Photos

In this section you will find a selection of photographs relevant to this year's campaign. Photos are courtesy of Agence France-Presse (AFP). Click on the photo to download. Newspapers can freely publish the photos, with credit to AFP. Publication embargo:

These materials should not be published before 3 May, World Press Freedom Day.

Journalist killed

ASSOCIATED PRESS SERVICE

In this section you will find WAN's list of journalists killed in 2007, categorised by country.
A total of 95 journalists were murdered last year.Newspapers can freely publish the list, with credit to WAN.
Publication embargo: These materials should not be published before 3 May, World Press Freedom Day.
Africa (13)
Americas (12)Asia (20)
Europe & Central Asia (4)
Middle East & North Africa (46)

Journalists arrested

In this section you will find estimates provided by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) of the number of journalists arrested in 2007. At least 875 journalists were arrested last year.Newspapers can freely publish the estimates, with credit to RSF.Publication embargo: These materials should not be published before 3 May, World Press Freedom Day.

Journalists in Prison

APS ASSOCIATED PRESS SERVICE

In this section you will find a Committee to Protect Journalists's list of journalists imprisoned in 2007, categorised by country. A total of 127 journalists were imprisoned last year.
Newspapers can freely publish the list, with credit to CPJ.
Publication embargo:

These materials should not be published before 3 May, World Press Freedom Day.
Nearly 17 percent of journalists jailed worldwide in 2007 were held without any publicly disclosed charge, many for months or years at a time and some in secret locations, the Committee to Protect Journalists has found in a new analysis.
CPJ's annual worldwide census of imprisoned journalists found 127 behind bars on December 1, a decrease of seven from the 2006 tally. (Read detailed accounts of each imprisoned journalist..) The drop is due in large part to the release this year of 15 Ethiopian journalists who were either acquitted or pardoned of antistate charges stemming from a broad government crackdown on the press. CPJ and others had waged an intensive advocacy campaign on their behalf.
China, which has failed to meet its promises to improve press freedom before the 2008 Olympics, continued to be the world's leading jailer of journalists, a dishonor it has held for nine consecutive years. Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, and Azerbaijan round out the top five jailers among the 24 nations that imprison journalists.Antistate allegations such as subversion, divulging state secrets, and acting against national interests remain the most common charge used to imprison journalists worldwide, CPJ found. About 57 percent of journalists in the census are jailed under these charges, many of them by the Chinese and Cuban governments.
The proportion of journalists held without any charge at all increased for the third consecutive year. Eritrea and Iran account for many of these cases, but the United States has used this tactic as well. U.S. authorities have not filed charges or presented evidence against Al-Jazeera cameraman Sami al-Haj, held for more than five years at Guantánamo Bay, or Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein, held in Iraq for more than 19 months. The U.S. military said in November that Hussein's case would be referred to Iraqi courts for prosecution but continued to withhold details explaining the basis for the detention.
"Imprisoning journalists on the basis of assertions alone should not be confused with a legal process. This is nothing less than state-sponsored abduction," CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon said. "While we believe every one of these 127 journalists should be released, we are especially concerned for those detained without charge because they're often held in abysmal conditions, cut off from their lawyers and their families."
The practice of holding journalists without charge has eroded basic standards of fairness and accountability. Iranian authorities, for example, jailed Mohammad Seddigh Kaboudvand in July, but they have yet to file formal charges or bring the editor before a judge. Kaboudvand's lawyer has not been allowed to see him or review the government's case. Eritrean authorities will not even confirm whether the journalists in its custody are alive or dead. At least 19 journalists worldwide are being held in secret locations, CPJ found, with Eritrea the worst offender in this regard.Continuing a decade-long trend, Internet journalists make up an increasing proportion of CPJ's census. Bloggers, online editors, and Web-based reporters constitute about 39 percent of journalists jailed worldwide. Print journalists make up the largest professional category, accounting for about half of those in jail.
The rise of Internet journalism and its risks are evident in China, where 18 of the 29 jailed journalists worked online. China's list includes Shi Tao, an award-winning journalist serving a 10-year sentence for e-mailing details of a government propaganda directive to an overseas Web site. The Internet giant Yahoo supplied account information to Chinese authorities that led to Shi's 2004 arrest and triggered an ongoing debate over corporate responsibility.
China continues to rely heavily on the use of vague antistate charges, imprisoning 22 journalists on accusations such as "inciting subversion of state power." Despite China's 2001 promises to the International Olympic Committee that it would ensure "complete media freedom," its leaders continue to jail reporters and operate a vast system of censorship, CPJ found in a special report in August. CPJ has urged the IOC and the Games' corporate sponsors to hold Beijing accountable to its word.
"China has remained the world's worst jailer of journalists from the day the Games were awarded through today, just months before the Olympics are scheduled to begin," said CPJ's Simon. "China and the IOC have an obligation to make good on the broad promises made when Beijing was selected. For the torch to be lit in Beijing next August as 29 journalists languish in jail would mock the ideals of the Olympic movement."Fidel Castro 's absence from day-to-day power has not led to media reform in Cuba, the world's second-leading jailer. Twenty-four Cuban journalists are imprisoned, CPJ found, most of them swept up in a March 2003 crackdown on the independent press. Eritrea ranks third, with 14 jailed journalists, all held in undisclosed prisons.
Two countries--Iran and Azerbaijan­--are new to the list of leading jailers. Facing domestic dissent and economic troubles, Iranian authorities are meting out harsher penalties to journalists. Twelve are now in Iranian jails. One of them, Adnan Hassanpour, editor of the now-banned weekly Aso, was sentenced to death after being convicted in January of endangering national security and engaging in propaganda against the state.
Imprisonments also spiked in Azerbaijan, where nine journalists are currently in jail. The imprisoned ranks include editor Eynulla Fatullayev, whose April arrest came shortly after he published an in-depth report alleging an official cover-up in the 2005 slaying of fellow Azerbaijani editor Elmar Huseynov.
CPJ research shows that journalist imprisonments rose significantly after governments worldwide imposed sweeping national security laws in the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States. Imprisonments stood at 81 in 2000 but have since averaged 129 in CPJ's annual surveys. Here are other trends and details that emerged in CPJ's analysis: o In about 12 percent of cases, governments used a variety of charges unrelated to journalism to retaliate against critical writers, editors, and photojournalists. Such charges range from regulatory violations to drug possession. In the cases included in this census, CPJ has determined that the charges were most likely lodged in reprisal for the journalist's work.o Criminal defamation, the next most common charge, was lodged in about 7 percent of cases. Charges of ethnic or religious insult were filed in about 5 percent of cases, while violations of censorship rules account for another 2 percent.
o Print and Internet journalists make up the bulk of the census. Television journalists compose the next largest professional category, accounting for 6 percent of cases. Radio journalists account for 4 percent, documentary filmmakers 2 percent. o The longest-serving journalists in CPJ's census are Chen Renjie and Lin Youping, who were jailed in China in July 1983 for publishing a pamphlet titled Ziyou Bao (Freedom Report). Codefendant Chen Biling was later executed.
CPJ believes that journalists should not be imprisoned for doing their jobs. The organization has sent letters expressing its serious concerns to each country that has imprisoned a journalist. In addition, CPJ sent requests during the year to Eritrean and U.S. officials seeking details in cases in which journalists were held without publicly disclosed charges. CPJ's list is a snapshot of those incarcerated at midnight on December 1, 2007. It does not include the many journalists imprisoned and released throughout the year; accounts of those cases can be found at http://www.cpj.org/ . Journalists remain on CPJ's list until the organization determines with reasonable certainty that they have been released or have died in custody.Journalists who either disappear or are abducted by nonstate entities, including criminal gangs, rebels, or militant groups, are not included on the imprisoned list. Their cases are classified as "missing" or "abducted." Details of these cases are also available on CPJ's Web site.

China steps up monitoring of deadly virus outbreak

BEIJING - An eastern Chinese province has instituted a daily reporting system to monitor the spread of a virus that has killed 19 children and spread panic among residents, Xinhua news agency reported on Monday.
The enterovirus 71, or EV71, which can cause hand, foot and mouth disease, began spreading in Anhui province's Fuyang city from early March, Xinhua said, but was only publicly reported on Sunday.
But in a sign of new attention to the outbreak, Health Minister Chen Zhu visited Fuyang at the weekend and other officials and doctors have gone to investigate.
The provincial health department will also host workshops to train more medical workers in prevention and cure of the virus, the report said.
By Saturday, there were 789 cases, including 19 deaths, the majority of them children under the age of two. A total of 204 children remain in hospital, four in critical condition, Xinhua said.
Enteroviruses spread mostly through contact with infected blisters or faeces and can cause high fever, paralysis and swelling of the brain or its lining.
EV71 outbreaks have occurred in past years in Southeast Asia and some East European countries.

7 Palestinians killed in Israeli raid in Gaza

GAZA CITY - Israeli troops rolled into the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun early Monday, sparking heavy fighting with local militants and killing at least seven Palestinians, most of them when a tank shell hit a house, medical officials said.
A mother and her four children - aged seven, six, four and a one- year-old baby - were killed when the tank shell hit the house, an official at the Hamas-run Palestinian Health Ministry said.
Witnesses said the shell was aimed at an Islamic Jihad militant, who had just launched an anti-tank missile at the Israel troops and was killed too.
The mother of the Abu Mo'tiq family was initially critically injured and in a state of clinical death, but died of her wounds in hospital shortly afterwards.
A Hamas gunman was also killed by a missile fired by an Israeli helicopter gunship providing cover for the ground troops.
An Israeli military spokeswoman said the army entered the town, near Gaza's northern border with Israel, because it was a 'very central rocket launching area.'
Hundreds of locally-made Qassam, al-Quds and Nasser rockets have been fired from Beit Hanoun and its surroundings at Israeli communities near the Gaza Strip.
Militants from the area also launched attacks at Israeli soldiers patrolling the border, and snipers have opened fire at Israeli farmers working on the Israeli side of the border fence, she said.
The military said it was checking the reports that civilians were killed in the tank shelling.
But the spokeswoman said that 'when militants are acting from within a populated area, they take on themselves the risk that civilians will be hurt too. We of course do not aim at civilians.'
She said the operation in Beit Hanoun was continuing.

