Colombo: A member of the panel probing the alleged coup in which Maldivian president Mohamed Nasheed was toppled from power in February has rejected the draft report of a commission’s findings. “There are significant gaps in the draft and does not include evidence and statements given to the commission by many people”, Ahmed Saeed, a nominee of ex-president Nasheed’s Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) said in a statement released here.
The five-member Commission of National Inquiry (CoNI) headed by a Singaporean judge G P Selvam, was asked to probe the events of February 7 when Mohamed Nasheed resigned as president and Mohamed Waheed succeeded him. “7 February 2012 shocked all Maldivians.
The draft report, written by Judge Selvam presented to me today invalidates all that we saw and experienced on that day”, Saeed said. CoNI which was set up following international pressure, is thought to be ruling out the February 7 events as a coup. But Nasheed’s MDP anticipated findings to back its claim of a coup. President Waheed, who was Nasheed’s deputy has said he will accept the findings of the inquiry commission due this week. Nasheed, the island nation’s first democratically elected leader who came to power in 2008, has refused to recognise Waheed’s government. (PTI)
Fire shuts Iraqi crude oil pipeline to Turkey
Turkey: A fire on a pipeline carrying about a quarter of Iraq’s oil exports forced the closure of the link today and halted loading at Turkey’s Ceyhan export terminal, security and shipping sources said.
The cause of the fire on the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline in Turkey’s Sirnak province near the Iraqi border was not immediately known, but authorities suspected sabotage, security sources said.
Turkish energy officials in Ankara confirmed oil flows were still suspended and said it was not immediately clear how long repairs would take. An Iraqi Oil Ministry spokesman said Iraq had halted exports due to the fire, which broke out at 12:35 a.m. 12:5 IST and that it expected Turkey to open the link’s second pipe to resume exports.
“We were informed by the Turkish authorities that a blast and then a fire ignited on the 40-inch export pipeline on the Turkish side and we had to halt the crude flow,” the ministry’s Asim Jihad told Reuters in Baghdad. (Reuters)