Google, Facebook Battle For Computer Science Grads. Salaries Soar.

Google and Facebook are fighting hard to hire this years crop of computer science graduates, we’ve heard, and ground zero is Stanford. Most of the class of 2008 already have job offers even though graduation is months away.

Last year, salaries of up to $70,000 were common for the best students. This year, Facebook is said to be offering $92,000, and Google has increased some offers to $95,000 to get their share of graduates. Students with a Masters degree in Computer Science are being offered as much as $130,000 for associate product manager jobs at Google.

Apparently the popular Facebook Applications class is getting a lot of attention from other startups, too. Slide and RockYou are both recruiting hard. One source says that RockYou is approaching students and telling them they aren’t hiring them, they’re “acquiring” their “companies” and will let them continue to work on their applications after graduation. That is, of course, some serious smoke blowing - any code they’ve been working on in the class is likely to be shelved by RockYou. Still, it’s a great way to recruit by making these students feel like they’re entering into some kind of an M&A transaction.

Something tells me the Pitzer students who’ve enrolled in the Learning From YouTube class aren’t getting the same types of offers.

Source: TechCrunch.com

U.S. Has Undermined Pakistani Democracy: Imran

[Following is the Interview of Imran Khan with Amy Goodman of Democracy Now TV, you can also watch Real Video Stream or listen Real Audio Stream or just MP3 Download ]

Legendary Cricket star turned politician Imran Khan is a Pakistani opposition figure who is boycotting the upcoming elections and calling for an end to military action in the embattled border regions of Pakistan. The staunch critic of Musharraf is the founder and chair of the movement for justice party known in Pakistan as "Tehreek e-Insaaf”. I sat down with Imran Khan on Sunday here in New York after he had just been in Washington visiting congressional leaders. I asked him why he was here.

IMRAN KHAN Well, basically, the Pakistani- American community here, they invited me here to explain the other point of view. There’s a government point of view, Musharraf’s government point of view, and then there’s the other point of view. And they wanted me to explain it to the U.S. lawmakers, to make them understand two things. One is, that they should not back one man, a dictator, against the forces of democracy of Pakistan. Secondly, that a new strategy is needed in this war on terror because at the moment, terrorism is spreading with leaps and bounds. And unless we have a new strategy, the existence of Pakistan is at stake.

AMY GOODMAN Why is the United States relevant to that?

IMRAN KHAN Well, for two reasons. One, that the U.S. is involved in Afghanistan. Secondly, the U.S. feels Musharraf is the best bet, the US Administration they feel that hes their best bet in fighting terrorism.

AMY GOODMAN Your feeling about that?

IMRAN KHAN I think it is the biggest mistake. It is the biggest blunder the U.S. is committing. Because you could only win the war on terror if you mobilize the people and exclude the terrorists. A famous saying of the Chairman Mao, that a terrorist should be a fish out of water rather than fish in water. In other words, if people from whom the terrorists are operating from, if they start considering them as freedom fighters, the war is going to be lost. They should be the hearts and minds of those people should be won, so they too should consider them terrorists. So that is the basic premise. And, at the moment, unfortunately, the battle for hearts and minds is being lost. And the terrorists of 9/11 are gaining ground because people are joining them, the way the war is being fought.

AMY GOODMAN Who do you see are the terrorists, Imran Khan?

IMRAN KHAN Well, the terrorists really were the al-Qaeda. Taliban were really just religious fundamentalists. They were not terrorists. And they inherited Osama bin Laden. Al-Qaeda was already in Afghanistan when The Taliban took power. The best strategy should have been, was to isolate al-Qaeda. But, by attacking the Taliban, of course, then backing a minority which was the Northern Alliance and making them takeover Afghanistan and pushing the Taliban not just did they push the Taliban towards al-Qaeda, but to push—but the Pushtuns who basically or been pushed in that direction also. What should of been a war against al-Qaeda, is evolving into a war against the Pustuns, and if its a war against the Pushtuns, then I’m afraid it is a never- ending war. Because, you know there are millions of Pustuns on both sides of the border, Pakistan and Afghanistan. And unless a change of strategy takes place, I’m afraid not only is the U.S. stuck in a quagmire, but in Pakistan, as I said, the country itself is going to be destabilized, is being destabilized.

AMY GOODMAN The assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the day it happened, where were you?

IMRAN KHAN Well that day I had gone to India to attend a wedding. And as I landed in India,and it was only for a day, as I landed there, I found out that she had been assassinated.

AMY GOODMAN You knew her well?

IMRAN KHAN We went to university together, and we were friends until she became Prime Minister.

AMY GOODMAN Where in university?

IMRAN KHAN At Oxford University in England. And so it was a huge shock, not just to me, but the whole country. I’ve never seen such grief in the country.

AMY GOODMAN Her significance? And what was your assessment of her role in Pakistan? Prime Minster twice.

IMRAN KHAN Very significant because she represented one of the two major parties in Pakistan. I did not agree with her politics because I felt that she wanted U.S. backing to get into power in Pakistan. the U.S. did back her. And then she was prepared to do a power-sharing deal with the military dictator, who is Musharraf. And a U.S.-brokered power deal where she would share power with military dictator and abandon people like us who were fighting for democracy in Pakistan. So, I did not agree with her tactics.

AMY GOODMAN Why was the U.S. involved with that? Why did she work with the US?

IMRAN KHAN Well, the U.S. was involved with her because they felt she was a moderate or liberal political force which would back Musharraf who was their man to fight terrorism. And she needed the U.S. and she needed Musharraf. The reason, in my opinion, in fact the opinion of most people in Pakistan, she needed them because she was stuck in corruption cases, in Switzerland and in Spain. And she needed Musharraf to be on her side so of the Pakistan government would not pursue these corruption cases.

AMY GOODMAN Who do you think killed Benazir Bhutto?

IMRAN KHAN Very difficult to say. It could have been any of the various groups that are now fighting the Pakistan army now. Benazir Bhutto had specifically stated that she would fight against al-Qaeda, against Taliban, against the fundamentalists. So, clearly, all of those groups – and this is not one group now, there are various groups—which is why I think the way the war on terrorism is being fought is actually creating more terrorists. So, there are various groups now, and all of them would have been gunning for her. And, secondly, it could have also been the stakeholders, people who have been in power for five years who were threatened by her. And, that is why an independent inquiry is needed.

AMY GOODMAN Meeting Musharraf?

IMRAN KHAN Well, Musharraf and the political forces supporters of Musharraf.

AMY GOODMAN At that time of the assassination, it has now come out that the United States quietly approved $500 million worth of fighter jets to go to Pakistan, Lockheed Martin jets. What do you think of that?

IMRAN KHAN One the reason why the U.S. is supporting the Pakistan army is because. the Pakistan army is now the front- line army in fighting not just Taliban, but the people of the tribal area who now are moving now towards the Taliban because the Pakistan army went to the tribal area. And used the tactics which have alienated the people-like bombing from helicopter gunship, fighter jets bombing villages, women and children dying. And so the whole tribes is turning against the Pakistan army. The way of the war is on terror is being fought, its pushing more people on the other side. So, the U.S. is supporting the Pakistani army because it is basically started fighting the U.S. war on terror. When it is suppling it equipment, It thinks it is buying it equipment, because it thinks doing the job—if the Pakistan army was not doing it, the U.S. army would have to do it.

AMY GOODMAN In fact, the US has talked about expanding its presence in Pakistan but most recently, announcing plans to expand military training and equipment to Pakistan in a $2 billion package over the next five years. That would seek to boost Pakistan’s intelligence service, its air, and ground power.

IMRAN KHAN Well, at the moment, and not many people in the U.S. know, that the Pakistan army has lost most soldiers then U.S. army in Iraq and Afghanistan put together. The sort of casualties the Pakistani Army is taking is unsustainable. In my opinion its not long before there is some unrest within the army. Already, there are stories already bought soldiers refusing to fight. And, so the army is fighting its own people now, not terrorists of 9/11. When the Pakistan army went into the tribal area, it broke the treaty with the people of tribal area, which was signed in 1948, that the Pakistan army would not go there. So, by going in there, they’re virtually fighting people in the tribal area, fighting their own people, and they are sustaining heavy casualties.

AMY GOODMAN Who is the army, the Pakistani Army? Who are the soldiers? Where do they come from?

