Laos general and Hmong leader Vang Pao dies in exile

Vang Pao, accused of subversion against Laos in 2007, was revered for his war record

Vang Pao, the former general and leader of his Hmong ethnic group in Laos, has died in exile in the US, aged 81.

He had been in hospital for about 10 days before his death late on Thursday.

As a young man, he had fought against the Japanese during World War II, and with the French against the North Vietnamese in the 1950s.

He led a 15-year CIA-sponsored secret war in Laos during the Vietnam War and, when it was lost, led tens of thousands of his people into exile.

Thousands of ethnic Hmong are expected to attend his funeral in Fresno, California.

"He'll be remembered as a great general, a great warrior, a great Hmong soldier," his friend Charlie Waters told AFP news agency.

However the response from the Laos government was muted. "He was an ordinary person, so we do not have any reaction," a government spokesman was quoted by AFP as saying.

'Last of his kind'

Gen Pao was a controversial figure, deeply loved by many Hmong - an ethnic minority in Lao that complains of persecution - for his insistence on freedom from foreign domination.

Former Central Intelligence Agency chief William Colby once called Gen Pao "the biggest hero of the Vietnam War".

But critics say that by allying himself with the US, Gen Pao caused his people untold suffering - something that he himself recognised.

"I lost 17,000 men, almost 10% of the total Hmong population. The Hmong sacrificed the most in the war and were the ones who suffered the most," he said at the Heritage Foundation think tank in 1987.

Americans who first came into contact with him found a man skilled in warfare and with the charisma necessary to sustain a dangerous, 15-year operation in support of the US against the North Vietnamese.

The CIA airline, Air America, carried Gen Pao and his fighters across the country.

The Hmong

• Ethnic group that complains of marginalisation and persecution in Lao society
• Backed the US in 1960s as conflict spread from Vietnam into Laos and Cambodia
• Many fled abroad in 1975 when the communists took power in Laos
• Big Hmong communities in California, Minnesota, Thailand and Australia

On the ground, he and his men disrupted Vietnamese supply lines and engaged in pitched battles to try to stave off the Vietnamese-backed communist victory in Laos.

When that effort failed in 1975, Gen Pao led many thousands of Hmong into what are now well-established exile communities in the US.

The Central Valley of California, Minneapolis and cities throughout Wisconsin have a Hmong presence of an estimated 30,000-40,0000.

In his later years, Gen Pao was accused of leading rebellions or sponsoring subversion against the People's Democratic Republic of Laos.

In 2007, he was charged along with nine others with plotting to use AK-47 rifles, missiles and mercenaries to overthrow the Lao government. Charges against him were later dropped.

He was regarded by some as an exiled head of state.

"He's the last of his kind, the last of the leadership that carries that reference that everyone holds dear," said Blong Xiong, a Fresno city councilman and prominent Hmong-American.

"Whether they're young or old, they hear his name, there's the respect that goes with it."

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West Bank civilian dies in Israeli army raid in Hebron

The scene of the killing of Amr Qawasme

Israeli troops have shot dead a 67-year-old Palestinian man by mistake in an operation to arrest members of the Islamist militant organisation, Hamas.

The pre-dawn raid happened in Hebron, in the West Bank, a day after six supporters of Hamas had been released from jail by the Palestinian Authority.

The man who died was a neighbour of one of the Hamas men.

Hamas has said it holds the Palestinian Authority and Israel responsible.

Reports from the scene of the shooting said it took place in a bedroom on the building's first floor.

The Reuters news agency has reported that the man, Amr Qawasme, was shot and killed in his bed when soldiers broke into his home before dawn.

His wife, Sobheye, said she heard several shots fired and later saw her husband lying in a pool of blood.

"I was praying when they entered. I do not know how they opened the door. They put their hand to my mouth and a rifle to my head," she told Reuters.

"I was shocked. They did not allow me to talk. I asked them, "What did you do?" They asked me to shut up."

