W O R L D

Change of guard in Egypt
ElBaradei sworn in interim vice-president
Cairo, July 14
Prominent liberal leader Mohammed ElBaradei was sworn in today as Egypt's interim vice-president for foreign relations, even as Prime Minister Hazem al-Beblawy continued negotiations to form the new Cabinet following the ouster of President Mohamed Mursi.

Mohammed ElBaradei (C) with President Adly Mansour (R) in Cairo on Sunday. — AFP

Assets of 14 Islamists frozen
Cairo, July 14
Egypt's public prosecutor ordered the freezing of assets belonging to 14 top Islamists, including the group's general guide Mohamed Badie, as part of an investigation into deadly violence, judicial sources said.

Prosecutors quiz ex-Prez Mursi
Cairo, July 14
Egyptian authorities today grilled deposed President Mohamed Mursi and members of his Muslim Brotherhood for their alleged role in spying, inciting violence and ruining the economy during the Islamist party's year-long rule.

A woman falls in between bulls during the last running of the bulls at Pamplona’s San Fermin festival in Spain on Sunday. The nine-day fiesta landed 50 daredevils in hospital. — Reuters

Snowden chose not to release most damaging data: Scribe
Moscow, July 14
Edward Snowden possesses data that could prove far more "damaging" to the US government but the fugitive leaker has chosen not to release them, said a journalist who first broke the story.

Don’t want to be known as the girl shot at by Taliban: Malala
New York, July 14
Pledging to devote her life for education of girls, Pakistani teen activist Malala Yousufzai has said she does not want to be known as the girl the Taliban tried to kill but as "the girl who struggled for her rights".

First batch of women paratroopers graduates in Pak
The first batch of women paratroopers completed their training on Sunday, the military announced, hailing it as a “landmark achievement.” A total of 24 women officers of the Pakistan army successfully completed the course at Parachute Training School, Peshawar.

Change of guard in Egypt
ElBaradei sworn in interim vice-president

Cairo, July 14
Prominent liberal leader Mohammed ElBaradei was sworn in today as Egypt's interim vice-president for foreign relations, even as Prime Minister Hazem al-Beblawy continued negotiations to form the new Cabinet following the ouster of President Mohamed Mursi.

ElBaradei (71) was initially tipped to be the Prime Minister, but his nomination was rejected by the Salafist party Al-Nur. ElBaradei was sworn in on Sunday by interim President Adly Mansour as Egypt's interim vice-president for foreign relations, the presidency said in a statement.

ElBaradei, former director of the UN's nuclear agency, is coordinator of the main alliance of liberal and left-wing parties and youth groups, known as the National Salvation Front, formed late last year after Mursi granted himself sweeping powers in a constitutional declaration.

The appointment of Nobel peace prize winner ElBaradei came after the military overthrew Islamist President Mursi on July 3.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Beblawy is negotiating with nominees for the new Cabinet. Nabil Fahmy, a former Egyptian ambassador to the US, accepted the post of foreign minister as part of the interim administration after current foreign minister Mohamed Kamel Amr decided not to continue in his post.

Amr had submitted his resignation to Mursi in solidarity with the demands of protesters who poured to the streets on June 30, demanding the Islamist leader's ouster.

The new Cabinet makeup is expected to be announced this week, media reports said. — PTI

Assets of 14 Islamists frozen

Cairo, July 14
Egypt's public prosecutor ordered the freezing of assets belonging to 14 top Islamists, including the group's general guide Mohamed Badie, as part of an investigation into deadly violence, judicial sources said.

Meanwhile, Egyptian authorities today grilled deposed President Mohamed Mursi and members of his Muslim Brotherhood for their alleged role in spying, inciting violence and ruining the economy during the Islamist party's year-long rule. — PTI

Prosecutors quiz ex-Prez Mursi

Cairo, July 14
Egyptian authorities today grilled deposed President Mohamed Mursi and members of his Muslim Brotherhood for their alleged role in spying, inciting violence and ruining the economy during the Islamist party's year-long rule.

Mursi, Egypt's first democratically elected president, has been removed from power by the powerful army on July 3 and has been held at a "safe place". State security prosecution service investigators quizzed the toppled leader at an undisclosed location today, local media reported. — PTI

Snowden chose not to release most damaging data: Scribe

Moscow, July 14
Edward Snowden possesses data that could prove far more "damaging" to the US government but the fugitive leaker has chosen not to release them, said a journalist who first broke the story.

Glenn Greenwald told Argentina's La Nacion paper that Snowden, who is currently stranded in Moscow, had only sought to alert people that information they thought was private was being exploited by US intelligence agencies.

"Snowden has enough information to cause more damage to the US government in a minute alone than anyone else has ever had in the history of the United States," he told the paper in an interview published yesterday.

"But that's not his goal," said Greenwald, who published a series of stories in Britain's Guardian newspaper based on top-secret documents about sweeping US surveillance programmes that were leaked by Snowden.

His comments came as Russia waited today for a promised request for asylum from Snowden.

The United States wants the former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor returned to them to face trial over the leaks. Moscow has so far rejected that demand. Snowden, 30, has been stranded in the transit zone of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport, after the US withdrew his passport on his arrival from Hong Kong three weeks ago.

Snowden on Friday summoned Russian activists to his temporary base, to say he wanted to claim asylum in Russia until he could safely travel to Latin America for a permanent sanctuary. — AFP

Don’t want to be known as the girl shot at by Taliban: Malala

New York, July 14
Pledging to devote her life for education of girls, Pakistani teen activist Malala Yousufzai has said she does not want to be known as the girl the Taliban tried to kill but as "the girl who struggled for her rights".

"The attack on October 9 was just a part of my life. I want to work hard; I want to sacrifice my whole life for the education of girls," Malala said, addressing Pakistan's UN Mission in New York yesterday.

"And to be true, I want to say that I don't want to be the girl who was shot at by the Taliban, I want to be the girl who struggled for her rights," she said.

She made the remarks, a day after giving a widely acclaimed speech at the UN.

The UN appearance was Malala's first public speech since the Taliban targeted her in an attack and shot her in October in a bid to end her campaign to get girls into schools.

Malala, in her UN speech, stressed that, "I'm not against anyone, neither am I here to speak in terms of personal revenge against the Taliban, or any other terrorist group." — PTI

First batch of women paratroopers graduates in Pak
Afzal Khan in Islamabad

The first batch of women paratroopers completed their training on Sunday, the military announced, hailing it as a “landmark achievement.” A total of 24 women officers of the Pakistan army successfully completed the course at Parachute Training School, Peshawar.

Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani congratulated all the women officers and their training staff on the successful completion of the course. Captain Kiran Ashraf was declared the best paratrooper of the batch, the military said in a statement, while Captain Sadia became the first woman officer to jump from a MI-17 helicopter.