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Oppn condemns Pervez’s formula
Pak Bill advocates death for honour killings
Bagri’s lawyer terms
evidence untrustworthy
Honour for Indian migrant
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Oppn condemns Pervez’s formula on Kashmir
Islamabad, October 26 General Musharraf last night took the whole country by surprise when he said plebiscite was not a solution to the Kashmir problem and suggested that India and Pakistan consider the option of identifying some “regions” of Kashmir on both sides of the LoC, demilitarise them and grant them the status of independence or joint control or under UN mandate. Reacting strongly, the alliance of six Islamic parties, Muthahida Majlis Amal (MMA), said that the plan was a “betrayal” of the Kashmir cause. “It is a rollback. What we have been told about our Kashmir policy is something different and above all no one was taken into confidence on such important decision,” senior MMA leader and vice-president of the Jamat Ulema Islami (JUI), Hafeez Hussain Ahmad, said. “When Prime Minister and Kashmir Committee of Parliament are there then there is no need to announce the options unilaterally,” he was quoted as saying by the daily ‘The Nation’ today. “Whatever the ideas, he should have put them forward in Parliament,” he said. Former Premier Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) described the plan as “an insult to the struggling people of Kashmir” and said, “The options emanating from a dictator are in an individual capacity.” PPP spokesman Senator Faratullah Babar said, “...General Musharraf cannot impose any solution behind the back of Kashmiris and over Parliament.” The Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N), founded by deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, said Musharraf’s suggestion was impractical and would be unacceptable to Kashmiris and even to India. “I think things are moving in this direction ever since Indo-Pak joint statement of January 6. But I doubt whether Kashmiris or even Indians would accept these solutions,” senior PML-N leader, Raja Zafarul Haq, said. While floating the plan at an Iftar dinner last night, Musharraf had said Pakistan wanted plebiscite in Kashmir, while “they (Indians) wanted the LoC to be made a permanent border and if both sides continued to stick to their stand, the dispute would persist for 100 years without any solution.” He said by reading and listening to the views of people and experts, he would judge what solution the masses desired.
— PTI |
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Pak Bill advocates death for honour killings
Islamabad, October 26 Under centuries-old tribal customs, hundreds of women are killed in Pakistan every year for bringing shame to their families by marrying for love, committing adultery or earning an inadequate dowry. The so-called “honour killings” are particularly common in rural Pakistan, where feudal and tribal laws hold sway. The Bill, passed by the lower House of Parliament on a voice vote, proposed the death sentence for the most extreme cases and prison terms from seven years to life. “We have framed a law which should be a source of pride for women”, Nilofar Bakhtiar, adviser to the Prime Minister on women’s affairs, told the House after the passage of the Bill. “We must have the confidence and courage to redefine the word honour”, she said. Human rights activists have long demanded that the government take stringent measures to curb honour killings. Government officials say there were more than 1,200 such killings in 2003. In many cases, the killers go free because the police and prosecutors do not consider them to be criminals. Women’s rights activist Majida Razvi praised the Bill as a step toward curbing violence against women, but said it fell far short of hopes. The Bill on honour killings will now go to the Senate, Parliament’s upper House, for approval before it becomes law. Opposition politicians, who include Islamists in favour of hardline religious laws, did not vote as they and their allies staged a walk-out protest from Parliament against President Pervez Musharraf’s dual role as army chief. Musharraf, who tries to project Pakistan as a progressive Muslim nation, also wants to amend the Hudood Ordinances.
— Reuters |
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Bagri’s lawyer terms evidence untrustworthy
Vancouver, October 26 In his closing argument in the British Columbia Supreme Court, lawyer Richard Peck alleged a key witness against Bagri was “unscrupulous and received an unprecedented payment - nearly $ 5,00,000 - to testify”, a report in the Canadian news network CNews said yesterday. The informant, whose name is protected, said Bagri confessed he plotted the Kanishka bombing. Bagri denies any such conversation took place.
— PTI |
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Honour for Indian migrant
Melbourne, October 26 Fifteen-year-old Cheryl Naik is the only person of South Asian origin appointed as a youth ambassador for the event being celebrated by the Victorian Government as “Eureka 150”.
— PTI |
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Tea may protect against Alzheimer’s
IT could be one of the most popular medicines ever to be prescribed. It could form a potent weapon in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease.
Tea is already thought to protect the body against both heart disease and cancers, but research published on Sunday shows that black and green tea both inhibit the activity of key enzymes associated with the development of Alzheimer's, the form of dementia which affects about 10 million people around the world. The findings come in the wake of numerous pieces of research which suggest that flavanoids contained in tea, particularly green tea, protect against strokes, heart attacks and many different types of cancers, as well as more prosaic things like tooth decay and dehydration. One study shows that drinking three cups a day was the equivalent of eating six apples. Green and black tea derive from the same plant, Camellia
Sinesis, which is found throughout the tropics but also grown in some other parts of the world, like Turkey. Black tea is fermented tea leaves, comes mainly from India and forms the basis of traditional types of tea drunk in Britain such as Assam or Sri Lanka. Green tea is drunk in China and Japan, where it has been linked to longevity and low heart disease and cancer rates in those countries. Scientists at Newcastle University's Medicinal Plant Research Centre found that both teas inhibited the activity of the enzyme acetylcholinesterase
(AChE), which breaks down the chemical messenger, or neurotransmitter,
acetylcholine. Alzheimer's is characterised by a drop in acetylcholine. Both teas, they found, also hinder the activity of the enzyme butyrylcholinesterase
(BuChE), which has been discovered in protein deposits found on the brain of patients with Alzheimer's. Green tea went one step further in that it obstructed the activity of
beta-secretase, which plays a role in the production of protein deposits in the brain associated with Alzheimer's disease. The scientists also found that it continued to have its inhibitive effect for a week, whereas black tea's enzyme-inhibiting properties lasted for only one day. — By arrangement with The Independent, London |
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Islamabad, October 26
