Karachi violence kills 18
Blast at Japan nuke plant; 10,000 missing after quake
215,000 homeless, millions without water after Japan's massive quake
14 more killed in Karachi violence
30 rebels killed in clashes in Sudan oil town
Christians slam Malaysia gov't for Bible seizure
Egypt: Christians And Muslims Take To Streets In ‘March Of Unity’
Arab nations must enact democratic reforms’
ARAB LEAGUE DEMANDS NO-FLY ZONE
Gates call for ‘real reform’ in Bahrain
Yemen violence escalates, 4 killed
Egypt to lift restrictions on political parties
Tunisia detains 3 allies of ex-president
JEDDAH: ‘Most women inmates are expats’
We’re capable of monitoring any seismic activity: Saudi scientists
Iraqi lawmakers agree to pay cut
New batch of women soldiers to serve in Lebanon
Cousin of Hamid Karzai killed in NATO raid
PM cozying up to Iran to cadge visit
Egypt: Sadat assassination plotters released from prison
US Muslims find defending themselves exhausting
US warns NATO nations against rushed Afghan exit
Qaddafi troops defect near rebel-held Misrata
US drone misses target in South Waziristan
Eight killed, seven injured in attack on bus in Hangu
Davis immunity: govt likely to ask LHC for more time
Davis immunity: govt likely to ask LHC for more time
Speculations grow about operation in N. Waziristan
3 killed, hundreds injured in Yemen violence
Pasha to stay on as ISI chief: Mukhtar
2 NATO tankers torched in Bolan
Arab nations must enact democratic reforms’
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: http://www.newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/karachi-violence-kills-18/d/4275
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Karachi violence kills 18
March 13, 2011
KARACHI: In spite of the presence of president and prime minister in Karachi, the ongoing incidents of targeted killings in the metropolitan city have so far left 18 people dead including political workers and a child while 18 others sustained injuries, Geo News reported Sunday.
Miscreants set ablaze an office of a local organization and three vehicles.
Unidentified attackers fired and killed a party worker, identified as Khurram, at his Pan shop in the busy area of Kharadar. This triggered a bout of heavy firing that spread a wave of tension in the entire area where enraged people set on fire a bus, truck and a rikshaw beside an office of a local organization.
Two men named Musavir Bangash and Sikandar Chandio were gunned down by unknown armed men at Jauhar Chowrangi in Gulistan-e-Jauhar area. Musavir was a resident of Pehalwan Goth whose brother had been arrested a few weeks ago.
In another incident of firing in the same area, a political worker Asad Khan was killed and three others were wounded.
In Garden area two bullet-riddled bodies of Adnan and Sami were found dumped while a worker of a religious party identified as Khadim Hussain was shot dead in Orangi Town.
Dead bodies of two youths with bullet wounds were recovered from Memon Goth, Malir and Super Highway.
Armed attackers gunned down a 19-year old boy identified as Shams in SITE area.
A firing incident also occurred in Azizabad area where men with guns riding a motor cycle fired and killed Noman, 23.
Three men were injured in similar incidents of firing in Baldia Town, Ghani Chowrangi and Kharadar.
Tension spread in all these areas where patrolling by police and Rangers personnel was undertaken to maintain order.
Latest reports have confirmed that a child who received injuries as a result of firing in Gulistan-e-Jauhar area later succumbed to his wounds and died.
Injured and dead bodies have been shifted to hospital for autopsy and medical treatment, hospital sources said
http://www.thenews.com.pk/NewsDetail.aspx?ID=12515
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Blast at Japan nuke plant; 10,000 missing after quake
March 13, 2011
SENDAI: An explosion at a Japanese nuclear plant triggered fears of a meltdown Saturday after a massive earthquake and tsunami left more than 1,000 dead and at least 10,000 unaccounted for.
As workers doused the stricken reactor with sea water to try to avert catastrophe, Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan said the chaos unleashed by Friday's 8.9 magnitude quake was an "unprecedented national disaster".
The quake, one of the biggest ever recorded, unleashed a terrifying tsunami that engulfed towns and cities on Japan's northeastern coast, destroying everything in its path.
In the small port town of Minamisanriku alone, some 10,000 people are unaccounted for -- more than half the population -- public broadcaster NHK reported.
Even as Japan struggled to assess the full extent of the devastation, the nation faced an atomic emergency as cooling systems damaged by the quake failed at two nuclear reactors. (AFP)
http://www.thenews.com.pk/NewsDetail.aspx?ID=12506
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215,000 homeless, millions without water after Japan's massive quake
Mar 12, 2011
SENDAI, Japan: A massive military search and rescue operation began Saturday for nearly 800 people reported missing after a giant, quake-fed tsunami turned Japan's northeastern coast into a swampy wasteland, while authorities braced for a possible meltdown at a nuclear reactor.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan said 50,000 troops would join rescue and recovery efforts following Friday’s 8.9-magnitude quake that unleashed one of the greatest disasters Japan has witnessed — a 23-foot (7-meter) tsunami that washed far inland over fields, smashing towns, airports and highways in its way.
The official death toll stood at 413, while 784 people were missing and 1,128 injured. In addition, police said between 200 and 300 bodies were found along the coast in Sendai, the biggest city in the area near the quake’s epicenter. An untold number of bodies were also believed to be buried in the rubble and debris. Rescue workers had yet to reach the hardest-hit areas.
Adding to the worries was the damage at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, where two reactors had lost cooling ability. Because of the overheating, a meltdown was possible at one of the reactors, said Ryohei Shiomi, an official with Japan’s nuclear safety commission.
But even if there was a meltdown, it would not affect people outside a six-mile (10-kilometer) radius, he said.
Most of the 51,000 residents living within the danger area had been evacuated, he said.
More than 215,000 people were living in 1,350 temporary shelters in five prefectures, or states, the national police agency said. Since the quake, more than 1 million households have not had water, mostly concentrated in northeast.
