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Beijing, June 4 The police kept China’s symbolic heart of Tiananmen Square free of demonstrators today, detaining at least 13 persons, while activists abroad marked the 15th anniversary of the deadly attack on pro-democracy protesters and pressed their demands for political change.
13 Taliban killed
10 killed in Russia market blast
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Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf poses with other officials before the launch of a nuclear-capable Ghauri missile from an undisclosed location in Pakistan on Friday. — Reuters
photo
Russia rakes up WMD issue
Sharon fires ministers before Cabinet voting
Witness stuns Kanishka
jury
Milk powder leaves 80 kids
ill
Ukraine former PM
convicted
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13 detained on Tiananmen anniversary
Beijing, June 4 Since the June 4, 1989, military assault that killed hundreds, and possibly thousands, in the vast plaza, Communist leaders have made many changes demanded by the dissidents, scrapping rules dictating where Chinese could work and whom they could marry. A decade of stunning economic growth has given millions new choices in life. But the closed, secretive ruling party that crushed the protests still permits no independent political activity and has jailed or driven into exile most of China’s active dissidents. The middle-aged men and women were detained in twos and threes in separate incidents throughout the morning. Reporters couldn’t see why they were dragged to waiting vans by the police, but security forces were trying to block public commemorations for people killed in the military crackdown. The Square was open to the public and tourists. Security was relatively light compared with other politically sensitive dates. —
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Kabul, June 4 More than 100 Afghan soldiers, supported by dozens of coalition troops and helicopters, launched the operation in Mianeshin district. The Afghan forces were still pursuing around 50 suspected militants, he said. “The government troops are chasing them (suspected Taliban) into the nearby mountains,” he said. The US-led coalition would not comment on the operation, citing security reasons. Kandahar military commander Gen Khan Mohammad said troops from the neighbouring Uruzgan province had also taken part. Southern and southeastern Afghanistan have been hit by a wave of insurgency blamed on resurgent Taliban militants after the hardline regime was forced out of power by a US-led military offensive in late 2001. —
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10 killed in Russia market blast
Moscow, June 4 Among the injured, 10 have been hospitalised in a critical condition. Meanwhile, the FSB security service has not ruled out a terror strike being behind the blast, even as forensic and explosives experts have sealed off the area, the TV said, showing several dead bodies covered with polythene sheets. Gas canisters are widely used in Russian outdoor markets and explosions are common. However, the authorities look at every such incident with caution amid fears that the blast may have links with separatists in Chechnya. —
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Another Ghauri missile
fired
Islamabad, June 4 According to a military statement, President Pervez Musharraf, who witnessed the launch, said “the test was not intended to send any political signals outside the country but was necessary for validation of technical parameters.” Pakistan, this morning, carried out second successful test fire of its indigenously developed medium-range surface-to-surface ballistic missile ‘Hatf-5’ (Ghauri), which travelled upto 900 kilometres in range meeting all required parameters, the statement said. Pakistan had test fired a ‘Hatf-5’ on May 29. Rejecting that the test would have any impact on the Indo-Pak dialogue process scheduled to begin later this month, officials in the Foreign Ministry said it was not intentional and these tests were conducted periodically to validate ballistic missiles. According to the statement, Musharraf stressed that Pakistan’s nuclear weapons and missile programme “was rightly seen as the cornerstone of the nation’s security policy.” The programme “will stay and there will be no compromise or roleback,” Musharraf was quoted as saying by Pakistan Defence Spokesman, Maj. Gen. Shoukat Sultan. Asked as to why the second test of the same missile was conducted in less than a week, Sultan said the test was conducted to achieve some more required parameters. He however declined to disclose the area where the missile was tested. Pakistan has informed India and other countries about its missile test today. —
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United Nations, June 4 Russia’s Deputy UN Ambassador Alexander Konuzin said the US - British resolution on Iraq should specify who will be responsible for searching for alleged weapons stores and for maintaining any uncovered by the UN monitors before the war. ``What is the situation since no WMDs have been located up to now?’’ Mr Konuzin asked Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari in an open Security Council debate yesterday. ``It is our opinion the resolution being prepared by the Security Council on Iraq must give a clear answer to the question who will bear the responsibility for looking for traces of weapons of mass destruction,’’ said Mr Konuzin, whose country opposed the war. Mr Zebari, who was appearing before the Security Council two days after the new interim Iraqi government was named in Baghdad, said it was too early to broach that question. American forces have not found the stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction that US President George W. Bush cited as a primary justification for the March 2003 invasion. Mr Bush stands by his decision to go to war, saying that toppling Saddam Hussein and installing democracy in Iraq is an indispensable goal in the wider war on terrorism. —
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Sharon fires ministers before Cabinet voting
Jerusalem, June 4 “According to the protocol of the law I have decided to relieve you of your post, as is my right as the Prime Minister,” the terse letters said. “I am proud to be fired by the Prime Minister who is taking this unprecedented step of firing a minister because...he does not agree with him,” Mr Lieberman told the Israel Radio. For Mr Sharon the decision to fire the ministers represents the next stage of his decision to break from the far Right and from his legacy. The last year has seen Mr Sharon transform from a driving force behind the settlement movement to staking his credibility on his ability to remove all the settlements from the Gaza Strip. —AP |
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Vancouver, June 4 Raminder Singh (Mindy) Bhandher, 26, was called by the defence to undermine testimony of a key prosecution witness at the international terrorism trial, but his own credibility came under fire after a day of vigorous questioning by prosecutor Joe Bellows. Bhandher, initially, tried to avoid answering, when asked if he was involved in any unlawful activity. The judge, Justice Ian Bruce Josephson, said he had to respond. Bhandher still refused and asked to speak to a lawyer. The judge told him to reply to the questions. And then he did. Bhandher confirmed he has been convicted in Canada of driving offences, and in the USA for smuggling after he was caught walking across the border with a knapsack filled with $32,000 in cash, the Globe and Mail daily reported. Bhandher said he earned $60,000 over three years from credit-card fraud, more than $100,000 for smuggling marijuana into the USA and $100,000 from selling illegal drugs, including cocaine, over the past eight years. Bhandher was testifying in the trial of the 1985 mid-air bombing of the Air-India jet Kanishka off the coast of Ireland, in which a total of 329 persons were killed. Defendants Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri are facing trial on murder charges. During his testimony, Bhandher also contradicted evidence from a witness who told the court last fall that she overheard him speaking to the defendant Malik in April, 1997, about an incident that linked Malik to a planning meeting for the Air-India disaster. Bhandher said he was not in Canada at the time of the alleged conversation, as he had gone to India for a fake marriage. His evidence was corroborated by an airline ticket, which his father discovered by chance, hidden in his mother’s purse. Also, he had a visa from India in his passport showing that he was in India at that time of the alleged conversation. —
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Milk powder leaves 80 kids ill
Beijing, June 4 The city government has suspended the sales of the suspect milk powder from the market and ordered the recall of the powder from the markets. —
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San Francisco, June 4 The decision at the end of a three-month trial makes Mr Lazarenko the first foreign leader to be convicted in the USA since Panama’s deposed President Manuel Noriega was found guilty of drug trafficking in 1992. —
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