New book ‘Chronicle of Thailand’ first to present major events in Thailand since 1946 through headline news

“It’s the first book of its kind to present developments in Thailand in the format of a collation of news stories, which makes it easy for readers to gain knowledge enjoyably” – Dr. Wissanu Krea-Ngam


Over 1,800 photographs, illustrations and cartoons, as well as 2,300 headline stories

Editions Didier Millet and Post Publishing, today (9 November), announced the publication of a landmark book that presents major events in Thailand since 1946 as it was reported through headline news, and which will be in bookstores by 18th November 2009.

Called “Chronicle of Thailand: Headline News Since 1946”, the publication presents dramatic happenings during the reign of HM King Bhumibol Adulyadej through 1,800 photographs, illustrations and cartoons, as well as 2,300 headline stories in a handsome 444-page book.

“It’s the first of its kind and highly readable,” said Dr. Wissanu Krea-Ngam, Chairman of the Editorial Advisory Board of the book and former Deputy Prime Minister. “We wanted to help people get a quick feel for key developments in Thailand since 1946 in a way that remained factual and neutral. Presenting information in the format of a collation of news stories makes it easy for readers to gain knowledge enjoyably, while still allowing them to interpret events for themselves,” he said.

“The book offers, in a visually exciting format, a view of events as they unfolded, including the coronation of His Majesty, the Vietnam War era, the October 1973 uprising, economic booms, great sporting moments, unforgettable tragedies, as well as quirky aspects of daily life that just happened to make the headlines,” said Dr. Wissanu.

“The book offers, in a visually exciting format, a view of events as they unfolded, including the coronation of His Majesty, the Vietnam War era, the October 1973 uprising, economic booms, great sporting moments, unforgettable tragedies, as well as quirky aspects of daily life that just happened to make the headlines,” said Dr. Wissanu.

Noted historian Associate Professor Tongthong Chandransu, who is also a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the book, said, “By presenting Thailand’s modern history through a collection of news stories that are organized by year, ‘Chronicle of Thailand’ puts key political developments into the context of other events happening at the time – whether it be social, or cultural or sporting. It helps one better understand the mood of the times, through words and pictures, and brings to life key developments in our country’s history in a way that is fun to read.”

“For example, as you flip through the years, you can quickly get a feel for the sweep of developments and see how similar incidents around key issues like communism, terrorism or coups lead to differing outcomes, reflecting the progress that our country is making. You can easily trace the roots of longstanding issues, as with, for example, Khao Phra Viharn,” he said.

“It’s also entertaining because we have included amusing tidbits that made the headlines, even though they may not have been of great historical significance,” said Assoc. Prof. Tongthong.

He said that, “The strong visual layout and dramatic photographs should help make ‘Chronicle of Thailand’ a useful companion for people from all walks of life, including those with a casual interest in Thailand, as well as academics, journalists, and students.”

Kingdom in 2007. Editions Didier Millet has also produced ‘Chronicle of Singapore’ and ‘Chronicle of Malaysia’.

“The book’s international distribution and availability on Amazon.com will help non-Thais understand Thailand better, too,” he said.

The co-publisher, Editions Didier Millet, has produced a string of successful books on Thailand, including ‘The King of Thailand in World Focus’, and ‘Thailand: 9 Days in the Kingdom’. The latter was produced on the occasion of the 80th birthday anniversary of HM the King, and gathered 55 world class photographers to record daily life in the ‘Chronicle of Thailand’’s Editorial Advisory Board also includes Dr. Borwornsak Uwanno, Secretary-General of the King Prajadhipok Institute, and Mr. Vitthaya Vejjajiva, former Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Gold Sponsors of the book are Bangkok Bank and Central Group of Companies. Other sponsors include the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Bureau of the Crown Property, PTT plc, CH. Karnchang pcl, Bangkok Expressway pcl and Thai Tap Water Supply pcl, as well as Jim Thompson, James HW Thompson Foundation, Four Seasons Hotel Bangkok, and Bangkok Public Relations Ltd.

The official launch of the book is scheduled for 18th November 2009 and will be presided over by Mr. Anand Panyarachun at a reception at the Four Seasons Hotel.

‘Chronicle of Thailand’ is available from 18 November 2009 at leading bookstores in Thailand, priced at Bht 1,450.

US arms sales hit record of $38bn in 2009

       US government-togovernment arms sales rose 4.7% to a record $38.1 billion this year, and are expected to total almost as much in 2010, the Pentagon agency that administers them said on Friday.
       Arms deals, often sensitive because of regional politics, may become even more so for the administration of President Barack Obama, who won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize last month.
       Some critics say Mr Obama should rein in arms transfers, partly to avoid regional arms races. But overseas sales are increasingly important to US contractors seeking to offset Pentagon belttightening at home.
       Many if not most of the sales pacts signed in fiscal 2009, which ended on Sept 30, are part of a boom in conventional weapons sales that started under former president George W. Bush.
       The 2009 figures represent over a quadrupling from a sales low point in fiscal 1998, according to Vice Admiral Jeffrey Wieringa, head of the Defence Security Cooperation Agency.
       The sales are indicative of a drive to strengthen US partners and thus boost US national security, Vice Adm Wieringa said in an Oct 22 blog posting on his agencys website.
       The 2009 tally, revised after that posting, was up from $36.4 billion in fiscal 2008 and $23.3 billion in 2007, said the security agency. It administers the Pentagons Foreign Military Sales Programme, a key part of US alliancebuilding.
       Sales are expected to top $37.9 billion in fiscal 2010, which began on Oct 1,Vanessa Murray, an agency spokeswoman, said in a written reply to Reuters.
       The top buyers in fiscal 2009 were United Arab Emirates ($7.9 billion),Afghanistan ($5.4 billion) and Saudi Arabia ($3.3 billion), followed by Taiwan ($3.2 billion), Egypt ($2.1 billion), Iraq ($1.6 billion), Nato ($924.5 million), Australia ($818.7 million) and South Korea ($716.6 million).
       Rachel Stohl, co-author of a new book,The International Arms Trade , said Mr Obama, who took office on Jan 20, seems to be sticking with the Bush administration mantra of sell, sell, sell, rather than a more cautious approach.
       William Hartung of the New America Foundation,aWashington-based research group focused on US defence and foreign policy issues, said Mr Obama should pay more attention to regional arms-race dangers, human-rights records and shun sales to countries that can illafford them.
       Top US arms makers such as Lockheed Martin Corp, Boeing Co, Northrop Grumman Corp, General Dynamics Corp and Raytheon Co are hoping to boost foreign sales to hedge against US budget pressures that could slow big-ticket Pentagon arms purchases.
       Overseas sales lower the unit price of US armed forces weapons and keep components available that would be otherwise hard to find, said Remy Nathan of the Aerospace Industries Association,which lobbies on behalf of US arms makers.
       Demand is booming, fed in part by regional tensions fanned by nuclear and ballistic missile programmes in Iran and North Korea.
       In September, for instance, the Pentagon told Congress of a possible sale to Turkey of the most modern model of its Patriot anti-missile missile in a package valued at up to $7.8 billion.
       The Gulf states and Saudi Arabia are extremely worried about Irans pursuit of a nuclear weapons capability,Alexander Vershbow, US assistant secretary of defence for international security affairs, said last month.They want to buy Patriots or other systems over the coming years. So right now,demand exceeds supply because of the real sense of threat they feel, he said.
       Other big sales could come from the best market in decades for fighter aircraft,with multi-billion-dollar competitions under way or planned in India, Brazil, South Korea, Japan, Greece and elsewhere, said Richard Aboulafia of the Teal Group, an aerospace consultancy.

