Pakistan agreed on Monday to restore strict Islamist law in the Swat valley to pacify a revolt by Taliban militants, and a suspected US drone fired missiles in the region killing at least 26 people.
The decision on Islamic law is likely to draw criticism from the United States and other Western powers fearful that Pakistan is playing into the hands of religious conservatives who sympathize with the Taliban and al Qaeda.
The agreement was reached at talks between Islamists and officials of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) government in Peshawar on Monday.
"After successful negotiations ... all un-Islamic laws related to the judicial system, those against the Koran and Sunnah, would be subject to cancellation and considered null and void," said NWFP's Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain, referring to the holy book of Islam and the saying and teachings of the Prophet Mohammad.
Taliban militants in Swat, once a tourist paradise, called a 10-day ceasefire the night before the talks, and on Saturday released a Chinese engineer kidnapped five months earlier as a gesture of goodwill.
An uprising erupted in late 2007 in Swat, an alpine beauty spot favored by honeymooners and trekkers alike, and militants now control the valley just 130 km (80 miles) northwest of the capital Islamabad.
They have destroyed more than 200 girls schools in a campaign against female education, and tens of thousands of people have fled their homes to escape the violence.
By striking a deal on Islamic law, the government hopes that it will be able to drive a wedge between conservative hardliners and those militants who have fallen under the thrall of al Qaeda and the Taliban.
Religious conservatives in Swat have long fought for sharia to replace Pakistan's secular laws, which came into force after the former princely state was absorbed into the Pakistani federation in 1969.
MILITANT NEST
The move came as a suspected U.S. drone fired missiles at a building used by Taliban militants in the Kurram tribal region killing at least 26 people, witnesses and officials said.
The missiles hit a school that was once used by Afghan refugees' children, before militants moved in around two years ago, according to villagers.
The attack was the first in Kurram on the border with Afghanistan and came two days after a missile strike in the South Waziristan tribal region killed at least 25 mostly Central Asian fighters believed to have al Qaeda links.
"Afghan Taliban were holding an important meeting there when the missiles were fired," one of the intelligence officials in the area said of the air strike in a mountainous region called Sarpul, on the outskirts of Baggan village.
A militant in Kurram put the death toll lower, but said Afghan and Pakistani Taliban were among those killed.
The attack was the first in the Kurram tribal region and came two days after a missile strike in the South Waziristan tribal region killed at least 25 mostly Central Asian fighters believed to have al Qaeda links.
After the attack in Kurram, Taliban had surrounded the area and were not allowing anyone near, witnesses said.
The drone attack could further inflame tempers in Pakistan where a controversy has raged over a U.S. senator's remarks that the unmanned aircraft were being operated and flown from an air base inside Pakistan.
"As I understand it, these are flown out of a Pakistani base," Dianne Feinstein chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, was quoted as saying by the Los Angeles Times on Friday.
But, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi denied the statement and said the drones carrying out these attacks were not operating from Pakistan.
Monday's missile strike was the fourth attack since U.S. President Barack Obama took office last month, showing there was no change in policy since the last year of the Bush administration, when attacks by pilotless aircraft against militant targets on Pakistani territory were ramped up.
Pakistan's civilian government, elected a year ago, and the army have complained that the U.S. missile strikes are counter-productive and have fanned an Islamist insurgency.
On Monday, an unknown militant group holding hostage an American working for the United Nations in Pakistan said on Monday it had extended a deadline they had set to kill him if their demands were not met.
The group, calling itself the Baluchistan Liberation United Front (BLUF) had said on Friday it would kill John Solecki in 72 hours, but on Monday a spokesman said more time would be given for the government to accede to its demands.
Solecki, the head of the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Quetta, was kidnapped on February 2 after gunmen ambushed his car and shot dead the driver.
CARACAS, Feb 16 (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez won a referendum vote on Sunday that lets him stay in power for as long as he keeps beating rivals in elections, and bolsters support for his socialist and anti-US policies.
Chavez has already been in power for 10 years and the referendum vote helps clear the way for him to fulfill his declared goal of ruling for decades, although the global economic crisis will limit his ability to spend oil cash on nationalizing industries and extending his influence overseas.
Electoral authorities said 54 percent of voters approved a constitutional amendment to remove limits on re-election and allow Chavez to stay in office until he is defeated at the ballot box. His current term ends in 2013.
"Long live the revolution," shouted Chavez, who was dressed in his signature red shirt and pumped his fist in the air as he stood on his palace balcony in front of thousands of flag-waving supporters.
He led them singing the national anthem and they chanted "Heh-ho, Chavez won't go."
"This can't stop, because the future of this country is in the president's hands," said Juan Carlos Carrillo, 40, a clothes vendor who voted in Caracas.
Fireworks exploded across Caracas and caravans of cars and motorbikes sped through the city as Chavez supporters clad in red celebrated honking their horns."
Opposition leaders, who say Chavez is an autocrat bent on sculpting Venezuela into a replica of communist Cuba, tried to capture discontent over crime, economic mismanagement and corruption.
