2015-02-18 08:45
Dhaka - Bangladesh's war crimes tribunal ordered the execution of
a senior Islamist leader Wednesday after convicting him of atrocities
during the country's 1971 independence war, triggering violence outside
the court.
Three Molotov cocktails thrown by suspected
anti-government activists exploded outside the courthouse in central
Dhaka as Abdus Subhan, a vice president of Bangladesh's largest Islamist
party, Jamaat-Islami, was found guilty of murder, genocide and torture.
The
verdict is expected to further inflame tensions in Bangladesh where an
alliance of opposition parties, including Jamaat, is trying to topple
the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
At least 87
people have died since early January when the leader of the main
opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) called on supporters to
blockade roads, railways and waterways to force Hasina to call new
polls.
Justice
Obaidul Hassan, head of the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT), handed
down the sentences, saying the 79-year-old leader would be "hanged by
the neck until his death".
"He was found guilty of six out of nine
charges. As a leader of Jamaat, he collaborated with Pakistan army and
he carried out in the name of Islam," prosecutor Sultan Mahmud told
reporters.
Subhan
is the 17th person and the 12th and the last Islamist to be convicted
by the court, which is a domestic tribunal set up by Hasina's government
without any international oversight.
Prosecutors said Subhan was
the head of Jamaat and a pro-Pakistani militia in the northwestern
district town of Pabna and he actively took part in the murder of
hundreds of innocent villagers and minority Hindus in the 1971 conflict
when the then East Pakistan seceded from Islamabad.
Defence lawyers said they would appeal the verdict as the charges against Subhan were "false and baseless".
The
war crimes court has mostly focused on the trials of the Jamaat leaders
who opposed the break-up of Pakistan and saw the liberation war by
Bengalis as a conspiracy by majority-Hindu India.
Previous death
sentences handed down against Jamaat leaders, including its supreme and
spiritual leaders, plunged Bangladesh into its deadliest unrest in 2013.
Thousands
of Islamists clashed with police in nationwide protests over the
verdicts and other issues and some 500 people were killed.
BNP
leader Khaleda Zia and Jamaat say the trials are aimed at eliminating
opposition leaders rather than rendering justice while rights groups
have said they fall short of international standards.
The
government maintains they are needed to heal the wounds of the war,
which it says left three million people dead. Independent researchers
put the toll much lower.
Wednesday, 18 February 2015
Abducted polio immunisation team found murdered in Pakistan
2015-02-18 08:45
Quetta - Four members of a polio immunisation team have been found murdered after being kidnapped in southwest Pakistan, officials said Wednesday.
Local militants had abducted the vaccination worker, two local tribal policemen and a driver in the Zhob district of Baluchistan province on Saturday.
Pakistan is one of only three countries where polio remains endemic. But attempts to eradicate it have been badly hit by opposition from militants and attacks on immunisation teams that have now claimed 71 lives since December 2012.
"Security agencies conducted several operations to recover the polio worker and other team members and finally found their bodies in the mountains on Tuesday," a senior local administration official in Zhob, Nazar Muhammad Khatran, told AFP.
He said it seemed the four men were shot dead on Saturday or Sunday.
A spokesman for the paramilitary Frontier Corps, Manzoor Ahmad, confirmed the incident.
Taliban militants claim that the polio vaccination drive is a front for espionage or a conspiracy to sterilise Muslims. They stepped up their attacks after a Pakistani doctor was recruited by the CIA to take part in a fake immunisation drive to capture Osama Bin Laden.
Ahmad said Frontier Corps troops on Wednesday secured the safe release of five field staff from the Pakistan Telecommunication Company after an exchange of fire with militants in Zhob district.
They had been abducted last week.
Apart from attacks on vaccination teams, Baluchistan -- Pakistan's largest but least developed and most sparsely populated province -- has been racked for decades by a separatist insurgency that was revived in 2004.
Quetta - Four members of a polio immunisation team have been found murdered after being kidnapped in southwest Pakistan, officials said Wednesday.
