Women behind the wheel? Saudi king’s advisers call for end to driving ban

Women behind the wheel? Saudi king’s advisers call for end to driving ban Published time: October 10, 2013 12:23 Get short URL A Saudi woman poses in this picture to illustrate driving a car in Jeddah.(Reuters / Susan Baaghil) A Saudi woman poses in this picture to illustrate driving a car in Jeddah.(Reuters / Susan Baaghil) Share on tumblrTags Human rights, Religion, Saudi Arabia, Transport A proposal to end Saudi Arabia’s informal ban on female driving was voiced at the country’s advisory council. Rights activists have been calling for decades to give women more mobility, a notion resisted by the ultraconservative clergy. Saudi written law does not have an explicit prohibition on women driving. But in practice the country, which lives by a strict version of Sunni Islam, called Wahhabism, does not allow women to travel, apply for work or education, get admitted to a public hospital or do many other things without a permit from a male guardian, usually a husband, brother, father or uncle. Traffic police do not issue driving licenses to women in Saudi Arabia and do not recognize foreign driving licenses, effectively amounting to a ban. While a woman driver may be seen in rural areas, where the restriction is not heavily enforced, taking the wheel in a large city is likely to land her in a lot of trouble. Those defying the ban are publically shunned and sometimes imprisoned. In 2011 a Saudi woman was sentenced to 10 lashes for driving. But an increasing number of women are campaigning to abandoning the prohibition, and they have support in official circles. On Tuesday, a proposal to discard the ban was voiced at the Shura Council, a 150-stong body of advisors appointed by Saudi Arabia’s monarch. The council, which has no legislative power of its own, had 30 women appointed as its members for the first time in January. One of those female advisors, Latifa Shaalan, suggested that the Shura Council’s transport committee should recommend allowing women to drive. "Nobody raised their voice or opposed it. I think people were expecting it," said Hanan Ahmadi one of Shaalan’s female colleagues. "I believe she received many notes of support afterwards from other members." The proposition comes amid the latest online campaign to allow women to drive. A petition to scrap the ban launched last month has so far gathered some 15,000 signatures. More daring female activists are being called to take to the streets in cars on October 26, even though previously similar actions faced reprisals from the authorities. Opposition to female driving remains strong in the Gulf kingdom. Recently a prominent Saudi sheik claimed that medical studies show that driving has adverse effects on women's ovaries because it forces the pelvis upward. Proponents argue that the ban has no basis in Sharia law and puts an unnecessary burden on family budgets by forcing women to use taxis. It actually goes against the sex segregation goals of the conservative clerics, they say, since women travelling without male relatives have to stay alone with the male taxi drivers or subject themselves to potential harassment on public transport. "It is flawed that a woman cannot drive a car after reaching the position of deputy minister, becoming a member of the Shura Council, managing a university and representing the country on international bodies," Shaalan said. =============================================================================== / Saudi Sheikh blasted on Twitter for saying women drivers ‘risk damaging ovaries’ Published time: September 29, 2013 17:43 Get short URL Reuters / Fahad Shadeed Reuters / Fahad Shadeed Share on tumblrTags Human rights, Saudi Arabia, Scandal, Transport, Vehicles Comments by a Saudi psychologist that driving affects women’s ovaries and can lead to their children having health problems have outraged many women in the conservative Muslim country, who are protesting a de facto ban on women driving. In an interview Friday with the sabq.org website, Sheikh Saleh bin Saad al-Luhaydan said campaigners should put “the mind before the heart and emotion, and look at this issue with a realistic eye.”

“Physiological science and functional medicine [found that driving] automatically affects ovaries and rolls up the pelvis,” the judicial and psychological consultant to the Gulf Psychological Association said. “This is why we find [that] for women who continuously drive cars, their children are born with clinical disorders of varying degrees.”

Many Saudis have expressed their anger in Twitter, mocking the Sheikh’s “great scientific discoveries.” A special hashtag “Women_driving_affects_ovaries_and_pelvises” appeared on the social network, and is widely used. The users posted links to the article in Al-Arabiya on the subject, expressing their concern over “how easily science can be abused.” A woman with the user name @Mshaal80 asked whether the Sheikh “studied Shariah, medicine or foolishness.” The Sheikh’s comments came in advance of a planned protest drive by women against the ban, scheduled for Oct. 26. A de facto ban on driving for women exists in Saudi Arabia and the country’s women are trying to challenge this by launching an online campaign that urges the women to take part in a protest drive on October 26. The declaration on the website oct26driving.com has been signed by over 11,000 women. “Since there are no clear justifications for the state to ban adult, capable women from driving, we call for enabling women to have driving tests and for issuing licenses for those who pass,” the declaration said. On Sunday, the campaign's website was blocked inside the kingdom. Share on tumblr

Hezbollah, Iraqi militia capture Damascus suburb - opposition

Hezbollah, Iraqi militia capture Damascus suburb - opposition Source: Reuters - Wed, 9 Oct 2013 06:05 PM Author: Reuters A warning is pasted on a wall on a street in Duma neighbourhood in Damascus, Syria, October 3, 2013. The paper reads "Do not gather here, there is possibility of shelling". REUTERS/William Ismail * At least 20 rebels killed there, activists say * Area seen vital to control of highways south of capital * Siege of rebels in southern suburbs causes acute shortages * Assad trying to tighten grip on capital, central regions By Khaled Yacoub Oweis AMMAN, Oct 9 (Reuters) - Iraqi and Lebanese Shi'ite militia backed by Syrian army firepower overran a southern suburb of Damascus on Wednesday, opposition activists said, in a blow to Sunni Muslim rebels trying to hold onto strategic outskirts of the capital. At least 20 rebels were killed when Hezbollah guerrillas and Iraqi militiamen captured the town of Sheikh Omar under cover of Syrian army artillery and tank fire and aerial bombardment, the activists said, with tens of Shi'ite fighters killed or wounded. Sheikh Omar sits between two highways leading south of Damascus that are crucial to supplying President Bashar al-Assad's forces in the provinces of Deraa and Sweida on the border with Jordan. Syria's 2-1/2 year war has killed more than 120,000 people and forced millions from their homes into sprawling refugee camps in neighbouring countries. It began with peaceful demonstrations against four decades of iron rule by the Assad family. With regional powers backing opposing sides in the conflict and Russia blocking Western efforts to force Assad aside, there is little sign of an end to the bloodshed. Regional security officials say up to 60,000 fighters from Iraq, Iran and Yemen and Hezbollah are present in Syria supporting Assad, whose Alawite sect is an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam. The