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| Pak detains Islamic Party leader ISLAMABAD, Oct 7: Pakistani authorities today detained the leader of a pro-Taliban Islamic Party, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, at his home in the North West Frontier Province, a party spokesman said. Rehman heads Jamiat Ulema-i-Islami (JUI) party, which .......more Musharraf’s powerbase WASHINGTON, Oct 7: With extended term as Army chief, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf’s....more Taliban declined Pak offer ISLAMABAD, Oct 7: Taliban’s hardline chief Mullah Mohammad Omar had declined Pakistan’s .....more Pak religious team to NEW DELHI, Oct 7: A delegation of top deobandi religious clerics from Pakistan that was taken to.......more |
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US rejects Taliban WASHINGTON/ISLAMABAD, Oct 7: Afghanistan’s Islamic Taliban rulers, facing the threat of an imminent US-led military assault, offered today to put ........more Acquisition
of nuke LONDON, Oct 7 : In an interview given three years ago, excerpts of which were published today, terrorist mastermind Osama Bin Laden said it was his .....more Removal of Trade Center rubble a monumental task NEW YORK, Oct 7: More than three weeks after two airborne attacks destroyed the World Trade Center, some 195,000 tonnes of debris have......more Musharraf
transformed ISLAMABAD, Oct 7: Three months ago Western ambassadors boycotted the ceremony at which General Pervez Musharraf installed himself as.......more |
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Pak detains Islamic Party leader ISLAMABAD, Oct 7: Pakistani authorities today detained the leader of a pro-Taliban Islamic Party, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, at his home in the North West Frontier Province, a party spokesman said. Rehman heads Jamiat Ulema-i-Islami (JUI) party, which has held several demonstrations to protest against threatened US-led military strikes in Afghanistan to flush out fugitive Osama Bin Laden. JUI Information Secretary Riaz Durrani told Reuters a Government order was served on Rehman at his home in the southern frontier town of Dera Ismail Khan telling him that he had been placed under house arrest for an indefinite period. He said Rehman was earlier due to go to Multan city in the central province of Punjab to address an anti-US rally there later today. (REUTERS) |
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Musharraf’s powerbase is secure: Stratfor WASHINGTON, Oct 7: With extended term as Army chief, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf’s powerbase is relatively secure despite dangers to his regime, says a well-reputed US consulting firm on geopolitics. An extended term and recent reshuffling should keep Musharraf in power even even as tension among the United States, Afghanistan and fundamentalist Muslims in Pakistan increases, the Texas-based Strategic Forecasting (Stratfor) said in an analysis yesterday. Musharraf, whose term as chief of the Pakistani Army was to end on October six, has given himself an indefinite extension in the key position of the Chief of Army Staff. A US ally and the only nation to recognise Afghanistan’s hard-line taliban regime, Pakistan is precariously placed in the new US-led war on terrorism, partly because of strong Islamic fundamentalist sentiments within its borders, Stratfor said. "But despite the dangers to his regime, Musharraf’s powerbase appears relatively secure," it said. "The Army is one of the most powerful institutions in Pakistan, and, through his extended term and some savvy personnel reshuffling, Musharraf has consolidated his position as its commander and likely will maintain control over his country," it added. Pakistan’s presidency is an unstable office in the best of times, Stratfor said, and Musharraf’s stability is extremely important to the US as it braces itself to strike in Afghanistan. Musharraf, it said, has shown willingness to cooperate with Washington for the right price and is no admirer of radical Islamic groups. "Should Musharraf tumble, he would very likely be replaced by a regime much more sympathetic to the Taliban," it added. Musharraf, apparently, feels confident enough to withdraw Army troops from Afghanistan and prepare for the US military operations on Pakistani territory, Sratfor said, citing reports that all of the 1,500 Pakistani troops, who had been advising and fighting with the Taliban before the September 11 aerial attacks on the US, have been pulled out. The firm said another indication of confidence is Musharraf s preparations for us military forces to arrive in Pakistan despite strong domestic opposition. The Pakistani Air Force evacuated two military bases near Quetta and peshawar around September 30, it said, quoting the Pakistani observer. It said Quetta is within striking distance of Kandahar in Afghanistan, and Peshawar is relatively close to the Afghan capital of Kabul. US air force personnel are reportedly setting up logistical and command and control equipment at both bases, it said. The firm said though, as president, musharraf could legally reappoint himself as Army chief, he made it a point to seek and receive