| US to reduce projects in Pak Posted: 03 Jun 2011 08:30 PM PDT 
Washington—The US will cut the number of projects it funds in Pakistan by two-thirds as it seeks to focus its civilian assistance more tightly in the wake of the killing of Osama bin Laden, according to US officials. A top US official told the Financial Times that the US would slim its civilian aid programme in Pakistan to target 50 projects, down from 160 projects. Emphasis would be put on achieving maximum visibility to help counter strong anti- American sentiment across Pakistan, inflamed by what many see as an attack on Pakistan' s sovereignty by the covert raid on the al-Qaeda leader. "A slash of assistance is not on the cards, unless there is another big surprise like Bin Laden' s whereabouts," said the US official. "There is a lot of money in a lot of places. Aid is in a diffused state. We can say great things about what we are doing in Baluchistan and Sindh provinces, but you don' t see it." US civilian assistance, boosted in 2009 by the authorisation of $7.5bn over five years, is to be funnelled towards projects in high impact sectors such as energy, education, open democracy, the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and job creation. It would be subject to more rigorous monitoring, and streamlined to assure quicker transfer of money to Pakistan. The reshaping of the aid programme coincides with a greater role for Marc Grossman, Washington' s envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan. He replaced the late Richard Holbrooke, whose expansive style led to a proliferation of aid programmes. "Holbrooke was a floodlight," said the US official explaining the different approaches of the two diplomats. "Grossman is a laser". The recalibration also comes as senior politicians in the US question the scale of assistance to Pakistan amid persistent doubts about its willingness and ability to combat Islamist militants striking targets within Afghanistan and Pakistan. Pakistan' s leaders, however, insist that it has suffered far greater casualties than Nato in a conflict that now threatens civil war in their own country. They claim to have lost 35,000 people to the fight in the past decade. The US is seeking ways to recover from a severe loss of confidence in Pakistan this year. The relationship has suffered what US officials describe as double "crises" of the arrest of Raymond Davis, a Central Intelligence Agency operative, in Lahore and the discovery, and subsequent killing, of Bin Laden in a garrison city, 50km from Islamabad, Pakistan' s capital. The US' s top priority is to rebuild its intelligence sharing with Pakistan. Thereafter, it is concentrating on improved military to military contacts and a more effective aid programme. Some US analysts predict a radical reassessment of US aid flows to Pakistan, including tougher conditionality. Richard Haass, the president of the Washington-based US Council on Foreign Relations, said more "scruple" would be attached to signing off money to Pakistan, as the US was "disappointed" by the level of co-operation it had received.—INP |
| Worst ever outbreak of HUS kidney disease: expert Posted: 03 Jun 2011 08:26 PM PDT 
PARIS: The deadly kidney disease reported in a quarter of the recent E coli cases in Germany and 11 other nations is the worst ever outbreak of haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS), a top expert said. "This is the largest epidemic of HUS to have occurred anywhere in the world," said Francois- Xavier Weill, head of France's National Reference Centre for Escherichia coli (E coli). More than 550 cases of the kidney-wrecking condition have been reported since the outbreak in northern Germany of a virulent strain of enterohaemorrhagic E coli (EHEC), according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). Twelve of these HUS cases -- eleven in Germany and one in Sweden -- have proven fatal as of midday yesterday, the ECDC said. More than 2,000 people are known to have been infected by the rogue bacteria, whose origins continue to elude German and international health officials. "Until we have discovered exactly what food stuff is responsible and withdrawn it, there will be new cases. Finding it is the absolute priority," Weill told AFP yesterday in an interview. Weill confirmed that the culprit strain of E coli identified independently by several laboratories -- while exceedingly rare -- is not "entirely new" as claimed by a Chinese laboratory that sequenced the genome in cooperation with a German hospital. |
| 20 injured in grenade attack at Karachi hotel Posted: 03 Jun 2011 08:25 PM PDT 
