Syria university explosion kills more than 80

BEIRUT — Dozens of people died in two explosions minutes apart Tuesday at a university in the embattled northern city of Aleppo, a reminder of the Syrian conflict's costly toll on ordinary citizens.

At least 82 people, many on campus for midterm exams, were killed, according to separate accounts from rebels in Aleppo, government officials and a pro-opposition group.

Videos posted on YouTube show students in winter clothes milling about minutes after the first blast occurred, when a second explosion sent a billowing, mushroom-like cloud into the sky. Students began screaming and running away.

The explosions tore the facades off buildings, blew out windows, set cars ablaze and left bodies scattered across the grounds of Aleppo University, which has managed to stay open despite government-versus-rebel battles for Syria's second-largest city that had occurred daily since July.

It was not known who was responsible for the blasts. Both sides accused the other, seeking to portray themselves as on the right side in a conflict that has trapped civilians in the middle and claimed more than 60,000 lives, according to the United Nations.

The opposition said two shells were fired by the Syrian military, probably by fighter jets. The government's Syrian Arab News Agency, or SANA, said rockets were fired by "the terrorists," its term for the rebels.

The London-based pro-opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 83 people were dead and more than 150 were wounded. The Syrian government said 82 were killed. Opposition activists provided a similar number.

Government and rebels each control about half of Aleppo, with rebels holding the east and the government in control of most of the west, including the university.

Rebel activists and university students speculated that the attack was a plot by the government to shut down a school where protests against Syrian President Bashar Assad have occurred.

But any explanation was possible in a city that has been devastated by fighting between the government and rebels.

Aleppo, like the suburbs of Damascus, the capital, has become a symbol of the destructiveness of the war, which is uprooting people and laying waste to a rich cultural heritage.

Without a diplomatic solution to end the fighting, many worry that Syria will disintegrate.

Students at the university were traumatized. A woman who asked not to be named said she was sitting in class when she heard a loud bang, and then the window shattered and blew in. She saw the shards lacerate one of her classmates.

She said she immediately blamed the government for the attack, saying that friends had seen fighter jets flying. Assad's forces regularly bombard rebel positions with attack helicopters and MIG jets.

The university suspended midterm exams until Monday.

"This is not the time for exams," the student said. Even "with all the brutality, no one could imagine [the government] shelling a university."

The woman, who crosses multiple rebel and government checkpoints to reach school each day, had been determined to pursue her education despite the violence. But now she is rattled.

"This is not the way schools are supposed to be," she said.

‘SC order to arrest PM a judicial coup with army backing’

‘SC order to arrest PM a judicial coup with army backing’

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan supreme court's order to arrest PM Raja Pervez Ashraf and 16 others on graft charges has kicked up a storm in the country. The court has said that those booked in the case be arrested regardless of their rank. "...If someone leaves the country, then chairman of the National Accountability Bureau ( NAB) will be held responsible along with his investigating team." 

The order is reported to have baffled government officials. One of them was quoted as describing it as "totally unexpected", saying the PM was watching the speech of cleric Tahir-ul Qadri, who has led a march to Islamabad, on TV when the news broke. 

The government described any attempt to arrest Ashraf as unconstitutional, arguing that he enjoys immunity from prosecution while in office. Ashraf's adviser Fawad Chaudhry was quoted as describing the order as a "judicial coup" and part of a "greater plan to derail democracy" in the country. 

Reuters quoted the aide as blaming the country's once all-powerful military establishment for masterminding the court's verdict to pave the way for it to "intervene". 

Legal experts said the order would not necessarily bring Ashraf down and that he could remain prime minister even after his arrest. He would be disqualified only if convicted. PPP leader Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan said Ashraf would remain PM even if imprisoned. "Ashraf will be the premier until a no-trust motion is moved against him." 

President Asif Ali Zardari has called a meeting of his ruling coalition partners in Karachi on Wednesday to discuss the verdict. The top court had earlier convicted Ashraf's predecessor, Yousaf Raza Gilani, of contempt of court for refusing to reopen corruption cases against Zardari and ousted him from office. 

The court order has mounted pressure on the government that hopes to be the first to complete its full term and hold elections. 

