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Obama eases immigration rule for terrorist supporters
11 dead, 1,200 injured as heavy snow hits Japan
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Iran agrees to act on N-cooperation
Special to the Tribune
Indian-origin doc implants first leadless pacemaker
Pak Taliban demand Islamic system of governance
A full stop to a comma?
Court orders compensation for Hindus attacked in B’desh
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Obama eases immigration rule for terrorist supporters
WASHINGTON, February 9 The change is one of President Barack Obama’s first actions on immigration since he pledged during his state of the Union address to use more executive directives. The department of homeland security and the state department now say that people considered to have provided "limited material support" to terrorists or terrorist groups are no longer automatically barred from the US. A post-September 11 provision in immigrant law, known as terrorism related inadmissibility grounds, had affected anyone considered to have given support. With little exception, the provision has been applied rigidly to those trying to enter the US and those already here but wanting to change their immigration status. The homeland security department said in a statement that the rule change, which was announced last week and not made in concert with the Congress, gives the government more discretion, but won't open the country to terrorists or their sympathizers. People seeking refugee status, asylum and visas, including those already in the United States, still will be checked to make sure they don't pose a threat to national security or public safety, the department said.
In the past, the provision has been criticised for allowing few exemptions beyond providing medical care or acting under duress. The change now allows officials to consider whether the support was not only limited but potentially part of "routine commercial transactions or routine social transactions." The change doesn't specifically address "freedom fighters" who may have fought against a government, including members of rebel groups who have led revolts in Arab Spring uprisings. In late 2011, Citizenship and Immigration Services said about 4,400 affected cases were on hold as the government reviewed possible exemptions to the rule. It's unclear how many of those cases are still pending. Sen. Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the rule change will help people he described as deserving refugees and asylum-seekers. "The existing interpretation was so broad as to be unworkable," Leahy said in a statement. He said the previous rule barred applicants for reasons "that no rational person would consider." Republican lawmakers argued that the administration is relaxing rules designed by the Congress to protect the country from terrorists. — AP
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11 dead, 1,200 injured as heavy snow hits Japan
Tokyo, February 9 As a depression moved along the Pacific coast yesterday, the northeastern city of Sendai saw 13.8 inches of snow, the heaviest in 78 years. Local media said at least 11 persons have been killed with one person also in critical condition in snow-linked accidents, mostly crashes after their cars skidded on icy roads. In central Aichi prefecture, a 50-year-old man died after his car slipped on the icy road and rammed into an advertisement steel pole, a local rescuer said. Public broadcaster NHK reported at least 1,253 persons were injured across the nation, many of whom had slipped on the ground or fallen while shovelling the snow off their roofs. More than 20,000 households were without electricity early today while airlines cancelled more than 400 domestic flights a day after over 740 flights were grounded. Nearly 5,000 people were stranded at Narita airport yesterday as traffic linking the airport to the capital was disrupted, NHK said. Further snowfall is expected today in the northern part of the country, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
AFP |
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Iran agrees to act on N-cooperation
Dubai, February 9 In a statement carried by the official IRNA news agency and issued after two days of what were described as “constructive technical talks” in Tehran, Iran and the IAEA did not spell out what the measures were, but said full details of the planned steps would be reported to the governors of the UN agency by the watchdog’s director-general. The UN agency hopes to persuade Iran to finally start addressing suspicions that it may have researched how to build atomic bombs. A diplomatic source in Vienna, where the IAEA is based, said one of the steps related to an investigation by the nuclear watchdog into possible military dimensions to Iran’s nuclear activities, a potentially significant step forward as the probe has been deadlocked for years. Tehran has rejected the accusations that it is working to develop nuclear weapons as baseless and said it will cooperate with the IAEA to clear up any “ambiguities”. Behrouz Kamalvandi, a spokesman for Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation, was quoted by IRNA as saying: “Given the nature of the information provided in the spirit of cooperation, we expect that we will witness a positive report to the board of governors.” There was no immediate comment from the IAEA. Western powers and Israel suspect that Iran's nuclear drive masks military objectives, a claim Tehran repeatedly denies.
