Head of Bhutto clan rejects new leadership

Source: Globe and Mail

Mirpur Bhutto, Pakistan — The head of the Bhutto tribe, a founding member of the Pakistan Peoples Party, has rejected the appointment of Benazir Bhutto’s husband and son to lead the group and predicted that it will split the party.

Mumtaz Bhutto’s comments threaten to reopen the deep fissures in the family, Pakistan’s foremost political dynasty. The Bhuttos started to fall out after the 1979 execution of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the nation’s first elected prime minister who turned the Peoples Party into its most potent political force. more

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2007 was deadliest year for U.S. troops in Iraq

updated 12:00 p.m. ET Dec. 31, 2007

BAGHDAD - The second half of 2007 saw violence drop dramatically in Iraq, but the progress came at a high price: The year was the deadliest for the U.S. military since the 2003 invasion, with 899 troops killed.

American commanders and diplomats, however, say the battlefield gains against insurgents such as al-Qaida in Iraq offer only a partial picture of where the country stands as the war moves toward its five-year mark in March.

Two critical shifts that boosted U.S.-led forces in 2007 — a self-imposed cease-fire by a main Shiite militia and a grassroots Sunni revolt against extremists — could still unravel unless serious unity efforts are made by the Iraqi government. more

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Harvard to include poor students

HARVARD University’s announcement earlier this month that it will offer significant financial assistance to students from families with household incomes between $120,000 and $180,000 presented an unlikely image: the upper-middle-class scholarship student.

Harvard hopes its plan to charge those students 10 percent of their household income will attract students of middle- and upper-middle-class parents who have been scared off by its $45,000-plus price tag. It seems a safe bet. Since 2004, when Harvard began offering free tuition to families with incomes of $40,000 or less (it has since raised the cutoff to $60,000), the number of low-income students has increased by 33 percent.

But Harvard officials also expressed hope that its new policy would erode the “upstairs-downstairs syndrome” that still pervades there. They spoke of a divide in which only wealthy students are able to pursue highly valuable but unpaid research opportunities, take unpaid summer internships or study abroad. more

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Cyprus and Malta adopt the euro

Two Mediterranean island states, Cyprus and Malta, have begun using the euro, joining 13 other countries.

The countries' leaders made symbolic withdrawals of euros from cash machines just minutes into the New Year. Major bank branches opened for a few hours in Cyprus despite the New Year holiday. The Maltese celebrated the euro's arrival with fireworks.

Cyprus and Malta have added just 1.2 million people to the number of Europeans using the single currency. But they will have equal voting rights with the other 13 eurozone members at the European Central Bank.

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Family values promote peace of the world

Pope Benedict XVI has described family values as the foundation of world peace in his New Year's Day Mass.
"The family is the first and indispensable teacher of peace," the Pope told worshippers at St Peter's Square in Rome. The pontiff said that "whoever, even unknowingly, circumvents the institution of the family undermines peace in the entire community".

Pope Benedict has made defending the traditional family a priority. The Vatican opposes granting legal recognition to gay and unwed couples, though the Pope did not touch on such controversies directly in his New Year prayer on Tuesday.

"Everything that serves to weaken the family based on the marriage of a man and a woman... constitutes an objective obstacle on the road to peace," he said. His message followed a pro-family rally by hundreds of thousands of Spanish Catholics on Sunday, which he had addressed via a video link.

His New Year prayer included a plea for renewed global efforts to dismantle nuclear weapons and curb the arms trade.

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Open challenge to Ahmad Quraishi

Mr. Quraishi,

Your orchestrated fallacious theories are severely detrimental for Pakistan. The conspiracy theories you craft and project, the 'Immaculate Deception Creations Tailored to Your Senses' are senseless, baseless and without any substance or material. Hence I challenge you to an open one-on-one live debate in the upcoming days. I am also forwarding this email to over 500 journalists, both national and international, as I am pretty certain you neither have the courage nor civility to come forward and accept this challenge and this should be enough to expose you.

