Thesun 2009-03-23 Page09 Chaudhry Reinstated

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| MONDAY MARCH 23 2009

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Chaudhry reinstated ISLAMABAD: Pakistani judge Ifitkhar Muhammad Chaudhry (pix) resumed his post of chief justice yesterday, 16 months after he was ousted under emergency rule and a week after protests flung the nation into political chaos. “Chaudhry assumed the charge of office here after midnight (3am in Malaysia),” the supreme court said in a statement. The chief justice immediately approved the court roster for the coming week – assigning different benches to hear pending cases. Chaudhry and 60 other top judges were sacked in 2007 by military ruler Pervez Musharraf, who feared the supreme court would disqualify him from contesting a presidential election while wearing military uniform. In a dramatic climbdown, following months of broken promises and years of protests from lawyers, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani announced on Monday that the government had decided to reinstate the deposed chief justice. It was a move calculated to end political turmoil after a three-week showdown between opposition leader Nawaz Sharif, demanding Chaudhry’s

reinstatement, and the hugely unpopular President Asif Ali Zardari. Gilani made the announcement on television at dawn after a government crackdown failed to thwart opposition activists and lawyers from heading towards the capital Islamabad as part of a mass “long march” protest. The government pledge to reinstate Chaudhry defused a crisis that had pushed the nuclear-armed nation to the brink of chaos. Jubilant lawyers and members of civil society are expected to gather outside his official residence to celebrate Chaudhry’s return. A flag hoisting ceremony will be held at his residence to fulfil the pledge made by slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto in 2007 that “we will unfurl the national flag at Chaudhry’s house”. – AFP

Chaudhry... ousted 16 months ago by Musharraf

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-populated 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 uprising, 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 monastery,” 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 available for comment at local police stations. The protesters assaulted policemen 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

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 broadcaster 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

taken into police custody in Rabgya on suspicion of “being involved in advocating ‘Tibet independence’”, but who escaped on Saturday. The man, who was identified as Zhaxi Sangwu, disappeared after swimming across the Yellow 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 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 American 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