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Friday,
February 22, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Israel
steps up raids, kills 5 Palestinians A Palestinian inspects the damage after an Israeli helicopter gunship fired missiles at a security office in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Thursday. 48 Maoist
rebels killed, 15 held in Nepal Dhaka
becomes murder city |
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Pakistani policemen escort a suspect in the kidnapping case of
US reporter Daniel Pearl to a judicial court in Karachi on Thursday.
— Reuters photo Pak prepares extradition list
Mass
grave for unidentified bodies India to
buy Russian laser-guided shells
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Israel steps up raids, kills 5 Palestinians
Jerusalem, February 21 Palestinian sources said Israeli troops also blew up Gaza Strip’s TV and radio stations as tanks and bulldozers carried out operations. In Ramallah, Apache helicopters fired two rockets at a building near Mr Arafat’s compound, media reports said, adding that one of his bodyguards was injured lightly. Mr Arafat has condemned the attack. At least four Palestinians were killed and over 25 injured at the Brazil refugee camp near Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip in a gunfight, the reports said. Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian gunman who opened fire at an Israeli checkpost at Baka al-Sharkiyeh village in the West Bank. Israel Radio said operations were also launched in the West Bank cities of Jenin, Qalqilyah and Nablus. For the first time since the current uprising began 17 months ago, Israeli tanks and infantry went into the main Gaza City, entering Sejaieh neighbourhood of the city as warships traded machine-gun fire with Palestinian gunmen. Reports from Gaza said Israeli troops blew up a local broadcasting station, throwing Palestine TV off the air. Palestinians used loudspeakers on mosques to urge locals to confront Israeli soldiers. UNITED NATIONS: Palestinians demanded an urgent UN Security Council meeting to condemn Israel for bombarding Gaza City, killing civilians and almost hitting Mr Arafat’s office. Diplomats said on Wednesday that they had planned private consultations on the request, backed by Yemen, the current head of the Arab group at the United Nations as well as Syria, the only Arab nation on the 15-member council. Mr Hussein Hassouna, representing the League of Arab States, said his members wanted an open meeting of the council. “We will present a draft resolution,” he said. “We cannot leave this situation, deteriorating as it is on a daily basis, Israeli action becoming more brutal day after day, and the Security Council sitting idle and not doing anything about it,” Mr Hassouna said. Western diplomats, however, said they did not expect any quick vote on a proposed resolution. In requesting the meeting, Mr Marwan Jilani, a Palestinian UN observer, said the government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had intensified attacks on Palestinian targets “in a vicious cycle of reprisals and recriminations.” “We therefore call for an urgent meeting of the Security Council to consider this grave situation and to take immediate action,” he wrote to Mexican Ambassador Adolfo Aguilar Zinser, this month’s council president. “Israel, the occupying power, must be held accountable for all the human rights violations, war crimes and state terrorism it is committing against the Palestinian people,” he said. Some council members said the Palestinians wanted a vote on a resolution that the USA had vetoed in December and might request a Security Council mission to the region. The vetoed resolution would have condemned “acts of terror” against Israelis and Palestinians, demanded an end to violence, and established a “monitoring mechanism” to bring in observers, which Israel opposes. Shortly afterwards, the same resolution was approved by the 189-nation General Assembly, which has no vetoes. But its resolutions are not legally binding.
PTI, Reuters |
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48 Maoist rebels
killed, 15 held
in Nepal Kathmandu, February 21 In separate encounters, at least 46 Maoists were killed by security forces at Achham, Doti, Kalikot and Dailekh districts yesterday, said a press statement of the Defence Ministry issued today. Two others were killed in Dang during the exchange of fire with the security forces, it added. The death toll could be higher, said the ministry as the Maoists took the bodies of some of the dead, adding that no loss of life was reported on the forces’ side. Meanwhile, the army has arrested 15 Maoists from different locations and seized weapons, ammunitions and explosives from them. The incident has taken place even as discussions are on in Parliament over the extension of “Emergency” for another three months. More than 600 Maoists and over 200 security personnel have been killed since then. Over 2,500 persons including Maoists, security forces and civilians have been killed in the Himalayan Kingdom since insurgency began in 1996.
