Having initially promised that US aid to Pakistan would no longer be a "blank cheque," President Barack Obama's administration is now trying to persuade members of Congress not to attach strict conditions to billions of dollars Washington wants to give Islamabad.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman had recently introduced a bill which, unlike in the past, includes rigorous auditing to ensure that US taxpayers’ money is “truly benefiting the Pakistani people”.

Undersecretary of Defence Michele Flournoy told the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday the bill was "too inflexible" and "would severely constrain the executive branch." She said

Flournoy, who participated in a recent review of the US policy towards Pakistan and Afghanistan, said the administration was concerned that "the wording of some of the presidential certification requirements was -- to our reading it seemed very absolute and inflexible so that if... we are making progress but we weren't at the end state yet, we're still not at the end state so no assistance." Democratic Senator John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, noted recently that Pakistanis find the House bill's benchmarks "insulting." On Wednesday, congressman John McHugh, New York Republican, echoed that sentiment saying the House bill was "disrespectful of Pakistan's sovereignty”.

At issue is a $400 million funding request the Pentagon and State Department said would be spent only on Pakistan counter-insurgency missions. The money will be the first instalment of a total estimated $3 billion package over five years to help Pakistan fight extremism.

Congressman Gene Taylor, a Mississippi Democrat, noted that he comes from a part of the world where $400 million is still a lot of money. "What is it you think we accomplished with that $400 million? What -- what is your level of confidence at the end of the day it's made a difference?" he asked Flournoy.

Flournoy said she thought that as the Pakistani leadership "become more focused on this threat and more willing to deal with it, I think our ability to help them develop the capabilities to be effective is going to be that much more crucial.

Despite increasing international pressure on the Sri Lankan government to halt operations against Tamil Tigers, the country’s tough talking Defence Secretary Gothabaya Rajapaksa said the government’s war against the LTTE would not stop until the Tigers were crushed and its leader (Velupillai) Prabhakaran captured, dead or alive.

“After 30 years, the time had come finally for Prabhakaran and other terrorist leaders to be captured dead or alive and the government would not stop until that end was achieved,” Rajapaksa told British Foreign Secretary David Miliband and French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner, who were on a brief visit to the country on Wednesday.

The Defence Secretary’s views were endorsed by his brother President Mahinda Rajapaksa who said during a television interview that the army would continue with operations to free the civilian hostages held by the LTTE and would like to catch Prabhakaran and other leaders alive to be dealt with under the law.

There has been a long line of foreign diplomats visiting the country in the past week among them the Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shanker Menon and National Security Advisor MK Narayanan, UN Undersecretary for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes followed by the French and British foreign ministers all of whom have called for an end to the fighting.

But it is unlikely such calls will be heeded by the Lankan government, which is enjoying an unprecedented level of support within the country for its tough stance against the Tigers.

Lahore, April 30
A prominent college for women in this eastern Pakistani city has barred students from wearing jeans or figure-hugging clothes in the wake of a reported terrorist threat. Kinnaird College, which is among Lahore’s oldest educational institutions, has imposed the strict dress code according to which students can attend classes in shalwar kameeze or loose trousers. Wearing a dupatta has also been made mandatory.

The college’s Vice Principal Nikhat Khan told the Daily Times newspaper that the measures were in line with a government notification and had no connection with rumours about burqa-clad women issuing warnings to students.

Khan said jeans and tight dresses were banned at the college several years ago but the new principal was unaware of the ban and girls were using this to their advantage. However, students said there was an “atmosphere of fear” after the introduction of the rules. — PTI 

London, April 30
In a solemn ceremony, nearly 30 survivors of the 1944 “Battle of Kohima” - described by Lord Mountbatten as “one of the greatest battles in history” - gathered at York to remember the fallen comrades.

On the 65th anniversary of the landmark battle, the veterans remembered the poignant message at the Kohima war memorial: “When you go home, tell them of us and say: For your tomorrow, we gave our today.”

Kohima was one of the key turning points in the defeat of the Japanese plan to invade India in 1944. But the cost was high as the ferocious battle claimed ives of more than 4,000 British and Indian soldiers as well as nearly twice as many Japanese troops.

The war veterans, many in their 90s, travelled from various parts of Britain to attend a service at York Minster and took to their seats in persistent drizzle.

Following the service, the veterans, their families and current members of the armed services, made their way to the grounds of the cathedral to hear the Last Post and see wreaths laid.

William Jones, 87, from Welshpool, and a former signalman with the Royal Welch Fusiliers, said, “There were dead everywhere and the stench was terrible with the flies. And, of course, there were not only the battle casualties, there was malaria and jungle sores and God knows what.”— PTI