Japan pledges $5bln for Afghanistan over five years

Media reports said the government also pledged two billion dollars in assistance for neighbouring Pakistan in a decision that came days before US President Barack Obama visits Tokyo on Friday and Saturday.

‘The government decided to extend five billion dollars in assistance to Afghanistan over the next five years,’ said a Jiji Press news agency report that was confirmed by a foreign ministry official.

The cabinet of centre-left Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama early Tuesday agreed the plan for the aid, likely to be disbursed through international organisations such as the UN Development Programme.

The main pillar is assistance, such as job training, to help former Taliban soldiers return to society, and the redevelopment of the capital city of Kabul, said Jiji and other media reports.

Since coming to power in September, Japan’s government has said it will end a naval refuelling mission that has supported the US-led campaign in Afghanistan, but has promised to step up aid instead.

Jiji said Hatoyama will explain the content of the assistance package at a summit with Obama on Friday.

Nobel-winning Russian physicist professor Vitaly Ginzburg dies at 93

Ginzburg died late Sunday of cardiac arrest, the Russian Academy of Sciences said Monday.

Ginsburg won the 2003 Nobel Prize in physics with two other scientists for their contribution to theories on superconductivity, the ability of some materials to conduct electricity without resistance.

In the early 1950s, Ginzburg worked on the government project that developed the Soviet hydrogen bomb, for which he won the Stalin prize and was showered with benefits and accolades.

In a career that spanned seven decades, Ginzburg authored several groundbreaking studies in various fields, such as quantum theory, astrophysics, radio-astronomy and diffusion of cosmic radiation in the Earth's atmosphere, that were of 'Nobel Prize caliber,' said Gennady Mesyats, the director of the Lebedev Physics Institute in Moscow, where Ginzburg worked.

'I can hardly list all the fields of physics to which he contributed ,' Mesyats said in televised comments Monday.

Ginzburg was born into a Jewish family in 1916, a year before the Bolshevik Revolution, and grew up in times of economic degradation and hunger, according to his autobiography written for the Nobel Prize Committee.

His career began in the late 1930s, a time of Stalinist purges and pervasive anti-Semitism. Ginzburg was blacklisted and faced persecution, but 'was saved by the hydrogen bomb,' he wrote in the autobiography.

He became a member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences in 1953. He also was a longtime editor of a leading scientific magazine on theoretical physics and educated hundreds of disciples.

A vehement atheist, Ginzburg strongly opposed the growing role of the Russian Orthodox Church in state affairs after the 1991 Soviet collapse, protesting its attempts to have a say in political and secular matters and introduce religious lessons in schools.

'By teaching religion in schools, these Orthodox scoundrels want to lure away children's souls,' he told a Russian newspaper in 2007.

Several Orthodox Christian groups threatened to sue him for 'offending millions of Russian Christians.'

After receiving the Nobel prize, Ginzburg said he had given up hope of winning it after having been nominated regularly for the past 30 years.

'I had long ago forgotten to think about this,' he said. Despite his age, Ginzburg remained active as a scientist and public figure.

He also was a staunch believer in the global triumph of democracy and 'secular humanism' to help overcome such threats as terrorism, poverty and AIDS.

'I am still inclined to believe in the brilliant future of mankind,' he said in the autobiography.

Ginzburg will be buried this week in the Novodevichye Cemetery in Moscow, the resting place of many of Russia's most famous political, scientific and cultural figures.

New Zealand clinch series despite Aamir, Ajmal heroics

ABU DHABI: New Zealand survived Mohammad Aamir's explosive half-century to clinch the series against Pakistan with a narrow seven-run victory in the third one-day international here on Monday.

Aamir, 17, hit an unbeaten 73 for his maiden half-century —the highest score by a number ten batsman in a one-day international —to bring Pakistan, chasing 212, close to an unexpected victory after they were 101-9.

Pakistan were bowled out for 204, giving New Zealand a sensational 2-1 victory in the three-match series. Pakistan won the first match by 138 runs on Tuesday before New Zealand levelled the series with a 64-run win on Friday.

