Officials: US missiles kill 5 in NW Pakistan

Asian Defense News: (AP) ISLAMABAD Feb. 14, 2010 – Pakistani intelligence officials say a suspected U.S. missile strike has killed five people in the country's northwest near the Afghan border.
Two intelligence officials say two missiles were fired Sunday into a house in Naurak village in North Waziristan, an area dominated by militant groups blamed for launching attacks on American forces across the border in Afghanistan.
The CIA has rained down missiles on houses, bunkers and training centers in the Pakistani region after a bomber killed seven of its employees late last year in Afghanistan.
The intelligence officials say the identity of the people killed in the strike is not yet known.
They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

(By ASIF SHAHZAD,Associated Press Writer)

India says investigating local, foreign leads to blast

Asian Defense News: PUNE, India Feb. 14, 2010 - India's government said it had little idea who was behind a bomb in a tourist eatery in western India that killed nine people, with sources saying they were looking at the possible involvement of Islamist militants.
The bomb, left in a backpack under a table at the popular German Bakery in the city of Pune, also wounded 57 and was the country's first big attack since the 2008 Mumbai massacre and appeared to target both Indian and foreign tourists.
Six of the dead were Indians; the rest had not yet been identified, and there may be one foreigner among them, a senior police officer said. Ten foreigners were injured, including Iranians, Sudanese, Nepalis, a Taiwanese and a German.
Senior internal security sources, who declined to be named, said the focus had naturally fallen on Pakistan-based separatist group Lashkar-e-Taiba , which has been blamed for the Mumbai attacks, and a local militant group called Indian Mujahideen because both had in the past been behind bombings in India.
"As of now our line of investigation is towards the possible involvement of LeT in the attack ... a sleeper module of the Indian Mujahideen could also be involved," a senior interior security official overseeing the probe, told Reuters.
Both groups have ties and are fighting against Indian rule in Kashmir, the disputed Himalayan region.
"Nothing is ruled out, nothing is ruled in. The investigation is in progress," Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said.
German Bakery, located close to a Jewish centre and a religious retreat frequented by foreigners, was a soft target in an area that had been on the radar of intelligence officials, Chidambaram said, denying there was an intelligence failure.
"There is no intelligence failure. This particular area has been on the radar for quite some time. But this was not an overt attack by a gunman, but an insidious attack with a bomb planted in a soft target," he told reporters in Pune.
TALKS
The explosion came a day after India and Pakistan agreed to high-level talks in New Delhi on February 25, suspended after Pakistani militants killed 166 people during a three-day rampage through the financial capital of Mumbai in November 2008.
Any sign of Pakistani involvement in the Pune attack would worsen relations between the two nuclear rivals and further destabilise a region overshadowed by war in Afghanistan.
The main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party said India must "seriously re-consider" going ahead with the planned talks.
In response to a question on whether the proposed talks would now be suspended, Chidambaram said that was a diplomatic process that would be determined in Delhi after he returned there.
In the upscale neighbourhood where German Bakery is located, morning walkers stayed away, and the area was deserted except for security personnel manning barricades and road blocks.
"I am numb. My daughter was in the bakery just 15 minutes before the blast. I can't imagine what might have happened," said Manasi Jadhav, who has a dental clinic above the bakery.
Police in Pune, located about 160 km south of Mumbai, had been alerted to the possibility of attacks on Osho ashram and Chabad House, which had also been targeted during the Mumbai attacks, Chidambaram said.
Chidambaram said the Pune ashram was one of the sites surveyed by David Headley, arrested in the United States last year and charged with scouting targets for the Mumbai rampage. India suspects Headley has links to the LeT.
The Pune blast also appears similar to a wave of bombs that hit Indian cities in the year before the Mumbai attacks, killing more than 100 people.
Police blamed most of those attacks on home-grown Muslim militants like the IM, but Hindu militants were also accused of masterminding some of the bombs.
"The bomb appears to have been not a sophisticated one that could have required any special training," said B. Raman, director of the Chennai-based Institute For Topical Studies.
"The expertise involved could have been locally acquired. One must control the reflex to point an accusing finger at Pakistan."
Authorities have warned of renewed threats of attacks on Indian soil and stepped up security in recent months.
Airports and railway stations across the country have been put on high alert after the blast and extra security given to the South African and Indian cricket teams playing in India.
"It feels really strange: the German Bakery was my favourite meeting point with friends. But eventually, this happens everywhere in the world now. Where can you run?" said Mabel Ng, a tourist visiting from Hong Kong.

