Per Capita Expenditure on Health

Per Capita Expenditure on Health

As per the 12th Five Year Plan document of Planning Commission, the projections for the Twelfth Plan envisage increasing total public funding by the Centre and States, plan and non-plan, on core health from 1.04 per- cent of GDP in 2011-12 to 1.87 per cent of GDP by the end of the Twelfth Plan. When viewed in the perspective of the broader health sector, the total Government expenditure as a proportion of GDP in the Twelfth Plan is likely to increase from 1.94 per cent of GDP in the last year of the Eleventh Plan to 3.04 per cent in the corresponding year of the Twelfth Plan. The Plan envisages substantial expansion and strengthening of the public health systems both in rural and urban areas, with robust provision of primary health care. Other focus areas include strengthening human resources in health, regulation in drugs and food system and developing Health information system. According to World Health Statistics 2012 published by World Health Organisation (WHO), the per capita total expenditure on health in 2009, for India is US$ 44 (at average exchange rate) as compared to total expenditure on health in respect of some select developing countries e.g. China : US$191, Bangladesh : US$ 21, Indonesia : US$ 56, Kenya : US$ 36, Pakistan : US$ 20 and Philippines : US $ 66. The above information was given by the Union Minister for Health & Family Welfare, Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha today.

Classic Golf Resort:Shamim & Rashid hold the joint lead in round one

Classic Golf Resort, Mewat, Haryana, February 26, 2013: The Delhi duo
of Shamim Khan and Rashid Khan shot scores of six-under-66 to hold the
joint lead in round one of the PGTI Players Championship at the
Classic Golf Resort in Mewat, Haryana. Gaurav Ghei, another Delhi
golfer, is a stroke behind the joint leaders in third place.

Shamim Khan, who had a bogey-free round, made a terrific start with
birdies on the first two holes as he landed his shots within six feet
of the pin. The 2012 Rolex Rankings champion collected four more
birdies on the back-nine. He sank a 30-footer for birdie on the 11th
and drained birdie putts from 12 feet and 15 feet on the 12th and 15th
holes respectively. Shamim also two-putted from the edge of the green
for birdie on the 14th.

Shamim said, ㉠sank all putts today and was particularly sharp on the
back-nine with three long birdie putts. The good start was crucial as
it set up the round for me. I also made a good recovery for par from
the fairway bunker on the seventh. I changed my driver last week and
the change seems to have helped my game. I ended last year on a high
and am looking to continue from there in order to make an impact on
the PGTI this year as well.伢r>
Rashid Khan made an incredible eight birdies against two bogeys on
Tuesday. His front-nine featured birdie putts from 15, 12 and 10 feet
on the first, fifth and sixth respectively. He bogeyed the 10th but
then had an amazing run of four straight birdies from the 13th to the
16th. Rashid rolled in a 15 feet putt on the 13th and a 30-footer on
the 15th. The 22-year-old finished with bogey-birdie on the last two
holes.

㉴Ⳡbeen a perfect start to the week. I hit 15 greens in regulation
and made three birdie putts from a range of 15 to 30 feet. I was a
little unlucky on the 17th where my shot landed on the lip of the
bunker and resulted in a bogey. I just changed my irons before this
tournament and that seems to be working for me,䠳aid Rashid Khan, who
finished second on the 2012 Rolex Rankings.

Gaurav GheiⳠround of five-under-67 placed him third. He fired six
birdies and a bogey in the opening round.

Mukesh Kumar, Chiragh Kumar and Mandeo Singh Pathania were tied fourth
at four-under-68.

Reformist and forward looking budget: PM Dr Singh

February 26, 2013

• Indian Railways to join 1 billion tonne select club with China.
• Educational tourist train”Azadi Express” proposes
• Eight more companies of women RPF personnel to be set up.
• Several measures taken to deal with fire accidents.
• 17 distressed bridges sanctioned for rehabilitation to be completed over the next year.
• Train Collision Avoidance System to be put to rigorous trials.
• Railways will strive to work towards zero accident situation.
• Rail Minister calls for paradigm shift in approach to tariff and non-tariff segments of earnings.
• Passenger earning target Rs 32500 crore this year.
• Freedom fighters to renew their passes only once in 3 yrs.
• Complementary passes for Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna and Olympic awardees.
• Coach making facilities at Bhilwara and Raebarelli.
• Indian Railway Financial Management Institute to be set up at Secunderabad.
• Coaches to be made wheelchair friendly.
• Hostel facilities for all single women railway employees at all Div.HQS.
• Free wi-fi facility at select trains.
• Exclusive lounges at 7 stations.
• 1800111321 number for redressing complaints.
• Wagon maintenance workshop in Kalahandi in Odisha.
• E-ticketing to be made available through mobile phone.
• 104 Stations identified for added amenities.
• Target of investment of 1 lakh crore through PPP mode in 12th FYP.
• For the first time, Arunachal Pradesh brought under  Rail Network.
• UID-Aadhar to be used for ticket reservation.
• Need based border connectivity top priority.
• Freight loading estimated to be 1007 tonnes this year.
• No hike in passenger fares; 67 new express and 26 passenger trains to be launched.
• Next generation E-ticketing introduced to be able to book 7000 tickets in a minute.
• Gross traffic receipts to be 18062 crore rupees over 2012-13.
• Thrust on using renewable sources of energy.
• Some Railway related activities included under MGNREGA.
• Railways to fill up 1.52 lakh vacancies.
• Dronacharya awardees to get Shatabdi and Rajdhani passes.
• 47000 vacancies reserved for differently abled to be filled.
• Plan to spend 3000 crore rupees to connect mines.
•  

Rail budget remarkable and commendable, says P Chidambaram.
Railways is committed to ensure security, safety and better passengers facilities including sanitation in trains and railway stations. Minister of Railways Shri Pawan Kumar Bansal has said that to strengthen the security of rail passengers, especially women passengers, Railways have already created four companies of women RPF personnel and another eight would be set up. Presenting the Railway Budget for 2013-14 in Parliament today he said, recruitment to RPF is being conducted with 10% vacancies reserved for women. He said, the presence of women RPF personnel will be further strengthened with the field units.
The Minister said, many trains are being escorted by Government Railway Police and Railway Protection Force in sensitive sections. Further, the Ladies Special local trains in Metropolitan Cities are being escorted by lady RPF Staff. Shri Bansal said, security helpline numbers have been made available on several zonal railways to facilitate passengers in reporting any untoward incidence for immediate intervention.

Rs one lakh crore to be raised from public-private partnership, Rs 1.05 lakh crore through internal resources in the 12th Plan; Elimination of 10,700 unmanned level crossings targeted during the Plan; no more new such crossings to be created.Briefing media Prashar exclusively, Railways Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal said, during the last four months, efforts have been stepped up to ensure better upkeep of the Railway network and maximize passenger convenience.Bansal said, work on installing bio-tiolets in railway coaches is on.The Railway Minister added that people’s aspirations and demands regarding safe, convenient and secure traveling on trains, are genuine.He said, the Ministry is well aware of what is expected from it and it is diligently working to deliver better services.Railways to set up six more Rail Neer bottling plants.

Identification of 104 stations for upgradation in places with more than one million population and of religious significance.Corporate Safety Plan to be prepared for ten-year period 2014-24.

BSE Sensex dropped by 134 points to 19197 in the late morning trade due to selling pressure ahead of the railway budget amid weak global cues as the Early results in Italy polls show hung parliament thus euro crisis to prevail.   Earlier, the Sensex resumed lower at 19,290 and dropped further to 19,186, showing a loss of 109.53 points from its last close.
The Nifty also moved down by 43 points to 5,811

Indian Railways and BHEL Sign MOU for setting up of Memu Coaches Manufacturing facility at Bhilwara
In the presence of the Minister of Railways Shri Pawan Kumar Bansal and the Minister for Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises Shri Praful a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed here today between Indian Railways and Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) for setting up of Greenfield MEMU coaches manufacturing facility by BHEL at Bhilwara in Rajasthan. The signatories to the MOU were Shri Kul Bhushan, Member Electrical Railway Board, and Shri B. P. Rao, CMD, BHEL.

Main Line Electric Multiple Unit Trains, popularly known as MEMU trains were first introduced in Indian Railways in the Year 1994-95, as a mode of rapid transit system, to cater to non-suburban passengers, residing in small towns and villages surrounding urban and industrial centres. MEMU trains have higher passenger carrying capacity and higher average speed as compared to conventional loco hauled passenger trains due to faster acceleration and braking characteristics. These rakes are now being manufactured with toilet facilities to take care of passenger needs. MEMU trains increase the line capacity utilisation, and therefore are more suitable for running on high traffic density routes.

These MEMU trains have gained rapid popularity over the years. Currently, there are about 160 MEMU services running. There are demands coming from all over the country for running more and more MEMU trains. The demand for these coaches will further increase as Indian Railways have plans to Electrify approximately 15000 route kilometre during the next 10 years, in addition to the existing 22000 route kilometre of electrified track. There was a shortfall in acquisition of 800 MEMU coaches during XIth Plan Period due to capacity constraints at Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala, where these MEMU coaches are produced. Overall it is expected that the requirement of MEMU coaches will grow to nearly 9000 coaches during the next 10 year period. Setting up of factory for conventional MEMU coaches will go a long way in meeting this demand.

Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) is a Maharatna Central Public Sector Unit (CPSU) company, which is a partner of Indian Railways for a period spanning more than 40 years. It has been manufacturing and supplying electric rolling stock including EMUs and MEMUs; as well as sub-assembly and equipment for rolling stock being manufactured at IR’s own production units.

The proposed facility for production of MEMU coaches will be set up by Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) at Bhilwara in the State of Rajasthan. The entire cost will be borne by BHEL. Government of Rajasthan will provide land to Railways, for setting up the project. In order to make the project viable, Ministry of Railways will give Assured Off- Take orders to BHEL.

Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour 2013 moves to Mumbai

Mumbai, 25^th Feb 2013: The third leg of the Hero Women’s Professional Golf Tour 2013 will commence at the prestigious Bombay Presidency Golf Club from tomorrow. The tournament which will be played from the 26^th – 28^th February 2013 at the 18 hole BPGC will see a close fight between Veteran golfer Smriti Mehra and the young brigade of Vani Kapoor and Neha Tripathi for the top spot both in the tournament and the Hero Order of Merit for 2013.

Delhi Golfer Smriti Mehra who will start her campaign in the third leg fresh from her convincing win in the second leg of the Hero Women’s Professional Golf Tour 2013 will be eager to repeat her performance at the BPGC and consolidate her top spot in the Hero OOM. Smriti currently leads the Hero OOM for 2013 with a total earning of Rs. 1, 90, 000 to her kitty from two tournaments.

Kolkata Golfer Neha Tripathi, who had a great start to the season winning the first leg of the Hero Women’s Golf Tour 2013 will be hopeful of a good show in the third leg. Neha is currently second on the Hero OOM with a total earning of Rs. 1, 65,000 from two tournaments.

DLF Golf & Contry Club’s golfer Vani Kapoor who stormed the circuit with some aggressive and exceptional golf last year in her rookie season, is yet to taste victory this season. Vani who has been consistent in the first two legs (third and tied second finish on the tour), would be eager to win her first for the season. Vani is currently placed third in the Hero OOM with a total amount of Rs. 1,52,500 to her kitty.

While the OOM war gets hotter this season, one can’t rule out Bangalorean Sharmila Nicollet who finished tied second in the second leg with a strong comeback on the final day. Sharmila had to miss the first leg of the tour due to an injury and only started her campaign in the second leg. Sharmila in the past has been the Hero OOM merit leader for the 2010-11 and 2009-10 season and also is the only Indian representative in the current Ladies European Tour season.

MEDIA INTERACTION RAILWAY MINISTER’S POST RAILWAY BUDGET

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

MEDIA INTERACTION RAILWAY MINISTER’S POST RAILWAY BUDGET

MEDIA INVITATION

RAILWAY  MINISTER’S  POST RAILWAY BUDGET

MEDIA  INTERACTION

Dear Sir/Madam,

            You are requested to kindly cover the following event:

Event               :  The Minister of Railways, Shri Pawan Kumar Bansal will interact with media persons

                             after presentation of Railway Budget 2013-14. Ministers of State for Railways

                             and Board Members will also be present.

Time               :    2.15 P.M. (soon after tabling of Railway Budget in Rajya Sabha)

Date               :               26th February, 2013 (Tuesday)

Venue             :               Room No. 62, Parliament House, New Delhi.

                            With warm regards, 

                                                                                Yours sincerely,

(Anil Kumar Saxena)

Michelle Obama presents Best Picture Award

Michelle Obama presents Best Picture Award

Michelle Obama made a surprise and unprecedented appearance on Sunday's Oscars telecast when she presented the award for Best Picture, the first time a president or first lady has ever presented an Academy Award.
Appearing live on screen from the White House in Washington, almost 3,000 miles (4,800 km) from the Oscars ceremony in Hollywood, Obama praised the work of the movie industry before announcing the Iran hostage drama "Argo" the Best Picture winner. Wearing a silver evening dress, Obama said this year's nominated films had "made us laugh, made us weep and grip our armrests just a little bit tighter." Obama added: "They reminded us we can overcome any obstacles if we dig deep enough and hard enough. They are especially important for young people. Everyday they engage in the arts, they learn to open their imaginations ... and strive to reach those dreams."
"Argo" director and co-producer Ben Affleck said he felt like he was "sort of hallucinating" when Obama presented the award. "The fact that it was the first lady was an enormous honor... it was very cool," Affleck said backstage after collecting the Best Picture Trophy.

BAI and GoSports Foundation to host coach education programme

Applications open till 28^th February 2013

20 February 2013, Bangalore/New Delhi: In a first-of-its-kind coach education programme for badminton in the country, the Badminton Association of India, in partnership with the GoSports Foundation, is proud to announce an Intermediate Level Coach Education Programme.

Scheduled to be held at the state-of-the-art Pullela Gopichand Badminton Academy in Hyderabad, between the 23^rd and 30^th of March 2013, the programme is open to a maximum of 30 Indian badminton coaches with a minimum of two years' coaching experience who have either played badminton at the national/international level or hold an NIS-SAI diploma.

The seven-day course, designed to encompass various aspects of badminton coaching, will also include information on the technical nuances of the game. The trainee coaches will be exposed to intricacies of sport medicine, sports nutrition, sports psychology and conditioning. The technical aspects of badminton will be administered by BWF technical expert Venugopal Mahalingam, National Coach Pullela Gopichand, Indonesian coach Edwin and other senior Indian coaches. Other experts involved with conducting the programme include conditioning expert Jagmohan Singh, sports medicine expert Dr. Ashok Ahuja, nutrition expert Mr. Venkatraman, sports psychologists Dr. Asis Goswami and Dr. Sanjeev Sahni and Physiotherapist Dr. Kiran. On successful completion of the course, the selected coaches will be accredited with the BAI for conduct of National Development Programmes/National Coaching Camps. 

In a unique model of alliance between a private foundation and a sporting federation, GoSports Foundation is responsible for the implementation and execution of the programme, while the BAI is overseeing the training modules and assessment of all coaches completing the programme. "It is encouraging to see that a private foundation, such as the GoSports Foundation, is forthcoming in offering their expertise and assistance to the development of the sport and its coaches. It is partnerships such as these that will provide the necessary and solid foundation for the holistic development of badminton in the country," said Dr. Akhilesh Das Gupta, Course Chairman and President, BAI. "This course will enable the competent badminton coaches to be equipped with training method and updated knowledge of sports sciences. Which will go a long way in improving the standard of Indian badminton players at all levels," said Mr. T.P.S. Puri, Course Director and Vice President, BAI.

Commenting on the initiative, Mr. Nandan Kamath, Managing Trustee at the GoSports Foundation, said, "Having aided the development of junior talent since 2008, we have noticed that the need of the hour in the country is the professional identification and nurturing of high potential talent available in a given sport. This is a task that, we believe, can be fulfilled through the implementation and development of a potent coaching infrastructure in the country and through capacity building amongst those developing our junior talent."

The application process will remain open till the 28^th of February 2013. All eligible candidates can apply by completing application forms that are available with the BAI, affiliate units of the BAI and the State Federations and may also be obtained by e-mailing foundation@gosports.in.

Sania,Bethanie win Dubai tennis double title

February 25, 2013

Sania Mirza clinched her second doubles title of the season after she combined with partner Bethanie Mattek-Sands to defeat Nadia Petrova and Katarina Srebotnik in the title clash of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.Unseeded duo Indo-American prevailed over the Russian-Slovenia combo 6-4 2-6 10-7 in a tightly-contested final of the USD 2,000,000 hard court event.

The match lasted for one hour and 32 minutes on Saturday.

 

After a rather easy victory in the first set, the eventual winners were made to struggle as Petrova and Srebotnik fought back strongly to take the second set.

 

Sania and Bethanie, however, sealed the issue in their favour by winning the crucial third set.

 

The two players had won the Brisbane International last month to make a superb start to the 2013 season.

 

This was Sania’s 16th championships wins in doubles, and she also has one single title win.

 

Both the pairs had two aces each but Petrova and Srebotnik, interestingly, committed just one double fault compared to three by the Indo-American duo.

 

As far as first service was concerned, the runner-up team’s winning percentage was 68 compared to the winners’ 62 percent.

 

However, in the second service, Sania and her partner’s winning percentage was 53 compared to the runner-up’s 41 percent.

 

Sania and Bethanie had to work hard for points as their opponents fought well throughout.

 

The total points won were 63 by Sania and Bethanie even as their opponents fell short by just one point.

South Korean first women President Park Geun-Hye

 

Park Geun-Hye, the daughter of South Korea’s late military ruler, will be sworn in as the country’s first female president on Monday in a ceremony shadowed by North Korea’s recent nuclear test. challenges, including the belligerent regime in the North, a slowing economy and soaring welfare costs in one of the world’s most rapidly aging societies. Park inaugural speech is expected to focus on job creation, welfare expansion and national defence, while appealing for national unity at a time of growing concern with income and wealth disparity. Park had campaigned on a promise of greater, “trust-based” engagement with Pyongyang and her speech will be closely parsed for any indication of how she intends to handle North Korea at the beginning of her five-year term.Park is taking office a little more than 50 years after her father, Park Chung-He, seized power in a military coup. He went on to rule the country with an iron fist for the next 18 years until his eventual assassination, and remains a divisive figure credited with dragging the country out of poverty but reviled for his regime’s human rights abuses. His daughter’s political career has always been shadowed by her father’s legacy a fact that has played both to her advantage and her detriment.
Park publicly acknowledged the excesses of her father’s regime during her campaign and apologized to the families of its victims. Park’s mother murdered five years before her father, and she has never married or had children.She is adored by older conservative Koreans, who feel she shares her father’s leadership qualities and view her as something of an ill-fated princess who lost both parents to assassination but managed to rise above the tragedy.

