Contempt hearing: Aitzaz wants larger bench, new judges

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ISLAMABAD: Veteran lawyer and Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani’s counsel Aitzaz Ahsan on Wednesday filed an appeal in the Supreme Court of Pakistan, pleading it to abrogate the contempt notice issued to PM in National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) implementation case, TrendPK reports.

The PM is facing contempt of court hearing on Feb 13 for his failure to pursue money laundering charges against President Asif Ali Zardari by writing to Switzerland authorities for reopening the cases.

If convicted of contempt, the prime minister could be jailed for up to six months and disqualified from public office.

“I have filed the appeal today. As per the law a respondent is given 30 days to file the appeal, but I was granted 11 days only,” Ahsan, which is also former president Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA), told reporters outside the court.

He said the appeal was consisting of 200 pages in which more than 50 legal points and questions were raised regarding the show cause notice served to the PM in contempt of court case.

“I have presented judgment of apex courts of Britain, France, India Australia and other countries as examples in the appeal. I had to contend all this before the jury but could not do so because of insufficient time,” apparently weak Aitzaz said.

In his plea, the counsel pleaded the court to abrogate the show-cause notice issued to PM and stop proceeding of the court contempt case against PM Gilani, exempting him from Feb 13 appearance in the court.

Ahsan called for an early hearing of the appeal. “It depends on the court to stay the proceedings and decide against summoning the prime minister on February 13,” he said.

He said a larger bench, comprising new judges, should hear the case.

The lawyer, who is hero of the lawyers’ movement, reiterated that he holds Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry in high esteem, recalling that he had never appeared before any PCO judge in the past till restoration of Justice Iftikhar-led judiciary. TrendPK

Grammys to be headlined by Rihanna, Chris

LOS ANGELES: Chris Brown will perform at this Sunday’s Grammy Awards for the first time since beating his then girlfriend Rihanna in 2009 on the eve of the music industry’s biggest night, which threatened to derail his music career.

Rihanna also is among the stars performing live at the event, and rumors have flown among fans and celebrity watchers in recent weeks that the pair may be secretly dating again — speculation Brown’s representatives have dismissed.

Grammy organizers said on Tuesday that Brown, who has three nominations including best R&B singer for his album “F.A.M.E.”, had been added to the line-up for the February 12 awards show in Los Angeles.

They said Brown will join Foo Fighters, Lil Wayne, David Guetta and deadmau 5 for a performance highlighting dance and electronica music for the first time on the Grammy Awards show stage.

Organizers said last month that Rihanna, who has four nominations including album of the year for “Loud”, will sing with Coldplay on the Grammy stage.

Brown, 22, has skipped the Grammys since launching a violent attack on Rihanna in 2009, leaving her battered and bruised and Brown in the custody of police.

Brown publicly apologized, admitted to criminal assault in court. A judge sentenced him to five years probation, six months community service and anger management counseling. But his clean-cut image took a major blow.

Rihanna’s career on the other hand soared, and she scored hits with songs like “Man Down” and “Love the Way You Lie”, which dealt with violence against women.

The pair appeared to have gone their separate ways but in recent months, speculation buzzed that they had reunited after they were spotted at the same Los Angeles nightclub and put out a series of cryptic messages on Twitter.

But Brown’s spokesman said in January that Brown and Rihanna were “just friends”. AGENCIES

Brazil fast emerging as leader in biotech crops

SAO PAULO: Brazil is on course to overtake the United States as the world’s top producer of biotech crops in the coming years, a leading promoter of farm biotechnology said Tuesday.

The United States currently holds the lead with 69 million hectares (170 million acres) under biocrop cultivation in 2011, ahead of Brazil with 30.3 million, Argentina with 23.7 million and India with 10.6 million, the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) said.

But USAAA, a government-funded international body promoting the use of farm biotechnology, particularly in developing countries, said that for the third year in a row, Brazil was last year the engine of global biocrop growth, with 4.9 million hectares added, a rise of 20 percent from 2010.

