CHICAGO: In an unmistakable snub, President Barack Obama left Pakistan off a list of nations he thanked for help getting war supplies into Afghanistan.

The omission speaks to the prolonged slump in U.S. relations with Pakistan that clouded a NATO summit where nations were eyeing the exits in Afghanistan.

Tensions that Obama readily acknowledged raise questions about whether Pakistan will help or hurt the goal of a stable Afghanistan. Continued mistrust between the United States and Pakistan also threaten cooperation to eliminate al-Qaida sanctuaries and could undermine U.S. confidence in the security of Pakistan’s growing nuclear arsenal.

“We need to work through some of the tensions that have inevitably arisen after 10 years of our military presence in that region,” Obama said later. “I don’t want to paper over real challenges there.”

Pakistan is not a NATO member but was invited to the summit Sunday and Monday because of its influence in next-door Afghanistan and its role until last year as the major supply route to landlocked NATO forces there. Pakistan closed those routes after a U.S. attack on the Pakistani side of the border killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in November.

The last-minute invitation from NATO to join the Chicago talks was a sign of hope that the rift had healed.

But it hasn’t. And Obama’s dealings with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari made that clear on Monday.

Zardari came to Obama’s home town expecting a separate meeting with the U.S. leader like the one accorded to Afghan President Hamid Karzai. But without a final deal to reopen the supply lines, no such meeting was to occur.

Obama, along with Karzai, did speak briefly with Zardari on the sidelines of a large group meeting Monday. Karzai dismissed the encounter in an interview with CNN as a “three-way photograph taking…just a photo opportunity.”

That was after Zardari had to sit by as Obama opened Monday’s session with public thanks only to the nations north of Afghanistan who allowed expanded supply shipments to transit their territory to compensate for the closed Pakistani border gates.

“I want to welcome the presence of President Karzai, as well as officials from central Asia and Russia — nations that have an important perspective and that continue to provide critical transit for ISAF supplies,” Obama said, referring to the International Security Assistance Force that is fighting the war.

Pakistani officials played down the snub.

“The supply route on Pakistan’s side has been suspended for the last six months,” Zardari’s spokesman Farhatullah Babar told reporters. “There was really no expectation from our side that the U.S. president would appreciate and admire the suspension of the NATO supply lines.”

The border crossing dispute is stuck over how much the U.S. will pay Pakistan to allow trucks to transit its territory. Before the airstrike, the U.S. paid about $250 per truck. Now, two U.S. officials said, Pakistan wants $5,000 a truck and an apology for the deaths in the airstrike. The Obama administration has said it was willing to pay as much as $500 per vehicle and has expressed condolences and regret, but no apology. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the negotiations were being conducted in private.

The prospects for reaching a deal were unclear, even as the stakes grow larger.

Babar said the government had asked negotiators to expedite an agreement, but that “no timeline can be given.”

Obama told reporters at the close of the summit that he knew beforehand that there would be no deal on the supply routes now.

“President Zardari shared with me his belief that these issues can get worked through,” Obama said. “We’re actually making diligent progress on it.”

Zardari also met with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Sunday and made a beeline across a meeting hall to grasp her hand again on Monday morning. The State Department said Clinton and Zardari “discussed the importance of reopening the NATO supply lines,” and of cooperating to fight terrorist threats.

The U.S. and Pakistan have a history of troubled relations that started well before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The road has grown only rockier since then. Despite giving Pakistan billions of dollars in aid over the past decade, anti-Americanism is widespread in Pakistan. And after years of sometimes meaningful cooperation in hunting down al-Qaida figures, Pakistan is still seen by many U.S. officials as double-dealing and unreliable.

The transit route issue was a distraction and an embarrassment for the United States at the summit, and Obama’s cool arm’s length treatment of Zardari made it look even worse for the Pakistani president.

“Pakistan has to be part of the solution in Afghanistan, and it is in our national interests that to see a Pakistan that is democratic, that is prosperous and that is stable,” Obama said.

