UN urges all to avoid civilian harm as Taliban threaten offensive

The United Nations in Afghanistan has issued a plea for all sides to avoid civilian casualties after the Taliban declared Sunday would be the start of a stepped-up campaign of violence across the country that would include suicide attacks.
The hardliners have warned civilians to stay away from public gatherings, military bases and convoys, as well as government centres and buildings, as these would be the focus of a wave of attacks beginning on Sunday.
“Parties to the conflict must not deliberately attack, target or kill civilians, or indiscriminately harm them,” said Staffan de Mistura, the UN chief in Afghanistan, in a statement released late on Saturday.
“We call on all parties to take all possible measures to protect civilians, especially in the forthcoming months when we expect, unfortunately, intensified conflict,” he said.
Senior military commanders have been expecting a spike in violence with the arrival of the spring and summer “fighting season”, although the usual winter lull was not seen as US-led forces pressed their attacks against insurgents, particularly in the Taliban’s southern heartland.
Senior military officials say recent intelligence reports indicate the fresh campaign of increased violence will last about a week and be mounted by the Taliban, supported by the al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network and other insurgents.
Security has been increased at military bases and government offices, while in Kabul extra police have been stationed at so-called ring of steel security checkpoints around the city to search vehicles.
The Taliban said in a statement on Saturday the targets of the attacks would be foreign forces, high-ranking officials of President Hamid Karzai’s government, members of the cabinet and lawmakers, as well as the heads of companies working for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
While Washington and ISAF commanders believe they have made inroads against a growing insurgency since 30,000 extra US troops were sent to Afghanistan last year, the violence has shown little sign of abating.
Attacks across Afghanistan hit record levels in 2010, with civilian and military casualties the worst since U.S-backed Afghan forces toppled the Taliban government in late 2001.
The United Nations said it had relocated some of its staff in Afghanistan after receiving what it said were credible threats of increased attacks in several locations around the country.
The United Nations has been the target of several insurgent attacks over the past two years and seven international staff was killed last month when protesters overran a UN compound in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif.
De Mistura said indiscriminate use of bombs by the Taliban in cities and elsewhere had caused huge numbers of civilian casualties, while air strikes by the NATO-led force had also caused many deaths.
The number of civilians killed in Afghanistan in 2010 rose 15 per cent from the previous year to 2,777, according to the United Nations, with insurgents responsible for about three-quarters of those deaths.
“Afghan civilians have paid the price of war for too long – it is more urgent than ever that all parties act to prevent this suffering and that in the forthcoming spring we also see a surge in protection of civilians,” de Mistura said.

Ajmal kasab: A source for first Indian rope to Pakistani neck indicates direct confrontation of two states, in the original form of modern states

Ajmal kasab: A source for first Indian rope to Pakistani neck indicates direct confrontation of two states, in the original form of modern states.

I have no words to satisfy the relatives of those who lost the beloved in the terror attack carried out on 27/11/2008 by the Pakistani nationals, and I would never like to see again such attacks on our Indian territory by any other foreigner

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A public prosecutor, Ujjwal Nikam, a real hero in his profession, gave no room through his most sophisticated form of presentation on behalf of the victims of the Mumbai terror attack to the Hon' judge of Mumbai special court. Public prosecutor, Ujjwal Nikam, who is the hero of covering the three dimensions of the Indian Society, viz, first in the list of the three is the press, and the next is politicians of the Indian country, and in the third is in the list is skill and labor of his own profession in presenting the case, based on the charge sheet which, contained 11000 pages, that had given chances to legal professionals in india to ask many questions in its preparations and all such questions in every development of the case's charge, were, published in all leading daily news papers in India just a gap of two or three days to the lead stories carried out by the news paper on each and every development in the case.. I do not want to go into the Vinita Kamte's complaint on the bullets issue in the case of charge sheet.

There were many issues in the provisions of providing an advocate to the foreigner accused/killer by the special court to plead on behalf of Ajmal Kasab, who is now awarded capital punishment in the Mumbai special court in at least four cases filed by the public prosecutor. The Mumbai special court awarded capital punishments in four cases to Ajmal Kasab

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In essence Ajmal Jasab has been awarded a capital punishment of death by "hanging him till he died" in four cases

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In a close observation of the judgment of the Mumbai special court," four death sentences" awarded to Ajmal Kasab, has to be ratified by the Maharastra high court

The Humble justice, of this case who was specially provided from the Mumbai high court in which he was working as registrar, and he came from the most backward region, Gondia district, of Maharashtra. He has delivered popular judgment of this case through more than 1000 pages, including his remarks and comments what he was observed while examining the evidences

On the other hand, the accused, Ajmal Kasab, who has been provided an opportunity to defend him at the cost of the court, the government of India in essence in this case, because the accused is from the Pakistan to represent accused on pleading no guilty in the court, the first in the list is Ms Anjali, and second is Abbas Kazmi, and the last is K.P Pawar. The reasons in changes of defense counsels are best known to those who are concerned with the case

Leading news papers in India have published the main points of the judgment in this case, besides the different opinions of the Mumbai high court, and Indian Supreme Court, stating the execution of the convicted in the Mumbai special court has to be approved by the Mahatashtra high court, and the convicted has every right to proceed to Supreme Court. On the confirmation of the capital punishment of the execution of the convicted by the Supreme Court, he has a right to file clemency petition to the president of India

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In the history of executions of the convicted were not fixed in number to say exactly because there are conflicting versions from Indian government and the defenders of the civil liberties in India, in India after independence. If we say exactly the political executions are more in number than the other individual professional offenders. A name auto Shanker was known when he was executed in the list of individual professional offenders. And in the list of political field I can say Kishta Gouda and Bhumaiah from Andhra Pradesh during the emergency period in India. And then Maqbul Bhatt, who had been known for his roots, was Kashmir. In the case of Indira Gandhi's assassination case some one or two Beant Bingh or some other I have not their names in my memory, again in the case of Rajiv Gandhi, two are in the list of such convictions and in the Indian parliament' attack case, Afzal guru, is awarded the capital punishment. Here if we go into the details of the mercy petitions which are under considerations of the president of India, there would be minimum thirty

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I, in some time back raised my voice in support of the two daliths from guntur in bus burning case with passengers, under the leadership of Sri K.G Satya Murthy,(Shiv Sager). Their petition was considered and reduced the capital punishment to the life time imprisonment.

On the other hand, thanks to the media, which was and is the principal player in highlighting the cases and neglecting the cases of such major executions depended upon the sole discretion of their own to carry on the incidents as news or forget the incidents as the news. Because they have their own accounts in carrying the incidents into the news and neglecting the incidents as news to carry out without considering the social responsibilities to resume that they are also the members of Indian society. And the media is whoever have the name cover of it feels that they are not reporting the incidents as news but they are creating the news from the angles of the incidents. So it is not wrong to blame them by saying that they are the news creators and not the news reporters. Even they do not know the content has so much of its origin and reasons, but they produce it according to their own and lives in a feeling that they have the sole right of the proprietary on the content.

