The New Nation - Internet Edition

Islamabad imposes crackdown on Lashkar-e-Taiba: Pakistan seeks evidence against Mumbai suspects

Reuters, Muzaffarabad

Pakistan shut offices and arrested scores of activists of an Islamic charity as international pressure mounted for firm action against militants blamed for the Mumbai attacks, officials said on Friday.

The overnight raids followed Pakistan announcing it would abide by a U.N. decision placing Hafiz Saeed, founder of the Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group, on its terrorism sanctions list of people and organizations linked to al Qaeda and the Taliban.

The action followed mounting pressure for action from India and the United States after the attack by gunmen that killed 179 people, including six Americans, in Mumbai last month.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte met with Pakistani political leaders and army chief General Kayani before going to New Delhi on Friday, as Washington kept up intense diplomatic efforts partly aimed at keeping Pakistani-Indian relations from worsening.

Saeed, who founded Lashkar in 1990 and officially left it in 2001 just days before Pakistan banned it, has been put under house arrest, according to one of his spokesmen.

Three associates were also added to the U.N. list and will be subject to sanctions freezing assets and restricting travel, but a Pakistani television news channel reported one of them is dead and another has been in a Saudi jail for the past three years.

An intelligence official told Reuters that Maulana Masood Azhar, head of the Jaish-e-Mohammad group blamed with Lashkar for a 2001 attack on India's parliament, was also detained.

One close aide of Azhar's told Reuters: "I think they could have detained him to relieve pressure, but I don't know the exact whereabouts of the Maulana."

Meanwhile, Pakistan on Friday pressed India to share evidence from the Mumbai attacks, warning that any effort to prosecute key suspects rounded up in Pakistan will be hamstrung without it.

India says Pakistan must dismantle the militant group blamed for last month's attack, which left 173 dead, including nine gunmen, and sharply raised tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals.

Pakistan, under pressure from the U.S. to avoid a crisis that would divert Islamabad from battling the Taliban and al-Qaida on its Afghan frontier, has arrested two alleged masterminds of the assault.

On Thursday, it clamped down on an Islamic charity after the U.N. branded it a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba, the powerful Pakistan-based guerrilla group blamed for the Mumbai attacks.

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said Friday that Pakistan firmly believed that its territory should not be used to commit any act of terrorism.

"However, our own investigations cannot proceed beyond a certain point without provision of credible information and evidence pertaining to Mumbai attacks," Qureshi said in a televised statement.

Mumbai attacks show up India’s technology shortcomings

Reuters, Mumbai

Police are grappling with global positioning systems (GPS), satellite phones and Google Earth images on the trail of the Mumbai attackers and finding themselves hobbled by technological inadequacy.

So far, police have found four GPS handsets, one satellite phone, nine mobile phones and computer discs with high-resolution images and maps of the 10 sites that were attacked. The use of the Internet to make calls has also hampered the investigation.

"The use of technology has made it very difficult for us," Param Bir Singh, a top officer in Mumbai's anti-terrorism team, told Reuters.

"For the people we are dealing with, money is not a problem, and even the ones that are not very educated are trained in all manner of devices and know how to make interception difficult."

The lone surviving gunman of the Mumbai attack reportedly told interrogators in Mumbai the 10 gunmen, who led the three-day siege that killed 179 people, were shown videos and Google Earth images of the targets during their training in camps in Pakistan.

"They probably used the GPS for navigation and the satellite phone when they were on the sea, and then used the mobile phones to stay in touch with their handlers during the operations," Rakesh Maria, lead investigator of the police, has said.

Ratan Shrivastava, a defence expert at consultancy Frost & Sullivan and a former army officer, said "hostile groups" that have attacked India have always used very sophisticated technology and were typically very well-trained in the use of technology.

"While the Indian armed forces are well-equipped and our intelligence services have the capability to take on these technologies, there is very little coordination between them and the police, which is ill-equipped," he said.

He said a large part of the intelligence gathered these days is from monitoring the airwaves and intercepting conversations and e-mails but India lacked the resources and coordination to analyse and respond to the intelligence.

Mumbai police acknowledge the difficulties and the militants' apparent ease with sophisticated technology.

Suspected US strike kills 6 in Pakistan

AP, Dera Ismail Khan

A suspected U.S. strike killed six people Thursday on the Pakistan side of the Afghan border, a lawless region believed to be a stronghold of al-Qaida, two intelligence officials said.

The identities of those killed in the attack was not immediately known, the officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

"At present, local Taliban have surrounded the destroyed house, and they are not letting anybody get close to it," said one of the officials. Citing agents and informants in the field, the officials said six people were killed in the strike late Thursday in a village near Azam Warsak in South Waziristan.

The United States is suspected of carrying out more than 30 missile strikes against militant targets on the Pakistan side of the Afghan border since August.

The attacks have killed scores of militants, but angered Pakistani leaders, who say they undermine their own war on terror.

Most of the missiles are believed launched from unmanned spy planes that take off from neighoring Afghanistan.

