Scrutiny of NA Secretariat employees starts

Staff Report

ISLAMABAD: Several employees of the National Assembly (NA) Secretariat have bogus educational degrees; the Establishment branch has asked the entire staff to submit photocopies of their educational documents, SAMAA reported Thursday.

According to a notification issued by NA Section Officer Arshad Mansoor-ul-Haq, all the employees have been requested to submit their educational documents before October 20.

The total number of employees in NA secretariat is 1,450; sources told SAMAA that several among them have fake degrees. SAMAA

Obama to address US on Iraq transition

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama must walk a fine line in a speech on Tuesday night as he highlights progress toward winding down the war in Iraq while trying to avoid any perception of a “Mission Accomplished” moment.

The White House says the removal of all but 50,000 U.S. troops and the declaration of the end to the combat phase shows Obama is fulfilling a campaign promise he made in 2008 to pull out of Iraq.

Obama hopes that message will resonate with Americans ahead of the November 2 elections, where his Democrats are struggling to keep their dominance in the Congress.

The address, scheduled for 8 p.m. EDT, will be only his second from the Oval Office. Obama also used the high-profile venue in June to discuss his administration”s response to the Gulf Coast oil spill.

As Obama prepared to deliver his speech, Vice President Joe Biden flew into Iraq on Monday to assure Iraqis the United States is not abandoning them.

Biden was to hold talks with Iraqi leaders amid a political deadlock almost six months after an inconclusive election in March over forming the next government.

Obama told media in an interview on Sunday that Iraqis are “going through a political process that is natural in a fledgling democracy” but he added, “we”re confident that that will get done.”

Obama plans to visit troops at Fort Bliss, Texas, prior to the speech.

India offers $20m for Pak flood affectees

NEW DELHI: India on Tuesday announced additional $20 million assistance to Pakistan which is grappling with the worst floods in recent history of the region.

The announcement by External Affairs Minister S M Krishna in the Lok Sabha comes in the wake of Pakistan’s readiness to accept India’s initial aid offer of $ 5 million which is to be routed through the United Nations.

“As a more concrete assessment of the damage inflicted by this natural disaster and the urgent needs of the people of Pakistan emerges, Government has decided to increase its assistance to Pakistan from $ 5 million, announced earlier, to $ 25 million,” he said in a suo motu statement.

Of the total aid, $ 20 million would be contributed to the ‘Pakistan Initial Floods Emergency Response Plan’ launched by the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian efforts, he said.

The balance $ 5 million would be contributed to the World Food Programme for its relief efforts in Pakistan, Mr. Krishna said.

He noted that India had offered $ 5 million aid to Pakistan during his telephonic talks with Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on August 13.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in a conversation with Pakistan Premier Yusuf Raza Gilani on August 19, had conveyed that India was ready to do more to assist the neighbouring country which is facing the worst floods in the past 80 years.

Pakistan was reluctant to accept the aid and agreed only after a nudge from the US. However, last week Pakistan conveyed to India to route the aid through the UN.

“We cannot remain unconcerned with this grave humanitarian crisis of enormous magnitude in our immediate neighbourhood,” Mr. Krishna said.

He noted that the recent floods have been described as the worst in that part of the region in the last 80 years.

According to the latest UN figures, 17.2 million people have been affected by the floods which have left 1,600 people dead.

More than 1.2 million houses have been damaged or destroyed besides widespread damage to infrastructure, Mr. Krishna said.

“All the four provinces of Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir have suffered the consequences,” he said.

Palestinian prime minister condemns killing of Israelis

RAMALLAH: Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad condemned Tuesday”s killing of four Israelis in the West Bank on the eve of renewed peace talks between the sides, saying that the shooting was against Palestinian interests.

In a statement he said that the attack came just as the Palestinian leadership was seeking to mobilise international support for its positions in the renewed negotiations, aimed at ending Israeli occupation and “achieving freedom and independence for our people.”

The Islamist Hamas movement which opposes negotiations and is the bitter rival of the Western-backed West Bank leadership, claimed responsibility for the shooting near the Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba.

The militant Hamas has ruled the impoverised and overcrowded Gaza Strip since 2007.

Conditions will set pace of Afghan pullout: Obama

WASHINGTON: The pace of a US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan will be determined by the conditions on the ground, US President Barack Obama said Tuesday in a landmark address to the nation.

