Khyber Pukhtunkhwa unveils Rs294.2bn budget

PESHAWAR : Provincial Finance Minister Khyber Pukhthunkhwa Humayun Khan on Saturday presented Rs.294.2 billion balance budget for the year 2010-11 containing Rs. 69.3 billion annual development program, indicating 77 percent rise over the outgoing fiscal in the provincial assembly. The total revenue expenditures and income generation have been estimated at Rs. 294.2 billion for the next fiscal, said the provincial Finance Minister in his budget speech. Giving details of the receipts to be obtained in 2010-11, he said the province would receive Rs.123.4 billion from the central taxes, Rs.9.4 billion income expected from oil and gas royalty, Rs.6 billion net hydel profits apart from Rs.25 billion to be received by the province upto July 2010 as net hydel profit arrears. Rs.15.2 billion special grant expected to meet the growing challenge of terrorism while the provincial own receipts are expected to generate Rs.7.2 billion, he said adding, for the first time the province would get Rs.842 million from Malakand-III hydel power project, Rs.12.3 billion will be obtained from general sales tax on services and Rs.400 million from general capital income. The province expected to receive foreign loan to the amount of Rs.9.3 billion in 2010-11 while there was a provision of Rs.85.9 billion under the head of food trading. Referring to revenue expenditure for the year 2010-11, the Provincial Finance Minister said that of the total Rs.294.2 billion expenditures, Rs.127.9 billion have been set aside for the current revenue side that included Rs.9.4 billion for health and education, Rs.21 billion for police, Rs.11 billion for pension payment, Rs.51.9 billion for salaries and other miscellaneous charges to be incurred in the districts, and provision of Rs.150 million to Revenue and Estate for carrying out relief activities. Rs.2 billion have been earmarked for the subsidy on wheat, Rs.16.6 billion to go for O&M charges, Rs.5.9 billion allocated for investment and payment of arrears, Rs.9.6 billion would go to debt servicing, Rs.11 billion for capital expenditures, Rs.60 billion for the development program. He said that during next fiscal, the education department would make arrangements for provision of quality education and setting up of schools. 604 posts of teachers would be created in the new schools he said, adding, for education sector Rs.33.1 billion have been earmarked showing an increase of 32 percent over the outgoing fiscal. Similarly, he said Rs.2.9 billion have been allocated for setting up of 147 new colleges and libraries. Rs.5.9 billion have been allocated for the health sector in 2010-11 which is 48 percent more than the current year's allocation. The Provincial Finance Minister said his government has proposed to increase salaries of the government employees by 50 percent besides 15 to 20 percent increase in pension of retired officials. Hamayun Khan said following the announcement made by federal government in regard with increase in salary and pension, the government of Khyber-Pakhtunkwa has decided to implement the same decision in the province. Apart from increase in salary and pension, he added, it has also been decided to increase Medical Allowance up to 100 percent for employees of grade 1 to 16. The employees in grade 17 would be provided 15 percent of their basic pay as medical allowance. He also clarified that decision about increase in salaries would not be implemented on Police department. The Finance Minister said increase in salaries and pension of government employees would cost up to Rs. 22 billion annually. However, he went on to say, government decided to lift the burden while keeping in view increase of prices of essential commodities.

Is NATO to Blame for Russia's Afghan Heroin Problem?

Times.com It had to be one of the weirdest displays the Russian president had ever seen. Laid out on a table were a mound of walnuts, a chess set, an old tire and an anatomically correct dummy — all stuffed with little baggies of imitation heroin. Titled "The Deadly Harvest," the exhibit was meant to show the clever ways smugglers have of getting Afghan heroin into Russia, which has become the world's largest consumer of opiates from Afghanistan since the U.S. began its war there in 2001. President Dmitry Medvedev stared at the objects and shook his head grimly. Behind him, wearing equally somber expressions, stood a group of Russian officials who would spend the day, June 9, lambasting the U.S. and NATO for not doing more to stop these little baggies from getting into the hands of Russia's youth. On the international stage, Russia's Afghan heroin issue has become the country's favorite crusade, and has allowed Russia to enter a global debate about Afghanistan that had previously left it on the sidelines. Its basic point is a reasonable one: NATO has fueled drug production by refusing to destroy Afghan poppy fields, which it stopped doing last year in the hope of winning the support of opium farmers. Perhaps less reasonable is Russia's belief that its heroin problem is caused not by its porous borders or its abysmal treatment of addiction (methadone therapy is illegal in Russia) but by NATO's policy on drugs in Afghanistan. Yet that is what Russian officials contend, and this week they embarked on a campaign of coordinated fuming over the issue. On June 7, Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov was in Singapore for an annual defense conference, and he used his turn at the lectern to berate NATO's tolerance of poppy crops. At a Central Asian security summit in Berlin the following day, the chief of Russia's anti-narcotics agency, Viktor Ivanov, compared NATO to Dr. Frankenstein, suggesting that its Afghan drug policy was "giving birth to a monster." Then on Wednesday and Thursday, the Kremlin's information agency, RIA Novosti, held a conference on the heroin issue in Moscow. The exhibit of smugglers' tricks was its main attraction, and at the podium, some of the Russian speakers threatened to punish the coalition if it didn't change its approach to Afghan poppies. "Further assistance to the coalition must be predicated upon a more active position in the fight against drug production in Afghanistan," Russia's envoy to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, told the delegates, suggesting that NATO's vital supply route through Russia could be cut if the destruction of poppy fields didn't resume. In its way, Russia is making an important point. Between 2005 and 2009, Afghanistan's yearly opium output jumped from 4,000 to 7,000 tons, and it now accounts for more than 90% of global supply, according to the United Nations. Russian state statistics say that opiates such as heroin and morphine kill around 30,000 Russians every year, three times more than the total number of Soviets killed during their 10-year war in Afghanistan in the 1980s. And the U.N. also says that the $65 billion earned every year from the sale of opiates partly goes to finance terrorists around the world, including the Taliban militants that the U.S. is fighting in Afghanistan. But Russia is wrong to claim that NATO is ignoring the problem. NATO's March offensive in Marjah redoubled the crackdown on drug traffickers with the aim of cutting the Taliban off from its main source of funding, and U.N. data shows that Afghan opium production has fallen by about 15% since its peak in 2007. Russia insists that is not nearly enough, and has consistently offered the help of its own military alliance, the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), in stemming the flow of drugs through Central Asia and the Caucasus. Russia and the CSTO — which was founded in 2002 as Russia's attempt to balance against NATO's influence and whose seven members include Armenia, Belarus and a few Central Asian republics — are the only ones advocating the wholesale destruction of poppy crops as a solution. The livelihoods of millions of Afghans depend on opium farming, and at the RIA Novosti conference on Wednesday, M.K. Bhadrakumar, India's former ambassador to both Afghanistan and the Soviet Union, said poisoning the fields would only "stoke the fire of mass anger." And Prince Abdul Ali Seraj, who represents a coalition of Afghan tribes, in his speech called on the international community to "hand something of equal value to the farmers, and that way take the opium away from them." But the last word on the matter seemed to come on Wednesday from the U.S. ambassador to Russia, John Beyrle, who said that the coalition would not take Russia's advice about destroying opium harvests anytime soon. So Moscow's latest push in the debate has not gotten far. Yet analysts say that for Russia's leadership, the act of pushing is an end in itself. "It is important for Russia to show that it will not be left at the margins of the Afghan issue," says Omar Nessar, head of the Institute for the Center of the Study of Modern Afghanistan in Moscow. He points out that sooner or later the Americans will leave, and Russia will be left to grapple with Iran over influence in Afghanistan. "This is the way it has chosen to make itself known, and indeed its criticism here is justified," Nessar says. Natasha Kuhrt of the Department of War Studies at King's College in London says Moscow is also seeking to create points of contact between NATO and CSTO. So far the CSTO has not been taken very seriously in the arena of geopolitics, and Russia has been desperate to bring in new members and bolster its prestige. To this end, "Russia needs to position itself as a competitor in the battle for Greater Central Asia," which includes Afghanistan, Kuhrt wrote in an essay published June 8 in the Russian Analytical Digest. "Russia would like to see the CSTO engage in 'global peacekeeping' as a way of legitimating this organization. In the best-case scenario, NATO would acknowledge the CSTO as a dialogue partner. Unfortunately NATO has been reluctant to accord such a role to Russia." NATO's attitude toward CSTO could help explain the venom with which Russia has gone after the alliance over its failure to destroy poppy crops, and its insistence that the CSTO could help stop the flow of Afghan drugs. It is not yet clear whether Russia will be given such a role in Afghanistan. But as the war drags on, similar footholds are likely to emerge, putting

