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Embattled Zardari vows defiance
Russian PM Putin rejects review of election results
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Egypt court ends virginity tests on female detainees
Mapping Mission
Two UK teenagers held for Indian student’s murder
2 Indians killed in hit-and-run incident in Dubai
Prince Philip discharged
Now, visit Titanic wreck for $61,000
37 Pak nationals killed in ship tragedy
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Embattled Zardari vows defiance
Garhi Khuda Baksh, December 27 Zardari, who became President after former Prime Minister Benazir was killed in 2007 following her return from self-imposed exile, is facing perhaps the greatest threat to the government. In a jab at the Supreme Court, which is considering an investigation into a memo asking the United States for help against the country’s powerful military and which could implicate Zardari, he asked about the as yet unsolved case of his wife’s assassination. “People ask what happened to Benazir Bhutto’s case,” he said. “I ask (Chief Justice) Iftikhar Chaudhry: what happened to Benazir Bhutto’s case?” At a huge rally outside Islamabad, estimated at more than 70,000, colourful banners sprouted from the throng, which spread out beneath the white, marble mausoleum that contains the bodies of Pakistan’s most famous political family. Speaking from behind bulletproof glass, Zardari appeared relaxed and healthy, likely calm rumours of his ill health. He flew to Dubai on December 6 complaining of chest pains. Party members there told Reuters he had suffered a transient ischemic attack, a stroke-like attack that leaves no permanent brain damage. He returned on December 19. Members of Zardari’s Pakistan People’s Party say opponents are working with the Supreme Court and the army to bring down the government. The death anniversary came the same day the Supreme Court began deliberations on whether it could open its own investigation into the so-called “memogate” scandal.
— Reuters Gilani changes tack, praises army chief In a steep climb down from his last week’s anti-army stance, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has said he never blamed the army of running a state within a state. Gilani also quashed speculations that he is planning to sack army chief Ashfaq Pervez Kayani and intelligence chief Ahmed Shuja Pasha. The PM the army chief was a supporter of democracy, adding that relationship between the civilian and military leadership was normal. “Generals cannot be changed in the middle of wars and only fools are spreading such rumours for their vested interests,” Gilani said in reply to a question. Gilani said he was fully satisfied with Kayani’s performance as the Chief of Army Staff.
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Russian PM Putin rejects review of election results
Moscow, December 27 “Any talks about reviewing the results of the elections are impossible, except one way, a court appeal,” Putin said during a meeting with the All Russia People’s Front members. Putin’s comment is the first reaction to Saturday’s mass protest on Moscow’s Sakharov Avenue that brought together up to 100,000 people according to the organisers of the protest, while the police says just 30,000 people attended. Meanwhile, Russia’s ex-finance minister, Alexei Kudrin said in an interview that Putin told him that dialogue with opposition leaders “was possible”. The 59-year-old Russian strongman said he needed “no tricks” and would win support fairly, adding that his opponents were using the parliamentary vote to try to create instability, Ria Novosti reported. “The elections are over. The parliament has started its work and a speaker has been elected,” Putin said. People came out to protest against the State Duma elections, allegedly marred by mass vote-rigging and ballot-stuffing. The protesters demand new parliamentary elections and want liberal reforms in Russia. The PM, who views himself as the main contender at the upcoming presidential elections on March 4, also said he did not need electoral fraud to win.
