The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	Pak SC lifts Haqqani travel ban Memogate: Judicial panel gets 2 more months to finish work Afzal Khan in Islamabad A travel ban imposed on Pakistan’s ex-ambassador to the US, Husain Haqqani, was on Monday lifted by the Supreme Court which also gave the judicial commission two more months to complete its probe in the memo scandal that rocked ties between the civilian government and the military. “He is allowed to proceed out of country,” Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry said, as a nine-judge bench headed by him lifted a foreign travel ban on Haqqani, who had resigned over the scandal in November. The top court also said that the panel would decide on controversial Pakistani-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz’s request to record his statement outside the country. Acting on an application filed by the three-judge commission seeking an extension of its term, the bench gave the panel two more months to complete its probe. Attorney General Anwar-ul-Haq told the bench that the government did not have any reservations on term of the commission being extended. The Supreme Court had formed the commission on December 30 and given it four weeks to complete its investigation. The term of the commission would have ended today. The apex court rejected an application from Ijaz that said the commission should be asked to record his statement outside Pakistan. The court said the commission should decide whether it wants to go abroad to record Ijaz’s statement or to call him to Pakistan. Acting on a request from Haqqani’s counsel Asma Jehangir to ease travel restrictions on her client who had family abroad, the Supreme Court ended a ban on foreign travel it had imposed on the former envoy. However, the bench said that whenever the judicial commission or the apex court summoned Haqqani, he would have to come back to Pakistan in four days. The bench further directed Haqqani to inform the apex court’s registrar’s office whenever he travelled abroad. Haqqani, who has denied any involvement in the memo, said he plans to travel to the US to join his family there. Ijaz, who made the mysterious memo public, has failed to make two scheduled appearances before the commission, which has given him a final opportunity to depose on February 9. The Attorney General further informed the bench that Canadian firm Research In Motion had refused to hand over data of alleged conversations between Ijaz and Haqqani. RIM had said it would consider the request to hand over this data if the Canadian government writes an application and Ijaz gave a waiver regarding the handing over of data regarding his communications, the Attorney General said. Reacting to top court lifting his travel ban, Haqqani in messages posted on Twitter wrote that the Supreme Court had restored his freedom to travel. “Lest (someone) forgets, I returned and resigned voluntarily to disprove falsehoods,” he wrote. Haqqani wrote that he and his counsel would continue to cooperate with the commission. “So far I’m the (only one to) appear before it,” he said. (With inputs from PTI)
	ISI chief Pasha unlikely to get another extension Islamabad, January 30 The Pakistan government is unlikely to grant another extension to ISI chief Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha, whose current term in office ends in March, sources said today. It is believed that the government’s decision has largely been influenced by Pasha’s role in the standoff between the military and the civilian government over the alleged memo that had sought US help to stave off a feared coup in Pakistan last year. Sources said the Pakistan People’s Party-led government was not in favour of giving another extension to Pasha, whose tenure was extended twice after he reached the age of retirement in March 2010. Karachi Corps Commander Lt Gen Muhammad Zahirul Islam is being widely tipped to replace 59-year-old Pasha, who is set to step down on March 18. — PTI
	Florida Primary Romney surges ahead of Gingrich in opinion polls Washington, January 30 Ahead of the make or break Florida Republican primary tomorrow, Mitt Romney appears to be surging ahead in opinion polls against his nearest rival Newt Gingrich, as the two top presidential hopefuls intensified their war of words. A win at Florida would all but lock up the Republican presidential nomination in Romney’s favour and yet still former House of Representatives Speaker Gingrich has threatened to make it a fight all the way to the republican final convention in August. Romney, who many believe would ultimately bag Republican nomination to challenge incumbent Barack Obama in the November presidential elections, is leading by 15 points according to a latest NBC/Marxist poll against Gingrich. In other polls too Romney, former Massachusetts Governor, is leading by double digit margin. But bitterly enriched from its experience in South Florida, where Romney lost to former House of Representatives Speaker Gingrich after an initially double digit lead, his campaign is leaving nothing to chance. The Romney campaign which is not short of money has launched an onslaught of negative advertisement campaign against Gingrich in Florida, pumping in millions of dollars this week. In fact, Romney himself is leading the frontal attack against Gingrich, reflected in his campaign speeches in Florida yesterday. “Your (Gingrich) problem in Florida is that you worked for Freddie Mac at a time that Freddie Mac was not doing the right thing for the American people, and that you are selling influence in Washington at a time when we needed people to stand up for the truth in Washington,” Romney said in one of his campaign speeches in Naples, Florida. — PTI
