China says to continue yuan reforms

 

China will continue its currency reforms and recent yuan moves are not due to Vice President Xi Jinping s visit to Washington, a top Chinese diplomat said on Thursday.

 

Vice Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai said China had constantly advanced exchange rate reforms.

 

“As for reform of the renminbi exchange rate formation mechanism, we have been always advancing reform for all these years, and in the future we will also resolutely and unwaveringly advance such reforms,” he told a news conference.

 

“But if one believed that because of a high-level visit we would make a move on the exchange rate, that would truly amount to currency manipulation,” Cui added.

 

Xi, considered China s president-in-waiting, will meet President Barack Obama at the White House next Tuesday.

 

The U.S. visit will be a major step in signalling Xi s readiness to take over as China s next top leader and run Beijing s complex and sometimes vexed relationship with Washington.
 

Top US envoy met Taliban in Qatar: Afghan official

KABUL:  Washington’s chief envoy to Afghanistan met Taliban leaders in Qatar as part of US efforts to bring the insurgents to the negotiating table, a senior Afghan official said on Wednesday.

The talks between the Taliban and Marc Grossman came in late January, after he met Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul, the official said, asking to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the issue.

“I can confirm that Mr Grossman met with the Taliban representatives in Qatar. When the president (Karzai) was in Rome, he came over to his residence and briefed him about his meetings with the Taliban,” the official said.

The US, which heads a 130,000-strong force fighting a Taliban insurgency against Karzai’s government, has made tentative moves towards talks with the hardline Islamists in Qatar, where they plan to open an office.

Karzai, rejected by the Taliban as a “puppet”, has said publicly that he supports the plan, but was widely reported to be concerned that he would be sidelined in the Taliban’s talks with the US.

Washington dispatched Grossman to Kabul last month to assure the Afghan president of a leading role once the talks get under way.

The official told AFP that during his visit to Kabul Grossman met Karzai twice and “a number of agreements were made over a number of issues concerning Taliban talks”.

He refused to give details but “our stance is unchanged: the president wants the talks to be Afghan-led and Afghan owned”, he said. AGENCIES

US senator suggests arming Syrian opposition

 

Senior Republican senator John McCain urged the United States Tuesday to consider arming the opposition fighting the forces of Syria s President Bashar al-Assad.

 

“We should start considering all options, including arming the opposition. The blood-letting has got to stop,” he told reporters.

 

McCain, who stopped short of calling for military intervention, made the remarks as he and other Republican senators were about to meet with visiting Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.

 

He also called for “a contact group, a joint coalition” on Syria but did not specify what that meant.

 

His comments came a day after the United States closed its embassy in Syria and pulled out all its staff, amid an escalating crackdown on the opposition by the Assad regime.

 

President Barack Obama shied away from talk of military intervention, however, and vowed to pursue diplomatic means.

 

Russia and China on Saturday vetoed a UN Security Council resolution condemning the violence, which human rights group say has claimed some 6,000 lives since the outbreak of the revolt almost a year ago.

 

US Senator John Kerry said the crisis in Syria was “very different” from events that led to NATO-led strikes in Libya and called for a new push to get Russia and China to back UN action.

 

“This is a very different playing field, very different set of players, very different set of possible prospects,” he said as he met with Lieberman.

 

“I think we have to approach it differently. I think we have to condemn what is happening — and we have. I think we have to work very diligently with China and Russia to see if we can move them, change their positions,” he said.

 

“I think we have to approach it as we are: thoughtfully but very clear about where our preferences lie,” said Kerry.

 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, meanwhile, held talks in Damascus Tuesday and insisted that Assad was “fully committed” to ending the bloodshed.

US expanding role of Special Forces in Afghanistan

 

A U.S. admiral said Tuesday that special operations forces in Afghanistan are preparing for a possible expanded role as American forces begin to withdraw after a decade of war.

 

Adm. Bill McRaven, the special operations commander who led last year s Navy commando raid against Osama bin Laden, confirmed that special operations forces would be the last to leave under the Obama administration s current plan, and that the Pentagon is considering handing more of the Afghan war responsibility over to a senior special operations officer as part of that evolution.

 

McRaven said special operations would combine targeting and training operations this summer to prepare for a smaller overall U.S. presence, but he stressed that no final decisions had been made.

