Monday, March 13, 2000, Chandigarh, India
|
Defrauding
Pak exchequer Khatamis
close aide shot at
Treason
case against Kulsoom |
|
Driver exposes Mitterrands
love life PARIS, March 12 Late French President Francois Mitterrands passion for women led him to a series of secret meetings with, among others, a Middle Eastern queen, his official driver has revealed in a book to be published next week. Arms tech transfer to China
suspended Mittal
richest Asian in UK
|
Defrauding Pak exchequer LONDON, March 12 (PTI) Interpol has accepted a request of Pakistans National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to issue red corner warrants against 30 Pakistanis, including former Premier Benazir Bhutto, whom the ruling military regime considers as corrupt absconders responsible for looting the national wealth, a London-based Asian weekly reported today. Besides politicians like Ms Bhutto and MQM chief Altaf Hussain, the warrant would also be issued against bureaucrats like Salman Farooqui and former Deputy Director of Federal Investigating Agency (FIA) Rehman Malik, The Nation reported quoting sources close to NAB. Pakistan Government will formally declare these required people as absconders along with full charge sheets to meet the requirements before Interpol gears up its action, it said. The weekly said Interpol had agreed to set up an office in Pakistan which would work closely with its headquarters in Lyon, France, besides the offices in New York and London for extraditing them. The military government wants Malik in Islamabad in connection with certain cases, the sources said. However, they acknowledged that the former investigating officer had been cooperative with Lt. Gen Syed Mohammad Amjad Hussain, the NAB Chairman, whenever he visited London for investigations. The NAB team also visited France and Switzerland, besides London, before returning home to Islamabad on Wednesday. The NAB team, headed by Prosecutor General Farooq Adam, got a major breakthrough in Switzerland after it held wideranging talks with Attorney General and other Swiss officials in Geneva to get important documents related to secret bank accounts of various Pakistani personalities, the newspaper said. The team held detailed meetings in London last week with certain people who provided them very important information about various Pakistani figures required by the government. Pakistan has also decided to request, through its Ambassador, the French Government to sign an international mutual legal assistance agreement. The sources said a team of lawyers would be hired in France for taking up the cases involving defence deals. In Switzerland, the NAB team held meetings with Swiss officials and persuaded them to speedily dispose of the money-laundering cases pertaining to certain defence deals. In UK, the team
interviewed private detectives to be hired for the NAB
and short-listed them for taking a final decision. |
Khatamis close aide shot at TEHRAN, March 12 (Reuters) Mr Saeed Hajjarian, one of Irans leading political activists and a close ally of President Mohammad Khatami, was today shot at and wounded at close range by unknown attackers, the official IRNA news agency said. It quoted doctors at nearby Sina Hospital as saying Mr Hajjarian was expected to live. They described his condition as stable. IRNA said Mr Hajjarian, a pro-reform newspaper Editor and member of the Tehran City Council, was hit once in the face and once in the shoulder. The gunman had aimed his gun at Hajjarians temple but because his hand was shaking the (first) bullet struck him the face, Mr Mahmoud Alizadeh-Tabatabaei, a colleague on the council, told IRNA. Mr Alizadeh-Tabatabaei had also said Mr Hajjarian was in a coma after the shooting. Witnesses told Reuters the attackers had been cruising the nearby streets on a 1000-cc motor cycle. This size of machine is outlawed in Iran except for use by the people and security personnel. They said a gunman wearing a helmet approached Mr Hajjarian as he left the council offices and shot him with a Colt revolver before fleeing on the back of the motor cycle. IRNA said the attack took place at 8.35 a.m. (1035 IST) in central Tehran. It said witnesses had provided the police with descriptions of the attackers and their motor cycle. Mr Hajjarian was one of the masterminds of the Reformists big victory in last months parliamentary, and there was widespread speculation he would soon step down as editor of Sobh-e-Emrouz daily to devote himself to full-time political work. His newspaper has been in the forefront of the pro-Reform Movement, aggressively exposing what it says is a hardline circle within the Intelligence Ministry involved in the murders of dissidents dating back many years. After leaving the
