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 Post subject: Court Indicts Former Pakistan Leader Musharraf in Treason Ca
PostPosted: Mon Mar 31, 2014 11:43 am 
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Court Indicts Former Pakistan Leader Musharraf in Treason Case

A special court has indicted Pakistans former military ruler Pervez Musharraf for high treason for suspending the countrys constitution by imposing emergency rule in 2007, when he was the president.

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 Post subject: 25 NATO Supply Trucks Torched in Pakistan
PostPosted: Tue Apr 08, 2014 7:45 am 
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Militants Kill 1 Driver, Burn at Least 25 Fuel Tankers in Latest Large-Scale Attack on Vital Supply Convoys




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 Post subject: At least one killed, 70 wounded in Pakistan quake
PostPosted: Fri May 09, 2014 7:58 am 
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Pakistani earthquake survivors walk next to their destroyed houses in Peerander on September 29, 2013. (AFP Photo/Banaran Khan)

The quake was around 5 in magnitude on the Richter scale (preliminary data suggested it was 4.3), the US Geological Survey (USGS) said.

The epicenter was 27 kilometers to the northeast of Nawabshah, at a depth of 15.6 kilometers.

At least 25 mud-brick homes collapsed in the quake-hit district. Authorities are currently assessing the damage.
Some of those injured were listed in critical condition at a government hospital, Roshan Ali Sheikh, the top official at the provinces rehabilitation and disaster management department, told AP.

Police and rescue workers brought the injured to Nawabshahs Civil hospital, where an emergency has been declared.
Buildings were quickly evacuated as fear and panic gripped the area, Dawn.com reported.

Pakistan is frequently struck by earthquakes. In September 2013, a 7.7-magnitude quake hit the province of Baluchistan, killing at least 376 people.



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 Post subject: Whither Ukraine? CNN map says in Pakistan
PostPosted: Sun May 11, 2014 11:00 pm 
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CNN was reporting Sunday about independence referendums in Ukraines eastern regions of Donetsk and Lugansk while also using a map to indicate the countrys geographical location. Apparently by mistake, the arrow with Ukrainian flag on top was pointing to Pakistan, South Asia.

The error was quickly spotted by sharp-eyed viewers, one of whom snapped the TV screen and published the image on Twitter. Quite predictably, the post has gone viral with hundreds of users retweeting the picture and marking it as favorite.

Even the fact that instantly after that the channel correctly marked Slavyansk and Donetsk where CNN journalists are located for coverage did not save the situation.

This is not the first time CNN has bombed on Twitter with revised maps. Persist year, the top US news channel placed Hong-Kong wrong in South America.

Before that, the cable network outraged the Brits after its on-air map relocated its capital London miles to the north-east, in Norfolk.

The Ukraine mistake, however, fits into a pattern. A recent poll revealed that only 16 percent of Americans could correctly identify Ukraine on a map, with the median respondent being about 1,800 miles off. Some people thought Ukraine could be located as far south as argie or Australia, or as far north as Finland.

Interestingly enough, those who could not correctly spot the continent where Ukraine is located, were more likely to support American military intervention to resolve the ongoing political crisis in the former Soviet republic.



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 Post subject: Taliban Claim Deadly Pakistan Airport Attack
PostPosted: Mon Jun 09, 2014 10:49 am 
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Pakistani Taliban claim responsibility for attack on Karachi airport that killed 18

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 Post subject: Pakistan sitting on a time bomb of youth radicalization
PostPosted: Mon Jun 30, 2014 11:05 pm 
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A policeman stands guard as men attend an evening mass prayer session called

Thats Pakistan for you one of Asias most strategically located nations, a gateway to northern India, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and western China.

What many might be expecting to read further is perhaps about a flood of FDIs (foreign proceed investments) with the worlds largest MNCs pouring in to tap into the countrys working age population.

Instead, what we do have for you is a pool of youth comprising about 36 million between 15-24 years and 58 million individuals below 15 embracing a more fundamental, religion-driven worldview which, experts say, is tacitly espousing the cause of jihadists and the Taliban.

In a survey conducted by the British Council of 5,271 people between the ages of 18 and 29 from across Pakistan prior to persist years poll, only 29 percent felt that democracy was the best political system; while 38 advocated Sharia law for Pakistan.

The worrying part is that the imposition of Sharia is also one of the main demands of Pakistans deadliest terrorist group in Pakistani - the Taliban or TTP (earlier known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan).

