Commission in Army Education Corps

TYPE OF COMMISSION. Direct short service commission in Army Education Corps (Male)
QUALIFICATION/SUBJECTS.
MA/MSc Ist &2nd Division as regular student in the following subjects alongwith minimum one year teaching experience at a reputable/ recognized institution. Candidates with M Phil/PHD in the relevant subject and teaching experience at a reputable/ recognized institution will be given preference and seniority: -       English  Physics Mathematics  Political Science  Islamic Studies  History  Computer Science  MBA  Education  Literacy Science  Urdu Human Resource Development      AGE. 30 years (Relaxable in individual cases having higher qualification and experience)      NATIONALITY   Male citizens of Pakistan and domicile of Azad Kashmir and Northern Areas.     All the candidates having dual nationality will have to initiate the process for reduction of their foreign nationality and will give an undertaking before joining the Army that they will complete the procedure for renunciation of their foreign nationality before completion of their training.     Those failing to renounce their foreign nationality or to complete the procedure are not granted commission. Additionally, they are liable to pay the training charges/bond money and will instead have to seek release/ discharge from the Army.   INELIGIBILITY.   Already screened out twice by Inter Service Selection Board (ISSB), General Headquarters (GHQ), Naval Headquarters (NHQ) Air Headquarters (AHQ) Selection Boards for any type of commission in the Armed Forces.     Candidates twice rejected for Pakistan Military Academy Long Course equivalent of Pakistan Air Force or Pakistan Navy. However candidates after their postgraduate studies may avail third chance.     A candidate who is rejected once by ISSB for PMA or equivalent Navy /PAF Course and once rejected for Direct Short Service Commission Entry, will not be eligible for commission. Candidates twice rejected with postgraduate qualifications are also, ineligible to apply.    SELECTION PROCEDURE. Preliminary written test covering following subjects:-     Respective subject. General knowledge and English Intelligence/Psychological Tests. Final Interview of successful candidates by GHQ Selection Board. Medical Examination at Military Hospital nearest to their home stations. Final selection will be made at GHQ based on overall performance of candidates   HIGHER RANK/ANTE DATE SENIORITY.   Candidates possessing M. Phil and PH.D and experience can be considered for grant of the rank of Major and ante date seniority under the existing rules.    BASIC MILITARY TARINING.   Candidates finally selected will undergo 6 months basic military training at PMA Kakul.    GRANT OF COMMISSION.   On successful completion of basic military training candidates are granted commission in the Army in the temporary rank of Captain.  link...

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Join Pakistan Army as Psychologist

SELECTION CRITERIA.

TYPE OF COMMISSION.
		Direct short service commission in army as Psychologist (Male).

	QUALIFICATION.
		Master degree in Psychology with minimum 2nd Division from a Pakistani or foreign university, Doctorate, M. Phil, Postgraduate Research or teaching experience will be given preference.
AGE.           28 years (Relaxable in individual cases having higher qualification and experience).
NATIONALITY.     Male citizens of Pakistan and domicile of Azad Kashmir and Northern Areas.       All the candidates having dual nationality will have to initiate the process for reduction of their foreign nationality and will give an undertaking before joining the Army that they will have to complete the procedure for renunciation of their foreign nationality before completion of their training.       Those failing to renounce their foreign nationality or to complete the procedure are granted commission. Additionally, they are liable to pay the training charges/bond money and will instead have to seek release/ discharge from the Army.
INELIGIBILITY     Already screened out twice by Inter Service Selection Board (ISSB), General Headquarters (GHQ), Naval Headquarters (NHQ), Air Headquarters (AHQ), Selection Boards for any type of commission in the Armed Forces.       Candidates twice rejected for Pakistan Military Academy Long Course or equivalent of Pakistan Air Force or Pakistan Navy. However candidates after their postgraduates studies may avail third chance.       A candidate who is rejected once by ISSB for PMA or equivalent Navy /PAF Course and once rejected for Direct Short Service Commission Entry, will not be eligible for commission. Candidates twice rejected with postgraduate qualifications are also, ineligible to apply.      SELECTION PROCEDURE.  Preliminary written test covering following subjects: -       Respective subject, General knowledge and English, Intelligence/Psychological Tests, Final Interview of successful candidates by GHQ Selection Board and Medical Examination at nearest Military Hospital.       Final selection is made at GHQ based on overall performance of candidates.      HIGHER RANK/ANTE DATE SENIORITY.   Candidates possessing M. Phil and PH.D and experience can be considered for grant of the rank of Major and ante date seniority under the existing rules.    BASIC MILITARY TARINING. Candidates finally selected will undergo 6 months basic military training at PMA Kakul.  GRANT OF COMMISSION.   On successful completion of basic military training candidates will be granted commission in the Army in the temporary rank of Captain.  link...

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Short Service Commission in Remount Veterinary and Farming Corps

TYPE OF COMMISSION. Direct short service commission in Remount Veterinary and Farms Corps (Male)
	QUALIFICATION. D.V.M or equivalent degree from Pakistan. UK or USA. Registered with PVMC.
	AGE.
	Serving VASs of RV&FC 21-35 years.
	For Civilians 21-28 years
	Note.  Candidates who have appeared in final DVM examination and result has not been announced are not eligible to           apply.
	NATIONALITY
	Male citizens of Pakistan/Azad Kashmir and Northern Areas national and state subject of class-1.
	Candidates having dual nationality will initiate the process for renunciation of the foreign nationality and will give an undertaking before joining the Army that they will complete the procedure for renunciation of their foreign nationality before completion of training. Those failing to renounce their foreign nationality or to complete the procedure will not be granted commission. Additionally, they will be liable to pay the training charges/Bond money and will instead have to seek release /discharge from the Army.
	INELIGIBILITY. Following are ineligible to apply: -
		Twice screened out/rejected by ISSB/GHQ or NHQ/AHQ Selection Boards for any type of commission in the Armed Forces.
		Candidates twice rejected for Pakistan Military Academy Long Course / Officer Training School Short Course / equivalent of Pakistan Air Force or Pakistan Navy may avail third chance after their post graduate studies. Candidates twice rejected with post graduate qualifications are however ineligible to apply.
		Previously declared medically unfit by Appeal Medical Board for Army, Navy, PAF are ineligible. However, those who were declared unfit by an ordinary medical board may apply. Such candidates will undergo medical re-examination by an Appeal Medical Board.
		Released or discharged or withdrawn from Armed Forces or any of its training establishments.
		Convicted by a Court of Law for an offence involving moral turpitude.
SELECTION PROCEDURE.     Preliminary written test by Screening Board at Military Veterinary Hospital Rawalpindi.     Intelligence/ Personality Tests.     Interview by GHQ Selection Board.     Medical examination at military hospital nearest to their home stations.     Final selection will be made at GHQ based on overall performance of candidates.
BASIC MILITARY TRAINING.     Candidates finally selected will undergo 22 weeks basic military training at PMA Kakul.    GRANT OF COMMISSION.     On successful completion of basic military training candidates will be granted commission in the Army in the temporary rank of Captain. link....