Local militants had abducted the vaccination worker, two local tribal policemen and a driver in the Zhob district of Baluchistan province on Saturday.
Pakistan is one of only three countries where polio remains endemic. But attempts to eradicate it have been badly hit by opposition from militants and attacks on immunisation teams that have now claimed 71 lives since December 2012.
"Security agencies conducted several operations to recover the polio worker and other team members and finally found their bodies in the mountains on Tuesday," a senior local administration official in Zhob, Nazar Muhammad Khatran, told AFP.
He said it seemed the four men were shot dead on Saturday or Sunday.
A spokesman for the paramilitary Frontier Corps, Manzoor Ahmad, confirmed the incident.
Taliban militants claim that the polio vaccination drive is a front for espionage or a conspiracy to sterilise Muslims. They stepped up their attacks after a Pakistani doctor was recruited by the CIA to take part in a fake immunisation drive to capture Osama Bin Laden.
Ahmad said Frontier Corps troops on Wednesday secured the safe release of five field staff from the Pakistan Telecommunication Company after an exchange of fire with militants in Zhob district.
They had been abducted last week.
Apart from attacks on vaccination teams, Baluchistan -- Pakistan's largest but least developed and most sparsely populated province -- has been racked for decades by a separatist insurgency that was revived in 2004.
'Nigeria lacks institutions to prevent corruption'
2015-02-18 09:58
Abuja - The Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said on Tuesday that corruption persisted in the country because Nigeria lacked the institutions, systems and processes to prevent it.
Okonjo-Iweala made this known when she spoke on the Topic: 'Preventing Leakages in the Nigerian Economy' at the Catholic Caritas Foundation Forum in Abuja.
According to her, the absence of the relevant systems and institutions that will help check corruption has created opportunities for people to engage in the act.
"This thing has been with us and we must crack it. This is not something that started in this country today; but it is something that we must crack.
"Fundamentally,
we have to ask ourselves, why has this continued to be a problem; I am
convinced that it is because we constantly look at the symptoms and not
the cause of the disease.
"The cause of the disease is we don’t have in place the institutions, the systems and the processes to block and prevent it in the first place.
The minister assured that people would be compelled to do the right thing always if the appropriate systems were in place to block and prevent corruption.
She urged youths in the country to ask the relevant questions that would help tackle corruption in the country.
Okonjo-Iweala said that the introduction of the Government Integrated Financial Management System (GIFMS) had helped to reduce physical movement of cash to make payments and curb corruption.
She said that the Integrated Personnel Payment System had also helped government to remove ghost workers from the system and save money in the process.
Commenting on the outcome of the forensic Audit on the alleged 20 billion dollars missing oil money, she said the ministry had written to the NNPC asking it to remit the amount as directed by the auditors.
Abuja - The Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said on Tuesday that corruption persisted in the country because Nigeria lacked the institutions, systems and processes to prevent it.
Okonjo-Iweala made this known when she spoke on the Topic: 'Preventing Leakages in the Nigerian Economy' at the Catholic Caritas Foundation Forum in Abuja.
According to her, the absence of the relevant systems and institutions that will help check corruption has created opportunities for people to engage in the act.
"This thing has been with us and we must crack it. This is not something that started in this country today; but it is something that we must crack.
"The cause of the disease is we don’t have in place the institutions, the systems and the processes to block and prevent it in the first place.
The minister assured that people would be compelled to do the right thing always if the appropriate systems were in place to block and prevent corruption.
She urged youths in the country to ask the relevant questions that would help tackle corruption in the country.
Okonjo-Iweala said that the introduction of the Government Integrated Financial Management System (GIFMS) had helped to reduce physical movement of cash to make payments and curb corruption.
She said that the Integrated Personnel Payment System had also helped government to remove ghost workers from the system and save money in the process.
Commenting on the outcome of the forensic Audit on the alleged 20 billion dollars missing oil money, she said the ministry had written to the NNPC asking it to remit the amount as directed by the auditors.
