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Emergency declared in Iraq
6 die in UK train accident
India-UK Round Table meeting postponed
Indian doctor named World’s Outstanding Young Person
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PM’s native village sends him shoes, school certificate
Pak PM to visit India on Nov 23
Blair to meet Bush next week
France destroys Ivory Coast
Air Force
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Emergency declared in Iraq
Baghdad, November 7 He said the state of emergency, equivalent to martial law, would apply to all of Iraq except the Kurdish north. Facing a major assault in Fallujah, insurgents struck back with suicide car bombs, mortars and rockets across a wide swathe of central Iraq, killing over 50 persons and wounding more than 60 others, including 24 Americans. The attacks could have been aimed at relieving pressure on Fallujah, where about 10,000 US troops are massing for a major assault. Website postings late last night claimed responsibility for several attacks in the name of an al-Qaida-linked group believed to be holed up in Fallujah. At dawn today armed rebels launched attacks against police stations in western Anbar province, leaving 22 dead, at least seven of them policemen, according to police and hospital officials. Using bombs and small arms fire, insurgents hit police stations in the neighbouring towns of Haditha and Haqlaniyah, 220 km northwest of Baghdad, said Capt Nasser Abdullah of the K3 police station at Haqlaniyah. Early today, Marines fired a barrage of artillery at rebel positions inside Fallujah and clashed with armed insurgents, killing at least 16. Two US soldiers were wounded at midnight at a check post near Fallujah, the US military said. US jets pounded Fallujah yesterday in the heaviest airstrikes in six months, including dropping of five 500-pound bombs on insurgent targets. Residents reported US artillery fire late last night in southern parts of the city. US jets pounded and destroyed five weapons caches after nightfall. Yesterday’s attacks occurred at Samarra, a city 100 km north of Baghdad. Insurgents at Samarra stormed a police station, triggered at least two suicide car bombs and fired mortars at government installations. One of the car bombs, targeting the mayor’s office, used a stolen Iraqi police vehicle, the US military said. Twentynine persons including 17 police and 12 Iraqi civilians, were killed throughout the city, the US military said. Arabic language television stations said more than 30 died as gangs of insurgents roamed the city, clashing with US and Iraqi forces. The dead included the local Iraqi National Guard commander, Abdel Razeq Shaker al-Garmali, hospital officials said. Forty others including 17 policemen, were injured, the military said. Elsewhere, 16 US soldiers were wounded yesterday when a suicide bomber using an Iraqi police car rammed into their convoy in Ramadi, a major city in the volatile Sunni Triangle, US officials said. They gave no further details, citing security reasons. Three other Americans were wounded when a car bomb exploded near the entrance to the Baghdad International Airport. One Iraqi was killed and another injured, the US military said. Three Humvees were heavily damaged, witnesses said. Two Marines were injured by a car bomb near a Fallujah check post and a US soldier was wounded when a roadside bomb exploded south of Fallujah.
— AP, Reuters |
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6 die in UK train accident
Ufton Nervet (England), November 7 ‘’The 1735 train for Plymouth with 300 passengers on board collided with a vehicle at the crossing yesterday, completely derailing the train,’’ said Andy Trotter, Deputy Chief Constable of British Transport Police. ‘’There was a big jolt, the train sped up and then turned on its side,’’ said passenger Harriet Myles (19). ‘’I could hear people screaming and glass breaking. We stayed put for a while. It was so dark we could not move,’’ she said. Among the scores of injured, 11 were seriously hurt. The train’s operator First Great Western, a subsidiary of rail and bus operator FirstGroup Plc, said the train driver was one of those killed. It was not immediately clear how the car came to be on the level crossing as the train was passing through. There was no suggestion that infrastructure failure or railway staff were responsible for the crash, in a country where rail safety has been a political issue since a series of deadly crashes followed the industry’s privatisation in the 1990s. Crashes blamed on shoddy maintenance and poor driver training over the past five years have killed 42 persons, shaking up the industry and causing political damage for the government. Dozens of fire engines and ambulances were rushed to the crash site at Ufton Nervet, a village about 65 km west of London. A Reuters photographer saw a twisted carriage on its side surrounded by the searchlights of emergency service vehicles. Some passengers were trapped for hours. Shortly before midnight, the police said it believed no one was left in the wreckage but would carry on searching through the night. “Conditions down there are very difficult. We’re working in the pitch dark with only spotlights,’’ an ambulance service spokesman said.