But it has weathered a series of crises and hopes to survive again. The government has the numbers to elect another prime minister. 

Pakistan's army has repeatedly meddled in politics and ruled the country for more than half of its history. But it has over the years shown little appetite for a coup given the dip in its popularity during Pervez Musharraf's nine-year rule and its overstretched commitments countering the Taliban and insurgency. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan warned that threats to the democratic process have escalated after the order while Karachi Stock Exchange index fell by nearly 3%, highlighting investor anxiety over political uncertainty. 

Protests in Karachi over SC order: Protests and firing incidents were witnessed in several parts of Karachi and in some interior areas of the Sindh province on Tuesday after the SC ordered to arrest PM Raja Pervaz Ashraf. Shortly after the judgement was announced, trouble started in parts of the city with mobs burning tyres, pelting passing vehicles and resorting to aerial firing causing harassment and fear in the areas. No casualty has been reported.

Time for politicians to get past the debt bluster

WITH THE federal government less than six weeks away from hitting its legal limit of $16.4 trillion of debt, the fiscal-policy gap between President Obama and his Republican opponents in Congress seems unbridgeable. The GOP rejects additional revenue increases on top of the $600 billion Congress accepted to avoid the “fiscal cliff.” And Republicans insist they will not raise the debt ceiling without spending cuts to match. The president, for his part, likens this demand to hostage-taking and refuses even to consider any trade of debt reduction for a debt-ceiling increase.

Ominously, this partisan quarrel reflects differing perceptions of what would happen if the government did, indeed, lose the ability to borrow fresh cash. Some in the GOP insist that the Treasury could continue to make interest payments and meet other high-priority obligations out of current tax revenue, with no significant consequences for the U.S. credit rating or the economy. President Obama argues, correctly, that this is a reckless supposition.

Can, or will, Mr. Obama do anything to help the cooler heads within the Republican Party prevail? Or does he regard the debt-ceiling threat as a no-lose proposition for him and his party: either a GOP bluff or a promise to commit political suicide? Certainly Mr. Obama’s refusal to negotiate — coupled with his appropriate refusal to raise the debt ceiling through executive action — suggests that he’s willing to ride with the GOP right up to the brink.

However, the approaching debt ceiling is not the only inflection point facing the government and, possibly, the economy. On March 1, some $109 billion in automatic spending cuts kick in, the first installment of a “sequester,” evenly divided between defense and domestic programs, that is worth about $1 trillion over the next decade. On March 27, the most recent extension of federal spending authority will lapse, forcing a partial shutdown of government operations.

Though fraught with potential pain for the economy, and with potential political blame for the Republicans, neither the sequester nor a partial government shutdown poses quite the same risk, for the country or the GOP, that the debt ceiling does. Hence, the party retains some leverage. While Mr. Obama may refuse to negotiate over the debt ceiling, it’s not so clear that he and his fellow Democrats can avoid negotiating with the Republicans entirely — the urgings of certain members of Mr. Obama’s party to the contrary notwithstanding.

Fortunately, Mr. Obama left the door open to that possibility in his otherwise combative news conference Monday. Alluding to his close-but-no-cigar debt-reduction talks with House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) after the November election, he suggested that there could still be a modified version of that near-deal, worth about $1.5 trillion over 10 years, including revenue raised by tax reform and “some additional cuts, including . . .reducing our health-care spending.” That would be unsatisfactory, relative to the country’s debt problem. But relative to the country’s current political and fiscal impasse, such an outcome would rate as a very happy ending indeed.

Chidambaram to meet state FMs, industry tomorrow

Chidambaram to meet state FMs, industry tomorrow

New Delhi, Jan 15 (PTI) Finance Minister P Chidambaram will hold pre-Budget consultations with state finance ministers and industry chambers tomorrow.

The issue of proposed Goods and Services Tax (GST) is likely to figure prominently in the Union finance minister's meeting with state finance ministers, as the Centre is keen on early implementation of the tax regime.

