Swat hit-list and two-finger sign

IT IS BEYOND MY UNDERSTANDING THAT ONE IGNORANT MULLAH CAN CONTROL SWAT AND PEOPLE'S LIFE,WHAT THAT SO CALLED POWERFUL PAKISTANI ARMY DOING?IF THEY CAN'T KILL THIS MONSTER THEN LET NATO HANDLE HIM....ITS REALLY AMAZING THAT PAKISTANI REGIME IS ACTING HELPLESS AND LETTING THIS BARBARIAN MONSTER TO KILL INNOCENT PUKHTUNS AND DENY GIRLS EDUCATION.There might be problems of poverty, diseases lack of resources but its not like Swat was the only part in the country prone to that. Its simple, they created a monster, it got lose and now its out of their hands. This is why these incompetent retards in the previous Govt were let go of by their real masters.
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If international humiliation and domestic depression is what the Taliban wanted, they have found the device with which to do it in Swat. They have released a list of 43 people whom they have declared “wanted” and liable to punishment under the Taliban sharia. People on the list include former and current members of the national and provincial assemblies, district and local nazims, officials of political parties, local elders and other influential residents of the troubled valley.

And what is the Taliban sharia all about? Warlord Fazlullah says those on the list will face some sort of sharia court but he also says in the same breath that the “enemies” would “be arrested or killed by his men”. He promises that they would face the court only if they escape getting killed. The death sentence has already been passed and his men will most probably try to do the rough justice with their own hands. In his mind, Mr Fazlullah is content that the sharia court is there to back him up but only if he wants the court to do the job. There can be no doubt that he will make it clear to the court what kind of verdict he wants for his “enemies”.

This is not sharia. This is a clear stratagem of war. It becomes clear when he announces amnesty for those of his “enemies” who have stopped opposing him. This he has done without reference to the sharia courts he presumably has functioning in Swat. The charade is lost on no one except those who forgive the atrocities of these people because in their minds these have come about only because the army has not been withdrawn from Swat as per the “unanimous” resolution of the Pakistani Parliament. Publicists opposed to the government continue to bring up witnesses from the Swat region who complain only of the “atrocities” committed by the army through collateral damage.

One can make an easy prediction. The ANP claim that “good news” will come from Swat “in fifteen days” will have to be swallowed without a glass of water like the earlier papers signed with the warlord. The hit-list is in fact his answer to the ANP’s “good news”. The scene in Swat is depressing and it is all the more so because it is a warlord’s two-finger sign in the face of our mighty army. Swat is the war that Pakistan will have to fight if it wants to survive. All other “threats” are political red herrings.(DAILY TIMES)

‘Taliban won’t be allowed to impose their agenda’

ISLAMABAD: The government will not allow the Taliban to impose their political and ideological agenda on the people through the use of force, President Asif Ali Zardari said on Monday.The president was talking to a delegation of parliamentarians, senators and ministers of the Pakistan People’s Party that met him at the Presidency.
The meeting was jointly chaired by the president and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, but Gilani left the meeting early, as he was due to leave for Davos, Switzerland, early on Tuesday morning (today).Zardari said the Taliban would not be allowed to challenge the writ of the government in Swat or any other part of the country.During the meeting, the PPP leaders informed the president about the non-cooperative attitude of ministers and the bureaucracy, complaining they were treated like members of the opposition.The PPP parliamentarians told President Zardari that the ministers did not even attend their phones, which further encouraged bureaucrats of various ministries to ignore them. The most vocal during the meeting were Amjad Dasti from Punjab and Nawab Wasan from Sindh.“Most the complaints were against Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar, Interior Adviser Rehman Malik, Water and Power Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf and Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah.Legislators were also critical of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, saying he had ignored the problems of the people in their respective constituencies.
Rumours of a change in the government, mid-term elections and the lawyers’ long march also came under discussion in the meeting.The sources said the president rejected the rumours of the change in the government, saying the PPP government would complete its five-year term and no one should have any doubt about that. “The government will complete its term and no conspiracy against it will succeed,” the president said.
Long march: Zardari also asked the PPP leaders not to be afraid of the lawyers’ long march. “We will tackle this march as we did in the past. Let them exercise their democratic right,” the president was quoted as saying.Challenges: Zardari said the PPP government was not afraid of the challenges confronting the nation. “We are not afraid to lead ... we know the way.” The president said that the party was committed to its principles of democracy and would not deviate from its stance in any case.
Several PPP parliamentarians spoke on the occasion to express their views on the country’s current political situation and to highlight the problems of their constituencies.President Zardari said he had decided to hold such consultative dialogue with the party legislators every time parliament was in session. He said he valued such consultations, adding “trust and wisdom is not the monopoly of any individual”.Truth and wisdom, he said, emerged only as a result of discussion among a large number of people, in which each individual contributed with his/her ideas and proposals.

ANP agrees to rename NWFP as Afghania

ISLAMABAD: The Awami National Party (ANP) agrees to change the North West Frontier Province’s name to Afghania, ANP chief Asfandyar Wali said on Monday.

“We don’t want to get into the controversy of renaming the NWFP anymore. We have proposed the name Pakhtoonkhwah for the province. However, since Chaudhry Rehmat Ali had said that the name should begin with the letter ‘A’, we would agree to the notion that the province should be renamed as Afghania,” Wali told reporters at the Parliament House.

He said all political parties should sit together to evolve a consensus over the draft of the 18th Amendment.

NATO, Russia mend relations as Afghan war heats up

BRUSSELS, Belgium — NATO and Russia discussed new supply routes for alliance troops in Afghanistan in a meeting Monday that helped to mend ties suspended after Russia's August war with Georgia.
NATO is urgently seeking an alternative line through Russia to supply the 62,000 Western troops currently in Afghanistan and the 30,000 reinforcements U.S. President Barack Obama intends to deploy this year. Existing routes through Pakistan are becoming precarious amid deteriorating security.
President Dmitry Medvedev has said his government is ready to allow NATO nations to cross Russian territory with cargo intended for coalition forces in Afghanistan.
NATO spokesman James Appathurai said after the two-hour meeting that the envoys from Russia and NATO's 26 member states had focused on areas of common interest, "with Afghanistan coming up frequently."
"There was a very positive discussion, a very positive spirit, with no recriminations or any desire to dredge up past disagreements," he said.
Despite sharp disagreements over NATO expansion and U.S. plans for missile defense, Moscow has repeatedly expressed willingness to help the war effort in Afghanistan. It has warned that any return to power by Afghanistan's Taliban extremists would destabilize Central Asia and endanger Russia's own security.
Because Russia does not border Afghanistan, NATO is also negotiating with several Central Asian states to secure transit rights to Afghanistan's northern frontier.
Ties between NATO and a resurgent Russia were suspended following the five-day Georgian war. NATO nations accused Moscow of using disproportionate force to eject Georgian forces that had shelled and occupied the capital of the breakaway province of South Ossetia, which has run its own affairs with Russian support since the early 1990s.
Moscow says its military actions were defensive and in response to Georgian aggression.
As months of angry exchanges subsided, NATO foreign ministers agreed last month to resume high-level contacts gradually. NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer last month met Dmitry Rogozin, Moscow's ambassador to the alliance, as a first step.
Monday's talks may pave the way for a formal meeting of the NATO-Russia Council, a consultative panel set up in 2002 to improve relations between the former Cold War foes.
Appathurai said the next step in the re-engagement process probably would be for de Hoop Scheffer to meet Russian leaders. This could happen as early as next month, when a Russian government delegation will attend the annual security conference in Munich, Rogozin said.
"Losing in Afghanistan would lead to a total crisis inside the alliance." Rogozin told Russia's Vesti-24 television station. "OK, maybe this doesn't affect us much, but it could lead to ... extremists of all kinds, primarily the Taliban, coming north, coming toward Russia and taking more and more territory."
Western forces in landlocked Afghanistan rely on the winding, mountainous road from Pakistan's port of Karachi through the Khyber Pass for delivery of up to 75 percent of their fuel, food and other supplies.
Militants have repeatedly attacked supply convoys heading into Afghanistan, where fighting is escalating seven years after a U.S.-led invasion toppled the Taliban regime.
A secondary route through Pakistan's western province of Baluchistan also runs through some of the most Taliban-infested regions of Afghanistan.
"NATO needs supplementary routes (through) Central Asia, an area where Russia is czar," Stratfor, an Austin, Texas-based think tank, said in a report released Monday. "The moves are aggressive, because Washington needs to lock down a new supply route ... now rather than later."
Several individual NATO nations — including France, Germany and Canada — already use Russia to bring non-lethal supplies to their contingents in Afghanistan. Last week the United States reached a deal with Russia to begin using that route too.

