Observer & Busness 5 May 2012 - Oman Daily Observer

PAKISTANI security personnel and local residents search for victims in the rubble of a destroyed building following a
suicide bombing in Khar, the main town of Bajaur district, near the Afghan border yesterday. — AFP
Clinton
arrives
in Dhaka
today
DHAKA — US Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton is due
to arrive her today on one of
the few visits in recent years
by senior US officials to
Bangladesh, and comes after
relations between Washington
and the South Asia nation
hit a rare chill.
During her 24-hour visit
to Dhaka, Clinton is due to
meet Prime Minister Sheikh
Hasina and other senior
government officials, as
well as opposition leader
Begum Khaleda Zia, barely
two weeks after Khaleda’s
Bangladesh Nationalist Party
(BNP) staged two countrywide
general strikes that
lasted five days in all.
Her visit was originally
planned for early last year
but was put back, apparently
over Washington’s displeasure
with the removal of Nobel
laureate Muhammad Yunus
from Bangladesh’s micro
lender, Grameen Bank.
“This visit is significant
because an earlier visit was
postponed over the Yunus
issue,” Delwar Hossain, professor
of International Relations
at Dhaka University,
said. Clinton will land amid
simmering tensions after
the strike, called in protest
against the mysterious disappearance
of a former BNP
lawmaker.
Khaleda’s BNP and Hasina’s
Awami League party
have accused each other of
abducting former lawmaker
Ilyas Ali. Five people were
killed in clashes between police
and protesters during the
strikes, three of whom were
shot dead. — Reuters
8
THE PHILIPPINES/SUBCONTINENT
OMAN DAILY Observer
Nepal PM to set up unity
govt after cabinet quits
KATHMANDU — Nepal’s
prime minister worked yesterday
to form a coalition government
that will include the
main opposition parties after
his cabinet quit as part of a negotiated
effort to quell political
tumult in the desperately
poor Himalayan state.
Nepal, wedged between its
giant neighbours China and
India, has been plagued by instability
for years even though
a Maoist insurgency ended in
2006 and the monarchy was
abolished, as the rebels had
demanded, two years later.
The cabinet resigned at
midnight after Prime Minister
Baburam Bhattarai, a former
rebel leader, struck a deal with
opposition parties to end the
political turbulence that has
hurt the economy and delayed
the introduction of a constitution.
The prime minister is expected
to take a couple of days
to form the new government,
SEATTLE — The lawyer representing
Robert Bales, the US
Army staff sergeant accused
of killing 17 Afghan villagers,
is objecting to a routine background
check required by the
military.
Seattle-based attorney
John Henry Browne, a selfdescribed
ex-hippie who has
been married seven times and
used to play bass in a rock
band, said he has no secrets
to hide but is opposed to the
check on principle.
“I don’t think a defense
lawyer should be ‘vetted’ by
the government,” Browne
his spokesman said.
Opposition parties have
been pressing for a consensus
government before they agree
on the new constitution, a key
condition of the peace deal
that ended a conflict in which
more than 16,000 people were
killed.
Negotiations on the constitution
are stuck on several
issues, including the formation
and number of federal
provinces.
Some analysts said it was
unclear if the Maoist-dominated
constituent assembly
would be able to finalise the
constitution before a May 27
deadline.
“The two differences
in the new constitution are
too fundamental to be resolved
just by a consensus government,”
said Kunda Dixit,
editor of the Nepali Times
weekly.
“These should be debated
by experts and demographers
wrote in an e-mail to Reuters
on Thursday. “It is intrusive
and has a chilling effect on the
right to counsel.”
Browne will likely need
security clearance to see government
material relating to
the events of March 11, when
Bales left his remote post in
Afghanistan’s Kandahar province
and gunned down 17 Afghan
civilians, inflaming US-
Afghan relations.
Lt Col Gary Dangerfield,
an Army spokesman at Joint
Base Lewis McChord, the
US home for Bales’ unit,
said the background check
and should not be part of a
political give and take,” Dixit
said.
Several ethnic groups are
demanding separate states
in the new constitution. The
debate has triggered violence
— four people were killed in
a blast this week in the southern
town of Janakpur, where
protesters were calling for a
separate state.
Instability has spooked
investors and distracted
parliament in a country
which suffers a chronic shortage
of electricity, drinking
water, fuel and growing lawlessness.
