Tuesday, April 16, 2013

DECCAN HERALD 13

World Chad troops to leave Mali Maduro wins by thin margin guerrilla war
BAMAKO (MALI), AP: Chads

Discussing salary still an office taboo. P14

World at a glance

Chavez heir to take over Venezuela; Oppn leader wants recount

CARACAS (VENEZUELA): Hugo Chavezs hand-picked successor, Nicolas Maduro, won a razor-thin victory in Sundays special presidential election but the opposition candidate refused to accept the result and demanded a full recount.

president said on Monday that his countrys troops are pulling out of Mali three months after the French-led mission to oust al-Qaeda-linked militants began, raising concerns about the future of war in the absence of the fierce Chadian desert fighters. The drawdown of Chadian forces comes days after a suicide bombing killed three Chadian soldiers. Chads army has no ability to face the kind of guerrilla fighting that is emerging in northern Mali. Our soldiers are going to return to Chad. They have accomplished their mission, Chadian President Idriss Deby said in an interview with French journalists that was posted online. Deby said Chad already has begun pulling out a battalion with the rest of the 2,000 Chadian soldiers to return over time, according to the joint interview with Frances Le Monde newspaper, TV5 Monde and RFI radio. France has said it also wants to hand over responsibility for the mission to Malian and other African soldiers.

Maduros stunningly close victory followed an often ugly, mudslinging campaign in which the winner promised to carry on Chavezs self-styled socialist revolution, while challenger Henrique Capriles main message was that Chavez put the country with the worlds largest oil reserves on the road to ruin. Despite the ill feelings, both men sent their supporters home and urged them to refrain from violence. Maduro, acting president since Chavezs March 5 death, held a double-digit lead in opinion polls two weeks ago, but electoral officials said he got just 50.7 per cent of the votes to 49.1 per cent for Capriles with nearly all ballots counted. The margin was about 234,935 votes. Turnout was 78 per cent, down from just over 80 per cent in the October election that Chavez won by a nearly 11-point margin over Capriles. Chavistas set off fireworks and raced through downtown Caracas blasting horns in jubilation. But analysts called the slim margin a disaster for Maduro, a former union leader and bus driver in the radical

Military personnel salute as civilians bow to a giant statue of the late North Korean leader Kim Il Sung, unseen, on his 101 birth anniversary in Pyongyang on Monday. AP

Documentary on N Korea worth risking lives: BBC

Striking a defiant tone, the BBC has defended its decision to send an undercover team with a group of London School of Economics students on a trip to secretive North Korea, saying that it was worth risking lives for, PTI reports from London.

SHARPLY DIVIDED: (From L-R) Venezuelan President-elect Nicolas Maduro celebrates after election results were announced in Caracas on Sunday. Opposition leader Henrique Capriles makes a point during a news conference in Caracas on Monday. Supporters of Maduro celebrate their leaders victory. AFP/REUTERS

Defending the decision, BBC News head of programmes Ceri Thomas said: This is an important piece of public interest journalism. Asked whether that justified putting student lives at risk, he replied: We think it does.

Military spending drops

Global military spending dipped last year for the first time since 1998 as defence outlays shrank in the West, AP reports from Stockholm. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) said the world spent $1.75 trillion on its armed forces in 2012, down 0.5 percent from the year before. The fall, driven by spending cuts in the US and

wing of Chavismo who is believed to have close ties to Cuba. In a victory speech, he told a crowd outside the presidential palace that his victory was further proof that Chavez continues to be invincible. But in a hint of discontent, National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello, who many consider Maduros main rival, expressed dismay in a tweet: The results oblige us to make a profound self-criticism. Its contradictory that the poor sec-

tors of the population vote for their longtime exploiters. At Capriles campaign headquarters, people hung their heads quietly as the results were announced by an electoral council stacked with government loyalists. Many started crying; others just stared at TV screens in disbelief. Later, Capriles emerged to angrily reject the official totals: It is the government that has been defeated. He said his campaign came up with a result

that is different from the results announced today... The biggest loser today is you, Capriles said, directly addressing Maduro through the camera. The people dont love you. Capriles, an athletic 40-yearold state governor, had mocked and belittled Maduro as a poor, bland imitation of Chavez. Maduro said during his victory speech that Capriles had called him before the results were announced to suggest a pact and that Maduro refused.

