Bollywood star Shahrukh Khan angers regional party

Police officers patrol near a Hindi poster of Bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan's new film "My Name is Khan" outside a movie hall in Mumbai, India, Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2010. Police in Mumbai detained more than 1,100 Hindu nationalists after mobs tore up movie posters, stoned a theater and threatened to disrupt the opening of Khan's new movie because of comments he made about Pakistan cricketers, officials said Wednesday

MUMBAI, India — Hindu nationalist mobs rampaged through India's cultural center Wednesday, tearing up movie posters and stoning a theater in protest of Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan's comments in support of Pakistani cricketers.
Police in Mumbai said they had detained more than 1,100 Hindu nationalists to prevent the disruption of screenings of Khan's new movie, "My Name is Khan."
Senior police official Himanshu Roy said 21,000 police would guard the more than 60 theaters in Mumbai that plan to screen the film and would frisk movie-goers.
"More security would be provided if needed," he said.
The Shiv Sena, a Mumbai-centered political party known for regional chauvinism and Hindu fundamentalism, has branded Khan a traitor for expressing regret that no cricketers from Pakistan — India's archrival — were chosen to participate in next month's Indian Premier League Twenty20 tournament.
Khan, who is Muslim, has refused to apologize for the comments.
Shiv Sena activists rampaged through parts of Mumbai for a second day Wednesday, ripping down posters for Khan's highly promoted new movie. They attacked at least one cinema planning to screen the film, to be released Friday, and burned effigies of the actor.
Roy said 1,100 people were detained Tuesday and Wednesday.
Fearing more violence, several theaters have stopped advance ticket sales.
The Shiv Sena — which means Shiva's Army — has lost some influence in recent years but remains a force in Mumbai, where it combines hard-line Hindu politics with sporadic violence.

Suicide bomb hits Pakistan police, kills 13

A suicide bomber has struck a police patrol vehicle in Pakistan's tribal belt on the Afghan border, killing 13 people, including seven policemen, officials said.

The blast tore through the vehicle in the Wazirdand area of Khyber, the infamous mountain district that straddles a main supply line for NATO troops in Afghanistan and is a hotbed of homegrown Taliban-linked militant groups.
Three other vehicles were heavily damaged by flying shrapnel. The shoes and slippers of victims were scattered across the blood-spattered road, witnesses said.
"The death toll has risen to 13. Seven are khasadar (tribal policemen) and we are trying to ascertain the identity of six others," Shafeerullah Wazir, the administration chief of Khyber, said.
Wazirdand is a small town near Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar and on the edge of the tribal belt, which lies outside direct government control and has been branded by US officials as the headquarters of Al Qaeda.
There was no claim of responsibility, but Taliban and Al Qaeda-linked militants have killed around 3,000 people in bomb attacks across Pakistan since July 2007 to oppose the government's alliance with the US.
The suicide bomber struck hours after a Pakistani military helicopter crashed in Khyber while operating against militants, officials said.
The fate of the two people on board was not immediately clear.

Provision of justice not sole duty of courts: CJ

The duty of the judiciary was to preserve and protect the constitution, interpret laws, enforce fundamental rights and settle disputes, said Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.

ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry said on Tuesday that it was a “wrong notion” that administration of justice in a country like Pakistan was “the sole duty of courts or the legal fraternity”.
“For such a wrong notion, the allied institutions have started feeling relaxed as a result whereof good governance is being compromised,” the chief justice said at a full-court reference held to bid farewell to Justice Sardar Mohammad Raza Khan, who retired on Tuesday. “Judiciary’s main concern is to strengthen the institutional framework for the rule of law to command public respect and to remain independent and sensitive to the suffering of the people. Only by adhering to these principles, good governance could be achieved,” the chief justice emphasised.

He said that when any of the three organs of government, legislature, executive and judiciary, became ineffective or was not working according to its constitutional mandate, lack of good governance resulted.

The duty of the judiciary, the chief justice said, was to preserve and protect the constitution, interpret laws, enforce fundamental rights and settle disputes. Without an independent, impartial and effective judiciary, a civilised society is hardly conceivable.

