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US, Israel may ease curbs to boost Abbas
Jerusalem, June 15
The USA, European states and Israel are considering rapidly easing sanctions in the occupied West Bank to try to bolster Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Western and Israeli officials said on Friday.

Suresh appointed dean of MIT
For many bright engineering students in India, Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a dream destination. Now this hallowed institution will have a person of Indian origin at the helm of its School of Engineering.

2 Indians kidnapped in Nigeria
Warri (Nigeria), June 15
Gunmen seized two Indians and three other foreign hostages today in Nigeria’s restive southern oil heartland, grabbing the expatriate workers in two separate incidents, officials said.

CJ’s counsel invokes fraternity solidarity
Invoking fraternal solidarity, the lead counsel for the suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan has urged the Supreme Court it should protect its chief justice like the army had done when its chief, General Pervez Musharraf, was sacked in October 1999.





EARLIER STORIES


US actor, singer Justin Timberlake and actress Cameron Diaz pose during a photocall for “Shrek-the Third” in Rome on Friday.
SHREK FANS: US actor, singer Justin Timberlake and actress Cameron Diaz pose during a photocall for “Shrek-the Third” in Rome on Friday. — AFP

7 sentenced for plotting attacks in UK
London, June 15
Seven members of a “sleeper cell” led by an man of Indian-origin were today sentenced to a maximum of 26 years in jail for their roles in an Al-Qaida-linked terror plot to kill thousands of people in the UK and the US.

Space Glitch
Russians blame Americans
Moscow, June 15
A glitch with Russian computers on board the international space station (ISS) was probably caused by a solar panel installed by American astronauts, a Russian space construction firm said today.

Russians fail to fix space station computers
Korolyov, Russia, June 15
Russian engineers failed today to fix malfunctioning navigational computers on the orbiting International Space Station but said they did not foresee having to evacuate the crew.

 

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US, Israel may ease curbs to boost Abbas

Jerusalem, June 15
The USA, European states and Israel are considering rapidly easing sanctions in the occupied West Bank to try to bolster Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Western and Israeli officials said on Friday.

A senior European Union diplomat involved in the discussions said Abbas "has strongly requested that we (the EU) support him fully... I think we would generally support this idea, in which form I cannot tell you."

A senior Israeli official said Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and U.S. President George W. Bush would discuss at a meeting next week a series of "gestures" that could be taken quickly, including the release to Abbas of a portion of the Palestinian Authority's tax revenues being withheld by Israel.

Western and Israeli officials said the goal would be to strengthen Abbas, his secular Fatah faction and other "moderates" in the West Bank, while isolating Hamas Islamists who seized control of the Gaza Strip in fierce fighting.

An economic and diplomatic embargo of the Hamas administration in Gaza would remain and tightened in some areas.

The officials said the U.S. strategy was based on the premise that strengthening Abbas, and reviving the peace process in the West Bank, would serve to marginalise Hamas and increase

Fatah's chances of winning any future elections. U.S. officials had no immediate comment.

Western donors led by the USA cut off direct financial aid to the Palestinian Authority in March 2006 after Hamas defeated Abbas's Fatah faction in parliamentary elections. Coupled with Israel's withholding of tax revenues that it collects on the Palestinians' behalf -- the Authority's main domestic source of funding -- the sanctions have pushed the Hamas-led government to the brink of financial collapse. David Makovsky, senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said resuming aid to Abbas would show Palestinians that "there's a real contrast between the way Hamas rules in Gaza and Abbas's rules in the West Bank. Let them see that moderation pays." — Reuters

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Suresh appointed dean of MIT
Ashish Kumar Sen writes from Washington

For many bright engineering students in India, Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a dream destination. Now this hallowed institution will have a person of Indian origin at the helm of its School of Engineering.

Subra Suresh, a 1977 graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras and the Ford Professor of Engineering in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, will succeed Professor Thomas Magnanti as the next dean of the School of Engineering, MIT announced on Thursday. He will assume his new post on July 23.

MIT Provost L. Rafael Reif said he was "certain that in his new role as dean, Professor Suresh will continue the tradition of outstanding school leadership embodied by Institute Professor Thomas L. Magnanti, dean since 1999, and his distinguished predecessors."

Prof. Suresh, who served as head of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering (DMSE) from 2000 to 2006, "is not only an accomplished academic leader, but also a scholar and teacher of the highest distinction," Reif said.

Prof. Suresh said he was "grateful for the privilege to serve as the dean of this premier School of Engineering, and very much look forward to working with the highly talented MIT faculty, staff and students to take the school to new heights."

He holds faculty appointments in DMSE, mechanical engineering, biological engineering and the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering. According to the institute, as head of DMSE, Prof. Suresh helped recruit nearly a third of the faculty members currently in the department. He is "a strong proponent of innovative international collaborations in teaching and research," MIT said in a statement.