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Regular Commission in Pakistan Army

COMMISSIONING.

Basing on the instructions issued from GHQ, PA Dte, advertisement is published in print media. Candidates are given date for test after verification of their documents/academic certificates and registration. Those who qualify the Intelligence/Written test are called for preliminary medical exam. Candidates declared medically fit are interviewed by a board of officers headed by a Brigadier as President. Details of selection criteria for commissioning candidates are spelled out in succeeding paragraphs.


SELECTION CRITERIA – COMMISSIONED OFFICER.


NATIONALITY. Male citizen of Pakistan or Azad Kashmir Domiciles and state subjects of class – I.


Note. Pakistani National having dual nationality at selection, will be required to renounce their foreign nationality before completion of training/grant of commission.


MARITAL STATUS.

Unmarried (serving personnel of the Armed Forces over 20 years of age are eligible, even if married)


AGE ON 01 MAY/ NOV.
Intermediate or equivalent 17-22 Years.
Graduates 17-23 Years.
Serving Armed/Civil Armed Forces personnel 17-23 Years.
Note. Relaxation of under/over age period for maximum up to 3 months for special deserving cases is allowed.

PHYSICAL STANDARDS.
Minimum Height. 5’-4” (162.5 cm)

Visual Standard
Distant Vision with glass 6/9, 6/12
Near Vision J2, J7 or N8, N12 with or without glasses.

Physical fitness. The candidates must qualify the following physical standard at the time of preliminary selection:-

1.6 Km Run –7.5 Minutes
Push Ups – 15 repetitions in 2 Minutes
Sit Ups –15 repetitions in 2 Minutes
Chin Ups –3 repetitions in 2 Minutes
RIGISTRATION AND PRELIMINARY SELECTION.
Candidates will have to report at the Army Selection & Recruitment Centres (AS&RCs) for their registration/Roll number allotment and for the date, time etc of the tests.


Registration is carried out at Army Selection & Recruitment Centres (AS&RCs) from Monday to Sunday.



Intelligence/Other tests are conducted at Army Selection & Recruitment Centres (AS&RCs). On the day of the registration, candidates will deposit Rs.200/- with the staff of Selection and Recruitment Office.

Preliminary Selection.


Intelligence test, written test (on computers), medical examination, physical fitness test and interview will be carried out as per laid down programme under arrangements of AS&RCs listed at the end. Candidates will produce Matric certificate provisional/photo copy of Intermediate certificate or Marks Sheet, BA/BSc degree or Mark Sheet, and 3xphotographs duly attested by Principle/ Class 1 Gazetted officer/Ist Class Magistrate for preliminary selection. In case a candidate has not been issued with Matric Certificate, he is required to produce Matric Marks Sheet and school leaving certificate indicating date of birth. Matric certificate of recommended/not recommended candidates will be retained with AS&RC till a given date.


Note. DMC and original Matric/Equivalent certificates DMC/Result Card for Part-1 and Part-II of Intermediate and Identity Card or Form B will be attached with application form.


FURTHER SELECTION.
ISSB Test and Interview
Candidates qualifying preliminary selection/falling in merit are sent to ISSB for further tests and interview.

Medical Examination.
Candidates recommended by ISSB appear before a Medical Board in the local CMH/MH for assessing their medical fitness immediately after recommendation by ISSB.

Final Selection.
The final selection is made at GHQ on the basis of candidates overall performance.

Training Period
2 Years at PMA Kakul

INELIGIBILITIES.
Screened out/Rejected twice by ISSB
Declared medically unfit by an appeal Medical Board (Army)
Enrolled Cadets withdrawn/resigned / discharged / dismissed from Armed Forces (Army, Navy, and Air Force) training academy/institutions on the grounds of discipline, character, failure in academics/military subjects, medical inefficiency, weak profile and any other unsuitability grounds or having received character certificate ‘fair’.


An individual dismissed/removed from other Government Services
link...

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New Orleans gets 2013 Super Bowl, its 10th

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) - New Orleans is a Super Bowl city again.

NFL owners voted Tuesday to play the 2013 Super Bowl in New Orleans, the first time the championship game will be played there since Hurricane Katrina shredded parts of the Louisiana Superdome. The hurricane caused 1,600 deaths and devastated the Gulf Coast four years ago.

New Orleans beat out Miami - which sought a record 11th Super Bowl - and 2008 host Glendale, Ariz., for the game. This is the 10th time New Orleans will be the site for the Super Bowl.

New Orleans last hosted in 2002, when Adam Viniateri's 48-yard field goal as time expired lifted New England over St. Louis. link...

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Plans in Motion

Nintendo has announced pricing and Australian release dates for the Wii MotionPlus accessory and the sequel to the best selling video game of all time, Wii Sports Resort.
The MotionPlus add-on, which more accurately tracks player movements than a standard Wii Remote, will be released on June 11 for $29.95.
The beach-themed Wii Sports Resort, which features activities like Frisbee throwing, jetski racing, fencing, golf and table tennis, will be released on July 23 for $99.95. Resort will come bundled with one MotionPlus accessory.
Third-party ames compatible with MotionPlus include Sega's Virtua Tennis 2009, EA's Grand Slam Tennis, Tiger Woods PGA Tour Golf 10, and Ubisoft's Red Steel . link...

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Fiji’s neighbours disagree on how to deal with its military regime

Wellington, May 19 (DPA) Differences among Fiji’s Pacific neighbours over how to deal with the island’s military regime emerged Tuesday following top-level talks between New Zealand and Tonga.
Tongan Prime Minister Feleti Sevele said at a news conference in Wellington that he favoured giving military strongman Voreqe Bainimarama, whose military regime has ruled Fiji since a coup in December 2006, more time to restore democracy.

New Zealand Premier John Key called Bainimarama’s pledge not to hold elections before September 2014 unacceptable to New Zealand.

Both Tonga and New Zealand belong to the 16-member Pacific Islands Forum, which suspended Fiji’s membership May 1 for failing to organise elections this year as Bainimarama had promised his fellow leaders a year ago.

What to do about Fiji, which Sevele described as “the hub of the Pacific”, was expected to dominate the organisation’s annual meeting to be held in August in Cairns, Australia.

Fiji has been under a state of emergency with all media outlets forbidden to criticise the government since April 25, when President Josefa Iloilo sacked all the country’s judges after a Court of Appeal ruling that Bainimarama’s regime was illegal.

Sevele said that what had happened in Fiji was the opposite of what forum leaders had been intending to achieve - “so maybe it’s time for us to reconsider our approach”.

