W O R L D

Russian mini-submarine crew rescued
Moscow, August 7
A Russian mini-submarine that was trapped for three days beneath the Pacific Ocean was brought to the surface today with all seven persons aboard alive after a British underwater robot helped rescue the vessel slicing through nets and debris entangling it.

Britain to deport 500 Muslim extremists
London, August 7
In a massive crackdown on extremists following the London terror attacks, the British authorities will deport in phases as many as 500 radical Muslims, out of which a dozen clerics will be sent to their homelands over the next two weeks. The move follows Prime Minister Tony Blair’s announcement last week of a purge on terrorists and extremists.

Fresh terror strike in Britain likely
Intelligence chiefs are warning Tony Blair that Britain faces a full-blown Islamist insurgency, sustained by thousands of young Muslim men with the grim possibility that the two London attacks were not simply a sporadic terror campaign is being discussed at the highest levels in Whitehall.

A Chinese security personnel breaks bricks placed on his colleague's head with a hammer during a security protection skills show at a stadium in Chengdu, southwest China, on Saturday. — Reuters

	Discovery’s risky return to Earth begins August 7, 2005
	Britain tightens anti-terror laws August 6, 2005
	Pak not behind terror in other nations: Pervez August 5, 2005
	Airbus crashlands in Toronto, passengers safe August 4, 2005
	King Fahd buried in Riyadh August 3, 2005
	Put own house in order first, Pervez tells UK August 2, 2005
	Opposition in Pak attempts to form alliance August 1, 2005
	Foreigners must leave madarsaas, says Musharraf July 31, 2005
	London terror suspect held in Rome July 30, 2005

Pervez firm on expelling foreign students
Islamabad, August 7
Notwithstanding reservations expressed by the ruling as well as Islamic parties, President Pervez Musharraf has said he stood by his decision to deport hundreds of foreigners studying in madarsas in Pakistan as the government informed diplomats of 56 countries of its move to send them back home.

Pak concerned over exercises
Islamabad, August 7
Pakistan may raise India’s proposed joint exercises with Britain and United States at the talks on conventional CBMs in New Delhi tomorrow.

Discovery to touch down home today
Houston, August 7
Amidst worries of turbulent weather conditions, NASA’s space shuttle Discovery was on its journey back home with its crew of seven, having successfully undocked from the International Space Station.

Israeli Finance Minister resigns
Jerusalem, August 7
Israeli Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu resigned today, saying he could not be part of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s plan to withdraw from the occupied Gaza Strip.

Israeli Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right) attends a weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem in this July 3, 2005 file photograph. Netanyahu resigned on Sunday saying he could not be part of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw from the occupied Gaza Strip.
— Reuters photo

Mittal, Noon in line for House of Lords: Times London, August 7 NRI steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal and chief of the well-known Indian ready-meal products Sir Gulam Noon are being lined up for peerage in the House of Lords this year, Sunday Times newspaper reported today. Quoting sources, the newspaper said the government wanted more successful Asian businessmen in the Lords to act as a role models for disaffected youngsters from ethnic minorities.

Lakshmi Mittal (left) and Sir Gulam Noon

A millionaire who once washed dishes Washington, August 7 A non-resident Indian who has created waves by buying a former mining town in Canada was once so poor that he could not afford college education and washed dishes to survive. Back in 1963, when Krishnan Suthanthiran was minding his father’s grocery store in Tamil Nadu, he was asked why he didn’t go to college even after topping in his high school.

Russian mini-submarine crew rescued

Moscow, August 7
A Russian mini-submarine that was trapped for three days beneath the Pacific Ocean was brought to the surface today with all seven persons aboard alive after a British underwater robot helped rescue the vessel slicing through nets and debris entangling it.

The Russian minisub AS-28 ‘Priz’, trapped 190 metres down, surfaced at 8:45 am IST and its seven-member crew independently opened the hatch and boarded the rescue boat.

The condition of the seven crew members is “satisfactory,” Rear Admiral Vladimir Pepelyayev said. They have been given necessary medical assistance on board the missile ship.

He also thanked the British naval experts for freeing the mini-sub. “I want to thank our English colleagues for the help in the rescue operation,” Pepelyaev told reporters here.

All the seven submariners emerged by themselves and transferred to a motor-launch, Naval spokesman Igor Dygalo was quoted as saying by the Russian news agencies.

