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firm sold uranium conversion plant to Libya Rumsfeld
meets Gen Vij US court
orders militant’s deportation India
signs extradition treaty Gibson’s
‘Passion’ not anti-Semitic: Vatican |
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Madrid toll rises to 198 Madrid, March 12 The Spanish government said it believed armed Basque separatist group ETA was most likely to blame for the simultaneous bombings of four trains at Madrid stations yesterday, three days before a general election. However, Interior Minister Angel Acebes said police were not ruling out any lines of investigation after finding a van containing seven detonators and a tape in Arabic at a town near Madrid where the bombs may have been placed on the trains. Apart from those killed, some 1,421 people were injured in Europe’s bloodlest guerrilla attack for more than 15 years. The picture was clouded late yesterday when a letter purporting to come from Al-Qaida claimed responsibility. “We have succeeded in infiltrating the heart of crusader Europe and struck one of the bases of the crusader alliance,” said the letter, a copy of which was faxed by Al-Quds newspaper to Reuters. No authentication was available of the letter. An Interior Ministry source said officials were looking into the claim but the ETA remained the first line of investigation. Spain is one of Washington’s closest European allies and stood squarely behind US President George W. Bush’s decision last year to go to war in Iraq. Investigators say there were 10 blasts. The bombs, in rucksacks, each contained about 10 kg of explosives.
UN condemns attacks UNITED NATIONS: The UN Security Council has “strongly” condemned the simultaneous terrorist attacks on packed trains in Madrid and named ETA as perpetrator of the crime. Despite hesitation of some members, it named the militant outfit as having a hand in the strikes at the urging of Spain, an act which some diplomats said was unusual as the council does not name terrorist groups until their identity has been firmly established. Cairo: The Arab world united on Friday in condemning the bombings but refrained from passing judgement on who was responsible for the carnage. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak sent a message of condolences to Spanish King Juan Carlos I in which he vigorously condemned “all forms of violence and terrorism”. Arab League chief Amr Mussa said he was “shocked” by “terrorist acts aimed at killing civilians,” sending his condolences to the families of the victims. Libyan leader Moamer Gadhafi telephoned Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar to offer his condolences and condemn the bombings. In Damascus, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad condemned it as “criminal and terrorist acts”. Jordan’s King Abdullah II also “denounced such terrorist action” in a message to the Spanish monarch, the Petra agency said.
— Agencies |
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Japanese firm sold uranium conversion plant to Libya Vienna, March 12 In December, Libya announced it was abandoning its nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programmes and would dismantle them with the help of U.S., British and international experts. The U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) began weapons inspections in Libya in late December and issued a report last month in which it described how Libya had acquired “from abroad” a pilot uranium conversion plant that could be used to prepare uranium for the enrichment process. “It was a Japanese company,” a nuclear expert told Reuters yesterday. Although the Japanese mission to the U.N. did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment, several western diplomats who follow the IAEA said the firm was Japanese. A February 24 report on weapons inspections in Libya written by IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei made it clear Libya’s atomic weapons programme was much more extensive than previously thought. Tripoli had even managed to produce a small amount of bomb-grade plutonium. Libya’s uranium-conversion research was among the country’s many undeclared activities connected to its weapons programme. Diplomats said the Japanese sale of the conversion equipment, made to order according to specifications from Libya, is something that should have set alarm bells ringing in Japan and should have been reported to the IAEA at the time. “It’s certainly not only something that should raise eyebrows, it’s something that would have to be declared,” said Jon Wolfsthal, Deputy Director of the Nonproliferation Project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Companies and individuals from Europe, the USA, Africa, the West Asia and Asia are known to have supplied Libya, Iran and North Korea with sensitive nuclear technology via an elaborate black market linked to the father of Pakistan’s atomic bomb, Abdul Qadeer Khan. However, in the case of the conversion plant, the deal was not arranged by middlemen seeking to disguise the identity of the end user, diplomats said. The Japanese firm agreed directly with Libya on the sale of the plant in 1984. The deal took place long before the 1988 Lockerbie airliner brought international sanctions and isolation for the North African state. Libya has paid compensation to the victims.
— Reuters |
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Rumsfeld meets Gen Vij Washington, March 12 Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld said this during an unscheduled meeting with Chief of Army Staff General N.C. Vij, who is here on a ten-day visit. Mr Rumsfeld, who dropped in during a meeting between General Vij and Vice Chairman of US Joint Chiefs of Staff General Peter Pace yesterday, said both India and the USA were deeply involved in the war against terrorism and spoke of the great importance of Indo-US defence cooperation. He expressed satisfaction with the progress in the ongoing relationship between the two militaries, particularly the number of exercises and exchanges that were taking place regularly. He hoped that mutual cooperation would only get strengthened in the coming days. General Pace, who met General Vij on behalf of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard Myers currently on a visit abroad, also emphasised the importance of the relationship between the two countries, especially between the two armed forces and said they had matured significantly over the past several years.
— PTI |
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US court orders militant’s deportation San Francisco, March 12 The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals agreed on Wednesday with a lower court’s ruling that Kulvir Singh Barapind be extradited to India to face charges related to clashes between government forces and Sikh separatists in the 1980s and early 1990s. The United States District Court for the Eastern District of California ruled in 2001 that Barapind should be extradited to India for six murders and an attempted murder related to his Sikh separatist activities. The San Francisco-based 9th court ruled that a person accused of killing a civilian bystander in the course of anti-government activity could claim the benefit of the “political offense” exception under an extradition treaty. “In nations where democratic institutions and the ballot box provide a peaceful means for evolutionary change, it is unacceptable to circumvent the system and to pursue political or other goals by unlawfully raining down violence on a society and its citizens,” Judge Stephen Trott wrote for the panel.
— PTI |
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India signs extradition treaty Singapore, March 12 Acting Justice Secretary Ms Merceditas N. Gutierrez signed the treaty on behalf of the Manila government while Ambassador Ms Navrekha Sharma signed for India. The treaty would contribute to the enhancement of mutual cooperation between India and the Philippines to combat terrorism and trans-national crime, a press statement issued by the Indian High Commission in Manila today said. In a reflection of their shared desire to engage in comprehensive and regular consultations on security issues, the countries also held a security dialogue today.
— UNI |
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Gibson’s ‘Passion’ not anti-Semitic: Vatican Rome, March 12 In the interview by the Rome-based daily il Messaggero, Navarro-Valls, said the
Vatican would not issue an official statement distancing itself from the Biblical epic about christ’s crucifixion. “The pope has seen the film and has not commented on it,” Navarro-Valls said. “The subsequent silence by the (Vatican) hierarchy is eloquent,” he added. Jewish groups throughout the world have strongly criticised the film about the last days of
Jesus Christ on earth as being anti-Semitic. Both the Italian Jewish community and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), an International Jewish group which seeks to stop the defamation of the Jewish people, have issued protest notes against the movie. They argue that its interpretation of the gospels may lead to a charge that the Jews killed Jesus. This, the ADL holds, may incite animosity towards Jews and even murder.
— DPA |
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