The IDF said in a statement: "A Palestinian man who was present in one of the terrorist's homes was killed. The IDF regrets the outcome of the incident." The army has ordered an investigation.

Reports say Israeli forces carried out a number of raids across the city, rounding up five men.

On Thursday Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas ordered the release of six Hamas prisoners who had been on hunger strike. Five were being held in a Hebron jail, while the sixth was imprisoned in Bethlehem.

The Palestinian Authority exercises limited control over parts of the West Bank. The territory is under overall Israeli security control.

Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, settling close to 500,000 Jews in more than 100 settlements. There are about 2.5 million Palestinians living in the West Bank.

Ringleaders of Derby sex abuse grooming gang jailed

Both men were convicted of rape and sexual activity with a child

The ringleaders of a gang which groomed and abused teenage girls in Derby have been given indeterminate jail terms.

Mohammed Liaqat, 28, and Abid Saddique, 27, were found guilty of charges including rape at a trial in November.

At Nottingham Crown Court, Saddique was jailed for at least 11 years and Liaqat for a minimum of eight.

Many of the gang's victims were given alcohol or drugs before being forced to have sex in cars, rented houses or hotels across the Midlands.

Six other men have already been sentenced for their part in the abuse.

A seventh man was cleared of sex charges but pleaded guilty to being concerned in the supply of cocaine.

Liaqat, of Briar Lea Close, Sinfin, was found guilty of one count of rape, two of sexual assault, aiding and abetting rape, affray and four counts of sexual activity with a child.

Saddique, of Northumberland Street, Normanton, was convicted of four counts of rape as well as two counts of false imprisonment, two of sexual assault, three charges of sexual activity with a child, perverting the course of justice and aiding and abetting rape.

MPs' expenses: David Chaytor jailed over false claims

Ex-MP David Chaytor changed his plea to guilty shortly before his trial was due to start

Ex-Labour MP David Chaytor has been jailed for 18 months for fraudulently claiming more than £20,000 in expenses.

Chaytor, 61, the former MP for Bury North, last month admitted three charges of false accounting.

He submitted bogus invoices for IT consultancy work and claimed rent he never paid on homes owned by his family, the court was told.

His lawyer James Sturman QC said he was a "broken man" who had paid a "devastating price" for his stupidity.

The former MP is now facing a large legal bill for both his defence and the costs of bringing the prosecution against him.

Chaytor made the false expenses claims in order to "siphon off" public money to which he was not entitled, the court heard.

Sentencing him Mr Justice Saunders said the 2009 MPs' expenses scandal had "shaken public confidence in the legislature and angered the public".

He said: "These false claims were made in breach of the high degree of trust placed in MPs to only make legitimate claims.

"These offences have wider and more important consequences than is to be found in other breach of trust cases. That is the effect they have had and will have in the confidence the public has in politicians."

'Significant penalties'

The judge said MPs' behaviour must be "entirely honest if public confidence in the parliamentary system and rule of law is to be maintained".

DAVID CHAYTOR

• Ex-Labour MP for Bury North
• Elected 1997
• Spent career on backbenches
• Former lecturer and councillor

He added that when fraudulent claims were discovered "significant penalties should follow so people realise how important it is for people to be honest in dealing with public funds".

Chaytor had been due to be the first MP to stand trial over expenses but changed his plea to guilty days before it started.

Two other former MPs, one current MP and two members of the House of Lords are due to face separate trials over their expenses claims. All have pleaded not guilty.

Chaytor, of Lumbutts, Todmorden, West Yorkshire, was paid £18,350 from the false claims.

A further £1,950 fraudulently claimed for IT support services was not paid out, because he had already exceeded his allowance for that type of expense.

The court heard that Chaytor was paid £12,925 for rent on a flat near Westminster between 2005 and 2006 which he owned, using a fake tenancy agreement with a "Sarah Elizabeth Rastrick" - his daughter's first and middle names.

He claimed £1,175 over 12 months but the court heard he did not pay out any money himself.

