Khodorkovsky Granted Presidential Pardon

After spending a decade in jail for embezzlement, tax evasion and theft, former Russian oil magnate and prominent political critic, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, was granted pardon on Thursday by Russian President Putin on the basis of "the principles of humanity".

It was revealed during his annual press conference on Thursday, that the former head of oil giant Yukos had asked the President for clemency because his mother was ill.

In a decree signed by Mr Putin and published
by the Kremlin, he said "guided by humanitarian principles , I decree that Mikhail Borisovich
Khodorkovsky. .. should be pardoned and freed from any further punishment in the
form of imprisonment . This decree comes into force from the day of its signing."

The pardon came as a surprise to the public after Russian MPs pushed for a wide-ranging amnesty for at
least 20,000 prisoners including minors, disabled
people, veterans, pregnant women and mothers.

Although, analysts say that the pardon may actually be a ploy to push aside international criticism of Russia's human rights record ahead of February's Winter Olympics in Sochi, the Kommersant newspaper said on Friday Khodorkovsky had made the decision to seek a pardon following the threat of a
third trial against him.

Although, Khodorkovsky was imprisoned in 2010 after being convicted of stealing oil and laundering money, he has been in prison since 2003 when he was arrested on charges of tax evasion. He was due to be released next August.

Oldest Living Person Ever Dies at 116

Jiroemon Kimura, the world's oldest person and oldest ever man, has died on Wednesday after suffering from pneumonia.

Kimura, who lived in Kyotango, west of Japan, died at the age of 116 only a few months after he was recognized by Guinness World Records as the world's oldest living person in Japan.

He became the world's oldest person on December 17, 2012, after the previous oldest person, a 115-year-old woman from Iowa died.

According to Guinness World Records, Kimura was born in 1897, the same year as aviator Amelia Earhart and the year Queen Victoria marked her Diamond Jubilee.

"I am always looking up towards the sky. That is how I am," Kimura once said in an interview, while trying to explain that he was not sure why he was able to live so long.
 
Currently, Misao Okawa of Osaka, another Japanese who turned 115 on March 5, holds the title for the world's oldest living person. She is also the world's oldest living woman.

Late Kimura is survived by seven children, 14 grandchildren, 25 great-grandchildren, and 15 great-great-grandchildren.

Double Car Bombings Kills Four in Dagestan

There has been a report of a double car bomb explosion in Makhachkala, capital of Russian’s Dagestan Republic, killing at least four and injuring over forty people just outside the headquarters of the court bailiff’s service.

According to Interfax news agency reports, the first car bomb went off on Monday in front of the Justice ministry, but no fatalities were reported. Just as the police arrived at the scene, a second car bomb detonated, Interfax reported, citing local investigative committee.

Although, there were conflicting reports about the number of casualties with initial reports suggesting 8 deaths, law enforcement officials have put the death toll at three people, with dozens injured in the second attack.

According to the local Interior Ministry, the majority of injured were police officers who arrived at the scene after the first blast, adding that there were about 15 of them in the hospital.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but investigators are already working on tracking down suspects using registration plates of one of the vehicles involved.

An ethnically mixed region comprising mostly of Muslims, Dagestan has been a province with the highest rate of violence in the Northern Caucasus. The violence, which was due to insurgency, has led to the deaths of at least 400 people according to a website monitoring events occurring in the region.

Bangladesh Disaster: Female Survivor Found 17 Days Later

17 days after the Bangladesh tragedy that saw the death toll rise over 1,000 people, police and military officials said they have rescued a woman from the rubble of the garment factory building.

Reshma Begum, a seamstress who was working on the third floor of the factory,cried out for help as the rescuers continued to search the rubble for survivors days after the collapse.

Army engineers pulled her from the basement of the building after a workman helping to clear the wreckage reported hearing her faint cries for help from beneath the ruins.

"I heard the sound and rushed towards the spot. I knelt down and heard a faint voice. Sir, please help, she cried," Abdur Razzaq, an army sergeant told Guardian.

He said that Begum has been hitting the concrete with the pipe to alert approaching rescue workers and he heard the sound after the bulldozers lifted loose rubble that had been covering the spot.

He added that she had stayed alive on biscuits in the rucksacks of dead colleagues and drinking rainwater.

There were loud cheers from hundreds of onlookers as she was removed and taken to a military hospital.

"It is incredible that someone could have survived in the wreckage 408 hours after the building came down. Her will to live is amazing. We've given her oxygen and she has been rushed to hospital," Lieutenant Shah Jamal told reorters.

So far, more than 2,500 people have been rescued in the aftermath of the collapse, with about a thousand of them suffering very serious injuries as some of the survivors had to be rescued by severing their limbs trapped under the rubble.

About nine people have been arrested in connection with the tragedy, while Primark and Canadian-owned Loblaw have said that they will compensate victims of the disaster,  the worst disaster that has ever plagued the country.

Only in November, 114 people were killed in  a garment factory fire, while there have been 8 deaths earlier this week from a similar garment factory fire.

Pakistani Prisoner Dies in Hospital after Attack in Jail

After he was attacked by another inmate in Kot Bhalwal jail in Jammu last week, Pakistani Prisoner Sanaullah Haq died in the hospital overnight, officials said.

Sanuallah died on Wednesday night from renal failure in a hospital in Chandigarh city of India, from serious head injuries he received in an attack by another inmate. According to a senior doctor, his condition was extremely critical.

Omar Abdullah, the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir states, wrote on twitter, “Although it’s a scant consolation, I’d like to offer a sincere apology to the family of Sanaullah Haq and my sympathies for their loss.”

