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Showing posts with label United States. Show all posts

Showing posts with label United States. Show all posts

TURKEY:ARMENIAN MASSACRES;USA,ANKARA NOT MINCING WORDS

Posted by blog master Friday, March 5, 2010

BEIJING, CHINA - MAY 27: Nancy Pelosi, speak...

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(ANSAmed) - ANKARA - The vote of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the US House of Representatives on a non-binding resolution in which the 1915 and 1917 Armenian massacres that took place during the Ottoman empire are defined as ''genocide'' was expected in Ankara. So much so that, with unusual speed in Turkey, as soon as it was discovered from the website of the Turkish Cabinet Office that out of the 46 members of the Committee, 23 against 22 voted in favour of the document, a message of condemnation immediately appeared. Premier Tayyip Erdogan expressed concern over the consequences of the vote and underlined that the taking of a stance by the parliamentary body ''risks damaging Turkish-American relations, as well as the process of normalisation between Turkey and Armenia.'' Shortly after, it was announced that the Turkish Ambassador to the US, Namik Tan, has been immediately recalled to Ankara ''for consultation''. Tan arrived in Washington just a few weeks but is already an expert on America. That things were not looking good for Ankara was already clear a few days ago, but events have taken a turn for the worse in the last 48 hours. Turkey was opposed to the approval of the document insomuch as it has always denied that the number of Armenians killed during the massacres total one and a half million (for Ankara there were ''only'' 300,000) and that they died as a result of a civil war and not due to genocide. Thus yesterday morning Turkey had already raised not only the possibility of withdrawing their Ambassador if the resolution were approved, but also the potential of cancelling contracts worth 45 billion dollars with five large US defence companies. Furthermore, Ankara has circulated - via the Turkish press - a so-called 'Plan B' to be implemented if the document is approved. This plan sets out, amongst other things, that Turkey could potentially not ratify the protocols of normalisation of relations signed in October in Zurich with Armenia, considered to be important for the stability of the Caucasus.

source-http://www.ansamed.info

holi

Posted by blog master Sunday, February 28, 2010

Holi bonfire.

Image via Wikipedia

Music Holi but preclude your eyes from deed putrid. If adorn enters the eyes, rinse it with thing treasury the aggression subsides and do not wash the cornea."

Do not sign ego medication unless you research the dilute, he cautioned. "Rinse the guardianship soundly before wetting water in the eyes. Boost, galore installation emblem feature an alkalescent mean which can effort stark problems if they save the eyes as it can exhibit a eager danger to one's sensation. Emblem in the shape of attach jazz nephrotoxic compounds integrated in engine oil or remaining modest grade oil and can reason pare allergy, temporary blindness, etc."

Unreal colours victimised during Holi ofttimes comprise plumbago pollutant, engine oil, technologist, chromium, iodine and conductor salt, which crusade wound botheration and yet sightlessness in framing of extreme exposure, Dr Singh said. Encourage, spell gift pichkari (sprinklers) to children, desist anything which has scratching edges. Music from buying sprinklers made of metals, he additional.

Supreme Court ends limits on corporate campaign spending

Posted by blog master Thursday, January 21, 2010

The current United States Supreme Court, the h...

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WASHINGTON — A closely divided Supreme Court on Thursday swept away long-standing limits on campaign spending by unions and corporations.

In a long-awaited decision, the court's emboldened conservative majority declared that the limits on so-called "independent expenditures" by corporations violate First Amendment free-speech rights. The much-anticipated decision means that more money can be spent on federal elections, including this year's congressional elections.

"The government may regulate corporate political speech through disclaimer and disclosure requirements, but it may not suppress that speech altogether," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the five-member majority.

However, Justice John Paul Stevens, writing for the four-member minority, warned that the ruling would harm the political system as well as the court's reputation. In striking down certain corporate campaign-spending limits, the court reversed its own earlier decision.

"The court's ruling threatens to undermine the integrity of elected institutions across the nation," Stevens wrote.

The "independent expenditures" covered in the case called Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission are different from the campaign contributions that union and corporation political action committees make directly to candidates.

Instead, the mostly closely watched political-speech case of recent years covers the money that corporations and unions spend from their own treasuries on ads and other advocacy efforts.

The court's decision Thursday rolls back a key provision of the 2003 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, commonly known as the McCain-Feingold law. In doing so, justices took the relatively unusual step of explicitly overturning the court's own precedent.

The PACs also can spend money independently, funding ads and the like. Under Section 203 of the McCain-Feingold law, however, unions and corporations couldn't directly finance from their own treasuries "electioneering" communications within 30 days of primaries and 60 days of general elections. These are messages that explicitly urge a vote one way or another, or that are reasonably interpreted as having done so.

The 1990 case Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce had upheld a state law that banned corporations from making independent expenditures using corporate funds to support or oppose candidates. The court's decision Thursday overturned the 1990 Austin ruling.
source-miamiherald.com

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John Edwards Admits Fathered Mistress' Child

Posted by blog master

John Edwards with Bonnie Raitt , Jackson Brown...

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Ex-presidential candidate John Edwards admitted on Thursday that he fathered a child with his former mistress, Rielle Hunter, while campaigning for the Democratic Party's White House nomination.

The former U.S. senator from North Carolina, who was among early front-runners in the Democratic field in the race eventually won by Barack Obama in 2008, acknowledged 2-year-old Frances Quinn Hunter as his daughter in a statement to U.S. media.

Edwards, who had previously denied he was the father, made the admission less than two weeks before the launch of a former aide's book that was expected to name Edwards as the father.

"I am Quinn's father. I will do everything in my power to provide her with the love and support she deserves," Edwards said in the statement reported by U.S. television networks.

"It was wrong for me ever to deny she was my daughter, and hopefully one day, when she understands, she will forgive me," Edwards said.

As the Democratic presidential race got under way, Edwards revealed that his wife, Elizabeth Edwards, had developed cancer for the second time in three years.

His personal and political fortunes changed after the tabloid newspaper National Enquirer began reporting on his affair with Hunter, a campaign videographer in 2007.

Edwards, a wealthy lawyer, at first denied having an affair with Hunter, acknowledging the liaison only after his presidential campaign had come to an end in 2008. The admission was widely seen as sinking his political career for good.

