The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Finally, Egypt poll results today
Muslim Brotherhood negotiates ‘political deal’ with military

Cairo, June 23
Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood today appeared to be backing down from a showdown with the powerful military by negotiating a 'political deal' to pave the way for its candidate Mohammad Mursi to be declared as the country's president-elect by tomorrow.

Quoting sources close to the ruling military council and the Brotherhood, Al Ahram reported that the two sides were locked in an intense negotiation on a compromise agreement to end the current standoff.

The reports of talks between the Brotherhood and the military came as thousands of the party supporters continued to pack Cairo's iconic Tahrir Square to protest against the military's tightening grasp on political power.

Ahram said that under the deal being worked out, an official announcement would be made that the Brotherhood's candidate Mursi was Egypt's president-elect and in turn the party would pull the bulk of its supporters out of the Tahrir Square and agree to work within the parameters set out by the ruling military council in its latest Constitutional decree.

The military decree proclaimed earlier this week gives the armed forces full authority over the defence and gives no power to the President to change the minister of defence or make any changes to the military council.

Under the new compromise, the Brotherhood is insisting that the Parliament should not be dissolved and the re-elections be held only for one third of the seats in accordance with the individual candidacy system.

Lawmaker elected in accordance with the party list proportional representation system, who account for the remaining two third members of the National Assembly would continue to retain their seats under the deal being worked out.

If the deal is reached, Al Ahram said that Mursi would be declared as elected president tomorrow or on Monday.

As the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) and the Brotherhood privately engaged in talks, the Brotherhood kept up the pressure on the military by publicly clashing over recent measures the council has announced.

The delay in the announcement of the June 16-17 run-off-initially scheduled for Thursday-has raised suspicions that the outcome of the election is being negotiated not counted.

Hundreds of Brotherhood supporters spent the night in Tahrir Square chanting slogans "Down with the Military" and "Mursi, Mursi, God is the greatest".

Both Mursi and former prime minister Ahmad Shafiq are claiming victory in Egypt's first free election to find a successor to Hosni Mubarak. — PTI

Sunita Williams heading again to space in July

Washington, June 23
Indian-American Sunita Williams, a record-setting astronaut who lived and worked aboard the International Space Station for six months in 2006, is headed to space once again in July. Williams is scheduled to take off on July 14 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan with Flight Engineers Yuri Malenchenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency and Akihiko Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, NASA said.

flying high
l Indian-American Williams will be a flight engineer on the International Space Station’s Expedition 32 crew
l She will become commander of Expedition 33 on reaching the station
l Williams and her team plan an orbital sporting event to mark the London Olympics

Williams, 46, will be a flight engineer on the station's Expedition 32 crew and will become commander of Expedition 33 on reaching the space station.

According to NASA, Williams and her colleagues will be aboard the station during an exceptionally busy period that includes two spacewalks, the arrival of Japanese, US commercial and Russian resupply vehicles, and an increasingly faster pace of scientific research.

Williams, whose father hailed from Gujarat, was selected as an astronaut candidate by NASA in 1998. She is the second woman of Indian descent to have been selected by NASA for a space mission after Kalpana Chawla.

She was assigned to the International Space Station as a member of Expedition 14 and then joined Expedition 15. She holds the record of the longest spaceflight (195 days) for female space travellers.

In space, Williams and her team of astronauts plan an orbital sporting event to mark the London Olympics.

"I'm looking forward to seeing the full capability of the space station. It's an experiment; not only the things that we're doing inside but also all the engineering that has gone into allowing us to dock new vehicles, do space walks, Russian and US. So, it's a pretty complicated vehicle now and I'm looking forward to being part of it," Williams said.

‘Sprint’ is an experiment that's trying to optimise our exercise protocol on board and trying to understand if intense exercise will take the place of long exercise. And 'ICV' is 'integrated cardio-vascular'. It's a pretty complicated experiment, and from the name you can understand it's trying to understand what is happening with your heart on board," she said at a news conference. — PTI

Washington’s Constitution copy fetches $9.8 m

New York, June 23
First US President George Washington's personal copy of the American Constitution has fetched a record price of nearly $10 million at an auction here.

The volume sold for a whopping $9.8 million after four minutes of bidding at Christie's in Manhattan yesterday and went for more than three times its estimated price. It is now headed home to Mount Vernon.

Washington's book, leather bound for him in 1789 and titled "Acts of Congress," contains his annotated copy of the Constitution, the proposed Bill of Rights and acts of the first Congress.

