ROYAL WEDDING Prince William and Kate Middleton

Prince William and Kate Middleton are set to marry on Friday April 29, and Britain hasn’t seen a royal event like it for 30 years. The last comparable event was the marriage of Prince Charles and the then-Lady Diana Spencer. Hundreds of guests are expected at the ceremony, thousands will line the wedding route in London... and millions of pounds will be spent by the crown and the British taxpayer. FRANCE 24 takes a look at the key numbers of the wedding of the century to give you a clue of the scale of this wedding.


The ceremony


* 1,900 guests at Westminster Abbey.
* 600 guests at the reception at Buckingham Palace.
* 300 guests for dinner, followed by a dance at Buckingham Palace.

Security

* 5,000 police officers and military personnel deployed on the streets of London. This is fewer than the number which policed the wedding of Prince William’s parents, Prince Charles and Princess Diana.

Costs and benefits

* 32 million pounds (36 million euros) will be spent on the entire event. Kate Middleton's parents, who made their multi-million pound fortune by creating a party supply company, are contributing nearly 100,000 pounds (113,000 euros). Some of this will be spent on the luxury central London hotel where Kate will spend her last night as a single woman. The hotel – famed as one of the most discreet – was a favourite of the Queen Mother. The wedding dress is expected to cost at least 30,000 pounds (33,000 euros).
* 107 million pounds "commercial benefit" for the London economy, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP survey.
 * Six billion pounds is being touted as the figure that the extra bank holiday will cost the British economy. 


 




The buzz

* At least two billion television viewers expected worldwide.
* More than 8,000 journalists, photographers and technical staff will be in London to cover the royal wedding.
* 800 BBC employees to cover the event.
* 600,000 tourists expected in London. This number, combined with Londoners, should see approximately 1.1 million lining the route on the big day.

Bashar al-Assad

Bashar al-Assad (Arabic: بشار الأسد‎, Baššār al-ʾAsad; born 11 September 1965) is the President of the Syrian Arab Republic, Regional Secretary of the Ba'ath Party. He became president in 2000 after the death of his father Hafez al-Assad, who had ruled Syria for 29 years, and had notably ordered the Hama massacre of 1982. Bashar is a controversial figure both in Syria and internationally: human rights groups have stated that Bashar's secret police routinely tortures, imprisons, and kills political opponents, and those who speak out against his regime.

His family has filled security organs with loyal members of his own religious group with the purpose of retaining his power. His military, ruling elite, and secret police are closely interweaved. 

Moin Akhtar

 
Moin Akhtar (Urdu: معین اختر, also spelled as, Moeen Akhtar, Pride of Performance, Sitara-e-Imtiaz, 24 December 1950 - 22 April 2011) was a Pakistani television, film and stage actor, as well as a comedian, impersonator, and a host. He was also a play writer, singer, film director and a producer.

A highly dynamic and versatile performer from Karachi, the largest city of Pakistan, he made his debut for television on 6 September 1966, in a variety show held on PTV to celebrate the first defense day of Pakistan‎. Since then, he has performed several roles in TV plays/shows, later making a team with Anwar Maqsood and Bushra Ansari.

He was beloved for providing humor for people of all ages, and with an etiquette that remains unmatched. His attempts to avoid vulgarity in his humor rendered him a favorite amongst family audiences. Akhtar was fluent in several languages, including English, Bengali, Sindhi, Punjabi, Memon, Pushto, Gujarati and Urdu. He performed not only in Pakistan but played in several stage shows like Bakra Qiston Pe and Buddha Ghar Pe Hai with Umer Sharif in India too.

Moin Akhtar rose to the national spotlight and gathered critical acclaim for his performance in the drama Rosy /Rozy (روذی), in which he played the role of a female TV artist. Rozy was an Urdu adaptation of Hollywood movie Tootsie starring Dustin Hoffman. Moreover, in a talk-show namely Loose Talk, which began in 2005 on ARY Digital, he appeared as a different character in each and every of over 400 episodes interviewed by Anwar Maqsood, the writer and the host of the program.

