Long road ahead in U.S.-Pakistan ties after NATO deal

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan and the United States are set to resume broader talks on security cooperation, militant threats, aid and other issues in the wake of an agreement to reopen supply routes into Afghanistan, Pakistan's envoy to Washington said on Thursday.

But bridging underlying differences that strained U.S.-Pakistani ties close to the breaking point will be daunting as the allies remain at odds over how to handle the twin threats of the Taliban in Afghanistan and militants in Pakistani tribal areas.

The agreement reached this week prompting Pakistan to reopen NATO supply routes into Afghanistan, clinched when U.S. President Barack Obama's administration ceded to months of Pakistani demands to apologize for the U.S. air attack that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers last November, was a relief for both countries.

"I certainly think it opened the door to many other issues," Ambassador Sherry Rehman told Reuters in an interview.

"There's a long road ahead, but both sides can use this opportunity to build a path to durable ties," she added.

After U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton apologized in a phone call to Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, Pakistan permitted trucks carrying NATO supplies to cross into Afghanistan for the first time in more than seven months.

This was a boon for NATO nations that had been paying 2-1/2 times as much to bring supplies in through an alternate route.

While NATO will not pay any new fees for shipping supplies into Afghanistan, Washington will give Pakistan at least $1.2 billion owed it for costs incurred while fighting militants.

A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said no specific commitments were made to increase military or counter-terrorism activities for Pakistan, but there was a 'good faith agreement' to continue talks on those issues.

ALL ABOUT THE APOLOGY

"A number of other things became stuck with all this," the official said.

"It was never a money haggle or a transactional deal," Rehman said, speaking during a visit to Islamabad where she helped usher in the arrangement ending the months-long deadlock.

The death of the 24 soldiers inflamed public opinion among Pakistanis already angered by U.S. drone strikes, the presence of CIA personnel in Pakistan and other issues.

"We're a very hospitable people but we don't like being taken for granted - that was the public sentiment," she said, stressing why the apology was so vital.

"You had 24 boys draped in flags ... that's not something that was going away from the public domain. At every level this percolated up and down" Pakistani society.

While the breakthrough is welcome news for both sides, a harmonious road ahead is unlikely.

Issues that have inflamed bilateral ties persist, including U.S. accusations that Pakistan harbors militants and meddles in Afghanistan, Pakistani chafing at U.S. drone strikes and fears on both sides that Pakistan's western neighbor will revert to chaos after most NATO troops leave by the end of 2014.

Pakistan has long complained that the United States has overlooked its contribution to the fight against militants - scores of al Qaeda fighters were apprehended in Pakistan with American help - and the threat Pakistanis themselves face.

Late last month, more than 100 fighters loyal to Pakistani Taliban leader Fazlullah snuck across the Afghan border and staged an ambush inside Pakistan.

Several days later, the fighters released a video of what they said were the heads of 17 ambushed soldiers, along with their identification cards.

It was a chilling reminder of the threat militants based in Afghanistan pose to Pakistan - the mirror image of the situation that fuels U.S. complaints about Pakistan, and a threat that would be sure to become more serious if Afghanistan were to slip back into civil war.

The United States repeatedly has pressed Pakistan to pursue the Taliban and its allies, especially the Haqqani network, which it blames for a series of high-profile attacks in Afghanistan.

Last month, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the United States was reaching the limits of its patience with Pakistan over what it deems as foot-dragging on militants.

Rehman said that most of al Qaeda has been decimated with Pakistani cooperation, and that Islamabad would go after foreign fighters linked to other militants according to "Pakistan's priorities" and time frame.

The immediate military priority was combating insurgents who target Pakistani security forces and civilians, she said.

"We are going after our own right now - foreign fighters and militants who are on our soil, who are attacking us. If there is someone beheading me I am going to go after him first."

Rehman said Pakistan stood to pay a high price if the NATO project in Afghanistan does not produce a stable country, in part because instability is likely to spill over the two countries' porous border.

