U.N. seeks contact with American's captors in Pakistan

QUETTA, Pakistan (Reuters) – The United Nations appealed on Friday for the kidnappers of an American employee to make contact, saying it feared for John Solecki's health.

A hitherto unheard of militant group called the Baluchistan Liberation United Front (BLUF) has threatened to kill Solecki, head of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees' office in Quetta, unless the U.N. acts on its demands.

It wants the release of 141 women it says have been detained in Pakistan, information on about more than 6,000 missing persons, and the resolution of the issue of Baluch independence aspirations.

Solecki was kidnapped on February 2 after gunmen ambushed his car and shot dead his driver in Quetta, the provincial capital of southwestern Baluchistan province.

"The United Nations once again appeals to those having John to contact us, if not directly, then through a trusted intermediary," the U.N. said in a statement .

The U.N. said it had been told Solecki's health was failing, and expressed concern that his condition could become life threatening.

The group turned down a U.N. request for direct contact on Wednesday, saying talks were unnecessary.

Baluchistan, the largest but poorest of Pakistan's four provinces, lies on the border with Afghanistan. Separatist militants have fought a low-scale insurgency there for decades.

Bomb kills 28 at Shiite funeral in Pakistan

By MUNIR AHMAD, Associated Press Writer

ISLAMABAD – A suicide bomber attacked the funeral of a slain Shiite Muslim leader in northwestern Pakistan on Friday, killing 28 people and triggering deadly rioting, officials said.

Rising sectarian attacks threaten to further destabilize nuclear-armed Pakistan just as it faces intense international pressure to crack down on Islamist militants.

Meanwhile, a top U.S. official said Washington was worried that a five-day-old cease-fire in the restive Swat valley could "turn into a surrender" to Taliban insurgents behind beheadings, the bombings of schools for girls and attacks on security forces.

Friday's explosion struck a 1,000-strong crowd streaming toward a graveyard in Dera Ismail Khan for the burial of Sher Zeman, a Shiite leader who was gunned down in the city the day before.

Police official Ishtiaq Marwat said a suicide attacker killed at least 28 people and wounded more than 60 others, leaving shoes and torn clothing littering a bloodstained street. Some of the dead and injured were taken to the hospital in wooden handcarts.

Gunfire broke out afterward and police said angry Shiites fired on officers rushing to the scene. Marwat said two Sunni Muslim residents had been shot dead in the rioting.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but past attacks on Pakistan's minority Shiites have been carried out by extremists from the majority Sunni community who regard the sect as heretical.

Fayyaz Hussain, a local Shiite leader, said extremists were trying to start a wider sectarian conflict.

"This attack is yet another attempt to force us to leave Dera Ismail Khan, but we will face the situation and will stay here," Hussain said.

Relations between the two communities are under growing strain following a series of attacks. A car bomb killed 29 people and wounded scores near a Shiite mosque in Peshawar in December. On Feb. 5, a suicide bomber killed 24 at a Shiite mosque in a central city.

Much of the bloodshed has been in the northwest, where the Taliban and other hardline Sunni groups have seized control of swaths of territory, despite a series of military offensives.

International concern is focused on Swat, where troops and militants have been observing a cease-fire since authorities announced a deal to introduce Islamic law if militants lay down arms.

Richard Holbrooke, the new U.S envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, said Thursday that he had raised concern about the deal during a phone call with Pakistan's president.

Holbrooke told CNN that President Barack Obama was worried "that this deal, which is portrayed in the press as a truce ... does not turn into a surrender."

He said Zardari told him during Thursday's phone call that the pact was an "interim arrangement" while Pakistan stabilizes the situation.

"He doesn't disagree that the people who are running Swat now are murderous thugs and militants and they pose a danger not only to Pakistan, but to the United States and India," Holbrooke said.

NASA's Kepler Mission to Seek Other Earths

Fri, 20 Feb '09

Probe Scheduled For March 5 Launch

NASA's Kepler spacecraft was ready to be moved to the launch pad this week, and will soon begin a journey to search for worlds that could potentially host life.

Kepler is scheduled to blast into space from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL aboard a Delta II rocket on March 5 at 10:48 pm EST. It is the first mission with the ability to find planets like Earth -- rocky planets that orbit sun-like stars in a warm zone where liquid water could be maintained on the surface. Liquid water is believed to be essential for the formation of life.

"Kepler is a critical component in NASA's broader efforts to ultimately find and study planets where Earth-like conditions may be present," said Jon Morse, the Astrophysics Division director at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "The planetary census Kepler takes will be very important for understanding the frequency of Earth-size planets in our galaxy and planning future missions that directly detect and characterize such worlds around nearby stars."

The mission will spend three-and-a-half years surveying more than 100,000 sun-like stars in the Cygnus-Lyra region of our Milky Way galaxy. It is expected to find hundreds of planets the size of Earth and larger at various distances from their stars.

If Earth-size planets are common in the habitable zone, Kepler could find dozens; if those planets are rare, Kepler might find none. In the end, the mission will be humanity's first step toward answering a question posed by the ancient Greeks: are there other worlds like ours or are we alone?

"Finding that most stars have Earths implies that the conditions that support the development of life could be common throughout our galaxy," said William Borucki, Kepler's science principal investigator at NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, CA. "Finding few or no Earths indicates that we might be alone."

The Kepler telescope is specially designed to detect the periodic dimming of stars that planets cause as they pass by. Some star systems are oriented in such a way that their planets cross in front of their stars, as seen from our Earthly point of view. As the planets pass by, they cause their stars' light to slightly dim, or wink.

