Mid Day International News |
- I was sold every few months, recounts Pakistani woman
- Italian women to come together for 'knicker-throwing' Berlusconi protest
- Putin praises female students who posed for 'erotic' calendar
- UK convicts Muslim minister of rape, sexual acts
- Mubarak says he will quit, but only by September
- Russian spy Anna Chapman 'patents her name'
- Egyptian President Mubarak decides to quit
- Oldest person dies at 115
- Egypt Prez Mubarak to step down: TV reports
- China village builds 'Great Wall' to deter thieves
- When Naomi met Putin
| I was sold every few months, recounts Pakistani woman Posted: Recounting a harrowing tale of rape, torture and exploitation, a Pakistani woman who escaped after a year in captivity says she was sold to someone new every few months since being abducted by her husband's friend. "Every few months I was sold off to someone new and eventually I even began to forget where I was," said the 45-year-old woman, who was kidnapped from Karachi and finally managed to escape in Bhowana tehsil in Punjab province. She told the police that she had been passed off from one man to another and had been raped frequently over the year, Express Tribune reported Wednesday. The woman said that one of her husband's friends, Saad, visited them frequently. "One day he came to our house in my husband's absence and brought some sweets. I ate the sweets and fainted and he abducted me," she was quoted as saying. She told the police that she was taken Chiniot city in Punjab province, where she was forced to change her name. "Saad made me sign a nikahnama and forced me to change my name. He kept me for two months and then sold me for Rs.40,000 to his brother," she said. Saad's brother, Zahoor, too made her sign a marriage certificate. "He made me work around the house and tied me up in chains for three months. He would assault me every night," said Arifa with tears in her eyes. Three months later, Zahoor sold her to his nephew Ahmed, who was just 20 years old. He kept her for two months. "He (Ahmed) used to burn my body with hot iron and beat me but there was no one around for miles so I couldn't scream for help," she said. The victim tried to escape several times, but failed. "They kept moving me from one place to another. Every few months I was sold off to someone new and eventually I even began to forget where I was," she said, adding that Ahmed sold her two months later to two men for Rs 80,000. On Monday, she managed to escape through a window at 5.30 a.m. and ran for help. "I stopped at the first house I could find and implored for help," she said. Mazhar Jappa, who opened the door to the victim, said: "We found her begging for help outside the door and when I heard the story I told the police."
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| Italian women to come together for 'knicker-throwing' Berlusconi protest Posted: As if his sexcapades aren't enough to embarrass him, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is about to face more -- a group of women plan to throw pairs of knickers at his mansion in protest of his involvement in an alleged prostitution ring. The bizarre protest is against his apparent obsession with scantily clad showgirls. Thousands of women will also participate in the online campaign started by La Repubblica newspaper. "I'm a woman and I say enough," the Telegraph quoted many of the women as writing, while others submitted their photographs inscribed with messages condemning "men who buy and sell women's bodies." The demonstration in Milan will probably be attended by Umberto Eco, the author of The Name of the Rose, and Paul Ginsborg, a British historian who teaches at Florence University. And a civil society group, Liberty and Justice claims to have collected 100,000 signatures demanding that Mr Berlusconi resign immediately. "In no other democratic country would a prime minister, faced with such serious legal accusations, remain in office longer than a few hours," the group said in a statement.
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| Putin praises female students who posed for 'erotic' calendar Posted: Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is all praise for 12 female students who posed for an 'erotic' calendar to honour his 58th birthday. Putin told supermodel Naomi Campbell that they were 'courageous', reports British GQ magazine. "As student journalists, they couldn't fail to understand what might have been said to them after doing this," the Sydney Morning Herald quoted him as saying. "Nonetheless, they were not deterred and did the calendar anyway. So frankly that's what I liked the most." Twelve Moscow State University journalism students posed in lingerie to mark Putin's October 7 birthday with a calendar that was sold at Groupe Auchan SA supermarkets in Moscow for 259 rubles (8.75 pounds) apiece.
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| UK convicts Muslim minister of rape, sexual acts Posted: A British Muslim minister has been convicted for raping a 12-year-old boy, and sexually abusing another at a mosque in Stoke-on-Trent. Mohammed Hanif Khan, honoured by Princess Anne at Buckingham Palace for his work, had made the young boys his prey when they went to the mosque for religious lessons, the Sun reports. The 42-year-old imam raped a boy after prayers before telling the terrified victim: "You're my bitch." Angry relatives attacked Khan, and sent him behind bars after the boy related the incident to his father. His 15-year-old cousin also revealed that he was abused. Nottingham Crown Court remanded him in custody to await sentence after convicting him. Khan, who has married twice and whose mosque is the largest in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffs, was the Prison Service's first full-time Muslim minister.
