Today's Top Islamic News (DAILY)

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Financial crises 'possible' despite US bailout
Sun, 31 Jan 2010 16:57:50 GMT

The special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program Neil Barofsky said the program had failed to help struggling homeowners and to relieve unemployment.
The $700 billion rescue program has failed to revamp the economic system so that financial crises do not occur in the future, a watchdog report said Sunday.

The special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) said in the report to Congress that although "some aspects of the financial system are more stable", a number of the bailout's main goals "have simply not been met."

TARP was approved by Congress at the end of 2008.

The US bailout, which was aimed at saving banks from collapse during the financial meltdown, makes future reckless behavior more likely, the report said.

The report warned that the potential for a new crisis looms without major reforms.

"Even if TARP saved our financial system from driving off a cliff back in 2008, absent meaningful reform, we are still driving on the same winding mountain road, but this time in a faster car," the government's bailout watchdog said.

"It is hard to see how any of the fundamental problems in our financial system have been addressed to date," said special investigator general Neil Barofsky, who authored the report.

MVZ/MD

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Nine years later, US Army implements 'no harm' rule
Sun, 31 Jan 2010 18:21:27 GMT

More than nine years after the invasion of Afghanistan, US military commanders in the country are reportedly urging troops to avoid tactics that may harm civilians.

The tactical directive issued six months ago by the top US commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, requires the US Air Force to exercise more restraint in its operations and be certain bombs are not dropped on Afghan civilians and their homes.

US Air Force commanders admit that bombs, even those which could be guided with high precision, are capable of killing hundreds of troops stationed on a battlefield, and they are not suitable for killing one or two suspects trying to escape a housing compound.

When dropped, the explosives claim many lives including those of two or three terrorist suspects, McClatchy Newspapers reported.

"[Since McChrystal's directive,] we have seen … significantly less use in compounds," said Air Force Maj. Gen. Stephen P. Mueller, the director of coordinating air resources in Afghanistan and McChrystal adviser on Air Force matters on Saturday.

The US ground forces, on the other hand, think, if observed, the directive is going to put them in greater danger.

"The directive . . . It's nice. I read it, but I am going to make sure my guys come back. Period," said a platoon sergeant, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Afghan officials say they appreciate the more cautious approach, but there has been a growing outrage among the public regarding the US air attacks on Afghan civilians.

The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said in a recent report that 2,038 civilians had died in the first 10 months of 2009 as a result of US-led operations in the conflict-torn country.

Figures released by the United Nations indicate a 10 percent rise in the civilian death toll from the US-led war in Afghanistan with a good share of fatalities caused by foreign forces.

RB/HGH/MD

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Obama's 2010 budget includes $1.6 trillion deficit
Mon, 01 Feb 2010 02:23:27 GMT

US President Barack Obama's $3.8 trillion 2010 budget proposal is dripping with red ink and has a record-breaking budget deficit.

However, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said on Sunday that Obama is committed to his campaign pledge to halve the budget deficit he inherited by the end of his first term.

The $3.8 trillion plan, to be released on Monday, will include freezing non-discretionary spending — spending that since 1995 has almost doubled in the federal budget.

The plan would add up to a record-breaking $1.6 trillion budget deficit in the current fiscal year, followed by a tamer $1.3 trillion deficit in 2011.

The proposal calculates deficits over the next decade will average 4.5 percent of the size of the economy, a level economists say is dangerously high if not addressed, Gibbs said.

Among Obama's recession-busting ideas over the source of spending are an additional $100 billion to chip away at double digit unemployment, an extension of the popular middle-class tax breaks due to expire after this year, and $250 payments to Social Security recipients.

He has also proposed an increase in taxes on the wealthy and a spending freeze on many government programs.

FTP/HGL

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Iraq to file lawsuit against US, Britain
Mon, 01 Feb 2010 06:33:00 GMT

A child born with defects attributable to exposure to depleted uranium (archive photo)
Iraq's Ministry for Human Rights will file a lawsuit against Britain and the US over their use of depleted uranium bombs in Iraq, an Iraqi minister says.

Iraq's Minister of Human Rights, Wijdan Mikhail Salim, told Assabah newspaper that the lawsuit will be launched based on reports from the Iraqi ministries of science and the environment.

According to the reports, during the first year of the US and British invasion of Iraq, both countries had repeatedly used bombs containing depleted uranium.

The report says that 2,000 tonnes of depleted uranium has been used in Iraq.

Atomic radiation has increased the number of babies born with defects in the southern provinces of Iraq, including Basra.

The high rate of birth defects and cancer cases will move in the coming years to the central and northern provinces of Iraq since the radiation may penetrate the soil and water by air.

The ministry will seek compensation for the victims of these bombs.

MGH/JG/DT

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Youth killed in Kashmir demo
Sun, 31 Jan 2010 23:25:15 GMT

Clashes between protesters and police in Indian-administered Kashmir have left one person dead and dozens injured.

The clashes broke out on Sunday after police used tear gas canisters and batons to stop anti-India demonstrations in Srinagar.

Reports say a teenage protester who was hit in the head with a canister later died of his wounds.