He said the forum should stand back and give Bainimarama time.

“I think in these troubled times, reason and calm is the way to go,” the prime minister said. “And if it takes another year or two to get Fiji back to the negotiating table and together work our way forward, then that’s the way we’re going to go.

“Sooner or later, we’ll have a government in Fiji that is more acceptable to the international community.”

Sevele said that to ostracise Fiji would not be in the interests of Fiji or the forum as a whole, given the country’s importance as a regional trade and communications centre.

Key said of Bainimarama: “We don’t want to leave him out in the cold but nor do we want to sanction an illegitimate regime.

“We are not out to punish Fiji, but we want to see democracy restored.”

Key said New Zealand was ready, willing and able to engage with Fiji and support its return to democracy but such a development remained in the hands of Bainimarama.

The European Commission announced Monday that it had cancelled a scheduled 24-million-euro ($32 million) aid package to Fiji to help restructure its sugar industry, which is critical to the economy, “in the absence of any indications that a legitimate government will be in place in 2009″. link...

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CBS And NFL Reach Agreement On Two-Year Extension Of Broadcast Rights

The National Football League announced today that CBS has been awarded a rights extension to broadcast the American Football Conference (AFC). The two-year extension agreement runs through the 2013-14 season and includes CBS broadcasting Super Bowl XLVII in the first year of the new agreement.

The CBS television negotiations were led by Leslie Moonves, President and Chief Executive Officer, CBS Corporation, and Sean McManus, President, CBS News and Sports.

“This agreement significantly strengthens what is already a great partnership between CBS and the NFL, and continues to add to CBS Sports’ reputation as the undisputed industry leader in sports television with top franchises in all of television,” said Moonves. “I would like to thank all the great people at CBS Sports and at the NFL for making this important deal happen.”

Thirteen of CBS’s 14 Owned stations are in NFL markets, including New York, San Francisco/Oakland, Boston, Miami, Denver, Pittsburgh and Baltimore, which are all AFC markets.

“We are extremely pleased to extend this agreement as well as our successful partnership with the NFL, which continues to prove that NFL football is the premier property in all of sports and the number one-rated franchise in all of sports television,” said McManus.

CBS Sports, which first began televising NFL regular-season games in 1956 and this season mark its 50th season, had broadcast rights to the National Football Conference package from 1970 through 1993. The Network began televising American Football Conference games in 1998.

CBS Television is comprised of the CBS Television Network – with more than 200 owned and affiliated stations reaching virtually every television home in the United States; the Network’s programming arms CBS Entertainment, CBS News and CBS Sports; and CBS Enterprises, a global leader in distribution. link...

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Russians unprepared for 2010 Winter Olympics - sports official

SPORTS
Russians unprepared for 2010 Winter Olympics - sports official

Антон Денисов | Buy this image
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17:4219/05/2009
MOSCOW, May 19 (RIA Novosti) - Russian athletes face an uphill struggle to prepare fully for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games, a vice president of the Russian Olympic Committee said on Tuesday.
Vladimir Vasin told members of the Russian upper house that the problems with winter sports had emerged in the 1990s and that until recently there had been no financial allocations from the budget to develop infrastructure.
"[In the past] our country only had snow to train athletes, but we do not even have this privilege anymore," Vasin said, referring to recent unusually warm weather.
He also said that besides infrastructure development, Russia should also look to involve foreign specialists in the training of its athletes.
However, Gennady Alyoshin, a deputy head of the Russian Sport, Tourism and Youth Policy Ministry, said that Russia had every chance of taking up to six gold medals in Vancouver.
"We have the potential and we will realize it," Alyoshin said, adding that the financial rewards for medals had seen a 200% increase in comparison with the 2006 Winter Olympics.
He said that the athletes would be paid 100,000 euros for each gold medal, 60,000 for silver and 40,000 for bronze.
At the 2006 Turin Games, Russia won 22 medals, including 8 gold, taking fourth place in the overall medals standings. link...

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NZ softens stance on Fiji sports teams

New Zealand has softened its stance on visiting sports teams from Fiji, says Prime Minister John Key.

The Labour government banned all visiting Fijian sports teams except the rugby sevens team after Commodore Frank Bainimarama's military takeover of the country in 2006.

Key says his Government had "softened" its stance on Fijian sports team since coming to power in last year's election in November, The Dominion Post reported.

"New Zealand has been effectively softening its sanctions in relation to sporting ties and the travel of sports teams."To all intents and purposes, since we've been the Government we've been signing off on sports teams either transiting to New Zealand or coming to engage in sports activities here."

However, a travel ban remains on members of Cdre Bainimarama's regime and their families coming to New Zealand. link....

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JD Sports to enter French market

Sportswear retailer JD Sports has bought its first stores outside the UK and Ireland with the acquisition of the French footwear company Chausport.
JD Sports said it paid 8m euros (£7m) in cash for the firm but added that it had acquired 2m euros of debt.
The retailer said Chausport's current management team would remain in place.
Chausport has 78 stores in France. The acquisition will give the British firm "a foothold in a new and sizeable European market", it said.
JD Sports has 400 outlets in the UK and Ireland.
Altium Securities analyst David Stoddart said the company had discussed the possibility of expansion earlier this year.
"This should not come as a surprise," he said.
"On the other hand, the deal takes it into France, a country that has not been kind to UK retailers in the past." link....

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Bristol Palin graduates from high school

WASILLA, Alaska - Gov. Sarah Palin's oldest daughter is now a high school graduate.
Palin family spokeswoman Meghan Stapleton says 18-year-old Bristol Palin received her Wasilla High School diploma Thursday night at a ceremony with her fellow classmates at the Wasilla Sports Complex.

The teenager gave birth in December to son Tripp but has since separated from Levi Johnston, the boy's father.

She is now a Teen Ambassador for The Candie's Foundation, an organization devoted to educating teenagers about the consequences of teen pregnancy.

Her mother in August was picked as the GOP nominee for vice president and shortly after announced her daughter was pregnant. link...

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Nadal, Federer meet again to decide Madrid Masters crown

The Spanish king of clay made another agonizing and heroic stand, saving three match points in a four-hour semifinal marathon to beat gallant Novak Djokovic 3-6, 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (11/9).

The epic clash, which stretched deep into the evening, preceded Federer’s silky smooth 6-3, 6-4 win over Argentine Juan Martin Del Potro, which finished in less time than one of Nadal’s sets.

World no. 1 Nadal, the winner of his last 33 claycourt contests, stretching back a year, confessed that his troublesome knees are a concern as he bids for his fourth straight clay title this spring.

Nadal stands a formidable 13-6 over Federer, winning five of their last six meetings including the Grand Slam finals in Paris, Wimbledon and Melbourne.

