Such a military confrontation in the vital oil lanes of the Persian Gulf would be of major global concern. The warning builds on earlier threats by Iran to seal off the Gulf’s strategic Strait of Hormuz — through which 40 percent of the world’s oil passes — in response to any military attack.

”We have set aside 100 military vessels for each (U.S.) warship to attack at the time of necessity,” Gen. Morteza Saffari was quoted as saying by the conservative weekly Panjereh.

The U.S. and Israel have said military force could be used if diplomacy fails to stop what they suspect is an Iranian nuclear weapons program. Iran denies any aim to develop such weapons and says its nuclear work is for peaceful purposes like power generation.

The U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet headquarters is based just across the Gulf from Iran in Bahrain.

Saffari said more than 100 foreign warships were currently in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman, adding that their sailors were ”morsels” for Iran’s military to target, the newspaper reported.

”Any moment the exalted supreme leader (Ayatollah Ali Khamenei) orders — or should the enemy carry out the smallest threat against (Iran’s ruling) Islamic system — the Guard … is ready for quick reaction,” he was quoted as saying.

By putting the number of foreign warships at 100, the general appeared to suggest Iran has 10,000 military vessels at the ready. Iran is known to have many speed boats used by the Guard, but there is no public information about how many larger military vessels it has.

In January 2008, five small high-speed vessels believed to be from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard briefly swarmed three U.S. Navy ships passing near Iranian waters in the Gulf and delivered a radio threat to blow them up.

The war of words has intensified between Iran and the West since the U.N. Security Council imposed tougher sanctions last month in response to Iran’s refusal to halt uranium enrichment, a technology that can be used to produce nuclear fuel or material for an atomic bomb.

Iran put its most powerful military force, the Revolutionary Guard, in charge of defending the country’s territorial waters in the Persian Gulf in 2008.

”We believe the enemy, through extensive psychological warfare, wants to coerce us, but Iran … is ready,” said Saffari, who was the Guard’s navy chief until early May. ”The enemy won’t dare attack Iran.”  The New York Times

Kuwait’s immigration has made it mandatory for its citizens to hire housemaids only through outsourcing agencies. Kuwaitis used to send the visa and the plane ticket to the recruited helper without seeking the help of a manpower agent. Kuwait’s immigration bureau has directed to bar entry to maids unless their sponsors used local outsourcer, Arab Times reported.

Kuwaiti government has also made it compulsory for the employer to submit a police report on their character and income before demanding housemaids from foreign employment agencies. “No domestic helper should be allowed to enter Kuwait without proper documents from a local manpower agency proving that they have endorsed him or her,” the newspaper reported, citing an immigration source.

Up to seven lakh women, mainly from Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and the Philippines, are employed in Kuwait as full-time live-in domestic workers. Abuse of housemaids is common in Kuwait and Kuwaiti authorities have been under pressure from outsourcing countries to guarantee safety of their nationals for years.

Mohan Krishna Sapkota, Director General of Department of Foreign Employment, says Kuwait’s move is positive but Nepal cannot encourage Nepali women to go there till Kuwait signs an International Labour Organisation convention on migrant rights.

He put three additional conditions — government guarantee of safety of the housemaids, distribution of worker identity cards and a fixed minimum salary— before Nepali government agreed to send maids to Kuwait. “DoFE has set conditions for Saudi Arabia. So should be the case with Kuwait,” he added. Saudi Arabia had proposed to hire one lakh housemaids from Nepal last year.

Nepali women go to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia through illegal channels via New Delhi and Mumbai when they don’t find opportunities at home. According to an estimate, around 20,000 Nepali women are working in Kuwait illegally while over 30,000 Nepali women are working in Saudi Arabia as domestic helpers.

In October 2009, Indonesia had stopped sending domestic helpers to Kuwait, citing “concern over abuse.” By Yadav Raj Joshi, The Himalayan

On Tuesday, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said that December is “a very real deadline” for Iran to “pursue its responsibilities” on the nuclear issue.