country has also seen the influx of 30,000 Sunni Muslim fighters to support the rebels, including foreign jihadists and Syrian expatriates. Hezbollah has acknowledged fighting openly in support of Assad, its main patron together with Shi'ite Iran, but the group does not comment on the specifics of its operations in the country. The deployment of the Iraqi and Lebanese militia has been vital in preventing all southern approaches to Damascus from falling into rebel hands, according to opposition sources and the regional security officials. The foreign Shi'ite fighters together with soldiers and local paramilitaries loyal to Assad have been laying siege to rebel-held southern suburbs of the capital near the Shi'ite shrine of Saida Zainab for the past six months, residents say. The siege has squeezed rebels in areas further to the centre of the city and caused acute shortages of food and medicine that have hit the civilian population. FLOOD OF WOUNDED Wardan Abu Hassan, a doctor at a makeshift hospital in southern Damascus, said the facility and another nearby received 70 wounded people, both fighters and civilians, since 4.00 a.m. The wounded came from Sheikh Omar and the nearby suburbs of al-Thiabiya and al-Boueida, where the rebels were trying to hold off the Shi'ite militia advance, he said. "Most of the casualties are from air strikes, and fire from tanks and multiple rocket launchers," the physician told Reuters. An opposition group, the Damascus Revolution Leadership Council, said a baby girl died on Wednesday in the southern district of Hajar al-Asswad from malnutrition caused by the siege. The report could not be independently confirmed. Rami al-Sayyed from the opposition Syrian Media Centre mentoring group said rebel fighters were trying to hold off the Hezbollah and Iraqi fighters in al-Thiabiya and al-Boueida. "It is tough because the regime is providing Hezbollah and the Iraqis with heavy artillery and rocket cover from high ground," he said. Sayyed said much of the fire was coming from the 56th army brigade in the hilly region of Sahya. That area was evacuated after the threat of U.S. strikes following a nerve gas attack in August on other rebellious Damascus suburbs that killed hundreds. The area became operational again after the threat receded following a deal to destroy Assad's chemical weapons arsenal, Sayyed said. Buoyed by the receding prospect of U.S. intervention, Assad has been seeking to tighten his grip on the centre of the country, the coast, areas along the country's main north-south highway as well as the capital and its environs. Large areas of southern Damascus, including the areas of Hajar al-Assad and the Yarmouk refugee camp, are inhabited by poor refugees from the Israeli occupied Golan Heights, who have been at the forefront of the revolt against Assad, as well as Palestinian refugees.

Insight: Saudis brace for 'nightmare' of U.S.-Iran rapprochement

Wed, Oct 09 11:08 AM EDT image By Angus McDowall RIYADH (Reuters) - When Saudi Arabia's veteran foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, made no annual address to the United Nations General Assembly last week for the first time ever, his unspoken message could hardly have been louder. For most countries, refusing to give a scheduled speech would count as little more than a diplomatic slap on the wrist, but for staid Saudi Arabia, which prefers back-room politicking to the public arena, it was uncharacteristically forthright. Engaged in what they see as a life-and-death struggle for the future of the Middle East with arch-rival Iran, Saudi rulers are furious that the international body has taken no action over Syria, where they and Tehran back opposing sides. Unlike in years past, they are not only angry with permanent Security Council members China and Russia, however, but with the United States, which they believe has repeatedly let down its Arab friends with policies they see as both weak and naive. Like Washington's other main Middle Eastern ally, Israel, the Saudis fear that President Barack Obama has in the process allowed mutual enemies to gain an upper hand. The alliance between the United States, the biggest economy and most powerful democracy, and Saudi Arabia, the Islamic monarchy that dominates oil supplies, is not about to break. But, as happened 40 years ago next week when an OPEC oil embargo punished U.S. war support for Israel, Riyadh is willing - albeit without touching energy supplies - to defy Washington in defense of its regional interests. The two have been at odds over Egypt since the Arab Spring, and increasingly so on Syria, where Saudi Arabia could now do more to arm Sunni Muslim rebels. The real focus of Saudi anger is the Shi'ite Muslim clerics who have preached Islamic revolution since coming to power in Tehran 34 years ago, and whose hands Riyadh sees orchestrating political foes in half a dozen Arab countries. Already aghast at U.S. reluctance to back rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Tehran's strongest Arab friend, Saudi princes were horrified to see Washington reaching out to Hassan Rouhani, the new Iranian president, last month. "The Saudis' worst nightmare would be the administration striking a grand bargain with Iran," said former diplomat Robert Jordan, who was U.S. ambassador to Riyadh from 2001 to 2003. Although any meaningful U.S.-Iranian rapprochement looks distant, Obama telephoned Rouhani, an emollient self-described moderate, during the United Nations General Assembly. The Saudis now fear Obama may be tempted to thaw ties with Tehran by striking a deal to expand inspections of its atomic sites in return for allowing Iranian allies to go on dominating Arab countries such as Lebanon, Syria and Iraq. That such a bargain has never been publicly mooted from within the Obama administration has not stopped Saudis voicing their concerns. "I am afraid in case there is something hidden," said Abdullah al-Askar, chairman of the foreign affairs committee in Saudi Arabia's advisory parliament, the Shoura Council. "If America and Iran reach an understanding it may be at the cost of the Arab world and the Gulf states, particularly Saudi Arabia." Askar stressed he was not privy to government thinking on the issue and was speaking in a purely personal capacity. The United States has no interest in alienating the Saudis. But as it balances priorities, some friction may be unavoidable - friction that worries Washington less than before, as rising U.S. domestic oil output makes it less beholden to Riyadh. EMBOLDENED KINGDOM In a rare appearance, King Abdullah, who is aged about 90, was shown on state television on Monday meeting Egypt's visiting military-backed interim head of state, Adly Mansour. His words, carried prominently in Saudi media on Tuesday, were a forceful condemnation of the "terrorism, delusion and sedition" of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, which was ousted from government by the armed forces in July after street protests. That even these comments conveyed a clear subtext of Saudi-U.S. friction showed how far the two allies' differences extend today on issues across the Middle East. It was Obama's decision not to back Egyptian military strongman Hosni Mubarak against mass protests in early 2011 that first infuriated the Saudi royals, inspiring in them a sense of betrayal as they saw a mutual friend abandoned by Washington. The American president's willingness to work with Mohamed Mursi, the Muslim Brotherhood figure elected Egypt's president last year, further vexed the Saudis, who see the organization as a direct threat to their dynastic rule. The kingdom, founded on the traditionalist Wahhabi school of Islam, was critical of U.S. support for the rule of the modern Islamists of the Brotherhood in Egypt and privately contemptuous of Washington's qualms about July's military takeover in Cairo. When U.S. politicians suggested cutting aid to Egypt after Mursi was ousted, Riyadh offered to make up for any lost funds, undermining American Middle East policy and signaling it was prepared to go its own way. U.S. aid may be cut [ID:nL1N0HZ01I] but since July, Saudi Arabia has given $5 billion, three times as much as Washington's annual contribution.