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2 Indians kidnapped in Nigeria

Warri (Nigeria), June 15
Gunmen seized two Indians and three other foreign hostages today in Nigeria’s restive southern oil heartland, grabbing the expatriate workers in two separate incidents, officials said.

The two Chinese, two Indians and one Polish national were seized across the southern Niger Delta, said Brig Gen Lawrence Ngubane, a military commander in the region. He had said earlier that three Chinese were taken in one attack, but later said only two had been kidnapped. Two Indian engineers working for an oil exploration company, who were earlier abducted by militants, were released on June 11 after 25 days in captivity.

Militants also abducted 10 more Indians, including Eleme Petrochemical Company Limited (EPCL)’s Managing Director Arun Taneja, on June 1. All of them are still in captivity.

Yesterday, a leader of the militant group behind attacks on Nigeria’s oil industry walked free from prison after a judge granted him bail - a breakthrough in the crisis roiling Africa’s oil giant and global petroleum markets.

Dokubo-Asari’s liberation was a key demand of the main militant group in the Niger Delta region, where oil-installation attacks and kidnappings of foreigners have cut Nigeria's oil production and helped send crude prices higher. — AP

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CJ’s counsel invokes fraternity solidarity
Afzal Khan writes from Islamabad

Invoking fraternal solidarity, the lead counsel for the suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan has urged the Supreme Court it should protect its chief justice like the army had done when its chief, General Pervez Musharraf, was sacked in October 1999.

"I will show you how institutions react when their heads are removed illegally, " Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan said while continuing arguments before the full court bench of the Supreme Court in the petitions filed by CJ challenging his suspension by Gen. Musharraf on March 9 that has provoked countrywide turmoil.

"This court must show the same reaction to save the Chief Justice," Aitzaz observed. "The reaction of institutions must be legal and constitutional," observed Justice Khalil-ur Rehman Ramday, the head of a 13-member full court hearing the CJP's petition.

Ahsan said he would cite Gen Musharraf's recent memoirs in which he proudly stated how his fellow army commanders reacted to then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's dismissal of the army chief.

He claimed the President had not consulted legal experts before filing the reference against the CJP on March 9, though he did involve generals and intelligence chiefs.

Justice Ramday observed that dignity and security of tenure were among the fundamental rights of judges. 

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7 sentenced for plotting attacks in UK

London, June 15
Seven members of a “sleeper cell” led by an man of Indian-origin were today sentenced to a maximum of 26 years in jail for their roles in an Al-Qaida-linked terror plot to kill thousands of people in the UK and the US.

Six of the seven defendants had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to cause explosions in the Woolwich Crown Court while another plotter, Qaisar Shafi, was found guilty of conspiracy to murder.

The court was told that the men were part of a “sleeper cell” led by Dhiren Barot, who is already serving a life sentence. Justice Butterfield said the seven were recruited by Barot and assisted him at his request.

Mohammed Naveed Bhatti was sentenced to 20 years, Junade Feroze to 22 years, Zia Ul Haq to 18 years, Abdul Aziz Jalil to 26 years, Omar Abdur Rehman to 15 years and Nadeem Tarmohamed to 20 years. Qaisar Shaffi was sentenced to 15 years.

The men had planned several attacks including with an explosives-packed limousine, a dirty radiation bomb and even conducted research to blow apart a London underground tunnel beneath the Thames to drown hundreds of commuters.

The men, who pleaded guilty, admitted to roles mostly confined to plotting against UK targets. — PTI

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Space Glitch
Russians blame Americans

Moscow, June 15
A glitch with Russian computers on board the international space station (ISS) was probably caused by a solar panel installed by American astronauts, a Russian space construction firm said today.

“Russian specialists believe that the new solar panel installed by the Atlantis astronauts during their spacewalk could be the origin (of the breakdown),” said Irina Gomenyuk, a spokeswoman for Energia, which designed much of the station.

This “new powerful source of energy caused a malfunction of sensitive system elements” on the Russian and American segments . NASA said earlier today that there had been a breakdown in communication with Russian computers that control the ISS’s critical oxygen and water supplies. Communications were later restored. — AFP

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Russians fail to fix space station computers

Korolyov, Russia, June 15
Russian engineers failed today to fix malfunctioning navigational computers on the orbiting International Space Station but said they did not foresee having to evacuate the crew.

The computers, some of which control thrusters that help keep the 100 billion dollar station in a stable orbit, broke down on Wednesday shortly after the crew of the visiting US space Shuttle Atlantis installed a new solar array for power.

“We have not so far managed to fully restore the computers,” Nikolai Sevastyanov, chief constructor at Russian space company R.K.K. Energiya, told a news conference at mission control in the town of Korolyov, near Moscow.

“Tomorrow we’ll try turning on secondary power sources using a new method. If that does not work we will not try again.”

If tomorrow’s attempts fail again, the Russian space programme may launch a progress supply ship from Baikonur in Kazakhstan on July 23, two weeks earlier than planned, with new power supplies on board, Sevastyanov said. — Reuters

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