“Most of houses along the coastline were washed away, and fire broke out there,” he said after inspecting the quake area in a helicopter. “I realized the extremely serious damage the tsunami caused.” The region continued to be jolted by tremors, even 24 hours later.
More than 125 aftershocks have occurred, many of them above magnitude 6.0, which even alone would be considered strong.
Technologically advanced Japan is well prepared for quakes and its buildings can withstand strong jolts, even a temblor like Friday’s, which was the strongest the country has experienced since official records started in the late 1800s. What was beyond human control was the killer tsunami that followed.
It swept inland about six miles (10 kilometers) in some areas, swallowing boats, homes, cars, trees and even small airplanes.
“The tsunami was unbelievably fast,” said Koichi Takairin, a 34-year-old truck driver who was inside his sturdy four-ton rig when the wave hit the port town of Sendai.
“Smaller cars were being swept around me,” he said. All I could do was sit in my truck.” His rig ruined, he joined the steady flow of survivors who walked along the road away from the sea and back into the city on Saturday. Smoke from at least one large fire could be seen in the distance.
Smashed cars and small airplanes were jumbled up against buildings near the local airport, several miles (kilometers) from the shore. Felled trees and wooden debris lay everywhere as rescue workers coasted on boats through murky waters around flooded structures, nosing their way through a sea of debris.
Basic commodities were at a premium. Hundreds lined up outside of supermarkets, and gas stations were swamped with cars. The situation was similar in scores of other towns and cities along the 1,300-mile-long (2,100-kilometer-long) eastern coastline hit by the tsunami.
Also Saturday, operators at the Fukushima Daiichi plant’s Unit 1 tried had to tamp down heat and pressure inside one of the reactors after the quake cut off electricity to the site and disabled emergency generators, knocking out the main cooling system. Authorities detected eight times the normal radiation levels outside the facility and 1,000 times normal inside Unit 1’s control room.
The Tokyo Electric Power Co., which operates the six-reactor Daiichi site in northeastern Japan, said it had also lost cooling ability at a second reactor there and three units at its nearby Fukushima Daini site.
The government declared state of emergency at all those units.
Japan’s nuclear safety agency said the situation was most dire at Fukushima Daiichi’s Unit 1, where pressure had risen to twice what is consider the normal level. The International Atomic Energy Agency said in a statement that diesel generators that normally would have kept cooling systems running at Fukushima Daiichi had been disabled by tsunami flooding.
Japan gets about 30 percent of its electricity from nuclear power plants. Authorities warned citizens to be prepared for severe power cuts. More than 1 million households across Japan, mostly in the northeast, still didn’t have access to water.
In Sendai, as in many areas of the northeast, cell phone service was down, making it difficult for people to communicate with loved ones.
“I’m waiting for my son to come here. But I cannot tell him he should come over here because mobile phones aren’t working,” a woman in her 70s told Japanese TV at a shelter in the town of Rikuzentakada, which appeared to be largely destroyed by the tsunami.
“My husband is missing,” she said. “Tsunami water was rising to my knees, and I told him I would go first. He is not here yet.” On Friday, the entire Pacific was put on alert — including coastal areas of South America, Canada and Alaska — but waves were not as bad as expected.
President Barack Obama pledged US assistance following what he called a potentially “catastrophic” disaster. He said one US aircraft carrier was already in Japan and a second was on its way. A US ship was also heading to the Marianas Islands to assist as needed, he said.
Most trains in Tokyo started running again Saturday after the city had been brought to a near standstill the day before. Tens of thousands of people had been stranded with the rail network down, jamming the streets with cars, buses and trucks trying to get out of the city.
The city set up 33 shelters in city hall, on university campuses and in government offices, but many spent Friday night at 24-hour cafes, hotels and offices.
Japan’s worst previous quake was a magnitude 8.3 temblor in Kanto that killed 143,000 people in 1923, according to the USGS. A magnitude 7.2 quake in Kobe killed 6,400 people in 1995.
Japan lies on the “Ring of Fire” — an arc of earthquake and volcanic zones stretching around the Pacific where about 90 percent of the world’s quakes occur, including the one that triggered the Dec. 26, 2004, Indian Ocean tsunami that killed an estimated 230,000 people in 12 countries. A magnitude-8.8 quake that shook central Chile in February 2010 also generated a tsunami and killed 524 people
http://arabnews.com/world/article314500.ece
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14 more killed in Karachi violence
By Atif Raza
KARACHI: Various localities of the city remained tense here on Saturday as violence continued for the second consecutive day claiming 14 lives, while leaving six others wounded and some five vehicles torched.
During the current episode of violence, which began on Thursday evening after the strike called by ruling party, twenty-six people have been killed while numbers of others wounded and some dozen vehicles torched. The victims of today’s bloodshed included political activists as well as several passerbys, commuters and pedestrians.
Four, including an activist of Awami National Party (ANP) and a brother of notorious gangster Muddasir Chief, were killed in the Pehalwan Goth area of Gulistan-e-Jauhar. According to police, tension arose when unknown armed men targeted and killed Musavir Chief, brother of Muddasir Chief, who is currently detained in jail under several criminal cases.
Musavir along with his companions was sitting at his office located near Sakeena Imambargah when armed men opened indiscriminate fire, killing Musavir and his friend Danish on the spot. Following the killing of both men, tension gripped the entire locality and intense firing claimed two more lives, including that of a 12 year old boy Muhammad Hussain and Asad, an activist of Awami National Party, while three others sustained bullet wounds including Sohail, Dilawar and Adnan. Crossfire between the locations of Rabia City apartments dominated by the ANP local leader Liaquat Bangash and Pehalwan Goth dominated by Muddasir Chief continued despite the arrival of heavy contingents of Rangers and police.
