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300 die in Uzbek Islamist rising
Musharraf’s record dismal at home: report
Pak demands probe into sacrilege in US prison
Pakistani journalist shot at
‘Darshan — The Embrace’ for Cannes
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Politician stopped from leaving Nepal
Indian girl wins US Grand Award
Russia to repay $15 b
to Paris Club
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300 die in Uzbek Islamist rising
Tashkent, May 14 “This morning, I saw soldiers loading around 300 bodies into three trucks and a bus in the street opposite the cinema,” Lutfula Shamsutdinov said from the eastern Uzbek city. Shamsutdinov said he watched this from a house without being noticed. The claim could not be immediately confirmed. Earlier, a doctor had said that more than 50 persons were killed in fighting in Uzbekistan’s fourth-largest city, as government troops continued to proceed against gunmen who freed prisoners, including 23 men, on trial for Islamic extremism. Clashes resumed this morning in the eastern city of Andijan after a lull overnight, with Uzbek army troops firing shells from armoured vehicles and using automatic weapons against the gunmen. “They are now dispersed and we are hunting them down,” said an Uzbek soldier. The violence began late Thursday after a military garrison was raided for weapons, with the armed men, believed to number at least 60 to 100, then raiding the jail, freeing more 2,000 prisoners, and taking over government buildings. The unrest prompted a violent crackdown by hardline President Islam Karimov in which government troops opened fire yesterday on a crowd of 5,000 persons demonstrating against his government. Soldiers then fanned throughout the city and by late yesterday, the counter-offensive appeared to have brought the city back under control, with Russia’s Interfax news agency, quoting local police, reporting that the administration building on the main square had been recaptured after intense fighting.
— AFP |
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Musharraf’s record dismal at home: report
New Delhi, May 14 In its latest report, this is what the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) has to say about the General’s Pakistan: “Journalists and press photographers have been subjected to violence at the hands of security agencies, pressure groups, political and religious organisations in 2004-05”. According to the report, which was released in the first week of May, violent incidents in Lahore, Karachi and Quetta against the Press in April 2004 exposed the government’s so-called claims of freedom of the Press. In Lahore and Karachi, the police and the administration not only created obstacles to the independent coverage of the arrival of political leader Asif Ali Zardari, but also resorted to a baton charge in Karachi and detained mediapersons and manhandled many of them. In Quetta, the office of the daily, ‘Mashriq’, was attacked by unidentified armed men who left chief editor Kamran Mumtaz badly beaten up. The newspaper was targeted for writing about Nawab Akbar Bugti, the Balochistan leader who has been raising the banner of revolt against President Musharraf’s continued neglect of the region and its people. The report also highlighted the troubles and travails of the media in trying to report the situation in the tribal areas of South Waziristan besides Sui and Gilgit The government forced the media to use only the official version of the events in Wana, Gilgit and Sui Khuzdar. The journalists were either barred from entering these areas or forced to undergo severe restrictions in coverage and broadcast. The report said, “There were serious conflicts in all these places which demanded reports based on facts, but due to the lack of access and extra pressure these were suppressed. “Gilgit remained tense throughout because of sectarian conflict, Wana because of clashes between the army and alleged Al-Qaeda militants, while Sui and Dera Bugti are still hot since the conflict between Bugti tribesmen and the army”. The report said four prominent TV channels, including GEO, remained under pressure throughout the year. |
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Pak demands probe into sacrilege in US prison
Islamabad, May 14 While most speakers from Opposition parties accused the government of following US policies at the cost of national honour and interests, their demands ranged from a policy review by Islamabad to an American apology and trial in Pakistan of US soldiers accused of the sacrilege at Guantanamo Bay. The demand for apology contained in an opposition draft of the resolution was dropped from the final text because of government objections, opposition sources said. But the sources said the government agreed to some other strongly worded expressions because its members in the House at the time were in a minority and unable to force their will. Most members of the 342-seat house seemed to have lost interest in the debate after three days of speeches — on Monday, Tuesday and Friday — and less than 40 of them were present when Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sher Afgan Niazi moved the joint resolution. The attendance was not even half of the required quorum of one-fourth, or 86 members, but the proceedings remained in order because nobody pointed out the