 |
|
|
Bhutto to be back in Pak as planned: PPP
Kanishka Probe
Sharif departs for London soon: Report
|
|
|
Israelis kill Palestinian agent
Americans urge Gore to run for White House
Pak SC raps govt on ‘missing’ persons Bahrain orders probe into death of Indian mother-son duo
|
||||||||||||||
|
Bhutto to be back in Pak as planned: PPP
Islamabad, October 11 “Benazir Bhutto will return as scheduled on October 18. There is no change in her programme,” Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) spokesman Farhatullah Babar said. Musharraf, in a TV interview aired yesterday, had asked Bhutto to put off her return till the Supreme Court rules on petitions challenging his candidature in the presidential poll. The apex court will begin hearing the matter on October 17, a day before Bhutto arrives in Pakistan. “Benazir should not come back on October 18. She should delay her return till the Supreme Court decides on the presidential election,” Musharraf said. The signing of the ordinance by Musharraf paved the way for Bhutto’s return to lead the PPP in the general elections scheduled for January next year. Babar also dismissed reports that senior PPP leaders would meet in Dubai to discuss Musharraf’s suggestion, saying they were in the Gulf city for “routine” parleys about the tasks that lay ahead. — PTI
|
|
Kanishka Probe
Toronto, October 11 Justice John Major, who heads the inquiry, said on Wednesday his staff has had to do its own research to find out the extent of the terrorist financing in Canada and what is being done to combat the problem. Major said the government agency monitoring the problem, FinTRAC, and other federal bodies have not been forthcoming about their knowledge on the issue to the inquiry. “The whole theme of this has been the lack of response from almost every agency that came before us,” Major said. “They said they would supply the information and then it was going into what this report describes as a ‘deep hole’.” Over the last two weeks, the inquiry has heard that despite identifying tens of millions in terrorist transactions in Canada every year, there has been no successful criminal prosecution. The judge reacted sharply to the statement of Department of Justice lawyer Kathryn Hucal who told the inquiry yesterday that FinTRAC was, in fact, doing lots of outreach to help banks and other reporting agencies understand how to identify terrorist financing in their institutions. If there is information in your department, you have been awfully silent about making it available to us,” Major told the lawyer. He said the government has done a poor job of aiding him in investigating the problem so he can make recommendations. The inquiry had commissioned former RCMP investigator Brian Tario, who now works for Deloitte, to survey institutions required to report suspicious transaction to FinTRAC to know their views on whether enough is being done to combat terrorist financing. Tario found that most did not get enough feedback from FinTRAC and believed it was like “a big black hole”. — PTI
|
|
Sharif departs for London soon: Report
Islamabad, October 11 The leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) will reach London from Saudi Arabia next week, the Daily Times newspaper reported today. Nadir Chaudhry, press secretary to the PML-N leader, confirmed reports that the exiled Prime Minister would be leaving the Kingdom soon. The Saudi royal house has been greatly perturbed by the negative reception in Pakistan of the role the Kingdom and its representatives played in getting Sharif whisked away from Pakistan on September 10. It was one of the rare occasions when Saudi Arabia and the royal family had been openly criticised, when traditionally they have been accorded great respect, bordering sometimes on reverence. Sharif was deported to Saudi Arabia for the second time when he had returned to Pakistan after seven years of forced exile. The deposed premier's party had earlier claimed that Saudi Arabia had assured Sharif that it would take up the issue of his "exile" and "deportation" with the Pakistan government after Eid-ul-Fitr. The former premier's brother Shahbaz had said in September that the deposed leader would soon return to Pakistan to lead his party in the general election planned in January. A neutral caretaker government is to be put in place to supervise the elections after the national and provincial assemblies complete their term on November 15. — PTI
|
|
Suspended student shoots 5 in school, commits suicide
