Govt sincere to solve traders’ problems: Rehman

ISLAMABAD, Sep 28 (APP): Minister for Interior Rehman Malik has said that government is serious to resolve all the issues of traders community.He was talking to a delegation of Central Organizing Traders Action Committee including Qamar Abbas, Munwar Mughal, Malik Suhail Iftikhar Shahzada, Kamran Abbasi and others who called on him here Monday.Secretary Ministry of Interior Qamar Zaman Chaudhry, Chief Commissioner and IG Islamabad were also present, says a press release.
He assured them that all efforts were being made to facilitate them while the traders community should honour laws of the land while making their rightful demands.
He also urged them to play their role in national progress and prosperity.
The traders representatives apprised him about their issues and expressed their gratitude to President, Prime Minister and Interior Minister for securing release of some traders.
They assured him that they would support the government for further improving law and order situation.

Pakistani court issues notice to Musharraf in Benazir killing case

Pakistani court on Monday issued notice to former president Pervez Musharraf and nine others after they failed to appear for a hearing in a case relating to the December 27, 2007 assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
Judge Ejaz Ahmad Chaudhry of the Rawalpindi bench of the Lahore High court issued the notice on a petition filed by Chaudhry Aslam, Bhutto's former protocol officer, seeking the registration of a first information report (FIR) on her killing.
Judge Chaudhry had on September 1 summoned, among others, Interior Minister Rehman Malik, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Babar Awan and then Punjab chief minister Pervez Elahi, to appear on September 28.
Aslam's petition contends that these individuals were involved in the gun and bomb attack that killed Bhutto as she left a political rally in the garrison town of Rawalpindi adjacent to Pakistani capital Islamabad and that a first information report should be registered against them.
Judge Asif Saeed Khosa had earlier refused to hear the petition when it was presented before him.
Musharraf, who is currently in Britain on a lecture tour, was not expected to respond to the summons. In July, he did not respond to a Supreme Court summons while it was hearing a petition on legality of the emergency Musharraf had imposed on November 3, 2007. The court later ruled that his action was unconstitutional.
Pakistan's investigations into Bhutto's killing, as also one by Scotland Yard, failed to make headway largely because the spot where Bhutto was attacked was hosed down soon after the incident, destroying whatever evidence might have existed.
Pakistan then requested a UN probe into the assassination and this is currently underway.
A UN team had Aug 24 visited the Rawalpindi hospital where Bhutto was rushed after the fatal attack to collect details about her wounds and treatment.
The UN officials interacted with the staff of the Benazir Shaheed Hospital for more than two hours.
Hospital doctor Musaddaq Hussain told the UN team that Bhutto's autopsy was not conducted on the request of her husband Asif Ali Zardari, who is now the president of Pakistan.
The team also visited the operation theatre, the treatment room and the site where the doctors formally announced her death.
The team earlier visited the site where she was attacked.
Another UN team arrived in Islamabad Monday to continue the probe. A report will be submitted to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon after the investigations are complete. Ban will then share the report with the Pakistani government and the Security Council.
The probe is likely to cost the Pakistani government Rs 200 million.
Baitullah Mehsud, the Pakistani Taliban commander killed in a US drone strike last month, is one of those suspected of having a hand in Bhutto's assassination.

Profile: A.Q. Khan, godfather of Pakistan's nuclear programme

A man with a highly developed sense of his own historical standing, AQ Khan views himself as a prophet without honour in his own land.

He was never the most brillant scientist. He was not destined to head an important nuclear facility in Europe, where he made his career, or an international atomic agency, which often promotes citizens from developing countries.
But his middle ranking role in Urenco, the Dutch-based consortium making components for the nuclear industry, in the 1970s transformed him into an extraordinarily important figure for Pakistan. Pakistan was an unstable state that had suffered the crushing humilitation of losing half its territority - now Bangladesh - in an Indian-backed revolt in 1973.
When Dr Khan returned with his Dutch wife, Hendrina, with blueprints for centrifuges - the highly engineered machines that refine uranium, an essential ingredient for a nuclear bomb. A grateful government backed his every demand.
Khan Research Laboratories had free rein to establish a clandestine procurement network around the world. Dubai became his trading hub for centrifuge parts manufactured in Malaysia, machine tools and training sourced in Europe, South African manufacturing skills and electrical parts from Turkey.
As the programme grew the trade became a two-way flow, and highly lucrative. Investigators eventually called it the nuclear Walmart.
Dr Khan's first customer was Iran in 1987 but he also dealt with North Korea, Iraq and Libya.
The scientist was detained in December 2003 and admitted on television in early 2004 sole responsibility for operating a network that spread nuclear weapons technology to Iran, North Korea and Libya. He has since repeatedly retracted that statement.