	US, Taliban prisoner-release talks fail: Report Washington, January 30 Initial talks between the US and Taliban in Qatar on the release of five of the militant group’s prisoners from the Guantanamo Bay detention centre have failed, a media report said today. The failure of the talks is being attributed mainly to the refusal of Taliban to accept the US demand of a ceasefire before these five Taliban prisoners could be released, the MSNBC news reported quoting its sources in Taliban. For record sake the United States has neither confirmed nor denied the reports of such a peace talks with Taliban. Special US Representatives for Pakistan and Afghanistan, Marc Grossman, was recently in Qatar, which is being widely speculated for such talks, but the State Department has kept quiet on the issue so far. “According to the sources, the US demanded that Taliban announce a ceasefire in Afghanistan before any prisoner swap, which they said their central leadership had turned down,” MSNBC news reported in its news dispatch from Islamabad. According to the report, the US was willing to release five Taliban leaders currently in prison in Guantanamo in exchange of release of American soldier, Bowe Bergdahl, captured by Taliban militants in Afghanistan’s Paktika province in June 2009, bordering South Waziristan. “Our stance is the same. We will announce a ceasefire when the foreign forces start their withdrawal from Afghanistan,” a Taliban source was quoted as saying. Earlier, former minister of vice and virtue for the Taliban Maulavi Qalamuddin had said “there are no peace talks going on.” “The only thing is the negotiations over release of Taliban prisoners from Guantanamo, which is still under discussion between both sides in Qatar,” he had said. — PTI Afghan govt, Taliban to hold talks Riyadh: Afghan government officials and representatives of the country’s former Taliban rulers are to hold peace talks in Saudi Arabia, a Riyadh-based Afghan diplomat said on Monday. “An Afghan government delegation and a Taliban delegation will hold talks in Saudi Arabia,” the diplomat said but he could not give a timing. The talks in Saudi will be separate from the US-brokered meetings held in Qatar and will be the first such talks to take place in the Sunni Muslim kingdom.
	Cold snap kills 36 in eastern Europe Belgrade, January 30 Heavy snow and a severe cold snap killed at least 36 persons across eastern Europe and many areas were under emergency measures today as schools closed down, roads became impassible and power supplies were cut off. As temperatures dropped to around minus 20° Celsius (minus 4 Fahrenheit), authorities opened emergency shelters and urged people to be careful and remain indoors. Ukraine's Emergency Situations Ministry said 18 persons died of hypothermia in recent days and nearly 500 people sought medical help for frostbites and hypothermia in just three days last week. Temperatures in some regions plunged to minus 16° C (3 F) during the day and minus 23° C (minus 10 F) during the night. Authorities opened 1,500 shelters to provide food and heat. At least 10 people froze to death in Poland since Friday as the cold reached minus 26° C (minus 15 F.) Malgorzata Wozniak, a spokeswoman for Poland's Interior Ministry, told The Associated Press that elderly people and homeless persons were among the dead and police were checking unheated empty buildings to make sure that homeless people don't freeze to death. Early today temperatures fell to minus 26° C (minus 15 F) in southern Poland. Until Friday, Poland has been having a mild winter with little snow and temperatures just below the freezing mark. In central Serbia, three people died and two more were missing and 14 municipalities throughout the country were under emergency plans. Efforts to clear roads of snow were hampered by strong winds and dozens of towns faced power outages. The police said one woman froze to death in a snowstorm in a central village, while two elderly men were found dead, one in the snow outside his home. Further south, emergency crews are searching for two men in their 70s who are feared dead. In the Czech capital of Prague, city authorities announced plans to set up tents for the estimated 3,000 homeless people. — AP
	Ten killed, 18 hurt in Florida highway pileups Washington, January 30 As many as 10 people were killed and 18 injured overnight in pileups on a highway in the US state of Florida, due to fog and smoke from a brush fire, media reports said on Sunday. Ten people were killed in the crashes, which the Florida Highway Patrol said involved at least 12 passenger cars and about seven semi trucks, the CNN reported. Most of the collisions were on Interstate 75, said Alachua County Sheriff's Office Seargent Todd Kelly. Crashes also occurred on US Highway 441, the report added. At least 18 other people were wounded in the series of crashes, which occurred around 3.40 am on the interstate I-75 in south of Gainesville, northern Florida, Xinhua quoted reports as saying. Some of the cars were still smouldering on Sunday morning, as firefighters tried to douse the fire by spraying foam. Some of the vehicles smashed into a tractor-trailer. All three lanes on both sides of the highway were closed on Sunday morning. The Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) had briefly closed the highway before the crashes because of a hazy fog and heavy smoke from a marsh fire in the Paynes Prairie area, south of Gainesville. It was reopened after the visibility improved. — IANS