Intelligence Ministry, Mr Hajjarian joined other Leftist
theoreticians in political exile at think tanks and
universities before returning to politics in the 1997
election victory of President Khatami. |
Treason case against Kulsoom KARACHI, March 12 (AFP) The Pakistani police has registered a treason case against the wife of deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and 16 other party leaders, a Police Inspector said today. A case of treason has been registered against them for making provocative speeches against the armed forces in a bid to create hatred against the government, said police Inspector Hamid Taheem. The crime is punishable by life imprisonment, the police said. Mr Taheem himself registered the case in the southern city of Hyderabad yesterday, two days after Mr Sharifs wife Kulsoom Nawaz and other leaders of Mr Sharifs Pakistan Muslim League (PML) addressed a workers convention there. Mr Taheem said the police had also named former Federal Minister Haleem Siddiqui, former Minister for Women Affairs Tehmina Daultana, former Sindh Governor Mamnoon Hussain and several PML leaders. Newspapers said the convention was attended by about 3,000 participants and PML leaders made fiery speeches. |
Driver exposes Mitterrands love life PARIS, March 12 (AFP) Late French President Francois Mitterrands passion for women led him to a series of secret meetings with, among others, a Middle Eastern queen, his official driver has revealed in a book to be published next week. Four years after his death at the age of 79, more explicit details of Mitterrands love life are revealed in Driving on the Left, the book written by the socialist leaders long-time driver, Pierre Tourlier. Tourlier claims Mitterrand slipped into the unnamed queens room in Paris while her husband was absent. He also had an affair with a socialist party worker, as well as endless passing liaisons, which he juggled masterfully, sometimes staggering three different visits over the course of one night, the book claims. He tired me out, Tourlier writes. The President explained it to me once. According to him, some of his nights were like a menu, with a starter, a main course and a dessert. Mitterrand also had a wife and a kept mistress, Anne Pingeot, the mother of his daughter Mazarine. Tourlier alleges that in
his effort to keep his private life secret Mitterrand
once ordered his driver to beat up a writer, Jean-Edern
Hallier, who was planning to ask embarrassing questions
at a press conference. |
Arms tech transfer to China suspended MOSCOW, March 12 (PTI) Acting Russian President Vladimir Putin recently signed a secret decree suspending transfer of sensitive military technology and know-how to China, a Russian Internet based private news service has reported. Mr Putin has put on hold transfer of some sensitive defence technologies promised by ex-President Boris Yeltsin during his meetings with Chinese President Jiang Zemin, usually well-informed agency of Political News (APN) said. It claimed the decision had been taken in view of China seeking only the technology and know-how, while refusing to purchase arms in bulk from Russia. Beijing is seeking to
end its dependency on Russian arms supplies and
military-technical cooperation with its northern
neighbour in the shortest period and this would have
serious geopolitical implications for Moscow, the agency
said. |
Mittal richest Asian in UK LONDON, March 12 (PTI) Lakshmi Mittal, founder of Ispat International Steel Empire, has emerged as the richest Asian in Britain, edging out the Hindujas to the second position, The Sunday Times reported today. Fortynine-year-old Lakshmi Mittal, who also launched the Asian digital film channel last year, is slated to be worth £ 2.2 billion. Mr Sri Chand and Mr Gopi Chand Hinduja, Chairman and President of the Hinduja group of companies, respectively, who held the top slot last year, are adjudged as the second richest Asians in Britain with worth of £ 1.95 billion. The Hindujas have holdings in Gulf oil, transport and Internet business in India, the report said. Lord Swaraj Paul,
Chairman of the Caparo steel business, is Britains
third richest Asian with £ 330 million worth with his
family. |
| Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir | Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs | Nation | Editorial | | Business | Sport | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh Tribune | In Spotlight | 50 years of Independence | Tercentenary Celebrations | | 119 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |