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Nagasaki relives N-bombing moments
Islamabad against N-proliferation: Aziz
Pak had no role in London bombings: Musharraf
Radical Islamic cleric flees UK
Indian-origin Briton booked for helping terrorists
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Ten Iraqi cops killed in attacks
Bodies of 40 soldiers found in Nepal
NASA to send probe on Mars
Indian doctor attacked
China gets its first cloned pig
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Nagasaki relives N-bombing moments
Nagasaki, August 9 About 6,000 people, including hundreds of ageing bomb survivors, crowded into Nagasaki’s Peace Memorial Park, just a few hundred metres from the centre of the blast, for a solemn remembrance and moment of silence. When the silence ended, Nagasaki Mayor Iccho Itoh had some angry words for the leaders of the nuclear powers, and especially the USA. “To the citizens of the USA We understand your anger and anxiety over the memories of the horror of the 9-11 terrorist attacks,” he said. “Yet, is your security enhanced by your government’s policies of maintaining 10,000 nuclear weapons, of carrying out repeated sub-critical nuclear tests, and of pursuing the development of new `mini’ nuclear weapons?” Itoh also urged Japan to get out from under the US “nuclear umbrella.” About 50,000 US troops are deployed throughout Japan under a post World War II mutual security pact. The remembrances began just after sunrise, hundreds of Catholics joined in a special Mass at Urakami Cathedral, which at the time of the bombing was the largest in Asia with 12,000 parishioners — 8,500 of whom are believed to have been killed.
— AP |
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Islamabad against N-proliferation: Aziz
On Board PM’s Special Plane, August 9 Pakistan had conducted nuclear tests following nuclear detonations by India, he said. In reply to a question, the Prime Minister said Pakistan favoured a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula. Mr Aziz said his visit to Japan and Hong Kong was part of Pakistan’s ‘‘Look East’’ policy, and was aimed at projecting the country as the ideal place for investment and seeking investment and transfer of technology. He said his Japanese counterpart, Junichiro Koizumi, invited him to visit Tokyo when he visited Islamabad four months back to keep the momentum of cooperation between the two countries. The Prime Minister said that philosophically Pakistan was a free trade country that placed no trade restriction on any country except India, with which it wanted progress on resolution of all issues, including Jammu and Kashmir. He said that Pakistan believed that the peace process with India was irreversible but everything had to move in tandem and both countries should make progress on all issues. “We just cannot wish away the Kashmir problem,” he added. Responding to a question, Mr Aziz said that Pakistan’s stand on UN reforms was not against Japan or any other country but was based on the principle of equality, democracy, justice and fairplay. He said the Japanese leadership was fully aware of Islamabad’s stance on the issue. Asked to comment on Pakistan’s response to six new Indian proposals for enhancing commercial and economic cooperation, including permanent opening of borders for trade, transit facility for Indian goods to Afghanistan and Central Asian republics, he said Pakistan would look into them. However, he said progress on economic issues was linked with progress on political issues, including Kashmir. Asked why was Pakistan optimistic about the peace process when India seemed inflexible on Baglihar and Kishanganga hydropower projects, the Prime Minister said the Baglihar dam issue had to be resolved through the World Bank-appointed neutral expert. He said that Pakistan’s Commissioner on Indus Waters Syed Jamaat Ali Shah had submitted his report after inspecting the Baglihar dam site, which would also be submitted to the neutral expert. Responding to a question about the $7.4 billion Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project, he said there were indications that India was still interested in the project, but even if it did not join the project, Pakistan would go ahead. But they are coming back on board, he added. |
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Pak had no role in London bombings: Musharraf
London, August 9 Though he admitted that the two suspected bombers had visited Pakistan before the July 7 attacks, Musharraf insisted that they were radicalised in Britain and not in his country. “Pakistan has not played a pivotal role. There is no such evidence to prove that,” Musharraf told BBC2 documentary ‘The New Al-Qaida’. He admitted that Pakistani officials had found “some clues on certain contacts of telephone numbers that they (suspected bombers) contacted” in the country. “There were two of the bombers who came here and when they came here who they contacted we are trying to find out and then we will be able to establish clearly linkages,” he said. Asserting that radicalisation of the bombers happened in the UK, Musharraf said the British Government should act quickly in its own interest. “The indoctrination, the mindset did not change here. The mindset changed in the UK,” he said. “I think they should (take action) in their own interest and in the interest of our fight against terrorism,” he said. He also accused the Blair administration of being too soft on radical elements in the country. He said “Yes I think so, absolutely,” when asked a question in this regard. He asked the authorities to take strong action against extremist elements, including preaching of hate messages in mosques. “This kind of hate campaign against anyone — whether it is against the government or against another sect or other religion — should be stopped. That is not what the mosque is meant for,” Musharraf said in the interview. He said the suicide bombers who killed 52 persons may have picked up “some tips” in Pakistan but stressed their “mindset changed in the UK”.
— PTI |
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Radical Islamic cleric flees UK
London, August 9 Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed, founder and spiritual leader of the now-defunct group, left the country on Saturday for Lebanon on a Lebanese passport, his colleague Anjem Choudhary was quoted as saying by media reports last night. The radical cleric was among the three religious leaders against whom the government was planning to initiate charges of treason in the wake of their TV appearances in support of the London bombers. Possible charges which will be considered include the common law offences of treason, incitement to treason, solicitation of murder and incitement to withhold information known to be of use to police, reports said. Choudhary said the cleric left the UK because he felt that he had been unable to practice his religion in the country, the BBC reported. “What he has done is made the ‘hirja’ (seeking religious sanctuary) to another place,” he added. “He (Mohammad) believes that a war has been declared against Muslims in the country. He has decided to go elsewhere,” Choudhary said. The cleric had said that his followers would soon be able to “access him” with a planned new presence on the Internet and that the British people would hear from him soon. Asked if Mohammed fled because he feared deportation or prosecution for his militant views, Choudary said “He was not afraid to stay behind (in the UK) for any reason at all. It’s a case of him being able to practice his religion.”