Magnificent seven

       In the most important, most revered event since the invention of the brontosaurus trap,Microsoft shipped the most incredibly fabulous operating system ever made; the release of Windows 7 also spurred a new generation of personal computers of all sizes at prices well below last month's offers.The top reason Windows 7 does not suck: There is no registered website called Windows7Sucks.com
       Kindle e-book reader maker Amazon.com and new Nook e-book reader vendor Barnes and Noble got it on; B&N got great reviews for the "Kindle killer"Nook, with dual screens and touch controls so you can "turn" pages, plays MP3s and allows many non-B&N book formats, although not the Kindle one;Amazon then killed the US version of its Kindle in favour of the international one, reduced its price to $260(8,700 baht), same as the Nook; it's not yet clear what you can get in Thailand with a Nook, but you sure can't (yet) get much, relatively speaking, with a Kindle;but here's the biggest difference so far,which Amazon.com has ignored: the Nook lets you lend e-books to any other Nook owner, just as if they were paper books; the borrowed books expire on the borrower's Nook in two weeks.
       Phone maker Nokia of Finland announced it is suing iPhone maker Apple of America for being a copycat; lawyers said they figure Nokia can get at least one, probably two per cent (retail) for every iPhone sold by Steve "President for Life" Jobs and crew via the lawsuit,which sure beats working for it -$6 (200 baht) to $12(400 baht) on 30 million phones sold so far, works out to $400 million or 25 percent of the whole Apple empire profits during the last quarter;there were 10 patent thefts, the Finnish executives said, on everything from moving data to security and encryption.
       Nokia of Finland announced that it is one month behind on shipping its new flagship N900 phone, the first to run on Linux software; delay of the $750(25,000 baht) phone had absolutely no part in making Nokia so short that it had to sue Apple, slap yourself for such a thought.
       Tim Berners-Lee, who created the World Wide Web, said he had one regret:the double slash that follows the "http:"in standard web addresses; he estimated that 14.2 gazillion users have wasted 48.72 bazillion hours typing those two keystrokes, and he's sorry; of course there's no reason to ever type that, since your browser does it for you when you type "www.bangkokpost.com" but Tim needs to admit he made one error in his lifetime.
       The International Telecommunication Union of the United Nations, which doesn't sell any phones or services, announced that there should be a mobile phone charger that will work with any phone; now who would ever have thought of that, without a UN body to wind up a major study on the subject?;the GSM Association estimates that 51,000 tonnes of chargers are made each year in order to keep companies able to have their own unique ones.
       The Well, Doh Award of the Week was presented at arm's length to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development; the group's deputy secretary-general Petko Draganov said that developing countries will miss some of the stuff available on the Internet if they don't install more broadband infrastructure; a report that used your tax baht to compile said that quite a few people use mobile phones but companies are more likely to invest in countries with excellent broadband connections; no one ever had thought of this before, right?
       Sun Microsystems , as a result of the Oracle takeover, said it will allow 3,000 current workers never to bother coming to work again; Sun referred to the losses as "jobs," not people; now the fourth largest server maker in the world, Sun said it lost $2.2 billion in its last fiscal year; European regulators are holding up approval of the Oracle purchase in the hope of getting some money in exchange for not involving Oracle in court cases.
       The multi-gazillionaire and very annoying investor Carl Icahn resigned from the board at Yahoo ; he spun it as a vote of confidence, saying current directors are taking the formerly threatened company seriously; Yahoo reported increased profits but smaller revenues in the third quarter.
       The US House of Representatives voted to censure Vietnam for jailing bloggers; the non-binding resolution sponsored by southern California congresswoman Loretta Sanchez said the Internet is "a crucial tool for the citizens of Vietnam to be able to exercise their freedom of expression and association;"Hanoi has recently jailed at least nine activists for up to six years apiece for holding pro-democracy banners. Iran jailed blogger Hossein "Hoder" Derakshan for 10 months - in solitary confinement.

Pakistan begins major ground offensive

       More than 30,000 Pakistani soldiers launched a major ground offensive in the main al-Qaeda and Taliban stronghold along the Afghan border early yesterday, which was the toughest test yet against militants aiming to topple the state, officials said.
       The offensive in South Waziristan follows months of air strikes intended to soften up militant defences that have also forced tens of thousands of civilians to flee. The full-scale operation also comes after two weeks of militant attacks that have killed more than 175 people across Pakistan and ramped up the pressure on the army to take on the insurgents.
       It is the army's fourth attempt since 2001 to dislodge Taliban fighters from the lawless tribal region of South Waziristan, and an intelligence official said the latest effort could take up to two months. The three previous attempts ended in negotiated truces that left the Taliban in control.
       The offensive is expected to focus on ridding the region of the Pakistani Taliban, a network opposed to the USbacked Pakistani government. The group's influential leader, Baitullah Mehsud, died in a US missile strike in August. But South Waziristan also is home to foreign and local jihadis suspected of planning attacks on US and Nato troops in Afghanistan and targets throughout the West.
       The US is racing to send night-vision goggles and other equipment to aid the operation.
       Local resident Ajmal Khan said people in his town, Makeen, heard the sounds of battle and were terrified but could not leave their homes due to a curfew.Makeen is a key hideout for Taliban militants.
       "We heard sounds of planes and helicopters early Saturday. Then we heard blasts. We are also hearing gunshots and it seems the army is exchanging fire with Taliban," Mr Khan said via telephone.
       South Waziristan is remote and mountainous. It has a porous border with Afghanistan and fiercely independent tribes who have long resisted government interference. With winter snows just weeks away, the army has limited time to pursue ground attacks. Even if it does manage to wipe out its intended targets,it's unclear whether troops will try to occupy the area to prevent the militants from returning. Even if the operation is successful, many could escape to Afghanistan or other parts of Pakistan's semiautonomous tribal belt.
       The officials - two with intelligence,three with the government and one senior army official - yesterday gave few details but said the troops were pursuing militants holed up in the region, including in major trouble spots such as Makeen and Ladha towns.
       The army has sent more than 30,000 troops to the region to participate in the combat, said one of the intelligence officials. He said the ground forces were attacking from different directions while helicopter gunships and other aircraft also were bombing various sites.
       The military already has said it has sealed off many supply and escape routes.
       It is nearly impossible to verify information from the region independently.Foreigners require special permission to enter the tribal areas and it is risky for Pakistani journalists from other parts of the country to operate there.
       Mindful of its previous, half-hearted interventions in South Waziristan, this time the military has said there will be no deals, partly to avoid jeopardising gains won earlier this year when Pakistani soldiers overpowered the Taliban in the Swat Valley, another northwest region.
       In an attempt to show national unity,top political leaders, including the prime minister, met with army commanders on Friday to discuss security strategy and voiced their support for operations against militant strongholds.
       Despite sometimes rocky relations with the Pakistani military, the US is trying to rush in equipment that would help with mobility, night fighting and precision bombing, a US embassy official said. In addition to night-vision devices,the Pakistan military has said it is seeking additional Cobra helicopter gunships,heliborne lift capability, laser-guided munitions and intelligence equipment to monitor cell and satellite telephones.
       The army has considered the weather in the timing of the offensive.
       Snows in the region could block major roads. At the same time, a harsh winter could work to the army's advantage by driving fighters out of their unheated mountain hideouts.
       Although the military has been hitting targets in South Waziristan for the past three months, it waited until two weeks ago to say it would definitely go ahead with a major ground offensive.

"'PAKISTAN FIRST" MAY NOT PLEASE

       One of the ideas the Obama administration is considering in response to the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan reportedly is called "Pakistan First". Championed by Vice President Joe Biden, the idea is to focus US efforts on attacking al-Qaeda targets in Pakistan's tribal areas with drones or special forces, while backing the government's efforts to pacify and develop the lawless areas where al-Qaeda and the Taleban are based. The battle against the Taleban, meanwhile, would be put on the back burner.
       "Pakistan First" would excuse President Obama from having to anger his political base by dispatching the additional US troops that his military commanders say are needed to stop the Taleban's resurgence in Afghanistan. It would nominally focus US efforts on a nuclear-armed country that is of far greater strategic importance.
       Funny, then, that Pakistan's government doesn't think much of the idea. Last Tuesdsay, Pakistani foreign Minister shah Mahmood Qureshi said withour reservation that Taleban
       advances in Afghanistan were a mortal threat to his country. "We see Mullah Omar," the leader of the Afghan Taeban, "as a serious threat. If the likes of Omar take over in Afghanistan, it will have serious inplllications for Pakistan," Qureshi said. "They have a larger agenda, and the first to be affected by that agenda is Pakistan... it will have implications on Pakistan and it will have implications on the region."
       Like a couple 's senior European leaders who visited Washingto last week, Qureshi expressed a diplomatic version of dismay at Obama's public wavering on fighting the Taleban, "If that is going to happen, why have we stuck our necks out?" he said. "Why did Benazir die? Benazir Bahtto, the former leader of the ruling Pakistan People's Party, was assassinated after she campaigned in favour of a decisiver moved by Pakistan to take on the Taleban- something the government and armay declined to do until this year. Elements of the military or its intelligence service may still quietly support some Taleban groups; if the US appears to retreat, those forces will be strengthened - at the expense of the pro-Western civilian government.
       Quareshi declined to express an opinion about the deployment of more US troops to southern Afghanistan, saying he was not a military expert. But he drew a contrast between Nato's operations in the south and Pakistan's operations against the Taleban this year. "Your troops went in and cleared the area. But once you came out, the Taleban came back in," he said. "What we do is, we go in, and we clear and we hold. When you do that, it requires more contact. It requires more resources. And it means more casualties."
       Qureshi was talking about Pakistan, but he was also describing the "counter-insurgency" strategy for Afghanistan that Obama embraced last March and backed until the general he appointed determined it would require more troops. It seems pretty clear that if Obama decides to abandon counter-insurgency in the name of something called "Pakistan First", America's best allies in Pakistan won't be happy.