The telescope can detect even the faintest of these winks, registering changes in brightness of only 20 parts per million. To achieve this resolution, Kepler will use the largest camera ever launched into space, a 95-megapixel array of charged couple devices, known as CCDs.

"If Kepler were to look down at a small town on Earth at night from space, it would be able to detect the dimming of a porch light as somebody passed in front," said James Fanson, Kepler project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA.

By staring at one large patch of sky for the duration of its lifetime, Kepler will be able to watch planets periodically transit their stars over multiple cycles. This will allow astronomers to confirm the presence of planets. Earth-size planets in habitable zones would theoretically take about a year to complete one orbit, so Kepler will monitor those stars for at least three years to confirm the planets' presence. Ground-based telescopes and NASA's Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes will perform follow-up studies on the larger planets.

"Kepler is a critical cornerstone in understanding what types of planets are formed around other stars," said exoplanet hunter Debra Fischer of San Francisco State University in California. "The discoveries that emerge will be used immediately to study the atmospheres of large, gas exoplanets with Spitzer. And the statistics that are compiled will help us chart a course toward one day imaging a pale blue dot like our planet, orbiting another star in our galaxy."

FMI: www.nasa.gov/kepler

Iraqi says he threw shoes at Bush to restore pride

By SINAN SALAHEDDIN, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD – The Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at George W. Bush did not apologize as his trial began Thursday, and instead struck a defiant tone — telling the judges he wanted to hit back at the humiliation Iraq had suffered at U.S. hands.

It was Muntadhar al-Zeidi's first public appearance since he was arrested in mid-December for hurling shoes at Bush during a joint news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The act turned the obscure 30-year-old reporter into a cult hero throughout much of the Middle East.

"What made me do it was the humiliation Iraq has been subjected to due to the U.S. occupation and the murder of innocent people," al-Zeidi told the court. "I wanted to restore the pride of the Iraqis in any way possible, apart from using weapons."

He also said he had been tortured with beatings and electric shocks during his interrogation — allegations the Iraqi government has denied. The trial was later adjourned until March 12.

Dozens of cheering and ululating supporters greeted al-Zeidi as he arrived at the courthouse in western Baghdad in an Iraqi army Humvee. As the journalist walked into the courtroom, his aunt handed him a scarf imprinted with a red, black and green Iraqi flag, which he kissed. He wrapped the scarf around his neck and wore it proudly during his 30-minute testimony to the three-judge panel.

Many people in the region — angry over the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq — have embraced al-Zeidi. They have staged large street rallies calling for his release, and one Iraqi man erected a sofa-sized sculpture of a shoe in his honor that the Iraqi government later ordered removed.

When al-Zeidi threw his shoes at Bush, he shouted in Arabic: "This is your farewell kiss, you dog! This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq."

The shoes did not hit Bush, who ducked, and al-Zeidi was quickly wrestled to the ground by guards and dragged away.

Al-Maliki was deeply embarrassed by the assault on an American president who had stood by him when some Arab leaders were quietly urging the U.S. to oust him.

Al-Zeidi told the court Thursday that he did not intend to harm Bush or embarrass al-Maliki, but he did not apologize for his actions.

He conceded he had recorded himself planning to insult Bush at a news conference in Amman, Jordan, two years ago but he ended up not going to the neighboring country.

"And, yes, I said that to the prime minister's guards after I was beaten and suffering from electric shocks," he added.

He denied, however, that the December action was premeditated, saying he decided to throw his shoes after becoming enraged as Bush spoke about his achievements at the news conference — held a little over a month before the president handed the war off to his successor, Barack Obama, who has pledged to end it.

"I was seeing a whole country in calamity while Bush was giving a cold and spiritless smile," al-Zeidi testified. "He was saying goodbye after causing the death of many Iraqis and economic destruction."

Al-Zeidi's lawyers say he has been charged with assaulting a foreign leader, which carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison. They unsuccessfully tried to get the charge reduced, contending the act didn't merit such harsh punishment.

The defense argued Thursday that the current charge is not applicable because Bush was not in Baghdad on an official visit, having arrived unannounced and without an invitation.

"The visit was not formal because Bush is an occupier and he was received by the commander of the U.S. Army and it was an undeclared visit," lawyer Ghalib al-Rubaie said. "President Jalal Talabani and the prime minister did not receive him when he arrived."

Judge Abdul-Amir al-Rubaie recessed the trial until next month, saying the court needed time to ask the Iraqi Cabinet whether Bush's visit was "formal or informal." Visits to Iraq by foreign dignitaries are rarely announced in advance due to security reasons.

Al-Zeidi, who wore a beige suit and a black shirt, spoke confidently during his testimony and showed no signs of the injuries he allegedly suffered at the hands of security officers at the time of the incident.

The case's investigating judge has said the journalist was struck about the face and eyes, apparently by security agents who wrestled him to the ground.

Two Cabinet protocol employees denied this allegation Thursday, testifying that members of the audience beat al-Zeidi, but government security officers had not.

One of al-Zeidi's lawyers, Karim al-Shujeiri, said the court should have called independent witnesses, not government employees.

Supporters who rallied in front of the courthouse said al-Zeidi should be praised for confronting Bush, not punished.

"What Muntadhar has done is revenge for Iraqi widows and for the bloodshed caused by the occupation and policy of Bush," said al-Zeidi's aunt, Nawal Lazim.

Dwarf galaxies can be made with gas leftover from early Universe

Washington, Feb 19 : NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer has identified dwarf galaxies forming out of nothing more than pristine gas likely leftover from the early universe.