Responding to Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s defiance over the year-end deadline, Gibbs said while Ahmadinejad “may not recognize … the deadline that looms, but that is a very real deadline for the international community.”

Mehmanparast said that Iran rejects the December deadline for Iran to accept a deal for swapping enriched uranium with nuclear fuel, adding that the new deadline is not something new.

Tehran is still waiting for response from six major countries to its nuclear fuel swap proposal, Mehmanparast said.

Iran has proposed to swap nuclear fuel at the Iranian Kish Island to secure fuel supply for a Tehran medical research reactor and the six major countries might have a new proposal to offer, he said.

“Iran welcomes any proposal to meet the demand for fuel to the Tehran reactor,” he was quoted as saying.

“Iran has adopted a crystal clear stand on its peaceful nuclear activities and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is responsible to provide Iran with nuclear fuel based on its Charter and the Non-Proliferation Treaty,” Mehmanparast said.

“If they refuse to meet our legal demand, it will be quite natural for Iran to produce 20 percent nuclear fuel for the reactor,” he said.

Under a draft deal brokered by the UN nuclear watchdog, most of Iran’s existing low-grade enriched uranium would be shipped to Russia and France by the end of the year, where it would be processed into fuel rods with the purity of 20 percent.

The higher-level enriched uranium would be transported back to Iran to be used in the research reactor in Tehran for the manufacture of medical radioisotopes.

Iran has rejected the deal, demanding a simultaneous exchange between low and higher level enriched uranium inside the country.

The United States and its Western allies have been accusing Iran of secretly developing nuclear weapons under the disguise of civilian nuclear power. Iran has denied the accusation and stressed its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes.

The United States has threatened another round of UN sanctions against Iran if it does not abide by the year-end deadline. China Daily

The promised increase on Friday came as US Marines and Afghan troops launched the first offensive since US President Barack Obama announced a 30,000-troop US increase. The Marines and Afghan forces struck Taliban communications and supply lines on Friday in an insurgent stronghold in southern Afghanistan.

In yet another war development, US officials said the Obama administration may expand missile strikes on al-Qaeda and the Taliban inside Pakistan and will focus on training Pakistan’s forces in a border area where militants have been aiding the Afghan insurgency.

The Marine Corps offensive was part of preparations for the arrival of the 30,000 US reinforcements, General David Petraeus said. The top general in charge of both the Afghanistan and Iraq wars said the military has been working for months to extend what he called “the envelope of security” around key towns in Helmand and Kandahar provinces.

Hundreds of Marines were dropped by helicopter and MV-22 Osprey aircraft behind Taliban lines in the northern end of the Now Zad Valley of Helmand Province, scene of heavy fighting last summer, Marine spokesman Major William Pelletier said.

In Brussels, Clinton told allied foreign ministers that it was essential that contributions to the war effort be provided as quickly as possible. She thanked Italy for its announcement that it will send an additional 1,000 troops and Britain for its pledge of another 500, but she said nonmilitary assistance is equally important.

“The need for additional forces is urgent, but their presence will not be indefinite,” she told the North Atlantic Council, NATO’s highest political group.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen of Denmark told reporters at the organization’s headquarters that still further NATO forces might be in the offing, suggesting there would be “more to come.”

Also, Admiral James Stavridis, the top NATO and US commander in Europe, said in an interview that he expects several thousand more non-US troops might be added to the 7,000.

“What we are all underlining to potential troop contributors is that we are truly asking for emphasis in the training area,” Stavridis said.

The transformation of Afghanistan’s army and police is critical to fulfill Obama’s intention to begin pulling out US units 18 months from now.

According to a copy of Clinton’s prepared remarks to the closed-door NATO meeting, she told the ministers that “the pace, size and scope of the drawdown will be predicated on the situation on the ground.”

“If things are going well, a larger number of forces could be removed from more areas,” she said. “If not, the size and speed of the drawdown will be adjusted accordingly.”

Fogh Rasmussen said: “Transition [to Afghan control] does not mean exit.”

