Saudi Arabia recalls ambassador to Egypt

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia has decided to recall its ambassador to Cairo and close its diplomatic missions in Egypt after protests outside its embassy over an arrested Egyptian lawyer, state news agency SPA said Saturday. 
The embassy as well as consulates in the Mediterranean cities of Alexandria and Suez were closed. 
An official spokesman, quoted by SPA, said the measures were decided in response to demonstrations outside its missions in Egypt and threats following the announcement of the arrest of the Egyptian lawyer in Saudi Arabia. 
The protests were "unjustified," the spokesman said, adding that Saudi and Egyptian employees of its diplomatic missions had been threatened. 
"Hostile slogans were shouted out and the immunity of the diplomatic representations was violated, contrary to all international regulations," the spokesman said. 
He said the violence had led to the suspension of diplomatic and consular services for Egyptian workers and Muslim pilgrims headed for Islam's holiest sites, located in western Saudi Arabia. 
On Tuesday, hundreds of Egyptians protested outside the embassy demanding the release of an Egyptian human rights activist held by Saudi authorities who claim he possessed banned drugs. 
The protesters chanted slogans against the Saudi regime as they called for the "immediate" release of Ahmed Mohammed al-Gizawi, who was arrested on arrival at Jeddah airport on April 17. 
The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, an Egyptian organisation, said Gizawi was detained following a sentence of one year in prison and 20 lashes delivered against him in absentia for criticism of the Saudi government. 
Gizawi, whose supporters said he travelled to the Gulf state on pilgrimage, was being targeted for his activism in favour of Egyptian detainees in Saudi prisons, it said.

Saudi Arabia recalls ambassador to Egypt

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia has decided to recall its ambassador to Cairo and close its diplomatic missions in Egypt after protests outside its embassy over an arrested Egyptian lawyer, state news agency SPA said Saturday. 
The embassy as well as consulates in the Mediterranean cities of Alexandria and Suez were closed. 
An official spokesman, quoted by SPA, said the measures were decided in response to demonstrations outside its missions in Egypt and threats following the announcement of the arrest of the Egyptian lawyer in Saudi Arabia. 
The protests were "unjustified," the spokesman said, adding that Saudi and Egyptian employees of its diplomatic missions had been threatened. 
"Hostile slogans were shouted out and the immunity of the diplomatic representations was violated, contrary to all international regulations," the spokesman said. 
He said the violence had led to the suspension of diplomatic and consular services for Egyptian workers and Muslim pilgrims headed for Islam's holiest sites, located in western Saudi Arabia. 
On Tuesday, hundreds of Egyptians protested outside the embassy demanding the release of an Egyptian human rights activist held by Saudi authorities who claim he possessed banned drugs. 
The protesters chanted slogans against the Saudi regime as they called for the "immediate" release of Ahmed Mohammed al-Gizawi, who was arrested on arrival at Jeddah airport on April 17. 
The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, an Egyptian organisation, said Gizawi was detained following a sentence of one year in prison and 20 lashes delivered against him in absentia for criticism of the Saudi government. 
Gizawi, whose supporters said he travelled to the Gulf state on pilgrimage, was being targeted for his activism in favour of Egyptian detainees in Saudi prisons, it said.

