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Fresh Pak
offensive against Al-Qaeda
US, Pak to
initiate steps on non-proliferation
of weapons UN probes bribe
charges against Saddam FBI ex-agent
endorses witness’s story After Madrid,
Japan, Italy could now be targets,
says Al-Qaeda
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Singapore names
orchid after Amitabh At least 14 persons have been killed and 250 injured as the UN-administered Serbian province of Kosovo was swept by its worst ethnic violence in three years.
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Fresh Pak offensive against Al-Qaeda Islamabad, March 18 The troops used helicopter gunships in the operation in the tribal region against Al-Qaeda suspects and local tribesmen giving shelter to foreign militants, defence spokesman Major General Shoukat Sultan told reporters here. He said the authorities in south Waziristan made announcements through loudspeakers telling the people to leave the area prior to operation. “The operation was launched after the people left the area,” Sultan added. Stating that the regular force of the Pakistan army had been deployed along with the paramilitary forces, Sultan added the new operation was backed by helicopters and the troops were targeting the suspects, reportedly entrenched in a large area. “Thursday’s operation is continuation of the operation first launched on March 16,” he said adding, paramilitary troops had suffered major casualties on Tuesday as they were caught by surprise by the ultras. “The militants and their supporters showed stiff resistance on first day of operation.” Secretary of the Federally Administered Tribal Agency, Brigadier Mehmood Shah told local TV networks that militants used heavy weaponry including rockets at the helicopters. A number of Uzbeks, Chechens and Chinese were part of a large group of militants who were resisting the army in the border villages with Afghanistan, he said. Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat told the National Assembly that the Pakistani forces had lost 16 troops and killed at least 24 militants on Tuesday in their bloodiest encounter to date with Al-Qaeda and Taliban suspects and locals sheltering them in the remote tribal district. Out of the 24 militants killed, only two bodies were recovered and the militants took the rest and buried them, Shah said. The fresh offensive coincides with the Pakistan visit of US
Secretary of State Colin Powell, who praised operation against Al-Qaeda
and Taliban fighters hiding along its rugged northwest border with
Afghanistan. — PTI |
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US, Pak to initiate steps on non-proliferation Washington, March 18 Terming Washington’s partnership with Pakistan as “close and long-term”, the fact sheet released by the State Department yesterday, said both countries were initiating steps to dismantle the disgraced nuclear scientist, A.Q. Khan’s network responsible for proliferation of nuclear weapons. “Together, the USA
and Pakistan are dismantling the A.Q. Khan network. We Will remain
vigilant in the fight against the spread of all weapons of mass
destruction,” it said. Outlining Washington’s five-year financial
assistance package of $ 3 billion to Pakistan announced by Mr Bush in
June, 2003, the document said it supports US’ commitment to assist
Islamabad’s efforts to strengthen security in the region and help
Pakistan’s participation in the war on terror. — PTI  |
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UN probes bribe charges against Saddam United Nations, March 18 It has sent two letters seeking information from Iraq’s Governing Council and the US-led Coalition Authority but has so far got no response. However, in the meantime, it is continuing to investigate the largest ever humanitarian programme operated by it and is interviewing its former employees. The probe is being conducted by United Nations’ auditing office. “The Office for Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) is proceeding as best it can with its probe, talking to UN and former oil-for-food programme personnel, as well as people outside the organisation,” UN Chief spokesman Fred Eckhard said. The Governing Council had ordered its Oil Ministry to collect information about the allegation after reports surfaced that some 270 former cabinet ministers, legislators, political activists and journalists from more than 46 countries had profited from the Iraqi oil sales. Allegations
say, Iraq fixed sale price of its oil lower than the market price and
sought kickbacks from them. — PTI |
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FBI ex-agent endorses witness’s story Vancouver, March 18 The information provided by the witness on several matters was checked with other sources in the Sikh community and with domestic and foreign government agencies, Ron Parrish, who retired from the FBI in 2002, told a Canadian court yesterday. “It never came back as incorrect,” Parrish said. The witness from New York City, who cannot be identified under court order, began providing information to the FBI about members in the Sikh community on May 21, 1985, one month before the Air-India bombing, the Globe and Mail reported. The witness told the court that he lied under oath on several occasions in an attempt to obtain his immigration papers in the USA, it said. Parrish
told the court that the witness said that the defendant Ajaib Singh
Bagri admitted his involvement in the Air-India disaster in a
conversation on September 25, 1985. Bagri told the witness the Sikh
“right-wing” group Babbar Khalsa was responsible for the mid-air
explosion aboard an Air-India flight that killed 329 persons and an
explosion 54 minutes earlier at Tokyo’s Narita airport that killed
another two people, according to a report written by Parrish and read
out in court. — PTI |
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After Madrid, Japan, Italy could now be targets, Cairo,
March 18 The London-based Al-Quds al-Arabi said on its web site that it had received a statement from “The Brigade of Abu Hafs Al-Masri (Al-Qaeda)” in which the group reiterated its responsibility for the March 11 attacks that killed more than 200 people and wounded more than 1,600. “Our brigades are getting ready now for the coming strike,” said the statement dated March 15. “Whose turn will it be next? Is it Japan, America, Italy, Britain, Saudi Arabia or Australia?” The statement warned these countries that “the brigades of death are at your doors,” adding that they would strike “with an iron hand at the right time and place.” The web site did not say how the statement had been received. But Al-Quds Al-Arabi has received e-mails from this group
in the past. On the evening of the Madrid bombings, the paper released
a copy of an e-mail from Abu Hafs Al-Masri in which they made the first
claim of responsibility. — AP |
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Singapore names orchid after Amitabh Singapore, March
18 He was presented the orchid in a ceremony amid the lush greenery of the Singapore Botanic Gardens here. In town to promote the
International Indian Film Academy Weekend which will be held in
Singapore from May 20 to 22, Mr Bachchan attended the ceremony with
Deputy Chairman and Chief Executive of the Singapore Tourism Board, Mr
Lim Neo Chian as well as the Director of the Singapore Botanic Gardens,
Dr Chin See Chung. — UNI |
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Kosovska Mitrovica (Serbia),
March 18 A UN spokesman confirmed that eight ethnic
Albanians died in the divided town of Kosovska Mitrovica in clashes
involving firearms, grenades, rocks and fists, sparked by reports that
three ethnic Albanian children drowned after being pushed into a river
by local Serbs. — AFP |
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Experts say Pakistan remains a serious concern for the US. (
