Karachi, Sept 4 (ANI): With nefarious designs of carrying out terrorist attacks in Karachi, several terror organizations in Pakistan, including the defunct Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LJ) and a few banned organizations have reportedly joined hands with Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Baitullah Mehsud.

TTP is the Pakistan unit of the Taliban.

According to an intelligence agency official, Baitullah Mehsud was also in contact with various other terror groups in Karachi.

The newly established group is presently headed by Raheemullah alias Naeem alias Ali Hassan, son of Wilayat Khan. A resident of Street 3, Shehzad Cinema, Qasba Colony, Orangi Town, Raheemullah (35) usually wears a Sindhi cap and has been affiliated with the LJ and Harkatul Mujahideen, reported the Daily Times.

Raheemullah is accused of carrying out various terrorist acts in Karachi, including the assassination of Shia scholar and MMA Sindh leader Allama Hassan Turabi.

The sources said that the law enforcement agencies had arrested several members of Raheemullah's group, while others were still at large and planning to sabotage the network cracking down on terrorists.

It has also been learnt that Raheemullah established contact with Baitullah Mehsud and many Karachi-based activists, including Qari Abid Mehsud, Khalid Dare Walla, Mufti Ilyas, Colonel Tufaan, Qari Hussain Mehsud, Abdul Wahad Mehsud of Kunwari Colony in Metroville and Faizullah Mehsud, a resident of Sohrab Goth, have joined him. (ANI)

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London, Sep 4 (ANI): The topmost British police official, Sir Ian Blair, will be forced to step down as Scotland Yard chief in an attempt to halt the collapse of morale in the Metropolitan Police.

British ministers, senior officials and leading police chiefs have secretly discussed arrangements for replacing the embattled commissioner by the end of this year.

The first step will be taken this week when Sir Ian is told formally, in writing, that his contract will not be renewed when it expires in February 2010, sources said.

Whitehall sources revealed that the Scotland Yard commissioner will be told to resign if the inquest, due to start later this month, concludes that the death of the innocent Brazilian should have been avoided.

The Daily Mail reported that a contingency plan has already been drawn up by Home Office officials in which Sir Ian's deputy, Sir Paul Stephenson, would be appointed acting Met Commissioner.

Assistant Commissioner John Yates, who led the ill-fated cash for honours inquiry, would be appointed acting number two in the Met under the plan.

One senior source said: "The grey suits are gathering. Ian has already been asked to consider whether his staying in the job is damaging the Met. The infighting at the top of the Yard is sapping the morale of the men and women doing the job on the street."

Sir Ian's leadership has been dogged by controversy, and has become increasingly precarious in recent years, with three serious challenges to his authority over the summer.

Assistant Commissioner Tarique Ghaffur has accused him of racial discrimination and started employment tribunal proceedings. Sir Ian is also at the centre of an inquiry into allegations that he influenced the award of police contracts to a close friend.

The inquest into the death of de Menezes, who was shot seven times in the head after being mistaken for a suicide bomber at Stockwell, South London, in July 2005, is expected to be hugely damaging for the Met.

A number of senior officers outside London are regarded as qualified for the role. Sir Hugh Orde, Chief Constable of Northern Ireland, Sir Norman Bettison, police chief in West Yorkshire, and Bernard Hogan-Howe in Merseyside would all be expected to compete for the post. (ANI)

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New York, Sept.4 (ANI): John McCain's millionaire wife Cindy says she doesn't completely agree with Sarah Palin's views on abortion.

Inn an interview with CBS Evening News, Cindy said that if women were victims of rape or incest and were impregnated as a result, she would think it was their right to go in for an abortion.

According to the New York Daily News, McCain emphasized that she's solidly pro-life, and added that it's okay to disagree with Palin on the hot-button political issue.

"What I agree with is the fact that she is a social conservative, she is a reform-minded woman, she is someone that will shake Washington up, which is exactly what we want to do," McCain said.

"We don't have to agree on every issue."

Palin, on the other hand, has long opposed abortion. According to the Anchorage Daily News, Palin told the Alaska Right to Life Board in 2002 that she was as "pro-life as any candidate can be" and has "adamantly supported our cause since I first understood, as a child, the atrocity of abortion."

In 2006, during the race for governor of Alaska, she reiterated that belief in a questionnaire sent to all gubernatorial candidates.

"I am pro-life. With the exception of a doctor's determination that the mother's life would end if the pregnancy continued. I believe that no matter what mistakes we make as a society, we cannot condone ending an innocent's life," she said.

In that same questionnaire, she was asked if she supported funding for abstinence-until-marriage education instead of "explicit sex-education programs."

"The explicit sex-ed programs will not find my support," she said.

She is also on record as saying that she is opposed to use of public funds for "elective abortions" and supports pro-life and family value causes.

Cindy McCain also confirmed that 2000 Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Joseph Lieberman was a finalist for the GOP veep slot this year.

"My husband and Joe are very good friends, and wouldn't it be nice to work with your best friend?" McCain said.

"Reform being the, as you know, my husband's most important issue...my husband felt that Governor Palin was a better fit." (ANI)

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New York, Sept.4 (ANI): Even after Senator John McCain named her as his running mate on Friday, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin remained an unknown quantity to most Americans.

Sixty-six percent had no opinion of her in a CBS News poll conducted over the weekend?

In polling completed on Monday and Tuesday, sixty percent still had no opinion about her.

But of those who did have opinions, 26 percent of the most recently polled were favorable, while only 13 percent were not favorable.

More than one in four voters said that the vice presidential choices will matter this year, but few voters say that having Palin on the Republican ticket will change their vote.

Just 14 percent said they are more likely to vote for McCain as a result of having Palin on the ticket, while 13 percent said they are less likely to do so. Sixty-eight percent said it wouldn't make a difference in their vote.

Seventy-four percent of voters said the addition of Joe Biden to the Democratic ticket made no impact on how they will vote. But those who said Barack Obama's choice mattered to them were three times as likely to say that Biden will make them vote for Obama rather than against him.(ANI)

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