Afghan President Hamid Karzai, blaming violence in his country on foreign elements, on Friday issued a fresh call to Taliban militants to lay down their arms and join his government. Karzai, speaking at a ceremony commemorating Afghanistans victory against the Soviet-backed communist regime in 1992, said those engaged in insurgency against his government were unknowingly fighting their people on orders of foreign elements. He did not elaborate.
Let me elaborate for him, then: The rubes with the turbans and the automatic weapons are fighting against one set of foreigners us, which includes the NATO forces at the behest and on the dime of another set of foreigners. Karzai is too polite to mention who has the burning desire for "strategic depth" outside his borders, and he's too polite to mention who's sitting on top of a large pool of very expensive oil with money to burn.
On this great day of our nations victory, I call on our those brothers who are unknowingly causing the destruction of their country on the guidance of the enemy, to return to their homes, Karzai said. He blamed the factional fighting on a hidden foreign invasion.
It's not "imperialism" when it's Arabs moving in and taking over poor countries and imposing their culture and religion...
Afghanistans sacrifices took the holy war to victory. But unfortunately the glory of the victory did not last long and the fighting erupted on foreign interference, he said.
That'd be Hekmatyar initiating the Dog Eat Dog at the behest of Mullah Diesel and Mullah Sandwich, followed by the Arab brethren suddenly becoming the Arab masters...
The country was secretly invaded and it became the nest of terrorism, he added. A Taliban commander, speaking shortly before Karzais latest call, urged Afghans to join the jihad, or holy war, to force out foreign infidels, just as Soviet troops were forced out in the 1980s.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/29/2006 00:00 ||
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The king, who traces his ancestory back to Mohammed himself I've heard, is actually doing something useful with this. There have been repeated postings here complaining that it's the women who have the power to change Islam by refusing to accept the radicals' nonsense. Here is an example of how it can be done: the women (a first class graduated and on government salary, a second class being formed to follow them) trained in the details of their faith, and given the tools to counter the arguments of those who would use Islam to oppress all; sent out by the king to share this knowledge and training with other women, especially the poor and the powerless -- those most likely to accept oppression out of ignorance and piety -- and to their children -- those next in line to oppress and be oppressed, and those most likely to follow the banner of jihad. Additionally, according to the article (most interestingly, presented straight, without any snickering about incompetent and foolish women attempting tasks beyond the ability of their sex), the women are being trained in basic business, computer and psychology skills, which can be turned to becoming self-supporting, which additionally frees them from total dependence on the goodwill of the men in their lives.
General Sir Michael Walker, the most senior officer in the British military, handed over the reins to a new Chief of the Defence Staff Friday, the Ministry of Defence in London confirmed.
Thank you and fare thee well, General Walker.
Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup took up the post as General Walker bowed out after three years during which he has overseen operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Balkans. Air Chief Marshal Stirrup, who was confirmed in the post in March last year, has been Chief of the Air Staff since August 2003. He was commissioned into the Royal Air Force in 1970.
Taking up the post today, he said in a statement: "The men and women of the (UK) Armed Forces continue to demonstrate today the qualities of professionalism, skill, dedication and courage that have been their hallmark for so many years. Their service to their country is something of which all of us can and should be proud, and it is an enormous privilege to be asked to lead them."
Air Chief Marshal Stirrup is replaced as Chief of the Air Staff by Air Chief Marshal Sir Glenn Torpy, previously Chief of Joint Operations.
...because her neighbors are inconvenienced and frightened.
Liberal Party MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali has been ordered to vacate the high-security home she is renting in The Hague within four months. An appeal court sided with her neighbours who complained her presence put their own safety at risk and caused disruption to their lives.
"Let the turbans slaughter her someplace else!"
Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner broke the news of the court decision at an EU meeting in Luxembourg on Thursday. "I think this is dreadful, horrible to have to move. I am happy living here and I feel safe," Hirsi Ali said in response to the judgement.
I think that's the way I'd describe your neighbors, too. If I remember correctly, some Dutchmen hid Ann Frank, and some other Dutchmen sold her out.
The neighbours lost their case initially but they won on Thursday when an appeal court accepted Hirsi Ali's presence meant they no longer felt safe in their own apartments or in the communal areas of the complex. The court ruled that is contravened Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights which guarantees respect for a person's private and family life.
For everyone else except Ms. Ali, of course. Since when does she count?
The Dutch State had contravened these rights by moving to the apartment complex without seeking their consent and without taking measures to diminish the neighbours' valid fears, the court said. Justice Minister Donner said he is considering appealing the decision to the Supreme Court "otherwise it will create difficulties for the protection of various people". The neighbours said in a statement that their court action had not been directed against Hirsi Ali personally, but against the State for exposing them to danger.
"No, no! Certainly not! And why can't she go back to where she came from?"
Posted by: ed ||
04/29/2006 10:53 Comments ||
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NS
"Offer her asylum."
What makes you think she'd be any more welcome in most US neighborhoods? Down here in Katrinaland it is hard to find neighborhoods willing to accept FEMA trailers - even those to be inhabited by firemen or police.
La Belle France is launching a "cultural workshop" starting in September in a bid to promote understanding between the West and the Islamic world, the diplomat in charge of the project said Thursday. The workshop, which is the brainchild of French President Jacques Chirac, will hold its first session in Paris on September 13-15, ambassador-at-large Jacques Huntzinger told AFP.
Brilliant. Simply brilliant. Jacques is truly one of the great minds of the 16th Century.
Huntzinger, in Doha to attend an inter-faith dialogue, said the workshop aims at "countering the risk of the development of misunderstandings, prejudices and fear among peoples and civil societies" on the two banks of the Mediterranean.
What about understanding the genuine dangers posed by eye-rolling, spittle-spewing holy men who want to kill you and yours? What about the genuine dangers posed by the advocates of Armed Struggle and the Dynamite Your Neighbor set? They're starting on the assumption that it's all just a misunderstanding and that there's no danger to the West, despite continuous assurances to the contrary from any number of respected holy men.
According to a presentation of the project, a copy of which was obtained by AFP, the second session will be held in the Spanish city of Seville February 7-9, 2007 and the third in the Egyptian port of Alexandria in June next year.
