— Photo by AFP

WASHINGTON: From the unruly areas of Pakistan to Philippine jungles and the deserts of Iraq, simple matchbooks and posters are proving an effective US tool in the hunt for the world’s most wanted men.

Since its launch in 1984, the Rewards for Justice program run by the Diplomatic Security bureau of the State Department has paid out $125 million in rewards to 80 people for information leading to the capture of terrorists.

Pictures of the wanted men are printed on posters, matchbooks and pens along with messages in the local languages and dialects asking for information and providing instructions on how to hand over tip-offs or ring a hotline.

More modern methods to pass the message are also used, such as Twitter and Facebook feeds, a dedicated website, and mobile phone alerts.

Top of the program’s wanted list now is Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, with a reward of up to $25 million for information leading to his capture.

The Egyptian doctor, who took over as Al-Qaeda leader after US commandos shot dead Osama Bin Laden in May 2011, has been indicted for his role in the 1998 twin bombings of US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam.

He is one of just 53 people who the United States is seeking to bring before the courts for terror attacks, and who now have a price on their heads.

“The genesis of this program actually came about as a result of the bombings of our embassy in Kuwait, and bombings of our facilities in Beirut,”Acting Assistant Director for Diplomatic Security Kurt Rice told AFP.

“The government after that decided we have to look for another tool to try and get information and bring these people to justice.”

Last month Alabama-born Omar Hamami, dubbed the rapping jihadist, became one of five Americans on the list, wanted for ties to the Al-Qaeda linked Shebab insurgents evading capture in Somalia.

The program is also still seeking information on cases in which the trail appears to have gone cold, including the 1983 attack on a Marine Corps barracks in Beirut and the 1988 bombing of Panam flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.

Despite the dangers, the rewards can be tantalizingly huge in impoverished countries.

One informant earned $30 million for leading the US to Uday and Qusay Hussein, the sons of late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

Thanks to the tip-off, the two were tracked down in July 2003 by a secretive special operations task force sent in to capture them in northern Mosul.

A four-hour firefight ensued, in which both men were killed.

Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, the 1993 bomber of the World Trade Center, was caught after someone picked up a matchbook bearing his picture in Pakistan and tipped off the US embassy in Islamabad.

Yousef, the nephew of the self-confessed architect of the September 11, 2001 attacks Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, was arrested by Pakistani forces in 1995 and extradited to the US.

He was tried and sentenced to two life sentences.

“This program is fairly simple, it’s fairly elegant, it saves lives,” said Rice. “All we are trying to do is give people an outlet, because people intrinsically often just want to help.

“We’re giving them the ability in a safe, very secure manner to provide us information so we can get these people off the streets.”

He stresses that confidentiality is key to protecting the identities of the informants.

“We’ve given this money out, and that obviously makes them a target wherever they are in the world,” he said.

The size of the reward depends on how critical the information is to the wanted person’s capture and is determined by an inter-agency committee which then recommends an amount to the secretary of state.

A group of Filipinos in 2007 shared in a $5 million reward for helping to locate one of the high-ranking leaders of the Islamic Abu Sayyaf, Khadaffy Janjalani, and then identify his body after he was killed in a shoot-out with Philippine forces.

And while the Diplomatic Security bureau cannot provide physical protection for informants, it has helped relocate some people to safer places, including to the United States.

Since 2001, the program has also focused on prevention as well as tracking down those already accused of terrorist acts.

“We would rather save lives than solve crimes. Of course solving the crimes is critical to us, but if we can stop, if we can prevent that’s fantastic,” Rice said.

-Reuters File Photo

LONDON: Scotland’s government has announced plans to legalize same-sex marriages.          

Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said Wednesday that legislation permitting the marriages would soon be introduced.

The measure has backing from the major Scottish political parties. It follows a public consultation on the issue.

When enacted, Scotland could become the first part of the UK to allow same-sex marriages.

The UK government has conducted a public consultation on legalizing same-sex marriages, and it has the backing of Prime Minister David Cameron.

But UK officials are waiting for the results of the public consultation before taking further steps.

Britain’s Andy Murray celebrates after his men’s singles semi-final victory over France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga at the 2012 Wimbledon Championships. — Photo AFP

LONDON: Andy Murray hopes to make history Sunday by becoming Britain’s first Wimbledon men’s champion in 76 years, a landmark challenge which has sent optimism and ticket prices through the roof.

