UK questioned on links to US drone strikes in Pakistan

LONDON: Lawyers for a Pakistani man who says his father was killed in an American drone strike called on Britain Saturday to reveal whether it provided intelligence to help the US launch the attacks. British lawyers Leigh Day and Co. have written a letter to Foreign Secretary William Hague, demanding answers over London’s alleged links to the CIA’s covert drone war. In particular, they want to know whether British intelligence was used in the March attack in northwest Pakistan that they claim killed the father of their client, Noor Khan. The lawyers cite media reports which detail how British intelligence agencies provided information on the location of militants targeted by the drones. “We ask the foreign secretary whether any information...

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Eight killed in unrelenting Cairo clashes

CAIRO: Eight people have been killed as clashes between troops and protesters in central Cairo spilled over into a second day, Egyptian state television said on Saturday. It also said that 303 people had been wounded in the unrest in the capital, whose centre has turned into a smoke-filled battleground in some of the most violent clashes since a popular uprising ousted President Hosni Mubarak last February. Egypt’s Dar al-Iftah, the body that issues Islamic fatwas (edicts), said one of its senior officials, Emad Effat, was among the dead, state news agency MENA said. Clashes around government offices and parliament raged on after nightfall on Friday, with protesters throwing petrol bombs and stones at soldiers who used...

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US Congress moves to restrict aid to Egypt, Pakistan

WASHINGTON: Congress would impose restrictions on aid to Egypt, Pakistan and the Palestinian Authority in a $53.3 billion bill that avoids the deep cuts in foreign assistance and State Department funding that Republicans had pursued this year. The legislation is part of a sweeping, $1 trillion-plus year-end spending package that provides money for 10 Cabinet agencies through September. The House passed the measure on Friday and the Senate is expected to vote sometime this weekend. Foreign aid amounts to just 1 per cent of the federal budget, but lawmakers intent on cutting the deficit, especially conservative tea party Republicans, have clamored for significant reductions in spending overseas. Democrats and Secretary of State...

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Posted in: INTERNATIONAL