US senators scandalized by Pakistan’s jailing of a doctor for helping the CIA track down Osama bin Laden voted on Thursday to cut aid to Islamabad by US$33 million — US$1 million for each year of the doctor’s sentence.
“It’s arbitrary, but the hope is that Pakistan will realize we are serious,” US Senator Richard Durbin said after the unanimous 30-0 vote by the Senate Appropriations Committee.
“It’s outrageous that they [the Pakistanis] would say a man who helped us find Osama bin Laden is a traitor,” said Durbin, the Senate’s No. 2 democrat.
The Senate Armed Services Committee later passed a measure that could lead to even deeper cuts in aid.
The sentencing on Wednesday of Dr Shakil Afridi for 33 years on treason charges added to the US’ frustration with Pakistan over what Washington sees as its reluctance to help combat Islamist militants fighting the Afghan government and the closure of supply routes to NATO troops in Afghanistan.
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called the jailing of the doctor “unjust and unwarranted,” and vowed to continue to press the case with Islamabad.
“The US does not believe there is any basis for holding Dr Afridi,” she said.
Afridi was accused of running a fake vaccination campaign, in which he collected DNA samples, that is believed to have helped the CIA track down bin Laden in a Pakistani town last year.
The al-Qaeda leader was killed in the town of Abbottabad a year ago in a unilateral US special forces raid that heavily damaged ties between Islamabad and Washington. Since then, there have been growing calls in the US Congress to cut off some or all of US aid to Pakistan.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique