W O R L D

Pakistan’s new Parliament sworn in
Newly elected members of the Pakistan National Assembly took oath as the House began its landmark session on Saturday marking a peaceful democratic transition. Outgoing speaker Fehmida Mirza administered oath to 301 MPs, including Nawaz Sharif whose party today formally designated him as prime minister.

PM-elect Nawaz Sharif (left) takes oath along with other parliamentarians at Parliament House in Islamabad on Saturday. — AP/PTI

Tory MP resigns over allegations of lobbying
London, June 1
A senior Conservative MP in the UK has resigned from the party over allegations that he offered his services to lobbyists in exchange for cash. Patrick Mercer resigned the Tory party's whip after claims by the BBC's Panorama programme that he broke Parliament's lobbying rules.

Pakistan’s new Parliament sworn in
Afzal Khan in Islamabad

Newly elected members of the Pakistan National Assembly took oath as the House began its landmark session on Saturday marking a peaceful democratic transition.

Outgoing speaker Fehmida Mirza administered oath to 301 MPs, including Nawaz Sharif whose party today formally designated him as prime minister. Nawaz entered the Assembly hall amid clapping by PML-N members, whose number has swelled to 186 in the 342-member house with the joining of a large number of independents and others thus surpassing the requisite 171 magic number for election of the premier.

Conspicuous among those missing from the oath-taking ceremony was Imran Khan, who is still recuperating in Lahore following a terrible fall in an election rally four days before the polls. Some media reports said he might soon be flown to London for medical check-up.

Maulana Fazlur Rehman, chief of Jamiat Ulema Islam, also did not attend the session as he has not decided which of the three seats to retain which he has won. The nationalist Baloch party Nation Party-Mengal boycotted both the National Assembly and Balochistan assembly sessions in protest against alleged manipulation of polls by paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) targeting to block Baloch nationalists led by Akhtar Mengal.

In Lahore, 341 members of the Punjab Assembly also took oath. While 55 members of the 65-member Balochistan Assembly were sworn in later in afternoon amid continued confusion on who will be the chief minister.

The decision has been left to Nawaz, whose PML-N is the single largest party in the house with 14 members.

Judge hearing cases against Nawaz shifted

A Pakistani anti-corruption court judge who was hearing three cases against Nawaz Sharif and members of his family has been transferred, days before the formation of the new PML-N government. Lahore High Court Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial transferred Judge Abdul Khaliq of the accountability or anti-corruption court in Rawalpindi. — PTI

Tory MP resigns over allegations of lobbying

London, June 1
A senior Conservative MP in the UK has resigned from the party over allegations that he offered his services to lobbyists in exchange for cash. Patrick Mercer resigned the Tory party's whip after claims by the BBC's Panorama programme that he broke Parliament's lobbying rules.

It is alleged he accepted £4,000 to lobby for business interests in Fiji. Mercer said he was taking legal advice and had referred himself to Parliament's standards commissioner.

The Newark MP said he took the money for consultancy work outside Parliament. He added he would not be standing at the next general election.

Panorama said Mercer had been approached by a fake company set up by the programme, in conjunction with the Daily Telegraph.

The fake company, Alistair Andrews Communications, had claimed to lobby on behalf of Fijian business interests for Fiji to be re-admitted to the Commonwealth.

The country's membership was suspended in 2009 amid criticism of its human rights' record and lack of democracy.

A clip of Mercer being filmed undercover has been released by Panorama.

It shows the MP meeting with an undercover reporter, who was posing as a representative of the fake company.

Mercer can be heard saying, "I do not charge a great deal of money for these things. I would normally come out at £500 per half day, so £1,000 a day." The undercover reporter replies: "Ok fine." Panorama said it had paid Mercer £4,000 for working two days a month at a rate of £2,000 per month, but that the money had yet to be declared to the parliamentary authorities. — PTI

Turkish PM urges end to protests as police pulls out

ISTANBUL, June 1
Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan today called for an immediate end to violent protests which have engulfed Istanbul for two days, in what were one of the biggest anti-government demonstrations since the Islamist-rooted leadership came to power.

The police pulled back from the Taksim Square, the epicentre of the demonstrations that have left many injured and earned Turkey a rare rebuke from its Western allies. Erdogan admitted that "there have been some mistakes, extremism in police response" and that legal action would be taken against officers who acted disproportionately.