Washington rarely confirms or denies the attacks. However, the U.S. military has said that the Taliban and other radical Islamist groups based on the Pakistan side of the border carry out attacks on American troops in Afghanistan.

Russian forces withdraw from Georgian village

AFP, Tbilisi

Russian forces have withdrawn from a disputed village near the rebel South Ossetia region that Georgia had claimed was being occupied in violation of a ceasefire agreement, Georgian police said Friday.

"The Russians have pulled out and Georgian police will soon be in Perevi," interior ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said.

He said he hoped the move was a signal that Russia "will finally start fulfilling the (ceasefire) agreement," but that the withdrawal was only "the beginning of a long road."

Perevi, a mainly ethnic Georgian village of about 1,100 people on the western border of South Ossetia, had been under Russian control since a five-day war August.

Georgia had accused Russia of being in violation of the European Union-brokered ceasefire agreement by refusing to withdraw from Perevi.

Tbilisi has also called for Russia to withdraw from the Akhalgori district in South Ossetia and the Kodori Gorge in Georgia's other separatist region, Abkhazia-both of which were under Tbilisi's control before the war. Russian forces moved into Georgia on August 8 to repel a Georgian military attempt to retake South Ossetia, which had received extensive backing from Moscow since breaking away from Tbilisi's control in the early 1990s.

Under the ceasefire, Russian forces later withdrew to within South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which Moscow recognised as independent states.

Somali security forces desert, govt vanishing: UN

Reuters, United Nations

The ranks of Somalia's army and police have been gutted as most soldiers and police officers have deserted, often taking their weapons and vehicles, according to a new U.N. Security Council report.

The chairman of the council's Monitoring Group on Somalia said on Thursday that this was one of the main sources of weapons and ammunition in Somalia, along with illegal imports from Yemen and purchases of arms for opposition groups with funds from various domestic and foreign financiers.

There has been "an 80 percent erosion and attrition in the (interim government's) security sector, by which over 15,000 soldiers and police had deserted or defected along with their arms, uniforms, skills and vehicles in some cases," South Africa's U.N. Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo told the council.

A U.N. arms embargo has been in place on the now lawless Horn of Africa country since 1992.

In a four-page summary of the monitoring group's biannual report for the council, Kumalo also said his committee had observed a "steady disintegration" of the government since he gave the group's last report to the Security Council in May.

He said that 70 percent of the transitional Somali government's revenues were earmarked for supporting the security sector, but very few of those funds were ever spent on security due to corruption.

"Charitable organizations and the Internet were the main sources of funding for armed opposition groups and t payment mechanisms involving cash couriers and contributions in kind had emerged," Kumalo said in his summary.

On the topic of piracy, he described it as a "multimillion dollar industry, with a total of 1,000-1,500 pirates employed, using over 60 small boats and mother ships."

'Consensus emerging’ on climate deal at EU summit

AFP, Brussels

European Union leaders looked poised Thursday to seal agreement on a package to fight global warming after concessions to nations concerned over the cost to industry during recession.

Italy's Silvio Berlusconi, one of the fiercest opponents of the proposals that had been on the table, withdrew his veto threat after several hours of negotiations as sources at an EU summit said a consensus was now emerging.

"We are heading for a compromise," the Italian prime minister told reporters on the margins of an EU summit in Brussels. "Italy is on the way to getting all it wants."

Diplomatic and EU sources had earlier said that French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the summit's host, had made a series of compromises designed to buy off opposition by countries including Italy, Poland and Hungary.

Although Britain and others had voiced concerns that too many concessions had been made, hopes grew that an agreement would be reached before the end of the two-day summit on Friday.

"A consensus is starting to emerge and an agreement is quite probable tomorrow," one EU official said on the condition of the anonymity.

The EU's so-called 20-20-20 plan sets three targets for 2020: a 20 percent cut in greenhouse gas emissions, a 20 percent cut in energy consumed and 20 percent use of renewable energy.

But several nations, led by Germany, Italy and Poland, have opposed the plans to achieve those targets, fearing the effect on their industries and jobs in a time of recession.

Parents worldwide inspired to name kids for Obama

AP, Bucharest

By his own admission, Barack Obama was "a skinny kid with a funny name," but that isn't stopping proud parents from Romania to Indonesia from naming their newborns after the U.S. president-elect.

Romania's downtrodden Gypsies - once enslaved, like African-Americans, yet still struggling to overcome deep-seated prejudice - seem particularly inspired.

"When I saw Obama on TV, my heart swelled with joy. I thought he was one of us Gypsies because of his skin color," said Maria Savu, whose infant grandson - Obama Sorin Ilie Scoica - was born in the central Romania village of Rusciori. Little Obama is the third child of a poor family that barely gets by on 200 lei ($66) a month in welfare benefits.

He came into the world on Nov. 4, the day Americans voted in their new multiracial president-elect, and Savu, 43, told the Evenimentul Zilei newspaper she hopes his name will bring him luck.

Obama's victory also moved Sugiarto, a 36-year-old security guard in Jakarta, Indonesia, and his wife, Sularsih, to name their new son after him.

