Sunday, February 15, 2015
Obsession with beauty almost killed her
A Miss Bum-Bum runner-up, Andressa Urach, admits her obsession with cosmetic surgery almost killed her.
COAS extends full support for Karachi operations to uphold peace
KARACHI: Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif ensured on Monday that Pakistan Army’s will extend its full support to security operations in Karachi in order to bring peace and stability to the city.
General Raheel visited Rangers Headquarters in Karachi and was briefed by Director-General Rangers Karachi, Major General Bilal Akbar, on the security situation.
#COAS in KCi:Visits HQ Rangers.Briefed by DG on Kci security situation,ongoing across the board ops along with other LEAs-1/2
— AsimBajwaISPR (@AsimBajwaISPR) February 16, 2015
The Director General Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) Asim Bajwa took to his Twitter account and said that the COAS appreciated the effective work of Rangers, Police and Intelligence agencies.
#COAS appreciated gains of ops by Rangers,police,int agencies.Will go any extent to support ops to ensure Kci peace.Well done,keep it up.2/2
— AsimBajwaISPR (@AsimBajwaISPR) February 16, 2015
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is also expected to visit the city and discuss matters pertaining to the implementation of National Action Plan.
Calling off protest: LoC bus service to resume today
MUZAFFARABAD:
After remaining suspended for 13 days, the cross-Line of Control (LoC) Muzaffarabad-Srinagar bus service will resume its operation from Monday (today).
The cross-LoC bus service was suspended after alleged recovery of narcotics in a truck from Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) in Indian administered Kashmir on February 3. The Indian authorities had arrested the driver Syed Inyat Hussain Shah along with the truck and refused to send him back to the AJK.
The traders, truck drivers and family members of the arrested driver were on strike in Ghari Dupatta, some 25 kilometres from Muzaffarabad. The protesters were demanding the release of the driver from the Indian administered Kashmir and had threatened to stop the cross-LoC movement of buses and trucks.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 16th, 2015.
Danish Prime Minister: ‘We are still on high alert’
Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt speaks to CNN about the terror attack in her country on Saturday.
Women’s development: Inter-provincial ministerial group formed
ISLAMABAD: An Inter Provincial Ministerial Group (IPMG) for Women’s Development has been constituted which will meet periodically to agree on key priorities for gender equality in line with international commitments. This group has members from provincial ministries of women development, National Commission on the Status of Women and Ministry of Law, Justice and Human Rights, an official at the law ministry said on Sunday. Furthermore, national consultations were also conducted to finalise policies and packages for the welfare of women. These include Women Empowerment Package, Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Bill 2013, and Hindu Marriage Bill.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 16th, 2015.
U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker frees stranded boat
A U.S Coast Guard cutter has freed an Australian fishing boat trapped in ice 900 miles northeast of Antarctica.
Breakthrough title for Wawrinka in Rotterdam
It proved a day of firsts for Stanislas Wawrinka as he lifted his first indoor title and first at ATP Tour 500 level in Rotterdam.
Danish Prime Minister: We are on high alert
Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt tells CNN what she knows about the attack in her country.
Maintaining security: Army deployed at prison likely to be withdrawn
PESHAWAR:
Even though security of the province’s prisons has always been a concern for authorities, the deployment of armed forces at one is likely to be withdrawn, said well-placed sources on Sunday.
“I cannot specifically identify the prison[s] but armed forces deployed there are likely to be pulled back; a decision is still pending,” a government official told The Express Tribune.
Requesting anonymity because of the “sensitivity of the matter”, the official said central prisons of DI Khan, Peshawar, Bannu and Haripur are high risk.
Appointment hurdles
Following intelligence reports of a possible militant attack on schools, prisons and government installations in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the government decided to recruit prison warders across the province immediately.
Over 800 warders were recruited a month ago but some officials, including senior bureaucrats and political figures, are reportedly bent upon revoking the recruitment, claiming it is “not based on merit”.
“The selection panel refused to recruit men who were named by some senior bureaucrats and even politicians (some from the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf),” said an official who requested anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media.
He added although the prison department prioritised merit, its senior officials are being pressurised by politicians to cancel the appointments.
According to the official, warders were recruited under Pakistan Prisons Rules on the directives of Chief Minister Pervez Khattak who had ordered immediate appointments. “After they (politicians and bureaucrats) failed to identify any mismanagement in the process, they turned their focus on the appointment not being based on tests conducted by National Testing Service (NTS) and Educational Testing and Evaluation Agency (ETEA),” he said.
The official added NTS and ETEA testing were discussed but since the exams required time, the hiring process would have been delayed. “No one was ready to take responsibility if prisons came under attack during the recruitment process,” the official said, adding the applicants who had been rejected by the selection panel were lobbying to cancel the merit-based recruitments.
When contacted, Home and Tribal Affairs Special Secretary Siraj Khan said he did not have any knowledge about any pressure to cancel recruitments of warders.
