The Accountability Court in Rawalpindi has set November 8 for hearing the Ittifaq Foundry, Hudyabia Paper Mills and Raiwind corruption cases against former premier Nawaz Sharif, his brother and former Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and their family and issued notices to the Sharifs to appear before it in person.

Judge Khalid Mehmood issued the directive following a claim by the prosecution that the amnesty given to PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto under the newly promulgated National Reconciliation Order (NRO) does not cover the Sharifs because the cases against them were registered after the cut- off date of November, 1999.

The judge directed the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to produce the accused at the next hearing, stating that otherwise the cases would be put off for an indefinite period.On Friday, NAB Deputy Prosecutor-General Zulfiqar Ahmed pleaded that the court should not adjourn the hearing sine die because the accused were expected to return to Pakistan early next month, as stated by Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) acting president Javed Hashmi.

Islamabad, October 20
Pakistan’s intelligence bureau (IB) chief was one of the three persons mentioned by former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in her letter to President Pervez Musharraf.

“The PPP leadership pointed their fingers at the head of the Intelligence Bureau Brig Ejaz Shah(Retd), holding him responsible for the bombings,” The News reported today.

Bhutto mentioned his name with displeasure a few days ago in London and claimed that Ejaz Shah was trying to sabotage reconciliation between the PPP and General Musharraf.

The newspaper quoted Bhutto’s husband Asif Ali Zardari as claiming that Shah had old links with Islamic radicals. He claimed that Shah was the person who managed the surrender of Omer Sheikh in 2002, a suspect in the killing of American wall street journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

Zardari is sure that people like Ejaz Shah have encouraged Islamic radicals to attack his wife. In fact, Ejaz Shah was the home secretary of Punjab in 2002. He belongs to the Nankana Sahib area.

Mother of Omer Sheikh was also from Nankana Sahib. When the security agencies raided the house of Omer’s grandparents in Nankana Sahib, Ejaz Shah contacted the uncle of the alleged terrorist who was a sessions judge at that time. The uncle convinced his nephew through Ejaz Shah to surrender and that was how Omer Sheikh was arrested.

Some PPP sources have said that the IB chief was the person who created the ruling PML-Q in the Punjab. — UNI

Beijing, October 20
After months of backroom power struggle, China's ruling Communist Party, today, completed the first phase of the selection process of a new generation of Chinese leadership by deciding the nominees to the Central Committee, who will be elected tomorrow.

In a sign of moderate political reform, a panel headed by President and CPC boss Hu Jintao selected the candidates for the Central Committee through secret ballot in a multi-candidate vote, described by the official media as "a sign of progress of intra-party democracy".

The 198-member Central Committee, to be formed tomorrow, will select the Politburo which in turn will form the Politburo Standing Committee, the pinnacle of power in the CPC, on Monday, when the new line-up of party leadership that will rule the world's most populous nation till 2012, will emerge.

Currently, the Politburo has 24 members and the Politburo Standing Committee nine. Chinese President and CPC general secretary Hu Jintao is certain to retain his top party post for another five-year term, though he is locked in a power struggle with his 80-year old predecessor, Jiang Zemin.

At least eight per cent of nominees have been eliminated in the primary elections of members and alternate members of the 17th Central Committee and members of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, Xinhua said.

Until now, Xi Jinping, Shanghai Communist party chief, backed by the Jiang camp and Li Keqiang, Liaoning province party head, Hu's protege, have emerged as front-runners to succeed Hu as the party boss when he retires in 2012. — PTI

Kathmandu, October 20
Nepal Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala today said the Maoists would rejoin the government once the date for the Constituent Assembly (CA) elections was finalised.

Speaking to mediapersons at his residence, he said a new date for the elections would be fixed after the political parties reach a consensus.

He also expressed disappointment at the postponement of the polls which were scheduled for November 22 this year, but said he was compelled to take the decision due to differences among the parties.

About the Maoists, he said ''If they don’t join the government after date for the polls is finalised, then it would prove that they are running away from the elections,''Kantipuronline reported.

The Maoists even summoned the special session of the interim parliament to fulfil their key demands--immediately declare the country a republic and make a provision for a proportional representation system of voting for the CA elections.

