Plot fizzled as al-Qaida unwittingly handed its cunning new bomb to the CIA

Over the past three years, al-Qaida bomb makers in Yemen have developed three fiendishly clever devices in hopes of attacking airplanes in the skies above the United States.

First, there was the underwear bomb that fizzled over Detroit on Christmas 2009. Next, terrorists hid bombs inside printer cartridges and got them on board cargo planes in 2010, only to watch authorities find and defuse them in the nick of time.

Then last month, officials say, al-Qaida completed a sophisticated new, nonmetallic underwear bomb — and unwittingly handed it over to the CIA.

The would-be suicide bomber, the man al-Qaida entrusted with its latest device, actually was a double agent working with the CIA and Saudi intelligence agencies, officials said Tuesday. Instead of sneaking it onto a plane in his underwear, he delivered it to the U.S. government and handed al-Qaida its latest setback.

The extraordinary intelligence operation was confirmed by U.S. and Yemeni officials who were briefed on the plot but spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it.

The FBI is still analyzing the explosive but officials described it as an upgrade over the Christmas Day bomb. This new device contained lead azide, a chemical known as a reliable detonator. After the Christmas attack failed, al-Qaida used lead azide as the detonator in the 2010 plot against cargo planes.

Security procedures at U.S. airports Tuesday remained unchanged despite the plot, a reflection of both the U.S. confidence in its security systems and a recognition that the government can’t realistically expect travelers to endure much more. Increased costs and delays to airlines and shipping companies from new security measures could have a global economic impact too.

Security officials said they believe airport security systems put in place in the United States in recent years could have detected the new device or one like it. But the attempt served as a stark reminder that security overseas is quite different.

“I would not expect any real changes for the traveling public,” House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich., said. “There is a concern that overseas security doesn’t match ours. That’s an ongoing challenge.”

While airline checks in the United States mean passing through an onerous, sometimes embarrassing series of pat-downs and body scans, procedures overseas can be a mixed bag. The U.S. cannot force other countries to permanently adopt the expensive and intrusive measures that have become common in American airports over the past decade.

The Transportation Security Administration sent advice Tuesday to some international air carriers and airports about security measures that might stave off an attack from a hidden explosive. It’s the same advice the U.S. has issued before, but there was a thought that it might get new attention in light of the foiled plot.

The U.S. has worked for years to try to improve security for U.S.-bound flights originating at international airports. And many countries agree that security needs to be better. But while plots such as the Christmas attack have spurred changes, some security gaps that have been closed in the U.S. remain open overseas.

FBI analyzing new explosive from Al Qaeda

 The FBI is analyzing a sophisticated explosive device, similar to the underwear bomb used in an attempt to blow up a passenger jet over Detroit in 2009, that U.S. officials believe was built by Al Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen in an effort to target Western aircraft.

U.S. officials said Monday that no one was captured by U.S. agencies as part of the operation. The officials emphasized that they found no sign of an active plot to use the new bomb design against U.S. aviation or U.S.-bound jetliners.

The device was given to the CIA by a government outside Yemen, officials said. The White House said President Obama was informed of the discovery in April by John Brennan, his top counter-terrorism advisor, and was assured it "did not pose a threat to the public."

Despite the timing, U.S. officials said they did not believe the device was to be used to mark the first anniversary last week of the killing of Osama bin Laden, or the start of U.S. military tribunal proceedings against five men accused of orchestrating the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

"At no time was this a viable plot," said a U.S. official who was not authorized to be quoted discussing the matter.

Instead, U.S. officials said, the discovery demonstrates Al Qaeda's continued interest in designing a bomb that can be smuggled through ever-tighter airport security, including body imaging machines, to bring down a passenger jet.

The device is "very similar" to bombs previously designed by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which is based in Yemen, in attempted attacks "against aircraft and for targeted assassinations," the FBI said in a statement.

The device "has the hallmarks" of bombs used in a failed attempt to kill a senior Saudi security official, Muhammad bin Nayef, in August 2009, and in the failed plot to blow up a Northwest Airlines jetliner over Detroit on Christmas Day 2009, said a second U.S. official who would not be quoted by name discussing national security information.

But the latest bomb is an improved version, the official added, with a better detonation system.

"It is clear that AQAP is revamping its bomb techniques to try to avoid the causes of the failure of the 2009 device" over Detroit, the official said.

