W O R L D

12 terror suspects held in UK
M16’s operations on our soil didn’t lead to arrests: Pakistan
Pakistan on Saturday denied a media report that the British intelligence agency, M16, operations in Pakistan had led to arrest of 12 persons, including 11 Pakistani students in UK suspected of planning to launch a large-scale bomb attack on British soil.

Protests force ASEAN to abandon summit
Kuala Lumpur, April 11
Chaotic anti-government protests in Thailand today led to postponement of a summit between India and south Asian trading bloc ASEAN at the resort town of Pattaya, even as leaders were airlifted to safety.

11 killed as violence spreads in Balochistan
Islamabad, April 11
Eleven persons have died as violence spread in Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan province, which has been engulfed by protests over the killing of three nationalist leaders.

Lankan troops enter no-fire zone
Colombo, April 11
Sri Lankan troops nearing the end of their campaign against Tamil Tigers have entered the no-fire zone in the north, state radio reported today. Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation in its main English news bulletin said the army’s 58 division led by Brigadier Shavendra Silva had entered Puttumatalan no-fire zone last evening.

Arizona varsity snubs Obama
Phoenix (Arizona), April 11
No, he can’t! Arizona State University (ASU) has snubbed President Barack Obama by declining to give him an honorary degree when he addresses students at a graduation ceremony there next month, it was reported.

Pak Taliban begin enforcing Shariah
Islamabad, April 11
The Pakistani Taliban have begun enforcing Islamic law in the Bajaur tribal region even as scores of militants consolidated their hold on Buner district, located just 100 km from the federal capital.

American Indian to head India affairs
Washington, April 11
An American Indian, who served as the attorney general of Idaho, was nominated to become the head of the US Bureau of Indian Affairs.

‘Mehsud has links with ISI’
New York, April 11
Baitullah Mehsud, the chief of Pakistani Taliban, who claimed credit for the recent deadly attack on a police academy near Lahore, had links with Pakistan’s ISI, a media report said.

12 terror suspects held in UK
M16’s operations on our soil didn’t lead to arrests: Pakistan
Afzal Khan writes from Islamabad

Pakistan on Saturday denied a media report that the British intelligence agency, M16, operations in Pakistan had led to arrest of 12 persons, including 11 Pakistani students in UK suspected of planning to launch a large-scale bomb attack on British soil.

Foreign Office spokesman Basit said the insinuation that any foreign intelligence agency was operating in Pakistan was unfounded.

“No foreign intelligence agency is allowed to function in Pakistan, “ Basit said while commenting on a Guardian report adding,” All intelligence work is done by our own agencies”.

British daily the Guardian said the key intelligence that led to security officials fearing a terrorist cell was to launch alarge-scale bomb attack on the British soil came from MI6 operations targeting Pakistan. It said, two to three weeks ago, intelligence from operations carried out in Pakistan by MI6, provided names of suspected members of an Al-Qaida trained network in Britain.

Officials here said there was cooperation between security agencies to share intelligence but no foreign intelligence operations were permitted on Pakistani soil.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called President Asif Zardari after arrests in London and repeated the allegation that Al-Qaida threat originated from Pakistan. He urged Zardari to do more to eliminate terrorist cells and training camps in Pakistan. Brown's office said they had agreed their countries "share a serious threat from terrorism and violent extremism", and had committed to "work together to address this common challenge".

Brown also told Al-Jazeera television that "most of Al-Qaida's base is in Pakistan" and "we need all cooperation that we have with the Pakistani authorities" to deal with terrorists operating from that country.

The Guardian said subsequent, intensive searches of at least 10 addresses linked to the suspected Al-Qaida plot in northern Britain had so far failed to turn up any clear evidence of a terrorist conspiracy, despite the huge resources devoted.

Forty-eight hours after the arrests, sources close to the inquiry say no evidence has been found of bombs, bomb-making parts, precursor chemicals to make explosives, a bomb factory, weapons or ammunition.

The police is continuing to search 10 addresses in Liverpool and the Cheetham Hill area of Greater Manchester. Examination of computers recovered from raids in Manchester, Liverpool and Clitheroe has only just begun.

In past cases, data recovered from computers has been a source of incriminating evidence. Other forensic tests are also at an early stage.

The paper quoted one senior source saying "nothing of huge significance" had been found, and accepted it was possible that no evidence could emerge before the 28-day limit to hold terrorism suspect expired. But the source added: "There is lots of material that when put together may take us somewhere. It will be a long and drawn out investigation.

The Guardian also reported a diplomatic spat between London and Islamabad over Pakistani High Commissioner Wajid Shamsul Hasan statement that Britain was failing to do enough to stop terror suspects entering the country.

Hasan told Newsnight: "It was at your end you have to do something more. We are already doing everything. We are raiding people, we are arresting suspects wherever we find them." The British government sources dismissed Hasan's criticisms.

Protests force ASEAN to abandon summit
Jaishree Balasubramanian

Supporters of ousted Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra enter one of the venues of the 14th Asian leaders in Pattaya, Thailand, on Saturday. — Reuters

Kuala Lumpur, April 11
Chaotic anti-government protests in Thailand today led to postponement of a summit between India and south Asian trading bloc ASEAN at the resort town of Pattaya, even as leaders were airlifted to safety.

An Indian Embassy official in Bangkok told Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath, who was representing the country at the summit, was safe.

