US ‘dismayed’ by Israel’s new settlements in Jerusalem

The White House has said it is dismayed by Israel’s decision to build new settler homes in Jerusalem saying it makes it harder to kick-start the peace talks.

US fed up with troops dying to prop up Karzai

A long and dusty road ahead…an Afghan shoe polisher takes a break and reads a book in Kabul Photo: AFP
IT SEEMS that Hamid Karzai just can’t be trusted on his own.

Pakistan Beat France in Hockey WC Qualifiers

Pakistan: Pakistan Beat France in Hockey WC Qualifiers, Pakistan recorded its third consecutive win Hockey World Cup 2010 Qualifiers when it hit France at the Metropole Club Ground here.
Pakistan Beat France in Hockey WC Qualifiers
The green shirts, who won their first two ties with Italy and Russia with the same margin of 5-0, defeated the hosts 4-2 in the line of wind, cold and rainy.

Previously, Italy, Japan won 3-0 after leading 1-0 at halftime and Poland beat Russia 2-1 after leading 2-0 at lemon break in the other two contests of the day.

The visitors, who were leading 2-1 after the conclusion of the first half, showed some excellent hockey to France, which had the home ground advantage and the crowd. Pakistan took a few minutes to find his rhythm in the cold, but soon took control of the game. During the two sessions, Pakistan dominated the process, without much danger, although the Frenchman added one more goal to his account in the second half.

“We played according to our plan and won, the coach said Shahid Ali Khan told reporters after the game. He said Pakistan had almost qualified for the finals.” Now we have to play three games – against Poland, Japan and the end ” .

Pakistan opened the account through an excellent field goal Akhtar Ali, at 8 minutes. The French, led by a friendly crowd of fans reacted and the equalizer came on 23 minutes through Frederic Soyez, a field goal. Despite the rain to a large extent, the game continues in the same tempo. Pakistan closed three more goals in the corner 26 (penalty), 37 (penalty corner) and 55 (field goal) minutes through Sharp Shooter Sohail Abbas and Rehan Butt, respectively, to the amusement of a handful of people in Pakistan this in the stadium.

The French figure was reduced in the 67th minute when Arnaud Becuwe converted a penalty corner, but in vain. The result certainly not in doubt again, the decreased intensity of the game and Pakistan players had more time and space to showcase their individual skills.

Train crash victims recall ordeal

KARACHI: ‘He was in my arms, sleeping soundly, when the accident shook us all. The only thing I remember now is that I lost consciousness and a grip on Abdur Rehman when something fell on me. He was barely three months’ old. I am shattered,’ said Kausar Ramzan, sobbing.

She is among the three parents who got injured and lost their minor children in the train crash that occurred near the Juma Goth railway station, Landhi Town, on Tuesday.

The accident occurred when a Karachi-bound Allama Iqbal Express coming from Lahore collided with a goods train.

Kausar, with a fractured leg, was admitted to the emergency section of the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) along with 45 others. The tragedy, which seems to be the result of negligence, claimed the lives of many people.

Iqbal, Kausar’s husband, was waiting for his wife’s arrival at the Landhi junction and rushed to the scene as soon he got the news of the accident.

‘I talked to her around 10 to 15 minutes before the accident and told her to keep all the baggage at one place and be ready to get off at the Landhi junction. Later someone told me that the train had had an accident,’ grieving Iqbal, a restaurant worker and resident of Korangi, told Dawn.

Both husband and wife had shifted to Karachi a decade ago. Kesar, their adopted daughter, and Nasir, Kausar’s brother, also received injuries in the accident. The couple had a child after 10 years of marriage.

‘I had taken my son for the first time to my mother’s place in Lahore.

Some people at the hospital told me that he was alive when he was taken out of the train and died at the hospital. His body hasn’t been handed over to us yet,’ added Kausar.

Mohammad Arshad, another injured at the JPMC emergency section, was coming to Karachi after attending a wedding in Lahore. He lost his eight-month-old son, Mohammad Shayan, in the tragedy.