N Koreans may have died in Israel raid in Syria

TOKYO - Ten North Koreans helping build a suspected nuclear reactor in Syria may have died in an Israeli air raid last September, Japanese public broadcaster NHK said on Monday, citing South Korean intelligence officials.
The report follows the release of photographs by the United States last week of what it said was a Syrian nuclear reactor capable of producing plutonium built with North Korean help.
Israel destroyed the suspected reactor in a Sept. 6 air strike.
NHK said the dead included officials of the North Korea's communist party unit that exports weapons and military technology and members of the North Korean military unit which made nuclear facilities in the country.
Two or three North Koreans survived the air strike but it is not clear what happened to them afterwards, NHK reported.
Syria has denied the U.S. charge as "a fantasy".
Pyongyang has been reluctant to discuss any transfer of nuclear technology to other countries, notably Syria, as well as to account for its suspected pursuit of uranium enrichment.

Top UN nuclear official in Iran for more talks

TEHRAN- The UN nuclear watchdog's deputy chief Olli Heinonen was to hold new talks with Iranian officials on Monday, just a week after his last discussions over claims Tehran is seeking nuclear weapons.
Iran has insisted that Heinonen's visits to Tehran are part of its routine cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) but the watchdog has said they are focussed on the weapons claims.
"These talks will probably last three days and their first round will start today (Monday) afternoon," Iran's ambassador to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, was quoted as saying by the Fars news agency.
Heinonen had held closed-door talks with Iranian officials in Tehran on April 21 and 22.
The IAEA said on Wednesday that Heinonen reached an agreement with Iran to examine the allegations Tehran has studied how to design nuclear weapons. The claims stem from intelligence provided to the IAEA by some member states.
But Iranian officials have repeatedly played down the links between Heinonen's visit and the so-called weaponisation studies. Tehran has not confirmed the existence of the new agreement.
"This session too is like other normal meetings that deal with technical and expert discussions under the framework of the agency's statute and the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty," Soltanieh said of the new talks.
"If there are any questions or ambiguities, we will give the necessary answers away from political fuss," said Soltanieh, who is heading the Iranian delegation in the talks.
The ISNA news agency reported that Heinonen arrived in Tehran earlier on Monday.
In a closed-door briefing to diplomats at IAEA headquarters in Vienna on February 25, Heinonen presented detailed information suggesting that Iran could have been studying how to use its nuclear technology to make a warhead.
Iran, which insists its nuclear programme is entirely peaceful and aimed solely at generating energy, furiously denounced the presentation as fake.

Australian soldier killed in Afghanistan battle

SYDNEY - Prime Minister Kevin Rudd warned Australians Monday to expect more soldiers to die in the growing conflict in Afghanistan after a commando died in a gun battle overnight.
The special forces soldier, slain as Taliban rebels attacked his patrol in the south of the country, was the fifth Australian to die in combat in Afghanistan since 2002 and the fourth in the past seven months.
'2008 will be difficult and dangerous and bloody, and the Australian nation needs to prepare itself for further losses in the year ahead,' Rudd told a news conference.
'We are facing a change of season, as the winter snows melt and the spring thaw begins, which usually indicates a heightening in military activity on the part of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.'
Lance Corporal Jason Marks, 27, was killed in southern Uruzgan province by Taliban militants, defence forces chief Air Marshal Angus Houston said earlier.
'The engagement in which he died was characterised by a heavy exchange of small arms fire and rocket propelled grenades.
'Four other soldiers were wounded by small arms fire in the same action,' he said, noting their injuries were not life-threatening.
Australia has around 1,000 troops in Afghanistan, mostly assisting a Dutch-led reconstruction operation in Uruzgan, a former Taliban stronghold.
The 1996-2001 Taliban government was ousted in a US-led invasion for harbouring Al-Qaeda leaders after the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.
The Taliban have regrouped to wage an insurgency against the government, which is supported by thousands of international troops from around 40 mostly Western nations. The fighting last year left 8,000 people dead, most of them rebel fighters.
Word of the Australian soldier's death came a day after militants attacked a key military parade in the Afghan capital Kabul -- attended by President Hamid Karzai -- with rockets and gunfire, leaving three people dead.
Rudd said Afghanistan had a history of strong resistance to foreign troop activity in the country.
'Therefore, the history is against us, but remember why we are there,' he said.

Foreign secretary loses job over opposition to UN probe

ISLAMABAD — Salman Bashir, currently Pakistan’s Ambassador to China, has been appointed Foreign Secretary replacing Riaz Mohammad Khan whose immediate removal has been linked to his strong opposition to the plans to approach the UN for an independent international investigation into Benazir Bhutto’s assassination.
The Establishment Division has issued two separate notifications — the first regarding the appointment of Salman Bashir as Foreign Secretary and the other directing the incumbent foreign secretary Riaz Mohammad Khan to report to the Establishment Division.
The notifications was delivered to the Foreign Secretary’s Office by a dispatch rider after the secretary had left it. Subsequently, Riaz Mohammad Khan was informed while he was heading towards home in his car.
The outgoing foreign secretary had no prior intimation of these important notifications but had met Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and PPP Co-chairman Asif Zardari.
During these meetings, he expressed his candid opinion that referring the assassination probe to UN would open up many awkward situations for Pakistan including its security network and even the nuclear programme.
Curiously, the notifications coincided with the important bilateral visit of the Chinese foreign minister and it caught the foreign secretary completely off guard.
Ironically just a few hours before receiving the notifications Khan wrote a letter to Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi requesting him that he be relieved by May 31 after the review meetings of the fourth round of composite dialogue with India. He had cited health and personal reasons for the early exit.
Riaz Mohammad Khan took a strong exception to the way the whole matter had been handled. Hence it was no surprise when Khan, who has been the pillar of Pakistan-China relations, and previously served as ambassador to China, did not turn up at the dinner hosted by Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in honour of his Chinese counterpart at Foreign Office later in the evening. And that is precisely the reason he excused himself from the Chinese foreign minister’s meeting with the president on Saturday morning.
The unexpected notifications on Friday were as much a surprise for Salman Bashir as these were for the outgoing foreign secretary. According to informed sources, a baffled Ambassador Bashir even telephoned his senior colleague Khan. The foreign minister who personally went to Khan’s room to express his sympathy on his indecent removal and asked him to stay on till May but failed to convince him. Khan politely conveyed to him that he had made up his mind and was on his way out.
Thus orders were issued late on Saturday afternoon announcing the appointment of Acting Special Secretary Abdul Moiz Bokhari as acting foreign secretary.

Bank of Punjab chief sacked

LAHORE — The Punjab government has sacked Bank of Punjab (BoP) President Humaish Khan and reconstituted its Board of Directors.
Knowledgeable sources said the name of Humaish Khan could also be placed on the Exit Control List (ECL), after which it will not be possible for him to leave the country without prior permission of the government.
Humaish was appointed by the previous government and was close to PML-Q leaders including former chief minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi and PML-Q President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain.
According to spokesman of the Punjab government, the government reviewed the financial affairs of the Bank of Punjab in consultation with the State Bank of Pakistan.
He said the government, which is the majority shareholder of the bank, is committed to strengthening the administration of the bank and through the change of management and the Board of Directors, it would seek to strengthen structure of the bank to ensure profitability and transparency.

Zari Sarfaraz passes away

PESHAWAR — Renowned social worker and philanthropist Begum Zari Sarfaraz Khan passed away yesterday at her native city of Mardan after protracted illness. She was around 90.
Her funeral prayers would be offered at Premier Sugar Mills Mardan today at 3pm. Belonging to a famous family from Mardan, Begum Zari Sarfaraz had been associated with the Pakistan Muslim League since long. She had played a vital role in uniting Muslims on one platform during the independence movement and was decorated with various national awards.
She was the elder sister of the late NWFP chief minister Mir Afzal Khan. Begum Zari Sarfaraz always focused her attention on the welfare of women and had also served as federal minister for women development.

India to launch 10 satellites today

HYDERABAD — The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) will launch 10 satellites of different sizes in one go today. The PSLV-C9 launch vehicle, to be launched from Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota, will carry the country’s latest remote sensing satellite Cartosat-2A, another Mini satellite IMPS-1 and eight foreign nano satellite.
The countdown for the launch began on Saturday. All arrangements are in place for the launch at 9.23am today. While Cartosat, meant for the mapping, is 690kg in weight, the mini remote sensing satellite weighs only 83 kgs. The eight nano satellites, belonging to foreign countries, put together, weigh only 50 kgs. Two of the nano satellites belong to Japan, two each belong to Germany and Toronto University, Canada. The other satellites are from Denmark and the Netherlands.
These small satellites have been developed on experimental basis by using the nano technology for the first time. The 44 metre long PSLV-C9 rocket, produced in the country weighs 230 tonnes. The Isro officials are treating the launch of this rocket as landmark event because of the large number of payloads belonging to different countries. Isro officials say that it would be a very complicated and sensitive operation because different satellites will have to be placed in different orbits.
The earlier record of carrying the maximum number of satellites was set by PSLV-C7 launched in January last year. It carried four satellites including India’s own Cartosat-2, space capsule recovery experiment vehicle and one satellite each of Argentina and Indonesia.

