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waqarabro	Jun 17 2008, 08:21 PM
Swash-buckling Posts: 337 Group: Members Member #553 Joined: October 21, 2007	Washington backs Afghan hot pursuit into Pakistan LONDON: In the American administration’s first significant, if possibly highly selective, approval for the cross-border pursuit of “extremists in safe havens” in South Asia, George Bush has said he understands Afghan president Hamid Karzai’s frustrations. Commenting on Karzai’s first-ever threat to send Afghan troops to fight notorious Taliban leaders inside Pakistan, Bush told the world media that America’s strategy “is to deny safe haven to people who do harm to people, those who murder to achieve political objectives and seek safe haven”. He said “if people are coming from one country to kill innocent people (in another), they (the victims’ country) will be concerned”. He added, in what many believe to be the strongest-ever justification of South Asian countries’ right to what Karzai called ‘self-defence’, that the world “can’t allow cross-border havens, can’t allow extremists to have safe havens”. But commentators said the apparent American understanding of Afghanistan’s concerns may not extend to other countries, such as India, which have, in the past been warned not to pursue militants operating out of Pakistan across the border. Bush’s refusal to slap down Karzai for delivering his controversial angry warning to Afghanistan’s eastern neighbour for an escalating series of bloody cross-border attacks is certain to infuriate Islamabad, which has already complained about last week’s aerial attacks by US forces along the Afghan-Pakistan border. On Sunday, Pakistan PM Yousaf Raza Gilani warned Karzai that his country was a sovereign state and “neither do we interfere in anyone else’s matters, nor will we allow anyone to interfere in our territorial limits and our affairs”. Bush, Musharraf, Ahmadinejad least trusted leaders WASHINGTON: US President George W Bush is ranked only slightly above the rulers of Pakistan and Iran as one of the least-trusted leaders in the world, a survey released on Monday showed. The survey, carried out by WorldPublicOpinion.org in 20 countries around the world, found that no national leaders inspired wide confidence outside their own countries. But Bush, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ranked at the bottom, the polling showed. Only 23 per cent of people outside the United States had "a lot or some" confidence in Bush, compared to 22 per cent for Ahmadinejad and 18 percent for Musharraf. The leaders of other countries fared little better. Only 26 per cent had confidence in French President Nicolas Sarkozy, 28 per cent in Chinese President Hu Jintao, 30 per cent in British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and 32 per cent in Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has since become prime minister. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had the highest confidence levels, at 35 per cent. "While the worldwide mistrust of George Bush has created a global leadership vacuum, no alternative leader has stepped into the breach," said Steven Kull, director of WorldPublicOpinion.org. "Hu Jintao and Vladimir Putin are popular among some nations, but more mistrust them than trust them." WorldPublicOpinion.org is a project involving research centres around the world and is managed by the Programme on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland. The group polled 19,751 people in nations that represent 60 per cent of the world's population. The survey was conducted between January 10 and May 6, with margins of error of plus or minus 2 to 4 per cent. PPP will soon appoint next president: Zardari LAHORE: With rival-turned ally Nawaz Sharif stealing the limelight with his full-throttle demand for Pervez Musharraf's ouster, PPP chairman Asif Ali Zardari has said his party will soon "appoint" the next president, hinting that the former general's days in office could be numbered. "The day is not far off when someone like Salman Taseer will be in the presidency. The PPP will soon appoint the next president," Zardari said addressing a gathering of PPP workers at the governor's house here on Monday night. He was referring to Tasser, a Pakistan People's Party stalwart who was recently made governor of Punjab province. Zardari said the presidency will soon resound with slogans like "Jeay Bhutto" (Long live Bhutto). Though Zardari had last month described Musharraf as a "relic of the past standing between the people and democracy, the PPP has been lukewarm to PML (N) leader Sharif's demand to remove him from presidency. The PPP has accepted the challenge of ridding the country of dictators, Zaradari, husband of slain former premier Benazir Bhutto, said. "We are determined to make Pakistan a real democratic country and will make a decision as to when to take the initiative in this regard." In a veiled reference to last week's "long march" by the lawyers' movement, where Sharif made a vociferous demand for Musharraf's sacking and trial, Zardari said it was a "mere carnival". The PPP knew better how to organise a successful long march and when it arranges such a protest, the whole world would see huge public participation in it, he said. Zardari said the PPP will take revenge against the "anti-democratic forces" that assassinated party chairperson and former premier Benazir Bhutto by bringing real democracy into the country. "The PPP has the credit of struggling against (military rulers) Ayub Khan and Zia-ul-Haq and will continue its struggle to ensure real democracy." As the PPP workers shouted slogans like "Jeay Bhutto" and 'Zinda hai zinda hai Benazir", he said, "The day is not far off when president's house will also echo with such slogans." The PPP's leadership and workers have the power to save Pakistan from dictatorship, he said.
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