Ex-president and one-time army chief, Hussein Muhammad Ershad, who ran the country with an iron hand from 1982 to 1990, announced on June 30 that he was stepping down as chairman of his Jatiya Party (JP), signaling the end of his career in public life and further cementing the hold of the army-backed interim government over the affairs of state.

Ershad’s announcement comes close on the heels to the announcement on June 26 by his wife, Begum Rawshan Ershad, also a senior member of the party presidium, that she was expelling her husband from the party and assuming the party leadership herself.

In his announcement, Ershad appointed presidium member Anisul Islam Mahmud as acting party chief (until such time as a new party head can be elected by the party council), apparently to undercut his wife’s machinations, touching off a war of succession between Mahmud and Begum Ershad.

The shake-up in the JP comes in the midst of an on-going six-month political clean up on the part of the army-backed interim government that has been in office since January 11.

The current government has put considerable pressure on the existing political parties to reform themselves from top to bottom.

The main targets have been the Awami League and the BNP, the two most popular parties that have held power in succession for the past fifteen years, specifically the party heads and ex-prime ministers, Sheikh Hasina and Begum Khaleda Zia. To this end, dissident leaders in each party have been given space to mount leadership challenges and attempt to institute reforms.

Ershad’s decision to step down and the bold move by his estranged wife to take on the mantle of leadership indicates that the powers that be are including the JP in their political house-cleaning.

Tokyo, July 3
Japan’s defence minister resigned today over remarks that appeared to accept the 1945 atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, dealing a fresh blow to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his ruling camp ahead of a national election this month.

Abe’s support rates have already been slashed by outrage over government mishandling of pension records, and defence minister Fumio Kyuma’s perceived gaffe has only added to his headaches before the July 29 upper house election.

“I regret that my comments have caused trouble. I am very sorry,” Kyuma told reporters, adding that Abe had accepted his offer to resign.

Kyuma’s decision to quit came after a prominent lawmaker in the ruling coalition’s junior partner had said he should “decide his own course”, a phrase that is often code for urging a politician to quit.

Abe had attempted to quell the furore by reprimanding Kyuma, who said on Saturday that he thought the atomic bombings “could not be helped”.

But opposition parties, keen to press their advantage ahead of the election, had refused to let up pressure for him to resign.

Abe can ill afford another furore ahead of the upper house election.

A weekend survey by the Asahi newspaper showed the prime minister’s support rate had slipped 3 points in the previous week to 28 per cent, the weakest showing for the once-popular leader since he took office last September.

Kyuma had already gained a reputation for verbal gaffes since taking office last year, angering Washington in January by calling the invasion of Iraq a mistake.

The attacks hold a central role in Japan’s collective memory, and the country has been criticised for stressing its status as victim while failing to acknowledge its own war atrocities. — Reuters

Washington, July 3
In a controversial move, President George W Bush commuted the 30-month sentence of vice-president Dick Cheney’s top aide and former chief of staff Lewis “Scooter” Libby’s conviction for perjury in the CIA leak case.

Libby was convicted in March and was due to begin serving his time within weeks. The president’s action, announced yesterday, will help Libby from going to jail.

In a statement, Bush said he took action because “prison sentence given to Libby is excessive”.

While the President has curtailed Libby’s time behind bars, other aspects of his sentence remains in effect. The former chief of staff still has to pay a $250,000 fine, and he will remain on probation for two years.

Libby was convicted of lying to a grand jury investigating the disclosure of the identity of an undercover operative for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Earlier yesterday, an appeals court refused a request from Libby to delay his prison sentence while he appealed his conviction.

Opposition Democratic Senator Charles Schumer criticised the President’s action, by saying “it tramples on the principle of equal justice under the law.”

Libby is the only person charged in connection with the leak of the CIA agent’s identity. He is the highest-ranking White House official convicted for felony since the Iran-Contra scandals of the 1980’s. — UNI

London, July 3
The Indian government has acquired the priceless manuscript of Mahatma Gandhi, a day after it was decided to take it off the auctioneer’s hammer but it was not clear whether and how much money was paid for that.

“The Government of India is in the possession of the manuscript (of the piece) Mahatma Gandhi had written 19 days before his assassination pleading for tolerance of Muslims in India (for his journal Harijan)”, a senior High Commission official told PTI today.

