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Friday,
July 13, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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Wahid orders police chief’s arrest
Hezbollah bribed Indian UN troops to abduct Israelis? Jerusalem, July 12 Giving a new twist to the controversy surrounding the kidnapping of three Israeli soldiers, a leading daily here today alleged that Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas bribed Indian troops in the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon to carry out the abduction, a charge denied by a UN official.
Maoist rebels capture 71 cops, kill one Kathmandu, July 12 Maoist guerrillas today captured 71 policemen in Nepal after an attack on a police post which also left one officer dead, Home Ministry officials said. Two Abu Sayyaf couriers held Missing Indian found |
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 Riots jolt
N. Ireland peace processBelfast, July 12 Nineteen police were hurt in riots and guerrillas fired guns in the air in a sinister show of force today as Northern Ireland’s volatile “marching season” reached its peak. Protestant teenagers drink in front of a bonfire on the eve "The Twelfth of July" — the climax of the Protestant "marching season" in Belfast, Northern Ireland, early on Thursday. Pro-British Protestants torch traditional bonfires to herald July 12, when they hold parades to commemorate the victory of William of Orange over Roman Catholic King James at The Battle of the Boyne in 1690. —Reuters photo US Senate clears Blackwill as envoy Pasadena (California), July 12 NASA scientists said they would launch a spacecraft designed to bring back tiny samples of raw material from the sun and drop them toward the earth in a special re-entry capsule that would be snatched out of mid-air by a helicopter. He cut kids’ limbs to feed dogs Pak self-reliant in air-to-air missiles
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Wahid orders police chief’s arrest Jakarta, July 12 “The President has ordered the Chief Political and Security Minister and the caretaker police chief to take tough action... To avoid the spreading of insubordination,’’ presidential spokesman Adhie Massardi said. “The order will take the form of an arrest.” The police chief General Bimantoro has refused Mr Wahid’s order to resign, saying that his ouster requires the approval of Parliament, which has publicly backed the General against Mr Wahid. Mr Massardi said Mr Wahid had also ordered Jakarta police chief Sofjan Jacoebon arrested for insubordination. Deputy parliamentary Speaker Husnie Thamrin said Mr Wahid’s latest defiance would further anger MPs. The Parliament, where Mr Wahid’s party holds only 10 per cent of the 500 seats, has already ordered a special session of the top legislature from August 1 to consider impeaching the ailing Muslim cleric over his chaotic rule. He is almost certain to be dumped. “President is increasingly lashing out with his power. This is even worse than the previous regime whose repression was more subtle,” Thamrin said. Mr Massardi added Mr Wahid felt General Bimantoro was using his troops to back a “certain political group”. He did not elaborate. Police officials were not available for comment. Mr Wahid has also been at odds with senior police and military generals, largely over his threat to declare a civil emergency in a last ditch bid to save his failing rule.
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Hezbollah bribed Indian UN troops to Jerusalem, July 12 “This is nonsense and very cheap and I reject it completely,” UNIFIL spokesman Timur Goksel said. “The Indians are a fully professional unit. ... Their discipline has no match in the Middle East. Such a theory is nothing but a pathetic lie and I regret very much that it has been aired.” The Hebrew-language daily Maariv quoting an unnamed “very senior political-security source” claimed a very generous monetary bribe from the abductors in exchange for cooperation on October 7 in the disputed Shebaa Farms area. The new details were disclosed after Israeli investigators interrogated Indian soldiers at length, including those who had contacts with Hezbollah, the daily claimed quoting the sources. The Indian Embassy in Tel Aviv termed the report as “unsubsatantiated” and said Indian soldiers were known for their professionalism in their peace missions. Hezbollah sources told Deutsche Presse-Agentur: “This is a baseless report. Evertime the Israelis feel embarrassed in front of their own people they try to make up stories to find an excuse for the lack of security on their border”, the sources said. The Maariv report is regarded in Lebanon as another shot fired by Israel in its war against the U.N. over a videotape filmed by a member of the Indian contingent following the kidnapping of the three Israeli soldiers in the Shebaa Farms area on October 7. The film shows vehicles which may have been used by Hezbollah in the operation and Lebanese guerrillas apparently preventing the U.N. peacekeepers from removing the cars. UNITED NATIONS: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has ordered an internal inquiry into the “mishandling” of an Israeli request to provide a videotape showing Islamic fundamentalists suspected of kidnapping three Israeli soldiers in Lebanon. “The reason for the inquiry is that, frankly, the organisation was embarrassed and its credibility was hurt by what appears to be a mishandling of this event,” said UN spokesman Fred Eckhard on Wednesday.
PTI, DPA, AFP |
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Maoist rebels capture 71 cops, kill one Kathmandu, July 12 The attack on the post in the village of Holery, in the far northwest of the country, took place today morning as a general strike called by the Maoist rebels paralysed much of Nepal. “A fairly large number of armed Maoists suddenly attacked the Holery police post manned by a force of 73, killing one policeman and gravely injuring another one,” a Home Ministry spokesman said. The police fired back at the rebels, thought to number around 300, for over 90 minutes before surrendering with arms and ammunition, he said. The Maoists then took the 71 policemen to an unknown destination, the spokesman said. In a separate incident another policeman was killed in a suspected Maoist attack at the Harichowk police post in the Baglung district, 325 km west of Kathmandu, he said. Five policemen were missing.
