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US Economic Woes
N-deal unlikely with Democrats in White House: Expert
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Lanka Clashes
Lankan defence secy cancels visit
Zardari not ruling out deal with Mush
Pakistan Polls
‘Benazir’s attacker identified’
5 militants, 2 cops killed in Karachi shootout
Malaysian Situation
New Mexico Senate
opens with Hindu prayer
Early release of Canadian ruled out
Indian, two others sentenced
to death
Militants target video shops
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US Economic Woes
Washington, January 29 In his last State of the Union address, robbed of its usual sheen by the hard-fought presidential primaries, Bush urged the Congress not to derail his $150 billion package aimed at reviving the economy. Even during the address, Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton and her bitter rival Barack Obama, who sat at a close distance, were the Centre of attention, as the two chose not to acknowledge each other. “At kitchen tables across our country, there is concern about our economic future,” the President said. “In the long run, Americans can be confident about our economic growth.” Recalling the terror attacks on the US, Pakistan, Jordon, the UK, Spain and other part of the world during the past seven years, Bush said, “We have taken the fight to these terrorists and extremists. We will stay on the offense. We will keep up the pressure, and we will deliver justice to our enemies.” In an election year where there was some heavy focus on Iraq and the future of the American commitments there, Bush, whose term would end in January 2009, argued that there had been progress especially on the “surge” front and that as many as 20,000 troops were slated to return home. “Our objective in the coming year is to sustain and build on the gains we made in 2007, while transitioning to the next phase of our strategy,” he said.
— PTI
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N-deal unlikely with Democrats in White House: Expert
Washington, January 29 “Its best chances lie within the compass of what is left in the Bush administration because they have put their prestige on the line as this is one of the few positive things they can claim,” Harold Gould, visiting scholar, Center for South Asian Studies at the University of Virginia, said. With under secretary of state for political affairs Nicholas Burns slated to step down in March, Gould said the Bush administration would have to find someone as effective as him or there would be questions on whether the administration could carry it off. Gould’s recent book “Sikhs, Swamis, Students and Spies: The India Lobby in the United States, 1900-1946” was a highly acclaimed scholarly piece of work. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had mentioned it as one of his favorite reads in 2007. “There is very much less chance of the civilian nuclear deal happening if the Democrats come in,” Gould said, adding, “there is a danger of time running out for the civilian nuclear deal”. “On the democratic side there are still a lot of these leftovers or the residuals of the old non-proliferation cult. I call them the non-proliferation Ayatollahs,” he said. US ambassador to India David C Mulford had yesterday favoured completion of the processes involved in the deal during the tenure of the Bush administration, failing which he warned “practical problems” could push it to 2010.
— PTI
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Lanka Clashes
Colombo, January 29 The army captured Viyattankulam in Mannar after killing 22 rebels and destroying 16 bunkers, the Media Centre for National Security (MCNS) said in a statement. In a separate incident, nine Tigers were gunned down in Welioya in Jaffna by the troops yesterday, the defence ministry said. Another rebel was killed and a bunker was destroyed, when the troops attacked a group of LTTE cadres at Janakpura yesterday, it said, adding that troops gunned down one more guerrilla in a similar incident later in the day. Separately, a rebel was killed and three injured in the same area yesterday, the MCNS said. At Kiribbanwewa in Welioya, security forces killed one LTTE cadre in a clash yesterday, the army said, adding that later in the day four more rebels were gunned down in an encounter at the same area. In another confrontation, security forces destroyed some LTTE bunkers and killed four Tiger rebels at Kilali in Jaffna yesterday, the MCNS said. At Muhamale, one soldier was killed, when he got caught in a booby trap bomb, the army said, adding that three soldiers were also injured in the incident.
— PTI
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Lankan defence secy cancels visit
Colombo, January 29 Sensing the arrival of a VIP aircraft, the LTTE began firing on the northern military base and its surroundings from the Tiger’s Kalmunai Point. In the wake of the attack the visit was called off. Besides defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse, the brother of President Mahinda Rajapakse, the chief of defence staff Donald Perera and Army chief Sarath Fonseka were scheduled to attend a ceremonial opening of the latest military unit — the Mechanised Infantry Division (MID) in Palaly. The military spokesman Udaya Nanayakkara told PTI that the LTTE had resorted to shelling and that action had been taken to neutralise its gun positions. The MID was later launched by the Jaffna security force commander G.A. Chandrasiri, the spokesman said.