ISRO to launch ‘SARAL’, PSLV C-20 from Sriharikota

February 25, 2013

All is set for the launch of Indo-French satellite ‘SARAL’, aimed at oceanographic studies, and six foreign mini and micro satellites onboard ISRO’s workhorse rocket PSLV from the spaceport of Sriharikota on Monday.

The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle PSLV-C20 is slated for blast-off at 5.56 PM local time from the first launch pad of Satish Dhawan Space Centre, 110 kms from Chennai.
President Pranab Mukherjee is expected to witness the event.
The 59-hour countdown for the launch, which commenced at 6.56 AM on Saturday, was progressing normally, Indian Space Research Organisation sources said on Sunday.
This is the 23rd mission of PSLV, which has an impeccable record of 21 consecutive successful flights.
This is the ninth time ISRO is using the ‘core alone’ variant of the rocket.
The 668.5 kgs and 44.4 metres tall rocket will have a lift off mass of 229.7 tonnes.
Besides SARAL, it would put into orbit two micro-satellites UniBRITE and BRITE from Austria and AAUSAT3 from Denmark and STRaND from United Kingdom as also one micro-satellite (NEOSSat) and one mini-satellite (SAPPHIRE) from Canada.
ISRO had initially planned to launch SARAL on December 12 last year but postponed it to carry out additional tests to “address technical issues to ensure reliability”.
The ISRO-built SARAL is a 410-kg satellite with payloads — Argos and Altika — from French space agency CNES for study of ocean parameters towards enhancing the understanding of the ocean state conditions which are otherwise not covered by the in-situ measurements.
In view of the expected presence of the President, the Satish Dhawan Space Centre has been put under a thick net of security, officials said.
SARAL will provide data products to operational and research user communities, in support of marine meteorology and sea state forecasting; operational oceanography; seasonal forecasting; climate monitoring; ocean, earth system and climate research, the officials said.
Altimeter (Altika) would help study the sea surface heights while Argos payload is a satellite-based data collection platform.

NEED FOR NATIONAL TRADE POLICY FOR RETAIL TRADE

NEED FOR NATIONAL TRADE POLICY FOR RETAIL TRADE

TRADERS DEMAND INDIA AS A FREE TRADE ZONE IN PRE BUDGET MEMO

MOOTED NEED FOR NATIONAL TRADE POLICY FOR RETAIL TRADE

The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), apex body of the trading community, in its pre-budget memorandum submitted to Union Finance Minister Shri P. Chidambaram, has called for a Ministry of Internal Trade both at Centre and the States besides demanding a National Policy for Internal Trade of the Country. The CAIT on the other hand has also demanded enactment of a Small and Medium Retailers Act ( SMRA) on the pattern of Micro and Small and Medium Enterprises Act in order to protect the traders from various onslaughts from different quarters. While agreeing with the report of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Retail Trade tabled in the Parliament on 8th June,2009, the CAIT has advocated a blanket ban on entry of big corporate houses and MNCs in retail Trade. The increasing trend in collection of indirect taxes has necessiated the formation of an Independent Indirect Tax Board also-said CAIT.

CAIT National President Mr. B. C. Bhartia and Secretary General Mr. Praveen Khandelwal informed that in its memorandum, the CAIT has also called for an early roadmap on Goods and Services Tax (GST) with its baisc fundamentals of single tax regime with uniform act, rules and regulations across the Country.It has also demanded the phasing out of Central Sales Tax to zero from April, 2013 as per phasing out plan of the Central Government to abolish CST by year 2010.which is over delayed for three years . The CAIT has said that Better Banking facilities to Traders should be ensured & easy loan facility from Banks at Primary sector lending rate may be allowed for traders.

The CAIT has also demanded increase in Cash Payment limit from Rs. 20,000 to Rs. 50,000 as the said limit was fixed in the year 1997 and till than the price index has increased considerably. Refering to the grave shortage of Banks, it has demanded the Government to set up a Panel of officials and trade representatives to draw out modalities of opening new banks and making them efficient to render best possible services. The CAIT has also advocated a special package to traders engaged in Educational and Health Sector so as to deliver their best to the citizens.

The CAIT has demanded India to be developed as a Free Trade Zone by allowing free Inter-State Movement of goods by abolishing all kind of Road Permits & Entry Forms in Inter-State Trade. The CAIT has drawn the attention of the Government towards laws and rules governing domestic trade which are decades old and most of them either need to be abrogated or require amendments. The CAIT has, therefore, demanded the Government to constitute a Joint Committee of Officials and Traders to make an indepth study of such laws and to make recommendations

In its memorandum, the CAIT has demanded that like Free Trade Zone and Special Economic Zone the Govt. should also create Rural Economic Zone for small traders operating their business activities in rural areas. Such Rural Economic Zones should be exempted for a period of five years from all the complexities of various Acts and laws in order to boost trade and development of rural areas in the Country. The CAIT has also demanded a pension scheme for the traders by suggesting that a part of the tax paid by the assesses should by invested in pension fund/schemes by the Government and the proceeds thereof should be provided to the assesses after attaining the age of 60 years.

The CAIT has also demanded increase in the limit of exemption in Income Tax and suggested that the limit should be raised suitably, in a rational manner, by also taking into account the factors which formed yardstick in recommendation of 6thPay Commission for salary to Govt. employees.

Hero Hockey World League Round Two – Russia Vs India-0-1

Russia – India 0-1 (half-time: 0-0)

Rani saved her best for last as she fired home the only goal of India’s win over Russia, a goal that saw her side claim top spot from the women’s Hero Hockey World League Round Two 2013 in Delhi.

It was a thing of beauty, jinking away from two defenders to find daylight in a packed circle and smashing through the otherwise impenetrable defences of Russia goalkeeper Oxana Serezhkina. It came in the 51^st minute after India had peppered the Russian goal but found the route through incredibly tough to find.

In the first half, Jaspreet Kaur drew a superb save from a penalty corner won 75 seconds in and the likes of Sushila Chanu Pukhrambam, Rani and Anupa Barla also saw their shots batted away. Olesya Petrova had to take one off the line, too, amid a melee.

In response, Russia sporadically threatened, winning a couple of corners late in the second half to show they still carried an interest in the tie. Rani, though, eventually sealed their nerves 19 minutes from the end and she went close to extending the lead soon after.

Again, Russia had intentions of spoiling the party with Maria Nikitina’s sliding shot skipping by the far post while Yogita Bali did brilliantly to block Ekaterina Shaburova’s shot. But India deservedly held on to move up to 13 points, tied with Japan but took the title by virtue of having won mores games.

And they also landed the major tournament prizes. Rani was the top-scorer with seven to her name while Jaspreet Kaur was the overall best defender and player of the week.

Fiji’s Susan Mudunatagi was honoured as goalkeeper of the tournament while Japanese veteran Sachimi Iwao was top midfielder and Malaysia’s Siti Rahmah Othman the best attacker.

Bangladesh, Japan strike deal for Dhaka metro rail

February 23, 2013

With an endeavor to ease the traffic problems that create havoc mainly in the capital city, Bangladesh on Wednesday signed a loan deal with a Japanese development agency for construction of the country’s first-ever metro rail system.

Traffic in the country’s capital, home to 15 million people, is among the slowest in the world with commuters spending three-to-four hours in jams daily. A mix of 200,000 motor vehicles and another half-million cycle-rickshaws clog the roads.

Officials said the proposed 20.1-kilometre ground and elevated railway will stretch across Dhaka from north to south with 16 stations and will ferry four million commuters every day, easing the jams substantially.

The project will cost an estimated USD 2.8 billion, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Bangladesh chief Takao Toda said, adding that his agency will finance 85 per cent of the cost at an interest rate of 0.01 per cent.

“The metro-rail will reduce travel time to 36 minutes (to cross from north to south Dhaka), which now takes hours,” Toda said at the signing of the first phase of the loan deal entailing USD 116.3 million for consulting services.

The metro-rail construction will start in 2016 and end in 2021. The government may seek investment from other donors for the remainder of the cost.

The metro will be the impoverished country’s second-largest infrastructure project after a USD 3-billion bridge project over the river Padma.

The government says it plans to finance the bridge on its own. Early this month, Bangladesh withdrew its request for World Bank financing for the high-profile bridge project which has been dogged by allegations of corruption involving top government officials.

