Pakistan floods could have been minimised: US team

WASHINGTON: Last year’s disastrous floods in Pakistan could have been minimised if European weather monitors had shared their data and it had been properly processed, US researchers said Monday.
Catastrophic monsoon rains that swept through the country in July and August killed thousands, affected 20 million people, destroyed 1.7 million homes and damaged 5.4 million acres of arable land, experts have said.

“This disaster could have been minimized and even the flooding could have been minimised,” said lead author Peter Webster, a professor of earth and atmospheric science at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.

“If we were working with Pakistan, they would have known eight to 10 days in advance that the floods were coming.”

Using data from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasting (ECMWF), Webster and colleagues found the floods could have been predicted if the data “had been processed and fed into a hydrological model, which takes terrain into account.”More

Mubarak’s deputy linked to secret CIA program

As spy chief, Suleiman reportedly embraced the CIA’s controversial “extraordinary rendition” program under ex-president George W. Bush, in which terror suspects snatched by the Americans were taken to Egypt and other countries without legal proceedings and subjected to harsh interrogations.

He “was the CIA’s point man in Egypt for rendition,” Jane Mayer, author of “The Dark Side,” wrote on the New Yorker’s website.

After taking over as spy director, Suleiman oversaw an agreement with the United States in 1995 — during Bill Clinton’s presidency — that allowed suspected militants to be secretly transferred to Egypt for questioning.

Human rights groups charge the detainees have often faced torture and mistreatment in Egypt and elsewhere, accusing the US government of violating its own legal obligations by handing over suspects to regimes known for abuse.More

US condemns Hezbollah ‘intimidation’ in Lebanon

(AFP) – The United States accused Hezbollah on Tuesday of using intimidation to gain government control in Lebanon and vowed that the work of the UN-backed Hariri tribunal would continue regardless.

“The make-up of Lebanon?s government is a Lebanese decision, but this decision should not be reached through coercion, intimidation and threats of violence,” State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said in a statement.

“Unfortunately, Hezbollah, backed by Syria, engaged in all three in pursuit of its political goals.”

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States accused Hezbollah on Tuesday of using intimidation to gain government control in Lebanon and vowed that the work of the UN-backed Hariri tribunal would continue regardless.

“The make-up of Lebanon?s government is a Lebanese decision, but this decision should not be reached through coercion, intimidation and threats of violence,” State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said in a statement.

“Unfortunately, Hezbollah, backed by Syria, engaged in all three in pursuit of its political goals.”More

obama promised troop withdrawl from Afghanistan this year

US President Barack Obama said Tuesday night that tough fighting lies ahead in Afghanistan but renewed his commitment to begin withdrawing US troops this year.
In his prime time State of the Union address to Congress, Obama said the troop buildup he ordered has stripped the Taliban of strongholds in Afghanistan. He said the United States and coalition partners will work to prevent the militants from “re-establishing a stranglehold” on the country and will keep pressure on terrorist network al-Qaeda.
International forces will continue the transition to an Afghan lead in providing security and stability, and US forces will begin drawing down in July, Obama said. Prevailing in Afghanistan is among Obama’s top foreign priorities.
“There will be tough fighting ahead, and the Afghan government will need to deliver better governance,” Obama said. “But we are strengthening the capacity of the Afghan people and building an enduring partnership with them.”More

Pakistan has something to cheer from Obama as he admits Qaeda leadership is under pressure in Pak

President Barack Obama Wednesday said al Qaeda and its affiliates continue to plan attack against the United States even as he said that Osama bin Laden-led outfit is under pressure in Pakistan.
“As we speak, al Qaeda and their affiliates continue to plan attacks against us. Thanks to our intelligence and law enforcement professionals, we are disrupting plots and securing our cities and skies,” Obama said in his State of the Union Address before a joint session of the US Congress.More

Obama insists NKorea give up nuclear

President Barack Obama told North Korea to stick to its commitment to abandon atomic weapons, throwing his support behind ally South Korea ahead of talks to try to calm tension on the divided peninsula.
Seoul announced on Wednesday that it would hold its first meeting with North Korean officials since a deadly artillery attack on an island in the South in November.
“On the Korean peninsula, we stand with our ally South Korea, and insist that North Korea keeps its commitment to abandon nuclear weapons,” Obama said in his State of the Union address on Tuesday night.
The two Koreas will meet at the border truce village of Panmunjom on February 11 for preliminary military talks to discuss last year’s two deadly attacks against the South’s Cheonan warship and the island of Yeonpyeong.
Seoul has held out the prospect of high-level military talks, possibly at ministerial level, if Pyongyang accepts responsibility for the attacks and agrees not to carry out such provocations again.
North Korea denies it had anything to do with the sinking of the Cheonan and says the South provoked its artillery attack.
“To establish peace on the Korean peninsula and see true development of North-South relations, the North must accept these proposals,” a South Korean unification ministry spokesman told a news briefing.
The South also wants separate bilateral talks with the North to ascertain its sincerity about denuclearisation, an effort that comes as the Pyongyang urges regional powers to resume aid-for-disarmament negotiations — so-called six-party talks — it walked out of two years ago.