Afghanistan’s security forces have been hobbled by a lack of training and resources, but US officials hope to bolster their ability by sending them out with US and allied troops into battle zones.

At least 150 Afghan troops joined about 1,000 Marines in Friday’s offensive in Helmand, said Daood Ahmadi, a spokesman for the province’s governor. He said the bodies of four slain Taliban had been recovered and more than 300 mines and roadside bombs turned up by Friday evening.

The new offensive aims to cut off the Taliban communication routes through Helmand and disrupt their supply lines, especially those providing explosives for the roadside bombs.”  Taipei Times

Obama’s letter to Zardari, delivered through national security adviser Gen. James L. Jones, also included an offer to help reduce tensions between Pakistan and India.

During his Islamabad visit, Jones told Pakistani officials that no matter how many more troops the Obama sends to Afghanistan, the effort would fail unless Pakistan increases strikes against not only Al Qaeda’s leadership but also Mullah Muhammad Omar and the leadership of the Afghan Taliban.

Meanwhile, senior US officials cautioned that moves to put too many demands before Islamabad may backfire.

“We agree that no matter how many troops you send, if the safe haven in Pakistan isn’t cracked, the whole mission is compromised. But if you make too many demands on the Pakistanis in public, it can backfire,” The New York Times quoted the official, as saying.

Pointing out the complexity of the US-Pakistan relationship, another Obama administration official said that no success could be hoped against the Taliban unless the nature of the relationship with Islamabad is changed.

“Everyone understands this is a complex, nuanced, critical relationship. Everyone has their eyes open, and there are genuine concerns. But one focus now is on trying to expand cooperation,” he said.

“The long-term consequences of failure there (in Pakistan) far outweigh those in Afghanistan. We can’t succeed without Pakistan,” he added. Newstrack India

And for a president on a tight schedule, a whistle-stop tour of the landmark was always likely to be more of a photo opportunity than a learning experience.

But for United States President Barack Obama, a visit to the world-famous complex was not to be missed, no matter how limited his time.

Obama took a break from his diplomatic mission to Asia yesterday to spend 50 minutes inside the Forbidden City, which is also known as the Palace Museum.

Today, he will carve a little more me-time from his busy four-day agenda in China to visit the Great Wall before he leaves the country for the next leg of his tour in the Republic of Korea.

“It’s beautiful. It’s a magnificent place to visit. I will come back with my girls and my wife,” Obama said before leaving the museum through the northern Gate of Divine Prowess (Shenwu Men).

Fifty minutes earlier, Obama and Forbidden City curator Zheng Xinmiao had entered the palace through the main entrance on the south side – the Meridian Gate (Wu Men). The president had walked along the museum’s central axis, which is also the north-south line along which Beijing is orientated.

The Forbidden City was closed to the public for Obama’s visit.

In the bright sunshine and cool wind, without the usual hoards of visitors, the palace was a peaceful place. Its golden glazed rooftops still bore a dusting of snow that had fallen several days earlier.

Obama, who was dressed in a brown leather jacket and matching leather shoes spoke warmly about the palace.

“Very good!” he exclaimed in front of the Hall of Supreme Harmony (Taihe Dian) while standing before dozens of journalists and photographers. He also posed for photographs in the square in front of the hall.

Inside Taihe Dian, Zheng told Obama about the building’s history and its architecture and Obama asked about the words hanging on a board in the middle of the hall.

“Jian Ji Sui You,” he was told. It meant “emperors should make good rules”.

Taihe Dian was one of the largest wooden structures ever built in China and is the biggest hall in the Forbidden City.

At the Palace of Earthly Tranquility (Kunning Gong), Obama peered through the glass into the rooms that were used on the emperors’ wedding night.

“It is truly majestic, and a testimony to the greatness and longevity of Chinese civilization,” Obama wrote in the official guest book before leaving the museum.

Obama was the fourth incumbent US president to visit the Forbidden City, following in the footsteps of Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and Bill Clinton.