Meanwhile, violence erupted in Kharadar after the killing of MQM activist, who was shot dead near Bombay Bazaar within the limits of Kharadar police station. The incident took place at G Alana Road, Bombay Bazaar Kharadar, where 23-year-old Khurram, son of Saleem, was standing at his mobile phone shop when two armed men on a motorcycle targeted him and managed to flee. Following the incident tension gripped the entire locality and intermittent firing continued suspending commercial and private life. Miscreants torched the Peoples Amn Committee (PAC) local office and three vehicles, including a passenger bus at Tower, while one rickshaw and a truck were torched near Memon Jamaat Khana. Heavy contingents of police and Rangers rushed to the spot to avert any further incident.
Two young men were shot dead at Almari Street within the limits of Garden police station. Two friends namely, 28-year-old Adnan, son of Azmat, and Natwar, 22, son of Harjeewan, were sitting along when unknown armed men reached and shot both before managing to flee. Resultantly, Adnan and Natwar died on the spot. DSP Sahib Shah informed that Adnan was a resident of Ranchore Line while Natwar was of Hindu Para and neither of them were associated with any political party.
Separately, a server of Ali Akbar Imambargah was shot dead in the Orangi area of Iqbal Market police station. Police said 60-year-old Qadir Bux was shot while cleaning the outer premises of the imambargah situated at Sector 11 ½ Orangi Town, when two armed men reached and opened fire. On the other side, a cleric who was shot in Orangi Town on Friday succumbed to his injuries during treatment here on Saturday.
According to reports, 52-year-old Khalid Baba, affiliated with Jamaat Ahle Sunnat, was targeted on Friday near Noorani Park. As a result of the attack, one of his subordinates, Bashir died on the spot while he was taken to the hospital in critical condition where he died on Saturday during treatment.
In a similar way, a passerby namely Hafizullah, 28, who was wounded on Thursday evening in Gulistan-e-Jauhar area also succumbed to his injures on Saturday.
In another incident, a man was shot dead near his house in Bantwa Nagar within the remits of Azizabad police station. The victim Noman Memon, 26, resident of Kutiana, Muhalla Bantwa Nagar, was sitting near his house with a friend, when armed men reached on a motorcycle and sprayed bullets. Resultantly, Noman received two gunshots and died on the spot. The victim’s body was shifted to ASH for medico-legal formalities and later handed over to the heirs. Police officials said that the victim had several cases of notorious crimes registered against him and he was released from the jail few months ago. Police suspected that the man had been killed because he provided tips about criminal elements to the police.
In a separate occurrence, police found a man’s bullet riddled body near Buraq Petrol pump located at Super Highway within the limits of Sacchal police station. The culprits shot him once after brutal torture and the identity of the victim was yet to be ascertained. SHO Izhar Hussain said that the police found four bullets and a 9mm magazine in the victim’s pocket. The victim appeared to be an Afghan national. The body was shifted to morgue for identification after the autopsy at ASH.
Similarly, another torture marked, bullet-riddled body was found near Malir River in the precincts of Shah Latif police station. The identity of the victim was still to be ascertained till filing of this report. Police said that the culprits shot him once after torture and threw his body at the said place.
The body was shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for medical formalities and later shifted to the Edhi morgue for identification.
A security guard Shams-ul-Haq died under mysterious circumstances near Ghani Chowrangi within the limits of SITE B police station. The victim was deployed at a private company. Police suspected that the deceased shot himself either mistakenly or intentionally. The body was shifted to ASH for medico-legal formalities. The victim was a resident of Nazimabad and hailed from Kohat.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2011\03\13\story_13-3-2011_pg7_22
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30 rebels killed in clashes in Sudan oil town
Mar 13, 2011
KHARTOUM: Heavy clashes on Saturday between south Sudanese troops and a rebel militia accused of links to Khartoum have left at least 30 rebels dead in the town of Malakal, southern army spokesman Philip Aguer said.
“So far, the SPLA has counted 30 dead bodies from the attackers’ side. Four from the SPLA were wounded,” the spokesman for the Sudan People’s Liberation army told AFP by phone. “There are still militia hiding in schools in the town. But they are being hunted down by the army,” he added.
A local official in Malakal, the capital of south Sudan’s oil-rich Upper Nile state, said earlier that 11 people were killed in the clashes, which followed a pre-dawn rebel attack on the town. Witnesses said that 26 people were wounded in the fighting, including nine civilians.
The UN mission in Sudan (UNMIS) said it had received reports of one SPLA soldier and one UN worker being among the injured, adding that a peacekeeping patrol had been dispatched. The army spokesman said the rebel group that launched Saturday’s attack was commanded by a man called Ulony, whose men fought with the SPLA in Owach, west of Malakal, earlier this week. More than 70 people were killed in those clashes, Aguer said at the time, accusing Ulony of being in the service of the Khartoum government.
Full report at:
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2011\03\13\story_13-3-2011_pg4_4
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Christians slam Malaysia govt for Bible seizure
Sean Yoong
03/12/2011
The main Christian grouping in Muslim-majority Malaysia said Thursday it was "fed up" with the government's refusal to allow the distribution of tens of thousands of Bibles, saying this was an affront to religious freedoms.
The rare rebuke by the Christian Federation of Malaysia signals growing impatience among the religious minority in a years-old dispute over the government's ban on the use of the word "Allah" as a translation for God in Malay-language Bibles and religious texts.
The federation's chairman, Bishop Ng Moon Hing, said authorities ae currently holding 30,000 Malay-language Bibles at a port on Borneo island. This was one of the latest attempts by Christians to import such Bibles, mainly from Indonesia, but none has been successful since March 2009. There are no similar problems with English-language texts.
Christians were "greatly diillusioned, fed up and angered by the repeated detention of Bibles," the federation said in a statement. "It would appear as if the authorities are waging a continuous, surreptitious and systematic program against Christians in Malaysia to deny them access to the Bible" in the Malay language.
Home Minitry officials were not immediately available for comment, but the government has repeatedly denied being unfair. In another recent incident, the ministry acknowledged it had barred the entry of imported Bibles but denied they were seized, saying the importer had simply failed to claim them from the port.
