99 Indian prisoners return home
Sunday, May 25, 2008
By Atif Nadeem
LAHORE: Ninety-nine Indian prisoners, who were freed from Pakistani jails on Friday, were handed over to the Indian authorities at the Wagah border on Saturday.
Of 99 prisoners, 96 were fishermen, who were arrested after they strayed into the Pakistan's territorial waters.
They came to Wagah in two buses as they travelled from Karachi to Lahore by road. Three civilian prisoners, hailing from Jammu and Kashmir, were also released from the Kot Lakhpat Jail, Lahore, after they were given travel documents by the Indian High Commission in Islamabad.
The three prisoners were identified as Pervez Ahmed from Kashmir, Mangal Singh from Jammu and Shabuddin from Poonch. Pervez was rounded up by the Pakistani security officials in 1992 while Mangal Singh was arrested in 1997 and Shahabuddin in 1991.
All the Indian prisoners were happy over their release. They said that the security officials of both the countries should keep in mind the plight of their families, as they had to struggle hard to make both ends meet while fishing, fearing they might be arrested by security officials of both the countries.
They urged both the governments to make earnest efforts to demarcate their maritime boundaries. They said that India and Pakistan should also return the seized fishing boats and nets of the arrested fishermen, as they could not earn their livelihood without them.
BD to plant 100m trees
Sunday, May 25, 2008
DHAKA: Disaster-prone Bangladesh announced on Saturday that it would plant 100 million trees to create a “natural fence” against frequent floods and cyclones.
The head of the country’s military-backed government Fakhruddin Ahmed launched the project in the capital, Dhaka, saying the trees would “fight storms, tidal surges, floods and droughts” in a “natural way.”
He appealed to all Bangladeshis to build “a wall of trees in the coastal belt as a strong deterrent to disaster.” “Our main weapon to face these disasters is tree plantation,” he said. Impoverished Bangladesh has suffered numerous natural calamities that have been occurring more frequently in recent years due to global warming, environmentalists say.
The intensity of the storms have also risen in the low-country country where 40 per cent of its 144 million people live below poverty level.
The trees will be planted over the next three months during the rainy season, deputy environment minister Raja Debashish Roy told AFP. “It’s the country’s biggest-ever planting programme. We’ve undertaken it to protect our natural calamity-prone country from frequent cyclones and floods that has been exacerbated by climate change,” he said.
Last summer the country was hit by two major floods while a cyclone tore through its coastal districts in November, killing at least 5,000 people and leaving tens of millions homeless and desperately short of food.
Militants kill US ‘spy’
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Mushtaq Yusufzai
PESHAWAR: Tribal militants led by Maulana Hafiz Gul Bahadur in North Waziristan Agency late Friday executed another Afghan national on the charge of spying for US forces in Afghanistan.
The Afghan national, 35, was identified as Gul Payo, resident of Baghe Saro village in Afghanistan’s restive Khost province. Sources told ‘The News’ that Gul Payo was captured in North Waziristan a few days ago while spying for US forces in Afghanistan.
“During interrogation, he accepted all charges against him and said that he was sent by US troops to keep them informed about militants’ activities and timing of crossing the border into Afghanistan,” said a militant commander wishing not to be named.
A Taliban court, he said, awarded death penalty to the bearded Afghan national. He said according to the court order, the “Afghan spy” was executed Friday night and his body was left on main Spinwam Chowk on Thall-Mirali Road in North Waziristan.
Also, militants left a Pushto-language letter with his body in which they accused the slain Gul Payo of working for Americans. The political administration handed over body of the slain Afghan national to his cousin Gul Saadat in Mirali. Gul had come from Khost to receive the body and later took it to his native town.
Militants have already set up Islamic courts in Bajaur, Mohmand, Khyber, Orakzai, North and South Waziristan agencies where Taliban clerics are deciding people’s disputes under Islamic law. Militants’ spokesman Maulvi Omar said the government had allowed them run their Islamic courts after the government abolished Frontier Crimes Regulation in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.
Saudi inflation hits 10.5pc
Sunday, May 25, 2008
RIYADH: Annual inflation in Saudi Arabia accelerated to a 27-year high of 10.5 per cent in April from 9.6 per cent the previous month, fuelled by rents and food prices in the world’s largest oil exporter.
The cost of living index for the largest Arab economy was 115.2 points on April 30 compared with 104.3 points a year earlier, government data showed on Saturday.
The rental index, which includes rents, fuel and water surged 16.9 per cent, with rents soaring 20.4 per cent, while food and beverages cost surged 16 per cent, according to the data.
Like most of its neighbours in the world’s biggest oil-exporting region, Saudi Arabia pegs its riyal currency to the dollar, which has fallen to record lows against the euro and a basket of major currencies this year.
Domestic factors, such as rents, play a role in stoking inflation, but the main driver is the currency situation, said Mary Nicola, Middle East economist for Standard Chartered bank in Dubai.
“Now that food prices are rising globally and Saudi is a net importer of food, that’s having a negative impact on it,” Nicola said.
Last year, Saudi Arabia imported 960,000 tonnes of rice, making it the world’s sixth-biggest rice importer, according to US Department of Agriculture data.
Price rises are plaguing the Gulf Arab region, where economies are surging on a near six-fold increase in oil prices during the last six years.
Dollar pegs force the Gulf States; except Kuwait, to track the US in cutting interest rates. With the dollar tumbling this year to record lows, some imports have become more expensive.
“We expected inflation to increase largely because of the weakening dollar and the growth in money supply; the dollar is weakening and there is no monetary tool to mitigate the effects of inflation,” Nicola said.
“The increase in rents could be largely attributed to the growth in money supply,” she added.
Annual money supply in the kingdom has been accelerating until it reached at least a 14-year high in February, a trend that has prompted the central bank to raise bank reserve requirements three times since November to 12 per cent from 7 per cent. Money-supply growth, however, eased to 23.04 per cent in March
http://thenews.jang.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=114555