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Saturday,
December 14, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Remove cameras, N. Korea asks IAEA ‘Pak backing suicide squad camps’ Pak rights situation alarming
7 shot in Gaza; efforts on to revive peace
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Conman tried to sell Cherie story London, December 13 
The Australian conman at the centre of a political storm involving Prime Minister Tony Blair’s wife tried to sell his story to British newspapers, a tabloid reported today.
The Sun newspaper quoted ex-convict Peter Foster as saying in taped
phone calls that he had hoped to make money off his story but had been
rebuffed by newspapers reluctant to pay him because of his criminal
record.
Russian woman oldest
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Remove cameras, N. Korea asks IAEA Vienna, December 13 The disclosure comes a day after Pyongyang announced it was reactivating its nuclear power programme in response to a decision by the USA to suspend oil aid. IAEA Director-General Mohammed ElBaradel appealed to the North Koreans" to act with restraint in this tense situation and not take any unilateral action that might further complicate the IAEA's ability" to monitor their frozen nuclear programme. North Korea's nuclear plant had been frozen and Pyongyang had promised to scrap plans to develop nuclear weapons under the Agreed Framework with the USA in 1994. Meanwhile, the UN nuclear watchdog agency said today that it was aware of new Nuclear facilities under construction in Iran, which the USA can be used for weapons, and plans to inspect them in February. Iran informed the IAEA in September of an ambitious plan to build nuclear power plants and related fuel facilities over the next 20 years, IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky said. In Teheran, Iran today brushed off US concern that it may be developing a secret nuclear arms programme and said IAEA inspectors were welcome to visit any facilities they suspected. Seoul: North Korea on Friday called for an apology from the USA for “unpardonable piracy” after a North Korean ship containing 15 Scud missiles was detained on its way to Yemen, a demand branded “absurd” by a US official. “The USA should apologise for its high-handed piracy committed against the DPRK’s trading ship and duly compensate for all mental and material damage done to the ship and its crew,’’ North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement reported by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). The ship was “carrying missile components and some building material” under a legal contract with Yemen and plying along a normal sea route, it said.
DPA, Reuters |
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‘Pak backing suicide squad camps’ Peshawar, December 13 The Pakistani government denies the presence of camps here. "Nobody will ever be able to either hide here or establish training camps in Pakistan," said Interior Ministry spokesman Iftikar Ahmed. But privately, some officials in Pakistan’s intelligence community and Interior Ministry say they believe there is such bomb training and that it is protected by Pakistani militants and Taliban sympathisers in the Pakistan military. The nephew of Maulvi Abdul Kabir, the Taliban’s No. 3 man, says the training camps are in Bajour and Mansehra, towns in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province where support for the former Afghan regime runs strong. The nephew asked that his name not be used, saying that he feared retaliation from both the Taliban and Pakistanis. He said he agreed to an exclusive interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday because he believed suicide bombing was wrong. He also seemed interested in getting US attention and possibly a reward. There is a $ 10 million reward on Mullah Mohammed Omar, the deposed Taliban leader, but not for most other Taliban officials. The nephew said he had not talked to any US official, and would not approach Pakistanis because he suspected they were in league with the Taliban. Kabir’s nephew had a video taken at a graduation ceremony in the southwestern Pakistan city of Quetta where Kabir and several top Taliban leaders, including former intelligence officials and governors, were present and some spoke. He also had an audio cassette from speeches given at a mosque in Quetta in which Kabir spoke on behalf of Mullah Omar, condemning the US presence in Afghanistan and calling on the faithful to wage a holy war against the Americans. During two weeks of training, would-be bombers are told by Arab instructors that they are waging war on the Jews and "will be martyrs and go straight to heaven and their family will get $ 50,000," Kabir’s nephew said. "They are trained in small groups and not all are told they must die. Some are taught to detonate bombs by remote control, and to drive explosives-laden trucks into Afghanistan", he said. So far two Afghans and one suspected Al-Qaida operative trained at these camps have infiltrated Afghanistan but have been arrested, the nephew said. He did not know whether these were the same persons whose arrest was announced by the Afghan authorities two months ago after they came from Pakistan in a car packed with explosives.
