Pakistani journalists shout slogans as they march against restrictions on media during a protest rally in Karachi, June 7.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, June 10--President Gen. Pervez Musharraf withdrew new curbs on media covering Pakistan’s growing political crisis, backing down after a week of nationwide protests by journalists and opposition parties.
The president issued a decree last Sunday that sharply increased regulators’ ability to sanction broadcasters who violate a code of conduct that bars programming deemed too critical of the armed forces or likely to undermine national unity, reported AP.
Musharraf withdrew the restrictions during talks Saturday with representatives of Pakistani news channels, an official who attended the meeting told The Associated Press.
He asked for anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
Arshad Zubairi, secretary general of the Pakistan Broadcasters’ Association, welcomed the move and said colleagues had informed him after attending the meeting.
“It is a good decision,“ he said. He provided no details.
The official said Musharraf withdrew the decree only after the broadcasters assured him they would “prepare a code of conduct to avoid any abuse of media freedom.“
Musharraf, who seized power in a 1999 coup and became a close US ally against Al-Qaeda after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, has granted unprecedented freedoms to Pakistan’s media, which now includes several privately owned news channels.
That policy has won him much praise at home and from his principal foreign backer, the United States.
Several journalists have been threatened or beaten, and officials have pressured TV stations to stop their exhaustive coverage of rallies by Chaudhry that have drawn tens of thousands of lawyers and opposition protesters.

TOKYO, June 10--Opposition lawmakers and journalists on Sunday slammed Japanese military intelligence for allegedly monitoring critics of the country’s mission to Iraq, accusing the Defense Ministry of threatening freedom of speech.
Internal army documents obtained and made public last week by the Japan Communist Party suggested that military intelligence collected information on groups and individuals opposed to the troop dispatch, AP said.
The accusations have sparked a public outcry.
“If the government indeed engages in secret surveillance, citizens will be unable to speak out freely,“ JCP leader Kazuo Shii said Sunday on a TV Asahi talk show.
“I expressed my reservations (over the Iraqi mission) on several occasions,“ said journalist Hajime Takano, one of the journalists named in the files. “But should this really be part of the military’s activities?“
The documents show the military’s Intelligence Security Corps monitored civil groups, journalists, film directors and even high school students who attended anti-war rallies between November 2003 and February 2004.
The Defense Ministry has said the unit may have gathered such data but wanted merely to assess public opinion.
Japan dispatched troops on a humanitarian mission to Iraq in 2004-06, and still airlifts UN and coalition personnel and supplies into Baghdad from Kuwait.
The country’s military involvement in Iraq has been unpopular with the Japanese public, with many saying it violates the nation’s pacifist Constitution and makes Japan a terrorist target.

SIRNAK, Turkey, June 10--Thousands of people joined state-sponsored rallies in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast on Saturday to protest against increased attacks by separatist rebels of the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), Reuters reported.
But hours after the rallies, which coincided with mounting speculation of a Turkish army incursion into nearby northern Iraq to hit PKK bases there, three soldiers were killed and six hurt by a landmine detonated by the rebels in Sirnak province.
The incident, which unusually claimed the lives of two officers as well as a private, will pile further pressure on Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s government to get tough with the rebels and perhaps send troops across the mountainous border.
Turkey’s top generals have urged the government, which faces a strong nationalist challenge in national elections next month, to authorize an incursion into northern Iraq, where up to 4,000 PKK fighters are believed to be hiding.

SINGAPORE,
June 10--Singapore will deal “firmly“ with homegrown militants plotting to carry out terrorist acts, Minister of Home Affairs Wong Kan Seng said in remarks published Sunday.
The minister’s remarks came after his ministry announced Friday five suspected Islamic militants had been arrested and detained under the Internal Security Act, which allows for detention without trial, AFP said.
Among the five being detained is Abdul Basheer Abdul Kader, a law graduate who planned to fight with the Taliban militia in Afghanistan.
“Any Singaporean who makes plans and takes part in violence whether in Singapore or abroad, or gives support of any form for any terror-related activities, whether local or abroad, is a security threat and will be dealt with firmly,“ said Wong, who is also deputy prime minister.
Wong dismissed claims by some who said Abdul Basheer was not a threat to Singapore because he planned to go to Afghanistan to carry out militant activities.
“Let me say categorically to such people that this sort of thinking is very wrong and very dangerous,“ Wong said Saturday at the sidelines of a community event.
The other four being detained are alleged members of Jemaah Islamiyah, the Southeast Asian extremist group linked to Al-Qaeda and responsible for the deadly 2002 and 2005 bombings in Indonesia’s Bali island.
Singapore is a staunch supporter of the US-led fight against terrorism and believes it is high on the target list of international extremist groups.

LONDON, June 10--Britain’s Conservative opposition and members of the governing Labour Party raised pressure on the government Sunday to hold a European Union treaty referendum.
The move comes after French President Nicolas Sarkozy said at the G8 summit in Germany on Thursday that he and British Prime Minister Tony Blair had agreed on “what could be the framework of a simplified treaty“ for the European Union, AFP reported.
There are fears that Blair, before he leaves office on June 27, is preparing to commit Britain to a new treaty after French and Dutch voters defeated the treaty in referenda in 2005.
In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Conservative leader David Cameron said the public would have to weigh in on any move affecting British powers and put Blair’s successor Gordon Brown in a possible bind.
“Any treaty that is about the transfer of powers to the EU must be put to the country in a referendum,“ Cameron told the newspaper.