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Pak wants quick delivery of F-16s
Lankan troops capture Jaffna
Nearly 800 flee war zone
Will not let Iran go nuclear: Hillary
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‘Osama calls for jihad against Israel’
Indian soldier drowned in Aus
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Pak wants quick delivery of F-16s
Islamabad, January 14 A statement by the defence ministry said the two officials exchanged views over the current bilateral defence cooperation. The minister informed the US envoy about the defence requirements of Pakistan, particularly the provision of F-16 aircraft, the statement said. The US ambassador emphasised the need to further strengthen bilateral defence ties for mutual benefit. Both the sides agreed to intensify bilateral cooperation to overcome the challenges being faced by Pakistan. The most recent US delivery of F-16 fighter aircraft to Pakistan was made in July
last year. The US had provided the aircraft at no cost except for the expenses of transport from the US to Pakistan, which also
placed the order for 18 brand new F-16s. —UNI
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Lankan troops capture Jaffna
Colombo, January 14 A senior LTTE Sea Tiger leader identified only as “Thiru” was killed during the battle to takeover the Chundikulam area while troops also captured 100 boats, a number of vehicles, 400 anti-personnel mines and 40 anti-tank mines, military spokesman Uday Nanayakkara said. “With this, the last land on Jaffna has been liberated from the LTTE,” he told PTI. The northern peninsula is strategically located and has long been a prize catch for both the warring sides in the island’s decades-old ethnic strife. “We believe the rebels have suffered heavy casualties but the bodies must have been removed by other LTTE cadres. The Army has suffered no casualty,” Nanayakkara said. The new success for the advancing Lankan troops came five days after they seized the strategic Elephant Pass, the gateway to the Jaffna peninsula. The rebels, who has already lost their de facto capital Kilinochchi, now only controls their coastal stronghold of Mullaittivu. Sri Lankan troops on Wednesday advanced further into Mullaittivu, killing seven Tamil Tigers in ground clashes amidst a spate of air attacks by fighter jets in the region, the military said. — PTI
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Nearly 800 flee war zone
Colombo, January 14 Troops are marching to the Mullaittivu port, across a small wedge of northeastern Sri Lanka, still held by the Tigers, where aid groups say more than 2,00,000 people are trapped in an area of no more than 330 square km. ''In the last 24 hours, 796 people have come out of the war zone,'' military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said. They have been provided with basic facilities and food, and will either be sent to the army-held Jaffna Peninsula or south to Vavuniya, site of the army's rear headquarters for the war. Soldiers also captured three rebels and found three decomposed guerilla bodies, he said. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had no immediate comment. In the recent days, the pro-rebel web site www.TamilNet.com has accused the military of shelling civilians. Nanyakkara said that was not true, and President Mahinda Rajapaksa has said he had ordered the army to avoid all civilian casualties - even if it means slowing down an offensive that many expect will end the 25-year war. — Reuters
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Will not let Iran go nuclear: Hillary
Washington, January 14 “A nuclear-armed Iran is not acceptable to the United States. And it is our job to persuade other countries that it should not be acceptable to them either,” she told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in her nomination hearing last night. Testifying before the key committee, Clinton said the US would not take any option off the table even as the policy of engagement would be the hallmark of its foreign policy when it comes to dealing with countries like Iran. “It is going to be US’ policy to pursue diplomacy with all of its multitudinous tools to do everything we can to prevent Iran from becoming acquiring nuclear weapons. As I also said, no option is off the table," Clinton said. "The incoming administration views with great concern the role that Iran is playing in the world, its sponsorship of terrorism, its continuing interference with the functioning of other governments and its pursuit of nuclear weapons," she said in response to a question from senator John Kerry, who is the incoming
chairman of the powerful Senate Committee. She informed the committee members during the course of her nomination hearing that there was an ongoing policy review that the Obama administration had undertaken. "But I think, as the President-elect said...our goal will be to do everything we can to pursue, through diplomacy, through use of sanctions, through creating better coalitions with countries that also have big stake in preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear weapon power," she said. — PTI
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‘Osama calls for jihad against Israel’
Dubai, January 14 “God has bestowed us with the patience to continue the path of jihad for another seven years, and seven and seven years,” bin Laden said in the tape that was dated in the current Islamic month. Bin Laden also condemns Arab governments for preventing their people from acting to ``liberate Palestine.’’ The Qaida chief also discusses outgoing US President George Bush’s administration and President-elect Barack Obama. The tape was titled “A Call for Jihad to Stop the Aggression against Gaza”. “The question is, can America continue its war with us for several more decades to come? Reports and evidence would suggest otherwise,” he said. The Palestinian death toll from the 19-day-old Israeli offensive against the Islamist Hamas movement in Gaza has risen to about 1,000. Israel says 13 Israelis have been killed. The Saudi-born terrorist said the global financial crisis had exposed the waning influence of the United States in world affairs and would in turn weaken its ally Israel. More than 60 messages have been broadcast by bin Laden, his second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri and their allies since
the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001. — Reuters
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Indian soldier drowned in Aus
Melbourne, Janury 14 Rana (26) was on a rafting expedition in the Franklin river in Tasmania last Friday, when he was pulled into surging rapids and failed to surface, the police said. Rana’s body would be flown to India next week. The Australian army is also investigating the incident. Franklin river has many grade five and six rapids, which pose a challenge to rafters. — PTI
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