CIA cancels Blackwater drone missile-loading contract

Drones have been used to target militants in Pakistan and Afghanistan
The CIA has cancelled a contract with US private security firm Blackwater for its operatives to load bombs onto drone aircraft in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
CIA Director Leon Panetta wanted such work to be done by the organisation's own employees only, officials said.
The New York Times revealed the existence of the secret contract with Blackwater, renamed Xe, in August.
On Thursday, the paper also reported that Xe employees had been involved in "snatch-and-grab operations" in Iraq.
Xe, based in North Carolina, changed its name from Blackwater after several of its employees were accused of killing 17 civilians in a shooting incident in Baghdad in September 2007.
Four men are due to stand trial next year.
'Joint operations'
Earlier this year, Mr Panetta ordered a review of the company's contacts to be sure its operatives were only performing security-related work, intelligence officials said on Friday.
At this time, Blackwater is not involved in any CIA operations other than in a security or support role
CIA spokesman George Little
Afterwards, a contract with Blackwater Select, a division which handles classified operations, to load missiles onto CIA Predator drones in Pakistan and Afghanistan was cancelled, they added.
A CIA spokesman, George Little, said Mr Panetta had since ordered that the agency's employees take over the task.
"At this time, Blackwater is not involved in any CIA operations other than in a security or support role," he told the New York Times.
The statement came a day after the paper quoted various unnamed current and former Blackwater staff as saying that in Iraq between 2004 and 2006, colleagues were involved in raids on suspected militants almost every night.
They said that, at one point, joint operations in Iraq and Afghanistan became so routine that Blackwater personnel sometimes were partners in missions instead of just providing security for CIA officers.
Former Blackwater employees also alleged that they provided security on some CIA rendition flights transporting detainees between prisons in different countries.
One former CIA officer was quoted as saying: "There was a feeling that Blackwater eventually became an extension of the agency."
Xe has insisted it was "never under contract to participate in covert raids with CIA or Special Operations personnel in Iraq, Afghanistan or anywhere else".
"Any allegation to the contrary by any news organisation would be false."

Pakistan must cooperate with US to wipe out Al-Qaeda: Obama

US President Barack Obama said that Pakistan must cooperate more fully with the United States to help wipe out Al-Qaeda.In the interview with a US television, Obama said the tribal territories that straddle the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan were the ‘epicenter of the violent extremism directed against the West and the United States.’‘Ultimately, in order for us to eradicate the problem, to really go after Al-Qaeda, we are going to need more cooperation from Pakistan. There is no doubt about that,’ Obama added.He was speaking as reports emerged that the United States unleashed on Tuesday a drone strike in northwest Pakistan, which a US official told had killed a senior Al-Qaeda leader.

Sri Lanka Tamil refugee camps 'to be opened next month'

An aide to the president also confirmed a pledge to close the facilities, which house more than 130,000 people.
They were set up in the country's north for Tamils fleeing the final stages of the civil war, which ended in May.
Sri Lanka has drawn strong international criticism for holding people in the camps against their will.
The latest government announcement was made by the special adviser to President Mahinda Rajapaksa, his brother Basil, on a visit to the largest camp, Menik Farm.
On Thursday UN humanitarian chief John Holmes urged Sri Lanka to allow them to leave, following a visit to the camp.

India in new anti-Maoist strategy

Officials say state police are to take the lead in co-ordinating operations against the Maoists, while central forces are only to lend assistance.
The decision came hours after at least 17 policemen were killed in a battle with Maoist insurgents in the western state of Maharashtra.
India says that Maoist insurgents pose its biggest security threat.
They operate in many states and say they are fighting for the rights of the poor and landless.
Remanded
Maoists have a presence in over 223 of India's 600-odd districts across 20 states, according to the government.
Around 70,000 central paramilitary troops along with elite commando and special forces will be deployed in the upcoming operation against the rebels.
The troops will be provided cover by the army and armoured air force helicopters.
A senior government official told the BBC that the operation is to be launched within weeks to "wipe out the top leadership" of the rebels and secure some 40,000 sq km of territory that is being held by them.
The government believes there are less than 20 top rebel leaders, nearly 30 commanders, and some 12,000 cadres.
A senior home ministry official pointed out that last month the government managed to arrest top Maoist leaders Amit Bagchi and Kobad Ghandy, taking the total number of arrested "politburo members" to seven.
The Maoist leadership has consistently maintained that their strength has been "overestimated" by the government.
What is not contested is that areas where the insurgents wield most influence are mostly poor and dominated by tribes people. They are also areas widely seen as being rich in mineral wealth which the Maoists say is being handed over to corporate firms while the poor remain deprived.

NASA bombs the moon surface in search of water

At 1130 GMT the LCROSS satellite crashed into the Cabeus crater floor near the moon's south pole at around 5,600 miles (9,000 kilometers) per hour, followed four minutes later by a shepherding spacecraft equipped with cameras to record the impact.Grainy thermal images carried on the US space agency's television station showed colder blue sites and warmer red sites on the moon's surface, but there was no apparent light flash as the rockets made impact.NASA said the blasts would kick up a plume of lunar dirt to an altitude of about 6.2 miles (10 kilometers) and produce a flash lasting about 30 seconds.Cameras mounted on the 1,965-pound (891-kilogram) shepherding spacecraft were to beam live footage of the initial impact as the craft flew through the debris plume, collecting and relaying key data back to Earth before it too plows into the moon."The LCROSS science team is making their preliminary assessment of approximately four minutes of data collected from the LCROSS Spacecraft. Observatories involved in the LCROSS Observation Campaign are reporting in," the mission website said after the impact."We don't anticipate anything about presence or absence of water immediately. It's going to take us some time," cautioned Anthony Colaprete, project scientist and principal investigator for the 79-million-dollar LCROSS mission, which is also the first preparatory mission of the Constellation program that aims to send Americans back to the moon by 2020.Colaprete projected it would take several days for analysts to evaluate the data and several weeks to determine whether and how much hydrogen-bearing compounds were found.