the approval of Pakistan’s top military brass. Many saw the approval period as a potential crisis point, when opposing military figures could step out and challenge Musharraf, it added. It said that during his three years as the army chief, Musharraf filled the military’s senior ranks with political allies, a process he continued through the last days of September. As controversy mounted over Pakistan’s support of the US-led anti-terrorism coalition, Musharraf promoted and reassigned a number of major generals in the Army, it noted. The appointments fit the normal promotion schedule, but Musharraf was careful to install loyalists into commanding positions within Pakistan on the border with Afghanistan and in his command circle, it said. It attributed Musharraf’s strong position within the military to his corporate style of decision-making. Most of the important decisions are made in consultation with his corps commanders committee, which has become the most significant body for military and Government policy in Pakistan. As "first among equals", musharraf does not have total control and must operate by consensus thus, his decisions carry the weight of the entire military, not a particular clique, Stratfor said. However, the dangers to Musharraf’s regime have not entirely evaporated, it said, with ethnic links between the Afghans and the Pakistani Army posing the most obvious potential source of trouble. About 40 per cent of the Army is Pushtun, the same ethnicity as most of the Taliban and the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan. Stratfor said its sources in Pakistan say few Pakistani Pushtuns feel any great love for the Taliban, whose harsh ideology has turned off many Afghan Pushtuns. There should be relatively few problems with Pakistan’s Pushtuns as long as US military operations centre on the hardcore Taliban fighters, it said. Another danger, Stratfor said, is the presence of Islamic fundamentalists within the Army who, ideologically, lean toward the Taliban. Lt. General Aziz Khan, once part of Musharraf’s inner circle, was formerly responsible for Pakistani operations in Afghanistan and Kashmir. Aziz reportedly favoured the Taliban even as Musharraf spent the past year trying to rein them in, it added. But the argument appeared to be over policy, Stratfor said, and not ideology. Musharraf sidelined Aziz with a posting in Lahore —a relatively liberal area with a fewer zealots. It said sources in Pakistan suggest there is little chance of Aziz leading a coup, as he still considers himself a patriot. However, there is little precedent for a lone, disgruntled colonel to gather his men and storm the presidential palace, it added. (UNI) |
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Taliban declined Pak offer to fly out Bin Laden: Aziz ISLAMABAD, Oct 7: Taliban’s hardline chief Mullah Mohammad Omar had declined Pakistan’s offer three years ago to fly out terrorist mastermind Osama Bin Laden to any undisclosed destination out of Afghanistan in order to end the militia’s international isolation, former Pakistan Foreign Minister Sartraj Aziz has said. "I personally spoke to Mulla Muhammad Omar several times on behalf of the Pakistan Government, asking him to urge Bin Laden to voluntarily quit Afghanistan," Aziz who was the Foreign Minister in the deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s Government told Pakistan daily, `The News.’ "We offered the Taliban any kind of logistical and other help required to realise this including a chartered plane (to Bin Laden) for any destination in the world of his choice without him having to disclose where he was headed," he said. The offer was made soon after the fall of Mazar-e-Sharif city in the north to Taliban in 1998, he said adding "I also tried to persuade former Taliban Foreign Minister Mulla Hasan Akhund that this was a golden opportunity for the taliban to get international recognition as a legitimate Government and they agreed to consider the proposal," Sartaj said. "Mulla Omar said he would consider the proposal and get back to me," Sartaj said, adding he later learnt that the Taliban had politely declined. Aziz said the Taliban missed a chance to change their traditional image. "Had they acted on our sincere advice to hand over Bin Laden back then, all this trouble would not have been forthcoming." He said efforts to fly out Laden were made when the un security council was all set to clamp sanctions on Afghanistan in the aftermath of the bombing of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in August 1998. The offer was made to Mullah Akhund during his visit Pakistan. "I told him that if the Taliban want to make their rule acceptable to the international community, they should ask Bin Laden if he was a real well-wisher of the Afghan people, and then he should voluntarily leave Afghanistan to save the Afghan people from further hardships," Aziz told `The News.’ He said there was still time left for the Taliban to give in to demands of the international community and save themselves as well as their deprived and impoverished countrymen. "It’s so sad that first the Afghans fought the soviets for 12 years, then another decade of civil war followed and then came the crippling united nations sanctions. I think its time the Afghan people saw peace," he said. "I just hope that in case the Taliban still don’t relent, the US-led military action will be calculated, focused, limited and would ensure that no innocent casualties occur," he added. (PTI) |
