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WORLD WAR III? Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear plant will be costly -Iran US fears uncoordinated Israeli strike on Iran UK military steps up plans for Iran attack British officials consider contingency options to back up a possible US action as fears mount over Tehran’s capability.

According to Guardian Britain’s armed forces are stepping up their contingency planning for potential military action against Iran amid mounting concern over Tehran’s nuclear enrichment programme, An MoD spokesman said: “The UK position is that we want a negotiated solution, not a military one, but all options should be kept on the table. The UK government believes that a dual-track strategy of pressure and engagement is the best strategy to avoid regional military conflict.”

The MoD says there are no hard-and-fast blueprints for conflict but insiders concede that preparations at headquarters and at the Foreign Office have been under way for some time.

Fearing an uncoordinated Israeli attack against Iran, the United States is working on several levels to pressure the UN’s Security Council into imposing harsher sanctions on Iran, A senior Continued on page 02 >>

Europe: Islamophobia Eid-al-Adha and French magazine attacked after it portrays Prophet Mohammed (SAW) The offices of French satirical paper Charlie Hebdo, which published a special Arab Spring issue Wednesday with the prophet Mohammed as guest “editor”, were destroyed by a petrol bomb attack overnight, police said.

It happened a day after the

Hajj Mubarak

publication named the Prophet Muhammad as its “editor-inchief” for its next issue. The cover has a bearded and turbaned cartoon figure as of the Prophet Mohammed(saw) saying “100 lashes if you’re not dying of laughter.” The magazine said the move was intended to “celebrate” the victory of an Islamist party in Tunisia’s election. Charlie Hedbo’s editor is quote d Continued on page 02 >>

Continued on page 08 >>

NEWS

2 Continued from page 01 >> US State Department official said there was growing concern among Obama administration officials ahead of an IAEA report set to be published in November indicating considerable progress in Tehran’s development of its military nuclear program. The official said that Washington’s reevaluation of an Israeli strike in Iran is based on various maneuvers Israel has performed in the past few years.

The US administration is now bent on exercising more pressure on Tehran in order to dissuade Israel from this path, the source said.

Responding to reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been trying to gain a majority in the cabinet for an attack on Iran, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff of Iran’s armed forces, Hassan Firouzabadi, warned both Israel and the U.S. against such a move.

Publisher Salah Bu Khamas (UAE) Sabha Khan (UK) UK Office 10 Courtenay Road, Wembley, Middlesex, HA9 7ND UK Phone: +44 20 8904 0617 Fax: +44 20 8181 7575 info@satribune.co.uk India Office Satya Infomedia Pvt. Ltd. C/O Satya Group.

1st Floor, Avenue Appt., Near Sheth. R. J. J. High School, Tithal Road, Valsad - 396001 Gujarat, India Phone +91 2632 222209 / 222211 Fax: +91 2632 222212 Post Box No. 98 /108 United Arab Emirates Office S.K. Group of Companies P.O. Box 9021, Karama Dubai, United Arab Emirates Tel: +971 4 2659970, 3359929; Fax: +971 4 2659971, 3341609 www.sk-groupofcompanies.com Managing Editor & CEO Mohammad Shahid Khan Group Editorial Managers Gulzar Khan (India) Abdul Khalique (Pakistan) Editorial Board UK Frances Brunner FYI Tribune team Adrian Fellar Misbah Khan Reema Shah Rohma Khan Keziah-Ann Abakah Art Department UK Ali Ansar (Art Director) Md. Reazul Islam

South Asia Tribune I Thursday 03 November 2011

WORLD WAR III?

Haaretz reported Wednesday that Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak have been trying to push for an Israeli attack on Iran in the cabinet.

They recently persuaded Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who previously objected to attacking Iran, to support such a move.

Senior ministers and diplomats said the International Atomic Energy Agency’s report, due to be released on November 8, will have a decisive effect on the decisions Israel makes.

According to Western experts’ analyses, an attack on Iran in winter is almost impossible, because the thick clouds would obstruct the Israel Air Force’s performance. Also on Wednesday, Israel announced

the successful launch of a rocket propulsion system, which Israel Radio called a ballistic missile and cited foreign media reports in suggesting it could be fitted with a nuclear warhead.

Israel has for years warned of Iran’s intentions to build a nuclear weapons program. Often repeating the mantra, all options are on the table, Israeli media in recent days has suggested that a military strike may be near.

Last weekend, the New York Times reported that the US was looking to build up its military presence in the region, with one eye on Iran. According to the paper, the US is considering sending more naval warships to the area, and is seeking to expand military ties with the six nations

in the Gulf Co-operation Council: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman.

A report by the UN’s nuclear watchdog due to be circulated around the world next week

will provide fresh evidence of a possible Iranian nuclear weapons programme, bringing the Middle East a step closer to a devastating new conflict, say diplomats.

The report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is the latest of a series of quarterly bulletins on Iran’s activities, but this one will contain an unprecedented level of detail on

research and experiments carried out in Iran in recent years, which western officials allege could only be for the design and development of a nuclear warhead. “This will be a game-changer in the Iranian nuclear dossier,” a western official predicted. “It is going to be hard for even Moscow or Beijing to downplay its significance.”

Mean while Noted Illinois University Law Professor Francis Boyle, is offering his services, pro bono, to any member of Congress who will introduce a Bill of Impeachment against President Barack Obama.

In his interview Boyle drew out the specific violations of the American Constitution which make Obama eligible for impeachment, concentrating primarily on the murder of U.S. citizens, and the war against Libya. In both cases, he stressed, Obama has gone far beyond Bush.

Asked where he saw the situation headed, if Obama is not stopped, Boyle did not hesitate to point out that Obama’s pathway is leading toward World War III. If Obama next moves against Syria, and then Iran, he would be detonating an explosion that would indeed lead into planetary war.

Briton sees 7-yr jail term for cheque fraud upheld Safi Qurashi, the London property developer who paid $60m for an island in the shape of Great Britain on Nakheel’s The World, was told Tuesday he must serve his full seven-year jail term.

The businessman was jailed in 2010 after being found guilty of bouncing millions of dirhams worth of cheques by a Dubai Court.

A judge in Dubai’s Court of First Instance on Tuesday upheld the sentence, after hearing evidence from court-appointed experts that suggested the security cheques should not have been cashed as Qurashi had made the relevant payments.

Previous appeals at Dubai’s Court

of Cassation and Court of Appeal were also quashed.

“We are completely shell shocked.

I am lost for words,” a family member told Arabian Business.

“Despite the court appointed

Europe: Islamophobia Continued from page 01 >> as saying: “We no longer have a newspaper. All our equipment has been destroyed.” A single Molotov cocktail was thrown at the offices of Charlie Hebdo during the night and a large amount of material in the office was destroyed, police said.

There have been no reports of injuries. Charlie Hebdo’s website has also been hacked with a message in English and Turkish attacking the magazine.

The magazine’s website on Wednesday appeared to be offline amid earlier reports that it had been hacked. According

expert stating clearly that Safi has paid the value of the cheques the judge… has given a verdict that the sentence must continue.”

Qurashi rose to fame as the owner of the 4.5-hectare island that is part of The World, a manmade archipelago of reclaimed sandbanks located off the coast of Dubai. He had initially planned to build a mix of hotels, residential and commercial buildings on Great Britain, but the scheme stalled in the wake of the global financial crisis.

Qurashi’s family launched a legal appeal earlier this year in a bid to clear his name, with his two daughters establishing a website

called ‘Justiceformydad.com’.

According to the site, Qurashi had acted as a “middle-man” in a number of deals that saw clients transfer money into his company in exchange for his purchasing land on their behalf.

In exchange for the money, Qurashi signed security cheques over to the client that should have been returned on completion of the land deal, the website claims. Instead, the cheques were cashed, leading to Qurashi’s arrest and imprisonment for cheque fraud.

The London-born developer was later found guilty of signing two cheques with insufficient funds and cancelling another.

a reports the site had earlier showed images of a mosque with the message “No God but Allah”.

Newspaper employees said they had received many threats as a result of the issue, subtitled “Sharia Hebdo”, in reference to Islamic law.

The magazine was criticised

by Muslims in 2007 after reprinting the Danish cartoons

of the prophet Muhammad that caused outrage around the Islamic world.

A Paris court in 2007 threw out a suit brought by two Muslim organisations against Charlie Hebdo for reprinting cartoons of Prophet Muhammad that had appeared in a Danish newspaper, sparking angry protests by Muslims worldwide.

South Asia Tribune I Thursday 03 November 2011

NEWS

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UN Passes Iran’s Draft for Nuke Disarmament

The UN General Assembly’s First Committee has endorsed an Iransponsored resolution on nuclear disarmament despite attempts by the US and the Israeli regime to kill the bid.

The committee, which focuses on disarmament and international security issues, approved the resolution with 107 votes on October 31, despite strong opposition and negative campaigning by the US, the Tel Aviv regime as well as some European governments, IRNA reported.

The resolution calls for the implementation of pledges made at the three most recent nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty review conferences.

It also reiterates the urgency of a nuclear-free Middle East and demands that the Israeli regime must sign the nuclear NonProliferation Treaty (NPT).

Israel, widely believed to be the sole possessor of a nuclear arsenal in the Middle East with over 200 undeclared nuclear warheads, pursues the policy of ‘deliberate ambiguity’ for its nuclear program.

Tel Aviv has so far rejected all global demands to join the NPT and does not allow the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors to inspect and monitor its controversial nuclear program.

The Israeli regime has never denied or confirmed the existence of its nuclear arsenal as part of

its long-held ‘nuclear ambiguity’ policy.

Despite international objections to such dubious policy, the UN and its nuclear regulatory agencies have never taken serious steps to censure or impose sanctions on the defiant regime.

Tehran has also proposed a draft resolution on missiles, which is to be discussed in the committee’s next session.

Mean while Israel to upgrade nuke capabilities

Israel’s Dimona nuclear reactor

A report says Israel is seeking to beef up its nuclear weapons capabilities despite Tel Aviv’s

Syria says deal reached with Arab League State TV says government has agreed to proposal by Cairo-based organisation to end seven months of protests.

Syria says it has reached a deal with an Arab League committee entrusted with finding a way to end seven months of unrest and starting a dialogue between President Bashar al-Assad and his opponents.

State media reported the deal without giving details, saying an official announcement of the agreement would be made at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo on Wednesday.

But a senior Arab League official said the organisation was still awaiting a response from Damascus to proposals for halting the bloodshed, which activists said

continued on Tuesday with two civilians shot dead by Assad’s forces in Homs and two soldiers killed by army deserters in an ambush.

One activist said gunmen dragged nine people, all of them from Assad’s minority Alawite sect, from a bus on a road between the cities of Homs and Hama, and killed them.

The UN says more than 3,000 people

have been killed in the crackdown on an uprising which erupted in March against his rule, inspired by revolutions which have toppled three Arab leaders this year.

The government blames fighters who it says are armed and financed from abroad for the violence and says they have killed 1,100 members of the security forces.

repeated defiance of international calls to join global nonproliferation treaties.

Israel is widely believed to be the sole possessor of a nuclear arsenal in the Middle East with over 300 nuclear warheads.

The Israeli regime has never denied or confirmed the existence of its nuclear arsenal as part of its long-held “nuclear ambiguity” policy.

Tel Aviv has rejected all global demands to join the NonProliferation Treaty (NPT) and refuses to allow the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors to monitor its nuclear facilities.

The Tel Aviv regime is planning to extend the range of its Jericho III

land-to-land missiles, developing its inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM) capability, according to a report for the British American Security Information Council (BASIC) published by The Guardian on Monday.

Israel also has plans to expand the capabilities of its cruise missiles designed to be launched from submarines.

Tel Aviv currently has three submarines, with two more under construction in Germany.

Despite international objections to the Israeli program, the United Nations and its nuclear regulatory agencies have never taken serious steps to censure or impose sanctions on the Zionist regime.

UAE ranked 30th UN development index and as top Arab country The United Arab Emirates ranked 30 in the index of the just released UN Human Development Report and the top Arab country in the list of 187 countries around the world The United Arab Emirates ranked 30 in the index of the just released UN Human Development Report and the top Arab country in the list of 187 countries around the world.

The index was part of the “Human Development Report 2011, Sustainability and Equity: A Better Future for All”. Its comprises of several elements, including life expectancy at birth, mean years of schooling , expected years of schooling and Gross National Income per capital.

Top countries in the index were Norway, Australia and Netherlands.

The United States came the fourth and was followed by New Zealand.

Top Arab countries The six Arab Gulf States were the top

Arab countries. Qatar ranked 37, Bahrain 42, Saudi Arabia 56, Kuwait 63 and Oman 89.

UAE, Qatar and Bahrain were the only Arab countries to be categorized under the very high human development countries.

Tunisia came number 94 and was followed immediately followed by Jordan.

The 185-page report listed the main challenges of the 21st century, and is “showing how sustainability is inextricably linked to basic questions of equity—that is, of fairness and social justice and of greater access to a better quality of life,”.

“It is fundamentally about how we choose to live our lives, with an awareness that everything we do has consequences for the 7 billion of us here today, as well as for the billions more who will follow, for centuries to come,” the report noted.

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EDITORIAL Will Israel Attack Iran Britain’s armed forces are stepping up their contingency planning for potential military action against Iran amid mounting concern over Tehran’s nuclear enrichment programme.

The Ministry of Defence believes the US may decide to fast-forward plans for targeted missile strikes at some key Iranian facilities. British officials say that if Washington presses ahead it will seek, and receive, UK military help for any mission, despite some deep reservations within the coalition government.

In anticipation of a potential attack, British military planners are examining where best to deploy Royal Navy ships and submarines equipped with Tomahawk cruise missiles over the coming months as part of what would be an air- and sea-launched campaign.

Washington has been warned by Israel against leaving any military action until it is too late. Western intelligence agencies say Israel will demand that the US act if Jerusalem believes its own military cannot launch successful attacks to stall Iran’s nuclear programme.

Benjamin Netanyahu seeks cabinet support for Israeli strike on Iran Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, is seeking cabinet support for a military strike on Iran, Haaretz newspaper has reported after days of speculation on plans for such an attack. Haaretz said that Mr Netanyahu and Mr Barak had already scored a significant win by convincing Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman to throw his support behind a strike.

A source said the “Israelis want to believe that they can take this stuff out”, and will continue to agitate for military action if Iran continues to play hide and seek. Iran would cause serious damage to the United States and Israel should the latter launch an attack on the Islamic Republic, Iran’s top military official said on Wednesday.

The “Zionist regime’s military attack against Iran,” Chairman of Iran’s Chief of Staff Maj.-Gen. Hassan Fayrouz Abadi said, would lead to “heavy damages to the US as well as [to the] Zionist regime,” Iranian news agency ISNA reported. Israel considers Iran its most dangerous threat. It cites Tehran’s nuclear programme, its ballistic missile development, repeated references by the Iranian leader to Israel’s destruction and Iran’s support for anti-Israel militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah.

Iran denies the allegations that it aims to produce a bomb, saying its nuclear programme is meant only to produce energy.

They plan their plans, and He plans His plans, and He is the best of planners! (Al- Quran)

South Asia Tribune I Thursday 03 November 2011

Iran formally complains to US over plot charges Iran has formally complained to the U.S. over claims the Iranian government was involved in an alleged plot to kill Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States, a U.S. official said yesterday.

The official said the U.S. received a diplomatic note on Friday expressing displeasure with the charges that were leveled earlier this month.

Iran has already denied the allegations.

The official said the note was delivered through the Swiss embassy in Tehran, which represents U.S. interests in Iran since the two countries don’t have diplomatic relations.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a private diplomatic exchange.

Earlier this month, U.S. officials claimed agents linked to Iran’s Quds Force an elite wing of the powerful Revolutionary Guard were involved in the suspected plot to kill the Saudi ambassador to the U.S., Adel Al-Jubeir.

An Iranian diplomatic source, who also spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said the letter emphasized Iranian assertions that Washington’s allegations are “based on lies”

and called into question U.S. diplomatic tactics that Iran calls violations of “international rules and regulations.”

The Iranian source did not make

deaths in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 and the “billions of dollars from the U.S. citizens’ pockets.”

Plans by President Barack Obama

the precise wording of the letter available, but said the letter also mentioned the thousands of

to withdraw all U.S. forces from Iraq by the end of the year have drawn criticism from political

opponents because of Iran’s close ties with Iraq’s Shiite majority and the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

The letter called for a U.S. apology for the ambassador plot allegations and sought unspecified compensation for “material and moral damages of this baseless accusation,” the source added.

A dual U.S.-Iranian citizen who holds an Iranian passport, Manssor Arbabsiar, 56, pleaded not guilty last week in U.S. District Court in New York in connection with the plot allegations.

According to the U.S. complaint, Arbabsiar has admitted his role in a $1.5 million plot to kill the ambassador at a Washington restaurant by setting off explosives.

But many experts in Iranian affairs have questioned why Iran’s Quds Force, which typically works through third parties such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah, would reach out to Arbabsiar, a former used car salesman in Texas who is accused of seeking Mexican drug cartel hitmen to carry out the slaying.

No trial date has been set for Arbabsiar. U.S. District Judge John F. Keenan scheduled his next court appearance for Dec. 21.

David Cameron human rights plea at Commonwealth meeting Mr Cameron told the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (Chogm) in Australia that to stay relevant it must work harder to uphold basic values.

David Cameron has pressed for progress on a range of human rights issues during the Commonwealth summit.

The Chogm leaders agreed on Saturday to step up efforts to wipe out polio from the four countries where it is endemic.

And the human rights record of the Sri Lankan government came under scrutiny. It will hold Chogm in two years’ time.

The Eminent Persons Group, which includes former UK foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind, has examined the challenges facing the Commonwealth, and made more than 100 recommendations.

The suggestions were proposed as ways to ensure that the organisation remains relevant in 21st Century global affairs.

Mr Cameron has said he expects good progress to be made on

developing a “charter” of rights and freedoms.

Other recommendations, which are proving more problematic, are the appointment of a independent commissioner for the rule of law and human rights and a call for all member states to repeal laws banning homosexuality.

‘Great network’ The summit in Perth is the first Chogm meeting Mr Cameron has attended since entering Downing Street.

The prime minister said: “The Commonwealth is a great

organisation, a third of the world’s population, 54 countries across six continents, a really great network, but it is a network that must have strong values.

“The Eminent Persons Group report will strengthen those values particularly by having a charter setting out the rights, the freedoms, the democracy that we all believe in, and I think that is important.”

Mr Cameron added that he thought “good progress” would be made in Perth.

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka’s army has been

accused of war crimes during the civil war with the Tamil Tigers.

Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper has said he will boycott the 2013 summit unless there are major reforms in the country.

When asked about Sri Lanka, Mr Cameron said there had to be a “proper, independent exercise to look into the whole issue of what happened, and whether there were war crimes, and who is responsible”.

Mr Cameron also joined the leaders of Canada, Australia and Nigeria, in committing tens of millions of pounds towards eradicating polio in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria.

The campaign will be supported financially by Microsoft magnate Bill Gates.

Australia’s prime minister, Julia Gillard, said: “While polio remains anywhere in the world, it is a threat to everyone.

“We’re here today to demonstrate our commitment to ending the fight against polio, that is, ending polio for all time.”

South Asia Tribune I Thursday 03 November 2011

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General Conference admits Palestine as UNESCO Member State: US objects US, Israel threatened to halt $80 million a year to UNESCO UNESCO’s General Conference Monday voted to admit Palestine as a Member State of the Organization.

For its membership to take effect, Palestine must sign and ratify UNESCO’s Constitution which is open for signature in the archives of the Government of the United Kingdom in London.

Palestine’s entry will bring the number of UNESCO’s Member States to 195.

The vote was carried by 107 votes in favor of admission and 14 votes against, with 52 abstentions.

Admission to UNESCO for states that are not members of

the United Nations requires a recommendation by the Organization’s Executive Board

and a two thirds majority vote in favor by the General Conference of Member States present and

‘UK should not withdraw troops from Afghan before 2014’

voting (abstentions are not considered as votes).

The General Conference consists of the representatives of the States Members of the Organization.

It meets every two years, and is attended by Member States and Associate Members, together with observers for non-Member States, intergovernmental organizations and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Each Member State has one vote, irrespective of its size or the extent of its contribution to the budget.

The General Conference determines the policies and the main lines of work of the Organization. Its duty is to set the programs and the budget of UNESCO. It also elects the Members of the Executive Board and appoints, every four years, the Director-General.

