HARARE: Pakistan suffered from an embarrassing 24-run defeat by Zimbabwe in the second Test match here at the Harare Sports Club ground on Saturday.
With this historic win, Zimbabwe, ranked at bottom, also levelled the two-Test series as Pakistan already won the first Test by a big margin of 221 runs.
This was only third victory for Zimbabwe in a Test against Pakistan after 1995 and 1998.
Chasing 264 to win, Pakistan were all out for 239 after lunch on the fifth and final day of the match.
Skipper Misbah-ul-Haq struggled hard and carried his team close to win but failed to do so due to non-availability of any partner.
Misbah stayed at the crease for 270 minutes and faced 181 balls scoring an unbeaten 79 with nine fours.
Pakistan were 217 for eight at lunch, 47 runs short of their target of 264, with two wickets remaining. Misbah was unbeaten on 58.
Fast bowler Tendai Chatara led Zimbabwe's push for a rare win against a leading Test nation, taking two wickets during the morning to add to the two he took on Friday. He had figures of four for 48.
Resuming at 158 for five, Pakistan suffered an early blow when Chatara trapped Adnan Akmal leg before wicket with only five runs added. Akmal, who made 20, went back to a ball which angled in towards his stumps.
Abdur Rehman scored 16 in a seventh wicket partnership of 34 with Misbah, who was content to continue to bat watchfully, as he had done on the fourth afternoon, before Rehman was caught behind off Tinashe Panyangara.
Chatara returned to the attack and immediately claimed the wicket of Saeed Ajmal in almost identical fashion to the way he dismissed Akmal, with the batsmen going back to a ball which cut back sharply and hit him on the pads.
COLOMBO: A train linking the political home of Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels with the rest of the island rolled into service on Saturday after a 23-year interruption, officials said.
The train, carrying President Mahinda Rajapakse, arrived in the town of Kilinochchi, 330 kilometres (200 miles) north of the capital Colombo, four years after the end of a nearly four-decade civil war.
The project is part of efforts to promote reconciliation with the Tamil minority and heal the scars of the long-running separatist conflict.
A new track had to be laid along a 63-kilometre stretch of the line inside the former war zone because the rebels had removed rails and used sleepers to build bunkers during the war, officials said.
Rajapakse was carrying "a message of friendship" from the Sinhalese people in the south to the Tamil-dominated north, the president's office said in a statement.
The rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam launched their struggle for a separate Tamil homeland in 1972 and set up their political headquarters in Kilinochchi in 1995.
The war ended 14 years later in 2009 after a no-holds-barred military offensive.
Before the conflict escalated, trains regularly operated between Colombo and Kilinochchi and further north to the Jaffna peninsula.
The newly laid stretch of line is Sri Lanka's fastest track and can accommodate speeds up to 120 kilometres (75 miles) an hour, officials said.
The link is due to be extended to Jaffna by the end of next year. Road access to the peninsula was bitterly contested during the height of the war, with thousands killed while trying to take control of the main supply route to Jaffna.
The rebels also attacked passenger and cargo trains operating in the war zone forcing the railways to abandon regular services.
Saturday's reopening of the line came ahead of local council elections in the north.
The September 21 vote is in line with Colombo's promise to share limited power with Tamils through a local council.
Getting off the train at the newly constructed Kilinochchi railway station, Rajapakse attended an afternoon political rally in support of his United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) candidates, the president's office said.
The Sinhalese-dominated government is under international pressure to promote ethnic reconciliation and investigate allegations of war crimes by its forces in the final stages of the war.
Railways were established in Sri Lanka by its British colonial-era rulers in 1864 for the transport of coffee and tea from the central region of the island to the main sea port of Colombo.
NEW DELHI: The fast-track court's decision to give death penalty to the four convicts in the Delhi gang-rape case was welcomed by the legal community, which said due process had been followed.
Lawyers were quick to point out that the court's primary duty is to dispense justice to the victim by punishing the accused, so that the next of kin find succour and closure. The wider message conveyed through the punishment, acting as a deterrent to future offenders, is only the second aspect of sentencing, they argue, stressing the need to differentiate between the two.
Revolted by the brutality of the crime, the court gave death sentence on Friday while observing that courts cannot turn a blind eye to the need to send a strong message to perpetrators of such crimes.
Indicating one of the reasons for the decision, it said the "increasing trend of crimes against women can be arrested only once society realizes there will be no tolerance for any form of deviance against women, and more so in extreme cases of brutality such as this one; hence, the criminal justice system must instil confidence in people, especially women."