Official airs nuclear fuel needs

       Iran needs up to 300kg of nuclear fuel to cover the requirements of a reactor in Teheran for 18 months,an official said on Saturday.
       Ali Shirzadian, a spokesman for Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, also suggested the Islamic Republic could take steps to provide the fuel itself if it did not obtain it from abroad - a development likely to worry the West.
       Western diplomats say Iran agreed in principle at Oct 1 talks in Geneva to send about 80% of its stockpile of lowenriched uranium to Russia and France for processing and return to Teheran to replenish dwindling fuel stocks for a reactor in the capital that produces isotopes for cancer care.
       Mr Shirzadian referred to it as Iran's proposal, to turn over low-enriched uranium and receive fuel refined to 20%in return, in comments carried by Isna news agency.
       "This proposal is feasible and it has been decided that the different ways of realising this goal should be discussed,"he said."The amount of fuel this reactor would need depends on the way the fuel works and it would range from 150kg to 300kg for a period of 18 months."
       It was not immediately clear how much uranium Iran would need to send abroad. Iran's low-enriched uranium stocks total around 1.5 tonnes.
       Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said yesterday inter-national powers would not wait forever for Iran to prove it was not developing nuclear bombs. Britain's Foreign Minister David Miliband, whom Ms Clinton met in London, said Iran would never have a better opportunity to establish normal ties with the world but that it had to start behaving like a "normal country".
       Iran agreed at the meeting with six world powers on Oct 1 to allow UN experts access to a newly disclosed uranium enrichment plant near the city of Qom. Ms Clinton said the meeting was a constructive beginning but added that it had to be followed by action.
       "The international community will not wait indefinitely for evidence," she said.

MILITANST STAGE ASSAULT ON PAKISTAN ARMY HQ, 10 DIE

       Gunmen wearing military uniforms and wielding assault rifles and grenades attacked Pakistan's army headquarters yesterday, sparking a ferocious battle outside the capital that killed four of the assailants, two senior officers and four other soldiers, authorities said.
       Two of the attackers managed to infiltrate the heavily fortified compound in the garrison-city of Rawalpindi.
       Troops surrounded them and were trying to end the confrontation seven hours after the initial assault, the military said.
       An Associated Press reporter at the scene heard four gunshots from inside the compound-long after an army spokesman said the situation was under control.
       The audacious assault was the third major militant attack in Pakistan in a week and came as the government said it was planning an imminent offensive against militants in their strongholds in the mountains along the border with Afghanistan.
       It showed that the militants retain the ability to strike at the very heart of Pakistan's security apparatus despite recent military operations against their forces and the killing of Taleban leader Baitullah Mehsud in a drone attack in August.
       Pakistani media said the Taleban claimed responsibility for the attack.
       Interior Minister Rehman Malik said: "We have been left no other option except to go ahead to face them."

Mystery over lranian scientist's disappearnce

       The disappearance of an Iranian nuclear scientist on a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia in June is raising questions about whether he defected and gave the West information on Iran's nuclear programme.
       Iran's foreign minister on Wednesday accused the United States of involvement in the disappearance of Shahram Amiri, who reportedly worked at auniversity linked to the elite Revolutionary Guard military corps.
       In a sign of the sensitivities surrounding Amiri, Iranian officials have not even publicly identified Amiri as a nuclear scientist, referring to him only as an Iranian citizen.
       Iran's foreign minister took the unusual step of complaining to the head of the United Nations last week about the disappearance, at the same time raising the case of a former defence minister who vanished in Turkey in 2007, also believed by many to have defected.
       Amiri vanished several months before the September revelation of a uranium enrichment facility near the city of Qom, which the United States and its allies accuse Iran of building secretly.
       The timing has led experts to question whether Amiri may have given the West information on it or other parts of Iran's nuclear programme.

Roxas aligns himself behind Aquino's bid for president

       A Philippine opposition senator formally agreed yesterday to be the running mate of the son of late leader Corazon Aquino in next year's presidential election.
       Senator Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III declared his candidacy two weeks ago, saying he will run for president to continue the legacy of his mother, a democracy icon for standing up to dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
       At a gathering yesterday of Liberal Party members and allies, Mr Aquino thanked Manuel "Mar" Roxas II, the party president, for foregoing his own presidential bid to be his running mate.
       Both men come from wealthy clans with a long history in Philippine politics.
       Mr Roxas is a former trade secretary,a US-trained economist and grandson of late Philippines president Manuel Roxas.
       "I wholeheartedly accept the responsibility of being Noynoy's partner in his fight for change," Mr Roxas told a cheering crowd."Thank you for the privilege of joining you and all our countrymen in the fight for decency and integrity in public service."
       President Gloria Arroyo, who lost the support of the Aquinos and former cabinet officials like Mr Roxas over charges of corruption and election fraud, is scheduled to step down after serving more than nine years in June 2010. She is not allowed to run for re-election.
       The massive outpouring of sympathy for Corazon Aquino after her death from colon cancer last month prompted supporters of her son to urge Noynoy to run for president in the May 2010 election.
       Despite a patchy record during her six years in office, Corazon Aquino remains a well-loved figure and is credited with restoring democratic institutions after Marcos'20 years of dictatorship.She became a focal point for opposition to Marcos after her husband, Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr, was assassinated after returning from exile in 1983.Military kills Abu Sayyaf rebels
       The Philippine military killed up to 17 Islamist extremists as it over-ran one of their main strongholds in the south of the country, a general said yesterday.
       Following ground and air assaults,the soldiers took control of the Abu Sayyaf group's biggest camp on the island of Jolo on Sunday, said Major General Benjamin Dolorfino, head of military forces in the south.
       The military recovered the bodies of two Abu Sayyaf fighters, according to Gen Dolorfino. But intelligence reports suggest 17 rebel deaths, he added.
       "This is very significant, because this is their main sanctuary. This is the main stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf [on Jolo],"Gen Dolorfino said."We will build a detachment there so that their world will get even smaller."

US fears "war will fail" in Afghanistan

       The war against Afghanistan's Taliban is likely to fail without additional forces and a new strategy,the top US and Nato commander said as President Barack Obama faces resistance at home to sending more troops.
       Army General Stanley McChrystal, in a confidential assessment, said failure to gain the initiative and reverse "insurgent momentum" in the near term risked an outcome where "defeating the insurgency is no longer possible".
       A copy of his 66-page assessment was obtained by the Washington Post and published on its website with some parts removed at the request of the government for security reasons.
       Gen McChrystal is expected to ask for a troop increase in the coming weeks to stem gains by a resurgent Taliban.
       The assessment stresses the need to engage with the Afghan people using a "new strategy" that requires a "dramatically" different approach to the war.
       "Inadequate resources will likely result in failure. However, without a new strategy, the mission should not be resourced," Gen McChrystal is quoted as saying in the report.
       Gen McChrystal has already drawn up his request for more troops, which some officials expect will include roughly 30,000 new combat troops and trainers,but he has yet to submit it to Washington for consideration. The Pentagon says it is discussing how he will submit it.
       A request for more troops faces resistance from the Democratic Party,which controls Congress, and opinion polls show Americans are turning against the nearly eight-year-old war.
       Mr Obama has said that he wanted to wait to determine the proper strategy for US forces in Afghanistan before considering whether more troops should be sent there.
       "I just want to make sure that everybody understands that you don't make decisions about resources before you have the strategy ready," he said.
       In his assessment, Gen McChrystal painted a grim picture of the war, saying "the overall situation is deteriorating".
       He called for a "revolutionary" shift in strategy which puts as much emphasis on gaining the support of Afghans as it does on killing insurgents.
       "The objective is the will of the people,our conventional warfare culture is part of the problem, the Afghans must ultimately defeat the insurgency," he wrote.
       The war in Afghanistan is now at its deadliest. Gen McChrystal's assessment said militants had control over entire sections of the country, although it was difficult to say how much because of the limited presence of Nato troops.
       He also strongly criticised the Afghan government as having lost the faith of the country's people.
       "The weakness of state institutions,malign actions of power-brokers, widespread corruption and abuse of power by various officials, and Isaf's own errors,have given Afghans little reason to support their government," Gen McChrystal said, referring to the International Security Assistance Force (Isaf).
       Spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Tadd Sholtis said that while the assessment made clear that Gen McChrystal does not believe he can defeat Afghanistan's insurgency without additional troops,he could carry out a mission with different goals if ordered to by Mr Obama.
       "The assessment is based on his understanding of the mission ... If there's a change in strategy, then the resources piece changes."
       The number of US troops in Afghanistan has almost doubled this year from 32,000 to 62,000 and is expected to grow by another 6,000 by the year's end. There are also 40,000 troops from other nations,mainly Nato allies.
       Fifty-eight percent of Americans now oppose the Afghan war while 39% support it, according to a recent CNN/Opinion Research poll.
       Mr Obama's critics in Congress,including his 2008 Republican presidential opponent Senator John McCain, have urged the administration to approve the deployment of more troops immediately,saying any delay puts the lives of troops already in Afghanistan at greater risk.
       Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said on Sunday his party would support a troop increase if needed,adding he was troubled by the delay in the decision-making.
       "We think the time for decision is now," Mr McConnell said.

