Meet On Crisis:Pakistani leaders

Pakistani political leaders hold all-party talks on Thursday to address growing American demands on Islamabad to tackle Islamic militants and the possibility that the United States might take unilateral military steps in the country.

Support is growing in the U.S. Congress for expanding American military action in Pakistan beyond the drone strikes that already target militants in Pakistani territory, a senior Republican senator said.
The comments by Senator Lindsey Graham, an influential Republican voice on foreign policy and military affairs, follow remarks by the top U.S. military officer, Admiral Mike Mullen, accusing Pakistan last week of supporting the militant Haqqani network's Sept. 13 attack on the U.S. embassy in Kabul.
Islamabad, which has received billions of dollars of U.S. aid despite its reluctance to go after the Haqqani network, faces the most intense pressure to tackle militancy since it joined the U.S. "war on terror" a decade ago.
Pakistan's military faced withering public criticism after the United States' unilateral raid that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in a Pakistani garrison town in May.
A similar U.S. operation against militant leaders in North Waziristan on the Afghan border, where American officials say the Haqqanis are based, would be another humiliation for the powerful military, which sets security and foreign policy.
Graham said in an interview with Reuters that U.S. lawmakers might support military options beyond drone strikes that have been going on for years inside Pakistani territory.
Those options may include using U.S. bomber planes within Pakistan. The South Carolina Republican said he did not advocate sending U.S. ground troops into Pakistan.
"I would say when it comes to defending American troops, you don't want to limit yourself," Graham said. "This is not a boots-on-the-ground engagement -- I'm not talking about that, but we have a lot of assets beyond drones."
Graham said U.S. lawmakers will think about stepping up the military pressure. "If people believe it's gotten to the point that that is the only way really to protect our interests, I think there would be a lot of support," he said.
REVIEWING AID
Pakistan and the United States have been allies for decades. But their relationship is marred by mistrust. Pakistan, regarded as critical to U.S. efforts to stabilise Afghanistan, is often described as an unreliable partner.
Following U.S. accusations that some in the Pakistani government have aided anti-U.S. militants, Congress is re-evaluating its 2009 promise to triple non-military aid to Pakistan to a total of $7.5 billion over five years.
The non-military aid came on top of billions in security assistance Washington has provided since 2001, and is now rethinking as well.
Any unilateral U.S. military action would deepen anti-American sentiment which already runs high in Pakistan over drone strikes and other issues.
Many people question why thousands of Pakistani soldiers have died fighting what they believe is strictly America's war on militants since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
Pakistani politicians will have those sentiments in mind when they formulate a message for the United States in the all-party talks.
The head of Pakistan's military spy service, Lieutenant-general Ahmad Shuja Pasha, is expected to brief the meeting of politicians on discussions with American officials over strained ties.
His comments are likely to indicate whether the security establishment, which was infuriated by allegations it is actively supporting the Haqqanis, will harden its stand or seek reconciliation with the Americans.
Army chief General Ashfaq Kayani, arguably the most powerful man in Pakistan, is expected to attend the talks.
The Haqqani network is allied with Afghanistan's Taliban and is believed to have close links to al Qaeda. It fights U.S. and NATO forces in eastern Afghanistan.
The group's leader says it is no longer based in North Waziristan and feels secure operating in Afghanistan after making battlefield gains.
Pakistan has vowed to help all sides create peace in Afghanistan, but Kabul has been deeply distrustful of Islamabad's objectives.
Cross-border fire and militant raids have further raised tension between Pakistan and Afghanistan in recent months as they battle a stubborn insurgency by Taliban and al Qaeda militants in their countries.
Pakistani troops exchanged mortar fire with forces across the border in Afghanistan on Thursday.
A Pakistani military spokesman said troops earlier this week killed up to 35 militants who had crossed the border and attacked Pakistani forces who were setting up checkpoints on possible infiltration routes.

Afzal is hanged

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah Wednesday said he was worried that the hanging of parliament attack convict Afzal Guru could revive militancy in the state.

