W O R L D

Musharraf sends condolences
ISLAMABAD, Jan 27 — Pakistan’s military ruler, General Pervez Musharraf, yesterday expressed grief over the loss of life and property in the earthquake in Gujarat.

Soldiers guard the Indian High Commission in Islamabad on Friday. Kashmiris demonstrated outside the Indian mission on Republic Day. — Reuters photo

B’desh police arrests 2 madarsa leaders
DHAKA, Jan 27 — The Bangladesh police has been able to establish a link between the Arakan Ruhingya National Organisation (ARNO), an ultra Islami armed group, and the Pakistani ISI after conducting raids. The police on Thursday raided Darul Irfan Academy, a madrasa (Islamic educational institute) at Chandgaon near the organisation headquarters and arrested two of its leaders.

Quake claims 15 lives in Pak

KARACHI, Jan 27 (Reuters) — A powerful earthquake that shook India and Pakistan yesterday killed more than 15 persons and wounded hundreds in Pakistan, a leading newspaper reported today.

The daily, Dawn, said 15 persons were killed and about 108 wounded in the southern Sindh province.

Reports said eight persons died in the Mirpukhas division in Sindh, although no official record was available, the newspaper said.

Five children died after a building collapsed on mud houses in the centre of Hyderabad, Sindh’s second biggest city after Karachi.

Two persons died in other small towns of Sindh, the Dawn said.

Yesterday, the state television had put the death toll at eight.

In Karachi there were no reports of death, injuries or damage. Witnesses reported a tremor lasting almost a minute which prompted many to run out of their homes in panic.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake measured 7.9 on the Richter scale.

Pakistan rescue workers said in the far-flung oil producing area of Badin the tremors had split roads and blocked transport.

But oil installations operated by the U.S. firm, Union Texas, were safe from the effects of the earthquake, a company official said.

Musharraf sends condolences

ISLAMABAD, Jan 27 (PTI) — Pakistan’s military ruler, General Pervez Musharraf, yesterday expressed grief over the loss of life and property in the earthquake in Gujarat.

“I have been saddened at the tragic loss of life and property in the earthquake which hit large parts of India yesterday”, said General Musharraf in his message to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.

“The Government and people of Pakistan share the grief of the bereaved families”, he added.

KARACHI (AFP): Pakistan’s leading private humanitarian aid group, the Edhi Welfare Foundation (EWF), offered to rush a medical team and relief material to India.

“I am ready to travel to India with a medical team, medicines and other relief goods if the Indian Government needs our help”, EWF chairman Abdus Sattar Edhi said. “It’s a human tragedy and we must all help”.

B’desh police arrests 2 madarsa leaders
From Atiqur Rehman
Tribune News Service

DHAKA, Jan 27 — The Bangladesh police has been able to establish a link between the Arakan Ruhingya National Organisation (ARNO), an ultra Islami armed group, and the Pakistani ISI after conducting raids. The police on Thursday raided Darul Irfan Academy, a madrasa (Islamic educational institute) at Chandgaon near the organisation headquarters and arrested two of its leaders. Documents, which showed that the madrasa was the main centre for the contacts were also seized. The madrasa head, Anis Ahmed, has his head office in Islamabad. Their main networking centre is Dawa Academy of International Islamic University. The head of the madrasa in Chittagong is Khairul Bashar, who was the president of the Chittagong district unit of the Islami Chhatra Shibir for four terms from 1982 till 1986. Shibir is the students' wing of the fundamentalist opposition Jamat-e-Islami. He was the coordinating link between ARNO and the Rohingya Solidarity Organisation (RSO), a combine of many such organisations. The RSO runs training camps for Rohingya militants near the Myanmar border.

The police conducted raids and arrested Selimullah Selim, self-styled chief of staff of ARNO and his associate Noor Mohammad from a house at Chandgaon in Chittagong, the port city. They were interrogating the two arrested leaders and had sealed the two establishments.

The police also found documents connecting the recently expelled Pakistani diplomat Irfan-ur Rahman Raza. ARNO had direct communication links with him in Dhaka through mail and personal contact. Raza was declared persona non grata by Bangladesh for his derogatory and audacious remarks about Bangladesh’s liberation and atrocities committed by the Pakistani forces in 1971. The Bangladesh Home Minister stated that Raza was the main operative of the ISI in Bangladesh. He was compelled to leave Dhaka on the night of December 14, 24 hours before the nation celebrated its Victory Day at midnight on December 16.

Simpson’s appeal rejected

LOS ANGELES, Jan 27 (AP) — A California appeals court has rejected O.J. Simpson’s appeal of the $ 33.5 million civil court judgement against him for the killings of his former wife and her friend.

A three-judge panel of the 2nd District Court of Appeal gave its ruling yesterday, after Simpson’s attorney argued last month that the trial judge erred in rulings on evidence, in denying a mistrial and that the damages were excessive.

Simpson could pursue his appeal with a petition to the California Supreme Court. His attorney, Daniel Leonard, could not be contacted for comments immediately.

