Astronauts spacewalk to fix leak
Cape Canaveral, May 12
Astronauts making a rare, hastily planned spacewalk have replaced a pump outside the International Space Station in hopes of plugging a serious ammonia leak. Prospects of success grew as the minutes, then hours passed and no frozen flecks of ammonia appeared. Mission Control said it appeared as though the leak may have been plugged, although additional monitoring over coming weeks will be needed before declaring a victory.

Bangladesh arrests Islamist leader on war crimes charges
Dhaka, May 12
Bangladeshi security forces arrested on Sunday the leader of the country's biggest Islamist party on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, a senior police official said.

US town has a four-year-old mayor!
New York, May 12
A four-year-old US boy, who hasn't even passed kindergarten yet, is calling the shots as the Mayor in a small town in Minnesota. Robert Tufts was selected mayor last year of Dorset, a town in Minnesota, with a population of mere 22 people.

Senior serving and retired British Army officers have joined in the call for London to grant asylum to Afghan interpreters who have been working alongside UK forces in the country. They include former Army chief General Sir Michael Jackson and New Delhi-born Lord Ashdown, a former Royal Marine, who have called on their government not to abandon the interpreters.

General Jackson is the co-signatory of an open letter to the government in London, which reads, “The British military’s job in Afghanistan would have been impossible without local interpreters, who have risked their lives and made extraordinary sacrifices just like British soldiers.” Another Army officer, Colonel Stuart Tootal, was quoted last week in the British media as saying, “They absolutely saved lives. They read the ground, judged the temperature, interpreted our intelligence. I think we owe them a debt of gratitude.”

Britain is the only NATO government so far to refuse automatic asylum to its Army’s force of interpreters, about 600 in total, on the rather lame grounds that it would contribute to the country’s brain drain. In a formal statement, the British Ministry of Defence said earlier this month, “People who have put their life on the line for the United Kingdom will not be abandoned. We take our responsibility for all members of staff very seriously and have put in place measures to reduce the risks they face.”

Such brave words nevertheless mask the issue of whether the interpreters and their families could avoid beheading by the Taliban, once they no longer have NATO’s British forces to protect them from retaliation.

For their part, the Taliban describe Army interpreters as “jawasees” or spies working for the infidel forces, who are deserving of death. So far, some 20 interpreters working for the British forces have been killed and many others wounded or abducted.

One Afghan interpreter was quoted in The Times newspaper as saying, “They (the Taliban) don’t call us translators or interpreters — they say we are spies for the foreigners. In our culture, this is worse than being an infidel. I have been asked many times out on patrol why I am working with the foreigners and told that when they leave they will catch every one of us.” Once NATO, including British, forces start to withdraw next year, some 600 interpreters and their families could be eligible for asylum in the UK — provided London relaxes its rules — to avoid beheading by the Taliban. The US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand have offered asylum to the interpreters used by their respective forces. London alone has refused, using the rather lame excuse that the UK does not want to contribute to Afghanistan’s brain drain. One of the saddest cases of an Afghan interpreter who faces a bleak future after NATO’s withdrawal next year is Wali Mohammed Noori who was blinded after the battle of Musa Qala in 2010. The British Ministry of Defence gave him an ex gratia payment of £4,600 (Rs 3.86 lakhs) and another £16,000 (Rs 13.44 lakhs) to cover his medical expenses at an Indian hospital. He is the eldest of eight children and what happens to him next year after NATO and the British withdraw is anybody’s guess.

Turkey, May 12
Turkey accused a group loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Sunday of carrying out car bombings that killed 46 people in a Turkish border town and said the risk of unrest spreading to Syria's neighbours was increasing.

The twin car bombs, which ripped into crowded shopping streets in Reyhanli on Saturday, increased fears that Syria's civil war is dragging in neighbouring states despite renewed diplomatic moves to end two years of conflict that have killed more than 70,000.

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said it was time for the international community to take action against Assad. “It is time for the international community to act together against this regime. We, like Jordan, are hosting hundreds of thousands of Syrians. Security risks to neighbouring countries are rising,” he told a news conference during a visit to Berlin.

Authorities have arrested nine people, all Turkish citizens and including the alleged mastermind, deputy prime minister Besir Atalay told reporters. Davutoglu said those involved were from an “old Marxist terrorist organisation” with direct links to the Assad regime.

He said earlier that the Reyhanli bombers were believed to be from the same group that carried out an attack on the Syrian coastal town of Banias a week ago in which at least 62 people were killed. Syrian Information Minister Omran Zubi denied any Syrian involvement and rejected what he called “unfounded accusations”.

The conflict has fuelled a confrontation between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims in the Middle East, with Shi’ite Iran supporting Assad, and Sunni powers like Saudi Arabia backing the rebels. Banias is a Sunni pocket in the midst of a large Alawite enclave on Syria’s Mediterranean coast.

Activists in the area accuse militias loyal to Assad, an Alawite, of ethnic attacks. Reyhanli, home to thousands of Syrian refugees, is also predominantly Sunni and ethnic Arab and has become a logistics base for the rebels fighting Assad just over the border.

As the conflict has dragged on, local people have grown increasingly resentful over stretched economic resources and the violence being brought to their door. Protests erupted in Reyhanli after the blasts, with some blaming Syrian residents and smashing Syrian car windows, and others railing against Turkey’s foreign policy.