"For Pakistan, the stakes in Afghan stability are very high," Rehman said.

(Writing By Missy Ryan; Editing by Michael Roddy)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/long-road-ahead-u-pakistan-ties-nato-deal-185317142.html

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Gaia spacecraft to be flung 1.5 million km from Earth

Caroline Morley, online picture researcher

(Image: ESA/Astrium-A. Martin, 2012)

The European Space Agency is continuing to prepare for the launch of its Gaia spacecraft set for 2013. Gaia's mission will see it creating a 3D map of a billion stars in the Milky Way using a 1.5-gigapixel camera.

In this photo, taken at the EADS CASA test facility in Madrid, Spain, checks are being made on Gaia's 1.5-metre-wide antenna panel to ensure data will reach Earth safely. The foam spikes on the walls of the test room block radio signals to simulate space. Electronic steering will ensure the antenna is always directed towards its target while the spacecraft rotates in space as it maps the stars, asteroids, extrasolar planets and other objects.

After launch, Gaia will take up an orbit around the sun 1.5 million kilometres beyond, but in pace with, Earth's to minimise the distance the weak signal has to travel. During its initial five-year mission, Gaia will send an estimated 200 terabytes of data to radio dishes in Spain and Australia. A working antenna is obviously central to downloading this data safely.

Source: http://feeds.newscientist.com/c/749/f/10897/s/20f82cb2/l/0L0Snewscientist0N0Cblogs0Cshortsharpscience0C20A120C0A70Cgaia0Eantenna0Bhtml0DDCMP0FOTC0Erss0Gnsref0Fonline0Enews/story01.htm

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Accusations grow of vote-buying in Mexico election

MEXICO CITY (AP) ? Thousands of people rushed to stores Tuesday to redeem pre-paid gift cards they said were given to them previously by the party that won Mexico's presidency, inflaming accusations that the weekend election was marred by widespread vote-buying.

At least a few cardholders were angry, complaining that they didn't get as much as promised or that their cards weren't working. Neighbors at one store in a poor neighborhood on the outskirts of Mexico City said the unusually large crowds prevented them from doing their daily shopping.

Some people shopping at the store said that they were told the cards would be valid only during the two days after Sunday's election and that they had waited to cash them in until Tuesday because the store was packed Monday.

Under Mexican election law, giving voters gifts is not a crime unless the gift is conditioned on a certain vote or meant to influence a vote. However, the cost of such gifts must be reported, and cannot exceed campaign spending limits. Violations are usually punished with fines, but generally aren't considered grounds for annulling an election.

Some of the people lined up to use gift cards said they got them for supporting the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, whose Enrique Pena Nieto won Sunday's presidential election, according to the preliminary official vote count. Some wore red T-shirts and baseball caps or carried tote bags with Pena Nieto's name printed in white.

Maria Salazar, a 20-year-old university student, came with her 70-year-old father, Antonio Salazar, to cash three cards.

"They gave us the cards in the name of the PRI and Rep. Hector Pedroza (a PRI congressional candidate), and they said they were counting on our vote," Maria Salazar said outside one store, as she carried plastic shopping bags packed with toilet paper, cooking oil, rice, saltine crackers and instant noodle soups.

Her father carried two more packed grocery bags and her 8-year-old nephew carried another.

"They told us they were worth 500 pesos ($37.50), but when we got to the check-out, they were only worth 100 rotten pesos ($7.50)," Salazar said.

Both she and her father said they had been told to turn in a photocopy of their voter ID card in order to get the gift cards.

Another woman interviewed outside the same Soriana grocery store also complained that her card had only 100 pesos ($7.50) in credit.

"For helping them with votes and all ... they gave us a card for supporting them, and all that for 100 pesos," said the woman, who gave only her first name, Josefina, for fear of reprisals. She said she got the card for supporting Pena Nieto, but complained that "100 pesos lasts you about five minutes."