Pakistan's Tales of Deceptive Degrees and Dropouts

Dawn.com HOUSTON: Kamran Riaz, the Associate Dean of Students at the University of Houston, was in his office when he was asked to help in a very delicate situation. A concerned Pakistani family had contacted the university to trace their son who had left Pakistan to pursue a degree in aeronautical engineering at the University of Houston.The university staff was baffled because they didn’t offer such a specialisation nor could they locate a student by their son’s name in their records. The worried parents sent the college copies of signed admission and scholarship letters on University of Houston letterheads and a check from a bank in California. “They were all forged,” said Kamran Riaz, who was once an international student from Pakistan at the university, and has been working in the Dean’s office for the last 20 years. “I have been put in some very awkward positions from time to time,” he added. A few years ago, on graduation day, an angry Pakistani father stormed into his office, upset that his son’s name was not announced like all the other graduates in the crowd. His whole family had come from Pakistan to attend the graduation, with his son dressed in a graduate’s cap and gown. But according to school records, the young man had never taken a class at the university, let alone qualified for graduating with a four-year degree. “His parents spent money, effort and time with the hope that they would see their son walk down the aisle at the convocation ceremony. And I had to tell them their son didn’t graduate.” Riaz said. “I feel sorry for the families that get conned.” The university has had to face similar problems with parents from other countries as well and there have even been a few instances of American parents being duped. But the number for international students is much higher, because it is easier for students to deceive their parents living thousands of miles away, with an education system they are not familiar with. One international student told his parents he was pursuing a degree in “social engineering” after transferring out of his engineering department to pursue a degree in sociology. He said as long as his Pakistani parents hear “engineering” in the title, they will pay for his tuition. They had no idea that American colleges don’t offer “social engineering” degrees. On his part, Riaz has had to step in and help his university deal with over a dozen cases of defrauded Pakistani parents in the last two decades. He insists that the numbers seem high because the University of Houston has one of the largest Pakistani student populations in the US. This year alone there are 77 Pakistanis on student visas in attendance. When Riaz attended the University in 1984, there were as many as 160 Pakistanis. But the question remains: how many Pakistani parents send cheque after cheque for tuition without contacting their child’s university, and never find out that they had been misled from thousands of miles away? Just two weeks ago, the son of a well-known caterer in Pakistan was arrested for alleged links with Faisal Shahzad, the failed Times Square bomber. News organisations around the world quoted the caterer saying that his 35-year-old son had graduated from the University of Houston with a computer science degree in 2001. But the University of Houston did not have a record of him. Nor did any of its affiliate campuses. Slowly I sifted through a checklist of a dozen colleges in Houston, trying to find out where he spent his days while he was living in the US between 1999 and 2001. I had already visited some of his past residences listed in public records. From what I gathered, he had moved around quite a bit in three years but he was definitely not roughing it out as a student. Most of the apartments he lived in were high-end, equipped with first-class gym facilities and well-manicured gardens. Finally, I got a call from the Houston Community College (HCC). “He was registered as a computer science major here. But he never graduated.” Sharon Gee, who works with the student record department confirmed. “He paid tuition for four semesters, but dropped out of two.” Before leaving for Pakistan in the spring of 2001, he had only earned enough credits for one semester of college. A regular graduate in the US has at least eight semesters under his/her belt before earning a bachelor’s degree. Most Pakistani parents don’t know that community colleges in the US only grant two-year associate's degrees. They can cost as low as $ 2,500 a year, significantly less than bachelor’s awarding colleges, which range between $25, 000 and $40,000 a year. According to the US government’s Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), the HCC is one of the top five destinations for all international students. There are currently over 700,000 such active students in the US. After graduating from community college, some students do transfer to a four-year college to complete a bachelor's degree. “Parents in Pakistan send their children money on a regular basis. In extreme cases, even transcripts are forged,” Riaz said. Riaz encourages parents to verify the college and degree their child is pursuing, before waving them goodbye at the airport in Pakistan. The first step would be to check their child’s visa documents. All international students must obtain an I-20 document from one of the 10,000 SEVIS accredited American institutions, before they receive an F1 student visa from the US embassy. The I-20 must mention the name of the college the student has been accepted into. Unfortunately, according to SEVIS, each year roughly 200 certified schools go out of business or lose their accreditation. In such scenarios, international students have to transfer to another approved college and fill out a new I-20 form within 30 days to maintain their F1 visa status. Parents can stay up-to-date with their child’s status by receiving college-issued transcripts every semester. Since international students are protected under the Family Education Rights & Privacy Act (FERPA) in the US, Pakistani parents need written permission from their children to access transcripts and records. “Before you give them the tuition cheque ask them to give you authorisation to check their grades.” Riaz added as a message to parents. The United States Educational Foundation in Pakistan reported more than 7,000 Pakistani students were studying in the US in 2006. That was a 20 per cent increase from the previous year. Although the numbers aren’t out for this year, they will continue to be in the thousands. Even though there have been some reports that Pakistani students are avoiding applying to the US in fear of a backlash post-Faisal Shahzad, the reality is that hundreds of Pakistani parents continue to dream about giving their children something they never had – a world-class education at an American institution. Very few imagine that their child might return home with a deceptive degree or even worse, as a college dropout.

Afghan women swap burqas for police uniforms

In the heart of the violent birthplace of the Taliban movement, defying Afghan convention and family advice, mothers Magola and Faranaze decided to take up arms. From the southern province of Kandahar, they are among a handful women who have swapped the full Islamic veils known as burqas for life in uniform as members of Afghanistan's under-strength police force. "My parents don't like me to work for the police but I am happy to serve my country," said Magola, proudly wearing her blue uniform at the camp where she has been trained by US-led NATO forces. Magola and Faranaze are not their real names. Afghanistan is a country where strict Islamic beliefs and conservative convention prohibit most women from working. Out of a thousand recruits, police in Kandahar have only 20 women. Widowed during the 1996-2001 Taliban regime, Magola confided that she needed her police salary to feed her family. She has 12 children and six are still dependent on her. Like most Kandahari women, female officers wear burqas off duty. But at work, wearing scarves or hoods with their uniforms, women perform essential roles in areas that remain off limits to men.Female officers are responsible for knocking on doors, and ushering women away from homes before police swoop in for operations against suspects. "When the police are searching a compound, they can't go first. We have to knock on doors, explain why we are here, take the women aside so they can go inside," said Faranaze. "Once I went to a compound, we were looking for a pistol. The man had asked the woman to hide it. I went to her and said: 'I am going to slap you if you don't tell me where it is'. She had put it in a cooking pot." But they also encounter considerable risks in the war-torn country, where police are regularly targeted by insurgents. In Kandahar, "the Taliban assassinate people, there are one or two murders every day", said Magola. NATO forces are focused on training more police as part of one of their most ambitious counter-insurgency operations in the nine-year Afghan war.Operations to beat back the Taliban in Kandahar, heartland of a bitter insurgency against the Western-backed Afghan government, are due to escalate in coming months as thousands more troops deploy. Afghan police and security forces are frequently on the front line. Three bombers attacked a police training centre in Kandahar this week, damaging the outer wall of the compound before they were killed.Among several other women on the force, one survived a bombing at their headquarters in downtown Kandahar city. Another tells of having been followed several times in the street recently. Besides the risks to their lives, Magola and Faranaze face disapproval from families who object that they work or simply fear for their safety. "One of my brothers works at the Saraposa prison. He told me to stop working for the police. I shook his hand and told him I would work with him hand in hand until I die," Faranaze said. During the Taliban regime, she said, "it was very hard, the Taliban didn't like women to leave the house. They were beating women with sticks." "We want God to take them away from the province. But without God's will we won't be able to do anything," Faranaze said. For Magola, however, there can be no question of the Islamist insurgents returning to power. "Every day I feel like I am going to die," Magola said. "But I don't want to die until I kill a Taliban.

A rare day off at the Afghan front

FOR army physiotherapist Emma Cameron, Anzac Day in Afghanistan means her first day off in a gruelling three months and a beer ration in what is normally a dry base at Camp Holland. Lieutenant Cameron, 29, from the Brisbane-based 2nd Health Support Battalion, sees on average between seven to 10 patients a day -- mostly Diggers -- suffering from sprains or sore lower backs, a legacy of the huge loads they lug when on patrol. In a telephone interview from her base in Tarin Kowt, she said her most memorable experiences so far involved "patrols outside the wire" to forward operating bases in the Chora and Baluchi passes northeast of Camp Holland.In addition to being a qualified physiotherapist, Lieutenant Cameron is also a combat medic, skills that have come in handy treating Afghan civilians. She admitted her parents worried for her safety in Afghanistan. "I think Mum and Dad are proud of me but at the same time probably wish I wasn't here just for the safety aspect," she said. "But they know I'm having a great time -- it's been such an amazing experience for me and this is what I trained for." Asked her plans for celebrating Anzac Day, Lieutenant Cameron replied: "I get to have a beer, which is pretty exciting, and it will be my first day off in three months." But there was no beer or day off for Dallas Coleman, 32, from Adelaide, an airborne electronics analyst onboard a RAAF P3-C Orion, who had to maintain surveillance over Afghanistan.

Afghan girls treated after suspected gas attack

Afghan girls treated after suspected gas attack By Hamid Shalizi, Reuters Saturday, 12 June 2010 * Share The Independent Close o DiggDigg o del.icio.usdel.icio.us o FacebookFacebook o RedditReddit o GoogleGoogle o Stumble UponStumble Upon o FarkFark o NewsvineNewsvine o zYahooBuzz o BeboBebo o TwitterTwitter o Independent MindsIndependent Minds * Print * Email sponsored links: About fifty Afghan schoolgirls became ill and were taken to hospital after a suspected gas poisoning in their school in southwestern Afghanistan, officials said today, the latest in a spate of similar incidents. The teenaged girls fell ill and some became unconscious after smelling gas at their school in Ghazni, a two-hour drive south of the capital, Kabul, said senior provincial police official Nawroz Ali Mahmoodzada. "It is again the same kind of attack to discourage girls from attending schools," Nawroz Ali Mahmoodzada told Reuters. "It is very disturbing. We have not yet found any clues to say where this substance is from or who is behind it," he said. Safiullah, a doctor in Ghazni's central hospital, said most of the girls were treated and discharged. Others were still under medical care, he said. Mahmoodzada said none had died. Today's incident followed a similar pattern to other attacks at girls' schools involving an airborne substance which officials say could be poisonous gas. In other recent attacks in Kabul and in northern Kunduz province, girls reported smelling something sweet and then began fainting, and suffered dizziness and vomiting. However none of those cases resulted in deaths or long-term health problems. The Taliban, which banned education for girls during their rule from 1996-2001, has condemned such incidents in the past and denied any responsibility. They have however, torched dozens of schools, threatened teachers and even attacked schoolgirls in rural parts of the country where they are the strongest.