 

“I have no doubt that special operations will be the last to leave Afghanistan,” McRaven told a Washington audience, though he said he did not expect their numbers to rise.

 

“As far as anything beyond that, we re exploring a lot of options,” he said.

 

The White House is considering handing the entire Afghan campaign back to special operations forces
an evolution expected to stretch well past the drawdown of most conventional NATO troops in 2014, according to multiple officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the still-evolving plans.

 

Senior administration officials have described turning the mission over to special operations forces as a possible way to provide security with fewer U.S. troops, because of their ability to work in smaller numbers and with local forces on such missions as night raids or patrolling villages. Administration officials believe that smaller presence will be less offensive to the Afghans.

 

Afghan participation in the controversial night raids against insurgents has not stopped Afghan president Hamid Karzai from criticizing them and blaming the U.S. for unnecessary civilian casualties, but U.S. officials believe his criticism will be more muted as his forces take on a greater role.

 

The administration s emphasis on partnering with Afghan forces is driving McRaven s streamlining of special operations in Afghanistan, blending the village security operations with the elite Joint Special Operations Command s terrorist-hunting cell based at Bagram, which is working on degrading the Taliban militant network with focused raids.
“We feel like we have to become not only more effective but more efficient,” McRaven said.

 

Under the current system, if the special operations terrorist hunters have five potential insurgents to hit in a given area, they will likely choose to strike a high-value target, instead of spending their time hunting lower level insurgents menacing a local village that fellow U.S. Army Green Berets are trying to secure, according to a U.S. military official.
With one commander in charge of all special operations, he could decide to clear out those lower level insurgents to secure the village, leaving the high value target for another night.

 

During McRaven s remarks at a Washington area hotel, there was an outburst from a retired special operations general who was angry at media coverage of special operations missions, such last year s raid in Pakistan by Navy commandos known as SEALs that killed bin Laden, and the recent SEAL rescue of two Western hostages in Somalia.
“Get the hell out of the media,” retired Lt. Gen. James Vaught shouted at McRaven.

 

McRaven calmly responded that avoiding media coverage was impossible in the 24-hour news cycle, and that while he objected to revealing sensitive tactics, the media could be useful, especially when reporting operations gone wrong.
“Having those failures exposed in the media helps us do a better job,” McRaven said. “So sometimes the spotlight on us makes us better.”

 

Iran tension: Western navy troops start war drills in US

CAMP LEJEUNE, North Carolina: With beach landings, 25 naval ships and an air assault, the United States and eight other countries are staging a major amphibious exercise on the US East Coast this week, fighting a fictional enemy that bears more than a passing resemblance to Iran.

After a decade dominated by ground wars against insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan, the drill dubbed Bold Alligator is “the largest amphibious exercise conducted by the fleet in the last 10 years,” said Admiral John Harvey, head of US Fleet Forces Command.

About 20,000 US forces, plus hundreds of British, Dutch and French troops as well as liaison officers from Italy, Spain, New Zealand and Australia are taking part in the exercise along the Atlantic coast off Virginia and North Carolina.

An American aircraft carrier, amphibious assault ships including France’s Mistral, Canadian mine sweepers and dozens of aircraft have been deployed for the drill, which began on January 30 and runs through mid-February.

Monday was “D-day” for Bold Alligator, with US Marines stepping on to the beach from hovercraft, near the Camp Lejeune base in North Carolina.

The American military, mindful that Marines have spent most of their time in the deserts of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan since 2001, said the goal was “to revitalize, refine, and strengthen fundamental amphibious capabilities and reinforce the Navy and Marine Corps role as ‘fighters from the sea.’”

With defense spending coming under pressure after years of unlimited growth, the Marines — which devoted a brigade to the exercise — also are anxious to protect funding for their traditional role as an amphibious force.

The exercise scenario takes place in a mythical region known as “Treasure Coast,” with a country called Garnet, a theocracy, invading its neighbor to the north, Amberland, which calls for international help to repel the attack.

Garnet has mined several harbors and deployed anti-ship missiles along the coast.

The threat of mines, anti-ship missiles and small boats in coastal waters conjure up Iran’s naval forces, but the commanders overseeing the drill, Admiral Harvey and Marine Lieutenant General Dennis Hejlik, say the scenario is not based on any particular country.