Noted lawyer Mukul Rohatgi said the decision is fully justified. "If ever there was a rarest of rare case, this is it. I had no doubt the court will give maximum sentence as it is fully justified and appropriate."
Rohatgi said sentencing in such cases has to serve as a deterrent because the situation in most Indian cities is alarming. "Even foreign tourists feel totally unsafe and it is against the ethos of India and Indian-ness. I only feel that the judgment should have come even earlier. But the important point is that attention should be focused on hundreds and thousands of such cases which are going on unnoticed and unsung. I think this judgment should open the eyes of the public, judiciary and police."
Supreme Court advocate Surat Singh expressed his satisfaction at the death penalty. "Given the brutality of the acts of all the convicts, right from the intention to rob, rape and kill, to the intention to destroy the evidence, this case can be rightly described as rarest of rare and fit for capital punishment. It will send a deterrent message to potential offenders and restore faith in the investigation, prosecution and judicial systems. This case is exemplifies successful probe, prosecution and trial."
Lawyer Gaurang Kant felt the sentencing would go a long way in sensitizing people to crimes against women. "Not to mention that Nirbhaya would feel emancipated. I hope this acts as a deterrent to the rising offences against women."
Justice R S Sodhi, a retired HC judge, agreed with the sentencing, saying in this case the "balance easily tilts towards aggravating circumstances warranting death penalty". Sodhi pointed out how each convict was involved in the brutality, and said the judge must have weighed the pros and cons beforee deciding. He, however, added, "I am not sure if death sentence is a deterrent. But yes, it is a swift punishment that leaves the victim's kin and society relieved. In case of life term people eventually forget."
Additional Solicitor General Indira Jaisingh was sceptical if the death penalty would be a deterrent, but felt police and the prosecution had met expectations. "Any sentence by a lower court has to be confirmed in HC. The convicts have the right to appeal. The question is does death act as a deterrent? There have been death sentences given earlier for rape and murder but still this case happened. It makes you wonder what's the purpose of a death sentence."
Lawyers were quick to point out that the court's primary duty is to dispense justice to the victim by punishing the accused, so that the next of kin find succour and closure. The wider message conveyed through the punishment, acting as a deterrent to future offenders, is only the second aspect of sentencing, they argue, stressing the need to differentiate between the two.
Revolted by the brutality of the crime, the court gave death sentence on Friday while observing that courts cannot turn a blind eye to the need to send a strong message to perpetrators of such crimes.
Indicating one of the reasons for the decision, it said the "increasing trend of crimes against women can be arrested only once society realizes there will be no tolerance for any form of deviance against women, and more so in extreme cases of brutality such as this one; hence, the criminal justice system must instil confidence in people, especially women."
Noted lawyer Mukul Rohatgi said the decision is fully justified. "If ever there was a rarest of rare case, this is it. I had no doubt the court will give maximum sentence as it is fully justified and appropriate."
Rohatgi said sentencing in such cases has to serve as a deterrent because the situation in most Indian cities is alarming. "Even foreign tourists feel totally unsafe and it is against the ethos of India and Indian-ness. I only feel that the judgment should have come even earlier. But the important point is that attention should be focused on hundreds and thousands of such cases which are going on unnoticed and unsung. I think this judgment should open the eyes of the public, judiciary and police."
Supreme Court advocate Surat Singh expressed his satisfaction at the death penalty. "Given the brutality of the acts of all the convicts, right from the intention to rob, rape and kill, to the intention to destroy the evidence, this case can be rightly described as rarest of rare and fit for capital punishment. It will send a deterrent message to potential offenders and restore faith in the investigation, prosecution and judicial systems. This case is exemplifies successful probe, prosecution and trial."
Lawyer Gaurang Kant felt the sentencing would go a long way in sensitizing people to crimes against women. "Not to mention that Nirbhaya would feel emancipated. I hope this acts as a deterrent to the rising offences against women."
Justice R S Sodhi, a retired HC judge, agreed with the sentencing, saying in this case the "balance easily tilts towards aggravating circumstances warranting death penalty". Sodhi pointed out how each convict was involved in the brutality, and said the judge must have weighed the pros and cons beforee deciding. He, however, added, "I am not sure if death sentence is a deterrent. But yes, it is a swift punishment that leaves the victim's kin and society relieved. In case of life term people eventually forget."