After an initial examination, the FBI concluded the device was probably built by Ibrahim Hassan Asiri, arguably the terrorist network's most infamous and ambitious bomb maker. Asiri is known for using pentaerythritol tetranitrate, or PETN, and hiding bombs in imaginative ways.

Asiri's bombs are a source of intense concern to Western security officials. PETN gives off relatively little vapor, making it more difficult to detect by bomb-sniffing dogs. Since it can be detonated without metal parts, it may pass through metal detectors without raising alarms.

Asiri's fingerprint was found on the bomb hidden in the underwear of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab in the Detroit case. The bomb in his pants fizzled but did not explode.

In February, a U.S. federal judge sentenced Abdulmutallab to life in prison without parole after he was convicted of attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction, attempted murder of 289 people and other crimes.

FBI bomb analysts believe Asiri also built bombs that were hidden in printer cartridges in October 2010 and shipped as air freight on cargo jets headed for the U.S. That plot was thwarted with the help of Saudi intelligence.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Monday that the latest device was "of new design and very difficult to detect" by a metal detector.

National security officials said the device showed that Al Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen remained determined to attack the United States and its allies.

"The device and the plot are consistent with what we know about AQAP's plans, intentions and capabilities," said a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity when discussing classified information. "They remain committed to striking targets in Yemen, Saudi Arabia, the homeland, and Europe."

The official added that Al Qaeda was "probably feeling pressure … to avenge the deaths" of Bin Laden and Anwar Awlaki, an American-born member of Al Qaeda who was targeted and killed by a U.S. drone strike in Yemen last fall.

The White House, which was accused by critics of trying to politicize the anniversary of Bin Laden's death to help the president's reelection campaign, rushed to reassure the public.

Caitlin Hayden, deputy spokeswoman for the National Security Council, said in a statement:

"While the president was assured that the device did not pose a threat to the public, he directed the Department of Homeland Security and law enforcement and intelligence agencies to take whatever steps necessary to guard against this type of attack."

Clinton hopes India will do "even more" to cut Iran oil imports

     

     Speaking in Kolkata on a visit to India, Clinton said there would be a decision in about two months as to whether India would be given a waiver from sanctions over Iran oil purchases.

     She also said she was apprehensive about the possibility of a conflict between Iran and Israel.

     India has publicly rejected Western sanctions but has pushed refiners to cut imports of oil from Iran by 15-20 percent - enough, it hopes, to win a waiver from Washington.

     The United States in March granted exemptions to Japan and 10 European Union nations from its sanctions, which are aimed at pressuring Iran to end its nuclear programme. India and China, Iran's biggest buyers of crude, remain on a list at risk if they do not cut oil imports "substantially".   

                                                                                                                             Source: Reuters

‘Laden’s last days in Abbottabad similar to Hitler’s in Berlin bunker’

     According to declassified documents released by the US, it has emerged that Osama bin Laden spent his last days in the Abbottabadcompound similar to how Hitler spent inside a bunker in Berlin.

     The documents claim that in his final days, Osama was still ordering attack after attack on "only the Americans," but it wasn’t clear if any of his orders were being carried out.

     “I'm reminded of the final days of Adolf Hitler in the bunker in Berlin, when he was giving orders for divisions and armies to be moved around and those divisions and armies didn't exist,” ABC News quoted former White House counter-terror advisor Richard Clarke, as saying.

     Documents released by the Combating Terror Center at West Point showed bin Laden asking for updates on a plot "using poison" that was being planned by one al-Qaeda team in Yemen, just days before he was killed in a US raid in May 2011.

     It has also emerged that bin Laden sought 10 new recruits who were willing to "study aviation" and "conduct suicide operations," apparently in plans for a second 9/11-style attack.

     The documents also reveal bin Laden's order to assassinate President Obama, and not to target Vice President Biden, because bin Laden believedBiden was "totally unprepared" to become president and by assuming the post would "lead the US into a crisis."

     Bin Laden believed that al-Qaeda affiliates like the Taliban and al Shabaabhad hurt the reputation of al-Qaeda in the Muslim world with attacks that claimed Muslim lives.

     “He pushed categorically to stop mass casualty bombings, especially of Muslims. He was involved in trying to back off al-Qaeda in Iraq from killing a range of Muslims. ... In North Africa . . . he tried to back off al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb from killing some French hostages because he didn't want the full force of the French to come down on him,” Seth Jones, author of the just-released book Hunting in the Shadows: The Pursuit of al Qa'idaSince 9/11, was quoted as saying.

