Pak police arrest three suspected terrorists in Lahore

Pakistan Police have reportedly arrested three suspected terrorists in Lahore, and seized two suicide jackets and 18 mobile phone SIM cards from their …

Written on March 7, 2011 | Posted in Mobile, Pakistan, US, lahore, police, unlmitie | Leave a comment

Rebels eye Gaddafi’s hometown

TRIPOLI: Opposition says it controls strategic town of Zawiyah; regime appoints new UN envoy; at least 60 dead in 2 days; rebels down fighter plane. Forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi waged a second offensive against the western town of Zawiyah on Saturday after rebels drove them out in a morning of fierce fighting; while to the east, opponents of the Libyan strongman pushed toward his hometown. In a second day of fierce fighting for control of Zawiyah, 50 km. west of Tripoli, government forces retreated to the outskirts early in the day, but later mounted a counter-offensive. Rebels said both attacks were repelled. The city bore the signs of heavy fighting, with one building completely burned and smoldering rubble littering the center. Other buildings around the main square, the stronghold of rebel resistance, were riddled with holes from large-caliber weapons. Rebels in eastern Libya said they were pushing further west after driving forces loyal to Gaddafi from the oil town of Ras Lanuf on Friday. Opposition fighters said they had taken the town of Bin Jawad some 525 km. east of Tripoli, and were moving on toward Sirte, Gaddafi’s heavily guarded hometown 160 km. away. The fight over Sirte is likely to be fierce. The town is psychologically important. It is not only where Gaddafi was born but a place he has fashioned into a second capital designed in his own extravagant image. “If Benghazi [rebels] can expand down into the Gulf of Sirte… they’ve got a very good shot at independence at the least – or maybe even overturning him at the most,” said Peter Zeihan, an analyst with the US-based Stratfor think tank. The latest fighting suggested that front lines between government forces, including militia and mercenaries, and the rebels, who are fighting with everything from captured tanks to sticks and winning support from some police and soldiers along theway, were far from clear and could shift quickly. Rebels seized Ras Lanuf on Friday and even managed to down a fighter aircraft in Gaddafi’s service. The BBC reported the plane had been shot down by a man in his 50s who was on his first day manning a mobile anti-aircraft gun, which only had one barrel working. Reuters correspondent Mohammed Abbas wrote in a brief message from the scene: “I am at the wreckage of the aircraft in Ras Lanuf.” In a sign of the increasing reports of brutality of both sides of this conflict, he said the faces of the corpses appeared to have been ripped off. The anti-Gaddafi National Libyan Council said on Saturday it had named a three-member crisis committee, which included a head of military affairs and one for foreign affairs. Omar Hariri, one of the officers who took part in Gaddafi’s 1969 coup but was later jailed, was appointed head of the military. Ali Essawi, a former ambassador to India who quit last month, was put in charge of foreign affairs. Mahmoud Jebril, who had been involved in a project among intellectuals to establish a democratic state, was named head of the crisis committee, which aims at streamlining decision-making. Meanwhile, Libya has appointed former foreign minister Ali Abdussalam Treki as its UN envoy in New York, replacing an ambassador who had renounced the Gaddafi regime for inflicting violence on its own people, the UN said on Friday. “The secretary-general has received correspondence from the Libyan authorities,” UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said. “That correspondence names Dr. Treki as the person they wish to have as the permanent representative of their country.” It is not clear whether Treki, one of Gaddafi’s most senior foreign policy advisers and a former president of the UN General Assembly, will ever take up the post as ambassador to the United Nations. In theory, Gaddafi has the right to name his UN envoys. “Libya is a recognized member of the United Nations,” Nesirky