Te trouble stems from the government's stance that the use of "Allah" in non-Muslim texts could confuse Muslims and even entice them to convert. Nearly two-thirds of Malaysia's 28 million people are Malay Muslims, while 25 percent are ethnic Chinese and 8 percent are Indians. Ethnic minorities are mostly Chrisian, Buddhist or Hindu.
Full report at: The Daily Star
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Egypt: Christians and Muslims Take To Streets In ‘March Of Unity’
13th March 2011
A “Friday of Unity” march after the recent violence between Christians and Copts in Cairo was called, with the aim of bringing thousands of people to Tahrir Square in response to sectarianism and divisions, says the on line edition of ‘Al-Ahram’, reports MISNA, adding that there is also a threat of a ‘counter-revolution’ which some analysts feel might be behind the past week’s events.
In Cairo, news networks showed images of Christians and Muslims praying together to say “no” to violence, MISNA reports, noting that the march was the day after the meeting of the leaders of the Egyptian armed forces and the representatives of the Coptic community in response to tension after the clashes that have killed 13 people.
Egypt
Full report at: http://www.eurasiareview
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Arab nations must enact democratic reforms’
Mar 13, 2011
ABOARD A US MILITARY AIRCRAFT: US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said Saturday that he believes leaders in Persian Gulf ally Bahrain are serious about addressing grievances that have spawned a growing protest movement but swift action is needed to deny rival Iran the chance to exploit the current instability.
Gates told reporters on his flight home from the Mideast that he urged rulers in the kingdom, which is home to the US Navy’s 5th Fleet, to view their crisis as a chance to show other Arab governments how political change can prove successful.
“I told them that in this instance, time is not our friend” in light of Iran’s interest in capitalising on the unrest, the Pentagon chief said in an interview after meetings in Manama, the capital.
“We have no evidence that suggested that Iran started any of these popular revolutions or demonstrations across the region, but there is clear evidence that as the process is protracted — particularly in Bahrain — that the Iranians are looking for ways to exploit it and create problems,” Gates said.
Gates offered no examples of that. But a senior defence official travelling with Gates said US intelligence has evidence that Iran is working to persuade some hard-line Shia opposition figures in Bahrain to reject the government’s offer to begin a political dialogue on how to address a range of grievances.
Full report at: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2011\03\13\story_13-3-2011_pg4_1
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ARAB LEAGUE DEMANDS NO-FLY ZONE
13th March 2011
The world moved a step closer to a decision on imposing a no-fly zone over Libya as Muammar Gaddafi's forces advance on the poorly equipped and loosely organised rebels who have seized much of the country.
Col Gaddafi's troops pushed the front line miles deeper into rebel territory and violence erupted at the front door of the opposition stronghold in eastern Libya, where an Al-Jazeera cameraman killed in an ambush became the first journalist victim of the nearly month long conflict.
In Cairo, the Arab League asked the UN Security Council to impose a no-fly zone to protect the rebels, increasing pressure on the US and other Western powers to take action that most have expressed deep reservations about.
In surprisingly swift action and aggressive language, the 22-member Arab bloc said after an emergency meeting that the Libyan government had "lost its sovereignty".
It asked the United Nations to "shoulder its responsibility ... to impose a no-fly zone over the movement of Libyan military planes and to create safe zones in the places vulnerable to airstrikes".
Full report at: http://www.dailystar.co.uk/latestnews/view/181038/Arab-League-demands-no-fly-zone/
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Gates call for ‘real reform’ in Bahrain
Mar 13, 2011
MANAMA: The kingdom of Bahrain must take more than "baby steps" to enact political reforms, the top US defense official said on Saturday after a visit to the tiny but important US ally.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates met with members of Bahrain’s ruling Al-Khalifa family, facing a growing challenge from their country’s disgruntled Shiite minority.
Recent clashes with security forces, which have killed seven people, have revealed the depth of the sectarian rift in Bahrain, home to a major US naval base, and of resentment toward naturalized foreigners who live and work in Bahrain.
Gates said he told Bahrain’s rulers that “baby steps probably would not be sufficient ... that real reform would be necessary.”
As violence rages on in Libya, and Egypt and Tunisia face an uncertain future, Gates left a NATO meeting in Brussels on Friday to fly to Bahrain, where popular anger has mounted against a privileged ruling class.
The island is part of a string of Gulf allies of the United States that counter the regional influence of Iran. Police on Friday blocked thousands of protesters from reaching the royal court.
Full report at: http://arabnews.com/middleeast/article314963.ece
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Yemen violence escalates, 4 killed
By SAEED AL-BATATI
Mar 13, 2011
SANAA: Four people died and hundreds were injured on Saturday in some of the fiercest clashes between police and anti-government protesters since popular unrest started to batter faction-riven Yemen in January.
Two people were killed in the capital Sanaa and a boy of 12 died in the southern city of Mukalla, with fighting reported in at least two other cities as protests against President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s 32-year rule turning ever more violent. Another protester was killed in the port city of Aden as police opened fire to disperse a demonstration, medical and security sources said.
The United States said it was dismayed by the growing fatalities and called for calm, warning that Yemen could suffer the same fate as Libya unless there was dialogue.
Hundreds of police fired volleys of tear gas and used water cannon in a predawn operation apparently aimed at preventing a makeshift protester camp spreading any further in Sanaa.
The crowds responded with a hail of rocks and live ammunition was fired. Injured demonstrators were carried to a nearby mosque which was turned into a makeshift medical center.
A doctor said a young boy was fatally shot. Another source said the dead person was a man from eastern Yemen. Later, a man was shot dead as he watched clashes from his office window. The Interior Ministry accused protesters of opening fire and said 161 police were injured.
Dozens of demonstrators were overcome by the teargas, with friends using torn pieces of cardboard to fan them as they lay stretched out on the ground, many of them barely conscious.
