The Supreme Court on Monday withdrew a blanket gag order restricting the print and electronic media from publishing or telecasting news items, comments or talk shows relating to the judiciary without prior permission from court officials.

Justice Nawaz Abbasi who had served a contempt notice to private TV channel Geo News last Saturday night for telecasting a story about his meeting with home secretary, also issued a restrictive order for entire media to get court stories approved before publishing or telecasting anything.

The channel had reported that interior secretary Kamal Shah held a meeting with him and some other judges against the back drop of current judicial crisis on the question of restoration of deposed judges.

Amid scenes of defiance by journalists led by bureau chief of Geo News, Absar Alam on Monday, a furious Justice Abbasi stepped back from further tightening the noose around the media on persuasion by senior lawyers. The newsmen who had responded to the contempt notice and appeared before the court without a counsel, told the judge that they would welcome any punishment instead of offering any defence or apology. Absar Alam also declined to reveal source of his report.

Enraged by the response, Justice Abbasi began dictating a lengthy note to the court clerk prescribing wide ranging stringent curbs on the media. Abbasi said the media has been indulging in projecting judges in a disgraceful manner since November 3 when General Musharraf imposed emergency, sacked 60 judges and packed the court with new judges.

Justice Nawaz Abbasi in his remarks said the judiciary was being disgraced and insults hurled at will. He said that under Article 19 of the constitution, media was not free to heap slanders. Justice Nawaz Abbasi said that action could be taken under Article 204 of the constitution.

Senior advocates led by Hafeez Pirzada and including Attorney-General Qayyum Malik requested the court to refrain from issuing such order. They suggested that the media may be asked to avoid any derogatory reference to the court or judges.

Judge Abbasi then withdrew the gag order but ordered that TV channels produce by May 22 the entire record of stories relating to judges telecast or printed by media since November 3. He said somebody is paying huge money to the media for ads in order to ridicule the judiciary.

The contempt case against Geo News was later adjourned for hearing until May 22.

The court appointed Hafeez Pirzada and Sharifuddin Pirzada to assist the court as amicus curie and enlighten it on questions fundamental rights on press freedom and contempt of court.

London, May 12
Revoking a 6-month-long suspension, the Commonwealth today re-admitted Pakistan into its fold citing the “positive steps” taken by Islamabad “to fulfil its obligations” consistent with grouping’s fundamental values and principles.

This was decided by the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG), which deals with violations of the organisation’s rules on democracy. It had earlier suspended Pakistan on November 16 last year after President Pervez Musharraf had imposed emergency there. “Pakistan is now restored to the councils of the Commonwealth,” said Commonwealth secretary-general Kamalesh Sharma after the talks at the grouping’s Marlborough House headquarters.

The 53-nation Group welcomed the fact that Musharraf has given up his role as Chief of Army Staff, lifted the State of Emergency, held parliamentary elections and enabled transition to a democratically elected government and removed curbs on private media broadcasts and other restrictions on the Press, Sharma said.

On the key issue of restoring the independence of the judiciary as an institution, the Group welcomed the new government’s stated resolve to do so.

However, the readmission came hours after former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) pulled out of the government over differences with Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) on reinstating the judges sacked by Musharraf on November 3.

The grouping urged Pakistan to respect the Commonwealth Latimer House Principles to reinforce the independence of the judiciary and resolve current issues through the parliamentary process, as soon as possible. — PTI

While major political parties in Nepal have been intensifying their preparatory works to proceed the first meeting of the Constituent Assembly to abolish the 240-year-old monarchy, the royal couple on Monday worshiped Goddess Dakshinkali.

King Gyanendra and his wife Komal reached Dakshinkali, a Hindu Goddess of power, 30 km southwest from here, along with his family members today and offered ‘Panchabali’ by sacrificing animals and birds of five different species -- a goat, a lamb, a buffalo, a rooster and a duck.

During the function, there was a tight security at the temple for the safety of the royal family.

This was the first public appearance of the king after the April 10 polls.

Every year, on Baisakh Asthami (eight day of the lunar fortnight) the royal couple worships Dhakshinkali that the Shah Dynasty considers as the deity of its cast.

This is the customary tradition
of the Shah Kings that began during the regime of late King Prithivi Narayan Shah, the ancestor of King Gyanendra.

Sydney, May 12
Scientists have turned the ash waste from coal-fired power stations into a global environmental solution, which promises to slash emissions in the carbon-hungry construction sector by at least 20 per cent.

The solution is soon likely to be seen in India with its creators in the process of negotiating a manufacturing license in the country.

Researchers at the University of New South Wales converted the pollution from coal furnaces, known as fly ash, into a new range of high-strength, lightweight building materials, ScienceAlert reported.

The first 100 per cent “made from waste” bricks are already coming off production lines in China, where hundreds of millions of tonnes of fly ash contaminate the air and clog waterways.

Apart from India, the university’s commercial arm, NewSouth Innovations, is also negotiating to license the technology in Australia, Indonesia, the USA, Dubai and Kuwait.

“The environmental consequences are enormous,” said inventor Obada Kayali.The big greenhouse gas emission savings lie firstly in reducing the volume of cement needed to make high-strength concrete.

The new lightweight fly ash aggregate, known as Flashag, replaces quarried rocks such as blue metal and gravel that are usually mixed with cement to make concrete.

Flashag is the world’s first fly ash aggregate to drastically reduce the volume of cement needed to achieve high strength concrete structures.

