Singh invites Zardari, Gilani to watch high voltage match

• Section: Current Affairs - Category: Current Affairs

Pakistan welcomed on Friday IndianPrime Minister Manmohan Singh’s gesture of inviting his counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani and President Asif Ali Zardari to watch the Cricket World Cup semi-final between the twocountries in Mohali on March 30, but deferred a final decision on the invitation till Mr Gilani’s return from Uzbekistan. If accepted, cricket diplomacy will provide fillip to real time diplomacy, where the two countries are set to resume their bilateral dialogue when the interior secretaries meet just two days before their World Cup clash.

“Invitations for President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani from the Indian Prime Minister His Excellency Dr Manmohan Singh to watch the World Cup semi-final to be held at Mohali on March 30 have been received this evening at the Foreign Office,” spokesperson Tehmina Janjua said.

Presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar termed the invitation a welcome gesture.

“We welcome the invitation. The prime minister is out of the country and a decision will be taken when he returns from Tashkent,” Mr Babar told reporters.

Mr Gilani is due to return on Saturday. He was earlier expected to return on Friday, but his flight at the end of the two-day official visit was cancelled because of bad weather over the Himalayas.

A top aide of the prime minister who is with him in Tashkent denied a claim made by TV channels that the premier had accepted the invitation. Consultations were being held with the Foreign Office about a response to the invitation, he added.

“We have asked for details and serious consideration will be given to it once we return to Pakistan,” the official said over phone from Uzbekistan. Pakistan’s High Commissioner in India Shahid Malik appeared upbeat about the prospects of Mr Gilani’s visit to Mohali and termed the invitation a positive development.

In his identical letters to Mr Gilani and Mr Zardari, the Indian prime minister said: “It gives me great pleasure to invite you to visit Mohali and join me and the millions of fans from our two countries to watch the match.”

Mr Singh is highly respected in Pakistan for his personal contribution to resuming the peace process, which was suspended following the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

The two prime ministers successfully negotiated a peace document in Sharm El Sheikh in 2009, but their efforts had been scuttled because of strong opposition in India.

They made another breakthrough in Thimphu (Bhutan) last year, setting in motion concerted efforts for the revival of suspended talks even though it took both sides almost a year to agree on resumption of a full spectrum of dialogue starting on March 28 in Delhi.

Cricket is not new to diplomacy between the two countries. Former military rulers Gen Ziaul Haq and Gen Pervez Musharraf had used cricket matches to improve bilateral relations.

Gen Zia travelled to India in 1987 to witness an India-Pakistan Test match in Jaipur on his own initiative to defuse tensions at that time. In 2005, Gen Musharraf managed to get an invitation from the Indian leadership to watch a one-day match between the two teams in New Delhi.

This is probably the first time that the Indians have themselves invited Pakistani leaders to watch the match. Iftikhar A. Khan adds: Pakistan has urged India to tighten security for its players.

According to knowledgeable sources, a formal request has been made by the interior ministry after Interpol said on Thursday that it had arrested, with the help of Pakistan, a terrorist who was planning to carry out attacks during the World Cup. It also came against the backdrop of a threat from the Hindu Shiv Sena organisation that it would not allow the Pakistani team to play the final in Mumbai. Pakistan will be playing in India for the first time after the Mumbai attacks.

According to an official, India has assured Pakistan that it would take all possible steps to protect its players and make the event safe.

The sources said that India had agreed to grant another 5,000 visas to enable Pakistanis watch the semi-final and the final.

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Malaysia release thousands of Bibles containing ‘Allah’

• Section: Local Communities - Category: Islam

Muslim groups have protested against the Christian use of the word Allah, saying it is an attempt to make Christianity appeal to Muslims.Malaysia’s constitution promises freedom of worship to all faiths.Christian groups say Malay-language Bibles containing the word Allah have repeatedly been blocked at customs over the years, and they are “fed up”. The Bibles are printed in neighbouring Indonesia mainly for Christians in the Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak. They insist they have been using the word for decades. Rev Hermen Shastri, general secretary of the Council of Churches of Malaysia, welcomed the government’s decision to release the Bibles, but said more needed to be done.

“We maintain the position that it is an inalienable right for Christians to read their scriptures in any language,” he said, adding this was a “basic human right”.

