Jindal denies being running

Indian-American governor of Louisiana Bobby Jindal denied being the running mate to the presumptive Republican nominee senator John McCain saying he had ‘never’ talked about the subject with him. ‘He and I have never talked about that,’ said Jindal when asked if he was being considered for the Number Two spot during a programme on Fox News. ‘I am happy to be governor of Louisiana and happy to support him,’ he remarked. There were media reports that he was actively considered or will be the running mate to the presumptive Republi-can nominee senator John McCain. ‘Certainly I am supporting senator McCain. I think his views are where the country is. He is to the centre. He is conservative. He is for cutting our taxes, taking a tough line on Iran and other international challenges.

Tape of interrogation at

Lawyers have released a video showing the interrogation at Guantanamo of the youngest detainee in the ‘war on terror’, a tearful Canadian teenager accused of killing a US soldier in Afghanistan. The video was released by attorneys for terror suspect Omar Khadr, who is shown being questioned by Canadian Security Intelligence Service agents in February, 2003 at the US-run prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The footage covers seven and a half hours of questioning over three days for Khadr, who was just 15 years old when he was captured in Afghanistan in 2002. A 10-minute tape was initially posted on the internet and a complete version was due to be issued later on Tuesday by Khadr’s lawyers, following Canadian court orders. In the tape, apparently shot through the flaps of a ventilation shaft, Khadr is asked what he knows about al-Qaeda and questioned about his Islamic faith. At times, he weeps uncontrollably and pulls at his hair in despair. He also displays his wounds to his interrogators. One interrogator responds by telling Khadr he is receiving good medical care and that he needs to cooperate. At one point, an interrogator tries to calm Khadr, who is clearly distraught, saying he needs to get a ‘bite to eat’ and adding: ‘I understand this is stressful.’

Thai army enters Cambodia, protesters

About 40 Thai troops on Tuesday entered Cambodia in the latest flare-up of a territorial dispute over a 900-year-old Hindu temple, Cambodian officials at the border have said. The military deployment comes as three Thai protesters were detained by Cambodian soldiers early on Tuesday for illegally entering the temple site, which is closed to the public, a Thai provincial governor said. The 11th-century Preah Vihear temple is at the centre of a long-running territorial dispute as the main compound lies inside Cambodia but the most accessible entrance to the site is at the foot of a mountain in Thailand. ‘We are negotiating to secure their release through local officials,’ Seni Chitkasem, governor of the border province Si Sa Ket, told local television. ‘They are being detained for interrogation and haven’t yet made any demands,’ he said. Cambodia sealed off the temple last month after about 100 Thai protesters attempted to march on the ruins on June 23. One man, one woman and a Buddhist monk slipped through Cambodia’s military fence Tuesday, vowing to reclaim the temple which the World Court handed over to Cambodia in a 1962 ruling.

Blair cancels Gaza visit

International Middle East peace envoy Tony Blair cancelled what would have been his first trip to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Tuesday because of a security threat, his spokeswoman said. ‘Unfortunately we had to cancel the visit because of a specific security threat... we had to turn back on the road,’ Ruti Winterstein said. She said the former British premier was committed to visiting the impoverished Palestinian territory and hoped to schedule another trip at a later time. Blair, who was appointed representative of the Middle East peace Quartet more than a year ago, was to have visited a waste water treatment plant in northern Gaza and to have discussed humanitarian activities. He had been expected to meet the commissioner general of the UN Palestinian refugee agency, Karen Abu Zaid, and the body’s local director, John Ging. Blair had not planned to meet any representatives of Hamas, the Islamist movement that seized control of Gaza in June 2007 from forces loyal to the Palestinian president, Mahmud Abbas. But Hamas, which had welcomed the visit, said it had made the appropriate security preparations and accused Israel of pressuring Blair into cancelling the trip.

Pakistan govt wants more

Pakistan’s government is seeking to tighten restrictions on nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan in response to a legal challenge seeking his release from house arrest, his lawyer said Tuesday. Khan, the father of the country’s atomic bomb, has been effectively under house arrest in Islamabad since February 2004 when he confessed that he transferred nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea. The scientist’s wife earlier this month lodged a court challenge against the restrictions on her husband, who had cancer surgery in 2006, arguing that he should be allowed out to meet family and friends. But Khan has angered the authorities with a series of recent media interviews.

Thousands attend Bali

The remains of two Balinese royals were cremated Tuesday before some 250,000 loyal subjects after being carried through this hillside town in huge spinning pyres representing the universe. The bodies of Ubud royal family head Tjokorda Gde Agung Suyasa, who died in March after a long illness, and a lesser relative were cremated near their palace here in one of the largest royal funerals in local memory. ‘This is the biggest ceremony that I have ever seen in my life. I don’t think there’ll be anything like this again until I die,’ said artisan Wayan Suta, 42, who was in the crowd with his six-year-old son. ‘They are our kings so I needed to attend to express my respect.’ Thousands of people from all walks of life took part in the preparations, including the construction of the papier-mache pyre towers which formed the centrepiece of the spectacular funeral procession. The two-kilometre funeral march took the bodies from the town’s main temple, where they had been lying in state since Saturday, to the royal cemetery where the pyres were set alight. The royal family of Ubud, the heartland of traditional Balinese arts, is one of the most revered on the mainly Hindu island.

China quake sends 1.4m back

Up to 1.4 million people in remote villages in southwest China have slipped back into absolute poverty after the May 12 earthquake flattened their homes, state press said on Tuesday. ‘In many counties, the hard-won anti-poverty achievements in the previous two decades disappeared within seconds,’ the China Daily quoted Fan Xiaojian, head of the central government’s poverty alleviation office, as saying. ‘The damage is so massive and many farmers have reversed back into poverty again.’ Fan was referring to efforts in China to bring millions of people out of absolute poverty in recent decades, an achievement that has been widely praised by international organisations such as the United Nations. ‘Absolute poverty’ refers to existing below the income needed to secure the bare essentials of food, clothing and shelter. The May 12 earthquake which devastated wide swathes of Sichuan province left nearly 70,000 people dead and more than 17,000 missing, destroying the homes of up to five million people. In order to help the 1.4 million people who have dropped back into absolute poverty in more than 4,000 remote villages, the government needed to channel funds into the region that could help rebuild basic shelter and services, the report said.

Indian govt behind anti-Maoist

At least 100,000 villagers in eastern India have been forced to flee their homes in spiralling violence spurred by a state-backed anti-Maoist vigilante group, a US-based rights group said Tuesday. Human Rights Watch accused government forces of taking part in some of the violence, in which vigilantes allegedly attacked and killed supporters of banned left-wing rebels in the Maoist heartland of Chhattisgarh state. The rights group is calling for the state government to immediately end its support of the vigilantes and investigate rights abuses by its forces, as well as protect villagers who want to return home. ‘It is 100 per cent certain that government forces were involved,’ said Jo Becker, director of children’s advocacy at Human Rights Watch, ahead of the group’s release on Tuesday of a report on rights abuses in the state. ‘We literally talked to dozens of eye-witnesses. In numerous cases they were very clear that government forces were present and not only present, they were actively participating,’ added Becker, who was part of a research team the group sent to the state in 2007 and 2008. One man told how police came to his village in 2006 by helicopter and burnt down huts. ‘Police came in three helicopters, landed there and set huts on fire,’ the unnamed man was quoted in the report as saying, adding that more huts were burned by police as recently as October 2007. The Chhattisgarh government has praised – but denies backing – the Salwa Judum movement, which began village-to-village rallies in 2005 aimed at rooting out the left-wing rebels. The insurgency grew out of a peasant uprising in 1967 and has hit half of India’s 29 states, but its stronghold is in the heavily forested region in the south of largely tribal Chhattisgarh. The prime minister, Manmohan Singh, has described the Maoists, who say they are fighting to improve the lot of India’s rural poor, as the biggest threat to India’s internal security. Many villagers in the state have told rights groups and journalists they participated in the anti-Maoist rallies under duress from local political leaders. The Maoists in turn retaliated with indiscriminate and deadly violence, attacking and killing Salwa Judum recruits. More than half of the 837 deaths due to Maoist-related violence in India last year took place in Chhattisgarh, according to India’s home ministry. And both sides have put children on the frontlines of hostilities, the report said.The state government does need to accept responsibility for creating this situation. People are caught between the naxals (rebels) on the one hand and government and the Salwa Judum on the other,’ said Becker.

Malaysia’s Anwar faces arrest

Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim faces imminent arrest over a former aide’s accusations of sodomy – the same charge he was jailed for more than a decade ago – his lawyer said Tuesday. Sankara Nair said the investigating officer told him a warrant had been issued for Anwar’s arrest, and that he could be taken into custody when he appears at Kuala Lumpur police headquarters for questioning on Wednesday. ‘But I don’t discount him being arrested earlier. It’s a matter of execution,’ he told a press conference. ‘After speaking to the investigating officer, I think Anwar will be arrested under the Sodomy Act,’ he said, adding that a team of lawyers was on standby to apply for bail if necessary. Sodomy, even between consenting adults, is illegal in predominantly Muslim Malaysia and carries a penalty of up to 20 years imprisonment. The home minister, Syed Hamid Albar, said police were seeking a sample of Anwar’s DNA as they investigated accusations of sexual assault levelled by 23-year-old Mohamad Saiful Bukhari Azlan who was a volunteer in Anwar’s office. ‘Our intention is to get to the truth, we have taken DNA (from Mohamad Saiful) so we need to take Anwar’s DNA also,’ Syed Hamid told reporters. ‘I think we will be doing a disservice to the members of the public if we do not take any action,’ he added. Anwar’s Keadilan party, which leads the opposition alliance that gained unprecedented ground in March elections, warned its supporters would hold mass demonstrations if their leader is taken into custody. ‘It is surprising that they have resorted to such actions. If they arrest Anwar, we will have no choice but to take to the streets,’ said Keadilan’s information chief Tian Chua. Massive protests erupted after Anwar’s arrest on sodomy and corruption charges a decade ago, in a ‘Reformasi’ or ‘Reform’ movement that continues to reverberate in Malaysian politics to this day. Criminal Investigation Department director Bakri Zinin sidestepped questions over whether there was a warrant, but suggested police would not need it if Anwar turned up for questioning by a Wednesday deadline. ‘Why should we tell him to come at 2.00pm (0600 GMT) tomorrow. If he did not turn up, we have other options,’ he said. Anwar defied an order to be questioned by police on Monday, saying he was angry over being banned from parliament during an opposition bid to mount a debate criticising the prime minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. But Nair said he had agreed to a new request to appear for questioning on Wednesday. He is also due to debate with the information minister, Ahmad Shabery Cheek, on live television Tuesday night.

