Kashmir on the boil again over killing of eight young men

SRINAGAR, June 29: Indian Kashmir is on the boil again: this time over the killing of eight young Kashmiris in less than three weeks allegedly at the hands of Indian security forces, report agencies.
The deaths have brought thousands of war-weary residents out onto the streets chanting "Blood for Blood!" and "Freedom for Kashmir!". Authorities have responded with bullets, tear gas, curfews and arrests.
The latest wave of unrest started on June 11 when a 17-year old student died after being hit by a teargas shell fired by police during an anti-India demonstration in Srinagar, Indian Kashmir''s summer capital.
Tufail Matoo was not part of the protest and was carrying his school bag when he was hit, his family said.
Since then seven other young Kashmiris have been killed during protests and another has died from serious skull injuries after being allegedly beaten-up by paramilitary soldiers.
The strikes, protests and growing ill-will are putting pressure on the young, British-born chief minister of the volatile Muslim-majority region, Omar Abdullah, a scion of Kashmir''s main political dynasty.
He came to office last year, promising to reduce the estimated 500,000 Indian troops in the Himalayan state and also to improve human rights.
"Omar (Abdullah) is facing a very serious challenge. The situation is fast getting out of control," the editor of leading Urdu weekly "Chattan" (Rock), Tahir Mohiudin, told AFP. "His seriousness on improving human rights is now being questioned," he said, adding the present situation has been "mishandled as security forces have used excessive force."
Leading separatist and chief priest of the region''s main mosque, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, called at the weekend for Abdullah to resign "because he has failed to protect the lives of Kashmiris."
Meanwhile, five suspected insurgents and three Indian soldiers died in a fierce gunbattle in divided Kashmir when the militants tried to cross over from Pakistan into the Indian-controlled portion, an army officer said Tuesday, reports AP.
Meanwhile, tension has been rising in other areas of Kashmir as government forces allegedly have killed at least eight other people over the past two weeks during protests demanding the region''s independence from India.
Thousands of police in riot gear patrolled the main city, Srinagar, on Tuesday, and shops, businesses and government offices were shut.
Police and paramilitary soldiers drove through neighborhoods warning people to stay indoors and not participate in pro-independence protests, said Afaq Wani, a Srinagar resident. He said it was almost a curfew-like situation.
Sajad Ahmed, a local police officer, said that no curfew has been imposed but that the state government has banned the assembly in public of more than five people. Troops also erected steel barricades and laid razor wire across main roads to prevent public gatherings.
"We''re imposing restrictions to avoid clashes," Ahmed said. Similar restrictions were also imposed in several other towns in the region. In the violence-torn town of Sopore, 35 miles (55 kilometers) northwest of Srinagar, an indefinite curfew was in force for the fifth consecutive day.
The gunbattle near the India-Pakistan frontier broke out on Monday when a group of suspected militants infiltrated into Indian territory in the Nowgam sector, Col. Vineet Sood, an army spokesman, said Tuesday.
Nuclear-armed Pakistan and India have fought two wars over Kashmir and, since 1989, Muslim militants have fought in Indian-controlled Kashmir for independence or merger with Pakistan.
India accuses Pakistan of funding and training militants in the Pakistani-held portion of Kashmir and helping them slip over to the Indian side to fight. Islamabad denies the charge. More than 68,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in the conflict since 1989.

Aquino to probe corruption charge against Arroyo

MANILA, June 29: Incoming Philippine president Benigno Aquino announced today he would set up a "truth commission" to investigate the alleged crimes of outgoing leader Gloria Arroyo and her allies, reports AFP.
He said the commission would look into a wide range of controversies surrounding Arroyo''s nine-and-a-half years in power, including allegations she cheated to win the 2004 presidential election.
"This truth commission is the body that I promised the people I would set up to put a closure to so many issues," Aquino told reporters a day ahead of his inauguration.
"(It) will as necessary, prepare and prosecute the cases to make sure that those who committed crimes against the people will be made to pay."
Arroyo, who is required by constitutional term limits to step down, will leave office as one of the nation''s most unpopular leaders after being hounded by accusations of vote rigging and massive corruption.
She has consistently denied any wrongdoing and avoided three impeachment attempts against her, although this was due to her party''s control of parliament. Aquino, one of Arroyo''s fiercest critics, said the truth commission would look into "any and all" controversies surrounding the departing president.
He specifically named three issues, the first being allegations she rigged the 2004 elections.
He said the commission would also look into a 329-million-dollar Internet broadband deal with a Chinese company that was eventually derailed following accusations Arroyo''s allies had illegally profited from the planned contract.
He also said it would probe the alleged misuse by Arroyo''s political allies of a 728-million- peso (15.68-million-dollar) government fertiliser fund.
Aquino emphasised that he wanted the commission to file criminal cases as soon as it had enough evidence, rather than engaging in lengthy studies.
He said retired chief justice Hilario Davide would head the commission.
"I want an independent commission that will be beyond criticism so their findings won''t be manufactured results for political purposes, but based on solid evidence and facts," he said.
Following the announcement, Arroyo''s spokesman, Gary Olivar, repeated the president''s position that she believed any inquiry would find her innocent.
"We are confident that this commission, provided it acts with due process and provides all the necessary protection to the people being investigated, will again exonerate the president," he told AFP.
He expressed confidence in the integrity of Davide, who he recalled had sworn Arroyo into office in 2001.
Aquino rode to a landslide win in the May 10 national elections partly on a promise to fight political corruption that he said thrived under Arroyo''s reign.
Despite low popularity ratings nationwide, Arroyo won a seat in the lower house of parliament representing her home town.
Her critics have said she took the unprecedented step for a sitting president to run for a parliamentary seat partly as a political shield against any corruption probe.
Arroyo would not have immunity against prosecution, but she could use her position in Congress to rally her allies to support her in any probe, analysts said.
Aquino made the announcement about the truth commission as he unveiled his new cabinet.