Murray is the first home player to get to the final since Bunny Austin in 1938.

Victory would make him the first British champion since Fred Perry in 1936, the year when the Nazis marched into the Rhineland and the Spanish civil war began.

The stage may be set but there’s one slight problem.

On the other side of the net stands six-time champion Roger Federer, widely regarded as the finest player of all time and bidding to level the record of seven Wimbledon titles held by Pete Sampras.

A win for the 30-year-old Swiss, written off as a spent force coming into the tournament, would mean a 17th Grand Slam crown.

Murray, 25, has come agonisngly close to the final before — he was a semi-finalist in 2009, where he lost to Andy Roddick, and in 2010 and 2011, on both occasions losing to Rafael Nadal.

The Scot, runner-up at the 2008 US Open and 2010 and 2011 Australian Open, insists he is the underdog as he tries to win his first major, despite holding an 8-7 career lead over Federer in head-to-head meetings.

Federer, knocked out in the quarter-finals for the past two years, has the greater experience, playing in a record eighth Wimbledon final and 24th Grand Slam championship match.

“He’s one of the greatest ever players,” said Murray. “It’s a great challenge, one where I’m probably not expected to win, but one that, if I play well, I’m capable of winning. The pressure that I would be feeling if it was against somebody else I guess it would be different. But there will be less on me on Sunday because of who he is.”

Federer will return to the world number one spot if he wins, becoming the second oldest man behind Andre Agassi to take the top ranking.

Just two men over 30 have won Wimbledon — Rod Laver, who was almost 31 when he won in 1969 and Arthur Ashe who was just five days short of his 32nd birthday when he was champion in 1975.

Despite the last of Federer’s 16 Grand Slam titles having come at the 2010 Australian Open, he believes he won’t feel a sense of desperation on Sunday.

“I’m in a good place mentally and you have got to be that for the finals,” he said.
“There’s a lot on the line for me. I’m not denying that. I have a lot of pressure, as well. I’m looking forward to that. That’s what I work hard for.”

Fans will have to dig deep if they want to see history made with Centre Court tickets, which are priced at $186, being sold for astronomical sums.

Edward Parkinson, director of ticket market place website Viagogo UK, said: “We could see tickets being offered for up to $69,958 for a pair.”

Meanwhile, residents of Murray’s hometown of Dunblane in central Scotland will be desperate for a celebration.

In 1996, the town was the scene of a bloody massacre when a gunman burst into Murray’s school, killing 16 children and a teacher.

As a frightened eight-year-old, Murray hid under a desk as the gunman ran amok.

“Some of my friends’ brothers and sisters were killed. I have only retained patchy impressions of that day, such as being in a classroom singing songs,” Murray wrote in his autobiography, Hitting Back.

“The weirdest thing was that we knew (the gunman) Thomas Hamilton. He had been in my mum’s car. It’s obviously weird to think you had a murderer in your car, sitting next to your mum.”

Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond speaks to members of the media after his meeting at Number 10 Downing Street in London, June 8, 2011. — Photo by Reuters/File

EDINBURGH: Scottish nationalists are launching an official “yes” campaign on Friday ahead of a referendum on independence from Britain that is not likely to be held until 2014.

The “Yes Scotland” drive which will kick off in Edinburgh features the Scottish National Party of First Minister Alex Salmond and other parties including the Greens.

The launch at a cinema in the Scottish capital comes despite that a date has not been finalised for a vote on whether to sever the more than 300-year-old political union between England and Scotland.

Salmond wants the referendum in late 2014 and has proposed to offer a third option of increased devolution. The British government favours a swifter in-or-out vote.

“This has to be the biggest community-based campaign in Scotland’s history,” a Yes Scotland spokesman said.

“We have a 550-seat venue full to capacity and we could have filled it again with the level of interest we have received.”

A pro-union campaign is expected to be launched later this year.

The Scottish government already has powers over some policy areas such as health and education for the nation of 5.3 million people, but defence, energy and foreign affairs remain with London.

Opinion polls show that around a third of voters in Scotland currently back independence, although the figure has risen in recent months.

British Prime Minister David Cameron has vowed to fight to keep Scotland in the United Kingdom.

Scottish independence would raise a host of issues including what happens to revenue from North Sea oil reserves and whether Scotland would become a republic or keep Queen Elizabeth II as monarch.

