Baloch nationalist leader and the Khan of Kalat, Mir Suleman Dawood, has announced the formation of a council for ‘independent Balochistan’ and rejected any reconciliation with the government of Pakistan without the mediation of the European Union and the UN.

Addressing reporters in Quetta from London on telephone, he said the Baloch separatist forces of Pakistan and Iran would have representation in the council and the names of members would be announced later.

He said he was enjoying the support of ‘friendly’ and ‘like-minded’ countries who had promised cooperation. He said the Baloch had observed their Independence Day on Tuesday because the British rulers had accepted the autonomous status of the Kalat state on August 11, 1947, before the independence of Pakistan and India on August 14 and 15. He said the Qaid-e-Azam had negotiated Kalat’s accession to Pakistan but it was rejected by the Kalat state assembly. Kalat was merged into Pakistan in March 1948 and as a reaction, Prince Agha Abdul Karim mounted a revolt.The Khan said the Baloch had lost trust in Pakistani rulers. However, he said that if the European Union and the UN mediated then negotiations could be held with the government of Pakistan.

Meanwhile, the Khuzdar Engineering University was closed on Tuesday for an indefinite period. According to reports received here, a group of students belonging to Azad, the Baloch Students Organisation, entered the university campus and tried to hoist the flag of ‘independent Balochistan’ on the administration building. Law-enforcement personnel did not allow them to remove the national flag and arrested a number of students. After the incident, the administration announced the closure of the university. 

Almost 14 months after he was dethroned by the newly elected people’s representatives, former King Gyanendra Shah of Himalayan nation expressed willingness to live as common citizen by paying taxes for the property under his name.

Sixty-three year old deposed king Gyanendra who was revered as the reincarnation of Lord Vishnu and remained above the law before the Constituent Assembly declared Nepal a republic by abolishing the 239-year-old Shah dynasty on May 28, 2008, approached the government and expressed this interest recently and demanded a concession.

According to finance minister Surendra Panday, the former king’s secretariat wrote to the Finance Ministry recently and requested a discount in the Value Added Tax (VAT), income tax, telephone and electricity bills of Nirmal Niwas, located at Maharjgunj, to the Kathmandu Metropolitan Office.

The former King has also asked the ministry to clarify the details of the taxes to be paid. He asked the government to make special arrangements for the former King if he is willing to pay all the taxes he owes.

The Kathmandu Metorpolitan Office, Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) and Nepal Telecom are learnt to have contacted the former King for taxes earlier. According to the NEA, the royal family and their relatives owed more than Rs 50 million in unpaid electricity bills.It may be recalled that immediately after the April 2006 uprising, the then king Gyanendra and his son Paras were made to pay tax by the Customs Office at Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) for the first time in the history of Nepal.

On December 2007, the TIA had slapped total Rs 130702 as customs duty and tax before releasing 50 pieces of torch light imported by Gyanendra from the US and a hunting trophy that came from Vienna, Austria, for the then crown prince Paras. 

London, August 12
It literally pays to beg on the streets in Britain, particularly in these times of salary cuts as collections can be as much as £200 a night. The police has discovered several cases of professionals who have suffered major salary cuts begging on the streets at night to supplement their falling incomes from day jobs.

One woman in the east Midlands town of Leicester admitted that she begged at night after her office job, so that she could pay for a new kitchen in her flat.

According to the Leicester police, street beggars are collecting almost £200 a night, which amounts to an annual salary of £73,000 and that too tax free.

In July, the police arrested 20 beggars on the streets of Leicester, none of whom were homeless.

Sergeant Adrian Underwood, of the Leicestershire police, said some beggars were collecting £200 a night tax free.

He said: “On a good Friday or Saturday night some can make up to £200. We have intelligence that there is a woman who is begging because she wants a new kitchen for her flat”. — PTI .

Dubai, August 12
Two Indian youths reportedly committed suicide in Sharjah this week amidst rising cases of layoffs by companies.

A 28-year-old Indian who man strangled himself by using a plastic cord this Monday was on contract with a firm and was found dead in his room by his co-workers who called police around 9.30pm, Khaleej Times reported today.

The second death was of a 24-year-old Indian worker belonging to the same company whose body was found hanging from the ceiling of his room at 4 pm on Monday, the report said. — PTI

Kuala Lumpur, August 12 
Around 20 to 30 per cent of the Malaysian population is expected to be infected with the swine flu virus, a WHO official said. The number of confirmed cases and deaths in Malaysia were rising and it was a cause of concern, World Health Organisation (WHO) official Dr Hans Tieru said.

Tieru, the WHO in charge of Brunei, Malaysia and Singapore, warned of severe cases and rise in deaths due to the H1N1 virus. 

“Malaysia, just like other countries around the world and region, must be prepared to handle the burden. This pandemic is still evolving and the new virus is expected to be around infecting people for at least a year or more. We are definitely going to see many people around the world being victims of this new virus. The reality is the pandemic will not stop soon,” the New Straits Times quoted him as saying. — PTI