SYDNEY : Australia’s Prime Minister Kevin Rudd Friday shrugged off US President Barack Obama’s decision to postpone next week’s visit, saying he would be welcome any time.

Rudd said he had spoken to Obama about the move to reschedule the trip as the president wrestles with landmark healthcare legislation, and hailed his close relationship with the American leader.

“I’m going to be very happy any time the president chooses to visit,” Rudd told the Seven Network TV station.

“I know President Obama pretty well. It would be nice to have him and Michelle and the kids.

“I spoke to him on the phone this morning: he’d like to have a more relaxed visit than the 24-hour whip in, whip out that the last one had come down to.”

Obama had already delayed his visit and trimmed it from three days to one, opting to leave his wife Michelle and two daughters behind. The tour, also taking in Guam and Indonesia, has been put back until June.

Rudd, who has also seen legislation blocked by the Australian Senate, said he sympathised with Obama’s “massive” healthcare project and described the US leader as “a lot of fun”.

“We talk from time to time and he’s got a great sense of humour but it would be breaching all protocols to go to the content of conversation,” he said.

“But it’s a good relationship and he’s doing

President Barack Obama said that keeping Tehran without a nuclear weapon is one of his highest priorities. He added that US is having good relations with Israel.

Obama says a nuclear-armed Iran could trigger an arms race in the Middle East, something his administration wants to avoid.
Obama added work already under way among international partners to isolate Iran.
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President Barack Obama announced that he plans to spread the money that accompanies his Nobel Peace Prize among 10 different charities.
Obama was awarded the prize based on the hope that his presidency would bring about a change in American foreign policy, had decided soon after being notified of the award that he would donate the $1.4 million award to charity.
The prize money would be distributed amongst non-profit organization which include organization that provides housing for families of those receiving medical care at major military and Veterans Affairs medical centers. Obama will also give to an organization dedicated to the long term relief and rebuilding of Haiti massive earthquake that devastated the country. Much of the rest of the award will go to boosting college education scholarship funds. Obama also awarded $100,000 each to two charities working in Africa and Central.
The other, the Central Asia Institute, promotes literacy and education, primarily for girls, in remote regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan. One of the institute’s co-founders was also a nominee for the Nobel Prize that Obama won.

WASHINGTON : The US space shuttle fleet can continue flying beyond Nasa’s September 30 deadline if the money is made available to keep it going, a US space agency official told reporters on Tuesday.

“I think the real issue that the agency and the nation has to address is the expense,” said Space Shuttle Program Manager John Shannon, noting the shuttle fleet costs the National Aeronautics and Space Administration 200 million dollars per month to maintain it in working condition.

“Where that money comes from is the big question,” he added.

Shannon’s briefing was about Nasa’s April 5 Discovery mission to the orbiting International Space Station (ISS), one of three shuttle flights remaining before the program is shut down at the end of September after 29 years of service.

Several lawmakers have recently urged the shuttle program be extended to reduce US dependency on Russia’s Soyuz spacecrafts in order to continue building the ISS until the shuttle’s successor can take off by 2015 at the earliest.

Taking up her colleagues’ concerns, Republican Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison last week presented a bill calling for extending the shuttle program beyond its termination deadline.

On presenting his 2011 budget plan in January, US President Barack Obama confirmed the shuttle fleet’s demise this year, as well as dropping the Constellation program his predecessor George W. Bush announced in 2004 to return Americans to the moon by 2020.

Constellation included the development of the Ares 1 rocket, and its abandonment has also put into question the feasibility of the shuttle’s successor spacecraft.

Obama also asked Nasa to partner with the private sector, using funds from an economic stimulus package to develop low-cost, primary services transporting astronauts to the ISS.

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates told troops in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday they would soon be part of a “decisive phase” in the war — an operation to impose control over the Taliban heartland of Kandahar province.
NATO is sending thousands of extra troops to Kandahar over the next few months as part of plans to restore control over Kandahar, a central part of President Barack Obama’s strategy to reverse momentum in the 8-year-old war.
The operation to restore government control in Kandahar is the main military objective remaining in Obama’s strategy, which aims to turn the tide this year with 30,000 extra troops so that US forces can begin withdrawing from Afghanistan in mid-2011.