Aamir and Ajmal added a Pakistan record of 103 for tenth wicket but, needing eight off the last over bowled by Jacob Oram, Ajmal holed out for a career-best 33 to end a sensational match.

The previous highest one-day score for a number ten batsman was 56 not out, made by Zimbabwe's Douglas Marillier against India at New Delhi in 2002.

When Ajmal joined Aamir Pakistan needed a mammoth-looking 112 runs in 16.5 overs, but Aamir set the tempo for an unexpected win by hitting Daniel Vettori for three sixes in one over.

Slowly and gradually, he and Ajmal approached the target, beating the previous tenth wicket partnership record by Pakistan in all one-day of 72 by Abdul Razzaq and Waqar Younis against South Africa at Durban in 1998.

Aamir, who hit seven boundaries and three sixes during his 81-ball knock, improved on his previous highest score of 24 made against Sri Lanka earlier this year.

In the end New Zealand kept their nerves and did not spoil the early good work by bowlers which saw Pakistan slump from 47- to 101-9.

Earlier, off-spinner Ajmal took a career-best 4-33 to raise hopes of a Pakistan win but Salman Butt (25), Khalid Latif (19), Umer Akmal (12) and Shoaib Malik (11) threw away wickets.

Pakistan got off to a solid 47-run start before Vettori triggered a slump, trapping Latif leg-before in the ninth over. That started the slump.

Captain Younus Khan continued his wretched form, edging Shane Bond to slips after making just three. In the previous over, Younus misjudged a single which resulted in Butt's run out.

Umer Akmal (12), Malik (11), Afridi (five) and Akmal (four) played reckless shots as Pakistan slumped badly.

Earlier Brendon McCullum, who scored a brilliant hundred on Friday, stood out once again with an aggressive 78-ball 76 which included three sixes and six boundaries.

New Zealand were well on course for a big score but once McCullum got out, caught and bowled by Shoaib Malik, Pakistani spinners led by Ajmal sparked a middle-order collapse to take last seven wickets for 47 runs.

New Zealand had raced to 72 by the 12th over, with McCullum reaching his fifty off just 47 balls.

It was paceman Umar Gul who provided the breakthrough, removing opener Aaron Redmond caught off Aamir for 21. This was Gul's 100th wicket in 67 one-day internationals.

Ajmal then came into his own, removing Martin Guptill (eight), Ross Taylor (44), Daniel Vettori (15) and Jacob Oram (two) to improve on his best one-day figures of 2-16 against the West Indies at Johannesburg in September this year.

Ross Taylor, who failed to score in the first two matches, helped McCullum add 50 for the third wicket before Ajmal trapped him leg-before.

Both teams now move to Dubai where they play two Twenty20 matches on November 12 and 13.

Germany celebrates fall of Berlin Wall

With prayers, music and pomp, Germany on Monday, 9 Nov, 2009 remembered the 20th anniversary of the day the Berlin Wall fell, sending East Germans flooding west and setting in motion events that soon led to the country's reunification.

Merkel asks US to cast aside unilateralism

BERLIN: The United States should cede some of its powers to international organisations to create a ‘world order’, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday in an unusually sharp criticism of Washington before she led world leaders through the Brandenburg Gate — the climax of ceremonies marking 20 years since the Berlin Wall came crashing down in 1989.

‘We Europeans are used to this.... We have voluntarily given up many of our powers to Brussels and to the European Union,’ said the German chancellor.

‘But our American partners find it much more difficult to hand over powers to the International Monetary Fund or to any other international organisation,’ she said.

Within the EU, Germany has become used to accepting the will of the majority, even if it does not agree, but this has not yet lodged itself in the American psyche, she added.

‘What we need today is a much more multi-polar vision than that to which we have become accustomed,’ the chancellor said.’ This world will only be a peaceful and good world if we have more of a world order and more multilateral cooperation,’ she said.

On a recent trip to Washington, Angela Merkel received one of her greatest honours and biggest embarrassments in the space of a few hours.