He passed away on 22 April 2011 at about 6:15pm in Karachi after suffering from a heart attack.[

USA viewpoint drone attacks in pakistan

The United States government, led by the Central Intelligence Agency's Special Activities Division, has made a series of attacks on targets in northwest Pakistan since 2004 using drones (unmanned aerial vehicles). Under the George W. Bush administration, these attacks are part of the US' War on Terrorism and sought to defeat the Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants who have found a safe haven in Pakistan. Most of these attacks are on targets in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas along the Afghan border in Northwest Pakistan.



These strikes are carried out by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) operated remotely from Creech Air Force Base and have increased substantially under the Presidency of Barack Obama. Generally the UAVs used are MQ-1 Predator and more recently MQ-9 Reaper firing AGM-114 Hellfire missiles. The drones have become a weapon of choice for the United States in the fight against al-Qaeda. Some media refer to the series of attacks as a "drone war". Pakistan's government publicly condemns these attacks but has secretly shared intelligence with Americans and also allegedly allowed the drones to operate from Shamsi Airfield in Pakistan.

The Brookings Institution suggests that drone strikes may kill "10 or so civilians" for every militant killed. However the Pakistani military has stated that most of those killed were hardcore Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants. 





US viewpoint

In 2009 Barack Obama authorized the continuation of these strikes after he became US president. Top US officials consider these strikes very successful and believe that the senior al-Qaeda leadership has been 'decimated' by these strikes. A list of the high-ranking victims of the drones was provided to Pakistan in 2009. Obama has broadened these attacks to include targets seeking to destabilize Pakistani civilian government and the attacks of February 14 and 16, 2009 were against training camps run by Baitullah Mehsud. On February 25, 2009 Leon Panetta, the director of the CIA indicated the strikes will continue. On March 4, 2009 The Washington Times reported that the drones were targeting Baitullah Mehsud. Obama was reported in March 2009 as considering expanding these strikes to include Balochistan

On March 25, 2010 US State Department legal advisor Harold Koh stated that the drone strikes were legal because of the right to self-defense. According to Koh, the US is involved in an armed conflict with al-Qaida, the Taliban, and their affiliates and therefore may use force consistent with self-defense under international law.

Former CIA officials state that the agency uses a careful screening process in making decisions on which individuals to kill via drone strikes. The process, carried out at the agency's counterterrorist center, involves up to 10 lawyers who write briefs justifying the targeting of specific individuals. According to the former officials, if the briefs' arguments are weak, the request to target the individual is denied. Since 2008 the CIA has relied less on its list of individuals and increasingly targeted "signatures," or suspect behavior. This change in tactics has resulted in less deaths of high-value targets and in more deaths of lower-level fighters, or "mere foot soldiers" as the one senior Pakistani official told the Washington Post.

US officials stated in March 2009 that the Predator strikes had killed nine of al-Qaeda's 20 top commanders. The officials added that many top Taliban and al-Qaeda leaders, as a result of the strikes, had fled to Quetta or even further to Karachi.

Some US politicians and academics have condemned the drone strikes. US Congressman Dennis Kucinich asserted that the United States was violating international law by carrying out strikes against a country that never attacked the United States. Georgetown University professor Gary D. Solis asserts that since the drone operators at the CIA are civilians directly engaged in armed conflict, this makes them "unlawful combatants" and possibly subject to prosecution.

US military reports asserted that al-Qaeda is being slowly but systematically routed because of these attacks, and that they have served to sow the seeds of uncertainty and discord among their ranks. They also claimed that the drone attacks have addled and confused the Taliban, and have led them to turn against each other. In July 2009 it was reported that (according to US officials) Osama Bin Laden's son Saad bin Laden was believed to have been killed in a drone attack earlier in the year.

During a protest against drone attacks, in an event sponsored by Nevada Desert Experience, Father Louie Vitale, Kathy Kelly, Stephen Kelly, SJ, Eve Tetaz, John Dear, and others were arrested outside Creech Air Force Base on Wednesday April 9, 2009.