Union for the Presidential Majority (UMP) party wins Djibouti General Elections

February 23, 2013

The tiny strategic of Africa nation of Djibouti, the ruling Union for the Presidential Majority (UMP) party said it had won a parliamentary election, as the opposition denounced what it called widespread fraud during voting, on Saturday.
Djibouti, with a population of some 800,000, occupies a strategic position at the entry to the Red Sea and is home to the biggest French and United States military bases in Africa.
During Friday’s election, the ruling Union for the Presidential Majority (UMP) party “received 49.39 per cent of the votes against 47.61 per cent for the opposition” in the capital, home to three-quarters of the population, Interior Minister Hassan Darar Houffaneh told reporters.
The party is also leading ballot counts in the five other voting districts, he said. The UMP is the party of President Ismael Omar Guelleh and held all 65 seats in the last parliament.
“The UMP is conducting massive fraud as usual. This is a joke,” Daher Ahmed Farah, a spokesman for the Union for National Salvation (USN), told reporters.
Friday’s ballot was the first since 2003 in which opposition groups joined forces to form a coalition.
65-year old Guelleh — only the second president since independence from France in 1977 — was re-elected for a third five-year term in April 2011 after the constitution was revised to allow him another term in office.

Hero Hockey World League Round Two - Bangladesh VS Fiji 8-4

23.02.13 : New Delhi: Hero Hockey World League Round Two - Bangladesh VS Fiji

Bangladesh – Fiji 8-4 (half-time: 3-2)

 

Mamunur Rahman Chayan’s four goal corner burst eventually put paid to Fiji’s hopes of a first win from a spectacular men’s Hero Hockey World League Round Two 2013 in Delhi.

 

It helped Bangladesh land their third win from four games and, with a game against India to come, are hopeful of causing  an upset to try and make it through to round three.Things looked to be relatively comfortable when Krishno Kumar Das scored twice in the opening eleven minutes, first with a tidy one-on-one finish, next when he guided home Md Mosiur Rahman Mosiur’s whipped pass.

Kamruzzaman’s excellent rising effort made it 3-0 before Fiji stormed back into contention.  Jerome Edwards scored their first with a very smart piece of work down the right, lifting it in from a narrow angle. And Adrian Smith scored his second of the competition from the same corner that succeeded against China for 3-2 at half-time.

Chayan’s first flick made it 4-2 but, again, Fiji replied this time from Alasace Smith’s thumping penalty corner strike. Chayan, though, formally killed off the game with three more drags in the closing 16 minutes to take away Fiji’s dream while Sheikh Md Nannu spun home in the middle of a late goal-rush. Adrian Smith got his second in the final minute to cap a lively performance but Bangladesh’s win means they will certainly finish above their pre-tournament seeding

Gujarat bags five awards

India’s best cities Awards

Gujarat bags five awards, Vadodara ranked overall best emerging city

***

Gandhinagar, Surat and Rajkot also awarded in different categories

New Delhi:  Gujarat has been adjudged with five prestigious “India Today- Best City Awards-2013” in different categories at a function held here. While Vadodara bagged the award for overall best emerging city, Gandhinagar and Surat ranked best cities in category of Crime & Safety, Rajkot for Housing & Transport and Vadodara again for Public Services. All the five awards were received by Shri I.P. Gautam, Principal Secretary (Urban Development) of Gujarat Government from Union Minister for Urban Development Shri Kamal Nath here.

The cities were ranked on a primary survey of 50 cities and out of these, 17 cities were shortlisted with five from Gujarat state.

Gujarat has received a number of national and international awards in last decade for Good Governance. Under the leadership of Shri Narendra Modi as Chief Minister, Gujarat has developed one of the best infrastructures in the country and created conducive environment for its people to realize their full potential and excel in their chosen vocation.

Gujarat has invigorated the development of its cities and urban spaces with innovative ideas and their speedy implementation for long term, robust urban growth. In the last decade, the State Government has taken a series of initiatives dedicated to urban areas that have generated wonderful results.

Gujarat’s pioneering initiatives in areas such as water management,  disaster management, health care, education, women  empowerment, rural development, industrial development, investment promotion have been studied far and wide and several of them have been replicated and up-scaled in other states of the country.

Recently, Gujarat was adjudged the best Big State for providing citizen security and one of the top three Best Big States for their overall performance at the IBN7 Diamond States Awards. 

Shri Bharat Lal, Resident Commissioner also attended India Today award distribution function.

Boeing, Dream liner brand 787s remain grounded

Posted on February 22, 2013 by sagarmedia

Boeing, Dream liner brand 787s remain grounded under instructions from the US aviation authorities following a series of systematic error, problems in  a battery fire, malfunction.
Japanese transport ministry’s order on Friday is in response to two cases of fuel leaks in January involving 787s operated by Japan Airlines. One happened at Boston’s Logan Airport, and the other at Japan’s Narita Airport.Transport ministry officials blame the leak in Boston on a foreign object stuck in a fuel tank valve, which prevented the valve from closing.They say the leak at Narita Airport was due to an unnecessary coating job on a motor switch for a separate valve, which caused the switch to malfunction.The ministry’s order for pre-flight checks covers Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways.
Boeing official said, partial changes to its assembly process to prevent faulty coatings, ministry says it will cooperate with the US aviation authorities to monitor the company’s quality improvement efforts.

Egyptians to vote for new parliament in April

February 22, 2013

Egyptians to elect their new parliament beginning 27th April. The election will be held in several phases and the entire electoral process will be over by June .The new People’s Assembly will be formally convened after the polls on July 6.
A Presidential decree to this effect was issued by the Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi in Cairo yesterday.
The announcement of elections is being seen as yet another attempt by the President Mursi to tide over the ongoing political and economic crisis in the country. The ruling Muslim Brotherhood feels that the move will help stem the protests by the opposition.The umbrella opposition , the National Salvation Front, led by the former IAEA Chief Mohamed El Bardei is yet to react on the move.
However one of the major political players, the left wing Popular Currant led by the former Presidential candidate Hamdeen Sabbahi, the opposition Dostur party and a group of revolutionary movements have declared that they would boycott the elections till their demands are met.
They have demanded a trial of Muslim Brotherhood supporters for crimes against the Egyptian people, sacking the attorney general, release of all political detainees, amendments in constitution and fresh Presidential elections along with that of the parliament

SC sets up special team to examine contents of Radia tapes

Posted on February 21, 2013 by sagarmedia

A six-member special team comprising five from the CBI and one from the Income Tax department was today constituted by the Supreme Court to examine the contents of tapped telephonic conversations of corporate lobbyist Niira Radia with politicians, corporate honchos and others.
A bench comprising justices G S Singhvi and S J Mukhopadhaya said the working of the team will be supervised by two officers of the CBI who will report to Superintendent of Police, CBI dealing with the 2G matter.
The bench said that the overall supervision will be under the Deputy Inspector General, CBI who is looking after the case.
The bench said that the team shall submit its report in four months from today.
The apex court on February 13 had sought names of officials of CBI, IT department and the Enforcement Directorate for setting up of a team to enquire into the tapped telephonic conversations of Radia with others to ascertain element of criminality.
The court had earlier said that it had gone through some of the tapped conversations and some of them were “innocuous” and hence, the voluminous transcripts were needed to be “scrutinised” to find out elements of “criminality” in them.
It had also made clear that the scrutiny would be limited to those conversations which pertain to criminal element and relating to interest of justice.
Earlier, senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for Ratan Tata, had submitted that “utmost secrecy” be maintained in the scrutiny of transcripts.
He was referring to various conversations that took place between Tata and Radia which are allegedly personal in nature.
“There are some conversations in public domain and those are hardly personal in nature. They relate to illegality and shed significant light on how government decisions are being influenced and how institutions run in the country,” Prashant Bhushan, appearing for Centre for Public Interest Litigation, had said.
Excerpts from the tapes earlier leaked in the media had sparked a political storm with the conversations bringing out the nature of corporate lobbying and also its purported impact on politics.
The income tax department placed transcripts of 5,800 tapped telephone conversations in 50 sealed envelopes.
The conversations were recorded as part of surveillance of Radia’s phone on a complaint to Finance Minister on November 16, 2007 alleging that within a span of nine years she had built up a business empire worth Rs 300 crore.
The government had recorded 180 days of Radia’s conversations–first from August 20, 2008 onwards for 60 days and then from October 19 for another 60 days.
Later, on May 11, 2009, her phone was again put on surveillance for another 60 days following a fresh order given on May 8.

 

New Delhi, 21^st February, 2013

Think big, start small, scale fast, say digital experts at ad:tech New Delhi 2013

 

The third Delhi edition of the world’s #1 digital marketing event, ad:tech New Delhi 2013, kick-started in the capital today with thousands of delegates pouring in from India and all over the world to learn about the latest trends from global experts, share their own experiences and for business networking. The opening keynote in the morning by Wendy Clark, Senior Vice President, Integrated Marketing Communications and Capabilities, The Coca Cola Company, deliberated on the concept of Liquid & Linked Marketing. Wendy stressed on the need to create more stories that are share-worthy instead of typical advertisements. In this age of real-time marketing, it is imperative to think big, start small and then scale rapidly, she recommended while addressing a packed audience. We are built for scale – if we do not reposition our failure, we will scale the wrong thing perfectly. Below are the key highlights from day one at ad:tech New Delhi 2013:

 

·         Wendy Clark during her session delved into Coca Cola’s strategy of listening and engagement hubs around the world, which also provide them new measurement tools. Focusing on the three areas of stories, spread and value, she cited the example of the ‘Hug Machine’ set up by Coca Cola in National University of Singapore, which would offer a free can of Coke if you hugged the machine. Even though the campaign ran only in Singapore, it became viral globally and generated over 10 million views in the US itself.

o   Wendy also shared eight key learning’s for today’s digital marketers: be share-worthy by creating content that is interesting and compelling; embrace the new salesforce which are consumers willing to carry brand messages ahead; listen and then engage; test, fail, learn, and then scale; speed trumps perfection so be ‘flawsome’; disrupt yourself or be disrupted by the market; do not accept the status quo; and, play well on a behavioural level to manage increasingly complicated campaigns.

