Karzai on US visit as Obama mulls Afghan troop plan

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WASHINGTON: President Hamid Karzai will begin a four-day US visit on Tuesday as President Barack Obama weighs how fast to withdraw troops from Afghanistan and whether to leave a "residual force" behind after 2014.

Foreign combat soldiers are due to exit Afghanistan by the end of next year, more than a decade after a US-led invasion brought down the Taliban regime in 2001, but the country remains wracked by Islamist violence.

US officials have reportedly prepared plans for between 3,000 and 9,000 troops to remain to prevent Al-Qaeda militants from re-establishing themselves and to ensure Taliban fighters cannot take the capital Kabul.

But pressure is growing on Obama to end the war rapidly due to deep war weariness in the United States, tightening military budgets and anger over "insider attacks" by Afghan troops on the NATO-led soldiers.

"If Mr. Obama cannot find a way to go to zero troops, he should approve only the minimum number needed," The New York Times said in an editorial this week that called Karzai's government "profoundly corrupt".

Obama will host talks with Karzai at the White House on Friday, the day after the Afghan president meets Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

US officials have said a decision could be made during Karzai's visit on how many troops stay on in Afghanistan after 2014 - a figure that could determine whether the country tips into a widely-feared civil war.

The talks will also include equipping and strengthening Afghan forces, efforts to negotiate peace with Taliban-led insurgents and a long-term security agreement with the United States, Karzai's office said.

The number of foreign soldiers battling the insurgency in Afghanistan has already fallen to 100,000 from about 150,000. Of those, 66,000 are US troops, down from a maximum of about 100,000.

Afghan army and police are due to take over complete security responsibility from NATO troops by the end of 2014, but there are major concerns they will not be able to face down the country's many warring factions.

More than 60 foreign soldiers were killed in 2012 in "insider attacks" that have bred bitter mistrust and threatened to derail the training of Afghan security forces.

Karzai has expressed support for keeping some US troops in Afghanistan after 2014 but sensitive details - including immunity for American soldiers and the transfer of detainees into Afghan custody - are still under negotiation.

Washington scrapped plans for some troops to remain in Iraq after Baghdad refused to grant US soldiers immunity from prosecution.

Karzai's relationship with Washington has been troubled in recent years and there are fears that attention on his country, heavily dependent on international aid, could plummet after the NATO withdrawal.

A White House statement ahead of the visit said that Obama envisioned "an enduring partnership between the United States and Afghanistan".

Outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has stressed that any residual force would focus on Al-Qaeda, which was sheltered by the Taliban government that was ousted after the 9/11 attacks.

Friday's talks will come just days after Obama put the finishing touches to his security team, having named his picks to head up the State Department, Pentagon and CIA.

Karzai is expected to visit Asadullah Khalid, his spy chief who was wounded in an attack in Kabul last month, at an American hospital on Tuesday.

- AFP/de



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Primitive and Peculiar Mammal May Be Hiding Out in Australia

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It’d be hard to think of a mammal that’s weirder than the long-beaked, egg-laying echidna. Or harder to find.


Scientists long thought the animal, which has a spine-covered body, a four-headed penis, and a single hole for reproducing, laying eggs, and excreting waste, lived only in New Guinea. The population of about 10,000 is critically endangered. Now there is tantalizing evidence that the echidna, thought to have gone extinct in Australia some 10,000 years ago, lived and reproduced there as recently as the early 1900s and may still be alive on Aussie soil.


The new echidna information comes from zoologist Kristofer Helgen, a National Geographic emerging explorer and curator of mammals at the Smithsonian Institution. Helgen has published a key finding in ZooKeys confirming that a skin and skull collected in 1901 by naturalist John T. Tunney in Australia is in fact the western long-beaked echidna, Zaglossus bruijnii. The specimen, found in the West Kimberley region of Western Australia, was misidentified for many years.


(More about echidnas: Get to know this living link between mammals and reptiles.)


Helgen has long been fascinated by echidnas. He has seen only three in the wild. “Long-beaked echidnas are hard to get your hands on, period,” he said. “They are shy and secretive by nature. You’re lucky if you can find one. And if you do, it will be by chance.” Indeed, chance played a role in his identification of the Australian specimen. In 2009, he visited the Natural History Museum of London, where he wanted to see all of the echidnas he could. He took a good look in the bottom drawer of the echidna cabinet, where the specimens with less identifying information are often stored. From among about a dozen specimens squeezed into the drawer, he grabbed the one at the very bottom.


(Related from National Geographic magazine: “Discovery in the Foja Mountains.”)


