Bomb Rocked in Dera Ismail Khan Pakistan

DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Four persons were killed and several wounded in an explosion in Dera Ismail Khan near the Central Jail outside the Town Hall. Police cordoned off the area soon after the blast on Monday, as the injured and dead bodies were being transferred to the local hospital. A bicycle found completely wrecked in the blast, while a vehicle was also damaged in the incident. The investigators were inquiring into the incident.

President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and Interior Advisor Rahman Malik have condemned the blast in Dera Ismail Khan and express grief over the losses of life in the incident.

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I am still the chief Justice: Justice Iftikhar

LAHORE: The deposed chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry has said here that constitutionally he was still the Chief Justice of Pakistan and other judges, who had not taken oath under the PCO, were also the constitutional judges of the superior courts. Enough is enough, the people now want the rule of law, declared the deposed chief justice.

Addressing the lawyers’ convention here, Justice Iftikhar stressed the need for justice for all in the country.

He said the Supreme Court had no authority to validate the November 3 unconstitutional steps as and when the time come these extra-constitutional steps will be dealt with.

The convention was also addressed by deposed judge of the Supreme Court Justice Khalil Ramday, President Supreme Court Bar Association Ali Ahmad Kurd, Aitzaz Ahsan, Latif Afridi, Khwaja Sharif and others.

He said the country could progress only in the presence of independent judiciary.

Aitzaz Ahsan said the rulers must see the light before March 9 that may prove a decisive day.

Ali Ahmad Kurd was forced by the participants of the convention to announce that the March 9 sit-in will continue until Justice Iftikhar is restored as chief justice of Pakistan.

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Hillary Clinton Calls to Zardari and Mukherjee

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has phoned President Asif Ali Zardari andIndian foreign minister and Acting Prime Minister Pranab Mukherjee and discussed regional tension and bilateral issues. Talking to Zardari Clinton said Pakistan is a key ally of the United States in the war against terrorism. “Pak-US friendly relations are based on longer lasting interests,” the US Secretary of State said promising her country’s full support and cooperation to Pakistan.
The State Department Spokesman Robert Wood told newsmen in Washington that Clinton hasphoned a slew of leaders since taking office on Thursday, reaching out to key allies in theMiddle East, Asia and Europe as the Obama administration reviews foreign policies.

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Suicide bomb Blast kills 2 Afghan soldiers, wounds 3

KABUL: A suicide car bomb killed two Afghan soldiers and wounded three on Wednesday in the western province of Herat, the Defence Ministry said.

Violence in Afghanistan has surged over the last year to its worst level since 2001, with Taliban militants’ launching more suicide and roadside bomb attacks in an attempt to show that the Afghan government and its Western backers cannot bring security.

The suicide bomber detonated his explosives next to an army vehicle in the Mir Awad area of Herat province, the Defence Ministry said in a statement. Separately, U.S.-led coalition forces together with Afghan officials were investigating claims on Wednesday they had killed civilians during an operation targeting a Taliban network in Kapisa province, northeast of Kabul, the U.S. military said.

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India Ready to Engage With Obama

American president of the United States, Barack Obama, is being widely hailed as a harbinger of change and, perhaps, not without reason.
Even before he was sworn in as the 44th US president around 11.30am (local time) on Tuesday, Obama had come to signify hope and change for the better for millions cutting across country, race and religious divides.

India is no exception as Obama’s elevation to power has been largely met with optimism. The only sore note, if one can call it that, has been the new president’s inclination to draw a link between the situation on Pak-Afghan border and the J&K dispute between India and Pakistan which many in the West believe can lead to a flare-up on Pakistan’s eastern border.

However, the good news for India is that Obama has already declared that the war on terror during his regime is going to focus on Afghanistan-Pakistan and not Iraq. This clearly authenticates India’s stand that it is important to sort out these two countries to root out terrorism.
Obama’s predecessor had been pilloried for the US follies in launching an all out war on Iraq and Obama’s decision to withdraw troops from that country has been greeted well by the world community. In that sense, Obama has already started to make a difference.

India, of course, would want to ward off any attempt by the Obama administration to force a resolution of the J&K dispute on the pretext of ensuring more cooperation from Pakistan in the war against terror. However, Obama clearly understands that India looks upon J&K as a bilateral dispute, with the world community having little or no role in it, and is unlikely to disturb the balance.