“A country cannot claim to have good governance without providing easy, affordable, speedy and impartial justice to the people. A sound judicial system and good governance are key factors in stability and economic growth of a country,” the chief justice said.

Attorney General Anwar Mansoor said the judicial branch in the equation of power between the three pillars had been the weakest, by design, and the least powerful.

“The executive not only dispenses the honours, but also holds the sword of the community, while the legislature not only commands the process, but also prescribes the rules by which the duties and rights of citizens are to be regulated.”

The judiciary on the contrary, the AG said, had no influence either over the sword or the purse, no direction either of the strength or the wealth of society and could take no decision whatsoever. He said the judiciary only passed judgment and ultimately depended on the aid of the executive arm even for the efficacy of its judgments.

Supreme Court Bar Association President Qazi Mohammad Anwar expressed dismay over what he called indifferent attitude of the federal government to implementation of the apex court judgment on NRO. He said the government was earlier waiting for the detailed verdict, but after its release Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani stated in parliament that he had issued orders for implementation of the judgment and that the judgment could not be implemented against President Asif Zardari because he enjoyed immunity under the Constitution.

“The prime minister’s statement poses serious threat to the system, especially to democracy, rule of law and constitutionalism,” Qazi Anwar said, adding that decisions of the Supreme Court had an inbuilt mechanism of execution and did not require approval or directives of the prime minister.

“The prime minister’s statement suggests that it is he who has to decide what portion of the judgment is to be implemented and which portion is to be kept pending. We do not accept any supervisory role of the prime minister,” the SCBA president added.

Another area of concern for the legal fraternity, Qazi Anwar said, was about recommendations of the chief justice for appointments of judges in the Supreme Court, including an ad hoc appointment. The government, he said, had violated the Constitution by making such recommendations public and disputed.

He also expressed concern over non-implementation of recommendations made by the chief justices for filling vacancies in high courts. “Efforts to divide us have failed in the past and efforts to blackmail us in the name of proposed constitutional amendments are bound to fail,” he said. Qazi Anwar said that a meeting of the National Coordination Council at the Rawalpindi High Court Bar Association on Feb 14 would review these issues.

The chairman of the Pakistan Bar Council’s Executive Committee, Chaudhry Nasrullah Warraich, and Justice Raza Khan also spoke at the full-court reference.

Google Buzz to take on Twitter and Facebook

The service integrates directly with Gmail

Google has unveiled its latest step towards world domination, Google Buzz. Going head-to-head against Twitter and Facebook and integrated directly into GMail, users will be able to post status updates, share content and comment on friends' posts and updates.

With around 10million GMail users Google is hoping to nab Facebook's mobile market and jump on Twitter's bandwagon with its army or loyal followers. Taking the "good bits" from the pair of social networks, Buzz messages will appear directly in a users' inbox highlighted with a "buzz symbol", private status updates will appear on a users profile page and public updates are fed into search engine results.

Taking another chunk from Twitter, Buzzers (or Buzzards as we've taken to calling them) will also be able to follow people that share updates as well as like or dislike what they have to say.

Google Buzz product manager Todd Jackson described it as "an entirely new world in Gmail" during a press event at Google headquarters in Mountain View.

Roll-out of the tool starts today but some Gmail users will have to miss out on the Buzz for a few days yet as a note on the website reads: "We're still rolling out Buzz to everyone, so if you don't see it in your Gmail account yet, check back soon."

Opposition Protestors Rumble in Colombo

Supporters of former army commander General Sarath Fonseka throw rocks at supporters of President Mahinda Rajapaksa in Colombo.

• It was a typical hot, balmy day in Colombo when protestors supporting Sarath Fonseka, the retired general and defeated presidential candidate now under arrest and facing court marshal, gathered near the Supreme Court complex in the capital Colombo.