Pakistani PM rejects Taliban courts

ISLAMABAD, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani Monday rejected Taliban courts and said that they would not be allowed to run a parallel judicial system. "We will not accept parallel courts of Taliban," Gilani told reporters in Islamabad. "The government will not allow Taliban to set up their courts and will sternly deal with them." Taliban in Pakistan's insurgency-hit Swat valley have released a list of 43 people, including former and incumbent ministers, who they have declared "wanted" and liable to punishment under the Taliban sharia. The "wanted" men also include former and current members of the national and provincial assemblies, district and local mayors, officials of political parties, local elders and other influential residents of the restive valley. Taliban leader Maulana Fazalullah asked the ministers, members of parliament, political leaders and prominent figures to appear in their court, prove their innocence and to get pardon. At the same time, Gilani said that investigations into the Mumbai attacks were Continuing and the result would be shared with India and the world. When asked about the U.S. missile strikes on the tribal regions, Gilani said that Americans had voted Barack Obama for a change and "we hope he will change his policies". Gilani also hoped that Obama would change policy of drone attacks on Pakistan. He was of the opinion that the U.S. policy had not been successful in Afghanistan. Expressing concern over the law and order situation in some parts of Pakistan, Gilani said that the government was taking solid steps to improve the law and order situation there. He said that that the authorities concerned had been directed to submit report regarding Monday's blast in Dera Ismail Khan and a firing incident in Quetta, the provincial capital of Balochistan.

ISRAEL:IDF's violations of laws-of-war prohibitions

THE JERUSALEM POST
Israelis take comfort in the belief that the IDF does all it can to spare civilians, but its shelling of Gaza calls that belief into question. Two kinds of artillery shells selected for use in Gaza - one as an "obscurant," the other as a weapon - were utterly inappropriate for the densely populated areas where the IDF deployed them. Their use violated the IDF's obligations under the laws of war.

The first was white phosphorous. A typical shell releases 116 phosphorus-soaked wedges which, upon contact with oxygen, burn intensely, releasing a distinctive plume of smoke. That smoke can be used legitimately to obscure troop movements, but white phosphorous can be devastating when used in urban areas, igniting civilian structures and causing people horrific burns. Its use violated the legal requirement to take all feasible precautions during military operations to avoid harming civilians. The IDF never should have used it in densely populated sections of Gaza.

The IDF has tried to defend itself with denial and obfuscation. It first denied using white phosphorous at all. Then, when that proved untenable, it claimed that use was limited to unpopulated areas. Neither claim is true. On January 9, 10 and 15, a Human Rights Watch military expert personally observed white phosphorous being fired from an artillery battery and airburst over Gaza City and the Jabalya refugee camp. Its telltale jellyfish-like plume was a dead giveaway, as can be seen from photographs.

The Times of London also photographed an IDF artillery battery firing white phosphorous shells. The shells are color coded and labeled with the IDF term for white phosphorous - "exploding smoke." They are also marked with the code used by the US manufacturer of white phosphorous - M825A1. Similarly marked and color-coded shells and other evidence of white-phosphorous use have been recovered within urban areas of Gaza where they fell.

As for obfuscation, the IDF claimed that all weapons it used were "legal," but that begs the critical question of how they were used. The use of white phosphorous is legal in certain circumstances but illegal when deployed in a way that causes unnecessary or indiscriminate harm to civilians, as the IDF's use in Gaza clearly did. The IDF even harped on press reports suggesting that the International Committee of the Red Cross supported its position, but in a rare public comment, the ICRC denied that claim.

The IDF's latest line is that the shells fired in Gaza "contained phosphorus material, but were not actual phosphorus shells." That is semantic game-playing. Nothing that indiscriminately burns the way the IDF's shells did, regardless of name, should be used in densely populated areas.

THE IDF'S USE of 155 mm. high-explosive artillery shells in Gaza was also clearly unlawful. These weapons can injure civilians from blast and fragmentation over an area with a radius of as much as 300 meters. In the densely populated residential areas of Gaza, where Human Rights Watch saw these shells used on January 15, they can cause extensive civilian casualties. Such use violates the laws-of-war prohibition of indiscriminate attacks because the shells strike military targets and civilians without distinction.

Some might argue that the IDF's unlawful use of white phosphorous and high-explosive shells is justified by Hamas's deliberate and indiscriminate attacks on Israeli cities and towns. But illegality by one side to a conflict does not excuse illegality by the other. And as should be obvious, it is hardly in Israel's interest to degrade international law protecting civilians.

The IDF holds Hamas wholly responsible for civilian casualties in Gaza, alleging that Hamas combatants stored weapons in mosques and fought from among civilians. Those allegations may or may not be true. Long experience, as during the 2006 war in Lebanon, shows that we must take such ritual IDF pronouncements with a grain of salt. We will not know exactly how Hamas waged the war until human rights monitors can conduct on-the-ground investigations. The IDF's refusal during the fighting to allow journalists and human rights monitors into Gaza suggests that it did not want its claims tested by independent inquiry.

Israelis seem dismayed that the world has not embraced the justness of its latest war in Gaza. Of course Israel is entitled to defend itself from Hamas's rocket attacks, but when it does so in violation of its duty to spare civilians, and with so massive a civilian toll, public outrage is entirely predictable.

Pakistan's tourist idyll falls prey to Taliban militants

Men ordered to grow beards and women barred from markets as Islamic law is brutally imposed.

Militants who have seized control of swaths of Pakistan's Swat Valley have set today as a deadline for men to grow beards or face retribution.

In the latest edict issued by Taliban forces seeking to impose Islamic law on an area once celebrated as a tourist destination, men have been told to begin growing beards and to wear caps. Barbers in the Matta area, a militant stronghold, have been ordered to stop offering shaves, and have posted signs in their shops asking customers not to request them.

The Swat Valley, just five hours from Islamabad, has gradually fallen under the control of militants headed by the cleric Maulana Fazlullah. Despite claims by the Pakistani army that they are successfully confronting the extremists, local residents say up to 80 per cent of the valley is outside government control.

In recent weeks the militants' tactics have become increasingly extreme. Corpses of people who have fallen foul of the Taliban have been strung up in trees and markets have been ruled off-limits to women. Two weeks ago the movement demanded the closure of hundreds of schools, leaving the future education of around 125,000 young girls in doubt.

"Swat was once the most verdant, peaceful valley. You could even travel safely at night. Now you cannot even travel during the day," said Zubair Torwali, an activist and journalist. "It is beyond sad. What is happening is a tragedy."