'I have to be concerned about the hanging of Afzal Guru. It has implications not just for the state but for the centre too,' he told a television news channel.
He noted that a generation of militants was born in Kashmir following the execution of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) leader Muhammad Maqbool Bhat in 1984.
'I cannot and will not forget that an entire generation of militants was born because of the hanging of Maqbool Bhat. I have to be concerned that Afzal Guru's hanging can once again revive militancy at a time when it is down,' Abdullah said.
'I am not in favour of the death penalty. It has not served as a deterrent for either murders or terrorism,' he said.
The state assembly was set to debate the resolution seeking clemency for Afzal Guru Wednesday but this did not happen due to disruptions.
Abdullah also questioned the policies of some political parties on similar issues like clemency for people on death row.
'While it is okay to ask clemency for Rajiv Gandhi's killers and while it is okay also to ask mercy for (Khalistani terrorist Devinder Pal Singh) Bhullar, why is it wrong for J and K to even discuss and debate clemency? Is it because Afzal Guru is a Kashmiri Muslim?' he asked.
He also questioned why Jammu and Kashmir is constantly called upon to prove that they are a part of India when no other state is asked to do the same.
'Death sentences should satisfy legal needs, not public perception,' he said, adding that death sentence only converts convicts into martyrs.
'It is better to put them in jail for the rest of their lives because then most people will forget about them,' he suggested.
The chief minister also took a dig at the separatists and questioned their so-called desire not to seen Afzal Guru hang.
'I can tell you that privately they will be thrilled if he is hanged because it will give them a boost,' he said.
On his tweets on controversial issues, he said: 'I will be tweeting less on controversial issues but there is no way I am quitting Twitter. It is an effective medium to communicate. I will not betray my 60,000 followers.'

Steve Jobs

The first story is about connecting the dots. I ped out of Reed College after the first six months. Why? Well, it started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption.

She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, but my biological mother found out later that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would go to college.
This was the start in my life. And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. So I decided to out. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made.
It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms. I returned coke bottles for the five cent deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the seven miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on.
Let me give you one example: I decided to take a calligraphy class at Reed College and learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations. None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. If I had never ped out, I would have never ped in on that calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.
Love and Loss
My second story is about love and loss. Woz (Steve Wozniak) and I started Apple in my parents' garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown into a two billion dollar company with over 4,000 employees. We'd just released our finest creation the Macintosh a year earlier, and then I got fired.
I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down. I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me: I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit and I decided to start over.
The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life. During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, and I retuned to Apple. I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple.
I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.
If today were the last day of life
My third story is about death. When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: 'If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right.' It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I've looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: 'If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?' And whenever the answer has been 'No' for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
Remembering that I will be dead soon is the most important tool I have ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. The doctors told me this was incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for 'prepare to die.' I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, and was told that it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and, thankfully, I'm fine now.
This was the closest I've been to facing death. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept: No one wants to die. Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice.
When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalogue created by a fellow named Stewart Brand and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: 'Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.' It was their farewell message.
And I've always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Indians Shift Gold

In a nation whose love for gold is legendary, financial adviser Biju Daniel is one of scores of Indians who are rethinking how they amass riches through the precious metal.