Israel is resigned to the Palestinians winning today’s

UNESCO general assembly vote to enter the UN cultural body and will join the US in withdrawing funding, Israeli envoy Nimrod Barkan told reporters. “There will be a vote and the Palestinians will win,” Barkan said. “That’s the headcount that we have,” he said of the Palestinian membership bid that requires a two-thirds majority of its 193 voting members to succeed.

United States also voiced concern over the bid. Today’s vote on the Palestinians joining UNESCO is counterproductive and premature, United States Undersecretary for Education Martha Kanter told the UN cultural body’s general assembly.

“We think it’s counterproductive, it’s a premature step,” Kanter said ahead of the vote on the Palestinian membership bid that requires a two-thirds majority of its 193 voting members to succeed.

3,000 banks on blacklist for student visa applications B

ritain currently has 9,500 troops in Afghanistan, including special forces, but David Cameron has given assurances that it will remain at that level only until the end of next year.

After that military experts expect the numbers to fall in stages in advance of the withdrawal deadline. But the province’s top soldier has said a staged withdrawl would harm the battle to secure the province from the Taliban.

“If the British leave, in my personal opinion, this will have a negative effect on security,” Brig Gen Sheren Shah told The Daily Telegraph: British soldiers were needed “to fight together with us in the front line until 2014”.

The Kabul government on Wednesday announced that parts of Helmand would be among 17 provinces that move to Afghan control next year.

President Hamid Karzai will officially name the new areas that are to “transition” from Nato to Afghans leading security at a summit in Istanbul next Wednesday. Up to seven provinces and districts in 10 other provinces

will transition giving Afghan forces control of up to 50 per cent of the population.

The second phase of handover, that comes after a few areas went to local control in July, is part of the plan for Nato to gradually withdraw its troops after a decade of fighting.

Downing Street has been circumspect about keeping any troops in Afghanistan from 2015 but the Afghan general said some would still be needed. But Brig Shah said a large number of support troops will also be needed to support the Afghan army for “many years” after the timetabled withdrawal at the end of 2014.

“To be honest I cannot forecast clearly after 2014 how much longer we will need British forces in Afghanistan but our country has been demolished and we have tolerated 30 years war in which we lost everything,” he said.

“So we need the international community, especially British influence, for longer. I cannot say for how many years but a number of years.”

Helmand has gone from being

the trouble spot of Afghanistan almost to its “trophy province” with Brig Gen Shah’s 3rd Brigade of 215 Corps seen as the “model” for the rest of the army.

The 44-year-old general has led Afghans as a commander in the Soviet-trained army who defected to the Mujahideen and then helped the Northern Alliance throw out the Taliban.

His brigade now conducts battalion size operations on its own with British advisors in the background.

In another sign of progress it has received the first Afghan “high threat operator” trained up to Western bomb disposal standards.

But the general warned that more advanced training in engineering, logistics and heavy weapons was needed before his brigade could become fully independent. They would also require Nato air power for a long time to come.

The officer also reflected Kabul’s worries of greater interference from Afghanistan’s neighbours such as Pakistan and Iran following Nato’s withdrawal.

1,977 banks in India, three in Pakistan and 762 in the Philippines

Nearly 3,000 banks have been put on a government blacklist of financial institutions which cannot be trusted to verify documents supporting student visa applications, officials have said.

Foreign students applying to study in the UK who claim they have funds to support themselves and pay for their course held in any of the banks on the list will receive no points for maintenance, the UK Border Agency (UKBA) said.

The list, which includes 1,977 banks in India, three in Pakistan and 762 in the Philippines, is the latest part of the government’s efforts to crack down on bogus students.

Study is the most common reason for migrants coming to the UK,

with three in four of the 228,000 who came to the UK for study last year coming from outside the EU. A UKBA spokeswoman said: “We have radically overhauled the student visa system in order to tackle abuses whilst continuing to attract the brightest and best genuine students from across the world.

“We need to be confident that those applying for student visas have the funds to support themselves and pay for their course in the UK.” Alp Mehmet, vice-chairman of the campaign group Migration Watch UK, said the list was “just one indication of the rampant abuse of the student visa system”.

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South Asia Tribune I Thursday 03 November 2011

NATO to stay in Libya for good?

Libya: multinational force led by Qatar will replace Nato A multinational force led by Qatar could replace NATO in efforts to help the political stabilisation of Libya and the training of local police on the ground. The idea of replacing NATO forces with a multinational force was suggested today in Doha during the meeting of Chiefs of Staff of countries that are active in Libya.

reported to be in Niger, according to a Touareg representative from the country. “Saif was taken from Algeria to Niger with the help of the Touaregs,” he said. Another of Gaddafi’s sons, Saadi, has also sought refuge in Niger in recent months.

Gaddafi’s son says he is innocent Saif al-Islam Gaddafi has told the

charges.

The prosecutor confirmed that the court was worried that Saif al-Islam could escape its reach by fleeing to another country through mercenaries. Intelligence reports suggested that the mercenaries could include South Africans, he said.

The death of Colonel Gaddafi

Libyan Islamists stated soon after Gaddafi’s murder that the country would live under the laws of Sharia. The announcement was made as an accomplished fact, even though the West and certain local liberals were dreaming about Libya making a democratic choice.

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Qatar will lead the new coalition for a period that could stretch beyond the end of the year, according to the progress of security conditions in Libya, Qatar’s Chief of Staff, Ahmed Ben Ali Al Atia said, explaining that the coalition would not take part in police operations.

Al Atia also said that Qatar has made the proposal in light of the potential end of the NATO mission on October 31, as decided on a preliminary basis by the Atlantic Council. ‘’Italy, together with the Libyan NTC and its partners, is exploring and assessing ways of participating’’ in the multinational force that could replace NATO in Libya, ANSA learned from reliable diplomatic sources. Meanwhile, Muammar Gaddafi’s son, Saif Al Islam, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court, is

International Criminal Court he is innocent of alleged crimes against humanity Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, the fugitive son of Libya’s toppled late leader, told the International Criminal Court he is innocent of alleged crimes against humanity, the court prosecutor said on Saturday.

The court, based in The Hague, has said it made informal contact with Saif al-Islam, the son of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, and is seeking to arrest him and bring him to trial on the charges stemming from Libya’s civil war.

The International Criminal Court Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said the contacts were through intermediaries, and Saif alIslam maintained he is innocent and wants to understand what could happen to him if cleared of

made many assume that NATO was going to finish its operation in Libya. Sources from the alliance said that it could happen during the next couple of days indeed.

However, it is too early to say that the Libyan operation is over. Ali Tarhouni, an official spokesman for the National Transitional Council asked the NATO administration to prolong its mission in Libya for at least one month.

Why does the Council need NATO to stay? It seems that the city of Sirte has been taken. News agencies report that practically all buildings in the city have been destroyed. Rebels continue to find and destroy Gaddafi followers and they do not need NATO’s help.

Most likely, the leaders of the National Transitional Council of Libya are concerned about their future. The leaders of the

However, it is obvious that Islamists intend to deprive the Libyan people of all the rights that they received from Colonel Gaddafi, including the right to vote. European officials expressed their concerns about the extremist aspiration to usurp power.

Nevertheless, even Libya’s acting Prime Minister Mahmous Jibril said that the new Libya needed Sharia.

In the meantime, the countries that took part in the operation against Colonel Gaddafi continue to count their losses and send their servicemen home. Spain promised to withdraw its troops from the country before October 31.

NATO has not made a final decision about the further participation in the Libyan affairs.

The alliance intends to conduct consultations with the UN and the

National Transitional Council of Libya before making the decision, sources from the headquarters of the alliance said.

Western experts believe that the NTC is not willing to take full responsibility for the security of Libya. The Council intends to share this responsibility with NATO. However, the West fears a possibility of being involved in the long-term standoff, which implies additional losses and extra costs.

At the same time, neither Brussels, nor Washington will let the Libyan Islamists destroy the NTC. Moreover, it is not clear whether Qatar is going to withdraw its contingent, which also took part in the destruction of Gaddafi.

According to France Presse, the Chief of Staff of the Qatar Armed Forces, Bel Ali El-Atia acknowledged the participation of hundreds of his military men in the battles on the territory of Libya. It is not clear whether Qatar is going to withdraw its troops from Libya. The Qatari servicemen are not going to defend the NTC from Islamists. Quite on the contrary, NTC officials believe that Qatar, being a very influential force, would take the side of the Islamists.

What about the tribes? The majority of tribal leaders in Libya are not going to acknowledge the dictatorship of the Islamists.

What is worse, many of them do not recognize the puppets of the West from the NTC. There is no single position among the clans and the tribes. They no longer have the referee (Gaddafi) who would listen to them and help them solve their problems.

To put it in a nutshell, a handful of Libyan liberal intellectuals runs the risk of building true democracy in the form of “war against all.”

Confessed Norway killer’s isolation extended OSLO - A Norwegian court on Friday extended by four weeks the isolation detention of the man who confessed to killing 77 people after a shooting rampage at a youth camp and a bombing in the capital saying it still does not know if he acted alone.

Anders Behring Breivik must be kept in complete isolation for fear he would tamper with evidence and contact possible accomplices, the Oslo District Court ruled.

Judge Hugo Abelseth acknowledged Breivik had described his isolation as “boring and monotonous, and a sadistic torture method,” but said he must

nonetheless spend at least four more weeks there. He said the next hearing would be held on Sept. 19.

Breivik denies criminal guilt because he believes the massacre was necessary to save Norway and Europe. He said the attacks were an attempt at cultural revolution, aimed at purging Europe of Muslims and punishing politicians that have embraced multiculturalism.

If found guilty on terrorism charges, Breivik could be sentenced to 21 years in prison. An alternative custody arrangement if he is still considered a danger to

the public - could keep him behind bars indefinitely.

Norway’s General Director of Health Bjoern Inge Larsen told

Breivik denies criminal guilt because he believes the massacre was necessary to save Norway and Europe. reporters he hoped that the visit to Utoya would help families come to

grips with the deaths.

“The police officer taking care of each family will take that family to the place where we found each of the killed young grown-up people,” Larsen said before the visit.

“Of course, that will be a very difficult day for the people coping out there, but in the long run we know that seeing the scene of where these murders were taking place is actually helpful.”

On Sunday, a national memorial service was to be held at Oslo Spektrum arena, marking the end of a month of mourning.

South Asia Tribune I Thursday 03 November 2011

NEWS

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Al-Assad issues stern intervention warning Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has warned that any Western intervention against his country would cause an ‘earthquake’ across the region. China and Russia, meanwhile, have cooled toward Damascus.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has warned against any Western intervention in his country’s seventhmonth-old uprising, saying such action would trigger an “earthquake” that “would burn the whole region.”

“Syria is the hub now in this region. It is the fault line, and if you play with the ground you will cause an earthquake,” Assad said in an interview with Britain’s Sunday Telegraph. “Do you want to see another Afghanistan, or dozens of Afghanistans?”

Assad’s remarks appeared to reflect his regime’s increasing concern about foreign intervention in the country’s crisis after the recent death of Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, who was toppled by a popular uprising backed by NATO airstrikes. The British-based Syrian Observatory for

Human Rights said a clash on the night of Oct. 29 in the restive central city of Homs between soldiers and gunmen believed to be army defectors left at least 20 soldiers dead and 53 wounded.

Meanhwhile, Arab League ministers who have visited Syria on Oct. 26 warned Assad to stop violence and start reforms or face an international intervention, a Kuwaiti newspaper reported yesterday. Citing wellinformed Arab sources, daily Al-Qabas said the Arab League ministerial delegation also warned Assad that a failure to resolve the crisis within an Arab fold would mean “internationalizing” the issue.

Russia, China unsure Assad said Western countries “are going to ratchet up the pressure, definitely.” He was apparently referring to a wave of sanctions that were imposed by the European Union and the United States. “But Syria is different in every respect from Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen. The

history is different. The politics is different,” Assad said. Assad also spoke to Russia’s state Channel One television, and in an interview broadcast yesterday, hailed Moscow’s veto of a European-backed U.N. Security Council resolution on Syria that aimed to impose sanctions on Damascus. “We are relying on Russia as a country with which we have strong historic ties,” Assad said. Assad’s appeal came less than

Kill Gaddafi’ Video Game Created by Company Linked to Defense Department Violent video game available for free download and without age verification

I

f photos and videos of Muammar Gaddafi’s death at the hands of rebels have not shown enough blood and carnage, a new video game developed by a reality game company that has collaborated with the U.S. Department of Defense will allow kids to relive the capture and murder of the ousted Libyan dictator over and over again.

The new game, “Fall of Sirte: Gaddafi’s Last Stand,” is the latest episode in the “Kuma War II” series from Kuma Games, which has been creating episodic firstperson shooter games based on real military events like the Iraq War and the assassination of Osama bin Laden in collaboration with the Department of Defense since 2003, according to the Los Angeles Times. “Fall of Sirte” allows gamers to hunt and kill

Col. Muammar Gadaffi and can be downloaded by anyone with a computer without age verification completely free of charge.

The video game takes gamers into the throes of the Libyan

Predator drones that help force Gaddafi out of hiding and “When the smoke clears,” Kuma Games promises, “the former leader lays dead.”

Being released so soon after Gaddafi’s actual death is a trademark of Kuma Games, which also made headlines when it released a shoot-and-kill game soon after the death of Osama bin Laden.

Kuma Games makes its games available for free, but also tracks, analyzes, stores, and reserves the right to sell players’ results to outside parties. According to Kuma’s website, data about players is stored on Kuma’s servers, including messages exchanged with other players, time players spend on the site, responses to surveys, and play results.

In Kuma Games’ terms of usage,

Playing the game from the point of view of a Libyan rebel, the gamer is able to “relive Muammar Gaddafi’s final take-down and the Libyan rebels’ triumph with this brand new multiplayer mission!” according to Kuma Games’ website. uprising and the search for Gaddafi. Playing the game from the point of view of a Libyan rebel, the gamer is able to “relive Muammar Gaddafi’s final takedown and the Libyan rebels’ triumph with this brand new multiplayer mission!” according to Kuma Games’ website.

Players also get help from

the company states it is authorized “to disclose any information about you...in our sole discretion, [we] believe necessary or appropriate.”

Other video game companies have been known to use games based on war to track data in order to serve as a recruitment tool for the U.S. Military.

a month after Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told the Syrian strongman for the first time to either accept political reform or bow to calls for his resignation. Hints of a cautious easing of Russia’s support were reaffirmed yesterday when a powerful lawmaker in charge of the upper house of parliament’s foreign affairs committee called Assad’s violent methods counterproductive.

“Breaking up opposition rallies with

tanks, artillery and machine gun fire attacks complicates reforms, which in this extremely difficult situation are inevitable,” Mikhail Margelov told the ITAR-TASS news agency.

“Obviously the Syrian security forces can use other methods of fighting the unrest besides staging bloody attacks on crowds,” Margelov said.

The Russian lawmaker serves as the Kremlin’s pointman on both the Libyan and Syrian crises. During a visit to Damascus, China’s Middle East envoy, Wu Sike, also cautioned Syria of the dangers of a government crackdown on dissent that he said “cannot continue,” he told reporters in Cairo yesterday. He said Assad’s regime must “respect and respond to the aspirations and rightful demands of the Syrian people.” China, along with Russia, vetoed a Westerndrafted resolution at the U.N. Security Council on Oct. 4 that would have threatened Assad’s regime with targeted sanctions if it continued its campaign against protesters.

No compromise with Iran: Saudi Crown Prince Crown Prince Naif, deputy premier and minister of interior, addresses a press conference in Arafat after inspecting Haj arrangements on Tuesday.

countries is their internal matter and they know better. With regard to Saudi Arabia, the reality has proved the cohesion between its people and leadership,” Prince Naif said when

Crown Prince Naif, on Tuesday ruled out any compromise with Iran over allegations of Iranian involvement in a plot to murder the Saudi ambassador to Washington.

“There can be no compromise with Iran concerning the assassination bid because there is no need for it,” the crown prince told reporters while addressing a news conference after inspecting Haj preparations.

“We are ready to deal with any scenario... with any means necessary,” he added without further details. Iran has repeatedly denied any involvement in the alleged plot.

Prince Naif emphasized the strong bond between the Saudi people and their leadership, and ruled out possible public protests in the country.

“What has happened in some Arab

asked whether he thought Saudi Arabia was protected against antigovernment protests.

Prince Naif emphasized that the Kingdom would not allow any demonstrations during Haj. Answering a question on whether there is any understanding between the Kingdom and Iran on Haj, Prince Naif: “There is no need for such an understanding as the Iranians have always affirmed their respect for Haj. After every Haj we receive letters of appreciation from the Iranian Haj mission.”

Asked whether the government has any plan to impose punishment on violators of Haj regulations, Prince Naif said: “We don’t need any new regulations. The Qur’an and Sunnah clearly mention the punishment for those who violate the rules.”

NEWS

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South Asia Tribune I Thursday 03 November 2011

Eid-al-Adha and Hajj Mubarak

Many Muslims in the United Kingdom (UK) celebrate Eidal-Adha, which commemorates Ibrahim’s (Abraham) willingness to sacrifice his son to Allah will be celebrated on Sunday, November 6th 2011 for most countries This festival also marks the end of the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. .

For those following local sighting of the moon to determine the beginning of lunar months, as the moon was not seen in some countries yesterday, Eid Al-Adha will be celebrated on Monday November 7th 2011. The list of these countries includes communities Brunei, India, Pakistan and Iran.

In Australia those following Saudi will have Eid on Sunday and those that follow local sighting

will celebrate Eid on Monday.

Nearly three million pilgrims from around the world will ascend Mount `Arafah on

Saturday, November 5, marking the peak of the annual hajj.

Two pilgrims die in Jeddah bus fire Bus was carrying 29 British and Pakistani pilgrims.

JEDDAH: A man and a woman died after a bus carrying a group of 30 British pilgrims caught fire on the Haramain Expressway near the Tahlia Bridge in Jeddah Tuesday morning.

The accident took place while the pilgrims were traveling to Makkah for Haj. The bus driver said he parked the vehicle on the side of the expressway when he saw intense smoke billowing out of it.

Two pilgrims, a man and a woman, died when a bus carrying 29 British and Pakistani pilgrims on their way from Madinah to Makkah caught fire near Al-Tahliya flyover in Jeddah on Tueday, the Civil Defense announced.

Civil Defense officers later retrieved two bodies from the bus, but could not confirm their nationalities. The two bodies have been taken to the mortuary of King Fahd Hospital.

One of the five pillars of Islam, hajj consists of several ceremonies, which are meant to symbolize the essential concepts of the Islamic

faith, and to commemorate the trials of Prophet Abraham (pbuh) and his family.

Every able-bodied adult Muslim — who can financially afford the trip — must perform hajj once in their lifetime. The story of Ibrahim’s sacrifice Eid-ul-Adha celebrates the occasion when Allah appeared to Ibrahim in a dream and asked him to sacrifice his son Isma’il as an act of obedience to God. The devil tempted Ibrahim by saying he should disobey Allah and spare his son. As Ibrahim was about to kill his son, Allah stopped him and gave him a lamb to sacrifice instead.

Note: This story is also found in the Jewish Torah and the Christian Old Testament (Genesis 22). Here God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, his son with Sarah. Isma’il was his son with Hagar.

Celebrations Eid ul Adha is a public holiday in Muslim countries.

Today Muslims all over the world who can afford it , sacrifice a sheep (sometimes a goat) as a reminder of Ibrahim’s obedience to Allah. In Britain, the animal has to be killed at a slaughterhouse.

They share out the meat among family, friends and the poor, who each get a third share.

Eid usually starts with Muslims going to the Mosque for prayers, dressed in their best clothes, and thanking Allah for all the

they too can celebrate.

Hajj

blessings they have received.

It is also a time when they visit family and friends as well as offering presents.

The Hajj is pilgrimage to Makkah.

It is the Fifth Pillar of Islam and therefore a very important part of the Islamic faith.

All physically fit Muslims who can afford it should make the visit to Makkah, in Saudi Arabia, at least once in their lives.

Every year around 2 million Muslims from all over the world converge on Makkah.

They stand before the Kaaba, a shrine built by Ibrahim praising Allah together.

The Hajjis or pilgrims wear simple white clothes called Ihram which promote the bonds of Islamic brotherhood and sisterhood by showing that everyone is equal in the eyes

At Eid it is obligatory to give a set amount of money to charity to be used to help poor people buy new clothes and food so

of Allah. During the Hajj the Pilgrims perform acts of worship and they renew their faith and sense of purpose in the world.