Capriles camp did not comment on Maduros claim. Capriles showed Maduro none of the respect he accorded Chavez and Maduro hit back hard, at one point calling Capriles backers heirs of Hitler. Meanwhile, Armed forces joint chief, General Wilmer Barrientos, has called on the military to accept the results. The presidents of Russia and Cuba, both close friends of Chavez, have greeted Maduro for his victory.
AP

other Nato nations, was partially offset by increases elsewhere. Military spending rose by 7.8 per cent in China and by 16 per cent in Russia, while Omans 51-per cent boost was the biggest percentage increase in the world, Sipri said. We are seeing the beginning of a shift in the balance of world military spending from the rich Western countries to emerging regions, Sipri said.

Pervez Musharraf

Poll setback for Mush and Ashraf

ISLAMABAD, PTI: A Pakistani election tribunal on Monday rejected former president Pervez Musharrafs appeal against the rejection of his nomination papers for contesting in the May 11 parliamentary elections. The tribunal which comprises high court judges and poll panel members also debarred former premier and Pakistan Peoples Party leader Raja Pervez Ashraf from seeking re-election. Musharrafs papers were rejected after a candidate challenged charged that the former military ruler had violated the Constitution and sacked members of the superior judiciary during the 2007 emergency. Musharraf had plans to contest from four seats but his nomination papers were rejected by Returning Officers in Karachi, Kasur and Islamabad. His papers were accepted in Chitral. Ashraf is alleged involved in corruption acts in clearing power projects and development schemes in Gujjar Khan, his hometown.

Mubarak freed in killings case

Egypts ex-prez will remain in jail for graft charges
CAIRO: Deposed Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak on Monday won an appeal for his release over the killing of hundreds of protesters during the revolution that toppled his dictatorial regime but will remain in custody for corruption charges. An Appeals Court examined a request submitted by Mubaraks lawyer Farid alDeeb for the release of the 84year-old on the grounds that the period of provisional detention has expired. The court granted his petition, technically freeing him in the case involving the killing of

Jailed for insulting emir

A prominent Kuwaiti opposition politician was sentenced to five years in jail on Monday for insulting the ruling emir, in a ruling expected to stoke political tension in the Gulf Arab state, Reuters reports from Kuwait. Kuwait, an OPEC member

non-violent protesters during the 2011 uprising that brought him down. But the court ordered him to remain detained in connection with other cases, state TV said.

Pending cases Mubarak will remain in custody pending investigations over corruption charges related to the misuse of funds allocated for the renovation of presidential palaces, Egypt Independent reported. The memorandum submitted by Deeb argued that Mubaraks provisional detention, which started in April, 2011, has ended because two years have lapsed since the start of his trial. Prosecutors told the Cairo Criminal Court that the time the former president has already spent in detention ex- PTI

ceeded the legal limit for custody detention and there would be no legal reason for him to detained. Mubaraks earlier trial ended in early June 2012, when he was sentenced to 25 years in prison, the maximum amount of jail time in Egypt. The former president challenged the ruling, and the courts granted him a retrial. Mubaraks retrial on Saturday was indefinitely adjourned after presiding judge Mostafa Hassan withdrew from the case and referred it to a lower court. Mubarak, who was toppled in January, 2011, during the Arab Spring uprising, has suffered several health scares and MENA even reported him clinically dead at one point. He is currently being treated at a military hospital here.

and US ally across the Gulf from Washingtons main regional adversary Iran, has avoided mass pro-democracy unrest seen in other Arab states. But tensions have risen between former members of parliament and the government, long dominated by the Al-Sabah family.

Leave It to Beaver actor dies

Civilians gather at the scene of a car bomb attack in the east Baghdad neighbourhood of Kamaliya, Iraq, on Monday. AP

Iraq violence claims 33 lives

BAGHDAD, REUTERS: Car bombs and blasts in cities across Iraq, including two explosions at a checkpoint outside Baghdads international airport, killed at least 33 people on Monday, days before provincial elections.

Realistic display

India seeks more US visa for workers

WASHINGTON, PTI: As the US

moves forward to reform its immigration system, India has said that a generous American visa policy for the countrys high-skilled workers would help everyone and both nations will emerge as winners. We respectfully urge that they consider the impact of their decisions on the ability of both US and foreign-based companies to expand now and in the future, Indian ambassador to the US Nirupama Rao wrote in the USA Today. The inspirational history of economic synergy between our two nations should serve as our guide to the future. A generous visa policy for highly skilled workers would help everyone; both nations would come out winners, she wrote. President Obama has described the US-Indian relationship as the defining partnership of the 21st century. Given the rich, multidimensional engagement between our two countries and the strategic convergence of our values and interests, he is absolutely right in doing so, the Indian ambassador wrote. The impressive growth in our trade and economic relations provide a robust foundation for this vision, Rao added. Stating that trade between the two countries has nearly tripled from $35 billion-a-year to $100 billion in less than a decade, she said, major US companies look to India as an essential outlet for growth and vice versa.

