Pakistan PM: UBL Not Here.

London, England (CNN) -- Pakistan's prime minister Thursday rejected claims al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is hiding within his country amid mounting global pressure on Islamabad to tackle terrorists linked to escalating conflict in neighboring Afghanistan.

"In fact Pakistan is fighting a war on terrorism," Yousaf Raza Gilani told reporters at a joint press conference with his British counterpart Gordon Brown at 10 Downing Street.

"We have good defense and intelligence cooperation with the U.S.. I don't think Osama Bin Laden is in Pakistan."

Pakistan has regularly been identified as the suspected hiding place of bin Laden since a major military offensive in Afghanistan in the wake of the 2001 al Qaeda attacks in the United States failed to uncover his whereabouts.
Brown, who has in the past criticized Pakistan's failure to track bin Laden, on Thursday pledged £50 million ($83 million) to Pakistan to help efforts to tackle terrorism, linking it to threats on British soil.

"This is your fight, but it is also Britain's fight," Brown told Gilani, offering praise for a recent military offensive that routed an emboldened Pakistani Taliban occupation of the Swat Valley, north of Islamabad.

"Your leadership in the last few months have been absolutely vital," Brown said.
Earlier this week Brown pledged 500 more British troops to the war effort in Afghanistan and U.S. President Barack Obama's plan to deploy 30,000 more troops to fight terror groups in Afghanistan and along the border of Pakistan.

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ICBMs Shift to New USAF Command

By JOHN REED

U.S. Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC) took a concrete step toward fulfilling its mission of operating two-thirds of the Pentagon's nuclear triad when it took command Dec. 1 of 20th Air Force and its 450 Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles.

The new major command was stood up in August at Barksdale Air Force Base, La., and will "serve as a single voice to maintain the high standards necessary for stewardship of our nation's most powerful weapons," said Lt. Gen. Frank Klotz, AFGSC commander, in a statement released by the service Dec. 1.

Global Strike Command was established after numerous mistakes involving the Air Force's handling of nuclear weapons led many to believe the service had allowed the once-prestigious nuclear mission to atrophy since the end of the Cold War.

In February, the command is set to take over 8th Air Force, which operates the nation's nuclear-capable B-2 and B-52 heavy bombers.

Accused Fort Hood shooter to face 32 counts of attempted murder

(CNN) -- Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the alleged shooter in the Fort Hood massacre, will face an additional 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder, Army officials said Wednesday.
Hasan, a U.S. Army psychiatrist, already has been charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder for the 13 people who were fatally shot at the Army post on November 5.

The 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder are related to 30 soldiers and two civilians injured in the shooting, according to a Fort Hood news release.
Additional charges are possible, the statement said.
Hasan, who was wounded by two civilian officers, is being treated at a hospital. His lawyer says he is paralyzed from the waist down.

The incident prompted military brass at Fort Hood to tighten security procedures and expand mental health services.
A key congressional committee also opened an investigation into the Fort Hood shootings with a pledge to find out if authorities failed to "connect the dots" and could have prevented the attack.
Among other things, a memo reportedly written two years ago by Hasan's supervisor at Walter Reed Army Medical Center says Hasan demonstrated "a pattern of poor judgment and a lack of professionalism" during his residency at the hospital.
CNN could not corroborate the authenticity of the memo, which was obtained by National Public Radio.

Afghanis - unimpressed

By Sayed Salahuddin

KABUL (Reuters) - Thirty thousand more U.S. troops for Afghanistan? Esmatullah only shrugged.

"Even if they bring the whole of America, they won't be able to stabilize Afghanistan," said the young construction worker out on a Kabul street corner on Wednesday morning. "Only Afghans understand our traditions, geography and way of life."

U.S. President Barack Obama's announcement of a massive new escalation of the eight-year-old war seemed to have impressed nobody in the Afghan capital, where few watched the speech on TV before dawn and fewer seemed to think new troops would help.

Obama said his goal was to "disrupt, dismantle and defeat" al Qaeda in Afghanistan and "reverse the Taliban's momentum."

The extra U.S. forces, and at least 5,000 expected from other NATO allies, would join 110,000 Western troops already in the country in an effort to reverse gains made by the Islamist militants, at their strongest since being ousted in 2001.

Shopkeeper Ahmad Fawad, 25, said it would not help.

"The troops will be stationed in populated areas where the Taliban will somehow infiltrate and then may attack the troops," he said. "Instead of pouring in more soldiers, they need to focus on equipping and raising Afghan forces, which is cheap and easy."

For many, the prospect of more troops meant one thing: more civilian deaths.

"More troops will mean more targets for the Taliban and the troops are bound to fight, and fighting certainly will cause civilian casualties," Ahmad Shah Ahmadzai, a former Afghan prime minister, told Reuters.

"The civilian casualties will be further a blow to the U.S. image and cause more indignation among Afghans."

"NOTHING REALLY NEW"

By late morning, the Afghan government had yet to issue an official response to Obama's statement. President Hamid Karzai has in the past said he favors additional Western troops, although he wants Afghan forces to take over security for the country within five years.

Although Obama pointedly addressed Afghans, telling them the United States was not interested in occupying their country, parliamentarian Shukriya Barakzai said she was disappointed because the speech contained little talk of civilian aid.

"It was a very wonderful speech for America ... but when it comes to strategy in Afghanistan there was nothing really new which was disappointing," she told Reuters from her home.

"It seems to me that President Obama is very far away from the reality and truth in Afghanistan. His strategy was to pay lip-service, and did not focus on civilians, nation-building, democracy and human rights."


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