Kashmir cable operators resume beaming of channels; federal govt denies any ban

SRINAGAR — Cable TV operators in Kashmir Valley have resumed beaming of Indian and international channels after a two-day blackout even as federal I&B ministry denied it had issued ban order on Pakistani channels. The cable operators had stopped airing of TV channel programmes in protest against the ban order by the state authorities.
“We’ve resumed work for the sake of our subscribers as they were being denied access to the only source of entertainment available in the Valley which is cable television,” said Irfan Bakshi who holds rights of cable TV network in Kashmir Valley. With the outbreak of violence in 1989 all cinema houses, theatres and other sources of entertainment in the Valley were shut down in response to a diktat issued by the separatists.
“In fact, we were over the past two days virtually swamped by telephone calls from our subscribers asking to resume our operations. They were upset, particularly because they could not watch Indian Premier League matches on television,” Irfan said adding “We had no option but to call off our strike.”
Amidst the outcry following the ban on channels, the federal I&B Ministry stepped in strongly denying it had issued any ban order. The ministry sought to clarify that it had written besides Jammu and Kashmir to two other states — Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra — asking them to check the illegal down-linking of TV channels by cable operators in their respective states. The advisories to all three states were issued after it came to the notice of the ministry that “several channels, which have neither applied for nor received permission for down-linking under the policy guidelines for down-linking of TV channels, are being received and distributed by cable television networks in certain states” in violation of the relevant rules.
But Irfan asked: “If the channels we have been asked to black out, have not been issued down-linking permission why then no such ban order was issued elsewhere and not even in Jammu, the winter capital of our state?” He added: “That is why I had said earlier that it (ban) seems to be politically motivated.”

Iran to give nuclear proposals to Russia

Pakistan's Water and Power Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf (R) greets Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (C)...

TEHRAN - Iran will hand over to Russia a package of proposals designed to defuse a nuclear row with world powers, an Iranian official said on Monday without giving details.

Iran said this month it would soon unveil ideas to help end the dispute over its nuclear program, which the West says is aimed at producing atomic bombs, an allegation Tehran denies.
Tehran has been hit by three rounds of U.N. sanctions since 2006 for defying a U.N. demand to halt sensitive nuclear work.
Sanctions have been backed by the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council -- the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China -- plus Germany, a group known as the "5+1."
"The Islamic Republic of Iran will submit its proposed nuclear package, which is directed to the 5+1 group, during Sobolev's trip to Iran," state radio said referring to Valentin Sobolev, acting secretary of Russia's National Security Council.
Sobolev and Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili began talks on Monday, radio added.
A senior Iranian official confirmed the report to Reuters, adding: "During the meeting, Jalili will discuss the issue (of the proposals)." The official did not elaborate.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said this month Iran would reveal proposals with a "new orientation" to help end international and other problems. He gave no details.
ACCUSATIONS
Olli Heinonen, the International Atomic Energy Agency's top investigator, arrived in Tehran on Monday to discuss intelligence accusations that Iran researched how to make nuclear bombs, an Iranian official said.
Heinonen also visited Iran last week. After that trip, the IAEA said Tehran had agreed on steps to clarify the intelligence information by the end of May. Iran had earlier dismissed the intelligence as baseless and declined to address it in detail.
"We will cooperate with the agency as the only relevant technical organization, and in case of any question or ambiguity we will provide the answers away from any political ballyhoo," Iran's IAEA ambassador, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, said.
In comments reported by Iran's Fars News Agency, he said Heinonen's talks would likely last three days, starting Monday.
In a presentation in February, Heinonen indicated links in Iran between projects to process uranium, test explosives and modify a missile cone in a way suitable for a nuclear warhead.
The intelligence came variously from a laptop computer given to Washington by an Iranian defector in 2004, from some other Western countries and the agency's own inquiries.
U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown this month pledged a united effort to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear bomb, possibly by expanding sanctions.
World powers are considering enhancing a package of trade and other incentives for Iran if it stops enriching uranium, which can be used as nuclear fuel or provide material for bombs.
Iran has ruled out shelving its nuclear drive.

Pakistan, Iran resolve issues pertaining to IPI, ink agreement soon

ISLAMABAD, April 28 (APS): Pakistan and Iran on Monday resolved all issues regarding the US 7.5 billion dollars gas pipeline project, paving the bway for inking an agreement soon at a mutually agreed date in Tehran. President Pervez Musharraf and his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad expressed satisfaction over the talks, held at the Aiwan-e-Sadr and told the media that the project will help meet future energy needs of Pakistan.
Iran also agreed to provide 1100 MW of electricity to Pakistan to help it overcome the shortage, particularly in areas adjoining Iran.

Train service between Quetta, other parts of the country suspended

QUETTA, April 28 (APS)- Unknown miscreants blew up a railways track between Sariab and Spezand suspending train service between Quetta and other parts of the country, Railways officials told APS Monday.
According to reports, the explosives were strapped with the railways track near Spezand area which damaged some two feet piece of the track after explosion.
The railways technical team had been sent to the area to repair the track. Dasht police registered a case against unknown saboteurs.

Five minor children die due to short-circuiting in interior city

PESHAWAR, April 28 (APS): In a tragic episode, five children including three girls died when their room caught fire due to short circuit in Sarki Gate area in interior City on Monday.
The local rescuers succeeded to recover two minor boys unconscious from the burning wooden room. Those died in the incident included Tahira, 7, Naila 10, Ayesha 5, Numan 2 and Usman one and a half year. The father of the ill-fated children, Nasrullah Khan a nanbai by profession, told police that he was in his shop when he was informed about the fire that engulfed his wooden house. He rushed to the house but in all vain.

Iranian President arrive in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, Apr 28 (APS): Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadiejad has arrived on a brief visit in Pakistan here on Monday. He was received by Minister for Water and Power Raja Pervaiz Asharaf and Minister for Population Welfare Hamayun Aziz Kurd.
Iranian Ambassador to Pakistan Mashallah Shakeri and other staff of the embassy was also present to welcome the president on his arrival at Chacklala Air Base.
In his brief stay, Iranian President will meet with President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to discuss regional and bilateral issues.

Kashmir Conference calls for unity in the leadership

LONDON, April 28 (APS)-A conference on Kashmir has pushed for unity among the Kashmiri leadership and the same time lambasted India for dragging its feet on the unresolved issue of Himalayan region.
Hosted by the World Kashmir Freedom Movement, the round table conference Sunday brought together Kashmiri leaders from USA, Europe and various parts of the United Kingdom to the venue in west London.
Former Pakistan Foreign Secretary Riaz Khokhar, Pakistan Deputy High Commissioner to the UK Abdul Basit, Lord Nazir Ahmad, Dr. Muhammad Abdul Bari, Secretary-General, Muslim Council of Britain, Dr.Ghulam Nabi Fai, Executive Director, Kashmiri American Council, Ghulam Nabi Mir,Ghulam Muhammad Safi,Prof.Nazir Ahmad Shawl, Maulana Muhammad Yaqoob Chisti,Nazir Qureshi and a number of other Kashmiri leaders also spoke on the occasion.
The speakers highlighted the importance of involving Kashmir leadership in the dialogue process between Pakistan and India and their participation was crucial to the success of the negotiations.
Riaz Khokhar who served as envoy to USA, China and India and was involved in the initiation of the peace process between Pakistan and India called on the Kashmir leaders to close their ranks and unite to articulate their cause in a unified manner.
He explained that due to difficult situation in the region as the result of the 9/11 events and the international community support for India and given Pakistan’s own domestic problems, Kashmir issue has been forced into the background.
Khokhar said the West was encouraging India to emerge as the regional power in Asia and as rival to China and was not keen to hear anything adverse against it.
However, he stressed upon the Kashmiri leadership to revitalise their cause and efforts to keep the issue alive.
Lamenting division in the ranks of All Parties Hurriyat Conference, he added this has benefited India which is now claiming that APHC is itself not interested on resolving Kashmir issue.
He dismissed India’s claim and said thousand of Kashmiris have laid down their lives for the cause but the international community was silent because of strong Indian propaganda and diplomatic dominance.
“Seeking the International community support for Kashmir is a big challenge for the Kashmiri leadership and it need to reinvigorate its efforts.”
Khokhar noted that although the composite dialogue began four years ago there has been little progress because of India’s intransigence.” The Indians are not sincere on this issue and their aim is to prolong the negotiations.”
He called on the Kashmir leadership to display unity, determination and conviction in their ranks in order to achieve their desired objective and said the Government of Pakistan and its people will never waver in their support for the Kashmiri brothers.
The British member of Parliament Lord Nazir Ahmad said the policy of appeasement and out of box formula has failed to pay the dividend and there was a need to kick start a new campaign to highlight the Kashmir cause.
He said the Kashmir Committee in the British Parliament has become indolent and passive and there was a need to shake the members out of their stupor and make them realise the gravity of the current situation in the Occupied territory.
“We need to have a genuine brain storming session to revive the Kashmir issue in political, democratic and peaceful manner.”
Deputy High Commissioner Abdul Basit said Pakistan has made it clear to India that Kashmir remains the core issue between the two countries and there could be no normalisation of relations without the settlement of the issue first.
“Pakistan at every stage has told India that peace process cannot be sustained between the two countries unless Kashmir cause is moved forward .”
Basit said Pakistan has made it known amply that any settlement on Kashmir must reflect the aspirations of the people of Kashmir.
He said although the basic objective remains the same, the new coalition government in Pakistan might devise new strategy to deal with the issue though it may take some time to communicate its policies.
He spoke about the role of Pakistan High Commission in supporting and extending complete co-operation to the Kashmiri Diaspora on issues such as Kashmir Earthquake and the Emma Nicholson report.
Ghulam Muhammad Safi, Prof.Shawl, Ghulam Nabi Fai, Mahmud Riaz, Maulana Chisti,Nazir Qureshi and other Kashmiri leaders in their speeches said no durable solution of the Kashmir dispute can be possible without equal inclusion and participation of the legitimate leadership of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
They said the Kashmir dispute is primarily the issue of self-determination which is a basic principle of the UN Charter. Inability to resolve this issue, they pointed out, is directly affecting the peace and stability of the region.
The conference also adapted a resolution calling for full moral, diplomatic and political support in favour of the right to self determination of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
The resolution urged the Indian Government to stop all human rights violations, remove its forces from occupied Kashmir’s cities and towns and unconditionally release all political prisoners. India must repeal all black laws aimed at preventing Kashmiris from airing their grievances through peaceful means of assembly and protest.
The resolution called on Amnesty International and all Human Rights organisations and the foreign governments to launch and immediate and transparent investigation into the existence of the recently unearthed mass graves in Baramulla.
Later Dr.Ayub Thakur Memorial Awards were presented to Riaz Khokhar, Lord Nazir Ahmad and Syed Munawar Hassan Mashhadi.