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Saarc international I Thursday 03 November 2011

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Pakistan grants India ‘most favoured’ trade status

P

akistan’s cabinet has unanimously approved the award of “most favoured nation” trading status to India.

India has already extended most favoured nation status to Pakistan. The status typically reduces tariffs and increases import quotas.

Pakistan had previously linked trade liberalisation with India to a resolution of the dispute over Kashmir, over which the nations have fought two wars.

Correspondents say the move is a

significant step towards boosting the peace process between the neighbours.

India has already extended most favoured nation status to Pakistan.

The status typically reduces tariffs and increases import quotas.

Bilateral trade is currently put at about $3bn (£1.87bn) and the two sides agreed at a recent meeting in Delhi to double that within three years.

Although India granted Pakistan most favoured nation status in 1996, Pakistan

says it has suffered from strict Indian customs rules and quality standards.

‘National interest’ Pakistan Information Minister Firdous Ashiq Awan told a news conference in Islamabad: “Today after an extensive briefing by the commerce secretary, the cabinet unanimously decided to grant India most favoured nation status.”

He added: “This will bring economic benefits to us and this decision has been taken in the national interest.”

Mr Awan said some ministers had raised objections on the Kashmir issue, but added: “The prime minister reviewed all the objections and took the cabinet into confidence that it will not hurt our national security.”

The BBC’s M Ilyas Khan in Islamabad says that although India acknowledges the Kashmir dispute, it has insisted the two sides improve interaction in other fields while they search for a mutually acceptable solution.

Analysts say the Pakistani decision has come at a time when the country desperately needs trade concessions from international markets to prevent its economy from sinking further.

India and Pakistan resumed formal peace talks this year after they were broken off in the wake of the militant attacks in Mumbai (Bombay) in 2008.

Pakistan among bottom 5 on income, wellbeing ranking At 107, Pakistan is ahead of only Ethiopia, Zimbabwe and the Central African Republic. In the Asia-Pacific region, it is ranked last out of 22 nations.

An index that measures prosperity as a function of both income and wellbeing for 110 countries around the world has placed Pakistan fourth from the bottom, below Sudan and Yemen.

London-based research organisation Legatum Institute released on Tuesday the 2011 Legatum Prosperity Index, in which countries are ranked in eight areas before being

given an overall prosperity rank.

Nordic countries dominate the overall rankings, with Norway and Denmark bagging the top two spots and Sweden and Finland also appearing in the top 10. Others in that group include Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, the Netherlands and, lastly, the United States Pakistan is listed at 86 for Entrepreneurship & Opportunity, 96 for both Economy and Health, 98 for Governance, 100 for Social Capital, 104 for Personal Freedom, 105 for Education and 109 for

Safety & Security. In this last category it is preceded

by Colombia and followed only by Sudan.

The numbers for Social Capital and Personal Freedom may provide some cause for scepticism.

As the report itself admits, Pakistan has relatively strong social networks, and at times these have functioned as private social welfare nets. And the Personal Freedom score seems low compared to some other countries listed above Pakistan, such as Saudi Arabia, China and Syria.

Neighbours must get involved in Afghanistan solutions: Kissinger

Former US Secretary of State and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Dr Henry Kissinger says that Afghanistan’s neighbours must be involved in Afghanistan’s solutions.

At an event titled “Afghanistan – Is There a Regional Endgame?” organized by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Kissinger addressed a packed house. The former US diplomat said that the effect of the withdrawal of US forces from the region may even be greater on Afghanistan’s neighbours than on the US. On Pakistan, Kissinger said that “their [Pakistan’s] objectives were not identical to the US, and could not be identical from their [Pakistan’s] point of view.” As a result, he said, Pakistan not only tolerates sanctuaries, but also at some level encourages these safe havens.

Frank Ruggierro, US Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan said the US was hoping that the Istanbul conference would lead to support for the transition, respect for Afghanistan’s sovereignty and political reconciliation.

Addressing the audience, Professor Vali Nasr, a former member of Richard Holbrooke’s team, said that the US has bad relations with the two countries that matter the most in the region: Iran and Pakistan. He added that both countries were ready to help the US leave, but not support the strategy US was pursuing. Both, Iran and Pakistan were planning for a post-US scenario in Afghanistan. He added that there was a lack of trust in the region with respect to the US strategy.

NEWS

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Saarc international I Thursday 03 November 2011

CW won’t accept unconstitutional acts’ Bangladesh has been made a member of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) for the next biennium along with Australia, Canada, Jamaica, Maldives, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago and Vanuatu.

The 54-member Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting(CHOGM) gave the nomination at its Perth Summit ended yesterday, according tothe Perth declaration release.The CHOGM has taken decision for a series ofreforms to strengthen the role of the CMAG in dealing with serious orpersistent violations of Commonwealth political values.

After the reforms, the CMAG will be able to respond moreeffectively to the situation where there is an unconstitutional overthrow of anelected government or unilateral abrogation of a democratic constitution orserious threats to constitutional rule.

Since establishment of the CMAG in 1995, the Group had beendealing only with the situations where constitutionally elected governments hadbeen overthrown.

But had not always been able to address other situations whereCommonwealth values and principles were being seriously or persistentlyviolated.

After reforms, the CMAG would be able to look into the flawsof

the national electoral process, abrogation of the rule of law, underminingof the independence of the judiciary, systematic violation of human rights andrestrictions on the media or civil society.

Suspension or prevention of the lawful functioning ofparliament, postponement of national elections without constitutional or otherreasonable justification, systematic denial of political space, such as detentionof political leaders or restriction of freedom of association or expressionwould be treated as persistent violation of Commonwealth values.

Commonwealth leaders agreed that the secretary general willspeak out

publicly in expression of collective disapproval of serious orpersistent violations of Commonwealth values.

They urged the interim government of Fiji to restoredemocracy without further delay, to respect human rights, and to uphold therule of law, and reaffirm support of the Commonwealth.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina led Bangladesh in the Summitreflecting Bangladesh’s unwavering support to the cause of the Commonwealth topromote understanding on global issues, regional and international co-operationand its work to improve the lives of its citizens.

The Commonwealth leaders also

agreed to prepare a”Charter of the Commonwealth” by next year, as proposed by theEminent Persons Group (EPG) for urgent actions to establish a ‘Commonwealth forPeople’.

The Charter will be prepared by 2011 through a process ofnational consultations and consideration of

a task force of ministers drawnfrom all geographical groupings.

Commonwealth foreign ministers in a meeting in New York inSeptember will finalize the Charter to be forwarded to next CommonwealthConference in Sri Lanka in 2013.

The Summit adopted Perth Declaration with agreement on foodsecurity principles in the backdrop of development challenges confronting thesmall states in the global economy and fostering mutual collaboration amongstates in order to address the climate change priorities.

It also agreed to a series of actions to maintain theCommonwealth’s relevance, to ensure its effectiveness in responding tocontemporary global challenges and to build resilient societies and economies.

The CHOGM appointed Kamalesh Sharma as CommonwealthSecretary- General for a further four-year term commencing April 2012.

UK doctors to perform free cleft-lip operations in Gujrat Pakistan on Oct 22

Girl threatens self-immolation outside Balochistan Assembly

The girl said that her brother had no affiliation with any political party or organisation and had never been involved in any illegal activities.

A 22-year-old resident of the restive Kohlu district threatened to selfimmolate if her brother – who was whisked away by security agencies on September 20, 2011 – was not safely returned to the family.

Addressing a news conference at the hunger strike camp set up by the Voice for Baloch Missing Persons outside the Quetta Press Club on Monday, she said Sher Ali Marri went to Hyderabad along with nine other people of her family where he was picked up by security personnel

near the Hydarabad “bakra mandi” (cattle market) and has been listed missing ever since.

“The authorities just kidnapped my brother and not the other people with him,” she told reporters.

“He was the sole breadwinner of our family. I will commit suicide in front of the Balochistan Assembly by burning myself if he is not returned safely back to us,” she declared.

She asked the authorities to present her brother before a court if he was accused of any criminal offence. She also called upon the Supreme Court human rights organisations and the United Nations to play their role for the safe recovery of her brother and

other missing Baloch people.

Responding to a query, Qadir Baloch, father of Jalil Reki – leader of the Baloch Republican Party (BRP), who has been missing for two years now – alleged that some people had threatened him to end the hunger strike camp.

“Two people came to the camp and even to my house and asked me to end the strike. They said they will kill my son Reki if I continue my hunger strike.

“This is the sole platform for the relatives of the missing Baloch people,” he said, adding that the hunger strike will continue until all the missing persons were recovered.

A team of senior British doctors will perform free surgeries for cleft-lip and cleft-palate patients, from October 22-28 in Gujrat. The plastic surgeries, treatment, medicines, hospitalization, stay and food will be arranged by Pakistan Cleft Lip and Palate Association (PCLAPA), which is involved in this charitable work since 1996.According to the PCLAPA, the patients will be examined, treated and operated upon at Bashir Hospital, Gujrat between October 22 to 28.The patients will also be examined in Islamabad on October 20 at 9 am, at House 7, Street 13, Sector F-8/3. The best results of cleft lip surgery are ensured if the children are operated upon when they are three months to one year old.

Dr Ijaz Bashir, Secretary General of PCLAPA, said it will be 28th free medical camp for cleft lip and cleft palate patients.

PCLAPA has already arranged 27 similar camps during the past 16 years. So far, 2,405 children have been operated upon with 100 percent success and completely cured. Their entire lives have changed since then. More than 11,250 children

were examined at the camps.

Dr Akhtar Rahman, President of PCLAPA’s Islamabad chapter, said patients are now being registered for surgery. Dr Akhtar is former Director and Administrator of King Fahd Hospital, Taif, Saudi Arabia.

The surgery cures and helps patients with a cut lip or cut palate, or both—a disability that badly disfigures a person and his or her face.

The patients are discharged after three to four days, following the surgery and removal of stitches. PCLAPA operates as a registered charitable institution, and is funded by purely private donations, and contributions from ‘zakat’ and ‘sadaqaat’ mainly from its own members.

Patients, in advance of the surgery, are registered with Dr Ijaz Bashir, at Bashir Hospital, Gujrat, telephone (053)- 3521102 or (053)-3524139 (Website: www.pclapa.com) In Pakistan , one out of every 530 children born suffers from cleft lip, cleft palate, or both.

“Hundreds of thousands of children suffering from this disability are now awaiting surgery.

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Saarc international I Thursday 03 November 2011

WEEKLY REVIEW OF AFGHANISTAN NEWS

Kandahar not ready for security transition: Lawmakers According to Mr. Khalid Pashtoon the insurgency activities of the Taliban group and Haqqani Network is on the rise in the southern regions of Afghanistan specifically in Kandahar province.

Afghan parliament members representing the southern Kandahar province in Afghan House of Representatives on Tuesday expressed concerns over the capability of Afghan security forces to burden the security responsibilities in this province and emphasized that southern Kandahar province is not ready for the security transition.

First deputy of the Afghan house of

representatives Khalid pashtoon while speaking during a press conference expressed

concerns over the growing violence in Kandahar province and said, southern Kandahar province has been the operational base for al Qaeda and Taliban militants.

Mr. Khalid Pashtoon also said, the wave of insurgency and violence is increasing on a daily basis in this province.

He also urged that the Afghan security forces are not capable to take the security lead in this province without the presence of international coalition forces.

He also insisted that the security transition should not be implemented in southern Kandahar province unless Afghan security

Afghan official ties Haqqani network to bombing

The investigation into the suicide bombing that killed 17 people on Saturday suggests it was the work of the Pakistan-based Haqqani network, an Afghan official said Monday.

“We have some contacts and some evidence on the ground and some information about the vehicles used and the people used,” Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said, stressing that the results of the investigation were preliminary.

“This is another sophisticated attack by the operatives of the Haqqani network, and we are also optimistic to arrest some of their operatives in Kabul in the days ahead,” he said.

However, a spokesman for international forces in Afghanistan, which lost nine troops in the attack, said they have no indications yet that the Haqqani network was involved.

“All we have seen so far is that the Taliban have claimed responsibility.

That doesn’t necessarily mean that it was them, but we have no other indications,” said Brig. Gen. Cartsen Jacobsen. “The case has to be looked at.” Another International Security Assistance Force spokesman, Lt. Col. Jimmie Cummings, added that their intelligence at this point gave no indication of the involvement of the Haqqanis.

Pakistani officials have rejected claims that they support the group, but acknowledge that they are in contact with it.

This month, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton acknowledged that U.S. representatives met with Haqqani officials to discuss the possibility of negotiations that would end hostilities.

forces are not equipped with the modern military equipments.

This comes as the parliamentarian commission for defense insisted on Afghan government and the International community to start the second phase of security hand over process from the unsafe regions in the country.

According to reports, southern Kandahar province is among the first unsafe regions which was proposed by the defense commission of Afghan parliament to be transition to Afghan security forces during the second phase of security transition from the international coalition forces.

President Karzai attends trilateral talks in Istanbul Afghan president Hamid Karzai is scheduled to leave for Turkey for attending trilateral talks, which is going to be held in Istanbul.

The trilateral talks is expected to be held among Afghanistan, Pakistan and Turkey presidents on the occasion of a regional conference to discuss the issues of Afghanistan.

According to Afghan officials, the main motive behind Istanbul conference is to attract regional cooperation to support Afghan peace talks with the militant insurgents.

The trilateral talks between the heads of the three nations is going to be organized ahead of the Istanbul conference to pave the way for the discussions on Afghanistan issues, which are going to be assessed and discussed during the conference.

Afghan foreign affairs ministry spokesman Janan Mosazai said, the trilateral talks between the three nations will mainly focus on fight against the terrorism, specifically

on Pakistan Afghanistan bordering regions.

Turkish government, in the past has organized similar trilateral talks attended by Afghan and Pakistani government.

This comes as the tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan has recently escalated in regards to fight against the terrorism in the bordering regions.

The Istanbul conference is expected to be held on 2nd November in Istanbul, and representatives from 14 regional countries will attend the conference to discuss issues relating to Afghanistan.

Violence in Afghanistan dropped over summer Violence in Afghanistan decreased over the summer, the first drop after five years of steadily increasing attacks, according to a new Pentagon report.

The findings provide a boost to advocates of the current strategy, which entails clearing areas of insurgent activity and turning them over to Afghan control. Military officials have been anxiously waiting for the troopintensive counterinsurgency strategy to begin to show results and drive down the number of attacks initiated by militants.

The new Pentagon report is at odds with a U.N. report last month that found violent episodes had increased 39% through the first eight months of this year. The U.N. blamed the increased violence in part on a rise in the use of homemade explosives by insurgents.

Friday’s U.S. report saw increases in the first part of the year, but said

violence began decreasing in May. The American study found the sharpest drop in violence in September, a month not covered by the UN. Levels of violence dropped in July to September by 26% as compared with the year-earlier period, according to the U.S. report.

With key havens in Afghanistan

eliminated, refuges in Pakistan now are considered the most important external factor sustaining insurgents, posing a “significant risk” to the mission, according to the report.

Crossborder attacks have climbed in recent months, the report said.

The findings raised questions about the Afghan government, saying it made

only limited progress over the summer to improve its services or extend its reach throughout the country.

With the White House-ordered drawdown under way in Afghanistan, some defense analysts and military officers have privately questioned whether security gains in southern Afghanistan will hold and whether they can be extended to the eastern part of the country.

“The military push in the south has gone pretty well,” said Jeffrey Dressler, a senior analyst at the Institute for the Study of War. “It is a different story in the east.”

There are currently about 98,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, off the high of 100,000. About 8,000 are due to leave by the end of this year and 23,000 more are scheduled to leave by the end of September 2012.

Despite the apparent gains,

commanders remain worried that troop withdrawals are tied more closely to the calendar than to the security situation, said Stephanie Sanok, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies who recently returned from a trip to Afghanistan.

“It chafes folks in the Pentagon and Afghanistan,” Ms. Sanok said. “They are not seeing withdrawals tied to conditions on the ground, it really is a calendar game.”

But David Barno, a former top U.S. commander in Afghanistan who is now a senior adviser at the Center for a New American Security, said the drawdown may force the Americans to make Afghan security forces do more. Currently, the U.S. remains in the combat lead in most parts of the country, and hasn’t given enough responsibly to the Afghans, he said.

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Saarc international I Thursday 03 November 2011

WEEKLY REVIEW OF BANGLADESH NEWS

Courts wilt under 2 million cases

The lower judiciary enters the fifth year of its independence today with a staggering two million cases pending with the courts, causing enormous sufferings to justice seekers.

Cases continue to pile up although the rate of disposal of cases has increased after the judiciary became independent of the executive with the implementation of the 12-point directive of the Supreme Court giving effect to the amendments to the Code of Criminal

Landslide victory for Ivy in NCC polls

Selina Hayat Ivy has won alandslide victory in the Narayanganj City Corporation (NCC) beating her rivalShamim Osman by a big margin.

Ivy thus emerged as theundisputed heir of her father Ali Ahmed Chunka Mia who was chairman ofNarayanganj Pourshava for a long time.

The results showed the votersopted for the candidate of their choice

no matter which candidates were backedby the big parties.

Ivy, however, benefited immenselyfrom the last minute withdrawn of BNP-backed mayoral candidate cTaimur AlamKhandakar.

Ivy contested the election withthe symbol ‘ink-pot’ and Shamim with ‘wall-clock’.

The voting begun at 8am andcontinued till 4 pm without break.

Participation of the voters wasgood though turnout was poor at the beginning due to fear of militant attackand election boycott by the BNP-backed mayoral candidate Taimur Alam Khandkar,according to locals.

They said a large number ofsupporters of Taimur had voted in favour of Ivy resulting in a certain victoryfor her.

Procedure on November 1, 2007.

No separate secretariat has yet been established for the judiciary and transfer and posting of judges are being carrying out by the executives, law ministry, though in consultation with the Supreme Court.

A separate salary-structure for the judges is yet to be framed and a Supreme Court verdict for hiking the salary of the Supreme Court judges has not yet been implemented.

Govt will have to answer: CEC Thanking everyone for a ‘fair andpeaceful’ Narayanganj city polls, chief election commissioner A T M ShamsulHuda has said they will hold the government accountable for not deploying army in the elections.

“We are yet to know why noarmy was deployed in Narayanganj. But we’ll sit wit the government over theissue after the election,” he told reporters at the Election Commissionsecretariat on Sunday evening.

Starting at 8pm, the NarayanganjCity Corporation elections ended at 4pm with no report of violence amidBNPbacked candidate Taimur Alam Khandaker’s last-minute boycott.

In the face of demands by manyquarters, the Election Commission on Oct 16 decided to deploy four companies ofarmy in Narayanganj two days before the city went to the election.

Candidates and the EC expressedtheir disappointment over the nondeployment of army on Friday.

BNP demands army deployment, EC resignation

Asking the authorities to deploy army by Saturday, the main opposition BNP has demanded resignation of the Election Commission for its failure to deploy army to make the Narayanganj City Corporation (NCC) elections free and fair.

Threatening to forge a movement against the government if anomalies are taken place in the

October 30 polls, the party leaders said the EC backtracked from its decision to deploy army due to pressures from the government.

“The CEC had categorically said army would be deployed. Two mayoral candidates – Taimur Alam Khandaker and Selina Hayat Ivy – demanded army deployment. Even Shamim Osman was not against it. But finally EC could not do that

which proves that conspiracies are going on centering elections,” BNP Vice-chairman Abdullah Al Noman said at a press briefing at its central office.

He said people of Narayanganj took to the streets to protest government’s decision not to deploy army as it knows election will not be free and fair if army is not deployed. “We will be with the people and go for agitation if government tries to manipulate election result.”

Noman said the EC should have postponed the election if it fails to deploy army and should remain strict on its decision.

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) ATM Shamsul Huda Friday afternoon said he does not see any possibility of army deployment.

The EC officials had earlier said that four companies of army would be deployed in Narayanganj at 6:00am on Friday.

No set of rules has yet been framed for appointment of the Supreme Court judges, causing frequent controversies over their appointments.

According to officials of the law ministry and the Supreme Court, the backlog continues increasing with the rise in the number of new cases and the judiciary finds it difficult to cope with the situation with limited manpower and infrastructural facilities and logistics.

Investigators to seek Azam arrest warrant

Investigators for war crimes will move a petition through the prosecution before the International Crimes Tribunal today seeking warrant for the arrest of former Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami amir Ghulam Azam.