The Karate Kid

When a child star is cute and has a few instinctual acting moves, that's probably enough to get him by. Jaden Smith, who stars in the new remake of "The Karate Kid," scores on both counts, but he also has something that's rare to see in a child actor. He's got presence. As Dre Parker, a pensive and fatherless 12-year-old from Detroit whose mother (Taraji P. Henson) gets transferred to the forbidding city of Beijing (the extreme move isn't really explained -- I mean, couldn't she have been sent off to, you know, Denver?), Smith holds the screen while doing next to nothing, just standing there, silent and inquisitive, trying to figure out an angle on the situation that's closing in on him. Smith, of course, is the son of Hollywood royalty (his parents are Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith), and you don't have to look hard to see traces, especially, of his father -- the cool glare of appraisal, the quickness of his fury. With his nifty cornrows (a junior rapper's 'do that marks how much he's grown up since "The Pursuit of Happyness"), Smith looks like an intensely aware goldfish. As Dre, he gets knocked down by bullies and drawn to the sweet sparkle of a teen violinist, but whomever he shares the screen with, he combines a kid's directness with an adult's way of holding himself in check. Though it's not too varied a performance, Smith, like his father, acts with an emotional ease that's almost gymnastic. A remake of the 1984 go-for-it classic, the new "Karate Kid" is longer than the original film (it's 140 minutes) and a couple of shades more downbeat, with Dre as a lonely Odd Kid Out in the bustling bureaucratic China that is his new home. Jackie Chan has a corresponding melancholy as the maintenance man who teaches Dre the art of kung fu. (Yes, they should have called it "The Kung Fu Kid" -- but you don't mess with brand titles like this one.) All in all, "The Karate Kid" is a more somber, less playful movie than the original, but at heart it's the same old irresistible candy corn. I did, for a while, miss the sly, poker-faced humor that Pat Morita brought to the role of Mr. Miyagi. When Chan's Mr. Han begins Dre's training by ordering him to hang his jacket on a hook, then throw it on the floor, pick it up, and do it all again and again, it's a variation on the wax-on, wax-off gimmickry of the first film. Morita, though, let us know that he was enjoying the slightly sadistic joke of the Zen discipline he was enforcing. Chan, in a scruffy goatee, plays Han as very serious, almost morose, in his mission. He makes the guru-mentor slightly damaged goods; Han needs this kid as much as the kid needs him. Their earnestness grows on you, though. The bond these two share is sincere and touching. The movie builds, of course, to the big kung fu tournament, in which Dre finally faces down a bully who has been trained to fight with ''no mercy.'' It's a piece of inspirational hokum that works nicely, though I do wish the film had been a bit more ingenious about shoehorning in the famous Ralph Macchio ''crane'' stance. That said, "The Karate Kid" is fun, and believable, on the most important level: It convinces us that Jaden Smith has what it takes to fight his way to the top.

Canadian troops tread fine line on village patrols

KANDAHAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan (Reuters) – Canadian soldiers with night vision goggles slowly navigate through grape fields, wary of triggering booby traps planted by Taliban insurgents. The Taliban, who have fought NATO forces for nine years, are masters of the terrain, so they could have the advantage. Militants may be hiding a few feet away in irrigation ditches as deep as eight feet. After hours of heavy hiking, the Canadians reach a hamlet of mud-brick huts they have never previously visited, seeking intelligence that is becoming more critical by the day as NATO troops push to stabilize Afghanistan before a gradual U.S. pullout in 2011. A cell phone battery is discovered on a young man, immediately raising suspicions. Batteries are often used to trigger improvised explosive devices (IEDs), which have killed more NATO soldiers than any other weapon in the conflict with insurgents. Questioned through a translator about why he is carrying a battery and no cell phone, the Afghan responds: “The Taliban don't allow us to have them. They would arrest me and hold me for 15 days. The Taliban frequently ban cell phones in areas where they operate to prevent being informed on. It is that sort of question Canadians and other U.S.-led troops constantly ask as they attempt to break Taliban networks. Finding answers has become increasingly urgent since Western forces launched a two-pronged strategy to pacify the Taliban. NATO forces in the Taliban's heartland of Kandahar Province will improve security and that will enable the Afghan government to win over the population by providing better services and creating jobs. The plan depends heavily on the cooperation and trust of the Afghan people, who are well aware of the risks of crossing the Taliban, a group that does not hesitate to publicly execute opponents. So it may take painstaking efforts to persuade Afghans that it is in their best interest to come forward. As part of their campaign to build ties with the local population, the Canadians donated speakers to a mosque. If the Taliban are not seriously weakened before the pullout, and there are no eventual peace negotiations, they may be in a position to return to power, which would be a foreign policy disaster for the White House. NATO fighter planes, tanks and combat helicopters have failed to do the job, so gaining intelligence is a huge priority. The Canadians have to be efficient to get results since they are expected withdraw from Afghanistan next year. The sergeant leading the night patrol, John Carr, was careful to be respectful of villagers. He makes a point of first approaching elders, who said they were happy his troops working to improve security. The Taliban had been moving through the area, he learned. Was it a small intelligence victory? It's hard to tell. After all, this is Afghanistan, where militants look and speak like everybody else. The Canadians pressed ahead in an area heavily infested with IEDs. After the call to prayer, they came upon about a dozen bearded men who had just left a mosque. The group also had nice things to say about the Canadian presence. But jumping to conclusions is risky in Afghanistan. While there no engagements during the patrol, after the Canadians ended the mission and recalled details of their grueling hike over burritos and chicken cutlets, someone fired an RPG at them.

Saudi airspace open for Iran attack'

Jerusalem Post Saudi Arabia will allow Israeli jets to use its airspace to bomb Iran's nuclear facilities reported The Times of London on Saturday. The report cited a US defense source as saying the Saudis have already done tests to ensure no jet is shot down in the event of an Israeli attack. The source added that the US State Department is aware of the action and agrees with it. The report cited a US defense source as saying the Saudis have already done tests to ensure no jet is shot down in the event of an Israeli attack. The source added that the US State Department is aware of the action and agrees with it. A Saudi government source confirmed that a blind eye would be turned to Israeli jets attacking Iran, according to the report. An Israeli attempt to destroy Iran's nuclear capabilities would target uranium enrichment facilities at Qom and Natanz as well as a heavy water reactor at Arak and a gas storage development at Isfahan. The UN Security Council passed a fourth set of sanctions against Iran on Wednesday in the hopes of diplomatically stopping Iran's development of a nuclear weapon. Israel's Foreign Ministry released a statement following the passing of the sanctions which said that the resolution was "not enough," and that what was necessary now was for additional “significant steps” to be taken by various countries and international groupings.

Child labour thrives with no govt check

The NewsPK PESHAWAR: Despite being considered exploitative by many international organisations and even after being declared illegal, child labour continues in our society without any check by the government. Those working for eliminating the child labour said in the rural areas children worked in the fields as bonded workers and often go under-paid. In fact, they are often employed in return for only food and shelter that they get from the employer families. “The three most contributing factors behind this issue are poverty, illiteracy and parents’ authority over the children’s choice of work and wages. The social status, lack of proper skills and the ignorant attitude of the members of the society also plays a major role,” said Assad Ali Qureshi, a child rights activist who has run a project in the past in bid to improve the lot of the children by carrying out extensive advocacy. He said the laws existed but their implementation did not reach the children engaged in the labour.Another child rights activist Qudsia Bano said many a time the wages were paid to the parents for the work done by children. “In our society it is considered non-exploitative if a child below a certain age works to earn a living for the family,” she said.Qudsia Bano has worked in the central districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Peshawar, Charsadda, Mardan, Swabi and Nowshera. Jehanzeb Khan, head of Society for Protection and Awareness of the Rights of Child (SPARC), whose organisation launched a week today in connection with the International Day against Child Labour, said Employment of Children Act (ECA) should be amended to make it more effective. He believed legal protection to the children working in the informal sector such as agriculture and domestic work was the need of the hour. Saood, a 10-year-old child who works as a domestic servant with a family in Mardan, presents a classic case study of the situation of child labour. His other nine siblings are also working at different places. The child belongs to Sehray area of Shankar village in Mardan district and is sixth in number age-wise out of 10 children of poor parents. Saood is a Grade 2 student at a government school. He works part time as domestic worker. When asked why he had to work and stayed at others’ houses than his own home, he said innocently: “I don’t get the same food at my own home that I have at the employer’s house. Here I get meat and other delicious things to eat while at home I only take a loaf of bread with curry all the time.” According to Saood, his father is a lazy man and his mother a housewife. He is a child with so many talents but he does not have the opportunity to utilize them in a proper way.Saood likes going to school but the only thing that impedes his desire for study is the fear of beating by teachers. “I like studies and want to become an Army officer to earn a lot of money and have a luxurious life,” he remarked when asked about his career in case he managed to complete his education.