Another likely bone of contention between India and the US could be the Democrats’ insistence on India signing the CTBT and NPT. However, India’s stand on both the issues is so clearly spelled out that any attempt to force India could lead to an ugly situation which Washington may want to avoid.

One of the first major challenges to confront Obama would be the tottering US economy and he has already outlined it as his main priority area. Any move to inject fresh life into the economy can only be good news not just for India but also the entire world as no other country has a more profound influence on the world economy.
More than 90% of India’s $50 billion IT exports goes to the US and a thriving US economy is almost imperative for India. As for his remarks on outsourcing in the past, that he wants to save American jobs, Indians are hopeful that as in the past it would not translate into any action that would impede US-India business relations.

China’s relations with the US are also likely to have a bearing on India-US strategic ties as manifested in last year’s nuclear deal between the two countries. It was fairly obvious during the last phase of Bush’s tenure that Washington was following a policy of containment vis-a-vis China even though Bush himself maintained that relations between the two countries strengthened in the past few years. So far, Obama has kept his cards close to his chest as far as China is concerned.
Secretary of state-designate Hillary Clinton, of course, has said that Washington wants positive and cooperative relationship with China. She, however, has also warned that relations would not be “one-way effort” and that “much of what we will do depends on the choices China makes about its future at home and abroad”.

Obama is also likely to deviate from his predecessor’s stand by trying to engage Iran. However, any major change in US policy, especially if Iran continues with its plan to enrich uranium, is not on the cards. He has also not ruled out military options against Iran which might bring him into a conflict with Europe.

Obama has already announced that he would have Guantanamo Bay shut down as a priority. However, it remains to be seen how the decision is implemented because the authorities have not yet figured out what to do with the inmates. For example, the 15 Uighur separatists lodged in the prison have nowhere to go because most countries have refused to take them.

Obama is also likely to emerge as the new world leader as far as climate change is concerned. He has already announced his intention to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 80% and an investment of $150 billion in new energy-saving techniques. However, his real test will come in December in Copenhagen when talks are held on replacement for Kyoto protocol.

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Barack Hussain Obama’s Whole Career

Barack Hussain Obama ( Born August 4, 1961) is the President-elect of the United States of America, and the first African American to be elected President of the United States. Obama was the Junior United States Senator from Illinois from January 3, 2005, untill his resignation on November 16, 2008, following his election to the presidency.

His term of office as President of the United States is scheduled to begin after he is sworn in as the forty-fourth President of the United States at noon EST (17:00 UTC) on January 20, 2009, in an inaugural ceremony at the U.S. Capital.

Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he was the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review. He worked as a community organizer, and practiced as a civil rights attorney in Chicago before serving three terms in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004. He also taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004. Following an unsuccessful bid for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2000, Obama was elected to the Senate in November 2004. Obama delivered the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in July 2004.

As a member of the Democratic minority in the 109th Congress, Obama helped create legislation to control conventional weapons and to promote greater public accountability in the use of federal funds. He also made official trips to Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. During the 110th Congress, he helped create legislation regarding lobbying and electoral fraud, climate change, nuclear terrorism, and care for U.S. military personnel returning from combat assignments in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Early life and career

Barack Obama was born at the Kapi’olani Medical Center for Women & Children in Honolulu, Hawaii, to Ann Dunham, a white American from Wichita, Kansas of English and Irish descent.Obama’s father was Barack Obama, Sr., a Luo from Nyang’oma Kogelo, Nyanza Province, Kenya. His parents met in 1960 while attending the University of Hawaii at M?noa, where his father was a foreign student. The couple married on February 2, 1961 they separated when Obama was two years old and divorced in 1964. Obama’s father returned to Kenya and saw his son only once more before dying in an automobile accident in 1982.

After her divorce, Dunham married Indonesian student Lolo Soetoro, who was attending college in Hawaii. When Soeharto, a military leader in Soetoro’s home country, came to power in 1967, all students studying abroad were recalled and the family moved to Indonesia. There Obama attended local schools in Jakarta, such as Besuki Public School and St. Francis of Assisi School, until he was ten years old.

He then returned to Honolulu to live with his maternal grandparents, Madelyn and Stanley Dunham, while attending Punahou School from the fifth grade in 1971 until his graduation from high school in 1979. Obama’s mother returned to Hawaii in 1972 for five years, and then in 1977 went back to Indonesia, where she worked as an anthropological field worker. She stayed there most of the rest of her life, returning to Hawaii in 1994. She died of ovarian cancer in 1995.

