13 October Daily News & Analysis

Daily Summary News and Analysis               Details on www.cssnewspaper2.blogspot.com

US cannot abandon Pakistan relationship: Clinton
WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday the United States cannot abandon Pakistan but that the South Asian nation must help solve Afghanistan’s difficulties or it will “continue to be part of the problem.” (Details)

With new threats, US Army must reinvent itself: Panetta

The US Army won’t be fighting conventional wars against columns of tanks in the future and will have to prepare for new threats from cheaper high-tech weaponry, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Wednesday. (Details)

Cabinet comes up with old formula to cope with power crisis
The federal cabinet again approved on Wednesday a formula to resolve the energy crisis that has failed earlier — two weekly days off, business closure at sunset and staggering of industrial holidays — to overcome increasing electricity shortfall during peak hours. Details)
Pakistan faces threat of water scarcity

By Amin Ahmed: ISLAMABAD: The United Nations has placed Pakistan among the ‘water hotspots’ of Asia-Pacific region, saying that the country is facing major threats of increasing water scarcity, high water utilisation, deteriorating water quality and climate change risk. (Details)

Ban on fissile material production opposed

UNITED NATIONS: Some powerful states had changed the strategic environment of the South Asian region, Pakistan complained to the world body on Tuesday and said it opposed banning production of fissile material used as fuel for nuclear weapons. (Details)

Ten killed in slew of attacks targeting Iraq police

BAGHDAD: Iraqi officials say 10 people have been killed in a string of attacks targeting security forces in Baghdad. Two police officials say a suicide attacker blew himself (Details)

Alleged plot to assassinate Saudi ambassador: Biden warns Iran of ‘serious consequences’

WASHINGTON, Oct 12: US Vice President Joe Biden warned Iran on Wednesday that it would have to face ‘serious consequences’ for allegedly plotting to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States. US President Barack Obama called the plot a “flagrant violation” of US and international law but allowed his deputies to do most of the talking. (Details)

Clinton calls Iran plot ‘dangerous escalation’

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday denounced an alleged Iranian plot to kill the Saudi ambassador in Washington as a ‘dangerous escalation’ by Tehran and called for international condemnation. (Details)

Millions suffer as BlackBerry disruptions enter third day

NEW YORK, Oct 12: A three-day disruption to BlackBerry services spread to North America on Wednesday, frustrating millions of users of the Research In Motion (RIM) devices just two days before rival Apple’s new iPhone 4S goes on sale. (Details)

‘He gave joy and pleasure to millions of music lovers in India and abroad’ 
MUMBAI: The Indian singer and composer Jagjit Singh, who won generations of fans by reviving the traditional genre of “ghazal”music, died on Monday in a Mumbai hospital at the age of 70. (Details)

Kidnapped journalist returns

MIRAMSHAH, Oct 12: A journalist kidnapped by suspected militants about two months ago reached home here on Wednesday, after a deal was struck between the kidnappers and a jirga, sources said. (Details)
------------------------ **** ------------------------      ***ANALYSIS***        ------------------------ **** ------------------------
Civil war in Syria? By Gwynne Dyer
BACK in 1989, when the communist regimes of Europe were tottering towards their end, almost every day somebody would say `There`s going to be a civil war.` And our job, as foreign journalists who allegedly had their finger on the pulse of events, was to say: `No, there won`t be.` (Details)
Drainage crisis in Indus basin By Azhar Lashari
THE recent floods in Sindh have triggered a debate in the media about the role of the Left Bank Outfall Drain (LBOD) in exacerbating the disaster in the south-eastern districts of the province. Much has been said and written about how the LBOD, meant for the drainage of excessive irrigation water from Nawabshah, Sanghar and Mirpurkhas districts into the Arabian Sea, has turned out to be a recurring cause of flood disaster since the 1999 cyclone in (Details)
After the SC verdict BY I.A Rehman

AS expected the Supreme Court decision on the killings and disorder in Karachi has had a mixed reception. While most commentators have welcomed the court`s (Details)
Movement in the making By Hina Mahmood

Approaching Zuccotti Park, the sound of drumbeats in the air, I could see hundreds of protesters, picketing on its lawns, a few blocks from Ground Zero in New York. (Details)

THE INDEPENDENT : Robert Fisk: Democratic governments don't deal with terrorists – until they do

In three decades, the Israelis have freed 7,000 prisoners in return for 19 Israeli prisoners (Details)

9 Oct 2011: CSS News and Analysis

Summary 

(More Detailed News and Analysis for CSS on www.cssnewspaper2.blogspot.com)

