Deaths in Peshawar car bomb blast

At least ten people have been killed in a car bomb blast in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, just 70km from where the military is battling Taliban forces in the Swat valley.At least 80 people were injured in Friday's blast, which took place outside a cinema on a busy road in the city, police said.Ten people were killed in the blast, but a Pakistani news channel said six people had been killed and some reports said only three people had died.A senior police official, quoted by news agencies, said only that there had been "several casualties"."The blast occurred in front of a cinema in Khyber bazaar. Casualties are feared," Ghafoor Afridi, another senior police official, was reported by the AFP news agency as saying.The cinema building was badly damaged and up to 10 nearby shops were destroyed in the blast, one witness said."There was a fear in Pakistan - among analysts and ordinary people - that any operation the army undertook in the Swat valley to route the Taliban would result in a renewed wave of suicide bombings by the Pakistani Taliban,"."This attack - if it is anything to do with the Pakistani Taliban - just goes to show how fragile and dangerous the situation in the country has become."No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.

Death of a terror group By Ayesha Siddiqa*****Zaviews*****

Members of the Sri Lankan army celebrate the success

A FEW days ago, Sri Lanka announced that the Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran was dead. This victory might not be a major milestone in the development of the Sri Lankan state and civil society, but it certainly speaks volumes for the coming of age of Colombo’s armed forces. At another level, it reflects the gradual unravelling of Prabhakaran’s Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Two years ago, had someone told Colombo or the Tamil expatriates, who backed and funded the Tamil cause, that Prabhakaran would be dead, they would have laughed. Since committing their first political murder in the early 1970s of Jaffna’s mayor and forming the group called the Tamil New Tigers (TNT), later the LTTE, the rebels had given the Sri Lankan government a run for its money. His guerilla organisation aimed to fight the authoritarian Sinhalese state that discriminated against the Tamils. (In fact, Sinhalese too were treated badly. In the 1980s, the army butchered about 60,000 Sinhalese youth involved in a leftist protest.) Formed by Velupillai Prabhakaran in 1974, the LTTE developed into a potent force that fought the Sri Lankan state for 35 years. Its notorious suicide squads, personally baptised by the leader, wreaked havoc throughout the country and in India where they killed Rajiv Gandhi. In fact, Tamil rebels carried cyanide capsules round their necks which they were ordered to swallow in case they were caught by state forces. This was also their sign of commitment to the cause. Over the years, the LTTE established control over Sri Lanka’s north and east, operating, in fact, as a de facto government whose reins were held by Prabhakaran. The Tamil rebels had their own ‘navy’ and ‘air force’ as well. From a distance all that was left was for the international community to give some formal status to Prabhakaran’s control of this territory which he had hoped might happen through the involvement of some international players such as the Norwegians in the Sri Lankan crisis.Oslo tried several times to negotiate peace between the warring parties. Prabhakaran clearly had an advantage over his enemies. He managed to become the uncontested leader of the Tamil rebels. In the end, this also proved to be his undoing. Experts believe that the concentration of power in one person and the merger of the political and military wings of the LTTE did not provide sufficient space to the organisation. Eventually, cracks appeared in the top command because Prabhakaran tried to be political leader as well as military commander, resulting in a major rift between Prabhakaran and his commander in the east Colonel Karuna. The rift was later exploited by Colombo to its advantage. Eventually, Colombo managed to squeeze the Tamil leader to the north. However, Colombo’s plans to fight its rival did not take off until it managed to build an internal consensus to defeat the Tigers and to develop its military. Historically, the Sri Lankan military was a ceremonial force. It was not until the beginning of 2000 that decision-makers focused on the need of restructuring the armed forces, introduce central planning and give it the shape of a professional force. In 2006, during a study tour ofColombo I met young gentlemen who were part of the team of experts that had been hired to establish a more professional ministry of defence that could plan for a winnable war. So, the period at the beginning of this century when the LTTE was seemingly gaining ground, also saw the Sri Lankan military building itself to fight the war. Some of the officers that I met during a trip expressed greater resolve to fight the LTTE. The above developments coincided with the regional and global resolve to push back the Tamil Tigers. Since assassinating Rajiv Gandhi, the LTTE had lost the support of the Indian government. Having lost the war in Sri Lanka, New Delhi, in any case, had lost the appetite for a Sri Lankan adventure and had begun to understand the high cost of an independent Tamil state. So, it stepped aside while Colombo procured weapons from all over, includingPakistan, to add to its firepower. Apparently, a couple of shiploads of infantry equipment and other stuff produced at PoFs, Wah, arrived in Sri Lanka every month. Nonetheless, it is important to note that this firepower could not have an impact until the greater professionalisation of the security services. In fact, during the 1990s, Colombo had tried to enhance its military capability through the purchase and use of Kfir fighter bombers from Israel that did not impede the advancing Tamil Tigers. Moreover, aerial bombardment had proved pretty useless. Some grave tactical mistakes were made by the LTTE. One major blunder was its constant flip-flopping between two positions: war and peace. The bid to attract international attention by agreeing to the Norwegian-sponsored peace initiative meant that the rebel group compromised on its war efforts. The last nail in the coffin, as many suggest, was forcing the people to boycott the presidential elections which resulted in Ranil Wickremesinghe losing to Mahinda Rajapaksa the current president, one who was found to be much more rabid in his approach towards the LTTE. Politically, the test for the Sri Lankan state begins now regarding its moral and political capacity to accommodate the Tamil population which must be quite confused and scared at this juncture. The LTTE-controlled area along with the rest of the island requires development to repair the battle-scarred areas. This is tough in a place where social sensibilities have changed dramatically. There is a serious chasm between the Sinhalese and Tamil population that can only disappear with the integration of the Tamils in the Sinhalese-dominated state. As for the region, let’s see if Prabhakaran’s death proves to be a precursor to the physical and ideological elimination of other terrorists in other parts of the region as well. The task shouldn’t be difficult because the militants we are fighting are no match for those of Velupillai Prabhakaran, who will certainly be remembered in Sri Lanka as a legend of terror.

