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Journalism of Courage
DUBAI: Bahrain’s Emir Sheikh Isa bin Sulmanal-Khalifa, who ruled the Gulf Arab state for 38 years, died of heart attack at his palace in capital Manama on Saturday. He was 66. The emir died shortly after meeting US Defence Secretary William Cohen who is touring the Gulf states to scout for support on US policy towards Iraq. The state television network, which broadcast verses from the Holy Koran, said the emir died of a heart attack, and declared three-month mourning. The emir, who became crown prince in 1958, succeeded his father, Sheikh Sulman, on his death three years later.
He assumed full powers in 1971 after declaring Bahrain’s independence from Britain. The emir’s son, Crown Prince Sheikh Hamad bin Isa bin Salman al-Khalifa, commander of the armed forces, has been named his successor. Bahrain has a population of about 6.6 lakh of which 2.1 lakh are expatriates, a large number of them from India.
During the brutal Killing Fields’ 1975-79 Khmer Rouge rule of Cambodia — during which up to two million perished through torture, execution, overwork or starvation — Ta Mok served as Pol Pot’s military chief. Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot died in 1998. Ta Mok has since led rebel forces, whose numbers have dwindled in recent years, against Phnom Penh troops.
ISLAMABAD: A high-level meeting on the functioning of anti-terrorist courts in Pakistan’s Sindh province has decided to set up ten more such courts in Karachi. The meeting, presided over by a supreme court judge in Karachi yesterday, also decided that army’s help will be sought in the investigation of the casesreferred to the anti-terrorist courts, media reports said.
Justice Nasir Aslam Zahid, who had been nominated by the apex court to act as one of the co-ordinators to oversee the functioning of these courts, presided over the meeting. It was also observed that all the judges of these courts and witnesses will be provided security by para-military forces in view of threats to them by terrorists.
