Saudi sentences iconic Shia cleric to death

DUBAI: A well-known Shia cleric was sentenced to death Wednesday by a court in Saudi Arabia, sparking fears of renewed unrest from his supporters in the kingdom and neighboring Bahrain. 

Sheik Nimr al-Nimr's case has been watched closely by minority Saudi Shiites in the eastern region of the majority Sunni kingdom. The 54-year-old cleric's case was seen as a barometer for Saudi Arabia's handling of Shia grievances over the past years. 

His brother, Mohammed al-Nimr, announced the verdict on Twitter. He had told The Associated Press earlier Wednesday that he would be in the courtroom for the verdict. He could not be immediately reached again for comment. 

The cleric had faced charges that also include disobeying the ruler, firing on security forces, sowing discord, undermining national unity and interfering in the affairs of a sisterly nation. A statement by the cleric's family described the verdict as discretionary, suggesting that what the court found al-Nimr guilty of could have been eligible for a lighter sentence. 

The family said the verdict sets a "dangerous precedent for decades to come.'' 

Prosecutors asked for execution followed by crucifixion. In Saudi Arabia, most death sentences are carried out by beheading. Crucifixion in this context means the body and head would then be put on display as a warning to others. 

Al-Nimr had not denied the political charges against him, but denied ever carrying weapons or calling for violence. He can appeal the sentence. 

Public figure and renowned activist Jaafar al-Shayeb in eastern Saudi Arabia said the verdict appears to have been handed down for "sedition'' and "incitement'' of Shia protests in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. 

"There's a big chance there will be a reaction,'' al-Shayeb said. "There could be protests, marches, statements of condemnation. ... The situation is tense.'' 

Bahraini authorities on Wednesday painted over pictures of al-Nimr that had been plastered on walls by Shia supporters there. 

Al-Nimr was a key leader of Shia protests demanding equal rights in 2011. Protests are banned in Saudi Arabia, where many ultraconservatives view Shiites as heretics. 

He also openly criticized the Sunni government of Bahrain's handling of Shia protests there. Saudi Arabia sent troops to help Bahrain's Sunni monarchy quell its Shia uprising in the tiny island nation. 

Al-Nimr was arrested in July 2012 when he was shot by security forces in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province. Four security officers said he had weapons and fired on them first, prosecutors said. 

Defense lawyers did not cross-examine security forces because they were not at the hearing they testified in. The lawyers said they were not told of the hearing. 

According to Human Rights Watch, more than 1,040 people were detained in Shia protests between February 2011 and August 2014. There are at least 280 still imprisoned. 

"I think the message that Saudis are saying is — "We will arrest anybody. We don't care how high profile they are. ... nobody is above this. We don't have any tolerance. We don't have any flexibility,'' Human Rights Watch Middle East researcher Adam Coogle said. 

Coogle said fears about Iran, the Middle East's dominant Shia power, also played into the trial. He said that Saudi authorities view what happened in Bahrain and the Eastern Province of the kingdom as "meddling'' by Iran. 

"Talking up the Iranian threat is also an excuse to perpetuate systematic discrimination against Shia citizens,'' he said. 

8 killed, 12 hurt in China land dispute

BEIJING: China saw one of the bloodiest clashes over land dispute that left eight people dead and 12 injured in a suburb of the southwestern city of Kunming on Tuesday. Reports from the Jinning suburb said armed men in black uniforms attacked villagers some people to evict them from their lands. 

Chinese official media said the clashes involved over 3,000 people, which included 1,000 odd attackers and 2,000 local residents angry after two of them were killed. Postings on Chinese social media sites indicate people in a villagers captured and burnt alive some of the attackers. Chinese social media site, Weibo, carried pictures showing burnt bodies of several men in blue uniforms with their hands and legs bound. The photos showed some were carrying shields with the word "police" on them. A portable tear gas launcher was also visible. But the authenticity of the pictures could not be independently verified.The county government said issued a statement saying it was a clash between construction workers and residents, but The conflict broke out in Fuyou village, where a trading and logistics centre is being built, it said. The dead included six workers and two villagers. 

