Afghan handover to start this year, says Brown افغانستان کی سیکیورٹی کی ذمہ داری افغان فوسزکو دینے کا سلسلہ اس سال شروع ہوجائے گا۔۔

The province-by-province handover of security in Afghanistan to Afghan forces will begin later this year, Gordon Brown said today.

Opening an international conference in London on the country’s future, the Prime Minister said the gathering marked a "decisive” moment in Afghanistan’s history.

While he warned that British and international troops fighting the Taliban would face more "tough times” ahead, he said a process was being put in place that would enable them to return home.

"It will take time but I believe that the conditions set out in the plan that we will sign up to today can be met sooner than many expect and, as a result, the process of handover district-by-district will begin later this year,” he said.

"It will mark the beginning of a new phase and a decisive step towards Afghans taking responsibility for their own security.”

Mr Brown backed President Hamid Karzai’s plan to re-integrate Taliban fighters who are prepared to lay down their arms and renounce violence.

"As an international community responding to President Karzai’s leadership, we are today establishing an international trust fund to finance this peace and re-integration programme to provide an economic alternative to those who have none,” he said.

"But for those insurgents who refuse to accept the conditions for re-integration, we have no choice but to pursue them militarily.”  

Source – The Independent

Congressional Web Sites Hacked Near Obama Speech

More than two dozen Congressional Web sites have been defaced by the Red Eye Crew, a group known for its regular attacks on Web sites. –  The sites, some of which were using the Joomla content management system (CMS), were wiped of their regular content and replaced with a message coarsely expressing disapproval for U.S. President Barack Obama.

Democrats seemed to be predominantly targeted. The attacks came around the same time as Obama gave his first State of the Union address on Wednesday night.

The Red Eye Crew has defaced thousands of Web sites, and some of the attacks have been recorded by Zone-H, a Web site that keep tracks of defacements, according to the blog of the Praetorian Security Group. The latest attacks had not been listed by Zone-H yet.

The hacked sites that Praetorian investigated were hosted on a server called "dcserver1.house.gov,” but not all sites on that server were hacked. Many of the sites were using Joomla, which "might indicate that it is a Joomla component that is to blame, however that is just speculation,” Praetorian noted. Joomla isn’t the only CMS used by Congressional members, however, they wrote.

"Only the person who has access to the server the sites are running on and performs the analysis will be able to tell exactly what happened,” Praetorian wrote. News Source – PC Wordl.com

Some Taliban reintegration needed – افغانستان میں قیام امن کی کوششوں کو کامیاب بنانے کے لئے اعتدال پسند طالبان کو یکجا کرنا ضروری ہے۔۔۔

LONDON, Jan. 28 (UPI) — Efforts toward peace in Afghanistan cannot avoid reintegrating some moderate Taliban militants into the system, NATO’s Afghan representative said.

Mark Sedwill — currently Britain’s Ambassador to Afghanistan and set to be NATO’s representative in that country — spoke Wednesday about the Afghan government’s proposal to bring back those militants who are willing to cut their links with extremist groups and give up violence. His comments came ahead of Thursday’s international conference in London on Afghanistan."If we are going to bring conflicts like Afghanistan to an end … that means some pretty unsavory characters are going to have to be brought within the system,” Sedwill said at London’s Frontline Club, Guardian newspaper reported. "Because if you don’t bring them within the system in some way … you risk whatever fragile peace you build falling apart.”

The Taliban reintegration plan proposed by Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s government has qualified support of Western allies, who have expressed concern about any reconciliation talks with Taliban leaders.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi was quoted as telling the Guardian: "Pakistan is perhaps better placed than any other country in the world to support Afghan reintegration and reconciliation. Why? We speak the same language, we have common tribes, a common religion, we have a commonality of history, culture and tradition.

"But it (Pakistani mediation) depends on whether we are asked to do so. If asked, the government of Pakistan would be happy to facilitate.”

The United Nations, acting on Karzai’s request, Tuesday deleted from its blacklist the names of five former Taliban officials who are no longer involved in the insurgency. Those on the blacklist are banned from foreign travel and their assets are to be frozen. UPI

Aga Khan Varsity Sets Aside over $700m for New Campuses – آغا خان یونیورسٹی تنزانیہ میں نئی کمیپس کی تعمیر کے لئے 700 ملین ڈالر کی سرمایہ کاری کرے گا۔۔۔

The Aga Khan University plans to invest more than $700 million (over Sh910 billion) in new campuses and programmes in East Africa that will see the creation of more than 6,000 jobs in the region, its president said yesterday. –  Mr Firoz Rasul said the university was looking forward to working with the national governments in the region to ensure a conducive environment for such an investment. –  Speaking during the 5th graduation ceremony in Dar es Salaam, Mr Rasul said Aga Khan University set to become East Africa’s first regional university with campuses in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda.

The $700 million investment is more than half of Tanzania’s 2008/09 allocation to education pegged at Sh1.43 trillion, which is some 32 per cent of the entire national Budget.

At this year’s graduation, a total of 117 students graduated in various disciplines.

Three were awarded masters of medicine degrees, 40, diploma in general nursing, 49, Bachelor of Science, Nursing and 25, masters in education.