The poll had also been put off indefinitely and the country was facing political impasse. — UNI

New York, October 20
The Tatas, one of India’s leading industrialist families, have been honoured with the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy that is considered the “Nobel Prize of Philanthropy” at Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania.

Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Sons, accepted the medal on behalf of the family in the presence of former president of India APJ Abdul Kalam.

The Tata family is one of the four recipients of the honour given every two years since 2001 in memory of Andrew Carnegie, an American industrialist and philanthropist. It is given to those “who have dedicated their private wealth to the public good and who have sustained impressive careers as philanthropists”.

The award’s citation said the Tata family gives away eight to 14 per cent of the net profits from its company each year to science, medicine, social services, performing arts and education. Funding from them has also established pioneering institutions in social sciences as well as cancer research and treatment.

The family’s philosophy of “constructive philanthropy” has played a role in changing the traditional concept of charity throughout India, the award citation noted.

Accepting the award, Ratan Tata said the family was pleased to have helped in a “small way” and would continue its efforts. He pointed out that a large majority of people still “live below the poverty line, particularly in the part of the world I live in”.

Tata exhorted wealthy people around the world to contribute to philanthropic causes, particularly in developing countries.

Besides Tatas, the other three recipients of the medal are the Heinz family, the Mellon family and Eli Broad. The Heinz ‘ketchup’ family has set up endowments in the arts, environment, health and education.

Andrew Mellon’s personal collection helped set up the National Gallery of Art and National Portrait Gallery in Washington.

Eli Broad is a reputed business leader whose Los Angeles-based Broad Foundation focuses on education, arts and scientific research.

Past recipients of the Carnegie medals have included the Gates and the Rockefellers. — IANS

London, October 20
Failed asylum seekers who agree to leave Britain voluntarily would be able to get up to £ 4,000 under a new scheme launched by the government.

The deal includes money for housing, childcare and private school fees, and even financial help for setting up a new business.

There is also a cash payment of £ 500 at the airport, the Daily Mail reported here today.

According to government estimates, currently there are over 400,000 failed asylum seekers in Britain.

The government wants people who are in the UK illegally to leave voluntarily and, in co-operation with the International Organisation for Migration, it operates the assisted voluntary return schemes to help them do so.

This approach represents good value for money against the cost of enforced returns.

This new package addresses the fact that reintegration needs for returnees are often very different and so there is no fixed value of the package.

“Reintegration assistance would be given on a needs basis so the cost would vary from individual to individual. The new approach may well result in additional savings that would not have been possible under a fixed value package,” a Home Office spokesman was quoted as saying.

Though the scheme had angered opposition parties in the country, British immigration minister Liam Byrne defended the support packages saying they were cheaper than deportation. — PTI

Manila, October 20
The Philippine police confirmed today that military-grade explosives caused a powerful blast in an upscale Manila shopping mall and it was reviewing security camera footage to look for suspects.

The Glorietta mall blast at lunchtime yesterday killed nine people and wounded 120, although many of those wounded had been discharged after treatment, the police and the hospital sources said.

The explosive experts said the bomb was apparently set off in the basement of Glorietta, a sprawling three-storey complex of department stores, high-end fashion boutiques, restaurants, other shops and cinemas in the heart of the Makati business district.

Several luxury hotels and serviced apartment blocks surround the complex.

“No fragments of the bomb were found on the ground or upper floors,” said Major Reynold Rosero, a military bomb expert. “So it must have come from the basement.”

The basement, a delivery area for goods, is now under knee-deep water because the explosion caused some water pipes to burst, he said. Investigations would therefore take some time.

The bomb ripped all the way through to the roof of the structure, devastating shops and restaurants. The police had earlier believed the bomb was near a cell phone repair shop directly above the delivery bay.

Eight people were confirmed dead yesterday and the body of a man was found early today in the debris, a police official said. Four people had been reported missing.

A police official told President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo at a conference at the national police headquarters that traces of RDX, a component of plastic explosives, were found at the bomb site.

“It was military-grade explosives,” the expert said at the conference, which was open to the press.

Manila police chief Geary Barias said the police had also started reviewing closed-circuit TV (CCTV) footage of the mall. — Reuters