said. “When any country sends a letter naming the permanent representative, that person is the person who will be recognized as the permanent representative.” Nesirky added, however, that Treki would need to present his credentials to Ban in New York to become the Libyan ambassador. The United States has a treaty with the United Nations covering visa issuance, but Washington reserves the right to deny visas under certain circumstances. It is unclear whether the US State Department would be prepared to give Treki a visa. Economic pressure against Libya also continued to mount this weekend. Britain extended a freeze on assets to a further 20 members of Gaddafi’s entourage on Friday, and impounded around £100 million ($160m.) of Libyan currency. Around £2 billion of assets belonging to Libyan interests are believed to have been frozen in Britain under sanctions against Gaddafi’s government after its violent crackdown on protests. The asset freeze was imposed last week and initially applied only to Gaddafi and his immediate family. It now extends to 26 people. “The financial net is closing in on Colonel Gaddafi,” Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne told BBC television. “We’re denying him access to banknotes, access to bank accounts, making sure he is held accountable for what is taking place in Libya and also denied the means to persecute his own people.” (Online) Switzerland also banned transfers of money that could end up in the hands of his family and associates. “Switzerland wants to prevent any financial support of Muammar Gaddafi and his circle,” the government said. It will also be forbidden to give people linked to Gaddafi direct or indirect access to money or economic resources, the government said. On the ground in Zawiyah, the atmosphere was tense and the situation appeared fluid as rebels braced for more attacks. A doctor in the city said at least 30 people, mostly civilians, had been killed during fighting there, bringing to at least 60 the death toll from two days of battles. In the central square, four graves had been freshly dug. The red, green and black flag of the rebellion flew from many buildings in the square, where rebels shouted anti-Gaddafi slogans atop tanks and armored personnel carriers captured from the army. In the square, rebels showed a charred tank they had captured from government forces earlier in the day. It was hit by a rebel rocket-propelled grenade as Gaddafi forces tried to enter the square earlier, rebels said. “The fighting has intensified and the tanks are shelling everything on their way. They have shelled houses,” resident Abu Akeel said by telephone, speaking of afternoon’s attack. “Now they are shelling a mosque where hundreds of people are hiding. We can’t rescue anyone because the shelling is so heavy.” Outside the city, cars loaded with suitcases and boxes piled on their roofs could be seen driving westward toward Libya’s border with Tunisia as refugees continued to flee the violence. Residents said it was difficult to say how many people had been killed in two days of fighting. A government spokesman could not be reached for a comment. “They took away many bodies of injured and killed civilians,” said a local civilian who was helping treat the wounded at a clinic. “I saw that. They were putting them in trucks.” Residents said Gaddafi’s forces stormed into residential buildings and killed people inside their houses in order to secure sniper positions on rooftops. “They slaughtered people,” another resident said. “But we tell Gaddafi that every time a martyr falls, there will be 10 to replace him.” The noise of loudspeakers calling on rebels to keep on fighting could be heard through the telephone. Rebels fighting Gaddafi’s four-decade rule in Zawiyah said they had captured two tanks and three armored personnel carriers from the army. Inside a building that has served as the rebel central command in the town, the rebels presented six men they said were captured Gaddafi militia fighters. Two of them were badly wounded, with one standing in a pool of his own blood, which was dripping from his thigh. Appearing terrified, they waited silently as the rebels looked through their identification papers.