For Obama, bin Laden's killing becomes campaign tool

WASHINGTON: The killing of Osama bin Laden, first presented as a moment of American unity by President Barack Obama, has become something else: a political weapon. 
Obama's re-election campaign is portraying his risky decision to go after America's top enemy as a defining difference with his Republican presidential opponent, suggesting Mitt Romneymight not have had the guts to order a mission that put lives and perhaps a presidency at stake. 
Obama himself is opening up on the raid again, and opening the secretive White House Situation Room as an interview stage, to hail the one-year anniversary. 
The broader goal for Obama, whether through campaign web videos or the trappings of the White House, is not to just to remind voters of an enormous victory on his watch. It is to maximize a political narrative that he has the courage to make tough calls that his opponent might not. 
"Does anybody doubt that had the mission failed, it would have written the beginning of the end of the president's first term?" Vice President Joe Biden says in laying out Obama's foreign policy campaign message. "We know what President Obama did. We can't say for certain what Governor Romney would have done." 
The strategy underscores the fact that the Obama who ordered the raid as commander in chief is now seeking a second term as president. The risk is the political blowback that can come if he is seen as crossing a line into politicizing national security.
"Sad," said a Romney spokeswoman. "Shameless," said 2008 Obama election foe John McCain. 
Biden even combined the killing of the al-Qaida leader and Obama's support for a failing auto industry into what could be a re-election bumper sticker message. 
"It's pretty simple: Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive," the vice president said in a speech on Thursday. 
Obama's campaign followed that Friday with a new web video questioning whether Romney would have taken the same path Obama did. If features a quote from a 2007 Romney interview in which he said it was not worth "moving heaven and earth spending billions of dollars just trying to catch one person." That promted McCain to issue a scathing statement in which he accused Obama of playing politics with the bin Laden killing and "diminishing the memory of September 11th." 
"This is the same president who said, after bin Laden was dead, that we shouldn't `spike the ball' after the touchdown. And now Barack Obama is not only trying to score political points by invoking Osama bin Laden, he is doing a shameless end-zone dance to help himself get re-elected." 
The president's initial words on the bin Laden mission _ a raid for which he received wide praise, including from Romney _ were ones of sober thanks. Addressing the nation late that night of May 1, 2011, in Washington, Obama said: "Tonight, let us think back to the sense of unity that prevailed on 9/11." So much for that, the Romney campaign said Friday. "It's now sad to see the Obama campaign seek to use an event that unified our country to once again divide us, in order to distract voters' attention from the failures of his administration," Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul said.
Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt declined comment for this story, saying Biden's speech and the new campaign video speak for themselves. 
White House spokesman Jay Carney said the bin Laden raid is a part of Obama's foreign policy story, and "I think the way that we've handled it represents exactly the balance you need to strike." 
President George W. Bush, when seeking re-election in 2004, faced criticism that he was politicizing the memory of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, including with a video at the Republican National Convention that credited him with "the heart of a president." 
Steve Schmidt, a spokesman and strategist for that Bush campaign, said the bin Laden killing is fair game as a campaign message for Obama. "It was a courageous political decision to launch the raid where bin Laden was killed. The stakes were enormous," Schmidt said. "Had it gone south, there would have been tremendous political ramifications for the president. It's a real event that happened on his watch, by his command." 
In perspective, he added, the issue won't be a determining factor in an election to be driven by the economy. 
Bin Laden was killed in Pakistan by US Navy SEALs. The terror leader was living in a compound in one of Islamabad's suburbs, having evaded capture for nearly 10 years. 
The episode is featured prominently in an Obama campaign video, narrated by actor Tom Hanks, as an example of decisive leadership.
Obama sent in the US forces with no assurance that bin Laden was at the site, leading to a heart-pounding scene in the Situation Room, captured in one of the most famous photos of Obama's presidency.

