The New Nation - Internet Edition

Britain promises more anti-terror aid to Pakistan

Internet

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown pledged more counter-terrorism help to Pakistan on Sunday, revealing that three-quarters of terror plots investigated in Britain linked back to al-Qaida supporters in the country.

Brown traveled to Afghanistan, India and Pakistan over the weekend to visit British troops and bolster cooperation between India and Pakistan in the wake of the deadly Mumbai attacks that killed more than 160 people.

But his strongest message was delivered to Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari, whose wife Benazir Bhutto died last year in an attack launched by extremists.

Zardari faces a daunting challenge of tackling poverty and extremism in Pakistan as he tries to shore up support in the tribal regions and within his own government. Bhutto repeatedly alleged that Pakistan's security services had long-standing ties to extremist elements.

"The time has come for action and not words, and I want to help Pakistan and other countries root out terrorism," Brown told reporters in a joint news conference with Zardari.

Britain would offer Pakistan counter-terrorism equipment for detecting bombs and explosives at airports. It would also contribute $9 million to lure youths away from extremist activities by offering them educational materials and programs.

Brown discussed similar assistance with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh earlier Sunday, including a better system for sharing intelligence.

Although British and American intelligence agencies helped thwart a trans-Atlantic airliner attack in 2006 - a plot that had links to Pakistan - fewer success stories have been attributed to intelligence information out of Pakistan or India.

The nuclear rivals fought three wars since independence from Britain in 1947 - two of them over the Himalayan region of Kashmir, whose status has emerged as a recurrent theme in the radicalization of young British Muslims.

Despite a peace process that began in 2004, tensions remain high and intelligence sharing has been limited. India has blamed the Mumbai attacks on the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba Islamic group, straining relations even further.

Brown echoed the assertion, saying the group has long been on Britain's radar.

Abdullah Ghaznavi, Lashkar's chief spokesman, denied the allegation, saying his group targets Indian defense forces and installations to force India out of Kashmir.

"We reject the claim of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and urge him to independently investigate this matter instead of relying on false and fabricated evidence provided by India," Ghaznavi told The Associated Press in a call Sunday from an undisclosed location. "This is a jihad and it will continue," he added.

He also claimed his group has "no direct or indirect links" with the Taliban or al-Qaida. "We neither finance them nor support them," he said. Brown said there was a "chain of terror" emanating from Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"I told President Zardari that three fourths of the most serious terror plots investigated by British authorities have links to al-Qaida in Pakistan," he said. Britain has a large South Asian population. Most of its some 2 million Muslims are of Pakistani or Kashmiri origin.

The British suicide bombers who killed 52 London commuters in 2005 had family links to Pakistan, and Indian-born Dhiren Barot was jailed in Britain in 2006 over plots to bomb the New York Stock Exchange, other U.S. financial targets and landmark London hotels.

Taiwan, China launch direct shipping, air links

AP, Keelung

Taiwanese jetliners and cargo ships left Monday for China to open a new era of direct air and shipping services with the mainland, formally ending a nearly six-decade ban on regular links between the rivals.

The passenger flights and sailings reflected perhaps the most dramatic improvement in relations between the two sides since they split amid civil war in 1949.

Ties over the years have been consistently tense and, occasionally alarming, with both sides amassing missiles that remain pointed at each other across the 100-mile (160-kilometer) wide Taiwan Strait.

Beijing still claims sovereignty over the democratic island and has repeatedly warned that any attempt at a permanent split could trigger a devastating conflict.

Despite the tensions, flourishing economic ties over the past two decades have bound the two sides together, with annual bilateral trade now totaling about $100 billion.

Presiding over the sailing of the first vessel from Taiwan to China since 1949, Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou said the new air and maritime links will greatly boost Taiwan's economy and put an end to the sabre rattling of the past.

"We will use dialogue to replace confrontation and reconciliation to replace conflicts," said Ma, who's swearing-in seven months ago marked a turning point in cross-strait relations.

Since taking office in May, Ma has moved aggressively to jettison the anti-China, pro-independence policies of predecessor Chen Shui-bian, trying his best to turn the corner on one of the postwar world's most enduring conflicts.

Besides the shipping and aviation initiatives, he has also sanctioned a significant expansion of Chinese tourist traffic to Taiwan and helped open the way for increased bilateral investment between the sides.

Mumbai attackers more tech savvy than the police

AP, Mumbai

When the attackers arrived on the shores of Mumbai last month, they had studied satellite images of the city, were carrying handheld GPS sets and were communicating with their handlers via the Internet and satellite phone.

Many of the Indian police they encountered did not even have walkie-talkies.

The Mumbai gunmen not only overwhelmed security forces with their weaponry and willingness to die, but also with their sophisticated use of technology, security experts said.