Another indication of the looming terror concerned the killing last week of Amjad Islam. The luxuriantly bearded teacher seemed an unlikely target for the Taliban, having previously fought for the mujahedin in Afghanistan. But on Thursday he was approached by militants who did not like the fact that his shalwar, baggy cotton trousers worn by Pakistanis, concealed his ankles. Followers of the austere strain of Islam practiced by the Taliban – and the Wahhabis of Saudi Arabia – insist trousers should be raised over men's ankles, in the belief that this was the manner of the Prophet Mohamed.

Mr Islam declined to comply and, according to local reports, a scuffle ensued. The militants shot the teacher before also killing his father, Ghani Akbar. They later took Mr Islam's body and hung it in a public square, telling people not to remove it, so that it might serve as a warning.

Local politicians, who have fled the valley, say the military is not doing enough to impose law and order. They repeat residents' claims that elements of the military and the militants appear to be acting together. Bushra Gohar, vice-president of the Awami National Party, said: "Even if they are not, there needs to be a complete review of the military's strategy."

The suspicion of collusion, said a local government official in the largest town, Mingora, is based on the proximity of army and Taliban checkposts, each "a mile away from the other".

What is certain is that the army faces an uphill task if it is to restore order in Swat. Senior officers say that, having achieved significant gains a year ago, the new provincial government sought to end fighting by signing peace deals with Mr Fazlullah.

The deals broke down after the Taliban continued to set fire to girls' schools. They have captured territory, driven the police off the streets and established a network of makeshift sharia courts that dispense "speedy justice", namely the lashing and stoning of those found guilty. "[The effort to broker ceasefires] cost us a lot of time," said Major General Athar Abbas, an army spokesman.

Mr Fazlullah last week denied that he had issued the edict on beards, raising the prospect that groups of extremists are operating outside his control. Either way, the loss of the Swat Valley raises more questions about the effectiveness of the fragile government of President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Gilani.

"Swat was a fully integrated part of the Pakistan state in a way that was not really true of the tribal areas," said Farzana Shaikh, a scholar at Chatham House in London and author of a forthcoming book, Making Sense of Pakistan. "Everyone from the ruling elite went to Swat every summer. It is significant that groups [such as the Taliban] now represent a threat to the sort of moderate, tolerant Islam that Pakistan and its dominant elite had been associated with."

Blast strikes school in northwest Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Suspected Taliban militants blew up a government-run school Monday in Pakistan's violence-plagued Swat Valley, bringing to 183 the number of schools destroyed since fighting began in the area six months ago, officials said.

A day earlier, radical cleric Maulana Fazlullah threatened to kill more than four dozen government officials if they did not appear before him for opposing the Taliban.

Local newspapers on Monday printed the list of 50 government officials and tribal elders whom Fazlullah has threatened with death.

The boy's high school that was destroyed was located in Mingora, the valley's main city, said Sher Afzal Khan, an education officer for Swat. The attack occurred early Monday and no one was wounded.

Swat Valley, located in North West Frontier Province, was once Pakistan's biggest tourist destination. It is situated near the Afghanistan border and about 186 miles (300 km) from the capital city of Islamabad.

The valley boasted the country's only ski resort and was a draw for trout-fishing enthusiasts until it was overrun by militants, led by Fazlullah. He has launched a violent and deadly campaign to enforce Taliban-style fundamentalist Islamic laws throughout the province.

The militants want to require veils for women and beards for men, and to ban music and television.

The central government has long exerted little control in the area, but it launched an intense military offensive in late July to flush out militants.

As retaliation for the military presence, the Taliban has carried out a series of deadly bombings, and has said the attacks will continue until the troops pull out.

Elsewhere in the North West Frontier Province, a blast killed five people and wounded 15 others Monday morning, officials said.

The bomb, planted on a bicycle, went off in the town of Dera Ismail Khan, said Mohammad Riaz of the province's police force. It killed shopkeepers and pedestrians, added the town's police chief, Abdul Rashid.

Bicycle bomb kills five in NW Pakistan

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan, Jan 26 (Reuters) - A bomb planted on a bicycle exploded near a women's hostel in the northwestern Pakistani town of Dera Ismail Khan on Monday, killing five people and wounding several, police said.

Pakistan is struggling to stem growing insurgency by al Qaeda and Taliban militants, particularly in the northwest near the Afghan border.

"It was a cycle bomb. Five people died on the spot while the wounded were shifted to hospitals," police officer Bashir Khan said by telephone from the scene.

Khan declined to say if the women's hostel was the target. A hospital and a press club are also in the vicinity.

Dera Ismail Khan is 270 km (170 miles) southwest of the capital, Islamabad, in North West Frontier Province.

It is near the border with the South Waziristan ethnic Pashtun tribal region, a known sanctuary for al Qaeda and Taliban militants on the Afghan border.

Militants have unleashed a wave of suicide and bomb attacks and assassinations in response to military operations against them in the northwest.

Unemployment, illiteracy ratio in(PUKHTUNKHWA) Frontier on the rise: Minister

TOPI: Sitara Ayaz, Minister for Social Welfare and Women Development has said that rate of unemployment and illiteracy was very high in the province as compared to other provinces of the country besides other crises like load-shedding, food shortage and bleak law and order situation.
She was addressing a concluding ceremony of All Pakistan Women's Engineering Symposium 2009 'Youth Leadership Symposium' as a chief guest, organised by Women's Engineering Society, Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute of Engineering Sciences and Technology here on Sunday.
Addressing on the occasion, Sitara said that after independence, Pakistan could not make real progress even after a lapse of six decades, adding that if they wanted real progress they have to utilise all available resources.
Commenting on manpower in the province, she said that about 21.3 per cent of our population fell between the age of 20 and 24 years and Pakistan's youth was close to 55 millions, indicating that a significant portion of our population consists of youngsters, she said.
The minister said that Pakistani youths have the potential to shape their own destiny, adding that they should play their constructive role in the transformation and development of the country.
About gender bias and discrimination, she said that this was a silent enemy within the society which must be eliminated because in today's world they could not survive without equality among all sections, irrespective of their cast, creed, social status and gender.
Prof. Dr. Fazal Ahmad Khalid (Pro-Rector-Academic) said that the symposium provided an opportunity to the participants to share their personal experiences of leadership, human right awareness and social responsibility.
Maria Raiz, coordinator of the society said that the event was a journey in self-realisation for many and an attempt to dig-out their hidden leadership potentials.

Obama phones British, Canadian and Saudi leaders

WASHINGTON -
President Barack Obama phoned the leaders of Britain, Canada and Saudi Arabia on Friday, reaching out to key U.S. allies during his first days in office.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Obama spoke with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Saudi King Abdullah, along with United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Obama and Brown discussed their countries' relationship, the need to confront the global economic crisis and situations in Gaza and Afghanistan. Obama also told Brown he hopes to attend April's G-20 Summit in London, the White House said.

"The tone of the conversation was friendly and substantive," Brown's Downing Street office said in a statement from London.

Obama and Harper again talked about the countries' friendship and economies, Afghanistan and climate change, the White House said.

"They had an initial discussion on the agenda which will include the economic situation globally, in our two countries and specifically in the auto sector. They also discussed the importance of the environment and energy as well as international issues including Afghanistan," said Dimitri Soudas, a Harper spokesman.

Another Harper spokesman, Kory Teneycke, said the call lasted 15 minutes.

Obama plans to make his first international trip as president to Canada, a key ally that shares a border with the United States. The trip will keep with tradition, with most U.S. presidents making Canada their first stop.