[ID:nL6N0GI0BZ] "Usually the Saudis will not make any decision against U.S. advice or interests. I think we're past this stage. If it isn't in our interests, we feel no necessity to bow to their wishes," said Mustafa Alani, an Iraqi analyst at the Gulf Research Centre in Jeddah with close ties to the Saudi security establishment. Alani recited a litany of Saudi complaints, from Obama's failure to press Israel to end settlement building in the West Bank to his support for Arab Spring revolutions that toppled Egyptian and Tunisian autocrats who had supported U.S. policy. But, like many prominent Saudis, he was most concerned by Obama's approach to the crisis in Syria, a conflict viewed in the kingdom as a defining battle for Middle East supremacy between pro-Western leaders and non-Arab Iran. For more than a year, Saudi officials have pleaded with Washington to enter the conflict, either with direct air strikes or the imposition of a no-fly zone, or by giving significant military aid to the mainly Sunni rebels. When hundreds of civilians died in a chemical weapons attack in August, the Saudis were convinced this breach of a "red line" Obama had set last year would, finally, force tough U.S. action. The subsequent Russian-brokered deal to dismantle Assad's chemical weapons and thus avert air strikes was a bitter blow for Riyadh, whose main strategy in Syria had been to coax its American ally into the war. GOING SOFT That fractious backdrop explains the worry senior Saudis felt at Obama's flirtation with Rouhani in New York last month. After years of counseling their closest foreign friends to beware Iran's rulers, describing them as "unstable", "meddling", "the head of the snake", in various diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks, they fear their advice is going unheeded. For Saudi Arabia, the stakes seem high. Regional rivalry with Iran has played out with increasing venom. The two see themselves as representatives of opposing visions of Islam: the Saudis as guardians of Mecca and conservative Sunni hierarchy, and the Shi'ite Iranians as the vanguard of an Islamic revolution in support of the downtrodden. Over the past decade the Saudis have watched with alarm as Iran's allies among the Arabs have grown in strength, dominating politics in Lebanon and Iraq and staging rebellions in Bahrain and Yemen in a move that seems to encircle Saudi Arabia. They also fear Tehran is taking direct action against the kingdom itself: fomenting unrest among its Shi'ite minority; plotting to assassinate its envoy in Washington; and planting a spy ring in the country. Tehran has denied all those claims. "If the U.S. is really soft on Iran and letting Iran's friends win in Syria, what conclusions will Gulf governments draw?" one senior diplomat in the Gulf said some weeks ago. The Saudis were concerned "about an eventual possible deal between Washington and Iran", he added, saying: "They will see what happens in Syria as a sign of that." For Riyadh, Obama's acceptance of the U.N. chemical weapons deal with Damascus signaled the U.S. had indeed gone soft. "It's not about the principle of Iran negotiating with the U.S. We know this will happen sooner or later," said Alani. "But it's coming at the wrong time, when this president has already been tested by the Iranians and Russians and proved he cannot stand up for his principles or protect our interests." SHARED INTERESTS When the then secretary of state Hillary Clinton prepared to visit Riyadh for the first time in February 2009, Washington's ambassador Ford Fraker prepared a memo outlining the strong state of the relationship. It was later released by Wikileaks. Describing the ruling al-Saud dynasty as a family that had "within living memory created a new state and then named it for themselves", he enumerated the shared common ground, from energy policy to fighting al Qaeda, that bound Riyadh to Washington. "Their interests are, to a surprising degree, aligned with our own," he concluded. Former diplomats in Saudi Arabia argue that whatever the bumps in the road, that situation remains largely unchanged. "The Saudis are very skilful politicians. They wouldn't be in power otherwise," said one who argued Washington would heed Saudi concerns. "Most American administrations, Republican or Democrat, listen to the Saudis and their advice on many things, including the Iranians - who they can trust and who they can't." Yet the example of Saudi Arabia's divergence from the U.S. line on Egypt suggests the kingdom may now be inclined to push against U.S. policy in other areas, particularly on Syria. Next Wednesday marks the 40th anniversary of the Arab oil embargo, when Gulf exporters blocked energy sales to penalize U.S. support for Israel against the Arabs in the Yom Kippur War. Today, the importance of steady oil supplies is one area where Washington and Riyadh are fully in sync, but Saudi Arabia might be prepared to push its own interests in other ways. Several analysts and diplomats in the Gulf said the United States had pressed Riyadh not to deliver "game-changing" weapons such as surface-to-air missiles to Syrian rebels, fearing they would fall into the hands of the Islamist militants. Alani said that was one area where Saudi rulers may consider going their own way, particularly, he noted, as minor divisions within the family over how far to trust Obama had receded. "There's not even one senior prince sympathizing with him anymore," he said. "They think he has lost his head." How far such a move would alter the balance of the conflict in Syria is unclear. But it could spell a renegotiation of the U.S.-Saudi relationship, one of the most enduring in the Middle East, said former U.S. ambassador Jordan. The two may now become less willing to heed each other's concerns on other issues. (Editing by William Maclean and Alastair Macdonald)

Surgeon along with wife, two daughters killed in Gulistan Colony