APC criticizes PDP on Obanikoro's appointment
Abuja - The Lagos State chapter of the All Progressives
Congress (APC) has criticized the appointment of Senator Musiliu
Obanikoro by the ruling party, describing the situation as "laughable", Naij reports.
In a statement released by Joe Igbokwe, APC Publicity Secretary, the party wondered what value Obanikoro would add to the country.
In addition, the party has lamented President Jonathan's endorsement of Obanikoro, saying that the development is a reflection of Jonathan's lack of interest with regards to corruption in the country.
The APC has called for a panel to be created in order to probe the appointment of Obanikoro and Police Affairs Minister Abduljelili Adesiyan for their alleged role in the rigging of the Ekiti State elections.
Read more at Naij
In a statement released by Joe Igbokwe, APC Publicity Secretary, the party wondered what value Obanikoro would add to the country.
In addition, the party has lamented President Jonathan's endorsement of Obanikoro, saying that the development is a reflection of Jonathan's lack of interest with regards to corruption in the country.
The APC has called for a panel to be created in order to probe the appointment of Obanikoro and Police Affairs Minister Abduljelili Adesiyan for their alleged role in the rigging of the Ekiti State elections.
Read more at Naij
PDP to reconcile with Obasanjo
Olusegun Obasanjo. (File: AFP)
Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa State, who disclosed the party’s move to reconcile with Obasanjo, said the former President remained the father of all.
Lamido was speaking after holding a closed- door meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Tuesday.
Lamido, who is the North-West Coordinator of Goodluck/Sambo Presidential Campaign Council, noted that President Jonathan and all the state governors were creations of Obasanjo.
He stated though the PDP might have failed to live up to Obasanjo’s expectations, abandoning the party was not the solution.
Obasanjo had on Monday announced that he was leaving the party for good.
Read more at Punch.
Read more on: 2015 elections
Tuesday, 17 February 2015
5 things bound to happen when reading erotic fiction
By: Tammy February
2015-02-16 10:17
Many women have been reading erotic fiction long before Fifty Shades of Grey became a world-wide hit. The only difference now is that with this book becoming such a huge best-seller, people are no longer hiding this fact.
From the Crossfire series following the Fifty Shades hoo-ha, to books like Eighty Days Yellow, erotic fiction has been heating up the lives of many readers.
If you’ve been reading this genre for years, you’ll know that with all the romantic and kinky shenanigans that go hand in hand with these novels, it starts giving us some rather high (and unrealistic) expectations of sex.
Not only that, but we become aware of a few other unavoidable things that occur when we start getting into these books:
1. Your expectations of sex are exponentially higher
With the graphic and descriptive sex scenes in books and instantaneous orgasms experienced by the woman being “pleasured” by her “well-endowed” man, is it really any wonder that many women lose themselves in these sensual fantasies? I think not.
2. You learn ‘interesting’ terminology
Trust me, to this day I still wish I could go back to the time in my life when I didn’t know what ‘snowballing’ or ‘teabagging’ means (a heads up: if you’re really curious about what it means, don’t google it at work. Seriously. Just don’t).
3. You start looking for your own version of Gideon Cross or Christian Grey
No further explanation is needed here. The internet memes (especially those funny e-cards) speak for themselves.
4. You memorise the page numbers with all the naughty bits
And if you don’t, well, the dog-eared pages will certainly be there to tell the story for you, won’t it?
5. You feel guilty that you enjoy it so much and do your best to hide it
People can be so judge-y when it comes to what other people like to read. Erotic fiction is, without a doubt, one of the genres that is most heavily discriminated against.
Frankly, I don’t see why, given that a) it’s none of your business and b) it’s been said to have saved marriages.
Read away and stop giving a rat’s arse what people have to say about your choices in reading material.
