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Saeed moving freely, delivering sermons
‘Sabra, Shatila-like action not possible in Quetta’
Entitled to claim house expenses, says Lord Paul
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Diplomatic row brews between US, Sri Lanka
Name power
Mush: Will defend myself
in court
‘ObamaVision’ pips ‘financial meltdown’ to be top TV word
Nepal deadlock to end soon
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Saeed moving freely, delivering sermons
Lahore, October 4 Saeed, mastermind of the Mumbai terror attacks, delivered the sermon at Friday prayers at the organisation's mosque at Chowburji here last week, despite the Lahore police chief's contention that the JuD chief was under "house arrest". Saeed, also the founder of LeT, interacted freely with several religious leaders during the prayers. "There is no legal order for Saeed's detention and so there has been no restriction on his movements," Senior Superintendent of Police (Lahore) Chaudhry Shafiq Ahmed told PTI. "We have not yet received any direction from the higher-ups to detain him (Saeed). There were only instructions last month not to allow him to offer Eid prayers at a particular mosque and that was only due to security reasons." Police had only enhanced Saeed's security, he said. His comments come nearly a fortnight after Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said Saeed was "in custody" of Pakistani authorities. The drama of Saeed's detention was played out after police in Faisalabad city registered two FIRs against the JuD chief and one of his close aides - Abu Jandal - under the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997 for inciting people to wage jehad or holy war against infidels. The JuD chief and his aide were also booked for anti-government remarks in speeches made by them during a visit to Faisalabad on August 27 and 28. Saeed had highlighted the importance of jehad in his speeches to his followers and also sought donations from his proscribed organisation. Though it initially appeared that Saeed and Jandal would formally be arrested and indicted in fresh cases, SSP Shafiq Ahmed clarified that the "police usually do not proceed in such cases". At the same time, Saeed has challenged the two FIRs registered against him through a petition submitted to the Lahore High Court. He argued in his petition that preaching jehad was "no crime" and the cases had been registered against him due to "pressure of India and the US". The High Court will take up the petition on October 12. — PTI
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‘Sabra, Shatila-like action not possible in Quetta’
Pakistan cannot do a Sabra-Shatila in Quetta, warns Maleeha Lodhi, former Pakistani envoy to the US and Britain. “If we tried to do a Sabra and a Shatila in one of the camps in Quetta, you can imagine what the outcry will be from within Pakistan, much less the international community,” she told the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. This was in a reference to the 1982 massacre of Palestinian refugees in Sabra and Shatila in Lebanon when the Israeli army surrounded the two camps and allowed a Christian militia to kill more than 3,000 people. US officials have, of late, referred to “Quetta Shura” of council of Taliban leader Mullah Omar that is alleged to be operating from Balochistan's capital in southern Afghanistan. Senator Robert Casey, a Pennsylvania Democrat, had raised the issue at the hearing that focused on the impact of the US-led war in the region on Pakistan. Milt Bearden, the former CIA station chief in Islamabad, rejected the suggestion as “overdrawn” that the Al Qaida Arabs could control the Taliban Pashtun or any other Pashtun insurgents. “We’ve said that enough to where we accept it as true, but he could be in Yemen or Arabia or here in Washington. I have no idea where Bin Laden is and I don’t think anybody else in the government does.” Lodhi, Bearden and Steve Coll, president of the New America Foundation, advocated a US strategy that focuses more on political and economic initiatives than on a military surge. All three experts invited to testify before the committee, warned of the failure of other countries’ attempts to deal with Afghanistan in the past, including occupations by the Soviet Union and Britain. Lodhi warned that a US military escalation would be unlikely to succeed and would intensify rivalries in the region, such as the one between India and Pakistan. “It will lead to an influx of militant and Al Qaida fighters into Pakistan too,” she added.
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Entitled to claim house expenses, says Lord Paul
London, October 4 Lord Paul, Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords, told the Sunday Times he was only claiming money to which he was entitled. "I don't make the law, I just follow the law." Lord Paul has kept a family home for the last 43 years inside the property he owned in Central London, but five years ago started claiming back his accommodation cost after he moved his main residence to a flat in the Bignell park hotel near Bicester in Oxfordshire. “I was just living there, not a house for myself. I just wanted to try out whether I could live in the country, it was a hotel which had a flat," he said. However, he said he "got bored" with the flat and bought a 250-acre estate near Beaconsfield on the edge of the Chilterns in Buckinghamshire in 2006. Reacting to the report, the NRI peer said: “There is no law in this country which says if you have a little wealth, you are not entitled to allowances. What I have done is absolutely within rules and law. Being wealthy is no bar on getting what are dues to you and my attendance is one of the highest among peers.” The report said unlike several of the other wealthy peers, Paul was active in the Lords, serving on committees and as one of the deputy speakers. His high attendance meant that his claims for accommodation went up to £27,000 a year by 2007. In the same year his company made a £20,000 donation to Gordon Brown's leadership election campaign. — PTI
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Diplomatic row brews between US, Sri Lanka
A diplomatic row seems to be brewing between Sri Lanka and the USA after the Lankan government reacted strongly to a statement by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that rape had been used as a weapon during the country’s military operations against the LTTE. Defense spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella said the government condemns the statements and views it with “disgust”. It is reported that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has decided to summon the US Ambassador in Colombo Patricia Butenis to express the government’s displeasure about the statement. Hilary Clinton had made the statement at a UN Security Council meeting on September 30, where the Council unanimously adopted a resolution creating new tools to combat sexual violence against women and children in conflict situations. She had said that “rape had been used as a weapon of war in the Balkans, Burma, Sri Lanka and elsewhere and that in too many countries and in too many cases, the perpetrators had not been punished. She said that this impunity would encourage further attacks”. "The government would like the US to reveal any specific allegations against the Sri Lankan military" Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha, Secretary to the Human Rights Ministry had told a government web site. "Maybe she is confused with the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan," he further said, adding “a section of the international community is working overtime to discredit Sri Lanka.”
