Tag: InternationalNews

{{Pakistan police on Monday registered murder charges against former military ruler Pervez Musharraf in connection with the death of a radical cleric during the siege of a mosque in 2007.}}

It is the latest in a series of charges dating back to Musharraf’s 1999-2008 rule, which the retired general has faced since returning from self-imposed exile in March.

Radical cleric Abdul Rashid Ghazi was one of more than 100 people killed after Pakistani troops stormed the Red Mosque in Islamabad on July 10, 2007. Ghazi’s brother, Abdul Aziz, escaped in a burqa.

The operation opened the floodgates to a Taliban-led insurgency that has killed thousands of people in Pakistan.

“The High Court ordered Islamabad police to register murder charges against Musharraf on a petition filed by the son of Rashid Ghazi,” said Tariq Asad, a lawyer who represented Ghazi in court.

“The court ordered police to register the case earlier as well but their instructions were not followed. Today, the court made Islamabad police officials write the case inside the court room and comply with the orders right there,” he said.

Police confirmed that the charges had been registered.

“We have booked Musharraf under section 302/119 of the law, which deals with murder charges,” Qasim Niazi, a senior police official,told media.

An anti-terrorism court last month charged Musharraf with the murder of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, who died in a gun and suicide attack after a political rally in December 2007.

It was the first time a head of Pakistan’s army has been charged with a crime, challenging beliefs that the military is immune from prosecution and threatening to fan tensions with civilian institutions.

While murder will be difficult to prove, it may embolden efforts to try Musharraf for treason for seizing power in 1999 and for violating the constitution by sacking judges and imposing emergency rule in 2007. Treason can carry the death penalty.

Musharraf also faces murder accusations over the 2006 death of Baluch rebel leader Nawab Akbar Bugti.

Musharraf has been under house arrest at his plush villa on the edge of Islamabad since April.

(AFP)

{{President Barack Obama and his top aides launched a full-scale political offensive on Sunday to persuade a skeptical Congress to approve a military strike against Syria, but faced a struggle to win over lawmakers from both parties and a war-weary American public.}}

Obama made calls to members of the House of Representatives and Senate, with more scheduled for Monday, underscoring the task confronting the administration before it can go ahead with using force in response to a deadly chemical attack blamed on the Syrian government.

Dozens of lawmakers, some in tennis shirts or shirtsleeves, cut short their vacations and streamed into the corridors of the Capitol building for a Sunday afternoon intelligence briefing on Syria with Obama’s national security team.

When they emerged nearly three hours later, there was no immediate sign that the many skeptics in Congress had changed their minds. Many questioned the broad nature of the measure Obama is seeking, suggesting it needed to be narrowed.

“I am very concerned about taking America into another war against a country that hasn’t attacked us,” said Representative Janice Hahn, a California Democrat. On the way out of the briefing, she said the participants appeared “evenly divided” on whether to give Obama approval.

Most seemed convinced that Syria had engaged in chemical warfare. “The searing image of babies lined up dead, that’s what I can’t get out of my mind right now,” Democratic Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz said after the closed-door briefing.

But the credibility of the administration’s intelligence is turning out to be a less important issue than the nature and usefulness of the response.

Earlier in the day, Secretary of State John Kerry invoked the crimes of Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein and warned of a potential threat to Israel a day after Obama delayed an imminent attack on Syrian targets until after a congressional vote.

agencies

{{Taliban fighters attacked part of a U.S. military outpost in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar on Monday, officials said, less than a week after targeting a Polish base in a nearby province.}}

Attacks on Afghan security forces and civilians have also mounted this week killing dozens and adding to fears the drawdown of foreign troops, most of whom are due to leave the country by the end of next year, is allowing insurgents to regain lost territory.

The attack prompted police to shut part of a highway between the provincial capital and Torkham district near the border with Pakistan, a security source said. The base itself was not penetrated.

Three Taliban fighters were killed in the clash, but no others casualties were reported, district governor Isa Khan Zwak said.

