Media Roundup: On a Nice Sunny Day in Toronto, Buffalo Snowed, Tigers Rolled, The Buddha Was Embraced

It is a nice sunny day outside, some people still strutting about in shorts but most in warmer clothing.

A hundred kilometers from here western New York got buried under two feet of snow.

The cinderalla Detroit Tigers are on a roll too. And a post script: Magglio Ordonez's two out home run earned Detroit the ALCS championship and a trip to the World Series.

Aamna sent me this:

WASHINGTON: Simon and Schuster, the publishers of Gen Musharraf's famous autobiography, will launch another memoir of a Pakistani on October 31, thus unleashing an interesting race of whose work sells more.

But the new memoir is already a best seller and has been translated into 20 languages, including Hindi and Hebrew, but surprisingly not in Urdu. It is the horrific tale of Mukhtaran Mai, the celebrated Meerawali victim of a world famous gang rape, by Shaheen Sehbai

I haven't seen Shaheen's name since he disbanded SAT (South Asian Times). So the Fauji would have some book competition with Mukhtaran Mai. Well, good for everyone, even though I have a feeling that she is used as a lightening rod at times.

In her unfinished Final Dispatch assassinated Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya writes:

Recently, at Russia's request, Ukraine handed over a certain Beslan Gadaev to Moscow. He is a Chechen and was arrested at the start of August in Crimea during a document check.

And she continued quoting from a letter Gadaev sent her describing his torture at the hands of the Russians. After describing in detail the torture (read it if you are brave) she quotes,

Around lunchtime, a policeman in civilian clothing came up to me and told me some journalists had come to see me and that I had to confess to three murders and a robbery.

"He said that if I didn't agree they would repeat everything (the torture) and would break me by sexually assaulting me in some way. I agreed to comply and gave an interview to the journalists and they (the police) forced me to testify that the injuries I had received from them had been sustained in the course of an escape attempt..."

Zaur Zakriev, a lawyer defending Beslan Gadaev, informed Memorial (a human rights organisation) that his client had suffered physical and psychological violence on the premises of the Grozny police force.

Bill Varner reports on the 15-0 vote at the Security Council to push North Korea back into the dog house. "The measure bars the sale or transfer of missiles, warships, tanks, attack helicopters and combat aircraft, as well as missile- and nuclear-related goods to the North Korean government. It calls for UN member nations to conduct 'inspection of cargo' going to or from North Korea."

Wonder if the costs of bootlegged cigarettes, medicines and videos will go up.

Professor Muhammed Yunus won the Nobel Peace Prize for 2006.

Speaking to The Times at the modest headquarters of his Grameen Bank, the Bangladeshi economist urged the international community to adopt his system of microcredit to help to pull the world's poorest out of destitution.

Twenty-seven dollars well spent!

Despite intense condemnation and pressure the occupying army led by musharraf and the nine cats refuses to repeal the travesty that is the
Hudood Ordinaces.

AI, therefore continues to call for the repeal of the Zina laws and ending practices that are discriminatory toward women and girls, in accordance with international human rights standards. These standards are to be found, among other international treaties and declarations, in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Pakistan is not a state party), the Convention for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (Pakistan is a state party), the UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (Pakistan is a state party).

• Make all rape and other sexual attacks, including of spouses, a crime;



• Exercise due diligence in promoting and protecting all human rights of women, including the right to full equality in law and in practice;



• In particular, abolish all legal provisions that discriminate against women, whether explicitly or implicitly, including the inadmissibility of evidence by women, and especially by rape victims, as well as any excessive burden of proof for rape and other forms of sexual attacks or exploitation;



• Ensure, in law and in practice, that all girls, namely females under the age of 18, are protected from all forms of sexual exploitation and sexual abuse; and



• Ensure, in law and in practice, that detainees are either tried promptly or else are released pending their trial.

Ban Ki-moon is confirmed as the new Secretary General of the UN and he says he'll help tackle the North Korean crisis.

Good luck and a Nobel awaits him if he succeeds. Taking bets against this.

Untouchables embrace the Buddhato escape oppression. Well, I guess they are not interested in Houris. (Caveat: not for the humour-impaired.)

Tejeswi Pratima writes about Hyderabadi Haleem. Is this the one outside Char Minaar, Balaji? Here is an untried recipe for Hyderabadi Haleem

Herschelle Gibbs talks and Zimbabwe and Bangladesh walk.

Haleem anyone?

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