 CHATOSPHERE
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Musharraf: I am determined to lift the emergency
November 29, 2007
Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has promised to lift a state of emergency by Dec. 16 and restore the constitution before January elections, a key demand of his domestic opponents and foreign backers, The Associated Press reported.
In a televised speech hours after taking the oath of office, Musharraf also urged former prime ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif — his two rivals for power who recently returned from exile — not to boycott the Jan. 8 parliamentary elections.
He said "a level playing field" has been given to their parties, and they and others should "participate fully," the AP said.
However, he struck an uncompromising tone when insisting that the elections would go on without them, if necessary. "No one will be allowed to destabilize this democratic process or to create hurdles in its way," he said.
"I am determined to lift the emergency by Dec. 16," Musharraf said in his speech. "The elections, God willing, will be held free and transparent under the constitution."
Musharraf imposed emergency rule Nov. 3, casting Pakistan into a deep crisis that raised Western fears for the stability of a nuclear-armed country struggling to turn a rising tide of Islamic militancy.
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Police: Phone card wasn't found at blast site
July 21, 2007
Australian police have admitted the crucial evidence against Indian doctor Mohamed Haneef, a suspect in the Britain bombing plot, is incorrect, the Press Trust of India reported.
Reports had earlier stated the the doctor's cell phone card had been found at the scene of the Glasgow airport blast. It had not been confirmed the card was found at the scene, as prosecutors alleged during the terror suspect's bail hearing last weekend, federal police sources were quoted as saying.
The revelation has cast doubts over handling of the Haneef case by the Australian Federal Police, the Press Trust of India reported.
The SIM card, the smart card in mobile phones, was found in the possession of one of Haneef's cousins, Sabeel Ahmed, in Liverpool, hundreds of kilometres away from the failed Glasgow bombing, PTI said.
No official attempt has been made to correct the public record, despite police sources telling Fairfax they had been aware of the error for some time, according to The Australian on Saturday.
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Pakistan court: Judge's suspension illegal
July 21, 2007
Pakistan’s Supreme Court ruled Friday that the suspension of the country’s chief justice earlier this year by President Gen. Pervez Musharraf was illegal, The New York Times said.
The decision, which reinstated the chief justice, was another blow to Musharraf, who finds himself increasingly beset by Islamic militants and pro-democracy opponents as intelligence agencies in the United States lose confidence in his ability to root out militants from Al Qaeda and the Taliban, the Times said.
General Musharraf’s critics had accused him of dismissing the chief justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, so as to install someone more likely to bend to his authority as the general was expected to face critical legal challenges this year to his continued rule as president and army chief of staff, the times said.
The chief justice surprised many, including General Musharraf, by challenging his dismissal, turning a pre-emptive move by the president into a watershed for the nation, the report said.
No sooner had the verdict been read out late Friday afternoon and the 13-member bench filed out, than Courtroom No. 1, packed full, exploded into revelry, the report said. Supporters poured out of the courtroom, quivering with delight. “Mubarak,” they said to one another, the report said.
“It’s a big blow to the Musharraf regime,” Ahsan was quoted as saying afterward as he milled with supporters in the backyard of Chaudhry’s house. “It’s a big blow to dictatorship.”
There was no comment on Friday from Musharraf, though the office of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz promptly issued a statement saying all Pakistanis ought to “accept the verdict with grace and dignity reflective of a mature nation,” the Times said.
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India elects first female president
July 21, 2007
India elected Pratibha Patil as the country’s first female president Saturday, The Associated Press reported.
Patil received 65.82 percent of the votes cast by national lawmakers and state legislators, Election Commission head P.D.T. Achary was quoted as saying. Patil had been widely expected to win, the AP said.
Patil, the 72-year-old candidate of the governing Congress party and its political allies, defeated incumbent Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, the candidate of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party.
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Bail delayed for couple accused of slavery
July 14, 2007
A federal judge has once again put the brakes on bail for the wealthy couple accused of forcing two Indonesian housekeepers to serve as their slaves, The Associated Press reported.
U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Platt -- who initially denied bail for the couple but was overruled by an appeals court -- said Friday he wasn't satisfied with plans for security guards to monitor the suspects' Muttontown mansion and other conditions intended to assure that the two don't flee, the report said.
"What has been done so far is not satisfactory," Platt was quoted as saying.
Varsha Mahender Sabhnani, 35, and her husband, Mahender Murlidhar Sabhnani, 51, have been held without bail since they were arrested in May on federal charges of forced labor and harboring undocumented immigrants, the report said.
Prosecutors have said the couple held the housekeepers from 2002 to 2007 as virtual slaves, denying them freedom of movement, subjecting them to serious physical abuse and paying them no wages except for $100 a month sent to relatives abroad, the AP said. Through lawyers, the Sabhnanis have denied the charges.
Early on, Platt indicated he might release the couple on $3.5 million bail if attorneys could agree on conditions of house arrest, the report said. But he denied bail after concluding the Sabhnanis posed a flight risk.
Varsha Sabhnani is originally from Indonesia, and her husband is from India; both are U.S. citizens. Prosecutors have argued the Sabhnanis could have a strong motive to flee, noting that the charges carry prison terms of up to 40 years upon conviction, the report said.
Defense lawyers have contended that high bail and electronic monitoring could guarantee the Sabhnanis' appearance in court.
The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said Monday that appropriate bail release orders should be executed. The appeals court returned the case to Platt to formally set bail and order the release, the AP said.
Platt said Friday he was not yet ready to do that. He took issue with a proposal from the Sabhnanis that would let a security firm -- rather than the judge -- determine how many guards would keep tabs on the couple and whether the monitors would be armed, the report said.
The judge also said proposals on monitoring the Sabhnanis' computer and screening visitors to their home weren't clear, and he called for an accountant to review the couple's finances, the AP said.