Consequently the numbers of executions are conflicting from the point of official and unofficial accounts in India. It is a reason to believe that the rejection of the clemency petitions by the president of India, the court orders could be implemented accordingly and the executions could be carried out silently, without any press notes in public to the press and the press and media that could be unaware in the record and in some time perhaps aware about such executions they felt to put off the record what they have been in practice for their own calculations. In one account there are more than one thousand executions were taken place in India without any issuance of public notifications by the jailers, in various parts of the country. in the news channels a hang man who offered to hang  ajmal kasab.becasuse his father hanged the assassins of indira gandhi, one jail authorities offered to supply a rope for hanging him without appropriate orders to hang him. An ordinary human can turn as terrorist. But the state should not turn as killer. At the same time killing from any side in civil society is inhuman. The state has the greatest responsibility to reform animals as humans. And no one on any name would ever be allowed to kill or to be killed on any claim in civil society. The human beings in primitive societies who made the animals as their friends and won the war against the nature by getting all its resources for their benefits and now the same humans are following the way to destroy the civil society with the help of machines. Of course this is another question.

The government of India should handle this case more diplomatically than legally through the process of courts in India. This case has the universal attention on how this case would be solved whether through diplomatic ways or leaving the matter to the courts as the Pakistani minister claimed that the Indo-Pak relations would have not have its impact and declared that they have no concerned with Ajmal Kasab. At the same time these two states have decided themselves on how to deal the case of terrorist Ajmal Kasab. And these two states are in comfort arrangement with each other in the case of dealing of terrorism with their rigid methodology towards the terrorists in these two states. This kind of the way, these two states, opted sends an indication to the people of Pakistan and the clergy class which motivates the youth to kill the innocents in India for just pretty amounts they spends on terrors. It is better to spend their money in eradication of poverty in Pakistan. Moreover the religion, Islam is separate from the politics and politics are separate from the religion. This is the new age of capitalism and modernization in which the driving force is some other thing other than the religion. At the early period of expansion of Islam, it had the leaders of such caliphates who were and are exemplary in leadership and in sacrifices for the entire man kind in the history of Islam at that time. Now the ‘time' which has the powerful creative elements for the society and states for its developments towards advancements according to its time  and need of the system, applicable to the state.

However, the clergy class in Pakistan is not so capable of taking over the control of the state in Pakistan. If the clergy class was and is so competent to handle the causes and cases of Muslims in Pakistan, the military could not succeed in capturing the power in Pakistan. Pakistani military is always tending to dislodge the popular governments and after some time in rule they were put under pressure to conduct elections there in democratic form of government. Again next time they also loose the confidence of Pakistani people. It means the military class wants the power at centre and that could not handle it permanently to rule the people of Pakistan to the level of expectations of Pakistan.

On the other hand the clergy class would never be able to rule the people directly for a long period with the frame work of the political system which is not yet framed by themselves since their independence day. The clergy class could not come forward to rule the people by participating in elections directly but keeps their influence on the people through their speeches and literature of jihad. The ultimate sufferers are the people. Mr. Mohammed Ali Jinnah who was efficiently separated the politics from the religion during his life time and the same principle could not be continued by any other leader there in Pakistan.

The middle class people, who are actually engaged in charity works which have been prescribed by the Islam that is really the source for the terrorist activities in India. The middle class people, if they would stop funding the terrorist organizations in Pakistan, the fifty percent of the problem would be solved. At the same time the Pakistani government is not so much interested in establishing the academic schools according to the international standards, with relevant subjects. The international community which is more interested in arms and forces to curb the terrorist camps and armed forces than the constructive programs to carry out with a feeling that the people really in the basic needs, in Pakistan by offering opportunities in employment. and all the leaders of military and clergy class including middle class should focus on the rural development and in provision of civic amenities simultaneously. Till that time no one more Ajmal Kasab take birth to create terror attacks in India on any name.

In fact the Indian Muslims are better than the Pakistani Muslims if we compare with a point of progress and development, irrespective of the religious and territorial affiliations in calculating the cost of living in India and in Pakistan. if the middle class people really concerned with the poor, they should contribute their amounts to spend for the poor despite funding the terrorist camps there in Pakistan. on the other hand, the clergy class should fight first to form a system of governance and lead the people towards power at different levels in purely political way. And then they force the leaders to follow the moral values in political system through their good governance. because the religion which was once upon a time have a driving force of all the people now lost its credibility to follow in daily life there in Pakistan. Military class wants political power and disturbs frequently the political system. And the political system is in poor performance while in power and committed highest level of corruption and lowered the faith and belief of the people in their ruling style. So that the people is looking at the military class for good government in their state..

 Military class was busy in politicizing all issues to stick to the power by forgetting the progress of the people. At the same time the clergy class which is in the most backward ideology to lead the masses into their fold. But they always try to influence the people indirectly. Consequently so many like Ajmal Kasabs in Pakistan with terror in India. Hence it is the duty of all Pakistani people to see that their activities be confined to their territories only. Otherwise Indian government would never be blamed for its aggression against Pakistan in future.

PPP and Q agree to seal deal

ISLAMABAD, LAHORE: In another round of talks on Friday, the Pakistan People’s Party and Pakistan Muslim League-Q firmed up their new political alliance, with the former conceding to create the post of deputy prime minister for the latter and agreeing to keep the Higher Education Commission (HEC) under the federal government, sources in the two parties told Dawn.
One interesting aspect of the meeting between President Asif Ai Zardari and Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain was that it was also attended by PML-Q’s Faisal Saleh Hayat who was earlier reported to be opposing the plan for his party to join the coalition government.
Mr Zardari, who is Co-Chairman of the PPP, accepted Q-League’s demand that its leader Chaudhry Pervez Elahi should be deputy prime minister in the new set-up.
He also agreed that the HEC would not be devolved to the provinces and the National Curriculum and National Drug Control would remain federal subjects.
The two sides also agreed to create Saraiki and Hazara provinces and to form a commission for the purpose. Mr Hayat said the two parties would formally sign an agreement next week.
If the agreed formula is implemented, the PML-Q will get six ministries —health, trade and commerce, petroleum, industries, agriculture and information technology —and six ministries of state, three advisers to the prime minister and UN ambassadorship.
Presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar said: “The meeting discussed political situation and realignment of political forces to face new challenges.” He said more meetings would be held soon.
Information Minister Firdos Ashiq Awan told reporters that the political situation would clear in about three days.
When contacted, Faisal Salah Hayat said: “Today we gave a formal shape to our accord with the PPP under which it has been decided that Chaudhry Pervez Elahi will be deputy prime minister.”
Sources said that Mr Zardari had also agreed to make some constitutional amendments for the purpose.
Legal experts said there was no bar in the Constitution to the creation of a post for deputy prime minister and it had been done in the past.
Besides distribution of ministries, Mr Hayat said, many other important issues, including long-term partnership and seat adjustments in the next elections, had been discussed at the meeting.
He said that President Zardari was very candid and keenly listened to “our points of view and assured us that all demands would be met.”
Observers believe that the post deputy prime minister will curtail the powers of Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.
Mr Gilani was kept away from negotiations between the two parties and said this while talking to reporters in Multan talks being held between President Zardari and Q-Leaguers and he would inform “me after finalising the deal”.
The PPP’s core and parliamentary committees have already given their consent to the alliance and authorised President Zardari and Prime Minister Gilani to finalise a deal with the PML-Q.
The PPP needs PML-Q’s support for a comprehensive majority in parliament after its two coalition partners — Muttahida Qaumi Movement and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-F —quit the government.
Wajahat Husain, Sheikh Waqas Akram, Raza Hayat Hiraj, Riaz Peerzada, Sardar Talib Nakai, Sultan Cheema, Atif Tauseef, Amir Muqam, Ghaus Bakhsh Mehr and Akram Gil of the PML-Q are set to be included in the expanded cabinet next week.
The sources said the PPP had also agreed to give four Senate seats to the Q-League in the March election.