Inside the store, long lines formed at card-reading machines as people tried to find the balances on their cards. Some grew angry and shouted insults against Pena Nieto.

Regular shoppers were vexed at the long lines.

"I was going to buy bread right now, but you can see, the lines are tremendous, you can't even get in," said Maria Garcia Lobato.

Pena Nieto's campaign and the PRI press office said they had no immediate comment. In the final days of the campaign before Sunday's vote, PRI officials denied allegations that the party had distributed pre-paid cash cards from a local bank.

Humberto Fayad, a spokesman for the Soriana grocery store chain, denied the company sold huge amounts of gift cards to the PRI.

"There is no agreement between the PRI and Soriana, or Soriana and any other political party. Soriana is a non-political company," Fayad said.

Before the election, the PRI accused the conservative National Action Party, or PAN, whose candidate ran third in the presidential election, of passing out groceries during the campaign, and claimed the leftist Democratic Revolution Party, or PRD, had gotten illegal campaign financing. None of those allegations have been proven.

On the Friday before the vote, the PRD issued a statement accompanied by photos of dozens of the Soriana gift cards, saying they had been distributed by a PRI-affiliated union, and it filed a complaint to electoral authorities. The party's presidential candidate, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, came in second.

Allegations of vote-buying were not limited to Mexico City, with complaints cropping up in several battleground states. PAN accused Pena Nieto's campaign of acquiring about 9,500 prepaid gift cards worth nearly $5.2 million (71 million pesos) to give away for votes. Authorities said a business had bought that number of cards, but had found no direct evidence of vote-buying. That investigation continues.

On Tuesday, Alfredo Figueroa, a council member of the oversight agency known as the Federal Electoral Institute, said authorities were investigating complaints about the Soriana gift cards. Members of the institute have said they were aware of attempts to engage in vote buying.

Figueroa also said that irregularities in vote tallies might eventually lead to the opening and re-counting of votes from as many as 50,000 polling stations, about a third of the 143,000 involved in Sunday's vote.

Lopez Obrador said Tuesday that his team had detected irregularities at 113,855 polling places, and called for a total recount.

"This is a scandal ... They bought millions of votes," Lopez Obrador said at a news conference, referring to the PRI. "Clearly, they far exceeded campaign spending limits ... this is a national embarrassment."

Lopez Obrador has refused to accept the preliminary vote tallies, saying the election campaign was marred by overspending and favorable treatment for Pena Nieto by Mexico's semi-monopolized television industry.

Many Mexicans also questioned why pre-election polls showed Pena Nieto with a double-digit lead, roughly twice the margin he really won by. With 99 percent of the vote tallied in the preliminary count, Lopez Obrador trailed by six percentage points.

The narrower-than-expected margin has fueled suspicion among Lopez Obrador's followers about the fairness of the vote, and he refused Monday night to concede defeat, just as he did when he lost a razor-thin race in the 2006 presidential race and set off months of political unrest. This time, he has not called his followers into the streets to protest.

Lopez Obrador argued from the start of the campaign that pollsters were manipulating surveys to promote the idea that the PRI candidate was far out in front.

Pollsters deny that, saying they believe some voters switched to Lopez Obrador in the final week, a period when publication of new polls is banned by law.

Lopez Obrador said he would not accept the preliminary election results reported by the Federal Electoral Institute and would wait until Wednesday, when the official results are to be announced, before deciding what he will do.

"We will not accept a fraudulent result," Lopez Obrador said.

Calls from conservative and pro-business groups mounted for Lopez Obrador to accept the results.

"We hope that the leftist candidate ... will also adhere to legality and recognize the official results once the authorities issue a final result," the Mexican Employers' Confederation said in a statement.

