W O R L D

Mujibur Rehman’s Killing
Convicts get permission to appeal
Dhaka, September 23
Bangladesh's Supreme Court has granted five former army officers sentenced to death for killing the country's independence leader 32 year ago permission to appeal against their convictions, court officials said today.

Oppn’s Resignation Decision
I was not consulted, says JUI chief
After the opposition All-Parties Democratic Movement (APDM) declared it would resist Musharraf's bid for election by resiging from the assemblies to deny him legitimacy, the leader of a major component of the grouping has sent it reeling, saying he had not been consulted.

Fukuda wins Japan ruling party vote
Tokyo, September 23
Moderate veteran Yasuo Fukuda easily won election as Japan’s ruling party president today, pledging to improve ties with Asia, keep pro-US foreign policy and uplift rural areas when he becomes Prime Minister later this week.

Koirala vows to hold timely poll
At a time when the CPN-Maoist, a major political outfit in the interim parliament, has threatened to foil the upcoming constituent assembly poll scheduled for November 22, Nepal’s Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala on Sunday said the government was committed to hold the poll at any cost on time.

Indian and Afghan officials cut a ribbon during an opening ceremony in Kabul on Sunday. The Government of India has donated $ 1 million to finish a sanitation complex project in Afghanisation. — AFP

Indo-Iran gas project: Talks today
Tehran, September 23
A new round of talks on the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project will resume here tomorrow, a special envoy at Iran's oil ministry has said.

Indian maid beaten up in Kuwait
Dubai, September 23
An Indian maid in Kuwait was allegedly beaten up by her employer after she asked him to clear her salary arrears.

Mime legend Marceau dead
Paris, September 23
Marcel Marceau, who put the art of mime on the world stage and brought poetry to silence, is dead, his former assistant said today. He was 84. Marceau died yesterday in Paris, French media reported. Former assistant Emmanuel Vacca announced the death on France-Info radio, but gave no details about the cause.

‘Curry Queen’ held for smuggling immigrants
London, September 23
One of UK’s richest businesswomen of Pakistani origin has been arrested for allegedly smuggling illegal immigrants into the country to work for her chain of restaurants. Nighat Awan (42) was held “on suspicion of conspiracy to facilitate illegal immigration”, the Daily Mail said.

Talks offer to LTTE
Colombo, September 23
Amid mounting international pressure, Sri Lanka today said it was prepared to halt the ongoing military campaign and hold talks with Tamil Tigers if the rebels were ready to resume talks, media reports said.

Mujibur Rehman’s Killing
Convicts get permission to appeal

Dhaka, September 23
Bangladesh's Supreme Court has granted five former army officers sentenced to death for killing the country's independence leader 32 year ago permission to appeal against their convictions, court officials said today.

The then President, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and six members of his family were shot dead in their home before dawn on August 15, 1975, in an army coup.

''The Supreme Court has asked five detained convicts to submit their appeal against a high court verdict that ordered them to hang by October 30,'' a court registrar said.

The high court in 2001 ordered 12 former army officers to hang for the murders. Five of them, including one extradited by the USA in June, are now in custody awaiting execution.

Of the remainder, six were believed to be in hiding abroad and were being hunted by Interpol.The 12th ex-officer died in Zimbabwe while on the run a few years ago, foreign ministry officials said.

The trial of the former officers was ordered only after Mujib's daughter, Sheikh Hasina, became Prime Minister in 1996.

Hasina and her younger sister were out of the country the day the other members of their family were killed.

Mujib was the top leader of the Bengalis in former East Pakistan and helped lead the country during a war of independence from Pakistan in 1971. — Reuters

Oppn’s Resignation Decision
I was not consulted, says JUI chief
Afzal Khan writes from Islamabad

After the opposition All-Parties Democratic Movement (APDM) declared it would resist Musharraf's bid for election by resiging from the assemblies to deny him legitimacy, the leader of a major component of the grouping has sent it reeling, saying he had not been consulted.

Maulana Fazlur Rehman whose Jamiat Ulema Islam (JUI) holds the key to the success of the opposition strategy because of the number of lawmakers and the fact that his party leads the government in the NWFP and shares power with the PML in Balochistan, said the APDM should have exhausted other options before taking a desperate decision on resignations.

Unless Fazl comes on board, the APDM will not be able to take a decision to dissolve the provincial assembly of the NWFP and pull out of the Balochistan government.

Fazl who is also leader of the opposition in the National Assembly and is currently in Saudi Arabi since September 10, said the APDM should have waited for his return before taking a major decision. Media reports said Musharraf's emissaries contacted Fazl in Saudi Arabia but there was no independent confirmation.

The JUI chief did not rule out ultimately abiding by the APDM decision but said another meeting of the leadership of the alliance be convened after his return to review the decision.

Fukuda wins Japan ruling party vote

Tokyo, September 23
Moderate veteran Yasuo Fukuda easily won election as Japan’s ruling party president today, pledging to improve ties with Asia, keep pro-US foreign policy and uplift rural areas when he becomes Prime Minister later this week.

Fukuda (71), son of a Prime Minister from the 1970’s and a former right-hand man to two premiers, garnered 63 per cent of the vote among Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) lawmakers and delegates, eating his lone rival, former Foreign Minister Taro Aso.

The victory guarantees Fukuda’s election as outgoing Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s successor in parliament on Tuesday because of the LDP’s vast majority in the lower house, the more powerful of the two chambers of the country’s parliament.

Fukuda vowed after the vote to rebuild the LDP’s popularity that had plunged under a year of scandals and policy missteps by outgoing Abe, who had been hospitalised with stress-related stomach problems since announcing on September 12 that he would resign.