Daniel's wife owns at least a kilogram of jewellery and he sports a gold watch. But he is also shrewd enough to realise that the world's biggest gold consumers are falling out of love with wearing their wealth, preferring to stock up on coins, bars and bullion-based investment funds as they look for returns safe from the ravages of inflation and the dictates of fashion.
"The current generation is not serious about gold. They have bangles but they don't wear them," Daniel, of Shreyas Investment Services, told Reuters in his basement office, after wrapping up an offer to clients of the SBI Gold Fund as an investment.
"Look at college campuses, Indian girls there are not interested in gold jewellery. My wife has about one kilo of gold jewellery but my daughters are not interested."
Demand for gold bars, coins and other pure investments in India, Asia's third largest economy, soared 83 percent in 2010 from the year earlier to 349 tonnes, according to GFMS, a precious metals consultancy that is part of Thomson Reuters.
The amount of gold used in making jewellery in 2010 rose 36 percent to 685 tonnes -- giving investment demand 34 percent of total buying, up from 28 percent in 2009.
"Gold has come a long way from being a jewellery item to an alternative currency," said Gnanasekar Thiagarajan, a director with Commtrendz Research.
"Investment demand could surpass jewellery demand in the next two to three years," he said.
For graphics on India's gold imports, click http://link.reuters.com/xaf72s
SOLID INVESTMENT
Indians' passion for gold dates back centuries and the country is home to one of the world's oldest -- albeit now largely defunct -- mines.
Gold, the ultimate status symbol, is also the gift of choice at celebrations, and jewellery stores across the country heave with customers in the run-up to festivals and the traditional wedding season in a country where brides are often weighed down with the wealth their parents give them.
Overall, gold buying in India jumped 38 percent in the second quarter compared with a year ago, as soaring prices simply fuelled perceptions it was a smart investment as worries about the global economy deepen.
Global gold prices have risen 29 percent in 2011 and hit a record $1,920.30 per ounce on Tuesday. India's domestic gold prices have climbed 33 percent and touched a high of 28,744 rupees per 10 grams on Tuesday.
With India's inflation nudging 10 percent and the central bank's key lending rate at 8 percent, domestic deposits and fixed-income investments are looking especially vulnerable, and the Bombay stock market has fallen 16.5 percent this year.
"If you look at interest rates, in real terms they are still negative so investors will definitely look at gold," said Gargi Shah, metals analyst with GFMS.
"Investment demand has literally exploded."
BISCUITS VS BANGLES
World Gold Council data for the second quarter of 2011 shows Indian investment demand rose 78 percent on a year ago to 108.5 million tonnes while jewellery demand rose 17 percent to 139.8 million tonnes.
In China, the biggest gold consumer after India, jewellery demand rose a comparable 16 percent in the quarter and investment demand grew by 44 percent.
Unlike jewellery, investment gold retains its value better because fabrication costs are significantly less and buyers don't have to worry about their pieces becoming dated, making them harder to sell.
R.C. Joneja, the white-haired manager of a jewellery shop in New Delhi's central Janpath district, says it costs about 1,000 rupees ($21) to make a 10 gram "biscuit" -- a bar about the size of a credit card -- while manufacturing a jewellery piece of similar weight would cost three times as much.
"Customers prefer to buy these if it's only for investment," he said, displaying a coin and a biscuit.
"But if someone wants to buy jewellery, they will definitely still buy jewellery."
PAPER GOLD
While owning physical gold may now have become harder at such high prices, Indians are snapping up "paper gold", funds like those that financial adviser Daniel sells for a minimum monthly payment of 100 rupees (about $2).
Such small requirements are another attraction for paper gold investments in a country where 42 percent of the population have barely enough to eat and 15,000 rupees a month makes you middle class -- while a simple signet ring costs 20,000 rupees.
"Investing in gold has become affordable," says a flyer for the SBI Gold Fund, which closed its offering on Monday.
Reliance Capital's gold exchange traded fund (ETF), India's third-biggest gold fund, has more than trebled the number of its investors since March, and people are investing in it through online routes as well as in person.
Despite prices already higher than they have ever been, gold is still proving a worthwhile investment.
Funds that invest in gold were the top performers in August in India with gold exchange-traded funds (ETFs) garnering returns of 15.2 percent, data from tracker Lipper, a ThomsonReuters company, showed.
"Absolutely, you will see this kind of trend continuing," GFMS consultant Shah said of the investment appeal of gold over jewellery.
"We won't see the reverse unless there's a change in the gold price trend."
At Mumbai's Zaveri Bazaar, a warren of jewellery stores that is also the hub of India's bulk gold trade, businessman Sanjay Darji is betting on gold remaining a sound investment as he stocks up on coins.
"I bought one, two and eight gram coins for investment purposes. The thing about coins is quality is assured, unlike jewellery," Darji said.
"It's better than keeping idle money at home."

Oil falls below $85

Oil prices fell to below $85 a barrel Friday in Asia as investors tried to make sense of a week of sharp zigzags in the equity and commodities markets.

