Pakistan to hold general election on May 11

Zardari said that a caretaker government would be set up to handle preparations for the vote [EPA]

Pakistan will hold a general election on May 11 in a move that marks the first democratic transition of power in the country's 66-year existence. The government became the first to see out a full five-year term on Saturday, despite Taliban violence, record sectarian unrest, chronic power cuts and a fragile economy. A spokesman for President Asif Ali Zardari said on Wednesday that a caretaker government would be set up to handle preparations for the vote. "The president received a summary from the government asking him to announce a suitable date for the election, so the president announced today that general elections to the national assembly will be held on May 11," spokesman Farhatullah Babar said. So far the ruling Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-N, the main opposition party headed by Nawaz Sharif, who served as prime minister twice, have failed to come up with a consensus candidate for prime minister. An eight-member committee consisting of equal members from both parties is meeting on Wednesday to come up with a candidate they each agree on.

Bangladesh tense amid war crime protests

Bangladesh continues to face political and social unrest over trial of opposition Jamaat-e-Islami leaders accused of involvement in murder and other atrocities during country's liberation war in 1971.

Police on Monday shot dead a protester in demonstrations in eastern Bangladesh amid a nationwide strike called by the Jamaat-e-Islami party.

Authorities kept schools and colleges open and many businesses reopened on Monday.
Jamaat, the country's largest Islamic party, called the strike to protest against the death last Friday of four of its activists in police shooting in the southeastern city of Cox's Bazaar.

At least 14 people have been killed so far during protests against government trials of Jamaat leaders.

Monday’s violence erupted in the town of Chouddogram, a day after Bangladesh parliament amended war crime laws to allow groups, not just individuals, to be prosecuted for war crimes.

The amendment will "empower the tribunals to try and punish any organisations, including Jamaat-e-Islami, for committing crimes during country's liberation war in 1971", Shafique Ahmed, Bangladesh law minister, said.

Amendment cheered
Tens of thousands of demonstrators have been camping in the central Shahbag Square in the capital, Dhaka, for the last couple of weeks demanding capital punishment for those found guilty.

The protests come after a tribunal this month sentenced a prominent Jamaat-e-Islami leader to life in prison in connection with Bangladesh's 1971 war of independence from Pakistan.
The opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) of Begum Khaleda Zia, former prime minister, and its Jamaat allies have been boycotting sessions almost since her rival, Sheikh Hasina Wajed, the current prime minister, took office in 2009.
Protests erupted after Abdul Quader Mollah, Jamaat's assistant secretary-general, was sentenced to life for murder, rape and torture.
Lawyers said Sunday's amendment sets a timetable for the government to appeal against Mollah's sentence and secure a retrial.

India gang-rape suspects plead not guilty

start of the trial.

The gang rape case ignited nationwide demonstrations by protesters demanding better safety for women [AFP]
Five men have pleaded not guilty to charges they gang-raped and murdered an Indian trainee physiotherapist, in a
case that led to a shake-up of laws against sexual crimes after protests about a rising number of attacks on women.
The men on Saturday entered the court room with their faces covered, and lawyers in the case said they were read 13
charges including murder, which carries a maximum penalty of death. They left after 15 minutes.
"After the judge read out the charges, the five pleaded not guilty and walked out" said A.P. Singh, a lawyer defending
two of the accused, Vinay Sharma and Akshay Thakur.
Singh said the next hearing will be held on February 5, when the prosecution will call three witnesses to the formal
A sixth person police say was part of the gang that attacked the woman and her friend is a juvenile and will be tried
separately.
Police say the gang lured the 23-year-old physiotherapy student onto a bus, where they repeatedly raped and
assaulted her with a metal bar before throwing her bleeding onto a highway. She died of internal injuries two weeks
later.
The case ignited nationwide demonstrations by protesters demanding better safety for women.
Harsher punishments
On Friday, India's cabinet approved harsher punishments for rapists, including the death penalty.
The changes, which must be approved by President Pranab Mukherjee to become law, include doubling the minimum
sentence for gang-rape and imposing the death penalty when the victim is killed or left in a vegetative state.
"We have taken swift action and hope these steps will make women feel safer in the country," Law Minister Ashwani
Kumar told reporters late on Friday.2/3/13
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Source: Agencies
"This is a progressive piece of legislation and is consistent with the felt sensitivities of the nation in the aftermath of
the outrageous gang-rape," he added.
The gang-rape victim's brother on Saturday praised the cabinet's decision to make sentences tougher for attackers,
calling it a "positive initiative", according to the Press Trust of India news agency.
The changes to the rape laws were expected to be approved by Mukherjee as early as this weekend but must be
ratified by parliament or they will lapse.
Under the changes, the minimum sentence for gang-rape, rape of a minor, rape by policemen or a person in authority
will be doubled to 20 years from 10 and can be extended to life without parole.
Under the current law, a rapist faces a term of seven to 10 years, The cabinet has also created a new set of offences
such as voyeurism and stalking that will be included in the new law

Nepal Maoists vow no return to warfare

party's chairman.

Party that fought armed rebellion said it will back independent prime minister to hold democratic
elections.
Last Modified: 02 Feb 2013 16:502/3/13
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Around 3,000 delegates and 100,000 supporters attended the party's first general convention in 21 years [AFP]
Nepal's Maoists have vowed to never to guerilla warfare and said they are willing to back an independent prime
minister, after holding their party's general convention.
Party leaders said at the general convention in Hetauda on Saturday that they would step down from government to
seek a popular mandate to lead a "socialist revolution", six years after a decade-long armed rebellion which toppled
the world's last Hindu monarchy.
"Let's agree on an independent person who will lead the government. And we will endorse this concept of a
government led by an independent person to hold the election through this convention," said Pushpa Kamal Dahal, the
Around 3,000 delegates and 100,000 supporters at the party's first general convention in 21 years in the southern
town of Hetauda were greeted by a rousing opening address from Dahal, still known by his nom-de-guerre Prachanda.
"We were forced to launch the insurgency after adopting Marxism as a guiding principle. But we don't follow any
ideology in its mechanical form. It's a science and it can be adapted," Prachanda said.

Mass funerals in Pakistan after Taliban raid

Funeral prayers have been held in the northwestern Pakistani town of Bannu for nine solders killed in an attack at an
army post that killed at least 35 people.
Taliban fighters wearing suicide vests fired automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades at the base in Serai
Naurang in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in a pre-dawn raid on Saturday, officials said. At least 10 civilians and
12 fighters were among the dead.
The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for Saturday's attack. Spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan told The
Associated Press that the attack was in retaliation for the recent deaths of two Taliban commanders in US drone
strikes.
He accused the Pakistani army of helping with the attacks.2/3/13
Source: Al Jazeera and agencies
Pakistani officials often criticise drone operations as a violation of the country's sovereignty, but are known to have
assisted some US strikes in the past.
A police official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to brief the media, said he saw
the bodies of three attackers with their suicide vests intact.
The raid came a day after a suicide bombing at a Shia mosque elsewhere in the northwest that killed 24 people,
police said. The blast at the mosque was the latest in a rising number of sectarian attacks in the country.
The Pakistani Taliban also claimed responsibility for that attack.
The Taliban and allied armed groups have stepped up the pace of attacks in Pakistan in recent months, an indication
of their strength despite numerous army operations against their strongholds in the northwest.