KABUL: US and coalition forces have completed an operation against militants in eastern Afghanistan.

According to the US Army, Operation Nike IV was launched on October 13, in the mountains of Musa Khel at the border of Khowst and Paktya provinces, adding that it was completed on Oct 18.

The US Army has claimed that the operation has reduced the ability of extremists to launch attacks against Afghan and ISAF forces.

Eleven militants have been apprehended and arms have been seized during the operation, the US Army added.

 LAHORE: Punjab Governor Lateef Khosa said Saturday he was considering asking Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to take a vote of confidence from the Punjab Assembly, Geo News reported.

Talking to media Khosa said that Shahbaz Sharif was constitutionally not a member of the Punjab Assembly.

Khosa added: “a case is pending in Supreme Court over the incompetence of Shahbaz Sharif and we are looking at the court in this regard.”

The Punjab governor said he seriously thought the Chief Minister did not even have a simple majority and might be asked to take a vote of confidence from the assembly. However no decision had been made in this regard, he added.

 KABUL: Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Afghanistan would support Pakistan in case on an attack by any country including the US and India, Geo News reported.

“If Pakistan is attacked and the people of Pakistan need Afghanistan’s help, we will be there for Pakistan” Karzai said while speaking to Geo News senior journalist Saleem Safi.

“We will never forget the hospitatlity of the Pakistani people” Karzai said, adding that no one including China, US and India could incite the Afghan people against Pakistan.

The Afghan President further said that both countries should work together for peace.

 KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Saturday cut its key policy rate by 150 basis points to 12 percent for the subsequent two months, citing a decline in inflation and government borrowings, it said in a statement.

The central bank said it cut its policy rate by 150 basis points as it was "taking some comfort from declining inflation and high probability of meeting the FY12 inflation target together with a need to support private sector credit and investment growth."

In September, annual consumer inflation was 10.46 percent, compared with 11.56 percent in August, and 13.77 percent in July, mainly due to a high base effect, which is to last through December. Although inflation had risen month-on-month by over one percent.

However the central bank said there was a high probability that Pakistan would meet its target of average inflation at 12 percent for 2011/12 fiscal year.

This was the first monetary policy announcement after the government of Pakistan ended its $11 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan programme on Sept. 30.

It is also the second rate cut in fiscal year 2011/12 (July-June).

SBP raised rate by 50 basis points in November 2010, and held it steady until it slashed it by 50 basis points to 13.5 percent on July 30, also exceeding analyst expectations.

The decline in government borrowing from the central bank was also one of the reasons for the rate cut, the SBP said.

According to provisional data, the outstanding stock of government borrowings was 1,051 billion rupees ($12 billion) on Sept. 30, lower than the agreed limit of 1,155 billion rupees ($13.22 billion) for the fiscal year 2011/12. (Reuters)

 NEW YORK: Anti-corporate activists who triggered a national protest movement by occupying a square near Wall Street could not be more focused, except on one little detail: what exactly it is that they want.

After three weeks of permanent demonstration at Zuccotti Park in Manhattan, protesters have astonished doubters -- and won attention from both President Barack Obama and his Republican opponents -- with their staying power, organizational savvy and ability to grow.

The core sleeping rough is only a few hundred, but more than 5,000 people streamed through rush-hour traffic last week and smaller branches of the Occupy Wall Street brand are popping up in cities nationwide to protest the fate of the little guy in America, or what they call "the 99 percent."

They use every latest social media tool. They rake in thousands of dollars in donations to buy basic supplies for the camp. By and large they maintain steely discipline when marching so as to avoid provoking the police.

They are in every way the model of a grassroots protest movement -- except for that absence of a unified demand.

On Saturday, the start of the fourth week for a protest that initially seemed unlikely to survive a few days, about 1,000 people swarmed away from New York's Financial District to a park further uptown.

The gathering showcased the strengths of the movement. Peaceful, brimming with intellectual discussions about economic policy, and unfazed by the scorching sun, the crowd took part in what the protesters call their General Assembly -- a daily gathering where practical matters are discussed.

Because megaphones would contravene the laws on unsanctioned demonstrations, the protesters use an ingenious method of relaying what speakers have said in a chorus through the crowd.

For an hour, the demonstrators discussed minutia of how to maintain and improve their protest machine. Only no one was saying where the machine wanted to go.

A forest of handmade cardboard protest signs decried everything from the Afghanistan war to the bailout of Wall Street institutions and soaring college tuition fees.

But the absence of a simple, common goal frustrated some.