Federer dominated Del Potro in a tidy win in stark contrast to the Nadal-Djokovic rollercoaster.

The 13-time Grand Slam winner is still seeking his first title of the season, but is looking forward to the final.

Nadal came through on his second match point to claim his third win in a month over the third-seeded Djokovic at the Masters level after the Monte Carlo and Rome finals.

Nadal, who has not been beaten on clay since May 2008, in Rome, wrapped up the semifinal on his second match point to leave Djokovic physically and mentally shattered.

Djokovic, who would have reclaimed his world number three spot from Andy Murray, which he lost only last week, had he reached the final added: "I hope I’ll be ready for the French Open."

Djokovic showed he meant business after his recent losses to Nadal, earning the first break of the match in the second game off a double-fault.

The Serbian third seed kept up the attack on the world number one, reaching 4-1 on his way to the early lead.

But after losing his first set of the tournament, Nadal was in no mood for more home disappointment, saving two break points in the ninth game of the second for a 5-4 lead, eventually squaring the match with a tie breaker.

The third set only lifted the tension as Djokovic broke in the fourth game only to hand the advantage straight back in the fifth.

The final-set tie breaker provided all the drama possible for the sellout crowd of 15,000 as both men grappled for the win in the last tune-up before Roland Garros which starts on May 24.

Nadal has now reached his fourth claycourt final of the spring and took his career record over Djokovic to 14-4. The Spaniard improved to 19-0 on clay in 2009 and 150-4 since 2005. He lost his only clay semi-final out of 28 played back in 2003 as a teenager at Umag in Croatia. link...

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Army to Ensure Protection of Civilions: Gen.Kayani

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Army Chief has directed the troops engaged in the counter-insurgency operation in Swat, to ensure protection of the local population.
Chief of Army Staff Gen. Ashfaque Pervez Kayani has also directed the military to take care of the people migrating from the region.
Gen. Kayani said the Army was aware of the sensitive nature of the operation in Swat and other areas.
“The military has first time in its history offered its daily ration to the affected people,” Gen. Kayani said.
The ration will be sufficient for 80,000 people. link....

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PAK Nuke Arsenal in Safe Hands, Asserts Musharraf

NEW YORK: Former President Pervez Musharraf has said that the nuclear weapons of Pakistan are in safe hands; the Pakistani army is a highly organized institution and knows how to thwart all genres of threats.
Talking to media here, Musharraf said the way ultimately Pakistan army opted to counter insurgency was the only possible idea to tackle Talibanisation and ruled out the failure of Pakistan army in this connection.
“The situation was much more under control when I stepped down”, Musharraf asserted maintaining, “Now, the government and army will have to jointly devise a strategy to overcome militancy in Pakistan”.
The only way to end terrorism is to cease it to exist, he said.
When asked about the safety of Pakistan’s nukes, former president said, “Pakistani armed forces together with its people will never let nuclear weapons fall into the hands of extremist elements”. link...

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10 dead, 20 injured in Peshawar car bomb blast

PESHAWAR: At least ten persons including women and children died and twenty were injured in a car bomb blast on Circular Road in a thickly populated Berisco area at Kashkal here, when a bomb installed in a vehicle outside a net café near Bargain Centre detonated.
The school bus carrying 15 children passing by the place of incident was totally damaged. The scene of incident being a centrally located place was bustling with life and there was huge rush. The blast followed by heavy firing let loose a reign of terror all around.

Edhi sources said that 20 persons mostly children were injured in the incident. Among the injured shifted to the Lady Reading Hospital here, 8 persons were in critical condition, where emergency has been declared.

Several vehicles and the nearby buildings were also damaged. Bomb disposal squad and the police have arrived at the scene, while the security persons have besieged the area, but the people from nearby were seen crowding the place of incident. Eyewitnesses said that the blast target a net café, which was receiving threats for sometime. The net café was blown up by the incident.

Sources said that police have taken into custody three suspects from the scene of incident, ho have been shifted to an unknown place for interrogation. link...

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President Obama, Pakistan nuclear assets are safe

WASHINGTON: Barack Obama US President said that he is confident that Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal is safe.

In an interview to a US journal Obama said that the Pakistan Army has been capable to protect the nuclear weapons from Taliban. “We have to respect sovereignty of Pakistan.”
Obama said it is encouraging for Washington the military has begun to realise that the extremists and not India, pose the biggest threat to Pakistan’s stability.
“United States as a partner trying for stabilization in Pakistan,” he added. link...

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Pakistan unlikely to get drone: Report

Pakistan is unlikely to get drones inspite of the strong plea made to the US by its President, Asif Ali Zardari, media reports said on Sunday.

"I want drones. I want transfer of technology so that I can manufacture them at home and use them myself," Zardari told 'The Sunday Times.'

However, the newspaper stated that Zardari "may get the cash but US President Barack Obama is less likely to accede to his wish of being given US drones, the unmanned spy planes used to target Al-Qaeda's leadership in Pakistan's tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.

So far the US has carried out 18 missile attacks within Pakistan this year.

According to reports, for the first time, US shared surveillance data collected by drones with Pakistan but the co-operation is unlikely to go further.

Zardari has asked for them to fly under Pakistani auspices. "If the British police carry out an action here (in Britain) that's one thing, but imagine if the Australian police came in, the British people would not stand for it. That's the situation I am trying to make them understand." link...

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Pakistan: Offensive kills 1,000+ alleged militants

