KARACHI: A Saudi diplomat was shot dead in a drive-by shooting near the consulate in Karachi on Monday, the second attack on Saudi interests in Pakistan’s biggest city in less than a week, officials said.
An official from the media section of the Saudi embassy identified the man as a Saudi diplomat. Another official from the embassy earlier identified him as a security official working for the consulate in Karachi.
Pakistani police in Karachi told AFP that the Saudi had been driving in a vehicle with diplomatic plates when two motorcycle riders opened fire at a crossroads in the city’s upmarket Defence neighbourhood.
“The consulate employee died of multiple bullet wounds on the spot,” said Fayaaz Leghari, the police chief of southern province Sindh, of which Karachi is the capital.
“The attackers fled on the motorbike,” he added.
Provincial home ministry official Sharfuddin Memon identified the dead man as a junior officer at the consulate.
“We are investigating if it was linked to the Abbottabad operation or was an isolated incident,” he said in reference to the killing by US Navy SEALs of the Saudi-born al-Qaeda mastermind in the garrison city of Abbottabad on May 2.
Last Wednesday, drive-by assailants threw two grenades at the consulate in Karachi in what officials said could have been reaction to bin Laden’s death.
Sunday, 15 May 2011
Japan’s nuclear crisis timetable on track: PM
TOKYO: Japan said Monday it was still on target to achieve the shutdown of damaged reactors at a crippled nuclear plant by around the year-end, despite damage being worse than earlier thought.
“We will manage to continue working without changing the timeline prospects of putting (the reactors) in to a state of cold shutdown in six to nine months” from April 17, Prime Minister Naoto Kan said in parliament.
Kan was referring to the “roadmap” that Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) announced on April 17 to bring closure to the world’s worst atomic crisis in 25 years, sparked by the March 11 tsunami which hit its Fukushima Daiichi plant.
The premier’s pledge came despite the abandonment of the latest attempt to cool the number one reactor at the plant by filling the containment chamber with water.
TEPCO said that around 3,000 tons of highly radioactive contaminated waste water had leaked through holes created by melted fuel into the reactor basement, forcing officials to think of ways to pump it out and process it.
Nine weeks after the disaster, TEPCO last week gave a snapshot of the stricken plant that confirmed experts’ fears, in which it said fuel rods inside reactor one had been fully exposed to the air and had melted.
TEPCO said the fuel started melting just five hours after the quake and most of it had fallen into the bottom of the reactor’s pressure vessel 16 hours after the earthquake and tsunami that has left 25,000 dead or missing.
But it has also said that relatively low temperatures indicated that the fuel is now submerged under water at the bottom of the vessel, preventing it from going into full meltdown.
TEPCO has targeted cold shutdowns of all four damaged reactors at the Fukushima plant between October and January.
The company is to release a review of the roadmap on Tuesday, one month after the announcement of the plan.
Also on Tuesday the government will issue a timeframe detailing when evacuated residents near the plant will be able to return home, Kan said.
More than 80,000 people have been forced from homes, farms and businesses in a 20-kilometre (12-mile) zone around the plant that has leaked radiation into the air, ground and sea.
The power company faces compensation payments worth tens of billions of dollars for victims of the world’s worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl a quarter of a century ago.
TEPCO and the government have yet to release estimates for the payout bill, but analysts say it could range from four trillion yen (dollar 50 billion) to 10 trillion yen depending on how long the nuclear crisis lasts.
“We will manage to continue working without changing the timeline prospects of putting (the reactors) in to a state of cold shutdown in six to nine months” from April 17, Prime Minister Naoto Kan said in parliament.
Kan was referring to the “roadmap” that Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) announced on April 17 to bring closure to the world’s worst atomic crisis in 25 years, sparked by the March 11 tsunami which hit its Fukushima Daiichi plant.
The premier’s pledge came despite the abandonment of the latest attempt to cool the number one reactor at the plant by filling the containment chamber with water.
TEPCO said that around 3,000 tons of highly radioactive contaminated waste water had leaked through holes created by melted fuel into the reactor basement, forcing officials to think of ways to pump it out and process it.
Nine weeks after the disaster, TEPCO last week gave a snapshot of the stricken plant that confirmed experts’ fears, in which it said fuel rods inside reactor one had been fully exposed to the air and had melted.
TEPCO said the fuel started melting just five hours after the quake and most of it had fallen into the bottom of the reactor’s pressure vessel 16 hours after the earthquake and tsunami that has left 25,000 dead or missing.
But it has also said that relatively low temperatures indicated that the fuel is now submerged under water at the bottom of the vessel, preventing it from going into full meltdown.
