W O R L D

Red Cross team meets detained aid workers
Diplomats likely to get visas today
Kabul, August 26
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said today it had seen eight foreign aid workers held incommunicado by Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban since early August on charges of spreading Christianity.

Israeli jets attack police HQ in 3 Palestinian towns

Pak military courts set to return 
Islamabad, Aug 26
The much-controversial military courts, which were declared unconstitutional in the past, are in the process of staging a comeback in Pakistan, according to media reports. A newspaper report said the government had agreed in principle to set up military courts to deal with cases of terrorism, including those of a sectarian nature.

East Timor's independence leader Xanana Gusmao gives the thumb-up sign after taking a picture at a political rally at a stadium in Dili, the capital of East Timor, on Sunday. Gusmao ended months of speculation on Saturday when he announced he would run for President of the tiny, half-island territory. —Reuters

Mugabe men out to ravage rain forest
Johannesburg, August 26
One of the world’s last great rain forests is to be laid waste by loggers working for Robert Mugabe, the President of Zimbabwe, and his ruling clique.

Troops kill 6 Tigers
Colombo, August 26
Sri Lankan troops killed at least six Tamil Tiger guerrilas in a brief offensive in the country’s north today after a week of rebel attacks left more than 40 dead, military officials said.

China ‘helped’ Pak produce missiles
Washington, August 26
China has helped Pakistan move rapidly towards serial production of solid-propellant missiles and the development of longer-range systems, a senior CIA official has said.

Red Cross team meets detained aid workers
Diplomats likely to get visas today
Sayed Salahuddin

Kabul, August 26
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said today it had seen eight foreign aid workers held incommunicado by Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban since early August on charges of spreading Christianity.

Robert Dominin, head of the ICRC delegation in Kabul, said he could not reveal the condition of the six women and two men — four Germans, two Americans and two Australians — who were medically examined because this is a confidential thing between the ICRC and the authorities.

The ICRC visit was the first contact by the eight members of Shelter Now International with anyone outside the Taliban since they were detained. The Taliban had blocked efforts by the US, German and Australian governments to see them.

“They were very relieved to see us,” ICRC spokesman in Kabul Mario Musa told newsmen. He confirmed that the ICRC had seen all the detainees without the presence of guards.

The relatives of the detained workers and diplomats must still get visas, expected to be issued on Monday, and could then fly aboard a UN flight to Kabul.

Dominin said all eight foreigners were held at the same detention centre, with the six women in one room and the two men in another.

The ICRC team was composed of five expatriate staff — two medical doctors, a nurse and two ICRC delegates.

“It is the first visit...They will allow us a follow-up visit,’’ Dominin said. He said the second visit was likely to take place in a few days.

Dominin said ICRC had no access to the 16 local staff of the aid agency who were detained at the same time, but were told by the Taliban that it would be possible.

All those arrested worked for the German-based Christian relief agency SNI. The Taliban later said they had widened the investigation into alleged links with other groups, including the U.N. World Food Programme.

According to Taliban officials in Kabul, the relatives who have arrived in neighbouring Pakistan — the mother of one American prisoner and father of another — would also get visas to see their children.

The Taliban say they recovered Bibles, tapes and CDs about Christ in the local Dari and Pashto languages that were being used to convert Muslims to Christianity. Reuters

Israeli jets attack police HQ in 3 Palestinian towns

Gaza City, August 26
Israeli f16 fighter jets attacked the Palestinian police headquarters in the west Bank and Gaza Strip early today in retaliation for the death of six Israelis yesterday, an army spokesman said.

The combat planes struck in Gaza City and Deir el-Balah, in southern Gaza, and in Salfit, in the northern West Bank.

Three Palestinian police officers were wounded in the Gaza City attack, Palestinian general Abdel Rrazek al-Majeida said. He added that the five-storey police building in the city was ablaze and completely destroyed.

Eight other Palestinians, all civilians, were slightly injured in the air attack on Salfit, near Nablus, Palestinian security sources said, where a Palestinian building was razed to the ground by an Israeli missile.

The Israeli military spokesman said the air attacks were in retaliation for a Palestinian attack west of Jerusalem yesterday which killed three persons, including a Jewish settler couple. Their six-month-old twin babies were said to have been wounded in the attack. The democratic front for the liberation of Palestine (DFLP) has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Palestinian police commander Ghazi Jabali called the Israeli strikes “ugly, ugly aggression’’ and said Palestinians would remain defiant in their struggle to create an independent state.

The latest victim was a Palestinian whose remains were handed over by the army today. Palestinian officials said he was hit by a tank shell but the circumstances were unclear.

The Israeli army was left trying to explain how the Palestinian militants managed to enter the base in south Gaza.

The Palestinian gunmen fired 20 to 40 bullets and hurled up to 10 grenades in a firefight that lasted about 10 minutes.