Benchmark oil for September delivery was down $1.01 to $84.71 a barrel at midday Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Crude rose $2.83, or 3.4 percent, to settle at $85.72 on Thursday.
In London, Brent crude was down 54 cents to $107.48 per barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
Crude has dropped from $100 last month and near $115 in May as concerns about the European debt crisis and weakening U.S. economic growth undermined investor confidence. Oil has rebounded from as low as $75 earlier this week, whipped around by surges and plunges in global stock markets and quick changes in investor sentiment.
"As the interpretation of eurozone conditions ebbs and flows, risk appetite will continue to fluctuate wildly on a day to day basis," energy analyst Ritterbusch and Associates said in a report. "Growing eurozone debt problems will remain regardless of short-term fixes."
Oil is now the same price as in February, before violence in Libya shut down almost all crude production from the OPEC nation.
The Labor Department said Thursday that the number of people who applied for unemployment benefits fell last week below 400,000 for the first time in four months, a sign that the job market may be improving. Traders will be closely watching the latest data on U.S. retail sales and consumer sentiment later Friday.
"We anticipate a renewed turn back to the downside that could evolve into fresh lows as early as next week," Ritterbusch said. "Our longer term outlook remains bearish as we still see an eventual crude price decline to the $73 1/2 area."
In other Nymex trading in September contracts, heating oil fell 1.2 cents to $2.89 a gallon while gasoline dropped 0.7 cent at $2.82 a gallon. Natural gas futures advanced 0.2 cents at $4.11 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Top US Commander In Pak to Defuse Bilateral Tension

The United States Central Command (USCENTCOM) Commander, General James N. Mattis, is in Pakistan in an apparent move to defuse tension with the close ally over the suspension of military aid. General Mattis met Pakistan Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Chairman General Khalid Shameem Wynne at the Joint Staff Headquarters in Chaklala and discussed matters related to the regional security situation with special emphasis on the war on terror, a Pakistan Army statement said. The statement did not give any further details of the meeting, but it is believed that tension over aid suspension prominently figured in the talks, The Nation reports. General Mattis is the first top US commander to visit Pakistan after the US suspended military aid to Pakistan, which analysts believe may harm ties between the two armies - close allies in war against Al-Qaeda and Taliban. The Obama administration has suspended some 800 million dollars in military assistance to Pakistan in a show of displeasure over its cutback on US trainers, limits on visas for US personnel and other rubs. The May 2 secret US military raid in Abbottabad, which killed Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, had also caused new strains in bilateral ties.

U.S. Senate Deplores China's Use Of Force At Sea

The U.S. Senate unanimously approved a resolution on Monday that deplored China's use of force against Vietnamese and Philippine ships in the South China Sea. China has shown increasing assertiveness in its claim to the entire South China Sea, believed to be rich in oil and gas. In its nonbinding resolution, the U.S. Senate urged all parties to refrain from using force to assert territorial claims. "The Senate ... deplores the use of force by naval and maritime security vessels from China in the South China Sea," the resolution said. Senator Jim Webb, chair of an east Asian and Pacific affairs subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that "a growing number of nations around the South China Sea are now voicing serious concerns about China's pattern of intimidation." Chinese vessels have harassed Vietnamese oil exploration ships and the Philippines has also complained that one of its ships has been rammed, according to the Senate resolution. On Sunday, China and Vietnam pledged to resolve their maritime dispute through peaceful negotiations, a sign of possibly easing tension. The dispute was one of several subjects discussed in the first set of talks in Hawaii between the United States and China over the weekend.

Agra Activists Join Ramdev's Fast

Scores of activists and supporters of yoga guru's campaign against corruption Saturday started a fast here.
A large number of them were Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers, including MP Ram Shankar Katheria. Women activists too joined the fast which began at the Shahid Smarak in Sanjay Place commercial complex.
'Baba Ramdev has stirred the conscience of the people and this battle will not stop till the black money stashed away in foreign banks is brought back to India and the guilty punished,' said young activist Rakesh.
Ramdev began a fast Saturday morning at the Delhi's Ramlila Ground. He has been demanding that the government take urgent steps to bring back black money stashed abroad by Indians and also take effective measures to curb rampant corruption.

