WASHINGTON: Amnesty International criticized the United States on Wednesday for its use of lethal force, particularly for the “unlawful” killing of Osama bin Laden in a clandestine US commando raid in Pakistan last May.

“The US administration made clear that the operation had been conducted under the USA’s theory of a global armed conflict between the USA and Al-Qaeda in which the USA does not recognize the applicability of international human rights law,” it said in its annual report.

“In the absence of further clarification from the US authorities, the killing of Osama bin Laden would appear to have been unlawful,” it said.

Amnesty said a request for clarification over an apparent US drone strike in Yemen last September that killed US-born radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaqi, his Al-Qaeda co-conspirator Samir Khan and at least two others had also gone unanswered.

“These killings appeared to have amounted to extrajudicial executions,” the rights watchdog said.

Amnesty also hit out at human rights violations committed by former president George W. Bush’s administration and condemned the “impunity” with which his officials operated.

The global rights monitor also criticized Canada for failing to arrest Bush when he visited in October, “despite clear evidence that he was responsible for crimes under international law, including torture.”

“There was no accountability for human rights violations committed under the administration of president George W. Bush as part of the CIA’s program of secret detention and rendition,” Amnesty said, referring to the transfer of individuals from one country to another without access to legal process.

Attorney General Eric Holder in June 2011 launched a criminal investigation into the deaths of two detainees in CIA custody but dropped probes into the vast majority of alleged interrogation abuses.

Amnesty regretted President Barack Obama’s failure to shut down Guantanamo, noting that at the end of 2011, nearly two years after his self-imposed closure deadline, “171 men were still held at the base, including four who had been convicted by military commission.”

The number of detainees at the US detention center in Cuba currently stands at 169.

The report lamented that five suspects accused of planning the September 11, 2001 attacks “had been held incommunicado for up to four years in secret US custody before being transferred to Guantanamo.”

Amnesty also criticized conditions in American prisons, in particular the high number of hours some detainees were confined in isolated cells, and the execution of 43 men last year, all by lethal injection.

“This brought to 1,277 the total number of executions carried out since the US Supreme Court lifted a moratorium on the death penalty in 1976,” the report said. — AGENCIES

CAIRO: Polls opened for a second day across Egypt on Thursday in a gripping presidential election in which candidates are pitting stability against the ideals of the uprising that ended Hosni Mubarak’s rule.

Small queues began to form outside schools when polling stations opened at 8:00 am (0600 GMT).

Turnout is expected to be higher Thursday than on Wednesday’s opening day, after authorities declared it a public holiday to allow public sector employees to cast their ballots.

Voting in 13,000 polling stations takes place over two days in order to accommodate more than 50 million eligible voters.

On Wednesday, after a slow start, cooler evening temperatures and the end of the work day prompted a surge in voters, who wound their way through streets outside polling stations across the country.

Two of the candidates are expected to go into June run offs after the May 23 و 24 vote, with pollsters saying the number of undecided voters makes the result of the first round extremely difficult to predict.

After decades of pre-determined results, for the first time, the outcome of the vote in the Arab world’s most populous nation is wide open.

The next president will inherit a struggling economy, deteriorating security and the challenge of uniting a nation divided by the uprising and its sometimes deadly aftermath, but his powers are yet to be defined by a new constitution.

Among the contenders is former foreign minister and Arab League chief Amr Mussa, who is seen as an experienced politician and diplomat. But like Ahmed Shafiq, Mubarak’s last prime minister, he is accused of ties with the old regime.

The powerful Muslim Brotherhood’s candidate, Mohammed Mursi, faces competition from Abdel Moneim Abul Fotouh, a former member of the Islamist movement who portrays himself as a consensus choice with a wide range of support.

Several of the candidates broke an election committee period of silence during the polling to shore up their chances and attack others, with Shafiq warning of a “huge problem” if the Islamists get into power.

Pollsters say many of the undecided voters who say they will cast ballots are likely to make up their minds at the last minute or be swayed by the candidate who has the best network in mustering votes.

The election caps a roller-coaster transition, marked by political upheaval and deadly bloodshed, but which also witnessed democratic parliamentary elections that saw Islamist groups score a crushing victory.

Ballot boxes from Wednesday will be kept overnight in the stations, which election commission officials will seal with wax overnight and leave under military and police protection.

Results are expected on Sunday.

MIR ALI: A suspected U.S. drone fired two missiles that killed 10 alleged militants in northwest Pakistan near the Afghan border, officials said.

