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Photos of prisoners’ abuse fake: Blair Israeli missile strike kills 3 Palestinians
USA slaps sanctions on Syria, warns of more G-8 for sharing intelligence |
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India endorses
Pak's entry into ASEAN forum IMF chief wants Asia to step up reforms Chechnya President’s
election on Sept 5 Tajik President arrives in Islamabad Deportation of Shahbaz draws media’s ire Paedophile commits suicide Deaf pupils accuse nuns of abuse John Whitehead killed Man robs bank, kills wife |
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Photos of prisoners’ abuse fake: Blair
London, May 12 He also denied that there was any evidence of “systematic abuse” of Iraqi detainees by British troops. He said he had not seen an International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) report detailing alleged abuses until Monday. The Daily Mirror photographs, which began to appear from May 1, purported to show British soldiers urinating on a hooded Iraqi and threatening him with a rifle butt to the crotch. The newspaper stands by its authenticity. Mr Blair said: “There is no evidence whatever either of systematic abuse (of Iraqi prisoners), or of ministers or of anyone else refusing to act on allegations of abuse in respect to detainees in British custody.” “On the contrary, the only evidence that has been presented are photographs that are almost certainly fake,” he added during his weekly question period in the House of Commons. The Daily Mirror, which editorially opposed the Iraq war, published fresh allegations today, quoting a reservist as saying that prisoners were routinely beaten or otherwise abused. “It wasn’t right ... and it was condoned all the way from the top,” the reservist, who was attached to the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment in southern Iraq, told the newspaper. Mr Blair also condemned the beheading of an American hostage in Iraq as barbaric and unjustified. “This was a truly barbaric act and there is no justification for this kind of act in a civilised world,’’ Mr Blair’s official spokesman said of the death of Nick Berg, killed in supposed reprisal for abuses of Iraqi prisoners by U S troops. Berg, a 26-year-old civilian, may have been killed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Jordanian leader of Al-Qaida in Iraq, according to a Website video purportedly showing Berg’s last moments. Blair’s spokesman also said the Prime Minister rejected attempts to divide London and Washington over the growing prisoner abuse scandal. “We are not going to allow people to try and drive divisions between us and our allies. Our goal is the same...our goal is to create an Iraq in which Iraqis govern themselves,’’ he said. “It is obvious that there is a desire — reflected in the media — to try and drive divisions between us and the U S and that is not going to be allowed to happen,’’ the spokesman added. He said Mr Blair believed the British troops ‘’have shown remarkable restraint, remarkable discipline’’ in Iraq and that any allegations of abuse against UK soldiers were investigated. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw yesterday condemned the treatment of Iraqi prisoners in the U S-led run Abu Ghraib jail near Baghdad.
— AFP, Reuters |
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Israeli missile strike kills 3 Palestinians
Gaza City, May 12 The neighbourhood has been the scene of intense fighting in recent days between Israeli troops and Palestinian militants. Palestinian residents said the missile strike, the second in less than two hours, had targeted a group of persons outside a mosque. Hospital officials confirmed three deaths and said 11 persons, including a woman and two girls, had been wounded. The Army said it fired the missile at a group of militants who were planting explosives. The missile attack followed three explosions that came amid heavy fighting. The cause of the explosions was unclear. The Army said one of the blasts may have come from an anti-tank missile fired at Israeli vehicles. The attack narrowly missed its target. Israeli forces have been operating in Zeitoun, trying to recover the remains of six soldiers killed in an explosion yesterday. Palestinian militants proudly displayed soldiers’ body parts following the attack. An Israeli Army spokesman said the military was “firing only at armed Palestinians in the vicinity of the rescue mission.”— AP |
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USA slaps sanctions on Syria, warns of more Washington, May 12 President George W. Bush imposed the sanctions yesterday and accused Syria of “supporting terrorist groups, continuing military presence in Lebanon, pursuing weapons of mass destruction, and undermining US and international efforts with respect to the stabilisation and reconstruction of Iraq.” The sanctions ban export to Syria of American products other than food and medicine, prohibit Syrian aircraft from entering the USA and freeze all assets that belong to certain Syrian individuals and government entities, a White House statement said. The implementation of sanctions comes after “many months of diplomatic efforts to convince the Syrian government to change its unacceptable behaviour. Secretary of State Colin Powell conveyed US concerns to Syrian President repeatedly.....The Syrian