"The problem with their street theater is that it discredits the whole thing. It doesn't seem serious," said writer Chris Gay, 53. "They have got the attention, but now what? Once you have people's attention, you need some proposals."

Scathing criticism was leveled Friday by none other than Liberia's peace campaigner Leymah Gbowee, shortly after she was named joint winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

She praised the US activists for their energy, but said: "If you are doing a protest you need to have an agenda. If you wake up in the morning and poke a guitar, take a drum downtown and someone is singing and another one is dancing and movie stars are coming and saying do this, do that... and everyone is confused, you'll be there for a long time."

Some pundits believe that a likely avenue for Occupy Wall Street is to develop into a left-wing version of the conservative Tea Party movement.

The Tea Party has likewise lacked unity over much other than anger at the status quo. Yet it proved a powerful weapon during the 2010 congressional elections.

According to this scenario, the youth-driven activists of Occupy Wall Street would then reignite Obama's tattered base just in time for what will likely be a bitter reelection fight in 2012.

A budding alliance between the activists and high-profile trade unions already has the potential to generate considerable street power.

Yet few protesters seem ardent about Obama, the Democrats or politicians in general. And they seem highly unlikely to seek the equivalent of the potent relationship that the Tea Party forged with right-wing media and Republican billionaires.

"People realize we have to be careful. It is an election season, but the banks control the government," Lindsey Smith, 25, said, holding a placard that linked Wall Street's titans to Washington's masters.

"They give millions and millions of dollars to the politicians. Wall Street funds campaigns and then they get bailed out. It's completely corrupt."

Disillusioned with the political and business elite, the protest movement appears determined, for now, to instead follow its idiosyncratic path.

If anything, the lack of hurry to name a goal reinforces the message that these protesters don't play by normal rules.

"The exhausted political machines and their PR slicks are already seeking leaders to elevate, messages to claim, talking points to move on. They, more than anyone, will attempt to seize and shape this movement," the latest edition of the protest camp newspaper The Occupied Wall Street Journal said.

"For Wall Street and Washington, the demand is not on them to give us something that isn't theirs to give. It's ours. It's on us. We aren't going anywhere. We just got here."

At Saturday's rally, Neha Kagal, 26, a student from India, said the protest's diffuse nature is "the good part of it."

"That's what gets more people involved -- and that's what revolutions are made of." (AFP)

 KARACHI: The miseries of the flood affectees in Sindh could not be eased out even today, which could be gauged from the fact that a man jostling for obtaining ‘Pakistan Card’ died of cardiac arrest in Badin, while two persons including an infant, 8 months old succumbed to the stomach disease.

A person standing in the queue for two days at the Pakistan Card Centre set up at Golarchi in Badin area died of cardiac arrest, while in Pangrio an infant eight months old and at Malkani Sharif, an old man aged 65 died of stomach disease.

District Badin facing acute shortage of food items as the administration has badly failed to come to the rescue of the flood affectees.

Mir colony, Akhtar Town, Zeeshan Town and other adjoining areas in Mirpur Khas still remain submerged in the accumulated rain water, which could not be drained out even after weeks, while those who had taken refuge in the relief camps are suffering from different diseases without necessary medical aid, as the hospitals are also surrounded by rain water. Most of the residential areas of Sanghar also remain inundated.

The cultivators at Kachoo flood affected area Wahi Pandi in Dadu staging protest against additional bills and torched them in rage, while the work for draining out the rain water moving with snail’s pace.

The standing crops on a vast area including three fish farms were washed away, as a breach occurred in Khora canal near Gambat, Khairpur.

 LAHORE: Punjab unification block leader, Tahir Javed, by suggesting Punjab Chief Minister, Shabaz Sharif to dissolve the provincial assembly in a bid to stem the senate elections, has aroused spontaneous uproars in the country’s politicking.

People’s Party former law minister, Babar Awan bluntly said, “Gone are the days when Khalil Khan used to fly doves---now it cannot happen so.

Unification block is a group that parted ways with the Muslim League-Q, maintains a separate identity in the Punjab assembly and supports the Muslim League-N.

The leader of this unification block, Tahir Javed proposed to the Punjab Chief Minister, Shahbaz Sharif to dissolve Punjab assembly prior to the senate elections for paving way for holding general elections in the country.

Tajir Javed’s salvo hit the target and PPP Babar Awan immediately jumping to the fray declared this proposal undoable. He said that gone are the days when Khalil Khan used to fly the doves.

Legal expert, S. M. Zafar said that dissolving the assembly was within the powers of the chief minister. He said that whatever may be intention, Tahir Javed has let loose a new debate by giving his proposal.