"We don’t want the Syrians here any more. They can't stay here. Whether we even wanted them or not, they can't stay after this," said a teacher in Reyhanli, who gave his name as Mustafa. He said the government’s Syria policy was to blame. “It's Tayyip Erdogan's politics that have done this. Turkey should never have got involved in this mess. We have a 900 km border with Syria. They come and go in wherever they like.” — Reuters

Dhaka, May 12
Bangladeshi security forces arrested on Sunday the leader of the country's biggest Islamist party on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, a senior police official said.

AKM Yusuf, the leader of Jamaat-e-Islami, was arrested in the capital Dhaka and charged with offences dating back to Bangladesh's 1971 war of independence with Pakistan.

His arrest comes after the sentencing to death last week of another Islamist party leader for wartime atrocities. That decision brought a wave of violent protest from supporters, and police say they are concerned about the risk of a backlash from Jamaat activists.

More than 100 people have been killed in protests and counter-protests since January, when a tribunal set up by the government to investigate alleged abuses in the war sentenced to death in absentia a former senior Jamaat-e-Islami figure. Jamaat opposed Bangladeshi independence from Pakistan in the war but denies accusations that some of its leaders committed murder, rape and torture during the conflict. — Reuters

Residents say Tufts is a "ball of fire" and while the kid may not have the academic credentials for the job, they claim he's got the chops — and the mouth — to run the town, 'New York Daily News' reported.

"He's amazing. He's just completely amazing," said Kathy Schmidt, whose family has lived in the area for four generations. "He's right in your face and well-spoken. You can’t imagine what a ball of fire he is," said Schmidt.

According to WCCO, the mayor can sing and dance with the best of them, he guides his citizens safely across the street, big stick in hand. He's also an expert fisherman and knows how to dole out advice about the best bait to use. Tufts was chosen as the mayor at last year's "Taste of Dorset" festival. The small town selects its leader through a draw during the popular event.

Campaigns don't cost much in Dorset — just $1 will get your name in the hat. You don't even have to live there. At one point, a 5-year-old from Chicago was running the town.

Dorset became a dot on the map nearly a century ago, sprouting up around a railroad that passed through the area. The community allegedly lost its town status years ago "when they took away the zip code," Schmidt said.

Decisions about Dorset are made by the businesses that operate there — meaning the mayor doesn't have too many responsibilities, the report said. Dorset describes itself the "Restaurant Capital of the World" because it has the most restaurants per capita. — PTI

Former military ruler Gen (retd) Pervez Musharraf’s All Pakistan Muslim League  (APML) managed to win a seat each in the National Assembly and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s provincial assembly from Chitral’s NA-32 and PK-90 constituency, despite announcing a boycott of 2013 general elections.

APML candidate Shehzada Iftikhar ud Din won the NA-32 seat with 19,938 votes against second-placed Abdul Latif belonging to the PTI, who got 16,638 votes.

Ghulam Mohammad, APML candidate from PK-90, won his seat securing 10,646 votes against the Pakistan People’s Party candidate who received 10,524 votes.

PPP’s Saleem Khan with 11,285 votes defeated APML’s Shehzada Khalid in PK-89 constituency.

The APML had announced a boycott of the general elections 2013 after the rejection of Musharraf’s nomination papers from all provinces and the imposition of a lifetime ban.

The party’s candidate from Chitral, Shahzada Iftikhar ud Din, had decided to stay in the field despite the boycott.

The former military ruler is under house arrest on judicial remand at his Chak Shehzad residence, which was declared as a sub-jail, after a bench of the Islamabad High Court rejected a plea for extension of his bail in the judges detention case.

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan Sunday conceded his party has lost elections but said he is elated with the unprecedented response given to him by the youth and educated women voters who came out to vote in such a huge way for the first time in the country’s history.

Imran did not felicitate the winner Nawaz Sharif but said it was not the first time he has suffered a defeat.

“I have experienced defeat before but all the frustration and disappointments of losing the elections have been more than compensated by the tremendous frenzy and enthusiasm of the youth and the way young and old men and women came to polling booths to vote,” he said in a video message from Shaukat Khanum Hospital, where he has been recuperating from a terrible fall in Lahore two days before the polls.

He did not question the fairness of the polls but said complaints have been received from several constituencies where people were prevented from voting. A white paper is being prepared to catalogue all these complaints, he added.

Asad Umar, a close confidant of Imran Khan who has been acting party spokesman as well, however, greeted the PML-N for its victory.

“The PTI may be down after Punjab ignored its call for ‘change’ on Saturday, but it is not out,” Umar said.

“Overall, the PTI has emerged as the second largest national party, capable of playing the role of a strong, active opposition in the National Assembly and independently forming the provincial government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” he added.

Omar sounded confident of a future for his party in national politics and did not appear disappointed at its poorer-than-expected electoral performance in Punjab.

Lahore, May 12 
PML-N supporters took to the streets here in droves today to celebrate the victory of Nawaz Sharif’s party in a landmark general election that marked the first democratic transition in Pakistan’s troubled history.

Overwhelmed by the victory, the PML-N supporters fired in the air at several places in Lahore, violating the code of conduct. However, police remained silent spectators to their actions. Waving party flags, youths danced to the tune of drums. They also shouted slogans like “Wazir-e-Azam Nawaz Sharif”.

At some places, the jubilant PML-N workers brought tigers - the election symbol of the party - and danced in front of them. Traffic remained suspended on the Mall Road, Lahore’s main thoroughfare, Gulberg and Liberty Market for a few hours because of the celebrations by the PML-N supporters. — PTI