government has failed to take significant, concrete steps to address these concerns,” the statement said. Meanwhile, Syria has termed the US decision to levy sanctions as “unjust.” “They are unjust and unjustified. These sanctions will not have any effect on Syria,” Prime Minister Mohammed Najo Otri told newsmen, according to reports from Damascus. The USA warned it will consider additional sanctions against Syria if it does not take concrete steps to cease “support for terrorist groups, terminate its WMD programmes, withdraw its troops from Lebanon, and cooperate fully with the international community in promoting stabilisation of Iraq.” Elaborating the reasons that prompted Washington to levy sanctions, the White House said Syria “provides safe haven to Palestinian rejectionist groups, whose Damascus-based leadership maintain operational ties with those who conduct acts of terror and violence against Israel. “Syria supports and facilitates arms supplies to Hezbullah, a terrorist organisation that is involved in terrorist acts in the region and around the world. These groups actively undermine the US goal of a comprehensive peace in the Middle East,” it alleged. Reiterating its charge that Damascus had sent military reinforcements to Iraq, US said “on the eve of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Syria sent military supplies to Saddam Hussein’s forces. While in recent months Syria has taken steps to close its border with Iraq, it nevertheless remains a preferred transit point for foreign fighters into Iraq.” On WMDs, the USA charged the Arab nation with stockpiling of nerve agent
Sarin and said it has “engaged in the research and development of more toxic and persistent nerve agents such as VX. “In addition, Syria maintains an inventory of Scud and SS-21 short-range ballistic missiles, and is believed to have chemical warheads available for a portion of its Scud missile force.”
— PTI |
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G-8 for sharing intelligence Washington, May 12 “The fight against terrorism must not be limited to our borders,” said Attorney General John Ashcroft at a closing news conference yesterday. “If we are to emerge safe and secure, we must fight together.” The ministers also agreed to make government corruption an international crime-fighting priority and to increase the capabilities of all nations to combat Internet crime and stop terrorists from using cyberspace to further their aims. “This amounts to a blueprint for action outside the G-8,” said Irwin Cotler, Canada’s Minister of Justice and Attorney General. The G-8 group is made up of the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, Canada and Italy. President George W. Bush is playing host to a full G-8 meeting to address a much broader range of issues next month in Sea Island, Georgia. On intelligence-sharing issues, the agreement calls for countries to pass legislation if necessary to ensure that terrorism information can be shared internally with police and prosecutors and externally with other countries. At the same time, nations must “give due regard to civil liberties” and legal due process protections.
— AP |
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India endorses
Pak's entry into ASEAN forum Yogyakarta (Indonesia), May 12 Officials from the 23-member ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) agreed to admit Pakistan and will recommend the decision to their ministers who will meet in Jakarta in early July. Officials “recommend that ARF ministers approve Pakistan’s admission as an ARF participant, taking into account this formal and solemn assurance from Pakistan,” said Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Marty
Natalegawa. “Pakistan has given an assurance through Indonesia that it will not raise Indian-Pakistani bilateral issues at the
ARF,” Mr Natalegawa said. At today’s meeting India demanded that the Pakistani assurance be mentioned in the recommendation, Mr Natalegawa said.
— AFP |
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IMF chief wants Asia to step up reforms Washington, May 12 IMF looked to Asia to “increase its structural reforms, the opening of its markets and more flexible functioning of its financial institutions,” Mr Rato said in his maiden press conference here after assuming the office of IMF chief. He said “as regards to visit to Asia, I have not yet closed my agenda but I think that will be one of my first trips in the next few weeks.” Mr Rato, a former Spanish Finance Minister, was appointed last week as the Managing Director and Chairman of the Executive Board of the IMF for a five-year term. Surging oil prices, which soared to a fresh 1990 high, were disrupting financial markets. “On a broader front, however, the world economy is in an upswing with the prospect of only moderate changes in interest rates ahead,” he said. Mr Rato welcomed a call by Saudi Arabia for OPEC to boost crude oil output by 1.5 million barrels per day. “The evolution of prices of energy has been very abrupt in the recent weeks. That is probably producing disruptions in the market and it is something that we are following very closely,” he added. “The fund considers that the announcement yesterday by Saudi Arabia to propose to the rest of the OPEC producing countries an increase in production is a good step to satisfy what is clearly strong demand,” Mr Rato said.
