Karachi, June 19
A day after her father was gunned down by an Islamist extremist, a grieving Shehrbano Taseer wrote on Twitter, “A light has gone out in our home today.” It wasn’t long before the 22-year-old realised something else: Her father’s death had lit a fire in her.

In the months since, the daughter of the late Punjab province Governor Salmaan Taseer has emerged as one of Pakistan’s most outspoken voices for tolerance. Through her writing and speaking, she warns any audience who will listen of the threat of Islamist extremism, and impatiently waits for her father’s killer to be brought to justice.

And yes, sometimes she gets scared. She received threats from militants, who’ve warned her to remember her father’s fate.

“These extremists, they want to tell you how to think, how to feel, how to act,” says Shehrbano, a slim, elegant young woman with intense brown eyes. “It has made me more resolute that these people should never win.”

Salmaan Taseer was assassinated on January 4 at a market in Islamabad by one of his own bodyguards. The confessed killer, Mumtaz Qadri, boasted that he’d carried out the slaying because the outspoken politician a liberal in Pakistani terms wanted to change blasphemy laws that impose the death sentence for insulting Islam.

To the horror of Taseer’s supporters, many Pakistanis praised the assassin. Islamist lawyers showered Qadri with rose petals, and major Muslim groups, even ones considered relatively moderate, said Taseer deserved to die because, in their view, speaking out against the blasphemy laws was tantamount to blasphemy itself.

Shehrbano majored in government and film at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, and is a journalist by profession. She spends much of her time now writing columns and traveling in and beyond Pakistan to speak about Islamist extremism.

Salmaan Taseer, a father of seven, was not afraid to be blunt a trait that attracted both enmity and grudging respect. On Twitter, Salmaan Taseer openly taunted and trashed extremists, once tweeting that he’d never back down on the blasphemy issue, “even if I’m the last man standing.”

His daughter, who tweets under the handle shehrbanotaseer, is more gentle but just as firm. Her more than 9,000 followers on Twitter often receive notes that criticise Pakistan’s discriminatory laws, especially blasphemy claims that have reached the courts since her father’s death.

Like her father and Bhatti, the Christian leader, Shehrbano wants the blasphemy laws amended to prevent their misuse.

The laws are vaguely written, and often used to persecute minorities or settle rivalries, rights activists say. The state has not executed anyone under the law, but the accused may spend years in custody. Some defendants have been killed by extremists after being freed by the courts.

Washington, June 19
US President Barack Obama has kicked off his re-election bid for 2012 through popular online mediums like Facebook and Twitter, trying to replicate the huge success he had in the 2008 campaign.

Obama’s campaign said in a posting on its website that he will tweet regularly from the popular social media service and his personal tweets will be signed “-BO.” The campaign said it will now manage both Obama’s Twitter account and Facebook page. All the information regarding election preparations in Washington and other parts of country will be made available here, campaign staff of Obama, wrote on the Facebook page.

Around 23,000 netizens have approved the change and more than 4,000 have commented on the new Facebook page. Obama’s Twitter account has over 8.69 million followers and over 21.6 million people have “liked” his Facebook page, making him the most-followed politician on the social networking sites all over the world. — PTI 

Barack Obama and US Speaker of the House John Boehner play golf on Saturday. — Reuters

Washington, June 19
US President Barack Obama and one of his fierce critics John A Boehner bonded well as they shared golf strokes at the much anticipated ‘Golf Summit.’The ‘Golf Summit’ was tipped to be an opportunity for Obama and House of Representatives Speaker and Republican Boehner to discuss important issues they had disagreed on, including raising the national debt ceiling.

Vice-President Joseph R Biden and Governor of Ohio John R Kasich also joined them for the game at the Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland yesterday, New York Times reported.

“The foursome had a great time and really enjoyed playing golf at Joint Base Andrews today,” the White House said. The game, which was won on the 18th hole, had Obama teaming up with Boehner against Biden and Kasich and beating them to win $2 each.

Kasich went first, missing a 30-foot putt but tapping in for par. Next, Biden drained a 15-footer to make what seemed to be a bogey on the par-5 hole. After the game, “they enjoyed a cold drink, some of the US Open coverage and visited with service members,” the White House said. It was still unclear if the two had discussed politics at the outing. — PTI