 

·         The second keynote presentation by Katharyn White, Vice President Marketing, IBM Global Business Services emphasized on the three imperatives for marketing professionals including understanding the customer as an individual, creating a system of engagement that maximizes value creation at every touch and designing your culture and brand so that they are authentically one.

 

·         The first interactive session on ‘Brand Storytelling Gets Tech-ified’ witnessed industry bigwigs namely Deepali Nair, Country Head - Brand, Customer Service & Corporate Communications, L&T General Insurance Company Limited; Sanjay Tripathy, Executive Vice President, Marketing, Product and Direct Sales Channels, HDFC Life; Nikhil Rungta, Country Marketing Head, Google India, and Rajdeep Endow, MD, Sapient India and Global Delivery Lead, SapientNitro deliberating on how technology can amplify brand experience and create a powerful source of differentiation and competitive advantage with relevant technology expertise.

 

·         An engaging session on ‘Integrated Marketing’ focused on how brands can plan, create, execute, and measure cross-channel tactics for advanced digital marketing initiatives. This session was conducted by Shivanandan Pare, Head - e-commerce, Madura fashion and Lifestyle, Aditya Birla Nuvo Ltd; Chandrakanth B.N., Co-Founder and Managing Director, Theorem India Pvt Ltd.; Nitin Mathur, Senior Director & Head of Marketing, India & South-east Asia, Yahoo!; Gaurav Seth, Senior Vice President, Marketing, Sony MAX and Ajay Kaul, Executive Director, Global Brand Communications Worldwide Marketing, Lenovo.

 

Day 1 of the conference also included power-packed discussions and break-out sessions on Integrated Marketing strategies, art of tech-storytelling by brands, Big Data, convergence of online and offline marketing initiatives, Native advertising, Augmented Reality, Gamification, and Location Based Relevancy among others.

 

Brands attending ad:tech New Delhi 2013 include Accenture, Aditya Birla Financial Services, Axis Bank, BBC Advertising, Bharti Airtel, Birla Sunlife Insurance, Cafe Coffee Day, Citi India,  Web18, Future Group, General Motors, Google Inc, HDFC Life, IBM, Ibibo Group, India Today, Info Edge India, Intertek, L&T General Insurance, Lodha Grouup, Monster.com , Dominos Pizza, Reliance Consumer Finance, The Coca-Cola Company, Times Internet Limited, Viacom 18, Yahoo! and Yatra.com among others.

 

Day 2 of ad:tech New Delhi 2013 conference will begin with a keynote address by Alyssa Altman, Vice President, SapientNitro; and will also feature Durga Raghunath, VP Product and Executive News, Firstpost; Sunita Rajan, Senior Vice President, BBC Advertising; and Bettina Sherick, SVP Digital Strategic Marketing, 20th Century Fox International.

 

To find more about Day 2, please access the following link: http://www.ad-tech.com/newdelhi/adtech_new_delhi_schedule.aspx?sesstype=1,2,4,5,6,7,8,11,12

 

About ad:tech India

Networkplay Media Pvt. Ltd. in partnership with dmg:events organizes ad:tech, the world’s no.1 interactive advertising and technology conference and exhibition. With 9 shows in 7 countries, ad:tech has been providing media, marketing and technology professionals with the tools and techniques required to succeed in a changing digital world for over a decade. ad:tech India made its successful debut in April 2011, with New Delhi being the first city to host the global platform/event. ad:tech New Delhi spans the full ecosystem of advertising and technology that moves business forward and changes the role of digital marketers everywhere.

 

In 2012, ad:tech India, also made an entry into India's own Silicon Valley, Bangalore, by hosting its first event in South India. With the objective to ‘bring together marketing giants with technology geniuses’, ad:tech Bangalore 2012 witnessed India's leading brands, marketing and advertising agencies, innovative startups, VCs and digital entrepreneurs, interact, share and explore technologies that that are transforming their business.

by sagarmedia on February 20, 2013

Russian premier on visit to Brazil,Cuba

Medvedev has arrived in Brazil’s capital Brasilia, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported Wednesday.
During his visit to Brazil on February 20-21, Medvedev is expected hold talks with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and co-chair with Vice-President Michel Temer the sixth meeting of the Russian-Brazilian high-level bilateral cooperation commission.  Russian premier will also meet with business executives and entrepreneurs.
A source in the Russian delegation told media on Monday that Russia and Brazil are expected to sign several intergovernmental agreements and up to five contracts in such areas as metallurgy, medicine and hi-tech industry.
Russia hopes to participate in a tender for the construction of four nuclear power plants in Brazil until 2030 and expand military-technical cooperation with the Latin American country, the source said.
On February 21, Medvedev will arrive in Cuba for a two-day working visit and hold talks with Chairman of the Cuban State Council and the Council of Ministers Raul Castro. He may also meet with Fidel Castro if the medical condition of the leader of Cuban Revolution permits.

Just Foreign Policy News, February 19, 2013
Could We Move Dianne Feinstein on CIA Oversight?

Read This Edition of the Just Foreign Policy News on the Web
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/node/1381
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Go Straight to the News Summary in this Email

Switch to the "Short Email" Version of the News

I) Actions and Featured Articles

Do you live in California, Oregon, New Mexico, Colorado, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Maine, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Indiana, or Idaho?
If you do, you have a Senator on the Senate Intelligence Committee. Why not call them during the Senate recess, urging them to support a public hearing on CIA drone strikes? All the info you need is here.
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/node/1378

Could We Move Dianne Feinstein on CIA Oversight?
The Senate Intelligence Committee, which is supposed to oversee the Central Intelligence Agency, has never held a public hearing on CIA drone strikes. Indeed, in the year prior to the confirmation hearing of John Brennan to head the CIA, the Senate Intelligence Committee never held any public hearing on any issue whatsoever, which Steven Aftergood of the Federation of Americans Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy says "may be an unprecedented hiatus in the history of the Senate Committee."
If we could get a hundred calls into each of Feinstein's four California offices during the Senate recess - a fraction of a percent of the politically engaged, hard core opponents of the drone strike policy - do you think Sen. Feinstein might agree to hold a public hearing?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/could-we-move-dianne-fein_b_2707958.html

Senator Feinstein: Hold a Public Hearing on CIA Drone Strikes
The Senate Intelligence Committee has never held a public hearing on CIA drone strikes. Maybe that's why Senator Feinstein wasn't aware of reports that the CIA was counting every "military-age male" killed in a drone strike as a militant. The committee should hold a public hearing. Amnesty International backs this demand. Sign our petition at SignOn.
http://signon.org/sign/senator-feinstein-hold?source=c.url&r_by=1135580

5 Broken Cameras is on Netflix
Five Broken Cameras, the Academy Award-nominated Palestinian-Israeli documentary about nonviolent resistance to land confiscation in Bilin, is on Netflix. Have you seen it yet?

Support the Work of Just Foreign Policy
Your support helps us to educate Americans about U.S. foreign policy and create opportunities for Americans to advocate for a foreign policy that is more just.
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Summary:
U.S./Top News
1) According to a new national survey, Americans believe only high-level suspects who may be involved in planning attacks against the U.S. should be targeted in U.S. drone strikes - and not if there's a risk that innocent people may also be killed, Emily Swanson reports for the Huffington Post. According to the Huffpost/YouGov poll, 56 percent of Americans say that the drone program should be used to target and kill high-level terrorists, while only 13 percent say that anyone suspected of being associated with a terrorist group should be targeted. Another 13 percent said that nobody should be killed using the drones program.

Only 27 percent of respondents said they were in favor of using the program if there was a possibility of killing innocent people, while 43 percent said they were opposed. Republicans in the survey were evenly divided on whether to use drone strikes if there was a risk of killing innocents, but both Democrats and independents were more likely to oppose than favor such strikes.

2) Jason Linkins, writing at the Huffington Post, uses the new poll data to demolish claims by the Washington Post's Chris Cillizza that public support for the drone strike policy is a settled issue. Linkins notes that Cillizza cited poll data that was at least a year old, and that the YouGov poll shows that the majority of Americans have a more nuanced view: it matters who is being targeted, and it matters whether civilians are being killed.

3) A report in the New York Times following Sunday's climate rally in Washington claims that President Obama faces a difficult decision on the Keystone pipeline, because supporting the pipeline will alienate environmental advocates who overwhelmingly supported his candidacy, while rejecting it will alienate the Conservative government in Canada, which has threatened to retaliate.

[Strikingly, the NYT list of possible "retaliations" to be feared overwhelmingly consists of withdrawing Conservative Canadian government support for policies that the majority of Americans have no stake in, including the war in Afghanistan, harsh sanctions on Iran, reducing oil imports from Venezuela, and ensuring purchases of the F-35 fighter plane, which Pentagon spending critics say is an unaffordable boondoggle that should be canceled outright. - JFP.]