Gay Paree's a great place to start the festivities. No doubt they'll have a ceremonial carbecue, followed by festive strikes and riots, culminating in the hilarity of the Running of the Algerians in the 17th Arondissement. Seville, of course, used to be a Muslim city until the Moors were given the boot, so that's fraught with enough symbolism to make you gag. Alexandria used to be a Christian city with the world's greatest library until it was taken over by Lions of the Desert, who burned down the library because they already had a book.
Participants in the "dialogue of peoples and cultures" will come from non-governmental organizations although organizers will seek the support of the governments concerned. "The platform must be given to historians, educators, researchers and new thinkers on both banks. With the help of the media, satellite channels and the Internet, they will know how to fight stereotypes," the document says.
Boy, I'd love to get a job as a thinker. I suppose it pays well European thinkers never seem to work at anything else so I wouldn't have to worry about groceries or the cost of gas going to work. All I'd have to do is cogitate. I could buy a black turtleneck and a pack of Gaulloises and think thoughts both great and small, considering the whichness of why, and whether pigs have wings, and how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. With the help of media, satellite channels and the internet, I'll betcha I could figure out how to fight stereotypes in no time flat, which would leave time for thinking about really important things, like beer and women.
The series of workshops will be open to Arab countries of the Maghreb, Levant and Gulf, in addition to Israel, Turkey and member states of the European Union.
Oh, it all sounds so ecumenical!
Themes to be debated will range from the role of media to the relationship between society and religion in secular systems and those based on sharia, or Islamic law.
Practicing for my eventual high paying job as a Thinker, I'd say that the relation between society and religion in secular systems is... ummm... different from those based on sharia, or Islamic law. Yep. That's what I'd say.
In secular societies there's no relationship between society and religion. None.There's a relationship between the members of society and religion. They're allowed to belong to any religion they want, or to none at all. This necessitates a certain tension between religions as they compete for adherents to fill collection plates, spread gospels, and that sort of thing. This tension expresses itself in the types of hats worn by clergy belonging to Catholic style Christianity, which range from the simple beret worn by Father Camillo, through the broad-brimmed hat worn by Father Guido Sarducci, to the miter that's shared among bishops, cardinals, and the pope himself. Orthodox priests compete among themselves to come up with the most outlandish hats, and they add beards, side-curls (stolen from the Jews), and fonny assents to bring in the paying devout.
Among Protestant clerics, this same tension evidences itself somewhat in dress, with Episcopalians affecting the Papish Roman collar and cloning the bishops' hats, but more distinctly in the tone and accent of preachers. These range from the drone of the Luthern cleric in Minnesota through variations on the accents of Alabama and Mississippi among Pentecostalists, Baptists, and different flavors of Methodists. This accent is a requirement, taught in all the best theological schools, and must be mastered, even if the preacher is from New Jersey. Returning to my previous study of linguistics, I've given this some deep thought I'm becoming a professional Thinker, after all and I'm building a matrix that will show just which denomination equates to just which village in the swath of Katrina-devastated countryside stretching from Biloxi to Birmingham. I'm expecting a Pulitzer next year if I can just find a few CIA sources to quote.
And of course in those societies which are based on shariah, or Islamic law, the relationship between society and religion is quite different still. If you're not a Muslim they'll kill you.
The need for an inter-cultural dialogue was highlighted by the crisis sparked by the publication of cartoons of Islam's Prophet Mohammed in European papers, which infuriated Muslims across the world, according to the document. The cartoons row showed the degree to which "the Arab-Islamic world resents the West, notably Europe," a feeling which can resurface any time, the document warns.
Here's where I come to doubt my powers as a professional Thinker. Cogitate as I might, I can't come up with a reason for Europe to be concerned that the Arab-Islamic world resents the West if the Arab-Islamic world doesn't appear in the least concerned that the West might resent them. Now, if I was a Muslim of any sort, I'd look around me and see my governing classes made up in large part of swaggering bullies and aging princes who look like Grampaw Munster. Then I'd look over my shoulder at the West, where people are if not rolling in money, then making a decent living, inventing things, drinking beer, pinching girlies, and not to be insensitive about it walking all over the Muslim world when it comes to any kind of competition that doesn't involve eye-rolling, moustache cursing, or pouring acid on women. I would have the good sense not to want the West to resent me for being a backward yokel, given to bonking my head five times a day in the general direction of Mecca while keeping my wife in a sack and occasionally taking a hatchet to one of my daughters for making goo goo eyes at the boy in the next holler. But then, I'm not an Arab or a Muslim, so I'm probably missing something. Maybe some beer would help me cogitate a little more deeply.
Preparations for the dialogue are taking place in close cooperation with Spain and with the backing of Egypt, it said.
No doubt they used to hold similar get-togethers with Germans and Italians in the '30s to defuse the rising tensions. That worked well, too. Sometimes genuine understanding among people makes you want to order more ammunition.
#7
Amusing comments, but one major error: it was the Christians, inspired by Bishop Cyril, who burned the great pagan library of Alexandria The Muslims came several hundred years later. Prior to the Enlightenment, Christianity was no more tolerant than Islam.
The final individual to get blamed for the destruction is the Moslem Caliph Omar. In 640 AD the Moslems took the city of Alexandria. Upon learning of "a great library containing all the knowledge of the world" the conquering general supposedly asked Caliph Omar for instructions. The Caliph has been quoted as saying of the Library's holdings, "they will either contradict the Koran, in which case they are heresy, or they will agree with it, so they are superfluous." So, allegedly, all the texts were destroyed by using them as tinder for the bathhouses of the city. Even then it was said to have taken six months to burn all the documents. But these details, from the Caliph's quote to the incredulous six months it supposedly took to burn all the books, weren't written down until 300 years after the fact. These facts condemning Omar were written by Bishop Gregory Bar Hebræus, a Christian who spent a great deal of time writing about Moslem atrocities without much historical documentation.
The library was apparently burned at least twice, maybe three times. Caesar was blamed for burning the library the first time. The story of Bishop Cyril and Hypatia the last librarian and the Alexandrine riots is an interesting story, and the Temple of Serapis branch at least was burned then. And the Caliph Omar story sounds so Islamic, despite the lack of contemporary documentation.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/29/2006 10:32 Comments ||
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Interesting indeed. Hypatia -- the greatest female scholar of antiquity -- was skinned alive by a mob of rabid Christian monks. But the point is that Christianity changed. Can Islam? I used to think so, but now I doubt it.