People look at a sculpture by Australian artist Ron Mueck exhibited at the Fondation Cartier in Paris on Monday. AFP

No one claimed responsibility for the attacks in Baghdad, Kirkuk, Tuz Khurmato and other towns to the north to south, but al-Qaedas local wing is waging a campaign against Shias and the government to stoke sectarian confrontation. Iraqis will vote on Saturday for members of provincial councils in a ballot that is seen as a test of political stability since the last US troops withdrew in December 2011. The ballot for nearly 450 provincial council seats will also be an important measure of Shia Prime Minister Nuri al-Malikis political muscle against his Sunni and Shia rivals before a parliamentary election in 2014. A dozen candidates have already been killed so far in campaigning, including two moderate Sunni politicians over the weekend. Mondays attacks were mostly car bombs, includ-

ing two blasts that killed two passengers at an outer checkpoint as they were on their way into the Baghdad airport site. Attacks on the heavily guarded airport and the fortified International Zone housing many embassies are rare. Two vehicles managed to reach the entrance of Baghdad airport and were left parked there. While we were doing routine searches, the two cars exploded seconds apart. Two passengers travelling to the airport were killed, a police source said. The most deadly attack was in Tuz Khurmato, 170 km north of Baghdad, where four bombs targeting police patrols killed five people and wounded 67, officials said. Iraqi violence has accompanied a long-running political crisis in the government that splits posts among Shia, Sunni Muslim and ethnic Kurdish parties in an unwieldy, power-sharing coalition.Critics dismiss Maliki, a former Arab-language teacher who spent many years in exile in Syria and Iran, as an autocrat who has failed to live up to power-sharing deals.

Frank Bank, who played the bumbling bully Lumpy Rutherford on the original Leave It to Beaver TV show, has died a day after his 71st birthday, PTI reports from New York. No cause of death has been announced. Known as Lumpy for his size and rather dim intellect, Clarence Rutherford was

one of the several caricatures who made Leave It to Beaver perhaps the most memorable teenage TV show of the late 50s era. He was introduced in the first season as the local bully, who tormented Wally (Tony Dow) and Beaver (Jerry Mathers) Cleaver. Bank was born in a Los Angeles in 1942 and became an actor at an early age.

Actress-singer Selena Gomez performs during the MTV Movie Awards in Culver City, California, on Sunday. AFP

Equal before law

Miffed lover airs porn on TV

Voets new smartphone began to emit sounds requesting phone voice commands. Voet said he thinks he bumped the phone, and the embarrassment likely left his face red. Im guessing I bumped it. It started talking really loud, saying I cant understand you. Say something like Mom, he said. Voet has used a Blackberry mobile phone for years, and said he wasnt as familiar with the operation of the new touchscreen, Windows-based phone. Thats an excuse, but I dont take those excuses from anyone else. I set the bar high, because cellphones are a distraction and there is very serious business going on, he said. The courtroom is a special place in the community, and it needs more respect than that. Over the years, the judge whose court is about 110 miles northwest of Detroit has taken phones away from police officers, attorneys, witnesses, spectators and friends. During a break in the trial, Voet held himself in contempt, fined himself and paid the fine. Judges are humans, Voet said. Theyre not above the rules. I broke the rule and I have to live by it.
AP

Judge holds himself in contempt for smartphone

IONIA (UNITED STATE): A

A judge whose smartphone disrupted a hearing in his own courtroom has held himself in contempt and paid $25 for the infraction.

Michigan judge whose smartphone disrupted a hearing in his own courtroom has held himself in contempt and paid $25 for the infraction. Judge Raymond Voet has a posted policy at Ionia County 64A District Court stating that electronic devices causing a disturbance during court sessions will result in the owner being cited with contempt, the Sentinel-Standard of Ionia and MLive.com reported. On Friday afternoon, during a prosecutors closing argument as part of a jury trial,

An employee of a Belarusian music TV channel has been detained for allegedly airing pornographic footage on the channel during the daytime after quarrelling with his girlfriend, agencies report from Minsk. On Saturday afternoon,

the BelMuzTV channel aired several music videos by the Belarusian rock band Lyapis Trubetskoi, which is unofficially banned on local television, and it was followed by 10 minutes of pornographic footage, said investigators.

MARVIN

By Tom Armstrong