Pak power crisis: Minister to visit India
Islamabad, June 30
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has directed his Water and Power Minister to India to address the severe energy crisis facing the country.

Making way for parking Gage Towers on the Minnesota State University, Mankato, campus collapse after a series of strategic explosions were set off on Saturday. The site will be redeveloped for parking. The towers were home to more than 50,000 students since these opened in 1965. — AP/PTI

Anti-Mursi protests sweep Egypt
Cairo, June 30
Egypt was on the edge today as protest rallies demanding Mohammed Mursi's ouster and early elections kicked off across the deeply polarised country on the first anniversary of his presidency, raising fears of an escalation in violence.

UK to charge migrants for health care
London, June 30
Britain is set to tighten its rules to close loopholes that allow migrants to wrongly access free-for-all health care while in the country.

Indians in S Arabia told to get final exit visa immediately
Dubai, June 30
India has asked its nationals living in Saudi Arabia, who have received their Emergency Certificates (ECs), to get their final exit visa immediately from Saudi officials.

amendment 13a
Rajapaksa sibling as spl envoy to India
Colombo, June 30
Sri Lanka will send President Mahinda Rajapaksa's younger brother Basil Rajapaksa to Delhi to hold talks with the Indian leadership over its controversial plan to tinker with the India-moved 13th Amendment (13A), government sources today said.

Mandela ‘critical but stable’
Pretoria, June 30
Anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela’s condition remains “critical but stable” on the 23rd day of his hospitalisation for a recurring lung ailment, even as a stream of people continued to flock the hospital here to pray for the recovery of the 94-year-old former President.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu attends the launch of Cape Town’s Nelson Mandela Legacy Exhibition at the Civic Centre on Sunday. — AFP

Gwadar port, economic corridor tops Sharif’s agenda in China
Beijing, June 30
Ahead of his first foreign trip after assuming office, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has said that clinching the proposed economic corridor linking the strategic Gwadar Port with China’s Xinjiang province, a “game-changer” for the region, would top his agenda here.

Shed GDP obsession, return to Marxism, Xi tells cadres
Beijing, June 30
Officials of ruling Communist Party of China should shed the obsession with GDP numbers to get promotions and return to principles of Marxism, which suffered an ideological meltdown in the course of the country’s economic reforms, President Xi Jinping said today.

Reliving the American Civil War Re-enactors take part in a battle scene during ongoing activities to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg at Bushey Farm in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on Saturday. Union forces turned away a Confederate advance in the pivotal battle of the American Civil War fought from July 1-3, 1863 that was also the war's bloodiest conflict with more than 51,000 casualties and is often described as the its turning point. The battle also inspired US President Abraham Lincoln to write his famous address delivered five months later at the dedication of the Gettysburg cemetery used to bury the Union dead. — AP/PTI

Peshawar, June 30
At least 43 persons were killed and over 100 injured in Pakistan today in different attacks, including a powerful bomb blast that targeted a passing convoy of security forces.

In the first incident, at least 17 persons, including four children, were killed and nearly 50 injured when the powerful remote-controlled bomb targeted a passing convoy of security forces near a busy market here in northwest Pakistan.

The blast, believed to be an IED explosion, targeted the convoy of Frontier Corps on their way to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s capital Peshawar from Kohat district but narrowly missed it.

Javed Marwat, Deputy Commissioner of Peshawar, said, "Seventeen people were killed in the remote control blast."

In another attack, two bomb blasts near a Shiite mosque killed at least 19 people in southwestern city of Quetta.

The suspected suicide bombing near Abu Talib Imambargah at the Shiite-majority Hazara town also injured over 60 persons.

In South Waziristan, a rocket attack killed four people and injured 15 others while in the North Waziristan tribal region, a roadside bomb killed three security personnel, officials said.

Marwat told reporters that the injured were shifted to Lady Reading Hospital and condition of some of them were critical.

According to police‚ the bomb was planted in a car and was triggered when the convoy approached was passing through Badaber area of Peshawar.

