London, May 25
US President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron warned Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi today that there would be no let up in pressure on him to go but said it will require a slow and steady campaign.

The two leaders, at a joint news conference, predicted Gaddafi will ultimately leave power. Cameron did not deny the British military is considering using its attack helicopters against Libyan targets to increase the heat on Gaddafi.

“We will be looking at all the options for turning up that pressure,” Cameron said when asked about the helicopters. The two leaders met against a backdrop of a stalemate in the three-month conflict, with Gaddafi hanging on to power despite a NATO air campaign launched to protect civilians and attack Libyan government targets. “I believe that we have built enough momentum that as long as we sustain the course that we are on that he is ultimately going to step down,” Obama said.

Obama defended US policy of backing off the air campaign after initially leading the effort, a policy that has led to some criticism from US allies in Europe.

Britain, France and other NATO members have taken the lead but face just as many financial hardships at home as the United States, and there are some suggestions that the allies would like Washington to do more.

“Ultimately this is going to be a slow, steady process in which we are able to wear down the regime,” Obama said. He said the United States does not have a whole host of new and different military assets that could be applied and that it is sticking to its commitment not to use ground forces.

The result, he said, “may mean we sometimes have to be more patient that people would like” but ultimately success will be made without shattering the coalition, particularly among its Arab participants.

Later, Obama delivers a speech at Westminster Hall laying out the main theme of his trip - that the United States and Europe must play a lead role together in global security. — Reuters

Karachi, May 25
Pakistan today replaced the commander of the Naval Mehran airbase here as a top naval officer kick-started a high-level probe into last Sunday's attack by Taliban militants that killed 10 navy personnel and destroyed two US-built spy planes in Karachi In a series of measures after the 17-hour terrorist siege, which has become a source of concern both in Pakistan and abroad, Base Commander Raja Tahir was replaced.

Commander Tahir has been replaced with Commodore Khalid Pervaiz, Navy spokesman Salman Ali said.

The Pakistan Navy, however, insisted that the replacement is not related to the terrorist attack in which 10 security personnel were killed and 20 injured while four militants were killed.

"It is a routine and scheduled transfer and is not linked to the attack. The base commander was to be replaced and this was a decision taken even before this incident at the airbase," he added.

He maintained that the decision was already in the pipeline as he had completed his tenure. — PTI

London, May 25
Flights across Europe were returning to normal today as high levels of volcanic ash from the Icelandic eruption cleared the skies after threatening to disrupt air traffic for days.

The Air India flight from London to Mumbai (AI130) left on schedule this morning while two flights (AI116 and 112) are slated to take off this evening for New Delhi.

A spokesperson for the airline told PTI that all Air India flights from London are operating from Heathrow terminal four instead of three.

Meanwhile, BBC reported that air traffic over northern Germany is returning to normal after being disrupted by volcanic ash.

Planes are again taking off and landing in Hamburg and Bremen, after they were closed for several hours. Berlin airports are to reopen later, it reported, adding about 700 flights have been cancelled in Germany today.

Airlines, including British Airways, had to axe some German services as the ash cloud moved over northern Europe. British Airways had cancelled one London-Hamburg and two Hamburg-London flights and budget carrier easyJet also axed some German flights.

Yesterday, airlines grounded about 500 flights after ash from the Icelandic volcano swept over Britain and towards northern Europe.

Experts and authorities today said that activity at Iceland’s Grimsvoetn volcano has stopped and its flight-halting ash plume has almost disappeared.

Civil aviation authority in France has said it was not expecting to close any of the country’s airspace. Besides Britain and Germany, air traffic in Norway and Denmark was also disrupted. — PTI

London, May 25
The plight of Binayak Sen, the social activist slapped with controversial sedition charges, is symptomatic of the problems faced by India’s adivasis, Cambridge University researchers studying his case have said.

A study on the case of Sen, a doctor by profession and recently on bail, by Jonathan Kennedy and Lawrence King, researchers from the Department of Sociology, has been published in the latest edition of Social Science and Medicine.

They argue that Sen’s arrest and imprisonment for sedition should be seen against a broader canvas of the healthcare crisis in tribal areas of India, a university release said.

Sen was released on bail in April while he awaits a retrial in Chhattisgarh, where the paediatrician and human rights activist has worked closely with some of the most disadvantaged and marginalised members of society for more than 30 years.

Kennedy said: “The conviction of Sen provides a prism through which we can analyse broader health crisis issues in the central Indian tribal belt. His arrest illustrates that the state cares more about minerals lying below the ground than the adivasis living above it.

“Sen’s conviction and the health crisis among adivasis are not random in distribution or effect, but are symptoms of deeper pathologies of power”.

Adivasis, he said, had been increasingly harmed by industrial mining projects. “The state uses colonial legislation such as the Land Acquisition Act to dispossess them of their land and sell it to mining companies, both Indian and foreign,” the researcher said.

“However, the state has been far less active in providing the benevolent functions of the state, such as healthcare, education, development assistance and a functioning legal system,” he said.

Kennedy added: “In contrast, the programmes Sen set up have helped reduce mortality rates, in the case of malaria by 80 per cent in seven years”. — PTI