                                                                                                                                                                                Source: DNA India

US expects China to allow dissident Chen Guangcheng to travel abroad

     The US expects the Chinese government to quickly clear the way for Chen Guangcheng to travel abroad to study, it said on Friday, raising hopes of a brighter future for the blind activist after days of fraught negotiation.

     China's foreign ministry earlier appeared to hint at a possible face-saving deal in an ambiguous statement saying he could apply to study abroad like other citizens.

     Human rights campaigners gave a cautious welcome to the news but warned that the outcome was far from certain.

     "Mr Chen has been offered a fellowship from an American university, where he can be accompanied by his wife and two children," US state department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in a statement.

     "The Chinese government has indicated that it will accept Mr Chen's applications for appropriate travel documents. The United States government expects that the Chinese government will expeditiously process his applications for these documents, and make accommodations for his current medical condition," she added.

     "The United States government would then give visa requests for him and his immediate family priority attention."

     The statement came shortly after Hillary Clinton told reporters that progress had been made in securing the future Chen wanted, although she gave no details. The US secretary of state also said that US embassy officials and doctors – who had previously been blocked from seeing the activist – had been able to meet him on Friday.

     Chen had initially agreed to remain in China and study with reassurances on his safety from the government, but changed his mind after leaving the US embassy in Beijing, where he had fled after escaping from 19 months of house arrest in eastern Shandong province.

     "Chen Guangcheng is currently being treated in hospital," foreign ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said in a statement released by Xinhua and carried prominently on news portals on Friday.

     "If he wants to study abroad, he can apply through normal channels to the relevant departments in accordance with the law, just like any other Chinese citizen."

     Phelim Kine of Human Rights Watch said: "The lesson of the last 48 hours is that expectations really need to be backed with concrete plans for delivery.

     "It's encouraging that the US government has confidence that the Chinese government will respond appropriately in this regard, but there's no guarantee. What's required now is public confirmation by the Chinese government and the issuance of a schedule for how and when this process will be completed."

     Chinese rights lawyer Tang Jitian earlier told AP: "This notice from the ministry of foreign affairs is positive news, but how it will play out we don't know. For instance, getting the approval for the paperwork to go, there are many potential pitfalls. We can't be 100% optimistic."

     A state department official said Chinese officials were interviewing Chen to record his allegations against local Shandong officials, Blake Hounshell of Foreign Policy tweeted. The official also said Clinton had been directly involved in negotiations, holding extensive meetings with senior Chinese officials.

     Earlier, Orville Schell, Director of the Centre on US-China Relations at Asia Society, said in terms of the initial deal, "one striking thing for me was how far the Chinese side was willing to go to actually co-operate with US state department officials to resolve this issue, ie bringing Chen Guangcheng's family to Beijing, agreeing on universities for him to attend, agreeing not to harass him [and so on]."

     He added: "If this reasonably good working relationship under stressful circumstances proves in the end to have been true, it will be a good omen for the future of 'the relationship'."

     Chen, a self-taught legal activist, was originally praised by authorities for helping disabled people defend their rights, but angered local officials by defending women who had suffered forced abortions and sterilisations – which are illegal in China.

     In a surprise telephone call to a US congressional hearing on Thursday night Chen had repeated his request to go to the US with his family and requested a meeting with Clinton. He said he did not want to seek asylum but to rest and study.

     He also expressed fears for the lives of his other family members, including his mother and brothers, and voiced concern that people in his home village – which remains heavily guarded – were suffering retribution for helping him.

     He Peirong, the Nanjing activist missing for days after helping to drive him from Shandong to Beijing, tweeted to say she had returned home safely but declined to comment further to media.

     The Chinese Human Rights Defenders network said the wife of Jiang Tianyong, a lawyer snatched outside the hospital where Chen was being treated on Thursday, said he had been released but had suffered hearing loss in both ears after being badly beaten.

     Several Chinese newspapers launched a co-ordinated assault on Chen and the US on Friday morning, with commentaries describing Chen as a pawn and attacking the US ambassador.

     "Chen Guangcheng has become a tool and a pawn for American politicians to blacken China," the Beijing Daily said.

     But the official news agency Xinhua and the Communist party paper People's Daily did not carry such pieces, suggesting to some that there might be disagreements among Chinese officials about how to handle the case.