IMF sees world economy gaining momentum

PITTSBURGH: The International Monetary Fund foresees a stronger than anticipated recovery from the economic crisis, with global growth approaching three percent in 2010, world leaders said.The IMF had estimated in July a global contraction of 1.4 percent in 2009, followed by sluggish growth of 2.5 percent in 2010, but was more upbeat as Group of 20 leaders met in the US city of Pittsburgh."The IMF estimates that world growth will resume this year and rise by nearly 3.0 percent by the end of 2010," the Group of 20 developed and emerging economies said in a final statement to conclude a two-day summit.Leaders of 19 rich and emerging nations plus the European Union pledged they would work together to help the world economy reach robust growth."Our objective is to return the world to high, sustainable, and balanced growth, while maintaining our commitment to fiscal responsibility and sustainability," the group said."We commit to put in place the necessary policy measures to achieve these outcomes."Asia-led growth has lifted the world out of the doldrums and France, Germany and Japan have all now officially climbed out of recession with the United States, the world's biggest economy, expected to follow later this year.But G20 leaders were still cautious and agreed not to roll back massive stimulus measures that helped them contain a severe global recession following last year's financial meltdown."We will avoid any premature withdrawal of stimulus," the leaders' statement said after a summit that endorsed a shift in voting rights at the IMF to give emerging nations, such as India and China, a greater voice."At the same time, we will prepare our exit strategies and, when the time is right, withdraw our extraordinary policy support in a cooperative and coordinated way, maintaining our commitment to fiscal responsibility," it said.China, which fears US deficits will destabilize the dollar, has been cheering on those calling for cuts in Washington's massive stimulus measures that have been propping up key sectors of the global economy.G20 leaders announced Friday a grand overhaul of economic governance centered on giving the IMF a greater monitoring role and addressing imbalances in global trade and budgets that are blamed for fueling the crisis."We agreed to launch a framework that lays out the policies and the way we act together to generate strong, sustainable and balanced global growth," the joint Pittsburgh G20 statement said.

US embassy allowed to buy 264 houses in Islamabad: Malik

LONDON: Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik Sunday said the US embassy has been legally allowed to buy 264 houses in Islamabad.Talking to Geo News, he said former President Gen (rtd) Pervez Musharraf may go to the homeland whenever he pleases to do so, as there is no case against him filed in Pakistan, adding however, he would be halted, if he commences political activities in the country.The federal interior minister Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) never signed NRO, warning rafts of NROs would surface, if the topic is prodded.Responding a query, he said he is in contact with all the Baloch leaders and the nation would soon listen good news in this regard.

Snowe is the woman with clout on health care

WASHINGTON – They call her "President Snowe" in the blogosphere.
Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe is the only Republican in Congress who might vote for President Barack Obama's effort to overhaul health care and extend coverage to those who lack it. And that gives the unassuming, 62-year-old lawmaker almost as much power over the bill's fate — and that of the millions of Americans it would affect — as the big guy himself.
Which is why Snowe's cell phone has lit up with a particular phone number at odd times over the past year, once on the Maine coast as she and her husband drove past a field near their home at Hancock Point.
Stopped at the side of the road, she answered — and whatever the leader of the free world was saying to her was lost in the roar of farm machinery cutting hay nearby.
"It was classic, different worlds" colliding, Snowe recalls with a chuckle.
It's the story of her life these days.