As Obama formally declared an end to the US combat mission in Iraq, he vowed American forces fighting a Taliban and Al-Qaeda insurgency in Afghanistan would begin “a transition to Afghan responsibility.”

Amid growing unrest in Afghanistan, the US commander-in-chief reaffirmed US forces would begin handing over to Afghan forces next year, but appeared to temper an earlier pledge that a troop withdrawal would start in 2011.

“Next August we will begin a transition to Afghan responsibility,” Obama said in his Oval Office address, although the prepared remarks released by the White House ahead of the speech initially referred to “next July.”

He warned: “The pace of our troop reductions will be determined by conditions on the ground, and our support for Afghanistan will endure.”

“But make no mistake: this transition will begin because open-ended war serves neither our interests nor the Afghan people”s.”

There are fewer than 50,000 troops in Iraq now, as Obama switches his focus to hunting down Al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

In a major speech in December unveiling a new fast-track war strategy, Obama announced he was pouring 30,000 more troops in Afghanistan, as he groped for an exit from a conflict seen by many as a Vietnam-style quagmire.

But Obama also told cadets at the West Point military academy that the American forces would start coming home from Afghanistan in July 2011.

“Within Afghanistan, I have ordered the deployment of additional troops who — under the command of General David Petraeus — are fighting to break the Taliban”s momentum,” Obama said Tuesday.

“As with the surge in Iraq, these forces will be in place for a limited time to provide space for the Afghans to build their capacity and secure their own future.”

US troops will begin training and advising Afghan security forces with the aim of handing over responsibility for defense matters.

“But as was the case in Iraq, we cannot do for Afghans what they must ultimately do for themselves,” Obama said.

2010 highest annual US deaths since Afghan war began

KABUL: The number of US soldiers killed in the Afghan war has reached its highest annual toll since the conflict began almost nine years ago, a news agency count based on an independent tally showed Wednesday.

By Wednesday 323 US soldiers had died, compared to 317 in 2009, according to a news agency count based on the icasualties.org website which keeps a running tally.

The total number of foreign troops killed in the war in 2009 was 521, compared with 490 so far this year, the tally shows.

Two accused of blasphemy gunned down in Faisalabad

FAISALABAD: Unknown armed-assailants shot and killed two persons accused of blasphemy in District Kutchehry in Faislabad on Monday.

The deceased, Rashid and Sajid, were Christain brothers who were arrested a few days back on charges of blasphemy against Hazrat Muhammad (SAW), police said. They were ambushed and gunned down by unknown men at a local court when they were brought here for seeking their physical remand.

The two brothers and a policeman were seriously injured in the incident and rushed to a nearby hospital where the accused were pronounced dead. The policeman is said to be in a critical condition.

PU declares five more degrees invalid

LAHORE: Punjab University has declared invalid five more degrees held by a senator and four provincial assembly members, bringing the total number of degrees declared fake by PU to 11.

According to PU spokesman, the university received 358 degrees of parliamentarians for verification, of which 280 have been returned in installments to Higher Education Commission (HEC) after putting them through the process. A total of eleven degrees have been declared fake by the university, he added.

The university had marked as invalid 6 degrees out of 217 degrees received earlier for scrutiny. PU received 63 degrees second time, of which 5 were declared fake today.

HEC sent back to PU 8 degrees with additional documents that the latter had sent for being illegible.

Bomb kills NATO soldier in Afghanistan

KABUL: A Taliban-style bomb has killed another NATO soldier in Afghanistan, the military NATO said Friday.

The soldier, whose identity was not revealed, died after an attack with an improvised explosive device, or IED, in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, NATO”s International Security Assistance Force said.

The death brings to 342 the total number of foreign troops to die in Afghanistan so far this year, according to a tally. The total last year was 520.

Dubai names five more suspects in Hamas killing

DUBAI: Dubai police have named five new suspects in the killing of a senior Hamas militant at a luxury hotel in the Gulf emirate, bringing the total number to 32, an Arabic news channel reported on Friday.

Police said two of the new suspects in Mahmud al-Mabhuh”s assassination in January held French passports, another two travelled on British passports, and the other, a woman, had an Australian passport, the Dubai-based channel said. It gave the names in Arabic.

International police agency Interpol has already issued arrest notices for 27 suspects wanted by Dubai in connection with the killing of Mabhuh, a founder of the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, who was found dead in his Dubai hotel room on January 20.

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