Asaram says media twisted his words

   Asaram says media twisted his words

ALLAHABAD: Self-styled godman Asaram Bapu, in the eye of a storm over his remarks on the Delhi gang-rape victim, on Tuesday said he was quoted out of context and announced a reward of 50 lakh to anyone who could prove that he blamed the victim for the horrific crime. 

"I have been quoted out of context. The poor girl was young enough to be my own granddaughter," he said. 

"How can I ever be so insensitive as to blame her for the very tragedy that had stricken her. The media reports have twisted my words," said Asaram. 

"I will give a reward of Rs 50 lakh to anybody who is able to prove that I had blamed the rape victim herself for the heinous crime," Bapu said at his discourse.

In Amethi, Rahul pacifies angry villagers over soldiers’ killings

Arriving in his parliamentary constituency after nearly a month on Tuesday, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi, who was on a short “non-political” visit, had to face angry protesters who demanded action against Pakistan for the brutal killings of two Indian soldiers.

As Rahul left Fursatganj airport, his cavalcade was stopped by protesters, mostly youth, who were angry with the brutal killings of two Indian soldiers by Pakistan. Rahul listened to them patiently and assured them of appropriate action.

Rahul then attended a meeting with officials of Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust (RGCT) for nearly an hour in Amethi and next attended a meeting of the Rajiv Gandhi Mahila Vikas Pariyojna (RGMVP), RGCT’s flagship programme, in Jawahar Navodaya Vidalaya in Amethi’s Gauriganj area, where nearly 2,000 women participated.

He raised the issue of brutal killings of the jawans in the meet and asked the women for their opinion. “Some women said since Pakistan took two, now we should take 12,” a source said. Rahul told them that efforts were on to resolve the issue peacefully. “We do not act in hatred or out of envy,” Rahul replied.

LoC killings: Army Chief to visit martyred soldier's family today

LoC killings: Army Chief to visit martyred soldier's family today

New Delhi: Army Chief General Bikram Singh will visit the home of Lance Naik Hemraj who was beheaded by Pakistan Army last week amid demands that the head of the soldier be brought back. The Army Chief will visit Khairair in Mathura to meet the family of Lance Naik Hemraj on Wednesday morning, Army officials said in New Delhi on Tuesday.

Gen Singh had on Monday said he would visit the home of Hemraj, whose family had gone on a six-day fast demanding that his head be brought back from Pakistan.

"I will go there after the Army Day is over (today). There is no problem in it," the Army Chief had said addressing the annual Army Day press conference on Monday. Hemraj's wife and mother had refused to end their fast demanding that the Army Chief must visit their house and assure them that his severed head will be brought back.

Hemraj and Sudhakar Singh were killed by Pakistani troops on January 8 in Poonch sector in Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan Army regulars took away the head of Hemraj as trophy and also mutilated the body of the other soldier.

Gen Singh had also said the Pakistan Army should be pressurised to return the Hemraj's head. "I think we should pressurise them nationally and internationally as part of our national element so that they are made accountable and they are made to return the head of our soldier which they have taken away," Singh had said.

"It will be taken up at the government level and you will have to appreciate that this has to to be done through diplomatic channels," he had said.

10 new faces inducted into Omar’s cabinet

10 new faces inducted into Omar’s cabinet

JAMMU: In a major cabinet reshuffle, Jammu and Kashmir's chief minister Omar Abdullah inducted 10 new ministers in the state cabinet, who were administrated oath by governor N N Vohra on Tuesday. 

This is the first reshuffle carried out by Omar after he was sworn-in as chief minister on 5 January, 2009. They included six cabinet ministers and four ministers of state with independent charge. Mohammad Akbar Lone (National Conference), Choudhary Mohamamd Ramzan (National Conference), Ajay Sadhotra (National Conference), Ghulam Ahmad Mir (Congress), Abdul Majid Wani (Congress) and Mir Saif-ul-lah (National Conference) have been inducted as cabinet ministers. 

Mohammad Akbar Lone is the state assembly speaker and has often been in the thick of controversy over repeated verbal duels with the opposition, PDP. Ghulam Ahmed Mir, a Congress MLA from Dooru in South Kashmir, staged a comeback after he was acquitted of all the charges by a CBI court in connection with the 2006 sex scandal as all prosecution witnesses turned hostile. 

