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Friday,
April 26, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Palestinian court jails four of Zeevi killers Lawyers’ mass protest against referendum
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I was forcibly removed: Tarar ‘Change judge’ in Pearl
case Process to oust paedophile priests Top Chechen warlord
killed |
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NZ city gets
first temple
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Palestinian court jails four of Zeevi killers Ramallah (West Bank), April 25 In a statement, it said the judge, Brig-Gen Ribhi Arafat, had sentenced the four men to prison. The sentences ranged from 18 years with hard labour to one year for the assassination in October of far-right Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi. Meanwhile, Greek and Turkish Foreign Ministers, on an unusual joint West Asia peace mission, met President Arafat at his besieged headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah today. George Papandreou of Greece and Turkey’s Ismail Cem did not speak to journalists after the 45-minute meeting. They later held talks with Israeli Prime Minister Sharon and were due to meet Foreign Minister Shimon Peres later in the day. Arafat said before the meeting he welcomed their initiative. “We appreciate it and we hope they (the Israelis) accept it,’’ he told reporters at his battered compound. JERUSALEM:
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon today dismissed a Palestinian military trial of four radicals sentenced for the killing of an Israeli Cabinet Minister and demanded their handover. “Israel demands they (the Palestinians) extradite the murderers of Minister Zeevi; and Fuad Shubaki, the man who was behind the ties between Iran and the Palestinian Authority and who was responsible, with Arafat’s approval, for financing the expenses of suicide bombers,’’ Sharon said. HEBRON (West Bank): Israel’s forces shot dead seven Palestinians near Jerusalem and across Palestinian territories early today as its tanks staged a brief overnight incursion into the southern West Bank town of Hebron. Hebron and Jericho are the only Palestinian cities not to have been occupied in Israel’s Operation Defensive launched on March 29. Parts of Ramallah and Bethlehem are still in Israeli hands. But Israeli troops and tanks launched a four-hour incursion into Hebron overnight to conduct searches and make arrests, residents said. In the Gaza Strip, Israeli forces said they had killed four Palestinians trying to infiltrate the Jewish settlement of Kfar Darom. The spate of attacks came as a third day of talks was set to begin in Bethlehem on ending the three-week old standoff between Israeli troops and Palestinian militants holed up inside the Church of the Nativity. UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations Security Council has deferred a discussion on an Arab-drafted resolution which would ask Israel to cooperate with the mission to the Jenin refugee camp appointed by Secretary-General Kofi Annan and call on Tel Aviv to lift the siege of the Palestinian leader.
Agencies |
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Lawyers’ mass protest against referendum Islamabad, April 25 Responding to the call given by the central and provincial bar associations to protest against the referendum, advocates of the Supreme Court, Sindh High Court, district and city courts boycotted work affecting the trial proceedings of US journalist Daniel Pearl’s murder. Meanwhile, the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy, along with leaders of religious parties and human rights organisations, prepared to hold an all-party conference tomorrow to chalk out plans to hold an anti-referendum rally on April 27. Musharraf has indicated that he would grant permission as he believes that the parties cannot mobilise the masses. Exiled Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is expected to address the rally either by phone or by a recorded message. Meanwhile, cricket legend-turned-politician Imran Khan came under attack from a stone-pelting crowd in Karachi at a rally in support of Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf’s referendum to decide his continuance in office for another five years. Khan’s Tehrik-i-Insaf in a press note alleged that some students belonging to a religious party fired gunshots in the air when he reached the venue of the meeting, which caused panic among those gathered to hear him. Also, scuffles broke out between pro- and anti-referendum supporters causing injuries to several. Some of the students resorted to stone pelting, which forced Khan to cancel his speech.