The quarrel over supply routes is intertwined with several other disputes, including Pakistan’s opposition to U.S. drone strikes against terrorist targets inside its borders.

In addition to closing the border crossings in response to the November attack, Pakistan ordered the U.S. to vacate Shamsi air base, which the U.S. was using to launch drone strikes at al-Qaida and Taliban militants.

The top allied commander in Afghanistan, Marine Gen. John Allen, has tried to cast the supply route problem in the best possible light, while acknowledging that he’d like to see the border crossings reopened as soon as possible. Allen said Sunday that by some measure, war stocks are higher now than when the crossings were closed.

That is thanks to an increased — and much more costly — use of alternative routes, including a network of northern routes that connect Baltic and Caspian Sea ports with Afghanistan through Russia and Central Asia and the Caucasus. And they combine sea, rail and truck transport and are more costly than crossing Pakistan by land.

U.S. officials have offered a range of estimates on how much the closing of the Pakistani land routes have added to the overall supply costs, but it apparently is at least two or three times more expensive to move supplies by air and via the northern route.

To underline the value of those alternative supply routes from the north, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta met Monday in Chicago with his counterparts from the central Asian nations of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. He expressed his “deep appreciation for their support” of the northern supply route, Pentagon press secretary George Little said.

At least as troublesome as being forced to use alternative supply routes into Afghanistan is the issue of how to get war materiel out of the country as Allen begins the withdrawal of thousands of U.S. troops this summer. That’s because the withdrawal includes shipment of vehicles and other equipment that would be costly and time consuming to remove by air.

The NATO alliance needs Pakistan’s cooperation to ensure Afghanistan’s long-term stability and security, NATO’s top officer told reporters. That was a mild way of saying that Pakistan can play the spoiler at will and holds cards the fighting force does not. Pakistan shares history, culture and language with Afghanistan’s restive southern swath, and maintains support for Taliban-led insurgents who cross the border to kill U.S. and NATO forces. AGENCIES

LONDON: Private equity firm CVC Capital Partners confirmed on Tuesday that investors Waddell & Reed , Norges Bank and BlackRock had paid $1.6 billion in cash for a 21 percent stake in the Formula One motor racing business.

“We look forward to working with our new partners over the coming years,” said Donald Mackenzie, a managing partner at CVC, calling the investment great news for Formula 1.

CVC, which had owned 63.4 percent of the business, said it would continue to be Formula 1′s largest and controlling shareholder. Formula 1 is exploring a flotation on the stock market in Singapore next month. AGENCIES

CHICAGO: NATO set an “irreversible” course out of Afghanistan on Monday but President Barack Obama admitted the Western alliance’s plan to end the deeply unpopular war in 2014 was fraught with peril.

A landmark NATO summit in Chicago endorsed an exit strategy that calls for handing control of Afghanistan to its own security forces by the middle of next year but left questions unanswered about how to prevent a slide into chaos and a Taliban resurgence after allied troops are gone.

The two-day meeting of the 28-nation military bloc marked a major milestone in a war sparked by the September 11 attacks that has spanned three U.S. presidential terms and even outlasted al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Obama and NATO partners sought to show their war-weary voters the end is in sight in Afghanistan – a conflict that has strained Western budgets as well as patience – while at the same time trying to reassure Afghans that they will not be abandoned.

“We are now unified behind a plan to responsibly wind down the war in Afghanistan,” Obama told the summit’s closing news conference.

“Are there risks involved? Absolutely,” Obama conceded, saying the Taliban remained a “robust enemy” and NATO’s gains on the ground were fragile. But he insisted the overall strategy, which offered few specifics on the pace of withdrawal, was sound.

Even in NATO’s outward show of solidarity, it was clear that differences remained after nearly 11 years of military engagement that has failed to defeat Taliban Islamists.

