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Pak fighting battle for survival: Zardari
Pak is at core of US strategic concerns: Holbrooke
US is not at war with Islam: Obama
To step up drone strikes in Pak: Report
Indian-born Canadian lawyer stripped of top civilian award
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Thai protesters trap PM at beach hotel
India, Kuwait ink 3 pacts
Another Indian in Obama’s council
20 Oz institutes face immigration department’s probe
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Pak fighting battle for survival: Zardari
Top officials of Pakistan and the United States failed to bridge the gap on the "red lines” set by Pakistan in the terms for engagement on implementing US President Barack Obama’s new strategy for combating terrorism in the region, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi told reporters here Tuesday.
Both sides, however, agreed to continue consultation on evolving a common strategy and would hold another trilateral Pakistan-Afghainstan- US meeting in Washington on May 5-7, Qureshi said while Addressing a joint press conference with Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Richard Holbrooke, special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan after an intense round of talks at the Foreign Office here. Asked to define those “red lines” the Pakistani Foreign Minister said drone attacks by the United States was one of them. He said the US has accepted Pakistan’s position that no foreign troops would be allowed by Pakistan on its soil. Officials here said that Pakistan is particularly irked by repeated statements by senior US officials casting doubts on the credibility of its intelligence agencies. This has prevented US supply of sophisticated weapons to Pakistan and hampered intelligence-sharing between the two sides with US officials suspecting that the Pakistani intelligence agencies continue to maintain covert contacts with some leading militants. Pakistan told US that such statements cause embarrassment and complicate matters besides emboldening militants. Answering questions regarding the conditionality in the US assistance package, Qureshi acknowledged that there is no blank cheque as was observed by President Obama while promising increased economic assistance to Pakistan. “We neither seek nor give blank cheques,”he said adding that war against terrorism is not possible without mutual trust. Pakistan is a victim of terrorism. the US acknowledges anti-terror efforts made by Pakistan which is defending its borders. Richard Holbrooke, special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, said Pakistan, Afghanistan and US are facing common threat and these countries have common interests. US wants to assist Pakistan in countering threats. We should look forward. Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at this occasion said US has a commitment to Pakistan. During meetings with Pakistani political leaders, we had tried to develop mutual trust. We are optimistic about Pakistani people and leadership, he added. He said he would hold further consultations with army chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani to boost cooperation including supply of more effective weaponry for enhancing surveillance and operational capability.
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Pak is at core of US strategic concerns: Holbrooke
Islamabad, April 7 US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke and US Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen, who are here on a visit, said the top Taliban leadership was hiding in the Balochistan province. During an informal dinner meeting with a selected group of journalists hosted by US Ambassador Anne Patterson last night, Holbrooke said Pakistan was at the core of his country’s strategic concerns. Holbrooke and Mullen came to Pakistan from Kabul after meeting President Hamid Karzai and other Afghan leaders. They were apparently told by Afghan officials that Afghanistan’s problems lay exclusively in Pakistan, media reports said. Asked if the US was winning or losing the war in Afghanistan, Mullen said since the US was not winning, it could be said that it was losing it. Holbrooke put it differently, saying neither the US nor the
Al-Qaida-Taliban network was winning it. —
PTI
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US is not at war with Islam: Obama “I like Obama because he is half-Muslim and everybody here hated Bush because of what he did in Iraq,” said Kassim, a Turkish driver. Obama has already gone a long way towards restoring Turkey to its former position as a crucial American ally in the region. Relations soured after the Turks refused to join the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. On Monday, in a speech to the Turkish parliament, Obama reached out to Turkey as an ally and to the rest of the Muslim world with the assurance that the US “is not and will never be at war with Islam”. Kassim had already decided that it did not matter what Obama’s religion was. What mattered was that many of his policies “seem to show that he wants the same things that we do”. This attitude is a radical change from a few years ago when an opinion poll showed only 9 per cent of Turks had a favourable opinion of the US. In his address to the Ankara parliament before travelling on to Istanbul, Obama also called on the EU to admit Turkey as a member. France has strongly opposed its inclusion and enthusiasm for EU entry has fallen among Turks. Nevertheless the long-term aim of joining is important in making Turkey less autocratic and reducing the role of the Turkish army in taking crucial decisions. Obama danced around contentious issues such as the 1915 Armenian genocide and the rights of Turkey’s Kurdish minority. “My views are on the record and I have not changed those views,” he said during a press conference with President Abdullah Gul, referring to his pledge during the US presidential election campaign to describe the killing of Armenians during the First World War as genocide. By arrangement with The Independent
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To step up drone strikes in Pak: Report
New York, April 7 On Sunday, a Taliban leader vowed to unleash two suicide attacks a week, similar to Saturday’s Islamabad blast, unless the CIA stopped firing missiles in the region. Pakistani officials have already expressed concern that the missile strikes fuel more violence in the country. But the New York Times quoted US officials as saying that the plan to intensify missile strikes underscored President Obama’s goal to “disrupt, dismantle and defeat” the
