US President Obama condemns plans to burn the Koran

US President Barack Obama says plans by a small church to burn copies of the Koran on the anniversary of 9/11 are a "recruitment bonanza" for al-Qaeda. 

Mr Obama said that if it went ahead, the burning could endanger US military personnel serving in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The plan has drawn widespread international condemnation.
The pastor behind the threat says the burning would be a way to stand up to terrorism.

Terry Jones leads a congregation of 50 followers in the city of Gainesville, Florida.

In an interview with ABC television, Mr Obama said he hoped Mr Jones "understands that what he's proposing to do is completely contrary to our values as Americans, that this country has been built on the notion of freedom and religious tolerance".
"And as a very practical matter, I just want him to understand that this stunt that he is talking about pulling could greatly endanger our young men and women who are in uniform," the president said.

Terry Jones leads a congregation of 50 followers in the city of Gainesville, Florida.

In an interview with ABC television, Mr Obama said he hoped Mr Jones "understands that what he's proposing to do is completely contrary to our values as Americans, that this country has been built on the notion of freedom and religious tolerance".
"And as a very practical matter, I just want him to understand that this stunt that he is talking about pulling could greatly endanger our young men and women who are in uniform," the president said.

"Look, this is a recruitment bonanza for al-Qaeda. You could have serious violence in places like Pakistan and Afghanistan... This could increase the recruitment of individuals who'd be willing to blow themselves up in American cities, or European cities," he said.

"I hope he listens to those better angels and understands that this is a destructive act that he's engaging in," the president said.
US officials say they cannot intervene as the church's actions would likely be protected by the US constitution's guarantee of freedom of speech.
Mr Jones said on Wednesday that he would not cancel the Koran burning, and that his plan to burn the Islamic holy book was intended to draw attention to his belief that "something's wrong."
"It is possibly time for us in a new way to actually stand up, confront terrorism," Mr Jones told reporters outside his church.
Earlier, Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari said in a statement that "anyone who even thought of such a despicable act must be suffering from a diseased mind and a sickly soul".
"It will inflame sentiments among Muslims throughout the world and cause irreparable damage to interfaith harmony and also to world peace," he said.
His comments were the latest in chorus of condemnation from Muslim countries.
Malaysia called it a heinous crime, while Indonesia said it would damage relations between Islam and the West.
The plan has also sparked condemnation from the Vatican, Nato and the top US Afghan commander.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the plan "disgraceful".
On Monday General David Petraeus, the top US commander in Afghanistan, warned troops' lives would be in danger if the church went ahead with its bonfire.
Muslims consider the Koran to be the word of God and insist it be treated with the utmost respect. Any intentional damage or show of disrespect to the holy book is deeply offensive to them.

Railways fares raised 5 to 15pc

LAHORE: Government of Pakistan approved to increase the fares of passenger and freight trains by 5 to 15 percent to steer the Railways clear of the present crisis situation, Geo News reported Thursday.

GM operations Railways Muhammed Ashfaque Khatak said the raise was effected to cut down on the financial straits faced by Pakistan Railways.

Khatak said Railways had no money to buy diesel to run the trains service, as also the recent flash floods across the country have caused billions of rupees worth of loss to the Railways.

He added the federal government was approached; however, the government, directing to generate own resources, approved enhancing the fares of passenger and freight trains.

GM Operations said the notification in this regard would be issued after Eidul Fitr, adding the fares of passenger trains have been raised by 5 to 15 percent and freight trains by 10 to 15 percent.

4th US missile in 24 hrs in Pakistan kills 5

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan — A suspected American missile strike killed five alleged militants in northwestern Pakistan early Thursday, an intelligence official said, the fourth such attack in 24 hours.
The barrage of suspected U.S. missiles against houses and a vehicle in the mountains close to the Afghan border was one of the most intense since the attacks were stepped up more than two years ago in a bid to keep pressure on al-Qaida and its allies. Most are believed to be fired from unmanned, remote-controlled planes that can hover for hours above the area.
Also Thursday, 10 people were killed close to the Afghan border in Kurram region when a roadside bomb hit the bus they were traveling in, said local government official Noor Ahmed. It was unclear why — or whether — the vehicle was targeted.
U.S. officials do not publicly acknowledge the missile strikes but have said privately that they have killed several senior Taliban and al-Qaida militants and scores of foot soldiers in a region largely out of the control of the Pakistani state. Critics say innocents are also killed, fueling support for the insurgency.
The latest attack took place before dawn on a house close to a disused match factory a little more than a mile (three kilometers) west of Miran Shah town, a hub for local and international militants in the North Waziristan region, an intelligence official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with the policy of his agency. Five alleged militants were killed, he said.
The three attacks Wednesday also took place in North Waziristan, a lawless region home to al-Qaida leaders plotting attacks in the West, insurgents battling foreign troops just across the border in Afghanistan and extremists behind bombings in Pakistan. There have been at least four other attacks over the last week.
Pakistani intelligence officials working from army bases in North Waziristan have a network of spies who inform them of the attacks. Sometimes journalists are able to speak by phone to villagers who witness them. Pakistan security agencies are believed to cooperate with at least some of the strikes, but there is very little independent reporting of them because the region is so dangerous for outsiders.
The names of those killed are rarely released, and allegations of civilian casualties are not publicly investigated.
The militants have stepped up their own attacks in Pakistan in recent days, just as the army focuses on helping millions of victims from the worst floods in the country's history. Four big bombs have killed at least 135 people in less than a week.
Pakistan's army has launched several offensives in the northwest over the last two years, but has resisted moving into North Waziristan despite U.S. pressure. A major militant faction there, the Haqqani network, is blamed for attacks against U.S. troops in Afghanistan but has refrained from striking inside Pakistan. Analysts believe the army views the network, with which it has historical links, as an important tool to secure its interests in Afghanistan once foreign troops withdraw.