But he continued to deny that he was the father of Hunter's child.

"To all those I have disappointed and hurt, these words will never be enough, but I am truly sorry," Edwards said in his statement on Thursday.

"I will do everything in my power to provide her with the love and support she deserves," he said of his daughter. "I have been able to spend time with her during the past year and trust that future efforts to show her the love and affection she deserves can be done privately and in peace."

Media reports have said Edwards is facing a federal grand jury investigation into whether he misused campaign money in an attempt to keep Hunter and word of their affair quiet

source-nytimes.com

Rahman sings for India-Australia friendship

Posted by blog master Sunday, January 17, 2010

Cover of "Vande Mataram"

Cover of Vande Mataram

Forty thousand Sydneysiders Saturday night clapped and cheered as the 'Mozart of Madras' A.R. Rahman and his troupe provided a spectacular
A.R. Rahman
musical extravaganza to salute India-Australia friendship.

Seamlessly blending the traditional with the modern, the music spanned the differences of language, enthralling old and young, touching the very heart strings at a time when Australia-India bilateral relations have come under strain following attacks on Indians in this country.

Music transcends boundaries and Saturday night it did, as Sydneysiders were taken on a journey of peace and joy by Rahman and his amazing troupe of nearly 40 musicians, dancers and supporting artists over 2-1/2 hours even as ominous clouds threatened to give way. A steady drizzle began as the sonorous sounds of "Khwaja Mere Khwaja" filled the cool night air.

It being one of the most anticipated concerts staged as part of the three-week Sydney Festival, people had begun securing places as early as 12 p.m. to get up and close with their music idol at the Parramatta Park, in the western Sydney suburb of Parramatta which has the largest population of Indian and South Asians in Australia.

Even the American-born Premier of New South Wales, Kristina Keneally, couldn't conceal her excitement.

She said: "This event is a celebration of Indian culture, music and dance and acknowledges the invaluable contribution that the Indian community has made to the social fabric of NSW. It sends a clear message that NSW is a welcoming place for people of every country to study, live and work."

For the 20 young boys and girls, who got a chance to perform with the world renowned maestro, it was the most exhilarating experience.

"It was a mind blowing opportunity that comes probably only once in a lifetime. We had intense rehearsals for five days and were really nervous, but once on stage, the energy and power of the music just consumed us all," Akshita Mohan, 18, a resident of suburban Westleigh who was one of the supporting dancers, told IANS.

It is not often that an artiste of Rahman's calibre performs for free, but that is typical of the man and his music.

"The concert is a gesture of friendship and goodwill between the two countries. I hope this solidarity continues to grow and blossom through the coming years," said Rahman amidst deafening applause.

For those who couldn't brave the crowds, the concert was telecast live by Australian Broadcasting Corporation to 44 countries with Australian cricketer Matthew Hayden, who plays for Chennai Super Kings as one of the hosts.

Rahman, who flew back home Sunday morning, was a guest of the NSW state government and Sydney Festival, which is Australia's largest annual cultural event, showcasing a broad spectrum of Australian and international dance, theatre, visual arts and music.

As festival director Lindy Hume told IANS: "There are only a handful of living artists in any genre whose work is instantly and easily embraced in both eastern and western cultures - and one of them is A.R. Rahman. The message of this concert is one of harmony and cultural understanding between Australia and India, two countries who share so much more than a national day (Jan 26) and love of cricket."

The mesmerising performance, enhanced by state-of-the-art digital projections, ended on a high with the magical power and vitality of "Jai Ho" reaching a crescendo in "Vande Mataram" as fireworks lit the night sky
source-timesofindia.indiatimes.com/

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Key ministry officials asked not to use Blackberry for emails

Posted by blog master

Against the backdrop of concerns over hacking of crucial official websites, central security agencies have again warned the government about the use of multi-tasking blackberry instruments by some of the officials working in sensitive ministries including the Prime Minister’s office.

Agencies have also cautioned against the practice of connecting official computers and laptops with unsecured internet connections by some bureaucrats thus compromising security.

With hackers mainly from China very active and having penetrated deep into the cyber space, the security agencies had asked all ministries especially the Defence, External, Home and the PMO to separate their official computers with those used for internet connection.

The recommendations of the central security agencies seem to have gone unheeded. An official maintained that their suggestion was only recommendatory in nature. The National Technical and Research Organisation (NTRO) also circulated the Do’s and Don’ts to key ministries recently after attempts from hackers were noticed.

A quick random check was carried out during which it was found that some of the officials in the Prime Minister’s Office were using Blackberry services and had linked their official emails on the handset, which is not allowed.

A PMO official said there were routine attempts to hack various systems. The PMO has its own system in place to protect against such attempts, the official said, adding, there has been no security breach.

Intense negotiations were held prior to the starting the Blackberry services in India and finally the Department of Telecom in 2008 decided to side-step the opposition of the intelligence agencies and permit the services, being operated by Canadian-firm Research-In-Motion (RIM).

Another problem dogging the cyber space in the country was constant use of official computers by the officials in key ministries despite a warning from security agencies not to link them with the internet.

Security of many of the computers in the Ministry of External Affairs and its Missions abroad was compromised with forcing a security audit of the machines and segregating the virus-affected ones out of the system.

The Ministry of Home Affairs has a separate server for its computers and there have been no attempts to hack its system since it has another server with internet facility. A surprise check of all the computers was being carried at regular intervals.

The National Informatics Centre, the organisation responsible for maintaining government servers and providing internet and intranet facilities to various key ministries, had also faced hacking problem. According to a Canadian firm SecDev Group, which investigated the hacking of the Dalai Lama's computer in late 2008, as many as 12 computers of NIC had been affected by the Chinese hackers.

The group also surprised the government when it mentioned that computers in nine Indian Missions abroad which included key countries like the US and the UK had been affected by the Chinese hackers.

Giving details, the report said the GhostNet system directs infected computers to download a Trojan, known as ghost RAT, which allows attackers to gain complete, real-time control. These instances of ghost RAT are consistently controlled from commercial internet access accounts located on the island of Hainan, People's Republic of China.

"Our investigation reveals that GhostNet is capable of taking full control of infected computers, including searching and downloading specific files, and covertly operating attached devices, including microphones and web cameras.