Full report at: http://arabnews.com/middleeast/article314961.ece
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Egypt to lift restrictions on political parties
Mar 12, 2011
CAIRO: Egypt’s ruling military council says it will scrap a law that has severely restricted the formation of political parties. It is the latest political reform push following the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak last month in a popular uprising.
A military official said Saturday that the restrictions on establishing political parties would be lifted after a referendum next week on constitutional changes to allow for fair parliamentary and presidential elections.
The official said new political parties will only need to notify authorities. Under Mubarak, they had to apply to a committee dominated by the ruling party, which ensured his control over rivals.
The official was speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.
http://arabnews.com/middleeast/article315088.ece
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Tunisia detains 3 allies of ex-president
Mar 13, 2011
TUNIS: Tunisia’s state news agency says authorities have arrested three close allies of deposed former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
The TAP agency says Abdallah Kallel, Abdelaziz Ben Dhia and Abdelwaheb Abdallah were detained on suspicion of illegally obtaining money and other alleged crimes as part of a crackdown against the recently dissolved ruling party, known by the acronym RCD.
Tunisia’s interim authorities had previously placed the three men under house arrest after Ben Ali fled into exile in mid-January following weeks of violent street protests, sparking similar upheaval across the Arab world.
TAP says they were remanded in custody after appearing Saturday before an investigating judge
http://arabnews.com/middleeast/article315091.ece
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JEDDAH: ‘Most women inmates are expats’
By MUHAMMAD HUMAIDAN
Mar 13, 2011
JEDDAH: While officials would not say how many women are serving time behind bars in Saudi Arabia, according to the Kingdom’s chief warden, Maj. Gen. Ali Al-Harithy, head of the Directorate General of Prisons, almost all women inmates are foreigners doing time for “moral” violations. These crimes are generally perceived to be sexual in nature, such as prostitution.
The Prisoners and Released Prisoners Care Committee in Jeddah tends to the needs of 30 women inmates in Jeddah; “less than 10” of them are Saudis.
“We help 30 inmates serving in different jails in Jeddah to find legal assistance when our own part-time legal expert is not available,” the committee’s Executive Director Suhail Sawan told Arab News on Saturday, emphasizing that prison officials in Jeddah do not give special treatment to Saudi women serving time.
“The committee provides assistance to all women prisoners whenever they want any help without looking at their nationalities,” Sawan said, adding that prison officials help facilitate visits from family members even if they live abroad.
The prison’s administration, the Ministry of Social Affairs and some non-governmental organizations support women prisoners who keep their children with them.
In an earlier statement to Arab News, Director of Jeddah Prisons Maj. Gen. Abdul Rahman Al-Ghamdi said women’s prisons have “well-staffed kindergartens and preschool nurseries” for their children.
Full report at: http://arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article315148.ece
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We’re capable of monitoring any seismic activity: Saudi scientists
By GHAZANFAR ALI KHAN
Mar 12, 2011
RIYADH: Senior Saudi scientists said here on Saturday that the Kingdom is capable of monitoring any seismic activity with its advance network of earthquake monitoring stations, but expressed concerns following reports of a ferocious earthquake that rocked Japan on Friday killing hundreds of people so far.
“It is too early to talk about the possibility of any future seismic activity in the Arabian Peninsula,” said Khaled Abdulaziz Al-Eissa of King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST).
“The Saudi Arabian Digital Seismic Network (SANDSN), operated by the Saudi Geological Survey (SGS), is quite capable of monitoring any seismic activity,” he added.
The network helps to improve seismic hazard parameters using earthquake location and magnitude calibration of high quality data. SANDSN consists of more than 38 seismic stations. All countries, including the Kingdom, rely on “early warnings about natural calamities as per international conventions,” he added.
These warnings quickly reach those at risk and can substantially reduce the loss of life and damage to property, he said when asked about the possibility of any natural calamity and the risk component in the region.
Al-Eissa said that early warnings are properly monitored by the Kingdom's institutions. Asked how prone the Kingdom is to earthquakes, he recalled the earthquake that hit the Madinah area a few years back.
Full report at: http://arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article315139.ece
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Iraqi lawmakers agree to pay cut
By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA
Mar 12, 2011
BAGHDAD: Iraq's lawmakers tentatively agreed Saturday to cut their monthly pay in half and reduce the salaries of the nation's top leaders in hopes of appeasing protesters who accuse them of living in luxury at the expense of the poor.
However, the plan would leave untouched some $20,000 per month in lawmakers' stipends and allowances.
Still, lawmakers described the move as at least a start in narrowing the gulf between Iraq's privileged and its poor.
“It's a good step,” said Kurdish lawmaker Khalid Ashawani.
Several lawmakers said they are likely to approve the measure, which would reduce their annual salaries to about $60,000 from $120,000, when it goes before Parliament in a few days.
The 325 legislators still would collect an additional $12,500 each month in housing and security allowances, as well as a $90,000 annual stipend.
Iraq has a 15 percent unemployment rate, and the average wage of a midlevel Iraqi government employee is about $600 per month.
Lawmaker Hakim Al-Zamili, whose hard-line Sadrist colleagues proposed the cut, said lawmakers were spurred by recent demonstrations across Iraq protesting scant jobs, dwindling electricity in people's homes, and government corruption. Al-Zamili said the new law also would make the salaries of Iraq's president and prime minister public for the first time.
Full report at: http://arabnews.com/middleeast/article314986.ece
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New batch of women soldiers to serve in Lebanon
March 12, 2011
KUALA LUMPUR: Ten women from the Malaysian Armed Forces will serve a four-month stint in Lebanon under the United Nations Interim Force (Unifil), beginning March 14.
They comprise Captain Siti Aminah Mohd Sharif of the Royal Army Signal Squadron and nine rank-and-file personnel from the army, navy and air force.
