Thursday, December 15, 2011

Pakistani Businessman Buys NFL Team

How do you spend that extra 760 million dollars you have laying around? If you’re

Shahid Khan, you buy an NFL team. The 61-year-old Pakistani entrepreneur purchased the Jacksonville Jaguars professional football team based out of Jacksonville, Fla. After Khan’s unsuccessful bid to own the St. Louis Rams last year, he can finally say he has a team of his own.

Khan came to the United States from Pakistan when he was sixteen with dreams of one day owning a business. While he studied at the University of Illinois, he worked for Flex-N-Gate, a company that sold automobile parts. After graduation, Khan started his own company called Bumper Works, and later bought Flex-N-Gate.Khan currently resides in Urbana, Illinois with his wife, Ann. The couple is known in their community as prominent philanthropists due to their donations to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Though the Jacksonville Jaguars are currently at the bottom of the list of lucrative football teams, (the Dallas Cowboys, currently at the top, will cost you around 1.1 billion dollars) Khan tells the International Business Times owning the team is his dream come true.

Swat's Malala runner-up for International Children's Peace Prize

http://tribune.com.pk

A promising Khyber Pakhtunkhwa student who boldly stood up for girls education in face of threats from the Taliban has been awarded a runner-up prize by the Dutch organisation ‘KidsRights.’


Malala Yousafzai, a 13-year-old student of the Swat Valley, has earned herself ‘International Children’s Peace Prize’ instituted by the Dutch organisation.



Yousufzai was one of only five children chosen from a pool of 98 originally put forward by organisations and individuals from 42 different countries. She participated in Open Minds project initiated in Swat by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR).



She used the lessons she had learned in the programme to write a series of articles for the BBC News Urdu website during her family’s displacement from the Swat valley in the summer of 2009. KidsRights said that Yousufzai was nominated for this award because her writing was focused on girls’ right to education, which were restricted by the Taliban in the Swat Valley.

Yousufzai dared to stand up for herself and other girls and used national and international media to let the world know that girls should also have the right to go to school.

‘Open Minds’ Pakistan was IWPR’s first youth-focused project. It provided journalism training to young people aged 10 to 19 in Pakistan, giving them opportunities to discuss, debate and publish reports on current affairs.

The project worked in as many as 42 schools in a mixture of seminaries, public and low fee charity schools and in rural and urban schools. The project’s three-stage training course broadened students’ horizons, introducing them to national and global issues.

In addition to the classroom training, internet access was provided to the participant schools, enabling students to interact via the project’s website.

The winner of International Children’s Peace Prize was 17-year-old Michaela Mycroft from South Africa.

Yousufzai is also the first Pakistani to be nominated for the prize.

Zardari to return to Pakistan before Benazir Bhutto's death anniversary

President Asif Ali Zardari, currently being treated for a heart condition in Dubai, will return to Pakistan in time for events marking the death anniversary of his late wife, former premier Benazir Bhutto."The President will return before December 27. The date will be set by his doctors, it is up to them to allow him (to return)," religious affairs minister Syed Khursheed Shah told a TV news channel.

He said Zardari would return to Pakistan and address a meeting to be held at Garhi Khuda Baksh in Sindh province on December 27.

The Bhutto family's mausoleum is located at Garhi Khuda Baksh, which is part of the ruling Pakistan People's Party's stronghold of Larkana.

Zardari's abrupt departure to Dubai last week to seek treatment for what officials said was a previously diagnosed cardiovascular condition sparked speculation that he could be on the verge of resigning due to growing pressure on him from the powerful military.

PPP leaders have denied reports that Zardari had suffered a minor stroke and that he would step down.

Former premier Benazir Bhutto was killed by a suicide bomber after addressing an election rally in Rawalpindi on December 27, 2007.

Her death anniversary is usually commemorated by the PPP's top leadership at Garhi Khuda Baksh.

In a related development, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman told the media that he had held a long meeting with Zardari two days before he left for Dubai and that the President appeared to have been ill at the time.

"I got the impression that he was unwell," he said.

US slams Putin on Gaddafi comment

Washington said today it was "ludicrous" to accuse it of a role in the killing of Libya's Muammar Gaddafi after Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said US special forces were involved.

"The assertion that US special operations forces were involved in the killing of Colonel Gaddafi is ludicrous," US defence secretary Leon Panetta's spokesman, Captain John Kirby, told AFP.

