Thirty-two militants killed in South Waziristan: military

CHUPRIAL: Pakistani troops backed by jet fighters and artillery have killed thirty-two militants in a fresh offensive in Mehsud areas of Waziristan, a military statement said Saturday.

They were the first known militant casualties in South Waziristan — stronghold of Pakistan Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud — since the military started pounding the area with artillery about a week ago

Although the army has not announced a formal start of full-scale operations in this tribal region, officials said troops are already occupying strategic positions in the region.

Jet fighters flattened two abandoned militant-linked seminaries and a training facility Friday in a clear sign that the operation was ramping up.

Two intelligence and army officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media, said heavy fighting was under way in the villages of Barwand and Madijan.

A military statement said 32 extremists were killed when they tried to block the main South Waziristan road near the town of Sarwaki.

On Friday, columns of troops, backed by tanks, were seen heading from Wana to Madijan, a locality adjacent to the Mehsud territory. Southwestern parts of Waziristan are inhabited by the Ahmadzai Wazir tribe.

Helicopter gunships bombed Mehsud-dominated areas of Kund Serai, Wara and Serwekai. Two seminaries, a training camp and three houses occupied by militants were destroyed.

Troops fired rockets from the Tanai Fort and dug trenches on hilltops in Madijan and deployed artillery.

An official said troops would first secure the Jandola-Wana road passing through the Mehsud territory and then launch a full-fledged assault on Baitullah Mehsud and his supporters.

The road, which served as the main supply line for troops based in Wana, has been under Taliban’s control for three years.

NWFP Governor Awais Ahmad Ghani, who is representative of the president for Fata, announced last week that security forces had been ordered to launch a decisive action against Baitullah and his associates.

Grouping against Baitullah

Meanwhile, two anti-Baitullah commanders have intensified their activities in nearby Tank district and are raising lashkars for a final showdown.

Turkistan Bhittani and Qari Zainuddin Mehsud, who are reported to have won government’s backing after revolting against Baitullah, started recruiting volunteers in Tank and Jandola.

The government is supporting anti-Baitullah forces in the region to isolate the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan leader who carries a $5 million bounty announced by the US government.

According to local people, Turkistan Bhittani and Zainuddin have set up recruitment offices in Tank and a large number of people are joining them. ‘Each volunteer is being offered Rs5,000 to Rs8,000 per month and given an automatic rifle and ammunition,’ they added.

Banners praising slain militant commander Abdullah Mehsud and his successor Zainuddin have been put up in different areas of Tank. The armed volunteers are patrolling the streets in Tank and Jandola.

The sources said that Baitullah’s supporters had gone underground after the return of his rivals. According to them, the Taliban left Tank after four supporters of Baitullah Mehsud were shot dead last week. — Dawn Report/Agencies.

Mousavi rally in doubt after Iran leader warning

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Backers of beaten presidential candidate Mirhossein Mousavi will decide on Saturday whether to defy a stern warning by Iran's top authority and stage mass protests over a disputed election.

(Editors' note: Reuters and other foreign media are subject to Iranian restrictions on their ability to report, film or take pictures in Tehran.)

Iran's top legislative body holds an extraordinary session on Saturday morning to which it has invited Mousavi and the two other candidates who lost against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the June 12 election, which Mousavi wants annulled.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei demanded an end to the rallies on Friday, issuing a strong warning to leaders of the street protests that they will be responsible for any bloodshed.

President Barack Obama condemned the violence carried out by security forces and believed Iranians should be free to protest, his spokesman said on Friday after Khamenei's speech, sharpening the White House's rhetoric over the post-election events.

Khamenei's words appeared to hint at a future crackdown by authorities on rallies. Khamenei said the election was fairly won by Ahmadinejad and not rigged, as Mousavi who wants the poll annulled has said.

Another defeated candidate, Mehdi Karoubi, called in an open letter to the Guardian Council legislative body for the election to be canceled.

There was no immediate word from Mousavi's supporters whether they would still go ahead with a planned demonstration in downtown Tehran at around 4 p.m. (7:30 a.m. EDT) on Saturday.

An ally of Mousavi said he was not calling on people to take to the streets again. "Mousavi has no plans to hold a rally tomorrow or the day after tomorrow," he told Reuters.

But his supporters may decide to show up anyway, as they did in their tens of thousands last Tuesday despite a call by Mousavi for them to stay home.

If they proceed in defiance of Khamenei's explicit warning, they risk a severe response from security forces, which have so far not tried to prevent Iran's most widespread street rallies since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

"If there is any bloodshed, leaders of the protests will be held directly responsible," the white-bearded cleric told huge crowds thronging Tehran University for Friday prayers.

State media have reported seven or eight people killed in unrest since the election outcome was published on June 13, prompting Mousavi's supporters to hold mass rallies in Tehran, with demonstrations reported in several Iranian cities.

Scores of reformists have been arrested and authorities have cracked down on foreign and domestic media.

In a sign of defiance, Mousavi backers took to Tehran rooftops after nightfall on Friday to shout Allahu Akbar (God is greatest), an echo of tactics in the 1979 Islamic revolution.

"SOMETHING EXTRAORDINARY"

Khamenei called for calm in his country, a major oil exporter embroiled in dispute with major powers over its nuclear program which the West suspects could be used to make bombs. Tehran says its nuclear work is peaceful.

He also attacked what he called interference by foreign powers who had questioned the result of the election.

Britain said it had summoned the Iranian ambassador to complain about Khamenei's speech, in which he also called the British "the most treacherous" of Iran's enemies.

Asked about the call by Khamenei for street protests to end, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said on Friday: "He (Obama) believes that those who wish to have their voices heard should be able to do that without fear of violence."

"I think you're ... witnessing something extraordinary ... I'm not sure that anybody even a week ago or so would have expected to see the courageous images that we're seeing now."

Iran's national security council dismissed a complaint by Mousavi, in a letter to the Interior Ministry body earlier this week, about plainclothes men using weapons such as sticks and metal rods to attack protesters.

"Your national duty and responsibility would require that instead of raising charges against police or army forces ... to try to avoid such illegal gatherings and not support them," Fars News Agency quoted its secretary Abbas Mohtaj as saying.

"You are certainly aware that in the event of instigating or inviting such illegal gatherings the responsibility for the consequences would lie with you," he said.

Mousavi has demanded the annulment of the election result, which showed he won 34 percent of the votes to Ahmadinejad's tally of nearly 63 percent.

The Guardian Council is considering complaints by the three losing candidates, but has said only that it will recount some disputed ballot boxes.

It has invited Mousavi, Karoubi and conservative Mohsen Rezaie to an extraordinary session on Saturday to discuss their 646 complaints about the election.

"We are urging candidates to avoid any remarks which can disturb public opinion until the Guardian Council carries out its final investigation," council spokesman Abbasali Kadkhodai told the official IRNA news agency.