Of his early childhood, Obama has recalled, “That my father looked nothing like the people around me — that he was black as pitch, my mother white as milk — barely registered in my mind.” In his 1995 memoir, he described his struggles as a young adult to reconcile social perceptions of his multiracial heritage. He wrote that he used alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine during his teenage years to “push questions of who I was out of my mind”. At the 2008 Civil Forum on the Presidency, Obama identified his high-school drug use as his “greatest moral failure.”

Some of his fellow students at Punahou School later told the Honolulu Star-Bulletin that Obama was mature for his age, and that he sometimes attended college parties and other events in order to associate with African American students and military service people. Reflecting later on his formative years in Honolulu, Obama wrote: “The opportunity that Hawaii offered — to experience a variety of cultures in a climate of mutual respect — became an integral part of my world view, and a basis for the values that I hold most dear.”

Following high school, Obama moved to Los Angeles, where he studied at Occidental College for two years. He then transferred to Columbia University in New York City, where he majored in political science with a specialization in international relations. Obama graduated with a B.A. from Columbia in 1983. He worked for a year at the Business International Corporation and then at the New York Public Interest Research Group.

After four years in New York City, Obama moved to Chicago, where he was hired as director of the Developing Communities Project (DCP), a church-based community organization originally comprising eight Catholic parishes in Greater Roseland (Roseland, West Pullman, and Riverdale) on Chicago’s far South Side. He worked there for three years from June 1985 to May 1988. During his three years as the DCP’s director, its staff grew from one to thirteen and its annual budget grew from $70,000 to $400,000. His achievements included helping set up a job training program, a college preparatory tutoring program, and a tenants’ rights organization in Altgeld Gardens Obama also worked as a consultant and instructor for the Gamaliel Foundation, a community organizing institute. In mid-1988, he traveled for the first time to Europe for three weeks and then for five weeks in Kenya, where he met many of his paternal relatives for the first time.

Obama entered Harvard Law School in late 1988. He was selected as an editor of the Harvard Law Review at the end of his first year, and elected president of the journal in his second year. During his summers, he returned to Chicago where he worked as a summer associate at the law firms of Sidley & Austin in 1989 and Hopkins & Sutter in 1990. After graduating with a Juris Doctor (J.D.) magna cum laude from Harvard in 1991, he returned to Chicago.

Obama’s election as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review gained national media attention and led to a publishing contract and advance for a book about race relations. In an effort to recruit him to their faculty, the University of Chicago Law School provided Obama with a fellowship and an office to work on his book. He originally planned to finish the book in one year, but it took much longer as the book evolved into a personal memoir. In order to work without interruptions, Obama and his wife, Michelle, traveled to Bali where he wrote for several months. The manuscript was finally published in mid-1995 as Dreams from My Father.

Obama directed Illinois’s Project Vote from April to October 1992, a voter registration drive with a staff of ten and seven hundred volunteers; it achieved its goal of registering 150,000 of 400,000 unregistered African Americans in the state, and led to Crain’s Chicago Business naming Obama to its 1993 list of “40 under Forty” powers to be.

Obama served for twelve years as a professor at the University of Chicago Law School, teaching constitutional law. He was first classified as a Lecturer from 1992 to 1996, and then as a Senior Lecturer from 1996 to 2004. He also joined Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland, a twelve-attorney law firm specializing in civil rights litigation and neighborhood economic development, where he was an associate for three years from 1993 to 1996, then of counsel from 1996 to 2004, with his law license becoming inactive in 2002.

Obama was a founding member of the board of directors of Public Allies in 1992, resigning before his wife, Michelle, became the founding executive director of Public Allies Chicago in early 1993. He served from 1994 to 2002 on the board of directors of the Woods Fund of Chicago, which in 1985 had been the first foundation to fund the Developing Communities Project, and also from 1994 to 2002 on the board of directors of The Joyce Foundation. Obama served on the board of directors of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge from 1995 to 2002, as founding president and chairman of the board of directors from 1995 to 1999. He also served on the board of directors of the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the Center for Neighborhood Technology, and the Lugenia Burns Hope Center.