"If you want to see that the government has done, just look over there," said Doroteo Yose, pointing at impoverished shacks cramped onto the hillside of the capital.
But the government campaigned hard. A retired army paratrooper who once led a failed coup before winning power at the ballot box, Chavez has survived a putsch and two national strikes against his rule and has the loyalty of many poor Venezuelans.
He took office in 1999 as an underdog vowing to end corrupt elites, and is popular for spending on health clinics, schools and food hand-outs.
Calling former Cuban President Fidel Castro his political "father", Chavez has become the standard bearer for anti-US sentiment in Latin America, using his OPEC nation's oil wealth to help allies and counter US influence in the region.
He has strengthened ties with Russia and Iran, and allies in Ecuador and Bolivia have joined him in rewriting laws to extend their rule and increasing state control over the economy in the name of bringing wealth to neglected poor majorities.
The victory on Sunday allows Chavez, 54, to put behind him a damaging vote loss in 2007, when his first attempt to remove constitutional restraints on his extended rule was defeated.
OPPOSITION BLOW
The result is a huge blow for Venezuela's opposition which had made gains in city and state elections last year after years of losing elections they often complained were unfair.
Opposition parties had pinned their hopes on a popular but inexperienced and under-financed student movement spearheading opposition to Chavez.
Discontent over high crime rates and soaring living costs -- Venezuela's inflation is among the highest in the world -- eroded Chavez's support but he was still able to pull out a victory.
Investors worry that Chavez will burn through international reserves to maintain social programs despite falling revenue, and the value of Venezuela's currency and sovereign debt could fall further. Both have slumped in recent months on low oil prices and concerns that Chavez may remain in power for years.
Chavez warned supporters they would lose social programs if he is unable to run again for re-election. In a familiar tactic, he also accused opponents of plotting a coup directed by Washington, and planning to cry fraud if he won.
Chavez stepped into the political spotlight in 1992 when as a young army officer he led a failed coup. Captured, he gave a brief television address calling on his comrades to lay down their arms, saying they had failed "for now."
After two years in prison, he entered politics, capturing the support of Venezuelans sick of discredited traditional parties in one of Latin America's oldest democracies.
Ten years after he came to office, his allies control the National Assembly and the PDVSA state oil company as he tries to forge what he calls 21st century socialism.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai lashed out at mounting US criticism on Sunday, saying he expected "better judgment" from the Obama administration.
In the latest show of strain between the allies in a seven-year war against Islamist militants, Karzai told CNN President Barack Obama's description of the Kabul government as "very detached" from its people reflected the new U.S. government's immaturity.
"Perhaps it's because the administration has not yet put itself together," he told CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" program.
"I hope as they settle down, and as they learn more, we'll see better judgment."
U.S. policy on Afghanistan is under review as Obama contemplates almost doubling the number of U.S troops there to around 60,000.
At the same time, U.S. criticism of Karzai has grown as the Taliban insurgency steadily gains ground more than seven years after U.S.-led forces toppled the hardline Islamist Afghan government.
Despite Obama's comments, Karzai said he admired the U.S. leader. "I can certainly engage with him very, very very positively," he said.
Karzai repeated his criticism that the U.S.-led military campaign against Taliban and al Qaeda militants had brought civilian casualties, arrests and home searches that were undermining confidence of Afghans.
Whenever he criticized U.S. practices in Afghanistan -- for example, of aerial spraying of poppy fields or torture allegations -- this was followed by reports of high-level corruption in his government, including an accusation that his brother was involved in the narcotics trade, Karzai said.
"Whenever there was a disagreement, this kept repeating," he said, without directly addressing the accusations.
"My conclusion is that, yes, this was part of a political pressure tactic, unfortunately."
Recent U.S. newspaper articles highlighting a growing rift between Washington and Karzai showed "there's a lot of misinformation and, indeed, at times disinformation from parts of the Western press against me," Karzai said.
Rising prices and strong demand for illegal ivory threaten the survival of Indochina's remaining elephants, according to a study by TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network.
In the report, released on Monday, the group said they had surveyed 669 shops in Vietnam and found 11 percent selling nearly 2,500 ivory items.
Much of the raw ivory was said to have originated from neighbouring Laos, with the remainder from Vietnam and Cambodia. No raw African ivory was found.
"This is a worrying trend that indicates even more pressure is being put on already fragile Asian elephant populations," Azrina Abdullah, director of TRAFFIC Southeast Asia, said in a statement.
According to figures from the International Union for Conservation of Nature, there are at most 1,000 elephants in Laos and about 150 in Vietnam.
An earlier TRAFFIC report found evidence of widespread smuggling of live Asian elephants and their ivory from Myanmar.
The latest TRAFFIC study found that Vietnamese illegal ivory prices could be the highest in the world, with reports of tusks selling for up to US$1,500 per kilogram and small, cut pieces selling for up to $1,863 a kg.
"Continued demand for illegal ivory is driving the prices so high," Abdullah said.
