RAWALPINDI, PAKISTAN, Apr 12 (Reuters) A Pakistani opposition leader was today sentenced to 23 years in prison after he was accused of defaming the military and trying to incite a mutiny.
Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, de facto leader of the Pakistan Muslim League Party led by exiled former prime minister NaSaz sharif, was handed a total of 23 years in jail on seven counts including forgery, defamation and inciting hatred against the army.
"Mr Hashmi has been convicted on seven charges and given a total of 23 years in prison and a fine of 42,000 rupees," special public prosecutor Munir Bhatti told Reuters after the decision was announced behind closed doors in Adiala jail.
The jail is in rawalpindi, a city near the capital islamabad where the military is based.
Hashmi was arrested in October following a complaint that he had forged a letter purporting to come from the Pakistani army which criticised military president Pervez Musharraf.
Hashmi, one of Musharraf's most outspoken critics, had circulated the unsigned letter to reporters.
The letter criticised Musharraf's support for the US-led war on terror in neighbouring Afghanistan and called for an investigation into the 1999 Kargil conflict.
Both the government and the army have dismissed the letter as a fabrication.
There was no immediate comment from Hashmi's lawyer, but legal sources said he was likely to appeal against the decision in a higher court.
US CHOPPER DOWNED IN IRAQ, EVEN AS FALLUJA CEASEFIRE EXTENDED Baghdad, April 12 (NNN) : Iraqi insurgents shot down a US Apache gunship, killing the crew, even as a mediator said the ceasefire between American troops and insurgents in the flashpoint town of Falluja had been extended until 0600 GMT on Monday to allow mediation talks to resolve the crisis.
Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt told a press conference in Baghdad on Sunday that an AH-64 helicopter had been brought down by enemy fire at about 11:05 pm, approximately five kilometres west of Baghdad international airport.
"I'm sad to report that the pilots have been declared killed in action"We have a quick reaction force on site conducting a recovery of the equipment and the personnel and our hearts go out to the families," he said.
Kimmitt said that he had no information on reports that a second helicopter had been shot down.
Kimmitt also said the US-led coalition is seeking a political solution to its confrontation with insurgents.
"We are now looking at the political track to restore government control," he said.
"We are making progress in moving the political process forward." Kimmitt said the goal was to restore "legitimate government control" in the city.
Meanwhile, US officials said they were seeking a negotiated solution to end the fighting in Falluja but warned they will resume an offensive if talks fail.
A tentative truce between American-led forces and insurgents has been extended for a few more hours until 0600 GMT on Monday to allow more talks.
Brig Gen Mark Kimmitt said the halt in hostilities was to allow "the political and discussion track" to go forward.
US President George W Bush on Sunday described the week's events as "tough".
Speaking after attending an Easter church service in Texas, Bush said it was hard to tell whether the worst of the clashes were over.
But he repeated his belief that what coalition forces were doing in Iraq was right.
Meanwhile the head of the Arab League, Amr Moussa, described the recent fighting in Falluja as unacceptable and extremely serious.
It is estimated more than 600 Iraqis have been killed during the past week's fighting, the head of the city's hospital told a news agency.
"We have reports of an unknown number of dead being buried in people's homes without coming to the clinics," Rafie al-Issawi added.
In response, Marine Lt Col Brennan Byrne said: "What I think you will find is 95% of those were military-age males that were killed in the fighting." Despite the truce, two marines were wounded by snipers in Falluja and an Iraqi man was killed in one of several clashes since the ceasefire began at 0600 GMT on Sunday, the US military said.
Gen Kimmitt said the suspension of American military operations in Falluja would continue to allow an Iraqi mediation team to have further talks inside the town.
His forces would remain in their positions and if the talks failed, the offensive was likely to resume, he added.
But the coalition suffered a setback with the news that an Iraqi battalion sent to support the US troops had refused to go to Falluja on the grounds that its members had not signed up to fight Iraqis, the US military reported.
The ceasefire call on the Iraqi side was issued by tribal, religious and community leaders in Falluja, Iraqi mediators said, adding that it is set to be extended overnight.
Gen Kimmitt made it clear that coalition forces were determined to deal with militants loyal to Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr who remain in full or partial control of southern cities, including Najaf, Karbala and Kufa.
But he did not rule out a negotiated settlement with Sadr.
Meanwhile, a reporter for the London-based Daily Telegraph in Falluja said he saw the bodies of two Germans, following reports that two German embassy security guards had gone missing.
