Suspected US missiles hit a house, kill 10 in northwest Pakistan on Afghan border

MIR ALI, Pakistan –  MIR ALI, Pakistan (AP) — Suspected U.S. missiles hit a house in a Pakistani tribal area early Monday, killing 10 alleged militants in the 10th airstrike in the region this month, intelligence officials said.

The two officials said the missiles from an unmanned plane destroyed the home in the northern part of Shawal village, which is dominated by the Haqqani and Hafiz Gul Bahadur networks of militants fighting U.S. troops across the border in Afghanistan.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to talk to the press.

They say Taliban militants dug 10 bodies from the rubble of the house.

Bahadur struck a truce with the Pakistani military and agreed to stay on the sidelines last year as it waged an offensive in the South Waziristan tribal area against the Pakistani Taliban, a group dedicated to attacking the Pakistani state, among other targets.

Bahadur has focused instead on battling U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan.

A unrelenting series of U.S. missile attacks this month have pounded North Waziristan, a lawless region also home to al-Qaida leaders plotting attacks in the West and extremists responsible for bombings in Pakistan.

A strike Sunday killed at least five of Bahadur's militants. The week before, four airstrikes pounded the area over 24 hours, the last killing five suspected militants early Thursday, officials said.

There were at least four other attacks earlier in the week.

Pakistan has condemned the American missile strikes as violations of its sovereignty, warning the civilian casualties they cause deepen anti-U.S. sentiment and complicate the fight against terrorism.

But many suspect the two countries have a deal allowing the drone-fired attacks.

New information emerges on post-9/11 hunt for bin Laden

                                                      Western intelligence agencies were able to form a detailed picture of Osama bin Laden's movements in the years after 9/11, and came closer to capturing or killing him than has so far been acknowledged, a former European intelligence official has disclosed.

The former official, who declined to be identified, told CNN that in 2003 and 2004 an informant in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region with close connections to al Qaeda's top leadership provided a stream of reliable information on bin Laden's movements. But the information was never quite fresh enough for Western intelligence agencies to target al Qaeda's leader.

Nearly nine years ago, bin Laden and others in the al Qaeda leadership escaped as their haven among the caves and mountains of Tora Bora -- close to the Afghanistan border with Pakistan -- came under withering U.S. air attacks. Despite bin Laden being the world's most sought-after fugitive, to date very little has been reliably reported about his movements beyond a consensus that he is now likely hiding somewhere in the tribal areas of Pakistan.

The former official said that in the period after bin Laden left Tora Bora, under pressure and on the run, he and his lieutenants were little able to communicate with each other. But gradually, al Qaeda restored its communications and was able to resume meetings.

Bin Laden even met with 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed at some point before the latter's arrest in February 2003. Additionally, bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri were frequently in the same area and regularly in communication.

During this time, Western intelligence agencies were able to draw up a detailed map tracing bin Laden's movements, according to the former intelligence official.

In 2003-2004, bin Laden spent time in several areas -- amid the rugged mountains of Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal areas and in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, a more heavily populated area where Pakistan's security forces had a greater presence.

But according to the former official, bin Laden shunned big cities, preferring to stay in rural areas. The intelligence stream indicated that al Qaeda's leader also made several trips across into Afghanistan during this period, despite the presence of tens of thousands of U.S. troops.

In a high-stakes game of hide-and-seek, Western intelligence agencies were always playing catch-up as bin Laden moved from location to location. Tantalizingly at one point, according to the former official, information about his exact location was only one week old. But the intelligence stream on bin Laden's movements never resulted in what is known as "actionable intelligence" that could have led to his capture or assassination.

After 2004 the intelligence stream dried up, according to the former official, who did not elaborate why. But he said that despite the setback, information on al Qaeda's leaders' movements never completely dried up; and recent intelligence suggested bin Laden and al-Zawahiri were still in close geographic proximity and able to communicate with each other.

However, few al Qaeda followers get to meet them. European and American jihadists who joined up with al Qaeda in 2008 have subsequently told Western interrogators that for security reasons access for them to bin Laden was strictly off limits.

Bin Laden is now mainly concentrating on providing "strategic direction" to the al Qaeda organization, rather than involving himself deeply in the daily running of the terrorist organization, the former official told CNN. Raw intelligence reports leaked in July on the Wikileaks website suggesting bin Laden took part in detailed planning of operations should be treated with skepticism, said the former official.

U.S. intelligence officials play down the possibility that bin Laden might be captured soon. CIA Director Leon Panetta stated in June that very little hard information on bin Laden's movements had come to light in recent years.

 But on Friday, President Barack Obama said that pressure on the al Qaeda leadership meant that "they have been holed up in ways that have made it harder for them to operate." He added: "Bin Laden has gone deep underground. Even Zawahiri, who is more often out there, has been much more cautious."

                                                       Japan PM to face party vote 
Naoto Kan faces off against powerful challenger in parliament vote for leadership of the ruling Democratic Party.

Incumbent leader Naoto Kan, right, is facing a tough fight from rival Ichiro Ozawa, left, for the top post [AFP]

 

 

 

 

Japan's lower house of parliament is expected to hold a vote which could yield the country's third prime minister in a year, and the sixth in three years.