   Huge discount rate cut surprises market

    The State Bank on Saturday threw a pleasant surprise by chopping off its policy rate by 150bps above the market expectations, but analysts critical about the huge cut in view of changing of base-year to show declining inflationary trend. (Read More on Cssnewspaper2)

UK review identifies Afghan civil war risk LONDON: A British government review of the Afghan conflict is to warn that there are “significant risks” of civil war or a Taliban takeover of the south and east of the country after Nato withdraws its combat troops at the end of the 2014. (Read More)

Guardian UK: Youth joblessness highest since Tories last in power, new figures to reveal The number of unemployed young people has passed the million mark, according to statistics to be published this week.  More than a million young people are now unemployed, the highest number since the Conservatives were last in power, government figures to be published this week are expected to reveal. (Read More)

Article @ Gurdian UK: Euro crisis spreads and puts the world economy at risk When G20 finance ministers meet in Paris next weekend, the stakes will be enormous for both Europe and the world (Read More)

Guardian UK Sleep easy, war criminals By Michael Mansfield Israel has violated innumerable UN resolutions and international laws over the past 50 years without any sanction being incurred – whether legal, economic, political or military. Most blatant is its disregard for the overwhelming opinion of the international court of justice in The Hague, which in 2004 declared the erection of (Read More)

UK helps Israel evade international justice LONDON: Israel has violated innumerable UN resolutions. If you add the illegal occupation of Palestinian territory, continued extension of illegal settlements, forced evictions and house demolitions, requisition of water resources, Gaza blockade and illicit use of cloned passports to facilitate (Read More)

French socialists’ primary race catches public eye PARIS: It was billed as a fight to the death between egotists: a savage war of vengeful ex-partners, secret pacts, crash-diets and televised slanging matches. But the French Socialist primary race to choose a leftwing challenger to Nicolas Sarkozy in next year`s presidential election has (Read More)

Sarah Palin will neither run for presidency nor avoid spotlight WASHINGTON: Conservative diva Sarah Palin won`t appear on the 2012 presidential ballot but will remain on the national stage, revealing in her star power as the race to the White House heats up, analysts say. (Read More)

Mourners shot at Tamo funeral, Syria dissidents meet Syrian security forces killed at least two mourners and wounded several others when they fired on the funeral of murdered Kurdish opposition figure Meshaal Tamo on Saturday, activists said. Dissidents, meanwhile, lobbied in Cairo for recognition of their newly (Read More)

More Syria deaths as dissidents urge Assad isolation DAMASCUS: Thirty-eight people were killed in clashes in two days in northwest Syria, a rights activist said on Sunday, as dissidents meeting in Brussels called for the isolation of President Bashar al-Assad. “Thirty-eight people were killed in shootings in the region of Jisrash Shughur, (Read More)

Virus affects drones system WASHINGTON, Oct 8: A computer virus that captures the strokes on a keyboard has infected networks used by pilots who control US drones flown on the warfront, according to a magazine report. Wired magazine reported that the spyware (Read More)

Ties with Pakistan vital to security, says US WASHINGTON: Ties with Pakistan remained vital to US national security, the White House said on Friday as the State Department pledged to continue to work with Islamabad to defeat terrorism. “The cooperation we have with Pakistan is extremely important in terms of our national security objectives, in terms of protecting Americans, in terms of taking the fight to Al Qaeda,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told (Read More)

Measures taken to execute SC order, Qaim tells Zardari ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari seemed keen on the implementation of a Supreme Court judgment concerning the state of law and order in Sindh, especially Karachi, when he met top provincial functionaries and the government’s legal wizards on Saturday. The president had convened the meeting “to know about the steps (Read More)

Killing the messengers by Ardeshir Cowasjee

WE Pakistanis are determined never to learn from history. Our leaders deem ignorance to be bliss and choose to pay no attention to what the world thinks of them or of our country. Pakistan is more isolated internationally than at any time since 1971. That year, for those of us who care to remember, the country lost  (Read More) View from US: Mystery of the missing chapters By Anjum Niaz

Zamir Niazi would not know that 25 years since his book, The Press in Chains, was first published, it would cause an uproar today. The journalist embodying a frail frame, a soft voice, with pen and paper as his weaponry, challenged the ruling dictator Zia by exposing his press censorship and antipathy against free  (Read More) Bid for UNSC seat By Munir Akram

EVEN as the latest crises in relations with the US and Afghanistan preoccupy Pakistan’s policymakers, a scheduled event at the current UN General Assembly, with significant portents for the country’s national interests and international image, deserves their full attention — the election to a two-year Asian seat on the UN Security Council. Membership of the Security Council — even for the two-year non-permanent seat — has several advantages: (Read More)