JAILED POLITICIANS

• 2001 Lord Archer (Con) - Four years for perjury
• 1999 Jonathan Aitken (former Con MP) - 18 months for perjury and perverting course of justice
• 1991 Terry Field (Lab) - 60 days for not paying poll tax
• 1987 Keith Best (Con) - Four months over BT shares
• 1974 John Stonehouse (Lab) - Seven years for fraud, theft, forgery and conspiracy to defraud after faking his own death

He also claimed £5,425 for renting a cottage in Summerseat, near Bury in Lancashire between September 2007 and January 2008. A police investigation discovered it was actually owned by his mother, Olive Trickett, who had moved into a nursing home in May 2007 because she had dementia.

The claim for IT support services, made in May 2006, came as "something of a surprise" to the man named in the invoice - Paul France - the court heard, because he had not billed the former MP for any work. Mr France was a Labour member who did voluntary work at Chaytor's office.

'Genuine remorse'

Prosecutor Peter Wright QC said: "The claims were fictitious. He had never incurred the consultancy fees, nor had he ever paid any sum in respect of any such alleged service.

"So far as the alleged rental of the properties in London and Summerseat were concerned, they were based entirely on bogus documents and, we submit, were designed by him to siphon money off from the public purse to which he was not entitled."

But Chaytor's defence lawyer James Sturman QC, said the former MP pleaded guilty out of "deep and genuine remorse" and had already paid a "quite devastating price" for his errors.

"We submit that the sums he received, if he had gone about it transparently, honestly and frankly, he would have been entitled to every penny, if not more than he claimed," said Mr Sturman.

He had argued that any prison sentence should be suspended and a community punishment imposed.

Chaytor stood down as an MP at the general election having been barred by Labour from standing for them again after stories about his claims emerged during the 2009 expenses scandal.

A Labour Party spokesman said: "David Chaytor had already been suspended from the Labour Party and following his custodial sentence he has now been excluded from the party."

BBC home affairs correspondent Danny Shaw said Chaytor could be free by the end of May as prisoners given sentences of less than four years can be considered for early release - subject to electronic tagging and a curfew - if they are not convicted of violent or sexual offences.

Labour MP John Mann warned party leaders to give more support to the independent expenses regulator - set up following the 2009 expenses scandal - which has been under fire from some MPs. In December PM David Cameron said the new system was "anti family" and must change. He told a meeting of the backbench Tory 1922 committee he wanted a better system in place by April.

Mr Mann said: "The independent system established through legislation requires the full and unequivocal support of Parliament and of the three party leaders."

South Sudan holds final rallies ahead of secession vote

The rally will proceed to the grave of John Garang, the late southern rebel who signed the peace deal

Final rallies have started in south Sudan's capital, Juba, ahead of Sunday's vote on independence for the south of the country from the north.

The BBC's Peter Martell in Juba says there is a carnival atmosphere as hundreds of people take part in what is called the "final walk to freedom".

Later this evening, there will be a concert where musicians will celebrate the referendum.

It is part of a 2005 deal that ended a two-decade north-south civil war.

US envoy to Sudan Scott Gration has told the BBC he is optimistic the referendum will take place successfully.

He said the north and south had reached out to each other in recent days and promised not to destabilise each other.

"It has been a tough ride until now but the parties have really come through. [They] have made agreements," he told the BBC.

On Wednesday, a ceasefire was signed by the authorities in Southern Sudan with a renegade officer, Lt Gen George Athor.

Gen Gration added that the south had promised Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir that it would not support rebels from Darfur.

He also said he had had reports that the ruling party in the south had asked some Darfur rebels to leave and that they had moved back into the northern region or into other countries.

Analysts say President Bashir is under intense pressure from northern politicians, who fear that the secession of the south may lead to a further splintering of the country.

'There will be no war'

“Start Quote

I will not be a second-class citizen, I want to be the first only, so that is why I am happy”

End Quote Anne, Juba resident

Meanwhile Uganda's leader Yoweri Museveni said the referendum would be an opportunity to enhance security and stability in East Africa.