Despite the risks, it seems the Kashmiris are determined to continue their “people power” movement.

Political analysts say the frequent street protests of the past two years are giving new life to the Kashmir liberation struggle.

Over the past two decades, the conflict in Kashmir has left over 47,000 people dead by the official count, although other sources say the death toll could be as high as 90,000.

JR/HGL

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Americans charged with child trafficking in Haiti
Mon, 01 Feb 2010 06:01:59 GMT

One of the 33 Haitian children who were allegedly abducted.

As survivors of Haiti's killer earthquake are still trying to cope, Haitian police have charged 10 Americans with child trafficking in the tragedy-stricken country.

On Friday, police arrested 10 members of a US charity group when they were trying to take more than 30 children who had survived the quake.

The alleged abductors, five men and five women with US passports, wanted to cross into the Dominican Republic with 33 children without the proper papers.

The youngsters, who range in age from two months to 14 years, all have family members that survived the devastating incident, according to the director of the Haitian Center, Patricia Vargas.

Some of the older children had spoken to aid workers and said their parents were alive, and some had given the center their addresses and phone numbers, Vargas added.

However, the members of New Life Children's Refuge, an Idaho-based charity, denied the charges, saying they were taking the children to temporary shelters in the Dominican Republic.

The US embassy in Port-au-Prince said the charity group was being held for "alleged violations of Haitian laws related to immigration."

Haitian officials have warned that child traffickers might be able to take advantage of the chaos after the quake.

Meanwhile, President Rene Preval criticized a lack of coordination among countries bringing aid to Haiti nearly 20 days after the earthquake.

Preval said countries such as Germany, the US, and France are channeling their assistance through their own institutions and bypassing the Haitian government.

AGB/TG/DT

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US kills baby, 4 other civilians in Afghanistan
Mon, 01 Feb 2010 03:21:39 GMT


US forces have killed at least five people, including a baby, during a night raid which they say has been aimed at targeting militants in central Afghanistan.

Afghan officials say the foreign forces killed the civilians in an attack on a village house in Uruzgan province on Saturday night.

US-led forces in the war-weary country claim the casualties occurred when the joint forces came under fire from several locations as they approached a compound in the region.

The NATO alliance has confirmed the death of the baby and expressed regret for what it called a tragic loss of innocent life.

General Stanley McChrystal, the commander of US and NATO troops in Afghanistan, is expected to issue a new directive on night raids in the near future.

The fact that Afghan civilian casualties are rising has become a major source of friction between Kabul and Washington.

Last week, thousands of Afghans protested against civilian casualties caused by the US-led forces' actions.

JR/HGL

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Occupiers experience deadliest Jan. in Afghanistan
Mon, 01 Feb 2010 03:15:48 GMT

Last month was the deadliest January for foreign troops in Afghanistan since the 2001 US-led invasion of the country.

At least 44 foreign troops, most of them American, have been killed in Afghanistan since the beginning of the year, which is almost twice as many deaths as in January 2009.

Meanwhile, at least four foreign soldiers were injured in clashes with Taliban militants in the southern province of Helmand on Sunday.

Foreign troops' casualties are expected to rise as the US and NATO send more soldiers to Afghanistan with the goal of quelling the Taliban militancy.

JR/HGL

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Karzai: Civilian toll from NATO raids too high
Thu, 28 Jan 2010 15:32:38 GMT

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has told delegates that his government is concerned about the civilian casualties of the war in his country.

Karzai told the representatives from more than 70 countries at the Afghanistan Conference in London that the civilian death toll from the NATO-led raids was "unacceptably high."

He said that people demand that military operations should only be carried out by Afghan forces.

NATO air strikes against 'suspected' Taliban militants have killed hundreds of civilians in different parts of Afghanistan over the past few months.

A recent UN report charges that 2009 was the deadliest year for civilians since the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

The violence in the country left more than 2,400 Afghan civilians dead last year.

The Afghan president has been denouncing the killing of civilians that has fueled anti-American sentiments in Afghanistan.

Karzai also raised his government's plan to re-integrate into the Afghan society those Taliban militants that have cut ties with al-Qaeda.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who is hosting the conference, supported Karzai's re-integration plan.

The transfer of security to Afghan forces is also on the agenda of the talks.

An international conference on the future of Afghanistan kicked off in London on Thursday.

JR/MB

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New US finding: Two-thirds of Taliban not extremists
Thu, 28 Jan 2010 16:30:19 GMT

The US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan has claimed that more than two-thirds of the Taliban are not extremists.

Richard Holbrooke told reporters on the sidelines of the London Summit on Afghanistan that most members of the militant group are not fighting for the same causes that their leaders are.

"The overwhelming majority of these people are not ideological supporters of Mullah Omar and al-Qaeda. Based on interviews with prisoners, returnees, experts, there must be at least 70 percent of these people who are not fighting for anything to do with those causes," The Daily Times quoted Holbrooke as saying.

Holbrooke announced that the US supports efforts to engage in a dialogue with the militants.

The US has reportedly gone so far as to sanction a political party for the Taliban.

The developments come as Washington and its allies have time and again accused the group of spreading terrorism and extremism in the region.

JR/MB