Pakistani warlord's death a 'major development': US

WASHINGTON: The Pentagon welcomed reports Thursday that a prominent Pakistani warlord was killed in a drone strike, saying his death would represent a "major development."

Local officials in Pakistan said Mullah Nazir, the main militant commander in South Waziristan, was taken out when an unmanned US aircraft fired two missiles at his vehicle.

But a Pentagon spokesman could not confirm the account.

"If the reports are true, then this would be a significant blow, and would be very helpful not just to the United States but also to our Pakistani partners," spokesman George Little told reporters.

Nazir sent insurgents to Afghanistan to wage war on NATO-led troops and operated out of the tribal zone where militants linked to the Taliban and Al-Qaeda have bases on the Afghan border.

Pakistani officials said the drone strike on Wednesday killed Nazir and five of his loyalists, including two senior deputies.

Nazir, one of the highest-profile drone victims in recent years, had a complicated relationship with the Pakistani government, having agreed to a peace deal with Islamabad in 2007. Pakistani officials had hoped he could counter Pakistani Taliban insurgents.

He was understood to be close to the Al-Qaeda-linked Haqqani network, a faction of the Afghan Taliban blamed for some of the most high-profile attacks in Kabul and elsewhere in Afghanistan in recent years.

"This is someone who has a great deal of blood on his hands," Little said. "This would be a major development."

Washington has long urged Islamabad to crack down on the Haqqani network without success.

Drone bombing raids in Pakistan are run by the CIA and not by the Pentagon. Although an open secret, the CIA does not publicly discuss the drone air war, which officials believe has severely weakened Al-Qaeda's leadership in Pakistan.

According to figures compiled by a Washington think tank, US drone strikes against Islamist militants decreased in Pakistan's tribal regions for the second year in a row but intensified in Yemen.

In Pakistan, 46 strikes were carried out in 2012, compared to 72 in 2011 and 122 in 2010, the New America Foundation said, based on its compilation of reports in international media.

But Yemen saw an equally dramatic spike in the covert bombing runs, with strikes against Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) militants rising from 18 in 2011 to 53 in 2012.

- AFP/jc

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Amendment to anti-rape law to top agenda in MHA meet today

NEW DELHI: Timeline to fill police vacancies, rationalization of VIP security, modernization of forces including networking of police stations across the country and imparting special training to cops for handling cases relating to sexual offences against women will dominate the agenda of the meeting of chief secretaries and top cops of states here on Friday.

Convened in the backdrop of the Delhi gang-rape incident, the day-long meeting will also deliberate on possible amendments which can be brought in to make the existing laws much more stringent against rapists and also against offenders of crime against Schedules Castes and Schedule Tribes.

"Though the final decision about amending the law will be taken after submission of the Justice (retired) J S Verma Committee report, we will seek the opinions of director generals of police and chief secretaries of states," said an official, privy to the agenda of the meeting.

He said the suggestions emerged in the meeting would be passed on to the Verma panel.

The much-awaited Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and System (CCTNS) project to create an integrated database for enhancing efficiency and effectiveness of policing and sharing data among 14,000 police stations and over 6,000 higher offices across the country will formally be launched by the home minister Sushilkumar Shinde on the occasion.

The project includes creation of a nationwide networking infrastructure for the IT-enabled state-of-the-art tracking system that will revolve around investigation of crime and detection of criminals.

Issues relating to crime against women and atrocities on SCs\STs will be discussed in two different sessions where senior officials from the home ministry — led by home secretary R K Singh — would chalk out strategies to prevent such offences across the country.

"Discussion on amendments in the SCs and STs (prevention of atrocities) Act is also part of the agenda. Focus will be on building consensus around strengthening institutional mechanism and creating standard operating procedures to prevent crime against women and weaker sections of the society," said the official.

State would also be asked to focus on imparting 'special' training to cops for handing cases relating to sexual assault against women and emphasize on setting up of fast-track courts in consultation with respective High Courts for trying pending rape cases.

States have been asked to come with data on police vacancies as most of them failed to recruit cops despite being requested by the Centre in every high-level meet on security at the time when over one-fifth of the country's sanctioned police force remains just on paper.

Latest figures show that all states and Union Territories (UTs) had collectively reported police vacancy to the tune of nearly 4.20 lakh during 2011. The actual strength of the police force in the country as on December, 2011, was 16.60 lakh as against the sanctioned strength of 20.86 lakh, with Uttar Pradesh leading the pack in reporting police vacancies. The other states which report huge vacancy include Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Haryana and West Bengal.