Karzai Is Said to Doubt West Can Defeat Taliban

New York Times By DEXTER FILKINS KABUL, Afghanistan — Two senior Afghan officials were showing President Hamid Karzai the evidence of the spectacular rocket attack on a nationwide peace conference earlier this month when Mr. Karzai told them that he believed the Taliban were not responsible. “The president did not show any interest in the evidence — none — he treated it like a piece of dirt,” said Amrullah Saleh, then the director of the Afghan intelligence service. Mr. Saleh declined to discuss Mr. Karzai’s reasoning in more detail. But a prominent Afghan with knowledge of the meeting, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that Mr. Karzai suggested in the meeting that it might have been the Americans who carried it out. Minutes after the exchange, Mr. Saleh and the interior minister, Hanif Atmar, resigned — the most dramatic defection from Mr. Karzai’s government since he came to power nine years ago. Mr. Saleh and Mr. Atmar said they quit because Mr. Karzai made clear that he no longer considered them loyal. But underlying the tensions, according to Mr. Saleh and Afghan and Western officials, was something more profound: That Mr. Karzai had lost faith in the Americans and NATO to prevail in Afghanistan. For that reason, Mr. Saleh and other officials said, Mr. Karzai has been pressing to strike his own deal with the Taliban and the country’s archrival, Pakistan, the Taliban’s longtime supporter. According to a former senior Afghan official, Mr. Karzai’s maneuverings involve secret negotiations with the Taliban outside the purview of American and NATO officials. “The president has lost his confidence in the capability of either the coalition or his own government to protect this country,” Mr. Saleh said in an interview at his home. “President Karzai has never announced that NATO will lose, but the way that he does not proudly own the campaign shows that he doesn’t trust it is working.” People close to the president say he began to lose confidence in the Americans last summer, after national elections in which independent monitors determined that nearly one million ballots had been stolen on Mr. Karzai’s behalf. The rift worsened in December, when President Obama announced that he intended to begin reducing the number of American troops by the summer of 2011. “Karzai told me that he can’t trust the Americans to fix the situation here,” said a Western diplomat in Kabul, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “He believes they stole his legitimacy during the elections last year. And then they said publicly that they were going to leave.” Mr. Karzai could not be reached for comment Friday. If Mr. Karzai’s resolve to work closely with the United States and use his own army to fight the Taliban is weakening, that could present a problem for Mr. Obama. The American war strategy rests largely on clearing ground held by the Taliban so that Mr. Karzai’s army and government can move in, allowing the Americans to scale back their involvement in an increasingly unpopular and costly war. Relations with Mr. Karzai have been rocky for some time, and international officials have expressed concern in the past that his decision making can be erratic. Last winter, Mr. Karzai accused NATO in a speech of ferrying Taliban fighters around northern Afghanistan in helicopters. Earlier this year, following criticism by the Obama administration, Mr. Karzai told a group of supporters that he might join the Taliban. American officials tried to patch up their relationship with Mr. Karzai during his visit to the White House last month. Indeed, on many issues, like initiating contact with some Taliban leaders and persuading its fighters to change sides, Mr. Karzai and the Americans are on the same page. But their motivations appear to differ starkly. The Americans and their NATO partners are pouring tens of thousands of additional troops into the country to weaken hard-core Taliban and force the group to the bargaining table. Mr. Karzai appears to believe that the American-led offensive cannot work. At a news conference at the Presidential Palace this week, Mr. Karzai was asked about the Taliban’s role in the June 4 attack on the loya jirga and his faith in NATO. He declined to address either one. “Who did it?” Mr. Karzai said of the attack. “It’s a question that our security organization can bring and prepare the answer.” Asked if he had confidence in NATO, Mr. Karzai said he was grateful for the help and said the partnership was “working very, very well.” But he did not answer the question. “We are continuing to work on improvements all around,” Mr. Karzai said, speaking in English and appearing next to David Cameron, the British prime minister. A senior NATO official said the resignations of Mr. Atmar and Mr. Saleh, who had strong support from the NATO allies, were “extremely disruptive.” The official said of Mr. Karzai, “My concern is, is he capable of being a wartime leader?” The NATO official said that American commanders had given Mr. Karzai a dossier showing overwhelming evidence that the attack on the peace conference had been carried out by fighters loyal to Jalalhuddin Haqqani, one of the main leaders fighting under the Taliban’s umbrella. “There was no doubt,” the official said. The resignations of Mr. Saleh and Mr. Atmar revealed a deep fissure among Afghan leaders as to the best way to deal with the Taliban and with their patrons in Pakistan. Mr. Saleh is a former aide to the late Ahmed Shah Massoud, the legendary commander who fought the Soviet Union and the Taliban. Many of Mr. Massoud’s former lieutenants, mostly ethnic Tajiks and now important leaders in northern Afghanistan, sat out the peace conference. Like Mr. Saleh, they favor a tough approach to negotiating with the Taliban and Pakistan. Mr. Karzai, like the overwhelming majority of the Taliban, is an ethnic Pashtun. He appears now to favor a more conciliatory approach. At the end of the loya jirga, Mr. Karzai announced the formation of a commission that would review the case of every Taliban fighter held in custody and release those who were not considered extremely dangerous. The commission, which would be led by several senior members of Mr. Karzai’s government, excluded the National Directorate of Security, the intelligence agency run by Mr. Saleh. In the interview, Mr. Saleh said he took offense at the exclusion. His primary job is to understand the Taliban, he said; leaving his agency off the commission made him worry that Mr. Karzai might intend to release hardened Taliban fighters. “His conclusion is — a lot of Taliban have been wrongly detained, they should be released,” Mr. Saleh said. “We are 10 years into the collapse of the Taliban — it means we don’t know who the enemy is. We wrongly detain people.” Mr. Saleh also criticized the loya jirga. “Here is the meaning of the jirga,” Mr. Saleh said. “I don’t want to fight you. I even open the door to you. It was my mistake to push you into the mountains. The jirga was not a victory for the Afghan state, it was a victory for the Taliban.” Mr. Karzai has been seeking to build bridges to the Taliban for months. Earlier this year, the president’s brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, held secret meetings with Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban’s deputy commander, according to a former senior Afghan official. According to Gen. Hilaluddin Hilal, the deputy interior minister in an earlier Karzai government, Ahmed Wali Karzai and Mr. Baradar met twice in January near Spin Boldak, a town on the border with Pakistan. The meeting was brokered by Mullah Essa Khakrezwal, the Taliban’s shadow governor of Kandahar Province, and Hafez Majid, a senior Taliban intelligence official, General Hilal said. A Western analyst in Kabul confirmed General Hilal’s account. The senior NATO official said he was unaware of the meeting, as did Mr. Saleh. Ahmed Wali Karzai did not respond to e-mail queries on the meeting. The resolution of that meeting was not clear, General Hilal said. Mr. Baradar was arrested in late January in a joint Pakistani-American raid in Karachi, Pakistan. But Mr. Karzai’s attempts to negotiate with the Taliban have continued, he said. “He doesn’t think the Americans can afford to stay,” General Hilal said. Mr. Saleh said that Mr. Karzai’s strategy also involved a more conciliatory line toward Pakistan. If true, this would amount to a sea change for Mr. Karzai, who has spent his nine years in office regularly accusing the Pakistanis of supporting the Taliban insurgency. Mr. Saleh says he fears that Afghanistan will be forced into accepting what he called an “undignified deal” with Pakistan that will leave his country in a weakened state. He said he considered Mr. Karzai a patriot. But he said the president was making a mistake if he planned to rely on Pakistani support. (Pakistani leaders have for years pressed Mr. Karzai to remove Mr. Saleh, whom they see as a hard-liner). “They are weakening him under the disguise of respecting him. They will embrace a weak Afghan leader, but they will never respect him,” Mr. Saleh said.

Kyrgyzstan invites Russian troops to end unrest

Kyrgyzstan's interim president says her government has asked Russia to send troops to quell ethnic violence that has killed more than 50 people and wounded about 700. Roza Otunbayeva says without outside help the provisional authorities can't end violence that has raged since Friday in the southern city of Osh. She said Saturday she had sent a letter to Russian president Dmitry Medvedev asking him to send in military forces. There has been no response from Russia yet. Police and soldiers struggled to stop ethnic clashes as gangs of armed young Kyrgyz men marched on Uzbek neighborhoods and fires raged.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's mineral income declining

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has a rich spectrum of minerals, but due to corruption, mismanagement, political influence and preferential treatment not much is being done to cater to these resources, according to a DawnNews report. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s mineral income is decreasing as it is not utilizing the full potential of its mineral wealth, the report stated.Besides precious and semi-precious stones, the province is rich in lead, antimony and copper. The mineral income of Peshawar has decreased from 13 million to 6.7 million in a year. In another mineral hub, Kohat, the income has shrunk from 15 million to 6.6 million. Malakand earned only 7.6 million this year from minerals, as compared to 15 million in the previous year.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa budget today; Rs300bn increase likely

The total outlay of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) budget for financial year 2010-11 is likely to amount to Rs 300 billion as against Rs 211 billion of the current financial year. The budget is scheduled to be presented in the provincial assembly on Saturday, June 12. With increase in the share in the 7th National Finance Commission (NFC) Award, the province will receive an amount of Rs 200 billion in different heads from the federal government. The increase in resources would swell the volume of the annual development programme (ADP) by 40 percent. Talking to Business Recorder, KP Minister for Finance, Mohammad Hamayun Khan, said that under the 7th NFC Award the province would receive an extra amount of Rs 15 billion under 1 percent of the undivided federal divisible pool as compensation in the war on terror. He said that the provincial budget would be tax-free and people-friendly, with special measures for the generation of employment opportunities and revival of the industrial sector of the province. The resources arriving in head of the net profit on hydropower generation would be diverted for utilisation of the potential energy sector of the province. The annual development programme would be focused on development of social sector with priority on provision of health and education and establishment of infrastructure facilities. Regarding revival of the industrial sector, he said that during the budget making process the provincial government had consulted the business community. A special consultative workshop was held for the industrialists and traders to include their input in the budget document. He said that Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has also announced a big package for the economic revival of the province. He said that efforts were on for utilisation of relief measures announced under the Prime Minister's relief package. The minister said that the resources of the province would be utilised for exploitation of the hydropower potential of the province. He said that the production of the hydropower would not only help overcome the prevailing energy crisis of the country but would also create a permanent mean of revenue for the province. He said that a handsome amount would be sanctioned for utilisation of the hydropower generation sector. He said that some schemes in this regard had already been approved, while some were in the process of the feasibility studies. Energy and power, he said, is an important sector of the province and its development is the dire need of the province. He said that first instalment of Rs 25 billion in head of the outstanding amount in head of the net profit on electricity would arrive in the first week of the next financial year. He said that the provincial government is taking keen interest in the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the militancy and terrorism affected Malakand Division. In this regard, he said he was hopeful that the federal government and donor agencies would extend complete co-operation to the provincial government. Regarding the burden of the 50 percent increase in the salaries of the government employees, he said that the matter was under consideration at provincial level.