TEPCO has targeted cold shutdowns of all four damaged reactors at the Fukushima plant between October and January.
The company is to release a review of the roadmap on Tuesday, one month after the announcement of the plan.
Also on Tuesday the government will issue a timeframe detailing when evacuated residents near the plant will be able to return home, Kan said.
More than 80,000 people have been forced from homes, farms and businesses in a 20-kilometre (12-mile) zone around the plant that has leaked radiation into the air, ground and sea.
The power company faces compensation payments worth tens of billions of dollars for victims of the world’s worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl a quarter of a century ago.
TEPCO and the government have yet to release estimates for the payout bill, but analysts say it could range from four trillion yen (dollar 50 billion) to 10 trillion yen depending on how long the nuclear crisis lasts.
Twenty-seven killed in Guatemala massacre
GUATEMALA CITY: At least 27 people were found dead in a Guatemalan village near the border with Mexico Sunday morning in one of the worst mass killings in the country in a generation, local police said.
The bloody incident started when raiders attacked the small town of Caserio La Bomba about 275 miles north of the capital, police said.
Two women were among the victims of the attack, said police, who were trying to determine the exact time of the attack and searching for more bodies. Many of the victims were shot and beheaded, police said.
“This is the worst massacre we have seen in modern times,” police spokesman Donald Gonzalez told Reuters, saying it was hard to remember a mass killing on this scale since Guatemala’s 36-year civil war ended in 1996.
Police said the slayings could be linked to the Saturday slaying of 56-year-old Haroldo Waldemar Leon, the brother of suspected drug trafficker Juan Jose Leon, who was gunned down in a rural area of northern Guatemala.
Jose Leon was wanted by the US Drug Enforcement Administration when he was killed in a 2008 attack that involved 30 men ambushing his home. Ten other people were killed in the gun battle.
Police linked Jose Leon’s killing to the powerful Mexican drug cartel, Las Zetas. Guatemala’s northern border is an active drug transfer point for cocaine moving north from South America.
The bloody incident started when raiders attacked the small town of Caserio La Bomba about 275 miles north of the capital, police said.
Two women were among the victims of the attack, said police, who were trying to determine the exact time of the attack and searching for more bodies. Many of the victims were shot and beheaded, police said.
“This is the worst massacre we have seen in modern times,” police spokesman Donald Gonzalez told Reuters, saying it was hard to remember a mass killing on this scale since Guatemala’s 36-year civil war ended in 1996.
Police said the slayings could be linked to the Saturday slaying of 56-year-old Haroldo Waldemar Leon, the brother of suspected drug trafficker Juan Jose Leon, who was gunned down in a rural area of northern Guatemala.
Jose Leon was wanted by the US Drug Enforcement Administration when he was killed in a 2008 attack that involved 30 men ambushing his home. Ten other people were killed in the gun battle.
Police linked Jose Leon’s killing to the powerful Mexican drug cartel, Las Zetas. Guatemala’s northern border is an active drug transfer point for cocaine moving north from South America.
US Defense Sec’y was unsure of bin Laden raid intel
WASHINGTON: Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he did not have full confidence in the underlying intelligence when US Navy SEALs were conducting the raid on al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan.
“I was very concerned, frankly,” he said in an interview on “60 Minutes” that aired Sunday on CBS.
“I had real reservations about the intelligence. My worry was the level of uncertainty about whether bin Laden was even in the compound,” he said.
“There wasn’t any direct evidence that he was there. It was all circumstantial. But it was the best — information that we had — since probably 2001,” Gates said.
The decision to go ahead with the raid by President Barack Obama was “one of the most courageous calls” a president has made, given the uncertainty of the intelligence and the riskiness of the operation, he said.
Gates admits to a case of nerves while watching the raid in real time with the president and other officials in the White House situation room.
“I think like the rest, I was just transfixed. And, of course, my heart went to my mouth when the helicopter — landed in the — courtyard, because I knew that wasn’t part of the plan. But these guys were just amazing,” he said.
Gates said it was “premature” to say whether bin Laden’s death could accelerate US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, but added that the war could turn the corner by the end of this year “and more troops could come home.” – Reuters
“I was very concerned, frankly,” he said in an interview on “60 Minutes” that aired Sunday on CBS.
“I had real reservations about the intelligence. My worry was the level of uncertainty about whether bin Laden was even in the compound,” he said.
“There wasn’t any direct evidence that he was there. It was all circumstantial. But it was the best — information that we had — since probably 2001,” Gates said.
The decision to go ahead with the raid by President Barack Obama was “one of the most courageous calls” a president has made, given the uncertainty of the intelligence and the riskiness of the operation, he said.