— PTI
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Egypt court ends virginity tests on female detainees
Cairo, December 27 However, the head of Military Judicial Authority said in a statement carried by state news agency MENA that the ruling could not be executed because there was no decision to force virginity tests on detainees and if someone did it then it would be an individual act that required criminal investigation. The military rulers who replaced deposed President Hosni Mubarak in February have come under mounting pressure from activists who criticise them for mismanaging the transition to civilian rule and violating the human rights of protesters. This is the second case in a week where civilian activists have obtained a favourable ruling in cases involving the army. "The court orders that the execution of the procedure of virginity tests on girls inside military prisons be stopped," Judge Aly Fekry, head of the Cairo Administrative Court, said. The case was filed by Samira Ibrahim, a woman who said the army forced her and six other women to undergo virginity tests in March after they were arrested during a protest in Cairo's Tahrir Square. On Sunday, another civilian judge ordered the release of a prominent blogger whom the army had detained in October on charges of "inciting violence and sabotage" during a protest by Christians. An army official was quoted in May as saying the tests were carried out so that the military would not later be accused of having raped the detainees. Ibrahim, who comes from the conservative southern Egyptian city of Sohag, was transferred to a military court four days after her arrest. She received a one-year suspended prison sentence for insulting authorities, participating in an unauthorised assembly and breaking a curfew. She filed a case with the military prosecution against the soldier who carried out the virginity test, and the military judiciary was now handling the case. "We demand that those who committed this act be held accountable," said Basma Zahran, a lawyer from El-Nadim Center for Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence who joined Ibrahim's case. A military judicial official said last week that cases of reported forced virginity tests had been transferred to the Supreme Military Court and that military personnel accused of taking part in violent clashes and human rights violations against protesters would be prosecuted.
— Reuters
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Movie softens Thatcher’s ‘Iron Lady’ image
Los Angeles, December 27 Yet the makers of new movie “The Iron Lady,” which opens in US theaters on Friday, went one step further. They chose to depict Thatcher, now 86, as a confused, lonely woman looking back on past glories, and doing so takes the kind of guts once exhibited by the former British prime minister herself. British director Phyllida Lloyd and screenwriter Abi Morgan said they never set out to make an historical biopic or a film about politics. They wanted to tell the story of a woman of ordinary origins who rose to great power only to fall back again into a normal, elderly life that is much like anyone’s. “It is a Shakespearean story about power and loss, and the cost of a huge life, and letting go,” Lloyd told Reuters. “The Iron Lady” is the first feature film about Thatcher, Britain’s only female prime minister who was elected in 1979 and forced, in tears, out of office in 1990 after losing the support of her cabinet. Thatcher, a Conservative, was revered for uncompromising opposition to the Soviet Union and for putting the “Great” back in Great Britain. But she also was reviled by labor unions and blamed for creating deep divisions in British society. Lloyd said there has been “astonishingly little backlash” in Britain about casting American Streep to play the British icon. Moreover, the role required portraying a woman in the prime of her life and in decline, and that sort of contrast meant a skilled actress who understood the nuances of both.
— Reuters
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Mapping Mission
London, December 27 The washing-machine-sized Grail spacecraft, launched from the Florida coast in September, will map the Moon's interior 100 to 1000 times more accurately than any past lunar mission. Maria Zuber, the Grail mission head and a scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said the precise lunar gravity measurements will help scientists understand better how the Moon evolved over the past 4 billion years. The findings also should help identify the composition of the Moon's core: whether it's made of solid iron or possibly titanium oxide, Zuber said. Another puzzle that Grail may help solve, she said, is whether Earth once had a smaller second moon. Astronomers have speculated that some of the "landmarks" on the Moon's surface are a result of a collision with a second, smaller moon. "Both spacecraft have performed essentially flawlessly since launch, but one can never take anything for granted in this business," Zuber said. On New Year's Eve, one of the Grail probes -- short for Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory -- will fire its engine to slow down so that it can be captured into orbit and this move will be repeated by the other the following day, the scientists said. The chances of the probes — officially known as Grail-A and Grail-B — overshooting each other are slim since their trajectories have been precise.