Afghan officials: insurgency growing in southwest

The governing council of a once peaceful province in southwestern Afghanistan has fled to Kabul after the Taliban killed one of their members and threatened the others with death. They fear U.S.-led offensives to the east may simply be pushing insurgents into new areas. The council members from Nimroz province talk of a rising tide of violence and intimidation as Taliban fighters who have been forced out of neighboring Helmand province, which includes Marjah, shift operations to Nimroz. They say other militants have been crossing into Nimroz from Iran, where they trained at desert camps. A spokesman for U.S. Marines based in Nimroz insists security has improved in the remote province along the border with Iran and Pakistan. But Afghan provincial officials say the approximately 2,000 U.S. Marines and 1,000 Afghan soldiers operate primarily in the northeast — 130 miles from the provincial capital, Zaranj — and are unaware of conditions elsewhere in the province. Nimroz had generally been regarded as peaceful until May 5, when nine suicide bombers disguised as police stormed the provincial council office in Zaranj, about 500 miles southwest of Kabul, killing a woman council member, two policemen and a visitor. All the attackers died. Police said it was the worst attack in Nimroz in two years. The Taliban claimed responsibility, saying the council was trying to turn Afghans against the militants. After the assault, the remaining eight council members began receiving death threats — some as letters slipped under doors, some as phone calls and some by text message. Council member Shren Azizi said she had just returned home from visiting the family of her murdered colleague when her mobile phone rang. "Your previous job as a teacher was good for you," the middle-aged male caller said sternly. "So go back to that if you want to stay alive. Think about your children." Afghan law reserves at least a quarter of the seats on each provincial council for women. About five days after the bombing, the council members gathered at their blown-out headquarters. The chairman, Sadiq Chakhansori, decided they'd had enough. "I put a lock on the door and said, `OK, we're going to Kabul,' " Chakhansori told The Associated Press. Since the roads were too dangerous, the group flew to the western city of Herat and took another plane to Kabul. Only one council member stayed behind — too elderly and ill for the trip. Provincial Police Chief Gen. Abdul Jabar Pardeli said insurgent activity picked up in Nimroz after each major NATO operation in neighboring provinces. He said he needs more police and troops. "We don't have any district wholly out of control of the government, but there are remote areas outside of government control," said Pardeli, who spoke with the AP over the telephone from Nimroz. "If they do not help, our security will go from bad to worse." Lt. Barry Morris, a spokesman for the Marines in Nimroz, said the U.S. had no evidence of significant militant forces coming into the area from neighboring Farah and Helmand province. He said Marines on patrol in Delaram feel safe enough to stop into shops and buy carpets. Nevertheless, council members interviewed this week in Kabul don't share that view — perhaps because they are not used to the intense threats faced by their counterparts in flashpoint areas such as Kandahar, Helmand and Khost. Nimroz has long been the most stable part of southern Afghanistan even though it is a major trafficking route for Afghanistan's huge opium trade. Goods flowing across the Iranian border made the provincial capital relatively prosperous. But now, Taliban appear to be threatening that border as well. Afghans returning from years as refugees in Iran describe training camps in the Iranian desert used by the Taliban, and say weapons trafficking is prevalent, Chakhansori said. NATO forces recently confirmed that Taliban are training on Iranian soil. In late May, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, said that there was "clear evidence" of Taliban training and weapon smuggling in Iran. Squeezed from all sides, the council members are trying to meet with government officials to plead for help. Since arriving in Kabul, they have managed meetings only with the minister of transport and the minister of water and energy, Chakhansori said. For now, the council members are staying at a government rooming house in Kabul and keeping in touch with their constituents by phone. They say they don't know what they'll do if they don't get any pledges of help. Though they're elected, provincial councils have little influence within the top-heavy Afghan central government. Governors are appointed by President Hamid Karzai. "We have no executive power. President Karzai has kept us symbolic. All we can do is raise our voices," council member Shakila Hakimi said.

Zardari calls for greater regional cooperation against extremism, terrorism

President Asif Ali Zardari on Friday called for deeper regional cooperation against extremism and terrorism and vowed that Pakistan would continue to play its key role for greater peace and stability. Addressing the 10th summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation here at the Capital of Uzbekistan, President Zardari said the regional countries must also join hands to address the root causes that lead to acts of violence and terrorism. He said terrorism stemmed from abject poverty and it was vital that it is addressed by creating economic activity and employment generation so that the people on the fringes of extremism are lured to productive tasks. President Zardari pointed out that narco-money was being used to fund terrorist activities and called for greater collaboration to stem it. The President said Pakistan was confronting terrorism and extremism with a resolve to rid its soil and for greater peace and stability. He called for increased collaboration between Pakistan and the SCO's Business Council and inter-bank consortium to boost trade and commercial ties. He said it would bring in more development and progress besides greater economic stability. The President said," Pakistan, owing to its strategic position, provides shortest and fastest trade corridors to link the Central Asian Republics to the rest of the world". President Zardari said increased trade and commercial activities in the region could bring about a positive change in the lives of its people. He also mentioned other challenges that the country was facing and said Pakistan can address the grave energy crisis by increasing cooperation in the field of energy with the SCO members. President Zardari also extended full support to Afghanistan to help it fight extremism and in its reconstruction efforts. He said his country believes that a strong and stable Afghanistan was in the best interest of the entire region. He said the law and order situation in Afghanistan was having a negative impact on the entire region and the two countries would work together towards a better future. He said Pakistan would continue to assist the peace efforts in Afghanistan. The President also extended support to the SCO's stance towards Afghanistan and Kyrgystan. President Asif Ali Zardari also presented a powerful case for inclusion of Pakistan into the SCO fold and said Pakistan was the gateway to the landlocked Central Asian Republics with historical and cultural links that span centuries. He said Pakistan was a natural member to the SCO and it would further boost the people to people contacts, bring more stability and enhance trade and economic ties in the region. The summit was attended by heads of state from China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, the delegate from Kyrgyzstan, and leaders and delegates from SCO observer nations Mongolia, India, Pakistan and Iran. Earlier the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit approved a series of documents, including the Tashkent Declaration, the SCO Rules of Procedure, and the regulation on procedure for future membership expansion. The SCO members agreed in the Tashkent Declaration to further enhance cooperation in combating terrorism, separatism and extremism, illegal drug trade and organized transnational crime. Uzbek President Islam Karimov in his opening speech stressed the need for strengthening political and economic cooperation and stepping up anti-terrorism efforts to secure peace and stability among the SCO countries. Chinese President Hu Jintao in his address called for strengthening cooperation among member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) He urged new cooperation models and proposed ways to identify non-resource sectors as a new priority for economic cooperation. He also made a six-point proposal including strengthening mutual trust, stepping up counter-terrorism efforts, improving the SCO institutional building and decision-making mechanism, and promoting its transparency and inclusiveness. Chinese President Hu Jintao said the world has become multipolar and underlined the need for increase in multilateral trade and interconnectivity among SCO countries. He said China would provide US 10 billion for undertaking of projects in SCO countries. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called for setting up a special fund to complete projects in member countries of SCO. He pledged to take forward the spirit of SCO and specially mentioned the need for peace, progress and stability in Afghanistan and Kyrgyzstan. He said a monitoring team of SCO will oversee referendum in Kyrgyzstan on June 27. India's External Affairs Minister S M Krishna said his country would continue to play a positive role in Afghanistan and Central Asian States. He stressed for increase in trade among countries in the region. He said terrorism, extremism and drug trafficking were difficult challenges and India would support SCO countries to tackle these issues in an effective manner. Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said the United Nations Security Council imposed sanctions on Iran for its peaceful nuclear programme but on the other hand nothing was done against the country who fired upon and killed people on board the ship carrying humanitarian goods for Gaza which was facing blockade. He said Iran would not compromise on its nuclear programme as it was for peaceful purposes.He said politics was being done in the name of action against terrorist organizations and activities. Afghan President Hamid Karzai said terrorism and extremism were curses for Afghanistan and people of his country were facing the menace with bravery and courage. Now Afghans are thinking that the business of terrorism should end from their country, he remarked. Karzai thanked the SCO countries for their support for promoting peace, progress and stability in Afghanistan. He said the Asian countries protected themselves from the world recession and called for an SCO Youth Council to realize potential of the future generations. Two SCO also inked two agreements - one between the SCO governments to enhance cooperation in the field of agriculture, and the second for cooperation in combating crime. The theme of the summit was "to strengthen unity and cooperation, maintain stability and pursue common development in the region." The leaders and participants exchanged views on the world and regional situation, and coordinated strategies for combating terrorism, separatism and extremism.