Apart from them, Sajjad Ahmad Kichloo (National Conference), Feroz Ahmed (National Conference), Nazir Ahmed Gurezi (National Conference) and Viqar Rasool (Congress) have been inducted as MoS with independent charge. Besides chief minister Omar Abdullah, deputy chief minister Tara Chand along with state congress president Saifuddin Soz were also present at the oath taking ceremony. 

Earlier, the governor accepted the resignations of seven ministers recommended and forwarded to him by Abdullah. 

Mayawati cautions against hasty decision on Indo-Pak ties

Mayawati cautions against hasty decision on Indo-Pak ties

New Delhi: Amid outcry over the beheading of an Indian soldier by Pakistani Army near the Line of Control, BSP supremo Mayawati on Tuesday said war is not the "only option" and cautioned that no hasty decision should be taken regarding ties with the neighbouring country.

"I can't say that war is the only solution. There is still room to find a solution. If the Government of India is serious, a peaceful solution can be found," she said. The BSP chief was responding to a media query on whether her party supported war against Pakistan as a means to resolve the issue.

Asked whether she favoured snapping sport and economic ties with Pakistan in view of the recent flare up along the LoC, Mayawati said any decision regarding relationship with the neighbouring country "should not be taken in haste till the time we reach a conclusion."

The former Uttarpradesh Chief Minister slammed the congress-led UPA government for the current situation on the borders with Pakistan. "Government is utilising its energies on issues other than public interest...the government has not taken a serious stand on the issue. Firing (along LoC) is now a routine affair which has claimed lives of several of our soldiers," she said.

She alleged that poor government response was also responsible for increased incidents of terrorism which has led to loss of life and property in various parts of the country.

Attacking the UPA for its failures on "several fronts", Mayawati also attacked the BJP-led NDA saying its "attitude" has "disappointed" people. "Their lack of discipline and direction has given 'jeevan dan' (new lease of life) to the UPA government," she said, adding that had the NDA fared better, several of UPA allies would have joined it.

Tahir-ul Qadri: Law professor to anti-terror Sufi voice to reforms crusader

Tahir-ul Qadri: Law professor to anti-terror Sufi voice to reforms crusader

Pakistani-Canadian scholar Tahir-ul Qadri was a fringe player in politics, known for his TV sermons on Sufi Islam, before he descended on Lahore last month, seeking reforms and ridding the country of the "corrupt" government. His call for saving `the state and not politics' ahead of his "million-man march" to Islamabad was interpreted as a move to derail national elections scheduled for May. This provoked outrage and made his a target of stinging criticism particularly on highly-popular primetime news shows. 

The 61-year-old's earlier innings in politics was brief and uneventful. He was elected to parliament in 2002 but resigned three years later to settle in Canada, where he gained international acclaim after he issued a 500-page fatwa against terrorism in 2010. 

Qadri was born in Punjab's Jhang in 1951 and belongs to one of Sufism's leading — Qadriya — school of thought. He has over the years emerged as a leading voice of Pakistan and the subcontinent's dominant, moderate Barelvi (Sufi) sect that the west has of late presented as its quick-fix solution to counter extremism. 

The scholar attended a Christian missionary school before studying and teaching law at Lahore's prestigious Punjab University. 

He quit teaching to form Minhajul Quran International, an educational and charity network spread over 80 countries, in 1981. He has since been known for his lectures across the globe and powerful oratory. All leading parties, barring Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) representing Sindh's Urdu-speaking people, have opposed him. 

The MQM backed out of his march at the eleventh hour while Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's Imran Khan maintained that he supports his call for reforms, but opposes his alleged attempts to derail the political process. 

Imran is banking on elections at the earliest to cash in on his rising appeal and supports Qadri's position on a non-partisan interim government to oversee the polls rather than the one that the ruling PPP and the opposition Muslim League (Nawaz Sharif) have agreed to choose. 

The two have been opposing their monopoly on choosing the interim government and seen it as an attempt to perpetuate the "corrupt and inept" status quo. 

