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waqarabro	Apr 30 2008, 11:14 PM
Swash-buckling Posts: 337 Group: Members Member #553 Joined: October 21, 2007	Wednesday, April 30, 2008 Gilani for meaningful talks with India on Kashmir MUZAFFARABAD: Prime Minister Syed Yousuf RazaGilani Wednesday said the people of Kashmir have offered sacrifices for their right of self-determination and assured that these sacrifices would not go in vain. Yousuf Raza Gilani was addressing the joint sitting of AJK Legislative Assembly and AJK Council after his arrival here. He said his government would hold meaningful talks with India for resolution of the Kashmir issue. Gilani said Pakistan has always pursued the path of peace and wants opportunities for the Kashmiris on both sides to meet each other. He called for promotion of tourism and trade across the line of control. He said solution of Kashmir issue was essential for the regional development. Gilani said that the AJK legislators will be included in Pakistan delegations. In the next federal budges Rs. Five million grant will be allocated for every member of the AJK Assembly, he further said. He promised to prepare strategy for setting up a women university in Azad Kashmir. He said the earthquake rehabilitation work will be stepped up in the region. Decisive talks between Nawaz, Zardari on judges restoration DUBAI: A decisive round of talks between Asif Zardari and Nawaz Sharif on the issue of restoration of judges being held here. Earlier, Nawaz Sharif reached Dubai for the talks, was received by Co-Chairman of People’s Party Asif Zardari. Talking to media before leaving for dialogue, Mian Nawaz Sharif said that Muslim League wants restoration of judges by executive order whereas People’s Party through a constitutional package. Nawaz said that extension in deadline would be considered in case of clear road map adding, “ we are determined for restoration of judges”. Second round of talks between Nawaz-Zardari in progress DUBAI: The second round of crucial talks between Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chief Asif Ali Zardari and Chief of Pakistan Muslim League-N, Mian Nawaz Sharif is in progress here. In the first round both the parties agreed to keep their coalition strong like before. However, no clear outcome came to light on the issue of deadline in connection with the restoration of judiciary. Prior to leaving for Dubai, Mian Nawaz Sharif talking to media said PML-N wants judges reinstatement through an executive order while the PPP has linked it with the constitutional package. “Extension in the deadline can be reviewed in case of getting a clear road map,” he further said, adding, “we are determined to restore the deposed judiciary.” World’s fifth-oldest giant panda dies of heart failure TOKYO: Japan's oldest giant panda, Ling Ling, a longtime star at Tokyo's largest zoo and a symbol of friendship with China, died Wednesday of heart failure, zookeepers said. Ling Ling was 22 years and seven months old, the Ueno Zoo said. It said he was the fifth-oldest known male panda in the world. Ling Ling began losing his appetite and strength last August because of his old age, and recently suffered from heart and kidney problems, zoo officials said. Born at China's Beijing Zoo in 1985, Ling Ling came to Tokyo in1992. http://www.geo.tv/index.html UK's Prince William on secret Afghan trip LONDON - Prince William, second in line to the British throne, paid a secret visit to Afghanistan to meet frontline British troops, his office said on Wednesday. A spokesman said the 25-year-old prince, recently awarded his Royal Air Force (RAF) wings after a training course, flew a military transport plane for part of the journey to Kandahar. He spent three hours with British service personnel at the airfield before returning home, the spokesman said. The trip made headlines in British newspapers on Wednesday but sparked questions about whether it was simply a public relations exercise. William was criticised recently for flying military Chinook helicopters to a bachelor party for his cousin and to his girlfriend Kate Middleton's family home. "The cynics amongst us will say it's an attempt to cover up the Chinook jollies," former royal protection officer Ken Wharfe told BBC television. Publicist Max Clifford agreed. "This was a good public relations exercise," he told the BBC. Permission for the trip on Monday was given by William's grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, and his father, Prince Charles. "The purpose of the trip was for the prince to familiarise himself with the operations of the RAF in theatre," a spokesman said, adding