During the civil war he backed the southern rebel movement, while the Sudanese government supported the Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army rebel group.

"If the people of Southern Sudan decided to stay with Khartoum willingly then, of course, there will be no war," he told the BBC's Network Africa.

"On the other hand, if they decide to go away and form their own country then there will be no war. So either way that benefit will be there, the benefit of better security."

Our reporter in Juba says Friday's rally started at the city's football stadium and is proceeding to the grave of John Garang, the late southern rebel leader who signed the peace deal with Khartoum.

He says people have been dancing on top of trucks, listening to the music and singing along to songs in support of separation from the north of the country.

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President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda speaks to the BBC's Joseph Warungu

Many school children and students have also joined the parade.

"We are Christian, they are Arab, and they are Muslim. Why unite with them?" Paul, a secondary student, told the BBC.

Cheers rang out when the march passed a giant countdown sign, our reporter says.

"I will not be a second-class citizen, I want to be the first only, so that is why I am happy," another marcher, Anne, said.

A second rally is expected on Friday afternoon at Juba's university ahead of a concert, where organisers are promising top billing to four popular musicians.

Southern Sudanese will have a week to cast their vote on the future of the region, one of the least developed areas in the world.

Ghana president questions Ivory Coast military option

Ecowas has previously send troops to Liberia and Sierra Leone

Ghana's president has said he does not think military force will solve the post-election deadlock in Ivory Coast.

John Atta Mills also said Ghana would not take sides in the stand-off between incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo and his rival, Alassane Ouattara.

The international community has recognised Mr Ouattara as the winner of November's presidential election and urged Mr Gbagbo to quit.

West African regional grouping Ecowas has threatened to force Mr Gbagbo out.

Mr Ouattara called this week for a special forces operation to remove Mr Gbagbo.

But President Mills appeared to reject such an idea in a speech on Friday. "I personally do not think the military option will solve the problem in Ivory Coast," he said.

"Ghana is not taking sides," he said, pointing out that:

"We have about one million Ghanaians living in Ivory Coast who could be victims of any military intervention."

Ghana is one of three countries, along with Nigeria and Senegal, that would normally be expected to play a leading role in any military intervention by Ecowas.

Ambassadors expelled

Mr Ouattara remains behind a blockade at a hotel in the main city Abidjan, protected by UN peacekeepers and New Forces former rebels who control the north of the country.

There are an estimated 10,000 UN troops in Ivory Coast - and the mission has sent a request to the UN Security Council for an extra 1,000 to 2,000 soldiers.

Ecowas has already started drawing up plans for a regional intervention force, though there are questions about how ready or well-equipped member countries are.

Mr Gbagbo has come under increasing pressure from the international community.

In response, he said on Thursday he was expelling the ambassadors of the UK and Canada.

Both countries have expelled ambassadors appointed by Mr Gbagbo in order to replace them with diplomats chosen by Mr Ouattara.

The US has frozen the assets of Mr Gbagbo, his wife and three aides, and has announced that it is barring US citizens from financial dealings with Mr Gbagbo.

November's election was intended to reunify the country, which has been divided since a 2002 conflict.

Mr Ouattara was initially proclaimed the winner by the country's election commission - a verdict backed by the UN, which helped organise the poll.

But the country's Constitutional Council, headed by an ally of Mr Gbagbo, later ruled that he had won, citing voting irregularities in the north.

Afghan suicide bomber kills 17 in bath house

The Taliban said they carried out the attack in the town of Spin Boldak

At least 17 people have been killed in a suicide attack in a crowded public bath house in Afghanistan's southern Kandahar province, officials say.

They say 23 others were injured in the attack, which took place in the town of Spin Boldak, on the Pakistan border.

Officials said the bomber killed his target - a police commander who was inside the building at the time.

Meanwhile, Nato says three of its troops have been killed in two separate bombings in the south and east.

One soldier died in the south while two others were killed in the east, the alliance said.

'Inhumane attack'

The blast in Spin Boldak came as the bath house was packed with people getting ready for Friday prayers.