MQM's support for Qadri, a dual Pakistani and Canadian citizen, was seen as its self-exiled leader Altaf Hussain's attempts to offset criticism over his British nationality amid a campaign in the country to disqualify dual nationals from holding public offices. Qadri's critics have dismissed him as a puppet in the hands of those seeking to derail political process forcing the army and the US ambassador to deny their association with him. 

The army has meddled in politics in the past but has repeatedly expressed its commitment to allowing the democratic process to flourish. 

The army is also overstretched countering Taliban, separatist violence in the country's northwest and now with rising tensions on the eastern front with India.

Facebook on Collision Course With Google on Web Searches

After years of collecting photos and personal data from its billion-plus members,Facebook Inc. FB -2.74% Tuesday unveiled a search tool that sifts through people's profiles—and pushes the social network deeper into Google Inc.'s GOOG +0.23%home turf.

The two companies are vying to become the primary gateway to the Internet. Google has long served as a destination to find websites and information; Facebook, to share gossip and photos with friends. But those distinctions are increasingly blurring, and billions in advertising dollars are at stake.

The social network said Tuesday it will enable members to conduct complex queries related to their friends' profiles, such as "tourist attractions in France visited by my friends."

In doing so, Facebook is attacking Google's core strength and its most lucrative product—search—in a bid to convince people they might not need to use Google to find information.

Google generates the majority of its $40 billion in annual revenue world-wide from selling ads on its search engine. In the U.S., Google was projected to make more than $13 billion in search-ad revenue, or 75% of the entire market, in 2012, according to research firm eMarketer Inc.

Google's repository of information remains unmatched. It said it has indexed 30 trillion unique Web pages across 230 million sites. Last year, Google changed it search engine to make it easier for people to quickly get detailed information about people, places and real-world things by displaying photos, facts and other "direct answers" to search queries at the top of the search-results page, rather than just spitting out blue links.

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Having witnessed Facebook's rise and anticipating its move into search, Google built its own social-networking service, Google+, in 2011 to obtain data about specific individuals by name, their personal interests and the identities of their friends. It then integrated Google+ with its Web-search service, so that people searching for a particular website, local restaurant or real-world product will be alerted if any of their Google+ contacts previously rated it positively or negatively.

A Google spokesman declined to comment.

But Facebook has a far larger social network and a sizable head-start after spending years encouraging its members to add photos and all sorts of personal information to their profiles, from basic data like location, employer name and interests to more sensitive details such as age, religion and romantic status.

Much of that data is now searchable using Facebook's new "Graph Search" feature after more than a year in development. Facebook began rolling it out Tuesday as a test to a limited number of users. For Web searches that Facebook can't deliver, the queries are served by Bing, the search engine from Facebook partner Microsoft Corp.MSFT +1.19%

Facebook's move into search could disrupt a number of other Internet businesses, such as Yelp Inc., YELP -6.19% LinkedIn Corp. LNKD +0.33% and Amazon.comInc., AMZN -0.30% which people use to find local places, business connections and products, respectively.

Amazon and LinkedIn declined to comment. A spokesman for Yelp, whose shares dropped more than 7% in the wake of Facebook's announcement, wasn't immediately available for comment.

"I don't think one query will take down a whole business today, but (many of) these businesses have to be worried because they are social in nature," said Brian Blau, a Gartner analyst.

Facebook didn't announce any business initiatives connected with the new capability, which won't initially be available on mobile devices—where a growing number of users are tapping into the service.

But the product will likely open moneymaking opportunities down the road for Facebook in the form of search advertising, as the company works to boost its revenue following its botched initial public offering last May.

Facebook currently makes most of its revenue by selling small graphical, or display, ads on its site.

Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged that Graph Search could help Facebook make more money, but demurred on when the company might capitalize on those opportunities.

"This could potentially be a business over time, but for now we've really focused on building out this user experience," Mr. Zuckerberg said at the product's launch event at Facebook's Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters, adding that the company has no specific targets for making the search service more widely available.

Investors didn't appear to be surprised by the news, which followed days of speculation online that Facebook would announce a search tool. Facebook's shares, which have risen more than 75% since their September nadir, fell 2.7% to close Tuesday at $30.10.

