WASHINGTON: Intense pressure and heat from the US and its allies has melted Pakistan's jingoistic tenacity to try an American national, who Washington maintains is a diplomat, for murder by shooting of two Pakistanis in Lahore. Islamabad is now preparing grounds to return Raymond Davis, the US official, after duly absolving him in a legal process that once threatened to convict him in a trumped up response to organized political and public pressure. The Pakistani decision follows high-level diplomatic activity, including a phone call from secretary of state Hillary Clinton to President Zardari, to resolve the matter. The Associated Press cited two Pakistani officials in the US as saying they expect Davis to be free in days, once a Pakistani court goes over documents US officials have submitted to prove his diplomatic status. But the officials said their government had to let the case proceed until the US produced the necessary documents on Davis' status, , in what appea...

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama called several world leaders to discuss the current situation in Egypt, emphasising the need for immediate beginning of an "orderly peaceful transition", the White House has said. Obama spoke to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed of the UAE, British Prime Minister David Cameron and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, the White House said. "The President discussed his serious concern about the targeting of journalists and human rights groups, and reaffirmed that the government of Egypt has a responsibility to protect the rights of its people and to release immediately those who have been unjustly detained," a White House statement said on Saturday. "The President emphasised the importance of an orderly, peaceful transition, beginning now, to a government that is responsive to the aspirations of the Egyptian people, including credible, inclusive negotiations between the government and the opposition," it said. N...

Even a modest price for carbon would encourage investment in green jobs and reduce dependency on foreign oil imports Any mention of climate policy was noticeably missing from President Obama's recent state of the union address. This is unfortunate because every day of inaction on climate policy by the United States government is another day that American consumers must pay substantially higher prices for products derived from crude oil, such as gasoline and diesel fuel. Moreover, a substantial fraction of the revenues from these higher prices goes to governments of countries that the US would prefer not to support. So, what is the cost of a single day of delay? US crude oil consumption is approximately 20m barrels per day and roughly 12m barrels per day are imported. An oil price that, because of climate policy uncertainty, is $20 a barrel higher than it would otherwise have been implies that US consumers pay $400m per day more, of which $240m per day is paid to foreign oil produce...

'Imagine waking up and remembering you're Mexican,' said presenter Richard Hammond. Imagine if he'd said 'Pakistani' When Top Gear presenters Richard Hammond, Jeremy Clarkson and James May mocked Mexicans in their introduction to a segment on a Mexican sports car the Mastretta MXT , by the way few in Mexico noticed, at first. Top Gear is not a programme found on local channels, few Mexicans watch British television, and the presenters' fame is mostly limited to the UK. But by adding a direct insult to Mexico's ambassador to the UK , the Top Gear hosts grabbed the country's attention and caused the now familiar diplomatic incident. Clips of the presenters' comments became instant YouTube hits, appearing under headlines such as "Top Gear Insults Mexico! BOYCOTT England!" , "RICHARD HAMMOND HATES MEXICANS" , and "RACISM TOWARD MEXICANS TOP GEAR" . Top Gear's comments were widely covered in the Mexican media and de...

I've taken huge risks to defy custom and pursue my education. Now I, and many women like me, need real help from the US The Afghan Women's Writing Project began in May 2009 with the goal of nurturing the often-silenced voices of Afghan women. This article is a call to the US government from one of the first writers to join the project. Dear Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, My name cannot be shared here. I am an Afghan woman of many struggles, now in hiding in my own homeland. I finally had an opportunity to go to a university in the United States in January and continue my education. But at the US Embassy in Kabul, my visa was rejected after the interviewer asked me, "Do you have the intention to come back to Afghanistan?" When I said no, she told me, "I am sorry; it is against the law. We can't give you any visa." Secretary Clinton, I am against the law in my country, too. I am against the culture and customs of my country, against the respect of th...

Is Obama's New Start treaty on nuclear reductions enough to revitalise US resolve on disarmament? The long-awaited New Start treaty , securing nuclear reductions between the US and Russia, enters into force this weekend. Hillary Clinton and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov are exchanging "instruments" at a security conference in Munich today. This is an important moment for President Barack Obama, as despite the Republican resurgence in the US mid-term elections, he has finally been able to achieve the treaty, which has been one of his key foreign policy goals. Reducing the number of US and Russian deployed nuclear weapons, the treaty has been central to Obama's visionary goal spelled out in Prague in April 2009 of a nuclear weapons-free world. With the treaty's progress dogged by the vexed question of US missile defence plans and Russian hostility to them, the shift in the political balance in the US led to fears that it would fall at the ratification h...

A profit-driven recovery plan, devised and carried out by outsiders, can not reconstruct my country Haiti's devastating earthquake in January last year destroyed up to 5,000 schools and 80% of the country's already weak university infrastructure. The primary school in Port-au-Prince that I attended as a small boy collapsed with more than 200 students inside. The weight of the state nursing school killed 150 future nurses. The state medical school was levelled. The exact number of students, teachers, professors, librarians, researchers, academics and administrators lost during those 65 seconds that irrevocably changed Haiti will never be known. But what we do know is that it cannot end there. The exceptional resilience demonstrated by the Haitian people during and after the deadly earthquake reflects the intelligence and determination of parents, especially mothers, to keep their children alive and to give them a better future, and the eagerness of youth to learn all this des...