The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	Timbuktu continues to bear Islamists’ brunt Symbolic door of 15th century mosque broken down Bamako, July 2 Mali's Islamist rebels smashed the entrance of a 15th century Timbuktu mosque today, escalating a campaign of destruction of the city's cultural treasures despite threats of prosecution for war crimes. Some residents sobbed as the Islamist militants broke down the 'sacred door' of one of the northern Malian city's three ancient mosques after they wrecked seven tombs of Muslim saints over the weekend. Exclusive video footage obtained by AFP shows turbaned men chanting 'Allahu Akbar' (God is great) while smashing a mausoleum with pick-axes in a cloud of dust, the mud-brick tomb showing gaping holes in the side with rubble piling up alongside it. Ansar Dine (Defenders of Faith) believe the shrines to be idolatrous and have threatened to destroy any mosques housing the remains of the ancient saints, prompting an outcry from government and the international community. "The Islamists have just destroyed the door to the entrance of the Sidi Yahya mosque... they tore the sacred door off which we never open," said a resident of the town this morning. "Some said that the day this door is opened it will be the end of the world and they wanted to show that it is not the end of the world." The door on the south end of the mosque has been closed for centuries due to local beliefs that to open it will bring misfortune. According to the website of UNESCO Sidi Yahya is one of Timbuktu's three great mosques and was built around 1400 AD, dating back to the city's golden age as a desert crossroads and centre for learning. The fabled city is considered one of the centres from which Islam spread through Africa in the 15th and 16th centuries. — AFP Ancient city heritage at risk The World Heritage Site comprises 16 cemeteries, eight of which have now been destroyed - and mausoleums. They were deemed essential elements in a religious system as, according to popular belief, they constitute a rampart that shields the city from all misfortune. The most ancient mausoleum is that of Sheikh Abul Kassim Attouaty, who died in 1529. Other famous graves include those of the scholar Sidi Mahmoudou and of Qadi Al Aqfb, restorer of mosques. In the 15th and 16th centuries Timbuktu was an intellectual and spiritual capital and a centre for the propagation of Islam throughout Africa. Its three great mosques — Djingareyber, Sankore and Sidi Yahia — date from that period. Timbuktu has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1988, but tourism has suffered from years of security problems with gunmen seizing three foreigners and killing a fourth on a street in Timbuktu last November.
	Resumption of NATO supply routes Pak-US close to resolving dispute Afzal Khan in Islamabad The United States and Pakistan appear to be close to resolving the dispute over the reopening of NATO supply routes to Afghanistan, official sources in both the capitals said. The sources pointed out that two new developments - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's call to Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf and the presence of a high-level US delegation in Islamabad - had raised hopes that the dispute might be resolved soon. According to sources in Islamabad, an important meeting between the two sides took place on Sunday shortly after the arrival of Commander of International Security Assistance Force General John Allen on his second visit to the country in four days. The Pakistani side at the talks included Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh and Chief of the Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, while the US side was represented by Deputy Secretary of State Thomas Nides, Isaf Commander General John Allen and US Ambassador Cameron Munter. The meeting coincided with Hillary's call to Raja Pervez. While congratulating Ashraf on assuming the office of the PM, she said Pakistan and the United States were partners in the war on terror and would succeed in defeating the common enemy. Official sources in Washington said that "both sides are rapidly moving towards resolving this issue" but refused to give details for fears that "a media leak at this stage may derail the process". A US team, which includes senior members of the White House National Security staff, is believed to have come with the draft of a proposal that "meets Pakistan's demand for an apology without embarrassing" the Obama administration, the sources said. The sources in Washington are linking Hillary's call to the PM to these developments. Washington's diplomatic and political circles say that the State Department is strongly supporting the proposal to accept Pakistan's demand for an apology over the November 26 US air raid that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. Initially, US Secretary of Defence Leon Panetta and other officials said the Pakistanis were focusing on increasing tariff rates for using the supply routes - from $250 to $5,000 per container. Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said the United States and Pakistan are allies in the fight against terrorism, and have been successful in defeating their common foes.
