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Gilani invites PML-N to rejoin federal cabinet
Emergency imposed in Bangkok
100-year-old tortoise gets
fitness training
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Afghan female legislator shot dead
Sri Lanka declares 48-hour ceasefire
Now, Lakshmi Mittal tops soccer rich list Despite row, UK town to have Gandhi statue soon Juhi Chawla’s kin freed by Pak abductors Report: Cottage industry in Pak providing fake documents
The little village that defied the quake
The ancient architectural splendour of the region, much of it battered and bruised by the quake, can be brought back to life with the right balance of sensitivity and technology
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Gilani invites PML-N to rejoin federal cabinet
Pakistan Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani on Sunday formally invited Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) to re-join the federal cabinet. Gilani held a meeting with Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif at the Prime Minister’s House where the two leaders discussed future cooperation between country’s two major parties, the PML-N and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP). Both parties started off as partners in coalition at the Centre and in Punjab but parted company last year because of differences over restoration of deposed judges. Under Nawaz Sharif, the PML-N played key role in the march of lawyers last month that compelled President Asif Zardari to concede the demand for reinstatement of deposed judges, including Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry. Tensions between the two parties further diluted later last month when the Supreme Court restored Shahbaz Sharif as Chief Minister of Punjab and his cabinet that included ministers from the PPP. The PPP, however, has not returned to the cabinet making it conditional on the PML-N rejoining the federal cabinet. Officials said the Prime Minister had told Shahbaz that PML-N’s return to federal cabinet would strengthen democracy. Shahbaz has promised that his party would think of the offer once the PPP honours its pledge to implement the Charter of Democracy that envisages repeal of the 17th Amendment and other measures introduced by former military ruler Gen Musharraf. Gilani said a process has already been initiated through the formation of a parliamentary committee to consider restoration of the 1973 Constitution to its original form.
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Bangkok, April 12 Bands of anti-government protesters roamed areas of Bangkok as the emergency decree was announced, with some smashing a car, which they believed was carrying Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, and others beating up motorists who hurled insults at them. The emergency decree bans gatherings of more than five people, forbids news reports considered threatening to public order and allows the government to call up military troops to quell unrest. But there were initial signs that the government might not be able to contain the protesters. Reporters saw red-shirted demonstrators swarm over two of three armoured personnel carriers outside a shopping mall in downtown Bangkok, while the police stood by as a furious crowd beat a car in which they thought Abhisit was riding with poles and rocks. “It’s apparent that we will be surrounded and suppressed by military force. Tear gas and military personnel have been prepared.So we told our people to be ready and be prepared,” said Jakrapop Penkair, a key protest leader. Demonstrators from the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship say Abhisit’s four-month-old government took power illegitimately and want new elections. They also accuse the country’s elite, the military, judiciary and other unelected officials, of undermining democracy by interfering in politics. Army spokesman Col Sansern Kaewkamnerd said soldiers and police would safeguard key points in the city and the military presence was not a sign of an imminent coup, a common feature of Thai political history. “The government decided to impose the state of emergency because we want to return the country to normalcy,” Abhisit said on national television. “The government will try every way to prevent further damage. I ask the people to support the government in order to restore order in the country,” he said. Abhisit also vowed swift legal action against protesters who stormed the venue of an East Asian Summit in the beach resort of Pattaya yesterday, forcing the summit’s cancellation. The Thai authorities had to evacuate the Asian leaders by helicopters. A protest leader who spearheaded yesterday’s demonstrations, Arisman Pongruengrong, was taken into custody today and flown by helicopter to a military camp for questioning, said police spokesman Maj Gen Suport Pansua. — AP
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100-year-old tortoise gets
fitness training
Vienna, April 12 The exercise regime is part of a research project conducted by scientists from the zoo and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem to learn about the animal's visual and learning capabilities. The male Seychelles giant tortoise is not the most animated creature, but when he notices his keeper Roland Halbauer approaching, he knows his training session is about to start. Schurli lifts his 200 kg onto his sturdy legs and slowly moves towards his blue exercise ball, which is fixed to a long pole held by Halbauer. As the shelled reptile gently pushes against the ball with his head, the trainer rewards him with an acoustic signal and a crunchy carrot. The Vienna zoo also trains six additional giant tortoises. The additional movement adds variety to the animals' life in captivity and helps them lead a more natural lifestyle. The zoo keepers have found out that Schurli and his fellow tortoises can distinguish balls of different colours, although it is possible that they really react to different shades of brightness. Besides the tortoises, the keepers have started to train Caiman
lizards. — DPA
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Afghan female legislator shot dead
Kandahar, April 12 “She has been martyred by two men on motorbikes and the case is under investigation,” said Karzai, brother of President Hamid Karzai. He blamed the attack on enemies of Afghanistan”, a term often used to refer to Islamist Taliban insurgents behind a
wave of killings, including assassinations, as part of an insurgency. —
AFP
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Sri Lanka declares 48-hour ceasefire
The Sri Lankan army has been directed to restrict their operations against Tamil Tigers in northern Sri Lanka and take up defensive positions for the next 48 hours in view of the traditional New Year celebrated by both Sinhalese and Tamils in the island nation, the President’s office said yesterday.