New York, October 11 Two revolvers along with three knives and a box of ammunition were found near the body of suspended student Asa Coon who had walked through the halls firing from the weapons, one in each hand. Cleveland police chief Michael McGrath said he did not believe that it was a random shooting and some of the victims were specifically targeted by the teenager. Coon, who was suspended on Monday apparently for fighting, might have gone looking for teachers who had disciplined him. Among the victims were 57-year-old teacher David Kachadourian who was shot in the back and a 42-year-old teacher who was struck in the chest, officials said, adding three other victims were student. Screaming students ran for cover after the Principal announced "Code Blue" on the intercom which meant there was a shooting in the school. Coon was previously arrested last year for a domestic violence incident, and the police had been to his home before for incidents that involved weapons, according to McGrath. The police searched the gunman's locker after the shooting and was watching surveillance footage of the school taken at the time of the shooting, he said. It is the latest school shooting to hit the US which has witnessed several such incidents in recent years leading to an outcry against lax gun-control rules. — PTI
|
|
Israelis kill Palestinian agent
Jenin (West Bank), October 11 An Israeli military spokesman said that forces went to Jenin to arrest an armed Palestinian and "opened fire on him because he put up resistance". — AFP
|
||
|
Americans urge Gore to run for White House
New York, October 11 "America and the Earth need a hero right now. Someone who will transcend politics as usual and bring real hope to our country and to the world," said a full page advertisement published in the New York Times by "Draft Gore" campaign. Reminding Gore that he was the first American politician to "brave political waters" and warn of "perils of starting a pre-emptive war" in Iraq, the open letter said the time to reverse the damage was running out. "Given your experience, insight and respect you enjoy among world leaders, you are uniquely positioned to bring this war to an end and restore America's good name," said the letter, which the advertisement claims has been signed by 136,000 US citizens. Referring to the subject most dear to Gore's heart -- climate change -- the letter said, "Only from Oval office can you wield the kind of influence needed to move the countries, policies and corporations to bring about meaningful change." Regarding Gore's statement that he had fallen out of love with politics after President George Bush won the controversial election defeating him, the letter stated he had every reason to feel that way. Asking him to run for the top post, it said thousands of Americans were dying needlessly in Iraq while the reputation of the US in the world had "plummeted to all-time low". —
PTI
|
||
|
Pak SC raps govt on ‘missing’ persons
Islamabad, October 11 A bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, was told by the government that 37 missing persons had been traced, taking the number of those "recovered" by the official agencies to 170. Defence secretary Kamran Rasool and interior secretary Syed Kamal Shah appeared before the bench to inform it of the steps taken by the government to trace the "missing" persons - a euphemism for those who were detained without charge by security agencies. The court, which began hearing the case on the missing persons in 2005, had earlier set today as the deadline for tracing all these people. Over 200 persons are still believed to be missing and the court instructed the authorities to step up efforts to trace them. Chief Justice Chaudhry, while hearing the case, warned that the heads of the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), military intelligence and other security agencies would be summoned by the Supreme Court if "victims of enforced disappearances" were not released. — PTI
|
||
|
Bahrain orders probe into death of Indian mother-son duo Dubai, October 11 Bahrain's health minister Faisal Al Hamer has ordered the probe into how the Al Hilal Hospital handled Suma Babu, 44, and her 13-year-old son Clement, both of whom died on Monday. The investigation will be carried out by the health ministry licensing directorate head Tawfeeq Naseeb, who met Babu yesterday. "I shall carry out a full investigation into all the allegations and will ensure that anyone who is found to be guilty shall be punished," Naseeb was quoted as saying. He said the allegations should be taken "very seriously". Clement was electrocuted on his birthday when he touched a tap made live by an electrical fault in the bathroom of the family's flat and his mother was apparently electrocuted when she tried to save him after hearing him cry out. Grieving husband Thomas Babu alleged that his wife and son were initially taken to the Al Hilal Hospital but nobody attended to them. He claimed his wife lay on a stretcher outside the hospital for about 45 minutes until an ambulance arrived to take her to Salmaniya Medical Complex (SMC), where she was declared dead. But Al Hilal Hospital chief executive officer Sai Giridhar has denied any lapse, saying that his wife was dead when she arrived at the hospital and claimed Clement was not brought to the hospital at all. — PTI
|
||
|
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
Video
