President Zardari, PM Gilani, Kayani Discuss Security Situation

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan News: The political and military leadership of Pakistan on Thursday hailed the Indian offer of resumption of bilateral dialogue process with Pakistan suspended after the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani called on President Asif Ali Zardari here at the Aiwan-e-Sadr on Thursday evening. Later, Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani and Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi also joined the meeting.

The meeting discussed the Indian offer in detail and observed that the negotiations should not be limited to one-point agenda of terrorism. The leadership urged that the process of talks should be resumed from the point where it was suspended.

They discussed issues relating to security situation in the country and the ongoing drive against extremism and militancy.

The Chief of Army Staff also briefed the President on his recent visit to Brussels and meetings with NATO’s commanders.

The President later hosted dinner for them.

India’s IPL Faces Further Security Trouble

NEW DELHI : The opening match of the Indian Premier League in March has been shifted out of Hyderabad due to ongoing protests over the proposed creation of a new state, a top official said on Friday.

The match between defending champions the Deccan Chargers and the Kolkata Knight Riders, which was due to be held in Hyderabad on March 12, will now be played in Mumbai, IPL commissioner Lalit Modi told reporters.

Hyderabad, the capital of Andhra Pradesh state, has seen unrest over the past few weeks after the federal government announced in December that the region would be carved in two to create a separate state of Telangana.

Protesters on Thursday disrupted a Twenty20 cricket match organised by the Deccan Chargers franchise in Hyderabad.

“The first match of the IPL’s new season will now be held in Mumbai on March 12,” said Modi. “The opening match and the gala dinner the previous evening are very important for us.

“People from all over the world are coming and we are going to make sure that everything is in order. We don’t want to take any chances.

“There are no changes to other matches, everything looks fine.”

Hyderabad were due to host the seven home matches of the Chargers.

Two weeks ago, an influential right-wing Hindu party in Mumbai warned that it would try to stop Australian cricketers playing in parts of India because of attacks on Indians living Down Under.

Bal Thackeray, who heads the radical Shiv Sena party, said activists planned to disrupt matches involving Australians, like they did ahead of a Test match against Pakistan in New Delhi in 1999, when they dug up the pitch.

Two major cities in Maharashtra, Mumbai and Nagpur, are due to host IPL matches and Shiv Sena is particularly influential in the state.

Two former Australian stars, Adam Gilchrist and Andrew Symonds, play for the Deccan Chargers team. Other notable Aussies in the glitzy Twenty20 league are Matthew Hayden, Brett Lee and Shane Watson.

There has been a spate of attacks against Indian students in Australia over the past 18 months which have soured ties between the two countries.

Increased Relief Haiti Can not Bring Security

PORT-AU-PRINCE News Updates: Thousands of US Marines joined the Haiti relief effort on Monday but lawlessness prevailed on the streets with looters preying on the helpless and raiding the flattened ruins.

Doctors working with limited equipment amputated limbs to save lives while rescuers picked through debris to locate unlikely survivors more than six days after the 7.0-magnitude quake struck, reducing the Haitian capital to rubble.

US President Barack Obama proposed a joint US-Brazilian-Canadian leadership for relief efforts as the massive international humanitarian operation was still failing to bring security and alleviate the suffering of a traumatised populace, despite the arrival of more than 2,200 US Marines.

EU nations promised more than 600 million dollars in aid and reconstruction funds but Dominican President Leonel Fernandez estimated 10 billion dollars over five years would be needed to help the recovery in Haiti, which was already the western hemisphere’s poorest nation.

He warned that what was most needed was “a central authority in Haiti able to channel all the aid that is arriving.”

Obama suggested to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva that the three countries “should lead and coordinate efforts by the international community of Haiti donors and other parties,” a Brazilian government official said.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon requested 3,500 more troops and police for the battered UN mission that was trying to bring stability to the dysfunctional Caribbean state even before disaster struck.

In the stinking capital Port-au-Prince, where corpses lay abandoned under the rubble and palace gardens were turned into putrid slums, groups of survivors roamed the streets to scrounge supplies.

Troops in combat gear fired off rounds and hauled some people to the ground to try to stop the worst of the looting but the paltry security presence in the destitute city made that a futile task.

The Red Cross warned that violence by desperate Haitians was growing, though Lieutenant-General Ken Keen, the top US officer on the ground, insisted: “The level of violence we see now is below pre-earthquake levels.”

UN agencies said field hospitals and food distribution had multiplied in and around the capital.

Around 105,000 food rations and 20,000 tents were distributed Monday by the World Food Programme and humanitarian groups from neighboring Dominican Republic, a Haitian official said.

“Prices for food and transport have skyrocketed since last Tuesday and incidents of violence and looting are on the rise as the desperation grows,” the International Committee of the Red Cross said in a statement.