KARACHI: At least 20 people were injured today after unidentified miscreants lobbed hand grenades at a hotel in this southern port city, police said. At least four men came to the hotel on the busy Napier road and threw grenades causing explosions and damage to the building, leaving around 20 people injured who were rushed to different hospitals for treatment, they said. "The condition of three of the injured is precarious," a police official said. The explosion in the hotel also damaged a gas pipeline and panic spread in the area when gas and smoke started leaking out profusely. "The incident took place around midnight at the hotel on Thakkar road which is frequented by people till late in the night. Police and rangers personnel reached the spot and were cordoning off the affected area," he said. According to some media reports, the hotel also doubles as a gambling den. In the last two months, there have been two attacks on illegal gambling dens in the old areas of the city with the last one occurring on May 7 when two men lobbed grenades in Chakiwari area killing three people and injuring 21. Earlier in April in another attack on a Rummy club in the Ghas Mandi area of Lyari, 18 people were killed and 35 injured. "We suspect these attacks to be part of an ongoing gang warfare in the old areas," the police official said. |
| UN Security Council calls on Sudan to withdraw troops from Abyei Posted: 03 Jun 2011 08:24 PM PDT 
UNITED NATIONS: The UN Security Council demanded that Sudan withdraw its troops from Abyei and that it halt looting and attacks in the region that it disputes with rival southern Sudan. A Security Council statement yesterday said the Khartoum government's military operations in Abyei are a "serious violation" of a peace accord with southern Sudan. "The council demands that the government of Sudan withdraw immediately from the Abyei area," said the statement. "The council calls on the Sudanese armed forces to ensure an immediate halt to all looting, burning and illegal resettlement," it said. Khartoum government troops seized Abyei last month, escalating tensions with southern Sudan, which is due to formally declare its own independence from the north on July 9. |
| With China in mind, Agni-V test scheduled for December Posted: 03 Jun 2011 08:23 PM PDT 
NEW DELHI: India finally plans to test its most ambitious strategic missile Agni-V, with near ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) capabilities, this December after some delay. With high road mobility, fast- reaction ability and a strike range over 5,000 km, Agni-V would even bring China's northernmost regions within its nuclear strike envelope if it is ever required. The armed forces are already inducting the two-stage 3,500- km Agni-III after completion of its developmental and pre-induction trials last year, having earlier operationalised the Pakistan- specific Agni-I (700-km) and Agni- II (over 2,000-km) missiles. The Agni-V, in turn, is meant to add some much-needed credible deterrence muscle against China, which has a massive nuclear arsenal with missiles like the 11,200-km Dong Feng-31A capable of hitting any Indian city. For one, it will be quite easy to store and swiftly transport the 17.5-metre tall Agni-V by road since it's a canister-launch missile system, unlike the earlier Agni missiles. If fired from the North- East, for instance, it would be able to hit China's northernmost city of Habin. For another, Agni-V would also carry MIRV (multiple independently targetable re- entry vehicles) payloads being concurrently developed. A single MIRVed missile can deliver multiple warheads at different targets even if they are separated by long distances. "We have tested the three (solid-propellant composite rocket motor) stages of Agni-V independently...all ground tests are now over. The integration process is now in progress. We want to test the missile in December, not let it spill over to 2012," DRDO chief V K Saraswat told TOI on Friday. This came after defence minister A K Antony, addressing the annual DRDO awards ceremony, asked defence scientists to "demonstrate" the 5,000-km missile's capability "at the earliest". With a "launch mass" of around 50 tonne and a development cost of over Rs 2,500 crore, Agni-V will incorporate advanced technologies involving ring laser gyroscope and accelerator for navigation and guidance. It takes its first stage from Agni-III, with a modified second stage and a miniaturized third stage to ensure it can fly to distances beyond 5,000 km. An ICBM, incidentally, usually denotes a missile capable of hitting targets over 5,500 km away, and has largely been the preserve of the Big-5 countries till now. DRDO is also gearing up for another test of its two-tier BMD (ballistic missile defence) system, designed to track and destroy hostile missiles both inside (endo) and outside (exo) the earth's atmosphere, around this August with a new interceptor missile called PDV to add to the existing ones. Antony, on his part, said, "The interceptor missile development programme has taken India into an elite club of nations that possess the capability to demonstrate and deploy missile defence. DRDO should now also work towards developing a credible BMD for our country." |
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