Drone strikes vitiated ties: Pak to US
PTI
ISLAMABAD
Pakistan on Friday told the US that the American drone strike on its soil that killed the Afghan Taliban chief had “vitiated” ties even as the two sides held “candid” talks on issues like dismantling of terror safe havens, Afghan peace talks and regional security.
A US delegation which included senior Director for Afghanistan and Pakistan at the US National Security Council Peter Lavoy and Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Olson arrived here Friday morning and held talks with Pakistan's civilian and military leaders.
Lavoy called on Prime Minister's Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz and Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry.
Aziz told the US officials that the May 21 drone strike in Balochistan, which killed Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour, “was not only a violation of Pakistan's sovereignty and breach of the principles of the United Nation's Charter, but has also vitiated bilateral ties.”
General John Nicholson, Commander Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan, and Olson called on Pakistan army chief General Raheel Sharif.
“Regional security situation, with particular reference to border management and peace and stability in Afghanistan in the post the US drone strike came under discussion,” an Inter-Services Public Relations statement said after the meeting.
Expressing “serious concern” on the US drone strike in Balochistan as a violation of Pakistan's sovereignty, General Raheel highlighted as to how it had impacted the mutual trust and respect and was counter productive in consolidating the gains of ''Operation Zarb-e-Azb'' that was targeted at militants.
The army chief stressed that the US action was counter-productive in consolidating the gains of Pakistan military operation in the tribal regions.
“All efforts for durable peace in the region have to be synergised with shared commitment and responsibility in order to make them successful,” Raheel was quoted as saying.
Raheel said that while the operation was launched against terrorists of all hues and sanctuaries of terrorists have been dismantled without discrimination, all stakeholders need to understand Pakistan's challenges with regard to porous border, inter-tribal linkages and decades-old presence of over three million refugees.
In response to US queries on safe havens in Pakistan for the Taliban, it was emphasised that Pakistan is already pursuing its objective of eliminating all militants and terrorists from its soil in accordance with the National Action Plan, a Pakistan Foreign Office statement said.
At the same time, Pakistan would have to safeguard its own security through better border management and early repatriation of Afghan refugees, it said.
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inset
Ensure territory not used for
attacks in India: US to Pak
WASHINGTON: In a strong message, the US has asked Pakistan to ensure that its territory is not used for planning attacks in India and to go after all terror groups operating from its soil, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi said terrorism is being “incubated in India's neighbourhood.”
“This is one of the steps that the US is encouraging Pakistan to do for the improvement of its relations with India,” a State Department spokesperson said.
“We believe that Pakistan and India stand to benefit from practical cooperation and encourage direct dialogue aimed at increasing cooperation and reducing tensions,” Mark Toner told reporters Thursday.
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President Barack Obama endorsed Hillary Clinton as an opinion poll showed her ahead of rival Donald Trump.
Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren also endorses Clinton
Sanders likely to drop out of race next week
Trump's popularity drops by six percent
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Hillary gets Obama
backing for top post
STRAP: To campaign together on June 15; Democrats urged to unite
PTI
WASHINGTON
Hillary Clinton received a big boost to her White House ambitions after top Democrats led by President Barack Obama endorsed her amidst a latest opinion poll showing America's first woman presidential candidate ahead of her Republican rival Donald Trump.
Soon after Obama endorsed former secretary of state Clinton, the Clinton Campaign said they would canvass together in Wisconsin on June 15.
Obama's announcement came moments after he met Clinton's rival Bernie Sanders at the White House. A presidential spokesman said that the Vermont Senator, who remains defiant, was not surprised.
Sanders, 74, who would continue till the last primary in Washington DC next Tuesday, told reporters that he would work with Clinton, 68, to defeat Trump. Many believe it as an indication of his dropping out of the race next week.
“Keep in mind, we have another entire term of this potential confusion if the vote is not allowed this year.
Anybody who thinks that whatever the next president - and God willing, in my view, it'll be Secretary Clinton,” Vice President Joe Biden said.
Like Obama, his remarks came after he met with Sanders.
“In a meeting Friday, Vice President Biden and Senator Sanders discussed the importance of what Senator Sanders' campaign has done to focus the conversation in this country on income inequality, the corrosive influence of big money in our campaigns and the need to reform our politics.
“The Vice President congratulated him on energising so many new voters and bringing them into the Democratic Party.
They discussed the need for the national conversation to continue to focus on the defining fight of our time,” a Biden spokesman said.
Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren also endorsed Clinton.
“Yes, I am ready to get in this fight and work my heart out for Hillary Clinton to become the next US president and to make sure that Donald Trump never gets any place close to the White House,” Warren told MSNBC news channel.
Clinton, 68, now has a three-point edge over Trump, 69, (42-39 per cent) in a hypothetical matchup, Fox News said.
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Trump's popularity has dropped by six per cent, the poll said.
The Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) described Clinton bagging the Democratic nomination as “undoubtedly historic not only because she is the first woman to be nominated for president, but because she has united diverse communities across the country in a movement toward victory”.