Hidden crisis haunts Pakistan fighting

RUSTUM, Pakistan (CNN) -- Piled high with food, Minhaj Bahdar rides a rented motorbike back to his family's temporary sanctuary away from the fighting between Pakistan's army and the Taliban.The little motorbike struggles under the weight of food -- 80 kilograms of wheat, 4kg of sugar, 1 kg of salt and 300 grams of tea. It sounds like a lot -- but it has to last the Bahdar family one month.Twenty-three of them live in two tiny rooms provided by a local villager. They don't have enough food. There is no running water. The family is part of a humanitarian crisis in Pakistan that aid groups say is going largely unnoticed-- hidden from view because they are not in a tent city aid camp."Up until now it's been a largely invisible crisis. Most of the displaced -- something like 90 percent of those two-and-a-half million (displaced) -- are staying with host families," Chris Webster, of the World Vision aid organization, told CNN.Some 2.5 million people have been forced to leave their homes, on the run from the Taliban and war. The largest movement of people in Pakistan since partition from India more than sixty years ago.Communities have been taking in those fleeing the fighting -- and the toll on them could soon show, Webster said."I've met people who sold their land, sold their cattle in order to provide for people they have never met before," he said. "They are impoverishing themselves to help these impoverished people. The potential for that is another wave of displacement and a deepening of the crisis."Barely one quarter of the pledged half billion in aid dollars has actually been given, Webster said. "The scale of the need is so vast across such a wide area that $10 or $50, whatever you can give, will make a huge difference."The Bahdars are at Rustum -- about three hours' drive from the capital Islamabad but still close to the former Taliban strongholds of Swat and Buner. Pakistan army convoys are on the road that leads to Swat on their way to battle the Taliban. Last week, an army convoy got into an eight-hour gun battle with the Taliban on that road.There appears to be more fighting in South Waziristan, and Webster expects another mass displacement of people - perhaps another half million people.At its distribution hub, World Vision is struggling to keep pace with the needs as it hands out food to 500 families a day.It was into this chaos that Minhaj Bahdar came hoping to get food for his family.It was his lucky day -- he had the right papers and was able to claim a month's ration of food for his family. Too heavy to carry far, he rented a motorbike to make the 10-minute trip home.Back at his house, everyone was waiting to help, but when the food was laid out it was clear: What was too much for the bike was too little for 23 people --- 16 adults and 7 children -- for a month.Minhaj Bahdar said they were barely an hour's drive from their old home but were too afraid to go back. He said he was angry with the Taliban and blamed them for being forced out.Their mud homes were falling down from shelling and it took them three days to get to Rustum."The whole population was fleeing from their homes and without anything," Bahdar's father said. "Indeed, we are in miserable condition but what can we do, except to bear it?"I asked Bahdar's five-year-old niece if she missed her home. "Of course," she said, and then asked if I would take her somewhere safe.It's heartbreaking, but so is their plight.

NATO to send up to 10,000 troops in Afghanistan: Scheffer

KABUL :The visiting NATO's Secretary General Jaap de Hope Scheffer HAS announced sending additional troops to Afghanistan ahead of the second presidential election after the fall of Taliban regime set for August 20 this year.

"We are bringing extra forces into Afghanistan for a protection role between 8,000 and 10,000, if you want to know the numbers of whom will come on temporary bases to Afghanistan," Scheffer said after meeting Afghan President Hamid Karzai in his Palace.

The outgoing NATO chief described Afghanistan's coming election as "very important" for both Afghans and the international community, saying the ISAF along with Afghan security forces would do its best to help Afghans have a transparent election in a peaceful environment.

During his last tour to Afghanistan as NATO Secretary General, Scheffer once again repeated the military alliance commitment towards the post-Taliban Afghanistan.

"We would be alongside Afghan people and we will support Afghan people," he stressed.

The NATO top diplomat also expressed concern over civilian casualties during military operations against anti-government militants, saying "we will do everything which is in our power to prevent loss of innocent life, loss of innocent civilian life."

He asserted that the international forces would do its best to minimize civilian casualties.

Repeated harming of non-combatants has raised anti-U.S. forces resentment in Afghanistan while President Karzai and Afghan citizens at large have repeatedly asked the international forces to protect civilian life as it would not serve the U.S.-led war on terror.

Peshawar airport reopens

ISLAMABAD/PESHAWAR: The Peshawar airport has been reopened with the prime minister’s approval, Defence Minister Ahmed Mukhtar said on Thursday. Talking to a private TV channel, he said the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) had been directed to reopen the airport for flight operations. The airport had been closed for all air traffic on Wednesday due to the volatile law and order situation in the province and all Peshawar-bound flights were re-routed to Islamabad. Taliban had threatened to attack passenger planes, prompting officials to close the airport.

Militants bomb schools in Pakistan tribal area

KHAR, Pakistan — Militants blew up two boys' schools and a college in Bajaur tribal area in northwest Pakistan, an official said Friday, as an offensive against the Taliban rumbled on in nearby districts.
"Several locally-made bombs planted inside the school buildings went off late in the night," local government official Adalat Khan told AFP, adding that both schools were "completely demolished."
"They also bombed a boys' degree college in Mamond town."
Gul Rehman, a Bajaur education officer, said 44 schools had been bombed or set on fire in the past year in the district troubled by Taliban attacks.
Elsewhere in Bajaur on Friday, a roadside bomb exploded and wounded a tribal policeman while he was on patrol, an official said.
Bajaur lies just to the west of Dir and Swat districts, where the military is locked in a nearly two-month-long offensive against Taliban insurgents.
Militants in Swat have destroyed nearly 200 schools, mostly for girls, in the valley during a two-year campaign to enforce sharia law.
The army has said it is also poised to launch a fresh assault into the tribal areas along the Afghan border to track down the senior Taliban leadership.
Pakistan's northwestern tribal belt has become a stronghold for hundreds of extremists who fled Afghanistan after a US-led invasion toppled the hardline Taliban regime in late 2001.

Iran's supreme leader defends election

Iran's supreme leader passionately defended last week's presidential election process today, praising President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's election as a "definitive victory" and denying charges of vote-rigging. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said those who cause violence during protests would be held accountable.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, angrily warned opposition leaders Friday to stay off the streets and denied that the results of last week’s election were rigged. Mr Khamenei demanded an end to the demonstrations. "I want to tell everyone these things must finish. These street actions are being done to put pressure on leaders but we will not bow in front of them," he said.

Without naming the three losing candidates who have challenged the election results, he ordered them to "open their eyes" and see behind the demonstrations "the enemy hands working, the hungry wolves waiting in ambush".

Khamenei tells Mousavi to toe the line over election or be cast out

www.timesonline.co.uk

The moderate Iranian leader who says that he was robbed of victory in last week’s presidential election faces a fateful choice today: support the regime or be cast out.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, has told Mir Hossein Mousavi to stand beside him as he uses Friday prayers at Tehran University to call for national unity. An army of Basiji — Islamic volunteer militiamen — is also expected to be bussed in to support the Supreme Leader.

The demand was made at a meeting this week with representatives of all three candidates who claim that the poll was rigged, and it puts Mr Mousavi on the spot. He has become the figurehead of a popular movement that is mounting huge demonstrations daily against the “theft” of last Friday’s election by President Ahmadinejad, the ayatollah’s protégé.

Mr Mousavi, 67, is a creature of the political Establishment — a former revolutionary and prime minister who would like to liberalise Iranian politics but has never challenged the system in the way his followers are doing. It was unclear last night what he would do or even whether the protests would die away if he backed down. Yesterday tens of thousands of demonstrators packed into the Imam Khomeini Square in Tehran — named after the founder of the Islamic Republic — for another massive rally, this one to mourn protesters killed in Monday’s clashes with pro-government militias.

Men, women and children from all backgrounds came dressed in black, with green wristbands, the colour of the Mousavi campaign, and staged a two-hour vigil. Some held banners bearing the names or pictures of the dead, and placards proclaiming “My martyred brother, we will get back your vote” or “We have not had people killed to compromise and accept a doctored ballot box”.

There was near silence until Mr Mousavi arrived with his wife, Zahra Rahnavard, and the throng broke into chants of “Mousavi! We support you!” With almost ecstatic fervour, the traditional lament for Shia Islam’s most important martyr, “Ya Hussein! was answered by the defeated presidential candidate’s forenames “Mir Hossein!

Mr Mousavi was accompanied by Mehdi Karoubi, another of the defeated candidates. He attempted to speak from the top of a car using a loudhailer, but few could hear him.

As the protesters departed just before dusk they left behind little shrines of black candles placed around photographs of the dead. “It encourages us to follow their path, fighting for the vote,” one woman said.

It was the sixth day of demonstrations and first to be held in the poorer south-central district, an apparent effort to dispel notions that the protesters are middle-class or pro-Western.

The Guardian Council, a body of 12 senior clerics whom the Supreme Leader has asked to investigate claims of electoral fraud, said it had received 646 complaints of irregularities. It has invited Mr Mousavi and the other two candidates challenging Mr Ahmadinejad — Mr Karoubi and Mohsen Rezai — to set out their grievances tomorrow and will decide on Sunday whether to order a recount. Nobody believes that it will. The Supreme Leader controls the council and is widely believed to have asked it to investigate as a way to play for time.

Mr Ahmadinejad defended the vote, telling a Cabinet meeting yesterday that “the ideals of the Islamic Revolution were the winners”.

