CHICAGO: Officially, NATO meetings in Chicago this weekend will focus on the alliance’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, improved military co-operation between the allies and missile defence. Unofficially the crucial issue is cash.

Speaking at a briefing in Washington earlier this week, Nicholas Burns, a former US ambassador to NATO, said Americans were tired of being ”defence providers” to Europe’s ”defence consumers”. He noted that America faced its own economic challenges, particularly the so-called ”fiscal cliff” that looms when various economic patches cobbled together by the gridlocked Congress expire at the end of the year.

The United States will implore its European partners, particularly Germany, to spend more on defence in the face of the ongoing eurozone economic crisis, even as the US refocuses its attention on Asia.

In a blunt speech on his retirement last year, the former US secretary of defence Robert Gates said NATO faced a ”dim, if not dismal” future if its European members did not increase their spending and re-assess their political view of the alliance.

Instead the economic crisis has bitten deeper and the continent has embraced, or grudgingly accepted, austerity. Of the 28 member nations only the United States, Greece, Britain, Albania and France, spend the 2 per cent of GDP considered necessary to maintain the alliance’s military capacity.

Noting that his retirement from the foreign service freed him to speak frankly, the now Professor Burns, from the Harvard Kennedy school of government, reserved particular criticism for Germany.

He lamented Germany had failed to support NATO’s successful mission in Libya, failed to use its ties with Russia to assist the US in its attempt to slow Iran’s nuclear program, withheld its troops from the most dangerous areas of combat in Afghanistan and failed as Europe’s economic power to demonstrate military or political leadership.

A report, co-written by Professor Burns, found European officials contacted by the authors universally called for Germany to engage further. ”I will probably be the first Polish foreign minister in history to say so, but here it is: I fear German power less than I am beginning to fear its inactivity,” Radek Sikorski was quoted as saying in the Anchoring the Alliance report, which was prepared for the leading Washington think tank the Atlantic Council.

The report said: ”Today Germany is an economic powerhouse but a second-rate political and military power. German weakness is NATO’s most significant problem.”

The report found that while the operation against Libya demonstrated the alliance’s relevance and capacity, it also revealed its weakness.

While Professor Burns applauded the Obama administration for its diplomatic success in having NATO’s European members lead the bombing campaign that bought down the Gaddafi regime, he said it was of concern Europe could not mount the operation without American ordnance and surveillance.

But the report was enthusiastic of the expanding role of non-NATO partnership countries, such as Australia, which was, it noted, among a small group of countries that contributed ”real combat or niche capabilities to the mission” in Afghanistan.

Professor Burns said closer ties to NATO would have significant benefits for Australia ”You had to deploy to Afghanistan, and yet you had no say in the nature of that engagement,” he said. ”You should be in on the take-off if your troops are going into harms’ way.” He said Australians benefited from exercising or deploying alongside European nations, but had no obligation to do so.

”It is the best of both worlds. Your country would not be obligated to fight or to train with us. It would be your call. But we have noticed that every time NATO deploys Australia is there as a great, great friend of the United States.

”So we are not calling for Australia to join NATO. We are calling for a partnership to develop … where Australia trains with [say] Germany and with Britain and with France.

”Let’s say there is another disaster the way there was in December ’04. What happened on December 26, 2004? Australia, the United States, India and Japan deployed together to help the people of Aceh because we had exercised together.”

Professor Burns also criticised the United States, which he said should have included its European allies in its so-called ”pivot” to Asia. Speaking with the Herald in Chicago, Australia’s ambassador to the European Union and NATO, Brendan Nelson, agreed.

He said Australia’s experience fighting alongside NATO forces in Afghanistan in support of the US alliance was made more difficult because Australia had no experience of operating with the European forces. ”If we end up with another situation like Afghanistan where we decided it is in our interested to get involved, we will not have those problems.”

He said the broadening ties of the NATO partnership countries with the alliance opened up new doors for political and military diplomacy in Europe, and they served as a forum to explain Asian regional concerns.