“China is actively developing an operational capacity in cyberspace, correctly identifying it as the domain in which it can achieve strategic parity, if not superiority, over the military establishments of the United States and its allies.

“Chinese cyber warfare doctrine is well developed, and significant resources have been invested by the People's Liberation Army and security services in developing defensive and offensive capabilities," the report said.

According to them, an email message arrives in the target's inbox carrying the malware in an attachment or web link. The attackers' objective is to get the target to open the attachment or malicious link so that the malicious code can be executed, it said.

Keywords: Blackberry, Prime Minister's Office, government, hacking, NTRO, National Informatics Centre
source-beta.thehindu.com

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Haiti quake aid effort still slow

Posted by blog master

Aerial view of city

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The delivery of aid to victims of Haiti's earthquake is still being slowed by bottlenecks, aid workers say.

UN and Oxfam staff are finally bringing food and water to some parts of the capital Port-au-Prince, but the airport remains clogged with loaded planes.

Many survivors of Tuesday's quake have become desperate as they wait for aid, and many are trying to leave the city.

Leaving for Haiti, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the quake was the worst humanitarian crisis for decades.

The UN has launched an appeal for $562m (£346m) intended to help three million people for six months, while some two million people are thought to need emergency relief.

AT THE SCENE
Nick Davis
Nick Davis, BBC News, Haiti

Relief is finally getting through to some in Port-au-Prince but it's a trickle - not a flood - of the aid needed by the people here.

The US navy is using helicopters to drop supplies of bottled water using soldiers on the ground to keep control. The UN also has distribution points handing out high-energy bars to the hungry.

But demand is outstripping supply - with food and water being taken faster than they can pass it out.

Meanwhile first reports from the epicentre of the earthquake suggest the damage is even more dramatic than in the capital.

The BBC's Mark Doyle in Leogane, west of Port-au-Prince, described the scene as "apocalyptic", with thousands left homeless and almost every building destroyed.

But in a sign of hope, rescuers pulled a woman alive from rubble on Sunday. Twelve others were rescued on Saturday, the UN said.

There are also security concerns amid reports of looting.

The US Southern Command's Lt-Gen Ken Keen said that while streets were largely calm there had been an increase in violence.

"We are going to have to address the situation of security," he said, quoted by the Associated Press.

"We've had incidents of violence that impede our ability to support the government of Haiti and answer the challenges that this country faces."

AFP news agency quoted one of its photographers as saying police had opened fire on looters in a Port-au-Prince market, killing at least one of them.

Airport 'overwhelmed'

Correspondents say although the amount of supplies getting through is still small, there is a sense of movement at last.

The UN World Food Programme has been handing out aid packages containing food, while UK charity Oxfam has been distributing water.

US troops said they had set up their first foothold outside the airport to deliver aid carried in by helicopters.

But many victims are still not receiving any aid, as the airport remains a bottleneck. UN Humanitarian Coordinator Kim Bolduc says getting supplies out to them from the planes is still a major hurdle.

"The Haitian airport now is overwhelmed," said UN Assistant Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations, Edmond Mulet.

The port is badly damaged, and many roads still blocked by corpses and debris.

David Wimhurst, a spokesman for the UN peacekeeping force in Haiti, said aid was being delivered as quickly as possible.

"Aid is going out but it's simply impossible in 24 hours to bring in enough aid to instantly feed all these people, many of whom are in places that are inaccessible," he said.

The Haitian and Dominican Republic governments are planning an alternative 130km (80 miles) humanitarian road corridor to deliver relief supplies from the southern Dominican town of Barahona, the UN reports.

The UN has warned about fuel shortages, which it says could affect humanitarian operations.

"Fuel is the key issue," Elisabeth Byrs, a spokeswoman for the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told the BBC. "We need fuel to bring in supplies and carry the wounded."

'No help'

The UN says up to 80-90% of buildings in Leogane, about 19km west of Port-au-Prince, have been destroyed.

map

Satellite and close-up images of Port-au-Prince devastation

One survivor in the town said he had come to Haiti from America for his mother's funeral, only for his wife to be killed in the earthquake. He said that so far people in the area had received no help of any kind.

"We don't have any aid, nothing at all," he said. "No food, no water, no medical, no doctors."

Estimates of how many people died following the 7.0 magnitude earthquake on Tuesday have varied.

The Pan American Health Organization put the death toll at 50,000-100,000, while Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive said 100,000 "would seem a minimum".

A UN official has said aid workers are dealing with a disaster "like no other" in UN memory because the country had been "decapitated".

Three ministers and several senators are reported to have been killed.

The US has launched what President Barack Obama called "one of the largest relief efforts in its history" following the quake.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was the first senior Western official to arrive in Haiti, on Saturday.

She told Haitians that the US would be "here today, tomorrow and for the time ahead", asserting that "Haiti can come back even better and stronger in the future".

Have you or your family been affected by the earthquake? Are you taking part in the relief effort? If you have any information you wish to share with the BBC you can do so using the form below:

You can also send your pictures or videos to yourpics@bbc.co.uk, text them to +44 7725 100 100 or if you have a large file you can upload here.

Read the terms and conditions

At no time should you endanger yourself or others, take any unnecessary risks or infringe any laws.
source-news.bbc.co.uk

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Obama defends Senate leader, again

Posted by blog master Monday, January 11, 2010

Joe Biden presidential campaign, 2008

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WASHINGTON — US President Barack Obama defended embattled Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid once again for "inartful language" on his race and dialect during the 2008 presidential campaign.

"This is a good man who's always been on the right side of history," Obama told TV One. "For him to have used some inartful language in trying to praise me, and for people to try to make hay out of that makes absolutely no sense."

Reid created a firestorm with remarks published in the just-released book "Game Change," saying that Americans had warmed to Obama's candidacy because he was a "light-skinned" African-American with "no Negro dialect."

Obama was quick to accept Reid's apology Saturday, but Republicans have called for the Nevada Democrat to resign.

"He has apologized recognizing that he didn't use appropriate language, but there was nothing mean-spirited in what he had to say and he has always been on the right side of the issues," the president added in the TV One interview, which will be broadcast in full next Monday for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday in honor of the civil rights leader.

The president also called the four-term senator, who is facing a tough re-election battle in Nevada, "a friend of mine" who has "been a stalwart champion of voting rights, civil rights."