Facebook has introduced a slew of new products in recent months that indicate it is going after new revenue. The product debuts include stand-alone mobile texting applications; Facebook Exchange, a real-time bidding ad exchange that allows advertisers to better target specific groups; and Gifts, an online store. The company reports fourth-quarter earnings on January 30.

Facebook has long had a basic search tool, but it was geared toward rudimentary searches such as someone's name or a company's Facebook page. With Graph Search, Facebook has taken its data and spliced it, indexing it into numerous categories that make it easier for people to discover results when they search using natural language terms.

For instance, if someone wants to finds photographs of their friends tagged at Yellowstone National Park, he or she can type in "photos of friends at Yellowstone." If they want to broaden that search, they can alter a search query to "photos of friends at national parks." Like Google, results begin to show up as a user types in their query.

At the event, Facebook also tried to blunt potential concerns about what the search feature means for privacy. The social network, which has been criticized in the past by consumer advocates for its handling of user data, said it would only allow users to see information that is already accessible to them.

In addition, before the search product is released to the entire social network, users will see a notification on the top of their home page, urging them to review what personal data is exposed to Graph Search.

"Privacy, as part of this product, is so deeply built in," Mr. Zuckerberg said.

The Graph Search project began in earnest in mid-2011, when Lars Rasmussen, Facebook's director of engineering for search, showed Mr. Zuckerberg a demonstration of a basic prototype.

During the meeting, held in Mr. Zuckerberg's conference room, Mr. Rasmussen said the search team could build an engine that could show instant results, drawing from across the social network. Mr. Zuckerberg liked the idea, but was skeptical.

"He said you'll never make that work, but if you can it will be awesome," said Mr. Rasmussen, who led the project with Tom Stocky, Facebook's director of product management for search.

Facebook's search team, which numbers more than 50 people, pushed hard in the final months on the project, with the team on "lockdown"—essentially a crunch period—for 34 days during the winter, Mr. Stocky said. During that time, Mr. Zuckerberg made frequent night visits to the group.

On Tuesday, members of the search team packed into the back of the press room to watch Mr. Zuckerberg unveil the search feature. Outside Facebook's campus, a thumbs-up sign was temporarily covered, replaced with a large blue sign of the Graph Search logo: three circles in a triangle formation, connected by lines.

François Hollande pledges to fight until Islamist rebels in Mali are wiped out

French soldiers in armoured vehicles leaving Bamako as African defence chiefs met there to speed up the UN-backed African action against hardline Islamists in northern Mali.

France will only end its intervention in Mali when political stability and an election process have been restored to the chaotic west African country and Islamist groups have been wiped out, the French president said on Tuesday, raising the prospect of a drawn-out engagement on hostile desert terrain.

The French defence minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, said a "relentless" fight with Islamists was continuing on Tuesday night and France would stay "as long as necessary".

Mali is in political disarray after a coup last year and the fall of the vast northern desert to Islamist groups who operate a drug trafficking and kidnap economy in several Sahel countries.

French air raids continued "day and night" in the vast area seized by the Islamist alliance, which combines al-Qaida's north African wing, AQIM, with Mali's home-grown Movement for Oneness and Jihad in west Africa(Mojwa) and Ansar Dine rebel groups.

Le Drian described an implacable fight against Islamists who were "agile, determined, well-equipped, well-trained" and could easily hide in the desert.

He said that since Saturday, round-the-clock French air raids had been aimed at stopping the Islamist advance southwards towards the capital, Bamako, and destroying training camps, command structures and any rear bases in the north.

Airstrikes were continuing across a swath of territory east and west of the Niger river. But Le Drian said that in the town of Diabaly, which had seen an air offensive throughout Monday night, Islamists were still "very present" and threatened the south of the country. Diabaly is 220 miles (350km) from Bamako.

Le Drian said the town of Konna, which fell to the Islamists last Thursday triggering the sudden French intervention on Friday, had still not been retaken by the Malian army. The Red Cross said the army had sustained casualties.

France is to boost the 1,700 of its troops engaged in the mission, including 800 soldiers already on the ground, to 2,500.

