Tag: Open Thread

Intelligence reports suggest the Al-Qaeda chief “is somewhere inside north Waziristan, sometimes on the Pakistani side of the border, sometimes on the Afghan side of the border,” said national security adviser James Jones.

Asked if President Barack Obama’s administration planned a fresh attempt to go after Al-Qaeda’s leader, Jones said: “I think so.”

President Gloria Arroyo placed Maguindanao province under military control late on Friday in an effort to contain heavily-armed militias belonging to the provincial governor and other members of his Muslim clan, authorities said.

“There’s a rebellion in the area,” Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera said. “It was practically an overthrow of government.”

Four militants launched the attack, opening fire, tossing grenades and then detonating suicide vests in a crowd gathered for Friday prayers in the city adjoining the capital Islamabad, witnesses and officials said.

Rawalpindi is home to the military’s headquarters and is a frequent target of Taliban insurgents, who have staged a wave of fierce attacks in recent months to avenge military offensives against them across the northwest.

The blast which ripped through a hotel is the most serious attack on the transitional federal government (TFG) since the launch of an Al-Qaeda inspired Islamist insurgency that has brought new strife to the Horn of Africa nation.

“A suicide bomber detonated an explosion inside Hotel Shamo … during the graduation ceremony of medical students of the Banadir University resulting in the deaths of, so far, 19 civilians and injuries to several others,” the African Union force in Somalia AMISOM said.

A young man walked up to a checkpoint at the entrance to the complex and detonated his explosives when challenged by security forces. The blast scattered body parts across the busy city centre road, police and witnesses said.

Islamist insurgents frequently target military installations and attacks have intensified as Islamabad pursues a fierce military offensive, under Western pressure to do more to eliminate Taliban and Al-Qaeda sanctuaries.

Scientists long held that most of Antarctica’s continent-sized ice sheet was highly resistant to global warming, and that the more vulnerable West Antarctic ice block would remain intact for thousands of years to come.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) — whose 2007 report is the scientific benchmark for the UN December 7-18 Copenhagen climate summit — did not even factor melting ice sheets into its forecasts for rising seas.

Obama will unveil a political and military gamble aimed at reining in the Taliban insurgency and training the Afghan army in a globally awaited televised speech, after an exhaustive months-long policy review.

While announcing he will pitch 30,000 more troops into the eight-year war, Obama will set a “back-end” for their deployment, to signal the US mission will not be a “decade-long” operation, the official told AFP.