___

Associated Press writer Mark Stevenson contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/accusations-grow-vote-buying-mexico-election-221704438.html

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Jury convicts Ind. financier in $200M fraud scheme

Tim Dunham is seen in a Sept. 15, 2004 photo in Indianapolis. Durham's trial on charges that he bilked investors out of more than $200 million opened Monday, June 11, 2012 in Indianapolis, with his attorney telling jurors that prosecutors were misrepresenting his attempts to save the company. Federal prosecutors say Durham, his business partner and his accountant used a Ponzi scheme to bilk about 5,000 mostly elderly investors at the Akron, Ohio-based Fair Finance Co.(AP Photo/The Indianapolis Star, Frank Espich)

Tim Dunham is seen in a Sept. 15, 2004 photo in Indianapolis. Durham's trial on charges that he bilked investors out of more than $200 million opened Monday, June 11, 2012 in Indianapolis, with his attorney telling jurors that prosecutors were misrepresenting his attempts to save the company. Federal prosecutors say Durham, his business partner and his accountant used a Ponzi scheme to bilk about 5,000 mostly elderly investors at the Akron, Ohio-based Fair Finance Co.(AP Photo/The Indianapolis Star, Frank Espich)

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) ? An Indianapolis businessman accused of looting an Ohio-based finance company after buying it and bilking about 5,000 mostly elderly investors out of more than $200 million was convicted Wednesday on all counts.

A federal jury found Tim Durham guilty of securities fraud, conspiracy and 10 counts of wire fraud. His business partners, James F. Cochran and accountant Rick D. Snow, also were convicted of conspiracy and securities fraud, and some wire fraud counts. When sentenced, the men could face decades in prison.

Durham's defense attorney had argued that the men simply made bad business decisions in the midst of the bewildering economic crisis of 2008. But prosecutors alleged that Durham and his partners pillaged Fair Finance to enrich themselves and their friends ? buying classic cars, houses and casino trips ? and to help Durham's other struggling businesses.

The three men were taken out of the courtroom in handcuffs and will be held in jail pending a hearing Monday in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis. Jurors began deliberations Wednesday morning after the judge denied a request from Durham's attorney for a mistrial.

Outside the courthouse, U.S. Attorney Joe Hogsett said the verdicts were "a powerful warning that if you sacrifice truth in the name of greed, if you steal from another's effort to carve out the American dream to enhance your own, you will be caught."

Hogsett said he hoped the jury's decision would bring some measure of justice to "the thousands of hardworking people whose financial wellbeing was destroyed at the hands of these men."

Durham's attorney, John Tompkins, said in an email Tuesday evening that his client plans to appeal. Durham maintains that he has done nothing wrong, and "the Durham family stands by Tim and continues to believe in his innocence," Tompkins wrote.

Phone messages seeking comment were left for Cochran's and Snow's attorneys.

Prosecutors claimed that after buying Akron, Ohio-based Fair Finance in 2002, Durham and his partners stripped it of its assets and tapped it to buy luxury items. The men also were accused of funneling funds from Fair Finance to Durham's Indianapolis-based holding company, Obsidian Enterprises, to keep its failing subsidiaries intact.

Prosecutors claimed the men operated an elaborate Ponzi scheme to hide Fair Finance's depleted condition from investors and regulators until the FBI raided Durham's office in November 2009. By then, the consumer finance company founded in 1934 was $200 million in debt.

Tompkins had argued that Durham and the others were caught off-guard by the economic crisis of 2008, and bewildered when regulators placed them under more strict scrutiny and investors made a run on the company.

Tompkins said the evidence didn't support the accusation of fraud because Durham stood to lose money if Fair Finance went under, claiming that Durham had sunk millions of dollars of his own money into Obsidian to keep it afloat.

All three men were found guilty on one count of conspiracy and one count of securities fraud. Each also faced 10 counts of wire fraud; Cochran was convicted on six of those counts and Snow on three.

Each of the wire fraud and securities fraud counts carries up to 20 years in prison, while the conspiracy charge carries up to a five-year prison sentence.