UNI |
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Dhaka becomes murder city Dhaka, February 21 The four-party coalition government led by Bangladesh Nationalist Party Chairperson Ms Khaleda Zia is facing a tremendous problem in containing the ever-increasing murders. With crime galore in the whole has country, the number of murders in Dhaka is increasing at a high rate which has created a sense of concern in the government. The cabinet committee of the government at a meeting last evening expressed concern over the situation, terming it as grave. The committee meeting chaired by the most influential minister, Secretary-General of the BNP Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, instructed law-enforcing agencies to accelerate investigation into the cases and complete court proceedings faster. The Opposition has alleged that the government has failed to contain the law and order situation in the country. The headlines in local dailies scream everyday with news of murders in cities and rural areas. The Awami League in a recent paper on law and order claimed that 562 persons were killed in the country in five months since takeover by the present Khaleda Zia government on October 10, 2001. This was disclosed at the Convention on Crime Against Humanity held on February 16 and 17 in the city. The paper provided information on atrocities on the minority Hindu families following the October General Election. Media reports quoting police and family sources in all cases indicate that in most cases underworld dons are involved in the murders because of internal feud or group rivalry. However, the slaughtering of a school student and a college student, two neighbours in one night by assailants, is still a mystery. They were separately called out by friends and their slaughtered bodies recovered from different places. In separate incidents last month of snatching money from employees of commercial firms, a total of six snatchers were lynched by the desperate mob. However, the appeal by the media not to take law into their hands helped stop such incidents. Snatchers killed the manager of a computer company when he refused to hand over money from the bank. The dailies reported today that in two separate snatching incidents a total of taka 41 lakh drawn from banks for payment of Id bonus to garment employees were looted in the southern port city of Chittagong. |
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Pearl kidnap suspect appears in court
Karachi, February 21 The suspect arrived at the court in the southern city of Karachi under heavy security, handcuffed and his face covered by a cloth. His name was not immediately available and defence lawyers were not allowed inside the court. Defence lawyer Khawaja Naveed said the suspect was brought to record his plea in the case. The lawyer said all three accused — Fahad Naseem, Sheikh Adil and Salman Saquib — are expected to be brought before the court today. They are accused of sending to media organisations e mails which showed Pearl in captivity and were remanded in custody on February 12 by an anti-terrorism court. Wall Street Journal reporter Pearl (38) disappeared in Karachi on January 23 as he tried to make contact with Islamic radical groups and investigate possible links between the alleged shoe bomber, Richard Reid, and Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaida network.
Reuters |
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Pak prepares extradition list
Islamabad, February 21 The list, which does not have the name of the Indian Home Minister L.K. Advani as yet, is expected to be handed over to India early next month, according to a media report. This initial list that Pakistan wants India to extradite consists mainly of those belonging to ethnic political groups with 32 of them from the MQM, including its chief Altaf Hussain and Dr Imran Farooq. Five persons from the Sind Taraqi Pasand party and one from the Jiya Sindh Quami Mahaz also figure in the list.
UNI
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Mass grave for unidentified bodies
Cairo, February 21 As Egypt marks the eve of Islam’s biggest feast, relatives will be allowed into a central Cairo morgue, one or two at a time, to identify the blackened remains. Witnesses of yesterday’s disaster said identification would be close to impossible. Most of the bodies pulled from the wreckage near Al-Ayatt, about 70 km south of the capital, were charred beyond recognition. Some passengers were trapped behind window-grilles. Only a few managed to jump from windows and doors to escape the inferno. The train kept rolling for several kilometres after the fire broke out, the wind fanning the flames. A senior state coroner told the official MENA news agency that unidentified bodies would be buried in a mass grave. Another source said they would be buried on Saturday. The Eid al-Adha holiday, normally a joyous celebration, was shrouded in grief after the tragedy, the worst disaster in more than 150 years of Egyptian rail history. The train had been carrying many Egyptians to their families for the feast. Security sources said investigations into the tragedy and clean-up operations would resume today, even though work in the rest of Egypt would halt as scheduled for the holiday which lasts several days. Prime Minister Atef Obeid said more than 35 prosecutors along with the Attorney General and the Prosecutor General were investigating the accident, MENA said. Transport Minister Ibrahim Demiri cut short a business trip and will return to Egypt today. Security sources said the authorities would examine whether sufficient safety precautions were in place. Officials have defended the state railways, saying the train had no technical problems and was equipped with safety equipment.
Reuters |
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India to buy Russian laser-guided shells Moscow, February 21 The Russian manufacturers claim to have subsequently modified the Krasnopol shells to Indian specifications for use at high altitude. India has plans to buy 8,000 rounds of the Krasnopol laser-guided shells in the near future, informed sources here said. New Delhi is reportedly on the verge of signing the first contract with the St Petersburg-based defence enterprise Lomo, which makes the shells. Under the first contract, India is expected to receive 2,000 shells for $80 million, the sources said. The poor performance of the Krasnopol shells in high-altitude tests conducted in India in 1999 had resulted in a major controversy. The Indian Army purchased a limited quantity of the shells for use with its Swedish Bofors 155m howitzers in the aftermath of the Kargil border conflict with Pakistan.
IANS |
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Jerusalem, February 21
In video