Religious divide
The Home Ministry initially justified withholding the Bibles saying there was a legal case under appeal that needed to be resolved.
It was a reference to the ruling by Kuala Lumpur’s High Court in December 2009 that allowed the Catholic newspaper, The Herald, to use the word Allah as a translation for God.
No appeal hearings have yet been scheduled.
Dozens of churches and a few Muslim prayer halls were attacked and burned in the wake of the 2009 ruling, highlighting the intensity of feeling about issues of ethnicity and faith in Malaysia.
The Prime Minister’s office said the government chose to release the Bibles because it was “committed to resolve amicably any inter-faith issues”.
It also said this decision would not jeopardise any future resolution of the larger legal conflict.

Analysts have noted that elections are likely soon in the state of Sarawak, where many Christians live, and the governing National Front parties need to shore up electoral support there.

Christian leaders say the word Allah has been used in their Bibles since before Malaysia was formed as a federal state in 1963.

Rising Malay and Muslim consciousness, sparked by Malay nationalist groups seeking political power, has brought the issue to the fore in recent years.

Malay Muslims make up almost two-thirds of the country’s population, but there are large Hindu and Christian communities.

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US assails Quran desecration

• Section: Current Affairs - Category: Current Affairs

As the US State Department condemned the desecration of the Holy Quran in Florida, one of the two controversial pastors responsible for this act said on Friday he would now visit America’s largest mosque to protest against ‘radical’ Islam.Pastors Terry Jones and Wayne Sapp, who run a fringe church in Florida with less than a dozen followers, have stirred an international controversy by burning a copy of the holy book inside their establishment on March 20. Sate Department’s deputy spokesman Mark Toner told a briefing in Washington that the Obama administration strongly condemned the burning.

Speaking at a press conference on the situation in Libya, the US official termed the burning of the Holy Quran an “abhorrent act”.

Pastor Jones, who created a similar controversy in September last year but later rescinded his plans to burn the book, apparently is enjoying the notoriety the burning has brought to him and his small religious outfit.

On Friday, he said he would visit the Islamic Centre of America, in Dearborn, Michigan, on April 22. The centre is one of the largest mosques in North America and services much of Dearborn’s large Muslim population. He said he would protest outside the mosque “against Shariah laws and radical Islam”.

“It is necessary that we set very clear lines for Muslims that are here in America,” Pastor Jones said in a written statement.

“They are welcome to be here. They are welcome to worship. They are welcome to build mosques. But we do expect them to honour and obey our Constitution.

“If they desire to change our Constitution, in other words to institute Shariah, then these Muslims are no longer welcome in our country. Now is the time that we make a very, very clear statement to radical Islam.”

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Japan warns radioactive levels high around plant after blast

• Section: Current Affairs - Category: Current Affairs

Japan’s prime minister said on Tuesday that radioactive levels had become high around an earthquake-stricken nuclear power plant after an explosion there, and there was a risk of radiation leaking into the atmosphere. Naoto Kan urged people within 30 km of the facility north of Tokyo to remain indoors and the French embassy in the capital warned in an advisory that a low level of radioactive wind could reach Tokyo within 10 hours.

Tuesday’s explosion was the third at the plant since it was damaged in last Friday’s massive earthquake and tsunami. 
Authorities have been trying to prevent meltdowns in all three of the Fukishima Daiichi complex’s nuclear reactors by flooding the chambers with sea water to cool them down.  

As concern about the crippling economic impact of the double disaster mounted, Japanese stocks plunged 7.0 per cent to their lowest level in nearly two years, compounding a drop of 7.6 per cent the day before. 

The full extent of the destruction wreaked by last Friday’s massive quake and tsunami that followed it was still becoming clear, as rescuers combed through the region north of Tokyo where officials say at least 10,000 people were killed. 

“It’s a scene from hell, absolutely nightmarish,” said Patrick Fuller of the International Red Cross Federation from the northeastern coastal town of Otsuchi. 

Kan has said Japan is facing its worst crisis since World War Two and, with the financial costs estimated at up to $180 billion, analysts said it could tip the world’s third-biggest economy back into recession. 

The US Geological Survey upgraded the quake to magnitude 9.0, from 8.9, making it the world’s fourth most powerful since 1900. 

Car makers, shipbuilders and technology companies worldwide scrambled for supplies after the disaster shut factories in Japan and disrupted the global manufacturing chain. 