Snowe stands as the woman with the most clout in Washington, poised at the intersection of ambitious efforts to change the nation's system of medical care amid competing political forces. If she votes with the Democrats, Obama could secure the biggest win of his young presidency. If she sticks with her Republican colleagues, it could prove as devastating to the president as the blow dealt to former President Bill Clinton in the 1990s when his health care package failed.
The players and their ideas tend to cross her path — on Snowe's desk, at the other end of her telephone or just outside the paper-strewn hearing room. Snowe serves on the Senate Finance Committee, whose issues include health care.
"Public option, single payer!" shouts a woman who does not break stride to deliver her message to Snowe.
"Thank you, appreciate it," Snowe replies.
"People in Maine want it!" the woman retorts from around a corner.
"Not all of them," Snowe pushes back, then chuckles quietly.
Snowe, who easily won a third term in 2006, is one of a minority in her state and the nation who does not support creation of a government-run option to private insurance. Progressives in her state have chastised Snowe over the issue in a television ad.
Instead, Snowe has proposed using the public option as an incentive, or a threat, to private insurers who do not make their plans affordable by certain deadlines. This "trigger" option, or some version of it, has survived the bitter debate and scrutiny to remain a viable option for compromise.
With her support, Democrats might have the 60th vote required to overcome Republican objections to the bill. Snowe's support would mean that the final version of the bill could — technically — be called bipartisan, a key tenet of Obama's agenda.
Without Snowe, Democrats contend they'll still pass legislation that can be called a health care overhaul, but in piecemeal fashion and without Republican support, a politically dicey Plan B.
So in a Senate where power typically flows to those who reliably take sides, influence on this issue moves straight to Snowe, precisely because her vote cannot be taken for granted.
"She's a very important senator," says Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., grinning at the understatement. "She's a very, very important senator."
So important that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., recently opened his weekly news conference with praise for Snowe, congratulating her on comments she had made that day as if she had endorsed the unfinished bill. She hadn't, but Reid showered compliments anyway.
"Brilliant statement," Reid told reporters. "She is a leader."
Even former President Clinton praised her option of a trigger in an appearance Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," saying, "Now, the one Republican who's come up with a good idea is Senator Snowe."
Republicans aren't following, but that's nothing new. Snowe, who was orphaned at age 9, elected to the Maine House seat held by her late husband, and has served the House and Senate since 1978, has played this decisive role many times.
Earlier this year, she was one of three Republicans who crossed party lines to vote for Obama's $787 billion economic stimulus bill. Before that, she defied then-President George W. Bush and voted for legislation he eventually vetoed — but that later passed under Obama — providing health care to millions of children. Snowe was one of the "Gang of 14" Democratic and Republican senators who resolved a standoff over judicial nominations.
By all accounts, she retains courteous respect from her fellow Republicans and continues to lunch with them at weekly caucus meetings. Some grumble privately about punishment if she votes with Democrats on health care. One possibility mentioned by some: challenging Snowe next year for the coveted ranking GOP seat on the Senate Commerce Committee.
"I know she's under pressure, but they don't tell me what kind," said Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., chairman of the Commerce Committee and a member of the Finance Committee.
Snowe says nobody's threatened to punish her. They have little reason to alienate her now, because she could be the GOP's best chance of changing the bill, in their view, into a less-onerous "government takeover" of health care. Also, she's been straight with them about her approach to negotiations.
"She's been in constant communication with me all the way through the process," said Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
"I think she's handled herself in a very responsible way," said Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah.