Another attack on Navy claims five lives

KARACHI: Abdul Rabbani Abu Rahman aka Abdul Rahim Ghulam Rabbani is alleged to have admitted to US investigators that he had been directly working for Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, one of the masterminds of the 9/11 attacks, and that one of the sons of Osama bin Laden had been living in Karachi with his wife and son in 2002.
According to around 800 secret files released this week by WikiLeaks, the whistleblower website, Rabbani had been in detention at the Guantanamo Bay camp since Sept 19, 2004, — two years after his arrest in Karachi. He continues to be under detention as US officials consider him to be a high risk detainee.
The Wikileaks files contain secret US documents about detainees from various countries at Guantanamo Bay — from Saudi Arabia to Pakistan and from Palestine to Kenya. The highest number of detainees are from Afghanistan.
The files include reports on interrogation of 69 Pakistani detainees, some of whom were assessed to have no links with Al Qaida or Taliban and were recommended for release. However, it is not clear whether they have been released or not.

In some cases, an earlier recommendation about release of a detainee was reversed, indicating that the recommendation had not been implemented.
The interrogation report about Rabbani is ostensibly based on the detainee’s own account “These statements are included [in the report] without consideration of veracity, accuracy or reliability,” the report prepared on June 9, 2008, said.
Rabbani, according to the report, admitted that he was an Al Qaeda facilitator from early 2002 to Sept 2002. During this period he managed a number of safe houses in Karachi and had direct to many senior Al Qaeda members, including Osama bin Laden, Ayman Al Zawahiri and others.
These safe houses provided logistical support to most of the Sept 11, 2001, hijackers, the investigation report said. He was
directly involved with terrorist plans and operations.
In late 1998 or 1999, Rabbani’s brother, Ahmad Ghulam Rabbani, who is also detained in Guantanamo Bay, allegedly recruited him for extremist activities. He travelled to Afghanistan to receive training in the use of firearms with an intent to fight in Myanmar.

Rabbani travelled from Karachi to Khost, Afghanistan, attending a training centre _ the Khaldan training camp. Here he received training in the use of different weapons, including the AK-47 assault rifle, PK machinegun, mortars, and rocket propelled grenades (RPGS), but was expelled after three months for smoking.
After staying in Bagram (Afghanistan) for three months, Rabbani returned to Karachi and was instructed by his brother to go
to a hospital on Tariq Road in order to help care for wounded Al Qaeda fighters.
Almost one year later, Rabbani met Umar Sheikh. The latter asked him if he had been to Al Qaeda training camps. The detainee replied he had, but was removed for a minor violation.
Sheikh was initially sceptical, but later asked Rabbani to work for him as a cook in safe houses in Karachi. In addition to cooking and cleaning, the detainee transported goods to Afghanistan for Al Qaeda personnel. The goods included computers, electronic components and some unspecified unknown items. He was also responsible for renting guesthouses frequented by Al Qaeda operatives and members of their families.
On Sept 0 and 11 of 2002, the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate (ISI), the Rangers and police conducted raids against three Al Qaeda hideouts in two quarters of Karachi.
Abdul Rabbani, Hassan Muhammad Ali Bin Attash and senior Al Qaida functionary Ramzi Bin al-Shibh were arrested during these raids.
Rabbani was kept in Pakistan for two months, but later shifted to Kabul. He stayed there for seven months and then moved to another prison before being given in the custody of US forces in Bagram.

The document said that he was transferred to Guantanamo Bay to keep the tabs on Al Qaeda members, especially Osama bin Laden, Aiman Al Zawahiri and Saed Bin Laden.
According to the evaluation by US officials of Rabbani’s account, he has shared a wealth of information about his activities in Pakistan. He has been forthcoming in the past about his role as a facilitator and his association with the top echelons of the Al Qaeda network. Other detainees are said to have corroborated Rabbani’s account.
But the assessment was not enough to win freedom for Rabbani as, he was
adjudged to be a “high risk prisoner who is likely to pose a threat to the US, its interests, and allies”.
The reason for his continued detention, according to US army officials,
was that he had admitted to working directly for for Al Qaeda from early 2000 to Sept 2002.
He was alleged to have run several safe houses in Karachi. While working for Khalid Sheikh, he had direct access to a number of senior Al Qaeda members and helped facilitate the movement of most of the Sept 2001 hijackers.
He had met Osama bin Laden on numerous occasions, including twice at the Kandahar airport. Osama had been living at the Kandahar airport when Rabbani delivered a number of items sent to him by Khalid Sheikh.

THE SON ALSO ROSE
Rabbani reported that Osama’s son, Saed Bin Laden, lived in Karachi with his wife and son, from Jan 2002 through at least June 2002. Sheikh provided a safe haven for Saed in Karachi. While Saed was there, he would occasionally come with Sheikh to one of the detainee’s safe houses at house number D-255, Block 13 D, Gulshan-i-Iqbal.
During a raid on the detainee’s safe house on Tariq Road, Pakistani authorities discovered over 20 individually wrapped passports, most of which were valid documents belonging to the wives and children of Osama, stored next to remotely-activated electronic detonators.
Al Masri was the military chief of Al Qaida and engineered the attacks on US forces in Somalia in 1993. He was wanted by the US government for the 1998 US embassy bombings in Africa.
Rabbani admitted he managed the Gulshan-i-Iqbal guesthouse. Other guesthouses were on Tariq Road and in Defence Society.
His guesthouses were frequented by a clutch of senior Al Qaeda members, such as Osama’s security chief, Hamza al-Ghamdi; Al Qaeda’s military operations supreme commander Muhammad Salah al-Din Abd al-Halim Zaydan aka (Sayf al-Adil); USS Cole bombing mastermind Abd al-Rahim Hussayn Muhammad al-Nashiri aka (Mullah Bilal), senior al-Qaida operative, Walid Muhammad Salih Bin Attash, aka (Khallad Bin Attash), Ammar al-Baluchi, and Sheikh.

According to the report, Rabbani helped facilitate the movement in Pakistan of 17 of the 19 individuals who conducted the Sept 11 attacks. He did not admit having knowledge of their mission, but did admit picking up some of them up at airports, arranging a safe house, and transporting some of them to their next destination.
He maintained that all the hijackers were members of Al Qaeda and would not allow him to speak to visitors.
He reported many of the hijackers stayed at a safe house in the Rabia City complex, Block 13. Mohammad Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi and Hani Hanjour, however, stayed at the “Defence View” safe house.
An unidentified Al Qaida detainee stated that Rabbani helped several of the hijackers transit Pakistan on their way to Afghanistan and back again. He was arrested on a road in Pakistan along with hijacker Ahmad al-Ghamdi, but won freedom through bribery.

Zardari, PML-Q leaders `finalise details of deal`

ISLAMABAD: Top leaders of Pakistan Muslim League-Q, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Chaudhry Parvaiz Elahi, met President Asif Ali Zardari at the Presidency on Thursday and reportedly finalised details of a plan for the Q-League to join the ruling coalition.
The meeting took place after a dinner hosted by the president and lasted about two hours.