"The killing of Gaddafi has been very well documented publicly -- the circumstances surrounding it and whom in fact was responsible for it," he said in Baghdad where he was accompanying the Pentagon chief for a flag-lowering ceremony marking the end of the war in Iraq.

"The circumstances speak for themselves on how Colonel Gaddafi met his fate," added Kirby.

"We did not have American boots on the ground in the Libya operation. All our support was done through the air and on the seas."

Speaking in his annual televised phone-in with Russians, Putin had accused the US special forces of being involved in Gaddafi's killing, the first time Moscow has pointed the finger at Washington.

"Who did this?" Putin asked. "Drones, including American ones. They attacked his column. Then using the radio -- through the special forces, who should not have been there -- they brought in the so-called opposition and fighters, and killed him without court or investigation."

Obama: I will veto effort to undo automatic cuts

In Obama house, "Modern Family," not Facebook

www.cbsnews.com

Despite the growing global domination of Facebook - which claims more than 800 million users worldwide - the social networking site isn't coming to the White House any time soon.

According to a People Magazine interview with

President Obama and the First Lady Michelle Obama, first daughters Sasha and Malia aren't allowed on Facebook. Nor do they want to be, according to Mr. Obama.

To them, the question is, "Why would we want to have a whole bunch of people who we don't know knowing our business?" said Mr. Obama in the interview. "That doesn't make much sense."

"We'll see how they feel in four years," Mr. Obama laughed, when the first lady pointed out that Sasha and Malia, at ages 10 and 13 respectively, may change their minds on the matter. (Technically, Facebook bans those under 13 from joining anyway, due to regulations outlined under the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act.)

The family does, however, watch TV - even if they did only recently acquire a DVR.

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/8300-503544_162-503544.html?categoryId=10332&tag=cnav#ixzz1gc5udwDx

Health reform: A winner or loser in 2012?

www.cbsnews.com

Because of President Obama's health care overhaul, 2.5 million more young adults have health insurance coverage, according to a new analysis the administration released today.

Much of the president's health care overhaul, passed in 2010, won't go into effect until 2014. Still, the law is sure to be a hot topic in the 2012 election, and Mr. Obama is likely to use specific data like this to make the case he deserves re-election. Polls continue to show that the health care law is controversial, but reports like this could help the president make his case.

Since September of last year, young adults under the age of 26 have been able to stay on their parents' insurance plans because of the reforms. The measure has benefited more young people than expected, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. The Department said the change could be attributed to the health care overhaul by showing that coverage among adults ages 26 to 35 remained relatively steady. Furthermore, there were no changes in Medicaid coverage among young people.

"More young adults in this country can now go on and live their lives with less worry about visiting their doctor when they get sick, or incurring catastrophic medical bills if they are in an accident," HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a White House blog post. "And for us parents, this lets us breathe a sigh of relief."

A new NBC/ Wall Street Journal poll shows reveals how strongly the nation feels about the president's health care overhaul -- and how divided they are. Eleven percent called the health care law Mr. Obama's biggest accomplishment, but another 13 percent named the health care law as his biggest failure.

A CBS News poll conducted earlier this month showed that as many as 51 percent disapprove of the law, while just 35 percent approve.

However, polls about individual provisions of the bill show that many elements of the law are popular -- including the measure allowing young adults to stay on their parents' insurance. In a June 2010 poll from the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation, 71 percent said they had a favorable opinion of that provision, with 47 percent saying they had a "very favorable" opinion of it.

Liberal supporters of the health care overhaul point out that Republicans have been reluctant to criticize the provision allowing young adults to keep their parents' coverage even as they call for the repeal of the health care overhaul.

Jonathan Cohn of the New Republic previewed how support for this provision could be used to defend the president's health care policies, asking, "Are young adults more deserving of coverage than older ones? Why are the Republicans so willing to jettison other provisions - like, say, the tax credits for working-class Americans who can't afford coverage on their own, the prohibitions against denying insurance to people with pre-existing conditions, and so forth?"

Mr. Obama's re-election campaign will surely seek to focus on good news like today's data, but the course of the debate may be out of their hands. The Supreme Court's decision to hear arguments over the health law next spring means the focus next year could fall mostly on the mandate requiring all Americans to purchase health insurance -- which, according to the 2010 Kaiser poll, is one of the law's most unpopular provisions.

Pakistan criticises US aid freeze



Pakistan on Thursday angrily criticised US moves to freeze $700 million in aid, the latest sign of the fraying alliance that has been in deep crisis since NATO fire killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.