For Obama, bin Laden's killing becomes campaign tool

WASHINGTON: The killing of Osama bin Laden, first presented as a moment of American unity by President Barack Obama, has become something else: a political weapon. 
Obama's re-election campaign is portraying his risky decision to go after America's top enemy as a defining difference with his Republican presidential opponent, suggesting Mitt Romneymight not have had the guts to order a mission that put lives and perhaps a presidency at stake. 
Obama himself is opening up on the raid again, and opening the secretive White House Situation Room as an interview stage, to hail the one-year anniversary. 
The broader goal for Obama, whether through campaign web videos or the trappings of the White House, is not to just to remind voters of an enormous victory on his watch. It is to maximize a political narrative that he has the courage to make tough calls that his opponent might not. 
"Does anybody doubt that had the mission failed, it would have written the beginning of the end of the president's first term?" Vice President Joe Biden says in laying out Obama's foreign policy campaign message. "We know what President Obama did. We can't say for certain what Governor Romney would have done." 
The strategy underscores the fact that the Obama who ordered the raid as commander in chief is now seeking a second term as president. The risk is the political blowback that can come if he is seen as crossing a line into politicizing national security.
"Sad," said a Romney spokeswoman. "Shameless," said 2008 Obama election foe John McCain. 
Biden even combined the killing of the al-Qaida leader and Obama's support for a failing auto industry into what could be a re-election bumper sticker message. 
"It's pretty simple: Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive," the vice president said in a speech on Thursday. 
Obama's campaign followed that Friday with a new web video questioning whether Romney would have taken the same path Obama did. If features a quote from a 2007 Romney interview in which he said it was not worth "moving heaven and earth spending billions of dollars just trying to catch one person." That promted McCain to issue a scathing statement in which he accused Obama of playing politics with the bin Laden killing and "diminishing the memory of September 11th." 
"This is the same president who said, after bin Laden was dead, that we shouldn't `spike the ball' after the touchdown. And now Barack Obama is not only trying to score political points by invoking Osama bin Laden, he is doing a shameless end-zone dance to help himself get re-elected." 
The president's initial words on the bin Laden mission _ a raid for which he received wide praise, including from Romney _ were ones of sober thanks. Addressing the nation late that night of May 1, 2011, in Washington, Obama said: "Tonight, let us think back to the sense of unity that prevailed on 9/11." So much for that, the Romney campaign said Friday. "It's now sad to see the Obama campaign seek to use an event that unified our country to once again divide us, in order to distract voters' attention from the failures of his administration," Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul said.
Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt declined comment for this story, saying Biden's speech and the new campaign video speak for themselves. 
White House spokesman Jay Carney said the bin Laden raid is a part of Obama's foreign policy story, and "I think the way that we've handled it represents exactly the balance you need to strike." 
President George W. Bush, when seeking re-election in 2004, faced criticism that he was politicizing the memory of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, including with a video at the Republican National Convention that credited him with "the heart of a president." 
Steve Schmidt, a spokesman and strategist for that Bush campaign, said the bin Laden killing is fair game as a campaign message for Obama. "It was a courageous political decision to launch the raid where bin Laden was killed. The stakes were enormous," Schmidt said. "Had it gone south, there would have been tremendous political ramifications for the president. It's a real event that happened on his watch, by his command." 
In perspective, he added, the issue won't be a determining factor in an election to be driven by the economy. 
Bin Laden was killed in Pakistan by US Navy SEALs. The terror leader was living in a compound in one of Islamabad's suburbs, having evaded capture for nearly 10 years. 
The episode is featured prominently in an Obama campaign video, narrated by actor Tom Hanks, as an example of decisive leadership.
Obama sent in the US forces with no assurance that bin Laden was at the site, leading to a heart-pounding scene in the Situation Room, captured in one of the most famous photos of Obama's presidency.

.

Taliban threat from Af-Pak real, warns Air Chief Marshal Browne

BANGALORE: Increasing Talibanisation of Pakistan and shifting of terror focus from Af-Pak region would pose a serious security threat to India in the next two years, Chief of Air StaffAir Chief Marshal N A K Browne said here Saturday. 
"If the American troops and the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) withdraw from Afghanistan as planned, 2013-14 are going to be crucial watershed years for India as far as the security of our western border is concerned," Browne hinted. 
Noting that the emergence of Pakistani Talibanand Punjabi Taliban would pose a real threat to India, Browne said if the situation in the Af-Pak region deteriorated after the allied forces withdraw, these (Taliban) elements may shift close to the Wagah border.
"Our fear is that we may have these forces very close to the Wagah border to deal with because the focal point of al-Qaida and Taliban has dramatically shifted very fast from Afghanistan to Af-Pak border and North West Frontier Province to the heart of Pakistan," Browne said delivering the sixth Air Chief Marshal L M Katre Memorial Lecture at the HAL convention centre here. 
Referring to the terror outfit Jamaat-ud-Dawah founder Hafiz Muhammad Saeed's speech at a seminar in Peshwar last week, the Air Chief said the game-plan of Taliban forces and terror elements in Af-Pak region was to target Kashmir after "liberating" Kabul from allied forces. 
"It is Kabul now we are dealing with. The moment we resolve that, we will take over the next phase to liberate Kashmir from Jammu & Kashmir state," Browne quoted Saeed as saying.

