Abbas, Palestinians should die: Israeli rabbi

JERUSALEM – An influential Israeli rabbi has said God should strike the Palestinians and their leader with a plague, calling for their death in a fiery sermon before Middle East peace talks set to begin next week.

A campaign poster depicting Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, spiritual head of the religious Shas party, is seen on a public bus in Jerusalem in this March 21, 2006 file picture. The influential Israeli rabbi has said God should strike the Palestinians and their leader with a plague, calling for their death in a fiery sermon before Middle East peace talks set to begin next week. REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis/Files

“Abu Mazen and all these evil people should perish from this earth,” Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, spiritual head of the religious Shas party in Israel’s government, said in a sermon late Saturday, using Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s popular name.

“God should strike them and these Palestinians — evil haters of Israel — with a plague,” the 89-year-old rabbi said in his weekly address to the faithful, excerpts of which were broadcast on Israeli radio Sunday.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu distanced himself from the comments and said Israel wanted to reach a peace deal with the Palestinians that would ensure good neighborly relations.

“The comments do not reflect Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s view or the position of the government of Israel,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.

The United States said Yosef’s comments were “inflammatory” and an impediment to peace efforts.

“As we move forward to relaunch peace negotiations, it is important that actions by people on all sides help to advance our effort, not hinder it,” State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said in a statement.

President Barack Obama’s administration is hosting Israeli and Palestinian leaders in Washington this week to try to restart direct Mideast peace negotiations after a nearly two-year hiatus.

The Iraqi-born cleric has made similar remarks before, most notably in 2001, during a Palestinian uprising, when he called for Arabs’ annihilation and said it was forbidden to be merciful to them.

He later said he was referring only to “terrorists” who attacked Israelis. In the 1990s, Yosef broke with other Orthodox Jewish leaders by voicing support for territorial compromise with the Palestinians.

Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said Yosef’s latest comments were tantamount to calling for “genocide against Palestinians.” The rabbi’s remarks, he said, were “an insult to all our efforts to advance the negotiations process.”

Arriving at Netanyahu’s office for a weekly cabinet meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Eli Yishai of Shas declined to comment when asked by reporters about Yosef’s sermon.

Netanyahu and Abbas are due to resume direct peace talks in Washington Thursday, the first such negotiations in 20 months in a peace process that commits both sides to avoid incitement, which has included anti-Jewish sermons by Palestinian clerics.

How Bush and Blair plotted in secret to stop Brown

Tony Blair attempted to prolong his time as prime minister after he was warned that George W Bush’s US administration had “grave doubts” about Gordon Brown’s suitability to follow him into No10, well placed sources have revealed.

Patrick Hennessy and Andrew Alderson

Mr Blair was told that President Bush and those around him would have ‘big problems’ working with Mr Brown

The White House warnings, which were reiterated by other leading US-based figures, played a key role in Mr Blair’s attempt to cling on to power until at least 2008, and to groom David Miliband as his successor, The Sunday Telegraph has been told.

Mr Blair hatched his plot to stay on longer than planned after being told that President Bush and those around him would have “big problems” working with Mr Brown.

Senior officials in the US administration sounded the alert after a meeting between Mr Brown and Condoleezza Rice, Mr Bush’s secretary of state, in which Mr Brown “harangued” her over American policy on aid, development and Africa.

After the uncomfortable session, sources said she reported her misgivings to the White House, and they were sent on in turn to Mr Blair.

After taking the warnings on board, Mr Blair signalled his intention to stay on at No 10 until at least 2008, the year of the US election to choose a successor to Mr Bush.

However, he was forced to abandon this plan following a “coup” led by Mr Brown’s supporters. Mr Brown eventually became prime minister in June 2007 and pursued a foreign policy that was far more independent of America than Mr Blair’s had been.

The “understanding” between Mr Bush and Mr Blair was revealed to The Sunday Telegraph by well-placed Whitehall sources. However, the former prime minister’s spokesman last night denied that a “message” had been sent.

One source said: “This at last answers the question of why Tony Blair tried so hard to stay on: the Americans were far from happy about the imminent succession of Gordon Brown. They left him in no doubt about that.”

Mr Blair is to address this sequence of events in his keenly awaited memoir, A Journey, which will be published this week. However, ahead of publication, this newspaper has pieced together the central narrative of his final years in power.

The fact that Mr Blair acted on US warnings over his likely successor will dismay many in the Labour party who were deeply unhappy about Mr Blair’s readiness to back Mr Bush at all times, particularly over the decision to wage war with Iraq in 2003.

Following the meeting with Miss Rice, Mr Brown’s advisers were convinced that Mr Blair was starting to groom Mr Miliband, the then environment secretary, as his successor. They were particularly enraged when Mr Blair described Mr Miliband in an interview as “my Wayne Rooney”.

However, Mr Blair also played what Brown allies now see as a “double game”, warning the then chancellor that he needed to adopt a different attitude towards senior American politicians.

Mr Miliband, who failed to challenge Mr Brown for the top job in 2007, will this week step up his campaign to become Labour’s leader. He will tell a rally of 1,000 supporters in London tomorrow that under him the party would be a “living, breathing movement for change in every community”.

In the summer of 2006, Mr Blair’s trip to America was widely seen to be his US swansong. It included a meeting with Mr Bush in Washington. However, on his return his allies noticed a new-found determination to stay on at No 10. In the late summer he gave a notorious interview in which he denied any plan to leave office any time soon.

It was this, along with what was seen in Labour circles as an”unacceptable” refusal to condemn Israel for its attack on Lebanon, that sparked the coup that forced him to name his departure date.

A senior Labour source said: “After Condi Rice met Gordon for the first time she complained to the White House about the way he behaved. No 10 suddenly starting getting these messages from the White House that there were grave doubts about the desirability of Gordon taking over. It wasn’t just the White House either, it was other people based in the US, business leaders, people like that.”

Mr Blair is expected to use his book to launch a passionate justification of going to war with Iraq and to speak warmly of Mr Bush. He is likely also to spell out his regret that he did not move faster to reform public services in Britain, often in the face of opposition from Mr Brown.

As well as political disclosures, the Royal family is waiting with great interest to see what the former prime minister writes about his relationship with the Queen, Prince Philip, the Prince of Wales and the late Diana, Princess of Wales. The Sunday Telegraph disclosed three years ago that, according to friends, the Queen had been left “exasperated and frustrated” at the legacy of Tony Blair’s decade in power.

The monarch had become “deeply concerned” by many of New Labour’s policies, in particular what she saw as Downing Street’s lack of understanding of countryside issues, her closest confidants reported.