Border police official Gen Abdul Raziq told the BBC: "Today, around 1150 (0720 GMT), there was a suicide attack in Spin Boldak targeting a local public bath. The target of the attack was a border police officer, Ramazan. He has been killed, along with 17 others, and 23 others have been injured."

The Taliban said they carried out the attack.

The town is situated some 70 miles (110km) east of Kandahar, capital of a province that has long been a Taliban stronghold.

A local Afghan intelligence source in Spin Boldak told the BBC that Ramazan always used the bath house, on the town's main road, ahead of Friday prayers.

Most of the other dead and wounded are believed to be civilians.

The BBC's Bilal Sarwary, in Kabul, says that Afghanistan's security institutions have been targeted in recent weeks in a wave of attacks on the country's army and police who will eventually take over security responsibilities from international forces.

A statement from the governor of Kandahar's office called the attack un-Islamic.

"This brutal and inhumane act was the work of the enemies of Islam and humanity," said Zalmai Ayoubi.

Militants have attacked in Spin Boldak many times in the past. Friday's bombing is the bloodiest in many months.

It has also been condemned by President Hamid Karzai, a source close to the president told the BBC.

Australia blames La Nina for epic floods

SYDNEY: Australia has blamed the disruptive "La Nina" weather pattern for epic flooding that has inundated thousands of northeastern homes and swamped an area the size of Texas.

The meteorology bureau said La Nina, which forms in the Pacific and is associated with extreme weather, had brought the wettest year on record in Queensland state, where 40 towns have been deluged or isolated by flooding.

"By July, La Nina conditions were well established and most areas of Australia experienced very much above average rainfall," the bureau said in an annual climate report on Wednesday.

"The second half of the year (July to December) was the wettest on record for Australia."

Torrential rains over Christmas fell on land already saturated by months of wet weather, stretching river systems which then spilled over thousands of square kilometres (miles) of farmland and coal mines.

"Thousands of properties were inundated in Emerald, Bundaberg, Rockhampton and many smaller centres, while the communities of Theodore and Condamine were evacuated," the bureau said.

"Numerous rivers throughout the region reached record levels. Damage to property and infrastructure, as well as the economic cost from crop losses and disruptions to mining, is expected to run to several billion dollars."

La Nina is the opposition condition of El Nino, which subsided in June after being blamed for an exceptionally snowbound winter in North America and Europe.

La Nina is characterised by unusually cool ocean temperatures in the eastern equatorial Pacific, and is associated with strong rainfall in Asia and Australia, bitter cold snaps in North America, and drought in South America.

In Australia, water levels have peaked in many areas while other towns downstream are still bracing for the full impact of the deluge, while officials warn communities could take months to recover.

MQM party to rejoin Pakistani PM Gilani's coalition

Yousuf Raza Gilani has been caught between the demands of political opponents and the IMF

Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has pulled his government back from the brink, persuading a former ally to rejoin the coalition.

The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), which walked out this week, relented a day after Mr Gilani defied the IMF with a climbdown on fuel price rises.

After talks with the MQM in Karachi, Mr Gilani also confirmed there would be no tax reform soon - another IMF demand.

As well as rampant militancy, Pakistan faces the threat of hyper inflation.

The sense of crisis has been growing since an outspoken liberal governor of the ruling Pakistan People's Party was assassinated on Tuesday by his own bodyguard.

The country is also struggling to cope with the aftermath of devastating summer floods, which caused $10bn (£6.5bn) in damage.

'Mistake'

Mr Gilani's car was showered with rose petals as he arrived to meet MQM leaders on Friday in Karachi, the capital of the southern province of Sindh.

M Ilyas Khan BBC News, Islamabad

---

With MQM on its side, PM Yousuf Raza Gilani's PPP-led coalition has regained its majority, even though the government wasn't in imminent danger of collapse, because of a divided opposition.

But it is not clear how long this detente will last, given that disputes central to the two parties' rift still bedevil their partnership in the province of Sindh.

