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33 killed in attack on Iraq police headquarters
Musharraf ‘hid’ Kargil intrusions from ISI
Pak Taliban to hold talks with govt if 3 politicians act as guarantors
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Pak Parliament passes Bill on snooping
Harry’s Vegas ‘lover’ to pen tell-all book
6 Indian institutes among 150 top think-tanks
Chinese boat captain nabbed for illegal fishing in Japan
Malala undergoes two successful surgeries 30 French warplanes blast Islamist
targets in Mali
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33 killed in attack on Iraq police headquarters
Kirkuk, February 3 Militants had apparently sought to take control of the compound, but were unsuccessful, said Brigadier General Natah Mohammed Sabr, the head of the city's emergency services department. The attackers struck at morning rush hour in the city centre, Sabr said, with the militants armed with guns, grenades and suicide vests looking to force their way into the police headquarters in the chaotic aftermath of the car bombing. In addition to the casualties, the attack caused massive damage to nearby buildings, Sabr said. The deadly attack shattered a relative calm in recent days in Iraq, which has been grappling with a political crisis pitting Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki against his erstwhile government partners amid weeks of ongoing protests calling for him to resign. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the violence, but Sunni militants, including Al-Qaeda's front group in Iraq, frequently target security forces and government targets in a bid to destabilise the country and push it back towards the sectarian bloodshed that blighted it from 2005 to 2008. Kirkuk, an ethnically mixed city 240 km north
of Baghdad, lies at the heart of a swathe of disputed territory claimed by both the central government and Iraq's autonomous northern Kurdish region.
— Agencies
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Musharraf ‘hid’ Kargil intrusions from ISI
Islamabad, February 3 Lt Gen (retired) Shahid Aziz, who headed the analysis wing of the ISI at the time, writes that when he brought "strange wireless intercepts" to the notice of then ISI chief Lt Gen Ziauddin Butt on May 3 or 4, 1999, he asked Aziz to keep the documents with himself. Aziz says the intercepts made it clear that troops from 10 Corps had "carried out an aggressive operation" along the Line of Control. In his book "For How Long This Silence", written in Urdu and released last week, Aziz says the entire operation in Kargil was planned and executed by then Army Chief Musharraf, Chief of General Staff Lt Gen Aziz Muhammad Khan, 10 Corps chief Lt Gen Mahmud Ahmad and Maj Gen Javed Hassan, the chief of the Force Command Northern Areas. Besides these four generals, "no other senior officer knew about the operation", Aziz writes. "Even the staff of 10 Corps headquarters was unaware of the operation in the beginning. The Military Operations directorate also knew later when everything had been done," he says. ISI chief Butt later acknowledged that Pakistani troops had taken control of many areas on the Indian side of the LoC that were empty or evacuated by Indian troops for winter. Aziz writes that the communications intercepts showed the "nervousness" and "confused talk" on the Indian side. "Indian forces seemed to be frightened. I said, 'It seems that our forces have conducted a major action in Kargil'," he writes.
— PTI Breaking silence
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Pak Taliban to hold talks with govt if 3 politicians act as guarantors
In a video interview received by the media, Ehsan said in order to hold talks, the organisation wanted Maulvi Omar, TTP’s Swat leader Muslim Khan and other leaders and commanders, who are in government custody, to be freed. He added that Maulvi Omar and Muslim Khan would lead the Taliban delegation to hold the talks. The spokesman for the terror outfit blamed the government for being non-serious over their earlier ceasefire offer. The Taliban have no confidence in the army as it had violated agreements signed in the past, he said. talibanspeak
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Pak Parliament passes Bill on snooping
Islamabad, February 3 The Fair Trial Bill, 2012, which has been criticised by rights groups for posing a threat to privacy and civil liberties, was passed by the Senate or upper house of Parliament on Friday. It was passed by the National Assembly or lower house of Parliament on December 20. Once the President gives his assent, the law will empower intelligence and security agencies to tap phone calls, monitor emails and gather data from SMSes and other means of communication as part of the war on terrorism. The electronic data gathered by the security agencies will be accepted in court in cases registered under five security-related laws. Law Minister Farooq Naek told the Senate that once the new law is enacted, all law enforcement and intelligence agencies will be governed by a uniform legal system for collecting evidence that will be admissible in court even if it is collected before the registration of an FIR. "The law must encourage investigation and intelligence agencies to only collect genuine evidence in accordance with law and thus curb the temptation of planting false and fabricated evidence against individuals in violation of their human rights," he said.