They will replace the first batch which comprised 10 women of Malcon II, who had served in the earlier mission which began on Oct 28, last year.
They are expected to return home tomorrow.
Joint Forces commander Vice-Admiral Datuk Wira Jamil Osman said the new batch of Malcon East 5 would carry out their duties at the Unifil Responsibility Sector in East Leban
on under 1701 UN Resolution.
He said it had undergone a three-month team integration training at the 1st Army Camp, Kem Batu 10 in Kuantan.
Speaking at the sending-off ceremony for the new batch at the defence ministry here yesterday, Jamil believed the thorough preparation and integration training which the 10 women had undergone would help them face any eventuality in Lebanon.
Meanwhile, Siti Aminah said she would serve as communications officer for the Malaysian contingent during its stint in Lebanon. — Bernam
http://www.theborneopost.com/?p=101753
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Cousin of Hamid Karzai killed in NATO raid
March 12, 2011
A cousin of Afghanistan's President was killed on Wednesday during a night raid by NATO and Afghan forces in which they detained the man's son as a suspected Taliban commander, as well as at least two of the family's bodyguards.
The case brought the delicate issue of civilian casualties into the presidential palace and added to the already tense relationship between the Afghans and the Americans. It also raised questions about whether a member of the extended family of President Hamid Karzai might have Taliban ties, or whether bad intelligence led to a deadly raid on the home of an innocent family.
Either way, the raid raises the prospect of another intense flare-up between NATO and Afghan officials, coming after two other cases of civilian casualties in the past three weeks. Night raids on family compounds, in particular, have long been controversial for their intrusiveness and the civilian casualties associated with them. Startled Afghan men, who commonly keep weapons at home, often react by reaching for their guns and are then shot, often by special operations forces.
This raid occurred in the southern province of Kandahar, in the rural village of Karz, the Karzai clan's ancestral home. The man killed was Yar Mohammad Karzai, a lifelong resident of the village who was in his early 60s.
Full report at: http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/article1529622.ece
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PM cozying up to Iran to cadge visit
March 13, 2011
President Barack Obama is reported to have told some of his officials that it would be much easier to be the President of China than be resident at the White House. This backhanded compliment to autocratic governance is certain to be endorsed by the mandarins of at least one Ministry in South Block.
India is a rumbustious democracy with a citizenry that is infuriatingly inquisitive and argumentative. However, the demands for transparency don't seem to apply to the conduct of foreign policy. Rarely does Parliament witness a serious debate on India in the world; foreign policy doesn't intrude into competitive politics unless the issue happens to be Pakistan — the furore over the India-US nuclear agreement was a rarest of rare case; the media is seriously smitten by 'client-itis' and the principle of keep-the-source-happy; and the 'strategic community' is a cosy club for collecting dollops of air miles. The comfort level of the foreign policy establishment is so incredibly high that the Government can afford to persist with a Minister who is incapable of telling the difference between a speech written for him and a speech drafted for the Foreign Minister of Portugal.
Such a system is calculated to trigger flights of whimsy which, very occasionally, even come into the public gaze. Last week, the official website of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran did India a great service by divulging a version of his conversation with India's National Security Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon — a man who has acquired the reputation for being the single-window clearance for foreign policy.
Full report at: http://www.dailypioneer.com/324114/PM-cozying-up-to-Iran-to-cadge-visit.html
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Egypt: Sadat assassination plotters released from prison
13th March 2011
Two cousins held for for their involvement in the 1981 assassination of former Egyptian president Anwar Sadat have been released from prison, according to state-owned Egyptian daily Al Ahram.
Abboud and Tarek el-Zomor were convicted in 1984 of helping plot the assassination and of belonging to the banned Islamic Jihad group, but not actually killing Sadat.
They given the maximum sentence allowed in Egypt totalling 20 years behind bars.
Tareq al-Zomor's sentence ended in 2003. Abbud, at the time a senior military was also due to be released but was kept in jail.
A ruling military council has been running Egypt since its longterm autocratic ruler Hosni Mubarak resigned last month after almost 30 years in power. He imposed a state of emergency soon after Sadat assassination in 1981.
Sixty-nine additional inmates whose sentences have expired have served are expected to be freed under the same order that freed the el-Zomor cousins. They will be subjected to a five-year surveillance period.
The order was published by the official Egyptian news agency.
http://www.adnkronos.com/IGN/Aki/English/Security/Egypt-Sadat-assassination-plotters-released-from-prison_311777735260.html
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US Muslims find defending themselves exhausting
By JEFF KAROUB
Mar 13, 2011
DEARBORN, Michigan: Finishing law school is a challenge for Dewnya Bakri-Bazzi, but being an American and a Muslim can be downright exhausting.
As she crammed before class this week, Bakri-Bazzi caught up on testimony from a congressional hearing on the radicalization of US Muslims. She contends Rep. Peter King, the New York Republican who called it, is ignoring the positive steps Muslims have taken in fighting terrorism since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Bakri-Bazzi, president of the Muslim Legal Society at Thomas M. Cooley Law School’s Detroit area campus, says she fears Thursday’s hearing will only spark a backlash against innocent members of her community just going about their lives.
“When people look at me walking down the street, they’ll feel like I’m an Al-Qaeda radicalist,” said Bakri-Bazzi, who lives in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn, home to one of the largest populations of Arabs and Muslims in the US
As the profile of American Muslims has been heightened by the 9/11 attacks and subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, many Muslims say they too have been inspired to protect their communities against terrorism. They are becoming more active in civic and political causes and more regularly reach out to law enforcement officials.
Full report at: http://arabnews.com/world/article315374.ece
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US warns NATO nations against rushed Afghan exit
By MISSY RYAN AND DAVID BRUNNSTROM
Mar 12, 2011
BRUSSELS: The United States warned European nations on Friday against a precipitous withdrawal from Afghanistan that could threaten the headway made in turning back a tenacious Taleban insurgency.
