Waga Border (Pak-India Border) on 14 Aug 2009
Friday, August 14, 2009
Army Chief said we keeps Pakistan always "Islamic Republic of Pakistan" - General Ashfaq Kiyani
Army Chief said we keeps Pakistan always "Islamic Republic of Pakistan": General Ashfaq Kiyani
Chief Justice Lahore High Court takes notice of rising price of sugar in Punjab.
Chief Justice Lahore High Court takes notice of rising price of sugar in Punjab.
Lockerbie bomber withdraws appeal - BBC News
The man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing has applied to abandon his second appeal against his conviction, his lawyers have said.
Megrahi's second appeal against
conviction started this year
conviction started this year
The news comes after the BBC reported that Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi looked set to be freed on compassionate grounds next week.
The Libyan, who has terminal cancer, is serving a life sentence for the murder of 270 people in December 1988.
Lawyers said his condition had taken a "significant turn for the worse".
The Scottish Government insisted that the move was unconnected to any decision it would make about transferring Megrahi to Libya or releasing him on compassionate grounds.
A prisoner transfer cannot take place if criminal proceedings are active.
However, the appeal does not need to be dropped to allow his release on compassionate grounds.
Megrahi's lawyers said he had applied to the High Court in Edinburgh two days ago to abandon his appeal against conviction.
A spokesman for the legal firm Taylor and Kelly said: "As the appeal hearing has commenced... leave of the court is required before the appeal can be formally abandoned."
 |  Brian Taylor, BBC Scotland political editor The Scottish legal system might well welcome closure of this protracted, challenging case. The counter point of view, advanced by Nationalist MSP Christine Grahame among others, is that Scottish justice is better served by persisting in efforts to dig out the truth. Then there is the issue of compassion. Megrahi is said to be terminally ill with prostate cancer. Regardless of other issues, should the justice secretary pay heed to that? Either way, relatives of those who died are decidedly not content. There are those who believe that Megrahi is guilty and who say there should be no deal whatsoever: he should remain in jail in Scotland. Those who believe he is innocent - and consequently welcome his release - nevertheless are voicing distress that the emerging shape of events means that the search for further information will be stalled. |
A court hearing to discuss the application will take place in Edinburgh next Tuesday.
South of Scotland SNP MSP Christine Grahame, who has met Megrahi several times in prison, said she believed he had been put under pressure to drop his appeal.
She said: "I know from the lengthy discussions I had with him that he was desperate to clear his name, so I believe that the decision is not entirely his own.
"There are a number of vested interests who have been deeply opposed to this appeal continuing as they know it would go a considerable way towards exposing the truth behind Lockerbie.
"Some serious scrutiny will be required to determine exactly why Mr Megrahi is now dropping his appeal and examination of what pressure he has come under."
She renewed her calls for a full public inquiry into the bombing.
She added: "In the next days, weeks and months new information will be placed in the public domain that will make it clear that Mr Megrahi had nothing to do with the bombing of Pan Am 103."
Conservative justice spokesman Bill Aitken said clarity was needed from the Scottish Government.
"Too much of this story has been characterised by secret briefings, hints of special deals and international cloak and dagger," he said.
|  Mr Megrahi's appeal is entirely a matter for the court, Mr Megrahi and his legal team  Scottish Government spokeswoman |
"The Lockerbie atrocity cannot descend into this kind of diplomacy by spin and stealth."
He said there needed to be "compelling medical evidence of extreme ill health" before any release on compassionate grounds.
The Scottish Government dismissed claims of pressure to drop the appeal as "baseless and ill-informed speculation".
A spokeswoman said this could stem from "confusion" over the different criteria that applied for a prisoner transfer and early release on compassionate grounds.
"Mr Megrahi's appeal is entirely a matter for the court, Mr Megrahi and his legal team," she said.
"It would be inappropriate for the Scottish Government to make any comment on the appeal and they have not done so."
'Right thing'
It emerged on Wednesday that Megrahi could be released on compassionate grounds by the end of next week.
That prompted a mixed response from families of victims of the bombing.
Kathleen Flynn, whose son was killed, said he should "never qualify for anything compassionate".
However, Martin Cadman, who also lost his son, said he believed it was the "right thing to do".
The Scottish Government has insisted that no decision has yet been made on the Libyan's fate.
Megrahi was convicted of murder in January 2001 at a trial held under Scottish law in the Netherlands.
A first appeal against that verdict was rejected the following year.
His second appeal got under way this year but shortly afterwards applications were made for both his transfer to a Libyan jail and release on compassionate grounds.