USA set to defend medal supremacy

Americans will attempt to lead the overall medal table for the fourth Summer Olympics in a row next month in Beijing, but hosts China and Russia will challenge for supremacy in golds and total medals. US teams had the greatest medal haul for a record fourth Games in a row at Los Angeles in 1932. While Soviet Union talent topped the table eight times from 1956 to 1992, it never equaled that mark. US squads have led the medal charts at Atlanta in 1996, Sydney in 2000 and Athens four years ago. But this time, the Chinese are going for the medal crown as hosts and with a formidable squad backed by throngs of cheering supporters. ‘Russia, China and the US are vying with the most legitimate shot at the top medal count at the Olympics,’ said Steve Roush, chief of sport performance for the US Olympic Committee. ‘This is going to be a highly competitive field. It has created an excitement around these Olympics that has been missing for a while.’ In 2004, Americans claimed 102 medals, 36 of them gold. Russians took 92 overall, 27 gold, while China had 63 overall but most, 32, were gold. China’s challenge figures to be formidable. Could the US team hit the wall? ‘China has an incredibly strong team. Host nations generally have home field advantage. There’s a job to be done,’ Roush said. ‘They’ve infused large numbers of people behind their sports program. We probably pale in comparison in terms of the level we’re able to give support to our athletes. ‘They’ve hired the world’s best coaches to come in and not only coach their athletes but coach their coaches so they can improve for future generations.’ But don’t count on the Americans handing over the crown without a fight. ‘We have a strong team. We’re making no allusions about thinking the Chinese have the stongest team,’ USOC chief executive Jim Scherr said. The 2004 US team won 28 medals in swimming and 25 in athletics, more than half the total American medal haul from Athens. But no one wants to toss out a medal goal for Beijing. ‘We hope to do much better than the team in Athens,’ US swim coach Mark Schubert said. ‘We want to win as many medals as possible,’ US women’s athletics coach Jeanette Bolden said. After US medal totals of 101, 92 and 102 at the past three Olympics, that is likely to be the range needed this time. ‘I’ve never talked about numbers. It’s one of those pressures you don’t need,’ said US men’s Olympic track coach Bubba Thornton. ‘I don’t think it really matters where we are. Who wins the medal count? That’s what (reporters) always ask about, put the graphic up there with the medal table. ‘That’s why we’re going - to show our competitiveness, sportsmanship, how we do things.’ Americans had 97 medals at Sydney before athletics star Marion Jones admitted being a dope cheat and was stripped of three golds and two bronzes, but USOC chairman Peter Ueberroth has vowed to send a ‘clean team’ to Beijing. Watch the stars who will give back medals in eight years is not exactly a great marketing slogan for the US-based corporate sponsors who greatly finance the Olympic movement. ‘This will be a clean team,’ Ueberroth said. ‘We’re proud of the progress we’ve made in doping. We don’t have a guarantee but we’re pleased. The things you are hearing about are from a previous era. We’re in a new era.’ Ueberroth thinks the US system of talent development will not be humbled by products of China’s intense youth sport development programs. ‘I think our system will be competitive and I think it will work,’ he said. Swimmer Michael Phelps will be the top US star as he chases Mark Spitz’s record of seven gold medals in a single Olympics. Phelps took six golds and two bronzes at Athens, where US swimmers led the way with 12 gold, nine silver and seven bronze medals and Australia next with seven gold, five silver and three bronze. US men won nine golds overall. Phelps is the world record-holder in four of his five individual events - the 200m freestyle, 200m butterfly and 200m and 400m individual medleys and is a former world record-holder in the 100 fly, where US teammate Ian Crocker has the world record. ‘We have a very strong men’s team. We’re proud of that. But we have to go to the Olympics and perform,’ Schubert said. ‘A lot of our challenge on the men’s side will come from the Australians, from the Japanese, from the Europeans.’ The US Olympic lineup also features the reigning women’s world gymnastics champions and all-around champion Shawn Johnson and a National Basketball Association squad set to reclaim the throne after slumping to a bronze in Athens.

Phelps keeps his eye on the wall

England (535/6) against South Africa at tea, day 2 Ian Bell’s Test-best score of 171 not out left England in a commanding position in the first Test against South Africa at Lord’s here on Friday. England, at tea on the second day, were 535 for six - the first time in 15 Tests they made more than 500 or more in the first innings since their 570 for seven against the West Indies at Headingley last year. Stuart Broad, belying his status as a No8, was 54 not out, having played his part in a century stand and completing a fine half-century with a superb backfoot cover-driven four off Makhaya Ntini in the last over before tea. Earlier, South Africa-born Kevin Pietersen had made a dominating 152 in his first Test innings against the Proteas. His partnership of 286 with Bell, who’d come in when the hosts were in trouble at 117 for three, was an England record for the fourth-wicket against South Africa, surpassing the 197 shared by Wally Hammond and Les Ames at Cape Town in 1938/39. Four members of the Proteas’ attack had conceded more than 100 runs each with Jacques Kallis’s 20 overs costing 70 runs. England resumed after lunch on 422 for five, with Bell 118 not out and Tim Ambrose four not out. But before they’d added another run Ambrose was out, edging fast bowler Morne Morkel, who at tea had taken four for 102, low to South Africa captain Graeme Smith at first slip. The elegant Bell was unconcerned, going down the pitch to loft left-arm spinner Paul Harris for six over long-off. He then showed his control by precisely cutting Morkel through the offside for another four before giving himself room to force Harris off the backfoot through the covers for a high-class boundary. Bell completed his 150 in classic style by driving fast bowler Dale Steyn straight down the ground for four into the pavilion fence. He’d then faced 252 balls with one six and 15 fours in just over six hours at the crease. Bell had come into this match under pressure after making just 45 runs in his four previous Test innings against New Zealand and with his place under threat from all-rounder Andrew Flintoff’s imminent return from injury. But he maintained the form he’d shown in making 215 for Warwickshire against Gloucestershire in a recent County Championship match. The 26-year-old went past his previous Test-best of 162 not out against minnows Bangladesh at the Riverside three years ago with a cut four off Ntini. Smith appeared to be running out of ideas, with little in the way of unusual field placings or innovative bowling changes to worry the batsmen. Broad may be a pace bowler but the son of former England opener Chris made his name in schoolboy cricket as a batsman and it was easy to see why as the left-hander whipped Harris for a legside boundary. Hopes both England’s centurions would bat through the morning session ended when Pietersen’s gloved hook off Morkel was caught down the legside by wicket-keeper Mark Boucher. And two balls after a brief rain break, Paul Collingwood was given out caught at short leg by Hashim Amla off Harris. England began Friday on their overnight score of 309 for three with Pietersen 104 not out and Bell unbeaten on 75. Pietersen produced an array of fine shots with a front foot clip off Ntini, whose first six overs on Friday cost an expensive 40 runs, through the legside reminiscent of West Indies great Vivian Richards. He gave just one chance, on 133, when Kallis failed to hold a sharp caught and bowled off a powerful drive.

US would regret any attack,

A top Iranian cleric on Friday warned Israel and the United States that they would be made to regret any attack against Iran, amid mounting tensions in the nuclear crisis. ‘You liar Israel and you liar the White House... if you want to make an invasion we will give you such a response that you will regret your move,’ Ayatollah Mohammad Emami Kashani said in a Friday prayers sermon broadcast on state radio. Tensions over the nuclear standoff have again surged in the past two days after Iran test-fired a broadside of missiles – including one it says puts it within range of Israel – in war games that provoked international concern. Iran’s top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili and the EU foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, will hold talks on ending the atomic standoff on July 19 in Geneva, the official IRNA news agency reported on Friday. ‘They are to continue their negotiations about the package on Saturday, July 19,’ IRNA quoted Ahmad Khadem al-Melleh, spokesman for the secretariat of Iran’s supreme national security council, as saying. Meanwhile, Iran’s recent missile tests showed the limited range of Tehran’s arsenal and proved that a planned US missile defence shield in Europe is unnecessary, the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said Friday. ‘The tests in Iran confirm that Iran has missiles with a range of up to 2,000 kilometres and confirm... that a missile defence shield with these parameters is not needed to monitor or react to such threats,’ he said. ‘We believe that any issue related to Iran should be resolved through negotiation, through political-diplomatic means... and not through threats,’ Lavrov told reporters in Moscow after talks with his Jordanian counterpart. The Russian minister said the United States could push ahead with its plans to set up a new missile defence system in Europe. ‘But these will be unilateral steps at a time when what is needed is collective measures, collective agreements,’ Lavrov said. His comments came three days after the US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, signed an agreement in Prague formally permitting the United States to set up a high-powered radar in the Czech Republic as part of the new missile shield. The president, Dmitry Medvedev, said immediately afterwards that Russia was ‘most distressed’ by the US moves, which Moscow says in their current form pose a direct threat to Russian national security. Moscow said this week it had no choice but to respond to the US missile defence moves with ‘concrete’ military steps of its own, heightening concern about a renewed Washington-Moscow arms race. The United States rejects Russia’s fears about the system, saying it is meant to defend against missile threats from ‘rogue’ states such as Iran and North Korea.

Vietnam ready for Miss

Some of the world’s most beautiful women have converged on Vietnam for the Miss Universe pageant, for what organisers say is a prime opportunity for the communist country to show itself off. It may not be the Olympics, but with television audiences in 170 countries expected to tune in to watch Monday’s gala, it is being touted as Vietnam’s coming-out party. ‘It really puts Vietnam front and centre, it puts Vietnam on a world stage,’ said Paula Shugart, president of the Miss Universe Organisation. ‘They can host an event that is huge, that goes to a billion viewers around the world.’ Builders have only just finished the palm-fringed venue in the southern beach town of Nha Trang, the Crown Convention Centre at the Diamond Bay Resort – a short drive from Cam Ranh Bay, once a major US naval base.