Dwarf galaxies are relatively small collections of stars that often orbit around larger galaxies like our Milky Way.

The findings surprised astronomers because most galaxies form in association with a mysterious substance called dark matter or out of gas containing metals.

The infant galaxies spotted by the Galaxy Evolution Explorer are springing up out of gas that lacks both dark matter and metals.

Though never seen before, this new type of dwarf galaxy may be common throughout the more distant and early universe, when pristine gas was more pervasive.

Led by David Thilker of the Henry A. Rowland Department of Physics and Astronomy at The Johns Hopkins University, a team of astronomers spotted the unexpected new galaxies forming inside the Leo Ring, a huge cloud of hydrogen and helium that traces a ragged path around two massive galaxies in the constellation Leo.

The cloud is thought likely to be a primordial object, an ancient remnant of material that has remained relatively unchanged since the very earliest days of the universe.

Identified about 25 years ago by radio waves, the ring cannot be seen in visible light.

According to Thilker, "This intriguing object has been studied for decades with world-class telescopes operating at radio and optical wavelengths. Despite such effort, nothing except the gas was detected. No stars at all, young or old, were found."

"But, when we looked at the ring with the Galaxy Evolution Explorer, which is remarkably sensitive to ultraviolet light, we saw telltale evidence of recent massive star formation. It was really unexpected. We are witnessing galaxies forming out of a cloud of primordial gas," he added.

"We speculate that these young stellar complexes are dwarf galaxies, although, as previously shown by radio astronomers, the gaseous clumps forming these galaxies lack dark matter," said Thilker.

"Almost all other galaxies we know are dominated by dark matter, which acted as a seed for the collection of their luminous components - stars, gas, and dust. What we see occurring in the Leo Ring is a new mode for the formation of dwarf galaxies in material remaining from the much earlier assembly of this galaxy group," he explained.

Tajikistan allows NATO cargo transit to Afghanistan

DUSHANBE (Reuters) - Tajikistan has agreed to allow the transit of NATO non-military cargo through its territory to Afghanistan, a U.S. military commander said on Tajik state television on Friday.

"Tajikistan has allowed (NATO) to use its railways and roads to transit non-military goods to Afghanistan," said Rear Admiral Mark Harnitchek of the U.S. Transportation Command.

Washington seeks to diversify supply routes for its troops in Afghanistan as militants in Pakistan step up attacks on supply convoys.

Tajikistan's Central Asian neighbor Kyrgyzstan decided on Thursday to close a U.S. military air base, removing one of the U.S. military's supply routes into Afghanistan as it prepares to send more troops.

Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev signed the base closure decision into law on Friday. The country's Foreign Ministry is now expected to hand the United States an official eviction note. When that happens, Washington will have 180 days to wrap up its operations in Kyrgyzstan.

"We plan to ship 50 to 200 containers a week from Uzbekistan to Tajikistan and then to Afghanistan," Harnitchek said. "Tajikistan is very important because it is closest to our bases."

The United States has said earlier that cargo such as building materials, medicines and water would be delivered to Uzbekistan by rail via Russia and Kazakhstan.

Kyrgyz parliament approves US base closure

By LEILA SARALAYEVA, Associated Press Writer

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan – Kyrgyzstan's parliament voted Thursday to close a key U.S. air base in the country — a move that could hamper President Barack Obama's efforts to increase the number of U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

Deputies voted 78-1 with two abstentions for the government-backed bill to cancel the lease agreement on the Manas air base, a transit point for 15,000 troops and 500 tons of cargo each month to and from Afghanistan. The move follows Russia's offer of $2.15 billion in aid and loans to the impoverished Central Asian country.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, in Poland for NATO talks, said the United States would consider paying more rent to continue using the strategic base. Speaking after the parliament vote in Kyrgyzstan, Gates said he considers talks still open over the future of the base.

Russia has denied pushing Kyrgyzstan to shut the base, but U.S. officials were skeptical.

"I think that the Russians are trying to have it both ways with respect to Afghanistan in terms of Manas," Gates said. "On one hand you're making positive noises about working with us in Afghanistan and on the other hand you're working against us in terms of that airfield which is clearly important to us."

Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev — who announced the planned eviction and whose government introduced the legislation — is expected to sign the bill in the coming weeks. Once Kyrgyz authorities issue an eviction notice, the United States will have 180 days to leave the base.

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said the U.S. has "yet to receive any formal notification of a change in status of Manas so our operations there continue as normal."

"A stable, peaceful Afghanistan is in everyone's interest, including the Kyrgyz people, and Manas is instrumental to our efforts to make that a reality," he said. "However, the base is not irreplaceable and we have alternatives should they be needed."

Widespread public discontent in Kyrgyzstan over the U.S. military presence has been sharpened in recent years by a number of high-profile incidents surrounding the base.

In late 2006, a U.S. serviceman fatally shot truck driver Alexander Ivanov during a routine security check. U.S. officials said Ivanov threatened the serviceman with a knife. On a recent visit to Kyrgyzstan, U.S. Gen. David Petraeus said an investigation into the killing had been reopened.

"So far, no American soldier appeared in court," Kyrgyz foreign minister Kadyrbek Sarbayev told deputies Thursday.

Sarbayev also complained the United States has failed to adequately compensate Kyrgyzstan for $650,000 worth of damage caused to a civilian Tu-154 plane when it collided with a U.S. KC-135 tanker aircraft.

The only opposition to the Kyrgyz bill came from the Social Democrat party, which argued the shuttering of Manas could undermine national security.