Aisam cruises into men’s doubles final in US Open

NEW YORK: Pakistani tennis star Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi will feature in two different finals at Flushing Meadow’s – the home of U.S. Open Tennis – this week: Aisam has reached the finals in both the Men’s Doubles and Mixed Doubles categories.

Indo-Pak duo of Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi continue their exciting run at the US Open Men’s doubles event as they stormed into the finals on Thursday.

They defeated Argentines Eduardo Schwank and Horacio Zeballos 7-6 (5) 6-4 to set up a summit clash with top-seeded American brothers Bob and Mike Bryan in the finals.

He will be playing the first of those finals today (Thursday, September 9, 2010) – US Open Mixed Doubles – where Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi and his Czech partner Kveta Peschke will play Liezel Huber and Bob Bryan of USA.

This is by far the best performance by a Pakistani in a grand slam tournament, and to be playing in two different finals in one of the most important (possibly, second only to Wimbledon) tennis tournament in the world is a major achievement.

In any doubles game credit should go equally to both players in the team, Aisam-ul-Haq has blossomed into a doubles player of great skill and merit and has been steadily improving his world standings in doubles tennis (now ranked No. 34 in World Doubles rankings).

His rise in this year’s US Open Doubles tournaments has been particularly heartening, and all the more impressive since he is playing both categories side-by-side.

In both the finals, Aisam will be playing against American Bob Bryan. In the Mixed Doubles Final, Aisam and his Czech partner Kveta Peschke will play against Bob Bryan and his fellow-American Liezel Huber, while in the Men’s Doubles Final Aisam and his Indian partner Rohan Bopanna will be pitted against the American brothers Bob and Mike Bryan.

His stellar streak, coming at a time when just about everything in Pakistan- from floods to cricket – seems to be going terribly wrong gives some solace to Pakistani fans. The first of his Finals will be played later today (Thursday, September 9) and we wish Aisam and Kveta the very best of luck, as we do to Aisam and Rohan who will feature in the Men’s Final later this week.

Indian Tennis star Sania Mirza too congratulated Bopanna and Qureshi for their achievement over the popular Micro- Blogging site.

Govt bans five militant groups in Balochistan

QUETTA: Pakistan announced a ban on five militant groups operating in the restive southwest and froze their assets on Wednesday, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said.

Violence has surged this year in Balochistan, which borders Afghanistan and Iran and is rife with separatist unrest as well as militancy and sectarian violence.

“Today five of them have been proscribed. They will not be allowed to undertake any activity, their offices will be closed and action will be taken against their office bearers,” Malik told reporters.

“Their bank accounts have also been seized,” said Malik, speaking in Quetta, where a suicide bomber killed 59 people on Friday at a Shia Muslim rally.

The banned groups are the Balochistan Republican Army, Baloch Liberation Front, Balochistan Liberation United Front, Baloch Defaee Tanzeem and Lashkar-e-Balochistan, Malik said.

Malik said any organisation using the terms “liberation”, “military” or “Lashkar” (army) in Balochistan would also face a ban.

The interior minister also announced that the federal government had given Balochistan’s Chief Minister the authority to award police powers to the Frontier Constabulary (FC) to tackle the province’s law and order situation.

Malik said every law enforcement action in the province will be led by the police, adding that this involves targeted action based on intelligence inputs.

He said police and FC will gather the intelligence in this regard and denied saying that there would be a Swat-style operation in the province.—AFP/DawnNews

2 ASWJ members killed in Karachi

KARACHI: Two members of the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ) were gunned down in Karachi on Tuesday. Mushtaq (35) was shot dead early in the morning in Manzoor Colony, Mehmoodabad within the Baloch Colony police precincts. Mushtaq was critically injured and shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, where he died. ASWJ spokesman Ahsanullah Farooqi said that Mushtaq was the group’s Mehmoodabad president. The second ASWJ member was shot dead on Tuesday night in the city. staff report

Gilani orders withdrawal of privileges of NAB official

ISLAMABAD: The government appears to be doing its best to strengthen a perception about a division in its ranks, with the president and the prime minister taking seemingly divergent stands on the status of National Accountability Bureau Prosecutor General Irfan Qadir.
 While the prime minister’s office appears to have fallen in line with the Supreme Court’s orders to remove Mr Qadir, the presidency has not reacted to statements made by the prosecutor general, except a few remarks made in media interviews by spokesman Farhatullah Babar.