“As I pulled it out, I saw a tag that I had seen before,” Helgen said. “I was immediately excited about this label. As a zoologist working in museums you get used to certain tags: It’s a collector’s calling card. I instantly recognized John Tunney’s tag and his handwriting.”


John Tunney was a well-known naturalist in the early 20th century who went on collecting expeditions for museums. During an Australian expedition in 1901 for Lord L. Walter Rothschild’s private museum collection, he found the long-beaked echidna specimen. Though he reported the locality on his tag as “Mt Anderson (W Kimberley)” and marked it as “Rare,” Tunney left the species identification field blank. When he returned home, the specimen was sent to the museum in Perth for identification. It came back to Rothschild’s museum identified as a short-beaked echidna.


With the specimen’s long snout, large size, and three-clawed feet, Helgen knew that it must be a long-beaked echidna. The short-beaked echidna, still alive and thriving in Australia today, has five claws, a smaller beak, and is half the size of the long-beaked echidna, which can weigh up to 36 pounds (16 kilograms).



As Helgen began tracing the history and journey of the specimen over the last century, he crossed the path of another fascinating mind who had also encountered the specimen. Oldfield Thomas was arguably the most brilliant mammalogical taxonomist ever. He named approximately one out of every six mammals known today.


Thomas was working at the Natural History Museum in London when the Tunney echidna specimen arrived, still misidentified as a short-beaked echidna. Thomas realized the specimen was actually a long-beaked echidna and removed the skull and some of the leg bones from the skin to prove that it was an Australian record of a long-beaked echidna, something just as unexpected then as it is now.


No one knows why Thomas did not publish that information. And the echidna went back into the drawer until Helgen came along 80 years later.


As Helgen became convinced that Tunney’s long-beaked echidna specimen indeed came from Australia, he confided in fellow scientist Mark Eldridge of the Australian Museum about the possibility. Eldridge replied, “You’re not the first person who’s told me that there might be long-beaked echidnas in the Kimberley.” (That’s the Kimberley region of northern Australia.) Scientist James Kohen, a co-author on Helgen’s ZooKeys paper, had been conducting fieldwork in the area in 2001 and spoke to an Aboriginal woman who told him how “her grandmothers used to hunt” large echidnas.


This is “the first evidence of the survival into modern times of any long-beaked echidna in Australia,” said Tim Flannery, professor at Macquarie University in Sydney. “This is a truly significant finding that should spark a re-evaluation of echidna identifications from across northern Australia.”


Helgen has “a small optimism” about finding a long-beaked echidna in the wild in Australia and hopes to undertake an expedition and to interview Aboriginal communities, with their intimate knowledge of the Australian bush.


Though the chances may be small, Helgen says, finding one in the wild “would be the beautiful end to the story.”


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Giffords, Kelly Launch Initiative to Curb Gun Violence

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After she was gravely wounded by gunfire two years ago in Tucson, Ariz., former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, Mark Kelly, imagined a life out of the public eye, where she would continue therapy surrounded by the friends, family and the Arizona desert she loves so much.


Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly Speak Exclusively to Diane Sawyer


But after the slaughter of 20 first-graders and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., last month, Giffords and Kelly knew they couldn't stay silent.


"Enough," Giffords said.


The couple marked the second anniversary of the Tucson shooting by sitting down with Diane Sawyer to discuss their recent visit to Newtown and their new initiative to curb gun violence, "Americans for Responsible Solutions."


"After the shooting in Tucson, there was talk about addressing some of these issues, [and] again after [a movie theater massacre in] Aurora," Colo., Kelly said. "I'm hopeful that this time is different, and I think it is. Twenty first-graders' being murdered in their classrooms is a very personal thing for everybody."








Gabrielle Giffords: Pledge of Allegiance at DNC Watch Video









Gabby and Mark Bonded by Dedication and Love Watch Video







Full Coverage: Gabrielle Giffords


During their trip to Newtown, Giffords and Kelly met with families directly affected by the tragedy.


"[The] first couple that we spoke to, the dad took out his cell phone and showed us a picture of his daughter and I just about lost it, just by looking at the picture," Kelly said. "It was just very tough and it brought back a lot of memories about what that was like for us some two years ago."


Full Coverage: Tragedy in Newtown


"Strength," Giffords said she told the families in Newtown.


"Gabby often told them, 'You got to have strength. You got to fight for something,'" Kelly said.


The innocent faces of the children whose lives were abruptly taken reminded the couple, they said, of 9-year-old Christina-Taylor Green, the youngest victim to die in the Tucson shooting at a Giffords constituent event.