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Pak religious team to Afghan did
opposite NEW DELHI, Oct 7: A delegation of top deobandi religious clerics from Pakistan that was taken to Afghanistan by the Director General of Pakistan’s ISI (ISI) Lt-Gen Mahmud to meet with the Taliban supremo, Mullah Omar Akhund, and convince him to hand over Osama Bin Laden, did exactly the opposite, according to Pakistani media report. However, they did convey to him Islamabad’s concern regarding the US military campaign, Pakistani weekly "The Friday Times" said. Sources within the delegation told the weekly that instead of convincing Omar of the necessity of saving Afghanistan and the Taliban regime by getting rid of Bin Laden, the delegation invoked Islamic scriptures to appreciate the stand taken by the Taliban leadership and assured Omar of their support. The clerics, led by the "unofficial advisor" to Mullah Omar and Pakistan’s top Deobandi religious figure, Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai of the Binori Town Seminary in Karachi, also informed Omar that several hundred young men were ready for Jihad against the US if Washington did attack Afghanistan. Shamzai heads the country’s biggest Deobandi Madrassa. Shamzai and Mufti Jamil, another member of the delegation, is also said to be very close to Osama Bin Laden and both were invited to his son’s wedding. Their efforts have the support of Deobandi parties and groups whose cadres have been given the task of mobilising the youth for performing their "sacred duty". "There is a sense of urgency because the clerics believe that the Government has turned against the Taliban and their cause," the weekly quoted an insider as saying. One of the Muftis in the delegation sent to Kandahar told the paper the clerics actually discussed the strategy of resistance with Omar and his lieutenants. The weekly said that it had learnt that some intelligence agencies have already warned the Government about the possibility of suicide strikes against airports and foreign embassies. Shamzai’s stand on the issue is also clear from the Fatwa (religious edict) he issued only last week. In the fatwa he exhorted the Muslims to join Jihad against the United States if it attacked Afghanistan and declared that the Muslims countries supporting the US or any infidel forces would be committing a "sin". He has also indicated that people will storm airports and ports in the country if the US forces landed in Pakistan. Instigating his followers he is reported to have told them to "not allow any US men go back alive" if they dare land in Pakistan. (PTI) |
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US rejects Taliban offer for bin Laden trial WASHINGTON/ISLAMABAD, Oct 7: Afghanistan’s Islamic Taliban rulers, facing the threat of an imminent US-led military assault, offered today to put Osama bin Laden on trial but Washington swiftly rejected the proposal. The Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, said his Government was ready to try under Islamic law the Saudi-born militant accused of masterminding last month’s attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, which killed nearly 5,600 people. It was an abrupt turnaround by the Taliban, which has been diplomatically isolated and is now almost encircled by hostile military forces ready to mount an assault. Bin Laden has been living as a "guest" of the Afghan Government since 1996. "If allegations are made against another person ... He will be put on trial and then it will be established," Zaeef told reporters, citing the tenets of Islamic law. Asked if there was a sufficient case to put bin Laden on trial, Zaeef said: "Yes." However, he stressed that Afghanistan had yet to see any evidence from the United States as to bin Laden’s involvement. "We have studied this point and our position is that if there is not sufficient evidence, still we are ready for his trial in Afghanistan," he said. White House officials wasted little time in rejecting the offer. "The first step is that they hand over bin Laden and his lieutenants," a US official said. The official said President George W Bush’s original four demands — that the Taliban surrender bin Laden and lieutenants in his Al Qaeda network, close bin Laden’s training camps, allow international inspections, and release detained aid workers — were not subject to negotiation. In a radio address yesterday, Bush gave his clearest warning yet that the hour of action was approaching. "Full warning has been given and time is running out," he said. Senate Republican leader Trent Lott of Mississippi said the Taliban offer was "totally unacceptable." "The President made it very clear we are not going to negotiate with them. They’ve got to stop harboring these terrorists. They’ve got to turn over bin Laden. And if they don’t, time is running out. The President has made it very clear, he is going to be prepared to act in