PML factions stage walkout over ‘Pakhtunkhwa’

PESHAWAR: The lawmakers of both factions of Pakistan Muslim League (N and Q) on Wednesday staged a walkout from the budget session when Senior Minister Rahimdad Khan repeatedly called Sarhad as Pakhtunkhwa during his speech.

Khan was reading out his budget speech, perhaps written by some bureaucrat, laced with names like Sarhad, rejected by the Awami National Party MPAs and supported by both PML factions. Wherever the word Sarhad province occurred in his written speech, Khan intentionally replaced it with the word Pakhtunkhwa, which stirred a rumpus in the house.

Khan, one of the two Frontier senior ministers, was presenting the budget on behalf of his ailing colleague, Finance Minister Mohammad Humayun Khan, in the house.

‘In the Constitution, it is NWFP, while the finance minister was adamant on calling it Pakhtunkhwa. It is violation of the Constitution. If the parliament changes the name, we will accept it, but right now we oppose calling it Pakhtunkhwa,’ PML parliamentary leader Pir Sabir Shah told the journalists.

He denied that his party had endorsed ANP resolution on changing of the province’s name. ‘We had opted to abstain from the session; when the assembly had approved this resolution. Only parliament through one third majority of its members can bring any such change into the Constitution,’ he said.

Giving his party’s version, Provincial Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain said calling Sarhad as Pakhtunkhwa was not unconstitutional, because President Asif Ali Zardari had called it Pakhtunkhwa on the floor of parliament and in the United Nations General Assembly.

Speaker Karamatullah Chagarmati, however, advised the minister to confine himself to the written text. But the minister kept himself oscillating between Sarhad and Pakhtunkhwa throughout the speech.

Earlier, the speaker administered oath to the newly elected MPA, Auranzeb Khan, who won the election from PF-1, Peshawar-I, which fell vacant after the assassination of his brother Alamzeb Khan.

He thanked all the political parties for extending him political support during the by-election. Khan also lashed out at the Peshawar police, which had failed to track down the killers of his brother Alamzeb Khan. He said growing incidents of kidnapping for ransom, bomb blasts, burglaries, murders and car-snatching were enough to gauge the performance of police force.

During his remarks about the journalist community, the speaker called them the ‘fifth pillar of the state.’ Perhaps, he was mixing up ‘fourth estate’ with the ‘fifth columnist.’ None of the lawmakers, even Abdul Akbar Khan, Saquibullah Chamkani, Israrullah Khan Gandapur, known for their scholarship, tried to enlighten the speaker.

Earlier, when the speaker invited the finance minister to present the budget, Pir Sabir Shah stood in his seat and proposed a discussion on the law and order situation in the province. He said it was more important to speak on the war-like situation in the province than listening to the budget speech, but the chair didn’t take his words seriously.

The speaker said he had put a ban on the guests and personal guards of the MPAs owing to the deteriorating law and order situation and danger of terror incidents in the city. He hoped that lawmakers would extend him cooperation during the budget session.

A motion tabled by Abdul Akabar Khan of Pakistan People’s Party drew the attention of the chair about the two days gap in proceedings after the budget speech and asked the speaker to reduce it. The chair entertained the suggestion and reduced the gap to one day instead of two days.

All roads leading towards assembly building remained closed till the adjournment of the sitting.

U.S. Struggling for Right Response to Iran

Washington Post

The political unrest in Iran presents the Obama administration with a dilemma: keep quiet to pursue a nuclear deal with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country's supreme leader, or heed calls to respond more supportively to the protesters there -- and risk alienating the Shiite cleric.

President Obama and his advisers have struggled to strike the right tone, carefully calibrating positive messages about the protests in an effort to avoid giving the government in Tehran an excuse to portray the demonstrators as pro-American. Nevertheless, the Iranian Foreign Ministry yesterday summoned the Swiss ambassador, who represents American interests in Tehran, to complain of "interventionist" comments by U.S. officials, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

In an apt summation of the administration's position, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told reporters yesterday: "We are obviously waiting to see the outcome of the internal Iranian processes, but our intent is to pursue whatever opportunities might exist in the future with Iran."

The administration's stance is practical -- the real power in Iran rests with Khamenei, not with whoever is president -- but pressure for a shift in policy will mount if the protests continue to grow and begin to threaten the government's hold on power. Obama already has been criticized -- notably by his Republican presidential rival, Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) -- as abandoning "fundamental principles" of support for human rights.

Khamenei, a former president of Iran who became supreme leader 20 years ago after the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, plays a defining behind-the-scenes role in Iran's complex and often opaque political system. His power derives from his support among the armed forces and the clerical establishment that presides over the nation's quasi-theocracy.

Few experts doubt Khamenei would have approved of manipulating election results to ensure President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's reelection or could have the influence to order a new vote, though it is unclear whether recent events have threatened his grip on power internally. If he remains in control, Khamenei's views would be expected to prevail on any key decisions affecting the future of the Islamic republic, especially on the question of whether to deal with the Obama administration.

Mohsen Milani, chairman of the international relations department at the University of South Florida, said it appears that an internal power struggle among the governing elites has burst into the open, combined with images of public discontent. "President Obama has made one very important decision," he said. "He has not taken a position on the internal struggle."

One of Obama's signature pledges during last year's campaign was to reach out to the Islamic republic and seek to end three decades of estrangement between the two countries. A central objective is to dissuade Iran from attempts to build a nuclear weapon, a development that Western nations argue would destabilize the Middle East. Iran maintains that its nuclear program is purely for civilian uses.

With a televised Persian New Year's greeting to Iran's leaders in March, Obama effectively recognized the current ruling structure and took regime change out of the equation. Administration officials had planned to seek a dialogue, preferably with officials close to Khamenei, after Iran's presidential vote.

Now those ambitions are on hold, awaiting the outcome of the disputed election. But Obama has made clear that he assumes the results, for now, will not change his approach to the nation.

"Although there is amazing ferment taking place in Iran, the difference between Ahmadinejad and Mousavi in terms of their actual positions may not be as great as has been advertised," Obama told CNBC on Tuesday. "We've got long-term interests in having them not weaponize nuclear power and stop funding organizations like Hezbollah and Hamas. And that would be true whoever came out on top in this election."

Obama's statement has struck some commentators as insulting to the huge demonstrations in support of challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi. McCain, appearing on CNN yesterday, said he was "frankly incredulous" about Obama's comment. "To say there's not a bit of difference between the two candidates is beside the point," he said. "The Iranian people, obviously, think there's some difference, or tens or hundreds of thousands of them wouldn't be in the streets."

But Suzanne Maloney, an Iran expert at the Brookings Institution, said of Obama's remark: "It is coldblooded, but it is also hard-headed. It is important not to get romantic about the idea of an Iranian moderate."

A senior administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to explain the administration's thinking, said U.S. officials want to "keep faith" with the demonstrators, letting the government know "the world is watching," to avoid a bloody denouement. But he said the odds are slim that Khamenei will somehow lose power. "We can't lose sight of the fact that they are enriching uranium every day," he said. "They were a threat before the election. They are a threat today, and the clock keeps ticking."

Too much overt U.S. support for the demonstrators, he said, may feed Iranian suspicions about a U.S. desire for regime change and make Iran's leaders less likely to agree to restraints on the nuclear program. "It is easy to say you ought to talk tough," the official said. "But before you do that, you have to ask yourself: What is the effect of having done that? Will it change their behavior or not?"

Shirin Ebadi, an Iranian human rights activist who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003, said she has no complaints about Obama's rhetoric. "What happens in Iran regards the people themselves, and it is up to them to make their voices heard," she said in a telephone interview from Geneva. "I respect his comments on all the events in Iran, but I think it is sufficient."

IRAN..."Death to the Dictator!" Mousavi supporters gather for Iran rebellion

www.timesonline.co.uk


A silent sea of black-clad mourners made its way through the streets of Tehran this afternoon, commemorating the lives of those slain in six straight days of protests since the announcement of President Ahmedinajad’s election victory.

The scenes recalled the mass mourning protests of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, when hundreds of thousands took to the streets to play their part in the overthrow of the American-backed Shah.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators marched silently until they reached Iman Khomeini square, the huge plaza named for the founder of the revolution, where they were joined by Mir Hossein Mousavi, the defeated opposition candidate.

