ISI was eyeing Indian ex-servicemen: Headley
Washington, June 15
Pakistan’s spy agency ISI was planning recruitment of retired Indian military personnel to penetrate into the system and then use them for its anti-India activities, according to LeT operative David Headley.

Liz Hurley gets quickie divorce from Arun Nayar
London, June 15
Actress and model Elizabeth Hurley has been granted a quickie divorce from Indian business tycoon Arun Nayar. The 46-year-old British beauty and Nayar’s four-year marriage ended today at a London court even as neither of them were present at the hearing. The couple were granted a decree nisi by District Judge Penny Cushing at the Principal Registry of the High Court’s Family Division, reported Daily Mail. The judge held that the marriage had “broken down irretrievably” and would be dissolved within six weeks.

Colombo, June 15
Sri Lanka has said it was ready to “take due note” of war crimes allegations made in a new British television documentary, but insisted that the country's security forces had not killed civilians while fighting the Tamil Tiger rebels.

The Sri Lankan High Commission in London said the images shown by Channel 4 yesterday had not been verified as genuine and the disturbing images could cause hatred among Sri Lanka's ethnic groups. Two UN investigators have said that the videos were genuine.

The High Commission in a statement to media outlets in Sri Lanka said a local initiative known as the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) was, however, ready to take note of the allegations.

“If the allegations levelled by Channel 4 or any other party are found to be genuine, the LLRC will take due note of all such cases and remedial measures will be taken by way of legal sanctions,” the statement said.

“This process will also take into consideration all matters that are important to Sri Lankans living in Sri Lanka, and therefore, it should be allowed to continue without any hindrance or prejudice,” the statement said.

UN experts as well as human rights activists have dismissed the Sri Lankan Government LLRC as an eyewash since the commission is not mandated to investigate war crimes.

Meanwhile, Britain has asked Lanka to investigate alleged atrocities in the conflict against Tamil Tigers, describing the documentary containing graphic images as 'horrific'. Foreign Office minister Alistair Burt said he was "shocked by the horrific scenes" in the documentary, which he said contained "convincing evidence of violations of international humanitarian and human rights law". He said the UK was ready to join the rest of the international community in pursuing "all options available" to pressure the Sri Lankan Government to act.

Sri Lanka has insisted that there will be no investigation into allegations that civilians were killed by troops because no war crimes had been committed while defeating the LTTE in May 2009. — PTI

Athens, June 15
Angry youths hurled petrol bombs at Greece’s Finance Ministry and tens of thousands of protesters marched to parliament today to oppose government efforts to pass new austerity laws for the debt-choked euro zone state.

Unions representing half the 5-million-strong workforce also launched a nationwide strike, shutting government offices, ports, schools and reducing hospitals to skeleton staff.

PM George Papandreou must push through a new five-year campaign of tax hikes, spending cuts and sell-offs of state property to continue receiving aid from the European Union and International Monetary Fund and avoid default.

The new austerity package foresees 6.5 billion euros in tax hikes and spending cuts this year, doubling measures agreed with bailout lenders that have pushed unemployment to a record 16.2 per cent and extended a deep recession into its third year. The plan includes new luxury taxes, a crackdown on tax evasion and tax hikes on soft-drinks, swimming pools, restaurant bills and real estate. — Reuters

Washington, June 15
Pakistan’s spy agency ISI was planning recruitment of retired Indian military personnel to penetrate into the system and then use them for its anti-India activities, according to LeT operative David Headley.

Less than six months before the November 2008 Mumbai attacks, Major Iqbal, Headley’s handler in ISI, asked him to put an advertisement in a Mumbai newspaper that an employment agency in Canada was looking for people to work in Canada, the LeT operative said in his testimony before a Chicago court during the recently-concluded trial of Tahawwur Rana.

This was to be a cover to hiring military personnel, at the direction of Major Iqbal who had earlier directed him to use the immigration business of Rana for the planning of 26/11 operation.

“He (Major Iqbal) told me to put an ad in a newspaper, which was like an employment agency looking for people to work in Canada. And amongst those many various types of jobs, he wanted to put in security personnel because he thought retired military people would respond to that kind of ad.

“In fact, we added that part in the ad where it said military service preferred,” Headley told the court in response to a question from the public prosecutor.

“And why were you putting the ‘military service referred’ into the ad?” the attorney asked. “So that we might get a better response from retired military personnel,” Headley said.

“Was Major Iqbal asking you to engage Indian military, retired people?” the US attorney asked. “Yes,” he said.

Headley said Major Iqbal gave him Rs 25,000 to place such an ad in the newspaper.

At the direction of Major Iqbal, Headley returned to Mumbai in July 2008 and started the process of closing his immigration business in the city, while at the same time conducting the final round of surveillances of the sites given to him by his Pakistani handlers, which Headley said was approved by Major Iqbal. — PTI

London, June 15
Actress and model Elizabeth Hurley has been granted a quickie divorce from Indian business tycoon Arun Nayar. The 46-year-old British beauty and Nayar’s four-year marriage ended today at a London court even as neither of them were present at the hearing. The couple were granted a decree nisi by District Judge Penny Cushing at the Principal Registry of the High Court’s Family Division, reported Daily Mail. The judge held that the marriage had “broken down irretrievably” and would be dissolved within six weeks.

Hurley and Nayar married in March 2007 at Sudley Castle in England and later held a second ceremony according to Hindu traditions in Jodhpur. The ceremonies were attended by numerous celebrities, including Elton John, who gave the bride away.

The ‘Bedazzled’ star announced in December that she had split from her husband, after pictures emerged of her kissing cricketer Shane Warne in a hotel in London.

Following the pictures’ publication, both Hurley and Warne, 41, hastily issued statements revealing that their respective marriages had been over for some time.

Since then, they have been making headlines for their on/off romance, rendezvous in Australia and India and tabloid rumours of his alleged infidelity. — PTI