Awaz Apni

Awaz Apni PARIS: When French shoppers start cutting back on buying champagne, oysters and foie gras for New Year's, it's been a rough year.As Europe prepared to ring in 2009, many revelers said belt-tightening was their top New Year's resolution. The vow followed the most volatile financial year in decades, a time that saw stock markets melt around the world and hundreds of thousands of workers lose their jobs.Even shoppers in the affluent area west of Paris were scaling back purchases for the traditional New Year's Eve feast."We're not going to celebrate in a big way — we're being careful," said architect Moussa Siham, 24. "We will be eating fish for New Year's dinner."Sydney was the world's first major city to ring in 2009, showering its shimmering harbor with a kaleidoscope of light that drew cheers from more than a million people.Spectator Randolph King, 63, of York, England, whose retirement fund was gutted in the global financi...

CNews NEW YORK: Prosecutor of Dr. Afia Siddiqui case David Raskin said Wednesday that there was "not a shred of evidence" that Siddiqui had been in the hands of US or allied forces in Pakistan or Afghanistan prior to her arrest."I can say to the court we have found zero evidence that Ms Siddiqui was abducted, tortured -- any of the things we hear repeated."Raskin said that Siddiqui's unexplained disappearance during that period more logically suggested that she was an Al-Qaeda agent who "went underground."The defense says Siddiqui is an innocent victim of a dirty war run by US and allied agents and was secretly incarcerated for five years prior to the alleged incident in July.Judge Richard Berman told the federal court in New York that Aafia Siddiqui, a US-educated neuroscientist extradited in August from Afghanistan, is "not currently competent to proceed."Judging from an initial medical report, "the course of treatment should continue,...

CNews NEW YORK: Dr Aafia Siddiqui, who is under U.S. detention on charges of attempted murder, does not have faith in the American judicial system and insists that the case against her is false and baseless, according to the head of a Pakistani parliamentary delegation which met her in Texas on Tuesday. Mushahid, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told a press conference in New York on Wednesday evening that Dr. Siddiqui, a U.S.-educated Pakistani neuroscientist, wanted the case against her dropped and she wished to be returned to Pakistan. Ms. Siddiqui, 36, who was shot in the abdomen by U.S. agent after she allegedly grabbed an American soldier's gun during questioning in July, was brought to New York on August 4 to face charges of attempted murder and assault. Mushahid, who met her for 2 hours 45 minutes at at Carswell Medical Centre in a military prison compound at Fort Worth near Dallas, Texas, said Ms. Siddiqui told them she had no faith in the U.S. courts he...

CNews NEW YORK: Pakistani detainee, Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, the wounded Pakistani neuroscientist, was on Tuesday examined by a medical doctor at the Metropolitan Detention Centre where she is being held since August 4, according to informed sources. The order for providing a doctor to examine Ms. Siddiqui within 24 hours was given by a U.S. judge at her bail hearing in the Federal District Court in New York on Monday.Judge Henry Pitman was reacting to her defence lawyers pleas for immediate medical attention for their client, who is suffering from gunshot wounds she sustained on July 18 during, what the prosecution claims, was an encounter with FBI agents and U.S. troops.They pointed out that she has not seen a doctor since arriving here a week ago and said that her health is worsening since she sustained bullet wounds July 18 during what the prosecution claims was an encounter with FBI agents and U.S. troops. The lawyers also listed other potential health problems including brain damage a...

CNews NEW YORK: Pakistani woman under US custody, Dr. Aafia Siddiqui’s bail petition will come up for hearing in the US Federal Court today.Dr. Aafia Siddqui will be presented in the New York Federal Court at 2.30 P.M. local time today. Prior to this, the Attorney of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui will address a press conference besides the US Human Rights Organizations have announced staging demonstrations on this occasion. Recently, two officials of Pakistan embassy had met Dr. Aafia Siddiqui at Brooklane detention centre. Embassy sources told that Dr. Aafia Siddiqui’s meeting with her family members also would be arranged today, when she would be presented in the court.

CNews NEW YORK: The United States has allowed Pakistan consular access to Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist, who is being held without bail in New York after a federal court Tuesday charged her with attempting to kill F.B.I. agents and other US personnel last month while in Afghan custody, according to well informed sources. Faqir Saeed, a counsellor at the Pakistan Embassady in Washington, is arriving here later Saturday to meet Ms. Siddiqui, who was transferred to New York from Afghanistan on Monday. The exact time for the meeting will be set after consultations with the U.S. authorities, the sources said. Ms. Siddiqui, who has a bullet wound, is awaiting bail hearing on Monday afternoon. Her lawyer, Elizabeth Fink, denied the charges that Judge Ellis of United States District Court read out during her appearance on Tuesday. The criminal complaint claimed that Ms. Siddiqui, who was behind a curtain at the police station, managed to grab a U.S. soldier’s rifle and fire two er...

CNews NEW YORK: The President of Supreme Court Bar Association Aitzaz Ahsan has said on Friday that judges’ restoration should be the top most priority of the ruling alliance. Talking to CNews News from New York, the SCBA President said Nawaz Sharif had taken oath from his members of Assembly for the restoration of deposed judges. People would be disappointed if the impeachment motion cause delay in the judges restoration, Ahsan commented and said judges should have been reinstated with the announcement of their release as ordered by the Prime Minister on March 24. SCBA President said judges’ restoration was being delayed; adding lawyers are not against the impeachment but also support for registering a case against the president. Had the judges restored first than there was no need for impeachment, he said, adding it would have been more effective to go for the impeachment after restoration. Ahsan further said clear timeframe has not been given for impeachment, which causes uncertaint...

CNEws US: US bank Bear Stearns has got emergency funding, in a move that raises fears that one of Wall Street's biggest names is on the verge of collapsing. JP Morgan Chase will provide the money to Bear Stearns for 28 days with the Federal Reserve of New York's backing. JP Morgan is also trying to get long-term financing for Bear Stearns. Bear Stearns' problems stem from the global credit crunch and the worry is that other lenders may also have major funding problems, analysts said. Withdrawn funds Bear Stearns is Wall Street's fifth largest investment bank, and has been at the centre of the US mortgage debt crisis. Recently, speculation had intensified that it was struggling to fund its daily business. BBC business editor Robert Peston said Bear Stearns had been taken to the brink of insolvency over the past 24 hours by a sudden collapse in confidence on the part of its hedge fund clients. As a result, these funds rushed to withdraw their assets. "The rescue of B...

CNews NEW YORK: Not surprisingly, Google's not happy about Microsoft's overture to buy Yahoo. The company has blogged an official statement suggesting that the move will hurt what it calls the underlying principles of the internet: "openness and innovation." Microsoft responds to say it is open and that only the shotgun marriage it proposes to Yahoo will make a "credible" number two threat to Google. Statements from both companies are tinged with irony that no doubt many, including myself, will find laughable. A further look and analysis below. The openness of the Internet is what made Google -- and Yahoo! -- possible. A good idea that users find useful spreads quickly. Businesses can be created around the idea. Users benefit from constant innovation. It's what makes the Internet such an exciting place. So Microsoft's hostile bid for Yahoo! raises troubling questions. This is about more than simply a financial transaction, one company taking over ano...

CNews NEW YORK: The honours committee of the New York Bar Association has decided to bestow honorary membership on the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, in recognition of his contribution to the independence of the judiciary.Mr Justice S. Rakoff, Chairperson of the Honours Committee of the association, has requested Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry to accept this high honour. He has also requested the chief justice to visit the US at his convenience before spring for conferment of the award.