Gates admits to a case of nerves while watching the raid in real time with the president and other officials in the White House situation room.
“I think like the rest, I was just transfixed. And, of course, my heart went to my mouth when the helicopter — landed in the — courtyard, because I knew that wasn’t part of the plan. But these guys were just amazing,” he said.
Gates said it was “premature” to say whether bin Laden’s death could accelerate US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, but added that the war could turn the corner by the end of this year “and more troops could come home.” – Reuters
India’s politician of love
CHENNAI: Kumar Sri Sri wants to bring a bit of love to India’s parliament.
Even in a democracy known for its political diversity, the 35-year-old part-time make-up artist stands out as founder and leader of one of the country’s unlikeliest political groups, the All India Lovers Party (ILP).
Motivated by the prejudices he had to overcome to marry his own wife, Kumar created the ILP in 2008 to support couples who wish to marry despite parental disapproval over differences in caste, religion, and social rank.
Those who stray outside the norm can end up estranged from their parents or, in the worst cases, as victims of “honour killings” carried out by outraged relatives to protect what they see as the family’s reputation and pride.
The ILP’s political platform demands affirmative action in the workplace, as well as free housing and childcare for couples living without family support.
Sitting in the party HQ, a small room papered with political posters in Chennai, the state capital of Tamil Nadu, he boasted how he had helped 25 couples get married in the last three years.
“My goal is that we must get at least 10 people from the party in the national parliament by 2014,” said Kumar, who has an unashamed desire for lasting fame.
“Even after I die, my name should be known, for creating the All India Lovers Party,” he told AFP.
Kumar first tried to make a splash as a movie star.
After dropping out of school in 1989, he headed to Chennai, home to India’s massive Tamil film industry, where he struggled to break into a business where connections count for everything.
“When I left my village I had told everyone I will either come back as a big star, or I won’t return,” he said.
He worked as a waiter in a diner and a video store clerk before finally landing a job in the film studios, as a junior make-up artist.
It was at this time that he met his future wife, Mangadevi, a make-up assistant whose father was a tailor on the film sets.
Laughing, Mangadevi recalls how Kumar “would come by, talk to my father, and leave. Then one day he told me, ‘I love you’.” The couple dated for nearly a decade while they worked and tried to win over Kumar’s parents, who wanted their son to marry someone wealthy.
“My parents wanted a girl who would come with a hefty dowry, maybe 200,000 ($4,500) or 500,000 rupees,” he explained.
Unable to secure his parents’ support, the couple eventually went ahead and got married without telling Kumar’s family.
“It made me realise all the problems lovers face, because their families want them to marry according to caste and money,” Kumar said.
“People laughed when I told them I wanted to create a party for lovers, but I know there are millions of lovers in this country who will vote for me.” The ILP has around 20 volunteers who help paste posters and hand out leaflets, and Kumar claims a 100,000-strong following, although his survey techniques are questionable.
“I know because they call and talk to me. I get at least 15-20 calls a day from people who want to support the party,” he said.
His salary from his two jobs, as a make-up artist and a neighbourhood milkman, pays for the ILP’s running costs.
The party logo is a heart pierced by Cupid’s arrow and, just in case the meaning still isn’t clear, the heart is filled with an image of the world’s most famous monument to love, the Taj Mahal.
A few months after he launched the party, Kumar met Lakshmi, 23, and Srinivasan, 36 — his first success story.
The Chennai-based couple fell in love while working in the same clothing shop, but Srinivasan’s parents objected, citing the vast difference in their social backgrounds.
His father held a coveted government job, working for the railways, while her father was a poor labourer.
Seeing Kumar’s posters around town, Lakshmi’s father got in contact and asked him for help, after which Kumar arranged a meeting with both sets of parents.
“I told them, don’t worry about money, they are both young and they can work hard and make money,” he said.
The couple married in August 2008, with grudging consent from Srinivasan’s parents.
“If we hadn’t met Kumar Sri Sri and we weren’t married now, I can’t imagine how unhappy I would have been,” Lakshmi said.
But not everyone is enamoured of Kumar’s politics.
The conservative Hindu Makkal Katchi (HMK) party has campaigned against the ILP, objecting in particular to Kumar’s support for Valentine’s Day.
“It’s against our tradition, it’s against our culture, it’s trying to spoil the family system of our nation,” said HMK organising secretary Thomas Kannan.
“We want to nip it in the bud, these type of people,” he said.
It is clearly going to be some time before Kumar’s ambition flowers into political success.