Trouble was in the air. Another group was mingling near the statue of former president Ranasinghe Premadasa, holding posters of President Mahinda Rajapaksa. The opposition had scheduled to hold a protest — the first of many according to organizers — demanding the release of Fonseka near the statue. Police, some in riot gear and with water canons at the ready, stationed themselves between the two groups to prevent any clash. (Read a 2-minute bio of Fonseka.)
As the Fonseka supporters moved near the yellow barricades set up by the police, their shouts grew louder. They pushed, they shoved and they pleaded with police to let them pass. The pleading and the shouting went on for awhile, while some 100 meters away, on a small grassy knoll, another crowd had gathered, armed with stones, bottles and sticks. They were eyeing each other ominously, until the pro-Fonseka crowd grew in number and in noise and pushed the barricade down. They marched towards the knoll and stones, bottles, sticks began flying first at them and then from them as clashes erupted between the two crowds.
General Sarath Fonseka, the defeated candidate in Sri Lanka's recent presidential election, was arrested by military police at his home in Colombo on the night of Feb. 8 on charges of plotting to overthrow the government while still in service, harbouring army deserters and corruption. The Feb. 8 arrest was the culmination of two weeks of tension and charge-trading between the government and Fonseka camps. On Jan. 26, hundreds of armed troops surrounded Fonseka and his team inside a five star hotel in Colombo on the eve of the election. The government has declined to disclose where the general is being held, citing security reasons, though his family and lawyers have been given access to him, according to the media minister. (Watch a video about the final days of Sri Lanka's civil war.)
Windscreens on police vehicles shattered as large stones hit them. Numbers on their side, the Fonseka supporters started chasing their attackers through narrow alleyways of the city center, while high-ranking police officers gave the orders to launch the water cannons and the tear gas. By around noon, the main road leading to the country's highest court resembled a small battle field. The thuds of gas rifles echoed thorough the government housing complex nearby as police tried to stop Fonseka supporters in their chase. The clashes left eight injured, though none seriously.
In the end, a crowd of some 2500 Fonseka supporters converged in front of the court complex, joined by leaders of opposition parties and Anoma Fonseka, wife of the general. During her husband's run for the presidency, Anoma made few appearances on the stump, but after his arrest, she has come to foreground. A day after his arrest, she tearfully met the media. "Why is he treated like this?" she asked tearfully. "He is a war hero, and now he is in jail." Fonseka's 40-year career culminated with the defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in May 2009, and brought to an end the bloody separatist war of over two and half decades.
Today, Anoma was more composed, drawing the largest and loudest cheers from the crowds. "These protestors have come here without us forcing them," opposition parliamentarian Mangala Samaraweera told TIME. "The fight for democracy is not dead." The opposition leaders surrounding the general's wife, too, vowed to continue to protest his arrest. "This is just the beginning. We will not stop until justice is done," said Somawansha Amarasinghe, the leader of the People's Liberation Front, a prominent opposition party that supported Fonseka in his campaign.
The government has maintained that the general has been taken into custody following correct procedure. Under Army Act, section 57, any retired officer or soldier is considered a military officer for six months [after retirement]," media minister Lakshman Yapa Abeyawardena told reporters today. Fonseka retired from the post of Chief of Defence Staff on November 12 last year. The government minister also warned that until court proceedings are concluded, any public expression of opinion over the matter is prohibited. "The opposition is trying to get innocent civilians onto the streets to achieve their political ends. They should not put innocent lives at risk," the government minister said.
Lawyers representing Fonseka are planning to petition the Supreme Court challenging his arrest and seeking a decision declaring the poll null and void, Tissa Athanayake the general secretary of the United National Party said. The opposition has already raised objections with the Elections Commissioner over vote rigging, but commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake has since declared the elections, that president Mahinda Rajapaksa won by a majority of 1.8 million votes, as fair.
One protest, however fiery is unlikely set off any tremors. Colombo was back to business soon after the protest was over. The traffic was once again bad, the buses were belching, and the heat unbearable. Die-hard Fonseka supporters have vowed to continue the protests that have yet to gain the support of wider civil society groups. "We will go on. We will not stop 'til our general is given back to us," Vinni Siegera, a middle aged woman who had come without any invitation to the rally told TIME, sweat beads pouring from a her forehead. The next few days will make it clear whether those like her will have wider support in the country.