#13
Interesting indeed. Hypatia -- the greatest female scholar of antiquity -- was skinned alive by a mob of rabid Christian monks. But the point is that Christianity changed.
History doesn't say if the Church punished the monks or perhaps even deferred them to the "secular arm" (Church didn't execute people) while we know well enough that there was NO fatwa against those who destroyed the Buddhas in Afghanistan, or cultural treasures elsewhere.
#14
I can't find my reference right now, but it was claimed that the holdings of the library had changed over time (like modern libraries). The theory was that a lot of the old pagan authors, being less popular, hadn't been recopied and therefore not replaced when the volumes wore out. This theory was supposedly supported by references to their equivalent of a card catalog.
More on topic: Who will be attending these "workshops" from the Middle East? Let me guess: A couple of pet Islamic scholars who can be trusted to say nice things in front of the French cameras. A herd of the usual suspects. The eye-rollers won't get grants to come.
Posted by: James ||
04/29/2006 14:57 Comments ||
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Prior to the Enlightenment, Christianity was no more tolerant than Islam.
Yeah,the pogroms in Muslim Spain were afruit of imagination, also take a check about what Shariah says about how Chruistains and Jews had to be treated. Like denying them right of self defence or the heirloom going in its entirety to the one brother who had converted to Islam. Christains never had so discrimantory laws against Muslims than what Muslims enforced on Christians where they were dominant.
#16
When things got too hot for Maimonedes in Spain where did he go?
Nobody has the corner on humanity or inhumanity, though the Muzzies are trying to corner the market in the later now that most of the commies are gone or in remission.
#17
Participants in the "dialogue of peoples and cultures" will come from non-governmental organizations although organizers will seek the support of the governments concerned. "The platform must be given to historians, educators, researchers and new thinkers on both banks. With the help of the media, satellite channels and the Internet, they will know how to fight stereotypes," the document says.
The usual tranzi trustafarians, in other words. Plus a few deacons in the Church of Gaia, wsho will be making their reports to the bishops in their hempen robes.
Q: How is it that intelligence gathering by Western powers, whether it is about the weapons capabilities of an entire nation, or the simple location of a lone thug, is so constantly stymied and duped in the Middle East?
A: The job of intelligence gatherers is to determine the truth. I wouldn't take that job in the Middle East for all the money in Michael Moore's Halliburton stocks.
Five members of Congress, including Rep. Tom Lantos (D-San Mateo) were arrested today when they blocked the front entrance at the Embassy of Sudan in Washington, D.C. Their protest and civil disobedience was designed to embarrass the military dictatorship's ongoing genocide of its non-Arab citizens.
Maybe as a side effect. I think it was probably designed more to embarrass the Bush administration. This'd be the demonstration George Clooney was talking about yesterday, another pointless exercise, designed more to achieve TV coverage than to actually do anything.
All told, 11 people were arrested outside the Sudanese embassy on Massachusetts Avenue, including six activists as well as representatives Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Houston), Jim McGovern (D-Worcester, Mass.), Jim Moran (D-Virginia) and John Olver (D-Massachusetts). They were held in a jail cell for about 45 minutes and then released.
I recognize four of the names off the top of my head without googling them. Lantos is the only one of them I have the least bit of respect for. Jim Moran and Sheila Jackson Lee are disasters.
"If you're looking for lack of international morality, Darfur encompasses all aspects," Lantos said before his arrest. "Here we see the slaughter of innocent black women, children and men by a monstrous regime." Lantos, 78, was first elected to Congress in 1981. Two years later, he founded the Congressional Human Rights Caucus. As the only Holocaust survivor ever to serve in Congress, he has pressed the Bush administration to take steps to deter the state-sanctioned murder and rape of hundreds of thousands of people in Sudan's Darfur region. "We have been calling on the civilized world to stand up and to say, 'Enough,' " Lantos said. "The slaughter of the people of Darfur must end."
Bush has stood up and said "Enough!" The rest of the world as mostly replied "Oh, leave them alone. They're having fun." We belong to the UN so we can get that kind of support against bloodthirsty regimes.
Lantos' arrest comes as a diverse coalition of human rights activists is planning to stage major Sudan-related rallies Sunday in Washington, D.C., San Francisco and other cities here and overseas. In recent months, the deteriorating situation in Sudan has become a dilemma for the Bush administration, which formally declared the killings in Sudan genocide in September 2004.
I'm curious, even though I've been watching since Day 1, how it's become a dilemma for Bush, but not for Bashir or Kofi or Amr Moussa.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/29/2006 00:00 ||
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PR whores all
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/29/2006 0:24 Comments ||
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They were held in a jail cell for about 45 minutes and then released. ah, the old 'catch and release' trick
Too bad it wasn't longer
Posted by: Jan ||
04/29/2006 3:41 Comments ||
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Nothing we can do about it. If the UN will not act it is just too damn bad. We have called a spade a spade it's about all we can do. We certainly can't go it alone. We are already "jew loving", "Crusaders", war criminals, murders and warmongers after all.
Posted by: SPoD ||
04/29/2006 6:05 Comments ||
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#4
I b'lieve there's already a unit of Marines in Chad near the Sudanese border -- it left from around here not long ago. I suspect there may have been other units quietly inserted here and there in the area. It will be interesting to see if the European peepul who once were so upset that an invasion of Iraq would upset the lives of Saddam's Iraqis, will join in the protests against the situation in Darfur, and if so what effect that will have on their governments.
ISLAMABAD (Agencies) - Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri has said that Afghan and US forces stationed in Afghanistan could do more in the war against terrorism.
In an interview with BBC TV, the foreign minister said that Irans issue should be settled through diplomatic channels instead of force. He observed that attack on the Islamic republic by Israel or the US would be considered aggression against the entire Ummah.
The foreign minister said like India Pakistan also needed nuclear energy to meet its increasing power needs for the fast expanding economy. He asked the United States to help Pakistan meet its growing needs. To a question, he said that as Irans nuclear programme was purely peaceful, nobody should be concerned about it.
He claimed that Pakistan would become the fourth largest democracy in the world in 2021.
On Pakistans unwavering commitment to combating terrorism and the robust measures taken by it, Kasuri said that Pakistan had deployed more forces along its border with Afghanistan than the number of troops the Afghan National Army, US and ISAF had collectively deployed on the Afghanistan side of the border.
We have suffered more casualties than the US, ANA and ISAF, he said.
