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Bid on Pervez’s life: 5 get death sentence
Pak Opposition sees prospects of grand alliance
Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf (right) poses with Sunita Narain and the Stockholm Water Prize diploma awarded to Narain at the Concert Hall in Stockholm on Thursday. — AFP
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Indian physicist discovers new mechanism for metallic magnetism
Indian investments in Pak linked to Kashmir
Indian-American lawyer on NY Bar committee
India, US sign vision research pact
Fire kills 17 in Paris
Lanka rules out truce talks
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Bid on Pervez’s life: 5 get death sentence
Islamabad, August 26 Another three persons were handed down different jail terms in the same case, chief military spokesman Major-General Shaukat Sultan told media here today. However, no further details were immediately available. At least eight persons were killed and over 50 injured in an abortive Christmas Day bid on General Musharraf’s life near his official Army House in the garrison town of Rawalpindi on December 25 when the attackers hit their explosive-laden vehicles into his motorcade. The judgement came a week after an ex-army man Abdul Salam Siddiqui was hanged to death in Multan for involvement in a plot to kill the President on December 14, 2003. On December 25, 2003, two suicide bombers tried to ram explosive-laden vehicles into General Musharraf’s limousine leading to the death of 17 persons, mostly policemen. The president, however, escaped unhurt. A number of Army and Air Force personnel were arrested in the aftermath of the attack, and it is not clear as to how many people were facing trial. Authorities have said they are also holding a number of Islamic militants on suspicion of their links with those who masterminded and executed the attacks. Libyan al-Qaeda operative Abu Faraj al-Libbi, whom General Musharraf himself accused of masterminding the attacks was also captured. He was later handed over to the USA. A key associate of Al-Libbi accused of helping him plot the bombings, Amjad Hussain Farooqi, was killed on September 26 in a shoot-out with security forces. Farooqi belonged to Pakistan and was a senior member of the outlawed militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.
— UNI, PTI |
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Pak Opposition sees prospects of grand alliance
Islamabad, August 26 Talking to the Dawn by telephone, Secretary-General of the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy Zafar Iqbal Jhagra said the alliance meeting on August 29 would deliberate the post-election scenario. It would also discuss the progress in talks with other Opposition parties, including the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, on forging a grand Opposition alliance. He said the elections were marred by ‘‘pre-poll rigging in which the national exchequer was misused to lure the voters and state machinery to get results in the favour of ruling parties’’. Mr Jhagra said the ‘‘powerlessness of the Election Commission was exposed in the elections as it failed to entertain complaints against ruling parties’ manipulations but hastened to take action where the Opposition parties or their candidates were involved’’. Commenting on the conduct of the elections, MMA President Qazi Hussain Ahmed said it had been decided to convene a national conference on September 18 in which intellectuals would draw up a national charter whereby ‘‘Gen Musharraf and the armed forces will be requested to shun meddling in political affairs in the best interest of the armed forces and the nation’’. He said as long as General Musharraf was clinging to power with active support of the army, the institution of armed forces and the constitutional institutions would continue being devastated and people losing confidence in the election process, which was evident from the lowest ever turnout in the national history in the recent elections. |
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Sunita Narain receives Water Prize
Stockholm, August 26 CSE, and Narain, a dynamic advocate — nationally and internationally — for water and the environment, human rights, democracy and health, received the $150,000 prize and a crystal sculpture, from the hands of King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden. The ceremony was a part of the ongoing World Water Week in Stockholm, says a press note. The prize has been awarded for efforts made by Narain and CSE that include fighting powerful, top-down bureaucratic resource control, empowering women in water and rejuvenating traditional rainwater harvesting. In her acceptance speech, Narain said: “I accept this award on behalf of thousands of water engineers and water managers all over the world, especially in Asia, Africa and Latin America. These people are discounted in the formal knowledge system of the world.” Sunita Narain has been with CSE since 1982 and is currently the editor and publisher of the environmental magazine, Down To Earth. |
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Indian physicist discovers new mechanism for metallic magnetism