“Not Chernobyl” 

The fear at the Fukushima complex, 240 km north of Tokyo, is of a major radiation leak after the quake and tsunami knocked out cooling systems. The complex had already seen explosions at its No. 1 and No.3 reactors.  

Jiji news agency said Tuesday’s explosion had damaged the roof and steam was rising from the complex. It also reported some workers had been told to leave the plant, a development one expert had warned beforehand could signal a worsening stage for the crisis. 

The worst nuclear accident since the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine in 1986 has drawn criticism that authorities were ill-prepared and revived debate in many countries about the safety of atomic power. 

Switzerland put on hold some approvals for nuclear power plants and Germany said it was scrapping a plan to extend the life of its nuclear power stations. The White House said US President Barack Obama remained committed to nuclear energy. 

Whilst the Fukuskima plant’s No.1 and No.3 reactors both suffered partial fuel rod meltdowns, operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) had earlier said the No. 2 reactor was now the biggest concern. 

A sudden drop in cooling water levels when a pump ran out of fuel had fully exposed the fuel rods for a time, an official said. This could lead to the rods melting down and a possible radioactive leak. 

TEPCO had resumed pumping sea water into the reactor early on Tuesday. 

“This is nothing like a Chernobyl,” Murray Jennex, a nuclear expert at San Diego State University, said earlier. “At Chernobyl you had no containment structure — when it blew, it blew everything straight out into the atmosphere.” 

An explosion at the Soviet Chernobyl plant sent radioactive fallout across northern Europe. 

US warships and planes helping with relief efforts moved away from the coast temporarily because of low-level radiation.

The US Seventh Fleet described the move as precautionary. 

South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore and the Philippines said they would test Japanese food imports for radiation. 

France’s ASN nuclear safety authority said the accident could be classified as a level 5 or 6 on the international scale of 1 to 7, putting it on a par with the 1979 US Three Mile Island meltdown, higher than the Japanese authorities’ rating. 

Japan’s nuclear safety agency has rated the incidents in the No.1 and No.3 reactors as a 4, but has not yet rated the No. 2 reactor. 

Towns Flattened  

About 850,000 households in the north were still without electricity in near-freezing weather, Tohuku Electric Power Co. said, and the government said at least 1.5 million households lack running water. Tens of thousands of people were missing. 

“The situation here is just beyond belief, almost everything has been flattened,” said the Red Cross’s Fuller in Otsuchi, a town all-but obliterated. “The government is saying that 9,500 people, more than half of the population, could have died and I do fear the worst.” 

Kyodo news agency reported that 2,000 bodies had been found on Monday in two coastal towns alone.

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After US, more countries will get iPad from March 25

• Section: Tech Info - Category: Latest Tech News

The new iPad went on sale on Friday as Apple fans lined up outside stores around the United States to be the first to snap up the sleek touchscreen tablet computer. Apple began selling the iPad 2, which was unveiled by chief executive Steve Jobs last week, online overnight and in its 236 US stores starting at 5:00 pm (2200 GMT). The iPad 2 will be available on March 25 inAustralia, Austria, Belgium, Britain, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

The queues did not appear to be as long as those for the iPhone 4 released in June but thousands of people lined up outside Apple stores in San Francisco, New York, Washington and other cities to get their hands on the device, which is one-third thinner, 15 per cent lighter and faster than the previous model.

Hundreds of people formed a line around the block outside Apple’s flagship 5th Avenue store in New York, including some who camped out overnight swathed in rain gear and equipped with chairs and big umbrellas.

First in line was Hazem Sayed, an applications developer who bought his coveted spot from Amanda Foote, an entrepreneurial 20-year-old from Florida who staked her claim on Wednesday then auctioned the place on Craigslist.

“It went from $150 to $600 in about 10 minutes,” she said. Finally Sayed came in with the winning bid: $900.

Sayed said he’d be immediately taking his new iPad 2 to a business meeting in Dubai. “I’m going to buy two iPads. If I could I’d buy four,” he said.

Many others in the crowd were foreigners seeking to take advantage of an opportunity they won’t have in their own country for a while. The iPad 2 will go on sale in around two dozen other countries in late March.

Mingda Zhong, 18, a student from Nanjing, said that even the original iPad is rare at home. “You cannot buy the iPad 1 very easily,” he said. “Most Chinese do not have it.”Some 300 people formed a line outside the Apple store in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, many of them killing time by playing with their iPads.