{agencies}

{{A breakdown of US intelligence’s multi-billion dollar “black budget” has been revealed in files disclosed by leaker Edward Snowden to the Washington Post.}}

The CIA’s budget is the most expensive, $14.7bn (£9.5bn) out of $52.6bn in total for 16 intelligence agencies, according to the files.

Two of those agencies are also actively hacking into foreign computer networks, reports the Washington Post.

The US has not made public a breakdown of the total intelligence budget.

The newspaper published charts detailing the budget, but did not post all the documents, citing “sensitive details” after US officials expressed concerns about risks to methods and sources.

According to the Washington Post, the CIA’s budget has grown more than 50% since 2004.

‘Priority’ intelligence targets

The files also reportedly show the budget of the National Security Agency (NSA), America’s electronic spying organisation – it apparently requested $10.8bn for 2013, making it second only to the CIA.

Nearly $5bn of the CIA’s budget is allocated to human intelligence operations, with almost $67m of that total reserved for funding the false identities of its overseas spies, according to the files.

The CIA and the NSA have also launched “offensive cyber operations” to hack into or sabotage enemy computer networks, according to the files.

The documents reportedly refer to China, Russia, Iran, Cuba and Israel as “priority” counterintelligence targets. Israel is an American ally, though it has previously conducted espionage against the US.

The NSA is denying one part of Friday’s report – that the agency planned to investigate up to 4,000 cases of possible internal security breaches before Mr Snowden made his disclosures to the media.

{agencies}

{{The body of an Indian soldier killed in an air crash in the Himalayas 45 years ago has been recovered, the army says.}}

The remains of NCO Jagmail Singh were found on the Dhakka glacier in northern Himachal Pradesh state.

The soldier’s identity was established by an identity disk, an insurance policy and a letter found in his pocket, the spokesman said.

The army transport plane crashed in February 1968, killing all 98 soldiers on board.

Nothing more was heard from the aircraft after it made radio contact near the Rohtang pass, which links Himachal Pradesh with Indian-administered Kashmir.

According to media reports, the debris of the Antonov-12 was discovered by accident by a team on the Dhakka glacier in 2003.

Four other bodies were recovered in subsequent search missions.

The latest search operation started on 13 August.

BBC

{{A teenager has been found guilty of taking part in the fatal gang rape of a woman on a Delhi bus last year.}}

He was convicted on charges of rape and murder over the crime, committed when he was aged 17.

The teenager, who cannot be named, has been sentenced to three years in a reform facility, the maximum term possible for a juvenile.

He had denied the charges, as do four adult men also on trial for the same attack.

The victim’s mother left the court in tears, and told reporters that the teenager should be hanged.

“By not punishing this teenager, this verdict is encouraging other teenagers to indulge in such acts and does not provide any safety to girls,” she said, according to Reuters news agency.

The time that he has served in detention since his arrest will count towards his sentence, correspondents say.

The four others accused in the case could face the death penalty.

A fifth adult defendant was found dead in his cell in March and prison officials said they believed he hanged himself.

The gang rape of the 23-year-old woman last December caused uproar across India and triggered a national debate about the treatment of women.

The verdict in the case of the teenager – now aged 18 – had been deferred several times before.

wirestory

{{Russian President Vladimir Putin has challenged the US to present to the UN evidence that Syria attacked rebels with chemical weapons near Damascus.}}

Mr Putin said it would be “utter nonsense” for Syria’s government to provoke opponents with such attacks.

US President Barack Obama says he is considering military action against Syria after intelligence reports that 1,429 people were killed on 21 August.

UN weapons inspectors have left Syria after gathering evidence for four days.

They crossed into neighbouring Lebanon. They are due to go to the headquarters of the Organisation for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons in the Netherlands.

The US says hundreds of children were among those killed in the suspected chemical weapons attacks, which the US says was carried out by the Syrian government.

Syria said the US claim was “full of lies”, blaming rebels for the attacks.

US President Barack Obama Obama said on Friday the US was planning a “limited, narrow” military response that would not involve “boots on the ground”.

The inspectors’ departure from Syria removes both a practical and a political obstacle to the launch of US-led military action, correspondents say.

BBC