W O R L D

Pak headquarters of Al-Qaida: US senator
A leading U.S. senator on Monday described Pakistan as the "headquarters" of Al-Qaida and warned that the country could become the hub of international terrorism.

Internet set for change with non-English addresses
Seoul, October 27
The Internet is set to undergo one of the biggest changes in its four-decade history with the expected approval this week of international domain names -- or addresses -- that can be written in languages other than English, an official said yesterday.

UPA’s policy on religious freedom lauded in US
Washington, October 27
India's UPA-led government at the centre is quite committed to religious freedom, but it has “concerns” on this issue at the local level, specially those states ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Obama administration's first annual report on International Religions Freedom, between July 2008 and June 2009 has said.

toil for a cause US pop star Madonna plants a tree at a ground breaking ceremony for her Raising Malawi Academy for Girls in Malawi (Africa). — AP/PTI

BNP leaders behind bid on Hasina’s life: Report
Dhaka, October 27
Several influential leaders of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party were involved in the 2004 grenade attack on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and they used the banned Harkatul Jihad (HuJI) to carry out the plot, according to a media report today. The 'Daily Star investigation' claimed the “chilling conspiracy” to kill Hasina was hatched at Hawa Bhabhan, the office of Zia's elder son Tarique Rahman.

‘Akram’s wife taken out of Pak against advice of doctors’
Lahore, October 27
Pakistani cricketer Wasim Akram’s wife Huma, who died in an Indian hospital two days ago, was reportedly flown out of the country against the advice of doctors treating her in this eastern Pakistani city. The physicians are of the view that the decision proved fatal as Huma was not in a condition to be allowed by any doctor to travel abroad for treatment.

Pak headquarters of Al-Qaida: US senator
Ashish Kumar Sen writes from Washington

A leading U.S. senator on Monday described Pakistan as the "headquarters" of Al-Qaida and warned that the country could become the hub of international terrorism.

Sen. John Kerry, who recently visited Pakistan and Afghanistan, told an audience at the Council on Foreign Relations developments in Afghanistan would have an impact across the border in Pakistan. "Pakistan is not only the headquarters of Al-Qaida today, but it could easily become the epicentre of extremism in the world," he said in a grim prediction as deadly terrorist attacks become commonplace in Pakistan. Kerry said the U.S. has "enormous strategic interest in the outcome of the struggle in Pakistan" against the terrorists.

Kerry met the civilian and military leadership while in Pakistan and came away impressed with their resolve to combat terrorists. "It is a fragile democracy that is fighting a determined insurgency," he said. He noted Pakistan's nuclear arsenal and "longstanding, sometimes violent rivalry" with India. "Instability in Afghanistan only increases the risk of conflagration where the world can least afford it, next door in Pakistan," he cautioned.

But even as Pakistan's military is involved in a tough battle with militants in South Waziristan, many lawmakers in the U.S. worry that Pakistan's intelligence agency continues to maintain its links with the Taliban. Kerry, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the Inter-Services Intelligence agency has "used the Taliban as a hedge, and there is a real concern that that continues."

He said failure in Afghanistan could embolden factions within Pakistan to make the determination that it's in their interest to strengthen their dealings with extremists. "The good news is that right now many Pakistanis recognise that they face an existential challenge from within their borders," he added. Kerry was an author of a recently approved aid package that provides Pakistan $7.5 billion over a five-year period. Noting the uproar over the aid bill, which many in Pakistan worried would impinge on Pakistani sovereignty, Kerry admitted a need to better explain the U.S. position and be more sensitive to Pakistani sensibilities. He said the bill appropriately asks the U.S. administration to provide reports to Congress on Pakistani actions because "the American people have a right to know that their money is being spent to support values that are important to us as Americans." He said serious challenges for Pakistan's civilian, military, and intelligence leaders. "No front is more important in our fight against international terrorism than nuclear-armed Pakistan, and the chaos next door in Afghanistan would have enormous repercussions there," he said.

The senator opined the U.S. and the international community must reassure Pakistanis that tackling the challenge of extremism will lead to a lasting relationship with real economic and security benefits. He suggested reaching out to New Delhi, Moscow, Beijing and also to Tehran, and explore ways to cooperate with each of them because they have interests in Afghanistan.

Pakistani officials have expressed unease at the use by the U.S. military of unmanned aerial vehicles to target extremists along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Kerry admitted Pakistani officials frequently voice their concerns about collateral damage caused by these drones in meetings, but said the drones were why "we can now say that perhaps 14 of the top 20 Al-Qaida leaders have been eliminated. And it is why Al-Qaida is, to some degree, on the run and defensive."