When contacted, president`s spokesman Farhatullah Babar declined to confirm reports doing the rounds in the capital that the two sides had thrashed out plans for what sources in both the parties described as a `national reconciliation government.`
The Q-League earlier said a roadmap had been worked out under which the Q-League and Muttahida Qaumi Movement would initially join the government and, at a later stage, another estranged PPP ally, the JUI-F, would join the coalition.
He said the two sides had agreed on the draft of a plan presented by the Q-League for reviving the crippling economy, improving law and order, tiding over the energy crisis and bringing the rising prices of essential goods under control. An agreement based on the plan is likely to be signed in a meeting of the two parties expected to be held at the Presidency next week.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani did not attend the meeting and there are reports that he is not pleased with the understanding between the two parties.
Sources in the PPP said that the prime minister had not been invited to three previous meetings between President Zardari and the Q-League leadership.
A close aide to President Asif Zardari told Dawn on condition of anonymity the President was hopeful that the two parties would form an alliance soon.
Sources in the PPP said that under the draft agreement, the two parties would work out a seat adjustment accord for the next general elections, Senate polls to be held in 2012 and the Punjab provincial assembly elections.
It has been agreed that sitting MNAs of the PPP and the Q-League would be given tickets from their respective constituencies.
A different formula will be prepared for the Punjab assembly elections. In a constituency where an NA seat is held by the PPP, the provincial assembly seat in the constituency will be given to PML-Q and vice versa. Before meeting the President, the Q-League leadership held a party meeting with Chaudhry Shujaat in the chair. Despite reservations expressed by one or two leaders, the majority gave a mandate to the party chief to take a decision about an alliance with the PPP.
The PPP core committee and parliamentary committee met last week had agreed to the alliance and authorized President Zardari and Prime Minister Gilani to work out a deal with PML-Q.
The PPP requires PML-Q`s support for a comprehensive majority in parliament.

Libya’s Qadhafi trains volunteer army to fight Nato

ARHUNAH: The man squats down and fires. A rocket-propelled grenade shoots into the desert to calls of “Allahu Akbar”, God is Greatest. Another man takes his place.
These are members of the volunteer army being trained by Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi in the name of fighting any Nato ground invasion.
Libyan officials have said in recent weeks that they had begun arming and training civilians across government-controlled western Libya, in an effort to put the country’s tribes at the forefront of the fight against Nato attacks.
In a government-organised trip on Wednesday, journalists were taken to Tarhunah, 85 km (53 miles) southeast of Tripoli, to meet the volunteers who are being armed and trained there.
In the garden of an abandoned medical centre, a rag tag group of about 80 men, from youths to old tribal leaders, sat in circles on the grass, watching listlessly as soldiers demonstrated how machine guns and grenade launchers work.
“We have trained 400 people so far and given them arms. We started with the Nato strikes,” said Jamal Ibrahim Abu Ghrara, an agricultural engineer and head of the local people’s committee who was supervising the training.
Another 14 committees have also trained volunteers to fight what they see as a possible Nato invasion.
But the United Nations Security Council resolution under which Nato is carrying out air strikes in Libya does not provide for troops on the ground.
And while Britain and France have sent military advisors to the rebels, Nato members show no inclination to send large numbers of soldiers.
All around the training site, among orange earth and shrubs, squat the remains of hangars bombed by Nato in recent weeks.
Some seem empty, their roofs crumpled and only the metal frames standing. In others, the remains of burnt out military vehicles and what appeared from a distance to be anti-aircraft guns are visible.
Firing in the air
Nato air strikes have driven back Qadhafi’s troops and forced them to withdraw to the outskirts of Misrata, the focus of efforts to break an uprising against his 41-year rule that has put most of eastern Libya in rebel hands since mid-February.
In the tribal area of Tarhunah, which borders on the province of Misrata, volunteers fired in the air and said they supported the leader. Yet, there was no indication that they would be going to back the army in fighting for the port city.
Sitting on the grass, cradling his Kalashnikov rifle, 22-year-old Mohammed Jumaa, said he volunteered with his two brothers and two sisters, to protect their family in any war.
“We are all volunteers. Even the girls,” Jumaa said softly.
“We’re not expecting a rebellion here or the rebels to reach here. It is about Nato. They are planning to come by land and they want to come here and take our oil.”
Government minders hovered nearby as the volunteers were asked whether they had been given any choice in taking up arms.
They all emphasised it was their decision to come forward.
Even before the air strikes began, Libyan teenagers received compulsory military training at school, mostly on light weapons.
On Wednesday, journalists were taken to two schools where pupils stood in line chanting “the people want Colonel Muammar”.
The head of Al Saqiah wal Wadi School, which educates children aged between 6 and 12, said pupils were spending a day a week on non-combat military training. That would rise to two or three days a week during the holidays.
“We give them exercises and training without guns in grades 7 to 9,” Abdelrazzak Mabrouk al-Mahmoudi told reporters.
In the school yard, a boy of no more than 5 years old was taking apart and putting together a Kalashnikov, but al-Mahmoudi said this was not school training: “That’s his father’s gun.”
Leaving the schools, journalists drove back past the area where the men were being trained earlier but the garden was empty. At another location, over a stretch of rocky desert, a busload of men had taken their places for target practice.
Lying on their bellies, they fired machine guns at barrels across the desert before taking up the rocket-propelled grenade launchers. In a parting shot, a trainer perched atop a truck mounted with an anti-aircraft gun fired into the air, spinning the battery and showering fleeing bystanders with the shells.
As journalists left, the volunteers packed up their practice and headed for their own bus, the training apparently over.

Zardari says Bilawal to take up responsibility in Sept

ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari has said that PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari will “take up some political responsibility in September this year”.

The president made the announcement at a meeting in the Presidency with party lawmakers and office-bearers from Gujranwala division on Wednesday.
President`s spokesman Farhatullah Khan Babar did not mention as to what “political responsibility” would be given to Mr Bilawal Bhutto.
Mr Bilawal Bhutto was made the chairman of the PPP by members of the Central Executive Committee at a meeting held in Naudero after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
The CEC had decided that till completion of Mr Bilawal Bhutto`s education, his father Asif Ali Zardari would run the party affairs as a co-chairman.
“We have had no smooth sailing and, despite negative propaganda against the government and the party, we have not only survived but waded through gigantic challenges successfully and achieved significant achievements on all fronts,” Mr Babar quoted the president as telling party lawmakers and office-bearers.
The president said that PPP, after completing more than half of its tenure in the government, had now entered the election mode. He asked party workers and lawmakers to enhance contacts with voters in their respective constituencies.
The president said that in the next two years, the party would have to reach out to people and make “new political alignments”. He urged party parliamentarians and office-bearers to dedicate themselves for the welfare of the people as the performance in the government would speak and determine the party position in the next general elections to be held after two years.

He said the people had reposed confidence in the party and “we all must struggle both individually and collectively to come up to their expectations”.
The president asked them to analyse results of each and every by-election to draw lessons from it and to enable them to prepare for future electoral contests in an effective manner.
Mr Babar said that there was also a discussion on results of the recently-held by-elections in Punjab and lessons learnt from them.
The president also discussed the presidential reference to review the case of party founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto`s hanging for which the Supreme Court had already constituted a bench for hearing.
He said the party had no intentions to seek revenge from anybody by sending the reference to the Supreme Court, but it just wanted to set a “historic wrong” right.
The PPP MPs and office-bearers spoke on a host of issues including current political situation, coalition matters, alliance adjustment, party organisation and raised issues relating to their constituencies.
The meeting was also attended, among others, by Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Rehman Malik, Naveed Qamar, Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan, Ahmed Mukhtar, Jahangir Badar, Farzana Raja, Fouzia Wahab, Qamar Zaman Kaira, Nazar Muhammad Gondal, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Fouzia Habib, Imtiaz Safdar Warraich and Raja Riaz.