Political career

Obama was elected to the Illinois Senate in 1996, succeeding State Senator Alice Palmer as Senator from Illinois’s 13th District, which then spanned Chicago South Side neighborhoods from Hyde Park-Kenwood south to South Shore and west to Chicago Lawn. Once elected, Obama gained bipartisan support for legislation reforming ethics and health care laws. He sponsored a law increasing tax credits for low-income workers, negotiated welfare reform, and promoted increased subsidies for childcare. In 2001, as co-chairman of the bipartisan Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, Obama supported Republican Governor Ryan’s payday loan regulations and predatory mortgage lending regulations aimed at averting home foreclosures.

Obama was reelected to the Illinois Senate in 1998, defeating Republican Yesse Yehudah in the General Election, and reelected again in 2002. In 2000, he lost a Democratic primary run for the U.S. House of Representatives to four-term incumbent Bobby Rush by a margin of two to one.

In January 2003, Obama became chairman of the Illinois Senate’s Health and Human Services Committee when Democrats, after a decade in the minority, regained a majority. He sponsored and led unanimous, bipartisan passage of legislation to monitor racial profiling by requiring police to record the race of drivers they detained and legislation making Illinois the first state to mandate videotaping of homicide interrogations. During his 2004 general election campaign for U.S. Senate, police representatives credited Obama for his active engagement with police organizations in enacting death penalty reforms. Obama resigned from the Illinois Senate in November 2004 following his election to the U.S. Senate.

2004 U.S. Senate campaign

In mid-2002, Obama began considering a run for the U.S. Senate; he enlisted political strategist David Axelrod that fall and formally announced his candidacy in January 2003. Decisions by Republican incumbent Peter Fitzgerald and his Democratic predecessor Carol Moseley Braun not to contest the race launched wide-open Democratic and Republican primary contests involving fifteen candidates. Obama’s candidacy was boosted by Axelrod’s advertising campaign featuring images of the late Chicago Mayor Harold Washington and an endorsement by the daughter of the late Paul Simon, former U.S. Senator for Illinois. He received over 52% of the vote in the March 2004 primary, emerging 29% ahead of his nearest Democratic rival.

In July 2004, Obama wrote and delivered the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, Massachusetts. After describing his maternal grandfather’s experiences as a World War II veteran and a beneficiary of the New Deal’s FHA and G.I. Bill programs, Obama spoke about changing the U.S. government’s economic and social priorities. He questioned the Bush administration’s management of the Iraq War and highlighted America’s obligations to its soldiers. Drawing examples from U.S. history, he criticized heavily partisan views of the electorate and asked Americans to find unity in diversity, saying, “There is not a liberal America and a conservative America; there’s the United States of America.” Though it was not televised by the three major broadcast news networks, a combined 9.1 million viewers watching on PBS, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News and C-SPAN saw Obama’s speech, which was a highlight of the convention and confirmed his status as the Democratic Party’s brightest new star.

Obama’s expected opponent in the general election, Republican primary winner Jack Ryan, withdrew from the race in June 2004. Two months later and less than three months before Election Day, Alan Keyes accepted the Illinois Republican Party’s nomination to replace Ryan. A long-time resident of Maryland, Keyes established legal residency in Illinois with the nomination. In the November 2004 general election, Obama received 70% of the vote to Keyes’s 27%, the largest victory margin for a statewide race in Illinois history.

U.S. Senator: 2005–2008

Obama was sworn in as a senator on January 4, 2005. Obama was the fifth African-American Senator in U.S. history, and the third to have been popularly elected. He was the only Senate member of the Congressional Black Caucus. CQ Weekly, a nonpartisan publication, characterized him as a “loyal Democrat” based on analysis of all Senate votes in 2005–2007, and the National Journal ranked him as the “most liberal” senator based on an assessment of selected votes during 2007. In 2005 he was ranked sixteenth, and in 2006 he was ranked tenth. In 2008, Congress.org ranked him as the eleventh most powerful Senator. Obama announced on November 13, 2008 that he would resign his senate seat on November 16, 2008, before the start of the lame-duck session, to focus on his transition period for the presidency. This enabled him to avoid the conflict of dual roles as President-elect and Senator in the lame duck session of Congress, which no sitting member of Congress had faced since Warren Harding.

