Court adjourns Raymond Davis’ murder hearing

A court Tuesday adjourned a murder hearing of Raymond Davis, a CIA contractor whom the US government is battling to free on grounds of diplomatic immunity, after his lawyer requested more time.
The hearing in the murder caseagainst Davis took place amid high security in Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore, where he is being held, and was adjourned until next Wednesday.
“March 16 is fixed for the framing of charges because we have given Davis’ counsel all the documents they wanted,” said public prosecutor Abdul Samad.

Davis has claimed he acted in self-defence when he shot dead two men in a busy Lahore street in January.

The issue of his claim to diplomatic immunity is pending before the Lahore High Court, which is due to rule on the issue on March 14.

Asad Manzoor Butt, the lawyer representing the families of the two Pakistani men shot dead by Davis, said that the American had again refused to sign a charge sheet against him. It was given to his lawyer instead, said Butt.

“Davis and his lawyer kept insisting that he has immunity,” Butt said.

“Davis is likely to be indicted during the next hearing,” he added.

Tuesday’s hearing was delayed for several hours before being briefly held amid tight security, with more than 100 armed police deployed in and outside the court and on the roof.

Media were kept from the court’s main entrance, where explosive detectors were installed.

Washington has expressed fears for Davis’ safety in custody, and have said they hold the Pakistani government responsible for his well-being.

Revelations that Davis was a CIA contractor have heaped pressure on Pakistan’s government and further ramped up burning public mistrust of Washington.

Lean US missions to Mars, Jupiter moon recommended

Robotic missions to Mars and Jupiter’s icy moon Europa should top NASA’s to-do list for an upcoming decade of planetary exploration, the US National Research Council recommended on Monday. For the decade 2013-2022, five separate panels of scientists and experts agreed on a suite of missions that would get the greatest scientific return from money spent, recognizing that even these projects could be budget busters.

“We have a long history in the planetary (exploration) program … of generating cost numbers that are too optimistic,” said astronomer Steven Squyers of Cornell University, who led the group that crafted the report and its recommendations.

“The people who truly believe in some project tend to be by nature optimistic and … that comes back to bite us sometimes,” Squyers said in a telephone interview.

This latest decadal survey of planetary science missions included input from an independent contractor to make sure the budgets were in line with what NASA has projected – to be, as Squyers put it, “brutally realistic.”

NASA’s proposed budget for fiscal 2011 is $18.7 billion, but Congress is still wrangling over it.

Human space flight, which accounted for about $3.2 billion of the space agency budget in 2010, was not considered in this review.

President Barack Obama followed earlier administrations in recognizing the end of the space shuttle era – the final mission is due to occur later this year.

He also canceled his predecessor’s Constellation moon program, angering some lawmakers and former astronauts who argued that it would make the United States a second or third-rate power in space.

Planetary science, largely accomplished with robotic probes and Earthly laboratories, costs less than putting people in space. Obama’s budget request for fiscal 2012 includes about $1.48 billion for planetary science.

Bringing back samples from Mars

Squyers, who was principal investigator on NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover mission, said the choice to send space missions to Mars and Europa was based on strong consensus among the five panels.

NASA’s top priority, according to the survey’s recommendations, should be the Mars Astrobiology Explorer Cacher, or MAX-C, which could help determine whether Mars ever supported life and offer insight on its geologic and climate history. It would also be the first step in an effort to get samples from Mars back to Earth.

However, the report said this mission should only be undertaken if NASA’s cost is about $2.5 billion, which is $1 billion less than independent estimates provided to the panel.

The mission would be run jointly by NASA and the European Space Agency, according to the survey.

A mission to Europa and its subsurface ocean – which might support life – should be the second priority mission, the experts said. But its estimated price tag of $4.7 billion may make it too expensive without an increase in NASA’s planetary science budget or a paring of the mission’s costs.

The third top priority for large missions should be a $2.7 billion mission to Uranus.

The survey recommended medium-size missions as part of the New Frontiers program that explores the solar system, and smaller low-cost missions like those conducted by the agency’s Discovery program.

The National Research Council is part of the US National Academy of Sciences, which are private, non-profit institutions that offer scie

Forex case: CJ orders probe into allegation levelled by FIA chief

Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry has ordered a comprehensive probe into an allegation levelled by FIA Director General Waseem Ahmad that leadingforeign exchange dealers Munaf Kalia and Javed Khanani, who had been arrested in a money-laundering case, had bought their release from a lower court. “It is fairly serious allegation apparently levelled against the presiding officer of the Banking Court Karachi which decided the case,” the chief justice said on Monday while taking notice of the allegation and asked Sindh High Court Chief Justice Amir Hani Muslim to appoint a senior high court judge and ascertain the veracity of the claim.

The FIA chief, who has invited the Supreme Court’s ire over his alleged mishandling of the Haj scandal, had said at a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Interior last week that although the judiciary was independent, the owners of Khanani and Kalia Foreign Exchange Company had spent a huge amount of money to get themselves released although his agency had presented enough evidence in the court.

The Federal Investigation Agency arrested Munaf Kalia and Javed Khanani on Nov 7, 2008, for their role in illegal transfer of billions of dollars outside Pakistan over the past five years. A court in Karachi acquitted the accused for want of evidence.

“Although the allegation is of general nature and does not specify who and at what level the alleged corruption took place, apparently it relates to investigation, prosecution, the Banking Court, etc, and requires probe into the matter,” the
chief justice said.

The SHC chief justice is required to submit a comprehensive report to the Supreme Court in seven days for further action if needed.

“The inquiry (into the allegations) be conducted without prejudice to the claims of accused and prosecution as to the merits of the case,” the chief justice observed.

The standing committee had expressed resentment over the delay in completion of the FIA inquiry into the money-laundering scam and also expressed surprise over the release of the accused.

Mr Waseem Ahmad alleged that during their detention the accused had received VIP protocol and they stayed most of the time in hospital, instead of jail.