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Asian Voice - Saturday 1st October 2011
In focus Michael Sata wins Zambia presidential poll
Lusaka: Michael Sata, who lost three previous ballots but steadily built his own organization over the last decade, defeated the incumbent in Zambia's presidential elections, Electoral Commission said. With tallies completed from nearly all the country's 150 constituencies, Sata won with 1,150,045 votes, or 43 per cent of the total. President Rupiah Banda had 961,796 votes, or 36.1 per cent. Eight other candidates shared the remainder, Irene Mambilima, the Electoral Commission's chairwoman, announced on Friday.
Saudi women gain right to vote, run in polls Jeddah: Saudi Arabia will allow women to stand for election and vote, the king announced on Sunday, in a significant policy shift in the conservative Islamic kingdom . In a five-minute speech, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud said women would also take part in the next session of the unelected, advisory Shura Council, which vets legislation but has no binding powers. "Because we refuse to marginalize women in society in all roles that comply with sharia, we have decided, after deliberation with our senior ulama (clerics) and others... to involve women in the Shura Council as members, starting from the next term," he said in a speech delivered to the advisory body. "Women will be able to run as candidates in the municipal election and will even have a right to vote." Women's rights are regarded as a litmus test for the government's appetite for social and political reform.
Japan launches new spy satellite Tokyo: Japan launched a new spy satellite into orbit, in its latest effort to beef up surveillance against the threat of North Korean missiles. The Japanese H-2A rocket carrying a new information-gathering optical satellite lifted off from the Tanegashima Space Center in southwestern Japan. Japan currently has three informationgathering satellites in orbit and the latest satellite will replace one of them which has passed its use-by date. The three are all optical satellites, which can capture images in daylight and in clear weather. In the next two years, Japan plans to launch two radar satellites, which can capture images at night and in cloudy weather.
2 IITians among 400 richest Americans Washington: Two Indian Institute of Technology alumni have made it to Forbes' list of the 400 richest Americans topped for the 18th year in a row by Bill Gates with Warren Buffett second. According to the US business magazine Forbes, Bharat Desai with $1.35 billion gets the 329th spot with Vinod Khosla two notches below at 331st place with $1.3 billion. Kenya born Syntel co-founder Desai, 58, an IIT, Bombay graduate founded the outsourcing outfit in 1980, took the company public in 1997 and now has some 16,200 employees. Fellow IITian Vinod Khosla, 56, according to Forbes "is the rare Silicon Valley venture capitalist able to generate profits from a clean tech portfolio."
US soldier jailed for Afghan murder Tacoma: The youngest of five US soldiers accused of killing unarmed Afghan civilians in cold blood was sentenced to seven years in prison for gunning down a teenage boy whose corpse he posed with as if it were a trophy. Andrew Holmes pleaded guilty to a single count of murder - reduced in a deal with prosecutors from the more serious charge of premeditated murder admitting he made a "bad decision" when he shot the young villager at close range. "I wish I could tell the father and brothers in Afghanistan I'm sorry," the tearful 21-year-old Army private said.
US to sell arms to Taiwan, infuriates China Washington: The US has announced a $5.85 billion arms sales to Taiwan, including upgrading its 145 F-16 fighter jets, a decision which immediately infuriated China which warned the move will hurt Sino-US defence ties. "It is our strong view that these sales will make a significant contribution to Taiwan's air defense capabilities because it is upgrading the backbone capability of Taiwan's air force," US assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell told reporters.
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Terror plotter Rana seeks a fresh trial Chicago: Pakistan-born Canadian Tahawwur Rana, convicted of aiding Pakistan based terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) held responsible for the November 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai, is seeking a fresh trial. Cleared of any involvement in the Mumbai attacks, but facing a stiff sentence for providing material support to LeT in a foiled plot to attack a Danish newspaper Jyllands Posten, he has argued in new court filings that he should have been given separate trials for the two plots, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
arousing suspicion. Rana's lawyers argue in new federal court filings that Rana should be granted another trial because, if the Mumbai evidence were not put before jurors, the panel would not have convicted him on the other counts, the Sun-Times said. Attorneys argue that prosecutors improperly sought to tie the two plots together, prejudicing jurors. 'Rana should not have been forced to defend the Mumbai and Denmark plots simultaneously,' Rana's lawyers wrote. 'Charges of involvement in a single terrorist plot creates immense fear,
prejudice, and the risk of emotion overwhelming a jury even in the best of circumstances. Forcing a defendant to defend two terrorist plots simultaneously is simply untenable.' They also argue that the convictions should be thrown out because the bulk of the government's evidence came from emails, recorded telephone calls and recorded conversations that they had access to under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Rana's lawyers say that the act is supposed to be used to collect intelligence, not for criminal prosecutions.
Nasa satellite remains lost for ever
Putin to run for presidency in 2012
Cape Canaveral (Florida): A six tonne Nasa science satellite crashed to Earth on Saturday, leaving a mystery about where the space debris may have landed. The US space agency said it believes the debris ended up in the Pacific Ocean, but the precise time of the bus-sized satellite's re-entry and the location of its debris field have not been determined. The Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite, or UARS, ended 20 years in orbit with a suicidal plunge into the atmosphere on Saturday, Nasa said. The satellite would have been torn apart during the fiery re-
Successor chosen by Dalai Lama 'illegal': China Beijing: China said that any successor chosen by the Dalai Lama would be "illegal" after the Tibetan spiritual leader announced that he, and not Beijing, would decide whether he should be reincarnated. The Dalai Lama, who is 76, said that he would decide when he was "about 90" whether he should be reincarnated, in consultation with other monks, and that China should have no say in the matter. Under Tibetan tradition, monks identify a young boy who shows signs he is a reincarnation of a late leader, but many predict China will simply appoint its own successor to the Dalai Lama. "The title of Dalai Lama is conferred by the central government and is illegal otherwise.
Tahawwur Rana
Rana's eight-day trial in Chicago last June featured the testimony of his boyhood friend, admitted terror plotter David Coleman Headley, US-born son of a Pakistani father and an American mother who changed his given name of Daood Gilani in 2006 to scout targets for the Mumbai attacks without
entry, but about 26 pieces, the largest of which was estimated to have weighed 150 kg, likely survived the fall, officials said. As it fell to Earth, UARS passed from the east coast of Africa over the Indian Ocean, then the Pacific Ocean, across northern Canada and the northern Atlantic Ocean to a point over West Africa. Most of the transit was over water, with some flight over northern Canada and West Africa, Nasa said. "Because we don't know where the re-entry point actually was, we don't know where the debris field might be," said Nicholas Johnson, chief
orbital debris scientist at Nasa's Johnson Space Center in Houston. "We may never know." Stretching 35 feet long and 15 feet in diameter, UARS was among the largest spacecraft to plummet uncontrollably through the atmosphere , although it is a slim cousin to Nasa's 75-tonne Skylab station, which crashed to Earth in 1979. Russia's last space station, the 135tonne Mir, crashed into the Pacific Ocean in 2001, but it was a guided descent. Nasa now plans for the controlled re-entry of large spacecraft, but there was no provision in case of UARS when it was designed.
Moscow: Vladimir Putin agreed to run for the Russian presidency in 2012, almost certainly ensuring his return to the office he previously held for eight years and likely foreshadowing more years of strongman rule. His United Russia party also approved his proposal that the current president Dmitry Medvedev take over his Putin’s role as PM. Putin ruled Russia as president from 2000-2008 with a steely command that was widely criticized in the West. Because constitutional changes have extended the presidential term to six years from four, Putin's power is likely to be even more enhanced.
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