West African armies are scrambling to join the operation, brought forward by France's air campaign to stop the rebel advance. It has carried out 50 bombing raids since Friday.

A column of French armoured vehicles rolled northward from Bamako towards rebel lines on Tuesday, the first major northward deployment of ground troops. A military official declined to comment on their objective.

On a visit to United Arab Emirates, President François Hollande said France had three aims: to stop the rebel advances, to secure Bamako and to help the Mali government regain control of the whole country. He said France would take a lesser role "as soon as there is an African force, in coming days or weeks", adding that France did not intend to stay.

In response to questions about a return to France's controversial and shadowy role pulling strings in its former colonies, Hollande said the Mali intervention, in an international legal framework with UN backing, had nothing to do with the practices of "a bygone era". He said: "France should only intervene in Africa in exceptional circumstances and for a limited time. That's what we will do."

But he added that France's role was to ensure that "when we end our intervention, Mali is safe, has legitimate authorities, an electoral process and there are no more terrorists threatening its territory".

Asked what France intended to do with the Islamists, Hollande said: "Destroy them. Take them captive, if possible."

West African defence chiefs met in Bamako to approve plans to speed up the deployment of 3,300 regional troops, foreseen in a UN-backed intervention plan to be led by Africans. After failing to reach a final agreement, they adjourned their talks until Wednesday.

Troops from the Ecowas grouping of west African states are expected to be deployed within a week to bolster the Malian army.

Nigeria, which is due to lead the African mission, pledged to deploy soldiers within 24 hours, but with its own army under pressure on several fronts and the sudden Mali intervention leaving little time for planing, Nigeria had already cautioned that even if some troops arrive in Mali swiftly, their training and equipping will take more time.

The UN refugee agency said the clashes in northern Mali were adding to the already large numbers of displaced people.

The agency spokesman, Adrian Edwards, said 1,230 refugees from Mali had arrived in Niger, Burkina Faso and Mauritania as a result of recent clashes between the French-backed Malian army and the rebel groups. More than 144,000 fled to neighbouring countries in 2012, and nearly 200,000 in northern Mali were displaced within the country.

Earlier on Tuesday the French foreign minister Laurent Fabius said the current level of the French involvement in Mali would go on for "a matter of weeks".

But a Mojwa commander told Associated Press: "I would advise France not to sing their victory song too quickly. They managed to leave Afghanistan. They will never leave Mali."

Oumar Ould Hamaha said: "It's to our advantage that they send in French troops on foot. We are waiting for them. And what they should know is that every French soldier that comes into our territory should make sure to prepare his will beforehand, because he will not leave alive."

In Lisbon, the US defence secretary, Leon Panetta, said no American troops would be put on the ground in Mali. The US is providing intelligence-gathering assistance to the French, and officials would not rule out having American aircraft land there to provide airlift and logistical support. Panetta said the US was still working through the details of assistance it would provide France.

A meeting of EU foreign ministers on Thursday is expected to define what kind of support will be provided to the African mission in Mali.

The Mali government contradicted other reports that the Islamists who seized control of Diabaly had entered the country from Mauritania. "The people in Diabaly are bandits who fled there from the north," Manga Dembele, the minister of communication, told the Guardian at the government headquarters in Bamako. "They have come to seek refuge in the town and they are hiding in the population."

But relations with Mauritania to Mali's west and Algeria to the north have been fraught in recent months, with accusations that both countries have harboured Islamists who crossed porous desert borders to stock up on supplies.

"We are not worried the Islamists will arrive in Bamako," said Dembele.

Responding to questions about the apparent lack of security in the capital where government offices and ministries have little security and are accessible to members of the public. Dembele said the situation there was under control.

Dembele sought to calm increasing anxiety in Bamako about the existence of Islamist "sleeper cells", which it is feared could launch an attack on the city in response to the mounting campaign against them in the north.

Fast-tracking of case raises eyebrows

The state has asked its Crime Investigation Department (CID) to fast-track inquiries into the incident in which a hawker died during an eviction drive carried out by assistant commissioner of police Vasant Dhoble.