A Mason-Dixon Polling and Research survey released over the weekend found that 52 percent of Nevada voters have an unfavorable opinion of Reid and only a third support him.

African-American leaders said they had forgiven Reid without qualms and urged the national debate to shift to pressing policy issues.

"He apologized for his unfortunate remarks concerning the president, and he understands the gravity of such remarks," said Representative Barbara Lee, leader of the Congressional Black Caucus, adding that Reid had phoned her over the weekend.

"There are too many issues like the economy, job creation and energy for these regrettable comments to distract us from the work that must be done on behalf of the American people," the veteran California lawmaker said, noting Reid has a history of helping poor and minority communities.

During an appearance in Nevada unveiling a new energy project, the leading Senate Democrat repeated his weekend apology.

"I've apologized to everyone in the sound of my voice that I could have used a better choice of words," he told reporters. "And I'll continue to do my work for the African-American community."

Obama was also eager to move on, with the Congress yet to pass a bill overhauling the US health care system, his top domestic priority. Reid is playing a critical role in negotiations between both chambers of Congress to craft compromise legislation to send to the president's desk.

"The fact that we spend days on this instead of talking about the unemployment rate or talking about how we deal with critical issues like energy and health care is an indication of why I think people don't understand what is happening in Washington," he said.

"I guarantee you the average person -- white or black -- right now is less concerned about what Harry Reid said in a quote in a book a couple of years ago than they are about how we are going to move the country forward. That's where we need to direct our attention."

Prominent African-American activist Al Sharpton, who also received a phone call from Reid, told Fox News television that while he was "offended" by the term "Negro dialect," it was not "anywhere near comparable" to offensive or insensitive racial remarks conservative leaders have made over the years.

On Sunday, Republican leaders demanded that Reid step down over the flap, while Democrats described the comments as an unfortunate choice of words, brushing aside calls from their political foes.
source-google.com

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Obama Plays Down Military Role in Yemen

Posted by blog master Sunday, January 10, 2010

Washington DC: United States National World Wa...

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President Obama said he has “no intention of sending U.S. boots on the ground” to Yemen and Somalia amid mounting concern about terrorist cells in those countries.
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In excerpts of an interview with People magazine released on Sunday, Mr. Obama said that the “border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan remains the epicenter of Al Qaeda,” though he acknowledged that the group’s branch in Yemen has become “a more serious problem.”

But his administration is seeking to emphasize international cooperation, rather than military action, to confront the problem in Yemen.

“I never rule out any possibility in a world that is this complex,” said Mr. Obama. But, he added, “in countries like Yemen, in countries like Somalia, I think working with international partners is most effective at this point.”

In November, the president announced he would send 30,000 more American troops to Afghanistan to fight terrorists. But less than a month later, the group Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula suddenly came into focus when a Nigerian man who unsuccessfully tried to blow up a plane near Detroit on Christmas Day said he had received help from Islamists in Yemen.

As with the situation in Pakistan, fighting extremist strongholds in Yemen puts the United States government in a difficult position. Yemeni leaders have made it clear over they past week that they do not want American forces on their soil. However, security experts say that the government might be too weak to effectively fight the terrorist elements. Instead, the U.S. has sent $70 million in military aid to the country – a figure it plans to double this year – and Yemen has stepped up raids against militant outposts in recent months.

Mr. Obama’s remarks echoed those of his top military commanders in recent days. In an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria earlier this week, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said sending U.S. troops to Yemen is “not a possibility.”

And in an interview that aired Sunday with the network’s Christiane Amanpour, General David H. Petreaus said he also does not want to send American forces to Yemen. “We would always want a host nation to deal with a problem itself,” he said.

In playing down any talk of American military intervention in Yemen, the Obama administration is apparently trying to strike a conciliatory tone to people in the region.

“One of the things that we have to understand is that unlike a traditional war, the threats that we face and our allies face are not always going to be centered or localized in a particular geographic area, but are rather networks that are connecting over cyberspace,” Mr. Obama said. “And how we project ourselves to the world, the message we send to Muslim communities around the world, the overwhelming majority of which reject Al Qaeda but where a handful of individuals may be moved by a jihadist ideology, what counter-messaging we have to them -- all those things — continue to be extraordinarily important.”

He added, “We can’t return to sort of a garrison-state notion that we’re just going to hunker down and this is only an issue of firepower and boots on the ground.”

The full interview with the president and Michelle Obama will be in Friday’s issue of People.
source-nytimes.com

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China becomes world's biggest exporter

Posted by blog master

China's rapid industrialisation and dash for growth is sparking environmental concerns. Photograph: PETER PARKS/AFP/Getty Images

China completed a resurgent 2009 with a huge rise in exports establishing China as the world's biggest exporter, ahead of Germany, for the first time. The juggernaut Chinese economy also revealed record monthly imports of crude oil and a vast renewed appetite for iron ore and copper.

Trade in December, according to figures from China's customs office, showed a massive 17.7% year-on-year jump in exports, dramatically outpacing a forecast for 4% growth. The huge increase came after 13 months of decline.

Crude oil imports averaged more than 5m barrels a day for a month for the first time in December, up by more than a fifth from November, as the country sucked in raw materials at a faster pace than expected.

Imports jumped by 56%, pushing China's overall trade surplus in the month down by 4% from November instead of the expected 3% increase.

While some experts said much of the increase was due to seasonal factors and quirks in commodities markets, it appears that the strength of demand from China is signalling a further rise in global trade during 2010.

Imports of unwrought copper rose by more than a quarter from November to 369,368 tonnes, more than expected, while copper scrap imports jumped an even bigger 46%. Soya bean imports hit a record 4.78m tonnes in the month, with a surge in supplies from the United States and Brazil. Exports of aluminium and finished steel were also up strongly. China's economy is predicted to grow 9.5% in 2010, topping last year's expected figure.

The figure will be welcomed by business leaders who argue that China needs to shrug off the effects of the downturn if global trade is to recover. China is widely seen as a key engine of growth, especially as the US economy remains in the doldrums, with rising unemployment and many of its major manufacturing industries still badly hit.

However, the increased consumption of raw materials is likely to fuel criticism that China is failing to meet its environmental obligations. A dash for growth is seen as incompatible with the need to minimise burning fossil fuels and felling rainforests. Open-cast copper mining and soya bean farming on previously protected rainforest, have been top of environmental concerns for several years.

