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Thursday,
October
2, 2003,
Chandigarh, India  
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US
Sikh’s killer guilty, not insane, says jury
Biggest-ever
Indian cultural expo opens in Beijing |
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Al-Qaida
forms naval force Scientist
asks India to revive work on cold fusion |
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India
third largest arms purchaser, says report Israeli
Cabinet okays extension of security barrier Bali
bomber seeks presidential clemency
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US Sikh’s killer guilty,
not insane, says jury Washington, October 1 Frank Silva Roque, who assumed the turbaned Sodhi to be an Arab terrorist and gunned down the Sikh immigrant outside his petrol pump on September 15, 2001, could get a death penalty for the murder. The jury, which began the hearing late Monday in Arizona, also found Roque guilty of attempted murder, drive-by shooting and endangerment for two more racially motivated attacks. Roque’s lawyers argued that he was insane at the time of the shooting and he had suffered from mental illness all his life. The defence lawyers contended that Roque had not started using racial slurs until after the terror attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Prosecutor Vince Imbordino argued that Roque was motivated by anger and hatred following the terrorist attacks, not insanity. Roque had practiced shooting and reloading before killing Sodhi in Arizona. After killing Sodhi, Roque allegedly shot at another gas station, where the clerk was a man of Lebanese descent, and later opened fire at the home of an Afghan family. After Roque’s conviction yesterday, Sodhi’s brother Lakhwinder Singh Sodhi said: “The verdict sent a message about hate crimes.” A defence psychiatrist said Roque suffered from reactive psychosis and depression and could not tell right from wrong. A court-appointed psychiatrist testified that Roque probably did hear voices, but could understand the wrongfulness of his actions.
— PTI |
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Biggest-ever Indian cultural expo opens in Beijing Beijing, October 1 “Greater cultural interaction is an important dimension of our now evolving bilateral relationship,” the new Indian Ambassador to China, Mr Nalin Surie said. At a colourful inaugural ceremony, Mr Surie said India hoped to further strengthen the process of people-to-people contact and mutual understanding with China in a modest way through the carnival. “We hope that this week-long event would inspire our Chinese friends to know more about India and her people,” he said. The ‘India Carnival Week’ will introduce the country’s rich culture and art to the Chinese. The timing of the event has been appropriate — when the Chinese are enjoying a week-long holiday to mark the 54th national day. For
Surie, this was his first opportunity to interact with the Chinese after presenting credentials to Chinese President Hu Jintao on Sunday. “India is now an approved destination for Chinese tourists,” he said. He noted that the two neighbouring countries had extensive exchanges since over 2,000 years ago until about the 12th century during which Buddhism had provided a major motivating force for significant cultural interaction between the two civilisations.
— PTI |
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Al-Qaida forms
naval force New Delhi, October 1 Quoting intelligence reports, the ‘World Net Daily’ said Al-Qaida “has purchased at least 15 ships in the past two years creating, perhaps, the first terrorist naval force”. The Lloyds of London has reportedly helped Britain’s MI-6 and US CIA to “trace the sales made through a Greek shipping agent suspected of having direct contacts with Laden”, it said. The ships, it said, were “capable of carrying cargo of lethal chemicals, a ‘dirty bomb’ or even a nuclear weapon” and could hit civilian ports on a suicide mission. “The freighters are believed to be somewhere in the Indian or Pacific oceans. When the ships left their home ports in the Horn of Africa weeks ago, somewhere destined for ports in Asia,” the web daily reported. Meanwhile, US State Department issued a warning late last week “to remind US citizens of the continuing threat that they may be a target of terrorist actions, even after the anniversary date of the September 11 attacks and to add the potential for threats to maritime interests”. In a related report, Filipino agency, Inquirer News Service said the country’s Ports Authority has raised the alert level at all ports in Mindanao due to an intelligence report indicating an alleged plot to bomb Manila-bound ships.
— PTI |
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Scientist
asks India to revive work on cold fusion Boston, October 1 “It is evident from the papers presented that cold fusion which was rejected by mainstream scientists 14 years ago is going to bounce back as a fascinating new area of nuclear science,” M Srinivasan, formerly associate director of physics group at the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) who participated at the global cold fusion conference that ended here recently said. Srinivasan said, India which stopped funding cold fusion research in 1992, should not lag behind in the area. Around 120 scientists from the USA, Italy, Russia, China and Japan, the UK, Ukraine, France and Israel presented their work at the meeting that Srinivasan described as “a turning point in condensed matter nuclear science.” Japan has formed a society for nurturing the growth of this field and its applications. It was in 1989 when American scientists Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann stunned the world with their claim that using a tabletop set-up they had induced deuterium nuclei to fuse inside metal electrodes and generate heat. (Deuterium is a heavier form of hydrogen). Cold fusion, if real, promises to solve the world’s energy problems forever as there is enough deuterium in sea water to provide electricity for millennia. Nuclear fusion occurs inside the sun or a hydrogen bomb but claims of Fleischmann and Pons that they had managed the feat at room temperature was rejected by the mainstream scientific community even though several laboratories around the world, including BARC, were able to replicate the experiment. Mr Srinivasan said the Boston conference made it abundantly clear that this intriguing phenomenon is real and has a theoretical explanation.
— PTI |
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India third largest arms purchaser, says report Washington, October 1 China was the top arms procurer among developing nations with $ 11.3 billion in arms transfer agreements in the past four years with the United Arab Emirates coming second at $ 9 billion. The “Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Nations” is the annual report prepared by the Congressional Research Service that provides unclassified data on conventional arms transfers to developing nations by the US and foreign countries for the preceding eight years.
— UNI |
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Israeli Cabinet okays extension of security barrier Jerusalem, October 1 A barrier would be built east of Ariel - with 18,000 residents the second largest settlement in the West Bank - but would not immediately be connected to the main security fence which runs further West, closer to Israel. Palestinian officials demanded that the USA stop the construction. “This (the barrier) is a deliberate attempt by the Israeli government to sabotage President Bush’s vision of a two-state solution, to undermine the peace process and to destroy the road map (peace plan),” said Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat. The USA wants the barrier to run close to the Green Line, the frontier between Israel and the West Bank before the 1967 Mideast war. The Bush administration has said it may deduct some of the construction cost for the barrier from US$9 billion in US loan guarantees to Israel. However, yesterday, the US State Department said it had no immediate plans to cut the guarantees. In other developments today, the incoming Palestinian Prime Minister, Ahmed Qureia, said he had reached an agreement on the formation of a Cabinet and would present it before Parliament on Sunday and Monday.
— AP |
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Bali bomber seeks presidential clemency Bali, October 1 Unlike others convicted in the blasts, Ali Imron (30) has said he has no intention of appealing against his verdict. He also expressed remorse for his part in the plot and provided important testimony against other key defendants. His lawyer, Suyanto, said he did not expect President Megawati Sukarnoputri to order the release of his client, who admitted taking part in the October 12, 2002, attack which killed 202 persons, mostly foreign tourists. But Suyanto said he hoped she would reduce the sentence to 20 years.
— AP |
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