Indonesia, an overwhelmingly Muslim nation made up of more than 18,000 islands, is unabashedly Obama-crazy - in part because Obama spent four years there as a child.

"He's great, isn't it?" said Sularsih, 34, rubbing the cheek of their sleeping 1-month-old, Husein Obama. "I think it's a beautiful name for him. And who knows? Maybe one day he'll be president of Indonesia."

Rumsfeld responsible for detainee abuse: Senate report

AFP, Washington

Former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other top administration officials are responsible for abuse of detainees in US custody, a bipartisan Senate report said.

"Rumsfeld's authorization of aggressive interrogation techniques for use at Guantanamo Bay was a direct cause of detainee abuse there" and "influenced and contributed to the use of abusive techniquest in Afghanistan and Iraq," the report concluded.

It said Rumsfeld authorized harsh interrogation techniques on December 2, 2002 at the US prison facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, although he ruled them out a month later.

"The message from top officials was clear; it was acceptable to use degrading and abusive techniques against detainees," said Democratic Senator Carl Levin, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee that produced the report.

"Attempts by senior officials to pass the buck to low-ranking soldiers while avoiding any responsibility for abuses are unconscionable."

The committee focused much of its nearly two-year investigation on the Defense Department's use of controversial interrogation techniques, including stress positions, forced nudity, sleep deprivation and waterboarding, or simulated drowning.

"Those efforts damaged our ability to collect accurate intelligence that could save lives, strengthened the hand of our enemies and compromised our moral authority," said the report, most of which remained classified.

Calls to impeach embattled Illinois governor grow

AP, Chicago

The movement to impeach Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich is picking up steam almost by the hour, with voters and lawmakers alike demanding his ouster as the scandal-plagued politician boldly hangs on to power.

The lieutenant governor joined a bevy of lawmakers Thursday in demanding that Blagojevich be impeached, saying he has become an embarrassment to the state and can no longer lead. His approval rating plummeted to a shockingly low 8 percent.

"When you have no confidence from the people, in a democracy there's nowhere else to go but to resign," Lt. Pat Quinn said. The impeachment push was part of a riveting political drama that extended from Illinois to Washington and drew President-elect Barack Obama into the fold. He made his first public comments about the scandal on Thursday, calling charges that Blagojevich put Obama's U.S. Senate seat up for sale appalling and saying neither he nor his aides had any involvement in the governor's alleged scheming.

Blagojevich seems to be in no hurry to leave office. The besieged Democratic governor spent a third day ignoring demands that he quit, showing up to work and dealing with legislative business.

He left his home in the morning, kissed his wife and kids goodbye and rode to his office in downtown Chicago in a black SUV. He spent the day reviewing bills and dealing with budget issues in front of a bust of Abraham Lincoln and an American flag.

Blagojevich spokesman Lucio Guerrero described the governor's mood as "upbeat" and "positive" and said "there's a sense of trying to return to normalcy." He said he knew of no decision about Blagojevich's political future or what the governor might do with Obama's seat.

Hu Jintao pledges to promote human rights

AP, Beijing

President Hu Jintao has vowed that China will work with the international community in promoting human rights, state media said Friday, but the promise follows recent arrests of leading activists.

Hu said China would "base its human rights development on the basic situation of the country," Xinhua news agency said, a caveat used by China to apply its own human rights standards.

Hu's comments came in a letter to the China Society for Human Rights Studies to mark Wednesday's 60th anniversary of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Several Chinese dissidents have been detained in the lead-up to the anniversary, including prominent dissident writer Liu Xiaobo, a leading figure in the 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy protests.

The detentions drew criticism from the United States on Thursday, with the State Department expressing "deep concern."

Hu's letter said China would "strengthen international cooperation, as it has always done, in the human rights field," Xinhua said.

However, he indicated China would prioritise raising living standards for its people.

Faced with criticism over its human rights record, China typically replies that lifting people out of poverty through economic development is its key human rights priority.

Taiwan's former president indicted for corruption

Reuters, Taipei

Former Taiwan president and anti-China firebrand Chen Shui-bian was indicted on Friday in connection with a series of corruption-related scandals involving himself and family members.

Prosecutors said they would recommend the heaviest sentence possible on charges of graft, forgery and money laundering.

The charges were the first filed against Chen since his November 12 arrest when he was detained. No other former Taiwan president has faced criminal prosecution.

"Ex-president Chen Shui-bian's crimes are major," said Chen Yun-nan, spokesman for the Supreme Court's special prosecutor's office. "We will ask the courts to give ex-president Chen Shui-bian the strictest punishment."

Chen, whose pursuit of independence for self-ruled Taiwan upset rival China and Taiwan's main ally the United States during his presidency from 2000 to 2008, denies wrongdoing and has described the probe involving him as a political plot.

China has claimed sovereignty over Taiwan since 1949, when Mao Zedong's Communists won the Chinese civil war and Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists (KMT) fled to the island. Beijing has vowed to bring Taiwan under its rule, by force if necessary.