She was the first German leader to address a joint session of Congress but, soon afterwards, she learned of an abrupt about-turn by car maker General Motors which was supposed to sell Germany’s Opel to her preferred bidder but decided to keep it instead.

Washington said the White House had played no part in the decision, but the German press described it as a bitter slap in the face for the chancellor.

Fall remembered

Ms Merkel, who grew up in communist East Germany, marched through the historic Brandenburg Gate with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Presidents Nicolas Sarkozy of France and Dmitry Medvedev of Russia, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and representatives from across the European Union.

The leaders joined more than 100,000 revellers who thronged the monument despite a steady cold drizzle.

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and ex-Polish president Lech Walesa also appeared at the landmark, which now stands as the symbol of German unity.

‘It is not only a day of celebration for Germans,’ Ms Merkel said of the anniversary. ‘It is a day of celebration for the whole of Europe.’

In a surprise video address beamed into the ceremonies, US President Barack Obama said he still took inspiration from the courage of East Germans who stood up against their oppressive regime.

‘Few would have foreseen ... that a united Germany would be led by a woman from (the east German state) Brandenburg or that their American ally would be led by a man of African descent,’ he said.

‘But human destiny is what human beings make of it.’

But Russian President Dmitry Medvedev sounded a sour note, saying the end of the Cold War did not justify any nation’s global dominance, in a clear swipe at the United States.

‘The transition to a new multipolar world is today very important for most countries, for all the countries in Europe and the world,’ he said.

Medvedev said Russia had often felt on the back foot since the Wall fell, despite assurances at the time that NATO would not expand eastward, as it since has.

‘We were hoping the disappearance of the Warsaw Pact would be accompanied by a different degree of Russia’s integration into common European space,’ he added.

‘What have we received as a result? Nato is still a bloc whose rockets are targeting the Russian territory.’

British prime Minister Gordon Brown called the unity of Berlin, Germany and Europe ‘majestic’ achievements.

The Wall ‘was swept away by the greatest force of all -- the unbreakable spirit of men and women who dared to dream in the darkness,’ he said.

French President Nikolas Sarkozy said the global community still needed to live up to the promise of that euphoric night.

‘The fall of the Berlin Wall is an appeal, an appeal to all to vanquish oppression, to knock down the walls that throughout the world still divide towns, territories, peoples,’ he said.

Crowds surged to hear Berlin’s renowned State Opera orchestra play strains of Beethoven and Wagner and cheered the symbolic toppling of 1,000 giant styrofoam dominoes along two kilometres of the Wall’s former course, where border guards once had shoot-to-kill orders.

At least 136 people who tried to cross it were killed during the 28 years it stood. The Wall was raised in Aug 1961by the erstwhile East German government in an attempt to stop immigration to the West.

Following weeks of protests against the regime, East German authorities suddenly allowed people to travel to the West on the now epochal night of Nov 9, 1989.

After almost three decades as prisoners in their own country, stunned East Germans streamed to checkpoints and rushed past bewildered guards, many falling tearfully into the arms of West Germans on the other side.

Easterner Christel Schneider, now a 62-year-old bank employee, said the mood that night was electrifying.

‘I crossed the border into the West -- it was madness,’ she said, still breathless from the memories. ‘There were so many people that we were driving at a snail’s pace.’

US, Pakistan negotiate deal on nuke security

WASHINGTON: The United States has been negotiating highly sensitive understandings with the Pakistani military about the security of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal, investigative journalist Seymour Hersh reported in the latest issue of The New Yorker magazine.

The journalist wrote that during meetings with current and former officials in Washington and Islamabad, he was told that the agreements would allow specially trained American units to provide added security for the Pakistani arsenal in case of a crisis.

At the same time, the Pakistani military would be given money to equip and train Pakistani soldiers and to improve their housing and facilities, the report says.

The principal fear was that extremists inside the Pakistani military might stage a coup, take control of some nuclear assets, or even divert a warhead, Hersh notes.

