Friday prayers blast kills 40 in Pakistan

A deadly explosion has struck Friday prayers at a mosque in northwest Pakistan, leaving some 40 people killed, and many others wounded. "Around 40 people are killed…we have no idea as yet how many have been wounded," Reuters quoted government officials in Upper Dir. The explosion site in the northwestern area is close to Swat valley, where the Pakistani military forces have been engaged in a huge offensive against pro-Taliban militants since last month. The incident is the latest in a fresh spate of violence in the country with insurgents threatening to launch more attacks, already numbering to nine since the start of the military campaign to destroy militant havens in Swat. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the Friday blast. Dir's bombing, which the police described as a suicide attack took more lives than last Wednesday's explosion in Lahore. The Lahore blast killed almost 30 people and injured 300 as it flattened a police building and ripped through an intelligence office in the eastern city. A day later, two simultaneous explosions in Qisa Khwani and Kabari Bazar in Peshawar followed by two separate ones outside the capital of the North Western Frontier Province city, leaving at least 14 people killed and more than 100 others injured. On March 27, a gunman blew himself up in a mosque packed with worshippers in Jamrud, also in northwest Pakistan, killing about 50 people.

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Sadr: Obama has subtle plans to control world

Iraq's senior cleric Moqtada al-Sadr says Barack Obama's speech indicates that the US wants to take a different avenue to bring the world under its control. "The honeyed political speech expressed only one aim -- America wants to take a different avenue to bring the world under its control" compared to the former US president George W. Bush's strategies, Sadr said in a statement released to journalists in the holy city of Najaf on Thursday. "Obama cannot change the American policies... which were and are still hostile to Islam, and that will continue," he added. The Iraqi cleric further pointed out that he would trust the US president "only after their (the US) withdrawal from our beloved Iraq and Muslim Afghanistan and their withdrawal of support for the Israeli enemy, and I hope for this from him." "Let him know that the resistance and the opposition will continue. We don't believe his words," he noted. The US president pledged to forge a "new beginning" for Islam and America in his speech in Cairo, vowing to purge years of "suspicion and discord." The American leader vowed to end mistrust, forge a state for Palestinians and defuse a nuclear showdown with the Islamic Republic. Meanwhile, Lebanon's Hezbollah said on Thursday that US President Barack Obama's Cairo speech had signaled no real shift in US policy in the Arab world.

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Barack admits US role in 1953 Iran coup

US President Barack Obama has admitted US involvement in the 1953 coup in Iran which overthrew the democratically elected government of premier Mohammad Mossadegh. "In the middle of the Cold War, the United States played a role in the overthrow of a democratically elected Iranian government," Obama said during his keynote speech to the Muslim world from Cairo University in the Egyptian capital. It is the first time a sitting US president has publicly admitted American involvement in the coup. The CIA, with British backing, masterminded the coup after Mossadegh nationalized the oil industry, run until then by the British-owned Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. The oil company had been for many decades the largest single financial asset of the British government. For many Iranians, the coup demonstrated duplicity by the United States, which presented itself as a defender of freedom but did not hesitate to use underhand methods to get rid of a democratically elected government to suit its own economic and strategic interests (something the British were to note bitterly after Anglo-Iran's operations were taken over by by an American consortium in the immediate post-coup years). The 1953 Tehran skullduggery was the first time the CIA was directly involved in this type of action and its success fed into a long string of such involvements around the world, the democratically-elected government of president Jacobo Arbenz Guzman in Guatemala being the next victim in 1954. That same year, the Muslim Brotherhood was banned and decapitated in Egypt, with the Nasser regime being assisted by the guiding hand of Kerrmit 'Kim' Roosevelt, the same CIA operative who ran 'Operation Ajax', the code-name of the 1953 Iran coup. The meat of Obama's words on Iran-US ties frankly noted, "For many years, Iran has defined itself in part by its opposition to my country, and there is in fact a tumultuous history between us. "Since the Islamic Revolution, Iran has played a role in acts of hostage-taking and violence against US troops and civilians. This history is well known." "Rather than remain trapped in the past, I've made it clear to Iran's leaders and people that my country is prepared to move forward. The question now is not what Iran is against, but rather what future it wants to build." Shortly after Obama's inauguration on January 20, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad demanded apologies for "crimes" he said the United States had committed against Iran, starting with the 1953 coup. On Thursday, ahead of Obama's speech, Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei had said, "Nations in the region hate the United States from the bottom of their hearts because they have seen violence, military intervention and discrimination (from that country)."

