Washington, July 1
The US Defence Department has assured the Congress that the weapon systems requested by Pakistan for F-16 fighter jets would not reduce India’s quantitative or qualitative military advantage as the capability already exists in the region.

Notifying the Congress about the kind of weapons Pakistan has requested for the jets, it said: “Purchase of these weapons systems would not significantly reduce India’s quantitative or qualitative military advantage.

“Release of the weapon systems will neither affect the regional balance of power nor introduce a new technology, as this level of capability or higher already exists in other countries in the region,” the Pentagon said.

The Bush administration has approved the sale of 18 new F-16 fighter jets with an option of offering 18 more to Pakistan.

According to the Department of Defence’s notification, Pakistan had sought major defence equipment, including 500 AIM-120C; five Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM); 12 AMRAAM training missiles; 200 AIM-9M-8/9 Sidewinder missiles; 500 Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) Guidance Kits; GBU-31/38 Guided Bomb Unit (GBU) kits; 1,600 Enhanced-GBU-12/24 GBUs.

The Pentagon has said the overall package worth $ 650 million will include associated support equipment, software development/integration, modification kits, capability to employ a wide variety of munitions, spares and repair parts, flight test instrumentation, publications and technical documentation.

“Given its geo-strategic location and partnership in the global war on terrorism, Pakistan is a vital ally of the US, as reflected in the June, 2004 designation of Pakistan as a major non-North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally.

“This proposed sale will contribute to the foreign policy and national security of the United States by helping an ally meet its legitimate defence requirements. These weapon systems will be used for close air support in ongoing operations contributing to the global war on terrorism,” the Pentagon has maintained.

“Consistent with US conventional arms transfer policy and arms control initiatives, this potential sale will allow the Pakistan Air Force to modernise its ageing fighter and weapons inventory, thereby enabling it to support  both its own air defence needs and coalition operations.”

Meanwhile, a key panel of the US Congress, which earlier this week approved the India-US nuclear deal, has been called to meet again on July 13 to discuss the Bush administration’s proposal to sell F16 jets and weapon systems to Pakistan.

Republican chairman of the US House of Representatives’ Committee on International Relations Henry Hyde on Friday called the meeting after the  administration notified the Congress about the proposed sale bid apparently to placate a miffed Pakistan. — PTI, IANS

Baghdad, July 1
A car bomb tore through a market in a poor Shi'ite district of Baghdad on Saturday, killing 62 persons and wounding 114 in the bloodiest attack in Iraq for three months, police and Interior Ministry sources said.

It came a day after Osama bin Laden urged Al-Qaida followers to avenge the killing by US troops of their leader in Iraq.

Around the same time as the bombing, a Sunni Arab member of parliament and seven of her guards were abducted in the city.

The police said the market bomb went off in mid-morning as a police patrol was passing a parked car in a market area of the capital's eastern Sadr City district, a stronghold of the Mehdi Army militia of radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

Angry crowds formed around the scene of devastation at the sprawling outdoor market along a main road in the slum district.

“May God curse the Sunnis,” one man yelled. “If the government can't protect people, they should hand security over to the Mehdi Army or to the people,” another told reporters.

It was the deadliest attack since US forces killed Al-Qaida's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, in a June 7 air strike. Bin Laden, in an Internet recording, urged insurgents to avenge his death, describing the Jordanian as a “lion of Jihad”.

AN anti-Iraq war protester was questioned by the police outside Downing Street because she was reading The Independent.

Charity Sweet, 40, and mother of three, was holding a copy of Thursday's edition which carried the headline: "Warning: if you read this newspaper you may be arrested under the Government's anti-terror laws.'' Inside was an article reprinted from Vanity Fair magazine which ran across the first three pages of that day's issue of the newspaper. The article by writer Henry Porter, accused the Blair government of a sustained erosion of civil liberties.

As she sat outside Downing Street she was approached and questioned by a police officer. When he had finished his inquiries she was astonished to be handed a form detailing the reasons for his interest which included "reading today's Independent".

Earlier this month Steven Jago, an accountant and also an anti-war protester and friend of Ms Sweet, was arrested by the police and later charged under the Serious and Organised Crime Act. He had been carrying some copies of the magazine which were confiscated by the police.

On Thursday afternoon, after seeing the Independent had reprinted the article, Ms Sweet decided she would demonstrate her solidarity with Mr Jago and went to Downing Street to find him. Unsuccessful she bought a sandwich and decided to eat it while sitting down under a tree near the gated entrance to Downing Street and reading the newspaper. She was also wearing a sign around her neck warning against bullying which she had borrowed from the University of Kent where she is a music student. After some minutes she was interrupted and questioned by a patrolling Scotland Yard officer.

Ms Sweet, from Chatham in Kent, said: "It was intrusive and ridiculous to think that I could not sit there and read the newspaper when I chose to.

I don't have any issues with the officer himself, he was perfectly polite and just doing his job. He asked me who I was and what I was doing there. I told him the publication of the article was history in the making and I could not think of a more appropriate place to sit down and read it. I don't think I was causing a problem for anybody.'' She was not cautioned or arrested. As is normal procedure, the officer handed Ms Sweet a form which set out why a particular person is stopped and, as can happen, searched.

Under the section requiring a description of what the person stopped had been doing, the officer wrote: "Sitting outside D Street with Notification Around Neck about Bullying. And Reading Today's Independent.'' The form said the stop had been conducted "to check on welfare''.

Ms Sweet was allowed to continue eating her sandwich and reading the Independent. After a few minutes she left, found Mr Jago and they went to sing protest songs and hymns outside the Palace of Westminster and New Scotland Yard, something she has done on a number of previous occasions.

Part of a small community of protesters such as Mr Jago who are regulars around the Westminster area, Ms Sweet's interest in the Iraqi conflict stems from the fact that her first husband was an Iraqi Christian and their daughter, who is 18, is therefore half Iraqi. She said: "What has happened there since the war is genocide. Life under that terrible dictator was actually far, far kinder and that is a very sad state of affairs.'' Originally from Canada she has been living in this country since 1991 and has two other children, a girl aged seven and a boy 13.

— By arrangement with The Independent, London.