"I think we all need to try to do something about [gun violence]," Kelly said. "It's obvious to everybody we have a problem. And problems can be solved."


Giffords, Kelly Call for 'Common Sense' Solutions


Giffords, 42, and Kelly, 48, are both gun owners and supporters of the 2nd Amendment, but Kelly had strong words for the National Rifle Association after the group suggested the only way to stop gun violence is to have a "good guy with a gun."


There was a good guy with a gun, Kelly said, the day Jared Loughner shot Giffords and 18 other people, six fatally, at her "Congress on Your Corner" event.


"[A man came out] of the store next door and nearly shot the man who took down Jared Loughner," Kelly said. "The one who eventually wrestled [Loughner] to the ground was almost killed himself by a good guy with a gun, so I don't really buy that argument."


Instead, Giffords and Kelly are proposing "common sense" changes through "Americans for Responsible Solutions."






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Tennis: Erratic Janowicz fails in Auckland

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AUCKLAND: Jerzy Janowicz's fairy tale rise through the tennis ranks was dealt a blow at the Heineken Open in Auckland on Monday when the Polish fifth seed lost in the opening round to US journeyman Brian Baker.

In his first outing since a breakthrough run to reach the final of the Paris Masters last November, Janowicz was defeated 4-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 after an erratic display in the tournament, a warm-up event for the Australian Open.

While he showed glimpses of the giant-killing form that downed five top 20 players in Paris, including Andy Murray, Janowicz committed 51 unforced errors and 10 double faults to hand the match to Baker.

He took the first set comfortably but lost concentration early in the second, finally rallying at 5-1 down in the third, when it was too late to stop Baker.

"It seemed like he flicked a switch," the American said. "I don't know how many points he won in a row but it seemed like about 15. "Luckily I was able to close it out at the end."

Last year's beaten finalist Olivier Rochus of Belgium defeated Spain's Albert Ramos 6-2, 5-7, 6-2 in blustery conditions that he described as the toughest he had ever played in.

"It was very windy and the ball was going all over the place and it was very tricky but I kept my mind very focused and that's why I won," he said.

Elsewhere, Rochus' compatriot Xavier Malisse overcame some early resistance from Slovak seventh seed Martin Klizan to notch a 7-6 (7/4), 3-6 win.

David Goffin, the third Belgian on centre court during the opening day's play, was not so fortunate, going down 7-6 (7/5), 6-2 to eighth seed Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil.

Austria's Jurgen Melzer will be the only seeded player (sixth) in action when the bottom half of the draw is played on Tuesday, although there will be interest as French wildcard Gael Monfils continues his comeback from a knee injury.

Defending champion and top seed David Ferrer of Spain has a bye into the second round, as do Germans Philipp Kohlschreiber and Tommy Haas, seeded two and three respectively, and American fourth seed Sam Querrey.

- AFP/de



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Kasab pleaded for 'mercy' in a four-line plea

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NEW DELHI: Ajmal Kasab, the face of the dastardly 26/11 terror strike on Mumbai who was hanged on November 21, had begged for "daya" (mercy) from the President through his four-line clemency plea written in elementary Urdu, which was rejected.

The hand written petition dated September 12, 2012, which has been made public more than a month after Kasab was hanged, shows glaring Urdu language errors.

The application has been provided to Lucknow-based activist Urvashi Sharma under the Right to Information Act.

In his brief application, Kasab pleaded, "Sir, mujhe fansi ki saza Supreme Court ho gayi hai. Fansi ki saza se mujhe chorr diya jaye. Mere upar daya karo aur muje fansi ki se riha kar de. Apka Ajmal Kasab (sic)."

It was translated by the jail authorities as, "Sir, I have been sentenced by Supreme Court for capital punishment (Hanged till death). It is most humbly and respectfully pleaded to spare me from death sentence and also get me released from the gallows. It is my humble request. Yours"

Pakistani citizen Kasab, the sole surviving terrorist from the 26/11 terror attack, was hanged to death at the Yerawada Jail in Pune on November 21, 2012. He was among the ten terrorists who had entered Mumbai through sea route on November 26, 2008 and launched a three-day mayhem which killed 166 people.

25-year-old Kasab had been lodged in the Arthur Jail Road here ever since he was arrested immediately after the attack in 2008. He was convicted and given capital punishment by the trial court on May 6, 2010 which was upheld by the Bombay High Court on February 21, 2011. The Supreme Court subsequently upheld the sentence on August 29 last year.