Unsafe
In the past three years there have been two major jailbreaks at the province’s central jails. In 2013, heavily armed Taliban militants stormed Central Prison DI Khan and escaped with more than 200 prisoners, including high-profile militants. In April 2012, around 400 inmates escaped from Central Prison Bannu in a similar attack led by Taliban terrorists.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 16th, 2015.
ASWJ stages protests after leader gunned down in Rawalpindi
ISLAMABAD: Ahl-e-Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ) protesters staged protests in Islamabad and Karachi after its local leader was gunned down in Rawalpindi, and another leader escaped an assassination attempt in Karachi.
Maulana Mazhar Siddiqui, 35, the spokesperson for ASWJ’s Rawalpindi chapter, was heading to the Pirwadhai bus stop in Rawalpindi with two other companions on Sunday morning to catch a bus for Lahore when unknown assailants riding on a motorcycle opened fire at them. Siddiqui was killed and one of his companions, Muhammad Ibrahim, was injured.
“Siddiqui was sitting at the backside of the rickshaw and was shot six times,” said ASWJ spokesperson Islamabad, Hafiz Oneeb.
Following the post-mortem, ASWJ activists took to the streets in Islamabad and marched towards the Supreme Court on Constitution Avenue along with Siddiqui’s body.
Police said that they initially tried to stop workers of ASWJ from entering the Red Zone at Nadra chowk, baton charging and tear gassing the protesters. But the police later allowed them to stage a demonstration right outside the Supreme Court.
The protesters demanded that the culprits responsible for the incident should be immediately arrested, and that the National Action Plan is implemented in letter and spirit. They further demanded compensation for the heirs of slain ASWJ workers, and security for party officials.
In his address, ASWJ chief Maulana Muhammad Ahmed Ludhianvi said if the killers of former president General (retd) Pervez Musharraf could be hanged, why can’t the government arrest those involved in the killing of ASWJ’s workers.
To defuse the situation, adviser to the prime minister Irfan Siddiqui held talks with the ASWJ leadership.
After the adviser assured ASWJ leaders that a committee will immediately be constituted to investigate Sunday’s killing, the ASWJ called off its seven-hour long protest and offered funeral prayers for Siddiqui.
Protest in Karachi
Meanwhile, the ASWJ staged a sit-in in Karachi against the assassination attempt on their local leader Aurangzaib Farooqui early on Sunday.
Activists and supporters of the religious party gathered around Quaidabad roundabout at 4pm, and shouted slogans against the government, claiming that their chief had been attacked because the government had taken away his security.
After police assured them of registering a case against civil society activist, Jibran Nasir and Khurram Zaki, the protesters dispersed.
Farooqi escaped an assassination attempt in Karachi on Saturday night, and his security protocol was taken back following a protest led by Nasir, Zia and others in the first week of the ongoing month outside the Chief Minister House in Karachi.
Peshmerga dug in along critical supply line for ISIS
In two days, the Peshmerga say, ISIS sent 20 vehicle bombs up the road, a sign of how badly the terrorists want to retake this position.
FA Cup giantkiller Bradford slays new EPL victim
Third-flight Bradford City claimed another English Premier League scalp to reach the quarterfinals of the FA Cup, football's oldest cup competition
Justice for rape victim
VEHARI: My daughter is a rape victim. It seems that the police have been influenced by the culprit, and justice is not being served in this affair. I would be highly grateful if your newspaper can help raise a voice in this regard, so that my daughter can get justice. I can be contacted via my email address: ghaffar.78.15l@gmail.com
Muhammad Ghaffar
Published in The Express Tribune, February 16th, 2015.
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Yemen’s last Jews eye exodus after militia takeover
SANAA: A few worried families are all that remain of Yemen’s ancient Jewish community, and they too may soon flee after a Shia militia seized power in the strife-torn country this month.
Harassment by the Houthi movement – whose motto is “Death to America, death to Israel, curse the Jews, victory to Islam” – caused Jews in recent years to largely quit the northern highlands they shared with Yemen’s Shias for millennia.
But political feuds in which the Jews played no part escalated last September into an armed Houthi plunge into the capital Sanaa, the community’s main refuge from which some now contemplate a final exodus.
Around six Yemeni Jews from the same family arrived in Israel on Friday, members of the community told Reuters.
“Since last September, our movements have become very limited for fear of the security situation, and there are some members of the community who preferred to leave Yemen,” sighed chief rabbi Yahya Youssef, sitting in his apartment within a walled compound next to ministry of defence.
Dressed in the traditional Yemeni flowing robe, blazer and headwrap, Rabbi Yahya’s lined face is framed by two long curls on each side. Along with Hebrew he and his co-religionists speak Arabic, value local customs and are wary of life beyond home.
“We don’t want to leave. If we wanted to, we would have done so a long time ago,” Yahya said as his infirmed old father rested in the sun outside their home.