"Since the shortage of cops for actual policing is compounded by excessive deployment of police personnel for VIP security, the states will be asked to rationalize the system in such a manner that only those get State security who actually need it," said the official.

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Sandy Hook Parents Cope With Students' Return

Sandy Hook parents put their children on school buses this morning and waved goodbye as the yellow bus rolled away, but this first day back since the pre-Christmas massacre is anything but normal for the families of Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Erin Milgram, the mother of a first grader and a fourth grader at Sandy Hook, told "Good Morning America" that she was going to drive behind the bus and stay with her 7-year-old Lauren for the entire school day.

"I haven't gotten that far yet, about not being with them," Milgram said. "I just need to stay with them for a while."

Today is "Opening Day" for Sandy Hook Elementary School, which is re-opening about six miles away in the former Chalk Hill school in Monroe, Conn.

Lauren was in teacher Kaitlin Roig's first grade class on Dec. 14 when gunman Adam Lanza forced his way into the school and killed 20 students and six staffers.

Roig has been hailed a hero for barricading her students in a classroom bathroom and refusing to open the door until authorities could find a key to open the door.

The 20 students killed were first-graders and the Milgrams have struggled to explain to Lauren why so many of her friends will never return to school.

"She knows her friends and she'll also see on the bus... there will be some missing on the bus," Milgram said. "We look at yearbook pictures. We try to focus on the happy times because we really don't know what we're doing."

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"How could someone be so angry?" Lauren's father Eric Milgram wondered before a long pause. "We don't know."

The school has a lecture room available for parents to stay as long as they wish and they are also allowed to accompany their children to the classroom to help them adjust. Counselors will be available throughout the day for parents, staff and students, according to the school's website.

The first few days will be a delicate balancing act between assessing the children's needs and trying to get them back to a normal routine.

"We don't want to avoid memories of a trauma," Dr. Jamie Howard told "Good Morning America." "And so by getting back to school and by engaging in your routines, we're helping kids to do that, we're helping them to have a natural, healthy recovery to a trauma."

Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy announced at a news conference today that he has created a 15-member Sandy Hook Advisory Commission, which will be led by Hamden Mayor Scott Jackson. The commission will review gun control laws and regulations, school safety and mental health issues.

"It would be stupid for us not to have this conversation," Malloy said, speaking from the State Capitol in Hartford.

Security is paramount in everyone's mind. There is a police presence on campus and drivers of every vehicle that comes onto campus are being interviewed.

"Our goal is to make it a safe and secure learning environment for these kids to return to, and the teachers also," Monroe police Lt. Keith White said at a news conference on Wednesday.

A "state-of-the-art" security system is in place, but authorities will not go into detail about the system saying only that the school will probably be "the safest school in America."

White said at a news conference today that the security presence would be evaluated on a day-by-day and week-by-week basis moving forward.

"We are trying to keep a balance," he said. "We don't want them [the students] to think that this is a police state. This is a school and a school first."

Every adult in the school who is not immediately recognizable will be required to wear a badge as identification, parent and school volunteer Karen Dryer told ABCNews.com.

"They want to know exactly who you are at sight, whether or not you should be there," Dryer said.

Despite the precautions and preparations, parents will still be coping with the anxiety of parting with their children.

"Rationally, something like this is a very improbable event, but that still doesn't change the emotional side of the way you feel," Eric Milgram said.

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Pictures We Love: Best of December

Photograph by Paula Bronstein, Getty Images

Elephants are likely one of the last things jittery coffee junkies think about while waiting for their latest shot of caffeine.

But these ponderous pachyderms are essential in the production of the latest brew from Black Ivory Coffee, a Thai company. The elephants, pictured above going for an early morning bath in northern Thailand on December 10, ingest Thai arabica coffee beans, digest them, and then expel them.

Workers pluck the processed beans from the elephant dung, wash them, and then roast them. Each serving costs about $50.

Asian elephants aren't the only animals involved in this type of 'refining' process. Asian palm civets are perhaps the most famous example of an animal whose digestive tract mellows the bitterness found in coffee beans.

Why We Love It

"The repetition of the elephants make this idyllic scene fascinating."—Amina El Banayosy, photo intern

"This picture is like a daydream, temporarily transplanting me somewhere far from the chaos and noise of city life. The pop of color in the first rider's red shirt, the sun pouring through dark clouds, and the ripples of water forming from the wading elephant are all nice details in this serene frame."—Ben Fitch, associate photo editor

Published January 3, 2013

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Hillary Clinton seen leaving hospital building

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was seen leaving a hospital building Wednesday three days after being admitted for a blood clot discovered close to her brain.