The crowd broke into chants, shouting “Death to the Dictator!” and “where are our votes?” as Mr Mousavi addressed them, repeating his calls for a fresh ballot to replace a result widely seen as fraudulent.

At least seven people were killed in violence that erupted during Monday’s massive protest, when militiamen attacked and opened fire on protestors demanding that their “stolen” votes be counted. But persistent reports indicate that more may have been killed in both Tehran and Shiraz and buried quickly without official recording.

Protestors dressed in black for mourning - a change from the usual green worn by Mousavi supporters - and carried placards remembering the dead. “We have not had people killed to compromise and accept a doctored ballot box” read one; another “My martyred brother, I will get back your vote."

Some protesters carried pictures of footballers from Iran’s national team wearing green wrist-bands in their World Cup qualifier against South Korea last night. Passing motorists sounded their horns in support as the marchers stopped to let them pass.

The march and rally took place despite a ban issued by the Interior Ministry, which backs the hardline incumbent, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who claimed victory in the polls with 63 per cent of the ballot. That figure is widely believed to have been doctored, with official results showing Mr Mousavi heavily defeated in his own hometown and also in Tehran, where his support is at it highest.

Mr Mousavi, who claimed he was the real victor, has dismissed the June 12 election as a “shameful fraud” and called for a re-run, with the backing of reformists, including some powerful clerics. Many protesters carried white flowers and placards reading: “We cried for Gaza, who cries for us?”

The fourth consecutive day of protests came in open defiance of Iran’s supreme leader, who has urged the people to pursue their complaints within the limits of the cleric-led system.

In a bid to ward off further protests, Iran’s Guardian Council invited Mr Mousavi and two other opposition candidates to a meeting on Saturday to discuss their grievances.

The unelected body of 12 clerics and Islamic law experts close to Ayatollah Khamenei said it was prepared to conduct a limited recount of ballots at sites where candidates claim irregularities. Mr Mousavi, however, has demanded an independent investigation and a new election, charging that the Council is too close to Mr Ahmadinejad to be trusted with the task.

The Council has received a total of 646 complaints from the three candidates, raising the possibility that even a limited recount could turn into a far larger and messier exercise than the government intended.

The crisis presents one of the gravest threats to Iran’s complex blend of democracy and religious authority since the system emerged out of the Islamic revolution that brought down Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

The ruling clerics still command deep public support and are defended by Iran’s most powerful military force - the Revolutionary Guard - as well as a vast network of militias.

But Mr Mousavi’s movement has forced Ayatollah Khamenei into the centre of the escalating crisis, questioning his role as the final authority on all critical issues.

Jolie, Pitt give $1 million for Pakistan refugees

LOS ANGELES - Celebrity couple Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt donated $1 million to a U.N. refugee agency to help Pakistanis displaced by fighting between troops and Taliban militants, the agency said on Thursday.

Jolie, the star of 2008 movies "Changeling" and "Wanted," has visited Pakistan three times to witness United Nations relief operations since becoming a "goodwill ambassador" for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in 2001.

The agency said it was grateful for the donation from Pitt and Jolie, and added that more than 2 million people in Pakistan had been uprooted this year as a result of the conflict in the northwest part of the country.

Most Pakistanis forced from their homes are living in government buildings or with host families, but 260,000 of them are in camps run by UNHCR, the agency said.

The Hollywood power couple, who gave the $1 million through their Jolie-Pitt Foundation, donated $2 million in September to help children in Ethiopia stricken by disease.

Islamabad resembles battle zone

ISLAMABAD — Agitated commuters queue up every morning rush hour on Islamabad's wide avenues, their cars snaking back from security checkposts manned by heavily-armed police and paramilitary forces.
Pakistan's capital of manicured lawns, stately houses and imposing government buildings is increasingly resembling a war zone as the Taliban take their battle to the cities, with a wave of devastating attacks in recent weeks.
Blast walls have swallowed UN buildings, embassies and ambassadors' homes. To enter the Serena Hotel, one of Islamabad's two five-star hotels, visitors must navigate four security barriers manned by jittery guards.
Dozens of new police checkposts have been set up on Islamabad's main highways and streets inside the city after authorities issued orders to beef up security, taking it to unprecedented levels, residents say.
"We can't cross even a street to the other side without going through stiff checks," complained Hassan Khan, a local businessman.
The capital is about 250 kilometres (155 miles) southeast of Swat valley, where the army is locked in a seven-week offensive against the Taliban, enraging militants who have carried out a series of revenge attacks.
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan movement led by feared warlord Baitullah Mehsud has threatened more strikes on key installations in Pakistan's urban centres, putting everyone on edge.
Clad in a bullet-proof jacket and finger on the trigger of his submachine gun, elite commando police constable Sajid Abbas eyes every passing vehicle.
"This is our duty to safeguard this homeland from the terrorists and we are proud to serve our nation," said a bullish Abbas, wearing a black T-shirt emblazoned with the logo "No Fear" on the back.
About 134 people have been killed in suicide attacks and bombings in the capital since government forces fought gunmen holed up in the radical Islamabad Red Mosque in July 2007. Nationwide, 1,995 people have been killed in attacks.
Past targets have included Islamabad's Marriott Hotel, the Danish embassy, an Italian restaurant and police checkposts and buildings.
In the latest attack in the capital, a suicide bomber walked up to a police building on June 6 in a residential district home to many government officials and detonated explosives strapped to his body, killing two policemen.
Pakistani police on Wednesday arrested three men suspected of planning a suicide attack near Islamabad and seized explosives and suicide jackets, while four other suspects have been held in the capital in the past three weeks.
Now, vehicles have to crawl through concrete barriers manned by up to seven police -- some hunkered down behind sandbags -- as security forces peer into the cars, waving some through but pulling other nervous drivers over.
"We are keeping an eye on every vehicle with thorough checking of suspected persons," said Sub Inspector Muhammad Siddque, stationed on the Islamabad Highway, one of the main entry points from adjacent Rawalpindi city.
Tahir Alam, senior superintendent of Islamabad police, said that there were now 70 security checkposts throughout the capital.
But some worry about the increasingly sophisticated tactics of the militants, who have recently been able to penetrate past tough security and cause massive devastation to high-profile targets.
On June 9, three militants shot their way past the security barriers at the five-star Pearl Continental hotel in the northwestern city of Peshawar, ramming a explosives-packed truck into the building, killing nine people.
"The terrorists come suddenly and attack with modern ammunition, which we lack. This is our weak point," said Zia, a policeman stationed on the Kashmir Highway, glancing nervously around him.
"I heard our government has imported new bullet-proof jackets, but I don?t know when I will get one."

Jetliner lands safely after pilot dies

(CNN) -- Continental Flight 61, whose pilot died Thursday while flying from Brussels, Belgium, to Newark, New Jersey, has landed safely, the Federal Aviation Administration and Continental Airlines said.




The Boeing 777 landed at Newark International Airport at 11:49 a.m. ET Thursday, the airline said, after the 60-year-old Newark-based pilot died "apparently of natural causes."

The airline said the crew on the flight included an additional relief pilot who took the place of the deceased man, and "the flight continued safely with two pilots at the controls."

Asked whether the plane's 247 passengers had been told of the situation, a Continental spokesman said only that the plane had arrived safely.

Passengers told CNN that they were not told, and only that an announcement for a doctor was made during the flight.

Steve Coleman, a spokesman for the New York and New Jersey Port Authority, said the FAA told Newark airport officials to have emergency crews standing by for the landing.

The plane landed without any problem, he said, and a medical examiner met the plane to help handle the situation.

The pilot had 32 years of service with Continental, the airline said.

Iranian Opposition Urges Day of Mourning and Protest

New York Times
TEHRAN — Iranians challenging the results of last week’s election prepared for a day of mourning Thursday after renewed protests brought tens of thousands of people onto the streets of Tehran and human rights groups accused the authorities of rounding up prominent figures including a former foreign minister.

Mir Hussein Moussavi, the main opposition candidate in last Friday’s disputed election, urged his followers on Wednesday to visit mosques and parade on the streets on Thursday. The call seemed designed to maintain the momentum of protests that began almost as soon as the election results were announced on Saturday and ballooned this week into mass demonstrations.