Officials have expressed fears the final death toll may top 200,000 — if it is ever known at all — while a government minister said Sunday that 70,000 bodies had already been buried.

As the relief effort was stepped up, US paratroopers deployed out of the main Haitian airport in waves of navy Seahawk helicopters to set up bases from which to launch humanitarian operations.

“We have seen a dramatic improvement in the efficiency and coordination of the flow of goods coming in,” World Food Programme executive director Josette Sheeran told reporters in Rome.

But conditions appeared to have barely improved for hundreds of thousands of homeless, injured and traumatized people, many of whom trawled the streets desperate for food, water and medicine.

International aid trickled in but supplies remained scarce amid the enormity of a crisis the United Nations estimates affected three million people and left 300,000 homeless.

Former US president Bill Clinton, a special UN envoy to Haiti, defended the pace of the relief effort as he visited Port-au-Prince to meet Haitian leaders and get first-hand accounts from survivors.

“No, I don’t think they were slow coming in,” Clinton told AFP as he walked down hospital hallways cluttered with injured survivors. “The infrastructure broke down, and that’s what we’re building up.”

Amid the death and desperation the life-affirming tales of survival that had provided glimmers of hope in preceding days were drying up, although an 18-month-old baby was found alive on Monday.

From Saturday to mid-day Monday, out of 30 operations performed by the French team at the General Hospital in Port-au-Prince, 28 ended in amputation.

French doctor Jacques Lorblanches said he had lost count of the number of amputations he had performed in the past 48 hours but would never forget the ghastly conditions.

“I have never seen anything like this — infected wounds full of larvae,” he told AFP. “I did my first amputation with three forceps, five scissors and a scalpel, without water, and just a flashlight to illuminate the injury.”

Emergency workers expanded their operations to battered communities outside of Port-au-Prince, including Gressier, Petit Goave, and Leogane, which were all leveled by the quake.

Pak, China Discuss Fast Evolving Security Situation in Region

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan News: An eight-member Chinese delegation headed by General Ma Xiaotian, Deputy Chief of General Staff, Peoples Liberation Army (PLA), currently on a swift visit to Pakistan for 7th Round of Pak-China Defence and Security Talks, held day-long discussions at Joint Staff Headquarters, Chaklala with Pakistani delegation led by General Tariq Majid, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC) on Sunday.

The bilateral dialogue was aimed at sharing perspectives on the fast evolving regional security situation for developing common insight into the emerging scenarios and coordinating common responses. The discussion focused at the impact of changing global security dynamics, progress in the efforts against terrorism and violent extremism, revised US strategy for Afghanistan, intra-regional disputes and posturing of involved states, and the tenuous spectre of strategic stability in the region. The discussion also focused on ETIM terrorism related threat and measures for security of the Chinese manpower working in Pakistan.

The two sides also undertook a comprehensive review of bilateral military cooperation and the progress of various ongoing defence projects, making specific proposals for mutually beneficial future collaboration in operational, training, intelligence, logistics and defence industrial fields including indigenization projects and joint ventures.

Speaking on the occasion, Chairman JCSC, General Tariq Majid extended felicitation on 60th Anniversary of China and lauded a spectacular economic progress and technological modernization to rise as a reckonable power in the global politics and global economy, playing a crucial stabilization role in many regions of the world. He termed time tested multi dimensional Pakistan-China strategic partnership as the bedrock of stability in the region and said, “as the world grows more complex and regional situation more challenging, it has become even more critical to add greater depth and dynamism to this relationship”.

Reiterating China’s solidarity and continuing support for Pakistan in meeting the challenges General Ma Xiaotian, Deputy Chief of General Staff, PLA appreciated Pakistan’s efforts against terrorism and violent extremism and stated, “we acknowledge the great sacrifices rendered by Pakistan, its people and the Armed Forces in combating terrorism, for which Pakistan deserves the praise and gratitude of the entire world, indeed the mankind”. Later in the evening, a banquet was hosted by General Tariq Majid in honour of General Ma Xiaotian and his delegation, which was also attended by senior Pakistani military officers from the three services and officials from the Ministries of Defence and Defence Production.

New York Crowd Cheers in 2010 Amid High Security

NEW YORK News: A huge crowd crammed under tight security into New York’s Times Square to witness the traditional midnight drop of the New Year crystal ball and the first seconds of 2010.

Revelers, watched by a worldwide live TV audience, shrugged off snow and rain to attend the massive annual gathering in the heart of Manhattan.

The descent of the multi-colored Waterford crystal ball marked the final moments of 2009 in a more-than-century-old tradition before a ton of confetti showered on the cheering crowd.

Partygoers on the square exchanged kisses, whooped and swayed to the rhythm of feel-good patriotic and classic songs as fireworks from Central Park lit up the Manhattan skyline.

For the security services, however, this was no time to relax.

