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Tuesday,
January 14, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Gaddafi against US
action on Iraq UN inspectors visit Iraq colleges US offers talks, N. Korea revenge
7 Palestinians killed as violence rages Withdraw envoy from UN: PPP Benazir slams intelligence agencies |
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Man with Al-Qaida links detained Bomb kills 2 in Afghanistan Ex-dictator dead
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Gaddafi against US action on Iraq
New York, January 13 The Iraqi President “is not a rational person. But even if he is not rational or wise, he does not constitute any threat,” Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi said in a 90-minute interview to Newsweek. Saying that he knows Saddam well, he said: “We don’t know what poses a greater threat — the US President or Saddam Hussein. But he (Saddam) doesn’t deserve this.” He, however, said he disagreed with Saddam over the war he waged against Iran, on his invasion of Kuwait and on the Kurdish issue. “I have supported the Kurds,” he said. Asked whether Libya would give shelter to Saddam’s family, he said “don’t think of such a thing. Neither he nor his family will leave Iraq. The USA has military capability. So there will be no safe haven if he goes anywhere.” To a question as to what advice he would give to Saddam, he said the Iraqi President had opened his country for full inspections. “What more he can do? Now is a fight to the finish. He must stand against the wall and fight.” Replying to another question, he said Libya’s cooperation in fighting terrorism was “irrevocable,” adding that his country was providing intelligence to the USA and Britain about the Al-Qaida. There were Libyan terrorists in USA and in Britain and Libyan intelligence service exchanged information. He said the terrorists would not hesitate to attack the USA if they could. Osama bin Laden had convinced his followers that the USA was attacking the whole of the Arab and Islamic world, he said. He (Osama) told them in the beginning that the USA’s objective was not only Afghanistan. Now that there is a move against Iraq, it has proven him right. When the US talks about Libya, Saudi Arabia and Syria, he says, ‘You see, I was correct.’ It is not a battle between the USA and Laden anymore. Everybody is with bin Laden,” he said. Asked whether Saudi Arabia was doing all it could to fight terrorism, he said: “Saudi Arabia is a fundamentalist state itself”. Asserting that nuclear weapons were of no use to Libya and that it did not have the money to manufacture them, he said Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was “crazy” when he suggested that his country with the help of Iraq would be the first Arab country to develop nuclear weapons. “He is just dragging the USA behind him everywhere he goes. We regret that Sharon has become the ‘president’ of America,” he said. He also denied that Libya was stockpiling chemical or other weapons of mass destruction, saying that it had signed all the conventions that prohibited the manufacture of such arms and the international Atomic Energy Agency routinely carried out inspections. PTI
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UN inspectors visit Iraq colleges
Baghdad, January 13 Teams of UN nuclear and chemical weapons experts visited Baghdad’s technological university and two science colleges, according to the Information Ministry. A nuclear team also visited the Ibn Rushed company, which it says repairs and maintains firefighting equipment and provides quality control for construction materials. Other teams were still en route for destinations outside the Iraqi capital. Iraqi officials accompanied inspectors, but they were not told where they were heading. The USA and the UK have accelerated their military build-up in the Gulf in preparation for a possible invasion of Iraq to rid it of weapons of mass destruction. Iraq denies that it holds such weapons and says it’s fully cooperating with UN inspectors. “While preparing itself to face all possibilities, Iraq ... will not be distracted from its present and future by USA’s loud talk, and will not allow it to disrupt its life,” said a front-page editorial in Al-Thawra, newspaper of President Saddam Hussein’s ruling Baath Party. AP
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US offers talks, N. Korea revenge
Seoul, January 13 Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly reaffirmed Washington’s stand that it was ready for talks with Pyongyang that focused tightly on North Korea scrapping its nuclear ambitions. At the same time Pyongyang, one day after threatening to turn “the stronghold of the enemy into a sea of fire,” ratcheted up the rhetoric with a warning of “thousand-fold” revenge against any US aggression. Kelly, who arrived yesterday and was scheduled to leave tomorrow, was in talks with South Korean Foreign Minister Choi Sung-Hong following an hour-long talk with President-elect Roh Moo-Hyun. Kelly expressed disappointment at the outcome of the three days of discussions between a North Korean delegation and former Clinton administration troubleshooter Bill Richardson in New Mexico. “We really hadn’t heard anything from the North Koreans speaking to him (Richardson) that we hadn’t heard in their public pronouncements before that,” he said. Kelly, following the talks with Roh, said his primary purpose in coming to South Korea was to hear directly from Roh of his plans for South Korea’s development once he took office on February 25. “I wanted to hear directly from the President some of his views on how he sees Korean development under his presidency and he was very generous in explaining his views,” said Kelly. Roh, elected on December 19 on a wave of anti-Americanism, is a strong advocate of engagement as a way of resolving the three-month nuclear standoff with Pyongyang. Washington has reiterated throughout the standoff that it is unwilling to reward bad behaviour by negotiating with the regime on its demands for a non-aggression pact and other issues before Pyongyang agrees to scrap its nuclear ambitions. The US position has placed Washington at odds with Seoul and with Roh, a firm backer of President Kim Dae-Jung’s “sunshine” policy of engagement with the communist North. While Kelly was at meetings, President Kim nudged a reluctant Washington towards a face-to-face dialogue. “We have to talk to North Korea, and Japan also has to. But it is important to let a US-North Korean dialogue open,” he said during a meeting with former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori. Mori, special envoy of his successor as Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, is here to elaborate on Japan’s latest proposal to resolve the nuclear crisis. AFP
