Obama says US can prevent Iran nuclear bomb

In a Thursday interview with Israeli television, US President Barack Obama said his country could prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, adding that he would keep all options open in the absence of a diplomatic solution.

President Barack Obama has told Israelis that the United States has significant capabilities to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and that he was keeping all options on the table.
In an interview with Israeli television broadcast on Thursday, ahead of his visit next week, Obama said the United States estimated it would take Iran "over a year or so" to develop a nuclear weapon, once Tehran decided to pursue one.
He also acknowledged the differences he has had with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but said the foundation of bilateral ties was strong, as was his commitment to Israel's security.
Obama said he and Netanyahu shared a "terrific, business-like relationship", and a number of times referred to the Israeli leader as Bibi, his popular childhood nickname.
Regarding the long-stalled peace process with the Palestinians, Obama spoke somewhat vaguely, saying he was coming to listen during meetings he would hold with Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Obama's first presidential visit to Israel comes at the onset of spring - the "red line" previously set by Netanyahu for attacking Iran's nuclear sites.
Iran denies it is seeking a bomb and says its nuclear programme is solely for peaceful purposes.
"We think that it would take over a year or so for Iran to actually develop a nuclear weapon, but obviously we don't want to cut it too close," Obama said.
Asked if he would order an attack on Iran should diplomacy fail, Obama said: "When I say that all options are on the table, all options are on the table. The United States obviously has significant capabilities but our goal here is to make sure that Iran does not possess a nuclear weapon that could threaten Israel or could trigger an arms race in the region."
During the visit, Obama faces the challenge of overcoming Israeli suspicions that have lingered since his early days in office when he pressed Netanyahu for a freeze on settlement expansion and launched a short-lived outreach to Tehran, Israel's arch-foe.
Netanyahu, victorious in a January election, only clinched a coalition deal on Thursday, and Obama said any breakthrough in peace negotiations with the Palestinians would be unlikely until the Israeli government stabilised.
"My goal on this trip is to listen," he said.
Obama stopped short of calling for a freeze in settlement building in the occupied West Bank, but suggested a change in Israel's policy would empower moderate Palestinian leaders.
He said "it's a matter of both parties coming together and recognising that their futures in some ways are going to inextricably linked and that Israel will be safer, more secure, more prosperous if the issue can be resolved".
"Obviously Israel can't resolve it by itself, but it can't stop trying."
In a direct appeal to the Israeli people, Obama said he regretted that he would not have an opportunity to walk the streets and hear what average folks have to say.
"Sometimes I have this fantasy that I can put on a disguise, wear a fake moustache, and I could wander through Tel Aviv, go to a bar, and, you know, have a conversation there," he said.

Pakistan’s Christians protest against ‘blasphemy’ riots

Hundreds of protesters from Pakistan’s Christian minority clashed with police across the country on Sunday, a day after a Muslim mob torched dozens of Christian homes in retaliation for alleged blasphemy.