IMRAN KHAN Well, there are mainly Pushtuns, who are from the Northwest Frontier Province, and the Punjabis, which come from the Punjabi Province. Actually the Punjabis are the predominant force, and the Pushtuns, are second in number. They would be the second highest in numbers there.

AMY GOODMAN Do you see U.S. military aid shoring up Musharraf?

IMRAN KHAN Well the US are propping up Musharaff. And thats why I came here, to make them understand this is a tried and failed policy.

AMY GOODMAN Do you think the U.S. should cut off aid to Pakistan under Musharraf?

IMRAN KHAN The U.S. should back the people of Pakistan. Whenever, if ever this war is going to be won, it will be won by mobilizing the people of the country.You back the people, by backing the democratic process, not a military dictator.—and you back the democratic process right now in Pakistan by insisting on free and fair elections with the reinstatement of the judges sacked by Musharraf. Sixty perfect of our judges have been sacked by him. We want them reinstated. And, under them, free and fair elections. Which ever government comes into power, a genuine democratic government, it will be the best bet for the U.S. to work with that to fight terrorism.

AMY GOODMAN You’re boycotting the February 18 elections, why?

IMRAN KHAN Because, how can you fight elections when your Supreme Court Chief Justice is under house arrest? Sixty perfect of the Superior Court judges have been sacked. And Musharaff has his own judges, his own election commission, his own administration, his own caretaker government – how can you have free and fair elections under this situation?

AMY GOODMAN Other opposition parties are going forward, for example Nawaz Sharif, who had originally said he was going to boycott earlier elections, is participating.

IMRAN KHAN Well, more less all political parties have boycotted the elections after November 3 emergency, when Musharaff sacked sixty percent of our judiciary. Unfortunately, Benazir decided to fight the elections, the People’s Party. When she decided to fight the elections-–

AMY GOODMAN You mean to participate in them?

IMRAN KHAN She participated in the elections. And this was the American Administration pressure, and this was to save Musharaff. If she had also boycotted the election that was the end of Musharraf. But she actually gave him a life line by deciding to participate. And then others followed in because they feared they would be left out.

AMY GOODMAN Pakistanis opposition leader, Imran Khan, we will come back to this interview and a minute.

[break]

AMY GOODMAN: We return to my conversation with Pakistani opposition leader Imran Khan. He was arrested by Musharraf last year. I asked him why he moved from being a cricket star to a politician. He could well be prime minister or president of Pakistan one day. This was Imran Khan’s response.

IMRAN KHAN: Well, simply because I discovered that in our country there’s a tiny elite who has usurped the resources of the whole country. The whole country panders to this tiny elite. By the way, I belong to them. And the rich are getting richer. And the vast majority of people don’t even have basic rights. And so, I felt that the way to fight for rights is—and that’s why we were called Movement for Justice—we felt that we have to have an independent justice system. Only when you have an independent justice system is there a check and balance on the executive, because what is happening is, the elite has basically captured the government. Whether it’s one party or the other, basically the interests are the same. And so, they come into government, and they plunder the country. They usurp the resources. And so, common people are deprived of all the basic needs: health, education, water, housing, justice. And the only way we can check this elite and have even free and fair elections, even have prosperity, if our justice system is independent. So that’s what my movement was eleven years ago.

AMY GOODMAN: You’ve been in this country for a few days now. What do you think of the U.S. media here and its portrayal of Pakistan, your country?

IMRAN KHAN: Well, unfortunately, you know, they do not have—this whole war on complex—on terrorism is extremely complex. This—what they call terrorism and all the people they think are terrorists, not all of them have anything to do with al-Qaeda or even Taliban. And here, people seem to think that there is one man who is fighting this war on terror, and so they should support one man. And if he went, the country would implode, and the Pakistan nukes would fall in the hands of the extremists. And so, this sort of a fear is prevailing in the U.S., actually not understanding the ground realities of the country.

The realities are, whenever we’ve had elections, even religious parties, not all of them are extreme, all of them have been marginalized. People always vote for centrist parties in Pakistan. So people are politically very aware. They don’t buy this whole thing about people trying to use religion to come into power. So, you know, even our elite underestimates the population of Pakistan.

And secondly, the different strands of terrorism, all of them have different origins and they have different solutions. You cannot all put them in one basket. If you do that, the danger is they morph into one movement, so that you all then have a common enemy. So it has to be dealt very carefully, and military is not the solution. Political dialogue is the solution to isolate the terrorists.

AMY GOODMAN: Most of the nineteen who flew those four planes were from Saudi Arabia. But Saudi Arabia is a close ally of the United States, even also the royal family very close to the Bush family and the United States. Nawaz Sharif, another opposition leader in Pakistan, was exiled in Saudi Arabia. What is your assessment of Saudi Arabia?

IMRAN KHAN: Well, you know, he is a Democrat, so when you ask me this question, I would always say that the problem—basic problem with the Muslim world is we don’t have democracy. And Saudi Arabia is one of those countries that, too, doesn’t have democracy. And sadly, the reason always given is that, you know, we are not ready for democracy, you know, our people are not ready for democracy. It’s like saying our people are not ready for freedom, that they like being slaves. You know, it’s just—the forces of status quo always have used various excuses to deprive people of their freedom.

And the problem with the U.S. is that, unfortunately, it always ends up backing military dictators or dictators at the expense of the people and unnecessarily alienates the people. I mean, when I spoke to the lawmakers, I asked them a simple question. I said, look, why would people in Pakistan—if you have a democratic government in Pakistan and back a democratic government which comes through free and fair elections, well, you do not pick horses. I mean, the U.S. backed Benazir Bhutto. I thought that was absolutely wrong. They should not interfere in the domestic politics, because if they back one party, then everyone else goes against the U.S. So if a government comes through free and fair elections, why would it not want to work with the U.S.? It’s bizarre. I don’t understand this. Why would a democratic elected government in Pakistan not want to work with the only superpower in the world? I mean, after all, we have to—if I’m a Democrat, I have to go to the people to get their vote, and if I don’t bring them prosperity, they’re not going to vote for me. And if I pick a fight with the only superpower, how am I going to help my people? So it’s so bizarre that they end up sort of picking one dictator, and this is our man, at the expense of and alienating the people.

AMY GOODMAN: Osama bin Laden, believed to be in the northwest frontier of Pakistan. Your thoughts?

IMRAN KHAN: How can anyone say where he is? I mean, I don’t understand. This is all pure speculation. He could be anywhere in the mountains of Afghanistan. I don’t think people have any idea of what this whole region is. These are wild mountainous countries. There is no border. There’s a 1,500-mile border with Afghanistan and Pakistan. There is no border, there is no check post. There are no—you know, people have always crossed from one side to the other. The same Pashtun tribes, half of the tribe would be on one side of the Durand Line or the border, half is on the other side. How can anyone say what is going on where? And so, this is pure speculation that he’s on the Pakistan side of the border. He could easily be on the other side of the border.

AMY GOODMAN: You’re here in the midst of the presidential race. Senator Barack Obama just won in South Carolina. In the debates, he talked about authorizing the U.S. military to carry out unilateral attacks inside Pakistan without the support of the Pakistani government if there was actionable intelligence against al-Qaeda.

IMRAN KHAN: Well, OK. The U.S. has already conducted attacks inside Pakistan, and I’ll give you one example. They attacked this place where they thought some Taliban commander was hiding, a seminary, a madrasah. They ended up killing eighty-three people in this bomb attack in Bajaur. Out of those eighty-three, sixty were children below the age of eighteen. As a result of that attack, there was an immediate suicide bombing. A bomber walked into a camp, Pakistan military camp, killed fifty soldiers. Now, if the U.S. gets it wrong and does these attacks, which it has got wrong several times, killed innocent people, all that is happening is that those people, because the U.S. is just doing aerial bombing, those people then attack the Pakistan army. And as I said, the casualties that the Pakistan army is taking, it’s unsustainable. You know, they are having forty, fifty soldiers dying a day. When the Pakistan army—when innocent people are killed among the Pashtuns, they take revenge against the Pakistan army. They have done suicide bombings inside the GHQ in Rawalpindi. They’ve gone inside the commando base and blown up soldiers. So if the U.S. has this intelligence, surely if the Pakistan army is taking these casualties, they should take them into confidence and tell them to deal with the situation, rather than taking unilateral action and then most of the time getting it wrong, ending up alienating the people and then people taking their anger out on the Pakistan army.