2015-02-16 10:17
Many women have been reading erotic fiction long before Fifty Shades of Grey became a world-wide hit. The only difference now is that with this book becoming such a huge best-seller, people are no longer hiding this fact.
From the Crossfire series following the Fifty Shades hoo-ha, to books like Eighty Days Yellow, erotic fiction has been heating up the lives of many readers.
If you’ve been reading this genre for years, you’ll know that with all the romantic and kinky shenanigans that go hand in hand with these novels, it starts giving us some rather high (and unrealistic) expectations of sex.
Not only that, but we become aware of a few other unavoidable things that occur when we start getting into these books:
1. Your expectations of sex are exponentially higher
With the graphic and descriptive sex scenes in books and instantaneous orgasms experienced by the woman being “pleasured” by her “well-endowed” man, is it really any wonder that many women lose themselves in these sensual fantasies? I think not.
2. You learn ‘interesting’ terminology
Trust me, to this day I still wish I could go back to the time in my life when I didn’t know what ‘snowballing’ or ‘teabagging’ means (a heads up: if you’re really curious about what it means, don’t google it at work. Seriously. Just don’t).
3. You start looking for your own version of Gideon Cross or Christian Grey
No further explanation is needed here. The internet memes (especially those funny e-cards) speak for themselves.
4. You memorise the page numbers with all the naughty bits
And if you don’t, well, the dog-eared pages will certainly be there to tell the story for you, won’t it?
5. You feel guilty that you enjoy it so much and do your best to hide it
People can be so judge-y when it comes to what other people like to read. Erotic fiction is, without a doubt, one of the genres that is most heavily discriminated against.
Frankly, I don’t see why, given that a) it’s none of your business and b) it’s been said to have saved marriages.
Read away and stop giving a rat’s arse what people have to say about your choices in reading material.
5 types of customers in restaurants
By: Raphaela van Embden
2015-02-16 13:14
Lagos - There seems to be a general misconception that waiters are impartial voyeurs, wholly uninterested in you, dear customer, barring orders and food allergies.
This is, of course, complete crock.
Us gossipmongering waiters have categorised you from the minute we’ve handed you your menu.
The Pilgrim In Search Of Food Guru
Pilgrims like to be taken by the hand and guided through the dining experience. Every. Step. Of. The. Way.
From the opening question "Soooo, what’s good here?" to the exasperating half hour you spend explaining each ingredient in the menu while your other tables collect dust, pilgrims are high maintenance.
Will they find enlightenment? Who can say?
The Order Amnesiac
“I have an Alfredo pasta?”
Blank stares all round.
“Alfredo pasta?”
Silent table conference of did-you-order-that-because-I-didn’t-order-that looks are exchanged.
Tinged with a note of desperation, “did no one order the Alfredo pasta?”
Then, suddenly, a lone voice rings out in the darkness.
"Hey, George, didn't you order that?"
"What?"
"Chicken pasta with cream?"
George jerks in his seat as though his ON switch has just short-circuited, causing his Coke Zero to go flying. "Oh yes!" Proudly: "I ordered that."
Yes. Yes you did.
The Please Don’t Shoot Me
These lovely folks look just as taken aback when you ask them how they are as when you’d told them you were going to carve satanic markings into their bellies and feed them shots of virgin blood.
Voices don’t get raised above a whisper and they practically shy away when ordering their mains. You start wondering if your doppelgänger is on a Most Wanted list somewhere.
They're usually bolted before their phone pings the success of a completed credit card transaction.
The Freebie Me
An easy one to spot from the moment they sit down and complain about their wobbly chair and overstuffed pillows, Freebie Mes are an uphill battle.
The glass is dirty, the I-don’t-know-what-this-is-but-it’s-definitely-not-a-mojito mojito gets sent back, the fish is too fishy, the meat too chewy, the candle is too high, the music is too noisy, the malva pudding is cardboard drenched in sugar, the coffee is cold and burnt …
The phrase I WANT TO SPEAK TO YOUR MANAGER gets thrown around like confetti. And lo! A discount! Free dessert! Only one meal is charged!