New York is on a heightened state of alert following the Christmas Day alleged attempt by a Nigerian man to detonate explosives on a Northwest Airlines plane flying to Detroit.

Thousands of police officers were deployed in and around Times Square, backed by undercover officers, surveillance cameras, rooftop snipers, and devices able to detect radiation or biological agents.

Partygoers crowding into Times Square were not allowed to carry backpacks or alcohol and were banned from reentering the zone once they left.

Jitters increased Wednesday when police sent bomb disposal experts to check a van parked for two days in Times Square. The van was declared all clear shortly after, but not before police had evacuated the area, including the Nasdaq stock market building.

City police commissioner Ray Kelly told CBS television Thursday that the failure to detect the van earlier was “a concern.” But Kelly insisted that Times Square was “the safest area” in the city.

“There will be a big uniformed presence and lots of unseen officers in plain clothes, radiation sensors,” police spokesman Paul Browne said on Fox television. It’s “probably the most protected real estate in the city, or even the country, for that matter.”

New York State Governor David Paterson and Governor Jon Corzine of neighboring New Jersey announced their respective police agencies would step up cooperation.

“While there have been no known threats in the region, both governors agreed that extra security measures should be taken as a precaution,” they said in a statement Thursday.

The ball, which slides down a pole for 60 seconds and stops at exactly midnight, is a favorite New York tradition and is watched live on television by viewers all around the world.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who will be sworn in for a third term on Friday after a narrow reelection victory in November, pressed the button that sets the ball in motion.

This year the arrangement of crystals featured a ribbon pattern in a Celtic-style knot illustrating the theme chosen by organizers: “Let there be courage.”

Elsewhere in the city, the opulent Tavern on the Green in Central Park staged its last dinner before bankruptcy, while at Madison Square Garden, pop star Mariah Carey sang the new decade in.

The good news for security is that 2009 is on course to see New York’s lowest murder rate since data was collected with 461 homicides, compared to a high of 2,245 in 1990.

Hearing Resumed in SC After Security Clearance

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan News: The Supreme Court (SC) has resumed the hearing of appeals in connection with accountability cases here on Monday after getting the security clearance.

According to reports, Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry announced to stop hearing for some time after hearing the fire alarm, proved false later in the court.

A three member bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry started hearing the cases today when the Chief Justice heard two emergency bells after which the court room was emptied.

Other members of the bench are Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali and Justice Khilji Arif Hussain.

The Apex Court in its verdict on the 16th of this month, declared NRO ultra vires and violative of the constitution and all the cases relating to it stand revived.

Security High Alert in Lahore After Rawalpindi Terrorism

LAHORE, Pakistan News Updates: Following the terrorism incident in Rawalpindi, security arrangements have been made strict also in Lahore.

As per News reporters representative, a circular has been issued by the IG-Punjab according to which terrorists have reportedly entered in Lahore through motorway and they may target important official buildings including police department.

He ordered all police officers and motorway officials to make security arrangements more alert.

This may be recalled that security arrangements were relaxed upto some extent for facilitating the people during Eid vacations but security was again made high alert since last night.

15 Militants Killed as Troops Retake the City Gorgari

PESHAWAR, Pakistan News update: Security forces started operation against militants in tehsil Bara of Khyber Agency.

Fifteen militants have been killed and six arrested during security forces took control of Gorgari and hoisted national flag.

According to FC media cell, security forces launched key operation in tehsil Bara of Khyber Agency named “ Khokh Ba Desham” which means “ severe punishment to rival” in local language.

Indefinite curfew has been imposed in the rural areas of tehsil Bara prior to the operation whereas curfew break has been withdraw in urban areas. Gunship helicopters along with ground troops taking part in the action. Fifteen militants have been killed and six arrested during security forces offensive in Gorgari, Malik Deen Khel and Tirah Valley. Several hideouts and 12 vehicles have been destroyed during the action.

3 Militants Killed In Swaziristan Rah-e-Nijat Operation

WANA, News Update: Three militants were killed and eight others injured in ongoing operation Rah –e- Nijat in South Waziristan.

The clashes occurred between militants and security forces in Asman Manza, Makeen and Ladha areas, said sources. Three militants were killed and eight others wounded during these clashes. Security forces took control of more then 100 hideouts of militants whereas huge arms cache and explosives were also recovered and at least 600 militants have been killed so far during operation started on October 17.

Troops Enter Gorgari in Khyber Agency

PESHAWAR, Pakistan News Update: Security forces started operation against militants in different parts of Khyber Agency.

According to FC sources, security forces taking positions against militants in Gorgari in tehsil Bara and Chora Valley in tehsil Landi Kotal of Khyber Agency. Forces are using heavy artillery and armed vehicles against militants. FC sources told Geo News that fresh operation is a result of government’s policy to clear these areas from militants. The sources said local tribes welcomed security forces action.

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