Conceding the episode revealed military “weaknesses’’, the army set up a committee to look into the attack, in which Major Gil Oz, Staff Segt Nir Kobi, and Segt Tsach Grebley, died. 

JERUSALEM: Israeli armoured personnel carriers and bulldozers thundered into Palestinian territory in Rafah and Gaza late last night, killing a policeman and injuring five others.

Palestinian witnesses said the tanks were about 3 km inside Palestinian territory and destroyed two security outposts. The intrusion triggered heavy exchange of gunfire. Four security personnel were injured in the Israeli incursion which followed the Palestinian attack on a Gaza army post in which three Israeli soldiers were killed and seven wounded. PTI, AFP, Reuters

Pak military courts set to return 

Islamabad, Aug 26
The much-controversial military courts, which were declared unconstitutional in the past, are in the process of staging a comeback in Pakistan, according to media reports. A newspaper report said the government had agreed in principle to set up military courts to deal with cases of terrorism, including those of a sectarian nature.

The decision, however, will be finalised and announced after seeking the consent of the authorities concerned, including the superior judiciary. These courts will be set up for a period of six to eight months.

“In view of the special conditions prevailing in the country, there is a need to have military courts for a short period,” a government source was quoted as saying. The Supreme Court of Pakistan had knocked down military courts created by the Nawaz Sharif government a few years ago, and termed them a violation of the constitution.

The delay in the disposal of important cases is the major concern of the present military regime, which has already constituted a committee to have an informal but regular interaction with the judiciary to expedite terrorism cases.

It is expected that the proposed military courts would expeditiously finalise terrorism cases, as these courts would have no ordinary workload to deal with. Extraordinary measures are required to be taken to deal with this special situation.

In a recent high-level meeting chaired by President General Pervez Musharraf, the issue of reviving military courts was discussed and it was decided to seek the consent of the relevant quarters. The meeting noted with concern that the present situation was far from satisfactory and the law of the country was openly being defied. In general, there was a sense of insecurity in the public, it was admitted.

The President was quoted as saying that the situation appeared unsatisfactory. He said there were increased instances of sectarian violence, people in general felt insecure, the mosques were unsafe and the culprits were able to defy the law. He called upon the authorities to take corrective measures on all fronts to establish the writ of the government. ANI

Bangladesh violence claims 50 lives
Tribune News Service

Dhaka, August 26
The pre-poll violence resulted in the death of 50 political elements in the past 41 days since the takeover of the caretaker government in Bangladesh. The death of two Awami League leaders on Saturday — one at southern Khulna divisional city and another at a village in Fatikchari, a stronghold of the Jamaat-e-Islami and one Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader in Dhaka city, took the toll to 50, claimed a “Bangladesh Observer” in a new story.

Dhaka dailies reported that nine persons were injured in a clash between activists of the Awami League and BNP at southern Barishal divisional town on Saturday.

In another incident, supporters of the Islami Chhatra Shibir (ICS), a pro-Jamaat sudden organisation, attacked a freshers reception arranged by a pro-Awami League students’ organisation Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) at a college in northern Sirajganj district on Saturday. Twenty students from both sides were wounded in the clash.

Meanwhile, the police arrested on Saturday former Prime Minister of Ershad regime and Jatiya Party (Ershad) leader Kazi Zafar Ahmed on his arrival at the Zia International Airport, Dhaka. 

Mugabe men out to ravage rain forest
Jason Burke

Johannesburg, August 26
One of the world’s last great rain forests is to be laid waste by loggers working for Robert Mugabe, the President of Zimbabwe, and his ruling clique.

Associates of the increasingly despotic 77-year-old are planning the biggest ever logging operation in the precious tropical rain forests of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The 85 million acres (almost 1.5 times the area of Britain) that Mugabe hopes to exploit are the heart of an area recently designated one of the most important forests on the planet by the United Nations.

Mugabe has already been attacked for the corruption of his regime and its brutal repression of political dissent. Now he faces the wrath of environmentalists too.

‘The long-term impacts on the local people’s livelihood and on rare wildlife such as the gorilla will be devastating,’ said Patrick Alley, director of the human rights and environmental campaign group Global Witness. ‘This is forest the world can ill afford to lose.’

The rights have been conceded by the Democratic Republic of Congo’s government to representatives of the Zimbabwean president in return for military aid against rebels in the east of the country. The war in the DRC has killed an estimated 2.5 million people in the past three years.

The logging operation is to be run by the Zimbabwean army and Forestry Commission and is expected to bring in profits of $ 280m over the two to three years it will take to clear the forest.

Little of the logging money is expected to reach the Zimbabwean people, though their army’s involvement in Congo is bankrupting the country. The funds will also swell the war chest of the Zanu-PF party, Mugabe’s primary political vehicle, which has led the recent violent crackdown on the growing democratic opposition.