ACCOUNTING FOR WAR CRIMES IN THE MIDDLE EAST CONFLICT

       WILL Israel's decades-long impunity from international law finational law finally community in the aftemath of the justreleased Goldstone report.
       Richard Goldstone, formerly a Supreme Court justice in South Africa and chief prosecutor in the international tribunals for Rwanda and Yugoslavia, headed a four-person United Nations mission investigatigating both Israel Hamas for possible war crimes during Israel's attack on the Gaza Strip last winter.
       The mission conducted 188 interviews and reviewed more than 300 reports, 10,000 pages of documents, 30 videos and 1,200 photographs. The Israeli government barred the group from entering Israel or the Gaza Strip (it reached Gaza, ultimately, through Egypt).
       By contrast, Palestinian authrities, both in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, cooperated with the mission. The 575-page report concluded that both sides committed war crimes before, during and after the intense fighting in December and January.
       In its findings on Israel's conduct, the report noted that the ruinous siege on Gaza, imposed long before the invasion, collectively punished its residents in violation of international law. During the attack, Israeli troops killed civilians without justification, wantonly destroyed civilian infrastructure and private homes, and used weapons illegally. Israeli troops targetted and destroyed Gaza's last functioning flour mill. Israeli armoured bulldozers razed the chicken farm that provided 10 per cent of Gaza's eggs, burying 31,000 chickens in rubble. Israeli gunners bombed a raw sewage lagoon, releasing 200,000 cubic metres of filth into neighbouring farmland. Repeated pinpoint strikes on a water-well complex destroyed all of its essential machinery.
       These are just some of the facts that led the mission to conclude that Israel's objective in the attack work and to provide for itself, and to force upon it an ever-increasing sense of dependency and vulnerability".
       Since a January cease-fire, Israel has maintained its illegal blockade, keeping relief supplies and construction materials from Gaza, and thus guaranteeing continued Palestinian civilian suffering.
       The Goldstone mission found that Hamas, in its indiscriminate rocket attacks on Israeli civilians, also committed was crimes, calling the rockets "a deliberate attack against the civilian population".
       The report recommends that all parties to the fighting conduct credible internal investigations of the abuses it documented. If they fail to do so within six months, the report recommends that the UN Security Council refer the matter to the International Criminal Court for investigation.
       Israel clearly anticipated a critical report and has been planning for months to discredit it. Its spokespeople are making preposterous accusations, such as that Goldstone is "anti-Israel" (in fact, he is Jewish and has strong ties to Israel), and its diplomats are working the phones in an attempt to sway Western governments and members of the Security Council
       Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu raised the report in discussions with US special envoy George Mitchell, and Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon is trying to orchestrate condemnation of the report by senior Obama administration officials and members of Congress.
       This urging must be resisted, and Israle's serial violations of international law - whether in pulverising Lebanon in 2006, illegally detaining, torturing or assassinating Palestinians under its dominion in the occupied Palestinian territories; or building settlements on Palestinian lands for exclusive Jewish occupancy - must come to an end. Israel may not be the worst human rights violator in the world, but it is among those that most consistently evade account-ability.
       Israeli abuses are deeply resented around the globe. For too long, we in the United States have abetted Israel, bestowing on it roughly US$3 billion annually in aid since 1973 and vetoing scores of resolutions in the Security Council that attempted to hold Israel accountable for its violations of international law.
       To his credit, President Barack Obama has called for a halt to new Israeli settlements, although he has failed to enunciate consepuences for Israeli definance. He should now embrace the Goldstone recommendations strongly, and must also demand an immediate end to Israel's illegal siege of Gaza.
       Israel's friends, rather than reflexively dismissing Goldstone's findings, should reflect instead: Are the interests of Israeli citizens genuinely served by continued indulgence of their military's excesses? Impunity for one state undermines the very legitimacy of international law. Yet international law protects weak and strong alike, and we ignore its continuing abuse at our peril.

Over 140 rebels die in raid

       The army killed more than 140 Shi'ite rebels after the insurgents launched an assault on the government's mansion in the mountain city of Sa'ada in northern Yemen on Sunday, a military official said.
       "The army killed more than 140 rebels after thwarting an attempted attack on Sa'ada," the official said, describing the fighting as "the fiercest" since the start of the military offensive on Aug 11.
       The rebels started their attack on the city before dawn from three directions in an attempt to take the government's regional headquarters, but the army was able to foil the advance, the official said.
       "So far more than 140 bodies have been found," he added.
       Meanwhile, sporadic clashes erupted in the Harf Sufyan area in Amran province which borders Sa'ada, witnesses said.
       The government on Friday announced a unilateral suspension of fighting, saying it would become a permanent ceasefire if the rebels, whom it accuses of being backed by Iran, abided by certain conditions.
       A rebel spokesman said they would "examine" the conditions, but hostilities resumed on Saturday.
       The main government demand is that the rebels "respect the cease-fire and the opening of roads, evacuate their positions and free captured civilians and soldiers".
       Meanwhile, the top commander of the rebels, Abdul Malek al-Huthi, was quoted by Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper on Sunday as saying the state was "not serious" in its truce offer and rebuffing government claims his group is backed by Iran."The government meant to use it [the truce] for military purposes," Mr Huthi said, adding the accusations that Iran backs the rebels morally and financially are groundless.

State funeral for 6 soldiers slain in Kabul

       Italy mourned six soldiers killed in Afghanistan as teary-eyed relatives,officials and thousands of citizens saluted their flag-draped coffins at a state funeral yesterday.
       The government called a national day of mourning, with flags at half-staff and a minute of silence at public offices.
       The attack on Thursday in Kabul marked Italy's deadliest day yet in the Afghan conflict. At home, it rekindled a debate over Italian participation in the mission and the prospects for an end to the eight-year war.
       In a traditional sign of respect, the crowd applauded as the six coffins were carried inside the Basilica of St Paul's Outside the Walls by fellow soldiers. An honour guard saluted the coffins and many standing in the rain outside the basilica waved the red-white-and-green Italian flag. The bodies of the Italians were returned home on Sunday.
       In one of the most poignant moments of the ceremony, the seven-year-old son of one of the victims approached his father's coffin and gently touched it. A photo portrait of each man, along with his beret, was placed on each coffin.
       Pope Benedict XVI sent a telegram of condolences that was read during the ceremony, saying he was praying that God would "support those who are engaged daily in building solidarity,reconciliation and peace in the world".
       Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi shook hands with relatives of the dead as he sought to comfort them, and President Giorgio Napolitano bowed his head before the coffins.
       Some private businesses shut down their doors for a few minutes during the ceremony, reports said. The funeral was broadcast live on state-run TV and other national broadcasters.

"BRAIN" BEHIND MUMBAI TERROR ATTACK HELD

       The leader of a banned Islamist group that India has accused of carrying out attacks on Mumbai late last year was placed under house arrest again yesterday.
       Pakistani police prevented Haikz Muhammad Saeed from leaving his home for Eid-ul-Fitr celebrations marking the end of Ramadan. Saeed is a founder of lashkar-e-Taiba - the militant group New Delhi claims masterminded the commando-style assault that killed 166 people in November.
       "We have orders from the government to restrict his movement," police official Sohail Sukhera said. "We have asked him not to leave his house."
       Sukhera would not specify why Saeed was being confined to his home in Lahore, or say for how long.
       India blames Lashkar-e-Taiba for the Mumbai assault staged by 10 gunment, nine of whom were killed. Under tremendous international pressure, Pakistan acknowledged much of the plot originated on its soil.
       Interior Minister Rehaman Malik said on Saturday that Saeed was under investigation.
       "We arrest the accused only if we have evidence. I assure you, and I assure my Indian counterpart, that if there is evidence against [Saeed] during our investigation... he will not get out of the clutches of law," Malik said.
       At least seven other suspects in the Mumbai attacks have been in closed-door pre-trial hearings at a maximum-security prison in Rawalpindi. So far no changes have been filed.