Legislation

Obama voted in favor of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and cosponsored the Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act. In September 2006, Obama supported a related bill, the Secure Fence Act.Obama introduced two initiatives bearing his name: Lugar–Obama, which expanded the Nunn–Lugar cooperative threat reduction concept to conventional weapons,[75] and the Coburn–Obama Transparency Act, which authorized the establishment of USAspending.gov, a web search engine on federal spending. On June 3, 2008, Senator Obama, along with Senators Thomas R. Carper, Tom Coburn, and John McCain, introduced follow-up legislation: Strengthening Transparency and Accountability in Federal Spending Act of 2008.

Obama sponsored legislation that would have required nuclear plant owners to notify state and local authorities of radioactive leaks, but the bill failed to pass in the full Senate after being heavily modified in committee. Obama is not hostile to Tort reform and voted for the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005 and the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 which grants immunity from civil liability to telecommunications companies complicit with NSA warrantless wiretapping operations.

In December 2006, President Bush signed into law the Democratic Republic of the Congo Relief, Security, and Democracy Promotion Act, marking the first federal legislation to be enacted with Obama as its primary sponsor. In January 2007, Obama and Senator Feingold introduced a corporate jet provision to the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act, which was signed into law in September 2007. Obama also introduced Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Prevention Act, a bill to criminalize deceptive practices in federal elections and the Iraq War De-Escalation Act of 2007, neither of which have been signed into law.

Later in 2007, Obama sponsored an amendment to the Defense Authorization Act adding safeguards for personality disorder military discharges. This amendment passed the full Senate in the spring of 2008. He sponsored the Iran Sanctions Enabling Act supporting divestment of state pension funds from Iran’s oil and gas industry, which has not passed committee, and co-sponsored legislation to reduce risks of nuclear terrorism. Obama also sponsored a Senate amendment to the State Children’s Health Insurance Program providing one year of job protection for family members caring for soldiers with combat-related injuries.

2008 Presidential campaign

On February 10, 2007, Obama announced his candidacy for President of the United States in front of the Old State Capital building in Springfield, Illinois. The choice of the announcement site was symbolic because it was also where Abraham Lincoln delivered his historic “House Divided” speech in 1858. Throughout the campaign, Obama emphasized the issues of rapidly ending the Iraq War, increasing energy independence, and providing universal health care.

During both the primary process and the general election, Obama’s campaign set numerous fundraising records, particularly in the quantity of small donations. On June 19, Obama became the first major-party presidential candidate to turn down public financing in the general election since the system was created in 1976.

A large number of candidates initially entered the Democratic Party presidential primaries. After a few initial contests, the field narrowed to a contest between Obama and Senator Hillary Clinton, with each winning some states and the race remaining close throughout the primary process. On May 31, the Democratic National Committee agreed to seat all of the disputed Michigan and Florida delegates at the national convention, each with a half-vote, narrowing Obama’s delegate lead. On June 3, with all states counted, Obama passed the threshold to become the presumptive nominee. On that day, he gave a victory speech in St. Paul, Minnesota. Clinton suspended her campaign and endorsed him on June 7. From that point on, he campaigned for the general election race against Senator John McCain, the Republican nominee.

On August 23, 2008, Obama selected Delaware Senator Joe Biden as his vice presidential running mate. At the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado, Obama’s former rival Hillary Clinton gave a speech in support of Obama’s candidacy and later called for Obama to be nominated by acclamation as the Democratic presidential candidate. On August 28, Obama delivered a speech to the 84,000 supporters in Denver. During the speech, which was viewed by over 38 million people worldwide, he accepted his party’s nomination and presented his policy goals.

After McCain was nominated as the Republican presidential candidate, there were three presidential debates between Obama and McCain in September and October 2008. In November, Obama won the presidency with 53% of the popular vote and a wide electoral college margin. His election sparked street celebrations in numerous cities in the United States and abroad.

President-elect of the United States

On November 4, 2008, Barack Obama defeated John McCain in the general election with 365 electoral votes to McCain’s 173 and became the first African American to be elected President of the United States. In his victory speech, delivered before a crowd of hundreds of thousands of his supporters in Chicago’s Grant Park, Obama proclaimed that “change has come to America”.

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General David Petraeus Arrives in Islamabad

ISLAMABAD: US Central Command (CENTCOM) chief General David Petraeus arrived in Islamabad today (Tuesday), on a two-day visit to help defuse India-Pakistan military tensions and discuss cooperation in the on-going war on terror.

According to the sources he will meet civilian and military leaders of Pakistan. The US leader will get information about the post-Mumbai military build-up between India and Pakistan and its impact on Pakistan’s efforts in the war on terror.

