Tokyo, April 17
Pakistan secured more than $5 billion in fresh aid over two years at a donors conference on Friday after President Asif Ali Zardari vowed to step up the fight against militants.

The amount exceeded Pakistan’s hoped-for $4 billion and comes at a time when the international community is worried an economic meltdown in the country could fan popular support for Al-Qaeda and other militant groups.

Commitments to existing aid programmes totalling $15 billion were reaffirmed.

Foreign investors are eager to see Islamabad proceed with tough economic reforms seen as vital to restore growth. Pakistan is already being propped up by a $7.6 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund over two years.

Nuclear-armed Pakistan is central to US President Barack Obama’s plan for South Asia.

That plan includes trying to stabilise Afghanistan where Taliban militants, many operating from lawless enclaves in northwest Pakistan, have thrown the effort into doubt.

Zardari assured Islamabad’s allies that Pakistan would do its utmost to deliver on economic reforms and fighting militants.

“Despite the fact that I lost the mother of my children, I have taken up this challenge ... to lead Pakistan out of these difficult times,” said Zardari, the widower of assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. “If we lose, you lose. If we lose, the world loses,” he said.

“With the support of the IMF, the World Bank, and other development partners, Pakistan is now returning to a path that should allow for economic growth and poverty reduction,” said Isabel Guerrero, World Bank vice president for South Asia.

“While it’s been imperative to focus on the short term, in terms of regaining macroeconomic stability, we would not also want to undermine the importance of staying focused on the longer- and medium-term priorities,” she told the donors.

US special envoy Richard Holbrooke lauded the outcome. “This conference is an extreme success,” he told reporters. “It’s gotten a much better pledge than anyone expected,” he said, adding that many countries such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates had chipped in.

Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso, who met Zardari for talks on Thursday, said he was impressed by his resolve.

“I am convinced that the strong commitment by Pakistan itself will strengthen the resolve of the international community to support the civilian government,” Aso told the gathering.

“We cannot stabilise Afghanistan without stabilising Pakistan and the opposite is also true,” Aso added. “We feel and we believe that Pakistan is serious to combatting against terrorism,” Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told reporters.

Pakistan has a wish-list of projects worth $30 billion that it wants to see implemented over the next 10 years, including hydro-electric dams, roads and projects aimed at improvingmsecurity in its violence-plagued northwest on the Afghan border.

The US said it would provide $1 billion in aid over two years, subject to approval from Congress, matching a pledge from Japan. — Reuters

With tens of thousands of admirers gathering at the Lal Masjid for his first sermon after nearly 18 months under detention in the wake of the tragic army operation, former chief cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz of Friday expressed the confidence that Islamic Shariah would soon prevail in the entire country.

Aziz, however, vowed not to take revenge from anybody for his suffering and against those responsible for the traumatic Lal Masjid event. Referring to his release on Thursday, Aziz said he is now a free man because of the Supreme Court and not due to any covert deal with the government or secret agencies.

He said he would continue his struggle for enforcement of Sharia, not only in the country but in the entire world. “We support enforcement of Sharia in Swat and the day is not far off when Sharia will be enforced across the country,” he said.

He said he would not seek revenge on Musharraf who has been accused of killing hundreds of students of the seminary attached to the mosque in a military operation in October 2007.

“I leave it to Allah Almighty,” he said when asked by journalists if he would file a case against the former President.

Maulana Aziz was released on bail only two days after President Asif Ali Zardari signed a controversial agreement with Taliban militants in Swat. The Maulana is facing 26 cases against him on different charges.

After about 18 months, the Lal Masjid was again thronged by a large number of religious activists and Burqa-clad women students of Jamia Hafsa.

Maulana Aziz, who was arrested during the Lal Masjid operation when he tried to deceive security personnel by coming out of the complex wearing a burqa, was brought to the mosque by hundreds of his supporters.

London, April 17
France’s flamboyant President Nicolas Sarkozy has “insulted” three world leaders, including American President Barack Obama, over a brief lunch at Elysee Palace, a British newspaper has claimed.

Sarkozy suggested Obama was “inexperienced”, Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero wasn't very clever and German Chancellor Angela Merkel didn’t share his foresight about how to tackle the global financial crisis over a lunch session on Wednesday, The Daily Telegraph reported.

Sarkozy said the US President was “not always up to standard on decision-making or efficiency”, Zapatero was “not very intelligent” while Merkel “had no choice but to come round to my position” when she saw the state of German banks.

French newspaper the Libération, that published the account of the lunch, billed it as “a festival of me, myself and I” performed by Sarkozy.

It was a display of self-congratulation by France’s President over his handling of the economic crisis and the G20 summit in London this month, the British newspaper quoted the the French daily as saying.

But Sarkozy also reserved some words of praise for his colleagues, paying tribute to Obama’s “subtle mind” and saying he was “very intelligent, very charismatic”. — PTI

New York, April 17
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has sent his Chief of Staff Vijay Nambiar, a veteran Indian diplomat, to Colombo to speak with the government there about the humanitarian situation in war zones of Sri Lanka’s north and to express the world body’s concern over the matter.

“(Vijay) Nambiar, I believe, is in Sri Lanka. The Secretary-General is doing his utmost to alleviate the situation and in that regard, there is a number of high-level contacts that we’re pursuing,” Associate Spokesperson to the Secretary General, Farhan Haq told reporters at the UN headquarters here.

“One of the points we want to stress in this regard is that we continue to be concerned that the LTTE did not appear to have responded constructively to the request to allow civilians to leave,” he said. — PTI

Dhaka, April 17
Disaster-prone Bangladesh today braced for a cyclone gaining strength in the Bay of Bengal, raising the storm warning and ordering fishing boats back to shore.

Activity at the busy Chittagong port was suspended and ships moved to outer anchorages or other safer locations, said Commodore RU Ahmed, chairman of the port authority. It plans to suspend flights from today evening, while many tourists have already left Cox’s Bazar.

The Chittagong port hoisted storm-warning signal number 7. Dhaka grades storms with signals ranging from 1 to 10, and authorities start major preparations when the signal is raised to five or beyond.

A Director at the Disaster Management Bureau, said: “We have opened an emergency control room in the (disaster management) ministry and at all field level offices, particularly in coastal areas.” — IANS

BRIEFLY

Roemer tipped as US ambassador to India
Washington: Tim Roemer, a former Democrat Congressman from Indiana and an ex-member of 9/11 Commission, will be the next US ambassador to India, a prestigious US foreign policy magazine has said on its web post. Roemer is currently the president of Centre for National Policy (CNP), a Washington-based think tank. Roemer’s name was earlier in circulation for the post of CIA director, which ultimately went to Leon Panetta. The former Congressman would replace Davis C Mulford as Washington’s envoy to New Delhi. — PTI

20 killed in Afghan quake
Kabul: At least 20 people were killed in an earthquake that hit Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province early Friday, officials said. The earthquake, with magnitude 5.1 on the Richter scale, had its epicentre in Nangarhar, about 80 km east of Kabul, said Shersad Hamras, the director of Afghanistan’s disaster control office. About 50 people were injured by collapsing buildings, he added. — DPA

Huji leader indicted
DHAKA: A Bangladesh court has indicted Mufti Abdul Hannan, leader of the banned Islamist outfit Harkatul Jihad Islami (Huji), and 13 others for causing the 2001 blast at a city rally that killed 10 and injured scores of people. Huji is one of the four organisations banned by then Khaleda Zia government (2001-06) after the activities of Islamist militant bodies raised protests at home and among the international community. Media reports have said these organisations have managed to regroup and step up their activities despite of the ban. — IANS