Coordinator of the 19-member investigation agency, Abdul Hannan Khan said on Monday the investigation reports against Ghulam Azam and the detained four top Jamaat leaders had been finalised and enough evidence, including witnesses and documentary evidence,

had been found to charge them with genocide and crimes against humanity committed during the war of independence in 1971.

Hannan briefed reporters about finalisation of investigation reports on four detained Jammat leaders – its amir Matiur Rahman Nizami, secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed and assistant secretaries general Mohammad Kamaruzzaman and Abdul Quader Molla – at its Bailey Road office on the day.

Govt committed to ensure freedom of faith: Hasina

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has reaffirmed her government’s commitment to ensure equal rights to all faiths in performing their respective religious rituals and enjoying their all democratic rights.

“In 1971, the people of all faiths had fought the liberation war together under the leadership of father of the nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. So, we’re firmly determined to establish the rights of people,” she said.

Hasina was addressing a function arranged on the occasion of her visit to the Puja Mondop of Ramkrishna Mission in Dhaka yesterday.

Ruling Awami League advisory council member Suranjit Sen Gupta, MP, among others, spoke on the occasion.

Hasina said her government wanted people’s empowerment through ensuring their rights.

“The constitution has been amended to establish all the democratic rights of people. We want to turn

Bangladesh into a modern country through people’s empowerment and development,” she said.

The prime minister said Bangladesh used to be known to the world as a country of militancy and corruption during the last Bangladesh Nationalist Party-Jamaat-e-Islami regime. “After assuming office in 2009, we have been able to remove the stigma. Now Bangladesh is considered as one of the prosperous nations in the world,” she said.

Hasina said there is no scope to go back when the country has been put back on track of development. “Let’s work together to build Bangladesh as the golden Bangla as dreamt by the father of the nation.”

After visiting the Dhakaswari Temple’s Puja Mondop, the prime minister at a brief function said: “Despite the recent global economic downtrend, our government has been able to maintain a 6.7% growth, which shows Bangladesh’s capacity to emerge as a strong economy.”

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WEEKLY REVIEW OF BHUTAN NEWS

India, Bhutan to achieve 10,000 MW target E

xpressing satisfaction over the cooperation in the hydropower sector, India and Bhutan have reiterated their commitment to achieve the target of 10,000 MW of power generation in Bhutan by 2020.

The King of Bhutan, His Majesty Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck and Her Majesty the Queen, Gyaltsuen Jetsun Pema Wangchuck, paid a statevisit to India from October 23 to 31 at the invitation of President Pratibha Devisingh Patil.

Their Majesties were accompanied by the Minister for Economic Affairs and Minster-

In-Charge of Foreign Affairs, His Excellency Lyonpo Khandu Wangchuk, the Minister for Home and Cultural Affairs,

His Excellency Lyonpo Minjur Dorji, Chief Operations Officer, Royal Bhutan Army, Maj. Gen. Batoo Tshering and other

senior officials of the Royal Government of Bhutan.

A special importance was attached to this first visit abroad

by His Majesty the King and Her Majesty the Queen after the Royal Wedding on October 13.

The visit reinforced the tradition of regular high-level exchanges between the two countries.

While in India, Their Majesties met President Patil, who felicitated them on their marriage and wished them happiness and a long life together.

President Patil also hosted a banquet in honour of His Majesty the King and Her

Majesty the Queen.

Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram, Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj, Minister of State for External Affairs Preneet Kaur, National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon and Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai called on His Majesty the King.

Their Majesties also met UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi.

The King of Bhutan held talks with Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, who also hosted a lunch in honour of Their Majesties.

In Bhutan, pursuit of happiness Poverty, inequality as is a tough mountain to climb yardstick for growth

Thimphu, Bhutan — Some fidget, a few eyes wander here and there, but for a minute or two, hundreds of primary schoolchildren are quiet, learning to meditate together at morning assembly — palms upturned and thumbs together in the style of Buddha.

This is Gross National Happiness — or GNH — at work in the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, a country determined to hold on to its ancient values even as it modernizes, to preserve its environment even as its economy grows and to prove to the world that there is more to life than money.

The term was coined by the fourth king of Bhutan, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, in 1972 in an apparently off-the-cuff remark to a journalist.

“I am not so much interested in gross national product,” he reportedly said. “I am more interested in gross national happiness.”

Those words grew into an ideology that has been examined and embraced by development economists and political leaders the world over.

Not since Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence of people’s inalienable right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” has the idea been so widely disseminated that a government should promote — or at least not obstruct — its citizens’ happiness.

France and Britain are incorporating measures of happiness and well-being into their national accounts, and the U.N. General Assembly adopted happiness as an unofficial Millennium Development Goal in July.

The U.N. resolution was a victory

for Bhutan as it looks to win global approval for its national philosophy, but the utopian-sounding idea has proved difficult to put into practice at home.

“The joy of GNH is that it offers Bhutan a distinct and alternative path to development,” said opposition leader Tshering Tobgay. “The pitfall of GNH is that we are more satisfied with talking about it, preaching about it, rather than sincerely implementing some of its important principles.”

The government has tried to factor happiness into policy in a systematic way, creating a Gross National Happiness Commission and conducting two comprehensive studies of the happiness of its citizens based on what it sees as the four pillars of happiness: sustainable development, good governance, preservation of the environment and promotion of traditional culture.

In a survey that took half a day to

complete, people were asked some conventional development questions — about their access to health services, clean drinking water and electricity — and some slightly more unusual ones, such as how well they slept, whether they were prone to feelings of jealousy, how much time they spent in prayer and how well they knew local folk stories.

The initial results were striking — the rural western Haa district recorded the highest GNH score, while people in the capital, Thimphu, scored significantly lower, the numbers pulled down because people reported that they often neither knew nor trusted their neighbors and had less time for their families or for themselves.

The next step was to screen government policies, to see whether they enhanced overall happiness, and to design ones that would benefit the economy and promote a better quality of life.

Development Economics The Bhutanese economy grew by 11.7 percent in 2010, one of the highest growth rates in South Asia, but whether it has meant anything to the country’s large population of rural poor remains to be seen.

An international study on development economics attempts to measure growth, using poverty, inequality and unemployment.

The study says, if all three indicators have declined to a significant level, it can be called development. On the other hand, if it remains the same or has worsened; it cannot be called development even if the country’s per capita income doubles.

The country’s poverty rate declined by eight percent between 2003 and 2007, which is only a two percent decline a year. High rates of inflation have been a major deterrent in alleviating poverty, as more and more people are either prevented or pushed below poverty line. Inflation as of now is almost 10 percent.

Although 33 percent of the rural poor, who depend on agriculture for their livelihood, were below the poverty line in 2007, the agriculture sector has not shown any growth in the past three years lacking government investments, rural credit, farm mechanisation and subsidies.

In an agrarian economy, development is also measured by the growth in the agriculture sector.

An economist said, while developed economies have less share of agriculture to GDP, it does not mean that the sector is not growing.

It becomes less significant, because of growth in the secondary and tertiary sector.

Inequalities between the rural and urban population were also relatively high, according to the 2007 Bhutan living standard survey. In 2007, urban poverty was at 1.7 percent, while rural poverty was 30.9 percent; and the richest 20 percent of the population consumed eight times more than the poorest 20 percent. A high level of inequality makes it difficult for the poor to have a substantial share of benefits of economic growth.

Inequality is also manifested in the high level of regional imbalanced economic growth, with most development, taking place only in a few urban areas.

Select indicators of inequality in Bhutan, like improved access to sanitation, child mortality, school enrolment show that inequality is still a reality. NSB’s multiple indicator survey 2010 publication states that 94.5 percent of richest have access to improved sanitation facilities, while only 31 percent of the poor have the same.

Similarly, child mortality is at a high of 68 percent among the poor, while it is only 28 percent among the richest. Child mortality, according to the report, has a direct bearing on educational attainment and wealth.

The unemployment rate in the past three years has been 4 percent in 2009, 3.3 percent in 2010 and 3.1 percent in 2011. In absolute figures, there were 11,000 unemployed in 2009 and 10,500 in 2012.

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Saarc international I Thursday 03 November 2011

People support democracy and President: Altaf M

uttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain said people are with democracy, MQM and President and this huge crowd testifies this.

MQM chief while addressing the rally organized in defence of President Zardari said they would have replied in the same manner but land of Sindh does not allow us. PML-N leader Shahbaz Sharif came down hard on President Zardari at a rally in Lahore on Friday.

He said that today this ocean of people demands “No Nawaz No”. He said PML-N leaders were living princely life in Riawand Palace and how they could talk about the problems of poor people. He said his party wanted to hold a ‘peace rally’ jointly with Awami National Party (ANP).

A delegation Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) also attended the meeting held at Tibet Centre. Agha Siraj Durrani thanked MQM for organizing a huge rally on such short notice. ‘No one can now separate PPP and MQM.’

Imran warns of civil disobedience if assets not declared Starting his speech following the National Anthem, Imran Khan gave his party’s programme in detail which, he said, aimed at making Pakistan a peaceful and independent country where investment would be attracted from across the world.

Tehreek-e-Insaf Chief Imran Khan addressing tens of thousands of supporters at Minar-e-Pakistan on Sunday warned that his party would spearhead a civil disobedience campaign and seize all the cities if the government failed to have politicians declare their assets.

In his address to the cheering crowd that turned up in tens of thousands at ‘Pakistan Bachao’ call of TI here at Minar-e-Pakistan, Imran Khan also warned that he would go to the Supreme Court as well as the Election Commission of Pakistan if the politicians in the government and opposition failed to declare their assets as required under the Pakistan law.

He said Tehreek-e-Insaf would set up a cell to investigate and identify politicians who declare assets and those who do not.

“We will make Pakistan a place where people come from other countries to seek jobs.”

Talking of change, he said: “ Today we are beginning a new Pakistan from Minar-e-Pakistan, the place from where founder of the Nation Quad-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah began his movement”.

Spelling out his party’s manifesto in connection with Pakistan’s relations with the US, the Tehreek-e-Insaf Chief said ‘we will make friends with you (US) but not be your slave; we will

help you (US) withdraw from Afghanistan but won’t launch any military operation (for you).’

He questioned that if US, being the super power, could not win the war through military means how could Pakistan?

people committed suicide.

He also claimed that ‘Asif Zardari’ wrote a letter to the US requesting it to please save him from the army because he was not able to serve them well with army interefernce.

per year mainly due to rampant corruption.

He said his party also aimed to bring about police reforms in the country to improve the working of this institution. “We will depoliticize police and then get

rich in natural resources.. “We will make Balochis our brothers,” he added.

Criticising Pakistan Muslim League-N Nawaz Sharif, he said: “How can you fight with Zardari when you can’t even fight with

“We will strengthen ties with China,” he said, adding, he was leaving for China on its government’s invitation tonight.

He said Pakistan was not a poor country; ‘it is very rich in natural resources’. Pakistan has 180 billion tonnes of coal reserves which means we can export electricity to the world, he added.

Imran Khan said Pakistan never needed to beg before others.

“Pakistan will never beg again; Imran Khan will die but won’t beg,” he vowed amid vociferous cheers of the charged crowd.

Coming down hard on President Asif Ali Zardari, Imran Khan questioned how could Asif Zardari provide bread, cloth and shelter when under his rule 1600

He regretted that Mian (Nawaz Sharif) sahib should have done better than coming up with a show of ‘Patwaris’ the other day in Lahore.

Imran Khan said Pakistan was suffering a loss of Rs3000 billions

the SHO elected like the way it is done in America,” he added.

He said condition of the villages will be improved and pledged to bring an end to military operation and target killings in Balochistan, which, he termed as a province

mosquitoes?”

Pointing to the crowd, he said, Asif Zardar and Nawaz Sharif cannot stop this flood now. “This is not just a flood it is a Tsunami and anyone who tries to stand before it will be washed away.

Pak-India secretary level talks in November The Commerce Secretary-level talks are being held within two months of India-Pakistan trade ministers meeting, which reviewed the bilateral commercial engagement. “We will review the progress of the agenda set in Islamabad in April,” an officiual said.

India will again press for normalisation of trade with Pakistan when Commerce Secretaries of the two neighbouring countries meet here in the second week of November.

The Commerce Secretary-level talks are being held within two months of India-Pakistan trade ministers

meeting, which reviewed the bilateral commercial engagement. Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma had hosted his Pakistani counterpart Makhdoom Amin Fahim in September.

“Essentially, we will review the progress of the agenda set in Islamabad in April,” a senior Commerce Ministry official said.

The two countries had resumed economic talks after a long gap in April and had drawn a roadmap for increasing the bilateral trade which has remained at a low level of $ 2.65 billion in 2010-11.

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Saarc international I Thursday 03 November 2011

WEEKLY REVIEW OF INDIA NEWS

I-T crackdown on undisclosed Swiss account holders U

nder pressure to act against black money and money laundering, the tax department has conducted at least 50 searches over the last two months. The move follows receipts of details regarding 700 bank accounts from the French government.

In a first of its kind crackdown against those stashing unaccounted wealth overseas, the income tax department has launched an offensive against politicians and industrials who had parked money in HSBC Bank, Geneva.

The list of those under the lens includes a top Mumbai-based industrialist who during questioning admitted to having family accounts in HSBC, Geneva with deposits totaling more than Rs 800 crore.

Summons have also been issued to three Members of Parliament (MPs)

from Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Kerala to appear for questioning at the Delhi office of I-T department’s recently-set up Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI). The MPs would be asked to explain the source of funds in the Geneva accounts.

In addition, recovery of over Rs 300 crore has already been made from several evaders, although some of those whose names figured on the list have refused to admit to having Swiss bank accounts. But unwilling to give up in the face of mounting scrutiny from the courts, the tax department is also making enquiries overseas to get details of nearly 300 cases of undisclosed wealth.

A senior finance ministry official told TOI that looking at the gravity of the cases and their overall impact, the government has handed over the

entire investigation to the Delhi office of DCI. This will also help prosecute those accused of parking black money in tax havens.

Unlike Liechtenstein, where the tax department levied penalties amounting to around around Rs 25 crore against some 18 persons whose names were shared by German authorities, this

time the government intends to invoke stringent provisions of the I-T Act to set a precedent. This could mean that those found guilty of evasion could not just face monetary penalty but also end up spending between five and ten years behind bars.

As part of the assault on tax evasion and money laundering, the

government has asked the Central Board of Direct Taxes ( CBDT) to disallow any compounding of penalty and instead go for prosecuting the accused, something the I-T department had fought shy of in the past.

So far, the accused were only tried under Prevention of Corruption Act, and even that was limited to public servants. The I-T Act was merely treated as civil law and tax evaders were let off after they coughed up penalty.

Besides these account details, the Income Tax is in possession of nearly 10,000 pieces of information on high-value suspicious transactions undertaken by Indians overseas.

Investigations have started in all these cases and references have also been made to enforcement agencies abroad to seek more details.

BSY’s aides boycott Anna Hazare threatens Prime Minister with hunger strike again Advani’s yatra

As many as 11 state ministers, owing their allegiance to scam-tainted former chief minister B. S. Yeddyurappa, on Sunday boycotted Advani’s anticorruption march in Bangalore.

It was not just the Congress which showed black flags to senior BJP leader L. K. Advani’s Jan Chetna yatra in Karnataka.

As many as 11 state ministers, owing their allegiance to scam-tainted former chief minister B. S. Yeddyurappa, on Sunday boycotted Advani’s anticorruption march in Bangalore.

Leading the anti-yatra bandwagon were Yeddyurappa’s close confidante and energy minister Shobha Karandlaje and the former CM’s troubleshooter and housing Minister V. Somanna. Agriculture minister Umesh Katti, water resource minister Basavaraja Bommai, cooperation minister Lakshman Savadi, industries minister Murugesh Nirani, excise minister M. P. Renukacharya, women and child welfare minister C. C. Patil, public works minister C. M. Udasi, animal husbandry minister Revu Naik Belamaggi and public administration minister Balachandra Jharkiholi also decided to stay away from Advani’s rally. They were expressing solidarity

with Yeddyurappa, who is lodged in jail for corrupt land leads.

“We are not happy with the way the BJP central leadership is treating Yeddyurappa. He was instrumental in getting the BJP to power in Karnataka.

He might be tainted now... But it does not mean that the party leaders can disown him,” a minister from the Yeddyurappa camp, said.

Anti-corruuption crusader Anna Hazare on Monday wrote a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh warning that if the Jan Lokpal Bill is not passed in the winter Session of the parliament he will again start his hunger strike.

Hazare has told the PM that he will start the fast on the last day of Parliament session in case the bill is not passed.

Earlier on Monday, Hazare informed through his blog about his plans to end his vow of silence in three to four days and undertake a tour of the country to meet those who supported his anti-corruption campaign.

Hazare, 74, said the thought of giving up his ‘maun vrat’ was playing on his mind.

“In the next three to four days I might end my ‘maun vrat’. Crores of people have turned to reading my blog all over the world hence I think it would only seem appropriate that I end my ‘maun’ and hold open discussions with

them,” he said.

The crusader said that he would “embark on a tour and meet all those young men and women, farmers, working class, school children from all over the world who were a part of this movement against corruption and at times even went to jail for the sake of the cause”.

“I have this strong urge from within to meet and talk to all these people who bravely faced the hazards.

Hence I would like to end my ‘maun’ and start off touring different states and hold discussions with them,” said Hazare, who has been campaigning for a strong Lokpal to check corruption in high places.

In 16 years, farm suicides cross a quarter million 2,56,913, the worst-ever recorded wave of suicides of this kind in human history It’s official. The country has seen over a quarter of a million farmers’ suicides between 1995 and 2010. The National Crime Records Bureau’s latest report on ‘Accidental Deaths & Suicides in India’ places the number for 2010 at 15,964.

That brings the cumulative 16-year total from 1995 — when the NCRB started recording farm suicide data — to 2,56,913, the worst-ever recorded wave of suicides of this kind in human history.

Maharashtra posts a dismal picture with

over 50,000 farmers killing themselves in the country’s richest State in that period. It also remains the worst State for such deaths for a decade now. Close to two-thirds of all farm suicides have occurred in five States: Maharashtra, Karnataka, A.P., Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

The data show clearly that the last eight years were much worse than the preceding eight. As many as 1,35,756 farmers killed themselves in the 200310 period. For 1995-2002, the total was 1,21,157. On average, this means the number of farmers killing themselves each year between 2003 and 2010 is 1,825 higher than the numbers that took

their lives in the earlier period. Which is alarming since the total number of farmers is declining significantly.

Compared to the 1991 Census, the 2001 Census saw a drop of over seven million in the population of cultivators (main workers). The corresponding census data for 2011 are yet to come in, but their population has surely dipped further. In other words, farm suicides are rising through the period of India’s agrarian crisis, even as the number of farmers is shrinking.

While the 2010 numbers show a dip of 1,404 from the 2009 figure of 17,368, there is little to cheer about. “There was a similar dip in 2008, only to be

followed by the worst numbers in six years in 2009,” points out Professor K. Nagaraj, an economist at the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai, who did the largest ever study of the farm suicides covering a decade (The Hindu, November 12-15, 2007). “This one-year decline does not in any way indicate we have turned the corner.

This dip happened mostly because of one-off falls in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. In fact, a look at the ‘Big 5’ who drive the numbers shows the fallout of the agrarian crisis to be as grim as ever. They have actually increased their share of the farm suicides.”

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South Asia Tribune I Thursday 03 November 2011

South Asia Tribune I Thursday 03 November 2011

Depleted Uranium: A War Crime Within a War Crime Destroyed Iraq and Now Libya, Afghanistan & Pakistan.

Depleted uranium, which is used in armour-piercing ammunition, causes widespread damage to DNA which could lead to lung cancer, according to a study of the metal’s effects on human lung cells.

Particles less than 5 microns in diameter are easily inhaled and may remain in the lungs or other organs for years. Internalized DU can cause kidney damage, cancers of the lung and bone, skin disorders, neurocognitive disorders, chromosome damage, immune deficiency syndromes and rare kidney and bowel diseases. Pregnant women exposed to DU may give birth to infants with genetic defects. Once the

drone strikes on Pakistan’s tribal regions bordering Afghanistan.

Experts revealed that those Pakistani civilians who have come under the unauthorized drone airstrike in Pakistan’s troubled northwest have been afflicted with complicated skin, eye and respiratory diseases due to the deadly chemical materials used in the missiles, An expert from Waziristan says his daughter died of blood cancer soon after she had developed a skin disease, which was no more than the toxic effect of chemical substances used in the non-UN-sanctioned drone strikes.

effects of the uranium will continue to wreak havoc on Iraq and its surrounding areas.”