Jews evacuated from the Houthi stronghold of Saada province in 2009 to the government-guarded compound have dwindled from 76 to 45. A group of 26 others live in a city north of the capital.
Their total number is down from around 200-300 just a few years ago and now makes up a tiny fraction of Yemen’s 19 million-strong population.
Yemen’s Jewish community numbered over 40,000 until 1949, when Israel organised their mass transfer to the newly-established state. Those who stayed say they had lived in peace with their neighbours in the Muslim Arab country.
“Our problem lies with Israel”
Boredom and isolation reign at the Jews’ lodgings in their unlikely ghetto in a luxury enclave called “Tourist City” near the now-evacuated United States embassy.
Cut off from the carpentry and metalworking shops that were their renowned trade for centuries, residents now subsist on small government allowances that they say barely meet their living costs.
Young men who venture into the souk often tuck their distinctive curls up into their headwraps for fear of bullying. Boys are no longer eager to grow them in the first place.
The local Houthi official now responsible for the surrounding neighbourhood visited Rabbi Yahya on Thursday to offer reassurances, according to a Reuters correspondent who was present.
“Jews are safe and no harm will come to them,” said Abu al Fadl, who like other leaders in the movement goes by a nom de guerre and not his given name.
“The problem of the Houthis is not with the Jews of Yemen but with Israel, which occupies Palestine,” he added.
But memories of death threats and Houthi fighters burning down Jewish homes during the militia’s decade of on-off war with the now non-existent Sanaa government will not be soon forgotten.
Israel-linked organisations have in the past repeatedly helped whisk Jews out of Yemen, but Israeli government officials declined comment on the matter, citing reluctance to endanger Yemen’s Jews by association with Israel.
“There are certainly discussions going on over options available regarding the Yemenite Jews,” said an Israeli official briefed on immigration matters.
But these are individuals who will have to make their own individual decisions about what to do,” the official added.
Safety may not be the only concern for the deeply conservative community though, who fear life in Israel or elsewhere will be an affront to their traditional values.
“In Israel, the girls rebel against their fathers, and we fear for our daughters. I could not accept that my daughter might come to me one day and tell me that she was married to her boyfriend,” Rabbi Yahya said.
“This is not permissible in our religion.”
Rockets shatter nerves
Artillery and rocket fire can be heard almost constantly in the village Talakovka, about 10 kilometers from the strategic port city of Mariupol in southern Ukraine.
BBC releases recording of first attack
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Opinion: Americans have plotted to kill cartoonists
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#IndvsPak cricket: One billion tune in
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Boston braces for a blizzard — again
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Kohli inspires India triumph against Pakistan
Virat Kohli made a century as India made the perfect start to its defense of cricket's World Cup with an emphatic 76-run victory over arch-rival Pakistan.
13 killed while sleeping in India house collapse
LUCKNOW: A newly built house in northern India collapsed early on Sunday killing 13 residents as they slept, the latest in a string of building cave-ins, police said.
The roof of the house suddenly gave way in Uttar Pradesh state, trapping the residents, four of whom managed to escape from the rubble with the help of neighbours, a police officer said.
“Thirteen people have been killed. Among the deceased are four labourers as well as the family and relatives of the house owner,” district police superintendent, Muniraj, who uses only one name, told AFP.
“Our men along with those from the local unit of the National Disaster Response Force rushed to the spot for rescue operations,” he said.
“The injured have been rushed to a hospital where they are being treated.”
Police said they were searching for the building contractor after suspecting poor construction was to blame for the accident in Dulhaipur village about 32 kilometres from the city of Varanasi.
A local official said 20,000 Indian rupees would be given to the relatives of the victims as compensation for the accident.
The accident is the latest in a long line of deadly building collapses in India, some of which have highlighted shoddy construction standards.
A massive influx of people to cities in search of jobs and a shortage of low-cost housing has helped fuel the construction of illegal buildings across the country, often made using substandard material.
Millions also live in dilapidated old buildings, many of which cave in during rains.
In July, an under construction 11-storey apartment tower in Tamil Nadu’s state capital Chennai came crashing down following heavy rains, killing 61 people, mostly labourers.
A rundown residential block in Mumbai collapsed, killing 60 people, in September 2013.
Family: police murdered dad ‘execution style’
The family of a Mexican national fatally shot by police in Pasco, Washington, has filed a $ 25 million claim against the city alleging that three officers murdered the unarmed man "execution style."
Captive British journalist shown in ISIS video
ISIS has released a new video in which a captive British journalist acts as though he is reporting on Aleppo in Syria.
Police kill suspect in fatal Copenhagen shootings
Danish police say they believe a man killed in a shootout is responsible for deadly attacks at a free speech forum and near a synagogue in Copenhagen.
Online handbook for new recruits
ISIS appears to be trying to offer tips to potential new recruits, including how to sign up and what to pack. CNN's Will Ripley reports.