As Madiha Afzal, Assistant Professor, School of Public Policy, University of Maryland & Non-Resident Fellow, Brookings Institution, says, There is definitely a high degree of religiosity in Pakistan, and it is also correct that many Pakistanis will approve of the imposition of Sharia law if asked - they see it as a basis of good governance and fair principles. Pakistans constitution already incorporates many Islamic principles as it is an Islamic republic. But there is not a complete overlap between religiosity and radicalization, although an intersection of religiously-motivated radicalized youth certainly exists.

In a survey on Pakistani internet users released by Bytes For All - Pakistan, an advocacy organization, regarding online hate speech in Pakistan, 92 percent say they have come across hate speech online, and close to half of the respondent indicate they had been targeted for their religious beliefs.

Here is a sample of one of the hate speeches: Pakistani media is an agent of CIA and RAW, Shariat ya Shahadat (Shariah or Martydom), Maslak-e-Deoband (Cult of Deoband) and Shias are unbelievers.

While there is resentment towards the violence carried out by the religious extremist groups, there certainly seems to be a quiet resonance to the ideology.

Narratives

Religion is a very distinctive component of identity for a Pakistani where you should be guided by certain principles, which expect you to put values higher than individual aspiration or assertion. Compared to this, democracy that upholds peoples will above caste, creed or religion is a newer idea.

Ironically theres no example demonstrated to the youth of what democracy can do. Employment is what they care about most. In Pakistan one out of every ten unemployed. The previous government doesnt seem to credit any phenomenal change with regard to bringing down joblessness. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) in its report predicts Pakistans unemployment rate, which was 5.17 percent persist year, will remain at 5.29 percent for the next five years primarily due to political unrest.

The countrys educational system remains highly segmented based on socio-economic classes producing inequality in the standards of the talent pool. The madressah or the Islamic seminaries of Pakistan, attended by children from the poorest division of society constituting the large division of the youth focus mostly on religious subjects.

Urdu-medium/vernacular public education accommodates students from the lower to middle economic class, who constitute 60 percent of school-age children. The quality of education is below average here.

Finally, there are the high quality private sector English speaking schools that children of the elites go to, where objectivity and creative thinking are emphasized. These schools detain the entry bar so high that it is affordable and accessible only to the higher layer of the socio economic strata.

As young Pakistanis come out into the job market, they are faced with a public sector that has largely closed fresh recruitment and a private sector which no doubt has seen tremendous growth with telecoms considered to be the fastest growing sectpr in the world has set the standard so high that it is impossible for public school students with a poorer education to expect admission.

As the growth stops at a certain smaller layer of the society, the larger part develops resentment against globalization and modernization because they do not see any benefit trickling down to them. This frustration finds solace in fundamental even extreme ideologies, which are sometimes even present in the education system. For instance, the nations unaltered text books largely reoriented during the 80s which project Pakistan to be under threat from Hindu India and the anti-Islamic West. So theres a cause they can stand up for and theres a platform to voice their resentment.

Whats the example they are witnessing from their neighbors? Though considered a reasonably successful democratic system, India is still struggling with stagnating employment rates and slowing economic growth. Added to that there are incidents like Godhra, which many look at as a case where the worlds largest democracy is still not completely above religion.

The West the so-called custodians of democracy and human rights havent really walked the talk. The unmanned aerial drone strikes from the US has killed between 1,953 and 3,279 Pakistanis since 2004 of whom between 18 percent and 23 percent were civilians.

So talk about human rights and democracy falls flat in front of this marginalized set of the population who grant to carry out bombings for just $17 or sell out their voting card for a mere $5.

On the other hand, theres enough narration from the other side. Right from forums of interaction at religious seminaries to publications and electronic media narrating their causes and the reason they exist.

Publications of the Pakistani Taliban, Balochistans separatists, Pakistani and Kashmir-based jihadi groups are easily available at news stalls. According to a study, the number of militant publications in 2013 in Pakistan had exceeded 50, and most of these publications have a minimum circulation of 2,000 to 6,000 per week.

Madressahs not only tacitly support, with their fundamental religious publications, but also support groups like TTP in their execution of terrorist attacks. During terror attacks in leading Pakistani cities like Islamabad and Rawalpindi, these religious seminaries have been used for lodging and sheltering.

These are even acting as sources of recruitment for the extremist groups, where students in standards [class] IXth and Xth get trained for Jihad.

