W O R L D

Pakistan deports Osama’s family to Saudi Arabia
Islamabad, April 27
Fourteen members of Osama bin Laden's family, including his three widows, were today deported to Saudi Arabia by Pakistan, days before the first death anniversary of the Al-Qaida chief who was killed in a covert operation by US commandos.

Policemen escort a mini-van carrying family members of Osama bin Laden in Islamabad. — AFP

Defiant Gilani says won’t step down
Continuing to be in a defiant mood despite the Pakistan’s Supreme Court conviction and demands for his resignation, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Friday refused to step down saying only the country’s Parliament could remove him from office.

Terror in Ukraine: 4 blasts leave 27 hurt
Kiev, April 27
Four blasts within minutes rocked the centre of the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipropetrovsk today, injuring at least 27 persons, including nine children, in what prosecutors believed was a terrorist attack, officials said.


SHAKEN: People assist an injured woman at a blast site in Dnipropetrovsk on Friday. — Reuters

Immigration ‘chaos’ at Heathrow airport
London, April 27
With less than two months to go for the London Olympics, tempers rose at the Heathrow airport last night after long queues and delays to clear immigration prompted frustrated passengers to brand the experience as 'omni-megashambles' and 'chaos'.

Justice Bhandari elected ICJ judge
United Nations, April 27
After a gap of more than two decades, India’s nominee Justice Dalveer Bhandari was today overwhelmingly elected as a judge of the International Court of Justice, defeating his Filipino rival in the UN General Assembly as well as the Security Council.

Pakistan deports Osama’s family to Saudi Arabia

Islamabad, April 27
Fourteen members of Osama bin Laden's family, including his three widows, were today deported to Saudi Arabia by Pakistan, days before the first death anniversary of the Al-Qaida chief who was killed in a covert operation by US commandos.

The family was taken amidst tight security at around midnight to the Chaklala military airbase in Rawalpindi, where a special Saudi aircraft was standing by to fly out the women and children.

Security agencies sent a mini bus to the house in Sector G-6 of Islamabad, where the family was being held to transport them to the airport. The widows initially refused to enter the bus in the presence of large number of journalists who had gathered at the house and officials covered its windows with plastic sheets.

TV news channels beamed footage of two smiling women seated at the front of the bus as it drove away from the house. Two of the widows are Saudi nationals while the third, Amal Abdulfattah, is a Yemeni national.

The Interior Ministry, which was responsible for the deportation of the family, said in a statement that the authorities had "passed orders for the deportation of 14 members of (Bin Laden's) family in pursuance of the court orders".

"The family was kept safe and sound in a guest house. They have been deported to the country of their choice, Saudi Arabia,” the statement said.

After Bin Laden was killed in the garrison town of Abbottabad on May 2 last year, his widows and children were detained by Pakistani intelligence agencies.

A civil court had recently sentenced the widows and two grown-up daughters to 45 days in prison for entering and living in Pakistan illegally. The judge ordered their deportation on completion of the prison term, which began on March 3 when the family was formally arrested. — PTI

Plea to release Osama’s pics rejected

Washington: A US court has refused to release photos and videos from American military raid that killed Al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden in Pakistan last year. US District Court Judge James Boasberg rejected a lawsuit seeking to force disclosure of the images, writing that the courts must defer to the conclusion President Barack Obama and military leaders reached that releasing them could spur violence against the US troops and other Americans travelling abroad, Politico reported.

Laden planned attacks on Pak

Islamabad: Osama bin Laden had planned to mount indiscriminate attacks on the Pakistani soil before his killing in a covert US raid in Abbottabad, the documents seized by the Americans from the slain terrorist's compound in the Pakistani garrison city have suggested. The CIA shared intelligence about possible Al-Qaida attacks inside Pakistan when officials of the two countries met to explore the way forward in resetting bilateral ties, the Dawn newspaper reported.

Defiant Gilani says won’t step down
Afzal Khan in Islamabad

He also questioned the authority of the Supreme Court to remove him as the Prime Minister. “I am an elected Prime Minister, representing 180 million people. How can anybody order an elected Prime Minister to go home?” he said. “Only the Speaker of the House, who is the custodian of this House, has the authority to decide. I am ready to quit if this Parliament disqualifies me,” Gilani said.

Bomb scare in London, man takes 4 hostage

London, April 27
A 50-year-old man, who failed to obtain a driving license thrice, today threatened to blow himself up, after holding four hostages in an office in Central London, prompting Scotland Yard to deploy sharp-shooters around the area.

Police negotiators have begun dialogue with the person identified as Michael Green, who barged into the building wearing gas canisters. The authorities have closed the arterial Tottenham Court Road and the nearby Goodge Street tube station.

The police is not treating the disturbance as a terrorist incident, but are taking all necessary precautions .Reports said the suspect had a grievance with a company in the building.The police was called when computer equipment and office furniture was thrown from the fifth floor of an office building.

The man "had a bomb and was threatening to blow himself up," witnesses claimed. — PTI 

Terror in Ukraine: 4 blasts leave 27 hurt

Kiev, April 27
Four blasts within minutes rocked the centre of the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipropetrovsk today, injuring at least 27 persons, including nine children, in what prosecutors believed was a terrorist attack, officials said.

Emergency Situations Ministry spokeswoman Yulia Yershova said the first blast occurred at a tramway stop in the centre of Dnipropetrovsk, injuring 13 persons. The second blast injured 11 persons near a school, including the nine children, while the third blast wounded three persons near a railway station.

A fourth blast was also heard in the city centre, Yershova said. It was unclear whether anybody was injured.

Interior Minister Vitaly Zakharchenko and the deputy heads of the Prosecutor General's Office and the national security service were flying to Dnipropetrovsk. Prosecutors' spokesman Yuri Boichenko said investigators are treating the blasts as a terrorist attack.

President Viktor Yanukovych called the explosions "yet another challenge for the whole country", and said Ukraine's best investigators would be working on the case, according to the Interfax news agency. "We will think of a worthy response," he said.

In January 2011, two pre-dawn explosions outside an office of a coal mining company and then a shopping centre in the eastern city of Makiyivka caused no casualties.— AP

Immigration ‘chaos’ at Heathrow airport

London, April 27
With less than two months to go for the London Olympics, tempers rose at the Heathrow airport last night after long queues and delays to clear immigration prompted frustrated passengers to brand the experience as 'omni-megashambles' and 'chaos'.

Angry passengers reported that there were only three immigration officials on duty last night to clear thousands of passengers from outside the UK and European Union.

There were four officials clearing passengers from within the European Union.

Similar problems have been reported for several days, including by passengers from India.Many flights from India land in London in the evening.

Alistair Campbell, communications director to former Prime Minister Tony Blair, was one of the thousands of passengers stuck in long queues last night.

He said only three to four border staff were on duty for EU arrivals and just three for passengers coming from outside Europe.

He tweeted: "If this is what Heathrow T5 border queue is like on an average Thursday, Olympic athletes should think about coming soon". — PTI

Justice Bhandari elected ICJ judge

United Nations, April 27
After a gap of more than two decades, India’s nominee Justice Dalveer Bhandari was today overwhelmingly elected as a judge of the International Court of Justice, defeating his Filipino rival in the UN General Assembly as well as the Security Council.

Sixty-four-year-old Justice Bhandari, a senior Supreme Court Judge, will serve a 2012-18 term in the ICJ, which is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations based in The Hague, Netherlands.

An eminent legal luminary, Bhandari has been on the Supreme Court of India since 2005 and has served in the higher Indian judiciary for over two decades. — PTI