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Obama intel nominee involved in 'torture'

Barack Obama's pick for a top intelligence post at the Homeland Security Department has ties to the CIA's 'torture' program, says a congressional aide. The aide who spoke on condition of anonymity revealed the case, the Associated Press reported on Thursday. President Obama nominated Philip Mudd to be under secretary of intelligence and analysis at Homeland Security. His confirmation hearing is expected next week. Mudd was deputy director of the Office of Terrorism Analysis at the CIA during the administration of former president George W. Bush. He had knowledge of the agency's 'torturous' interrogation methods. The Senate will have to decide if indirect involvement or knowledge of the agency's interrogations, which included a method of simulated drowning called "waterboarding," is enough to disqualify a candidate. The congressional aide said that Mudd is likely to be questioned on whether the analysis branch pressured interrogators in the field to use harsher methods because they believed detainees were not telling the truth. In April, Obama released classified CIA memos that showed Bush administration lawyers authorized the use of techniques against enemy combatants. Later, Obama, who called them torture, banned the use of the techniques.

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Pakistan: Up to 700 militants killed

The Pakistani government says the country's military offensive against militancy claims the lives of up to 700 militants in northwestern Pakistan. Interior Minister Rehman Malik told reporters on Monday that 20 Pakistani soldiers were also killed in fighting against the militants. The minister added that the operations would continue to completely destroy the militants. The military has already deployed over 15-thousand troops to the conflict zones in the Buner and Dir districts as well as the Swat Valley. Earlier on Sunday, Pakistan's military -- backed by helicopter gunships and heavy artillery -- pounded militants hideouts, a Press TV correspondent reported. Islamabad said that the Sunday clashes killed about 200 militants in northwestern Pakistan's Swat Valley. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees estimated 150,000 to 200,000 civilians had fled the scene of the fighting in the North-West Frontier Province. A UN spokesman warned that "massive displacement" of civilians is likely with government forces using helicopter gunships, tanks and artillery.

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Petraeus: Afghanistan no longer al-Qaeda haven

Gen. David Petraeus says "very significant losses" in recent months have triggered al-Qaeda to move their headquarters from Afghanistan to western Pakistan. Appearing on "FOX News Sunday" and CNN's "State of the Union," on Sunday the head of the US Central Command said the group was no longer holding its headquarters in Afghanistan. Petraeus, however, said that some branches of the terrorist group are still active in "enclaves and sanctuaries" in Afghanistan. The top US military commander also warned that "tentacles of al-Qaeda" have spread across the countries from the Middle East to northern Africa. Petraeus said he believes Osama bin Laden and his No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri remain in charge of the terrorist network. "They surface periodically. We see communications that they send out," Petraeus said. Though Petraeus said there was no known location for either of the terrorists, he said al-Qaeda senior leadership clearly is rooted in the border region of western Pakistan. "There's no question that al-Qaeda's senior leadership has been there and has been in operation for years," Petraeus said. President Barack Obama and his team claim Pakistan is the new sanctuary for al-Qaeda and Taliban operatives, vowing to withdraw forces from Iraq and redeploy them in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Obama had earlier declared plans to send another 4,000 troops to Afghanistan in addition to 17,000 extra troops already deployed in the war-ravaged country.