China, where half of the world’s construction is taking place, recently surpassed the US as the world’s single biggest polluter. The fly ash products pilot plant opened in the Chinese city of Hebi earlier this year, in a special zone for sustainable industrial technologies and a large-scale industrial recycling.The 100 per cent fly ash bricks, known as Flash Bricks, are also about 20 per cent lighter and stronger than their clay counterparts. This means further emissions savings because less steel and shallower concrete foundations are needed for the same sized structures. — IANS

Sydney, May 12
Like humans, little fish also diet - not to look more presentable, but out of dire necessity. They don’t want to get on the wrong side of more dominant fish and risk being gobbled up.

A new study, by researchers at James Cook University, has also found that bigger fish use the threat of punishment to keep competitors in line.

It has been noticed that among goby fish, only the largest of two individuals, a male and female, have mating rights within a group. All other group members are non-breeding females, each being consistently 5-10 per cent smaller than its next largest rival. The new study sought to find out how they maintained this precise size separation, ScienceAlert reported.

The reason for the size difference was easy to see, explained Marian Wong, who led the study.

“Once a subordinate fish grows to within 5-10 per cent of the size of its larger rival, it provokes a fight that usually ends in the smaller goby being expelled from the group and the safety of the coral it occupies. More often than not, the evicted fish is then gobbled up by a predator.”

It appeared that the smaller fish were keeping themselves small in order to avoid provoking the big fish. Whether they did so because of stress caused by the bullying of larger fish or voluntarily by restraining how much they ate - was not clear.

While the habits of gobies might seem a little arcane, Wong explained that understanding the relationships between dominant and subordinate animals was important to understand how hierarchical societies remained stable. — IANS

London, May 12
Cherie Blair was shocked by the ruthless manner in which the tragic news of her miscarriage was used by her husband and former British Prime Minister’s media managers for political reasons.

In the latest extracts from her memoirs, 'Speaking for Myself', published in The Times daily of Britain today, the wife of the former Prime Minister, Tony Blair, said that even as she lay in pain and bleeding in 2002, her husband and his communications chief Alastair Campbell insisted on informing the media immediately about the news of her miscarriage so that a delay in their planned family holiday did not trigger speculation of an early invasion of Iraq.

"I couldn't believe it.There I was, bleeding, and they were talking about what was going to be the line to the press. I put down the receiver and lay there staring at the ceiling as the pain began to grip," Cherie wrote in an emotional account of losing her baby at the age of 47.

In an astonishing disclosure, the high-profile lawyer also revealed that her fourth child, Leo, was conceived as she had failed to pack her usual contraceptive equipment while they were guests of the Queen at Balmoral.

Cherie also writes that Gordon Brown was one of the handful of people her husband insisted on telling about her pregnancy. "You have to understand Cherie. It is a very sensitive topic for him.

The whole issue of my being a family man is very sensitive to him," the former premier reasoned when she asked what possible business it could be of Brown, who was the Chancellor of Exchequer in his cabinet. — PTI

Washington, May 12
A toxicology test will be conducted on the driver of the minivan, carrying seven Indians, which spun out of control and crashed into another car, killing six of them in Pennsylvania.

The Pennsylvania police, however, has not made a determination of the cause of the crash.

The accident took place in West Springfield in Pennsylvania on Saturday afternoon and six Indians -- Kaushik Deb (26), Manoj Jharia (35), Mili Jharia (28), Nitin Agarwal (29), Swati Agarwal (25) and Shubham Choudory (24) -- were killed.

The victims were travelling to the Niagara Falls. Nitin Gupta, the seventh passenger, who was sitting on the front seat, escaped with minor injuries and was later discharged from hospital.

Deb, Choudory, Jharia and Agarwal were working for Michigan-based information technology firm, Syntel Inc. A senior official from Syntel Inc said the bodies of the victims were still at the accident site.

"The bodies of the victims are still at the accident site in Pennsylvania. Arrangements were being made to send them back to India," James Jonathan, chief marketing officer for Syntel Inc, said in a statement. — PTI

BRIEFLY

Hacker gets into Chilean government files
SANTIAGO: A hacker who identified himself as "Anonymous Coward" stole personal data of 6 million Chileans, including a daughter of the President, and posted it briefly on the Internet, the authorities said."This is a serious and delicate issue," said presidential spokesman Francisco Vidal.Police chief Jaime Jara confirmed that the authorities were investigating the theft of the leaked data, which, he said, included identity card numbers, addresses,phone numbers, e-mails and academic background. — AP

China trains guides as tourists flock to mountains
SIGUNIANG MOUNTAINS (China): As mountain climbing booms in China, the first group of guides trained by an expert Frenchman will soon graduate - part of a government drive to boost safety standards.The scenic peaks in the north and west of the country, once home to Taoist mystics, were declared off-limits to the public in 1949 as the new Communist government set up strategic military outposts across the rugged landscape.Now, as China's rapidly expanding economy leads to a higher standard of living and the development of a market for outdoor leisure activities, the mountains are teeming with climbers - but many of them are inexperienced. — AFP

Scholar named Taiwan's intelligence chief
TAIPEI: Taiwan's President-elect on Monday announced that a scholar and former chief of China affairs would be the intelligence chief in his incoming government. Su Chi will be secretary- general of the National Security Council, an advisory body that gathers intelligence.The 58-year-old Su was the top China policy adviser during the recent election campaign of Ma Ying-jeou, a Nationalist Party leader who will be sworn in as President next week. — AP