Nepal, heavily dependent
on aid and tourism, is home
to Mount Everest and sits on
the source of rivers supplying
water to millions in South
Asia. It has huge potential to
generate hydroelectric power,
and energy-hungry China and
India are vying to win it over
as an ally. — Reuters
Lawyer for US soldier who massacred
Afghan civilians objects to checks
was “standard procedure”
for obtaining security clearance
to access classified information.
Browne has already made
waves on the case, accusing
prosecutors of blocking his
access to witnesses and demanding
the removal of his
Army co-counsel.
He made his name defending
serial killer Ted
Bundy and a number of
high-profile Seattle-area
homicide suspects. Most
recently he defended “Barefoot
Bandit” Colton Harris-
Moore. — Reuters
PAKISTANIS shout slogans in Karachi yesterday against US pastor Terry Jones over the recent desecration of copy of
the Quran at his Florida church. Pakistan has strongly condemned the move by Jones. — AFP
SATURDAY, MAY 5, 2012
Pak local police chief, deputy
among 24 dead in bomb blast
KHAR, Pakistan — A bomber targeted
police in a Pakistan town square yesterday,
killing at least 24 people and wounding
dozens in the tribal area near the Afghan
border, officials said.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for
the blast near a crowded market in Bajaur,
saying it had wanted to kill the local chief
and deputy of a tribal police force recruited
by the government to help defeat the
insurgency.
Both died in the attack in Khar, the
main town of Bajaur district, after a
bomber who intelligence officials said
was aged 14 to 16 detonated explosives
strapped to his chest.
Police and security forces sealed off
the site of the attack.
Bajaur has been one of the toughest
battlegrounds in Pakistan’s fight against
a northwestern Taliban insurgency. The
military conducted major offensives there
in 2008 and 2009.
The blast was the deadliest bombing
in Pakistan since February 17 when
31 people were killed by an attack in the
tribal district of Kurram.
“The death toll has risen to 24,” Islam
Zeb, the administrative head of Bajaur
tribal district, said. He had earlier said 20
MANILA — Rights groups
and unions slammed the Philippines
yesterday after it erected
advertising hoardings that
hid slum housing from delegates
attending a conference
on solving poverty in Asia.
The giant boards were put
up beside a road taking 4,300
delegates from Manila airport
to the Asian Development
Bank meeting, blocking the
view of an open sewer and
shanties.
The boards advertised Philippine
tourist attractions as
well as the high-level meeting,
WASHINGTON — A US army soldier died of rabies after being
bitten by a dog in Afghanistan, US health authorities said
on Thursday. The 24-year-old male first complained in August
2011 of symptoms including shoulder and neck pain, odd sensations
in his hands and fainting, after arriving at Fort Drum,
New York for a new military assignment.
“He described having received a dog bite on the right hand
during January 2011 while deployed to Afghanistan,” said the
report by US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Tests confirmed that the patient had a type of canine rabies
associated with dogs in Afghanistan, the CDC report said. The
soldier’s condition swiftly deteriorated after he was hospitalised
on August 19.
He suffered a severe brain hemorrhage and after consulting
with doctors who said recovery was unlikely, the family
withdrew life support. The soldier, whose name was withheld
by the CDC, died on August 31.
Although he had told family and friends while in Afghanistan
in January 2011 that he had been “bitten by a feral dog and
had sought medical treatment, which he described as wound
cleansing and injections,” an Army probe turned up no documentation
of a reported bite wound or treatment. Nor was there
any record of the dog being taken in for rabies tests.
The incubation period for rabies can range from 10 days
to seven years, though it is typically between three and seven
weeks according to the US Library of Medicine.
The soldier had also travelled in Germany before falling ill,
and the CDC investigation found that he had interacted with
some 190 people between the time of his dog bite and his hospitalisation.
The blast near a
crowded market in
Bajaur was aimed
at the local chief and
deputy of a tribal police
force recruited by the
government to help
defeat the insurgency
people were killed.
Raids were later carried out in the surrounding
areas of Khar and two men aged
17 and 18 were arrested and suicide jackets
found, he said.
At least five policemen, including the
local tribal police chief and his deputy,
were among the dead and 46 people were
wounded. Shops and a restaurant were
destroyed.
