Peshawar, November 7
Suspected US drones today fired missiles into a Pakistan border region killing 13 militants, including four foreigners, officials said, the latest in a series of strikes that has infuriated Pakistan.

There have been nearly 20 attacks by suspected missile-firing pilotless US drones since the beginning of September, but today’s is the first since the Tuesday’s US presidential election.

Pakistan objected to the strikes as it considered it not only a violation of its sovereignty but also counter-productive to its efforts against militants behind surging violence in the country and Afghanistan.

A senior government official in the region, Latif-ur-Rehman, told Reuters the missiles hit a militant compound in the Kamsham area of North Waziristan.

“It was an accurate strike and the compound has been destroyed,” said Rehman.

At least 13 militants were killed, another senior government official and an intelligence agency official said.

“It is remote so information is coming slowly but we can confirm that four missiles killed eight Pakistani Taliban and five guests,” said the intelligence official, referring to five foreign militants.

There was no information about the nationality of any of those killed but North Waziristan is known as a sanctuary for Taliban and Al Qaida militants.

The US forces have stepped up attacks on militants in Pakistan in response to concern about worsening security in Afghanistan. Scores of people have been killed in missile strikes and a September 3 cross-border commando raid, but no top Al Qaida or Taliban leaders have been reported to have died.

The nuclear-armed US ally Pakistan is also battling militants on its side of the border but says cross-border US strikes undermine efforts to isolate the militants and rally public opinion behind the unpopular campaign against them.

The United States has shrugged off Pakistani protests. It says the attacks protect the US troops in Afghanistan.

Pakistan hopes the new US administration will be more sensitive to its concerns, although President-elect Barack Obama made comments in his campaign suggesting he would take a hawkish approach toward the border area militants. — Reuters

Paris, November 7 
France has offered to upgrade India’s 51-frontline Mirage 2000 fighters in a “compressed delivery time-frame”, which could prove a boon to New Delhi in the backdrop of the Indian Air Forces’ force levels depleting to an alarming all-time low of 32 Squadrons.

And as part of the upgrading deal, almost at the final stages of conclusion, the new Mirages would come armed with longer-range air-to-air missiles to enhance the fighter’s capability in beyond visual-range combat.

The fighters will be armed with new MICA missiles with a range of taking on targets almost 40 kms away, almost double the range of present missiles on Indian fighters.

“The time scale of upgraded fighter deliveries can be compressed and worked out according to IAF’s needs,” Francois Quentin, senior vice- president of the European Aerospace, Electronics and services major, Thales, told the visiting Indian newsmen here.

The Paris-headquartered company is leading the consortium of four companies comprising Dassault, the manufacturer of the fighter, Snecma, the engine makers and European missile leader MBDA, which would undertake the Mirage upgrade, estimated to cost over 1.5 billion Euros.

India and France have been in negotiations for the past two years on the Mirage upgrade and the deal almost now in final stages could be the last major defence contract to be concluded by the government before the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Under the proposed deal, for which technical and weapon proposals have been finalised, 51 Mirages of the IAF will get a fresh lease of life for another 20-25 years, get an extended range of almost 800 km without refuelling and longer range detection capability to confront and take on four to five targets simultaneously both on ground and in the air. — PTI

Islamabad, November 7
The Al-Qaida has released a video of the suicide car bomb attack on the Danish embassy in the Pakistani capital in June that killed 8 persons and damaged the nearby residence of the Indian High Commissioner.

The video, received by Geo news channel, reportedly shows that the attack was carried out by an 18-year-old Saudi national named Kamal Saleem, alias Abu Gharaib.

The video, which the channel did not air citing journalistic responsibilities, features a message from the attacker.

It includes statements from Al-Qaida leaders Sheikh Abu al-Haya and Sheikh Mustafa Abu Yazeed, who described the attack as a response to the blasphemous cartoons of Prophet Mohammed published by Danish newspapers.

Eight persons were killed and more than 20 injured when the bomber blew up his explosive-laden car outside the Danish embassy in the heart of Islamabad on June 2. The blast also shattered all windows and damaged the nearby home of the Indian envoy. The Al-Qaida had claimed responsibility for the attack soon after. — PTI

London, November 7
US President-elect Barack Obama has appointed a 17-member high-level team of advisors, including billionaire investor Warren Buffett and Google chief executive Eric Schmidt, to guide him in channelising the economy, a media report says.