Amid rising tensions with Iran and threats from Tehran to close the strategic Strait of Hormuz, naval officers and military planners are keenly aware of the Islamic Republic’s arsenal of mines and anti-ship missiles.

When asked by reporters last week, Harvey acknowledged that the exercise scenario was “certainly informed by recent history” and that it was “applicable” to the Strait of Hormuz, as well as other areas.

Harvey also said the exercise incorporated lessons from the 2006 Lebanon conflict, when Iran-backed Hezbollah forces hit an Israeli navy corvette with an anti-ship missile.

The Pentagon opened the drill to allied forces for the first time this year, with 650 French troops among those participating.

In their AMX-10 wheeled reconnaissance vehicles and VAB armored personnel carriers, the mission of the French forces was “to land first to secure a path for the Americans,” said Second Lieutenant Chens Bouriche, a French military spokesman.

Scandal blow puts Manmohan Singh govt in danger

NEW DELHI: There is no clamor for an early general election in India, but the latest blow dealt to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over a massive corruption scandal raises the risk that his wounded government could fall well before its mandate runs out in 2014.

Singh is unlikely to quit following last week’s Supreme Court order for 122 telecoms licenses to be revoked, a deeply embarrassing ruling that accused the government of “virtually gifting away an important national asset at throwaway prices.”

According to Sanjaya Baru, a former media adviser to the 79-year-old prime minister, Singh has seriously considered stepping down at times during the turbulence of the past 12 months but has plodded on out of loyalty to the ruling Congress party.

Few really know the prime minister’s mind. Indeed Singh’s public silence on many matters is the butt of internet jokes, one of which has his frustrated dentist telling him: “You can open your mouth now, I’m your dentist.”

Even if Singh did go, he has several ambitious colleagues who could step in to lead Congress into the next elections, hoping that they can shake off the unpopularity that has closed in on the party since it won a second five-year term in 2009.

There was some rare relief for the government on Saturday, when a court cleared Singh’s interior minister of signing off on the sale of the mobile network licenses, which may have cost the public exchequer up to $36 billion in lost revenues.

Buoyed by this ruling — which kept the blame for short-changing the nation from spreading across Singh’s cabinet — the Congress party is most likely to try to limp on, just as it did through 2011.

Last year it survived the detention of a minister over the telecoms scandal, country-wide protests over corruption, flip-flopping by fickle regional parties in its coalition, and dismay over a policy paralysis as economic growth was skidding. It even blundered into an embarrassing legal face-off with the country’s army chief over his date of birth and retirement.

The question now is whether it can ride out 2012 too.

“BETS ARE ON”

Two looming events could decide that: the first is a month-long election in the politically crucial state of Uttar Pradesh that gets under way this week, and the second is the budget session of parliament in March.

“Ever since the (telecoms) scandal blew sky high in October 2010 … the regime in Delhi has acquired the traits of a rubber band that stretches and shows great elasticity but is yet to snap,” the current affairs weekly Outlook said in a cover story.

“Everyone’s waiting and bets are now on as to whether this government will survive the budget session,” it said. “The Manmohan regime may be too much of a liability for regional parties (in the coalition) to carry the burden for much longer.”

Congress is expected to fare better in the Uttar Pradesh poll than last time, when it won a mere 22 of the state assembly’s 403 seats, in part thanks to the tireless campaigning of Rahul Gandhi, scion of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty that has ruled India for most of its six decades of independence.

But if there is only a modest improvement in its seat tally, Congress will be further weakened.

This may encourage the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to go on the offensive. Coalition partners that Congress relies on for a parliamentary majority could also be tempted to desert it during the budget session in March.

If the government fails to win enough support in parliament for its 2012/13 Finance Bill in mid-March, then, under the constitution, it must resign, which could trigger a mid-term election.

“How many members of parliament want an election now? There’s no mood for it. The BJP doesn’t want one because they are not sure that they can come to power,” said one political insider, who asked not to be named. “But accidents can happen.”

One coalition partner that could be tempted by an early election is Mamata Banerjee, a firebrand who leads the Trinamool Congress party. Congress relies on the 19 parliament seats that Banerjee’s West Bengal-based party brings to the ruling coalition, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), but at times Banerjee has seemed to be its fiercest opponent and there is a risk that she could pull her support from the government.