Written on March 6, 2011 | Posted in 2011, ISI, International, Mobile, News, UN, US, War, ad, aid, aircraft, army, associates, ban, banned, call, cars, cia, fair, import, india, media, military, mosque, police, tests, uth | Leave a comment

2 killed, 28 injured in blast in NW Pakistan

A bomb blast, targeting a police center, killed at least two persons and injured 28 others in northwest Pakistan, police and reports said.The bomb exploded near a police mobile van, which also …

Written on March 3, 2011 | Posted in Mobile, Pakistan, aid, police, unlmitie | Leave a comment

Stop entry of polythene, check automobile workshops in Kashmir

Srinagar, Mar 1: Expressing concern over the haphazard cropping up of automobile workshops in various parts of the Valley, Divisional Commissioner of Kashmir Asgar Hassan Samoon today directed the …

Written on March 2, 2011 | Posted in ISI, Mobile, US, kashmir, unlmitie | Leave a comment

Three policemen among five shot dead in Karachi

KARACHI: Five people including three policemen have been killed in Karachi since last night, Geo News reported on Sunday. According to details, two policemen were killed in cross firing between two groups in Quaid-e- Azam Colony near Mobina police station on Saturday night. Killing took place in Quaid-e-Azam Colony of Gulshan-e-Iqbalarea after firing between two groups. Police rushed to the spot and its mobile came under cross firing. As a result Head Constable Zahir Shah and constable Maqsood received bullet injuries and died in the hospital. Heavy contingents of police and rangers rushed to the scene to maintain law and order. Search operation was also carried out in the area after the killing. Another police constable identified as Muzafar was shot dead in Gulistan-e-Johar. A body of unidentified man was also found from Korangi areas.(GEO URDU)

Written on February 27, 2011 | Posted in 2011, Mobile, News, Politics, UN, US, ad, aid, karachi, police, urdu | Leave a comment

Gaddafi loses control of east Libya, mass exodus

TOBRUK: Moamer Kadhafi’’s regime has lost vast swaths of Libya’’s east to an insurrection, it emerged Wednesday, as the West braced for a mass exodus from a “bloodbath” in the oil-rich African state. As Kadhafi sought to cling on to his four-decade grip on power, US President Barack Obama condemned the Libyan leadership’’s blooody crackdown on anti-regime protests and orders to shoot protestors as “outrageous”. Thousands of Libyans and foreigners fled the north African country, leaving Kadhafi increasingly isolated as estimates suggested that 640 to more than 1,000 civilians were killed in the backlash by his forces. Europe readied sanctions and warning it would hold to account those responsible for the bloody crackdown. At London’’s Gatwick airport, Britons airlifted to safety said Tripoli had descended into war-like scenes. “Last night I”ve never been so scared in all my life,” said Jane Macefield, an expatriate teacher. Oil sold in New York crossed the symbolic $100 a barrel level, hitting prices not seen since 2008, amid fears over supplies from Libya. On the ground, Kadhafi opponents appeared in control of Libya’’s coastal east, from the Egyptian border through to the cities of Tobruk and Benghazi, with government soldiers switching sides to join the uprising. Tobruk is located about 100 kilometres (62 miles) from the border and Benghazi, the epicentre of protests, some 400 kilometres further west — both in the Cyrenaica region. Journalists saw regime opponents — many of them armed — all along the highway that hugs the Mediterranean coast. Soldiers were declaring their support for the uprising, residents said, but the regime asserted it was still in control via a text message sent on the Libyan national mobile telephone network. “God give victory to our leader and the people,” the message said, promising a credit in cellphone time if it were forwarded to other mobile telephone users. Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said “Cyrenaica is no longer under the control of the Libyan government and there are outbreaks of violence across the country,” using the name for the province covering the eastern half of the country. In the country’’s third city of Misrata, Kadhafi loyalists fired machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades at demonstrators, killing several people with fears that they could attack again, witnesses said. Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Khaim said Al-Qaeda had set up an Islamic emirate in Derna, between Tobruk and Benghazi, headed by a former Guantanamo Bay inmate. But local residents dismissed the reports as the Libyan government trying to “scare Europe.” In the capital Tripoli, streets were mainly empty, barring a few dozen Kadhafi backers, despite his nationally televised call on Tuesday for a show of popular support. Only Green Square — a Kadhafi stronghold since the revolt against his four decades of iron-fisted rule broke out on February 15 — pulsed with activity as pro-regime supporters staged a demonstration. Libyan authorities said food supplies were available as “normal” in the shops and urged schools and public services to restore regular services, although economic activity and banks have been paralysed since Tuesday. “The suffering and bloodshed is outrageous, and it is unacceptable,” Obama said at the White House, saying Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would attend a meeting of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. In an angry rambling speech on Tuesday, Kadhafi, 68, threatened to purge opponents “house by house” and “inch by inch.” The International Federation for Human Rights said at least 640 people although Kadhafi’’s former protocol chief, Nouri el-Mismari, said the death toll had surpassed 1,000. “This is the end of Moamer Kadhafi,” he told AFP. “Moamer Kadhafi does not even have five percent of the country behind him,” he said. Libya’’s bar to the entry of foreign news media has complicated the chronicling of events there, but several correspondents have entered the east of the country from Egypt. Kaim declared that they were “outlaws” and said they would be arrested if they did not turn themselves in. Libyans are fleeing, with a UN spokesman saying about 5,000 people have arrived at the border with Tunisia and 15,000 at the border with Egypt. China, the European Union, France, India, South Korea and the United States, among others, scrambled to evacuate people from the turbulent nation, as the international community expressed outrage at the crackdown. UN chief Ban Ki-moon demanded international action against attacks on civilians and warned that Libya was now at a dangerous juncture, welcoming moves by to set up a “possible international inquiry into events in Libya.” Army, police and militias have killed unarmed demonstrators indiscriminately, even to the point where air force planes strafed civilians, according to widespread reports. In response, Peru suspended diplomatic ties with Libya, the first nation to do so, and numerous ministers, diplomats and military officers have announced their support for the rebellion. The turmoil in Libya, which has Africa’’s largest oil reserves, is the continent’’s fourth-largest producer and where many Western oil companies have suspended operations, has sent crude prices soaring. (AFP)