Speaking in a teleconference from the Philippines, ISAAA president Clive James said that while the United States was currently well ahead, “Brazil is closing the gap very quickly” and bringing in new biotech crops like sugar cane.

Brazil has eight million hectares of sugar cane, the largest in the world, and is expected to increase it by 50 percent in the next five years for both ethanol and sugar production, he noted.

“I believe that in the long term, Brazil, will become the number one country in the world in terms of total soybean acreage,” James said.

“It will take some time, but I think the political will (in Brazil) is there and the target is to increase productivity through biotechnology for the domestic market and also for large export markets, particularly China,” he added.

ISAAA meanwhile highlighted a 94-fold increase in biotech crop cultivation around the world from 1.7 million hectares in 1996 to 160 million hectares last year.

Of 29 countries planting transgenic crops last year, 19 were emerging or developing nations and 10 were in the industrialized world, the group said.

A record 16.7 million farmers, up eight percent from 2010, grew biotech crops, including 15 million who were resource-poor farmers in developing countries.

The five top biotech crop producers in the emerging world were India and China in Asia, Brazil and Argentina in Latin America and South Africa on the African continent. Together they represent 40 percent of the global population.

Six European Union countries planted a record 114,490 hectares of genetically modified maize, up 26 percent from 2010 while in China, seven million farmers grew a record 3.9 million hectares of genetically modified cotton. AGENCIES

Nawaz urges PM Gilani to stand by his stance

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LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML –N) chief Mian Nawaz Sharif said his party is credited with bringing National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) to a halt.

Talking to media, he urged on Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani should remain steadfast on his viewpoint, adding his party still holds the same old point of view on the NRO.

Bahawalpur, he asserted should be a separate province, adding this is the right of the people of this area. TrendPK

Sri Lanka win toss and bat in ODI vs India

PERTH, Australia: Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene won the toss and chose to bat against India in the second tri one-day series at the WACA on Wednesday.

India made two changes to the team beaten by Australia in Melbourne on Sunday, resting opener Gautam Gambhir, who was replaced by Virender Sehwag.

Injured spinner Rahul Sharma was replaced by paceman Zaheer Khan.

Sachin Tendulkar was tipped to be rested, but will again be searching for his elusive 100th international century.

India named Manoj Tiwary 12th man, while Sachithra Senanayake will carry the drinks for Sri Lanka.

Teams:

India – Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, M.S. Dhoni (capt), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravi Ashwin, Ranganath Vinay Kumar, Praveen Kumar, Zaheer Khan

Sri Lanka – Tillakaratne Dilshan, Upul Tharanga, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene (capt), Dinesh Chandimal, Angelo Mathews, Thisara Perera, Nuwan Kulasekara, Lasith Malinga, Dhammika Prasad, Lahiru Thirimanne

Tiny creature communicates in ultrasound signals

MANILA: One of the world’s smallest primates, the Philippine tarsier, communicates in a range of ultrasound inaudible to predator and prey alike, according to a study published on Wednesday.

No bigger than a man’s hand, Tarsius syrichta can hear and emit sounds at a frequency that effectively gives it a private channel for issuing warnings or ferreting out crickets for a nighttime snack, the study found.

Only a handful of mammals are known to be able to send and receive vocal signals in the ultrasound range, above 20 kilohertz (kHz), including some whales, domestic cats and a few of the many species of bats.

And few of these can squeal, screech or squawk at the same sonic altitudes as the saucer-eyed tarsier, which up to now had been mistakenly described as being “ordinarily silent,” researchers found.

Its finely-tuned ears are capable of picking up frequencies above 90 kHz, and it can vocalise in a range around 70 kHz.

By comparison, humans generally can’t hear anything above 20 kHz, and a dog whistle is pitched to between 22 and 23 kHz.

A team of scientists from the United States and the Philippines led by Marissa Ramsier of Humboldt State University in California gathered their inaudible results in two ways.

First they captured six of the docile nocturnal creatures and placed them inside custom-build sound chambers to test their sensitivity to high-pitched sounds.

After the experiments, the rare and endangered animals were returned unharmed to their natural habitat, on the Philippine island of Mindanao.