Mr Nelson said Australia’s interests were served by global peace, which a strong NATO encouraged.

”We cannot be secure in an insecure world,” he said. ”Our security relates to our borders, and our region; also we are looking to global security.”

The increased formalisation of ties between NATO and partnership countries will be discussed at a meeting on Monday to be addressed by the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard. Those countries that took part in the International Security Assistance Force, including Australia, will also discuss further plans for the withdrawal from Afghanistan by 2014, and how much assistance will be given to the nation once ISAF has disbanded.

Ms Gillard has already pledged $300 million over three years.

While tensions within NATO over defence spending will be addressed this weekend, the member nations will also discuss how best to use their resources by military co-operation and specialisation.

Mr Nelson said he had no doubt of NATO’s ongoing relevance. ”Anyone who doubts just has to look at the photos of the carcasses of tanks on the road to Benghazi to see that NATO prevented a humanitarian disaster.”

Later this year, NATO’s Secretary General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, will travel to Australia to sign a ”high level political declaration” further formalising ties with the alliance.

TEHRAN: As diplomats prepare for talks on Iran’s nuclear ambitions next week in Baghdad, the Islamic Republic said Saturday that sanctions against the country would have to be lifted for discussions to go smoothly. A spokesman for the country’s foreign ministry said that the sanctions imposed by the West are without legal justification and that “no one in Iran is happy about the sanctions.” Iran, which denies the effectiveness of sanctions, has recently grown more aggressive with its demands that punitive measures against its trade and banking entities be lifted. “If the West thinks we will give up our rights due to sanctions, they are definitely mistaken,” the spokesman said.

 DAMASCUS: An explosive-laden vehicle went off in Syria’s eastern Dier al-Zour province on Saturday, targeting a parking lot of military, housing establishment, and casing unspecified number of casualties, pro-government al-Ekhbaria TV reported.

The blast occurred at Masaken Ghazi Ayyash area, said the report, disclosing no further details.

An opposition group, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, reported that the car bomb went off near where the city branches of the Military Intelligence Directorate and Air Force Intelligence are located.

Security agencies in several Syrian cities have been targeted by a wave of explosions since late last year, raising fears that al Qaeda-linked Islamist militants, possibly including fighters from neighbouring Iraq, have made strong inroads into Syria’s rebel movement.

Deir el-Zour is about 100 kilometres (60 miles) from the Iraqi border. Saturday’s blast came a day after the state-run news agency SANA reported that authorities foiled an attempt to blow up a car rigged with explosives in the city and detained those involved

ALEPPO: Regime forces fired on protesters who took to the streets of Aleppo on Friday, wounding several people at the biggest rally seen in Syria’s second city since a revolt erupted last year, a watchdog said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said demonstrators also suffered gunshot wounds in Douma, a key protest hub near Damascus, but did not provide any casualty figures.

“Thousands of people demonstrated in various districts (of Aleppo) despite the repression,” said Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

“These are the most important events in Aleppo since the beginning of the revolt,” he told AFP in Beirut.

Meanwhile, the government said it had foiled a suicide bomb attack in Aleppo on May 11, a day after twin bombings in Damascus killed 55 people and wounded nearly 400. It has repeatedly blamed such attacks on “terrorists”.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon said on Thursday he believed Al-Qaeda committed the Damascus attack.

“Very alarmingly and surprisingly, a few days ago, there was a huge serious massive terrorist attack. I believe that there must be Al-Qaeda behind it.”

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, as well as the United States and Russia, has already pointed to an Al-Qaeda presence in the country since the revolt against his regime began.

On Friday, Ban spokesman Martin Nesiry said there was no hard proof of that, but that the “Damascus attacks were clearly carried out by a group with organisation and intent. Some of the attacks we have seen clearly bear some of the terrorist hallmarks with which we are familiar from elsewhere.”

On the ground, the Observatory said at least 11 people died in violence across the country on Friday.

Besides Aleppo, protests demanding the ouster of Assad also took place in Damascus, the eastern city of Deir Ezzor, northeastern Hasaka, Homs in central Syria, and northwestern Idlib, said the Britain-based Observatory.