In May 2009 it was reported that the USA was sharing drone intelligence with Pakistan. Leon Panetta reiterated on May 19, 2009 that the US intended to continue the drone attacks.

On July 14, 2009, Daniel L. Byman of the Brookings Institution stated that although accurate data on the results of drone strikes is difficult to obtain, it seemed that ten civilians had died in the drone attacks for every militant killed. He suggested that the real answer to halting al-Qaeda's activity in Pakistan will be long-term support of Pakistan's counterinsurgency efforts.

In December 2009 expansion of the drone attacks was authorized by President Barack Obama to parallel the decision to send 30,000 more American troops to Afghanistan. Senior US officials are reportedly pushing for extending the strikes into Quetta in Balochistan against the Quetta Shura. Speaking at a news conference in Islamabad on January 7, 2010 Senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman stated the drone attacks were effective and would continue but stated that US would make greater efforts to prevent collateral damage. In an effort to strenghthen trust with Pakistan 'US sharing drone surveillance data with Pakistan, says Mike Mullen ' US defence budget for 2011 asked for a 75% increase in funds to enhance the drone operations.

The Associated Press (AP) noted that Barack Obama apparently expanded the scope and increased the aggressiveness of the drone campaign against militants in Pakistan after taking office. According to the news agency, the US increased strikes against the Pakistani Taliban, which earned favor from the Pakistani government, resulting in increased cooperation from Pakistani intelligence services. Also, the Obama administration toned down the US government's public rhetoric against Islamic terrorism, garnering better cooperation from other Islamic governments. Furthermore, with the drawdown of the war in Iraq, more drones, support personnel, and intelligence assets became available for the campaigns in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Since Obama took office, according to the AP, the number of drones operated by the CIA over Afghanistan and Pakistan doubled. A May 2010 Reuters report quoted unnamed counterterrorism officials who speculated that the Obama administration's closure of the secret CIA interrogation centers and intent to close the Guantanamo Bay prison was a direct influence on the expansion of the drone targeted killings. According to the officials, the killings are necessary because there is no longer any place to put captured terrorists.

A study called 'The Year of the Drone" published in February 2010 by New America Foundation found that in a total of 114 drone strikes in Pakistan between 2004 and early 2010 approximately between 834 and 1,216 individuals had been killed, about two thirds of whom were thought to be militants and one third were civilians.

truthful: President Hosni Mubarak has been hospitalized

truthful: President Hosni Mubarak has been hospitalized: "CAIRO An Egyptian security and health officials say former President Hosni Mubarak has been hospitalized in the Red Sea resort..."

President Hosni Mubarak has been hospitalized

CAIRO   An Egyptian security and health officials say former President Hosni Mubarak has been hospitalized in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

The 82-year-old Mubarak was forced to give up power on Feb. 11 after an 18-day popular uprising against his rule. He has kept a low profile since, living in Sharm el-Sheikh. Near the end of his rule, he had been suffering from a number of health problems and had undergone gallbladder surgery.

Mubarak had been expected to be questioned by investigators for the first time on Tuesday in connection with corruption allegations and violence against protesters during the uprising.

Asma al Assad

Asma alAssad born 11 August 1975; née Asma Fawaz al-Akhras is the First Lady of Syria. She was born in Acton, London after her family had immigrated to the United Kingdom from Homs, Syria. She married President Bashar al-Assad in December 2000, having previously pursued a career in investment banking.

Asma is the daughter of consultant cardiologist Fawaz Akhras and retired diplomat Sahar Otri al-Akhras. Asma grew up in Acton where she went to her local Church of England school. She finished her schooling at Queen's College in London. She then attended King's College London and graduated in 1996 with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and a Diploma in French Literature. After university, Asma started work at Deutsche Bank Group in the Hedge Fund Management division with clients in Europe and the Far East. In 1998, she joined the Investment Banking division of J. P. Morgan, specializing in mergers and acquisitions for biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. During her time at JP Morgan, she worked primarily from the New York office where she executed four large merger transactions for both European and American clients.

Asma returned to Syria in November 2000 and married the president in December. They have three children: Hafez, Zein and Karim.

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