W O R L D

46 die in riots after B’desh war crimes verdict
Dhaka, March 1
Bangladesh today deployed paramilitary border guards to beef up security after a top Islamist opposition leader was sentenced to death, sparking nationwide riots that killed at least 46 persons.

The police detains a suspected Jamaat-e-Islami activist in Dhaka on Friday. — AFP

Musharraf to end self-imposed exile; will return to Pak
Dubai, March 1
Former Pakistani President and military dictator Pervez Musharraf today announced the end of his self-imposed exile and said he will return to Pakistan within one week after the formation of an interim government.

Venezuela’s Chavez ‘battling’ for life
Caracas, March 1
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is fighting for his life in a Caracas military hospital 10 days after returning from Cuba where he was treated for cancer, his Vice-President has said.




A supporter of Hugo Chavez wearing a mask in Caracas.

Pak issues 70,000 licences for prohibited weapons
Islamabad, March 1
Pakistan's Interior Ministry has issued over 69,000 licences for prohibited bore weapons, including Kalashnikovs and sub-machine guns, on the recommendation of members of Parliament over the past five years.

US man ‘swallowed’ alive by sinkhole
Washington, March 1
A US man lying in his bed was swallowed up by a gaping sinkhole that opened up under his room in a Florida town, officials said today.

46 die in riots after B’desh war crimes verdict
Paramilitary forces called out Pro-Jamaat activists go on rampage, clash with police 

Dhaka, March 1
Bangladesh today deployed paramilitary border guards to beef up security after a top Islamist opposition leader was sentenced to death, sparking nationwide riots that killed at least 46 persons.

"Our troops were deployed in 15 troubled districts in aide of civil administration. The Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) has been kept alert so it could move immediately wherever they are required," BGB chief major General Aziz Ahmed said.

The violence broke out yesterday after 73-year-old Delwar Hossain Sayedee, vice-president of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), was sentenced to death by the International Crimes Tribunal after he was found guilty of eight counts out of 20 involving rape, mass killings and atrocities during the nine-month freedom war against Pakistan in 1971.

A police spokesman, meanwhile, said law enforcement agencies were on high alert as Jamaat and Sayedee's supporters planned more protests today.

The authorities feared that the JI activists might launch attacks on mosques during the Friday prayers.

Tens of thousands of youngsters, joined by 1971 veterans and ruling Awami League supporters, took to the streets in Dhaka and other major cities yesterday to celebrate the verdict against Sayedee.

Violence erupted as activists of the JI clashed with security forces, denouncing the judgement.

They also clashed with rival activists, beat to death four policemen, attacked their camps and snatched away their weapons, set ablaze offices of the ruling Awami League at their strongholds at different places across the country.

The four policemen were killed in north-western Gaibandha, one of the worst scenes of the violence, where fresh unrest today left one ruling Awami League activist dead.

Sayedee is the third JI politician to be convicted by the Tribunal since the trial of war crimes suspects, mostly belonging to the Islamist group, began three years ago.

In the first verdict in January, former Jamaat leader Abul Kalam Azad was sentenced to death on similar charges.

Another Jamaat leader Abdul Quader Mollah was sentenced to life in February for atrocities during the war.

The JI, Muslim-majority Bangladesh's largest Islamic bloc, was opposed to the 1971 liberation war when officially 3 million people were killed and 200,000 women were raped.

A local journalist said JI activists beat an Awami League supporter to death after the ruling party men vandalised several shops belonging to the extreme rightwing party to retaliate yesterday's attacks. — PTI

Pranab’s dhaka visit as per plan

New Delhi: Despite the current situation in Bangladesh, President Pranab Mukherjee will go ahead with his three-day visit to the country from Sunday, reflecting the importance India attaches to the relationship with its eastern neighbour. Mukherjee will be on his maiden foreign tour after becoming the President. —TNS

Musharraf to end self-imposed exile; will return to Pak

Dubai, March 1
Former Pakistani President and military dictator Pervez Musharraf today announced the end of his self-imposed exile and said he will return to Pakistan within one week after the formation of an interim government.

Musharraf said he would land in Karachi, Islamabad or Rawalpindi and will face the cases in the courts.

He said his heart was "bleeding" for his country. "I am not going to Pakistan to create enemies. It's time for reconciliation. For all those who love Pakistan, I would like to tell them that I am returning to Pakistan because I love Pakistan,” he said.

He added, "Religious terrorism is eating us from the inside. People are destroying Pakistan in the name of religion.”

Since 2011, there have been repeated reports that Musharraf will return to Pakistan before the next national elections. He had himself said this in many of his media interactions.