that the 30-hour trip had "passed without a hitch". The prince flew in a C-17 Globemaster military transport plane which left a Royal Air Force base on Sunday, arriving in Afghanistan the next day. He flew back home via Qatar. William's younger brother Harry served for 10 weeks with British troops in Helmand province earlier this year. His tour of duty was abruptly cut short when a media blackout was broken and military chiefs began to fear for his safety as a prime target for a Taliban attack. William's trip came after four months of training with the Royal Air Force that ended at a graduation ceremony where he was presented with his wings by his father. William and Harry's uncle, Prince Andrew, was a Sea King helicopter pilot during the 1982 Falklands war. Some 500 killed in ongoing Sadr City clashes BAGHDAD - A Sadrist leader said on Wednesday that at least 500 people have been killed, most of them women and children, and 2,000 wounded in the ongoing intense clashes between militants and Iraqi forces in Baghdad's Sadr City since March 25. Fatah al-Sheikh, a Sadrist leader, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that the situation in Sadr City is "dramatic." He added: "A crisis is widely anticipated in the city amid a governmental total silence". US air raids on the city continued between late Tuesday and the early hours Wednesday amid intense clashes between militants and Iraqi forces, al-Sheikh said. The Sadrist leader stressed that the militants engaged in clashes with the Iraqi troops do not belong to the Mahdi Army, a militia loyal to the radical Shiite cleric Moqada al-Sadr. He added that the Sadrist movement plans to issue a statement on Sunday to explain the violent acts taking place in the city. Al-Sheikh said reports about finding Iranian weapons in the Sadr City were correct, adding that the al-Sadr movement fears that foreign sides could be sponsoring militants in the area. Sadr City inhabitants were moving from the area due to the continuous clashes and violence, al-Sheikh said. On Tuesday, at least 28 people were killed during clashes in Sadr City. Meanwhile, two members of the Awakening Councils were killed and another one was wounded when a road bomb went off in Abasy area in the Northern city of Tikrit, Iraqi police sources told dpa. April deadliest month for US in Iraq in half year BAGHDAD - April proved the deadliest month for U.S. troops in Iraq in half a year, with the reported deaths of two more soldiers on Wedensday bringing the month's toll to 46. Two hospitals in Sadr City, the Shi'ite slum that has been the focus of fighting in the capital, said 421 Iraqis had been killed and more than 2,400 wounded there since late March. Thirty-four bodies and 112 wounded victims were brought to the two Sadr City hospitals in the last 24 hours, after battles in the slum that saw fighters attack U.S. forces under the cover of blinding dust storms. The U.S. death toll is the highest since September, when 65 U.S. soldiers died in Iraq according to figures compiled by icasualties.org, an independent Website that tracks military deaths, but is still far lower than a year ago. In April last year 104 U.S. service members were killed in Iraq. In a statement, the U.S. military said gunmen killed one soldier in northwestern Baghdad on Tuesday. The second soldier was killed in a roadside bomb attack on his vehicle, also in the northwestern part of the Iraqi capital on Tuesday. Around half the U.S. troop deaths in Iraq this month have been in Baghdad, including several killed by rocket and mortar fire from the eastern Baghdad stronghold of anti-American Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. U.S. and Iraqi forces have been fighting battles against Shi'ite gunmen in and around the Sadr City bastion for weeks. American forces said they killed 34 militiamen in Sadr City on Tuesday in a series of clashes including one street battle that raged for four hours. U.S. and Iraqi forces have been battling Shi'ite militiamen in Sadr City and other Shi'ite parts of Baghdad for a month, since Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki launched a crackdown on the militia in the southern city of Basra. After early setbacks, the Basra offensive appears to have been a success, driving militia members from the streets. But in Baghdad the militia still control Sadr City and other areas. Sunni Arab areas of Baghdad, where U.S. forces fought their heaviest battles a year ago, remain quieter. Al Qaeda has largely been pushed out of Baghdad and regrouped in provinces north of the city. http://www.khaleejtimes.com/Index00.asp
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