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International: US freezes assets of Osama's son-in-law

IANS on 08/25/2010 at 7:38am (UTC)

WASHINGTON: In a continuing campaign to target al-Qaida's sources of funds, the United States has frozen the assets of Muhammad Abdallah Hasan Abu-al-Khayr, a son-in-law of Osama bin Laden.

The assets of al-Khayr, who is considered a possible replacement for the terror group's chief financial officer, would be frozen in US jurisdictions under new sanctions imposed by the Treasury Department Tuesday. Mustafa al-Yazid, the former No. 3 al-Qaida leader and financier, was killed in a drone strike in Pakistan earlier this year.

The Treasury's designation also prohibits Americans from engaging in any transactions with him. The UN took a similar action, which extends the sanctions against him to all member nations.

The Treasury Department says al-Khayr has helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for a specific terrorist attack against US interests. He appears on a 2009 list of 85 persons wanted by the government of Saudi Arabia, in part because of his role as an al-Qaida financial facilitator.

Al-Khayr also acts for al-Qaida in a leadership role on the media committee, and has on at least one occasion recruited a member for al-Qaida, it said.

His relationship with al-Qaida began with military training the terrorist group provided him in the mid-1990s. Al-Khayr has also provided services to bin Laden as a bodyguard.

"After the death in May of Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, who essentially served as al-Qaida 's chief financial officer, we will continue to work with our allies to target those like al-Khayr who could step into al-Yazid's shoes," said Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Stuart Levey.
"Today's designation of al-Khayr by the United States and the United Nations will help to ensure that that al-Qaida remains in severe financial straits."

National:India to reopen Kabul medical mission

Sachin on 08/25/2010 at 7:34am (UTC)

NEW DELHI: Despite the heightened threat perception, India is all set to reopen in Kabul its medical mission, which had been closed after the February 26 attacks.

Highly placed government sources revealed that the process to replace some of the staff there had already been initiated, and the mission is expected to resume functioning "very soon".

India was forced to temporarily close the medical mission in Kabul as the gruesome attack seemed to be aimed specifically at New Delhi's interests. The mission comprising six doctors and five paramedics was functioning from the Indira Gandhi Child Care Hospital set up under India's assistance programme. While one person of the 11-member team was killed, several others were injured.

"The medical mission in Kabul will resume full-scale operations shortly. The staff who had been injured are being replaced," said a source, adding that India did not completely wound up operations after the attack because it was confident all along that the mission would resume.

India was operating five medical missions in Kabul, Herat, Kandahar, Jalalabad and Mazar-e-Sharif. While the mission at Mazar-e-Sharif continued to function after the attacks, operations in the remaining four were temporarily suspended.

Meanwhile, Afghanistan foreign minister Zalmay Rassuol arrived in India on Tuesday on a two-day visit. He briefed PM Manmohan Singh about the ongoing negotiations for political settlement in the country. Singh is said to have expressed his concern over attempts for reconciliation with Taliban which could result in power-sharing agreements with them.

Rassuol will also hold discussions with his counterpart S M Krishna, NSA Shiv Shankar Menon and also call on the PM.

"We will reiterate our position that India supports an Afghanistan-led process which is transparent and in keeping with the red lines specified -- shunning violence, snapping links with terrorist organisations and adhering to the Afghan constitution," said an official, adding that India plays a "benign" role in Afghanistan, which is being appreciated by the international community.

The first standalone visit by Rassoul to India as foreign minister comes soon after Afghan national security adviser Rangin Dadfar Spanta accused Pakistan's military-intelligence establishment of harbouring the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

According to the government officials, despite the heinous attacks by forces inimical to India-Afghanistan friendship, India remains committed to assisting the people and government of Afghanistan "in their quest for a peaceful, pluralistic, democratic, and prosperous Afghanistan." "This approach of India, this assistance of India that is being provided in Afghanistan, is positively reflected in a number of opinion polls conducted by independent agencies where the people of Afghanistan have spoken in very warm terms about what India has been doing," foreign ministry spokesperson Vishnu Prakash said.

Sports: Delhi battles to clear vermin before Commonwealth athletes arrive

Reporting by Amlan Chakraborty on 08/25/2010 at 7:30am (UTC)

While the anti-corruption watchdogs smell a proverbial rat in the construction works, a veterinary team has been assigned the job of removing the actual rodents from the Commonwealth Games venues by mid-September.

Equipped with 600 traps and 100kg of rodenticides, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) taskforce will carry out the operation at all 11 venues in an attempt to remove the rodents, a common pest in the city.

"We are waiting for the rat traps and the rodenticides to reach us," MCD spokesman Deep Mathur told Reuters on Wednesday.

"A 90-member team of veterinary workers has been set up and if required, we would press more people into service.

"The trapped rats will be released in the Ridge area of the city."

As well as rats, mosquitoes are also keeping MCD on its toes with the city recording more than 275 cases of dengue fever since June.

The pest problem is a fresh headache for the organisers of the Oct. 3-14 Games, who are already battling corruption charges.

Local media alleged stagnant pools at construction sites had become breeding grounds for mosquitoes and an MCD official told reporters on Monday the number of hand-operated fogging machines had been doubled in the Games Village area.

However, Mathur said people should not panic.

"MCD is doing everything that is possible and we have a large team working on it."

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