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Zardari: Pakistan won't fall to Taliban

Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari has ruled out that his nuclear-armed county will collapse in face of the Taliban insurgency. "No. We are 180 million people. There the population is much, much more than the insurgents are," Zardari said on Sunday in response to an NBC question asking whether Pakistan was to collapse in face of the Taliban militants. In early May, Gen. David Petraeus, commander of US Central Command, had warned that Pakistan's government risks collapsing if the Taliban were not defeated within the next two weeks. Anxiety was heightened as it was reported that the Taliban were planning to infiltrate into Islamabad and other major cities across nuclear-armed Pakistan. After many such speculations about Taliban advancements, government security forces have launched operations to flush out the militants from the troubled northwestern Swat valley and its adjoining strategic districts near Islamabad. Nearly 200 Taliban militants have been killed in fresh army offensives against militants in the volatile insurgency-plagued Valley over the past day, military sources revealed on Sunday. Zardari has vowed that the army will continue offensives against the Taliban in Swat until security is restored to the volatile valley. Premier Yousuf Raza Gilani has also emphasized the strength of his government saying that state institutions were functioning 'effectively' despite Taliban insurgency. Al-Qaeda and Taliban linked militants have killed thousands of people in hundreds of suicide bombings across the violent-wracked county since former military ruler Pervez Musharraf joined the US-led war on terror in 2001.

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AIPAC pushing for new Iran sanctions bill?

Influential Israeli lobby group in the US, AIPAC is to push for a newly crafted resolution designed to choke off Iranian gas imports. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which is scheduled to hold its annual conference next week, said the introduction of a new bill against Iran's gasoline trade on Tuesday is no coincidence. "It's no coincidence that the bills, which are strongly backed by AIPAC, are "dropping" into Congress for consideration this week, having 6,000 conference-goers press for their passage next Tuesday is bound to give them a turbo boost," the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) said on Monday. The agency, which serves Jewish newspapers and media around the world, said on Sunday that "thousands of AIPAC lobbyists" would "tumble out of buses to make sure" the bill passes. One week after American lawmakers in the US House of Representatives introduced the 'Iran Diplomatic Enhancement Act', a bipartisan slate of US senators on Tuesday tabled a similar bill, seeking to put an end to Iran's low-level nuclear activities by targeting the country's gasoline trade. The bill, which is slated to be introduced by Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) -- an uber-Israel supporter -- advocates the imposition of tough sanctions against countries that sell refined petroleum, including gasoline, to Iran. The conference, which will see Israel's ceremonial president, Shimon Peres representing Tel Aviv, excludes those opposed to such measures against Iran. “Policy theorists in Washington who reject isolating Iran as counterproductive are absent from the conference schedule," the report added. Branded as “ the most important organization affecting America's relationship with Israel" by the New York Times, AIPAC has been criticized for its “distorted American foreign policy in favor of Israel.” AIPAC is a "de facto agent for a foreign government", whose "success is due to its ability to reward legislators and congressional candidates who support its agenda, and to punish those who challenge it," University of Chicago professor John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt from the Harvard University argue in their book: The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy. Former President Jimmy Carter has also accused AIPAC of putting enormous pressure on politicians running for office who do not share AIPAC's goals. In 1992, the group's then president David Steiner was forced to resign after he was recorded boasting about his political influence in obtaining aid for Israel. Steiner claimed to be "negotiating" with the incoming Clinton administration over who Clinton would appoint as Secretary of State and Director of the National Security Agency AIPAC members have also been linked to espionage cases, involving their role in gathering and disclosing classified national security information to Israel. In 2005, AIPAC policy director Steven Rosen and AIPAC senior Iran analyst Keith Weissman were indicted for passing along secret US documents to Israel in violation of the 1917 Espionage Act.