A criminal court jury acquitted Simpson in 1995 of murder charges of slayings of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. In 1997 a jury in a civil wrongful death lawsuit against Simpson awarded the plaintiffs $ 8.5 million in compensatory damages and $ 25 million in punitive damages.

Blair defends Vaz in passport case

LONDON, Jan 27 (PTI) — British Prime Minister Tony Blair has come to the aid of Keith Vaz as the embattled Minister for Europe fought to avoid becoming the second victim of the controversy surrounding the granting of passports to NRI businessman S.P. Hinduja.

Vaz told newsmen yesterday that he was very pleased over ordering of investigation into the passport issue. “I am very relaxed about (the inquiry) but I will not apologise for my links with the British Asian community,” he said.

Benazir not for LoC as Indo-Pak border

DUBAI, Jan 27 (UNI) — Observing that Pakistan needs to build peace in South Asia, a former Pakistan Prime Minister, Ms Benazir Bhutto, says the only workable settlement of the Kashmir issue is to allow “soft borders, let Kashmiris travel across the dividing line, build greater understanding and then aim for a permanent solution.”

In an exclusive interview to Gulf News from London, Ms Bhutto also stated that Pakistan ought to come to terms with the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), a trading bloc, to enhance its own economic interests, in dialogue with other regional blocs which constituted the global economic order.

Ms Bhutto expressed her reservation about making the Line of Control (LoC) as international boundary between India and Pakistan but said the proposal would be acceptable to her if the All-Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) supported it. “There are some who tell me that the LoC should be made an international boundary and if that’s what the APHC wants, I may not like it, but, I will accept it because it’s a Kashmiri problem and in the end we have to go with the Kashmiris.’’

However, she hastened to add that there might be a backlash against this move as “we still have people who are armed, who have been fighting the Jehad and there would be a reaction against it.’’

Claiming that there was a certain degree of participatory democracy in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) though it was very much under the control of the centre, Ms Bhutto said a beginning could also be made in Jammu and Kashmir with “participatory democracy”.

“Let the divided people of Kashmir start meeting each other and that can lead to greater understanding, and then that can lead to a solution in due course without touching raw nerves in different centres because of the bitter past experience.’’

WORLD BRIEFS

Boy convicted of murder
MIAMI: A 13-year-old Florida boy who killed a six-year-old girl in 1999 while imitating wrestling moves was convicted of first-degree murder as an adult and could face life in prison without parole, court officials said. “The injuries were so extensive that we all felt that it wasn’t an accident,” Mr William Stevenson said after he and 11 other members of the jury handed down their verdict on Thursday in a Fort Lauderdale courtroom. — AFP

Pig finds $ 20,000
BUENOS AIRES: An Argentine trash collector brought home the bacon, courtesy one of his pigs, who found $ 20,000 while snuffling around the garbage, a newspaper report said on Friday. Earnest Vadell considered keeping the package, but eight days later, he bumped into a very unhappy neighbour who confided that he had lost $ 20,000 which he needed to pay his bills. The neighbour told him he had accidentally thrown out the money while cleaning up. Vadell admitted his pig had found the cash and immediately handed it over. — AFP

42 die as two buses collide
LAHORE: Two buses collided head-on in eastern Punjab province on Friday killing 42 passengers and injuring 48, several of them seriously, a state-run news agency reported. The accident occurred near Pattoki, 60 km south-west of Punjab, provincial capital of Lahore, when one bus was trying to overtake another. — AP

No reason to skip work
SYDNEY: A young couple who won Australia’s biggest ever lottery prize reckon a fortune of 30 million Australian dollars (16 million US dollars) isn’t sufficient reason for not turning up for work next week. The Perth couple also intend to share their winnings with their families, Australia’s AAP news agency reported on Friday. A spokesman for the lottery company said the husband had learned that they had bought the winning ticket on his car radio but went to work anyway. — DPA

Child pornography rules diluted
OTTAWA: The Supreme Court of Canada diluted federal restrictions on the possession of child pornography, effectively overriding concerns of the police, children’s and religious groups in favour of objections by civil libertarians. The court on Saturday upheld a ban on the possession of child pornography but ruled that a person could not be prosecuted for creating either photographic or written child pornography designed purely for that person’s sole use. — Reuters

Teacher promoting sex tours
PERTH: A retired 70-year-old schoolteacher on Friday became the first person to be charged with promoting overseas child-sex tours after he allegedly organised trips to Thailand, the police said. Jonathan Kaye was charged after the police searched his home following a seven-week investigation into child-sex tours in Thailand, said Detective Constable Gordon Fairman. — AP

Mir’s crash will be safe
MOSCOW: The Russian Foreign Ministry sought on Friday to allay international fears that the 140-ton Mir space station will crash on land during an operation next month to bring the orbiter down in a controlled descent. The ailing 15-year-old station would be safely dumped in March with debris guided into a remote area of the South Pacific to avoid any damage, the ministry said. — AP

10 killed as van hits tractor
CHICAGO: The police in the US state Illinois says that bodies remain in the mangled wreckage of a van that was struck by a tractor-trailer rig on Interstate 55, west of Joliet, on Saturday. Ten persons were killed and two hurt. The Salvation Army van was being used to take families of prison inmates to visit prisoners. — AP