Officials say Thursday’s attack took place in Khassokhel village near Mir Ali in the North Waziristan tribal area. It was the second such attack in 24 hours in the region.

The officials claim most of those killed were Uzbek insurgents.

Drone strikes have become an increasingly contentious issue between the U.S. and Pakistan.

Pakistan’s Parliament recently demanded the U.S. end all drone strikes on its territory. The U.S. has shown no intention of stopping the covert CIA program which has left hundreds of innocent civilians dead among few militants. – SAMAA/AGENCIES

Staff Report
KARACHI: The attempt to kidnap a chief of a private bank has been was foiled late yesterday night, SAMAA reports Thursday.

According to details, Hussain Lawai, head of a private bank and a high-profile figure came out of his residence to offer Isha (late night) prayers when miscreants ambushed and caught hold of him. The kidnappers blindfolded him after a little grappling.

According to police sources, the bank chief, who remained associated with governments of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) was injured in his resistance against the abductors. He was shifted to a private hospital.

It should be mentioned here that Lawai was made Advisor to the Prime Minister in 1996. He had to flee to Dubai on the fall of the PPP Government. From Dubai, he landed into Australia where he was arrested by Interpol in Canberra Airport on 4 ماه مارس 1998, on the request of Pakistani authorities who charged that Lawai acted as the conduit in an alleged deal that caused national exchequer heavy loss.

Police sources informed that Lawai’s security guard was an accomplice of the kidnappers and fled with his accessories after the kidnapping bid could not succeed.

Lawai’s car has been recovered from a Korangi area, police said.

AMMAN: The main Syrian National Council opposition group said it had accepted the resignation of its president, setting the stage for a showdown between the powerful Muslim Brotherhood and its political rivals over who will be the new leader.

The internal conflicts have come to a head over the position held by Burhan Ghalioun, a secular sociologist backed by the Brotherhood, who offered to step down as leader of the 313-member council last week if a replacement could be found.

Squabbling in the council has undermined international support for the opposition, as a military crackdown against the 14-month revolt against President Bashar al-Assad, now coupled with an armed insurgency against his rule, shows no signs of relenting.

A statement by the council issued late on Wednesday said Ghalioun would remain head “until a new president is elected at the meeting of the general secretariat,” adding that the council’s general assembly would later meet as part of efforts to reorganise the council.

The council’s executive bureau decided at a meeting in Istanbul on Wednesday to convene the 50-member general secretariat in the Turkish capital on June 11 و 12 to elect a replacement for Ghalioun, the statement added.

The 12-member bureau, the top decision-making body of the council, rejected Ghalioun’s proposal that the whole council should meet to agree on an alternative, members of the council, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said on Thursday.

“Ghalioun’s chances of remaining president after June 12 have now diminished. It would have been almost impossible to find a consensus candidate other than him if the whole council convened,” a Ghalioun supporter on the general secretariat said.

“The Brotherhood pushed so the whole council meets, but did not get its way,” another council source said.

The 67-year-old Ghalioun has been attracting growing criticism among opposition ranks inside Syria for continuously seeking to renew his three-month term and for his scepticism over armed resistance by majority to the rule of Assad.

VETERAN LIBERAL SEEN AS STRONG CANDIDATE
Ghalioun, who has been living in France for decades, has been head of the opposition since the council was formed in Istanbul in August as an umbrella organisation to lead a democratic transition if Assad were toppled.

Paradoxically, his position became precarious when the general secretariat re-elected him for a third three-month term at a meeting in Rome on May 15, sparking discontent and a threat of resignation by Adib Shishakly, one of the council’s founders and the grandson of a former president of Syria.

The Local Coordination Committee, a grass-roots activists’ organisation, also threatened to leave the council.

Two days later, Ghalioun offered to step down. The Muslim Brotherhood said he remained the only candidate who could attract broad support.

But George Sabra, a veteran liberal who came second in last week’s ballot with 33 percent of the votes compared with Ghalioun’s 66 percent, is seen as a strong candidate.

Sabra, a Christian who fled Syria last year after leading street protests in the Damascus suburb of Qatana, is an ally of Syria’s top dissident, Riad al-Turk,

Turk, an 81-year-old former leftist who spent 25 years as a political prisoner, operates underground inside Syria. The opposition looks to him for moral guidance.

A Muslim Brotherhood official hinted that Sabra may be unacceptable to the group, whose support has been crucial for Ghalioun remaining president since August.