ISLAMABAD (AP) — A Pakistani military offensive against Taliban fighters near the Afghan border has killed more than 1,000 suspected insurgents and "will continue till the last Taliban are flushed out," a top official said Sunday.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik, speaking after visiting Pakistanis displaced by the battle, also wouldn't rule out extending the operation in the Swat Valley and surrounding areas to other parts of the northwest where al-Qaida and the Taliban have long thrived.
It was not possible to independently verify the figures provided by Malik because the territories bombarded over the past three weeks are too dangerous for journalists to freely roam. An army statement Sunday afternoon said 25 militants and a soldier had died in the previous 24 hours of the operation, and that security forces had surrounded and entered two key towns in Swat.
Malik's comments appeared designed to show resolve amid intense U.S. pressure on Islamabad to clear al-Qaida and Taliban havens along the border region, strongholds that threaten Afghan-based U.S. and NATO troops and nuclear-armed Pakistan itself.
"The operation is going in the right direction as we had planned," Malik said in a televised news conference from Mardan, a district hosting several relief camps for some of the nearly 1 million people turned refugees. "People wish to go back. That is what the government also wants. I cannot give a time but we will try (to complete the operation) at the earliest."
The Taliban's ability to overrun Swat, once of Pakistan's premier tourist destinations, had proved particularly embarrassing to the Pakistani military and the weak civilian government.
Many of the main militant safe havens, however, are in Pakistan's semiautonomous tribal areas, with South Waziristan serving as the primary base for Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud.
Britain's Sunday Times reported that Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said military action would follow in the tribal belt.
"We're going to go into Waziristan, all these regions, with army operations," the newspaper quoted Zardari as saying in an interview. "Swat is just the start. It's a larger war to fight."
Zardari's spokesmen could not immediately be reached Sunday. Malik did not respond directly when asked about a potential extension.
"Wherever the government requires an operation, we will, God willing, do that," he said.
The operation has involved fighting in the Lower Dir and Buner districts that dates back to last month, but the offensive began in full force in Swat in early May.
Of the nearly 1 million civilians who have fled the affected areas, about 100,000 are now staying in sweltering relief camps. The military has warned that some militants are trying to flee as well, some after shaving off their beards to blend in with refugees.
The army statement Sunday said security forces were battling militants on the outskirts of Swat's main town, Mingora, where many of the estimated 4,000 Taliban fighters in the valley are believed to be holed up.
It said security forces had surrounded and entered the towns of Matta and Kanju to take on the militants, and it requested civilians still in those areas to stay away from the Taliban hide-outs. It also said troops were making gains in the remote Piochar area, the rear base of Swat Taliban leader Maulana Fazlullah.
The military does not explain how it differentiates civilian from militant killings, and it has not released a civilian death toll, but witnesses have reported many innocent people have been wounded or killed.
In Pakistan's southern city of Karachi, meanwhile, police said a tip-off led them to arrest four alleged militants from Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a banned group linked to both the Taliban and al-Qaida. The men are suspected of planning attacks on high-value targets in Karachi, senior police officer Chaudhry Mohammad Aslam said. link.....

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Arab states discuss Israel concessions

Talks are under way among several Arab states on measures that would reward Israel if Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, commits to a total freeze on the expansion of Jewish settlement as part of a comprehensive American Middle East peace plan.
According to people familiar with the talks, several Arab states are discussing a plan of action that could include stepped up contacts with the Jewish state, telecommunications links and airline access if the US can secure a genuine Israeli adherence to a complete settlements freeze on occupied Palestinian land.

The sources stress, however, that Arab concessions would have to follow the US articulating how to achieve a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict with benchmarks for action on both sides.

The Arab moves are, moreover, predicated on a drastic change in Israeli policy. The current government has said repeatedly that it will not curb what it calls the ”natural growth” of West Bank settlements – a loophole that has allowed the settler population to continue to expand rapidly in recent years.

The talks come as Barack Obama, the US president, holds his first summit tomorrow with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, whose right wing government wants to continue expanding settlements and has yet to commit to the two-state solution.

Senior US officials, in turn, have made clear that the administration will take a tougher line on Israel on issues such as the peace process, which has raised concerns in Israel about a looming rift with the country’s most crucial ally.

Officials from pro-western states in the Arab world say the Obama administration provides a rare opportunity for ending the Arab-Israeli conflict and it should be supported if it exerts pressure on its Israeli ally. This is the message that King Abdullah, the Jordanian monarch, is believed to have delivered to Mr Obama in Washington last month.

Any moves taken by the Arab world, however, would involve a few countries, and not the whole 22-member Arab League, to avoid what would undoubtedly turn into a bitter dispute. Concessions would also not involve revising the 2002 Arab peace initiative. People familiar with the talks say that states in the Gulf and in North Africa are involved in the current discussions, in addition to Egypt and Jordan , which already have diplomatic ties with Israel .

Officials in the region will not publicly acknowledge that talks are under way. But Nader Dahabi, prime minister of Jordan , yesterday told a panel at the World Economic Forum at the Dead Sea in Jordan , that if the peace process moves forward, there can be a “deposit that Arabs will go into confidence-building measures.”

Amr Moussa, the Arab League secretary general, also told the FT that action can be taken by both sides if the atmosphere between Israel and its neighbours changes, but warned that the Arab world would not “pay anything upfront.”

Israel’s attempt to develop ties with Arab states - something which could help make Israelis feel more secure in and integrated within their neighbourhood - has faltered as the peace process has stalled.

Arab governments signed up in 2002 to the Arab peace initiative, a Saudi-sponsored plan that promises normalisation with Israel if peace agreements are reached with Palestinians, Syria and Lebanon , on the basis of an Israeli withdrawal from all lands occupied in 1967. Israel raised serious objections to the plan, particularly its call for a solution to the problem of Palestinian refugees.

Senior Arab officials say George Mitchell, the US envoy, has been asking Arab states to consider measures towards normalisation if a peace process is re-launched – and not reward Israel only when peace is achieved.

Normalisation, however, remains a taboo in the region, particularly as it is considered the most valuable card in a conflict in which Israel is the more powerful party. Any attempt to alter the Arab peace initiative would provoke dramatic splits in the Arab League. This is why developing some ties with Israel would be taken by like-minded countries, not the whole region.

Palestinians have long sought a stop on Jewish settlements on occupied land, which are illegal under international law, arguing that they prevent a contiguous Palestinian state from emerging.

Since the launch of the Oslo peace process in 1993, the number of settlers in the occupied West Bank has more than doubled, rising from 116,000 to 285,000 last year. In addition, there are now more than 180,000 Jewish settlers living in occupied East Jerusalem.

Mr Netanyahu goes to Washington after having met both Egypt ’s Hosni Mubarak and Jordan ’s King Abdullah. The Israeli leader’s message was that his coalition is fragile and could collapse if he were to embrace a settlement freeze or agree to discuss issues such as the fate of occupied Arab East Jerusalem, which Palestinians want as the capital of a future state.

According to one person with knowledge of the meeting in Egypt , President Mubarak told Mr Netanyahu that Israeli leaders have been making this argument for the last 25 years. link...

