Weekly EHTASABI AMAL Lahore ھفت روذھ احتسابی عمل لاھور

Pakistan says NATO strike kills up to 26 soldiers By S.H. Khan (AFP) PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Pakistan accused NATO on Saturday of killing up to 26 soldiers in air strikes, protesting in the strongest terms to the US and sealing its border to NATO supplies bound for Afghanistan. It was the deadliest NATO attack reported by Pakistan during the 10-year war in Afghanistan and looked set to inflame already extremely difficult US-Pakistani relations still reeling from the May killing of Osama bin Laden. Late Saturday a spokesman for the NATO-led force in Afghanistan admitted it was "highly likely" that the force's aircraft caused the deaths. Pakistan said the attacks were "a grave infringement" of sovereignty, a "serious transgression of the oft-conveyed red lines", violated international law and "could have serious repercussions" for Pakistan-US-NATO cooperation. It called in US ambassador Cameron Munter to lodge a strong protest ahead o...

As a senior member of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, I try to visit our troops in Afghanistan as frequently as possible, especially to visit soldiers from our state of New Jersey. In every case, I listen to their views, learn about their missions, inquire about their loved ones back home and consult with their military and civilian leadership in theater. Over Veterans Day, I had the distinct honor to lead a bipartisan Congressional delegation to Afghanistan. It is important for me, and the six House Democrats and Republicans I led, to make sure that our servicemen and -women are as safe as possible in a very dangerous environment; that they have the best protection, communications gear, intelligence, and state-of-the-art medical care if they are wounded. Our soldiers, Marines, sailors and airmen and -women deserve no less. They are all volunteers. They leave their families, often for multiple deployments, to ensure that Afghanistan, a nation slightly smaller than Texas...

NEW YORK: Google Inc's co-founder  Sergei Brin  and his wife have donated USD 500,000 to Wikimedia Foundation, which runs Wikipedia and its sister sites. Brin and his wife  Anne Wojcicki  who own Brin Wojcicki Foundation have awarded a USD 500,000 grant to the Wikimedia Foundation,  Wikimedia Foundation  said in a statement.  The move is reportedly aimed at keeping the popular Wikipedia online encyclopedia free of advertising.  The donation comes after Wikimedia Foundation kicked off its 8th annual fundraiser on November 16.  "This grant is an important endorsement of the Wikimedia Foundation and its work, and I hope it will send a signal as we kick off our annual fund-raising campaign this week.  "This is how Wikipedia works: people use it, they like it, and so they help pay for it, to keep it freely available for themselves and for everyone around the world.  "I am very grateful to Sergey Brin and Anne Wojcicki for supporting what...

CNN-Pakistan's ambassador to the United States has arrived in Islamabad in the wake of alleged links to a secret offer to Washington by Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari to cut down the powers of the country's military leadership, two sources within the government in Islamabad told CNN. Ambassador Husain Haqqani has offered his resignation over the scandal, though the president hasn't yet accepted it. "I have communicated my willingness to resign or participate in any inquiry that brings an end to the vilification against the democratic government of Pakistan currently being undertaken by some elements in the country," he told CNN last week. Haqqani's resignation offer follows swirling media reports that Zardari asked Washington in May to help him hold on to power because he feared a military coup after the U.S. raid on Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Last month Pakistani businessman Mansoor Ijaz sparked the political firestorm when...

By Claire Truscott (AFP) LAHORE, Pakistan — Three months after a group of gunmen kidnapped a sick and elderly American development expert in Pakistan, police said Friday they believe he is still alive but have no leads in the case. Police in the eastern city of Lahore said they have released the only witnesses, have no crime scene evidence and cannot fathom a motive for the abduction on August 13 of Warren Weinstein. The 70-year-old country director for US-based consultancy J.E. Austin Associates was snatched after gunmen used his driver to trick their way into his room at his Lahore home just days before he was due to return to the United States. Three security guards and Weinstein's driver had been held in custody over suspicions that somebody close to him leaked details of his movements. "We kept the driver and guards for three months and interviewed them at length. We couldn't find anything from those people," special investigations officer Abdul Razzaque Cheema...

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan's ambassador to Washington, Hussain Haqqani, said on Thursday that he had offered to resign over reports that he sought US help against the country's powerful military. Haqqani, a close aide of President Asif Ali Zardari, has played a key role in helping Pakistan's civilian government navigate turbulent relations with Washington that nosedived over the US raid that killed Osama bin Laden in May. "I have offered to resign in conjunction with an offer to face an inquiry," Haqqani said, denying the reports, in an email sent to AFP. He said the purpose of this move "is to bring to an end the current controversy and allow the democratic government, for which I have worked very hard, to move on. The decision on whether I continue to serve or not rests with President Zardari". Local media reports implicate Haqqani in a memo allegedly sent from Zardari to Admiral Mike Mullen, then America's top military officer, seeking to curtail Pakis...

WASHINGTON:  Pakistan took a lot of criticism in Saturday’s Republican US presidential debate, with a leading candidate saying it was nearly a failed state and another suggesting the United States cut its foreign aid  to zero. But it is unclear whether any of their ideas is likely to be imposed on a country that has nuclear weapons and whose cooperation is seen as vital to stabilising Afghanistan as the United States prepares to pull out from there by the end of 2014. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney said Pakistan has multiple centers of power including the relatively weak civilian leadership, the military and the powerful intelligence agency known as the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate. “The right way to deal with Pakistan is to recognise that Pakistan is not a country, like other countries, with a strong political center that you can go to and say, ‘Gee, can we come here, will you take care of this problem?’” Romney said. “This is instead a nation which is ...