Nawaz Sharif, Narendra Modi likely to meet in Washington next month

 

Sharif and Modi have both accepted President Obama`s invitation to attend a nuclear summit he is hosting in Washington on March 31 and April 1, diplomatic sources told Dawn.

"The chances are strong, very strong," said a senior official. 

"But you know the history of India-Pakistan talks, you cannot be certain about an event until it has happened," the official added.

It will be the first time that both Indian and Pakistani premiers will be attending the nuclear security summit, which President Obama initiated in 2010.

Dozens of newly released Hillary Clinton emails released, 84 marked classified

The former top diplomat, a top White House candidate in the 2016 race, has been dogged by allegations that her use of a private email server while in office, rather than a secure government system, had put US secrets at risk.

The State Department has so far released nearly 46,000 pages of emails out of a total 55,000 pages, all of which are expected to be published by the end of the month.

Saturday's release totals 1,012 partially redacted pages of documents sent to or from her private server.

The emails include 81 that were reclassified as "confidential," the lowest level of classification. Three were upgraded to "secret," a State Department official said.

"The information we upgraded today was not marked classified at the time the emails were sent."

In January, the State Department said 22 of the documents found on the private server contained material considered "top secret" and would not be released publicly.

The FBI is investigating Clinton's use of a private email server.

Clinton has repeatedly denied doing anything wrong but the issue has been a major source of controversy in her presidential campaign.

India 'disappointed' as US okays sale of 8 F-16 jets to Pakistan

New Delhi expressed its disappointment over the US' decision of selling eight F-16 fighter jets to Pakistaan and disagreed with a rationale that such arms' transfers will help combat terrorism.

The Ministry of External Affairs made government's displeasure clear and issued a statement: 

India's decision comes after, the Obama administration today notified the US Congress of its decision to sell eight F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan worth nearly USD 700 million, notwithstanding American lawmakers' demand for stopping the proposed sale.

Despite mounting opposition from influential lawmakers from both the Republican and Democratic parties, the US State Department notified the Congress that it has made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale to the Government of Pakistan for F-16 Block 52 Aircraft, equipment, training, and logistics support.

Indo-Pak relations remain tense after Pathankot attack: James Clapper

"Relations between Pakistan and India remain tense despite the resumption of a bilateral dialogue in December," James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence, told the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday.

"Following a terrorist attack in early January on Pathankot Air Force base in India, which New Delhi blames on a Pakistani- based group, India's engagement with Pakistan will probably hinge in 2016 on Islamabad's willingness to take action against those in Pakistan linked to the attack," Clapper said during his testimony.

State Department Spokesman John Kirby said he agreed with the assessment of Clapper.

"The Pakistanis have said themselves publicly that they're not going to discriminate amongst terror groups, and we know that this is a threat they face as well," he said.

"We want both sides of this to continue the dialogue that has started, understanding that it's still a tense situation, but we want them to continue the dialogue that they've started to try to get at what is a very common challenge to both countries," he said.

Seven security personnel were killed and several others were injured when six militants stormed the Pathankot base on January 2.

Kirby said it's important for everybody facing these kinds of threats to take the actions that they need to do to protect their own people and their borders, but also to eliminate this very transnational threat that terrorism is.

"The Pakistanis have taken additional steps in the recent past. Can they do more? Every nation fighting terrorism can obviously do more because it's still a very real threat out there in many parts of the world. But again, what we want is for India and Pakistan to continue to work together," Kirby said.

Responding to a question, he said that tension between India and Pakistan has an impact on Afghanistan. 

"The tension between India and Pakistan affect - well, obviously, both countries have interest in regional stability and security. And the degree to which Afghanistan is not stable - and we all recognise that Afghanistan is still a dangerous place - obviously, it affects the calculations of India and Pakistan with respect to their own national security concerns. And we recognise that," Kirby said.

"India has played a helpful role in Afghanistan in the past in terms of mostly a training capacity or a willingness to participate in that, and Pakistan in ways has played a useful role in terms of getting at the cross-border threat there in the border regions," he said.

"What we want with Afghanistan is the kind of normal bilateral relationship that we have with nations all over the world, that so far it's been very heavily dependent on the security component. And nobody is arguing that that doesn't still matter today," he said. 

As Zika spreads, Texas reports sexually transmitted case

With concern growing that an outbreak sweeping Latin America could spread much farther, health authorities in Texas said they had confirmation of the virus being transmitted by sexual contact and not just tropical mosquitoes.

That is a troubling prospect for the United States, Canada and Europe, where Zika had so far only appeared in travelers returning from affected areas.

"The patient was infected with the virus after having sexual contact with an ill individual who returned from a country where Zika virus is present" this year, a Dallas County statement read.

The county subsequently tweeted that the virus was contracted from someone who had traveled to Venezuela, and that a second case of Zika imported from Venezuela has also been documented.

