CM’s Laptop Scheme and Nargis ‘Mujra’
Dances of stage actress Nagris
This shocking mix-up has left many a recipient reeling in disgust as no one could expect such delinquency in an educational scheme.
Some 5,443 students of Bahauddin Zakriya University were given free laptops by the Punjab government. However, the CDs which were meant to have educational software instead had the stage actress’ dances.
The students said that CM Shahbaz Sharif should direct the officials concerned to check the CDs being given under the scheme.
Sovereignty hinges on economic autonomy: MQM
Four industrialists Feroze Alam Laari, Saeed Usman Ali, Muhammad Rehan Zeeshan and Sadiq Muhammad have announced joining MQM at a press conference at Muthidda Qaumi Movement Headquarters, Nine Zero, in Karachi.
MQM deputy convener Dr Farooq Sattar and other officials were also present at the press conference.
The industrialists said that only MQM chief Altaf Hussain can take the country out of the current political and economic crisis and they have become the part of MQM to join hands with Altaf Hussain.
Dr Farooq Sattar said that industry and trade are the key sectors of any country and national sovereignty depends on economic independence.
Sattar said that the days have gone when politics overwhelmed the economy.
More and more people are joining the MQM in order to strengthen and support the economic programmes of Altaf Hussain, he said.
Thai student on hunger strike over royal insult law
His father has been arrested under the kingdom s strict lese majeste laws began. He hunger strike on Saturday in Bangkok against the controversial legislation.
Activist Somyot Prueaksakasemsuk, the former editor of two now-defunct “Red Shirt magazines, was arrested last April and charged under article 112 of the Thai criminal code over two articles deemed critical of the Thai royals.
His son Panitan, a law student, began his strike on Saturday afternoon in front of Bangkok s criminal court, and was set to fast for 112 hours to highlight the point of law in question.
His protest, which a few dozen people came out to support, comes after the seventh request for his father s bail was denied last month.
“My hunger strike is to call for the right to bail and to show society the injustice on someone who was charged with lese majeste,” he told AFP before starting the protest.
He wore a white T-shirt with the message: “Give my dad the right to bail”.
Lese majeste carries a penalty of up to 15 years for each count and is designed to protect senior royals from insult, but academics say it has been politicised in recent years.
Many of those charged, like Somyot, have been linked to the “Red Shirt” movement which backed ousted former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and other critics of the previous establishment-backed government.
The royal family is an extremely sensitive subject in Thailand, but calls for reform of the law have grown and sparked fierce debate in recent months after several high-profile convictions.
A 61-year-old man was jailed in November for 20 years for sending text messages deemed insulting to the monarchy, while a US citizen in December was also handed two-and-a-half years in prison for allegedly defaming the king. –AFP
Nejad vows to inaugurate nuclear projects
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad lashed out at Israel, saying the “story” of the Holocaust underpinning its existence had been “smashed”.
In a speech marking the anniversary of Iran s 1979 revolution, Ahmadinejad said his nation will “never yield” to Western sanctions and threats of military action from Israel and the United States.
A crowd of an estimated 60,000 people in Tehran s main Azadi (Freedom) Square cheered Ahmadinejad s words despite the winter weather. Many held aloft placards declaring “Death to America” and “Death to Israel”.
In pointed messages aimed at those two arch-foes, Iranian officials planted a full-scale model of a US spy drone captured in December at an entrance to the square, and hosted on the stage the Hamas prime minister of Gaza.
Hamas “will never recognise Israel,” Gaza leader Ismail Haniya told the crowd just before Ahmadinejad spoke.–Agencies
Pakistan, Sri Lanka ink 3 MoU
Information Minister Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan and Sri Lankan External Affairs Minister Prof G.L Peiris signed the agreement for cooperation in the information field.
Advisor to the Prime Minister on Finance Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh and Sri Lankan External Affairs Minister Professor G. L Peiris signed the agreement for Pakistan s two hundred million dollars investment in Sri Lanka.
The third agreement was signed between National Vocational and Technical Training Commission and Sri Lankan Tertiary and Vocational Training Commission.
Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani and Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa witnessed the signing ceremony.
Iran vows to reveal nuclear achievement
Iran is “to inaugurate important nuclear projects in the next few days,” President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Saturday, adding that his nation “will never yield” to Western coercion aimed at stopping its atomic activities.
Ahmadinejad, giving an anniversary speech in Tehran marking the 33rd year of Iran s Islamic revolution, gave no details of the nuclear projects.
