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8 killed as US steps up drone attacks in Pak’s tribal region China rejects Japan’s plea on islands Special to the
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8 killed as US steps up drone attacks in Pak’s tribal region Islamabad, January 8 In the fourth such major attack, the drones fired several missiles at the training camp near Mir Ali town that was being used by the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan led by Hakimullah Mehsud, officials were quoted as saying by TV news channels. Reports said the drones targeted two different locations in North Waziristan Agency. Two important Taliban commanders and an Al-Qaida operative were believed to be among the dead, reports said. These reports could not be independently confirmed as journalists are barred from reporting from the tribal belt bordering Afghanistan. On Sunday, 16 militants were killed when several drones carried out a coordinated attack on three compounds in South Waziristan Agency. The militant in charge of training suicide bombers was believed to have been killed in the strike. On January 2, warlord Mullah Nazir and 12 of his fighters were killed in another drone strike in South Waziristan. Nazir was considered to be among the "good Taliban" as he had finalised a peace deal with the Pakistani security forces and sent his militants to attack US and allied troops in Afghanistan. The US drone campaign has been publicly criticised by the Pakistan government as counter-productive and a violation of sovereignty, but American officials say they are a vital element in the war against terrorism. — PTI
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China rejects Japan’s plea on islands Beijing, January 8 Asked for his reaction to Japanese government summoning the Chinese Ambassador and handing down a representation to stop patrolling by Chinese surveillance vessels in and around the islands, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman, Hong Lei told media that Tokyo should stop "illegal activities" in Chinese waters. China calls the islands as Diaoyu Dai and Japan
as Senkakus. The islands were administered by Japan until last September when China opposed Tokyo's move to buy them from a private party and resume patrolling the area. "We do not accept Japan's representation", Hong said, adding China for its part has been asking Tokyo not to send its planes and ships to patrol the areas. "China asks Japan to stop such illegal activities",
he reiterated. This is the first such representation made by Japan after the new government headed by Shinzo Abe came to power. According to reports, Japan's Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Akitaka Saiki met Chinese Ambassador Cheng Yonghua in Tokyo to lodge a protest
after four Chinese government ships were spotted in the area yesterday. Saiki "strongly demanded that such incidents do not happen again", a Japanese government statement said after the meeting. — PTI
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Special to the
tribune A 33-year-old mother from Hyderabad has been sentenced to a minimum of 17 years imprisonment for beating her young son to death because he was too slow in memorising the Koran. A first class graduate in mathematics and statistics, and the daughter of a Hyderabad antiques dealer, Sara Ege, had high hopes for her seven-year-old son, Yaseen, and wanted him to become a Hafiz, someone who could recite the Koran from memory. To force his pace of learning, she beat him with a stick until he collapsed and died. Doctors who examined him subsequently found he had broken bones, including fractures to his ribs, collar bone, skull wrist and finger and internal injuries. He died from severe abdominal injuries, which resulted in organ failure. During the trial Ege, a resident in the Welsh town of Pontcanna, told the jury how religion was important in her family and that she studied the Koran from the age of four, even attending competitions where children were tested on their knowledge. As far as her young son was concerned, she told the police how she heard devil voices in her head that made her beat her son with a large wooden pestle. Elaborating on what she hoped to achieve with the boy, she explained, “We had a high target, I wanted him to learn 35 pages in three months. I promised him a new bike if he could do it. But Yaseen wasn’t very good - after a year of practice he had learned only a chapter. I was getting very wild and I hit Yaseen with a stick on his back like a dog. He would be doing his work and wouldn’t complain and I would hit him more and more. “He was a good boy but I used to get angry and he wouldn’t even stop me or say anything to anyone.” In her police confession that was shown to the jury, Ege also told how little Yaseen was still murmuring extracts from the Koran when he collapsed. “He was breathing as if he was asleep when I left him. He was still murmuring the same thing over and over again. I thought he was just tired.” After he died, Ege used barbecue lighting gel to set fire to the boy’s body. When firefighters arrived to set out the flames, they thought he had succumbed to the smoke and flames in his bedroom. It was only later that pathologists discovered he had died before the fire started. During the trial, Ege withdrew her taped confession and blamed her 38-year-old half Indian, half Somali taxi driver husband, Yousef, with whom she had an arranged Internet marriage. She claimed both she and her son were victims of his physical and verbal abuse. In response to questions from her own lawyer, she responded, “I wasn’t happy, I had no support from anyone. No family around, no friends and no one to talk to.” Trial judge Mr Justice Wyn Williams said he accepted Ege had suffered bouts of depression due to many factors, but observed: “The violence that you perpetrated on your son was not confined to one day. I am satisfied that over three months you beat him on a number of occasions, often with a wooden pestle. His injuries must have caused him a good deal of pain. In my judgment, Yaseen was subjected to prolonged cruelty.” Ege’s husband Yousef was earlier charged by the police as an accomplice, but during the trial he was acquitted of any offence. He said of his son, “My memories are that he was a beautiful little boy, a very happy boy who was decent and polite.” A spokesman for the Muslim Council of Wales said: “All this has come as a big shock. But what the court has not taken into account is her mental state and certain other domestic factors. When the boy was taken to the mosque to learn the Koran, the Imams realised the boy was being pushed. They said that was not fair on a boy of seven. That’s when she started teaching him at home. “This tragedy is the result of a combination of factors. She’s been a very depressed person for some time and at a couple of schools he attended, no one took notice of his injuries.”
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US police probing death of Indian-origin lottery winner Singapore to get 1st woman Speaker Hillary Clinton returns to work |
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Stepping up missile attacks in the restive Waziristan tribal region of Pakistan's northwest, US drones targeted a Taliban training camp in the area, killing at least eight militants, including an Al-Qaida operative.