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Explosion kills UK soldier in Afghanistan

The British Defense Ministry has announced that one of its soldiers has been killed in a bomb explosion in southern Afghanistan. The ministry isssued a statement on Tuesday saying that the soldier was killed while patrolling along with members of the Afghan army near Forward Operating Base Keenan in Helmand. "It is with great sadness that the Ministry of Defense must confirm that a British soldier from 1st Battalion Welsh Guards has been killed," the statement said as quoted by AFP. "Despite the very best efforts of his colleagues around him, he was killed instantly as a result of an explosion, the cause of which is being investigated," it added. Tuesday's incident increased the death toll of British soldiers in the war-torn country to 153 since the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

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Trio acquitted of London 7/7 charges

A British jury has cleared three men of charges of conspiring with four suicide bombers who killed 52 people in London's 2005 suicide bombings. Waheed Ali, Sadeer Saleem, and Mohammed Shakil were acquitted of the most serious offenses at the Kingston Crown Court Tuesday, but two of them were found guilty for lesser charges. The carefully collected evidence against them was largely circumstantial, and could not finally persuade the British jurors of their alleged guilt. Four bombers and 52 commuters died in the attacks on July 7, 2005 when bombers set off bombs they carried in sacks on three subway trains and a double-decker bus. Ali and Shakil will be jailed Wednesday for a second charge of "conspiring to attend a terror training camp". Ali, 25, Shakil, 32, and Saleem, 28, who had been accused of collaborating with the suicide bombers, were the only people ever charged for the deadly bombings, and their acquittals mean that no one has been legally held accountable for the attacks. In a statement, Saleem accused police and prosecutors of charging him based on "guilt by association". "I am indebted to these 12 courageous individuals who have now cleared my name and allowed me the opportunity of seeing my children grow up," he said in the statement. This is the latest blow to British authorities who have been forced to release Muslims after arresting them on terrorism charges amid much publicity, only to be forced to release them - often quietly - for lack of evidence. The latest manifestation of what many describe as 'Islamophobia' was the much publicized arrest of eleven Muslim students in Manchester on April 8. Shortly afterwards, Prime Minister Gordon Brown hailed the arrests for foiling a “major terrorist plot”. Nevertheless, all the detainees - mostly students from Pakistan - were released within days without charge. The perceived offense caused Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari to refuse to attend a joint press conference with Gordon Brown, and Pakistani High Commissioner to London Wajid Shamsul Hasan has said "[British authorities] owe an apology not only to these boys but also to the government of Pakistan." He has also called for compensation for the detainees who were wrongly arrested.

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GOP: Obama killed bipartisanship

US Republicans turn out in force to protest at what they denounce as the Democratic president's betrayal of his pledge of honoring their advice. On Wednesday, the Grand Old Party's heavyweights wrote to President Barack Obama bemoaning 'a sad lack of bipartisanship' exemplified by the commander-in-chief's insistence on bringing to account of the former officials responsible for torture of 'terrorism suspects', FOXNews reported on Friday. "This lack of bipartisanship has been a major detriment to your stated desire to change the way that Washington works," the GOP leaders said. "We believe that if Washington can put aside petty politics and unite for the good of the American people, we can accomplish great things." Pinning the blame on the congressmen from the other side of the isle, they claimed "Democratic leaders in Congress have so far ignored your call for a new era of bipartisanship in Washington." "However, the next 100 days can be different," they concluded before cataloguing the issues they wanted to draw the president's attention to. Obama's economic policies have likewise been lashed out at for inappropriate in the Republican mentality. "The stimulus bill was supposed to be about jobs, jobs and jobs, and it turned into spending, spending and more spending," CNN quoted House Minority Leader and Ohio Republican John Boehner as saying.

