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| Friday, September 22, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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Missile attack on MI-6 HQ Clintons let off in Whitewater deal Taliban recapture
Hazarbagh US hostage’s plea to halt assault Shaheen-I missile production begins |
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Bhutan expands army to fight ultras 7
taken hostage in Russia Jail sentence on
Clinton, Blair Iran cuts Jew spies jail terms War crimes court gives Serb 20 yrs’ jail 13 years’ jail for incest
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Missile attack on MI-6 HQ LONDON, Sept 21 (AP) — Unknown attackers fired an object at mi6 intelligence headquarters in central London yesterday, causing limited damage and no injuries, the police said. No warning was given and no one has claimed responsibility, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Alan Fry, head of Scotland Yard’s anti-terrorist branch, told a news conference at the site on the south bank of River Thames. He said a small missile struck the building around the eighth floor. Asked if it was something like a mortar shell, he said he doubted it was that powerful. “In all probability, I would doubt it is a mortar — I would have expected more substantial damage,” he said. Mr Fry said it was too early to say if armed Irish groups might be involved. “Clearly, we have to keep in mind the capabilities of dissident Irish groups, but at this stage we will not be ruling out any group who might see the secret intelligence service as a target,” Mr Fry said. Witnesses had reported two loud blasts at the top of the large modern structure that houses the espionage service. “An examination of the exterior of the building showed that some form of small missile has hit the exterior at about the eighth floor.” The impact of the explosion on the southern side of the building was clearly visible as only a few shards of glass remained in the frame of a reinforced window. Witnesses said they heard a huge explosion. Staff at underground stations felt tremors and drivers felt their cars shake under the impact of the blast. On witness, Mr Alex Frank, said he saw white plumes of smoke billowing from the building. A huge police operation was on as anti-terrorist squads and forensic experts scoured for clues in the area. The police sealed off roads leading to that part of the city, and Mr Fry said traffic would be blocked through the morning rush hour while police made “a painstaking forensic examination.” The modernist cream and green spy headquarters was featured in the James Bond movie, The World Is Not Enough and in one scene, was shown being blown up by a terrorist bomb. |
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Clintons let off in Whitewater deal HILLARY Clinton dodged a cloud lingering over her campaign for a seat in the Senate yesterday when the six-year Whitewater real estate investigation found insufficient evidence for criminal charges against her or the President. But Mr Robert Ray, the Independent Counsel whose inquiry cost a record $52m, stopped well short of saying there was nothing to the allegations. “This office has determined that the evidence was insufficient to prove to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt that either President or Mrs Clinton knowingly participated in criminal conduct or had any knowledge of criminal conduct,” he said. Mrs Clinton said: “I am confident that not only have New Yorkers and Americans made up their minds, but there’s nothing to the report.’’ Mr Ray’s work was submitted to a panel of three judges and its contents will not be known in full for at least three months, well after election day in November. A White House spokesman said: “Robert Ray is now the latest investigator to complete an examination into the transactions related to the Whitewater Development Co and conclude that there are no grounds for legal action.’’ While the main part of Mr Ray’s investigation is now over, he is still considering whether to bring criminal charges against President Clinton in connection with the Monica Lewinsky affair. A grand jury has been empanelled in Washington and no decision will be made until after Mr Clinton has left office. Fourteen other people were convicted in the course of the inquiry into the Clintons’ failed real estate operations in Whitewater in 1978, including their friend Webster Hubbell and a former governor of Arkansas, Jim Guy Tucker. Mrs Clinton’s role, including the question of whether she helped to make documents disappear, was at the centre of Mr Ray’s endeavours. Whitewater was to have been a holiday complex dominated by time-share units but the deal collapsed when a local bank owned by the Clintons’ partners, James and Susan McDougal, failed. — The Guardian, London |
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Taliban recapture Hazarbagh ISLAMABAD, Sept 21 (Reuters) — Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban movement, in heavy fighting today, has driven the forces of main opposition commander Ahmed Masood from a strategic area, north of Taloqan, an Afghan news service has reported. The Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press
