 |
|
3 with J&K militant links convicted
Victim of race violence leaves for India
Indians most avid readers
USA invites Pak rape victim
Estrada’s mistress linked to poll fraud
Pak waives credit to Bosnia
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
AQ Khan has cardiac problem
Truck bomb killed Hariri
Anti-terrorist police arrests four men in London
US Embassy shut in Nigeria
Blood vessels grown from elderly cells
Search on for sexiest veggie
|
|
3 with J&K militant links convicted
Paris, June 17 A Paris court yesterday sentenced the main defendant, Ghulam Rama (67), a Pakistani who headed the Chemin Droit (Straight Path) humanitarian group in France, to five years in prison. Two men who trained for insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir with Rama’s help, Hassan el-Cheguer and Hakim Mokhfi, both 31, were given four-year prison sentences. All three were linked to the Lashkar e-Toiba militant group, active in Jammu and Kashmir. They were all charged with criminal association in connection with a terrorist enterprise, a sweeping charge widely used in terror cases in France that carries a maximum 10-year sentence. They were arrested in 2002, suspected of providing logistical support to Reid, a Briton serving a life sentence in the USA for trying to detonate a shoebomb aboard a Paris-Miami flight in December, 2001. However, the investigation did not bear out those suspicions, denied by Rama. “This case could have been named the Reid case, but it is not the Reid case,” prosecutor Sonya Djemni-Wagner said in court on May 26, two weeks after the trial started.
— AP |
|
Victim of race violence leaves for India
London, June 17 Kapur whose second novel, “The Wages of Life,” was published in India last year, was in Norwich doing research in a British university. The author, who is doing a PhD in creative writing at the University of Anglia, Norwich, was attacked by two white men on the campus on June 5 when he was returning to his room from the university’s computer lab. He sustained multiple injuries after he was punched and kicked in the face in an unprovoked racist incident. Sources close to him said Kapur received stitches on the forehead for a gash. “My left jaw was swollen. There was a laceration in the back of the head, an inflamed ear and bruises in the hands and the face. Doctors said the gash on the forehead was so deep that it seemed to have been caused by sharp metal,” Kapur said after the incident. The police said the assailants appeared to have been waiting for him and had chosen a spot that could not be picked up by the CCTV in the area. The attackers, who appeared to be in their late teens, did not use any racist language nor did they attempt to rob him. “I had my wallet and mobile phone but they didn’t take it. Since robbery did not seem to be the motive, it is suspected that the attack could be racially motivated,” Kapur said. The police have registered a case of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm. No arrest has been made so far.
— PTI |
|
|
Indians most avid readers
London, June 17 Indians spend 10 hours, 42 minutes each week with some form of publication in front of them. Britons, however, spend 18 hours a week in front of the box and a measly five hours, 18 minutes reading, according to a survey. The French are also quite similar to the British as they spend 17 hours, 18 minutes each week glued to the TV. But others around the continent watch far less TV — with Sweden the lowest on 12 hours, 18 minutes; Italy just in front on 14 hours, 54 minutes and Germans viewing for 15 hours, 12 minutes. Nevertheless, in world rankings Thailand beats Britain, becoming the global leader, with the country’s citizens watching television for 22 hours, 24 minutes a week, followed by the Philippines on 21 hours. Britain is ninth in the worldwide TV watching league, with the average viewing standing at 16 hours, 36
minutes. The NOP World survey of 30,000 persons across 30 industrialised nations found Mexicans watch the least television at 11 hours, 36 minutes. As for reading, Britain’s European partners spend more time with books or poring over magazines and newspapers. The French — when they’re not watching TV — read for six hours, 54 minutes a week; the Spanish, for five hours, 48 minutes and the Germans for five hours, 42 minutes. But India remains the world leader for reading. NOP World’s Nick Chiarelli said, “From a UK perspective, it’s perhaps not surprising we rank so high in terms of television watching. TV has always been a popular leisure pastime in this country, but it’s quite concerning how far we lag behind many other countries on reading.’’ Then there are home computers. Taiwan is the world leader in leisure computer use — with an average of 12 hours, 36 minutes a week. “It’s evident that media consumption is changing considerably across the world, with the computer playing a far more active part in consumers’ home life and eating into the time that people spend engaging with other media,” Mr Chiarelli added.