When the ballots were counted Friday in Tamil Nadu’s state election, Kumar had only managed a couple of hundred votes and lost his deposit in the Chennai constituency he contested.
But his enthusiasm was undimmed.
“No problem! It’s my first election, there are many ahead of me.
“One thing I know for sure though is that without love there can be no success. Without love you can’t do anything,” he said. – AFP
Even in a democracy known for its political diversity, the 35-year-old part-time make-up artist stands out as founder and leader of one of the country’s unlikeliest political groups, the All India Lovers Party (ILP).
Motivated by the prejudices he had to overcome to marry his own wife, Kumar created the ILP in 2008 to support couples who wish to marry despite parental disapproval over differences in caste, religion, and social rank.
Those who stray outside the norm can end up estranged from their parents or, in the worst cases, as victims of “honour killings” carried out by outraged relatives to protect what they see as the family’s reputation and pride.
The ILP’s political platform demands affirmative action in the workplace, as well as free housing and childcare for couples living without family support.
Sitting in the party HQ, a small room papered with political posters in Chennai, the state capital of Tamil Nadu, he boasted how he had helped 25 couples get married in the last three years.
“My goal is that we must get at least 10 people from the party in the national parliament by 2014,” said Kumar, who has an unashamed desire for lasting fame.
“Even after I die, my name should be known, for creating the All India Lovers Party,” he told AFP.
Kumar first tried to make a splash as a movie star.
After dropping out of school in 1989, he headed to Chennai, home to India’s massive Tamil film industry, where he struggled to break into a business where connections count for everything.
“When I left my village I had told everyone I will either come back as a big star, or I won’t return,” he said.
He worked as a waiter in a diner and a video store clerk before finally landing a job in the film studios, as a junior make-up artist.
It was at this time that he met his future wife, Mangadevi, a make-up assistant whose father was a tailor on the film sets.
Laughing, Mangadevi recalls how Kumar “would come by, talk to my father, and leave. Then one day he told me, ‘I love you’.” The couple dated for nearly a decade while they worked and tried to win over Kumar’s parents, who wanted their son to marry someone wealthy.
“My parents wanted a girl who would come with a hefty dowry, maybe 200,000 ($4,500) or 500,000 rupees,” he explained.
Unable to secure his parents’ support, the couple eventually went ahead and got married without telling Kumar’s family.
“It made me realise all the problems lovers face, because their families want them to marry according to caste and money,” Kumar said.
“People laughed when I told them I wanted to create a party for lovers, but I know there are millions of lovers in this country who will vote for me.” The ILP has around 20 volunteers who help paste posters and hand out leaflets, and Kumar claims a 100,000-strong following, although his survey techniques are questionable.
“I know because they call and talk to me. I get at least 15-20 calls a day from people who want to support the party,” he said.
His salary from his two jobs, as a make-up artist and a neighbourhood milkman, pays for the ILP’s running costs.
The party logo is a heart pierced by Cupid’s arrow and, just in case the meaning still isn’t clear, the heart is filled with an image of the world’s most famous monument to love, the Taj Mahal.
A few months after he launched the party, Kumar met Lakshmi, 23, and Srinivasan, 36 — his first success story.
The Chennai-based couple fell in love while working in the same clothing shop, but Srinivasan’s parents objected, citing the vast difference in their social backgrounds.
His father held a coveted government job, working for the railways, while her father was a poor labourer.
Seeing Kumar’s posters around town, Lakshmi’s father got in contact and asked him for help, after which Kumar arranged a meeting with both sets of parents.
“I told them, don’t worry about money, they are both young and they can work hard and make money,” he said.
The couple married in August 2008, with grudging consent from Srinivasan’s parents.
“If we hadn’t met Kumar Sri Sri and we weren’t married now, I can’t imagine how unhappy I would have been,” Lakshmi said.
But not everyone is enamoured of Kumar’s politics.
The conservative Hindu Makkal Katchi (HMK) party has campaigned against the ILP, objecting in particular to Kumar’s support for Valentine’s Day.
“It’s against our tradition, it’s against our culture, it’s trying to spoil the family system of our nation,” said HMK organising secretary Thomas Kannan.
“We want to nip it in the bud, these type of people,” he said.
It is clearly going to be some time before Kumar’s ambition flowers into political success.
When the ballots were counted Friday in Tamil Nadu’s state election, Kumar had only managed a couple of hundred votes and lost his deposit in the Chennai constituency he contested.
But his enthusiasm was undimmed.
“No problem! It’s my first election, there are many ahead of me.
“One thing I know for sure though is that without love there can be no success. Without love you can’t do anything,” he said. – AFP
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