But we know, Freebie Me, we’re onto you… We tasted that fish, the chef showed us that meat, and in the scullery we finished your coffee and the mojito that you sent back.
And it was delicious.
The Okie Dokie Yokie
The kind of customer that most waiters want to fall to their knees in front of with tears in their eyes, praising Jesus, woolly mammoths and unicorns everywhere that these blessed people sat down in their section.
The wrong order was brought to their table? No problem! They’ve always wanted to try flambéed snails, today’s their lucky day. The food is taking an hour and a half because the chef is having a nervous breakdown trying to hand-roll two hundred ravioli parcels? Really? They hadn’t even noticed the time.
The restaurant’s experiencing a spot of load shedding plunging everyone into darkness? Fantastic! Candles make everything so much more romantic anyway. See? Having an Okie Dokie Yokie at your table is the kind of stuff waiters’ wet dreams are made of and snivelled into pillows about.
Lagos - There seems to be a general misconception that waiters are impartial voyeurs, wholly uninterested in you, dear customer, barring orders and food allergies.
This is, of course, complete crock.
Us gossipmongering waiters have categorised you from the minute we’ve handed you your menu.
The Pilgrim In Search Of Food Guru
From the opening question "Soooo, what’s good here?" to the exasperating half hour you spend explaining each ingredient in the menu while your other tables collect dust, pilgrims are high maintenance.
Will they find enlightenment? Who can say?
The Order Amnesiac
“I have an Alfredo pasta?”
Blank stares all round.
“Alfredo pasta?”
Silent table conference of did-you-order-that-because-I-didn’t-order-that looks are exchanged.
Tinged with a note of desperation, “did no one order the Alfredo pasta?”
Then, suddenly, a lone voice rings out in the darkness.
"Hey, George, didn't you order that?"
"What?"
"Chicken pasta with cream?"
George jerks in his seat as though his ON switch has just short-circuited, causing his Coke Zero to go flying. "Oh yes!" Proudly: "I ordered that."
Yes. Yes you did.
The Please Don’t Shoot Me
These lovely folks look just as taken aback when you ask them how they are as when you’d told them you were going to carve satanic markings into their bellies and feed them shots of virgin blood.
Voices don’t get raised above a whisper and they practically shy away when ordering their mains. You start wondering if your doppelgänger is on a Most Wanted list somewhere.
They're usually bolted before their phone pings the success of a completed credit card transaction.
The Freebie Me
An easy one to spot from the moment they sit down and complain about their wobbly chair and overstuffed pillows, Freebie Mes are an uphill battle.
The glass is dirty, the I-don’t-know-what-this-is-but-it’s-definitely-not-a-mojito mojito gets sent back, the fish is too fishy, the meat too chewy, the candle is too high, the music is too noisy, the malva pudding is cardboard drenched in sugar, the coffee is cold and burnt …
The phrase I WANT TO SPEAK TO YOUR MANAGER gets thrown around like confetti. And lo! A discount! Free dessert! Only one meal is charged!
But we know, Freebie Me, we’re onto you… We tasted that fish, the chef showed us that meat, and in the scullery we finished your coffee and the mojito that you sent back.
And it was delicious.
The Okie Dokie Yokie
The kind of customer that most waiters want to fall to their knees in front of with tears in their eyes, praising Jesus, woolly mammoths and unicorns everywhere that these blessed people sat down in their section.
The wrong order was brought to their table? No problem! They’ve always wanted to try flambéed snails, today’s their lucky day. The food is taking an hour and a half because the chef is having a nervous breakdown trying to hand-roll two hundred ravioli parcels? Really? They hadn’t even noticed the time.
The restaurant’s experiencing a spot of load shedding plunging everyone into darkness? Fantastic! Candles make everything so much more romantic anyway. See? Having an Okie Dokie Yokie at your table is the kind of stuff waiters’ wet dreams are made of and snivelled into pillows about.
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