— UNI |
|
Dawood Ibrahim’s daughter to marry Miandad’s son
New Delhi, June 17 The cricketer’s son, who is studying in England, had been engaged to Ibrahim’s daughter in January, an
e vent that was kept a quiet affair. “We expect the actual ceremony to be a hush-hush one too, with not many guests being invited. We also know for sure that Dawood will not be attending,” said the sources, speaking strictly on the condition of anonymity. When news of the engagement surfaced earlier this year, Miandad had reacted angrily, saying he would make no comments on the matter. At that time, he was reported to have said: “I do not understand why people want to interfere in our personal and family life. I do not interfere in anybody else’s personal life and we expect them to respect our privacy also.” This time around, Miandad was more composed. When contacted in Lahore on Thursday, Miandad did not deny that the marriage was on the cards. “I will let you know when the wedding takes place. It will not be a secret, so let us leave it at that,” Miandad said. The former cricketer is the son-in-law of a leading business family of Pakistan, in whose businesses Dawood is believed to have invested heavily, say intelligence sources.
— IANS |
||
|
USA invites Pak rape victim
Washington, June 17 “We have advised Pakistani officials that she was invited to the US by a Pakistani organisation based in the US,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told a Wednesday afternoon briefing in Washington. “Ms Mai is welcome to travel to the United States at any time.” Mr McCormack described Mai as “a courageous woman who is a victim of a horrendous crime” and said that Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca has discussed Mai’s planned visit to the USA with Ambassador Jehangir
Karamat. Meanwhile, the Asian-American Network against Abuse of Human Rights, the group which has invited Mai, said on Thursday that authorities in Pakistan have confiscated her passport along with the visa and has forced her to return to her village. “This is not acceptable. Instead of stopping her, the government should facilitate her travel,” said a spokesman for the group. Mai told BBC that the Prime Minister’s Adviser on Women Affairs, Ms Neelofar
Bakhtiar, confiscated her passport when she returned from the US Embassy in Islamabad after receiving the visa. |
||
|
Estrada’s mistress linked to poll fraud
Manila, June 17 Arroyo, whose ratings are at a record low, was vice-president when Estrada was ousted by huge street protests in 2001. Estrada is now on trial on charges of economic plunder. Arroyo won a fresh term in 2004 by narrowly beating Fernando Poe Jr, an action movie hero and close friend of Estrada. The police said Laarni Enriquez, a former actress who has three children by Estrada, paid a retired intelligence official to find a soldier to take credit for making audio tapes that the Opposition says prove Arroyo cheated in last year’s election. “The money came from Laarni Enriquez,” national police chief Arturo Lomibao told a news conference, quoting from a sworn statement made by a sergeant from army intelligence whom the Opposition named as the source of the tapes. Lomibao said the soldier, Vidal Doble, had denied he was the source of the recordings of Arroyo’s mobile phone conversations. Arroyo, who is also facing accusations that members of her family took payoffs from illegal gambling, has not commented on the recordings. Nothing has been proven against her or her family. The government has said the tapes, which appear to show the President leaning on the election commissioner, Virgilio Garcillano, for a bigger winning margin, were doctored and part of a wider plot against Arroyo. Enriquez, who was investigated but not charged in 2003 in connection with a failed mutiny by 300 young army officers in Manila’s business district, denied she had paid Doble. “I don’t know him,” she told dzMM radio. “Are they running out of people to blame?” Estrada accused Arroyo of conducting a witch hunt. “This will not change the fact that Ms Arroyo and Garcillano are widely believed to have committed electoral fraud as caught on the infamous tapes,” Estrada said in a statement. The lower house of Congress has called on Arroyo and Garcillano to give evidence at an inquiry into the tapes set to start on Tuesday. Under Philippines political tradition, a sitting president cannot be compelled to attend such hearings. In his sworn statement, Doble said he was recruited by Samuel Ong, a retired intelligence official, and agreed to be videotaped confirming the existence of the tapes after he was paid two million pesos ($ 36,100) and his family threatened. Ong, who is in hiding, faces a charge of inciting sedition. Rumours were circulating today via mobile phone text messages, some falsely attributed to news reports, that the government planned to declare a state of emergency. “Hogwash,” said Rigoberto Tiglao, head of the presidential staff. Arroyo’s spokesman, Ignacio Bunye, said the text messages were part of a disinformation campaign by the Opposition. Analysts say mass protests of the kind that toppled Estrada are unlikely, but the scandals have unnerved investors over concerns that Arroyo’s economic reforms will get bogged down. “Please don’t believe in these rumours,” General Efren Abu, military’s chief of staff, told reporters. “We don’t see any real threat against the government”.