Internet set for change with non-English addresses

Seoul, October 27
The Internet is set to undergo one of the biggest changes in its four-decade history with the expected approval this week of international domain names -- or addresses -- that can be written in languages other than English, an official said yesterday.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the non-profit group that oversees domain names, is holding a meeting this week in Seoul. Domain names are the monikers behind every website, e-mail address and Twitter post, such as “.com” and other suffixes.

One of the key issues to be taken up by ICANN’s board at this week’s gathering is whether to allow for the first time entire Internet addresses to be in scripts that are not based on Latin letters.

That could potentially open up the Web to more people around the world as addresses could be in characters as diverse as Arabic, Korean, Japanese, Greek, Hindi and Cyrillic -- in which Russian is written.

“This is the biggest change technically to the Internet since it was invented 40 years ago,” Peter Dengate Thrush, chairman of the ICANN board, told reporters, calling it a “fantastically complicated technical feature”. He said he expects the board to grant approval on Friday, the conference’s final day.

The Internet’s roots are traced to experiments at a US university in 1969 but it wasn’t until the early 1990s that its use began expanding beyond academia and research institutions to the public. — AP

UPA’s policy on religious freedom lauded in US

Washington, October 27
India's UPA-led government at the centre is quite committed to religious freedom, but it has “concerns” on this issue at the local level, specially those states ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Obama administration's first annual report on International Religions Freedom, between July 2008 and June 2009 has said.

“The government at the central level is quite committed and it's also, as you know, a religiously diverse society, where, in fact, a lot of religions were born and nurtured. I think at a local level we have some concerns, and there are some specific instances mentioned in the report,” Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labour, Michael H Posner, said after the release of the Congressionally mandated annual report.

“The response to violence, for example, in one case where a Hindu religious leader was killed and there was a spate of violence that affected mainly a Christian population and 40 persons killed.” “So we are mindful that there are still inner religious tensions within society, and I think our focus would be on the lack of response at a local level rather than a national - the national policy is good. It's a question of how it's implemented at a local level,” Posner said.

In its section on India which is spread over 30 pages, the report gives the UPA-led Union government the highest mark, but goes on to say that some state and local governments limited this freedom by enacting or amending “anti-conversion” legislation and by not efficiently or effectively prosecuting those who attacked religious minorities.The report refers to the allegations of non-governmental organisations that the BJP stoked communally sensitive matter as the state elections grew near. While there was no report of any religious violence during the general elections held early this year, the report did mention the alleged inflammatory speech of the young BJP leader Varun Gandhi. The State Department in its report also mentions the anti-conversion bills in the BJP-ruled states of Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh; besides the BJD-ruled Orissa.

The BJP continued to advocate contentious measures, such as the passage of “anticonversion” legislation in all states, the construction of a Hindu temple on the Ayodhya site, and the enactment of a uniform civil code. — PTI

BNP leaders behind bid on Hasina’s life: Report

Dhaka, October 27
Several influential leaders of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party were involved in the 2004 grenade attack on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and they used the banned Harkatul Jihad (HuJI) to carry out the plot, according to a media report today.

The 'Daily Star investigation' claimed the “chilling conspiracy” to kill Hasina was hatched at Hawa Bhabhan, the office of Zia's elder son Tarique Rahman.

“The Awami League was branded as the archenemy of the country and Islam and it was recommended that its President Sheikh Hasina must die,” the paper quoted the conspirators as saying.

“(Ex-junior Minister for Home Litfuzzaman) Babar supplied the grenades, while the HuJI was used as mercenary group,” the report said.

The Daily Star said the report was based on a “highly privileged document” it obtained and information collected by a reporter of the daily from intelligence officials. — PTI

‘Akram’s wife taken out of Pak against advice of doctors’

Lahore, October 27
Pakistani cricketer Wasim Akram’s wife Huma, who died in an Indian hospital two days ago, was reportedly flown out of the country against the advice of doctors treating her in this eastern Pakistani city.

The physicians are of the view that the decision proved fatal as Huma was not in a condition to be allowed by any doctor to travel abroad for treatment.

“A panel of 10 senior doctors of three hospitals in Lahore had advised Akram not to take her abroad to Singapore in view of her serious health condition,” said one of the physicians, who did not wish to be named. Huma died in a hospital in Chennai on Sunday and was buried here yesterday. — PTI