Naoto Kan, the incumbent Japanese prime minister, is being challenged by Ichiro Ozawa, a popular veteran legislator, for the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ).

 Media reports say the outcome will be too close to predict, with as many as 30 party members still undecided ahead of Tuesday afternoon's vote.

The winner will automatically become the prime minister because of the party's parliamentary majority, and refocus the country's fiscal policies.

The party vote on Tuesday comes as Japan battles a strong currency, a weak economy and a bulging public debt.

The DPJ swept to power last year promising change, but could unravel if the vote ends with a political deadlock in parliament.

Kan, 63, who took office three months ago, and rival Ozawa, 68, who has been in parliament for 40 years, have clashed over economic policies.

Fiscal challenges

Kan has vowed to cap spending and debt issuance to rein in a public debt already twice the size of Japan's $5 trillion economy, the second largest in the world after the US.

He also wants to debate raising the five per cent sales tax to fund growing social welfare costs of a fast-ageing population.

Ozawa promised to cut waste to fund party campaign promises to give consumers more cash, pry control over policy away from bureaucrats to re-prioritise the budget, and consider more borrowing to fund stimulus if the economy stumbles.

He pledged steps to curb the yen's rise to 15-year highs, including solo intervention, and could well pressure Japan's central bank to buy government bonds to fund his spending plans.

Kan's team has repeatedly expressed concern about the yen's climb but so far has refrained from stepping into the market.

The DPJ last year ousted the long-dominant Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), ending more than 50 years of nearly non-stop rule by the conservative party.

But it floundered under Kan's predecessor Yukio Hatoyama and the DPJ-led ruling bloc lost its upper house majority in a July election after Kan floated the sales tax rise.

Both Kan and Ozawa have said if they lose they will work to support the other, but some analysts say the leadership battle could split the party and result in a possible realignment of party allegiances.

Mandela 'blasted Blair over invasion of Iraq'

Peter Hain has been a life-long anti-apartheid campaigner

Nelson Mandela felt so betrayed by Tony Blair's decision to join the invasion of Iraq that he made a furious phone call to a UK minister to protest.

 

Labour MP Peter Hain, whose biography of the ex-South African president is published on Monday, said Mr Mandela was "breathing fire" down the line.

The former Welsh Secretary said Mr Mandela felt Mr Blair's good work was "blown out of the water" by the war.

Mr Hain said the criticisms were made formally, not in a private capacity.

He said: "He rang me up when I was a cabinet minister in 2003, after the invasion.

"He said: 'A big mistake, Peter, a very big mistake. It is wrong. Why is Tony doing this after all his support for Africa? This will cause huge damage internationally'

"I had never heard Nelson Mandela so angry and frustrated. 

"He clearly felt very, very strongly that the decision that the prime minister had taken - and that I as a member of the Cabinet had been party to - was fundamentally wrong and he told me it would destroy all the good things that Tony Blair and we, as a government, had done in progressive policy terms across the world.

"He was always full of praise for the way our government had trebled the overseas aid and development budget for Africa; he just felt that all of this had been completely blown out of the water by the Iraq invasion.

"I know Nelson Mandela quite well. He was virtually breathing fire down the phone on this and feeling a sense of betrayal. It was quite striking."

Mr Hain said he told Mr Mandela that he respected his feelings but that the prime minister "acted out of conviction".

"I think I said we would simply have to judge it historically whether it was the right decision. But he was adamant that we could not wait for history."

Mr Hain grew up in South Africa, where his anti-Apartheid campaigner parents knew Mandela - whom he now describes as "a friend and a hero".

Belgian Church pledges to focus on abuse victims

Archbishop Andre-Joseph Leonard said the Church would listento the victims

The new head of Belgium's Catholic Church has pledged to focus on the victims of alleged sexual abuse in a first attempt to rebuild public trust. 

Archbishop Andre-Joseph Leonard said that although the Church would not be able to offer immediate solutions, it would set up a victims' support centre.

An independent body to investigate alleged abuse found it had occurred in every diocese over decades.
This commission said some victims were infants when the abuse started.

The archbishop said the Roman Catholic Church would offer "maximum availability" to the victims of sexual abuse.

 

"We have to listen to their questions, to re-establish their dignity and help to heal the suffering they have endured," he said.

"We want to learn the lessons of the errors of the past. The reflections and conclusions contained in the report [on sexual abuse in the church] will be taken on board," he added.
He said the Church wanted to create a centre for "recognition, reconciliation and healing", but that given the scale of the challenge, it would not be ready before the end of the year.

He added the Church wanted to co-operate more closely with police investigating allegations of abuse, but he gave no details of how it would do so.

He also warned those responsible that they will face the sanctions of canon law, including lifelong exclusion from the Church.

One victims' group said the setting up of a centre controlled by the Church was not enough.
"There cannot be an investigation commission on crimes committed within an institution controlled by this institution itself," said a spokeswoman for the Collectif Droits de l'Homme dans l'Eglise.

This attempt to find a solution to the sexual abuse scandal that has rocked the Roman Catholic Church in Belgium provides more questions than answers, says the BBC's Jonty Bloom in Brussels.

If the Church hopes to draw a line under this affair today, it is likely to be disappointed, our correspondent adds.

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