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40,000 Iranian suicide bombers ready, if nuke sites hit
Pope calls for solving N-standoff with Iran
Iran donates $ 50 million for Palestine |
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US chopper fleet for Pak
Beheaded ‘US spy’ found on Pak border
Iraq delays parliament session
Securitymen’s kin add fuel to anti-King fire Indian
envoy meets King Gyanendra Ireland marks Easter Rising
15 arrested in Egypt communal clashes
Another Pak farm has H5N1 bird flu
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40,000 Iranian suicide bombers ready, if nuke sites hit
London, April 16 According to the paper, Hassan Abbasi, head of the Centre for Doctrinal Strategic Studies in the Revolutionary Guards, said in a speech that 29 western targets had been identified. The newspaper claimed that it had heard a tape recording in which Abbasi warned the would-be martyrs to “pay close attention to wily England” and vowed that “Britain’s demise is on our agenda.” Damascus : Any US attack on Iran over its nuclear programme would plunge the region into instability, former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said today. “Harm will not only engulf the Islamic Republic of Iran, but the region and everybody,” Mr Rafsanjani, who heads a council that arbitrates Iranian legislative disputes, said this at a press conference with Syrian Vice-President Farouq al-Shara. US media reports have said President George W. Bush’s administration was considering a military attack on Iran. Mr Bush has dismissed those reports as “wild speculation.” Meanwhile, two former US National Security Council experts warned that military action against Iran could be more damaging to the US interests than the current struggle in Iraq has been. Mr Richard Clarke and Mr Steven Simon, who coordinated counter-terrorism policy in the Clinton and Bush administrations, wrote in The New York Times that “any US bombing campaign would simply begin a multi-move escalation process. There is every reason to believe that Iran has such a retaliatory shock wave planned and ready.” London: Iranian scientists are secretly conducting crucial nuclear research and development, using university laboratories as cover to avoid international scrutiny, a media report claimed here on Sunday. Quoting highly placed Opposition supporters within the Islamic regime, The Sunday Telegraph reported that Tehran’s Imam Hossein University, which is run on military brigade lines by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, is the centre for experiments on nuclear weapon technology.
— PTI |
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Pope calls for solving N-standoff with Iran
Vatican City, April 16 The Pope, speaking on his 79th birthday, made the appeal for world peace in his Easter “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and the world) message to nearly 100,000 persons as he concluded the first Easter season of his pontificate. The Pope, who marks the first anniversary of his election on Wednesday, led a joyful Easter mass in a sunny St Peter’s Square on the most important day of the Christian liturgical calendar, when the faithful celebrate Christ’s resurrection from the dead. In the speech, televised to millions of viewers in more than 65 countries at the end of the Easter Sunday mass in the square, he listed his worries about problems facing the world, particularly in Africa, West Asia and Latin America. “Concerning the international crises linked to nuclear power, may an honourable solution be found for all parties, through serious and honest negotiations...” he said in a clear reference to Iran, which announced last week that it had become a nuclear power by enriching uranium. In another part of the speech the Pope defended Israel’s right to exist, a passage which appeared to be an indirect criticism of statements by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that the Jewish state should be eliminated. But he also called firmly for the establishment of a Palestinian state. The Pope expressed concern over terrorism. Mentioning Iraq, he prayed “may peace finally prevail over the tragic violence that continues mercilessly.” The Pope also prayed that the spirit of the risen Christ bring relief and security to Africa, particularly the people of Darfur in western Sudan, who he said were “living in a dramatic humanitarian situation that is no longer sustainable.” This is the first Easter for the 1.1 billion member Roman Catholic Church since the death of Pope John Paul. — Reuters |
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US chopper fleet for Pak
Islamabad, April 16 In addition to this, the USA has also shown readiness to provide intelligence equipments for surveillance on the border with Afghanistan, Brigadier (Retd) Javed Iqbal Cheema, Director-General of the National Crisis Management Cell (NCMC) attached to the Pakistan's Interior Ministry, said. Washington made the commitment to provide the new aircraft during the meeting of US-Pak Joint Working Group on Counter-Terrorism/Law Enforcement in the USA. The Pakistani delegation at the talks was headed by Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao. "The US officials committed to provide us the air squad when we put up this demand during the meeting of the Joint Working Group," Cheema said without giving details of what kind of aircraft Pakistan would be getting. When the new aircraft joins its ranks, the fleet at the disposal of Interior Ministry would go up to 12, he said. Cheema, who attended the talks, also said the meeting discussed the national criminal database, counter-narcotics, threat assessment in the Federally Administered Tribal Area as well as political changes there and political and ideological dimensions of countering terrorism.
—PTI |
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Beheaded ‘US spy’ found on Pak border
Miranshah (Pakistan), April 16 The body was found on Saturday in a market area in the North Waziristan region on the Afghan border, where Pakistani forces have been battling Al-Qaida-linked militants. "He was American spy and all of you will face this if you follow him," a government official who declined to be identified quoted the note as saying. Many Al-Qaida militants fled to Pakistan's semi-autonomous border region after the USA and Afghan forces ousted the Taliban from power in Afghanistan in late 2001. Many of the foreign militants joined forces with ethnic Pashtun tribesmen, who inhabit both sides of the porous border, many of whom sympathies with the Taliban. The Pakistani army killed an Egyptian Al-Qaida member, wanted for involvement in the 1998 bombing of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, in an air strike in North Waziristan on Wednesday. A government spokesman identified the man as Abdul Rehman, one of the aliases used by Muhsin Musa Matwalli Atwah, for whom the USA had offered a $ 5 million reward. He was killed along with six other Islamist militants in a missile attack on their hideout, according to officials.