concert with our allies to go after these guys," he said. Asked when he expected a move by the United States, Lott said: "I don’t think its going to be long. When the President of the United States says ‘time is running out,’ you’d better listen." Under intense pressure and with reports mounting of defections by some of its supporters, the Taliban is reacting with a mixture of defiance and attempts at conciliation. The Taliban said an extra 8,000 troops were being sent to its northern border with Uzbekistan to join several thousand already there. "We have deployed our forces there at all important places. This is the question of our self respect and we will never bow before the Americans and will fight to the last," Afghan Islamic Press quoted a Taliban spokesman as saying. Afghan opposition forces fighting the ruling Taliban said today they had seized 11 villages in the central province of Ghor and were advancing on the provincial capital Cheghcharan. An opposition spokesman, Mohammad Habeel, said Taliban defections were partly responsible for the advance in Ghor, which followed reports yesterday of similar movement in the northern province of Samangan. "The probability of the fall of Cheghcharan is high," Habeel told Reuters by satellite telephone. The United States has sent 1,000 soldiers to Uzbekistan, which shares a border with Afghanistan. The Voice of America said the first planes had landed. US and British aircraft carriers, more than 300 warplanes, ships armed with cruise missiles and special forces troops have gathered within striking distance of Afghanistan. Some 30,000 troops have also been deployed. In other developments around the world, Philippine troops backed by bomber planes killed 15 Muslim guerrillas and wounded 25 in fierce fighting with a separatist group linked to bin Laden, the military said. Ten soldiers were wounded in the clashes with the Abu Sayyaf group, which has been holding two Americans and 16 Filipinos hostage for months on an island. In Saudi Arabia, authorities said two foreigners, including an American, were killed and four wounded in a bomb blast in the eastern Saudi city of Khobar yesterday. US officials said they saw no immediate connection between the explosion and the US military buildup. (REUTERS) |
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Acquisition of nuke weapons his right his right: Osama LONDON, Oct 7 : In an interview given three years ago, excerpts of which were published today, terrorist mastermind Osama Bin Laden said it was his right to acquire nuclear weapons in his battle against Americans. "At a time when Israel stocks hundreds of nuclear warheads and when the Western crusaders control a large percentage of such weapons we do not consider this an accusation but a right and we reject anyone who accuses us of this," Bin Laden had told Qatari Channel Al-Jazeera in 1998, excerpts of which were published in the Sunday Telegraph. Asked specifically how true were newspaper reports that he sought to acquire nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, he said: "We are seeking to drive them (the US) out of our Islamic nations and prevent them from dominating us. We believe that this right to defend oneself is the right of all human beings." To a query on the bombings of US embassies in Nairobi and Tanzania for which Washington holds him responsible, he said those who follow the international news would have worked out how much support there is in the Islamic world for attacks against Americans, even though people were saddened by the deaths of some innocent civilians of those countries. "But it was clear that there was huge rejoicing and satisfaction in the Islamic world," he said. (PTI) |
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Removal of Trade Center rubble a monumental task NEW YORK, Oct 7: More than three weeks after two airborne attacks destroyed the World Trade Center, some 195,000 tonnes of debris have already been removed, as everything from plastic buckets to towering cranes is used to load the rubble onto a convoy of trucks and barges bound for landfill. That might sound like a lot, but it represents just over 15 percent of the total to be carted away in a monumental effort that construction professionals characterize as the largest single-site debris removal project in history. Expected to take anywhere from 10 to 14 months, the task of clearing the devastated site where once loomed New York’s largest buildings, brought down by the September 11 attacks, will likely cost more than 1 billion dollars. The city has budgeted 250 million dollars for each of four private contractors which each work a quadrant of the 16-acre World Trade Center site. "The number that’s been out there is 12 months," said Martin Bellew, Director of Waste Disposal for the New York City Department of Sanitation. Bellew said his department is moving about 10,000 tonnes of debris from the site each day — nearly as much as its total daily residential trash collection for the entire city. "But each day there are new challenges, and new issues keep arising," he said. The presence of toxic materials such as asbestos and biomedical waste, as well as critical evidence at what is still a crime