Musharraf had launched his own political party, the All Pakistan Muslim League, in June 2010.

The former President, who has been away from Pakistan since 2008 after the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) was elected into power with a coalition government, was speaking at a press conference here.

Musharraf faces two court warrants for his arrest in connection with the 2006 death of Akbar Bugti and the 2007 assassination of ex-Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. — PTI

Pranab to visit Dhaka
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 1
Despite the current situation in Bangladesh, President Pranab Mukherjee will go ahead with his three-day visit to the country from Sunday, reflecting the importance India attaches to the relationship with its eastern neighbour.

Briefing reporters here this evening, Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai said India had done a great deal of preparation for the visit and was confident that it would take bilateral relations to a new height.

Asked whether it would be prudent for the President to undertake the visit at a time when Dhaka is rocked by waves of violence following the death sentence of a top Jamaat-e-Islami leader there, Mathai said the situation in Dhaka was calm now and India continued to keep a close watch on the developments in the neighbouring country.

Mukherjee will be on his maiden foreign tour after becoming the President. 

Venezuela’s Chavez ‘battling’ for life

Caracas, March 1
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is fighting for his life in a Caracas military hospital 10 days after returning from Cuba where he was treated for cancer, his Vice-President has said.

Vice-President Nicolas Maduro did not provide more details, but the government said last week that Chavez was still suffering from a respiratory infection and that the trajectory was not favourable.

As he presented subsidised homes on state-run television, Maduro said Chavez was "battling for his health, for his life, and we are accompanying him," adding later that the President was in a "complex and difficult" stage.

"Do you know why he neglected his health?" the Vice-President asked.

"Because he gave his body and soul completely and forgot all his obligations to himself to give the people a fatherland, to give those who had nothing a job, a life, a house, health, food, education." — AFP

Pak issues 70,000 licences for prohibited weapons

Islamabad, March 1
Pakistan's Interior Ministry has issued over 69,000 licences for prohibited bore weapons, including Kalashnikovs and sub-machine guns, on the recommendation of members of Parliament over the past five years.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik informed the lower house of Parliament that the federal government had issued 69,473 prohibited bore arms licences during 2008-2012 on the recommendation of Parliamentarians. On an average, every member of the National Assembly made recommendations for 200 licences for prohibited bore weapons. — PTI

US man ‘swallowed’ alive by sinkhole

Washington, March 1
A US man lying in his bed was swallowed up by a gaping sinkhole that opened up under his room in a Florida town, officials said today.

The yawning chasm opened up overnight as Jeff Bush (36) slept in his bedroom sucking him into the hole at the home, where several other family members escaped unhurt.

"I heard a loud crash like a car coming through the house and I heard my brother screaming," said Jeremy Bush, who said through tears that he tried in vain to rescue his brother. "All I saw was this big hole, real big hole and all I saw was his mattress," said Bush. — AFP

BRIEFLY

Four foreigners executed for killing 13 Chinese sailors
Beijing: China on Friday executed four foreigners, including a Myanmarese drug lord, for murdering 13 Chinese sailors in a vicious attack on the Mekong River in 2011 that had provoked widespread outrage in the country. Naw Kham, a Myanmarese drug mafia boss, and three of his accomplices, identified as Hsang Kham, (Thailand) Yi Lai, (state less) and Zha Xika (Laos), were executed by lethal injection in the city of Kunming in southwest China's Yunnan Province. — PTI

Roosters fight during a traditional cockfighting competition in Kabul on Friday. — Reuters

US, S Korea launch joint exercises
Seoul: Thousands of US troops converged on South Korea on Friday for the start of annual joint military exercises, a report said, as tensions run high on the peninsula following North Korea's third nuclear test. A joint air, ground and naval field training exercise known as Foal Eagle will run until April 30, involving more than 10,000 US troops along with a far greater number of South Korean personnel. — AFP

‘Friends of Syria’ encourages extremists
MOSCOW: Russia said on Friday that decisions made at a "Friends of Syria" meeting in Rome, at which Western and Arab states pledged aid for Syrian rebels, would embolden President Bashar al-Assad's foes seeking his overthrow. Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said rebel attempts to topple Assad would inevitably cause suffering among civilians in Syria, where more than 70,000 people have been killed in a nearly two-year-old conflict. — Reuters

Italian President rejects early elections
BERLIN: Italian President Giorgio Napolitano on Friday rejected suggestions that Italy would have to return to the polls immediately after this week's election, which left no party with a workable majority in Parliament. "I'm not interested in a new vote," he told reporters at the margins of an event in Berlin, where he gave a speech. Napolitano, whose 7-year term expires on May 15, also repeated that he would not seek another term. — Reuters