AMY GOODMAN: There has been polls done in Pakistan that show a serious amount of support for Osama bin Laden, that he is actually more popular than President Bush.

IMRAN KHAN: Well, you know, this is the issue. Why is it the case? On 9/11, when everyone in Pakistan from across the political spectrum stood with the U.S., why is it now that the situation has come to this, that basically when you say support for Osama bin Laden, it basically means anti-American? At the moment, anti-Americanism is growing in Pakistan. This should be, you know, carefully tackled. It’s not a black and white thing that you are with us or against us. You know, they hate us; why do they hate us? You should find out: why is this alienation going on? And if all the root causes are explored, one of them would be that the country is backing an unpopular military dictator against the people of Pakistan, against the democratic forces in Pakistan. And all those people who are turning against Musharraf are also turning against the U.S.

AMY GOODMAN: I mean, hasn’t Pakistan, the ISI, the intelligence services, been working closely with the Taliban, shoring them up, building them up in Afghanistan for many years?

IMRAN KHAN: Well, if you go a little further back, then ISI and CIA were shoring up the Afghan Mujahideen. In fact, they trained the Afghan Mujahideen. The whole of ’80s, the people who were being trained in acts of terrorism against the Soviets were the Mujahideen, who most of them later on became Taliban. So the relationship actually goes right back to the ’80s, you know, when the CIA also had relationship with them. Then, of course, when the Soviets left, the Americans basically abandoned Afghanistan, and chaos prevailed, where the warlords took over various parts of the country. And the movement of Taliban was a genuine popular movement started against these warlords. And then, unfortunately, this movement then degenerated into a total Islamic fundamentalist.

AMY GOODMAN: Have you ever considered a power-sharing agreement with Musharraf?

IMRAN KHAN: Absolutely not, because that would be negating a democracy. Remember, Pakistan—you know, when we talk about Pakistan’s democracy, you should only look at India, because our history is similar to India. We were the same country, separated in 1947. And we came—and Pakistan came into being through democracy, through a vote. And people in Pakistan are quite prepared for democracy. There’s a level of maturity that prevails amongst the people. Our problem has been, unfortunately, because of this threat of a neighbor seven times the size, we became a security state, and army became very strong and actually kept interfering in the democratic process. So the way to go about bringing democracy to Pakistan is free and fair elections, independent justice system, not power-sharing with a military dictator.

AMY GOODMAN: Do you think Musharraf should resign?

IMRAN KHAN: He should have resigned a year back, but he certainly—if we want stability in Pakistan, he must go. He is now the cause of instability in the country. He is attracting terrorism. The people who were not terrorists before, because of him, are now picking up the gun, because they’re losing faith in the democratic process. When you have rigged elections, when people feel that through their vote they cannot change the system, there are eventually going to pick up the gun.

Gaddafi warns Africa over unity

Mr Gaddafi fears there may be a conspiracy to veto African unity

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has threatened to turn his back on Africa if the continent's leaders again reject his proposals for closer unity.

He said Libya would instead look towards Europe and the Arab world.

Col Gaddafi was speaking just ahead of the opening of a summit of African Union leaders in Ethiopia on Thursday.

He also said Libya was prepared to move its African investments, which he said amounted to more than $5bn (£2.5bn), to Arab and Mediterranean states.

The Libyan leader has for a long time advocated the creation of a United States of Africa - with its government including a foreign minister, defence minister and minister of trade.

The AU, which succeeded the Organisation of African Unity in 2002, was conceived by Mr Gaddafi as part of this vision.

McCain wins Florida presidential nominating contest

MIAMI, Jan 29 (Reuters) Senator John McCain won the Florida Republican primary Tuesday, defeating rival Mitt Romney in a close contest that gave momentum to his effort to become the party's U.S. presidential candidate, U.S. media projected.

Egypt and Iran hold first high-level meeting in decades

CAIRO, Jan 30 (AFP): Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak held talks with Iran's parliament speaker Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel on Wednesday, the first such high-level meeting since the two nations froze ties almost 30 years ago. Haddad-Adel hailed his “very good” meeting with Mubarak, whom he said had insisted on rejecting any pressure from Washington aimed at stopping the resumption of diplomatic ties. “The fact that I'm here is proof of the improvement in relations between the Islamic republic and Egypt,” Haddad-Adel told journalists.

Imran and Jemima together for a Cause

Source: The News

By Rauf Klasra

LONDON: Imran Khan and Jemima Khan appeared together in public for the first time since they divorced in 2004 to lead a big protest rally of Pakistanis in front of 10 Downing Street where President Pervez Musharraf was meeting British Prime Minister Gordon Brown here on Monday.

The high profile divorced couple stood side by side in front of the prime minister’s office for some time, where a large number of overseas Pakistanis had gathered to protest the arrival of Musharraf in London and his “anti-democratic” steps in Pakistan.

Many believe here that this was one of the biggest rallies of overseas Pakistanis in the recent days who had gathered to protest against Musharraf’s policies. The protesters kept on chanting slogans against Musharraf for more than two hours without any break. The intensity of the slogans was so powerful that these could be heard from a long distance. The PPP and PML-N activists were also present there in a large number.

The international and Pakistani media was present there to cover this event. But, the most striking attraction in the whole demonstration was the presenceEl of Imran and Jemima. Both Imran and Jamima stood in the front row facing the office of Prime Minister Brown. However, Imran left the venue after staying there for some time. While Jemima stayed back with the demonstrators and kept on shouting slogans against Musharraf’s action against the civil society, democracy, judiciary and lawyers.

In the past, Jamima Khan had been participating in such demonstrations outside 10-Downing Street and Pakistan High Commission when General Pervez Musharraf imposed emergency in the country on November 3 last year. Jemima had even participated in the demonstrations which were held to protest the arrest of Imran Khan in Pakistan. She also used to bring her two sons along with her to push for the demand of release of their father. But, on Monday, both Qasim and Suleman were missing from the scene of demonstration.

A small number of people carrying the pictures of President Musharraf were also present outside the 10-Downing Street there to appreciate his policies in Pakistan. They were also chanting slogans in favour of Musharraf and welcomed his arrival in London.

Their presence created a big stir in the law enforcement agencies who feared that both the groups of Pakistanis might clash with each other. A heavy contingent of police force was deployed between the two groups

After chanting slogans against Musharraf, the anti-govt demonstrators turn their focus to the pro-Musharraf people and raised slogans against them for supporting the president. The overseas Pakistanis were also carrying the pictures of Benazir Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif. A large number of Baloch nationalists were also present there, carrying anti-Musharraf placards.

The protesters were also carrying placards inscribed with slogans like “restore the judges”, “Musharraf should go”, “restore democracy in Pakistan” and “respect the human rights of the people of Pakistan”. The demonstrators kept sloganeering till Musharraf left the office of the prime minister around 2 pm.

Turkish MPs plan headscarf reform

Two major parties in Turkey have submitted a joint plan to parliament to ease a ban on the Islamic headscarf in the country's universities.

The Islamist-rooted governing AK Party and the nationalist MHP say it is an issue of human rights and freedoms.

The two parties have enough votes in parliament to overturn the constitutional ban on headscarves.

A strict headscarf ban has been in force in universities since 1997. It was ordered by the secularist military.

The issue is highly controversial in a mainly Muslim country whose secular elite - including the powerful military - sees the headscarf as a symbol of political Islam, the BBC's Sarah Rainsford in Istanbul says.

The move to ease the ban has been criticised by judges and university officials. read more

YouTube + Digg + Obama = YouBama

One reason we endorsed Barack Obama as our Democratic nominee for TechPresident earlier today is because he has made an effort to understand technology and create a comprehensive technology platform. Not only is he Web-savvy, so are his constituents. A site called YouBama that launched a few days ago is a case in point. Designed by two Stanford grad students, Christopher Pedregal and Eric Park (who actually now works at NASA), to drum up grass-roots support for Obama, the site lets supporters upload videos explaining why they are going to vote for the candidate. The videos can then be voted up or down Digg-style. Pedregal explains to me:

The idea was to make it personal and individual. Everyone says this will be the YouTube elections. This can democratize the campaign process. It is an experiment. We don’t know if voters have a lot to say.