Poor farmers receive $200 million boost from UN to face food crisis

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 28 (APS): The U.N.rural development arm is providing up to $200 million for poor farmers during the upcoming cropping season as it tries to alleviate the suffering of hundreds of millions of people facing hunger and malnutrition due to soaring food prices.
“The capacity of the world’s 450 million smallholder farmers to respond by growing more food is at risk because of spiralling energy and fertiliser prices,” said Lennart Båge, President of the Rome-based UN International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
“Poor farmers are not reaping the benefits of higher food prices because they cannot afford the fertiliser or seeds to plant next season’s crops.”
Speaking after a meeting of the agency’s Executive Board in Rome, he called for concerted comprehensive and coordinated action to be taken by the international community to prevent the slide of millions into abject poverty.
“Poor rural farmers are central to any solution to today’s global food crisis and the long-term problems of hunger and poverty,” Mr. Båge noted.
He called for a three-pronged strategy: providing emergency food aid to feed the hungry today; supporting, in the short term, smallholder farmers in their bid to plan next season’s crops; and longer-term investment in agriculture to ensure food security, nutrition and rural development.
“The world has under-invested in agriculture and rural development for far too long,” the President stated. “It is high time to put this right.”
On Friday, the head of the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said that surging food prices are thwarting the agency’s ability to feed the world’s hungry.
“We can buy 40 per cent less food than we could last June with the same contribution,” WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran said in a video conference from Rome, voicing concern that as many as 100 million people face being pushed deeper into poverty.