He maintained that 600 Pakistani soldiers had been martyred in anti-terror operations while, in comparison, only 200 coalition troops had lost their lives in Afghanistan, adding Pakistan had done more than any other country in war on terrorism.
The foreign minister termed Kabuls charges of Pakistans involvement in violence in Afghanistan as baseless and concocted.
Posted by: john ||
04/29/2006 21:01 ||
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He claimed that Pakistan would become the fourth largest democracy in the world in 2021
Pakistan will exist in 2021 ?
Posted by: john ||
04/29/2006 21:03 Comments ||
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He observed that attack on the Islamic republic by Israel or the US would be considered aggression against the entire Ummah.
And the world fears this Ummah?
Posted by: john ||
04/29/2006 21:05 Comments ||
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Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri has said that Afghan and US forces stationed in Afghanistan could do more in the war against terrorism.
"Bomb us!"
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/29/2006 21:20 Comments ||
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Everyone assumes that either the US or Israel will attack first, that Iran would never dream of lashing out, even if it did so in a stupid an ineffective manner.
No doubt the Ummah would jump to Iran's defense if it started a war and got its butt kicked for its trouble. Flimsy rationalizations are a dime a dozen.
However, unlike with Iraq, this time I doubt the US would be so gentle. Our top priorities would be to neutralize their missiles, and then to "reduce" their armed forces and Revolutionary Guard. Lovely US Civil War term, that.
Without missiles and without a military, Iran is our biatch. Once we eliminate those two, then the Ummah can piss and moan all night for what we care.
#5
N, the Mullhas want Radical-controlled Iran to be the SOLE CENTER OF MUSLIM POWER IN THE WORLD, THE HYPERPOWER, NUCLEARIZED, MODERN AMERICA OF THE MUSLIM UNIVERSE. Pakistan and any other Islamic or non-Islamic nation(s) are all future provinces of Tehran, at best a PC Radical Iranian version of North Korea or Cuba, de facto controlled by others but technically or legally un-annexed. THE DESIRED DEFEAT, SUBORNMENT, ANDOR DESTRUCTION OF THE HYPERPOWER USA IN NO WAY GUARANTEES THE STATE-SPECIFIC AMBITIONS OF "MANIFEST DESTINY" OF NON-IRANIAN MUSLIM NATIONS, ETAL. WILL BE ACHIEVED.
Residents of a remote Punjab village in northern Pakistan say their lives are in danger from nuclear waste being dumped in their area. "We are being slow-poisoned," said Nazir Ahmed Buzdar, a resident of the tribal village of Baghalchur some 400km (248 miles) north of Karachi.
He is part of a group in a legal battle with Pakistan's nuclear authorities over the dumping of toxic waste. Baghalchur is the site of abandoned uranium mines now being used as a dump. "Our land played an important role in making Pakistan a nuclear power but all we have got in return is poverty and poison," said Mr Buzdar.
Happy returns!
The relevant authorities say nuclear waste material has been stored deep down in underground caves and poses no danger to the environment.
But Mr Buzdar and his colleagues cite one of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission's (PAEC) own reports which said that the waste material being dumped at Baghalchur was "active". Pakistan's nuclear authorities were mining the area around Baghalchur between 1978 and 2000. Locals say it was the first location in the country to produce uranium for Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme.
The mining was stopped in 2000 but the underground tunnels were earmarked for storing nuclear waste. Former chairman of the PAEC, Pervez Butt, told the BBC that the storage was perfectly safe. "It is being done in keeping with the international standards for storing nuclear waste," he said.
In October last year, four residents of Baghalchur petitioned the local courts on the matter. The case was referred to the Supreme Court earlier this year. The PAEC sought time to file its reply but requested the proceedings be kept in camera given the nature of the case. The court agreed and the next date of hearing is not yet known.
Lal Mohammed, one of the petitioners who has worked for the PAEC for eight years, says the nuclear waste being stored in his area may contaminate the environment for "centuries". He pointed at several large and malodorous piles of what he called the toxic effluent of "yellow cake" - a raw form of mined uranium - lying openly around the place. "Rain washes the chemicals in this sludge into the main water channels which are used both by humans and animals," he said.
Co-petitioner Naseer Shah says there has been a dramatic increase in infant mortality since the dumping of toxic waste started. He says it has seriously affected milk producing cattle - many of which have died after contracting previously unseen diseases.
The petitioners say that the residents of Baghalchur should be assured that the dumping is not going to do them harm. If guarantees cannot be given, they want immediate measures to cleanse Baghalchur of any contamination already caused.
Posted by: john ||
04/29/2006 09:05 ||
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Hummm, Wazoo, highest and best purpose a bombing range or a landfill?
The government on Thursday released Dr Farooq, who had been detained over two years ago on charges of helping Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan transfer nuclear technology to foreign countries. Dr Farooqs son Asim confirmed his father had been released, but refused further details. He added that his father was in good health.
A close aide of Dr Khan, Farooq was among 13 Karachi Research Laboratories (KRL) officials detained and questioned about nuclear proliferation. All of them had already been released, except Dr Khan. Sources said Dr Farooqs house was heavily guarded and no outsider was allowed to meet him. His telephones are bugged, they added.
Dr Farooq, the KRLs former director general procurement, was arrested on November 23, 2003. He had been awarded Hilal-e-Imtiaz and Sitara-e-Imtiaz after Pakistan conducted its first successful nuclear test in 1998. The KRL officials suspected for nuclear proliferation were arrested under Security Act of 1952. The Security Act of 1952 authorises the federal government to keep extending detention by three months. Relatives of the detained scientists and other KRL officials had approached the Supreme Court for their release. Major General Shaukat Sultan neither confirmed nor denied Dr Farooqs release.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/29/2006 00:00 ||
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ISLAMABAD - American aviation authorities have refused to allow direct flights to the United State from Pakistan citing inappropriate security arrangements at the countrys airports, reports and officials said on Friday.
Dang. Homeland Security got one right?
Pakistans Civil Aviation Authorities (CAA) initiated a review of security arrangements in light of the concerns expressed by US authorities, Urdu language daily Ausaf reported. The CAA and officials of national-flag-carrier Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) confirmed the report to the Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa), but offered no further details.