Shakeel Anjum Wednesday, October 02, 2013 Rawalpindi Well-known surgeon Brigadier (r) Dr. Sikandar Ali Malik, his wife and two young daughters were killed in mysterious circumstances at his house in Gulistan Colony, a residential colony of Al Shifa Trust Eye Hospital, in the wee hours of Tuesday. His son Captain Dr. Haider Malik, was at home when the massacre occurred but he remained unhurt, the police spokesman said. The brother of the victim was living in the adjacent house, police added. SP Haroon Joya, however, claimed that the initial evidence leads to the sequel to rivalry, but police were keeping all aspects in view. Brigadier (r) Dr. Sikandar Ali Malik, a renowned orthopaedic surgeon, principal and owner of the Yusra Medical College, located at Lahore Road near Soan, was living in House No. 1, Gulistan Colony, behind Al Shifa Trust Eye Hospital along with his wife Shahina, 55, two daughters Zainab and Fatima in their early twenties, both were medical students. While, among his two sons, one was Captain Haider Malik attached with 77 Medical Battalion, Kharian, and the second son Ali is settled in Australia. Captain Haider Malik was on leave. Police, quoting the statement of Captain Haider Malik, said that Brigadier (r) Sikandar was on ground floor of the house while he was on upper portion when the incident occurred. According to SP (Potohar) Haroon Joya, Captain Haider heard the sound of gunfire at about 5 a.m. but he didn’t go down due to fear. “The dead bodies of all victims were lying in the living room,” police said. Police said that Brigadier (r) Sikandar was sitting on a sofa and reading a newspaper and his wife was offering ‘Fajr’ prayers, while Zainab and Fatima were sitting on another sofa when some unidentified assailants killed them. “All doors were locked from inside, however, a door opening out in the kitchen was open,” police maintained. The killers targeted the heads of all victims and every victim received two to four bullets in different parts of their bodies, however, police recovered 12 empty shells from the scene, police said. Police said that it could not be ruled out that the victims were made unconscious by a spray before they were shot dead as no signs of reaction or resistance were found during the gun-shooting and the victims did not seem to have moved when killed. The brother of the victim, Noor Hussain, living next door, too, heard sounds of gunshots, but didn’t reach his house. “There are many controversies even at early stage of the investigation raising ambiguities in the case,” police said. Police said that the evidence indicated some serious doubts towards the involvement of relatives in the quadruple murder. Police attempted to make headway to the killers with the help of sniffing dogs, but obtained no result. A police officer engaged in the investigation of the case told journalists that no aspect, including sectarianism, could be ruled out. “It will be very premature to set final opinion about the motive behind the massacre. The officer, however, said that the aspect of robbery was very weak as everything in the house was intact and safe and the attackers took away nothing with them. The Morgah Police have registered a case against unidentified killers and started investigation. اسٹاف رپورٹ راولپنڈی : راولپنڈی پولیس نے دعویٰ کیا ہے کہ سابق بریگیڈیئر اور اہل خانہ کے قتل کا معمہ حل کرلیا گیا، ذرائع کے مطابق سکندر علی کا بیٹا ہی قاتل نکلا۔ ذرائع کے مطابق سابق بریگیڈیئر سکندر علی کے بیٹے حیدر علی نے باپ، ماں اور دو بہنوں کو قتل کرنے کا اعتراف کرلیا۔ پولیس کا کہنا ہے کہ ابتدائی تحقیقات میں پتہ چلا ہے کہ حیدر علی پسند کی شادی کرنا چاہتا تھا، والدین کے انکار پر ماں، باپ اور بہنوں کو قتل کردیا۔ پولیس کے مطابق ملزم نے اعتراف جرم کرتے ہوئے بتایا ہے کہ ماں، باپ اور بہنوں کو پہلے نشہ آور چیز پلا کر بے ہوش کیا اس کے بعد گولیاں مار کر چاروں کو قتل کردیا۔ پولیس نے انکشاف کیا ہے کہ حیدر علی شادی کا بہانہ کرکے چھٹی پر گھر آیا جبکہ اس کی شادی طے ہی نہیں ہوئی تھی۔ واضح رہے کہ گزشتہ ہفتے سابق بریگیڈیئر سکندر علی، اہلیہ اور دو بیٹیوں کی لاشیں ان کے مکان سے ملی تھیں۔ سماء

Special Report: The education of China's oil company

Sun, Oct 06 20:15 PM EDT 1 of 18 By Charlie Zhu and Bill Powell HONG KONG/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Yang Hua was a rising star at Chinese oil giant CNOOC Ltd back in 2005. Then, the 44-year-old chief financial officer participated in one of corporate China's biggest belly flops ever. Yang helped CNOOC, the publicly listed arm of state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corp, craft an $18.5 billion bid for Unocal Corp of Los Angeles. It turned into a debacle. Political opposition exploded in Washington, where the company had done little preparation. At home in Beijing, some board members revolted after being blindsided by the bid, and some of China's leaders were said to be queasy. CNOOC stood down and Unocal was sold to a rival, Chevron Corp. Seven years later, Yang appeared to triumph. On February 26, CNOOC closed China's largest foreign acquisition in modern Chinese history: the $15.1 billion all-cash takeover of Calgary-based Nexen Inc. The deal caused far less rancor than the aborted Unocal effort, and it was a landmark, touted in China as foreshadowing a bigger global role for the state-owned giants that dominate the world's second-largest economy. At a small briefing for reporters from the official Chinese media the next day, CNOOC Vice Chairman Yang Hua smiled broadly and said: "I slept like a log last night." CNOOC had demonstrated that China's state-owned enterprises can play on the world stage, said one banker involved in the deal. "They learn from their mistakes and don't repeat them," the banker said. "In terms of the process, the Nexen deal was very smooth, and Yang was the key to that." But as deftly as it was done, it is now anything but clear that the Nexen acquisition was wise for CNOOC's constituents - the Chinese government and shareholders in the publicly traded company. As one company insider told Reuters: "For CNOOC, the closing of the deal marked the end of euphoria, and the beginning of pain." The central problem, analysts say, is that in a global energy industry transformed by the shale gas revolution in North America and elsewhere, CNOOC overpaid. And it underestimated the risks of monetizing the landlocked oil-sands and shale-gas assets in Canada that account for 75 percent of Nexen's proven and probable reserves. The deal may be emblematic in a different way than its boosters think. Critics of China's decade-long overseas resource-buying binge believe state-owned companies have wasted huge chunks of the money - because deals were done for political, not commercial, reasons. Since 2005, CNOOC and other Chinese state-owned enterprises such as PetroChina and Sinopec Group, parent of Asia's largest oil refiner Sinopec Corp, have poured more than $30 billion into the acquisitions of Canadian hydrocarbon reserves, mostly oil sands, making them a top energy investor in the country. "Going global," said a Chinese official involved in overseas oil projects, had become a "political task for state oil companies and a key metric to gauge the performance of top bosses." The question is whether "going global" profitably also counts. Resource projects accounted for most of the $380 billion of total Chinese outbound investment as of the end of 2011, according to China's Ministry of Commerce. Losses on China's overseas investments had reached almost $27 billion, official media reported last year, citing an estimate by analysts at an industry conference in Beijing. Yang has repeatedly said in the past that the deal was "commercially driven." A spokesperson told Reuters the company remains confident it paid a competitive price for Nexen and its value would be realized in time, a view shared by some energy stock analysts in Hong Kong. THE LONG GAME Nexen had been on Yang Hua's radar for seven years, almost from the day the Unocal deal fell apart, Yang Hua had said. CNOOC had identified Canada's enormous oil sands - thick, bituminous oil that traded at a steep discount to lighter crudes - as a strategic opportunity to boost its international reserve base. The company could also reap a big technology dividend for CNOOC and China. The experience of operating a major oil-sands project for the first time will give Beijing the expertise to tap its own potentially huge reserves of heavy oil, industry analysts say. By 2011, Yang made the company's first move in Nexen's direction. By then the CEO of CNOOC, Yang paid $2.1 billion for a bankrupt Canadian oil producer - Opti Canada Inc - whose main asset was an Alberta oil-sands development called Long Lake. Its partner in the project: Nexen. Over the next year, CNOOC developed an operational relationship with Nexen. The companies