scene compound the sheer scope of the task. And the buried human remains require a sensitivity many in the construction industry do not typically deal with. The work is being shared by a host of federal, municipal and private entities including the federal emergency management agency, the city’s office of emergency management, department of design and construction and fire and sanitation departments, the army corps of engineers and four major construction firms. "It is massive beyond imagination," said Lee Benish, vice president and corporate spokesman for AMEC, the global engineering and services company managing one of the four construction teams handling the recovery and debris removal. "I frankly can’t think of anything that begins to approach the magnitude of this kind of disaster," Benish said in a telephone interview. "There is just a massive amount of material: steel," of which bellew said there was 300,000 tonnes alone, 10 percent of which had been removed. "Pulverized concrete and building materials of the building itself. There is the furniture and fixtures that were within the building. ... It’s a very nontraditional environment," Benish said of the site. The equipment used to search, pull apart, sift through and finally remove as much as 1.2 million tonnes of wreckage runs the gamut. But as hope faded of finding any survivors, small tools like plastic buckets gave way to excavators with a reach of 100 feet (30 metres) or more, and 1,000-tonne cranes. This week FEMA carved a road of sorts through the wreckage into its epicenter to facilitate access and removal. The unprecedented process, which industry officials refer to as "support of recovery and debris removal," is daunting, risky and emotionally draining for the teams of subcontractors, engineers, demolition experts and heavy equipment operators. "You have huge pieces of debris that have fallen on top of one another," Benish said. "And as you carefully remove these you have to be sure as you cut them into manageable sizes that they’re not going to cause other pieces to move or fall." Another complicating factor is the continual flare-up of fires, which can burn in excess of 1,000 degrees. And attention must be paid to the integrity of the excavation site’s basement structure and slurry wall which holds the hudson river at bay. The process begins with search and rescue teams led by the fire department combing areas of rubble. If there are no human remains, clearance is given to the crews to remove the debris. "I saw I-beams stacked six stories high," Allen Morse, chief debris expert for the army corps of engineers, technical adviser to Fema, told the engineering news-record. Pieces range up to 40 feet long and can weigh 25 tonnes. Some 17 cranes are working the site, supplemented by scores of large pieces of machinery. Some have a scissor-type element to cut or grab debris, while other clawed devices lift or pull it apart. Front end loaders scoop up loose matter, and all of the equipment deposits the rubble in trucks or on barges for transport to the fresh kills landfill on staten island. The barges, which can carry 150 truckloads of debris, dump some steel offshore to create artificial reefs other steel is being used for slurry wall stabilization or recycled. Security had to be tightened when some drivers were found selling steel to private scrap dealers. At fresh kills, the debris is raked over, sorted and searched as crime evidence for a second time by law enforcement officials and more metal is sorted for recycling. On October 1 Fema assigned a 125 million dollars mission to the army corps of engineers for operation of fresh kills for the debris disposal, a job it said was expected to run through next june. (REUTERS) |
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Musharraf transformed from pariah to ally ISLAMABAD, Oct 7: Three months ago Western ambassadors boycotted the ceremony at which General Pervez Musharraf installed himself as President, underlining that he could not shed his pariah status until he restored democracy. On Friday, British Prime Minister Tony Blair stood beside Pakistan’s military ruler offering praise and money to his host. Hours earlier, US officials had met Musharraf’s Finance Minister, Shaukat Aziz, to discuss the next addition to their stream of aid. Osama bin Laden — or at least the need for Pakistan’s help in extracting him from his refuge in neighbouring Afghanistan — has transformed Musharraf’s status only days before the second anniversary of his October 12, 1999, seizure of power. Since the September 11 attacks on Washington and New York, in which bin Laden is the chief suspect, countries around the world have rushed to praise Musharraf’s leadership for reinforcing US pressure on the Taliban and have done all they can to ensure he stays in power. Repayment of nearly 1.0 billion dollars in bilateral debt has been delayed, hundreds of millions of dollars in grants have appeared and even long-frozen military cooperation has revived. Pakistan’s calls for funds to care for Afghan refugees, largely ignored as some 200,000 poured over the border in the past year, suddenly have a sympathetic audience. "The 11th of September has changed the world," said