Dr Tom Frieden, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention later Tuesday confirmed in an email the case of sexually transmitted infection reported earlier in Texas.

Someone who visited Venezuela and was infected there developed Zika symptoms as did their sexual partner who never left the United States, he said on Twitter.

Last month, the CDC said it was aware of one reported case of sexual transmission of Zika and one case of the virus being present in a man`s semen after it disappeared from his blood.

Zika, which was first identified in Uganda in 1947, causes relatively mild flu-like symptoms and a rash.

But there is growing alarm over an apparent link between the current outbreak and both a rise in birth defects and a potentially crippling neurological disorder called Guillain-Barre syndrome.

Latin American countries, particularly Brazil, have reported a surge in cases of microcephaly -- which causes babies to be born with abnormally small heads -- since the Zika outbreak was declared in the region last year.

The virus is spread primarily by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, whose habitat is concentrated in the tropics -- giving temperate countries an apparent reprieve.

But sexual transmission would complicate matters.

"The majority of Zika infections are asymptomatic," said Peter Horby, professor of emerging infectious diseases and global health at Oxford University.

"Is there a risk of sexual transmission from people who had asymptomatic infection? For how long can sperm be infectious? This highlights our ignorance of this virus."A day after declaring the spike in serious birth defects in South America an international emergency, the World Health Organization said it had created a global Zika response unit to contain the virus.

WHO expert Anthony Costello emphasized the urgency of rapid action, stressing there was no reason to believe the crisis would remain limited to Latin America.

"We know that the mosquitoes that carry Zika virus... are present through most of Africa, parts of southern Europe and many parts of Asia, particularly south Asia," he said.

Underlining Costello`s point, Thai officials announced a man had contracted the virus in the country.

Cape Verde and Indonesia have also reported domestic Zika cases.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies joined the WHO in declaring an "emergency," and appealed for 2.4 million Swiss francs ($2.36 million) to support its response in the Americas.

French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi meanwhile announced it had begun research into a vaccine for Zika, for which there is currently no specific treatment.

Developing a vaccine could however take years, experts say.In Brazil, which has been hardest hit, Olympics organizers said they are concerned but downplayed fears -- one day after the government warned pregnant women not to attend the Games.

"We are sure we will win this battle and it will not affect the Games," said Rio 2016 organizing committee spokesman Mario Andrada.

The Olympics will be held in Rio de Janeiro from August 5 to 21, during the southern hemisphere winter, which means there will be fewer mosquitoes, organizers stressed.

A Dutch women`s rights group meanwhile offered to send free pills to trigger an abortion to pregnant women in Latin America, a region known for its restrictive abortion laws.

"We are extremely worried that (the outbreak) might cause increasing unsafe abortions," said Rebecca Gomperts, founder and director of Women on Web.

Since October, Brazil has reported 3,670 suspected cases of microcephaly, of which 404 have been confirmed -- up from 147 in 2014.

In all, more than 1.5 million Brazilians are estimated to have been infected with Zika.

Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Jamaica and Puerto Rico have all warned women not to get pregnant.

Mexico announced it was creating special brigades to address areas likely to have more mosquitoes.

And Peru performed health checks on all Sao Paulo footballers visiting Trujillo for a Copa Libertadores match. They were all clear of Zika, dengue and chikungyuna.

Some health experts urge condom use, while others say abstinence is the only way to avoid Zika.

"Don`t have sex with a virus, it`s that simple," said Jill Rabin, co-chief of the division of ambulatory care at Women`s Health Programs at Northwell Health in New York.

Barack Obama's inspiration - Lord Hanuman

President disclosed this on a YouTube interview which the White House scheduled as a way to reach younger audiences as it promotes Obama's final State of the Union address on Tuesday.

Asked to show off an item of personal significance during the interview with YouTube creator Nilsen yesterday, 54-year-old Obama pulled from his pockets a series of small totems, each of which he said reminded him "of all the different people I've met along the way."

It included rosary beads given to him from Pope Francis, who he met at the White House this fall; a tiny Buddha statue procured upon him by a monk; a silver poker chip that was once
the lucky charm of a bald, mustachioed biker in Iowa; a figurine of the Hindu God Hanuman; and a Coptic cross from Ethiopia, where he visited in July, CNN reported.

"I carry these around all the time. I'm not that superstitious, so it's not like I think I necessarily have to have them on me at all times," Obama said.

But he said they do provide some reminders of the long path of his presidency.

"If I feel tired, or I feel discouraged sometimes, I can kind of reach into my pocket and say yeah, that's something I can overcome, because somebody gave me the privilege to work on these issues that are going to effect them," he said.

Obama, whose father was a Kenyan and mother a white woman from Kansas, spent initial days of his life in Indonesia where Hinduism is a popular religion.