Many here view the MQM's decision as "auspicious" against the backdrop of a recent surge in religious extremism - but the economic cost of the reunion is likely to be high.

The prime minister has had to reverse a 9% increase in fuel prices in order to woo back his estranged ally.

This is going to hit government revenue and will displease the IMF - which agreed a staggered $11bn loan for the country. Nor will it cheer the US, which has been urging Pakistan to end all such subsidies.

"The Muttahida Qaumi Movement announces it will sit on the government benches in the larger interest of the country and democracy," MQM chief Raza Haroon told a news conference with Mr Gilani afterwards.

But he said the party would not rejoin the federal cabinet.

Mr Haroon said the decision to back the government was because "at this time when extremism is on the rise in the country, it is important that progressive forces stand united".

The MQM's change of heart comes a day after the prime minister told parliament that fuel prices, which had been raised 9%, would be restored to the levels they were on 31 December.

Mr Gilani's U-turn was criticised by the US and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which has been withholding part of an $11bn loan to Pakistan.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said it was a "mistake", while the IMF called the fuel subsidy "inefficient and untargeted".

During Friday's news conference, the prime minister also confirmed there would be no reformed general sales tax until political consensus was reached.

The government has already delayed the levy, an IMF condition for the release of the next chunk of its loan, agreed in 2008.

The MQM withdrew two ministers from the federal cabinet last month.

Then on Sunday it said it would join the opposition benches in parliament, blaming fuel prices and high inflation.

The defection had left the beleaguered prime minister facing a possible no-confidence vote.

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WikiLeaks chief Julian Assange arrested in London

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been arrested by British police over sexual assault claims in Sweden.

The world's tallest building is set to be opened in Dubai Photos

The world's tallest building is set to be opened in the Gulf emirate of Dubai.

More than 800m (2,625ft) high and clad in 26,000 glass panels, Burj Dubai has 160 floors and more than 500,000 sq m of space for offices and apartments.


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Car hits crowd watching Dutch queen, kills 5

APELDOORN, Netherlands – A Dutch driver careened through police barriers and plowed into a crowd of merrymakers cheering their popular queen Thursday, in a premeditated assault on the royal family that killed five bystanders and injured 12, authorities said.

The speeding car, already dented apparently from catapulting bystanders into the air, passed within a few meters (yards) of the open-topped bus carrying Queen Beatrix and her family down a parade route, then smashed into a stone monument.

Prince Willem Alexander (C) and Princess Maxima (2nd L), and other members of the royal family watch from a bus after a car ploughed into a parade on the national Queen's Day holiday in the Dutch city of Apeldoorn April 30, 2009. Netherlands' Queen Beatrix is pictured at bottom left in the red hat. A Dutchman deliberately drove his car towards an open bus carrying Queen Beatrix and her family on Thursday, killing five people and injuring 12 in a crowd watching the parade. [Agencies] more photos

"I think that it has become clear that this happened with premeditation," Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said.

Prosecutors said the driver, badly injured and still in his crumpled car, acknowledged targeting the queen and her family.

"The man said that his action was aimed at the royal family," said prosecutor Ludo Goossens.

The driver, whose name was not released, "is formally suspected of ... an attack on members of the royal house and manslaughter or murder," Goossens said, and he could face life in prison.

The motive for the attack was unclear. Dutch media, citing neighbors, said the assailant recently was fired from his job and was to be evicted from his home. Police identified him as a 38-year-old Dutch man with no history of mental illness or police record, but they would not release his name.

Officials in Apeldoorn said the driver had a map of the queen's route.

Celebrations were canceled for Queen's Day, the national holiday that was to draw millions of people to street dances, picnics and outdoor parties under sunny skies around the country. Flags were lowered to half staff. The Dutch Embassy in Washington canceled a scheduled reception.

A shaken Queen Beatrix extended her sympathies to the victims in a brief nationally televised address. "What began as a great day has ended in a terrible tragedy that has shocked us all deeply," she said.

