Baghdad, April 5
Ousted dictator Saddam Hussein returned to court today and accused the new Shi’ite-run Interior Ministry of killing and torturing thousands of Iraqis, in comments likely to aggravate sectarian tensions.

Sunni Arabs, who were dominant during Saddam’s rule, accuse the Ministry of running death squads and Saddam said it was now the “side that kills thousands in the street and tortures them”.

The trial was adjourned later until tomorrow.

Saddam, who could face death by hanging, remained defiant one day after the court announced he would face new charges of genocide against the ethnic Kurds in the late 1980s.

When the judge interrupted him, Saddam said: “If you’re scared of the Interior Minister, he doesn’t scare my dog.”

Saddam may be in the dock again for another trial as early as next month, potentially leading to a drawnout, complex legal process in a country where most people want closure on a bloody past and a future free of sectarian bloodshed.

Iraqi politicians and court officials are already sending mixed signals on whether he would be executed if found guilty in one trial, or be tried on new charges in another first.

And the latest outbursts suggested chances of accelerating proceedings were slim.

Chief judge Raouf Abdel Rahman and one of Saddam’s lawyers, Bushra Khalil, had several heated exchanges which resulted in her being thrown out of court.

Guards escorted her out after she held up what appeared to be a picture of a pile of prisoners at the US-run Abu Ghraib prison, scene of a prisoner abuse scandal in 2004.

“This is what the Americans did to Iraqis in Abu Ghraib,” said the Lebanese lawyer who was told to stop screaming.

Saddam, whose word was law in Iraq for decades, seemed unfazed by it all, sitting in the dock and telling the judge:

“There was no need for you to do that.”

Saddam, who still calls himself the president of Iraq, also challenged chief prosecutor Jaafar al-Moussawi, a member of the Shi’ite Muslim community Saddam is accused of torturing and putting in mass graves.

“If you want to put the whale into the net, which I don’t think you do, you have to tell the truth,” he said. — Reuters

Jakarta, April 5
Thousands of Indonesians rallied across the world’s fourth most-populous country today to protest against a parliamentary move to revise employment laws.

Employers have complained that Indonesia’s 2003 labour Bill gave workers so many benefits and so much freedom to organise and strike that it dealt a blow to the country’s economic competitiveness and its attractiveness to investors.

The 2003 Bill was a product of the country’s first democratic Parliament after the 1998 fall of autocratic President Suharto. Suharto had kept unions on a tight leash, but the business community says the new law went too far the other way.

The current Parliament, elected in 2004, plans to amend the Bill to give employers more flexibility, curb strikes and soften regulations on severance payment for dismissed workers.

Trade unions argue revisions ignore the plight of workers and have vowed to keep protesting to pressure Parliament into leaving the law unchanged.

Today, around 10,000 workers marched on major streets in Jakarta, creating traffic congestion and blocking the Capital’s special lanes for public transport.

One slogan on the banners unfurled by the protesters, among them included bank employees and workers at foreign-owned factories, read: “Hey, businessmen and leaders who have the hearts of devils, cancel those revisions.”

The protesters also passed out pamphlets saying the revisions could allow “employers to fire workers without reason”.

The march stopped in front of Vice-President Jusuf Kalla’s office and a small group of protesters was allowed to meet him. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was on a trip outside Jakarta.

“We want to find a good solution for the workers and the business world in Indonesia. We do not intend to pressure the workers and make their lives difficult,” Mr Kalla told reporters after the meeting.

But rally leaders were not satisfied with their meeting.

“There has been no firm statement. We will only say we are satisfied if the government pulls back the proposed revisions,” said Mr Abdul Gani, a union leader from the industrial city of Tangerang.

Similar rallies with thousands of participants were staged in at least five other cities in Indonesia, including the industrialist and land of Batam, near Singapore, where protesters showered a government office with rocks. — Reuters

Kathmandu, April 5
In a major crackdown ahead of tomorrow's anti-King general strike by Opposition parties, the police today arrested some 40 protesters from the Nepalese capital and took into custody several political leaders after raiding their houses.

Police baton charged and arrested at least 40 journalists, human rights activists, doctors and university students who took out a rally in Kathmandu defying the Royal government's ban orders on demonstrations on the eve of the massive protests and four-day general strike announced by the Seven Party Alliance (SPA) to end King Gyanendra's rule.

As soon as hundreds of journalists and civil society activists rallied in Nayabaneshwor area of the capital, the police intervened and made the arrests.

A senior journalist and a lawyer were also injured in the police action, a member of the Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ) said.

Those arrested from the rally, organised by the People's Alliance for Peace and Democracy (PAPAD), include the Nepal Bar Association president and the PAPAD chairman, Mr Sambhu Thapa, the FNJ president, Mr Bishnu Nisthuri, the Nepal University Teachers Association president, Mr Bhupati Dhakal, and the Civil Society leader, Mr Mahesh Maskey.

President of the South Asian Federation of Media Association (SAFMA), Mr Gopal Thapaliya, and president of the Kathmandu Bar Association, Mr Yogendra Adhikari, were seriously injured in the police action.

Party sources said houses of several leaders were raided in the wee hours by security forces who arrested at least 20 political leaders. —PTI

Islamabad, April 5
Carrying placards with slogans of Indo-Pak friendship, thousands of Pakistani schoolchildren who received the world’s “largest love letter” with messages of peace and harmony from their Indian peers reciprocated the gesture by signing its golden strip.

With Indian and Pakistani flags painted on their cheeks, children from 13 schools, aged between six and 12, gathered at Qadhafi stadium in Lahore yesterday to respond to the letter, billed as the world’s largest and titled ‘From India with Love’.

The letter, which travelled throughout India collecting sentiments of children from various schools, districts and remote villages, says: “Dear children of Pakistan, let’s join our hearts in friendship. Together we can make a better world.”

The Pakistani children responded with equal enthusiasm signing the golden strip in the letter, now being referred to as the ‘Golden Bridge for Peace’.

The children who were overwhelmed by this gesture of Indian students said they favoured peace and harmony between the two nations.

“I think it is the best gift from India and hope that we can get more and more signatures 
and letters to show how much love we have for our Indian brothers and sisters,” Aaliya 
Durrani, a student 
from a Lahore school, was quoted as saying. — PTI