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Monday,
March 3, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Iraq destroys 6 more Al-Samoud UN mandate ‘must’ for war Islamists stage massive anti-war rally USA, Israel to present airports’ safety plan
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Law-makers debate God’s place in UK donates choppers to Nepal Pak gives land for Indian staff
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Iraq destroys 6 more Al-Samoud 2 missiles Baghdad, March 2 “Destruction of six missiles started at 0600 GMT (11 30 IST) at Al-Taji,” a huge military complex, some 20 km North of Baghdad, Uday al-Tai, director-general, Information Ministry, said. A casting chamber used in the manufacture of the missiles was also to be destroyed yesterday at Al-Rashid, south of the Iraqi Capital, Tai said. UN weapons inspectors’ spokesman Hiro Ueki confirmed that more Al-Samoud 2 missiles were to be destroyed at Al-Taji and one casting chamber was to be scrapped at the Al-Rashid facility. Asked about the number of missiles to be destroyed, Ueki said he did not want to comment “before our team of inspectors returns back and reports to us.” Iraq yesterday destroyed the first four of its banned Al-Samoud 2 missiles in line with a key UN disarmament demand, amid calls by Washington and its allies for Baghdad to disarm fully or face military action. Ueki said yesterday’s destruction process was “successful in the end”. Meanwhile, UN weapons inspectors returned to a military site near Baghdad today to supervise the destruction of more of Iraq’s banned Al-Samoud missiles, a UN spokesman said. Iraq will later in the day hold talks with the inspectors on VX and anthrax stocks it says it has destroyed. UN experts say roughly 100 surface-to-surface missiles must be destroyed because their range exceeds the 150 km (93 mile) limit allowed under previous UN resolutions.
AFP, Reuters |
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UN mandate ‘must’ for war
London, March 2 Some 44 per cent of Americans polled for the BBC's ‘Panorama’ current affairs programme said there should be a unanimous UN mandate before any military action, against 31 per cent who were ready to see war waged without UN backing. US President George W. Bush has it made clear that he reserves the right to lead a coalition in military action against Iraq, with or without a fresh UN resolution, if President Saddam Hussein refuses to get rid of the weapons of mass destruction. Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Bush's staunchest ally in the Iraq crisis, has signalled that he would prefer a new UN mandate, but that he would be ready to back a US-led war if there was an "unreasonable" veto in the Security Council. Some 43 per cent of those questioned in the poll said their greatest fear about a war was the possibility that it might lead to more acts of terrorism, while 23 per cent named mass civilian casualties in Iraq. Meanwhile, 14 per cent feared an economic slump and 13 per cent named a prolonged US presence in Iraq as their greatest concerns. The poll was carried out by NOP World, which interviewed 1,012 US adults in New York, New Mexico, Idaho and California between February 21 and 23.
AFP |
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Islamists stage massive anti-war rally in Karachi Karachi, March 2 Karachi police chief Tariq Jamil estimated the crowd at more than 100,000, while a spokesman for the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), which had vowed to bring one million people on to the streets, claimed half a million had already thronged the city’s main boulevard. Protestors carried portraits of Al-Qaida terror network chief Osama bin Laden, chanted Jihad (holy war) and “No blood for oil” and burnt effigies of US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Snaking 2 km through the city centre, it was the biggest demonstration witnessed in Karachi since the US-led war that ousted the fundamentalist Taliban regime in Afghanistan in late 2001. The participants, including a large number of women, shouted, “The world says no to war” and “Drop Bush, not bombs”. The police beefed up security by barricading roads, especially around the US Consulate, where two police guards were shot dead by a lone assailant on Friday, and other diplomatic missions. The MMA is an alliance of six fundamentalist parties including pro-Taliban groups, who are bitterly opposed to the US-led military operations that ousted the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001.
AFP |
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USA, Israel to present airports’ safety plan Jerusalem, March 2 ‘’We will want to stress the world that there is a need to secure not only the area of the airports, but also the surrounding areas against various terror cells that would want to launch missiles at airplanes,’’ head of the Civil Aviation Administration Transportation Ministry Amos Amir said in an interview published in the ‘Ha’aretz’.
UNI |
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Law-makers debate God’s place in European Union Brussels, March 2 The battle in the Convention on the Future of Europe over whether to refer to religion pitted Christian Democrats and Europe’s churches against secularists who are, at most, willing to acknowledge a spiritual tradition or shared values. The first 16 draft articles tabled last month by former French President Valery Giscard d’Estaing, head of the 105-member forum trying to agree on an EU constitution, referred only to “values which are common to the member states’’. The Vatican branded the absence of any reference to God or religion “totally unsatisfactory” and Convention officials said the Pope had applied strong public and private pressure on Mr Giscard and EU leaders to amend the text. Many of the more than 1,000 amendments debated by the forum on Friday and yesterday concerned the place of religion. Addressing the Italian Parliament in November, the pontiff asked that Europe “at the start of the new millennium open its doors once again to Christ”. The enlarged Union of 25 members from next year, including his native deeply Catholic Poland, “should not lack the cement of this extraordinary religious, cultural and civil heritage that has given Europe its greatness over the centuries”, he said. The Greek Orthodox synod, the Lutheran Evangelical Church of Finland and the German Protestant Church have sent similar calls to the Convention, which includes national and European parliamentarians and representatives of the EU and candidate states. A rival constitutional draft proposed by Christian Democratic Convention members says in the preamble that the EU’s member states and citizens are “conscious of what Europe owes to its religious heritage”. It also includes an article, inspired by the Polish Constitution, which states: “The values of the Union include values of those who believe in God as a source of truth, justice, good and beauty, as well as those who do not share this belief, but respect universal values drawn from other sources.” Italian Deputy Prime Minister Gianfranco Fini has tabled an amendment that would refer to Europe’s “common Judaeo-Christian roots” in the preamble. But critics say that would offend secular Turkey, an EU candidate with an overwhelmingly Muslim population, as well as Muslims in the Balkans who aspire to eventual membership. The European left and countries with a strong secular tradition such as France have fiercely opposed any such text.
Reuters |
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UK donates choppers to Nepal Kathmandu, March 2 Britain in July 2002 had announced to provide the two helicopters under its assistance to strengthen and modernise the Nepalese Army. The Nepal Government has agreed to restrict the use of the choppers to logistical, medical and humanitarian purposes, the report said quoting the statement. The helicopters are designed for logistical lift operations and are ideally suited for humanitarian tasks. They will compliment MI-17 choppers already operated by the Nepalese Army. This year the UK Government has allocated £ 6.5 million for Nepal under the GCPF, which is designed to promote measures to strengthen human rights protection among other things, the statement said. PTI |
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Pak gives land for Indian staff Islamabad, March 2 |
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