Ehsanullah Ehsan, spokesman for the
Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility,
saying that anyone involved in “activity”
against the Taliban “will be treated with
iron hands”.
“Our attacks will continue until (US)
drone strikes end,” Ehsan said.
It was the third bomb attack in two
days in Bajaur, after twin blasts killed
five people — including pro-government
elders and security personnel — on
Thursday.
According to a tally, around 5,000 people
have been killed in attacks blamed on
the Taliban and its allies since July 2007.
Pakistan has also lost more than 3,000
soldiers in the fight against insurgents
even as the US presses Islamabad to do
more.
Relations between Pakistan and the
United States have lapsed into stalemate
especially since 24 Pakistani soldiers
were killed near the border with Afghanistan
in US air raid in November.
Pakistan, demanding an apology for
the strike, has shut down Nato supply
lines into Afghanistan and last month
parliament approved new guidelines on
relations with the United States, which included
a call for an end to drone strikes.
It remains unclear whether the impasse
with Washington can be solved before
this month’s Nato summit on Afghanistan
in Chicago, to which Islamabad has been
invited. — Agencies
Manila flayed for ‘hiding’ poor
POLICEMEN block foreign delegates to the Asian Development Bank (ADB) board of governors annual meeting as
they hold a silent protest in support of workers’ rights in front of the venue of the meeting, in Manila yesterday where
Philippine President Benigno Aquino graced the occasion. The protesters were later pushed back by policemen to a
side street. The Philippines bristled May 4, at allegations it tried to “hide” its poor from delegates of a high-profile
international conference aimed at solving widespread poverty across Asia. — AFP
which proclaimed as its theme
‘inclusive’ growth for Asia,
home to some 902 million of
the world’s poor according to
the bank.
The government said it was
merely trying to put its “best
foot forward” but New Yorkbased
Human Rights Watch
criticised the boards, saying it
sent a message that dire poverty
can just be ignored.
“Instead of trying to hide
the poor, the Philippine government
should be pressing
the bank to tackle poverty head
on,” said Jessica Evans, the
group’s senior international financial
institution advocate.
Union leader Josua Mata,
of the Alliance of Progressive
Labour-Centro, said the attempt
to wall off the poverty
was ‘embarrassing’ and the
government should turn its focus
to creating jobs and building
resettlement sites.
President Benigno Aquino’s
office insisted the effort
was not an attempt to hide
poverty, which the government
says affects a fourth of
the population of 95 million.
“It’s but natural to fix it
Rabid Afghan dog Imelda net worth
bite kills US soldier declared $22m
MANILA — -Imelda Marcos
has declared her net worth
at $22 million, parliament
records show, as she continues
to fight the government
over her assets more than two
decades after the end of her
husband’s reign.
The widow of deposed
dictator Ferdinand Marcos
declared her wealth at 932.8
million pesos in 2011, records
released late on Thursday
showed, which would make
her the second richest Philippine
politician behind boxing
hero and congressman Manny
Pacquiao.
The amount declared by
Marcos was almost 50 per
cent higher than in 2010, with
the 82-year-old including new
assets which were surrendered
to the government by
the dictator’s cronies.
A popular revolt toppled
the dictator from power in
1986, sending the family
fleeing overseas. Manila has
since been trying to recover
(the city) up a bit and I don’t
think we’re violating any human
right by trying to put our
best foot forward,” presidential
spokesman Ricky Carandang
told reporters. “We’re not trying
to whitewash poverty, it’s
very real,” another spokesman,
Abigail Valte, said.
Carandang said the government
was spending 39 billion
pesos ($907 million) this
year in cash handouts to help
three million poor families to
escape poverty. The ADB lent
the government $400 million
in 2010 for the programme.
the wealth Marcos and his
allies allegedly accumulated
through graft during his 20
years in office.
The deposed president
died in exile in 1989 and his
family was allowed to return
home, with his widow elected
in 2010 to a congressional
seat representing the family
stronghold.
Before she was elected
Marcos had complained of
being nearly penniless, despite
living in a luxury condominium
unit and frequently
appearing in public, bedecked
with jewellery.
Her lawyer Robert Sison
said his client, known
for her jet-set lifestyle and
love of shoes, could not touch
much of her declared wealth
as it had been seized or
sequestered by the government.
“The ownership of these
properties is being contested
and the government is not off
the hook,” he said. — AFP