Al-Qaida in Pakistan and Afghanistan, as well as to strike at other militant groups. Officials are also proposing to broaden the strikes to Baluchistan, south of the tribal areas, unless Pakistan reduces the incursion of militants there, the report said. Senator Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat who heads the Armed Services Committee, acknowledged last week that “the price is very heavy” when missile strikes mistakenly kill civilians, but he said the strikes were “an extremely effective tool”. Some experts have said a crucial change in aerial warfare, in which US forces are often stalking individuals rather than tanks and other large armaments, has raised new legal issues. The paper also quoted military experts as saying that the drones, which can transmit live video for nearly a day at a time, typically supply the weapons targeting officers with enough information to avoid civilian casualties. —
PTI
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Indian-born Canadian lawyer stripped of top civilian award
Toronto, April 7 In 2007 he was found guilty of professional misconduct and was barred from the profession by the Law Society of Upper Canada. Singh, once a lawyer in southern Ontario failed to serve clients, mishandled trust funds, misappropriated $2,000 from a client and continued to practise after being suspended in November 2005, were some of the allegations against him. His appointment to the order was terminated in December 2008, but a notice in the connection was published in Canada gazette on March 28 this year, The Canadian Press said quoting an official release issued yesterday. The termination of Singh’s appointment is “pursuant to the Law Society of Upper Canada finding Singh guilty of professional misconduct and revoking his licence to practise law,” the Governor General’s office said. Singh, who came to Toronto from Patna in early 70s, was the first Sikh to be appointed to the order, and has become the third person to be stripped of it. — PTI
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Thai protesters trap PM at beach hotel
Pattaya (Thailand), April 7 The clash was the most serious since supporters of fugitive former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra surrounded Abhisit’s offices in Bangkok on March 26, and came amid mounting speculation about a possible military coup. The protesters want British-born Abhisit to dissolve his four-month-old government and call elections. Today’s scuffles erupted after Thaksin loyalists surrounded Abhisit’s hotel in the coastal resort of Pattaya as he held a cabinet meeting, preventing him from leaving for several hours. Abhisit finally escaped but about 50 demonstrators chased his car when it stopped at a traffic light and then pelted it with plastic bottles, the police, which saw the incident, said. Abhisit escaped unharmed, but Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban said he had ordered immediate arrest of the assailants. —
AFP
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Kuwait City, April 7 A joint India-Kuwait Committee will be set up for scientific cooperation, which will meet every year. The two sides will also exchange scientists and information among institutions under the agreement, officials said here. The agreements were inked in the presence of Vice-President Hamid Ansari, who is on a three-day visit here. Under the education and learning executive programme, the two countries will exchange books, research and study material as well as experts in general and specialised education. Students will be taught about the history, heritage and geography of the each other’s countries as part of the curriculum and take part in sports, cultural and other events there. India’s Lalit Kala Academy will hold an exhibition on contemporary art in Kuwait, while the gulf country’s centre for culture art and letters will be invited to India. Two experts from Uttar Pradesh’s Rampur Raza Library, which houses literature on Indo Islamic learning and Art and was founded by Nawab Faizullah Khan in 1774 AD, will also come to Kuwait. Earlier, addressing the Indian community, Ansari said India was mulling measures to ensure the welfare of Indian expatriates in the Gulf reeling under the fallout of the global financial crisis. “Some people here are affected, some people in the Gulf are affected. These are the matters on which the government is thinking because the welfare of Indians is the primary responsibility of the government of the country," he said at a reception last night hosted by the Indian community. — PTI
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Another Indian in Obama’s council
Washington, April 7 Bhargava is the second Indian American appointed to the council. Eboo S Patel, founder and executive director of Interfaith Youth Core in Chicago, was earlier appointed as a council member. Both the appointment is for one year. The council is part of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighbourhood Partnerships and includes religious and secular leaders and scholars from different backgrounds as its members. It acts as a resource for nonprofits and community organisations, both secular and faith-based, looking for ways to make a bigger impact in their communities, learn their obligations under the law, cut through red tape, and make the most of what the federal government has to offer. — PTI
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20 Oz institutes face immigration department’s probe
Melbourne, April 7 “The department is assessing allegations concerning 20 education providers that are operating out of Melbourne. Some of those investigations have been ongoing since early 2008. The department is not in a position to provide further information at this time as it might jeopardise the progress of those investigations,” said spokesperson of the Immigration Department. The Department, as quoted by ‘The Age’ daily today, said the probes against the allegations were launched early last year and also involved other government agencies. Such a move can hit the Aus $3.9 billion overseas education industry, including the Indian students’ enrolments, which was currently rising in number. The daily said the issue surfaced within weeks of a raid on migration agents allegedly supplying fake documents to international students. Indians studying in Australia have been growing fast with 96,739 Indian enrolments in Australian higher education and vocational training courses last year, a massive 54 per cent increase on the almost 63,000 enrolments in 2007 and up from just 11,313 in 2002. With India projected to be the fifth-largest consumer market by 2025, Australian-trained Indian graduates and skilled workers represent a future trade and investment bonanza as they return home with jobs in the business and government sector. Indian students now make up almost 18 per cent of Australia’s total foreign student population, the second largest group after China, which represents 23.5 per cent of the total foreign students’ body. — PTI
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PhD holders may get direct ‘Green card’ Drama in US skies Source: Agencies 
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