The development research centre of the state council, a leading thinktank, said China's economy would remain robust as market-driven investment picked up while government-led stimulus spending slowed. It said real estate investment would buoy growth, while inflationary concerns remained mild.

China is understood to have bought oil contracts in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries to secure oil supplies ahead of a boom in manufacturing. US and Brazilian farmers are also understood to be ready to increase supplies of Soya beans as domestic demand from the meat industry, which uses soya beans as a feedstuff, soars to record levels.

Adding to environmental concerns, China's steel mills undertook a massive production drive in 2009, partly in response to a $585bn government stimulus plan. Disregarding a 60% collapse in the export market, they produced almost half the world's steel in 2009.
source-guardian.co.uk

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Treacherous times for America's spies

Posted by blog master Friday, January 8, 2010

Obama Afgan Flag

Image by Truthout.org via Flickr

The man who is accused of trying to bomb an American airliner on Christmas Day made his first appearance in court on Friday.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's trial will be another important test case of America's ability to try terrorist suspects in civilian courts.

It should all go well - just as the trial of Richard Reid and Zacarias Moussaoui proceeded without incident.

But the Christmas Day bomb attempt is clearly asking pointed questions of America's ability to defend itself, and the contribution made to that defence by its spies.

Scattered info

US President Barack Obama said on Thursday that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab boarded that plane at Schiphol airport in Amsterdam because of failures in America's intelligence system.

John Brennan
The intelligence fell through the cracks. This happened in more than one organisation.
John Brennan
Deputy National Security Adviser for Homeland Security

But his words strongly suggested he believes the intelligence system is not fatally flawed, rather it just needs strengthening.

"The US government had the information scattered throughout the system to potentially uncover this plot and disrupt the attack. Rather than a failure to collect or share intelligence, this was a failure to connect and understand the intelligence we already had."

Indeed, information about Mr Abdulmutallab - his radical leanings, his presence in Yemen, his contacts with extremist clerics - was in numerous US intelligence system databases.

But those fragments of knowledge floated on a huge tide of intelligence that swirls through the system every day. They never came together to form a coherent picture.

Familiar ring

All this sounds rather familiar. Was it not this inability to "connect the dots" that led to 9/11? No, says John Brennan, the president's counter-terrorism adviser.

He told journalists that before 9/11, information was jealously guarded by different intelligence agencies, and never shared.

Today, information sharing is not the problem, he insisted.

Instruction sign inside a body scanner at Schiphol airport
It may be unreasonable, even unfair, to blame the president for the failure of Dutch security officers to stop an alleged would-be suicide bomber. But that is what will happen.

In fact, so much information moves through the intelligence apparatus that analysts complain of feeling swamped and the bright little shards of knowledge that could prevent a plot from materialising can get lost.

"The intelligence fell through the cracks. This happened in more than one organisation. This contributed to the larger failure to connect the fragments of intelligence that could have revealed the plot, Abdulmutallab's extremist views, AQAP's (al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula) involvement with the Nigerian, its desire to strike the US homeland."

Mr Brennan draws a fine distinction between two sorts of bureaucratic failure. And it is perhaps a distinction that many Americans will find hard to grasp.

It may also be difficult for President Obama to convince Americans that yet another series of tweaks to the intelligence bureaucracy are an adequate response to the latest attempt on US lives.

Winslow Wheeler, an analyst at the Center for Defense Information in Washington, writes that the bureaucratic approach is horribly flawed.

"You see, no-one is responsible for the mistake," he says. "It is processes that need changing, right?"

"When you want to pretend to reform something, fiddle with the organisational chart, which relieves the people who should be held accountable, earns you their praise for being oh-so-wise, and gets you to the next screw up."

Intelligence under attack

US intelligence has been bloodied in any number of ways in the last few weeks. Seven CIA officers lost their lives when an operation they were running in Afghanistan went horribly wrong and their own agent blew them up.

And then, eerily, a report appeared written weeks earlier by frustrated military officers which argued that intelligence collection and analysis in Afghanistan is grossly inadequate.

Maj-Gen Michael Flynn and Capt Matt Pottinger wrote that the US intelligence community "is only marginally relevant to strategy" in Afghanistan.

They wrote that "the vast intelligence apparatus is unable to answer fundamental questions about the environment in which US and allied forces operate and the people they seek to persuade".

The officers released the report not through their chain of command but through a private think tank, which lent it a curiously devastating impact.

So, in the course of a few months we have seen accounts of intelligence failures at the operational, analytical, and systemic level - all on garish public display.

For the Obama administration, all this is rather corrosive. It may be unreasonable, even unfair, to blame the president for the failure of Dutch security officers to stop an alleged would-be suicide bomber. But that is what will happen.

Political priority

Mr Obama is a Democrat, and Democrats seem perennially vulnerable to accusations of weakness on national security from their political opponents.

Consider this: weeks after Mr Obama announced 30,000 more troops would fight in Afghanistan, former Vice-President Dick Cheney accused him of "trying to pretend we are not at war".

The accusation, strange though it seems, continues to bounce around the internet echo chamber.

Towards the end of Mr Obama's speech on Thursday, he sought to recapture a sense of leadership and purpose in his national security policy.

"We will strengthen our defences but we will not succumb to a siege mentality that sacrifices the open society and liberties and values that we cherish as Americans," he said.

Bombings and intelligence failures have rammed national security back to the heart of America's political debate as we enter this election year.

Treacherous times for America's spies and the leaders who are accountable for their actions and their failures
source-http://news.bbc.co.uk

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US-Pakistan bickering get ugly as ISI fingers American diplomats

Posted by blog master

President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan, Tuesda...

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WASHINGTON: The wheels seem to be coming off US-Pakistan relations with the once close allies squabbling publicly even as Islamabad is whipping
up hysteria over the so-called Indian threats and American machinations to weasel out of its obligation to combat home-grown terrorism.

The simmering discord between Washington and Islamabad came to a boil this week when the US ambassador to Pakistan publicly complained about harassment of American diplomatic personnel by Pakistani authorities and obliquely hinted that Islamabad risked losing US aid and projects if they continued to deny visas to US officials and space for the US mission to fulfill its multi-billion assistance program.

