The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	Gingrich shocks Romney in South Carolina House ex-Speaker changes face of Republican race to White House with big win Ashish Kumar Sen in Washington Former speaker of the US House of Representatives, Newt Gingrich, on Saturday night stormed to a decisive victory in the Republican Party’s primary election in South Carolina to pick a challenger to Barack Obama in presidential elections in November. The Republican Party has had three primary elections so far; each one has yielded a different victor. This is the first time that has ever happened. Earlier this month, the party’s presumed front-runner, Mitt Romney, won in New Hampshire, while Rick Santorum a social conservative bagged a win in Iowa after the state was initially declared in favour of Romney. Gingrich fared poorly in Iowa and New Hampshire prompting political pundits to write off his candidacy. That’s what made his victory in South Carolina so surprising to his critics and significant for him. Santorum told CNN that his and Gingrich’s victories meant “it’s game on again.” Gingrich has been trailing Romney in opinion polls as well as campaign funds. He has also been dogged by questions about his fidelity. He has been married three times. On Thursday, Gingrich’s second wife, Marianne, told ABC News that he had sought an “open marriage” and asked her to “share” him with his mistress, who is now his wife. Ironically, Gingrich led calls to impeach Bill Clinton over the President’s affair with a White House intern at the same time he was cheating on his own wife. But that was not enough to sway conservatives in South Carolina. Gingrich’s strong performance in the Republican debate on the eve of the South Carolina election appears to have won him the state. In the debate he angrily dismissed his second wife’s allegations as false, chastised the moderator for asking the question and lashed out at the media for focusing the controversy. Gingrich’s campaign received a shot in the arm last week when Texas Gov. Rick Perry dropped out of the race and threw his weight behind the former House speaker. As early results projected Gingrich the winner in South Carolina, he wrote on his Twitter account: “Thank you South Carolina! Help me deliver the knockout punch in Florida.” The next Republican primary will be held in Florida on Jan. 31. Gingrich later told supporters in South Carolina’s capital Columbia: “The biggest thing I take from the campaign in South Carolina is it is very humbling and very sobering to have so many people who so deeply want their country to get back on track.” Romney, who had hoped to seal his lock on the party nomination by winning South Carolina, instead finished a distant second. “This race is getting to be even more interesting,” he told supporters. “We’re now three contests into a long primary season. This is a hard fight because there is so much worth fighting for.” He insisted he was going to win the nomination. Romney was endorsed by Nikki Haley, South Carolina’s Indian American governor whose parents are originally from Punjab. Over to Florida now After a bruising clash in South Carolina, Republican presidential frontrunners Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich will take their battle to a bigger stage when the campaign moves to Florida. The largest of the early voting states by far, Florida presents logistical and financial challenges that appear to give an advantage to Romney's well funded campaign machine. But Gingrich has momentum after coming from behind in South Carolina to win around 40 per cent of the vote, followed by Romney with 28 per cent. — Reuters
	Taliban video shows killing of 15 Pak soldiers Dera Iamail Khan, January 22 Fifteen Pakistani soldiers stood blindfolded, handcuffed to each other on a barren hilltop as one of their bearded Taliban captors held an AK-47 rifle and spoke with fury about revenge. He left no doubt what would come at any second. Pakistan’s Taliban abducted the paramilitary troops on December 23 from near the country’s lawless tribal areas to avenge military operations. Now they have released a video as a warning to Pakistan’s 600,000-member army, which has failed to break the back of the insurgents despite superior firepower and a series of offensives against their strongholds in forbidding mountain regions. “Twelve of our comrades were besieged and mercilessly martyred in the Khyber Agency (area),” said the militant. “Our pious women were also targeted. To avenge those comrades, we will kill these men. We warn the government of Pakistan that if the killing of our friends is not halted, this will be the fate of you all.” Before death, one of the men described how dozens of Taliban fighters stormed their fort in the northwestern Tank district and kidnapped the soldiers. “They attacked us with rockets, killed a sentry. One ran away. The Taliban entered the fort and captured us with our weapons,” he said, sitting in rows with other soldiers with their arms folded and legs crossed in front of Taliban banners. “They tied our hands, put us in a Datsun and took us away.” The video then shows the men standing quietly. Taliban chanting can be heard. “We will cross all limits to avenge your blood,” it said, referring to fighters killed by Pakistani security forces. One of the men shoves a clip into his assault rifle and fires a few rounds into the back of the heads of a few of the soldiers. “God is greatest,” the Taliban yell. Other fighters step up and take turns pumping bullets into the men, some wearing green military uniforms. Each time a soldier collapses, the man standing next to him is pulled in that direction by the handcuffs. — Reuters