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Name power
Charmed by the former Prime Minister during her visit to the erstwhile USSR in 1955 with her father Jawaharlal Nehru, several people named their daughters after Indira. “The name Indira struck a chord with most of the people. Every other household decided to christen a newborn girl after the Indian leader,” says 82-year-old Satarhan, a preacher at the central mosque here, whose granddaughter is named Indira. “It is not that everyone got to see Indira and Nehru during their half-day stay in Almaty. Whoever saw the lady was mesmerised by her looks, her eloquence and her behaviour. People wanted their daughters and granddaughters to be like her and started naming them after her,” Satarhan said. “Such was the trend that almost every 10th Kazakh girl was named Indira,” he says. Indira Ospanova, a receptionist at a four-star hotel here says, “My grandparents insisted that my name should be Indira.” According to Ambassador of India to Kazakhstan Ashok Sajjanhar, even today, young girls and those born in the 80s and 90s continue to be named Indira. “This is a demonstration of the deep bonds and linkages of love and affection among the people of Kazakhstan for India,” Sajjanhar said. Indira Smagulova works as a flight attendant in Air Astana, Kazakhstan's national carrier. “It's great to share a name with one of the world's greatest women leaders. I have seen Indira Gandhi only in photographs and is very much impressed by her persona and her grace,” says Smagulova. Rima Karmysova, a guide and interpreter, however, is more impressed by Indira Gandhi's son Rajiv. “In my teens, I had a crush on Rajiv. He was so handsome,” Karmysova says and adds she will love to name her son after the former Prime Minister. The Nehru-Gandhi family is a well-known in the former Soviet countries. In Kazakhstan, there is a Mahatma Gandhi Street, where there are some residential apartments and a few business centres. — PTI
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Mush: Will defend myself
in court
Islamabad, October 4 Musharraf, currently on a lecture tour of the US, said in Washington that his lawyers were reviewing the detailed verdict of the Supreme Court which was delivered in July. Talking to journalists there, he said he would defend himself in courts as he was ready to face all charges levelled against him. Former Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Nasim Ashraf, a confidant of Musharraf, also told reporters that the ex-President had decided to defend himself if needed. Ashraf also said President Asif Ali Zardari had not met Musharraf, either in New York or Washington, when he was in the US for the UN General Assembly session. —
PTI
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‘ObamaVision’ pips ‘financial meltdown’ to be top TV word
Los Angeles, October 4 According to the Global Language Monitor's (GLM) annual analysis, ‘ObamaVision’ pipped ‘financial meltdown’ to become the word to have most profound influence on the English language from television in 2009. These were followed by the death of Michael Jackson (in June), the emergence of Susan Boyle (Britain's surprise spinster singing sensation) and the rise of hulu.com (a website for broadcasting made-for-TV shows over the Internet). “The three screens in the post-modern home became even more apparent during this television season, with viewers moving seamlessly among their flat screen TV, their laptop, and their 3G phone,” Paul JJ Payack, GLM's chief word analyst said. “This year was dominated by the advent of ObamaVision, to the newest reality show: the global financial meltdown. And then Michael Jackson's death commandeers the worldwide airways for weeks on end.” For the study, GLM used its proprietary algorithm, a predictive quantities indicator to track the frequency of words and phrases in the global print and electronic media, on the Internet, throughout the blogosphere and social media as well as accessing proprietary databases. — PTI
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Race row after UK star calls actress ‘Paki’ London, October 4 Professional ballroom dancer Anton Du Beke called television actress Laila Rouass, who has a Moroccan father and Indian mother, by the insulting term a fortnight ago, The News of the World, a largely circulated tabloid reported. The two are partners in the celebrated BBC television programme “Strictly Come Dancing” and Du Beke used the term after the former star of “Footballers’ Wives” had a spray tan, the tabloid claimed. A 43-year-old Due Beke told Rouass: “Oh my god, you look like a Paki” in the presence of 15 other persons, who were left “gobsmacked”, the report said. “Then Laila glared at Anton and just walked out as she was visibly upset. She just went to her dressing room, collected her stuff and went home. She felt totally humiliated,” an eye witness said. Offering an unconditional apology, Du Beke said: “I must say immediately and categorically that I am not a racist and that I do not use racist language.”
— PTI
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Kathmandu, October 4 Nepali Congress president Girija Prasad Karola, Maoist chief Prachanda, Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and CPN-UML chairman Jhalanath Khanal, vowed to settle all issues by Wednesday, the day the next parliamentary session starts. The leaders met at the CPN-UML Party’ office at Balkhu in Kathmandu on the occasion of the Dussehra tea reception. — PTI
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NRI industrialist Lord Swraj Paul today dismissed a media report which said he had claimed £1,10,000 in expenses for living outside London despite owning a property in the city, saying: “What I have done is absolutely within rules and law”.
Nofil Almaty (Kazakhstan), October 4