Plea filed in SC to form Higher Ruet-e-Hilal Committee

ISLAMABAD: A petition has been filed in Supreme Court (SC) making a plea that a Higher Authority Committee is formed for sighting of the moon and deciding for the Hijri Calendar. Geo News reported that Advocate Mirza Anwar-ul-Haq filed a petition in SC pleading that a Higher Authority Committee be formed on federal level for the sighting of the moon, comprising of Ulemas and related technocrats and that the Committee be entrusted with the powers to have its decisions enforced. The decisions of the present Ruet-e-Hilal Committee should be followed till the formation of the Higher Authority Committee, the petition further reads

SC issues notices to provinces on sugar prices

ISLAMABAD: Punjab government has filed a petition in the Supreme Court (SC) to fix uniform sugar rates across the country and the higher judiciary issued notices Sunday to the three other provinces. The petition reads that the sugar rate fixed for Punjab at Rs40/kg is lower than the rates fixed in the other three provinces, which may likely result in smuggling of the commodity to other provinces. A three member bench headed by the Chief Justice (CJ) heard the petition today. The SC adjourned the case until October 1st.

Al-Qaida No. 2 calls Obama a 'fraud'

CAIRO – Al-Qaida's deputy leader on Monday seized upon President Barack Obama's failure to bring about a freeze in Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank and called him a "fraud" in a new audio message.
Ayman al-Zawahri's 28-minute audio message was mainly a eulogy for slain Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, but he also took the opportunity to slam NATO member states operating in Afghanistan, including Germany, which he criticized for keeping troops there.
The recording comes after a series of al-Qaida videos this past month, including several attacking Germany and threatening strikes against Berlin's military mission in Afghanistan. Those releases raised concerns among German authorities ahead of parliamentary elections which ended Sunday.
Al-Zawahri reserved special scorn for Obama, whom he has insulted in nearly every one of his messages since the latter's historic election as U.S. president.
Many experts believe that Al-Qaida is struggling in the face of Obama's popularity in the Muslim world, especially compared to his predecessor George W. Bush.
Obama publicly called for an Israeli freeze in settlement construction in order to restart the peace talks, but was rebuffed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week.
"Here is Obama, the fraud, who pretended to be affected by the suffering of the Palestinians and then allows the settlements to flourish in the West Bank and in Jerusalem ... while pressing the weak (Arab) leaders to offer more concessions," al-Zawahri said.
U.S. officials have asked Arab countries to normalize relations with Israel to encourage the Jewish state to restart talks with the Palestinians.
"Is the reality of the criminal Obama now clear to us? Or do we need more crimes in Kabul, Baghdad, Mogadishu and Gaza to be sure of his criminal nature," he said.
Al-Zawahri's reference to events taking place just a week earlier indicate the urgency with which the message was recorded and posted as al-Qaida hastens to point out any of Obama's shortcomings in the region.
Germany has become a frequent target of Al-Qaida criticisms in the wake of the German contingent in Afghanistan calling in an airstrike that killed dozens earlier in the month.
Al-Zawahri attacked Chancellor Angela Merkel personally in his message, accusing her of lying when she told parliament that German mission in Afghanistan was to support international peace and security.
"International peace and security will not be realized until you get out from the lands of Muslims and stop interfering in their affairs," he said, apparently addressing the entire NATO alliance.
Al-Zawahri also singled out Turkey, which assumes the rotating command of the NATO peacekeeping operation in Kabul next month, accusing the predominantly Muslim country of "participating in shedding Muslim blood."
In November, Turkey will increase the number of its troops to 1,600 from the current 795, none with combat responsibilities.
About half of the recording was dedicated to the Pakistani Taliban chief Mehsud who was killed following a U.S. strike near the Afghan border on Aug. 5.
Al-Zawahri's eulogy was the terror group's first acknowledgment of the death of one of al-Qaida's main partners in Pakistan's tribal area where top leaders of the terror movement are believed hiding.
Al-Zawahri praised Mehsud for his role in mobilizing fighters in the region, and challenging "the new crusaders and their agents," in reference to the NATO forces and the Pakistani and Afghan security forces.
"To the Americans, their allies and their slaves in Afghanistan and Pakistan, I say you may have killed (Mehsud) ...but you did not kill Islam or holy war," al-Zawahri said, listing 10 of Mehsud's contributions to the jihad cause.
The August U.S. missile strike against Mehsud sparked speculation about his fate and put the group in disarray over a successor. The Pakistani Taliban later declared a former aide to Mehsud as the group's new leader.
Al-Zawahri didn't name the successor but appealed to Muslims around the world to follow in Mehsud's footsteps, and urged Afghans to come out in support of the Taliban.

Pakistan to keep supporting Kashmir: Zardari

Updated at: 0621 PST, Monday, September 28, 2009 NEW YORK: President Asif Ali Zardari and Chairman Hurriyat Conference Mirwaiz Umar Farooq held a meeting here on Monday and discussed various issues including affairs relating mutual interest and Kashmir.The meeting, which lasted for at least 30 minutes was attended by Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir, Pak envoy in India Shahid Malik and Pak envoy in US Hussian Haqani.Zardari assured Mirwaiz that his government will keep on supporting Kashmir politically and morally.On this occasion, Mirwaiz apprised the President Zardari of the situation in the held Kashmir.

Pakistan hands over 2 sons of Al-Qaeda leader to Saudi

Updated at: 1859 PST, Monday, September 28, 2009 ISLAMABAD: Government of Pakistan has handed over two sons of an Al-Qaeda leader to Saudi Arabia.According to sources, Ali and Siddique, sons of an Al-Qaeda leader Al-Alawi, were apprehended from tribal areas and later handed over to the Saudi authorities on September 18.Hailing from Yemen, Ali and Siddiqui were said to be involved in an attack on a Saudi prince, sources added.

Iran test-fires long-range missiles

CNN) -- Days before a key meeting with Western leaders, Iran test-fired two types of long-range missiles Monday in part of what the Islamic republic called routine military exercises, its state-run media reported.

A short-range missile is test-launched during war games in Qom, Iran, south of Tehran, on Sunday.