ججز کی بحالی میں تاخیر۔۔۔۔۔ عوام کے شدید تحفظات تحریر چودھری احسن پریمی

پیپلز پارٹی اور مسلم لیگ نواز تیس اپریل تک ججوں کو بحال کرنے کے پابند ہیں تیس اپریل تک تمام معزول ججوں کی بحالی کا وعدہ ہر صورت پورا کیاجائے ۔حکومت میں شامل دونوں بڑی جماعتوں نے اس سلسلے میں اعلان مری پر دستخط کئے ہوئے ہیں اور آصف علی زرداری اور نواز شریف دونوں اس پر عمل کریں ۔ججوں کی بحالی کیلئے دو تہائی اکثریت کی ضرورت نہیں ہے ججوں کو فرد واحد پی سی او کے تحت اتار کر گھرو ںمیں نظر بند کر دیتا ہے یہ کہاں کا انصاف ہے اور پھر ان ججو ںکو بحا ل کرنے کیلئے اتنا بڑا پہاڑ عبور کرنا پڑے گا غیر قانونی اقدام کو قانونی بنانے کیلئے اتنی مشکلات اٹھانا کہاں کا قانون ہے ایسا کرنے کا سوال ہی پیدا نہیں ہوتا۔ قوم نے آمریت کے خاتمے اور عدلیہ کی بحالی کا مینڈیٹ دیا ہے اور وہ اس سے انحراف ناممکن ہے۔ 18فروری کو قوم کی طرف سے دیے گئے مینڈیٹ پر قائم رہنا ہوگا۔عوام اس میں کوئی ہیرا پھیری نہیں کرنے دیں گے ۔ ججوں کی بحالی کی قرارداد اور آئینی پیکج دو الگ الگ معاملات ہیں ۔ یہ قرار داد ایسے ہی جائے گی جج بحال ہوں گے اور اس کے بعد چارٹر آف ڈیمو کریٹک پر مبنی ترامیم آئیں گی ۔ نئی حکومت کے کرتا دھرتا چارٹر آف ڈیمو کریٹک پر عمل کرنے کے پابند ہیں ۔ جبکہ نواز شریف یہ بھی چاہتے ہیں کہ صدر پرویز مشرف کے خلاف آرٹیکل 6کے تحت کارروائی ہونی چاہیے اور یہ موزوں وقت ہے ۔ اگرحکومت نے عوام کی توقعات پر پورا اترنا ہے تو اس میں تاخیر نہیں ہونی چاہیے ۔ عوام اس تاخیر کو اچھی نظرسے نہیں دیکھتے ۔ میاں نواز شریف نے یہ بھی کہا ہے کہ ان کی دعا ہے کہ حکمران اتحاد برقرار رہے جب تک ملک میں آئین کی بالادستی اور قانون کی حکمرانی قائم نہیں ہوتی نہ ملک کے مسائل حل ہو نگے نہ ہی امن قائم ہوگا آج دنیا بھر میں قانون کی حکمرانی اور شہری آزادیوں کے تحفظ کی بات ہورہی ہے اگر ہمارے ملک میں قانون کی حکمرانی ہوگی تو سر مایہ کار بھی بلا خوف و خطر پاکستان میں سر مایہ کاری کرینگے کوئی بھی معاشرہ کفر کی حالت میں قائم تو رہ سکتا ہے لیکن ظلم کی صورت میں قائم نہیں رہ سکتا ملک میں آئین کی بالادستی اور قانون کی حکمرانی کے لئے وکلاء کی جدو جہد کو زبردست الفاظ میں خراج تحسین پیش کرتے ہوئے پاکستان کے عوام نے اس یقین کا اظہار کیا ہے کہ یہ وکلاء کی جد و جہد ضرور کامیاب ہوگی اور قوم آئین کی بالادستی اور قانون کی حکمرانی کا خواب جلد شر مندہ تعبیر ہوگا چیف جسٹس افتخار محمد چوہدری سمیت تمام معزول ججزکی دوبارہ بحا لی ناگزیر ہے عدلیہ بحال ہو اور عدلیہ کو آزاد عدلیہ بنایا جائے ۔ اگر نئی حکومت بھی عوام کے مسائل حل نہ کر سکی تو اس کا بھی اقتدار میں رہنے کا کوئی فائدہ نہیں جمہوری قوتوں کی کامیابی سے ہی ملک میں جمہوریت کو فروغ ملے گا جبکہ پاکستان مسلم لیگ (ق) نے کہا ہے کہ صدر نے ججز کو برطرف کرکے غلط کیا تھا اگر موجودہ حکومت عدلیہ کا بحران حل نہ کر سکی تو ہم قوم کو اس بحران سے نجات دلانے کیلئے قرارداد لائینگے ۔ ججز کی بحالی آئینی اور قانونی نہیں بلکہ سیاسی مسئلہ بن چکا ہے ‘ نواز شریف بھی اسی پر سیاست چمکا رہے ہیں وہ حکومت سے الگ نہیں ہونگے ۔ ملک میں نہ پہلے جمہوریت تھی نہ اب ہے جب تک حقیقی جمہوریت نہیں آتی 58ٹو بی کا اختیار صدر کے پاس رہنا چاہیے ۔اس کے خاتمے کی قرارداد آئی تو اس بارے میں سوچیں گے۔ حکومت نے ابھی تک ججز کی بحالی ‘ ڈاکٹر عبد القدیر خان کو صدر بنانے ‘دس سالہ قیمتیں واپس لانے سمیت کوئی بھی وعدہ پورا نہیں کیا ‘اب حکومت قو م سے معذرت کرے، جتنی مہنگائی ایک ماہ میں ہوئی ہے اتنی سابقہ حکومت کے پانچ سالہ دور میں بھی نہیں ہوئی اس ایک ماہ کے دوران پانچ ارب روپے کا منافع کس نے کمایاجلد قوم کو آگاہ کیا جائیگا ۔ اگر بلوچستان کے مسئلے پر ہمارے دور میں بنائی گئی کمیٹی کی 37سفارشات پر مکمل عملدرآمد کر لیا جاتا تو شاید اکبر بگٹی کی ہلاکت نہ ہوتی ۔ چیف جسٹس اور دیگر ججز کو جس طرح نکالا گیا اور اب جس طرح حکومت نے سیکرٹری خارجہ امور ریاض احمد خان کو نکالا ہے دونوں طریقے غلط ہیں ۔چوہدری شجاعت حسین نے کہا ہے کہ موجودہ حکومت نے کہا تھا کہ ہم ایک ماہ میں ججز کو بحال کر دیں گے لیکن ابھی تک ایسا نہیں ہو سکا جسکی وجہ سے قوم پریشان ہے اور ہم اسے مزید پریشان نہیں دیکھنا چاہتے ‘ اگر حکمرانوں نے ججز بحال نہ کئے تو ہم قرارداد لا کر قوم کو اس بحران سے نجات دلائینگے اور اسکا طریق کار جلد طے کر لینگے ۔ ا ہماری خواہش ہے کہ موجودہ حکومت اپنی مدت پوری کرے اور اگر نواز شریف نے حکمران اتحاد کو چھوڑ دیا تو حکومت کی حمایت کرنے یا نہ کرنے کا فیصلہ وقت آنے پر کیا جائے گا گورنر اسٹیٹ بینک نے معیشت کے متعلق جو بیان دیا ہے وہ حکومتی دباو¿ کا حصہ ہے ‘صورتحال اسکے برعکس ہے ‘ پاکستان کی معیشت مضبوط ہے ۔ جن ممالک میں مکمل جمہوریت ہوتی ہے وہاں پر 58ٹو بی کی ضرورت نہیں ہوتی لیکن پاکستان میں مکمل جمہوریت نہیں اس لئے یہ اختیار صدر کے پاس رہنا چاہیے ہم اسکے حق میں ہیں ۔ جبکہ مشاہد حسین نے کہا ہے کہ حکمران اتحاد نے وعدے کئے تھے کہ ڈاکٹر عبد القدیر کو صدر بنائینگے ‘ قیمتیں کم کریں گے اور ججز کو بحال کیا جائے گا لیکن اس پر ابھی تک عمل نہیں ہوا اور اگر حکومت ایسا نہیں کر سکتی تو قوم سے معذرت کر لے اور بتائے کہ انہیں حکومت میں آ کر پتہ چلا ہے کہ یہ سب کچھ ممکن نہیں ۔ سیکرٹری خارجہ ریاض احمد کو صرف اس وجہ سے نکالا گیا ہے کیونکہ انہوں نے بینظیر بھٹو کے قتل کی تحقیقات اقوام متحدہ سے کرانے کی مخالفت کی تھی کیونکہ یہ تحقیقات پاکستان کے مفاد میں نہیں اور اس سے بیرونی مداخلت کا ایک نیا دروازہ کھل جائے گا جو خطرناک ہو سکتا ہے ۔ ہم نے قومی اسمبلی میں بینظیر بھٹو کے قتل کی تحقیقات اقوام متحدہ سے کروانے کی حمایت اس لئے کی تھی کیونکہ بینظیر بھٹو کے قتل میں اپوزیشن لیڈر کا نام لیا جارہا تھا اوراسی وجہ سے ہم نے اسکی حمایت کی ۔ پاکستان ڈیفالٹر ہونے کی طرف نہیں جارہا اور ہمیں امید ہے کہ وزیر خزانہ قوم کو اصل حقائق بتائینگے لیکن اب معیشت کی ذمہ داری حکمرانوں پر عائد ہے ن لیگ والے پرویز مشرف کے ساتھ کھانے بھی کھاتے ہیں ‘ موسیقی بھی سنتے ہیں اور جب اتنا کچھ کرتے ہیں تو انہیں بیرونی ممالک کے دوروں پر بھی جانا چاہیے ملکی مسائل کا حل ڈنڈا یا آپریشن نہیں بلکہ مذاکرات ہیں اور ہماری حکومت نے بلوچستان کے مسائل کے حل کیلئے سفارشات بھی تیار کی تھیں لیکن ان پر مکمل عملدرآمد نہیں ہو سکا تھا‘ اب موجودہ حکومت کو چاہیے کہ وہ نئی کمیٹی کی سفارشات کیساتھ ہماری سفارشات پر بھی عمل کرے کیونکہ یہ ملک میں مفا د ہوگا ۔ چوہدری شجاعت حسین نے کہا کہ وہ ججز کی بحالی کو آئینی و قانونی نہیں سمجھتے ہم ججز کی بحالی کے مخالف نہیں ہیں بلکہ ہمارا موقف یہ ہے کہ اس بحران کو آئین اور قانون کے مطابق حل کیا جانا چاہئے اور اگر ایسا ہوتا نظر نہیں آتا تو اس بحران کو سیاسی طریقے سے حل کیا جائے۔مشاہد حسین نے کہا کہ (ن) لیگ درحقیقت ایک علاقائی جماعت ہے جس کا ملک بھر میں کوئی وجود نہ ہے اور اس وقت (ن) لیگ حکمران اتحاد سے علیحدہ ہونے کے بہانے تلاش کر رہی ہے۔ دونوں رہنماو¿ں نے کہا کہ اس ملک میں نہ تو پہلے جمہوریت ٹھیک تھی اور نہ ہی اب ٹھیک ہے ۔ انہوں نے کہا ہمارے دور میں کوئی بحران پیدا نہ ہوا اور ہم نے مہنگائی پر مکمل کنٹرول رکھا لیکن موجودہ حکومت کے برسراقتدار آنے کے بعد صرف ایک ماہ میں اتنی مہنگائی بڑھی جتنی گذشتہ پانچ سالوں میں بھی نہ بڑھی تھی۔ اس سے ظاہر ہوتا ہے کہ آئندہ آنے والا وقت عوام کے لئے کسی بڑے عذاب سے کم نہ ہوگا۔ موجودہ حکومت کو غلط بیانی کے علاوہ کوئی کام نہیں اور غلط اعدادوشمار پیش کئے جا رہے ہیں‘ایک دن آئے گا جب ورلڈ بینک کے نمائندے یہاں آکر کہیں گے کہ جو اعدادوشمار پیش کئے گئے ہیں وہ غلط ہیں۔ یہ بھی معلوم ہوا ہے کہ معزول چیف جسٹس افتخار چودھری کی طرف سے انصاف کی فراہمی کے لئے سوموٹو کے تحت اپنے خلاف ایکشن لینے پر ملک کی ”مقدس گائیں“ نئے سیاسی حکمرانوں کو اس بات پر قائل کر چکی ہیں کہ ان کے طاقتور اور ظالموں کو عدالتوں میں بلانے کے اختیارات ختم کردیئے جائیں متعدد بڑی پیشکشوں اور کوششوں کے باوجود معزول چیف جسٹس کا اس عزم پر قائم رہنا کہ وہ کرپشن اور احتساب کے اہم معاملات کے حوالے سے کسی بھی سمجھوتے کے خلاف کارروائی کریں گے، کی وجہ سے پیپلزپارٹی کے شریک چیئرمین آصف علی زرداری اور جنرل (ر) پرویزمشرف مزید پریشان ہیں اور چاہتے ہیں کہ معزول چیف جسٹس پارلیمینٹ کے اندر اور باہر بیٹھی ”مقدس گائیں“کو ہاتھ نہ لگائیں قانونی ماہرین کے مطابق معزول چیف جسٹس کو جون 2005 میں عدالت عظمیٰ کا چیف جسٹس مقرر کئے جانے کے بعد سے سپریم کورٹ کی طرف سے دیئے گئے فیصلوں کا جائزہ لیا جائے تو یہ واضح طور پر پتہ چلتا ہے کہ آصف علی زرداری اور جنرل (ر) پرویزمشرف کیوں ان سے خوفزدہ ہیں اور ان کی مدت ملازمت مختصر کرنے اور اختیارات ختم کرنے کی بھرپور کوششیں کررہے ہیں تاکہ اگر وہ بحال ہوں تو غیرفعال چیف جسٹس ہوں۔ قانونی ماہرین کے مطابق جسٹس افتخار محمد چودھری نے عام لوگوں کے بنیادی مسائل پر سوموٹو نوٹسز لئے اور ایسے مقدمات کی سماعت کے دوران بار بار اعلیٰ بیوروکریسی کو یاد کرایا کہ وہ بدعنوانی چھوڑ دیں ورنہ نتائج بھگتنے کے لئے تیار رہیں۔ جسٹس افتخار کے طاقتور اسٹبلشمنٹ کے خلاف اسی رویئے کی وجہ سے انہیں بنیادی طور پر دو بار معطل کیا گیا ان قانونی دماغوں کے مطابق شوکت عزیز حکومت ”بگ باس“ جنرل (ر) پرویزمشرف کے اہل خانہ اور دوستوں کو نوازنے اختیارات منتقل کرنے اور سہولتیں دینے کے لئے کام کررہی تھی اس کی ایک بڑی مثال معمولی قیمت پر صدر کے رشتے داروں اور دوستوں کو معمولی قیمت پر سٹیل ملز کی نجکاری ہے سٹیل ملز اور دیگر اہم قومی اثاثوں کے خریداروں میں صدر پرویز کے علاوہ موجودہ حکمرانوں کے رشتے دار اور دوست بھی شامل ہیں ان قانونی ماہرین کے مطابق یہی حقیقت جسٹس افتخار چودھری اور قوم کے لئے بدقسمتی ثابت ہوئی اور پیپلزپارٹی کے معزول چیف جسٹس کی مدت ملازم مختصر کرنے اور سوموٹو اختیارات ختم کرنے کے بارے میں سخت موقف کی وجہ بنا۔ معزول چیف جسٹس کے دور میں سپریم کورٹ نے نہ صرف عام آدمی کے بنیادی مسائل سے براہ راست تعلق رکھنے والے ایشوز پر ازخود نوٹسز لئے بلکہ ہر قسم کا دباو¿ مسترد کرکے غیرجانبدارانہ تاریخی فیصلے کئے اور اسی باعث آمریت کے غصے کو دعوت دی جسٹس افتخار محد چودھری کی طرف سے ازخود نوٹس لئے جانے والے چند مقدمات کی تفصیل درج ذیل ہے اور جو آصف علی زرداری کو معزول چیف جسٹس کے ازخود نوٹس لینے کے صوابدیدی اختیارات ختم کرنے کے لئے مجبور کر رہے ہیں۔ سپریم کورٹ نے پتنگ بازی کی وجہ سے لاہور سمیت مختلف شہروں میں مسلسل انسانی اور مالی نقصان کی وجہ سے ازخود نوٹس لیا۔ پتنگ بازی کی تقاریب میں پرویزمشرف بھی باقاعدگی سے شرکت کرتے تھے اور پتنگ اڑانے بنانے اور اس کی خرید و فروخت پر 25اکتوبر 2005 کو مکمل پابندی عائد کردی گئی۔ سپریم کورٹ نے یہ کارروائی ڈور پھرنے کے باعث متعدد انسانی ہلاکتوں کے واقعات پر ازخود نوٹس لیتے ہوئے کی اور بعض قانونی ماہرین کے خیال میں یہ پہلا بڑا کیس تھا جو حکمرانوں کے غصے کا باعث بنا۔8اکتوبر 2007ء کو معزول چیف جسٹس نے سی ڈی اے کے حکام کو اسلام آباد کے مضافات میں چک شہزادمیں ان تمام فارموں کی الاٹمنٹ منسوخ کرنے کی ہدایت کی جنہیں رہائشی مقاصد کیلئے استعمال کیا جا رہا تھا ان فارمز کو 2003ء میں بااثرشخصیات نے معمولی قیمت پر جڑواں شہروں کی سبزیوں کی ضروریات پورا کرنے کے مقاصد سے خریدا تھا۔ ان فارم ہاو¿سوں کے الاٹیوں میں صدر پرویز مشرف اور سابق وزیراعظم شوکت عزیز بھی شامل تھے اور تخمینے کے مطابق ان فارم ہاو¿سوں کی قیمت کھربوں روپے تھی جو ایک غریب قوم کے ساتھ سنگین مذاق تھا اور3 نومبر کے بعد آنیوالی عدلیہ نے جو پہلا فیصلہ کیا وہ یہ تھا کہ اس حوالے سے سپریم کورٹ کے سابق احکامات کالعدم قرار دیدیئے۔ جسٹس افتخار نے ملک بھر سے سینکڑوں لاپتہ افراد کی شکایات پر ازخود نوٹس لیا ان لاپتہ افراد کو خفیہ ایجنسیوں نے مبینہ طور پر دہشت گردانہ سرگرمیوں میں ملوث ہونے کے الزام میں اٹھایا تھا اس مقدمے کی سماعت کے دوران عدالت عظمیٰ کا یہ موقف تھا کہ یہ افراد جن کے بارے میں کوئی ٹھوس ثبوت بھی نہیں ایجنسیوں کی تحویل میں ہیں اور ان افراد کو جیل میں رکھ کر ان کے خلاف قانون کے تحت کارروائی ہونی چاہئے عدالت عظمیٰ صرف یہ چاہتی تھی کہ ایسے افراد منظر عام پر آئیں تاکہ ان کے اہل خانہ کو ان کے متعلق علم ہو سکے۔ معزول چیف جسٹس نے مشرف حکومت کے حمایت یافتہ لینڈ مافیا کے سربراہ شاہ شربیل کی طرف سے اسلام آباد کے سیکٹر ایف سیون میں کچی آبادی زبردستی خالی کرانے اور ایک پبلک پارک کو تجارتی منصوبے میں بدلنے کی کوششوں پر بھی ازخود نوٹس لیا اور جسٹس افتخار کے احکامات پر وہاں رہائشی غریب معزول چیف جسٹس اور عدالت عظمیٰ کیلئے دعا گو رہے۔ 5 اپریل 2005ء کو عدالت عظمیٰ نے سٹیٹ بینک کو صارفین کے تحفظ کے حوالے سے گائیڈ لائنز دیں جس کے نتیجے میں یوٹیلٹی بلوں کی ادائیگی کیلئے ملک بھر میں بینکوں کے باہر شیڈز بھی تعمیر کئے گئے۔ 14 اپریل 2006ء کو سپریم کورٹ نے پنجاب حکومت کو گلبرگ کے ایک پارک (ڈونگی گراو¿نڈ) کو کمرشل کرنے اور وہاں کام کرنے سے روک دیا۔ حکومت کا وہاں ایک کمپنی کو پلازہ اور سینما بنانے کی اجازت دینے کا ارادہ تھا۔ عدالت عظمیٰ نے سی ڈی اے کو اسلام آباد کے سیکٹر ایف میں ایک پبلک پارک کو گالف گراو¿نڈ میں بدلنے کے کام سے روک دیا اس منصوبے کی تکمیل سے صرف چند رئیس افراد کو فائدہ ہونا تھا جبکہ علاقے کے رہائشیوں نے بچوں کیلئے موجود واحد پارک سے محروم ہو جانا تھا۔ سپریم کورٹ نے اسلام آباد کے سیکٹر ایف نائن میں فاطمہ جناح پارک میں ایک عالمی ادارے کے ریسٹورنٹ کی تعمیر بھی رکوا دی جس سے لوگوں نے شہر کے واحد بڑے پارک کے بڑے حصے سے محروم ہو جانا تھا یہ کیس ابھی تک زیر سماعت ہے۔ یکم جون 2006ء کو سپریم کورٹ نے پیمرا کے سربراہ کو ایک آرکیڈ کا غیر قانونی قبضہ ختم کرنے کا حکم دیا پولیس قانونی مالکوں کی طرف سے شکایات درج کروانے کے باوجود خاموش تماشائی تھی۔ جولائی 2007ء میں سپریم کورٹ نے پنجاب حکومت کو بااثر لینڈ مافیا کی طرف سے لاہور میں تعمیر کی جانیوالی کثیرالمنزلہ عمارت گرانے کا بھی حکم دیا۔ 14ستمبر 2006ءکو سپریم کورٹ نے کراچی سٹی گورنمنٹ کی یہ اپیل مسترد کردی جس میں اس نے کراچی کی چھ اہم سڑکوں پر کمرشل پلاٹ بنانے کی پابندی معطل کرنے کی درخواست کی تھی سندھ حکومت نے عوام نے ججز کی بحالی میں تاخیر اور خصوصاً چیف جسٹس کی مدت ملازمت کم کرنے پر اپنے شدید تحفظات کا اظہار کیا ہے اگرچہ میاں نواز شریف نے یقین دہانی کروائی ہے کہ تمام ججز کی بحالی اعلان مری کے مطابق ہو گی اور اگر ہم قوم سے کیا گیا وعدہ پورا نہ کر سکے تو ہمیں حکومت میں رہنے کا بھی کوئی حق نہیں ہوگا ۔ ایک اخباری رپورٹ کے مطابق سٹیٹ بینک آف پاکستان کی افسر شاہی 1400 صفحات پر مشتمل وہ رپورٹ قومی اسمبلی میں پیش کرنے سے ہچکچا رہی ہے جس میں 60 ہزار بااثر سیاستدانوں، آرمی افسروں، غیر ملکی کمپنیوں اور کاروباری افراد کے نام شامل ہیں۔ ان افراد نے جنرل مشرف کے دور میں بینکوں سے 54 ارب روپے کے قرضے خاموشی سے معاف کرائے ہیں اور اس قومی لوٹ مار سے زیادہ فائدہ اٹھانے والے افراد پارلیمنٹ میں بیٹھے ہیں۔ موقع بڑا دلچسپ ہوگا جب یہ رپورٹ قومی اسمبلی میں پیش کی جائے گی کیونکہ اس لوٹ مار سے فائدہ اٹھانے والے بااثر افراد اپوزیشن بنچوں پر سب سے آگے ہوں گے۔ اس نئی صورتحال کا رسوا کن پہلو یہ ہے کہ سٹیٹ بینک نے یہی رپورٹ سپریم کورٹ میں پہلے پیش کی تھی جہاں ایک ازخود نوٹس کے تحت ملک کی مقدس گائیوں کی طرف سے لوٹ مار کیخلاف سماعت جاری تھی لیکن پارلیمنٹ میں یہی رپورٹ مختلف حیلے بہانے بنا کر پیش نہیں کی جا رہی۔ اس بات نے ان لوگوں کو حیران کردیا ہے جو ہمیشہ پارلیمنٹ کی بالادستی کی بات کرتے ہیں۔ اس معاملے کا ایک اور دلچسپ پہلو یہ ہے کہ سٹیٹ بینک اس وقت ہچکچاہٹ کا مظاہرہ کر رہا ہے جب وزارت خزانہ کا قلمدان اسحاق ڈار کے پاس ہے۔ وہ پارلیمنٹ کو بتا چکے ہیں کہ مرکزی بینک کو متعلقہ معلومات اکٹھا کرنے کیلئے مزید وقت درکار ہے۔ تاہم ایسا محسوس ہوتا ہے کہ سٹیٹ بینک کے کسی افسر نے نئے وزیر خزانہ کو نہیں بتایا کہ گزشتہ ماہ یہی رپورٹ سپریم کورٹ میں پیش کی جا چکی ہے۔ اس ہچکچاہٹ نے اور بھی بہت افسروں کو حیران کردیا ہے اور وہ یہ سوال کر رہے ہیں کہ آخر وہ کیا چیز تھی جس نے سٹیٹ بینک کو وہ رپورٹ پیش کرنے سے روک دیا جو پہلے سے ہی سپریم کورٹ میں زیر غور ہے۔

