Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Karzai wants immediate halt to Nato night raids

5:13 AM McGhori

KABUL: Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday demanded an immediate halt to Nato-led night raids after the military insisted the operations will continue despite the recent death of a pregnant woman. Karzai has led public criticism of the controversial raids, saying they endanger lives and harass local communities, and repeatedly called on US-led international forces to stop entering Afghan homes. The latest spat comes after the pregnant wife of an anti-drugs official was killed during a raid in the eastern Paktia province in the early hours of Saturday when Nato-led forces returned gunfire coming from a compound. Nato has defended the operations as the safest way of targeting insurgent leaders, insisting they will continue...
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Indian president Patil calls for better maritime security

5:08 AM McGhori

ON BOARD INS SUBHADRA, India: India’s president on Tuesday stressed the need to improve maritime security, as the energy-hungry nation grows and ramps up offshore oil and gas exploration activity. Conducting only the 10th presidential fleet review since independence in 1947, Pratibha Patil said safeguarding India’s coastal waters was “a major requirement for the social and economic well-being of our country”. “The oil exploration activities off our coasts and at sea are of significant economic importance,” she said in an address on board the naval patrol ship INS Subhadra. “Therefore, the protection of our coast, our ‘sea lines of communications’ and the offshore development areas is a major pre-requisite of our nation’s...
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Indian police charge Kashmir officials over textbook

2:03 AM McGhori

SRINAGAR: Indian authorities have filed charges against Kashmir education officials over a textbook for first graders that illustrates the word ”oppressor” with a sketch resembling an Indian police officer. Anti-India sentiment runs deep in the Indian-controlled part of the disputed Himalayan region, where violent confrontations routinely erupt between stone-throwing protesters and baton-wielding police. Police official Shailandra Mishra said Tuesday that authorities were angered by an Urdu-language textbook illustrating the word ”zalim,” or oppressor, with a drawing of a mustachioed man wearing a cap and uniform and carrying a bamboo club similar to those carried by Indian police. Police charged officials responsible...
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Investigators link WikiLeaks suspect to Assange

1:58 AM McGhori

FORT MEADE, Maryland: US Army investigators presented evidence for the first time Monday directly linking the US soldier accused of spilling secrets to WikiLeaks to the founder of the site, Julian Assange. Testifying at a hearing to determine if US Army Private Bradley Manning should face a court-martial, the investigators said contact information for Assange was found on a computer hard drive belonging to Manning. The digital forensics experts also said they had found evidence of online chats between Manning and a computer user with the screen name “Julian Assange”. In addition, they said they recovered State Department cables, US military reports from Iraq and Afghanistan and other classified material from Manning’s...
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Kosit: Govt must help push economy

1:53 AM McGhori

BANGKOK: The government must take a leading role in mobilizing the economy as floods had weakened the private sector, Kosit Panpiemras, executive chairman of Bangkok Bank, said on Tuesday. At a seminar, Economic Rehabilitation and Direction in 2012, Mr Kosit said the Thai economy must be pushed ahead by the government because the production sector is weakening by the devastating floods. Only 80 per cent of the inundated industrial plants would be able to resume production in the next six months and therefore they are not in a position to help boost the economy, particularly in the first quarter of next year, said the banker. He said two negative factors that could derail the recovering economy are global economic recession...
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