                                                                                                                                 Source: Guardian

Barack Obama steps up campaign against outsourcing

     Stepping up his campaign against outsourcing, US President Barack Obama today announced a series of measures that would offer incentives to those firms which will create jobs in the country, a move that may also affect companies in India.

     "If you're a business that wants to outsource jobs, you shouldn't get a tax deduction for doing it," Obama said in his State of the Union Address during which he presented an economic blueprint aiming to take his country away from outsourcing, bad debt and phony financial profits.

     Many of his proposals centred on changes to the tax code, including limiting deductions for companies that move jobs overseas, rewarding companies that return jobs to the United States and increasing taxes on wealthy Americans.

     He said that money should be used to cover moving expenses for companies that decide to bring jobs home.

  Indeed, Obama's anti-outsourcing job campaign was mainly directed towards the manufacturing jobs in China; even though the new policies would also adversely affect outsourcing in India, which is often described as the world's back office.

     "No American company should be able to avoid paying its fair share of taxes by moving jobs and profits overseas. From now on, every multinational company should have to pay a basic minimum tax. And every penny should go towards lowering taxes for companies that choose to stay here and hire here," he said.

     "My message is simple. It's time to stop rewarding businesses that ship jobs overseas, and start rewarding companies that create jobs right here in America. Send me these tax reforms, and I'll sign them right away," Obama told lawmakers.

     "If you are an American manufacturer, you should get a bigger tax cut. If you're a high-tech manufacturer, we should double the tax deduction you get for making products here. And if you want to relocate in a community that was hit hard when a factory left town, you should get help financing a new plant, equipment, or training for new workers," said the US President.

     While the US economy is now recovering, Obama blamed outsourcing for weakening it in the first place.

    "No, we will not go back to an economy weakened by outsourcing, bad debt and phony financial profits," Obama said.

     The Administration is also making it easier for American businesses to sell products all over the world.

     "Two years ago, I set a goal of doubling US exports over five years. With the bipartisan trade agreements I signed into law, we are on track to meet that goal – ahead of schedule.

     Soon, there will be millions of new customers for American goods in Panama, Colombia, and South Korea. Soon, there will be new cars on the streets of Seoul imported from Detroit, and Toledo, and Chicago," he said.

     The President said that we can restore an economy where everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules.

                                                                                                           Source: The Indian Express.

Personal Comments: For your kind information Mr. Obama, Indian companies having their branches in USA provide about 90% of jobs to your people there. So we are not job stealers Mr. Obama, we are job providers. So hope you change your opinion on that. Please just don't speak for the sake of your campaign, analyse the information first and then do!!!

'Osama buried 200 miles below ocean off Surat coast'

     A Californian treasure hunter has claimed that he has found the body of Osama bin Laden 200 miles to the west of the Indian city of Surat. Bill Hunter revealed recent photos released by the US Navy depicting the burial at sea gave him the final clue to the terrorist leader’s final resting place. It hasn’t moved, he said, because it’s in a weighted bag. “I’ve located where they threw him away,” News.com.au quoted him as telling Spanish newspaper El Mundo. “I’m the only one with this information. He’s 200 miles (320km) to the west of the Indian city of Surat,” he stated. 

     Warren - whose stock-in-trade is “salvaging history from shipwrecks” - announced he was on the case back in June last year. He said he would need USD 200,000 to bring bin Laden to the surface, but he admitted that he’s not doing it for the money. But Hunter asserted that his goal is purely personal and needs to prove to himself that the man is dead. 

     “We do this because we are patriotic Americans and feel that President Obama failed to provide the proof,” he told TMZ. Warren said he’s located more than 200 wrecks. He admitted that there’s a danger this latest search could be his last, because the US Government has a vested interest in sinking his boat.Once he’s cashed up, he said he will have bin Laden’s corpse in his possession within anywhere between a week and three months. 

     However, he told El Mundo he didn’t plan to raise it to the surface - just photograph and videotape it before taking a chunk of DNA.

                                                                                                                                  Source: Zee News

Chinese dissident seeks exile, strains between United States-China ties

     That standoff appears all the more troublesome for the United States, with Chen saying on Thursday that he feared for his and his family's safety if he stayed in China under an agreement that US officials initially said he was happy with.

     Blind Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng says he wants to leave for the United States rather than stay in China, throwing into doubt a deal used to coax him out of the US embassy in Beijing and defuse a standoff that has strained China-US ties.

