“Black day” observed in Baluchistan
ISLAMABAD, May 29 — While the Nawaz Sharif Government and Pakistan missions abroad celebrated the first anniversary of nuclear tests by Islamabad as an event of national pride, in Baluchistan, where the tests were conducted, hundreds of activists of the Baluchistan National Party and Pukhtoonkhawa Milli Awami Party took to the streets observing a “black day” yesterday.

Zardari contests trial
KARACHI, May 29 — Former Pakistan Premier Benazir Bhutto’s jailed husband Asif Ali Zardari today challenged his trial in a double murder case by an anti-terrorism court, court sources said.

Cloned sheep may age faster
Dolly looks like any other sheep. To those who know her best, she looks remarkably like a long-dead six-year-old Finn Dorset ewe from a cell of which Dolly was made.

• Proposal on ending sanctions dropped
• Tunnel at N. Korean N. site found
• Awami League MP sent to jail

Democracy restored in Nigeria

ABUJA, May 29 (DPA, AFP) — Nigeria marked its historic handover to civilian rule today, a turning point which visiting South African President Nelson Mandela called “the most important development” in the country’s history.

Mr Obasanjo was sworn in as president later ending more than 15 years of military rule in Africa’s most populous country.

The 62-year-old retired General was sworn in by the Chief Justice of the Nigerian Federation, Mr Muhammadu Uwais, placing his hand on a copy of the Bible and swearing allegiance to the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Promising to protect the interests of the constitution and the sovereignty of the country, he was dressed in a resplendent white and green “agbada”, the traditional costume of the Yoruba tribe.

A flurry of balloons in Nigeria’s green and white colours was released into the sky as singing broke out in the crowd.

Mr Mandela was among a host of dignitaries attending the handover ceremonies.

“I am going to witness the most important development in the history of that country,” he told reporters.

Other African Heads of State attending the inauguration were Presidents Daniel Arap Moi of Kenya and Benjamin Mkapa of Tanzania.

Nigeria’s outgoing military ruler, Gen Abdulsalami Abubakar, said in Abuja it was time for the military to return to its constitutional role of defending the country’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.

“We must forever resist and renounce the seduction and temptation of political power and office,” he said in a valedictory speech on the eve of the handover of power today to the new democratically-elected government.

General Abubakar was Nigeria’s eighth military ruler since independence from Britain in 1960. The military ruled Nigeria for all but ten years since then.

Enact law on people’s rights: Pak SC

ISLAMABAD, May 29 (ANI) — The Supreme Court of Pakistan has directed the Federal Government to enact legislation for providing fundamental rights to the people of northern areas as envisaged in the Constitution.

“We direct the Federal Government to initiate appropriate administrative/legislative measures within six months from today to make necessary amendments in the Constitution, relevant statutes and notifications to ensure that the people of northern areas enjoy their Fundamental Rights, namely to be governed through their chosen representatives and have access to justice through an independent judiciary, inter alia, for enforcement of their fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution”, the apex court ruled on Friday.

The recommendations were given by a Bench comprising Chief Justice Ajmal Mian, Mr Justice Muhammad Bashir Jahangiri, Mr Justice Mamoon Qazi, Mr Justice Chaudhry Muhammad Arif and Mr Justice Munir A. Sheikh while disposing of 17 identical petitions/appeals filed by different persons.

The petitioners were seeking enforcement of their fundamental rights in northern areas. The court observed it was evident the people of northern areas had been agitating for their rights, and there seemed to be no factual controversy.

The court observed that since the geographical location of northern areas was very sensitive as it borders India, China, Tibet and Russia and as the above areas in the past have also been treated differently, this court cannot decide what type of government should be provided to ensure compliance with the mandate of the Constitution.

“Nor can be direct that the people of northern areas should be given representation in Parliament as, at this stage, it may not be in the larger interest of the country because of the fact that a plebiscite under the auspices of the United Nations is to be held”.

The court observed the relevant questions are to be decided by Parliament and the Executive. At the most it can direct that the proper administrative and legislative steps should be taken to ensure that the people of northern areas enjoy their rights under the Constitution.

Sophie pardons ex-colleague

LONDON, May 29 (Reuters) — Britain’s royal bride-to-be Sophie Rhys-Jones has forgiven a one-time colleague who betrayed her by selling a topless picture of her to British tabloid The Sun, rival newspaper The Mirror said today.