	Iran plans ballistic missile drill to counter US, Israel Tehran, July 2 Iran today said it was readying ballistic missile war games simulating a counter-attack against US or Israeli targets in the region in the event of air strikes on its nuclear facilities. The three-day drill in Iran's central desert region was starting days after the European Union and the United States imposed severe new sanctions, and on the eve of another round of negotiations with world powers seeking to curb Tehran's nuclear ambitions. "All units and missile bases have commenced their preparation and movement to the designated areas," the Revolutionary Guards, Iran's powerful elite military force conducting the exercise, said in a statement published by the official IRNA news agency. It said the "tens of different missiles" to be used included the Shahab-3, a ballistic missile with a range of 2,000 km capable of hitting Israel. The other ballistic missiles it said would be used-the Fateh, Tondar, Zelzal, Khalij Fars and Qiam-have lesser ranges of 200 to 750 km. The exercise, dubbed Great Prophet 7, was to target a "replica air base" in the Kavir Desert, the statement said. Brig General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the head of the Guards' aerospace division handling missile operations, announced the war games yesterday by saying they showed Iran "will decisively respond to any trouble" caused by "adventurous nations". He intimated the mock air base was modelled after US military bases in neighbouring Afghanistan, Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Iran has previously warned it would target those US bases if Israel or the United States made good on threats to attack it. IRNA quoted Hajizadeh as saying: "If they (the Israelis) make a move, they will give us a pretext to obliterate them from the face of the Earth." He asserted that Israel needed US help for any military action against Iran, adding: "Since the US bases are within the range of our missiles and weapons, they (the Americans) definitely will not be pressured to go along with this regime (Israel)." The manoeuvres will take place during negotiations in Istanbul tomorrow between representatives from Iran and from the P5+1 group comprising the five permanent UN Security Council members, the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia, plus Germany. — AFP
	Revolutionaries back in power in Mexico Mexico City, July 2 Mexico's old rulers have regained power following 12 years in opposition but likely will have to forge alliances with other parties to push through reforms after winning the presidency by a much narrower margin than polls had forecast. Enrique Pena Nieto of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, declared himself the winner of Sunday's presidential election after a quick count by Mexico's electoral authorities gave him a clear lead. Promising to reinvigorate the economy and reduce rampant drug violence, the telegenic 45-year-old will take office in December for a six-year term as the President, restoring the party that dominated Mexican politics for most of the past century, at times ruthlessly. — Reuters
	Pak says Mumbai attackers were helped by 40 Indians Islamabad, July 2 Days after terror suspect Zabiuddin Ansari's revelations about the Mumbai attacks being controlled and facilitated from Karachi, Pakistani authorities have claimed 40 Indian nationals were involved in the terrorist incident. "Our information is that there were at least 40 Indian nationals who helped the attackers. We want India to come clean on this," an unnamed official of Pakistan's Foreign Office was quoted as saying by The Express Tribune. Pakistan will "push" India to share details of the recent arrest of Ansari alias Abu Jundal when the Foreign Secretaries of the two countries meet in Delhi this week, the report said. The two-day talks between the Foreign Secretaries, beginning on July 4, are expected to be dominated by Ansari's arrest and subsequent claims by Indian authorities, the report further said. The Foreign Office official said Pakistan will ask India to share details of Ansari's arrest. "India has yet not shared anything with us about this arrest," the official said. Pakistan had been saying that the Mumbai attacks would not have been possible without help from Indian nationals, he claimed. The official further claimed Indian authorities had "always been reluctant to give us the full picture" of the investigation into the Mumbai attacks. "When a Pakistani judicial commission visited India to collect evidence, it was stopped from cross-examining the witnesses," he claimed. Pakistan could take "decisive action" if it is provided details of the investigation, the official claimed. "We cannot act on hearsay," he said. — PTI Pak’s contention "Our information is that there were at least 40 Indian nationals who helped the attackers. We want India to come clean on this," an unnamed official of Pakistan's Foreign Office was quoted as saying Pakistan will "push" India to share details of the recent arrest of Ansari