For over three days it was a race against time as oxygen was rapidly depleting inside the mini-sub which got entangled in the fishing net and cables of underwater electronic surveillance system attached with 60-tonne concrete anchorage.

The Russian Navy had asked for urgent help from the USA and Japan. However, the British were the first to airlift their deep diving Scorpio robots with mechanical arms capable of ‘chewing’ thick steel cables.

The British rescue craft worked for several hours to cut the vessel free of the debris after the Russian efforts to rescue the sub’s crew had failed. — PTI

Britain to deport 500 Muslim extremists

London, August 7
In a massive crackdown on extremists following the London terror attacks, the British authorities will deport in phases as many as 500 radical Muslims, out of which a dozen clerics will be sent to their homelands over the next two weeks.

The move follows Prime Minister Tony Blair’s announcement last week of a purge on terrorists and extremists.

Immigration officials have already been given a list of names, compiled by MI5, and told to begin proceedings. Among the first to be deported will be a dozen radical clerics. But hundreds of other foreign extremists, including some Islamic bookshop owners, writers, teachers and website operators will also go, the ‘News of the World’ newspaper reported.

“Just as the police operation over the past four weeks has been dynamic and fast-paced, so will our response,” a senior home official was quoted as saying.

All 500 names have been taken from a “watch list” of extremists compiled over the past five years by the Intelligence Service. Their identities are being kept secret so that they will not be able to go into hiding or mount a legal challenge.

The deportation process will begin after Home Secretary Charles Clarke returns from holiday this week.

An initial wave of up to 100 persons will be booted out in the next month, officials at both the Home Office and the Foreign Office revealed. — PTI

Fresh terror strike in Britain likely
Raymond Whitaker and Francis

Intelligence chiefs are warning Tony Blair that Britain faces a full-blown Islamist insurgency, sustained by thousands of young Muslim men with the grim possibility that the two London attacks were not simply a sporadic terror campaign is being discussed at the highest levels in Whitehall. Fears of a third strike remain high, based on concrete evidence supplied by an intercepted text message and the interrogation of a terror suspect being held outside Britain, say US reports.

As police and the security services work to prevent another cell murdering civilians, attention is focusing on the pool of migrants to this country from the Horn of Africa and central Asia. MI5 is working to an estimate that over 10,000 young men from these regions can use light weapons and military explosives.

A well-connected source said there were more than 100,000 people in Britain from ‘‘completely militarised’’ regions, including Somalia and its neighbours in the Horn of Africa, and Afghanistan and territories bordering the country. A very high proportion were Muslim men of military age.

‘‘Every one of them knows how to use an AK-47 (automatic rifle),’’ said the source. ‘‘About 10 per cent can strip and reassemble such a weapon blindfolded, and probably a similar proportion have some knowledge of how to use military explosives. That adds up to tens of thousands of men.’’

Pervez firm on expelling foreign students
K.J.M. Varma

Islamabad, August 7
Notwithstanding reservations expressed by the ruling as well as Islamic parties, President Pervez Musharraf has said he stood by his decision to deport hundreds of foreigners studying in madarsas in Pakistan as the government informed diplomats of 56 countries of its move to send them back home.

Foreign students from madarsas would be sent back to their respective countries and there would be no reconsideration of this decision, Musharraf said during an interaction with journalists from Sindh province at Rawalpindi yesterday.

According to official estimates about 1400 students studied in Pakistan’s madarsas but media reports said the numbers could be higher than 4000 as many students were either Afghan refugees or foreign students enrolled into the religious schools while staying here on visiting visa.

In Multan alone officials spotted 1,474 students studying in four seminaries. The government appeared firm and informed diplomats of 56 countries of its decision to deport the foreign students.

Letters were sent to embassies of Afghanistan, Iran, Indonesia, Yemen, Sudan, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, Oman, Libya, Palestine, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Brunei, Qatar, Lebanon, Morocco and Central Asian States. — PTI

Pak concerned over exercises

Islamabad, August 7
Pakistan may raise India’s proposed joint exercises with Britain and United States at the talks on conventional CBMs in New Delhi tomorrow.

Pakistan Foreign office spokesman Naeem Khan said yesterday his country is trying to verify the genuineness of the reported statement of IAF chief S.P. Tyagi that India would conduct joint exercises with the air forces of US and Britain in Jammu and Kashmir. — PTI

Discovery to touch down home today
Seema Hakhu Kachru

Houston, August 7
Amidst worries of turbulent weather conditions, NASA’s space shuttle Discovery was on its journey back home with its crew of seven, having successfully undocked from the International Space Station.