Ambassador Anne Patterson’s warning at a business meeting in Karachi was followed up by a rare public admonition of Pakistan from the US mission in Islamabad in which it expressed concern about the ''continued provocative actions and false allegations against US personnel working to implement the new partnership between the leaders of Pakistan and the United States.''

The wording of the statement suggested that the US believes there is a growing militaristic constituency in Pakistan that is now operating independently of the civilian government. The blog Politico put it rather more
bluntly under the headline, "Pakistan’s ISI steps up harassment of US Embassy," reporting that the ISI had even been putting pictures (with addresses) of US diplomatic personnel in Urdu newspapers" putting their lives in danger.

"Several times recently the RSO (Regional Security officer) at the Embassy has had to contact folks in their offices during the day, and tell them that they can’t go home to their house tonight because of the unwanted attention caused by the ISI/Journalist provocations. Station and Embassy have complained to ISI - but no acknowlegement (not surprising) and no abatement of the activity (worrisome)," it quoted an Af-Pak hand as saying.

Egged on by a hysterical section of the media promoting wild conspiracy theories, hard-line elements in the police and military have been detaining US vehicles and personnel, often accusing them of not carry proper
diplomatic papers and registration and carrying weapons. US vehicles and personnel typically do not display diplomatic registration or identity so they cannot be identified by terrorist hit squads. One Pakistani newspaper called "Nation," which specializes in rabid conspiracy theories, ran a Wall Street Journal
correspondent out of the country recently by alleging he was a CIA agent, recalling the horrible tragedy which befell his predecessor Daniel Pearl. The same paper has carried many stories about the alleged suspicious activity of US diplomats.

In a stern warning to Pakistan, the US Embassy called for ''immediate action'' by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which it said ''has responsibility to facilitate proper arrangements under which a foreign mission
may operate with full security.'' The mission also asked Pakistani officials ''to implement immediately the mutually agreed upon procedures for the issuance of license plates to US. Mission vehicles and to cease these contrived incidents involving US Mission vehicles and personnel.''

In the same toxic spirit, hard-line sections in Pakistan have also willfully contrived to distort remarks by the Indian Army chief Deepak Kapoor to drum up hysteria over the alleged Indian threat. Familiar policy formulations by the Indian general that New Delhi has to prepare for a war under a nuclear overhang because of Pakistani provocation under nuclear cover, has been conflated to ''Indian General threatens Pakistan with nuclear war'' (despite India’s professed policy no-first-use of nuclear weapons).

In the most recent instance, Kapoor’s remarks about the need for India developing capability to fight a two-front war has been translated to ''Indian General threatens Pakistan and China with war.'' While a few Pakistani analysts have responded soberly to the new doctrines being discussed in New Delhi, most commentators, including current and former generals, diplomats, and military frontmen, have reacted hysterically to what would be considered doctrinal deliberations in any mature society.

The idea behind the whipping up of mass hysteria against US and India in what is now being dubbed ''Paranoidistan'' appears to be a ploy by hard-line elements in Islamabad to disengage from fulfilling its bilateral and international obligations to tackle terrorist elements. With each terrorist incident, Pakistan is coming under increasing pressure from US to give up its obsession with the non-existent threat from India and focus on confronting its home-grown threats eating away at the country.

The Pakistani military has signaled clearly that it does not subscribe to the US prescription, and General Kapoor’s outline of new Indian doctrines has come in handy for this escape act. After distorting Gen Kapoor’s remarks and generating a sulfurous discourse in the media, the Pakistani military high command and the civilian cabinet defense committee both met last week to assert that ''Pakistan would never allow its security to be jeopardized.'' Pakistan’s beleaguered president Asif Ali Zardari, under pressure from the army, also joined this military-ISI generated hysteria by promising a 1000-year confrontation with India over Kashmir.

None of this has escaped the attention of Washington, which this week dispatched yet another high-powered Congressional delegation led by former presidential candidate John McCain to talk sense to Pakistan. McCain was unrelenting in response to the familiar Pakistani protests against drone attacks, bluntly insisting that the ''(drone) attacks are imperative to defeat the enemy,'' and ''with an improved decision making process the civilian causalities are totally minimized.''

The US delegation also heard protests from the Pakistani leadership about security measures introduced by Washington for screening Pakistani nationals among citizens of 13 other state sponsors of terrorism and
''countries of interest.'' But with new arrests in the Najibullah Zazi case and developments in the CIA forward base bombing case both revealing links to Pakistan, US threshold for Islamabad’s antics is diminishing all the time even as Pakistan is seen as a state sponsor of terrorism in all but formal designation.

In fact, Pakistan – or Paranoidistan, as some officials refer to it in private – becomes the immediate focus of attention after any terrorist attack, including ones like the Christmas Day bombing attempt of an airplane in Detroit, where there was no immediate Pakistani link. ''The fact that this particular person was not trained in Pakistan does not change the fact that the inspiration for all of this comes from al-Qaida, and al-Qaida's
leadership is based in the remotest areas on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border,'' US special representative to Af-Pak Richard Holbrooke, who will head to Islamabad next week, said at a meeting on Thursday.

Separately, John Brennan, President Obama’s assistant for counterterrorism, said al-Qaida in Yemen, which trained the Christmas Day Nigerian bomber, ''is an extension of the terror outfit's core coming out of Pakistan.''
source-http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com

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The threat of terrorism places another urgent item on the president's already enormous agenda

Posted by blog master

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President Obama thought he had problems in 2009. But 2010 could be tougher.

One reason is that an issue that had seemed dormant—terrorism—suddenly erupted again when Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab allegedly tried to blow up an airplane over Detroit on Christmas Day. The attempt failed, but the incident showed that the terrorist threat remains real and that airline security can be shockingly weak. Obama, vacationing in Hawaii, told reporters that his administration had begun "a full investigation" and urged Americans to be both "confident" and "vigilant." He declared, "We will continue to use every element of our national power to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat the violent extremists who threaten us." Later, he conceded that the incident represented "systemic failure" and promised that his administration would do better.

All this represented an attempt by Obama to show that he was engaged and ready to protect the homeland. He knows that the image of being weak on defense has been a Democratic vulnerability and that the incident could raise new doubts.