CNN showed images of the 65-year-old top US diplomat wearing dark glasses and walking unaided to a black van, accompanied by her smiling husband, former president Bill Clinton, her daughter Chelsea and top aides.

State Department officials refused AFP requests to confirm she had been discharged, and it was not known whether she planned to go home or would be returning to hospital for more treatment.

Earlier, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Clinton, who is being treated with blood thinners to break up the potentially dangerous clot, had been busy keeping in touch by telephone.

"She has been talking to her staff, including today. She's been quite active on the phone with all of us," Nuland told journalists.

Clinton was admitted to the New York Presbyterian Hospital on Sunday after a routine scan revealed the clot in a vein in the space between her skull and her brain, and had been due to remain there for at least 48 hours.

Her doctors Lisa Bardack, from the Mount Kisco Medical Group, and Gigi El-Bayoumi, of George Washington University, said in a statement on Monday that Clinton had not suffered a stroke or any neurological damage.

"In all other aspects of her recovery, the secretary is making excellent progress and we are confident she will make a full recovery. She is in good spirits, engaging with her doctors, her family, and her staff," they said.

The globe-trotting diplomat had not been seen in public for almost four weeks, since succumbing to a stomach virus on returning from a trip to Europe on December 7, which forced her to cancel a planned visit to North Africa.

The effects of the stomach bug caused her to become dehydrated. She then fainted and suffered a concussion, which is thought to have brought on the blood clot.

After her fall, Clinton, who has travelled almost a million miles in her four years in office, was ordered to rest by doctors.

But Nuland said that on Saturday, before the MRI at the hospital revealed the clot, Clinton had spoken for about 30 minutes with the UN-Arab League peace envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi.

She also spoke by phone with Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani to discuss the situation in Syria, as well as about the "need to support the Palestinian Authority" and Afghanistan.

- AFP/jc

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Kalyan’s re-entry into BJP put on hold to avoid disqualification

LUCKNOW: The re-entry of former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh into the BJP isn't happening on January 21.

The reason is technical as BJP leaders say if Kalyan joins now, he will face disqualification as an independent MP under the anti-defection law.

But this will not have any impact on the proposed rally in Lucknow on January 21 where Kalyan's Jan Kranti Party will merge with the BJP, said UP BJP chief Laxmikant Bajpayi.

Kalyan is likely to be present at the rally on January 21, which will also be attended by Gadkari and several senior BJP leaders including Rajnath Singh, Murli Manohar Joshi and Varun Gandhi.

"I see no technical problem in Kalyan attending the rally," Bajpayi said.

Kalyan will have to wait to rejoin the BJP until the Lok Sabha elections are announced, as joining before that may lead to his disqualification as Etah MP.

Bajpayi confirmed that Singh won't re-join the BJP now.

"If he is disqualified, he would have to contest a by-election from Etah and then after a few months, Lok Sabha's term would come to an end. Kalyan Singh will have to again contest the election, so it will be pragmatic for him not to join BJP for now," Bajpayi said.

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Christie Calls Boehner's Sandy Decision 'Disgusting'

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said today that it was "disgusting" that the House adjourned without voting on a $60 billion relief package for the victims of superstorm Sandy and put the blame squarely on a fellow Republican -- House Speaker John Boehner.

Christie, who is considered a possible Republican presidential candidate four years from now, said there was "only one group to blame, the Republican Party and Speaker Boehner."

The blunt talking New Jersey governor joined a chorus of Republicans from New York and New Jersey fuming over his decision to pull the bill at the last minute.

Christie in an angry news conference decried the "selfishness and duplicity," the "palace intrigue," "the callous indifference to the people of our state."

"Unfortunately people are putting politics ahead of their responsibilities... You do the right thing. Enough with all the politics," he said.

Christie said that when it comes to natural disasters, "We respond as Americans, at least we did until last night... it was disgusting to watch."

"In our hour of desperate need, we've been left waiting for help six times longer than the victims of Katrina with no end in sight," said Christie. "Sixty-six days and counting, shame on you. Shame on Congress."

The governor said his four calls to Boehner Tuesday night went unanswered, but he said he spoke to the House speaker today. Christie would not disclose any details of the conversation, but clearly his anger over the no-vote was not mollified.

Following Christie's press conference Republican representatives from New York and New Jersey announced that the speaker promised a vote on the bill on Jan. 15.

"Getting critical aid to the victims of Hurricane Sandy should be the first priority in the new Congress, and that was reaffirmed today with members of the New York and New Jersey delegations," Boehner said in a statement released late this afternoon.

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Rep. Peter King, R-NY, whop spent much of the day criticizing Boehner, met with the speaker this afternoon and was confident that the speaker would keep his word and hold a vote later this month and offered for the first time a reason for why the bill was pulled.

