W O R L D

Probe Kanishka bombing, says Canadian House
Vancouver, April 13
Canadian Parliament has passed an Opposition-moved non-binding motion for a public inquiry into the Air-India flight bombing in 1985 following acquittal of the two main accused in the case by a court leading to outrage among families of the 329 victims of the disaster.

Canada SC to decide kirpan issue Ottawa, April 13 Lawyers for a 15-year-old Sikh student argued before the Supreme Court of Canada that fidelity to his religion would be broken if the government forces him to remove his ‘kirpan’. The case is being watched closely by some 300,000 Sikhs across this North American nation, some of whom have vowed to pull their children from public schools if the high court gives ruling against the boy.

Court can’t ask MPs to behave, says Pak Chief Justice
Islamabad, April 13
Chief Justice Nazim Hussain Siddiqui on Tuesday observed that neither the Supreme Court nor any authority in the world could ask lawmakers to behave in a proper way.

Pak asks India to join TAP gas pipeline project
Islamabad, April 13
With the fate of Indo-Iran gas pipeline remaining uncertain amidst concerns raised by the USA, Pakistan today invited India to join another pipeline project. "We will welcome India to join TAP (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan pipeline). 

11 Pakistanis charged over
Madrid, April 13
Spanish authorities have charged 11 Pakistani nationals over suspected links with Al-Qaida sympathisers who carried out the Madrid train bombings a year ago, judicial sources said today.

Plastic harmful, says US report
Los Angeles, April 13
Evidence is mounting that a chemical in plastic that is one of the world's most widely used industrial compounds may be risky in the small amounts that seep from bottles and food packaging, according to a report to be published this week in a scientific journal.

Mourners file past the tomb of the late Pope John Paul II at the Vatican's St Peter's Basilica grotto on Wednesday after it was opened to the public.
— Reuters 

	Bush warns Sharon against expansion in West Bank April 13, 2005
	Sexual abuse victims protest key role for Cardinal Law April 12, 2005
	Hamas leader arrested at West Bank April 11, 2005
	Pak to build more N-power plants April 10, 2005
	Expand Security Council through consensus: USA April 9, 2005
	Ties with China enter new phase, says Musharraf April 8, 2005
	Pak for peaceful settlement of Kashmir issue April 7, 2005
	4 million to attend Pope’s funeral April 6, 2005
	Pope’s body moved to St Peter’s Basilica April 5, 2005

Amitabh to be UNICEF ambassador
Houston, April 13
Legendary film star Amitabh Bachchan will be formally nominated as a UNICEF goodwill ambassador tomorrow. Bachchan will be nominated by the Executive Director of UNICEF as a goodwill ambassador at the UNICEF House’s Danny Kaye Visitor’s Centre in New York, the UN agency’s sources said.

Probe Kanishka bombing, says Canadian House

Vancouver, April 13
Canadian Parliament has passed an Opposition-moved non-binding motion for a public inquiry into the Air-India flight bombing in 1985 following acquittal of the two main accused in the case by a court leading to outrage among families of the 329 victims of the disaster.

Embarrassing the minority Liberal government which insisted the vote was not binding, the motion was passed by 172-124 vote by the House of Commons yesterday after a bitter exchange during which opposition leader Stephen Harper said whether an inquiry would have come sooner if more of the victims were white.

Prime Minister Paul Martin reacted angrily "any notions of racism are odious and any accusations of such are simply not acceptable," according to the Canadian Press news agency.

Mr Martin pointed out that Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan was working with the families of the Kanishka victims on an appropriate course of action. "She is seeking the questions that the families want to have answered.

Unequivocally the government will take action in an appropriate way," he said. The two main accused, Sikh businessman Ripudaman Singh Malik and mill worker Ajaib Singh Bagri, were last month found not guilty on all eight charges, including first degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

Ms McLellan announced last week that she would appoint an "eminent person" to review the Air-India file and make recommendations.

The Indian Government yesterday took note of the Canadian Government's move to appoint an independent adviser and said it wanted justice to be done. - PTI 

Canada SC to decide kirpan issue

Ottawa, April 13
Lawyers for a 15-year-old Sikh student argued before the Supreme Court of Canada that fidelity to his religion would be broken if the government forces him to remove his ‘kirpan’.

The case is being watched closely by some 300,000 Sikhs across this North American nation, some of whom have vowed to pull their children from public schools if the high court gives ruling against the boy. The court said it would issue a ruling later in the year.

This case began shortly after the terrorist attacks, when 12-year-old Gurbaj Singh Multani was playing in his public elementary school, Sainte Catherine Laboure, in Montreal one November morning. His ‘kirpan’ accidentally dropped from his clothes. One of the mothers noticed the dagger and complained to the school principal, who then told Gurbaj that he had to leave the ‘kirpan’ at home. — AP

Court can’t ask MPs to behave, says Pak Chief Justice
Nasir Iqbal
By arrangement with The Dawn

Islamabad, April 13
Chief Justice Nazim Hussain Siddiqui on Tuesday observed that neither the Supreme Court nor any authority in the world could ask lawmakers to behave in a proper way. “We can understand the limitation of the Prime Minister, but why have parliamentarians acted as yes-men and failed to express their opinion at the time the 17th Amendment was being passed?” the Chief Justice asked while leading a five-member bench hearing petitions challenging the 17th Constitutional Amendment and the dual office of President Pervez Musharraf.