(Reuters - By Rituparna Bhowmik)

Bomb explodes near Thai govt, 2nd found near court

Asian Defense News: (AP) BANGKOK Feb. 14, 2010 – A bomb exploded near Thailand's seat of government and another was defused near the Supreme Court, the official news agency said Sunday, as tensions mount over an upcoming court ruling on the country's ousted leader.
No casualties were reported. The court is scheduled to rule Feb. 26 on whether Thaksin Shinawatra's $2.2 billion fortune was obtained through corruption and should be seized.
The first bomb exploded Saturday night at a university near Government House, damaging four parked cars and other structures, the Thai News Agency said. The second was found near the court building and was defused Sunday morning, it said.
Thaksin was removed from power in a 2006 military coup after being accused of massive corruption, but his supporters say he was unjustly treated and are demanding new elections.
Pro-Thaksin and anti-Thaksin protests have gripped the country for more than three years, and Thailand is deploying 20,000 security forces to brace for protests when the court rules.

Pakistani PM plays down crisis, opposition pounces

Asian Defense News: ISLAMABAD Feb. 14, 2010 – Pakistan's prime minister sought to defuse tension Sunday over a Supreme Court decision to strike down a presidential order appointing two top judges, saying the dispute would not threaten political stability.
But the country's leading opposition figure, Nawaz Sharif, sought to play up the issue to pressure President Asif Ali Zardari, saying his decision to appoint two judges opposed by the court showed he was "the biggest threat to democracy."
Zardari has clashed with Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry in the past, and the court's decision to reject the appointments late Saturday, only hours after they were announced, sparked fears that the conflict could destabilize Pakistan at a time when it is battling a raging Taliban-led insurgency.
"Today, if there is really a danger to democracy, it is through these kinds of acts by Zardari," Sharif told reporters. "The government is attacking the judiciary to protect its corruption."
The president's push for judges opposed by the court came about two months after the bench struck down an amnesty protecting Zardari and several other senior politicians from graft charges.
Prime Minister Yousaf Reza Gilani denied the appointments had anything to do with the court's previous ruling and seemed to take a moderate stance on working through the latest disagreement.
"I want to give a message to the nation that the country's institutions are strong, and we will work within our domains," Gilani told reporters. "Let the court interpret."
The government is scheduled to present its case before the court on Feb. 18.
Saturday's ruling came after Zardari appointed a new Supreme Court judge and chief of the Lahore High Court, going against the recommendation of the Supreme Court. Pakistan's constitution says the president must consult with the Supreme Court over the appointment of new judges.
The court order said no consultation had taken place and Zardari's appointments "appeared to be in violation of the provision of the constitution" _ a position disputed by the government.
Zardari has had a tense relationship with the court's chief justice, and refused to reinstate him for many months after he was fired by former President Gen. Pervez Musharraf despite promising to do so. Zardari was eventually forced to relent last year after demonstrations that exposed his political vulnerability and the clout of the judiciary.
Some local media speculated Sunday that Zardari would similarly have to back down this time and agree to the court's recommendations on the appointments, while also criticizing the court for escalating political tension in the country.
"Historically, clashes between these two institutions have led to disastrous consequences for democracy and constitutional continuity in the country," the respected Dawn newspaper said in an editorial. "The fate of a high court judge here or a retired Supreme Court judge there should not hold the country's political future hostage."
The tension will concern Pakistan's Western allies who want the country to concentrate on battling al-Qaida and Taliban militants in the northwest. The stability of the nuclear-armed nation is also key to Washington's hopes of defeating the insurgency just across the border in Afghanistan.
The U.S. has pressed Pakistan to target militants launching cross-border attacks against coalition troops in Afghanistan, but the government has resisted, saying it has its hands full battling local fighters waging war against the state.
In response, the U.S. has stepped up its use of drone missiles strikes in Pakistan's northwest, including one Sunday that struck a house in the North Waziristan tribal area, killing five people, Pakistani intelligence officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
Also Sunday, an explosion ripped through a busy intersection in southern Pakistan, killing three people in an area that has mostly avoided violence in the past.
The blast, which was still being investigated, also wounded nine people in Sindh province's Dadu city, hospital official Rafiq Kolachi said.
If authorities determine the blast was caused by a bomb, it would be a rare attack in Sindh outside the provincial capital of Karachi. The migration of violence beyond Pakistan's northwest, where most Taliban militants are located, has been a growing problem for the country.
Meanwhile, a top Pakistan Taliban commander, Qari Hussain, claimed responsibility Sunday for twin suicide bombings last week outside a police station in the northwestern town of Bannu that killed 15 people. It was the latest of numerous attacks by militants on security forces over the past several years aimed at undermining the public's confidence in the already-weak state.
___
Associated Press writers Ashraf Khan in Karachi and Rasool Dawar in Mir Ali contributed to this report.