But villagers said it was conducted by hired thugs sent by a land developer trying to evict them of their lands. The attackers came in black uniform bearing shields bearing police symbols. They also used knives, steel pipes and tear gas. 

One report cited a resident surnamed Gao, who said over 2,000 local residents bandied together to capture and kill some of the attackers after two of the villagers lost their lives. Another report said villagers fought back by settling a supply of gas on fire but did not explain how it worked. 

The Jinning county government said the police reached the village immediately after receiving reports about the violence and helped the injured

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Freak Nepal blizzards kill at least 29, including hikers, guides

KATHMANDU: At least 29 people, including eight foreign hikers and a group of yak herders, were killed in Nepal by unseasonal blizzards and avalanches triggered by the tail of cyclone Hudhud, officials said on Wednesday. 

Rescue officials said the death toll could rise as dozens of other foreigners and locals who had been trekking were out of contact due to poor communication links and could have been caught in blizzards. 

Two climbers from Slovakia and three Nepalese guides were also reported missing. 

The hikers' deaths come during the peak trekking season in Nepal, home to eight of the world's 14 highest mountain peaks, including Mount Everest. 

For the past two days, Nepal has been lashed by heavy rains brought on by the cyclone that has battered neighbouring India. The weather triggered blizzards at high altitudes. 

The bodies of a Nepali citizen, two Polish nationals and an Israeli hiker were found along a popular trekking route in the Thorang-La area near Annapurna, the world's 10th highest mountain, said Baburam Bhandari, governor of the district of Mustang, where the incident took place. 

Bhandari said the group perished in a blizzard. 

"We have rescued five German, five Polish and four Israeli trekkers who were trapped in the snowfall early on Wednesday," Bhandari told Reuters by telephone, without giving details. One German tourist fractured his leg, he said. 

Police said eight Nepalis had died in Mustang, an apple growing area bordering Tibet, which is about 150 km (93 miles) northwest of the Nepali capital, Kathmandu, and is popular among foreign hikers. 

Separately, in the neighbouring district of Manang, four Canadian hikers and an Indian national were killed in an avalanche, the district's most senior bureaucrat, Devendra Lamichhane, told Reuters. 

"The pilot of a rescue helicopter spotted the bodies in snow," Lamichhane said. "But it is not possible to retrieve their bodies because it is snowing heavily in the area now." 

Three yak herders were killed after being swept away by a separate avalanche at Nar village in Manang, officials said. 

Search called off

Two climbers from Slovakia and three Nepalese guides were also missing as night fell after an avalanche near the base camp of Dhaulagiri late on Tuesday, tourism department officials said. Dhaulagiri is the world's eighth-highest peak, at 8,167 metres (26,795 feet). 

Army helicopters took 14 injured survivors to local hospitals. Some of the survivors were flown to Kathmandu. 

"We have called off the rescue operation today due to heavy snowfall and darkness," army official Niranjan Shrestha said. "Rescue and search will continue early on Thursday." 

Local television showed soldiers carrying stretchers bearing the bodies of dead hikers to and from rescue helicopters in Mustang. 

Nepal's tourism industry is still recovering from the aftershocks of an ice avalanche that struck the lower reaches of Mount Everest in April, killing 16 sherpa guides in the worst disaster in the history of the world's highest peak. 

More than a tenth of the nearly 800,000 tourists who visited Nepal in 2013 went hiking or mountain climbing, providing a key revenue stream for the aid-dependent nation, which relies on income from tourism for 4 percent of its gross domestic product. 

The Annapurna Circuit, a trekking trail that goes around Mount Annapurna and was battered by the blizzards, is one of the most popular hiking routes in Nepal although the avalanche on Everest in April has deterred many climbers.

Actor Neil Patrick Harris to host 2015 Oscars

LOS ANGELES: Award-winning US stage and screen actor Neil Patrick Harris will host the next Oscars show, organizers announced.

The star, who has hosted both Broadway's Tony and TV's Emmy awards shows in the past, will front the 87th Academy Awards on February 22, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said on Wednesday. 

The high-profile hosting job is a prime gig in Hollywood, at the climax of its annual awards season. Harris will follow Ellen DeGeneres last year and a who's who of showbiz over the decades. 

