New York, November 19
Asking the Musharraf regime to attack militancy which is holding peace between India and Pakistan hostage, former premier Benazir Bhutto has said the two countries need to move forward notwithstanding their differences on the Kashmir issue.

"Irrespective of the differences on Kashmir, India and Pakistan have to move forward. One of the key ways that we can move forward is by copying Europe's example. Europe was torn apart by war until it decided to build a common market," the Pakistan People's Party leader told Newsweek magazine when asked about her views on Indo-Pak relations.

Ms Bhutto said she had spoken to the Indian leaders on the issue and "within India and Pakistan there is an emerging consensus that while we have differences, these differences should not stop us from economic development and cooperation in terms of trade and travel. But obviously we need safe borders. While militants hold guns in their hands and disturb the peace, it is very difficult to get safe and open borders." "Attacking militancy is important, not only vis-a-vis Afghanistan, but also vis-a-vis India," she stressed.

The former Pakistan premier also noted that "militant groups that were (once) banned- who were attacking New Delhi, Bombay- are re-emerging and hold peace between India and Pakistan hostage. When I look at the rise of religious parties, the reorganisation of the Taliban and the persistence of the militant groups, I worry for Pakistan's future".

Ms Bhutto said she planned to return to Pakistan to help her party in the next general elections and would run for the post of Prime Minister if the term limitation which prohibits a person to hold that office more than twice is lifted.

Asked why Pakistan had not been able to capture terror mastermind Osama bin Laden, she said elements of the Pakistani military security apparatus had a lot of sympathy for him.

"General Musharraf is relying on the [military] to find Bin Laden, and it's simply not going to happen. What we really need is a change, and I believe that change has to come by going to the civilian option," she added. — PTI

Karachi, November 19
Pakistan’s maritime security forces have arrested 22 Indian fishermen caught straying into its territorial waters.

The fishermen, who had come about 135 km inside Pakistan’s exclusive economic zone territorial waters near this port city, were arrested yesterday by the Maritime Security Agency Forces.

“We warned them several times to go back but since they were deep in our waters they faced problems. Under the maritime laws of both countries we had to arrest them,” Commander Ateeq ur-Rehman told PTI today.

Pakistan and India frequently arrest each other’s fishermen, some of them children, who wander into each other’s waters in search of a better catch.

“This exercise of arresting poor fishermen who are not criminals must stop between the two countries,” Sami Memon of the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum said.

He pointed out that since there was no clear demarcation of the territorial waters of both countries near the Sir Creek area it was difficult for fishermen to figure out boundaries.

Rehman said the Indian fishermen were handed over to the docks police who will produce them in court tomorrow.— PTI

Bracciano, Italy, November 19
Actors Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes were married in a medieval castle near Rome in a much-anticipated ceremony attended by some of Hollywood’s biggest stars.

Frenzied excitement in the run-up to the wedding led to disappointment among the throngs of onlookers and paparazzi waiting outside the lakeside venue once word spread that the wedding was over yesterday. Many left without a glimpse of the stars after braving rain in Bracciano, leaving behind bottles and litter in a square that was teeming with hopeful fans earlier during the day.

“I’m really disappointed, they came to have their wedding here and it would have been fair to say at least a hello from far away,’’ said Michele Pagano, who had hoped to take pictures with his mobile phone outside the venue.

Details of the ceremony presided by a Scientologist minister were kept a secret, but Cruise’s spokesman confirmed that the couple had exchanged vows. It took place behind the walls of a fortress manned by snipers and bodyguards. Candles lined the entrance to the castle, its towers and windows.

The twice-divorced Cruise is an ardent follower of the church founded by science-fiction writer L.Ron Hubbard. Holmes was raised a Catholic. Hollywood stars, including Jennifer Lopez and husband Marc Anthony, Will Smith and wife Jada Pinkett and Brooke Shields were among the guests in attendance.

Local authorities said this week that Cruise had not sought permission for a civil service, meaning the wedding could be purely ceremonial and have no legal value. Scientologist weddings are similar to others, with rings, music and flowers. The bride wears white and the groom a dark suit.

The cost of the event was estimated at over 2 million euros. The pair’s outfits were designed by Giorgio Armani, who also created the bride’s bouquet. — UNI

Beijing, November 19
The navies of China and the USA today held their first-ever search-and-rescue exercises on the South China Sea, aimed to enhance mutual trust and understanding between the militaries.

The two navies conducted communications, fleet formation changes and search-and-rescue exercises.

The exercise involved China's guided missile destroyer "Zhanjiang," fuel tanker "Dongting Lake," the USS Juneau (LPD 10) and the USS missile destroyer Fitzgerald.

The basic idea behind the exercise was for the Chinese and US navies to jointly locate a ship in danger and salvage it. The two sides commanded different stages of the whole exercise.

The Chinese side took charge of the communications and searching stage, while the US side commanded vessels of the two countries to conduct the rescue, Xinhua news agency reported.

