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Thursday,
May 9, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Maoists kill 140 securitymen
112 killed in Chinese plane crash |
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Suicide bomber kills 16 near Tel Aviv
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Iran developing long-range missile Chinese acrobat
sets world record
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Maoists kill 140 securitymen Kathmandu, May 8 Some 105 policemen and 35 army personnel died in the battle that raged until 4 am (4.15 am IST) the officials told AFP. The attack occurred in the Gama area of Rolpa, where the security forces have killed some 600 rebels in a week-long assault on Maoist training camps. A source in the Nepalese Cabinet confirmed the attack but said authorities in Kathmandu were still awaiting details on the toll. “We have received an official report of Maoists attacking our security forces and setting fire to army and police posts,” the source said. Meanwhile Nepal’s Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba in Washington yesterday said that he had secured a strong vow of support at the White House talks with President George W. Bush for his battle against Maoist “terrorism.” “I am very glad, I am very happy, President Bush is very much supportive to our campaign against terrorism and he has assured us he will help in many ways,” Mr Deuba told reporters at the White House on Tuesday. The White House declined to give in-depth details of the meeting. But national security spokesman Sean McCormack said: “They talked about ways the USA can support Nepal in combating the Maoist insurgency and to provide greater benefits of economic development to the people of Nepal.” Mr Deuba came to Washington hoping to cast his government’s fight against the insurgency, which has killed 2,700 people, in the light of Mr Bush’s campaign against global terrorism — and to turn symbolic support into more financial aid. His appointment at the White House coincided with a fierce air and ground offensive by Nepalese troops on what the authorities say are Maoist training camps in western Nepal where hundreds of rebels are trapped. The Bush Administration has already asked the Congress to grant $ 20 million in military aid to the Nepal’s Government as it battles the rebels. The money has not yet been approved — and officials say they are still working out how it can best be spent.
AFP |
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112 killed in Chinese plane crash Dalian, China, May 8 “The 103 passengers and nine crew on the plane died,’’ China Northern Airlines said in a statement handed to grieving relatives. A flotilla of boats spent the day plucking corpses and wreckage from the sea as relatives waited for news of survivors. The McDonnell-Douglas MD-82 crashed about 10 km off Dalian minutes after the captain told ground controllers near the end of a flight from Beijing there was a fire in the cabin. The official Xinhua news agency said eight foreigners were aboard. It did not specify nationalities. State television said divers were to probe the crash site in an attempt to find the plane’s data recorders, which should provide some clue to what went wrong. For 43-year-old Raj Kumar Koley, the flight was the culmination of his vacation with his family in Kolkata. However, it turned out to be his last. Koley was general manager, research and development, Orind Refractories Limited, based in Wanghai city in northeast China’s Liaoning province.
Reuters, PTI |
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Suicide bomber kills 16 near Tel Aviv Jerusalem, May 8 The attack at 1.33 a.m. IST today came shortly after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon began his meeting with U S President George Bush in Washington to discuss peace plans for the West Asia. Following the bombing, Mr Sharon cut short his visit and is heading back after cancelling his meeting with Congressional leaders, a government source said. The explosion at “Shpiel Club” snooker hall in the town’s new industrial area occurred on the third floor of the building causing the ceiling to collapse and trapping people in a hall on an adjoining floor, medical sources said. Some of the wounded were believed to be trapped in the building. “We know of an explosion in a building ... a night club in which there was apparently a large number of people,” Chaim Cohen, a police commander was quoted by army radio. It was “a huge explosion. I turned the corner and I saw the whole building go up before my eyes,” an eyewitness told Israel Radio, adding she was on her way home when she heard the blast. Israeli television showed dozens of ambulances, medics, and fire engines moving frantically around the scene of the blast which injured over 50 persons, 11 of them seriously. In a message to Al Manar television station in Lebanon, radical Palestinian outfit Hamas claimed the responsibility for the attack but Mahmud Zahar, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza City said he could not confirm the claim. “We do not have any clear evidence or information except what we are seeing on the TV. But if it is a martyrdom operation, it means that Israel has lost its war against the Palestinians and the Palestinian resistance has proved that it is capable of reaching the enemy everywhere,” ‘Ha’aretz’ newspaper reported Zahar as saying. In a statement, Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat condemned the attack “in the strongest possible terms.” Meanwhile, in Bethlehem, the implementation of the Israeli-Palestinian deal to end the 36-day standoff at the Church of Nativity, was delayed at the last minute yesterday when Italy declared its refusal to accept 13 the Palestinian militants holed up inside the Church and described by Israel as “having blood on their hands.”