2 US troops, 11 Afghan civilians killed in south

Associated Press Two U.S. troops and at least 11 civilians died in violence across southern Afghanistan on Friday, including one attack in which a suicide bomber wearing a burqa blew himself up in a bazaar. Violence has spiked recently in Afghanistan's volatile south as Taliban insurgents step up attacks ahead of a planned major operation by NATO forces to secure the main city of Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, said in Brussels on Friday that insurgents have killed 59 Afghans during the past seven days, 54 of them in Kandahar. He told NATO ministers that insurgents also wounded 116, 94 of them in Kandahar. In Kandahar province on Friday, nine civilians, including four women and three children, were killed and eight other people were wounded when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in Maiwand district, Zalmai Ayoubi, a spokesman for the provincial governor said. The driver hit the mine when he veered off the road to go around a section that was damaged. In neighboring Zabul province, a suicide bomber dressed in a burqa detonated his cache of explosives in a shopping area in Shahjoy district, killing two civilians and wounding at least 16 others, said Mohammad Jan Rasoolyar, a spokesman for the provincial governor. NATO said the two American service members died in an explosion in southern Afghanistan on Friday but did not disclose details or the location because relatives had not yet been notified. At least 33 troops serving with the international coalition have been killed so far this month, 23 of them American. Also on Friday, the Taliban claimed responsibility for a rocket attack on Bagram Air Field north of Kabul. NATO confirmed that a rocket landed in a field inside the base but did not cause any injuries or damage. NATO said a second rocket landed outside the base. On Thursday in Ghazni province, also in the south, three Afghan policemen were killed when their vehicle hit a mine in the Qarabagh district, the Ministry of Interior said Friday. Also on Thursday, a private security company employee was killed in a mine explosion in the Ali Shir district of Khost province in eastern Afghanistan, the ministry said. British Prime Minister David Cameron's planned visit to a front-line base in Helmand province next to Kandahar was canceled on Thursday after cell phone calls referring to a possible rocket attack on a helicopter were intercepted, the British domestic news agency Press Association reported. Cameron, on his first visit to Afghanistan since coming to power last month, spoke with British troops at his country's main base in Helmand on Friday.

Ordinary Gazans hurt most by 3-year blockade

Three out of four factories in Gaza have closed because they can't import or export. Legitimate businesses have been replaced by a Hamas-controlled black market economy. Millions of gallons of sewage are pumped into the sea every day because a lack of spare parts holds up infrastructure repairs. Three years after Israel and Egypt sealed Gaza in hopes of squeezing the territory's Islamic militant Hamas rulers, those suffering most are ordinary Gazans. They include tens of thousands who lost their jobs, among them 49-year-year old Mohammed Maadi whose family of 15 scrapes by on U.N. rations and whose teenage sons risked their lives digging smuggling tunnels to help put food on the table. Even if the blockade were to be lifted soon — as many demanded after last week's deadly Israeli raid on a blockade-busting flotilla — recovery could take years. Production lines have fallen into disrepair. Entrepreneurs have moved investments abroad. Men forced into idleness have lost their place in society. Gaza was "working poor" before, but economists say the blockade closed off any chance of development. "We have been transformed from a productive society into one dependent on handouts," said economist Mohsin Abu Ramadan. Israel says economic sanctions are a legitimate tool against the Iranian-backed Hamas, branded a terror group by the West and responsible for years of rocket fire on Israeli border towns. Hamas critics note that the Islamists could instantly open Gaza's borders if they renounce violence and recognize Israel. Instead, Hamas has clung to its militant positions, and the standoff seemed intractable — until last week, when Israel's sea raid trained world attention on Gaza's plight. President Barack Obama said this week that Gaza's situation is unsustainable and that everything except weapons should be let in. For now, Israel only allows in a few dozen types of goods, such as potato chips, frozen meats and medicines, but bans raw materials, including construction supplies, and virtually all exports. As a result, more than 70 percent of Gaza's 3,900 factories are closed or operating at minimal capacity. Eighty percent of Gazans receive humanitarian aid, up from 63 percent in 2006, the U.N. says. Some 300,000 have no income at all, a threefold increase over the course of a year. Delays in bringing in spare parts have held up repairs of a dilapidated, overburdened infrastructure. Electricity is cut for hours a day in rolling blackouts, and millions of gallons of untreated or partially treated sewage have to be pumped into the Mediterranean every day. Gaza's health service is overwhelmed and advanced care, including cancer treatment, is not available, forcing thousands every year to seek treatment abroad, including in Israel. Israel issues special permits for patients, but some are turned down and others face delays. Newborn Mohammed Hajaj died of congenital heart disease March 5, two days after his appointment with a Jerusalem specialist and two days before his Israeli entry permit arrived, said Mohammed Daher of the World Health Organization. Israel allows in medical equipment, but delivery is slow, said Chris Gunness, a spokesman for Gaza's main U.N. aid agency. Hundreds of items, including CT scanners, X-ray machines and spare parts for lab equipment have been waiting to get into Gaza for up to a year, he said. Almost every household seems to have been touched by the blockade. Maadi, the jobless father of 13, said Israel stripped him of his work permit in January 2006 when Hamas won parliamentary elections in the West Bank and Gaza. Hamas' ascent to power — starting with that election victory continuing with the capture of an Israeli soldier by Gaza militants later that year — marked the start of increasingly tighter restrictions, leading to a full closure after the Islamists seized the territory in 2007. Maadi was one of tens of thousands of Gazan day laborers in Israel used to make $40 a day as a construction worker, enough to provide for his family. Now the Maadis barely survive on U.N. food rations of flour, rice, oil, sugar and powdered milk, supplemented by occasional gifts from relatives. Maadi's wife, Hannan, 44, said she is worried her children aren't getting enough nutrients. Four are anemic, she said, listing each child's hemoglobin level. Fruits, vegetables, canned goods and other foods are plentiful in Gaza shops, coming either from Israel or through the hundreds of smuggling tunnels under the border with Egypt. Israel argues that full shelves show there is no humanitarian crisis. However, more Gazans, like the Maadis, can no longer afford to buy even the basics. In a bid to help the family, two of the Maadi boys, 18-year-old Mahmoud and 19-year-old Hussam, briefly worked in the tunnels. Hussam was terrified, but overcame his fear of his damp, dark work place because he and his brother each made $25 a day. A month into the job, Hussam's tunnel collapsed, burying him to his neck before he was rescued. The Maadis told their sons to quit, saying the money wasn't worth the risk of losing them. Dozens have died in tunnel collapses, and Israel also bombs the tunnels from time to time to try to disrupt weapons smuggling. Gaza's unemployment was around 39 percent at the end of 2009, but dropped by about five percentage points in the first quarter of 2010, apparently because Hamas hired thousands more civil servants. The Hamas government employs 32,000 people, while about 20,000 work in tunnels, said economist Mohammed Skeik. More than 70,000 former civil servants, who quit after the Hamas takeover, continue to draw salaries from Hamas' rival, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. In its Gaza takeover, Hamas defeated forces loyal to Abbas who since formed a rival government in the West Bank. The Maadis' unemployed neighbor, 55-year-old Mohammed Kahlout, depends on the Hamas police salaries of his two sons. Kahlout's sewing workshop used to employ more than 40 people sewing jeans for an Israeli company, but he was forced to close over Israeli trade restrictions in 2006. If the factory was open, his sons would be working for him, not Hamas, said Kahlout. The Hamada clan had to close four factories, including a tomato cannery that could no longer import empty cans from Israel. Israel says the metal could be used to build weapons. "It's my feeling that Israel wants to create terrorists," said Alam Hamada, 31, a member of the once powerful family. "Imagine you ... lose everything you have, your income, your car, all that you hold dear, you'll be a different person." With many traditional businesses wiped out, an alternative Hamas-controlled economy has sprung up. The Hamas government raises 90 percent of its revenue abroad, including aid from Iran and donations from the Muslim world. But taxes imposed on smuggled goods — from cars to calves and cigarettes — are an important source of income. Trader Ibrahim al-Awawda says he pays 30 percent tax on smuggled bikes that range in price from $900 to $1,100. Despite a cash crunch earlier this year, the Hamas government manages to stay afloat, even as ordinary Gazans lose hope. Kahlout, taking visitors through his dusty, cluttered sewing workshop, said being without work makes him feel like a nobody. The sudden attention being paid to Gaza has given him a little boost, he said, but hopes it isn't a fluke. "I hope no one will forget Gaza, and the people who live here," he said.

Studies Show Jews’ Genetic Similarity

Jewish communities in Europe and the Middle East share many genes inherited from the ancestral Jewish population that lived in the Middle East some 3,000 years ago, even though each community also carries genes from other sources — usually the country in which it lives. That is the conclusion of two new genetic surveys, the first to use genome-wide scanning devices to compare many Jewish communities around the world. A major surprise from both surveys is the genetic closeness of the two Jewish communities of Europe, the Ashkenazim and the Sephardim. The Ashkenazim thrived in Northern and Eastern Europe until their devastation by the Hitler regime, and now live mostly in the United States and Israel. The Sephardim were exiled from Spain in 1492 and from Portugal in 1497 and moved to the Ottoman Empire, North Africa and the Netherlands. The two genome surveys extend earlier studies based just on the Y chromosome, the genetic element carried by all men. They refute the suggestion made last year by the historian Shlomo Sand in his book “The Invention of the Jewish People” that Jews have no common origin but are a miscellany of people in Europe and Central Asia who converted to Judaism at various times. Jewish communities from Europe, the Middle East and the Caucasus all have substantial genetic ancestry that traces back to the Levant; Ethiopian Jews and two Judaic communities in India are genetically much closer to their host populations. The surveys provide rich data about genetic ancestry that is of great interest to historians. “I’m constantly impressed by the manner in which the geneticists keep moving ahead with new projects and illuminating what we know of history,” said Lawrence H. Schiffman, a professor of Judaic studies at New York University. One of the surveys was conducted by Gil Atzmon of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Harry Ostrer of New York University and appears in the current American Journal of Human Genetics. The other, led by Doron M. Behar of the Rambam Health Care Campus in Haifa and Richard Villems of the University of Tartu in Estonia, is published in Thursday’s edition of Nature. Dr. Atzmon and Dr. Ostrer have developed a way of timing demographic events from the genetic elements shared by different Jewish communities. Their calculations show that Iraqi and Iranian Jews separated from other Jewish communities about 2,500 years ago. This genetic finding presumably reflects a historical event, the destruction of the First Temple at Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar in 587 B.C. and the exile of many Jews there to his capital at Babylon. The shared genetic elements suggest that members of any Jewish community are related to one another as closely as are fourth or fifth cousins in a large population, which is about 10 times higher than the relationship between two people chosen at random off the streets of New York City, Dr. Atzmon said. Ashkenazic and Sephardic Jews have roughly 30 percent European ancestry, with most of the rest from the Middle East, the two surveys find. The two communities seem very similar to each other genetically, which is unexpected because they have been separated for so long. One explanation is that they come from the same Jewish source population in Europe. The Atzmon-Ostrer team found that the genomic signature of Ashkenazim and Sephardim was very similar to that of Italian Jews, suggesting that an ancient population in northern Italy of Jews intermarried with Italians could have been the common origin. The Ashkenazim first appear in Northern Europe around A.D. 800, but historians suspect that they arrived there from Italy. Another explanation, which may be complementary to the first, is that there was far more interchange and intermarriage than expected between the two communities in medieval times. The genetics confirms a trend noticed by historians: that there was more contact between Ashkenazim and Sephardim than suspected, with Italy as the linchpin of interchange, said Aron Rodrigue, a Stanford University historian. A common surname among Italian Jews is Morpurgo, meaning someone from Marburg in Germany. Also, Dr. Rodrigue said, one of the most common names among the Sephardim who settled in the Ottoman Empire is Eskenazi, indicating that many Ashkenazim had joined the Sephardic community there. The two genetic surveys indicate “that there may be common origins shared by the two groups, but also that there were extensive contacts and settlements,” Dr. Rodrigue said. Hebrew could have served as the lingua franca between the Ashkenazic community, speaking Yiddish, and the Ladino-speaking Sephardim. “When Jews met each other, they spoke Hebrew,” Dr. Schiffman said, referring to the medieval period.