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Two Abu Sayyaf couriers held Zamboanga, July 12 Senior Superintendent Damming Ungga, head of a special anti-crime task force, said one of those arrested was the wife of an Abu Sayyaf leader, whom he did not identify. The other person, a man, was also not identified. The two were arrested yesterday in separate operations in the southern city of Zamboanga, a 30-minute boat ride from Basilan island where Abu Sayyaf
gunmen were holding the hostages. Regional military spokesman Col Danilo Servando identified one of the men arrested on Tuesday as Basuan Biao Pael, the “chief of the urban terrorist demolitions team” of the Abu Sayyaf. Manila: An anti-graft court today allowed prosecutors to withdraw one criminal complaint against ousted President Joseph Estrada in an effort to focus on a main case of economic plunder against him. The Sandiganbayan court granted prosecutors the option of refiling the case, involving an alleged violation of a government code of conduct and ethical standards for public officials. The offence is punishable by up to a six-year jail term. The dropped case stemmed from allegations that Estrada pocketed huge illegal gambling payoffs from a provincial Governor. State prosecutors have secured the court’s approval to withdraw three graft complaints against Estrada in April. Two were subsequently merged with the plunder case.
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Missing Indian found New York, July 12 Mr Karan Kumar, a leading businessman told the police that he was kidnapped by two men near a restaurant and driven for several hours before he was taken to an undisclosed place. Later, he was dropped off in a park where the police found him.
PTI |
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Riots jolt
N. Ireland peace process Belfast, July 12 The violence, and the threat of force by Protestant guerrillas, jolted the shaky peace process in the British province, where more than 3,000 people have died in 30 years of sectarian and political violence. With banners flying and bands blaring, thousands of Protestant “Orangemen” wearing traditional black bowler hats and orange silk sashes staged parades throughout the province. The sound of piercing flute bands and pounding drums echoed in towns and villages to mark “the Twelfth of July” climax of annual commemorations of ancient victories over Roman Catholics. In Belfast, British security forces built high steel barriers on a bridge over the river Lagan to enforce a ban on around 100 members of the staunchly pro-British Orange Order parading through a Catholic enclave. They halted peacefully and were expected to use another route to join other Orangemen for the main Belfast procession, the biggest of the province’s demonstrations. The province’s minority Catholics, who back integration with the Irish Republic, see the parades as provocation by majority Protestants.
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US Senate clears Blackwill as envoy Washington, July 12 Wendy Chamberlin’s appointment as Ambassador to Pakistan was also approved, including those appointed Ambassadors to Britain, France, Russia, China and Israel. White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said he was thankful to the committee for their action and expressed hope that the “Senate will continue to make progress on the nominations by bringing these votes to the floor as well”. In US, all the key appointments, including those of Cabinet Ministers, senior army officers and ambassadors have to be approved by the Senate, voting on President’s nominations on the recommendations of the relevant committees.
PTI |
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Genesis to bring back samples from sun Pasadena (California), July 12 NASA expects those samples — invisible, charged particles of the solar wind that together will weigh not more than a few grains of salt — to be studied for years to come and help scientists understand the evolution of the solar system. “This mission will be the Rosetta Stone of planetary science data, because it will show us the foundation by which we can judge how our solar system evolved,” Genesis Project Manager Chester Sasaki said yesterday. Genesis, the product of a 3-year, $ 260 million NASA project, is due for launch from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station by a Delta rocket on July 30 and will mark the first US spacecraft to bring material back to the earth since the Apollo program in the 1970s. If all goes well, Genesis is expected to arrive outside the earth’s atmosphere in October and open up four scientific arrays each the size of a bicycle tire and made of diamond, gold, silicon and sapphire. The craft will then spend 30 months absorbing particles from the solar wind which will strike the arrays “like bullets hitting a wall,” NASA spokesman Gilbert Yanow said. When Genesis finishes collecting the samples it will head back to the earth and drop them off in a special re-entry capsule, which will glide by parachute toward the Utah desert. Because NASA scientists are reluctant to disturb the delicate samples and instruments with a rough desert landing, a helicopter flown by specially trained pilots will swoop in at some 20,000 feet (6,000 metres), snag the parachute on the fly and gently lower the capsule to the ground. Washington: NASA announced that it had successfully tested a new “lifeboat” for the International Space Station. The prototype of the X-38 mini-spacecraft was tested at an altitude of 11 km, where it was released by a B-52 bomber. It landed at Edwards Air Force base in California after a 13-minute flight, NASA announced on Wednesday.
Reuters, DPA |
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He cut kids’ limbs to feed dogs Lahore, July 12 The man was caught after his neighbours in Sargodha, about 180 km west of Lahore in Punjab province, responded to the screams of a girl coming from his residence, they said. Armed with a cleaver, the man fled with the girl’s severed arm but was eventually overpowered after a long chase in which four persons were injured.
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Pak self-reliant in air-to-air missiles Islamabad, July 12 The Deputy Chief of Air Staff (Operations), Air Marshal Kaleem Saadat, claimed it at a seminar on “Moving Ahead in Self-Reliance Through Local Industry’’. “We stay committed to maintaining, and even surpassing high standards of professionalism of our past,” he said. However, the reports did not mention any technical details.
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