At least seven people were reported killed in the first day of mass protests on Monday. Student activists say seven more people have died since then in attacks by government militia on student dormitories in Tehran and the southern city of Shiraz.

In the unfolding battle of wills, the government worked on many fronts to disrupt the outside world’s view of the unrest, banning coverage of the demonstrations, arresting journalists, threatening bloggers and trying to block Web sites like Facebook and Twitter, which have become vital outlets for information about the confrontation.

The senior prosecutor in the central province of Isfahan, where there have also been tense demonstrations, went so far as to say protesters could be executed under Islamic law.

According to news reports and a human rights activist group, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, the latest detainees include Ibrahim Yazdi, a former foreign minister who leads on organization called Freedom Movement. According to the rights group, he was arrested at a hospital in Tehran while undergoing treatment on Wednesday.

The arrest was reported after other people were detained, including Mohammad Reza Jalaipour, a sociologist and university professor. He was arrested at Tehran airport while trying to leave the country with his wife, news reports said.

Amnesty International issued a tally of detentions, saying 17 people including some associated with the Freedom Movement, had been detained in the northwestern city of Tabriz. “Among those arrested was Dr. Ghaffari Farzadi, a leading member of the Iran Freedom Movement and a lecturer at Tabriz University,” Amnesty International said on its Web site, adding that students appeared to have been “particularly targeted.”

As nations around the world urged Iran’s leadership to exercise restraint, Mr. Moussavi, who the government said finished second in the election, and one of Iran’s chief reformers, former President Mohammad Khatami, issued a joint letter urging an end to violence and arrests.

“We ask you to take all the necessary measures to put an end to today’s worrying situation, to stop the violent actions against people and to free those arrested,” they wrote in a letter on Mr. Moussavi’s Web site.

The crisis — the gravest since the Islamic Revolution in 1979 — erupted after the Interior Ministry declared that the moderate Mr. Moussavi was defeated by the conservative incumbent, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in Friday’s election by 63 percent to 34 percent. Mr. Moussavi, the demonstrators who represent a cross section of Iranian society and part of the clerical establishment have called the official results a fraud.

With the nation’s ruling class apparently divided by the results, the hard-liners in charge sought to portray the unrest as the work of outsiders. The powerful Revolutionary Guard said it had taken action against “deviant news sites” financed by American and Canadian companies.

The Foreign Ministry, meantime, summoned the Swiss ambassador, who represents American interests in Tehran, in protest of what it called “meddling” by the United States into its affairs because of statements by American officials on Iran’s elections. The Swiss Foreign Ministry in Berne, Switzerland, declined to discuss what was said at the meeting.

The Iranian authorities also summoned the Canadian chargé d’affaires over the same accusations. Several other European ambassadors were summoned Tuesday.

America and Iran broke off diplomatic relations after the 1979 revolution.

No apparent ground was gained Wednesday in reaching a negotiated solution.

This week, Iran’s supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final word on state matters and who certified Mr. Ahmadinejad’s re-election, apparently made two concessions, ordering an investigation into the election and calling for a partial recount.

But Mr. Moussavi and the protesters are rejecting anything less than new elections.

“It is a very complicated situation,” said Abbass Abdi, a political scientist in Tehran. “People feel humiliated because they came and voted in large numbers. On the other hand, it is very difficult for the establishment to admit fraud because its legitimacy would go under question.

“There is no legal solution to this dilemma and, we need a solution that neither side would lose face.”

For the third day in a row on Wednesday, supporters of Mr. Moussavi massed in silence, from Hafteh Tir Square, with photographs and samizdat video showing a sea of people at least tens of thousands strong. Many protesters wore black to honor those slain in recent days, a witness said. Some carried flowers and wore green ribbons to show their support for Mr. Moussavi.

“We are becoming stronger,” said Abolfazl, 36, a cab driver. “The only way we can win is to stick together and keep coming back.”

Mostafa, 26, a businessman, who had gone to the rally on the back of a friend’s motorcycle, said he did not fear the violent clashes that killed protesters. “The student protests failed because people left the students alone,” he said, referring to the student protests in 1999 and 2003. “This time they cannot defeat us because everybody has joined.”

Surprise support for the protesters came from members of Iran’s soccer team, with several wearing the bright green ribbons, now the signature for Mr. Moussavi’s supporters, during a game with South Korea.

The national football team is controlled by the government, and their defiance demonstrated the deepening divide.

It was unclear whether clashes erupted between security forces and protesters later Wednesday evening, as has happened during other protests this week.

The government had announced that seven people were killed Monday and 15 others were injured after a Basij militia, loyal to Mr. Ahmadinejad, opened fire on people. On Wednesday, a student group, the Office for Consolidating Unity, said in a statement on its Web site that five students were killed in an attack on a Tehran University dormitory and two other students were killed in a separate attack at the dormitory in the southern city of Shiraz.

Iran’s Interior Ministry on Thursday ordered an investigation into the episode at Tehran University, which has been widely denounced inside Iran.

Meanwhile, the government expanded its crackdown with more arrests and pressure against journalists to limit coverage of the protests.

Saeed Leylaz, an economist and political analyst, was arrested Wednesday at his home. Reporters Without Borders said that at least 11 Iranian journalists had been arrested.

Because of continued intimidation and pressure on journalists, at least one newspaper, Khabar, said Wednesday that it would stop publishing. A representative from the office of the prosecutor general in Tehran on Friday began screening newspapers before publication to block what it called “provocative” material.

In an effort that appeared to limit reporters’ access, foreign news outlets were warned by the Ministry of Culture not to “participate in or cover” the rallies because the ministry said it “had received specific threats against reporters.” One photographer, Amin Kiani, was stabbed at a protest on Tuesday. The ministry expanded its restriction on Wednesday to covering any news conferences linked to Mr. Moussavi.

News agencies reported that Mohammadreza Habibi, the senior prosecutor in the central province of Isfahan, had warned demonstrators that they could be executed under Islamic law.

“We warn the few elements controlled by foreigners who try to disrupt domestic security by inciting individuals to destroy and to commit arson that the Islamic penal code for such individuals waging war against God is execution,” Mr. Habibi said, according to the Fars news agency.

Peshawar airport shut down amid terror threats

Authorities have closed the International Airport in the provincial capital Peshawar amid threats of possible terrorist attacks against civilian flights.

"The authorities have been directed by the provincial government there to shut down the Peshawar airport after an intelligence report warning of possible terror attacks by militants," Zahid Khan, a senior lawmaker of ruling Awami National Party (ANP) told Press TV on Wednesday.

The closure followed a threat of attacks on passenger aircraft from the pro-Taliban militants who have been launching bombing attacks across Pakistan to put an end to the ongoing military operation in the violent northwest.

The Tehrik-e-Taliban in Darra Adamkhel, led by a former Lashkar-e-Jhangvi member, had set a Monday deadline for the military to halt its attack.

Instead, Islamabad evacuated domestic and international departure lounges of the airport and a contingent of security forces was deployed to guard the airport.

The Civil Aviation Authority issued a notice on Wednesday, advising all national and international airlines to cancel their flights to Peshawar International Airport until further notification. It asked the carriers to divert their flights to Islamabad.

On Wednesday, military officials said dozens of militants -- including a top commander -- were killed in clashes in Malakand and 17 others were arrested in the northwestern region.

In Galgut area in the state of Dir, security forces killed 20 terrorists and seized a cache of arms and ammunition.

The military also kept pounding militant hideouts in Sentaga, Wali Noor, and Khujdarkhel areas in Banuu, killing at least 10 pro-Taliban insurgents.

Pakistan has seen a fresh spate of terror attacks and deaths of scores of people in bombings since the military began its anti-Taliban campaign in the northwestern Swat valley in April 26.

