My successor may be woman: Dalai lama
Melbourne: Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai lama has waded into Australia’s bitter gender debate raging around Premier Julia Gillard by saying his successor may be a female as women have the all qualities needed in leaders.”If the circumstances are such that a female Dalai lama is more useful, then automatically a female Dalai lama will come,” the Dalai lama said told reporters ahead of a 10-day tour of Australia. The Nobel Peace laureate is scheduled to speak in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Darwin.Asked about the gender war reignited by Gillard, the 77-year-old monk said the world is facing a “moral crisis” of inequality and suffering and needs leaders who can bring compassion to their post.
Jordanclears treaty to bring Abu Qatada back
london: Jordan’s parliament has approved a treaty with the UK designed to facilitate the deportation of radical Muslim cleric Abu Qatada from Britain.The treaty is now awaiting approval by Jordan’s King Abdullah, the final key stage before the deal becomes law. The vote in parliament means the long-drawn process to deport the cleric from Britain is likely to resume within weeks.53-year-old Qatada, currently in a london jail, has already indicated he will not challenge deportation if the treaty is passed because the document guarantees him a fair trial.
Mandela’s HEAlTH improves
Johannesburg: Nelson Mandela was “responding well to treatment” for a recurrent lung infection on the sixth day of hospitalisation, as the South African Cabinet today wished the 94-year-old anti-apartheid icon a speedy recovery.A day after President Jacob Zuma told a jittery nation that Madiba (Mandala’s clan name) was responding better to treatment, cabinet ministers in a statement wished the revered leader a quick recovery, saying they were “pleased that he is responding well to treatment”.
Mush arrested; remanded for fortnight
Islamabad: Former President Pervez Musharraf on Thursday formally arrested and remanded to judicial custody for a fortnight over the 2006 killing of Baloch nationalist leader Akbar Bugti.Musharraf, 69, was arrested by a team from the Crime Branch of Balochistan Police.The team was sent from Quetta to Islamabad yesterday after an anti-terrorism court in Balochistan rejected Musharraf’s bail application and ordered his arrest. Acting on a request from the Balochistan Police team, an anti-terrorism court in Islamabad subsequently remanded Musharraf to judicial custody for 14 days so that he could be questioned over the killing of Bugti.
UN says nearly 93,000 killed in Syrian conflict
Geneva: The United Nations’ human rights office said on thursday that almost 93,000 people have been confirmed killed in the Syrian conflict, but the real number is likely to be far higher.The analysis found 92,901 documented killings in Syria between March 2011 and the end of April 2013, said the UN’s top human rights official, Navi Pillay, but she acknowledged that it was impossible to put an exact figure on the death toll from Syria’s upward spiral of violence.