The Observatory said tens of thousands of people rallied across the country, in the biggest demonstrations since an April 12 ceasefire which has been violated on a daily basis.

“We want freedom, whether you like it or not, Bashar, enemy of humanity,” protesters chanted in Deir Ezzor.

The rallies came after a call by activists for Syria-wide protests under the rallying cry, “heroes of Aleppo University”, in solidarity with students in the northern city who demonstrated there the day before despite brutal repression.

On Thursday, the students were met with brutal repression by security forces, despite the presence of UN military observers, who now number more than 250 across the country out of the total of 300.

One protester was killed in a separate demonstration Thursday night in the Aleppo neighbourhood of Salaheddin, according to the Observatory, while an officer was killed in a bomb explosion in the city on Friday.

Violence persisted elsewhere, with regime forces renewing their bombardment of Rastan in central Homs province on Friday, according to the Observatory, only a day after a blistering assault on the rebel stronghold.

Heavy gunfire and shelling was reported in several neighbourhoods of Homs city, said the watchdog.

Artillery attacks on towns have declined since the UN observer mission began deploying in mid-April, but the death toll is still high.

With the violence unabated, UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan plans to return to Damascus soon to further efforts to find a peaceful solution to the crisis, his spokesman said on Friday, without saying when.

The head of the UN observers’ mission, Major General Robert Mood, told reporters in Damascus his mission “will reach full operational capabilities in record time”.

But he acknowledged that, “No volume of observers can achieve a progressive drop and a permanent end to the violence if the commitment to give dialogue a chance is not genuine from all internal and external factors”.

In an apparent first, Syrian authorities have sentenced to death for “treason” an activist who was arrested in April and “brutally tortured”, the Syrian League of the Defence of Human Rights said.

In other developments, shelling between two pro- and anti-Assad neighbourhoods in the northern Lebanese port city of Tripoli left three people wounded, officials and hospital sources said.

Meanwhile, a top UNESCO official warned that experts had been unable to assess damage to historic treasures in Syria due to the uprising.

And Canada tightened its sanctions, targeting luxury goods believed to be coveted by Assad and his wife, as well as oil exports and Syrian airwaves.

“The ongoing, appalling violence perpetrated by the Assad regime against the people of Syria compels Canada to further isolate the regime and its backers,” Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said in a statement.

The additional measures prohibit the export of jewelry, gems, precious metals, watches, cigarettes, alcoholic beverages, perfume, designer clothing and accessories, furs, sporting goods, private aircraft, gourmet foods, lobster, computers, televisions and other electronic devices to Syria.

Under Canada’s eighth round of Syria sanctions, those cited will be subject to an asset freeze and a prohibition on economic dealings.

The bus was carrying pilgrims to Ajmer Sharief from Sultanpur.

Eyewitness say the bus caught fire immediately after it rammed into the truck making it impossible for passengers to escape.

District Magistrate Kinjal Singh who reached the spot to oversee rescue operations declined to specify how many people might have been inside the 54-seater bus.

The administration arrived very late and villagers nearby had rescued most of the people. Many bodies were charred beyond recognition.

Officials said that prima face it appeared that the bus caught fire possibly due to the explosion of a cooking gas cylinder inside the vehicle. However an inquiry will establish the cause, they added.

Rescuers, using gas-cutters, cut open the twisted metal of the bus to pull out bodies and survivors from inside the vehicle.

QUETTA: The bullet-riddled body of a journalist was found dumped in a deserted area near Turbat city in Kech district on Saturday morning. At least 17 journalists have been killed in Balochistan during the last three years.

Correspondent said that he had been kidnapped from near his house on Friday evening and had been missing since then.

Gul’s body was found near Singani Sar area close to the Old Civil Hospital in Turbat. Law enforcement agencies shifted the body to a state-run hospital for an autopsy, where his brother identified him.

“The victim was shot in the head and chest, and his body bore marks of torture,” hospital sources said.