However, Royal sources said this weekend that the Queen and Mr Blair had always had a good working relationship at their weekly private audiences and that he was always “charming” towards her.

Mr Blair will not be in Britain on Wednesday for the launch of his book, the proceeds of which are being donated to the Royal British Legion. Instead he will attend a high-level White House dinner hosted by Barack Obama and with a guest list including Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister. Mr Blair will pre-record an interview with Andrew Marr, to be screened on the BBC on Wednesday.

New campaign to counter US anti-Islam sentiment

WASHINGTON – A coalition of US Muslims launched a Web-based campaign Monday aimed at countering what they called a rising tide of anti-Islamic sentiment and to show themselves as Americans who love their country.

Front page of MyfaithMyvoice.com

The group launched a website and online video featuring brief clips from American Muslims, including young children, with comments such as “I’m an American,” and “I don’t want to take over this country.”

The campaign is in response to the controversy over plans to build an Islamic center near the site of the World Trade Center in New York destroyed in the September 11, 2001 attacks.

The group said it takes no position on the Ground Zero mosque itself, but wants to counter the anti-Muslim atmosphere stemming from the polemic.

“We are concerned about this rising tide of anti-Muslim sentiment,” said Hassan Ahmad, a Washington lawyer who is one of the coordinators of the campaign.

Ahmad added that “there is no way that this coalition could take a position on (on the New York mosque) because we are just a diverse coalition of ordinary Muslims.”

He added: “There is no organization behind this, there is no mosque that can take ownership of this. This is just the voice of American Muslims, plain and simple.”

David Hawa, producer of the one-minute video, said it offers a message that is “fresh and unique.”

“We often hear from certain circles that Muslims are trying to take over America of impose our faith on you,” Hawa said. “We are trying to showcase that this not what we are trying to do.”

The group’s Web page, http://www.myfaithmyvoice.com, allows Muslims to upload their own video clips and comments and “speak directly to the American public about what is in their hearts and on their minds.”

For now, the message is distributed only on the Internet, although the group may raise funds to air the ad on television later, organizers said.

The campaign comes amid an increasingly heated campaign over the Islamic center proposed near Ground Zero, which has provoked demonstrations from supporters and opponents and stirred up emotions nearly nine years after the September 11 attacks.

Hassan said the new campaign would not address whether to build the center but that Muslims are “talking about the anti-Muslim rhetoric and fear-mongering that has unfortunately stemmed from that.”

The liberal lynch mob

Mahreen Aziz Khan

This past week has seen columns, in these very pages, promoting a new brand of hatred – self-hatred – inciting loathing amongst Pakistanis for themselves and their culture. Using the horrific Sialkot killings, these “western, liberal” columnists have labelled all Pakistanis as “degenerates” and “barbaric”, hurling abusive and shameful generalisations to justify a verbal lynching of Pakistan, its culture and people.

The thrust of one column was as follows: the Sialkot murders mean that ALL Pakistanis should now view themselves as “human cockroaches” that should be “quarantined” from the rest of the world. So what should the wretched Rwandans call themselves? They wiped out half of their population in a killing spree. Is quarantine enough or should they be culled to prevent them exporting their genocidal tendencies? A liberal fatwa is issued: due to the Sialkot atrocity all Pakistanis are now “undeserving of sympathy”. Not even the ones stranded in swirling waters, bereft of food and shelter, not the millions of hardworking labourers, drivers, and builders who toil in foreign lands to support families back home, not even the ones who have been maimed by terrorists, none of them.

The article “Don’t act surprised” penned by an Englishman resident here for a few years is full of gross generalisations, defective reasoning and inflammatory one-liners: “We (sic) are, and have always been, a barbaric, degenerate nation revelling in bloodlust (sic).” Firstly, his arrogance in speaking for all Pakistanis, particularly to emit such defamatory and prejudiced words, is nauseating. Next, the claim that the horrific violence during Partition was “revelled in” and gave “heady, almost orgasmic delight” is a blatant perversion of history. Muslims were more the victims of communal violence, as documented by various noted historians who also describe the role of the departing British colonisers as culpable.

This “bloody” Partition is used by George Fulton to conclude that Pakistan has always been a “barbaric and degenerate nation”. An intellectually feeble extrapolation, as most nations are born out of violence or war. Israel, in 1948, was born out of the terrorisation and forced displacement of Palestinians – tales of which are regaled with much pride to this day by Zionists, their chief leaders even going on to become Israeli prime ministers. Does Mr Fulton think that “Israel is a barbaric and degenerate nation revelling in bloodlust”?

He goes on to state that the Sialkot lynchings are typical of Punjabi culture because Maula Jutt movies prove Punjabis are a bloodthirsty, vengeful lot. So the popularity of gore fests like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre prove that Americans, who also spend hours playing violent video games killing, maiming and torturing for entertainment and relaxation, obviously “celebrate barbarity and vengeance” as per the writer. Attributing the propensity for violence to a specific culture or race is the bigoted reasoning of a racist. Africans were also called “degenerates”, “uncivilised barbarians” who deserved to be enslaved due to their “savage” ways.

These columnists would not dare to write in such sadistic terms about western cultures. No, they only prey on weak – pure lynch mob mentality – developing nations like Pakistan, battered by natural catastrophe, war and poverty. The reality is that Pakistanis are inherently no better and no worse than any other people. The best amongst us lay down our lives to rescue those in need, open our homes and hearts to complete strangers, protest peacefully for justice. The worst amongst us are as brutal as the mobs which massacred women and children in the streets of Gujarat, with the Indian police looking on, harbour as much bigotry as the preachers of hate, whether they be Christian, Hindu, or Muslim. When the rule of law is eroded, men, irrespective of race, turn into an unruly mob – as evidenced by numerous studies and the good citizens of New Orleans who looted and rampaged in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina – police officers turn into executioners and ordinary people into accomplices. Pakistanis will and must maintain pressure to obtain justice in Sialkot. They will do so not out of self-loathing or in response to the verbal lynching liberals, but because they believe it is the right thing to do.

IRAN – DESPITE EVERYTHING

The Star Students Of Iran
Forget Harvard-one of the world’s best undergraduate colleges is in Iran.

Newsweek

In 2003, administrators at Stanford University’s Electrical Engineering Department were startled when a group of foreign students aced the notoriously difficult Ph.D. entrance exam, getting some of the highest scores ever. That the whiz kids weren’t American wasn’t odd; students from Asia and elsewhere excel in U.S. programs. The surprising thing, say Stanford administrators, is that the majority came from one country and one school: Sharif University of Science and Technology in Iran.