And the White House said Obama spoke about the U.S.-Saudi relationship during their call. Obama also asked the Saudis to support an effort to stop weapons from being smuggled into Gaza, weeks after Israel curtailed its military offensive against the Palestinian territory.

Earlier this week, Obama talked with Israeli, Palestinian, Egyptian and Jordanian leaders about the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

In his discussion with Obama, Ban "underlined the importance of the U.S.-U.N. partnership and stressed the need for the two to work closely together on major issues like the global economic crisis, climate change, food security and in the resolution of regional crises, particularly those in the Middle East and Africa," U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas said.

The two leaders also discussed ongoing efforts to reform the United Nations "and the organization's need for adequate political support and funding," Montas said.

"The secretary-general was encouraged by the U.S. president's assurance of strong support as the organization makes further progress in this direction," she said.

Ban later spoke to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Montas said, and discussed food security, the peace process in Sudan's conflict-wracked Darfur region, climate change and U.N. management reforms.

Regional peace hinges on peaceful Pakistan, says Asfandyar

PESHAWAR: ANP chief Asfandyar Wali Khan has said peace could not be established in Afghanistan and India without peaceful Pakistan.
Addressing a huge gathering of party workers here at Nishtar Hall to observe the death anniversaries of Abdul Ghaffar Khan and Khan Abdul Wali Khan on Sunday, he said: "We believe in the politics of non-violence as preached by Bacha Khan." Asfand said that he was ready to hold talks with suicide attackers.
ANP chief said that Pakistan could not be termed a federation without giving provincial autonomy to all four provinces. He said that besides Pakistan and Afghanistan, India is also facing the threat of terrorism.
War is not the solution to any issue, he said and added that war between two nuclear-armed neighbours would tear down the humanity only.
Asfandyar Wali Khan said that durable and long-lasting peace in the world especially in South Asia can be ensured by following the non-violence philosophy of late Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan alias Bacha Khan and Khan Abdul Wali Khan.
He said that he was ready for talks with militants if they surrender, accept government's writ and laid down arms. "War is no solution to problems and issues can be solved through dialogue and table talks."
He said: "We were not afraid of those who are giving us life threats and are ready to face any kind of situation for sake of people."
He said that war is no solution to problems and he was ready to hold talks with those who plotted suicide attack against him at his residence in Charsadda.
Asfandyar Wali Khan advocated provincial autonomy to all four provinces and also explained his party's stance on 17th amendment and procedure in amendments in the constitution.
Former NWFP ANP President Begum Nasim Wali Khan said that it was high time to identify the enemy as Pakthuns are being killed under well-conceived conspiracy. He stressed unity among Pakhtuns to foil the conspiracy against them. She urged people and party workers to spread the non-violence message of Bacha Khan to each and every corner of the province, country and world.
ANP's provincial president Afrasiab Khan Khattak and Federal Minister for Railways Ghulam Ahmed Bilour besides MNAs, provincial ministers, MPAs and ANP leaders attended the 21st death anniversary of Bacha Khan.
Special functions were held across the province where people and party activists paid rich tributes to the Pakthun nationalist leaders.

Karzai anger at US strike deaths

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has criticised a US military operation which killed at least 16 people in eastern Afghanistan.

Mr Karzai said most of those killed were civilians, adding that such deadly incidents strengthened Taleban rebels and weakened Afghanistan's government.

Women and children were among those killed, Mr Karzai said.

The strike was the first controversy in Afghanistan involving US troops since US President Barack Obama took office.

In a statement, the president said two women and three children were among the dead in the attack, which the US said targeted a militant carrying a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG).

Speaking at a ceremony for newly-graduated officers entering Afghanistan's armed forces, Mr Karzai said he hoped the country's own military would soon be able to shoulder more of the burden of fighting the Taleban.

"Our goal is to improve our army and have the ability to defend our country ourselves as soon as possible, and not have civilian casualties anymore as we again had yesterday," he said.

Delicate issue

The Afghan president has been a frequent critic of the numbers of innocent Afghans killed by military operations by international forces in the country.

Just last week he again called on US-led and Nato troops in his country to do more to reduce civilian casualties.

Reacting to the first flare-up since Mr Obama's inauguration in the US, Mr Karzai said Afghanistan's defence ministry had sent Washington a plan to give Afghan forces more oversight over US military operations.

The same letter has also been sent to Nato headquarters, the Associated Press said.

A statement from Mr Karzai's office said continued civilian deaths "will not bear any progress in the war against terrorism".

In response, a US military spokesman said there were plans to jointly investigate the incident with the Afghan government.

Originally the US said all of the dead, including one woman, had been militants who opened fire after its troops surrounded a compound in Mehtar Lam, about 60km (40 miles) east of the capital, Kabul.

"The people who were killed today were running around, manoeuvring against our forces, and we killed them," said Col Greg Julian.

Eleven were killed by gunfire; four others by close air support, it added.

However, officials in Laghman have since said there were civilians among the dead, a viewpoint now backed by the country's president.

The US military insists that it goes to considerable lengths to avoid civilian casualties.

But the BBC's Ian Pannell in Kabul says that as the US increases its military presence, it will be increasingly difficult to do so.

Peshawar traders set to step up protests

PESHAWAR: Traders in Peshawar are set to extend their protest to the provincial level against frequent incidents of abduction for ransom and the government’s failure to provide security to the citizens.

Traders have been protesting for the past one and a half month in Peshawar against the poor law and order, massive load shedding and the continued price hike in the city.

During heir protests, the traders had set up a two-day camp at Yadgaar chowk, a one-day camp at University Town, a one-day camp on Sadar Road and also staged a sit-in at the Peshawar Press Club.

“We are going to extend our protest to the provincial level now, as the government has turned a deaf ear to our protests in Peshawar,” Haji Haleem Jan, NWFP president of the Markazi Tanzeem-e-Tajiran, told Daily Times on Sunday.

Haleem said the traders had decided to meet in the first week of February to devise a strategy to step up their protests.

He said the Peshawar Tajiran Ittehad, headed by Haji Ghufran, would hold a protest camp on Tuesday in front of the Peshawar Press Club.

“If the provincial government is helpless and cannot provide protection, it should resign,” he said.

Haleem said the government had taken no steps to provide protection to the traders, who were being abducted and killed. The traders’ leader said business activity in the city had been considerably affected and around 70 percent of the factories had closed.

Pakistan Deploys Soldiers to Guard Schools Against Taliban

Pakistani officials say soldiers have been deployed to guard some educational buildings in the northwest, as Taliban militants wage a campaign to prevent girls from attending school in restive Swat valley.
Pakistani children stand on the rubble of a government school wrecked by Islamic militants with explosives in Saidu Sharif, an area of Pakistan's Swat Valley, 17 Jan 2009
The military says the troops were dispatched during the past few days to protect schools in the city of Mingora, amid a wave of bombings.
Taliban militants have blown up an estimated 175 schools in Swat. Officials say recent targets also include boys' schools.
Earlier this month, Pakistan's information minister, Sherry Rehman, vowed that girls' schools would re-open on March first, after winter break, despite the Taliban's ban on girls' education in the region.A local Taliban leader, Shah Durran, announced the ban in December, telling families they must stop sending their daughters to school by January 15 or the girls will be killed.The ban is part of the Taliban's bid to enforce its strict version of Islamic law.Pakistan's military has launched an offensive against militants who are battling to impose this interpretation of Islamic law on Pakistanis living in the northwest. Officials Sunday say Pakistani security forces raided a militant hideout in Swat, in the town of Ningwalai, on Saturday and killed eight alleged fighters during the operation. Sources who requested anonymity say militant commander Nur Bakhtiar is among the dead.