Gang kills seven in Russian sauna - BBC News
Russian police are hunting gunmen who killed seven women at a sauna and four policemen at a checkpoint in the troubled southern region of Dagestan.
The attack happened on Thursday in the town of Buynaksk, 41km (25 miles) from the regional capital Makhachkala.
Police say they know the identities of some of the gunmen, who fled into a forest after the attack.
Separately, four policemen and two militants were killed in a clash near Grozny, in neighbouring Chechnya.
Moscow has been keen to portray Chechnya and the region as an area returning to normal after years of unrest.
But these latest attacks form part of a wider pattern: a growing anti-Kremlin, Islamist insurgency that appears to be spreading across the North Caucasus, the BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse reports.
On Friday police shot and killed three militants near a village in Dagestan's Derbent district, officials say.
In Thursday's attack in Dagestan, at least 15 gunmen opened fire on a traffic police checkpoint on the edge of Buynaksk, Russian media quoted local police as saying.
The gunmen are reported to have hijacked a minibus, which they later abandoned.
They went on to attack a sauna at a nearby health complex, killing seven women workers there.
Dagestan has been plagued by violence in recent years, much of it linked to the conflict between security forces and separatist rebels in Chechnya, a mainly Muslim Russian republic.
Russian forces have fought two wars against Islamist rebels in Chechnya since 1994. The conflicts claimed more than 100,000 lives and left it in ruins.
Clashes with militants are also common in Ingushetia, which borders on Chechnya to the west.
"My husband is not secretary of state, I am", angry Hillary Clinton
A student at a university in the Democratic Republic of Congo got a sharp response from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton when he asked what her husband thought of an issue.
Mrs Clinton was asked, through a translator, what former President Bill Clinton thought about Chinese investment in the country.
Officials said later that the student had apologised to Mrs Clinton, saying he had meant to ask what President Obama thought.
US senator in landmark Burma trip - BBC News
US Senator Jim Webb has arrived in Burma on a visit during which he is to meet military ruler Than Shwe.
Mr Webb, who has links with Barack Obama, is on a tour of the region
He would be the most senior US official to meet Than Shwe, the Democratic senator's office said in a statement.
He visits days after pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest for 18 more months.
Adding to international condemnation, the UN Security Council has expressed its "serious concern" and the EU extended sanctions against Burma.
Mr Webb, who is close to US President Barack Obama, is due to meet Than Shwe on Saturday, a Burmese official said.
He is not expected to meet Ms Suu Kyi or American John Yettaw, whose uninvited visit to her home led to the trial which ended on Tuesday.
Four senior members of Ms Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) have been invited to Burma's administrative capital, Nay Pyi Taw, "to meet with an important person", party spokesman Nyan Win said, adding that it was unclear if that person was Than Shwe or Jim Webb.
'Watered-down' statement
Ms Suu Kyi was put on trial in May after Mr Yettaw swam to her lakeside home, evading guards. She was charged with breaking the terms of her house arrest by sheltering Mr Yettaw and after many delays, was sentenced on Tuesday to three years in prison.
Although the sentence was commuted to 18 months house arrest by Than Shwe, it ensures the opposition leader cannot take in planned elections next year.
Ms Suu Kyi, 64, has spent 14 of the past 20 years under house arrest.
|   |
A UN Security Council statement on Thursday expressed "serious concern" at the sentence and urged the release of all political prisoners.
Correspondents said the statement was watered down from an original US draft, which "condemned" the verdict and demanded that Burma's military junta free Ms Suu Kyi.
The main reason for the weaker language was China - a powerful permanent member of the council, with close ties to Burma's rulers, says the BBC's Tom Lane at the UN.
Together with Russia it has blocked strongly-worded condemnations in the past, our correspondent adds.
The US, Britain and France were among countries to condemn the verdict, but Burma's neighbour China said the world should respect Burma's laws.
| FROM BBC WORLD SERVICE |
The EU said judges involved in Ms Suu Kyi's sentencing would now join military and government figures in having their overseas assets frozen and travel to the EU banned.
Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, who is the current chairman of the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) told the BBC that imposing sanctions could lead to problems and that it was important to take a balanced approach to dealing with Burma.
President Obama said earlier this year that the US was reviewing its policy towards Burma.
Last month, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said increased US engagement with Burma, including investment, might be possible if Ms Suu Kyi were freed. But she also warned that there were concerns over the transfer of nuclear technology from North Korea to Burma.