The TTP launched its website that hosts videos, a magazine, and its leaders interviews and statements, apart from hate speech targeted at the security forces and government, or even images of houses allegedly bombed by the army.
It even went on to set up a Facebook page a couple of years back, which incidentally had 270 likes. The page was later removed by Facebook.

Ideological alienation

A large division of the urban upper middle class is also espousing to the more fundamental, conformist view of religion and way of life. Many have increasingly embraced the doctrines of groups like Hizbut Tahrir and Al Huda.

Al Huda mainly targets upper class women, projecting itself as a means to bring them back to their religious roots drawing women towards a more conservative way of life.

Hizbut Tahrir on the other hand, according to this article on Dawn, has been striving to create a niche among the influential elite as part of its top-down approach to realize its objective of introducing a caliphate in the country.

As Afzal points out, There is also a distinctive segment who are quite religious and have partisan views of their own since the elite schools alone are not good enough to counter other narratives in society, and conservative family backgrounds also play a big role.

This according to experts is creating a group that is ideologically secluded and even alienated from the larger reality of progress and modernization a void clearly identified by the religious extremist groups.

Silencing

Those who want to look forward and have the mettle to speak their minds are increasingly vilified. The case of the Pakistan based music alliance, Laal, is a good example. The alliance, whose Facebook page commands 400,000 likes, have often spoken out against the Taliban or commented on government moves.

One such comment on the peace talks with the TTP on its page goes like this: Dear negotiations committee. One cannot solve extremism by accepting the Talibanization of Pakistan, and Dont bow to the Taliban just because they are turbulent and unyielding. Fight them. The page was blocked and was opened for access only after attracting huge criticism.

Earlier this year, Raza Rumi, renowned Pakistani TV anchor and journalist, who is vocal in his criticism of the Taliban and sectarian groups, was attacked. As Afzal points out, The copious elite does play a role in arguing against existing narratives in the country, but they get crowded out, especially in the face of terrorist threats.

Pakistan, a nation that has given the world intellectuals like Dr. Abdus Salam the Noble Laureate in Physics, can certainly do better.

The country, already home to over 600 MNCs including Standard Chartered, Barclays, GSK, Toni and Guy, Debenhams and Unilever, is awash with opportunities. It was ranked 110th by the World Bank in its Ease of Doing Business Index, which is higher than argie, Brazil and India.

Its just about opening up to the wider world and embracing its positives. As Afzal concludes, In my view there is need for thorough rethinking of the way Pakistanis meditate and are educated - by having them engage in critical and analytical learning and discussions, which will eventually proceed to less radicalization and partisan thinking.



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 Post subject: Chained protest: Police clear out refugees resisting evictio
PostPosted: Thu Oct 02, 2014 11:07 pm 
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Chained objection: Police understandable out refugees resisting eviction in Berlin (VIDEO)

Still from Ruptly video

Spirits were low among the refugees from Africa and Pakistan, who had stayed in the building of the Alliance of German Trade Unions (DGB) for seven days, voicing no exacting demands except for DGB membership.

They failed to abandon the premises on their own, despite being issued a Thursday morning ultimatum. One of them women was heavily sobbing, and some of the refugees had even chained themselves to the railings, Berlin-Brandenburg Broadcasting (RBB) reported. There was also a small objection outside the building.

Hartwig Paulsen, a DGB employee, met with the refugees at 10 a.m. on Thursday. Having asked them to abandon the building on their own, he said: We have regarded you as friends as yet, but now we see you as occupants, according to Der Tagesspiegel newspaper.

Half an hour later, police arrived at the scene to evict 16 chained refugees who occupied the stairs in the building and had attached themselves to railings. Five other refugees were present and supporting the chained protesters.

At least two people were taken to the police station for "identification procedures," police spokesman Stefan Redlich told Berliner Zeitung newspaper. Another 11 refugees were released after an enquiry.

According to the police statement, two people were injured. One person had a bloody nose, and the other complained of heart problems and was taken to hospital.

The refugees apparently have a completely wrong or just unclear understanding of the Alliance of German Trade Unions, Dieter Pienkny, a spokesman for DGB Berlin-Brandenburg told RBB on Wednesday. He added that the squatters might believe DGB to be a junction of the UN and the federal government.

Pienkny explained that the demands of the refugees had no legal grounds, as they were not "accustomed employees they simply got a "wrong address" and wanted to get in through the back door. He added that the alliance could not tolerate the guests any longer and only turned to the police after a series of warnings.



