The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Muslim Brotherhood faces ban in Egypt, death toll crosses 800

Cairo, August 18
Egypt’s military-backed government is considering banning the hardline Muslim Brotherhood whose supporters are demanding reinstatement of ousted President Mohammed Morsi, even as the army today vowed "not to stand silently" in the face of over 800 deaths in street battles. Interim Prime Minister Hazem Beblawi has put forward a proposal to legally dissolve the Brotherhood.

"There will be no reconciliation with those whose hands have been stained with blood and who turned weapons against the state and its institutions," Beblawi told reporters.

His proposal to dissolve the Brotherhood raises the stakes in the struggle for the control of Egypt. If it is acted upon, it could force the group underground and allow its sources of funding to be targeted.

Despite being closely allied to deposed President Morsi's government, the Brotherhood has always been a banned organisation, dissolved in 1954 by Egypt's military rulers.

But it recently registered itself as a non-governmental organisation.

Meanwhile, Army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi warned that the forces will never be silent in the face of violence.

"Whoever imagines violence will make the state and Egyptians kneel must reconsider; we will never be silent in the face of the destruction of the country," said al-Sisi.

Al-Sisi, the general behind the "military coup" that toppled Morsi on July 3, made the statement during a meeting with military and police commanders.

He also said that the Army had no intention to seize power and even called for inclusion of Islamists.

Also today, the 'Anti-Coup Coalition' today called off rallies that they had planned to stage in Cairo, citing security concerns.

"Several marches in Cairo have been cancelled for security reasons," Yasmine Adel, the group's spokeswoman said.

She added that some marches were taking place.

Security had been beefed up at a key points ahead of planned mass rallies by pro-Morsi supporters with armoured vehicles and troops being deployed in southern Cairo.

Since Wednesday, over 800 people have died in clashes that erupted after security forces stormed two camps set up by Morsi loyalists in Cairo. — PTI

Shakespeare’s bad handwriting helps identify his ‘new’ work

Washington, August 18
The mystery behind the identity of the writer of five additional passages in Thomas Kyd’s play ‘The Spanish Tragedy‘ has now been solved — and it is none other than Shakespeare!

Surprisingly, the proof that the Bard of Avon was involved comes from his trademark misspellings and the bad handwriting behind them. For centuries, scholars have been searching for answers to a literary mystery: Who wrote the five additional passages in Thomas Kyd’s ‘The Spanish Tragedy'?

William Shakespeare’s name has been pointed out as the author of the 325 additional lines but there has been no conclusive proof. Now, English professor Douglas Bruster from the University of Texas at Austin has found evidence confirming that it is indeed the work of the Bard.

According to Bruster’s textual analysis, published online in Notes and Queries, the proof lies in Shakespeare’s trademark misspellings and bad handwriting. “This is the clinching evidence we need to admit the additional passages into the Shakespeare canon. It’s not every day we get to identify new writing by Shakespeare, so this is an exciting moment,” Bruster said.

Bruster examined Shakespeare’s spelling habits in the manuscript pages of the 16th-century play ‘Sir Thomas More’. Using Shakespeare’s contributions as a guide, he identified 24 points of similarity between ‘Sir Thomas More’ and ‘The Spanish Tragedy’, a play republished, with new material, at about the time of ‘Hamlet’. The findings reveal that Shakespeare’s spelling was both old-fashioned and idiosyncratic. For example, with words like ‘spotless’ and ‘darkness’ Shakespeare would use a single ‘s’. Past-tense words like ‘wrapped’ and ‘blessed’ he ended with a ‘t’ (ie, ‘wrapt’, ‘blest’). Also telling is his habit of spelling the same word in two different ways (ie, ‘alley’ spelled ‘allie’ and ‘allye’ in the same line). — PTI

Sharif orders immediate halt to executions

Islamabad, August 18
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif today ordered an immediate halt to the carrying out of death sentences till he has discussed the matter with President Asif Ali Zardari, an official spokesman said.

Sharif made the decision after Zardari wrote to him, saying he wanted to discuss next week's hanging of two high-profile Lashkar-i-Jhangvi militants amid calls from rights groups to cancel the planned executions.

The official spokesman was quoted by TV news channels as saying since that the date of the executions was approaching and the President was away from the country, the premier had directed the Interior Ministry to hold the execution of the death sentences till he holds a meeting with Zardari.

If the ruling PML-N goes ahead with the executions, it will end a five-year moratorium on death sentences that was put in place by the previous government led by Zardari's Pakistan People's Party. The spokesman further said that reports that the President had stopped the implementation of the death sentences were incorrect.

He said the President had sent a letter to the PM in which he said he wanted to meet Sharif to discuss the issue of the long-pending death sentences of hundreds of prisoners. Yesterday, presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar told PTI that Zardari wanted to discuss the planned hanging of two militants next week with the PM. PML-N government has completed formalities to send the convicted militants to the gallows on Tuesday. It is not clear how Sharif will respond to Zardari's proposal.

Human Rights Watch and the International Committee of Jurists has sent an open letter to the PML-N government, asking it to renew the moratorium on the death penalty. An anti-terrorism court in Sindh province has issued "black warrants" for the hanging of two members of the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. — PTI

After deadly ferry disaster, Philippines asks what went wrong

Philippine coastguard personnel survey the sea for an oil spill at the site of a sunken ferry on Sunday. — AFP

Philippines, August 18
As rescuers plucked more bodies from the sea after a Philippine ferry and a cargo ship collided late last week, killing at least 38 people, a vexing but familiar question faces a country plagued by an abysmal record in maritime safety: what went wrong?