Stanford has become a favorite destination of Sharif grads. Bruce A. Wooley, a former chair of the Electrical Engineering Department, has said that’s because Sharif now has one of the best undergraduate electrical-engineering programs in the world. That’s no small praise given its competition: MIT, Caltech and Stanford in the United States, Tsinghua in China and Cambridge in Britain.

Sharif’s reputation highlights how while Iran makes headlines for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s incendiary remarks and its nuclear showdown with the United States, Iranian students are developing an international reputation as science superstars. Stanford’s administrators aren’t the only ones to notice. Universities across Canada and Australia, where visa restrictions are lower, report a big boom in the Iranian recruits; Canada has seen its total number of Iranian students grow 240 percent since 1985, while Australian press reports point to a fivefold increase over the past five years, to nearly 1,500.

Iranian students from Sharif and other top schools, such as the University of Tehran and the Isfahan University of Technology, have also become major players in the international Science Olympics, taking home trophies in physics, mathematics, chemistry and robotics. As a testament to this newfound success, the Iranian city of Isfahan recently hosted the International Physics Olympiad-an honor no other Middle Eastern country has enjoyed. That’s because none of Iran’s neighbors can match the quality of its scholars.

Never far behind, Western tech companies have also started snatching them up. Silicon Valley companies from Google to Yahoo now employ hundreds of Iranian grads, as do research institutes throughout the West. Olympiad winners are especially attractive; according to the Iranian press, up to 90 percent of them now leave the country for graduate school or work abroad.

So what explains Iran’s record, and that of Sharif in particular? The country suffers from many serious ills, such as chronic inflation, stagnant wages and an anemic private sector, thanks to poor economic management and a weak regulatory environment. University professors barely make ends meet-the pay is so bad some must even take second jobs as taxi drivers or petty traders. International sanctions also make life difficult, delaying the importation of scientific equipment, for example, and increasing isolation. Until recently, Iranians were banned from publishing in the journals of the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the industry’s key international professional association. They also face the indignity of often having their visa applications refused when they try to attend conferences in the West.

Yet Sharif and its ilk continue to thrive. Part of the explanation, says Mohammad Mansouri, a Sharif grad (’97) who’s now a professor in New York, lies in the tendency of Iranian parents to push their kids into medicine or engineering as opposed to other fields, like law. Sharif also has an extremely rigorous selection process. Every year some 1.5 million Iranian high-school students take college-entrance exams. Of those, only about 10 percent make it to the prestigious state schools, with the top 1 percent generally choosing science and finding their way to top spots such as Sharif. “The selection process [gives] universities like Sharif the smartest, most motivated and hardworking students” in the country, Mansouri says.

Sharif also boasts an excellent faculty. The university was founded in 1965 by the shah, who wanted to build a topnotch science and technology institute. The school was set up under the guidance of MIT advisers, and many of the current faculty studied in the United States (during the shah’s era, Iranians made up the largest group of foreign students at U.S. schools, according to the Institute of International Education). Another secret of Sharif’s success is Iran’s high-school system, which places a premium on science and exposes students to subjects Americans don’t encounter until college. This tradition of advanced studies extends into undergraduate programs, with Mansouri and others saying they were taught subjects in college that U.S. schools provide only to grad students.

Several Sharif alumni point to one other powerful motivator. “When you live in Iran and you see all the frustrations of daily life, you dream of leaving the country, and your books and studies become a ticket to a better life,” says one who asked not to be identified. “It becomes more than just studying,” he says. “It becomes an obsession, where you wake up at 4 a.m. just to get in a few more hours before class.”

Iran’s success, in other words, is also the country’s tragedy: students want nothing more than to get away the moment they graduate. That’s a boon for foreign universities and tech firms but a serious source of brain drain for the Islamic republic. There simply are not enough quality jobs for graduates in Iran, says Ramin Farjad Rad, another Sharif grad (’97) who’s now an executive at Aquantia in Silicon Valley. What’s worse, star students who stay in Iran and try to launch businesses complain that predatory government officials demand a cut of their profits or impose unnecessary obstacles. Thus many Iranians who can’t make it to the West head to Dubai instead. As one Sharif grad in the Persian Gulf port city puts it, “Here, our education is properly valued. We are given freedom to succeed. In Iran, we are blocked.”

Such frustrations augur ill for Iran’s future. True, it’s produced a startling number of top students in recent years. And the country’s history is rich with achievement, featuring Avicenna (also known as Ibn Sina), the medieval world’s greatest scientist; Muhammad al-Khwarizmi, the ninth-century inventor of the mathematical algorithm (the basis of computer science), and Omar Khayyam, the famed mathematician and astronomer. That’s a fine legacy. But unless the Islamic republic changes directions soon, all of that history and potential could be squandered.

Maoists kill six Indian police

PATNA, India (AFP) – Maoist guerrillas killed six policemen in a gunfight in India’s eastern state of Bihar, police said on Monday, in the latest of a series of rebel attacks on security forces.

An injured Indian policeman (C) is assisted by his comrades at a hospital in Dantewada district in May, 2010. Maoist guerrillas killed six policemen in a gunfight in India’s eastern state of Bihar, police said on Monday, in the latest of a series of rebel attacks on security forces. (AFP/File)

More than 150 Maoists battled with the police, who were on patrol in forests about 150 kilometres (100 miles) from the state capital Patna late on Sunday, senior police officer P.K. Thakur told AFP.

Bihar is one of several states across east and central India where Maoist rebel groups exert a bloody sway.

Authorities in New Delhi launched an offensive last year to tackle the worsening insurgency, but since then the Maoists have hit back with repeated strikes against police and paramilitary forces.

On Sunday five policemen were killed by Maoists in the state of Chhattisgarh.

The rebels have fought for decades against state and central government rule, drawing support from tribal groups and landless farmers left behind by the country’s economic expansion.

PML-N seeks army, govt’s response to MQM remarks

By Amir Wasim

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League-N has urged the army to clarify its position on the appeal made by MQM chief Altaf Hussain to ‘patriotic generals’ to take ‘martial law-like action against corrupt politicians’.

It will be in the interest of the army if it stayed away from politics: Chaudhry Nisar.

“Ask ISPR (army’s public relations department) to make a comment on it. I personally believe that the army should present its viewpoint,” Chaudhry Nisar, Leader of Opposition in National Assembly, said in reply to a question at a press conference on Saturday.