Ms Rhys-Jones, who received an apology from The Sun earlier this week after the newspaper ignited royal outrage told a friend she has forgiven radio DJ Kara Noble for selling the 10-year-old snap.

“I forgive her,” Prince Edward’s fiancée was quoted as telling a friend.

Mr Brian McLaurin, who introduced Ms Rhys-Jones to Queen Elizabeth’s youngest son, seventh in line to the throne, told the paper: “They are both very upset that she (Noble) did it but they both want to move on and look to the future. Sophie doesn’t want to spend the next year harbouring a grudge. They have forgiven her but not forgotten what she did.”

“Kara was silly and misguided but she is not a traitor,” Mr McLaurin added in the report.

Noble was sacked from her job as a DJ on heart FM radio after selling the picture to The Sun which showed British television star and rival DJ Chris Tarrant playing the fool and yanking Rhys-Jones’ bikini top to reveal a bare breast.

Rival tabloids lashed out at The Sun last week and Buckingham Palace described the story as “premeditated cruelty”. The Prince and his fiancée are due to marry on June 19.

“Black day” observed in Baluchistan

ISLAMABAD, May 29 (ANI) — While the Nawaz Sharif Government and Pakistan missions abroad celebrated the first anniversary of nuclear tests by Islamabad as an event of national pride, in Baluchistan, where the tests were conducted, hundreds of activists of the Baluchistan National Party (BNP) and Pukhtoonkhawa Milli Awami Party (PMAP) took to the streets observing a “black day” yesterday.

Wearing black arm bands and carrying placards and banners reading slogans like: “Baluchistan needs development not nuclear experiments”, the BNP activists held rallies and meetings in various parts of Baluchistan.

Strongly condemning the nuclear tests conducted by Pakistan (and India) and the celebrations by the government, protesters in the provincial capital, Quetta, marched through streets, raising anti-government slogans.

Later, the procession turned into a public meeting where the leaders of the BNP and the PMAP strongly condemned the nuclear tests which, they said, had caused radiation in the area.

Zardari contests trial

KARACHI, May 29 (AFP) — Former Pakistan Premier Benazir Bhutto’s jailed husband Asif Ali Zardari today challenged his trial in a double murder case by an anti-terrorism court, court sources said.

His counsel Farook Naik, in a petition, said Zardari could not be tried in an anti-terrorism court on charges of killing Sindh High Court Judge Nizam Ahmed and his son in June 1996.

The double murder case has already been heard in a special court on suppression of terrorist activities, he said.

“Now the police is trying to start the case in new anti-terrorism court. But you cannot try somebody for the same case in two courts...,” Naik said.

Anti-terrorism court Judge Rehmat Hussain Jafri fixed Monday for the hearing of the application.

Last week, the police submitted an initial report of its investigation before the anti-terrorism court and named Zardari and another man Babar Sindhu as the accused in the case.

Laywers said Zardari would be formally charged with double murder after the police submitted to the court their final report.

Cloned sheep may age faster
from Tim Radford in London

Dolly looks like any other sheep. To those who know her best, she looks remarkably like a long-dead six-year-old Finn Dorset ewe from a cell of which Dolly was made.

So the first question scientists asked in 1996, when Dolly was cloned from a cell taken from the mammary gland of her mother and twin was - how old was Dolly? Months old, or six years old?

Three years on, scientists at Roslin in Scotland have their first clue. Dolly might look like a three-year-old, but her chromosomes tell a slightly different story. And her natural life might be shorter because of them.

Scientists from PPL Therapeutics examined structures at the end of the chromosomes called telomeres. These seem to be linked to the number of times cells might divide in the life of an animal. Researchers have suspected for years that they could act as a clock, ticking off animal lifespans. Dolly’s telomeres, they reported in Nature, were slightly shorter than would be expected in a sheep of her age born normally.

“She shows no sign of ageing — except that she keeps asking about her pension,’’ said Alan Colman, director of research for PPL Therapeutics, the company set up to exploit research at Roslin.

“It’s clear that the telomeres do go down as you age. But your hair falls out as you age. Hair falling out doesn’t cause ageing, it is a reflection of ageing, so it is not clear that the telomere reduction has any effect at all on natural processes of ageing.’’