However, in a bid to avoid a government-judiciary confrontation and minimise the effects of Mr Qadir’s statement that he cannot be removed on the orders of the Supreme Court, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani ordered on Tuesday that all perks and privileges of the NAB prosecutor general be withdrawn and made it clear that the government would abide by the SC verdict about his removal.

According to an official handout, the prime minister took notice of Mr Qadir’s stance that he would continue to work unless he received his removal orders from the president and directed the law secretary to implement the SC verdict and withdraw all privileges of the head of NAB’s legal team.

On the other hand, Mr Qadir told Dawn that according to the NAB Ordinance, the prime minister could not remove him from his office. He insisted that his removal required a notification from the presidency.

“President Asif Ali Zardari was my appointing authority and only he (president) can remove me,” he said.

Law Minister Babar Awan told reporters that the government would implement the SC orders. “The government has nothing to do with the decision of an individual,” he added.

Farhatullah Babar tried to put cover on the reluctance shown by the presidency in issuing the required notification. He said: “The president himself cannot issue any such notification because a summary to this effect is moved from the law ministry and it reaches the president via the prime minister for signing.”

Mr Babar claimed that the presidency had not received any such summary.

When it was pointed out that in the case of pardon granted to Interior Minister Rehman Malik by the president a notification had been issued within two hours, but it had been delayed in the case of Irfan Qadir, the spokesman said Mr Malik’s case was of a different nature. He would have been arrested had the pardon not been granted.

When asked why was the SC decision not being implemented even after a lapse of six days, Mr Babar said: “If we go by the law, the process of removal of Mr Qadir will take some time. Let the legal course of action be completed.” A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry had removed NAB’s acting chairman Javed Zia Kazi and prosecutor general Irfan Qadir on a petition by Advocate Khwaja Harris who is representing the Bank of Punjab in a loan scam case.

Bomb kills 22, hurt 50 in Kohat Police Line Colony

Tuesday, September 07, 2010 KOHAT: Eighteen people were killed and 50 wounded in a bomb attack targeting police residential quarters in Kohat on Tuesday, Geo News reported Tuesday. "twenty two people have been killed and more than 50 wounded, and there were women and children among the injured," senior police official said. "It was a big explosion. I am on site and can see the smoke. Several people have been wounded," he said. The law enforcement personnel have cordoned off entire area. Rescue teams and ambulances have reached the spot. Emergency has been declared in all the hospitals. Police said a nearby police residential complex had also been severely damaged and houses had collapsed, trapping several people in the rubble. Police said it was a bomb blast but they were investigating whether a suicide bomber had targeted the area or someone had planted a bomb. "It was a bomb blast but I can't say (more) about the nature of the bomb, as our focus is to rescue people," Khalid Khan Commissioner Kohat told Geo News.

Angelina Jolie Visits Pakistan Flood Victims

Angelina Jolie flew to Pakistan today to meet people displaced by flooding and film fresh appeals for international aid. The actress—a goodwill ambassador for the UN's refugee agency—describes the crisis as an "economic and social catastrophe," Radar reports, with "one-fifth of Pakistan under water" and some 20 million living under "threat of disease."

PM role interminable in parliamentary system: CJ

ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Muhammed Chaudhry said the law was not annulled on the concept of basic structure; however the laws were declared null and void on being in conflict with the Constitution and basic rights, Geo News reported Tuesday.

He said the Supreme Court (SC) is displaying forbearance over uncultured disparagement of its rulings from some circles, adding it was not his job to open the Pandora box.

Today, civil society’s counsel Salman Akram Raja gave his arguments in favour of Eighteenth Amendment before the 17-strong bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Muhammed Chaudhry, hearing various constitutional petitions with particular reference to the formation of judicial commission.

‘The crude criticism of court’s verdicts is in our notice, as judicial ruling was slighted with a derogatory word for it on a news channel yesterday; but, the judiciary is patient,’ the CJ Chaudhry said.

The chief justice said four Articles of the constitutional amendments were challenged before the court, adding there are representatives from judiciary and the executive on the Judicial Commission; then what would be the role of parliamentary committee.

He continued that the role of Prime Minister could not be diminished or abolished; then how a committee could be designated with the role of a premier.

Justice Khalilur Rehman Ramday asked Salman Raja to dwell on facts, as court is fed up with discussing theory and rulings.

Justice Ramday warned if the eight-member committee jettisons the recommendations by the judges, then it would be difficult to save honour.

The hearing of 18th Amendment case was adjourned sine die.