— UNI |
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Chechnya President’s election on Sept 5 Moscow, May 12 Kremlin-backed Kadyrov was killed on Sunday in a bomb blast at a stadium in the Chechen capital Grozny, throwing Russian President Vladimir Putin’s peace plans for the war-torn region into crisis. Tass quoted Vladimir Yakovlev, Putin’s envoy in southern Russia, as telling journalists the date had been fixed for the first Sunday in September. The front-runner for the job is Kadyrov’s 27-year-old son Ramzan, who heads a powerful militia known as the “Kadyrovtsy” and has been accused by rights groups of overseeing kidnappings, torture and murder. He denies the allegations. Mr Putin, who made a surprise and brief trip to Grozny yesterday, signalled his approval of Ramzan when he appeared publicly alongside him to announce Kadyrov’s death. Analysts expect Mr Putin to back Ramzan for the presidency even though he is technically barred since candidates should be at least 30. Kremlin adviser Aslanbek Aslakhanov said today he was considering whether to put himself forward for the post that was attracting few other candidates.
— Reuters |
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Tajik President arrives in Islamabad Islamabad, May 12 “Rahmonov will hold talks with President General Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali on ways to boost economic and trade ties between Pakistan and Tajikistan,” an official statement in Islamabad said. The talks will also focus on regional issues with reference to situation in Afghanistan, Pakistan’s role as a frontline state in the ongoing war against terrorism and current state of Pakistan-India relations. The two countries will also sign bilateral agreements during the visit of President Rahmonov. The Joint Economic Commission of Pakistan and Tajikistan, which held its first meeting in Islamabad last week, took a number of important decisions to augment economic interaction between the two countries.
— DPA |
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Deportation of Shahbaz draws media’s ire Islamabad, May 12 The police yesterday turned their ire on national and international media to prevent the coverage of the airlifting of Shahbaz, who appeared to have pulled a major publicity coup for Pakistan’s beleaguered opposition parties. According to media reports, Gen Musharraf called up the Saudi prince to inform that Shahbaz should be kept in exile in Jeddah as per the deal reportedly agreed in 2000. Correspondents travelling with Shahbaz from London to Abu Dhabi and from there to Lahore said he got a tip-off about the Saudi Government’s decision to keep him in exile before he left Abu Dhabi to Lahore, after which he decided to leave his wife and two daughters behind. Once the Saudi government agreed to receive Shahbaz, the police at Lahore airport quickly bundled him into a special plane 87 minutes after his arrival and send him to Jeddah along with a doctor and a team of commandos. While a CNN correspondent was detained at his residence in Lahore to prevent him from joining Sharif in Abu Dhabi, BBC’s Pakistan Correspondent Zaffar Abbas, who has travelled with Shahbaz and his cameraman were detained in a police van for several hours. A visibly disturbed Abbas said he had not seen such a crackdown on the media in his 23 year career as journalist, adding the authorities over-reacted, especially when Shahbaz did not pose a major political threat. The incident shows that democracy in Pakistan still has not found its feet, free speech is restricted and the government is not prepared to allow the opposition to regroup, Abbas said in his report. The Daily Times in its editorial said the position taken by the government that Shahbaz could not come back because he had signed an agreement with Saudi Arabia “was never a solid legal and constitutional stand. Now the government has shown that it doesn’t give a damn for legalities when it comes to the crunch.” “Shahbaz was a minnow among politicians. But by adopting a ham-handed strategy to prevent him from returning to Pakistan, the government has made him succeed beyond expectation,” it said. “President Musharraf has been badly advised. Now he has succeeded in making Shahbaz a hero beyond his wildest dreams. His deportation will become an asset for him in time to come. The government has catapulted him into the popular imagination and he will be able to encash his goodwill one day. Full marks to him,” it added. Another daily, The Nation, said in its editorial that the rightful course for the government was to permit Shahbaz to return and prosecute him for any case pending against him.