Heads Must roll Over Karachi Attack

Heads must roll over the terror attack at a key Karachi military base, said a Pakistani daily, declaring that the 'trust in the hitherto unquestioned competence of our armed forces' had been lost. Heavily armed terrorists stormed the naval base Sunday night and targeted two surveillance aircraft. Fourteen people, including four terrorists, were killed in the 16-hour siege that ended Monday afternoon. An editorial in the Daily Times Wednesday said: 'The attack on PNS Mehran in Karachi has shaken the people of Pakistan. When the country's most powerful institution, the armed forces, is not safe from such a brutal attack, how can the common man feel safe?' On navy chief Admiral Noman Bashir's statement that the attack was not due to any security breach, it said: 'If losing 10 soldiers, two Orion aircraft and being under siege for 16 hours does not constitute a security failure, then our guardians must share their 'wisdom' with the rest of the nation and let us know what they consider 'failure'.' 'Admiral Bashir's response is typical of all high officials... They never accept their mistakes. But this culture of impunity, particularly where the armed forces are concerned, must be changed.' The editorial bluntly said that 'heads must roll and the terrorists who got away should be found and prosecuted'. It added that this is not just a security breach but 'also an intelligence failure of the highest order. We lost our soldiers, we lost millions of dollars worth of aircraft and we also lost our trust in the hitherto unquestioned competence of our armed forces'. 'All this is a result of the decline in professionalism in the military.' Criticising the country's armed forces, the editorial said: 'Pakistan's military is busy meddling in politics, keeping tabs on civilians and making money. Instead of wasting time on things that are not central to their concerns, the military should go back to the barracks in letter and spirit.' 'Pakistan has suffered immense damage because of the military's decline in professionalism. In these trying times when the terrorists make it seem so easy to attack any place at will, we need our soldiers to concentrate on the fight against the scourge of terrorism.

Osama Plotted Attacks

Al Qaeda was planning attacks on key US cities and railways timed to significant dates, a treasure trove of material taken from Osama bin Laden's hideout deep inside Pakistan indicates.

Material recovered from the raid on Osama's Abbottabad hideout indicated that in February 2010, Al Qaeda members discussed a plan to derail trains in the US on the 10th anniversary of the Sep 11, 2001 attacks by placing obstructions on tracks, media reports said.
Other material gathered from the sprawling mansion where Osama was hiding also suggests that Al Qaeda was particularly interested in striking Washington, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, the CNN said.
US authorities have found that Al Qaeda appears especially interested in striking on significant dates like America's July 4 Independence Day, Christmas and the opening day of the UN.
As a precaution, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Thursday sent out an alert advising federal, state and local agencies about the new evidence of a possible rail plot.
'As one option, Al Qaeda was looking into trying to tip a train by tampering with the rails so that the train would fall off the track at either a valley or a bridge,' said the DHS advisory.
After reviewing computer files and seized documents, American intelligence analysts have concluded that Osama played a direct role for years in plotting terror attacks from his Abbottabad hideout, The New York Times said citing US officials.
The materials, along with others reviewed in the intelligence cache, have given intelligence officials a much richer picture of the Al Qaeda founder's leadership of the network as he tried to elude a global dragnet, it said.
'He wasn't just a figurehead,' the Times cited one American official as saying. 'He continued to plot and plan, to come up with ideas about targets, and to communicate those ideas to other senior Qaeda leaders.'
The fact that Osama was found not in Pakistan's rugged tribal areas but on the outskirts of an affluent town less than an hour's drive from the capital, Islamabad, has prompted a rethinking of the widespread notion that he had little control over the rest of Al Qaeda, the daily said.
Other gleanings from the roughly 100 pieces of computer gear seized Sunday included possible leads on the whereabouts of other senior Al Qaeda leaders, the Washington Post reported.
While intelligence officials declined to comment on specific tips, a key congressional leader briefed on the findings suggested that the search for Al Qaeda's No.2 leader was in a newly active phase, it said.
The task of identifying and exploiting intelligence tips has been assigned extraordinary urgency, since the raid likely alerted top Al Qaeda figures that their safe houses and plans may have been compromised, the Post said citing a US official.