Istanbul, January 6
A Turkish passenger on a Turkish Airlines flight from Oslo to Istanbul tried to hijack the plane before being overpowered by other passengers, security sources said.The would-be hijacker, named as Yasar Cuma, who comes from a Kurdish village in the southeastern region of Anatolia, headed for the cockpit of the Boeing 737-800 less than an hour before arrival at Istanbul and demanded that the aircraft return to Oslo, claiming to have a bomb.

But the 40-year-old was tackled by Turkish and Norwegian passengers and the plane landed safely at Istanbul’s Ataturk airport at 1930 GMT, CNN-Turk and Anatolia news agency reported.

The suspect was immediately arrested on board the plane, which was carrying 59 passengers. No explosive device was found, CNN-Turk said.

After police interrogated Cuma they found he was suffering from psychological problems, Anatolia said.

Passenger Salim Tahar told Norway’s TV2 Nyhetskanalen: “We were 50 minutes away from touchdown when I heard a lot of noise at the back of the plane. I turned round and there was a person who had his face covered, was wearing a cap and had dark clothes. Basically, he looked like a terrorist.” The person started to shout, said the passenger, and he had an object clamped to his body, but Tahar could not be sure it was a bomb or a weapon.

A female passenger told Tahar that the would-be hijacker was demanding, probably in Turkish, that the aircraft return to Oslo.

Tahar said the crew moved the passengers to the front of the plane, which reached Istanbul more quickly than scheduled.

At the airport as the passengers rushed off the plane between 20 and 30 policemen moved in and arrested Cuma. “Some passengers made the sign of the cross, others prayed. The people were very nervous,” Tahar was quoted as saying. — AFP 

Supporters of the PPP burn tyres and raise slogans during a protest to condemn the killing of Salman Taseer, Governor of Punjab, in Peshawar, on Thursday. — AP/PTI

The PPP is refusing to accept that he was killed on religious grounds and party spokesperson Fauzia Wahab said there were “political motives” behind the murder. — PTI

Assassin remanded in police custody

Islamabad: Amid chaos and high-drama, the assassin of the outspoken Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer was on Thursday remanded in a five-day police custody by a Pakistani anti-terrorism court, where his supporters greeted him with rose petals. Judge Malik Mohammad Akram Awan of the Rawalpindi-based anti-terrorism court accepted an application from police seeking custody of 26-year-old Mumtaz Qadri, the policeman who assassinated Taseer on Tuesday.

Pak Taliban faction claims responsibility

Islamabad: A Pakistani Taliban faction linked to trainer of suicide bombers Qari Hussain claimed responsibility for the assassination of the Governor, saying that the “man who killed him was from among us.” “We claim responsibility for the killing of Salman Taseer. The Punjab Governor was our target and we have planned this programme and the man who killed him was from among us,” Shakirullah Shakir, a spokesman for the ‘fidayeen’ group associated with Qari said. 

Los Angeles, January 6
An employee of Michael Jackson testified yesterday that the singer’s doctor ordered him to carry away medical vials and an intravenous bag before calling paramedics the day Jackson died.

Prosecutors want to establish that Dr Conrad Murray, who was caring for Jackson at the time of his death, was negligent in his treatment and tried to cover up his errors.

The testimony of Alberto Alvarez, who said he was the director of logistics for Jackson, comes on the second day of a hearing into whether Murray should stand trial for involuntary manslaughter in the sudden death of the “Thriller” singer in June 2009.

Members of Jackson’s family, including his sisters Janet and La Toya, mother Katherine and father Joe, watched Alvarez testify that Dr Murray called him and told him to rush to Jackson’s bedroom because the singer had “a bad reaction.”

“He (Murray) then grabbed a handful of bottles or vials and instructed me to put them in a bag,” Alvarez said. Alvarez said Murray told him to take away an intravenous bag that had “a milky substance” inside, and put it with the other bottles in a plastic bag that was placed inside a canvas carrying case. He said he did not know where the bags went. — Reuters 

Tokyo, January 6
In what could be a departure from China's declared stand of a 'no-first-use' policy, the Chinese military will consider launching a pre-emptive nuclear strike if the country finds itself faced with a critical situation in a war with another nuclear state, the Japanese media reported.

The newly revealed policy, called "Lowering the threshold of nuclear threats," may contradict China's strategy of no first use of nuclear weapons under any circumstances, and is likely to fan concern in the United States, Japan, India and other regional powers about Beijing's nuclear capability, the media here said, citing secret internal PLA documents.

The People's Liberation Army's (PLA) strategic missile forces, the Second Artillery Corps, "will adjust the nuclear threat policy if a nuclear missile-possessing country carries out a series of air strikes against key strategic targets in our country with absolutely superior conventional weapons," Kyodo news agency quoted documents obtained by it as saying.

