theSun | MONDAY MARCH 23 2009 9

news without borders

Chaudhry reinstated
ISLAMABAD: Pakistani judge Ifitkhar reinstatement, and the hugely unpopu-
Muhammad Chaudhry (pix) resumed lar President Asif Ali Zardari.
his post of chief justice yesterday, 16 Gilani made the announcement on
months after he was ousted under television at dawn after a government
emergency rule and a week after crackdown failed to thwart opposition Chaudhry...
protests flung the nation into political activists and lawyers from heading ousted 16
chaos. towards the capital Islamabad as part months
“Chaudhry assumed the charge of a mass “long march” protest. ago by
of office here after midnight (3am in The government pledge to reinstate Musharraf
Malaysia),” the supreme court said in Chaudhry defused a crisis that had
a statement. pushed the nuclear-armed na-
The chief justice immediately ap- tion to the brink of chaos.
proved the court roster for the coming Jubilant lawyers and
week – assigning different benches to members of civil so-
hear pending cases. ciety are expected to
Chaudhry and 60 other top judges gather outside his
were sacked in 2007 by military ruler official residence
Pervez Musharraf, who feared the to celebrate
supreme court would disqualify him Chaudhry’s
from contesting a presidential election return.
while wearing military uniform. A flag hoist-
In a dramatic climbdown, following ing ceremony
months of broken promises and years will be held at
of protests from lawyers, Prime Min- his residence to
ister Yousuf Raza Gilani announced fulfil the pledge
on Monday that the government had made by slain
decided to reinstate the deposed chief opposition leader
justice. Benazir Bhutto in
It was a move calculated to end 2007 that “we will
political turmoil after a three-week unfurl the national flag
showdown between opposition leader at Chaudhry’s house”.
Nawaz Sharif, demanding Chaudhry’s – AFP

Chinese police detain

Tibetan monks after riot
BEIJING: Nearly 100 monks are
being held in northwest China
after an angry mob attacked a
police station, state media said
yesterday, in the first reported
major unrest in Tibetan-popu-
lated areas this year.
The riot on Saturday by
hundreds of people in Rabgya,
a town in the mountains of
Qinghai province, came less
than two weeks after the 50th
anniversary of a failed uprising
against Chinese rule in Tibet on
March 10.
Chinese authorities have
launched a massive security
clampdown in recent weeks
to quell possible unrest related
to the anniversary of the upris-
ing, which led the Dalai Lama,
Tibet’s spiritual leader, to flee
into exile.
“Police have arrested six
participants in the attack.
Eighty-nine surrendered to
police,” the official Xinhua news
agency reported.
“All but two of the 95 were
monks in the Rabgya monas-
tery,” the report said.
Xinhua said several hundred
people, including nearly 100
monks from the monastery,
had taken part in the riot.
A policeman at the Rabgya
local government office refused
to comment when contacted
by AFP, and no one was avail-
able for comment at local
police stations.
The protesters assaulted po-
licemen and government staff,
some of whom were slightly
injured, Xinhua said.
The report said the mob had
been “deceived by rumours”
about a man who had been
taken into police custody in
Rabgya on suspicion of “being
involved in advocating ‘Tibet
independence’”, but who es-
caped on Saturday.
The man, who was identified
as Zhaxi Sangwu, disappeared
after swimming across the Yel-
low River that passes through
the town, Xinhua quoted police
and a witness as saying.
A resident of Rabgya, who
could not be named for fear of
reprisals, said she had heard
the detained man was a monk.
“I heard that monks and
other people gathered in front
of the police station after
the monk committed suicide
by throwing himself into the
river.”
She said the military was out
in force in the town yesterday
after the incident. – AFP

mother of two, who married her boyfriend

briefs
Five thousand people
evacuated after US acid spill
WASHINGTON: At least 5,000 residents were
evacuated in eastern Pennsylvania after a truck
carrying 33,000 pounds of toxic hydrofluoric acid
overturned early on Saturday. Driver Raymond
Leblanc, 54, of Ontario, Canada, lost control of
the vehicle while trying to avoid hitting a deer.
He was initially trapped in the truck, but was
rescued unhurt. Another passenger was also
removed from the site and no other injuries
were reported, police said. Most of the acid was
in the form of pressurised gas, police told broad-
caster CNN and the leak was plugged eight and
a half hours after the trailer overturned near
Wind Gap, Pennsylvania. – dpa
British reality TV star Jade
Goody dies of cancer
LONDON: Jade Goody, a one-time dental
assistant whose final days were as closely
chronicled in the media as her controversial
appearances on reality television, died of
cervical cancer yesterday. The 27-year-old
in a televised ceremony only last month,
died in her sleep at her home in Essex,
southeast England. “Jade died at 3.55am,”
her tearful mother Jackiey Budden told
reporters outside the house. “Family and
friends would like privacy at last.” Goody
shot to fame in 2002 after appearing in the
Big Brother reality show. Her popularity
sank in 2007 after racially charged tirades
against Indian housemate Shilpa Shetty in
Celebrity Big Brother. – Reuters
US journalists likely in
Pyongyang: Report
SEOUL: North Korea has likely sent two Ameri-
can journalists detained by border guards last
week to the capital Pyongyang for questioning,
the South’s Yonhap news agency reported
yesterday. Confirmation by North Korea’s state
media on Saturday of their detention showed
the central government was directly involved in
their case, Yonhap said, quoting an unnamed
source in China. “Given the significance of the
case, it is very likely that the two US journalists
have been sent to Pyongyang for questioning
directly by the North’s security and military
agencies,” the source told Yonhap. .Diplomatic
sources said Washington and Pyongyang were
in talks over the release of the two, identified
as Euna Lee and Laura Ling. – AFP