His mercy petition was rejected by President Pranab Mukherjee on November 5, 2012.

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Best Pictures: 2012 Nat Geo Photo Contest Winners

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Hagel Nomination Stirs Bipartisan Opposition

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Two weeks before his inauguration, and with more "fiscal cliffs" on the horizon, President Obama is embracing a showdown with Congress over his pick to lead the Pentagon in his second term.


Obama will nominate former Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel to be the next Secretary of Defense at a formal White House announcement later today, administration officials said.


The president will name counterterrorism advisor John Brennan as the new CIA director to replace David Petraeus, rounding out an overhaul of his national security team.


Obama tapped Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts last month to become the next Secretary of State.


Hagel is in many ways an ideal pick for Obama, giving nod to bipartisanship while appointing someone with a demonstrated commitment to veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan and to retooling and economizing the Pentagon bureaucracy for the future.


But the nomination of Hagel to replace outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is also politically charged, expected to trigger a brutal confirmation fight in the Senate, where a bipartisan group of critics has already lined up against the pick.


"This is an in your face nomination by the president to all of us who are supportive of Israel," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told CNN on Sunday. "I don't know what his management experience is regarding the Pentagon -- little, if any, so I think it's an incredibly controversial choice."






Junko Kimura/Getty Images













The criticism stems from Hagel's controversial past statements on foreign policy, including a 2008 reference to Israel's U.S. supporters as "the Jewish lobby" and public encouragement of negotiations between the United States, Israel and Hamas, a Palestinian group the State Department classifies as terrorists.


"Hagel has consistently been against economic sanctions to try to change the behavior of the Islamist regime, the radical regime in Tehran, which is the only way to do it, short of war," Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., said last month.


The Nebraska Republican has also drawn fire for his outspoken opposition to the 2003 U.S.-led war in Iraq and the subsequent troop "surge" ordered by then-President George W. Bush in 2007, which has been credited with helping bring the war to a close.


On the left, gay rights groups have protested Hagel for comments he made in 1998 disparaging then-President Bill Clinton's nominee for U.S. Ambassador to Luxembourg James Hormel as "openly, aggressively gay." Hagel has since apologized for the remark as "insensitive."


Top Senate Democrats tell ABC News there is no guarantee Hagel will win confirmation and that, as of right now, there are enough Democratic Senators with serious concerns about Hagel to put him below 50 votes.


But that could change, with many top lawmakers publicly vowing to withhold final judgment until Hagel has an opportunity to answer his critics during confirmation hearings. No senator has yet publicly vowed to filibuster the Hagel nomination.


Hagel is a decorated Vietnam veteran and businessman who served in the senate from 1997 to 2009. After having sat on that chamber's Foreign Relations and Intelligence committees, he has in recent years gathered praise from current and former diplomats for his work on Obama's Intelligence Advisory Board as well as the policy board of current Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.


"Chuck Hagel is a tremendous patriot and statesman, served incredibly in Vietnam, served this country as a United States senator. He hasn't had a chance to speak for himself. And so why all the prejudging?" said Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., on "This Week."


"In America, you give everybody a chance to speak for themselves and then we'll decide," she said.


The top Senate Republican echoed that sentiment. "I'm going to wait and see how the hearings go and see whether Chuck's views square with the job he would be nominated to do," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said.






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After ‘fiscal cliff,’ Obama finishes recharging on Hawaiian holiday

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HONOLULU — The place where President Obama vacations each winter is farther from Washington than almost any other place in the United States. So, it is not terribly surprising that less than 45 minutes after Congress passed a bill averting the “fiscal cliff” on Jan. 1, Obama was racing back here.


The president’s vacation with his family and friends had already been cut short by the protracted, painful negotiations in Washington over taxes and spending. Obama was eager to get away from it all and enjoy a few final days of rest before the next round of legislative battles begins.


“I think Hawaii for him is a place where he gets to recharge both physically and emotionally. The schedule is one that’s relaxing. The climate is warm like he likes it. And he’s surrounded constantly by family and the friends he grew up with,” said Robert Gibbs, Obama’s former press secretary and a longtime adviser. “It’s the perfect elixir for having had a long and busy year in national politics.”

The president was scheduled to leave Hawaii late Saturday, returning to Washington on Sunday a little before noon. He will have spent a total of nine days here, over two separate trips, and roughly 40 hours in the air going back and forth.

“Like any parent, the president enjoyed spending as much time with his family over the holidays as he could,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said.