AP |
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Pak rights situation alarming Islamabad, December 13 On the occasion of the Universal Human Rights Day Chairman of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) Afrasiab Khan and its Secretary-General Hina Jilani, said while the restoration of democratic rights was still a matter of debate, Pakistanis would observe Rights Day in a “state of considerable anxiety.” The group observed that the promises made by the new government since assuming charge of national affairs made no reference to human rights. “This is despite the fact that the past year has seen an alarming deterioration in the rights situation for citizens,” the HRCP said in a statement, observing that the factors contributing to this included curbs on the independence of the judiciary by the executive. The HRCP noted that the situation for women in the country also continued to worsen. For the first time in over a decade, a woman was sentenced by a court to death by stoning. Another woman faced gang-rape as the result of a verdict awarded by a tribal gathering, while thousands of women across the country continued to face honour killings, rape, mutilation and domestic violence, the rights body said. It also lamented the enactment of new “regressive” laws on the media and labour, which were aimed at curbing free expression and trade union activities. With poverty increasing, and at least 35 per cent of the country’s population living below the poverty line, mass unemployment, continued downsizing and worsening socio- economic conditions made life almost intolerable for people. The rights group also observed that the condition of children was grimmer than ever.
PTI |
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7 shot in Gaza; efforts on to revive peace
Jerusalem, December 13
While the two sides traded punches yesterday, a high-ranking US envoy visited Israel to brief the Jewish state on the possibility of a war on Iraq which looms on the horizon. Diplomats around the region were laying the groundwork for next week’s meetings of the USA, Russia, European Union and the United Nations on a plan to establish a Palestinian state alongside Israel by 2005. Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan Moasher met with chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat in Amman to discuss the “very dangerous” situation in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories. He met separately with European Union’s West Asia envoy, Miguel Angel Moratinos. The situation “calls for a serious and stepped-up Arab action to put the peace process back on its right track,” Mr Moasher told state news agency Petra after meeting with Mr Erakat. He insisted on the “importance of finalising the ‘roadmap’ and its adoption by the (diplomatic) quartet before the meeting it will hold on December 20,” he added. Meanwhile, UN West Asia envoy Terje Roed-Larsen briefed Lebanese leaders on the “roadmap” and, in Oman, France’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Renaud Muselier, vowed to put his weight behind the plan. However, the Washington talks could easily be undermined if yesterday’s killings herald a new wave of violence. Gunmen shot dead a male and female soldier last night as they guarded a settlement outpost not far from the spot of a roadside ambush that killed 12 Israelis last month as they headed to pray at a shrine revered by Jews and Muslims alike. The army said yesterday it had demoted several officers over the November ambush. A Palestinian militant was killed in a gunfight with Israeli soldiers late yesterday just outside the Gaza Strip in southern Israel, an army spokesman said. It was the second deadly border skirmish of the day after the army shot dead five men spotted crawling towards a no-go area near the Karni crossing point between the northern Gaza Strip and Israel. The military wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, claimed responsibility for the botched assault on the Gush Katif settlement. Meanwhile, US Under Secretary of Defence Douglas Feith was in Jerusalem to meet Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz to discuss common military issues, including a possible US attack on Iraq and Israeli fears of a retaliation by Baghdad.
AFP |
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Conman tried to sell Cherie story London, December 13 The Sun newspaper quoted ex-convict Peter Foster as saying in taped phone calls that he had hoped to make money off his story but had been rebuffed by newspapers reluctant to pay him because of his criminal record. “I’ll do a story, but I’ll only do it for money,” The Sun quoted Foster as telling his mother, Mrs Louise Pelloti, who lives in Ireland. “I’m wanting to get paid.” “They were all really eager to do it but they were worried about the perception,” he reportedly continued. “The trouble is the press is very worried about paying people with my reputation.” The Sun quoted taped telephone conversations which it said Foster had with his mother yesterday, although it did not specify who made the tapes or how reporters were able to listen to them. Foster has served jail terms in Britain, the USA Australia, most relating to a series of diet pill scams. The help he gave to Mrs Blair as she bought two apartments in the western city of Bristol has created a political headache for the Prime Minister and his wife. Mr Blair’s office first denied, then confirmed that Foster had aided Mrs Blair. The Sun also quoted Foster as saying that Mrs Blair had reviewed legal papers in his deportation case, contradicting a statement by Mr Blair’s office.
AP |
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Cardinal Law begs forgiveness, resigns Vatican City, December 13 Law met the Pope at the Vatican and in a statement issued later said he hoped his departure would lead to the “healing, reconciliation and unity which are so desperately needed’’. He added: “To all those who have suffered from my shortcomings and mistakes, I both apologise and from them beg forgiveness.” Law gave no specific indication of what he would do but added: “The particular circumstances of this time suggest a quiet departure. Please keep me in your prayers.” Reuters |
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Russian woman oldest Moscow, December 13 Mr Pelageya Zakurdayeva was born on June 6, 1886, just seven months before Maud Farris-Luse of the USA, who has been recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records, the news agency said. Ms Zakurdayeva lives in Altai, in southern Siberia, wedged between the northern borders of China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan. She was born during the reign of Alexander III, a Tsar remembered for failing to accept liberal reforms.
AFP |
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Pakistan's new government
says that it wants former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto to return from
self-imposed exile. 
