Pakistan seeks saving formula in NATO talks

Pakistan will probably not reopen supply routes for NATO troops in Afghanistan United States unless an acceptable offer in talks to end six months of deadlock over the issue, an official said Thursday Pakistan. The official said the ruling Pakistan People's Party (PPP) had to be covered politically, considering the widespread anti-American sentiment in the country before the general elections scheduled for early next year. "It's not fair to expect a decision any country that could be politically damaging before elections," said the official, who is familiar with the negotiations told Reuters on condition of anonymity. The United States has been pressing Pakistan to reopen supply routes for NATO forces in Afghanistan in difficult conversations that show no signs of a breakthrough in the near future. Pakistan closed the routes, seen as vital to the planned withdrawal of most troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, to protest the killing last November of 24 Pakistani soldiers in a NATO air strike near the Afghan border . Higher traffic rates are the most difficult issue in the negotiations, the official said. Pakistan is asking for a rate substantially higher than the current $ 250 per container or fuel truck that crosses their borders. He said it was unclear when an agreement could be reached, without elaborating. "It could be tomorrow or it could be in two months," he said. The U.S. frustration with Pakistan deepened on Wednesday after the Pakistani authorities was sentenced to 33 years in prison for a doctor accused of helping the CIA to find Osama bin Laden on charges of treason. Shakil Afridi was charged with making false vaccination campaign, which collected DNA samples, believed to have helped the U.S. intelligence agency to track down bin Laden in a Pakistani city. The al Qaeda leader killed in a raid by U.S. special forces last May in the city of Abbottabad, which severely damaged relations with Washington, a source of billions of dollars in assistance. The extensive presence of bin Laden in Pakistan, is believed to have been there three years, despite a global search to find it generated suspicions in Washington that Pakistani intelligence officials have given him shelter. Pakistani officials deny this and say that an intelligence gap allowed bin Laden to live there undetected. Nobody has been charged so far to help the leader of Al Qaeda refuge in Pakistan. A government commission charged with investigating how he managed to evade capture by the Pakistani authorities for so long is accused of being ineffective. Apart from discussions on supply routes for NATO, Pakistan and the U.S. have been trying to resolve other differences in their relations since the raid that killed bin Laden, who humiliated the country's powerful military. Islamabad is demanding an apology by U.S. soldiers killed in Pakistani air raid on the border, but progress has been made on this issue, said the Pakistani official. "We need some kind of apology," he said. Pakistan also wants the U.S. to stop attacks drones on militants in its territory.

U.S. lawmakers approved drastic cuts in military aid to Pakistan

A U.S. Senate committee Thursday approved measures aimed at reducing U.S. aid to Pakistan because of tensions between the two countries and the conviction Wednesday of a doctor who helped the CIA to find Osama Bin Laden. An amendment proposed by Sen. Lindsey Graham to cut $ 33 million in aid to Pakistan was passed unanimously with 30 votes in favor and none against. The figure was chosen in reference to the number of years in prison he received the doctor Shakeel Afridi was sentenced on Wednesday to charges including treason, in the first instance to 33 years in prison for a tribal court for having helped the CIA to find Osama Bin Laden, who died in May 2011 by a U.S. command in the north. Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, chairwoman of the Intelligence Committee, estimated that Afridi "is not a spy." At the same time, lawmakers approved a 58% cut in aid to Pakistan if the country fails to return to allow transit of U.S. military to supply its soldiers in Afghanistan, a cut in aid to Afghanistan, 28% and 77% aimed at Iraq. In total, this bill provides finance $ 184 million for State Department operations in Pakistan and Islamabad 800.3 million, of which 50 million to fight violent extremism. These cuts are aimed at military aid only and not for financial support, which support 475 million remains intact. "If this is how Pakistan is a friend and a hero, I'm not sure these funds," Feinstein launched about Afridi's conviction. A subcommittee had approved these drastic cuts on Tuesday. Funding for international assistance amounting to 52,000 million dollars.

Facebook launches Facebook camera, a dedicated Facebook Instagram

$1 billion, 300 million in "real" money, that is what it cost to Facebook on April 10 the acquisition of Instagram , this (very) popular application, widely used (among others) on Twitter. Six weeks later, and while the company is strongly in heckled after its recent IPO , Facebook announced the availability of "Facebook Camera", an application for ... to roughly the same. The least we can say is that this raises a lot of questions and trolleurs already are having a field day. Example tweet with this fake account of a pretty good summing up the question that everyone asks (found via @ gonzague , thank you in passing)

Upload multiple filters, edition: almost all the same 

One could almost believe in a hoax, but it is not. According to the press release available on the social network, the strengths of this application reserved for iOS (for now) put forward are the ability to batch upload photos and view only the photos uploaded by friends of his timeline. The application also offers simple editing tools to resize, rotate or add filters to images downloaded. Considering that the photo part was not the most ergonomic features while Facebook is paradoxically very used (for better and sometimes worse), the announcement has more meaning. It also helps to clean up the applications developed by third party companies that were currently the only ones to offer this type of functionality to the "serial posters".

What about Instagram?

If one believes that The Verge seems well informed , both applications are intended to co-exist, at least for a given time. An internal team of Facebook was working before the acquisition of Instagram is decided, as reported in TechCrunch in June 2011 . And, according to The Verge quoting Dirk Stoop in charge of party photos at Facebook, it was essential for the social network to offer an application worthy of the name to allow network members to properly manage their photos via a smartphone, offering a user experience that far fewer low.

Anyway, Facebook camera should be available in the U.S. in the coming hours, and in the coming days for the rest of the world. And meanwhile, the question of the future of Instagram remains unanswered ...Finally, the best way to be quiet is to organize its own competition, detergent manufacturers have long understood.

U.S. drones kill ten people again

In a U.S. drone attack in northwestern Pakistan , according to intelligence Ten people were killed. The attack was directed against suspected Islamists in a village in North Waziristan, which lies on the border with Afghanistan, said the Pakistani people. An unmanned aircraft shot down at least two missiles, one building was destroyed, a nearby mosque was damaged. The recovery of the ten bodies from the wreckage was hampered by two or three drones circling over the area. Only last Wednesday, four people were also killed in a drone attack in North Waziristan. The vehement attacks from Pakistan are a strain on relations between NATO troops and the government in Islamabad. Pakistan is currently blocking vital supply routes and withdrawal from neighboring Afghanistan and most recently at the edge of the NATO Summit in Chicago, his anger made ​​air. The routes were blocked after a U.S. attack, which killed at the November 24 Pakistani soldiers were. The U.S. is unhappy with the cooperation. On Wednesday, a Pakistani court sentenced a doctor to 33 years in prison because he helped the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency here, more than a year, Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden to track down. The United States have killed the leader of the radical Islamic organization in Pakistan, without denying the military operation with the government.