At least 8 killed, several injured as US drones fired missiles in South Waziristan

Suspected US missile strikes pounded the hide-outs of a Taliban commander in northwestern Pakistan on Thursday, killing at least eight people, government officials said. Shahab Ali Shah, the top administrative official in the South Waziristan tribal area along the Afghanistan border, said the missiles hit close to the villages of Gharlamai and Nandaran, about six miles (10 kilometers) west of the Wana bazaar area. He said the death toll could rise as villagers dig through the rubble. Two Pakistani intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to talk to media, said a training center of Taliban commander Malang Wazir between the two villages was the target and that nine people were killed. Two other intelligence officials, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said four missiles were fired at two sites. They put the casualties at eight dead and about two dozen wounded. Ali Khan Wazir, a shopkeeper, said drone aircraft had been flying over the area for hours before the explosions. He said Taliban vehicles were seen rushing to the scenes. U.S. missiles fired from unmanned drones have repeatedly struck South Waziristan, most recently on Sunday after nearly a one-month lull. The strikes have generated a backlash over civilian casualties. Wednesday's strikes come as the Pakistani military has started pounding militant targets in the area with airstrikes. The highly anticipated operation is seen as a potential turning point in the yearslong and sometimes halfhearted fight against militancy in Pakistan. It could also help curb Taliban attacks on Western forces in Afghanistan. But while Washington has been pushing for the offensive, on the heels of a similar operation in the Swat Valley, fighting in the lawless tribal region will likely be the toughest yet for Pakistan's military, testing both its combat capability and the government's will to see it through. The Swat offensive has triggered a wave of retaliatory attacks by militants across Pakistan that have been blamed on Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, whose base is in South Waziristan. More than 100 people have died since late May in suicide bombings on targets including police and security buildings, mosques and a hotel catering to foreigners. The attacks have fueled anti-Taliban sentiment in Pakistan that in turn has emboldened the politically weak government of President Asif Ali Zardari.

IRAN....Time Tempers a Challenger Forged in Revolution

NEW YORK TIMES

TEHRAN — His followers have begun calling him “the Gandhi of Iran.” His image is carried aloft in the vast opposition demonstrations that have roiled Iran in recent days, his name chanted in rhyming verses that invoke Islam’s most sacred martyrs.

Mir Hussein Moussavi has become the public face of the movement, the man the protesters consider the true winner of the disputed presidential election.

But he is in some ways an accidental leader, a moderate figure anointed at the last minute to represent a popular upwelling against the presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He is far from being a liberal in the Western sense, and it is not yet clear how far he will be willing to go in defending the broad democratic hopes he has come to embody.

Mr. Moussavi, 67, is an insider who has moved toward opposition, and his motives for doing so remain murky. He was close to the founder of Iran’s Islamic revolution but is at odds with the current supreme leader. Some prominent figures have rallied to his cause, including a former president, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. So it is not clear how much this battle reflects a popular resistance to Mr. Ahmadinejad’s hard-line policies, and how much is about a struggle for power.

Mr. Moussavi and his wife, who played a prominent role in his campaign, have been under enormous pressure to accept the election results, said a close relative who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The relative did not specify what kind of pressure.

“They are both being very courageous and are expecting the pressure to increase,” said the relative. “Mr. Moussavi says he has taken a path that has no return and he is ready to make sacrifices.”

Mr. Moussavi began his political career as a hard-liner and a favorite of the revolution’s architect, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Although he has long had an adversarial relationship with Iran’s current supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, his insider status makes him loath to mount a real challenge to the core institutions of the Islamic Republic. He was an early supporter of Iran’s nuclear program, and as prime minister in the 1980s he approved Iran’s purchase of centrifuges on the nuclear black market, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Yet like many founding figures of the revolution, he has come to believe that the incendiary radicalism of the revolution’s early days must be tempered in an era of peace and state-building, those who know him say. Some have seen a symbolic meaning in his decision to make Monday’s vast demonstration in Tehran a march from Enghelab (revolution) Square to Azadi (freedom) Square.

“He is a hybrid child of the revolution,” said Shahram Kholdi, a lecturer at the University of Manchester who has written about Mr. Moussavi’s political evolution. “He is committed to Islamic principles but has liberal aspirations.”

In recent days, Mr. Moussavi has been pushed inexorably toward a confrontation that carries terrible risks for both sides. If the authorities use force on a major scale to quell the protests, it could crush the movement. It could also generate martyrs and deeper public anger, swelling the demonstrations into a broader threat to the system Mr. Moussavi hopes to preserve.

The steadiness he has shown since the election results were announced Saturday has helped solidify his role as a leader and has heartened his followers.

“The demands of the people are the most important goal of the Islamic Republic,” Mr. Moussavi said as the polls closed on Friday night, in what was widely seen as a shot across the bow of Iran’s clerical leadership, and a warning that he would take his case public in the event of voter fraud.

Mr. Moussavi is in some ways an unlikely figurehead. Calm and deliberate, he has a soporific speaking manner, and even his most ardent defenders grant that he has little charisma. He was out of public life for two decades, a soft-spoken architect who loves to watch movies at home and was overshadowed for years by his distinguished wife, Zahra Rahnavard, a professor and artist.

Yet many also describe him as a resolute figure whose hard experience as Iran’s prime minister during the 1980s taught him not to fear risky decisions.

“He was an artist, a university professor with no experience, but he managed under harsh conditions to run a country of 35 million people through trial and error,” said Muhammad Atrianfar, who served as deputy interior minister under Mr. Moussavi, and later became a journalist. “The biggest result for him was the self-confidence he gained from that.”

As prime minister, he often clashed with Ayatollah Khamenei, who was president at the time. The fights were mostly over economic issues; Mr. Moussavi favored greater state control over the wartime economy, and Ayatollah Khamenei argued for less regulation. The president was more moderate on some issues, and unlike Mr. Moussavi, sometimes drew rebukes from Ayatollah Khomeini, then the supreme leader. In that sense they have switched positions, but the animus between them remains.

After stepping down in 1989, Mr. Moussavi kept a hand in politics, serving on Iran’s Expediency Council. But most of his time was devoted to architecture and painting. His chief influences include the Italian architect Renzo Piano, said a close relative.

“He takes some elements of modern Japanese architecture, and American postmodern, and then puts them in the context of Iranian architecture,” the relative said.

Although he is deeply religious, Mr. Moussavi (the name is also often rendered in English as Mir Hossein Mousavi) appears to hold relatively liberal social views. His wife is a well-known professor of political science who has campaigned alongside him, often giving speeches and news conferences independently. When they were younger, he was sometimes introduced as “the husband of Zahra Rahnavard.” His wife promised that if elected, he would advance women’s rights and appoint “at least two or three women” to the cabinet.

His oldest daughter is a nuclear physicist. The youngest prefers not to wear the Islamic chador, and her parents do not mind, the relative said. “There has never been any compulsion in the family,” the relative added.

In recent years, Mr. Moussavi was deeply dismayed by the excesses of the morality police and by the government’s decisions to shut down newspapers, his relative said.

He decided to run for president earlier this year to save Iran from what he said were Mr. Ahmadinejad’s “destructive” policies. But it was not until a few weeks ago that a popular movement began to build behind him. As the campaign drew to a close, Mr. Moussavi began answering the president’s rhetorical broadsides with some strong language of his own.

“When the president lies, nobody confronts him,” Mr. Moussavi said during his final debate appearance. “I’m a revolutionary and I’m speaking out against the situation he has created. He has filled the country with lies and hypocrisy. I’m not frightened to speak out. Remember that.”

For a long time, Mr. Moussavi was compared unfavorably to Mohammad Khatami, the charismatic reformist cleric who was president from 1997 to 2005. But many now say that during the recent protests, Mr. Moussavi had held firm against the government in ways Mr. Khatami never would have.

“He’s not as open-minded as Khatami,” said Nasser Hadian, a political analyst. “But he’s more of a man of action.”

Pakistan’s ‘Invisible Refugees’ Burden Cities

New York Times

MARDAN, Pakistan — The Khan family made it through Taliban rule, a military offensive and the three-day journey to this crowded city.

But after more than a month of living together — 75 people, three rooms, one bathroom — they might not survive one another.

“This is a test for us,” said Akhtar Jan, a mother of four who is part of the extended family. “If we don’t smile, we would be dead from crying.”

Pakistan is experiencing its worst refugee crisis since partition from India in 1947, and while the world may be familiar with the tent camps that have rolled out like carpets since its operation against the Taliban started in April, the overwhelming majority of the nearly three million people who have fled live unseen in houses and schools, according to aid agencies.