The report said the main buyers were from China (including Hong Kong and Taiwan), Thailand, local Vietnamese, American-Vietnamese and Europeans.
"Trade in ivory was outlawed in Vietnam in 1992, but a major loophole in the legislation exists because shops can still sell ivory in stock dating from the prohibition," said TRAFFIC in the statement.
"This allows some shop owners to restock illegally with recently made carved ivory," it said.
The report said there were fewer ivory items seen in shops in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi in 2008 than in 2001 during a similar survey. But it said worked ivory was increasingly being sold directly to buyers through middlemen or on the Internet, bypassing retail outlets.
It said Vietnam acceded to the U.N. convention that governs trade in endangered species and called on the government to close any loopholes that allowed the illegal ivory trade to flourish.
India will increase defence spending by nearly a quarter in 2009/10 as the government focuses on security measures after November's Mumbai attacks.
Defence spending is set to rise 23.7 percent to $28.9 billion for the fiscal year 2009/10 that begins on April 1.
"We are going through tough times. The Mumbai terror attacks have given an entirely new dimension to cross-border terrorism," Acting Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said while unveiling an interim budget ahead of a general election that must take place by May.
"A threshold has been crossed. Our security environment has deteriorated considerably," said Mukherjee, who is also the country's foreign minister.
Last year, India raised defence spending by 10 percent.
India is integrating its three armed forces -- the army, navy and the air force -- and increasing security along its coasts after militants from Pakistan attacked Mumbai from the sea route, killing 179 people.
The country is also looking to spend more than $30 billion over the next five years to modernise its largely Soviet-era weapons systems and is also launching its first military spy satellite next year.
But experts said a slow bureaucratic process could still delay modernisation efforts.
India seldom spends its entire budget allocation for defence because of red tape associated with arms purchases, and analysts said unless it clears pending deals faster, the budgetary allocation would not make any difference.
"We are confronted with a massive deficit in capacity in terms of requirement and in terms of current strategic needs and global attention," said Ajai Sahni of New Delhi's Institute for Conflict Management. "We still have to see how it is spent."
India is planning one of its biggest ever arms purchases, a $10 billion deal to buy 126 fighter jets.
It is also building five nuclear submarines for $2.9 billion and spending an additional $1 billion on a domestic weapons development programme.
Some analysts said there was a positive intent to spend more on defence after the recent militant strikes and the budgetary allocation was a reflection of that change in India's attitude.
"It is a reasonable increase and will help India deal with the inventory gap, as we have a number of items in terms of inventory replacement for the three armed forces," Uday Bhaskar, a strategic analyst said.
JERUSALEM, Feb 16 (worldnews5.blogspot.com/Reuters) - Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni wrote in a private note captured by cameras on Sunday that her centrist Kadima party would not join any coalition government headed by right-wing Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu.
The note, which Livni handed to outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Kadima at the weekly cabinet meeting, set the battle lines in what could be weeks of political bargaining after Israel's inconclusive election last Tuesday.
Shortly after polls closed, both Livni and Netanyahu laid claim to the premiership, deepening uncertainty over the course Israel will follow after last month's Gaza war and in peace negotiations with the Palestinians.
Kadima won 28 seats in the 120-member parliament to Likud's 27, but a strong rightist bloc that emerged in the vote appeared to give Netanyahu the edge in putting together a governing majority.
"I have no intention of being in a unity government headed by Bibi -- and don't hint that," Livni, using Netanyahu's nickname, said in the note chiding Olmert, who was reported to have urged her to join a broad Likud-led coalition.
Television cameras are allowed to film the start of Israeli cabinet meetings, and they caught Livni writing the note. Its text could be read clearly when the paper was shown on TV news programs.
Later, in broadcast remarks to Kadima legislators, Livni said the party deserved to lead Israel, but left open the possibility it would go into opposition.
"You don't have to be a mathematical genius to understand that 28 seats are more than 27," she said.
"We will continue to serve the public, either by forming the government, as the public chose, or if need be, in the opposition," Livni said.
Once election results become official on Wednesday, President Shimon Peres will begin consultations with party leaders to help determine whom he should pick to try to form a governing coalition.
The party leader he chooses will have 42 days to put together a government.
Kabul, Feb 16 (worldnews5.blogspot.com/Reuters) - US-led troops have killed a wanted Taliban commander in an air strike in Afghanistan's southwestern province of Badghis, U.S. and Afghan officials said on Monday.
Mullah Dastagir along with eight other militants were killed in a raid on a village near Turkmenistan's border on Sunday night, they said.
Dastagir was behind a series of attacks in Badghis, including an ambush in which 13 Afghan soldiers were killed last November, they added.
Before that ambush, Dastagir had been jailed but was released by order of President Hamid Karzai, a defense ministry official said.
The U.S. military confirmed the air strike and the casualties including Dastagir's killing.
The Taliban could not be reached for comment.
Ousted in a U.S.-led invasion in 2001, in reprisal for sheltering al Qaeda leaders responsible for the September 11 attacks on America, the Taliban have managed to extend the scope and extent of their insurgency in recent years.