The successful bidder was the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, a non-profit body that owns and operates Mount Vernon. The book, which Christie's said set a world auction record for an American book or historical document, will go to the George Washington presidential library now under construction at Mount Vernon. — PTI

Paraguayan Prez Lugo impeached

Asuncion, June 23
Paraguayan lawmakers have impeached President Fernando Lugo over his handling of a deadly land dispute, prompting an angry din across Latin America and refusals to recognize his successor.

In a 39-to-4 vote yesterday, senators found Lugo, a 61-year-old former Catholic priest with a string of outstanding paternity cases, guilty of performing his duties badly during a land dispute last week that left 17 persons dead.

An hour later, to cheers inside Congress and angry clashes outside, 49-year-old Vice-President Federico Franco was sworn in as the new leader of one of Latin America's poorest nations.

"The process took place in a manner that was a little bit quick and it took me and all Paraguayans by surprise," Franco said, hours after taking the oath of office and as he set about swearing in new ministers. The police, some on horseback, had used tear gas and water cannons to beat back crowds of thousands outside Congress chanting "Lugo, president!" and tearing down fences.

Lugo, who rose to power in 2008 as a champion of the poor, ending more than six decades of rule by the right-wing Colorado Party, called for calm in a brief speech before leaving the presidential palace.

"I submit to the decision of Congress," Lugo said, adding that "the history of Paraguay and its democracy have been deeply wounded." "Today I retire as president, but not as a Paraguayan citizen," he said. "May the blood of the just not be spilled." Holed up in the palace earlier while events in the Senate took their course, he said the lawmakers' action was "more than a coup d'etat-it's a parliamentary coup dressed up as a legal procedure." A torrent of furious responses poured in from across the region, not just from traditional leftist allies like Bolivia, Nicaragua and Venezuela, but also from centrist and right-wing governments in Argentina and Chile.

"Without any doubt there has been a coup d'etat in Paraguay. It is unacceptable," said Argentina's President Cristina Kirchner.

She added that the issue would be discussed next week at a summit of the South American trade bloc Mercosur, which includes Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. Peruvian President Ollanta Humala called the move a "setback to the democratic process in the region." — AFP

Ashraf retains most members of Gilani’s Cabinet

Islamabad, June 23
Hina Rabbani Khar and Naveed Qamar retained their portfolios of foreign and defence, respectively, in the new Cabinet, announced by Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, which has some new faces. Most of the Ministers in Ashraf's Cabinet have been drawn from the previous dispensation of Yousuf Raza Gilani.

Hina retained the Foreign Ministry while Qamar Zaman Kaira, who had also filed his nomination for yesterday's Prime Ministerial contest as a covering candidate, retained the Information Ministry. Qamar was again assigned the Defence Ministry.

Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, whose PML-Q party is a key ally in the Pakistan People's Party-led coalition, was again inducted as a senior minister and given the Defence Production and Industry portfolios.

Farzana Raja, a loyalist of PPP chief and President Asif Ali Zaradri, was among the new faces inducted into the Cabinet. She was given charge of the Benazir Income Support Programme, a scheme to help the poor.

The other members of the Cabinet include Makhdoom Amin Fahim (commerce), Arbab Alamgir Khan (communication), Nazar Muhammad Gondal (capital administration and development), Rana Muhammad Farooq Saeed Khan (climate change), Abdul Hafeez Shaikh (finance), Mir Hazar Khan Bajrani (inter-provincial coordination), Manzoor Wattoo (Kashmir affairs), Farooq Naek (law and justice).

A total of 27 Federal Ministers and 11 Ministers of state were given portfolios.

Ashraf was elected the new premier during a special session of the National Assembly yesterday. He and the council of ministers were subsequently sworn-in by President Asif Ali Zardari.

The PPP nominated Ashraf, 61, as its prime ministerial candidate after former premier Gilani was disqualified by the Supreme Court on Tuesday due to his conviction of contempt. — PTI

Pataudi plaque unveiled at Oxford

London, June 23
A plaque in the honour of late India cricket legend Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi was unveiled at the Oxford University pavilion here in the presence of his family.

The plaque was installed on the wall of the historic pavilion in the University Parks yesterday in presence of his widow Sharmila Tagore, eldest son Saif Ali Khan and his fiance Kareena Kapoor, daughters Saba Ali Khan and Soha Ali Khan and her partner Kunal Khemu, who were welcomed by Chancellor Lord Patten and Vice-Chancellor Professor Andrew Hamilton to the campus.

The family later had lunch at Balliol College, visited the Ashmolean Museum where they explored the India collection including the gallery of Mughal paintings, and watched the 160th anniversary match of the Harlequins — the club for former Oxford cricketing Blues.

Andrew Thomas, head of development (sport) at the University, said, “We are delighted to honour a legend in Oxford and India.” — PTI