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‘Assassination Plot’
Mukhtar Mai to get honorary doctorate
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Gaza blockade: EU to raise pressure on Israel
Lanka lifts two-term limit for Prez
37 killed in Kyrgyz ethnic clashes
Indian-origin student in Singapore called ‘dog’
Chinese man gets death for knifing 16 kids
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‘Assassination Plot’
London/Kabul, June 11 On his maiden trip to Afghanistan after taking over Prime Minister his itinerary was thrown into a disarray last night as a visit to a forward base was aborted to thwart an insurgent bid to shoot down his helicopter, media reports said. Cameron who during the trip has ruled out raising British troop commitments in the war torn country was to fly Shahzad forward operating base in the recently cleared Helmand area, but his Chinook Helicopter was abruptly diverted minutes before landing at the base as intelligence agencies intercepted the Taliban radio conversation of plans to hit a VIP. In the radio intercepts, Taliban commanders were heard giving instructions for downing a VIP helicopter by using shoulder-firing missiles. US and NATO forces in a major offensive recently claimed to have flushed out the Taliban from the Helmand region. The British Prime Minister was slated to visit an agricultural school being built with British assistance and also have a chat with a sizable British army contingent deployed in the poppy growing province. Quoting British military sources, the Daily Mail said that such call interception are a regular occurrence in lawless Helmand province. But military commanders pulled the plug when they overheard a second Taliban call discussing the presence of a VIP in the area. Cameron was less than 10 minutes flying time from the area where the Taliban forces were apparently lying in wait. The Prime Minister’s helicopter was diverted to the nearby British brigade headquarters in the centre of the town of Lashkar Gah, where he first learned of the threats to his life. Earlier in the day Cameron signaled a ‘faster’ withdrawal of British troops from Afghanistan yesterday admitting that the public will not tolerate them staying ‘a day longer than is necessary’. Cameron also announced 67 million pound of new funding to counter the Taliban’s improvised explosive devices that have driven the British death toll to 294. — PTI
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Mukhtar Mai to get honorary doctorate
Mukhtaran Mai became an icon of feminine defiance at national and international level when she challenged the tribal code in 2002 after being gang-raped on orders of the village elders to avenge her brother’s alleged illicit relations with a village girl. She set up an educational institute in her village from awards and funds received from across the world. English daily Dawn quoted Mai as saying that she was the first Pakistani activist to get a doctorate from Canada in recognition of her service to education and rights of women. She said the university management had visited her Mirwala village and saw her work. She runs a women’s protection centre, a school and a complaint cell in the village.
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Gaza blockade: EU to raise pressure on Israel
Brussels, June 11 In a draft statement prepared for a meeting on Monday, the foreign ministers will condemn the use of violence during Israel’s operation to stop a flotilla of aid ships reaching Gaza in which Israeli forces killed nine Turks. They will also call for a “credible, impartial and independent” investigation. The EU also says it is prepared to contribute to a new mechanism for getting goods in and out of Gaza, which would be based on more regular land access and possibly sea crossings to the coastal territory of 1.5 million people. “The policy of closure is unacceptable and counterproductive, including from the point of view of Israel’s security,” a copy of the draft seen by Reuters reads. “The EU calls for a change of policy leading to an unfettered flow of humanitarian aid, commercial goods and persons” into Gaza in line with a UN resolution. Israel has maintained a blockade on Gaza since mid-2007, when the Hamas militant movement took full control of the territory from its rival Fatah, a year after winning a parliamentary election. The EU is the biggest supplier of aid to the Palestinian territories, with member states and the executive European Commission providing about 600 million euros a year. The EU is pushing to free up trade with the territories. In an opinion piece published in European papers on Friday, the foreign ministers of France, Italy and Spain said Israel needed to turn its blockade policy on its head by opening the borders and blocking some listed items, rather than completely closing the borders and allowing in only a few goods. “To guarantee security of supplies, we propose that inspections supported and funded by the EU should be put in place there in conditions acceptable to all in order to ensure that consignments bound for Gaza contain neither weapons nor explosives,” the three foreign ministers wrote. — Reuters
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Lanka lifts two-term limit for Prez
Colombo, June 11 Rajapaksa, 64, came to power in 2005 and has increased his firm grip on power since defeating the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels in May last year after nearly four decades of bloody ethnic conflict. The president’s family holds key positions on the island, with three brothers taking the roles of defence secretary, Speaker of parliament and economic development minister. His son was also elected to parliament in April. The cabinet endorsed the statute change on Wednesday, a spokesman for the government information department said. “These proposals are to be brought before parliament as an urgent bill,” he said, adding that the Supreme Court would be asked to decide on their constitutionality. Rajapaksa’s second term ends in November 2016 and the existing laws prevent him from running for office again.— AFP
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37 killed in Kyrgyz ethnic clashes
Moscow, June 11 The interim government, which came to power on April 7, has declared a state of emergency in ethnic clashes involving Uzbek minority in southern Osh region of the country, last night. The police and the Army have been ordered to open fire. The rioting coincided with the opening of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Tashkent, capital of neighbouring Central Asian republic of Uzbekistan. Speaking at the summit Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announced that the SCO is sending a monitoring mission to Kyrgyzstan, which is a founder member of the regional grouping led by Russia and China. “I have declared a state of emergency in our Southern Capital (Osh)”, acting President Rosa Otunbayeva said in her televised statement. Otunbayeva said the rioting erupted after clashes between the youth groups of the two communities and spread over the whole of Osh and neighbouring districts of Karasu, Aravan and Uzgen. — PTI
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Indian-origin student in Singapore called ‘dog’
Singapore, June 11 Srinivas Naidu and a South Korean were two first-year students targeted by the remarks, inserted under various sections of the Tampines Junior College's Wikipedia page, Singapore's Straits Times reported on Friday. The Wikipedia entries prompted one of the students to file a police report. The remarks were posted Sunday on the website in an entry about the college, the report said. — IANS
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Chinese man gets death for knifing 16 kids
Beijing, June 11 The incident took place April 28 when Chen
Kangbing, a teacher of Hongfu Primary School, barged into Leicheng First Primary School in Leizhou city and started attacking the students with a knife. The victims, who suffered injuries in their heads, backs and arms, were students of the fourth and fifth grades. Although none of the children died, Chen was charged with and convicted of murder in a first-instance trial at the Intermediary People's Court of Zhanjiang city Friday. — IANS
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British Prime Minister David Cameron was forced to abandon a visit to a forward military base in Afghanistan, after intelligence warnings that the Taliban militants were preparing to shoot down his helicopter.
Colombo, June 11
Women’s rights activist Mukhtar Mai will get an honorary doctorate from Canada’s Laurentian University on October 30.