worked to overcome the technical challenges of developing the Long Lake reserves, which caused cost overruns and production delays. At the same time, CNOOC mounted a "soft power" operation. Its executives made it a point to get to know important officials and politicians in Canada - a step that had been notably absent in the failed Unocal deal. In February of last year, Yang was encouraged by a visit to Beijing by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Harper made it clear Canada wanted to sell more oil and gas to China. With surging crude imports accounting for nearly 60 percent of oil consumption, China was keen to court Canada, which sits on the world's third-largest oil reserves after Venezuela, as a key supply source. Half of China's oil imports come from the volatile Middle East via the Malacca Strait. On the morning of February 8, 2012, CNOOC chairman Wang Yilin met with Canadian Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver, who was in Harper's delegation, at CNOOC's oil barrel-shaped headquarters. Wang expressed interest in expanding CNOOC's footprint in Canada's oil and gas industry, and Oliver welcomed the idea, according to CNOOC officials. Yang sensed the political atmosphere was increasingly favorable for CNOOC, the officials said. He was ready to go. Yang had developed a relationship with Nexen's chairman, Barry Jackson. According to Nexen, Jackson became aware that February that a Chinese state-controlled oil company was interested in making an acquisition offer for his company. Yang first floated the possibility of a deal in a meeting with him in Vancouver on May 17 of last year. Nexen's board rejected the offer as too low, but made it clear the door was still open for a higher bid. Yang was still interested. By the early summer of 2012, Yang had developed a new morning routine, according to a CNOOC official with knowledge of the matter. The first thing he did before climbing out of bed every morning was check on Nexen's stock price. On July 3, CNOOC made a second offer for Nexen that was again rejected by Nexen's board. On July 10, Yang, with the CNOOC board's approval, flew to London to meet Jackson again, this time to make an offer representing a 61 percent premium to Nexen's share price. Jackson said he thought his board would approve and took the offer back to them, according to people familiar with the negotiations. Yang didn't want to take any chances, these people said. He told the Nexen chief that CNOOC would commit to retaining the entire Nexen staff, while basing CNOOC's North American and Central American operations in Calgary, among other promises. On July 23, he had a deal. Nexen's shareholders unanimously agreed to the $27.50 per share offer on September 20, and the transaction formally closed five months later. Since then, problems with the economics of the acquisition, which had been intensifying as closing day drew near, have grown apparent. RESERVES TO NOWHERE The process of turning Nexen's oil sands into crude oil in western Canada is technically challenging, using horizontal wells and steam to extract the bitumen, oil industry executives say. For now, production at Long Lake accounts for just over one tenth of Nexen's overall production. CNOOC says it is seeking "new technology" to overcome the complex geology. It is not yet clear, industry analysts say, where that technology will come from. "Long Lake is one of the key assets that is going to have to perform better for the Nexen acquisition to make financial sense over the long term," said Lysle Brinker, director of Energy Equity Research for IHS. "If Long Lake does not improve, the Nexen deal will be very challenged." Further complicating Yang's life since the acquisition: The economics for Nexen's already-developed tar sands reserves have deteriorated. Benchmark prices for Canadian heavy oil - known as Western Canada Select - always trade at a discount to West Texas Intermediate (WTI), the benchmark crude in North America. But since the deal, the price of Canadian heavy has been extraordinarily volatile. At its low, it plunged to more than $40 below WTI, caused in part by soaring oil-sands production and shale-oil output from the U.S. Bakken field, which straddles the U.S.-Canadian border. WTI has steadily held above $100 throughout the year, thanks in part to tensions in the Middle East. Pessimism now hangs over the oil-sands sector. Hugh Hopewell, senior analyst at energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie, says the volatility of Canadian oil prices should remain for the rest of the decade. He saw a 40 percent discount to WTI as the long-term price assumption to evaluate bitumen projects. Getting the product to market presents a further challenge. One option is to use the Keystone pipeline south to the United States. But to the irritation of both Canadian and Chinese oil executives, U.S. President Barack Obama's administration has still not given the go-ahead to build the U.S. leg of the pipeline. Another option is a pipeline to Canada's west coast, where both Nexen's oil and liquefied natural gas could be exported to China and other growth markets in Asia. But the difficulties there are enormous and increasing. Environmental groups and native communities in Canada are opposed. It would be hugely expensive: One study shows a pipeline from Nexen's fields in Alberta province to the Pacific Coast would cost $6 billion. The United States has already jump-started a plan to export LNG to Asia. And it won't be long before China produces its own shale gas - it has the world's largest reserves. For all of these reasons, oil industry executives told Reuters, several companies operating in western Canada have tried to shed assets in the region, only to find little to no demand for them. Several major auctions this year, including a sale of a multi-billion dollar oil-sands stake by ConocoPhillips, have been called off, investment bankers said. RESERVE VALUE These challenges cast doubt over exactly what value China is getting from deals such as CNOOC-Nexen. Top executives of CNOOC have repeatedly said the acquisition of Nexen, which has proven reserves of 900 million barrels of oil equivalents stretching from Canada to North Sea and Africa to the U.S. Gulf of Mexico diversified CNOOC's reserve mix. It is also, Chairman Wang Yilin has said, aiding the long-term development of the company. CNOOC aims to more than double its annual output to 2.6 million barrels per day by 2020 under a strategy Wang dubs "New Leap Forward". The Nexen deal boosted CNOOC's net proved reserves by around 30 percent and its net production by 20 percent. "We bought Nexen for its reserves ... which can help underpin the long term development of our company. We don't care how much production it can bring us in the second half," CEO Li Fanrong told reporters at CNOOC's first half results briefing in Hong Kong in August. At current oil prices, according to a senior banker with ties to both CNOOC and Nexen told Reuters, it is becoming clear that CNOOC overpaid. "The only question now is by how much. The banker "conservatively" estimates that Nexen was more fairly valued at $11 to 12 billion - three to four billion dollars less than CNOOC paid. Since the start of the year, CNOOC's shares listed in Hong Kong and on the New York Stock Exchange have declined around five per cent, making it one of the worst performers among the major global oil explorers. (Editing by Bill Tarrant)

Iran's Khamenei says part of diplomatic opening in New York 'not proper'