“US President-elect Barack Obama has appointed a team of high-level advisors, including billionaire investor Warren Buffett and Google chief executive Eric Schmidt, to guide his thoughts on the economy ahead of taking office on January 20,” the Telegraph report stated.

The team, to be called the Transition Economic Advisory Board, will meet for the first time in Chicago today to discuss the state of the economy and the prospect of taking early action. 

Warren Buffett, chairman and CEO, Berkshire Hathaway, would participate through speakerphone in the meeting. Further, the report stated that Obama might use this opportunity to appoint his first treasury secretary.

The advisory board has 17 members, including former Fed chairman Paul Volcker, whose name has also been connected with the treasury job, and former treasury secretary Robert Rubin, who would also be at the meeting at the Chicago Hilton today, the daily said. At present, Robert Rubin is chairman and director of the executive committee of global financial services major Citigroup.

Besides, corporate America is also well represented in the team, with Time Warner chairman Dick Parsons and Xerox chairman Anne Mulcahy and Schmidt, who was a loyal supporter of Obama during his election campaign, it added. — PTI 

New York, November 7
India-born author Salman Rushdie and Indian Canadian filmmaker Deepa Mehta will collaborate to produce a movie based on his prize-winning novel Midnight’s Children.

The book is a fictional work about Saleem who was born on the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947, just as the Indian Tricolour was replacing British flag. His story encompasses the history of India from Independence until end of emergency in 1977.

Well-known film star Shabana Azmi and Nandita Das, who had acted in Mehta’s earlier critically acclaimed but controversial movies, including Fire and Earth, will have major roles in the movie and the rest of the cast is still being finalised. Azmi will play the role of grandmother.

Rushdie and Mehta will together write the screenplay and collaborate on all other aspects of the movie which they expect to be released sometime in 2010. They plan to begin work on it in spring next year.

Announcing the collaboration on the sidelines of the annual Mahindra Indo-American Arts Council Film Festival yesterday, they expressed confidence that their efforts would be successful.

Rushdie said he had been approached several times earlier for allowing his novel to be adapted for a film but the efforts went nowhere. The current effort is serious and will see completion.

“I am delighted that my friend Deepa has agreed to make the film of Midnight’s Children. Her passion for the book, combined with her immense talent as a filmmaker, means that my novel has been placed in the best possible hands. I also look forward to work with her on the screen play,” Rushdie added. — PTI

Washington, November 7
The brain may explain why people slow down as they get older, starting at age 40. How fast you can throw a ball or run or swerve a steering wheel depends on how speedily brain cells fire off commands to muscles. Fast firing depends on good insulation for your brain’s wiring.

Now new US research suggests that in middle age, even healthy people begin to lose some of that insulation in a motor-control part of the brain - at the same rate that their speed subtly slows.

That helps explain why it’s hard to be a world-class athlete after 40, concludes George Bartzokis, a neurologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, who led the work.

And while that may sound depressing, keep reading. The research points to yet another reason to stay physically and mentally active: An exercised brain may spot fraying insulation quicker and signal for repair cells to get to work.

To Bartzokis, the brain is like the Internet. Speedy movement depends on bandwidth, which in the brain is myelin, a special sheet of fat that coats nerve fibres.

Healthy myelin, good thick insulation wound tightly around those nerve fibres, allows prompt conduction of the electrical signals the brain uses to send commands.

Consider someone like Michael Jordan. “The circuitry that made him a great basketball player was probably myelinated better than most other mortals,” Bartzokis notes.

But while myelin builds up during adolescence, when does production slow enough that we fall behind in the race to repair fraying, older insulation? — AP

BRIEFLY

Peak to be named after Obama
ST JOHN’S (ANTIGUA): Antigua’s Prime Minister wants to rename the island’s highest mountain peak Mount Obama in honour of the US President-elect. Boggy Peak, as it is currently known, soars more than 396 m over the island’s southern point. Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer announced the plan on Wednesday in a congratulatory letter to President-elect Barack Obama. — AP

Maaza Miss India
New York: Bhupinder Kaur (23) has been crowned as Maaza Miss India New York 2008. A student of political science and psychology at Hunter College, Bhupinder was declared winner of the 26th edition of the pageant held over the weekend in Queens borough. Mansi Shah (18) from Long Island was declared first runner up, while Ruby Kaur (20) of Sunnyside as second runner up.— IANS