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Tibet Tide
Pak gets its Ist woman Speaker
Bilawal to announce PM candidate
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Indian-origin Sikh magistrate jailed
Indian workers threaten to stage ‘satyagraha’
Poll candidate shot dead
Anita Nair in list for UK prize
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Tibet Tide
Beijing, March 19 After days of violent protests against Chinese rule over the Himalayan region, China signalled it would step up a controversial campaign to quell the unrest despite intense international scrutiny ahead of the Olympics. “We are currently in an intensely bloody and fiery struggle with the Dalai Lama clique, a life or death struggle with the enemy,” Tibet’s Communist Party leader Zhang Qingli said in an editorial in the Tibet Daily on Wednesday. “As long as we... remain of one heart, turn the masses into a walled city and work together to attack the enemy, then we can safeguard social stability and achieve a full victory in this intense battle against separatism.” While China has insisted it has used no deadly force to quell the unrest, Tibet and other parts of the country that have seen Tibetans protests in recent days remained sealed off to the foreign press to prevent independent reporting. Tibet’s parliament-in-exile said on Monday that “hundreds” of people had been killed in the Chinese crackdown, while activists have released photos of dead Tibetans whom they say were shot by Chinese security forces. China’s official Xinhua news agency said 105 Tibetan “rioters” in Lhasa had surrendered by late Tuesday night, following a midnight Monday deadline in which they were promised leniency if they turned themselves in to authorities. China has said Tibetan protesters killed 13 “innocent civilians” on Friday last week, the biggest day of protests that began a few days earlier to mark the anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule. Tibetan government vice chairman Baema Chilain said the people who gave themselves in to police had been directly involved in “the beating, smashing, looting and arson” on Friday, according to Xinhua. Exiled groups and rights activists said hundreds, possibly thousands, of Tibetans had been detained and were at risk of torture amid a sweep by Chinese security forces throughout Tibet and the other hotspot areas. “It seems like there are so many hundreds of arrests at least, possibly thousands, across the country (wider Tibetan region),” Lhadon Tethong, director of Students for a Free Tibet, told AFP. “We cannot keep up at this point... there is such a flood of information.” Human Rights Watch said in a statement it had unconfirmed reports of hundreds of arrests and warned those in custody were at great risk of being tortured. — AFP
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Pak gets its Ist woman Speaker
Dr Fehmida Mirza of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) today created history by becoming first female Speaker of the country.
Mirza (52), a consensus candidate of the four-party coalition - the PPP, PML-N, ANP and JUI - that has decided to from the government, was elected Speaker of Pakistan’s National Assembly by securing 249 votes out of 324 defeating her rival and combined Opposition’s candidate Israr Tareen, who got 70 votes. The Speaker’s election emphatically established the strength of the new coalition in the Assembly demonstrating support of more than two-third majority required for amending the Constitution and impeachment of the President. The election was through secret ballot and 25 members belonging to the PML-Q besides Independents voted for Mirza in addition to the members of the coalition. Hailing from an influential political family of Sindh, Mirza was earlier elected twice in an open electoral contest on general seat in 1997 and 2002. Chaudhry Amir Hussain conducted the election and announced Fahim’s victory. Mirza, in her acceptance speech, promised to work for the supremacy and dignity of Parliament and upholding the Constitution. “This is my third tenure in the National Assembly and I believe it is time that we all work together to address the challenges facing the country," Mirza said. "I am sure that we will be able to face these challenges with the support of Parliamentarians, our people and Pakistani media," she said.
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Bilawal to announce PM candidate
PPP chairman Bilawal Zardari Bhutto, 19-year-old eldest son of slain former premier Benazir Bhutto, who flew into Pakistan from London on Wednesday, will announce the name of party candidate for the office of prime minister, PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar told mediapersons here.
Bilawal reached Karachi and immediately flew to Naudero via Sukkur to offer prayers at the grave of his mother. He is due to reach Islamabad on Thursday. Babar said the announcement of the name of the candidate would be made only after the National Assembly session was convened to elect the prime minister. President Pervez Musharraf has withheld calling the Assembly for the event and prorogued its session sine die after it elected speaker and deputy speaker on Wednesday. Gilani PPP’s PM nominee?
Islamabad: The PPP has “finalised” its prime ministerial nominee amid speculation it could be former Speaker Yousuf Raza Gilani. Senior PPP leader Nabeel Gabol, a close aide of Zardari, said the party had “approved and finalised” its candidate and the name would be announced shortly. — PTI
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Indian-origin Sikh magistrate jailed
London, March 19 Handing down the judgement to disgraced magistrate Balbir Singh Sandhu (62), Birmingham Crown Court judge Robert Orme described his actions as a "blatant abuse of a position of the authority and trust". Judge Orme, who convicted Sandhu of "fraud", said the act had been carried out in a "blatant, prolonged and manipulative" way. "Your fall from grace is likely to be all the greater having regard to the pedestal upon which the local community appear to have placed you. You are a prominent member of the Sikh community, a teacher and a highly respected member of the temple," the media quoted Judge Orme as telling Sandhu. Earlier, the court heard that Sandhu, a magistrate at a court in Wolverhampton for six years, had told the complainant that he came to know that the businessman was being prosecuted over alleged employment of illegal workers in his factory. — PTI
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Indian workers threaten to stage ‘satyagraha’
Washington, March 19 The protesters, who launched a 'long march' from New Orleans to Washington -- a distance of 1,500 km, yesterday, alleged that the Indian government failed to protect them. They are expected to reach Washington DC on March 26 to meet Indian Ambassador Ronen Sen in their search for justice. "We write in response to your seven-day-long silence, followed by a 97-word letter that adds insult to the workers' injury as survivors of human trafficking. Apparently 18 months of human trafficking merited less than 100 words from you," the workers have said in a letter to Sen. "You leave us no choice but to launch a 'satyagraha' so that the truth will come to light and justice will be served."
— PTI
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Poll candidate shot dead
An unidentified group shot dead Kamal Prasad Adhikari, an election candidate of the National People’s Front Nepal (NPFN), who is contesting the upcoming April 10 Constituent Assembly (CA) polls from Banke district constituency-2 in mid-western Nepal, on Tuesday night. According to a report, a group of around six masked persons reached Adhikari’s house at the Behaani village development committee of Banke around 11 pm and fired four rounds of bullets at him. The group reportedly shot at Adhikari after the family tried to retaliate the gunmen as they were set to whisk him away from the house. Adhikari, who had sustained injuries in his stomach, thigh and hand, was declared dead at 6 this morning while receiving treatment at Bheri Zonal hospital.
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Anita Nair in list for UK prize
London, March 19
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