London—British
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has welcomed
Pakistan’s military action in Waziristan against
the extremist elements and said his country will
do more to help in the economic development of
the South Asian nation. Briefing journalists
belonging to the Commonwealth countries at the
Downing Street on the eve of the Commonwealth
Heads Government meeting in Trinidad and Tobago,
he said: “We recognised that Pakistan Government
has taken increased action against Al-Qaeda and
Pakistan Taliban and that there are 30,000
Pakistan troops in Waziristan.”
Tokyo—The surfer husband of disgraced Japanese
pop star Noriko Sakai received a suspended
two-year jail term Friday for illegal drug use,
weeks after his wife was also found guilty,
court officials said. The couple’s drug scandal,
reportedly over methamphetamine use, has sparked
frenzied media coverage for months and at times
saw thousands of people line up for only dozens
of visitors’ seats in the Tokyo District Court.
Geneva–The World Health Organisation said
that it is investigating reports of mutations in
the swine flu virus, after half-a-dozen
countries recorded cases in which the virus was
transforming. “The question is whether these
mutations again suggest that there is a
fundamental change going on in viruses out
there—whether there’s a turn for the worse in
terms of severity,” said Keiji Fukuda, WHO’s
special adviser on pandemic influenza.
Dhaka—Speaker of
the Bangladesh Parliament has defended his
proposal to allow 350 lawmakers to import
vehicles on duty free basis saying that he made
the proposal with a view to saving public money.
Talking to this correspondent in Dhaka Thursday,
the Speaker said that though a proposal was made
earlier to provide vehicles to the lawmakers, he
has come to the conclusion after detailed study
of various options that it would cost public
exchequer more money than allowing the lawmakers
to import duty free vehicles.
EARLIER this month when everyone was going
suitably mushy over the 20th anniversary of the
fall of Berlin Wall, I was reminded of two other
unnatural walls created by a conspiracy of
history and geography: First, Israel’s
humiliating, crippling Apartheid wall that has
imprisoned Palestinians in their own land.
Second, the great invisible wall that has
existed between India and Pakistan for the past
62 years.
