US to set up own monitoring cell to keep tabs on entire Pak aid package

October 8th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Even as Pakistan's military questioned the anti-terror strings attached to the proposed $7.5 billion US aid package, its foreign minister said it was crucial to fight terrorists and the US assured that it would not impinge on Islamabad's sovereignty. The US lawmakers responsible for the bill to provide Pakistan with $1.5 billion a year over the next five years had also assured him that the economic aid has no conditions attached, Shah Mahmood Qureshi said Wednesday at the Council on Foreign Relations.

September 24th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistan has been continuously pressing the United States to give the funds directly to the government in order to reduce administration charges, however, the Obama Administration has made it clear that it would channelise the assistance through various non-government institutions to prevent its misuse. With the US having taken a firm stand that it would no longer give Pakistan any 'blank cheque' and maintain a high level of accountability, Islamabad would have to accept the fact that it would now have to live with much more intense monitoring than the past.

September 9th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has rejected reports regarding it forming a regulation committee to monitor telecom traffic including phones calls, e-mails and text messages, The Daily Times reports. Commenting on the reports regarding the PTA's plans of having a monitoring cell to keep tab of all telecommunication traffic, a PTA spokesperson said monitoring cyber and telecom traffic does not come under the authority's mandate.

September 1st, 2009 TEHRAN - Iran is ready to hold a new round of talks with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany (5+1), state media reported Tuesday. Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Saeid Jalili told reporters in Tehran that the Iranian proposals have been updated and are ready to be presented to the 5+1 group.

August 24th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari's office is alone in-charge of all the affairs of former president Pervez Musharraf, including the facilities being provided to him by the government. An informal cell, which works directly under the instructions of Zardari, has been entrusted with the task to safeguard the interests of Musharraf, The News reports.

August 15th, 2009 CHANDIGARH - A special cell was launched Saturday for the early settlement of legal disputes filed by Chandigarh-origin Non-Resident Indians (NRIs), an official here said. "Problems of NRIs vary from property-related cases to matrimonial issues to various kinds of financial disputes.

August 14th, 2009 ADELAIDE - The complaints of a woman, allegedly stripped naked by policemen before being put in padded cell, have made authorities to offer prisoners with "modesty gowns". Assistant Police Commissioner Bronwyn Killmier said that the purchase of the reinforced calico gowns was not an admission that the practice, recently revealed in The Advertiser and on AdelaideNow, was inappropriate.

August 1st, 2009 NEW DELHI - A Shanghai-based woman recently prepaid her cell phone bill worth a staggering 15,000 yuan by mistake. Considering that she never makes more than 20 yuan worth of calls from her phone each month, Zhang may not have to recharge her phone for about 63 years.

July 31st, 2009 SYDNEY - Monitoring changes in vibrations can detect hidden damage in bridges, said an Australian researcher. Doctoral engineering researcher Henry Shih of Queensland University of Technology has developed a method to determine whether a bridge is damaged and even locate where the damage is in the structure.

July 30th, 2009 NEW DELHI - A Chinese travel agency in Shenyang, Liaoning province has included a visit to a site where a building collapsed last month, in a tour package. According to the travel agency, the site at Shanghai's infamous Lotus Riverside residential complex was added to the six-day itinerary, which included visits to several tourist attractions in East China, as an example of "blind greed", reports the China Daily.

July 7th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Cell phone towers could be a novel and reliable way to help predict the intensity of the next big flood, according to a new study. A model developed by Tel Aviv University (TAU) researchers, which analyses cell phone signals, has added a critical component to weather forecasting.

July 1st, 2009 NEW DELHI - The US embassy in Beijing has set up its own air monitoring station out of concern for the health of its staff. The embassy has been releasing its own private air quality reports since last year, which differ significantly from the ones issued by the Beijing Government, spokesperson Susan Stevenson said in an interview last week with Canwest News Service.

June 30th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Over 100,000 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are currently operational in Pakistan, the country's National Assembly has been informed. Federal Minister for Social Welfare and Special Education Samina Khalid Ghurki informed the NA in a written statement: "It is estimated that there are more than 100,000 NGOs working in the country.

June 15th, 2009 NEW DELHI - A bank customer may have become the butt of everyone's jokes after he stole someone's cell phone resting on the counter, but left without taking his 1,462 dollars with him. The cell phone owner informed the police, and the mugger was later identified as a certain Liu.

May 7th, 2009 RAWALPINDI - Inadequate security arrangements in and around the Adiala jail, where certain high profile under trials, including the Mumbai terror attack suspects have been kept, has increased its vulnerability to terror attacks, The Daily Times reports. Police officials have admitted that the jail is a soft target for the extremists due to lack of proper security.