It is a simple but sophisticated site that will appeal to the YouTube generation, and an effective way to distill the most powerful messages with the broadest appeal. (The video at the top right now is a clip of George Clooney endorsing Obama on the Charlie Rose Show). The best part about the site is that it has nothing to do with the official Obama campaign. Says Pedregal:

There are a lot of things the Obama campaign can’t say or can’t do. There are a lot of sensitive issues regarding race or gender or attacks the candidates might use, and voters will want to react to that.

YouBama isn’t trying to be more than a grass-roots marketing vehicle for the Obama campaign. Pedregal and Park are both Obama supporters and they want to drum up more votes for his campaign. Their attitude is that supporters of other candidates can create their own sites. But they also feel that creating this site is “most applicable” to the Obama campaign because of its efforts to reach out to younger voters and speak to their aspirations. In other words, they feel they have the best chance of getting good videos from Obama supporters as opposed to those of the other candidates.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

Startup Insiders - A Must-Attend Event! [Lahore]

V:
The brilliant people at Green & White and P@SHA in collaboration with tech leaders of our IT industry have started the Pakistani version of the renowned BarCamp - and after the resounding success of the first edition in Karachi and another scheduled on Thursday for Islamabad - the geeks and nerds would land in Lahore and assemble at Vahzay's premises on 1st of February, 2008.

Date: 1st February, 2008
Time: 1800 hrs - 2100 hrs
Venue: VahZay Pvt Ltd. 19-A1, E-II, Gulberg-III, Lahore

Directions: From the Liberty roundabout on Main Blvd. Gulberg, go towards Qaddafi stadium. When you get to the roundabout just before the stadium gate, make a left. The Hockey stadium should now be on your right.
Go about 200 meters and make a left in the first street you see on your left. There is a Punjab Book Board office at the corner with a big sign up-front, hard to miss.
Go 100 meters and the first gate on the left is VahZay. There is plenty of parking along the wall that runs in this street from the turn all the way to VahZay gate.

Have a look at this map.

Entrepreneurs who will be there include:

Imran Zia, CEO, VahZay
Kewan Khawaja, co-CEO, Techlogix
Monis Rahman, CEO, Naseeb Networks
Osama Hashmi, CEO, CDF Software
Sajjad Kirmani, VP, Netsol Technologies
Fahd Bangash, CEO, Amaana
Hasan Rizvi, CEO, Five Rivers Technologies
Shehzad Ahmed, CEO, Descon

Who should attend? Quoting Osama Hashmi of G&W:

Bring everyone around you who has the spark to change the world but doesn't think there is enough support from the industry to get going. These people are here to help. Bring your demos if you're looking for funding, bring your ideas if you're looking to start on the demo. Bring your cameras and camcorders. Finally, bring an open mind so we can all have a lot of fun, sip some deep deep coffee and talk startup.

This is your chance to draw inspiration from the people who've 'been there, done that'. The event is FREE and OPEN TO ALL - it's an event not to be missed. So, come one, come all!

More details can be found at:
Green & White
P@SHA News
In the Line of Wire

Posted on Metroblogging Lahore

Incredible Performances

They said 'Its Mean'

Source: BBCUrdu.com

پاکستان کے بعض ریٹائرڈ جرنیلوں نے صدر پرویز مشرف کے اس بیان پر سخت رد عمل ظاہر کیا ہے جس میں انہوں نے کہا تھا کہ ریٹائرڈ فوجیوں کی تنظیم والے ’نو گُڈ مین‘ یعنی بیکار لوگ ہیں۔

ریٹائرڈ فوجیوں کی غیر سرکاری تنظیم کے سرکردہ رہنما اور سابق آرمی چیف مرزا اسلم بیگ نے بی بی سی سے بات چیت میں صدر پرویز مشرف کے بیان پر تبصرہ کرتے ہوئے کہا کہ

یہ صدر مشرف کی کم ظرفی ہے۔ جو اپنے خاندان اور اپنے ماں باپ کوگالیاں دے وہ اپنے آپ کو گالیاں دے رہا ہوتا ہے۔

مرزا اسلم بیگ نے کہا کہ

پرویز مشرف کو اپنے بڑوں اور بزرگوں کا ادب ہے اور نہ ہی قومی اداروں کے لیے کوئی احترام ہے۔ یہ دیکھیں کہ کس بہانے سے انہوں نے منتخب وزیراعظم کو ہٹایا، جمہوری اداروں کو تباہ کیا اور اپنے اقتدار کے لیے انہوں نے کیا کچھ نہیں کیا۔ پھر جب عدالتیں انصاف دینے کے لیے کھڑی ہوئیں تو جو عدالتوں کا حشر کیا ہے اس کی مثال پوری مہذب دنیا میں نہیں ملتی۔

ریٹائرڈ فوجیوں کی غیر سرکاری تنظیم کے صدر لیفٹیننٹ جنرل (ر) فیض علی چشتی نے بی بی سی سے بات کرتے ہوئے کہا کہ

پرویز مشرف نے اگر ہم سابق فوجیوں کو ’نو گڈ مین‘ کہا ہے تو وہ خود بھی اب ریٹائرڈ جنرل ہیں۔ جب وہ اچھے نہیں ہیں تو عہدہ چھوڑ دیں۔ صدر صاحب کچھ تو اپنی بات کا مان رکھیں۔

انہوں نے کہا کہ

ملکی حالات خراب ہیں، فوج اور عوام ایک دوسرے کو مار رہے ہیں، وزیرستان میں کیا ہورہا ہے، امن امان کی حالت کیا ہے، آٹا، چینی، گیس اور بجلی غائب ہے، کیا اس کا اثر ریٹائرڈ فوجیوں پر نہیں پڑتا۔ہم اس ملک اور قوم کے مفاد میں کہتے ہیں کہ پرویز مشرف کو اب مستعفی ہونا چاہیے، انہوں نے فوج سمیت ملک کے تمام ادارے تباہ کیے ہیں۔

انہوں نے صدر مشرف کی جانب سے فوائد نہ ملنے کی وجہ سے تنقید کرنے کی بات کو مسترد کرتے ہوئے کہا کہ

میں جب لیفٹیننٹ جنرل تھا تو پرویز مشرف میجر تھا وہ مجھے کیا فائدہ دے سکتا تھا۔ ہمارے سارے ساتھی پرویز مشرف سے سینئر ہیں۔ جہاں تک جمشید گلزار کیانی کا تعلق ہے تو وہ جب فیڈرل پبلک سروس کمیشن کا سربراہ تھا تو دو برس قبل صدر مشرف نے سابق فوجی افسران کو مشاورت کے لیے فوجی ہیڈ کوارٹر بلایا اور جب سوال جواب شروع ہوئے تو جنرل جمشید نے پرویز مشرف سے کہا کہ وہ وعدے کے مطابق فوجی وردی اتار دیں جس پر انہیں ملازمت سے برطرف کیا گیا۔

فیض علی چشتی نے کہا کہ صدر پرویز مشرف جھوٹ بول رہے ہیں اور وہ ان کے ساتھ براہ راست ٹی وی پر مذاکرہ کرنے کو تیار ہیں۔

واضح رہے کہ گزشتہ منگل کو ریٹائرڈ فوجیوں کی ایک غیر سرکاری تنظیم کا لیفٹیننٹ جنرل (ر) فیض علی چشتی کی صدارت میں اجلاس ہوا تھا جس میں صدر پرویز مشرف پر ملکی اداروں کو تباہ کرنے کا الزام لگاتے ہوئے ان سے فوری طور پر مستعفی ہونے کا مطالبہ کیا گیا تھا۔

اجلاس میں ریٹائرڈ ایئر مارشل اصغر خان، نور خان، سابق آرمی چیف مرزا اسلم بیگ، لیفٹیننٹ جنرل (ر) حمید گل، لیفٹیننٹ جنرل (ر) جمشید گلزار کیانی سمیت تینوں مسلح افواج کے متعدد سرکردہ سابق افسران شریک ہوئے تھے۔

سابق فوجیوں نے صدر مشرف کی نامزد کردہ نگران حکومت کو قبضہ گروپ قرار دیتے ہوئے کہا تھا کہ جنرل پرویز مشرف نے ملکی اداروں کو تباہ کردیا ہے۔ انہوں نے کارگل جنگ میں شکست پر پرویز مشرف کا کورٹ مارشل کرنے کا بھی مطالبہ کیا تھا۔

سابق فوجیوں کے اس بیان کو مغربی میڈیا نے کافی نمایاں طور پر شائع کیا اور یہ سوال اٹھایا کہ صدر مشرف کو اب سینئر فوجی افسران کا اعتماد حاصل نہیں رہا جس پر صدر مشرف نے اپنے یورپ کے دورے کے دوران ہی تنقید کرنے والے ریٹائر فوجیوں کو فضول اور بیکار قرار دیتے ہوئے کہا تھا کہ ان کی بات فوجی سنتے ہیں اور نہ ہی سول سوسائٹی۔

صدر پرویز مشرف نے یہ بھی کہا تھا کہ ان پر تنقید کرنے والے کچھ ایسےلوگ ہیں جنہیں انہوں نے فوائد نہیں دیے اور بعض ایسے ہیں جنہیں انہوں نے باہر نکال پھینکا تھا۔

Crunchies Winners Announced

While the Crunchies award ceremony is in full swing at the historic Herbst Theater in downtown San Francisco, we've got the winners for you right here. Over 100,000 votes were cast, and many of the races were very tight, but in the end there can be only one winner (per category). So without further ado, the winners of the first annual Crunchies Awards are...

