US readies $60 bln Saudi weapons shopping list

WASHINGTON:  American President Barack Obama's administration will soon notify Congress of plans to offer advanced military aircraft to Saudi Arabia in a massive deal worth up to 60 billion dollars, congressional sources said Monday.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the transaction has not yet been formally announced, said the package would include 84 new Boeing Co F-15 fighter jets and upgrades to another 70 of them.

It would also include 72 Black Hawk helicopters built by Sikorsky Aircraft, a unit of United Technologies Corp.

The official also confirmed a Wall Street Journal report about the deal but warned that key U.S. lawmakers would block the move.

"You can fully expect that a hold will be placed on this deal," thought to be the largest ever arms sale of its kind, said a senior congressional source.

"There is serious concern about some sensitive material which is expected to be included in the deal," said another source, who told AFP that Obama aides would brief congressional staff on the deal on Monday.

Earlier on Monday, Pentagon spokesman Colonel Dave Lapan said he expected Congress would receive official notification of the long-anticipated Saudi deal within the next week or so.

Lapan declined to comment on details, however, saying Congress needed to be notified first.

The senior defense official said the U.S.-Saudi arms deal also included 70 of Boeing's Apache helicopters and 36 Little Birds.

The United States and Saudi Arabia were also discussing a package for the kingdom's navy, potentially worth $30 billion, but the timing of that deal was unclear and would not be included in the upcoming congressional notification, the official said.

Upon congressional notification, lawmakers get 30 days to object to the deal. But notifications are usually not sent unless lawmakers have already broadly agreed to the sale.

Saudi Arabia was the biggest buyer of U.S. weapons during a four-year span of 2005 through 2008, with $11.2 billion in deals, according to the U.S. Congressional Research Service.

Pakistan floods worse than 2004 Tsunami: UN

ISLAMABAD: The United Nations said Monday that massive floods in Pakistan had affected 13.8 million people and eclipsed the scale of the devastating 2004 tsunami, as anger mounted among survivors.

The Pakistani government and U.N. officials have appealed for more urgent relief efforts to cope with the worst floods in more than 80 years, with President Asif Ali Zardari due to return home after a heavily criticized European tour.

The entire northwestern Swat valley, where Pakistan fought a major campaign to flush out Taliban insurgents last year, was cut off at the weekend as were parts of the country's breadbasket in Punjab and Sindh.

"This disaster is worse than the tsunami, the 2005 Pakistan earthquake and the Haiti earthquake," Maurizio Giuliano, a spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.

He said the 13.8 million affected outstripped the more than three million hit by the 2005 earthquake, five million in the tsunami and the three million affected by the Haiti earthquake.

The United Nations estimates 1,600 people have died in Pakistan's floods. About 220,000 were killed by the Dec. 26, 2004 tsunami in Southeast Asia.

Martin Mogwanja, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator in Pakistan, called on relief operations "to be massively scaled up."
"Millions of people have suffered and still there is more rain and further losses are feared. I appeal to the world to help us," Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told reporters.

Foreign donors including the United States have pledged tens of millions of dollars in aid but, on the ground, Islamic charities with suspected extremist links have been far more visible in the relief effort than the government.

Deaths From Pakistan Floods May Reach 3,000, Rescue Service Official Says

PAKISTAN:The local head of Pakistan’s largest rescue service said the death toll from flash floods in the country could reach thousands in the next few days.

Already, over 800 deaths have been reported because of the devastation brought by the floods in the country’s northwest.

“The death toll could go as high as 3,000 because the level of destruction has been so great,” Mujahid Khan, chief spokesman for Edhi rescue service, the country’s biggest, said by telephone from Peshawar today. Khan later said the number of fatalities was now 817.

The flooding deaths come after 152 people died when a plane crashed in heavy rain near the capital on July 28. Homes and bridges have collapsed in the rain, live electric wires have fallen into the waters and families have been swept away in the floods.

“We can see people drowning but we can’t go into the water because of its high pressure,” Khan said yesterday. “The relief efforts of everyone combined is only 5 percent of what’s required.”

Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, who toured the stricken province by air, ordered his government to rescue people and provide food supplies to those at safe locations.

Evacuation

Floods may reach the southern province of Sindh within the next few days, Information Minister Sumsam Bokhari told a news conference in Islamabad. The Sindh government has ordered residents along the banks of the River Indus to be evacuated.

Army troops equipped with life jackets, motorboats and heavy rafts were called in yesterday to help move families to safety, according to a statement on the military website.

Pakistani television channels showed images of people on flooded roads grabbing wreckage to keep from being swept away, drowning goats and buffalo, and makeshift boats.

“All the houses in my village have been destroyed and now it’s simply a fight for survival,” Mehmood Khan, a tribal elder, said by telephone from Wana, South Waziristan yesterday. “Food supplies have started to run out. We haven’t eaten in 48 hours and the scant food supplies we saved for women and children may not last long.”

The districts of Nowshera, Charsadda, Peshawar, Swat, and Lower Dir are the worst-affected, according to the government.

The first spell of the monsoon started on July 22 and affected the western province of Baluchistan, according to the National Disaster Management Agency in Islamabad

Spain parliament rejects burqa ban propsal.

MADRID: Spain's Parliament rejected Tuesday a proposal to ban women wearing the face veil in public places, citing protection of personal freedoms.

The proposal to ban women from wearing a veil that only reveals the eyes was presented by the leading opposition Popular Party on the grounds that the outfit, also called burqa, violates the rights of women and undermines their dignity.
Following a debate that took place in the parliament's lower chamber, 162 MPs voted for the ban, 183 opposed it, and two abstained.

According to the Popular Party, the proposal was put forward "in defense of the dignity and equality of all women" and to make sure Muslim women are not being forced by their husbands to become fully veiled.

"It is very difficult to understand how it is that our troops are defending liberty in Afghanistan and the government doesn't have the courage to do so here, in Spain," said opposition spokeswoman Soraya Saenz de Santamaria.

Some analysts argue that the main purpose of the proposal is strengthening the opposition amid the economic problems with which the government of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has been plighted.

"This has been used politically in a search for electoral support," said Mansur Escudero, president of the Islamic Commission of Spain.

He added that the last time he had seen a fully veiled women in Spain was 10 years ago in the southern city of Marbella, where several wealthy Arabs own houses, and that this woman might have been a tourist.

"The only woman I knew who regularly wore a burqa had lived in the southern city of Cordoba and died about a decade ago."

None of the opposition spokesmen had been able to cite a place in Spain where women routinely wear face-covering veils.

BP selling Pakistan assets to pay for oil spill

KARACHI: BP Plc plans to divest its exploration and production operations in Pakistan, as part of a plan to sell global assets to help pay for the worst oil spill in US history, a BP official said on Tuesday.

"This process should be completed by December 2010," said Sabeen Jatoi, the BP spokesperson.

"Pricing will be a matter for bidders. ... We will not be selling at a price that does not represent a good deal for BP shareholders."

However, there are no bidders right now and BP is setting up its dataroom in Pakistan after which bidders will come forward as with any acquisition, Jatoi added.

BP unveiled plans last month for about $10 billion in asset sales following the oil spill which has caused an economic and environmental disaster in five US states along the Gulf Coast.

BP said in a statement that it had spent $3.95 billion on efforts to cap the well and clean up the spill.