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Wednesday,
April 3, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Arafat spurns Sharon offer on exile
Arafat prefers martyrdom to surrender Curbs on scribes worry CPJ 16 Al-Qaida men held in Lahore
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Afghan girls keen to learn Meena Kumari ‘reborn’ in Dhaka Ne Win’s kin face treason 3 Russians among prisoners in Cuba
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Arafat spurns Sharon offer on exile Jerusalem, April 2
He was responding to remarks by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon who said he would let Arafat leave his besieged headquarters in Ramallah only on a “one-way ticket”. “Arafat said there is not a single Palestinian who will accept going into exile under any circumstances,” Erekat told newsmen. “Sharon’s announcement is preparation for an attempt to kill Arafat. Sharon’s intention is to kill Arafat, despite assurances by Israel that it has no intention of physically harming the Palestinian leader,” he added. Meanwhile, the Palestinian security chief in the West Bank was negotiating a ceasefire with Israeli troops besieging his headquarters to allow casualties to be evacuated, Israel radio said. There was no immediate comment from Palestinian or Israeli authorities. Witnesses said Jibril al-Rajoub’s hillside headquarters in the village of Beitunia near the West Bank city of Ramallah was sealed off and blitzed by Israeli tanks and helicopter gunships overnight and shooting continued well into the day. Rajoub said there were around 400 mostly civilian personnel inside the compound when it came under attack. He denied a report by an Israeli security source that 50 militants wanted by Israel were sheltering there. MADRID: European Union president Spain summoned the Israeli ambassador to Madrid to demand Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian cities and freedom of movement for Yasser Arafat. As diplomatic pressure on Israel grows following escalating violence in West Asia, the EU also called on Israel to grant foreign diplomats, especially those of the EU, free access to Arafat in the West Bank. Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Pique announced he was summoning the ambassador following a meeting in Madrid with Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana. Solana said the EU was asking Israel “to comply as soon as possible” with the UN Security Council resolution approved on Saturday which calls on Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories. “We cannot confuse the fight against terrorism with the destruction of the Palestinian Authority,” Solana told newsmen.
Reuters  |
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Arafat prefers martyrdom to surrender Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is in no mood to surrender and is ready to choose the path of martyrdom. Mr Arafat, who remains confined to two rooms in his Ramallah office surrounded by Israeli tanks, has conveyed this message through several interviews with the Arab media representatives. “Let those far and near understand that none among the Palestinian people or the Arab nation will be willing to surrender. But we ask Allah to grant us martyrdom,” he declared in his interview with Al-Jazeera TV. Mr Arafat believes the current action in Ramallah is a response to the Arab Summit in Beirut. "This is an Israeli response to all peace attempts because they do not want peace,” he said. Mr Arafat has a message for the Americans: “You must act. Where are you going? Don’t you know this will shake the Middle East?” “I may be martyred, but certainly one of our boys or one of our girls will wave the flag of Palestine over the walls of Jerusalem, over the minarets of Jerusalem, and over the churches of Jerusalem....This the path I have chosen...Allah, give me martyrdom.” |
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Curbs on scribes worry CPJ New York, April 2 “Barring journalists from conflict areas constitutes censorship”, said the committee’s executive director Ann Cooper”. Although Ramallah is indeed a dangerous place, journalists are there because they have a duty to cover this important story. The Government Press Office has announced that no “foreign citizens (including members of the media) are allowed to be in the closed zone”, and that “anyone found in the closed zone henceforth will be removed.” Journalists were warned that violators could be arrested and stripped of their credentials, or have their office closed down. The Israeli troops yesterday reportedly expelled a CBS News television crew from Ramallah. In the past week, at least two journalists have been wounded by gunfire on the West Bank. The CPJ is investigating other reports of journalists being injured.
IANS |
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16 Al-Qaida men held in Lahore Islamabad, April 2 The police said the men, detained late yesterday for illegally entering Pakistan from Afghanistan, were being interrogated over their suspected links to Bin Laden’s global terror network. “We have taken into custody 16 foreigners, mostly Arabs. They had come from Afghanistan and they were hiding in Lahore,” said Lahore Police chief Javed Noor. “These people had been living in Afghanistan, that is for sure. We are interrogating them to find out their identities and their background.” The officer denied that US law enforcement agencies were engaged in the raid, which came less than a week after a joint US-Pakistani police operation in Lahore and Faisalabad arrested some 29 Al-Qaida suspects. US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld yesterday neither confirmed nor denied that US forces were holding Abu Zubaydah, believed to be key Bin Laden deputy, following last week’s joint raids. “I have nothing to say about the subject,” said Mr Rumsfeld at a Pentagon press briefing. “At this stage, it will not be useful.”
