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Car bomb near Musharraf's farmhouse defused
Ex-Prez told to cooperate in probe
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For PPP rivals, President Zardari not beyond criticism
US senator accuses TCS,
Infy, Wipro of abusing H-1B visas
New British law means Kate’s baby to take crown
Washington, April 23 Hackers took control of the Associated Press (AP) Twitter account on Tuesday and sent a false tweet of two explosions in the White House that briefly sent US financial markets reeling.
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Car bomb near Musharraf's farmhouse defused
Former dictator pleads no trust in Bench in treason case Islamabad, April 23 The car was found about a km from the five-acre farmhouse at Chak Shahzad on the outskirts of the capital. The car, fitted with about 50 kg of explosives, was intercepted this evening, the police told the media. The farmhouse was declared a sub-jail last week after an anti-terrorism court remanded Musharraf to judicial custody for a fortnight. No arrests were made in connection with the incident. Islamabad Police chief Bin Yamin told reporters that the car contained between 45 kg and 50 kg of explosives, detonators, primer cord and fuses. The explosives were enough to destroy a large building, he said. The police had found some clues in the car, including a visiting card, he said. Musharraf’s security had been beefed up after the incident and the number of check posts around the farmhouse at Chak Shahzad had been enhanced, Bin Yamin said. Meanwhile, Ahmad Raza Kasuri, former President Pervez Musharraf’s lawyer, arguing before the Supreme Court three-member Bench on Tuesday made a plea that his petition for the constitution of the full court for hearing the treason case should be heard first as his client has no trust in the Bench, Geo News reported. A three-member Bench headed by Justice Jawwad S Khawaja is hearing the petitions that pray for starting a treason case against former President Pervez Musharraf. During the hearing, another lawyer representing Pervez Musharraf, Ibrahim Satti, argued that putting Musharraf’s name on the exit control list (ECL) was a violation of basic rights, as he needs to visit Dubai frequently to look after his ailing mother (95) living over there. Thereafter, Justice Khilji Arif Hussain said that if your client wanted to go abroad, then he should seek permission for it.
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Ex-Prez told to cooperate in probe
An anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Rawalpindi on Tuesday asked Gen Pervez Musharraf (retd) to cooperate with the investigators in the Benazir Bhutto assassination case. The court granted Musharraf’s request to meet his lawyers and adjourned the hearing till May 3. Musharraf appeared before the court in relation with the Benazir Bhutto murder case and made three requests including the request to unfreeze his assets and bank accounts. The court issued a notice to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in this regard. Musharraf also objected to being declared proclaimed offender after having surrendered. The ATC decided to take up the matter at the next hearing.
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For PPP rivals, President Zardari not beyond criticism
Restrained by court injunctions, President Asif Ali Zardari is maintaining a strict silence, but he appears to a major target of attacks, particularly by the Sharif brothers of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, in the warming-up election atmosphere. Both the PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif and brother Shahbaz Sharif are increasingly sharpening their tirade against Zardari. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan, on the other hand, has bracketed them together and has asked people to get rid of them and their politics of status quo and corruption. PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif, on a campaign trail in Zardari’s primary support base Sindh, dismissed the Presidential spokesman’s criticism of his speeches against the President. Nawaz held Zardari responsible for current mess prevailing in the country. In retaliation, former Premier Raja Pervez Ashraf has said that the Sharif brothers were trying to vitiate the political environment by slinging mud on the President of Pakistan. He warned the Sharif duo that the PPP had far “weightier” material about their “misdeeds” which would be revealed if the attacks on the President continued. Nawaz Sharif, speaking in Tando Adam, said that he had only been raising questions on the performance of the Pakistan People’s Party’s five-year rule. He denied attacking President Asif Ali Zardari’s person in any way. “My question is simple. I just asked Zardari what good thing did the PPP do for the people in the past five years. Has Sindh become peaceful? What about the jobless rate in the province? Has it come down to zero? Absolutely not,” he said. Shahbaz Sharif, during a speech at Malakwal in Punjab, accused Zardari of corruption that peaked “not just to 10 per cent as Zardari is known worldwide, but it has touched 100 per cent”.