lack of quorum. The resolution said the National Assembly was “deeply dismayed and shocked” by the May 9 Newsweek magazine report about the alleged desecration of the holy Koran and “highly objectionable and regrettable treatment meted out to the detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison”. “The reported act of sacrilege has shocked the people of every faith all around the world,” it said. “The National Assembly condemns the sad incident and demands that an inquiry be conducted by USA to bring to justice the perpetrators who committed this shameful act,” said the resolution that carried signatures of representatives of all ruling coalition and opposition parties. Environment Minister Tahir Iqbal credited what he called a unity shown by the house for a US promise for inquiry and asked the opposition not to politicize the issue. The MMA members were in full cry in denouncing the United States, one of them predicting a Muslim dominance there in some distant future and another calling for revenge. A woman MMA member, Shahida Akhtar Ali, said those defiling the holy Koran outside Pakistan should be punished in the same manner as those committing such act inside the country, and called for a fatwa against them similar to one issued by the late Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeni against Salman Rushdie for writing The Satanic Verses. After the passage of the resolution, the house was adjourned until 5pm on Monday. |
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Pakistani journalist shot at
Islamabad, May 14 In February this year, gunmen had shot dead two journalists in the same area in a similar attack. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. Witnesses said the injured journalist ran to a nearby paramilitary base and took shelter. Rehman was later taken to the main hospital in Wana. Pakistan has been carrying out large-scale operations against suspected foreign Islamic militants in South Waziristan since March last year. The army believes hundreds of militants, including Arabs, Afghans and Central Asians, are holed up in the region.
— PTI |
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‘Darshan — The Embrace’ for Cannes
New Delhi, May 14 The film has been produced by Manuel de la Roche and directed by Jan
Kounen, an award winning film-maker based in France. The film is scheduled for screening on May 18.
Kounen and his crew began shooting footage for the film in 2003 during Amma’s 50th birth anniversary celebrations in Kochi. Later, they travelled with Amma on her Indian and foreign tours to complete the film. |
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Politician stopped from leaving Nepal
Kathmandu, May 14 The group was at the airport to board a flight to New Delhi enroute Islamabad when the police told Janmorcha Nepal general secretary Nawaraj Subedi, accompanying them, that he could not leave Kathmandu, Nepali Congress (Democratic) acting president Gopalman Shrestha said. As a show of solidarity seven other politicians and two journalists cancelled their visit to Islamabad to attend the South Asian Free Media Association conference, Mr Shrestha said. Among those who returned from the airport were Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives Chitralekha Yadav, Federation of Nepal Journalists (FNJ) president Bishnu Nishthuri, Jhalanath Khanal and Pradip Nepal of the Nepal Communist Party (UML), Nepali Congress leaders Dilendra Prasad Badu and Binaya Dhoj Chand. Mr Shrestha said Mr Subedi was still in detention and asked the government to release him immediately.
— PTI |
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Indian girl wins US Grand Award
Houston, May 14 Malvika of St Mary’s Convent High School in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, won her “Grand Award” in engineering category for her project, “Foot Operated Vehicle Device for the Physically Challenged”. They were among 1,447 students who competed at the 56th annual international event in Phoenix, Arizona. In the “Organisational Award” category, which is other than “Grand Awards” at the fair, four Indian students and 26 students of Indian origin were among the
winners. Malvika has won third place in the “Grand Awards” category for her project. She brings home $ 1,000.
— PTI |
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Russia to repay $15 b
to Paris Club
Paris/Moscow, May 14 The Paris Club of sovereign lenders said nearly all of its members would take up Russia’s offer to prepay the loans, assumed by Moscow after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, at face value. The deal — the largest ever Paris Club debt redemption — crowns Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin’s drive to use Russia’s growing oil wealth to reduce the $43 billion it owes to the club’s other 18 members, comprising the world’s leading industrialised nations. Russia will transfer $13 billion in June to the creditors who took up the offer, saving $2.25 billion in charges from 2006-08 and a total of $6 billion through to 2020, he said. Germany, Russia’s largest creditor, which badly needs a cash injection to help fund its budget deficit, expects to reap euro 5 billion ($6.4 billion) in the deal. Italy, the second biggest creditor, can expect euro 1.5 billion ($1.93 billion).
— Reuters |
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