President gives up nuclear key
Pakistan’s Zardari to hand powers to prime minister
ISLAMABAD — Embroiled in a major crisis that threatens his political future, President Asif Ali Zardari has given up control of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons and has vowed to relinquish power to dissolve parliament.
Zardari’s actions coincided with the expiration of an amnesty Saturday that had shielded him and thousands of other government officials from corruption charges and criminal accusations.
Zardari handed over control of the National Command Authority, which oversees the country’s nuclear arsenal, to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Friday night. His office said the move was in line with the president’s overall goal of transferring more of his powers to the directly elected prime minister’s office.
Zardari, in a television interview Friday, also said he was planning to give up several other presidential powers in December.
An unpopular figure viewed by many Pakistanis as a symbol of the country’s endemic corruption, Zardari finds himself fighting for his political life. The expiration of the amnesty, known as the National Reconciliation Ordinance, has given the country’s military, opposition parties and Zardari’s critics in the Pakistani media an opportunity to maneuver for his ouster.
The amnesty was issued by former President Pervez Musharraf in 2007 and applied to all politicians and bureaucrats accused of corruption and criminal charges between 1986 and 1999, the year Musharraf, as army chief, seized power.
Backed by the U.S., the ordinance was meant to allow former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto to return from exile without facing the prospect of politically motivated corruption charges being filed against her.
When Bhutto was assassinated in December 2007, her husband, Zardari, took over as party chief and later was elected president by the national and provincial lawmakers.
— Alex Rodriguez, Tribune Newspapers
First family cheers their favorite coach
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama with, from left, mother-in-law Marian Robinson, first lady Michelle Obama and daughters Sasha and Malia join brother-in-law Craig Robinson, standing, Saturday as he coaches Oregon State’s basketball team to a 64-57 victory over George Washington University. The president is an avid basketball fan who sometimes plays in team pickup games with Robinson.
NATION
Seat belts lacking as crash of van kills 5, injures 10
NEW ORLEANS — A minivan packed with children blew a tire, clipped a delivery truck and rolled on a Louisiana interstate Saturday, killing five people and critically injuring another 10, state police said.
Thirteen children who had been riding without seat belts were thrown from the van, including four of the dead who were found in the median of Interstate 10 near Baton Rouge, Louisiana State Police said. The killed and injured were all aboard the GMC Safari minivan.
The van didn’t have enough seat belts for the 13, Louisiana State Police spokesman Russell Graham said.
The 10 survivors were in critical condition Saturday afternoon. Alcohol was not suspected to have been a factor in the crash, police said.
Black Friday sales inch up
Shoppers who endured long lines and sometimes-frigid temperatures spent only slightly more during their Black Friday shopping sprees than they did last year, according to data released Saturday by a research firm.
Preliminary sales data from Chicago research firm ShopperTrak, which tracks sales at more than 50,000 stores, showed shoppers spent $10.66 billion when they hit the malls on the day after Thanksgiving. That’s 0.5 percent more than last year, when Black Friday sales rose a striking 3 percent.
WORLD
More Top Picks Best Mouse
Iran might quit nuclear treaty, lawmaker warns
TEHRAN, Iran — A conservative Iranian legislator warned Saturday that his country may pull out of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty after a U.N. resolution censuring Tehran — a move that could undermine world attempts to prevent Iran from developing atomic weapons.
The lawmaker’s threat came a day after the board of the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency passed a resolution demanding Tehran immediately stop building its newly revealed nuclear facility near the holy city of Qom and freeze uranium enrichment.
“The parliament, in its first reaction to this illegal and politically motivated resolution, can consider the issue of withdrawing from the NPT,” Mohammad Karamirad said, according to the official IRNA news agency. “The parliament … (also) can block the entry of IAEA inspectors to the country.”
37 dead as ferry capsizes
DHAKA, Bangladesh — A triple-deck ferry packed with hundreds of travelers heading home for an Islamic festival capsized as they disembarked in southern Bangladesh, leaving at least 37 dead and scores missing, authorities said Saturday.
M.V. Coco, traveling from the capital Dhaka, went down late Friday as it arrived at Nazirhat town in the coastal district of Bhola, 64 miles to the south. Some survivors said the boat hit a river shoal as it approached the terminal, breaking the hull and allowing water in. As passengers scrambled to disembark, the vessel then tipped and partially sank in the Tetulia River.
The ferry was crowded with people heading home to celebrate the Eid al-Adha festival, but it is unclear how many were on board. Dhaka’s private ETV television station said the ferry was carrying more than 1,500 people but many had already disembarked when the vessel went down.
Trade protest gets violent
GENEVA — Water cannon-armed police fired tear gas and rubber bullets Saturday to separate violent demonstrators from a protest opposing a meeting of top world trade officials. Fourteen people were arrested.
The protesters set fire to at least four cars and broke shop windows, police said. The World Trade Organization meeting is scheduled to start Monday.
THE QUOTE
“Wherever I go people start talking about me, saying that my legs and hands can fetch a fortune in Tanzania.”
Kenyan Mary Owido, 36, who lacks pigment that gives color to skin, eyes and hair. The mistaken belief that albino body parts have magical powers has driven thousands of East Africa’s albinos into hiding, fearful of losing their lives and limbs to unscrupulous dealers who can make up to $75,000 from a body. Since 2007, 44 albinos have been killed in Tanzania and 14 in Burundi. At least 10,000 have been displaced or gone into hiding, according to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.