The tests drew condemnation from France, which noted through its Foreign Ministry that the action comes only a week after Iran revealed the existence of a covert uranium enrichment site.
"These tests can only reinforce the worries of countries in the surrounding region and the international community, especially as Iran is, in parallel, developing a nuclear program, with the existence of a clandestine uranium enrichment site having just been revealed," the ministry said.
"We ask Iran to choose cooperation and not confrontation, immediately putting an end to its profoundly destabilizing activities and responding without delay to the demands of the international community in order to find a solution in this affair."
Iran's nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili is scheduled Thursday to meet with representatives of the five permanent United Nations Security Council members, plus Germany. European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana will also attend the talks Thursday in Geneva, Switzerland.
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps began a series of missile exercises Saturday to promote the armed forces' defense capabilities, Fars News Agency reported. Watch the missile tests »
After a series of short-range missile tests, Iran concluded Monday with the testing of the long range Shahab-3 and the two-stage Sajil missiles, according to reports from state-run media.
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Both hit their targets, and Iran's air force commander hailed the exercise as a show that Iran is "fully prepared and determined to stand against all threats."
"We will give a fully decisive, crushing and destructive response to anyone who poses a threat to the existence, independence and freedom of the ruling system and our values," Brig. Gen. Hossein Salami said, according to Fars News Agency. Watch an analyst's view of missile tests, nuclear tensions »
The Shahab-3 missile can strike targets between 800 and 1,250 miles (1,300 and 2,000 kilometers), according to the reports.
The Sajil-2 missile is a solid-fuel rocket with a similar range and has been launched twice before, in November 2008 and May 2009.
If Iran's claims are true, the missile brings Moscow, Russia; Athens, Greece; and southern Italy within striking distance. See where the missiles could strike »
Last Monday, Iran wrote a letter to the United Nations' nuclear watchdog agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency, revealing the existence of a second uranium enrichment facility. The IAEA acknowledged the admission Friday, prompting President Obama and the leaders of Britain and France to publicly chide the Islamic republic and threaten further sanctions.
The United States and France had been aware of the unfinished nuclear site for several years, according to senior U.S. officials who declined to be identified because of the sensitive nature of the negotiations. Watch how the tests draw a comparison to a 1960s U.S. crisis »
The facility is on a military base near the city of Qom, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) southwest of Tehran, and is thought to be capable of housing 3,000 centrifuges, according to the officials and the IAEA. That is not enough to produce nuclear fuel to power a reactor, but sufficient to manufacture bomb-making material, according to a U.S. diplomatic source who read the letter.
Iran told the IAEA there is no nuclear material at the site, an agency spokesman said.
Iran's revelation of the site could actually "strengthen their hand" as Tehran heads into Thursday's Geneva talks, according to Paul Ingram, an analyst who studies Iran and nuclear nonproliferation.
He said the timing of Iran's revelation -- in between the U.N. General Assembly sessions and the Thursday meeting -- is deliberate on Iran's part.
"This will make it more difficult to persuade them to abandon enrichment," said Ingram, the executive director of the British American Security Information Council in London.
Iran says its nuclear enrichment program is intended for peaceful purposes, but the international community accuses it of continuing to try to develop nuclear weapons.
Iran conducts research for its nuclear program in sites around the country. Until the new letter, it had acknowledged only a uranium enrichment plant in Natanz, which nuclear inspectors visited recently. Iran also has an unfinished nuclear research reactor in Arak, and U.N. nuclear inspectors were allowed access to that facility earlier this month.
Other important nuclear sites in Iran include its Bushehr nuclear power plant and the Isfahan uranium conversion plant.

Surge in Multiple Births Linked to Fertility Treatment

Suzanne Severy Comeau and her sister, Jennifer, as 12-year-old twins entwined in the same bed after the death of their grandfather, awoke simultaneously with the same nightmare.
In college, the phone would ring and one would know it was the other on the line. Even today, the twins end up buying the same birthday card for each other 75 percent of the time.
"There was a special bond between us, and we felt unique," said Comeau, now 37 and a teacher, who grew up in the 1970s when multiple births were oddities.
But today, with more women postponing marriage and resorting to fertility treatments, twins are a fact of modern life. Between 1980 and 2002, the incidence of twins jumped 65 percent, according to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
When Comeau goes back to her kindergarten in Carlisle, Mass., this fall, 15 of the 70 children -- or 20 percent of the entire class -- will be either a twin or a triplet.
"We've been aware of the increase in twins for a while because it's a small community, and we know who are families are," said Patrice Hurley, principal at the public school in Carlisle, an affluent town of 5,500. "It's really an exciting situation."
The National Center for Health Statistics reports that 136,328 — or about 3 percent of the babies born in the United States in 2002 — were multiples. Of those, 128,665 were twins, 7,110 triplets, 468 quintuplets and 85 higher-order births.
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In the three decades since Comeau and her twin were born, the average age of mothers for all births rose from 24.6 years to 27.2 years. The largest increase is for women in their 30s and 40s, with a jump in birthrate from 2 percent to 9.1 percent.
The trend in delayed childbirth is "universally observed" nationwide and among all groups in the population, according to the CDC's Web site.
Comeau, who has taught for nine years, has also observed that her students' parents are "a little older than the norm."
'Something in the Water'
"It's not a surprise to have so many twins in the class," joked Comeau. "People say there's something interesting in the water in Carlisle."

