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Monday,
May 12, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Disarm
ultras, Powell asks Palestinians
USA a step nearer to new N-weapons Synthetic peptides to help check SARS virus Chohan’s murder linked to smuggling Six to die for vigilante Islamist murders |
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Gurinder Chadha wins award
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Disarm ultras, Powell asks Palestinians Jerusalem, May 11 After holding a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Mr Powell praised Palestinian officials for initiating reforms, but urged them to take firm actions against terror groups in the interests of the peace process. “We welcome the positive steps, political steps already taken by Palestinian officials towards reform and towards peace, but we must also see rapid, decisive action by the Palestinians to disarm and dismantle the terrorist infrastructure,” Mr Powell said at a joint press conference with Mr Sharon. “Without such action, our best efforts will fail,” he said. He said he discussed with Mr Sharon Isareli settlements and outposts, adding that the Israeli Prime Minister’s ideas to ease the conditions on the Palestinian people were “very promising and helpful” to move the peace process forward. Both Mr Powell and Mr Sharon did not give details regarding the steps to be taken by Israel, but Mr Sharon was expected to present Mr Powell with a list of measures Israel would undertake to ease restrictions on the Palestinians. The Israeli Prime Minister told reporters that he intended to meet Palestinian leaders very soon. “A genuine war against terror by the Palestinians involving real effort to prevent terror is the key to progress in the political process... quiet and security for the Israeli people will lead to Israeli measures that will create a new and better reality for Palestinian population,” Mr Sharon said. The US wants Israel to ease a number of restrictions on Palestinians to strengthen the position of the newly appointed Palestinian Prime Minister Mahamoud Abbas, popularly known as Abu Mazen. Earlier today, Mr Powell held separate meetings with President Moshe Katsav and Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz and last night he met Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom. Israeli officials told Mr Powell, on his first trip to the region in more than a year, that they expected Abbas to dismantle Hamas and other militant groups. “We expect the Palestinians to root out the terror, not just a cease-fire,” Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz said after meeting with Mr Powell. Meanwhile, Israel lifted some of the closures on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip last night ahead of Mr Powell’s meeting with the Israeli Prime Minister, daily ‘Ha’aretz’ reported. Meanwhile, Israel has released dozens of Palestinians held in administrative detention as part of conciliatory measures coinciding with Mr Powell’s visit to boost the so-called road map for peace, the Defence Ministry said. The Israeli army has released “around 70 prisoners under administrative detention” held in Ketziot prison in southern Israel’s Negev desert, spokesman Eli Kamir said.
PTI, AFP |
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USA a step nearer to new N-weapons Silicon Valley, May 11 The annual defence authorisation Bill, approved by the Senate Armed Services Committee on Friday, will increase funding for a nuclear weapons site in Nevada to enable the Pentagon, if necessary, to resume faster the weapons testing it suspended 11 years ago, the Los Angeles Times reported from Washington yesterday. The Administration had been moving to develop options with nuclear weapons to enable it to better deal with emerging threats, such as the deeply buried bunkers where potential adversaries may conceal banned weapons and missiles, the paper said. The USA has not designed any new nuclear weapon since the end of the cold war.
PTI |
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Synthetic peptides to help check SARS virus Beijing, May 11 The team of scientists from University of Hong Kong and David Ho, an international expert on HIV treatment, said initial lab results indicated that the synthetic peptide was quite effective in blocking the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus from entering into cultured cells. Peptides are groups of amino acids that have been used in AIDS treatment. However, Hong Kong scientists stressed that the development of synthetic peptide represented only initial results and much more had to be done before its clinic use. Meanwhile, Chinese Premier has called the SARS situation in the country “grim” with the flu-like epidemic claiming five more victims in the mainland and three in Hong Kong, as the World Health Organisation (WHO) cautioned Beijing against too much of optimism in containing the disease. Meanwhile, a 44-year-old female nurse in Singapore died today of SARS, bringing the death toll in Singapore to 28, the Ministry of Health (MoH) said. The nurse, from Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH), the designated hospital to treat SARS patients, had been in intensive care since March, the MoH said in a statement. The MoH claimed that there had been no new cases of SARS since April 27, and Singapore was nearing the end of a 20-day stretch of no new SARS cases that could see it declared SARS-free. Rioting in Chinese cities Over 300 panic-stricken residents rioted against construction of a SARS observation centre in North China’s Tianjin city as several violent protests were reported across the country, prompting the government to warn those involved of “severe punishment”. Stating for the first time that rioting and blocking of roads had been occurring in places like Tianjin and Chafiagang city, the official Xinhua news agency said “severe punishment” would be meted out to the perpetrators of such incidents, who attempted to “defeat” the government’s efforts to combat SARS. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) has so far killed 235 in China and infected over 5,000 others.
Plane with 100
turned back Moscow: A Chinese airliner carrying some 100 passengers was ordered back to China after landing in Russia’s far-eastern city of Khabarovsk as part of Russia’s emergency action to prevent the spread of the SARS virus, the RIA-Novosti news agency reported. on Sunday.
PTI, AFP |
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Chohan’s murder linked to smuggling London, May 11 Detectives fear all have suffered the same fate and that Chohan was possibly involved in importing ‘khat’ and smuggling it to America, a fast-growing trade worth more than £150 million a year. Nancy’s brother Onkar Verma, who last spoke to his sister from his home in New Zealand on February 15, said Nancy was very worried about her husband. She had been told he had gone to Holland on a business trip but was not seen at work since February 13. Two days later the family vanished, along with the mother-in -law Charanjit Kaur, (51).“I feel that disappearance has something to do with my brother-in-law’s business. Something went wrong in the business,” Verma, who is now staying at the Chohans’ bungalow in Hounslow in west London, said last night. Detectives believe that before Chohan’s body was dumped into the sea, it was buried on the land of PR executive Belinda Brewin. According to a report in the Mail today, Brewin had worked for Chohan - and she knew Ken Regan, another of his employees and one of the prime suspects in the murder. In February, around the time of entrepreneur’s disappearance, Regan had, ostensibly, done Brewin a favour by digging a drainage ditch opposite her 17th Century farmhouse. It is now thought he was burying Chohan’s body. Brewin says she was unaware of this and police have said she is not a suspect. But the tabloid claims that though Brewin is an innocent party, she is more deeply entangled in the mystery than anyone could have previously concluded.
PTI |
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Six to die for vigilante Islamist murders Tehran, May 11 Iranian media reports identified the men as members of the hardline Islamic Basij militia who decided “to kill their victims to fight against moral corruption, promote virtue and eliminate vice”. The alleged killers, aged between 19 and 22, have reportedly confessed to killing some victims by tying them up and throwing them into swimming pools, while others were stoned to death. AFP |
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Gurinder Chadha wins award London, May 11 The director, whose “Bend it like Beckham” was a smash hit in various parts of the world, making more than £ 11 million in the UK alone, received the Chairman’s Award at a function yesterday, sponsored by Financial Mail. “Her work universally transcends the Asian boundary and she has reached a summit on a technical and creative levels,” said Pinky Lilani, chairman and founder of the awards.
PTI |
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Protests in Nepal Kathmandu, May 11 |
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PROBE INTO FIRING BY COP McCARTNEY PERFORMS INSIDE COLOSSEUM BARDOT FLAYS “ISLAMISATION OF FRANCE” HOLLYWOOD SET TO GATECRASH CANNES DOCTORS ILLEGALLY RETAINED PATIENTS’ BRAINS |
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