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New flu kills 68 in Mexico, reaches US

The outbreak of a new flu virus which has killed sixty eight people in Mexico has now reached the US, infecting at least eight Americans. Top US health officials in the State of California have announced that at least eight Americans have been infected by the new strain of the 'largely mysterious' swine flu and the number is expected to rise. Schools and educational centers in the Capital Mexico City were closed and hospitals were put on alert earlier on Thursday with the Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova telling reporters "We're dealing with a new flu virus that constitutes a respiratory epidemic that so far is controllable." Health authorities in the United States have warned of a fast-catching viral syndrome capable of delivering mortal blows to the sufferers. Gil Chavez, director of the Center for Infectious Diseases at the California Department of Public Health, said on Friday, "We are watching this very closely. It's largely a mystery. It's very unusual whenever you have as many as even six cases (of swine flu), that's very, very rare." "There's evidence of possible human-to-human transmission going on, so the more we look the more we are likely to find," Reuters quoted him as saying. "This is something we believe we identified early and have responded to very aggressively and we are taking every step necessary to solve the mystery," he went on to say. California Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger also recommended his fellow citizens to take "common-sense" and refrain from unnecessary physical contacts with dubious cases- - a precautionary measure also promoted in the Latin American State of Mexico. In addition, Schwarzenegger asked for more federal flu experts from the US Centers for Disease Control. California has, moreover, launched a Joint Emergency Operations Center with Mexican officials in a concerted effort to contain the lethal infection from developing into a full-blown epidemic. The World Health Organization has ruled out the need to shut Mexico's borders despite over 1,000 cases of registered patients. The highly contagious disease follows earlier symptoms of harsh respiratory symptoms before killing its victim.

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Russia offers to launch N. Korean satellites

Russia is interested in hosting the launch of North Korean satellites whose sendoff has alienated the international community from Pyongyang. "I hope this proposal will be studied," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted by Interfax as saying in the South Korean capital of Seoul on Friday, Reuters reported. "Such cooperation is carried out with the Republic of Korea, we are ready to carry out similar projects with North Korea," he added. Last month, North Korea attempted at a satellite launch reportedly using the ballistic missile-design Taepodong-2 rocket. The move defied a United Nations Security Council ban which was prompted by the country's first test-firing of ballistic missiles in 2006. The firing also sidestepped the US warnings that the launch pursued military objectives amid reports that the rocket was capable of reaching Alaska and Hawaii. The US and North Korea had started a number of military maneuvers as a precaution and, close to the launch, the US Navy seconded two of its warships to a joint patrol in the Sea of Japan with Japanese and North Korean armadas. "I hope no one will artificially try to rock the boat, moreover, to use it as a pretext for unleashing an arms race in the region, creating military blocs and stepping up missile defense plans," added the foreign minister. Lavrov is on the trip aimed at inviting the country back into the nuclear disarmament talks. Earlier in the month, North Korea vowed to boycott the talks promising to reactivate one of its nuclear power plants that produce weapons-grade plutonium in an apparent reaction to the international condemnation of the satellite launch. Despite Moscow's intervention, Lavrov said, "North Korea is not ready to resume the six-party talks, but Russia hopes that our call to do this in Pyongyang has been heard."

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Israel planned to attack Iran on April 17: Debka

Israel had planned to attack and "destroy" the bulk of the Iranian Air Force fleet during a maneuver on April 17, Israel's Debkafile claims. "Israel was planning to destroy all 140 fighter-bombers concentrated at the Mehr-Abad Air Force base for an air show over Tehran on Iran's Army Day the following day," read the Debka report. The air maneuver was cancelled due to severe and harsh weather conditions. "Due to poor visibility and the appearance of dust storms (over the city), we were forced to cancel the drill for an optimal output," said Air Force commander Brigadier General Hassan Shah-Safi. However, Debka, which has close links to the Israeli intelligence service Mossad, quoted intelligence sources as saying that the cancellation was announced after a tip-off from the Russians. "Moscow had informed the Iranians that its spy satellites and intelligence sources had picked up preparations at Israeli Air Force bases to destroy the 140 warplanes, the bulk of the Iranian air force, on the ground the night before the display, leaving its nuclear sites without aerial defense," Debka sources insisted. Israel, the sole possessor of a nuclear warhead in the Middle East -- according to former US President Jimmy Carter --, has long strived to portray Iran as a regime hell-bent on imminent nuclear war. Under the claim and a warning that Iran could gain nuclear weapons within "months", Israel regularly threatens to wipe out Iranian nuclear infrastructure militarily. Iran, a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), says its work is directed at the civilian applications of the technology. The country, meanwhile, continues to prep its military for deterring threats such as those originating from Israel.