Gul had received 15 bullets to his head and chest, and had died instantly.

According to journalists in Turbat Press Club, Razzaq Gul had not mentioned that he was receiving death threats. He hadn’t even indicated that his life was in danger.

“He was kidnapped and later his body was dumped,” local journalists said.

Most journalists refused to comment on the killing owing to security reasons.

Acting Inspector General (IG) Police Balochistan Hussain Karar Khwaja has directed an inquiry into the murder.

Balochistan Union of Journalists (BUJ) and Council of All Balochistan Press Club strongly condemned the killing. BUJ also announced three day mourning.

“As many as 17 journalists have been killed during that past three years and not a single murder was properly investigated,” BUJ said in a statement. “This is meant to terrify journalists in Balochistan.”

Council of All Balochistan Press Club said that it will launch a protest campaign by June 1 if culprits behind the murder are not arrested immediately.

A complete shutter down strike is being observed in Tump, Mand, Hoshab and Turbat city to protest the killing of journalists.

Funeral prayers for Razzaq Gul will be held at 1pm today and his burial will take place in his hometown, Singhania Sar.

The number of students and scholars in the university — 9,200 in 32 departments — shows Hazara University’s popularity in the region.

Dr Syed Sakhawat Shah was presiding over the 18th session of the university’s finance committee at the garden campus.

The proposal would be presented for final approval to the university’s syndicates who will discuss it in a meeting likely to be called within two weeks.

The budget proposal, the VC said, carried the approval and establishment of Office for Research Innovation and Commercialisation (ORIC) in the university that would help develop liaison with the researchers of the university and different industrial concerns.

He hoped that ORIC would open new avenues of research and development in the industrial and education sector besides finding jobs for the graduates of the university.

He told the meeting that owing to successful educational and research initiatives, the university has earned good name not only in Pakistan but also abroad.

The number of students and scholars in the university — 9,200 in 32 departments — shows Hazara University’s popularity in the region.

Cuban-American rapper Pitbull was named as one of three pop songwriters of the year at the BMI Pop Music Awards, handed out each year by US performing rights organization Broadcast Music Inc. Pitbull shared the honour with American songwriter and producer Benny Blanco and American singer-songwriter Ester Dean, while Firework (co-written by Dean and Sandy Vee) was designated the pop song of the year, a press release said Wednesday.

The 60th edition of the BMI Pop Awards took place Tuesday night at the Beverly Wilshire hotel in Beverly Hills, California.

Pitbull was recognized for five songs on the most-performed list: DJ Got Us Fallin’ In Love, Give Me Everything, Hey Baby (Drop It to the Floor), I Like It and On the Floor.

On March 30, Pitbull was awarded the coveted BMI President’s Award for his influence in the world of entertainment.

In that same awards ceremony, he was named co-winner of the BMI Latin Songwriter of the Year prize along with Puerto Rican reggaeton duo Wisin & Yandel.

A new Department of Defense report warns that not only is China responsible for many of the cyber attacks on U.S. military computer systems, but that the country continues to launch cyber operations that threaten the U.S. economy as well, making the Chinese “the world’s most active and persistent perpetrators of economic espionage.”

These developments are “something we continue to pay very, very close attention to,” David Helvey, acting deputy assistant secretary of Defense for Asia security, said Friday. “I think their continued efforts in this area reflect the importance that they’re placing on developing capabilities for cyber warfare.”

True, China is particularly interested in how best to defend its own computer networks, but more troubling, senior defense officials say, is that the Chinese military is bettering its ability to launch cyber attacks as well.

“We note that China’s investing in not only capabilities to better defend their networks, but also they’re looking at ways to use cyber for offensive operations,” added Mr. Helvey during a Pentagon briefing.

The People’s Liberation Army has set up a dedicated cyber unit to develop cyber warfare technologies. “There is the potential for these types of operations to be very disruptive,” he added. “I mean, that’s one of the things about military operations in cyberspace – that there can be cascading effects that are hard to predict.”