Chaudhry Nisar said it would be in the interest of the army if it stayed away from politics. “Please, let the army do its job. It is in the interest of the army, country and all institutions as Pakistan’s future lies in democracy. Today, when they (army) have returned to their original work, don’t distract them.”

The opposition leader said the federal government’s silence, too, was surprising considering that the Muttahida chief was actually talking about the rulers’ corruption.

The PML-N has already submitted a privilege motion to the National Assembly secretariat in condemnation of Mr Hussain’s remarks.

Like the MQM, he added, the PML-N was concerned over corruption, but the party favoured accountability through parliament.

Chaudhry Nisar accused the Muttahida chief of “trying to divide the army and make it controversial” at a time when soldiers were busy in the war against terrorism.

In the past, Chaudhry Nisar recalled, the MQM was always critical of Rangers and the army’s role and raised “anti-army slogans” when Gen Asif Nawaz, Gen Jehangir Karamat and Gen Waheed Kakar were army chiefs. “However, when Gen Musharraf hid their misdeeds, the army became dear to the MQM,” he said.

The opposition leader criticised the MQM for keeping silent when “its favourite army chief (an allusion to Gen Musharraf) made those people minister who had been facing corruption charges and were under the custody of National Accountability Bureau which was under the total control of the army”.

“Why did you not question Gen Musharraf when he released NAB-affected people from jails and made them your colleagues in the cabinet?” the PML-N leader asked.

Commenting on Mr Hussain’s controversial remarks, the PML-N leader reminded the MQM leadership that it was the army that had ‘exposed its style of politics based on murder and extortion”.

He threatened to present the record of army about the MQM in parliament if it did not stop personal attacks on the PML-N leadership.

Saudi Flood Aid To Pakistan: First, Largest, Not Politicized

Saudi Arabia was the first nation to respond to Pakistan’s flood aid appeal. It created a back-to-back air bridge that saw 30 cargo planes land in Pakistan.

Washington’s aid is politicized and arrogant; Riyadh’s aid is compassionate

By GULPARI NAZISH MEHSUD
Monday, 30 August 2010.
WWW.PAKNATIONALISTS.COM

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan-Saudi Arabia has quietly bypassed the United States as the single largest aid donor in real terms so far. Riyadh’s commitment to helping the victims of Pakistan’s devastating floods has crossed US$140 million.

The Saudis have also outdone themselves. The Saudi military and air force set up a back-to-back air bridge between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, sending thirty large cargo planes carrying hundreds of tons of relief goods. The air bridge continues to operate.

With more than $120 million sent in cash, the first 3-day international telethon to raise funds, and 30 major air relief shipments to land in Pakistan in what is the largest air bridge in support of flood victims, Saudi response was better than any other nation.

The only exceptions are UAE sending six helicopters when the United States initially provided only five, [later increased to 15]. After its initial reluctance, US surpassed any other donor by providing three large cargo planes in addition to ten more helicopters. Most of the pledged US aid money is, however, ‘recycled’ from earlier aid commitments to Pakistan and is not new. And, according to Ahmed Quraishi, Project Pakistan Senior Fellow at Project For Pakistan In 21st Century, an independent Islamabad-based think tank, US help is politicized, meant to shore up a pro-US govt. in Islamabad in the face of better performances by the Pakistani military and Pakistani charities in responding to the humanitarian disaster.

Mr. Quraishi told PakNationalists.com: “Despite frosty relations with the Zardari-Gilani government, Riyadh’s aid was massive but received little media attention in Pakistan. Unlike the US embassy’s clamor for publicity and attention, the Saudis and others worked quietly. At one point, the Saudi ambassador is reported to have told Pakistani reporters that the Pakistani media failed to highlight the fact that Riyadh was the first country to respond to Pakistani help request after the floods.”

SAUDI REACTION

Within the first week of the flooding that started on 29 July, Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz ordered a massive kingdom-wide fundraising and aid collection campaign. Official aid collection camps were set up in all major Saudi cities. The Saudi royal family set an example when several princes donated $20 million on the first day, encouraging Saudi citizens to follow suit. More than $107 million were collected in the first three days.

Saudi Arabia established the largest air bridge to air lift relief supplies to Pakistan, sending more than 30 cargo planes so far to Sindh, Balochistan, Khyber-PK and Punjab. Saudi Arabia is the only country so far to have established such a large back-to-back air bridge to Pakistan.

The Saudi rescue team busy in Thatta.

Eight more planes have landed in Pakistan over the weekend carrying two field hospitals, complete with equipment and medical staff. The Saudi ambassador Abdul Aziz bin Ibrahim al-Ghadeer hardly visited his office in Islamabad in the past two weeks because of his constant field presence in Lahore, Multan, and Hyderabad, in addition to the Chaklala Air Force base in Rawalpindi, to receive Saudi cargo planes. On the recommendation of the Pakistani military, which suggested the hospitals focus on Sindh, one Saudi field hospital has already become operational in Thatta. The second field hospital will also probably be set up somewhere in Sindh considering the urgency there.

Two Saudi rescue teams, which Saudi Arabia has raised according to international levels of training and performance following repeated floods in some Saudi regions, have also arrived in Hyderabad where they are active in several parts of the Sindh province.

In neighboring Kuwait, the Kuwaiti government lifted a long standing ban on collecting donations in public. This exception was made on the orders of the Kuwaiti emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed in deference to the emerging humanitarian disaster in Pakistan. Donation camps sprung up in large and small mosques and shopping malls across the emirate. Interestingly, the wealthy Kuwaiti business community outshone the government in donating to flood victims in Pakistan. One Kuwaiti logistics company, Agility, mobilized 1,000 of its workers for flood relief effort in Pakistan.

Fundraising efforts outside of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are important but were modest in their outcomes. A German telethon attended by German Chancellor Angela Merkel raised $10 million. British donations came largely from the British Pakistani and British Muslim communities, with the British magazine The Economist showing skepticism at reports suggesting ordinary British citizens have shown any passion to donate to Pakistan. Turkey has donated $10 million, China a little more, while India came up with a symbolic $5 million, probably because smug Indian officials were sure Pakistan won’t accept the money anyway [Pakistan thanked India and accepted the money but asked New Delhi to send through UN]. Iran has sent relief supplies and most other countries have also gave preference to relief goods because of lack of trust in the Pakistani government and politicians’ credibility or ability to utilize aid money properly.

SAUDI ARABIA

One of the most endearing aspects of donations coming to Pakistan from the Gulf is individual donations from politicians and businessmen, which are enough to put the wealthy Pakistani politicians to shame.

