Drinking destroyed me as an actor says Dharmendra

New Delhi, June 05 : Veteran actor Dharmendra, who is busy promoting his upcoming release 'Yamla Pagla Deewana 2', said he now understands the process of filmmaking and takes it seriously. He admitted that his drinking habit in the past destroyed him as an actor but he is now coming to terms with his films. "I don't drink these days. I had destroyed myself as an actor with my drinking habit in the past. I believe in humanity now and have learnt the business of filmmaking. We three worked really hard for this film. We are leaving no stone unturned for the promotions" he said during the promotion of 'Yamla Pagla Deewana 2' in the capital.

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Intelligence agencies had warned of possible terror strikes by Lashkar-e-Taiba

MUMBAI: Intelligence agencies had warned of possible terror strikes by Pakistan-basedLashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), al-Qaida and its allies in India weeks before the blast outside the BJP office in Bangalore on Tuesday.

The intelligence alert — based on a tip-off —said the two groups were planning joint operations to avenge the execution of Ajmal Kasab and made the alarming claim that fighters of the Jundullah faction of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) were in Amritsar and Hyderabad for the strikes.

Jundullah is a militant outfit based in Pakistan that claims to fight for the rights of Sunni Muslims in Iran. Its founder Abdul-Malek Rigi was captured and executed in Iran in 2010. The outfit is believed to have between 700 and 2,000 fighters and is said to be responsible for killing 154 Iranian citizens and injuring 320 since 2003.

Jundullah commanders claim the group has killed up to 400 Iranian soldiers. It's been designated a terrorist outfit by Iran and the United States and has been linked to numerous acts of terror, kidnapping and the drug smuggling. This is the first time any intelligence alert has mentioned Jundullah's presence in India.

The three-page alert, issued by the state intelligence department, said the execution of Kasab seems to have created "a rallying point for various Islamist terrorist groups in India and across the border".

The agencies claim to have received information about plans for joint operations by Sikh terrorists based in Germany and Pakistan, and Islamist groups backed by Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI). "Sikh terrorists are colluding with Islamists in Jammu and Kashmir. With the help of the ISI, they are planning to carry out attacks." The report says that Babbar Khalsa International (BKI), a Sikh terror outfit, is planning to target prominent people by concealing explosives in loudspeakers and amplifiers. It further said that the BKI could use of bombs concealed in torches, cameras, perfumes and toys.

The alert also referred some reports that Pak-based banned terror outfits, such as Jaish-e-Mohammed, United Jihad Council (UJC) and Jamat-ud-Dawa (JuD), had earlier threatened to avenge Kasab's hanging. Also, in February, leaders of LeT, JeM, Al Badr Mujahideen, Jamiat-ul-Mujahideen, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen and UJC conducted public rallies after the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru and pledged to continue their jihad in India.

The Bangalore blast, which wounded 16 people including 11 cops, also came a day after Indian Mujahideen's operative Himayat Baig was convicted in the German Bakery bomb blast case. Police had said Baig was responsible for bringing the LeT and IM under one umbrella. He was awarded death sentence on Thursday.

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Caught on camera: No one comes to save victims lying on road

A man and his young son in Jaipur, injured in a major road accident, sat on the road next to the bodies of his wife and infant daughter for an hour, desperately in need of assistance, but nobody stopped to help.

The family of four was on a two-wheeler which collided with a speeding truck in the Ghaat Ki Guni tunnel, which is meant to be off-limits for two wheelers.

Security camera footage shows the man clutching onto his four-year-old son, pleading for assistance as traffic rolls by just a few feet from him. He then sits down on the road holding his head.

A man on a motorcycle finally stopped and offered help. "He took their numbers, went to the toll gate a little distance away and informed them about the accident... the police then came and took the family to hospital," a relative said.

The man's wife and their six-month-old baby daughter had died by the time they got to the hospital. His son and he had minor injuries and have now been discharged.

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The driver of the truck that hit the two-wheeler is absconding, the police said. They got the truck's registration number from the camera footage and later found the truck, they said.

The National Commission for Women (NCW) has alleged that the man's



wife could have been saved if people in a control room manning the close circuit television cameras or CCTVs fitted inside the tunnel had called the police on time. "People in the CCTV control room didn't inform the police... There was a delay of one and a half hours... If she had been given medical attention on time she would have been saved," NCW chairperson Mamta Sharma said.

The tunnel, nearly two kilometres long, was inaugurated by the Prime Minister in January. It links Jaipur to a major national highway leading to Agra.

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Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has resigned, officials say

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is reported to have accepted the resignation of his PM, Salam Fayyad.

The two have been at odds over economic policy since the finance minister quit last month, and rumours were rife that Mr Fayyad would step down.

Reports of the resignation come despite efforts by US Secretary of State John Kerry in recent days to reconcile them.

Mr Fayyad is expected to remain as caretaker prime minister until a new government is formed.

No official announcement has yet been made.

Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that Mr Abbas asked Mr Fayyad to stay in his post until the Palestinian president names a new government, which he is expected to do shortly.

Mr Abbas reportedly waited several days before accepting the resignation.

Mr Fayyad, 61, has been prime minister of the Palestinian Authority since 2007.

He is considered a liberal and is widely respected among international organisations and donors.

Last month Mr Abbas overruled Mr Fayyad after he had accepted the resignation of Finance Minister Nabil Kassis.

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Pak., U.S. entered into a secret deal: NYT

In a secret deal, Pakistan allowed American drone strikes on its soil on the condition that the unmanned aircraft would stay away from its nuclear facilities and the mountain camps where Kashmiri militants were trained for attacks in India, according to a media report.

Under negotiations between the ISI and the CIA during 2004, the terms of the bargain were set, The New York Times reported on Sunday.