A federal grand jury in Indianapolis indicted Durham, Cochran and Snow in March 2010. The allegations against Durham ? a major Indiana Republican Party donor ? led several GOP politicians, including Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, to return hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions sought by Fair Finance's bankruptcy trustee.

___

Associated Press reporter Charles Wilson contributed to this report from Indianapolis.

Associated Press

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Al-Qaida in Yemen driven from 2 major strongholds

SANAA, Yemen (AP) ? Yemeni troops and armed tribesmen drove al-Qaida militants from two major strongholds in the south on Tuesday, a major victory in a U.S.-backed offensive to regain control of large swaths of territory from the terror network in the Arab world's most impoverished country.

The capture of Jaar and Zinjibar came after weeks of heavy bombardment and shelling of al-Qaida positions, with the help of dozens of U.S. troops stationed at a command center in an air base near the conflict zone deep in the southern desert. Troops also liberated a vital highway that links Jaar with the port city of Aden, according to the Yemeni Defense Ministry.

Al-Qaida in Yemen, which the U.S. considers the most dangerous offshoot of the terror network, had exploited the country's political turmoil that resulted from last year's uprising against the former leader Ali Abdullah Saleh to seize major population centers in the southern province of Abyan. That raised fears it could use the area as a foothold to launch more attacks on U.S. targets.

The latest strikes leave al-Qaida scattered in smaller towns, valleys, desert and mountainous areas ? similar to the group's situation before the revolt that ousted Saleh began in February 2011. SABA said most of the militants fled to the nearby coastal town of Shaqra, the last remaining major al-Qaida stronghold in Abyan province. Sleeper cells, officials say, will also be a major source of concerns to the Yemeni leadership.

The militant group said it had retreated from Zinjibar and Jaar to "spare bloodshed," but it also threatened to retaliate by attacking Yemen's capital, Sanaa. In an emailed statement, the group addressed the Yemeni leadership as "crusaders and American agents" and warned "we will chase you in your cities and palaces."

Yemeni troops and allied tribesmen swooped into Jaar in a surprise dawn attack after hours of heavy shelling by artillery and rockets from hilltop positions, military officials said. Pro-government fighters rode into town from three different fronts in trucks, while dozens of tanks were used to block the town's entry and exit points, they added.

Residents flocked to the town's center, firing guns in the air in celebration. Others looted warehouses filled with humanitarian supplies delivered by relief groups, Waleed Mohammed, a resident said in a telephone interview.

Gamal al-Aqil, the governor of Abyan province, says Yemeni troops had dealt "painful blows" to al-Qaida "in their biggest dens in Abyan."

"We called the operation the Golden Swords," he said.

Ministry of Defense spokesman Gen. Mohammed al-Quton told the Yemeni state-news agency SABA that 20 militants and four troops were killed in the fighting. Jaar is a gateway to the strategic port of Aden, through which Yemen exports more than 60 percent of its oil and controls the southern tip of the Red Sea.

The officials and witnesses said that some 500 al-Qaida militants, including foreigners, fled the town after spray painting walls and store shutters with slogans in red saying, "Al-Qaida has withdrawn. Al-Qaida was not defeated."

The defense ministry spokesman said al-Qaida's defenses collapsed a day after army troops seized an ammunition factory called Oct. 7 on a hilltop overlooking Jaar. Since then, Katyusha missiles and warplanes pounded positions of al-Qaida in the outskirts of Jaar, 400 kilometers (250 miles) southeast of Sanaa.

Jaar resident Khaled Mohsen, said that residents had lost hope that the military would be able to defeat al-Qaida.

"We thought it would take a year in order for the army to get rid of al-Qaida, but we were surprised when they swept into the town in no time," said Mohsen. "I have been hearing constant exchange of gunfire all night, then suddenly everything was quiet. I looked from the windows, and I saw soldiers in uniform in the center of the town."