The state’s preference in this case is shocking as the CID already has pending investigations in the 2010 Kurla Nehru Nagar serial murder and rape case and the case wherein brother of a suspected terrorist had died in a crime branch office in Chembur in 2011.

“The government has asked the CID to complete its investigation in a specific time frame and submit report to it,” said a senior police officer, requesting anonymity, refusing to elaborate on the time frame in which the inquiry has to be completed.

According to the officer, Navi Mumbai unit of the State CID has been asked to make inquiries into the incident. Madan Jaiswal, 40, died in the drive conducted at Nehru Road in Santa Cruz (East). Jaiswal’s post-mortem was conducted at JJ hospital. The report suggested that Jaiswal had died due to brain haemorrhaging and there were no external injuries on his body.

“The CID team will record statements of hawkers and eyewitnesses, study Jaiswal’s post-mortem report and then come to a conclusion whether any offence is there or not,” the officer said.

“The government has asked us to complete our inquiries in the Dhoble case as soon as possible,” SP Yadav, additional director general of police, State CID, told DNA, adding, “I will have to check the status of Usmani and Kurla Nehru Nagar cases.”

Delhi: Death penalty to 60-year-old man for raping, killing minor 

New Delhi: A fast track court in New Delhi on Tuesday sentenced to death a 60-year-old farmhouse guard for raping and killing a three-year-old girl. Holding Bharat Singh guilty of raping and killing a rickshaw puller's minor daughter two years ago, Judge Virender Bhat termed the offence as "rarest of rare".

According to the prosecution, the child was playing April 10, 2011 outside her house at Kapashera on the outskirts of Delhi but lost her way while returning home and strayed towards the farmhouse.

The child was called inside by Singh, who was alone there on duty, and raped, killing her in the process.

The girl's father had lodged a complaint that his daughter was missing, but her body was recovered after two days afterwards in the farmhouse premises.

According to prosecution, Bharat, after realising that the girl was dead, threw her body at a secluded spot inside the compound, for the fear of being spotted by workers, engaged in road construction outside.

PM rules out business as usual as India turns up heat on Pak

India toughened its stance sharply against Pakistan on Tuesday, suspending an easier visa regime for visitors from across the border and asking their hockey players to leave the country as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh delivered a stern warning. “After this barbaric act, there can’t be business as usual with Pakistan," the normally dovish PM said, breaking his silence on the murder of two Indian soldiers by the Pakistan army.

He was speaking after the government decided, at the last minute, to put on hold a scheme to issue visas on arrival for elderly Pakistanis. The new visa regime is touted as the most tangible outcome of the peace process resumed in 2010.

Singh’s words, and the visa move, suggest that the government is beginning to echo the belligerence of its armed forces.

Talking to journalists at a reception hosted by army chief General Bikram Singh to mark Army Day, the PM said those responsible for the crime would have to be brought to book.

The PM also briefed President Pranab Mukherjee on the developments. India alleges Pakistan crossed the Line of Control and mutilated the bodies of the soldiers it killed, decamping with the head of one of them.

The attack has provoked fury in India, with opposition leader Sushma Swaraj calling for 10 Pakistani heads in response, and the army vowing to retaliate at a time and place of its choosing.

At 8.15pm firing started at Mendhar sector, the place where the two jawans were killed. Exchange of fire across the border has been a feature of the past week.

External affairs minister Salman Khurshid told a news conference that the Pakistan Army's actions constituted "grave provocation and lead us to draw conclusions about Pakistan's seriousness in pursing normalisation of relations with India." At a time when the most crucial confidence building measure (CBM) between the two countries — the November 2003 ceasefire — has come under strain, the fate of other CBMs such as cross-border trade, travel and sports hangs in the balance.

'Army has 'definite plan' to avenge LoC killings' | Pak violates ceasefire again, India doesn't retaliate

The Indian Hockey League said nine Pakistani players would be asked to return to their country. The Indian cricket board may shift a match the Pakistan women's cricket team is due to play in the women's world cup in Mumbai, a stronghold of the right-wing Shiv Sena.

Pakistan, for its part, may call off its commerce minister's visit to India on January 27.