China will first warn an adversary about a nuclear strike, but if the enemy attacks Chinese territory with conventional forces, the PLA "must carefully consider" a pre-emptive nuclear strike.

The documents suggest that the Second Artillery Corps educate its personnel in worst-case scenarios for conflicts with other nuclear states. China's nuclear policy is not transparent and it is rare for a part of it to come to light, Kyodo noted.

Commenting on the document, Akio Takahara, a professor of contemporary Chinese politics at the University of Tokyo's Graduate School of Public Policy, said an adjustment of the PLA's nuclear threat policy as spelled out in the paper runs counter to President Hu Jintao's pledge that China will not launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike under any circumstances.

According to the documents, the PLA would strengthen nuclear threats against an adversary if the adversary threatened to attack China's nuclear and hydro power plants and major cities, including Beijing. — PTI 

The head of an Islamic NGO in the UK has attacked Pakistani-origin gangsters for sexual exploitation and pimping of young white girls aged between 11 and 16.

The strongly worded condemnation of Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of the Ramadhan Foundation, follows media reports that ethnic Pakistanis in some English cities make up the overwhelming majority of sex offenders who prey on young white girls.

“These people think that white girls have fewer morals and are less valuable than our girls,” says Shafiq. “This is a form of racism that is abhorrent and totally unacceptable in a society that prides itself on equality and justice.”

The issue of how Asian (mainly Pakistani) men exploit young underage white girls has been an issue of concern in the UK for several years.

Late last year, five ethnic Pakistanis from Sheffield were jailed for sexually abusing underage white girls as young as 12.

The judge who sentenced Mohsin Khan, Razwan Razak, Umar Razak, Adil Hussain and Zafran Ramazan, all aged between 20 and 30, told them, “I’ve listened to the backdrop of some of you sobbing - I have to say your weeping cuts no ice at all. You had what you regarded as your fun, now you will take your punishment.”

This week UK media reports have highlighted how in the past decade and a half a significant number of convicted child sex offenders from the north of England and the midlands turned out to be members of the British Pakistani community.

A senior British police officer, Chief Inspector Alan Edwards, is quoted as saying, “These girls are being passed around and used as meat. To stop this type of crime you need to start talking about it, but everyone’s been too scared to address the ethnicity factor. No one wants to stand up and say that Pakistani guys in some parts of the country are recruiting young white girls and passing them around their relatives for sex, but we need to stop being worried about the racial complication.”

Shafiq, the most prominent British Pakistani who first addressed the issue two years ago, says he decided to speak out because he was concerned about how it could be exploited by right wing and racist groups. “At the time I received death threats from some black and Asian people. But what I said has been proved right - that if we didn’t tackle it, there would be more of these abusers and more girls getting harmed.”

Shafiq told The Tribune, “If someone from within the community speaks out, there are less reasons for groups like the British National Party taking advantage of such crimes and using them for propaganda.”

He says he has been inundated with telephone calls and emails of support from fellow Muslims appalled by evidence of such sex crimes.

He adds that what would be “really powerful” is if Imams would speak out about such crimes in their Friday sermons by explaining that an attack on a white girl is as forbidden as an attack on their own daughters and sisters.

Later this month Shafiq is due to visit Holland to see what lessons can be learned from the Dutch police that has been carrying out its own investigations into attacks on local white girls.

“They have been able to decrease the problem with young Moroccans who were involved in similar crimes,” Shafiq said

Washington, January 6
A school in Michigan’s Canton township has barred students from bringing a ‘kirpan’ to the school after a fourth grader was found carrying the religious symbol and parents of other students objected to it.

The move has troubled the small Sikh community in the township near Detroit, prompting them to launch a public awareness campaign to make people realise that ‘kirpan’ is only a religious symbol that is completely non-threatening.

The school authorities decided to ban the carrying of kirpan within the school premises late last month after the fourth grader Sikh student was found with a three-to-five inch kirpan.

Following a legal review, the Plymouth-Canton Community Schools district decided to ban it as it violated local, state and federal policies against carrying weapons or items that look like weapons to school, the Detroit Free Press reported.

Similar disputes have cropped up in other parts of the US as well and the incident has concerned Sikh parents and other community leaders, who argue that kirpan symbolises their commitment to fighting evils, such as greed, and has no assault value.

“It’s not an assault weapon,” Tejkiran Singh, 47, of Canton, a Sikh community leader was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

“It’s so small, so blunt... The whole purpose of wearing it is that it’s a reminder of our spirituality,” he said.

Sikhs of the area have organised a public forum today to address concerns the city people may have about the growing Sikh community, the daily said.

There are now three Sikh gurdwaras in Plymouth and Canton. “It’s to inform people about this great world religion, which many don’t know anything about,” said Steve Spreader, director of programmes for the Michigan Roundtable for Diversity and Inclusion, which is co-sponsoring the forum with other groups. — PTI