MORE TROOPS NEEDED: US GENERAL

       The top US military commander in Afghanistan has warned that more forces are needed within the next year or the war against the Taleban will be lost, the Washington Post reported yesterday.
       General Stanley McChrystal wrote in a classified report: "Failure to gain the initiative and reverse insurgent momentum in the near-term [next 12 months] - while Afghan security capacity matures - risks and outcome where defeating the insurgency is no logner possible."
       The grim assessment of the eight-year conclict, obtained by the Post, was presented to US Defence Secretary Robert Gates on August 30 and is being reviewed by the White House.
       McChrystal, who is widely expected to make a formal request to increase the 62,000-strong US force, noted the campaign in Afghanistan "has been historically under-resourced and remains so today."
       As such, he wrote "inadequate resources will likely result in failure."
       The weak resources "also risks a longer conflict, greater causalties, higher overall costs, and ultimately, a critical loss of political support. Any of these risks, in turn, are likely to result in mission failure."
       The 66-page document - a declassified version of which is published at www.washingtonpost.com - describes a strengthening, intelligent Taleban insurgency.
       McChrystal lalso slams the corruption-riddled Afghan government and a strategy by international forces that has failed to win over ordinary Afghans.
       "The weakness of state institutions, malign actions of power-brokers, widespread corruption and abuse of power by various officials, and [the International Security Assistance Force's] own errors, have given Afghans little reason to support their government," wrote McCharystal.
       International forces, he said, "have operated in a manner that distances us - physically and psychologically - from the people we seek to protect... The insurgents cannot defeat us militarily; but we can defeat ourselves.
       The general, who Gates nominated to take over operations because "new thinking" was needed as President Barack Obama attempts a new strategy for the war-torn country, also warns that hardline insurgents reach systematically into Afghanistan's bloated prison system for recruits.
       The prisons have become "a sanctuary and base to conduct lethal operations" against the Aghan government and coalition forces, he said.
       McChrystal however does maintain a cuatious optimism for long-term outcomes in the conflict, insisting: "While the situation is serious, success is still achievable."
       Obama weighed in Sunday on the debate over more troops in Afghanistan. "We're going to test whatever resource we have against our strategy, which is if by sending young men and women into harm's way, we are defeating al-Qaeda," the president said in an interview with ABC.
       "[If] that can be shown to a sceptical audience - namely me, somebody who is always asking hard questions about deploying troops - then we will do what's required to keep the American people safe," Obama said.
       Gates said this week that the president needed time to assess US strategy and should not be rushed over such an important decision.
       Earlier, Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services committee that more soldiers would likely be needed to subdue the Taleban.
       "A properly resourced counterin-surgency probably means more forces and, without question, more time and more commitment to the protection of the Afghan people and to the development of good governance," Mullen said.
       By coincidence, McChrystal's report was revealed on the UN's International Peace Day, when Kabul's defence ministry said foreign and Afghan troops will pause offensive operations.
       Qari Yusuf Ahmadi, purpostedly a Taleban spokesman, was quoted on the ReliefWeb website as suggesting the insurgency may do the same, saying: "Our forces will remain in defensive position, as usual."
       Foreign forces in Afghanistan, experiencing their deadliest year since the war began eight years ago with more than 350 deaths so far in 2009, are sceptical the rebels will keep their word.

UN urges Sri Lanka to investigate war crimes

       A top UN official issued a strong call for "truth-seeking" into alleged excesses by security forces when they wiped out Tamil rebels earlier this year.
       "We feel that ideally the Sri Lankans should carry out a national process of truth-seeking and accountability," the UN's political chief Lynn Pascoe said in a statement issued after his departure from Colombo on Friday.
       Mr Pascoe, undersecretary-general for political affairs, asked Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse to set up a "serious, independent and impartial"process to investigate alleged war crimes.
       Sri Lanka has consistently resisted US- and European-led calls for war crimes investigations, saying that no civilians were killed by its security forces.
       Before leaving the island, Mr Pascoe expressed "strong concerns" over Tamil war refugees, and said the government had been slow to resettle tens of thousands of displaced civilians.

ISRAEL REJECTS INEPENDENT GAZA WAR INQUIRY

       Israel yesterday rejected UN calls to open an independent inquiry into its conduct in last winter's Gaza Strip war and said it would launch a diplomatic offensive to block any attempt to bring its soldiers before an international war crimes tribunal.
       An independent investigation into the war was a key recommendation of an explosive UN report that accused the Jewish state of war rimes and possible crimes against humanity.
       The report, released on Tuesday by UN-appointed investigatiors, said Israel used disproportionate firepower and sisregarded the likelihood of civilian deaths in the offensive, which killed hundrds of non-comatants and caused widespread damage to Gaza.
       It said that if Israel doesn't allow an independent investigation, the case should be refereed to international war crimes prosecutors.
       The report provoked a furore in Israel, whose Foreign Ministry said it was "appalled and disappointed". Radio stations deveoted heavy chaunks of airtime to interviews with outraged officials and critical legal experts. "Clasic Anti-Semitism," blared the headline of an opinion piece in the Israel Hayom daily.
       Israeli officials refused to cooperate with the five-month investigation, saying it was ordered by a UN body with a clear anti-Israeli bias.
       Government spokesman Mark REgev said Israel would not heed the call for an independent investigation and noted that army probes can be a ppealed in court.
       The UN team, headed by veteran war crimes prosecutor Richard Goldstone, concluded that both Israel and Gaza's Islamic Hamas rulers committed war crimes and possible crimes against humanity.
       Israel launched the three-week war in late December to quash Palestinian militants in Gaza who has bombarded southern Israel for years with rocket and mortar fire.
       Israeli President Shimon Peres, a Nobel peace prize laureate, said the Goldstone report "makes a mockery of history".
       Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said Israel would take action to protect its soldiers and commanders from prosecution abroad and denounced the suggestion of an ICC jurisdiction.
       But even without legal action, the UN report could damage Israel's public image, with people linking the state of Israel and war crimes.
       Israel says the UN Human Rights Council that ordered the probe is biased by its 47-nation membership, dominated by Arab and developing nations.

Bosnian war criminal granted early release

       The Yugoslav war crimes tribunal announced yesterday it has approved the early release from prison of former Bosnian Serb President Biljana Plavsic after she served two-thirds of her 11-year sentence for persecution.
       The decision means that one of the most senior political leaders ever convicted by the UN court will likely walk free next month from the prison in Sweden where she has been jailed.
       Plavsic, 79, was sentenced in 2003 after pleading guilty to a single count of persecution, a crime against humanity,as part of an ethnic cleansing campaign to drive Muslims and Croats out of Serbcontrolled areas of Bosnia. As part of her plea bargain other charges, including genocide, were dropped.
       The campaign destroyed 850 Muslim and Croat villages and included 1,100 documented mass murders, according to prosecutors.
       Tribunal President Patrick Robinson said in a decision released yesterday that Plavsic should be released "notwithstanding the gravity of her crimes".
       Plavsic is one of the few suspects to admit their crimes at the tribunal.

Five military rangers shot dead in ambush

       Suspected insurgents have shot dead five military rangers and made off with three HK assault rifles in an ambush in Yala's Muang district.
       The shooting took place last night at 7.30 when the rangers were travelling in a pickup truck from the Ban Taseh mosque after attending evening prayers to break the Ramadan fast.
       The officers from the Pattana Santi 47-3 military ranger unit spotted a sus-picious object on a roadside as they arrived at Ban Taseh health station, close to the mosque. The rangers stopped to inspect it.
       As they approached, a group of men hiding behind bushes sprayed the rangers with bullets, killing the five. They took three assault rifles but left two rifles at the scene.
       The insurgents also placed metal spikes on the road to hamper the efforts of officers following them.
       The slain military rangers are Muhamad Moro, Jittakorn Sirisawadi,Pradit Muenyotha, Besamad Langtoh and Prajak Kamhaeng.
       Earlier, a motorcyclist in Yala's Than To district was injured when he was shot by a pillion rider of another motorcycle in his village. Arong Khiewmee,30, was shot once in his right hip while riding his motorcycle to a market in tambon Mae Wad about 10.30am. Two men sped towards him on another motorcycle and the pillion rider fired at him. He was taken to hospital.