Best technology innovation / achievement

Best bootstrapped start-up

Best new gadget / device

Best business model

Best design

Best enterprise start-up

Best consumer start-up

Best mobile start-up

Best international start-up

Best user-generated content

Best video site

Best clean tech start-up

Best use of viral marketing

Best time sink site

Most likely to make the world a better place

Most likely to succeed

Best start-up founder

Mark Zuckerberg - Facebook

Image via the Guardian

Best start-up CEO

Toni Schneider - Auttomatic

Image via True Ventures

Best new start-up of 2007

Best overall

Be sure to watch the event streaming live via Mogulus. The Crunchies is a joint venture between TechCrunch, GigaOm, VentureBeat, and ReadWriteWeb.

Flock 1.1 Arrives in Two Weeks

Flock, the Social Web Browser, has announced that the Flock 1.1 beta will launch in just two weeks. The browser, built on Firefox code, is designed for social interaction on the web, with features built into the browser just for this purpose. Flock chose last week's Macworld conference to show off the new version. With the upcoming release, several new features will be added, including Yahoo and Gmail support, Picassa integration, and a friend activity feed.

The integration of the popular webmail services from Yahoo and Gmail will allow users to share web pages, images, articles, and links with their friends using a click-to-compose function built right into the browser. By just clicking the email icon in the URL bar, Flock users can instantly share these items with their friends. When new mail arrives, the Flock Mail icon will light up to let users know to check their inbox. This is especially handy since webmail doesn't alert users of incoming mail the way that Outlook or other desktop clients do, forcing them to either keep checking it in a browser tab, using an add-on, or some sort of 3rd party notification software.

Image Credit: CNet Networks

As to why email was the next bigfeature to be included, Flock's CEO, Shawn Hardin, states that "Email is the single most frequently used communication application on the web, and is often overlooked as social activity."The new Picasa feature will let users of the popular photo-sharing service quickly upload pictures to Picasa from Flock. To share these photos, users can email them via web mail or just drag and drop them onto the Flock People sidebar, the same way that YouTube videos, flickr photos, Photobucket photos, and others are shared in version 1.0.

The Friend Activity feed is like Facebook's News Feed, expect that it tracks your friends recent activities across all of Flock’s supported services. The feed will inform users when their friends update their Flock profile or online status, upload new photos, and it even displays their Twitter updates.

The new version will be available for as a free download for Mac, PC and Linux in two weeks at www.Flock.com.

Live Blogging 2.0

If you're a blogger who is into covering live events, like keynotes, press conferences, meetings, or sports events, you may be interested in the new, free service from CoveritLive. In development since 2006 and emerging from beta in November of 2007, the CoveritLive platform gives you an easy way to blog events as they happen and it also provides tools to interact with your readers during the event you're covering.

As you use CoveritLive's software, your commentary streams live to your web page or blog. Readers viewing the commentary can ask questions and participate in polls you create, giving them a reason to stay online on your website for the duration of the event, instead of checking in every now and then. Readers viewing the live blog stream don't have to create user accounts to participate or download any software.

While blogging, you can also add pictures and videos in real-time, keeping the stream updated with interesting content. The text, images, and videos can be drag-and-dropped into the application's interface and linked with ease.

The CoveritLive Console

CoveritLive also provides a way for multiple editors to work together in real-time. One writer could be focused on uploading content and writing while the other answers questions and responds to comments.

How it Works

When you use the CoveritLive service, a resizable AJAX Viewer Window of your live blog is embedded into your website or blog, similar to the way you would embed a widget. However, the CoveritLive team is quick to point out that the service is really "anything but a widget or lightweight tool." Don't be fooled by its ease of use, they say: CoveritLive is a scalable application designed for anyone to use whether they have just a handful of reader or hundreds of thousands.

CoveritLive on a blog

The one-click publishing feature lets you use Google image or video search and then, with one click, post the image or video to the live blog window. There is also an online Media Library and Showprep tool where you can load up your media in preparation for the event. This lets you build up a collection of items beforehand so they are ready when you need them during the live event. 

The one-click Quick Polls can be created on the fly or in advance and stored in the Media Library. You can create as many polls as you would like and can turn the different polls on and off in the "Now Playing" section of the app.

Readers can comment on the live blog, but it's not like a chat window or forum. The comments, or "Audience Messages," as they're called, stream into a window in the Console that only the author can see. By clicking the comment, the author can post the question or comment directly into the live blog for everyone to see and then respond to it. The Audience Messages feature can be turned on or off as desired during the event.

Another nice feature the Console provides is a Viewer Window built right into it. With this, you can see exactly what your readers see, making formatting problems no
longer an issue.

At the event's end, the Viewer Windows becomes what they call an "Instant Replay." This new window has the entire live blog for site visitors to read if they missed viewing it live. The latecomers can still view the poll results, which are automatically linked to by the app when the event is over. The live blog you created is stored on CoveritLive's servers where you can access it at any time or delete it if you decide you no longer need it.

Why Do We Need Liveblogging Tools?

Today's standard publishing and blogging platforms are not really created for live blogging. You have to write, save, and publish and then refresh your blog's page to make sure that it looks right. If you don't know how to set your blog's page to automatically refresh, your site visitors have to automatically refresh the page on their own to see the new content. Even if your page is automatically refreshing, it is still not the equivalent of real-time blogging as your posts are not being displayed as you write them. With CoveritLive, you can instantly blog the event without having to worry with those sort of technical details.

Unfortunately, when put to the test during this year's Macworld conference, a minor technical glitch, the equivalent of "one loose screw" (so they said), managed to crash the service. However, CoveritLive responded that this was not due to being overloaded by traffic, rather an issue in their Quality Assurance process, and hopes that everyone will give them another shot in the future. Yikes!

As web-based reporting relies more and more on live coverage of major events, it will be critical for CoveritLive to make sure that outages like this past one never occur or no one will bother to use the service again. Many may have already decided that one crash is one too many and have already sworn it off.

Still, if they get the kinks worked out to deliver a more stable platform, a liveblogging service with the feature set and ease-of-use of CoveritLive is worth keeping an eye on.

Worried Pakistan board insures home series

Source: Reuters

KARACHI - The Pakistan cricket board has insured all its future tour program (FTP) series amidst the prospect of touring teams, particularly Australia, backing out due to security concerns and political unrest.

A senior board official told Reuters on Monday the insured series included the Australian tour in March-April.

“We have got all our FTP series insured because we don’t know what situation we might face from touring teams,” Shafqat Naghmi, chief operating officer of the board, said on Monday.

“So all this talk of us putting the Australian players at risk by insisting on their tour because of financial gains is baseless,” he said.

“It is not meant to send out negative signal to any team but to safeguard our finances.”

According to sources, the Australia series has been insured for around $7.4 million.

The PCB had made arrangements to cover its financial losses regardless of whether Australia toured Pakistan or not, he said.

The Australia tour has been in doubt since the assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto in December and following a wave of suicide bomb attacks in the country.

Some Australia players have also expressed concerns over touring Pakistan but Cricket Australia has said it had yet to take any decision.

Naghmi was confident the tour would go ahead as scheduled.

“We know that the Australian high commission has given a positive report to their government and the statement of (incoming) International Cricket Council president David Morgan is also very positive for us,” he said.

Morgan, who will take over as ICC chief from South Africa’s Ray Mali in June, recently urged Australia to tour Pakistan.