Business News: Rosneft's Sechin says TNK-BP minorities offer 'completely fair': MOSCOW (Reuters) - Minority shareholders in TNK-BP Holding should not complain about the price Rosneft offered for their shares as it is at a premium to their market value, Russian media quoted Rosneft head Igor Sechin as saying on Saturday. His comments echo remarks on Friday by Rosneft Deputy Chairman Andrey Kostin, as saying on Saturday. His comments echo remarks on Friday by Rosneft Deputy Chairman Andrey Kostin, who said the buyout was in line with the law and good corporate governance practice. Rosneft announced the deal to buy the remaining shares for about $1.5 billion in late September. The deal works out at around $2.07 per ordinary share and $1.71 for preferred shares. ... Get Full Details From News Source ================ Iran's Khamenei says part of diplomatic opening in New York 'not proper' Sat, Oct 05 10:56 AM EDT image By Yeganeh Torbati DUBAI (Reuters) - Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Saturday he supported moderate President Hassan Rouhani's diplomatic opening to the United States at the U.N. General Assembly last week but some aspects of it were "not proper". Khamenei did not elaborate on his objections but also said he did not trust the United States as a negotiating partner, hinting at disapproval over an historic phone conversation between Rouhani and U.S. President Barack Obama. But despite its reservations, Khamenei's overall endorsement will probably protect Rouhani against conservative hardliners opposed to his pursuit of "constructive interaction" with the world to ease Iran's economically crippling isolation. Khamenei - the ultimate arbiter of high state policy under Iran's unwieldy dual system of clerical and republican rule - said prior to Rouhani's trip that he supported "heroic flexibility" in diplomacy, while cautioning that the Islamic Republic must always remember who its foes are. The Rouhani-Obama phone chat, the first between presidents of the two deeply estranged countries since Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, capped a week of overtures by Rouhani and his foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, to the West. The landslide election in June of Rouhani has raised hopes of a negotiated settlement to Iran's long-running dispute with world powers over its nuclear program - though it is Khamenei who will make the final decision on the contours of any deal. "We support the government's diplomatic movement, including the trip to New York, because we trust the government and we are optimistic regarding it," Khamenei said in a speech quoted by ISNA news agency. "But some of what happened in New York was not proper, because the U.S. government is not trustworthy, is self-important and illogical, and breaks promises," he said. Rouhani also won a resounding endorsement for his conciliatory moves at the U.N. General Assembly from the Iranian parliament, a significant gesture because the hardline assembly is dominated by factions loyal to Khamenei. CRIPPLING SANCTIONS The president and his team are hoping to secure a removal of international sanctions on Iran's banking, energy, and shipping sector that slashed vital oil exports and hobbled the economy. The sanctions were imposed over Iran's failure to address suspicions that it is enriching uranium to develop a nuclear arms capability. Iran says it wants only civilian atomic energy. The next round of talks between Iran and six world powers on the nuclear stand-off, which has raised fears of a new Middle East war, is to be held in Geneva on October 15-16. A diplomat based in Tehran said Khamenei's carefully calibrated comments looked like an effort to play down expectations from negotiations in the near future. "There have already been skeptical signs and in a way these comments are not that surprising," the diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "The distance between Iran and the United States is very wide. It can't just turn into smiles and friendliness. He (Khamenei) is giving it a chance, but if it doesn't work he'll go back to his own way." While in New York, Rouhani emphasized a changed atmosphere between Iran and the United States, and said his goal is to solve problems and pursue "the shared interest between the two nations. But while Rouhani's attempts to undo some of his predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's bellicose rhetoric on the world stage have met with cautious approval at home from conservatives, some hardliners in Iran's complex power structure have been critical given their hostility to any thaw with the United States. Upon Rouhani's return to Tehran last week, he was greeted at the airport by a large crowd of supporters and a smaller group of protesters who threw eggs and shoes at his official car. And the commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a pillar of the political establishment, declared last week that Rouhani's phone call with Obama was premature. Both Rouhani and Obama face domestic resistance to rapprochement from those who fear their president may be too inclined to grant concessions before the other side takes any concrete steps. This wall of mistrust has impeded negotiations. In one indication of the roadblocks to rebuilding relations severed since 1980, Zarif said on CNN he was "disappointed" with Obama for a statement he made in Washington this week after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Israel has threatened to attack Iran unless it ends its nuclear program and Obama said that Washington would "take no options off the table, including military options," to prevent Iran getting a nuclear weapon. That sort of language was "insulting to the Iranian people," Zarif told CNN in an interview. "You do not deal with another state with mutual respect by threatening them, by trying to intimidate them...The Iranian people react very, very negatively to such languages of threat and intimidation." (Additional reporting by Marcus George in Dubai; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Special Report: The struggle Pakistan does not want reported

Special Report: The struggle Pakistan does not want reported Tue, Sep 24 11:10 AM EDT 1 of 14 By Matthew Green KARACHI, Pakistan (Reuters) - Abdul Razzaq Baloch worked nights. After dinner, he would start his shift as a proofreader at the Daily Tawar, a newspaper published on a shoe-string from a cramped office in Karachi, Pakistan's commercial capital. At 2 a.m., the 42-year-old would make the short journey home on his new Super Star motorbike. One night in March, Baloch did not return. His phone was switched off and his bike was missing. His family made enquiries with the police, then hospitals, and finally in the lanes of Lyari, the gritty neighborhood where they live. The word on the street was that Baloch had been kidnapped, his relatives said. He had last been seen as he was bundled into a white SUV with a blanket over his head. Speaking to Reuters two months later, Saeeda Sarbazi, Baloch's outspoken sister, was in no doubt as to the identities of the culprits: Pakistan's intelligence services. "This case is like a bombshell - nobody we go to wants to touch it," Sarbazi said at the family home in Lyari, where his wife and four children awaited his return. "People are scared that the agencies will harm them." On August 21, Baloch's body was found dumped amid the brambles overrunning wasteground in Suranji Town, a scrappy neighborhood on Karachi's northwestern fringe. A piece of paper bearing his name had been stuffed into his pocket. His hands were tied; he had been strangled. Pakistan's military, which has repeatedly denied involvement in extra-judicial killings, did not respond to a