Without the assistance of legislators, he observed, nothing could have been done. The observations were made when petitioner A.K. Dogar of the Pakistan Lawyers Forum was presenting arguments before the bench after Attorney-General Makhdoom Ali Khan had concluded his reply to the petitions.

NWFP Assistant Advocate-General Mohammad Isa Khan, a Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal government’s representative, not only supported the Attorney-General’s arguments, but went a step ahead by saying that “politicians were responsible for all the mess we were in”.

The NWFP representative had taken a very shallow view of the situation as politicians were not the only one to be blamed for every crisis, Justice Javed Iqbal observed. The representatives of Punjab and Sindh also subscribed to the Attorney-General’s arguments. There was no representative of Baluchistan.

The Chief Justice, addressing Mr Dogar, observed that the petitioner should have brought disqualification petitions against parliamentarians who, according to him, were not performing.

Mr Dogar replied that they (parliamentarians) were performing but not in accordance with the constitution and cited a dialogue between one of his friends and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz wherein the latter had admitted that he had no authority to transfer even a deputy secretary.

“Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz is, in fact, a ‘short-cut Aziz’ as he has no moorings in the public,” he said. The Prime Minister, Justice Javed Iqbal observed, had every power and it was a different thing if he was not exercising them.

Mr Dogar emphasised that the Supreme Court had all powers to nullify the 17th Amendment like it had allowed the President to hold the office of the army chief, wear the military uniform till the end of 2007 and make appointments to key positions, contrary to the directions of the apex court in the Zafar Ali Shah case and against the basic structure of the constitution.

Pak asks India to join TAP gas pipeline project
K. J. M. Varma

Islamabad, April 13
With the fate of Indo-Iran gas pipeline remaining uncertain amidst concerns raised by the USA, Pakistan today invited India to join another pipeline project. "We will welcome India to join TAP (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan pipeline). They are welcome if they join the project" but Pakistan will go ahead with the project even if India does not join it, Petroleum Minister Amanaullah Khan Jadoon said after the TAP ministerial meeting here to assess its feasibility.

He said the "southwest route (from Turkmenistan) is feasible for the gas line as it is not mountainous and the route is plain, which will suit us. — PTI

11 Pakistanis charged over
train bombing plot

Madrid, April 13
Spanish authorities have charged 11 Pakistani nationals over suspected links with Al-Qaida sympathisers who carried out the Madrid train bombings a year ago, judicial sources said today.

One of the 11, Shahzad Ali Gujar, is suspected of having transferred funds to members of Al-Qaida, including Amjad Farooki, who Pakistani security forces killed last September and who was implicated in the murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl.

Farooki is widely believed to have been an Al-Qaida recruiter.

In all, investigators believe Al-Qaida members in Pakistan received some 800,000 euros ($ 1 million) in funds from Spain. — AFP

Plastic harmful, says US report
Marla Cone

Los Angeles, April 13
Evidence is mounting that a chemical in plastic that is one of the world's most widely used industrial compounds may be risky in the small amounts that seep from bottles and food packaging, according to a report to be published this week in a scientific journal.

The authors of the report, who reviewed more than 100 studies, urged the US Environmental Protection Agency to re-evaluate the risks of bisphenol A and consider restricting its use.

Bisphenol A, or BPA, has been detected in nearly all human bodies tested in the United States. It is a key building block in the manufacture of hard, clear, polycarbonate plastics, including baby bottles, water bottles and other food and beverage containers. The chemical can leak from the plastic, especially when the containers are heated, cleaned with harsh detergents or exposed to acidic foods or drinks.

The plastics chemical is the focus of one of the most contentious debates involving industrial compounds that can mimic sex hormones. Toxicologists say that exposure to man-made hormones skews the developing reproductive systems and brains of newborn animals, and could be having the same effects on human foetuses and young children.

Since the late 1990s, some experiments have found no effects at the doses of BPA that people are exposed to, while others suggest that it is estrogenic, blocks testosterone and harms lab animals at low doses.

Plastics industry representatives say that the trace amounts that migrate from some products pose no danger and are far below safety thresholds set by the EPA and other agencies.

In the new report, to be published online in Environmental Health Perspectives on Thursday, scientists Frederick vom Saal and Claude Hughes say that as of December, 115 studies have been published examining low doses of the chemical, and 94 of them found harmful effects.

In an interview on Tuesday, Vom Saal, a reproductive biologist at University of Missouri, Columbia, said there is now an ``overwhelming weight of evidence'' that the plastics compound is harmful.

“This is a snowball running down a hill, where the evidence is accumulating at a faster and faster rate,'' vom Saal said. ``You can't open a scientific journal related to sex hormones and not read an article that would just floor you about this chemical. ... The chemical industry's position that this is a weak chemical has been proven totally false. This is a phenomenally potent chemical as a sex hormone.''

In their study, Vom Saal and Hughes suggest an explanation for the conflicting results of studies: 100 per cent of the 11 funded by chemical companies found no risk, while 90 per cent of the 104 government-funded, non-industry studies reported harmful effects.

— By arrangement with LA Times-Washington Post.

Amitabh to be UNICEF ambassador

Houston, April 13
Legendary film star Amitabh Bachchan will be formally nominated as a UNICEF goodwill ambassador tomorrow. Bachchan will be nominated by the Executive Director of UNICEF as a goodwill ambassador at the UNICEF House’s Danny Kaye Visitor’s Centre in New York, the UN agency’s sources said.

The event will include a greeting and a signing ceremony. — PTI