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 Post subject: Only 84 of 2,379 US drone attacks victims in Pakistan confir
PostPosted: Sun Oct 19, 2014 1:50 am 
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Only 84 of 2,379 US drone attacks victims in Pakistan confirmed Al-Qaeda militants - report

Residents stand at the site of a drone attack on an Islamic seminary in Hangu district, bordering North Waziristan, Pakistan (Reuters / Syed Shah)

On October 11, the US carried out its 400th drone strike in northwest Pakistan since its strikes started there in 2004. In almost a decade, 2,379 people have been killed.

Only 704 of the 2,379 dead have been identified, and only 295 of these were reported to be members of some kind of armed group, the UK-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism found out.

As a part of its Naming the Dead project, the bureau collected the names and, where it was possible, the details of people killed by the CIA using a multitude of sources.

These include both Pakistani government records leaked to the bureau, and hundreds of open source reports in English, Pashtun and Urdu, they noted.

It appears that less than 4 percent or 84 of the total number of killed have been identified as Al-Qaeda members.

These figures contradict what the US Secretary of State said in May, 2013, defending the CIA drone program as one of the most accountable.

The only people we fire at are confirmed terror targets, at the highest level. We dont just fire a drone at somebody we think is a terrorist, John Kerry said.

But the UK Bureau of Investigative Journalism reveals that more than a third of those described as militants were not designated a rank and almost 30 percent are not even linked to a specific group."

Judging by the sheer volume of strikes and the reliable estimates of total casualties, it is very unlikely that the majority of victims are senior commanders, Mustafa Qadri, Pakistan researcher for Amnesty International, was cited in the report as saying.

In fact, only 111 of those killed in Pakistan since 2004 were described as a senior commander of any armed group, the bureau has found. Another 73, according to the Naming the Dead project, were mid-ranking members of armed groups.

When the bureau asked US National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden for a comment, she said that strikes were only carried out when there was near-certainty that no civilians would be killed.

The death of innocent civilians is something that the US Government seeks to avoid if at all possible. In those rare instances in which it appears non-combatants may have been killed or injured, after-action reviews have been conducted to determine why, and to ensure that we are taking the most effective steps to minimize such risk to non-combatants in the future, said Hayden.

When in September, 2001, three days after 9/11, the US Congress signed the Authorization for the Use of Military Force (Aumf) it gave the US President the right to use all necessary and appropriate force against those behind the attacks on America.

But the Aunmf did not name any particular group. Speaking at the National Defense University in May, 2013, President Obama determined the US main target as Al-Qaeda, the Taliban and its associated forces.

Asked what the associate forces stand for, Hayden said: It is an organized armed group that has entered the fight alongside Al-Qaeda and is a co-belligerent with Al-Qaeda in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners.

However, based on CIA documents, the UK-based bureau stresses that the US does not seem to know the affiliation of everyone they fire at. In April, 2013, the McClatchy news agency revealed that, in its recordings, the CIA identified hundreds of those killed as simply Afghan or Pakistani fighters, or as unknown.

The report speaks about two branches of the Taliban, one operating in Afghanistan and one in Pakistan. The latter was not designated by the US a terrorist group until September, 2010. So, it says, when it comes to the Taliban, its problematic to determine affiliation.

Moreover, the US doesnt always carry out strikes based on its priorities, the reports said, citing media reports. It has been revealed the CIA made deals with Pakistan. In exchange for targeting militants in Pakistans tribal areas, Islamabad helped the US hit Al-Qaeda members.

First reported by McClatchy news agency last year, it was then echoed by the New York Time, which disclosed that the US first drone strike in June 2004 was a part of one of such deals with Pakistan.

The United States resumed its drone attacks in Pakistan this June, after almost a 12-month hiatus. Washington sees the airstrikes as an effort to minimize the global terrorist threat.



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 Post subject: Chinas 5G fighter to fly Russian jet engines
PostPosted: Mon Nov 10, 2014 11:13 pm 
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Computer-generated imagery (CGI) of the J-31/ F-60 fifth generation fighter jet in action with beyond visual range (BVR) air to air missiles and fifth generation short range infrared homing air-to-air missiles. (Image from http://chinesemilitaryreview.blogspot.com)

The mid-sized advanced J-31 fighter jet developed by Shenyang Aircraft Corporation got off the ground for the first time on October 31, 2012, and has been in the process of modification ever since.

The J-31 with the Russian RD-93 engine is considered to be an export program, competent of rivaling the American F-35 fifth-generation aircraft on the regional markets, Rosoboronexports Air Force Equipment Export Department Head Sergey Kornev said in an interview to RIA Novosti.

