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Mahmoud elected Iran President
Nepal Maoists deny hand in Bihar attack
Hurriyat does not represent J&K, |
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Army officer from Goa co-translates Punjabi book
Afghan fighting: bodies of 76 more rebels found
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Mahmoud elected Iran President
Tehran, June 25 Mr Ahmadinejad, 48, received the backing of the religious poor to defeat moderate cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who was supported by pro-reform parties and wealthy Iranians fearful of a hardline monopoly on power in the Islamic state. “(Only) three million votes remain to be counted so we can say now that Mr Ahmadinejad has won the election,” said an Interior Ministry official, who declined to be named. An official at the Guardian Council, which must approve the election results, said of the 18.4 million voted counted, Mr Ahmadinejad had won 61.5 per cent of the ballots cast. The official said the turnout was 22 million, or 47 per cent, well down on the 63 per cent of Iran's 46.7 million eligible voters who cast ballots in the first round on June 17. “It’s over, we accept that we’ve lost,” a close Rafsanjani aide, who asked not to be identified, said. Although supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has the last word on all matters of state, a hardline presidency would remove the moderating influence on decision-making exercised by outgoing reformist President Mohammad Khatami since 1997. Yesterday’s vote exposed deep class divisions in the oil-producing nation of 67 million persons. Mr Ahmadinejad’s humble lifestyle and pledges to tackle corruption and redistribute the country’s oil wealth have appealed to the urban and rural religious poor. “Today is the beginning of a new political era,” he said as he cast his ballot yesterday. Pro-reform political parties, students, clerics and academics had backed Mr Rafsanjani, accusing Mr Ahmadinejad of representing an authoritarian trend in Iranian politics. Aides to Mr Rafsanjani, 70, who was the President from 1989 to 1997 and has cast himself as a reformer, had accused the hardline Basij militia of intimidating voters to back Mr
Ahmadinejad. — Reuters |
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Nepal Maoists deny hand in Bihar attack
Kathmandu, June 25 Krishna Bahadur Mahara, spokesman for the banned Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), said neither his cadres nor the "People's Army" were involved in the Thursday attack in Bihar's East Champaran district. He said his party had read reports in Indian as well as Nepalese media that almost 100 Nepalese guerrillas were involved in the onslaught. "It is against the policy of our party" (to get involved outside Nepal)," Mahara said. Mahara, a former MP who carries a price tag on his head, said at a time his party was concentrating on opposing King Gyanendra in Nepal, "anti-democratic forces" in Nepal and abroad were spreading such "baseless propaganda". Brigadier General Dipak Gurung, spokesman of the Royal Nepalese Army, told IANS that there had been no official intimation from India of the alleged role by Nepalese Maoists in the Bihar attack. He said there was still no concrete evidence that the slain Maoists in Bihar included rebels from Nepal. "It is an established fact that there is an association between Maoists from India and Nepal," Gurung said. "When the Maoist insurgency began in Nepal nine years ago, the rebels received arms training from Indian (Maoist) outfits." Indian intelligence sources in Kathmandu said they had received no official account from Bihar or New Delhi on the East Champaran incident.
— IANS |
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Hurriyat does not represent J&K, says PoK PM
Muzaffarabad, June 25 “How can we accept any decision (on Kashmir) by those who live under compulsions, do not have unity among themselves and lack representation of all regions,” he said while speaking in the 'Azad Kashjmir' Legislative Assembly. Hurriyat (love for freedom) had not come out from a specific area, he said, and no one from the Jammu region had visited 'Azad Kashmir' and Pakistan. “The decision of the Kashmiris from both sides, including non-Muslims, will be welcomed but implementing a decision of one faction or an area cannot be accepted,” he said. The 'Azad Kashmir' Premier appealed to Hurriyat leaders to forge unity in their ranks and, at the same time, reminded Syed Ali Geelani that ‘difference of opinion’ among the leadership had already left adverse affects on the Kashmiris in 1947. |
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Army officer from Goa co-translates Punjabi book
Toronto, June 25 Colonel Clifton Marques, who belongs to Goa, translated Rajinder Kaur's "Riding Piggyback" into English with the help of the author's daughter Komal Saini-Pathak, reports the South Asian Observer. The book is about a girl growing up in rural Punjab in the 1960s. It tells of the prejudices, high and lows, joys and sorrows the girl faces. Originally titled "Karehdi Chade Vare", the book is the first part of an autobiographical trilogy by Rajinder Kaur. "We felt that the second generation of diaspora and even urban youth of Punjab yearn for their roots, but there is not much available in English that could help them connect to their past.
— IANS |
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Afghan fighting: bodies of 76 more rebels found
Miana Shien (Afghanistan), June 25 The new fatalities brought the death toll to 178 from fighting in the Miana Shien district of Kandahar province since Tuesday, ministry spokesman Zahir Marad said. “Our forces have collected the bodies of 76 more rebels from the battlefield,” he said. Mara said he had not received any reports from Afghan army commanders as to whether the fighting was still continuing. Gen Salim Khan, a police commander on the battlefield, said yesterday that the guns had fallen silent, but his forces had kept up their pursuit of rebels fleeing on horseback and motor cycles.
— AP |
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Oprah Winfrey denied entry
into Paris shop
Los Angeles, June 25 Winfrey has also called up the president of Hermes in America to notify him on her decision to never to shop there again, reports Internet Movie Database. This was in response to an apology offered by the store's management earlier this week after Winfrey was refused entry to the luxury store on June 14. Winfrey had gone there to shop for her singer friend Tina Turner. The shop was supposedly closed for a public relations meting. Oprah's close friend, Gayle King, who was present at the time said: "People were in the store and they were shopping. Oprah was at the door and she was not allowed into the store... It was one of the most humiliating moments of her life." She said Winfrey was upset at the weak apology offered by Hermes because "it implies that nothing offensive happened".
— IANS |
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