US supports democracy in Pakistan: Grossman

In an interview, Grossman said Pakistan, Afghanistan and other countries all around the world extend cooperation to defeat al-Qaeda.

He said US supports democracy in Pakistan, adding that every time increasing the influence of democracy would decrease the influence of extremism.

To a question, Grossman said obviously, the way Pakistan organises its own government is its business. As far as I’m concerned, I think that the increased amount of democracy in Pakistan, more political parties, more integration of that part of Pakistan into the rest of that society has got to be a positive thing.

We’ve supported the civilian government there and the efforts they’re making politically, economically, democratically to move Pakistan forward. That decision is really for Pakistanis to make. But I think every time you can increase the influence of democracy, you decrease the influence of extremism.

The US special envoy said he was optimistic that Pakistan would support reconciliation process in Afghanistan, adding that over the past few months Pakistan has supported Afghan reconciliation process.

About the kidnapping of US national Weinstein, he said the idea that anyone would come and kidnap him I think is just outrageous. “We have not heard anybody claim responsibility for this. But what I can tell you is we have received excellent cooperation from the Pakistani authorities.”

Taliban gunned down US drone

Taliban spokesman Zabihollah Mojahed claimed that the militants gunned down the aircraft late on Saturday. Reports quoted witnesses as saying that they saw the drone catching fire mid-air and crashing into a civilian house. Earlier this week, another US drone crashed due to technical problems in eastern Ghazni Province, NATO said in a statement. But Taliban claimed the first crash as well.

The Taliban militants say they have shot down several aircraft and NATO choppers in different parts of Afghanistan over the past few months. Taliban have stepped up their attacks on US-led forces in the recent months.

Israeli air strike kills 2 Palestinian gunmen: medics

GAZA: Israeli aircraft on Sunday killed two Palestinian in the northern Gaza Strip, medics and officials from the enclave’s rulers Hamas said.

An Israeli military spokeswoman said she was checking the report.

A surge in cross-border violence over the past week prompted fears of a possible escalation into war.

Israeli raids in Gaza killed five suspected militants and four civilians last week, a declared response to firing more than 70 rockets at the Jewish state, some of them landing deep inside its cities. AGENCIES

Iran Mosque Suicide Bombing kills 38

A suicide bomber blew himself up at a mosque in the Iranian city of Chabahar Wednesday, killing 38 people and wounding more than 50 as Shiites marked the climax of Ashura, a Red Crescent official said.

An individual walked up to some Red Crescent ambulances and blew himself up, the official.

State television said three bombers took part in the attack in the main square outside the Imam Hossein mosque in the southeastern city. One blew himself up, the second’s explosives failed to detonate and he was wounded by police, and the third has been arrested, the television reported. Deputy Interior Minister Ali Abdollahi told the official IRNA news agency that there had been two explosions, one after the other. The bomb attack came on the eve of the final day of Ashura, one of the high points of the Shiite calendar when large crowds of worshippers gather in mosques across Iran.

Unlike most of Iran, Sistan-Baluchestan province where Chabahar is situated has a significant Sunni community and has seen persistent unrest in recent years by the Sunni militant group Jundallah (Soldiers of God). There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Wednesday’s bombing but over the past decade, Jundallah claimed many deadly attacks on Iranian security forces as well as assaults that have led to civilian deaths. In July, it claimed responsibility for an attack on the Grand Mosque in the provincial capital Zahedan that targeted members of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards Corps and killed 28 people.

Last month, the US officially designated Jundallah a foreign terrorist organization, drawing a cautious welcome from Iran which had previously accused Washington of supporting the group.

New AIDS cases fall by one fifth in a decade: UN

GENEVA: The number of new cases of HIV/AIDS has dropped by about one-fifth over the past decade but millions of people are still missing out on major progress in prevention and treatment, the UN said on Tuesday.

In 2009, 2.6 million people contracted the HIV virus that causes AIDS, a decline of 19 percent over the 3.1 million recorded in 2001, said UNAIDS, the UN agency spearheading the international campaign against the disease.

About half of the 60 million people who caught HIV/AIDS since the start of the pandemic 30 years ago have died, added the agency.

UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe urged caution over the growing impact of prevention measures and medical treatment highlighted in the 2010 global report on the AIDS epidemic.

“We have halted and begun to reverse the epidemic. Fewer people are becoming infected with HIV and fewer people are

US envoy: N.Korea nuclear plans another provocation

SEOUL: The top U.S. envoy to North Korea said on Monday revelations that Pyongyang had made rapid advances in enriching uranium was the latest in a series of provocations over the past 20 years.

“It is another in a series of provocative moves by the DPRK … it is a very difficult problem we have been struggling to deal with for 20 years,” said Stephen Bosworth after meeting South Korean officials in Seoul, on the first leg of a tour of the region’s main powers.

A U.S. nuclear scientist revealed at the weekend North Korean officials had shown him a uranium enrichment plant, with more than a thousand centrifuges, giving the North a second route to produce nuclear bombs. AGENCIES

Pakistan rejects US drone campaign growth

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan said Saturday it would never allow any expansion in the campaign of drone strikes by the United States on its territory.

The Washington Post reported Friday that the US was seeking to expand the areas inside Pakistan where Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) unmanned aircraft — used for surveillance and to launch missile strikes — could operate.

“As for the reported suggestion by the US to carry out drone attacks beyond our tribal areas, Pakistan’s position is very clear — we would never allow this to happen,” foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Basit told AFP.

“The Americans should rather revisit their drone attack policy and stop carrying out strikes in our tribal areas.”

Washington has massively ramped up its drone campaign against militants in areas near the Afghan border over the past two months, and argues they are highly

Congo virus kills 3, infects 11 in Hazara Division

Staff Report

HARIPUR: Congo virus in Hazara Division killed three people and left another 11 infected, Trend Pk reported Tuesday.

According to reports, three patients were tested positive for Congo virus at Ayub Medical College, bringing to 11 the number of affected patients over the past month and a half.

Many patients suspected of Congo disease are under treatment in different hospitals of the Hazara Division and their blood samples have been sent to Islamabad for clinical tests. Trend Pk

Afghanistan, US in contact with Haqqani group

LONDON: The Afghan and US governments have recently made contact with insurgent group the Haqqani network, one of the most feared foes of NATO forces in Afghanistan, a British paper reported Thursday.

The government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai took part in direct talks with senior members of the Haqqani group over the summer, said the Guardian daily, citing Pakistani and Arab sources.

The United States, through a Western intermediary, has made indirect contacts over the past year, said the paper.

Talks between the Haqqanis and both countries were extremely tentative, it added.

The Haqqani network’s leadership is based in North Waziristan, in Pakistan’s tribal northwest, an area which has been targeted by a wave of US drone strikes in recent weeks.

The group is loyal to the Taliban and has been blamed for some of the most deadly strikes

Dancing Israeli soldier video goes viral

JERUSALEM: Two years after it was posted on YouTube, a video that appears to show an Israeli soldier dancing around a blindfolded and bound Palestinian woman detainee has gone viral on the Internet.

The incident, whose authenticity could not be determined independently, has drawn more than 400,000 views on YouTube over the past two days.

In the blurry, 75-second video, which might have been filmed on a cellphone, a man wearing sunglasses and the uniform of an Israeli sergeant dances to Arabic music around a blindfolded and bound woman in a Muslim headscarf and black robe.

The clip shows a mocking dance, seemingly aimed at humiliating the detainee.

According to a Palestinian woman who told Reuters on Wednesday she was the prisoner, it happened in 2007 at an army camp in the occupied West Bank, at the start of a two-year detention for membership in the

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