The US has used depleted uranium in Yugoslavia, Iraq and Afghanistan. Wherever depleted uranium is used in warfare, it generates radioactivity. Burnt uranium will keep radiating for billions of years. Radiations emitted from uranium do not travel far from the source. But if, perchance, these radioactive particles happen to enter your body either through inhalation or through contaminated water intake, then till your dying day and afterwards, they will keep on disrupting basic structures in your body such as DNA, etc. Their

dust has vaporized, don’t expect the problem to go away soon. As an alpha particle emitter, DU has a half life of 4.5 billion years.

In the “shock and awe” attack on Iraq, more than 1,500 bombs and missiles were dropped on Baghdad.

Seymour Hersh has claimed that the US Third Marine Aircraft Wing alone dropped more than “five hundred thousand tons of ordnance.” Much of it DU-tipped.

Pakistani physicians and experts say the US uses chemical munitions in its non-UN-sanctioned

Nuha al-Radi, an artist and author of Baghdad Diaries, shortly before her death due to leukaemia wrote in 2004: “Everyone seems to be dying of cancer. Every day one hears about another acquaintance or friend of a friend dying. How many more die in hospitals that one does not know? Apparently, over 30 percent of Iraqis have cancer, and there are lots of kids with leukaemia. The depleted uranium left by the US bombing campaign has turned Iraq into a cancerinfested country. For hundreds of years to come, the

effect is to produce deadly disorders such as cancer, which eventually leads the exposed individual to his grave. The US authorities have spread this radioactive debris in various parts of the world and concealed this fact from its people.

The United States loudly and proudly boasted this month of its new bomb currently being used against al-Qaida hold-outs in Afghanistan; it sucks the air from underground installations, suffocating those within. The US Continued on page 18 >>

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Saarc international I Thursday 03 November 2011

Turkey to join investigation on Rabbani assassination T

urkey will take part in a three-nation commission that will try to shed light on the Sept. 20 assassination of Burhanuddin Rabbani, the former chief of Afghanistan’s High Peace Council, the Hürriyet Daily News has learned.

The breakthrough came at the ongoing Istanbul Forum today.

The commission, whose

Court issues Musharraf’s arrest warrants in Bugti murder case The court had already issued the arrest warrants for Nosherwani.

Judicial magistrate Faisal Hameed on Friday issued arrest warrants for former president Pervez Musharraf and former prime minister Shaukat Aziz in Nawab Akbar Bugti murder case.

Nawab Akbar Bugti was killed in a military operation on August, 26, 2006 in Kohlu district. Earlier, the Balochistan High Court (BHC) had directed the police to register an FIR against the nominated persons. A case was registered in Dera Bugti in October, 2009 on the application of his son Jameel Akbar Bugti against Musharraf, Shaukat Aziz, former Balochistan governor Owais Ghani, former chief minister Jam Muhammad Yousaf, the then interior minister Aftab Ahmad Sherpao and home minister Mir Shoaib Nosherwani.

However, written statements by three accused Sherpao, Jam and Owais Ghani, were submitted before the BHC, stating that they were part of a civilian setup and the operation was launched by army, as such they had nothing to do with the killing of Nawab Akbar Bugti. The court issued the arrest warrants for Musharraf and Aziz on the request of Crime and Investigative Department (CID), which is investigating the case on the directives of the BHC. The BHC has expressed its displeasure over the slow pace of progress in the murder case of the Baloch leader. The next hearing is fixed at November 1 and the investigating agency will show the pace of progress in the case. mohammad zafar

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establishment date remained unclear, will be established separate from investigations into the assassination that will be carried

by Afghanistan and Pakistan.

However, the tripartite body will serve for Islamabad and Kabul to share findings with each other.

Turkey, Pakistan and Afghanistan will also establish a mechanism through which the foreign ministers

of the three countries will “come together more often, irrespective of summits such as the Istanbul Forum,” a diplomatic source told the Daily News at the summit today.

Rabbani, head of a council charged with talking to the Taliban insurgents, was killed by a bomb hidden in a turban. The assassination dealt a heavy blow to peace efforts in the war-torn country.

Depleted Uranium: A War Crime Within a War Crime Continued from page 16-17 >> has also admitted that it has used depleted uranium weaponry over the last decade against bunkers in Iraq, Kosovo, and now Afghanistan. The DU explosive charges in the guided bomb systems used in Afghanistan can weigh as much as one and a half metric tons (as in Raytheon’s Bunker Buster) .

According to various estimates, about 500 to 600 tons of radioactive debris lies scattered in various parts of Afghanistan whereas the radioactive debris in Iraq exceeds 2,000 tons.

Not only does this radioactive debris kill people, it leads to defective births. According to one report, defective babies are being born in Iraq and Afghanistan in the affected areas some are without eyes, some have missing limbs, some have faces distorted by flesh that hangs, some have highly deformed reproductive organs and so on. A study of the city of Fallujah, Iraq, covering the period 2005 to 2009, indicates that cancer rates in Fallujah are higher than in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The study has been published in the International Journal of Environmental Studies and Public Health under the title Cancer, Infant Mortality and Birth-Sex Ratio in Fallujah, Iraq 2005-2009. The city of Fallujah is experiencing a higher rate of cancer, leukaemia, sexual mutations and infant mortality compared to the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Fallujah was punished collectively on a scale beyond imagination for its heroic resistance.

A U.S. government study found that 67% of post-Gulf War babies have serious birth defects or serious illnesses. War crimes and crimes against humanity have been and continue to be committed in the Libya by NATO. Amongst these crimes, the Atlantic Alliance has been using depleted uranium against Libya, specifically civilians and civilian infrastructure.

Bombed sites in Libya have been visited by professional scientists working in the Surveying and Collecting Specimens and Laboratory Measuring Group. The scientists and trained experts have conducted field surveys looking for radioactive isotopes (radioisotopes) at bombed sites. The samples from these sites were then scientifically analyzed at the laboratories of the Nuclear Energy Institution of the Libya .

The US and NATO are using “dirty bombs” in Libya.

A report co-authored by professor Christopher Busby, a biomedical studies professor at the University of Ulster, found that there as an abnormal incidence of “cancer, birth defects, sex ratio change after 2004.”

All of these indicated, professor Busby said, a “big genetic damage to the population starting after the battles there.”

Speaking to the refreshingly independent RT television station, professor Busby said after those results became known, they decided to “examine the environment and look inside the people. We obtained 25 parents of children with congenital anomalies and measured the concentration of 52 elements in the hair of the mothers and fathers. “We also looked at the surface soil, river water and drinking water. We used a very powerful scientific technique called ICPMS.” The researchers found “high levels of a number of common

elements – calcium, aluminum, strontium, bismuth mercury – but the only substance we found that could explain the high levels of genetic damage was the radioactive element uranium.” He said that the most likely origin of this nuclear material was some tupe of “new secret uranium weapon. We have found some US patents for thermobaric and directed charge warheads which employ uranium powder to increase their effect.

“It seems clear these uranium weapons have moved on from the simple anti-tank penetrators used in the first Gulf War, which were basically lumps of metal.

“Since 2003, it seems the military has been using something else entirely. Something quite scary.”

Professor Busby then revealed that similar uranium levels had been discovered where Israeli military had been involved in bombings.

“We investigated bomb craters in Lebanon in 2006 after the Israeli attacks and found one which was radioactive and which contained enriched uranium. We found enriched uranium in car air filters from Lebanon and also from Gaza,” he said.

“This material from the Gulf Wars is slowly contaminating the whole planet. It is poisoning the human gene pool, leading to increases in cancer, congenital anomalies, miscarriages and infertility. We must stop the military from using it. It has probably been employed in Libya, so we must wait and see what levels of cancer and congenital disease appears there,” professor Busby added.

Fatima Ahmed was born in Fallujah with deformities that include two heads But the problem is that the US has neither the desire, nor the capability to clean such debris. Where radioactive debris is dispatching people of other countries to death, nature has exacted its revenge and 11,000 American soldiers have died due to such exposure. In addition, according to one estimate, 325,000 US military personnel had been rendered permanently disabled until 2000. In 2006, an estimated 519,000 former US soldiers were in need of constant medical attention and had been rendered useless for the military service and 500,000 were homeless. All these unfortunate men and women were victims of the two Gulf wars. Ordinary Americans are, as usual, unaware of this shattering reality.

The corporate cabal, however, does not give a damn - for it, the US people exist only to be used for the wars of corporate profit and conquest of global resources. It uses them and disposes them off.

Evidence presented before an international tribunal on the US war crimes, convened in Tokyo in 2004, is heartrending.

Sayed Gharib at Tora Bora testified: “What else do the Americans want? They killed us, they turned our newborns into horrific deformations, and they turned our farmlands into graveyards and destroyed our homes. On top of all this, their planes fly over and spray us with bullets - we have nothing to lose, we will fight them the same way we fought the previous invaders.” The Tokyo Tribunal has declared the US leadership guilty of war crimes.

Saarc international I Thursday 03 November 2011

SPECIAL FEATURE

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Queen urged (CHOGM) to achieve “enduring” results

A

sense of vision and practical action.

“The results of this meeting may be global in impact or simply touch a single individual even imperceptibly.

But in every respect I trust the results will be positive and enduring,” she said.

The queen is head of state in 16 Commonwealth nations.

Composed mainly of former British colonies and embracing two billion citizens, the Commonwealth’s relevance in the 21st century will be a key focus for the summit.

mid heavy security, the monarch officially opened the three-day summit yesterday, saying that she expected a “meeting that promises to bring new vibrancy to the Commonwealth”.

“I wish heads of government well in agreeing to further reforms that respond boldly to the aspirations of today and that keep the Commonwealth fresh and fit for tomorrow,” she said.

Now 85, the queen said she had attended many such meetings that had looked to the future with a

Baby 7 Billion: A Milestone for Girls’ Survival Rights

U.S. and Iran discuss Syrian crisis in back-channel diplomacy: report Iran is in talks with the United States over Syria after the fall of Assad

In an event held outside Lucknow, the capital of India’s most populous state of Uttar Pradesh, the newborn girl was given a birth certificate by the local administration.

Baby7Billion girl was born at 7.20 am India time to Vinita (23) and Ajay (25) at a community health centre in Mall near Lucknow in India’s state of Uttar Pradesh. She has been named “Nargis” - a beautiful flower. Nargis was born a healthy baby and weighed nearly 3 kgs (6lbs 60z).

Bhagyashri Dengle, Executive Director, Plan India said: “By celebrating the birth of a girl as Baby 7 Billion we are drawing attention to the serious issue of India’s declining child sex ratio.”

Hundreds of thousands of female foetuses are being terminated in India every year even though sex-selective abortions and use of ultrasound technology for foetal gender-

determination is illegal in the country.

According to India’s 2011 Census, the ratio of girls to boys has dropped to an all time low since records began. Today, there are just 914 girls for every 1,000 boys between 0 and 6 years.

Plan India has launched the Let Girls Be Born campaign in six Indian states to galvanise action to address the issue of female foeticide. In Uttar Pradesh, Plan’s partner Vatsalya is working with communities and making them understand the social consequences of widening gender gap.Plan chose Uttar Pradesh to mark the birth of Baby 7 Billion as the state accounts not only for the highest number of births but also the highest number of ‘missing girls’. With a population bigger than that of Brazil, it has just 899 girls for every 1,000 boys.

The situation is similar in other states such as Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and the country’s capital, Delhi.

Iranian and U.S. government representatives have discussed ways to prevent Syria from descending into bloody chaos should the regime of embattled President Bashar al-Assad collapse, French daily newspaper Le Figaro reported on Sunday, quoting a Syrian opposition figure in exile.

The paper said the back-channel diplomacy between American and Iranian diplomats occurred at two meetings, one at the end of August and one at the beginning of September, but it did not indicate where.

“They spoke about putting in place a high military council on the Egyptian model, with generals running the country and responsible for making senior strategic options,” the paper quoted the Syrian opposition figure as saying.

According to a French diplomat in charge of the Syrian crisis quoted in the report, Iranian officials have adapted to the idea of a new government in Damascus and “even to a change at the top of the regime.”

The diplomat said that Iran was keen to avoid a civil war in Syria, as it could spill over across its border. The paper said the relationship between Tehran and Damascus was not balanced, which

explains the influence Iran has on the regime in Damascus.

American diplomats urged Iranians not to disrupt stability in Iraq before the complete pullout of U.S. troops by the end of 2011 and to stop supporting “terror” groups in the region, namely Hamas and Hezbollah. From their side,

Iranians asked the United States not to support a post-Assad regime that is hostile to Iran.

Both parties agreed that any future

regime in Syrian should have a “regional” scope and enjoy friendly ties with different powers in the Middle East, the paper reported.

Quoting French ambassador to Damascus Eric Chevallier speaking before the foreign affairs committee at the French National Assembly, the paper said Iranians recently advised the Syrians to stop firing in the streets, urging them instead to identify the leaders of the uprising and arrest them at night.

This, the report says, indicates the Iranian ambiguity about Syria. Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad and Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi recently denounced the use of excessive

force against civilians in Syria, but Iran’s Revolutionary Guards continue to deploy special forces in Syria to help quell the uprising there.

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Saarc international I Thursday 03 November 2011

WEEKLY REVIEW OF PAKISTAN NEWS

$70bn loss suffered in terror war: Zardari

In an interview with leading Turkish newspaper Hurriyet, Mr Zardari, who is in Istanbul to attend a trilateral summit on Afghanistan, said: “No country has made greater contributions and sacrifices in fighting terrorism than Pakistan.

President Asif Ali Zardari has said Pakistan has lost over 36,000 innocent men, women and children and suffered a direct economic loss of over $70 billion in the fight against terrorism.

We have lost our great leader and my wife Benazir Bhutto at the hands of

terrorists. No-one should question our commitment or intentions in fighting

the war.”

President Abdullah Gul will host the sixth Turkey-Afghanistan-Pakistan summit here on Tuesday and President Zardari will meet his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai for the first time since the assassination on Sept 20 of former Afghan president and peace council head Burhanuddin Rabbani and evolve a new strategy on the war against terrorism.

President Zardari said the Osama

Bin Laden issue was now `history` and Pakistan was looking forward to a new chapter of relations with the United States. He said the source of the greatest evil of the new millennium had met his eventual fate.

“We should look into the future and ensure that the militant mindset is defeated. The sooner we stop public criticism and finger-pointing at each other and coordinate our resources, the better it will serve the cause of

Pakistan plans 20 pc cut in customs Links with Taliban: Foreign Ministry duties for SAFTA countries rejects BBC documentary claims Pakistan has formally decided to trim 233 tariff lines from the sensitive list under South Asia Free Trade Agreement and make 20 per cent reduction in customs duty on imports of these items to further liberalise its trading regime with its neighbours.

But the country`s top tax machinery, Federal Board of Revenue has raised objections over 32 tariff lines of the total 233 on the plea that any reduction in customs duty on these products could lead to revenue loss.

The products placed in the sensitive list under Safta are allowed for trade but could not be considered for reduction in customs duties.

But the withdrawal of these items from the sensitive list means that Pakistan would also now notify 20 per cent reduction in customs duties for all Safta member countries.

“We have sent a summary to the cabinet meeting to be convened on Wednesday for approval,” an official source in the commerce ministry told Dawn on Monday.

The ministry has also sent the summary of the FBR, who have raised serious reservations that reduction in customs duty could lead to duty reduction.

“Now the issue will have to be decided by the cabinet meeting headed by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani,” the official added.

Pakistan once again strongly rejected assertions made in a BBC documentary claiming that Pakistani security services are supporting the Taliban in Afghanistan .

The Foreign Ministry ruled out all the claims, saying that the series ‘Secret Pakistan’ has made baseless and

PML-N demands Zardari quit

Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, on Friday, asked President Asif Ali Zardari to quit the Presidency as soon as possible otherwise the people of Lahore, Quetta, Karachi, Peshawar and Larkana would not let him go free.

Shahbaz, who was addressing a protest rally here organised by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, said that corruption has touched its peak in Pakistan and President Zardari, his cronies and “Ali Baba and forty thieves” would be hanged upside down at Bhaati Chowk for causing worst load shedding, corruption and unemployment in the country.

The rally was attended by Pervez Rashid, Khawaja Asif, Javed Hashmi,

Opposition leader in the National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali, Saad Rafiq, Hamza Shahbaz, provincial ministers, members of provincial and national assemblies, party officebearers and a large number of party workers.

Shahbaz asked President Zardari to quit the Presidency as soon as possible otherwise the people of Lahore, Quetta, Karachi Peshawar and Larkana would not let him go free. “The people were ready for the last battle and they would fight the war against corrupt federal government on streets and crossings,” the Punjab chief minister said, while adding that the PML-N rally has proved that people were justifiably against the “present corrupt federal

government”.

Vowing that this rally would not stop until its target has been achieved, Shahbaz said it aimed at ousting “corrupt Zardari government which has ruined the economy of the country”. He said the federal government, instead of eliminating load shedding, has raised the electricity tariff and made the condition of people miserable. He said that every section of country was worried but PML-N would put the country on the road to progress under the leadership of Nawaz Sharif.

Meanwhile Pakistan People’s Party (PPP)’s central leader and former federal law minister Dr Babar Babar, on Friday, said that Zardari would stay in the Presidency till 2013, and no political actor could decide about president’s office. Immediately after PML-N’s rally in Lahore, Babar wasted no time in paying the Sharif brothers in the same coin when talking to reporters he called the protest rally a ‘comedy show’ by alleging that resources of the provincial government were used to stage the rally in the provincial capital of Punjab. Babar severely criticised the language used against an elected president and believed that it was a direct insult of parliament which elected Zardari.

fabricated allegations about Pakistan.

The statement termed the series as fiction which cannot belittle Pakistan’s sacrifices and contribution in countering terrorism. On the other hand, the Pakistani army also strongly denied claims made in the BBC documentary.

The army spokesman Major General

Athar Abbas described the allegations made by the US and Afghan officials as baseless and malicious. The BBC series program accused Pakistan of playing a double game. The series lay blame on Pakistan of acting as America’s ally in public while secretly training and arming its enemy in Afghanistan.

India played big role in Pakistan’s bid for UNSC seat: Haroon

India played a big role in supporting Pakistan’s successful bid to become a non-permanent member of the powerful UN Security Council, Pakistan’s envoy to the world body Abdullah Hussain Haroon said here on Saturday.

Many of the countries that Pakistan had considered as friends were no longer its friends, but India “supported us in becoming a non-permanent member of the 15-member Security Council,” Haroon told reporters here at Karachi airport.

Pakistan, which was challenged by Kyrgyzstan, was backed by 129 of the 193 member states in the UN General Assembly. Kyrgyzstan polled 55 votes.

Pakistan will replace Lebanon, which currently occupies the Asian seat, on January 1, 2012, for a two-year term.

Haroon said that Pakistan had worked very hard in the past six months to win votes for the prestigious seat.

“I think we should not be discouraged by the reaction by some of the nations in the UN because I can say the world wants Pakistan to play its positive role in the global scenario,” he said.

Pakistan has been on the Council six times earlier, 1952-53, 1968-69, 1976-77, 1983-84, 1993-94 and 200304. It’s new term would overlap with India, which began its two-year tenure on January 1 this year for the fourth time.

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Saarc international I Thursday 03 November 2011

WEEKLY REVIEW OF MALDIVE NEWS

DRP accuses govt of trying to hijack power T

he Leader of the main opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP), Ahmed Thasmeen Ali has accused the government of trying to hijack all the three states of power.

In a programme broadcasted on the local TV Channel, DhiTV, DRP Leader and Kaashidhoo MP Ahmed Thasmeen Ali said that the country separated the three state powers in 2008 and

embraced democratic rule. He said that the MDP government although claims to the vanguards of democracy is now transgressing upon the very values of democracy that they claim to follow.

Thasmeen said that the MDP government is known for causing intimidation against any institute that works against the desires of the government. He said that the government

has tried a number of times to obstruct the way of the Judiciary by threatening the judges and perpetrating violence against them.

Thasmeen earlier said that he does not believe that the Judges of the Supreme Court will hesitate to serve justice even though the government tried to intimidate them by staging a violent demonstration outside the Supreme Court.

HC rejects appeal of Crackdown on Maldives-Lanka prostitution network case against Gassan

The High Court of Maldives has yesterday rejected the appeal of the case against Gassan Maumoon, son of the former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom which was applied by the state.

