Snow, rain disrupt routine life in AJK

MUZAFFARABAD: After a break of four days, rain and snowfall returned to Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) on Saturday.

The latest spell of snow and downpour led to blockage of several roads, paralyzing the normal life in many parts of AJK.

The main road of Neelam Valley continues to remain blocked for the past one week.

It is feared that the continued blockage could cause temporary food shortage in the area. TrendPK

Karzai remains US partner: Gates

KABUL: Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai remains a partner of the United States, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Tuesday after harsh criticism of US military policy from the Afghan leader.

“We will continue to partner with him through this conflict,” Gates said at a Wall Street Journal conference at which he played down the Afghan president’s complaints, calling Karzai “our partner.”

Karzai called over the weekend for the United States to reduce its military footprint in his country, saying Afghans were losing patience with the continued US presence, which was worsening the war against the Taliban.

Karzai’s recent comments conveyed the frustrations of a country that has been in a state of war for decades, Gates said.

“I think President Karzai is reflecting the impatience of a country that’s been at war for 30 years,” he said. Karzai was

Indian troops killed 34 Kashmiris in October

SRINAGAR: Indian troops, in their continued acts of state terrorism, martyred 34 innocent people in October in occupied Kashmir.

According to data compiled by the Research Section of Kashmir Media Service, one civilian was killed in police custody.

These killings rendered two women widows and ten children orphans.

During the month, 324 people were critically injured when Indian police and troops used brute force, fired bullets and teargas shells against peaceful demonstrators in the occupied territory.

The troops also disgraced 18 women and destroyed 11 residential houses. Monitoring Desk

Kalam floods sweep away 8 hotels, over 300 houses

MINGORA: The worst floods and rains in living memory have destroyed over 300 houses and 8 hotels in Kalam – Swat’s badly hit area, Geo News reported Saturday.

The collapse of connecting bridge to the Kalam valley and difficult terrain has left 8000 people stranded.

Pak Army continued its rescue and relief effort today besides shifting people to the safer places.

The inflow of floodwater into Swat river added devastating force to the water flow, eroding land on both sides which resulted in the demolition of 8 hotels located on both sides of the river besides destroying over 300 houses.

Abbas resists push for direct talks with Israel

CAIRO: The Palestinian president is refusing to move to direct peace talks with Israel until it agrees to a complete halt in settlement construction and accepts a Palestinian state in territories seized in the 1967 Middle East war.

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Abbas resists push for direct talks with Israel

Australia makes bid for 2015 Asian Cup

KUALA LUMPUR: Australia has officially handed over its bid book to host the 2015 Asian Cup an event for which it is so far the only bidder.

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Australia makes bid for 2015 Asian Cup

Aafia lawyers seek 12-year sentence

NEW YORK: A US-trained scientist from Pakistan who was convicted of trying to murder US agents and military officers in Afghanistan should be sent to prison for 12 years rather than life because she is mentally ill, her lawyers said in court papers Wednesday.

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Aafia lawyers seek 12-year sentence

108 die as rains and flood batter Punjab, KP

KARACHI: As many as 108 people were reported killed during the last 24 hours across Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa as heavy downpour continued battering the province and adjacent Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), ARY NEWS reported.

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108 die as rains and flood batter Punjab, KP

Pakistani scientist lawyers seek 12-year sentence

NEW YORK: A U.S.-trained scientist from Pakistan who was convicted of trying to murder U.S. agents and military officers in Afghanistan should be sent to prison for 12 years rather than life because she is mentally ill, her lawyers said in court papers Wednesday.

Lawyers for Aafia Siddiqui, 38, made the request in a filing in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, where she was convicted in February of two counts of attempted murder in the July 2008 attack on U.S. authorities while she was detained in an Afghan police station.

The lawyers said Siddiqui was “driven” to her crime by mental illness.

“While the degree and extent of Dr. Siddiqui”s mental illness has been the subject of much discussion in this case, one thing stands perfectly clear: the victim of Dr. Siddiqui”s irrational behavior is — first and foremost — none other than herself,” the lawyers wrote.

They described her behavior in Ghazni, Afghanistan, as “bizarre,” saying Siddiqui was “cut off from any form of rational thought” by her knowledge that U.S. authorities had engaged in the torture of detainees overseas.

“Cornered in the Afghan National Police compound, and left to her own devices, Dr. Siddiqui tried, by any means available, to escape what she viewed as a horrific fate,” the lawyers said.

During Siddiqui”s three-week trial, FBI agents and U.S. soldiers testified that when they went to interrogate her at an Afghan police station, she snatched an unattended assault rifle and shot at them while yelling, “Death to Americans!” She was wounded by return fire but recovered and was brought to the United States to face trial.

Siddiqui is scheduled to be sentenced in mid-August but the date is expected to be moved to September or later.

Her jury conviction set off protests in Pakistan, where there is a widespread belief that the charges against her were fabricated.

Siddiqui, trained at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Brandeis University in the early 1990s, left the United States and returned to Pakistan after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Testifying in her own defense at trial, Siddiqui claimed she was tortured at a “secret prison” before her detention. Charges that she attacked U.S. personnel who wanted to interrogate her were “crazy,” she said. “It”s just ridiculous.”

Her lawyers said her behavior at trial demonstrated her mental illness. They noted that she declared she was boycotting the trial, rejected her lawyers” advice and subjected the court “to frequent, nonsensical outbursts.”

After trial, she refused to meet with the probation officer or her lawyers, they said.

The lawyers urged the sentencing judge to reject the probation office”s recommendation that she be sentenced to life in prison, especially since she was never charged with any crimes of terrorism.

A message left with the federal prosecutors” office seeking comment was not immediately returned.

Release of secret docs endangers Afghans: Karzai

KABUL: Afghan President Hamid Karzai says the release of secret documents have endangered the lives of Afghan citizens who have cooperated with the international forces.

Karzai said Thursday that he has ordered his Cabinet ministers to study the more than 90,000 secret U.S. military documents on the Afghanistan war posted Sunday on the Web by WikiLeaks. He called the release of papers naming Afghans who side with the NATO-led force “shocking” and “irresponsible” and said “their lives will be in danger now.”

At a news conference, Karzai says he”s particularly interested in the papers that address civilian casualties and militant and terrorist sanctuaries across the border in Pakistan.

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