They are the invisible refugees, and their numbers have swollen the populations of towns like this one northwest of the capital, Islamabad, multiplying burdens on already sagging roads, schools, sewers and water supplies, and, not least, on their host families.

Most fled suddenly, without cash or belongings, and many have limited access to the millions of dollars in international aid that has been flowing in.

“People aren’t noticing them,” said Michael McGrath, Pakistan director of Save the Children, an aid organization that has focused on refugees outside of camps. “Their needs are not being met.”

Their hardships have made time of the essence. Refugees said they left their homes because they believed that the government was serious about stopping the militants this time. The more time passes, the more good will is lost, and the more likely they are to become frustrated with the war effort.

“This is it,” Hamid Akbar, 25, a refugee from the Swat Valley, said in Peshawar, the regional capital. “The military isn’t going to get another chance.”

But as far as the refugee crisis goes, the provincial and federal governments’ response has been haphazard, or non-existent. Refugees said in interviews last week that they saw no evidence of government assistance.

The main relief effort is instead carried out by aid organizations and the United Nations, which register refugees in the tent camps, most which are far from the city centers. Many of the displaced did not know how to register, or even that they could.

All of this puts the burden on their host families, who, according to a survey conducted by Save the Children, have taken in more than two families each. (The average family size is 10.)

It is a colossal act of charity. The survey found that only a third of refugees were living with relatives. The rest were staying with friends and even strangers.

“It would have been a disaster if these people didn’t take them into their homes,” said Azam Khanis, who is coordinating the provincial government’s aid effort.

But that generosity is not endless. It has been more than a month since Pakistan began the operation in Swat, and host families are tiring of their guests.

Ms. Jan said her family navigated daily life by assigning numbers to family members, divvying up bathroom time, sleeping time, and the time for cooking, which takes place over two blue propane gas canisters in a courtyard.

At night, 25 women and children sleep together in her room, covering the stone floor like a blanket. “Foot on mouth, hand in face,” are the words Ms. Jan uses to describe it.

They have taken over three spare rooms in a building reserved for guests that belongs to a local businessman. They get free lunches at a nearby school, but the rice is full of pebbles. For dinner, they are on their own. On a recent night, Ms. Jan cooked turnips.

“We are forgotten,” said Shah Khan, one of her cousins.

The Swat Valley, where the Khan family is from, is cool, green and full of streams and forests, and the searing heat of Mardan is unfamiliar. Children were lying in wilted forms on mats on the floor.

Hamza Bakht, 14, spends his days on the street for relief from the stifling two-room apartment where his 40-member family is living. When he was home in the Swat Valley, his parents shut him inside and forbade him to go out after school, for fear that he would be forcibly recruited by the Taliban, whose foot soldiers were mostly teenagers.

“Mostly I watched TV,” he said.

None of Hamza’s friends had joined the Taliban, but he knew boys his age who had. They were tempted by simple things, he said, like military training exercises that “made you feel manlike, as if you were defending something.”

Members of his own family were convinced. One of his aunts giggled that her sister had given her jewelry to the Taliban.

“They told us they were building a seminary,” said the sister, looking apologetic. “We didn’t know they’d do this to us.”

For women, the dynamic is different. In many traditional families, women are not allowed to mix with men who are not close family members, a rule that now requires acrobatic feats and that can be infuriating for the hosts, making them unwelcome strangers in their own homes. They are Pashtun, an ethnicity famous for its hospitality, but tradition is being stretched to its limit.

“I thought they’d be living with us for a week, but it’s been a month,” said Noman Ashraf, a teacher, whose mother and sister moved to a relative’s house to make room for 16 Swat refugees, mostly women and children.

Every part of his daily routine is different. He cannot go into the kitchen to have his morning tea, because the women are there. He does not set his alarm for morning prayer so as not to wake the five men who are sleeping beside him. Children — at least six — tumble through the house, hiding combs and rolls of tape, and demanding to watch television in Mr. Ashraf’s room just as he begins to grade papers.

“It’s a sort of hospitality,” he said. “I can’t tell them no.”

But he added, “I can’t explain in words how much I am suffering.”

Shy to ask the new women to wash his dirty clothes, he sends them to his mother and sister in the village, about an hour’s drive away. One day, the water ran out because the women forgot to turn on the pump, leaving Mr. Ashraf fully soaped and shivering with fury.

“This could happen to my family too,” he said. “It’s a test. If I’m not patient, it’s possible that God will notice.”

Pakistan to boost Swat valley police

www.independent.co.uk
Thousands of people who suffered under the brutal rule of the Taliban in Pakistan's Swat valley could be recruited into a bolstered police force as part of a plan to protect the area against a possible resurgence of militants.

With the valley's police force severely depleted as a result of the Taliban's policy of targeting security officials, the authorities see rebuilding the forces of law and order as an essential component of restoring public confidence and persuading people to return.

To speed up the process of building the force, the authorities intend to recruit 6,000 civilians and 2,500 former military personnel. Many of those who sign up are likely to be recruited by officials touring refugee camps that are home to hundreds of thousands of people forced out of their homes when the military launched its operation to oust the Taliban from the Swat valley. Preference is to be given to the Taliban's victims.

"[To fight an insurgency] the people have to be actively with you," Malik Naveed Khan, the inspector general of police for the North West Frontier Province, told the Associated Press.

Before the militants invaded the Swat valley in 2007, the popular tourist destination was considered a "soft district". Crime rates were low and there were around just 2,000 lightly armed officers for a population of around 1.75 million.

The police were easily overwhelmed by the insurgents who attacked their buildings, beheaded officers and targeted checkpoints. Such was the fear among the police that many took out advertisements with local newspapers announcing that they had left the force and were no longer officers. The pressure from militants, led by the radical cleric Maulana Fazlullah was relentless; at least 120 officers were killed and around 700 quit.

Mr Khan said the authorities were looking for "able-bodied, tough people with a clear background". He said the salary for the police will be about £80 a month.

* Pakistani police investigating the attack on the Sri Lanka cricket team in Lahore in March said they have made their first arrest. Six other suspects are said to have fled to the Afghan border region.

Frontier govt unveils Rs214bn budget

PESHAWAR: The conflict-riddled Frontier government on Wednesday unveiled a deficit budget with a total outlay of Rs 214.181 billion and annual development programme worth Rs 51.156 billion for financial year 2009-10.

NWFP Senior Minister for Planning and Development Rahim dad Khan tabled the budgetary proposals for next financial year in the provincial assembly, which met amid extraordinary security arrangements.

The minister in his budget speech claimed that no new tax has been levied in the next budget, however, the Finance Bill 2009 contains proposals for increasing the ratio of different provincial taxes and duties including property tax besides bringing a number of new sectors into the tax net.

The new sectors to be taxed under professional tax are restaurants, professional caterers, wedding halls and charted accountant firms that is likely to spark resentment from different businesses and service providers, who are already bearing the brunt of worsening law and order situation in the province.

The provincial government anticipates collecting additional resources worth Rs 1.317 billion through increasing the ratio of different taxes and bringing more sectors into the tax net, an official privy to the development told Dawn.

The budget carries proposals of relief measures for serving and retired civil servants, internally displaced persons and creation of a Provincial Employment Fund for unemployed youth are major attractions in the new budget.

The provincial government, according to budget estimates, anticipates total revenue receipts to the tune of Rs 211.114 billion, which is almost 40 per cent higher than the revised revenue receipts of the outgoing financial year.

Against the available resources, the estimated expenditures in the next financial year have been projected at Rs 214.181 billion, showing a deficit of Rs 3.066 billion, which the minister did not elaborate on how it would be tackled in the next fiscal year.

Analysts believe the revenue shortfall of the cash-strapped province will grow further because the impact of 15 per cent pay and pension rise of the government servants have not been taken into account.

As new battlefields are being marked in the southern parts of the province, they say the financial woes of the government will grow because of another spell of mass displacement and massive mobilization of security personnel.

In the outgoing fiscal year total budget outlay was projected at Rs 170.904 billion, however, it stood at Rs 159.451 billion as per the revised estimates because of lower-than-budgeted transfers from the federal government.

The provincial government had projected the outgoing budget as surplus with Rs 345.561 million; however it ended up at a major deficit of Rs 9.149 billion.