PIA recently purchased a long-haul Boeing RL-777 for direct flights to destinations such as the US and Canada. Presently, its aircraft make a stopover in Manchester, United Kingdom, for refueling and passengers are required to disembark and go through re-screening. We have started direct flights to Toronto (Canada) but the US authorities are not giving us permission and are saying that we should continue to operate flights via Manchester, a PIA official said, requesting anonymity.
US embassy official Peter Kowach in Islamabad confirmed the report but declined to comment. You should talk to Pakistani authorities on this, he said.
"We're saying nothing, and we've said all we're going to say."
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/29/2006 00:00 ||
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No worries, direct flights to Mexico
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/29/2006 0:27 Comments ||
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KATHMANDU - Nepals parliament forged ahead with plans to trim the powers of the monarch in its first sitting for four years on Friday but the ailing premier stayed away. Legislators enthusiastically backed a plan for a new constitution as the prize for forcing King Gyanendra to hand over power to parliament following nearly three weeks of often bitter protests.
King Gyanendra climbed down Monday following 14 months of outright rule. He had seized power accusing the then government of corruption and failing to quell a decade-long Maoist insurgency.
In a 35-minute session, deputy speaker Chitra Lekha Yadav said the House would call for a ceasefire and talks with Maoist rebels, whose rebellion has left at least 12,500 people dead.
And then they'll sign the country over the Maoists, having believed all the smooth words uttered about peace and democracy uttered by a band of killers.
In a sign of growing anti-royal sentiment, a ceremonial royal staff that has been the usual prelude to the opening of parliamentary sessions for the last 15 years was not brought in. Welcome to all the members. We express our gratitude to those who died in the democracy struggle, said the deputy speaker at the opening session and called for a period of silence.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/29/2006 00:00 ||
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A few years of "rehabilitation through work" should wise up those MPs.
If they survive...
Posted by: john ||
04/29/2006 7:50 Comments ||
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"Where are the Gurkas?" is what I want to know.
Many of the Maoist-affected areas are inhabited by a large number of well-trained, retired Indian and British Army Gurkha soldiers. Some people in government suspect that some of these retirees, along with retirees and deserters from the Royal Nepalese Army itself, are providing training and combat manpower to the guerrillas.
Posted by: john ||
04/29/2006 12:35 Comments ||
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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - With oil prices above $70 a barrel fouling the world economy, dismay is focusing on Iraq, whose exports have slipped to their lowest levels since the 2003 invasion. "Iraq could be making a tremendous difference," said Dalton Garis, an economist at the Petroleum Institute in Abu Dhabi. Instead, its shortfall is "a significant contributing factor to the high price of oil," he said.
Iraq, a founding member of OPEC, sits atop the world's third-highest proven reserves. Its estimated 115 billion barrels is more than any other OPEC member except for Saudi Arabia and Iran. But contrary to optimistic expectations, Iraq's oil production has slipped further and further since the U.S.-led invasion, to an average of 2 million barrels a day. It has never regained even the reduced production levels that prevailed in the 1990s, when Iraq was under tough U.N. sanctions.
Iraq's oil could be providing relief to world markets, strained by high demand from China, the nuclear-related showdown with Iran and unrest near Nigeria's oil fields. Instead, it's not even covering its own needs.
The rickety Iraqi oil system has been damaged repeatedly by insurgent sabotage and attacks on maintenance crews. Corruption, theft of oil, and widespread mismanagement compound the problems, analysts say. Iraq also lacks laws that would protect foreign investment, and its government is still sorting out whether oil will be controlled by the central government or the provinces.
The result: Iraq is importing refined oil products at record high prices at a time that it should be boosting exports to take advantage of those prices to earn money for reconstruction. In 2005, Iraq's exports averaged just 1.4 million barrels a day, which earned the country about $26 billion. This winter proved disastrous, with January exports failing to reach even 1 million barrels a day, said George Orwel, an analyst with Petroleum Intelligence Weekly in New York. "It's a mess," he said. "At some point Iraq is going to be back in the picture, but it's been a very bad couple of years. They're missing out."
In 1990, probably its peak production year, Iraq extracted about 3.5 million barrels a day. Restoring production to that level would require years and a $30 billion investment, Orwel said, even in the "best case scenario."
Those figures suggest misplaced optimism by Iraq's oil ministry, which in 2005 predicted crude production would reach 2.5 million or even 3 million barrels a day by the end of 2006. Analysts have called that prediction a pipe dream. The outlook for this year looks about the same as 2005, Orwel said, casting doubt even on the ministry's revised plans to raise exports to 1.8 million barrels a day by year's end.
Orwel said many of the problems thwarting Iraq's exports have no simple solution - but some do. For instance, exports from Iraq's southern oil fields have been hampered by the decrepit tugboats needed to pilot tankers to Persian Gulf terminals. The tugs, so old that spare parts can't be bought, frequently broke down or weren't seaworthy enough to handle rough winter seas. As a result, charges from tankers forced to delay loading cost Iraq $50 million over the past year, which the oil ministry paid by giving away oil.
Insurgents have been so deft at shutting down the pipelines from the giant fields around the northern city of Kirkuk that Iraqi authorities tried to move crude by truck to its refineries and crude-burning power plants. But after insurgents attacked the trucks, drivers became difficult to recruit and the oil ministry was forced to cut production.
Corruption has worsened the situation, according to a report release Tuesday by the oil ministry's inspector general. The loss of oil revenue to corruption and theft has become the biggest threat to Iraq's economy, costing Baghdad's beleaguered treasury billions of dollars, it said. "For example, about 20 percent of the oil products that Iraq imported last year, worth $4.2 billion, were smuggled to neighboring countries," the report said.
Iraq's sputtering oil sector has defied optimists led by Vice President Dick Cheney and former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, who hoped booming exports from Iraq could pay for its reconstruction and help satisfy world demand. Instead, repercussions from the U.S.-led invasion are now slowing the global economy, said Saadallah al-Fathi, a former OPEC official who advised Iraq's oil ministry under Saddam Hussein. "The invasion of Iraq hasn't only been devastating to the Iraqi people, but it has been detrimental to the rest of the world," al-Fathi said from his home in Sharjah, in the UAE. "Iraq has lost a third of its production due to the American invasion."
"Now that Iraq has to import many petroleum products, it's a double whammy," he said.
Oil production was more successful under Saddam, he said. "There were technical problems. But they were contained. Things were improving slowly. We didn't have sabotage. We had full security in the oil fields."