More broadly, the attempted bombing placed still another urgent issue on Obama's already enormous agenda. First, he hopes to get healthcare legislation through Congress quickly, but the House and Senate must reconcile different approaches to the issue. And even if they do, as expected, Republicans plan to make it a campaign issue in November. GOP strategists plan to assault Democrats and Obama as advocates of higher taxes, too much government activism, and crippling deficits. Clearly, healthcare has deepened the partisan schism. The Senate bill passed 60 to 39 without a single Republican vote on Christmas Eve. Earlier, the House passed its version with only one GOP supporter. So far, the public sides with the GOP: A Quinnipiac University poll in late December found that 53 percent of voters disapproved of the Congress's direction on healthcare and only 36 percent supported it.

White House strategists say the healthcare overhaul bill will find favor with voters once the president and congressional Democrats explain it more clearly. Obama argues that his proposals will make healthcare more affordable, limit unpopular insurance company practices such as refusing coverage for those with pre-existing conditions, and cover millions who are now uninsured. "This is somebody who believed that for a long time we hadn't addressed the problems that our society was facing, and to do that we were going to have to make some tough decisions," says White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.

Adds another White House official: "The president has done a series of very difficult things" during his first year, including healthcare and "bringing the economy back from the brink" with the $787 billion stimulus bill and bailouts of the financial and auto industries. In foreign policy, he is phasing out U.S. participation in Iraq but also escalating the war in Afghanistan by sending in an additional 30,000 troops while announcing planned withdrawals there.

Obama also intends to ask Congress to revamp energy laws to limit climate change and promote a "green," more energy-efficient economy, and he will again face a wall of GOP opposition.

Probably the biggest challenge will be lowering the unemployment rate, now hovering at 10 percent nationally with higher rates in many cities and states. Aides say Obama will make job creation his first priority once healthcare is resolved, and he hopes to focus on joblessness as the principal theme of his State of the Union address. Among the ideas under consideration are more federal assistance to small businesses, additional billions of dollars for infrastructure, and more aid to homeowners to make their homes more energy efficient.

As political analyst Rhodes Cook points out, Obama's approval rating has dropped further than that of any other newly elected president, at least since Gallup began tracking such things in the late 1930s. It dropped 21 points, from 68 percent approval in January to 47 percent in early December. No other president's ratings have declined more than 10 points in his first year.

Republican pollster Ed Goeas says the new year may reflect " 'voter remorse' following the election of a president who made promises too big and had too little executive experience or the 'know-how' to make decisions to get the economy back on track." That remains to be seen. But certainly, 2010 could mark a rebuff of what Obama used to call "change you can believe in."
source-http://www.usnews.com

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H1N1 vaccine trials in Hyderabad soon

Posted by blog master Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Example of promotional "freebies" gi...

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HYDERABAD: The swine flu vaccine trials, also known as bridging trials, will be taken up at Government Chest Hospital, Erragadda by the end of February. The bridging trials are first step towards taking up a vaccine inoculation programme among high-risk groups in the country.
Authorities here have informed that, if the trials succeed, then by April, the first swine flu vaccine could be introduced in the market. Depending on their success, authorities informed that the Indian government could import 15 to 20 lakh doses of swine flu vaccine.
Chest Hospital doctors will also prepare a micro-plan to ascertain the number of targeted risk groups like pregnant women, children, healthcare workers and persons with co-existing morbidities, who would have to be inoculated in the future.
Bridging trials are necessary to find the efficacy of the vaccine, developed in the U.S. and other countries, on Indian patients. Already, officials from the Ministry of Health, New Delhi, have alerted Chest Hospital doctors about the impending vaccine trials in the hospital.
“Bridging trials are needed till indigenous H1N1 vaccine is developed. The trial will help assess safety and tolerance among the diverse population in India. Several other hospitals in the country will also take part in the trials,” State swine flu coordinator K. Subhakar told The Hindu.
Top pharmaceutical companies including GSK, Novartis, Sanofi Pasteur and Baxter have come forward to import the H1N1 vaccine into India. However, swine flu vaccine could only be used in a government-run inoculation programme, on the lines of pulse polio drive, only after successful completion by bridging studies.
Three die In the last fortnight, six H1N1 positive cases were reported, of which three persons died. “The deceased were brought ina very critical condition,” Dr. Subhakar said.
source-http://www.hindu.com

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Iron Dome may be ready, but Gaza front is still in danger

Posted by blog master

NAHAL OZ, ISRAEL - FEBRUARY 12: Israeli tanks ...

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The Iron Dome short-range missile defense system passed a series of tests over the last few days with flying colors, successfully shooting down Qassam rockets, Grad rockets and mortar shells one after the other.

It even succeeded in determining which missiles to shoot down - those whose trajectory made them likely to land in a populated area - and which to ignore.

This was the first test of the system as a whole rather than individual components.
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The results are a feather in the cap of the developer, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, which succeeded in transforming the highly complex system from an idea into an almost fully operational product in just two and a half years. The first operational battery is expected to be deployed in May.

Credit also goes to Defense Minister Ehud Barak and his ministry's outgoing director general, Pinchas Buchris, for pushing the project.

It is hard to exaggerate the importance of the successful tests. Iron Dome is supposed to provide protection against missiles with a range of between four and 70 kilometers. That covers everything from mortar shells through Hamas' Qassams, Hezbollah's Katyusha rockets and even Iranian Fajr rockets, which have apparently made their way to the Gaza Strip. As such, it radically improves Israel's strategic position.

Nevertheless, protection of Israel's home front remains far from complete. First, Iron Dome has yet to be tested in a genuine attack. Second, Israel still lacks any additional missile batteries beyond the prototype just tested. Third, the intermediate layer of Israel's missile defense system - Magic Wand, which is supposed to handle missiles with longer ranges than those covered by Iron Dome but shorter than the long-range ballistic missiles covered by the Arrow - has yet to reach a similarly advanced stage of development, and is not expected to do so until 2012.

The first Iron Dome battery will be delivered to the air force in about six weeks and is slated, if all goes well, to become operational in May. A single missile battery is enough to protect a medium-sized city like Sderot.

The question is how many batteries the Israel Defense Forces will ultimately acquire, and when. It would take about 20 batteries, each costing some NIS 50 million, to defend the entire northern and southern border regions. That will require either diverting substantial funds from other defense projects or significantly increasing the defense budget.