In San Francisco, a queue of about 150 people wrapped around the block housing the Apple store in Union Square.

Many were holding places in line to buy iPads for others.

Joshua Leavitt, the first in line, said he was with an online service called TaskRabbit, where people perform services for others for a fee. He said he was buying an iPad for someone who is flying home to Singapore later Friday.

“He’s probably going to have the first iPad 2 in Singapore,” Leavitt said.

James Almeida, 24, a product design student at San Jose State University, was next, waiting to buy an iPad for myself.

“Josh was next to me in line so I asked about TaskRabbit,” Almeida said.

“So now I’m getting one for a guy in Malaysia.”Besides the size and weight, the other major improvement to the touchscreen tablet computer is the addition of front- and rear-facing cameras that allow users to take still pictures and video and hold video conversations.

Apple sold 15 million iPads last year, bringing in $10 billion in new revenue and creating an entirely new category of consumer electronics devices.

Dozens of other companies have been scrambling since then to bring their own tablets to market, most of them relying on Google’s Android software, and Apple is hoping the iPad 2 will keep it a step ahead of its rivals.

But with the exception of the Galaxy Tab from South Korea’s Samsung, rival tablet-makers have enjoyed little success.

Technology research firm Gartner is forecasting sales of 55 million tablet computers worldwide this year and another research firm, Forrester, said Apple has little to worry about for now.

“Competing tablets to the iPad are poised to fail, which is why we’re forecasting that Apple will have at least 80 per cent share of the US consumer tablet market in 2011,” Forrester said.

More than 65,000 applications have been created for the iPad, while there are currently only about 100 crafted for tablets running Android.

The iPad 2 is selling at the same prices as the original iPad, ranging from $499 for the 16-gigabyte version to $829 for the top-of-the-line 64-GB model.

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Breakthrough likely in ISI-CIA talks

• Section: Current Affairs - Category: Current Affairs

The Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) are close to a reset in their knotty relations, with behind-the-scene negotiations reportedly making progress. A breakthrough is likely in days ahead. An end to the feud will not only help resolve the dispute over immunity for jailed CIA operative Raymond Davis but also help both countries overcome the hard patch in their ties.

“There are some positive developments in ongoing negotiations,” a security official told Dawn on Monday without specifying how much ground the two sides had covered.

He, however, said both sides were ‘grudgingly accommodating each other’ to save the overall bilateral relationship.

Though there are hardly any evident markers to judge progress in dialogue on affairs of spy agencies, US Embassy’s reaction to the Lahore High Court (LHC) avoiding a ruling on immunity for Davis was quite telling.

US Embassy Spokesman Alberto Rodriguez, in a very brief comment, said: “US position is well known and we are working with Pakistani authorities to resolve the issue.”

His reaction definitely contrasted that of Ambassador Cameron Munter after the previous hearing in the case by the LHC (Feb 17), when he said: “The United States is disappointed that the government of Pakistan did not certify that Raymond Davis has diplomatic immunity”.

The immunity dispute quite expectedly remained unresolved in the LHC because Davis is no more central to this controversy, which has been overtaken by other matters pertaining to the problematic Pakistan-US security cooperation whose bedrock is the collaboration between ISI and CIA.

The Davis episode was just the latest manifestation of the disquiet in the relations between the agencies that had been going on for some time and had found varying expressions, be it the frequent CIA allegations of Pakistanis patronising jihadi groups and being insincere in fight against extremists or filing of a law suit in a New York court by relatives of Mumbai carnage against ISI chief or blowing the cover of CIA’s Islamabad station head Jonathan Banks, leading to his recall.

Notwithstanding what face this friction in ties got from time to time, US officials confirm that there had been divergences over strategic interests and timing of anti-militancy operations—a reference to Pakistan military’s reluctance to go after the North Waziristan-based Haqqani network.

As the situation reached the tipping point and both the agencies engaged in an ugly public spat, ISI sought a redefinition of its terms of engagement with CIA.

ISI’s litany of complaints against CIA included the American agency developing its own network of undeclared spies and disregarding ISI as an institution and sacrifices of its personnel.

The progress in negotiations achieved so far, a source said, was made possible because of cool heads on both sides, who realised that keeping the ISI-CIA relationship intact was in the interest of both the agencies.

Analysts believe the outcome of the dialogue was crucial for settling the row over immunity for Davis.

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