World's highest drug levels entering India stream

PATANCHERU, India -- When researchers analyzed vials of treated wastewater taken from a plant where about 90 Indian drug factories dump their residues, they were shocked. Enough of a single, powerful antibiotic was being spewed into one stream each day to treat every person in a city of 90,000.

And it wasn't just ciprofloxacin being detected. The supposedly cleaned water was a floating medicine cabinet - a soup of 21 different active pharmaceutical ingredients, used in generics for treatment of hypertension, heart disease, chronic liver ailments, depression, gonorrhea, ulcers and other ailments. Half of the drugs measured at the highest levels of pharmaceuticals ever detected in the environment, researchers say.

Those Indian factories produce drugs for much of the world, including many Americans. The result: Some of India's poor are unwittingly consuming an array of chemicals that may be harmful, and could lead to the proliferation of drug-resistant bacteria.

"If you take a bath there, then you have all the antibiotics you need for treatment," said chemist Klaus Kuemmerer at the University of Freiburg Medical Center in Germany, an expert on drug resistance in the environment who did not participate in the research. "If you just swallow a few gasps of water, you're treated for everything. The question is for how long?"

Last year, The Associated Press reported that trace concentrations of pharmaceuticals had been found in drinking water provided to at least 46 million Americans. But the wastewater downstream from the Indian plants contained 150 times the highest levels detected in the U.S.

At first, Joakim Larsson, an environmental scientist at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, questioned whether 100 pounds a day of ciprofloxacin could really be running into the stream. The researcher was so baffled by the unprecedented results he sent the samples to a second lab for independent analysis.

When those reports came back with similarly record-high levels, Larsson knew he was looking at a potentially serious situation. After all, some villagers fish in the stream's tributaries, while others drink from wells nearby. Livestock also depend on these watering holes.

Some locals long believed drugs were seeping into their drinking water, and new data from Larsson's study presented at a U.S. scientific conference in November confirmed their suspicions. Ciprofloxacin, the antibiotic, and the popular antihistamine cetirizine had the highest levels in the wells of six villages tested. Both drugs measured far below a human dose, but the results were still alarming.

"We don't have any other source, so we're drinking it," said R. Durgamma, a mother of four, sitting on the steps of her crude mud home in a bright flowered sari a few miles downstream from the treatment plant. High drug concentrations were recently found in her well water. "When the local leaders come, we offer them water and they won't take it."

Pharmaceutical contamination is an emerging concern worldwide. In its series of articles, AP documented the commonplace presence of minute concentrations of pharmaceuticals in U.S. drinking water supplies. The AP also found that trace concentrations of pharmaceuticals were almost ubiquitous in rivers, lakes and streams.

The medicines are excreted without being fully metabolized by people who take them, while hospitals and long-term care facilities annually flush millions of pounds of unused pills down the drain. Until Larsson's research, there had been widespread consensus among researchers that drug makers were not a source.

The consequences of the India studies are worrisome.

As the AP reported last year, researchers are finding that human cells fail to grow normally in the laboratory when exposed to trace concentrations of certain pharmaceuticals. Some waterborne drugs also promote antibiotic-resistant germs, especially when - as in India - they are mixed with bacteria in human sewage. Even extremely diluted concentrations of drug residues harm the reproductive systems of fish, frogs and other aquatic species in the wild.

In the India research, tadpoles exposed to water from the treatment plant that had been diluted 500 times were nonetheless 40 percent smaller than those growing in clean water.

The discovery of this contamination raises two key issues for researchers and policy makers: the amount of pollution and its source. Experts say one of the biggest concerns for humans is whether the discharge from the wastewater treatment facility is spawning drug resistance.

"Not only is there the danger of antibiotic-resistant bacteria evolving; the entire biological food web could be affected," said Stan Cox, senior scientist at the Land Institute, a nonprofit agriculture research center in Salina, Kan. Cox has studied and written about pharmaceutical pollution in Patancheru. "If Cipro is so widespread, it is likely that other drugs are out in the environment and getting into people's bodies."

Before Larsson's team tested the water at Patancheru Enviro Tech Ltd. plant, researchers largely attributed the source of drugs in water to their use, rather than their manufacture.

In the U.S., the EPA says there are "well defined and controlled" limits to the amount of pharmaceutical waste emitted by drug makers.

India's environmental protections are being met at Patancheru, says Rajeshwar Tiwari, who heads the area's pollution control board. And while he says regulations have tightened since Larsson's initial research, screening for pharmaceutical residue at the end of the treatment process is not required.

Factories in the U.S. report on releases of 22 active pharmaceutical ingredients, the AP found by analyzing EPA data. But many more drugs have been discovered in domestic drinking water.

Possibly complicating the situation, Larsson's team also found high drug concentration levels in lakes upstream from the treatment plant, indicating potential illegal dumping - an issue both Indian pollution officials and the drug industry acknowledge has been a past problem, but one they say is practiced much less now.

In addition, before Larsson's study detected such large concentrations of ciprofloxacin and other drugs in the treated wastewater, levels of pharmaceuticals detected in the environment and drinking water worldwide were minute, well below a human dose.

"I'll tell you, I've never seen concentrations this high before. And they definitely ... are having some biological impact, at least in the effluent," said Dan Schlenk, an ecotoxicologist from the University of California, Riverside, who was not involved in the India research.

And even though the levels recently found in Indian village wells were much lower than the wastewater readings, someone drinking regularly from the worst-affected reservoirs would receive more than two full doses of an antihistamine in a year.

"Who has a responsibility for a polluted environment when the Third World produces drugs for our well being?" Larsson asked scientists at a recent environmental research conference.

M. Narayana Reddy, president of India's Bulk Drug Manufacturers Association, disputes Larsson's initial results: "I have challenged it," he said. "It is the wrong information provided by some research person."

Reddy acknowledged the region is polluted, but said that the contamination came from untreated human excrement and past industry abuses. He and pollution control officials also say villagers are supposed to drink clean water piped in from the city or hauled in by tankers - water a court ordered industry to provide. But locals complain of insufficient supplies and some say they are forced to use wells.

Larsson's research has created a stir among environmental experts, and his findings are widely accepted in the scientific community.

"That's really quite an incredible and disturbing level," said Renee Sharp, senior analyst at the Washington-based Environmental Working Group. "It's absolutely the last thing you would ever want to see when you're talking about the rise of antibiotic bacterial resistance in the world."

The more bacteria is exposed to a drug, the more likely that bacteria will mutate in a way that renders the drug ineffective. Such resistant bacteria can then possibly infect others who spread the bugs as they travel. Ciprofloxacin was once considered a powerful antibiotic of last resort, used to treat especially tenacious infections. But in recent years many bacteria have developed resistance to the drug, leaving it significantly less effective.

"We are using these drugs, and the disease is not being cured - there is resistance going on there," said Dr. A. Kishan Rao, a medical doctor and environmental activist who has treated people for more than 30 years near the drug factories. He says he worries most about the long-term effects on his patients potentially being exposed to constant low levels of drugs. And then there's the variety, the mixture of drugs that aren't supposed to interact. No one knows what effects that could cause.

"It's a global concern," he said. "European countries and the U.S. are protecting their environment and importing the drugs at the cost of the people in developing countries."

While the human risks are disconcerting, Sharp said the environmental damage is potentially even worse.

"People might say, 'Oh sure, that's just a dirty river in India,' but we live on a small planet, everything is connected. The water in a river in India could be the rain coming down in your town in a few weeks," she said.

