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Pak rubbishes US Taliban fear
US responsible for Pak’s current situation: Clinton
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India, Poland ink two pacts
Indian family caught in Nepal’s witch hunt
Parenting affects drinking patterns: Study
60 dead in double bombings in Baghdad
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Pak rubbishes US Taliban fear
Pakistan has rejected the US impression that Islamabad was “to the Taliban”, saying Pakistan was playing a “positive and constructive role” and would continue to do so. “The democratic government firmly believes in a holistic approach, which is effective at all levels. We need to address the underlying causes, including political, security and socio-economic issues. Pakistan will continue playing its positive and constructive role,” Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit said at a weekly briefing in response to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s allegation that Islamabad was ceding “more and more territory” to insurgents. Pakistan Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani speaking in the National Assembly on Friday also debunked the talk about the Taliban closing in on Islamabad and said the government and the army would respond with full force to counter any move to seize any part of the country. He said President Asif Zardari enforced the Nizame Adl Regulation on recommendation of the NWFP government and the National Assembly in order to restore peace in Swat and Malakand area. It was meant to restore peace in the troubled area but in case the militants tried to display arms and disrupt peace, the government will not only review the regulation but also use state power to enforce peace. Foreign Office Spokesman Basit said: “What we are doing here in Islamabad and in the country as a whole is to come up with a comprehensive response to deal with these issues.” Pak: Terror linked to India, Afghanistan Painting a bleak picture of the security situation in the country, Interior adviser Rehman Malik presented at a closed-door session of the Senate “evidence” of conspiracies hatched in India, Afghanistan and Russia to destabilise Pakistan. While many senators later expressed dissatisfaction with the presentation saying much of the evidence was circumstantial than hard, most Baloch senators staged a walkout. They accused Malik of stoking discontent in the troubled Balochistan province instead of healing wounds inflicted by successive governments. Malik said the insurgency situation in Balochistan is being funded and sponsored by India, Afghanistan and Russia. The Balochistan Liberation Army is headed by Brahmdagh Bugti who has been provided shelter by the Afghan President and heads a highly trained force of 5,000 youth.
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Warsaw, April 24 The agreement on tourism cooperation envisages facilitation of border and customs formalities, tourism exchange and support for Indian and Polish entrepreneurs and organisations taking part in the development of international tourism and undertaking investments in the sector. The second agreement on healthcare and medicine will cover areas like mother and child health, family planning, public health, nursing and communicable diseases. — PTI
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Indian family caught in Nepal’s witch hunt
Kathmandu, April 24 Instead, he, his four sons and three other relatives came within an ace of being beaten to death by a mob at the Lahan market in south Nepal’s Siraha district where they had halted Tuesday night. “On Wednesday morning, we decided to explore the market and sell our products,” shocked Sawant told. “When we went out, people asked us, where are you from? The moment we said Maharashtra, they pounced on us and began beating us. Had the police not rescued us, we would all have been dead,” he said. The group of eight, conspicuous by their saffron robes and holy beads, are now living in fear under police protection. “All we are asking is that the police escort us to the Indian border,” said Sawant, who received head injuries. “We want to go back.” While Lahan police are doing their best to protect the visitors, they too are unable to provide safe passage to the border right now as the Terai plains have been paralysed by an indefinite shutdown called by an ethnic organisation, the Samyukta Tharuhat Sangharsh Samiti, since Tuesday. The Siraha attack is not an isolated incident. Since last week, Terai villages have seen an unprecedented series of attacks against outsiders, who are mostly beggars, ragpickers and mentally unbalanced people, on the suspicion they are child lifters. — IANS
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Parenting affects drinking patterns: Study
London, April 24 So it often has been assumed that drinking at an early age, in and of itself, is the problem, explained the study’s lead author, Emmanuel Kuntsche of the Swiss Institute for the Prevention of Alcohol and Drug Problems in Lausanne, Switzerland. “Our work shows that the ‘preventive effect’ of a later drinking age is likely to be a side effect of a good parent-child relationship,” Kuntsche said. “In other words, the circumstances in which that first drinks occurs, and how parents deal with it, is important.” Kuntsche and colleagues surveyed 364 teenagers three times over a span of two years. They found that in general, teens who reported an earlier drinking age during the first survey tended to be drinking more heavily by the second survey. They were also at a greater risk of drinking-related problems by the third survey. But a closer look at the data revealed the importance of parents’ influence. In fact, only teenagers who reported both a later drinking age and a high-quality relationship with their parents had a lower risk of drinking problems compared to their peers. — IANS
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60 dead in double bombings in Baghdad Baghdad, April 24 Nobody immediately claimed responsibility for the bombings, but these types of attacks are the trademark of Sunni insurgents backed by Al-Qaida in Iraq. The bombers today detonated explosives belts within minutes of each other near separate gates of the tomb of prominent Shiite saint Imam Mousa al-Kazim, located in the northern neighbourhood of Kazimiyah, said a police official. Another police official said the bombers struck shortly before the start of Friday prayers as worshippers streamed into the mosque, an important site for Shiite pilgrims. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered a military task force to investigate the bombings and ordered the battalion and company commanders responsible for security in the area to be relieved of duty during the investigation, said military spokesman Maj-Gen Qassim al-Moussawi. Among the dead were 25 Iranian pilgrims, said a police and a hospital official. Both said at least 125 persons, including 80 Iranian pilgrims, were injured in the blast. — AP
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