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Tuesday,
April 15, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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2 to die
for US consulate bombing
12 rebels
killed in Philippines WINDOW ON PAKISTAN
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Human genome mapped
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2 to die for US consulate bombing
Karachi, April 14 Suspected Islamic militants packed a vehicle with explosives and detonated it outside the consulate during the morning rush hour. ‘’Four men have been found guilty,’’ Mr Rizvi told the court inside Karachi Central Jail where the trial was held. “Mohammad Imran and Mohammad Hanif have been given death sentence and a fine of 500,000 Pakistani rupees each,’’ he said. “Life sentence has been given to Hafiz Mohammad Zubair and Shahrib Arslan, plus a fine of 500,000 Pakistani rupees.’’ “Mohammad Ashraf has been acquitted,’’ he said in his brief ruling. Prosecutors said the men belong to a militant group called Harkat-ul Mujahideen al-Almi. The group is a splinter faction of the outlawed Harkat-ul Mujahideen. The men, who pleaded not guilty, were charged with murder, attempt to murder, terrorism, conspiracy and the use of explosives. They can appeal their conviction in the High Court within seven days. Islamic extremists, angry at President Pervez Musharraf’s support to the US-led war on terrorism, carried out a spate of attacks last year targeting westerners, Christians and government officials.
Reuters |
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12 rebels killed in Philippines
Cotabato (Philippines), April 14 Nearly about 50 members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) attacked the main headquarters of the army’s 75th infantry battalion near the town of Tugaig with rocket propelled grenades, injuring three soldiers and triggering a gunbattle that lasted for several hours, Major-Gen Generoso Senga said. Troops fired rounds of mortar into enemy positions, forcing the rebels to flee and leaving behind the bodies of 12 guerrillas, he said. The battalion headquarters is located inside a sprawling compound bordering several towns in the main southern island of Mindanao that had once been the MILF’s main command post in the south, he said. MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu admitted the rebels initiated the attack as part of its plan to recover rebel-held areas that had fallen to military hands. He denied that the rebels had suffered any casualties.
AFP |
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WINDOW ON
PAKISTAN The debate is endless, at times generating more heat than light. The subject for umpteen numbers of articles, edits and comments in Pakistan’s mainline media is, of course, the USA-UK attack on Iraq and its consequences on the Arab world and the developing countries, particularly Pakistan. There is an expected consensus that US aggression against Iraq has nothing to do with democracy. It was to get rid of Saddam and capture oil and help revive the ever-sagging American economy. Also, this objective has been more or less achieved. The Americans are going to control not only oil, but also levers of political power and administration. It is a naked economic pursuit supported by an unparalleled war machine, most Urdu newspapers like Jang and Nawa-e-Waqt have concluded. The fear expressed by many that the new concept of pre-emptive war and regime change, which the Bush administration has unleashed, could finally lead to Pakistan. There is indeed a degree of nervousness as one former general said that Pakistan should develop long-range missiles and increase nuclear capability and when the time comes should attack the US navy or other armed forces. Learn also from Turkey, which spurned the US offer of 25 billion dollars. Why should Pakistan be always playing the “dirty games” of the USA? This question is being asked across the country and many newspapers like South Asian Tribune and Frontier Post wish to get rid of the military dictator and establish a healthy democracy so that an independent foreign policy could evolve and take roots. Farish Noor tracing the occupation of Iraq by Britain in 1900 wrote in Daily Times: “While all this is going on, Arab solidarity and anger towards the West and the USA in particular is growing. Far from being seen as ‘liberators’ many Arabs now see the Americans and British as conquerors and colonisers instead: the same role they had taken for themselves a hundred years ago. The drama continues, with the same script and roles being played again and again. Ironically it is the Americans who seem most blind to the contradiction of their own making. As was the case in Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia, South Asia, Africa and Latin America, the ordinary soldiers and commanders of the US forces cannot understand how and why they are not welcomed in the countries they have invaded.” But some like the noted columnist Ayaz Amir looked at the war beyond the frontiers of Pakistan. He noted with satisfaction that with widespread condemnation across the countries particularly by the church leaders and other religious leaders, it is no longer a crusade versus jihad. But still as he wrote in Dawn: “Now from the smoke and ruins of America’s aggression against Iraq arises a Salahuddin in the unlikely form of the dictator of Baghdad. For all his past sins and follies, Saddam Hussein today stands high in glory as the unchallenged hero of the Muslim world. Iraqi resistance has touched a resonant chord in Muslim breasts. In the space of a few days some of the helplessness and humiliation attending the Muslim world as a result of American and Israeli arrogance has begun to wash away. Such is the miracle wrought by the defenders of Iraq.” Well-known journalist Shaheen Sabhai, once hounded out by president Pervez Musharraf and now editing South Asian Tribune, was equally concerned. His advice was that neo-conservatives and warmongers in USA were not going to end their ambitious agenda with Iraq. |
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Human genome mapped Paris, April 14 The six countries — Britain, China, France, Germany, Japan and the USA — said in a joint statement that researchers with the international Human Genome Project had “succeeded in decoding all the chapters of the instruction book for human life”, according to the French copy of the statement. Scientists announced in February they had completed a map of 95 per cent of the human genome. The complete sequence includes an estimated 30,000 to 40,000 genes that encode more than 10 times that number of proteins. Knowledge of the human genome will enable scientists to find better ways of preventing medical problems.
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