US commander in Pakistan warning

A US troop build-up in Afghanistan could push Taliban fighters deeper into Pakistan, further destabilising it, the most senior US commander has warned.Admiral Michael Mullen, who chairs the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was speaking at a meeting of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in Washington.Thousands of Pakistani troops are already battling Taliban militants in the north-west of the country.Up to two million people in the area have fled the fighting, the UN says.

Google dropped idea of buying newspaper: CEO

Google considered buying a newspaper but dropped the idea

Google considered buying a newspaper but dropped the idea, the head of the Internet search giant said in an interview with the Financial Times published on Wednesday.Google chairman and chief executive officer Eric Schmidt said the California company had also considered using its charitable arm, Google.org, to support news businesses seeking non-profit status but was now unlikely to do so.He told the FT that Google had looked at buying a newspaper but concluded that potential acquisition targets were too expensive or carried excessive liabilities.The Mountain View, California-based search and advertising company, he said, was ‘trying to avoid crossing the line’ between technology and content.Instead, Google was working with The Washington Post and other newspapers to improve their online products and with publishers to make their websites ‘work better’ for online advertising, Schmidt said.He told the FT that ‘clever ideas’ about sheltering newspapers in non-profit structures had been suggested to Google.org but ‘are unlikely to happen without some massive, massive set of corporate bankruptcies.’US newspapers have been grappling with a steep drop in print advertising revenue, steadily declining circulation and the migration of readers to free news online.