On the first day of a nationwide Saudi campaign to raise funds for the victims of floods in Pakistan on Monday, 17 Aug. 2010:

• King of Saudi Arabia, Abdullah bin Abdelaziz Al Saud, donated US$5.3 million from his private money to Pakistan flood victims
• Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdelzziz Al Saud gave away US$2.7 million from his private money
• Interior Minister Nayef bin Abdelaziz Al Saud gave away two million Saudi riyals
• Governor of Tabouk donated one million Saudi Riyals
• Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdelaziz Al Saud gave ten million Saudi riyals
• Businessman Eesa bin Mohammad al Eesa, president of the Samba Financial Group, donated two million Saudi riyals

Separately, and in addition to his $2.7 million in aid, the Saudi Crown Prince has also dispatched one hundred tons of dates from his private farmland to Pakistan.

Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud

The Saudi public’s response to the massive Saudi aid appeal has been amazing. Women were seen donating jewellery to makeshift fundraising camps in Jeddah and Riyadh.

A Saudi commentator left this comment on the website of the Arabic-language Saudi newspaper, Okaz: “What the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, may Allah protect him, has given to the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is something that all the five permanent nations at UNSC and all the Arab countries could not have given. His Majesty’s stand with Pakistan will never be forgotten.”

Comments posted at the online editions of Saudi newspapers showed how deeply the Saudis are moved by the tragedy in Pakistan. “Pakistanis deserve our help,” wrote one Saudi. “They are our brothers.”

IRAN

Iran has committed over 400 tons of relief goods so far as of 14 August 2010 out of which 180 tons have already been delivered by the Iranian transport aircrafts. These goods include tents, floorings, clothes, canned food, bread and medical supplies. Iranian Red Crescent society has also been on the ground along with Pakistan Red Crescent society as part of its ongoing relief operation inside Pakistan reaching out to more than 100,000 flood victims. In addition to the Iranian government help Ayatollah Lotfollah Safi Golpaygani has announced that one third of collected Khums will be donated to Pakistan for humanitarian assistance. Iran’s chamber of commerce also donated US $1 million to the flood victims.

Grand Ayatollah Nasir-Makarem Shirazi

And on 17 August, senior Iranian cleric Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem-Shirazi [left] met the Pakistani ambassador in Tehran and announced donating $50,000 to the victims of flood-stricken Pakistan in response to Pakistan’s call for more relief aid.

‘KUWAIT IS WITH YOU’

On 21 August, Kuwaiti government launched a nationwide fundraiser called ‘Kuwait Is With You’, in a message to Pakistanis devastated by the floods.

Kuwait’s official and private donations have crossed $20 million, half of them coming from the government. But most of the aid won’t reach the Pakistani government. The noisy Kuwaiti media, while expressing solidarity with Pakistan, has also seen several write-ups questioning the credibility of the Pakistani government. Some criticized the Pakistani government for ‘collusion’ with Washington in hounding credible Pakistani charities in the name of fighting so-called terror.

The emirate launched a national fundraiser for Pakistan on 23 August, collecting so far close to $10 million from the public.

Kuwait had banned charity fundraisers for the most part of the decade. But on the 23rd, the government lifted the ban to make way for a nationwide fundraiser for Pakistan, which began grandly at the Grand Mosque of the state, where close to 1,000 worshippers donated generously for Pakistan.

Equally impressive is the contribution from the Kuwaiti business community:

• Mohammad Hmoud Al-Shaya Company, which owns a series of upscale designer clothing and jewellery outlets across the Gulf, donated $500,000 to Pakistan
• Kuwait Finance House has dispatched $2 million to Pakistan
• General Secretariat of Awqaf has donated $1.5 million
• The Joint Kuwaiti Committee for Relief, a local charity, has donated $1.5 million
• The sons of the late Abdullah al-Mutawa, a businessman, have donated $100,000 to Pakistan
• E-Q8 Petrochemicals has donated $100,000
• The employees of the Bank of Bubiyan started an internal fundraiser for Pakistan

Dala al-Mudaf

Dalal al-Mudaf, a senior officer at the Kuwait Investment Company, with offices in the Gulf, London and New York, has kicked off an internal company fundraiser for Pakistan as of today, Monday 30 August. In a statement, she quoted a saying by the Prophet [PBUH], ‘A Muslim for a Muslim is like a wall, pulling one another’.

Tariq al Sultan

Agility, one of the largest logistics companies in the region with operations in Pakistan, has mobilized its 1,000 workers here to get involved in relief work. According to Tariq al-Sultan [right], Chairman of Agility worldwide, the company has offered its entire commercial warehouses full of foodstuffs and the space along with cooling facilities in Multan for use by United Nations in Punjab. In Peshawar, the company has donated several air-conditioned containers to transport food items to flood victims. And in Sukkur, the company has put its entire fleet of trucks in the service of food and aid distribution effort across Sindh. The company has also distributed urgent food items and medicines to 5,000 families in Sindh, and the employees of Agility worldwide have donated their one-day salary to Pakistan.

In another step of indirect support to Pakistan, one of the young members of the Kuwaiti parliament, Mr. Mohammed Hayef al-Huwaila, held a press conference at the parliament building last week and drew the attention of the Arab public opinion to massive human rights violations in Indian occupied Kashmir. He called on the Kuwaiti government to condemn Indian atrocities.

India’s Commonwealth Games Mess

By SUMON K. CHAKRABARTI / NEW DELHI

Indian laborers work at one of the Commonwealth Games venues. Corruption allegations and construction delays have dogged the games, which will take place Oct. 3-14, 2010, in New Delhi

The biggest international sporting spectacle ever to head for India is just five weeks away – and the Commonwealth Games are still mired in controversy, inefficiency, bureaucratic infighting and delays. Even the anthem – composed by double Oscar winner A.R. Rahman of “Jai Ho” fame – is late. At a press conference on Aug. 16 meant to unveil the song, Rahman sang one line and then said the song wasn’t quite ready. “I still have to tweak some lyrics and do much more modification with the sound elements,” he explained. A source in India’s Sport Ministry, though, said the delay was due to a “lack of agreement over which minister should actually be given the honors” of introducing the song.

The games have much more serious problems. India has already spent at least $4.6 billion – nine times more than its December 2003 estimate of $500 million – to upgrade stadiums, refurbish roads and build power and water utilities. It spent another $2.7 billion on a new airport terminal. But the 12-day-long event, which will see athletes competing from the former British Commonwealth, has already been marred by allegations of corruption even before its start in New Delhi on Oct. 3.