Blair. "Nations make their choices as to whether they will help the fight against international terrorism or stand aside. I believe that Pakistan has made the right choice. "The result will be a significant and lasting strengthening of the outside world’s relations with Pakistan." As a state neighbouring Afghanistan, and formerly the chief backer of the Taliban who are shielding bin Laden, Pakistan’s help is vital if Washington is to get its hands on bin Laden. The Saudi-born militant was accused of attacks on US targets even before he was named as the likely mastermind in the September 11 massacres of up to 6,000 people. Reversing years of pro-Taliban Pakistani policy during which US requests for help against bin Laden produced little, Musharraf immediately offered full cooperation in Washington’s war on terrorism. Despite domestic misgivings, he agreed to open Pakistani airspace for US attacks on Afghanistan, shared intelligence Pakistan accumulated in years of working with the Taliban and offered other unspecified logistical support. There are risks. Street demonstrations against helping Washington are relatively small but could escalate quickly once fighting starts. The fear of domestic unrest has contributed to a drastic fall in exports, an exodus of foreigners from Pakistan and a halt to much of the air traffic. Musharraf is conscious of public scepticism about backing Washington — he repeatedly asked for Washington to publish the evidence against bin Laden it has shown privately to Governments. However, he knows it has worked to his longer-term benefit as foreign Governments rush to shore up someone they previously shunned but now see as a key ally. Provided Musharraf survives — and senior Western diplomats are convinced he has firm control of the army, and hence the nation —he should emerge from the crisis much stronger than he entered it. First is the economic assistance that has poured in. Japan has rescheduled the repayment of 550 million owed by Pakistan to ease Islamabad’s balance of payments problems. Canada last week converted C 447 million ( 286 million) in bilateral debt into funds to be spent on development projects in Pakistan. Most countries have followed the US lead in lifting a host of sanctions imposed over the years for Pakistan’s development of nuclear weapons and then Musharraf’s overthrow of the elected Government. Washington has also weighed in with rescheduling 379 million dollars of bilateral debt, grants of 100 million dollars to support the budget and promises of more to come. Pakistan’s Finance Minister is in Washington next week to discuss both additional US aid and a three-year poverty reduction and growth facility with the International Monetary Fund. That programme, with the World Bank and Asian Development Bank joining after the IMF agrees terms, could be worth about 2.5 billion dollars, Aziz told Reuters. Once that is set — and Blair said he was sure of IMF approval —Pakistan can approach the Paris club of bilateral debtors to seek more straight write-offs of the 12 billion dollars owed to other Governments. The aid gives vital breathing room as Musharraf attempts to put the debt-ridden country, with close to 40 billion dollars in foreign debt and a similar amount of domestic debt, back on a stable footing. Just as important for Pakistan’s and Musharraf’s long-term strength are the dramatic diplomatic shifts since September 11. The General’s timetable for restoring democracy by October 2002 was met with scepticism by diplomats in August, suspicious that constitutional changes promised for next year will leave his power undiminished even after elections for a new legislature. "I welcome the road map to democracy set out by President Musharraf in August," said Blair on Friday. "That is the right path." Washington’s rush to embrace Musharraf, after years of fading interest in Pakistan and improving ties with arch-rival India, has been enough to make New Delhi nervous. Blair flew straight from Pakistan to India to provide reassurance. A restoration of military cooperation with the West signals the acceptance of Pakistan, and India, as members of the nuclear club, reversing more than a decade of futile US efforts to slow their nuclear programmes. Musharraf has even won public endorsement of Pakistan’s insistance that it have a say in forming any Government that replaces the Taliban, despite its record in backing the hardline Islamic regime. Washington’s declining role in Islamabad ever since its campaign to drive Soviet forces from Afghanistan in the 1980s has reversed. Relations between Musharraf and new US ambassador Wendy Chamberlin are described as excellent and the flow of US funds into Pakistan should ensure they stay that way. A month ago Musharraf looked destined to struggle on as a self-appointed President with little international legitimacy, presiding over a country that was isolated and struggling to pay its debts. This month he was discussing the fate of Pakistan and Afghanistan with Blair as an equal. As he introduced the British leader to his Pakistani officials, Musharraf was beaming like someone showing off a new and important friend. (REUTERS) |
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