Microsoft told to pay $200m in Word patent case

A US court has ordered computer software behemoth Microsoft to pay Canada's i4i Limited Partnership 200 million dollars in compensation for infringing on a patent held by the Toronto-based software firm in Microsoft's Word processing programs.A jury in the US state of Texas ordered US computer software giant Microsoft on Wednesday to pay 200 million dollars to a Canadian company for patent infringement. "We're very pleased," said Karen Heater, president of Toronto-based i4i, which had accused Microsoft of violating a patent held by her company in its Word processing programs."The jury heard extensive testimony, extensive evidence and they concluded -- as we expected they would -- that Microsoft indeed infringed," she told AFP. "It's been a long, drawn out process and we fell quite vindicated."Microsoft said it planned to appeal the verdict handed down by the jury in a US District Court in Tyler, Texas."We are disappointed by the jury’s verdict," said David Bowermaster, a Microsoft spokesman."We believe the evidence clearly demonstrated that we do not infringe and that the i4i patent is invalid," he said. "We believe this award of damages is legally and factually unsupported, so we will ask the court to overturn the verdict."Microsoft was accused by i4i of infringing on its patents in its Word 2003 and Word 2007 programs.A federal jury last month ordered Microsoft to pay 388 million dollars to another company, Uniloc, for infringing on an anti-piracy software patent held by the Singapore- and US-based firm.

'American Idol': Kris Allen Crowned the Winner in Finale Shocker

Tonight, in a finish that left even the winner shocked, Kris Allen, a 23-year-old from Conway, Ark., came in first on season 8 of "American Idol."The runner-up, 26-year-old Adam Lambert of San Diego, had been considered the likely winner since nearly the start of the season. His inventive performances and huge vocal range consistently won the best critiques from the judges while Kris, an assuming pop-rocker, flew under the radar for much of the season.After the results of the voting on Tuesday’s final performance episode were announced (reportedly, nearly 100 million votes were cast, a show record), Kris was basically speechless. "Are you serious?" he asked host Ryan Seacrest. "Are you friggin’ serious?" Asked how it felt to win, he said, "It feels good, but Adam deserves this."Kris ended the night in a shower of confetti, singing what will likely be his first single, "No Boundaries," which was co-written by judge Kara DioGuardi. Ironically, that was the song that most highlighted the judges’ preference for Adam after both finalists had performed it on Monday’s show. In their final comments, the judges had almost seemed to be trying to prepare Kris for his inevitable loss.

Markets fall as growth hopes fade

Global markets have fallen on concerns over the length of the downturn after Federal Reserve minutes showed it lowered its forecast for US growth.The Dow Jones was down 1.5% by early afternoon, while the UK's FTSE 100 fell 2.8%, France's Cac 40 lost 2.6% and Germany's Dax shed 2.7% by their close.Asian shares had also ended lower with the Nikkei closed 1% down.UK shares were also hit after ratings agency Standard & Poor's revised the UK's outlook to negative.The agency cited rising public debt as a growing concern, which hit a record £8.46bn in April compared to £1.84bn in the same month last year.Standard & Poor's said UK debt could be close to 100% of gross domestic product, and remain at that level in the medium term."There are concerns finally coming through about where the underlying growth is going to come from," said Justin Urquhart Stewart, investment director at Seven Investment Management."We need a growing level of demand. There's a certain amount of restocking happening, and unfortunately the market has been taking that as a sign of a recovery, which it is not," he said.

Sri Lanka plans to resettle refugees in six months

Soldiers from the Sri Lankan army celebrate their victory

Sri Lanka plans to resettle most of the 280,000 refugees who fled the war with the defeated Tamil Tigers within six months, the government said on Thursday after meeting visiting Indian officials.Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon and National Security Advisor M.K. Narayan met President Mahinda Rajapaksa, after Sri Lanka declared total victory in a 25-year war over the Tamil Tigers in which India's role has always loomed large.Sri Lanka said on Monday it had totally defeated the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), ending a war long viewed as unwinnable.During the relentless offensive, troops freed more than 280,000 civilians whom the United Nations had said the Tigers were holding as human shields.'The Government of Sri Lanka indicated that it was their intention to dismantle the relief camps at the earliest and outlined a 180-day plan to resettle the bulk of (refugees) to their original places of habitation,' a joint statement said.The Tigers had said the government planned to hold people indefinitely in what it dubbed 'concentration camps'.Sri Lanka has said it needs to keep people inside the camps long enough to weed out potential Tiger infiltrators, and the United Nations has since said the camps meet international standards aside from the limited freedom of movement.India has always paid keen attention to the war because Sri Lankan Tamils have close ties to the 60 million Tamils who live in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu, and it has had to walk a delicate line in supporting the military campaign.