They were killed while travelling from Jordan to Baghdad on Wednesday, the report said.
The German foreign ministry later said the two were probably dead.
Later Chinese state news media reported that seven men from the eastern Fujian province were kidnapped after entering Iraq from Jordan, probably in Falluja.
Meanwhile the deadline given by kidnappers of US civilian Thomas Hamill, who threatened to kill him unless US troops ended the Falluja operation, passed with no indication about his fate.
There is still no news on the three kidnapped Japanese civilians.
Their abductors were reported to have said they would release their hostages on Sunday.
A British civilian Gary Teeley, who was kidnapped in the southern city of Nasiriya six days ago, has been handed over to coalition forces there and is safe and well, the Foreign Office in London said.
Al-Jazeera television also reported that eight foreign lorry drivers taken hostage had been released on Sunday after Muslim clerics called for all kidnapped civilians to be freed.
Meanwhile, reports said US Marines this week killed one suicide bomber and discovered a suicide bomb workshop in Falluja apparently run by Iraqis and foreigners, marines said on Sunday.
The building, found on Thursday when Marines gave chase to a sniper, provided new indication of the growing role of Iraqis in suicide bombings.
Members of the 1st Battalion 5th (1-5) Marines stumbled on the workshop when they were trying to locate a sniper position.
Also on Thursday, marines from the 1-5 battalion shot dead a suicide bomber, captured a second individual without a vest and found a third blood-stained belt.
Insurgents have killed eight US soldiers in various attacks in the past two days, the US military said in a statement.
The deaths and attacks had not previously been reported.
Four 1st Armoured Division soldiers were killed in two separate attacks on April 9 in Baghdad, the statement said, while three 1st Infantry Division soldiers were killed and two wounded in an ambush near Tikrit, north of Baghdad the same day.
On April 10th, a Marine was killed as a result of fighting in the al-Anbar province west of Baghdad.
Another US soldier died of wounds received in a furious firefight last week with insurgents in Baqouba, the US military said.
Also, three Kurds were killed on Sunday during an exchange of fire with an Iraqi police patrol in Mosul, according to the police.
The men who were in a white Volkswagen opened fire first with machineguns at police patrolling the central Zerai neighbourhood at about 6:30 pm, according to First Lieutenant Ahmed Jabr Abdullah.
He identified the men as Kurds from Mosul and Arbil.
A policeman was wounded in the thigh in the exchange.
CANADA SET TO LAUNCH LARGEST SINGLE SEAL HUNT Vancouver, April 12 (NNN): Canada is all set to launch the largest single seal hunt in half a century, with the government allowing more than 300,000 seals to be killed this year, many of them in a 36-hour mass cull.
The hunting of young seals for their fur almost stopped off Canada's east coast 25 years ago in the face of international outrage.
Animal rights groups are hoping to sway international opinion against the hunt, but Canadian officials say it is now both humane and necessary.
The seal hunt in Newfoundland and Labrador withered 25 years ago as brutal images of men clubbing infant seals horrified the world.
The US banned imports of seal products in 1972 and the European Union followed suit a decade later with a ban on white pelt imports, taken from the youngest babies.
As a result, the Canadian government reduced quotas for seal hunting to as low as 15,000 annually - mainly for meat and local handicraft.
But with fur again in fashion the hunt is back.
Last year Canada increased the quotas again, allowing a million seals to be killed over the next three years.
It is now being conducted under tighter regulations and most seals are now shot, not clubbed, but the number of animals expected to be taken this year will be the highest in decades and once again it is drawing international attention.
At the weekend, Canadian Natural Resources Minister John Efford said many claims made overseas about the hunt are simply wrong.
He said the hunt is more humane than ever while the seal population is exploding and commercial fish stocks in the region are vanishing.
The Canadian tourism commission admitted last week they are keeping an eye open for an international backlash should the protests gather strength.
Officials estimate there are 5.2 million harp seals in the north.
Far from being endangered, the seals are responsible for the depletion of cod stocks, they say.
Animal rights groups accuse officials of "attempting to scapegoat seals" for their own fisheries mismanagement.
The International Fund for Animal Welfare (Ifaw) also says government guidelines on humane hunting methods are being ignored.
Another group, the US-based Humane Society, is taking full-page advertisements in prominent American newspapers to urge for a travel boycott on Canada.
They also designed shirts reading "Club Sandwiches Not Seals".