Police accuse Olmert of

The Israeli police accused the prime minister, Ehud Olmert, of fraud on Friday and said an investigation into alleged bribe-taking had been widened to look at whether he made duplicate claims for travel expenses. ‘The prime minister was asked to give his account about suspicions of serious fraud and other offences,’ the police and the justice ministry said in a joint statement issued after investigators questioned Olmert for the third time. The police have been investigating allegations Olmert took bribes from American businessman Morris Talansky. Olmert said he did nothing wrong in his dealings with the New York Jewish fundraiser but has promised to step down if indicted.

UN appeals for more aid for

UN humanitarian chief John Holmes said Thursday that the world body was hiking its aid appeal to help Cyclone Nargis victims in Myanmar from an initial 201 million to 481.8 million dollars. The revised appeal by some 13 UN agencies and 23 non-governmental organisations is to fund remaining relief needs as well as 103 early recovery projects in the areas of water, sanitation, education, health, nutrition, food and agriculture, he said here. Holmes, who heads the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said donors had covered around 70 per cent of the initial appeal of 201 million dollars, which means that 303.6 million dollars are still needed. ‘I hope the international community will show itself fully ready, capable and willing to help provide further critically-needed assistance to the people of Myanmar,’ he said at the launch of the appeal in the UN Trustee Council chamber.

Indian troops fire at Pak

Pakistan said Thursday Indian forces fired on its troops deployed at a forward post along the de-facto border dividing Kashmir between the two countries, a senior military official said. Pakistani troops fired back in retaliation but there was no immediate report of casualties in the exchange. The Indian army confirmed an incident on the heavily militarised border but said its troops had fired at suspected Islamic militant infiltrators and not Pakistani troops. The incident occurred at Battal in Rawalakot sector on the Line of Control which separates the Indian and Pakistani parts of the Himalayan territory, chief Pakistani military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said. ‘Indians fired two mortars and small arms on a Pakistani check post at 2:00pm (0800 GMT),’ Abbas said. Abbas said Pakistani soldiers retaliated with mortars and small arms, adding that a protest was communicated through a hot line across the border. ‘Pakistan is demanding an immediate meeting at the level of Directors General Military Operations,’ he said. The incident was a rare violation of a ceasefire which Pakistan and India agreed to hold in November 2003 along the Line of Control before they launched peace talks in January 2004. Speaking in Jammu on the Indian side of the line, Indian army spokesman SD Goswami said that the shooting was to ‘prevent infiltration by a group of militants’ into India. ‘Soldiers were successful in their effort. They never fired at Pakistani troops,’ he said. He in turn accused Pakistani soldiers of simultaneously firing at Indian positions with small and medium arms close to the place where the militants were trying to infiltrate. ‘We did not retaliate at all,’ the spokesman said, There were no causalities on the either side, Indian officials added.

UN Congo probes Indian officer

The scandal-hit United Nations mission in Democratic Republic of Congo is investigating an Indian peacekeeping officer accused of showing support for eastern Tutsi rebels, a UN spokesman said on Thursday. The allegations stem from recordings of a bush ceremony in which an Indian UN commander hailed the rebels as ‘brothers’ and presented their leader General Laurent Nkunda with his regimental crest, according to a transcript of the event. Nkunda’s rebels, also led by Jean Bosco Ntaganda, who is wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court, have continued to clash with Congo’s weak government despite a peace deal this year that followed 2006 elections intended to pacify the vast mineral-rich former Belgian colony. The world’s largest UN peacekeeping mission in Congo often finds itself stuck in the middle – fighting rebels and militias but also at times accused by the government of not doing enough. It has also been dogged by allegations of sexual abuse and illegal gold and arms trading by some of its members. ‘We have launched an investigation,’ mission spokesman Kemal Saiki said in response to the allegations against the Indian officer. ‘If confirmed ... this would be personal conduct unbecoming a peacekeeper and is a dereliction of duty.’ Saiki refused to name the officer but the transcript seen by Reuters and other UN sources identified him as Colonel Chand Saroha, the former commander at Sake, a strategic town in the eastern province of North Kivu. ‘We are like brothers,’ Saroha told Nkunda, Bosco and their fighters at the ceremony in April marking his departure from the zone, according to the transcript. ‘Officially we are not allowed to meet you. But your good conduct, your good discipline ... made us feel we were associated with proud people,’ Saroha added. Amid chants from his soldiers, according to the transcript, Nkunda thanked Saroha, saying: ‘You have helped us a great deal.’ There was no immediate reaction from Congolese president Joseph Kabila’s government, which has vowed to bring peace to the country’s turbulent east.

North Korean troops kill

A North Korean soldier shot dead a female South Korean tourist who strayed into a restricted military area during a morning stroll at a resort in the communist North, officials said Friday. Seoul called the incident ‘deeply regrettable’ and suspended tours to the Mount Kumgang resort, one of only two sites in North Korea open to South Korean visitors. It called for a full investigation into the tragedy. The shooting was the first since tours to the resort, developed by the South as a symbol of reconciliation, began in 1998. It came on the same day that the president, Lee Myung-Bak, offered to hold talks with the North to end months of hostility between the two governments. He knew about the incident before making his speech but decided to go ahead with it, a presidential spokesman said. The North told the South Korean tour operator Hyundai Asan that the 53-year-old woman was walking on the beach at around 5:00am (2000 GMT Thursday) when she strayed into an off-limits zone. It said she fled despite a warning to halt and was shot in the chest and the hip. The body was later handed over to the South, and taken to a hospital in Sokcho. ‘We find it deeply regrettable that a South Korean tourist was shot dead by a North Korean soldier,’ said Kim Ho-Nyoun, spokesman for the unification ministry which handles cross-border relations. ‘We express deep condolences.’ Kim urged North Korea to cooperate fully in investigating the tragedy. ‘Until the completion of the investigation, tours to Kumgang will be suspended,’ he said. Media reports identified the married woman as Park Wang-Ja. Kim Jung-Tae, another official at the briefing, said the Seoul government would launch its own investigation as soon as possible. He said there had been no official word from the North about the matter, noting: ‘We will send a telephone message to N Korea at an early date.’ About 1.8 million people, mostly South Koreans, have visited Mount Kumgang since 1998. It was developed by South Korea’s Hyundai Group and is operated by subsidiary Hyundai Asan.

Malaysia PM’s handover plan

Prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s decision to step down in favour of his deputy in mid-2010 has not silenced calls for a prompt change of leadership after a drubbing in March elections. Abdullah said Thursday he had struck an agreement with his deputy Najib Razak to hand over power, but first wanted the opportunity to implement reforms and projects promised since he came to office five years ago. The premier has faced repeated calls to resign from within his ruling United Malays National Organi-sation, after unprecedented losses in the elections and a fuel price hike that triggered public outrage. Although his announcement was aimed at silencing these dissident factions, and averting a challenge in UMNO leadership polls in December, rumblings from within have already begun. Party vice president Muhyiddin Yassin, a potential leadership contender who has much to lose under the deal, said some in the party preferred a quicker handover and wanted to decide their new leader for themselves. ‘Some have expressed concern that if the duration is that long the situation will not become more convincing. This needs to be taken into account,’ Muhyiddin told state news agency Bernama. ‘The election is still far. Why the haste to make the decision now,’ he said. Muhyiddin was tipped as a number-two to Najib after Abdullah’s departure, but will now have to wait two years for a chance at the role. UMNO veteran Razaleigh Hamzah, a prince from northern Kelantan state who wants to challenge Abdullah for the top job, also questioned the premier’s right to hand over the party’s leadership to Najib. ‘It’s improper for Abdullah to hand over any post as it is an elected post,’ he told Bernama. Traditionally the president of UMNO, which leads a national coalition representing Malaysia’s various races, is also prime minister. ‘Many people are unaware that the PM must get permission from various institutions especially the King before doing this,’ he said. Abdullah’s predecessor Mahathir Mohamad, a staunch Najib ally who had a very public falling out with Abdullah, predicted that Najib will never become prime minister.

Deadly US ‘buzzers’ fray

Pilotless US drones armed with missiles have stepped up patrols over Pashtun villages on the Afghan-Pakistan border, hunting for Taliban and al-Qaeda militants and fraying nerves below. Pashtun villagers living on the frontier call them ‘buzzers,’ and the aircraft have increasingly taken to the skies, causing sleepless nights and occasionally raining down death. ‘We’re sick of these drones, they’re driving us crazy,’ said Sher Shah, a government official in the town of Wana in the South Waziristan region, a hot bed of militancy in northwest Pakistan. ‘They fly so low at night we can’t sleep!’ The Predators, capable of carrying two anti-tank Hellfire missiles, can remain aloft for up 24 hours – providing the Central Intelligence Agency with a wealth of intelligence beamed live from its hi-tech cameras. They have struck several times in northwest Pakistan this year, killing dozens of suspected militants. Sometimes villagers can spot the drones – a tiny speck in the sky – and even fire at them with rifles. At other times the drones are too high to see, but you know they’re there from the distinctive and incessant buzz given off by their rear-mounted propeller engines. The buzzing often gets louder at night as the drones patrol at lower altitudes in the darkness, villagers say. Residents of Bajaur, another militant-plagued region on the Afghan border, to the northeast of Waziristan, said drones flew overhead all night on Thursday. ‘The sky is not safe, the earth is not safe, where should we go?’ asked Jabbar Shah, a resident of Inayat Kalay village, about 10 km from the border. ‘We don’t know when will they strike and who will they hit. It’s very worrying,’ he said. Pakistan’s semi-autonomous tribal belt became a sanctuary for al-Qaeda and Taliban militants fleeing from Afghanistan after US-led forces ousted the Taliban in 2001. Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden is believed to be hiding on the mountainous border. Taliban militants fighting Western forces in Afghanistan also take sanctuary there and the Pentagon last month said insurgent havens in Pakistan were the biggest threat to Afghan security. US ally Pakistan says it is doing all it can to stop attacks into Afghanistan and to rid the region of al-Qaeda and many hundreds of Pakistani soldiers have been killed battling the militants. But despite that, analysts say the Predator activity – which Pakistan does not officially allow – is a sign of growing US frustration with Pakistan’s inability to tackle the militants. Some US politicians, including presidential candidate Barack Obama, have even suggested that the United States should attack al-Qaeda inside Pakistan without Pakistani approval. Pakistan, which has been trying to negotiate peace with the militants, has ruled out allowing foreign troops on its soil. Pakistan’s the News newspaper reported on Friday a build-up of US forces on the border in eastern Afghanistan. But Mehmood Shah, a retired senior security official, said it would be illogical for the United States to open a new front by attacking across the border with troops. For the time being, at least, it looks as if the United States will rely on its drones, and people on the border will continue living in fear.