PTI, Reuters |
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Russia’s bogus e-mail brides con westerners Moscow, May 8 They made contact through an Internet agency and began exchanging e-mails. Although they never met, she sent him her pictures and frank, articulate e-mails. Only a month later, DiMario stood in the arrival lounge of Dulles airport, Maryland, his dreams in tatters, having wired $ 3,350 of his savings to Oksana’s ‘agent’ in Kiev. DiMario is one of hundreds of men who have fallen victim to the scams of ‘e-mail brides’ on the Internet. Experts say the vast majority of ‘e-mail brides’ are scams designed to lure western men into parting with cash. And they are the topic of a Hollywood film, released next month. In Birthday Girl, Nicole Kidman plays a Russian who travels to the UK to live with banker Ben Chaplin, after he orders her with a credit card on the Net. Chaplin soon discovers that the woman lied about not speaking English and is involved in a complex fraud. DiMario first sensed trouble when Oksana suggested she visit him in Baltimore as a student. “She said she needed $1,850 for visas, a flight and medical tests,” he said. He was suspicious, but agreed when Oksana’s agency, Kiev’s Paradise of Angels Internet Club, put him in touch with previous clients and assured him that he would recover most of the money when Oksana was granted state student benefits in the USA. “There seemed like nothing to lose, so I wired the money,” said DiMario. He was delighted. ‘I was divorced two years ago and it is so hard to meet single women at my age.’ But just as Oksana was due to leave Kiev, she called in a panic, saying the airline had turned her away. She had to have $1,500 in cash in ‘security money’ to clear US Customs. ‘She said the rule was new and I had waited so long that I wired it.’ DiMario waited in vain for her arrival or e-mails but Oksana had vanished, as had her agent. “I began investigating and came across a site about Russian bride scams. There I found pictures of “Oksana”, using four aliases. The pictures she gave me were not of hers, but of a popular Russian model, Anna Smirnova. Oksana was a real person, but nothing like who I thought she was.’ Paradise of Angels Internet Club could not be reached for comment. ‘Ninety per cent of these “agencies” are scams,’ said Chris Berry-Dee, 50, a British criminologist, based in Portsmouth. “Normally, with one of these agencies, a letter comes back very quickly. Two or three letters later, the girl asks to come and visit. But these are often just standard e-mails that agencies churn out. Men are then asked to pay for gifts, translators and registration fees. They are invited on tours to the former Soviet Union to meet these women and the organisers then make excuses when the girl does not turn up at the hotel. “On some of these sites, there are thousands of interested men but very few women available. Logically, they have to be in touch with several men at once.” While the FBI receives many complaints about these services, others insist that ‘e-mail brides’ are driven by more innocent desires and simply prefer the life and manners of western men. “They are more reliable,” said Svetlana, 24, from Tchimkent, Kazakhstan, who is using a dating service based in Leeds. “I have met a few foreign men through the Internet but it is hard to find a good man, no matter the country.” John Weedon, (50) an accountant from Cambridge, met his wife, Irina, from Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, over the Internet and now runs the website A Russian bride to help Irina’s friends in Bishkek find western men. “It’s amazing how many Russian women want to get out of the former Soviet Union. There are thousands of interested older men. Russian women don’t seem to mind older men,” he said.
Observer News Service |
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Iran developing long-range missile Washington, May 8 The Shahab-4 missile will initially have a 2,000 km range, but anticipated upgrades will allow it to reach Italy, Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Greece, according to the official.
AP |
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Chinese acrobat
sets world record Beijing, May 8 Ahdili broke the Guinness world record set by a Canadian, “China Daily” said.
PTI |
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