The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	Death toll in Egypt clashes climbs to 38 Cairo, January 27 (PTI) The death toll in fierce clashes in Egypt rose to 38 with over 500 injured as fresh violence erupted today during the funeral of the people killed in the unrest triggered by death sentences given to 21 football fans for a last year’s post-match riot. The bodies, wrapped in white shrouds, were carried in open coffins along the city’s main avenue during which a brief burst of gunfire set off chaotic scenes. At least 270 persons were injured in the canal city of Port Said after unidentified assailants opened fire on the funeral procession for protesters killed during clashes in the city yesterday, Egypt Independent reported. Live ammunition, birdshot and tear gas were responsible for most of the injuries. Eyewitnesses claim to have seen masked groups shooting security troops in Police Club Square during the funeral procession. While no accurate information was provided on who was behind the shooting, military sources said that protesters who broke into police stations yesterday may have stolen weapons and tear gas to use during the funeral. Condemning the clashes that also left over 300 persons injured yesterday, the Presidency called for a national dialogue in the wake of the ongoing unrest. In a statement, it also praised police and judiciary for their integrity. — PTI
	61 dead in Venezuela prison riot Caracas (Venezuela), Jan 27 Venezuela’s top prisons official said that authorities have finished evacuating inmates from a prison where 61 were reported killed in one of the country’s deadliest prison riots ever. Penitentiary Service Minister Iris Varela said in a message on Twitter that the evacuation of Uribana prison in the city of Barquisimeto has finished. She posted photos this morning of inmates filing out led by authorities. The authorities have yet to provide an official death toll from the violence on Friday, which pitted armed inmates against National Guard troops. Dr Ruy Medina is director of Central Hospital in the city. He said on Saturday that the number of dead had risen to 61 and about 120 were wounded in the violence. Medina said that nearly all of the injuries were from gunshots and that 45 of the estimated 120 persons who were wounded remained hospitalised. Some underwent surgeries for their wounds. Relatives wept outside the prison during the violence and cried at the morgue on Saturday as they waited to identify bodies. The riot was the latest in a series of deadly clashes in Venezuela’s overcrowded and anarchical prisons, where inmates typically obtain weapons and drugs with the help of corrupt guards. — AP
	Special to the tribune UK Islamic vigilante group under fire for harassing women Shyam Bhatia in London British Muslim leaders have condemned the actions of a self-proclaimed Islamic vigilante group that has been harassing women for being immodestly dressed on the streets of East London. Videos of the group’s activities, posted on YouTube, also show them chastising one man for drinking alcohol, telling him “not to drink in this area, it’s a Muslim area”. The hooded members of the gang then use homophobic language against another man, before chastising a group of women telling them they should dress more modestly. The chief executive of the Ramadhan Foundation, which campaigns for peaceful co-existence between communities, has condemned the group’s actions. Mohammed Shafiq said: “We live in the UK and we are governed by the UK law. There should be no mob rule. If people are involved in this behaviour, it is worrying but it is an isolated incident.” A spokesperson for the East London mosque said: “These actions are utterly unacceptable and clearly designed to stoke tension and sow discord. We wholly condemn them. “The East London Mosque is committed to building co-operation and harmony between all communities in this borough. The actions of this tiny minority have no place in our faith or on our streets.” “We advise anyone who has been harassed by these individuals to contact the police. “We will monitor the situation closely and our Imams will speak out against such actions.” The police has so far arrested four men allegedly connected with the group and is still looking for others, including the author of the off-camera voice on the video. The Muslim vigilantes are not the only ones calling on women to dress and behave more modestly. Last week, an English Conservative MP was criticised for his comments saying women risked rape by wearing short skirts and high heels. Richard Graham, Conservative MP for Gloucester, was quoted in the British media as saying: “A night out is about having fun without putting yourself at risk. “If you are a young woman on her own trying to walk back home through a park early in the morning in a tight, short skirt and high shoes, and there’s a predator… if you are blind drunk wearing those clothes how able are you to get away? “Although we have a pretty heavy police presence, life doesn’t give you full protection from a predator all the time. You have got to help look after yourself as well. “It’s not about the impact of your clothes on a potential predator in my view - it’s about whether the clothes you’re wearing make it harder to get away from a predator.” A spokeswoman for the Women’s Resource Centre said such comments reallocated blame from the perpetrator to the victim. Vivien Hayes commented: “The problem is not female vulnerability but a macho culture which produces the notion of male entitlement - a culture which consistently fails women through disbelief, victim-blaming and failure to investigate.” A spokeswoman for Rape Crisis England and Wales said: “These comments have set us back about 100 years. “It doesn’t matter if you are off your face and lying naked on a bench - that man takes it upon himself to rape you. “This should be about putting the blame back on perpetrators.”