	Gujarat youth killed in Nigeria attacks; toll 180 Abuja, January 22 A 23-year-old Indian national was killed and six of his compatriots, including two children, were injured in a wave of coordinated bombings and gun attacks by an Islamic sect that left at least 162 people dead in northern Nigeria’s largest city of Kano. Kevalkumar Kalidas Rajput from Dahod in Gujarat, who worked for Kano-based firm M/s Relchem, was among those killed in Friday’s deadly attacks, a statement issued by the High Commission of India in Nigeria said today. It said Rajput and two of his co-employees from Nepal, Hari Prasad Bhusal and Raj Singh, lost their lives when their car entered a zone of hostilities. The High Commission said six other Indian nationals, including two small children, belonging to two families have received injuries from falling shrapnel and debris and are being treated in Kano hospitals. In New Delhi, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna condemned the deadly attacks in Kano and regretted the “unfortunate” loss of life. — PTI
	Mubarak still Prez: Lawyer Cairo, January 22 Ousted Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak is still President of the country as he did not sign an official resignation, his lawyer claimed today and demanded that he be tried by a special tribunal during his concluding defence argument. Lawyer Farid al Deeb said Mubarak gave up the presidency orally to former vice-president Omar Suleiman, Egypt’s former spy chief who was appointed by him as vice-president during a popular uprising last year. “Mubarak did not write a letter of resignation. The document was signed by Omar Suleiman,” al Deeb said as he presented the final session of his counter argument today. Al Deeb called for Mubarak to be tried in a special tribunal, saying that Cairo criminal court is not competent to try him. The comments and remarks of al-Deeb were leaked out by the journalists attending the session despite the media blackout imposed on the trial. The lawyer ended his argument by asking the ousted President, who was lying on a stretcher behind the bars, not to be sad as he is a fighter who put his life at risk over and over again for his country and what he is now suffering resembles what Prophet Muhammad went through. — PTI
	Ijaz has no credibility, says Gilani Lahore, January 22 Controversial American businessman Mansoor Ijaz, the central character in the memo scandal, has “no credibility” and one should not worry too much about his claims, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani today. Ijaz has no links to Pakistan and has a long record of spreading “poison” against Pakistan and the country’s establishment and government, Gilani told reporters here. Describing Ijaz as a person with “no credibility”, the premier said it seemed “like some country’s viceroy was coming (to Pakistan) and we have to deploy our army to protect him though he is not entitled to get such protocol under the Constitution and the law”. Asked about Ijaz’s demand that the army should protect him for his appearance on January 24 before a Supreme Court-appointed commission investigating the memo issue, Gilani said it was the Interior Ministry’s duty to protect Ijaz under the rules of business and the Constitution. “Under the rules of business, the Interior Ministry will provide security and the civilian government can seek assistance, as and when required, from the Pakistan Rangers, the army and law enforcement agencies,” he said. Ijaz created a storm in Pakistan’s political circles by making public an alleged memo that sought US help to stave off a feared military coup in Pakistan last year. Gilani said it was “uncalled for” to worry so much about Ijaz’s claims. “The world will think we are so weak that on one article (written by Ijaz), the government falls and our institutions become weak,” he said. “We are sending a very wrong signal to the world that we cannot settle our matters and we will have to spend a lot of money on his security,” he added. The memo scandal is being investigated by the judicial commission and the Parliamentary Committee on National Security. Asked about Ijaz’s reluctance to appear before the parliamentary panel, Gilani said: “I have to assist both of the commissions and I think in all fairness, he should appear before both.” Gilani said all the stakeholders, including the President, army chief and the Inter-Services Intelligence, had unanimously decided to refer the matter to the parliamentary panel but the Supreme Court later formed its own panel after receiving several petitions, including one from PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif. — PTI Ijaz: Govt trying to prevent my testimony Controversial Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz has charged that the Pakistan government was behind a “massive cover-up” under which it was trying to prevent him from testifying in Islamabad next week over the memo scandal. Ijaz also threatened to make public what he claimed was evidence of Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik’s involvement in “corrupt practices” and accused him of indulging in “character assassination”.