Alliance leaders acquiesced to new French President Francois Hollande’s insistence on sticking to his campaign pledge to withdraw France’s 3,400 troops by December 31, two years ahead of NATO’s timetable. While there was no sign this would send others rushing for the exits, leaders could face pressures at home.

But despite a face-to-face encounter with Pakistan’s president, Obama failed to resolve a dispute overhanging the summit – Islamabad’s refusal to reopen supply routes to NATO in Afghanistan seen as vital to an orderly withdrawal.

The summit’s final communique ratified plans for the NATO-led army to hand over command of all combat missions to Afghan forces by the middle of 2013 and for the withdrawal of most of the 130,000 foreign troops by the end of the following year.

The statement deemed it an “irreversible” transition to full security responsibility for fledgling Afghan troops, and said NATO’s mission in 2014 would shift to a training and advisory role. “This will not be a combat mission,” it said.

Doubts remain, however, whether Afghan forces can stand up against a still-potent Taliban insurgency and whether President Hamid Karzai’s government, widely criticized for rampant corruption, will be up to the task.

Obama, who has narrowed his goals in Afghanistan since taking office, said: “We can achieve a stable Afghanistan that won’t be perfect … and we can begin rebuilding America.”

With an eye to the November presidential election, Obama has made ending the Iraq war and winding down the Afghan war a campaign theme his aides hope will help ease voter anguish over a slow U.S. economic recovery and stubbornly high unemployment.

For NATO as a whole, the long, messy Afghan conflict seems to have created its own “Vietnam Syndrome,” causing it to shy away from deep on-the-ground engagement in faraway places. NATO already limited itself to an air assault in Libya last year, and has shown no stomach for military intervention in Syria.

“GRAVEYARD OF EMPIRES”

The NATO plan offered no guarantees on the future of Afghanistan, known over the centuries as the “graveyard of empires” for its ill treatment of foreign armies.

While Obama insisted Afghanistan should never again be used to plot attacks on other nations, a senior British official said: “It is unrealistic to assume that Afghanistan is going to be completely secure and there is no possibility of a terrorist threat re-emerging.”

Underscoring the prospects that other allies may be tempted to follow France’s lead and depart early, New Zealand announced on Monday it would pull out its 140 troops in 2013, a year ahead of schedule, saying their work was done.

Amid a growing sense of finality surrounding the NATO mission, veteran diplomatic trouble-shooter Ryan Crocker will soon step down as Obama’s envoy to Afghanistan. He could leave as early as this month, sources familiar with the matter said.

At the summit’s end, Obama spoke of “diligent progress” but no breakthrough with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari on the supply lines issue after they talked briefly on the sidelines.

Frustrated NATO officials have also been trying to persuade Pakistan to reopen its territory to NATO supplies, which Islamabad has blocked since NATO forces killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in a cross-border incident last year.

Sherry Rehman, Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States, said that Zardari’s presence at the summit was a positive sign. “What this conference does is acknowledge Pakistan’s role,” she told reporters. “Both countries I think are now seeking to bridge the differences.”

With Europe’s debt crisis hanging over the summit and many member-governments limited by austerity budgets, Obama also struggled to pin down final commitments from allies for the $4.1 billion a year needed to support Afghan security forces.

The funding – which will undergird Afghan’s capacity to fight the Taliban and is considered vital to a smooth NATO departure – was not thought to have been fully realized at the summit. But alliance officials believe it will eventually be provided.

NATO diplomats said thinking had moved to the logistical challenge of getting a large multinational army out of the Afghan mountains and deserts and back home safely.

As Zardari, an uneasy U.S. partner, sat with other leaders around a circular table, Obama pointedly thanked Afghanistan’s neighbors who have allowed expanded shipments of war supplies since Pakistan closed off ground routes to NATO truck convoys.

NATO is seeking to compensate in the meantime with a framework agreement with Afghanistan’s northern neighbor, Uzbekistan, to allow “reverse transit” of NATO supplies from Afghanistan.

Friction remains between NATO and Pakistan over Taliban guerrillas who are still finding sanctuary in Pakistan, in spite of Islamabad’s professed support for the alliance’s mission.

