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Rice says Pakistan focused on threats

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Dec. 4 (UPI) -- The Pakistani government is focused on terrorist threats and understands its responsibility to respond, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday.

In a news conference after meeting with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zadari, Rice said she and Zadari had "extensive discussions" in Islamabad about continuing cooperation "against our joint enemies in the war on terror."

Rice traveled to Pakistan after meeting with leaders in India to discuss terrorism and the attacks on Mumbai, which India blames on militants from Pakistan.

"We talked at some length about the attack on Mumbai and about the importance of Pakistan taking its responsibility to deal with those who may use Pakistani territory even if they are non-state actors," she said of her discussion with Zadari.

She said she found the Pakistani government to be "very focused" and committed to investigating the Mumbai attacks.

"It does not in any way want to be associated with terrorist elements and is indeed fighting to root them out wherever they find them," she said. "And therefore, I found these conversations quite satisfactory."

Rice said she heard "nothing but reasonable discussions" between India and Pakistan, despite reports that relations between the two countries were strained.

The United States "is prepared to help in whatever way we can," Rice said. "But obviously, the best thing is that these two countries do what they can through their own capacity to fully investigate and to bring people to justice who perpetrated that."

India: 2nd man helped plan attacks

MUMBAI, Dec. 4 (UPI) -- Indian investigators said Thursday they had identified two Pakistanis as organizers of the deadly attack on Mumbai.

Both are allegedly affiliated with Lashkar-e-Taiba, a group previously known for attacks in the disputed territory of Kashmir, The New York Times reported. The group has denied carrying out the Mumbai assault.

Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, a 21-year-old Pakistani who is the only known survivor among the terrorists, allegedly told police that Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi was involved with coordinating the group's actions and indoctrinating its members. Indian and U.S. intelligence agencies say the assault was plotted by Yusuf Muzammil and that the 10 men who went to Mumbai talked to him by phone during their sea voyage from Karachi.

Another man, Faheem Ahmed Ansari, was allegedly involved in casing Mumbai to help plan the attack. Ansari was arrested in February in Uttar Pradesh, where he was allegedly involved in a New Year's Eve attack on a police camp.

Ten men struck in Mumbai, the commercial center formerly known as Bombay, Nov. 26. Their main targets were two luxury hotels, the Taj Mahal and the Trident Oberoi, and a Jewish community center where six people were killed.

Troops drag Israeli settlers from building

HEBRON, West Bank, Dec. 4 (UPI) -- Israeli troops dragged some 250 hard-line Jewish settlers from a disputed building Thursday in the West Bank city of Hebron.

About two dozen people were injured as 600 soldiers and policemen in full riot gear used stun grenades and tear gas to repel the settlers, paramedics said. One settler sustained serious head wounds and a police officer was injured when settlers threw acid at his face, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported.

Following the eviction, young settlers rampaged through Palestinian neighborhoods and fields, fighting residents, setting cars and olive trees ablaze and trashing houses, witnesses said.

Israel's national emergency medical disaster service deployed two helicopters and a fleet of ambulances to evacuate the wounded, Ynetnews reported.

The eviction, ordered after a meeting between Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and leaders of an umbrella organization of municipal councils of West Bank Jewish communities failed to reach a compromise, came about three weeks after Israel's High Court of Justice ordered the state to evacuate the building.

The four-story building, which occupants dubbed the House of Peace, is near the Cave of the Patriarchs, the second holiest site for Jews after Jerusalem's Temple Mount. It is also venerated by Christians and Muslims.

The disputed building was built and owned by Hebron resident Faiz Rajabi, who denied selling it to the settlers.

The settlers claim they lawfully bought the building and assert Rajabi backed out because he discovered they were Jewish.

Dodd disappointed with financial bailout

WASHINGTON, Dec. 4 (UPI) -- The U.S. auto industry provided more information than financial companies have to support its case for taxpayer support, Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., said.

After providing billions of dollars to financial institutions, "Americans are still waiting for most of them to show that they deserve the dollars they've received," said Dodd, chairman of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, as he opened a hearing Thursday on possible government assistance to the auto industry.

"The nation's largest financial institutions are among the largest culprits in causing the credit crisis," he said, yet haven't adopted "tough reforms to ensure the kind of shabby lending practices they engaged in will not happen again."

If lawmakers insist on the auto industry providing a road map for reform as a condition to receive federal funding, "we ought to do the same for the financial companies," Dodd said. "For that reason, I will do all I can to insist that any auto company bill also place tough conditions on any loans to financial firms."

Dodd said the administration should present Congress and the public "a comprehensive coherent plan" to address concerns of control and transparency before seeking the final $350 billion provided in the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act.