Shah Rukh not to perform at Tuesday's IPL match

Kolkata: Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, who owns the Kolkata Knight Riders, will not be performing at his team's second home match Tuesday against Mumbai Indians at Eden Gardens here.
The performance has been postponed for unavoidable circumstances, co-owner Jay Mehta, on behalf of Shah Rukh, told reporters Saturday evening."But SRK will be present at the grounds Tuesday. And if every thing goes fine he may perform at the third home match on May 8," he said.Cricket Association Of Bengal (CAB) president Prasun Mukherjee told IANS: "Red Chillies wants the dais to be dismantled. But we have not been told why Shah Rukh has refused to perform here."The cancellation of the show will, however, result in more tickets for the public."Once we remove the 48ftx40ft stage from the ground 6,000 more seats will be made available to the people," Mukherjee said.CAB officials said once the dais is removed, tickets for 4,000 seats at J-block and 2,000 seats at H, I and K blocks in the gallery will be on sale.Ticket sales for the match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians started Thursday morning at CAB ticket counters here.And from the very first day, there was unrest among people over the scarcity of tickets.CAB joint secretary Amitabha Bandopadyay told IANS: "Almost 70 percent of the tickets were sold out within a few hours Thursday itself - after all Kolkata is going to witness Sourav Ganguly batting against Sachin Tendulkar for the first time."Since Thursday, disappointed cricket-lovers have been staging demonstrations in front of the counters, accusing CAB and Red Chillies for black-marketing tickets.

Why Katrina was dropped!

Director Siddharth Anand says he knocked off the section of Bachna Ae Haseeno that was to feature Katrina Kaif because the film was getting too long. "If we had kept Katrina’s portion intact, Bachna Ae Haseeno would’ve been one of the longest films in the history of Hindi cinema - much beyond three hours," says the director, admitting it wasn’t easy breaking the news to Katrina. "Nobody had the heart to break the news to her. When she heard she was out, and was upset. But what to do?," asks the director. Poor Kat!

