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Monday,
October 28, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Freed hostages hospitalised
Pervez promulgates 8 ordinances |
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New Pakistan PM on
November 7 Sniper case: material witness held
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Lanka moots laws to clip President’s powers Protests against war on Iraq 10 Afghan men freed after questioning Israeli soldiers kill 2 ultras Memorial to Bali victims being planned
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Freed hostages hospitalised
Moscow, October 27 During a check of Moscow hospitals, the web news service gazeta.ru said its reporters found only “four or five” of the injured had received bullet wounds, all of them at Hospital Number 13, where 349 freed hostages were admitted. A further 104 were in veterans hospital number 1, many of them suffering from gas poisoning and in a state of shock. Nine others there had died from cardiac arrest or suffocation, gazeta.ru said. Russian special forces armed with weapons and poison gas rescued more than 700 hostages when they stormed the Moscow theatre early yesterday. No information has been released on the exact causes of the captives’ deaths, except for two who were shot by the Chechen rebels before assault by the security forces. At least 118 hostages were killed in the operation carried out by Russian special forces, Russian Health Ministry sources said today. The ministry had earlier put the toll at 90 hostages killed. Meanwhile, the Russian police stepped up checks today and distraught relatives begged for information on loved ones, hoping they survived a hostage siege by Chechen guerrillas who President Vladimir Putin called ‘’armed scum’’. The police in Moscow, stunned by the audacious hostage-taking, checked cars, passengers and luggage to prevent a feared repeat attack. An unconfirmed report today said the police in Moscow had arrested three Chechens in possession of weapons and explosives. The heightened security meant that many Russians could not get to see relatives in being treated in hospitals for the effects of the special forces’ knock-out gas. ‘’I am looking for my son; here is his photo. He is called Dmitry Rodionov; he was born in 1984. I cannot find him; he is on none of the lists,’’ a woman, in her forties, told NTV television. The police stepped up measures to boost a probe into how the Chechens managed to cross the busy capital unhindered despite being heavily armed and carrying a large amount of explosives. Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced a state mourning tomorrow in memory of innocent victims of the three-day long hostage siege. Russia today threatened to boycott a planned Russia-EU summit in Copenhagen next month if a congress on Chechnya takes place in Denmark tomorrow and October 29 following a massive hostage-taking by Chechen separatists in Moscow. “If a meeting of the terrorists’ accomplices goes ahead, the Russia-EU summit will become impossible,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. DENVER (COLORADO): Military experts and toxicologists say Russian commandos probably pumped a gas containing valium into a Moscow theatre to subtly disable and disorient heavily armed Chechen rebels prior to dramatic assault. Russian authorities did not identify the gas used in yesterday’s operation. Several nations, including the USA, have developed a variety of non-lethal incapacitating agents, which can also induce choking, nausea or blurry vision, depending on their recipes. According to some hostages inside the theatre, they realised they were becoming sleepy and confused, but no one reported seeing a vapour cloud, smelling a chemical or experiencing the sort of irritating symptoms associated with tear gas and pepper spray.
Agencies |
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Pervez promulgates 8 ordinances Islamabad, October 27 In all, General Musharraf promulgated eight ordinances late last night, effecting changes to the legal framework which contained, among others, his controversial amendments to the Constitution, conferring powers in him to dismiss Parliament and to form the NSC. One ordinance changed the wordings of the sentence which spoke of the frequency of the NSC meetings, changing it to “regularly” and omitting the words “within the time frame indicated by him” from the earlier ordinance. After the amendment the clause would be read as, “Meetings of the National Security Council may be regularly convened by the President either in his discretion, or on the advice of the Prime Minister, or when requested by any of its member.” Another ordinance permits politicians who held the post of caretaker Prime Minister and Chief Minister to hold office again, whereas, according to the legal framework, people who held these offices were barred from holding these a second time. This clause is likely to help the pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League and National Alliance leaders Miraj Khalid and Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi, Moin Quereshi and Zafarullah Khan Jamali — who is considered the PML-Q candidate for the Prime Minister’s post — as they have all served as caretaker Prime Minister in the past. General Musharraf also promulgated the “Freedom of Information Ordinance — 2002” binding the future political government to guarantee access to information on all official records except for details pertaining to national security. “No requester shall be denied access to any official record other than exemptions as provided in Section 15”, a clause of the ordinance said. Under this provision, all public bodies would have to ensure that all records should be made available to the public. The law also made it obligatory for all public bodies to publish and make available at a reasonable price, all Acts and subordinate legislations such as rules and regulations, notifications, bylaws, manuals and orders having the force of law in Pakistan.
PTI |
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New Pakistan PM on
November 7 Islamabad, October 27 The newly elected members will take oath on that day and the election of the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker will be held the next day. The provincial assemblies will be convened and Chief Ministers elected following the convening of the assemblies. However, the predicament in Pakistan for a new Prime Minister still continues, with no decision being taken by political parties. With 12 days to go for the election of the Prime Minister, nothing is yet known who will be proposed and elected. The present scenario shows that the Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid-e-Azam) will form the government in Punjab and the MMA in the NWFP. The government formation in Sind and Baluchistan is still fluid, but the PPP claims to have the support of the majority of members.