US defends Israeli flotilla attack

The US has described an Israeli probe into a raid on the Gaza-bound Freedom Flotilla aid convoy that killed nine Turkish activists as a “credible and impartial” effort.

The praise came after an Israeli investigation panel declared Tel Aviv’s military attack on the Freedom Flotilla as “legal” under international law, Israeli daily Ha’aretz reported.

The panel also claimed that the Israeli soldiers who took part in the killing of the nine activists acted in self-defense.

The activists aboard the aid convoy, which was attacked in international waters, were unarmed and only planned to deliver aid to the blockaded Gaza Strip.

“We think that this is an independent report, credible and impartial and transparent investigation that has been undertaken by Israel,” US State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley said on Monday.More

Israel’s Muslims reach out: strategy, desperation or appeasement?

In last month’s two things happen which could be interprerated as strange things to some extent. Ambassador of Israel to India Mark Sofer visited an Islamic shrine in Ajmer shrine of a sufi chisti and there he was greeted and warmly welcomed by local Muslim worshippers and encouraged with his warm welcome ambassador told the audience how Jews and Muslims are very much similar in their various traditions and they are twin sisters in some way or the other. This statement was marked with greater caution among others not only among Non-muslims but even larger part of Urdu news papers did not share the feelings of Mark Sofer as it may have anticipated by him. Usually Urdu press is always filled with medieval conspiracy theories for Jews and it was not less than shocking for them to witness an Israel diplomat visiting Islamic shrine and igniting the debate of some religious similarities between them. On the other hand other Non-Muslims in India, who don’t care much about Arab-Israel politics more than having a perception about it imposed by media outlets, were neither curious nor disappointed. But being a critique of Middle Eastern politics and political observer I thought it my duty to decipher the reasons and repercussions of this gesture. Read more

US reaches out to Jewish leaders on ‘Durban II

HILARY LEILA KRIEGER
Senior White House and State Department officials held a conference call with American Jewish leaders Monday to reassure them over the administration’s decision to participate in preliminary discussions about the United Nation’s World Conference Against Racism conference in Geneva this April.
The previous UN World Conference against Racism held in Durban.
Photo: AP [file]
Jewish leaders were told that Washington’s decision to participate in the conference was being coordinated with the Israeli government, and that the US presence was an effort to change the direction of the conference, dubbed “Durban II,” according to participants in the call who would not be identified.

The US officials said that they were “under no illusions” that the nature of the gathering – which featured anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic material in its first incarnation held in Durban, South Africa in 2001, causing the Bush administration to pull its participation – would be easy to change.

Israel and many Jewish organizations have objected to the April conference and some of its preliminary material, which echoes the 2001 parley. Several had urged the Bush administration to announce it would boycott the event, but no official announcement was made.

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Livni Appealed US not to participate in Durban conference

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told visiting American Jewish leaders on Monday that Israel must give up part of its land “in order to remain a Jewish and democratic state.”

“I do believe Israel is fighting for existence not only because it’s the only democracy in the Middle East, but also because it’s the only Jewish state in the world,” Livni told a delegation of about 100 leaders from the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, currently holding its annual leadership mission in Israel.

“No refugee can enter Israel as part of the peace process,” Livni said. “Their [Palestinian] national aspiration gets an answer in a different place,” she added, reiterating comments she has made at least twice in the past few months.
 
 
She also told the delegation that Israel must take the initiative and come forward with its own peace plan to head off international programs. “Any plan put on the table will not be in our interest,” she said.

During her address, Livni also appealed to the United States not to participate in the UN-sponsored Durban II anti-racism conference, set to be held in Geneva this April.

“Israel expects the free world not to participate in Durban II,” she said, repeating Jerusalem’s concerns that the meeting will be used by Arab nations and others as a forum to criticize Israel.

The U.S. State Department said it would send diplomats next week to participate in preparatory meetings for the conference, which some countries including Israel have already decided to boycott.

In a statement released late Saturday, the State Department said the U.S. delegation to the planning discussions would review current direction of conference preparations and whether U.S. participation in the conference itself is warranted.

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