This Thursday, Aug. 20, 2009 file photo shows Libyan Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, who was found guilty of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, center, being helped down the airplane steps on his arrival at an airport in Tripoli, Libya. Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, a Libyan intelligence officer who was the only person ever convicted in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, died Sunday May 20, 2012 nearly three years after he was released from a Scottish prison to the outrage of the relatives of the attack’s 270 victims. He was 60. -AP Photo

TRIPOLI: Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi, the only person convicted over the 1988 Lockerbie bombing over Scotland in which 270 people were killed, died on Sunday, his brother told AFP.

“He died an hour ago,” Abdelhakim al-Megrahi said, putting the time of death at shortly after 1.00 pm (1100 GMT). Doctors had yet to determine the cause of death, he added.

Megrahi, 60, suffered from prostate cancer and was hospitalised for a few days in April before being sent back home to be with his family.

On April 16, Abdelhakim had said his brother’s days “were numbered.” A Scottish court in 2001 convicted the Libyan of the 1988 attack on Pan Am flight 103 over the town of Lockerbie, but he was released on compassionate grounds in 2009 after doctors said he had only three months to live.

Megrahi had been greeted as a hero on his return to Moamer Qadhafi’s Libya, after having served eight years of a minimum 27-year sentence for his role in the bombing.

The fact that he had survived much longer than the doctors had estimated had provoked indignation in Britain and the United States.

On the second anniversary of the release of the former Libyan intelligence agent on August 20, 2009, the Scottish government insisted its decision to free him had been vindicated.

But British Prime Minister David Cameron criticised the release as a “terrible mistake,” and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said he would like to see him “back in jail behind bars.”

Most of those killed in the bombing of the Boeing 747 jet headed from London to New York were Americans. All 259 passengers and crew were killed, along with 11 people on the ground. Megrahi had always maintained his innocence.

Rangers' Sone Aluko celebrates his goal against Hearts during their Scottish Premier League soccer match at Tynecastle Stadium in Edinburgh, Scotland April 21, 2012. -- Photo by Reuters

GLASGOW: Rangers was barred from signing players for 12 months and its owner banned for life from any involvement in Scottish football as part of a series of tough punishments imposed on the financially stricken Scottish club on Monday.

The record 54-time Scottish champions went into administration – a form of bankruptcy protection – in February with tax debts of 9 million pounds (then $14 million) having been accrued since Craig Whyte’s takeover last May.

A disciplinary tribunal found Whyte in breach of two disciplinary rules between May 6, 2011, and March 6, 2012 and was fined 200,000 pounds ($320,000). Six weeks ago, he was described by the Scottish Football Association as ”not a fit and proper person” to be involved in the sport.

The year-long transfer embargo was placed on the club after it was found to have breached five disciplinary rules in the same period. The ban excludes signing players under the age of 18.

Rangers, which was also fined a total of 160,000 pounds ($260,000), is facing liquidation if it doesn’t find a new buyer before the end of the season.

”All of us working on behalf of the club are utterly shocked and dismayed by the draconian sanctions imposed on Rangers in respect of these charges,” said Paul Clark, one of the club’s administrators.

”For Rangers, a ban on signing players will seriously undermine the club’s efforts to rebuild after being rendered insolvent. Furthermore, we do not know how bidders for the club will react to these sanctions and what effect they will have on their proposals.”

Both Rangers and Whyte have three days to appeal.

”I am surprised at how harsh the SFA have been on a club which is going through tough times at the moment,” Whyte said.

Wife of Pakistani scientist Dr. Muhammad Khalil Chisti, shows pictures of him to his grand daughters after the news of his release from Indian prison after 20 years. — ONLINE PHOTO by Sabir Mazhar

KARACHI: While the release of Dr Khalil Chishti by the Indian Supreme Court on Monday on an interim bail following this weekend visit of President Asif Ali Zardari to India is being considered as a small but positive step towards the normalisation of relations between the two neighbouring nuclear powers, it has once again raised hopes of his family, friends and students that he will soon be with them.

“We have been waiting for his return for the past 20 years,” says Dr Tariqa, one of Dr Chishti’s four daughters, while speaking to Dawn at her residence in North Nazimabad.