Pakistan on alert as blast toll hits 24: police

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) – Pakistan's security forces Sunday braced for more attacks by Taliban fighters avenging military action against them, as the death toll from twin suicide blasts rose to 24, police said.
The two vehicle bombings struck the northwest on Saturday, the first on the outskirts of Bannu town, close to the rugged tribal region of North Waziristan, where Washington says Al-Qaeda and the Taliban rebels are holed up.
Hours later in the northwest city Peshawar, a car bomb ripped through a crowded area near banks, shops and a wedding hall on a road leading to the army cantonment, killing 10 people at the scene.
Sahibzada Mohammad Anis, a top Peshawar administrative official, said one man had also died in hospital from injures sustained in the blast, adding: "A total of eleven people were killed and more than 70 injured."
More bodies were pulled from the rubble of the targeted police station in Bannu overnight, sending the death toll in the first attack soaring.
"A total of 13 people were killed in the Bannu blast, nine of them are policemen and four are civilians. Of these four, one is a child aged about eight or nine," said Nazeef Khan, a Bannu police official.
Bannu police chief Mohammad Iqbal Marwat told AFP: "We have sent human flesh and other body parts for a DNA test to identify the suicide bomber."
The Pakistani Taliban have claimed responsibility for the Bannu attack and threatened to unleash bigger assaults on government targets to avenge the killing of their leader Baitullah Mehsud in a US drone strike in August.
In Peshawar -- a frequent target of militant violence -- security forces were readying for further violence.
"Security has been put on high alert at Peshawar and other parts of the province. We have taken extra security measures," said Liaqat Ali Khan, police chief of the provincial capital.
"In my personal opinion, yesterday's suicide blast is a reaction to the Khyber operation," he added, referring to a military assault against insurgents in the tribal area which sits between Peshawar and Afghanistan.
The government in Islamabad has vowed to wipe out Islamist militants from Pakistan's northwest. Last April, troops launched a blistering assault in a bid to dislodge Pakistani Taliban from the northwest Swat valley.
Pakistan has been hit by a wave of bombings that have killed more than 2,100 people over the last two years in the nuclear-armed country which the United States has put on the frontline of the war against Al-Qaeda.

Pakistan bid to host Twenty20 championship in 2014

KARACHI (AFP) – Pakistan's cricket chief said the country will bid to host the 2014 World Twenty20 championship and vowed to revive international cricket in the troubled nation, a paper reported on Monday.
Speaking to the English-language newspaper The News, in Johannesburg, Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Ijaz Butt said he was battling to improve Pakistan's reputation as foreign teams snub the country over security fears.
"We will bid to host the 2014 Twenty20 event in Pakistan and hopefully by that time the conditions to host international events would be ideal in our country," he told the paper.
Butt is in South Africa to attend meetings of the International Cricket Council (ICC) and is also scheduled to meet officials from other countries.
"These coming few days are very important for Pakistan cricket," he said.
"I am planning to attend some crucial meetings with the other board counterparts in an effort to muster up their support for the revival of cricket in Pakistan."
Pakistan's standing as an international cricket venue was already floundering when militants launched a gun and grenade attack on the Sri Lankan team in Lahore in March this year, plunging the sport into crisis here.
The attacks, which left eight people dead and injured seven Sri Lankan players and their assistant coach, put paid to Pakistan's chances of staging international cricket in the near future.
Even before the attack teams had refused to tour Pakistan over security fears in a country where the army is fighting a fierce Taliban insurgency.
Citing security risks, the ICC in February relocated the Champions Trophy from Pakistan to South Africa, where it is currently being played. Pakistan was also stripped of its share of 2011 World Cup matches.
Butt said he hoped for a return of the Indo-Pak cricket series, which was put on hold after militant attacks on Mumbai in November last year which India blamed on insurgents based in Pakistan.
"The ICC... have also accepted that the series could be organised at neutral venues till the time the situation improves in Pakistan," he said.
The ICC is scheduled to finalise the Future Tour Programme in its meeting starting on October 1 in South Africa. The programme aims at providing member countries a full schedule of cricket series post 2012.

Civilians flee Taliban stronghold in NW Pakistan

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan – Hundreds of civilians were fleeing al-Qaida and the Taliban's main stronghold in northwest Pakistan after the army and militants asked them to leave, a tribal elder and a witness said Monday, a sign the military could be poised to launch an offensive.
Pakistan has vowed to root out militants in the northwest, many of whom allegedly use the mountainous tribal areas along the border as a base for attacks on American and NATO troops in Afghanistan. Pakistan jets have bombed targets in the stronghold of Waziristan in recent months, but the military has said it would launch full-scale ground operations at the "appropriate" time.
Authorities could not be reached Monday for comment.
Residents said recent days have shown an increase in the number of people leaving the Makeen and Ladha areas of South Waziristan, though many have been fleeing to the relative safety of nearby towns for months.
"People are leaving the area for their safety," tribal elder Maulana Hassamuddin told The Associated Press by phone. He said the military had urged people to leave in the past few days, so he did.
Resident Amir Ullah said the Taliban had also asked locals to flee. He said he and his friends rented a vehicle to take them to the town of Bannu for more than double the normal price.
Western countries were cheered by a military offensive in the nearby Swat Valley earlier this year. Pakistan's army has moved into the tribal region close to the Afghan border before, however, only to be beaten into a stalemate.
Analysts have questioned whether the army has enough troops, or the will, to take on the militants in Waziristan, where they are well established and heavily armed.
Also Monday, a suicide car bomber attacked a vehicle in Baka Khel, which lies close to Waziristan.
Up to five people were killed, including Maulvi Abdul Hakim, a tribal leader who was instrumental in allowing security forces to pass through the area and gain access to the North Waziristan tribal region, a paramilitary official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media.
He said at least five died, but police officer Iqbal Marwat put the toll at four.
Pakistan's efforts to fight the insurgency have met with Taliban retaliation. On Saturday, 22 people were killed in the northwest not far from the tribal belt, including 11 in Peshawar, the region's main city.
The two attacks came just days after a top Taliban militant, Qari Hussain Mehsud, warned of increasing suicide attacks if the military did not stop operations.
The Taliban took responsibility for one of Saturday's bombings.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for Monday's car bombing.