[We just put out an action alert in response to this dumb article; that link follows - JFP.]
Are Dumb Foreign Policies Holding Us Back On Addressing Climate Change?
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/act/reject-keystone

[Expert Pentagon spending critic Winslow Wheeler says the F-35 program is an unaffordable boondoggle that should be canceled outright; that link follows - JFP]

"The Jet That Ate the Pentagon: The F-35 is a boondoggle. It's time to throw it in the trash bin," Winslow Wheeler, Foreign Policy, April 26, 2012, http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/04/26/the_jet_that_ate_the_pentagon

4) Sen. Jim Inhofe is the ranking Republican member on Senate Armed Services and has been one of the leading figures opposing Chuck Hagel's nomination, notes Alex Seitz-Wald at Salon. Inhofe told Foreign Policy's Josh Rogan that Hagel's relatively soft stance on Hamas, among other things, meant that Inhofe could not support him.

But in 2006, after Hamas won the Palestinian elections, Inhofe did not seem concerned. Hamas has done "some good things, even as a terrorist group," he told the Oklahoman. He compared the group to one of the US' largest charities, saying Hamas is like "the Salvation Army with loaded guns." "I would prefer that they not have won, but I don't think it's the end of the world," he added.

5) Sen. McCain wants to move the armed drone program to the Pentagon, arguing that the CIA should not be running it, Amanda Terkel reports for the Huffington Post. "What we really need to do is take this whole program out of the hands of the Central Intelligence Agency and put it into the Department of Defense, where you have adequate oversight, you have committee oversight, you have all the things that are built in as our oversight of the Department of Defense," McCain, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said on "Fox News Sunday."

"Since when is the intelligence agency supposed to be an air force of drones that goes around killing people?" McCain asked. "I believe that it's a job for the Department of Defense."

6) Facing growing pressure to lift the veil of secrecy around targeted killings overseas, the Obama administration is considering shifting more of the CIA's covert drone program to the Pentagon, which operates under legal guidelines that could allow for more public disclosure in some cases, Ken Dilanian reports for the Los Angeles Times. John Brennan, whom President Obama has nominated to run the CIA, favors moving the bulk of drone killing operations to the military, current and former U.S. officials say.

Under U.S. law that governs the military, known as Title 10, operations may be kept secret but officials have the option of disclosing them. Under the law applicable for the CIA, Title 50, covert operations require a presidential finding and stay classified unless the president expressly declassifies them. Given those restrictions, it is uncertain how much more transparency the Pentagon would provide than the CIA, Dilanian writes.

Some officials see pitfalls in transferring the CIA drone campaign to the military. Former CIA officer Bruce Riedel says the risk of mistakes could increase if the military doesn't have full access to CIA intelligence. But Brennan says CIA-military coordination has improved.

Syria
7) Although President Obama previous rejected a proposal to arm the Syrian opposition, officials might now reopen the debate, the New York Times reports. Obama's previous decision not to provide arms was driven by his reluctance to get drawn into a proxy war and by his fear that the weapons would end up in unreliable hands, where they could be used against civilians or Israeli and American interests; UN ambassador Susan Rice was also opposed, the Times says. On Monday, EU foreign ministers decided against easing an arms moratorium despite objections by Britain.

A big question is whether the makeup of Obama's new team would discourage the likelihood of a major policy shift, the Times says. Secretary of State Kerry has said he plans to advance ideas on how to change the situation in Syria later this month, ideas that appear to include eliciting more cooperation from the Kremlin. Chuck Hagel, the president's nominee for defense secretary, has expressed reluctance, dating back to the Iraq war, to become entangled in foreign conflicts. One official said John Brennan's background suggested he might be more focused on bolstering the CIA's clandestine intelligence-gathering capabilities instead of its paramilitary-style operations.

Afghanistan
8) For the first time in six years the number of civilians killed in Afghanistan declined, according to the annual UN report on civilian casualties, the New York Times reports. The decline was primarily the result of the slowing pace of the war; more fighting by Afghan forces, who use less lethal weapons than the US; and an assiduous effort by the Western-led forces to reduce the impact on civilians, the report indicated.

Contents:
U.S./Top News
1) Opinion On Drones Depends On Who's Being Killed: Poll
Emily Swanson, Huffington Post, 02/15/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/15/drones-opinion_n_2689813.html

According to the new national survey, Americans believe that only high-level suspects who may be involved in planning attacks should be targeted -- and not if there's a risk that innocent people may also be killed.

According to the new Huffpost/YouGov poll, 56 percent of Americans say that the drone program should be used to target and kill high-level terrorists, while only 13 percent say that anyone suspected of being associated with a terrorist group should be targeted. Another 13 percent said that nobody should be killed using the drones program. A majority of Americans across most demographic and partisan groups agreed that the program should be used for high-level targets.
[...]
Only 27 percent of respondents said they were in favor of using the program if there was a possibility of killing innocent people, while 43 percent said they were opposed. Republicans in the survey were evenly divided on whether to use drone strikes if there was a risk of killing innocents, but both Democrats and independents were more likely to oppose than favor such strikes.
[...]
While media reports have largely asserted that the program is limited to senior-level targets, a New America Foundation report found that only 2 percent of those killed met that definition. One memo justifying the program repeatedly refers to a "member" of a terrorist group, without qualifying the seniority of that member.

A previous HuffPost/YouGov poll found that 54 percent of Americans approve of using drones to kill high-level terrorism suspects, with 18 percent saying that they disapprove. That support dropped below 50 percent if the suspects being targeted were American citizens, although more approved than disapproved even under that circumstance, 43 percent to 27 percent. As with the new poll, though, support dropped even further if civilians might also be killed, with 29 percent saying they approved and 42 percent saying they disapproved.

A poll released Monday by the Pew Research Center also found that endangering civilians is the aspect of the drones program that concerns civilians the most. Fifty-three percent of respondents to that survey said they were very concerned about drones endangering civilian lives. Only 32 percent said they were very concerned that drone strikes could lead to retaliation by extremists, 31 percent said they were very concerned about whether the program is conducted legally, and 26 percent said they were very concerned that drones could damage America's reputation.

The relative lack of concern in Pew's survey about whether the drone program is conducted legally perhaps helps to explain another aspect of public opinion: Although the earlier HuffPost/YouGov survey found that more Americans approve than disapprove of killing high-level terrorism suspects who are American citizens, another recent poll, this one conducted by Fairleigh Dickinson University, found that by a 48 percent to 24 percent margin most respondents said that doing so was illegal. In the debate over drones, moral concerns about killing innocents seem to outweigh legal concerns about killing Americans.
[...]

2) Drone Program Poll: The Public Does Not Uncritically Embrace Targeted Killings
Jason Linkins, Huffington Post, 02/15/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/15/drone-program-poll_n_2696352.html

Michael Isikoff's Feb. 4 report on the "white paper" -- a 16-page memo that laid out, in part, the legal underpinnings that guide the Obama administration's policy of carrying out what they call "targeted killings" with drones -- ushered the use of drones back into the public consciousness.

The "targeted killing" policy, famously and controversially, extends to American citizens, and the release of the white paper brought all of those attendant controversies to new bloom -- so much so that President Barack Obama was compelled to (glancingly!) mention the policy during his State of the Union address this week.

Yet somehow, two days after Isikoff's story blew up, Chris Cillizza put up a post at the Washington Post's "The Fix" blog that strongly suggested the matter was a settled issue, at least where the American people were concerned. Titled "The American public loves drones," it presented some compelling poll findings, conducted by the Post and ABC News, in which they found that "eight in ten Americans (83 percent) approved of the Obama Administrations use of unmanned drones against suspected terrorists overseas -- with a whopping 59 percent strongly approving of the practice," and that "two-thirds of people in the survey" expressed an approval for "using drones to target American citizens who are suspected terrorists."

Cillizza also included similar findings from a Pew poll, dovetailing with the Post's own, and this was apparently sufficient to suffuse this report with language that connoted a certain finality:

"But, it's also important to remember as the drone debate gains steam in Washington that there is little public appetite for an extended look at how unmanned attacks fit into our broader national security policy. Minds are made up on the matter. And, if the public has anything to do with it, drones are here to stay."

Ahh, but here's the rub: The two polls Cillizza mentions are from February 2012 (Washington Post/ABC News) and September 2011 (Pew) -- both well before Isikoff's actual news broke and re-ignited the debate.

So I have no idea why Cillizza would say something like, "It's important to remember as the drone debate gains steam in Washington that there is little public appetite for an extended look" at the issue. Temporally speaking, this is illiterate: His examination of the public's appetite is based on ancient history. (You'd think he would also be able to handle the whole concept of newly broken news reopening a debate and reshaping public opinion.)

As it happens, The Huffington Post, in conjunction with YouGov, has poll results on the matter from a survey conducted after Isikoff's story broke, and guess what? Blind support for drones is not nearly as monolithic as Cillizza contends, and it pretty much all depends on who is getting transformed into charred human remains.

In the main, Americans are largely supportive of using drone strikes to kill "high-level terrorists." From there, however, they get wobbly:

"According to the new Huffpost/YouGov poll, 56 percent of Americans say that the drone program should be used to target and kill high-level terrorists, while only 13 percent say that anyone suspected of being associated with a terrorist group should be targeted. Another 13 percent said that nobody should be killed using the drone program. A majority of Americans across most demographic and partisan groups agreed that the program should be used for high-level targets."

