 |
|
|
47 die in Iraq blasts
New code of conduct for judges in Pak
Gilani visits Swat
|
|
|
Floods leave 34 dead, 52 missing in Taiwan First swine flu case detected in Pakistan
Hakimullah calls Geo TV, says he is alive
500 kids abducted from UK in 2008
|
|
Khaznah, August 10 In the deadliest single attack, two booby-trapped lorries exploded before dawn in the village of Khaznah, east of the restive northern Iraqi city of Mosul, leaving 28 persons dead and 155 wounded. The massive blasts levelled 35 houses and gouged deep craters into the ground of the prosperous village of 3,000, home to members of the small Shabak community, a sect of Kurdish origin.Falah Ridha, a 23-year-old nurse wounded in the attack, said he was the only survivor of 12 persons in his family home."Eleven people in my family were killed when their house collapsed. All of them woke up after the first bomb, but the second bomb was very close to my house, it was like an earthquake," he said."No one else escaped, just me." Mosul has been the frequent target of attacks despite a marked decline in violence elsewhere in the country, and US commanders describe it as the last urban bastion of Al-Qaida loyalists in Iraq. In Baghdad, two bombs went off as day labourers were gathering in the early morning looking for jobs, the police and the interior ministry said. — AFP
|
|
New code of conduct for judges in Pak
Pakistan’s Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) has added a new clause to the code of conduct for superior court judges, forbidding any oath of office other than the one provided in the country’s constitution. The new clause is apparently meant to preempt any military ‘adventurist’ in future to force judges of superior courts to take the oath of allegiance to the usurper instead of the constitution. Gen Muhammad Zia-ul Haq, president and military ruler from July 1977 till his death in August 1988, first purged the judiciary by promulgating the infamous Provisional Constitution Order (PCO). It required judges to take a fresh oath of pledging not to question any legislative or administrative act of the coup maker instead of vowing to uphold the constitution. Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry presided over the SJC meeting that also included the two seniormost judges of the Supreme Court as well as the two seniormost chief justices among the country’s four provincial high courts. A 14-judge bench of the Supreme Court had on July 31 ordered the addition of a new clause to the code of conduct prescribed for judges of superior courts in terms of article 209 of the constitution, decreeing that no judge would offer any support in whatever manner to any unconstitutional functionary who acquired power and that any violation of the clause would be deemed to be misconduct. The new clause, approved by the SJC, says: “No judge of the superior judiciary shall render support in any manner whatsoever, including taking or administering oath in violation of the oath of office prescribed in the Third Schedule to the Constitution to any authority that acquires power otherwise than through the modes envisaged by the Constitution of Pakistan.” Zia-ul-Haq first carried out purge in superior judiciary in 1981 by promulgating the PCO under which only those judges were retained who were called to take a fresh oath. Gen Pervez Musharraf, president and former chief of army staff, did it twice after the 1999 coup when five SC judges declined to take oath and later on November 3, 2007, when he imposed an emergency and sacked 60 judges through the PCO.
|
|
Gilani visits Swat
In a confidence-building move, Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani on Monday visited Swat along with a top-level delegation and promised to provide all available resources for rehabilitation of displaced persons. Gilani was accompanied by army chief Gen. Ashfaque Pervez Kayani, Chief Ministers Shahbaz Sharif and Amir Haider Hoti and senior officials.
Addressing citizens, Gilani said Pakistan Army had crushed the network of militants and uprooted the extremists and militants. The Prime Minister said the government and the army was currently engaged in wiping out all traces of Taliban’s brutal activities in Swat and Malaknd region and restore normal life.
|
|
Floods leave 34 dead, 52 missing in Taiwan
Taipei, August 10 The military was also trying to rescue thousands of people cut off by fallen bridges or raging rivers after the typhoon dumped a record 2.5 metres of rain on the island before it headed for the coast of mainland China. At least 32 people were also injured as Morakot, which means emerald in Thai, lashed the island with powerful winds and rain, disrupting railway and road traffic and bringing down bridges.In central and southern Taiwan heavy rain caused widespread floods and mudslides, particularly in the county of Pingtung, where thousands of people were trapped in three coastal townships.In Kaohsiung county, a bridge collapsed, cutting off road access to a remote village of 1,300 residents. Local television reported that 200 homes in the village, Hsiaolin, are believed to have been buried in a mudslide.Footage showed rescuers using a helicopter to pick up an elderly woman and her son trapped in the mud. “It is not clear what the residents' situation is, but we are sure that Hsiaolin elementary school has been fully destroyed,” Kaohsiung County Magistrate Yang Chiu-hsin told reporters. — AFP
|
|
First swine flu case detected in Pakistan
Islamabad, August 10 “Swine flu was detected in one patient at the National Institute of Health, Islamabad,” Doctor Rashid Juma, a Health Ministry official told AFP. A cabinet minister told the national Assembly that precautionary measures had been taken. “We have taken precautionary measures at our airports, ports and bus stops and health officers have also been alerted,” Mir Ijaz Hussain Jhakrani, federal Minister for Health, reportedly told the lower house of Parliament. Around 2 million Pakistanis live in Europe, North America and other countries, where the swine flu pandemic has appeared.
— AFP
|
|
|
Hakimullah calls Geo TV, says he is alive Islamabad, August 10 Hakimullah, one of several top Taliban commanders, telephoned Pakistani and foreign media organisations to deny reports of Baitullah’s death. While, Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik told the National Assembly in a statement today that there was credible evidence about Baitullah’s death, who had reportedly died during the night between August 5 and 6 in a drone attack.
|
|
|
500 kids abducted from UK in 2008
London, August 10 Around 30 kids were taken illegally to Pakistan in 2008, followed by the US (23), Ireland (22) and Spain (21). Other abduction hotspots included Australia, France and Egypt.A report in The Guardian said, abductions usually occur when marriages between couples of different nationalities break down and the parent who is not awarded custody kidnaps their children.
— PTI
|
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
Khaznah, August 10
