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Sri Lanka Army claims capture of more LTTE territory

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 02:12:00 -0500

A spokesman of the Sri Lanka military said on Thursday that government troops have taken more territory from Tamil Tiger rebels in the northern Jaffna peninsula.

Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara told a press conference here that the army has seized the town of Pallai and hopes to recapture the entire northern part of the country soon.

Pallai is south of Muhamalai, the northernmost defensive line of the rebels in Jaffna, which the troops captured on Tuesday.
The Tigers have not yet commented on the latest fighting in Jaffna.

He said that the army''s key objective is to open up the strategically located Elephant Pass, to allow free movement between Jaffna and the mainland.

Government troops are already at the southern end, he added.

The LTTEs'' administrative and political capital, Kilinochchi, fell to Sri Lankan troops last week.

The rebels have been fighting for the separate homeland for the past 25 years. At least 70,000 people have been killed in the conflict. (ANI)

Sri Lankan newspaper editor shot dead

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 02:12:00 -0500

Unidentified gunmen, riding on a motorcycle, on Thursday killed Lasantha Wickramatunga, the editor of the Sri Lankan daily, Sunday Leader, while he was en route to his office here.

Reports quoted the police as saying that Wickramatunga had died of head wounds received in the shootout. Doctors said they spent three hours trying to save his life.

Local media reports said that Wickramatunga was known for his criticism of the government.

Thursday''s incident was the second major attack on the media in Sri Lanka this week. On Tuesday, gunmen ransacked the offices of the largest private TV broadcaster in the country.

According to Amnesty International, at least 10 Sri Lankan media employees have been killed since 2006. (ANI)

Sacked Pak NSA says Kasab revelation was based on security agencies’ recommendation

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 02:12:00 -0500

Sacked Pakistan National Security Advisor Mahmud Ali Durrani has said that authorities, including powerful security agencies, had already decided to confirm that Ajmal Amir Kasab was Pakistani, before he made the announcement.

“The security agencies recommended it and ... they repeated it to me,” Durrani said.

‘It had been decided yesterday that we would tell the world that he is a Pakistani because hiding that makes no sense,” he said in an interview.

He stated that after Pakistan’s acceptance of the fact that Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving Mumbai terrorist, belonged to Pakistan, tension between India and Pakistan would ease out.

Commenting on his removal from the post of NSA, Durrani said that he was sacked by the Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani because he was ignorant about the Kasab issue.

‘The Prime Minister happened to be ignorant. He was in Lahore and he didn’t know about it. He was out of the loop,” the Dawn quoted Durrani, as saying.

“I was dismissed because Gilani had not been informed about the decision to confirm Kasab’s nationality, and the Prime Minister had ‘felt the need to exert his authority,” he added.

However, the official statement from the Pak PM office said: “Durrani has been sacked ‘for his irresponsible behaviour for not taking the Prime Minister and other stakeholders into confidence’. (ANI)

Prachanda reinstates Indian priests

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 02:11:00 -0500

Nepalese Prime Minister Prachanda has temporarily reinstated a group of sacked Indian priests to offer worship at the Pashupati Temple.

Prachanda late on Wednesday told the National Assembly that he had ordered officials "to manage normal worship at the temple by the same Indian priests for the time being."

Daily worship and religious functions at the centuries-old temple have been disrupted since last week amidst some priests protesting over the replacement of Indian priests with Nepali national.

Hindu organisations here have been protesting against the removal of the priests.

In New Delhi, protestors also accused the Nepalese Government of hurting Hindu sentiments by appointing Nepalese national as priest at the ancient temple.

For centuries the chief priest of the Pashupatinath Temple was appointed by temple authorities with approval of the king of Nepal from high caste Hindus from neighbouring India.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court had asked the government and the Pashupati Area Development Trust (PADT) not to let the newly appointed Nepali priests offer worship at the temple till the Supreme Court issues its final verdict on the case.

The government had earlier said they defended their decision to appoint new priests at the temple.

Prachanda said that he would abide by the interim order delivered by apex court. (ANI)

Pak opposition parties flay Govt’s handling of Kasab issue as “blooper of a confused regime”

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 02:11:00 -0500

Opposition parties in Pakistan have blasted the Government for its inept handling of the Kasab nationality issue, while demanding that no culprit found guilty should ever be handed over to India.

