The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Floods threaten Pak’s historic Multan city

Islamabad, September 12
After causing widespread damage in northern Punjab in Pakistan, the devastating floods now threaten the historic city of Multan and its famous shrines, even as authorities struggle to save the city.

The floods, triggered by heavy monsoon showers, have inundated dozens of villages in central Pakistan.

One of the main rivers of the country, Chenab, is still in high flood and has already caused widespread destruction in the agricultural backbone of Punjab.

The river has now hit the southern reaches of Punjab threatening Multan, also known as the city of saints, and its popular shrines and mausoleums.

To save Multan from the swollen Chenab, explosives have been planted to blow strategic dykes to divert the floodwater away from the city. Muhammad Afzal, a district administration official, said some protective embankments were breached to divert the water.

At least 125 villages were already inundated and more are threatened, The Express Tribune reported.

Multan region was the focus of all relief and rescue operations, and over 1,100 boats and 16 helicopters were being used to evacuate people from Jhang, Multan and Muzaffargarh, according to Dawn.

After Multan and Muzaffargarh districts, officials fear the floods may hit the southern Sindh province over the weekend.

Rains and floods have killed 264 people, including 184 in Punjab, 66 in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and another 14 in Gilgit-Baltistan regions, according to National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).

Another million people would be affected in Sindh province as the flood water has drained down to empty into the Arabian Sea, Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Asif said. The NDMA has warned that high to very high level flood would hit Sindh in the south of the country on September 13.

Currently the floods have entered the southern part of Punjab after wreaking havoc in north-eastern and central parts of the province.

The deluge has destroyed crop over 700,000 acres of land in Punjab. More than 6,000 houses have been damaged in Punjab. — PTI

Explosives being used to divert water

n To save Multan from the swollen Chenab, explosives have been planted to blow strategic dykes to divert the floodwater away from the city

n At least 125 villages were already inundated and more are threatened Multan region was the focus of all relief and rescue operations

n Over 1,100 boats and 16 helicopters were being used to evacuate people from Jhang, Multan and Muzaffargarh, according to Dawn

n Multan is known as the city of saints and has popular shrines and mausoleums

Pak Army says Malala’s attackers held

Islamabad, September 12
A group of Taliban terrorists who attacked Malala Yousafzai, the teenaged Pakistani girl education activist, and her friends in the country's Swat district in 2012 has been arrested, the Pakistan Army announced on Friday.

Since surviving the Taliban assassination attempt, Malala has become a global figure for the struggle of all children to study in school.

The 10-member terrorist group that attacked Malala was called Shura and affiliated with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Geo News quoted Major General Asim Saleem Bajwa, the Director-General of Pakistani Army's media wing ISPR, as saying.

He added that these terrorists who belong to Malakand intended to target 22 other people. They will now be presented in an anti-terrorism court and charged.

Major General Bajwa also said it was not correct to link the Pakistan Army with the country's political crisis, and added that the army had presented its stance on support for democracy and the constitution. — IANS

India seeks firm global action against terror

Dushanbe (Tajikistan), Sept 12
India today sought resolute and comprehensive global action against terror infrastructure, saying the challenge must be taken seriously as different “theatres” are getting interconnected through terror networks as well as globalisation of the “supply chain of ideology”.

At the annual summit of the Shanghai Corporation Organisation (SCO), External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said India had long been a victim of terrorism and called upon member countries of the powerful grouping to join hands to combat the menace.

“We are aware of the threat that its perpetrators pose to our people, as also to our common region. We are seeing different theaters getting interconnected through terror networks and a globalisation of the supply chain of ideology, radicalisation, recruitment, training and financing of terrorism,” she said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani were among a host of heads of states who participated in the summit that focused on regional security ahead of the planned drawdown of foreign forces in Afghanistan by the year-end.

Swaraj said “a resolute and more comprehensive response” was required from the international community and India was of the view that only multilateral efforts and integrated actions could help effectively counter these negative forces, including the related evils of drug trafficking and small arms proliferation.

“In this context, we are keen to deepen our security-related cooperation with the SCO in general and with the Regional Counter Terrorism Structure in particular,” Swaraj said.

The summit of the SCO, a China-dominated security grouping, has also decided to set the ball rolling to grant India, Pakistan and Iran membership of the bloc as it seeks to expand reach in combating challenges of terrorism.