Heads of states of other member countries were also evacuated to safety, reports said.

Thailand declared a state of emergency after supporters of former Thai prime minister Thaksin Sginawatra stormed the summit venue, demanding the resignation of incumbent prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.

The postponement of the India-ASEAN summit, the second time since December 2008, would further delay a free trade agreement between New Delhi and the 10-nation trading bloc.

Nath, who had stepped in for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, was also to attend a summit of east Asian countries (ASEAN, Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand) that was to discuss Asia’s response to the global economic crisis, among other things.

Heads of multilateral agencies like World Bank, IMF were also to participate in these deliberations. — PTI

11 killed as violence spreads in Balochistan

Islamabad, April 11 
Eleven persons have died as violence spread in Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan province, which has been engulfed by protests over the killing of three nationalist leaders.

Lankan troops enter no-fire zone

Colombo, April 11
Sri Lankan troops nearing the end of their campaign against Tamil Tigers have entered the no-fire zone in the north, state radio reported today.

Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation in its main English news bulletin said the army’s 58 division led by Brigadier Shavendra Silva had entered Puttumatalan no-fire zone last evening.

However, the military is yet to officially confirm the troops’ entry to the government-declared no-fire zone for the safety of over 1,00,000 civilians from the minority Tamil community.

The army’s 58, 53, 59 and task force eight divisions have been surrounding the area since Wednesday when the government announced its final notice to the LTTE rebels to surrender and allow civilians to escape for safety.

According to Sri Lankan military, the rebel communications monitored have indicated serious difference of opinions among the LTTE members after the announcement. The rebels have fired at civilians who wanted to leave for the safety under government control.

The government claims that some 66,000 civilians have already arrived in government welfare centres and more are expected. The military said once the civilians exit the area, they would free the entire area of Puttumatalan free of rebels ending their over three-decade-old separatist campaign. — Xinhua

‘Protect trapped civilians’

Washington: Expressing deep concern about the plight of Tamil civilians trapped in the northern war-zones, the US has asked a visiting Sri Lankan official to take steps to protect them.

The Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, Richard Boucher, last afternoon held talks with visiting Sri Lankan Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona at the Foggy Bottom headquarters of the State Department.

The two officials discussed the situation in displaced persons’ camps. Boucher emphasised the need to have a clear plan for expeditious resettlement of displaced persons, Aker said in a statement. — PTI

Arizona varsity snubs Obama

Phoenix (Arizona), April 11
No, he can’t! Arizona State University (ASU) has snubbed President Barack Obama by declining to give him an honorary degree when he addresses students at a graduation ceremony there next month, it was reported.

In a break with tradition that has sparked howls of protest, the college said yesterday that it would not honour Obama on the grounds that America’s first black President had an insufficient “body of work”.

US universities invariably bestow honorary degrees upon speakers invited to give commencement addresses for graduates.

However an ASU spokeswoman was quoted in several reports as saying Obama had done nothing to deserve the honour, despite being elected the first African-American President and publishing two best-selling books.

“It’s our practice to recognise an individual for his body of work, somebody who’s been in his position for a long time,” ASU spokeswoman Sharon Keeler was quoted as saying.

“His body of work is yet to come. That’s why we’re not recognising him with a degree at the beginning of his presidency,” she said.

ASU President Michael Crow told a local newspaper the university would not reverse its position, stating that the college had a policy of not giving honorary degrees to sitting politicians. — AFP

Pak Taliban begin enforcing Shariah

American Indian to head India affairs

Washington, April 11
An American Indian, who served as the attorney general of Idaho, was nominated to become the head of the US Bureau of Indian Affairs.

President Barack Obama yesterday nominated for the post Larry EchoHawk, a law professor at Brigham Young University and a member of the Pawnee tribe. As well as being the former attorney general, EchoHawk ran for Idaho Governor in 1994, losing to Republican Phil Batt by fewer than 35,000 votes. At the time, he would have been the nation’s first American Indian Governor.

He became the first American Indian elected to a constitutional statewide office when he became attorney general in the early 1990s, the White House said.

The embattled Indian Affairs agency has been without a leader for some time. The most recent head, Carl Artman, took the post in March 2007 after it had been vacant for two years, then resigned a little more than a year later.

The agency, which manages 66 million acres and oversees Indian schools and other programmes, has been embroiled in a lawsuit for 12 years over Indian trust land. The long-running suit claims the Indians were swindled out of billions of dollars in oil, gas, grazing, timber and other royalties overseen by the Interior Department since 1887.

Obama nominated Yvette Roubideaux last month as the director of the Indian Health Service, which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services. — AP

‘Mehsud has links with ISI’

New York, April 11
Baitullah Mehsud, the chief of Pakistani Taliban, who claimed credit for the recent deadly attack on a police academy near Lahore, had links with Pakistan’s ISI, a media report said.

Mehsud was tipped off by the ISI to enable him escape attempts to capture or kill him in the last two years, Newsweek reported. Operations were launched by Pakistani security forces to kill or capture Mehsud. But each time he vanished without incident.

Counter-terrorism experts said officials in both Washington and Islamabad suspect Mehsud has contacts inside the ISI, Pakistan’s “inscrutable and sprawling intelligence agency”. The report quoted a Pakistani source as saying US officials have shared with their counterparts in Islamabad some intelligence, indicating that renegade ISI elements helped Mehsud’s group train for the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. — PTI