Pakistani Town Fights Off Taliban as Foreign Aid Passes $200 Million

Armed residents repelled an attempt by Taliban militants to expand their reach in Pakistan's Swat Valley as foreign aid for refugees fleeing an army offensive in the northwestern region passed $200 million, officials said.The attempted infiltration in Kalam indicated insurgents are feeling pinched by an army offensive and are seeking new shelter, while the local resistance suggested growing public confidence in an anti-Taliban operation supported by the United States.Fifty Taliban fighters tried to enter Kalam, but that residents gathered quickly Wednesday to fight them off, Deputy Mayor Shamshad Haqqai told The Associated Press. Residents of Kalam captured eight militants during a shootout and were expecting another attack, Haqqai said."We will not allow Taliban to come here," he said. Kalam, a town in the far north of the valley, has about 50,000 residents and has so far remained beyond Taliban control.Washington has stepped up its pressure on Islamabad to eliminate Al Qaeda and Taliban sanctuaries across its northwestern regions bordering Afghanistan.Pakistani troops launched the latest offensive last month after Swat militants pushed into adjacent Buner district, bringing them within 60 miles of the capital.The army claims it has killed more than 1,000 militants and won back swaths of territory in Swat, a valley whose scenery once drew hordes of tourists. But it faces stiff resistance and has ventured no prediction of when the Taliban will be defeated.On Thursday, it said five soldiers and an unspecified number of "miscreants-terrorists" were killed in battles in several parts of the valley during the previous 24 hours. Seven militants were captured, a military statement said.The army's account was impossible to verify because reporters have little access to the war zone.Authorities say the clashes have prompted about 1.9 million people to flee their homes, creating a humanitarian crisis that could sap Pakistani enthusiasm for the effort if it drags on or spreads to other areas.

Russia warns of new gas crisis with Ukraine

Russia and Ukraine may be close to a new gas crisis as Kiev faces difficulties making payments, an official accompanying Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to Kazakhstan has said.Russia and Ukraine may be close to a new gas crisis as Kiev faces difficulties making payments, an official accompanying Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to Kazakhstan was quoted as saying on Thursday."If things are that bad in the financial sphere ... We could conclude that we could be on the brink of a new gas crisis," news agencies quoted the official as saying, referring to Ukraine's poor economic situation.Ukraine has been one of the countries worst-hit by the financial crisis and its energy giant Naftogaz has sharply reduced purchases of gas from Russia as a result.According to the unnamed Russian official, Ukraine's Naftogaz does not have enough funds for the purchase of gas needed for its client's summer orders and its underground reserves are depleted.He added that Russian gas export monopoly Gazprom had paid Ukraine in advance for the rest of 2009 for transit services Ukraine provides Russia for shipping gas to European neighbours."Naftogaz has already received pre-payment for gas transit for the whole of 2009," the official was quoted as saying.Putin was expected to meet his Ukrainian counterpart Yulia Tymoshenko on the sidelines of a gathering of prime ministers of former Soviet states in Kazakhstan.Close-door, crisis negotiations between the two premiers resulted in a new gas contract between the two countries that broke a January stand-off, in which supplies were cut for over a week to European clients further downstream.Over 80 percent of gas pumped via Russia to Europe passes through Ukrainian pipelines.