Congressman Ami Bera, the only Indian-American in the current Congress, said Clinton would be the next US president.
Trump was highly critical of Obama's endorsement.
“Obama just endorsed crooked Hillary. He wants four more years of Obama - but nobody else does!” Trump said in a tweet.
“Crooked Hillary Clinton will be a disaster on jobs, the economy, trade, healthcare, the military, guns and just about all else. Obama plus!” the 69-year-old New York-based real estate baron said in another tweet.
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ISIS hacks Hindu worker
to death in Bangladesh
PTI
DHAKA
An elderly Hindu ashram worker was on Friday hacked to death by suspected Islamists in Bangladesh, becoming the fourth person from the minority community to be killed in a series of brutal attacks on secular activists in the Muslim-majority nation.
Nityaranjan Pandey, 60, who was working as a volunteer for the past 40 years at the Thakur Anukul Chandra Satsanga Paramtirtha Hemayetpurdham Ashram, was murdered Friday morning in Pabna's Hemayetpur Upazila.
Pandey was taking his routine morning walk when several machete-wielding attackers hacked him in the neck, killing him on the spot only 200 yards away from the ashram, Pabna's police superintendent Alamgir Kabir told PTI over the phone.
It appears, he said, the same group which carried out the recent clandestine attacks on secular and liberal activists and religious minorities killed Pandey.
Residents in the neighbourhood said the killers hit him on the head and neck with machetes and fled the scene.
“He was the most devoted worker of our ashram...to our understanding he never developed personal enmity with anyone during his stay here for the past three decades,” a member of the monastery's managing committee told newsmen at the scene.
The monastery, named after a famous Hindu saint, draws large number of Hindu devotees from across Bangladesh and neighbouring India.
Pandey's murder comes within a week of killings of a Hindu priest, a Christian grocer and wife of an anti-terror police officer.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the murder. The ISIS and al-Qaeda in Indian Peninsula have claimed responsibility for some of the recent attacks although the government denies their presence in Bangladesh.
The latest attack came just hours after police said they launched a nationwide anti-militancy week-long crackdown also engaging elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion and paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh.
TV reports suggested the authorities detained over 100 people and 47 of them were detained alone from Jhinaidah, the scene of the murder of Hindu priest Sunil Ganguly on Sunday.
The security clampdown was launched a day after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina promised to intensify a nationwide anti-terror security clampdown.
“If they (militants) think they could turn Bangladesh upside down, they are wrong...they will be exposed to justice in the soil of Bangladesh and their patrons will also not be spared,” she told the parliament.
In February, militants stabbed to death a Hindu priest at a temple and shot and wounded a devotee who went to his aid.
In April, a liberal professor was brutally hacked to death in Rajshahi city. In the same month, a Hindu tailor was hacked to death in his shop and Bangladesh's first gay magazine editor was brutally murdered along with a friend in his flat in Dhaka by Islamists.
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ISIS leader Baghdadi
injured in air strike
AFP
LONDON
Islamic State's self-proclaimed chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been wounded in an air strike by the coalition forces, media reports said on Friday.
Baghdadi was travelling in a convoy with other senior ISIS members when they were hit by an air strike, the express.co.uk reported.
Citing local sources in Iraq's Nineveh province, the Iraqi news channel Al Sumariya also reported that Baghdadi and other leaders of the Islamist group were wounded on Thursday in a coalition bombing raid.
“The planes of the international coalition yesterday bombed a location where there is a base of ISIS members along the border area between Iraq and Syria, 65 kilometres west of Nineveh,” the report said quoting an Iraqi source.
"According to reports, the ISIS leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was injured along with some members of the organisation who were gathered at that meeting.
"The attack was carried out on the basis of precise intelligence information,” he added.
"Baghdadi and the other ISIS leaders arrived in Iraq from Syria with a convoy of cars,” the source said, adding the area is one of the group’s strongholds.
Citing a spokesman for the US-led coalition, the Express reported that he had also heard the news but had "nothing to confirm this at this time."
On March 18, 2015, Baghdadi and three others were seriously wounded in a similar air strike.
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Belgium arrests new suspect
in Brussels attacks
AFP
BRUSSELS
Belgian police investigating the Brussels airport and metro attacks have arrested a man in connection with "terrorist murders" the federal prosecutor said on Friday.
The 31-year-old man, identified only as Ali EHA, was detained on Thursday during a house search in the Schaerbeek area of the capital, the prosecutor`s office said.
Several people have previously been charged over the March 22 suicide bombings at Zaventem airport and Maalbeek metro station which killed 32 people.
"In connection with the federal investigation after the terrorist attacks in Zaventem and Brussels, a house search was conducted," the statement said.
"The Belgian national Ali EHA, born on September 23, 1984, was arrested and later put in detention by the Investigating Judge for participation in the activities of a terrorist group, terrorist murders and attempted terrorist murders, as a perpetrator, co-perpetrator or accomplice."