Dr Chishti, Pakistan’s first virologist, had gone to India in 1992 to see his ailing mother where he was implicated in a murder case. After an 18-year-long trial, the octogenarian professor was awarded life imprisonment and sent to the Ajmer jail in January last year. Since then, he has been in a hospital due to his deteriorating health though Dr Tariqa speaks well of Indian officials and says her father is being provided good care.

“My mother with some relatives recently met him. We have no doubts that his condition was satisfactory,” she says while acknowledging the support extended to him by the Indian media and people.

Recalling the arrest and judicial custody of her father, she says Dr Chishti had got bail after spending a couple of months in jail. He spent most of the time during the decades-long trial at a family farm house in the suburbs of Rajasthan’s Ajmer city. “His movement was restricted to Ajmer city, but he was never under house arrest nor did he spend the entire period in jail,” says Dr Tariqa while clarifying some media reports to the contrary.

“In the initial months, we didn’t know what exactly had happened to him until we received father’s letter through someone. Running a house and looking after children’s needs in my father’s absence was indeed a very difficult time for my mother though relatives did extend some support,” she recalls.

Yet the family was fortunate in that all the siblings had completed their studies and were about to pursue their careers while her elder brother was already working in Saudi Arabia at that time, she says while recalling how they bore her father’s arrest.

With all her four sisters and a brother now well settled, Dr Tariqa feels that her mother, though not very educated, had successfully managed the affairs and also arranged the marriage of her two daughters in her father’s absence.

“When my two sisters were getting married we sent an application to the Indian authorities to let our father attend the event. But he was not allowed to travel to Pakistan even then,” she adds.

The family has remained in contact with Dr Chishti on the telephone though the communication has not so been frequent since he had been sent to the jail.

Dr Chishti suffered two heart attacks and a hip fracture during his trial. He is unable to walk unaided now, while his ailing mother for whom he had gone to India died 10 to 15 years ago.
His wife, Mehrunnisa, has lost her hearing that doctors partly blame on the agonies she has suffered.

“But you can’t imagine the courage my both parents have shown. My father has become very weak but mentally he is very strong. He told my brother-in-law during a recent visit that he was okay and he would fight till his return to Pakistan,” says Dr Tariqa.

Dr Chishti’s students Prof Dr Shahana Urooj Kazmi and Prof Dr Nusrat Jamil both are Karachi University faculty members taught by Dr Chishti.

They speak very high of Dr Chishti as a teacher and scientific researcher and demand that the Indian authorities release him on humanitarian grounds.

The university had launched a campaign last year for his release.

Dr Kazmi, who has served Karachi University as a pro-vice chancellor, says: “He was Pakistan’s first virologist and had received his PhD in Public Health Virology from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1968.

“He set up a virology lab on the campus and later a diagnostic lab near his residence. But the latter couldn’t be run successfully. I was among the last batch of students who were taught by him in 1972,” she recalls, adding that Dr Chishti also had the opportunity to teach in other countries.

Reminiscing about the days when Dr Chishti taught at the university, Dr Jamil, who is currently the dean of the faculty of science, says: “Dr Chishti used to be so absorbed in his work that he sometimes forgot to notice what was happening about him. I remember once he picked up a duster, instead of his handkerchief, from a table and wiped the sweat from his face.

That left the whole class laughing.”

]]> http://dawn.com/2012/03/28/total-shares-dive-after-gas-leak/feed/ 0 dawndawncom http://dawn.com/2012/02/01/remembering-the-vikings/ http://dawn.com/2012/02/01/remembering-the-vikings/#comments Wed, 01 Feb 2012 08:50:22 +0000 DAWN.COM Gallery]]> Gallery]]> Top Stories]]> Multimedia]]> http://dawn.com/?p=2417765 Hundreds of costumed guizers carrying torches took to the streets of a Scottish island during the annual Up Helly Aa festival.

Originating in the 1880s, the tradition which celebrates Shetland’s Norse heritage sees around 900 guizers drag a Viking galley …

Hundreds of costumed guizers carrying torches took to the streets of a Scottish island during the annual Up Helly Aa festival.

Originating in the 1880s, the tradition which celebrates Shetland’s Norse heritage sees around 900 guizers drag a Viking galley through the streets of Lerwick, led by a horde of ‘Vikings’.

The festival, that attracts thousands of revelers each year, culminates in the burning of the Viking galley. — Photos by Agencies

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