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| Mubarak says he will quit, but only by September Posted: As protesters took out a 'march of a million' against his three-decade rule, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak finally announced that he would step down but not before the end of his term in September. In his televised speech on Tuesday night, the 82-year-old leader said he would not run for presidency for another term and pledged to ensure a smooth transfer of power after September, Xinhua reported. "My main responsibility is to ensure stability, and in the next few months I will work on the country's stability," he was quoted as saying. The president said that he would seek constitutional change, which controls the criteria of the candidacy of the next president. "I am a military man who served this country during war and peace and I will die on the soil of Egypt," Mubarak said. The announcement came after hundreds of thousands of protesters gathered at Cairo's Tahrir Square in a show of solidarity with the opposition groups which called for a 'march of a million', demanding immediate removal of Mubarak following eight days of unrest across the country. Responding to Mubarak's announcement, Egyptian reformist leader and former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency Mohammed ElBaradei said that Mubarak's speech did not meet the people's demand and asked for more immediate action. The people want Mubarak to leave as he has "lost his legitimacy", ElBaradei told al-Arabiya channel. US President Barack Obama said shortly after Mubarak's speech that Egypt's transition to democracy and toward free and fair elections "must begin now" and should allow all opposition figures to participate, DPA reported. "What is clear, and what I indicated tonight to President Mubarak is my belief that an orderly transition must be meaningful, it must be peaceful, and it must begin now," Obama said. Obama said Mubarak "recognises that the status quo is not sustainable and that a change must take place". Obama did not directly say whether Mubarak should have immediately stepped aside, but the Washington Post reported the White House would have preferred he relinquish power to an interim government until elections could be held. Protesters gathered in Cairo's central Tahrir Square appeared to reject Mubarak's pledge to step down at the end of his term, calling it was insufficient. Protesters earlier hung effigies of Mubarak by the neck, while large banners screaming "Leave!" were flown off apartments in Tahrir Square, demanding that the president step down. "Go Mubarak go, the game is over", chanted protesters, who remained peaceful throughout, as did the military, which on Monday confirmed for the first time that it would not open fire on protesters. The crowd, made up of people from all walks of life and many of whom have no particular political allegiance, were responding to opposition calls for a 'march of a million'. Efforts by the government to stifle the protests failed, as demonstrators gathered despite train services being cut and internet services being down for a fifth straight day. Opposition parties on Tuesday also took their most concrete step yet towards developing an agenda, issuing a list of demands to the existing power structures to form a basis for negotiations. The first item demanded that Mubarak 'and his regime' step down. Secondly, a transitional leadership should be formed, and a committee established to write a new constitution. Finally, parliament, dominated by Mubarak's National Democratic Party, should be dissolved. The list was sent to Vice President Omar Suleiman, the former head of the national intelligence agency, who said Monday that he would open a dialogue with 'all political parties'. Mubarak reshuffled his government on Monday in an attempt to defuse the protest against his regime, but protesters rejected the changes and said he must surrender power. The country, stuck without serious democratic reforms for decades, has also seen its economy stagnate and the middle class had watched its purchasing power decline. Serious poverty is rife among Egypt's 80 million people, nearly half of whom are below the age of 35. The economic impact of the efforts to oust Mubarak were being felt, however, with prices of staple foods rising and people reporting shortages of cash and other goods. The stock market has been closed for nearly a week.
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| Russian spy Anna Chapman 'patents her name' Posted: Russia's sultry spy Anna Chapman has trademarked her name so that she can start producing her own brand of vodka and perfume, a Russian daily reported Tuesday.
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| Egyptian President Mubarak decides to quit Posted: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said Tuesday that he will not seek re-election when his current term in office expires in September, but defied mass protests calling for his immediate resignation.
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| Posted: The world's oldest woman has died in her Texas home at the age of 115. Eunice Sanborn held the title of world's oldest person for less than three months following the death on November 4 of Eugenie Blanchard, a nun from the French West Indies. Sanborn credited her long life and good health to her belief in Jesus Christ and her salvation. She said that she owed her long life to minding her own business and not eating junk food. While an organisation that tracks super-centenarians listed Sanborn's age as 114, her family says it recorded her birth year as 1896 rather than 1895. Bessie Cooper of Georgia, born August 26, 1896, is now the world's oldest woman.