At least 60 militants have been killed in fighting between the Taliban and a rival Islamic group, Hezb-e-Islami, in Baghlan province, northern Afghanistan. The fighting in Baghlan province appears to be a rivalry over control of local villages and the taxes they generate.
According to the governor of Baghlan both sides are using heavy weapons. During the fighting forty Hezb fighters while twenty Talibans were killed. A number of civilians died in the crossfire and the actual number of causalities is unclear. Securtiy forces are trying to provide help to the civilians.
Hezb-e-Islami, loyal to former PM Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, is the second biggest militant group in Afghanistan.
The two groups have previously been allied in their opposition to Afghan’s central government and foreign forces.

President Barack Obama called Iraq’s election an “important milestone” on Sunday despite deadly violence, praising Iraqi security forces and repeating his end-2011 goal for removing all US troops from the country.
Scores of mortar rounds, rockets and roadside bombs exploded near polling stations across Iraq, killing 38 people, in an apparent effort to scare voters participating in the election for Iraq’s second full-term parliament since the 2003 US invasion. Obama praised millions of Iraqis for turning out to vote despite the attacks. As expected, there were some incidents of violence as al Qaeda in Iraq and other extremists tried to disrupt Iraq’s progress by murdering innocent Iraqis who were exercising their democratic rights, Obama told reporters at the White House. But overall the level of security and the prevention of destabilizing attacks speak to the growing capability and professionalism of Iraqi security forces, which took the lead in providing protection at the polls, he added. Obama’s emphasis on Iraqi security forces’ success supports his argument that U.S. troops can leave the country on time, freeing the president to put his foreign policy focus more squarely on the war in Afghanistan.

President Barack Obama said that a forthcoming review of the US nuclear posture would reduce the number and role of nuclear weapons in Washington’s national security strategy.
In addition, we will seek to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and negotiate a treaty to end the production of fissile material for use in nuclear weapons, Obama said in a statement marking the 40th anniversary of the nuclear nonproliferation treaty. A 1999 vote on US ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty fell 19 votes short of the 67 needed for approval by the Senate, which at the time was controlled by Republicans. Ratification now is expected to be similarly difficult under a Democratic majority. Our forthcoming Nuclear Posture Review will move beyond outdated Cold War thinking and reduce the number and role of nuclear weapons in our national security strategy, even as we maintain a safe, secure and effective nuclear deterrent, Obama added. Obama will host a summit on April 12-13 bringing together representatives from as many as 43 countries to help secure the world’s loose nuclear material. He called last year in Prague for a world without nuclear weapons and has made nonproliferation a priority.

Prime Minister (PM) Yousaf Raza Gilani will address the nation today evening at 7:00 PM to take the nation into confidence over the proposed constitutional amendments the government is going to introduce in the Parliament.
In his address, the PM will explain the nation of the progress of Parliament’s Constitutional Reforms Committee (CRC).
PM will address the nation on first Friday of every month on radio to take masses into confidence regarding the polices of the government. The reason for the radio address is that people who don’t afford TV can also hear his speech. American President Barrack Obama also addresses the American nation at the start of every month.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Wednesday and Lula expressed his willingness to talk with world leaders about Iran’s nuclear standoff in an effort to establish a peaceful solution.
Lula and Clinton attended a closed meeting and shook hands after the hour-long conversation. Earlier on Wednesday, Lula told reporters that Brazil would support Iran if it used its nuclear technology for peaceful ends and said the international community should not “push Iran into a corner.” On the other hand, after a meeting with Brazil’s Foreign Minister, Clinton said she believed Iran would only negotiate in good faith with the international community after sanctions are imposed. Lula and Clinton also discussed climate change, US’ relations with South American countries and a possible visit of President Barack Obama to Brazil. Clinton’s trip to the South American giant was aimed at winning support of Brazil, a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, for moves to sanction Iran over its nuclear program, which Western powers fear is designed to produce atomic weapons.