Headlines:

• Pentagon increasing spy presence overseas
• Muslims in Europe face discrimination daily: Amnesty
• US eyes options to restart Afghan peace talks
• US behind violence in Pakistan

Details:

Pentagon increasing spy presence overseas:

The Pentagon is beefing up its spy service to send several hundred undercover intelligence officers to overseas hot spots to steal secrets on national security threats after a decade of focusing chiefly on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The move comes amid concerns that the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon's spy service, needs to expand operations beyond the war zones and to work more closely with the CIA, according to a senior Defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the classified program. The new Defense Clandestine Service will comprise about 15% of the DIA's workforce. They will focus on gathering intelligence on terrorist networks, nuclear proliferators and other highly sensitive threats around the world, rather than just gleaning tactical information to assist military commanders on the battlefield, the official said. "You have to do global coverage," the official said. Some of the new spies thus are likely to be assigned to targets that now are intelligence priorities, including parts of Africa and the Middle East where Al Qaeda and its affiliates are active, the nuclear and missile programs in North Korea and Iran, and China's expanding military.

Muslims in Europe face discrimination daily: Amnesty

European laws on what girls and women wear on their heads are encouraging discrimination against Muslims and against a religion that has been part of Europe's fabric for centuries, Amnesty International says in a new report. Extremist political movements targeting Muslim practices for criticism have enjoyed a rise in several European countries -- as witnessed by French far right leader Marine Le Pen's surprisingly strong showing in presidential elections this week. In that climate, the Amnesty report released Tuesday lists a raft of examples of discrimination against Muslims from Spain to the Netherlands and Turkey, spurred on by laws viewed as anti-Islam. The report, titled "Choice and Prejudice," pays special attention to national laws or local rules against wearing headscarves or face-covering Islamic veils. France and Belgium ban them outright, as do some towns in Spain and elsewhere. "Amnesty International is concerned that states have focused so much in recent years on the wearing of full-face veils, as if this practice were the most widespread and compelling form of inequality women in Europe have to face," the report says. Proponents, such as French President Nicolas Sarkozy, say face-covering veils imprison women and violate France's values of equality. France also bans headscarves in schools. The niqab, a veil with just a slit for the eyes, and the burqa, with a mesh covering for the eyes, are worn only by a very small minority of European Muslims. But banning them creates an atmosphere of suspicion of anyone with visibly Islamic dress, the Amnesty report says. It cites French Muslim women who wear headscarves, which cover the hair but leave the face exposed, as saying they have experienced epithets and public pressure since Sarkozy started calling for a face-veil ban.

US eyes options to restart Afghan peace talks:

President Barack Obama's administration, seeking to revive stalled Afghan peace talks, may alter plans to transfer Taliban detainees from Guantanamo Bay prison after its initial proposal fell foul of political opponents at home and the insurgents themselves. As foreign forces prepare to exit Afghanistan, the White House had hoped to lay the groundwork for peace talks by sending five Taliban prisoners, some seen as among the most threatening detainees at Guantanamo, to Qatar to rejoin other Taliban members opening a political office there. In return, the Taliban would make its own good-faith gestures, denouncing terrorism and supporting the hoped-for talks with the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. While that plan has not been scotched entirely, several sources familiar with preliminary discussions within the US government said the United States may instead, as an initial gesture meant to revive diplomacy, send one of those detainees directly to Afghan government custody. More than a year ago, the White House launched what began as a secretive diplomatic bid to coax the Taliban, the Islamist group that ruled Afghanistan until 2001, into peace talks. That campaign has become central to US strategy as officials conclude the Afghan war will not end on the battlefield alone. It remains far from clear whether the Taliban would embrace sharing power in Afghanistan and whether the militants are cohesive enough to agree on a joint diplomatic approach. But Washington's strategy, before a May summit of Nato leaders in Chicago, is to build on what officials see as military progress against the Taliban, and encouraging signs from the Afghan and Pakistani governments, to heap pressure on the group. "As we head into Chicago obviously we'll continue to highlight each of those (areas) and we'll continue to work with Congress," the US official said. The Chicago summit is expected to further detail plans for the withdrawal of most of Nato's 130,000 troops there by the end of 2014 and set the course for future ties between Afghanistan and the West.

US behind violence in Pakistan:

Pakistan and the US remain engaged in serious negotiations on how to bring normal relations back on track and resume their cooperation in the US-led so-called war on terror. The bilateral relations have been tense since the killing of 26 Pakistani soldiers by the US airstrikes at Pak-Afghan border in November last year--- something that prompted Pakistan to suspend the supply routes for the US-led forces in Afghanistan. A latest report by the Conflict Monitoring Center, a NGO working on violence in the region, reveals interesting facts on how tense relations between two countries has turned to be a blessing in disguise. The latest findings, point out that the tense relations between Pakistan and U.S, is "the most effective reason" behind considerable reduction of violence during last five months in country's tribal region. The report indicates that the frequency of US assassination drone strikes provoke militants to perpetrate more retaliatory violence that kills not only security personnel but also common people on the streets. Experts say the number of pro-Taliban militant attacks has slightly reduced in recent months. There are now fears among the people here that the relative calm may not last long. The findings on violence report that an overwhelming majority of people believe that if Pakistan ends its alliance with the US, the pro-Taliban militancy would gradually come to an end.