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| Egypt Prez Mubarak to step down: TV reports Posted: A million people, maybe more, rallied across Egypt yesterday, clamouring for President Hosni Mubarak to give up power, piling pressure on a leader who has towered over Middle East politics for 30 years to make way. Al Arabiya television said the 82-year-old former general was about announce on television that he would not seek re-election in a ballot scheduled for September but would stay in office until then to respond to demands for reform. That will not satisfy many of those on the streets who want Mubarak and his ruling party to step aside immediately. Cairo's Tahrir (Liberation) Square was jammed with people ranging from lawyers and doctors to students and jobless poor, the crowd spilling into surrounding streets. "He goes, we are not going," chanted a crowd of men, women and children as a military helicopter hovered over the sea of people in the square, many waving Egyptian flags and banners. Crowds also demonstrated in Alexandria, Suez and in the Nile Delta on the eighth and biggest day of protests against Mubarak by people fed up with years of repression, corruption and economic hardship. With the army refusing to take action against the people and support from long-time backer the United States fading, the aging strongman's days seemed numbered. His downfall after three decades could reconfigure the geopolitical map of the Middle East, with implications from Israel to oil-giant Saudi Arabia. Unrest is already stirring in other Arab countries such as Jordan and Yemen. King Abdullah of Jordan replaced his prime minister yesterday following protests, but the opposition dismissed the move as insufficient.
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| China village builds 'Great Wall' to deter thieves Posted: Residents of a village in eastern China have followed the ancient emperors and built a 'Great Wall' around their increasingly well-off community to keep out thieves, according to state media. The wall around Aodi in Zhejiang province, seven metres (23 feet) high and nearly a metre thick, was even built in the style of the Great Wall, with a crenellated top and imposing iron gate.  A Chinese villager walks towards the gate of a 'Great Wall' in east China's Zhejiang province yesterday But the old-fashioned security measure comes with a modern touch residents use a swipe card to enter late at night when the double-doored gate is locked. The 270 villagers raised most of the 500,000 yuan (Rs 35 lakh) cost of building the wall themselves, fed up with rising theft of items such as mobile phones, computers and cash, the report said. Incomes in Aodi have risen since the 2007 construction of a provincial highway through the area spurred development, including the building of dozens of factories. "Thefts have occurred extremely frequently as people are richer and have more expensive furniture, electric equipment and even more cash at home," the report quoted Ruan Guolin, a local official, as saying. The construction of walls around cities and villages was common in ancient and medieval China. The Great Wall in northern China was built over many centuries to keep out marauders from the north. Rs 35 lakh
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| Posted: Supermodel quizzes Russian PM about fitness and fighting for magazine "You're in pretty good physical shape. How do you manage to keep yourself so fit?" So began one of the potentially great political interviews of our time as Naomi Campbell grilled Vladimir Putin in what could have been a 21st century Frost-Nixon moment. Given the opportunity to question the Russian prime minister for GQ magazine, supermodel Campbell refused to duck the key issues, interrogating Putin about his physical prowess, the "great impression" he makes on women, and his swimming ability.  Naomi asked Putin about the great impression he makes on women and about his macho man image The Russian prime minister played Campbell's first question with a straight bat, answering that he kept fit "probably the same way you do" allowing her to reveal the secrets of her own enduring health. "Actually, I don't work out as much as I should, but I do believe that it's a healthy mind as well as a healthy body that keeps me fit, sound and calm," she revealed, before Putin said that, as well as going to the gym and swimming daily, he meets friends to "do extra-curricular stuff". Campbell said to Putin, "You obviously make a great impression on women. How do you feel about the students who posed for you in the calendar?" she asked, referring to a calender made by female students at Moscow University to mark Putin's 58th birthday. "I like the girls a lot they're beautiful," he said, describing the women as "courageous and not scared" in their decision to publicly support him. She asked Putin a black belt in judo who has been known to attend mixed martial arts fights " whether he had ever been in a bare-knuckle scrap, prompting one of the more bizarre exchanges of what was a bizarre interview. "No, it's not my sport since I was 14 I've done judo," he said. "But the bare-knuckle fight I attended was very impressive. These guys are tough. There are even women who do it." "Big women?", asked Campbell. "Not big, just strong women," Putin explained.
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