Written on February 24, 2011 | Posted in 2011, IPL, ISI, International, Mobile, News, UK, UN, US, USA, War, ad, africa, aid, army, ban, call, china, dha, europe, france, india, islam, korea, media, military, police, pta, tests, uth | Leave a comment

Japanese minister calls on President

TOKYO: President Asif Ali on Tuesday told Japanese Minister for Economy, Trade and Industries Banri Kaieda that Pakistan considers Japan a big market for its exports. “Pakistan wants to start joint venture, consortium and enterprise business with Japan and is interested to increase its exports to Japan,” the President told the Japanese Minister, who called on him at a local hotel here. During the meeting, the two sides discussed the prospects of increased trade and economic cooperation between Pakistan and Japan, with particular focus on the promotion of trade and investment ties. The President said that Pakistan valued Japanese investment and economic cooperation in various fields and was keen to further boost it. He said that Pakistani mango exports to Japan would be a boost to its agriculture sector. Banri Kaieda said that Japan would continue its cooperation with Pakistan. Federal Minister for Industries and Production Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani, Federal Minister for Textiles Makhdoom Shahabuddin, Chairman Board of Investment Salim Mandviwala, Secretary Commerce Salim Mahmood, Secretary Foreign Affairs Salman Bashir, Secretary Economic Affairs Division Sabtain Halim and Spokesperson to the President Farhatullah Babar were present during the meeting. Pakistan’’s major exports to Japan are textile and textile articles and yarn is a major export produc. Major imports from Japan are motor vehicles their parts and machinery. Power generators and textile machinery constitute the main proportion of machinery import. Japan is the fourth largest investment partner of Pakistan and major sectors of Japanese investment are joint venture projects mainly in automobile sector, such as Pak-Suzuki Motor (Suzuki), Indus Motor (Toyota), Honda Atlas Cars (Honda), Gandhara Nissan Diesel (Nissan Diesel), Hino Pak Motors (Hino). (APP)

Written on February 22, 2011 | Posted in 2011, Economy, ISI, Mobile, Pakistan, Politics, UK, US, ad, aid, ban, call, cars, dha, export, fair, honda, import, ngo, projects, trade | Leave a comment

