. Space Travel News .




.
THE STANS
Pakistan Taliban warning over NATO supply route
by Staff Writers
Peshawar, Pakistan (AFP) March 25, 2012


The Pakistani Taliban on Sunday threatened to attack lawmakers if they voted in support of resuming supplies for NATO troops in Afghanistan, a spokesman said.

Pakistan sealed its border with Afghanistan to NATO supply convoys after NATO air strikes in November killed 24 Pakistani soldiers near the border, triggering outrage in Islamabad.

The deadly incident heightened tensions in an already fragile relationship with Pakistani officials alleging deliberate US targeting of their troops at border posts.

From Monday Pakistani lawmakers are to debate new parameters for getting the troubled relationship back on track, expected to see Pakistan eventually reopen its Afghan border to NATO convoys after a four-month closure.

"Everybody knows we are against restoration of NATO supplies and we will target each and every member of the parliament who will support the restoration," Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told AFP in a telephone call from an undisclosed location.

"We are also advising the drivers of NATO supply trucks to quit this job otherwise they will be responsible for any consequences," Ehsan said.

The recommendations for a recrafted relationship -- up for debate in Pakistan's parliament -- include a US apology for the November killings, an end to drone strikes against militants on Pakistani soil and taxes on NATO convoys.

There are around 130,000 foreign troops in landlocked Afghanistan waging a 10-year battle against a Taliban-led insurgency who rely on fuel, food and equipment brought in from outside.

Nearly half of all cargo bound for foreign troops goes through Pakistan.

A NATO investigation into the November 26 strike on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border concluded that both the international alliance and Pakistani forces made mistakes in the incident -- findings rejected by Pakistan.

Related Links
News From Across The Stans




.
.
Get Our Free Newsletters Via Email
...
Buy Advertising Editorial Enquiries



And it's 3... 2... 1... blastoff! Discover the thrill of a real-life rocket launch.

No US soldiers to face charges for Pakistan strike: report
Washington (AFP) March 24, 2012 - The US military has decided that no service members will face disciplinary charges for a NATO airstrike in November that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, The New York Times reported late Saturday.

A Pentagon investigation found late last year that both US and Pakistani troops were responsible for the exchange of fire.

But it noted that the Pakistanis had fired first from two border posts not on coalition maps, and that they kept firing even after the Americans tried to warn them that they were shooting at allied troops.

Pakistan rejected these conclusions.

The US military launched a second inquiry to determine whether any American military personnel should be punished.

This recently completed review had come up with a negative conclusion, the Times reported, citing three unnamed military officials.

Officials said the Americans fired in self-defense, the report said, and any other mistakes had been the result of battlefield confusion.

"We found nothing criminally negligent on the part of any individual in our investigations of the incident," The Times quoted one senior US military official as saying.

Pakistani-US relations plummeted after the killing of Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden in a military operation carried out inside Pakistan but without Islamabad's knowledge.

It was seen as a humiliation for the nation's rulers.

Relations suffered further after 24 Pakistani soldiers were killed in the November clash.



.

. Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle



THE STANS
West to pay Afghan military $4 bn a year: Karzai
Kabul (AFP) March 22, 2012
The West will subsidise Afghan security forces by more than $4 billion a year after US-led troops leave in 2014, President Hamid Karzai said Thursday, implicitly accepting a cut in the planned size of his military. Western officials told AFP that no final agreements had been reached on funding or on the size of Afghanistan's security forces after combat troops in NATO's US-led International ... read more


THE STANS
Europe's smart supply ship on its way to Space Station

Third Ariane 5 ready for launch in 2012

Europe's next weather satellite gears up for launch

Europe launches third robot freighter to space station

THE STANS
Geologists discover new class of landform - on Mars

Red Food For the Red Planet

Mars on a Shoestring

India's Mars mission gets Rs.125 crore

THE STANS
NASA's Grail MoonKam Returns First Student-Selected Lunar Images

Ecliptic "MoonKAM" Systems Begin Operations in Lunar Orbit

Two New NASA LRO Videos: See Moon's Evolution, Take a Tour

China to get lunar soil

THE STANS
New Horizons on Approach: 22 AU Down, Just 10 to Go

THE STANS
Runaway Planets Zoom at a Fraction of Light-Speed

Some orbits more popular than others in solar systems

Herschel's new view on giant planet formation

Kepler Statistical Analysis Suggests Earthlike Planets Extremely Rare

THE STANS
N. Korea takes rocket main body to launch site

NASA Sub-Scale Solid-Rocket Motor Tests Material for Space Launch System

Pratt and Whitney Rocketdyne Hot-Fires Launch Abort

NASA Sub-Scale Solid-Rocket Motor Tests Material for Space Launch System

THE STANS
China's Lunar Docking

Shenzhou-9 may take female astronaut to space

China to launch 100 satellites during 2011-15

Three for Tiangong

THE STANS
New NEO Website Tool Now Available

Dawn Sees New Surface Features on Giant Asteroid

Near-miss asteroid will return next year

Dear Ups and Dawns


Memory Foam Mattress Review

Newsletters :: SpaceDaily Express :: SpaceWar Express :: TerraDaily Express :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News

.

The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2012 - Space Media Network. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement