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Sunday,
March 24, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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US Embassy
staff reduced in Pak
Patient
wins right to die Bio lab
found in Kandahar
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Indo-Polish
T-72 tank deal signed
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US Embassy staff reduced in Pak
Washington, March 23 “After careful review of our security procedure in Pakistan, we decided to move to an ordered departure of all dependents and non-emergency personnel at the US Embassy in Islamabad and our consulates in Pakistan”, State Department Deputy Spokesman Phil Reeker said yesterday. Secretary of State Colin Powell assured Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf yesterday on the telephone from Monterrey, Mexico that “the decision does not reflect any lack of confidence in Pakistan’s ability to protect Americans. We really appreciate the efforts of President Musharraf and his government”. “We believe” Mr Reeker told reporters, “that the war against terrorism in Pakistan is far from over and that we will be able to carry on with greater focus if our dependents are not present at US facilities there.” The US Embassy in Islamabad and the three consulates in Peshawar, Lahore and Karachi were shut down yesterday for the weekend due to security reasons and will be open only for emergency services. These will resume normal functioning on Monday. Non-emergency personnel will be identified on a case-by-case basis, Mr Reeker said. “Pakistan itself has suffered from terrorism and understands this and we will continue to work closely with Pakistan law enforcement officials. We will identify non-emergency personnel on a case-by-case basis and will make arrangements expeditiously.
PTI |
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ISI’s ‘Kashmir Desk’
to be closed down Islamabad, March 23 The News quoted sources who also confirmed that the “Kashmir Desk” would be closed down in a few weeks. A team of US Federal Bureau of Investigation experts was being allowed to carry out monitoring of the process.
UNI |
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Patient
wins right to die
London, March 23 The 43-year-old social worker, who was not named for legal reasons, was given the court decision yesterday by video link to her hospital bed. She can now effectively sign her own death sentence. The ruling follows a growing clamour by patients to put their own rights first — ahead of doctors and the law — and to decide for themselves when it is time to die. A ruptured blood vessel in her neck a year ago left the woman paralysed and unable to breathe unaided. Doctors at the hospital treating her had said it was against their ethics to switch off the machine needed to keep her alive. It is the first time in Britain that someone considered to be in control of her full mental faculties has asked doctors to switch off life support in this way. In other cases, doctors have asked courts to sanction the switchoff for people in a permanent vegetative state. High court Judge Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss ruled that the woman had the necessary mental capacity to ask for the equipment to be switched off. “Administration of ventilation by artificial means against the claimant’s wishes since August 8, 2001, has been an unlawful trespass,” the judge said in her historic ruling. The decision comes in the same week that Diane Pretty, a motor neurone disease sufferer seeking the legal right for her husband to assist her to die, took her case to the European Court of Human Rights. British courts had refused to promise her husband immunity from prosecution if he carried out her wishes. The winner of yesterday’s landmark case was given the full backing of Heather Pratten, who helped her son Nigel to die in 2000. “She is entitled to refuse treatment and I have every sympathy with her and understand how she feels,” M. Pratten told BBC radio. She was convicted of helping her son to die but given a conditional discharge on humanitarian grounds. Nigel Pratten, who was suffering from the degenerative brain condition Huntington’s disease, took a dose of heroin on his 42nd birthday in October 2000 and then sank into a coma. Heather Pratten, her voice breaking with emotion, said, “After about five hours, I saw that he was nearly dead.” “I had promised that he would not leave that room alive. So I picked up a pillow and put it over his face which was very, very difficult”. She had no regrets, “It was the best thing I could do for him. It was his choice and I think it was his right to choose.”
Reuters |
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Bio lab found in Kandahar
New York, March 23 Quoting a confidential assessment by the US Central Command, the New York Times says the lab in Kandahar was intended to produce anthrax though no biological agents were found. “There was a lab under construction in the vicinity of Kandahar,” an American official was quoted as saying. “It is another example that they had an appetite for developing biological agents.” The explosive factory, found in the Shah-e-Kot valley in eastern Afghanistan, contained explosives and equipment as well as medical supplies, said Navy Commander Dan Keesee of US Central Command in Florida. But American officials have refused to confirm or deny the discovery of the factory. US personnel have been scouring former terrorist camps and other sites for months to determine the status of Al-Qaida’s efforts. “Documents recovered from Al-Qaida facilities in Afghanistan show that Bin Laden was pursuing a sophisticated biological weapons research programme”, said Mr George Tenet, CIA Director. “We also believe that Bin Laden was seeking to acquire or develop a nuclear device. Al-Qaida may be pursuing a radioactive dispersal device...but there is still no indication that Al-Qaida ever succeeded in producing biological agents”, he said. There was no evidence of pathogens at the lab. But the evidence, which included documents, indicated that Al-Qaida was interested in producing anthrax.
PTI |
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Freed Afghans say they were abused
Sangesar (Afghanistan), March 23 “If they gave us all of Afghanistan now, this wouldn’t make up for this insult,” said one of the bruised and angry men, Fida Mohammad, (35). Another man said it was fortunate his armed security team didn’t react defensively to the US force. “If we had reacted, there might have been a firefight and many people might have been killed,” said Ghousullah, (22). Maj Ralph Mills, a spokesman for the US Central Command, said any injuries could have occurred when the men were apprehended during last Sunday’s raid. “Some of the people may have resisted when being subdued and they may have been bruised in the process,” he said yesterday. “We don’t have anything that suggests that anyone was mistreated while in captivity.” The military has been reluctant to discuss its detention centre at a US base outside Kandahar, 40 km east of here. Scores of Taliban and Al-Qaida terrorist suspects are held there. A US military spokesman at the base denied the allegations of abuse. “We treat detainees well,” said Maj Ignacio Perez. The Afghans’ accounts of mistreatment were similar to those in February from another group, held on January 23 when US special forces raided a compound in the Uruzgan province and witnesses reported 21 Afghans killed.
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Afghan girls return to school after 6 years Kabul, March 23 Schools in Afghanistan have been receiving assistance from the United Nations and various international non-governmental organisations to improve their facilities and distribute educational material. Afghanistan’s Minister for Women’s Affairs Ms Sima Samar, said at a press conference in Athens yesterday that leaders of the country’s political factions should unite to make education and women’s rights more of a priority. Ms Samar, who also serves as Afghanistan’s Deputy Prime Minister, is one of the two women in the interim government which took power on December 22.
Kyodo |
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Indo-Polish T-72
tank deal signed London, March 23 The first 15 systems are to be installed by technicians from Poland’s ZM Bumar-Labedy under contract from Warsaw-based Przemyslowe Centrum Optyki (PCO) which manufactures the fire-control system (FCS).
PTI |
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