request for comment on Baloch's death. Baloch's associates believe his disappearance and murder was linked to the Daily Tawar's coverage of a separatist guerrilla campaign in Baluchistan, a huge Pakistani province bordering Afghanistan and Iran, where his family has its roots. The Daily Tawar supports independence for the province, and according to several of his friends, Baloch himself belonged to a pro-independence party. The Baluch rebels, who believe the rest of Pakistan has always treated Baluchistan like a colony, have agitated and fought for their own independent, secular homeland for decades. In response, the security forces have waged a lengthy but little-known counter-insurgency to try to quash them. In the past three years, the bodies of hundreds of members of pro-independence political parties, student groups and even poets have been discovered on desolate verges or patches of scrub. Baluch activists say the bodies are evidence that the military is pursuing a systematic "kill-and-dump" campaign to crush dissent - a charge the army denies. Under growing pressure from Pakistan's increasingly assertive judiciary to explain the disappearances, military officers have speculated that a range of armed groups or criminal gangs active in the province may be to blame. But Baloch's death has hardened a belief among Baluch that the security forces - far from softening their stance - have sharply expanded their crackdown this year in a drive to extinguish the uprising once and for all. In a new trend, the bodies of the disappeared have begun to turn up beyond Baluchistan's borders in Karachi, a city of 18 million people and the motor of Pakistan's economy. The discovery of Baloch's remains, alongside those of another man, brought the total number of bodies of missing Baluch that have been found in the city to 18 since the start of this year, according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP). Although Baloch vanished in Karachi, many of the others had been reported missing hundreds of km away in Baluchistan itself. Asked to comment on Baloch's disappearance, a security official said he had no specific knowledge of the case but added that the military would have no reason to detain an obscure proofreader. "Unknown journalist. Unknown newspaper with a very limited or no following at all. Why should we go and pinch him and make him part of the news?" the official said. "It doesn't serve us." Virtually sealed off to foreigners, Baluchistan is potentially one of Pakistan's most prosperous regions, endowed with copper and gold. Iran's government hopes a planned $1.5bn pipeline project will one day snake across its rocky wastes to export natural gas to Pakistan and India to help Tehran circumvent U.S. sanctions. China wants to import oil via Baluchistan's deepwater port of Gwadar. But none of that is likely to happen as long as the unrest in Baluchistan continues. The rebels, as well as the army, stand accused of waging a dirty war. In recent years, the HRCP believes Baluch separatist gunmen have murdered hundreds of civilian "settlers" from Pakistan's eastern Punjab province to try to drive out the community. In turn, Baluch say the Frontier Corps, the main official force in Baluchistan, launches punitive raids to torch homes and round up opponents. Unfolding in closed-off badlands, the conflict is subject to far less international scrutiny than the army's separate battle against the Pakistani Taliban on the frontier with Afghanistan. Nonetheless, repeated reports by human rights groups of abuses in Baluchistan have raised awkward questions over the conduct of Pakistan's military, which has received almost $11 billion from Washington since 2001 to finance its anti-Taliban campaigns, according to data compiled by Alan Kronstadt of the Congressional Research Service. Speaking to Baluch living inside and outside the province over the course of several months, Reuters has been able to gather testimony from witnesses and relatives over what they describe as three apparent cases of "kill-and-dump." Reuters submitted a dossier of testimony related to the disappearance of Abdul Razzaq Baloch, the journalist, and two other alleged "kill-and-dump" cases within Baluchistan to the army on June 10. The military said it had pursued the query but had not yet been able to obtain any information. Reuters also wrote to Pakistan's government seeking permission to visit Baluchistan to meet military officers but received no reply. The Interior Ministry did not offer an explanation, but officials have previously said that journalists travelling to Baluchistan may face risks from armed groups. The lack of access makes collating data on disappearances difficult and there is a risk that some of those reported missing may have gone into hiding. Taking these caveats into account, one online database of abductions run by a group of activists in the United States who track media reports, suggests the pace of disappearances has increased sharply. The group says 247 Baluch were reported abducted in the first six months of this year, compared with 214 in the whole of 2012, and 206 in 2011. "Anyone remotely linked to Baluch (separatist) politics is targeted," said Jeeand Baloch, a leader of Baloch Students Organisation (Azad), a pro-independence group. "If they go into hiding, their families are punished." The allegations come at a sensitive time for Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, whose new government has pledged to rein in abuses as a prelude to seeking negotiations with insurgents to usher the alienated province into the national fold. Whether he can succeed will be an early test of his authority over Pakistan's powerful military, whose commanders exert far greater influence in Baluchistan than the feeble provincial administration. "LINES YOU CAN'T CROSS" Baloch, the missing journalist, lived with his extended family in an apartment in Lyari, a warren in old Karachi where police tread warily and gangsters make the rules. His family and friends described him as a bookish man who socialized little and prided himself on his role as bread-winner. The proofreader was a member of the Baloch National Movement (BNM), a separatist party, according to several people who knew him and party officials. Although it espouses peaceful protest, the BNM's stance marks its members as traitors in the eyes of the security forces, still haunted by the loss of East Pakistan, which broke away to form Bangladesh in 1971. The separatist message was one shared by Baloch's newspaper. Founded a decade ago, The Daily Tawar had a circulation of a few thousand copies within Baluchistan, but its pro-independence stance earned it a loyal online following among the Baluch diaspora in Europe and the Middle East. The paper - whose title means "Call" in Balochi - has regularly reported on allegations of enforced disappearances by the military and its editors have said they received repeated threats. Several of its reporters had been murdered. In early March this year, a little over two weeks before Baloch disappeared, the Daily Tawar reported the discovery of the body of Abdul Rehman Baloch, a senior member of the BNM who had disappeared in Baluchistan in February. His remains were discarded in bushes in the eastern Steel Town area of Karachi in March. Pakistan's military has always denied involvement in disappearances. According to a source in BSO-Azad, the Baluch students' movement, Baloch was among those who went to a hospital to retrieve Abdul Rehman's bullet-ridden body. In an angry editorial published the next day, The Daily Tawar accused security agencies of using Karachi as a