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Top military brass among 50 killed in Iran suicide blast
Three Indian-origin men jailed for raping kin
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11 yrs — Average life of marriage in UK
Gandhi’s ideas influenced release
of Lockerbie bomber
Jail where Bhagat Singh was held in ruins
3-day N-panel meeting begins
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Top military brass among 50 killed in Iran suicide blast Tehran, October 18 The foreign ministry called in Pakistan’s charge d’affaires over the bombing, which targeted one of the Islamic republic’s most prestigious institutions in a region that has been a hotbed of Sunni insurgency against the Shi’ite Muslim regime. Several tribal leaders in the majority ethnic Baloch Sistan-Baluchestan province also died in the bombing which left many others wounded. The attacker set off his explosives belt as a meeting of Guards commanders and tribal chiefs got underway around 8.00 am (10.00 IST) at a gymnasium in the city of Pisheen, near the border with Pakistan, the state broadcaster said. “The number of martyrs from the terrorist attack has reached 49... and that figure could still rise,” the Mehr news agency reported. Provincial chief coroner Abbas Amian told the official IRNA news agency that his office had received 42 bodies. The chief prosecutor in Sistan-Baluchestan, Mohammad Marziah, said Abdolmalek Rigi, the head of the shadowy Sunni rebel group, Jundallah (Soldiers of God) had “accepted the responsibility” for the attack. The Iranian president hit out at Pakistan over the bombing, accusing it of sheltering Jundallah militants. “We became aware that some of agents in Pakistan were cooperating with the main elements of today’s terrorist incident and we consider it to be our right to demand the rendition of these criminals,” Fars quoted Ahmadinejad as saying. “We want the Pakistani government not to delay the arrest of the main elements of this terrorist act any longer.” Iran summoned Islamabad’s envoy in Tehran over the bombing, the ISNA news agency reported. The foreign ministry “protested against the use of Pakistani territory by the terrorists and rebels against the Islamic Republic of Iran and urged the Pakistani authorities to act firmly to prevent the movement of those terrorists and rebels in their country,” it added. Meanwhile, Parliament speaker Ali Larijani said the US was involved in the attack. “We consider the recent terrorist attack to be the result of US action. This is the sign of America’s animosity against our country,” Larijani said. The Revolutionary Guards accused the United States of involvement. "Surely foreign elements, particularly those linked to the global arrogance, were involved in this attack," a Guards statement quoted by television said. Iran often uses the term "global arrogance" to refer to the United States, its old foe. There was no immediate comment on the attack by Washington. The Revolutionary Guards is an elite force seen as fiercely loyal to the values of the 1979 Islamic revolution. It handles security in sensitive border areas. State TV also singled out Britain. "Some informed sources said the British government was directly involved in the terrorist attack ... by organizing, supplying equipment and employing professional terrorists," it said. — Agencies
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Three Indian-origin men jailed for raping kin
London, October 18 The 55-year-old step-uncle, and 50-year-old step-father were jailed with minimum recommended terms of 20 and 15 years respectively, while her 27-year-old brother-in-law was jailed for 12 years. The step-uncle admitted before the court that he was the father of the child conceived when the victim was 14 years old. He was convicted of seven counts of rape, three of indecency with a child, and one of indecent assault. During the hearing, the court was told that the victim’s ordeal began at the age of five when she was raped by her step-uncle. She became pregnant at 14, but was locked in a wardrobe so that visitors would not see her condition. Prosecuting lawyer Marion Lewis told: “The girl was already seven months pregnant when she first saw a doctor about her condition. When the baby was born, the girl’s parents told friends and neighbours it was their own, before flying their daughter to India for an arranged marriage.” Judge Patrick Curran told the step-uncle: “Not content with your own sexual abuse on her, you encouraged the others to treat her like an unpaid and unwilling prostitute. You all then involved yourselves in a group rape on her.” The judge said the continued presence of the two older men in the UK was “detrimental to public interest.” The prosecuting lawyer said the girl was frightened and also believed her mother knew what was going on. “When aged 14 and still a pupil at school, her stomach was expanding and a scan revealed she was seven months pregnant,” Lewis said. “Her mother beat her all over her body apart from the face with a curtain pole. She was hidden, sometimes in a wardrobe and visitors were told she had gone back to India.” The victim later told the jury that her mother beat her when it was found out that she was seven months pregnant. She said her mother had not believed her when she had tried to tell her that she was pregnant by a member of her own family. — PTI
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11 yrs — Average life of marriage in UK