Thailand and Cambodia announce border truce

SAMRONG, Cambodia: Thailand and Cambodia said Thursday they had agreed to end fierce fighting on their shared border after seven days of clashes that have left 15 dead.
“After discussions by the military on both sides this morning, there is a ceasefire agreement…border checkpoints will be reopened and villagers will start to return home,” said Thai government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn.
Earlier on Thursday, Cambodian Defence Minister Tea Banh told AFP that a deal had been reached for an end to hostilities and for “soldiers to stay where they are”.
Both countries have blamed each other for sparking the violence around two contested jungle temples — the bloodiest fighting between the neighbours in decades — which has displaced around 75,000 civilians.
Panitan said the negotiations were “amicable” and troops were confident that the truce could be implemented.
But he added: “The ceasefire agreement is preliminary and we have to wait and see how the situation on the ground develops.”
One Thai soldier died on Thursday morning, bringing the total number of the country’s troops killed since the fighting began last Friday to six, while eight have died on the Cambodian side.
Bangkok has said a Thai civilian has also been killed.

The neighbours had come under increasing international pressure to stop the violence.
A statement from European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton on Wednesday called the conflict “very worrying” and echoed calls made by the UN Security Council in February for a permanent ceasefire.
The US ambassador to Thailand, Kristie Kenney, on Thursday also urged a return to the negotiating table.
Talks had previously been due to take place in Phnom Penh on Wednesday, but were called off at the last minute by Thailand’s defence minister.
Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya was in Jakarta, chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) regional bloc, on Thursday for talks with his Indonesian counterpart Marty Natalegawa. Asean had also urged the pair to reach a ceasefire.
Heavy weapons fire has caused an estimated 45,000 people in Thailand and 30,000 in Cambodia to flee the jungle frontier.
Cambodian mother-of-eight Chhem Lin was among the evacuees who have sought safety in the town of Samrong, some 40 kilometres away from the border unrest.
“I am so scared,” the 46-year-old, whose husband is a soldier on the front line, told AFP before the ceasefire was announced. “They should not fight to resolve the problem.”
The Thai-Cambodian border has never been fully demarcated, partly because it is littered with landmines left over from years of war in Cambodia.

On Tuesday the fighting briefly spread to the 900-year-old Preah Vihear temple, which has been the focus of strained relations between the neighbours since it was granted UN World Heritage status in 2008.
In February, 10 people were killed near the Preah Vihear temple, which is 150 kilometres east of the two other ancient temple complexes at the centre of the latest clashes.
The neighbours agreed in late February to allow observers from Indonesia into the area near Preah Vihear. But the Thai military has since said the monitors are not welcome and they have not been deployed.
The World Court ruled in 1962 that the temple belonged to Cambodia, but both countries claim ownership of a 4.6-square-kilometre surrounding area.
Cambodia has accused Thailand of using spy planes and poison gas in the recent fighting — an allegation denied by Bangkok.
The border clash came at a sensitive political time for Thailand, with the country’s premier preparing to dissolve the lower house of parliament for elections he has said will be held by early July.

Israel rejects Palestinian government with Hamas

JERUSALEM: Israel’s foreign minister warned on Thursday that Israel will not negotiate with a new Palestinian unity government that includes the Hamas militant group.
Avigdor Lieberman spoke a day after rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah reached a unity deal in Cairo to end their five year long dispute.
For Palestinians, the Egypt-brokered deal revived hopes of ending their bitter infighting that weakened them politically and caused the deaths of hundreds in violent clashes and crackdowns.
The Palestinians say the move is a step toward independence, but unity between Fatah and Hamas appears unlikely to jump start negotiations with Israel for an independent Palestinian state.
Israel swiftly rejected the prospect of a Palestinian government including Hamas, citing the militant group’s stated goal of destroying the Jewish state. The US expressed similar concerns.
‘‘It needs to be clear that such an agreement is crossing a red line,’’ Lieberman told Israel’s Army Radio. ‘‘The significance of the agreement is that terrorists will take hold of the West Bank. Hundreds of terrorists will flood the West Bank and therefore we need to prepare for a different situation.’’
Rivalries between the two Palestinian factions began in 2006 after the militant group Hamas won elections in Gaza and the West Bank. A year later, Hamas seized power in Gaza in a violent takeover.
The split left Hamas in control of the Gaza Strip, and the Palestinian Authority, dominated by Fatah, in the West Bank.
The two territories are separated by Israel. The Palestinians claim both territories for a future independent state, along with east Jerusalem.
Israel has held peace talks with the Fatah-led government but has shunned Hamas. The group is considered a terrorist organization by Israel, the US, and European Union for its role in sending dozens of suicide bombers and thousands of rockets into the Jewish state and its commitment to the destruction of Israel.
The Egyptian-brokered plan calls for the formation of a single caretaker Palestinian government in the coming days. The government would administer day-to-day business until new presidential and legislative elections are to be held in a year’s time.
Lieberman said the agreement was a result of panic on both sides. He said Fatah was reeling from the fall of its longtime patron, former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, and Hamas was nervous because of President Bashar Assad’s shaky status in Syria.
Hamas has insisted that its agreement with Fatah did no indicate any recognition of Israel.
Lieberman said that Israel ‘‘will not negotiate with a terrorist organization’’ and would consider various sanctions it could take against a new Palestinian government with Hamas in it — including travel restrictions and withholding tax revenues it collects on the Palestinians’ behalf in the West Bank.

‘Q’ officials have authorised possible inclusion in govt: Elahi

LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League – Quaid (PML-Q) leader Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi on Thursday said his party office-bearers had authorised the possibility of the PML-Q’s inclusion in the federal government, DawnNews reported.
Speaking to media representatives in Lahore, Elahi said the PML-Q wanted to bring all political parties into the fold of the national agenda.
He further said that the PML-Q was also in consultations with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (Fazl).
Elahi said he had no interest in ministries and that his party office-bearers had authorised over a possible inclusion in the government.
Moreover, he said the PML-Q was in favour of the formation of the Hazara province as well as the division of Punjab into new provinces.
He, however, said that the Q-league was against the division of the Sindh province.
Earlier on Monday, sources in the PML-Q and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) told Dawn that the parties were expected to sign an agreement to form an alliance at the Presidency next week. Sources said the parties had reached an understanding over the distribution of ministries and on the issue of new provinces.
If the alliance agreement is implemented, the PML-Q will get five federal ministers, eight ministers of state, three advisers and the ambassador to the UN, sources said.