But things could still go wrong, the scientists said. Cosmic rays might interfere with the probes' engine burn and they won't get boosted into the right orbit, they feared. "I know I'm going to be nervous," said project manager David Lehman of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory which manages the USD 496-million, three-month mission. Once in orbit, the spacecraft will spend the next two months flying in formation and chasing one another around the Moon until they are about 35 miles above the surface with an average separation of 124 miles. Data collection will begin in March. Past missions have tried to map lunar gravity with mixed success. Grail is the first mission dedicated to this goal. As the probes circle the moon, regional changes in the lunar gravity field will cause them to speed up or slow down. This in turn will change the distance between them. Radio signals transmitted by the spacecraft will measure the slight distance gaps, allowing researchers to map the underlying gravity field, the researchers said. Using the gravity information, scientists can deduce what's below or at the lunar surface such as mountains and craters and may help explain why the far side of the Moon is more rugged than the side that faces Earth. — PTI
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Two UK teenagers held for Indian student’s murder London, December 27 Bidve was visiting Salford in Manchester over Christmas holidays with other Indian students on Monday morning. One 16-year-old is being questioned by the Greater Manchester Police along with a 17-year-old. The identity of the two teenagers has not been revealed. He was with nine other Indian students when he was accosted by two white men, one of whom shot him from point blank range after a “very short” conversation. Hailing from Pune, Bidve was a postgraduate student of microelectronics at Lancaster University and was visiting friends in Manchester during the Christmas holidays with other Indian students when he was gunned down. Meanwhile, a post-mortem revealed that Bidve, a postgraduate student of Microelectronics at Lancaster University, died as a result of "gun trauma" to the head. The police have not confirmed what was said during the short conversation between the killer and his victim. Detectives are continuing to make house-to-house inquiries and are reviewing CCTV footage. Tributes to Bidve have been paid by friends and family on Facebook, where pages have been set up to help bring his body back to India, and also appeal for peace marches in memory of Bidve. The police is not ruling out racism as a motive for the killing after the two men who approached the group of students early on Monday morning were described as white men. — PTI
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2 Indians killed in hit-and-run incident in Dubai Dubai, December 27 The teenager, identified only as GK, had taken his brother's car for a joyride and was driving at about 200 kmph when he hit the two men, the police said. "He was driving at a mad speed and could not stop when he saw the two workers crossing the road," Lt Colonel Ahmed Al Merri, head of the Criminal Investigations Department, told local reporters. The colour and make of the car was identified through CCTV footage of the incident. Some of the wreckage left behind at the accident scene led the police to the boy's home. "The information we received also revealed the boy was often driving in a reckless manner and had not taken driving lessons," Al Merri said. The boy confessed he had borrowed his brother's car and struck the two men. — PTI
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Prince Philip discharged
London, December 27 Philip was admitted to Papworth Hospital on Friday when he had a coronary stent fitted after complaining of chest pain. Philip, who left by road and waved to reporters, missed the royal Christmas celebrations and had to skip yesterday’s traditional Boxing Day shoot, usually led by the Duke. He sat upright and smiled broadly as he left the hospital. In a statement, Buckingham Palace said: “On departure, Prince Philip thanked the staff at Papworth for the excellent care he has received during his stay.
— PTI
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Now, visit Titanic wreck for $61,000
London, December 27 Among those who have already signed up for the trip are a London banker and a doctor from Missouri, the Telegraph reported. Deep Ocean Expeditions are hoping to take 80 people to the ship on the centenary of its sinking in 2012. However, just two visitors would be able to go down at a time and it would take two hours to descend to the wreck, that was discovered in 1985. The spot is also the resting place for 1,517 people who died April 14, 1912. Rob McCallum, expedition leader of Deep Ocean Expeditions, said it would be the only time the firm took tourists to the spot. "We never set out to be a retail travel company. Next year will be a poignant year to make the trip. It's a good time for us to sign off," he said. Between the two parts of the broken ship, the ocean floor is strewn with bottles, cups, knives and leather suitcases.
— IANS
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37 Pak nationals killed in ship tragedy Islamabad, December 27 The ship, carrying about 250 illegal migrants who were trying to travel to Australia, sank about 40 nautical miles from a beach Indonesia's East Java province on December 18. Pakistan’s Interior Ministry said steps had been taken to transport the bodies of the 37 Pakistanis. — PTI
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