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http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/us-missiles-hit-pakistan-school-971114.html

US missiles hit Pakistan school

By Omar Waraich in Islamabad and Andrew Buncombe
Thursday, 23 October 2008

A volley of US missiles rained down on a Pakistani school linked to a Taliban leader in an attack that killed at least nine people just hours after the country’s parliament warned against incursions into its territory.

In what was seen as a sign of America’s enduring frustration with Islamabad’s faltering campaign against militancy, a suspected CIA-operated pilot-less drone struck a madrasa in North Waziristan operated by Taliban commander Jalaluddin Haqqani, a former CIA and ISI asset now accused of launching deadly cross-border raids against Nato troops in Afghanistan. Reports suggested no students were in the madrasa at the time of the attack though that could not be verified.

The attack early today marked the second occasion that the Haqqani network has been struck in the past two months. Last time, at least 23 people were killed. Relations between Washington and Islamabad soured this summer when the CIA alleged that Pakistan’s shadowy intelligence agency the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) had helped Mr Haqqani launch an attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul that left more than 50 dead.

Pakistan’s military are increasingly involved in an assault against the militants who have built strongholds in the semi-autonomous tribal regions and in parts of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP). But the US, impatient at the progress being made by the Pakistan forces has been routinely using unmanned drones to search out and attack militants - especially those such as Mr Haqqani who are blamed for crossing into Afghanistan and carrying out attacks on Western forces. The US has carried out at least a dozen such air strikes since August.

While the Pakistan army stoutly denies the ISI’s involvement in the attacks believed to have been carried out Mr Haqqani’s network, it admits that it still maintains indirect links with the former mujahideen commander.

Earlier, Pakistani lawmakers united behind a common policy to tackle extremism. After weeks of fraught debate, marked by sharp divisions between the government and the opposition, Pakistan’s political forces finally agreed to an unprecedented unanimous resolution. “Extremism, militancy and terrorism in all forms and manifestations pose a grave danger to the stability and integrity of the nation,” the resolution said.

Despite the military offensive undertaken by the army and Frontier Corps (FC) paramilitaries, the resolution said that dialogue with the militants must be of the highest priority. However it added that negotiations should only be pursued with those elements willing to follow the constitution and the “rule of law”.

By itself the resolution agreed late on Wednesday will likely make little practical difference. But the unanimous agreement will certainly provide the seven-month-old civilian government, headed by the late Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), a welcomed measure of political support.

At the same time, Pakistan is also confronting a major economic crisis. Soaring inflation, rocketing food and fuel prices and a dwindling reserve of foreign currency has left the country in desperate need of international help.

The IMF announced on Wednesday by the IMF that Pakistan had asked for its assistance, with officials saying Pakistan needed billions of dollars in loans. Yesterday, Shaukat Tareen, the Pakistani official overseeing the talks, said his country urgently needed up to USbn. However, he said the government and Pakistan’s president, Asif Ali Zardari, still hoped to get the money from the World Bank, rather than taking money from the IMF.

“We have not formally requested the board of the IMF for a facility, as of now,” said Mr Tarin. “In the next 15 to 30 days, we need cash. We’ll make a formal request to the board of the IMF when we believe we aren’t getting enough money from [other options.]“

http://www.alternet.org/workplace/83457/

Food Riots Erupt Worldwide

By Anuradha Mittal, AlterNet. Posted April 25, 2008.

It’s time to stop worshiping at the altar of ‘market forces.’

Food riots are erupting all over the world. To prevent them and to help people afford the most basic of goods, we need to understand the causes of skyrocketing food prices and correct the policies that have fueled them.

World food prices rose by 39 percent in the last year. Rice alone rose to a 19-year high in March — an increase of 50 per cent in two weeks alone — while the real price of wheat has hit a 28-year high.

As a result, food riots erupted in Egypt, Guinea, Haiti, Indonesia, Mauritania, Mexico, Senegal, Uzbekistan and Yemen. For the 3 billion people in the world who subsist on a day or less, the leap in food prices is a killer. They spend a majority of their income on food, and when the price goes up, they can’t afford to feed themselves or their families.

Analysts have pointed to some obvious causes, such as increased demand from China and India, whose economies are booming. Rising fuel and fertilizer costs, increased use of bio-fuels and climate change have all played a part.

But less obvious causes have also had a profound effect on food prices.

Over the last few decades, the United States, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have used their leverage to impose devastating policies on developing countries. By requiring countries to open up their agriculture market to giant multinational companies, by insisting that countries dismantle their marketing boards and by persuading them to specialize in exportable cash crops such as coffee, cocoa, cotton and even flowers, they have driven the poorest countries into a downward spiral.

In the last thirty years, developing countries that used to be self-sufficient in food have turned into large food importers. Dismantling of marketing boards that kept commodities in a rolling stock to be released in event of a bad harvest, thus protecting both producers and consumers against sharp rises or drops in prices, has further worsened the situation.

Here’s what we must do to prevent an epidemic of starvation from breaking out.

First, it is essential to have safety nets and public distribution systems put in place. Donor countries should provide more aid immediately to support government efforts in poor countries and respond to appeals from U.N. agencies, which are desperately seeking 0 million by May 1.

Second, we should help affected countries develop their agricultural sectors to feed more of their own people and decrease their dependence on food imports. We should promote production and consumption of local crops raised by small, sustainable farms instead of growing cash crops for western markets. And we should support a country’s effort to manage stocks and pricing so as to limit the volatility of food prices.

To embrace these crucial policies, however, we need to stop worshipping the golden calf of the so-called free market and embrace, instead, the principle of food sovereignty. Every country and every people have a right to food that is affordable. When the market deprives them of this, it is the market that has to give.