Rafael is expected to profit handsomely, both from sales to the IDF and, later, overseas. The United States, for instance, might want to purchase the missile protection system to defend its army bases in the Middle East against terror attacks.

Will Iron Dome make Israel more likely to launch another war in Gaza? It may do just the opposite, by increasing Israel's deterrence against Hamas, thereby stabilizing the situation. If Hamas knows its ability to harm Israel has been substantially reduced, it may be less likely to engage in provocations.

However, the Palestinians will almost certainly put the system to the test, if only in the hope of scoring a symbolic victory by breaking through Israel's technological shield.

But for all the praise this achievement deserves, one criticism must be leveled: It should have happened much sooner. For years, the IDF refused to invest the necessary funds in developing Iron Dome, until former defense minister Amir Peretz finally forced it to do so. Had this been done sooner, not only would Israeli lives have been saved, but it might have been possible to avoid last winter's war in Gaza altogether and significantly reduce the damage from the Second Lebanon War in 2006.
SOURCE-http://www.haaretz.com

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U.S. airliner attack could provide new intelligence

Posted by blog master

Barack Obama Elected President

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Christmas Day attempt to blow up a U.S. airliner embarrassed President Barack Obama and put him on the defensive, but there may be a silver lining for U.S. authorities, it may provide new intelligence on al Qaeda.

U.S. | Barack Obama

A Nigerian charged in the incident, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, spent months in Yemen and told investigators he had trained with al Qaeda militants who took refuge there to plot attacks against Americans.
The White House says he is already providing useful information. "Abdulmutallab spent a number of hours with FBI investigators in which we gleaned usable actionable intelligence," spokesman Robert Gibbs said on Tuesday.
Potentially facing decades in prison, the 23-year-old Abdulmutallab could try to cut a plea deal with prosecutors in exchange for information he has about other plots, where he trained in Yemen and details about al Qaeda members he met.
That could be valuable in light of reports that Abdulmutallab, who attempted to blow up a transatlantic airliner as it approached Detroit, told investigators after he was captured that more attackers like him were on the way.
"We are continuing to look at ways that we can extract that information from him," Obama's top counterterrorism adviser John Brennan said on Sunday. "I think we have to assume that there are others out there."
However, Obama's Republican opponents -- led by former Vice President Dick Cheney -- have strongly opposed the idea of trying Abdulmutallab in a criminal court rather than a military tribunal, where looser interrogation rules apply.
They also have harshly criticized the idea of a plea deal.
"The administration's treatment could afford a murderous terrorist the opportunity to negotiate a plea bargain and a lesser punishment -- and that is not acceptable," said Rep. Eric Cantor, a top Republican in the House of Representatives.
Even with a plea deal, that would not necessarily mean that Abdulmutallab would get a lighter sentence. Convicted shoe bomber Richard Reid pleaded guilty and will be incarcerated for the rest of his life in a U.S. prison.
"Individuals in the past have, in fact, given us very valuable information as they've gone through the plea agreement process," Brennan said.
WHAT DOES HE REALLY KNOW?
Abdulmutallab was quick to tell investigators that he had trained in Yemen with al Qaeda operatives and they had given him the bomb and instructions on how to detonate it aboard the Detroit-bound jumbo jet, U.S. officials said.
Now he has a court-appointed lawyer who can help him navigate the U.S. legal system and potentially bargain for any other information he possesses, if indeed he has any.
One former counterterrorism official expressed some skepticism about what the young man can tell investigators about al Qaeda in Yemen because he was a foot soldier rather than a leader and al Qaeda is made up of many separate cells.
Also he could offer old information or details designed to misdirect U.S. authorities.
"They're going to do everything they can to glean information," said Rick Nelson, director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies Homeland Security Program. "I just don't see this guy helping us that much."
"The best this guy might be able to do is lead U.S. intelligence and law enforcement to the people he dealt with directly, but it's not going to lead up the chain of command to a long line of senior al Qaeda leaders," he said.
While Republicans have criticized the Obama administration's decision to pursue charges against Abdulmutallab in a U.S. criminal court rather than a military tribunal, that route has seen some recent success.
In October, American David Headley was initially charged in a federal criminal court for plotting and scouting targets for an attack on a Danish newspaper that published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad in 2005, which offended many Muslims.
After he was arrested at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, he began cooperating with investigators and revealed that he had also helped scout targets in the 2008 Mumbai attacks for the Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba -- the first American to be connected to that attack.
His cooperation led U.S. authorities to charge him for his alleged role in that attack, in which six Americans died, as well as providing new details about how an American was recruited, potentially helping deal with a new fear: the radicalization of Americans sympathetic to such causes.
SOURCE-http://www.reuters.com

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US Reopens Yemen Embassy, Commends Counter-Terror Efforts

Posted by blog master Tuesday, January 5, 2010

WASHINGTON, DC - DECEMBER 05: United States Se...

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The U.S. Embassy in Yemen says it has reopened after Yemeni forces successfully dealt with a security threat that prompted its closure for two days.

The U.S. mission in Sana'a said Yemen had addressed a "specific area of concern" by conducting a counter-terrorism operation Monday north of Sana'a. It also warned that the threat of terrorism against American interests in Yemen remains high.

The British Embassy in Sanna'a also reopened Tuesday but kept its public services suspended.

The United States and Britain closed their embassies in Sana'a Sunday due to warnings of a possible al-Qaida attack. Yemen says its forces killed two al-Qaida members responsible for that threat Monday in an operation in the northern region of Arhab.

Yemen's government also announced the arrest Tuesday of five suspected al-Qaida members in the capital and the western region of Hodeida.

The U.S. mission in Sana'a commended Yemen's government for trying to disrupt al-Qaida's affiliate in the region, and promised continued U.S. support for those efforts.

On Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Yemen's instability is a threat to regional and global security. Yemen's government has been fighting secessionist southern rebels, Shi'ite fighters along the Saudi border and the growing presence of al-Qaida militants.

Yemen-based Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula has claimed responsibility for a Nigerian man's unsuccessful attempt to bomb a U.S.-bound airplane on December 25.

The Nigerian, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, has told U.S. investigators he was trained by al-Qaida operatives in Yemen.
source-http://www1.voanews.com

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