Zanu-PF need funds to expand its brutal campaign against the challengers to Mugabe’s power in the run-up to next year’s presidential elections.

The effect of such a huge logging operation will be devastating. Congo has nearly half of Africa’s, and 6 per cent of the world’s tropical rain forest. But a German company has been granted a 2.6 million-hectare contract by the desperately poor Congolese government and a series of deals with Malaysian and Chinese companies have also been concluded. Mugabe’s concession has been granted to Socebo, a Zimbabwe-registered company. ‘Zimbabwe’s logging deal provides a strong motive for Mugabe to keep his troops committed,’ said Alley, whose organisation will publish a report on Mugabe’s logging operation next week. ‘That could threaten the whole peace process, and is yet another example of the way in which natural resources are fuelling conflict across Africa and the world.’ The Observer

Troops kill 6 Tigers

Colombo, August 26
Sri Lankan troops killed at least six Tamil Tiger guerrilas in a brief offensive in the country’s north today after a week of rebel attacks left more than 40 dead, military officials said.

Troops conducted a “limited clearing operation” against the LTTE in the Jaffna peninsula’s Muhamalai and Kilali areas, military spokesman Brig Sanath Karunaratne said. “We have confirmed reports of six rebels dead and nine injured”, he said.

The air force has bombed rebel positions almost every day in the last month, but this was the first response on the ground by government forces to a string of rebel strikes. Reuters

China ‘helped’ Pak produce missiles

Washington, August 26
China has helped Pakistan move rapidly towards serial production of solid-propellant missiles and the development of longer-range systems, a senior CIA official has said.

“In addition to Pakistan, firms in China over the years have provided missile-related items, raw materials or other help to several countries of proliferation concern, including Iran, Libya and North Korea,” Deputy Director of CIA, John E. McLaughlin, told the annual Space and Missile Defence Conference in Huntsvillbe, Alabama.

North Korean technology, he said, had also been the basis of domestic development efforts in places like Iran, where the medium-range Shahab-3 was a direct descendant of the No Dong. PTI

WORLD BRIEFS

PRAYERS FOR PEACE IN FIJI
SUVA (Fiji): Thousands of Fijians gathered on Sunday in a mass prayer for peace during a week-long general poll to elect a new government after 15 months of military-appointed rule. Members of the Assembly of God of Fiji were joined by non-members at a prayer meeting at the national sports stadium in the capital, with organisers putting attendance at about 10,0000. Voting began a day before but the polling booths were closed on Sunday, when most Fijians go to church. The elections are due to last until September 1. Reuters

SECOND PACKAGE WITH BODY PARTS FOUND
BRNO (Czech Republic): Postal workers in the Czech city of Brno found a second package containing decaying human body parts on Saturday, the CTK news agency reported. The grisly discovery followed Friday’s finding of a human arm and leg in a parcel at another post office in the city. 200 km southeast of Prague. Reuters

CONTAMINATED CORN MEAL CLAIMS 25 LIVES
ACCRA: At least 25 persons have died in the West African state of Ivory Coast after consuming contaminated corn meal served by a roadside food vendor, radio reports said on Saturday. More than 100 persons have been taken ill, many of them critically, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reported. Victims showed symptoms including vomiting, trembling and diarrhoea before falling into a coma and dying. DPA

GIRL ATTACKED BY PYTHON DIES
PITTSBURGH: An eight-year-old girl who had been found with a 10-foot pet Burmese python wrapped around her neck has died, the Allegheny County coroner’s office said on Saturday. Amber Mountain had been declared brain dead late on Friday, officials at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh said. Reuters

FOX DISRUPTS TRAIN SERVICE
LONDON: Thousands of British bank holiday rail travellers were snarling after a fleet-footed fox disrupted train service for hours, according to reports on Saturday. In a bizarre chain of events, the driver of a bread delivery lorry swerved to avoid hitting the animal on a road north of London. His vehicle skidded 10 metres down an embankment, coming to rest across a rail line, where it burst into flames. An oncoming passenger train screeched to a halt just 300 metres from the burning wreckage. DPA

CURBS ON SALE OF ALCOHOL IN NEPAL
KATHMANDU: The Nepalese Government has announced that the sale of alcohol would be banned for four days each month, the state radio reported on Saturday. The prohibition will be on the first and second days of each Nepali month and on the last two Saturdays of each month. Alcohol sale and distribution depots would be reduced to two stores in villages and four in municipal wards, the radio said. AFP

MACHINE KEEPS KIDNEY ALIVE FOR 24 HOURS
CHICAGO: In a medical first that could revolutionise organ transplantation, a team of researchers kept a human kidney alive in a machine that simulates a warm human body. The team members at the University of Chicago Hospital announced on Saturday that the kidney functioned just as it would inside a human body after they connected it on Friday evening. The kidney survived until researchers disconnected it nearly 24 hours later for study. AP