتونستآن
It could be the mother of all upsets - top Congress leader Rahul Gandhi losing Amethi in Uttar Pradesh, the Lok Sabha constituency that has returned a Gandhi family member uninterruptedly since 1980. Such an electoral upset would be a bitter irony, as Rahul is the party's driving force who has been tirelessly and virtually single-handedly taking on a resurgent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. The BJP has got "encouraging" reports from Amethi suggesting that for the first time in over three decades a Gandhi family member is on a slippery wicket in this pocket borough and it has a decent chance to inflict a humiliating defeat to the Congress top leader who is deemed to be a prime ministerial candidate. For this reason the entire top brass of the BJP descended on Amethi on Sunday and Monday for carpet bombing Amethi with poll campaign in favor of their TV actor-turned-politician candidate Smriti Irani. Amethi went to polls on Wednesday. But none mattered more than Modi. Such has become the state of affairs with the BJP, a party that traditionally had a bunch of leaders at the top but now has a sole poster boy. Minutes before campaigning there ended on Monday evening, Modi addressed an election rally at Amethi. His sole mission objective was to tear into the entire Gandhi clan, living and dead. Like a Rambo, he fired indiscriminately at all the Gandhis, Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka. He did not even spare former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, who was killed by a suicide bomber in 1991. Modi campaigning in Amethi goes against an unspoken code wherein major political parties do not send their star campaigners to the constituencies of their top rivals. But this election is an unprecedentedly no-holds-barred contest for all parties, particularly the BJP and Congress, who are leaving no stone unturned to woo the voters. The BJP's assessment of Amethi is not far off the mark. There is widespread disgruntlement and even disenchantment with Rahul for the people of Amethi. The constituency still does not have basic amenities like water and power even though India's first family has held the seat since 1980. Bridges half-completed for seven years, poor roads, electricity outages, water shortage, inadequate health and educational facilities are only some of the complaints that Rahul is facing from many of the 1.5 million Amethi voters. Another charge against Rahul from local voters is that he is hardly accessible and his visits to the constituency have been few and far between. The new anti-corruption Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which otherwise has become a fringe player in these elections, happens to be a powerful presence in Amethi. AAP candidate Kumar Vishwas has been camping in this constituency for months and has visited its remotest areas where Rahul has never been. Political observers feel that AAP will eat into a chunk of traditional Congress voter base, particularly the sizeable number of Muslims. Yet Congress ship in Amethi has been steadied by Rahul's sister Priyanka who has been camping in the constituency for weeks. In many ways BJP candidate Smriti Irani is more pitted against Priyanka than Rahul. Though the BJP smells a chance of defeating Rahul Gandhi in Amethi, it remains to be seen whether the BJP can pull off such a sensational political coup. But one thing seems certain: Even if Rahul does win, it will be by embarrassingly less than the huge victory margin of over 364,000 votes he notched up in 2009, when all his rivals lost their deposit.By Rajeev Sharma
The Report on the National Security of China (2014), China’s first blue book on national security, was issued in Beijing on Monday. According to the report, against a backdrop where international terrorist activities are on an upward trend, terrorist incidents within China’s territory in 2013 showed a range of new features. The report draws the conclusion that terrorist activities within China’s territory are expanding across regions, with the government and the police as the main targets. The infiltration of religious extremists is posing a threat to the solidarity of socialist belief.
Terrorist activities within China’s territory are expanding across regions.According to the report, with the gradual expansion of its overseas interests China is facing a growing international security risk. Terrorism in the era of globalization will also affect Chinese living abroad. Additionally, against a backdrop where international terrorist activities are on an upward trend, terrorist incidents within China’s territory in 2013 were a freequent occurrence. According to official information, 10 violent terrorist attacks took place within China’s territory in 2013. The report states that since some elements of the terrorist incidents are associated with international forces, they cannot be prevented by national power organs alone. The establishment of the National Security Council, the highest trans-department decision-making body and deliberation and coordination agency, is a strategic measure to ensure that national security is effectively safeguarded. The infiltration of religious extremism is posing a threat to the solidarity of socialist belief. Religious extremists manipulated by hostile western forces are both provocative and deceptive, employing more diverse and subtle measures and spread over a wider range. The infiltration of overseas forces has spread its influence into most areas of China, and this situation is intensifying, according to the report. All the terrorists involved in the attacks of 2013 were religious extremists, according to the report. They were brought together to watch videos advocating religious extremism and terrorism before they perpetrated their atrocities. “The infiltration of religious extremists is posing a serious threat to China's ideological security and China’s national security. We must heighten our vigilance against this problem,” the report pointed out. The National Security Council will coordinate security both domestically and internationally. According to the central conference and documents, the National Security Council is the highest decision-making body and deliberation and coordination agency for national security. The National Security Council will coordinate security both domestically and internationally and it has four main functions. Firstly, establish and implement national security strategies. Secondly, boost the national security network and structure. Thirdly, establish national security policies. Fourthly, analysze and resolve major issues concerning national security.