"[Boehner] said there was much confusion and so much fighting going on over the fiscal cliff bill it would be damaging to the Republican caucus" to have voted on the relief bill Tuesday night.

Lawmakers were initially told by Boehner, R-Ohio, that the relief bill would get a vote on Tuesday night following an eleventh hour vote on the fiscal cliff bill. But in an unexpected switch, Boehner refused to put the relief bill to a vote, leading to lawmakers from parties yelling on the floor of the House.

Congress historically has responded to natural disasters by promptly funding relief efforts. It took just 11 days to pass a relief package for victims of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The Senate already passed its version of the bill that would replenish an emergency fund set to run out of cash next week and which will help repair subways and tunnels in New York City and rebuild parts of the New Jersey shore devastated by superstorm Sandy.

Time is particularly pressing, given that a new Congress will be sworn in Thursday. The Senate will therefore have to vote on the bill again before it comes to the House, which could be as late as February or March.

"This was a betrayal," Rep. Michael Grimm, R-N.Y., told ABC News.com. "It's just reprehensible. It's an indefensible error in judgment not have given relief to these people that are so devastated."

Rep. King, took the floor of the House and to the airwaves and aimed his outrage squarely at Boehner, accusing him plunging "a cruel knife in the back" of storm-ravaged residents "who don't have shelter, don't have food," he said during a House session this morning.

"This is not the United States. This should not be the Republican Party. This shouldn't not be the Republican leadership," King said on the floor of the House.

He made no attempt to hide his anger, suggesting that residents in New York and New Jersey should stop sending money to Republicans and even questioning whether he could remain a member of the party.

"Anyone who donates one cent to the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee should have their head examined," King, a staunch conservative and Republican congressman for 10 years, told CNN.

"They have written off New York and New Jersey. They've written me off…. Party loyalty, I'm over that. When your people are literally freezing in the winter… Then why should I help the Republican Party?" he added.

He said that Boehner refused to talk to Republican members from New York and New Jersey when they tried to ask him about the vote Tuesday night.

"He just decided to sneak off in the dark of night," King said.

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First Meteor Shower of 2013 Peaks Tonight

Kick off the New Year with the annual Quadrantid meteor shower, which will peak tonight into tomorrow morning.

During the peak period between 3 a.m. and dawn local time, as many as a hundred shooting stars per hour will be visible from dark locations in the Northern Hemisphere. (Read about the 2011 Quadrantids.)

While the glare of the waning moon will mute the display somewhat, "don't let that stop you from stepping outside, as intense activity is limited to only six hours," said Jim Todd, planetarium manager at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry.

There's also no need for binoculars or telescopes to catch this sky show, according to Geza Gyuk, astronomer with the Adler Planetarium in Chicago.

Early Thursday morning, "find a site with a clear northern horizon where the shower appears to radiate out from—just off the handle of the Big Dipper—and bundle up and bring a friend," said Gyuk.

"A meteor shared is a meteor squared. One gets so much more pleasure when one can compare notes, gripes, and wonder!" he added.

Quadrantids Named for "Missing" Constellation

During a meteor shower Earth passes through a cloud of sand-grain-size particles left behind by a passing comet. The particles get ionized in the upper atmosphere in a bright flash of light—some of which are brighter than others.

Tiny fragments from the comet slam into the Earth's atmosphere at 90,000 miles per hour (1.4 million kilometers per hour) and burn up 50 miles (80 kilometers) above Earth, "creating the spectacular display we know as a meteor shower," Todd explained.

Like other meteor showers, the Quadrantids (pronounced Kwa-drun-tids) get their name from the constellation from which the meteors appear to radiate.

Dubbed Quadrans Muralis in the 19th century, this shower's namesake pattern of stars isn't found in any map of the heavens today.

Overcrowded star charts forced the removal of the constellation in 1922.

Astronomers decided to have Quadrans Muralis absorbed by the neighboring constellation Boötes, the Herdsman.

As for the Quadrantids keeping their name, it's likely that astronomers at the time decided to maintain it to avoid any confusion with the already established Bootid meteor shower.

Quadrantids Overlooked But Impressive

Historically the Quadrantid meteor shower is overlooked simply because of its brevity and timing—right in the middle of the most frigid winter nights in the Northern Hemisphere, where they are best seen.

But the Quadrantids are worth a look.

For one, they're prolific: "Nearly as many Quadrantid meteors will fly as can be seen during the larger August Perseid and December Geminid meteor showers," said the Oregon museum's Todd.

(Related pictures: "'Beautiful' Geminid Meteor Showers Grace Skies.")