Patancheru became a hub for largely unregulated chemical and drug factories in the 1980s, creating what one local newspaper has termed an "ecological sacrifice zone" with its waste. Since then, India has become one of the world's leading exporters of pharmaceuticals, and the U.S. - which spent $1.4 billion on Indian-made drugs in 2007 - is its largest customer.

A spokesman for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, representing major U.S. drugmakers, said they could not comment about the Indian pollution because the Patancheru plants are making generic drugs and their members are branded. A spokesman for the Generic Pharmaceutical Association said the issues of Indian factory pollution are "not within the scope of the activities" of their group.

Drug factories in the U.S. and Europe have strictly enforced waste treatment processes. At the Patancheru water treatment plant, the process is outdated, with wastewater from the 90 bulk drug makers trucked to the plant and poured into a cistern. Solids are filtered out, then raw sewage is added to biologically break down the chemicals. The wastewater, which has been clarified but is still contaminated, is dumped into the Isakavagu stream that runs into the Nakkavagu and Manjira, and eventually into the Godawari River.

In India, villagers near this treatment plant have a long history of fighting pollution from various industries and allege their air, water and crops have been poisoned for decades by factories making everything from tires to paints and textiles. Some lakes brim with filmy, acrid water that burns the nostrils when inhaled and causes the eyes to tear.

"I'm frustrated. We have told them so many times about this problem, but nobody does anything," said Syed Bashir Ahmed, 80, casting a makeshift fishing pole while crouched in tall grass along the river bank near the bulk drug factories. "The poor are helpless. What can we do?"

Minister, MPAs make morale-boosting trip to Swat

PESHAWAR: In the face of growing criticism against elected representatives from Swat for leaving their electorate at lurch, a provincial minister and two MPAs visited the violence-plagued valley almost after seven months to convey a message to the people that they were there to ‘live and die’ with them.

As a sign of solidarity with the central leader of ANP and former federal minister Muhammad Afzal Khan, who has stayed put in his hometown Drushkhela in militant-infested Matta and bravely faced the growing attacks of the militants, NWFP Minister for Science and Technology Ayub Khan Ashari, MPAs Syed Jafar Shah and Sher Shah visited him and discussed the situation in the valley.

The ANP lawmakers besides holding a press conference in Mingora, Swat, also had whirlwind visit of some parts of Kabal and Matta tehsils as well.

“The morale of Afzal Khan Lala was quite high, who vowed to defend his people and soil to last drop of his blood,” Jafar Shah MPA told The News while recalling their meeting with Afzal Khan, commonly known as Khan Lala, at his hometown Drushkhela the other day.

He said that Khan Lala told them that he would never leave his birthplace for the fear of a handful of extremists who were bent on destroying lives, values and property of the Pakhtuns in the area.

The ANP delegation also conveyed the message of Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti and informed him about the new strategy being carved out by the federal government in collaboration with the NWFP government to combat militancy and restore peace in the valley.

“Khan Lala has no particular demand from the government, but wished concrete and comprehensive steps on the part of security forces against the militants,” the ANP MPA recalled and added that under the new strategy the public representatives along with high-ups of the provincial government would visit Swat on weekly basis in order to boost up the people morale and supervise and coordinate drive against militants in Swat.

Jafar Shah, who defeated PML-Q provincial chief Amir Muqam on PF-85 Swat in 2008 general elections, claimed that the local Taliban had lost the confidence of the local people, but the fear and uncertainty still reign supreme in the crisis-hit environ of Swat.

“Those who had once donated precious belongings to the Taliban movement, are now fed up of their acts and policies, particularly regarding the ban on female education, destruction of schools and slaughtering of innocent people,” he added. However, the local people had complaints about the suffering of innocent both at the hands of Taliban and security forces, he said and added that the prolonged curfew in Swat had also multiplied the worries of common people.

The MPA also asked for more relief facilities and proper mechanism to treat and compensate the victims of military operation in the area.

He said that a unit of regular army had been deployed in Afzal Khan’s village where they defied a raid of the militants some two days back and killed about 18 militants in a fierce clash.

He said the ANP as well as NWFP government wanted the implementation of Nizam-e-Adl Regulation at the earliest in Malakand division while the party was still stand for its peace talks with the Taliban in case they lay down their arms.

Radio Spreads Taliban’s Terror in Pakistani Region

(ITS REALLY AMAZING THAT ONE IGNORANT MULLAH IS SPREADING HATE AND TRYING TO SCARE PEACEFUL PEOPLE OF SWAT BUT PAKISTANI ARMY AND GOVT IS IGNORING THIS,WHY ITS SO HARD TO KILL THIS KING OF TERROR OR JAM HIS RADIO FREQUENCY???IS SOME ONE IN PAKISTANI MILITARY OR CIVILIAN ESTABLISHMENT HAVE COOL HEARTH FOR THESE SO CALLED IGNORANT BARBARIAN TALIBAN????



PESHAWAR, Pakistan(NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE) — Every night around 8 o’clock, the terrified residents of Swat, a lush and picturesque valley a hundred miles from three of Pakistan’s most important cities, crowd around their radios. They know that failure to listen and learn might lead to a lashing — or a beheading.

Using a portable radio transmitter, a local Taliban leader, Shah Doran, on most nights outlines newly proscribed “un-Islamic” activities in Swat, like selling DVDs, watching cable television, singing and dancing, criticizing the Taliban, shaving beards and allowing girls to attend school. He also reveals names of people the Taliban have recently killed for violating their decrees — and those they plan to kill.

“They control everything through the radio,” said one Swat resident, who declined to give his name for fear the Taliban might kill him. “Everyone waits for the broadcast.”

International attention remains fixed on the Taliban’s hold on Pakistan’s semiautonomous tribal areas, from where they launch attacks on American forces in Afghanistan. But for Pakistan, the loss of the Swat Valley could prove just as devastating.

Unlike the fringe tribal areas, Swat, a Delaware-size chunk of territory with 1.3 million residents and a rich cultural history, is part of Pakistan proper, within reach of Peshawar, Rawalpindi and Islamabad, the capital.

After more than a year of fighting, virtually all of it is now under Taliban control, marking the militants’ farthest advance eastward into Pakistan’s so-called settled areas, residents and government officials from the region say.

With the increasing consolidation of their power, the Taliban have taken a sizable bite out of the nation. And they are enforcing a strict interpretation of Islam with cruelty, bringing public beheadings, assassinations, social and cultural repression and persecution of women to what was once an independent, relatively secular region, dotted with ski resorts and fruit orchards and known for its dancing girls.

Last year, 70 police officers were beheaded, shot or otherwise slain in Swat, and 150 wounded, said Malik Naveed Khan, the police inspector general for the North-West Frontier Province.

The police have become so afraid that many officers have put advertisements in newspapers renouncing their jobs so the Taliban will not kill them.

One who stayed on the job was Farooq Khan, a midlevel officer in Mingora, the valley’s largest city, where decapitated bodies of policemen and other victims routinely surface. Last month, he was shopping there when two men on a motorcycle sprayed him with gunfire, killing him in broad daylight.

“He always said, ‘I have to stay here and defend our home,’ ” recalled his brother, Wajid Ali Khan, a Swat native and the province’s minister for environment, as he passed around a cellphone with Farooq’s picture.

In the view of analysts, the growing nightmare in Swat is a capsule of the country’s problems: an ineffectual and unresponsive civilian government, coupled with military and security forces that, in the view of furious residents, have willingly allowed the militants to spread terror deep into Pakistan.

The crisis has become a critical test for the government of the civilian president, Asif Ali Zardari, and for a security apparatus whose loyalties, many Pakistanis say, remain in question.