"We believe that the move in the US Congress is not based on facts and takes narrow vision of overall situation hence wrong conclusions are unavoidable," foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Basit told reporters.

The US House of Representatives on Wednesday passed the legislation, which the Senate is expected to vote on as early as Thursday.

The bill would freeze the aid, pending assurances that Islamabad has taken steps to thwart militants who use improvised explosive devices (IEDs) against US-led forces in Afghanistan.

"If this legislation becomes law, we'll work with the government of Pakistan on how we can fulfill the requirements. But, this requires us to maintain a strategic perspective," US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.

Pakistan shut down the vital US supply line into neighbouring Afghanistan and ordered US personnel to leave the Shamsi air base, reportedly used as a hub by CIA drones, after attacks killed 24 soldiers on November 26.

Pakistan says it is reviewing terms of engagements with the United States and NATO, but parliament has so far stopped short of announcing any specific measures pending a joint session for which no date has been called.

A parliamentary committee is considering a proposal to scrap tax exemptions on NATO goods shipped to Pakistan and trucked to the Afghan border.

The powerful military, anyway, is considered the final arbiter of policy. It has bolstered its air defence systems on the Afghan border, where officials say 160,000 troops are deployed.

US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta visited American troops in Afghanistan close to the Pakistani border on Wednesday, calling on Islamabad to secure its side of the border, by cracking down on Taliban havens on its territory.

"I think the real question has to be what has been done on the Afghan side of the border," the Pakistani foreign ministry spokesman told reporters.

"Pakistan cannot be held responsible for weaknesses and loopholes on the other side of the border," he added.

Saudi Arabia-ISI: Let’s burn a Shia mosque!

Here is a documentary proof of how Shia Muslims in Pakistan are routinely harassed, persecuted and killed by the Saudi-ISI supported Jihado-sectarian monsters.

In the following exclusive video, dozens of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ aka Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan SSP) extremists are seen attacking a Shia mosque (imambargah), putting the mosque on fire, chanting slogans against Shia Muslims, declaring them kafir, i.e. infidel, and cursing them.

The above desecration of the Shia mosque and black-paint on Imam Hussain’s name by LeJ-SSP terrorists under police protection reminds us of a similar desecration of an Ahmadi mosque in Punjab a few years ago in which the police used black-paint to hide the Kalma Tayyaba (most sacred text in Islam) under the influence of Saudi-Wahhabi-LeJ mullahs.

Afghan women and the dangers of childbirth



Three times Hasrat Bibi gave birth. Each time her baby died before reaching the outside world. After the third, she was left a social outcast and unable to have more children, but in Afghanistan her story is all too familiar.

Bibi first fell pregnant as a teenager 22 years ago. Her body may have been too young to cope with nine months carrying a child, but she was living in a society where motherhood is considered a woman’s primary, if not sole purpose.

Yet having a baby can be treacherous in Afghanistan, where new figures show that one woman dies every two hours from pregnancy-related causes and nearly three per cent of babies are stillborn.

In Bibi’s case, her experience of childbirth left her with a complicated fistula – a hole next to her urinary tract – that has left her incontinent and unable to bear more children.

Although the national survey, carried out last year, reveals that maternal mortality rates in Afghanistan have fallen with the provision of foreign aid-funded healthcare, 500 out of 100,000 live births still end in death.

And health professionals in Kabul now fear that improvements paid for by Western donors through 10 years of war could stagnate as Nato combat troops carry out a staggered departure, leaving more would-be mothers at risk.

Bibi’s face, dotted with traditional rough blue tattoos, crinkles into tears as she tells how her condition has left her shunned, even by her husband.

“Because I’m always wet and the urine smells, other women won’t speak to me. Even my husband,” she says, wiping tears from her pierced nose with her scarf.

“He says ‘you smell’, and he leaves.”

A plethora of problems endemic to Afghanistan delay proper treatment, say medical experts.

Families living in remote, impoverished communities rarely understand the seriousness of medical issues, and local provision is scant. Transportation to the nearest health facilities can take several hours on foot or by donkey.

And most women live in purdah – unseen by men outside their families – and may be house-bound and unable to see a doctor.

Bibi, who comes from a rural village in the eastern province of Ghazni and doesn’t know how old she is, said she had no proper help for 10 years.