He would also discuss the situation in Afghanistan.

It is General Petraeus’ second visit to Pakistan since he assumed the office last year. It comes on the day when the new US administration is being sworn-in in Washington.

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Ajmal Kasab Remand Extended Till February 02

MUMBAI: A court extended police remand of Mumbai attack culprit Ajmal Amir Kasab by 14 days till February 02, an Indian television said on Monday. Kasab, who had no legal representative, was not produced in the court by police citing security reasons


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FM Qureshi Briefs Foreign Envoys in Islamabad

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi Monday said Pakistan knows its importance in the region and working for peace in the region.

In a briefing to foreign ambassadors in Islamabad at the Foreign Office in Islamabad, the foreign minister informed the envoys about the Indian propaganda campaign and rhetoric against Pakistan.

“The world would have to treat Pakistan on equal footings if it wants peace in the region,” he told the ambassadors.

Interior Advisor Rehman Malik was also present during the briefing.

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Sharif Brothers Eligibility Case Hearing Today

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court will resume hearing appeals with regard to formation of a larger bench of the apex court in Sharif brothers eligibility case.

The appeals were filed by the centre, the Punjab government and other people against a Lahore High Court (LHC) order disqualifying Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz chief Nawaz Sharif from contesting polls and allowing his brother to continue as the Punjab chief minister conditionally.

A three-member bench of Justice Muhammad Moosa Leghari, Justice Syed Sakhi Hussain Bukhari and Justice Sheikh Hakim Ali will hear arguments by AK Dogar – a lawyer representing Shakil Baig, who proposed Nawaz’s name for a by-election.

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Drone attacks could harm terror war: Kiyani

RAWALPINDI: Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Pervez Kiyani Monday expressed deep concerns over US drone attacks inside Pakistani territory, saying such incidents could assist terrorist elements and harm the war on terror.

In a meeting with British Defence Minister John Hutton who called on him here, he said the drone attacks in Pakistani tribal areas must be halted.

The UK minister stressed the need to chalk out joint strategy for a successful anti terror war.

The two leaders discussed Pak-India tension following the Mumbai attacks, and also agreed on enhancing bilateral cooperation in defence sector.

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GAZA: Israeli forces started to implement a unilateral ceasefire in the Gaza Strip early Sunday after a 22-day fierce offensive on the Hamas-ruled area.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert declared a unilateral ceasefire in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, beginning from 2 a.m. (0000 GMT) Sunday. The declaration came shortly after Israeli
security cabinet voted in favor of a unilateral ceasefire in Gaza, where Israel forces Cast Lead Operation had been going on in the past three weeks, killing around 1,300 Palestinians.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert declared the truce, beginning from 2 a.m. (0000 GMT) Sunday, saying the goals of the operation in Gaza had been "met in full."

"We reached all of our objectives in Gaza," Olmert told a press conference in Tel Aviv, adding Hamas has been dealt a heavy blow by Israel Defense Forces (IDF), and Hamas leaders are now in hiding.

But he ordered troops to remain in the enclave and return fire if they came under attack.

Minutes after Olmert declared the unilateral ceasefire in Gaza, Hamas movement's armed wing
al-Qassam Brigades sent a statement to reporters, saying they will "continue resistance as long as the occupation of Gaza continues and the blockade is imposed."

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Israel Cabinet To Weigh Gaza Ceasefire Today

JERUSALEM: The Israeli security cabinet is to convene today to decide on an Egyptian proposal for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, while Israeli bombardment was continuing on Friday.

Israel now is under huge pressure as feverish diplomacy in the past week calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, where more than 1,150 Palestinians have been killed and thousands wounded in three weeks of war.

The Israeli cabinet will examine the result of negotiations in Cairo with Egyptian officials, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor told media late Friday.

Israel said on Friday its military actions could be "in the final act." "Hopefully, we're in the final act," Olmert's spokesman Mark Regev said.

Meanwhile, Israeli prime minister's office released a statement saying "significant progress was made during talks Israeli officials held with the Egyptian intelligence chief."

The statement was released shortly after Amos Gilad, head of the Israeli Defense Ministry's Diplomatic-Security Bureau, returned home from Cairo and briefed Defense Minister Ehud Barak on the discussions.