Badawi, also ordered to pay $266,000 fine, has been behind bars since 2012 and was originally charged with apostasy.A court in Saudi Arabia has sentenced a blogger and activist to 10 years imprisonment and 1,000 lashes for setting up a "liberal" network and insulting Islam. The sentence for Raef Badawi was handed down on Wednesday in a Jeddah court. Badawi was arrested last June and sentenced to seven years in jail and 600 lashes. But an appeals court overturned the ruling and ordered a retrial. In addition to a harsher sentence, the court on Wednesday also ordered Badawi to pay a $266,000 fine. The network that he co-founded with another activist, Suad al-Shammari, had declared May 7 2012 a "day of liberalism" and called for an end to the dominance of religion over public life in the kingdom. Shamari said the network's website had "criticised some clerics, the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (religious police), in addition to religious fatwas (edicts) considered harmful to Islam. "Clerics have filed a lawsuit against him. The government tries to appease them, at our expense sometimes," AFP news agency reported her as saying. Shamari said the network was only active online, adding: "Our activities remain virtual." Amnesty International called Wednesday's ruling "outrageous". Phillip Luther, director of Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa Programme, said: "He [Badawi] is a prisoner of conscience who is guilty of nothing more than daring to create a public forum for discussion and peacefully exercising the right to freedom of expression. “Raif Badawi is the latest victim to fall prey to the ruthless campaign to silence peaceful activists in Saudi Arabia. "The authorities seem determined to crush all forms of dissent through every means at their disposal, including imposing harsh prison sentences and corporal punishment on activists.”
http://www.thehindu.com/Pakistan released an FBI agent on bail on Thursday after three days in custody, officials said, a move that is likely to prevent the situation from escalating into a diplomatic spat. The American man was detained after airport authorities found him carrying ammunition and three knives on Monday as he was about to board a flight for the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. The arrest threatened to open a new chapter in troubled relations between Pakistan and the U.S., which have been uneasy allies since the September 11 terror attacks. But the relatively fast release, if confirmed, suggested efforts to defuse any tensions. A law enforcement official in the U.S. has said the man was an FBI agent and said he was in Pakistan as part of a multi-agency, anti-corruption programme. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the diplomatic sensitivities of the case, said the agent appeared to have made a mistake and didn’t mean to carry bullets aboard the plane. U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki confirmed the detention on Wednesday and said the U.S. was coordinating with Pakistani authorities to resolve the matter. She did not identify the man. A Pakistani court directed the man to submit a surety bond of Pakistani Rs. 1 million ($9,800) for his bail, police officer Rao Anwaar said. The American arrived in Karachi on May 1 and was detained after officials found him with the ammunition, knives and electronic devices that were being examined. Other police officials said investigators were under immense pressure from the Interior Ministry and other government officials to release the American so the report was rushed. They found he had no criminal intention in carrying the bullets during domestic air travel, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity in exchange for release the details. Washington needs Pakistan’s help fighting al-Qaeda and stabilising neighbouring Afghanistan, as NATO uses Pakistani roads to supply its troops. However, relations have strained over a series of incidents. CIA contractor Raymond Davis shot and killed two Pakistani men in Lahore in January 2011. The U.S. unilaterally killed Osama bin Laden in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad in May 2011 and American forces accidentally killed 24 Pakistani troops along the Afghan border the same year. U.S. drones strikes in the country also have angered Pakistanis.