AFP |
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Pervez vows full support for Karzai Kabul, April 2 “Our plan is his plan,’’ General Musharraf told a news conference, sitting alongside Mr Karzai, whom he called repeatedly “my brother’’. “I made it absolutely clear that Pakistan had only one aim — to assist Afghanistan,’’ he said of his talks with Mr Karzai. General Musharraf said Pakistan had arrested a man believed to be Abu Zubaydah, a top lieutenant of Al-Qaida leader Bin Laden, and handed him over to the USA. Zubaydah would be the highest ranking Al-Qaida member in US custody and one US official said: “We are virtually certain it is him’’. Pakistan’s military ruler, who suggested earlier this year Bin Laden might be dead, said he had no solid information on the fugitive Al-Qaida leader’s whereabouts. The two leaders dismissed talk of lingering mistrust between their countries, with Mr Karzai saying his government, formed from the opposition to the ultra-Islamic Taliban, was united in welcoming General Musharraf. “Sometimes there are disagreements between brothers, but I have no reason to believe we can’t overcome those differences,’’ General Musharraf said. Mr Karzai and General Musharraf said they would make a joint effort to fight terrorism and eradicate opium poppy trade.
Reuters |
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Afghan girls keen to learn Kabul, April 2 Here, as elsewhere in Afghanistan, most children attend without notebooks, pencils or paper. The school has only 500 textbooks, all for primary school students. Classrooms need paint, chairs are scarce, and doors and windows are absent. “We even need walls,” says the head, Gulailly Hamid. “This school was ruined by the war.” Despite the desperate conditions at Alam Faizad School, Hamid beams when she talks about her pupils. “I love my students, and I’m very proud of them,” she says. This year is the first time since the Taliban seized control of Kabul in 1996 that girls are entitled to receive a formal education. The Observer, London |
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Meena Kumari ‘reborn’ in Dhaka Dhaka, April 2 Moushumi said she came to know of her reincarnation through telepathy. Meena Kumari died on March 31, 1972. “Actually my country is India. My family, relatives and friends are all there”, Moushumi told the newspaper. Moushumi, whose father is an engineer, is a graduate and works with a private firm here. For good measure, she added: “Don’t take it as a joke. I am not mad nor am Ia mental patient. I really am Meena Kumari”. Moushumi said she was going public with her claim as she hoped Indian film stars like Dilip Kumar and Sunil Dutt, whom she described as “old friends”, would travel to Dhaka to meet her and take her back with them to Mumbai. On her return to Mumbai, Moushumi said she intended to set up a museum in memory of film star Raj Kumar and a cancer hospital in memory of actress Nargis, “who did a lot for me”. The newspaper said Moushumi had contacted it three months ago on the telephone claiming to be Meena Kumari and demanding that she be interviewed. Since there was no response, she barged into the office of the daily on Sunday and again demanded that she be heard.
IANS |
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Ne Win’s kin face treason Yangon, April 2 Myanmar’s deputy military intelligence chief, Major-Gen Kyaw Win, told reporters late yesterday that the 92-year-old Ne Win’s daughter Sandar Win, her husband and three sons had also committed serious economic crimes. “We will charge them not only with high treason but with economic offences,” he said, adding that they were suspected of smuggling vehicles from Thailand and selling mobile telephone handsets. Early last month the junta arrested Ne Win’s son-in-law Aye Zaw Win and his three sons. Since then Ne Win and his daughter Sandar Win have been under virtual house arrest at their Yangon residence but until now have faced no charges. General Kyaw Win said Ne Win remained in good health despite his advancing age.
AFP |
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3 Russians among prisoners in Cuba Moscow, April 2 The USA had suspected that some Russians were among the captives, following which Moscow despatched an official delegation to the Cuban base to identify its nationals among the prisoners. Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov yesterday made the sensational revelation saying that three of the captives at the Guantanamo military base were Russians.
IANS |
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