But he also remained defiant, vowing to push forward with controversial plans to redevelop the iconic Taksim Square — the catalyst that had sparked the protests.

As the police withdrew, thousands of demonstrators flooded the square, shouting taunts at Erdogan, including "We are here Tayyip, where are you?" and "Dictator resign".

What began as an outcry against a local development project has snowballed into widespread anger against the government's increasingly conservative and authoritarian agenda. — AFP

Anti-govt protest

The unrest was triggered by government plans for a replica Ottoman-era barracks housing shops or apartments in Istanbul's Taksim Square, long a venue for political protest, but has widened into a broader show of defiance against Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan

Tornadoes hit Oklahoma again; 9 dead

OKLAHOMA CITY, June 1
Nine persons were killed in tornadoes that swept through central Oklahoma on Friday, part of a storm system that caused widespread flooding in Oklahoma City and its suburbs, the state's chief medical examiner said on Saturday.

The dead included two children and seven adults, said Amy Elliott, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner's office. The death toll earlier had been reported as five.

The tornadoes struck just 11 days after a twister ranked as EF5, the most powerful ranking, tore through the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore and killed 24 persons.

The latest storms dumped up to 20 cm of rain on the Oklahoma City area, causing flash flooding that submerged parts of the sprawling metropolitan area that is home to over 1.3 million people. Nearly 24 persons were rescued from areas cut off by rising water, the National Weather Service said. Over 70 persons were treated for storm-related injuries, Oklahoma hospital officials said.

Severe storms also hit neighbouring Missouri, where Governor Jay Nixon declared a state of emergency on Friday, and were forecast to move into Illinois on Saturday.

The devastation was caused by large, long-lasting thunderstorms known as supercells, which produce the strongest tornadoes, along with large hail. Forecasters believe at least five tornadoes touched down in central Oklahoma, which survey teams were trying to verify, meteorologist Rick Smith said from the National Weather Service office in Norman, Oklahoma.

"Some of these tornadoes were wrapped in rain and they were difficult to see," Smith said. — Reuters

Drone strikes kill 7 Qaida men in Yemen

Aden, June 1
Two drone strikes killed seven suspected Al-Qaida militants in southern Yemen on Saturday, a local official said, nine days after US President Barack Obama said he would only use such strikes when a threat was "continuing and imminent".

In two separate attacks, militants believed to be linked to the Al-Qaida killed two police officers in the eastern part of the country, a local security official said. Washington views the Al- Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula as the movement's most dangerous wing after it attempted to launch bomb attacks on international airliners.

The official said the seven militants were travelling in two cars on Saturday morning in the al-Mahfad district of Abyan Governorate in southern Yemen where the group has a strong presence, when the drones struck. — Reuters

BRIEFLY

Wearing costume of a Russian fairy tale character, Ivanushka, a toddler sits in his stroller during a parade on the International Children's Day in Stavropol, Russia, on Saturday. AFP

London
UK soldier’s killing
South Scotland Yard is set to question the second suspect shot at the scene of last week’s terror attack which resulted in the murder of soldier Drummer Lee Rigby in south-east London. Michael Adebolajo, 28, spent a second day in custody at a London police station on Saturday after being discharged from hospital on Friday. — PTI

Moscow
Submarine patrols
Russia plans to resume nuclear submarine patrols in the southern seas after a hiatus of over 20 years following the break-up of the Soviet Union, Itar-Tass news agency reported on Saturday, in another example of efforts to revive Moscow's military. — Reuters

Houston
4 firefighters killed
Four firefighters were killed and 13 others injured while trying to douse a massive fire that broke out at an Indian restaurant and spread to an adjacent motel near a busy highway here. Three bodies were found in the rubble of the Southwest Inn motel, while a fourth firefighter died after being rushed to the closest hospital on Friday. — PTI

Kuala Lumpur
‘Torture’ killed Indian
The post-mortem of an ethnic Indian man who died in police custody here, indicates multiple blunt force trauma as the cause of death, with his family alleging harassment by the authorities. The family of the deceased N Dhamendran has claimed harassment by the police and Prime Minister's department. — PTI