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/29/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
And there was some guy BSing me at a men's RELIGOUS retreat LAST WEEKEND who assured me he had been in contact with a pal of his in charge of pipeline security and that all was well and there were NO ATTACKS on the pipelines or the oil fields AT ALL in Iraq. Yeah right. He claimed a few other things, including being the trainer for the Contras....
#4
Two different figures seem to be conflated here: Exports vs. production. My understanding is that although Iraq produced much oil for export, they then had to reimport gasoline because of lack of refineries. I'd like to take a moment and see links for this raw data, but I have to go to a Cub game...
Posted by: Mark E. ||
04/29/2006 13:06 Comments ||
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#5
Go Cubs! Go Iraqi oil production & export!
It was my understanding that Saddam didn't put much $$$ back into maintaining all the necessary equipment anyway. (He was a disastrous leader on soooo many levels).
Even if eeeevil Chimpy W. McPretzelburton hadn't gone in, the wheels would've fallen off in due course.
Iraq needs foreign investment and, of course, the "insurgents" heads on pikes before they can get things set right.
BAGHDAD - Iraqs ousted leader Saddam Hussein, being tried on charges of crimes against humanity, spent his third birthday in a row behind bars as he turned 69 on Friday.
His birthday attracted little of the frenzy the date once engendered when it was celebrated as a national holiday during his 24 years of strong-armed rule from 1979 to 2003. US officials were tight-lipped about what Saddam was up to on his birthday. We dont have much interest in providing any color to Saddams life, a US military spokesman told AFP. Even in his hometown of Tikrit, Saddams birthday passed unnoticed, although a few dozen posters bearing his portrait were seen in the majority Sunni city of Samarra, north of Baghdad.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/29/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
yea happy birthday asshole and many NO happy returns.
#3
Umm, there are of course a number of *ahem* *cough* let me clear my throat, naughty jokes one could formulate around that B-Day number; however, this being a family show, we'll let it go.
#4
And poor, dear Saddam Hussein, all alone in his prison cell guarded by those handsome and honourable Fijian soldiers, isn't going to be able to enjoy a single one of those unmentioned jokes.
NAJAF, Iraq - An Iraqi vice president warned the United States on Friday against attacking Iran. Adel Abdul Mahdi, the Shia member of the three-man Presidency Council, was asked about speculation US forces might strike to prevent Iran developing nuclear technology: We will not allow anyone to attack anyone, he said after a meeting in the holy city of Najaf with Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani, Iraqs senior Shia cleric. We think that the use of force is not appropriate for solving any problem.
Feeling your oats, are you?
The leaders of Iraqs Shia majority, including Mahdis SCIRI party, have close ties to their fellow Shia Islamists ruling neighbouring Iran, where many of them sought refuge from the Sunni-dominated administration of Saddam Hussein.
Another leading Iraqi Shia politician, cleric and militia leader Moqtada alAl Sadr, recently pledged the support of his Mehdi Army fighters to Iran if US forces attacked.
Just another reason why Mooqie has to be dealt with.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/29/2006 00:00 ||
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We think that the use of force is not appropriate for solving any problem.
Short memory, asshole, considering you have US military force to thank for Saddam and boyz being done with.
Posted by: Captain America ||
04/29/2006 0:31 Comments ||
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#2
LOL. Youze won't allow it, huh? LOL. Shia, Sunni, makes no real difference in the end. Sad that neither is able to consistently rise above the lowest common denominators of Arab "society" or Islam sectarian hatred - and stay there, leading the way out of the morass. Predictably pathetic.
#3
If we lose the nascent Iraqi democracy when Iran is neutered, Moslems will have painted themselves into a very bleak corner. Do they not yet realize that we will not let them annihilate Western civilization? what will it take? nuclear war?
#6
"We will not allow anyone to attack anyone,"
Adel Abdul Mahdi
I submit the preceeding for the Baghdad Bob Award for 2006.
No, I submit "We think that the use of force is not appropriate for solving any problems."
again by Adel Abdul Mahdi
Next he'll tell us there never were bombed mosques and death squads around in these last few months, as he ducks flying concrete.
Middle East envoy James Wolfensohn has decided to step down because of divisions within the Quartet of international mediators over his role now that Hamas controls the Palestinian Authority, officials said.
"His term is expiring at the end of the month and he has no intention of remaining" in the job, an official in his office said, adding that no formal announcement was planned. Wolfensohn's departure expands a diplomatic vacuum after the United States, the European Union and Israel severed contacts with the Palestinian Authority. "What would a Quartet envoy do?" said a Western diplomat close to Wolfensohn. "You can't do economic development in a vacuum."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/29/2006 00:00 ||
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JERUSALEM - Israels next cabinet has committed itself to leaving parts of the West Bank in order to redraw the borders of the Jewish state, following on the heels of last years unilateral pullout from Gaza.
A coalition deal signed by prime minister designate Ehud Olmerts Kadima party and the centre-left Labour after weeks of fraught talks has enshrined his priority to separate from the Palestinians with or without their agreement.
The draft programme of the new administration, widely quoted in the Israeli media on Friday, vowed to shape the permanent borders of the state as a Jewish state with a democratic majority. Israels territories, whose borders will be determined by the government, will entail reducing the areas of Israeli settlement in Judea and Samaria.
Olmert made the March 28 election a de facto referendum on his determination to fix the permanent borders of Israel during his four-year term of office. Labour, like all potential coalition partners, has had to accept the outline of his plan that could see around 70,000 Jews uprooted from the occupied West Bank but the largest settlement blocs built on Arab territory retained.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/29/2006 00:00 ||
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#6
B: - We think alike. These protests monday will blow up in the racist latino faces like they never thought possible. I only hope enough Mexican flags fly...
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/29/2006 18:21 Comments ||
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Dubai International Capital LLC wants to buy British-based Doncasters Group Ltd.,
So they are buying a Brittish company that makes parts for our tanks and strike fighter. Not a really big deal here, I'm sure we have enough operational stocks in the event Dubai gets stupid and we have to take it back.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
04/29/2006 17:10 Comments ||
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#4
More like this article is stuck on stupid. These guys are going above board on what Doncasters group really does, namely manufacture superalloys and a lot of precision parts on jet turbines (Rolls Royce, GE and Pratt-Whitney), and the major thing they're involved in for the F-35 program is as a subcontractor for the engine parts. They are not involved at the blueprint or systems design level in the F-35. They are involved in the engine parts for the PW engine. If they had said BAE systems were to be acquired on the other hand I'd be getting the heebie jeebies. You really want to know why Dubai wants the Doncasters group? Its because they'll be responsible for major subcontract work on engine parts for the A380 of and the Rolls Royce variants of any 787s and 777s their national airline will fly (of which they have orders for something like 43 A380s alone). THAT is where the money is for them.