"It is truly an honor and a thrill to be asked to host this year's Academy Awards," said the star of 2005's "How I Met Your Mother," in an Academy statement. 

"I grew up watching the Oscars and was always in such awe of some of the greats who hosted the show," added Harris, whose latest film "Gone Girl" came out this month in the United States. 

He added: "To be asked to follow in the footsteps of Johnny Carson, Billy Crystal, Ellen DeGeneres and everyone else who had the great fortune of hosting is a bucket list dream come true." 

Producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron said: "We are thrilled to have Neil host the Oscars. We have known him his entire adult life, and we have watched him explode as a great performer in feature films, television and stage. 

"To work with him on the Oscars is the perfect storm, all of his resources and talent coming together on a global stage," added the pair, returning for their third Oscars show in a row. 

Industry journal Variety noted that, with the Oscars job Harris will have done three of the four so-called EGOT full house of hosting duties -- the Emmys, Oscars and Tonys, with only the Grammys to go. 

Harris, who hosted the Tony awards and the Emmys in 2009 and 2013, has been nominated for four Golden Globes and won five Emmys, including four for hosting the Tonys. 

The Academy Awards are televised live in more than 225 countries around the globe. Organizers will announce nominations for the Oscars on January 15. 

Hosting awards shows is more difficult and prone to pitfalls than many imagine. 

Recent questionable Oscars hosts have included James Franco and Anne Hathaway who were widely panned in 2011, and Seth McFarlane whose "We saw your boobs' song raised eyebrows, not in a good way. 

Over 200 Pak lawmakers suspended for not declaring assets

ISLAMABAD: Over 200 lawmakers of Pakistan's Parliament and provincial assemblies were on Wednesday temporarily suspended by the Election Commission for failing to submit the annual details of their assets.

Under the Constitution, the lawmakers are bound to report every year the details of their wealth by September 30 which can be extended by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for 15 days.

The ECP had set October 15 as the deadline for the submission of assets.

A total of 210 lawmakers failed to submit their details of assets and liabilities.

In a notification issued at the end of deadline, the ECP directed that those failing to comply cannot attend the session of their respective assemblies during the period of suspension.

However, the members can get their membership restored anytime by fulfilling the legal obligation.

Those suspended included 40 members of the National Assembly, two members of the Senate, 98 members of the Punjab assembly, 28 members of the Sindh assembly, 33 members of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assembly, and nine members of the Balochistan assembly.

Among the prominent members suspended are chief of right wing Jammat-i-Islami Sirajul Haq and Chairman of National Assembly Committee of Foreign Affairs Awais Khan Leghari.

The majority of those suspended belong to ruling PML-N of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

US's fight against ISIS finally gets a name: 'Inherent Resolve'

WASHINGTON: It may be less punchy than previous nicknames for US conflicts in the Middle East; remember Operation Desert Storm andits thunderous attacks on Saddam Hussein's occupation army; but the Pentagon has finally named its fight against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria: Operation Inherent Resolve. 

The naming process, which took weeks of quiet deliberation behind closed doors at US Central Command and at the Pentagon, is part of a package of administrative moves under way to organize a long-term military campaign. 

But that name, Inherent Resolve.  It sounds, well, inherently bland. 

It's less awe-inspiring than any of the names chosen for US military operations in Iraq over the past two decades such as Desert Shield, Desert Storm or Desert Fox, for example. It appears to convey the no-drama approach that marks President Barack Obama's style. 

The staff of Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made the final decision on the name, said Dempsey spokesman, Col. Ed Thomas. Thomas offered no details about the process. 

Central Command, which is executing the campaign, took a stab at explaining the choice. 

"Inherent Resolve is intended to reflect the unwavering resolve and deep commitment of the U.S. and partner nations in the region and around the globe to eliminate the terrorist group ISIL and the threat they pose to Iraq, the region and the wider international community," it said, using a common acronym for the Islamic State group. 

Military operations are routinely given official names, in part for administrative reasons. 

But they are meant also to bolster public support and international credibility. The US-led effort to protect Kurds who fled their homes in northern Iraq in the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf War, for example, was called Operation Provide Comfort. A US military disaster relief mission in Bangladesh that same year was Operation Sea Angel. 

