W O R L D

Blast in Baghdad as Arab League summit opens
Baghdad, March 29
Three rockets exploded around Baghdad on Thursday despite a massive security operation as Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki hosted the country's first Arab League summit in two decades.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon (R) and Secretary General of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu (C), attend the summit. —AFP

22 more killed in Syria
Baghdad, March 29
Arab leaders pressed President Bashar al-Assad to act quickly on a UN-backed peace plan he has agreed to, having dropped their demand that he leave power, as fighting between Syrian security forces and rebels killed at least 22 people on Thursday.

Gunmen kill 7 in Balochistan
Islamabad, March 29
Seven people lost their lives in two separate incidents of firing in Balochistan by suspected militants early Thursday morning. The first attack took place in Kali Mubarak area near Spini Road, Quetta, where five people including a woman were killed and six people were injured, when some unidentified armed men opened fire.
Protesters carry out a demonstration in Quetta, Pakistan on Thursday following killings by gunmen in Balochistan. — AFP

NATO supply convoy ambushed in Afghanistan
Kabul, March 29
An Afghan soldier, five private security guards and 20 militants were killed after insurgents ambushed a NATO supply convoy in western Afghanistan, triggering a three-hour-long gun fight, police officials said today.

Pak sacks surgeon who helped CIA track Osama
Pakistan has sacked Dr Shakeel Afridi who had helped CIA to track Osama bin Laden.
Dr Afridi’s information led to the US unilateral operation in Abbotabad that killed Osama last year. Shakeel Afridi was deputed in Abbotabad to lead an anti-polio vaccination programme set up by the CIA. Fifteen women health workers were dismissed in August 2011, and a woman doctor and an assistant coordinator were sacked on March 17. — TNS

Blast in Baghdad as Arab League summit opens

Baghdad, March 29
Three rockets exploded around Baghdad on Thursday despite a massive security operation as Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki hosted the country's first Arab League summit in two decades.

After years of war, Iraq's Shi'ite-led government had hoped the summit would highlight its growing stability and renewed role in the region, where Sunni Gulf nations have long been wary of Baghdad's close ties to Shi'ite power Iran.

One rocket exploded on the edge of the fortified Green Zone where the Arab leaders were meeting.

"The blast happened close to the Iranian embassy. The windows of the embassy have been shattered, but there are no casualties," a senior Iraqi security source said.

Two other rockets struck central and western Baghdad, but no casualties were reported.. Insurgents often fire rockets and mortars at the Green Zone, which houses ministries and foreign embassies.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon joined Arab leaders at the summit in a former palace of Saddam Hussein, and urged Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to implement a UN-backed peace plan to end a year of violence in Syria.

The only high-ranking Gulf Arab leader at the talks was the emir of Kuwait, but his presence was a sign of progress in Iraq's often tense relations with Sunni neighbours.

The summit was twice delayed because of clashes between Baghdad and Gulf governments over a crackdown on Shi'ite protesters by Bahrain's Sunni leadership, with the aid of fellow Sunni monarchies Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates.

Sunni power Saudi Arabia sent its Arab League delegate, while Qatar said it had sent a low-level delegation to Baghdad as a message to Iraq's leadership about its relations with Iraq's Sunni minority.

"Qatar didn't boycott the Arab League's summit in Baghdad but it tried to signal a message to its Iraqi brothers," Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Bin al-Thani told Al Jazeera television. — Reuters

22 more killed in Syria

Baghdad, March 29
Arab leaders pressed President Bashar al-Assad to act quickly on a UN-backed peace plan he has agreed to, having dropped their demand that he leave power, as fighting between Syrian security forces and rebels killed at least 22 people on Thursday.

"The solution for the crisis is still in the hands of Syrians as a government and opposition," Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby told Arab heads of state at a summit meeting in Baghdad.

Pre-empting the summit, Damascus said on Wednesday it would reject any initiative from the Arab League, w hich suspended Syria in November, and would deal only with individual states.

But UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon kept up pressure on Assad, saying he must turn his acceptance of the six-point peace plan into action, to divert his country from a "dangerous trajectory" with risks for the entire region. — Reuters

How the west rendered USSR bankrupt

London, March 29
A new analysis showing how the radical policies advocated by western economists helped to bankrupt Russia and other former Soviet countries after the Cold War has been released by researchers at the University of Cambridge.

The study, led by academics at the University of Cambridge, is the first to trace a direct link between the mass privatisation programmes adopted by several former Soviet states, and the economic failure and corruption that followed, a university release said.

Devised principally by western economists, mass privatisation was a radical policy to privatise rapidly large parts of the economies of countries such as Russia during the early 1990s.

The policy was pushed heavily by the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

Its aim was to guarantee a swift transition to capitalism, before Soviet sympathisers could seize back the reins of power, the release added.

Instead of the predicted economic boom, what followed in many ex-Communist countries was a severe recession, on a par with the Great Depression of the United States and Europe in the 1930s.

The reasons for economic collapse and skyrocketing poverty in Eastern Europe, however, have never been fully understood.

Nor have researchers been able to explain why this happened in some countries like Russia, but not in others such as Estonia, the release said.

Some economists argue that mass privatisation would have worked if it had been implemented even more rapidly and extensively.

Conversely, others argue that although mass privatisation was the right policy, the initial conditions were not met to make it work well.

Further still, some scholars suggest that the real problem had more to do with political reform.

Writing in the new, April issue of the American Sociological Review, Lawrence King and David Stuckler from the University of Cambridge and Patrick Hamm, from Harvard University, test for the first time the idea that implementing mass privatisation was linked to worsening economic outcomes, both for individual firms, and entire economies. — PTI

Thaw in Pak-US relations
Afzal Khan in Islamabad

Wednesday’s meeting at the GHQ between army chief Gen Kayani and two top US commanders Gen James Mattis and Gen John Allen marks the first sign of a thaw in efforts towards ending the logjam in Pak-US ties.

This comes close on the heels of PM Yousuf Raza Gilani’s meeting with President Barack Obama in Seoul a day before and an earlier meeting between President Asif Zardari and a special US representative in the region Mark Grossman in Dushanbe last week.

These high-level contacts were held against backdrop of intense back-channel efforts designed to rescue a troubled anti-terror alliance which has been full of mistrust and recriminations for the last many months. At home, the joint session of the Parliament is also underway to reshape the country’s foreign policy and strategic priorities. The focus is mainly on redefining terms of engagement with the US.

Gunmen kill 7 in Balochistan
Tribune News Service

Hazara Democratic Party has condemned the attack and announced a “shutter down” strike call for Friday, March 30. (With inputs from PTI)

NATO supply convoy ambushed in Afghanistan

Kabul, March 29
An Afghan soldier, five private security guards and 20 militants were killed after insurgents ambushed a NATO supply convoy in western Afghanistan, triggering a three-hour-long gun fight, police officials said today.

"The insurgents attacked the NATO supply convoy yesterday late afternoon in Bala Buluk district of Farah province," said Raouf Ahmadi, spokesman for the regional police commander. — PTI