East Asian countries made progress last year in battling terrorists, but threats remain, particularly in Southeast Asia, where efforts are hampered by weak rule of law and poor security, the U.S. State Department said.
In Friday's annual report on worldwide terrorism, the State Department pointed to Southeast Asia as a "major front in the global war on terror," saying a clearer picture of the relationship between al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) and local Islamic extremists has emerged through investigations and testimony in court cases.
Worldwide, Iran was described as the most active state sponsor of terrorism. The report tallied about 11,000 terror attacks in 2005, with about 3,500 of those occurring in Iraq.
The report praised the Indonesian government for demonstrating "a new urgency on counterterrorism," particularly after October's deadly terrorist bombings on the resort island of Bali, which killed 20 people.
After a three-year manhunt, a November police raid in Indonesia killed Malaysian bomb maker Azahari bin Husin, a suspect in nearly every major terrorist attack in the country over the last five years.
The report noted President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's appointment of a new national police chief to reform anti-corruption and counterterrorism measures. But efforts "remain hampered by weak rule of law, serious internal coordination problems, and systemic corruption that further limits already strained government resources," it said.
The report singled out Laos as a potential safe haven for terrorists, saying the country is complacent about security despite the presence of a small domestic insurgency of about 1,000 to 2,000 people in a remote northern area.
"Lao officials at many levels see terrorism as an issue of only marginal relevance to Laos," the report says. "They believe that Laos, as a small and neutral country, would not be targeted by terrorists."
In the Philippines, the report cited growing cooperation among JI and the local groups Abu Sayyaf and the Rajah Solaiman Movement, made up of Christian converts to Islam, as a "major, and disturbing, trend."
Near-simultaneous Valentine's Day bombings in Manila, Davao and General Santos City involved members of all three groups, killing eight people and injuring 150. The country arrested Rajah Solaiman leader Ahmad Santos and its second-in-command, and hasarrested or killed 83 suspected terrorists.
But the lack of a law defining terrorism and a long backlog of cases have been hurdles to prosecuting terrorism cases, the report said.
The report said there was no evidence of a link between militants in Thailand's restive south and JI or al-Qaeda, but "there is concern, however, that these groups may attempt to capitalize on the increasingly violent situation for their own purposes."
The ethnic Tamil bomber who blew herself up targeting Sri Lanka's top general was pregnant, and that helped her to conceal explosives and get inside army headquarters for a maternity check, an investigator says.
The brazen, meticulously planned attack on Tuesday triggered reciprocal military action by both government troops and the Tamil Tiger rebels, pushing Sri Lanka close to civil war after a tense four-year ceasefire. The bomber has been identified as 21-year-old Anoja Kugenthirasah from Vavuniya, a government-held northern town near Tiger-held territory. She is believed to have been a member of the rebels' Black Tigers suicide squad, the investigator said. The investigator, who cited hospital records, spoke on condition of anonymity.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/29/2006 00:00 ||
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Iran's Islamic authorities are preparing a crackdown on women flouting the stringent dress code in the clearest sign yet of social and political repression under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
From today police in Tehran will be under orders to arrest women failing to conform to the regime's definition of Islamic morals by wearing loose-fitting hijab, or headscarves, tight jackets and shortened trousers exposing skin.
Offenders could be punished with £30 fines or two months in jail. Officers will also be authorised to confront men with outlandish hairstyles and people walking pet dogs, an activity long denounced as un-Islamic by the religious rulers.
The clampdown coincides with a bill before Iran's conservative-dominated parliament proposing that fines for people with TV satellite dishes rise from £60 to more than £3,000. Millions of Iranians have illegal dishes, enabling them to watch western films and news channels.
The dress purge is led by a Tehran city councillor, Nader Shariatmaderi, a close ally of Mr Ahmadinejad who helped to plot last year's election victory.
Loosely arranged headscarves - exposing glamourous hairstyles - and shorter, tight-fitting overcoats (manteaus) became a symbol of the social freedoms that flourished under the reformist presidency of Mohammed Khatami.
During his election campaign, Mr Ahmadinejad dismissed fears that his presidency might herald a forced reversal, saying Iran had more urgent problems.
However, Mr Shariatmaderi denounced the trends as "damaging to revolutionary and Islamic principles". "We are looking for a social utopia to live in but in the last couple of months, our attention has wavered," he told fellow councillors. "In the present international situation, people must unite under known principles."
The clampdown recalls the aftermath of the 1979 Islamic revolution, when women wearing lipstick were often confronted by female vigilantes wiping their faces clean with handkerchiefs, which were said to often conceal razor blades.
The new campaign will hold taxi agencies accountable for their passengers' attire, police will be able to impound cabs carrying women dressed "inappropriately". Agencies guilty of repeat offences will be closed. Police have reportedly been stopping women motorists recently whose hijab was judged inadequate. Police have also raided fashion stores and seized brightly coloured manteaus.
Tehran's police chief, Morteza Talai, said the campaign would try to clamp down on people making "the social environment insecure".
Young women shopping in north Tehran's fashionable Tajrish neighbourhood yesterday, however, were uncowed. Matin, 24, a nurse, was wearing a gaudily patterned light-blue head scarf pushed back to reveal sunglasses and bleached blond hair. Her tight, short black manteau with intricate gold patterns seemed designed to provoke the ire of the authorities. But she was unrepentant. "I'm a married woman and it should be my husband who tells me what and what not to wear. He likes the way I dress," she said.
Surprisingly, Narges Asgari, 20, a dressmaker wearing an all-encompassing black chador, was also critical. "I don't think people will listen because they want to take decisions themselves," she said. "Clothes depend on the culture of their families. I wear the chador because, in my family, it's something we accept."
Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad declared Thursday that it was time for Germans to stop feeling guilty for "crimes" of Nazi Germany more than 60 years ago.
I've got that same sick feeling I had last night, when I found myself agreeing with George Clooney: because I find myself in surface agreement with Mahmoud, I fear becoming something like him...