24 in killed Sri Lanka fighting

At least 22 Tamil Tiger rebels and two government soldiers have died in the latest clashes in northern Sri Lanka, the island’s defence ministry said Wednesday. The fighting, which took place on Tuesday, was centred around the Weli Oya, Vavuniya and Mannar regions, the statement said. The rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam did not comment on Tuesday’s fighting. But guerrillas said 50 civilians were killed in the rebel-held north in June, including seven who died in roadside mine attacks blamed on army commandos. Casualty figures given by either side cannot be independently verified as the defence ministry bars journalists and rights groups from travelling to the frontlines. The latest figures given by the ministry raises the number of rebels killed by government forces to 4,811 since January, while 432 soldiers have died in the same period.

‘Singapore falls short on rights’

Despite its impressive economic development, Singapore fails to meet international standards for political and human rights and there are concerns about the independence of its judiciary, an association of lawyers said. The International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute identified a number of areas in which Singapore fell far short of international norms, said the association’s executive director Mark Ellis. ‘In particular, democratic debate and media comment are extremely restricted and government officials have initiated numerous successful defamation suits against both political and media critics,’ he said in a statement released late Tuesday in London. The rights institute also issued 18 recommendations, which it said Singapore’s government should implement urgently. The group has published a 72-page report on the issue, several months after the IBA held its annual convention in Singapore. The association represents 30,000 lawyers globally. ‘Singapore cannot continue to claim that civil and political rights must take a back seat to economic rights, as its economic development is now of the highest order,’ the report said, calling human rights universal and indivisible. The IBA’s rights institute ‘strongly encourages Singapore to engage with the international community in a more constructive manner, and to take steps to implement international standards of human rights throughout Singapore.’ It called for Singapore to take its place as a regional leader on human rights, democracy and rule of law, as well as in business and economic development. Singapore holds the rotating chair of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, whose new charter calls for establishment of a regional human rights body. The IBA report said the cases of opposition politicians JB Jeyaretnam and Chee Soon Juan illustrate concerns over the use of defamation laws to stifle political opposition and expression. JB Jeyaretnam, 82, a lawyer, was disbarred when declared bankrupt in 2001 after failing to pay libel damages to members of the ruling People’s Action Party, including a former prime minister.

Militants in Southeast Asia rely

Islamic militants across Southeast Asia have become increasingly dependent on donations, including zakat (alms), to finance bombings because governments have tightened bank controls, according to security experts. More than 50 per cent of terrorist financing in Southeast Asia now comes from individual donations, said Arabinda Acharya of the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research in Singapore. ‘It’s now the largest source of money for militants because it’s difficult to detect,’ Acharya said at a workshop on countering the financing of terrorism in Manila this week, adding Islamic jihadists have been avoiding formal channels. But, he believed the money passing through informal methods, such as couriers, was not as substantial as that funnelled by al-Qaeda support groups before the 2001 deadly attacks in the United States. After the September 11 attacks, Acharya said militants elsewhere in the world had moved their funds out from banks and invested them in stocks, gems, real estate, insurance and other financial instruments. ‘We learned that Islamic militants in India were speculating in stocks and those in Africa were buying diamonds and other gem stones,’ he said, adding that those in Southeast Asia rely more on donations from charity organisations and from zakat, which is usually but not exclusively collected at mosques. In the Philippines, Acharya said the deadliest militant group, the Abu Sayyaf, was forced to go into kidnapping and extortion because the money it was getting from foreign and local donors was not enough to finance bombings. Citing a classified Philippine police report, Acharya said the Abu Sayyaf abandoned a plot in 2006 to blow up targets in Manila as well as build a chemical plant in the south because its funds from abroad were drying up.

Clashes mark Palestinian protest

Brief clashes broke out during a protest in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, one of several planned to mark four years since the world court called for partial demolition of Israel’s separation barrier. Israeli soldiers fired teargas at teenagers who stoned their vehicles before the situation calmed down again within minutes as one of the protest organisers, Salah al-Khawaja, waved an olive branch and a Palestinian flag. About 200 Palestinians and international activists marched from the West Bank town of Nilin towards the site where the barrier is being built. Israeli troops in four jeeps rushed to the scene and fired teargas as teenagers climbed aboard a bulldozer and hurled stones at the vehicles. Other protests were planned to mark four years since the International Court of Justice issued a non-binding resolution that calls for parts of the barrier built inside the West Bank to be torn down, and construction to be halted along the planned route inside the territory. ‘Our goal is to stop the bulldozers,’ said Khawaja, who is also one of the organisers of weekly protests staged at the construction site, demonstrations which often lead to clashes between troops and protesters. ‘The goal of the protests is peaceful,’ he added, while admitting that there had been incidents of rock-throwing. ‘What do they expect from farmers who see their trees are being uprooted? They want to live, they want to send their children to university.’ Palestinian schoolteacher Hassan Musa, 33, who attended the protest with his seven-year-old son, said ‘the building of the wall affects everyone’s life. They want to expel us from our land.’ Israeli authorities says the barrier is needed to stop potential attackers from infiltrating Israel and Jewish settlements in the West Bank, but Palestinians denounce it as an ‘apartheid’ wall aimed at grabbing their land and undermining the viability of their promised state. Israel has pressed ahead with construction of the barrier and completed about 200 kilometres since the ICJ issued its order. To date Israel has built 57 per cent of the projected 723 kilometres of steel and concrete walls, fences and barbed wire, according to UN figures.

Female students rally at

Several thousand female Islamic students rallied at the radical Red Mosque in the Pakistani capital on Wednesday, just days after a suicide bomber killed 19 people during a protest there. The blast on Sunday targeted policemen guarding the protest by thousands of Islamists who had gathered to mark the one year anniversary of a military raid on the al-Qaeda linked mosque. Security was again tight for Wednesday’s rally called to demand the reconstruction of a seminary destroyed in the controversial raid, an AFP correspondent witnessed. Nearly 2,000 students, many clad in all-covering burqas, sat inside the mosque compound and chanted slogans against the US-backed president, Pervez Musharraf, who ordered last year’s raid which left 100 people dead. ‘We will take revenge against those who killed innocent men, women and children during the operation,’ Ume-Hassan, wife of the mosque’s former firebrand leader Abdul Aziz told the rally. ‘Our protest will continue against the forces of tyranny,’ she said as the students shouted ‘Go Musharraf Go’ and ‘Hang Musharraf’. The police formed pickets outside the compound and used metal detecting scanners to check the protesters for weapons before allowing them inside. The students became a symbol last year of the mosque’s defiance against the government, and conducted an Islamic vigilante campaign in the capital that included kidnapping several Chinese nationals they claimed were prostitutes. Government forces besieged the mosque on July 3, 2007, after a clash between police and militants in the building. Army commandos stormed it a week later, laying waste to parts of the building and leaving scores dead.

China kills five Muslims planning

The Chinese police killed five Muslims who were planning a ‘holy war’ but armed only with kni-ves, state media said Wednesday, in the latest alleged terror threat ahead of the Beijing Olympics. The five were shot dead on Tuesday when police raided their hide-out in Urumqi, the capital of the Muslim-populated Xinjiang region in China’s far northwest, the official Xinhua news agency reported, citing local authorities. Fifteen people, all members of Xinjiang’s Muslim Turkic-speaking Uighur majority population, were at the apartment and had been wielding knives when police conducted the raid, the report said. ‘The suspected criminals that police killed and nabbed... were from a ‘holy war’ training group,’ Xinhua said, citing an unnamed Urumqi police spokesman. ‘After police used tear gas on the premise, a roomful of people tried to break out, waving knives and injuring one policeman. The policemen were then forced to open fire, killing five on the spot and injuring two.’ It said the others had been detained and confessed to planning terrorist attacks against China’s majority Han population. The police found more than 30 knives at the apartment in which they were hiding, the biggest of which was 50 centimetres long, according to Xinhua. The report made no mention of any heavier weapons, such as guns or grenades. China has repeatedly warned of a terrorist threat from Xinjiang, which borders Afghanistan and Central Asia, and announced at least five separate raids this year in the region that have foiled attacks. China said in April it had crushed a group in Xinjiang that was plotting to kidnap foreign journalists, tourists and athletes during the Olympics. In another case, police in Urumqi said they broke up a group in January whose leaders were planning to stage attacks in Beijing and Shanghai with toxic materials and explosives. However human rights groups and exiled Uighurs allege the government has fabricated or exaggerated the terrorist threat as an excuse to crush all forms of dissent there. Many Uighurs say they have been subjected to 60 years of repressive communist Chinese rule, and have complained of an increased security crackdown ahead of next month’s Games. The Xinhua report on Wednesday said the Uighurs, 10 men and five women, threatened to ‘perish together’ when cornered by police and shouted ‘sacrifice for Allah’. ‘The suspects confessed they had all received training on the launching of a ‘holy war.’ Their aim was to kill Han people, the most populous ethnic group in China whom they took as heretics, and found their own state,’ Xinhua said. When contacted by AFP, Urumqi police referred all media inquiries to the regional police headquarters. However the Xinjiang police refused to comment. Xinjiang is a vast region of deserts and stunning mountain ranges that is home to more than eight million Uighurs who have long chafed under Chinese control.