The state appealed the case with the Criminal Court delivering the verdict to release Gassan from Police detention and that he was arrested unlawfully.

Media Official of the High Court said that the appeal was rejected by the Registrar of the High Court because the case was appealed after more

than 48 hours since the verdict of the Criminal Court.

The Official also noted that although it is the responsibility of the Prosecutor General to represent the state in Criminal Case proceedings, in the case against Gassan, the Attorney General represented the state.

He said that the regulations of the Courts of law states that the appeals of the cases related to arrest and detention than such cases can only be accepted if it is applied in less than 48 hours of the lower court verdict.

Sri Lankan authorities are making arrangements to seek the assistance of the Maldivian police to probe into the recent arrests of those involved in trafficking Sri Lankan girls to Maldives for prostitution.

Currently the Mirihana Police, which is located in a suburb of Colombo, is conducting further investigations in order to establish the Maldivian links to the trafficking of Sri Lankan girls to resorts off Male.

A senior police officer, who spoke on grounds of anonymity, confirmed that the Sri Lankan police plan to coordinate with the Maldivian police in a bid to bring down the network.

He said that investigations had revealed that the prostitution network operated in Sri Lanka, had Maldivian handlers who had been involved in transporting and holding the Sri Lankan girls hostage.

Based on a tip-off, the Special Investigations Unit of the Mirihana Police, raided a brothel located in a suburb of Colombo on October 22,

which resulted in the arrest of two persons who had been involved in the network.

The arrest of the two suspects eventually led to the raid of another brothel in which six more suspects were arrested. In the wake of the recent arrests, it has transpired that five women who are now in custody

had obtained passports and were in the process of obtaining tourists visas to travel to Maldives.

The said prostitution network run by a woman identified as “Pannipitiya Aunty”, who is also amongst those arrested, had been operating the said Maldives-Sri Lanka prostitution network for nearly six years.

Rich spending 10 pc more on food: President Maldives sees India, Pakistan ‘amicable’

The global population growth is widening the gap between the poor and rich with the rich in the Maldives spending 10 percent more on food than the poor, President Mohamed Nasheed revealed Friday.

Speaking in his weekly radio

address given this morning on his visit to Australia’s Perth to attend the Commonwealth HOGM, the President said that experts estimate the population of Maldives to reach 400,000 by the year 2025.

The President noted that the world population reaching a record

seven billion next Monday is an achievement in many aspects.

President Nasheed urged everyone to work in unity in sustaining achievements in improvement of primary health of elderly, the reduction in the rate of mortality due to illness and the technological advancements achieved in the recent years.

The President also highlighted today’s higher life expectancy rate in the Maldives, compared to that of the 1980s. He also pointed out that infant mortality rate and maternal mortality rate have been decreased significantly.

Highlighting the preparations underway for the 17th SAARC Summit, the President said that all the arrangements in Addu City and Fuvahmulah were now in their final stages.

Gearing up to host the SAARC summit next month, President Mohammed Nasheed said he looked forward for a successful summit given that India and Pakistan were more amicable towards each other.

President Mohammed Nasheed dismissed fears that India’s security could be threatened with growing Chinese influence in Maldives, saying his country would never do anything that threatens New Delhi’s interests.

“I can assure all Indians that Maldives will always be India’s friend and we believe that we cannot find a better friend than India,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) here in the Western Australian city.

Maldives would never do anything that threatens India’s security, he said

in response to a question on China’s growing presence in the Indian Ocean and efforts to expand its influence in the Maldives. “India has always assisted us in times of stress and even in the future India will assist us in times of stress,” he said.

There has been some concern in the Indian security establishment over Chinese attempt to extend its influence in the archipelago that is strategically located along major sea lanes of the Indian Ocean.

Gearing up to host the SAARC summit next month, Nasheed said he looked forward for a successful summit given that India and Pakistan were more amicable towards each other. “I hope we will be able to have a very successful SAARC. I am already seeing that India and Pakistan are more amicable.”

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Saarc international I Thursday 03 November 2011

WEEKLY REVIEW OF NEPAL NEWS

Leaders make big pledge at high tea T

op leaders of three major parties today said they would come up ‘with a package deal on peace and the constitution’ soon.

The top three leaders of the Unified CPNMaoist, Nepali Congress and CPN-UML today said they would ‘soon’ forge consensus on peace, the constitution and the issues related to the two major tasks.

Addressing a tea reception organised by the Unified CPN-Maoist at Bhrikuti Mandap on the occasion of different festivals celebrated by the Nepali communities, Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal said as the leader of the

largest party in the Constituent Assembly, he would leave no stone unturned to ensure peace and the constitution.

He added that serious talks have begun from today and this time they were different.

He also promised to show maximum flexibility for the sake of party unity.

NC President Sushil Koirala said all the Nepali people and international communities were concerned about the delay in the peace and constitution-drafting processes.

“On behalf of the Congress, I would like to express my commitment that peace would prevail soon,” said Koirala, adding that all the parties must show maximum flexibility and work hand-in-hand for peace and democratic constitution.

Parties set to seal peace CoAS Gurung leaves for China Chief of the Army Staff (CoAS) with deal Chhatraman Singh Gurung left for

Three major political parties are most likely to strike a package deal on issues related to the peace process and formation of a team of experts for state restructuring soon, sources privy to interparty talks said today.

With most of the thorny issues related to the Maoist combatants’ management, a crucial aspect of the peace process, already resolved, the package deal is likely to materialise in a day or two, Nepali Congress General Secretary Krishna Prasad Sitaula told this daily.

NC and CPN-UML held talks on the outstanding issues at the latter’s Parliamentary Party office in Singha Durbar this morning, while the Unified CPN-Maoist and UML leaders delved into them at Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s residence in Nayabazaar in the evening to make

way for a high-level meeting likely to be held tomorrow morning.

Sources said Maoist Chairman Dahal and Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai are planning to have the peace process agendas endorsed through a majority in the party despite Mohan Baidhya camp’s objection.

The package deal will include the management of Maoist combatants, formation of commissions on disappeared and truth and reconciliation, handover of properties seized during the decade-long Maoist insurgency to the rightful owners with due compensation from the government, dissolution of the paramilitary structure of Maoist wings and formation of an experts’ team for the resolution of issues of state restructuring in the new constitution, according to sources.

Minister Kirati promises timely statute Minister Kirati said as the governments following 2065 BS did not heed the Nepal Sambat in spite of declaring it a national calendar‚ it was difficult to put it practice.

BHAKTAPUR: Minister for Federal Affairs, Constituent Assembly, Parliamentary Affairs and Culture, Gopal Kirati has said the draft of the constitution would be made public within the stipulated date.

At a programme organised by Shankhdhwar Savings and Credit

Cooperatives Limited on its 4th establishment day here on Thursday, Minister Kirati said as the governments following 2065 BS did not heed the Nepal Sambat in spite of declaring it a national calendar, it was difficult to put it practice.

Various persons contributing to different sectors were honoured on the occasion.

The programme was presided over

by Chairman of the Cooperatives, Ratna Krishna Shrestha.

a seven-day China tour on Sunday afternoon at the formal invitation of Chief of the General Staff of the People’s Republic of China and People’s Liberation Army General, Chen Bingde.

Chief of the Army Staff (CoAS) Chhatraman Singh Gurung left for a seven-day China tour on Sunday afternoon at the formal invitation of Chief of the General Staff of the People’s Republic of China and People’s Liberation Army General, Chen Bingde. During his visit to China, CoAS

Gurung will hold talks with his Chinese counterpart Chen for modernising and capacity building of the Nepal Army.

Meanwhile, China has decided to provide medical equipments worth Rs. 606.62 million to Nepal for the Army Hospital.

Nepal plans to sign BIPPA with China After its southern neighbour, Nepal is planning to sign Bilateral Investment Protection and Promotion Agreement (BIPPA) with northern neighbour soon.

Finance Minister Barsha Man Pun — talking to media persons in the western district of Banke in Nepalgunj today — said that the government is preparing to sign BIPPA with neighbouring China very soon to attract more foreign investments for the economic development of the country.

Nepal on October 21 signed BIPPA with India, making it a seventh nation to enter into investment protection and promotion agreement with Nepal, during Prime Minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai’s India visit.

However, Prime Minister’s own party — UCPN-Maoist — leaders are against the agreement that is aimed at attracting more Indian investments in the country in the days to come giving them equal treatment like the domestic investors.

4-day Chhath festival on threshold

The festival aims to increase human interest towards truth and nonviolence and sympathy to all the

living things.

The main rituals of the Chhath festival begins from Chaturthi, the fourth day

of the lunar calendar of the month of Kartik, which is Sunday, Chhath is one of the great festival celebrated in the Mithila region.

The festival aims to increase human interest towards truth and nonviolence and sympathy to all the living things.

This is the festival in which the rising and setting sun is worshipped.

Utensils needed for this festival are arranged since a month ago.

This festival is celebrated for four days- the first day or Chaturthi is called Arba Arbain or Nahan Khan.

The devotees discard eating meat, onion and garlic etc. and start fasting on this day. The second or Panchami day is called Kharana, the third is Shasthi and the fourth day is called Paran

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Saarc international I Thursday 03 November 2011

WEEKLY REVIEW OF SRILANKA NEWS

Reconciliation commission ready with report The reconciliation commission appointed by President Mahinda Rajapaksa to study Sri Lanka’s three-decade long war is getting ready to present its final report to the President during the second week of November.

The Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) was initially scheduled to hand over its report to the President on November 15th.

“We are making arrangements for it to be presented to the President.

Although we have no definite date, it is likely to be presented in the second week of November,” LLRC Spokesperson Lakshman Wickremasinghe said.

The official said the decision to publicize the report was the prerogative of the President.

“Our mandate limits us to handing it over to the President. Making

it public or otherwise will be entirely in the President’s hands,” Wickremasinghe said.

The eight-member Commission, appointed by the President in May 2010 to probe the events during the last seven years of war, commenced its sessions last year and has recorded thousands of oral and written submissions from a cross section of society on the period between 2002 and 2009.

Triple diplomatic triumph for SL at CHOGM

S

ri Lanka achieved a major diplomatic victory beating all overwhelming odds at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) which concluded in the Western Australian capital of Perth .

Sri Lanka achieved a triple success when it beat litigation, concocted human rights allegations and attempts to change the venue of the next CHOGM, External Affairs Minister Prof G.L. Peiris said.

In an exclusive interview with three newspaper editors from Sri Lanka at Hyatt Regency in Perth yesterday, the minister said that attempts to tarnish Sri Lanka’s image have been effectively handled with the support of Sri Lanka’s friendly countries.

“Sri Lanka’s voice was heard and respected at the Commonwealth,” the minister said.

Prof. Peiris said attempts by Canada to question on human rights in Sri Lanka was effectively shot down with the support of 15 countries which voiced strongly for Sri Lanka at the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (MAG) meeting.

“During the closing stages of the third session of the Commonwealth Foreign

Ministers, Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird attempted to criticise Sri Lanka on the human rights accountability issue, against which I made a strong protest and objected,” he said. Prof. Peiris pointed out that it was an attempt to politicize the Commonwealth MAG meeting.

Prof. Peiris had vehemently objected to the remarks made by his Canadian counterpart, stating that it was totally inappropriate at such level of discussion.

Sri Lanka has pointed out that such action

by Canada does not sound well at a time the Commonwealth is steering ahead with modern realities. “We pointed out that it is not the practice to question domestic issues of a member country.

However, we stated that we are willing to hold bilateral discussions with member countries, which we have been conducting on the sidelines of the CHOGM,” he said.

It was at this stage that 15 other countries

raised their voice strongly in support of Sri Lanka.

The Chair of CMAG, Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd had stated that the consensus was clear and that he is not taking the matter any further.

The external affairs minister said that several countries in South Asia were of the view that Sri Lanka’s success in eradicating terrorism under President Mahinda Rajapaksa is not only a victory for Sri Lanka but also to the entire SAARC region.

They have pointed out that the counter terrorism measures adopted by Sri Lanka are important to peace and stability in the region.

Prof. Peiris, referring to a human rights case filed by a LTTE sympathiser in Melbourne, said it was intimidating tactics and a well orchestrated campaign in the Australian media on the lead-up to the CHOGM. “We made representation to the Australian government stating that the Head of State enjoys diplomatic immunity and overcame that attempt with a clear ruling by the Attorney General here,” he said.

US wanted Sri Lanka troops in Afghanistan All candidates for elections must declare assets

The United States in December 2009 raised the possibility of Sri Lanka contributing to US-led coalition operations in Afghanistan,

but Sri Lanka had declined the offer, a leaked US diplomatic cable cited by Wikileaks revealed.

The leaked ‘Confidential’ cable stated that this was revealed in a

meeting US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Robert O. Blake had with Sri Lankan Defence Secretary

Gotabaya Rajapaksa on December 8, 2009.

“Blake raised the possibility of Sri Lanka contributing to US-led coalition operations in Afghanistan,

noting that would be a significant step in support of improving military-to-military engagement.

Rajapaksa replied that contributing forces for combat operations right now would be too politically sensitive during the current election season in Sri Lanka. He added that the Sri Lankan Government would have to consider seriously the implications for its Muslim minority as well as the danger of drawing the ire of groups like AlQaida and Lashkar-e-Taiba by becoming a force provider.

He said a possible alternative for Sri Lanka might be to provide training assistance to Afghan security forces under the auspices of a non-governmental organisation or private company. The Cable also said Blake had warned that Lakshar-e-Taiba, which had used Nepal and Bangladesh as staging posts to attack India, could next turn to Sri Lanka.

Elections Commissioner of Lanka Mahinda Deshapriya has decided to make candidates contesting future elections to hand over their assets and liabilities declarations.

Deshapriya has decided to get the assets and liabilities declarations from all candidates before any general, provincial council or local government elections.

The Commissioner has also said that firm action and even legal action would be taken against the candidates who fail to submit their assets and liabilities declaration.

The power to make such a decision by the Elections Commissioner has been outlined in the 18th Amendment to the Constitution.

According to the election laws in the country, the Elections Commissioner has the mandate to file legal action against the candidates who fail to submit their assets and liabilities declarations.

The latest move by the Elections Commissioner is expected to help build a good political culture in the country.

NEWS

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Saarc international I Thursday 03 November 2011

Pak-India textile sectors propose more trade LAHORE - Trade between Pakistan and India should be enhanced and barriers be removed, as both countries are producing more than 40 per cent of global cotton while their textile share in international market is only five per cent. These views were shared between Northern India Textile Mills Association (NITMA) delegation and All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) the other day. Minister for Textile Makhdoom Shahabud Din was also present on the occasion.

NITMA delegation led by its chairman Mukhund Chaudhry shared its views with APTMA officials. APTMA Chairman Mohsin Aziz said that around 40 per cent of cotton in the world is

produced by Pakistan and India but their share in global market is only five per cent. He said that it is the need of the hour that the relations between both countries should be improved and they come closer.

Quick Review:

Monkey Business: The Murder of Anni Dewani One of South Africa’s best crime writers, Mike Nicol, has collated information published about the Anni Dewani murder case.

In his new book, Monkey Business: The Murder of Anni Dewani, the facts, the fiction, the spin, Nicol presents the information, derived from newspapers and social networks, in chronological order and without editorial comment.

Nicol no doubt has an opinion about what happened in Gugulethu last November, and could concoct a credible and convincing hypothesis explaining all the inconsistencies and niggling questions - the prime one being that of motive - but he does not.

Instead we are given a fair amount of background and a wide range of reports and opinions, many of which are new to most South Africans since they are garnered from foreign media.

We meet Anni’s family and relatives of the men charged with the murder, and we are reminded about the mysterious Eastern Cape murder of a doctor related to the Dewani family.

Were the Dewanis connected to that old murder?

If not, why did the driver indicate that they were?

Why did Shrien get the services of high-priced lawyer Billy Gundelfinger well before there was any suggestion that he was more than a grieving

widower?

Why did Gundelfinger drop Dewani as a client, and why did Shrien leave the country so precipitously and refuse to return?

And what was the motive?

There seemed to have been no life insurance policies, Anni had not changed her will and because the couple was not legally married - the three-day wedding was purely religious - he was not her next of kin and had no claims on her estate.

There were rumours of dealings in the Dewani family’s nursing home empire and there was gossip regarding Shrien’s sexuality.

So many questions, so many theories, all of which Nicol exposes along with the fact that, for all the hypotheses, little is conclusively known about the murder.

• ‘Monkey Business’ is published by Random House Struik, R135

NITMA Chairman Mukhund Chaudhry said that his delegation is here to make personal and commercial friends. “We would like to attend and invite friends from Pakistan on the weddings of our children,” he said adding

both countries have the capacity to capture global textile industry and they should benefit from each other’s potentials. He said we have also decided that delegations from both sides would visit each other every year. To a question of what Pakistan gained after getting Most-Favourite Nation (MFN) status from India since 1995, he said there have been irritants and better results could not be produced. “Now, we will remove all those irritants,” he added.

To another question of what is the reason of high number of suicides by the farmers in India, he defended the Indian government saying these suicides are not because of government policies rather there are other reasons. “Most of the suicides

occurred in Maharashtra, where water availability is an issue and the farmers have to depend upon the rains or other resources. If weather does not favour them then they come under problem,” Mukhund opined. APTMA Former Chairman Gohar Ejaz said that Pakistan’s exports heavily depend upon textile sector. He said there has been tremendous increase in the textile exports in the recent years. He said that Indian and Pakistani foreign ministers and secretaries are talking and it is a good omen. Makhdoom Shahabud Din said there is a need to remove barriers on both sides.

He appreciated Indian delegation and APTMA for holding talks and improving relations.

Arab markets lose $75bn but analysts see opportunities Arab bourses suffered heavy losses in the first 10 months of this year as high oil prices and regional unrest dented investor confidence in the region but analysts see the market developments as “attractive

the combined market capitalization of 14 official Arab stock exchanges dipped to nearly $878 billion on Oct. 30, one of its lowest levels in a year.Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul, by far the largest and busiest bourse

investment opportunities.”

According to the Abu Dhabi-based Arab Monetary Fund (AMF) report, Arab bourses lost $75 billion in share trading. The fast-growing Qatar was the only major gainer, while Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Egypt were the main sufferers.

The AMF report said from around $955 billion at the start of January,

in the Middle East, plunged by $14 billion from $340 billion to $326 billion.The AMF report said, Kuwait’s market capitalization tumbled by nearly $25 billion to $99 billion on Oct. 30, from about $124 billion at the start of this year.

Dubai’s stock market lost nearly $4 billion from about $53 billion to $49 billion, while Abu Dhabi fell

from nearly $67.8 billion to $65.7 billion in the same period.Bahrain’s market plunged from $20.5 billion to $16.6 billion and Oman’s Muscat securities market dipped from $21.8 billion to $19 billion, the AMF report added.

It rated Qatar as the main gainer in the Gulf, with its bourse, surging from around $120.4 billion to $121.3 billion.Outside the Gulf, Egypt was another major loser, with its market declining by nearly $14 billion from $71.4 billion to $57 billion.

The report said, Morocco, another major equity market outside the Gulf, declined by around $5.5 billion from $68.5 billion to nearly $63 billion.

Jordan and Lebanon also dropped from around $30.8 billion and $18.2 billion to $26.4 billion and $16.6 billion respectively.

Syria, which is now at the center of political turbulence in the Middle East, recorded a sharp fall in its market from $3.1 billion to $1.8 billion.

The Palestinian bourse remained unchanged at around $2.7 billion, according to the report.

Tunisia saw its bourse rise from $10.3 billion to $10.8 billion.

More trouble for Air India, over 100 pilots threaten to quit In a move that may hit Air India’s international operations, over a hundred pilots have threatened to quit the airline, charging the management with adopting discriminatory attitude against them and stalling their career progression.

Just four days ahead of the launch of a training programme for pilots to fly the Boeing 787 Dreamliners, a letter to Air India chairman & MD Rohit Nandan by pilots owing allegiance to the Indian Pilots’ Guild (IPG) said they were “compelled to seek a ‘no objection certificate’ so that we may consider seeking employment

elsewhere”.

Claiming they felt “cheated by the management’s unfair and discriminatory decisions, leading to a complete stall of our career progression,” the letter said: “These decisions and actions provide a windfall gain to the pilots of erstwhile Indian Airlines at the expense of the career progression prospects of the pilots of erstwhile Air India”.

The IPG represents around 200 pilots of the premerger Air India, while the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA) that had gone on strike in April represents around

1,400 pilots of the erstwhile Indian Airlines.