What Marja Tells Us of Battles Yet to Come

New York Times MARJA, Afghanistan — Each day, American foot patrols move through farmers’ fields and irrigated villages. And each day some are ambushed or encounter hidden bombs. The patrols turn into gunfights in withering heat, or efforts to dismantle the bombs or treat the wounded. Casualties accumulate with the passing weeks, for Americans and Afghans alike. A few months ago, Marja was the focus of a highly publicized assault to push the Taliban from a stronghold and bring Afghanistan’s densest area of opium production under government control. The fighting remains raw. What does it mean? Is the violence a predictable summer fight for an area the Taliban and those who profit from the drug economy do not want to lose; in other words, an unsurprising flare-up that can be turned around? Or will Marja remain bloody for a long time, allowing insurgents to inflict sustained losses on American units and win merely by keeping the fight alive? As NATO and Afghan forces flow into neighboring Kandahar Province, where for the next many months the latest high-profile effort to undo the Taliban’s hold will unroll, the continuing fighting in Marja can be read as a sign of problems in the American-led surge. It can also be read as something less worrisome: a difficult period in a campaign always expected to be hard. A prevailing assessment among officers on the ground is this: The outcome is too soon to call. “Right now it’s gray,” said Maj. Lawrence Lohman, the operations officer for Third Battalion, Sixth Marines, which operates outposts in northern Marja. Those who deem the Marja offensive a disappointment, or even a failure, point to the daily violence and to the signs that Afghans have been leaving the area, at least temporarily, to avoid the fighting. They also point to Taliban intimidation of residents, a still limited government presence, and the continued reliance of Afghan police officers and soldiers on American supervision and logistics. These, they say, are ill-boding signs. But the signals are contradictory. Most of Marja’s civilians returned after moving away ahead of the initial assault. Most of them remain. Compounds that were empty in February are inhabited. Roads once quiet are busy. Fields are thick with crops. Shops in some bazaars have reopened. Afghan units participate visibly in dangerous missions. Lt. Col. Brian Christmas, the battalion’s commander, noted that some of Marja’s residents had begun providing information on the Taliban, including sharing the names and locations of fighters. Many civilians have been seeking aid and a few have sought contracts for small scale development projects, the early steps in engagement. “I’ve seen good growth and good progress,” the colonel said. He added: “There is still a lot to be done.” The Marines point to what they clearly hope is a Helmand pattern, apparent in other districts, including Nawa, where the Taliban were strong and fighting was initially intense. The pattern, they said, is this: With time and resources, the insurgents’ position erodes, villages become secure, and engagement and the Afghan government presence expand. Pursuing this goal, Marine companies have been sending out constant small patrols. Their presence keeps the Taliban occupied and inflicts losses, the Marines say, and creates the space to allow for development or programs to gain traction. In the short term, it is also a recipe for small-unit violence — fierce and frequent. “It goes back to the very basics of what we do: gain and maintain contact,” said Col. Randall P. Newman, who commands Marine ground forces in central Helmand Province. Colonel Newman said he expected skirmishes to decline in frequency in the months ahead. “I don’t think the guys who are shooting now are committed enough to keep doing this a long time,” he said. More Western troops have died in Helmand Province than in any other, and the sight of medevac helicopters over Marja each day is a reminder that the area has become a center of the province’s bloodshed. But Helmand is not uniformly violent. There are areas where fighting is regular — Marja, Sangin, Nahr-e-Saraj — and areas where the Taliban had fought hard before being marginalized as a combat force. Moreover, the rising casualties have complicated causes. Some are related to the combined effects of Taliban resistance and the Marines’ grinding patrol tempo. Others can reasonably be attributed to a shift made last year to rules of engagement that guide American forces. The shift de-emphasized airstrikes, artillery and mortars. This transferred some of the risk in skirmishes from Afghan civilians to Western combatants. In the past, American patrols in contact often quickly called for and received fire support. Not anymore. Many firefights these days are strictly rifle and machine gun fights. Understanding the shift is important. It has made engagement times noticeably longer, driving up the troops’ risks and amplifying a perception that Marja, fought with less fire support than what was available to American units in other hotly contested areas, is mired in blood. That perception has obscured a wider view. Maj. Gen. Nick Carter, the British officer commanding NATO forces in Afghanistan’s south, urged patience. “The challenge with this campaign is that it takes time, because it’s in the minds of people, and its people take time to be convinced,” he said. He also cautioned against drawing conclusions by extrapolating from Marja alone. The operation, he said, opened provincial roads. Six months ago, the provincial governor, Gulab Mangal, could barely travel; now he covers much of the province. “You’ve got a central Helmand that is linked together, and in economic terms can develop,” General Carter said. “So I think people tend to make the mistake of just thinking about Marja.” Meanwhile, Marines are wounded by bombs or shot each week. The violence in itself does not mean that the campaign is lost. Fighting is normal to war, a concept sometimes played down in discussions about the United States’ counterinsurgency doctrine, which emphasizes developing relationships with the population and helping government agencies gain credibility and provide services. Those directly involved caution that a few months of fighting is not necessarily a basis for grim forecasts, especially during the first summer in a former Taliban enclave. American commanders have been voicing frustration nonetheless, as was evident last month in Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal’s description of Marja as “a bleeding ulcer.” The remark underscores perhaps the clearest conclusion that can be drawn thus far. Even before the last troops of the Obama administration’s surge arrive in Afghanistan, high-level American commanders appear pressed for time, no matter the complexities faced by troops on the ground.

Corporal punishment at schools goes unchecked Incident at Hayatabad school released on YouTube

PESHAWAR: Pakistan has one of the highest school dropout rates in the world, thanks to corporal punishment. Beatings at school are considered culturally acceptable to ensure obedience, and legislation banning this practice is hence poorly implemented. The corporal punishment was observed not only in government schools but the well reputed private school teachers also practice beating students. The worst corporal punishment was reported in a well reputed boy’s school at Hayatabad area of provincial capital and a video clip of the said punishment was released on Internet You Tube in which a teacher was so badly beating a senior class student like slapping on his face, pulling his hairs and pushing him hardly to the class room wall. The clip invites the attention of different organizations working for the child rights to raise the issue and unveil the face of private school teacher. “The teacher needs to ensure obedience and ensure children receive proper guidance. For this, an occasional light beating or other physical admonishment is necessary,” Abdul Akbar, 40, who teaches at another boy's private school at Hayatabad, told The Frontier Post. According to reports, 35,000 high school students in country drop out of the education system each year due to corporal punishment. Such beatings at schools are also responsible for one of the highest dropout rates in the world, which stands at 50 percent during the first five years of education. It is said that culturally accepted form of child abuse also contributed to the high dropout rate among children and the fact that 70,000 street children were present in the country. The government of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had banned corporal punishment in schools in 1999 and issued directives to all teachers not to use corporal punishment on children; violation would be followed with disciplinary. But, most children at schools across the country, both girls and boys, are beaten. "The law, as it exists now, permits parents or guardians, including teachers, to beat a child in "good intent". This prevented police from acting on complaints of physical abuse. It is also a matter of attitude. Teachers say they need to beat children to teach them, but there is a need to educate teachers and students about child rights. Every day children suffer physical and verbal abuse at their schools, homes and workplaces. Corporal punishment is often regarded as a culturally acceptable way of disciplining and changing the behaviour of children - however it leaves long term psychological and physical scars. In the wake of natural disasters, such as the 2005 earthquake, children are more vulnerable to this kind of abuse. Research in the earthquake affected area show that prior to the disaster 33 per cent of children reported being victims of corporal punishment. Following the disaster the figure has risen to 94 per cent. United Nations Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child (1959) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989). Article 19 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Pakistan ratified in 1990, condemns all forms of physical and mental violence against the child including injury and abuse. In contradiction to this, Section 89 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC, 1860) allows parents, teachers and other guardians to use corporal punishment as a means to discipline children under 12 years old. A participatory study in three districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa few years back, Peshawar, Hangu and Dera Ismail Khan revealed that corporal punishment is widely used to discipline children in homes and educational institutions. A total of 155 consultations were undertaken, using participatory research techniques, with 3,582 children aged 6-14 years from government and religious schools, 86 consultations with 1,231 parents, and 86 consultations with 486 teachers. Not one child reported never having received corporal punishment. Cumulatively, the children identified 28 types of punishment used in homes and 43 in schools. The most common punishments at home were hitting with an object (shoe, brick, iron rod, knife, etc), smacking, kicking, punching, hair-pulling and ear-twisting. The most common in schools were smacking, hitting with an object, hair-pulling, ear-twisting, and awkward and humiliating physical positions. About 43% of all punishments identified were reported by children in government primary schools, about 30% in government middle schools, 10% in government high schools, and 16% in private schools. Corporal punishment in schools was most commonly inflicted by the teacher and students assigned discipline duties in the school (49.6%), including class monitor, commander, and assembly commander. Senior students were also frequently reported to be hitting younger children (14.7%). The Bill on Corporal Punishment Bill already draft and submit Child Protection Bill to Parliament for approval, to be finalized soon, would also help extend protection to the child rights in the country.