Rescuers search for bodies in Philippines water

Death toll from storm, floods hits 100; water, food and power still scarce

A man takes a break from cleaning a house swamped by flash floods brought on by Typhoon Ketsana, locally known as Ondoy, in a middle class residential neighborhood in Marikina city east of Manila on Monday.

MANILA, Philippines - Rescuers pulled the dead from swollen rivers Monday and thousands were without drinking water, food and power as the death toll from the worst flooding in the northern Philippines in more than four decades climbed to 100.
Officials expected the toll to rise as rescuers penetrate villages blocked off by floating cars and debris since Tropical Storm Ketsana swept through over the weekend, leaving 32 missing.
Overwhelmed authorities were trying to verify scores of unconfirmed deaths, including in several metropolitan Manila cities and nearby Rizal province, where about 99 more people reportedly died, Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro said'Thought it was the end'As tens of thousands of residents began a massive cleanup and the storm left the Philippines, the extent of devastation became clearer — mud-covered communities, car-choked streets and huge numbers of villagers without drinking water, food and power.
In Manila's suburban Marikina city, a sofa hung from electric wires.
Resident Jeff Aquino said floodwaters rose to his home's third floor at the height of the storm Saturday, when it dumped more than a month's worth of rain in just 12 hours.
Aquino, his wife, three young children and two nephews spent that night on their roof without food and water, mixing infant formula for his 2-year-old twins with the falling rain.
"We thought it was the end for us," Aquino said.
'State of calamity'The government has declared a "state of calamity" in metropolitan Manila and 25 storm-hit provinces, including many that have not flooded before, allowing officials to use emergency funds for relief and rescue.
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Deadly flooding in PhilippinesSept. 27: More than 100 people are dead or missing in the wake of a storm that dumped nearly 17 inches of rain on the northern portion of the country. NBC’s Lester Holt reports.
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More than 450,000 people were affected by the storm, including some 115,000 brought to about 200 schools, churches and other evacuation shelters, officials said. Troops, police and volunteers have been able to rescue more than 7,900 people so far, Teodoro said.
He said government welfare officials have begun focusing on providing food, medicine and other necessities to those in emergency shelters.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has said the storm and the flooding were "an extreme event" that "strained our response capabilities to the limit but ultimately did not break us."
While Arroyo has not asked for international help, spokesman Anthony Golez said the government would welcome any assistance.
The United States has donated $100,000 and deployed a military helicopter and five rubber boats manned by about 20 American soldiers from the country's south, where they have been providing counterterrorism training. The United Nations Children's Fund has also provided food and other aid.

Obama to visit Denmark to pitch for Olympics

President will lead the appeal to bring the 2016 Summer Games to Chicago

NBC News and news services
updated 12 minutes ago
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WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama will travel to Copenhagen to lead the U.S. appeal for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Chicago, officials said on Monday.
The president will leave Thursday and will join his wife, Michelle, and others in his administration, including Transportation Secretary Ray Lahood and Education Secretary Arne Duncan, in making the pitch, NBC reported.
Obama would be the first U.S. president to take on such a direct role in lobbying for an Olympics event
Chicago faces tough competition from Rio de Janeiro, Madrid and Tokyo. Heads of state representing Rio and Madrid are also expected to attend the Copenhagen meeting.
Final decision made over weekendObama made the final decision Saturday night, officials told NBC News. He had previously said he would not be able to attend because of the health care debate, dispatching Michelle Obama to make Chicago’s pitch in his stead.
However, the White House sent an advance team to Copenhagen last week in case Obama could make the trip after all. After returning from last week's meetings of the United Nations in New York and the G-20 in Pittsburgh the president made the final call that he would take the trip.
Michelle Obama is still planning to attend and will travel Tuesday night to spend the week lobbying officials from the International Olympic Committee.

