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Indian EEs show you can go home againBy K.C. Krishnadas, EE Times September 5, 2003 (3:14 p.m. EST) URL: http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20030905S0038BANGALORE, India — When startup Insilica Semiconductors India Pvt. Ltd. took a booth at a recent job fair in California to recruit for its Bangalore design center, it was unprepared for the deluge of about 150 applications that followed. The response underscored what many observers consider an increasingly common phenomenon: Expatriate design engineers — not just programmers — are returning to India in droves. “It's historic; it's never happened before,” said New Path Ventures co-founder Vinod Dham, a renowned expat...

<p>GARDEZ, Afghanistan (AP) — Taliban fighters, paid and trained by al-Qaeda, are pouring into Afghanistan from Pakistan, the top American commander in Afghanistan said Sunday. Lt. Gen. John Vines said the Taliban were trying to regroup and regain control of the country they ruled until ousted by the United States in late 2001. His comments to reporters traveling with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld were the first confirmation from a top U.S. military official of reports of a Taliban resurgence out of Pakistan into Afghanistan.</p>

PATNA, India -- Suspected communist rebels detonated a land mine under a passing police vehicle in eastern India on Monday, killing 12 officers, police said. The attack took place in hilly terrain in Rohtas district, 125 miles west of Patna, the capital of the eastern Indian state of Bihar, said Ritu Raj, the deputy inspector-general of police. Raj said militants of the outlawed Maoist Communist Center were suspected in the attack since the area is their stronghold. Other details were not immediately available. The rebels work closely with the People's War Group, another guerrilla group, and are active in five...

2 U.S. soldiers wounded in Afghan attacks Five government soldiers killed by suspected Taliban fighters The Associated Press Originally published September 8, 2003, 1:26 PM EDT KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Suspected Taliban insurgents killed five Afghan government soldiers and wounded two U.S. soldiers in attacks in the south and east of Afghanistan, Afghan and U.S. military officials said today. The attacks in three provinces highlighted the security challenge in America*s other war. The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. John Vines, warned Sunday that Taliban fighters, paid and trained by al-Qaida, were pouring into the country from neighboring Pakistan --...

KARACHI - A political crisis in which the opposition and the ruling coalition have joined forces to coerce Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf into shedding his uniform and submitting his controversial constitutional amendments to parliamentary scrutiny has emboldened the hand of senior generals seeking Musharraf's ouster. The Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), a grouping of six religious parties, and members of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid-i-Azam group are negotiating to force Musharraf to table the amendments, known as the Legal Framework Order (LFO), in the national assembly, and also to get Musharraf, who is chief of army staff as well as president,...

<p>KANDAHAR, Afghanistan &#8212; Hundreds and possibly thousands of Taliban recruits known as the "Sarbaz" &#8212; those who care nothing for their own lives &#8212; are involved in an increasing number of hit-and-run attacks against government and American troops.</p> <p>Among them are young men like Siddiqullah, 24, who despite his recent engagement has put his life on hold to wage a holy war on "infidel" forces occupying his country.</p>

Warlords wear out Afghans' welcome'Now anyone with a gun is the law' By KATHY GANNON Associated Press KABUL, Afghanistan -- Along a potholed road in eastern Afghanistan, Mohammed Jan points through a cloud of dust at a line of mansions that seem out of place in such poverty-stricken surroundings. "This is where the new, beautiful houses begin. They belong to the commanders. Their money is from drugs, from smuggling. They will never be caught. Their soldiers are working with the Americans," says Jan, himself a small-time opium grower. Nearly two years after the collapse of Taliban rule, ordinary Afghans like...

BANNU, Pakistan-Attackers fired three rockets at a small airport being used as a base by Pakistani troops hunting for al-Qaida and Taliban fugitives, but there were no injuries or damages, a military official said Sunday. The attack happened late Friday in Bannu, about 155 miles southwest of the capital Islamabad, said Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, a military spokesman. There was no claim of responsibility, and Sultan said the military was trying to determine who might have carried out the attack. "We are ascertaining details of the attack," he said. Two rockets exploded in deserted areas inside the airport grounds. The...

Almost two years after they were defeated, thousands join the Taliban's new jihad (Filed: 07/09/2003) Massoud Ansari travels with militia fighters around the Kandahar region of Afghanistan They are known as the Sarbaz - those who care nothing for their own lives - and they represent one of the greatest threats to the government of Mohammed Karzai and the international forces seeking to bring stability to the shattered country of Afghanistan. The Taliban, supposedly vanquished in December 2001 when American and Northern Alliance forces drove them from power, are reviving and fighting back across southern Afghanistan. Siddiqullah is one of...

ISLAMABAD: In a move that could resolve the 11-month old parliamentary crisis, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has reportedly agreed to Opposition's demand to quit as Chief of Army and submit his constitutional amendments to the Parliament for ratification after necessary modification. A committee of second rung leaders of the ruling PML-Q and the six party Islamist alliance Muthahid Majlis Amal (MMA) which held several rounds of talks to defuse the crisis announced in Lahore on Saturday that it reached a broad understanding to table the amendments, known as Legal Framework Order (LFO), in the National Assembly after necessary modifications. It...