THE WORLD'S WORST RADIATION HOTSPOT

       At the start of the Cold War, Stalin chose one of the furthest outposts of his empire to test the Soviet Union's first nuclear bombs. Sixty years
       on, their cancerous legacy is still being felt By Jerome Taylor
       Walking through the flat and endless Kazakh steppe, Nemytov Oleg suddenly stops, fumbles in his desert camouflage trousers and pulls out a Geiger counter. The device bleeps into life.He peers pensively at the reading. When we stepped out of the car it read three. Now,within a couple of hundred metres, it has jumped to 10. He unwraps breathing masks and two pairs of disposable shoe coverings."If we want to go any further we will have to wear these," he says.
       Further along the dusty road he checks his device once more."You see, the meter is now reading 21," he says."If we were in a city far away from here it would read about 0.1. The radiation increases very quickly."
       The reason Mr Oleg is keeping such a close eye on background radiation is because we are standing on the very spot where,60 years ago, the Soviet Union launched the Cold War, with the detonation of its first nuclear bomb. Watched from a lead-lined bunker by Stalin's feared secret police chief Lavrenti Beria, First Lightning exploded at exactly 7am on Aug 29,1949, throwing up an enormous mushroom cloud that billowed over the steppe and, unbeknown to people nearby, dumping huge quantities of radioactive material on them, their houses and their fields.
       It is the names of Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Chernobyl that stand for the horrors of the new technology. The name of Semipalatinsk has no such resonance, and is all but forgotten. Yet nowhere else in the world was there such a large concentration of nuclear explosions in one place over such a long period. When Beria earmarked this far eastern corner of Kazakhstan to be the Soviet Union's top secret nuclear test facility, he described the place as "uninhabited"- conveniently forgetting the 700,000 people who lived in the surrounding villages, towns and cities.Overnight the region was deleted from the map and for the next 40 years Soviet scientists detonated 615 nuclear devices at their secret Semipalatinsk Polygon.
       For the first 13 years, tests inside the 80,000 square kilometre Polygon site were conducted above ground, throwing huge amounts of nuclear waste into the atmosphere. The underground tests that followed polluted vast tracts of land with a toxic combination of radioactive chemicals which will continue to contaminate the soil for thousands of years. Kazakhstan shut down the test site almost as soon as the Central Asian republic gained its independence in 1991(and also became the first country in the world to voluntarily give up nuclear weapons). But the deadly legacy of those tests lives on.
       In a new hospital on the outskirts of Semei - the new Kazakh name for the otherwise unremarkable provincial capital which lies 150km east of the Polygon - Galina Bityukova,aged 54 and painfully thin, is midway through a second course of chemotherapy for ovarian cancer."Sometimes I feel that my cancer is linked to the nuclear tests - you can't help but think so," she says."It could just be cancer like anyone else gets, but when you remember what happened here and how many people have cancer, it makes you wonder."
       On the bed opposite, Svetlana, a woman in her late fifties who is recovering from a mastectomy, firmly agrees."In my mind I know the nuclear tests had something to do with me getting ill," she says, flashing a strained smile which reveals a full set of gold teeth. Dr Baipeisov Muhametkalievich is the head of oncology at Semei's cancer ward,which treats up to 40,000 people every year."It's difficult to know whether their cancer comes from the testing or not," he says."But you only have to look at the data to know that this area of Kazakhstan has the highest rates of cancer of anywhere in the country."It is roughly one-third higher than the national average, he says, a clear indication that the Polygon continues to make people sick.
       When Kazakhstan gained its independence following the Soviet Union's collapse, the country was left bankrupt and the damage caused by the nuclear tests was only one of the problems that Moscow consigned to the new government, dominated by the local Communist chief Nursultan Nazerbayev who is still Kazakhstan's President. As the Russian military convoys rolled back over the border they not only took away all the scientific data regarding the Polygon, but also most of the modern medical equipment from Semei's hospital.
       For many years the victims of Semipalatinsk, unlike those of Chernobyl, were left to fend for themselves. But flush with new revenue from its enormous gas fields and mineral deposits, money is finally heading their way. The oncology department in Semei has just received state-of-the-art equipment from Japanese doctors in Nagasaki while a ฃ40 million radiology department is under construction."When I first got here I was absolutely astonished at the level of poverty and neglect among the victims of nuclear testing," says Fiona Corcoran, an Irish charity worker who had seen the effects of nuclear fallout in Chernobyl and who now runs two orphanages in Semei."Children with horrendous birth defects were just left to rot in institutions. But recently there have been some major improvements."
       Ms Corcoran's charity, the Greater Chernobyl Cause, was one of many working in Chernobyl, but when she arrived in Kazakhstan a decade ago, outside aid was almost non-existent."The Kazakhs would always say to me:'People come here, they go and they forget.' There was none of the same sense of urgency that there was with Chernobyl. But what happened at Chernobyl was a single tragic accident. What happened here was the systematic and deliberate exposure of thousands of people to nuclear material."
       Most of those who worked on the test site have long since died, but the radiation levels continue to poison new generations of Kazakhs. In an anonymous-looking block of Sovietera flats is Semei's only facility for disabled children. According to the centre's director Tylysova Toleakarovna, of the 346 children they regularly treat,45 have illnesses which result directly from radiological contamination. Baurzhanaly Kuanysh is one of them.Now 16-years-old, he was born in Abay district,one of the areas closest to the Polygon. He suffers from microcephaly, a common illness among radiation victims where the victim's head is abnormally small."We can provide for some of the victims who live near the city but we need to get out to the villages," explains Mrs Toleakarovna."That is my dream."
       Some 160km west of Semei lies Kurchatov,a meticulously planned settlement that was once the most secretive town in the Soviet Union. Here scientists work to map and contain the nuclear contamination inside the Polygon.
       What is already clear is that the three sites where the explosions were regularly conducted will be uninhabitable for thousands of years, and a river that flows through the site into the Irtysh is contaminated. Yet that has not deterred new arrivals - government and private investors are keen to open up some areas of the test site because it is littered with deposits of coal, copper and silver. There are already 400 miners digging for coal close to where some of the later and most powerful tests were carried out in the 1960s and 1970s.
       But the rush to extract minerals from this poisoned land has set alarm bells ringing among medical experts. Boris Gallich, a specialist in the effects of radiation, said:"My biggest fear is that these people could become contaminated and pass it on to their children and families. That may be a matter of indifference for the company directors, but not for the people on the ground."

Top Taliban caught in Swat operation

       Pakistani security forces have arrested the spokesman for the Taliban in the Swat Valley, the military said, the first major arrest in the region since the army went on the offensive there more than four months ago.
       The arrest of Muslim Khan is the latest blow for the Pakistan Taliban whose leader, Baitullah Mehsud, was killed in the South Waziristan region last month.
       Taliban advances early this year and a series of attacks in cities raised fears for Pakistan's future and alarmed its ally the United States, which even suggested the civilian government was "abdicating" to the militants.
       But the Swat offensive, launched in late April, and attacks on the Taliban in their Afghan border strongholds including South Waziristan have done much to reassure the US of Pakistan's commitment to the fight against militancy.
       Military spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas said Mr Khan and four other Taliban leaders from Swat were arrested.
       Confirming Mr Khan's detention,Interior Minister Rehman Malik said militants had no option but surrender.
       "They will either be killed or arrested,"he said in the capital, Islamabad.
       Military officials say more than 2,000 insurgents and more than 300 soldiers have been killed in the Swat offensive.There has been no independent verification of militant casualties.
       Meanwhile, nearly 600 policemen recruited from ethnic Pashtun tribes in the Bara district have quit after an Islamist commander warned them over his illegal FM radio to give up their jobs.

US urges Arab allies to beef up military

       US Defence Secretary Robert Gates urged US allies in the Arab world to strengthen their military capabilities and defence cooperation with Washington as a means of pressuring Iran to back off its nuclear programme.
       In an interview with Al Jazeera aired on Monday, Mr Gates said the United States still favoured diplomatic and economic approaches to the challenges posed by Iran and its nuclear programme.
       But, according to a transcript of the interview, Mr Gates said "one of the pathways to get the Iranians to change their approach on the nuclear issue is to persuade them that moving down that path will actually jeopardise their security,not enhance it.
       "So the more that our Arab friends and allies can strengthen their security capabilities, the more they can strengthen their cooperation, both with each other and with us, I think it sends the signal to the Iranians that this path they're on is not going to advance Iranian security but in fact could weaken it," he said.
       Mr Gates said he did not know how much US arms sales to the region now totalled, but disputed a $100 billion figure cited by Al Jazeera as sounding "very high to me".
       The defence secretary also questioned whether Iran had gained lasting clout in Iraq, and by extension in the region, as a result of the 2003 US invasion that toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and brought the country's Shi'ite majority to power.
       "I think that a strong and democratic Iraq, particularly one with a multisectarian government, becomes a barrier to Iranian influence and not a bridge for it," he said.
       "So I think, in the short term, perhaps Iran's position was strengthened somewhat but I think if you look to the longer term, and the role that Iraq can play in the region going forward, I think that Iran's position may well be diminished,"he said.
       He said Iraq's leaders were "first and foremost Iraqis".
       "After all none of them have forgotten the eight years of war that they fought with Saddam Hussein and they haven't forgotten that Saddam Hussein started that war," he said.
       His comments appeared the same day the outgoing chief of International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, complained of an "impasse"with Iran over its nuclear plan.

US leads the world in selling weapons

       The US accounted for more than two-thirds of foreign weapons sales in 2008, a year in which global sales were at a three-year low, the New York Times reported on Sunday.Citing a recent congressional study,the Times said the US was involved in 68.4% of the global arms trade.
       US weapons sales jumped nearly 50%in 2008 to $37.8 billion from $25.4 billion the year before.
       Worldwide, global arms sales fell 7.6%to $55.2 billion in 2008, the report said.
       The rise in US sales was attributed to "major new orders from clients in the Near East and in Asia". The United Arab Emirates was the top buyer of arms in the developing world with $9.7 billion in arms purchases in 2008.