Admitting that unresolved borders with Pakistan and China were a baggage from the past, Browne said as a security concern, the convoluted borders were a point of friction with both the neighbouring countries who also collude in sharing conventional and missile technology to develop nuclear and conventional weapons.
"I can't think of any other model in the world where you are dealing with this kind of situation with two nuclear powered neighbouring countries having border issues with us as a common cause for point of friction," Browne told a gathering of about 500 members from the aeronautical community and air force families. 
The Air Force Association (Karnataka branch) organises every year the Lakshman Madhav Katre Memorial Lecture in memory of the former air chief (1984-85) who was also chairman of the defence behemoth Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) in 1983. 
HAL chairman R K Tyagi and Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) director P S Krishnan also spoke on the occasion.                              

.

Taliban threat from Af-Pak real, warns Air Chief Marshal Browne

BANGALORE: Increasing Talibanisation of Pakistan and shifting of terror focus from Af-Pak region would pose a serious security threat to India in the next two years, Chief of Air StaffAir Chief Marshal N A K Browne said here Saturday. 
"If the American troops and the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) withdraw from Afghanistan as planned, 2013-14 are going to be crucial watershed years for India as far as the security of our western border is concerned," Browne hinted. 
Noting that the emergence of Pakistani Talibanand Punjabi Taliban would pose a real threat to India, Browne said if the situation in the Af-Pak region deteriorated after the allied forces withdraw, these (Taliban) elements may shift close to the Wagah border.
"Our fear is that we may have these forces very close to the Wagah border to deal with because the focal point of al-Qaida and Taliban has dramatically shifted very fast from Afghanistan to Af-Pak border and North West Frontier Province to the heart of Pakistan," Browne said delivering the sixth Air Chief Marshal L M Katre Memorial Lecture at the HAL convention centre here. 
Referring to the terror outfit Jamaat-ud-Dawah founder Hafiz Muhammad Saeed's speech at a seminar in Peshwar last week, the Air Chief said the game-plan of Taliban forces and terror elements in Af-Pak region was to target Kashmir after "liberating" Kabul from allied forces. 
"It is Kabul now we are dealing with. The moment we resolve that, we will take over the next phase to liberate Kashmir from Jammu & Kashmir state," Browne quoted Saeed as saying.

Admitting that unresolved borders with Pakistan and China were a baggage from the past, Browne said as a security concern, the convoluted borders were a point of friction with both the neighbouring countries who also collude in sharing conventional and missile technology to develop nuclear and conventional weapons.
"I can't think of any other model in the world where you are dealing with this kind of situation with two nuclear powered neighbouring countries having border issues with us as a common cause for point of friction," Browne told a gathering of about 500 members from the aeronautical community and air force families. 
The Air Force Association (Karnataka branch) organises every year the Lakshman Madhav Katre Memorial Lecture in memory of the former air chief (1984-85) who was also chairman of the defence behemoth Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) in 1983. 
HAL chairman R K Tyagi and Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) director P S Krishnan also spoke on the occasion.                              