<p>SHKIN, Afghanistan -- Far above the thick mud walls of the medieval fortress in Shkin, spy satellites and sophisticated aircraft search the skies for a stray electronic signal -- a coded radio message, a satellite phone call -- that might lead them to Osama bin Laden.</p>

Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2001370005-2001380262,00.html KARIMULLAH is an Afghan who does not want to relate his war story. In a lan= d where everyone is quick to tell their tale, his silence makes him unique.= =20 He stood alone in the narrow midday shadows of the hospital courtyard when = I saw him yesterday, a mix of glittering fury and blank despair. He had hob= bled into the Red Crosss orthopaedic centre in Golbahar on Saturday.=20 Even among the other amputees, his injuries stood out. Mines can take off b= oth legs and both arms, or the limbs of one side, or,...

Anger as troops hunt Taliban in Pakistan By Ahmed Rashid in Lahore (Filed: 06/09/2003) Pathan leaders are furious over the launch of a Pakistani military operation in the North West Frontier Province to arrest Taliban and al-Qa'eda leaders fleeing fighting in Afghanistan. Helicopters were flying over border areas yesterday looking for infiltrators after thousands of troops arrived at Bannu air base in lorries. Reports that a small detachment of US special forces was also involved could not be confirmed.The soldiers have cordoned off Bannu, begun house-to-house searches in some parts of the city and launched patrols in the mountains. The...

* PAF says Airborne System to be on agenda in defence talks with US ISLAMABAD: Pakistan, worried by nuclear rival India’s plans to acquire a strategic radar system from Israel, said on Friday it is seeking second-hand F-16 fighters from Belgium and will also request a similar US radar system. Air Commodore Sarfraz Ahmed Khan, the spokesman for the Pakistan Air Force, said an Airborne Early Warning System would be on Pakistan’s shopping list when the US-Pakistani Defence Consultative Group meets in Washington later this month. Khan said Pakistan would also repeat its request for the supply of an initial...

WASHINGTON: Afghanistan’s plight will not be alleviated “overnight” Secretary of State Colin Powell said Friday but pledged to speed up US aid to build a new state from the “ashes of war and chaos.” Powell touted what he said were major US successes in the war-torn country, despite a recent upsurge in violence and fighting between US troops and militia fighters. “In Afghanistan, both the political reach and the governing capacity of President Karzai’s administration are expanding,” Powell said in a major speech at George Washington University in the US capital. “Roads and schools are being built, dangerous landmines are...

U.S. Says Taliban on the Run, 70 to 100 Killed Fri September 05, 2003 07:12 AM ET By Yousuf Azimy BAGRAM, Afghanistan (Reuters) - The U.S. military said on Friday it was pursuing remnants of a large Taliban force in the mountains of southeastern Afghanistan after killing 70 to 100 of them in more than a week of fighting. "We believe we have been very successful, we believe we have the enemy on the run," Colonel Rodney Davis told reporters at Bagram air base, headquarters of the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan. "From what we can determine they have withdrawn to...

Thursday September 4, 11:05 PM Afghan-US offensive ends with 124 militants killed KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) - A major joint Afghan-US offensive against hundreds of suspected Taliban dug into the mountains of southeast Afghanistan has finished with around 124 militants killed, Afghan officials said Thursday. Up to 1,000 Afghan soldiers supported by US troops and aircraft had been engaged for more than a week in the major operation against suspected Taliban and al-Qaeda bases in the mountains of Daychopan district of Zabul province, 300 kilometres (190 miles) southwest of Kabul. US-led coalition Special Operation Forces and 10th Mountain Division troops backed...

UN fears instability in Kabul after Mayor demolishes 'illegal' homes By Phil Reeves, Asia Correspondent 05 September 2003 Kabul has always been the exception, a haven amid an unstable country where American troops are still tracking down anti-government guerrillas at huge expense, where swaths of the landscape are no-go areas because of the threat of violence. But now trouble has come unexpectedly to the Afghan capital. To the disgust of the United Nations, Basir Salangi, the Kabul police chief, has begun flexing his muscles, underlining tensions between the US-backed Afghan authorities and the international community. His target comprises one-room mud-brick...

Afghan, U.S. forces seek fleeing Taliban in south Pakistan renews hunt in border regions ASSOCIATED PRESS QALAT, Afghanistan, Sept. 4 — Afghan and U.S. forces scoured gorges and rugged mountain peaks in southern Zabul for suspected Taliban fleeing fighting that left scores of insurgents dead, an Afghan commander said Thursday. While Afghan officials claimed victory, the U.S. military said the battle in Zabul's Dai Chupan district was not over. Separately, at least 24 Pakistani military helicopters swooped in low over the tribal regions that border Afghanistan in a renewed hunt for fleeing al-Qaida and Taliban, witnesses said Thursday. Government officials,...