To measure the frequency of the tarsier’s ultrasound chatter, the researchers recorded another 35 specimens in the wild.

“The minimum frequency of the call — 67 kHz — is the highest value of any terrestrial mammal, excluding bats and some rodents,” said the study, published in the British Royal Society’s Biology Letters.

What advantages do the tarsier’s high-end vocal acrobatics confer? There are several, the researchers suggest.

One is being able to sound a silent alarm.

“Ultrasonic calls can be advantageous to both the signaller and receiver as they are potentially difficult for predators to detect and localise,” the researchers explain.

The tarsier’s exceptional hearing may also facilitate acoustic eavesdropping on noises emitted by prey, which range from crickets and cockroaches — their staple diet — to the occasional moth, katydid or hatchling bird.

Finally, the study speculates, being able to communicate in ultrasonic ranges filters out all the low-frequency “noise” and hubbub of a tropical environment.

Tarsier’s have five-digit hands that eerily resemble — in emaciated form — their human counterparts.

Lacking the typical “night vision” of other nocturnal creatures, they also have — in relation to their body size — the largest eyes of any primate on Earth. AGENCIES

Syrian forces kill 47 in Homs city

AMMAN: Bombardment of the Syrian city of Homs by government forces killed at least 47 civilians over the past eight hours, activists in the city and opposition sources said on Wednesday.

“Electricity returned briefly and we were able to contact various neighbourhoods because activists there managed to recharge their phones. We counted 47 killed since midnight,” activist Mohammad Hassan said by satellite phone. AGENCIES

Lahore factory collapse toll rises to 21

LAHORE: More bodies have been pulled from the wreckage of a collapsed factory in Lahore, raising the death toll to 21, including 16 women and four children, an official said Wednesday.

The three-storey building used to manufacture veterinary medicines caved in from a probable boiler and gas cylinder explosion in Lahore on Monday.

“We recovered two more bodies overnight. They included a 50-year-old man and a 38-year-old woman,” said Jaber Hussain, a spokesman for the rescue team.

“So far 21 bodies have been retrieved from the rubble. The dead included four children, 16 women and one male,” he said.

Rescue teams have managed to pull out 17 people alive — seven men, six women and four children, Hussain added.

A 13-year-old boy is in a critical condition after being recovered at around midnight (1900 GMT Tuesday), around 40 hours after the building collapsed.

“We are told there are still people trapped inside. They are alive and people have heard their cries. We don’t know the exact number,” Hussain said.

The priority was to complete rescue operations on Wednesday.

“It’s a huge job. We heard the authorities are deploying additional equipment and heavy machinery to clear the debris. The operation may continue late into the night,” he said. AGENCIES

Defence Secretary sacking case: IHC reserves ruling

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ISLAMABAD: Islamabad High Court (IHC) reserved the ruling in a case relating the sacking of Defence Secretary Lt. Gen. (rtd.) Naeem Khalid Lodhi.

Lodhi’s counsel FK Butt, giving arguments before the court, said his client was appointed as Secretary Defence on two-year contract from November 28, 2011; however, he was dismissed from his duties without offering any notice.

Deputy Attorney General Tariq Jahangiri said the contract employee has to be given 30-day notice and advance salary of a month. Salary of a month has been reimbursed to the secretary defence.

Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani and Secretary Establishment Division submitted their rejoinders in the court, which has reserved its ruling. TrendPK

SC adopts PM’s plea for hearing on Thursday

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ISLAMABAD: Supreme Court on Wednesday formally adopted for hearing Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani’s appeal against contempt notice on Thursday, TrendPK reports.

Earlier in the day, PM Gilani appealed against the apex court’s show-cause notice summons to face contempt indictment for his failure to pursue money-laundering cases against President Asif Ali Zardari by writing to Switzerland authorities on court directives.

If convicted of contempt, the prime minister could be jailed for up to six months and disqualified from public office.

Gilani’s lawyer Aitzaz Ahsan said he based the appeal on precedents set by top courts in Australia, Britain, France, India and the United States. TrendPK

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