Decision on PPP offer soon, says Shujaat

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain said on Wednesday his party had completed a series of consultations on PPP’s offer to join the ruling coalition and it would announce its decision soon.
During a brief chat with a group of reporters after a meeting with a three-member delegation of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement headed by Dr Farooq Sattar at the residence of PML-Q parliamentary leader in the National Assembly Faisal Saleh Hayat, he denied reports that his party had presented to the PPP a list of demands including the ministries it wanted. “All talk about ministries having been allotted, flagged cars standing ready and Sherwanis having been stitched is baseless,” he said.
Chaudhry Shujaat said he had told President Asif Ali Zardari that he would take a final decision on his offer to join the coalition only after consultations with leaders and workers of his party and this process would definitely take time.
Faisal Saleh Hayat, who is considered to be a strong opponent of the PPP-PML-Q alliance, jumped in and said the party had not yet decided even “in principle” to join the government. “We have no intentions to do bargaining. We have never done it and will not do it,” he added.
Dr Farooq Sattar said the two parties enjoyed a longstanding relationship and friendship which was above any political alliance. He said the MQM team had come to meet PML-Q leaders to discuss the political situation, particularly the poor economic situation. He avoided saying anything about the move for an alliance between PPP and PML-Q.
Senator Babar Ghouri and MNA Haider Abbas Rizvi were other members of the MQM team. Chaudhry Shujaat was assisted by Mr Hayat and Ghous Bux Khan Mehar. This was the second meeting between the two former allies of Gen Musharraf since the formal offer made by the PPP to the Chaudhry brothers to join the government last month.
The PML-Q said it had presented a “national agenda” to the PPP and wanted it to invite all parties represented in parliament to work jointly to implement the agenda. A senior PML-Q leader and former leader of opposition in the Senate Kamil Ali Agha told Dawn they had information that the PPP had contacted other parties on his party’s demand and the MQM leaders’ meeting with Chaudhry Shujaat was a result of the government move.
Mr Agha, who was a member of the PML-Q delegation which met President Zardari last month, said his party had actually given a four-point agenda on core issues being faced by the nation as a condition to become part of “the national government”.
He said the PML-Q wanted the PPP to invite all parties to suggest measures and agree on a plan to improve the economic situation, tide over energy crisis, eliminate extremism and resolve issues of price hike and unemployment.
“Moreover, all the parties should also decide a timeframe for implementation of the agreed agenda and there should be no party politics during this period,” he added.
Mr Agha said that soon after receiving the PPP’s offer the PML-Q leadership had initiated a “brainstorming” process within the party and it was now almost over. He said a meeting of the party’s Central Working Committee would be convened soon to
take a final decision.
He admitted that there were certain groups in the party which were opposing an alliance with the PPP, but said that such “differences of opinion” were part of democracy.
When asked about a statement by presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar that the PPP was just looking for a new coalition partner and there was no truth in reports about the formation of a national government, Mr Agha said perhaps Mr Babar was
not aware of the actual situation.
He categorically stated that the PML-Q had told President Zardari that it would only join a national government and it had been informed that the president had accepted its proposals.
Background interviews with a number of leaders from the two parties reveal that basically it’s the question of getting through the next budget and Senate elections. The PML-Q is the third largest parliamentary group in the National Assembly with 50
MNAs.
The reason for the PML-Q to give a serious consideration to the PPP’s offer despite opposition within the party is also said to be the numbers game in the upper house where the PML-Q will be the biggest loser in the next year’s Senate elections when its 20 senators will be retiring.
A PML-Q source said the party had been assured by the PPP leadership during behind-the-scene meetings that the two parties could reach an accord for seat adjustment for the Senate elections, if the Chaudhrys decided to join the federal government.
At present the PPP-led coalition cannot afford to lose even a single vote in the National Assembly. It has 172 members which is the exact number it requires to carry out a simple legislation in the 342-member lower house.

US helps Libyan rebels, fighting rages in west

TRIPOLI: The United States took steps to throw a financial lifeline to rebels controlling eastern Libya while forces loyal to Muammar Qadhafi focused their firepower on pockets of resistance in the west.
Rebels said Qadhafi’s forces fired Russian-made Grad rockets, which rights groups, say should not be used in civilian areas, at the rebel-held western towns of Misrata and Zintan following Nato strikes to free Misrata’s port. In Zintan, the rebels struck back.
“Rebels attacked posts belonging to Qadhafi forces east of Zintan in the early evening. The posts have been used to fire rockets into Zintan,” the spokesman, called Abdulrahman, told Reuters.
“The rebels destroyed at least three tanks and captured two others.”
Remoter areas of western Libya also came under fire from forces loyal to Qadhafi, trying to break an uprising against his four-decade rule that has put most of the east in rebel hands since it began in mid-February.
“Many in the Western Mountains in towns such as Yefrin, Zintan and Kabau are being killed by this indiscriminate shelling,” senior rebel National Council spokesman Abdel Hafiz Ghoga told a news conference in Benghazi in the east.
The United States voiced confidence in the Benghazi-based main opposition council Wednesday as the US Treasury moved to permit oil deals with the group, which is struggling to provide funding for the battle-scarred areas under its control.
The order by the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control may help to clear up concerns among potential buyers over legal complications related to ownership of Libyan oil and the impact of international sanctions.

The first major oil shipment from rebel-held east Libya, reported to be 80,000 tonnes of crude, was expected to arrive in Singapore on Thursday for refuelling but oil traders told Reuters finding a buyer was not straightforward, with many of the usual traders still worried about legal complications.
A tanker booked for Italian oil company Eni to carry crude to Italy from Qadhafi-held territory in Libya never arrived in port and left empty last week because the sanctions meant the government would not have got paid, trade sources said.
“They didn’t want the crude to go, because they wouldn’t have gotten any money for it,” an industry source said on Wednesday, adding, “They could use it to refine into gasoline.”
Fighting Out Of Sight
Residents say pro-Qadhafi forces have been surrounding mountain-top towns in western Libya, cutting them off from food, water and fuel supplies and unleashing indiscriminate bombardments on their homes with rockets and mortars.
Libyan officials deny targeting civilians, saying they are fighting armed gangs and al Qaeda sympathisers who are terrorising the local population.

Rebels who seized a remote post on the western border with Tunisia hurriedly dug trenches after hearing that forces loyal to Qadhafi were on their way to re-take the crossing.
The sound of distant explosions could occasionally be heard coming from the Libyan side of the border, signs of a battle that has been going on for weeks in the Western Mountains region, largely out of sight of the outside world.
The rebel spokesman in the Western Mountains town of Zintan, scene of some of the region’s most intense fighting, said there was heavy bombardment there on Wednesday, that at least 15 people were wounded and five houses destroyed.
Misrata also came under fire from Grad missiles, the rebels said, after Nato air strikes forced Qadhafi’s troops away from the port, the only connection the besieged city has with the outside world.
Both the rebels and the European Union said the shelling of the Misrata port threatened a vital supply and rescue route.
“We are receiving reports of hospitals being overwhelmed by a growing number of wounded,” EU Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva said in a statement.
An aid ship took advantage of a brief lull in the fighting to rescue Libyans and a French journalist wounded in the fighting in Misrata, along with migrant workers, from the western rebel enclave and headed for Benghazi, centre of the rebel heartland in the east.

“Despite heavy shelling of the port area about 935 migrants and Libyans have been rescued and are now safely en route to Benghazi,” the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said.
A UN human rights group is in Libya to investigate accusations pro-Qadhafi forces have violated human rights and attacked civilians.

UN fails to agree on condemning Syria

UNITED NATIONS: The deeply divided UN Security Council failed to agree on a European and US-backed statement condemning Syrian violence against peaceful protesters on Wednesday, with Russia saying security forces were also killed and the actions don’t threaten international peace.
”A real threat to regional security in our view could arise from outside interference in Syria’s domestic situation including attempts to push ready-made solutions or taking of sides,” Russia’s deputy UN ambassador Alexander Pankin warned the UN’s most powerful body during a public session that followed, saying this could lead to civil war.
”It is extremely important to focus all attempts on avoiding such a dangerous turn of events, especially as Syria is a cornerstone of the Middle East security architecture,” he said. ”Destabilizing this significant link in the chain will lead to complications throughout the region.”
China and India called for political dialogue and peaceful resolution of the crisis, with no mention of condemnation.
China’s UN Ambassador Li Baodong said the turbulence in the Mideast and North Africa has also ”dealt a big blow to the stability in this region.”
If the underlying issues aren’t addressed, he warned, ”they will jeopardize peace and stability in other regions. They would also have a major negative impact on the recovery of the world economy.”
Lebanon’s UN Ambassador Nawaf Salam stressed the country’s special relationship with Syria, saying ”the hearts and minds” of the Lebanese people are with the Syrian people and are supporting President Bashar Assad‘s lifting of the state of emergency and reforms.