(AIP) said the Taliban captured Hazarbagh, 20 km north of the north-eastern town of Taloqan, which the Islamic movement had captured earlier this month. Hazarbagh was a major defence point for
Masood and its fall further consolidates the Taliban grip on Taloqan, capital of Takhar Province, and places the nearby town of Khawajaghar under threat of Taleban attack. The
AIP said nine fighters had been killed and several wounded in heavy clashes which began late yesterday. It did not say whether the casualties were from the Taliban or opposition forces. An opposition spokesman said yesterday Masood’s forces had recaptured the strategic northern district of Imam Sahib on the border with Tajikistan, a day after it had been taken by the Taliban. But it was the Taliban’s capture of Taloqan on September 6 that dealt a serious blow to Masood, choking his key supply route from Tajikistan that begins at Imam Sahib. The fall of Hazarbagh now makes his forces even more vulnerable in the area. The Taliban controls more than 90 per cent of the country but Masood retains a firm grip on parts of northern and north-eastern Afghanistan. |
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US hostage’s plea to halt assault JOLO, Sept 21 (AP) — An American held hostage by Muslim rebels in a Philippine jungle appealed to the government to halt its massive rescue effort so that negotiations for his release can resume. “I’m still alive,” Jeffrey Schilling said in a radio interview broadcast today. “I’m fine.” The interview, conducted by satellite telephone, was the first clear confirmation that Schilling remains alive after thousands of troops launched an assault on Saturday to rescue him and 18 other hostages held by Abu Sayyaf rebels on southern Jolo island. In the interview conducted last night by Radio Miandanao Network, Schilling asked for an end to the assault. “I am appealing to negotiators to talk to the US Government and have the operations immediately ceased, the negotiations continue,” he said. He said many civilians were being hurt by the attack, creating more support for the rebels. Rebel spokesman Abu Sabaya, speaking in the same interview said, “The military operation is very intense. They said they will conduct a commando type of rescue operation, but what we see is World War III.” He threatened to kidnap more foreigners if Schilling is rescued. Government officials said they believe Schilling was not speaking freely. “I think Mr Sabaya was telling him what to say and Mr Sabaya was using him for his own propaganda efforts,” said presidential Press Secretary Ricardo Puno. |
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Shaheen-I missile
production begins ISLAMABAD, Sept 21 (PTI) — Pakistan has undertaken serial production of “indigenously-built” surface-to-surface Shaheen-I missile following its induction in the Pakistani army, media reports have said here. Pakistani daily “The News” today quoted a senior official of the Pakistani army as saying “it was short-range Shaheen-I, which can be nuclear tipped.” The terminal guided missile with a range of 600 km was tested in April, 1999, and was displayed on Pakistani Day parade twice in 1999 and 2000. The daily said the intermediate range ballistic missile (IRBM) Shaheen-II could be launched for flight test on a short notice from the government. “We have increased the range of Shaheen-II from 2,000 km to 2,500 km,” the daily quoted the official as saying. Surface-to-surface Shaheen (Hatf-IV) missile is road-mobile and it can also be fired from a static platform. |
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Bhutan expands army to fight ultras LONDON, Sept 21 (PTI) — To tackle anti-India insurgents operating from its territory, the Bhutanese army has been steadily expanding for the past three years, the Jane’s Defence Weekly has said. Rebels of the banned ULFA and the Bodo Liberation Tiger Force had been using Bhutan’s Samdrup Jongkhar district as the base for their activities following a January, 1997, accord between New Delhi and Dhaka that threatened their sanctuaries in far-off places in Bangladesh, the weekly said in its latest issue. Bhutanese officials have described the rebel presence in the country’s eastern region as “the greatest security risk that Bhutan has ever faced.” The Royal Bhutan Army (RBA) began to be expanded in 1997 from a lightly-armed infantry force of 6,000 troops, the report said. The report quoting Indian Home Ministry sources said New Delhi had trained about 2,000 RBA troops in counter-insurgency operations. For more than 40 years, India has had a training centre in Bhutan, known as the Indian military training team, situated at the western town of Ha, the Joint Secretary of the Home Ministry, Mr G.K. Pillai said. The RBA had raised six new wings since 1997 each of which was equivalent to an under-sized infantry battalion. 7