"These (terrorists) are well aware of the technology available and also know that the police are several steps behind. And a lot of this technology is extremely easy to use and to learn," said Pavan Duggal, a technology expert and New Delhi-based lawyer.

India's underfunded and poorly trained police force is simply unable to compete, experts said.

"Crimes that involve technology usually make the police very nervous," Duggal said.

To prepare for their Nov. 26 assault, militants examined the layout and landscape of the city using images from Google Earth, which provides satellite photos for much of the planet over the Internet, said Mumbai's chief police investigator, Rakesh Maria.

The 10 gunmen also studied detailed photographs of their targets on laptop computers, Maria said.

When the assailants traveled by boat from Karachi, Pakistan, to Mumbai - stealing an Indian trawler along the way - they used four GPS systems to navigate, Maria said. The sets could also be used as walkie-talkies.

Thai opposition leader becomes prime minister

AP, Bangkok

An opposition leader was chosen as Thailand's prime minister Monday in an effort to end months of political turmoil, but the move unleashed new protests by supporters of the previous government who hurled rocks at lawmakers.

Abhisit Vejjajiva - at 44, one of the world's youngest heads of government - gathered 235 votes against 198 by former national police chief Pracha Promnok, a loyalist of exiled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

The vote in the lower house of Parliament followed six months of instability caused by anti-government and anti-Thaksin demonstrations that culminated last month with a weeklong takeover of Bangkok's two airports.

The selection of a new prime minister was expected to calm the country's politics, at least temporarily. However, several hundred Thaksin supporters tried to block the gates of Parliament in a last-ditch attempt to prevent the outcome. Riot police later cleared a path for lawmakers to leave the compound.

The demonstrators hurled rocks at vehicles and abuse at lawmakers inside but most dispersed peacefully, saying that they would gather again later Monday in the capital's old historic section.

Following the vote, Abhisit - an Oxford-educated politician from an upper class family - thanked fellow lawmakers and the public but said he would not talk about politics until he was officially endorsed as prime minister by the constitutional monarch, King Bhumibol Adulyadej. This is expected within several days.

Despite Monday's protest outside Parliament, analysts foresee relative stability in coming months following political chaos and the airport siege that ended after a court ruling on Dec. 2 dissolved the ruling People's Power Party and two coalition partners.

It also banned former Premier Somchai Wongsawat, who is Thaksin's brother-in-law, from politics for five years.

Pakistan haulers refuse to take supplies to Afghanistan

AFP, Peshawar

Haulage companies in Pakistan have stopped delivering to foreign troops in Afghanistan after a major deterioration in security along the key supply route, an association official said Monday. The decision follows a series of major raids by suspected Taliban militants on international military supply depots in northwest Pakistan in the past two weeks in which hundreds of NATO and US-led coalition vehicles were destroyed. "We have stopped supplies to foreign forces in Afghanistan from today, Mohammad Shakir Afridi, president of the Khyber Transport Association, told AFP Monday in the northwestern city of Peshawar. "We have around 3,500 trucks, tankers and other vehicles, we are the major suppliers to Afghanistan, transporting about 60-70 percent of goods," said Afridi., whose association represents transport companies in the area.

He said the decision followed a worsening in law and order along the 55-kilometre (35-mile) stretch between Peshawar, where the military supplies are stored, and the Khyber pass which links Pakistan with Afghanistan.

The bulk of the supplies and equipment required by NATO and US-led forces battling the Taliban insurgency is shipped to Pakistan's largest port, Karachi in the south.

From there, the containers of food, fuel, vehicles and munitions are taken by truck to depots outside Peshawar before being transported through Pakistan's restive tribal areas to Afghanistan via the Khyber pass.

But the fabled road passes through the heart of Pakistan's tribal zone, a hideout for militants since the ousting of Afghanistan's Taliban regime at the end of 2001.

Gunmen kill 7 member of a Yazid family in Iraq

AFP, Mosul

Seven members of a family belonging to the ancient Yazidi religious sect were assassinated overnight in the Sinjar area of northwest Iraq, police said on Monday.

"A group of armed men entered a house during the night and fired at a Yazidi family, killing three women and four men," said Nashawan Mohammed, a police officer in the city of 240,000 people near the Syrian border.

In August last year, more than 400 people were slaughtered when four suicide truck bombs targeted members of the sect.

Yazidis-who number some 500,000 -- speak a dialect of Kurdish but follow a pre-Islamic religion and have their own cultural traditions.

They believe in God the creator and respect the Biblical and Koranic prophets, especially Abraham, but their main focus of worship is Malak Taus, the chief of the archangels, often represented by a peacock.

Followers of other religions know this angel as Lucifer or Satan, leading to popular prejudice that the secretive Yazidis are devil-worshippers.