“We are committed to our principled stance and we will put to trial non-state actors according to our law, but the government should never hand over any culprit to India”, the Nation quoted PML-N Secretary Information Ahsan Iqbal, as saying.

“If any individual of any state is found guilty in heinous crimes it does not mean that the whole country is put under trial,” Iqbal added.

Commenting on Pakistan’s acceptance that Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone surviving Mumbai attacker was its national, and contradictory remarks made by authorities regarding it, Iqbal said: “It has shown that there is a disjointed decision-making process in power corridors.”

Leaders in Pakistan have termed the contradictory statements of Government functionaries regarding Ajmal Kasab’s nationality as ‘the blooper of a confused regime’.

PML-Q Parliamentary leader in the NA Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat said that it has proved that the Government has no policy, no direction at all.

“The manner in which whole episode was conducted reveals immaturity of the sitting regime” Hayat said.

He further criticized the ruling party for tarnishing Pakistan’s image in the global community.

“Due to blunders of the Government, India has successfully tarnished Pakistan’s image among the world nations,” Hayat added.

He said that after the admission by Pakistani Government that Ajmal Kasab was a Pakistani national, an independent international inquiry should be conducted into Mumbai carnage to unearth the real culprits behind the acts of terrorism.

“United Nations could also be invited to probe Mumbai terror attacks so that a transparent investigation could fix the responsibility on non-state actors” Hayat said. (ANI)

New POK PM will only increase anti-India rhetoric, pushing back Kashmir issue

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 02:10:00 -0500

The way the new Pakistan Occupied Kashmir Prime Minister Muhammad Yaqub was forced by the PPP-led Government to dislodge his predecessor Sardar Attique Ahmed, has made it clear that he will ratchet up the anti-India rhetoric now in vogue in Pakistan, without regard to how far it pushes back the cause of Kashmir.

The ruling Muslim Conference in POK was split on the directives of Islamabad to replace Prime Minister Sardar Attique Ahmed with Muhammad Yaqub following a no-confidence vote based on allegations of “corruption and nepotism”.

It is becoming more and more imminent that Yaqub will only cleanse the administration of corruption and leave the posturing over Kashmir.

Charges of “interference” will never be irrelevant in POK because of Article 21 of its Constitution, which vests all authority in the Prime Minister of Pakistan, rather than the Prime Minister of POK, the Daily Times said in its lead editorial.

This means the POK PM serves at the pleasure of the Kashmir Affairs Ministry in Islamabad and often has to encash his infinite flexibility with marginal “collection” of rewards for himself and his cronies.

Sardar Attique’s Muslim Conference has been in power since July 2001 when the government of the POK People’s Party was toppled after it was accused of moral impropriety and promoting graft.

The Muslim Conference was loyal to the PML-N and it had supported the Kashmir policy of General Zia too. After 2001, the realism of Muslim Conference made it ride with General Musharraf’s new proposals for Kashmir, like the Theory of Four Regions and the declaration of Line of Control (LoC) as Line of Commerce (LoC).

The man behind this change was the intellectually supple Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan, Sardar Attique’s father, who could communicate at the global level.

The PPP government if it has at all participated in the toppling may want to get rid of the vestiges of former President Pervez Musharraf and his policy. (ANI)

Durrani sacked for stealing Gilani’s thunder over admission of Kasab’s Pak nationality

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 02:10:00 -0500

Highly informed sources in the Pakistan Government have said that the sacking of the National Security Advisor Major General (retd) Mehmud Durrani was more related to the fact that Durrani denied PM Gilani of taking the credit for breaking the news about Ajmal Kasab’s nationality, the Dawn reported.

“Durrani was apparently sacked for leaking the news, since it not only caught the Prime Minister off guard, but perhaps also deprived him of taking the credit for breaking the news,” the website quoted a highly placed source in the Pakistan Government, as saying.

“The probe had concluded that Ajmal Kasab was in fact a Pakistani national, but it was left to the Prime Minister, to decide whether or when it should be made public,” it added.