     Chen, a self-taught lawyer, is under Chinese control in a Beijing hospital, having left the embassy on Wednesday. He had taken refuge at the mission for six days after escaping house arrest and left under a diplomatic solution that was meant to assure him that his circumstances in China would be improved.

     But Chen told Reuters on Thursday by telephone from hospital, where he was escorted by US officials after leaving the embassy, that he had changed his mind after speaking to his wife who spoke of recent threats made against his family.

     "I feel very unsafe. My rights and safety cannot be assured here," he said, adding that his family supported his decision to try to get to the United States. The lawyer activist, citing descriptions from his wife, Yuan Weijing, said his family had been surrounded by Chinese officials who menaced them and filled the family home. Chen, from a village in rural Shandong province, has two children.

     "When I was inside the American embassy, I didn't have my family, and so I didn't understand some things. After I was able to meet them, my ideas changed." Chen's decision puts more strain on US-China relations at a tense time for both countries.

     US President Barack Obama will be sensitive to any criticism of the handling of Chen's case in the run-up to a November presidential election and China is struggling to push through its own leadership transition late this year.

     US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton found herself in the eye of the diplomatic storm on Thursday, turning up for the opening of annual bilateral talks in Beijing which have been overshadowed but not derailed by the Chen case.

     She used the occasion to urge China to protect human rights but made no specific mention of Chen, whom she had spoken to on Wednesday after he left the embassy. "Of course, as part of our dialogue, the United States raises the importance of human rights and fundamental freedoms," Clinton said.

     "We believe all governments have to answer our citizens' aspirations for dignity and the rule of law and that no nation can or should deny those rights." Despite Chen's change of heart about staying in China, it was unclear if he would be able to travel to the United States.

     Having left the embassy and the protection of US authorities, his fate is now in the hands of the Chinese government. US officials appeared to be no longer with him on Thursday, with the dissident saying he had still not had an opportunity to explain his change of heart to the US side. "I hope the US will help me leave immediately. I want to go there for medical treatment," Chen said.

     Washington had hoped the deal it had brokered with Beijing over Chen on Wednesday would defuse the crisis, with Clinton and the US secretary of the treasury in the Chinese capital for the strategic and economic dialogue. Under the deal, according to US officials, Chen and his family would have been relocated within the country in safety and he would be allowed to pursue his studies.

     But Chinese authorities have taken a tough tone, criticising what they called US meddling and demanding an apology for the way US diplomats handled the case. Chinese President Hu Jintao made no mention of the Chen case in his remarks to the US-China talks but stressed that the two nations needed trust.

     "To build a new type of relationship between China and the United States we need to trust each other," Hu said. Earlier, Chen directed a personal appeal to Obama in comments aired on CNN: "I would like to say to President Obama, please do everything you can to get our family out."

     Chen is a self-schooled legal advocate who campaigned against forced abortions under China's "one-child" policy. He escaped 19 months of house arrest, during which he and his family faced beatings and threats, on April 22. US officials had said Chen left the embassy of his own free will because he wanted to be reunited with his wife and children.

     US officials said that Chen wanted to remain in China and that he never asked for asylum. Chen's dramatic escape from house arrest last week and his flight to the US embassy have made him a symbol of resistance to China's shackles on dissent, and the deal struck by Beijing and Washington would have kept him an international test case of how tight or loose those restrictions remain.

     Now, however, his change of mind throws not only his own future into doubt but also raises questions about the wider US-China relationship. It could also prove politically costly for US President Obama, who has already been accused of being soft on China by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and who could now face further criticism over Chen's case.

     What initially appeared to be a foreign policy success for the Obama administration could quickly turn into a liability.

                                                                                                                                                                               Source: DNA India

Personal Comments: I feel very sorry for this man known as the "barefoot lawyer". He fought for the rights of his own people and his country and that same country has forced him to ask for asylum.

President Pratibha Patil's foreign trip with kin 'normal practice': Government of India

     The government today said that a controversy over President Pratibha Patil's family members accompanying her on an official trip abroad is needless.
 
     The President is on a nine-day state visit to the Seychelles and South Africa. Her two grand-children are with her.
 
     "It's  normal diplomatic practice that a visiting Dignitary occasionally takes members of his/her family on trips. Hospitality for such visiting dignitaries in such cases is usually provided by the host government. It is not abnormal," said the spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs, Syed Akbaruddin.