If that were to happen, Congress may turn to the Samajwadi Party, which is expected to emerge first or second in the Uttar Pradesh election, to join and rescue its coalition.

Many in Congress see 41-year-old Rahul Gandhi as the answer to the party’s troubles. If he delivers a strong result in the Uttar Pradesh election, pressure could mount on him to take the reins of the party sooner than his current long-game plan.

“If Congress does remarkably well in Uttar Pradesh, if he can claim there’s a Rahul wave, many would say that this is one way of liberating themselves from this (telecoms) controversy,” the insider said. “The argument would be: here’s a young man bringing votes back to the party and now it’s time to give the younger generation a chance.”

No Israel decision on Iran attack: Obama

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama said he did not think Israel had made a decision on whether to launch a pre-emptive strike on Iran’s nuclear installations, a threat that has rattled the region.

Obama — seeking to reassure Americans over the danger posed by Tehran’s suspect nuclear program, and any negative side-effects for the United States — said Washington was working “in lockstep” with Israel to bring Iran to heel.

“I don’t think Israel has made a decision” to strike Iranian facilities, Obama said in a pre-Super Bowl interview with NBC.

When asked if Washington would be consulted first should Israel move ahead with those plans, he said he could not go into specifics but added that the two allies had “closer intelligence and military consultations” than ever before.

“My number one priority continues to be the security of the United States. But also, the security of Israel. And we’re going to make sure that we work in lockstep, as we proceed to try to solve this — hopefully diplomatically.”

Obama said the Islamic republic was “feeling the pinch” of ever tougher sanctions imposed by the international community, and dismissed concerns that Tehran could retaliate by striking US soil, saying such a strike was unlikely.

“I’ve been very clear — we’re going to do everything we can to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon and creating a nuclear arms race in a volatile region,” he said.

“We have mobilized the international community, in a way that is unprecedented. They are feeling the pinch. They are feeling the pressure,” he said.

Iran maintains that its nuclear program is for strictly peaceful purposes.

On whether Tehran could possibly strike US targets, Obama said: “We don’t see any evidence they have those intentions or capabilities.”

He added: “Again, our goal is to resolve this diplomatically. That would be preferable. We’re not going to take options off the table, though.”

Last week, a Washington Post opinion column said US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta believes there is a “strong likelihood” that Israel will strike Iran’s nuclear installations this spring.

When asked about the newspaper’s article by reporters traveling with him to a NATO meeting in Brussels, Panetta brushed it aside.

“I’m not going to comment on that. (…) Israel indicated they’re considering this (a strike), we’ve indicated our concerns,” he said.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman was due in Washington on Monday, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit the United States in early March, though a meeting between Netanyahu and Obama was not yet confirmed.

In the interview with NBC, Obama cautioned that “any kind of additional military activity inside the Gulf is disruptive. And has a big effect on us. It can affect oil prices.” AGENCIES

Dera Murad Jamali: Railway track blown up

 

As per details, unknown miscreants planted explosives material under a bridge to damage the track.

 

After the incident, law enforcement agencies reached the spot and cordoned off the area.
 

‘US drones kill rescuers, mourners, children’

 

The civilians who had gone to help rescue victims or were attending funerals were targeted by US drones, an investigation by the Bureau for the Sunday Times revealed.

 

The findings are published just days after President Obama claimed that the drone campaign in Pakistan was a ‘targeted, focused effort’ that ‘has not caused a huge number of civilian casualties.’

 

Speaking publicly for the first time on the controversial CIA drone strikes, Obama claimed last week they are used strictly to target terrorists, rejecting what he called ‘this perception we’re just sending in a whole bunch of strikes willy-nilly’.

 

‘Drones have not caused a huge number of civilian casualties’, he told a questioner at an on-line forum. ‘This is a targeted, focused effort at people who are on a list of active terrorists trying to go in and harm Americans’.

 

But research by the Bureau found that since Obama took office three years ago, between 282 and 535 civilians have been credibly reported as killed including more than 60 children. A three month investigation including eye witness reports has found evidence that at least 50 civilians were killed in follow-up strikes when they had gone to help victims. More than 20 civilians have also been attacked in deliberate strikes on funerals and mourners. The tactics have been condemned by leading legal experts.