— Reuters |
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Indira sought Thatcher’s aid for Bhutto’s ailing mom
Shyam Bhatia in London Late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi intervened for humanitarian reasons on behalf of the Bhutto family, newly released British government documents have revealed. The intervention came in the form of a letter that Gandhi wrote to her British counterpart Margaret Thatcher in October 1982. From the British side the letter was stamped “personal message, serial no T200B/82”. One of Thatcher’s aides wrote, “Prime Minister, We shall let you have a reply.” It shows that despite any prevailing regional tensions, Gandhi was a big enough personality to overcome any personal or national prejudices to seek help for Begum Bhutto, who was described as suffering from a “serious illness and deteriorating condition.” Gandhi’s letter — never before disclosed — was typed on headed stationery from the Prime Minister’s House, New Delhi, and addressed to “The Rt. Hon. Mrs Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister and First Lord of the Treasury, London”. The first line, “Dear Prime Minister”, was written in Gandhi’s personal hand. The letter stated, “I do not believe in interfering in the affairs of other countries. However, once in a while there is an issue which moves one. “I have earlier spoken to you about Benazir Bhutto. Now the news that her mother Mrs Bhutto is being denied the necessary medical treatment in spite of serious illness and deteriorating condition, is disturbing. The Bhutto family have not been friends of mine at any time. But in the present circumstances, it seems cruel not to allow Mrs Bhutto to go abroad for medical treatment. “There is strong feeling in India, especially amongst our women. Several organisations are approaching me to take up the issue. I have written to President Zia-ul-Haq requesting him to consider this matter on purely humanitarian grounds. “With regards and good wishes, Yours sincerely, Indira Gandhi.” How Thatcher reacted to it, has not been made public, but soon afterwards both Begum Bhutto and Benazir were allowed to travel to London. Benazir remained off and on in London for several years and returned to Pakistan in 1986 soon after the lifting of martial law. She became Prime Minister for the first time after Zia was killed in a mysterious plane crash two years later. Despite Gandhi’s disclaimers, her letter to Thatcher confirms how she reached out to the Bhutto family after Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was executed in 1979. She was reportedly impressed by Benazir during the Simla peace talks of 1972, when Benazir accompanied her father, and retained a soft spot for her. Discreet contact was subsequently maintained, especially after Zulfikar was hanged. As for Benazir’s brothers, Murtaza and Shahzada, jointly responsible for hijacking a PIA jet to Kabul in 1981 and mistakingly shooting dead a Pakistan army officer, Gandhi is known to have received both of them at her Safdarjang residence in New Delhi. When Benazir became Prime Minister, she invited both Rajiv and Sonia Gandhi to her home in Islamabad, but later complained that despite making the all important decision of clamping down on Sikh militants on the Pakistan side of the border, she got nothing in return. What Indira wrote to her British counterpart
I do not believe in interfering in the affairs of other countries. However, once in a while there is an issue which moves one... I have earlier spoken to you about Benazir Bhutto. Now the news that her mother Mrs Bhutto is being denied the necessary medical treatment in spite of serious illness and deteriorating condition, is disturbing... it seems cruel not to allow Mrs Bhutto to go abroad for medical
treatment.
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Indian-origin doc implants first leadless pacemaker
New York, February 9 The device implanted by Vivek Reddy from The Mount Sinai Hospital, resembles a small metal silver tube, and is only a few centimetres in length, making it less than 10 per cent the size of a traditional pacemaker. The Nanostim device, made by St Jude Medical, is being tested for safety and efficacy in an international, multicentre clinical trial called LEADLESS II, which is planning to enroll 670 patients at 50 centres across the US, Canada, and Europe. “This clinical research trial will be testing the latest innovative, non-surgical pacemaker option for patients experiencing a slowed heart beat,” said Reddy, the study’s co-investigator. “This new-age, tiny pacemaker may ultimately be safer for patients because it doesn’t have leads or have to be inserted under the skin of a patient’s chest, like a traditional cardiac pacemaker,” Reddy said. It works by closely monitoring the heart’s electrical rhythms and if the heart beat is too slow it provides electrical stimulation therapy to regulate it. More than 4 million patients globally have a pacemaker, and 700,000 new patients receive one each year, researchers said. The possible advantages of the leadless pacemaker include the elimination of a surgical pocket and no visible pacemaker device under a patient’s chest skin, no incision scar on the chest, no connector wires or leads, and no restrictions on a patient’s activities. The device’s benefits may also allow for less patient discomfort, infections, and device complications and dysfunction. In addition, the free-standing, battery-operated pacemaker device is designed to be fully retrievable from the heart.
