AGL 40.39 Increased By ▲ 0.39 (0.98%)
AIRLINK 127.89 Increased By ▲ 0.85 (0.67%)
BOP 6.64 Decreased By ▼ -0.03 (-0.45%)
CNERGY 4.52 Increased By ▲ 0.01 (0.22%)
DCL 8.44 Decreased By ▼ -0.11 (-1.29%)
DFML 41.59 Increased By ▲ 0.15 (0.36%)
DGKC 86.88 Increased By ▲ 0.03 (0.03%)
FCCL 32.06 Decreased By ▼ -0.22 (-0.68%)
FFBL 64.94 Increased By ▲ 0.14 (0.22%)
FFL 10.13 Decreased By ▼ -0.12 (-1.17%)
HUBC 110.28 Increased By ▲ 0.71 (0.65%)
HUMNL 14.78 Increased By ▲ 0.10 (0.68%)
KEL 5.15 Increased By ▲ 0.10 (1.98%)
KOSM 7.21 Decreased By ▼ -0.25 (-3.35%)
MLCF 41.50 Increased By ▲ 0.12 (0.29%)
NBP 59.56 Decreased By ▼ -0.85 (-1.41%)
OGDC 194.35 Increased By ▲ 4.25 (2.24%)
PAEL 28.59 Increased By ▲ 0.76 (2.73%)
PIBTL 7.83 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
PPL 150.75 Increased By ▲ 0.69 (0.46%)
PRL 26.60 Decreased By ▼ -0.28 (-1.04%)
PTC 16.05 Decreased By ▼ -0.02 (-0.12%)
SEARL 78.36 Decreased By ▼ -7.64 (-8.88%)
TELE 7.42 Decreased By ▼ -0.29 (-3.76%)
TOMCL 35.33 Decreased By ▼ -0.08 (-0.23%)
TPLP 8.00 Decreased By ▼ -0.12 (-1.48%)
TREET 16.23 Decreased By ▼ -0.18 (-1.1%)
TRG 52.70 Decreased By ▼ -0.59 (-1.11%)
UNITY 26.75 Increased By ▲ 0.59 (2.26%)
WTL 1.26 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
BR100 9,955 Increased By 71.5 (0.72%)
BR30 30,899 Increased By 298.5 (0.98%)
KSE100 93,878 Increased By 522.7 (0.56%)
KSE30 29,109 Increased By 177.8 (0.61%)

President Barack Obama on Tuesday said the United States had al Qaeda on the run and vowed a relentless fight against the militants, from Afghanistan to the Arabian Peninsula. Nearly a decade since the attacks of September 11, 2001, Obama portrayed al Qaeda as the top security threat facing the country in his State of the Union address, touting progress in efforts to counter the network.
But in a speech devoted mainly to reviving the economy, Obama only briefly touched on terror threats and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, where more than 140,000 troops are deployed. He said al Qaeda's leadership was under more pressure in Pakistan now than at any time since the 9/11 attacks and that the US-led war in neighbouring Afghanistan would deny the network sanctuary there.
"Their leaders and operatives are being removed from the battlefield. Their safe-havens are shrinking," Obama said of al Qaeda in Pakistan. A revitalised President Barack Obama bluntly told America to reinvent itself and unite to survive in a fast-changing global economy powered by rising giants like India and China.
"The rules have changed. In a single generation, revolutions in technology have transformed the way we live, work and do business," Obama said, noting that rising powers like India and China were now highly competitive. But he added Americans should not give up the fight.
"Yes, the world has changed. The competition for jobs is real. But this shouldn't discourage us. It should challenge us," the president said, citing US pathfinders from the Wright Brothers and Thomas Edison to Google and Facebook. "We need to out-innovate, out-educate and out-build the rest of the world. "We do big things. Our destiny remains our choice," Obama added in a speech punctuated by multiple ovations that sought to consign two years of economic gloom to the past, as his 2012 re-election race stirs.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2011

Comments

Comments are closed.