Additional Solicitor General Indira Jaisingh was sceptical if the death penalty would be a deterrent, but felt police and the prosecution had met expectations. "Any sentence by a lower court has to be confirmed in HC. The convicts have the right to appeal. The question is does death act as a deterrent? There have been death sentences given earlier for rape and murder but still this case happened. It makes you wonder what's the purpose of a death sentence."
London, Sep 14 (IANS) UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has accused Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of committing many crimes against humanity.
Speaking at the UN Friday, the secretary general said a UN report next week would provide "overwhelming" confirmation that chemical weapons were used in Syria.
Ban accused Assad of "committing many crimes against humanity", but stopped short of blaming Syria's government for the alleged chemical attack near Damascus last month, The Telegraph reported.
"Therefore, I'm sure that there will be surely the process of accountability when everything is over," The Telegraph quoted Ban as saying.
"I believe the report will be an overwhelming report that the chemical weapons were used," he said.
The secretary general also gave a UN estimate that 1,400 people were killed in the attack at Ghouta, east of Damascus, the report said.
Meanwhile, John Kerry, the US secretary of state, said discussions with Russia about putting Syria's chemical arms under international control were "constructive".
"We would both agree that we had constructive conversations regarding that, but those conversations are continuing," the newspaper quoted Kerry as saying.
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Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd, seen here together in 2010, have a long-standing rivalry
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Australia's ex-Prime Minister Julia Gillard has revealed the "acute distress" she felt after being dumped as leader of the Labor Party in June.
"Losing power can bring forth a pain that hits you like a fist," she wrote in an opinion piece in the Guardian.
The country's first female prime minister was ousted by long-term rival Kevin Rudd amid dismal polling figures.
But despite the switch, Mr Rudd lost last Saturday's general election to conservative leader Tony Abbott.
Labor is set for a new leadership contest after Mr Rudd announced he would resign from his party role.
'Cynical and shallow'
Ms Gillard revealed she had watched the 7 September election night results on her own.
"I wanted it that way. I wanted to just let myself be swept up in it," she wrote in the Guardian column.
The leadership challenge in June was the second Ms Gillard had faced since taking office in 2010. She herself ousted Mr Rudd as prime minister in 2010.
She said the switch just weeks head of the election had sent Australians a "very cynical and shallow message" about Labor's purpose.
"The decision was not done because caucus now believed Kevin Rudd had the greater talent for governing," she wrote.
"Labor unambiguously sent a very clear message that it cared about nothing other than the prospects of survival of its members of parliament at the polls. There was not one truly original new idea to substitute as the lifeblood of the campaign."
After her own defeat three months ago, Ms Gillard declared she would be leaving politics for good.
"Losing power is felt physically, emotionally, in waves of sensation, in moments of acute distress," she said of that moment.
"You can feel you are fine but then suddenly someone's words of comfort, or finding a memento at the back of the cupboard as you pack up, or even cracking jokes about old times, can bring forth a pain that hits you like a fist, pain so strong you feel it in your guts, your nerve endings."
Ms Gillard said she had experienced "odd moments of relief" since quitting, "as the hard weight that felt like it was sitting uncomfortably between your shoulder blades slips off".
But she admitted that she was still "grieving" the end of her political career.
"Late at night or at quiet moments in the day feelings of regret, memories that make you shine with pride, a sense of being unfulfilled can overwhelm you. Hours slip by."
Mr Abbott and his Liberal-National coalition ended Labor's tumultuous six-year reign in a landslide victory.
During his election campaign, Mr Abbott focused on the rival party's history of political infighting, saying it cared more about personal vendettas than pressing national issues.
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Over 1,000 Philippine troops have been battling to drive MNLF rebels out of the city
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Philippine Vice-President Jejomar Binay is to hold talks with Muslim rebels following five days of deadly clashes in the southern city of Zamboanga.
The aim of the talks is to end a stand-off, in which the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) are holding at least 100 people hostage.
Fighting is reported to continue despite a ceasefire agreed between the government and rebels late on Friday.
More than 22 people have died in the violence since Monday.
About 15,000 residents have been displaced by the violence and a curfew is in place.
President Benigno Aquino, who flew to Zamboanga on Friday, earlier issued a warning to the rebels not to harm civilians.
He said government troops had "overwhelming" force and would not hesitate to use it.
Gunfire exchanges
Defence Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said the rebels had violated the truce, due to take effect on Friday at midnight.
"Everybody wants peace, to stop this without more bloodshed," Mr Gazmin said.