Asked by reporters what he thought of the Forbidden City, Obama flashed his trademark smile. “Beautiful,” he said. After a slight pause he added, “spectacular”. By Lin Shujuan , China Daily

Pakistan should put the cleared territories under a senior Corps Commander for post-conflict vigilance and rebuilding to ensure that these areas don’t slide back to become terrorist havens, General David Petraeus, Commander of the US Central Command, said.

Attributing the sudden rise in Taliban suicide attacks across Pakistan to the army striking decisive blows to their strongholds, the US commander said the military needed to continue their focus on the campaign.

“When you go into the enemy’s safe havens and sanctuaries, they come after you; and they try to open up new areas. It’s always been the case,” Patreaus said in an interview.

I think we have said that as Pakistan remains serious, and continues to build on the progress it achieved in Swat in NWFP. They have launched the operations into South Waziristan, as they have now, and are almost getting close to their final objectives, the enemy is going to fight back, he said.

While commending the strong military action taken by the Pakistani forces against terrorist groups inside the country, Petraeus said the situation there is still tough.

The US General, whose command stretches to US forces in Afghanistan, said the Pakistani military campaign in Waziristan, Swat and other rescue areas close to the Afghan frontier indicated that Islamabad had now come to realise that the existential threat to the country that is most pressing, at the very least, is the internal extremists, not necessarily India.

Not saying that that threat has gone away in their assessments, but the fact is, the threat that is most immediate — “the wolf closest to the sled,” as they say, indeed, was the internal extremists, Petraeus said.

“They have acted on that,” the US commander said.

Saying that the situation in Pakistan was “heartening” as compared to the critical situation there 10 months ago, Petraeus said.

The politicians including opposition leaders like Nawaz Sharif, the clergy and citizenry had now come to recognize that it was the internal militants that were threatening the very existence of Pakistan, he said.

But, he said, the need in the situation was “to hold and rebuild.”

“They have acted on that. Now, not only have they acted, they have done so with considerable skill. Pakistani military cleared and left Swat twice since 9/11. This time they cleared, and they have stayed. And they are holding and they are rebuilding.,” he noted. Indian Express

After hours of confusion when the entire complex – the largest such base in the world – located between Waco and Austin, was on a security lockdown, a military spokesman confirmed that the rampage had ended with the deaths of 12 people and the wounding of 31 others. Most of the injured had been rushed to hospitals across central Texas. The shock that was rippling across the country last night was hardly relieved after the shooter was identified as a trusted officer with medical duties. Officials said that Major Nadal Malik Hasan, a licensed doctor and psychiatrist, was shot and wounded by military police at the scene but not before he had extinguished the lives of 12 people. Military sources added that two other soldiers were apprehended after the slaughter, though by dusk last night one had been released. There was no information on what role the second may have had in the killings if any. Hasan opened fire, they said, with two handguns. There was no reason he should have been bearing arms as a doctor.

Major Hasan, said to be 39 years old, allegedly opened fire at roughly 1.30 pm, Texas time, inside a personnel processing building formally known as the Soldier Rating and Processing Center. It is a building soldiers routinely pass through while getting ready to deploy. However, at least one of the victims, was identified as a civilian.

A motive for the shooting was hard to pin down last night. However, there were reports that Hasan, who was trained also in psychiatry and medicine in Bethesda, Maryland, was preparing for deployment to Iraq and was not happy to be going there. He had previously worked at the Walter Reed veterans hospital outside Washington.

There have been six incidents on the ground in Iraq since the start of the conflict when US troops have been felled by one of their own with the loss of 14 lives. Last May, a soldier opened fire on fellow soldiers in a medical facility at Camp Liberty outside Baghdad killing five.

Lt General Bob Cone spoke to reporters on the perimeter of the base. “We have had a terrible tragedy at Fort Hood today. The situation is ongoing but we are very close to a resolution,” he said, almost three hours after the first shots were fired.

“The numbers that we are looking at are 12 dead and 31 wounded.” The wounded were being treated in hospitals across central Texas, he said.