 

Although the drone attacks were started under the Bush administration in 2004, they have been stepped up enormously under Obama.

 

There have been 260 attacks by unmanned Predators or Reapers in Pakistan by Obama’s administration – averaging one every four days. Because the attacks are carried out by the CIA, no information is given on the numbers killed.

 

Administration officials insist that these covert attacks are legal. John Brennan, the president’s top counterterrorism adviser, argues that the US has the right to unilaterally strike terrorists anywhere in the world, not just what he called ‘hot battlefields’.

 

‘Because we are engaged in an armed conflict with al-Qaeda, the United States takes the legal position that, in accordance with international law, we have the authority to take action against al-Qaeda and its associated forces,’ he told a conference at Harvard Law School last year. ‘The United States does not view our authority to use military force against al-Qaeda as being restricted solely to”hot” battlefields like Afghanistan.’

 

But some international law specialists fiercely disagree, arguing that the strikes amount to little more than state-sanctioned extra-judicial executions and questioning how the US government would react if another state such as China or Russia started taking such action against those they declare as enemies.
 

Taliban willing to begin talks: Mullah Omar writes to Obama

WASHINGTON: The White House received a letter last year purported to come directly from Mullah Omar, the reclusive leader of the Taliban, asking the United States to deliver militant prisoners whose transfer is now at the heart of the Obama administration’s bid to broker peace in Afghanistan.

The unusual message kicked off a debate within the administration about whether it was truly authored by the mysterious one-eyed preacher believed to be directing the Taliban from hiding — and its meaning for U.S. efforts to forge a negotiated end to America’s longest war.

“As we have engaged various interlocutors as part of the reconciliation process, we have received a variety of messages that were represented as being from senior members of the Taliban,” an administration official said on condition of anonymity.

“However, we haven’t received a letter that we are certain is from Mullah Omar.”

The message reportedly expressed impatience that the White House had not yet transferred five former senior Taliban officials out of Guantanamo Bay military prison.

U.S. officials have been considering moving the detainees to Afghan custody in the Gulf state of Qatar as one of a series of good-faith measures that, if successful, could lead to talks on Afghanistan’s future between militants and the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

The accelerating efforts to set such talks in motion are a central part of the Obama administration’s strategy for leaving behind a modicum of stability as it winds down the U.S. combat mission in Afghanistan.

A former imam and mujahideen guerrilla, Omar has not participated in initial U.S. contacts focused on confidence-building measures (CBMs). But his public support would be crucial for any peace agreement if substantive negotiations can be had.

After over 10 years of war, Washington and its Western allies are announcing plans to steadily withdraw their troops amid doubts whether the chronically weak, corrupt Afghan government can confront ongoing violence.

TALIBAN INTENTIONS UNCLEAR
The Taliban has been able to survive – indeed flourish in some areas – in part because it has been able to slip across Afghanistan’s porous eastern border to rest and rearm.

According to a recent secret report produced by NATO, Taliban detainees in Afghanistan remain convinced they will retake the country when the foreign force of about 130,000 soldiers goes home.

Last month, the Taliban made a surprise announcement it would open a political office in Qatar, suggesting the group may have moderated and would be willing to engage in negotiations that would likely give it government positions or official control over much of its historical southern heartland.

But it is unclear whether the Taliban is truly interested in entertaining authentic political negotiations, or simply wants to recover its prisoners.

The impact of the letter on U.S. reconciliation efforts, headed by Obama’s special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Marc Grossman, is likewise uncertain.

The administration official said the Obama administration was “skeptical” the letter was actually from Mullah Omar. “There’s no signature. However, it expresses views consistent with what Taliban interlocutors have told us all along.”

U.S. officials say no decision has been made to go ahead with the transfer, but the White House is already facing pushback from members of Congress who warn that transferred detainees could rejoin the fight.

While Congress does not have the power to block the move, the White House might rethink such a risky move if serious bipartisan friction emerged in a presidential election year.

Other U.S. politicians note the Taliban may not be prepared to renounce the brutal tactics that characterized its government, which was toppled in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks. AGENCIES

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