France, Britain, Germany and Portugal circulated a draft media statement on Monday calling for the 15-member council to condemn the violence. But during consultations Wednesday afternoon, several members were opposed so at the request of the Europeans and the US, the Security Council then moved into open session to hear a briefing from the UN political chief and statements from council members.
Syria’s UN Ambassador Bashar Ja’afari welcomed the council’s inaction and questioned the ”unprecedented enthusiasm” by some members for the statement and a ”lack of such enthusiasm” for attempting to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The Syrian ambassador blamed the violence on ”extremist groups whose fundamental objective is clearly the fall of the Syrian government” and said law enforcement had acted with the ”utmost restraint” to prevent the killing of civilians. He waved a list of 51 members of the armed forces he said were killed ”by armed gangs.”
He said the campaign by extremists began as information surfaced of outside parties ”financing acts of sabotage.” He pointed to a report of the US government financing an opposition satellite television station and opposition figures bent on ousting Assad.
Ja’afari defended the government’s reforms, said more will come and that the government had detained members of ”extremist circles” in Daraa, the city at the heart of the Syrian uprising, and confiscated sophisticated weapons including machine-guns. He said those detained admitted their crimes and said they received ”large sums for their acts.”

But UN political chief B. Lynn Pascoe and the United States and the Europeans painted a very different picture of events.
Pascoe told the council that ”a review of the reports of media, international human rights groups, UN agencies and diplomatic missions confirm that the overwhelming majority of protests have been peaceful and unarmed.”
”However, there have been credible reports of a very few instances where protesters have used force, resulting in the deaths of members of the security forces,” said Pascoe.
He said Human Rights Watch documented just one with eyewitness testimony, on April 8 in Daraa.
”There are no confirmed reports that this is a recurring phenomenon,” he said, ”neither do we have confirmation of reports of security personnel or soldiers being killed by government agents. Some of the overall confusion on this sensitive issue may stem from the widely reported presence of armed security agents and regime supporters in civilian clothes.”
US Ambassador Susan Rice again accusing Syria of ”casting blame on outsiders” instead of responding to legitimate calls for reforms from the Syrian people. She reiterated that Iran is supporting the Syrian crackdown using ”the same brutal tactics” it did against its own people.

The US and the Europeans warned that unless the Syrian demands for reform are heeded quickly, they will be pressing for additional sanctions.

Kandahar jail governor detained after mass breakout

KANDAHAR: The governor of the Afghan jail where hundreds of insurgents this week escaped through a tunnel built by the Taliban has been detained along with several top aides, an intelligence source told Reuters on Thursday.


In 2008, around 1,000 prisoners including Taliban fighters escaped after a truck bomb blew open the jail gates. That mass escape quickly led to a surge in fighting.


General Ghulam Dastgir, who headed the high security Sarposa jail where almost 500 fighters escaped along a dirt shaft fitted with lights and air pipes, was led away in handcuffs following a preliminary investigation, the source said on condition of anonymity.
Also detained were eight others including Dastgir’s deputy governor and several senior prison managers, he said.
A spokesman for Tooryalai Wesa, the governor of southern Kandahar province where the jail was located, confirmed several detentions at the prison, but declined to name anyone.
“A number of people were detained because they neglected their duties,” the spokesman said.
Several police from stations located around the prison on the outskirts of Kandahar city had also been dismissed for sleeping when they should have been on patrol as the escape took place under cover of darkness, he said.
Afghanistan’s government has launched a full investigation into the breakout, the second in three years at the jail, which Karzai’s chief spokesman said had exposed serious holes in the country’s security preparedness.
In 2008, around 1,000 prisoners including Taliban fighters escaped after a truck bomb blew open the jail gates. That mass escape quickly led to a surge in fighting.

Deadlock in Libya exposes international rifts

TRIPOLI: Military deadlock in Libya has exposed growing international rifts, with critics of Nato bombing calling it another case of the West trying to overthrow a regime by stretching the terms of a UN resolution. 
“Is there a lack of such crooked regimes in the world?” Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin asked on Tuesday. “Are we going to bomb everywhere and conduct missile strikes?”
And a senior African Union official accused Western nations of undermining an AU peace plan that would not require the departure from power of Muammar Qadhafi.
British and US officials met on Tuesday to discuss how to step up military pressure on Qadhafi, as the Libyan leader’s army fought fierce clashes with rebels in besieged Misrata.
More than a month of British and French-led Nato air strikes have failed to dislodge Qadhafi or bring major gains for anti-government rebels who hold much of east Libya.
Warplanes flattened a building in Qadhafi’s compound on Monday in what his officials called an assassination attempt. Nato denies trying to kill him.
British Defence Secretary Liam Fox and Britain’s Chief of the Defence Staff General David Richards met US Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington.
After the Washington talks, Gates said the coalition was not targeting Qadhafi specifically. Fox said there had been some “momentum” in the Libyan conflict in recent days.

Western forces have run out of obvious targets to bomb, say analysts, without achieving a clear military result.
Putin accused the coalition of exceeding its UN mandate to protect civilians.
“They said they didn’t want to kill Qadhafi. Now some officials say, yes, we are trying to kill Qadhafi,” he said during a visit to Denmark. “Who permitted this, was there any trial? Who took on the right to execute this man?
Libya’s state news agency Jana said Tripoli had urged Russia to call an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, where Moscow has a permanent seat. A Russian official said no instructions for such a call had been made.
The war has split the oil producer, Africa’s fourth biggest, into a government-held western area round the capital Tripoli and an eastern region held by disorganised but dedicated rebels.
Migrants Stranded 
Troops loyal to Qadhafi have extended their campaign to pound Berber towns in the Western Mountains while battling rebels around the port of Misrata, apparently with the aim of severing the western city from its one lifeline, the sea.
At least one migrant from Niger was reported killed and 10-20 injured in the shelling of the port, the International Organisation for Migration said.
They were among at least 1,500 migrants, many from Niger, awaiting evacuation. An IOM-chartered rescue ship has been forced by the fighting to wait offshore.
While world attention has been on Misrata and battles further east, fighting has intensified in the Western Mountains.