The shooting will rekindle debate about the strains that have been placed for years on the US military community after eight years of conflict in Afghanistan and almost as many years in Iraq. For months, military leaders have been seeking ways to monitor the mental health of soldiers precisely to guard against such deadly tragedies. Fort Hood is home to a programme set up to help returning soldiers cope with stress incurred by warfare.

In Washington aides kept President Barack Obama abreast of developments at the huge complex that includes housing areas and several schools. Mr Obama called the shootings “horrifying”. Attending a conference on Native American rights, he added: “My immediate thoughts and prayers are with the wounded and with the families of those who have fallen… we will make sure we get answers to every single question about this horrible incident”.

For soldiers who are trained to face possible injury or worse while deployed abroad, there was no emotional preparation for the shock of such an indiscriminate act of mass killing taking place on US soil and indeed within the confines of one of their own bases where they would have considered themselves entirely safe.

“I am horrified just like everyone else,” Kay Bailey Hutchinson, a US Senator for Texas, said of the killings. “This is a base that has sent people time and time again to Iraq and now to Afghanistan. They have borne a lot of the responsibility for the war on terror and for this to happen at this particular base is heartbreaking.”

As many as 500 military personnel were mobilised at one stage to conduct a sweep of the base to ensure its security. Witnesses on the edge of the facility meanwhile saw ambulances coming and going from the main entrance and helicopters landing inside it to ferry the severely wounded to nearby hospitals.

Members of families were also assembled on parking lots on the edge of the base trying to determine whether any of their loved ones may have been hurt or killed in the shootings.

Fort Hood has close to 50,000 soldiers assigned to it. In addition, it is home to many military families. As well as sending solders into harm’s way in war zones – no other military base in the US has lost more men and women in Iraq than Fort Hood – it has seen many wounded soldiers returning from war.

Fort Hood: The world’s largest military base

* Fort Hood, near Austin, Texas, is the world’s largest military installation, occupying 340 square kilometres.

* It is home to more than 65,000 soldiers, civilian personnel and family members.

* Two armoured divisions are based there, and up to 40,000 US troops.

* It was opened in 1942, as a place to test anti-tank guns that were crucial to combating German blitzkrieg tactics.

* 75 troops at the base have committed suicide between the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and July this year – more than at any other army post.

* The base is home to III Corps, the official counteroffensive force, who are known as “America’s Hammer.”

* In January 2003, then President George W Bush addressed 4,500 troops at the base, and told them to be ready for war.

* The base’s Fourth Infantry Division captured Saddam Hussein in 2003.

By David Usborne, The Independent

Mrs. Clinton received qualified support Wednesday from Egypt’s leaders, who held three hours of talks in Cairo on the Mideast peace process with the top U.S. diplomat and her advisers.

Mrs. Clinton has been seeking Arab backing for a relaunching of direct Israel-Palestinian peace talks without the total freeze on Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank and East Jerusalem that President Barack Obama has repeatedly demanded.

The chief U.S. diplomat’s push has been rejected in recent days by many Arab leaders, as well as the Palestinian leadership, as a concession to Israel. But Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s government, a key player in Mideast politics, refrained from criticizing Mrs. Clinton’s plan and suggested there was a way forward for the negotiations.

“The United States and the secretary feel that there has been progress … about the issue of freezing the settlements, even if it’s not fully complete,” said Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit at a news briefing with Mrs. Clinton. “Here we feel that we need to focus on the endgame.”

Mr. Gheit blamed Israel for any failure in the talks. “We feel that Israel is hindering the process,” he said.

The Egyptian position helped Mrs. Clinton end a week of diplomacy on a relatively high note. Her trip was marked by public attacks on U.S. foreign policy and charges she backtracked on a key U.S. commitment to its Arab allies on the settlement issue.

Her public praise of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Saturday was widely seen as a diplomatic gaffe that undercut the Obama administration’s hopes of being seen as an honest broker between the Arabs and Israelis.