Delving on situation in Afghanistan, Swaraj said India was concerned about the security challenges which may emanate from the developing situation in the trouble-torn country.

“India believes that Afghanistan can successfully complete the security, political and economic transitions and regain its historical place as a hub for regional trade and transit routes,” she said.

“However, at this time of delicate transition, the international community must unite to support Afghanistan to preserve the progress it has made in the last decade against terrorism and related threats to its national wellbeing,” she said. — PTI

Set to take ties with Russia to a new high

n India and Russia on Friday agreed to inject fresh vigour in their strategic and time-tested ties, including cooperation in defence, energy security, trade and investment

n External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov also deliberated on situation in Ukraine, Iraq and Afghanistan as well as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to New Delhi later this year

India’s record on child marriage poor: UN report

United Nations, September 12
India had the highest number of unregistered children under age five between 2000 and 2012 and the second-highest number of child marriages, according to a UN report which said the country still needed to improve immunisation coverage and stop gender-based sex selection.

The report ‘Improving Children’s Lives, Transforming the Future – 25 years of child rights in South Asia’ by the United Nations’ children agency UNICEF analyses the progress made over the last quarter century on key issues that directly affect the lives of children in the region.

At 71 million, India had the largest number of children under the age of five whose births were not registered between 2000 and 2012. The report said that birth registration levels in South Asia have increased since 2000, but progress has been slow.

India, along with Afghanistan, Bangladesh and the Maldives, has been recording “significant improvement” in birth registration but about 100 million children in the region are still not registered at birth. — PTI

Indian-origin nurse blamed herself in royal hoax case

London, September 12
India-born nurse Jacintha Saldanha, found hanging at a hospital here days after receiving a hoax call about Kate Middleton's first pregnancy, blamed herself for releasing intimate details about the Dutchess's condition.

An inquest into her death at the Royal Courts of Justice in London was told that the 46-year-old mother of two had sent distressed emails addressed to her colleagues insisting "it's all my fault".

Saldanha, originally from Mangalore in Karnataka, was found dead in the nursing accommodation of King Edward VII hospital days after staff were tricked into revealing details of Kate Middleton's pregnancy to two Australian radio DJs posing as Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles back in December 2012.

She had answered the call and transferred it on to the duty nurse on the Duchess of Cambridge's ward.

She later wrote to the nurse who had been looking after the Duchess on the night of the prank to apologise for putting the call through to her. "I am terribly sorry for transferring the call to you. At that moment, in the time, with that voice, I couldn't even think of anything else," she wrote.

"It's all my fault and I feel very bad about this and getting you involved. Please accept my apologies. If there was anything I could do to mend it, I would do it but it's all in their hands. I am very upset and don't know what to do, things are all going in the wrong direction for me at the moment," she added.

In the message, sent the day after the prank call, she went on: "Please blame me for this, I accept the fault is mine. I should have checked before I gave the call to you so it was my fault. I can only say sorry-please accept my apologies." Saldanha told other colleagues she had believed the prank was a genuine call from the Queen. — PTI

Bharara seeks jail for US-based Indian author

New York, September 12
Conservative Indian-American author and Obama-critic Dinesh D'Souza, who pleaded guilty to violating federal campaign laws, should be jailed up to 16 months as he committed a "serious" crime that "strikes at the heart" of the US election system, Manhattan's top federal prosecutor Preet Bharara said.

D'Souza, 53, will be sentenced on September 23 on charges of making $20,000 in illegal campaign contributions to the senate campaign of Republican Wendy Long Long in 2012 and for making false statements to the Federal Election Commission in connection with the illegal contributions.

In a sentencing memorandum submitted in the court, India-born Bharara said D'Souza should be jailed to 10-16 months in prison as this range is "sufficient but not greater than necessary to serve the legitimate purposes of sentencing, especially in light of the seriousness of the offense, the defendant's post-plea failure to accept responsibility for his criminal conduct, the need for general deterrence and the need to avoid unwarranted sentencing disparities."

D'Souza, a Mumbai-native, had changed his plea to guilty in May this year to charges brought by Bharara that he made two close associates contribute $10,000 each to Long's senate campaign with the understanding that he would reimburse them for their contributions.

D'Souza admitted that he knew what he was doing was wrong and forbidden by law. D'Souza had last week asked a judge to sentence him to probation and not send him to jail since he is not a danger to the community and there is "zero chance" he would repeat such a behaviour.