By ASIF SHAHZAD and ZARAR KHAN,Associated Press Writers - 32 minutes ago

Fireworks, prayers greet Year of the Tiger

Asian Defense News: SHANGHAI (AFP) Feb. 14, 2010 - – From Sydney to Pyongyang, fireworks, lion dances and prayers for good fortune ushered in the Year of the Tiger on Sunday as a cold snap across China failed to dampen celebrations.
Fireworks lit up the skies over Beijing's Forbidden City, Shanghai's riverfront Bund and Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City while in Sydney a traditional lion dance captivated thousands of onlookers.
Snow covered rooftops in China's biggest city, Shanghai, as a cold front swept over the country at the start of the Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, the nation's most important holiday.
The National Meteorological Administration warned that heavy snow was expected on the east coast while freezing rain lashed parts of the south.
The weather threatened chaos in China as millions travelled to be with their families around the vast nation of 1.3 billion, an exodus believed to be the world's largest annual human migration.
Authorities are hoping there will be no repeat of the massive cold wave and freezing rain that crippled transport systems and stranded millions during the 2008 festival.
Despite rain and near freezing temperatures, the queue at Jing'An Temple, one of Shanghai's oldest, stretched around the block as people burned incense and prayed for wealth, health and happiness in the year to come.
Firecrackers echoed throughout Shanghai and Beijing as families sought to ward off evil spirits and attract the god of fortune.
In Taiwan, the faithful gathered at midnight at temples across the island seeking blessings, while others queued outside department stores for lucky draws with prizes ranging from cars to diamonds to massage chairs.
President Ma Ying-jeou visited the famed Dharma Drum Mountain temple in northern Taiwan to pray for "social harmony and cross-Strait peace and prosperity" -- reiterating his hopes of ending tension with mainland China.
A temple in Taipei county enshrining the God of Fortune in the shape of a tiger was especially popular, Taiwanese media reported.
Despite rainy skies and a thick blanket of fog enveloping Hong Kong, an annual Chinese New Year parade featuring elaborate floats and musical performances was due to go ahead.
In Sydney, which claims to have the largest lunar New Year event outside Asia with a 17-day festival, six couples from Beijing and Shanghai marked both the New Year and Valentine's day by climbing the Harbour Bridge at dawn.
Despite rain, the 12 climbed 134 metres (442 feet) above Sydney Harbour to declare their love and shout the Chinese New Year greeting "Congratulations and be prosperous", organisers said.
In Hanoi, where the New Year is known as as Tet, Vietnam's most important annual festival, traffic became jammed as people bought traditional kumquat trees and peach blossoms.
In Malaysia, where relations between the Muslim Malay majority and minorities including ethnic Chinese have come under strain, Prime Minister Najib Razak encouraged all Malaysians to celebrate the Chinese New Year.
"We must be bold and more courageous in getting to know our neighbours better and be more dynamic and committed in the workplace, so as to contribute to the betterment of society and the country," he said.
In South Korea, millions journeyed over snow-covered and slippery roads to their home towns or villages to pay their respects to ancestors.
In North Korea, soldiers, workers and children bowed deeply as they laid flowers in front of statues of the country's late founder Kim Il Sung, the official KCNA news agency said.
The prime minister of Singapore, which opened its first casino on Sunday in time for the New Year, urged citizens to make more babies and ignore superstitions that children born in the Year of the Tiger will have the animal's attributes.
Babies born in the Year of the Tiger are believed to be independent and strong, but superstition also holds that it is a bad year for marriages and for those who do tie the knot, the husband may die before the wife.
"Tiger years are typically marked by dramatic changes and even upheaval and 2010, much like the tiger itself, sees an energetic and powerful, but impulsive and risky year ahead," independent brokerage CLSA wrote in a tongue-in-cheek lunar new year research note.