His is a non-sequitor argument: the issue of guilt is irrelevant. As Fred notes below, the issue is what you learn from the behavior of your forebears. Ahmadinejad references 'guilt' not because he's concerned about it, but because it's convenient to the argument he's making.
In a speech in Zanjan, north-west Iran, carried live on state television, Ahmadinejad did not directly mention the Holocaust, the term for the mass extermination of Jews in Europe during the Nazi German regime. But he spoke of how "every new-born child in Germany is still regarded as being in debt to a mob of impudent and insatiable Zionists."
That's a relief. We can part ways on our opinion and I feel safe again, my IQ restored. At the end of the war, Europe's Jews and the Germans said just about the same thing: "Never again." The Jews resolved never again to become victims, and with a few exceptions they're kept that resolution. West Germany made a national resolution never again to become oppressors. Their constitution reflects it, and with a few exceptions their citizens accept it. Israel's a reflection of the Jews' determination, and the lack of German participation in even worthwhile military operations is a reflection of theirs.
We're three generations removed from the war. The Hitler Youth are now little old men. Their elders are virtually all gone, just the same as the ranks of the men who fought them are gone. Today's Germans are no more the Germans who perpetrated the Holocaust than they are the Germans who fought for Kaiser Bill. They did learn the lesson of their parents and grandparents, and Never Again has become ingrained. So has the determination of the Jews not to be made into fertilzer and lampshades. They have no more reason to let Muslims kill them en masse than they have reason to let Germans kill them in large numbers, but there's a much higher likelihood of the Muslims doing it than the Germans.
The Germans should no longer permit themselves to be made to accept guilt, Ahmadenijad said. In Germany, instead of parks there were "memorial sites" which now, even in the third generation since the war, Germans are reminded of the crimes of their ancestors.
Germany has lots of fine parks. Besides memorials to the Holocaust, it also has other memorials. One in Berlin is the Kaiser Wilhelm Church, which was left in its bombed out condition as a reminder of what war can bring. Another, also in Berlin, is made out of the barrels of cannon captured from Napoleon Bonapart, an earlier advocate of World Domination whose Empire didn't last a thousand years, either.
I was in Berlin in August 2001 and stayed in a hotel right around the corner from the Kaiser Wilhelm Church. It looks just like the Twin Towers looked a month later, after the planes hit but before the buildings came down.
"The war has been over for more than 60 years, but when you go to Germany, you can clearly see how this civilized people must still atone for the crimes in the Second World War," he said.
And Imam Ali has been dead for more than 1300 years, Mahmoud. I think you Shia ought to get over it, already. Put a little love in your hearts for the Sunni and stop it with the swords and the flails.
Ahmadinejad's speech is the latest in a series of controversial remarks on the question of the Holocaust in recent months. At one point he used the term "fairy tale" to describe it and on several occasions said the Jews in Israel should go back to Europe.
#1
Coming to terms with the Holocaust is a major theme in the German education system. A large proportion of visitors to Holocaust memorials and museums, including the former concentration camps, are German high school students.
Students are not only taught historical facts, but are expected to gain a thorough appreciation of institutions that protect democracy and freedom, not to mention the values themselves. One could see why this would bother Ahmad so much.
Posted by: Rafael ||
04/29/2006 2:47 Comments ||
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#2
They stopped feeling guilty long time ago---as demonstrated by their decades long assistance to Paleos, Mahmud.
#3
Meh, what an IDIOT: Why, exactly, should the Germans feel guilty for their ancestors doing something that Ahmadinejad claimed NEVER HAPPENED?
Oh, and what of the CRUSADES? Are we to CEASE being guilty for that too? Or is it offenses against MUSLIMS that are unforgiveable, while if done against others (and especially BY MUSLIMS) they ARE forgiveable?
#6
Perhaps one reason Germans may not stop feeling guilty is what Lancasters and B-17s did to a number of their cities. I doubt young Germans want a repeat that whole period.
#7
Ahmanidjet should hope Germans don't stop feeling guilty - reset the memories to 1938 and it wouldn't be the Jews as scapegoats but more likely some other ethno-religious group with origins in the same general part of the world. Did two devastating wars totally eliminate the warrior genes that dominated northern Europe for millenia? Or just temporarily shift them to recessive status?
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, blaming violence in his country on foreign elements, on Friday issued a fresh call to Taliban militants to lay down their arms and join his government. Karzai, speaking at a ceremony commemorating Afghanistans victory against the Soviet-backed communist regime in 1992, said those engaged in insurgency against his government were unknowingly fighting their people on orders of foreign elements. He did not elaborate. 
General Sir Michael Walker, the most senior officer in the British military, handed over the reins to a new Chief of the Defence Staff Friday, the Ministry of Defence in London confirmed.
Five members of Congress, including Rep. 
The government on Thursday released Dr Farooq, who had been detained over two years ago on charges of helping Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan transfer nuclear technology to foreign countries. Dr Farooqs son Asim confirmed his father had been released, but refused further details. He added that his father was in good health.
ISLAMABAD - American aviation authorities have refused to allow direct flights to the United State from Pakistan citing inappropriate security arrangements at the countrys airports, reports and officials said on Friday.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - With oil prices above $70 a barrel fouling the world economy, dismay is focusing on Iraq, whose exports have slipped to their lowest levels since the 2003 invasion. "Iraq could be making a tremendous difference," said Dalton Garis, an economist at the Petroleum Institute in Abu Dhabi. Instead, its shortfall is "a significant contributing factor to the high price of oil," he said.
BAGHDAD - Iraqs ousted leader Saddam Hussein, being tried on charges of crimes against humanity, spent his third birthday in a row behind bars as he turned 69 on Friday.
NAJAF, Iraq - An Iraqi vice president warned the United States on Friday against attacking Iran. 
Middle East envoy James Wolfensohn has decided to step down because of divisions within the Quartet of international mediators over his role now that Hamas controls the Palestinian Authority, officials said. 
JERUSALEM - Israels next cabinet has committed itself to leaving parts of the West Bank in order to redraw the borders of the Jewish state, following on the heels of last years unilateral pullout from Gaza.
The ethnic Tamil bomber who blew herself up targeting Sri Lanka's top general was pregnant, and that helped her to conceal explosives and get inside army headquarters for a maternity check, an investigator says. 