Naturally, there's little support for using drones to just kill any old terrorist functionary -- we're told we have a huge deficit problem, after all! And the media tends to overstate the extent to which "high-level targets" are being exclusively targeted at a high level. According to a study conducted by the New America Foundation, "only 2 percent of those killed met that definition."

The killing of innocent bystanders also has been largely obscured by the media's uncritical embrace of the term "militant" -- which, as Glenn Greenwald points out is simply a euphemism for "any human being whose life is extinguished when an American missile or bomb detonates." When The New York Times reported on the Obama administration's "kill list," the convenient elasticity of the relevant terminology merited a mention:

"Mr. Obama embraced a disputed method for counting civilian casualties that did little to box him in. It in effect counts all military-age males in a strike zone as combatants, according to several administration officials, unless there is explicit intelligence posthumously proving them innocent."
[...]
"This counting method may partly explain the official claims of extraordinarily low collateral deaths."

Read further in that Times report, and you'll find opinions from members of the intelligence community, who fret that this is essentially "'guilt by association' that has led to 'deceptive' estimates of civilian casualties."

The salient point is this, however: Respondents in the HuffPost/YouGov survey take a very dim view of the drone program "if there was a possibility of killing innocent people," with only 27 percent in favor.

Lawmakers, when they hear assertions about the public's widespread, uncritical embrace of the drone program, tend to get skittish about questioning the program's use, effectiveness or legality. The news I would share with such lawmakers is that the public's widespread, uncritical embrace of the drone program has been greatly exaggerated, full stop. Make of that what you will.

3) Obama Faces Risks in Pipeline Decision
John M. Broder, Clifford Krauss and Ian Austen, New York Times, February 17, 2013
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/18/business/energy-environment/obamas-keystone-pipeline-decision-risks-new-problems-either-way.html

President Obama faces a knotty decision in whether to approve the much-delayed Keystone oil pipeline: a choice between alienating environmental advocates who overwhelmingly supported his candidacy or causing a deep and perhaps lasting rift with Canada.

Canada, the United States' most important trading partner and a close ally on Iran and Afghanistan, is counting on the pipeline to propel more growth in its oil patch, a vital engine for its economy. Its leaders have made it clear that an American rejection would be viewed as an unneighborly act and could bring retaliation.
[...]
But this is also a decisive moment for the United States environmental movement, which backed Mr. Obama strongly in the last two elections. For groups like the Sierra Club, permitting a pipeline carrying more than 700,000 barrels a day of Canadian crude into the country would be viewed as a betrayal, and as a contradiction of the president's promises in his second inaugural and State of the Union addresses to make controlling climate change a top priority for his second term.

On Sunday, thousands rallied near the Washington Monument to protest the pipeline and call for firmer steps to fight emissions of climate-changing gases. Groups opposing coal production, nuclear power and hydraulic fracturing for natural gas were prominent; separate groups of Baptists and Catholics, as well as an interfaith coalition, and groups from Colorado, Toronto and Minneapolis joined the throng.
[...]
Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club, predicted that Mr. Obama would veto the $7 billion project because of the adverse effects development of the Canadian oil sands would have on the global climate.

"It's rare that a president has such a singular voice on such a major policy decision," Mr. Brune said. "Whatever damage approving the pipeline would do to the environmental movement pales in comparison to the damage it could do to his own legacy."

Mr. Brune was one of about four dozen pipeline protesters arrested at the White House on Wednesday, in an act of civil disobedience that was a first for the 120-year-old Sierra Club.
[...]
The proposed northern extension of the nearly 2,000-mile Keystone XL pipeline would connect Canada's oil sands to refineries around Houston and the Gulf of Mexico, replacing Venezuelan heavy crude with similar Canadian grades.

Proponents say its approval would be an important step toward reducing reliance on the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries for energy. Opponents say that the expansion of oil production in shale fields across the country has already reduced the need for imports. Environmentalists have singled out the pipeline because it would carry oil derived from tar sands, in a process that is dirtier than other forms of oil production and that releases more carbon dioxide.
[...]
The Keystone pipeline is treated mainly as a domestic issue in Washington. But for Canada's Conservative government, which has its power base in the oil-rich province of Alberta, it represents a crucial moment in Canada's relationship with its most vital foreign partner even if the oil sands are also a divisive issue within Canada. Mr. Obama and Prime Minister Stephen Harper are not close, and the two make a portrait of contrasts in style and substance. While Mr. Obama comes from the liberal wing of his party and is known for stirring speeches, Mr. Harper is conservative even by the standards of his own Conservative Party and can be stiff in public. His political base, the province of Alberta, is the heart of the Canadian oil patch.

Mr. Obama's recent expressions of concern about climate change contrast starkly with Mr. Harper's stated priorities. Under Mr. Harper, Canada formally withdrew from the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, which was agreed to by a previous Liberal government. (The United States never ratified the protocol.)

Still, the amount of Canadian oil that the United States imports daily - 2.4 million barrels, roughly twice what it imports from Saudi Arabia - points up a cornerstone of Mr. Obama's goal to decrease dependence on oil from the unstable Middle East and unreliable sources like Venezuela. The Keystone pipeline would increase Canadian oil imports by more than 700,000 barrels a day, the equivalent of roughly two-thirds of Venezuelan imports.

Canadian leaders are cautious not to threaten the Obama administration directly, but they suggest that if the pipeline is not permitted, the close relationship between the countries will be damaged and Canada forced to look elsewhere, particularly to China, for new energy markets.
[...]
Experts who follow United States-Canada relations say that they do not expect Ottawa to retaliate overtly if the Keystone project is not approved, but that a rejection could influence future decisions on purchases of American F-35 fighter jets and other trade and border matters.

[...]
The shortage of pipeline capacity has produced localized supply gluts, forcing the price of Canadian crude well below American and international benchmarks. If the Keystone pipeline is not completed, energy experts say, weak prices will make the economics of future oil sands projects questionable.
[...]

4) More GOP Hagel hypocrisy
The senator leading the charge against Hagel on Israel had some kind words for Hamas in 2006
Alex Seitz-Wald, Salon, Thursday, Feb 14, 2013 05:22
http://www.salon.com/2013/02/14/more_gop_hagel_hypocrisy/

When Senate Republicans blocked Chuck Hagel's confirmation to be secretary of Defense this afternoon by voting against a cloture motion to end debate and move to a final vote, they insisted it was not a filibuster. "This is not a filibuster. I realize that's the headline the majority leader would like the papers to write," Texas Sen. John Cornyn said on the Senate floor while filibustering Hagel.

The cloture motion fell two votes short, securing only 58 of the 60 votes Democrats needed to break the GOP obstruction. Republicans had 40 votes against cloture, and in the crazy rules of the Senate, that wins.

The hold or filibuster, or whatever Cornyn would call it, came as conservatives buzzed about a speech Hagel gave to the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination League (ADC) in 2007. A conservative blog today claimed that Hagel suggested in the speech that Israel controlled the State Department. The former Republican senator has come under fire from Republicans for being critical of Israeli policy in the past and referring to the "Israel lobby," so the State Department quote would be problematic, if true.

It turns out Hagel may have said no such thing, though he did talk of cooperation with Iran on Afghanistan, including the idea of reopening a consulate in the country, which may pose its own political problems.

But the increasingly unhinged campaign against Hagel has been so single-minded in its quest to dig up dirt on him that it has seized on anything that has even a whiff of pro-Palestianian, anti-Israel slant, no matter how dubious. For instance, the bogus claim that Hagel received donations from a nonexistent group called "Friends of Hamas" plays perfectly into the notion that he coddled the sometimes terrorist group that controls the Gaza Strip. But it has the disadvantage of being untrue.

Applying the Republicans' standard on Hagel to others - including themselves - complicates the situation.

Take Sen. Jim Inhofe, for instance. He's the ranking Republican member on the Senate Armed Services Committee and has been one of the leading figures opposing Hagel's nomination. Inhofe told Foreign Policy's Josh Rogan that Hagel's relatively soft stance on Hamas, among other things, meant that Inhofe could not support him.

But in 2006, after Hamas won the Palestinian elections, Inhofe did not seem concerned. Hamas has done "some good things, even as a terrorist group," he told the Oklahoman. He compared the group to one of the country's largest charities, saying Hamas is like "the Salvation Army with loaded guns."

"I would prefer that they not have won, but I don't think it's the end of the world," he added.

The quote may not be damning on its own, but if there were a concerted smear campaign against Inhofe's stance on Israel, it would be about as bad as anything brought against Hagel. In other words, using his current standard, Jim Inhofe might have a hard time voting to confirm Jim Inhofe.

5) Obama Drone Program Should Be Run By Pentagon, John McCain Says
Amanda Terkel, Huffington Post, 02/10/2013
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/10/obama-drone-program_n_2657884.html

Washington -- Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) wants to move the federal government's armed drone program to the Pentagon, arguing that the CIA should not be running it.

"What we really need to do is take this whole program out of the hands of the Central Intelligence Agency and put it into the Department of Defense, where you have adequate oversight, you have committee oversight, you have all the things that are built in as our oversight of the Department of Defense," McCain, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said on "Fox News Sunday."

"Since when is the intelligence agency supposed to be an air force of drones that goes around killing people?" McCain asked. "I believe that it's a job for the Department of Defense."
[...]