Asked about a report by local daily that Israeli cabinet will vote on Saturday over whether to enact a "unilateral ceasefire" with Hamas in Gaza, Palmor said "I can not confirm the report at this point."

President Hosni Mubarak has presented a three-point proposal, that calls for an immediate ceasefire for a limited period to allow humanitarian aid to reach Gaza, home to 1.5 million Palestinians, and give Egypt time to continue its efforts to help reach a lasting truce.

Egypt would invite both Israel and the Palestinians for negotiations and help resume inter-Palestinian reconciliation talks, according to the proposal.

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Obama Warns Tough Ahead

BEDFORD HEIGHTS: President-elect Barack Obama Friday warned of a “tough year” ahead and a recession that will linger for much longer unless Congress takes “dramatic” action on his mammoth stimulus plan.

Four days before he is sworn in as president, Obama traveled to economically bereft Ohio, using a factory that supplies the growing wind power industry as a metaphor for his plans to ignite growth through alternative energy.

“If nothing is done, and we continue on our current path, this recession could linger for years,” Obama told a small audience on a grimy factory floor in Bedford Heights, just outside Cleveland.

“It’s not too late to change course — but only if we take dramatic action as soon as possible,” Obama said, in his latest pitch for his 800 billion dollar plus economic package now working its way through Congress.

Later, in an interview, the president-elect anticipated a “tough year” for the economy. “I don’t think that any economist disputes we’re in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression,” he said.

“The good news is we’re getting a consensus about what needs to be done.” Obama left Washington a day after the US Senate set the stage for an early victory for the new president by freeing up the second 350-billion-dollar slice of a financial bailout, leaving the House of Representatives to act next week.

Democratic House leaders also laid out their 825-billion-dollar version of Obama’s stimulus plan, which he hopes to drive through Congress in a first jolt to the crisis-mired economy.

The president-elect said he was glad Congress had seen the “urgency” of action to act on the stimulus bill, which he hopes to have on his desk in the Oval Office by mid-February.

The package, designed to create or preserve three to four million jobs in the sinking US economy, includes billions of dollars to spark a fast track development of alternative energy industries and sources.

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David Miliband calls on President

ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari has said that the continuous warmongering statements from Indian political and military brass would further escalate the tension between the two countries.

This he said while talking to British Foreign Secretary David Miliband who called on him here at the Aiwan-e-Sadr on Friday.

During the meeting, regional situation and bilateral ties came under discussion. The President also hosted dinner in his honour.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi and UK High Commissioner to Pakistan, Robert Brinkley were also present.


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PM apprises Manmohan oF Pak Probe Findings

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani has apprised his Indian counterpart, Manmohan Singh, of the findings of the investigations being carried out by Pakistani officials in the wake of Mumbai terrorist attacks.

According to foreign office spokesman, PM Gilani wrote a letter to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to let him know about the results of investigations carried out by Pakistani officials on the basis of dossiers and other information recently provided to Islamabad by New Delhi.

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Pakistan And US Are Partners For Controll Over Terrorism: Haqqani

WASHINGTON: Pakistan and the United States will have to work together as sovereign partners to confront terrorism militarily, politically and through economic means, the country’s ambassador in Washington Husain Haqqani underlined here Thursday.

In a speech to international students and faculty members at the University of District of Columbia, the envoy also urged world support for Pakistan’s economic development and asked the incoming Barack Obama Administration to facilitate greater access for Pakistan’s textile products in the U.S. market.

He said the United States cannot solve problems without the world support and that the optimism created in the international community with the election of President-elect Barack Obama and Joe Biden needs to be reflected in the future US policies.

“President-elect Obama has selected a very experienced team and Pakistan is looking forward to working with the new administration,” he stated.

Pakistan is the second largest Muslim country in the world. It is a nuclear power and its strategic location is such that it can provide a link for the world with the Middle East, Central and West Asia and South Asia, he told the gathering.

He emphasized that Pakistan is undergoing a transition from dictatorship to democracy.
“Pakistan continues to pay the price: the legacy of dictatorship, the fatigue of fanaticism, the dismemberment of civil society and the destruction of our democratic infrastructure,” he said.

Poverty, he pointed out, continues to fuel extremism and has created a culture of grievance and victimhood.

The challenge of confronting terrorists who have a vast support network is huge; Pakistan’s fledgling democracy needs help from the rest of the world, he stated.

Ambassador Haqqani said the international community and the US can help Pakistan economically to meet its enormous challenges.