US faces dilemma as Pakistan grapples

The United States is facing a major dilemma as ally Pakistan grapples with surging militant violence fuelled by groups who may also have a hand in Afghanistan’s worsening security crisis, experts say. After Monday’s deadly suicide bombing in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad and alleged Pakistani involvement in another such attack in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul, one intelligence report said Pakistan lacked ‘willingness and ability’ to take on the rapidly rising threat posed by Islamist extremism and militancy. ‘The fact is that the civilian government and the country’s military establishment appear to be losing control of the situation,’ warned private US intelligence firm Stratfor in a report to clients after the twin attacks. In Pakistan, it said, there was a ‘national lack of acknowledgement that the country is being torn apart by religious extremism.’ Stratfor predicted ‘it is only a matter of time before Washington escalates its unilateral military operations deeper into Pakistani territory’ – a move experts warned could worsen ‘collateral’ damage and fuel anti-Americanism. US airstrikes in Pakistan’s tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan, where Washington believes al-Qaeda and Taliban militants are hiding, is now regarded as almost a daily affair. As the new government of the prime minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani, struggles to adopt appropriate policies to a series of political, economic and security crises, the US president, George W Bush, is concerned the next major terrorist strike on the United States may be planned in Pakistan. ‘Washington finds itself in a difficult position,’ said Robert Hathaway of the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars. The latest US strategy of launching unilateral air strikes on suspected militant hideouts inside Pakistan is causing casualties on innocent civilians and fuelling anti-American feelings, he said. It also does not promote the objective of convincing the Pakistanis that the fight against militancy and radicalism is their fight, he said. Most people believe a long term campaign to provide education, jobs and establishing a functioning set of governmental institutions in the tribal lands could help improve people’s lives and eventually ease the security crisis. ‘That’s a long term strategy but the problem is here and now, and it’s not yet apparent that anyone either in Washington or in Islamabad really knows how to connect the two – the long term solution with immediate problems,’ Hathaway said. He blamed the Bush administration for failing to adopt a coherent policy towards Pakistan since the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on the United States. ‘Seven years after 9/11, the United States is worse off in Pakistan than it was, American interests in the region were worse off than they were, and Pakistan is worse off than it was,’ he said. The United States is only now considering a new aid strategy for Pakistan that could triple unconditional non-security aid to 1.5 billion dollars annually for a 10-year period and tie security funding to counter-terrorism performance. In coming weeks, bipartisan legislation will be introduced in the US Senate laying the foundation for the new approach, officials said. The United States provided Pakistan more than 10.5 billion dollars for military, economic, and development activities in the 2002-2007 period. Internal government studies showed there was ‘no comprehensive plan’ to destroy the militant ‘safe haven’ in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas, a vast, impoverished, mountainous and unpoliced area along the border with Afghanistan.

Cheerleaders prep for Beijing

Sporting skimpy outfits and glistening smiles, the Chinese women dancing here could be cheerleaders for any US sports team. Only the colourful fans and ‘nunchakus’ chain sticks give them away. One month before the Beijing Olympics, hundreds of Chinese women are flocking to a gym in the suburbs of the capital to learn how to jump, flip and cheer for the tens of thousands of spectators who will attend the Summer Games. Cheerleading is a quintessentially American tradition but has become more and more popular here, thanks in large part to the phenomenal success of US basketball among China’s youth, who are not shocked by scantily-clad dancers. Olympic organisers, working hard to make these Games the best ever, have embraced the dance teams as a colourful way to keep spectators happy during breaks in play in basketball, beach volleyball and some of the other sports. Some of the women are professional dancers, while others come from dance schools around the country. Training sessions will run until July 27, but last week, the women working out in Jingdong, an hour’s drive from Beijing, learned from some of the best—the cheerleaders for the Super Bowl runners-up, the New England Patriots. ‘They’re a lot like Americans—they use pompoms, they do flips,’ says 20-year-old Patriot dancer Corie Mae Callaluca, every bit the picture of the stereotypical cheerleader with long blonde hair and blue eyes. When the Patriot squad launches into one high-energy routine after another during a demonstration, their Chinese students watch with wide-eyed admiration and envy. For 22-year-old recent university graduate Pei Qiyu, working out with Callaluca and her teammates was a great pre-Olympic confidence builder. ‘We’re quickly learning this new skill. Our sessions with foreign cheerleaders this year have really been a great way to learn. We like their style, and what we’re learning from them,’ Pei said. ‘Cheerleaders are not yet a big deal in China—it’s just starting to catch on,’ she added. Pei is one of 600 Chinese cheerleaders who have been training for months, many of whom have also honed their skills during the ‘Good Luck Beijing’ Olympic test events in Beijing over the past year. Organisers are hoping that the ‘laladui’, as they are known in Mandarin, will enchant spectators with their signature Chinese style, mixing elements from traditional Peking opera into more typical hip-hop US routines. ‘We use a lot of moves and props from Chinese folk dances, like fans,’ said Pei, who will be on the floor entertaining the crowd at the Olympic basketball venue. Pei says she hopes the Olympic cheers will help spectators learn more about traditional Chinese dance. For Callaluca and the Patriots, the training sessions are both an exercise in cultural exchange and in marketing—the US National Football League opened an office in September last year.

Guest talks too much, German

A desperate German woman finally called emergency services to rescue her after a friend visiting her at her apartment talked for 30 hours straight, authorities said Tuesday. A police spokesman in the western city of Speyer confirmed reports about the case, in which the guest rambled on about personal problems and became increasingly intoxicated until the 48-year-old dialled the emergency hotline. ‘After an unbelievable 30 hours and failed attempts to encourage the guest to leave last Saturday, the woman did not know what else to do but to call an ambulance,’ the police said. When the paramedics refused to carry the guest out of the apartment, the woman called the police, who picked up the friend and drove her home. The spokesman said the guest would face no criminal charges.

Kenyan FM resigns over

The Kenyan finance minister, Amos Kimunya, on Tuesday announced he had tendered his resignation from the government over suspicion of corruption in the sale of a luxury Nairobi hotel. Speaking to reporters in Nairobi, the minister said he was pulling out of the cabinet to allow for an investigation into his role in the sale of the Grand Regency hotel last month. ‘I have requested his excellence the president to be allowed to step aside to facilitate this enquiry,’ Kimunya said at a press conference. ‘I have had several conversations with the president on the issue of the disposal of the Grand Regency hotel.

Church of England faces split

The Church of England was facing a serious split Tuesday after its ruling General Synod voted to allow women bishops despite threats by more than 1,300 clergy that they would quit over the issue. The Synod, the church’s legislative body, voted late Monday to press ahead with the ordination of women bishops and rejected the legal safeguards demanded by traditionalists. The Synod members voted to approve the drawing-up of a statutory national code of practice to accommodate parishes and clergy who object to women bishops on grounds of conscience. That fell short of demands by traditionalists, who had wanted new dioceses to be created for parishes and clergy opposed to women bishops. The Synod also rejected compromise proposals to create a new order of three male ‘super bishops’ to cater for objectors. The crunch vote at the University of York in northern England followed a passionate six-hour debate which pitched conservatives against liberals and ended with one bishop in tears as he said he was ‘ashamed’ of the Church of England. The Rt Rev Stephen Venner, the Bishop of Dover in southeast England, who supports women bishops, said the failure to agree to create ‘super bishops’ meant that every opportunity to allow objectors to ‘flourish’ with the Church had been blocked. ‘I have to say, Synod, for the first time in my life, I feel ashamed,’ he said. Bishops voted to bring forward legislation to ordain women bishops by 28 to 12, clergy were in favour by 124 to 44 and lay people by 111 to 68. The Church of England, led by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, is the mother church of the worldwide Anglican Communion, which has about 77 million followers. It first ordained women priests in 1994 amid a storm of controversy. For conservatives, women and gay clergy – an issue which has also caused bitter splits in the church in recent years – cast doubt on the interpretation of Christianity’s sacred text, the Bible.

Obama to propose overhauling

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama will propose overhauling US bankruptcy laws on Tuesday to ease their impact on people unable to pay their bills because of medical expenses or military service. ‘I’ll reform our bankruptcy laws to give Americans who find themselves trapped in debt a second chance,’ Obama will say in prepared remarks for a town hall in Powder Springs, Georgia, which is outside of Atlanta. ‘While Americans should pay what they owe and we should be fair to those creditors who were fair to their borrowers, we also have to do more for the struggling families who need help most,’ he added. Obama, an Illinois senator, and Republican John McCain, an Arizona senator, have been squaring off this week over the economy as they court voters who are increasingly anxious over soaring energy costs and a deteriorating jobmarket. McCain and Obama will face each other in the November election. Obama took aim at a 2005 overhaul of bankruptcy laws that was strongly supported by credit card companies and other consumer lenders which made it tougher for people facing personal bankruptcy to discharge debt. Obama said about half of all personal bankruptcies result in part from the burden of high medical expenses. He said he would change the law so that Americans who can prove that their bankruptcies resulted from high medical costs could get some relief from their debts. Obama would also create a ‘fast-track’ bankruptcy process for people serving in the military and their families who get behind on expenses because of long deployments, repeated moves and predatory lenders.

US pushing 2-way pacts with

Washington is pursuing bilateral agreements with several European countries on sharing personal data in terrorist or criminal investigations that could be less strict than an EU-US pact currently under negotiation, the Washington Post reported Tuesday. The Post said that several newer members of the European Union are being offered visa-free entry into the United States for their citizens in exchange for deals to share not only fingerprint and DNA data but information on the ethnicity, religion and political beliefs of suspects. Citing unnamed US and European officials, the newspaper said that the United States was now holding negotiations with Estonia, Hungary and the Czech Republic in pursuit of data-sharing agreements. The agreements allow the countries to share, on request, ‘personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinion or religious or other beliefs, trade union membership or information concerning health and sexual life’ where the data could be relevant, the Post said. ‘Senior Bush administration officials said the data exchange is crucial for spotting dangerous people before they enter the United States and for furthering criminal and terrorist investigation,’ the Post said. But rights activist are raising alarms about the breadth of the pacts. ‘We seem to be opening the floodgates left, right and centre,’ Netherlands EU parliament member Sophie in’t Veld told the Post. ‘It seems to me there are hardly any restrictions left,’ she said. The agreements, which are modelled in part on a US-Germany preliminary personal data access agreement reached in March, require the parties to ‘take suitable safeguards’ to protect the data being shared. Stewart Baker, the assistant secretary for policy at the Department of Homeland Security, told the Post that the restrictions mean that the United States would share with another country personal information that is important for an investigation. For example, a suspect’s religion would be relevant in an investigation into a Muslim extremist plot, according to Baker. Baker also told the Post that the United States has agreed to limit the use of the data, not to share it onward with other governments, and not to retain data no longer useful. But German data protection commissioner Peter Schaar expressed concerns to the newspaper that Washington has no independent supervision of data protection and privacy rights.