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Congress eyes new allies for coalition after Indian election victory

The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) defied predictions of a tight election and was only 11 seats short of an outright majority from the 543 seats at stake in the Lok Sabha, or lower house of parliament, according to election commission data.
Top Congress leaders, including Manmohan Singh, the prime minister, Sonia Gandhi, the party chief, and Pranab Mukherjee, the foreign minister, met on Sunday to discuss potential allies.A strong Congress-led coalition, free of pressures from its former communist partners, has boosted the prospect of reforms to encourage growth in Asia's third largest economy.
The new government will also have a strong mandate to deal with security issues in a region overshadowed by instability in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Rahul Gandhi, the Congress dynasty scion credited with inspiring his party's biggest election victory since 1991, has been offered a cabinet post by Mr Singh.
The overwhelming margin by which Congress won has been attributed to Mr Gandhi's reforms of the party's neglected organisation and his strategic decision to shun seat-sharing deals with allies in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
The strategy paid off handsomely, with Congress almost doubling its seats in Uttar Pradesh, while its alliance with the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal defeated the Communist-led Left Front, which almost brought down the government last year when it resigned from the UPA in protest over the US nuclear deal.
Immediately following the result, Dr Manmohan Singh was reconfirmed as prime minister by Mrs Gandhi. In his first speech following the result, Dr Singh paid tribute to Rahul Gandhi's stewardship of the campaign and said he would try to persuade him to join his cabinet.
Mr Gandhi believes he has unfinished business in overhauling the Congress Party organisation, but his supporters now want him to enter the cabinet to prepare for his "destiny" as the country's prime minister.
On Sunday, Captain Satish Sharma, a close Gandhi family adviser and former Congress minister, called for Rahul Gandhi to follow in his grandfather Jawarharlal Nehru's footsteps by becoming India's foreign minister.
"I'm advising him to take a cabinet post and I think he should take what Jawarharlal Nehru was, external affairs minister, as well as prime minister. Rahul can do more for India as foreign minister.
"One hundred percent he will be prime minister one day. With more than 200 seats, he could be now if he wanted to. But he wants Manmohan Singh as PM. I'm going to try to persuade him to take foreign affairs," he told The Daily Telegraph.
Mr Gandhi's sister, Priyanka, on Sunday backed her brother as a future prime minister. "Yes, providing he works hard towards it, goes through the grind and providing he deserves it," she said. link...

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Sri Lanka rebels 'call ceasefire'

Tamil rebels trapped in a tiny enclave of northern Sri Lanka have declared a ceasefire, a rebel spokesman says.
The Tamil Tigers (LTTE) had given up their fight against a major government offensive and "decided to silence our guns", he said on a pro-Tamil website.
"This battle has reached its bitter end," said Selvarasa Pathmanathan, the Tigers' chief of international relations, in a statement on Tamilnet.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa has already claimed victory in the 26-year war.
A later statement on the Tamilnet website appeared to modify the rebel position.
Mr Pathmanathan said the LTTE was "prepared to silence its guns if that is what needed by the international community to save the life and dignity of the Tamil people".
See a map of the conflict region
"In the past 24 hours, over 3,000 civilians lie dead on the streets while another 25,000 are critically injured with no medical attention," said the statement.
A senior Sri Lankan media spokesman told the BBC the government did not respond to documents posted on Tamilnet or take them seriously.
Lakshman Hulugalle said the government was waiting for an official "request" from the LTTE.
Civilians trapped
In contrast, Sri Lanka military officials said earlier that all the civilians who had been trapped in Sri Lanka's northern war zone had escaped.
The government rejected the ceasefire calls, saying that as all trapped civilians had now fled from the area of conflict, there was no reason to stop its offensive.Army spokesman Brig Udaya Nanayakkara said some 50,000 ethnic Tamils had fled the area over the past three days.
Like all accounts from the war zone, neither claim can be independently verified.
Fighting is still continuing, but there has been no sign of the Tigers' leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, the Sri Lankan defence minister told the BBC.
For months, tens of thousands of Tamil civilians have been trapped in the war zone, vulnerable to bombardments as the government and Tamil Tiger rebels fought bitterly.
The United Nations says they were being forcibly kept there by the rebels and that more than 6,000 have been killed since January.
The UN has told the BBC the army figures reinforced its view that Sri Lanka's authorities were ill-prepared for the huge influx of internally displaced people.
Refugee camps inland are already badly strained accommodating the huge numbers of those who have fled the conflict.
Rebels 'cornered'
Both the UN and Western governments have called on Sri Lanka to exercise restraint in its pursuit of a military victory over the Tigers. link...

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Taming of Tamil Tigers threatens to breed fiercer creatures

Thousands of Sri Lankans are celebrating their government's military victory over the Tamil Tiger rebels, with President Mahinda Rajapaksa expected to tell the country on national television on Tuesday that the war is over. On the ground, the rebels have admitted that their 25-year struggle for a Tamil homeland has reached "its bitter end".

However, the victory has come at a high price in terms of civilan life and damage to Colombo's international reputation. According to UN figures, an estimated 7,000 ethnic Tamil civilians were killed between 20 January, when a military offensive pushed back the rebels into a tiny enclave in the north-east, and 7 May.

Although the military largely blocked the world's media from covering the carnage in the so-called no-fire zone, some TV images have conveyed part of the horror, showing civilians making a desperate break across a lagoon to escape the last strip of land controlled by the rebels.

Doctors have recounted the cries of the wounded at a makeshift hospital thart they had to abandon because of continual artillery shelling – bombardments denied by the Sri Lankan military. UN officials and human rights groups have been horrified at the disregard for civilians on both sides, particularly in the final stages of the conflict.

Despite pleas from the US president, Barack Obama, and the UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-Moon, Colombo has zealously pursued its objective of wiping out the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) once and for all.

For Rajapaksa, military victory is the climax of his election campaign in November 2005, when he ruled out autonomy for Tamils – a harbinger of the military option.

Rajapaksa has been able to dress up the offensive as part of the global fight against terrorism. There is little sympathy for the Tigers. A ruthless group, listed as a terrorist organisation by both the US and the EU, the Tigers pioneered suicide attacks, carried out assassinations and stand accused of using civilians in the war zone as human shields and shooting those who tried to flee.

However, such tactics provide no excuse for the Sri Lankan government's blatant disreguard for the plight of civilians. While many Tamils are appalled by the Tigers' tactics, they also harbour deep grievances about their treatment by the Sinhalese majority. Analysts claim the government's conduct has hardened an already humiliated Tamil diaspora, storing trouble for the future.

"If the Tigers' leadership is removed or killed in a government assault, it's easy to imagine one of the newly energised generation stepping in to fill the void," said Robert Templer, of the International Crisis Group thinktank.

"The dream of an independent Tamil homeland in Sri Lanka resonates powerfully across the diaspora and will certainly live on even after the defeat of the LTTE as a conventional military force. The deaths of tens of thousands of innocent Tamil civilians – while their family members watch from afar – is a recipe for another, possibly more explosive, generation of terrorism."

For now, the Sri Lankan government has prevailed, militarily. It has a huge humanitarian problem on its hands, with tens of thousands of displaced civilians to care for, and it will need international aid. For western leaders who have urged restraint, this is the time to call on Rajapaksa to address Tamil demands for devolution of power and language rights now that the military conflict is over. link...

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Citing Auschwitz, Pope Assails Hatred

TEL AVIV — Recalling a visit to the Auschwitz death camp, Pope Benedict XVI wound up a sometimes fraught and often politically charged trip to Israel and the West Bank on Friday with a call for peace and a plea that the Holocaust — “that appalling chapter in history” — must “never be forgotten or denied.”But, as he has since he arrived from Jordan on Monday on his first trip to the Holy Land as pope, he avoided evoking his German nationality and his personal history in Nazi Germany as some Israelis had demanded. Rather, he blamed the Holocaust on “a godless regime.”