— PTI
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Zardari not ruling out deal with Mush
Islamabad, January 29 Asked if he would agree to any power-sharing deal with Musharraf, Zardari told Boss magazine: “It’s too early and our wounds are too deep to think of having any working relationship with PML-Q or President Pervez Musharraf.” Zardari also said he had to wait with Bhutto’s body for over an hour at the Mohenjodaro airport without any police guards or security. “They (authorities) asked me to arrive at Karachi. I forced myself on them by saying that my children and I would like to go with her in her final journey,” Zardari said, referring to his return to Pakistan from Dubai after Bhutto was assassinated on December 27. “I even inquired whether they had night landing facility at (Bhutto’s ancestral village of) Naudero (in Sindh). They told me ‘yes’, but when we reached Sukkur, they put us in a helicopter that took us to Mohenjodaro,” Zardari told the magazine. “There were no cars while I had my entire family and women with me, (there was just) one battered ambulance and one twin cabin,” he said. “I, my son Bilawal, and my mother travelled with the coffin from Mohenjodaro for two hours in that battered ambulance. These people are very callous and still have no remorse,” said Zardari. On the issue of an autopsy not being performed on Bhutto’s body, Zardari said: “I had no objection against her autopsy because they did not need permission as the state had the right by law. Doctors are scared to speak the truth today but will speak the truth one day. They took X-rays but no CT scans even though a CT scanner was available at the hospital.” “The state could have kept the body in the morgue and then asked me in the hospital for an autopsy and then the scenario would have been different,” he said.
— PTI
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Pakistan Polls
If the elections are held as planned on February 18, President Pervez Musharraf’s allies will not win majority, said Dr Ijaz Shafi Gilani.
“It appears as a foregone conclusion that the political forces supporting Musharraf will not be in a position to achieve a scenario remotely close to a majority in Parliament”, Gilani said at a seminar on “Media and election analysts on understanding elections in Pakistan”, organised by a leading NGO, Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDAT). Gilani unveiled two monographs written by him and published by PILDAT titled “The calculus of electoral politics in Pakistan 1970-2008” and “A dispassionate analysis of how elections are stolen and will of the people is defeated.” One paper looks at the electoral behaviour in the past seven elections while the other records the rigging history in the last seven elections. Explaining the overall electoral landscape in the country, Dr Gilani said until the tragic demise of Benazir Bhutto, the electionswere expected to follow the general pattern of the 1997 elections. Talking about the likely provincial picture, Dr Gilani said in Karachi, the MQM enjoys a predominant position and the situation was unlikely to change. In interior Sindh, the PPP retains its stronghold. The past elections show that the PPP edge has been progressively shrinking even though the runner-ups in all five elections during the last 20 years scored less than half of the votes polled by the PPP. Balochistan, due to multi-polarity of voting structure combined with its small share of seats in the National Assembly, has little room for influencing electoral victory at the national level. In the NWFP, there is some room for manoeuvre as the voting structure is quad-polar and the outcome of the election has generally been a product of alliances. He said it was the province of Punjab, due to its share in the seats, where the contest would be at its most unpredictable due to its bi-polar (turned tri-polar) structure of voting.
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‘Benazir’s attacker identified’
Islamabad, January 29 The Daily Times quoted Interior Secretary Syed Kamal Shah as saying that Aitzaz Shah, a 15-year-old boy arrested from DI Khan in Northwestern Pakistan on January 19, had identified the suicide bomber during interrogation by the Joint Investigation Team. Another suspect Sher Zaman was arrested from the same locality in DI Khan on Aitzaz’s tip off.
