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Taliban say no to polio vaccination campaign in Pakistan
Egyptian Army, Brotherhood discuss presidential powers
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Pak’s new PM to get helipad
at his house
27 mn problem drug users worldwide: UN
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Taliban say no to polio vaccination campaign in Pakistan Islamabad, June 26 A pamphlet distributed by the Mullah Nazir faction of Taliban yesterday in Wana, the main town of South Waziristan Agency, claimed Western powers were running a spy network in the area in the guise of the vaccination campaign. The pamphlet cited the case of Shakeel Afridi, the doctor arrested by Pakistani authorities for conducting a fake vaccination campaign to help the CIA track Osama bin Laden before he was killed in Abbottabad last year. Mohammad Rafiq, the UNICEF's focal person for Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the tribal areas, said an estimated 80,000 children would suffer if the anti-polio campaign was stopped in South Waziristan. Earlier, another Taliban faction led by Hafiz Gul Bahadur banned the polio vaccination campaign in North Waziristan Agency. He too said the ban would remain in place as long as US drone attacks continued. The pamphlet distributed in South Waziristan compared polio drops to "sugar-coated poison" and claimed Western powers had never been loyal to Muslims. "If they (Western powers) were so sincere with Muslims, then why did they bomb us so mercilessly," it said. The pamphlet referred to US sanctions on Saddam Hussein's regime and claimed two million Iraqi children had suffered due to lack of medicines in the 1990s. It further claimed that drone strikes had a psychological effect on children in the tribal belt. "On the one hand, they are killing innocent children in drone strikes, while on the other hand they are saving their lives by vaccinating them...it's like a wolf in sheep's clothing," the pamphlet said. The decision to ban the polio vaccination was taken by a shura or council of militants in North Waziristan, the pamphlet said. It warned all polio teams to end their campaign or to face the consequences. The Taliban further asked the local administration to stay away from the immunisation drive. A local resident told The Express Tribune that the pamphlet directed parents to avoid getting their children vaccinated as long as drone strikes continued in Waziristan. If the Taliban continued to block the vaccination campaign, the government will be unable to immunise 241,000 children, including 161,000 in North Waziristan and 80,000 in South Waziristan, during a three-day anti-polio campaign scheduled to begin on July 17. Like North Waziristan, South Waziristan recorded one polio case this year. UNICEF official Mohammad Rafiq said Pakistan had recorded 22 polio cases this year, including 11 in the tribal areas. Nine of those cases were registered in Khyber Agency. The unsatisfactory performance of the anti-polio campaign in northwest Pakistan has been blamed on poor law and order, threats from militants, corruption and lack of interest among authorities. The federal government has expressed concern over the ban on the anti-polio campaign and urged Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Governor Masood Kausar to open a dialogue with militant groups for resuming the vaccination drive. — PTI
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Egyptian Army, Brotherhood discuss presidential powers
Cairo, June 26 The newly elected President, Mohamed Mursi, toured his palace on Monday. But after savouring the victory that installed him in place of the Brotherhood's ousted enemy Hosni Mubarak, he immediately went to see the generals in the Defence Ministry in a visit that seemed to underline who really calls the shots. Mursi, seeking to fulfill a promise of inclusive government, will name six vice-presidents - a woman, a Christian and others drawn from non-Brotherhood political groups -to act as an advisory panel, said Sameh Essawi, an aide to the President. Mursi has resigned as head of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party to be a "president for all Egyptians" but critics question his independence from the movement's opaque leadership. The party appointed Essam el-Erian as its interim leader on Tuesday to replace him. The Brotherhood, banned under Mubarak, sent its supporters onto the streets last week to protest after the Supreme Constitutional Court ordered the lower house dissolved, saying rules had been broken during its election six months ago. That decision, backed by the army, threatened to force a new parliamentary election, which could erode the large bloc won by the Brotherhood and its allies, and undermine one of the biggest gains of the revolt that toppled Mubarak last year. Islamists and others said this amounted to a military coup. The army compounded these fears by issuing a decree curbing the President's powers just as the election closed. Mursi was declared the winner on Sunday, a nail-biting week after voting ended. During the wait, the Brotherhood and the army held discreet talks, officials on both sides said. The new president will be sworn in on Saturday, probably before the Constitutional Court. The Brotherhood will also stage a symbolic swearing-in ceremony in Tahrir Square. Presidents were previously sworn in by parliament, which is now shuttered and under military guard. The presidential election has set the stage for a tussle between the military, which provided Egypt's rulers for six decades, and the Brotherhood, the traditional opposition - sidelining secular liberals who drove the anti-Mubarak uprising. Military officials were not available to comment. — Reuters
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Pak’s new PM to get helipad
at his house
Islamabad, June 26 The police in Rawalpindi district have proposed the construction of a helipad near Ashraf's home in Sungral village of Gujar Khan area on the outskirts of Islamabad, the Dawn quoted its sources as saying. The move is aimed at avoiding "inconvenience during VVIP security duty", the report said. However, detractors of the Pakistan People's Party-led government have criticised the move in the light of the country's economic woes. Some police officers defended the move, saying helipads had been added to private residences of other VVIPs following attacks on politicians by the Taliban and other militant groups. — PTI
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27 mn problem drug users worldwide: UN
Vienna, June 26 "Heroin, cocaine and other drugs continue to kill around 200,000 people a year, shattering families and bringing misery to thousands of other people, insecurity and the spread of HIV," director Yury Fedotov said as he presented the 2012 World Drug Report of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Global production and use of illegal drugs remained relatively stable last year, the report found. However, this masked shifts in trafficking and consumption that were "significant and also worrying... because they are proof of the resilience and adaptability of illicit drug suppliers and users," the UNODC warned. Cannabis remained the most widely used drug with up to 224 million users worldwide, although production figures were hard to obtain, the agency said. Europe was the biggest market for cannabis resin, most of it coming from Morocco, although Afghanistan is becoming a major supplier and domestic production in Europe is also rising, the UNODC said. "Most European Union member states (are) reporting the cultivation of cannabis herb to be a phenomenon that appears to be on the increase," the report added, noting the increasing involvement of organised crime. Opium production in Afghanistan, the world's biggest producer with 90 percent of the global share, meanwhile jumped by 61 per cent in 2011 to 5,800 tonnes from 3,600 tonnes in 2010, when the crop was hit by disease. — AFP
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The Muslim Brotherhood has reached some agreements with the army on the powers that Egypt's first Islamist President will hold and the fate of the dissolved Islamist-led Parliament, Brotherhood officials said on Tuesday.