Hundreds of Christians clashed with police across Pakistan on Sunday, a day after a Muslim mob burned dozens of homes owned by members of the minority religious group in retaliation for alleged insults against Islam’s Prophet Muhammad.
Christians are often the target of Pakistan’s harsh blasphemy laws, which rights activists say are frequently used to persecute religious minorities or settle personal disputes. Politicians have been reluctant to reform the laws for fear of being attacked by religious radicals, as has happened in the past.
The plight of Pakistan’s other religious minorities, such as Shiite Muslims, Hindus and Ahmadis, has also deepened in recent years as hard-line interpretations of Islam have gained ground and militants have stepped up attacks against groups they oppose. Most Pakistanis are Sunni Muslims.
The latest incident began Friday after a Muslim in the eastern city of Lahore accused a Christian man of blasphemy - an offense punishable by life in prison or even death. A day later, hundreds of angry Muslims rampaged through the Christian neighborhood, burning about 170 houses.
Authorities have arrested 160 suspected members of the mob, many of whom were identified through TV footage and photos published in newspapers, said police officer Abdur Rehman.
But it remains to be seen whether anyone will be held to account. Mob violence is not uncommon following blasphemy allegations, and police often round up large numbers of suspects. However, these arrests rarely result in actual convictions.
There have been no convictions related to a deadly attack on Christians in 2009 in the eastern city of Gojra that was also sparked by blasphemy allegations, the Express Tribune newspaper reported Sunday. Angry Muslims burned dozens of houses in Gojra, killing eight Christians - seven of them from one family trapped in a burning home.
No Christians were hurt in Saturday’s attack in Lahore because they fled the area overnight before the mob arrived. But police were criticized for failing to prevent the mob from attacking the Christians’ homes.
The largest demonstrations on Sunday were in Lahore and the southern city of Karachi. About 1,000 people protested in both places, and smaller demonstrations were held in the capital, Islamabad, and the adjoining city of Rawalpindi.
In Lahore, hundreds of protesters, some carrying large crucifixes, blocked a main highway as they pressed their demands for better compensation payments from the government, said police official Malik Awais. Police fired tear gas canisters and used batons to disperse the demonstrators and took six of them into custody, he said.
The protesters damaged several vehicles, uprooted a fence along the road and burned an electricity generator, Awais said. They also pelted police with stones, injuring seven of them, he said.
Government spokesman Pervaiz Rasheed promised the government would help the Christians rebuild their houses, but the protesters expressed dissatisfaction with the way the government was handling the incident.
“I have been robbed of all of my life’s savings,” said Yousuf Masih, standing outside his burned home. He said the government’s announcement that it would give 200,000 rupees ($2,000) compensation to each family was a joke.
Awais said the protesters were demanding the government raise the compensation amount from 200,000 rupees ($2,000) to 1 million rupees ($10,000).
In Karachi, protesters blocked a road in a main market and damaged about 25 vehicles, said police officer Ali Raza. Some of the demonstrators also attacked 10 shops and looted valuables and cash, he said. Police beat back the protesters and fired tear gas to disperse them. At least two protesters were taken into custody, Raza said.
Police have taken the Christian man accused of blasphemy into custody pending an investigation. Those who attacked the Christian neighborhood are also being investigated for a range of offenses, including arson, robbery and insulting the feelings of the Christian community, said Rehman, the police officer.
Akram Gill, a local bishop in the Lahore Christian community, said the incident had more to do with personal enmity between the two men involved than blasphemy. He said the men got into a brawl after drinking late one night, and in the morning the Muslim man made up the blasphemy story as payback.
Once an accusation is made, it’s difficult to get it reversed, partly because law enforcement officials and politicians do not want to be seen as being soft on blasphemers.
Two prominent politicians were assassinated in 2011 for urging reform of the law. The killer of one of the politicians was hailed as a hero, and lawyers at his legal appearances showered him with rose petals.
According to Human Rights Watch, there are at least 16 people on death row in Pakistan for blasphemy and another 20 are serving life sentences.
While Muslims are frequently accused of blasphemy, members of Pakistan’s small Christian community are especially vulnerable to the accusations. Christians make up less than 5 percent of Pakistan’s 180 million people and many hold low-paying jobs, such as cleaning and street sweeping.
Last year, there was a rare reversal of a blasphemy case against a teenage Christian girl with suspected mental disabilities who was accused of burning pages of the Quran. She was released after a huge domestic and international outcry about her treatment. A local Muslim cleric was arrested and accused of planting the pages in her bag to incriminate her, a rare example of the accuser facing legal consequences. However, he was later freed on bail.

Afghan forces banned from requesting NATO strikes

Afghan forces will be banned from requesting NATO air strikes "under any conditions", President Hamid Karzai told a Kabul military academy on Saturday. The move comes days after 10 civilians died in a joint NATO-Afghan raid on a Taliban hideout.

Afghan security forces will be banned from calling for NATO air strikes in residential areas to help in their operations, President Hamid Karzai said on Saturday, three days after 10 civilians died in such a strike in the country’s east.
NATO air strikes and civilian casualties have become a significant stress point in the relationship between Karzai and his international backers. The issue threatens to further destabilise a precarious international withdrawal, to be completed by the end of 2014.
Addressing a conference at Kabul’s National Military Academy, Karzai expressed his anger about the strike and said he would issue a decree on Sunday preventing any resort to such measures by his forces.
“Tomorrow, I will issue an decree stating that under no conditions can Afghan forces request foreign air strikes on Afghan homes or Afghan villages during operations,” Karzai told more than 1,000 officers, commandos and students.
If issued, such a decree would for the first time bar Afghan security forces from relying on NATO air strikes, and increase pressure on them as they increasingly assume control of security from international forces.
NATO and its partners are racing against the clock to train Afghanistan’s 350,000-strong security forces, though questions remain over how they well the Afghans will be able to tackle the insurgency in the face of intensifying violence.
On Wednesday, a NATO air strike—requested during an operation in eastern Kunar province involving Afghan and American troops targeting Taliban fighters linked to al Qaeda—struck two houses in a village in the Shultan valley.
The strike killed 10 people, including five children and four women. Four Taliban fighters, who had links to al Qaeda, according to Afghan officials, were also killed.
Strikes critical in difficult areas
Foreign air power is crucial for Afghan forces, particularly in areas like Kunar and Nuristan, which are covered with forests and rough terrain, making ground operations difficult.
Nuristan and Kunar also share a long, porous borders with lawless areas inside Pakistan, known to be home to foreign fighters and al Qaeda members.
Karzai said he had been told that the air strike was requested by the Afghan spy agency, the National Directorate of Security (NDS).
“If this is true, it is very regrettable and it is very shameful. How could they ask foreigners to send planes and bomb our own houses?” he said.
According to Kunar officials one of the dead insurgents was identified as a Pakistani citizen and Taliban leader named Rocketi. A second was identified as a Taliban commander called Shahpour.
A spokesman for NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said there would be no comment on any presidential decree until it was actually issued.
In June last year, following the deaths of 18 civilians in a NATO air strike in the country’s east, the ISAF commander at the time, General John Allen, issued a directive restricting their use against insurgents “within civilian dwellings”.
In a meeting with ISAF Commander General Joseph Dunford following Wednesday’s bombing, Karzai stressed Allen’s 2012 directive and said such attacks must never recur.
Tensions have risen between Karzai and his foreign backers since his comments in October that the United States and its allies should target supporters of terrorism in Pakistan and stop fighting their war in Afghan villages.
The ISAF says it has reduced civilian casualties in recent years, and that insurgents such as the Taliban are now responsible for 84 per cent of all such deaths and injuries.