6) CIA's covert drone program may shift further onto Pentagon
Such a move would allow more public disclosure of targeted killings overseas, which have been criticized in part for their secrecy.
Ken Dilanian, Los Angeles Times, February 17, 2013
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-targeted-killing-20130217,0,4132350.story

Washington - Facing growing pressure to lift the veil of secrecy around targeted killings overseas, the Obama administration is considering shifting more of the CIA's covert drone program to the Pentagon, which operates under legal guidelines that could allow for more public disclosure in some cases.

John Brennan, whom President Obama has nominated to run the CIA, favors moving the bulk of drone killing operations to the military, current and former U.S. officials say. As White House counter-terrorism advisor for the last four years, Brennan has overseen the steady increase in targeted killings of suspected militants and Al Qaeda operatives.

In written comments released Friday by the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is considering his nomination, Brennan said coordination between the CIA and Pentagon had improved. He vowed that if confirmed, he would work closely with Defense officials "to ensure there is no unnecessary redundancy in … capabilities and missions."

The proposed shift follows the president's vow in his State of the Union speech Tuesday to be "even more transparent" about the "targeting, detention and prosecution of terrorists."

Under U.S. law that governs the military, known as Title 10, operations may be kept secret but officials have the option of disclosing them. Under the law applicable for the CIA, Title 50, covert operations require a presidential finding and stay classified unless the president expressly declassifies them.

Given those restrictions, it is uncertain how much more transparency the Pentagon would provide than the CIA. However, many at the CIA would welcome a reallocation of more drone operations to the Pentagon to help the agency refocus on its traditional mission as a spy service. It also could ease mounting congressional concerns about mission creep and a lack of accountability for errors, including civilian casualties.

"Despite all of the demands made on it over the last four years, the CIA has to continually remind itself that it is above all the nation's global espionage and analysis service," Michael Hayden, who led the agency from 2006 to 2009, said in an interview.

Some officials see pitfalls in transferring the CIA drone campaign to the military.

Most CIA targeting decisions are based on highly sensitive intelligence from secret informants or other sources. The agency would abhor revealing much about its sources. But if it didn't, that could undermine military confidence in the targeting information.

"The whole logic of the drone is that you're not making a split-second decision like a commando on the ground," said Bruce Riedel, a former CIA officer who has advised the White House about Afghanistan and Pakistan. "You have the luxury of loitering over the target for a long period of time to make sure you're as confident you can be that you've got the right target. The only way that works is if the people running the airplane know everything we know. It seems to me the risk of mistakes goes up, not down, if that is not the case."

The CIA has never publicly acknowledged its covert drone program. By contrast, the Pentagon has acknowledged flying armed drones in the war zones of Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. The military also has used remotely piloted aircraft to surveil Somali pirates at sea, the scene of a recent terrorist attack in Algeria and threats to shipping in the Persian Gulf, for example.

More transparency may cause problems for nations known to host U.S. drone bases, including Afghanistan, Djibouti, Saudi Arabia and soon, Niger, if lethal operations were openly acknowledged, former U.S. officials said. In Pakistan, for example, it's difficult to see how the U.S. military could openly operate without Pakistani government approval. The CIA's official silence allows Islamabad to refrain from any involvement and to deny any complicity.

The Pakistani news media and public assume the drone attacks, which are highly unpopular, are American.

But "it's one thing for everyone to know something, and it's another for the U.S. government to publicly confirm it," a former intelligence official said.

Yemen offers greater flexibility. If the U.S. military took over all of the attacks, U.S. officials would be free to say more in public about them, particularly since the government in Sana supports the program.

The public got a glimpse of the military's clandestine counter-terrorism program in June, when Obama disclosed that U.S. forces had engaged Al Qaeda militants in Somalia and Yemen. The disclosure, which did not describe specific operations, was made under the War Powers Act, which requires Congress to be informed about military action.
[...]

Syria
7) Obama Could Revisit Arming Syria Rebels as Assad Holds Firm
Mark Landler and Michael R. Gordon, New York Times, February 18, 2013
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/19/world/middleeast/as-assad-holds-firm-obama-could-revisit-arms-policy.html

Washington - When President Obama rebuffed four of his top national security officials who wanted to arm the rebels in Syria last fall, he put an end to a months of debate over how aggressively Washington should respond to the strife there that has now left nearly 70,000 dead.

But the decision also left the White House with no clear strategy to resolve a crisis that has bedeviled it since a popular uprising erupted against President Bashar al-Assad almost two years ago. Despite an American program of nonlethal assistance to the opponents of the Syrian government and $365 million in humanitarian aid, Mr. Obama appears to be running out of ways to speed Mr. Assad's exit.

With conditions continuing to deteriorate, officials could reopen the debate over providing weapons to select members of the resistance in an effort to break the impasse in Syria. The question is whether a wary Mr. Obama, surrounded by a new national security team, would come to a different conclusion. "This is not a closed decision," a senior administration official said. "As the situation evolves, as our confidence increases, we might revisit it."

Mr. Obama's decision not to provide arms when the proposal was broached before the November election, officials said, was driven by his reluctance to get drawn into a proxy war and by his fear that the weapons would end up in unreliable hands, where they could be used against civilians or Israeli and American interests.

As the United States struggles to formulate a policy, however, Mr. Assad has given no sign that he is ready to yield power, and the Syrian resistance has been adamant that it will not negotiate a transition in which he has a role.

Even if Mr. Assad was overthrown, the convulsion could fragment Syria along sectarian and ethnic lines, each faction supported by competing outside powers, said Paul Salem, who runs the Middle East office of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "Syria," he said, "is in the process not of transitioning but disintegrating."

The debate over Syria is not limited to the United States. On Monday, European Union foreign ministers decided against easing an arms moratorium despite objections by Britain. In what appeared to be a compromise, the ministers agreed to "provide greater nonlethal support and technical assistance for the protection of civilians," according to the European Union's Web site.
[...]
The arming plan that was considered last year originated with David H. Petraeus, then the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, and was supported by former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
[...]
But the president, who had campaigned on the theme that "the tide of war" was receding, was more skeptical, fearing that such a move would, in effect, draw the United States into a proxy war against the Syrian government and its Iranian and Russian backers, with uncertain results. His wariness was reinforced, officials said, by his closest advisers, including Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and the national security adviser, Thomas E. Donilon, both of whom advised against it.

Also skeptical, officials said, was Susan E. Rice, the ambassador to the United Nations. Her opposition was noteworthy, given that she had pushed for military intervention in Libya.

"In a situation as chaotic as Syria's," said an official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, "you don't know where weapons might end up, and what the consequences are if those weapons are used against civilians, against Israel, against American interests."

To avoid any risk of Israeli aircraft being targeted if weapons fell into the wrong hands, the plan would not have provided rebels with shoulder-fired missiles. But that meant that the operation would be less effective against Mr. Assad's forces.

After Mr. Petraeus resigned because of an extramarital affair and Mrs. Clinton was sidelined with a concussion, the issue was shelved.
[...]
A big question is whether the makeup of Mr. Obama's new team would discourage the likelihood of a major policy shift. Secretary of State John Kerry has said that he plans to advance ideas on how to change the situation on his first trip later this month, ideas that appear to include eliciting more cooperation from the Kremlin.
[...]
Chuck Hagel, the president's nominee for defense secretary, who has yet to be confirmed by the Senate, has expressed reluctance, dating back to the Iraq war, to become entangled in foreign conflicts.

Mr. Petraeus's likely replacement at the C.I.A., John O. Brennan, is a 25-year veteran of the agency. One official said Mr. Brennan's background suggested he might be more focused on bolstering its clandestine intelligence-gathering capabilities instead of its paramilitary-style operations.
[...]

Afghanistan
8) U.N. Report Shows Fewer Killings of Afghan Civilians, Suggesting Shift in War
Alissa J. Rubin, New York Times, February 19, 2013
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/19/world/asia/un-reports-decline-in-killings-of-afghan-civilians.html

Kabul, Afghanistan - For the first time in six years the number of civilians killed in Afghanistan declined, according to the annual United Nations report on civilian casualties.

The decline was primarily the result of the slowing pace of the war; more fighting by Afghan forces, who use less lethal weapons; and an assiduous effort by the Western-led forces to reduce the impact on civilians, the report indicated.
[...]
The report found that the number killed in 2012 dropped to 2,754 from 3,021 the previous year. The number of injured rose, however, to 4,805 from 4,507.
[...]
The report suggests subtle but measurable ways that the war is beginning to change as Afghans take over from Western forces and as the Taliban and other insurgents avoid head-on confrontations and rely increasingly on improvised explosive devices and targeted killings.

A factor that United Nations researchers found accounted for the drop in casualties was a reduction in ground engagements, which in some areas may be because of a declining number of Western forces. In other areas, there was an increase in engagements between the Taliban or other insurgents and the Afghan National Security Forces, but because the Afghan forces were less likely to have heavy weapons, the number of civilians killed appears to have dropped.

The Taliban and other insurgents increasingly focused their attacks on police headquarters in district centers, on checkpoints run by the Afghan National Police or Afghan Local Police, and on government convoys. While those resulted in casualties, they often included relatively few civilians.
[...]
A major factor was the drop in civilian casualties caused by airstrikes, which fell by 42 percent from 2011. That reflected a new set of directives issued last June by Gen. John R. Allen, then the commander of the International Security Assistance Force. He publicly said his goal was to reduce civilian casualties to zero, and required that any air attacks be approved by commanders at several levels.