Bomb Disposal Squad official Abdul Haq said 40-50 kg of explosives were used in the blast, which also destroyed 10 vehicles and several shops. — PTI

Islamabad, June 30
Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron today promised to "stand together" with Pakistan in the war against terrorism and nudged his counterpart Nawaz Sharif to help clinch a peace deal with Afghanistan before NATO's withdrawal from the war-torn nation next year.

Cameron, who became the first western leader to visit Islamabad since election of Sharif in May, said Britain and Pakistan had a shared interest in the "battle against terrorism".

"This is a battle that requires a tough and uncompromising security response. But it is also a battle that has to go so much wider. Countering extremism and radicalisation, investing in education, tackling poverty, dealing in all the issues that can fuel extremism and radicalisation," he said.

"We will stand together and conduct this fight against extremism and terrorism," Cameron said at a joint press conference with Sharif here.

Advocating strong Af-Pak ties, the British Prime Minister said, "I profoundly believe that a stable, prosperous, peaceful and democratic Afghanistan is in Pakistan's interest, just as a stable, prosperous, peaceful and democratic Pakistan is in Afghanistan's interest."

Cameron told Sharif he knew he and Afghan President Hamid Karzai "will work together towards those ends." Responding to Cameron's appeal, Sharif said, "I have assured Prime Minister Cameron of our firm resolve to promote the shared objective of a peaceful and stable Afghanistan, to which the three million Afghan refugees currently living in Pakistan can return with honour and dignity." Sharif said he had assured Cameron "of our shared resolve to seek a peaceful and stable Afghanistan". — PTI 

This is a battle that requires a tough, uncompromising security response. But it is also a battle that has to go so much wider. Countering extremism and radicalisation, investing in education, tackling poverty, dealing in all the issues that can fuel extremism and radicalization.
— David Cameron, British PM

Cairo, June 30
Egypt was on the edge today as protest rallies demanding Mohammed Mursi's ouster and early elections kicked off across the deeply polarised country on the first anniversary of his presidency, raising fears of an escalation in violence.

The grassroots Tamarod ('Rebellion' in Arabic) movement is driving the protest campaign with a petition of signatures seeking Mursi's ouster and a snap election, which has united liberal and secular opposition groups, including the National Salvation Front. However, many ordinary Egyptians —angered by Mursi's political and economic policies — are also taking part in the rally.

Opposition activists say more than 22 million people have signed the petition and have urged the signatories to come out in Cairo's Tahrir Square.

Thousands spent the night at Tahrir Square, focus of the Arab Spring protests which brought down ex-leader Hosni Mubarak in 2011.

The current protests come on the first anniversary of Mursi's election as the country's first Islamist president. 61-year-old Mursi's opponents say he has failed to tackle economic and security problems.

Critics also say he has put the Islamist agenda of his Muslim Brotherhood party ahead of the country's wider interests. In Cairo, anti-Mursi supporters waving red cards chanted: "Irhal! Irhal!" ("Leave! Leave!").

The rallies from the square and elsewhere in Alexandria are expected to move later in the day to the central Sidi Gaber area.

The Suez Canal city of Port Said, in north-east Egypt, is expected to see similar rallies today.

A big stage has been erected in the city's main square, with protesters checking the identities of those going in and out of the square.

There are similar rallies in Suez, Monofia and Sharqiya - the birthplace of Mursi. Supporters of the president are also holding their own rallies. Egyptians have been waiting with anticipation for today's protests for many weeks - the opposition vowing not to leave until Mursi steps down and calls early presidential elections.

But his supporters point out that Mursi was elected and say he should see out his full term in office, indicating a deep split in Egyptian society.

Flags and tents form a base camp on the square from where protesters plan to march on the presidential palace.

In the tense build up to the protests, at least three people, including a US citizen, died in violence on Friday. — PTI

London, June 30
Britain is set to tighten its rules to close loopholes that allow migrants to wrongly access free-for-all health care while in the country.

The plans, to be announced by Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt on Friday, are part of a crackdown on "health tourists" - those who live outside the European Union but use National Health Service (NHS) to obtain free health care. "No one expects health workers to become immigration guards. We want to work alongside doctors to bring about improvements, but I'm clear we must protect the NHS from costly abuse,” Hunt told 'The Observer'.

