SRINAGAR, India-controlled Kashmir, July 28 (Xinhua) -- India-controlled Kashmir's highest administrative official, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, Tuesday submitted his resignation to the Governor, his political advisor Davinder Sigh Rana said.
"Omar Abdulla has submitted his resignation to the Governor. He is a tall leader and for him his credibility is more important than remaining in power," Rana told Media in Srinagar.
Abdullah's decision to quit came following the allegations of his involvement in 2006 Kashmir sex scandal were made by an opposition member and former Deputy Chief Minister, Muzaffar Hussain Beigh on the floor of the local assembly house.
Though Abdullah termed the charges false and frivolous, he informed the assembly that he is going to quit.
"I know allegations are baseless and false. But I want to resign until I am cleared of this allegation. It is a blot on my character," Abdullah said.
Abdullah announcement created a ruckus in assembly, and he left the house soon after despite persuasions by the fellow lawmakers to reconsider his decision.
A meeting was held at Abdullah residence to discuss the issue, after which he was accompanied by his father Farooq Abdullah to Governor's office to submit the resignation.
Beigh, the opposition leader from People's Democratic Party, told a press conference after making the allegation in the House that Farooq Abdulla too is in the list.
"We are saying names of Omar Abdulla and Farooq Abdulla figurein the list named by the victims of sex scandal and CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) has not done thorough inquiry. May be Central Bureau of Investigation exonerates both," Beigh said.
Kashmir sex scandal broke out in March 2006 after residents in Srinagar went to police station with a pornographic CD containing some nude pictures and video grabs of a neighborhood girl.
Police investigations in the matter opened a lid of a sex ring involving bureaucrats, politicians, police and para-military officers.
The revelations infuriated people and brought Kashmir on boil. Public backlash forced the government to transfer the case to Central Bureau of Investigations for thorough probe.
The case is still sub-judice in the courts of law.
In India, a chief minister is elected while the governor is appointed by the president. link...
JERUSALEM — Israel's prime minister and the top U.S. Mideast envoy said they made progress Tuesday on their dispute over West Bank settlements, but offered no sign of a breakthrough at a meeting in Jerusalem.
President Barack Obama's envoy, George Mitchell, has been pressing Israel to halt all construction in settlements built on captured land claimed by the Palestinians, stressing that such a gesture would improve prospects for a peace deal. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says limited construction must be permitted to allow "natural growth" in the existing settler population.
Netanyahu and Mitchell both reported "progress" after their meeting, but gave no details on how close they were to resolving the disagreement.
"I think we're making progress toward achieving an understanding that would enable us to continue, and in fact complete, a peace process that would be established between us and our Palestinian neighbors and ultimately the entire region," Netanyahu said.
The settlement issue
has given rise to the worst public tensions between Israel and its closest ally in nearly two decades.
Seeking to calm Israeli nerv
es, Mitchell stressed Tuesday that Israel and the U.S. were "friends and allies." But he offered no hint that an agreement was near and said only "good progress" was made.
On Monday, Mitchell said Israel mu
st start "dealing" with its West Bank settlements as a step toward bringing a comprehensive peace to the Middle East. The Palestinians have refused to restart negotiations with Israel unless Netanyahu freezes all settlement activity.
Mitchell is one of four senior U.S. envoys visiting Israel this week, all part of a U.S. effort to forge a wider peace that would end Israel's conflicts with the Palestinians, Syria and Lebanon and normalize Israel's ties with the rest of the Arab world.
"That is our objective, and it is to
that which we have committed ourselves fully," Mitchell said after meeting Netanyahu.
On Monday, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates met with his Israeli counterpart to discuss Iran's nuclear program. Gates urged the Israelis to give the U.S. more time to pursue its diplomatic outreach to Tehran. Israel has issued strong hints that it is prepared to attack Iran if diplomatic efforts to curb Iran's nuclear program don't bear fruit.
Israel has carried out pre-emptive strikes targeting perceived nuclear threats before. In 1981, Israeli jets bombed I
raq's Osirak reactor, and in late 2007 Israel destroyed a building in Syria that Israeli and U.S. officials identified as a nuclear reactor under construction. Syria said it was an abandoned military facility.
Israel, which itself is widely believed to possess nuclear weapons, thinks that Iran is developing nuclear weapons — a development it sees as an existential threat. Iran could also play a key role in U.S. peace e
fforts because it has close ties with Israel's staunchest foes, Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon and Hamas militants in the Palestinian areas.
The pressure on Israel over the settlements by President Barack Obama's administration is exceptional. Previous U.S. administrations criticized settlement construction as counterproductive but have generally tolerated it.
In response to the stepped-up pressure, Israeli settlers set up several tents and shacks on hilltops in the West Bank overnight. Settlement supporters also rallied in Jerusalem on Monday night, holding signs co
ndemning the U.S. administration.
Israel captured the West Bank, now home to some 2.5 million Palestinians, in 1967. The number of Israeli settlers there
has more than doubled since the mid-1990s and now stands at around 300,000, in addition to another 180,000 Israelis living in Jewish neighborhoods built by Israel in east Jerusalem, also c
aptured in 1967.
Palestinians see the West Bank and east Jerusalem as part of their future state. link...
MIRANSHAH, Pakistan — A suicide bomber Tuesday rammed a car bomb into a checkpoint in Pakistan's restive tribal belt on the Afghan border, wounding three paramilitary soldiers, officials said.
The attack took place on the outskirts of Miranshah, the main town in the North Waziristan tribal district.
"Three paramilitary soldiers were injured after a suicide bomber struck his car into the checkpost," a security official told AFP.
A local administration official confirmed the incident, saying that security forces had cordoned off the area after the attack.
Hundreds of Islamist fighters are believed to have fled Afghanistan into Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal areas to carve out safe havens after the US-led invasion toppled the hardline Taliban regime in Kabul in late 2001.
Militants bitterly opposed to Pakistan's alliance with the United States, whose troops are fighting an escalating Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan, carry out daily attacks on security forces in the northwest.
The Pakistani army launched an offensive to dislodge Taliban guerrillas from northeastern districts Buner, Lower Dir and Swat after rebels flouted a peace deal and thrust further south towards the capital Islamabad in April.
The military said Tuesday that two "terrorists" were killed and 25 others arrested during "search and clearance" operations in Swat, northwest town Lakki and Darra Adam Khel, which is part of the lawless tribal belt.
The Swat offensive was welcomed by the United States and enjoys broad support among Pakistanis exasperated by worsening militant attacks, which have killed nearly 2,000 people in the nuclear-armed country since July 2007.
Pakistan says more than 1,800 militants and 166 security personnel have been killed since April but the death tolls are impossible to verify independently.
Although Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said this month that the military had "eliminated" extremists, continued deadly skirmishes have raised fears that the Taliban merely escaped into the mountains and regrouped.
The bullet-ridden body of a policeman was found Tuesday dumped on roadside in Sangota village, on the outskirts of Mingora, the main town in Swat.
"Militants abducted the policeman from Tahirabad area of Mingora three days ago," Swat police chief Sajjid Mohmand told AFP.
Thousands of Taliban loyalists first rose up in Swat two years ago, launching a brutal campaign that beheaded opponents, burned scores of schools and fought against government troops from November 2007. link....