The United States is trying to finalize details of an alternative overland supply route to Afghanistan amid concerns over worsening security in Pakistan. Some 75 percent of U.S. supplies currently travel through Pakistan, where militants have stepped up attacks on truck convoys destined for U.S. bases.

Washington has already received permission from Russia and Kazakhstan to transport non-lethal supplies for Afghanistan by rail. It hopes to secure similar guarantees from Uzbekistan, which has a border and transportation links with Afghanistan.

NATO spokesman James Appathurai said the Kyrgyz vote was "an inconvenience and a decision to regret, but we can certainly absorb it."

"There is plenty of flexibility in the logistical supply chain for NATO," he added. "There are alternatives; they will be used."

Around 100 containers of non-lethal supplies bound for Afghanistan left by train Wednesday from Latvia for Russia, U.S. diplomats said.

Also Thursday, a delegation of U.S. military transportation officials arrived in another former Soviet state in the region, Tajikistan, which shares an 810-mile (1,300-kilometer) border with Afghanistan.

The officials will study Tajikistan's transportation infrastructure and evaluate the potential for shipping nonmilitary cargo through the country to Afghanistan, the Tajik Foreign Ministry said.

Netanyahu wins backing in Israeli PM contest

By Jeffrey Heller and Ori Lewis

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Benjamin Netanyahu's chances of becoming Israel's prime minister again were boosted on Thursday by the conditional backing of an ultra-nationalist politician who emerged as a kingmaker in a close election.

Avigdor Lieberman, leader of the Yisrael Beiteinu party, recommended to Peres that he choose Netanyahu to form a government, if the right-wing Likud chief pursued a broad coalition. Netanyahu has said he would do so.

President Shimon Peres plans to ask Netanyahu and rival Tzipi Livni of the centrist Kadima party on Friday to join forces to form a unity government, a presidential official said.

Livni and Netanyahu both laid claim to the premiership after Kadima won 28 seats in the 120-member parliament to Likud's 27 in an inconclusive February 10 election that deepened uncertainty about peace moves with the Palestinians.

Netanyahu renewed calls on Livni and Labor Party leader Ehud Barak to join a coalition under his leadership. Livni rejected his call, saying her party will sit in the opposition. Labor has said it will do the same.

"I don't intend to be a fig leaf for a government that has no path and is dysfunctional. I don't intend to change my path or to betray the voters for a job in the government," Livni said before meeting a visiting U.S. congressional delegation.

Peres wrapped up consultations with party leaders and would meet Netanyahu and Livni separately on Friday.

Netanyahu served as prime minister from 1996 to 1999. During his term he handed over part of the West Bank city of Hebron to the Palestinians.

With Lieberman's support, Netanyahu has the backing of some 65 legislators, enough for a narrow, governing majority of right-wing and Jewish religious parties.

UNITY

Lieberman, an immigrant from the former Soviet Union who has been at odds with religious parties and is reviled by Israel's Arab community, made unity the theme of his remarks to Peres.

"We recommend Benjamin Netanyahu, only in the framework of a broad government," Lieberman told reporters.

"We want a government of the three biggest parties, Likud, Kadima and Yisrael Beiteinu," he said, without disclosing what he would do if a unity government proved impossible to achieve.

A Yisrael Beiteinu official said Lieberman sought a broad coalition out of concern that creation of a narrow, rightist government could lead to friction with the Obama administration, which has pledged to pursue Palestinian statehood.

Kadima has said it would be willing to relinquish parts of the occupied West Bank in exchange for peace, a position that would put it in conflict with Yisrael Beiteinu and Likud.

Yisrael Beiteinu, which won 15 seats in last week's ballot, has angered Israel's Arab citizens by proposing a law under which Israelis would have to pledge allegiance to the Jewish state as a condition for voting or holding office.

The party also wants to trade land inside Israel in which many of the country's 1.5 million Arabs live for Jewish West Bank settlements in any peace deal with the Palestinians.

Under Israeli law, the legislator designated by Peres to try to form a government has 42 days to complete the task. Traditionally, after an election, past presidents have picked the leader of the party that won the most votes, but there is no legal obligation to do so.

Germany disagrees with US over use of NATO's rapid response force

Krakow, Poland - German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung said Thursday he opposed US plans to use NATO's embryonic Response Force (NRF) to provide security in Afghanistan during the country's presidential elections. "The NRF should not be considered as a reserve force. In principle, it has a very different role to play," Jung told reporters ahead of a meeting of NATO defence ministers in Krakow, Poland.

Other European allies are understood to also oppose the deployment of the NRF in Afghanistan.

Launched at the alliance's 2002 summit in Prague and declared operational four years later, the NRF is designed to provide NATO with a rapid and flexible stand-alone force consisting of land, air and sea components and capable of being deployed within five days anywhere in the world.

But disagreements about its mission and widespread unwillingness to provide it with troops have prevented its use in any combat zone.

It has so far been used only a handful of times, and only for humanitarian relief purposes, such as when Hurricane Katrina hit the southern US in 2005.

Original plans for a 25,000-strong contingent have long been abandoned, with NATO officials now talking about the need to create a permanent "core" surrounded by a flexible amount of troops.

Speaking on his way to Krakow, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates proposed deploying the NRF before and during Afghan's presidential elections, which are expected to take place in mid-August.

"We believe the NRF ought to be deployable. And I think that it's hard to get people to commit definitely to meet their NRF responsibilities if there's no notion that they'll ever be used anyplace," Gates said.