The Indian government is in full damage-control mode. Trying to salvage the event, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has formed a special group of ministers and assigned 10 senior bureaucrats to oversee the completion of various unfinished games projects. Sonia Gandhi, leader of the ruling Congress Party, said that those guilty of corruption would not be spared after the mega sports event is over. “The prestige of the nation is involved,” she said. Two games officials have already stepped down. The joint director general of the Commonwealth Games Organizing Committee, T.S. Darbari, was fired after press allegations of financial irregularity based on leaks from the Sports Ministry. Darbari refused comment but said, “Investigations will tell [the truth]. I was taken to task without any trial or any hearing.” The other official, Anil Khanna, the treasurer of the committee, resigned after reports that his son’s company was granted a contract for laying 14 synthetic tennis courts. Khanna said he stepped down because the charges hurt him and his family but that “I have nothing to hide. I was not a part of the Commonwealth Games 2010 Organizing Committee when the tender was passed.”

The swirl of public outrage started at the end of July with a report by India’s top anticorruption watchdog. It concluded that the Commonwealth Games’ infrastructure was hazardous to both athletes and spectators because of “large-scale corruption, usage of substandard material and repeated delays.” The news has only gotten worse, with fresh reports of questionable dealings surfacing almost daily in the media. The games are now being blamed for everything from an outbreak of dengue fever to flooded streets.

Mother Nature has, indeed, played a part. New Delhi’s monsoon usually hits in late July, which would have given games organizers a few weeks after the rains had subsided to finish construction. Instead, this year’s late monsoon has kept the city a waterlogged mess through August. Roads in the Indian capital are collapsing, including some of the new ones laid out for the games. “Already more than 20 roads have caved in,” says Ajay Chadha, special commissioner of police for traffic. “The number of cases of road collapse have increased manifold this year. And some roads which have no history of such incidents have also caved in after upgradation work was done on them for the Commonwealth Games.”

Debris from the construction work has also choked New Delhi’s main storm-water drains, which carry excess rainwater into the Yamuna River. For all the new bike lanes, bus stations and high-tech toilets that they have built, the planners apparently never intended to install a new drainage system or to upgrade the old one. Arti Mehra, the former mayor of New Delhi and a leader of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, puts the blame squarely on the office of the Prime Minister and the ruling Congress Party. “For eight years, the Congress government did nothing – they slept over the project works,” she said.

Meanwhile, all the rainwater pooling in open construction sites is an ideal breeding site for mosquitoes, and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (the same agency responsible for most of the construction) blames that situation for this year’s severe outbreak of dengue, a mosquito-borne disease. This year, there have been nearly 400 confirmed cases of dengue (local medical experts say the number is likely several times that), including one Malaysian athlete who went to New Delhi for the Asian All-Star Athletic Meet, a test event for the Commonwealth Games held at the flagship Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium July 29-30. “Delhi is already dug up because of the CWG [Commonwealth Games] and it is also raining very heavily,” says India’s Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad. “Since water remains stored in many places, it becomes a breeding place for mosquitoes, which are contributing to diseases.” Officials say a mosquito-eradication program is in place but nothing is yet evident on the ground.

Then there are the cost overruns. The $7.5 billion price tag for the 2010 Commonwealth Games is already the highest ever for the event (the 2006 games held in Melbourne may have cost close to $1 billion). But the costs include, according to documents provided to investigators by the organizing committee, $89 rolls of toilet paper, $61 soap dispensers, $125 first-aid kits and treadmills rented for 45 days at a cost of $23,080 each. And there is the problem of contracts. According to leaked Sports Ministry documents, $429,000 was paid to the British company AM Films to supply transport and portable toilets last October for the start of the traditional kickoff of the games, the Queen’s Baton Relay at Buckingham Palace. There was, however, no formal contract with AM Films. Suresh Kalmadi, chairman of the organizing committee, admitted at a press conference that there had been no time to sign a contract for the relay and that several other projects had been approved in a similar manner without contracts.

In New Delhi, Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) president Mike Fennell and CEO Mike Hooper have had to answer questions from the Indian media about an interim report from India’s Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), which raised questions about how consulting contracts, worth millions of dollars, were awarded. A final report will be presented in Parliament next March. According to the interim report, the organizing committee awarded contracts to sports marketing firms to help find sponsors for the games based solely on the suggestions of three people: Fennell, Hooper and Kalmadi. In one case, according to the CAG, a $4.7 million consultancy contract was awarded to Ernst & Young, despite a lower bid from Pricewaterhouse Coopers.

Hooper held an impromptu press conference outside the organizing committee’s headquarters to deny any wrongdoing. “The CGF makes appropriate recommendations based on recommendations,” he said. Fennell said the CGF has left it to the Indian authorities to investigate the charges of financial irregularities that have rocked the organizing committee. “There has been reporting of corruption. It has been of great concern for CGF,” Fennell said.

Kalmadi, who is also a member of Parliament from the ruling Congress Party, remains defiant. “This is a smear campaign to bring disrepute to the games,” he told TIME. He insisted that all the games contracts were awarded properly but refused to comment on any of the specific allegations until the end of the event on Oct. 14. “I am ready to face any inquiry after the games,” he said.

Fennell, who wrapped up a two-day inspection of the venues in New Delhi last week, says his main concern is hygiene in the athletes’ village. “Buildings alone don’t make the village; it’s the management and the food which will ensure that the village is what we want it to be,” he told the press on Aug. 12. “We will have to make sure that the food served is of the highest standard because the athletes would have to be given the best standard of hygiene.” But, he said, there is also “a need to address the roads, the landscape and the cleaning of the village. These need to be addressed with urgency. We don’t have much time left.”

Chakrabarti is the chief national correspondent of CNN-IBN.

7 US troops, politician killed in Afghan unrest

KABUL (AFP) - Seven US soldiers and an election candidate have been killed in a wave of weekend attacks in Afghanistan, officials said Sunday, as President Hamid Karzai called for a rethink of Washington’s war strategy.

Two soldiers were killed Sunday in separate attacks, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said.

Five troops were killed in other militant violence in the south and east of the country, the areas hardest hit by the Taliban-led insurgency now reaching the end of its ninth and most deadly year.

A US military spokesman said all seven soldiers were US nationals.

Karzai told the visiting Norbert Lammert, president of the German parliament, that the counter-insurgency strategy must be rethought, according to a statement from Karzai’s office.

“Speaking about Afghanistan and regional security (Karzai) said that the strategy of the war on terrorism must be reassessed,” the statement said.

