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US hostage escapes from captors
Finger points at military
intelligence for abuses
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Britain to send up to
4,000 troops to Najaf
US Supreme Court Judge attacked Window on Pakistan
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US hostage escapes from captors
Baghdad, May 2 Hamill, of Macon, Mississippi, was "in good health," said Brig-Gen Mark Kimmitt. Brigadier-General Kimmitt said US military units were patrolling a petroleum pipeline when Hamill, a truck driver for Halliburton Corp., approached and identified himself. "Mr Hamill apparently escaped from a building," Kimmitt said. "He has spoken to his family. He is now ready to get back to work." Hamill, 43, was among seven employees of Halliburton subsidiary KBR, formerly known as Kellogg, Brown & Root, missing since an April 9 attack on their convoy west of Baghdad, about 150 km from Tikrit. The bodies of four of the employees have since been found. The remains of a second military man missing in the convoy attack, Sgt. Elmer Krause of Greensboro, North Carolina, were identified on April 23, according to a statement issued by the Department of Defence. Also kidnapped in the attack was a US soldier, Pfc. Keith M. Maupin, whose fate remains unknown since he was seen alive days later in a video footage aired on the Arab television station al-Jazeera. The day after his abduction, Hamill's kidnappers released a video footage of him standing in front of an Iraqi flag. A spokesman off camera demanded that US troops end their siege of the city of Fallujah.
— AP |
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Iraqis rejoice at US pullout from Fallujah Washington, May 2 Militiamen loyal to a former Iraqi army general jubilantly took to the streets of this battle-scarred city to celebrate what they called a triumph over withdrawing US marines, it said.
— PTI |
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Finger points at military
intelligence for abuses New York, May 2 The special high-security cellblock Abu Gharib prison outside Baghdad had been under the direct control of army intelligence officers, not the reservists under her command, Brig-Gen Janis Karpinski told a daily in a telephone interview. She claimed she knew nothing about the abuse until weeks after it occurred and that she was “sickened” by the pictures. She told the New York Times she suspected that the reservists were acting with the encouragement, if not at the direction, of military intelligence units that ran the special cellblock used for
interrogation. General Karpinski was formally admonished in January and “quietly suspended” from commanding the 800th Military Police Brigade while under investigation. — PTI |
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Britain to send up to
4,000 troops to Najaf
London, May 2 The troops will begin arriving in the next few weeks to plug the gap left by Spain’s 1,432-strong military contingent in Iraq which will have left the country a month from now, said the Sunday Telegraph, a newspaper known for its connections to Britain’s military establishment. British Prime Minister Tony Blair took the decision to send the additional troops to Iraq after meeting George W. Bush at a White House summit two weeks ago, it said.
— AFP |
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US Supreme Court Judge attacked Washington, May 2 Justice David H Souter, 64, was hospitalised after he suffered injuries in the attack by at least two youths in Southwest Washington shortly after 9 pm on Friday, Metropolitan Police Chief Charles H Ramsey said. Justice Souter was struck in the jaw during what investigators think was a random mugging. The assault appeared to be part of an unsuccessful robbery attempt by two young men, both described only as black. Investigators have not ruled out the possibility that others were involved, the police chief said. Justice Souter is one of the youngest of the nine Supreme Court Judges. A bachelor, he lives on Capitol Hill and jogs regularly. "It just seems like it was an assault," said Mr Ramsey. "These guys didn't know he was a Supreme Court Judge".
— PTI |
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Window on Pakistan PAKISTAN is still an agriculture economy and its industrial base is yet to achieve any domineering position. Then why is the country so short of wheat, the staple diet of the people? It has vast irrigated lands in Punjab to grow enough for everyone. But not so and for a variety of reasons. This year as in India, wheat yield is low because of temperature fluctuations. But still, the country could have enough. Unlike India, traders are still strong and the public distribution system weak. Prices have shot up in one month by 20 per cent. Result a full-scale crisis. The NWFP has threatened to cut down electricity to Punjab if it does not get wheat supply. The crisis has made newspapers ring alarm bells. Writing in daily Nation, M.A. Niazi said: “The NWFP Food Minister’s threat to cut off electricity to Punjab if its government did not lift the ban it has imposed on inter provincial wheat movements is not a serious one, but it reflects the delicate balances upon which a federation functions, and it also shows how badly the military government of 1999-2002 miscalculated when it treated the issue of wheat as an economic and administrative matter, failing to recognise that any national food staple has to be of fundamental political importance.” Pakistan bereft of land reforms has a strong landlord lobby. They have a very large vote bank and their campaign contributions are well known. Wheat, sugar and cotton are big political players. The growers get cheated. But Niazi pointed out,” These lobbies can be ignored without anything worse happening than a government being defeated at the next election or an industrial crisis. On the other hand, if one ignores the production, supply and distribution of one’s national food staple, one can risk famine, or at best severe shortages and much human suffering. Therefore, food security has to be a primary consideration in making policy for the staple.” Niazi praised for having taken care of the food problem by growing, storing and managing distribution, as democratic countries know the political cost. He regretted that Pakistan has a poor record of managing famines and shortages. It is the IMF-dictated system responsible. Subsidy is there, but does not reach the growers whose cost of cultivation due to rise in the price of inputs has gone up many times. And, there is no cushion for the consumers.” Dawn in its editorial commented, “Punjab’s decision two weeks ago to restrict the movement of wheat out of the province has affected supply in Sindh. The Punjab government says that it has taken the step of a temporary ban in some districts so that it can meet its procurement target for wheat for the year. “The Sindh government has responded by saying that it is for the federal government to ensure uninterrupted supply of wheat throughout the country. It argues that this is because the procurement price as well as the stock position is determined by Islamabad. “The NWFP too agrees with this point of view and considers Punjab’s ban on wheat movement wrong and detrimental to inter-provincial harmony. For its part, the federal government, which has declared wheat a freely movable commodity, has so far not reacted to the ban imposed by Punjab.” Dr Ijaz Ahsan writing in the Nation urged the policy makers to took the village for guidance. “ Mistri Din Mohammad is the village blacksmith. He has been at his job for the last half a century. If a farmer has a wheat thrasher that needs repair or needs his tube well pump put in order, Din Mohammad is the person to go to. I asked him how brisk was business activity in the area. He said it was picking up. I asked him since when. He said when wheat arrived in the market. He said the whole community sails and sinks with farmers. If the farmers are happy, the market is happy.” |
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