"And so my view is this pre-election period in Afghanistan is a very good example of where the NRF could provide a temporary strengthening of NATO's capabilities in support of the Afghan government and the elections," he said.

Meanwhile, his British colleague, John Hutton, said he would use the Krakow meeting to propose the creation of a 3,000-strong standing force committed to defending the alliance's territory against attack.

The idea is to reassure NATO's Eastern European allies in the wake of Russia's invasion of Georgia last August and to free up additional resources for Afghanistan.

Hutton said agreement on such a domestic security force could also break the deadlock over the NRF.

"I hope it might make it easier for NATO to do more in Afghanistan, certain in the knowledge that there is a dedicated homeland security force that will have no other call on its priorities (other) than European homeland security," Hutton told the Financial Times.

Spirit lifted by Martian winds

By Mary O’Keefe

As the Mars rovers deal with advanced age, broken appendages and memory lapses, good news comes from Jet Propulsion Laboratory: the rover named Spirit had a little power boost, thanks to a Martian wind.

Solar panels convert the Sun’s rays into power for the rovers. The more dust that covers the panels, the less power gets through. A Martian wind this month has blown away some of the dust that had accumulated on the panels, giving Spirit a very important uptick in electrical output.

That boosts Spirit’s energy by about 10%, according to John Callas, rover program manager.

“We welcome that extra energy,” Callas said.

The energy will allow Spirit to do more during the day. “We are trying to climb Home Plate,” he said.

Home Plate is a low plateau where Spirit has been parked during the winter months. Now that spring is almost over and the Martian summer is about to begin, engineers will be driving Spirit onto it.

“We want to climb up and drive across [Home Plate] south to our [new] destination,” he said.

With its extra power boost Spirit is expected to continue its quest to drive across Home Plate.

In late January, Spirit had a problem recalling its daily activity. It appeared to have thought it had driven somewhere but in actuality hadn’t moved. Callas said that a leading hypothesis to the memory loss was due to a cosmic ray event. This would explain why Spirit did not record its daily activities into a memory drive that erases when the rover shuts down.

Opportunity, Spirit’s sister rover, is rolling along on the other side of the planet.

“It is doing great,” Callas said.

He added that engineers have noticed an elevated current in Opportunity’s right front wheel that they will be watching. For now they feel it is a lubrication problem and are driving the rover backwards in an effort to correct it.

“We can’t drive as far going backwards,” he said. “It’s like backing up your car you can see [much easier] what is in front of you when you are driving forward.”

For right now engineers are taking it slow with Opportunity, and grateful for any extra Spirit power.

“We can expect some impulsive [sand storm] activities,” he said. “We will keep vigilante for dust storms but for now it has given us a good cleaning and we are happy with that.”

Pakistan: Child poet takes on the Taliban

Islamabad, 19 Feb. (AKI) - Tuba Sahaab is taking on the Taliban. But the 11-year-old Pakistani girl is no militant and her weapons are simply her words. She lives on the outskirts of Islamabad and writes poems about the pain and suffering of children in her country despite personal threats from hardline Islamic militants.

"If they kill me, do not worry," she says. "I want everyone in Pakistan to be equal."

The young poet has been interviewed by US network, CNN, and now regularly appears in the media. She is not afraid to express her views and is famous in Pakistan.

"I want to give peace to my nation," she tells CNN. "I will fight for it."

Tuba is strongly opposed to hardliners who have tried to restrict girls from going to school in certain parts of the country.

Before a peace agreement announced in the volatile Swat Valley in the country's northwest on Monday, the Taliban was forcing girls out of the classroom and destroying schools.

"This is very shocking to hear that girls can't go to school, they are taking us back to the Stone Age," Tuba says.

For the past 18 months, militants have beheaded opponents and burned scores of girls' schools in Swat, which lies next to Pakistan's tribal regions close to the Afghan border.

Monday's peace deal allows for the imposition of Islamic Sharia law in the former tourist region and surrounding districts in exchange for an end to the Taliban insurgency which has killed hundreds and forced hundreds of thousands to flee.

Tuba refuses to remain silent despite threats on her life - by letter and telephone. "Stop it or we will kill you," they say.

Tuba's parents are proud of their daughter and say they are not afraid even when she speaks out publicly against the Taliban. Her mother says she is "worth more than seven sons and seven daughters."

Tuba is inspired by US president Barack Obama and his recent election. She tells CNN she prayed for his election and dreams of meeting Obama one day.

"I want to go the White House and show him my poems, show him what is happening and ask him to come to Pakistan and control it because he is a super power."

In her playground at school, Tuba dances and laughs with her friends. She loves writing her short stories and has already published a book.

Tuba also has a personal dream to be an astronaut and one day lead her country.

"I will do anything, if my life goes I don't worry, I just want to do something," she says.

Two U.S. congressmen visit Gaza

Two U.S. congressmen arrived in the Gaza Strip Thursday, marking the highest-level visit by U.S. officials to the territory since Islamic Hamas movement seized control of the enclave nearly two years ago.

The Democratic representatives, Brian Baird and Keith Ellison, arrived in the Hamas-controlled territory through Erez crossing in northern Gaza Strip and started touring areas hit by Israel during its major offensive in December and January.

The officials have no plans to meet members of Hamas administration since the U.S. classifies it as a terrorist movement. They will meet UN officials and Palestinian activists of nongovernmental organizations in addition to victims of the Israeli military operation.

The delegation's armored jeeps headed to east of Jabalia refugee camp where many houses were demolished during the Israeli incursion.