“Pakistani intelligence officials insisted that drones fly only in narrow parts of the tribal areas — ensuring that they would not venture where Islamabad did not want the Americans going: Pakistan’s nuclear facilities, and the mountain camps where Kashmiri militants were trained for attacks in India,” the paper said.

Pakistani officials also insisted that they be allowed to approve each drone strike, giving them tight control over the list of targets, it added.

The “secret deal” over drone strikes was reached after CIA agreed to kill tribal warlord Nek Muhammad, a Pakistani ally of the Afghan Taliban who led a rebellion and was marked by Islamabad as an “enemy of the state”, the NYT reported, citing an excerpt from the book The Way of the Knife: The CIA, a Secret Army, and a War at the Ends of the Earth.

A CIA official had met the then ISI Chief Ehsan ul-Haq with the offer that if the American intelligence agency killed Muhammad, “would the ISI allow regular armed drone flights over the tribal areas”, the report said.

ISI-CIA bargain

The ISI and CIA also agreed that all drone flights in Pakistan would operate under the American agency’s “covert action authority”, which meant that the U.S. would never acknowledge the missile strikes and that Pakistan would either take credit for the individual killings or remain silent.

While Pakistani officials had in the past considered drone flights a violation of sovereignty, it was Muhammad’s rise to power that forced them to reconsider their line of thought and eventually allow Predator drones.

The ISI-CIA’s “back-room bargain” sheds light on the beginning of the covert drone war which “began under the Bush administration, was embraced and expanded by President Obama”.

From capture to kill

The deal resulted in the CIA changing its focus from capturing terrorists to killing them, and helped “transform an agency that began as a cold war espionage service into a paramilitary organisation”.

After Muhammad’s killing in a drone strike, a Pakistani military spokesman had told reporters that “al-Qaeda facilitator” Nek Muhammad and four other “militants” had been killed in a rocket attack by Pakistani troops, the paper said.

During the time when the negotiations were being held, CIA’s then Inspector-General John Helgerson came out with a critical report about the abuse of detainees in the agency’s secret prisons.

Mr. Helgerson’s report has been described as the single most important reason for the CIA’s shift from capturing to killing terrorism suspects.

CIA’s Counterterrorism Centre (CTC) had earlier focused on capturing al-Qaeda operatives, interrogating them in its jails or outsourcing interrogations to intelligence services of Pakistan, Jordan, Egypt and using the information to hunt more suspects. Mr. Helgerson’s report raised questions about interrogation methods like waterboarding and sleep deprivation, raising concerns that it violated the UN Convention Against Torture.

The report “was the beginning of the end” for CTC’s detention programme.

“The ground had shifted, and counterterrorism officials began to rethink the strategy for the secret war. Armed drones, and targeted killings in general, offered a new direction. Killing by remote control was the antithesis of the dirty, intimate work of interrogation.

“Targeted killings were cheered by Republicans and Democrats alike, and using drones flown by pilots who were stationed thousands of miles away made the whole strategy seem risk-free. Before long the CIA would go from being the long-term jailer of America’s enemies to a military organisation that erased them,” the NYT report said.

Sources: " The Hindu" - 'Drone strikes if Kashmir militants aren't touched’

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NATO airstrike kills 10 Afghan children

A NATO airstrike in eastern Afghanistan has killed 10 children and one woman, a government spokesman said on Sunday.

The airstrike over a village in the Shigel district of Kunar province came as NATO and Afghan troops were under fire on Friday, said the provincial Governor’s spokesman Wasifullah Wasifi.

The airstrike was followed by a fierce gun battle that lasted until Saturday morning, leaving seven Taliban militants dead and five others wounded, Mr. Wasifi said.

An American adviser to the NATO troops was also killed in the weekend battle, according to Mr. Wasifi. Four other Afghan security personnel and five women were wounded in the operation, he said.

A spokesman for NATO-led International Security Assistance Force confirmed that the alliance did provide air support during the operation.

“We are aware of the civilian casualities but we can’t confirm it right now,” Dan Einerc said, adding that several insurgents were killed.

Mr. Einerc said that the airstrike was called by coalition troops, not “Afghan troops.” In February, President Karzai banned Afghan troops from requesting air support from NATO troops mainly because of civilians causalities.

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Building collapses in Thane near Mumbai; 7 dead

Thane: Seven people were killed today when an under-construction building collapsed, according to the police.

Some people are still trapped under the debris and rescue operations are currently on. Around 30 people have been rescued, the police said.

A team of the National Disaster Response Force and hundred policemen from Mumbai have been sent to the spot.

The incident took place in Shil Dhaigar locality at around 6.30 pm.

Some people were allegedly living on some of floors of the under-construction building.

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Deadly floods hit Mauritius capital Port Louis

At least 11 people have died after sudden rains caused flooding in the Mauritian capital Port Louis on Saturday, officials have said.

At least eight of the victims were caught in underground areas as the flood waters rose rapidly. Another died of a heart attack.

The island's metereologists said 152mm (6in) of rain fell in less than an hour, 70mm less than the March average.

Prime Minister Navin Rangoolam declared 1 April a day of mourning.

Speaking on national radio, he said Mauritius was suffering badly from the effects of climate change.

The floods caused chaos in the city, with a huge traffic jam paralysing its centre, L'Express de Maurice newspaper reported.

A BBC reporter in the city says the bodies of six people were recovered from a pedestrian subway and another two from an underground car park.

Resident Ameeksha Dichand told the BBC she had been unable to go outside because it was raining so heavily, though people did venture out on Sunday to inspect the damage.

"The roads are blocked and there is mud everywhere. Trees have fallen all over the place," she said.

"If people couldn't rely on their neighbours so much to help them, then we would have lost more lives. I am so angry at the authorities."

More rain was expected on Sunday, and people were advised to stay at home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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