Copies of the letter were also sent to Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi and other officials. Air India officials, meanwhile, said they were holding negotiations with IPG office-bearers to sort out the issue.

Recently ICPA too raised the issue of 80% of their salaries in the form of productivity-linked incentives (PLI) not been paid for four months. In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (ICPA) had sought his intervention to expedite the payment of PLI.

Saarc international I Thursday 03 November 2011

ENTERTAINMENT

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‘Tired’ Shah Rukh hopes for relaxed 46th birthday He has been hopping from one city to another promoting his latest flick ‘Ra.One’. But for his 46th birthday on November 2, superstar Shah Rukh Khan says he wants some relaxed time with friends and family.

“I am just really very tired. I have just come in from Toronto and LA. The race has exhausted me. So I am just going to go, hang out with my friends. I will be in Mumbai with my friends

In Saif’s hands

and family,” Shah Rukh told reporters at the red carpet of the F1 after party.

Though he was excited about attending the F1 party where international pop star Lady Gaga performed, he was quite unsure of his own birthday bash.

“I don’t know (whether I will throw a party or not)...let’s see,” Shah Rukh said. Shah Rukh’s wife Gauri was also seen at the party’s red carpet.

Aishwarya’s grand birthday gift I

Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan was anointed the 10th Nawab of Pataudi on Monday.

Flanked by his mother Sharmila Tagore and two sisters, Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan was anointed the 10th Nawab of Pataudi on Monday.

Heads of villages in the area tied a white turban around the 41-year-old star’s head.

Khan’s father, Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, passed away in September after a severe lung infection. He captained the Indian cricket team at the age of 21 and was the last Nawab of Pataudi. He held the title until 1971 when the central government abolished the princely system.

Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, whose mother was the daughter of the last Nawab of Bhopal, Hamidullah Khan, was born in Bhopal and was the mutawalli (patron) of the Auqafe-Shahi, the body managing the religious and charitable endowments of the erstwhile princely State.

The late Pataudi took over from his mother as heir in the Bhopal royal family, allowing him to become the mutawalli of dozens of shrines, orphanages and religious trusts that are part of the princely Waqf properties of Bhopal.

As mutawalli, the late Pataudi governed religious properties worth over Rs 2,000 crore, including

Bhopal’s Jama Masjid. He also enjoyed special discretionary powers to sanction free lodging at the Rubat (building) at Mecca and Medina.

The Pataudi palace in Gurgaon, built in 1935, is sprawled across 25 acres and is divided into two parts, a main building and an annexe. One part of it has been turned into a heritage hotel where a number of English and Hindi films have been shot.

Pataudi gave up his title in 1971 when India abolished royal entitlements through the 26th Amendment to the Constitution of India.

Mr. Khan’s sister Saba was made the patron of the Auqaf-e-Shahi last week.

t has been a month of celebration for Bollywood’s Bachchan household in Mumbai.

And by the look of it the party continues.

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan turns 38 Wednesday. And probably this year’s birthday gift will be the most memorable for Aishwarya.

Earlier Abhishek Bachchan confirmed that the motherto-be is expected to embrace motherhood in November. So this birthday is all set to be a landmark one for the most beautiful woman in the world.

And probably she can wish for no better role than to take on the role of a mother.

Father-in-law Amitabh Bachchan acknowledging the wishes sent to him for her birthday writes on his Twitter page: “First off .. let me thank

by another similar ceremony by her own mother. Her fans had a sneak-peek of the chubby Aishwarya Rai during the Durga Puja and Diwali (Hindu festivals)

My statue is more beautiful than me, says Kareena She’s the newest (and youngest) Bollywood personality at Madame Tussauds. Kareena Kapoor has now joined Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Hrithik Roshan at the world-famous wax museum. In an interview she was asked about her thoughts on being immortalised in wax, and she replied, “It’s a great feeling! I’m immortalised now, which is scary yet very, very exciting!” What was her first reaction on seeing the statue?

“I was stunned. They’ve done such a fantastic job. Even the absolute minutest

details like my fingernails, toenails, even the texture of my skin, is so exact. It’s amazing.” Did she ever imagine she would be one of the famed wax figures someday?

“I visited Madame Tussauds often as a

kid, but I never thought that I’d be one of the figures in it someday… now I truly believe in dreaming big, because dreams do come true.” That one person whose statue she would like to see next to her?

all of you that have wished Aishwarya for her birthday .. I shall pass on your greetings to her..gratitude,” he tweeted.

Recently mother-in-law, Jaya Bachchan, organised a baby shower for Aishwarya, followed

celebrations. The little that fans saw of her, Ash certainly looked to be in the festive spirit.

As rumous abound that the baby is expected on November 11, here’s wishing Aishwarya a very happy birthday.

26

SPECIAL FEATURE

South Asia Tribune I Thursday 03 November 2011

World faces years of social unrest as economies falter The international economy is on the brink of a deep new economic crisis that could cost millions of jobs around the globe and trigger mass social unrest, the world’s most powerful nations were warned yesterday.

As the leaders of the G20 countries prepare for emergency talks on averting a return to worldwide recession, the United Nations’ International Labour Organisation (ILO) issued a grim forecast of the social effects of the continuing economic crisis.

The UN agency warned that it could take until 2016 for global employment to return to the levels of three years ago – and that anger could erupt on the streets of Europe and other continents as a result.

George Osborne has warned Greece that backing a bailout is “crucial” as European leaders prepared to hold emergency talks about the unravelling rescue deal today. The Chancellor warned that the global recovery depended on the agreement going through.

German chancellor Angela Merkel and French president Nicolas Sarkozy will meet the IMF and Greek prime minister George Papandreou today to thrash out ways to stem the turmoil.

Downing Street confirmed the UK would be involved in discussions in the “margins” of the G20, which starts tomorrow, about the eurozone package agreed last week.

A spokesman said implementing the deal agreed at the Brussels summit would require “further conversations”.

Mr Papandreou stunned the markets on Monday night with a surprise announcement that he intended to put the deal hammered out

by EU leaders in Brussels, which would impose a harsh austerity programme on the country, to a referendum.

Greece Parliament votes on the referendum, it will have to deal a vote of confidence on Friday.

PM faces opposition from some ministers, MPs Despite support from most of the Cabinet for Prime Minister George Papandreou’s bid to hold a referendum on whether Greece should adopt the latest loan deal it has agreed with the eurozone, some ministers objected to the proposal and the premier still faces a challenge

to convince his MPs to back him in the vote of confidence in Parliament on Friday.

Sources at the Greek Interior Ministry have come up with two magic dates: December 5th and December 12th as potential days on which the referendum could be held. Angela Merkel and Nicholas Sarkozy are expected to impress on Papandreou the need to get the vote over and done with as soon as possible when they meet him at the G20 gathering in Cannes this evening.

Papandreou assured his ministers that the government would win the referendum and that he would receive the backing of his eurozone peers on the idea of holding the vote.

The prime minister is due to hold talks at the sidelines of the G20 meeting in Cannes today with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Most of the Cabinet agreed to support the idea of referendum but there was a general acceptance that it would have to take place before January, as had been previously planned.

Several ministers expressed strong objections.

Health Minister Andreas Loverdos and Transport Minister Yiannis Ragousis were the most critical.

According to sources, Loverdos suggested that it was unwise to hold a vote on an issue that would bind Greece for years to come. He said he would not give his consent until he sees the final wording of the questions in the referendum.

Ragousis said that the government should avoid creating circumstances where the calling of elections becomes inevitable. He added that the referendum would create unnecessary uncertainty around Greece’s membership of the euro.

Loverdos and Ragousis are two of the three ministers that recently wrote an open letter calling on Papandreou to forge ahead with bolder reforms. Many commentators saw that as a move to establish a reformist bloc within the Cabinet from which a new PASOK leader might emerge.

The other author of the letter, Education Minister Anna Diamantopoulou expressed concern during Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting about what questions would be posed in the referendum.

Agricultural Development Minister Costas Skandalidis said he was upset that the Cabinet had not been informed about Papandreou’s intention to call a referendum.

Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos did not attend the meeting as he was being treated in hospital. Sources close to Venizelos let it be known that he was not aware Papandreou would call a referendum, although the minister defended the decision in Parliament and on TV before being admitted to the hospital with abdominal pains.

The Cabinet’s backing for the plebiscite may prove to be irrelevant as MPs also have to approve the proposal in Parliament. At least four PASOK deputies have already indicated that they would not vote for the motion. This would leave Papandreou relying on votes from the handful of independent lawmakers, as all the opposition parties have said they would vote against it.

However, before Parliament votes on the

referendum, it will have to deal a vote of confidence on Friday. At this stage, Papandreou cannot take a positive vote for granted.

Socialist deputy Milena Apostolaki said on Tuesday that she was quitting PASOK’s parliamentary group to become an independent. She referred to the referendum proposal as “wrong and divisive.” Her decision reduced the government’s presence in the 300seat Parliament to just 152.

Another PASOK MP, Eva Kaili suggested that she would not vote for the government. She called on Papandreou to form a government of national unity. Speaking on Mega TV on Wednesday, Kaili said that she would wait

to see what is agreed at the talks in Cannes before taking the final decision on how to cast her ballot. She said that there are another 10 PASOK lawmakers who are undecided about how to vote.

ND leader accuses PM of ‘blackmail referendum’

Prime Minister George Papandreou has placed the country in the middle of an international storm because he is only interested in protecting his own

interests, said New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras speaking to the party’s parliamentary group on Wednesday.

Regarding the referendum announced by his rival on Monday, Samaras noted that at times of crisis voters do not respond to the actual questions put to them, but to those posing the question. He said he objected to the way the government was turning multiple dilemmas into a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’ and noted that a referendum could return «like a boomerang» to haunt Greece.

China hopes for stability of eurozone economy

Chinese President Hu Jintao said in a written

interview on Wednesday that China sincerely hopes the eurozone economy and the euro will maintain stability.

“China has noted that the leaders of relevant eurozone countries have repeatedly pledged their determination, ability and resources toward solving the sovereign debt problems,” Hu told French daily Le Figaro ahead of the G20 summit scheduled for November 3-4 in Cannes, France.

European leaders agreed on October 27 that private creditors must accept a 50 percent cut in the value of the Greek government debt they hold, and the bailout fund will be increased to 1 trillion euros ($1.37 trillion).

Hu also said that China hopes the results of the summit will help to stabilize the European financial market, and promote economic recovery and development, adding that the results will show Europe’s unity.

In regards to China-EU relations, Hu said that China always considers Europe an important power on the international stage and supports European integration.

Russia says ready to aid EU

Russia is ready to provide financial aid of up to $10 billion to the European Union (EU) to help it tide over the financial crisis, a senior Russian official said Monday.

“Russia is interested in keeping European stability,” presidential economic advisor Arkady Dvorkovich told reporters, saying that Moscow has not received any EU request for financial help but is willing to help if it comes.

Moscow could provide the assistance through the

International Monetary Fund (IMF), he added.

Several eurozone countries are now facing severe debt crises, sending shockwaves to global financial markets. EU leaders have recently hammered out a rescue package to fight the financial woes.

“The most important thing for financial stability is a decision to lower budget deficit in all countries,” said Dvorkovich. “We would press for it in coordination with our partners in BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa).”

South Asia Tribune I Thursday 03 November 2011

NEWS

27

China May Impose Conditions for Helping Euro Zone One day after European leaders announced a plan to boost their euro backstop fund to 1 trillion Euros, China indicated it may attach conditions to any money it invests. One of those stipulations -- that Europe stop criticizing Beijing’s monetary policy -- could strain transAtlantic relations. It didn’t take long for French President Nicolas Sarkozy to begin looking for investors in the newly designed euro backstop fund. Just hours after euro-zone leaders announced that they had agreed on a plan to boost the impact of the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF) to €1 trillion ($1.4 trillion) on Thursday morning, Sarkozy telephoned with Chinese President Hu Jintao to discuss his country’s involvement.

While nothing concrete

resulted from the chat, there are indications on Friday that any Chinese involvement could come at a price. According to a front-page story in the Financial Times, China would not only require water-tight guarantees on its investment, but Europe might have to pay a political

price as well.

As a condition for its involvement, Beijing could ask European leaders to cease criticizing China’s policy of keeping its currency, the renminbi, artificially undervalued, Li Daokui, a member of China’s central bank monetary policy

committee, told the paper. It is an issue that has repeatedly strained China’s relations with Europe, but especially with the United States. Were Europe to agree to such a demand, it could drive a wedge between Washington and Brussels.

“It is in China’s long-term and

intrinsic interest to help Europe because they are our biggest trading partner,” Li told the Financial Times. “But ... the last thing China wants to do is throw away the country’s wealth and be seen as just a source of dumb money.”

The International Monetary Fund has indicated that it could participate in such a fund. But China too -- which trades heavily with Europe and is thus eager to see it resolve its ongoing debt crisis -- is seen as a natural investor. Indeed, Beijing has expressed a willingness to help out in the past. And with $3.2 trillion in hard currency reserves -- a quarter of which is thought to be held in Euros -- the country would be well positioned to invest in an EFSF fund.

EU Shocked and Furious at Greek Referendum Plan UK close to recession despite 0.5pc third-quarter growth Greece has stunned Europe by calling a referendum on the bailout plan agreed to by EU leaders last week.

The move throws efforts to rescue the euro into doubt and heralds weeks of market turbulence ahead of the vote.

A Finnish minister said Greece will in effect be voting on whether to remain in the euro.

The shock announcement by Greek Prime Minister Giorgios Papandreou of a referendum on the Greek bailout has thrown efforts to rescue the single currency into doubt, unsettled global markets and angered EU leaders just days after they agreed a wide-ranging package to contain the debt crisis.

Global stock markets fell on the news.

German and French stock indices were down more than 3 percent on Tuesday, with banking shares among the main losers. The UK FTSE index slid 2.5 percent. The euro was down over 1.3 percent from Monday at $1.3735 in late morning trading.

UK close to recession despite 0.5pc third-quarter growth The British economy grew slightly more than expected in the third quarter by 0.5pc, but relief was tempered by a nasty set of manufacturing data which signaled the economy could be in store for another recession.

The Bank of England launched a fresh round of quantitative easing in early October, pumping another 75 billion pounds of cash into the economy, as policymakers warned that the euro crisis threatens to push Britain into recession.

The announcement by Greece to hold

a referendum over last week’s euro zone rescue deal has introduced new uncertainty and upset markets.

Shares in Commerzbank, Germany’s second largest bank, slumped more than 10 percent and Deutsche Bank, the country’s top bank, fell almost 8 percent. One economist at Bremer Landesbank said a Greek rejection of the euro zone’s plan to provide Athens €130 billion ($178 billion) worth of aid and arrange a 50-percent write-down on its debt would be “suicide.”

Papandreou, whose Socialist party has been hit by defections as it defied waves

60 percent viewed the agreement on the bailout package as negative or probably negative.

A senior member of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right coalition said on Tuesday he was “irritated” by Papandreou’s announcement. “This sounds to me like someone is trying to wriggle out of what one has agreed to,” Rainer Brüderle, parliamentary floor leader for Merkel’s junior coalition partners, the Free Democrats, told Deutschlandfunk radio.

“It’s a strange thing to do but all you can do is take precautionary steps

of at-times violent public protests and strikes to impose austerity measures demanded by international lenders, said he needed broader political support for the measures.

“We trust citizens, we believe in their judgment, we believe in their decision,” he told ruling Socialist party deputies.

“In a few weeks the (EU) agreement will be a new loan contract ... we must spell out if we are accepting it or if we are rejecting it.”

Survey Shows Most Greeks Oppose Bailout There are big doubts whether Greeks will back the bailout. A survey carried out on Saturday showed that nearly

in case there is a state insolvency in Greece -- because if they don’t meet the conditions as agreed, then the point will be reached at which there won’t be any money anymore, as I see it, then you have a state bankruptcy.”

The German government appears to have been taken by surprise by the announcement. The Finance Ministry said in a statement on Monday night that the referendum decision was a “domestic political development in Greece about which the German government has no official information yet and on which it therefore won’t comment.”

‘Vote on Euro Membership’

Finland’s Minister for Europe, Alexander Stubb, said a referendum would effectively amount to a vote on Greece remaining a member of the euro zone. “The situation is so tense that it would in principle be a vote on euro membership,” Stubb said in a TV interview on Tuesday.

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said in a message posted on Twitter: “I truly fail to understand what Greece intendes to have a referendum about.

Are there any real options?”

The referendum raises the possibility not only of a disorderly Greek default if Greeks reject the plan, but also of the crisis engulfing much bigger economies such as Italy.

As the vote isn’t expected to be held until January, Europe faces at least two months of uncertainty over the debt crisis -- a major disappointment after last week’s EU emergency summits had restored a measure of calm in financial markets. Hopes for a year-end rally have been dashed.

The new uncertainty is likely to be an embarrassment for EU leaders ahead of the G-20 summit of top industrial and emerging economies in France on Nov. 3 and 4. They had hoped to use the gathering to persuade nations such as China and Brazil to commit

funding to the enhanced euro zone rescue fund, or European Financial Stability Facility, to help ailing nations get through the crisis.

In Greece, opposition parties criticized Papandreou for calling the referendum. “I never expected Papandreou to take such a dangerous and frivolous decision,” said Dora Bakoyanni, former foreign minister and leader of the small center-right Democratic Alliance party. “All the international media will say that Greece itself is putting the EU deal at risk.”

Conservative leader Antonis Samaras, head of the New Democracy party has demanded new elections in the wake of Papandreou’s announcement.

“Elections are a national necessity,” he said.

Greek newspapers also harshly criticised Papandreou.

“More uncertainty is the last thing that Greece needs right now,” said conservative newspaper Kathimeriniin its lead editorial, according to Reuters. “The country will certainly paralyse amid endless debates -- the government, the state apparatus and institutions won’t work,” the newspaper added.

28

SPEACIAL FEATURE

South Asia Tribune I Thursday 03 November 2011

The Feminist Revolution and The Last Age Shiekh Imran Hossein

Tribune Comment

T

he Qur’an likened the creation of the male and the female to that of the ‘night’ and the ‘day’, implying that they complement each other “… like twin-halves of a whole.”

But they are also functionally different; hence a successful and harmonious male-female relationship requires that the ‘day’ (i.e. the male) must function as ‘day’ and not try to become ‘night’, and similarly the ‘night’ (i.e., woman) must function as ‘night’ (which covers and conceals)

and not try to become ‘day’. Prophet Muhammad (sallalahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) ordered, “. . when a girl reaches the age of puberty nothing must be seen of her body except this and this (he pointed to the face and hands).”

And so Muslim women have always covered themselves in Hijab— concealing arms, legs, bellies, head, hair, etc., in loose-fitting clothing.

Since women have a basic function of bearing and rearing children it was necessary that they be freed of an obligation to earn their livelihood.

Thus the Qur’an obliged men to maintain, as well as to guard and protect them, and, in turn, obliged a woman to be obedient to her husband or guardian. Men and women ought to marry in Allah’s blessed name, and live in accordance with His guidance. Then, says the Qur’an, “…

Allah places love and kindness betwix their hearts” in consequence of which they experience Sukun, i.e., peace,

contentment and tranquility.

But Prophet Muhammad (sallalahu ‘alaihi wa sallam) warned that among the signs of the Last Day was Dajjal the False Messiah or Anti-Christ. “…

The last people to follow him would be women”, and his spell over women would be such that “… a man would have to return to his home and tie down (i.e., coercively restrain) his wife, sister and daughter to protect them from being seduced by Dajjal.”

This prophecy indicated that women would be deceived and swept off their feet by something that would turn their world upside down. It would appear to be positive, whereas the reality would be destructive. Indeed, it would be in consequence of Dajjal’s attack that the ‘night’ would attempt to become ‘day’.

The Prophet prophesied 1400 years ago that women would “… dress like men”. This is already manifesting in the modern feminist revolution. He also prophesied, “… women would be dressed and yet be naked”, indicating

that the feminist revolution would spawn a sexual revolution that would culminate with people committing “… sexual intercourse in public like donkeys.” One has to be absolutely blind not to recognize that this prophecy is today fulfilled. Trinidad’s Carnival, for example, is now dominated by women many of whom are bent on parading their nakedness in a truly pagan public display of flesh and vulgarity. And many there must be who participated in Carnival yesterday, but who today turn away in disgust!

The best secular response to this wanton destruction of every sacred value that binds the sexes together is a public distribution of condoms.