At least 1,300 Palestinians were killed in the onslaught and the UN figures say that 14,000 houses were destroyed.

Commentary: Kinetic illusions

By ARNAUD DE BORCHGRAVE, UPI Editor at Large

WASHINGTON, Feb. 19 (UPI) -- While President Obama signed orders to deploy 17,000 additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan, including 8,000 Marines, his thinking on the Afghan war has changed significantly. It's no longer the gung-ho view of a surge-type operation routing al-Qaida's terrorists. The reinforcements also fall shy of the 30,000 troops requested by Gen. David McKiernan, the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, which would have doubled current U.S. force levels in a country of 35 million the size of France. Juggling troop requirements between two wars leaves one theater short-changed. "Even with these additional forces," warned McKiernan, "I have to tell you that 2009 is going to be a tough year."

Al-Qaida is in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, those seven tribal agencies under Pakistani sovereignty on the Afghan border, not in Afghanistan. But the more the United States keeps bombing al-Qaida's safe havens in FATA by remote-controlled, unmanned Predators, the more civilians get killed, and the more the Taliban's politico-religious fanatics boost their stock in Pakistan proper.

Obama faced his first foreign hurdle on open-ended North Atlantic Treaty Organization commitments in Afghanistan when he made his first foreign visit to Canada today. The Canadian Parliament had already voted to pull out its 2,800 troops by 2011, and both Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon made clear only another vote in a hostile Parliament could change that.

The only other two nations authorized to fight in Afghanistan -- Britain and the Netherlands -- are also under parliamentary pressure to wrap up their kinetic contributions by the end of 2011. CENTCOM commander Gen. David H. Petraeus believes the Brits will stick it out with the United States as long as it takes. Prime Minister Gordon Brown's entourage does not share Petraeus' confidence.

Obama is also asking the other NATO allies with kinetically impaired troops, whose parliaments voted to keep them out of harm's way, to contribute more soldiers. France, Germany and Spain have declined. Italy, under conservative leader Silvio Berlusconi, has agreed to boost its Afghan contingent from 2,300 troops to 2,800. They are based near Herat, close to the Iranian border, and will be allowed to open fire against the Taliban only if the Group of Eight summit next July, on the island of La Maddalena, between Corsica and Sardinia, agrees. Not exactly an Italian call to action.

Obama's main Afghan concern now is to avoid going into negotiations with "moderate" Taliban elements from a position of weakness. In an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. prior to his one-day visit to Ottawa, Obama indicated a shift in his Afghan strategy when he made clear diplomacy will now play a bigger role in U.S. efforts in Afghanistan. "I am absolutely convinced," the president explained, "that you cannot solve the problem of Afghanistan, the Taliban, the spread of extremism in that region, solely through military means. ... We're going to have to use diplomacy. We're going to have to use development."

An immediate worry is the ability to defend Kabul, the Afghan capital, with NATO troops who are not authorized to fight. The first 3,000 U.S. reinforcements will be deployed around the city to thwart the Taliban's plans to stage a Tet-type offensive, which was when Viet Cong guerrillas infiltrated major Vietnamese cities in 1968. Even though defeated, the Viet Cong scored a major psychological victory that demoralized America's home front.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai keeps complaining about U.S. troops he says are turning the population against them by breaking into homes looking for Taliban guns and ammo, and killing any civilian who resists. "They will get plenty of flowers and gratitude when we send them safely back home," Karzai opined sarcastically.

After reading up on Afghan briefing papers, Obama concluded Defense Secretary Robert Gates was only partly correct when he said "there needs to be a three- to five-year plan for re-establishing control in certain areas, providing security for the population, going after al-Qaida, preventing the establishment of terrorism, better performance in terms of delivery of services to the people." This tends to co-mingle the Taliban and al-Qaida. For Obama, they are two separate entities, and the split should be encouraged.

When they take place, negotiations will be with the Taliban, not with al-Qaida. As for the $32 billion in U.S. economic aid to rebuild the country, there are still major cities with only two hours of electricity per day. But there are still powerful elements, both civilian and military, adamantly opposed to negotiations. They say we should be prepared to stick it out another 10 years if necessary. But are the American people willing to go along? And doesn't the current financial and economic upheaval put a bit of a crimp on grandiloquent expressions of open-ended bravura? The next big debate will be about Taliban "reconcilables."

Obama said to plan push for nuclear disarmament

By SHAUN WATERMAN, UPI Homeland and National Security Editor

WASHINGTON, Feb. 18 (UPI) -- The Obama administration is planning a series of "game changing" moves on the issue of global nuclear disarmament, members of an international commission said at the weekend.

"I think it's fair to say that we are pushing at a reasonably open door on all these issues," Gareth Evans of the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament told reporters Sunday after meetings in Washington with senior U.S. officials, in which he outlined five priority issues the new administration should address to reduce the nuclear threat.

But some observers suggested the commission needs to broaden its focus.

"Everything we heard … was extremely encouraging, and it's extremely important in global terms, because in this, as in frankly so many other areas, U.S. leadership is absolutely critical and … has been somewhat missing over the last eight years," said Evans, former foreign minister of Australia and co-chair of the commission -- an international body established by the Australian and Japanese governments to lead a global debate on cutting nuclear arsenals and to work to ensure the success of the next round of talks on the nuclear non-proliferation treaty in 2010.

Evans and the commission's other co-chair, former Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi, met with U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden, national security adviser Gen. James Jones, Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg and the chairmen of several key congressional committees, including Massachusetts Democrat John Kerry of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

"I got a very, very positive impression of serious commitment from President Obama to really do some game-changing things in this area," Evans added in an interview with The Australian newspaper.