“Frankly, there is too much talk about leaving and not enough talk about getting the job done right,” US Defense Secretary Robert Gates told a ministerial meeting.
Defense ministers from the nearly 50 nations with troops in Afghanistan are meeting in Brussels to endorse a plan to shift security leadership from foreign troops to Afghan police and soldiers. This is a key step in the West’s plans to slowly wind down its military role in Afghanistan.
The United States, the dominant foreign force in Afghanistan with close to 100,000 soldiers, is preparing to begin withdrawing some troops this year.
“Let me be clear: uncoordinated national drawdowns would risk the gains made to date,” Gates said. “Considerations about any drawdown of forces must be driven by security conditions ... not by mathematical calculation shaped by political concerns.
“Unfortunately some recent rhetoric — to include that coming from capitals on this continent — is calling into question ... resolve.”
While US commanders say they have weakened the Taleban in its southern heartland, Gates said there would likely be “harder and heavier fighting” in 2011.
While US President Barack Obama wants to fulfil a promise to bring home some of the extra 30,000 troops he sent to Afghanistan after a strategy overhaul in 2009, foreign troops will continue to bear much of the burden for years to come.
Full report at: http://arabnews.com/world/article313044.ece
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Qaddafi troops defect near rebel-held Misrata
By MARIAM KAROUNY
Mar 13, 2011
RAS JDIR, Tunisia: A crack Libyan brigade commanded by Muammar Qaddafi’s son Khamis was slowed by a mutiny as it advanced on Misrata on Saturday, with 32 soldiers joining the rebels holding the city, a rebel there said. One defector was a general, said the rebel named Mohammed. The feared 32nd Brigade tried but failed earlier in the day to take Misrata, the last major rebel holdout in western Libya.
Stalled about 10-15 km south of the city, the brigade broke out in a fire-fight after dozens of troops balked at the idea of killing innocent civilians in the impending attack, rebel spokesman Gamal added.
“Exactly 32 (soldiers) joined the rebels today,” Mohammed said. “They have been interrogated by the rebels.”
The events could not be confirmed independently. Journalists have been prevented from reaching the city by the authorities.
Other government forces continued their push eastward, and officials took foreign journalists from Tripoli to the eastern oil town of Ras Lanouf to prove the government controlled it.
Rebel spokesman Gamal said by telephone from Misrata: “In the morning, there was a gathering of pro-Qaddafi forces with the apparent aim of attacking the city but God protected this city. There was dissent within the Khamis Brigade.
“We knew from soldiers who defected after the dispute. They joined the rebels and said that dozens of the battalion members expressed reluctance to kill innocent civilians.
“Some of them ran away. More would have joined us but they were shot by the pro-Qaddafi men.”
Full report at: http://arabnews.com/middleeast/article315372.ece
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US drone misses target in South Waziristan
Mar 13, 2011
PESHAWAR: A US drone strike in a troubled Pakistani tribal region near the Afghan border on Sunday missed its target – a militant vehicle – allowing rebels to flee, local security officials said.
The missile strike took place in Azam Warsak town, 20 kilometres west of Wana, the main town of the South Waziristan tribal district, where the Pakistani military launched an operation against militants in 2009.
“US drones first fired two missiles targeting a militant vehicle but they failed to hit, allowing rebels, who were said to be over four in number, to run away,” a senior security official told AFP.
He said that two more missiles fired from a drone hit the vehicle but failed to destroy it.
Another security official in the area confirmed the strike, adding that at least four of the unmanned aircraft had been flying in the area on Sunday morning.
He said that identity of militants on board the vehicle was unknown.
http://www.dawn.com/2011/03/13/four-killed-in-drone-strike-in-south-waziristan.html
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Eight killed, seven injured in attack on bus in Hangu
Mar 13, 2011
PESHAWAR: Militants opened fire on a passenger van in a lawless northwestern Pakistani town on Sunday, killing at least eight Shia Muslims and wounding seven others, police said.
The incident took place in Hangu district, 150 kilometres southwest of Peshawar, the capital of insurgency-hit Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa province.
“Militants intercepted a passenger van at Mamoo Khwar village in Hangu district and opened fire, killing eight passengers and wounding seven others,” senior local police official Abdul Rashid told AFP.
He said, “It seems to be a sectarian incident, as all those killed in the firing were Shia Muslims.”
He said that the militants, who numbered six, fled the scene but police later launched an operation in the area and killed three rebels.
“A search operation has already been launched to arrest the remaining ones,” he said.
Police spokesman Fazal Naeem also confirmed the incident and casualties in Hangu, a town that regularly suffers from sectarian violence and a Taliban-linked insurgency.
http://www.dawn.com/2011/03/13/seven-killed-in-attack-on-bus-in-hangu.html
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Davis immunity: govt likely to ask LHC for more time
By Baqir Sajjad Syed
Mar 13, 2011
ISLAMABAD: The government kept its cards close to its chest on Saturday, the last working day before it is to testify in the Lahore High Court (LHC) on jailed CIA operative Raymond Davis’s diplomatic status. Indications of the possibility of the government sticking to its time buying tactics were, nevertheless, quite evident.
None of the government spokespersons was ready to say anything on the strategy in the Davis case. Instead they suggested waiting till Monday.
On Monday the LHC will resume its hearing on petitions against possible handover of Davis to the US authorities after a break of three weeks sought by the government to file a reply. This was the second adjournment granted by the court to the government for preparing its response, which essentially pertains to his diplomatic status and immunity.
But, well placed sources indicated that the government would seek to buy more time to keep the option of an ‘out of court’ settlement open, even if the court pressed its representative to certify on Davis’s status.
At best the government’s counsel could furnish some basic facts about Davis — a January 2010 notification issued by the US embassy about his appointment, his diplomatic passport and a pending request for registration with the Foreign Office. But the counsel is likely to stop short of unequivocally stating whether or not the murder accused enjoyed diplomatic status.