But he railed against Western economic sanctions imposed to force Iran to give up its controversial nuclear programme, and at threats of possible Israeli and US military action against Iranian nuclear facilities.
“If the language of bullying and insult is used, the Iranian nation will never yield,” he said.
“The only path is to adhere to justice and the respect of Iran s (nuclear) rights and to return to the negotiating table,” he said. Otherwise, the West will continue to face “defeat” on the issue, he said.
Al-Qaeda carried out recent blasts in Syrian: report
The Iraqi branch of al-Qaeda carried out two recent bombings in Damascus and was likely behind suicide bombings Friday that killed at least 28 people in the Syrian city of Aleppo, McClatchy Newspapers reported.
Citing unnamed US officials, the newspaper chain said the incidents appeared to verify Syrian President Bashar Assad s charges of Al-Qaeda involvement in the uprising against his rule.
The Syrian opposition has claimed that the Assad regime had staged the bombings to discredit the pro-democracy movement, the report said.
The first Damascus attack occurred on December 23, when suicide bombers detonated cars packed with explosives outside intelligence agency compounds, killing at least 44 people.
On January 6, at least 26 people were killed and dozens injured in a bombing against a second intelligence agency compound.
The Al-Qaeda presence in Syria also raises the possibility that extremists will try to hijack the uprising, McClatchy Newspapers said.
US intelligence reports indicate that the bombings came on the orders of Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Egyptian who assumed leadership of Al-Qaeda after the last year s death of Osama bin Laden, the newspaper chain noted.
US officials said that Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) began pushing to become involved in Syria as Assad s security forces and gangs of loyalists launched a crackdown on opposition demonstrations, igniting large-scale bloodshed, the report said.
Zawahiri finally authorized AQI to begin operations in Syria in what s believed to be the first time that the branch has operated outside of Iraq, McClatchy Newspapers pointed out.
Roadside bomb kills five policemen in Afghanistan
A roadside bomb hit a police vehicle on patrol in southern Afghanistan, leaving five policemen dead and one wounded, a senior police official said Saturday.
The bomb hit the pickup truck in Trin Kot, the capital of Uruzgan province, late on Friday, senior provincial police officer Gulab Khan told AFP.
“Five policemen were killed and one wounded,” he said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but roadside bombs are frequently planted by Taliban insurgents fighting a decade-long war against NATO-led foreign troops and Afghan government forces.
Afghan police are particular targets for the insurgents, as the country prepares to take over full responsibility for security from some 130,000 foreign troops by 2014.
On Friday afternoon, a car was also hit by a roadside bomb in the Khinjak area of the provincial capital of Uruzgan province, killing one person and wounding two others, according to police spokesman Farid Ail.
Southern Afghanistan remains a key battleground between the insurgents and foreign forces despite a surge of US troops in 2010 and 2011.
Around 80 percent of the 3,000 Afghan civilians killed in 2011 were victims of attacks by the Taliban, who were toppled in late 2001 by a US-led invasion, according to a UN report released last week.
The Taliban announced last month that they planned to set up a political office in Qatar, widely seen as a move towards peace negotiations with Washington and its Western allies.
2 assassins of ex-Afghan president arrested
Two Afghan officials say Pakistan has arrested two people in connection with last year s assassination of a former Afghan president who was trying to broker peace with the Taliban.
The officials told The Associated Press in Kabul the two were recently detained in the Pakistani city of Quetta, the alleged base of the Taliban insurgency.
There was no word in Pakistan on the arrests. The Quetta police chief and the Pakistani spokesman for the region s paramilitary Frontier Corps said they had not heard of the alleged arrests.
All officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the case.
Relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan soured after Afghan officials blamed Burhanuddin Rabbani s death on insurgents based in Pakistan.
Tri-series: Australia rest Mike Hussey in 3rd ODI
Australia on Saturday said Mike Hussey would be rested for their third game in the tri-nation one-day international series, with allrounder Mitchell Marsh brought into the squad.
Australia go into Sunday s match against India in Adelaide unbeaten, after victory over Sri Lanka in Perth on Friday and an earlier win over India.
“Mike Hussey is to be rested and will not travel with the squad to Adelaide while Ben Hilfenhaus has returned to Hobart and will not join the squad for tomorrow s match,” Cricket Australia said.
West Australia s Marsh will join the squad in Adelaide, it added.
Australia have yet to name their squad for the remaining games in the series, which continues until March 8.