The White House National Security Council spokesman's office declined to respond directly to Evans' comments, but a senior administration official told UPI that the issues the commission had raised were "important issues, priority issues. They're under review and we look forward to engaging (with them) early and in depth."

The five issues that the commissioners called on the United States to make "particular priorities in terms of new action or renewed action," as Evans put it, were:

-- Getting the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty ratified, "if that can possibly be managed. We understand the political difficulties";

-- "Revitalizing the negotiations on a fissile material cutoff treaty," an international agreement to ban the production of new fissile material for nuclear weapons;

-- Successfully concluding a deal with Russia on the "continuation or replacement or extension" of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START, "involving further deep reductions in strategic weapons";

-- Starting "serious, wide-ranging strategic dialogues" with both Russia and China on other issues, especially the controversial U.S. ballistic missile defense program; and

-- "Visible changes in U.S. nuclear doctrine" to rule out the first use of nuclear weapons.

Evans called these "very, very important steps … in changing the psychological landscape internationally and reinvigorating the momentum for both disarmament and non-proliferation."

Henry Sokolski, the executive director of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center, told UPI the commission was "pushing very hard on issues where national governments are already focused like a laser beam. They should be putting a spotlight on things that national governments are not paying so much attention to. … That is where they can add value."

As an example, Sokolski cited the spread of nuclear power and "the question of how there can be a growth in the number of states with large nuclear reactors without a growth in the numbers of nuclear (weapons) ready states."

"They have done great work in lifting the carpet on the growing nuclear capabilities of Pakistan, India and China and the threats that poses," he continued. "We need to see more detail as to what might be done to counter those threats."

The commission, he concluded, was "still a work in progress."

Israeli troops wound man planting bomb

JERUSALEM, Feb. 19 (UPI) -- Israeli troops near a Gaza border crossing reported they wounded a Palestinian man as he allegedly tried to plant a bomb along the border fence Thursday.

The suspect was treated at a hospital for his injuries then taken into custody for questioning, Ynetnews.com reported.

Palestinian sources in Gaza also reported hearing gunfire in the northeastern part of the strip where Israeli troops were operating, Ynetnews.com said.

Also Thursday, two suspected rocket firings from Gaza toward the Negev region led to a "color red" alert, officials said, adding that where the rockets landed hasn't been determined.

Earlier, a Qassam rocket landed on the Palestinian side of the Gaza-Israel border fence, and a mortar shell fired from Gaza hit in the Sdot Negev Regional Council limits. No injuries were reported in in either attack, officials said.

Hezbollah adopts security changes after arrest of Israeli agent

Lebanese Shiite armed group Hezbollah has reportedly made security changes after a Lebanese Shiite was arrested from south Lebanon town of Nabatieh on charges of spying for Israel, Al-Balad daily reported Thursday.

Quoting a source close to Hezbollah, the daily said that the party adopted "new security measures."

The Lebanese army announced on Feb. 16 that Marwan Faqih was arrested in south Lebanon and is in the army custody.

News reports said that Faqih is believed to have started collaborating with Israeli intelligence since he was recruited in France in 1990.

Al-Akhbar daily, close to Hezbollah, said that Faqih was assigned to collect information about Hezbollah, and owned a gas station in the area, which helped him in his task.

Security sources said that official charges have not been filed against him, however, the case is still pending before the military prosecutor.

Two Israeli agent networks have been discovered in the last two years in Lebanon, and the Lebanese army intelligence has carried out several arrests.

Israel and Hezbollah fought a devastating 34-day war in 2006, and are on a high state of animosity.

Clinton names special NKorea envoy

By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writer

SEOUL, South Korea – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton named a special envoy for North Korea on Friday but warned the communist nation that ties with the United States will not improve unless it stops threatening South Korea.

Amid a disturbing rise in belligerent rhetoric from the North toward the South and signs it may be getting ready to test-fire a ballistic missile, she urged Pyongyang to halt "provocative and unhelpful" gestures and rejoin stalled six-nation nuclear disarmament talks.

"North Korea is not going to get a different relationship with the United States while insulting and refusing dialogue with (South Korea)," Clinton told reporters at a news conference with South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan.

"We are calling on the government of North Korea to refrain from being provocative and unhelpful in a war of words that it has been engaged in because that is not very fruitful," she said.

Clinton, who also received a military briefing on the situation along the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea and discussed broader issues with South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak, praised Seoul for its democracy and prosperity.

She said that was "in stark contrast to the tyranny and poverty across the border to the North" and commended the "people of South Korea and your leaders for your calm, resolve and determination in the face of provocative and unhelpful statements and actions by the North."

She declined to comment on intelligence suggesting the North could soon fire a missile but noted such an act would violate U.N. Security Council Resolution 1718, which was passed after Pyongyang detonated a nuclear device in 2006.

"The North should refrain from violating this resolution and also from any and all provocative actions that could harm the six-party talks and aggravate the tensions in the region," Clinton said.

She demanded that the North follow through on promises it made to dismantle and verifiably disable its nuclear weapons program during negotiations with China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States last year, saying Washington is not willing to engage with Pyongyang until it does so.

Clinton said the new U.S. special representative for North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, a former U.S. ambassador to South Korea, would work with South Korea, Japan, China and others to look at ways to get Pyongyang back to the negotiating table and deal with broader policy.

Bosworth will also deal with North Korean human rights and humanitarian issues, she said, praising him as "a capable and experienced diplomat" who will report to her and President Barack Obama.