Mr Rasul said the university would establish its principal campus at Arusha, to house the faculty of arts and sciences as well as graduate schools in various professional disciplines.

"Through this faculty, we aim to develop a whole new generation of leadership steeped in the issues of the region and equipped with the knowledge and critical thinking skills to solve the these problems,” he told the gathering.


The faculty hoped to produce graduates who would be armed with a strong sense of the pluralism of the region, he said.

"They will value the diversity of faiths and people that live in the region.”

The students would also be grounded in an ethical framework that would enable them to make the right decisions for the benefit of their societies.

"In Kenya, we are building on the reputation of high quality healthcare,” he said.

Services provided by the Aga Khan University in Nairobi over the past 50 years were be the basis of a plan to develop the faculty of health sciences composed of a medical college as well as a school of nursing and midwifery and to train health care professionals to international standards.


"In Uganda, we have the advanced nursing studies programme that works to enhance the capabilities of working nurses to improve their knowledge and leadership skills,” the university president said.

Stressing that conditions had to be conducive for such an investment, he pledged the university’s willingness to work with governments in the region to realise the goals.

"Naturally this expansion of our university will directly impact on the services we provide to the communities we serve and is a part of the overall development of the East African region.”

In Nairobi, for instance, a major step towards realising this vision is a $50 million initiative Heart and Cancer Centre to be launched at the end of the year.

"The centre will provide critical medical treatment currently not available in East Africa,” Mr Rasul said, adding that it would also train specialists in cardiac diseases and cancer.


Chief Justice Augustino Ramadhani, who officiated at the graduation, praised the university for establishing nursing studies in response to requests by the East African governments.

He said the programme would promote the services of the nursing cadre to a higher level of service.

Mr Justice Ramadhani also noted the importance of the Institute for Educational Development established in December 2006, to enhance the calibre of teaching.

"Tanzania needs good teachers, the sort of teachers who are taught current leadership,” said Justice Ramadhani.

He said that according to Aga Khan University’s founder and Chancellor, His Highness the Aga Khan, the institution aimed at being "on the frontiers of scientific and humanistic knowledge, radiating intelligence and confidence, research and graduates, into flourishing economies and progressive legal and political systems.”

"We are just about to witness the manifestation of these magnificent goals,” he said. 

He told the graduands that they were the beneficiaries of an intellectual tradition of the Aga Khan’s forefathers, the Fatimids, who established the Al-Azhar University in Cairo, over 1,000 years ago.

"You have a duty to reflect that tradition. Anyone who deals with you should be able to see the difference in your manners, treatment, care, humility and politeness,” he said.

The Aga Khan University’s presence in East Africa is based on the long-term commitment of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN).

Mr Rasul said the university was committed to improving the wellbeing of communities in the region through quality education and healthcare, as well as rural and urban development initiatives. Source – All Africa DotCom
 

آغا خان فائونڈیشن کاروباری سماجی ذمہ داری کو فروع دے رہا ہے۔۔۔ کاروبار اور معاشروں کے لئے سی ایس آر کے فوائد کے عنوان پر گول میز کانفرنس کا انعقاد۔۔۔

Asia-Plus — The Civil Society Programme (CSP) of Aga Khan Foundation (AKF), Tajikistan held a round table discussion on “Corporate Social Responsibility for the Benefit of Business and Society” in Dushanbe on January 22, press relase issued by AKF Tajikistan said.
The event participants included representatives from business sectors in Tajikistan and Russia, Agroinvestbonk, Tojik Sodirot Bank, Orienbonk, Beeline, also Kazkommertsbank, Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED) companies and other business companies.

 

The round table discussion aimed to discuss issues of integrating Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) into the main framework of production of business companies, as well as to strengthen partnerships with Civil Society Organizations in the country.

Participants had the opportunity to share their experience of CSR implementation and discussed the integration of it within their companies in the future. Various opinions were raised on the importance of CSR both for society and business and weather this new notion is understood within its correct meaning and not taking as a philanthropy or charity. Further, ‘…CSR is not a corporate social liability but rather a responsibility…and it is also a culture of business vision and a way of thinking” noted Ozodkhon Davlatshoev, Head of AKFED in Central Asia.

 

The discussion was led by Aga Khan Foundation in Tajikistan and Geneva along with Matluba Uljabaeva, Chief of the Board of the National Association of Small and Medium Businesses and Manuchehr Rahmonov, Deputy Country Director of USAID Business Environment Improvement (BEI) Project.

The Aga Khan Foundation is part of Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), a group of development agencies founded and guided by His Highness the Aga Khan. Established in 1967 in Geneva, Switzerland, AKF is a non-denominational, international development agency with branches, affiliates and representative offices in 20 countries. In Tajikistan AKF has been active since 1993 when, with the support of the international donor community, a response was mounted in Gorno-Badakhshan to imminent food shortages caused by the collapse of the Soviet Union. In parallel with this emergency program, AKF initiated a rural development program with the aim of contributing to poverty alleviation in the program areas. Programs for reform in the social sector (Health and Education) were introduced in 1994, with the aim of assisting the government to cope more efficiently with reduced resources while at the same time benefiting from new approaches in education and health. News Source Asia Plus