With UN funding, she has now been sent to Pakistan for treatment, and an operation there to mend her fistula has a 60 per cent chance of success.

Although there is a fistula centre at Kabul’s Malalai maternity hospital, it was unable to help her because of a lack of trained staff and medical supplies.

The centre recently received another patient, a mother of six, who does not want to be named for security fears, but who is now recovering after an operation on a fistula she developed three years ago following a stillbirth.

Doctors say her husband threw her out of their home because of her condition – taking three of her children away from her, selling off the eldest daughter, and arranging to marry another woman.

The 35-year-old has been living in a tent, her remaining children forced to beg to survive.

On average, Afghan women each give birth to five children. Two of every three births happen in the home without trained help because of social customs and a severe shortage of midwives, the new national report showed.

The figures come from the Afghanistan Mortality Survey 2010, which was carried out by the Afghan Public Health Institute, Ministry of Public Health and Central Statistics Organisation, across 87 per cent of the country.

It did not include rural parts of the southern provinces of Kandahar, Helmand and Zabul, where the Taliban-led insurgency is rife.

Despite the dire conditions, aid-funded improvements now mean that fewer women die during pregnancy and childbirth, and more children are living past their fifth birthday than at any time before, the report shows.

The US State department welcomed the report’s “encouraging trends”, which partly resulted from a US, UN and World Bank-funded education programme that has bumped the number of midwives up threefold since 2003.

Each midwife’s training costs $12-18,000. The women spend two years studying in one of 34 provincial centres before returning to work in communities.

The training focuses on preventing post-birth haemorrhage, which is responsible for most deaths.

But plans to move responsibility for the programme from foreign donors to the ministry of public health next October have left medical experts fearful.

Instead of money flowing from aid donors directly, the central bank and health ministry will be charged with routing funds.

“This is a very big concern because it’s not just money but a technical issue,” said the UN’s Dr Mohammad Tahir Ghaznavi, voicing concern that the increased bureaucracy would sap funds and cause delays to payments.

Jobs would also need to move to the public sector, with ministries unlikely to match foreign wages which have so far been paid to recruited midwives.

“If it’s decentralised, is the government willing to hire all these people?” Ghaznavi added.

A recent World Bank report showed that Afghanistan, one of the poorest countries in the world, is likely to need around $7 billion a year from foreign aid after the scheduled departure of all international troops in 2014.

While Nato is urging foreign donors to continue giving money to Afghanistan after combat troops depart in 2014, the economic crisis in the West and corruption in the war-torn country make a downturn in financing likely.

“Transport and health are highly vulnerable,” the report said.

Taliban death stadium reborn as Afghan sporting hope

Reuters
Its pitch, they said, was so bloodsoaked that grass would not grow. For years, the only spectacles on offer at the Ghazi Stadium in the Afghan capital were executions, stonings and mutilations by the Taliban, rulers of the country from 1996 to 2001.

On Thursday, thousands of young Afghan athletes wearing soccer strips, boxing and running warmup gear, and the belted white suits of martial artists, came to the stadium to celebrate its official re-opening.

This time, the grass has been ripped up and replaced with bright green artificial turf, part of a U.S.-funded stadium refurbishment.

"Of all the international projects implemented in Afghanistan, this is one of the most popular, it enjoys the support of all Afghans," said Lieutenant General Mohammad Zaher Aghbar, president of Afghanistan's National Olympic Committee, and a goalkeeper with the army's soccer team for five years.

"The place that once was used to execute people during the Taliban, and then football played on their blood, is now turned into a peaceful place," he said.

"Sport helps societies get together, it will strengthen our national solidarity," Aghbar said, adding that he was trying to line up foreign boxing and soccer teams to come to Ghazi Stadium in early 2012.

Ghazi, a title normally used to describe Muslim warriors who slay non-believers in battle, is a title also bestowed by many Afghans on those who fought the British army to win independence for Afghanistan in the early 20th century.

During the opening ceremony, the commander of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and U.S. troops in Afghanistan, U.S. General John Allen, and other military officials were presented with medals.

The new artificial pitch will be certified by world soccer governing body FIFA, allowing matches in the Kabul stadium to be internationally recognized.

"It's very important because the stadium has been renovated, it's now ready for use by athletes. During the Taliban days it was used for terrible things, and today its renaissance has begun. It's a really positive day for Afghanistan," said a U.S. embassy spokesperson.