Platt asked federal prosecutors and the Sabhnanis' lawyers to complete the bail plans, and one of the couple's attorneys pledged to do so.
"We're going to work with the prosecutors to insure that the Sabhnanis get out as soon as possible," the lawyer, Jeffrey Hoffman, said after the court hearing, according to the AP.
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Indian proposal seeks registration of pregnancies
July 14, 2007
Indian women would be required to register their pregnancies and seek government permission for abortions under a proposal intended to curb abortions of female fetuses in the country, news reports said.
“This will help to check both feticide and infant mortality,” Renuka Chowdhury, women and child development minister, was quoted as saying. “With this, mysterious abortions will become difficult.”
Chowdhury told The Hindustan Times that women will only be allowed to have an abortion when there is a “valid and acceptable reason,” but she did not elaborate.
Women’s rights activists have objected to the plan as a violation of privacy.
“It can lead to too much intrusion on somebody’s private life,” Ranjan Kumari, president of a group of women’s non-governmental organizations called Women PowerConnect, told The Hindustan Times. “It will also be very difficult to obtain such data. Whether such a thing will be possible in a democracy, I doubt.”
A Times of India editorial Saturday entitled “Abort the silly proposal” derided it as “ridiculous,” saying fetal gender screening is already a criminal offense that is not strictly enforced.
“In the name of protecting the girl child, the state must not fall into the trap of disempowering women,” the editorial said.
Abortions have been legal in India since 1971 and gender-based abortions have been illegal since 1994, The Associated Press reported.
Last year, a study by The Lancet, a British medical journal, reported up to 500,000 female fetuses are aborted each year in India, leading to the birth of nearly 10 million fewer girls over the past two decades, the AP said. Also last year, a UNICEF report estimated 7,000 Indian girls go unborn each day.
India’s latest census data shows that the preference for boys has skewed the gender ratio in the population of more than 1.1 billion people, the AP said Experts say that sex-selective abortions reduced the number of girls per 1,000 boys from 945 in 1991 to 927 in 2001.
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Indian doctor in Britain is charged in terror plot
July 14, 2007
A day after police in Australia charged an Indian doctor in connection with the terror plot in U.K., British authorities brought charges against another Indian physician, news reports said.
Dr. Mohammed Haneef was charged with “intentionally providing resources” to a terrorist organization in Australia, The New York Times reported. Dr. Sabeel Ahmed, a distant cousin of Haneef's, was charged in Britain with a terrorism offense, The Associated Press reported.
Ahmed, of Liverpool, became the third person to face charges in the alleged plot, the AP said. Iraqi-trained doctor Bilal Abdulla, 27, was charged Britain last week with conspiring to cause explosions, Reuters said.
Ahmed was charged with withholding information that could prevent an act of terrorism, police said in a statement, according to the AP. Ahmed appears in court in London on Monday.
In a sign of the heightened tension across the country, police said Saturday they had closed at least 14 Tesco supermarkets across Britain following a series of threats, the AP said. However, they said the incidents were not believed to be related to terrorism.
Police in Hertfordshire, where Britain’s largest supermarket has its headquarters, said the decision was “a precaution for public safety,” the report said. Tesco said police were investigating a number of incidents, but declined to comment further.
Ahmed, 26, was arrested June 30 in Liverpool, and is the brother of Kafeel Ahmed, who is believed to have set himself ablaze after crashing into the airport and is in a Scottish hospital with critical burns. Kafeel Ahmed, 28, has not been charged.
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Doctor in Australia is charged in terror plot
July 14, 2007
The authorities in Australia have charged an Indian doctor there in connection with the recent failed bombings in London and Glasgow, according to his lawyer.
The doctor, Mohammed Haneef, has been charged with “intentionally providing resources” to a terrorist organization, which the authorities define as including two brothers, Dr. Sabeel Ahmed and Kafeel Ahmed, according to Haneef’s lawyer, Peter Russo, who spoke to The New York Times in a telephone interview from Brisbane. “Resources” refers to a cell phone card, according to the charge sheet.
Haneef was detained by the Australian police after his SIM card was found in the possession of Sabeel Ahmed, according to an Australian police affidavit, which was provided to the Times, the report said.
After being detained, Haneef voluntarily submitted to a six-hour taped interview, the report said. He said that he had given his SIM card to Ahmed one year ago, in July 2006, when he was leaving Britain, where he had been studying, the report said.
The charge does not name any terrorist organization, and does not say Haneef knew he was giving his SIM card to any organization, the report said. He is charged with “being reckless as to whether the organization was a terrorist organization,” Russo said.
“It’s pretty distressing,” he told the Times.
Haneef is due to appear in court on Saturday to answer the charge.
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 India's Ambassador to the U.S. Ronan Sen, right, chatting with, from left, publisher of
The Indian American Dr.Sudhir M. Parikh, NJ Assemblyman Upendra J. Chivukula, Ambassador
Vijay Nambiar, chairman of Cinemay Media Group Sunil Hali, during Cinemaya Media Group's
Indian American Achiever Awards function in Washington, D.C.
Photo: Mohammed Jaffer/SnapsIndia
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By Nirupama Rao
With a visible sense of relief The Washington Post declared: "American Idol" voters spoke and in a great cosmic correction threw Sanjaya off the show last night. There were no audible boos from the live audience. Only cheers. It was time for Sanjaya to go. Do a little dance, make a little love, get down tonight! Sanjaya, buh-bye!
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AND NOW you may kiss the bride.” These are words you never expect to hear at an Indian wedding.
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INSIDE the dancer’s studio, one young girl stands out.
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The bottomline is that you can’t take the Indian out of an Indian American man, according to women who are independent, intelligent and Indian, Geetanjali Sen reports.
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