Long-term funding for the Afghan police and army, which has steadily improved its performance but is still plagued by problems, was also a focus of the summit.

The United States is unwilling to foot the entire annual bill to maintain the forces after 2014 and has been seeking pledges from allies of $1.3 billion, despite austerity measures brought on by Europe’s financial crisis.

Many of the leaders in Chicago came directly from a Camp David summit of the Group of Eight wealthy nations that vowed to take all necessary measures to contain the euro-zone contagion.

Afghan funding commitments so far include $100 million annually from Britain, $120 million from Italy, $110 million from Canada, $100 million from Australia and $20 million from Turkey. Zardari told a NATO partners meeting Pakistan would also contribute $20 million.

Obama has sought to dispel Americans’ concerns that shaky allies will leave U.S. troops to finish the fight alone.

Despite pressure from some NATO members to reconsider, Hollande vowed to hold to his election pledge withdraw French troops by the year’s end but said France would keep some trainers in the country for Afghan soldiers and police.

A French defense official said the United States appeared to be asking France for more financing to offset Paris’ decision to exit early. “The Americans are asking for between $200-$250 million,” the official said. “It’s a way of compensating.” AGENCIES

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s stock market rallied on Tuesday with investors picking up cheaper shares on the back of selling last week, dealers said, alongside a record low against the dollar for the local currency.

The Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) benchmark 100-index ended 1.92 percent, o 266.34 points, higher at 14,142.08 on volume of 122.98 million shares, compared to Monday’s close of 13,875.74.

“After several days of selling, rates became attractive for investors, so there was buying today,” said Shuja Rizvi, a dealer at Al-Hoqani Securities.

In the currency market, the Pakistani rupee hit a record low of 91.65/70 to the dollar, compared with Monday’s close of 91.26.32.

“There were several large payments, mostly for oil imports, which drove the rupee lower,” said Abdul Basit, a dealer at Elixir Securities.

Overnight rates in the money market closed lower at 9.10, compared to 10.50 on Monday, because of increased liquidity in the interbank market. AGENCIES

Staff Report

GUJRANWALA: Police allegedly tortured two brothers brutally on behest of their rivals in Gujranwala today, SAMAA reported on Tuesday.

The police stamped burn signs on the bodies of both brothers with hot iron rods during alleged torture. After it was proven by the medical examination report that those both brothers were tortured, the court issued summon to the SHO of the concerned police station to appear tomorrow.

According to details, Ali and Rajab are two blood brothers and they live in Alipur Chatha Klair town near Gujranwala. They filed an application in the court of a Civil Judge Naveed Iqbal.

They stated in the plea that they have an old dispute of property with their uncle Aslam. He bribed heavily to the in charge of local police station, Saifullah, and asked him to torture us brutally. Saifullah, the police station in charge, captured us and tortured with hot iron rods, which left burn marks on their backs.

Medical examination of both tortured brothers was held on Court’s order, which proved their claim. After seeing their medical report, the court has issued summon to the SHO of Alipur Chatha for appearing tomorrow. SAMAA

Staff Report

KARACHI: MQM leader Raza Haroon Tuesday condoled with the families of those killed in firing on a political rally in Karachi.

Twelve people were killed and many more were wounded when unknown gunmen opened firing on an Awami Tehrik’s rally in the city.

Speaking to SAMAA, Haroon called for string action against the culprits.

To a question, the MQM leader Awami Tehrik’s leader Ayyaz Palejo was not a public representative. SAMAA

JERUSALEM: Israel expressed deep suspicion on Tuesday about an expected deal between the U.N. nuclear agency and Iran, suggesting Tehran’s aim was to wriggle out of sanctions rather than make real concessions ahead of wider atomic talks with world powers.

DUBAI: Jailed Bahraini activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, on hunger strike for more than three months, was brought to court in a wheelchair on Tuesday when the retrial resumed of 13 men imprisoned over protests that rocked the island last year, activists said.