“We are one of the largest producers of cotton and yet we are not able to freely export our textiles to the United States as market access remains limited. It is important that the new administration expand market access for textile exports from Pakistan as allowing greater market access to Pakistani products will be very important for future Pakistan-US relations.”

On terrorism, the ambassador said Pakistan has been a victim of the menace. It has gone through more terrorist attacks now than seven years ago.

“It is getting the blowback effect from civilian casualties in the tribal areas.”

“Pakistan’s sovereignty must be respected by its allies,” he underscored, and added “avoiding civilian casualties in war is a great challenge.”

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David Miliband Meets With Shah Mahmood Qureshi For Current Situation

ISLAMABAD: The British Foreign Secretary David Miliband called on his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi in foreign office here on Friday.

Foreign Minister Qreshi received Miliband on his arrival in foreign. Pakistani foreign secretary, British High Commissioner and other top ranking officials are also present in the meeting.

According to sources, foreign ministers of both countries exchanging views on several issues, including a joint investigation of Mumbai attacks and ways to defuse tensions between the neighbouring countries and regional situation.

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Pakistan rejects allegations of India’s PM

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has emphatically rejected the allegations levelled by Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh that the Mumbai attackers must have had support of Pakistani spy agencies. “Instead of responding positively to Pakistan’s offer of co-operation and constructive proposals, India has chosen to embark on a propaganda offensive”, says a foreign office statement issued here on Tuesday.

Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh earlier accused Pakistani intelligence agencies of backing the perpetrators of Mumbai terrorist attacks. It will not only ratchet up tensions but also occlude facts and destroy all prospects of serious and objective investigations into the Mumbai attacks, says the foreign office statement.

Pakistan said that the approach of Indian government is fraught with grave risks and will further vitiate the situation in the region. “Only a day before, the Indian government was advised not to embark on political point scoring, but regrettably the advice was not heeded”, it added. Pakistan itself is a victim of terrorism and this pernicious phenomenon is regionally pervasive, as Pakistan has suffered more terror attacks than India, says the statement.

Rejecting the allegations, the foreign office said that Pakistan is not a state sponsor of terrorism as our civilian and armed forces causalities over the past years in terror attacks and in countering terrorism have been far more than that of India. The foreign office underlined in the statement that many South Asian states have been victims of all kinds and manifestations of terrorism.

Pakistan urged India to show restraint and stop the policy of casting accusations without uncovering full facts as investigations are still underway. Vilifying Pakistan or for that matter any of its state institutions on this score is unwarranted and unacceptable and this is a sure way to close avenues of co-operation in combating this menace, it added. It called upon India to be co-operative to uncover the full facts behind Mumbai terrorist attacks. In this regard, Pakistan awaits response to its constructive proposals, including joint investigation, a joint commission under the NSAs of the two countries and high level visit from Pakistan.

“We need no exhortations from India. Indian government is well advised to take careful stock of its own policies and conduct that are contributory to the problems faced by the region”, the statement concluded.

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Sensex tumbles over 750 pts as Satyam chief resigns

MUMBAI: Indian equities markets were reeling under tremendous selling pressure Wednesday after a shocking scam by the promoters of Satyam
Computers came to light.

Ramalinga Raju, chairman of Satyam Computers resigned from his post and confessed to indulging in fraudulent activities like inflating the books for several years. ( Watch )

Raju has written a letter to the board giving details of the balance sheet. Balance Sheet has inflated cash balances of Rs 5040 crore and accrued interest of Rs 376 crore is non-existent. Rs 1230 crore was arranged to Satyam and is not reflected in the books. As per the revelations, second Quarter numbers were inflated to Rs 2700 crore vs Rs 2112 crore actual numbers. No board member had any knowledge of the real situation of the books. ( Watch )

Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensex breached support of 10,000 mark. At 1:45 pm, Sensex was at 9564, down about 772 points.

National Stock Exchange’s Nifty was at 2908, down about 200 points.

Satyam Computers (-61.42%), Jaiprakash Associates (-13.24%), Reliance Communications (-10.91%), DLF (-10.29%) and Reliance Infrastructure (-8.11%) were the major Sensex losers.

Tata Steel (1.32%), Infosys Technologies (0.21%) and Maruti Suzuki (0.20%) were the only gainers.

Market breadth was negative on the BSE with 1670 losers and 541 advances.

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