	Bombs kill 23 Afghan cops in 24 hours Kandahar, January 27 Insurgents killed a total of 23 policemen across Afghanistan within 24 hours, officials said today, reflecting the increasing police role in the war before the withdrawal of NATO troops. Thirteen died in roadside bomb blasts while 10 were killed in a suicide attack. A powerful bomb killed eight police officers along with three suspected bombers they had detained on the outskirts of the troubled southern city of Kandahar, provincial spokesman Jawed Faisal said. "Our police had an operation in Pero Qalacha area last night. They detained several suspected insurgents," Faisal said. "On the way back to the city (centre), their vehicle struck an IED (improvised explosive device). Eight police were killed and three suspects that they had detained during the operation were killed," Faisal said. — AFP
	N Korea defiant over third nuclear test Seoul, January 27 Korea has vowed “high-profile measures” in the latest in a series of threats sparked by a tightening of UN sanctions, state media said today, suggesting it was determined to press ahead with a third nuclear test. The warning by leader Kim Jong-Un came a day after Pyongyang said the planned test was a “demand of the people” following sanctions adopted last week in response to the North’s defiant long-range rocket launch on December 12. In a meeting with top security officials, Kim expressed the “firm resolution to take substantial and high-profile important state measures” in light of the “grave situation” of the peninsula, state TV said. It did not elaborate on the measures, an apparent reference to its plans to conduct a nuclear test even as China and the US have sought to pressure Pyongyang into backing down. It accused the United States of leading “unprecedented anti-North moves” at the United Nations and hampering the North’s efforts for economic development by slapping more sanctions. “This fact proved once again that the (North) should defend its sovereignty by itself. It became clear that there can be no denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula before the world has been denuclearised,” state TV said. Top officials including military chief Hyon Yong-Chol, the head of the army’s politburo Choe Ryong-Hae and spy chief Kim Won-Hong attended the meeting, it added. The North has stepped up hostile rhetoric against Seoul and Washington since the UN Security Council resolution that expanded the number of North Korean entities on an international blacklist. — AFP
	Special to the tribune Maharaja Duleep Singh’s rare photo set for UK auction Shyam Bhatia in London A previously unknown photograph of Maharaja Duleep Singh depicting him as an English country gentleman with classic Victorian-style sideburns and a beard is being offered for sale next month by a firm of UK auctioneers. Mullock’s auctioneers from Ludlow in Shropshire are handling the albumen print of Duleep Singh showing him centre focus, leaning to one side, seated in boots, deerstalker (Sherlock Holmes-type hat) and tweeds as part of a Scottish hunting party, dated Thornham 1877. The Thornham estate was for three centuries the country seat of the Barons of Hartismere and Henniker and three members of the Henniker family, Hon A.Henniker, Hon A.Henniker Major and Lord Henniker are pictured alongside Duleep Singh. Also included in the same picture are the Marquis of Ormonde, Lord Homesdale and JR Gladstone. The auctioneers describe the photograph, measuring approx 20x15cm, as mounted on a large album page and to its side is a neatly drawn manuscript table showing the results of the shoot at Thornham Hall that week — totalling more than 2,000 creatures killed. Original photographs of the last Maharaja of Punjab are excessively rare and highly sought after. This particular picture was taken nine years before Duleep Singh returned to the Sikh faith in 1886, when he was forcibly detained in Aden en route to India, when he made his famous appeal, “I beg forgiveness of you, Khalsa-ji, for having forsaken the faith of my ancestors for a foreign religion. It is my fond desire to take the Pahul again on reaching Bombay.” Thornham is about an hour’s drive from what was Duleep Singh’s own 17,000 acrecountry estate at Elveden that was bought for him in 1863. The estate was modernized and changed into an efficient wildlife park where the Maharaja earned his reputation as the fourth best shot in England. After Duleep Singh’s death in Paris in 1893, Elveden was sold to pay off his debts. It is currently owned by descendants of the Guinness family.
	No mujahideen, our soldiers took part in Kargil: Pak ex-Gen Islamabad, January 27 Pakistan's claims about the Kargil war, Lt Gen Shahid Aziz (retd), then heading the ISI's analysis wing, has said there were no mujahideen but only regular soldiers who took part in the "meaningless" 1999 war whose whole truth is yet to be known. The former officer also accused the then Pakistan Army Chief Gen Pervez Musharraf of "cover up". "There were no mujahideen, only taped wireless messages, which fooled no one. Our soldiers were made to occupy barren ridges, with hand held weapons and ammunition," Lt Gen Aziz wrote in his article in the The Nation daily early this month. Headlined, 'Putting our children in line of fire', the Pakistani official, who retired in 2005 as former corps commander of Lahore, wrote "The whole truth about Kargil is yet to be known. We await the stories of forgotten starved soldiers hiding behind cold desolate rocks, with empty guns still held in their hands...Such precious blood spilled without cause!" The Pakistani officer said whatever little he knew, took a while to emerge, "since General Musharraf had put a tight lid on Kargil". "Three years later, a study commenced by GHQ to identify issues of concern at the lowest levels of command, was forcefully stopped by him. 'What is your intent?' he asked. His cover-up was revealed many years later, on publication of his book," Aziz said. He said Kargil, an "unsound military plan" based on invalid assumptions, launched with little preparations and in total disregard to the regional and international environment, was bound to fail. "That may well have been the reason for its secrecy. It was a total disaster," he said and underlined that soldiers were sent as "war fodder". Pakistan has always maintained that Kargil was fought by mujahideens. — PTI