NATO troops killed in Afghan helicopter crash

A helicopter crash in southern Afghanistan has claimed the lives of five members of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, NATO said on Tuesday. No immediate details about the cause of the accident were released.

A helicopter crash in southern Afghanistan killed five members of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, NATO said on Tuesday, although there were no immediate details about the cause of the crash.
A brief ISAF statement said the crash occurred on Monday.
“The cause of the crash is under investigation, however initial reporting indicates there was no enemy activity in the area at the time of the incident,” the NATO statement said.
It also did not give any details about the nationality of the troops killed, although U.S. and British forces make up the bulk of the NATO-led contingent in Afghanistan’s south. Australian troops also still operate in the south.
The crash came on the same day that two U.S. troops and five Afghan police and soldiers were killed in a so-called insider attack by a person in an Afghan military uniform in the restive east of the country.
New U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel left Afghanistan earlier on Monday after a difficult first trip to Kabul.
His trip was marred by a suicide bomb attack near where he was holding a meeting, and differences with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who accused the United States of colluding with the Taliban.
Helicopter crashes are not uncommon in Afghanistan and the Taliban and others often claim to have shot them down, although such claims by insurgents are often exaggerated.
Last August, 11 people, including seven U.S. soldiers, were killed when a Black Hawk helicopter crashed in southern Afghanistan.
The worst such incident was in August 2011, when the Taliban shot down a CH-47 Chinook transport helicopter, killing all 38 people on board, including 25 U.S. special operations troops.

Scores missing after ferry sinks in Bangladesh

Dozens of people were missing on Friday after a ferry carrying around 100 passengers collided with a barge and capsized in Bangladesh’s Meghna River, officials said.

Scores of people were missing after a ferry carrying around 100 passengers sank following a collision on a river in Bangladesh Friday, the latest in a series of disasters blamed on lax safety standards.
The small vessel was ferrying passengers on the Meghna river, close to the town of Gazaria in the central Munshiganj district, at around 8:00 am (0200 GMT) when it collided with a barge laden with sand to be used for construction.
While some passengers managed to swim to safety as the wooden boat went down rapidly, many others remained unaccounted for, said officials involved in the rescue effort.
"So far we have gathered that the ferry was carrying around 100 people. A maximum 40 people are feared missing," local police chief Jahangir Hossain told AFP.
Munshiganj's district administrator Saifuddin Badal said that more than 50 people were still unaccounted for after the disaster.

Afghan forces banned from requesting NATO strikes

Afghan forces will be banned from requesting NATO air strikes "under any conditions", President Hamid Karzai told a Kabul military academy on Saturday. The move comes days after 10 civilians died in a joint NATO-Afghan raid on a Taliban hideout.

Afghan security forces will be banned from calling for NATO air strikes in residential areas to help in their operations, President Hamid Karzai said on Saturday, three days after 10 civilians died in such a strike in the country’s east.
NATO air strikes and civilian casualties have become a significant stress point in the relationship between Karzai and his international backers. The issue threatens to further destabilise a precarious international withdrawal, to be completed by the end of 2014.
Addressing a conference at Kabul’s National Military Academy, Karzai expressed his anger about the strike and said he would issue a decree on Sunday preventing any resort to such measures by his forces.

UN nuclear watchdog fails to reach deal with Iran

UN inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency failed to reach an agreement with Iranian officials in Tehran on Thursday following talks aimed at curbing the Islamic Republic’s nuclear programme.

