IN: Baitullah Mehsud (Pashto,Urdu: byt llh mHswd); c. 1972 - c. 5 August 2009) was a leading militant in Waziristan, Pakistan, and the leader of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). He formed the TTP from an alliance of about five militant groups in December 2007. He is thought by U.S. military analysts to have commanded up to 5,000 fighters and to have been behind numerous attacks in Pakistan including the assassination of Benazir Bhutto which he and others have denied. Disagreement exists over the exact date of the militant's death.

On the night of 5 August 2009, while he was staying with his second wife at his father-in-law's house in Zangara, a U.S. drone attacked the premises. According to former CIA director Leon Panetta, he was observed on the roof of the house and identified by the distinctive hat he wore. According to The Times, it may have been his desire to father a son that ultimately led to his demise.  Two of his followers, Maulana Meraj and Hakimullah Mehsud, denied the report the following day, dismissing it as "rumors" intended to negatively impact the Taliban's spread of jihad. They suggested that Baitullah had gone into hiding and isolation as a part of a strategy. Hakimullah added that meetings of Taliban officials in Dir and surroundings are proceeding as usual "to make worth of their abilities and to discuss other plans which he called 'war game plans'." These reports were followed by several telephone conversations between AP reporters with Qari Hussain, Maulvi Omar and Hakimullah Mehsud to deny Baitullah's death and to claim he had been ill, perhaps gravely, for several months or had been "busy on the battlefield." Hakimullah indicated that soon a videotape would be released as a proof of his statements.  After his capture on 18 August, Maulvi Omar retracted his previous statements and confirmed that Baitullah had indeed perished in the missile strike. On 20 August, U.S. President Barack Obama stated "We took out [Baitullah] Mehsud" in a radio address. On 25 August, both Hakimullah Mehsud and Wali-ur-Rehman confirmed to BBC and AP correspondents that Baitullah had indeed perished on 23 August from injuries sustained in the missile strike.  The attack is part of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA) campaign using unmanned aerial vehicles in the region by the agency's Special Activities Division. U.S. missile strikes targeting Mehsud territory in South Waziristan became more common after June 2009 when Pakistan, while having been publicly critical of the missile strikes, declared a military offensive against Mehsud.

Who killed Mehsud

OUT: On the night of 5 August 2009, while he was staying with his second wife at his father-in-law's house in Zangara, a U.S. drone attacked the premises.


IN: Toru Takemitsu (Wu Man  Che , Takemitsu Toru, October 8, 1930 - February 20, 1996) pronounced [takemitsW to:rW] was a Japanese composer and writer on aesthetics and music theory. Largely self-taught, Takemitsu possessed consummate skill in the subtle manipulation of instrumental and orchestral timbre. He is famed for combining elements of oriental and occidental philosophy to create a sound uniquely his own, and for fusing opposites together such as sound with silence and tradition with innovation. He composed several hundred independent works of music, scored more than ninety films and published twenty books.

In 1948, Takemitsu conceived the idea of electronic music technology, or in his own words, to "bring noise into tempered musical tones inside a busy small tube." During the 1950s, Takemitsu had learned that in 1948 "a French [engineer] Pierre Schaeffer invented the method(s) of musique concrete based on the same idea as mine. I was pleased with this coincidence."  In 1951, Takemitsu was a founding member of the anti-academic Jikken Kobo (Shi Yan Gong Fang , "experimental workshop"): an artistic group established for multidisciplinary collaboration on mixed-media projects, who sought to avoid Japanese artistic tradition. The performances and works undertaken by the group introduced several contemporary Western composers to Japanese audiences. During this period he wrote Saegirarenai Kyusoku I ("Uninterrupted Rest I", 1952: a piano work, without a regular rhythmic pulse or barlines); and by 1955 Takemitsu had begun to use electronic tape-recording techniques in such works as Relief Statique (1955) and Vocalism A*I (1956). Takemitsu also studied in the early 1950s with the composer Fumio Hayasaka, perhaps best known for the scores he wrote for films by Kenji Mizoguchi and Akira Kurosawa, the latter of whom Takemitsu would collaborate with decades later.  In the late 1950s chance brought Takemitsu international attention: his Requiem for string orchestra (1957  listen ), written as an homage to Hayasaka, was heard by Igor Stravinsky in 1958 during his visit to Japan. (The NHK had organised opportunities for Stravinsky to listen to some of the latest Japanese music; when Takemitsu's work was put on by mistake, Stravinsky insisted on hearing it to the end.) At a press conference later, Stravinsky expressed his admiration for the work, praising its "sincerity" and "passionate" writing. Stravinsky subsequently invited Takemitsu to lunch; and for Takemitsu this was an "unforgettable" experience. After Stravinsky returned to the U.S., Takemitsu soon received a commission for a new work from the Koussevitsky Foundation which, he assumed, had come as a suggestion from Stravinsky to Aaron Copland. For this he composed Dorian Horizon, (1966), which was premiered by the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Copland.

what was Takemitsu personal life like?

OUT: