W O R L D

Al-Qaida spiritual leader killed in US drone attack
Sanaa, September 30
Anwar al-Awlaki, a US-born cleric linked to Al-Qaida’s Yemen-based wing, was killed in an air strike on Friday, Yemeni and US officials said, removing a “global terrorist” high on a US wanted list.


Anwar al-Awlaki

Wading through troubled waters Volunteers help residents to cross a flooded area as they evacuate to safer grounds in Calumpit township, Bulacan province, near Manila on Friday. Heavy rains from typhoon Nesat that battered north-eastern Philippines early this week filled up dams, prompting officials to release water overnight. — AP

Al-Qaida spiritual leader killed in US drone attack

Sanaa, September 30
Anwar al-Awlaki, a US-born cleric linked to Al-Qaida’s Yemen-based wing, was killed in an air strike on Friday, Yemeni and US officials said, removing a “global terrorist” high on a US wanted list.

Awlaki’s killing, if confirmed, deprives Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) of an eloquent preacher seen as its most talented English language propagandist who has advocated — and been implicated in — attacks on the United States.

Some of the hijackers in the September 11, 2001 attacks attended mosques where Awlaki preached in the United States.

His death could be a boon for Yemen’s embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh, clinging to power despite months of popular protests, factional violence and international pressure.

It was not immediately clear if Yemen had carried out the raid or if Awlaki had been killed by a US drone strike. A US drone aircraft targeted but missed Awlaki in May.

“The terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki has been killed along with some of his companions,” the Yemeni Defence Ministry said in a statement texted to journalists, but gave no details.

A senior US official confirmed Awlaki’s death, but even he gave no details. “I can confirm he’s dead,” the official said.

A Yemeni security official said Awlaki, 40, who is of Yemeni descent, was hit in a morning air raid in the northern al-Jawf province that borders oil giant Saudi Arabia.

He said four suspected Al-Qaida members were killed with him. The Yemen embassy in Washington said Awlaki had been killed 8 km (five miles) from the town of Khashef in Jawf province, about 140 km east of Sanaa, at about 9.55 am (0655 GMT).

Yemeni authorities previously and erroneously reported that Awlaki had been killed in 2009.

The United States has stepped up drone strikes in Yemen to try and keep Al-Qaida off balance and prevent it from capitalising on the strife and chaos gripping the nation.

AQAP usually confirms the deaths of its members or affiliates on Internet posts a few days after the attack. — Reuters

India warns against hurry in troop withdrawal from Afghanistan

United Nations, Sept 30
Expressing concern over deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan, India today warned against any “hurry” in withdrawing troops from the country, saying such a move should be initiated keeping in mind ground realities and not just to meet any deadline.

“For peace, stability and security in Afghanistan, it is imperative that the ongoing transition be linked to the ground realities rather than rigid timetables. This, the international community in its hurry to withdraw from a combat role in Afghanistan, will ignore at its own peril,” India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Hardeep Singh Puri said. — PTI

Pointing out that extremist groups continue to attack high-security targets and assassinate important political figures such as former president Burhanuddin Rabbani, Puri said gains on the security front cannot be consolidated unless the international community is able to firmly deal with safe havens for terrorist groups outside Afghanistan’s borders.

He said the “syndicate of terrorism” including Al-Qaida, LeT and other extremist groups operating from within and outside Afghan borders must be rooted out for stability in the country.

“For security and stabilisation of Afghanistan, it is important to isolate and root out the syndicate of terrorism which includes elements of the Al-Qaida, Taliban, Lashkar-e-Taiba and other terrorist and extremist groups operating from within and outside Afghanistan’s borders,” Puri said.

Under Watch
UK lecturers spying on Indian students?

London, September 30
New Home Office rules asking academic staff at British universities to keep a tab on students from India and other non-EU countries have sparked off concern that lecturers have been turned into “spies and spooks”.

New official figures show that universities and other sponsors of international students reported at least 27,121 non-EU students to the UK Border Agency in the 18 months leading up to August last year.

As part of new rules to tighten the students visa system and prevent its abuse, academic staff are required to report to immigration authorities if non-EU students are absent from classes or if their activities arouse suspicion.

The Universities and College Union said “pressure on staff to spy on their students” would create an environment of mistrust on campus and risked jeopardising the crucial relationship between staff and students.

Universities and colleges are now required to report suspicious or bogus students or risk being stripped of their licence to sponsor students from outside the European Union, who pay more than three times the fee paid by UK students.

The union said the news that thousands of foreign students are being reported to immigration officials each year could make the UK a less attractive place to study for overseas students.

UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: “The relationship between staff and students is an incredibly important one that is built on trust. Fears that lecturers are spying on students, whether they are or not, risks jeopardising that relationship”.

She added: “Successive governments have seen plans to turn lecturers into spooks overwhelmingly rejected by the academic community and we will continue to oppose such moves, which would make the UK a less attractive proposition to foreign students.”

The Manifesto Club campaign group, which obtained the figures of non-EU students being reported to immigration authorities, said the stringent visa controls were forcing UK academics to spy on their own students, eroding academic autonomy and damaging relationships between students and staff.

In its Students Under Watch report, the group said: “Universities are reporting large numbers of international students to the UKBA. The agency asks sponsors to email any suspicions about students; each notification can include information about several students.”

International students are a crucial source of revenue for cash-strapped British universities. Every year, thousands of students from India and other non-EU countries enrol on courses in universities and colleges here.

The Home Affairs Select Committee has warned that the David Cameron government's reforms aimed at cracking down on abuse of the visa system could cost the economy 3.6 billion pounds in a “worst-case scenario”, including loss of tuition fees and visa fee income, as well as a reduction in students and their dependants able to come to the UK. — PTI 

Act on ‘terror’ safe havens, NATO tells Pak

Brussels, September 30
NATO’s chief piled pressure on Pakistan today to step up the fight against terrorists enjoying safe havens in the border region with Afghanistan.

Amid growing US pressure for Pakistan to take action against Al-Qaeda-linked extremists, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen called for a positive engagement from Islamabad to ensure stability in Afghanistan.

“We encourage the Pakistani military and the Pakistani government to do its utmost to fight extremism and terrorism in the border region,” Rasmussen said at a defence forum hosted by the European Policy Centre think tank.

“It is really a security problem for our troops in Afghanistan that terrorists have safe havens, and that’s a fact, in Pakistan,” he said. “We have to deal with that and it’s in our mutual interest to deal with that. That’s a reason why we have conveyed that clear message to Pakistan authorities.”

The Pakistani government and Opposition leaders yesterday closed ranks against increasing US pressure for action against the Al-Qaeda-linked Haqqani network, refusing to be pressured into doing more in the war on terror.

In an unprecedented condemnation of Pakistan, the outgoing head of the US military, Admiral Mike Mullen, last week accused the country of “exporting” violent extremism to Afghanistan through proxies. Mullen also charged that the country’s main intelligence agency, ISI, was actively supporting the Al-Qaeda-linked Haqqani network blamed for an assault on the US embassy in Kabul this month.

There are 1.40 lakh-strong NATO-led foreign forces in Afghanistan, some one lakh from the United States, fighting a Taliban-led insurgency. — AFP