The pope has sought to walk a narrow line between the tripwires of Middle East politics, addressing the concerns of Israelis and of Palestinians. As he left, he spoke in a farewell statement from Israel’s Ben-Gurion International Airport of the separation barrier that Israel has built to fence itself off from Palestinian areas, saying it was “one of the saddest sights for me during my visit to these lands.”

He added: “No friend can fail to weep at the suffering and loss of life that both peoples have endured over the last six decades. Allow me to make this appeal to all the people of these lands: No more bloodshed! No more fighting! No more terrorism! No more war! Instead let us break the vicious circle of violence.”

But he used his most direct and personal language when he recalled one of his first acts after his arrival here when he visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and met survivors “who suffered the evils of the Shoah.”

“Those deeply moving encounters brought back memories of my visit three years ago to the death camp at Auschwitz, where so many Jews — mothers, fathers, husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, friends — were brutally exterminated under a godless regime that propagated an ideology of anti-Semitism and hatred,” he said.

“That appalling chapter in history must never be forgotten or denied,” he said. “On the contrary, those dark memories should strengthen our determination to draw closer to one another as branches of the same olive tree, nourished from the same roots and united in brotherly love.”

Earlier Friday, the pontiff walked into the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem accompanied by a traditional escort of men in black robes and red fezzes rhythmically banging staffs on the ground to announce his approach, The Associated Press reported.

Benedict knelt down and kissed the rectangular stone on which Jesus’ body is believed to have been placed after the crucifixion. Then he entered the structure inside the church marking the site of Jesus’ tomb and knelt inside alone for several minutes, hands clasped, as priests chanted nearby.

In a speech afterward, he told those gathered in the church not to lose hope.

“The Gospel reassures us that God can make all things new, that history need not be repeated, that memories can be healed, that the bitter fruits of recrimination and hostility can be overcome, and that a future of justice, peace, prosperity and cooperation can arise for every man and woman, for the whole human family, and in a special way for the people who dwell in this land so dear to the heart of the Savior,” he said, The A.P. reported.

The language he used in addressing the Holocaust in his farewell remarks later seemed less emotive than in May 2006, when Benedict prayed at the cells and crematories of the Auschwitz camp on a visit he called “particularly difficult and troubling for a Christian, for a pope from Germany.”

“Words fail,” Benedict said at that time. The pope was born Joseph Ratzinger in Bavaria in 1927. The son of a policeman, he was inducted into the Hitler Youth and the German Army — biographical details that he has not recalled during his Middle East journey but that some Israelis have.

“In the end, there can only be a dread silence, a silence that itself is a heartfelt cry to God,” Benedict said in 2006. “Why, Lord, did you remain silent?” he said, his voice trembling. “How could you tolerate this?”

At that time — one year into his papacy — he did not seek forgiveness for Germans or the Roman Catholic church during World War II. He laid the blame squarely on the Nazi regime, avoiding the painful but now common acknowledgment among many Germans that ordinary citizens also shared responsibility.

In 2006, he said he went to Auschwitz “as a son of the German people, a son of that people over which a ring of criminals rose to power by false promises of future greatness and the recovery of the nation’s honor, prominence and prosperity, but also through terror and intimidation.”

But the pope’s attitude to the Holocaust resonated strongly during his visit here, just four months after he provoked outrage by revoking the excommunication of four schismatic bishops, one of whom, a Briton, Richard Williamson, has denied the scope of the Holocaust. Benedict’s words on Friday seemed a direct rebuttal of attempts to minimize or deny the Holocaust.

The pope’s visit has rarely been free of a political edge. On Thursday, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, urged him to denounce Iran. A day earlier, the pope visited a Palestinian refugee camp, calling for the creation of a Palestinian state — a policy not endorsed by Mr. Netanyahu’s hawkish Likud Party.

In his departure remarks, Benedict repeatedly referred to the stark symbolism of the separation barrier built by Israel beginning in 2002. He crossed the barrier in his motorcade when he visited Bethlehem, the biblical birthplace of Jesus, on Wednesday.

“As I passed alongside it,” he said, “I prayed for a future in which the peoples of the Holy Land can live together in peace and harmony without the need for such instruments of security and separation, but rather respecting and trusting one another and renouncing all forms of violence and aggression.” link...

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Nobel committee blasts Aung San Suu Kyi treatment

OSLO -- The Nobel Peace Prize awards committee issued a rare public statement Friday to condemn the imprisonment of 1991 peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and to demand her immediate release.

The 63-year-old opposition leader was jailed on Thursday on charges of violating her house arrest. She has spent 13 of the past 19 years in detention without trial for her nonviolent promotion of democracy.

The secretive Nobel committee traditionally does not comment on past laureates. However, its non-voting secretary Geir Lundestad said they are deeply concerned about Suu Kyi and had made earlier appeals on her behalf.

"We sent this because it is a matter of the life and health of a laureate," Lundestad told The Associated Press.The five-member committee said in the statement that it "protests strongly against the way in which the government of Myanmar (Burma) has treated Aung San Suu Kyi. Her recent detention in prison is totally unacceptable. She has done nothing wrong."

Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy won national elections in 1990, but the military junta refused to relinquish power. She was not able to attend her Nobel Peace Prize awards ceremony because she was under house arrest, so her son Alexander Aris accepted the prize for her in 1991.

"The unacceptable treatment of her has to come to an immediate end. Recent reports about Aung San Suu Kyi's health are of great concern. We demand that she be given the necessary medical assistance without delay," said the Nobel committee. link...

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How ObamaCare Will Affect Your Doctor

At the heart of President Barack Obama's health-care plan is an insurance program funded by taxpayers, administered by Washington, and open to everyone. Modeled on Medicare, this "public option" will soon become the single dominant health plan, which is its political purpose. It will restructure the practice of medicine in the process.


Chad Crowe
Republicans and Democrats agree that the government's Medicare scheme for compensating doctors is deeply flawed. Yet Mr. Obama's plan for a centrally managed government insurance program exacerbates Medicare's problems by redistributing even more income away from lower-paid primary care providers and misaligning doctors' financial incentives.

Like Medicare, the "public option" will control spending by using its purchasing clout and political leverage to dictate low prices to doctors. (Medicare pays doctors 20% to 30% less than private plans, on average.) While the public option is meant for the uninsured, employers will realize it's easier -- and cheaper -- to move employees into the government plan than continue workplace coverage.

The Lewin Group, a health-care policy research and consulting firm, estimates that enrollment in the public option will reach 131 million people if it's open to everyone and pays Medicare rates, as many expect. Fully two-thirds of the privately insured will move out of or lose coverage. As patients shift to a lower-paying government plan, doctors' incomes will decline by as much as 15% to 20% depending on their specialty.