Lavish opening ceremony launches cricket World Cup

DHAKA: The Bangladeshi capital Dhaka was transformed into a wall of noise and color Thursday as a lavish ceremony officially opened the Cricket World Cup. A spectacular four-hour performance at the Bangabandhu Stadium showcased the cricket-crazy culture of the country, which is hosting the tournament along with south Asian neighbors India and Sri Lanka. The ceremony included 3,500 performers as the captain of each participating nation was introduced to the crowd via the traditional mode of transport, a rickshaw. Canadian pop star Bryan Adams took part in the festivities, along with Bangladesh singer Runa Laila and Sonu Nigam from India. The city of Mirpur plays host to the first of 49 games over the six-week tournament on Friday as World Cup favorites India take on Bangladesh. The last edition, in the Caribbean in 2007, was criticized for being complicated to follow and going on too long. Australia retained their title in the West Indies, and are aiming to win a fourth straight World Cup this time around. We feel greatly privileged to co-host the cricket extravaganza in our beautiful country –Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh’’s prime minister The International Cricket Council’’s (ICC) president Sharad Pawar told the crowd he was confident the 2011 installment would be the finest yet. “Today is a historic day when the people of Bangladesh join India and Sri Lanka together to host the ICC Cricket World Cup, and make this tournament the most memorable yet,” he said. “The ICC Cricket World Cup, our flagship event, provides the stage on which players have the rare opportunity to create legend and to write their own chapter in the history of this great sport. “The greatest cricketers in the world will grace this event and I am sure that their ability, whether with bat or ball, will provide excitement and enjoyment for all cricket lovers.” Bangladesh’’s prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, hailed a momentous day for her country. “We feel greatly privileged to co-host the cricket extravaganza in our beautiful country,” she said. “I congratulate my cricket-loving countrymen for their great enthusiasm and cooperation to make this event a grand success.” Prior to the opening ceremony the ICC announced its disappointment that Salman Butt, Pakistan’’s former captain who was banned from the game for corruption, was to appear as a pundit covering the World Cup. ICC chief executive, Haroon Lorgat, said he was “not satisfied” by Butt’’s role on a Pakistani television channel and would seek to clarify whether he is in breach of the terms of his ban. It was also confirmed that players and officials would be banned from using their mobile phones during matches, to prevent them updating sites like Twitter. New penalties were introduced for anyone found to break the new rules. (Online)

Written on February 18, 2011 | Posted in 2011, Cricket, ISI, International, Mobile, Pakistan, Sports, Test cricket, UN, US, War, World Cup, ad, aid, australia, ban, bangladesh, banned, captain, cia, corruption, dha, games, icc, india, pta, rules, south asia, twitter, uth, west indies | Leave a comment

