March 13th, 2010
IN Pakistan, reading into the transfers and promotions of our generals has become essential to understanding the subtle shifts in the military-political relationship.
Routine administrative issues like the grant of an extension in the service of the ISI chief becomes headline news.
This preoccupation reflects the central role the army has come to occupy in Pakistan. As the major political player, it is no surprise that changes in the higher echelon of the military should attract fascination and scrutiny.
One reason the army is the single-most powerful institution in the country is the high threat level it perceives from India, and skilfully exploits domestically. In a thoughtful article on foreign policy, Munir Ataullah writes in a national daily:
“And the common experience of mankind tells us there is a wide gulf between the mindset of an army and that of a political leader. Normally, a country’s foreign policy is firmly rooted in its domestic political compulsions. We seem to have got it the other way round: our foreign policy has been the convenient excuse for seizing and maintaining control of the levers of power, and driving domestic policy.”
http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/columnists/irfan-husain-keeping-the-army-in-check-330
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March 13th, 2010
Apple may be known for making easy-to-use products, but when it comes to the iPhone, it doesn’t make products that are easy to repair.
As iPhone owners learn, when their phone’s battery dies, it can be replaced; but unlike with a BlackBerry, it’s not a simple task. Apple will do it for $86 and a three-day turnaround. But there are less-expensive third-party providers as well.
Can devoted tinkerers do the replacement themselves? It depends on whom you ask. While researching Thursday’s article about ways to improve the battery life of portable devices, I got two different answers from two companies I interviewed that sell iPhone replacement parts and services.
According to ifixit.com, a company that provides parts for Mac computers, iPods and iPhones, the answer is yes. For about $32, it will sell you a new battery, plus the tools you need to crack the case and separate the various screws and connectors to get at the dead battery. The battery is guaranteed for six months.
http://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/12/iphone-battery-replacement-diy-or-not/
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March 13th, 2010
As my colleague Waqar Gillani reported from Lahore on Friday, at least 43 people were killed and more than 100 wounded in a series of bombings.
According to a report from the Pakistani newspaper Dawn, seven smaller bombings in the city followed the two suicide attacks that did most of the damage. The newspaper reported that “the low intensity blasts created panic but not much harm.” The BBC noted that other reports in the local media “suggest that at least some of the blasts heard later on Friday were caused by firecrackers.”
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/12/video-shows-aftermath-of-lahore-bombings/
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March 13th, 2010
Washington (CNN) — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday that Israel’s announcement of new settlement construction in disputed territory in East Jerusalem was “insulting” to the United States.
The Israeli announcement came during Vice President Joe Biden’s visit this week to Israel. It complicated U.S. efforts to set up so-called proximity talks between the Israelis and Palestinians, the latest attempt to nudge the two sides back toward talking directly.
Clinton said the United States’ relationship with Israel is not at risk: “Our relationship is durable. It’s strong. It’s rooted in common values.”
“But we have to make clear to our Israeli friends and partners that the two-state solution — which we support, which the prime minister himself says he supports — requires confidence-building measures on both sides,” Clinton told CNN’s Jill Dougherty. “And the announcement of the settlements the very day that the vice president was there was insulting.”
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/03/12/israel.clinton/index.html
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March 13th, 2010
(CNN) — It’s so tiny, you can’t see it with the naked eye.
Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have discovered an energy source that you can see only through a microscope.
The researchers devised a process for generating electricity using nanotechnology. They plan to refine the process in hopes of creating a new environmentally friendly battery, among other products.
It works like this: Researchers used tiny wires, known as carbon nanotubes, to create a powerful wave of energy, according to Michael Strano, and MIT associate professor of chemical engineering. He is also the senior author of a paper on this new phenomenon, published in this week’s Nature Materials journal.
After coating these tiny wires with a layer of fuel, Strano said his team generated a so-called thermopower wave and stumbled across a reaction that may eventually be used to power electronics, computers and cell phones.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/03/12/mit.research.electricity/index.html
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March 13th, 2010
(CNN) — The sound of meditation for some people is full of deep breaths or gentle humming. For Marc Umile, it’s “3.14159265358979…”
Whether in the shower, driving to work, or walking down the street, he’ll mentally rattle off digits of pi to pass the time. Holding 10th place in the world for pi memorization — he typed out 15,314 digits from memory in 2007 — Umile meditates through one of the most beloved and mysterious numbers in all of mathematics.