Current Twitter trends: Choi Siwon, Google Buzz, 'one tweet breakup'

The 'now playing' hashtag has retaken the top position in the list of trending topics on Twitter on February 10 at 9:30 AM GMT.

Members of Korean boy bands are a popular topic of conversation on Twitter. This morning people are sending out birthday wishes to Super Junior member Choi Si-won. The singer and actor is celebrating his 23rd birthday on February 10.

A new social networking service is creating a buzz in the Twittersphere. Google Buzz "is a new way to start conversations about the things you find interesting," wrote a chorus of Twitter users reiterating Google's February 9 announcement.

Google Buzz is integrated into Google's email client, Gmail, and makes it easy for users to share short status updates, photos, videos and links both privately and publicly in real time.

Apple's tablet device, the iPad, remains unchanged in eighth position.

"#1tweetbreakup" moved into the ninth spot on Twitter's list of trending topics on February 10 as people tweeted about how they would use the social networking service to break up with someone. "It's not you it's your tweets", "you just don't tweet me like you use to" and "you are so not trending anymore!" were trending suggestions.

The top 10 most talked about topics on Twitter on February 10 at 9:30 AM GMT are:

1. #nowplaying (new)
2. #bayareafemales (new)
3. Choi Siwon (new)
4. Google Buzz (new)
5. #ShootUrSelf (new)
6. #OhJustLikeMe (+3)
7. #ihatequotes (new)
8. iPad (unchanged)
9. #1tweetbreakup (new)
10. Opera Mini (new)

China exports surge in January

February 10, 2010 - 10:14PM

China's exports surged 21 percent on-year in January, the government said Wednesday, after figures showed the Asian giant had overtaken Germany as the world's leading exporter in 2009.

Exports totalled 109.475 billion US dollars for the month, solidifying the turnaround recorded in December, according to figures released by the General Administration of Customs.

The figure however showed a 16.3 percent drop month-on-month.

China's trade surplus reached 14.17 billion US dollars in January, the figures showed.

On Tuesday, Germany surrendered to China the title of top global exporter it had claimed in 2003, as the country's trade suffered its sharpest slump since 1950, according to government data.

ECC makes NIC mandatory for people to get sugar from USC outlets

ISLAMABAD: In order to ensure an effective monitoring and vigilance system in the sale of sugar, the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) has made it mandatory for the people to produce the National Identity Cards to get a pack of 2 kgs of sugar from the USC outlets. The decision was taken in a meeting of the ECC held here at the PM Secretariat here on Tuesday under the chairmanship of the Federal Minister for Finance, Shaukat Tareen. According to a press release issued by the Finance Division, the ECC also allowed the allocation of additional 16 MMCFD gas to the Pakarab Fertilizer Limited from SNGPL system from 2012 upto 2019. The ECC also decided that the Shell’s offer at 15% Brent + $ 0.50 per MMBTU, subject to further improvement in the final round of negotiations will be accepted for up to 1MTPA Medium Term supplies of 6 years and 2.5 MTPA from 7 to 20 years. The ECC was told that the overall CPI-based inflation registered decrease of 0.49 percent in December 2009 over November, 2009. The stock of wheat as on January 31, 2010 amounted to 5.9 million tons as against 1.7 million tons in the same period last year, thereby showing a higher stock of about 4.2 million tons compared with last year. The meeting was informed that the trade deficit has been improved by 29.0 percent to $ 7.0 billion in July-December 2009-10 from $ 10.0 billion in the same period last year. The ECC noted that the workers’ remittances amounted to $ 4,531.0 million in July-December 2009-10 as against $ 3,640.0 million, showing an increase of 25.0 percent over the same period last year. The Foreign exchange reserves stood at $ 14.5 billion as on February 4, 2010 - up from $ 6.4 billion on November 25, 2008.—Agencies