Monthly archive

Mohammad AsifThe committee constituted by Pakistan Cricket Board for investigating the Dubai detention of Mohammad Asif on charges of possessing illegal drugs ordered the fast bowler Monday to appear before its panel on June 1. The 27-year-old paceman was stopped at Dubai airport on June 1, 2008 found in possession of 0.24 grams of opium while he was travelling back to Pakistan after playing in the Indian Premier League (IPL). He was detained for 19 days before being deported after Dubai police determined that the quantity of drug was insufficient to make a case. The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) formed a three-member committee to probe the case before deciding whether to select the fast bowler for the national team.

By Farzana Shah-Asian Tribune Correspondent in Pakistan

Interior Minister Rehman Malik earlier said more than 700 militants were killed in Swat in the last four days. 'The operation will continue until the last Talib,' Malik said here on Monday. 'We haven't given them a chance. They are on the run. They were not expecting such an offensive.' Malik said the government was providing sufficient funds to help the displaced Pakistanis, and brushed aside fears that militants would try to infiltrate relief camps.

By Wajid Ali Syed – Washington Correspondent for Asian Tribune

UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres today appealed for international solidarity in support of hundreds of thousands of displaced Pakistani civilians and announced a UNHCR airlift to rush tonnes of additional humanitarian supplies to the north-west of the country. The agency already has a large operation in Pakistan, in a press statement said "the total number of displaced Pakistanis registered by authorities with UNHCR help since May 2 has now reached more than 360,000 people."

By Janaka Alahapperuma from London

Nearly 40 pro Tamil Tiger protesters have been arrested so far by London Metropolitan Police on Monday afternoon (11th May) at the illegal demonstration in front of the British Parliament. Traffic in Central London near Westminster came to a standstill as few hundreds of Tamil Tiger supporters staged an unauthorized sit-in around the Houses of Parliament. Around 300-400 Tamil supporters calling for an immediate ceasefire in Sri Lanka pushed past police lines in Parliament Square which is a high security zone and banned area for any kind of unauthorised events since 2005.

A teacher who taught mathematics till her 91st year passed away recently. She was Mrs. Gnanie Nalliah, formerly of Chundikuli Girls’ College, Jaffna, where she taught continuously for 26 years. She retired in 1975 and moved to Colombo where she taught maths to students sitting for the GCE O Level examination. Born on February 4, 1918 to Thunnalai, a quiet village in Jaffna . Gnanie had her early education in the village school before she joined Vembadi Girls’ High School, Jaffna as a boarder. Her father was a successful lawyer who died when she was still a student at Vembadi. After his death it was her elder brother who looked after the family. But she had to drop out of school at Grade 9 when her elder sister got married.

In a joint press encounter held yesterday on Sri Lanka, Foreign Ministers of United Kingdom and , France and also the Federal Minister of European and International Affairs of Austria were in New York to answer questions on Sri Lanka. David Miliband, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs of the UK in his opening address at the Media stakeout after being rebuffed when some UN Security Council members refused their request to discuss the fighting in Sri Lanka, said on Monday, "We are determined to follow this up with the Sri Lankan authorities as a matter of the utmost urgency since it goes directly contrary to the commitments that were made, Foreign Minister Kouchner and I when we in Sri Lanka. In respect of the situation in the IDP camps, this remains a major concern; there is enormous strain on the civilians in the IDP camps."

Daya Gamage – US National Correspondent Asian Tribune

Aung San Suu KyiThe United Stated Government expressed deep concern about reports reaching here from Myanmar (Burma) that Pro-Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, 19 years under house arrest by military junta, has been prevented from receiving immediate medical care from her personal physician. It was disclosed that her personal physician himself has been detained by the military regime denying him to attend to Suu Kyi. Tin Myo Win has been detained since last week on unspecified charges and the physician's assistant, Pyone Moe Ei, was refused access over the weekend. The 63-year-old Nobel laureate was placed on an intravenous drip at her house on Friday because she cannot eat, has low blood pressure and is dehydrated.

By Asif Haroon Raja

The US has all along treated Pakistan as an enemy and not an ally. Whatever gestures of friendship were fake and only meant to serve its regional interests at the cost of Pakistan. Its real strategic ally is India and not Pakistan. While it went out of the way to make India shining, which has not shed a drop of blood in war on terror, Pakistan was handed over a paltry amount of $10.5 billion and that too has pinched US leaders hugely despite knowing that Pakistan lost over $35 billion in this futile war, lost nearly 2000 soldiers and officers and injury to thousands, nearly 12000 civilians got killed in the firefight, lacs of people got displaced, half of Pakistan is engulfed in insurgency and whole country has got deeply traumatized and socially affected. Drones alone have killed over 1400 innocent civilians.