U.N. inspectors returned on Thursday from talks in Tehran with no deal on access to Iran’s nuclear sites and no date for new talks, failing to produce even a small signal of hope for wider big power diplomacy aimed at averting a war.
“Despite its many commitments to do so, Iran has not negotiated in good faith,” said a Western diplomat accredited to the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna who was not at the talks. “It appears that we now have to ask ourselves if this is still the right tactic.”
The deadlock is a chilling signal for a wider effort by six major powers to get Iran to curb a programme that they fear could give it the capacity to build a nuclear bomb, something Israel has suggested it will prevent by force if diplomacy fails.
The IAEA and Iran “could not finalise the document” setting out terms for an IAEA inquiry into possible military dimensions of Iran’s nuclear programme, chief U.N. inspector Herman Nackaerts said at Vienna airport after returning from Iran.

Scores killed by bomb blast in Shiite area near Quetta

The death toll from a bombing at a market in Hazara town, a Shiite-dominated area outside Quetta in southwestern Pakistan, climbed on Sunday with at least 81 people killed and another 164 wounded, police said.

The death toll from a horrific bombing that tore through a crowded vegetable market in southwestern Pakistan climbed to 81 with many of the severely wounded dying overnight, a Pakistani police official said Sunday.
Police official Fayyaz Saumbal said 164 people also were wounded by the explosion Saturday in the city of Quetta just as people shopped for produce for their evening meal. The bomb was hidden in a water tank and towed into the market by a tractor, Quetta police chief Zubair Mahmood told reporters.

Pakistan court orders PM arrest over corruption

Pakistan’s Supreme Court ordered the arrest of the prime minister on Tuesday in connection with a corruption case, hours after police in Islamabad clashed with followers of a mysterious anti-corruption cleric seeking the government’s dismissal.

Pakistan’s Supreme Court gave authorities 24 hours to arrest Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf and 16 others in connection with a corruption case linked to power generation schemes, Pakistani television channels reported on Tuesday, plunging the country into fresh political turmoil.
The move came as populist Sufi cleric Tahirul Qadri, who is believed to be backed by the military, demanded the resignation of the US-backed civilian government in protests attended by thousands of followers in the heart of the capital Islamabad.

Taliban suicide attack rocks Kabul police compound

Taliban suicide bombers attacked Kabul traffic police headquarters before dawn on Monday, launching a nine-hour gun battle that killed at least three policemen, in the second insurgent assault in the Afghan capital in less than a week.

Two Taliban suicide bombers blew themselves up at the gates of the Kabul traffic police headquarters early Monday before another group of militants stormed the compound, battling security forces for nine hours in an attack that left three policemen and all five attackers dead, authorities said.
The coordinated assault was the second brazen raid in the heart of the Afghan capital in less than a week, a sign that the insurgency is determined to keep carrying out such spectacular attacks even as the U.S. and Afghan governments try to coax the Taliban into holding peace talks.
Nine hours after Monday’s insurgent attack began with two of the five attackers blowing themselves up, police commandos killed the last two insurgents holed up in the police headquarters, Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqi said. He added that four traffic policemen and 10 civilians were also been wounded in the fighting.

Twenty dead after Kazakh flight crashes near Almaty

A passenger plane crashed near Kazakhstan's main city of Almaty on Tuesday, likely killing all 15 passengers and five crew members on board, SCAT airlines said in a statement. The area around Almaty has been shrouded in fog for days.

A passenger plane crashed Tuesday near Kazakhstan’s principal city, Almaty, likely killing all 20 on board, Kazakhstan airline SCAT said.
Almaty and surrounding areas have been shrouded in fog for the last two days and the accident appears to have been caused by limited visibility.
A SCAT statement said 15 passengers and five crew members were aboard the plane.
Visibility was limited, forcing the plane to make a second approach to Almaty airport, the airline said.

Deadly Taliban attack on Pakistani checkpoint

At least 23 people were killed on Saturday after Taliban militants attacked an army checkpoint in northwestern Pakistan. The assault comes a day after a suicide bombing at a Shiite Muslim mosque that claimed the lives of two dozen people.

Taliban militants wearing suicide vests and firing automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades attacked an army post in northwestern Pakistan before dawn on Saturday, killing 23 people including 10 civilians, officials said. Twelve attackers were also reported killed in the assault.
The raid followed a suicide bombing at a Shiite Muslim mosque elsewhere in the northwest on Friday that killed 24 people, police said. The blast was the latest in a rising number of sectarian attacks in the country.
The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for both attacks. The group has been waging a bloody insurgency against the government for years and also has sometimes targeted the country’s minority Shiites, whom the militants consider to be heretics.
The Taliban and allied militant groups have stepped up the pace of attacks in Pakistan in recent months, an indication of their strength despite numerous army operations against their strongholds in the northwest.