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Syrians vent anger over Arab rebuke
Italy’s billionaire Premier finally makes his exit
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Republican Presidential hopefuls divided over Pakistan policy
Former cricketer Imran Khan said he grew up “hating India” due to the bloodshed and violence associated with the Partition but his views changed after he toured India to play cricket.
Butt, Asif want to serve jail sentence in Pak: Report
Uncomfortable with the attention they are receiving from fellow inmates, Pakistani cricketers Salman Butt and Mohammad Asif want to be transferred to a jail in their own country to serve their sentences for being involved in the spot-fixing scam.
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Syrians vent anger over Arab rebuke
Damascus, November 13 In central Damascus, tens of thousands of people turned out in support of Assad, waving Syrian flags and portraits of the embattled leader, said an AFP reporter at the scene. “The people want Bashar al-Assad,” yelled demonstrators gathered at Sebaa Bahrat Square, also chanting patriotic slogans. Footage broadcast by state television showed another massive rally unfolding in Omayad Square, also in the capital. Arab League foreign ministers yesterday voted to suspend Syria over its failure to comply with an agreement to end the crackdown on a nationwide protest movement calling for Assad’s resignation. Shortly after the Arab League decision, hundreds of angry demonstrators attacked the Damascus embassies of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, two of the 18 members of the pan-Arab group to vote for the move. One group forced open the gate to Qatar’s embassy and made their way to the top of the building, where they removed the Qatari flag and put up a Syrian one, as embassy security personnel fired tear gas, an AFP reporter said. Qatar’s ambassador left the Syrian capital in July. Another group hurled stones at the Saudi embassy before smashing windows, entering the premises and ransacking property inside, said the Saudi state news agency SPA. — AFP
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Italy’s billionaire Premier finally makes his exit
The promised, although limited, austerity reforms passed their final stage through the Italian Parliament on Saturday and Mr Silvio Berlusconi, for once, was as good as his word, immediately quitting the political field he had dominated for 17 years. The world now waits to see if his departure will be enough to appease the gods of the bond market, who, rather than Europe's leaders, seem to be the ones deciding the fate of severely indebted nations. Like the villain of an opera who, after being stabbed, takes an interminable time to stop singing and lie still upon the stage, Berlusconi's end has been a drawn-out affair. Admitting last Tuesday that his political wounds were now mortal, and clutching his chest crying "traitors!" at those in his own party who deserted him, Berlusconi took five days to expire. And there was always the fear that, even as he hammed up his death scene, he would find a way of rallying for yet another encore. In the end, all it took was a vote, a final cabinet meeting and a tendering of his resignation at the palace of President Giorgio Napolitano. The vote was by the Chamber of Deputies approving economic reforms, which include increasing the retirement age, but doing nothing to open up Italy's inflexible labour market. The cabinet meeting was a brief affair, at 6pm Rome time, and then it was a short car ride to the palace. As large crowds celebrated Berlusconi's formal relinquishing of power, a few dozen singers and classical musicians performed Handel's 'Halleluia' chorus. While the respected former European commissioner Mario Monti remained the top choice as the head of a transitional government, Berlusconi's allies remained split over who should replace the embattled leader. It's an ignoble end for the 75-year-old billionaire media mogul, who came to power for the first time in 1994 using a football chant, "Go Italy", as the name of his political party and who became Italy's longest-serving post-war premier. But his three stints as Premier were tainted by corruption trials. His last term has been marred by sex scandals, "bunga bunga" parties and criminal charges that he paid a 17-year-old girl to have sex. — The Independent
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Republican Presidential hopefuls divided over Pakistan policy
