Sharif joins list of richest politicians
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has joined the list of a very few lawmakers who are billionaires, according to statements of assets of parliamentarians for 2012-13 released by the Election Commission of Pakistan. While most lawmakers are accused of making under-statement of their actual assets, the commission has no authority to check the veracity of their statements. The net value of assets owned by Sharif has risen to Rs 1.71 billion from Rs 261.6 million he had declared at the time of filing nomination papers for the May elections.

Washington, December 27
US President Barack Obama has signed a Bipartisan Federal Budget Bill, averting the risk of an embarrassing government shutdown for two years in the world’s largest economy.

Obama also approved a Defense Spending Bill that includes provisions altering the way sexual assaults are handled in the military. The measure also makes it easier to transfer detainees out of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba.

The hard-fought legislation was passed by both the Senate and the House of Representatives earlier this month.

The Bill had been drafted by a cross-party budget committee set up after October's 16-day government shutdown.

It outlines federal spending through 2015, meaning the government will remain open for the foreseeable future. A government shutdown at the beginning of October cost the US government millions of dollars, and left a large swath of the federal workers at home.

Obama signed the Bills yesterday while vacationing in Hawaii. Obama said since taking office, he has repeatedly called upon the Congress to work with his Administration to close the high-security terrorist detention facility at Guantanamo.

"I am encouraged that this act provides the executive greater flexibility to transfer Guantanamo detainees abroad, and look forward to working with the Congress to take the additional steps needed to close the facility," Obama said.

"The continued operation of the facility weakens our national security by draining resources, damaging our relationships with key allies and partners, and emboldening violent extremists," he said in a statement.

The sweeping defence Bill among others, authorises $527 billion in base defence spending and $80 billion for the war in Afghanistan, in addition to a crackdown on sexual assault in military and eases restrictions on transferring detainees from the federal prison at Guantanamo Bay.

In possibly his last official act of the year, the bipartisan bill crafted by Congressman Paul Ryan and Senator Patty Murray authorises more than $1 trillion in spending for fiscal 2014 and 2015, and creates a detente between the parties by avoiding both entitlement cuts and tax increases. — PTI

Beirut, December 27
A huge car bomb rocked central Beirut today, killing six people including an influential member of a coalition opposed to Syrian President Bashar Assad, and leaving cars ablaze and buildings wrecked. State news agency NNA said that Mohammad Chatah, 62, died as he headed to a meeting in the city centre of the March 14 coalition at the mansion of ex-prime minister Saad Hariri. Dozens were injured in the blast.

Chatah, an influential economist and former minister of finance and Lebanon's envoy to Washington, had served as adviser to ex-premier Fuad Siniora and remained a close aide to his successor, Saad Hariri. Footage broadcast by Future TV showed people with their clothes on fire, others lying on the ground, some bloodied and in shock, as well as the mangled remains of a car.

Ambulances as well as security reinforcements rushed to the stricken area, where people caught in the blast were seen walking about in a daze as crowds gathered. The blast sent thick black smoke scudding across the capital's skyline and over the Grand Serail, a massive Ottoman-era complex that houses the offices of the Lebanese prime minister.

NNA news agency gave an initial toll of five people killed and more than 50 wounded in the blast, and said that more than 10 buildings in the area were badly damaged.

The prosecutor general Samir Hammud announced that the explosive had been between 50 and 60 kilograms.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the early morning bombing, the first in recent times to have struck the commercial and banking district of Beirut, which is also home to government offices and parliament.

But Sunni leader Hariri was quick to implicate the powerful Shiite movement Hezbollah in the attack, and linked the group to his father Rafiq Hariri's murder nearly nine years ago in another massive car bomb attack. — AFP

Bangkok, December 27
Thailand's powerful army today refused to rule out a coup amid an escalating political crisis, a major setback for the embattled premier who has pledged to go ahead with snap polls despite deadly clashes between police and anti-government protesters.

"The military does not shut or open the door to a coup," army chief Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha said, marking a shift in the stand of the military, which has so far refused to get involved in the deepening crisis. "Anything can happen. It depends on the situation...we are trying to do the right thing, in a peaceful way and we urge negotiations," he said.