KIEV: Anna darts gleefully around the two sparsely-furnished rooms situated through an archway off a steep street that climbs up from Kiev’s Independence Square. She is a general showing off her new headquarters.

“This is going to be our training room for our Euro strikes,” she says.

“That’s for the girls to get fit on for when they scrap with the police or have to run away from them,” she says, pointing to a set of wall-bars and an overhead muscle-tone pulley-bar by the front door.

The topless activists of the Femen women’s rights group, whose eye-catching antics have made them the cover girls of international feminist protest, are shouting loud and clear that their attendance at next month’s Euro-2012 soccer tournament – welcome or not – can be counted on.

Bare-breast public appearances – flash-mob-style – by the neo-feminist group are guaranteed throughout a month-long Euro soccer feast expected to draw a million or so foreign visitors.

Indeed, Anna Hutsol, a small 27-year-old with close-cut, flame-dyed hair and the group’s main ideologue, is warning of a blitz of stunts to dramatize Femen’s view that Euro-2012 will only fuel prostitution and the former Soviet republic’s sex industry which it says demeans women.

Ukraine’s police, gearing themselves to control hundreds of thousands of rowdy visiting fans, might find themselves just as busy with the small army of activists that Femen plans to field.

“We are going to do everything we can to interrupt and disrupt, to break up these (Euro) events,” Anna said.

She says she has 40 or so Femen activists on stand-by for action in Kiev with two or three in each of the other Euro cities — Lviv, Kharkiv and Donetsk.

“We’ve got people coming from abroad too – a Brazilian woman and someone from France,” she said.

So what do they plan for the tournament, which opens in Ukraine on June 9 and runs for the whole month? Will they “streak” onto a pitch? Will they raid a VIP box? Will they pull off an en masse Femen spectacular at the July 1 final in Kiev ?

“I can’t give you concrete details. But we’ll be staging all sorts of strikes – at stadiums and alongside, at press conferences and at cup ceremonies, everywhere,” she said.

“Of course, we’ll be going to Poland, too,” she said. Neighboring Poland is co-host of the tournament.

For Femen, Euro-2012 is both a target to be disrupted and a platform for protest. Far from being a showcase for a modern European state as the authorities envisage, the Euros will only hurt Ukraine’s future by boosting prostitution and making it a sex tourism destination in Europe, Femen says.

It is an event the group has spent at least two years sharpening its knives for.

Some critics question the sincerity of their beliefs and dismiss the young women, all in their 20s, as attention-seekers.

Don’t their topless antics only provide images for a prurient, sex-obsessed media and re-inforce the stereotype of Ukrainian women that Femen is fighting against? Do their tactics help or hurt their cause?

Eccentric and contradictory though it might seem to some, stripping down to the waist publicly is the only effective weapon the group has found to get attention, Femen says.

“Euro-2012 will not help Ukraine develop. The only thing that will develop is the sex industry here. Euro-2012 will help make Ukraine one big Euro brothel,” says Sasha Shevchenko, a tall, blonde 24-year-old and a regular participant in topless actions.

SEX TOURISM

Other Femen core activists are Oksana Shachko, 25, a waif-like icon painter who handles design for the group, and Inna Shevchenko, 21, a blonde, former journalist who has the same surname as Sasha but is no relation.

Since the group set itself up in 2008 – then using a downtown cafe as its operational base – it has gone on to establish itself as a global reputation.

There is something to Femen’s complaints about sex tourism.

Any online ‘Ukraine’ search on the Internet soon throws up a dating ad for Ukrainian girls “looking for” foreign men.

Though prostitution is illegal in Ukraine, pimps regularly work central Kiev streets, such as the Khreshchatyk boulevard, handing out visiting cards for erotic massage parlors or walking up to foreign men to direct them to apartments for sex.

Equally, young women often complain they are approached on the streets and propositioned for sex by foreigners.