‘The berths fell and we got stuck. I kept shouting for two-and-a-half hours before I got help. I lost my son, my brother has fractured both his legs. We are still in a state of shock,’ says Arshad as he wiped off his tears.

Arshad, a rickshaw driver in Lyari Town, had also received minor injuries along with his wife and another son.

Six-year-old Manisha and her uncle, who were coming to Karachi with the entire family from Kamoki, Punjab, to attend a wedding in Korangi, were also among the victims. Sitting outside the JPMC emergency section all their relatives were in great shock.

‘We had been preparing for the wedding ceremony for so long. But our happiness has turned into grief. We could never have imagined this. I had made so many suits for the little Manisha. Her uncle who died in the accident had got married just two months ago,’ mourned Sakina, one of the relatives.

Looting spree

Shock and pain hit 50-year-old Mohammad Aslam, too. Six hours after the accident, his relatives had no clue to the whereabouts of Aslam’s son, 15-year-old Tariq. Lying on the hospital bed with fractured legs, he was crying for the safety of his son.

‘Please pray for my son’s life. All my belongings have been taken away following the crash.’ Aslam’s house is mortgaged and he has been asked to vacate it once he returns to Lahore.

‘Please mention my condition (in your report), so that I am given some time to recover, physically and financially, and not forced to vacate my house,’ he requested.

The injured not only complained about the delay in the rescue operation, but also said that the ‘looting that followed the accident was highly distressing’.

‘We want our belongings back. I had a suitcase which contained books, clothes and also my cellular phone,’ said Waris Ali, a college student who had boarded the train at Khairpur and suffered minor injuries in the accident.

At the hospital, Waris was by himself. He was being administered a drip and was told that he could go home now. But none of his family members were informed about the misfortune that befell him on his way back to Karachi.

‘My mother is a heart patient. I don’t want the news to reach home. I will manage on my own as soon as I gather some strength. I wish someone returns my luggage,’ he said.

Giving details about the injured, Dr Seemin Jamali, head of the JPMC emergency section, said that most of them got fractures and had been shifted to different departments.

‘Most of them are now in a stable condition and 15 people have already been discharged. All bodies have been identified.’

Referring to the problems that the hospital staff had faced in the morning due to an unruly mob, Dr Jamali said: ‘Too many bystanders were a major obstacle to delivering quick emergency aid today. We desperately need security and there needs to be an awareness programme to educate people on how to behave in emergencies.’

Pakistan Army Hasn’t Taken Taliban Redoubts, Ex-Commander Says

By Anwar Shakir and James Rupert

Nov. 4 (Bloomberg) — Pakistan’s capture of Taliban controlled-villages in South Waziristan may have limited strategic value unless soldiers pursue militants into their mountainous hideouts, said a former special forces commander.

“Infantry forces are moving along the main roads and not up into the side valleys,” ex-army brigadier Javed Hussain said in a telephone interview from Islamabad. With winter snows only weeks away, the offensive has stuck to three highways, he said.

Troops are clearing an area near the village of Sararogha in one of the battle zone’s three main valleys, the army said yesterday in the latest report on the 19-day-old campaign. Soldiers are trying to take control of the South Waziristan homeland of the Mehsuds, an ethnic Pashtun tribe that supplies the core of the largest Taliban force, about 10,000 fighters.

The most secure areas for guerrillas are in two forested mountain ranges, one west of Sararogha that includes the Asman Manza valley. The other is the Shawal range, near the Afghan border, with peaks exceeding 3,700 meters (11,000 feet).

The Taliban say their forces are falling back deliberately before advancing troops to fight what spokesman Azam Tariq called a “long war,” the Associated Press reported yesterday. Areas that “the army is claiming to have won are being vacated by us” to draw the army into a trap deep inside South Waziristan, he said.

Escape Routes

Accounts of the fighting are difficult to confirm as Pakistan bars foreigners from the tribal areas and local journalists have been forced out by the government and Taliban.

