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Fierce fighting rages in Aleppo
Afghan Parliament votes to dismiss security ministers
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Pak govt to take on SC on contempt law
Honour Killing
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Fierce fighting rages in Aleppo
Aleppo, August 4 Earlier in the day, Syrian forces clashed with rebels around Aleppo's television and radio station, activists said, and a local rebel commander said his fighters were preparing for a "strong offensive" by government forces on the city. Syrian troops backed by armour stormed the last opposition bastion in Damascus on Friday in a drive to crush a rebel offensive that coincided with a bomb attack that killed four of President Bashar al-Assad's senior security officials. The onslaught continued on Saturday as jets bombarded the capital in a bid to snuff out resistance, a resident said. Syria's civil war has intensified in the last few weeks, with fighting engulfing Damascus and Aleppo for the first time in the 17-month-old uprising against Assad family rule. The two cities are crucial prizes for both sides in an increasingly brutal struggle that has eluded all attempts at a diplomatic solution and risks igniting a wider conflagration. In Aleppo's battleground Salaheddine district, rebels from the Free Syrian Army hid in alleyways, dodging the Syrian army's bullets and tank rounds that struck a building in the district on Saturday. "There is one helicopter and we're hearing two explosions every minute," a Reuters reporter said. A Syrian activist told Reuters the rebels had earlier sought to extend their area of control from the Salaheddine district, where the most intense fighting has been focused, northwards to the area around the television and radio station. — Reuters
48 Iranian pilgrims abducted in Syria
Tehran: At least 48 Shia Muslim pilgrims from Iran were abducted on Saturday in the Syrian capital by militants while they were on their way to the Damascus airport. Majid Kamjou, chief counsel of the Iranian embassy in Syria, said the group of pilgrims was scheduled to visit a Shia shrine in suburban Damascus before leaving the city for Tehran. There has been no news about the whereabouts of the pilgrims so far.
Syria asks Russia for economic aid
Moscow: Visiting senior Syrian officials have asked Russia for financial loans and supplies of oil products. Syria's Deputy PM Qadri Jamil, who led a delegation to Russia, on Friday told reporters in Moscow that Russia had promised to provide financial assistance to Syria. The delegation was in talks with the Russian officials on ways to alleviate the consequences of Western sanctions against Syria.
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Afghan Parliament votes to dismiss security ministers Kabul, August 4 The move obliges President Hamid Karzai to replace Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak, who has strong support among Afghanistan's Western allies, and Interior Minister Bismillah Mohammadi. The lawmakers charged that they had failed in their handling of cross-border shelling barrages blamed on neighbouring Pakistan and other security issues in a country facing an insurgency by hardline Taliban Islamists. In a brief statement after the vote, Karzai's office acknowledged that parliament had the right to disqualify ministers and said he would react after a national security council meeting tomorrow. The men are expected to continue serving in an acting capacity until the president introduces replacements. "General Abdul Rahim Wardak will continue serving in the ministry as the acting defence minister until a new minister is introduced by the president," Defence Ministry spokesman General Zaher Azimi told AFP. The two ministers were summoned to appear today before the Wolesi Jirga, or lower house of parliament, to defend their handling of the cross-border shelling and the overall security situation in the country. Late last month more than 300 heavy artillery shells and rockets were fired from Pakistan into Afghanistan's eastern Kunar province, killing at least four people, Afghan officials said. — AFP
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Kenyans must ensure credible vote: Hillary Nairobi, August 4 "We urge that the nation come together and prepare for elections that will be a real model for the entire world," the top US diplomat said after talks with President Mwai Kibaki, as she visited Kenya on the latest leg of her Africa tour. Kenya plunged into violence after the December 2007 election in which Prime Minister Raila Odinga, then opposition chief, accused Kibaki as the incumbent president of having rigged his re-election. What began as political riots soon turned into ethnic killings targeting members of Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe, who in turn launched reprisal attacks in the country's worst violence since independence in 1963. Kenya, East Africa's economic powerhouse, is due in March to hold its first general elections since the violence. "The US has pledged to assist the government of Kenya ensure that the upcoming elections are free, fair and transparent," Clinton added, speaking ahead of talks with Odinga, a key candidate in the race for the presidency. Kibaki will not contest the next election. Two presidential hopefuls, Deputy Prime Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and former minister William Ruto, face trial in April in the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity over the post-election killings, charges they deny. They face counts including orchestrating murder, rape and persecution in the aftermath of the poll. — AFP
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Pak govt to take on SC on contempt law
The ruling coalition in Pakistan has decided to fight back the Supreme Court's latest ruling annulling the Contempt of Court Act that threatens to unseat another PPP premier.
At a late night meeting on Friday, chaired by President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, the ruling coalition resolved that it would not back down in the aftermath of the court verdict. Instead, it decided to counter the ruling by legislating a new contempt law with some modifications. Media reports said they discussed the implications of the ruling with coalition partners and sought their support in rescuing Raja Ashraf. The new premier faces threat of Gilani- like disqualification when the SC resumes hearing on August 8 regarding the notice it gave him for writing letter to Swiss Authorities to reopen graft cases against President Zardari. While these reports were source-based, the Presidency issued a strong-worded statement declaring that the ruling alliance would resist any move to undermine the supremacy of Parliament. "The meeting expressed its resolve that the right of Parliament to legislate will be upheld and this right will not allowed to be compromised no matter what the odds and the cost," said presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar. "The meeting reiterated unequivocally that power to legislate under the Constitution belongs to elected representatives alone," said
Babar.
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Honour Killing
London, August 4 Iftikar and Farzana Ahmed, who suffocated the 17 year-old in front of their four other children, were jailed for life after being found guilty of the 2003 honour killing of their 'westernised' daughter Shafilea. They were told they would serve at least 25 years for killing their "determined" and "ambitious" daughter at their home in Warrington, Cheshire after she rejected a forced marriage in Pakistan. While announcing the sentence Justice Roderick Evans, at Chester Crown Court, said the couple imposed their 'cultural attitudes of rural Pakistan upon their children'. "Although you lived in Warrington, your social and cultural attitudes were those of rural Pakistan and it was those you imposed upon your children, " The Telegraph quoted the judge, as saying. "She [Shafilea] was being squeezed between two cultures, the culture and way of life that she saw around her and wanted to embrace, and the culture and way of life you wanted to impose upon her," the judge said. "Your concern about being shamed in your community was greater than your love of your child," he added. According to the paper, the couple were arrested in December 2003, but when detectives held a public appeal for information, the Ahmeds gatecrashed and protested their innocence. Finally, in August 2010, police arrested Shafilea's younger sister Alesha on suspicion of organising a robbery at the family home. Alesha, who is now 21, told officers that she had seen her mother and father kill Shafilea. The parents had often clashed Shafilea over her westernised lifestyle, and had objected to her wearing the same clothes as her white friends, rather than traditional Pakistani dress. In 2003, she was allegedly forced to travel to Pakistan, where she was expected to marry a man more than ten years her senior. In desperation Shafelia swallowed bleach badly burning her throat and causing the man to call off the marriage, declaring she was "damaged goods". She returned to Britain but went missing from the family home in September 2003. — Agencies
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