"In the exercises, the two navies demonstrated very good military skills and strong cooperative spirits," commander of the South China Sea fleet of the Navy Force of the People's Liberation Army, Gu Wengen said.

The event was the second phase of the first ever joint Sino-American search-and-rescue exercise, agreed on by Chinese and US military leaders. — PTI

Beijing, November 19
China, which is concerned about the Indo-US nuclear deal, has not forgotten the missive by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to then US President Bill Clinton in the aftermath of the 1998 nuclear tests that cited a ‘China threat’, a senior Chinese scholar has said.

China had only expressed “concern” after the first round of nuclear tests by India. But Beijing reacted with a sharp denunciation in its May 14 statement after Clinton administration leaked Vajpayee’s letter in which he justified the tests as necessary to meet the threat to India’s security environment from a country, armed with nuclear weapons since 1964.

“The letter (of Vajpayee) did the damage,” Professor Sun Shihai, Deputy Director of the Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies under the government think-tank, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences told PTI.

“Although some Indian officials have discounted the so-called ‘China threat’, the deep-rooted strategic suspicion and mistrust is still there,” he said, stressing that this constituted an “obstacle” for Sino-Indian strategic cooperation.

Sun’s comment came ahead of Chinese President Hu Jintao’s state visit to India beginning tomorrow during which New Delhi is expected to seek Beijing’s support for the Indo-US civilian nuclear agreement when it is submitted to the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) for approval.

At the past meetings of the Vienna-based NSG, China, a recent entrant, had questioned the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal.

Kabul, November 19
Blood dripped down the 16-year-old girl's face after another beating by her drug-addict husband.

Worn down by life's pain, she ran to the kitchen, doused herself with gas from a lamp and struck a match.

Desperate to escape domestic violence, forced marriage and hardship, scores of women across Afghanistan each year are committing suicide by fire.

While some gains have been made since the fall of the Taliban five years ago, life remains bleak for many Afghan women in the conservative and violence-plagued country, and suicide is a common escape.

Young Gulsum survived to tell her story. Her pretty face and delicate feet were untouched by the flames, but beneath her red turtleneck sweater, floral skirt and white shawl, her skin is puffy and scarred.

More than a month after her attempt, her gnarled hands still bleed.

"It was my decision to die. I didn't want to be like this, with my hands and body like this," she said, sitting on a hospital bed in Kabul and hiding her deformed hands beneath her shawl.

Reliable statistics on self-immolation nationwide are difficult to gauge. In Herat province, where the practice has been most reported and publicised, there were 93 cases last year and 54 so far this year. More than 70 per cent of these women died.

"It's all over the country. ... The trend is upward," said Ancil Adrian-Paul of Medica Mondiale, a non-profit organisation that supports women and girls in crisis zones.

The group has seen girls as young as nine and women as old as 40 set themselves on fire. But many incidents remain hidden, Adrian-Paul said.

“A lot of self-immolation and suicide cases are not reported to police for religious reasons, for reasons of honor, shame and stigma. There is this collusion of silence," Adrian-Paul said on the sidelines of a conference this week in Kabul on self-immolation.

Five years after the fall of the repressive Taliban regime, domestic violence affects "an overwhelming majority" of Afghan women and girls, according to a recent report from Womankind, an international women's rights groups. — AP

Miran Shah (Pakistan), November 19
Militants beheaded an Islamic school teacher, accusing him of spying for the USA in a northwestern Pakistani tribal region, a government official said today.

Maulana Hashim Khan's decapitated body was found early today by local residents near a road at al-Fatah Kot village in North Waziristan, said Zafar Ali Shah, a government administrator based in the area.

Khan, (45), had been missing for the past eight days from his school in Shawal. A note left with his body said he and Maulana Salahuddin, a cleric assassinated last month, operated as spies for the USA, Shah said. "For this reason, we punished him under the Islamic laws," Shah quoted the note as saying.

Khan and Salahuddin, shot dead in the same area, were teachers at an Islamic seminary located near the Afghan border. A number of tribal elders have been killed in recent years in Waziristan after they were accused of being informers. — AP

BRIEFLY

Standoff at Chicago hospital ends
AURORA (USA): An armed patient was fatally shot when he exchanged gunfire with the police at a suburban Chicago hospital, ending an hours-long standoff, authorities said. The gunman had briefly held a 71-year-old patient hostage in the hospital room, but released him unharmed after the police intervened. No one else was injured. The 58-year-old man died of a gunshot wound to the head. — AP

Six students killed
BEIJING: Six students were trampled to death at a middle school in eastern China and 39 were injured when a sudden panic caused them to swarm into a staircase, state-run Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday. It was unclear what triggered the panic following an evening class on Saturday at a school in Duchang Country in the province of Jiangxi. — Reuters

Ex-leader of Chechen shot
MOSCOW: The former head of one of Chechnya’s shadowy security forces was fatally shot in Moscow by law enforcement officers who were trying to detain him on suspicion of abductions and killings in the violence-plagued southern region, officials said. Movladi Baisarov was shot on Saturday while resisting officers on a main avenue in the capital. — AP