— PTI |
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Indian-origin Briton booked for helping terrorists
Washington, August 9 The complaint unsealed in a New York court yesterday accused Haroon Rashid Aswat, 30, who is of Gujarati origin, of conspiring with another man in 1999-2000 to set up a training camp in Oregon for terrorists “to fight Jihad in Afghanistan.” The six-page criminal complaint in Manhattan Federal Court said the two were sent to the USA in 1999. They conspired to establish an Al-Qaida training camp in Bly, Oregon, in Washington State, between October 1999 and April 2000, it said. The complaint said Aswat remained in Oregon for a month at the end of 1999, meeting with James Ujaama, a Seattle man, and with a Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri, also charged in the training camp conspiracy. After being deported to Britain by Zambia, Aswat was remanded in custody by a London court yesterday, pending a formal hearing on an extradition request from the US on
Thursday. According to Zambian authorities, 20 phone calls were reportedly made on his cell phone to some of the four suicide bombers who killed 56 persons in the London attacks of July 7. During yesterday’s brief court
appearance, Aswat denied any involvement with terrorism during, saying he would oppose the extradition request.
— PTI |
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Ten Iraqi cops killed in attacks
Baghdad, August 9 In one attack, four policemen on patrol were killed by insurgents with automatic weapons on a major highway in the eastern part of the capital. In the southern Baghdad district of Doura a police Captain and his driver were killed, and in nearby Zafaraniya an officer in the Interior Ministry’s Major Crimes unit was shot dead in his car. Two police officers were gunned down in eastern Baghdad’s Zayouna district, and gunmen shot dead one policeman and wounded three in an attack on a patrol in the poor northern suburb of al-Shu’ula. The government expects the Iraqi police and security forces to take over security from US forces once they can stand up to guerrillas on their own. But Iraqi forces can barely protect themselves against the numerous guerrilla attacks which have killed hundreds of their comrades.
— Reuters |
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Bodies of 40 soldiers found in Nepal
Kathmandu, August 9 “Forty of our men have achieved martyrdom,” an army officer said. The rebels had said 159 troops were killed and another 50 captured in the firefight that began late on Sunday, but the army had rejected that claim.
— Reuters |
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NASA to send probe on Mars
Miami, August 9 Previous Mars missions have shown that water once flowed across the planet’s surface. Scientists hope data from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will tell them where and for how long Mars had water, whether it ever had life and whether it could support a human outpost. The 2-tonns orbiter is scheduled for launch on Wednesday from the Cape Canaveral air force Station between 7:54 a.m. and 9:39 a.m. EDT (1154 and 1339 GMT). Weather conditions were favorable, with only a 20 per cent chance that isolated showers would cause a delay, Air Force weather officer Clay Flinn said. Beginning in November 2006, the Mars orbiter will use an array of scientific instruments to zoom in for close-up photos of the Martian surface, analyse mineral deposits, search for subsurface water and shorelines of ancient seas, trace dust and water distribution in the atmosphere and monitor the planet’s weather through a full cycle of Martian seasons. Previous Mars probes have literally only scratched the surface, project manager Richard Zurek told journalists during a teleconference.
— Reuters |
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Indian doctor attacked
London, August 9 Dr Yashen Maharaj, 28, was attacked on July 23 in Chatham, south-east England, two days after the July 21 failed bombings in London. “The doctor was verbally abused and more disturbingly had missiles, including large stones and rocks, thrown at him, one of which hit him on the back,” a spokeswoman for Medway NHS Trust said yesterday. “Fortunately he was not seriously injured in the incident, but was extremely shaken and dismayed,” she said. The spokeswoman said the racial abuse referred directly to the bombings in London on July 7 and 21. The assault was “particularly disgusting” because staff at Medway Maritime Hospital, where Dr Maharaj works, were on stand-by to treat victims of the July 7 attacks, she added. — UNI |
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Indian among top US doctors
New York, August 9 The survey, conducted by Castle Connolly Medical Ltd, published a list of America’s top Doctors and Dr Nori figured among them. About 100,000 cancer specialists had been surveyed before the list was published. In the survey, the specialists were asked to name the country’s best physicians for cancer treatment with a question “to whom would you send members of your family?” In another recent survey done by The Ladies Home Journal, Dr Nori was named as one of the top doctors in America for the treatment of cancer among women.
— UNI |
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China gets its first cloned pig
Beijing, August 9 Hailing it as a major scientific breakthrough, reports said that the piglet weighing 1.13 kg, is the first cloned pig independently developed by Chinese scientists. The piglet was born last Friday in central China’s Henan province, it said. “This cloned piglet’s birth shows that our country’s research in this field has reached a world standard,” the report said. China is the seventh country to have successfully cloned pigs, after Britain, Japan, the USA, Australia, South Korea and Germany, it said.
— PTI |
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A siren wailed and a bronze bell rang out through the air today as Nagasaki marked the exact moment 60 years ago that an American airplane appeared in its skies and dropped the plutonium bomb “Fat Man,” killing some 80,000 people and sealing Japan’s defeat in World War II.