“The experience over the past years showed that fighting (Taliban) in Afghan villages has been ineffective and is not achieving anything but killing civilians.”

International troops have suffered escalating casualties as they step up the fight against a Taliban insurgency which has become increasingly deadly since the militants were ousted from power in a US-led invasion in late 2001.

The number of foreign soldiers killed in the war so far this year has now reached 472, compared with 521 who died during all of 2009, according to an AFP tally based on a count by the independent www.icasualties.org website.

Civilian casualties have also risen, but insurgents were responsible for over three quarters of the 1,271 deaths and 1,997 people wounded in the first six months of this year, according to a UN report this month.

About 141,000 US and NATO troops are deployed in Afghanistan to fight the insurgency and protect Karzai’s US-backed government.

The country is due to hold its second post-Taliban parliamentary elections on September 18 amid fears that insurgent attacks might disrupt the vote.

Candidate Abdul Manan, running for a seat in the western province of Herat, was shot dead Saturday in an attack blamed on the militants.

The Taliban are accused of being responsible for the deaths of two other candidates since the launch of the election campaign in early July.

Police Sunday also found the bodies of five members of the campaign team of female candidate Fawzya Galani, days after 10 of them were abducted.

The Taliban had claimed responsibility for the kidnapping in Herat province on Wednesday.

“We have found five of the abducted members of Ms. Galani’s campaign team. They were dumped on the side of a mountain,” said Nisar Ahmad Popal, the chief of Adrskan district, where the bodies were found.

“We don’t know where the other five are,” he said.

Police in the northern province of Faryab meanwhile said four women working for a local group treating drug addicts were snatched by gunmen on Saturday. Provincial police chief Khalilullah Andarabi blamed the abduction on “armed opposition groups”, a term used for the Taliban and other militants.

ISAF said eight civilians were also killed in a wave of attacks on Saturday including a suicide bombing.

NATO troops backed by Afghan security forces killed up to 15 insurgents in a battle in the eastern province of Paktia late on Saturday, ISAF said.

Separately, police on Sunday shot dead two suicide bombers as they headed towards the office of the governor of Farah province in the southwest.

The violence follows an attempt by a Taliban suicide bomber squad on Saturday to storm two US-run military bases in the eastern province of Khost. The US-led military said 30 rebels, 13 of them wearing suicide vests, staged the failed attacks on the bases, in which all were killed during gunbattles.

Violence has picked up in recent months as the Taliban insurgency has gathered pace in the face of a troop “surge” by international forces.

12 suspected rebels killed in Chechnya: president

AFP

Twelve suspected militants and two law enforcement officers died in a shoot-out in Chechnya in Russia’s volatile North Caucasus on Sunday, Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov said.

A screen grab of a broadcast from Russian television channel NTV shows the body of a suspected separatist insurgent killed in a shootout in Tsentoroi, the home village of Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov. Twelve suspected militants and two law enforcement officers died in the shootout in Chechnya in Russia’s volatile North Caucasus.

The maverick leader personally oversaw the operation, which took place in his home village, and television reports showed footage of his security force surrounding a building.

A source in the region’s security forces told the RIA Novosti news agency that five civilians were killed, but Kadyrov’s press service said only that four civilian residents were wounded, including two women.

Television footage showed Kadyrov striding around the uncovered bodies of the suspected militants, which lay on the ground next to a heap of confiscated weapons.

“The guys from my personal security … worked great together. They destroyed 12 people immediately on the spot,” he said in televised comments.

Security forces opened fire on up to 15 suspected militants as they entered the village of Tsentoroi in northeast Chechnya early Sunday, said a statement from Kadyrov’s press service.

Those killed were “terrorists” who were planning an “act of provocation,” it said.

One policeman and one member of Kadyrov’s security force were killed in the shootout.

In a separate incident, police shot dead four suspected rebels after they opened fire from two cars late Saturday in Dagestan’s Khasavyurt district, the region’s interior ministry said.

On Sunday, two police officers and a civilian were injured by a bomb in a police car in Kabardino-Balkaria, another North Caucacus republic.

Meanwhile local authorities announced on Saturday that Russian forces had killed 10 suspected militants in operations in Kabardino-Balkaria and Dagestan.

Kadyrov, 33, a pro-Kremlin strongman, has been accused by human rights groups of using torture and his personal security forces to crack down on critics in his half-decade in power in Chechnya.

Shootings and bomb attacks are a near-daily occurrence in the North Caucacus, where pro-Russian authorities are battling an Islamist insurgency.

While the bulk of recent violence has been reported in the republics of Dagestan and Ingushetia, the impression of relative calm in Chechnya is misleading and a result of a crackdown on dissent, Alexandre Cherkasov, an expert in the region for NGO Memorial, told AFP.

“The situation deteriorated in 2009 and there is no reason to believe that it has improved since then,” said Cherkasov.

Leaving Iraq

By Joseph Hannan

President Obama has announced that the war in Iraq is over and that the US will be fully out of Iraq next year. August 31st marks the departure of the last US combat brigade. This day comes after an expenditure of over US $ 751 billion over a eight year period-2003 to 2010-an average of US $ 94 billion a year. It also cost 4000 US lives with many more wounded and maimed and even more scarred for life because of the traumatic experience of a strange war. On an average there were 150000 US troops in Iraq with a surge in 2007. Two US Presidents, three Secretaries of State, two Secretaries of Defense and four military commanders presided over a war that should never have been and for which on the average public support was 50%.

Looking back over the years the highlights were the invasion that started on the premise that Saddam was linked to Al Qaeda and that he was developing WMD. Both these assumptions were proved false and were the result of manipulated intelligence. Then came retaliation-the deadly bombing of the UN Headquarters in Iraq followed by the capture and public humiliation of Saddam Hussein that guaranteed that the retaliation would be unending and bloody. The Abu Ghraib prison abuse tarnished the image of the US military and was followed by the attack on the ‘Fallujah insurgents’. Talabani became the President and a new constitution was approved but a massive blast at the holy Sammara Shrine led to sectarian violence followed by the killing of Abu Musab Al Zarqavi and then the video taped execution of Saddam.

Read Complete Article Here: http://www.zoneasia-pk.com/ZoneAsia-Pk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1614:leaving-iraq&catid=41:securityissues&Itemid=62

114 rich families can generate Rs 80 bn for flood victims in no time: Riaz

The News International

LONDON: Business tycoon and chairman of Bahria Town Malik Riaz believes that 114 richest families of Pakistan could generate Rs 80 billion in no time, needed for reconstruction and rehabilitation of the flood affected people of Pakistan, if they show generosity and fear of God.