The military already had taken control of much of Zinjibar, the provincial capital, and the fighting there was lighter because many of the al-Qaida militants had left to help their comrades in Jaar, officials said. Six soldiers were killed when land minds exploded in fields in northern Zinjibar, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to release the information.

The victories capped weeks of fighting as Yemen's new President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi has pledged to uproot al-Qaida from the south with help from the United States as part of a new cooperation following the ouster of Ali Abdullah Saleh amid a popular uprising

The U.S., which considers al-Qaida's Yemen chapter the most dangerous offshoot of the terror network, is helping the Yemenis from a command center manned by dozens of U.S. troops in the al-Annad air base in the southern desert, about 65 kilometers (45 miles) from the main battle zones. The Americans are coordinating assaults and airstrikes, and providing information to Yemeni forces.

The militant group has been blamed for directing a string of unsuccessful bomb plots on U.S. soil from its hideouts in the impoverished country at the tip of the Arabian Peninsula. Most recently, this month it emerged that the CIA thwarted a plot to down a U.S.-bound airliner using a new, sophisticated explosive to be hidden in the bomber's underwear. But the planned bomber was actually a double agent who turned the device over to the U.S. government.

Al-Qaida retaliated last month with a suicide bombing by a soldier who blew himself up among troops rehearsing for a military parade in Sanaa, killing nearly 100 of them in one of the deadliest attacks in the capital in years.

Yemen's military has long been largely ineffectual in uprooting the militants. The force is ill-equipped, poorly trained with weak intelligence capabilities and is riven with conflicted loyalties, since some commanders remain close to Saleh.

Hadi also has shaken up the military by purging it from loyalists of Saleh, demoting his family members from their positions as commanders of army units and appointing new ones. He faced resistance as Saleh has been seen as trying to hold power strings from behind the scenes by keeping his loyalists in their positions. Saleh's son, Ahmed, is the top commander of the most powerful Republican Guards force.

Associated Press

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ChrisInCambo: @SvaTom2003 @Spigzy Scratch that, just told that up until last night Gym bar hadn't even been showing the football #wtf. So Score it is.

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60 Minutes To Honor Troops For Memorial Day 5/27/2012

60 Minutes continues its tradition of doing a Memorial Day weekend show dedicated to the men and women who serve in our armed forces. Tonight?s show has a one on one interview with Medal of Honor recipient Dakota Meyer, combat vets returning to Iraq to face their tragedies head on, and will highlight 5 sets of brothers who are serving in Afghanistan. This Memorial Weekend show will look at the toll our two biggest ongoing wars have extracted on our brave soldiers.

Being wounded in combat is a very traumatic experience that a lot of soldiers have trouble coming to terms with. Who could blame them as most have seen things that would shake the most solid person for a lifetime. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is real and can haunt a person for many years if not dealt with. Some experts have said returning to the scene of a tragedy can help a person deal with it and move on. Is this what the segment tonight will be about? We can?t say for sure until we see the show. Facing tragedy head on has been proven to help people and if returning to Iraq will help a wounded soldier deal with his or her demons then we should do it more often. Returning will give them a chance to reconcile what happened to them and their friends. This should be a very moving segment.

The next segment will be an interview with Dakota Meyer, who is the first living recipient of the Medal of Honor the marines have had in over 48 years. Meyer made a quick decision to head into a firefight and help out other soldiers. It was aid that he is responsible for returning 4 soldiers who were killed and saving over 20 friendly personnel. He also laid down the ground fire that allowed quite a few troops to get out of a highly volatile situation. Meyer is also famous for suing BAE Systems, a defense contractor he worked for, for making false statements about him because he openly objected to the sale of arms to Pakistan. It got pretty nasty for a while but the suit was settled out of court in December of 2011.

Check back here on CMR for a full recap of 60 Minutes at 8pm eastern time tonight.

Photo courtesy of: CBS

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