The president first flew here Dec. 21, urging lawmakers to drink some eggnog and cool off over the Christmas holiday. Obama, his wife, Michelle, and their daughters, Malia, 14, and Sasha, 11, rented a house overlooking the beach in the town of Kailua, on the east side of Oahu, Hawaii’s most-populous island, where Obama was born and spent much of his youth.

As has become his custom, Obama spent his time eating at Hawaii hot spots with family and friends, golfing with buddies for six-hour stretches and hanging out at home and around Oahu with his girls. He spent his first night in Hawaii out until 11:30, dining at Morimoto Restaurant Waikiki, owned by Masaharu Morimoto of “Iron Chef” fame.

The next day began with a memorial service for Sen. Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii), whom Obama had previously called his “earliest political inspiration.” Following the service, which was at a veterans cemetery known as the Punchbowl, for the topographical imprint left by volcanic eruptions tens of thousands of years ago, Obama and his wife walked about a half-mile southeast to visit the grave of his grandfather Stanley Dunham, who served in World War II.

Obama went for a hike with his family later that day and then spent part of Dec. 24 with his family at the beach. Many of the president’s activities were confined to the Marine Corps base here, about a 10-minute drive from his rental home.

The Obamas’ Christmas activities are an established routine. On Christmas Eve, Obama calls members of the armed forces and his wife calls children tracking Santa’s whereabouts, before the family sits down for dinner. The next morning, they open Christmas gifts, eat breakfast and sing carols. Later in the day, the president and his wife meet with a few hundred service members at the Marine Corps base.

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PSLE should not be abolished: poll

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SINGAPORE: The majority of participants at a Our Singapore Conversation session at Jurong Central on Sunday agreed that the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) should not be abolished.

Nearly nine out of 10 who responded to the online poll said the PSLE is still relevant.

Ang Wei Neng, Member of Parliament for Jurong Group Representation Constituency commented: "They know that PSLE has stress, and may need to be tweaked to reduce the stress but most of them think that it's essential for (students) to distinguish their abilities so that they can choose the secondary school based on equal footing, on the PSLE results."

In another poll, most said they would like to see a good balance of economic growth and happiness for Singapore in 20 years' time.

This is the first time that an electronic vote was used in the Our Singapore Conversation session.

Some 600 students and parents participated in the dialogue.

- CNA/xq



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Lot to be done to strengthen Indo-Pak bilateral ties: Salman Khurshid

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AMRITSAR: India and Pakistan government took some bold initiatives to further strengthen the bilateral ties between the two which includes easing out the visa regime and opening of Integrated Check Post at Attari (India)-Wagha (Pakistan) border but still lot was to be done and hopefully it would be achieved in the near future with sincere and relentless efforts, said Union external affairs minister Salman Khurshid in his opening remarks after inauguration of the 8th South Asian Free Media (SAFMA) Conference-2013 organized for the first time in Punjab.

On the occasion Salman assured the members of SAFMA that he would soon take up the matter with his ministry to sort out the issue of multiple visa to the journalists of SAARC countries.

He said he would also take up the issue of opening up of the corridor between Dera Baba Nanak (India) and Kartarpur Sahib (Pakistan) with the home ministry.

Chief minister Parkash Singh Badal had taken up the issues of opening of corridor and another trade route through Hussainiwala border.

In his inaugural address, Badal said it was the need of the hour to eliminate all the physical barriers for the promotion of people to people contact to foster goodwill, friendship and amity in the South Asian Region.

He said that this could only be achieved by the sincere and concerted efforts of both the national governments of India and Pakistan.

Badal also urged SAFMA to take up the issue of opening of corridor with both the central governments of India and Pakistan.

Badal also supported the issue of unrestricted multiple visa to the media persons for their free movement across Asia and asked the ministry of external affairs to concede this long pending demand of media fraternity.

He sought the cooperation from SAFMA in setting up of the South Asian economic and parliamentary union which could lead to the formation of 'Asian Economic Union' on the lines of European Economic Union.

He said that in this context India and Pakistan could play a leading role as some remarkable progress had already been made in this directions by these two countries by opening the Attari-Wagha border for trade, although the scale of trade there was needed to be increased.

On the occasion, the president of Indian chapter of SAFMA, Vinod Sharma, gave a brief account of the activities of SAFMA in the country in general and in creating awareness of 'Asian Unity' by organizing a series of media events like conferences and media submits to promote peace, understanding and international cooperation especially amongst the SAARC countries.

Later, Salman Khurshid accompanied by Badal visited the Golden Temple to pay obeisance.

Badal presented a 'Siropa' (robe of honour), shawl, portrait of the Golden Temple and a set of religious books to Salman.

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