"But as we speak, there's firing so there's no ceasefire. We agreed that government forces will not fire only if the MNLF will not open fire."
Residents in Zamboanga said gunfire exchanges could be heard throughout the night.
At 2:00 local time, the city government tweeted that the "Police Operations Division says no order of a ceasefire".
On Friday, Vice-President Binay said he had spoken by telephone to MNLF leader Nur Misuari and Mr Gazmin, who both agreed to suspend fighting.
Army spokesman Lt Col Ramon Zagala told reporters at least 52 had been killed, including 43 rebels and four civilians.
Mr Misuari set no conditions in exchange for agreeing to the ceasefire, the vice-president said.
Mr Binay is now travelling to the area to take part in the negotiations.
More than 1,000 troops, backed by police, have been battling to drive MNLF rebels out of the city, who say they are fighting for an independent state.
Officials said the rebels set fire to many homes in the city on Friday as a possible diversionary tactic to try to escape amid shortages of food, supplies and ammunition.
Schools and shops have been closed, with only essential government offices open, according to aid agencies.
The MNLF was founded by Nur Misuari in 1971, with the goal of fighting the Philippine state for an independent Islamic nation. The MNLF then signed a peace agreement with the government in 1996.
However Nur Misuari has complained that his faction has been marginalised in a peace agreement currently being negotiated between the government and another insurgent group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
Last month, he declared an independent Muslim state in the southern Philippines.
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Narendra Modi has massive support among India's middle classes and business community, who credit him with turning Gujarat into an economic powerhouse
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India's main opposition party has named controversial politician Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate for elections due next year.
Mr Modi, who has been chief minister of Gujarat state since 2001, has long been seen as a rising star of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
In June, he was chosen to lead the party's campaign for the election.
Mr Modi is credited with making Gujarat one of India's most prosperous states.
But he is also accused of doing little to stop anti-Muslim riots in 2002 which left more than 1,000 dead - allegations he has always denied.
In recent months he has been courted by international investors and foreign diplomats, and his image is that of a clean and efficient administrator who is corruption-free.
'No stone unturned'
A crowd of jubilant supporters gathered outside the BJP's headquarters in New Delhi ahead of the formal announcement of Mr Modi's candidacy on Friday.
"I assure that I will leave no stone unturned in working for a BJP victory in the 2014 elections," Mr Modi said in a statement after being nominated.
"I seek the blessings of the people in our efforts to free our nation of the turbulent times we are going through."
Critics say his candidacy will shift the debate from the alleged scams and inefficiencies of the ruling Congress to Mr Modi's controversial persona, the BBC's Vineet Khare, in Delhi, reports.
But supporters see him as a strong figure who can lead the BJP to power, after it lost the last two parliamentary elections, our correspondent says.
A brilliant speaker, Mr Modi was chosen in June to lead the BJP's election campaign for next year. Some senior party leaders including former deputy prime minister L K Advani opposed his appointment.
However, Mr Modi has massive support both within the party as well as among India's middle classes and business community, who see him as a charismatic leader who has turned Gujarat into an economic powerhouse.
As a result, he was re-elected twice as the state's chief minister.
Mr Modi also enjoys strong backing from senior leaders in the right-wing Hindu organisation the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
The RSS, founded in the 1920s with a clear objective to make India a Hindu nation, functions as an ideological fountainhead to a host of hardline Hindu groups - including Mr Modi's BJP, with which it has close ties.
The RSS has a particularly strong base in Gujarat, and Mr Modi's links were seen as a strength the organisation could tap into when he joined the state unit of the BJP in the 1980s.
Ability for secrecy
Mr Modi has a formidable reputation as a party organiser, along with an ability for secrecy, which comes from years of training as an RSS "pracharak" or propagandist, analysts say.
Although Mr Modi escaped censure in the 2001 Gujarat riots, his close aide, Maya Kodnani, was convicted last year and sent to jail for 28 years.
The rioting began after 60 Hindu pilgrims died in a train fire blamed on Muslims in the town of Godhra.
Ms Kodnani was not a minister at the time of the riots, but was appointed junior minister for women and child development by Mr Modi in 2007.
His critics accused him of "rewarding her with the ministership" for her role in the riots.
Mr Modi himself has never expressed any remorse or offered any apologies for the riots, and many Muslims displaced by the violence continue to live in ghettos near Ahmedabad, Gujarat's largest city and commercial capital.