Prostitution parlors have sprung up in many apartment blocks in advance of the Euros, Femen says.

Femen’s argument is that Ukraine’s authorities and UEFA, Europe’s governing soccer body, have turned a blind eye to the directors of the sex trade who have set up shop well in advance.

“UEFA has social programs like, for instance, ‘football without racism’. Why can’t it set up the program ‘football without prostitution or sex tourism’?,” asked Anna.

She is echoed by fellow activist Sasha Shevchenko.

“At the start we had high hopes that UEFA would speak out against prostitution. But after several protests we realized that UEFA and the Euro organizers have an interest in Ukraine becoming one big bordello,” she said.

FIRST SHOTS

With a new operational base close to Kiev city centre, Femen has already fired its first shots.

On a sunny Saturday afternoon in the Kiev this month, 23-year-old Yulia Kovpachyk loped up the ramp of an open-air exhibition where the Euro soccer trophy was on public display, ostensibly to be photographed alongside it like hundreds of other sightseers.

She then pulled down her T-shirt to reveal the words “Fuck Euro 2012″ – Femen’s current slogan – etched in black paint across her torso.

She was seized by security guards, but not before she had grabbed hold of the 60 centimeters (two feet) high cup with both hands.

“Yulia got the usual fine of 119 hryvnias (nearly $15) for the administrative offence of hooliganism,” said Anna. “But, of course, we don’t pay these fines.”

The group has started going further afield too.

For a protest last year outside the Paris apartment of the former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, three activists provocatively dressed up as hotel chamber maids – an allusion to his arrest in New York on accusations of attempted rape. He was later cleared and released.

In Switzerland on a bitter cold day in January, Femen activists took off their tops and scaled a security fence at the Davos economic summit.

And in March they went topless at a Moscow polling station against Putin’s certain re-election. Oksana’s breasts were emblazoned with: “I steal for Putin!”

Their actions typically end with them being bundled away – often physically carried off kicking and screaming – by local police.

But a bare-breast action in the former Soviet republic of Belarus against the country’s hardline leadership turned into something far more serious.

Inna, Oksana and a third activist were seized, apparently by members of Belarus’s KGB state security agency. Inna says they were driven off to woodlands away from the capital where they were interrogated and made to undress and dress again several times.

Green dye was poured on their heads and, before being abandoned in woodlands, they were told never to return to Belarus.

“It was the very worst experience we have had. Thank God we have not reached the stage of being like Belarus,” Inna said.

CAMPAIGN VICTORIES

Anna herself does not take part in topless protests, but reels off recent successes with the pride of a general listing his campaign victories.

“We grabbed the UEFA cup of course. We had our ‘sex bomb’ action on the metro. There was the protest in the bell tower of St Sophia’s cathedral. We staged an action in Turkey in March, then there was Putin and we carried out our action at the Indian embassy,” she said.

There are unanswered questions about the group – notably about the funding which allows Anna, Sasha, Oksana and Inna to devote themselves full-time to Femen activities, and pays for travel abroad, legal counsel in numerous court actions and a stack of other overheads.

Anna ducks the question, speaking broadly of “charitable help” from inside the country and abroad and income raised from Femen’s online shop which sells branded T-shirts, sweat shirts, handbags and hats.

“The biggest part of our supporters are people abroad. They understand what a woman’s movement is all about. Ukrainian society is less ready to help and sympathize. But now we can afford to go to McDonald’s whereas before it was a yoghurt and a stick of bread,” she said.

And the question remains over just what long-term effect their brash protests will have in improving women’s rights. Have they made a difference?

“I can see progress and I can’t help but be happy about it,” said Anna. “We have new supporters springing up in different countries and they are organizing themselves. This shows that our ideas are not being confined to our country and this city.”

“The Euro organizers now know who they have to be afraid of. They have to be afraid of us and they will have to get ready for us appearing at every Euro event,” says Inna.