Santa Cruz (USA), August 26 The paper by Sriram Shastry and Jan Haerter in today’s issue of the journal Physical Review Letters that explains “kinetic antiferromagnetism” solves a problem that has stumped theoretical physicists for decades. “It is a basic theory paper that predicts metallic antiferromagnetism in certain kinds of lattices such as sodium cobalt oxide,” Shastry said in an interview. Shastry, who left the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore two years ago to join UCSC, and his student were interested in the unusual magnetic behaviour of sodium cobalt oxide, a material first described in 1997 and intensively studied in recent years. The material can be made with variable amounts of sodium ions sandwiched between layers of cobalt oxide. The cobalt atoms form a triangular lattice structure that gives rise to “electronic frustration”, which refers to the inability of the electrons in the system to achieve a single state that minimises their total energy. Theoretical understanding of why “frustrated” materials like the sodium cobalt oxide are antiferromagnetic has remained a complex issue for the past 40 years. “This problem has been a tough nut to crack. We were able to make some progress and came up with a surprising result,” Shastry said. The magnetic properties of metals result from the configuration of the spins of electrons. Electron spin is a quantum mechanical property that can be either “up” or “down”. In a ferromagnetic metal, the electron spins tend to spontaneously align in the same direction. In antiferromagnetism, the spins align in a regular pattern with neighbouring spins pointing in opposite directions, or antiparallel. For electrons living on a triangular lattice, however, this configuration is frustrated, because two of the three electrons in each triangle must have the same spin. The kinetic antiferromagnetism in a triangular lattice described by Shastry and Haerter results from the movement of electrons when there is a single “electron hole”, or unoccupied site for an electron, in the lattice.
— PTI |
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Indian investments in Pak linked to Kashmir
Islamabad, August 26 Representatives of Indian companies Bajaj Auto, Bharat Hotels and Tata Steel had visited Pakistan recently to explore business avenues but were politely told that investments from India were welcome only after progress on the political front, Chairman of Board of Investment Waseem Haqqi said. “The Indian businessmen came around to explore investment opportunities in fields of hospitality, telecommunications and steel but were told that unless there is simultaneous progress on the political front and on resolution of all outstanding issues including Kashmir, Pakistan cannot open its doors to Indian investment,” he told ‘Daily Times’.
— PTI |
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Indian-American lawyer on NY Bar committee
New York, August 26 The committee to which Ms Preeta D. Bansal, of the New York law firm of Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP, has been appointed will study whether the Bar examination adequately measures professional competence as well its effect on law school curricula and diversity in the judiciary and the bar. Ms Bansal, a former solicitor general of New York, is currently a Commissioner on the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), the independent and bipartisan federal agency that advises the Bush administration and the US Congress on the state of religious freedom around the world.
— IANS |
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India, US sign vision research pact
Washington, August 26 The agreement was signed yesterday by Maharaj K. Bhan, Secretary of India’s Department of Biotechnology, and Elias A. Zerhouni, Director of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), at the institute campus in Bethesda, Maryland, with both emphasising an increased ‘commitment’ to joint collaborations on eye disorders. The agreement was developed jointly by the two countries with the support of the Fogarty International Centre. Speaking at the signing, Zerhouni said, “Our scientific collaborations with colleagues in India are strong. Through this agreement, they will become stronger.”
— PTI |
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Fire kills 17 in Paris
Paris, August 26 They said the blaze broke out in the stairwell of the traditional Parisian apartment building just after midnight when most residents were sleeping. It was brought under control two hours later, but the cause was not immediately known. About 30 persons were injured in the
blaze. — Reuters |
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Lanka rules out truce talks
Colombo, August 26 Government spokesman Nimal Siripala de Silva told reporters here that they were keen to hold discussions on implementation of the February 23, 2002, truce in Sri Lanka and not abroad. He said the government wanted to discuss only the implementation and strengthening of the ceasefire and not anything else related to the peace process.
— PTI |
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