— Reuters
|
|
Pak waives credit to Bosnia
Sarajevo, June 17 The Pakistani Embassy in Sarajevo has informed the ministry about this decision, the ministry said.
— AP |
|
AQ Khan has cardiac problem
Islamabad, June 17 Chief military spokesman Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan told mediapersons that cardiologists of the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology (AFIC) visited Dr Khan and provided necessary treatment.
— UNI |
|
|
Truck bomb killed Hariri
Beirut, June17 Detlev Mehlis said the explosion was “without any reasonable doubt above the ground”. Hariri and 20 others were killed when his motorcade was blown up on February 14 in downtown Beirut. Some believed the explosives were buried underneath the street, which they argued would suggest the involvement of officials in the plot. His killing was the catalyst for mass anti-Syrian protests and intensified international pressure on Syria to withdraw its army.
— AP
|
|
Anti-terrorist police arrests four men in London
London, June 17 The BBC, citing Home Office sources, said the men were linked to a dissident Iranian group opposed to the Tehran Government. A police source told Reuters the four were of West Asian origin and were recruiting in Britain for a “particular cause”. “There is nothing to suggest they were planning any sort of attack in this country,” the source said. The source added that they were not linked to international terrorism or any Al-Qaeda group. They had been arrested after the police received information they might be inciting others to commit offences abroad. The arrests followed searches at two places in Barnet, North London, and one in nearby Finchley.
— Reuters |
|
|
US Embassy shut in Nigeria
Lagos, June 17 A diplomatic source said intelligence indicated that foreign militants posed a specific threat to the US presence in Nigeria, the world’s eighth largest oil exporter which was named by Osama bin Laden as a candidate for “liberation”. “The Embassy is reacting to a security incident and we thought it prudent to close,” said an Embassy spokesman, adding that he had no information on the nature of the incident. The Nigerian police was acting on information provided by the United States and the results of their investigation would be made public, the spokesman said.
— Reuters |
|
|
Blood vessels grown from elderly cells
London, June 17 Cardiovascular disease is a leading cause of death in developed countries. In the USA alone it accounts for more than 40 per cent of all deaths. Growing new blood vessels from a patient’s own cells would enable doctors to bypass clogged arteries in patients whose own vessels are not suitable. “We took vascular cells from four elderly men with heart disease and engineered new blood vessels,” said Dr Laura Niklason, of Duke University Medical Center, in Durham, North Carolina. The scientists, who reported their research in The Lancet medical journal, grew blood vessels in the laboratory from cells taken from four men aged 47-74 who were having coronary bypass surgery. Growing vessels from the patient’s own cells should alleviate the problem of rejection by the patient’s immune system. Although the blood vessels were not strong enough to be implanted in patients, the researchers said the study presents “a proof of principle”. With more research they believe they can overcome the problem and ensure the safety of the procedure. “We still have a couple of more stepping stones to get these vessels ... to be functional enough so they can survive in the patient,” Niklason said in an interview. She and her team removed muscle and endothelial cells from the saphenous vein, which is often used to bypass blockages in the arteries around the heart, in the patient’s lower leg.
— Reuters |
|
Search on for sexiest veggie
Hong Kong, June 17 Radical animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) says Asian celebrities are mounting up huge scores in a worldwide vote for the most vivacious veggie, a contest hoped to promote meat-free eating. Front-runners so far include Hong Kong actress Maggie Q, Taiwan singer Elva Xiao and Filipino model Isabel Roces. Taiwan star Barbie Xu is currently leading the Asian pack, a PETA statement said. “Celebrities are shunning meat faster than you can say tofu”, PETA Asia-Pacific director Jason Baker said in a statement. “After all, what’s sexier than someone who’s both passionate and compassionate?” In the lead in the worldwide vote are American Idol winner Carrie Underwood, Canadian pop star Avril Lavigne and actress Gwyneth Paltrow. Among men, British “Batman Begins” star Christian Bale is ahead of American actor Samuel L. Jackson and Britain’s Coldplay leader singer Chris Martin.
— AFP |
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
