Afghan war success possible without Pakistan help, Gates

WASHINGTON: US defense secretary Robert Gates told AFP that Success is possible in the war in Afghanistan even if Pakistan fails to fully cooperate in countering militants along its border.

With Pakistan taking some positive steps, Gates said: “I think that as long as the picture stays mixed like that, that we can be successful.”

NATO raids kills civilians in Libya

Tripoli : Many civilians have been killed in a NATO air strike in eastern Tripoli in the early hours of Sunday morning according to a footage of raid shown on state TV. Reporters were taken to a residential area in the city's Arada neighbourhood and saw a body pulled out of the rubble of a destroyed building.

"There was intentional and deliberate targeting of the civilian houses," Khaled Kaim, Libya's deputy foreign minister, said.

Tiny Teen To Be Named World's Smallest Man

A teenage boy the size of a one-year-old toddler is set to be crowned the smallest man in the world. Junrey Balawing will be given the title by Guinness World Records on Sunday as he celebrates his 18th birthday. 

Turkey Offers Get-Out Guarantee To Gaddafi

Turkey's Prime Minister says he has offered a guarantee to help Colonel Gaddafi - if he leaves Libya Tayyip Erdogan told Turkish TV he had not had any response to his approach, the terms of which have not been revealed.

Meanwhile fighting is ongoing in the rebel-held town of Misratah, where 31 people have reportedly been killed.

Suicide Bomber Kills another Afghan Police Chief

Khost : A suicide bomber has killed the commander of a provincial Afghan police rapid reaction force in Khost in eastern Afghanistan.

Saturday's attack, which killed Commander Zahir, also claimed the lives of two of his bodyguards and 16 others were wounded in the blast.

America's Ghost Warriors and the secret war in Pakistan

US Special troops in Afghanistan don’t wear uniforms, have long beards

 American secret war in Pakistan is exposed, following is the report of an embedded journalist from Jalalabad Afghanistan.

U.S. military officials don’t talk about secret war in Pakistan.

Don’t even ask, I was told, on U.S. military bases in Afghanistan at Bagram and Jalalabad.

Don’t ask about the remotely-controlled American drones armed with missiles that are now hunting across the Pakistani border, searching through the mountain peaks, valleys and dusty

US 'nearly completes' troop drawdown in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD — The United States said Friday that it had nearly completed a drawdown in military personnel from Pakistan as demanded by Islamabad when relations plummeted over the killing of Osama bin Laden.

Vice Admiral Michael LeFever, US defence representative in Pakistan, made the announcement in a statement released by the US embassy in Islamabad, but left the door open to future security assistance.

Canada to pull out of a Key Nato air surveillance Programme

OTTAWA: Canadian has announced that he is withdrawing from a key Nato air surveillance program as part of cost-cutting measures.

The Nato Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) is widely used by the alliance in Afghanistan and Libya to monitor air space and guide fighter jets to their targets.

"Picasso of India" M.F. Husain dies in exile aged 95

London : India's best known painter Maqbool Fida Husain died in exile in London on Thursday aged 95, a close friend of the artist told Reuters.

"He died of old age. It happened early this morning," said Munna Zaveri, a friend of Husain for 40 years, before leaving for London. "He was in hospital for some time and was supposed to come home today or tomorrow but his condition worsened."

Zawahiri vows to continue al-Qaeda's jihad

Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda's second in command, has issued a eulogy for Osama bin Laden, saying the slain group's chief terrified the US when he was alive and would continue to do so in death.

Al-Zawahiri appeared in a white Arab robe and turban, a Kalashnikov at his side, in a 28-minute video posted on jihadist online forums on Wednesday.

US plans to sabotage Pakistan nuke facilities: Ahmadinejad

TEHRAN: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during a media conference in Tehran accused Washington of planning to sabotage Pakistan’s nuclear facilities.

“We have precise information that America wants to sabotage the Pakistani nuclear facilities in order to control Pakistan and to weaken the government and people of Pakistan,” said the Iranian President.

Globalists’ Pakistan War Plan: Destabilization and invasion

Map of Afghanistan and Pakistan

On deaf ears: Obama's message to Israel

Late May's extraordinary sequence of speeches and meetings involving US President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu - and the commentary surrounding it from official circles in both countries - did not make for an edifying interlude. 

The week beginning May 19 will not be remembered for displays of farsighted statecraft, or high moral courage. What we saw instead was brash, unapologetic chauvinism from Netanyahu, an outright refusal of moral leadership from Obama, and acts of political cowardice and opportunism from the US Congress outrageous even by the low standards of that frequently ignominious body.

