UK offers Scots new powers after poll shock
London, September 7
The British government today scrambled to pledge greater autonomy for Scotland, after a poll put the pro-independence camp ahead just 11 days before the referendum on separation.

The Punjab Government on Sunday announced flood emergency across the province to deal with the heavy rains and floods that have claimed nearly 160 lives in the country. According to a handout issued in Lahore, Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif directed concerned authorities and departments to speed up the relief work for the flood and rain-hit people.

The Chief Minister also directed provincial ministers and commissioners to remain in the field to facilitate the flood victims.

While heavy rains have eased in Punjab, the Meteorological Department has cautioned that the respite is temporary and more rainfall is expected later. It further warned that with rivers swelling steadily in water level, Sindh and Punjab are expected to face severe flooding in the coming days.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif also visited the severely flood-affected areas of Sialkot and Narowal districts to review the ground situation. He assured affected people that the government would extend every possible assistance to the affected people.

Officials said hundreds of villages in central Punjab have been submerged in water uprooting thousands of people.

The Pakistan Army spokesman said it continued with its relief work in Sialkot, Mandi Bahauddin, Gujranwala and Qadirabad areas in central Punjab. He said that the help of 300 boats and five helicopters, the soldiers have so far rescued 3,000 people from the flooded areas.

Private media showed devastation caused by the raging waters that entered dozens of villages. Crops and livestock worth billions of rupees have also been destroyed and the revenue departments have been tasked to assess damage estimates. 

Ukraine truce breached
Blame game begins for ceasefire violations in Donetsk, Mariupol

Donetsk/Mariupol, Sept 7
A woman died and at least four people were wounded when fighting flared again in eastern Ukraine overnight into Sunday, jeopardising a ceasefire struck less than two days earlier between Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian separatists.

Shelling resumed near the port of Mariupol on the Sea of Azov late on Saturday night, just hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko had agreed in a phone call that the truce was holding.

Fighting also broke out early on Sunday on the northern outskirts of rebel-held Donetsk, the region's industrial hub. A Reuters reporter saw plumes of black smoke filling the sky near the airport, which has been in the hands of government forces.

Both sides insisted they were strictly observing the ceasefire and blamed their opponents for any violations.

Ukraine to ‘get arms’ from NATO members

n A senior aide to Poroshenko, Yuri Lytsenko, wrote on his Facebook page that Kiev had reached agreement at the summit on receiving weapons and military advisers from five member states — the US, France, Italy, Poland and Norway.

n NATO officials have said the alliance will not send arms to non-member Ukraine, but they have also said individual allies may do so if they wish.

n Russia is fiercely opposed to closer ties between Ukraine and the NATO alliance.

London, September 7
The British government today scrambled to pledge greater autonomy for Scotland, after a poll put the pro-independence camp ahead just 11 days before the referendum on separation.

Finance Minister George Osborne said greater tax and spending powers would be announced in the coming days and would be implemented if Scotland votes on September 18 to remain in the 300-year-old union with England.

The government's offer came after a YouGov poll published in The Sunday Times newspaper gave the "Yes" camp 51% support compared to the "No" camp's 49%, excluding undecided voters. Six per cent said they had not made up their minds.

Although the two-point lead is within the margin of error, the findings dramatically up the stakes ahead of the vote, giving momentum to Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond and his separatist Scottish National Party.

"Scotland faces a very big choice," Osborne told BBC television. "If people were in any doubt that they can stay at home, that they don't need to go out to the polls and vote 'No' to avoid separation, they won't be in that doubt today. They should also be in no doubt about the consequences of this decision," the Chancellor of the Exchequer added.

"No ifs, no buts: we will not share the pound if Scotland separates from the rest of the UK." He said sharing the currency after independence would be equivalent to a couple divorcing but keeping a joint bank account. — AFP

Kabul, September 7
Afghanistan handed the death penalty to seven men on Sunday for raping and robbing a group of women returning from a wedding in a rare case of sexual assault that has shaken the capital and raised concerns over public security at a time of transition.

Police said a large group of men, some dressed in police uniforms, and with assault rifles, stopped a convoy of cars in which the women were travelling along with their families in the district of Paghman, just outside Kabul, last month.

They dragged four women out of the cars in the middle of the night and raped them in the field near the main road. One of them was pregnant. The victims were also beaten and their jewellery and mobile phones stolen.

Crimes against women are common but mostly take place inside homes in Afghanistan's conservative society. But a gang rape by armed men is rare in Kabul and has tapped into a vein of anxiety as foreign troops leave the country and a badly stretched Afghan army and police fight a deadly Taliban insurgency.

Judge Safihullah Mujadidi in a summary trial, televised nationwide, convicted the men of armed robbery and sexual assault.

"Based on criminal law these individuals are sentenced to the severest punishment which is death sentence," he said. The men stood before him in a heavily guarded courtroom. Outside dozens of activists gathered demanding speedy justice to instill public confidence in law and order. — Reuters