"The military is now adhering to peaceful means and trying to place itself in a neutral position, not taking sides. We are not doing anything to interfere with the work of the authorities, while looking to take care of the people," Prayuth was quoted as saying by Bangkok Post.

The military will do what it can to prevent violence, he said. "We want the two sides to stop creating further conflict." The army has staged 11 coups since Thailand became a constitutional monarchy in 1932. — PTI

Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has joined the list of a very few lawmakers who are billionaires, according to statements of assets of parliamentarians for 2012-13 released by the Election Commission of Pakistan.

While most lawmakers are accused of making under-statement of their actual assets, the commission has no authority to check the veracity of their statements.

The net value of assets owned by Sharif has risen to Rs 1.71 billion from Rs 261.6 million he had declared at the time of filing nomination papers for the May elections.

He has six agricultural properties (over 1,700 kanals) in Lahore and Sheikhupura worth Rs 1.08 billion and that of a house in Upper Mall, Lahore, at Rs 250 million. His wife, Kulsoom Nawaz, owns a bungalow on Hall Road in Murree worth Rs 100 million. She owes Rs 1.75 million to two individuals. He possesses shares worth Rs 33 million in nine industrial units. He has received Rs 197.4 million remittances from his son Hussain Nawaz. Sharif owns two Mercedes cars, a Land Cruiser and a tractor. He and his wife have Rs 138 million in 10 bank accounts.

Baghdad, December 27
Mowaffak al-Rubaie sits in his office with a statue of Saddam Hussein behind him, the rope used to hang the dictator around its neck, recalling his final minutes. The former national security advisor, who oversaw Saddam's 2006 execution, said he remained strong until the end, and never expressed any regret.

"A criminal? True. A killer? True. A butcher? True. But he was strong until the end. "I received him (Saddam) at the door. No one entered with us -- no foreigners, and no Americans," Rubaie said in an interview with AFP at his office in the Kadhimiyah area of north Baghdad, near the prison where the execution took place seven years ago. "He was wearing a jacket and a white shirt, normal and relaxed, and I didn't see any signs of fear.

"Of course, some people want me to say that he collapsed or that he was drugged, but these facts are for history," Rubaie said.

"I didn't hear any regret from him, I didn't hear any request for mercy from God from him, or request for pardon. "A person who is about to die usually says, 'God, forgive my sins -- I am coming to you.' But he never said any of that," Rubaie told AFP.

Saddam Hussein, who ruled Iraq for more than two decades marked by brutal repression, disastrous wars and punishing international sanctions, was hanged after being found guilty of crimes against humanity for the 1982 killing of 148 Shiite villagers in Dujail.

He was president from July 1979 until the March 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, and was found by American forces hiding in a hole on a farm in December of that year. Saddam was executed on December 30, 2006. — AFP

Nairobi, December 27
South Sudan’s government today agreed to end hostilities, regional leaders said at the end of a crisis summit, raising hopes for a potential breakthrough in efforts to cease violence that has displaced more than 1,20,000 people in the world's newest country.

East African leaders meeting in Kenya under a bloc called IGAD said in a statement today that they "welcomed the commitment by (South Sudan's government) to an immediate cessation of hostilities.” But former Vice President Riek Machar, Kiir's political rival who is accused of orchestrating a failed coup that the government says sparked unrest across the oil-producing country, was not represented at the summit in Nairobi. Machar, the leaders' joint statement said, is urged to “make similar commitments” to end hostilities.

IGAD said it opposes a violent change of government in South Sudan and urged Kiir and his rivals to start peace talks before the end of 2013.

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta noted that there was "a very small window of opportunity to secure peace" in South Sudan. — AP

grand welcome: Miss International 2013 winner of the Philippines, Bae Rose Santiago, waves at the crowd during a victory parade in Manila on Friday. Santiago won the top position at the 53rd Miss International pageant held on December 7 in Japan. ap/PTI

UK opens inquest into Indian-origin doc's death
London: An inquest into the death of a 32-year-old Indian-origin British doctor who died under mysterious circumstances in a Syrian prison opened today at a UK court. The inquest into Shah Abbas Khan's death began at the Walthamstow Coroners Court and was adjourned later in the day. PTI