— PTI |
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Bali, May 12 The body of William Stuart Brown, 52, was discovered in his cell in the eastern town of Karangasem this morning, said guard Ida Bagus Oka. Brown had made a noose from material taken from his mattress, Oka said. He hung himself from metal bars blocking access to a ventilation hole in the roof of the cell, he said. Brown was yesterday convicted of assaulting two boys, aged 12 and 16, in Bali last year. The case had attracted widespread media attention in Australia. It was not immediately clear whether an investigation would be launched into the incident. The time of his death was not known. Australian embassy officials were not available for comment. Brown was arrested in January. Judges said he admitted to having sexual contact with the boys, but maintained they were willing participants. The age of consent in Indonesia is 14, though homosexuality is illegal. Brown moved to Indonesia from Canberra, Australia eight years ago. He worked at the Australian embassy in Jakarta from 1982-84, and was last employed at a tourism school in
Denpasar, the capital of Bali. — AP |
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Deaf pupils accuse nuns of abuse Boston, May 12 More than two years after a pedophile priest scandal erupted in the Archdiocese of Boston, Attorney Mitchell Garabedian filed a lawsuit on behalf of nine former students of the Boston School for the Deaf, which closed in 1994. The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified monetary damages, charges that nuns at the school, along with a priest and other unidentified staff members, abused students between 1944 and 1977. Garabedian said some of the abuse may have been punishment for students who tried to use sign language to communicate. He said the Boston School for the Deaf neither taught nor tolerated the use of sign language, and instead encouraged pupils to use oral language. “They were supposed to receive an education. Instead they were sexually molested, physically abused and mentally tormented,’’ Garabedian told a news conference where he was flanked by some two dozen former pupils. He said he represented 22 other students who may also file lawsuits. “If they were caught using American Sign Language, they would be punished. Some would have their hands tied behind their backs for a couple of hours,’’ he said. “This is ugly.’’ Some plaintiffs said nuns shoved their heads down toilet bowls. Others accused nuns of washing out their mouths with soap. Some said they were beaten, crammed into tiny lockers or forced to stand in dark closets. Until it closed, the Randolph, Massachusetts, school was staffed by members of the Congregation of the Sisters of Saint Joseph, a religious community that traces its roots to 17th-century France. A spokeswoman for the sisters in Boston referred requests for comment to attorney William Shaevel. Shaevel was not immediately available for comment. A spokesman for the Archdiocese of Boston, which was not named in the complaint, said the church could not do anything until it received a copy of the lawsuit. Several plaintiffs said they tried to complain to other nuns or their parents but in many cases their pleas were ignored or even the cause for further punishment. James Sullivan said that in 1960, when he was about 12, a nun slapped him across the face and smashed his head into a window, which broke. The nun also forced him to pull his pants down in front of his classmates, hit him with a yardstick, and pulled his hair, he said.
— Reuters |
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John Whitehead killed Philadelphia, May 12 Whitehead was shot in the neck and collapsed; the other man was shot in the buttocks and taken to a hospital. Gene McFadden, who was Whitehead’s partner in the singing group McFadden & Whitehead, went to the scene of the shooting in the city’s West Oak Lane neighbourhood and stood there trembling, WPVI-TV reported. The two men formed a group called the Epsilons in their youth and were discovered by Otis Redding and toured with him in the 1960s, according to their website. The duo wrote several hit songs performed by others in the 1970s, including “Back Stabbers,” “For the Love of Money,” “I’ll Always Love My Mamma,” “Bad Luck,” “Wake Up Everybody,” “Where Are All My Friends,” “The More I Want,” and “Cold, Cold World.” “Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now” went to No. 1 on the R&B chart and reached No. 13 on the pop chart.
— AP |
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Man robs bank, kills wife Beijing, May 12 Wang Yuling, the alleged murderer, has been arrested and was being questioned, Xinhua news agency reported from Hohhot, the regional capital. Wang, manager of an agricultural cultivation company of Hailar city, in Hulun Buir League of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, decided to rob a bank to make a payment of $ 22,000 for chemical fertiliser his company needed. On April 8, armed with a hammer and gloves, Wang went to the Agricultural Credit Cooperative Bank where his wife, surnamed Su, was working. Since he was known to bank staff, Wang managed to enter the bank’s working area and sent his wife out asking her to buy mineral water. As Su left, Wang attacked the lone unsuspecting clerk surnamed Ren, using the hammer. Wang’s assault was seen by the returning wife. Wang attacked his wife by hammering her head killing her instantly, the police said. Wang robbed $ 34,000 in cash from the safe and fled. The police was notified of the murder and a manhunt led to his arrest later in the day. The robbed money was reclaimed, the police said, adding that the injured clerk survived the assault and was sent to the local hospital.
— PTI |
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Condemns beheading as “barbaric”
Gaza City, May 12
