Taliban urges Malala to join a madrassa

A SENIOR Pakistani Taliban commander has written to Malala Yousafzai, the teenage activist shot by militants, accusing her of "smearing" them and urging her to return home and join a madrassa.

Gunmen from the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) shot Malala, now 16, in the head in her home town in Swat, in the country's northwest, where she campaigned for the right of girls to go to school, last October.

Malala made a powerful speech to the UN on Friday in her first public appearance since the attack which almost killed her, vowing to continue her struggle for education and not be silenced by the militants.

In an open letter released on Wednesday, Adnan Rasheed, a former air force member turned TTP cadre, said he personally wished the attack had not happened, but accused her of running a "smearing campaign" against the militants.

"It is amazing that you are shouting for education, you and the UNO (UN) is pretending that you were shot due to education, although this is not the reason ... not the education but your propaganda was the issue," Rasheed wrote.

"What you are doing now, you are using your tongue on the behest of the others."

The letter, written in English, was sent to reporters in northwest Pakistan and its authenticity confirmed to AFP by a senior Taliban cadre who is a close associate of Rasheed.

He accused Malala of seeking to promote an education system begun by the British colonialists to produce "Asians in blood but English in taste" and said students should study Islam and not what it called the "satanic or secular curriculum".

"I advise you to come back home, adopt the Islamic and Pashtun culture, join any female Islamic madrassa near your home town, study and learn the book of Allah, use your pen for Islam and plight of Muslim ummah (community)," Rasheed wrote.

He said he had originally wanted to write to Malala to warn her against criticising the Taliban when she rose to prominence with a blog for the BBC Urdu service chronicling life under the militants' 2007-9 rule in Swat.

Rasheed was sentenced to death over a 2003 attack on Pakistan's then military ruler General Pervez Musharraf but escaped from custody in a mass jailbreak in April last year.

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iPhone sales 'stalling' as rivals gain

APPLE'S iPhone sales are sputtering as rival smartphone makers ramp up their offerings, a market research firm says.

The survey by IHS iSuppli said smartphones are still going strong around the world, but that Apple is lagging.

"Apple's iPhone franchise appears to be stalling as first-quarter shipments of 37.4 million fell below expectations," the report said on Wednesday.

"With the next iPhone model not expected until the second half of the year, there is a real possibility that the full-year 2013 sales volume of the iPhone may be essentially flat at around 150 million units, compared to 134 million units in 2012."

IHS analyst Wayne Lam said the volume of new flagship smartphones from top manufacturers this year "has been astounding," citing the new BlackBerry Z10, HTC One, and updated Samsung Galaxy S4.

"The possible slowing growth of the iPhone and the rapid pace of competitive smartphone releases speak to the ferocious nature of the handset business, especially now as the market continues to pivot from a market dominated by lower-end handsets known as feature phones to one that is increasingly smartphone-centric," Lam said.

IHS said smartphones are likely to make up more than half of the 1.5 billion handsets sold in 2013.

It said that by the end of 2013, the number of mobile subscribers worldwide is projected to reach seven billion, an increase of 6.5 per cent from the end of 2012.

Recent surveys have shown Google's Android operating system is used on around three-fourths of new smartphones.

Apple's iOS accounts for around one-fifth of the worldwide market.

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JK Rowling's crime debut reprinted

JK Rowling's publishers have reprinted 140,000 copies of her crime debut to meet demand after it emerged she had secretly written the novel under a false name.

The Harry Potter author was outed as the writer of The Cuckoo's Calling at the weekend, having published the book as Robert Galbraith.

But since it was revealed she was behind the book sales have rocketed, bookshops have sold out and the hardback has gone to the top of the Amazon bestseller chart.

Despite the book being written under a different name, the novel - about a war veteran turned private investigator called Cormoran Strike - was praised by reviewers, although it had shifted just 1,500 copies since it came out in April.

She was outed after The Sunday Times looked into how a first-time novelist could produce such an assured debut work.

After being exposed she said: "I hoped to keep this secret a little longer, because being Robert Galbraith has been such a liberating experience.

"It has been wonderful to publish without hype or expectation and pure pleasure to get feedback from publishers and readers under a different name."

The book was published by Sphere, part of Little, Brown, which published her last novel, The Casual Vacancy.

Rowling has now indicated she will write further books in the series.

"To those who have asked for a sequel, Robert fully intends to keep writing the series, although he will probably continue to turn down personal appearances," she said.

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European stocks close higher

EUROPEAN stock markets closed higher on Wednesday, with London's FTSE 100 index of leading shares up 0.24 per cent to end at 6,571.93 points.

Frankfurt's DAX 30 gained 0.65 per cent to 8,254.72 points and in Paris the CAC 40 rose 0.55 per cent to 3,872.02 points.

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ArcelorMittal scraps India steel plant

THE world's largest steel maker ArcelorMittal has scrapped plans to build a steel plant in eastern India due to delays in acquiring land.

The announcement on Wednesday comes a day after South Korean steel giant Posco scrapped a $US5.3 billion ($A5.77 billion) deal to build a steel plant in southern India.

ArcelorMittal signed an initial agreement in 2006 for the project to manufacture 12-million tonnes of steel a year in Orissa state, but it has faced widespread opposition from local farmers.

The company said uncertainties over iron ore supplies had also led it to scrap the plan.

"ArcelorMittal has not been able to acquire the requisite land for the steel plant, nor has it been able to ensure captive iron ore security, which is a necessary requirement for the project," the company said in a statement.

"Therefore, taking into account the current economic climate, ArcelorMittal has concluded it will no longer be pursuing its plans for a steel plant in Keonjhar (in Orissa) at this stage."

The company said the decision was conveyed to the state government earlier on Wednesday.

Residents from 17 villages that would have been affected in Orissa's tribal district of Keonjhar have been holding regular protests against the proposed purchase of their land.

"The delays relating to land acquisition and allocation of captive iron ore blocks means this project is no longer viable," said ArcelorMittal executive vice president Vijay Bhatnagar as quoted in the statement.

"Nevertheless, we will continue to pursue our other two projects in Jharkhand and Karnataka, both of which are making steady progress," he added.

Industrialisation has been long championed by economists as a way to pull tens of millions of Indians out of poverty.

But acquiring land for factories, roads, housing and other projects has created sometimes deadly battlegrounds with many farmers complaining they have been forced to sell at below market rate and robbed of their livelihoods.

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