“We need a president who is acceptable to the West and someone like Sabra would fit the criteria,” the official said. “But we have to take into consideration the sentiment of the street. He is too far to the left.” AGENCIES

QUEBEC CITY: The race to host the 2020 Summer Games is now a three-way battle between Istanbul, Madrid and Tokyo after Qatar’s Doha and Azerbaijan’s Baku were dumped as candidates, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said on Wednesday.

The shortlist of candidates to host the world’s biggest multi-sports event was announced at the IOC’s executive board meetings in Quebec City.

Baku, which invested more than a billion dollars in sports venues in the past 10 years, was bidding for a second successive time after falling at the first hurdle for the 2016 Games.

Doha, which was proposing to hold the 2020 Olympics in October rather than the usual July/August schedule to avoid the Gulf Arab state’s searing summer heat, is already hosting the 2022 World Cup soccer tournament.

The IOC will announce the winner between bids from Tokyo (Japan), Madrid (Spain) and Istanbul (Turkey) in September 2013.

Rome (Italy) pulled out of the running in February due to the country’s efforts to head off a debt crisis.

London will host the 2012 Summer Games from July 27-August 12 while the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro will stage the 2016 Olympics. — AGENCIES

LOS ANGELES: “Star Trek,” “Top Gun,” “Braveheart” و “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” are among the Paramount Pictures titles coming to Amazon Prime

Staff Report
KARACHI: Great juggernaut force behind Pakistan’s cinema with multiple fortes and flairs, Rangeela is being remembered on his death anniversary today (Thursday).

Rangeela was born as Mohammad Saeed Khan in 1937, in Parachinar, پاکستان. Rangeela made his professional cinematic debut in a 1958 Punjabi film called ‘Jatti‘.

His movie career started back in the late 1950s. Despite acting in the movies, he also directed many of them. He also sung many songs and wrote some scripts.

The super hit film ‘Diya Aur Toofan’, ماه مه 9, 1969, was Rangeela’s directional debut. Additionally, he was also the producer- singer- writer- actor of the movie.

He directed numerous movies under the banner of ‘Rangeela productions’. Excellence of his acting potential was enormous in the super hit film ‘Rangeela’, سپتامبر 11, 1970, in which he played the title role of Rangeela.

Director- producer- بازیگر- writer, Rangeela earned plaudits from his adorers for his third consecutive super hit film ‘Dil aur duniya’, اکتبر 1, 1971, with Habib, Aasia and Rangeela as cast of the movie.

The above three films were big hits at the box office in a row. Thus, Rangeela successfully completed the ‘hat trick’ of his movies. He brings to the film ‘Dil aur duniya’, the sobering sense of a director’s prowess which is the very opposite to his celluloid persona.

Rangeela has been a dominant force in the Pakistani cinema for over forty years. He won many awards. With the passage of time his health deteriorated and Rangeela crossed over on May 24, 2005, in Lahore. SAMAA

Staff Report
KARACHI: One of the foremost lyricists of sub-continent and the modern and great names in Urdu poetry, Majrooh Sultanpuri is being remembered on his death anniversary today (Thursday).

LOS ANGELES: Media mogul Oprah Winfrey is expanding her online empire by teaming up with the Huffington Post for a section dedicated to the chat show host that will engage her audience, the Oprah Winfrey Network said on Wednesday.

The Huffington Post Oprah section will launch in August, and will curate content from Oprah.com, which features the motto “Live Your Best Life” and accompanies Winfrey’s OWN TV programming with videos, articles and advice on health, fashion and culture.

The section also will develop original content with Oprah.com, OWN and Huffington Post editors, and interactively engage with readers.

“Oprah was about engagement and authenticity long before engagement and authenticity ruled the web. And since those qualities are deeply embedded in the DNA of both OWN and HuffPost, I’m delighted that we’ll be working together to enlarge the conversation on living our best lives,” Arianna Huffington said in a statement.

Winfrey, 58, the ‘Queen of Talk’ who revolutionized chat shows with her intimate, confessional couch format on “The Oprah Winfrey” Show that first aired in the 1980s, has seen her Oprah Winfrey Network struggle to connect to her TV audience with her mix of interviews and feel-good programs.

Earlier this year, the network laid off 30 staff members and canceled the heavily hyped Rosie O’Donnell talk show that failed to provide a ratings boost for the fledgling channel, drawing in an average of 180,000 daily viewers as of March.