Physician income declines will be accompanied by regulations that will make practicing medicine more costly, creating a double whammy of lower revenue and higher practice costs, especially for primary-care doctors who generally operate busy practices and work on thinner margins. For example, doctors will face expenses to deploy pricey electronic prescribing tools and computerized health records that are mandated under the Obama plan. For most doctors these capital costs won't be fully covered by the subsidies provided by the plan.

Government insurance programs also shift compliance costs directly onto doctors by encumbering them with rules requiring expensive staffing and documentation. It's a way for government health programs like Medicare to control charges. The rules are backed up with threats of arbitrary probes targeting documentation infractions. There will also be disproportionate fines, giving doctors and hospitals reason to overspend on their back offices to avoid reprisals.

The 60% of doctors who are self-employed will be hardest hit. That includes specialists, such as dermatologists and surgeons, who see a lot of private patients. But it also includes tens of thousands of primary-care doctors, the very physicians the Obama administration says need the most help.

Doctors will consolidate into larger practices to spread overhead costs, and they'll cram more patients into tight schedules to make up in volume what's lost in margin. Visits will be shortened and new appointments harder to secure. It already takes on average 18 days to get an initial appointment with an internist, according to the American Medical Association, and as many as 30 days for specialists like obstetricians and neurologists.

Right or wrong, more doctors will close their practices to new patients, especially patients carrying lower paying insurance such as Medicaid. Some doctors will opt out of the system entirely, going "cash only." If too many doctors take this route the government could step in -- as in Canada, for example -- to effectively outlaw private-only medical practice.

These changes are superimposed on a payment system where compensation often bears no connection to clinical outcomes. Medicare provides all the wrong incentives. Its charge-based system pays doctors more for delivering more care, meaning incomes rise as medical problems persist and decline when illness resolves.

So how should we reform our broken health-care system? Rather than redistribute physician income as a way to subsidize an expansion of government control, Mr. Obama should fix the payment system to align incentives with improved care. After years of working on this problem, Medicare has only a few token demonstration programs to show for its efforts. Medicare's failure underscores why an inherently local undertaking like a medical practice is badly managed by a remote and political bureaucracy.

But while Medicare has stumbled with these efforts, private health plans have made notable progress on similar payment reforms. Private plans are more likely to lead payment reform efforts because they have more motivation than Medicare to use pay as a way to achieve better outcomes.

Private plans already pay doctors more than Medicare because they compete to attract higher quality providers into their networks. This gives them every incentive, as well as added leverage, to reward good clinicians while penalizing or excluding bad ones. A recent report by PriceWaterhouse Coopers that examined 10 of the nation's largest commercial health plans found that eight had implemented performance-based pay measures for doctors. All 10 plans are expanding efforts to monitor quality improvement at the provider level.

Among the promising examples of private innovation in health-care delivery: In Pennsylvania, the Geisinger Clinic's "warranty" program, where providers take financial responsibility for the entire episode of care; or the experience of the Blue Cross Blue Shield plans in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Virginia, where doctors are paid more for delivering better outcomes.

There are plenty of alternatives to Mr. Obama's plan that expand coverage to the uninsured, give them the chance to buy private coverage like Congress enjoys, and limit government management over what are inherently personal transactions between doctors and patients.

Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D., N.Y.) has introduced a bipartisan measure, the Small Business Cooperative for Healthcare Options to Improve Coverage for Employees (Choice) Act of 2009, that would make it cheaper and easier for small employers to offer health insurance. Mr. Obama would also get bipartisan compromise on premium support for people priced out of insurance to give them a wider range of choices. This could be modeled after the Medicare drug benefit, which relies on competition between private plans to increase choices and hold down costs. It could be funded, in part, through tax credits targeted to lower-income Americans.

There are also measures available that could fix structural flaws in our delivery system and make coverage more affordable without top-down controls set in Washington. The surest way to intensify flaws in the delivery of health care is to extend a Medicare-like "public option" into more corners of the private market. More government control of doctors and their reimbursement schemes will only create more problems. link...

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What's Your Idea of the Perfect Mother's Day Gift?

Are you a hard-working mom looking forward to Mother's Day? What's on the top of your list of best gifts for a mom this Mother's Day?ABCNews.com wants to hear from you. Please share your story by filling out the form below. An excerpt from your response may be used in a future ABCNews.com story or an ABCNews.com producer may contact you for more information. link...

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Mothers’ Day: Say I Love You

Dimapur | May 9: Philosophers have talked at great length their great roles; poets have sung praises of their love and caring nature; sculptors have immortalized their beauty in their works. And still words often fail to describe the love and care of a mother: Mothers’ Day, the time for everyone to honor their mothers for their eternal love. Just say, ‘I love you.’
While Dimapur city teemed with shoppers, card-sellers did brisk business selling Mothers’ Day cards. Families everywhere, especially children, secretly went about trying to surprise their mothers with a special gift on the special occasion. Perhaps, a simple gift it may be, but meaningful for that special woman in the family called ‘Mom’. “We were just sitting together here (at home) just discussing and talking how fortunate that we are with our mother,” said a government employee in Dimapur, whose father expired a few years ago. “Even my nephew has made a handmade card and presented it to my mother…for him it is his granny but she is like his mom (for his mother is dead),” she added, while wishing not to be named.
“For a mother she suffers and still feel great till her last breath,” said a single mother of two residing in Duncan Basti whose husband has also expired. She maintained that right from the time she carried her babies and their birth, she felt “great”, and still feels happy to look after her children. Tomorrow, she would quietly spend the day with her 78-year old mother.
The president of the Naga Mothers’ Association (NMA), Khesheli Chishi said mothers hold a huge responsibility in the family. “Nobody can take the role of a mother, when it comes to children,” the NMA president said while making a wish that all Naga mothers would know their responsibilities as a homemaker and have fear of God in their hearts.
While traditionally, mothers have been seen to take the role of staying at home and take care of children; modern day Naga mothers have dared to come out of this traditionalist notion and have taken up more responsible roles in the society. Starting from responsible positions in the government, private offices or NGOs, women, or for that matter, mothers, have taken on the mantle of bringing about active change in the society, besides taking care of their families side by side with their husbands.
Despite all these roles which mothers have taken up, there can’t be a time when your mother is not there by your side in sickness, sorrow and happiness; she is the perfect person to share moments with and is someone who would never do anything bad for you. “I don’t have any other wish just that I have my mom there for me,” said journalist when queried to make a wish on Mothers’ Day.
Perhaps it might be just another ordinary day for many, but it is a day nonetheless to express ‘I love you’ to a person who has to be loved for simply being the person that she is- mother. So don’t lose that chance. link...

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