Pi, the ratio of circumference to diameter of a circle, has captivated imaginations for thousands of years — perhaps even since the first person tried to draw a perfect circle on the ground or wondered how to construct something round like a wheel. Approximately 3.14, the number has its own holiday on March 14 — 3-14, get it? — which also happens to be Albert Einstein’s birthday.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/03/12/pi.day.math/index.html
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March 13th, 2010
(CNN) — A Belgian woman on trial in Belgium for involvement in terrorism says her husband — himself wanted on terror charges — met al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in the summer of 2008.
Christophe Marchand, a defense attorney at the trial, told CNN that Malika el Aroud made the claim during testimony Thursday. Marchand said el Aroud was questioned about an e-mail exchange in summer 2008 she had with an alleged jihadist now in French custody.
In that exchange, el Aroud said that her husband, Moez Garsallaoui, had sent her an e-mail in which he said he met with “the chief” in a mountainous region.
The judge at her trial asked whether she meant bin Laden — to which el Aroud replied, “Yes.” Marchand said el Aroud gave no other details about the reported meeting, and the e-mail was not produced in court.
Belgian intelligence sources said Garsallaoui, a Tunisian citizen, is believed to be at large somewhere in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region. Garsallaoui is alleged to have acted in tandem with his wife to recruit six individuals from Belgium and France to make the journey to al Qaeda’s camps in Pakistan’s Waziristan. Several of them are now on trial with Malika el Aroud.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/03/12/belgium.osama.visit/index.html
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March 13th, 2010
New Delhi, Mar 12 (PTI) Highlighting the special status accorded by Russia to its ties with India, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin today said his country did not have any military cooperation with Pakistan because it understands India’s concerns.
On a visit here, Putin said terror groups operating out of Pakistan and Afghanistan were a threat to the entire world and action against these would be in the “best interest” of Pakistan itself.
“Unlike many other countries, Russia does not have any military cooperation with Pakistan because we bear in mind the concerns of our Indian friends,” he said.
He made the remarks after his talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during which the two leaders discussed a wide range of issues including Pakistan, Afghanistan and terrorism emanating from these countries.
The two leaders exchanged views on Afghanistan where Taliban are showing signs of resurgence.
http://www.indolink.com/displayArticleS.php?id=031210074103&clid=
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March 13th, 2010
After a lull in the violence, extremists in Pakistan struck back this week with five attacks, culminating in a bombing in a market in the eastern city of Lahore yesterday that killed at least 45 people.
The bloodiest terrorist strike in Pakistan this year saw two attackers, on foot and wearing suicide jackets, detonate themselves in a busy market inside a high-security military district in Lahore. The target appeared to be a convoy of military vehicles but most of the victims were civilians. More than 100 people were wounded.
After darkness fell, a series of six back-to-back smaller blasts, possibly caused by grenades, spread panic in a residential neighbourhood in another part of the city. The aim appeared to be to cause alarm rather than destruction.
After provoking a fierce reaction initially, Pakistan’s military offensives against the Taliban last year ultimately appeared to substantially diminish the ability of the extremists to carry out terrorist attacks. With yesterday’s incident in Lahore that achievement has been called into question, though the operation was a relatively unsophisticated bombing compared to the commando-style assaults against fortified targets seen last year.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/asia-pacific/lahore-attack-shows-pakistans-taliban-are-far-from-defeated/article1499453/
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March 13th, 2010
Responding to the increase in cross-border trade, the railway authorities in India and Pakistan have decided to increase the frequency of the goods train between Attari and Lahore to thrice a day.
This far the rake was rolled across the border once or twice a day.
A 10-member delegation of Pakistan railway officials, headed by DRM, Lahore, Ejaz Awaan Darshani had come for a meeting at Attari on Wednesday. DRM V. Chaube of the Indian Railways was the host.
The issues discussed included starting of the Samjhauta Express on time from Lahore and upgrading the facilities for handling goods.
It was also decided that the goods trains would run during daytime, so that better vigil could be maintained.
Among the commodities imported in large quantities by train from Pakistan are cement, rock salt and soda.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/rssfeed/punjab/Lahore-Attari-goods-train-thrice-a-day/Article1-518473.aspx
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