Iraq demands pullout timetable

The Iraqi prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, said on Monday he is negotiating a deal with Washington that will for the first time set a timetable for a withdrawal of foreign forces as part of a framework for a US troop presence into next year. The White House, however, said no ‘hard date’ for the withdrawal of US forces was contemplated and US officials suggested that any timetable would be dependent on conditions on the ground. Nevertheless, it was the first time that Baghdad’s Shia-led government has made a timetable for a US pullout a condition for a promised new agreement with the United States for a troop presence into 2009. ‘The direction we are taking is to have a memorandum of understanding either for the departure of the forces or to have a timetable for their withdrawal,’ a statement from Maliki’s office quoted him as telling Arab ambassadors to the United Arab Emirates. ‘The negotiations are still continuing with the American side, but in any case the basis for the agreement will be respect for the sovereignty of Iraq,’ he added. The US president, George W Bush, has repeatedly refused to set a timetable for a US withdrawal, and administration officials linked any change to conditions on the ground. ‘It is important to understand that these are not talks on a hard date for a withdrawal,’ said White House spokesman Scott Stanzell.

Iran to hit Tel Aviv, US

Iran will hit Tel Aviv, US shipping in the Gulf and American interests around the world if it is attacked over its disputed nuclear activities, an aide to Iran’s Supreme Leader was quoted as saying on Tuesday. ‘The first bullet fired by America at Iran will be followed by Iran burning down its vital interests around the globe,’ the students news agency ISNA quoted Ali Shirazi as saying in a speech to Revolutionary Guards. The United States and its allies suspect Iran is trying to build nuclear bombs. Tehran says its program is peaceful. ‘The Zionist regime is pressuring White House officials to attack Iran. If they commit such a stupidity, Tel Aviv and US shipping in the Persian Gulf will be Iran’s first targets and they will be burned,’ Shirazi was quoted as saying. Shirazi, a mid-level cleric, is Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s representative to the Revolutionary Guards. ‘The Iranian nation will never accept bullying. The Iranian nation is a nation of believers which believes in jihad and martyrdom. No army in the world can confront it,’ he added. In Jerusalem, Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert’s spokesman, Mark Regev, declined to comment on the threat to hit Tel Aviv, saying only: ‘Shirazi’s words speak for themselves.’ Israel, believed to be the Middle East’s only nuclear-armed power, has vowed to prevent Iran from acquiring an atomic bomb. The United States says it wants to resolve the dispute by diplomacy but has not ruled out military action. Shirazi’s comments intensified a war of words that has raised fears of military confrontation and helped boost world oil prices to record highs in recent weeks. ‘We will make the enemy regret threatening Iran,’ Mohammad Hejazi, deputy commander of the Revolutionary Guards, was quoted as saying by the semi-official Mehr news agency on Tuesday. Tel Aviv is an Israeli coastal metropolis of about 2 million people. It was hit in 1991 by Scud missiles launched by Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein during a US-led war with Baghdad. Unlike other major Israeli cities such as Jerusalem and Haifa, it is home to relatively few Arabs. Iran has previously threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, the sea channel which flows along its coastline at the entrance to the Gulf, if it comes under attack. The strait is the world’s most important waterway because it is the conduit for roughly 40 per cent of globally traded oil. The Revolutionary Guards’ commander of artillery and missile units, Mahmoud Chaharbaghi, said 50 brigades of his forces had been equipped with what he called smart cluster munitions. ‘All our arms, bullets and rockets are on alert so that we would defend the Islamic Republic’s territory with the most modern arms we have at our disposal,’ the moderate Hemayat newspaper quoted him as saying. Senior officials from six world powers held a conference call on Monday to discuss Iran’s response to a revised package of incentives to curb its nuclear activities. The United States, France, Britain, China, Russia and Germany offered Iran the new package last month and said Tehran must suspend its uranium enrichment work before formal talks could start on implementing it. The Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said on Monday his country would not stop enriching uranium and rejected as ‘illegitimate’ a demand by major powers that it do so.

Ex-Thai speaker stripped of

Thai election officials Tuesday stripped the former parliamentary speaker of his seat for handing out bribes, paving the way for an investigation which could see the ruling party dissolved. The Election Commission found Yongyut Tiyapairat guilty of bribing local officials in northern Thailand while campaigning for his People’s Power Party ahead of December elections. ‘There is evidence to believe that Yongyut has violated election law leading to an election which was not free and fair,’ the verdict said. ‘The court rules to withdraw his political rights for five years and orders a by-election in constituency 3 in Chiang Rai.’ Yongyut, a close ally of ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra, immediately cancelled a planned press conference on hearing the verdict. He had denied the charges and now faces a criminal investigation. PPP spokesman Kuthep Saikrajang said the party would accept the verdict. ‘The party, however, is upset that the judgement bans Yongyuth from political activities for 5 years,’ Kuthep said, adding that the current political climate is too unstable. ‘But, we will be patient and continue fighting because this is just the beginning,’ he said. The conviction opens the door to a broader probe into the operations of the PPP itself that could lead to the dissolution of the party, which rallied Thaksin’s supporters in the elections late last year.

Full ratification of ASEAN charter

More mortar fire after Israel

Gaza militants fired a mortar on Tuesday just hours after Israel reopened crossing points into the Hamas-ruled territory that it closed in response to an earlier violation of a three-week-old truce. The Israeli military said a mortar round struck an uninhabited area of southern Israel without causing casualties or damage. Israel has responded to previous attacks by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip by sealing the border, but it gave no immediate indication that it planned to do so again following the latest incident. ‘I am not aware of any decision to close the crossing points,’ military spokesman Peter Lerner said. Israel closed crossings into Gaza on Tuesday morning after a mortar round was fired at southern Israel the previous day, but reopened them several hours later. ‘Following a special request by the Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, the defence minister, Ehud Barak, ordered the reopening of the crossings at around noon (0900 GMT),’ Barak’s office said. Egypt played a key role in mediating the Gaza truce between Israel and the Islamist movement Hamas, which went into effect on June 19. Suleiman, Egypt’s pointman for Palestinian affairs, was due to hold talks on the fragile truce with a Hamas delegation that travelled to Cairo on Tuesday.

Rights group slams S Arabia slave

Saudi Arabian families are abusing female migrant workers to the point of slavery and Riyadh needs to respond with sweeping labour and justice reforms, a major rights group said Tuesday. US-based Human Rights Watch said in a new report released in Indonesia that many Saudis believed they ‘owned’ their foreign domestic workers and treated them like slaves. ‘Saudis treat them like chattel, slaves, like cattle. A domestic worker is like a slave and slaves have no rights,’ the report quoted a ‘senior consular official’ with a foreign embassy in the kingdom as saying. The 133-page report entitled ‘As If I Am Not Human’: Abuses against Asian Domestic Workers in Saudi Arabia,’ was compiled after two years of research, the group said. The work included 42 interviews with domestic workers, officials, and labour recruiters in Saudi Arabia and the workers’ countries of origin, it said. Out of 86 domestic workers interviewed, HRW concluded that 36 faced abuse that amounted to forced labour, trafficking or slavery-like conditions. Some of the cases were horrific. ‘For one year and five months... no salary at all. I asked for money and they would beat me, or cut me with a knife, or burn me,’ Sri Lankan domestic worker Ponnamma S was quoted as telling the rights group. Haima G, a Filipina domestic worker, said her employer called her into his bedroom one day soon after she had arrived and told her she had been ‘bought’ for 10,000 riyals (2,670 dollars). ‘The employer raped me many times. I told everything to madam. The whole family, madam, the employer, they didn’t want me to go. They locked the doors and gates,’ she was quoted as saying. Nour Miyati, an Indonesian domestic worker, had her fingers and toes amputated due to daily beatings and starvation. Charges against her employers were dropped after a three-year legal process, despite a confession. ‘Employers often take away passports and lock workers in the home, increasing their isolation and risk of psychological, physical, and sexual abuse,’ HRW said in a statement. It said Saudi labour laws excluded domestic workers, so many were forced to work 18 hours a day, seven days a week – often without pay – for years. Sleeping quarters included closets and bathrooms. Nisha Varia, HRW’s senior women’s rights researcher, said that in the worst cases the women were ‘treated like virtual slaves.’

‘Insurgents must stop brutal

A leading rights group spoke out Tuesday over the targeting of civilians and brutal killings in Thailand’s restive south, warning that beheadings, live burnings and torture were becoming common. More than 3,300 people have been killed since separatist unrest broke out in January 2004, and militants’ tactics have become increasingly gruesome. ‘Insurgent groups continue to unleash brutality on civilians to demonstrate their power and weaken the credibility of Thai authorities,’ Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch said in a statement. ‘Retaliating against government abuses does not provide any excuse for killing civilians. Their tactics are illegal and cannot be justified in any circumstances.’ Insurgents have shot dead four people in Pattani province since Monday, in two separate attacks. On Tuesday, a couple employed as construction workers were shot on their way to work before their bodies were set alight, the police said. Two army rangers were also shot dead as they escorted a school bus on Monday afternoon. Three students were injured in the ambush, the police said. On July 4, insurgents beheaded Khan Sangthong, a 55-year-old Buddhist, in nearby Yala province. He was shot, burned and had nails hammered through his hands before being beheaded. His severed head was placed on a bridge yards from his body. Human Rights Watch said more than 20 Buddhist Thais have been beheaded by insurgents across the southern border provinces in the last four years.

Suspects quizzed over

The Pakistani police questioned several suspects Tuesday over multiple blasts in Karachi which killed one person and wounded 37, the second attack in as many days to hit the key ally in the ‘war on terror’. The string of six explosions in the volatile southern port city came a day after a suicide bombing in the capital Islamabad killed 19 people near a rally marking the first anniversary of a bloody government raid on a radical mosque. Pakistan’s new government is facing growing unrest despite beating embattled president Pervez Musharraf’s allies in elections in February, with Islamist violence on the rise and political divisions growing. Five men were being questioned on Tuesday after they were arrested in connection with the blasts, said Babar Khattak, the police chief of Sindh province, of which Karachi is the capital. ‘We have detained five people from different parts of the city after our investigators got some leads about their involvement in the blasts,’ Khattak said. ‘We cannot disclose to which group they belong or what we have recovered from them,’ he said. City police chief Wasim Ahmed said ‘a few’ more suspects had been arrested in addition to the five seized earlier and that jihadi materials had been confiscated from them. ‘We have seized hate literature in books and CDs,’ Ahmed said. An uneasy calm hung over the city of 12 million people with most gas stations closed because of fears of possible riots. Traffic was thin and attendance at government offices was slim, witnesses said. The provincial chief minister, Qaim Ali Shah, said Monday evening’s bombs were meant to ‘destabilise the coalition government’ which won the national elections, state media said. The government comprises the party of former premier Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated in December, and the grouping of ex-prime minister Nawaz Sharif. There was no claim of responsibility for the blasts but television channels quoted Shah as saying that authorities had been forewarned about Taliban militants from the northwestern border with Afghanistan. The police said that the blasts were likely to be an attempt to stir up ethnic tensions in the troubled city because most happened in areas populated by Pashtuns, who originally hail from the northwestern frontier with Afghanistan. Investigators were meanwhile trying to establish who was behind Sunday’s blast in Islamabad, which hit police guarding a protest by Islamists against the deaths of more than 100 people in the siege and storming of the Red Mosque.