Seeking to deflect blame, Mr. Zardari’s government recently criticized “earlier halfhearted attempts at rooting out extremists from the area” and vowed to fight militants “who are ruthlessly murdering and maiming our citizens.”

But as pressure grows, he has also said in recent days that the government would be willing to talk with militants who accept its authority. Such negotiations would carry serious risks: security officials say a brief peace deal in Swat last spring was a spectacular failure that allowed militants to tighten their hold and take revenge on people who had supported the military.

Without more forceful and concerted action by the government, some warn, the Taliban threat in Pakistan is bound to spread.

“The crux of the problem is the government appears divided about what to do,” said Mahmood Shah, a retired Pakistani Army brigadier who until 2006 was in charge of security in the western tribal areas. “This disconnect among the political leadership has emboldened the militants.”

From 2,000 to 4,000 Taliban fighters now roam the Swat Valley, according to interviews with a half-dozen senior Pakistani government, military and political officials involved in the fight. By contrast, the Pakistani military has four brigades with 12,000 to 15,000 men in Swat, officials say.

But the soldiers largely stay inside their camps, unwilling to patrol or exert any large presence that might provoke — or discourage — the militants, Swat residents and political leaders say. The military also has not raided a small village that locals say is widely known as the Taliban’s headquarters in Swat.

Nor have troops destroyed mobile radio transmitters mounted on motorcycles or pickup trucks that Shah Doran and the leader of the Taliban in Swat, Maulana Fazlullah, have expertly used to terrify residents.

Being named in one of the nightly broadcasts often leaves just two options: fleeing Swat, or turning up headless and dumped in a village square.

When the army does act, its near-total lack of preparedness to fight a counterinsurgency reveals itself. Its usual tactic is to lob artillery shells into a general area, and the results have seemed to hurt civilians more than the militants, residents say.

In some parts of Pakistan, civilian militias have risen to fight the Taliban. But in Swat, the Taliban’s gains amid a large army presence has convinced many that the military must be conspiring with the Taliban.

“It’s very mysterious how they get so much weapons and support,” while nearby districts are comparatively calm, said Muzaffar ul-Mulk Khan, a member of Parliament from Swat, who said his home near Mingora was recently destroyed by the Taliban.

“We are bewildered by the military. They patrol only in Mingora. In the rest of Swat they sit in their bases. And the militants can kill at will anywhere in Mingora,” he said.

“Nothing is being done by the government," Mr. Khan added.

Accusations that the military lacks the will to fight in Swat are “very unfair and unjustified,” said Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, the chief military spokesman, who said 180 army soldiers and officers had been killed in Swat in the past 14 months.

“They do reach out, and they do patrol,” he said.

Military officials also say they are trying to step up activity in Swat.

General Abbas said the military did not have the means to block Taliban radio transmissions across such a wide area, but he disputed the view that Mingora had fallen to the militants.

“Just because they come out at night and throw down four or five bodies in the square does not mean that militants control anything,” he said.

Few officials would dispute that one of the Pakistani military’s biggest mistakes in Swat was its failure to protect Pir Samiullah, a local leader whose 500 followers fought the Taliban in the village of Mandal Dag. After the Taliban killed him in a firefight last month, the militants demanded that his followers reveal his gravesite — and then started beheading people until they got the information, one Mandal Dag villager said.

“They dug him up and hung his body in the square,” the villager said, and then they took the body to a secret location. The desecration was intended to show what would happen to anyone who defied the Taliban’s rule, but it also made painfully clear to Swat residents that the Pakistani government could not be trusted to defend those who rose up against the militants.

“He should have been given more protection,” said one Pakistani security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the subject. “He should have been made a symbol of resistance.”

Gruesome displays like the defilement of Pir Samiullah’s remains are an effective tactic for the Taliban, who have shown cruel efficiency in following through on their threats.

Recently, Shah Doran broadcast word that the Taliban intended to kill a police officer who he said had killed three people.

“We have sent people, and tomorrow you will have good news,” he said on his nightly broadcast, according to a resident of Matta, a Taliban stronghold. The next day the decapitated body of the policeman was found in a nearby village.

Even in Mingora, a town grown hardened to violence, residents were shocked early this month to find the bullet-ridden body of one of the city’s most famous dancing girls splayed on the main square.

Known as Shabana, the woman was visited at night by a group of men who claimed to want to hire her for a party. They shot her to death and dragged her body more than a quarter-mile to the central square, leaving it as a warning for anyone who would flout Taliban decrees.

The leader of the militants in Swat, Maulana Fazlullah, gained prominence from making radio broadcasts and running an Islamic school, becoming popular among otherwise isolated homemakers and inspiring them to sell their jewelry to finance his operation. He also drew support from his marriage to the daughter of Sufi Mohammed, a powerful religious leader in Swat until 2001 who later disowned his son-in-law.

Even though Swat does not border Afghanistan or any of Pakistan’s seven lawless federal tribal areas, Maulana Fazlullah eventually allied with Taliban militants who dominate regions along the Afghan frontier.

His fighters now roam the valley with sniper rifles, Kalashnikovs, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, mortar tubes and, according to some officials, night-vision goggles and flak vests.

His latest tactic is a ban on girls’ attending school in Swat, which will be tested in February when private schools are scheduled to reopen after winter recess. The Taliban have already destroyed 169 girls’ schools in Swat, government officials say, and they expect most private schools to stay closed rather than risk retaliation.

“The local population is totally fed up, and if they had the chance they would lynch each and every Talib,” said Mr. Naveed Khan, the police official. “But the Taliban are so cruel and violent, no one will oppose them. If this is not stopped, it will spill into other areas of Pakistan.”

China tells United States to handle ties with care

BEIJING- China's Foreign Minister has urged U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to be careful with sensitive issues that could strain ties, calling the relationship between their two nations one of the world's most important.

Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi made the remarks to Clinton, settling into her new job as Washington's top diplomat, in a phone call on Friday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry website (www.fmprc.gov.cn) reported on Saturday.

But Yang's published remarks did not mention the yuan currency issue, which has become the first test for ties between his government and the new Obama administration.

"The China-U.S. relationship is one of the world's most important bilateral relations," Yang told Clinton, according to the report.

Each side should "respect and show consideration for the other's core interests and appropriately handle differences and sensitive issues," he said.

The report did not specify those issues, but Beijing considers Taiwan its most sensitive topic in dealings with Washington.

Beijing says self-ruled Taiwan must accept eventual reunification with the mainland and objects to Washington's military aid to and political support for the island. China has also been angered by U.S. pressure over human rights and Tibet.

Yang, a former ambassador to Washington, said the two powers should "handle bilateral relations by adhering to a strategic high-point and a long-term perspective."

TRADE DISPUTES

Ties between the United States, the world's biggest economy, and China, with its bulging exports and foreign exchange reserves, have also been strained by trade disputes that could worsen during the global economic slowdown.

But in the published comments, Yang did not mention the yuan currency exchange policies, which have already become a sparring point between China and the new Obama administration.

U.S. Treasury Secretary-designate Timothy Geithner said on Thursday that China was manipulating its currency to shore up unfair trade advantages.

China's Commerce Ministry, in a statement to Agence France Presse on Friday, said the Beijing government "has never used so-called currency manipulation.

China's Foreign Ministry generally avoids wading into trade issues. But the country's official media were not so reticent.

The China Daily, an English-language paper that often reflects official policy, said Geithner's position was "a clear move away from the stance of the Bush administration," which avoided calling Beijing a currency manipulator.

The official Xinhua news agency echoed that view.