4 dead ahead of Libya ”Day of Anger”: opponents

TRIPOLI: At least four people were killed in clashes with Libyan security forces, opposition websites and NGOs said on Thursday, as the country faced a nationwide “Day of Anger” called by cyber-activists. The websites and a Libyan rights group based in London said the clashes with demonstrators opposed to the regime of Libya’’s leader Moamer Kadhafi took place on Wednesday in the eastern town of Al-Baida. “Internal security forces and militias of the Revolutionary Committees used live ammunition to disperse a peaceful demonstration by the youth of Al-Baida,” leaving “at least four dead and several injured,” according to Libya Watch. A Geneva-based rights group, Human Rights Solidarity, citing witnesses, said that snipers on rooftops had killed as many as 13 protesters and wounded dozens of others. Videos circulating on the Internet showed dozens of young Libyans apparently gathered on Wednesday night in Al-Baida chanting, “The people want to bring down the regime,” and a building which had been set on fire. The scale of Thursday’’s protests will be a test for Kadhafi, 68, who has been in power since 1969, but whose counterparts in neighouring Egypt and Tunisia have been toppled in uprisings over the past month. One Facebook group urging the Day of Anger, which had 4,400 members on Monday, had seen that number more than double to 9,600 by Wednesday following clashes in Benghazi, Libya’’s second largest city. Quryna newspaper said security forces and demonstrators clashed late on Tuesday in Benghazi, also eastern Libya, in what it branded the work of “saboteurs” among a small group of protesters. The director of the city’’s Al-Jala hospital, Abdelkarim Gubeaili, said that 38 people were treated for light injuries. Security forces intervened to halt a confrontation between Kadhafi supporters and the demonstrators, said the paper which is close to Colonel Kadhafi’’s son, Seif al-Islam. Both Britain and the European Union called for restraint by the authorities in Libya, whose relations with the West have improved sharply over the past decade after years of virtual pariah status. The European Union urged Libya to allow “free expression,” while Britain underlined “the right of peaceful assembly.” The United States said it encouraged Libya, like countries throughout the Middle East and North Africa, to take steps to meet the hopes and needs of their people. “Countries across the region have the same kind of challenge in terms of the demographics, the aspirations of their people, the need for reform,” State Department Philip Crowley told reporters. “And we encourage these countries to take specific actions that address the aspirations and the needs and hopes of their people,” he added. In the aftermath of the Benghazi protests, activists were rounded up in the opposition stronghold on Wednesday, according to an informed Libyan source, who declined to be named. Amid the rivalry on the streets, pro-Kadhafi demonstrations were held in the capital late on Wednesday, on the eve of the Day of Anger called to mark the deaths of 14 protesters in an Islamist rally in Benghazi in 2006. Also on the eve, text messages circulated across the Libyan mobile network from “the youth of Libya” warning against crossing “four red lines: Moamer Kadhafi, territorial integrity, Islam and internal security.” “We will confront anyone in any square or avenue of our beloved country,” the message read. The Revolutionary Committees, the backbone of Kadhafi’’s regime, have warned they would not allow anti-regime protesters to “plunder the achievements of the people and threaten the safety of citizens and the country’’s stability.” (AFP)

Written on February 17, 2011 | Posted in 2011, ISI, International, Mobile, News, UN, US, Videos, War, Web, Websites, ad, africa, aid, ashes, call, dha, europe, facebook, internet, islam, live, ngo, tests, uth | Leave a comment

Powell asks answers over false Iraq info: reports

LONDON: Ex-secretary of state Colin Powell called on the CIA and Pentagon to explain how he was given unreliable information which proved key to the US case for invading Iraq, the Guardian reported Wednesday. Powell’’s landmark speech to the United Nations on February 5, 2003, cited intelligence about Iraq leader Saddam Hussein’’s bioweapons programme gained from a defector, codenamed Curveball. But he has now admitted that he lied to topple the dictator, in an interview with the Guardian. “It has been known for several years that the source called Curveball was totally unreliable,” Powell told the British newspaper. “The question should be put to the CIA and the DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency) as to why this wasn”t known before the false information was put into the (report) sent to Congress, the president’’s state of the union address and my 5 February presentation to the UN.” The defector, real name Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi, told the Guardian that he lied to the BND, Germany’’s secret service, by claiming in 2000 that Iraq had mobile bioweapons trucks and had built clandestine factories. During Powell’’s speech, Janabi was described as “an Iraqi chemical engineer” who “supervised one of these facilities.” “He actually was present during biological agent production runs and was also at the site when an accident occurred in 1998,” Powell told the UN. Janabi was exposed as an unreliable source when the BND visited Bassil Latif, his former boss at the Military Industries Commission in Iraq, who said there were no trucks or factories. However, the BND continued to cooperate with the trained chemical engineer, and the false statements were eventually passed on to senior US policymakers by the intelligence services. The resulting conflict claimed more than 100,000 civilian lives and ruined the political standing of the then US president George W. Bush and his defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Hans-Christian Stroebele, a Green deputy in Germany’’s federal parliament, told the Guardian Janabi had arguably broken the German law which forbids warmongering. (AFP)

Written on February 17, 2011 | Posted in 2011, ISI, International, Interview, Mobile, News, UN, US, War, ad, aid, call, cia, defence, defense, live, military | Leave a comment

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