The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	Blasts rock Kabul after Obama visit, 7 killed Kabul, May 2 Suicide bombers attacked a compound housing Westerners in Kabul on Wednesday hours after US President Barack Obama signed a security pact during a short visit to a city that remains vulnerable to a resilient insurgency. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack which involved a car bomb and insurgents disguised as women on the eastern outskirts of the capital, killing seven persons, a Gurkha guard and six passers-by, and wounding 17. The Taliban said it was in response to Obama’s visit and to the strategic partnership deal he signed with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, a pact that sets out a long-term US role after most foreign combat troops leave by the end of 2014. The insurgency also claimed their spring offensive, which began two weeks ago with attacks in Kabul, would be renewed on Thursday, despite a security clamp-down in the capital. “This attack was to make clear our reaction to Obama’s trip to Afghanistan. The message was that instead of signing a strategic partnership deal with Afghanistan, he should think about taking his troops out from Afghanistan and leave it to Afghans to rebuild their country,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location. But America’s Kabul ambassador, Ryan Crocker, said involvement of the Haqqani network - which Washington believes is based in Pakistan’s North Waziristan region and which it blames for high-profile attacks in Kabul in April - could not be ruled out. On the anniversary of bin Laden’s killing, Crocker said he did not believe there would be a sole turning point in the war. “Al-Qaida is still there. We do feel we are prevailing in this with our Afghan partners,” he said. “We cannot be in a position of taking on ourselves bringing perfection to Afghanistan. That has to be left to Afghans.” But Crocker said there would be no repeat of the 1990s when a withdrawal of Western backers in the wake of the Soviet withdrawal unleashed a vicious civil war out of which the Taliban and Al-Qaida support bases arose. Hundreds of police and intelligence agency troops surrounded the area around Green Village after the attack. Ruined cars were seen in front of the compound gates but officials said no attackers made it inside the heavily-guarded complex.“I was going to the office when the car in front of me blew up. I got on my bicycle and fled,” 40-year-old Farid Ahmad Mohammad told Reuters near the scene of the explosion. A worker at the compound, Jamrod, said at a hospital where the wounded had been taken that he had been showing his identity card at the compound’s main gate when the vehicle exploded. “I heard a bang and then I slammed into the wall,” Jamrod, still clad in blood-stained jeans, told Reuters. Wednesday’s attack was the latest in a recent surge of violence after the Taliban announced they had begun their usual “spring offensive”, and since they suspended tentative steps towards peace talks with the United States. Such incidents raise troubling questions about the readiness of Afghan forces to take over when militants remain able to stage high-profile attacks, even when already tight security had been beefed up even further for Obama’s visit. Insurgents staged coordinated attacks in Kabul last month, paralysing the city’s centre and diplomatic area for 18 hours. The Taliban also claimed responsibility for those attacks, but US and Afghan officials blamed the militant, Al-Qaida-linked Haqqani network. — Reuters
	Suu Kyi makes historic debut in Myanmar Parliament Naypyitaw, May 2 Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi took a historic oath on Wednesday to join a parliamentary system crafted by the generals who locked her away for much of her long struggle against dictatorship, ushering in a dramatic new political era. The 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner’s debut in a Parliament stacked with uniformed soldiers could accelerate reforms that have already included the most sweeping changes in the former British colony since a military coup 50 years ago. The signs of change have already prompted some countries to suspend sanctions. But the wildly popular daughter of assassinated independence hero Aung San also faces the difficulty of managing the expectations of a nation impatient for change and the hopes of Burmese who see her as a sole beacon for democratic freedom. It is unclear how rapidly she can deliver on her ambitious campaign promises, including the overhaul of Myanmar’s army-drafted constitution, in a legislature dominated by former members of the military junta who ruled for nearly half a century before ceding to a quasi-civilian government last year. “Only time will tell,” she replied when asked by a Reuters reporter of the day’s significance, as she waded through a chaotic throng of reporters on her way to the chamber where she took the oath in a shortened 40-minute session. Later, she told reporters: “I have always been cautiously optimistic about developments. In politics, you also have to be cautiously optimistic.” Suu Kyi’s entry into parliament comes a month after her party’s landslide victory in a by-election and two days after backing down in a standoff over the wording of an oath to protect the constitution sworn by all new members of parliament. The parliamentary session was to have ended on Monday but was extended in part to allow Suu Kyi and fellow members of the National League for Democracy (NLD) to take their seats. Entering the chamber, she at first sat down on her own, near the block reserved for serving military men who have a quarter of the seats under the constitution, and seemed relaxed as other lawmakers greeted her. She then lined up with colleagues to take the