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US senator accuses TCS,
Infy, Wipro of abusing H-1B visas
Washington, April 23 In fact, senator Durbin went on to brand the top Indian IT companies as outsourcing firms. "These outsourcing firms like Infosys, Wipro, Tata and others -- Americans would be shocked to know that the H-1B visas are not going to Microsoft; they're going to these firms, largely in India, who are finding workers, engineers, who will work at low wages in the US for three years and pay a fee to Infosys or these companies," Durbin alleged. "I think that is an abuse of what we're trying to achieve here. Most people would think, well, Microsoft needs these folks, and they'd be shocked to know that most of the H-1B visas are not going to companies like yours; they're going to these outsourcing companies," Durbin alleged. He said this during the hearing in which two Indian Americans testified before the committee and supported the allegations of the Senator against Indian IT firms. Brad Smith, general counsel and executive vice president, legal and corporate affairs, Microsoft, too supported the senator on the issue. "I personally think it's important that we both recognise the need for these firms to evolve their business model — I've had these conversations myself with them in India — that encourages them to focus on hiring more people in the US," he told lawmakers in response to a question. The proposed comprehensive immigration bill if passed by the Congress and signed into law by the US President would bar companies from hiring people on H-1B visa if 50 per cent of their employees are not Americans. — PTI |
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New British law means Kate’s baby to take crown
London, April 23 'The Succession to the Crown Bill', which is set to become law in coming days, means that if Prince William and Kate Middleton were to have a daughter in July, she would be crowned Queen. The royal couple's first child will be third in line to the throne after William and his father Prince Charles. The Bill, which cleared its final readings at the House of Lords this week, will install 'absolute primogeniture' in succession to the British throne, meaning the eldest child, regardless of gender, will succeed to the crown and a daughter cannot be overtaken in the line of succession by a younger brother. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, who introduced the Bill in the Commons, said, "This is a truly historic moment. I am proud the British Parliament has taken this step to end centuries of religious and gender discrimination." The government agreed with the 15 other countries, where the Queen is head of state that ancient rules giving supremacy to male heirs must be changed to allow the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's first child to reign, whatever its gender. The Cabinet Office has struck an agreement that the change to succession law will apply from October 28, 2011, the date of a summit in Australia where countries first agreed to go ahead. — PTI |
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The ringside view
Islamabad: Voter lists finalised by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) have shown a 236 per cent increase in the number of female registered voters in the tribal Khyber Agency. Women voters in most part of the tribal belt and some in other districts are usually barred from voting — citing local traditions — through mutual agreement among rival parties. Interestingly, a couple of female candidates are also contesting in the tribal areas. One reason for the spike in women voters is the issuance of the National Identity Card which is a pre-requisite for getting monthly subsistence under the Benazir Income Support Programme and aid to people living in camps after being displaced due to military operations. — TNS
2,294 in fray in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, FATA
Islamabad: A total of 2,294 candidates are in the fray for 93 provincial assembly and 47 National Assembly seats from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). The constituencies in the restive FATA will see hot contests and a majority of those have over 30 candidates in the run. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has fielded the largest number of candidates contesting for National Assembly and K-P assembly seats, followed by two religious parties — the JUI and Jamaat Islami. The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Awami National Party (ANP), which both ruled K-P for the past five years, share fifth and six positions respectively. The ANP has borne the brunt of terrorist attacks on its candidates and activists. PTI Chairman Imran Khan and JUI chief Maulan Fazlur Rehman are prominent candidates in the province. — TNS
Musharraf told to cooperate in Benazir probe
Islamabad: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Rawalpindi on Tuesday asked Gen Pervez Musharraf (retd) to cooperate with the investigators in the Benazir Bhutto assassination case. The court granted Musharraf’s request to meet his lawyers and adjourned the hearing till May 3. — TNS
Police pulled up for allowing Musharraf to flee
Islamabad: The Islamabad High Court on Tuesday pulled up police officials here for allowing former military ruler Pervez Musharraf to flee dramatically from the courtroom last week. Musharraf, 69, had appeared in the court on April 18 to seek extension of his interim bail in the case relating to sacking of 60 judges during his emergency rule in 2007. Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqi had ordered police to arrest him immediately. Even as police tried to reach Musharraf, his bodyguards, all army commandos, rushed him out of the courtroom to his black SUV. — PTI Seven killed in Quetta, Karachi Blasts Islamabad/Karachi: Seven persons were killed and 40 injured on Tuesday as a series of bombings rocked the Pakistani cities of Karachi and Quetta. Four bomb attacks hit Quetta city of southwest Pakistan, including one that was carried out by a suicide bomber who was trying to target the minority Shia Hazara community. Four persons, including a Frontier Corps personnel, were killed and over 30 injured by the explosion. In Karachi, explosives planted in a motorcycle went off near an election camp office of the Mutthaida-e-Qaumi Movement killing three persons and wounding 20. — PTI
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Hackers seize AP Twitter feed, ‘report’ White House blasts Washington, April 23 In the latest high-profile hacking incident involving social media service Twitter, an official AP account reported that two explosions at the White House injured President Barack Obama. AP spokesman Paul Colford quickly confirmed the tweet was "bogus," but within three minutes of the tweet hitting the Web, virtually all US markets took a plunge on the false news in what one trader described as "pure chaos." White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters that Obama was fine soon after the tweet went out. Markets quickly recovered their losses after the tweet was knocked down. Some traders blamed automatic electronic trading for the sharp fall and bounce back. At a time when cybersecurity and hacking have become top national security concerns, Twitter and its reach to hundreds of millions of users is coming under growing scrutiny for the risk of data breaches on the site. A group calling itself the Syrian Electronic Army, which is supportive of that country's leader, President Bashar al-Assad, during the two-year civil war, on Tuesday claimed responsibility on its own Twitter feed for the AP hack. The group that creates new Twitter accounts every time the company suspends its old ones has also claimed credit for similar hacks of Twitter accounts for National Public Radio, BBC and CBS's "60 Minutes" programme, among others. The AP's two Twitter accounts, @AP and @AP_Mobile, were suspended shortly after the fake tweet, and the news organisation later reported hackers had previously made repeated attempts to steal the passwords of AP journalists. — Reuters
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TORONTO Tripoli BAGHDAD SEOUL/GENEVA
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