The Pakistani nuclear doctrine calls for the warheads and their triggers to be stored separately from each other, and from their delivery devices.

The arrangement serves as a safeguard in case of a quickly escalating confrontation with India but also makes the weapons vulnerable during shipment and reassembly, the report points out.

‘We give comfort to each other, and the comfort level is good, because everybody respects everybody’s integrity,’ Hersh quoted Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari as telling him in an interview about the security relationship with Washington.

‘Our Army officers are not crazy, like the Taliban,’ Zardari went on to say. ‘A mutiny would never happen in Pakistan. It’s a fear being spread by the few who seek to scare the many.’

Meanwhile, former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf acknowledged that his government had given US State Department non-proliferation experts insight into the command and control of the Pakistani arsenal and its on-site safety and security procedures, the report said.

Who Is a Jew? Court Ruling in Britain Raises Question

LONDON — The questions before the judges in Courtroom No. 1 of Britain’s Supreme Court were as ancient and as complex as Judaism itself.

Who is a Jew? And who gets to decide?

On the surface, the court was considering a straightforward challenge to the admissions policy of a Jewish high school in London. But the case, in which arguments concluded Oct. 30, has potential repercussions for thousands of other parochial schools across Britain. And in addressing issues at the heart of Jewish identity, it has exposed bitter divisions in Britain’s community of 300,000 or so Jews, pitting members of various Jewish denominations against one another.

“This is potentially the biggest case in the British Jewish community’s modern history,” said Stephen Pollard, editor of the Jewish Chronicle newspaper here. “It speaks directly to the right of the state to intervene in how a religion operates.”

The case began when a 12-year-old boy, an observant Jew whose father is Jewish and whose mother is a Jewish convert, applied to the school, JFS. Founded in 1732 as the Jews’ Free School, it is a centerpiece of North London’s Jewish community. It has around 1,900 students, but it gets far more applicants than it accepts.

Britain has nearly 7,000 publicly financed religious schools, representing Judaism as well as the Church of England, Catholicism and Islam, among others. Under a 2006 law, the schools can in busy years give preference to applicants within their own faiths, using criteria laid down by a designated religious authority.

By many standards, the JFS applicant, identified in court papers as “M,” is Jewish. But not in the eyes of the school, which defines Judaism under the Orthodox definition set out by Jonathan Sacks, chief rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth. Because M’s mother converted in a progressive, not an Orthodox, synagogue, the school said, she was not a Jew — nor was her son. It turned down his application.

That would have been the end of it. But M’s family sued, saying that the school had discriminated against him. They lost, but the ruling was overturned by the Court of Appeal this summer.

In an explosive decision, the court concluded that basing school admissions on a classic test of Judaism — whether one’s mother is Jewish — was by definition discriminatory. Whether the rationale was “benign or malignant, theological or supremacist,” the court wrote, “makes it no less and no more unlawful.”

The case rested on whether the school’s test of Jewishness was based on religion, which would be legal, or on race or ethnicity, which would not. The court ruled that it was an ethnic test because it concerned the status of M’s mother rather than whether M considered himself Jewish and practiced Judaism.

“The requirement that if a pupil is to qualify for admission his mother must be Jewish, whether by descent or conversion, is a test of ethnicity which contravenes the Race Relations Act,” the court said. It added that while it was fair that Jewish schools should give preference to Jewish children, the admissions criteria must depend not on family ties, but “on faith, however defined.”

The same reasoning would apply to a Christian school that “refused to admit a child on the ground that, albeit practicing Christians, the child’s family were of Jewish origin,” the court said.

The school appealed to the Supreme Court, which is likely to rule sometime before the end of the year.

The case’s importance was driven home by the sheer number of lawyers in the courtroom last week, representing not just M’s family and the school, but also the British government, the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, the United Synagogue, the British Humanist Association and the Board of Deputies of British Jews.

Meanwhile, the Court of Appeal ruling threw the school into a panicked scramble to put together a new admissions policy. It introduced a “religious practice test,” in which prospective students amass points for things like going to synagogue and doing charitable work.