— PTI
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Harry’s Vegas ‘lover’ to pen tell-all book
Reichert lists bad boy golfer Tiger Woods, British actor Jude Law, one-time pop party animal Robbie Williams, basketball legends Charles Barkely and Michael Jordan among those she has partied with, the Daily Mail reported. Other stars she claims she will talk about include Mick Jagger and Jack Nicholson. She has also enjoyed drunken nights out with Hollywood girls Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Kim Kardashian and Britney Spears. The blonde promises the book will "not hold back" on details. The massage specialist has partied in her home town of Los Angeles and Las Vegas for over two decades. Reichert shot to international prominence after she partied with 28-year-old Prince Harry in his bedroom suite during his naked billiards game at the Wynn Hotel in Vegas last August. In a taped interview, she alleged she kissed the third-in-line to the throne in a naked 'drunken fumble'. When she sold her story, a St James's Palace spokesman flatly denied the girl's claims, saying "the story is untrue". And a source close to the Prince also questioned Reichert's account, saying: "This lady was not present with Prince Harry on the night in question or on any occasion." A few hours after coming forward with her story, Reichert was arrested and placed on remand over fraudulent cheques. She insists that the British secret service were responsible for her incarceration. Reichert has said, "I am writing a book about what happened with Harry and other people too".
— PTI party tale
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6 Indian institutes among 150 top think-tanks
New York, February 3 Though no Indian think-tank figured in the top 50, the New Delhi-based CCS was ranked 51st in the list. The list was topped
by Brookings Institution (United States) followed by Chatham House (United Kingdom) and Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
(United States). Other Indian think-tanks featured in the list are: Institute for Defence Studies and Analysis (IDSA) (105), Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) (109), The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) (110), Observer Research Foundation (ORF) (115) and Development Alternatives (141). However, three Indian Think-tanks were among the list top 100 institutes that excluded the
United States. Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology (ATREE) and Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) were among the top 20 environment think-tanks. The Energy and Resources Institute was also ranked 7th in the top 20 Energy and Resource Policy Think Tanks.
— PTI
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Chinese boat captain nabbed for illegal fishing in Japan
Japan, February 3 The boat's 63-year-old captain, Xue Changlong, who claims to be
Chinese, has admitted to operate in EEZ waters about 46 km east-northeast of the island in Okinawa Prefecture without permission, according to coast guard officials. The captain of the boat, about 100 tonnes in size, was with 12 others who also claim to be Chinese, the officials said, adding that corals were found on the vessel.
— Kyodo
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Malala undergoes two successful surgeries
A spokesperson for Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital said, "The procedures carried out at the hospital were a cranial reconstruction and cochlear implantation." The spokesperson said, “Malala's medical team was very pleased with her progress following the operations which lasted for around five hours yesterday.” The procedures carried out on her included titanium cranioplasty which is repairing of the missing area of skull with a titanium plate that has been moulded to accurately replicate the skull. The other procedure was the Cochlear implant which is fitting a small, complex electronic device that provides a sense of sound to someone who is profoundly deaf or severely hard of hearing. "Both operations were a success and Malala is now recovering in hospital," the spokesperson said. Her condition is described as stable and her medical team is very pleased with the progress she has made so far. She is awake and talking to staff and members of her family. — PTI
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30 French warplanes blast Islamist targets in Mali Paris, February 3 Fighter jets, refuelling and reconnaissance planes took part in the "major" overnight operation in the Tessalit area north of Kidal, military spokesman Colonel Thierry Burkhard said. Kidal is the last bastion of radicals who occupied the desert north for months before France's surprise intervention. Tessalit, near the border with Algeria, is believed to be where seven French nationals captured by Islamists are being held. Meanwhile, the US is anticipating that it might have to move into North Africa to go after the Al-Qaida in the region as the Obama administration wants to make sure the global terror network has no place to hide, Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said today. "We've gone after core leadership of the Al-Qaida in the Fatah in Afghanistan. We've gone after them in Yemen. We've gone after them successfully in Somali. We were always aware there was AQIM (Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb) in North Africa," Panetta told CNN. — Agencies
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Clashes erupt in Spain after PM’s corruption denial Indian jailed for healthcare fraud in US 1 killed in plane crash off Venezuela Roadside bomb kills family of 5 138 rescued from sinking boat 
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At least 33 persons were killed and 70 others wounded in the Iraqi city of Kirkuk today when a suicide bomber detonated a truck packed with explosives outside a police headquarters and gunmen disguised as officers tried to storm the compound.
The outlawed Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has expressed conditional willingness to hold talks with the government and security forces.
TTP spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said his organisation would hold talks with the government if three politicians — Pakistan Muslim League - Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif, chief of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman and Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) Ameer Syed Munawar Hasan — acted as guarantors for the negotiations.
London, February 3
London, February 3