The Quadrantids are also "well known for producing fireballs—exceptionally bright meteors which can also at times generate persistent trails," Todd said.

What's more, the meteor shower's parent object holds some mystery—it appears to be a recently discovered asteroid dubbed 2003 EH1.

And observational evidence is mounting that this object is most likely an extinct comet nucleus, said Todd, which appears to be the remnant of a larger object that broke apart about 500 years ago.

This unusual cosmic heritage makes sense, as the Quadrantids don't appear in older records.

"Other meteor showers, such as the Perseids and perhaps Leonids, seem to be fairly old, with historical documentation suggesting that they have been observed for thousands of years," said Gyuk.

"For the Quadrantids, there is good evidence to suggest that the shower didn't really start until about 500 years ago—making this also consistent with its very narrow peak in activity."

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After a ‘fiscal cliff’ deal, what next?

The “fiscal cliff” was designed by Washington for Washington — it was intended to set up a scenario so severe that the president and Congress would, at last, have to take on the nation’s major tax and spending problems. Instead, lawmakers again found a way to sidestep many of the prickliest issues and in the process set up other, potentially more severe, showdowns in the new year.

The Senate approved a deal with the White House early Tuesday morning that would spare the middle class from an income tax increase, extending tax breaks first enacted under President George W. Bush for individuals making less than $400,000 and couples making less than $450,000.

It would also delay for two months the deep automatic spending cuts that were set to hit the military and domestic programs Wednesday.

Assuming the deal is approved by the House, it will nevertheless give way to a nearly continuous series of fights that will consume the first part of the year, even as President Obama might hope to shift Congress’s attention to immigration reform and gun control.

“It’s become less like a fiscal cliffhanger and more like a journey over the fiscal mountains,” said Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb.).

The next big deadline is likely to come around the end of February, when the Treasury Department will exhaust the measures now in place to extend the nation’s $16.4 trillion debt ceiling. At that point, the government will not be able to pay its bills unless Congress votes to raise the nation’s legal borrowing limit.

Republicans hope to use that moment to force Obama and congressional Democrats to agree to major spending cuts in return for the increase — in what could be a sequel to the contentious face-off over the debt limit in the summer of 2011.

Provided Monday’s deal is approved, in early March would come another deadline: the $110 billion cut in spending, half from the Pentagon, delayed as part of this deal.

A month or so later — on March 27 — a short-term measure that funds government agencies will lapse. Without a renewal, the government will shut down, setting up another possible showdown.

“Round two’s coming,” said Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.). “And we’re going to have one hell of a contest about the direction and the vision of this country.”

Many Republicans believe they’ll have more leverage then than they do now because the debate over tax rates on the wealthy will be settled.

In their view, Obama has been wielding a powerful rhetorical weapon: that Congressional Republicans were blocking a deficit-reduction deal and preventing tax cuts for the middle class because they refused to allow taxes to rise for the wealthy. But the deal reached late Monday, which allows rates to rise for individuals making more than $400,000 a year and couples earning more than $450,000, would remove the issue from discussion.

Republicans figure that will tilt the debate toward spending cuts.

Graham said he anticipates forcing Democrats to give in on a long list of the GOP’s top spending priorities in the new year: raising the eligibility age for Medicare, increasing premiums for its wealthier beneficiaries, and trimming Social Security benefits by using a new method to calculate inflation.

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Motorcycle bomb kills four in Pakistan's Karachi

KARACHI: A motorcycle bomb exploded Tuesday near the venue of a major political rally in Pakistan's largest city Karachi, killing four people and injuring 42 others, officials said.

The bombing appeared to be targeted at buses carrying supporters of the city's dominant political party, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), which organised the rally attended by thousands of people.

"The latest report we have collected from hospitals said that four people have been killed and 42 are injured," provincial health minister Saghir Ahmad told AFP, updating the earlier toll of two dead and 25 injured.

Another health official at Karachi's Abbasi Shaheed hospital confirmed the new toll.

"The bomb was planted in a motorcycle," said Asif Ijaz, a senior police official.

Imran Shokat, a police spokesman in the southern Sindh province of which Karachi is the capital, said the motorcycle was parked in a congested neighbourhood near the venue of the rally.

"Bomb disposal experts are investigating but preliminary reports said it was a remote-controlled bomb," Shokat told AFP.

Karachi, the commercial capital of Pakistan with an estimated population of 18 million, is in the grip of a long-running wave of political and sectarian violence.

Its Arabian Sea port is used by the United States and NATO to ship supplies to the war in neighbouring, landlocked Afghanistan.

- AFP/jc

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