Pakistani family stand trial for ‘honour killing’

MONS, Belgium: A Pakistani family of four went on trial on Monday for the “honour killing” of their 20-year-old child and sister, who defied them by living with a Belgian and refusing an arranged marriage. Sadia Sheikh, a Belgian law student of Pakistani origin, was shot dead by three bullets allegedly fired by her older brother Mudusar on October 22, 2007, when visiting her family in the hopes of patching up their quarrel. Her parents and sister are accused of aiding and abetting the killing. The four face sentences of life imprisonment if found guilty by a jury of five women and seven men at a high-profile trial also involving rights groups pleading for gender equality as part of a civil suit at the hearings. The trial...

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Posted in: INTERNATIONAL

Afghan team to Pakistan in Rabbani probe: official

KABUL: Afghanistan is sending an official delegation to Pakistan “soon” to investigate the killing of Kabul’s peace envoy, a presidential spokesman said Monday. Pakistan has agreed to accept the delegation, spokesman Aimal Faizi told reporters, adding that it could leave as early as Tuesday. Rabbani was assassinated by a turban bomber at his Kabul home in September in a move which stalled efforts to talk peace with the Taliban in Afghanistan. Afghan officials say the killing was planned in Pakistan and carried out by a Pakistani suicide bomber. They have also previously accused Pakistan of refusing to cooperate in the probe. But at a conference in Istanbul earlier this month, the two sides agreed to cooperate on an investigation...

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Twenty-two dead as clashes rock Cairo’s Tahrir Square

CAIRO: Fresh clashes erupted on Monday in Cairo’s Tahrir Square between police and protesters demanding the end of military rule, as the death toll climbed to 22 and the spiralling unrest threatened to overshadow the first polls since Hosni Mubarak’s ouster. Police and military forces sporadically used batons, tear gas and birdshot to try to clear the central square of thousands of protesters demanding for a third straight day that the ruling military cede power to a civilian authority. But by mid-morning Monday large crowds were again streaming to Tahrir, the symbolic heart of demonstrations that toppled Mubarak in February, correspondents said. The health ministry said 22 people had died in the violence, kicking off a violent...

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No pattern to rogue Afghan attacks: Australian PM

SYDNEY: Prime Minister Julia Gillard on Monday said Australia would not abandon Afghanistan, despite suffering a spate of deadly attacks by rogue Afghan troops. In an address to parliament on the decade-old conflict, Gillard said there was no evidence to suggest the attacks, in which four Australians have died this year, were part of a pattern. In the worst of three incidents this year, an Afghan opened fire on a parade in October, killing three Australians and wounding seven others. In May, an Australian lance corporal was shot dead by an Afghan with whom he was sharing guard duties at a patrol base in the Chora Valley, and earlier this month an Afghan soldier opened fire on Australians, seriously wounding three. The...

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Posted in: INTERNATIONAL