Washington, November 13 Pakistan “is clearly sending us messages that they don’t deserve our foreign aid ... because they’re not being honest with us. American soldiers’ lives are being put at jeopardy because of that country,” Texas Governor Rick Perry said participating in a Republican Presidential hopefuls’ debate on foreign policy. “It is time for us as a country to say no to foreign aid to countries that don’t support the United States of America,” he said, accusing Pakistan of not being honest with the US. Perry was supported by Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of House of Representatives, who has surged ahead of others in the latest polls of Republican presidential candidates. Two other Republican candidates — Rick Santorum and Michele Bachmann — spoke quite different language of the need to have a policy of engagement with the nuclear-powered Pakistan. “I would not agree with that assessment to pull all foreign aid from Pakistan. I would reduce foreign aid to many, many countries. But there’s a problem. Because Pakistan has a nuclear weapon,” Bachmann said. “We have more people affiliated with Al-Qaida closer to that nuclear bomb than in any other nation,” she added. Santorum said Pakistan must be a friend of the United States. Pakistan is a nuclear power, he said. “There are people in that country that if they gained control of that country will create a situation equal to the situation that is now percolating in Iran.” — PTI
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Islamabad, November 13 “But as I started touring India, I got such love and friendship there that all this disappeared,” Imran he told an Indian TV channel in an interview. “As time passed, I realised that there’s so much... we have a similar history, there’s so much in culture that’s so similar compared to Western countries. “There’s so much we have in common and above all, there is so much the people of the two countries (can) benefit from if we have a civilised relationship,” he added. Imran said if his Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf party came to power in the next general election, he would do his utmost to improve relations between the two countries. “I can give my best shot. I can fight to the last ball. We can only try. Success is sometimes not in our hands, it is in the hands of the almighty. So I can say that I will give it my best shot,” he said. Imran said he prayed to God to allow him to work for better India-Pakistan relations “because I, for one, have received so much love in India”. Asked if this vision would guide the relationship with India, he said, “Absolutely, I have no prejudice against any country, and more specifically, India.” Referring to the Indian cricket team’s tour of Pakistan in 2005-06, Khan said: “I’d never seen two countries as close as that. So it’s very said that Mumbai happens (and) we were back to square one”. — PTI
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Butt, Asif want to serve jail sentence in Pak: Report London, November 13 According to a report in 'The Independent', the cricketers, who were convicted of conspiracy to cheat and accept corrupt payments, "have asked to be returned to their home country, to serve the remainder of their sentence". Former Pakistan Test captain Butt and pacer Asif have "told their lawyers that they would prefer to be sent to a jail in Pakistan, because the attention they are receiving from fellow inmates is leading to fears for their safety. A high court application is expected to be made within the next eight weeks". The jailed cricketers were transferred from the Wandsworth Prison in south London to the Canterbury Prison in Kent this week. The Canterbury Prison holds foreign nationals convicted in Britain and inmates are generally deported back to their countries at the end of their sentences. Butt and Asif feel if they are to be deported at the end of it, then they might as well serve their sentences in their own country. A British Pakistani businessman Dalawar Chaudhry met Asif at the prison this week and said the jailed players were not too happy with the attention they were attracting. "They are high-profile inmates who are worried about their safety. They only have each other in this country and are feeling quite vulnerable. Their families are concerned for them," he said. "Both Asif and Butt have said if they would be deported at the end of their sentences, which is likely, then they should be allowed to leave Britain as soon as possible and finish their sentence in a Pakistani jail," he added. — PTI
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The promised, although limited, austerity reforms passed their final stage through the Italian Parliament on Saturday and Mr Silvio Berlusconi, for once, was as good as his word, immediately quitting the political field he had dominated for 17 years.
ROME: Italian President Giorgio Napolitano has given a mandate to former European Commissioner Mario Monti to try to form a new government, a senior official of the head of state's office said on Sunday. Monti will push through reforms agreed by Berlusconi with Eurozone leaders to cut Italy's massive debt and revive a chronically stagnant economy. Earlier, the President raced to appoint an emergency government to face a crisis endangering the whole euro zone and replace Silvio Berlusconi. Just a few hours after central Rome echoed with street parties celebrating Berlusconi's departure, President Giorgio Napolitano began a rapid round of meetings with political parties at his hilltop palace.
“I grew up hating India because I grew up in Lahore and there was so much...the massacres of 1947, so much bloodshed and anger.