Pak court rejects Musharraf’s pleas
The Special Court constituted for treason trial against former military ruler General (retd) Pervez Musharraf on Friday dismissed his two more petitions against formation of court and bias of judges.

Obama worst US Prez: Jindal
Washington, March 7
Preparing ground for his potential presidential run in 2016, Indian-American Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has slammed Barack Obama as the worst president in history and took a dig at his inability to stop Russia from invading Ukraine.

French judges tapped Sarkozy’s phones
Paris, March 7
Nicolas Sarkozy is suspected of attempting to pervert the court of justice on the basis of phone taps ordered by judges investigating his links with Muammar Gaddafi, it emerged today.

Moscow/Simferopol, March 7
The Russian foreign ministry on Friday accused the European Union of taking an "extremely unconstructive position" by freezing talks on easing visa barriers that complicate travel between Russia and the EU over Ukraine. "Russia will not accept the language of sanctions and threats" and will retaliate if sanctions are imposed, the ministry said about agreements reached at an emergency EU summit on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin rebuffed a warning from US President Barack Obama over Moscow's military intervention in Crimea, saying on Friday that Russia could not ignore calls for help from Russian speakers in Ukraine.

After an hour-long telephone call, Putin said in a statement that Moscow and Washington were still far apart on the situation in the former Soviet republic, where he said the new authorities had taken "absolutely illegitimate decisions on the eastern, southeastern and Crimea regions.

"Russia cannot ignore calls for help and it acts accordingly, in full compliance with international law," Putin said. The most serious east-west confrontation since the end of the Cold War - resulting from the overthrow last month of President Viktor Yanukovich after violent protests in Kiev - escalated on Thursday when Crimea's Parliament, dominated by ethnic Russians, voted to join Russia. The region's government set a referendum for March 16 - in just nine days' time.

European Union leaders and Obama denounced the referendum as illegitimate, saying it would violate Ukraine's constitution. The head of Russia's upper house of Parliament said after meeting Crimean lawmakers on Friday that Crimea had a right to self-determination, and ruled out any risk of war between "the two brotherly nations". — Agencies

Beijing, March 7
Taking exception to the US Senate inviting exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, an angry China today lodged a protest with Washington.

The 78-year-old monk yesterday delivered the customary prayer that opens each Senate session, after meeting President Barack Obama at the White House last month.

"We express strong dissatisfaction with and strong opposition to the meeting between US congress leaders and lawmakers with the Dalai Lama. China has lodged solemn representations with the US," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Qin Gang told media briefing here today.

"I want to point out that Tibet is a sacred and inalienable part of China's territory. Tibet-related affairs fall totally within China's domestic affairs," he said.

"What Dalai has been doing and saying over past several decades has shown that he is a political exile who has been engaged in anti-China separatist activities under the cloak of religion," Qin said. — PTI

The Special Court constituted for treason trial against former military ruler General (retd) Pervez Musharraf on Friday dismissed his two more petitions against formation of court and bias of judges.

A three-member special court headed by Justice Faisal Arab set March 11 for his indictment and summoned him to be personally present on the occasion. The lawyers of former military dictator, in the meanwhile, have filed another petition separately reiterated the plea that being a former army commander in chief, he can be tried only in a military court.

In its short order, the court observed that pleas of Musharraf had no merit. Prosecutor Malik Akram said Musharraf has exhausted all avenues of delaying indictment and would have to come to the court for indictment after which the case would proceed in a normal course. Musharraft had filed pleas against constitution of special court, nomination of judges (accusing at least two of them of bias against him). The presiding judge, Faisal Arab, also noted that over 12,00 security staff has been deployed to provide security to Musharraf.

The court, later, adjourned the hearing till March 11.

Paris, March 7
Nicolas Sarkozy is suspected of attempting to pervert the court of justice on the basis of phone taps ordered by judges investigating his links with Muammar Gaddafi, it emerged today.

The revelation was the latest dramatic development in the labyrinthine web of corruption cases threatening to ensnare the former French president and destroy his chances of a political comeback. Judges started tapping Sarkozy's phones last year after opening a formal investigation into allegations that the late former Libyan dictator Gaddafi helped finance his 2007 election campaign, according to respected daily Le Monde.

Judicial sources confirmed to AFP that a recorded call between Sarkozy and his lawyer Thierry Herzog was the basis for a new investigation opened last week into a suspected attempt to obtain, via a friendly judge, inside information about ongoing -- and top secret -- proceedings before one of France's highest courts.

The proceedings arise from another election financing scandal in which Sarkozy was embroiled and could have a profound influence on the outcome of yet another corruption case, centred on a 400-million-euro state payout to disgraced tycoon Bernard Tapie.

Herzog said today that Sarkozy "is probably still being tapped," and denounced what he said was a politically motivated plot against his client.

"There was no attempt to pervert the course of justice and in due course this monstrous violation will be shown to have been a political affair," the lawyer told AFP. — AFP

Kuala Lumpur, March 7
Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim was today sentenced to five years in jail after a court here overturned his acquittal on sodomy charges in 2012, putting his political career in doubt.

In a unanimous decision, a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeal found 66-year-old former deputy prime minister guilty of sodomising his former aide Saiful Bukhari Azlan in June, 2008. Overturning Anwar's 2012 acquittal in the case, the court granted him a stay of execution of the sentence with a bail of RM 10,000 in one surety. A distraught Anwar decried the judges' verdict. — PTI

New York, March 7
Osama bin Laden had hinted at 9/11 attacks six months before the terror strike while addressing American "recruits" in Afghanistan, a media report said today.

A witness at the US trial of Osama’s son-in-law testified that six months before 9/11 attacks, the Al-Qaida chief told the American 'recruits' that Islamist “brothers” are ready to die for jihad, The New York Post reported.

“Just know that we have brothers willing to carry their souls in their hands," Osama told "recruits", according to witness Sahim Alwan.

Asked by a prosecutor yesterday what he believed Osama meant these "brothers" were willing to do, Alwan answered, “To die.” Alwan, 41, is one of the "Lackawanna Six”, a half-dozen Yemeni-Americans from the Buffalo area who were convicted in 2003 of providing material support to Al-Qaida by attending Osama's terrorist training camp near Kandahar in 2001, the report said.

Alwan, who is free after serving a nine and a half years' federal sentence, described bin Laden's ominous words — delivered to recruits at a safe house en route to the camp — during the second day of testimony against Kuwaiti-born Iman Sulaiman Abu Ghaith.

It was the most damaging of testimony yet against Abu Ghaith, who is married to bin Laden's eldest daughter, the paper said. Alwan identified Abu Ghaith from a decade-old photograph as having also addressed 'recruits' at Osama's camp. The testimony also gave an eerie glimpse of Osama on the cusp of the terror attacks, it said.

"I heard something is going to happen," Alwan recalled, mentioning to Osama, referring to rumours of an imminent terror attack. — PTI