Naghmi said the board was very keen on Australia coming because they had not toured Pakistan since 1998.

“Our people want to see good cricket and the Australians can bring in the crowds,” he said. “Their tour will have a good impact on Pakistan cricket.”

Naghmi was hopeful Australia will come if the current tour by Zimbabwe went off smoothly.

Debutant Jamshed leads Pakistan run spree vs. Zimbabwe

Source: Reuters

KARACHI - Debutant opener Nasir Jamshed scored 61 as five batsmen struck half centuries to help Pakistan amass 347 for five in the first one-day international against Zimbabwe on Monday.

Younis Khan (79), Mohammad Yousuf (72), captain Shoaib Malik (63) and Misbah-ul Haq (55 not out) also scored fifties after Zimbabwe surprisingly elected to bowl first on a flat National Stadium pitch in the day-nighter.

Left-handed opener Jamshed gave the innings a flying start, scoring his runs from 48 balls with six fours and three sixes.Timing the ball effortlessly, he hit pacer Elton Chigumbura for a six to mid-wicket to reach his fifty from 40 balls after opener Salman Butt (4) was run out by Chamu Chibhabha from deep mid-wicket.

Pakistan also included uncapped left-arm paceman Samiullah Niazi.

Jamshed went at the total of 85 in the 15th over but the experienced Younis and Yousuf came together to add 113 runs from only 99 balls.

Younis made his 30th one-day fifty and Yousuf reeled out his 61st career half century as both dominated the listless bowling attack until experienced left arm spinner Ray Price had them both caught in the deep playing extravagant shots.

However, Malik and Misbah kept up the relentless attack, producing a fourth-wicket stand of 99 from 70 balls.

Zimbabwe captain and off-spinner Prosper Utseya went for 46 runs in five overs. (Editing by N.Ananthanarayanan)

Pakistan president begins Europe tour amid chaos at home

Source: AFP

BRUSSELS - Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf arrived in Brussels at the start of a European tour, with his international credibility badly tarnished by months of political chaos.

Musharraf held talks with members of the Pakistani community shortly after touching down Sunday, with his official programme set to begin Monday, an embassy official here said.

The Pakistani head of state is scheduled to meet EU foreign policy Javier Solana and NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, as well as address the European Parliament’s foreign affairs committee.

Musharraf, in his most important trip abroad since the crisis began, also has trade and defence cooperation talks planned with Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt.

His eight-day tour will also take him to Britain, France and Switzerland.

He is expected to face thorny questions over his commitment to fighting extremism after the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and on Pakistan’s slow progress to democratic elections set for February 18.

In the city centre, a small but noisy group of Bhutto supporters waving Pakistani flags gathered to denounce his visit, Belgian media reported.

In an interview with RTBF public television, Pakistan’s ambassador in Brussels, Saeed Khalid, said Musharraf would want to discuss developments on Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan.

“It’s entirely normal that the president would want to use this occassion to discuss important questions, like the situation in our region near Afghanisan, the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, and the fight against extremists,” he said.

Nuclear-armed Pakistan is a key ally in the US “war on terror”. NATO-led troops in Afghanistan complain regularly that Musharraf is not doing enough to stop Taliban-led fighters from hiding in his country.

As Musharraf flew out to clear up “misperceptions” about Pakistan, officials there uncovered bomb and poison plots aimed at causing massive loss of life during the Shiite Muslim festival of Ashura.

They also questioned a teenager allegedly linked to Bhutto’s killing.

“We want to clear certain misperceptions of all the happenings in Pakistan and the region,” Musharraf told reporters at Chaklala military base, according to the official Associated Press of Pakistan (APP).

In Europe, Spanish newspaper El Pais reported on its website that Spain’s authorities had warned France, Portugal and Britain of the possibility of attacks during Musharraf’s eight-day trip.

Small groups composed principally of Pakistanis were preparing to carry out attacks “imminently,” the report cited Spanish intelligence agency sources as saying.

On Saturday, the interior ministry said that Spanish police had smashed a suspected Islamist terror cell, arresting at least 14 people — 12 of them Pakistanis — and finding bomb-making equipment in raids in Barcelona.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero praised the intelligence services for the swoop but warned against leaping to conclusions about those arrested.

Belgian authorities said they do not plan to boost security beyond that which would be in place for a visit by any other head of state or government.

The Pakistani president is due to fly out to France Monday evening.

During his two days there, he will hold talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, before heading to Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum meeting Wednesday through Friday. He will be in Britain on Saturday.

As he arrived in Europe, rights group Amnesty International urged political and business leaders to press him to bring an end to human rights abuses.

“The international community must give a clear and unequivocal message to President Musharraf that restoring respect for human rights and the rule of law is key to establishing confidence in the forthcoming elections and arresting the spate of political violence in Pakistan,” Amnesty chief Irene Khan said.

Black gold and Yellow gold hit highs

He said it would happen - that the price of oil would hit $100 a barrel - and it has! Back in 2000 Michael Economides, author of "The Color of Oil", had predicted that oil would hit $100 a barrel - probably to great deal of good natured ribbing. The price of oil at the time was hovering around $30 and had not really gone too much above that mark in the previous decade, and even $50 was looking a bit far fetched.

It would have been a good time to buy into oil stocks as prices have risen higher year by year since 2002, to finally reach the $100 level in the first trading day of 2008.

Following a similar trend, gold has hit a record $900 per oz as of January 11th, 2008.

So what do you think the price of oil will be in 6 months? Is demand going to continue to outpace supply?

Teenager 'confesses' Bhutto plot

Pakistani police say they have arrested a teenage boy who has confessed to being part of a team instructed to kill opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.

It was the first arrest in connection with last month's assassination.

Security officials say the boy told them he was part of a backup squad trained to attack, if the initial attempt on her life had failed.

But local newspapers say investigators are treating the boy's claims with caution.

The unnamed 15-year-old was arrested in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province along with a more senior militant, officials say.

He allegedly told investigators that he would have been "next in line" to attack Ms Bhutto. more

Congressman Ron Paul on Islam, Muslims,Terrorism, America

Hard hitting, even if you allow for the author to be a rabid Pak-bashing Indian

Khaleej Times Junta versus Janata
BY SHEKHAR GUPTA  9 January 2008  PAKISTANIS surely coin more colorful political slogan than us. They are also less subtle. So, the next time you see visuals of a PPP protest rally on your TV screens following Benazir's assassination, strain your ears a bit to catch a most telling slogan: Amreeka ne kutta paala, vardi waala, vardi waala.  

It would lose much flavor in transliteration, but the meaning would not be lost on even a non-Hindi speaker. Now when was the last time you had the army called a dog, and that too an American poodle, on Pakistan's streets? And this is a Pakistan under an almighty (lately, former) general who has the power to declare and suspend emergency in televised speeches, the power to make 36 (or thereabouts) amendments in his "constitution" at a Press conference, and whose ability to take the biggest decisions on the spot is the envy, often, of the Indian politician, and has been a cause for admiration among India's chattering classes.  

How many times, since he came on his first visit for the Agra summit, have we heard fellow Indians, including serious, knowledgeable people, talk of him with a sense of awe? See, how confident he looks, how well he speaks, the swagger, so impressive, knows his mind, is so fit and energetic, so much in control, so macho, can-do and so on. The sub-text was, view this is total contrast with our own political class: overweight, badly dressed, clumsy, evasive in their answers, indecisive, inarticulate and, horror of horrors, not even able to speak any English.  

And then came Shaukat Aziz, on secondment from Citibank. So smart, articulate, in his smartly cut suits, blah, blah and blah. And what kind of people did we have holding the same job in India? Gowda, who slept in Parliament. Vajpayee, who never seems to answer any question. Gujral who only uttered diplomatic platitudes that meant nothing. And Narasimha Rao, who mostly pretended he had not even heard the question.  

Now let me tell you a few stories. Not necessarily connected either by timing or context, but yielding an interesting conclusion, nevertheless. One of the great untold stories of the Agra summit is how challenging it was for both Vajpayee and Musharraf to deal with each other. One thought he had the answer even before a question had been asked. The other would think for ever, and often tire out his interlocutor. Apparently at one of the mid-day review sessions Musharraf shared his exasperation with his aides. He said something like, I know you guys told me he takes time responding to anything, but how do I deal with somebody who takes so long and then says nothing? A bit like John McEnroe tossing his racket in exasperation while playing Ramesh Krishnan and screaming: How do I play this guy? He serves at five miles per hour! One of his aides tried to suggest that Vajpayee takes so long because he is processing Musharraf's question in his wise, old head. Musharraf was still irritated and somebody senior in his inner council said, with humor laced with disdain: to unka processor Pentium nahin, 286 hoga (then his processor must be a 286, not a Pentium).  