Asked whether any money was paid for acquiring the document, he said the government negotiated with the auctioneers and representatives of late Albin Schram of Switzerland, who owned it. The conditions of the transaction “have to be kept in confidence”, he said.

The document, which was withdrawn from this morning’s session by auctioneers Christie’s after negotiations with the Indian government, was part of an extensive collection and a reserve price of 9,000 to 12,000 pounds was set for it.

External affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee appeared to indicate that some money could have been paid for acquiring the manuscript. “That is part of negotiation,” he told reporters accompanying him on a trip to Ethiopia when asked how much money was involved.

The official profusely thanked Christie’s and Dr Amin Jaffer, international director of Asian Art at Christie’s, for facilitating the negotiations, which had resulted in the important historical record being returned to India.

Reports last week that the document would be up for auction triggered immediate reaction in India with several Gandhians urging the government to intervene in the matter. — PTI

An engineer of Indian descent bearing flowers and a loaded handgun fatally shot his estranged wife in her apartment outside New York City on Friday, while her mother cowered in the bathroom, before taking his own life, according to law-enforcement officials.

Kapil Kohli, a 43-year-old engineer with the Atlanta Metro authority, was apparently upset that Anuradha Aggrawal, 40, wanted a divorce.

"Our preliminary investigation is that it was a murder-suicide," Yonkers detective Capt. William Cave, commander of the city's Detective Division, was quoted as saying by the Associated Press.

Police said Aggrawal let Kohli into her apartment and the two were chatting on a couch before the deadly shots rang out. Aggrawal's mother came running to find her daughter dead. Phool Aggrawal told the Daily News she cowered in the bathroom when she heard the shooting start. "I heard my daughter screaming [but] when I came out of the bathroom, my daughter is not screaming," the 66-year-old woman said. "She is already dead."

As she ran to call the police, Phool Aggrawal heard a final gunshot. Kohli had taken his own life. When police arrived, the flowers that Kohli had given Aggrawal hours earlier were still on the living room table. A Glock handgun was found next to Kohli's body and several spent shells were discovered in the living room, police said.

Charu Narang, Aggrawal's lawyer, told The Tribune her client had contacted her in February for help getting a divorce. Kohli and Aggrawal had met online and never lived together in more than a year of marriage. Narang says Kohli had agreed to move from Atlanta to New York, where Aggrawal worked as a nurse practitioner and was also looking after her mother.

After the couple got married in December of 2005, Aggrawal expected Kohli to move to New York. "He kept telling her next month, next month. But the months came and went," said Narang.

Phool Aggrawal said her daughter was surprised to see Kohli at her doorstep on Friday but she let him in anyway.

Narang says Kohli had never shown any signs of violence, but since Aggrawal's death she has learnt that he tortured her emotionally. Aggrawal had talked to Narang about getting a restraining order, but the lawyer says she couldn't get one since Kohli had never threatened or harassed her. Instead, he had been incessantly calling her friends and relatives to find out why Aggrawal wanted a divorce. Narang warned him to stop.

Two weeks ago, Kohli's attorney indicated his client was ready to sign the divorce papers. "At this point we all thought that Kapil had finally accepted that he and Anu would not be together and that it was finally going to be over," said Narang, adding, "None of us had any indication that he was going to do what he did."

Narang spoke to Aggrawal the night before she was killed. "Her mood was great. she was upbeat. Over the past few weeks she had really started looking forward to the future," Narang said.

Barely a fortnight since he accepted a knighthood from Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, which caused an uproar in Muslim communities around the world, Sir Salman Rushdie is making headlines again.

The controversial author and his ex-model wife, Padma Lakshmi, on Monday announced they are getting a divorce at her insistence. Padma Lakshmi told the New York Post she "regrets that their mutual efforts failed to make the marriage work."

The couple has endured the harsh glare of media scrutiny since Rushdie married the "Top Chef" host, over two decades younger than him. Rumours of a divorce have been swirling for a while and reached a shrill pitch last week with reports that Padma Lakshmi was out partying till the early hours of the morning with a well-known chef while her husband received his knighthood at Buckingham Palace.