The attack, which happened when a row brewed between Sanaullah and a murder convict, occurred on May 3, the day an Indian prisoner was cremated in India after dying from a similar attack in a Pakistani jail.

It will be recalled that Sarabjit Singh, who was convicted for spying in 1991, was attacked with bricks by inmates in Kot Lakhpat  jail in Lahore only a week earlier. The attack on Sanuallah is seen as a form of revenge for the death of Sarabjit in Pakistan.

India Supreme Court said they have been more concerned why such incidents are happening in jails, as the lives of inmates are constantly put in danger. They added that it is a serious matter and can’t be accepted.

Only last week, Pakistan called on India to punish the attacker, saying that the assault was “condemnable”. During the weekend, protests were carried out in Kashmir over the attack on Sanuallah.

New Delhi has announced that the attack is being investigated, and the “guilty will be punished”

Bangladesh Factory Fire Kills 8 People in Dhaka

Only two weeks after more than 900 people died in an eight-storey factory collapse, police say a garment factory fire in an industrial district in Dhaka has killed at least 8 people on Wednesday night.

The fire, which swept through a factory belonging to the Tung Hal Group, a large garment exporter, occurred in the Mirpur area of the Bangladeshi capital overnight.

“It was a big fire but we managed to confine it on one floor,” Mahbubur Rahman, operations director of Bangladesh’s fire service, told AFP news agency.

He added that the victims had suffocated after rushing to a stairwell, and being overwhelmed by “toxic smoke from burnt acrylic clothing”.

Among the victims who died of suffocation was the owner of the factory, who was said to be holding a meeting in the 11-storey building. But the police and fire officials reported that that there was no worker amongst the victims as there was no overnight production.

President of the Bangladesh Garment Manufcaturers and Exporters Association, Mohammed Atiqul Islam, told Reuters news agency, “It is not clear to us how the accident happened, but we are trying to find out the cause.”

Only on Wednesday, the government announced that it had shut down 18 garment factories for safety reasons following the April 24 Rana Plaza collapse, the worst garment manufacturing disaster in the world that has seen the deaths of over 900 people.

North Korea Takes Missiles away from Launch Site

According to a US official, Pyongyang has removed two medium-range Musudan missiles from the east coast launch site after weeks of tension in the Korean peninsula over a possible test-launch by the North.

The US official (names withheld) told AFP new agency that a report from South Korea’s Yonhap news agency backed up by an unnamed source from the government was released, saying that Pyongyang appeared to have moved the missiles to an unspecified location.

According to military officers, a Musudan missile has an estimated range of about 3,000 to 3,500km.

Giving North Korea’s unpredictable behavior, a senior US official from the National Security Council has warned that it was “premature to celebrate it as good news”, even though the move is a sign of hope that Pyongyang has gone back on its threats to launch the missiles.

Speaking with reporters, Pentagon spokesman George Little said, “I wouldn’t again comment on intelligence. But, what we have seen recently is a ‘provocation pause’. And we think that’s obviously beneficial to efforts to ensure we have peace and stability on the Korean peninsula.”

The move by Pyongyang came just as Barack Obama and Park Guen-Hye, presidents of the US and South Korea respectively, were preparing to meet at a summit in Washington.

Only last month, there were indications that Pyongyang was preparing for a missile launch. But, the test launch was going to be in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1718 of 2006, which prohibits the North from conducting any further nuclear test or launch of a ballistic missile.

John Kerry, US Secretary of State, had issued a warning to Pyongyang that it would be a “huge mistake” to launch the missiles, even as Japan and South Korea strengthened their missiles defences, and the US sent over their heavy artillery to the area in preparation of any possible launch from Pyongyang.

Indian ‘Spy’ Dies in Pakistan Prison after Attack

Sarabjit Singh, an Indian national who was sentenced to death in 1991 on charges of espionage, died from his injuries early on Thursday after he was attacked last week by fellow inmates, according his lawyer and doctor.

Singh sustained several injuries when six prisoners attacked him with bricks in Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail on Friday. He was in a comatose state for 5 days till his death on Thursday morning in Lahore’s Jinnah hospital.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on his official Twitter page, “The criminals responsible for the barbaric and murderous attack on Sarabjit Singh must be brought to justice.”

He added that the capital would make arrangements to bring his body home for funeral rites, after a failed attempt to negotiate for the treatment of the convicted Indian in India or a third country failed.

The Indian government had initially appealed for Singh to be released on grounds of treatment for the attack he received, as his injuries were grave and of great concern to his government.

Singh was sentenced to death for spying, as well as his role in the 1990 bomb attacks that saw the deaths of 14 people.

While his family had always insisted of his innocence, their mercy petitions were rejected by the courts running during the regime of former President Pervez Musharraf who is currently under house arrest and charged with conspiracy to murder late former Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto.

Singh’s lawyer, Owais Sheikh, said, “His death was already feared. His condition was more than critical and he had less chances of survival.”

Sheikh had said earlier, that his client had received threats following the execution of a Kashmiri separatist, Mohammed Afzal Guru, who was hanged in February for his role in the deadly attack on the Indian parliament in 2001, and the execution of Mohammed Ajmal Qasab, the only surviving Pakistani in the 2008 Mumbai attacks.

In a statement, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said, “The authorities have obviously failed to do their elementary duty of providing him [Singh] safety and security.”

The commission has expressed their anger over the attack, describing it as a ‘dastardly act’, and has tasked the government of Pakistan to leave no stone unturned in fishing out the culprits for punishment.