— Reuters |
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India-UK Round Table meeting postponed
London, November 7 “The meeting, has been postponed as there is some delay in choosing the Indian Co-Chairman and members,” Lord Paul said here last night, adding, “We are looking forward to an early meeting.” The Round Table, a recommendatory body, was constituted in April 2000 by the then British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook and former External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh to strengthen the bilateral relationship. “One of the biggest visible successes of the Round Table has been the agreement on doubling air services between the two countries by Indian and British airlines,” Lord Paul said. Though much progress had been made in several other areas and many Indian companies had set up their business in the UK since the turn of the century, “there are still problem areas,” Lord Paul, who is also the British Ambassador for Overseas Business, said. “One of our key objectives has been to expose the false mutual perceptions that existed in both countries in many fields,” he said. “We have shown our Indian friends how user-friendly the UK market is for all sectors and how London is the best base for Indian companies moving to Initial Public Offering. More Indian companies have floated on London stock exchange than in the NASDAQ and New York combined,” Lord Paul, the Chairman of the Caparo Group, said. Another key focus of the Round Table had been the encouragement of mutual cooperation in the field of science and technology, Lord Paul said. The Round Table, comprising senior figures from various walks of public life, makes recommendations to the British Foreign Secretary and his Indian counterpart after each meeting. Its last meeting was held in Kolkata in January this year. The discussions at the Round Table have covered issues ranging from international security to visa policy and educational exchanges. Besides air services, it has also discussed tourism, biodiversity, cultural exchanges and legal services. Trade and investment have been an important focus of the meetings of the Round Table. The Indo-British trade has grown by 69 per cent and the two-way trade of goods is going up by 20 per cent per annum. The UK is the largest market for Indian IT services with 12 per cent of IT exports — accounting for early $1 billion — going to that country. Britain, the third largest foreign investor in India, has nearly 10 per cent of new investment approved since
1991. — PTI |
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Indian doctor named World’s Outstanding Young Person
London, November 7 Dr Koshy Eapen (29) will receive a cash prize of $ 10,000 as well as a golden medallion and a plaque at an International Award Ceremony at Fukuoka, Japan, on November 24. Eapen was chosen from 246 nominations from 107 countries for his “exemplary service to medical care and education,” Fernando Sanchez-Arias, President of the 59th World Congress of the NGO, said in an official communication last night. “Koshy has been chosen for his meritorious service for the elderly in India. With his many qualifications, commitment to social needs, generosity, zeal, determination, multiple scholarships and awards, excellent academic credentials and leadership skills, he is certainly the model for young people anywhere,” Sanchez-Arias said. Previous winners included former US President J.F. Kennedy, former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, rock star Elvis Persley, software expert Linius Torvalds, management guru Anthony Robbinsactor, Hollywood action star Jackie Chan and Sri Lankan cricketer Arjuna Ranatunga. This year Queen Rania Al Abdullah II of Jordan has been chosen for humanitarian leadership along with Eapen. Commenting on the award, Eapen told PTI: “I am certainly thrilled to win such a prestigious award. I have committed this prize money to the Educational Trust I founded in India to offer further full scholarships for Indian students.” Eapen, who hails from Kottayam in Kerala, said his charitable trust in India had an annual plan of Rs 30 lakh to fully fund 50 needy medical students throughout their studies with scholarships. Eapen said more than the prize money “I feel that the subject of my research has received a larger mandate.... My work now focuses on how elderly care and policies in developed countries can be emulated at a low cost in India with the proper utilisation of the available resources.” Asked about his future plans, Eapen said he planned to continue learning in the UK, the USA and in a few other countries like Japan about how their elderly care could be adapted in India. He also planned to raise funds for the medical scholarships he had initiated in India. Eapen said he has been a recipient of full scholarships throughout his career both at school and all through medical studies. “I consider myself immensely privileged by the Cambridge Commonwealth Scholarship that enabled me to study at Cambridge.”
— PTI |
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PM’s native village sends him shoes, school certificate
Islamabad, November 7 “The Chakwal shoes and the certificate revived the old and sweet memories of childhood” and impressed him a lot, Baigal Raja Ashiq Hussain, the Naib Nazim of the Union Council of Chakwal, which administers Gah, quoted Dr Manmohan Singh as saying in a letter. Dr Manmohan Singh, who was presented a sketch of his native Gah village by President Pervez Musharraf during their meeting in September in New York, personally wrote to Hussain expressing his thanks for the gesture. In the letter, Dr Manmohan Singh said the memories of his childhood in the village were still fresh and expressed sorrow over the death of Begam Bakhat Bano, who looked after him while he was at Gah, Hussain told the local media.
— PTI |
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Pak PM to visit India on Nov 23
Islamabad, November 7 Mr
Aziz, who will visit Sri Lanka and Maldives on November 21 and 22 in his capacity of SAARC Chairman, would arrive in India at the end of his tour on November 23, Pakistan officials here said. During his two-day visit to the country, Mr Aziz would hold comprehensive talks with Indian leaders, including President A P J Abdul Kalam, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress President Sonia Gandhi and other ruling and opposition leaders, they said. Mr Aziz’s itinerary was tentatively finalised after consultations with Pakistan’s High Commissioner to New Delhi Aziz Ahmed Khan yesterday. The Pakistani envoy is currently in his country to finalise the arrangements. Indian ambassador to Islamabad Shiv Shankar Menon also called on his counterpart last night to discuss the schedule. A number of trade-related issues, including granting of MFN status to India and Pakistan’s response to 72 proposals made by India during the last round of composite dialogue to improve trade relations between the two countries were expected to come up for discussion during Mr Aziz’s visit.
— PTI |
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Blair to meet Bush next week
Washington, November 7 The announcement that the two leaders would meet on Thursday and Friday in Washington comes as Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, who Mr Bush has seen as an obstacle to peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians, lay extremely ill in France. The White House has distanced itself from Mr Arafat but Mr Bush promised earlier this week that he would try to revive the peace talks and work towards the goal of a Palestinian state during his second four-years in the office. Mr Bush said on Thursday he hoped “we will make good progress” in the quest for peace between the two sides. Mr Bush also pledged earlier this week to reach out to the allies despite the past differences. After Mr Bush’s victory, Mr Blair said revitalising the West Asia peace process was “the single most pressing political challenge in our world today.” The British leader was Mr Bush’s biggest foreign backer for the Iraqi war.
— Reuters |
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France destroys Ivory Coast
Air Force
Paris, November 7 Acting on orders from French President Jacques Chirac, the French forces first destroyed the two Soviet-made Sukhoi jets that carried out yesterday’s bombing raid. A few hours later, French helicopters struck at the Ivory Coast remaining military aircraft: two Soviet-made MI-24s and one MI-8 in the capital, Yamoussoukro, and two other helicopters. The violence broke out yesterday when the two Ivory Coast jets bombed French positions near Bouake in the northern part of the country, which is under the control of rebels. Nine French soldiers and a US aid worker died in the raid, and up to 30 other were injured, officials said.
— AP |
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