— Reuters |
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Iraq delays parliament session
Baghdad, April 16 Mr Adnan Pachachi made the decision after Iraq’s Shi’ite Alliance proposed a new nominee for prime minister but said it opposed the main Sunni Arab grouping’s candidate for parliamentary Speaker, raising a possible new crisis. After four months of resisting Kurdish and Sunni opposition to Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari as its nominee for the top government job, the alliance put forward Dawa party leader Ali al-Adeeb, officials in the Shi’ite bloc said. Meanwhile, at least 20 persons were killed in a string of attacks in Iraq today, including bombings against a market and a mini-bus. A pre-dawn raid by the US military on a suspected Al-Qaida hide-out, south-west of Baghdad,also left five alleged insurgents and a woman dead. — Reuters, AFP
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Securitymen’s kin add fuel to anti-King fire
Kathmandu, April 16 Hundreds of people chanted slogans against King Gyanendra in Thamel district in the heart of the city, burning tyres on the street. The police arrested four persons during the protest in Thamel, a maze of alleys full of backpacker hotels, bars, curio shops and trekking and travel agencies which is a magnet for most tourists entering the country. Protests were held elsewhere in the city as well, with vehicles off the street on the 11th day of a general strike called by political parties. Kathmandu was a favoured destination for the original hippy trailblazers of the 1960s, and remains the base for visitors trekking in the tranquil Himalayan mountains and its forested foothills or visiting the birthplace of Lord Buddha. Those on expeditions to Mount Everest, the world’s highest mountain, usually stay in the capital for some days to stock up on equipment. Meanwhile, women members of the families of Royal Nepalese Army (RNA) personnel and police forces have now come to the forefront in leading the anti-King demonstrations in various parts of the country. The family members of the security forces in a bid to support the movement to restore democracy in Nepal, yesterday took part in a massive demonstration organised in Nepalgunj in mid-western Nepal, the Kathmandu Post said here today.
— Reuters, UNI |
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Indian envoy
meets King Gyanendra
Kathmandu, April 16 The current political situation in the Himalayan kingdom, where the seven-party alliance’s indefinite strike paralysed life for the 11th consecutive day, figured in talks the Indian Ambassador to Nepal, Mr Shiv Shanker Mukherjee, held with King Gyanendra at Narayanhity Palace. The two discussed issues relating to restoring peace and stability in the country.
— PTI
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Ireland marks Easter Rising
London, April 16 The Easter Rising parade, which was the first for over 36 years, was attended by Irish President Mary McAleese and Prime Minister Bertie Ahern. Some 900 guests — half of them representatives of the families of those who died during the 1916 Rising — joined McAleese and Ahern to review the parade at the General Post Office (GPO) in O’Connell Street in central Dublin. The iconic GPO was the main building occupied by the insurgents some 90 years ago and was the headquarters for the uprising. During the ceremonies at the GPO, an army officer read a copy of the Proclamation of a Republic and the national flag was lowered to half-mast. A minute’s silence was observed and wreaths were laid for all those who died, including rebels, British soldiers, policemen and civilians. About 2,500 personnel from all sections of Ireland’s defence and police forces took part in the parade. — AFP
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15 arrested in Egypt communal clashes
Alexandria (Egypt), April 16 Fights broke out among several hundred Coptic Christians and Muslims at the end of the funeral procession yesterday for Nushi Atta Girgis (78), who was slain on Friday outside Saints Church in the Mediterranean city following a prayer service. The police arrested "some fanatic extremist elements who provoked skirmishes and threw stones at each other," said a statement from the Interior Ministry. It said the detainees, who included Copts and Muslims, "went too far" when they set two cars on fire and damaged several shops. About 15 persons were injured and security forces used tear gas to disperse the disturbance in the Sidi Bishr district where the Saints Church is located, said the statement. It did not elaborate on the condition of the wounded. Security forces were deployed yesterday around the district to maintain calm. The clashes followed knife attacks at three churches in Alexandria Friday that left up to 16 wounded. Although it was Good Friday for many of the world's Christians, the Copts and other Eastern Orthodox churches celebrate Easter a week later. Earlier yesterday, about 3,000 persons gathered at Saints Church to mourn Girgis and church leaders blasted the government for its failure to protect Egypt's Christian minority.
— AP |
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Another Pak farm has H5N1 bird flu
Islamabad, April 16 The new outbreak was discovered on a farm near Islamabad. “It was a small farm and we have already destroyed 3,500 chickens there,” Mohammad Afzal, the ministry’s livestock commissioner said. Pakistan has had no human cases of the disease.
— Reuters |
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In video: Nepal police beats up pro-democracy activists.(