Concluding nine days of cooperative work between the Discovery crew and that of the space station, the shuttle undocked from ISS at 2:24 am local time yesterday and is scheduled to land at Kennedy Space Center in Florida tomorrow, the US space agency said on its website.

“The undocking and fly-around both went by the book,” said Paul Hill, lead shuttle flight director for the orbiter’s STS-114 mission.

“We couldn’t be happier with the operational success of STS-114,” he said.

Flight controllers are watching the weather for Discovery’s return to Earth tomorrow and are planning alternate landing sites should rain storms in Florida prevent the early-morning touchdown.

Discovery’s only landing target tomorrow is NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Cape Canaveral, Florida, where it launched spaceward on July 26. — PTI

Israeli Finance Minister resigns

Jerusalem, August 7
Israeli Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu resigned today, saying he could not be part of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s plan to withdraw from the occupied Gaza Strip.

“A unilateral withdrawal without anything in return is not the way,’’ Netanyahu said in his resignation letter.

“I cannot be part of this irresponsible move that divides the people and harms Israel’s security and will in the future pose a danger for the wholeness of Jerusalem.’’

Sharon later appointed his deputy, Ehud Olmert, as Finance Minister. “The Prime Minister told Minister Olmert to continue the fiscal policy and bring the state Budget for government approval on Tuesday as planned,” Sharon’s office said in a statement released on Sunday. — Reuters

Mittal, Noon in line for House of Lords: Times

London, August 7
NRI steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal and chief of the well-known Indian ready-meal products Sir Gulam Noon are being lined up for peerage in the House of Lords this year, Sunday Times newspaper reported today.

Quoting sources, the newspaper said the government wanted more successful Asian businessmen in the Lords to act as a role models for disaffected youngsters from ethnic minorities.

Sunday Times, quoting an unnamed source, said “Mittal and Noon are on the list for the next round of peers”.

A spokesman for Mittal said the billionaire, who has risen to own the world’s biggest steel company following a string of takeovers, had not been approached but would consider a peerage, if asked.

Noon said he would be honoured to be in the Lords and had met Blair to discuss how to engage the Muslim community following the terrorist attacks in London.

The ennobling of Mittal and Noon would follow that of Lord Sainsbury, Lord Swraj Paul, Lord Drayson, Lord Hamlyn and Lord Bhattacharya. Mittal had donated two million pounds to the Labour Party and the others are also among major Labour donors.

The key question, however, is whether Mittal, being an Indian citizen, is eligible to be a peer. — PTI

A millionaire who once washed dishes

Washington, August 7
A non-resident Indian (NRI) who has created waves by buying a former mining town in Canada was once so poor that he could not afford college education and washed dishes to survive.

Back in 1963, when Krishnan Suthanthiran was minding his father’s grocery store in Tamil Nadu, he was asked why he didn’t go to college even after topping in his high school.

A friend replied: “His father is too poor to send him (to college).” Suthanthiran - today a millionaire busy transforming a ghost town he bought for $5.7 million - admitted he had found the reply “a bit insulting”.

The father of one of his friends gave him Rs 300 and sent him to meet the college principal. Later, Suthanthiran, who left India when he was 15, started scholarships in the name of the man who helped him and helped to build a school in his hometown.

After he got admission in Carleton University in Canada, he washed dishes to make both ends meet. He finally got a research assistantship and in the 1970s moved to the USA looking for a job.

Now the founder-CEO of Best Medical, a US-based company supplying high-tech medical equipment, he credits his rise to the many well-meaning people who crossed his path “at the right time, at the right place”.

“Also, I made sacrifices. I didn’t marry and have children. My work became my life. That’s what is unusual but also unbelievable. I maintained a low profile and did not have much of a social life,” Suthanthiran told IANS.

At 56, he’s catching up with a vengeance.

Written about in many newspapers in Canada and featured in the Washington Post, Suthanthiran does not tire of talking about his journey and his acquisition of Kitsault and his plans to make it a tourist hotspot in Canada.

He has also bought a TV company to make sure the tourism plan gets in-your-face publicity. He envisages not just buildings, houses, apartments, swimming pools, coastline and hills but also spas, skiing and water sports facilities.

And he is making sure he brings in the native Indian Nisga’a tribe to join his scheme and make it a reality. — IANS