US rejects idea of one-on-one N. Korea talks

       The US said yesterday that disarming North Korea of its nuclear weapons required a multilateral solution, rejecting calls for it to drop sixparty talks for one-on-one dialogue with Pyongyang.
       US special representative on North Korea Stephen Bosworth held a third day of talks with South Korean officials to discuss ways to press Pyongyang to return to the negotiating table, after arriving on Friday.
       His trip came as the North announced experimental uranium enrichment was entering the completion phase, in a defiant response to tougher UN sanctions imposed after its May 25 nuclear test and separate missile launches.
       Mr Bosworth said that following "very useful" conversations with Seoul officials, the two sides had agreed to continue to push for the North's nuclear disarmament within the existing framework of six-party talks.
       The North has been seeking bilateral talks with the United States since it quit the six-way process grouping the two Koreas, the US, Japan, Russia and China in April in protest at the UN censure of a rocket launch.
       "Because of the nature of this issue,its regional implications and its global implications, this is a problem that requires a multilateral solution," Mr Bosworth said, wrapping up his Seoul visit."As we have indicated in the past we are prepared to engage bilaterally as well with the North Koreans, but only in the context of the six-party process in order to facilitate the sixparty exercise."
       The US envoy was in Seoul as part of a three-nation Asian tour that had already taken him to Beijing. He was due to fly to Tokyo later yesterday.
       Mr Bosworth met with Seoul's chief nuclear envoy Wi Sung-lac and Unification Minister Hyun In-taek on Saturday, and Foreign Minister Yu Myunghwan yesterday.
       As well as its announcement on uranium, North Korea said reprocessing of spent reactor fuel rods was also in the final phase and extracted plutonium was being weaponised. Pyongyang had for years denied US allegations of a secret highly enriched uranium (HEU)programme, in addition to its admitted plutonium-based operation.
       "Any indication of a nuclear programme on the part of North Korea,whether it is HEU or anything else, is a subject of concern, and one which would have to be addressed if we are going to deal comprehensively with the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula," Mr Bosworth said.
       But he said the North's claims of progress in its uranium programme brought no real change to regional security.
       The US and Russia will discuss the North Korean nuclear issue in Seoul this week, with Moscow's deputy nuclear envoy Grigory Logvinov to visit South Korea today.

Outcry builds over Afghan attack

       Afghans yesterday mourned the dead from a Nato bombing that killed scores of people and renewed an outcry over civilian casualties at the hands of Western troops in an eight-year war.
       The air strike destroyed two fuel tankers hijacked by the Taliban at a time when witnesses said villagers had rushed towards the vehicles, carrying any container they could to collect free fuel at the insurgents' invitation.
       Officials said the dead were mostly insurgents, but Afghan President Hamid Karzai - leading the count in fraudtainted elections - said any targeting of civilians was unacceptable. His office said 90 people were killed and hurt.
       Memorial prayers were heard yesterday in nearly a dozen villages for those killed in northern Kunduz province,where the atmosphere was highly charged, witnesses said.
       A delegation from the defence and interior ministries travelled to Kunduz early yesterday to begin investigations ordered by Mr Karzai, an official said.
       Zamari Bashari, Interior Ministry spokesman, said it was not yet known how many people were killed, nor how many were civilians.
       Kunduz provincial police chief Abdul Razaq Yaqobi said 56 people were killed and 12 wounded, adding that "all of them were Taliban".
       In the Kunduz hospital, where many of the injured were taken, Asmatullah was with his 10-year-old son Shafiullah,who he said had been with other children getting free fuel and whose legs were burned when the tankers were ignited.
       Mr Asmatullah, who like many Afghans uses one name, said he was awoken by the noise of the exploding tankers "and when I went there I saw the world was covered by dead and wounded people".
       "All the dead were Taliban," he said.The Taliban released a statement saying none of its militiamen were among the casualties.
       "When the planes came our men knew that they would bomb the area, so all our people left," said the statement.
       The air strike has underscored the increasing Taliban presence in parts of the north straddling a new supply route for foreign troops coming through Tajikistan in order to minimise dependence on the volatile route from Pakistan.
       The White House expressed "great concern" over the loss of civilian lives while European governments warned the raid risked undermining the Nato mission of 64,500 troops from more than 40 countries trying to defeat the Taliban.
       French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said yesterday that the bombing was a major mistake.
       "This was a big mistake," Mr Kouchner said as he arrived for a second day of talks with his EU counterparts in Stockholm.
       "We have to enquire and to denounce those responsible."
       Germany's Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung told the Bild newspaper yesterday:"When just 6km away from us,the Taliban take two fuel tankers, that represents a serious danger for us."
       Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn also denounced the Nato bombing.
       "I cannot understand that bombs can be dropped so easily and swiftly," Mr Asselborn said."Even if there was only one civilian there, this operation should not have taken place."
       Police and the Interior Ministry said up to 56 Taliban were killed and 10 more wounded, including a 12-year-old child, when a Nato air raid targeted the tankers after they were hijacked en route from Tajikistan to Kabul.
       Mahbubullah Sayedi, a government spokesman in Kunduz gave the highest death toll, saying 90 people were killed,but said most were Taliban.
       The insurgent militia, which frequently exaggerates its claims as part of its propaganda effort, earlier said 150 villagers,most of them young boys, were killed.
       The incident came four days after the US and Nato commander in Afghanistan submitted a review into the war, calling for a revised strategy and reverse the country's "serious" situation.
       The White House also said the incident would be investigated and Nato chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen pledged to conduct a thorough investigation.

China and Russian cooperate to secure Central Asia

       THE Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) held a five-day counter-terrorist exercise from July 22 to July 26 in Jilin, northeastern China, using primarily Chinese and Russian troops. The Peace Mission 2009 exercise also involved the participation of the four SCO member states - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan - with the SCO Secretariat sending military observers.
       The joint military training underscores China's and Russia's growing partnership in fighting what they see as their three threats of separatism, extremism and terrorism, as well as a common desire to improve stability in Central Asia and Xinjiang. The ethnic clashes between the Uighurs and Han Chinese in Urumqi in early July have added to the tension in the region. The stability in Xinjiang is not only a domestic issue for China. It has also a regional dimension. China's overall Central Asian strategy is clearly tied to the security of Xinjiang.
       Under the SCO framework, Peace Mission military exercises were successfully held in 2005 and 2007, with 2005 representing the first-ever such joint exercises between Russia and China. For Peace Mission 2007, more than 10,000 troops from all SCO member states (except Uzbekistan, which sent observers) were involved. Although fewer troops participated in 2009, that exercise nonetheless represented China's - and to a lesser degree Russia's - interests in securing the Central Asian region. There is also the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure (RATS) of the SCO established in 2004. Together, these have not only strengthened China's security ties with Russia, but also increased Beijing's role in the security of Central Asia.
       In 2002, the Comprehensive Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) was founded by the presidents of Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, with Uzbekistan joining in 2006. The Russian leadership aimed to establish a Central Asian security alliance with military-political components that are similar in structure to Nato. The pivotal goal of CSTO is the maintenance of regional stability. Recently, CSTO leaders, except for Belarus and Uzbekistan, signed an agreement to establish the Collective Rapid Reaction Forces (CRRF). The CRRF is comparable to Nato forces. It is an idea that has been long promoted by the Russian leadership.
       This notwithstanding, the SCO leaders have been stressing - the latest being at their summit on June 15 in Yekaterinburg - that they are not out to establish a military alliance in competition with Nato. The Peace Mission exercises are mainly focusing on counter-terrorism drills and are not seen as a basis for a military bloc. They emphasise that the SCO has given them the ability to deal with non-traditional security threats in the region. Even though SCO and CSTO share common interests, cooperation between these two regional organisations is still limited.
       In 2007, Russia suggested that the Peace Missions should be held under the joint framework of SCO and CSTO, but the Chinese leadership denied the Russian request. In the same year, both organisations nevertheless signed a Memorandum of Understanding between the secretariats of the CSTO and CSO. This has since facilitated CSTO-SCO interaction and information exchanges, especially between the anti-terrorist structures of SCO and CSTO.
       China is mainly concerned about the spread of terrorism from its Western Xinjiang province. A stable Xinjiang is vital for regional stability in Central Asia. Without stability in Xinjiang, China cannot pursue its energy and trade interests in the Central Asian region. Hence, the Chinese leadership has used the SCO framework successfully to promote its fight against terrorism, extremism and separatism. Beijing also benefits from the fact that Russia faces similar problems in Chechnya, with Moscow viewing militant groups such as the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) and Islamic Jihad Union (IJU) as a threat to Russian interests in the Central Asian states.
       Since the late 1990s China has viewed with concern the revival of terrorism in Central Asia, which Beijing sees as a source of inspiration for terrorism in Xinjiang. The Uighur minority in Xinjiang are Turkic-speaking people, who are ethnically and culturally similar to the Central Asian peoples rather than the Han Chinese, who form the majority of China's population. From a Chinese perspective, the separatist movement in Xinjiang is closely related to the pan-Turkic and pan-Islamic ideology spreading in this region following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) is fighting for the independence of Xinjiang and has been associated with the Central Asian militant groups such as IMU and IJU. The latter is a faction of IMU and is currently active in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
       There have been a number of attacks targeting Chinese interests in Central Asia. In June 2002, a Chinese diplomat and his driver were gunned down in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. In March 2003, 19 Chinese traders were killed when an armed group attacked a bus en route from Bishkek to Xinjiang. Radical groups in this region have shown support to terrorist organisations and the Uighur separatist movement.
       The Peace Mission military exercises are, therefore, one of China's comprehensive responses to the growing instability in Xinjiang and Central Asia. Given the sporadic ethnic clashes in Xinjiang, China is expected to continue seeking cooperation with the SCO members in its struggle to secure Xinjiang.
       Nadine Godehardt is a recent Young Visiting Scholar for the China Programme of the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University. She is a research fellow at GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies in Hamburg. Wang Pengxin is a research analyst at the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research at RSIS.

US expresses "concern" over S. Lanka video

       The United States voiced grave concern on Wednesday about video footage that a Sri Lankan group says shows government soldiers summarily executing Tamil rebels in violation of international law.
       "These reports are very disturbing,they are of grave concern," US Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said."We'd like more information as we formulate our own national response."
       Ms Rice was reacting to video footage aired last week on British television which, according to a Sri Lankan advocacy group, shows government forces executing unarmed, naked, bound and blindfolded Tamils during the army's final assault to smash Tamil Tiger rebels earlier this year.
       Colombo dismissed the video as fake.Ms Rice said it was not yet clear whether the council would take up the issue.

Airports need best security

       It is difficult to follow the reasoning of Democrat MP Pichet Panwichartkul and supporters who want to relax security screening at Suvarnabhumi airport. Mr Pichet considers airport security an inconvenience. His proposal to reduce the amount of pre-flight security checking is not just a one-off trial balloon. He seems quite serious about pressing ahead.Thank goodness for security and airport officials who have politely acknowledged the member of parliament's pressure without trying to appease him.
       Mr Pichet is neither a lightweight politician nor given to fantasy. A former finance minister, he is intimately familiar with the day-to-day running of the country.More to the point, he is also a former transport minister,known during his time in office to take a particular interest in the nation's airports. It is surprising he has come up with such a zany idea on airport security, even more so because it casts the country in a bad light.
       Airport security is not an airport issue or even a national one. Countries around the globe constantly discuss, update and agree on what measures will be used to screen passengers. This cross-border cooperation ensures that officials at Suvarnabhumi, say, know that arriving passengers from all over the world have undergone the same security checks. Obviously, foreign security personnel have to know the same about travellers arriving from Thailand.
       This is not a glib subject. Airline hijackings are real,airport terrorism exists. Intelligence work and international cooperation are key elements in the prevention of terrorism in the air. But airport security - worldwide measures applied to all flights - are the key preventative measure to deter would-be terrorists.
       Mr Pichet, of all people, should know that if an airport becomes a weak link, it will be a target for terrorists. If Suvarnabhumi Airport relaxes its security standards it will become a magnet for cross-border criminals, traffickers and terrorists. In 1988, terrorists detected just such a weak link at Don Mueang Airport. They hijacked a Kuwait Airways 747 in a murderous flight that lasted 16 days. The terrorists managed to smuggle guns aboard the plane while it was being refuelled. It is because of just such local failings that countries have joined together to close security holes.
       The member of parliament has focussed on the nowfamiliar demand of security staff for passengers to remove their belts and pass them through X-ray machines.Security should know the difference between suspicious and non-suspicious belts, he claims. And he is apparently outraged that the travellers have to "clumsily" put their belts back on after passing the security check. The former minister must know that belts are a possible hiding place of weapons that cannot easily be found with a metal detector. In a phrase, all belts are suspicious to security personnel. So are outer jackets, which also must go through the X-ray process for screening.
       Mr Pichet has a point that flying has become less glamorous, more demanding and sometimes stressful.Security checks are inconvenient. They are not, however,nearly so inconvenient as a hijacking, a bomber or a madman in a sealed aircraft cabin running amok with weapons he has smuggled aboard. The alternative to stiff airport security checks is insecurity. Nor is there any plausible case to be made for excepting important people such as government MPs from these checks.Flights can be certified as reasonably safe only if every passenger and crew member is carefully inspected. Mr Pichet is a people's representative in a country with many problems, one of which is definitely not too much security at the main international airport.

Auschwitz plans go to Israel

       Architectural plans for the Auschwitz death camp that were discovered in Berlin last year were given to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday for display at his country's official Holocaust memorial.
       The 29 sketches of the death camp that was built in Nazi-occupied Poland date back as far as 1941, and include detailed blueprints for barracks, delousing facilities and crematoria, including gas chambers. The sketches are considered important to helping understand the genesis of the Nazi genocide.
       They are initialed by the head of the SS, Heinrich Himmler, and Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Hoess.
       They turned up in an apartment in Berlin in 2008; how they got there is not clear, but their authenticity has been verified by Germany's federal archive.
       While they are not the only original Auschwitz blueprints that still exist -others were captured by the Soviet Red Army and brought back to Moscow they will be the first for Israel's Yad Vashem memorial, its chairman said.
       "This set is a very early one, which was found here in Berlin, from the autumn of '41," Yad Vashem chairman Avner Shalev said.
       "It brings a better understanding of the whole process, and the intention of the planners of the complex, and from this perspective it is important."
       The blueprints were purchased from the unidentified finder by Germany's Axel Springer Verlag, the publisher of top-selling Bild newspaper, and put on display in the company's headquarters.
       The publisher is now giving them to Yad Vashem for its permanent collection.
       Mr Shalev said they will be put on display at Yad Vashem on January 27,2010, to mark the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

US, Afghans attack clinic in Afghanistan

       US and Afghan forces attacked a clinic in eastern Afghanistan after a wounded Taliban commander sought treatment, and a US helicopter gunship fired on the medical centre after militants put up resistance, officials said yesterday.
       Reports of the militant death toll from Wednesday's firefight varied widely. The spokesman for the governor of Paktika province said 12 militants died, while police said two were killed. The US military did not report any deaths.
       The fighting began after a wounded Taliban commander sought treatment at a clinic in the Sar Hawza district of Paktika. As US and Afghan forces moved towards the centre, militants began firing from inside.
       Hamidullah Zhwak, the governor's spokesman, said the Taliban commander was wounded on Aug 20, the day of the country's presidential election.
       Militants brought him and three other wounded Taliban to the clinic at noon on Wednesday. US and Afghan forces were tipped off to their presence and soon arrived at the scene, he said.
       Insurgent snipers fired from a tower near the clinic, and troops called in an air strike, Mr Zhwak said. Fighting between some 20 militants and Afghan and US forces lasted about five hours,and 12 Taliban were killed in the clash,he said. Seven insurgents - including the wounded commander - had been detained.

Govt warned to stop spread of firearms

       The government needs to address the problem of arms proliferation in the deep South, especially among civilians,a seminar has been told.
       Apisak Sukkasem, a researcher with the Peace Media to End Violence Project,said a clampdown was needed on civilian access to firearms.
       Although there were no licensed gun shops in the 14 provinces making up the South, guns could be bought easily from shops selling firearm accessories and from those with connections to uniformed officers, he said.
       Mr Apisak urged the government to review the Interior Ministry subsidy for civil servants such as teachers to buy guns. He also called on countries such as the US, Australia and Germany to control arms sales. He said the guns were often used to kill innocent people.
       Chanin Chandrachoti, head of the Defence Ministry's Intelligence Directing and Coordinating Centre, agreed that civilians should have limited access to firearms.
       Maj Gen Chanin said the heavy presence of 67,000 military and police personnel was still necessary to stabilise the security situation in the region.
       The numbers would eventually be reduced but it was more important to eradicate the idea among civilians that weapons could solve their problems.
       Yala deputy governor Krisda Boonrath opposed the call to disarm officials.
       "If you talk about disarming authorities, who will dare to go out to work?"Mr Krisda asked.
       "We are now a target [of insurgents]no matter if we are Muslims or Buddhists."
       Although he conceded there might be misuse of weapons among security and armed civilian forces, he said in general they helped toprevent incidents.
       "The establishment of village selfdefence volunteers helped to curb arson in schools and Yala town from 20 incidents in 2007 to one or two arson attacks last year," Mr Krisda said.