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Despite longstanding efforts to eradicate polio, the crippling disease has reemerged as an international health emergency following a dramatic spike in the number of cases over the past year. The majority of new cases have been detected in Pakistan, which the World Health Organization (WHO) has called "a powder keg that could ignite widespread polio transmission." There have been 74 confirmed polio cases worldwide, compared to just 24 at the same time last year. Fifty-nine of the new cases are in Pakistan. There are several reasons why polio has thrived in the volatile, deeply conservative country. Conspiracy Theories In Pakistan, militants have kidnapped, beaten, and assassinated dozens of vaccinators in a bid to stop local antipolio campaigns. Vaccinators have met the fiercest resistance in the restive province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in northwest Pakistan, where the presence of militant groups such as the Pakistani Taliban (Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan, or TTP) is strongest. Militant groups such as the TTP have opposed immunization partly because they see it as cover for foreign spying. Such beliefs gained credence following a Pakistani investigation that alleged that the CIA used a Pakistani doctor, Shakil Afridi, to uncover Osama bin Laden's hideout. Afridi was accused of confirming bin Laden's presence through DNA samples taken from his family under the guise of a hepatitis vaccination program. The Al-Qaeda leader was killed in May 2011 in the Pakistani garrison town of Abbottabad. Pakistani Health Minister Saira Afzal Tarar blames the surge of polio cases in Pakistan mainly on "a reaction to the Afridi case." Bad Medicine Widespread public fears that the polio vaccine leads to infertility have contributed to the crippling and deadly disease's resurgence in Pakistan. Religious hard-liners have called vaccinations a Western plot to sterilize Muslim populations. Some Islamic clerics have even issued fatwas saying that any person who became paralyzed or died from polio would earn "martyr" status for refusing to be duped by a Western conspiracy. Pakistan recorded 91 cases of polio in 2013, according to WHO, up from 58 in 2012. Polio is a highly contagious disease that mainly affects children under five years of age. It cannot be cured, but it can be prevented with vaccination. One in 200 infections results in paralysis and between 5 and 10 percent of paralyzed patients die. 'Un-Islamic' Religious hard-liners and militants have claimed that polio vaccinations are "un-Islamic" and an attempt to thwart the will of God. Polio vaccines used in Pakistan are made in laboratories worldwide, including in the United States, making them a source of resentment. Militants and some religious clerics claim the vaccinations are made out of pig fat or have traces of alcohol, both of which are banned under Islam. Government health officials have met with religious leaders and clerics across the country in a bid to dispel misconceptions surrounding vaccinations. Some clerics have publicly declared that the immunization drive is acceptable under Islam and that it is, in fact, the militants' deadly campaign against polio workers that is "un-Islamic." But the word of hard-line clerics and militants continues to hold sway. Ripe Conditions In Pakistan, the majority of confirmed polio cases has been detected in the country's restive northwest. The city of Peshawar, the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province, and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) along the border with Afghanistan are particularly vulnerable. Pakistan's largest city, Karachi, located in the southeastern Sindh Province, is also a polio hotbed. The impoverished, volatile northwest has borne the brunt of an insurgency. It is host to millions of Afghan refugees, creating the conditions for the disease to spread. And there is also poor sanitation and weak health infrastructure in the region. Health officials have called on the government to increase expenditures on public health care, to improve infrastructure, and to provide added security for polio vaccinators working in insecure areas. Dr. Zubair Mufti, the WHO polio department head for Pakistan, says the government needs to do more to gain access to high-risk areas. "The key to success in Pakistan is to obtain access to the nearly 250,000 children in North and South Waziristan tribal agencies [eds. in FATA]. Then you need to maintain consistent vaccination activities in the cities of Karachi and Peshawar. These are the three areas where Pakistan remains struck."Frud Bezhan
http://dunyanews.tv/At least eight security personnel embraced martyrdom and several others got injured in a roadside blast in troubled North Waziristan tribal area bordering Afghanistan, Dunya News reported on Thursday. According to Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR), an IED (Improvised Explosive Device) had been planted by terrorists on Miranshah-Ghulamkhan road. The bomb exploded as a military convoy passed in the village of Ghulamkhan. Several security forces personnel were also critically injured in the explosion, ISPR reported. Local military officials confirmed the incident and said troops called in air support and launched a search operation in the area after the attack..
Yousafzai, a remarkable figure who was a contender for the Nobel Peace Prize and was invited to the White House, called on the world to speak out against the brutal Islamic extremist group Boko Haram, which bragged about abducting more than 200 girls and threatened to sell them. "We should all stand up together and we should speak," she said.
Although the Nigerian crisis is unfolding a world away from where she was ambushed on a school bus in the Swat region of Pakistan, Yousafzai saw disturbing parallels between the two situations. "It is what happened in Swat as well. In Swat we were suffering … girls were banned from going to school and banned from going to market, and the same is happening in Nigeria," she said. "They were in schools trying to study thinking about their future, and then suddenly some people came and abducted them." She added, "I think it is beyond our imagination and a very horrible situation, so it is like another kind of terrorism." Yousafzai was just 11 when she outraged the Taliban with a speech entitled, “How dare the Taliban take away my basic right to education?” Despite the danger, she continued to speak out about girls' right to schooling. She was on a bus on her way home from an exam when a gunman stormed on and shot her point-blank in the head. Even though her insistence on speaking out nearly cost Yousafzai her life, she feels she has no choice but to join the international chorus calling for increased pressure on the Boko Haram to release the Nigerian girls.
"It is my duty that I will speak even if no one is listening to me," she said. "I will continue … until people take action. "I have learned from my life when you are speaking from truth, when you are speaking from justice, then no one can defeat you. And this is what I believe in." Protesting against the abductions is the only hope of preventing more of them, she said: "The thing is, if you want to protect other girls as well, then we have to speak." Yousafzai runs a foundation in her name and she said its next project will be focused on secure education for girls in Nigeria. "I think this is just a small globe," she said.