Mrs. Clinton’s swing through Pakistan, Israel and three key Arab states this week marked her most ambitious mission since taking office in January.

Some have seen the former first lady as a second-tier player within the Obama administration on Washington’s urgent foreign-policy challenges, particularly Iran, Afghanistan, and the Arab-Israeli conflict. Initially, Mrs. Clinton appeared to define her role as secretary by focusing on environmental, developmental and women’s issues.

Over recent days, Mrs. Clinton significantly shook up this perception.

In Islamabad, she met senior Pakistani generals and intelligence officials and pressed the U.S. fight against al Qaeda militants. In the Middle East, Mrs. Clinton stepped out of the shadow of the administration’s special envoy to the region, former Sen. George Mitchell, and pushed Israeli and Arab leaders to move toward peace.

The secretary and her advisers said they will continue pushing the Arabs and Israelis to return to peace talks — and also explore new mechanisms to better define the diplomatic path. By Jay Solomon, Wall Street Journal

On the second day of her three-day visit, Ms. Clinton flew to Lahore and spent a considerable amount of time doing exactly that, and was rewarded with a first-hand feel of the suspicions and mistrust that most Pakistanis have about the U.S. and its relationship with their country.

A couple of hundred students gathered for a “town hall” meeting with Ms. Clinton at the famed Government College of Lahore on Thursday, and shot off questions at her ranging from the U.S.’s perceived partial relationship with India, to the Kerry-Lugar aid legislation and the CIA drone attacks in Pakistan, to whether the U.S. would support a treason trial of former ruler Pervez Musharraf.

On a day after more than 100 people perished in one of the deadliest bombings yet witnessed in this country, the students wanted to know what Pakistan was getting in return for its cooperation with the U.S. in the “war on terror”, commonly described as America’s war.

Mum on drones

Ms. Clinton’s pitch was that this was Pakistan’s war, but Pakistan was not in it alone. The U.S., she said, stood with Pakistan and would help defeat the extremists and the terrorists whose goal was to take over the country.

She side-stepped a question on the drone attacks, and why the U.S. was chary about sharing the intelligence and letting Pakistan do the rest.

The U.S. has never acknowledged the drone attacks, and Ms. Clinton was not about to do that either. She simply responded that “there is a war going on”, and America was there to help Pakistan.

One student wanted to know why the U.S. “always” supported India despite Pakistan’s cooperation with it through difficult situations. Ms. Clinton’s responded that this was a wrong perception.

The Secretary of State conceded that there had been some “ups and downs” in relations with Pakistan, but described bilateral ties as “consistent” and said the U.S. had given far more aid to Pakistan.

“We are friends with both Pakistan and India, we work with both,” she said.

Ms. Clinton also said that while the U.S. encouraged both countries to resolve their differences, it was up to India and Pakistan to do that through bilateral means.

“What we hope is that at some point in the future — which I would like to see in the not too distant future — Pakistan and India can resolve their outstanding differences,” she said.

She predicted that Pakistan “would take off like a rocket in terms of economic development” if it had the benefit of trade and economic relations with India.

“If you had trade opening up to the north, east and west it would make a huge economic difference to your country and one of the major obstacles standing in the way is the distrust and the history between India and Pakistan, which blocks the kind of opportunities for investment that I think could make a huge difference,” she said.

The students posed tough questions on the conditions imposed in the Kerry-Lugar aid legislation, and said what she repeated to Pakistan Muslim League (N) leader Nawaz Sharif at a meeting with him later in the day: Pakistan has a choice to take it or leave it.

Several roads in Lahore were closed for the day, so were schools. There was a heavy presence of police and other security personnel on the streets with Pakistan taking no chances over this visit.

Ms. Clinton’s public relations offensive in Pakistan included visits to the famous Sufi shrine of Bari Imam in Islamabad, and in Lahore, a look-in at the historic Badshahi Mosque built by the Mughal emperor Aurangazeb, and the Lahore Fort next door to it. By Nirupama Subramanian, The Hindu