As athletes began to parade around the stadium, Zabiullah, a 58-year old Afghan journalist who witnessed the Taliban executions, pointed at what is now the corner of a penalty area, marked by neat white lines.

"There was thief who stole something from his village ... they cut his hand, right here," he said. "A man and a woman were having illegal sexual relations. They were caught, brought here, given 100 lashes each and told to marry each other ... I also saw people beheaded and shot. Afghans will never forget these bad memories.

"Now, men and women, girls and boys, can watch a peaceful match together."

Putin rules out new election in marathon show




Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Thursday dismissed opposition allegations that fraud had helped his ruling party win a parliamentary election and signaled he would not bow to calls at mass protests for the poll to be rerun.

In his annual televised call-in question-and-answer session he brushed off the importance of the biggest opposition protests of his 12-year rule and, while holding out the prospect of relaxing his tight control on the political system, ignored most of the protesters' demands.

Reaction on the social network Twitter suggested Putin came across as out of touch and, dressed in a suit and tie at a large desk as he took questions by phone and from a studio audience, he looked less at ease than in previous years.

"From my point of view, the result of the (parliamentary) election undoubtedly reflects public opinion in the country," Putin said in the show, which was broadcast live to the nation and was still going after more than three hours.

"As for the fact that the ruling force, United Russia, lost some ground, there is also nothing unusual about this. Listen, we have gone through a very difficult period of crisis, and look at what is happening in other countries."

The former KGB spy presented himself as a reasonable, even-handed national leader during the call-in, which was intended to boost his popularity from a low ebb since he announced plans to reclaim the presidency in an election next March.

The organizers of rallies which brought tens of thousands of people onto the streets on Saturday over the allegations of electoral fraud want the December 4 poll rerun, the election commission head dismissed, opposition parties registered and "political prisoners" freed.

Putin hinted at liberalizing the political system by letting regional governors be popularly elected -- through only after approval by the president -- and suggested legislation might be changed to allow small opposition parties to be registered.

"We can move in this direction," Putin said in response to a question about a liberal opposition party, whose leaders include former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov, which was barred from the election.

But he gave no indication he would respond to any of their other main demands and appears to be intent on riding out the protests and hoping they fade, even though another day of protest is planned by the opposition for on December 24.

He said demonstrations were "absolutely normal as long as everyone acts within the framework of the law."

"I saw on people on the TV screens ... mostly young people, active and with positions that they expressed clearly," Putin said. "This makes me happy, and if that is the result of the Putin regime, that's good -- there's nothing bad about it."

But at another point, he turned to the journalist hosting the call-in and said: "I've had enough of these questions about the elections."

Putin said that at first he thought that the white ribbons which were worn by the protesters a sign of dissent were a sign of an anti-AIDS campaign, and he had mistaken them for condoms.

He also alleged students were paid to go to the opposition demonstrations, adding: "They will at least make some money."

OUT OF TOUCH?

The protest organizers had already accused Putin this week of ignoring their demands and his comments went down badly among many people on Twitter.

"That's it. It's the end. Putin is completely out of touch. And this is becoming more obvious to everyone. You had to think hard to insult the people like this," wrote one person who identified himself as Oleg Kozyrev.

Russia-based economists said Putin was clearly having to work harder than in previous years to maintain his credibility but doubted he had won any new support in his performance.

"He's not winning any fresh votes. He didn't say anything to win the votes of the other crowd (of opponents) - he could have used this big event to push forward his rating," said Alexey Bachurin, of Renaissance Capital investment bank.

Putin, 59, has used the annual call-in to burnish his image as a strong leader with a detailed knowledge of the country and an interest in all its people. Questions have usually focused on social issues such as healthcare, pensions and housing.

Defending his economic record, he said: "We have many unresolved issues, but nevertheless some remarkable and meaningful things have been done in recent years."

"Over 10 years we have cut the number of people who live below the poverty line twofold."

He hinted that former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, who is held in high regard by foreign investors, could return to high office by saying: "Such people were needed and will be needed in past and future governments."

But Putin was under much more pressure at this year's call-in following the large protests over the election, which international monitors said was slanted to favor United Russia, although it won only a slim majority in the lower house.

Many protesters have also called for an end to Putin's rule and are wary of his plans to return to the presidency, a post he held from 2000 until 2008, fearing it would mean a new era of political and economic stagnation.

GROWING DISCONTENT

Many Russians saw the announcement on September 24 that he planned to swap jobs with Medvedev as a signal that everything had been cooked up between them with no respect for democracy.