Thousands stage protest in Greece as strike cripples life

ATHENS, June 29: Thousands demonstrated in Athens and major cities today and travellers faced fresh travel misery as the country was gripped by the fifth general strike this year against tough austerity policies, reports AFP.
Over 15,000 people according to police estimates took part in street protests in the capital and the main northern city of Thessaloniki to force the government to abandon an EU and IMF-mandated pay and pension cuts.
The main demonstration in Athens called by the country''s largest labour unions and leftist parties attracted around 5,000 participants, police said.
Some 4,000 people of all ages, down to babies in prams, had marched in the capital earlier under another protest called by Communist-affiliated workers.
A giant banner on a crane hung over the protesters, calling on the ruling Socialists to scrap an accord with Brussels and the IMF that secured a huge bailout loan for Greece in return for sweeping pay and pension cuts.
"When injustice becomes law, resistance is a duty," read another banner.
Another 7,000 people marched in two separate demonstrations in the main northern city of Thessaloniki according to the police.
The general strike put travellers through a gauntlet for the second time in a week as it disrupted departures from the capital.
Thousands of travellers to the Greek islands were prevented from sailing as at least four scheduled ferry services to the Aegean were cancelled.
Some 500 Communist-affiliated strikers at the harbour also blocked the departure of smaller vessels to islands closer to Athens.
The authorities managed to keep the lanes open in the early morning and got a handful of ferries through by dispatching around 1,000 coastguards and police to keep unionists at bay.
Greece''s main airlines grounded nearly 50 of Tuesday''s domestic flights because of the strike while rail access to Athens airport was also impeded.
Intercity trains also ran a reduced service along with hospitals while state offices shut down altogether.
No news was broadcast as journalists joined the action.
On June 23, another one-day protest had stranded thousands of travellers at Piraeus, one of the Mediterranean Sea''s busiest ports, for hours.
The recurring labour unrest has cost Greece booking cancellations and millions of euros in damages at a time when the debt-hit nation is struggling to maximise its revenues and revive its flagging economy.
"Greek islanders are counting on the next month for funds," Manolis Galanakis, deputy chairman of Greek coastal shipping associations, told Mega television.
He added that some 18,000 people were originally scheduled to sail from Piraeus on Tuesday.
A court late on Monday declared the ferry strike illegal but the Communist party and its related syndicates dismissed the ruling.
"Legality is relative. How can someone losing their job be considered legal?" the head of the Piraeus labour centre Nikos Xourafis told the television station.
Tourism contributes 17 percent of Greece''s gross domestic product.
Lawmakers on Tuesday were to begin discussing a disputed pension reform tabled by the government that raises the general retirement age to 65 years for both men and women for the first time.
It also increases the mandatory period in the workforce from 37 to 40 years and cracks down on early retirement.

Furious US lawmaker blocks Afghan aid

WASHINGTON, June 29: A senior US lawmaker on Monday angrily blocked billions of dollars in aid to Afghanistan, vowing not to give "one more dime" until Afghan President Hamid Karzai acts against corruption, reports AFP.
Representative Nita Lowey, who sits on the powerful committee in charge of the budget, said she would hold hearings into allegations that top Afghan officials flew suitcases full of cash from US aid to foreign safe havens.
"I do not intend to appropriate one more dime for assistance to Afghanistan until I have confidence that US taxpayer money is not being abused to line the pockets of corrupt Afghan government officials, drug lords and terrorists," she said.
An aide to Lowey said that President Barack Obama''s administration requested 3.9 billion dollars in aid for Afghanistan in the 2011 fiscal year, which starts in October.
Lowey, a member of Obama''s Democratic Party from New York, said she would refuse to consider any assistance for Afghanistan other than "life-saving humanitarian aid" when her subcommittee meets on the budget on Wednesday.
"Too many Americans are suffering in this economy for us to put their hard-earned tax dollars into the hands of criminals overseas," Lowey said in a statement.
"We will not commit billions more in taxpayer money for Afghanistan until there are assurances that such funds will be used for their intended purposes and that the government of Afghanistan is willing and able to root out corruption within its ranks," she said.
Lowey heads the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations. Her decision would not affect military appropriations, which are handled by a separate subcommittee.
Lowey was responding to a report in The Wall Street Journal that US investigators suspect that Afghan officials stuffed suitcases full of cash siphoned from Western aid projects and flew them out of Kabul airport.
The report said more than three billion dollars has been legally declared to leave Kabul International Airport over the past three years, a figure so large for such a poor country that it triggered concerns.
Separately, The Washington Post ran a front-page story Monday saying that top officials in Karzai''s government have often blocked corruption investigations.
Transparency International, a watchdog, has ranked
Afghanistan as the world''s most corrupt nation-worse even than Somalia which has no effective government.

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