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Annan meets Assad in a bid to end bloodshed
‘Time has come for Arab, foreign troops in Syria’
Taliban threaten Pak activist
Shad Begum |
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Protesters challenge Putin’s poll victory
Japan to remember Fukushima victims today
14 Palestinians killed in Israeli air strikes on Gaza
Shah Rukh Khan Egypt’s presidential race begins
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Annan meets Assad in a bid to end bloodshed Damascus, March 10 State media reported the start of talks between President Bashar al-Assad and Annan, on his first visit since being named international envoy on the conflict. It came as a human rights group reported fierce shelling of Idlib in northwest Syria and a day after another 70 civilians were killed in the regime’s crackdown on dissent. Human rights watchdogs say the conflict has cost more than 8,500 lives since last March. Emissary of the United Nations and the Arab League, Annan has the support of Damascus allies Beijing and Moscow and his mission has been welcomed by the both the Syrian government and opposition. But Russia said its Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made clear to Annan at a meeting earlier in Cairo that Moscow was opposed to “crude interference” in Syria’s affairs. “A particular emphasis was placed on the inadmissibility of trampling on international legal norms, including through crude interference in Syria’s internal affairs,” the foreign ministry said. Current UN chief Ban Ki-moon said that Annan would demand an immediate end to the violence and aid agency access to besieged protest cities to evacuate casualties and provide desperately needed relief supplies to civilians trapped by the fighting. — AFP
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‘Time has come for Arab, foreign troops in Syria’
Cairo, March 10 “The time has come to apply the proposal to send Arab and international troops to Syria,” Sheikh Hamad said during a meeting of top diplomats which was to be joined by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov later today. The call came amid Western and Arab-led efforts to pile pressure on Bashar al-Assad’s regime, whose crackdown on dissent has cost thousands of lives of, according to human rights monitors. — AFP
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Islamabad, March 10 Apart from Begum, who was among 10 women presented the International Women of Courage Award by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington earlier this week, the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan threatened 14-year-old Malala Yousufzai, the first recipient of Pakistan’s new National Peace Prize. Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said both of them were on the militants’ “hit list”. Begum is a social worker from Lower Dir district, located a short distance from Islamabad. The area was overrun by the Taliban in 2009 before the army launched an offensive to flush out the militants. Yousufzai is a resident of the Swat Valley and came to prominence with her blog that detailed the atrocities of the Taliban. Ehsan said Begum and Yousufzai had backed the “imposition of secular” governance in Swat. — PTI
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Protesters challenge Putin’s poll victory Moscow, March 10 People who demonstrated in bright sunshine in central Moscow waved flags, balloons and banners and wore white ribbons, the symbol of protests that began three months ago. Echoing chants from previous rallies, they shouted “Russia without Putin”. “The road will be long and hard, it will be no quick struggle, but we will do it all. Russia will be free - Russia demands change!” liberal leader Grigory Yavlinsky told the crowd. But organisers put the crowd at 25,000, about a quarter of the size of the last protest before the March 4 poll gave Putin a six-year third term as president. Police estimated the crowd at 10,000 and independent witnesses put it at under 20,000. Even though international vote monitors say the election was skewed in his favour, opposition leaders have been forced by the margin of victory to acknowledge that Putin was the winner. Officials results showed the prime minister and former KGB spy won almost 64 percent of votes and put the runner-up, Communist Gennady Zyuganov, on less than 18%. The opposition is struggling to find a way to maintain pressure on Putin and mount a sustained challenge to the man they say has stunted Russia’s political and economic development after 12 years rule as president or prime minister. Some are defiant. Sergei Udaltsov, a far-left leader, called for 1 million people to march on May 1, a national holiday. “Only the street can change the authorities. Only the masses. We have no other option. That’s why we’ll be fighting, going onto the streets - until we overthrow them,” he said. — Reuters
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Japan to remember Fukushima victims today
Tokyo, March 10 Many memorial services would be held in the northeastern prefectures hit hard by the tsunami as well as in Tokyo and elsewhere tomorrow, with a moment of silence planned across the country at 2.46 pm local time, the time the magnitude-9.0 quake jolted the country exactly a year earlier and led to the Fukushima tragedy, reported Kyodo news agency. Emperor Akihito, who is recuperating from heart bypass surgery, will attend a government-sponsored memorial ceremony at the National Theater in central Tokyo along with Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and representatives of those who lost their family members in the natural disasters, it reported. Evacuation drills will also be held across the country to prepare for future quakes and tsunami, with some planned under the scenario in which a nuclear power plant suffers a loss of power just as Fukushima Daiichi did after tsunami waves flooded the plant a year ago. At the plant, a moment of silence will be observed and an apology issued to the public once again for causing the country’s worst nuclear accident. Ahead of the anniversary, some events were also held in Japan today, including a Buddhist memorial service at a temple in Osaka featuring about 16,000 candles with names of disaster victims etched on them. — PTI
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14 Palestinians killed in Israeli air strikes on Gaza
Jerusalem, March 10 Gaza-based medical officials said an airstrike today killed two men in the southern part of the Hamas-ruled territory, raising to 14 the number of Palestinians killed since Israel assassinated a top military leader 24 hours earlier. The latest attack east of Khan Younis came from a drone which fired on a motorcycle, said Gaza medical official Adham Abu Salmiya. The body of Hussein Barham Al-Breim, 51, was transferred to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Abu Salmiya said, adding that his companion, Mansour Kamal Abu Nuseira, 20, was taken to European Hospital, where he later died. Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said that about 90 rockets had been fired toward the Jewish nation since Friday afternoon, injuring eight people, including one seriously, with the Iron Dome system managing to intercept 25 rockets launched towards populated areas in the southern part of the country. The Israel Air Force yesterday afternoon launched a strike in Gaza killing a leader of the Popular Resistance Committees, Zuhir al-Qaisi, who the army said was planning a large terror attack on Israel's southern border. Two mortars were fired into Israel from Gaza before Israel carried out the targeted assassination, the army said. — PTI
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Islamabad, March 10 Islam’s father served as a brigadier in the Pakistan Army and Shah Nawaz Khan, who was a major general in the INA led by Subhas Chandra Bose, was his uncle, leading Pakistani defence analyst Ikram Sehgal said. "One son of Shah Nawaz Khan went with him at the time of Partition, while another, Mahmood Nawaz, stayed on in Pakistan and became a full colonel. In fact, Mahmood Nawaz went and met his father only after retirement as he could not travel to India while he was in service," Sehgal said, providing details of the new ISI chief's extended family. Shah Rukh Khan's late mother, Lateef Fatima, was the adopted daughter of Shah Nawaz Khan, according to the Bollywood star's biography on several websites. Islam, who was yesterday appointed the new head of the powerful spy agency by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, comes from a military family and was born in the garrison city of Rawalpindi. It could not immediately be ascertained whether Islam had ever met Shah Nawaz Khan, who died in 1983. Shah Nawaz Khan was himself born at Kahuta and served in the British Indian Army during World War II. He was captured when Japanese troops overran Singapore in 1942 and then joined the INA. Shah Nawaz Khan subsequently fought alongside Japanese forces against the British in Burma (now Myanmar). He was captured by the British and put on trial with other INA officers in 1946. — PTI
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Damascus, March 10
Islamabad, March 10
Moscow, March 10