     Citing several examples of visiting heads of states travelling with their family members, he referred to the fact that Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari was accompanied by his son Bilawal on a recent trip to New Delhi. 
 
     President Patil's foreign trips have generated debate recently because a Right to Information application revealed that since she took office in 2007, Rs. 205 crore has been spent on her travel expenses, surpassing the record of all her predecessors.

     During her tenure, President Patil has undertaken 12 foreign trips, covering 22 countries across four continents and spending 79 days abroad.
 
     RTI applications have shown that Air India spent more than Rs. 169 crore on  the use of chartered aircraft, always a Boeing 747-400,  for the President's trips. An additional Rs. 36 crore has been spent by  the Foreign Affairs ministry on her accommodation, local travel, daily allowance and "miscellaneous" expenses.

     Former President APJ Abdul Kalam undertook seven trips to 17 countries during his five-year tenure.

     The President's spokesperson Archana Datta said, "Family members accompanying the President is no breach of protocol. Most of the Presidents have travelled with their family members and guests in the past. It is also a reciprocatory gesture. These are normal courtesies being extended in diplomatic relations," Datta said.

Personal Comments: Well Mrs.Patil, Presidents visiting foreign countries do take a companion with them belonging to their family and not the entire family!!! And please don't compare her with Dr. Kalam. He's a man who paid all the expenses for his families visit to Delhi, when he had sworn in as the President of India and he had never allowed any of his family members to stay with him during his reign.

Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi Makes History with Parliamentary Oath

     Burma's long-time democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi has officially been sworn in as a member of parliament, taking public office for the first time after spending much of the past two decades under house arrest.

     The Nobel laureate took the oath of office Wednesday to enter Burma's lower legislative house, ending a parliamentary boycott that had threatened to interrupt the country's political reform process.

     For more than a week, the 66-year-old opposition leader and her National League for Democracy had refused to take the oath because it required them to "safeguard" the constitution, which was drafted by Burma's former military rulers.

     But the NLD earlier this week agreed to take the pledge, while vowing to push for constitutional change through legislative action. 

     Aung San Suu Kyi said after taking the oath that she has no qualms about sitting next to Burmese military members, who still make up the bulk of the country's parliament. But she said she would like to see the country's legislative bodies become more democratic.

     "We would like our parliament to be in line with genuine democratic values," she said. "It's not because we want to remove anybody, as such. We just want to make the kind of improvements that would make our national assembly truly democratic."

     Parliament member Win Oo of the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party praised Aung San Suu Kyi's decision to back down from her parliamentary boycott.

     "The fact that Suu Kyi has come to the parliament is good, because as we have said so many times, if we want to achieve things for the benefit of the people and the country we should let sleeping dogs lie," he said.

     The NLD, which won 43 of the 45 available seats in April 1 by-elections, now becomes the main opposition party in Burma's bicameral legislature that is still dominated by military-backed political parties. Observers say the NLD will likely not have enough power to affect much immediate change to the constitution, which sets aside a quarter of all seats in parliament for unelected military members.

     Aung San Suu Kyi's party won a landslide victory in general elections in 1990. But military leaders at the time refused to relinquish power and the victors were refused entry into parliament. The NLD boycotted the 2010 elections that ended decades of military rule in Burma.  

     Since then, President Thein Sein and his new nominally civilian government have enacted a series of democratic reforms, including easing press restrictions and releasing hundreds of political prisoners.

     The international community has responded to the reforms by lifting many of the long-standing sanctions against Burma. But some rights groups are reacting to the reforms with guarded optimism.

     Benjamin Zawacki, an Asia researcher at Amnesty International, says the global community should not forget that Burma has much work to do, particularly in regards to releasing political prisoners.

     "While we certainly celebrate that roughly half, or more perhaps than half of political prisoners in the country have been released, we feel like attention needs to remain on those yet to be released, so that the job can be finished," said Zawacki.

     Zawacki says international calls for the release of additional political prisoners in Burma have been muted following the release of several high-profile activists since May 2011. But rights groups estimate that hundreds of prisoners of conscience are yet to be released.
                                                                                                                  Source: Voice of America


Personal Comments: What an Achievement!!! She's a great inspiration for everyone. Democracy wins at last!!