"This may signal that with the Obama administration in office, China faces growing pressure from U.S. trade protectionism," it said, citing Beijing economists.

The People's Bank of China, the central bank, was preparing a response to Geithner's remarks, Xinhua said.

The yuan closed lower against the dollar on Friday and traded mostly below the Chinese central bank's mid-point, with speculation that Geithner's comments could spark a brief period of modest yuan depreciation.

UNRWA calls for independent probe into alleged Gaza crimes

Jan. 24, 2009
THE JERUSALEM POST
John Ging, head of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Gaza, called on Friday for the establishment of an independent international investigation into the alleged war crimes committed during Operation Cast Lead.

At a press conference held in Geneva, Ging said that a credible investigation of the death and destruction in Gaza was necessary especially in light of the growing anger of Gazans, the increasing number of extremists in the Strip and their lack of faith in the rule of law, Reuters reported.

It is urgent to establish accountability for death and the destruction of Palestinian infrastructure through a credible mechanism which would "channel this emotion to confidence in the rule of law," Ging reportedly said.

Ging told reporters that the number of extremists in the Strip had grown as a result of the three-week operation against Hamas, and stressed that it was important to prove that justice could be delivered in a lawful way.

The extremists "are very confident in their rhetoric that there should be no expectation that justice will be delivered through the rule of law. Now we must prove that wrong," he reportedly said.

According to the report, the UNRWA head noted that Israeli civilians had also suffered, and therefore, the investigation had to examine "legitimate allegations" on both sides.

Ging expressed his hopes that new US Middle East envoy George Mitchell will talk to ordinary people in Gaza as part of a "new track" in diplomacy.

"My first request to the US administration is talk to the ordinary people in Gaza. Come to Gaza and talk to the ordinary people -- the mothers, fathers, leaders of civil society, the people who are not involved in politics," said Ging.

Over 170 schools bombed, burned down in Pakistan: UN

GENEVA: More than 170 schools in Pakistan have been blown up or burned down in the past two years, the UN Children's agency said Friday, in attacks blamed on Taliban extremists.

"UNICEF condemns these attacks which rob children of their basic right to education and have a devastating impact on their lives," said Daniel Toole, UNICEF's regional director for South Asia.

"Attacks that target schools, educational institutions, children and teachers are unacceptable and must cease immediately," Toole added.

In one incident last week in the northwestern Swat valley, five schools were blown up.

The attacks particularly targeted girls' schools in the country's Federally Administered Tribal Area and the North West Frontier Province, UNICEF said.

Many other schools had been forced to close after being occupied by armed groups or security forces or because female teachers had been threatened, it added.

"Schools must be safe spaces for children. UNICEF calls on all groups, and particularly the government of Pakistan, to intensify efforts to protect schools, students and teachers," Toole said.

Last week officials said tens of thousands of students in the Swat valley were facing a year without classes after a local Taliban commander in December threatened to kill any girls attending classes after January 15, and to blow up any schools where girls were enrolled.

As a result, about 400 private schools are unlikely to open their doors next month after winter holidays

Diplomat for restoring Afghan channels on cable network

PESHAWAR: The peoples of Pakistan and Afghanistan are tied in the bonds of culture, religion, language, traditions and values therefore special efforts would be made to strengthen these ties by exchanging cultural and media delegations side by side holding joint cultural exhibitions.
This was stated by Minister for Information, Transport and Inter-Provincial Coordination, Mian Iftikhar Hussain while talking to Cultural Attaché of Afghan General Consulate Muhammad Zahir Babri here on Friday.
He on this occasion besides discussing matters of mutual interest also brought into the notice of the minister that transmissions of Afghanistan were suspended on cable network for the last few days due to which hundreds of Afghans were deprived of this facility.
Babri on this occasion presented a gift of book on the life of Bacha Khan and an album of historical places of Afghanistan to the minister.
Referring to the suspension of Afghanistan's transmission on cable network, the information minister maintained, due to world becoming global village, appraisal from each other has become a necessity of the day.
He added as the cable network was running under the federal government, therefore, he would take up the issue with the authorities concerned of the federal government to know about the actual position and ensure access to the people of Afghan brethren to this basic necessity.
Mian Iftikhar continued that Pakistan and Afghanistan both were democratic states and freedom of expression was the beauty of democracy.
As transmissions were a part of freedom of expression, therefore ban on it was against the norms of democracy, he concluded

Musharraf: Pakistan 'treated unequally' in war on terror

Pakistan's former president said his country is being treated "unequally" to other countries, despite being a staunch ally of the United States in its war on terror.

"Pakistan is being treated so unequally while we are the ones who are in the lead role fighting the global war on terror," said Pervez Musharraf, interviewed by CNN's Wolf Blitzer for "The Situation Room."

"This is what hurts Pakistan. It hurts the leadership. Indeed, it hurts the government. It hurts the people of Pakistan," said Musharraf, speaking from Dallas, Texas, during a book tour in the United States.

The interview took place amid reports Friday of U.S. drones striking militant targets in Pakistan just days after the start of the Obama administration -- which has made combating al Qaeda and Taliban militants in the Pakistan tribal region near Afghanistan its most immediate national security priority.

Musharraf was asked whether he is comfortable with the continuation of the attacks, even with a new U.S. president in place.

Signature reveals Obama's intelligence, pride

WASHINGTON: The first official signature of Barack Obama reveals a man grounded in action, compassion, generosity and diplomacy, a handwriting expert said yesterday.

From his penmanship, writing analyst Caro Duncan sees a highly intelligent man who thinks fast and adapts to any situation.

"It is a bit of a relief for the whole world," Duncan, from the Australian Institute of Graphology, said. "He's very diplomatic and tactful, capable of seeing the big picture and is at his best when he's handling complex matters."

The pronounced and embellished initials B and O reveal his pride and ambition, according to Duncan. He is self-confident and relishes the recognition of his own accomplishments.

Their size and position shows a love of the limelight, a pattern usually seen among actors and performers.

There is also a love of culture in there, an open mind to other people's opinions and ideas.

"His inauguration day signature is a little more stretched than usual, which is very literal, it means that he's got a lot on his shoulders," Duncan said.

"There's always been an awareness of others in his handwriting but he reaches out that little bit more in today's signature - he is genuinely listening."

There is disappointment there, too, Duncan said.

His Christian name is slightly more coherent than his surname, hinting at disappointment with his father or family.

They are pangs the left-hander is able to face on his own. While left-handers usually slope to the right President Obama does not, showing his self-sufficient nature.

Bart Baggett from the Handwriting University says his handwriting is comparable to former US Presidents John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan with but one omission - a high and long t-bar indicating extremely high self-esteem and visionary thinking.

"Obama crosses his Ts at an average height, reflecting a good self esteem and humility," he said.

Before George W. Bush became president in 2000, graphologist Katie Darden analysed his writing and found a strong persistence and resistance to being told what to do - a desire to make his own way and stand firm on issues that mattered to him.

"These characteristics, if taken to an extreme, could result in some interesting stand offs," Darden wrote 9 years ago.

Americans everywhere looked to the inauguration day signature and hoped President Obama's pen would eventually prove mightier than President Bush's sword.

Explosion occurs in NW Pakistan, one killed

ISLAMABAD-- An explosion took place in northwestern Pakistan's Swat valley on Friday and one security man was killed, private TV channel Geo reported.A suicide bomber rammed his car into a check post of security forces in the restive Swat valley, said the report.As a result, one security man was killed and 15 others were injured.The check post was established in a private school building in Fizzaghat area, a few kilometers from Mingora, the main town in Swat.The security forces are engaged in a military operation again stmilitants in Swat valley.