“Timely action will save stroke victims”

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

 ‘Administration of an injection within three hours it would be possible to restore the patient's mobility”

Timely action will minimise the impact of stroke, ‘brain attack,' and with the administration of an injection within three hours it would be possible to restore the patient's mobility. This was the message conveyed to doctors drawn from various places of southern districts at a workshop on stroke prevention and management organised at the Apollo Speciality Hospitals here on Friday.

S. Meenakshi Sundaram, senior neurologist of the hospital, spoke about four vital factors, FAST, to determine whether a patient had suffered a stroke. He explained to reporters on the sidelines of the workshop that a drooping face was The workshop included interactive lectures and drill. an indicator of stroke.

If one of the arms was numb or the person experienced difficulty in raising both the hands up together, he should be shifted to a hospital. The third factor was slurred speech. The person should be asked to repeat a simple sentence to identify slur. Time was a very important factor in saving the brain and hence the patient should be shifted to hospital as early as possible.

An injection of tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) administered within three hours of the onset of stroke would help regain lost faculties, he said. Karthik of Department of Neurosciences said that the patient could be discharged in about three days, if the injection was administered. Though costly, the injection would bring down the medical expenses of stroke treatment considerably, he claimed

“Timely action will save stroke victims”

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

 ‘Administration of an injection within three hours it would be possible to restore the patient's mobility”

Timely action will minimise the impact of stroke, ‘brain attack,' and with the administration of an injection within three hours it would be possible to restore the patient's mobility. This was the message conveyed to doctors drawn from various places of southern districts at a workshop on stroke prevention and management organised at the Apollo Speciality Hospitals here on Friday.

S. Meenakshi Sundaram, senior neurologist of the hospital, spoke about four vital factors, FAST, to determine whether a patient had suffered a stroke. He explained to reporters on the sidelines of the workshop that a drooping face was The workshop included interactive lectures and drill. an indicator of stroke.

If one of the arms was numb or the person experienced difficulty in raising both the hands up together, he should be shifted to a hospital. The third factor was slurred speech. The person should be asked to repeat a simple sentence to identify slur. Time was a very important factor in saving the brain and hence the patient should be shifted to hospital as early as possible.

An injection of tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) administered within three hours of the onset of stroke would help regain lost faculties, he said. Karthik of Department of Neurosciences said that the patient could be discharged in about three days, if the injection was administered. Though costly, the injection would bring down the medical expenses of stroke treatment considerably, he claimed

 

 

Space shuttle Enterprise arrives in New York

REUTERS

New York City was abuzz as the space shuttle Enterprise arrived on Friday, flying low over high-profile locations, including the Statue of Liberty, while perched on the back of a 747 jet.New Yorkers watched from rooftops and sirens wailed as the shuttle glided up the Hudson River and back down minutes later on its way to its temporary home at the Kennedy Airport.NASA is wrapping up the shuttle programme, and Enterprise will become part of New York's Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum. Enterprise was never used in an actual space mission but was a full-scale test vehicle in the air and on the ground. The shuttle flew from Washington on Friday morning.Enterprise will stay at the Kennedy Airport for a few weeks until it's taken off the 747 jet it rode to New York. After that it will be put on a barge in early June and brought up the Hudson River to the Intrepid, where it will be put on the flight deck.

 

 

Space shuttle Enterprise arrives in New York

REUTERS

New York City was abuzz as the space shuttle Enterprise arrived on Friday, flying low over high-profile locations, including the Statue of Liberty, while perched on the back of a 747 jet.New Yorkers watched from rooftops and sirens wailed as the shuttle glided up the Hudson River and back down minutes later on its way to its temporary home at the Kennedy Airport.NASA is wrapping up the shuttle programme, and Enterprise will become part of New York's Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum. Enterprise was never used in an actual space mission but was a full-scale test vehicle in the air and on the ground. The shuttle flew from Washington on Friday morning.Enterprise will stay at the Kennedy Airport for a few weeks until it's taken off the 747 jet it rode to New York. After that it will be put on a barge in early June and brought up the Hudson River to the Intrepid, where it will be put on the flight deck.