UNI |
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Sniper case: material witness held Richmond, October 27 Virginia prosecutors will file charges tomorrow to cover two woundings and at least two of the three killings there, said William Neely, chief prosecutor of Spotsylvania County, Virginia. Neely said yesterday he would seek the death penalty for John Allen Muhammad, 41. Malvo could face death, but Neely said his sentence would depend on his role in the shootings. Virginia and Alabama — where the pair are charged with killing a woman outside a liquor store in September — allow the death penalty for crimes committed at age 17. The two also face six counts of murder each in Maryland, where prosecutors say they would seek the death penalty against Muhammad. Malvo, who is of Jamaican descent, would be tried as an adult, but the death penalty could not be applied there if his reported age of 17 is verified. Yesterday, a third man, believed to be the co-owner of a blue Chevrolet Caprice the suspects were found in a day earlier, was arrested and held as a material witness. Nathaniel O Osbourne, a man of Jamaican descent who has lived in Camden, New Jersey, was arrested at a home in Flint, Michigan. He was to appear in court today but was not considered a suspect in the shootings that began on October 2 and killed 10 persons and critic ally wounded three in Maryland, Virginia and Washington DC, FBI agent Barry Maddox said. AP |
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Lanka moots laws to clip President’s powers Colombo, October 27 The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) Bill to be tabled in parliament next month would make provisions for the creation of a Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee that would function directly under the Minister of Defence, the local Sunday Times reported. The President is the Commander in Chief of Srilankan armed forces. The UNF government led by Mr Wickremesinghe appeared to be determined to continue its campaign to clip the executive powers of the President, despite its first abortive attempt to curtail the presidential executive to dissolve parliament anytime after one year in office, had been shot down by the supreme court. President Kumaratunga on October 24 had called Mr Wickremesinghe for political reconciliation and to work on a comprehensive plan of action for peace, as well as for the economic development. She also invited the Prime Minister to cooperate with her if he wanted to abolish the existing executive presidency altogether.
UNI |
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Protests against war on Iraq Berlin, October 27 In Berlin, crowds of people brandishing placards that declared “war on the imperialist war,” “stop Bush’s campaign” and “No blood for oil,” along with a few Iraqi and Palestinian flags, converged yesterday on the downtown Alexanderplatz square and marched past the German Foreign Ministry office. The police estimated that up to 8,000 persons took part in damp, windy weather, while organisers put the number at 30,000. No trouble was reported. Some 2,000 persons turned out in Frankfurt, and hundreds in Stuttgart, Hamburg and Bremen, according to the police, while another 1,500 rain-soaked demonstrators gathered under umbrellas outside the US Embassy in Copenhagen, Denmark and more than 1,000 hit the streets in Stockholm, Sweden. The marches were planned by anti-war activists to coincide with protests in Washington and San Francisco. In the US capital, thousands of anti-war protesters circled the White House after the Rev. Jesse Jackson and other speakers denounced the Bush administration’s Iraq policies and demanded a revolt at the ballot box to promote peace. “If we launch a pre-emptive strike on Iraq we lose all moral authority,” Jackson told the chanting, cheering throng spread out on green lawns near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
AP |
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10 Afghan men freed after questioning Asadabad (Afghanistan), October 27 The freed men were flown by helicopter yesterday from the Bagram airbase to Asadabad, said Governor Sayed Mohammad Yousuf Pacha. Asadabad is 160 km northeast of Kabul. They had been arrested in late August for investigation of alleged links to the ousted Taliban militia and the Al-Qaida. Six missiles were fired yesterday at the US airbase Asadabad, local officials said, but there were no reports of casualties or damage. The missiles came from about 6 km south of the base. One of the released men said the group had not been badly treated during their two-month detention at Bagram, where the US military is headquartered. “We were interrogated about the whereabouts of former Taliban supreme leader Mullah Omar, Osama bin Laden and other Taliban leaders,” he said on condition of anonymity.
AP |
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Israeli soldiers kill 2 ultras Nablus (West Bank), October 27 Palestinian officials described the shooting as an assassination. The Israeli army said its forces had tried to detain militants, who then opened fire. “The soldiers returned fire and in the exchange, two gunmen were killed and one was wounded,’’ an army spokesman said. Palestinian witnesses said Israeli plainclothes forces shot and killed the two men. Local medical officials said three persons including a child, were wounded.
Reuters |
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Memorial to Bali victims being planned Kuta (Indonesia), October 27 “We have already taken aerial shots and have asked architects to draw up various plans to give to the government to decide,” said Australian Stephen Palmer, owner of the Quicksilver sports outlet here.
AFP |
ROCKET ATTACK ON AFGHAN ARMY POST 11 KILLED IN PAK ROAD MISHAP |
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