Now listen to the story from the other end. What exasperated Vajpayee most of all was Musharraf's cocky "decisiveness" . "You are the prime minister, I am the president, if we agree on something, let's sign," he would say, while at the same time making changes on the draft of a likely agreement and asking Vajpayee to okay it. He simply wouldn't buy Vajpayee's argument that he had a cabinet to go back to. "Par aap prime minister hain. Aap faisla keejiye (but you are the prime minister, you decide)," Musharraf would say. So when Vajpayee briefed his aides and fellow members of the Cabinet Committee on Security (who, barring George Fernandes, were in Agra), he said about his counterpart pretty much the opposite of what he said of him: "He is in such a hurry. Kuchch sochne ko taiyyar nahin hain. Sub kuch faisala abhi chahte hain, kaise samjhaoon bhai." Or words to that effect.  

In the main lounge of the Congress Centre at Davos, Switzerland, where all kinds from heads of state to global corporate leaders to rock stars to ordinary journalists congregate and rub shoulders during the World Economic Forum January meeting, I found my old friend, Pakistani journalist, part-time politician, now a full-time exile, Boston University professor and also an Indian Express columnist, Husain Haqqani. As we exchanged gossip, Shaukat Aziz walked past, accompanied by a couple of minders, perfectly cut suit, pompous, smug smile and all. Just that morning he had lectured many of us senior editors over breakfast, laying down the law for India: nothing would move, the gas pipeline, even the permission to Indian private airlines to fly to Pakistan unless the "core" issue was addressed. Again there was some admiration for his confidence and clarity even among the Indian contingent as he was "so unlike our bumbling politicians" .  

Haqqani's eyes were now lit up with mischief. He pointed his finger directly at Aziz and said: "You know what they say, Davos is the Disneyland of the mind. If that be so, there goes its Mickey Mouse."  

How have the relative fortunes of the two competing kinds of leaderships and nations under their charge evolved over these seven years? Musharraf now looks bumbling and unconvincing, an international joke, a pitiable, forlorn figure, hated by his countrymen, distrusted by the world and mentioned dismissively even by Barack Obama . Shaukat Aziz has disappeared from the scene, even losing out to an ordinary mortal - coincidentally from India - for the top job in his alma mater, Citi. Their country is a mess, their own army, for the first time, is seeing its credibility, power, its pre-eminent position in Pakistan's society and power structure questioned. Its political class is decimated, its institutions fatally wounded. How do people as proud as the Pakistanis feel when their dictator offers to salvage his credibility by summoning the Scotland Yard to investigate the assassination of their most prominent political leader? Nobody believes their election commission's intentions, motives or judgment in postponing their election.  

Vajpayee, on the other hand, sits at home, having lost power in an election, not in the pink of health, but satisfied at the way his country is moving. His successor, from the opposite side of the political fence, even comes to wish him on his birthday. His country has meanwhile had many more state elections and another general election within a year or so will give his successors in his own party another crack at power. Now, think, who finally won. The indecisive, inarticulate, ineffective slob who did not seem to have an answer to anything, or the macho, confident, smart, decisive, modern smartie who seemed to have an answer to everything?  

There are many interesting, and important conclusions to be drawn from this complex argument. But the most significant is this: a modern nation needs democracy and so it needs its politicians, however clumsy, corrupt, effete and power-crazed they may be. Because a military dictator can also be all of these things. The difference is, the political leader draws his power from the democratic process, so he has a stake in preserving that system, howsoever cynical he may be.  

The general draws his power by throttling the democratic system and its institutions and you can see the results of that in Pakistan. So, in a democracy, howsoever powerful a Lalu or Mayawati, they have to shut up and listen when the Supreme Court speaks. The election commission can publicly upbraid both Sonia Gandhi and Narendra Modi. We, the media, can question and curse who we want. It happens because the political class has the biggest stake in the democratic process, howsoever much it may wish to manipulate it. In contrast, a military dictator owes his power to the absence of institutions, of checks and balances. That is exactly what Musharraf has done to his judiciary, the election commission and even the media. That is why he has to summon the Scotland Yard to investigate Benazir's assassination.

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Angry Pakistanis turn against army

By: Christina Lamb in Islamabad

IT IS the most expensive - and talked about - property development in Pakistan, but few can get near it. Hidden behind barbed wire, the new state-of-the-art army headquarter to replace a garrison in Rawalpindi is costing a reputed £1 billion and will cover 2,400 acres of prime land in Islamabad, including lakes, a residential complex, schools and clinics.

Originally intended to represent the best of Pakistan, the new army HQ is now being seen as a symbol of all that is wrong with the country.

Amid nationwide anger over the killing of the opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and a widespread belief that the country’s military or intelligence may have been involved, the population is turning against the army for the first time.

From the wailing rice-pickers at Bhutto’s grave in the dusty village of Garhi Khuda Bakhsh in the southern province of Sindh to the western-educated elite sipping whisky and soda in the drawing rooms of Lahore, the message is the same: General Pervez Musharraf, the president, must go and the army must return to its barracks.

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Iran may not sign gas pipeline pact with Pakistan next week

Source: The Economic Times

NEW DELHI: Iran is unlikely to sign next week a bilateral agreement with Pakistan for export of natural gas and has said it was keen on India joining the tri-nation ‘peace’ pipeline project. “As we speak, there is no ceremony scheduled for signing of Gas Sales Purchase Agreement (GSPA) with Pakistan next week,” a senior Iranian official told PTI from Tehran.

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Ron Paul Still Tops The Charts On The Internet

Primaries? What primaries?!? All that matters is that Rep Ron Paul, the lovable Presidential candidate that the Internet has embraced, is still top of the charts when it comes to Internet searches!

Over at The Lycos 50, they’re showing off their latest list of the most searched on candidates, and there he is, sitting in the number one spot, Ron Paul. Now, never mind he only got 8% of the vote in New Hampshire, he is being searched on an astounding 150% more than the candidate in second place, Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee. Third place, and topping the Democrats, is Senator Hillary Clinton.

The overall list is fairly interesting, more so than the primaries to me:

1. Ron Paul

2. Mike Huckabee

3. Hillary Clinton

4 Mitt Romney

5. Barack Obama

6. Fred Thompson

7. John Edwards

8. John McCain

9. Alan Keyes

10. Rudy Giuliani

As things are shaping up, Barack Obama has seen the biggest leap in the past 6-months, with an impressive 167% jump in searches, while Fred Thompson has actually slid, John Edwards has held study, and Rudy Giuliani barely registers on the change radar.

Maybe it’s just that older than most of the folks around here, but I have just never seen anything like this.  While I am certainly not endorsing a candidate, going by traditional measuring, Ron Paul has about as much luck as an armadillo in a freeway during rush hour: i.e. No chance.  However, when you go on the Internet, he’s been hailed as the man who can lead us all to the Promised Land.

I don’t begrudge his supporters one bit, I just don’t get the online/off-line disconnect.

Zotero Is Your Online Research Assistant

Zotero (pronounced “zoh-TAIR-oh”) is a new browser plugin that is aiming to help you with your online research for any number of projects.

This tool will help you automatically store citations of webpages used in your research, store PDFs, take notes, export information, integrates with WordPress… basically it sounds like it will take out all the tedium of research and just let you concentrate on the important parts of looking for sources. I’m not sure there is any bigger pain in the universe than writing bibliography, so this sounds like a dream come true to me.

Currently the plugin works with Firefox 2.0, Netscape Navigator 9.0, or Flock 0.9.1, and is suited for cross-platform performance on Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Facebook To Allow Users To Hide Apps From Profile

Facebook has announced that due to complaints about the over abundance of apps of user profile pages they will soon allow users to hide their apps.

The “profile clean-up” tool is compared to how a “computer’s desktop will remind you to get rid of unused icons” (note here, Facebook is comparing themselves to Windows) that will allow users to move profile boxes to an “extended portion” of their profile.