According to budget estimates for next financial year, the total general revenue receipts of the province stand at Rs 113.688 billion, which include Rs 67.808 billion from federal divisible pool, Rs 7.549 billion as royalty on gas and oil production, Rs 2.110 billion as province share on GST on services and Rs 7.861 billion to be collected on account of sales tax for district and cantonment boards in lieu of defunct Zilla Tax.

Similarly, special grant worth Rs 14.822 billion from the federal government as determined under interim National Finance Commission (NFC) award and Rs 6 billion-capped proceeds on account of net hydel profit are also part of revenue receipts of the next financial year.

The provincial government’s own contribution to the overall resource pool will be merely three per cent, the lowest-ever, of the total revenue in the next fiscal year.

According to the budget estimates target for provincial own receipts (POR) has been set at Rs 7.537 billion, showing an increase of almost 17 per cent comparing to the recoveries of the outgoing fiscal year.

An amount of Rs 97.244 billion on account of capital and development receipts from federal and foreign lenders and donors are also part of the expected revenue in the next fiscal year.

Against the total revenue collection, an amount of Rs 80 billion would be spent on general administration, Rs 3.266 billion on debt serving, Rs 51.156 billion on development and Rs 79.757 billion on state trading, which mainly deals with procurement of wheat for the local consumption from the open market.

Of the total revenue to be spent on general administration, public order and safety affairs carries an allocation of Rs 11.487 billion, major portion of which will be consumed by the police, fighting militancy in almost 70 per cent areas of the province.

Regular budget of the police has been projected at Rs 9.677 billion in the next financial year, which almost 48 per cent higher than the estimates of outgoing fiscal year. This amount will be spent on creation of special elite force, incentive to the constables and compensation to the heirs of police personnel killed in the line of duty.

The regular budget of health and education, the two traditionally priority areas, have been slightly increased with allocation of Rs 2.989 billion and Rs 3.942 billion respectively in the next fiscal year.

The next year Annual Development Programme (ADP) carries a total outlay of Rs 51.156 billion, which is almost 31 per cent higher than the development budget of the outgoing fiscal year.

Of the total ADP, Rs 32.546 billion would be spent on uplift schemes being executed through own resources, Rs 10.050 billion on federal projects, Rs 574 billion on population welfare programme, Rs 6.644 billion on foreign funded projects and Rs 1.341 billion would be spent on uplift schemes to be executed by the district and Tehsil governments.

Referring relief measures of the budget, the minister announced setting up a Provincial Employment Fund with an allocation of Rs 500 million. This fund, he said, would be utilized for lending soft loans to unemployed youth, particularly from the rural areas.

The main areas of lending would be small cottage industry, food processing industry, small scale trading, setting up of shops and hotels and procuring tractors and auto rickshaws.

Similarly, public sector serving and retired employees have been given 15 per cent raise in salary and pension with effect from July 1st, which is going to consume Rs 3.9 billion in the next fiscal year.

All the government servants from grade 1 to 16 have been exempted from paying professional tax with effect from July 1st, while ratio of Unattractive Area Allowance for government employees, serving in Chitral and Kohistan districts have been substantially increased in the next year budget.

Every displaced woman would be given Rs 10,000 on giving birth in government camps. Similarly, the provincial government will bear one year fee and boarding expenses of the displaced college and university students from restive Malakand region, the minister added.

Iranian-Americans say history is at hand

(CNN) -- Some Iranian-Americans, watching the post-election unrest in Iran, say the tug-of-war between the people and their hardline government has come to a head after three decades.

"I am absolutely convinced that what we are witnessing is a turning point in the history of the Islamic Republic," said Dr. Hamid Dabashi, professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University in New York City.

"Even if the Islamic Republic survives this crisis, it will no longer be as it used to be," added Dabashi.

The contentious election results between conservative incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and reformist challenger Mir Hossein Moussavi sent many Iranians protesting in the streets, while others celebrated Ahmadinejad's apparent victory.

Kaveh Afrasiabi, who has taught at Tehran University and Boston University and identifies himself as an independent, told CNN that Ahmadinejad's widespread support in rural areas and small towns was the reason for his win. In results announced hours after the polls closed, Ahmadinejad received more than 62 percent of the vote, a figure hotly disputed by Moussavi's supporters.

With the credibility of Friday's election under scrutiny, how the Islamic Republic of Iran overcomes it and reclaims its legitimacy in the eyes of some of its own citizens and the international community remains to be seen.

"There is good reason to believe that many if not most of the pro-Moussavi demonstrators are gladly taking an opportunity to safely protest something bigger: their enormous discontent with the entire system as it stands," said Shirin Sadeghi, a Middle East analyst for the Huffington Post.

The unstable political, social and economic climate has some scholars questioning the future of the Islamic Republic.

"They are either going to crack down severely or they are going to cave in -- it could go either way," Dabashi said of the conservatives who now dominate Iran's government.

Many Iranian-Americans say they see this as their opportunity for change.

"This is the best chance Iranians have to evolve to a better situation," said Dr. Ali Nayeri, a professor at the University of California at Irvine.

That chance has sparked an unprecedented wave of spontaneous demonstrations not only within Iran but also thousands of miles away from Tehran --- scenes unparalleled since the 1979 revolution.

"Thirty years ago we had the war with Iraq. Now we have an internal war with our president and the fundamentalists," said Reza Goharzad, a political analyst who worked with Moussavi when he was prime minister of Iran.

Goharzad, of Southern California, was among thousands of voters to cast an absentee ballot.

"This was the first time I voted in 30 years," said Goharzad.

The enthusiasm that drove record numbers of Iranian-Americans to the voting booths was overshadowed by disappointment when a shortage of ballots prevented hundreds from voting. In addition, the election results were announced before many of the voting booths in the U.S. had closed.

Alex Vatanka, senior Middle East analyst at IHS Jane's, a provider of defense and security information, said Iran's supreme ruler, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, may have miscalculated the mood of the country when he endorsed Ahmadinejad's victory before the country's election authority made the final call. Khamenei has since asked the authority, the Guardian Council, to recount some of the votes. But Moussavi is asking for fresh elections.

Goharzad, like many other voters, questions the legitimacy of the election. He wants to know where his vote went.

A student activist in Dallas, Texas, echoed that sentiment.

"The election volunteer at my voting location said that they had 500 ballots, which was not enough for the thousand or so people that turned out to vote," said the activist, who wanted to remain anonymous because he plans to visit Iran soon.

For the first time, Iranian-Americans say, the post-revolution generation has seen the power of their unity unfold in masses. They say this has given Iranians at home and abroad hope that reform could be within their reach, if the ruling mullahs are willing to allow it.

"We are seeing a rise of a new generation of Iranians who are not taking it anymore," said Dabashi.

"This is no longer just about this election, this is full-fledged civil disobedience," he added.

The divide within the Islamic Republic has pitted the reformists against the conservatives.

"The big difference between these protests and the student riots of 1999 and 2001 is that we are seeing senior caliber officials like Mir Hossein Moussavi, Mehdi Karrubi and Mohammad Khatami and Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani supporting the demonstrations," said Vatanka.

Karrubi is a former Parliament speaker. Khatami and Rafsanjani are former presidents.

Some experts say where Iran is headed actually has a lot to do with its past.

"Rafsanjani made no secret of his disdain for Ahmadinejad ahead of the election, and even back in 2005 when he lost the second round runoff to Ahmadinejad," said Sadeghi.

Rafsanjani is chairman of the Assembly of Experts and oversees the 86-member body, which is responsible for appointing the supreme leader and monitoring his performance.

Behind closed doors, Iran's political parties are caught in the middle of a power struggle between Supreme Leader Khamenei and Rafsanjani.

Rafsanjani's role as chairman of the assembly gives him the ability to influence that body's attitudes toward Khamenei, Vatanka said.

That could only add more fuel to the political fire and social unrest in the streets, analysts say.

Politics aside, at the end of the day, Iranian expatriates such as Mitra Gholami, who participated in the historic 1979 protests, feel a sense of deja vu.

Gholami, now an Atlanta resident, fled Iran with her three children 15 years ago. "I want people to have a normal life," said Gholami. "I want them to have freedom."