— UNI
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5 militants, 2 cops killed in Karachi shootout Karachi, January 29 The top militant has been identified as Qasim Toori, the leader of the banned Jundullah (Army of God) group and wanted for attacks on a Pakistani army commander and an American cultural centre four years ago. The shooting erupted when a police team surrounded a three-storey building in Karachi’s Shah Latif area to arrest suspected members of the outlawed terror group. The militants started firing at the police, injuring deputy superintendent of police Asghar Dharey, who later died in hospital. The militants used rockets and automatic weapons to target the policemen, also killing a sub-inspector. Seven policemen were injured in the exchange of fire that lasted over three hours, officials said. — PTI
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Malaysian Situation
London, January 29 The Hindu Council of UK said Hindus would present a petition to Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Friday to protest the condition of Malaysian Hindus, "who number two million and are suffering religious persecution" by the government in Kuala Lumpur. It said Hindu temples had been razed and damaged in Malaysia, "irrespective of their age", but added that the silent protest was against human rights violations of not only Hindus but also other religious minorities of Malaysia. The issue hit the headlines in November last year when the Malaysian police used violence to break up a march by Hindus in the capital Kuala Lumpur and arrested 31 protesters, five of whom, the council said, were still in detention.The police action was criticised around the world. Last month, members of the British Parliament demanded that the Malaysian government scrap plans to demolish Hindu temples and allow legitimate protests against it. In a strongly worded statement, they also urged the British government to take up the matter on their behalf and "make the strongest possible representation" to Kuala Lumpur.
— Indo-Asian News Service
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New Mexico Senate
opens with Hindu prayer
Washington, January 29 Indo-American leader Rajan Zed opened the session yesterday by reciting ancient Sanskrit mantras besides reading portions from Rig Veda and other Vedic scriptures. Before starting the prayer, Zed sprinkled ‘Gangajal’ (holy water from river Ganges) on the podium keeping in with the Indian tradition. The Hindu chaplain also presented a copy of Bhagavad Gita to Lt Governor Diane D Denish before she introduced him to the Senate. Zed created history in July 2007, when he opened the US Senate session in Washington DC with a Hindu prayer for the first time. He read first Hindu prayers in California, Nevada State Senate and Nevada State Assembly.
— PTI
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Early release of Canadian ruled out
Toronto, January 29 Indian high commissioner to Canada R.L. Narayan said Montreal-based businessman Saul Itzhayek, who was sentenced to three years in jail in Bihar’s Motihari in October last year for various criminal offences and visa violation, should follow the due process of law. Narayan told a delegation led by Montreal MP Irwin Cotler that Itzhayk should follow the due process of law by challenging the verdict of the court. He made it clear to the delegation that it was not merely a visa violation case but there was something more to it. “In a country governed by the rule of law, the government does not have much to say in such matters,” Narayan told the delegation, which called on him yesterday demanding early release of the businessman. “Here is a case where some local authorities acted inappropriately,” Cotler, a former justice minister and attorney -general, alleged. “We are saying to the Indian government, ‘we are a fellow democratic country... we’ve got good relations’. Use whatever executive order you wish... What we want is his safe return.” Itzhayek was taken into custody when he attempted to cross into India from Nepal last May with an expired visa. Border agents had seized the businessman’s documents from a rental car, which they believed was stolen, and had promised him a safe entry to get his belongings back.
— PTI
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Indian, two others sentenced
to death
Dubai, January 29 The three -- Haleema Nissa Cader, a Sri Lankan, Naushad, her Indian husband from Tamil Nadu, and K.M.S. Bandaranaike, also a Sri Lankan -- were arrested in November, 2005, in connection with the armed burglary at the home of a Saudi woman and her murder, Arab News said in a report. Five other Sri Lankans, including two women, were sentenced to five years in jail and will also receive 500 lashes for their role in the crime. An oral verdict was delivered in June last year, and a 15-page written verdict was given on January 20, the report said, adding that Jeddah High Court judge Faisal Al-Sheikh confirmed the verdict yesterday. The son of the victim is not happy with the judgement and has called for the other five convicts to be given death sentences. The verdict has been slammed by Amnesty International, which has accused the authorities of imposing the death sentences without proper judicial procedure.
— PTI
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Militants target video shops
Islamabad, January 29 Dozens of CD shops and cyber cafes in the province have been blown up by militants, who say music and movies are “un-Islamic”, but not a single cinema hall has received a letter of threat from extremist groups like the Taliban. “We haven’t received any threat but the business has badly suffered due to attacks on CD shops. Only 20-30 per cent of film viewers are coming to cinemas since attacks on video shops and CD centres gained momentum,” a manager of a local cinema told The News.
— PTI
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