Champions Trophy belongs to Pakistan: Younis

Johannesburg: Elated with the thumping victory against India, Pakistan skipper Younis Khan has declared that the ICC Champions Trophy belongs to his country and he will leave no stone unturned to get it back.
“This Trophy was originally scheduled to be held in Pakistan. We were the real hosts. My nation wants it back and we are ready to give our hundred percent to get it back for the country,” 'The News' quoted Khan, as saying.
Pakistan has never reached the final of the Champions Trophy, but Khan expressed optimism that this time his team might get lucky.
“We have never reached the final and I think it is a good opportunity to go on to win the prestigious title. It is a good chance and we are only three games away from winning it. Our country needs a few more titles like this Trophy,” he added.
He praised Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Yousuf for their sensible game in the middle.
“We owe the victory to both of them. Their innings have given us tremendous boost. They stuck to their job well and that turned out to be real difference.”
“I knew it very well that anything around 300 would provide a good opportunity for Pakistan to wrap up the match. Even a score of 270 would have been a fighting one. If you look at the records under lights on this ground such targets have not been chased.”

NATO believes Karzai will win vote: report

WASHINGTON — The United States and NATO countries with forces in Afghanistan have told the government of President Hamid Karzai they believes he will be re-elected despite problems with the August 20 vote, the Washington Post reported Monday.
Washington and the NATO countries also told the Karzai administration that they will support the Afghan leader's policy of seeking to get Taliban fighters to defect, the Post reported, citing unnamed US officials.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other North Atlantic Treaty Organization foreign ministers reached "consensus" that Karzai would probably "continue to be president" at a Friday meeting in New York with Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta, a US official told the newspaper.
Based on preliminary results, incumbent president Karzai has 54.6 percent of the votes declared valid, against 27.8 percent for ex-foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah. The result however will not be finalized until several electoral fraud investigations are resolved.
If a significant number of votes are invalidated, Karzai's score could edge below 50 percent, forcing him into a run-off vote with Abdullah.
The ministers on Friday agreed that Karzai would win either by maintaining his vote margin above 50 percent or in the runoff, the Post reported.
The administration of President Barack Obama is in an intense debate over whether to send in more troops to Afghanistan amid waning public support for the war, and an Afghan election marred by fraud allegations.
The report also comes amid news that the US commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, has asked for an additional 30,000-40,000 troops for the country.WASHINGTON — The United States and NATO countries with forces in Afghanistan have told the government of President Hamid Karzai they believes he will be re-elected despite problems with the August 20 vote, the Washington Post reported Monday.
Washington and the NATO countries also told the Karzai administration that they will support the Afghan leader's policy of seeking to get Taliban fighters to defect, the Post reported, citing unnamed US officials.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other North Atlantic Treaty Organization foreign ministers reached "consensus" that Karzai would probably "continue to be president" at a Friday meeting in New York with Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta, a US official told the newspaper.
Based on preliminary results, incumbent president Karzai has 54.6 percent of the votes declared valid, against 27.8 percent for ex-foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah. The result however will not be finalized until several electoral fraud investigations are resolved.
If a significant number of votes are invalidated, Karzai's score could edge below 50 percent, forcing him into a run-off vote with Abdullah.
The ministers on Friday agreed that Karzai would win either by maintaining his vote margin above 50 percent or in the runoff, the Post reported.
The administration of President Barack Obama is in an intense debate over whether to send in more troops to Afghanistan amid waning public support for the war, and an Afghan election marred by fraud allegations.
The report also comes amid news that the US commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, has asked for an additional 30,000-40,000 troops for the country.

Iran test fires nuclear missile capable of hitting Israel and parts of Europe

Iran has fired one of the longest-range missiles in its arsenal as part of testing it began ahead of a confrontation with foreign powers over a previously undisclosed secret nuclear facility later this week.
Earlier today the Revolutionary Guard is reported to have successfully launched the Shahab-3 missile, which is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead and has a range of up to 1,200 miles – which would put Israel, most Arab states and parts of Europe, including much of Turkey, within its range.
Iranian television broadcast footage of the Shahab-3 being fired from desert terrain.
Iran’s war games began yesterday after the revelations about the enrichment plant, at a military base near the holy city of Qom. It dramatically upped the stakes for the meeting in Geneva on Thursday between Iranian representatives and those of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany. Iran has fired one of the longest-range missiles in its arsenal as part of testing it began ahead of a confrontation with foreign powers over a previously undisclosed secret nuclear facility later this week.
Earlier today the Revolutionary Guard is reported to have successfully launched the Shahab-3 missile, which is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead and has a range of up to 1,200 miles – which would put Israel, most Arab states and parts of Europe, including much of Turkey, within its range.
Iranian television broadcast footage of the Shahab-3 being fired from desert terrain.
Iran’s war games began yesterday after the revelations about the enrichment plant, at a military base near the holy city of Qom. It dramatically upped the stakes for the meeting in Geneva on Thursday between Iranian representatives and those of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany.