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LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League (N) Chief Mian Nawaz Sharif has revealed that the Kargil operation was planned and executed by the army under the then COAS General Parvez Musharraf’s leadership without his knowledge. Addressing PML (N) General Council meeting at Raiwind on Saturday, Nawaz Sharif said Musharraf launched the Kargil operation soon after the visit of former Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to Lahore. Nawaz said he established contact with the then United States President Bill Clinton when Indian PM Vajpayee informed him of the Kargil operation. He said despite his busy schedule, Clinton met wit me (Nawaz). Nawaz said he claimed the blame of Kargil war to save army’s image. PML (N) chief said he was fortunate to have loyal workers in the party. About lawyers’ movement, Nawaz said success of this movement would ensure prosperity and security of Pakistan. Nawaz hoped that his party would clinch two-thirds majority in next elections. He said the country was witnessing...

LOS ANGELES: The final countdown to the 81st Academy Awards were underway here Saturday, with feel-good movie "Slumdog Millionaire" poised to romp home with the coveted best picture Oscar. Less than 48 hours before the entertainment industry's most glamorous night of the year, workers were putting the finishing touches to their preparations at the Kodak Theater in the heart of Hollywood. The build-up to this year's ceremony has been dominated by India-set rags-to-riches fable "Slumdog", which has dominated other awards shows and is considered the overwhelming favorite for the best picture statuette. Although period drama "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" will start the night with the most nominations, 13, compared to 10 for "Slumdog," experts say that British director Danny Boyle's film looks unstoppable. Pundits say "Slumdog" has delighted audiences with its rags-to-riches plot about a Mumbai tea boy who rises out of po...

SEOUL: North Korea could be ready to test-fire a missile within days as satellite imagery has shown increased activity at a missile site over the past 48 hours, a defense weekly said. A significant increase in launch preparations has occurred at the Musudan-ni missile site on the communist country's northeastern coast, said Joseph S. Bermudez Jr., a senior analyst at Jane's Information Group who specializes in North Korean defense and intelligence matters. ``The latest satellite images indicate that North Korea is preparing to launch either a prototype Taepodong 2 intermediate range ballistic missile or a Paektusan 2 space launch vehicle within a matter of days,'' Jane's Defence Weekly said in a report issued Friday in London.

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama's administration has broadened the number of radical groups targeted by the CIA inside Pakistan by attacking a militant network seeking to overthrow the Pakistani government, a leading US newspaper reported Saturday. The newspaper said recent missile strikes on training camps run by Baitullah Mehsud represent a broadening of the US military campaign inside Pakistan, which has been carried out largely by drone aircraft. Under former president George W. Bush, the United States frequently attacked militants from Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, but stopped short of targeting Mehsud and his followers. Pakistani and US officials identified Mehsud early last yea, as the man who had orchestrated the assassination of Pakistani former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, the report said. Bush included Mehsud in a classified list of militant leaders whom the CIA and American commandos were authorized to capture or kill, according to the paper. However, he did not do ...

KABUL: The speaker of the U.S. House met with President Hamid Karzai in Kabul on Saturday where the two likely talked about the incoming surge of U.S. forces. Nancy Pelosi arrived in Afghanistan on Friday to meet with Afghan officials and U.S. and NATO military leaders, said Capt. Elizabeth Mathias, a U.S. military spokeswoman. Pelosi, a California Democrat also met with U.S. troops during her two-day visit. President Barack Obama announced this last week a surge of 17,000 additional forces to bolster the record 38,000 U.S. troops already in the country. Commanders say the troops are needed to fight a resurgent Taliban that has increased attacks the last three years. Militants now control wide swaths of rural countryside. Pelosi's visit comes about a week after a trip here by Richard Holbrooke, Obama's special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. Obama has promised to increase the U.S. focus on Afghanistan while drawing down troops in Iraq. Democrats for years have said...

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama's Justice Department sided with the former Bush administration on Friday, saying detainees in Afghanistan have no constitutional rights. In a two-sentence court filing, department lawyers said the Obama administration agreed that detainees at Bagram Air Base could not use U.S. courts to challenge their detention. The filing shocked human rights attorneys. ``The hope we all had in President Obama to lead us on a different path has not turned out as we'd hoped,'' said Tina Monshipour Foster, a human rights attorney representing a detainee at the Bagram Air Base. ``We all expected better.'' In midyear last year, the Supreme Court gave al-Qaida and Taliban suspects held at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the right to challenge their detention. With about 600 detainees at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan and thousands more held in Iraq courts are grappling with whether they, too, can sue to be released. Three months after...

NEW YORK: A leading international watchdog has asked the Sri Lankan government to "immediately cease" its indiscriminate artillery attacks on civilians in the northern Vanni region and review its policy of detaining displaced persons in internment camps. In a report released on Saturday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said since early January 2009, civilian casualties have skyrocketed in the fighting between the Sri Lankan armed forces and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The 45-page report, HRW said, is based on a two-week fact-finding mission to Vanni region of northern Sri Lanka in February. The government has prohibited journalists and human rights monitors from going to the battle zone in the Vanni, making access to information difficult. "This 'war' against civilians must stop," said James Ross, legal and policy director at Human Rights Watch. "Sri Lankan forces are shelling hospitals and so-called safe zones and slaughtering the ...

DALLAS: A month after leaving the White House, former President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, have moved into their new Dallas home. Bush's motorcade drove past a security barricade last evening, bringing the former first couple to their new residence: a 1959 ranch-style brick home that sits at the top of a quiet dead end street in a wealthy Dallas neighbourhood. Bush waved to a jogger as he rode by, and the jogger waved back. The couple's new home has about 8,500 square feet, four bedrooms, four-and-a-half bathrooms and a wet bar. Local property records indicate the home on Daria Place is worth about $2.1 million. The house has a wide front yard and dark shutters, with a gate at the top of the driveway that affords some privacy. The Dallas City Council last month approved installation of a security gate that will eventually block access to the street. Dallas police and Secret Service agents have set up a barricade in recent days limiting access to the neighborhood.

SEOUL: North Korea could be ready to test-fire a missile within days as satellite imagery has shown increased activity at a missile site over the past 48 hours, a defense weekly said. A significant increase in launch preparations has occurred at the Musudan-ni missile site on the communist country's northeastern coast, said Joseph S. Bermudez Jr., a senior analyst at Jane's Information Group who specializes in North Korean defense and intelligence matters. ``The latest satellite images indicate that North Korea is preparing to launch either a prototype Taepodong 2 intermediate range ballistic missile or a Paektusan 2 space launch vehicle within a matter of days,'' Jane's Defence Weekly said in a report issued Friday in London.

YANGON: Myanmar government Saturday started to release 6,313 prisoners under an amnesty announcement, official sources said. The terms of the prisoners were terminated on grounds of humanization and as a gesture showing sympathy towards their families as well as to enable them to participate in a general election scheduled for 2010 which is the 5th step of the government's seven-step roadmap, according to the amnesty announcement issued on Friday night. The release is another amnesty granted after the one in September last year when 9,002 prisoners were freed. The amnesty came after the visits to Myanmar of two United Nations high-ranking officials over the past three weeks.

VIENNA: The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said its inspectors have not found that Iran is attempting to process low-enriched uranium into weapons-grade uranium, the Austrian Press Agency (APA) reported. The report quoted an anonymous IAEA expert as saying, "so far, Iran has carried out good cooperation with us in relevant verifications." The uranium substances produced in Natanz (plant) have all been carefully registered, some of which are under the supervision of IAEA's remote cameras, the expert said. In a report submitted to the United Nations Security Council, Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the IAEA, said Iran was still refusing to fulfill the UN's requirement of stopping its uranium enrichment activity. The report said Iran had so far produced around 1,000 kg of low-enriched uranium, an amount according to experts, was sufficient to produce weapons-degree enriched uranium with 95 percent purity required for one nuclear bomb. The United States ...

QUETTA: The mother of an American UN official kidnapped nearly three weeks ago here has urged the public to help secure his release, in an audiotaped message released Saturday by the UN. John Solecki, head of the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) office in Quetta, was abducted at gunpoint on February 2 while traveling to work. His driver was killed in the ambush. "My name is Rose Solecki. The UNHCR worker who went missing in Quetta, John Solecki, is my son. I am appealing to the people of Balochistan for whatever support they can provide to secure my son's safety and freedom," the 83-year old woman said. "My husband and I spent a wonderful time, meeting his friends in Balochistan," she said on the tape, which was given to a foreign news agency by a local UNHCR official, Baloch Babar, who confirmed that the tape was genuine. The shadowy Balochistan Liberation United Front (BLUF), which claims to be holding Solecki, has demanded the release of 141 female Baloch de...