PTI |
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I was forcibly removed: Tarar Islamabad, April 25 In a hard-hitting interview to ‘The Nation’ daily that could embarrass President Musharraf, who is seeking a five-year extension in office through the April 30 referendum, Mr Tarar said he protested against his removal and refused to resign, despite the pressure on him. “I spoke in very clear words and recorded my resentment against Pervez Musharraf and his generals when they met me and demanded my resignation. At that meeting, I refused to resign” he said. Mr
Tarar, a former judge himself, hit at some of the judges of the Supreme Court who questioned as to why he chose to continue as President after the October, ‘99 coup and did not approach the apex court, if he really felt aggrieved by his removal. “What happened till October 17 (in 1999), it is a long story which I dont want to narrate now in reply to the remarks passed about me by the Supreme Court. “However, I will make those facts public, if national interests so required” he said.
PTI |
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‘Change judge’ in Pearl case Karachi, April 25 Chief prosecutor Raja Qureshi told reporters Judge Abdul Ghafoor Memon had been unable or unwilling to stop threats to himself and his witnesses from the accused in the anti-terrorism court. Qureshi, who yesterday said he feared for his life, said the High Court would decide tomorrow whether Memon, who is already the second judge to be appointed in the trial, should be replaced. “Today the prosecution has moved a petition in the High Court for the transfer of the case to another judge,” he told reporters after a brief meeting with Memon. Meanwhile, Islamabad today denied American media reports that US special forces along with Pakistani troops were carrying out combing operations in the country’s sensitive tribal areas to hunt down Taliban and Al-Qaida fighters. “This is not true, there is no new development”, a Foreign Minister official said here today. He said Pakistan had agreed for intelligence sharing with US authorities “but that does not mean Pakistani agencies would operate under the guidance of any foreign advisors”.
AFP, PTI |
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Process to oust paedophile priests Vatican City, April 25 However, there was no decision taken at an emergency two-day meeting ordered by Pope John Paul on a proposal to expel priests automatically from priesthood, once a case of child sex abuse had been proven. Asked if the meeting had decided on the so-called ‘zero tolerance’ procedure, Bishop Wilton Gregory, president of the U.S. Bishops’ Conference, told a press conference: “The specific resolution to that particular question will be finalised when the Bishops meet in June.” He added: “There is a growing consensus, certainly among the faithful, that it is too great a risk to re-assign a (paedophile) priest. It was not within the competence of this particular meeting to make that final determination.” If there was one person that reporters yearned to grill about the American Catholic Church’s paedophilia scandal, it was the man at the centre of the storm — Cardinal Bernard Francis Law of Boston. Despite earlier assurances, Cardinel Law failed to appear at a final press conference after two days of emergency talks at the Vatican, leaving his colleagues to take the flak for a crisis that he in many ways created. His failure to appear in public during the two-day summit did nothing to diminish media speculation that he would eventually have to quit over his highly criticised handling of the child abuse controversy. As U.S. Church officials gathered in the Vatican earlier this week, ahead of their watershed summit, Cardinal Law reportedly told them that without his “terrible mistakes”, they probably would not be in their current predicament. “He apologised for that,” said Cardinal Francis George of Chicago. Other Cardinals said he was eager to remain in charge of Boston, believing it was his duty to sort the problem out. “I think he feels it’s like a moral obligation because he was the one who was there when it happened and he wants to fix it,” said Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington D.C.
Reuters |
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Top Chechen warlord
killed Moscow, April 25 “International terrorist Khattab, an ideologist and organiser of terrorist activity, has been eliminated as a result of a special operation by the Federal Security Service in the Chechen republic,” an FSB spokesman said. Khattab’s death would be a major coup for Moscow and its campaign to stamp out an armed insurgency on its turbulent southern rim. Russia, which threw its weight behind the US-led war on terrorism, has also said Khattab was a faithful lieutenant of Osama bin Laden, whom Washington accuses of masterminding the September 11 hijacked airliner attacks.
Reuters |
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NZ city gets
first temple Sydney, April 25 |
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KUALA LUMPUR:
The 12th King of Malaysia was installed in an official coronation ceremony held at the Royal Palace on Thursday. Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin
Ibni Al-Marhum Tuanku Syed Putra Jamalullai from the tiny northern state of Perlis ascended the throne following the death of Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz, the 11th king, last November. The King is Head of State, as well as the nominal head of the military and all three branches of the government.
DPA