Technology University to be established in Peshawar

PESHAWAR: The University of Engineering and Technology, Peshawar and provincial government’s Department of Technical Education will jointly establish the Technology University at Mamoon Khatki village where B-Tech and M-Tech degree courses would be offered. This was decided at a meeting attended by UET Vice-Chancellor Syed Imtiaz Hussain Gilani, Minister for Technical Education Nawabzada Mehmoodzeb, Secretary for Commerce and Industries Department Jamil Ahmad and others. Presiding over the meeting, Imtiaz Gilani said that Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani had expressed the desire to establish a Technology University here when he was performing the ground- breaking ceremony of UET Jalozai Campus a few months ago. The Higher Education Commission under its mega programme of establishing the nine world class universities of Engineering, Science and Technology in the country (USETPs) allowed the UET to establish the engineering university. The UET for the purpose acquired 150 acres of land from the provincial government at Mamoon Khatki, he added. The VC said that it was decided in the sub-committee meeting of USETP board to establish the Technology University in Peshawar. He appreciated the initiative taken by the minister by evincing interest and discussing the idea of working jointly with the UET for setting up the university. Mehmoodzeb said the country, particularly Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, was facing serious shortage of technical manpower as presently the country was producing only three per cent of required technicians of which the share of the province was only one per cent.

Bill Clinton to Dems, 'Never give up'

Bill Clinton says Democratic incumbents can't run away from their records, so they might as well embrace them. "Tell your story," the former president advised Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and other embattled Democrats. "Never give up," he added. Clinton, considered one of the sharpest political minds of his generation, also urged Reid to avoid getting "ground down" by all the talk of this being an anti-incumbent, anti-Washington, anti-Democratic election year. Clinton offered that advice and more in a brief interview with The Associated Press following a Thursday night rally on behalf of Reid. The two-term Democratic president has emerged from a political wilderness of sorts to become a popular campaign surrogate, long forgiven for 2008 outbursts that hurt the campaign of his wife, Hillary, and angered candidate Barack Obama. Clinton is still basking in the glow of Sen. Blanche Lincoln's victory Tuesday night in their home state of Arkansas, where he helped turn the Democratic runoff in her favor. What lessons could Reid learn from Lincoln's victory? "First," Clinton said, smiling. "Never give up." Second, he said, don't listen to political consultants who steer incumbents away from talking about their records. Jon Corzine followed that bad advice, Clinton said, and got bounced from the New Jersey governor's office last year. "Get out and tell the people what you're doing and what you've done and remind them that this is a job," Clinton told the AP. "I think you have to tell people you know why they are mad and you know why they are frustrated but the question is, What is the most productive thing to do with it?" At the rally, Clinton told voters to channel that anger against Reid's opponent, tea party favorite Sharron Angle, who he accused of hiding from the spotlight because her positions are so extreme. The former state legislator wants to phase out Social Security and backs the processing of nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, a wildly unpopular notion in Nevada. "I might," Clinton said facetiously, "be hiding, too." He also questioned why Nevada voters would consider tossing out their senior senator. Too more than 700 Democrats, Clinton said: "Why would you give away the Senate majority leader who has delivered time and time and time again?'"' The answer is that voters are angry at Washington — understandably so, Clinton said, but that doesn't mean Reid and other vulnerable incumbents are doomed. In the interview, the former Arkansas governor who dubbed himself "The Comeback Kid" during his 1992 presidential run, said Reid and other incumbents can't get down on themselves."He needs not to be ground down by this," Clinton said. "A lot of politicians are taking this personally. You have to take it seriously, but not personally." Back to Reid, the president said: "He needs to never forget that he loves the people who are mad at him, and he needs to never forget he spent a lifetime helping them." Chin up, Harry. "He can't stop believing that he'll get their votes back," Clinton said. "Never stop believing." Unfortunately, Reid was not on hand to hear the advice or attend his own rally. He was in the last place most incumbents want to be seen these days — Washington. "Doing his job," Clinton said.

Kandahar operation 'will happen more slowly'

Amid a spike in Afghan and American deaths in southern Afghanistan , U.S. Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal , the top NATO commander in the country, conceded Thursday that the military push to secure the Taliban's spiritual capital will take longer than anticipated. As McClatchy reported last month, a series of obstacles has slowed the opening stages of the highly anticipated summer offensive to defeat Islamic militants and bolster the Afghan government in Kandahar province. A Taliban intimidation campaign has undermined the American-led effort to build a functional Kandahar government. Afghan security forces are taking longer than planned to prepare for the summer campaign. The Afghan government's efforts to install respected local leaders have lagged, and U.S. Marines in neighboring Helmand province have yet to gain the upper hand against resurgent Taliban fighters. On Thursday, McChrystal, the head of U.S.-led military forces in Afghanistan , said the high-profile Kandahar operations, which once were expected to produce significant results by mid-August, would now continue well into the fall — and beyond. "I do think that it will happen more slowly than we had originally intended," McChrystal told reporters while visiting Brussels for a meeting of NATO leaders. "But I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. I think it's more important we get it right than we get it fast." McChrystal said that "more prep" would have helped the U.S.-led military to transform the Taliban sanctuary of Marjah more quickly into a model for his counterinsurgency strategy. "As we did it, we found that it's even more complex than we thought, and so we need to educate ourselves from that and do it even better in Kandahar ," McChrystal said. McChrystal's comments came three weeks after he warned American and British strategists in Helmand province that Marjah was becoming a "bleeding ulcer" that needed immediate attention. After McClatchy reported that, an allied military spokesman in Afghanistan claimed that McChrystal had been misinterpreted and said: "The essence of the comment is not that Marjah itself is going badly . . . it's largely on track. It's that it's misperceived as going badly." The challenges facing McChrystal in Kandahar were evident Thursday as Afghan families began burying more than 40 men and boys who were killed by a suicide bomber who targeted a wedding party Wednesday night in the province's Arghandab district. Afghan President Hamid Karzai denounced the attack as a "crime of massive, inhuman proportions." "Weddings all over the world are not on good occasions but occasions of sanctity," Karzai said during a joint press conference with British Prime Minister David Cameron , who was making his first visit to Afghanistan since taking office. "For a suicide bomber to go and kill is not only against Islam, it is an act against the whole of humanity." Survivors of the attack accused the Taliban of dispatching the suicide bomber because the groom was an Afghan police officer and member of a local militia that battled Taliban fighters earlier this week. The Taliban condemned the attack and denied responsibility. June has also proved to be a deadly month for the U.S.-led military in Afghanistan . At least 30 coalition troops have been killed this month, most of them in the past week.

Amnesty asks Pakistan to “initiate political reform” in FATA

Describing the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) - the main theatre of anti-Taliban operations in Pakistan - as a ``human rights black hole'' where civilians are being killed by the militants and the Army, Amnesty International has asked the federal government to give up its ``ambivalent'' attitude towards this region and back ongoing military action with reforms that would bring the area under national and international law. Releasing its report on the human rights crisis in North-West Pakistan here on Thursday, Amnesty International's Asia-Pacific Director Sam Zarifi sought to fix some responsibility on the international community by stating that FATA is more than just a stage for geo-political rivalries as millions inhabit these areas. The U. S. and China, in particular, must urge Pakistan to ``initiate political reform that will end the area's political isolation and deprivation of rights''. According to the report titled `As If Hell Fell On Me', many areas of northern FATA now resemble the Taliban-ruled Afghanistan of the late 1990s. ``Many of the Taliban's acts constitute crimes under international law. They are also crimes under Pakistan's law but in the absence of suitable judicial structures and the Pakistan government's inability or lack of will to protect the local population from such crimes, these crimes have been committed with impunity.'' Since FATA is still governed by the 1901 vintage Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) which keeps the area out of the purview of the law of the land, Amnesty International is of the view that this should be amended in line with Pakistan's international human rights obligations or done away with entirely so that the natives have the protection of the regular law and judicial institutions of the country. According to Mr. Zarifi, the present situation offers an in-built option to amend or abolish FCR. Since the Taliban has destroyed the old tribal order, there is a vacuum and an inherent possibility of putting in place a new administrative mechanism, he told reporters at the launch of the report. Critical of the Government's ``ambivalent'' FATA policy, the report traces how the federal administration first treated the area with disdain before oscillating between appeasement of Pakistani Taliban through a series of `peace deals' and heavy-handed military operations including ``indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks''. The report finds the Army and the Taliban guilty of using human shields as both have stationed fighters in schools, thereby making them prone to attack. Also, as per the report, ``Pakistani military is trained and equipped for fighting a mechanized campaign against India, not to fight counter-insurgency in difficult terrain''. Add to this the tribal lashkars (militia) which apparently operate in `cleared areas' with the tacit support of the military. Citing abuses by these lashkars - who often use the situation to settle personal scores - the report notes that ``without reliable command and control structures in place, the lashkars are a law unto themselves''; so much so that locals often refer to them as `government Taliban'.