Authorities say 82 people listed as missing are believed to have died, trapped in the ferry that sank to the sea floor off the central Philippine port of Cebu minutes after Friday's collision. Divers are trying to cut into the vessel, at a depth of 45 metres (150 feet), and plug an oil leak.

Although a formal investigation will not begin until after the rescue operation, attention is already turning to the final moments in the latest fatal shipping disaster to strike the Philippines, a country of 7,100 islands, where over-crowded or overloaded vessels are common and sea regulations are notoriously hard to enforce.

The MV St Thomas of Aquinas, an inter-island ferry loaded with 870 passengers and crew, had been at sea for about nine hours after leaving Nasipit, a port on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao, when it approached Cebu, a bustling economic zone about 560 km (350 miles) south of Manila.

The yellow-hulled MV Sulpicio Express Siete, laden with containers, had just left Cebu's port with 36 crew.

As they both entered a narrow channel about 600 yards (550 metres) wide in the dark at about 9 pm, they appeared to have strayed onto the same lane from opposite sides, officials said. Under navigational rules, both vessels must steer to the right if they are on a collision course, Commodore William Melad, head of the coast guard district in central Visayas region, told Reuters. The ferry repeatedly blew its horn and sent warning signals, said 2GO Group Inc, which owns the ferry. — Reuters

Arrange committee’s visit to Mumbai, orders Pak court

Islamabad, August 18
A Pakistani anti-terrorism court has directed authorities to arrange the visit of a panel of lawyers to India to cross-examine four key witnesses in the Mumbai attacks case.

Judge Atiqur Rehman of the anti-terrorism court here yesterday directed the National Crisis Management Cell of the Interior Ministry to arrange the visit.

He issued the order in response to an application filed by the Federal Investigation Agency through Special Prosecutor Mohammad Azhar Chaudhry, according to media reports.

Chaudhry requested the judge to direct the federal government to coordinate with Indian authorities to ensure the security of the Pakistani lawyers during their stay in India.

He claimed that it was necessary for the government to take up this issue in view of recent protests outside the Pakistani High Commission in New Delhi.

The Pakistani commission is expected to visit Mumbai to cross-examine four witnesses, including Magistrate R V Sawant Waghule, who recorded the confessional statement of lone surviving attacker Ajmal Kasab, the chief investigating officer of the Mumbai attacks case and the two doctors who conducted the autopsy of the slain attackers.

The commission had visited Mumbai in March last year and recorded the statements of these witnesses but a Pakistani anti-terrorism court rejected its report after defence lawyers pointed out that the panel was not allowed to cross-examine the Indian officials.

In January this year, India and Pakistan agreed on a second visit by the panel so that the Pakistani lawyers could cross-examine the witnesses.

Pakistani authorities have arrested seven men, including Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, for alleged involvement in the planning and execution of the Mumbai attacks that killed 166 persons. — PTI

American Qaida militant urges attacks on US diplomats

Dubai, August 18
An American Al-Qaida militant has called for more attacks on Western diplomats in the Arab world, praising the killers of the US ambassador to Libya on September 11 last year, a US-based monitoring group said on Sunday.

Western nations shut embassies across the Middle East and North Africa early this month, after a warning of a possible militant attack. Many have reopened, and Britain said its Yemen embassy would open on Sunday after being closed for 12 days. Adam Gadahn, a California-born convert to Islam with a $1 million US price on his head, appealed to wealthy Muslims to offer militants rewards to kill ambassadors in the region, citing bounty set for killing the US ambassador to Yemen, Washington-based SITE monitoring group said.

"These prizes have a great effect in instilling fear in the hearts of our cowardly enemies," Gadahn said in the 39-minute video recording in Arabic posted on websites used by Islamist militants, according to SITE.

"They also encourage hesitant individuals to carry out important and great deeds in the path of Allah," he said, in an English transcript on SITE.

The Yemen-based branch of Al-Qaida last year offered 3 kg (106 ounces) of gold for the killing of the US ambassador in Sanaa or 5 million rials ($23,350) for an American soldier in the impoverished Arab state.

US ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed in Libya's Benghazi in 2012 when Islamist gunmen attacked the US consulate during a protest by a mob angry over a film they said insulted the Prophet Mohammad. — Reuters

China floods: 43 dead, over 1 million affected

Beijing, August 18
At least 43 people have been killed and more than a million were affected over the past one week in northeast and southeast China due to floods caused by monsoon. Twelve people were killed in Liaoning province on Sunday, adding to a total of 25 deaths reported earlier in Heilongjiang and Jilin, the other two provinces in China's northeast.

In the south, six people were reported were killed by flooding and landslides in Guangdong province, Xinhua news agency said.

More than one million people from 262 villages and towns were affected by heavy rainfalls triggered by the monsoon, said the provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters, adding that 109,300 people were relocated.

According to the headquarters, 70,650 hectares of farmland were affected while 1,936 houses collapsed.

Downpours have disrupted transportation, leaving more than 3,000 residents trapped in Zijin county, according to the local government. — PTI