Islamabad, August 28
Pakistan has declined Indian offer of $5-million aid for flood victims directly and wants it to be routed through the United Nations, Dunya TV reported here today.

“We have conveyed to India that they can send their aid to us through the UN,” Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit told the TV channel on the telephone. He said the UN was the flagship organisation for all foreign aid pouring into the country from different parts of the world for the flood-hit people.

India offered the aid to assist the rehabilitation of over 20 million displaced people in Pakistan following flash floods that started July 28 and continue to rock the infrastructure across the country. More than 1,600 persons have died this month.

Pakistan had earlier shown reluctance to accept the Indian offer.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called up his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani on August 19 to reiterate the offer. Finally, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi confirmed to the media in New York, on the sidelines of UN General Assembly’s special session on August 20, that Pakistan had decided to accept the offer.

The gesture was widely welcomed. Later, the Pakistani Prime Minister sent five boxes of mangoes to Manmohan Singh to say thanks.

Despite the lapse of more than a week since accepting the offer, Pakistan and India could not agree on the modalities for transporting the aid material. Finally, Pakistan decided against accepting the Indian offer directly and said the same was conveyed to the Government of India.

“We have asked them to hand over the assistance package to the UN organisations that are working in India as well,” Abdul Basit said.

He, though, expressed reluctance to give any reason for this diplomatic snub. “We have appreciated the offer, but it’ll not be appropriate to publicly discuss the reasons involved in deciding to route it through the UN,” he said. — IANS

Kabul, August 28
US and Afghan troops repelled attackers wearing American uniforms and suicide vests in a pair of simultaneous assaults before dawn today on NATO bases near the Pakistani border, including one where seven CIA employees died in a suicide attack last year.

The raids appear part of an insurgent strategy to step up attacks in widely scattered parts of the country as the US focuses its resources on the battle around the Taliban's southern birthplace of Kandahar.

The militant assault in the border province of Khost began about 4 am when dozens of insurgents stormed Forward Operating Base Salerno and nearby Camp Chapman with mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons, according to NATO and Afghan police.

Two attackers managed to breach the wire protecting Salerno, but were killed before they could advance far onto the base, said NATO. Twenty-one attackers were killed —15 at Salerno and six at Chapman and five were captured, it said.

Three more insurgents, including a commander, were killed in an airstrike as they fled the area, NATO said. The Afghan Defense Ministry said two Afghan soldiers were killed and three wounded in the fighting. Four US troops were wounded, NATO officials said.

US and Afghan officials blamed the attack on the Haqqani network, a Pakistan-based faction of the Taliban with close ties to al-Qaida. Camp Chapman was the scene of the December 30 suicide attack that killed the seven CIA employees. The Afghan police said about 50 insurgents took part in the twin assaults. — AP

Islamabad, August 28
The Pakistan authorities today issued orders for the release and repatriation of 442 Indian fishermen in the wake of a case filed in the Supreme Court regarding their unlawful detention.

The Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum and the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research had filed a petition in the apex court for the release of Indian fishermen detained in various jails even after they had completed their prison terms.

All these fishermen were arrested and convicted for illegally entering Pakistani waters.

Former Law Minister and rights activist Syed Iqbal Haider, who represented the petitioners in the apex court, said the Home Department of Sindh province today issued orders for the release and repatriation of 442 Indian fishermen, including two minors.

This was done due to the case taken up in the Supreme Court, he said. The case filed in the apex court had sought the release of 582 Indian fishermen detained in Pakistan.

The status of those whose release was not ordered by the Sindh government could not immediately be ascertained.

The 442 fishermen will be released in four batches between August 30 and September 6 and repatriated to India via the Wagah land border, Haider said.

During the last hearing of the case on August 26, the Supreme Court had asked the federal Interior Ministry to explain why 456 Indian fishermen were being held in several jails in Sindh even after they had completed their prison terms.

The Foreign Ministry told the apex court during the hearing that it had informed the Interior Ministry to release those Indian fishermen who had completed their sentences and whose nationality had been confirmed by the Indian High Commission.

The next hearing of the case was scheduled for September 14. Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research representative BM Kutty said his organisation and other rights groups had been striving for several years to persuade the governments of Pakistan and India to put an end to the frequent arrest and prolonged detention of fishermen for alleged violation of maritime borders. “The organisations will continue their struggle till the two governments decide to find a way to end this practice on both sides,” Kutty said.— PTI

London, August 28
British Prime Minister David Cameron is offering wealthy business chiefs a chance to enjoy dinner with him in exchange for huge donations to his party, a media report said.

According to the Daily Express, donors can eat in the House of Commons or meet Cameron at campaign launches and receptions if they donate £ 50,000 to the ruling Conservative Party coffers. They can also rub shoulders with some Cabinet ministers where the rich pay for a chance to meet a top Tory, the report said. The revelation comes after the Conservative Party was accused of "cash for access".

It emerged yesterday that application forms on the party website say executives who buy £ 1,000 ticket to a party fundraising dinner are guaranteed to dine with at least one minister. It comes as an embarrassment as Cameron, when leader of the Opposition, made a stinging attack on "secret corporate lobbying" in February.

Donor clubs began when he was leader of the Opposition, but the Tories yesterday admitted the "Leader's Group", which allows tycoons to mix with the PM, is still running. A spokesman said: "Events to raise money are vital to pay for the running of the party." — PTI

London, August 28
A six-year-old Harry Potter fan, whose schoolteachers once said his story writing needed improvement, has bagged a multi-book publishing deal after he penned a mini-novel about his pet dog.

Little Leo Hunter wrote “Me And My Best Friend” to tell the story of his alliance with pet Alsatian “Kugar”. His impressed mum Jamie, an author, contacted publishers on both sides of the Atlantic. And, the US firm Strategic Book Publishing liked the mini-novel so much that they took it immediately - and signed Leo to write 23 more, The Sun reported.

He will get 20 per cent from early sales of the 25-page books. But this will rise to 50 per cent if more than 500 are sold. He will write under the same pseudonym as his mum, JS Huntlands, to protect his privacy. Now, Leo says he wants to be more famous than JK Rowling. “I like Harry Potter but I like my books even more. Writing makes me very happy - it's so interesting,” the boy said.

Though his primary schoolteachers were chuffed with his success, they once wrote a report saying his story writing needed improvement. — PTI