Mr Webb chairs the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on East Asia and Pacific affairs. He has called for more "constructive" US engagement with Burma but said in July that the trial of Ms Suu Kyi would make this difficult.
Taiwan mudslide death toll rises - BBC
Taiwan's president says the number of people killed in mudslides and floods caused by a typhoon could exceed 500, almost 400 of them in a single village.
Hsiaolin was hit by a massive mudslide that covered all but two houses - and officials say they have given up hope of finding any of those missing alive.
The official death toll has already climbed to 118 but is set to go higher.
The military hopes on Friday to airlift out the nearly 2,000 people who remain stranded in the surrounding area.
Last weekend's typhoon caused Taiwan's worst flooding for 50 years.
In central and southern Taiwan, roads have been washed out, bridges swept away and low-rise buildings sent crashing into rivers. Many mountain villages can only be accessed by air now.
| AT THE SCENE  Cindy Sui BBC News, Hsiaolin Having seen Hsiaolin with my own eyes, I finally understand the magnitude of what happened. It looks like a river bed with nothing on it - the houses are all gone and a 17m bridge that was there can't be seen any more. Nearly 400 people are buried under a 20-30m deep avalanche of mud. The authorities don't know where to begin - if they start digging through the mud, it's not stable ground so it could cost lives. The mud is so deep that even if the rescue crews had been here in time, they wouldn't have been able to dig through. |
Hundreds had been feared dead in the wake of Typhoon Morakot, but the government had not previously given an estimated total figure for those killed.
Speaking at a national security meeting on Friday, President Ma Ying-jeou said that with the deaths already confirmed "and some 380 people feared buried by mudslides in Hsiaolin village, Taiwan's death toll could rise to more than 500".
Over the past few days, thousands of people have been airlifted to safety from the settlements cut off by the mudslides and flooding, some 2,000 on Thursday alone.
The BBC's Cindy Sui, in Kaohsiung county, says the authorities are confident they can bring out the remaining 1,900 people thought to be stranded in the area on Friday.
The military has enough helicopters now, she says, and the weather has improved. Troops are being sent on foot into some steep valleys that are hard to search from the air, she adds.
Many of the worst-affected villages are inhabited by aborigines, who farm the mountainous terrain.
Thousands more people are believed to be stranded in remote settlements elsewhere in southern and central Taiwan.
Help on way?
Taiwan's government says it has received offers of help from the international community, including the European Union and the US.
But it has stressed the need for very specific technical assistance - namely giant cargo helicopters that can carry large earth diggers and other machinery into remote mountain areas to help re-open roads.
|  |
The government has also requested prefabricated buildings to help house those left homeless by the flooding and supplies of disinfectant, to try to prevent the spread of disease.
The families of those stranded and of the hundreds feared dead have urged the government to speed up rescue efforts.
Many have been waiting for days at the rescue operation centre in Qishan for news of relatives missing since the typhoon struck.
Critics say the authorities were too slow to realise the magnitude of the disaster. Some of those stranded say they have received no help for days and are short of food and water.
The government says it is doing everything it can and that rescue efforts earlier in the week were hampered by bad weather and limited access to the affected areas.
More than 14,000 people have been evacuated by air. Others have been carried to safety over ravines where bridges have collapsed by soldiers using makeshift ziplines.
Military helicopters have been dropping provisions for those still stranded, but poor weather earlier this week hampered their work.
The flooding has destroyed 34 bridges and severed 253 sections of road in Taiwan, Reuters news agency quotes the transportation ministry as saying, with repairs likely to take up to three years in the worst-affected areas.
Officials in the island's south-eastern Taitung county estimated that nearly 3,700 people remained cut off as of Friday morning, the AFP news agency reports, while in central Chiayi county some 9,000 were thought to be stranded.
Typhoon Morakot, which lashed Taiwan with at least 200cm (80in) of rain last weekend, has caused at least $910m (£550m) in damages to agriculture and infrastructure, Reuters reports.
Reconstruction is expected to cost some $3.65bn (£2.2bn).
TAIWAN'S WORST-AFFECTED AREAS
Qishan - rescue operation centre established here, thousands of troops drafted in to help.
Liukuei - 200 people awaiting rescue from hot spring resort as of Thursday, with another 700 survivors in the area.
Hsinfa - 32 people reported dead, survivors pulled to safety using ropes thrown across river.
Hsiaolin - hundreds feared dead following mudslides the morning after Taiwan's Father's Day.
Taoyuan - residents told to run to higher ground as embankment holding back lake gave way.
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