However, he regretted, all these families are keeping mum over the situation. In a talk with GEO News here Thursday, Malik Riaz said if these richest families of Pakistan didn’t do anything for these flood affected families right now, time is not far way when these poor people would take revenge from them; they would set ablaze their palaces, tear apart their big and precious cars and batter them to death. “It is not possible that the poor will ever continue living in huts without any amenities of life, without medicines for their ailing children and without bread for their hungry families, under the shadows of huge palaces. They will definitely revolt against these filthy rich people,” Malik Riaz warned.

He revealed that 48 per cent of the aid, donated by the world for the earthquake and flood victims of Pakistan, is usurped by the commission mafia in the country. He expressed his regrets that only 42 per cent aid money reaches the affected people and 48pc is taken away by the commission mafia while the world is told that the relief money is being used with 100pc transparency.

He demanded of the government of Pakistan to set up a permanent department to manage and distribute relief money among the affected in case of any emergency or natural calamity in the country.

Malik Riaz also urged Pakistanis not to perform Umrah and Haj this year and donate this money to their flood affected countrymen, as it will be a better way to earn Allah’s blessings. He said the nation must seek collective pardon and forgiveness of Allah Almighty so that their hardships come to an end. He said those who perform Umrah and Haj every year instead of helping the poor and needy around them in fact deem it a way out to counterbalance their sins that they had committed throughout the year. Malik Riaz said Pakistan could not make progress until and unless it gets rid of wadera system, feudalism and land mafia. He said a new martial law could not eliminate feudalism and land mafias from the country. And if it had been possible, it had been done long ago during the previous martial laws, he added.

Lord files complaint againsty Muslim charities, mosques

By Murtaza Ali Shah

LONDON: A deluge of faith-based Muslim charities, television channels and downmarket newspapers are involved in fleecing British Muslims in the name of Pakistan flood victims from mainly British Muslims in what has been describe as ‘blood money’.

With heart-wrenching scenes of Pakistani flood disaster victims beaming on the screens and desperate victims marooned helplessly in the worst floods of modern Pakistan’s history, nearly a dozen television channels and at least 10 newspapers are in overdrive to ask more than 2 million British Muslims – and anyone else who would bother – to pay their zakat, fitrana, sedkaat etc, for the day-to-day welfare and rehabilitation of the more than 20 million flood victims in Pakistan.

A noble drive it would seem at the surface but a close scrutiny suggests that the alliance of so-called Muslim charities, with little or no credibility, television channels, especially established to make money in the name of Islam, and newspapers, produced mainly to provide print backup to the expanding trade of collecting money for charity purposes, has become a criminal nexus.

The situation has made members of the British Muslim community incandescent with anger that they have approached Lord Nazir Ahmed, a fearless campaigning Labour peer, to question the credibility of what’s going on at these ‘community charities and channels’.

Lord Ahmed has already filed a complaint with the official watchdog and has asked the watchdog to investigate why these channels ‘charge between £3,000 and £10,000 per session per day from charities’ and in some cases yearly contracts with charities worth £150,000 or a little less for broadcasting appeals on their behalf.

Lord Ahmed alleges that that most of these charities and the individuals involved with their work are ‘dodgy’ and their intentions are questionable.

Talking to The News, he said: “Charities and channels use emotive picture to encourage donations, and I am aware of the thousands of children who have given their pocket money for the flood victims. We have a duty to ensure that every penny is directed for the needs of the unfortunate victims rather than paying the private channels and charities accounts for their expenses and salaries”.

“The government has the responsibility to ensure that any breach of rule or the law is taken seriously by prosecuting the culprits.”

Under Rule 10.13 of the Ofcom Broadcasting Code, broadcasters may conduct fundraising for legitimate charities or emergency appeals in programmes, as long as they are broadcast free of charge. Ofcom licensed broadcasters must comply with the Ofcom Broadcasting Code and broadcast charity appeals in programmes free of charge. “In relation to such appeals, broadcasters may charge a charity for the provision of non-broadcast additional services (e.g. call centre services, or studio costs),” explained a spokesman for the Ofcom to The News.

The charities and channels clearly abide by this rule but dodge the rules when they deal with each other through annual deals where commercial spot rates are kept higher than normal with charity appeals being offered as added values for the higher spot rates than the regular selling trend or in some cases the studio/production costs are showed as high as 7,000 to 10,000 pounds when in actual the studio is owned by the channel and should not cost them more than 1,500 to 2,000 pounds to produce a charity appeal or programming of such genre. Hundreds of thousands of pounds exchange hands in complete violation of the laws.

Iran test fires surface-to-surface missile

TEHRAN – Iran has test fired its home-built surface-to-surface Fateh 110 missile, state television reported on Wednesday, less than a week after a similar test was carried out on another missile.

An Iranian Fateh missile is test-launched during war games in Qom

The television showed a sand-coloured missile being launched from a vehicle and blasting into the sky from a desert terrain, leaving behind a thick plume of smoke. It did not say when the missile was fired.

Iran’s English-language Press TV said the short-range Fateh 110 (Conqueror) missile is nine metres (29 feet) long and weighs 3,500 kilograms (7,700 pounds).

The channel’s website quoted Defence Minister Ahmad Vahidi as saying that the third generation Fateh 110 was a “single stage solid propellant” missile.

He did not specify the exact range of the missile but Iran has previously paraded a version of Fateh 110 which it said could travel between 150 and 200 kilometres (90 to 125 miles).

“This version works on solid fuel, so compared to previous generations it has an increased range and accuracy. Its preparation as well as launching systems are speedier,” Vahidi said.

“This missile, which is in the short-range class, has added new features to the country’s missile system.”

The launch of Fateh 110 follows an announcement by Vahidi on Friday that Iran had successfully test fired its Qiam (Rising) short range missile, which was propelled by liquid fuel.

Vahidi further clarified on Wednesday that the test-firing of Fateh 110 was not related to the Pentagon’s announcement on August 11 that it planned to sell Patriot missiles to Kuwait, which is looking to bolster its defences.

“Kuwait is no threat to us, we have friendly relations with this country,” Vahidi said.

The test firing of Fateh 110 comes two days after Iran began mass-producing two high-speed variants of missile-launching assault boats, the Seraj and Zolfaqar.

On Sunday, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad unveiled Iran’s home-built bomber drone, which he described as an “ambassador of death” to Iran’s enemies.

The series of military announcements come as Iran marks its annual “government week,” during which it flaunts its latest achievements in various fields.