Iran cancels Pakistan gas pipeline loan 
Tehran, December 14
Iran says it has cancelled a planned USD 500 million loan to Pakistan to build part of a pipeline to bring natural gas from Iran.

Dhaka, December 14
The death toll in violence across Bangladesh triggered by the execution of a top Jamaat-e-Islami leader today rose to 10, even as Islamists set afire the house of a federal minister in the country's northwest.

Abdul Quader Mollah, known as the "Butcher of Mirpur" for atrocities committed during Bangladesh's 1971 liberation war, was hanged on Thursday night after the Supreme Court rejected his review petition. He was the first politician to be put to death for war crimes.

Violence erupted at several places soon after his execution, which the Jamaat described as a "political murder" even as it vowed to take revenge. Three deaths were reported today from southeastern Laxmipur, where clashes between Jamaat workers and police broke out after a local leader of the party was allegedly found dead hours after he was picked up by security personnel.

Yesterday, seven persons died when Jamaat cadres clashed with police at several places, including Noakhali, Satkhira, Khulna and Jessore. The dead included six leaders and activists of the Jamaat, two Awami League workers, a BNP activist and a street vendor.

Meanwhile, Jamaat activists set ablaze the house of State Home Minister Shamsul Haque Tuku in Pabna, which was rented out to the local passport office. One room of the two-storey building was damaged when the activists hurled a petrol bomb, police said.

Earlier in the day, unidentified persons damaged two Hindu idols at a temple in northwestern Sirajganj. — PTI

Kathmandu, December 14
The Nepali Congress, which emerged as the largest party in recent polls, today pledged it would finalise Nepal's new Constitution within a year of forming government.

NC general secretary Prakash Man Singh said the government would be formed under his party's leadership as it secured the first position in the November 19 election by winning 196 seats in the 601-member Constituent Assembly. Singh said the NC was committed to drafting a new Constitution within a year of forming the government.

The NC will try to form a consensus government by forging a general agreement among all political parties. If there is no consensus among the parties, the NC will try to form a "strong majority government", Singh said. — PTI

Washington, December 14
The US has said Indian Deputy Consul General in New York has immunity from jurisdiction only for her actions in an official capacity and hoped that the incident will not affect bilateral ties with India, which has strongly reacted to the treatment meted out to the diplomat.

Following India issuing a demarche to the US Ambassador in New Delhi, the State Department said it was handling the issue.

“We are handling this incident through law enforcement channels. We have a long-standing partnership with India, and we expect that that partnership will continue,” a US State Department spokesperson told PTI.

India's Deputy Counsel General Devyani Khobragade, a 1999-batch IFS officer, was taken into custody in New York on Thursday as she was dropping her daughter to school and handcuffed in public on visa fraud charges before being released on a $250,000 bond after pleading not guilty. Khobragade's attorneys have emphasised that she has diplomatic immunity, whereas the federal law enforcement authorities have argued that her alleged visa fraud is not covered under the Vienna Convention.

"Under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, the Indian Deputy Consul General enjoys immunity from the jurisdiction of US courts only with respect to acts performed in the exercise of consular functions," the spokesperson said. — PTI

Beijing, December 14
China's lunar probe Chang'e-3, with the country's first moon rover on board, successfully landed on the earth's satellite Saturday, marking the first time that China has sent a spacecraft to soft land on the surface of an extra-terrestrial body.

The lunar probe began to carry out soft-landing on the moon at about 9 pm on Saturday and touched down on Sinus Iridum about 12 minutes later, according to Beijing Aerospace Control Centre, reported Xinhua.

During the process, the probe decelerated from 15 km above the moon, stayed hovering at 100 metres from the lunar surface to use sensors to assess the landing area to avoid obstacles and locate the final landing spot, and descended slowly on to the surface. The success made China the third country, after the US and the Soviet Union, to soft-land on the moon.

Compared to the two countries, which have successfully conducted 13 soft-landings on the moon, China's mission designed the suspension and obstacle-avoiding phases to survey the landing area precisely through fitted detectors, scientists said. — IANS

Tehran, December 14
Iran says it has cancelled a planned USD 500 million loan to Pakistan to build part of a pipeline to bring natural gas from Iran.

Deputy Oil Minister Ali Majedi says Iran has no obligation to finance the Pakistani side of the project and also doesn't have the money. Majedi's comments were posted on the oil ministry's website, shana.ir, today.

He said Tehran will demand compensation if Islamabad fails to take Iranian gas by end of next year. Iran's former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had pledged the loan.

The Iran-Pakistan pipeline is designed to help Pakistan overcome its mushrooming energy needs. Pakistanis experience frequent blackouts. But there are serious doubts about how Pakistan could finance the $2 billion needed to construct the pipeline, which also faces US opposition. — AP