8/14/2019 TheSun 2009-03-23 Page09 Chaudhry Reinstated

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ISLAMABAD:Pakistani judge IfitkharMuhammad Chaudhry (pix) resumed

his post of chief justice yesterday, 16months after he was ousted underemergency rule and a week afterprotests flung the nation into politicalchaos.

Chaudhry assumed the chargeof office here after midnight (3am inMalaysia), the supreme court said ina statement.

The chief justice immediately ap-proved the court roster for the comingweek assigning different benches tohear pending cases.

Chaudhry and 60 other top judgeswere sacked in 2007 by military rulerPervez Musharraf, who feared thesupreme court would disqualify himfrom contesting a presidential electionwhile wearing military uniform.

In a dramatic climbdown, followingmonths of broken promises and yearsof protests from lawyers, Prime Min-ister Yousuf Raza Gilani announced

on Monday that the government haddecided to reinstate the deposed chiefjustice.

It was a move calculated to endpolitical turmoil after a three-weekshowdown between opposition leaderNawaz Sharif, demanding Chaudhrys

reinstatement, and the hugely unpopu-lar President Asif Ali Zardari.

Gilani made the announcement ontelevision at dawn after a governmentcrackdown failed to thwart oppositionactivists and lawyers from headingtowards the capital Islamabad as partof a mass long march protest.

The government pledge to reinstateChaudhry defused a crisis that hadpushed the nuclear-armed na-tion to the brink of chaos.

Jubilant lawyers andmembers of civil so-ciety are expected togather outside hisofficial residenceto celebrateC h a u d h r y sreturn.

A flag hoist-ing ceremonywill be held athis residence tofulfil the pledge

made by slainopposition leaderBenazir Bhutto in2007 that we willunfurl the national flagat Chaudhrys house. AFP

newswithout borders9theSun | MONDAY MARCH 23 2009

Chaudhry...ousted 16monthsago byMusharraf

Chaudhry reinstated

Chinese police detainTibetan monks after riotBEIJING: Nearly 100 monks arebeing held in northwest Chinaafter an angry mob attacked apolice station, state media saidyesterday, in the first reportedmajor unrest in Tibetan-popu-lated areas this year.

The riot on Saturday by

hundreds of people in Rabgya,a town in the mountains ofQinghai province, came lessthan two weeks after the 50thanniversary of a failed uprisingagainst Chinese rule in Tibet onMarch 10.

Chinese authorities havelaunched a massive securityclampdown in recent weeksto quell possible unrest relatedto the anniversary of the upris-ing, which led the Dalai Lama,Tibets spiritual leader, to fleeinto exile.

Police have arrested six

participants in the attack.Eighty-nine surrendered topolice, the official Xinhua newsagency reported.

All but two of the 95 weremonks in the Rabgya monas-tery, the report said.

Xinhua said several hundred

people, including nearly 100monks from the monastery,had taken part in the riot.

A policeman at the Rabgyalocal government office refusedto comment when contactedby AFP, and no one was avail-able for comment at localpolice stations.

The protesters assaulted po-licemen and government staff,some of whom were slightlyinjured, Xinhua said.

The report said the mob hadbeen deceived by rumoursabout a man who had been

taken into police custody inRabgya on suspicion of beinginvolved in advocating Tibetindependence, but who es-caped on Saturday.

The man, who was identifiedas Zhaxi Sangwu, disappearedafter swimming across the Yel-

low River that passes throughthe town, Xinhua quoted policeand a witness as saying.

A resident of Rabgya, whocould not be named for fear ofreprisals, said she had heardthe detained man was a monk.

I heard that monks andother people gathered in frontof the police station afterthe monk committed suicideby throwing himself into theriver.

She said the military was outin force in the town yesterdayafter the incident. AFP

Five thousand peopleevacuated after US acid spillWASHINGTON: At least 5,000 residents wereevacuated in eastern Pennsylvania after a truckcarrying 33,000 pounds of toxic hydrofluoric acidoverturned early on Saturday. Driver RaymondLeblanc, 54, of Ontario, Canada, lost control ofthe vehicle while trying to avoid hitting a deer.He was initially trapped in the truck, but wasrescued unhurt. Another passenger was alsoremoved from the site and no other injurieswere reported, police said. Most of the acid wasin the form of pressurised gas, police told broad-caster CNN and the leak was plugged eight anda half hours after the trailer overturned nearWind Gap, Pennsylvania. dpa

British reality TV star JadeGoody dies of cancer

LONDON:Jade Goody, a one-time dentalassistant whose final days were as closelychronicled in the media as her controversialappearances on reality television, died ofcervical cancer yesterday. The 27-year-old

mother of two, who married her boyfriendin 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 toldreporters outside the house. Family andfriends would like privacy at last. Goodyshot to fame in 2002 after appearing in theBig Brotherreality show. Her popularitysank in 2007 after racially charged tiradesagainst Indian housemate Shilpa Shetty inCelebrity Big Brother. Reuters

US journalists likely inPyongyang: ReportSEOUL:North Korea has likely sent two Ameri-can journalists detained by border guards lastweek to the capital Pyongyang for questioning,the Souths Yonhap news agency reportedyesterday. Confirmation by North Koreas statemedia on Saturday of their detention showedthe central government was directly involved intheir case, Yonhap said, quoting an unnamedsource in China. Given the significance of thecase, it is very likely that the two US journalistshave been sent to Pyongyang for questioning

directly by the Norths security and militaryagencies, the source told Yonhap. .Diplomaticsources said Washington and Pyongyang werein talks over the release of the two, identifiedas Euna Lee and Laura Ling. AFP

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