China supports Pakistan independence, sovereignty

ISLAMABAD: China has reiterated its firm support to Pakistan’s endeavors in upholding its independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity.

The assurance came during the three-day visit of Representative of Chinese President Hu Jintao and State Councilor of the State Council of China Dai Bingguo, China’s Ambassador to Pakistan Liu Jian said Monday.

The ambassador in his briefing on the visit of Dai Bingguo to Pakistan said the visit, though short, proved fruitful.

He said China supports Pakistan’s efforts in maintaining its national stability and unity, creating a sound external environment, developing its economy, and improving the livelihood of its people, by fully exploiting its geographical advantage.

Dai Bingguo also emphasized that the international community should fully recognize the significant contributions made by Pakistan for the international campaign against terrorism and continues to render strong support for Pakistan.

He said the visit was aimed at marking the 60th anniversary of the founding of China-Pakistan diplomatic relations and the “Year of China-Pakistan Friendship”, and secondly to discuss with Pakistani leaders how to carry forward the traditional friendship, deepen cooperation and shape a better future for bilateral ties.

During the visit, Dai Bingguo held in-depth discussions with Pakistan’s civilian and military leaders and reached broad consensus on further promoting China-Pakistan strategic cooperative partnership.

Dai thanked the Pakistani side for its longstanding and valuable support on issues that concern China’s core interests.

“Our two sides have signed 6 agreements including the Supplementary Agreement on Extension of Five Year Development Programme on Trade and Economic Cooperation, and a 10-billion-yuan (1.58 billion US dollars) currency swap agreement between People’s Bank of China and the State Bank of Pakistan.”

“This visit is a tour of friendship, and a tour of cooperation. It’s our firm belief that this visit will further consolidate and strengthen the strategic partnership of cooperation existing between China and Pakistan.”

The ambassador also thanked Pakistan for the gracious hospitality and thoughtful arrangements for Dai Bingguo and his delegation.

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Thirteen killed in shelling of Syria’s flashpoint Homs: activists

NICOSIA: Heavy gunfire in Syria’s flashpoint central city Homs killed 13 people on Monday in the Sunni district of Baba Amro, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a statement.

“The rounds fired from heavy machineguns in the Baba Amro district caused 13 deaths on Monday morning and dozens of injuries. 

The situation is frightening and the shelling is the most intense of the last three days”, the group said, citing activists on the ground.

The Britain-based Observatory renewed its call for Arab League observers, the first 50 of whom were due to arrive in Syria on Monday evening, to head immediately to Homs, which has become of a focal point of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

“The observers must head immediately to the martyrs’ district of Baba Amro to stop the assassinations and meet with the Syrian people so that they witness the crimes being perpetrated by by the Syrian regime,” the group said.

A nine-member advance team of Arab monitors arrived on Thursday to pave the way for the observer mission to oversee a deal aimed at ending the crackdown, which the UN estimates has killed more than 5,000 people since March.

Syrian opposition groups have said that the observers must stop their work if they are blocked by the authorities from travelling to protest hotspots like Homs.

General Mohammed Ahmed Mustapha al-Dabi, who is heading the League’s observer mission, arrived in Damascus on Sunday evening, a source told AFP.

The mission is part of an Arab plan endorsed by Syria on November 2 that calls for the withdrawal of the military from towns and residential districts, a halt to violence against civilians and the release of detainees.

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Gunman opens fire on Nato troops in Afghanistan

KABUL: Military authorities say an individual wearing an Afghan army uniform has opened fire on coalition troops in western Afghanistan.

A Nato statement said on Monday there were no fatalities among alliance soldiers. A Defense Ministry spokesman said they were investigating Saturday’s shooting.

An official who asked not to be named because the investigation is ongoing said an Afghan man died and several coalition troops were wounded in the shooting at an outpost in Bala Boluk district.

If the probe confirms that the gunman was a soldier, the shooting will be the latest in a series of attacks by Afghans against coalition partners.

Those shootings have raised fears of Taliban infiltration as Nato speeds up the training of Afghan security forces.

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Baghdad suicide bomb kills five as standoff deepens

BAGHDAD: A suicide attacker in a vehicle packed with explosives killed at least five people at the interior ministry in Baghdad on Monday as a worsening political standoff stoked sectarian tensions.