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Dubai denies piracy money laundering

Dubai denies reports by British media claiming that the Emirate's banks are being used by organized piracy syndicates to launder money. Major General Khamis Mattar Al Mazeina, Dubai Police's Deputy Commander General described the allegations as 'baseless' on Wednesday, saying that the UAE has strict legislation against any type of money laundering. The Independent wrote Tuesday that much of the USD 80 million ransoms that pirates had received in 2008 for the release of ships they had hijacked off Somalia and the African Horn was transferred to piracy 'godfathers' based in Dubai and other Persian Gulf littoral states. The British newspaper quoted Christopher Ledger, a former Royal Marine officer, as saying that "syndicates based in the Persian Gulf - some in Dubai - play a significant role in the piracy which is taking place off the African coast." "There are huge amounts of money involved and this gives the syndicates access to increasingly sophisticated means of moving money, as well as access to modern technology in carrying out the hijackings," he added. Al Mazeina reacted to the claims by saying that the UAE's police have not received "any report about money laundering taking place in the UAE." The deputy police commander said that some parties attempt to tarnish the image of the UAE through spreading these vicious rumors.

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Geithner: US responsible for recession

The US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner admits that the US is accountable for the global economic crisis which has spread across the world. "Never before in modern times has so much of the world been simultaneously hit by a confluence of economic and financial turmoil such as we are now living through," Geithner said, addressing the Economic Club of Washington on Wednesday. Geithner noted that the new economic forecast prepared by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) calculated that the global economic output will fall by 1.3 percent this year -- a decline unprecedented in more than six decades. The United States entered recession after a housing and mortgage meltdown in December 2007, which later affected and spread through the world, resulting in major job losses. Meanwhile, the US Federal Reserve envisioned deterioration of market conditions, forecasting little recovery in 2010. The Obama administration earlier called on the G20 nations to increase their financial commitment to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) by a combined total of USD 500 billion ensuring that it has enough money to help poverty-stricken countries. Many of the European countries, however, have given the United States a cold shoulder. Some believe that they already have done more than enough to stimulate their economies, arguing that they do not want to pile up huge levels of debt, adding that nationalization of private companies is not the solution to the crisis. Geithner called the G20 proposals made in London on April 2 an "unprecedented, cooperative program," citing estimates that the action could provide a USD 5 trillion fiscal boost to the global economy through 2010. While the US official did not mention any further commitments that the US would seek this weekend when finance ministers meet in Washington, some analysts believe it's unlikely those discussions will produce any further major proposals. Although President Barack Obama has requested for USD100 billion as the US share to the USD 500 billion pledge to IMF loan plan, more donors are still needed to reach target.

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US: Taliban endangers Pakistan existence

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hints that the Taliban's recent advancements towards Islamabad pose 'an existential threat to Pakistan. Speaking on Wednesday, Clinton urged Pakistanis around the world to speak out against Islamabad government policy of ceding land to the insurgents. The developments come after the Pakistan's interior ministry confirmed that Taliban militants from northwestern valley of Swat took control of Buner and started patrolling areas in the district. Taliban, who had infiltrated into Buner on April 4, were reported to have been on a looting spree for the past days. The district is only 100 km (60 mile) from the capital. Top US military commander Admiral Michael Mullen also said that Washington was concerned about the security of nuclear weapons in the violence-hit country. "Pakistan -- it's a country that has nuclear weapons. My long-term worry is that descent ... should it continue, gives us the worst possible outcome there," Mullen said. Earlier, President Asif Ali Zardari and lawmakers -- under pressure by the militants -- agreed to introduce a harsh Taliban judicial system in the troubled Malakand division, comprising of six north-western districts including Swat. The Taliban have repeatedly hinted that they would take their war to the capital. The violence has killed thousands of people including soldiers in Pakistan since the country joined the US-led war on terror in 2001.