Dolly — the only success out of 277 eggs — will be watched all her life for signs of premature ageing. Most sheep are slaughtered at about six years: the Roslin scientists had to ask among the farming community for their best guesses at the natural lifespan of farmed sheep. But the discovery raises questions about the value of the technology for humans.

Human cloning is illegal in Britain, and Roslin scientists have repeatedly condemned it. But researchers at Roslin have gone into partnership with the Geron Corporation in the USA, which last year advanced both telomere research and the culturing of human embryo stem cells. The plan is to combine Scottish and US knowledge to develop new ways of providing organ tissues for transplant.
— The Guardian, London

Proposal on ending sanctions dropped

WASHINGTON, May 29 (UNI) — Republican Senator Sam Brownback has withdrawn his proposal, seeking to ease nuclear-related sanctions against India and Pakistan because of a resurgence of fighting in Kashmir.

“I was planning to offer an amendment to lift the economic sanctions of India and Pakistan. I did so in the belief that bilateral relations between India and Pakistan had improved. Unfortunately, I was wrong”, he said in a statement last night.

Tunnel at N. Korean N. site found

WASHINGTON, May 29 (OANA-Yonhap) — A US team that visited a suspected nuclear underground site in North Korea has recently discovered an unfinished installation with a vast empty tunnel complex, the US State Department has said.

The team, which was extended unlimited access and full cooperation by the Korean authorities, has finished its preliminary inspection and the findings would now undergo careful analysis, State Department spokesman James Rubin said in a statement yesterday.

Awami League MP sent to jail

DHAKA, May 29 (PTI) — Ruling Awami League MP Mohibur Rahman Manik has been sent to jail in connection with bomb explosions at his house in north-eastern Bangladesh that left two persons dead, the police said today.

A Sunamjung Magistrate in Sylhet district last night sent Manik to jail for his alleged involvement in the March 15 bomb blasts after he was arrested and produced before the Judge by a team of CID officials, the police said.

He was then taken to Comilla central jail in eastern Comilla district last night by road under tight security.

13 hanged in public
TEHERAN: Thirteen convicted drug-traffickers were hanged in public in two Iranian cities on Friday, the official Irna news agency reported on Saturday. Five men were executed in Zahedan, capital of the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan, while eight were put to death in Torbat-e-Jam in the eastern province of Khorassan, Irna said. Four members of the same family were among the five hanged early on Friday in the presence of a large crowd in Zahedan — AFP

9 die in mishap
KATHMANDU: Nine persons were killed and nine injured when a passenger bus tumbled 200 metres into a river west of here, the police said here on Saturday. The ill-fated bus was heading towards Dang Ghorahi from Rolpa Holdari, both to the mid-west, when it fell down at Latey in Dang, 315 km southwest of here on Friday afternoon, the police said. The driver of the bus was killed along with eight passengers. It was not known how many passengers were travelling onboard the bus and the police could not say if foreigners were also included. — AFP

Foetus removed
BEIJING: A dead deformed foetus, weighing 2.5 kg, has been successfully removed from a Chinese woman’s chest where it had been lying undetected for 39 years. The 39-year-old woman Jin Xiaoning from East China’s Zhejiang province suffered palpitations and shortness of breath a month ago and went to see a doctor, Xinhua news agency said. A group of surgeons at Jinhua People’s Hospital found a dead foetus in her thoracic cavity and operated to remove it. — PTI

FBI to probe shooting
LOS ANGELES: The CBI has been called in to investigate the fatal shooting by a police officer of a mentally disturbed and homeless black woman in Los Angeles. Her case, which follows a recent decision not to prosecute officers over the fatal shooting of another black woman, is fast becoming a cause celebre as concerns are voiced over police use of firearms. Margaret Laverne Mitchell (54) was stopped on Friday by two bicycle patrol officers who wanted to see if the shopping trolley she was pushing was stolen.— Guardian

Whale meat
LONDON: Heavily contaminated dolphin, porpoise and whale meat from Japanese coastal waters is being passed off in Japan as wholesome whale meat from the Antarctic, the International Whaling Commission has been told in Grenada. The meat is so contaminated with heavy metals and chemicals that it could cause birth defects and serious illness, the 40 commissioners were told. — Guardian