London, October 18 Yes, 11 years is the average time that divorced couples had stayed together before their marriage broke up, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics in Britain, ‘The Sunday Times’ reported. The findings have sparked a debate between supporters of marriage as a beacon of social stability and those who feel the expectation that couples must stay together for life runs counter to the lessons of history and evolution. “The costs and benefits of a relationship are more fluid than in the past. People come together and stay together only when this is to their individual advantage,” said Malcolm Brynin, co-author of ‘Changing Relationships’, a book based on five years of research into family life. In fact, Brynin’s book follows ONS figures showing the number of UK marriages in 2007 fell to 2,70,000, a 2.6 per cent decline from 2006. In 1940, there were 4,26,100 weddings. The figures also show that 1,44,220 couples were divorced and the average length of marriages ending in divorce was 11.5 years. But, Prof Frank Furedi of Kent University and author of ‘Paranoid Parenting’, attacked such a mercenary approach. “When you get married, if you make this kind of statistical calculation saying, ‘Well, I am getting married. The chances are we’ll only get to 11 years’, the whole ritual becomes entirely pointless. If you adopt the idea, we might as well give up the concept of durable relationships altogether.” Summed up Michael Buchanan, the twice-divorced author of ‘The Marriage Delusion’ book: "In previous centuries people would get married early, have children and then be parted by the death of one or other, usually within a decade or two.” “Now-a-days they can expect to live for four to five decades after marriage. It’s unrealistic to expect most people to sustain love and interest in each other for such long time, especially if their children have grown up and moved out.” — PTI
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Gandhi’s ideas influenced release
of Lockerbie bomber
London, October 18 Speaking during a conference of his Scottish National Party, in Inverness, Salmond said that the Scottish justice secretary Kenny MacAskill was right in deciding to release Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds in August. Salmond recalled the recent visit of Mahatma Gandhi's grandson, Arun Gandhi to Scotland and said: "One of the things he told me is that his grandfather's philosophy is much misunderstood. His resistance was not passive, but active. His dedication to non-violence was a strength, not a weakness". Salmond continued in the Gandhian mode, "Sometimes, someone has to break the cycle of retribution with an act of compassion. That is what Kenny MacAskill did and we should be proud of him for doing it." Earlier, Salmond said he would consider a proposal to set up a Scottish centre for non-violence, peace and reconciliation after a meeting with Arun Gandhi. Arun Gandhi, 74, was in Scotland to deliver lectures at the universities of Edinburgh, Dundee and Queen Margaret. He addressed a conference at Napier University on the Gandhian approach to ethical leadership. After meeting Salmond, Arun Gandhi said, "I hope that there will be a greater, deeper association with Scotland through the work of non-violence." A Scottish Government spokesman said, "We are happy to examine any proposal that comes forward." Salmond said, "Gandhi's lifetime's dedication to the causes which he believes in is a superb example to us all and I am honoured that he has been able to visit Scotland." Gandhi also visited Dunde university where he delivered this year's Margaret Harris Lecture on Religion, entitled 21st Century Peace-Making: The Gandhi Way. Stating that society had built a culture of violence to exploit people for individual and national gain, he said peace was not just the absence of war, but a collective will for all cultures, religions and nationalities to live in harmony. He said, "Peace in the Gandhian sense means building friendships, relationships that are based on respect, understanding, compassion and love, which is much more lasting than weapons of mass destruction." Gandhi also opened a new exhibition in the university's Dalhousie Building called India in Close Up, which features a collection of rarely seen photographs depicting everyday life in India during the 1960s. It also includes private portraits of two of India's most charismatic prime ministers, Indira Gandhi and her father, Jawaharlal Nehru. University chaplain, the Reverend Fiona Douglas said, "There has been a lot of anticipation about Arun Gandhi coming to the university. The name Gandhi resonates like no other."
— PTI
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Jail where Bhagat Singh was held in ruins Lahore, October 18 Bhagat Singh and his comrades-in-arms Sukhdev and Rajguru, were hanged on 23rd March, 1931, in Lahore central jail, used by the British to detain revolutionary freedom fighters. “In 2007, the birth centenary year of Bhagat Singh, the then Governor of Pakistan's Punjab province promised to build a memorial in Lahore but the promise has not been fulfilled, the legendary martyr’s brother Jagmohan said. The trio was detained for two years, from April 8, 1929, to March 23, 1931, at the jail, on charges of murdering British officer JP Saunders and throwing bombs in the Central Assembly. Two years ago, the Pakistan authorities had turned down the demand of an Indian NGO to name Shadman Chowk in Lahore after Bhagat Singh. The ‘phansighat’ (gallows) where Bhagat Singh was executed in the Kot Lakhpat Jail, has since been demolished. Director of the Institute of Peace Studies had requested the then President General Pervez Musharraf on the 100th birth anniversary of Bhagat Singh that the Chowk be named after him. The jail is in ruins, with broken doors and rough flooring showing the utter neglect of the place where the three revolutionaries had laid down their lives. The government of Punjab province has done nothing on the assurance of a memorial, Jagmohan said. “We are demanding that the jail should be restored and all the freedom fighters along with Bhagat Singh be honoured for having laid down their lives fighting the British empire,” Jagmohan said. Bhagat Singh’s family has also demanded that the Bradlaugh Hall in Lahore be converted into a museum where his personal memorabilia confiscated by the British, be displayed. — PTI
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3-day N-panel meeting begins
Hiroshima, October 18 During the three-day conference, the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament is expected to discuss concrete measures for reducing the number of nuclear weapons and restricting their use. In a draft report, the panel targeted reducing the number of existing nuclear warheads in the world from more than 20,000 to 1,000 by 2025 and to make every nuclear state commit to the no-first-use doctrine by that year.
— Kyodo
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