taken hostage in Russia MOSCOW, Sept 21 (Reuters) — Russian news agencies said an unidentified group in the Black Sea resort of Sochi took seven persons hostage today, demanding a ransom and freedom for Chechen prisoners held in Russian jails. Interfax news agency quoted the Emergencies Ministry as saying that a group of four seized the seven hostages. Itar-Tass news agency carried a similar report quoting Interior Ministry sources. Spokesmen at the FSB Domestic Security Service and the Emergencies Ministry, contacted by telephone, said they had no information. Interfax said the four hostage-takers were local construction workers and were holding their captives in a hotel building under construction in Sochi’s Lazarevsky district. |
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Jail sentence on Clinton, Blair BELGRADE, Sept 21 (Reuters) — Belgrade sentenced 14 western leaders to 20 years in prison each today for war crimes during last year’s NATO air strikes and said it would issue arrest warrants. U.S. President Bill Clinton, Jacques Chirac of France, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and 11 other leaders have been on trial since Monday in the Belgrade district court. Empty seats in the courtroom were labelled with their names. “In the name of the people...We sentence...to individual prison terms of 20 years each,” Presiding Judge Veroljub Rakitic said, reading out the 14 names to applause. He said an order was given to issue arrest warrants against them. The 14 were found guilty as charged for inciting a war of aggression, war crimes against the civilian population, use of banned weapons, attempted murder of President Slobodan Milosevic and the violation of Yugoslavia’s territorial integrity. Mr Milosevic was indicted with four close aides by the International War Crimes Tribunal for former Yugoslavia for repressing ethnic Albanians in Kosovo before and during the bombing, in March to June of last year. The tribunal refused to open an investigation into allegations that NATO leaders were guilty of war crimes in the air campaign that forced Serb forces to withdraw from Kosovo. “They fired 600 Cruise missiles and made 25,119 air sorties during the 78-day aggression, attacking both military and civilian targets, killing and wounding many people and causing mass destruction of property,” the charges read. “During their so-called humanitarian intervention they have killed 546 soldiers and 504 civilians, of whom 88 were children... they left behind devastation in place of modern “factories, bridges, schools,” the Judge said. The trial began a few days before September 24 elections which the Yugoslav Government portrays as a choice between “patriotism and treachery” branding its domestic opponents traitors and NATO lackeys plotting to destroy Serbia. |
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Iran cuts
Jew spies jail terms TEHRAN, Sept 21 (Reuters) — An Iranian appeals court today cut the jail sentences of 10 Jews convicted in July of spying for Iran’s sworn enemy Israel, a judiciary official said. Hossein Ali Amiri told Reuters by telephone from the southern city of Shiraz that the sentences of the 10 had been reduced by between two and six years. He said the court was still studying the situation of two Muslim accomplices convicted in the case. The trial had drawn concern from Jewish groups and Western countries were worried the defendants did not receive a fair trial under Iran’s Islamic justice system. Tehran has been at pains to show justice has been done and says the reaction has been disproportionate. Ten Jews and two Muslims — a military officer and a defence contractor — were found guilty of spying for Israel in July and sentenced to prison terms ranging from two to 13 years by a Revolutionary Court. |
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War crimes court gives Serb 20 yrs’ jail LONDON: In the first war crimes trial in Kosovo, a Serb student was sentenced to 20 years in prison for murder and rape committed during the crackdown on ethnic Albanians by Yugoslav forces last year. Milos Jokic (21) was found guilty of killing Rexhep Emerllahu (27) ordering the killing of another ethnic Albanian and of raping an ethnic Albanian woman. He was also found guilty of illegal possession of arms. Emerllahu was killed on May 9 1999, when returning home to collect food during NATO’s 78-day bombardment of Yugoslavia. Residents had fled the village in the face of a Serb crackdown. Prosecutors had accused Jokic of running a paramilitary gang that terrorised ethnic Albanians in the village of Vrban, about 40 miles south of the capital, Pristina. — The Guardian
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13 years’ jail
for incest HONG KONG, Sept 21 (DPA) — A Hong Kong man who fathered a child by his own 12-year-old daughter, has been jailed for incest, it was reported today. Judge Lawrence Lok jailed the 59-year-old man for 13 years, telling him, “It is ridiculous that you have become the father of your own grandchild.’’ The man admitted four counts of incest, the Hong Kong Imail reported. A court hearing yesterday was told that he had repeatedly had sex with her while they shared a bedroom last year. As a result of the attacks, his daughter got pregnant and gave birth to a baby boy. She had nevertheless written to the judge asking for mercy for her father. |
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