oath, including a pledge to uphold a constitution her party wants to change because it gives the military a leading political role. Taking a conciliatory tone, Suu Kyi said she remained open on the question of revising the oath. “The key to all of this is flexibility and practicality,” she said. Asked if she felt awkward working with the military, she replied, “Not at all, I have tremendous goodwill towards the military. It doesn’t in any way bother me to sit with them.” Her comments reflect the dramatic scale of change in the former Burma, given the military’s past treatment of Suu Kyi, who was first detained by the army in 1989, and then spent 15 of the next 21 years in detention until her release from house arrest in November 2010. Many lawmakers hope Suu Kyi’s parliamentary debut will be a catalyst for further reform by the government of President Thein Sein, a former general who has freed hundreds of political prisoners, loosened strict media controls, legalised trade unions and protests, and started a dialogue with ethnic minority rebels. — Reuters
	20 killed in clashes outside Egyptian defence ministry Cairo, May 2 At least 20 persons were killed and many others injured today when ‘thugs’ attacked anti-military protesters with rocks, clubs, firebombs and shotguns near the Egyptian defence ministry here in the tense run-up to the first presidential elections in the post-Mubarak era. Clashes between protesters around Egypt’s Ministry of Defence left 20 dead till now, according to protesters and the make shift hospital in the Abbassiyah square. The health ministry insists there were only six dead. Soldiers and the police have now stopped the clashes, but the intervention came nearly six hours after they began. Some reports also said the unidentified attackers were local people, angry at the disruption caused by the sit-in, which began on Saturday, the BBC reported. Many of the protesters who were attacked outside the defence ministry building, this morning were supporters of a Salafist preacher, Hazem Abu Ismail, barred from standing in the election. The protesters claim the thugs attacking them are backed by the army as they have been photographed in a number of protests before and some of them were arrested by protesters and confessed to have been paid by the army to attack the protests. The army on the other hand insist they are neutral, have protected the revolution and want to turn the authority over to civilians as soon as possible with the presidential elections slated for May 23 and 24. As a result of the clashes seven main parties including the Muslim Brotherhood, Justice party and Salafi Nur party decided to boycott the meeting with the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) today to decide on the principles governing the formation of the constituent assembly to draft the constitution. — PTI
	19 blasts shake Pak’s Sindh Target ATMs, rail tracks; 6 hurt Islamabad, May 2 At least 19 low-intensity bomb blasts targeted ATM machines of state-run banks and railway tracks in Sindh province of southern Pakistan today injuring six persons, including two policemen. The explosions occurred in cities and towns across Sindh, including the capital city of Karachi, early this morning. A private security guard was injured in a blast at a bank in Kotri town while two policemen were wounded in blasts at Hyderabad and Dorki, officials of the provincial Home Department said. Five blasts targeted ATM machines outside branches of the National Bank of Pakistan and Sindh Bank in Hyderabad city. Blasts were also reported in Kotri, Dadu, Badin, Sukkur, Nawabshah, Thatta, Ranipur, Khairpur Nathan Shah, Tando Mohammad Khan and Larkana. Two vehicles were damaged in the blast at Kotri. A shop adjacent to the National Bank branch in Jamshoro was damaged by a blast. One low-intensity explosion damaged railway tracks near Ghotki. The Jaffar Express train, going from Punjab to Sindh, had a narrow escape, media reports said. Local residents gathered at the tracks and signalled the train to stop. A blast was also reported at Gulistan-e-Johar area of Karachi though there were no casualties. In Hyderabad city, an injured man underwent surgery while other wounded were discharged after being given first aid, said Anwar Arain, a doctor at the Civil Hospital. Latif Ansari, regional head of the National Bank, said 11 branches were attacked. "The terrorists only targeted the ATM machine rooms. However, the roof of a branch in Latifabad caved in and documents and furniture caught fire," he said. — PTI
	2 key US officials cancel Pak visit Islamabad, May 2 Two top US officials have called off visits to the Pakistani capital without assigning any reasons, reflecting the current tensions between the two countries as they struggle to reset their troubled ties a year after the killing of Osama bin Laden. US Senate Intelligence Committee chairperson Dianne Feinstein was scheduled to arrive in Islamabad last night while Gen John Allen, the commander of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, was expected to arrive tomorrow. Allen was to meet the military leadership while Feinstein was scheduled to hold talks with the top civil and military leadership, including PM Yousuf Raza Gilani, Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar and army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. Both visits were cancelled at the last minute, diplomatic sources said. Feinstein’s visit was being seen as a follow-up to last week’s trip to Islamabad by Special Envoy Marc Grossman. Following the cancellation of the visits by the US officials, Foreign Minister Khar’s planned trip to the US and US Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman John Kerry’s visit to Pakistan have been ruled out any time soon, The News daily reported. — PTI