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Pak SC orders probe
Hillary offers Myanmar first rewards for reform
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India re-elected to key UN committee
DSK admits to uninhibited sex life in new book
Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn admitted in a new book today to having an uninhibited sex life, as its author said the one-time contender for the French presidency was the victim of a plot.
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Pak SC orders probe
Admitting petitions on the ‘memogate’ scandal, the Supreme Court on Thursday formed a commission to investigate all aspects of the memo allegedly seeking US help to rein in Pakistan’s security and intelligence establishment under civilian control. Ordering a "time-bound" probe into the scandal, the sought responses within 15 days from President Asif Ali Zardari, army and ISI chiefs besides others in connection with petitions before it seeking an investigation into the controversy. The apex court, ordering the constitution of a probe commission that must finish its work within three weeks, said that former envoy to US Husain Haqqani, forced to resign over the scandal, should not leave the country till its decision is announced. Responses have also been sought from Haqqani and Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz, who made the memo public, creating a storm in the political and security set-up here. The order was delivered by a nine-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, which had taken up nine separate petitions seeking a probe into the 'memogate' controversy. Zardari, Army chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani and ISI head Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha and others were named as respondents in a petition filed by former premier and PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif, who had sought a speedy investigation into the matter. The apex court said the probe commission could be headed by former Federal Investigation Agency chief Tariq Khosa, who led the investigation into the 2008 Mumbai attacks. However, the bench noted that this would depend on Khosa's assent to lead the panel. He was also authorised to seek assistance of a cyber expert for collecting physical and forensic evidence. The apex court also accepted Nawaz Sharif's plea that Haqqani should not be allowed to leave Pakistan till the probe is completed. Appearing before the court, Sharif claimed that the memo was approved by top political leadership, an implicit reference to President Asif Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani. The Presidency has denied it ever approved the memo. Ambassador Hussain Haqqani has also refuted allegation by Ejaz Mansoor that he dictated the memo in May last and asked him to deliver it to then US military chief Admiral Mike Mullen. During the proceedings, Justice Jawad Khwaja said the memo scandal was so far based on assumptions and determining the facts of the matter was obligatory. (With inputs from PTI)
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Hillary offers Myanmar first rewards for reform
Yangon, December 1 Hillary said she had "candid, productive" conversations with President Thein Sein and other Myanmar ministers, and told them Washington stood ready to support further reforms, and possibly lift sanctions, as the country seeks to emerge from decades of authoritarian military rule. But she also urged Myanmar to take further steps to release political prisoners and end ethnic conflicts, and said better US ties would be impossible unless Myanmar halts its illicit dealings with North Korea, which has repeatedly set alarm bells ringing across Asia with its renegade nuclear programme. "The President told me he hopes to build on these steps, and I assured him that these reforms have our support," Hillary told a news conference after her talks in Myanmar's remote capital, Naypyitaw. "I also made clear that, while the measures already taken may be unprecedented and welcomed, they are just the beginning." Hillary 's landmark visit to the country also known as Burma marks a tentative rapprochement after more than 50 years of estrangement from the West. She traveled later to the commercial capital of Yangon where she went barefoot in line with Buddhist tradition to tour one of Myanmar's most revered shrines, the Shwedagon Pagoda. She later held the first of two meetings with veteran pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The United States downgraded its representation in Myanmar to a charge d'affaires in response to the military's brutal 1988 crackdown on pro-democracy protests and voiding of 1990 elections swept by Suu Kyi's party. "This could become an important channel to air concerns, monitor and support progress, and build trust," Hillary said. The United States would consider easing sanctions if it saw concrete reforms, she said. "I told the leadership we will certainly consider the easing and elimination of sanctions as we go forward in this process together ... It has to be not theoretical or rhetorical, it has to be very real, on the ground, that can be evaluated." Hillary also said the United States would support new World Bank and International Monetary Fund assessment missions to help Myanmar jumpstart its feeble economy. — Reuters
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India re-elected to key UN committee United Nations, December 1 India’s nominee Ambassador Dilip Lahiri was re-elected to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), a body under the UN Human Rights system, for a three-year term beginning January 20, 2012. He secured 147 votes out of 167 cast in the elections held at the UN headquarters. The win comes over a week after India won a key election to the JIU defeating China in a direct fight and returning to the UN’s powerful external oversight body after a gap of 35 years. —
PTI
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DSK admits to uninhibited sex life in new book Paris, December 1 It accuses the maid, Nafissatou Diallo, of being part of a conspiracy to smear the French politician and insinuates that she may have stolen an IMF-issued Blackberry mobile phone. “Nothing would have happened if I had not had this consensual, but stupid relationship with Nafissatou Diallo,” Strauss-Kahn said in the book, entitled “DSK affair, Counter Inquiry”. “That day, I opened the door to all the other affairs,” Strauss-Kahn said. According to Taubmann, Nafissatou entered Strauss-Kahn’s posh Manhattan hotel room on May 14 as the ex-IMF chief was leaving his bathroom naked. Nafissatou gave him “a suggestive look” which he took as “a proposal” and the two proceeded to have sex. “Dominique Strauss-Kahn was set up. This man did not rape anyone, neither in New York, nor in Paris nor anywhere,” Taubmann said on Canal Plus television. “This was a political affair, not a question of morals.” The book also notes that Strauss-Kahn’s Blackberry-which he suspected had been hacked by his political enemies-went missing from the hotel room after his encounter with Diallo. Strauss-Kahn, who was then expected to beat President Nicolas Sarkozy in France’s 2012 presidential election, was taken off a plane to Paris by the police after Diallo said he had attacked her. He resigned as head of the IMF after his arrest, but has always denied rape. The charges were later dropped after prosecutors said Diallo lied about some details of her allegations, but the case and subsequent claims of sexual misconduct in France were enough to end his political ambitions. —
AFP
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Admitting petitions on the ‘memogate’ scandal, the Supreme Court on Thursday formed a commission to investigate all aspects of the memo allegedly seeking US help to rein in Pakistan’s security and intelligence establishment under civilian control.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton offered Myanmar the first rewards for reform today, saying the United States would back more aid for the reclusive country.
The book, by French journalist Michel Taubmann, sees Strauss-Kahn open up about the sex scandals that have dogged him since he was accused last May of having sexually assaulted a New York hotel maid.