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Obama urges Israel to accept 2-state solution

The US has urged the new Israeli hard-right government to accept the “two-state” solution and work for the creation of a Palestinian State. "I am a strong supporter of a two-state solution. I have articulated that publicly, and I will articulate that privately. And I think that there are a lot of Israelis who also believe in a two-state solution," said President Barack Obama after a meeting with Jordan's King Abdullah in Washington. Obama also predicts good-faith gestures from both Palestinians and Israelis in coming months. "What we have to do is step back from the abyss," he said, adding that the two-state solution would bring an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Obama said he plans to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas, and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak by early June in an effort to revive the Middle East peace process. Meeting the popularly elected Palestinian Hamas government officials is not on Obama's itinerary. In compliance with the Israeli demands, the US has so far refused to meet the Hamas government officials who control the Gaza strip. US officials have instead opted to negotiate with Mahmoud Abbas, who has only nominal control over the Israeli occupied West Bank. The comments came as Netanyahu's administration has challenged Obama's Middle East policy, having refused to recognize the prospect for Palestinian statehood. Obama is trying to push Netanyahu into accepting the principle of a two-state solution, which has formed the basis of US policy over the past few years. "I agree that we can't talk forever, that at some point steps have to be taken so that people can see progress on the ground. And that will be something that we will expect to take place in the coming months," Obama said.

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Indian rebels take 300 people hostage

India's Maoist rebels have seized a train with 300 passengers onboard in the state of Jharkhand amid the country's national general elections. "Rebels have the train in their control. We are preparing to rescue the people," AFP quoted police officer Sarvendu Thatagat as saying. The train has been held in Latehar district, where the first phase of elections was held on April 16; further voting in the state is to be held on Thursday.

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Obama buries hatchet with CIA over memos

President Barack Obama sets out to heal a rift with America's spy agency over the release of secret memos on harsh interrogation methods. The US president made his first visit to the Central Intelligence Agency headquarters on Monday in an attempt to pacify American spies following the release of the most complete account of the Bush administration's interrogation techniques. "Don't be discouraged by what's happened the last few weeks. Don't be discouraged that we have to acknowledge potentially we have made some mistakes -- that's how we learn," President Obama told agency employees. "We live in dangerous times. I am going to need you more than ever," he said, shoring up CIA morale. The visit came after the Justice Department made public classified Bush-era memos detailing the controversial CIA interrogation program. The tactics included previously unacknowledged strategies of "slamming a prisoner into a wall" and "placing an insect near a detainee terrified of bugs." Another memo revealed that waterboarding had been used a total of 266 times on two of the three al Qaeda suspects that the agency had previously acknowledged were subjected to waterboarding. "So I want to make a point that...I understand that it's hard when you are asked to protect the American people against people who have no scruples and would willingly and gladly kill innocents," President Obama added. Civil liberties groups have called for torture charges to be brought against CIA employees, arguing that the "Nuremberg defense" of following orders is unacceptable. The US president, however, said that his administration would prosecute neither CIA interrogators nor the authors of the memos because they acted on the basis of the department's legal blessing. President Obama said he had ended the techniques revealed in the memos "because I believe our nation is stronger and more secure when we deploy the full measure of both our power and the power of our values, including the rule of law." Leon E. Panetta, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, vowed to respect a ban issued by President Obama in January on harsh interrogations methods. President Obama's decision to release the interrogation memo caused a fierce battle within the highest ranks of the White House about the benefits of releasing the information. Gary Berntsen, a former CIA officer, hit out at President Obama over the release of the details, saying "Part of the problem is that this administration can't control themselves in terms of continuing to throw mud at their predecessors. The decision seemed to be political."

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