dumpsite for bodies in the hope the discoveries would go unremarked because of the city's high murder rate. Two weeks later, on March 24, Baloch left his house just before evening prayers, saying he was going to buy new sandals. He was wearing a cream-colored loose fitting shirt and trousers. His wife cooked fish biryani, his favorite, and waited for his usual call of "I'm home." When the proofreader did not return, his family assumed he had gone straight to work. Later they heard that he had been pushed into the back of one of two white SUVs spotted prowling Lyari after dark. Although Baloch's relatives say they are certain he was picked up by security agencies, they have produced no hard evidence. They said it was impossible for Reuters to meet the people who reported witnessing his abduction since they were too scared to discuss the incident. On April 6, almost two weeks after Baloch vanished, a group of men ransacked the Daily Tawar office in the early hours of the morning and set fire to files, according to the Committee of Pakistan Newspaper Editors. Baloch's family said the intruders took his computer. The Daily Tawar's staff went into hiding. The paper has stopped printing but still posts stories online. "There are lines you can't cross as a journalist in Karachi," said a Baluch reporter. "Maybe he crossed one of those lines." "NO WAY TO PAY" A week after he went missing, Baloch's sister Sarbazi saw her brother's number flash up on her cell phone. A man she did not know demanded 10 million Pakistani rupees ($100,000) for his release. She could hear laughing in the background. Another call followed and the amount dropped to 1 million. Then, nothing. Several Karachi journalists told Reuters they suspected Baloch had been taken by Pakistani intelligence. The police officer in charge of the Baloch case rules out kidnapping for ransom, a common practice in Karachi. "The family has no way to pay," said Senior Superintendent of Police Niaz Ahmed Khosa, one of the city's most respected investigators. He declined to offer an alternative theory. Raja Irshad, a lawyer who has represented the military, said security forces faced a dilemma since the judicial system was too weak to prosecute suspected separatist rebels. "To my mind, these missing persons, they are militants. When they fight with the security forces, they get killed," Irshad said in Islamabad. "Not a single innocent person in Baluchistan has been taken away by the security agencies. No unarmed young man gets killed." News Baloch's body had been found broke on Vsh, a Balochi channel. The family's television was out of order and word only reached them at midday; relatives rushed to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital to identify his body. At first they insisted there had been a mistake: Baloch's face was so badly bloated it bore scant resemblance to the man they knew. Only the next day did Sarbazi confirm it was him, after a careful examination of the only part of his body that was not badly disfigured - his feet. He was wearing the same cream-colored shirt he had donned on the day he vanished. "TORTURED WITH A DRILL" Baloch's disappearance is not unique. Reuters has gathered testimony from several witnesses and relatives about two other alleged "kill-and-dump" cases in Baluchistan itself, one in April this year and one in May. Haji Mohammad Anwar Baloch, a senior member of the Baluch Republican Party, which also supports Baluch independence, said he fled Pakistan in July 2011, after security forces repeatedly raided his house. He settled in Switzerland; some family members, including his son Zaheer, remained in Baluchistan. Anwar said security forces raided his house in the province's Panjgur District at four a.m. on April 22, and took away 32-year-old Zaheer, who had a masters in biology and worked as a volunteer teacher. Zaheer was also active in his father's party, participating in rallies and strikes. Zaheer's body was found in the Suranji Town area of Karachi in early June, the same district where Baloch's body would be dumped. Zaheer's body was accompanied by a paper bearing his name and the phone number of one of his friends: a common pattern with dumped Baluch bodies. Anwar said relatives had showed him images of the body via Skype. "He was tortured with a drill - an electrical drill to make a hole in the wall," Anwar told Reuters in Geneva, running his finger from the base of his throat down to his stomach to demonstrate the path of the wounds. Police said bodies of Baluch had been routinely dumped in Suranji Town this year; they could not provide details of each case. The military did not respond to a request for comment. "WHERE IS ASIM?" On February 2, a young man named Asim Faqir left the Baluchistan town of Turbat on a packed minibus, with his wife Hanifa Baloch and their infant son. Hanifa said members of the Frontier Corps stopped the bus near a village called Nodez. They asked the driver to identify Faqir, who Hanifa says had no political affiliation. When the driver refused, soldiers beat him. The paramilitaries then demanded other passengers identify Faqir; they also remained silent. The soldiers beat the driver again until he glanced at Faqir, whom they took away, Hanifa said. Pakistan's military, which handles media for the Frontier Corps, did not respond to a request for comment. On May 26, a convoy of Frontier Corps arrived at Faqir's village of Nazarabad, according to his sister and another resident who declined to be named. As the sister, Zareena Baloch, stood watching, the paramilitaries searched their compound. "Where is Asim?" one of the men asked. "You should know. You people abducted him four months back," Zareena replied. The soldiers searched the house of Azim, Asim Faqir's older brother. They emerged carrying framed photos of both men and set the house on fire. As the soldiers left, Zareena heard a burst of gunfire which she took to be celebratory shots. Shortly afterwards, members of a local police force arrived bearing Asim Faqir's body. "I couldn't recognize him at first," Zareena said. "But then I knew it was him. I touched his face." Another resident of Nazarabad corroborated part of Zareena's account, saying residents had emerged from their houses after hearing the shots and found Faqir's body. One bullet had pierced his left eye, Zareena said. Relatives provided what they said was a photo of the body, in a pool of blood, to Reuters. Another relative of Faqir who lives outside Pakistan said: "They (the intelligence services) have long arms. If you talk about freedom, if you talk about anything, they will come and get you." Long ignored in Pakistan, the allegations of abuses in Baluchistan have begun to be heard. Last year, Pakistan's chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry held a series of hearings over the disappearances and subjected the head of the Frontier Corps to a rare public grilling. Sharif's new government has also begun to talk more openly about the accusations of extra-judicial killings in Baluchistan. Abdul Malik, a veteran Baluch politician who was chosen by Sharif to head the provincial administration, has called on the military to end human rights violations as a prelude to talks. "We will all together, me and Nawaz Sharif, tell the security establishment that these things have to end," Malik told Reuters in Islamabad in June. "We have to create an environment in which we are in a position to invite insurgents for negotiations." (Additional reporting by Mehreen Zahra-Malik and Syed Raza Hassan in Islamabad and Tom Miles in Geneva; Writing by Matthew Green; Edited by Simon Robinson and Sara Ledwith)