The US military's effort against Ebola in West Africa is called Operation United Assistance. The name for the US role in an international air campaign in Libya in 2011 was Odyssey Dawn. 

The naming of the current air campaign in Iraq and Syria comes as Obama and his military advisers wrestle with directing a coalition of partner nations toward a common goal: destroying the Islamic State group. It has been slow going thus far, with officials cautioning that it could drag on for months or years. 

The US has more than 1,400 military personnel in Iraq, mostly in Baghdad, but Obama has ruled out sending combat troops. The US says it has no troops in Syria. 

The US has a long and difficult history of military involvement in Iraq, beginning with the George H W Bush administration's initial response to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait in August 1990. 

That effort was dubbed Operation Desert Shield to deter Saddam from invading Saudi Arabia; in early 1991 that transitioned to a US-led air and ground campaign, Operation Desert Storm, which successfully expelled Iraqi troops from Kuwait but left Saddam in power in Baghdad. 

In December 1998, in response to Saddam's refusal to comply with U.N. weapons inspectors, President Bill Clinton launched Operation Desert Fox — four days of airstrikes against weapons installations and command headquarters in Baghdad. 

Promising to "shock and awe" Saddam's forces, President George W Bush launched Operation Iraqi Freedom in March 2003, an air-and-ground campaign that quickly toppled Saddam's regime but opened the door to a homegrown Sunni insurgency that turned the war into an eight-year struggle. 

The practice of naming military operations goes back at least to World War II, when code names were assigned mainly to preserve security. The code names were classified, unlike the nicknames of modern operations. 

In a 1995 article in Parameters, a US Army War College academic journal, Gregory C Sieminski wrote that the Pentagon's Vietnam-era guidelines for naming military operations cautioned against counterproductive name choices, specifying that they must not express "a degree of bellicosity inconsistent with traditional American ideals or current foreign policy" or convey "connotations offensive to good taste or derogatory to a particular group, sect or creed." 

There should be no fear that Operation Inherent Resolve is too bellicose. 

Sieminski argued that careful naming of military operations can provide a public relations boost and help shape what he called a war of images. "In that war, the operation name is the first — and quite possibly the decisive — bullet to be fired," he wrote. 

BJP's 'Brand Modi' Strategy to Pay Big in Maharashtra, Haryana, Show Exit Polls

New Delhi: Banking on Brand Narendra Modi is likely to pay rich dividend for the BJP, the NDTV's poll of polls - which aggregates the results of four polls in Maharashtra and three in Haryana - shows.

The party, which dumped allies in Congress-ruled Maharashtra and Haryana to contest elections on its own, is set to be the single-largest party in both states. 

In Haryana, it looks good to win 48 of the 90 seats, a comfortable majority. And in Maharashtra - which saw a four-cornered contest after two major alliances split over seat sharing - the BJP is set to win 125 of the 288 seats, miles ahead of the number 2 party. Ironically, that is the Shiv Sena, the BJP's ally till last month, set to win 70 seats. 

Together, all things equal, they would have had a towering majority. Now, the BJP is likely to fall 20 seats short of a majority - the half-way mark in Maharashtra is 144. 

Its political options would include a reconciliation with the Shiv Sena or then joining hands with the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party or NCP, which is set to get 35 seats. 

In the run-up to the elections, both the BJP and the NCP emphatically denied any such possibility and Prime Minister Modi sharply attacked the NCP, which ruled Maharashtra for the last 15 years as a partner of the Congress. 

Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Narvnirman Sena or MNS is not in the reckoning - it will have to settle for fewer seats than before.

The Congress' dream run in both states is ending. It is likely to be reduced to an insignificant 42 seats in Maharashtra. In Haryana, it could have to settle for an equally ignominious 12 seats, with Om Prakash Chautala's INLD (Indian National Lok Dal) coming in second to the BJP with 25 seats.

The BJP went for broke in these elections, building its pitch around Mr Modi and his message of development. In neither state did it project a chief ministerial candidate and said it was confident that what it calls the "Modi wave" from the national elections earlier this year endures.

The PM averaged three rallies a day in a blitz of 27 public appearances in Maharashtra and 12 in Haryana.

Story First Published: October 15, 2014 20:25 IST