The implication of this dramatic and ominous fulfilment of those prophesies is that a society that so corrupts itself eventually self destructs. Neither government nor opposition have a clue of how to prevent such an ignominious end.

“The sun rising from the West”, which is a major sign of the Last Day, appears to represent modern Western civilization’s ‘upside down’ world in which, among many other things, women abandon their primary responsibility of rearing children in order to dress like men and go out to work full-time the way men do.

The daycare center becomes the new Mummy. The child never forgets, and never forgives this neglect.

And so children rebel and become uncontrollable, even for the police.

But they also pay back their parents in the same coin by placing them, in their old age, in daycare centers for the aged that are really junkyards of human beings.

Truly, modern Western civilization’s feminist revolution has succeeded in causing the ‘night’ to become ‘day’ with dire consequences for society. Yet, with a deceptive smile, that false Western sunrise declares to her, “You’ve come a long way baby.”

Ex-Guantanamo guard sorry for the part he played at Guantanamo N

eely wanted to get in touch with them to say that he was sorry for the part he played in their detention at Guantanamo.

“We were told that they were all guilty ... that these were the worst of the worst,” Brandon Neely said about the detainees who were arriving at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

“We were told that these guys, all of them, had either helped plan 9/11 or were caught red handed on the battlefield, weapon in hand, fighting American soldiers ... These are the people that would kill you in a heartbeat if you turn your back on them.”

In June 2000, Specialist Neely, now 31, enlisted for five years as a military police officer. He left later that summer for Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri for training and was assigned to Fort Hood, Texas upon graduating. In early January 2002, Neely boarded a plane to Guantanamo Bay, where he would be stationed for the next six months. He had volunteered for the deployment not knowing what it was or where it would take him.

“I was asleep in my barracks one morning. They knocked on my door and ... told me there were two deployments that were going to happen in the deployment area.”

Neely agreed to go on one and then went out with his friends later that night.

The next day, he was informed that he would be stationed at Guantanamo.

“I was kind of mad that I was going to go to Guantanamo instead of the front lines of the war,” Neely recalled.

We were told in the first couple

of minutes at Gitmo that this was a detention facility and the Geneva Conventions would not be in effect ...

There was no army manual on this,

“I didn’t really understand what a terrorist was going to look like. I know that sounds funny and really naive. I was kind of shocked that a lot of them were very little and malnourished.”

Neely remembered commenting at the time: “If these are the world’s most dangerous men, we don’t have very much to worry about.”

Neely said he felt ashamed. He said he witnessed abuse by the guards and others during his six months at the camp. or Neely, he still recalls his conversations with the detainees who spoke English.

“I was always kind of worried about them because of all the stuff I had

the United States ... We had a little bit in common.”

Ahmed and Rasul were released from Guantanamo and transferred to Britain in 2004. They sued for damages against Donald Rumsfeld, the former U.S. secretary of state, and other senior military officers over alleged inhumane treatment at Guantanamo. The case was dismissed because the alleged abuse occurred before the U.S Supreme Court said that the constitution covered detainees in Guantanamo.

Neely returned to Fort Hood after his six-month deployment at Guantanamo was up. When he left, he signed a nondisclosure statement -- which he said

no standard operation procedure.”

As a military policeman, Neely was not involved in interrogations. The company’s assignments included escorting duties -- taking detainees to the showers or a medical examination and filling the water buckets in the cells.

On January 11, the prisoners began to arrive. “We were told those [detainees] were the top guys. This is the group that they had to get out of Afghanistan because they were literally the worst of the worst,” Neely said. He was not sure what to expect.

heard,” Neely said. “We were told they were all guilty.” The two prisoners he spoke to the most were former British detainees Ruhal Ahmed and Shafiq Rasul. At Guantanamo, they would talk about music and normal subjects.

“Eminem and Dr. Dre... at the time [they] were real big,” Neely said.

Ahmed “would tell us he was from London. It was kind of weird, because here this guy was in Guantanamo behind this cell door and here I was on the outside ... He was actually doing a lot of the same stuff that I was doing in

was routine -- stating that he would not talk to the press, write a book or make a movie. He was told he could be prosecuted if he did, but has gone public about his concerns because he disagrees with U.S. policies in places like Guantanamo and Iraq. He has also testified to the Center for the Study of Human Rights in the Americas at the University of California, Davis.

“I have no problem fighting and dying for this country, but I am not going to kill or be killed for something I don’t believe in,” he said.

Neely deployed to Iraq in 2003, returned to the U.S. the following year and left the military in 2005, when his contract was up. In 2007, Neely did not respond to a recall for active duty and he was honorably discharged. He now works as a police officer in Texas, where he is raising three children.

He thinks the detention center should be closed. “I think someone would be naive to say that everybody that ever stepped foot in Guantanamo was innocent,” Neely said. We know they are not, but “the fact is there is a better way to do it ... you can’t just throw the principles and the values of the country and the law of the land out the window because it benefits you.” Detaining innocent people and depriving them of their due process is “a significant black eye on the Unites States,” Neely added.

There will be a time and a place when Neely will tell his children -- the oldest is now 10 -- about Guantanamo. I will “give them all the information and let them make their own opinion ... I’ll just tell them the truth ... I will tell them that I have been part of it.”

Neely initially contacted Rasul via Facebook and then met with Ahmed and Rasul, the two former British detainees, in London almost two years ago.

Neely wanted to get in touch with them to say that he was sorry for the part he played in their detention at Guantanamo. “I was very nervous to meet them,” Neely said. He did not know what might happen. “I wasn’t sure if they would hate me, yell at me,” he added. “I can honestly say though when I left London I left with two more friends then I arrived with.”

South Asia Tribune I Thursday 03 November 2011

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Dhoni blames his batsmen for T20 loss against England

Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Saturday blamed an ordinary display from his batsmen responsible for the hosts` six-wicket defeat at the hands of England in the lone Twenty20 International.

Opting to bat, India struggled for a good partnership in the middle

as the 121-run victory target was easily achieved by England with eight balls to spare to end the tour on a victorious note.

Dhoni said they were always short on runs despite playing with eight batsmen.1 “We were short of runs. We were playing with eight batsmen.

We always knew that wicket would be on a slow side. It was important for batsmen to continue till end. We did not get off to a good start.

“If you see the comparison between the two sides, the big difference was the four-wicket and the eight-wicket fall. So, their we lost the game,” said Dhoni at the post-match press conference.

Asked about the Eden strip which he had termed `ugly` for the ODIs, Dhoni said it was a decent one.

“It was not the wicket where you look to score 160-170. 130-135 would have been a very good score on this wicket. But Kevin Pietersen batted well, they calculated the game really well.

“The wicket was on a slower side. As the game progressed, it did not change a lot. It was a bit slow compared to ODIs, overall a decent one. I would not say that it was a bad wicket,” he said.

India were drubbed in England this summer as they were whitewashed in all three formats of the game but Dhoni said

Continued from page 32 >>

Disgraced cricketing trio ‘shamed Pakistan’

A third cricketer, teenaged fast bowler Mohammad Amir, pleaded guilty to the charges before the start of the trial. All three will be sentenced on Wednesday.

“It is a day of sadness and happiness for us. We are shocked by this verdict and will fight to the end. But at the same time God has given us a new life,” Butt’s father, Zulfiqar Butt, told reporters after his daughter-in-law gave birth an hour before the verdict was announced. A judge has rejected disgraced teenage Pakistan cricketer Mohammad Amir’s claim that he was only involved in fixing one match. Fast bowler Amir, 19, pleaded guilty to plotting to bowl deliberate no-balls in the Lord’s Test against England last summer - but insisted this was “an isolated and one-off event”. However, Mr Justice Cooke ruled at London’s Southwark Crown Court on Wednesday that text messages sent from shadowy contacts in Pakistan suggest the young cricketer was also implicated in fixing during the earlier Oval Test. Amir’s lawyers agreed a basis of plea with prosecutors when he admitted conspiracy to cheat and conspiracy to accept corrupt payments at a pre-trial hearing in September.

The court also heard that Amir claimed in police interviews that he received no money for bowling the no-balls and only overstepped because of “slippery conditions”.

The judge’s concern over the plea arises from inconsistency between the charges levelled at all three players, which cover a conspiracy in the period of both the Oval and Lord’s Test, and the plea agreed with the Crown Prosecution Service, which is restricted to Lord’s.

The court also heard that the Crown will seek compensation from the defendants for the £150,000 paid by the News of the World to Majeed to secure the sting.

Around £52,000 has been recovered from some of the defendants by police, leaving £98,000 outstanding. A compensation claim for the balance will be lodged.

The scandal has further damaged the reputation of Pakistani cricket, which has been embroiled in match-fixing scandals in the past.

And with three other players - Kamran Akmal, Umar Akmal and Wahab Riaz - named in court as allegedly being involved in a betting scam, former England captain Michael Vaughan has suggested a complete overhaul of Pakistan’s playing squad is required.

“I guess the only way to clear it would be to completely start afresh with a new set of players because there are still question marks over a few of the other players in their team,” he told BBC Sport.

“They will always unearth talent, they have this raw natural talent for the game. I just hope we can watch them in the future and know they are clean.”

Punishments will change nothing, says former Pakistan captain

Former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif fears the punishments handed down to Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir will make little difference to the state of cricket The guilty players’ former team-mate, Shahid Afridi, is dismayed by the damage the case has caused to his country.

“Everyone knows we have faced a great amount of shame for Pakistan and for the team,” said Afridi, who was succeeded by Butt as Test captain during the tour of England last summer. “It’s a lesson for us and we will now move in a new direction. I feel sorry for the family members of the players. This will stay with them for their whole lives.”

Former Pakistan opener Aamer Sohail, who played 47 Test matches, agrees that wholesale changes are needed in the Pakistan squad.

“We have seen similar episodes in the past,” he said. “It all happened, but the net result is that it is happening again.

“Until you learn and introduce reforms and proper strategy, I am afraid it will continue to happen in the future.

“It is a very sad thing for Pakistan cricket. These three were very talented. People were expecting they would do well for the country. The loss of talent like this is really sad.”

Meanwhile, Pakistan captain Misbah-ul Haq says he and his team remain fully focused on their current series against Sri Lanka in the United Arab Emirates.

Since replacing Butt after the England tour last year, Misbah has led the Test side admirably well, ensuring Pakistan went undefeated in series against South Africa, New Zealand and the West Indies.

“We have a good bunch of boys and everyone is focusing on their own performance and the team’s performance,” said Misbah, who lead the three-Test series against Sri Lanka 1-0 after two matches.

“There’s a good spirit. We know each other well and that’s the key.

The country’s name comes first, people come and go, every player needs to remember that.”

The 37-year-old Misbah was sidelined for three years between 2003-2007 after making his debut in 2002 and was again out of favour for last year’s England tour.

India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni did not seem surprised at the verdict handed out to Pakistani cricketers Salman Butt and Mohammed Asif, saying worse is bound to happen when you do worse.

The ICC chief executive, Haroon Lorgat, said he hoped the convictions would act as a deterrent and said all allegations of corruption would be investigated.

“I would reiterate that the ICC has a zero-tolerance attitude towards corruption and that we will use everything within our power to ensure that any suggestion of corrupt activity within our game is comprehensively investigated and, where appropriate, robustly prosecuted,” he said.

they were never short on confidence something that helped them bounce back.

“We did not completely need to revamp the conditions. Even when we lost the series in England we were in a positive frame of mind. If you know what went wrong, it becomes a bit easy to focus on those areas and improve as a team.

“I think the gap we got in the middle, the individuals got some time to work on those areas. If you see the fast bowlers did a good job for India. Also the spinners were brilliant. It was like not down and out. The mood was always good in the camp. That helped us bounce back,” the skipper added.

With an eye on India`s tour to Australia late this year, the selectors have picked a relatively young side for the three-Test series against the West Indies at home starting next month.

Dhoni said it would be a challenge for the youngsters.

“Test cricket is a bit different. You need to spend time in the middle.

It`s a bit difficult that requires slightly different temperament.

A bit different to shorter version. The red ball spins a bit more, bowlers get reverse swing. It`s a completely different challenge.

Experience is very important. You will see the transition as they play more and more cricket they improve.”

Pakistan take on India for a place in hockey final

and missing the following match against Australia, who are already through to the final, and today’s match, where even a draw will see Pakistan through, will be a new game altogether.

For Pakistan, the match will be more than to salvage their pride as they were involved in one of the worst clashes on the hockey field that resulted in three India players and one official being banned besides Shakeel Abbasi, the Greenshirts’ captain, serving a one-match punishment.

“It was a bitter clash but we will try to forget it,” team manager Khwaja Junaid told The Express Tribune from Australia. “We want to play the final and will go all-out in today’s game. The players are looking to put on a disciplined show and we’ll use aggression in the game to achieve victory.”

Players not fully recovered The manager said that Imran Shah, Shafqat Rasool and Haseem Khan have not fully recovered from injuries they suffered during the clash but will be seen on the field today.

Pakistan players applauded Meanwhile, Junaid said that the Pakistan team received a letter of appreciation from tournament director Graham Napier, praising them for ‘controlling their emotions despite the heated fight’. “Napier termed our players’ behaviour exemplary as they went to the referee rather than retaliating. Abbasi was only banned since he was the captain and his side was involved in a brawl.”

Pakistan triumph at Hong Kong Sixes Blistering half centuries by Abdul Razzaq and Sohail Tanvir guided Pakistan to a 35-run victory over England to be crowned champions at the Hong Kong Sixes on Sunday.

It was too much for England who regularly lost wickets before being bowled out with two balls left in the final eight-ball over, sparking jubilation among most of the 4,500-strong crowd at the Kowloon Cricket Club.

The victory saw Pakistan draw level with England as the team with the most number of wins at the big-hitting event – each on five. But Pakistan warned they will be back for more. “We are delighted to have matched England with five wins a piece. But we want to make it six next year,” said skipper Razzaq who was named Man-of-the-Match. “It was a superb batting display,” conceded England captain Rory Hamilton-Brown. “We were up against some world-class players and getting to the final itself was creditable for us.”

Pakistan had looked in good nick for the event and even outshone the All Star team boasting countryman Shahid Afridi and Sri Lankan legend Sanath Jayasuriya.

The All Stars bowed out in the quarterfinals, failing to defend a sizeable total of 118 against Sri Lanka who made it home in the very last delivery.

Player-of-the-Tournament went to Pakistan’s Umar Akmal who aggregated 197 runs and set the event alight with his fierce batting.

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South Asia Tribune I Thursday 03 November 2011

India successfully hosts inaugural F1 Grand Prix The world champion scorched the Buddh International Circuit on Sunday to win the inaugural Airtel Formula One Indian Grand Prix with a flawless display behind the wheels of his Red Bull car as Sachin Tendulkar waved the chequered flag.

Amid the deafening roar of the speed demons and thousands of cheering fans, India arrived at the international Formula One circuit in style as Sebastian Vettel zoomed to his 11th victory this year at the maiden Indian Grand Prix.

The world champion scorched the Buddh International Circuit on Sunday to win the inaugural Airtel Formula One Indian Grand Prix with a flawless display behind the wheels of his Red Bull car as Sachin Tendulkar, India’s most famous F 1 fan, waved the chequered flag.

The clockwork precision with which the race was held marked a golden day for Indian motorsport and the nation as a host.

It was not just the sizeable crowd which lapped up the intense excitement of the day.

Formula One being a globally televised sport with the second largest viewership after football, the inaugural Indian GP got the thumbs up from F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone as well as the champion. “It’s great to see what the people did here with the arena in such a short time,” Vettel said praising the circuit.

This is without doubt a great moment in Indian motorsport and also a big pat on the back for the country’s ability to host a major sporting event. After the Commonwealth Games shame, the near-flawless conduct of the race weekend proved that India can match the best in the world.

“I have been to several Formula One events around the world.

You guys have done a great job,” said Patrick Stevens, a hardcore fan.

To be sure, in the build-up to the race, there were doubts in the minds of many. Power breakdown a press conference on Thursday earned negative points for the hosts. A day later, when two dogs entered the circuit and the free practice session had to be

stopped, eyebrows were raised.

But no security glitches on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and the cordial and organised conduct came as a whiff of fresh air.

On Sunday, all doubts about India’s ability to hold an event of

Indian to drive in front of his home crowd as Karun Chandhok had to watch the action from the pit lane.

India, most people associate Formula One with Michael Schumacher. The seven-time world champion had struggled

ample chances for overtaking.

Already being hailed as one of the fastest and most “interesting” tracks, designer Hermann Tilke and promoters Jaypee Sports International have received a resounding approval from the drivers and teams.

at more than 300kmph and will definitely be waiting for the next season and for an even grander show. The tickets for the extravaganza began at Rs. 35,000 for the grand stand and cost Rs. 2,500 for the natural (grass) stand.

this magnitude were dispelled as Vettel led the charge from start to finish and posted his 11th win of the season.

It was fantastic. Winning the

for two days but came up with a great performance to finish fifth.

Early on, there was an incident when seasoned Felipe Massa hit bête noire Lewis Hamilton’s car.

The entry into the arena too was without glitches. The early birds gained by coming early and finding their seats. Security was tight but they did not trouble

With a capacity of more than 1,00,000, the entire venue had few empty seats indicating that there dedicated and sizeable following of the game in India,

maiden Indian Grand Prix is very special for me. Let me tell you this event is going to settle down very fast,” said Vettel, who ensured McLaren’s Jenson Button at his tail did not get past him at any stage in the 60-lap race.

Apart from the one-lakh crowd, the crème de la crème and the glitterati were in attendance.

From Sachin Tendulkar to Shah Rukh Khan and Sania Mirza, everyone soaked in the atmosphere.

Pop star Daler Mehndi and several diplomats also watched the proceedings as the powerful speed demons roared to life and handled the tricky corners with amazing skill and concentration.

From the Indian point of view as well there was cheer as Hispania Racing driver Narain Karthikeyan managed to finish the race at 17th position. He was the lone

But no damage was done, though Ferrari’s Massa later dropped out the race due to a technical snag his front left wheel.

From the racing point of view, the circuit provided challenges to the drivers with its dramatic corners and changes in elevation with

the paying public. Those lucky enough to have accreditation cards from the media and various teams in F1 and the sponsors’ guests had little to complain about.

The scores of fans at the Buddh circuit saw high-octane action

which in turn points to better days ahead the motorsport here.

But after the success of the inaugural Indian GP, there is every chance that more sponsors would come forward and help budding Indian drivers enter the cut-throat, albeit expensive, world of F1.

Though there were fears of delays construction and speculation of India going the Korea way with construction activities on till the last week, in the end everything squared up for a great race day.

Not only has the track proved to of high quality with challenges the drivers, the venue itself has come for praise which should serve a good platform for other racing series and a breeding ground for Indian racing talent.

In all, Sunday proved to be an epoch-making day Indian motorsport.

South Asia Tribune I Thursday 03 November 2011

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South Asia Tribune I Thursday 03 November 2011

SAT

Sports

Pakistan take on India for a place in hockey final With the arch-rivals locking horns for the second time in the tri-series, Pakistan are looking to move on from the brawl that marred the duo’s first match and move into the final.

The incident saw a number of Pakistan players injured Continued on page 29 >>

Disgraced cricketing trio

‘shamed Pakistan’

On a day when Salman Butt should have been celebrating the birth of his new son with friends and family in Lahore, the former Pakistan captain was left to contemplate a possible jail sentence and the death

of his cricket career after being found guilty of spot fixing in a British criminal court.

Butt and team mate Mohammad Asif could be enjoying their last night as free citizens for some time

on Tuesday after a jury decided they were guilty of conspiracy to cheat and conspiracy to accept corrupt payments for fixing part of a Test match in England last year.

Continued on page 29 >>

Pietersen and Finn deliver England a rare win England 121 for 4 (Pietersen 53) beat India 120 for 9 (Raina 39, Finn 3-22) by six wickets England finished a tough tour of India on an upbeat note, as they preserved their world No. 1 ranking in Twenty20 cricket with a hardearned six-wicket victory in Kolkata. Steven Finn, with 3 for 22 in four fast and accurate overs, was England’s inspiration with the ball as they limited India’s powerful line-up to 120 for 9 after MS Dhoni had won the toss.

Then it was over to Kevin Pietersen, who overcame an anxious start, and a fourth-ball life, to silence a raucous and expectant crowd with a blistering 53 from 39 balls.

Pakistan triumph at Hong Kong Sixes

Captain Razzaq smashed 63 not out, while the left-handed Tanvir battered 58, as Pakistan set an imposing target of 155.

Continued on page 29 >>

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