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Pak handlers called 26/11 attackers, says witness
45 killed in cross-border raid by Afghan militants
Police probes ‘Qadri Lovers’ angle in Taseer kidnapping
Hurricane Scare Barack Obama at the National Response Coordination Center in Washington on Saturday. — AFP
No clear winner in sight ahead of Nepal PM poll
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Shortages hit Tripoli
Tripoli, August 27 Life remains far from normal in Tripoli, whose two million people are grappling with a breakdown in basic services, even as many of them celebrate the overthrow of a hated leader. The rebel National Transitional Council (NTC) is trying to assert its authority and restore order in Tripoli but its top officials have yet to move there from Benghazi in the east. The coastal highway to Tripoli is cut by pro-Gaddafi forces holding Sirte, the deposed leader’s birthplace, 450 km east of the capital. They are defying rebels who had hoped Sirte would surrender swiftly after the fall of Tripoli. “There is intensive consultation and negotiation with the community leaders of Sirte,” NTC spokesman Mahmoud Shammam said in Tripoli. He said rebels controlled the border post of Ras Jdir on the coast road between Tripoli and Tunisia after capturing it on Friday, but were still fighting around the town of Zawara, about 160 km west of the capital. Gaddafi’s own whereabouts remain unknown. Rebels hunting him say the war will not end until the 69-year-old colonel who kept Libya in his grip for 42 years is captured or killed.
— Reuters
Gaddafi’s ‘dead’ adopted daughter still alive?
London: An adopted daughter of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who was believed to have been killed in US airstrikes in 1986, is alive and working as a doctor in a Tripoli hospital, a media report said. For 25 years, Gaddafi has been claiming that his adopted baby daughter Hana was killed in the airstrike. He even set up a shrine to the six-month-old baby in his Tripoli compound, with replica American missiles and furniture preserved behind glass screens.
Now, documents and photographs found in the compound by rebel troops suggest that Hana is still alive, the Daily Mail said. She reportedly studied medicine in Tripoli, and four years ago took English classes at the British Council in the Libyan capital. An examination paper from a Libyan medical institution was found to be written in Arabic and signed "Hana Muammar Gaddafi". The 1986 airstrike, ordered by US President Ronald Reagan, was in retaliation for a Berlin nightclub bombing by Libyan agents in which two US soldiers died.
— IANS
‘Gaddafi must be tried by ICC’
Berlin: German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi should be tried by the International Criminal Court in The Hague. “Gaddafi should have a trial according to the law, something he never did with his opponents,” Merkel said when asked by the weekly Bild am Sonntag whether she was in favour of such a trial. Merkel whose country would not take part in the military campaign that led to Gaddafi’s ouster did not rule out sending German troops to the north African country as part of a UN stabilisation mission.
— AFP
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Pak handlers called 26/11 attackers, says witness Forensic expert Nauman Ashraf Bodla, appearing as the prosecution witness of the Federal Investigation Agency, told the court that the handlers called from three numbers and gave directions to the Mumbai attackers during the siege. He, however, said the three numbers, used for the purpose, had been issued on a fake identity in the name of Kharak Singh. Prosecutor Chaudhry Zulifqar said Bodla had submitted a seven-page report to the court, informing it about the handlers giving direction to the attackers in Mumbai. He said the defence also completed its arguments. Defence counsel Khawaja Sultan Ahmed argued that the 'handlers', Bodla had talked about, had nothing to do with the accused. The witness did not know the identity of the callers, so what had they to do with his clients, he argued. After the hearing, Khawaja Sultan said the court was also informed that three Indians, including two women, had made calls to people in Karachi, PoK and Nepal during the attacks in Mumbai. The hearing was adjourned till September 10. However, the court is soon expected to announce its decision on the application of the prosecution to constitute a commission to send to India.
— PTI
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45 killed in cross-border raid by Afghan militants
Islamabad, August 27 As many as 20 militants were also killed in the attack in northern Chitral district early this morning. The Pakistan army confirmed that 25 security men were killed when hundreds of militants from Afghan territory attacked seven border checkpoints. An army statement said that security forces personnel including 16 paramilitary ‘Frontier Scouts’, four policemen and five local militia ‘Levies’ were killed when 200-300 militants from across Afghanistan attacked seven check posts in Chitral. “Own security personnel defended the posts by engaging the attackers and reportedly 20 terrorists were killed. However, two border posts were overrun by the terrorists,” the statement said. Reinforcements have been sent to beef up the border posts, the statement from the army’s Inter-Services Public Relations said. The statement said Taliban militants from Afghanistan’s Kunar and Nooristan Provinces launched the attack. It said militants from Pakistan’s northwestern Swat valley, Dir district and Bajaur tribal region organised by militant leaders Maulvi Fazlullah and Maulvi Faqir Muhammad with local Afghans attacked the security forces posts in Chitral. “Due to scanty presence of NATO and ANA forces along Pak-Afghan border, the terrorists are using these areas as safe havens and have mounted repeated attacks against own security forces posts and isolated villages,” it said. Sources said that Fazaullah fled to Afghanistan after security forces launched a major offensive against the militants in 2009 and cleared the area. Maulvi Faqir, deputy chief of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP escaped to Afghanistan last year from Bajaur. “Since their expulsion from their native areas, the terrorists have organised themselves in Kunar and Nooristan Provinces with the support of local Afghan authorities,” the army said. It is the second attack on Pakistani posts in Chitral from Afghan territory.
— PTI
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Pak court orders confiscation of Musharraf’s assets
Islamabad, August 27 The court has already declared the former military ruler an “absconder” in the Bhutto assassination case as he has not agreed to clarify his position in court despite several notices. The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had requested the court to summon Musharraf, who was President at the time of the assassination, and has refused a request to cooperate in the investigation into Bhutto’s death. Following the lack of cooperation by Musharraf, he was named an “absconding accused”, Federal Investigation Agency prosecutor Chaudhry Zulfiqar said.
— PTI
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Police probes ‘Qadri Lovers’ angle in Taseer kidnapping
Lahore, August 27 ASP Fazal Hamid, who is part of the investigation team, said today that they had been working on different leads, including that of the involvement of the 'Mumtaz Qadri Lovers' group as also a property dispute angle. The Taseer family had been receiving threats since the killing of the former Governor in January this year at the hands of his own security guard, Mumtaz Qadri, who was opposed to Taseer's opinion that the blasphemy law needed to be amended.
— PTI
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Hurricane
Scare Washington, August 27 While Obama declared emergency in New York early in the day, the US President signed off on the emergency declaration in Virginia, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey and New Hampshire, after he returned yesterday night cutting short his summer vacation. Emergency in North Carolina was declared earlier. “The President reiterated that we know that this storm’s impacts will continue to be felt throughout the weekend and that we still have work ahead of us to support potentially impacted states and communities,” the White House said in a statement after Obama reviewed preparedness of his administration for hurricane Irene. Obama’s action authorises the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency, to coordinate all disaster relief efforts which have the purpose of alleviating the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population, and to provide appropriate assistance for required emergency measures, to save lives and to protect property and public health and safety.
— PTI
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No clear winner in sight ahead of Nepal PM poll Kathmandu, August 27 CPN-UML, the third largest party, and the Terai-based Madhesi parties remained undecided on who they would support in the election for the prime minister tomorrow. The CPN-UML has called a meeting of its Standing Committee today where they hope to take a decision on the issue. Similarly, the Joint Democratic Madhesi Front (JDMF), an alliance of the Terai based parties with 66 seats, is meeting CPN-UML leaders today to finalise its decision. The Maoists have held meetings with the CPN-UML and the fringe parties while Nepali Congress held consultations with JDMF and small leftist groups in an attempt to woo their support. No party holds a majority of seats in the 601-member parliament. The UCPN-Maoist, which has 236 seats in the Constituent Assembly, is largest party in the Assembly, which acts as the country's interim Parliament. The second largest Nepali Congress has 114 members in the House followed by CPN-UML, which has 107 members. Prime Minister Jhal Nath Khanal resigned on August 14 after failing to make "concrete" process in the peace process. Meanwhile, the Nepali Congress today unveiled an 11-point concept paper which envisages giving a momentum to the stalled peace process, drafting a new constitution and addressing the outstanding issues linked to the integration of the former Maoists combatants, including modality, norms and standards and rank harmonization of the former PLA fighters. The main opposition party said it would give priority to the peace process and constitution drafting processes, good governance and economic progress if its candidate is elected to lead the next government. Parliament was directed by President Ram Baran Yadav to elect a new Prime Minister through majority vote after political parties failed to nominate a consensus candidate to lead a national unity government. As per the amended regulations, there will not be more than three rounds of voting. No lawmaker will be allowed to stay neutral or boycott the election.
— PTI
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Washington, August 27 
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