The blast, which left dozens wounded, came just days after the capital was struck by its deadliest violence in more than four months and as US Vice President Joe Biden urged dialogue between Iraqi politicians to resolve their differences.

The attacker took advantage of guards opening the ministry compound’s main gates to allow in electrical maintenance workers to ram his explosives-filled car through and set it off, a ministry official said.

At least five people were killed and 27 wounded, doctors at the Neurological and Al-Kindi hospitals, where casualties were taken, said.

The blast came after a wave of attacks across Baghdad on Thursday killed 60 people, and violence in the provinces the same day claimed another seven lives.

It was the deadliest day in Iraq since mid-August.

Iraq is mired in political dispute with authorities calling for the arrest of Sunni Arab Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi on charges he ran a death squad, accusations Hashemi denies.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has also called for the sacking of his Sunni deputy Saleh al-Mutlak, who has denounced the premier as a dictator “worse than Saddam Hussein”.

The Sunni-backed Iraqiya bloc, to which both Hashemi and Mutlak belong, has boycotted the cabinet and parliament.

Hashemi, holed up at the official guesthouse of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani in the country’s autonomous Kurdish region, told AFP in an interview on Sunday he would not go to Baghdad to stand trial and raised the prospect of fleeing Iraq.

Asked if he would return to Baghdad to face trial, Hashemi told AFP: “Of course not.” The 69-year-old attributed his refusal to travel to the capital to poor security and politicisation of the justice system.

He said most of his guards had been arrested and had their weapons confiscated, adding: “There is no security for the vice president. How can I come back to Baghdad if I cannot secure myself?

“The Iraqi judicial council is under the control and the influence of the central government, and this is a big problem,” Hashemi added. “That is why I asked to move the case to Kurdistan… Justice here will not be politicised.”Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has said Ankara will not turn Hashemi away if he requests asylum, but that he should stay in Iraq.

“I have no intention to leave Iraq at this time, unless my personal security is endangered,” Hashemi said in Sunday’s interview. “Then, we will talk about this.”Biden, President Barack Obama’s pointman on Iraq, has made a flurry of calls to Iraqi leaders this week, urging them to mend their fences.

In calls to Maliki on Sunday and Kurdish leader Massud Barzani on Saturday, Biden “exchanged views… on the current political climate in Iraq and reiterated our support for ongoing efforts to convene a dialogue among Iraqi political leaders,” the White House said in a statement.

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US gears up for limited relationship with Pakistan: report

WASHINGTON: US officials believe the country’s relationship with Pakistan has been seriously damaged and a counter terrorism alliance can survive only in a limited form, The New York Times reported on late Sunday.

Citing unnamed US and Pakistani officials, the newspaper said officials acknowledge this deterioration will complicate the ability to launch attacks against extremists based in Pakistan and move supplies into Afghanistan.

US-Pakistani relations took a serious hit last month after a series of US air strikes killed 24 Pakistani soldiers near the border with Afghanistan.

A joint US-Nato investigation concluded that a disastrous spate of errors and botched communications led to the deaths.

Pakistan has rejected the findings.

The United States will be forced to restrict drone strikes, limit the number of its spies and soldiers on the ground and spend more to transport supplies through Pakistan to allied troops in Afghanistan, the report said.

United States aid to Pakistan will also be reduced sharply, the paper noted.

“We’ve closed the chapter on the post-9/11 period,” The Times quoted a senior US official as saying.

“Pakistan has told us very clearly that they are re-evaluating the entire relationship.”

American officials say the relationship will endure in some form, but that the contours will not be clear until Pakistan completes its wide-ranging review of the November incident in the coming weeks, the paper pointed out.

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‘Top al Qaeda leaders moving from Pak to North Africa’

British officials believed that senior leaders of al Qaeda in Pakistan had been killed in an intense campaign of drone strikes and others are moving to north Africa, FTNews reported.

According to a report published in Guardian, the officials are confident that a “last push” in 2012 is likely to destroy the group’s remaining senior leadership in the country.

The report claimed that the militants are now moving to north Africa, including Libya, to open new fronts, raising fears that the region could become a new battle field.

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