"We want a system that is fair to the British taxpayer by ensuring foreign nationals pay for NHS treatment. By looking at the scale of the problem and at where improvements can be made, we will help ensure the NHS remains sustainable for many years to come," he added.

Last year, the NHS identified that foreign nationals had cost hospitals £33 million, and it was forced to write off £12 million of this sum. However, some estimates put this figure far higher.

Under the new plans, non-EU patients will face charges when they seek treatment if they cannot provide proof of residency.

Anyone in Britain can currently register with a general practitioner for free and obtain an NHS number.

People who have lived in the UK for less than a year are required to pay for non-emergency hospital treatment but many don't because staff assume the NHS number means they are eligible for free care. A new registration and tracking system will now spot people who do not qualify for free health care.

The measures are being launched to coincide with the 65th anniversary of the NHS this Friday and are the latest in a string of measures being considered by the Conservative-led coalition government to deal with the issue of migration into the UK and mounting costs of maintaining a free health service. — PTI

Dubai, June 30
India has asked its nationals living in Saudi Arabia, who have received their Emergency Certificates (ECs), to get their final exit visa immediately from Saudi officials.

The Indian embassy in Riyadh said that it has completed the process of issuing ECs to all those applicants who have verified their personal particulars with the mission.

The new Saudi labour law called 'Nitaqat' makes it mandatory for local companies to hire one Saudi national for every 10 migrant workers.

As a result, a number of people from foreign countries who were working without valid work permits and runaways have come under the scanner. The Indian embassy has been issuing Emergency Certificates to such nationals to enable them to leave Saudi Arabia.

Embassy officials deployed at various labour offices in Riyadh and Dammam and at Riyadh Airport will continue to be available at these places in the coming weeks.

As of May 20, 75,000 Indians had registered with the Indian Embassy in Riyadh and the Consulate in Jeddah to be processed and be send back with 'emergency certificate'. There are over two million Indians in Saudi Arabia.

Meanwhile, in view of the decision by Saudi Arabia to shift the weekend to Friday and Saturday, the Indian embassy too will observe working day from Sunday to Thursday starting July 1. Friday and Saturday will be holidays in consonance with the Saudi official working days. — PTI 

Colombo, June 30
Sri Lanka will send President Mahinda Rajapaksa's younger brother Basil Rajapaksa to Delhi to hold talks with the Indian leadership over its controversial plan to tinker with the India-moved 13th Amendment (13A), government sources today said.

Basil Rajapaksa, Minister of Economic Development and the key political adviser to his brother, will leave Colombo on July 4.

Basil was quoted as saying in the Sunday Times here today that he would be meeting External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid and National Security Adviser Shivashankar Menon.

Analysts say Indian pressure has forced Colombo to retain the 13A sans amendments until the conclusion of the northern provincial council elections scheduled for September.

Khurshid in a phone conversation with his Sri Lankan counterpart GL Peiris in May had stressed that Colombo should not unilaterally move against the 13A.

The younger Rajapaksa visit comes in the backdrop of a visit to New Delhi by the main Tamil party Tamil National Alliance (TNA) which opposed the government plans at the behest of its nationalist allies to dilute 13A. The tinkering of the 13A, a byproduct of the Indo-Sri Lankan Accord of July 1987 to try and resolve the ethnic conflict, is being attempted ahead of the provincial council elections in Tamil-dominated northern areas in September.— PTI

Putin signs anti-gay law 
Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed into law a measure that stigmatises gay people and bans giving children any information about homosexuality. The lower House of Russia's parliament had unanimously passed the Kremlin-backed Bill on June 11 and the Upper House approved it last week. — AP

Islamabad
Pak 'blasphemy' girl moves to Canada: A Pakistani Christian girl who was arrested for alleged blasphemy last year and forced into hiding for fear of her life has moved to Canada, an activist said on Sunday. Rimsha Masih could have faced life in prison if convicted over allegations that she set fire to pages of the Koran in the poor neighbourhood where she lived on the edge of Islamabad. — AFP