Turmoil puts Kabul at centre of

Fresh carnage in Kabul and a rising death toll among US troops are thrusting once-forgotten Afghanistan into the thick of the intensifying White House showdown between John McCain and Barack Obama. Democratic presumptive nominee Obama is promising to redeploy large numbers of US combat troops from Iraq to Afghanistan if he is elected president in November, in an effort to quell resurgent militant activity. Republican John McCain however maintains Iraq is the central front of the ‘war on terror,’ adding that a US withdrawal would embolden terrorists and US enemies and that the two wars cannot be seen in isolation. With a surge in the death toll among US and allied troops battling al-Qaeda and Taliban militants, Afghanistan moved to centre stage in the campaign last week – even before Monday’s suicide car bombing at the Indian embassy in Kabul, which killed at least 41 people in the deadliest attack since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. The security situation in Iraq meanwhile appears to be improving, following a US troop ‘surge’ anti-insurgent strategy launched last year. Obama argues that the huge US troop presence in Iraq is draining resources from the anti-terror effort in Afghanistan. The Kabul bombing ‘is one more indication of the severe deterioration that we’ve seen in the security situation in Afghanistan,’ Obama said Monday. ‘I have consistently stated that one of other reasons for us to begin a careful phased deployment out of Iraq, is that we are under-manned in Afghanistan,’ he said. ‘And as president of the United States I will do everything that we can to stabilise the situation in Afghanistan and go on the offensive against al-Qaeda, who have reconstituted themselves, he added.’ ‘It is absolutely critical for us to go on the offensive.’ The Illinois senator will lay out his plan for both conflicts in visits to Iraq and Afghanistan expected later this month, details of which have yet to be released for security reasons. Democrats have long argued that the Bush administration took its eye off the search for al-Qaeda kingpin Osama bin Laden, and the battle with the Taliban by invading Iraq in 2003. Obama’s foreign policy advisor Susan Rice last week accused McCain of fully supporting Bush administration policy on Iraq, which she said had dangerously distracted attention from the anti-terror fight in Afghanistan. ‘Every day, there’s a new report that underscores the reality that Afghanistan is sliding toward chaos,’ Rice told reporters on a conference call. Obama has vowed to get most combat troops out of Iraq at the rate of one or two brigades a month, a process which he says should be complete within 16 months. But McCain says such a plan would imperil gains made from the surge and argues that Obama’s solution is too simplistic. ‘To somehow think it is an either-or situation, either Afghanistan or Iraq, is a fundamental misreading of the situation in the Middle East,’ McCain told reporters last week. ‘What happens in Iraq matters in Afghanistan,’ McCain said. ‘If we had failed in Iraq if we had pursued the policies vociferously advocated by Senator Obama, we would have risked a wider war. ‘We need to succeed in Iraq, and I am confident we can succeed in Afghanistan, but it’s not just a matter of more troops.’ The dispute over Afghanistan reflects differing political perceptions of the war on terror launched after the September 11 attacks in 2001. The issue has moved to the forefront due to the death toll among international troops in the two wars: it is rising in Afghanistan, but decreasing in Iraq.

Mendis spins SL to

Sensational spinner Ajantha Mendis took six wickets for just nine runs to help Sri Lanka beat India by 100 runs in the final here on Sunday to successfully defend the Asia Cup title. As expected the 23-year-old spinner mesmerised the Indian batsmen with career-best figures to cause a slump which saw India lose nine wickets for 97 runs and were bowled out for 173 in 39.3 overs. Sanath Jayasuriya hit a fighting 125 to help Sri Lanka post a decent 273 in their 50 overs on a flat National Stadium pitch. Mendis, playing for the first time against India since making his debut in April this year, bowled eight overs of beguiling spin to beat his previous best of 5-22 against United Arab Emirates in the first round last week. He also bettered the best bowling figures in Asia Cup history, erasing the 5-19 record set by Aaqib Javed for Pakistan against India at Sharjah in 1995. The spinner from Moratuwa finished with 17 wickets in the batsman-dominated tournament. India got off to a rapid start, reaching 36 by the fifth over when Gautum Gambhir (6) was caught in the covers of Chaminda Vaas. Mendis came into bowl the 10th over with Sehwag (60) dealing only in boundaries. Off his second ball, Mendis lured the Indian opener and had him stumped. Sehwag hit 12 boundaries during his 36-ball knock. Two balls later, Mendis beguiled Yuvraj Singh with a straighter delivery to bowl him without scoring and in his third over bowled Suresh Raina (16) with another peach to leave India at 93-4. In his fourth over, Mendis trapped Rohit Sharma (three) with another one that skidded before spinning partner Muttiah Muralitharan ended a resolute 35-run stand between Dhoni and Robin Uthappa (20). Mendis returned for his second spell to remove Irfan Pathan (two) and Rudra Pratap Singh (nought) off successive deliveries before Vaas returned for his third spell to dismiss Dhoni’s resistance packed 74-ball deliveries. Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene said Mendis played a big part but it was a team effort. Earlier, Jayasuriya hit his 27th one-day hundred to become the second highest century-maker in one-day cricket behind India’s Sachin Tendulkar, who has 42. The 39-year-old, recalled for this tournament after being dropped for the West Indies tour in April, added an invaluable 131 runs for the fifth wicket with Tillakaratne Dilshan (56) after paceman Ishant Sharma made early inroads. The 19-year-old Sharma dismissed ayawardene (11), Cha a Kapugedera (five) and Cha a Silva (nought) in an incisive seven over spell after Sri Lanka lost opener Ku Sangakkara run out for four in only the second over. Jayasuriya took up the fight, with impressive hitting that included nine boundaries and five sixes during his 114-ball knock. Scorecard India v Sri Lanka Sri Lanka: S Jayasuriya c Sharma b Sehwag 125 K Sangakkara run out 4 M Jayawardene c Rohit b Sharma 11 C Kapugedera c Raina b Sharma 5 C Silva b Sharma 0 T Dilshan c Dhoni b Pathan 56 C Vaas b Singh 19 N Kulasekera not out 29 T Thushara lbw b Singh 5 A Mendis b Singh 8 M Muralitharan c Dhoni b Pathan 2 Extras: (lb8, w1) 9 Total: 273 Fall of wickets: 1-11, 2-34, 3-66, 4-66, 5-197, 6-213, 7-236, 8-256, 9-264 Bowling: Singh 9 1 67 3 Sharma 10 1 52 3 Pathan 9.5 0 67 2 Ojha 10 1 38 0 Sehwag 8 0 30 1 Rohit 3 0 11 0 Overs: 49.5 India G Gambhir c Dilshan b Vaas 6 V Sehwag st Sangakkara b Mendis 60 S Raina b Mendis 16 Y Singh b Mendis 0 M Dhoni c Sangakkara b Vaas 49 R Sharma lbw b Mendis 3 R Uthappa lbw b Muralitharan 20 I Pathan c Jayawardene b Mendis 2 R Singh b Mendis 0 P Ojha not out 6 I Sharma b Kulasekera 8 Extras: (b2, w1) 3 Total: 173 Fall of wickets: 1-36, 2-76, 3-76, 4-93, 5-97, 6-135, 7-154, 8-154, 9-160 Bowling: Vaas 9 0 55 2 Kulasekera 6.3 0 26 1 Thushara 8 0 51 0 Mendis 8 1 13 6 Muralitharan 8 0 26 1 Overs: 39.3 Result: Sri Lanka won by 100 runs Toss: India

Eight parties join hands to

Eight political parties at a meeting on Saturday evening decided to float a political alliance called National Democratic Alliance. The parties are Bangladesh Khelafat Andolan, National Democratic Party, Bangladesh Muslim League, National Awami Party, Ganatantrik Sarbahara Party, United People’s Party, Bangladesh Islami Parishad and Bangladesh Gana Sakti Party. The party leaders at the meeting in the office the Bangladesh Gana Sakti Party at Banani decided to finalise the political agenda and the structure of the alliance on July 9. The meeting was presided over by the acting Bangladesh Muslim League president, AHM Kamruzzaman.

Dhaka mayor files petition with

The Dhaka city mayor, Sadeque Hossain Khoka, filed a petition with the High Court Sunday to quash a case filed against him on charge of amassing assets beyond his known sources of income and concealing wealth-related information. The High Court bench of Justice Sharifuddin Chaklader and Justice Imdadul Haq Azad is set to hear the petition today. Anti-Corruption Commission assistant director Shamsul Alam filed the case against the mayor on April 2 with the Ramna police. Alam also brought charges against Sadeque’s wife and daughter for abetting him in amassing wealth of Tk 17.57 crore illegally and concealing information about Tk 9.96 crore. The case is now pending with a special judge’s court. Rafique-ul-Huq, defence counsel, said in court: ‘According to law, the ACC’s investigation has to be completed within 60 days of filing a case.’ But the investigation overshot the deadline, he said. Public prosecutor Khurshid Alam Khan, lawyer for the ACC, will present his arguments against the writ petition today.

New WFP country rep in Dhaka

John Aylieff has assumed office of the country representative of the World Food Programme in Bangladesh, the UN food agency said in a statement on Sunday. He earlier served as the emergency coordinator and director of assessment, analysis and preparedness Division in WFP Headquarters in Rome, Italy. Aylieff managed WFP’s largest-ever special operation, aimed at providing logistic support to the delivery and monitoring of food across Iraq in 2003 while working at Larnaca, Cyprus. From 2003 to 2006, he worked with the WFP Brussels office as director of European Commission Relations Division. ‘I am delighted to have been appointed to serve in Bangladesh,’ Aylieff said on his appointment as the WFP country representative. ‘Bangladesh is one of the key partners for WFP. With the third-largest number of poor and hungry people in the country, our work here has a great implication for achieving the MDG,’ he said.