Earlier, right after news about Pakistan’s acceptance of the fact that the lone surviving Mumbai gunner belonged to its soil was flashed in the media, Pakistan Prime Minister Yusu Raza Gilani dismissed his National Security Advisor Major General (retd) Mehmud Durrani for being too candid on the tricky issue of Mumbai carnage suspect Ajmal Kasab, ‘without taking him into confidence’.

“Security Advisor had ‘embarrassed me and the country by going public with the report of Ajmal Kasab’s nationality without my permission. I have dismissed him with immediate effect,” Gilani told media yesterday.

The sacking of a senior official proves that there is wide rift inside the Pakistan government, and it shows that there is a complete disconnect between the members of Pakistan ministry. (ANI)

Nervous Khaleda backers call for seasoned Pak diplomats to counter India’s growing influence

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 02:08:00 -0500

The landslide victory of Sheik Hasina’s Awami League has jolted the pro-Pakistan political forces in Bangladesh who want Islamabad to send some seasoned diplomats here to look after its interests in the wake of growing Indian influence in the country.

The rise of Indian influence could be measured from the fact that the Indian High Commissioner in Bangladesh was the first foreign diplomat to call on Sheikh Hasina Wajid after the election results were announced and met her for two hours.

Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee is likely to visit Dhaka next week to meet the new Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

“If Pakistan wants to safeguard its interests in Bangladesh, then it needs to immediately send a seasoned diplomat as its High Commissioner. Diplomats like Riaz Khokhar, Dr Tanveer Ahmed Khan and Hamayun Khan have served Pakistan with distinction in the past as HC,” observed one MP of Khalida Zia’s Bangladesh National Party.

Background interviews revealed that as the Hasina Wajid-led Awami League prepares to start the trial of “war criminals” within the next six months, a seasoned Pakistani diplomat is required here who could deal with this very sensitive issue.

India would be the sole beneficiary of these trials as Pakistan would be at the receiving end. Many former generals of the Pakistan Army are included in the list of 210 ‘war criminals’.

Pakistan has shown no sign of urgency in countering the Indian influence and has not fully realised the impact of the sea change that has taken place in Bangladesh, The News said.

It would do Pakistan a world of good if Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi could find time to visit Dhaka immediately to open a new chapter in Pakistan-Bangladesh relations.

The Indians, on the other hand, are taking full advantage of the situation, feeling satisfied that, after Afghanistan, now they have a friendly government in Dhaka. This new situation might greatly help India in promoting its regional agenda. (ANI)

Dubya has just two weeks to keep tradition at ‘presidential eatery’

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 02:08:00 -0500

US president George W. Bush has been issued a warning that he has only two weeks left to keep the tradition that has been going on at famed eatery ‘21’.

Dubya had eaten at ‘21’ when he was the Governor of Texas, but the eatery is determined that he visits them before his tenure as president gets over.

“We''ve hosted every sitting president since FDR, but GWB hasn''t been here in his eight years,” the New York Post quoted a source as saying.

“Everybody around him - Dick Cheney, Laura Bush, Barbara and Jenna, Karl Rove, Condi Rice and George H.W. and Barbara Bush - has made it.

“There''s less than two weeks left, but we''re still hoping.

“He doesn''t even need to eat. He can just say hi to our doormen Pedro and Shaker or our men''s room guy, The Rev., and we''ll count it,” the source added. (ANI)

It’s official, Obama is the next US President

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 02:07:00 -0500

The tallying of the votes for the 2008 US presidential election took place on January 8, and President-elect Barack Obama was officially declared the winner.

The counting of the Electoral College votes, during a joint session of Congress, showed that Obama and Joe Biden received 365 electoral votes, while John McCain and Sarah Palin got 173, reports Politico.com.

The reading of electoral votes for each state is a quadrennial formality for members of the House and Senate, with Vice President Dick Cheney presiding over the joint session in the House chamber.

The house was packed with Democrats, who were applauding and laughing, while the Republicans, the ones who decided to show, pretended to look happy.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), both in attendance, leapt to their feet when the final tally was called.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), who spent most of the session whispering behind clenched fists, were the last to stand. (ANI)