Full report at: time.html
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Davis immunity: govt likely to ask LHC for more time
By Baqir Sajjad Syed
Mar 13, 2011
ISLAMABAD: The government kept its cards close to its chest on Saturday, the last working day before it is to testify in the Lahore High Court (LHC) on jailed CIA operative Raymond Davis’s diplomatic status. Indications of the possibility of the government sticking to its time buying tactics were, nevertheless, quite evident.
None of the government spokespersons was ready to say anything on the strategy in the Davis case. Instead they suggested waiting till Monday.
On Monday the LHC will resume its hearing on petitions against possible handover of Davis to the US authorities after a break of three weeks sought by the government to file a reply. This was the second adjournment granted by the court to the government for preparing its response, which essentially pertains to his diplomatic status and immunity.
But, well placed sources indicated that the government would seek to buy more time to keep the option of an ‘out of court’ settlement open, even if the court pressed its representative to certify on Davis’s status.
At best the government’s counsel could furnish some basic facts about Davis — a January 2010 notification issued by the US embassy about his appointment, his diplomatic passport and a pending request for registration with the Foreign Office. But the counsel is likely to stop short of unequivocally stating whether or not the murder accused enjoyed diplomatic status.
Full report at: http://www.dawn.com/2011/03/13/davis-immunity-govt-likely-to-ask-lhc-for-more-time.html
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Speculations grow about operation in N. Waziristan
By Zulfiqar Ali
The army has deployed over 20,000 troops, including two wings of the Frontier Corps, in the agency. The region is regarded as a bastion of Al Qaeda and Taliban. — File Photo
PESHAWAR: The federal government has directed the Fata Disaster Management Authority to prepare a contingency plan for thousands of families likely to be uprooted after a military operation in North Waziristan Agency, an official told Dawn on Saturday.
The official said about 50,000 families (roughly 500,000 individuals) could be displaced from the agency, where speculations about the military operation against militants have been doing the rounds for quite some time.
The army has deployed over 20,000 troops, including two wings of the Frontier Corps, in the agency. The region is regarded as a bastion of Al Qaeda and Taliban.
“The FDMA has received directives from the federal authorities to chalk out a plan in consultation with the United Nations’ agencies and other humanitarian bodies to cope with the displacement,” he said.
Knowledgeable sources said the federal government had not set any timeframe for completion of the contingency plan, but the FDMA had been asked to keep the plan ready.
“We have been asked by the authorities to complete the task as soon as possible, but we have no idea about the timing of a military offensive,” the sources said.
The US government has been pressuring Islamabad, since the Times Square (New York) bomb plot in which a Pakistani national Faisal Shahzad was arrested in May last year, to launch an operation against militant groups, particularly the Haqqani network, to dislodge them from their redoubt in North Waziristan. The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) had claimed that it had masterminded the car bomb plot.
Full report at: http://www.dawn.com/2011/03/13/speculations-grow-about-operation-in-n-waziristan.html
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3 killed, hundreds injured in Yemen violence
Mar 13, 2011
SANAA: Three Yemeni protesters including a schoolboy were killed in fresh bloodshed on Saturday, activists said, as police denied using poison gas on anti-regime demonstrations which raged across the country.
Security forces in the impoverished country, a key US ally in the war against al Qaeda, fired bullets and gas at demonstrators camping at University Square, killing one and wounding many more, protest organisers said.
Another protester was shot dead by a sniper in Sanaa as he headed with a group of other opposition partisans to the square, an opposition party member said.
“He was hit by a sniper shot,” said the source, who requested anonymity.
The violence comes a day after 14 protesters were wounded in protests across the country, which is already battling secessionist unrest, a Shia rebellion and jihadists from al Qaeda’s Arabian Peninsula offshoot.
More than 30 protesters were shot with live rounds, while hundreds more suffered from injuries including loss of consciousness and spasms from breathing gases, medics said.
The dawn assault targeted demonstrators who had breached a concrete police barrier at University Square, where activists have been staging a sit-in for almost three weeks to demand democratic change.
Full report at: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2011\03\13\story_13-3-2011_pg7_5
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Pasha to stay on as ISI chief: Mukhtar
Mar 13, 2011
LAHORE: Defence Minister Ahmed Mukhtar announced on Saturday that Lt Gen Ahmad Shuja Pasha would stay on as Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) director general when his term expires on March 18, a private TV channel reported.
Talking to reporters in Lahore, the minister maintained that the extension was being given to ensure continuity at a time of pressing security problems. He, however, did not mention how long the extension would be.
The minister also said that it was the first time the judiciary and army had sat together to resolve the country’s issues.
Pakistan People’s Party leader Qamar Zaman Kaira said he honoured the court’s ruling. He said it was a routine matter for the government to remain in contact with the judiciary and army, the channel added. Pasha has headed the ISI since 2008. daily times monitor
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2011\03\13\story_13-3-2011_pg7_6
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2 NATO tankers torched in Bolan
Mar 13, 2011
QUETTA: Two NATO oil tankers were torched by unidentified men on Saturday in the Karta area of Mach town in Bolan district. Official sources said, three oil tankers carrying fuel for NATO troops stationed in Afghanistan were on their way to Kandahar from Karachi when unidentified terrorists on motorbikes opened fire on them on the National Highway near Mach town. As a result, two of the tankers caught fire and were completely gutted while the third oil tanker was partially damaged in the attack. The driver of one of the oil tankers, identified as Ehsanullah Khan, a resident of Peshawar, sustained bullet injures and was taken to the Mach Civil Hospital by the locals. The assailants managed to escape from the scene successfully. Levies personnel reached the site soon after the incident and cordoned off the area. Talking to Daily Times, a levies official confirmed that two NATO oil tankers were attacked and completely destroyed while another was partially damaged. staff report
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2011\03\13\story_13-3-2011_pg7_11
URL: http://www.newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/karachi-violence-kills-18/d/4275