Users can choose to move any or all of the application boxes, but according to Facebook’s Julie Zhuo Facebook “will recommend that [users] keep the Friends Box, Mini-Feed, Wall, Basic and Personal Information as well as the top 12 application boxes they have added.” Each profile will then have a link at the bottom to “Show Extended Profile, ” that will allow visitors to then see all applications a user has running.

The changes is a good thing for users of Facebook, who have been bombarded with cluttered profile pages that are reminicent of MySpace (without the awful colors) since the Faceebook platform launched last year. App makers on the other hand might not be so impressed. Many rely on profile exposure to help spread their apps virally, and now users can hide their apps, taking that benefit away. Unfortunately though this is still window dressing stuff from Facebook, the non-stop stream of rubbish that emanates from some apps (Funwall and Superwall in particular) remains untouched.

Chinese Blogger Beaten To Death By Government Officials

A Chinese blogger has been beaten to death by Government authorities for the crime of attempting to record a protest on his mobile phone.

When Wei was present at some sort of confrontation or protest by local villages against municipal authorities when more than 50 municipal inspectors turned on him, attacking him for five minutes.

According to CNN, the killing has sparked outrage in China, “with thousands expressing outrage in Chinese Internet chat rooms, often the only outlet for public criticism of the government.”

The Chinese Government has moved swiftly to detain those involved, arresting 24 municipal inspectors whilst investigating more than 100 others in relation to the incident. Notably (for China) the story was published by the official state news service Xinhua, in what is believed to be an attempt to head off dissent over the mater by demonstrating that the Chinese Government does not condone those involved in the beating.

The west has not just repressed democracy, it has aided terror!

Source: The Guardian

Pakistan has as many paradigms as pundits. What is clear, however, is that meddling will only ever foment disorder

Simon Jenkins in Lahore

The Pakistani senator gazed at the headline in despair. It read: “US weighs new covert push in Pakistan”. Washington was authorising “enhanced CIA activity” in the country while US Democratic candidates declared they were all ready “to launch unilateral military strikes in [Pakistan] if they detected an imminent threat”. Hillary Clinton wanted “joint US-UK oversight” of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons. In a country where anti-Americanism is almost a religion, said the senator, this is “an answer to a Taliban prayer”.

I am convinced that those whom the gods wish to destroy they first curse with foreign policy. For the third time in 20 years, the west is meddling with the world’s sixth most populous state. It did so to promote the Afghan mujahideen against the Russians in the 1980s, then to attack al-Qaida after 9/11, and now to “guard” Pakistan’s bombs against a fantastical al-Qaida seizure. Needless to say, the sole beneficiaries are the Taliban and the forces of disorder.That said, few other conclusions can be drawn from a country that, more than any I know, is Churchill’s riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. Pakistan has as many paradigms as pundits. You can take your choice. Thesis A is that President Pervez Musharraf is a well-meaning dictator who sought rapprochement with Benazir Bhutto to “transit” to democracy, and who still remains the best hope for guiding his country to civilian rule. Thesis B depicts him as a popinjay dictator who kills people, locks up judges, censors the media and runs a brutal fascist party, the MQM. He had no intention of working with Bhutto, whom he detested, and has so much blood on his hands as to be easily capable of consenting to her death.

Thesis C has Bhutto herself as a perfidious and corrupt hereditary monarch in thrall to a monster husband whose base was limited to Sindh province and London’s media drawing-rooms. She indulged Washington’s John Negroponte in his ham-fisted attempt to prop up Musharraf last year, but only so as to escape corruption charges and enjoy a modest taste of power. Thesis D says this is outrageous. Bhutto was the one Pakistani politician with experience and stature at home and abroad. She knew she could rule only with army permission but could have faced down the military, negotiated with the Taliban districts and steered Pakistan to democracy. Her going is a catastrophe.

Forget that, says thesis E. The US-backed Pakistan army, responsible for almost a quarter of the country’s economy, will never cede power. It is the sole embodiment of central control in this 60-year-old federal state, and its guarantor against another partition like Bangladesh in 1971. It cannot afford to trust unruly politicians such as Bhutto and her ilk and must be trusted by Pakistan’s allies abroad.

Rubbish, says thesis F. Pakistan’s army makes Saddam’s Republican Guard seem a bunch of pansies. Its Punjabi oligarchs and their agencies kill at will and feud even with their Taliban allies, as in last year’s slaughter at Islamabad’s Red Mosque. It has failed to curb the Taliban and nobody, not even Musharraf, is safe from it.

As for Pakistan in general, thesis G has it teetering on the brink of breaking apart, as the army readies itself to nullify next month’s election with rigging and corruption. A bloodbath will follow, in which Sindh province breaks away and the north-west becomes an al-Qaida enclave, lowering over Kabul. No it will not, says thesis H. Pakistan is made of rubber, bouncing back from every reverse. It has a mature “civil society” of lawyers, businessmen, politicians and even some generals, sensitive to their image abroad and deeply ashamed of their dictatorship. The elections may be a mess but they will somehow move Pakistan, stumbling and trembling, to eventual civilian rule. Religious parties are supported by barely 10% of the electorate, and even the army is overwhelmingly secular. An Islamist state is inconceivable.

Since there are grains of plausibility in all these theses, much turns on the fate of next month’s elections. Musharraf, weakened by his November 3 coup, still has 60 top judges imprisoned, including the nation’s chief justice, locked up with his disabled son. With the charismatic Bhutto dead and the Negroponte intervention shattered, he is in a tight spot. He may yet cancel the vote and invite mayhem on to the streets.

There is certainly an openness to Pakistan’s dictatorship compared with other Islamic states, and some westerners have appeased Musharraf as “our” dictator, operating a “doctrine of necessity”. But there is nothing in this man’s track record to suggest that he is not a paid-up member of the dictatoring classes. His agents treat democrats with contempt and he funnels huge sums into his pockets and those of his generals. About 80% of US aid to Pakistan since Musharraf came to power has gone on military assistance, less than a quarter of it used even remotely against the Taliban. The virtual collapse of the state school system has followed a fall in education spending from 4% to 1.8% of GDP, one of the lowest in Asia. In its place have mushroomed the free madrasas, from a few hundred to over 10,000, financed by Wahhabist Saudi money and formerly in league with American-financed mujahideen training camps. Intended to fight the Russians in Afghanistan, they have since become a network of “faith training” for the poor, teaching little but the Qur’an. This is Musharraf’s (and America’s) most lethal bequest to Pakistan’s political economy.

America’s clodhopping sponsorship of Musharraf drove him to renege on the treaties with the tribal states, fomenting a Pashtun insurgency. The Afghan frontier has duly proved al-Qaida’s juiciest hunting ground, aided by every American bombing raid and every Pakistan army atrocity. The Pashtun mujahideen (whose American backers are well-documented in the film Charlie Wilson’s War) is a Frankenstein monster that has turned its vengeance on Musharraf, Afghanistan and Washington alike.

Whatever the defects of democracy, and in Asia they are legion, it remains the least worst way of curbing authoritarian power. There is no alternative. America’s handling of Musharraf since 9/11 - essentially to capture one man, Osama bin Laden - has rendered swaths of his country, from Baluchistan in the south to Swat in the north, wholly insecure. Even the Grand Trunk Road from Islamabad to Peshawar is patrolled by the Taliban. The idea that Musharraf’s troops, let alone the CIA or the US airforce, might suppress a people who have worsted every empire from the Mughals to the British is ludicrous. Modern armies are no agents of pacification. Civilian negotiation in a context of democratic assent is at very least worth a try.

Backing Musharraf has always seemed “a good idea at the time”. The next person to be cursed with Washington’s favour appears to be Musharraf’s successor as army chief, General Ashfaq Kiyani. However, by opting for the realpolitik of dictatorship the west has not just repressed democracy but aided insurgency and terror. It has yielded no security benefit to anyone. If Pakistan becomes a “failed state”, the failure will, in large part, be one of democratic imagination in Washington and London. We simply refuse to practise what we preach.

simon.jenkins@guardian.co.uk

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Source: NaiTazi
Google maps has been around for a few years now and there are relatively high resolution pictures available for most Pakistani cities. But now there is a new website for road maps of Pakistan (naqsha.net). The difference is that the maps are searchable and routable. Users can search streets and roads as well as hundreds of place marks using the simple interface. The map will zoom into the location you have searched and you can use it for routing as well. Just select two points and get driving directions for getting from one point to the other.