Flanked by deserts, the mountain range stretches west for more than 150 km from south of Tripoli to Tunisia, and is inhabited by Berbers who are ethnically distinct from most Libyans and long viewed with suspicion by the government.
Western Mountains towns joined the wider revolt against Qadhafi’s rule in February. They fear they are now paying the price while Nato efforts to whittle down Qadhafi’s forces from the air are concentrated on bigger population centres.
The UN refugee agency UNHCR said 30,000 people had fled the Western Mountains for Tunisia in the past three weeks, leaving the towns of Nalut and Wazin virtually deserted.
Around the coastal town of Brega to the east, the Libyan army reinforced its positions and dug in its long-range missile batteries to conceal them from attacks by Nato planes, a rebel army officer said on Tuesday.
Addis Ababa Talks 
The African Union has been holding separate talks with Libyan Foreign Minister Abdelati Obeidi and rebel representatives in Addis Ababa.
The rebels have rebuffed an AU plan because it does not entail Qadhafi’s departure. The United States, Britain and France also say there can be no political solution until the Libyan leader leaves power.
Ramtane Lamamra, AU’s Commissioner for Peace and Security, accused the West of failing to support the Ethiopian-based bloc’s own peace proposal. “Attempts have been made to marginalise an African solution to the crisis,” he said.
Obeidi said Tripoli wanted a special AU meeting “to identify the ways that enable our continent to mobilise capabilities to face the external forces which aggress against us"

Pakistan denies reports of efforts to split US, Afghanistan

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan denied media reports on Wednesday that it was lobbying Afghanistan to drop its alliance with Washington and look to Islamabad and Beijing to forge a peace deal with the Taliban and rebuild its economy.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani “bluntly” told Afghan President Hamid Karzai to “forget about allowing a long-term US military presence in his country”, according to Afghans present at an April 16 meeting between the two men.
“Reports claiming Gilani-Karzai discussion abt Pakistan advising alignment away fm US are inaccurate,” Pakistan’s ambassador in Washington, Hussain Haqqani, wrote on his Twitter feed.
Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tehmina Janjua told Reuters: “It is the most ridiculous report we have come across.”
The Journal reported that Pakistan’s apparent bid to separate Afghanistan from the United States is a clear sign that tensions between Washington and Islamabad could threaten attempts to end the war in Afghanistan on favorable terms for the West.
The United States plans to start removing combat troops in July, with the bulk of them scheduled to be home by the end of 2014. Pakistan hopes to fill any power vacuum the Americans leave behind, considering Afghanistan to be within its traditional sphere of influence and a bulwark against its arch-rival India.
Pakistan’s military has had long-running ties to the Afghan Taliban and has repeatedly said that the road to a settlement of the 10-year conflict in Afghanistan runs through Islamabad.
The Journal reported that Pakistan no longer has an incentive to allow the United States a leading role in what it considers its own backyard.
At a rally to his party’s supporters on Wednesday, Gilani said Pakistan would maintain relations with the United States based on “mutual respect and interests”.
However, he added: “We’ll not compromise on national interests. We are not ready to compromise on our sovereignty, defence, integrity and self-respect, no matter how powerful the other is.”
Pakistan is now looking to secure its own interests in Afghanistan at the expense of the United States. Kabul and Islamabad also agreed at the meeting to include Pakistani military and intelligence officials in a commission seeking peace with the Taliban, giving Pakistan’s security establishment a formal role in any talks.
“This is part of General Kayani’s relentless outreach to President Karzai ever since the Obama administration announced withdrawal plans,” C. Raja Mohan, a prominent Indian foreign affairs expert, told Reuters, referring to Pakistani army chief General Ashfaq Kayani.
US ties with Karzai have soured since his election was called into question and over corruption. Relations with Pakistan have suffered over covert US actions, including missile attacks by drone aircraft that Washington says are necessary to hunt down al Qaeda and the Taliban, and which Pakistan sees as a violation of its sovereignty.
The Journal said the leaks about the April 16 meeting could be part of a campaign by a pro-US faction around Karzai to convince the United States to move more quickly to secure a strategic partnership agreement, which would spell out the relationship between Kabul and Washington after 2014.
“The longer they wait … the more time Pakistan has to secure its interests,” one of the pro-US Afghan officials told the Journal.
American officials are aware of the meeting, the paper reported, and assumed the leak was a negotiating tactic to secure more US aid to Afghanistan after 2014. The idea of China taking a leading role in Afghanistan “was fanciful at best,” the officials said.

White House releases longer Obama birth certificate

WASHINGTON: The White House on Wednesday released a longer version of President Barack Obama’s US birth certificate to try to quiet charges from some Republicans that he was not born in the United States.
Obama was to make a White House statement at 1445 GMT about the controversy. Questions about his birth have been pushed in recent weeks by real estate tycoon Donald Trump, who says he is considering a run for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.
The new document confirms what a shorter version has said, that Obama was born in Hawaii on Aug 4, 1961, but provides a little more information, such as that he was born at Kapiolani Maternity and Gynecological Hospital.
The document was obtained by Obama’s personal lawyer, who traveled to Hawaii to retrieve a copy and returned with it on Tuesday.
“The president believed the distraction over his birth certificate wasn’t good for the country. It may have been good politics and good TV, but it was bad for the American people and distracting from the many challenges we face as a country,” said White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer.
Trump, speaking in New Hampshire, told reporters that he was “really happy” that this has taken place and ready to debate other issues.
“I feel I’ve accomplished something really, really important and I’m honored by it,” Trump said in remarks shown live on CNN.

Back at home, Zulqarnain vows to ‘share’ everything

ISLAMABAD: Runaway former Pakistan wicketkeeper Zulqarnain Haider returned home from Britain on Monday after receiving government assurances about the safety of his family.
Haider, who turned 25 on Saturday, fled the Pakistan team’s hotel in Dubai on November 8 for the United Kingdom after saying he had received demands that he fix a one-day match against South Africa under the threat of death.
He arrived by plane in Islamabad on Monday and was escorted by security officials to Interior Minister Rehman Malik’s office where he met the minister, who had guaranteed his safety.
“I am happy to return. There were solid reasons behind my going to London and I am sure everyone realised that no one can put his career at stake for nothing,” Haider told reporters after the meeting.
With his younger daughter on his lap, Haider added: “I am happy the way I was given full security. I want to spend some time with my family and then meet PCB (Pakistan Cricket Board) chairman (Ijaz Butt) which I will share with you.”
Haider will be given full security as promised,” Malik said.
“He is a citizen of Pakistan so there is no restriction on his movement. He has told us some facts which at this point of time we cannot share with the media.”
Wearing a casual shirt and jeans, Haider was earlier whisked away by security officials to avoid a scrum at the airport, where he also met his wife, daughters and brother, witnesses said.
The wicketkeeper was part of the Pakistan team in the series against South Africa in the United Arab Emirates when he went missing on the day of the fifth and final one-day match on November 8.

He fled to London and announced his retirement from international cricket.
A week later he applied for asylum there.
Last week Haider met Malik and, after receiving promises of safety for himself and his family, agreed to return home. He said he had also decided to withdraw his asylum request.
After his disappearance the PCB terminated his contract and formed a committee to establish the facts surrounding the dramatic departure.
But the three-member committee said there were no clear motives behind his disappearance and also declared him “mentally ill”.
After meeting Malik last week, Haider also said he would return to cricket.
“Since I have been given full assurances of safety, I have no reason to continue with my asylum application and after returning home I want to resume my cricket career,” he said.
The PCB said Monday that Haider had not yet been in touch with them.
“If he makes a contact, then only we will have to decide whether he will have to appear before the committee. He didn’t submit details sought by the fact-fixing committee last year,” PCB spokesman Nadeem Sarwar told AFP.
Haider played one Test, against England at Birmingham last year, as well as four one-day and three Twenty20 internationals in a short career.
On his Facebook page Haider had also promised to name Pakistani players involved in match-fixing, but he never supplied the names.

British media reported that Haider was questioned by the Anti-Corruption and Security Unit (ACSU), the International Cricket Council (ICC) wing that deals with match-fixing claims, in London last year but that the unit did not find anything substantive to back up his allegations.
Pakistani cricket was rocked by a corruption scandal last year when key players Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir were accused of spot-fixing during the Lord’s Test against England in August.
The three players were handed lengthy bans by the ICC in February this year.