The news of a temporary respite in the heavy fighting in the area would be welcomed by thousands of civilians caught up in the fighting between the two sides. “The Sinhala and Tamil New Year is symbolic of the amity prevailing amongst all communities in Sri Lanka. In the true spirit of the season, it is timely for the LTTE to acknowledge its military defeat and lay down its weapons and surrender,” the President’s office said. It also said the LTTE must renounce violence and terrorism. The offensive operations have been halted to give the civilian population, entrapped by the LTTE, the opportunity to celebrate New Year festivities. However, the government has ruled out a ceasefire in its military push against the Tigers saying it will only extend the suffering of the civilians in the areas under control of the Tigers. PTI adds: The state-run Sunday Observer newspaper, quoting diplomatic sources, reported that the elusive LTTE chief has “apparently agreed to a rescue mission by a western country”, which is interpreted here as Norway. However, there were no comments from the rebels. Prabhakaran “has apparently agreed to a rescue mission by a western country. He has agreed to this offer after he lost all his top level leaders in the Puthukudiyiruppu battle as there is no point for him to operate there in the no fire zone without the ability to give leadership to the remaining cadres,” the Sunday Observer reported. The elusive LTTE chief has been left only with his intelligence wing head Pottu Amman and Sea Tiger leader Soosai at the senior level, it said.
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Now, Lakshmi Mittal tops soccer rich list New York, April 12 In a ranking of the world’s 10 richest owners of professional soccer clubs, Mittal has been named at the top by American business publication Forbes and is the only person in the list with India connection. “Lakshmi Mittal, operator of the world’s largest steel company, is the richest - despite his team not being worth all that much. Mittal is a stakeholder in Queen’s Park Rangers, a team that doesn’t even play in England’s top league,” Forbes said in a report. In its annual ranking of the world’s richest people released last month, Forbes had named Mittal at the eighth place with a net worth of $19.3 billion. He has moved down from his fourth position a year ago, as his net worth plunged by a massive 60 per cent. Like Mittal, most of other billionaire owners of soccer clubs have also witnessed a sharp jolt of plunging fortunes, but it cannot be attributed to their soccer team ownership. “Almost all of those losses are related to dropping values in assets other than soccer teams. In fact, elite soccer squads have been sound investments in recent years. Forbes estimates value of most top-flight teams is up in the past 12 months, thanks to a combination of lucrative television and marketing deals and continued demand for tickets,” it noted. Nonetheless, the combined net worth of the world’s 10 richest owners of professional soccer clubs has dropped from more than $150 billion last year to less than $90 billion, it noted. About Mittal, Forbes said, “India-born UK resident heads ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steel company. Despite plunging steel prices, Mittal remains soccer’s richest owner.” “He bought a stake in the London-based Queen’s Park Rangers (QPR) in 2007, joining Formula 1 tycoons Flavio Briatore and Bernie Ecclestone as owners. The club, currently playing in England’s Championship League, hopes to win a promotion to reach England’s top league. It almost certainly won’t happen this year. As of April 6, the QPR was the 10th in league standings.” Mittal has been named as the richest person in the UK for many past years, while he also regularly features on the rich lists for India and South Africa. Among the 10 richest soccer club owners, Mittal is followed by Amancio Ortega of Deportivo De La Coruna team with a net worth of $18.3 billion and Software giant Microsoft’s co-founder Paul Allen ($10.5 billion) ranked at the third. Allen’s Seattle Sounders team defeated the New York Red Bulls by 3-0 in the team’s first Major League Soccer game
in March. Russian billionaire and owner of famous English team Chelsea, Roman Abramovich ($8.5 billion) is ranked fourth and is followed by Stade Rennais’ Francois Pinalut ($7.6 billion), AC Milan’s Silvio Berlusconi ($6.5 billion), Swedish club Hannarby’s Philip Anschutz ($5 billion), Manchester City’s Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan ($4.9 billion), Norwegian club Valerenga’s John Fredriksen ($4 billion) and Queen’s Park Rangers’ co-owner Bernard Ecclestone ($3.7 billion). —
PTI
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Despite row, UK town to have Gandhi statue soon London, April 12 Despite opposition by a section of the local population, the local council last year cleared the proposal of Samanwaya Pariwar, a local charity organisation to install Gandhi’s statue to recognise his life and ideas that influenced the world. The statue is being built at a cost of £20,000, paid for by the Samanvaya Parivar, and sculpted by the celebrated Indian sculptor, Gautam Pal. The seven-and-a-half-feet statue depicts Gandhi walking with a stick, and is scheduled to shipped from India to Leicester shortly. “The statue is nearly complete. It will be shipped to the UK from Kolkata and then, once the plinth is ready - the plinth is being made in the UK — we can look to get it erected,” spokesman for the Samanvaya Parivar charity Jitendra Acharya said. The statue will stand on a five-foot plinth on the corner of Belgrae Road, the centre of Asian culture and business, where branches of several Indian banks are located. A spokesperson for the Leicester City Council said its planning department was finalising the statue’s plinth with the Samanwaya Pariwar. Lauding Gautam Pal’s work Acharya said, “We were very fortunate to get him to do it. He has completed several statues of Gandhi - they unveiled one in Turin last March. —