— PTI Medical marvel
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Pak Taliban demand Islamic system of governance
Islamabad, February 9 The Taliban 'Shura' or council, which has been meeting in the restive northwest since yesterday under its deputy chief Sheikh Khalid Haqqani, also demanded the withdrawal of the army from tribal areas, said the website of the Dawn. Jamaat-e-Islami leader Ibrahim Khan and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-S leader Yousuf Shah, members of the Taliban-nominated committee, are in Waziristan for a meeting with the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan. They are likely to convey the Taliban's demands to state negotiators, the report said. The Taliban's 15-point agenda was also reported by Dunya News channel. However, Geo News reported that the Taliban's demands included release of militants, withdrawal of the army from insurgency-hit areas and compensation to people affected by violence. The reports about the 15-point agenda could not be independently confirmed. According to the report on Dawn's website, the agenda includes introduction of Shariah law in courts, halting US drone attacks and introduction of an Islamic system of education in public and private institutions. Other demands include release of Pakistani Taliban and foreign fighters from jail, restoration and compensation for property damaged in drone attacks, handing over control of tribal areas to local forces, army withdrawal from tribal areas and shutting down of check posts.
— PTI |
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A full stop to a comma?
London, February 9 Prof John McWhorter, an associate professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University, believes that removing commas from most modern US texts would cause little loss of clarity. McWhorter said as Internet users and even some writers become increasingly idiosyncratic, if not indifferent, in their use of the punctuation mark, it may have outstayed its welcome, The Times reported. You "could take them out of a great deal of modern American texts and you would probably suffer so little loss of clarity that there could even be a case made for not using commas at all," McWhorter said. He cited the Oxford comma, inserted after the penultimate item in a list, as an example of the mark's obsolescence. "Nobody has any reason for it that is scientifically sensible and logical in the sense that we know how hydrogen and oxygen combine to form water," McWhorter told Slate magazine.
— PTI |
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Court orders compensation for Hindus attacked in B’desh
Dhaka, February 9 The government was asked by a High Court bench of Justices Quazi Reza-Ul Hoque and A B M Altaf Hossain to pay the compensation within three weeks. The bench further directed police to arrest those responsible for the attacks. The government will have to pay Taka 4.34 million (USD 1 = Taka 78) as compensation as assessed by an investigation committee, Roy was quoted as saying by mass circulation The Daily Star newspaper.
— PTI |
Singapore to launch satellite with ISRO's help Indian-Americans should be politically active: Keshkari Pak to launch polio vaccination drive in restive Bajaur Indian diplomat meets prisoners in Pak jail Sushil Koirala set to become Nepal PM Bomb kills intelligence officer in Yemen Roadside bomb kills 8 Afghan soldiers China dismisses US claim on disputed South China Sea Al-Qaida cell active in University of Karachi
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The heaviest snow in decades in Tokyo and other areas of Japan has left at least 11 dead and more than 1,200 injured across the country, reports said today.
As much as 10.6 inches of snow was recorded in Tokyo by late yesterday, the heaviest fall in the capital for 45 years, according to meteorologists.
Late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi intervened for humanitarian reasons on behalf of the Bhutto family, newly released British government documents have revealed.
The intervention came in the form of a letter that Gandhi wrote to her British counterpart Margaret Thatcher in October 1982.
From the British side the letter was stamped “personal message, serial no
T200B/82”. One of Thatcher’s aides wrote, “Prime Minister, We shall let
you have a reply.”