Myanmar bars entry to Suu Kyi trial

Myanmar has re-imposed restrictions on reporters and diplomats attending the trial of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a day after opening up the proceedings.The military government had surprised observers on Wednesday by letting people attend the hearing where she is being tried for allegedly breaching the terms of her home detention.A government official who spoke on condition of anonymity told The Associated Press that reporters and diplomats would be barred on Thursday.But on Wednesday, reporters from foreign and local news organisations were allowed into the court inside the notorious Insein prison in Yangon.

War casualties swarm to Peshawar's Red Cross hospital

An anti-Taliban offensive in Pakistan's Swat valley has hit civilians hard, displacing hundreds of thousands and killing or injuring hundreds caught in the crossfire. The Red Cross hospital in Peshawar is flooded with casualties.As civilians fleeing the combat zone in Pakistan’s Swat valley arrive en masse in makeshift refugee camps, the Red Cross hospital in the northern city of Peshawar has seen a sharp increase of patients with serious war injuries.Ismael, 9 years-old, is lucky to be alive: four of his classmates didn’t survive the aid raid that hit their school.“I was playing in the courtyard when an aero plane flew above our heads. I was scared so I ran to hide but immediately afterwards there was another plane, who shot me in the leg. I have injuries all over my body.Ismael’s right leg was amputated, and he’s afraid to go home. His family’s house was destroyed by the army. “We left many dead and wounded behind when we fled our town”, says his father.Since the Pakistani military launched its anti-Taliban offensive in the Swat valley on May 3, the doctors and emergency personnel in the region are facing a sharp workload increase. “We just performed two operations at the same time”, confides Dr. Amayu Khan.Nobody is turned away from these emergency makeshift clinics, whether they be civilians, Taliban or soldiers. “We treat everyone who is brought to us” says R. Satoma, director of the Peshawar Red Cross hospital. Soon no more beds will be available.

Sudan vows to destroy Chad forces

Sudan has threatened to destroy any Chadian forces that invade its territory.The warning on Wednesday came after Chad's defence ministry said it was planning to enter Sudan to attack rebel groups that recently launched an assault on Chadian soil.There was no sign of Chadian troops entering Sudan later in the day."The Sudanese ministry of defence pointed out it will not tolerate any aggression on the Sudanese lands, and warned that the Armed Forces will destroy any force that attempt to attack the Sudanese territories," Sudan's state news agency SUNA reported.Relations between the two countries have deteriorated in recent weeks despite both nations signing a reconciliation agreement in Doha, the capital of Qatar.

Terror Suspects Could Have Acquired Missiles Elsewhere, Analysts Say

The four men accused of plotting to blow up two New York synagogues and shoot down military planes could have procured surface-to-air guided missiles elsewhere if the FBI had not provided them with inert versions, terror analysts told."I don't know if you could buy it on Craigslist, but there's certainly a lot of people who engage in this type of contraband," Steve Emerson, executive director of The Investigative Project on Terrorism, said of the anti-aircraft Stinger missile. "They're not that big, either, so they could've been smuggled into the United States."Emerson said the 5-foot-long weapon, which has a range of 5 miles and weighs 35 pounds fully armed, could have been bought in a number of black arms markets in Middle Eastern countries, including Lebanon, Pakistan, Gaza and Saudi Arabia. The missile system could be purchased for "tens of thousands of dollars," Emerson said."It depends on the quality, how new it is, the version," he said. "It's like buying a used car. It depends on lots of factors, and they deteriorate over time."The four domestic terror suspects — James Cromitie, David Williams, Onta Williams and Laguerre Payen, all of Newburgh, N.Y. — were arrested late Wednesday after they allegedly planted a 37-pound device that they believed was a bomb in the trunk of a car outside the Riverdale Temple, a synagogue in the Bronx, and two other mock bombs in the backseat of a car outside the Riverdale Jewish Center, another synagogue a few blocks away. They also allegedly planned to shoot Stinger surface-to-air guided missiles at planes at the Air National Guard base in Newburgh, about 70 miles north of New York City.