En route to South Korea from Indonesia on Thursday on her first overseas trip as America's top diplomat, Clinton surprised reporters traveling with her when she spoke candidly about a possible succession crisis in North Korea and its impact on restarting the talks.

Those comments marked a rare, if not unprecedented, instance of a senior U.S. official publicly discussing such a diplomatically sensitive matter.

On Friday in Seoul, Clinton again acknowledged concerns over a potential power struggle to replace ailing North Korean leader Kim Jong II, but she stressed that the United States was still addressing its concerns to the existing government.

"As we look at planning and contingency planning, we're taking everything into account, but we feel there is a government in place right now and that government is being asked to re-engage with the six-party talks, to fulfill the obligations that they have agreed to," she said.

"And we expect them to do so," Clinton added, stressing that her earlier succession comments had not divulged any classified information and that similar analysis could easily be found in newspapers and online.

Kim, 67, inherited leadership from his father, North Korea founder Kim Il Sung, in 1994, creating the world's first communist dynasty. Last year, South Korean and U.S. officials said Kim suffered a stroke and underwent brain surgery in August.

North Korean officials have steadfastly denied Kim is ill but state-run media made no mention of Kim's public appearances for weeks last fall, feeding fears that his sudden death without naming a successor could leave a power vacuum and spark an internal struggle.

Kim's father had cultivated a powerful cult of personality that encompassed him and his son, and recent dispatches in North Korea's state-run Korean Central News Agency have stressed the importance of bloodline and inheritance in what is seen as references to the succession plan.

Kim Jong Il is believed to have at least three sons: Kim Jong Nam, in his late 30s; Kim Jong Chul, in his late 20s; and Kim Jong Un, a son in his mid-20s by another companion.

The eldest is believed to have been the favorite to succeed his father until he was caught trying to enter Japan on a fake passport in 2001, reportedly to visit Tokyo Disneyland.

Last month, the South Korean news agency Yonhap said the youngest, Kim Jong Un, was named Kim's heir apparent.

And, on Thursday, citing unidentified sources in Beijing, Yonhap said Kim Jong Un had registered his candidacy for March 8 parliamentary elections in a sign the son is poised to become the country's next leader.

Fueling speculation of possible power struggle, the North's state-run news agency reported last week that Kim Jong II had replaced his defense minister and chief of the military's general staff.

Sufi Clerics in Somalia Support Unity Government

By Alisha Ryu
Nairobi
18 February 2009

Sufi clerics in Somalia have declared their support for the new unity government led by a moderate Islamist. The declaration is raising the possibility of a wider sectarian war between adherents of the Sufi order and the powerful al-Shabab group in Somalia.

Sufi clerics, meeting this week in the Somali capital Mogadishu, say they fully support the newly-elected president of Somalia, moderate Islamist Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, and the efforts he is making to bring peace to the long-suffering country.

The clerics spoke Wednesday through a group of adherents of the Sufi order, who recently took up arms against al-Shabab in Somalia. The spokesman for Ahlu-Sunna Wal-Jama'a, Sheik Abduqadir Mohamed Soomow, says the international community should be thanked for sponsoring last year's peace talks in Djibouti. The talks paved the way for the Ethiopian troop withdrawal from Somalia in January and allowed Sheik Sharif's Islamist-led opposition group to join the government.

The cleric says Sufi scholars are calling on all Somalis to support the national unity government, which they hope will rule according to Islamic law and gain the support of the international community.

Sufism, a mystic form of Islam, has centuries old roots in Somalia but is considered heretical by conservative factions of Islam, especially Salafism and Wahhabism. Since the fall of Somalia's last functioning government in 1991, Salafism and Wahhabism, taught in many Saudi-run mosques and religious schools in Mogadishu and elsewhere, have gained a following among many young Somalis.

These Somalis make up the bulk of the al-Shabab, a militant group ideologically aligned with al-Qaida and vehemently opposed to Sheik Sharif's new western-backed government. Al-Shabab once functioned as the military wing of the Islamic Courts Union, an Islamist movement led by Sheik Sharif before he and other leaders were ousted from power by Ethiopia in late 2006.

Al-Shabab grew powerful as an anti-Ethiopian insurgent group and took control of many parts of central and southern Somalia. In recent weeks, Sheik Sharif has reached out to the group, urging the leaders to reject extremism and to participate in rebuilding the country.

Somalia observer for the International Crisis Group, Rashid Abdi, says although al-Shabab gained many recruits as an anti-Ethiopian insurgent group, many Somalis are now rejecting its militant brand of Islam in favor of Sheik Sharif's call for reconciliation.

"It is undeniable that there is a great deal of opposition building against al-Shabab, especially from the traditional Muslim groups in Somalia," said Abdi. "There is a mobilization of various groupings of orthodox Sunni Muslims all over Somalia to form a broad front against al-Shabab."

Recently, Ahlu-Sunna Wal-Jama'a scored military victories over al-Shabab in the central Somali Galgadud region, prompting fears that a wider conflict could erupt between the two groups. Abdi says if Sheik Sharif fails to bring al-Shabab to the negotiating table, a war may have to be fought to determine which version of Islam Somalis will embrace.

"If these attempts at reconciliation collapse, then the prospect of a sectarian war happening in Somalia is real and that is definitely something to worry about," he said.

Sheik Sharif has never spoken out against the Salafist-Wahhabist branches of Islam. But he is believed to be sympathetic to Ahlu-Sunna Wal-Jama'a and its cause.