The driver apparently acted alone and was not linked to any terrorist or ideological group. No explosives were found in his car or in his home, said Goossens.

"From initial contact with police before the suspect was removed from the car ... we have reason to believe it was a deliberate action," Goossens told reporters.

The driver apparently tried to intercept the bus as it turned a corner to a road leading to the gates of the Het Loo palace a few hundred meters (yards) from the intersection in this eastern Dutch town.

Though the sequence of events was still murky, he apparently crashed his small black car through two sets of police barriers, smashing his windscreen and damaging the front of the vehicle even before slamming into the monument.

The final few seconds were captured on video and film by news teams following the royal family in a press bus.

White House Official Apologizes for Air Force One Photo Op in New York City - News In Pictures

The White House has apologised after a low-level flight by a presidential jet and a fighter plane sparked panic among New York City office workers.

The half-hour flight triggered the evacuation of a number of office buildings in the city.

Pentagon officials said the fly past - a photographic exercise not involving President Obama - had been co-ordinated with city and state authorities.

No general public notification was issued in advance.

"While federal authorities took the proper steps to notify state and local authorities in New York and New Jersey, it's clear that the mission created confusion and disruption," Louis Caldera, director of the White House military office, said in a statement.

"I apologise and take responsibility for any distress that flight caused."

Correspondents say many New York residents are still scarred by the September 2001 attacks when airliners ploughed into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington DC.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he was "furious" about the incident, criticising those responsible for failing to warn the public.

"The good news is it was nothing more than an inconsiderate, badly conceived and insensitive photo op with the taxpayers' money," said Mr Bloomberg.

The Boeing 747 jet is one of two planes known as Air Force One when the US president is aboard.

Source BBC News

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America won’t do violence against any country: President Obama

WASHINGTON: President of the United States Barack Hussain Obama said that America would not do violence against any country.

Addressing the officials of the US State Department, President Obama said that it would be considered how to face enemies for the security of the United States.

He said that all possible resources would be utilized for the safety of the American citizens while America would not do violence against any country.

The US president said that Hilary Clinton is a gift from me to the State Department.

On the Middle East situation, the president said that Hamas should immediately stop rocket attacks and Israel pull out its forces from Gaza..

He said that he is concerned on the killings of Israelis and Palestinians.

Obama said that every possible step would be taken to restore peace among Palestine and Israel and Israel’s security would be ensured in any case.

President Obama said situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan is becoming worse. Pakistan and Afghanistan hold the central position in war against terror.

Zardari rules out talks with elements challenging govt.

ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari Thursday said use of force is the last option in the war against terrorism.

Addressing a high level meeting here, the President said the social and economic structures of Pukhtunkhwa and tribal societies are being strenghtehned.

He said the needs and requirements of the law enforcement agencies will be fulfilled in NWFP.

According to sources, the President has given a green signal to the renaming of NWFP as Pukhtunkhwa, saying the Constitutional requirements in this regard will be met.

President Zardari said struggle is being made to strengthen the federation.

He said the government will engage in dialogue only with those who do not challenge the writ of the government.

Mumbai attacks could not be linked to Kashmir dispute: Mukherjee

KABUL: Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee said on Thursday international community should not link 26/11 attacks on Mumbai to the Kashmir dispute.

Addressing a joint press conference with his Afghan counterpart Rangeen Dadfar Spanta, Mukherjee said the international community has to take Mumbai attacks as a part of global terrorism,

Apparently referring to the recent statement made by the British Foreign Secretary David Miliband on Kashmir suggesting terror attacks in south Asia would stop with the resolution of the Kashmir dispute, Mukherjee said: These attacks (on Mumbai) are not related to Jammu and Kashmir and are a part of global terrorism.

The international community has to take it as a part of global terrorism, Mukherjee added.

He claimed that Kashmir is an integral part of India and the people of that State have overwhelmingly exercised their voting rights.

Mukherjee mentioned on the occasion that it was decided by India and Pakistan in the Simla Agreement (July, 1972) that Kashmir is a bilateral issue.