Dr Abdul Wahid Soomro (MNA Pakistan Peoples Party)

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama will not visit Pakistan during his Asian tour next month, but has committed to a trip to the key US anti-terror ally in 2011, the White House said Wednesday.
There had been rising speculation over whether Obama would pay a surprise and unannounced visit to Pakistan when he visits India in two weeks, then moves on to Indonesia, South Korea and Japan.
But he told Pakistani officials taking part in a strategic dialogue with American officials in Washington that a visit would take place next year instead.
“The President explained that he would not be stopping in Pakistan during his trip to Asia next month, and committed to visiting Pakistan in 2011,” the White House said in a statement.
Obama also told the delegation that he would welcome Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari to Washington, but no date was specified.
Sources

MUMBAI: Ahead of Barack Obama's visit to India next month, Bollywood has come up with a comedy kidnap movie whose plot is woven around the president's efforts to put the US economy back on track.
“Phas Gaya Re Obama” (“Obama is Trapped”), made on a budget of just 35 million rupees (800,000 dollars), is a comic tale of small time gangsters in northern India, whose criminal activities are hit by the global economic downturn.
The movie, distributed by Warner Bros, is ready for release but will only hit screens on November 26, several weeks after Obama's visit, which is scheduled for the beginning of the month.
“Phas Gaya Re Obama” has had to make way for a series of mega-budget movies which are traditionally released around the time of Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, which falls on November 5.

UNITED NATIONS: President Barack Obama beseeched the world Thursday to back his Middle East peace drive, warning of more bloodshed in the Holy Land unless Israelis and Palestinians make peace within a year.
In a sweeping survey of his foreign policy before the United Nations General Assembly, Obama also told Iran the door to nuclear diplomacy remained open, and said he would make his twice-postponed trip to Indonesia in November.
The US president warned that if current US-mediated direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians did not end in a deal, Palestinians would never get a state and Israel would never know security.
“The hard realities of demography will take hold. More blood will be shed. This Holy Land will remain a symbol of our differences, instead of our common humanity,” Obama said.
“I refuse to accept that future. We all have a choice to make. And each of us must choose the path of peace,” said Obama, upping the ante at a critical moment in peace talks and wagering a hefty bet with his own political capital.