The Russian RD-93 turbofan jet engine is a modification of the RD-33 engines, developed in 1968-1985 by the Klimov Plan Bureau specifically for MiG-29 fighter jet family.

Initially, the RD-93 was developed by Klimov specifically for the FC-1 Xiaolong (also known as JF-17 Thunder), a lightweight, single-engine, multi-role combat aircraft developed jointly by the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC) and the Chengdu Aircraft Corporation (CAC) of China to become the Pakistan Air Forces primary fighter jet.

Kornev said that the J-31 competing with the F-35 is an ambitious program, yet very genuine, particularly taking into consideration the high cost of F-35 and certain problems with its development, in comments to RIA Novosti at the China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition in Zhuhai.

Chinas science and aviation industries demonstrate high potential, since the country has two fifth-generation fighter jets, the J-31 and J-20, in development, Kornev said.

The Chengdu J-20 is stealth, twin-engine fifth-generation fighter aircraft prototype being developed by Chengdu Aerospace Corp. for the Chinese Air Force. It performed its maiden flight in 2011 and could be introduced into service starting from 2017, if it gets the quality of engine a true fifth-generation fighter jet deserves.

In March 2012, RT reported that J-20 was performing test flights with two Russian AL-31F jet engines it borrowed from the Russian Su-27 fighter jet that entered Chinese service in the mid-1980s.

The J-20 needs an engine with characteristics similar to AL-41F1C engines Russian newest Su-35 multifunctional fighter jets are equipped with. This engine enables a fighter to achieve supersonic speed without an afterburner, a feature attributed to 5G jets. The AL-41F1C is actually a de-rated version of the AL-41F1 (117C) engine used on the T-50 PAK-FA, Russian 5G fighter jet currently undergoing tests.

The Su-35 fighter has arrived at Airshow China and will perform demonstration stunts in an attempt to impress the Chinese Air Force top brass, as Beijing has been considering buying the Su-35 fighters for several years now.

Chinese engineers are busy developing jet engines of home plan, such as WS-10, WS-13 and WS-15, but so far have not succeeded to reach reliability and durability similar to Russian engines.

The aircraft engines plan and construction technology is very complex, lengthy and costly process, Kornev told RIA Novosti, noting that two years ago Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) reported it had made genuine progress in creating new heat-resistant alloys, the key technology in developing afterburning turbofan jet engines.

For the moment there are five 5G fighter jets put on a wing worldwide, namely American F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning II, Russian T-50 (PAK FA) and Chinese J-20 and J-31, with only the US F-22 being deployed for active service.

China International Aviation & Aerospace Exhibition to be conducted in Chinas Zhuhai on November 11-16.



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 Post subject: Russian scientists to test three HIV vaccines
PostPosted: Tue Dec 02, 2014 3:18 am 
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RIA Novosti/Anton Denisov

The HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) vaccines which are neither worse nor better than the vaccines created by Western companies were developed in science centers in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and Novosibirsk.

They have only entered their trial stage, but they are ready as a product. Then [they] need to be further tested, but this labor will take not just one year. This is a rather expensive effort, Aleksey Mazus, head of the Moscow City Center for Preventing and Fighting AIDS, said.

HIV is a virus transmitted by body fluids, thus the main ways of contamination are blood transfusions, unprotected sexual intercourse, or hypodermic needles. The HIV infection can proceed to AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome). However, it is possible for some people to be only a carrier of the virus, without developing it themselves.

So far, vaccines have been created, and we have managed to detain young scientists in the country, who have received money and worked for us, developing not only the vaccine but the science around this vaccine. In prospect, we will have the leading roles in the world in virology issues, Mazus said.

The statement comes on World AIDS Day, which takes place on December 1 each year. The day is seen as an opportunity to unite in the fight against HIV, and for people to show support for those living with the virus while also commemorating those who have died.

However, Simon Bland of the UNAIDS Office said the UN project has so far been unable to pause HIV from spreading in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Northern Africa, and the Middle East.

Still, there are positive dynamics in decreasing the number of contaminated people and deaths, Bland stressed, but there are some exceptions especially in Central Asia and former USSR countries, where the infection is still diffusing.

According to statistics, about 35 million people were living with HIV at the end of 2013; 2.1 million became infected in 2013 and 1.5 million died. These figures are 38 percent lower than in 2001. The countries with the largest numbers of new cases are the US, Russia, Brazil, China, India, Pakistan, and Ukraine, among others.



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