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Ukraine separatists down army helicopter, 14 killed
Pak PM demands report on honour killing of woman
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Sisi sweeps Egypt’s Prez elections
Nigerian Prez vows ‘total war’ against Boko Haram
Obituary
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Ukraine separatists down army helicopter, 14 killed
Slovyansk, May 29 Acting President Oleksandr Turchynov told the parliament in Kiev that rebels used a portable air defence missile to bring down the helicopter. He said 14 died, including Gen Serhiy Kulchytskiy, according to the Interfax news agency, which earlier gave the wrong first name for the general. Ukraine's National Guards put the death toll at 12, including Kulchytskiy, and said that one soldier was badly wounded, but added that the information is still being clarified. Slovyansk, a city of 120,000 residents 160 kilometres from the Russian border, has become the epicentre of fighting between pro-Russia insurgents and government forces in recent weeks. Its residential areas have regularly come under mortar shelling from government forces, causing civilian casualties and prompting some residents to flee. An Associated Press reporter saw the helicopter go down amid a trail of black smoke. Gunshots were heard in Slovyansk near the crash site and a Ukrainian air force jet was seen circling above. It was too dangerous to visit the site itself. Turchynov said the helicopter was flying troops to a hill outside Slovyansk where Ukrainian forces have set up positions. Interfax said Kulchytskiy had once served in the Soviet army and was in charge of combat training for Ukraine's National Guards.
— AP A new alliance
Moscow: The leaders of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan on Thursday created an economic union that intends to boost cooperation between the ex-Soviet neighbours, a pact which was at the source of the crisis in Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin said the Eurasian Economic Union takes the countries' cooperation to a "new level" while respecting their sovereignty.
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Pak PM demands report on honour killing of woman
Islamabad, May 29 Farzana Iqbal, 25, was attacked on Tuesday, the police said, because she had married the man she loved. Sharif had taken notice of the "brutal killing" in the presence of the police, his press office said in a statement, adding that a "totally unacceptable" crime had to be dealt with promptly by law. "I am directing the chief minister to take immediate action and a report must be submitted by this evening to my office," it said, quoting Sharif. Iqbal's husband said the police did nothing during the 15 minutes the violence lasted outside the Lahore High Court. "I begged them to help us but they said, this is not our duty," Muhammed Iqbal told Reuters. "I took off my shirt (to be humble) and begged them to save her." But Lahore police chief Shafiq Ahmad said no police were present. "They arrested the father, the main accused, a few moments after the incident," he said. "... by the time police reached the scene, the woman had been murdered." The police initially said Farzana had been stoned, but Iqbal told Reuters that relatives had swung bricks, not thrown them. All the suspects, except the father, who has been detained, have disappeared. A police officer on Tuesday quoted the father as saying it had been an honour killing. The 25-year-old had offended her family by marrying Iqbal instead of a cousin selected for her. Honour killings are common in Pakistan, but the brutality of this case caused outrage around the world, although in Pakistan itself reaction was more muted. In the capital Islamabad, about 40 activists protested against brutality against women, shouting "Hang the killers of Farzana!" and "We don't accept this injustice". The attack happened near the gate of the heavily guarded court, the two men said, on one of the busiest roads in Lahore. The couple had been due to testify there that morning that their marriage was genuine in response to a false charge of kidnapping brought by Farzana's family. It was not the first time her family had tried to kill the woman, said her lawyer, Rai Ghulan Mustafa.
— Reuters Victim’s husband murdered first wife Lahore: Parveen's husband Mohammad Iqbal, 45, has admitted to killing his first wife. "I was in love with Farzana and killed my first wife because of this love," he said, adding that he had strangled her. Iqbal said he was spared a prison term as his son - who alerted police - forgave him under blood-money laws. — AFP
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Thai military seeks Facebook, Google help in censorship
Bangkok, May 29 The military has sought to stifle criticism as it consolidates power after toppling an elected government on May 22, detaining politicians and restricting print, radio and broadcast media. But authorities have struggled to control activity online, where users have used social media to organise protests and express opposition to the coup. The junta has warned about the spread of what it considers provocative material on social media, and asked service providers to help tighten censorship. “We want to talk to them informally,” Pisit Pao-In, adviser to the permanent secretary of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Ministry, told a news conference on Thursday. “We do not ask them to install any additional software. We just ask them to help filtering content.” Officials would have to travel as the three companies had no representatives in Thailand with whom to hold talks, he said, speaking after a meeting in Bangkok with Internet gateway and Internet service providers (ISPs). The ministry asked ISPs to block websites within an hour of receiving an official request to take them down, said an ISP source who attended the meeting on Thursday, declining to be identified because he was not authorised by his company to speak to media. After the coup, the ICT established a commission to monitor websites and block content that flouts military guidelines or Thailand’s strict Lese Majeste laws. There are three monitoring centres working 24 hours a day: one at the army, the ICT and the state telecom regulator, Pisit said. More than 100 web pages have been blocked since the coup, he added. The ICT, the police, the intelligence agency and regulator work together to monitor websites, he said. Thai users were alarmed on Wednesday when the ministry blocked access to Facebook. The government had no plans to block access to Thailand’s 24 million Facebook users, Pisit said. Norwegian telecoms group Telenor, which owns a controlling stake in Thailand’s second-largest mobile operator, Total Access Communications, said the outage had lasted 55 minutes.