The army has said it dropped groups of soldiers onto strategic mountain ridges to protect its advance. Those forces are too small to enter the forested valleys and ravines where the Taliban will regroup, Hussain said.

Pakistan says the offensive in South Waziristan has cut off escape routes to prevent the Taliban from fleeing in large numbers. The army began the operation, its largest against Islamic militants, on Oct. 17, and said it has killed about 300 guerrillas. The Taliban has responded with suicide bombings and attacks that have killed more than 300 people.

“There is no place for the Taliban in Pakistan,” the Associated Press of Pakistan cited Interior Minister  as saying in a radio interview yesterday in Islamabad. “The entire nation has said ‘no’ to the Taliban.”

 

Clinton Defers Role in South Asia Feud

ISLAMABAD — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, facing criticism in Pakistan for the U.S.’s expanding ties to India, ruled out Washington playing a formal mediation role between New Delhi and Islamabad on the issue of the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir.

Mrs. Clinton’s position further diminished Pakistani hopes that the Obama administration would use its international stature to aggressively press for a resolution of the decades-old Kashmir conflict, which has fueled a nuclear-arms race in South Asia.

President Barack Obama campaigned last year on the need for the U.S. to help fashion a “regional” solution to the instability in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He specifically cited the importance of Kashmir and the damping of the India-Pakistan rivalry.

The Obama administration has established a direct, public role in seeking to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the political crisis in Honduras.

Mrs. Clinton, appearing on a Pakistani talk show Friday, said the Obama administration believed such a direct effort would be counterproductive in the conflict between New Delhi and Islamabad.

“It is clearly in Pakistan’s and India’s interest to resolve [their dispute]. But it isn’t to us to dictate a solution,” Mrs. Clinton told the show, “Our Voice.” “That wouldn’t last a minute.”

Pressed by the studio audience, the secretary of state said Washington’s role in the Arab-Israeli conflict was necessary because the Palestinians had yet to establish an independent state.

She said Washington supported New Delhi and Islamabad returning to bilateral negotiations that froze after last year’s attack by Pakistan-based terrorists in Mumbai. U.S. officials say Washington has quietly been working to build bridges between India and Pakistan in the wake of the Mumbai attacks.

The director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Leon Panetta, has attempted to promote intelligence-sharing between New Delhi and Islamabad to guard against any future terrorist strikes.

Pakistan said it is open to the U.S. playing a more direct role in resolving the Kashmir dispute, but Indian officials reject third-party mediation. New Delhi said it is open to resuming its bilateral dialogue with Pakistan, but needs Islamabad to crack down on the militant groups that attacked Mumbai.

Mrs. Clinton concluded a three-day trip to Pakistan Friday aimed at smoothing Washington’s relations with its chief ally in the fight against al Qaeda. The issue of India was raised at most public events where Mrs. Clinton appeared. She met with Pakistani lawmakers, journalists and civic leaders in Islamabad and Lahore.

Pakistanis have particularly criticized a nuclear-cooperation agreement between Washington and New Delhi. The pact, reached last year, allows the U.S. and other nations to sell nuclear fuels and technologies to India, despite New Delhi’s refusal to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

Islamabad argues that the pact could help India significantly outpace Pakistan’s nuclear-weapons arsenal, despite stipulations in the agreement that none of the nuclear materials be used for military purposes.

Pakistani leaders, citing their country’s energy shortages, pressed Mrs. Clinton to help Islamabad get a similar deal.

“Why don’t you set up some nuclear-based projects in Pakistan for the private sector?” textile executive Mian Muhammad Mansha asked Mrs. Clinton at a meeting with business leaders in Lahore. “Let your companies come here.”

Pakistanis who attended events with Mrs. Clinton also called on the U.S. to intervene in an intensifying water dispute between Islamabad and New Delhi. And they charged India was stoking ethnic unrest in the Pakistani provinces of Baluchistan and Sindh, a charge India’s government denies.