Hearing on Nasim’s plea

A special court on Sunday deferred till July 10 the hearing on an appeal by ailing Awami League leader Mohammad Nasim, who seeks exemption from personal appearance in court in the Worldtel scam case. Judge Shahed Noor Uddin passed the order following a petition for more time, moved by defence counsel Sheikh Baharul Islam. Nasim, a former home minister, is now being treated at LabAid Specialised Hospital after he suffered \ a massive stroke on June 24 at Kashimpur jail in Gazi-pur. Nasim filed the application on June 26 as a supplementary to an earlier petition submitted to the government for overseas treatment. Nasim was earlier sentenced to 13 years in jail for amassing wealth beyond the known sources of income.

15 injured in police

At least 15 people were injured as the police charged the activists of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal and journalists with baton at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University on Sunday. Several hundred leaders and activists gathered on the hospital premises at about 10:30am to see ailing Tarique Rahman, senior joint secretary general of BNP, who was scheduled to be produced in the court at Jatiya Sangsad Complex in a graft case on the day. As physicians and police were escorting Tarique to an ambulance at the entrance of Block D of the hospital, JCD men rushed there to see him, witnesses said. Tarique was about to fall down from the wheelchair when the lawmen and JCD activists were locked in a scuffle. But on-duty physicians managed to ‘push’ him into the ambulance. Later the police charged the activists and journalists with baton in order to disperse them, leaving 15 people, including Dinkal photojournalist Babul Talukder, injured. Additional police were deployed at the hospital before taking back Tarique to the hospital from the court at about 1:30pm. Several hundred leaders and activists of BNP and its front organisations also gathered at the east end of Jatiya Sangsad Complex.

Quake jolts northern districts

At least five buildings were partially damaged when a mild earthquake was felt in Rajshahi and its adjacent areas on Saturday night. Two buildings used as private hostel are located at Moni Chattar in the city and the rest are in different areas in the city and Paba upazila. The earthquake, which took place at about 11:00pm and lasted for few seconds, was felt in the Rajshahi city and its adjacent areas including the Bagha, Charghat, Puthia, Godagari, Paba and Bagmara areas. The people of these areas got panicked during the earthquake. They came out of their houses and stayed outside for some times to avoid any possible disaster. The Met Office in Rajshahi could not give any information about the earthquake as it has no Richter scale. News agency bdnews24.com adds: Mainul Islam, a meteorologist of the Met Office in Dhaka, said the quake was recorded at 10:55pm Saturday with its epicentre located 290 kilometres north-northwest of Dhaka. The quake was felt in Chapainawabganj, Rajshahi, Natore and Pabna, he said. The UNB said: Around 300 university and college students left the private hostel Sunday morning as the six-storey building tilted during Saturday night’s earthquake. Haji Hostel, housing 300 students of Rajshahi University, Rajshahi College and other educational institutions, tilted on the night but no one was reported injured. Around 20-30 old buildings in the north-western city also developed cracks, but there were no reports of anyone hurt.

Five more killed in Cox’s

Five more persons were killed in two landslides in Cox’s Bazar on Sunday pushing the death toll in flooding and landsides to 20 in the district in a week. Of them, four persons were killed in a landslide at Puran Pallan Para village in Teknaf upazila of the district on Sunday. The landslide followed the two incidents one of which had occurred in the same village and another one in Natun Pallan Para village early Thursday claiming nine lives of two families. Sources said a heavy chunk of mud had suddenly fallen on Noor Hakim and his family members when they were inside their Puran Pallan Para village house at 12.30 pm. Local people recovered the bodies of Noor Hakim, his wife Madina Khatun, 22, daughter Rehena Khatun, 6, and son Ridwan, 3. But his three-month old child and father Kala Mia, 60, miraculously survived. The Cox’s Bazar deputy commissioner, Sajjadul Hassan, and the Teknaf upazila nirbahi officer, Altaf Hossen Chowdhry, visited the spot. The DC handed over Tk 16,000 as general aid to Noor Hakim’s father. `More than 1,000 people of 200 families have already been evacuated from their houses in the wake of recurring landslides,’ the DC said. Yet another landslide incident in Cox’s Bazar municipality area killed one person and injured another one at 2.00 pm the same day. Mostake Ahmed, 37, was killed and his wife Halima Begum, 27, injured as a heavy chunk of mud fell on their house at Mohajerpara under the municipality in the afternoon. Injured Halima was admitted to the Cox’s Bazar General Hospital. The Cox’s Bazar municipality acting chairman, Sarwar Kamal, said hundreds of houses, shops, and business establishments had gone under three feet water in the town due to heavy rainfall. The submerged areas include Foolbag, Hangarpara, Buddhist Temple, Badyeraghona, Pahartali and Khajamanjil, he added. Local Met office recorded 144 mm rainfall during the last 24 hours till 3.00 pm on Sunday. Moulavi Mostaque Ahmed, president of the Cox’s Bazar Shops Owners’ Association, said hundreds of shops, business centres and houses at Boro Bazar, fish market, rice market, kitchen market and vegetable market were under two to three feet water. Shamsul Karim, executive engineer of the Bangladesh Water Development Board, Cox’s Bazar, said some flood protection embankments were damaged by tidal waves during the last week. Nearly fifty villages under Pekoua, Chakoria, Ramu and Cox’s Bazar sadar upazilas were inundated as sea water entered through breaches of the embankments.

Introduction of visa-free travelling

The Equity and Justice Working Group, an alliance of the NGOs, demanded introduction of a visa-free travelling in the SAARC region to allow the people of this area to work in whichever county they prefer, to offset the debt of climate change. They demanded it, on Sunday, observing that countries like Bangladesh were the worst victims of climate change which was substantively the result of greenhouse gas emissions by the developed countries like India. ‘According to a report of the World Bank, around two crore and 20 lakh Bangladeshis will become homeless within the next 40 years because of climate change for which they are not responsible. So these people should be allowed to work in the neighbouring developed countries,’ Rezaul Karim Chowdhury, convener of the Group, told a press conference at the Dhaka Reporters’ Unity. ‘The group thinks this huge number of people who are in no way responsible for the climate change should be allowed to work in the developed countries which are emitting carbon dioxide,’ he said, adding, ‘victims of this area should be given the work permit by their neighbouring countries as Australia has given the people of Papua New Guinea.’ Referring to the SAARC ministerial meeting on climate change held recently in Dhaka, Chowdhury said, ‘The SAARC ministerial meeting lacked the analysis of root causes of the climate change and did not formulate any effective plan to prevent the impact of climate change.’ The organisation put forward a five-point charter of demands to be discussed in the People’s SAARC scheduled to be held from July 18 to 20 in Colombo. The charter includes amendment to the SAARC charters so that bilateral talks can be held, ensuring free flow of rivers, ratification of the SAARC Food Bank by all member countries, mitigation of the environmental debts of the countries and establishing a SAARC Development Fund. The Group asked the SAARC leaders to raise their voice against formation of a separate Climate Fund by the WB in contravention of the Bali Declaration. Among others, Bazlur Rahman, Shahadat Islam Chowdhury, M Kamal Hossain and Sarmin Islam Daizy and members of the organisation were present on the occasion.

Coaching centres are harming

Former Dhaka University Vice-chancellor, Professor Maniruzzaman Miah on Sunday said that different types of coaching centres across the country were harming the education system. ‘Aware of the harmful role of coaching centres, I had asked the government to close the coaching centres much earlier,’ said Maniruzzaman Miah, also chairman of the national education commission report 2003. Speaking at a press conference in the National Press Club, he also pointed out that there were allegations of question paper leakage against some coaching centres. The Bangladesh Principals’ Council and Bangladesh College Teachers’ Association jointly organised the conference where they put forward different demands including the establishment of an education service commission for recruiting competent teachers at non-government schools, colleges and madrassahs. ‘We demand an end to the discriminatory education system which creates a distance between the rural and urban and government and non-government education systems,’ said Principal Mazharul Hannan, president of the Bangladesh Principals’ Council. ‘We demand raising of the house-rent and annual increment for non-government teachers and employees as more than 95 per cent educational institutions are under the non-government management,’ Hannan said. Urging the government to stop unplanned establishment of educational institutions, he said they would hold a series of conferences in different parts of the country including Dhaka in the next two months to improve the overall situation of education. M Sahriful Islam and Liakat Ali of the association attended the conference, among others.

62 errant agencies banned from

The government has decided not to allow 62 private agencies, out of 324, to operate Hajj management this year as they were found to have been involved in various irregularities and cheating in the previous year. ‘Deposits of 11 Hajj agencies have been confiscated and licences of 51 agencies have been suspended for two years with their deposits being confiscated. These agencies will not be allowed to manage Hajj pilgrimage in private sector as investigations have found that they were involved in various irregularities and deceived many Hajj pilgrims last year’, religious affairs secretary Mohammad Ataur Rahman said at a press briefing at the secretariat on Sunday. He said the ministry had taken the actions against the Hajj agencies in line with the latest national Hajj policy. Asked about the pressure from the Hajj Agencies’ Association of Bangladesh for withdrawal of the decision, the secretary said, ‘We will stick to the decision and will not give in to any such pressure.’ He, however, said the deadline for submitting application forms has been extended by one week from July 6. On Friday, the HAAB threatened to go for movement if the government did not withdraw within 48 hours the decision banning 62 agencies from Hajj management. There are widespread allegations that hundreds of people are deceived by the private Hajj agencies every year and many of the pilgrims even cannot go to Saudi Arabia to perform Hajj rituals even after depositing the whole money. On March 16, the religious affairs ministry announced the Hajj Package 2008 for pilgrimage to Makkah in December through both the government and approved Hajj agencies, raising the airfare to $1,350 from 1,250 for each pilgrim to and from Saudi Arabia. The total charge for each balloted pilgrim ranges between Tk 1,99,112 and Tk 2,16,782 this year be deposited by July 13. The secretary said a total of 232 private Hajj agencies were allowed to offer Hajj package this year. The number of Hajj passengers this year is expected to be 65,000, of them 15,000 are balloted [under government arrangement]. According to the latest Hajj policy, each agency must sign two agreements on non-judicial stamps – with the religious affairs ministry and with the individual pilgrim – mentioning the facilities to be provided by the agencies. Each agency must also provide guides for the pilgrims and hold orientation sessions in the Hajj Camp in Dhaka. The agencies will not be able to receive any money without signing the agreement with individual pilgrims on the prescribed form which, the officials believe, will help check irregularities in Hajj management this year.