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Zawahri missed dinner that prompted US strike
Protest secret CIA flights, Swiss tell govt
British funds flow for Indian workers
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Rain, snow grounds Pak quake relief
Egypt okays transit of Clemenceau
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Zawahri missed dinner that prompted US strike
Islamabad, January 15 Pakistan condemned Friday’s strike, which killed at least 18 persons, including women and children, and summoned US Ambassador Ryan Crocker to protest. There were anti-American demonstrations in several towns and cities today and supporters of Islamist and secular parties mustered close to 10,000 persons for a rally in Karachi. The Foreign Ministry said yesterday that foreigners had been near the village of Damadola in the Bajaur region bordering Afghanistan and were the probable target. Pakistani intelligence officials said they were checking reports that up to seven foreign militants had been killed and their bodies removed by local supporters. But they said there were no indications that Osama bin Laden’s deputy Zawahri was there. “He was invited for the dinner, but we have no evidence that he was present,” a senior intelligence official told said. Al Arabiya television quoted a source it said had contact with Al- Qaida saying Zawahri was alive. The US Government has not commented, but US sources familiar with the operation said it was too early to determine his fate and the remains of the dead would have to be examined. The sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the airstrike was based on a “very good” intelligence report indicating that Zawahri was at the targeted location. Another Pakistani intelligence official said two local Islamist clerics, known for harbouring Al-Qaida militants, had attended the dinner but left hours before the airstrike. But there is widespread cynicism in Pakistan regarding what the USA says and what it does. “America raised the bogey of Zawahri to provide justification for this attack,” said Meraj-ul-Huda, a local leader of Pakistan’s main Islamist alliance, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, attending the rally in Karachi.
— Reuters |
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Protest secret CIA flights, Swiss tell govt
Geneva, January 15 The Swiss government, along with others in Europe, pressed the United States for explanations after the Washington Post and the US-based Human Rights Watch reported late last year that the CIA had interrogated suspects in eastern Europe. But Berne has come under pressure to take a tougher stance after an Egyptian diplomatic fax, intercepted by the Swiss secret service, that appeared to lend weight to the allegations. Swiss Senator Dick Marty, investigating the prison allegations for the 46-nation rights group Council of Europe, on Friday said European states had turned a blind eye to illegal US activities on European soil. The fax, whose authenticity has not been denied, was sent by the Egyptian Foreign Ministry to its London embassy. It said that Cairo had heard through sources that Iraqi and Afghan citizens had been interrogated at a US base in Romania. It also mentioned bases in Ukraine, Kosovo, Macedonia and Bulgaria and quoted newspaper reports saying the United States had transported prisoners to Poland. All the countries strongly deny they let the United States hold terrorism suspects on their territory. Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey noted today that Berne had asked for information about 74 CIA flights over Switzerland as well as four cases where planes had landed. Countries mentioned in the leaked fax resented having ''a finger pointed at them'' and were demanding that Switzerland provide proof of their involvement, Calmy-Rey said. ''At the moment, we do not have any,'' she added.
— Reuters |
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British funds flow for Indian workers
London, January 15 At least 3,000 employees facing dismissal from loss-making state-owned companies in West Bengal will benefit from a £ 27 million severance fund set up by the Department for International Development (DfID). Hundreds of workers have received up to £ 6,000 as well as medical and accident insurance. The money for retraining is being made available through British aid. Critics say the immediate effect of the scheme is to increase unemployment in one of Asia’s poorest regions. The scheme has been negotiated with the DfID by the West Bengal Government. The authorities have decided to close down or restructure and privatise 28 enterprises, which ran up losses of £ 23 million in 2001. The moves will affect 10,000 workers in West Bengal. The West Bengal Government will contribute about £ 3 million to the redundancy scheme. A similar initiative is thought to be operating in Orissa and Andhra Pradesh. One of Kolkata’s state-owned companies that has already been taken into private hands is the Great Eastern hotel. It was sold to an Indian hotel chain for £ 6.5 million in November last. Despite initial resistance, at least 400 hotel workers were laid off and shared just under £ 2 million of DfID money. The average redundancy package was between £5,000 and £6,000 per employee. The DfID denied that the department was subsidising a profitable deal for the West Bengal Government or underwriting redundancies. The DfID’s total aid budget for India in 2005-06 is £ 255 million. — UNI |
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Rain, snow grounds Pak quake relief
Muzaffarabad (PoK), January 15 Yesterday, the Meteorological Department said moderate and at times heavy snow was expected over the next four to five days and could be expected to disrupt the international relief effort underway since the October 8 quake killed more than 73,000 persons. Helicopters, which had been flying up to 70 sorties a day to highland areas, were grounded on Sunday morning due to rain, said Major Farooq Nasir, a spokesman for the army in Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK). The bad weather, comes ahead of an expected visit to the quake zone by former USA President George Bush, who has been appointed the UN special envoy for the relief operation. A USA official said Mr Bush was expected tomorrow or Tuesday, but planners of his visit would be monitoring the weather. Earlier, Pakistani officials said Mr Bush was due today. All the UN flights were cancelled on Sunday, said UN spokesman Ben Malor. “We are waiting to see if the weather clears tomorrow,” he said. Rain triggered landslides on roads through two quake-affected valleys in PoK, the Neelum and Jhelum, cutting off several villages and towns, the officials said. ‘’At least three landslides have been reactivated by the rains on (the) Neelum valley road, halting all movement on it,” police officer Zahoor Gillani said. The Jhelum valley road was closed beyond Chinari, 50 km south of Muzaffarabad, the army’s Nasir said. “If the rain continues, more slides are bound to occur,” he said. More than two million persons have been camping out in tents or in simple shelters since the quake, but so far the huge relief effort organised by the army and international agencies has averted a feared second wave of deaths. Yesterday, the UN said cold and disease were constant threats, but if donations were sustained, the more than three million survivors should make it through the winter. The UN relief officials are particularly concerned about people living at high altitudes, and those in cramped, unorganised tent settlements that have sprung up in valleys. Good weather in December allowed more aid to be prepositioned in the mountains than expected, but the threat of freezing temperatures and deep snow hangs over the region. Yesterday, the director of the UN Children’s Fund in Pakistan, Omar Abdi, said the cold remained a huge danger. Survivors living in crude tents at a makeshift camp in Muzaffarabad are worried. “So far, our tent has not leaked but who knows how long it will withstand the weather,” said 19-year-old Sehrish Latif.
— Reuters |
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Egypt okays transit of Clemenceau
Cairo, January 15 In a statement carried by the official MENA news agency, the environment ministry said documents provided by Paris proved the Clemenceau did not fall under the 1989 Basel Convention banning the export of toxic waste. The ministry assessed that “following the agreement by the French Government to export the Clemenceau in its current state and India’s agreement to take it for dismantling, the French aircraft carrier does not pose an environmental threat to Egypt.” Two protestors from the environmental watchdog Greenpeace had boarded the 40-year-old warship off the coast of Egypt on Thursday, claiming the Clemenceau’s asbestos insulation posed a health and environmental threat.
— AFP |
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Kuwait Emir dead
Dubai, January 15 “With sorrow and grief, we mourn to the Kuwaiti people and the Arab and Muslim nations, the death of his highness the Emir Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmad al-Sabah,” according to an Emiri Court statement read by Information Minister Anas al-Rasheed on the state-run television.
— PTI |
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