PTI
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Juhi Chawla’s kin freed by Pak abductors
Karachi, April 12 Anand was kidnapped from the southern port city of Karachi and was freed in Bannu district of the North West Frontier Province yesterday after prolonged negotiations over the payment of ransom. —
PTI
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Report: Cottage industry in Pak providing fake documents London, April 12 An investigation by The Sunday Telegraph, in the wake of last week’s arrests over a suspected terror plot in the UK, has revealed that a set of documents including forged degree certificates could be obtained for less than £100 by anyone seeking to support their application to study in Britain. The report said a corrupt “cottage industry” has grown up to serve a huge market in young men desperate to find a way of working overseas in the Gulf, North America and Europe, with Britain the favourite destination and terrorists could exploit the situation to depute their foot-soldiers. At least one of the suspects arrested last week obtained a student visa after applying to John Moores University in Liverpool through its Peshawar representative office, one of its managers said. In the wake of the arrests, the newspaper carried out inquiries in Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Peshawar to see how easy it was to obtain forged documents. The paperwork was designed to convince British immigration officials that applicants want to learn and can pay for their courses, even though some are virtually illiterate and only want jobs. About 4,000 immigration consultants are operating in Islamabad and its twin city of Rawalpindi. Under the controversial points-based system, visa applicants are not routinely interviewed. Biometric checks - fingerprinting and iris scans - are made, but that is no deterrent to so-called “clean skins” with no terrorist records. — PTI
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The little village that defied the quake The earthquake that laid waste to the city of L’Aquila last Monday also shook the mountain village of Santo Stefano di Sassanio to its foundations. Violent shocks reduced its 15th-century tower to a heap of rubble. But the remarkable thing about this village is not what fell down, but what stood up, and why. Apart from the tower, no other structure was damaged. And the reasons for that send a message of hope and inspiration to the rest of the shattered Abruzzo region, for this is the story of the little village that defied the earthquake. Olivio di Gregorio, a structural engineer, was shaken from his sleep by the quake. He jumped into his car and by 5 am was in the village. Impatiently he waited for dawn, and when it came his urgent question was answered: Santo Stefano had passed its toughest test. With the dramatic exception of the tower, it had survived intact. Probing inside the medieval stone homes on whose painstaking restoration he has been working for years, he discovered that the news was even better: they had come through with barely Santo Stefano offers lessons of profound importance to the Abruzzo region in its moment of grave crisis. It proves that the ancient architectural splendour of the region, much of it battered and bruised by the quake, can be brought back to life with the right balance of sensitivity and technology. For Lelio Oriano di Zio, the architect behind the village’s restoration, and Daniele Kihlgren, who financed it, the explanation of these events is the key to understanding how Abruzzo can be reborn. Founded in Roman times, Santo Stefano has its own history of rise and fall. Ten years ago, Oriano di Zio and Kihlgren came together to rescue the village. They bought 15 houses, restored them with great care agreeing on the basic ground rules for such a project, which they are now applying to five other ancient villages in central Italy. “We made a pact with the mayor whereby she agreed not to give permission for any new buildings, and to protect the existing ones. In restoring the houses, we obeyed the most recent anti-earthquake building codes; in fact, we have gone beyond them,” says Oriano di Zio. Wooden arches are inconspicuously bracketed by stout steel girders. Upper floors hide steel reinforcement, giving the structures both the strength and flexibility to ride the seismic waves. "One can conserve historic fabric while making it structurally adequate. Here there are houses with trees growing inside them, with 200-year-old tiles, but which also have underfloor heating and obey the anti-earthquake codes,” says Kihlgren. But if the houses survived so well, why did the tower fall? Di Gregorio points to a large concrete slab perched on its side near the top of the pile of rubble. Some decades back, long before the present restoration got underway, a concrete platform was stuck on the crown of the tower, to afford views over the countryside. “It was like putting a slab of stone on a cardboard box,” he explains. “The box holds up, but if it comes under stress the weight will make it cave in.” “After the Industrial Revolution, we lost our heritage of wisdom about how to resist earthquakes,” says Oriano di Zio, adding, “In our modern arrogance, we thought we knew best. Today the first thing we need to recover is a sense of humility.” By arrangement with The Independent
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Thailand’s embattled government, humiliated by demonstrators who shut down the 16-nation ASEAN summit, declared a state of emergency in the capital today
New York, April 12
The earthquake that laid waste to the city of L’Aquila last Monday also shook the mountain village of Santo Stefano di Sassanio to its foundations. Violent shocks reduced its 15th-century tower to a heap of rubble. But the remarkable thing about this village is not what fell down, but what stood up, and why.