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7 Palestinians killed as violence rages
Jerusalem, January 13 Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz was evasive when asked about reports that he was planning to step up strikes against Palestinian militants. Mr Mofaz said Israel was facing a growing wave of terror, but that there would be “nothing very much out of the ordinary” in Israel’s response. Palestinian officials have accused Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of escalating military action to divert attention from corruption allegations that have been hurting his re-poll bid. In two shooting attacks late yesterday, an Israeli civilian and a soldier were killed. One attack targeted the village of Gadish, in Israel’s north, just 4 km from the West Bank. Just after nightfall, two Palestinian gunmen sneaked in and killed a 48-year-old Israeli man. One of the attackers was run over by Israeli army officer, and the second was killed in a shootout. The Islamic Jehad claimed responsibility for the attack. Also late yesterday, three infiltrators sneaked across the usually calm Israeli-Egytpian border, barren desert land south of the Gaza Strip. The military said a patrol came across the three and exchanged fire with them, killing two. An Israeli soldier was also killed. In another incident yesterday, two Palestinians were killed and another seriously wounded when Israeli helicopters fired missiles at Hamas activists. AP
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Withdraw envoy from UN: PPP
Islamabad, January 13 “A man who beats up a woman and continues to enjoy government patronage sets a bad example,’’ a party spokesman was quoted in The News as saying. “The Ambassador is now a symbol of violence against women and must be removed,’’ he added. Pointing out that the Benazir Bhutto government had outlawed domestic violence during its tenure, the spokesman said the matter might be played up to embarrass Islamabad further in addition to hurting the sentiments of women. “The envoy must pay a price for violence against the woman so that the position of women could be protected as envisaged by law against the domestic violence.’’ he said. The PPP asked why the National Accountability Bureau was silent when law was violated. UNI
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Benazir
slams intelligence agencies Islamabad, January 13 In an open letter to PPP Parliamentarians, Benazir Bhutto described the intelligence agencies and the bureau as killers of democracy and asked them to tell the public facts of these institutions used by the government. She called upon her party MNAs to raise their voice against the use of the agencies and the NAB by the government for its political purposes, The Nation reported, quoting Radio Tehren, yesterday. Condemning the harassment being faced by the people through FBI operations in Pakistan, she said this was fully against the sovereignty of the country.
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Man with Al-Qaida links detained
Adelaide, January 13 “He is believed, according to movement records, to have left Australia in March 2001,” he said. “It is alleged that he trained with the Al-Qaida in Afghanistan in mid-2001 and for the last year or so has been in Pakistan.” He said the man was in good health and officials from Australia’s Foreign Affairs Department had informed the man’s family of his detention. He said the man had not been charged “at this stage”. “It may well be that he is charged under Pakistan law,” he said. “He is in the same sort of position as anyone else would be who commits a breach of the law in a country in which they are a resident or present,” he said. AP
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Bomb kills 2 in Afghanistan
Kabul, January 13 A man had left the tape recorder at a shop in Balkh on Saturday, saying that he would return later, said General Abdul Sabor, a top lieutenant of local warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum. When the man didn’t return, the electrician inserted a cassette and batteries, setting off the blast, said General Sabor. He said investigators suspected the bomb had been intended for someone else. Balkh lies just west of Mazar-e-Sharif. AP
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Ex-dictator dead
Buenos Aires, January 13 Galtieri, who was 76, also suffered from pancreatic cancer and had been living under house arrest since July after being found guilty of human rights abuses committed during the 1976-1983 military junta. Argentina’s disastrous attempt to occupy the Falkland Islands sparked the rapid downfall of the dictatorship. The junta was later found responsible for the “Dirty War’’ deaths and disappearance of up to 30,000 persons. Thousands of dissidents were drugged and thrown alive from aircraft into the sea or rivers. Others were buried in secret graves which have still not been found. Reuters
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Queen Elizabeth operated upon London, January 13 The surgery went very well and the 76-year old monarch is expected to leave hospital tomorrow, a spokesman of the palace said. The operation at King Edward VII Hospital in London, where she was admitted today night, lasted for 45 minutes.
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Sri Lanka frees 1,178 prisoners Colombo, January 13 The inmates released were mainly those serving short jail terms or whose sentences were due to expire in the next three months, the officials said. They said the amnesty was to have been granted on December 25, but was held up by wrangling between Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s government and President Chandrika Kum-aratunga, who are from rival parties.
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