Many dislike the tightly controlled political system he has created around himself, and the protesters, many of whom are relatively well-off and well-educated city dwellers, want a mainstream liberal party created to reflect their views.

Putin, who built up a rugged image with stunts such as riding a horse bare-chested, is still expected to win the presidential election next year but he now faces much more resistance than expected.

The protests have been organized on social networking sites, and state television has shown some footage of the protests but has not included criticism of the former KGB spy.

"I saw on people on the TV screens ... mostly young people, active and with positions that they expressed clearly," Putin said. "This makes me happy, and if that is the result of the Putin regime, that's good -- there's nothing bad about it."

Putin says US involved in Kadhafi killing



Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Thursday accused the US special forces of being involved in the killing of deposed Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi.

"Who did this?" Putin said in his annual televised phone-in with Russians.

"Drones, including American ones. They attacked his column. Then using the radio -- through the special forces, who should not have been there -- they brought in the so-called opposition and fighters, and killed him without court or investigation."

Russia had initially allowed NATO's air campaign in Libya to go ahead by abstaining in a UN Security Council vote. But it then vehemently criticised the campaign which Putin at one stage compared to a "crusade".

His comments mark the first time that Russia has implicated the US administration in Kadhafi death.

Putin also lashed out at US Senator John McCain, a former presidential candidate and frequent Putin critic who warned in a message on Twitter this month that an "Arab Spring" may soon be coming to Russia.

"I know Mr McCain," said Putin, adding that he would prefer not to refer to him as a "friend".

"This was not addressed in my direction. This was said about Russia. Some people want to move Russia aside somewhere in a corner, so it does not intervene -- so that it does not intervene in the ruling of the world," said Putin.

"They still fear our nuclear capabilities," he said in reference to the West.

"That is why we are such an irritant. We have our own opinion and are conducting our own independent foreign policy ... And it clearly bothers someone."

'Pakistan spy chief had got nod to sack Zardari'


Pakistan's powerful spy agency chief General Shuja Pasha, had sought and got permission from senior Arab leaders to oust President Asif Ali Zardari,

said Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz while confirming the claim in a blog in a British daily.

Omar Waraich in his blog on The Independent claimed that Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Gen Shuja Pasha had sought and "received permission from senior Arab leaders to sack Z" (President Zardari), reported Geo News.

The blog said: "'I was just informed by senior US intel,' Ijaz writes in a message on May 10, 'that GD-SII Mr P asked for, and received permission, from senior Arab leaders a few days ago to sack Z. For what its worth'." GD-SII was an anagram for DG-ISI.

`Pakistan spy chief had got nod to sack Zardari`
Mansoor Ijaz, who had revealed the secret memo to Washington that said Zardari had feared a military coup after US commandos killed Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad May 2, told Geo News: "This information has been on the record now for the better part of six weeks."

Ijaz said Pakistan's then envoy to US Hussain Haqqani had approached him May 9 and he then decided to check the veracity of what Haqqani told him.

Mansoor Ijaz claimed that General Pasha had travelled throughout the Arab world and other countries after the May 2 raid.

`Pakistan spy chief had got nod to sack Zardari`
"In many places he (ISI chief), in fact, explained that there was a lot of stress in the system because people could not understand who the blame should be pinned on for the fact that (Osama) bin Laden was on their soil," said Mansoor Ijaz.

The secret memo to Washington had stunned Pakistan. The abrupt departure of President Zardari over a heart condition to Dubai Dec 6 had sparked coup rumours. There have been conflicting reports of his health, with one saying he suffered a minor attack and another that he had a stroke that caused bleeding in the brain and facial paralysis.

`Pakistan spy chief had got nod to sack Zardari` The president has been discharged from the Dubai hospital and shifted to his residence, authorities said Wednesday night.

US responsible if Pak fails in war on terror

Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar

said that US would be responsible if Pakistan failed in war on terror (WOT). She was briefing the Parliamentary Committee on National Security (PCNS).

The minister told the committee that the US Senate has stopped $700 million aid to Pakistan. 'We are talking to other countries for the release of US aid.'

'Relations with US are on hold and would proceed further if Parliament allows. Pakistan has two written agreements regarding allied forces in Afghanistan, one is about Nato supply line and the other is about Ministry of Defence,' she added.

Hina noted that Defence Committee has clearly stated that relations with US, Isaf and Nato would be reviewed.