14 dead as Israel opens fire Palestinians on Golan Heights

MAJDAL SHAMS: Israeli troops opened fire on Sunday as protesters from Syria stormed a ceasefire line in the occupied Golan Heights, with Damascus saying 14 demonstrators were killed.

Hundreds of protesters rushed towards the ceasefire line, cutting through a line of barbed wire as they tried to head into the Golan Heights in a repeat of demonstrations last month that saw thousands mass along Israel’s north.

Pakistan tests Raad air-to-surface cruise missile

Air Launched Cruise Missile, Hatf-VIII (Ra’ad)

Islamabad : Pakistan successfully Flight Tested the natively developed Air Launched Cruise Missile, Hatf-VIII (Ra’ad). Due to the ongoing process of developing better technical parameters of the weapon system, the test was performed. The newly developed Ra’ad missile has a range of over 350 km, and has been exclusively developed to launch from Aerial Platforms.

Bomb Blast in Peshawar and Four American in a bogus number Car nearby

Peshawar: A Planted time bomb on a vehicle has exploded on a bus stop in the Pakistani city of Peshawar, killed at least six people on Sunday, police said.

Near by four Americans were stopped on bogus number plated vehicle but released later on. according to media reports a time bomb was planted on a passenger vehicle on a bus stop which exploded.

Five Myths and Misconceptions about Pakistan

Late last month, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said there was no evidence that Pakistani officials had known that Osama bin Laden lived undetected blocks from the country’s equivalent to West Point. But after the al-Qaeda leader was killed in Abbottabad on May 1, others were skeptical. “How could they not know?” said Sen. John Kerry “Did nobody have some questions about who the hell was living behind those walls?”

In the war on terrorism, where does Pakistan’s loyalty lie? If this nation is our ally, why can’t we trust it? To answer these questions, let’s first tackle some widespread misconceptions about a troubled country torn between the Taliban and the West.

Rafah border crossing closed by Egypt on the Day of Naksa

Gaza : Angry Palestinians have protested on the Rafah terminal after Egypt shut the border crossing with Gaza for the first time since Egypt's new military government has declared that the Rafah crossing will remain open permanently.

Palestinian border officials said three buses filled with 180 passengers had waited several hours to cross the border at Rafah, the Hamas-ruled territory's gateway to Egypt, and some of those waiting responded by forcing the gate open.

Two Nato troops killed in southern Afghanistan

Kandahar : The US-led coalition said Two of their troops were killed in a in separate insurgent attacks Friday in the south Afghanistan. 

The coalition did not disclose further details of the deaths or the troops’ nationalities. The statements on the latest fatalities were released late Friday and Saturday.

More than 200 Nato troops have died so far this year in Afghanistan.

India warns Pakistan over any new terror attacks

SINGAPORE: A top defence official has warned that India would likely retaliate if another terror attack on its soil is linked to members of Pakistan’s security apparatus.

Minister of State for Defence M M Pallam Raju said at a regional security conference in Singapore on Saturday that self-restraint would be hard to justify to the Indian people if there were another attack similar to the one in Mumbai in 2008.

Pakistani Taliban Attack on border check post Clues Nato Backing

Dir, Pakistan: The Pakistani Taliban asserted responsibility Friday for a cross-border attack on a security check post according to Reuters this appeared to signal that the group is Nurtured and Backed by some foreign hand in carrying out large-scale attacks on government and army targets from Nato controlled Afghanistan.

Egypt limits crossings at Gaza border

Palestinian Children At Gaza Border

GAZA:  Egypt government ruled by Army has reimposed restrictions Wednesday on the number of Palestinians allowed to enter from the Gaza Strip at the Rafah crossing, days after permanently opening the border point in a move to ease Israel’s blockade of the Hamas-ruled territory.

Hatem Aweidah, who is in charge of border crossings for the Hamas government in Gaza, said that Egyptian officials had set a limit of 350 to 400 travelers who would be granted entry each day, on the grounds that border personnel could not handle more.

No plans for North Waziristan Operation : Pakistan Army

Islamabad : Pakistan's top military commanders had ruled out an imminent offensive in North Waziristan, contradicting a newspaper report that Pakistan had agreed to assault the militant-infested region following pressure from the United States.

Speaking at a news conference in Mohmand Agency, Lieutenant-General Asif Yasin Malik, commander of the 11th Corps based in Peshawar, said there was no change in his forces' posture in the last weeks.

Egypt Hosni Mubarak to be trialled on 3rd August

CAIRO : Egyptian ousted president Hosni Mubarak is scheduled to go on trial 3rd August 2011 on charges that he conspired in the fatal shooting of protesters and profited from corruption, state media reported.

Activists have taken to the streets in recent weeks to pressure the country’s interim rulers to prosecute Mubarak quickly and aggressively.