In the highly unlikely event that you do end up accepting this challenge you will have to debate me in an open event which will ideally be broadcasted live and in the presence of local and foreign media and security analysts apart from any audience that turns up there. Formal rules of parliamentary debate shall be observed. It will be held at a mutually acceptable location and time. All logistics will be worked out and agreed with you before hand. I will identify myself only at the event.

Failure to reply to this email within 72-hours shall mean a forfeiture on your part and acceptance that you are nothing more than a potty-mouthed deceiver hired by the agencies in Pakistan. The world will be made aware of your response, whatever it may be.

Regards,
Al-Sadiq

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Baitullah Mehsud Did NOT Kill Benazir Bhutto: PPP Spokesman

Mehsud Had Told Benazir: 'I Am Not Your Enemy'

By: MUHAMMAD AHMAD NOORANI

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, 30 December 2007 (The News) - "Identify your enemy, I am not your enemy, I have nothing to do with you or against you or with the assassination attempt on you on October 19," Baitullah Mehsud, the local Waziristan tribal leader conveyed this message twice to Benazir Bhutto, the PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar claimed on Saturday.

"The top PPP leadership trusted the message," Babar disclosed, adding that it was conveyed by Mehsud through two different reliable emissaries after the October 19 assassination attempt on her life in Karsaz, Karachi.

Mehsud had conveyed to Benazir Bhutto that his activities were limited to Waziristan and were of a defensive nature. "I have neither the resources to fight outside Waziristan nor I have any plans to attack Benazir Bhutto in future," Mehsud had conveyed to the top PPP
leadership.

Babar claimed that the voice recording of the alleged conversation between Baitullah Mehsud and another religious leader presented before the media on Friday by the [Pakistan] Interior Ministry was ridiculous and a deliberate attempt to divert the attention of the nation from
the real culprits.

He added: "We have no doubt that Baitullah Mehsud is not involved in Thursday's [27 December 2007] tragic incident. Rather, we have serious doubts against those mentioned in the letter written by Benazir to Pervez Musharraf before and after the October 19 Karsaz tragedy."

"If the government had seriously gone through the contents of the letter and had fulfilled our demand to hire the services of some foreign investigative agencies to probe into the Karachi attack, Thursday's tragic incident might have been avoided," Babar added.

"Instead of diverting the attention of the people of Pakistan towards Baitullah Mehsud, should the government hire the services of an international professional investigative agency, matters can proceed in a better direction," Babar said.

"Now the people of Pakistan can understand when someone is trying to fool them," Babar said, adding: "If an inquiry in the murder case of Rafiq Hariri can be held by international experts, it can also be held in this case to expose the conspirators."

PPP Demands Probe Based on Benazir's Letter

The chief of Benazir Bhutto's security, Rehman Malik, told The News on Friday he was conveyed through a senior journalist who had directly spoken to Baitullah Mehsud that Mehsud had no enmity with Benazir and had no plans to attack or kill her.

He said that the PPP had demanded of the government to give credible evidences, if it had any, regarding the involvement of Baitullah Mehsud in the tragic incident.

He said as the security adviser to Benazir Bhutto, he still had not received any medical or enquiry report of the incident or the recording of the conversation on phone between Mehsud and his companion.

He said that he would be in a proper position to comment on the government findings after he would officially receive the documents.

Earlier, on the directions of the PPP Chairperson, Senator Safdar Abbasi had asked Senator Saleh Shah to contact Baitullah Mehsud and ask him why he wanted to kill Benazir Bhutto. When Saleh Shah met Mehsud at an unidentified location in the tribal areas, Mehsud assured Saleh Shah that some enemy of Benazir was deliberately attempting to spread misinformation that he wanted to kill her.

"I have no plans to do so and have no enmity with Benazir Bhutto," Mehsud had assured the Senator.

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Public Message

Never buy Land Cruisers or any vehicle with sun roof becoz it has lever that can hit your forehead pressing the bone and blood will go to throat and u cant breath, and u will die before reaching General Hospital and your family will not permit the post martum, also that there will be strikes and no availability of fuel to your vehicles.
 
Your well wishers
Pak Camel and Donkey Cart Association.

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