It added, "Currently, no further information will be given in the interest of the investigation."
The announcement comes a day after a Belgian court approved the extradition to France of Mohamed Abrini, a key suspect in both the Brussels attacks and the November Paris attacks in which 130 people were killed.
He will not be handed over to French authorities for some time as he is still being investigated over the Belgium attacks.
Abrini has confessed to being the "man in the hat" caught on video with the two airport bombers and who was allegedly preparing to detonate a third bomb before fleeing the scene.
Another key suspect linked to both the Paris and Brussels killings, Salah Abdeslam, was extradited to France in April. Abdeslam`s brother Brahim blew himself up during the Paris massacre.
Both attacks were claimed by the Islamic State group and appear to be linked to the same cell of attackers.
The airport bombings were carried out by Ibrahim El Bakraoui and Najim Laachraoui -- who was the alleged bomb-maker for the November 13 attacks on Paris.
The metro bomber was Khalid El Bakraoui, Ibrahim`s brother.
Among the other suspects charged in Belgium is Swedish national Osama Krayem, 23, arrested on April 8, who reportedly told investigators that he was also to have blown himself up in the metro but instead disposed of the explosives in a toilet.
Belgium is still recovering from the impact of the worst terror attacks in its history.
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New MH370 debris found
on beach
AFP
ANTANANARIVO
New pieces of debris were found in Madagascar by a man searching for parts of missing flight MH370.
Blaine Gibson, who has already found possible debris in Mozambique, made the latest discovery on Riake beach, on the island of Nosy Boraha in north-east Madagascar.
Gibson has sent images of the finds to investigators.
MH370, flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, had 239 people on board when it vanished in March 2014. The Malaysia Airlines flight is presumed to have crashed into the southern Indian Ocean after veering off course.
A number of other pieces of debris, some confirmed to have come from MH370, have been found in countries near Madagascar.
Gibson, a lawyer from Seattle, has funded his own search for debris in east Africa.
This is a man who is now dedicating himself to travelling the globe, finding possible pieces of MH370, a BBC correspondent said.
He does not get involved with the conspiracy theories, he just wants to find evidence.
It`s likely that there are hundreds, maybe even thousands, of MH370 plane parts littered on beaches in that part of the world. Pieces of the puzzle washed up more than two years after the aircraft disappeared.
Although these latest finds must be verified by the authorities, it seems to confirm that the aircraft ended up roughly where they are looking, in the Indian Ocean six days` sail from Australia.
Don Thompson, a British engineer who is part of an informal international group investigating MH370, said he thought one piece was from the back of a seat, and the other could be part of a cover panel on a plane wing.
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anchor
"You have been an instrument of God`s peace, and through you, God has so often turned fear into wonder and joy"
Justin Welby,
Archbishop of Canterbury
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Veteran naturalist and broadcaster David Attenborough, who was born in the same year as the queen, read "Reflections on the Passing of the Years" by Paddington Bear author Michael Bond.
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Queen Elizabeth II begins 3 days of birthday celebrations
AFP
LONDON
A beaming Queen Elizabeth II greeted flag-waving crowds outside St Paul`s Cathedral on Friday despite being delayed by London`s traffic as she made her way to celebrate her official 90th birthday.
The sprightly monarch who still keeps a gruelling calendar of official engagements and events kicked off three days of celebrations with a thanksgiving ceremony at the Baroque-style church.
The queen turned 90 on April 21, but British monarchs also have an official birthday celebration nearer the summer to make the most of the warmer weather in a tradition going back 250 years.
Dressed in canary yellow, the queen entered the 340-year-old cathedral to a fanfare sounded by state trumpeters of the Household Calvary, accompanied by husband Prince Philip, who himself celebrated his 95th birthday on Friday.
Senior royals including Prince Charles, Prince Harry, Prince William and his wife Kate were joined in the congregation by Prime Minister David Cameron, opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn - a noted republican, and new London Mayor Sadiq Khan.
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, paid tribute to the queen`s "wonderful service" during the sermon.
"You have been an instrument of God`s peace, and through you, God has so often turned fear into wonder and joy," he said.
There was a moment of drama when a member of the military fainted on the steps outside the cathedral while waiting for the service to arrive.
To mark the queen`s birthday, the royal family released a double portrait taken by celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz of Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh who have been married for more than 68 years.
The picture shows the queen in pale pink with Prince Philip wearing a shirt in the same colour.
The three-day celebrations have the theme of public service, with members of the NHS, the police and the fire service represented at the thanksgiving service.
The armed services will be honoured on Saturday - the queen`s actual official birthday - and Sunday will celebrate the work of charities.
The royal couple will host a lunch for visiting governors-general at Buckingham Palace following the service, while the streets of London will be lined with well-wishers on Saturday for the pomp of the Trooping of the Colour ceremony.
Around 10,000 guests are due on the Mall, the road leading to Buckingham Palace, for a street party on Sunday.