	Costa Concordia Tragedy Search resumes amid rough seas Giglio (Italy), January 22 Rescuers today resumed searching the above-water section of the capsized Costa Concordia cruise liner, but choppy seas kept divers from exploring the submerged part, where officials have said there could be bodies. Civil protection officials said that until the waves slacken off, divers will not swim into the submerged part of the vessel near the port of Giglio, a tiny island off the Tuscan coast. Coast Guard divers have been concentrating on parts of the ship where survivors have said many passengers were awaiting evacuation the night of January 13 after the Concordia’s hull was gashed by a reef as the cruise liner came too close to the island. After divers yesterday extracted a woman’s body from a corridor near what had been an evacuation staging point, the death toll rose to 12. Twenty people, most of them passengers, are still missing. So far, the Concordia’s fuel tanks are holding, but special crews are waiting for the end of rescue efforts so they can extract 2,200 metric tonnes of heavy fuel. In a separate undersea mission, police divers yesterday swam into the captain’s cabin to retrieve his safe, suitcases and documents. The Italian captain is under house arrest as prosecutors investigate him for suspected manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning the ship while many of the 4,200 passengers and crew were still aboard. Rescuers are racing against the clock, because the Concordia has been slightly shifting on its precarious perch on a rocky ledge of seabed close to where the seabed steeply plunges. The search had been interrupted early Sunday after instruments monitoring any movement of the Concordia indicated that vessel had shifted slightly. — AP
	Ancient Peruvians munched popcorns! Washington, January 22 They may not have had cinema theatres or television sets, but ancient Peruvians did share one part of our modern movie-watching culture — munching on popcorns. Researchers have found evidence that suggests communities living along the coast of Peru were eating popcorns some 6,700 years ago, about 1,000 years earlier than previously estimated-even predating the use of ceramic pottery. They arrived this conclusion after unearthing corn husks, stalks, cobs and tassels (pollen-producing flowers on corn) dating from 6,700 to 3,000 years ago at Paredones and Huaca Prieta, two sites on Peru’s northern coast. “The evidence was unearthed during the past three years,” study researcher Dolores Piperno, curator of New World archaeology at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, told LiveScience. The characteristics of the corncobs suggest that the sites’ ancient inhabitants prepared and ate corn in several ways, including making corn flour and popcorn, Piperno said. — PTI
	Lahore gets new food street Lahore, January 22 Three years after the original Food Street in Lahore’s old quarters fell prey to a political row, a new food court has been inaugurated at Fort Road near the centuries-old Shahi Mohala, a famous red light area. Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, the younger brother of PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif, had ordered the demolition of distinctive gate of the famous Food Street at Gowalmandi and imposed restrictions on outlets there because the venture took off during the regime of former military ruler Pervez Musharraf. The Sharif brothers also reportedly had an enmity with the Food Street’s owners, Tiffy and Gogi Butt. — PTI