— Reuters National gateway
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Sisi sweeps Egypt’s Prez elections
Cairo, May 29 Sisi, 59, won at least 23.9 million votes with an overwhelming number of Egyptians choosing the retired Field Marshal over his only electoral rival Hamdeen Sabbahi, who won less than four per cent, according to provisional results. Voter turnout in the polls was low at 47 per cent despite the government extending the polling for a third day. Although the results are announced by the judges supervising polling centres across the country, they are still considered unofficial as they must be verified and then announced by the Presidential Elections Commission (PEC).
— PTI
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Nigerian Prez vows ‘total war’ against Boko Haram
Abuja, May 29 Jonathan said in an address marking 15 years since the return of civilian rule to Nigeria that no efforts would be spared to rescue the more than 200 girls kidnapped from a school in the northeastern town of Chibok in Borno state on April 14.
— AFP Four schoolgirls ‘released’ Lagos: Boko Haram has released four schoolgirls out of more than 200, media reported Thursday. According to sources in the Nigerian town of Chibuk, the Boko Haram let go of the four girls, while other sources believed the girls escaped. — IANS/EFE
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Obituary
She said there is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you. Maya Angelou (born 1928), celebrated African-American poet and author, died after telling her story on Wednesday at her home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She was 86. In 1969, when her first memoir “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” was published, it became among the first autobiographies written by a black woman to reach a global readership and became an international bestseller. Angelou aspired to establish herself as a playwright and poet, but was goaded into writing her autobiography by her publisher at a time when no one thought a reader would be interested in reading a black woman’s tale of survival. But the book, an unsparing account of her childhood, explored, along with her personal narrative the larger questions of personal identity and resilience through the multifaceted forces of race, sex, family, community and the collective past. Her personal narrative found resonance amongst the socially marginalised communities across the globe, placed against the forces of racism and sexism. Angelou was raped by her mother’s boyfriend at eight and she became a mother at 16. Her book broke many taboos of her times by talking of rape and sexual abuse, not for sensation but for the purpose of healing and inspired many rape victims to come out of the closet of shame and silence. “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” was published when Angelou was in her early forties and was followed by five more parts of the memoir — Gather Together in My Name (1974), Singin and Swingin and Gettin Merry Like Christmas (1976), The Heart of a Woman (1981), All God’s Children Need Travelling Shoes (1986) and A Song Flung Up to Heaven (2002). But they were able to tell her story only till her late forties. The autobiography was planned in seven parts. Even though most critics argue that autobiographies are not works of literature, Angelou’s literary voice was revered for her poetic command and her commitment to civil rights. She lived through the horrors of racism of the southern America, suffered sexual abuse, remained homeless, had to work as a prostitute and a madam for survival and yet developed a spirit to sing Calypso songs. The six-feet tall, warm and spirited Angelou, never allowed the odds against her imposed by a massive, powerful society to diminish her soul. The second part of her autobiography describes her struggles to support her son through odd jobs. “Determined to raise him, I had worked as a shake dancer in nightclubs, fry cook in hamburger joints, dinner cook in a Creole restaurant and once had a job in a mechanic’s shop, taking paint off cars with my hands,” she wrote in “Singin’ and Swingin’.” She had three marriages, but they failed to cage her. She was watched globally on TV, when she delivered her inaugural poem, “On the Pulse of Morning,” at the swearing-in of Bill Clinton, 42nd President of the US. In February 2011, Barack Obama presented her with the ‘Presidential Medal of Freedom’, America’s highest civilian honour. Angelou was also a college professor, for many years she was the Reynolds professor of American studies at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem. She was called Dr Angelou affectionately by friends, though she never went to a college.
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Pak court issues non-bailable warrant for Gilani
Indian-origin authors to dominate UK school syllabus Indian-American accused of investor fraud in US 3 Hindu temples attacked in Pak, 5 arrested Three-year-old boy shoots 18-month-old brother 
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