Savage pirates reign on the high seas

(The Guardian)

The crew of the Spanish-owned Playa de Bakio must have felt they were safe. Fishing for tuna more than 200 nautical miles off Somalia's coast last weekend, they were surely out of the pirates' range. But they had not reckoned with the 'mother ship' lurking nearby.­
A hijacked fishing trawler was now the pirates' base; it was towing their high-powered speedboat. The Playa, with 26 crew, including 13 Spaniards, was easy pickings for an experienced militia armed with AK-47s, rocket-propelled grenades, and ladders and grappling hooks to help them board the boat.­
For the second time in a fortnight Somali pirates had captured a European-registered and crewed ship, the most lucrative prize. The French luxury yacht Le Ponant which was hijacked on 5 April with 30 crew on board, netted a $2m ransom, despite the close attention of France's military. The Playa, currently floating down Somalia's east coast with a Spanish frigate on its tail, is likely to fetch at least as much when negotiations are concluded.­
The hijackings are confirmation, if any were needed, that the waters off Somalia are the most dangerous in the world. Last year, there were 31 attacks or attempted attacks there, making the notorious bandits operating in the South China Sea and Malacca Straits look almost lazy by comparison. So far this year there have been 23 attacks by Somali pirates, including the 47-day hijacking of a new, British-captained icebreaker tug, the Svitzer Korsakov, on its way from Europe through the Gulf of Aden towards the gas fields in far eastern Russia. The ransom paid for its release was reported to be $1.6m.­
It is not only the frequency of the attacks off Somalia that has maritime experts deeply worried. It is the skill and daring of the pirates, some of whom call themselves 'marines' or 'eco-warriors' and claim to be protecting the country's maritime resources from foreign exploitation.­
Until five years ago, captains were advised to stay at least 50 miles away from Somalia's coastline. A spate of hijackings led to a doubling of the safety zone. Now, the recommended safe distance is 200 miles, but the Playa attack shows even that is no guarantee of safety. With the large ransoms allowing the pirates to buy faster boats, and more sophisticated GPS systems, they can strike even in rough waters several hundred miles out to sea.­
The Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of President Abdullahi Yusuf, which is packed with former warlords, exercises little authority and claims to be unable to stop the piracy. But it is perhaps telling that during the six-month reign of the Somali Council of Islamic Courts over much of south and central Somalia in 2006, attacks on passing ships all but stopped.­
Andrew Mwangura, head of the Mombasa-based Seafarers' Assistance Programme, and one of the foremost experts on Somali piracy, says that there are five main pirate groups operating, sometimes together.­
'Most of them are linked to warlords,' he said. 'And the warlords are linked to the TFG, all the way to the top.'­
Monitoring Somalia's 1,880-mile coastline, the longest in Africa, is no simple task. For several years a joint US-European naval unit has patrolled the region, which is on the trade route between the Mediterranean, eastern Africa and Asia, in an attempt to discourage attacks and keep an eye out for terrorists. But the bandits simply shifted their bases north to the semi-autonomous Puntland region.­
One-off military operations, such as the raid in Somalia's desert by French special forces to arrest six of the pirates who had attacked Le Ponant, are ineffective deterrents, say experts. Piracy is simply too profitable.­
A gunman on a pirate ship typically earns between $10,000 and $30,000 for a year's work - a fortune in Somalia. Those bankrolling the attacks can net several million dollars from a single strike, depending on the nationality of the ship-owner, the origins and gender of the crew, the cargo and the age of the boat.­
'Once the pirates' bosses have the ship's name they immediately use the internet to research how much money they can make,' said Mwangura. 'These guys really know what they are doing.'­
Most owners pay up quickly, transferring money through a network of accounts. The crews are seldom harmed. When older, less valuable trawlers, often from Taiwan or China, are captured, the demand is not cash but the temporary use of the boat. The owners promise not to report their vessel missing, and it becomes a temporary 'mother ship'.­
Few vessels are considered off-limits. In the past, pirates have attacked a cruise liner, as well several cargo ships chartered by the UN World Food Programme containing food aid meant for Somalis.­
But as bizarre as it sounds, there is some truth in the pirates' claim that they are acting as a coastguard. Under international law, a country's 'exclusive economic zone' - the area over which it has sole rights to exploit the marine and mineral resources - extends 200 nautical miles out to sea. Foreign ships are allowed to pass through these waters, but not to fish without a permit.­
Yet at any one time there are up to 500 foreign-registered boats fishing in Somalia's rich waters, according to the Seafarers' Assistance Programme. European boats catch tuna or shrimp, vessels from the Far East catch sharks for their fins. Almost all are fishing illegally.­
Often, pirate attacks are not even reported to maritime authorities: the ransoms paid are regarded as legitimate fines, both by the pirates and the ship-owners.­
'One way to stop the piracy is to stop the illegal fishing,' said Mwangura. 'That way there will be nowhere for the pirates to hide.'

As the world begins to starve, it's time to take GM seriously

(The Guardian ­)

As front pages go, the cover of Nature is scarcely a stunner. It depicts two rows of trees facing each other across the page. One row is tatty, the other clean and healthy. And apart from a few grubby bushes in the background, that's your lot. It makes a gardening catalogue look exciting.­
But this restrained imagery rewards closer inspection. Those trees, bearing papayas, are growing in a Hawaiian plantation and the difference between the two rows has critical importance to the world's mounting food crisis.­
It transpires that the stunted trees on the right, each bearing only a handful of fruit, are victims of papaya ringspot virus, a disease that devastates yields and is endemic in Hawaii. By contrast, the papaya trees in the other row, on the left, are healthy and disease-free, because they have been genetically modified to resist ringspot.­
As a demonstration of the potential of modern plant technology, the image speaks volumes. Transgenic crops may be disparaged and dug up every time scientists grow them as part of their trials in the UK, but as Nature's cover shows, the technology seems ripe to help feed a planet whose population will rise from 6.5 billion people, many of them already hungry, to around nine billion by 2040.­
It is a point stressed by crop experts such as Professor Chris Pollack of the University of Wales. 'To stop widespread starvation, we will either have to plough up the planet's last wild places to grow more food or improve crop yields. GM technology allows farmers to do the latter - without digging up rainforests. It is therefore perverse to rule out that technology for no good reason. Yet it still seems some people are willing to do so. That picture of transgenic papaya plants on Nature's cover shows how wrong they are.'­
The trouble is that GM crops represent everything that the environment movement has come to hate, though it was not the technology itself that originally made greenies froth at the mouth. It was its promotion and marketing by international conglomerates such as Monsanto a decade ago that raised the hackles. As a result, GM crops have become a lightning rod for protests about globalisation. 'GM technology permits companies to ensure that everything we eat is owned by them,' claimed campaigner George Monbiot.­
Perhaps he is right. However, it is questionable to go one step further and insist, as some campaigners do, that because GM technology has been misused by biotechnology conglomerates, it is therefore justifiable to ignore its usefulness completely. The science can still help feed the world, particularly through the introduction of drought and disease resistance to staple crops such as potatoes and rice. 'Britain and Europe have isolated themselves from the rest of the world over transgenic crops,' says Bill McKelvey, principal of the Scottish Agricultural College, in Edinburgh. 'We have decided the technology, for no good reason, is dangerous. The rest of the world doesn't thinks so and has got on with using it. For example, GM soya is grown throughout America and Asia. It doesn't worry people there for the simple reason that no one has ever died of eating GM food. On the other hand, a lot of people could soon die because they have no food of any kind.'­
Tough luck, you might say. That's not Europe's problem. It's the developing world that will get it in the neck. Why should we care? What have we got to gain by turning to GM? These are interesting questions to which there are several answers and one of the most important concerns climate change.­
The world is warming and is destined to do so for decades to come as cars, factories and power plants continue to pump out carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. As a result, many grain-producing regions - in North America, Australia and parts of Africa - are expected to suffer significant changes in climate that will devastate crop production. By contrast, other regions - northern Europe and Canada, in particular - will find weather changes will boost crop growing. They will become the world's food stores, an issue highlighted by Professor Les Firbank of North Wyke Research Station in Devon, England.­
'Our best knowledge suggests Canada and countries in Europe will have to take on an even greater share of world food production,' he says. 'It is therefore important to ask now if we have the moral right to continue to ignore technologies, including the genetic manipulation of crops, that in a few years could insure this food production reaches an absolute maximum and will help the planet provide enough food for the nine billion people who will be living on it.'­
Britain and many other European countries have considerable expertise in plant and crop biology research, it should be stressed. But that work is constantly frustrated. Crop trials are dug up and funding is blocked by governments embarrassed to be seen backing such work. The effects are rarely beneficial. Consider the example of potato blight. Its prevalence rose rapidly last year, threatening a crop that is a staple foodstuff for many people round the world.­
Yet scientists insist it would be relatively easy to introduce a basic gene construct into potatoes that would make them resistant to blight. Europe has the expertise but is thwarted by gangs of men and women who trash GM crop fields. As Sir Robert May, the government's former chief scientific adviser, once remarked, these individuals display 'the attitude of a privileged elite who think there will be no problem feeding tomorrow's growing population'. May was speaking, with remarkable prescience, at the turn of the century.­
This is not to say that transgenic crops alone will save the world from starvation. Major improvements in transport, which will allow fresh food to be taken to market without rotting, are needed, for example. Simply bringing political stability to a country would also help. 'Zimbabwe's food problems won't be helped through GM crop technology,' admits McKelvey. 'It needs a political solution. Nevertheless, the technology has a key role to play in tackling the overall problem of global food shortages - but only if we let it.'­
That is the crucial issue. Is society ready to change its attitude to GM crops? Major companies - Debenhams is the latest - still announce GM bans, no doubt under pressure from protest groups. But given the science's growing role in helping world food shortages, such decisions should really be seen as acts of shame, not pronouncements of pride. And some scientists believe they can now detect shifts in public attitudes. 'I think we are approaching a tipping point when society will start looking at this as a science that is not going to damage the planet but actually help it,' says McKelvey.­
I hope he is right, though I am not so confident. Environmental campaigners, although they do great work, can often display remarkable intransigence. For example, they remain committed to the idea that nuclear energy has no role to play in helping to combat global warming. They react with equal scorn to GM crops. The latter is certainly not a panacea for the ills we will face. On other hand, it certainly has a role to play in helping to save people from starvation, a fact that is worth repeating now and again.­

Malaysia's new lawmakers join Parliament

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia- Malaysia's newly elected lawmakers have taken the oath of office to join the lower house of Parliament.
Led by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, the lawmakers were sworn in Monday in Dewan Rakyat or People's Chamber. It is the decision-making lower house of Parliament.
Malaysia held elections March 8 to elect the 222 members. The polls produced stunning results by giving the opposition alliance an unprecedented 82 seats.
This deprived the ruling National Front coalition of a two-thirds majority for the first time in 40 years.
For the first time, the opposition leader in Parliament is a woman Wan Azizah Wan Ismail. She is the wife of former deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. Anwar did not contest the elections.