As she leans forward to make her point, the black scrawl of a partly-visible Femen slogan shows at the neckline of her denim jacket. AGENCIES

BEIRUT: Syrian rebels kidnapped at least 13 Lebanese Shi’ite men on Tuesday in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo as they were returning home from a pilgrimage in Iran, families of the men said.

WASHINGTON: U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Ryan Crocker confirmed on Tuesday that he plans to step down this summer because of ill health and sources said he was held in high regard and was not pushed out.

MUMBAI: The rupee hit a record low to the dollar for the fifth straight session on Tuesday, weighed down by large dollar demand from oil firms and weak global risk sentiment, especially after Fitch downgraded Japan’s ratings.

The falls came even after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced on Monday measures to target arbitrage and speculation in futures and options markets, with traders saying this market segment was too small to have a big impact.

The RBI has announced a string of measures to curb the rupee’s falls, none of which has so far succeeded. It has also intervened aggressively earlier this month though it has been largely absent since Thursday.

“There was huge demand from oil firms. Later it turned into complete panic with the Japan downgrade, euro and pound falling and equities also turning negative,” said Vikas Chittiprolu, a senior foreign exchange trader with state-run Andhra Bank.

The rupee fell to an all-time low of 55.47 per dollar, before closing at 55.39/40, as per SBI closing rates, compared to its Monday close of 55.03/04.

The local unit accelerated its falls against the dollar after Fitch cut Japan’s sovereign ratings as a political stalemate dims the chance that the country can curb its snowballing debt.

Although the rupee is now well below the key psychological level of 55 to the dollar, the RBI has refrained from intervening even as NDFs point to further falls.

The one-month NDF closed at 55.86 on Tuesday while the three-month ended at 56.60.

Some traders said the market had become too volatile because of the worsening global environment and the RBI’s presence would only add to that volatility.

However, analysts still left open the possibility of surprise measures, probably in the form of direct dollar sales to oil importers or some type of sovereign bond issuance, adding the RBI or the finance minister would need to adopt big measures to stop the rupee’s falls.

“Policy makers will need to take dramatic action soon if they want to stabilize the INR,” Dariusz Kowalczyk, a strategist at Credit Agricole, wrote in a report.

Kowalczyk added he the rupee could touch 57 to dollar ahead of the Greek elections in mid-June and cited “extreme” pessimism among the clients in India he had recently visited.

In the currency futures market, the most-traded near-month dollar-rupee contracts on the National Stock Exchange, the MCX-SX and the United Stock Exchange all ended around 55.49 on a total volume of $6.06 billion. AGENCIES

Staff Report

ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Rehman Malik said on Tuesday that the notice sent to the Sharif brothers in the Supreme Court Attack Case is according to the court’s order.

They can come in the court and explain things, he said.

While talking with media here the minister hoped that the brothers will respect the court and appear before the court.

‘Another notice will be sent to them if they don’t appear’, Malik said.

While answering a question on NATO supply, he said that parliament’s decision will be followed regarding the case.

’80 percent of the killings happen due to personal enmity in Karachi’ Malik replied on a question asked on Karachi unrest.

He said that DG Rangers has been given a free hand to control the situation in Karachi. SAMAA

Staff Report

LAHORE: The Government of Punjab announced Tuesday it would regulate the private education institutions operating in the province.

It said the private schools would not be allowed to impose discretionary fees.

The provincial government said that fees of private schools would be linked with provision of facilities.

Punjab Education Minister has prepared a draft of the legislation that will be introduced in the next Punjab Assembly session. SAMAA

KABUL: People in Afghanistan were surprisingly optimistic on Tuesday about NATO’s plan to pull combat troops out of their war-ravaged nation by the end of 2014, but warned Western leaders to stick to aid and security promises.

A Chicago summit meeting of the 28-member bloc, attended also by Afghan President Hamid Karzai and other world leaders, endorsed an exit strategy on Monday that calls for handing control of Afghanistan to its own security forces by the middle of next year.

But it left unanswered questions about how to prevent a slide into chaos and a Taliban resurgence after the pullout.