“You have chosen me even though I do not have much experience. I am prepared to do my utmost to live up to my responsibilities,” Fukuda said.

“I will work to revitalize the LDP, to win back public trust, and push forward with my policies.” — AP

Koirala vows to hold timely poll
Bishnu Budhathoki writes from Kathmandu

At a time when the CPN-Maoist, a major political outfit in the interim parliament, has threatened to foil the upcoming constituent assembly poll scheduled for November 22, Nepal’s Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala on Sunday said the government was committed to hold the poll at any cost on time.

Inaugurating the two-day long Mahasamiti meeting of the Nepali Congress (NC), the oldest and largest democratic party founded in 1947 that had stood in favour of the constitutional monarchy, its party president Koirala said, “It is my firm commitment to hold the elections on November 22 as per the past understanding reached among the eight-party alliance.”

On September 18, the Maoists party, one of the major constituent in the coalition eight-party government, had quit the government deciding to resume fresh nationwide people’s movement against the government for not fulfilling their 22-point precondition before going for the November elections.

It has also announced to launch an agitation targeting to foil the election

schedule if their demands to declare Nepal a republic state through the parliament and abolish monarchy are not fulfilled.

Indo-Iran gas project: Talks today

Tehran, September 23
A new round of talks on the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project will resume here tomorrow, a special envoy at Iran's oil ministry has said.

Iranian and Pakistani experts would exchange views on the contract from September 24 to 26 and officials from the two sides would discuss the issue on September 27, said Hojjatollah Ghanimifard, according to the online edition of Pakistan Times.

Negotiations would continue, if necessary, on September 28, he added.

He said the three countries - Iran, Pakistan and India - would soon be launching a new round of talks on the construction of the huge pipeline project to carry Iran's natural gas to India via Pakistan.

"Negotiations on the completion of the gas pipeline project dubbed 'Peace Pipeline' will be held in Tehran soon," Ghanimifard said. — IANS

Indian maid beaten up in Kuwait

Dubai, September 23
An Indian maid in Kuwait was allegedly beaten up by her employer after she asked him to clear her salary arrears.

The maid, identified as Kumari, was working in a house in Hawally and hailed from Andhra Pradesh, Arab Times reported.

Enraged after the maid asked him to clear her salary, the employer started assaulting her till she became unconscious, reports said, adding that the maid was struggling for her life.

Kuwait is home to 280,000 Indian workers and the Indian government recently set a minimum wage of KD 75 for its workers. The Kuwait government decided to build a shelter for runaway maids.

Hashem Majed, chairman of Al-Huqooq International, a firm safeguarding workers’ rights said, “This is a move in the right direction but the ministry of social affairs and the interior ministry should work in tandem in order to bring this project to fruition.”

According to Majed, the permanent facility for runaway maids should be able to accommodate 1,000 workers.

Al-Huqooq has been instrumental in safeguarding workers’ rights and has helped repatriate numerous stranded workers.

“The ministries will require a large workforce given that they will be dealing with hundreds of cases. A maid should not be kept more than 3 to 4 days at the facility,” said Majed.

“A distressed maid can give the power of attorney to a lawyer, and he, in turn, can then pursue her case. Once this is done, the maid can be repatriated to her country,” he said. — PTI

Mime legend Marceau dead

Paris, September 23
Marcel Marceau, who put the art of mime on the world stage and brought poetry to silence, is dead, his former assistant said today. He was 84.

Marceau died yesterday in Paris, French media reported. Former assistant Emmanuel Vacca announced the death on France-Info radio, but gave no details about the cause.

Wearing white face paint, soft shoes and a battered hat topped with a red flower, Marceau, notably through his famed character Bip, played the entire range of human emotions onstage for more than 50 years, never uttering a word. Offstage, he was famously chatty.

“Never get a mime talking. He won’t stop,” he once said.

Marceau’s lithe gestures and pliant facial expressions gave life to characters from a peevish waiter to a lion tamer to an old woman knotting.

A French Jew who, unlike his father, escaped deportation to a concentration camp during World War II, Marceau survived the Holocaust and worked with the French Resistance to protect Jewish children. — AP

‘Curry Queen’ held for smuggling immigrants

London, September 23
One of UK’s richest businesswomen of Pakistani origin has been arrested for allegedly smuggling illegal immigrants into the country to work for her chain of restaurants.

Nighat Awan (42) was held “on suspicion of conspiracy to facilitate illegal immigration”, the Daily Mail said. A government race adviser closely linked to former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s wife Cherie, Awan owns the Sher-e-Khan chain of restaurants in Britain and has been dubbed the Queen of Curry.

In February, her husband, Rafique Awan, was arrested in the same probe. He was interrogated after the police searched the couple’s four-million-pound ‘White House-style’ mansion in Hale Barns, Cheshire.

As part of police operation targeting organised immigration crime, 70 suspected illegal immigrants were also arrested in February during raids on a number of Indian restaurants, several in the Sher-e-Khan chain. — PTI

Talks offer to LTTE

Colombo, September 23
Amid mounting international pressure, Sri Lanka today said it was prepared to halt the ongoing military campaign and hold talks with Tamil Tigers if the rebels were ready to resume talks, media reports said.

Sri Lanka’s defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa who personally runs an aggressive military campaign against the LTTE told a newspaper that the government forces would not go ahead with their military offensive if the Tamil Tiger rebels agreed to talk.

“The decision (war or peace) is theirs and I believe they wouldn’t reject this opportunity,” the defence secretary was quoted as saying. — UNI