Winfrey’s collaboration with Huffington Post will allow her to reach the news aggregator website’s 36.9 million monthly users, with the hope of recouping some of her key audience, women ages 25 to 54. Oprah currently is followed by 11.5 million users on Twitter and 7 million fans on Facebook.

Talk show hosts such as Katie Couric, Dr Phil, Bill Maher and Ricki Lake have contributed to Huffington Post’s blogosphere in the past while Ellen DeGeneres and Anderson Cooper have their own dedicated aggregator news pages. But this is the first time the site has collaborated with a host to develop a dedicated section. — AGENCIES

Staff Report
KARACHI: At least four people were overnight gunned down in the city area of Liaquatabad, SAMAA reports Thursday.

Meantime, the Rangers contingent arrested a target-killer from an area of Jamshed Quarters in an operation conducted overnight.

The city area of Liaquatabad rang with gunshots in today’s wee hours when four people were injured in firing by the unidentified miscreants. One of the injured died on the spot.

Meantime, another man succumbed to injuries while he was being transported to hospital. The remaining two also expired at hospital before long.

The incident spawned tension across the area. Heavy contingent of police was summoned to prevent any untoward incident from happening in the area. SAMAA

TOKYO: Toyota is to begin selling cars in India priced at around $6,000, a report said, as the Japanese auto giant looks to boost its share of the country’s growing affordable car market.

The company will seek to avoid devaluing the Toyota name by creating a new brand for the sector, which it hopes to enter in 2016, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported on Thursday without citing sources.

Japan’s biggest automaker began selling its low-cost sedan Etios in India in 2010, but with a price tag of $10,000 it is still expensive compared with cars made by rivals such as Tata Motors, whose Nano sells for as little as $2,900.

Toyota has said it wants to achieve 50 percent of its worldwide vehicle sales in emerging markets from 2015 compared to 40 percent in 2010.

Toyota declined to comment on the report. AGENCIES

PALO ALTO, Calif: Hewlett-Packard says it’s laying off 27,000 کارگران, 8 percent of its work force, as it restructures the business.

The Palo Alto, Calif., company says it’ll save $3 billion to $3.5 billion annually from cost cuts, including the layoffs.

Hewlett-Packard Co. expects to complete the job cuts by the end of fiscal 2014.

Shares are up $1.40, یا 6.6 percent, to $22.48 in aftermarket trading Wednesday.

NOTTINGHAM: West Indies wicket-keeper Denesh Ramdin has said it would be “amazing” for a youthful side if they were to beat world number ones England during their ongoing Test series.

The tourists showed plenty of heart in taking England into the fifth day of the first Test at Lord’s before going down to a five-wicket defeat concluded Monday to fall 1-0 behind in the three-match series.

Now they are in Nottingham, where the second Test at Trent Bridge starts on Friday, looking to improve on a run of just two wins in their last 31 matches at this level and a sequence of 15 Tests without a win on English soil dating back to 2000.

“It would be amazing for the young team we have to go out there and win a Test match against the number one team in the world,” said Ramdin, speaking at Trent Bridge, on Wednesday.

“We showed some fight against Australia back in the Caribbean but in English conditions, we are in their backyard where it is very tough to beat them.

“But, having said that, they are beatable once we bowl the right areas, get wickets and our batters put runs on the board.

“The confidence is still high. Everyone thought we would lose inside four days (at Lord’s) but the guys showed character and fight. If we had a batted a bit better in the first innings we could have probably won.”

اما, Ramdin, a veteran of 43 Tests, said occasional lapses were costing the West Indies dear.

“You could just have one bad session and you lose a Test match,” said the 27-year-old Trinidad and Tobago keeper. “We need to be more consistent than that.”

When Ramdin made his Test debut in 2005, Australia were still the kings of the five-day game.

Now it’s England who are on top and Ramdin believes playing in English conditions is an even harder task than playing Test cricket in India, long regarded as one of the toughest challenges for touring teams.

“When I just started the team that was on top was Australia. I think England have a formula they have put into place and that’s why they are number one in the world at the moment.

“They play hard, they use their conditions well, the batters get runs and put their bowlers in a position to win games. I think it’s easier to play in India than in England.” AGENCIES

WASHINGTON: The U.S. State Department said on Wednesday it saw no reason for Pakistan to detain or charge a Pakistani doctor who has been accused of helping the CIA find Osama bin Laden.