Despite the sense of combat fatigue in Chicago and frustration that nearly 11 years of military engagement had failed to defeat Taliban Islamists, Afghans were surprisingly upbeat. They said the agreement showed Western nations would not abandon their nation after a decade-long war and a massive aid and reconstruction effort.

“I don’t think foreign nations will leave us as easily as they say. The international community has spent billions of dollars here now,” said university student Tawab, speaking to Reuters at a park near a mosque in central Kabul.

“The conference has decided that some foreign forces will stay in Afghanistan, so it’s like back-up support.”

Housing prices in Kabul have jumped 15 percent since U.S. President Barack Obama, who declared on Monday that the 10-year war was “effectively over”, visited Kabul to sign a long-term security deal with Karzai on May 2.

Donor nations have been negotiating agreements with Karzai’s government committing to ongoing aid and reconstruction support, as well as government and agricultural advisers, for at least a decade beyond the two-year NATO drawdown ending in 2014.

Since a U.S-led coalition helped Afghan forces topple the Taliban government in late 2001, Afghanistan has been one of the world’s largest aid recipients, with more than US$57 billion spent on development to help counter support for insurgents.

In volatile southern Helmand province, one of the most violent parts of the country and the scene of several major clashes between the Taliban and Western troops, villagers said their lives had improved.

AND NOW WE HAVE A HEALTH CLINIC

Ezatullah, a shopkeeper in the town of Marjah where NATO troops fought one of the bloodiest battles of the war, said a 35-km (22-mile) paved road connecting to the provincial capital Lashkar Gah had nearly been completed, cutting costs and travel time to prevent vital food supplies spoiling in the area’s searing summer heat.

“And now we have a health clinic built three years ago which provides most services to people. But still people are facing problems, as it’s not enough. There should be at least a clinic in every big village,” he said.

Security had also improved since 15,000 U.S. and British surge troops ousted around 2,000 insurgents from the area, said Marjah resident Nisar Ahmad, draining support from the Taliban.

“Now this district is fully protected by Afghan Local Police. Almost all of our schools are open and boys and girls attend schools. But we still face a lack of electricity despite the billions of dollars spent,” Ahmad said.

In the Arghandab district of neighboring Kandahar province – where U.S. troops suffered heavy casualties in 2010 – local resident Hajji Shah Mohammad Ahmadi said economic progress had been spurred by roads, schools and new health clinics.

And even in restive eastern provinces, where Western troops are still fighting to choke off insurgent supply routes across the mountainous Pakistan border in one of the last major offensives of the war, local people counted improvements.

Abdul Naser, from Chapa Dara district in Kunar, said where once there had been no roads, water canals, electricity, schools, clinics or security, now there was vehicle traffic, power generators, doctors and education.

“We got two clinics during the past months with female doctors. We have paved roads. But some projects were not well built and people still face some security threats,” he said.

However, an April poll by the privately-run Tolo TV channel found just over 50 percent of Afghans though civil war would break out again after foreign troops withdrew, while 26 percent saw no change and 23 percent thought security would improve.

Still, property dealers in the capital Kabul – once convulsed by civil war but where cars have now replaced bicycles and some high-rise apartment buildings have sprung up – say business is thriving despite worries.

“People’s morale and economic morale have gone up,” said Mohammad Nader Faizyaar, the owner of the high-end Faisal Business Centre mall that retails everything from women’s fashion accessories to furniture.

“People feel that the future of this country is stable and everyone can hopefully invest.”

Sarwar Akbari, 38, a Kabul resident in the Wazir diplomatic district, said international backers had to now honor their promises not to abandon the country amid pressure on aid budgets, particularly in cash-strapped Europe. He also said they had to reach some kind of agreement with the Taliban.

“If they don’t fulfill their promises, and if they don’t stop neighboring countries from interfering in Afghanistan and reach a peace with the Taliban, then this conference and any others will be useless,” he said. AGENCIES