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Egypt run-off Vote
Baby joy for Pak’s Mukhtar Mai
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Pakistan asks US to take action against Ijaz
Extradition to Sweden
America to vacate Shamsi airbase by December 11
Setback for Putin in Duma elections
World’s costliest crash
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Egypt run-off Vote Cairo, December 5 The Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) is set to take the most seats in Egypt’s first free election in six decades, bolstering its hand in any struggle with the ruling army council for influence over the most populous Arab nation. The Brotherhood, banned from politics until an uprising ended Mubarak’s 30-year rule on February 11, said after the first-round vote that everyone should “accept the will of the people”. Its stiffest competition has come from the ultra-conservative Salafi al-Nour Party. Alexandria, Egypt’s second city, was expected to see some of the tightest races between the two parties in the run-off votes for individual candidates. “The Brotherhood will win, we know them. The Salafis are new to us and we don’t know what they will do,” said Walid Mohamed, 30, a quality controller at a drugs factory in Alexandria. “The competition won’t weaken either of them. The most important thing is that the winners rule us by Islam,” he added. The phased election that runs until January is part of a promised transition from military to civilian rule in July after a presidential election in June. — Reuters
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Baby joy for Pak’s Mukhtar Mai Lahore, December 5 The baby was born last evening in the private clinic of a doctor in Multan city, 350 km from Lahore. Forty-year-old Mai had married a police official of Muzaffargarh, a district adjoining Multan, in 2009. “Both the mother and the baby are healthy. The delivery was performed by gynaecologist Nasim Akhtar at her clinic at about 4.30 pm on Sunday,” Asad Abbas, Mai’s brother, said. Abbas said the entire family was happy at the birth of the boy, saying this was the first good news received by Mukhtar Mai’s relatives after a long time. The family, including Mukhtar Mai, had received congratulatory calls from across Pakistan and other countries, he said. The baby was delivered by Caesarian section two weeks prematurely, hospital officials said. They too said the mother and baby were in good health. Mai was gang raped in June 2002 on the orders of a panchayat as punishment after her younger brother was accused of having illicit relations with a woman from a rival clan. The brother was just 12 years old at the time of the incident in Meerwala village. While other women brutalised in so-called “honour crimes” are usually shunned, Mai’s family embraced her and took her to the authorities. The imam in her village preached against the outrage. In June 2002, a case was filed under an Islamic law and the Anti-Terrorism Act against 14 suspects, including two members of the village council. In August the same year, a lower court in Punjab awarded the death sentence to six of the accused, including the two village council members, and acquitted the other eight suspects. However, in March 2005, the Multan bench of the Lahore High Court acted on an appeal filed by the accused and struck down the lower court’s order. It acquitted five of the six accused and converted the death sentence given to one of the main accused to life imprisonment. In April this year, the Supreme Court upheld the High Court’s order. Mai subsequently sought a review of the apex court’s ruling. — PTI
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Pakistan asks US to take action against Ijaz Islamabad, December 5 Referring to Ijaz statements in a magazine article that Pakistan’s top leadership and the former envoy to the US Husain Haqqani had prior knowledge of the May 2 raid that killed bin Laden, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the US had admitted that the Pakistan government and Haqqani were not aware about the covert action. “So, the US must take action against Mansoor Ijaz for passing false statements”, he told reporters after chairing a meeting at the Interior Ministry this afternoon. “Pakistan has always been asked to do more but it is time for the US to take action against the person who is violating its laws by misguiding the international community,” Malik said. He also said Ijaz has repeatedly changed his stance on the ‘memogate’ issue. All information related to Ijaz has been collected and Pakistan will approach Interpol for further investigation, he said. He suggested the main opposition PML-N should approach the Supreme Court regarding Ijaz’s action and the government will extend its support in this regard. Ijaz recently made public a secret memo that was sent to the US military after bin Laden was killed in May. The memo sought American help to prevent a military takeover in Pakistan. It also purportedly committed the Pakistan government to a wide-ranging revamp of its national security set-up to remove military officials with links to militants. — PTI
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Extradition to Sweden
The High Court in London ruled in favour of 40-year-old Assange, observing that his case raised a question “of general public importance” which should be decided by the highest court in the land “as quickly as possible”. Assange, the Australia-born founder of whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks, had last month lost a High Court battle to be extradited over the alleged sex offences, which he denies. But, the High Court today paved the way for him to pursue his case against extradition in the SC. Swedish authorities want to question him over accusations of rape and sexual assault made by two women, former WikiLeaks volunteers, during a visit there in August 2010. Assange was in the London court today for the ruling. — PTI
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America to vacate Shamsi airbase by December 11
Islamabad, December 5 American Ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter said the US was doing its best to comply with Islamabad’s demand to leave the airbase. Munter made no mention of the US personnel or equipment based at Shamsi but numerous reports have said that the airbase is used by CIA-operated drones that often target militants in Pakistan’s volatile tribal belt. — PTI
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Setback for Putin in Duma elections Moscow, December 5 The man, who has tightened his grip on the nations for nearly 12 years, faced a humiliating setback with the preliminary results after the counting of 96 per cent votes showing his party garnering just over 50 per cent of the votes. The chairman of the Central Election Commission predicted that Putin’s party would get 238 out of the Duma’s 450 seats, a far cry compared to his previous vote where he swept to a two-thirds majority in the lower house. Though Putin was certainly expected to retain his majority in the lower house and sure to win next March’s presidential election, the Russian electorate gave a shock to him and his comrade-in-arms, Dmirty Medvedev, reflecting a strong public frustration with the lack of political competition and widening gulf between the rich and the poor. The Communist Party of the Russian Federation (KPRF), which got on Sunday more than 19 per cent, would have 92 seats in the Duma, 35 more than it held previously. —
PTI
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Mukhtar Mai, who shot to prominence after she stood up to the men who gang raped her on the orders of a village council in Pakistan’s Punjab province nearly a decade ago, has given a birth to a boy.
London, December 5