Trains collide in China, injured in hospital

BEIJING- Two passenger trains collided in eastern China on Monday, Xinhua news agency reported, and a hospital official said injured passengers had been admitted.
The official, at the Zhoucun District People's Hospital in Zibo city, did not say how many had been injured or if there had been any deaths.
One train, en route from Beijing to eastern city of Qingdao, hit another in Zibo, in Shandong province, in the early hours, a spokesman with the Shandong provincial government was quoted as saying.
The second train was travelling between Yantai, in Shandong, and Xuzhou in the neighbouring province of Jiangsu.
The Railway Minister was on his way to the accident site, Xinhua said.
In January, a high-speed train ran through a group of maintenance workers in the dark in Shandong, killing 18 in China's worst railway accident in years.

Mexico City rattled by strong earthquake

MEXICO CITY - A strong earthquake rattled Mexico City late Sunday, sowing panic and causing some buildings to be evacuated. No injuries or damage was reported, officials said.
The National Seismological Service measured the temblor at 5.6 degrees, with its epicenter in southern Guerrero state, at a depth of 38 kilometers (24 miles).
The US Geological Survey put the eartquake at 5.8 degrees and located its epicenter at about 160 kilometers (100 miles) south of Mexico City, at a depth of 87 kilometers (54 miles).
The temblor struck at 7:06 pm (0006 GMT, Monday) and was felt for about a minute.
"We've got reports of nervous breakdowns in some housing units that were evacuated by their occupants, but there was no damage to report and fortunately there were no injuries," said Mexico City's Civil Protection service chief Elias Moreno.
Mexico state authorities also reported no damage or injuries from the quake.
Civil protection officials from Guerrero state, where the earthquake struck hardest, said there were no injuries reported but did not rule out some damage to buildings, especially in oceanside tourist center Acapulco.

Siegfried shines in new Vienna State Opera

VIENNA, Austria - Wotan’s moment of truth has been depicted thousands of times in opera houses across the world since Wagner’s Siegfried” premiered 132 years ago but probably seldom as starkly as Sunday at the Vienna State Opera.
For just a second the chief god stoops, picks up a handful of earth and sniffs at it, in a powerfully telling gesture of what is about to come: an end his rule and with it, oblivion. Ashes to ashes and dust to dust. Curtains for one era and the start of a new one.
Director Sven-Erich Bechtolf and his co-creators sprinkle similar deft touches throughout this new production of the second-to-last work in Wagner’s four-part Ring Cycle.
Bruennhilde is encased in a gauzy cocoon as she awaits the liberating kiss of Siegfried. He tears and finally cuts away the cocoon in suspense-filled minutes that build with the power of the music. Erda, the earth goddess summoned by Wotan in a last, desperate attempt to change the course of destiny, is a mayfly like ethereal figure as ageless as the earth.
The boy hero Siegfried’s fight with the dragon takes place in a huge back-projection of the malevolent eye of Fafner, the giant turned giant reptile who guards the ring that has become the bane of the gods and other mythical races that long to possess it.
The scenery is sparse but effective the stage rises on an austere cathedral-like blacksmith’s workshop, with stone-like wall elements that turn up in later scenes serving different functions. And the costumes tend to be timeless garb that fit into a setting at turns mythical and at others functional.
Occasional bold strokes are all the more effective, such as the pastiche of stuffed game densely populating the three walls encasing the forest housing the dragon’s lair.
But to make a five-hour Wagner performance (including two intermissions) a success, even the best visuals and dramatic effects have to take backstage to the music. That was the case Sunday, with stunning singing and orchestral performances that made the night fly almost.
First on the list of bravos had to be Franz Welser-Moest, conducting what sounded like the most seasoned musicians of the Vienna Philharmonic, who rotate to do second duty in the State Opera pit.
With Siegfried” the most sparkling, vivid and richly textured of the works in the Ring Cycle, Welser-Moest and his ensemble found the perfect sound for each scene, passage and phrase, skillfully blending or transmuting Wagner’s numerous leitmotivs that weave through this work.
The orchestra is alternately at its poignant best as Siegfried probes his evil dwarf stepfather about his true origins; then majestic and dignified as Wotan enters the dwarf’s home to the burnished sound of horns and cellos in his guise as The Wanderer; sinister and foreboding when the action moves near the dragon’s lair; or restless and passionate in the final minutes as Bruennhilde transforms from virginal goddess to passionate mortal in the arms of her hero, Siegfried.
And no wonder she melted. Stephen Gould’s powerful and pliant voice and his strong dramatic performance made him the ideal Siegfried in his many guises: The restless adolescent seeking his place in the world; the fearless dragon slayer and possessor of the world-ruling ring; and the conqueror of the heart of Wotan’s most fearless Valkyrie warrior daughter.
Some in the audience were overheard asking each other during the first intermission whether Gould’s vocal power would hold up for all of the evening after his powerful entry.
It did. As did Nina Stemme’s in the role of Bruennhilde.
Admittedly she had a less taxing role, singing only in the latter part of the third and final act. But then she opened up with a vengeance, almost as if to make up for not sharing the action earlier. Her lush and versatile soprano was the perfect match for Gould’s vocal skills.
Juha Uusitalo’s Wotan captured the essence of the role the almighty god caught in a spider’s web of his own making and unable to stem his approaching downfall and that of his race. His vocal skills were matched by consummate acting that is nowhere more present than in the scene where he dazedly lets himself be mocked and banged around by the upstart Siegfried, who has no idea he is abusing his grandfather.
Also very good: Herwig Pecorano as Mime, the scheming dwarf who raises Siegfried with plans failed of using him to gain possession of the ring; his brother, the malevolent Alberich; Ain Anger as Fafner, the giant turned dragon, and Anna Larsson as Erda.
Heard but not seen Ileana Tonca, as the wonderfully warbly voice of the forest bird that counsels Siegfried.
The music to Siegfried pours out of my very soul,” Wagner wrote a friend, as he sat down to write the score to this opera.
The maestro would have been pleased with Sunday’s soulful performance.

Gene therapy enables restoring some vision

WASHINGTON - An experimental gene therapy has helped restore partial vision to persons with congenital retinal disease, according to studies published Sunday in a breakthrough which provides hope for treating various eye illnesses.
In one study, clinical trials showed success on three young adults at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia who suffered from a rare and as yet incurable form of congenital blindness.
The retinal degenerations include Leber congenital amaurosis, or LCA, a group of diseases that affect light receptors in the retina beginning in early childhood and often causing total blindness in patients in their twenties or thirties.
"This result is important for the entire field of gene therapy," study leader Katherine High was quoted as saying in the New England Journal of Medicine whose website reported the findings by a collection of international doctors and scientists.
"Gene transfer has been in clinical trials for over 15 years now, and although it has an excellent safety record, examples of therapeutic effect are still relatively few," High said.
"The results in this study provide objective evidence of improvement in the ability to perceive light, and thus lay the groundwork for future studies in this and other retinal disorders."
Scientists used a genetically engineered virus known as a vector to carry a normal version of the gene known as RPE65, which is mutated in a form of LCA, to the patients via surgical procedures performed between October 2007 and January 2008.
About two weeks after the surgery all three patients, age 19, 26 and 26, reported improved vision in the injected eye, and became approximately three times more sensitive to light than in the other eye, according to study co-author Albert Auricchio from the Second University of Naples, in Italy.
"Standard vision tests showed significantly improved vision in the patients," Auricchio said.
Their vision "improved from detecting hand movements to reading lines on an eye chart," said Albert Maguire, associate professor of opthalmology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
In 2001 Maguire and his wife Jean Bennett were part of a team which reported successfully using gene therapy to reverse blindness in dogs affected by the same congenital blindness.
A separate clinical trial parralel to the Philadelphia study was conducted at Britain's University College London, also on three young adults, with one 18-year-old patient showing improved visual function.
Researchers of that study concluded that there were no major adverse effects of the so-called Adeno-Associated Virus (AAV) treatment.
"Of course, additional studies are needed in order to assess this approach fully, including the expansion of the study to include younger children, but these initial results suggest that AAV-based delivery of genes in the eye can be accomplished," said research co-author Barrie Carter, executive vice president of Targeted Genetics.

Haiti names new PM amid food crisis

PORT-AU-PRINCE - Haiti on Sunday named a new prime minister two weeks after his predecessor was ousted over rocketing food and fuel prices that sparked violent demonstrations claiming several lives.
President Rene Preval chose Ericq Pierre, 63, a respected Haitian economist with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in Washington, to be the country's prime minister, Senate President Kelly Bastien and Chamber or Deputies president Pierre-Eric Jean-Jacques told AFP.
Pierre, whose nomination must now pass a vote in parliament, would succeed former premier Jacques-Edouard Alexis, who was forced to resign on April 12 after a no-confidence vote followed food riots that killed six people and wounded around 200.
It was the first major political crisis to seize the country since Preval was elected president of the impoverished nation in February 2006, after two years of turmoil sparked by the departure of president Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
Thousands of people took to the streets around Haiti earlier this month due to the latest jump in food and fuel prices, in sometimes violent demonstrations that forced United Nations troops deployed here to intervene.
One Nigerian peacekeeper was killed in the riots and three Sri-Lankan peacekeepers were wounded.

Singapore, hit by food cost, promotes $1.50 meals

SINGAPORE - Singapore's government is advertising food stalls that offer S$2 ($1.47) meals to help people in Asia's second-richest country cope with consumer prices at a three-decade high, a newspaper reported on Monday.
The pro-government Straits Times said Singapore's Minister of State for Trade and Industry Lee Yi Shyan had launched a website (http://ekampong.com.sg/) listing food stalls that tells people "where they can find cheap, tasty food".
"The list will come in handy for Singaporeans who are in the midst of battling rising costs," the newspaper said.
Countries across Asia are grappling with higher food and energy costs and Singapore's inflation accelerated to 6.7 percent March from a year ago to a 26-year high, official data showed last week.
Economists believe inflation is close to peaking after a run-up in the past year and the government predicts that inflation will stay above 6.5 percent for the first half of the year before dipping in the second half.