Taliban hits Kabul on Osama's death anniversary; 7 killed

     Taliban bombers attacked a heavily fortified guesthouse used by Westerners in Kabul on Wednesday, in deadly defiance of US President Barack Obama's call that war was ending during a visit to Afghanistan on the anniversary of Osama bin Laden's death. Seven people were killed after attackers dressed in burqas detonated a suicide car bomb and clashed with guards at the "Green Village" complex of guesthouses used by foreign organisations including the European Union, the United Nations and aid groups, officials said.

          

     The attackers' ability to penetrate a tightened security cordon in the capital raises fresh concern about the resilience of the insurgency as NATO hands over responsibility for security across the country to Afghan forces and winds down its combat presence in the next two years.

     The Taliban claimed responsibility for the assault and said it was a riposte to Obama, just hours after he signed a new partnership pact set to govern Afghan-US relations after 2014.

     In an election-year address, Obama presented himself as a commander-in-chief capable of ending two long wars, following the US troop withdrawal from Iraq, and of crushing Al-Qaeda, and tried to conjure up a new dawn for a US public exhausted by conflict and recession.

     "This time of war began in Afghanistan, and this is where it will end," Obama said, recalling a decade-long "dark cloud of war" after bin Laden plotted the September 11 attacks in 2001.

     "Yet here, in the pre-dawn darkness of Afghanistan, we can see the light of a new day on the horizon," said Obama, seeking a second White House term later this year.

     Obama flew into Kabul in secret in the dead of night and signed a deal with President Hamid Karzai, cementing 10 years of US aid for Afghanistan after NATO combat troops leave in 2014.

     "We look forward to a future of peace. We're agreeing to be long-term partners," Obama said at the   signing ceremony at Karzai's palace. The US president left after six hours on the ground. About two hours later, the Green Village assault began.

     Police said suicide attackers wearing burqas first blew up a car bomb, then clashed with guards. The interior ministry said seven people were killed, including a student and a security guard.

     Kargar Noorughli, spokesman for the health ministry, said 18 people were wounded and eight admitted to hospital, including one in a critical condition and "several children".

     "It is a message to Obama that he and his forces are never welcomed in Afghanistan and that we will continue our resistance until all the occupiers are either dead or leave our country," Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told AFP.

     After several hours of fighting, NATO said all of the attackers had been killed.

     Tuesday's assault came just over two weeks after one of the largest attacks in Kabul, where squads of militants targeted government offices, embassies and foreign bases more than 10 years after the Taliban were driven from power for refusing to hand over bin Laden.

     Karzai said the US pact was no threat to any third country and he hoped it would lead to stability in the region.

     Neighbouring Pakistan has long been seen as a source of instability in Afghanistan, and its relationship with both Kabul and Washington remains mired in mistrust a year after bin Laden was found and killed by US commandos on its soil.

     The White House said the US-Afghan pact sees the possibility of American forces staying behind to train Afghan forces and pursue the remnants of Al-Qaeda for 10 years after 2014.

     It does not commit Washington to specific troop or funding levels for Afghanistan, though is meant to signal to US foes that despite ending the longest war in US history, Washington intends to ensure Afghanistan does not revert to a haven for terror groups like Al-Qaeda.

     But after a war that has cost the lives of nearly 3,000 US and allied troops, thousands of Afghans and cost hundreds of billions of dollars, Afghanistan's future is deeply uncertain.

     Furious Republicans have accused Obama of exploiting the Navy SEAL special forces who conducted the raid to kill bin Laden in the Pakistani garrison town of Abbottabad on May 2 last year.

     But the president, who faces a tough re-election fight, did not shirk from presenting himself as the man to shepherd his country out of war and economic crisis at home. Yet US troops could be fighting for two more years, and some could remain in danger for a decade after that.

     Obama bluntly told US soldiers that "some of your buddies are going to get injured, some of your buddies may get killed".

     A Pentagon report issued Tuesday said security had improved in most of Afghanistan but conceded that insurgent sanctuaries in Pakistan and corruption pose "long-term and acute challenges".

     About 87,000 US troops and 44,000 other international forces are deployed in Afghanistan along with 344,000 Afghan army and police, the report said.

     The deal signed by Obama and Karzai was concluded just over two weeks before a NATO summit in Chicago.

     On Monday, Obama had publicly questioned whether his Republican opponent Mitt Romney would have taken the same decision as he did to launch the audacious raid that killed bin Laden in Pakistan.

     Romney welcomed Obama's visit, saying US soldiers and public needed to hear what was at stake in Afghanistan.

                                                                                                                    Source: Hindustan Times