D'Souza, a best-selling author, had come in for severe criticism for his 2012 documentary '2016: Obama's America', with the Obama campaign accusing him of launching a smear campaign against the President and alleging that the movie was a deliberate distortion of Obama's record and world view. — PTI

Polls put Scottish unionists a nose ahead

Edinburgh, September 12
Supporters of keeping Scotland in the United Kingdom have clawed back a tiny lead over separatists less than a week before Scots vote in an independence referendum that is balanced on a knife edge, opinion surveys showed on Friday.

A YouGov survey for The Times and Sun newspapers put Scottish support for the union at 52 per cent versus support for independence at 48 per cent, excluding those who said they did not know how they would vote.

"The 'no' campaign has moved back into the lead in Scotland's referendum campaign," YouGov President Peter Kellner said in a commentary on the survey. "This is the first time 'no' has gained ground since early August."

The indication that support for keeping the United Kingdom intact has drawn slightly ahead in Scotland is of only meagre comfort to unionists; the broader picture painted by recent surveys is that the vote is still too close to call.

A Guardian/ICM poll published on Friday showed support for the union on 51 per cent and separatists on 49 per cent once don't knows were excluded.

That poll, based on telephone interviews conducted between Tuesday and Thursday, also showed 17 per cent of voters in the overall sample said they have yet to make up their mind.

Pollsters YouGov and TNS have shown a surge in support for independence since late August as the secessionist campaign led by Alex Salmond won over supporters of the traditionally unionist Labour party and some female voters in Scotland.

So far only one poll this year, from YouGov last weekend, has put the separatists in front. That survey, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 to 3 percentage points, showed a 2 percentage point lead for the independence campaign. — Reuters

‘No’ is back in front

n A YouGov survey for The Times and Sun newspapers put Scottish support for the union at 52% versus support for independence at 48%

n A Guardian/ICM poll published on Friday showed support for the union on 51% and separatists on 49%

n So far only one poll this year, from YouGov last weekend, has put the separatists in front. That survey showed a 2 percentage point lead for the independence campaign

‘Blade runner’ Pistorius found guilty of culpable homicide

Pretoria, September 12
South African Olympian and Paralympic track star Oscar Pistorius, who was cleared of murder charge in the killing of his girlfriend yesterday, was convicted of culpable homicide and granted a bail extension today.

June Steenkamp (left), mother of Reeva Steenkamp, holds her cousin Kim Martin as the judgment is handed down in the murder trial of South African Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius in the high court in Pretoria on Friday. AFP

The 27-year-old double amputee, who became one of the biggest names in world athletics, stood impassively in the dock, his hands folded in front of him, as Judge Thokozila Masipa delivered her verdict. Masipa kept the sentence hearing on October 13.

Pistorius was also convicted of firing a pistol under the table of a packed Johannesburg restaurant but cleared of two other firearms charges — illegal possession of ammunition and firing a pistol out of the sun-roof of a car.

Masipa based her culpable homicide decision on the fact Pistorius had acted negligently when he fired four shots from a 9mm pistol into a toilet door in his luxury Pretoria home, killing Steenkamp, who was behind it, almost instantly. He said it was a tragic error after he mistook her for an intruder.

Culpable homicide — South Africa’s equivalent to manslaughter — carries up to 15 years in prison but, given Pistorius’s lack of previous convictions, he could avoid a custodial sentence altogether, legal experts said. “He’s almost certainly, in my opinion, not going to be going to jail,” criminal law expert Martin Hood told South Africa’s ENCA television.

“We never had any doubt about Oscar’s version of events,” his uncle, Arnold Pistorius, told reporters after the verdict.

South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority said it was “disappointed” not to have secured a premeditated murder conviction, but would not make any decision about an appeal until after sentencing.

Masipa’s decision also sparked anger outside the court, particularly among those campaigning for women’s rights in a country with high levels of violent crime against women and children. — Reuters

Sentence hearing on October 13

* The judge in Oscar Pistorius trial based her culpable homicide decision on the fact that the Olympian had acted negligently when he fired four shots from a 9mm pistol into a toilet door in his luxury Pretoria home, killing Steenkamp, who was behind it, almost instantly

* Culpable homicide carries up to 15-year jail in South Africa. But given Pistorius’s lack of previous convictions, experts say, he could avoid a custodial sentence altogether. The sentence hearing is scheduled for October 13