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Monday,
June 17, 2002, Chandigarh, India   |
Consulate attack warning to USA, Pakistan
2 Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza |
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Strike cripples life in
Bangladesh Loya Jirga witnesses uproar
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Pearl prize for Newsday scribe Pro-Chirac union sweeps poll Social Democrats
win Czech poll 24 killed in cyber cafe fire
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Consulate attack warning to USA, Pakistan Karachi, June 16 The Home Secretary of Sindh province, Brigadier Mukhtar Sheikh, said although the culprits had not been identified, authorities were sure the attack was linked to the ongoing battle against Islamic militants. “It sounds a warning to the Pakistan Government as we are an ally of the international coalition against terrorism,” he said. The Pakistan police had not made any headway in the investigations into the bombing, a senior police official said. The car bomb attack had killed 11, including five women, and injured over 40, besides causing damage to the consulate, an adjacent hotel and many buildings in the vicinity of the consulate. “We have picked up dozens of persons for questioning, but so far no clue has been found as to who are involved in the deadly attack,’’ the official said. It was still not clear whether it was a suicide car bomb similar to the May 8 attack on a bus carrying Frenchmen or a remote-controlled device used to blow up the explosive-stuffed vehicle, the official said. The Pakistani police and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation were working in close association in the investigation of the terrorist attack.
AFP, DPA |
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2 Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza
Gaza, June 16 The soldiers clashed with a group of gunmen near the Dugit Jewish settlement in the northern Gaza Strip yesterday during a search for militants who planted a car bomb carrying mortar rounds and launchers and more than 150 kg of explosives. “There are two dead soldiers and four wounded near Dugit,” an Israeli army spokeswoman said today, adding that the two soldiers killed were aged 20 and 22. Israeli television and radio stations said at least one of the militants was killed in the clash. An army commander in Gaza said the militants had planned to lure soldiers to the booby-trapped car by firing mortars from the vehicle and then detonating explosives when troops came to search the area. The military wing of the militant Islamic Hamas group claimed it was behind the clash. In the West Bank, Israeli construction workers prepared to break ground to erect a controversial fence dividing Israel from the northern West Bank in a measure Israel hoped would keep Palestinian suicide bombers out of the Jewish state. Jewish settlers opposed the plan for a fence along Israel’s frontier as it was before the 1967 war, when Israel captured the West Bank from Jordan. Palestinians feared their land could be confiscated and families separated by the fence. Israel had launched almost daily raids on Palestinian-ruled territory, keeping up pressure after a West Bank offensive unleashed in March after a spate of suicide bombings. Meanwhile, the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) criticised the European Union for its reported plans to put three groups, including one linked to President Yasser Arafat’s Fatah faction, on its list of terror organisations. “We consider that European Union position as support to the state terrorism that the Israeli government is carrying out against our people,” it said in a statement. The decision to put the Fatah-linked al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the PFLP and the Palestine Liberation Front on a list of banned terror groups would add pressure on Arafat to overhaul his government and rein in militant groups.
Reuters |
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Strike cripples life in
Bangladesh
Dhaka, June 16 The authorities deployed hundreds of extra police and kept paramilitary troops on standby as strikers vowed to beat any attempt to foil the stoppage, called by the main opposition Awami League. Witnesses said the police arrested at least 10 opposition activists and drove away hundreds trying to stage a rally outside the Awami League’s central office. “They (policemen) even didn’t spare women activists,’’ a witness said. “Steel-helmeted female police, aided by their male colleagues, scuffled with agitating women and forced them away,’’ he added. The strike came on the anniversary of the death of 20 persons in a bomb blast at an Awami party office last year. The strike, which began at 5.30 a.m, closed schools and halted trade on the two stock exchanges in Dhaka and Chittagong port city. Most private offices, factories, banks and shops were shut while port officials said cargo handling and deliveries were disrupted. The Awami League called the strike in protest against sweeping tax hikes on imported food items and other things which the government proposed in its 2002/03 budget this month to make up a revenue shortfall.
Reuters |
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Loya Jirga witnesses uproar
Kabul, June 16 At one point delegates mobbed the stage at the venue, a large marquee set up at Kabul Polytechnic, and forced the session to be halted. However, the heated discussions did not degenerate into the scuffles that marred yesterday’s debate. Delegates were split over how to elect the 111 representatives to the national assembly, which is to convene after the Loya Jirga with newly elected leader Hamid Karzai at the helm. One proposal favours electing two representatives from each of Afghanistan’s 32 provinces, with small numbers of seats set aside for a few interest groups, while the other would simply select a proportion of the Loya Jirga delegates. Two thirds of the more than 1,500 Loya Jirga representatives have been elected from districts across the country, while the remainder are drawn from groups such as women, overseas refugees and the nomad population.
AFP |
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Pearl prize for Newsday scribe New York, June 16 The South Asian Journalists Association awarded the prize to Bazzi yesterday, who had been sent by the New York daily to Pakistan to cover the kidnapping of Pearl. He had also written a series of reports on the US-led war on terrorism in Afghanistan. The prize, which would be awarded annually, was presented in a ceremony at Columbia University, which was attended by Pearl’s sisters Michelle and Tamara. A statement from Daniel Pearl’s widow Mariane was read out in which she said “I am missing Danny more than I can express’’. Pearl had been abducted by Islamic militants while researching a story on Richard Reid, who had been charged with trying to blow up a trans-Atlantic flight with bombs hidden in his shoes.
Reuters |
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Pro-Chirac union sweeps poll Paris, June 16
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Social Democrats
win Czech poll Prague, June 16 The elections also saw an unexpected surge in the vote for communists, who won nearly one in five ballots in the ex-Soviet bloc country which hopes to become an EU member in 2004. Turnout meanwhile slumped. President Vaclav Havel called Social Democrat (CSSD) leader Vladimir Spidla to Prague Castle for consultations today, along with the leaders of the three other parties which could take part in a government. The Social Democrats won 30.20 per cent, against 24.47 per cent for the Civic Democrats, 18.51 per cent for the communists and 14.27 per cent for the coalition. This gives the Social Democrats 70 seats in the 200-member parliament, along with 31 for the coalition. The ODS will have 58 seats, and the communists 41, according to the official results.
AFP |
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24 killed in cyber cafe fire Beijing, June 16 The fire broke out at around 2:40 hrs (0:10 hrs IST) in the Lanjisu cyber cafe located in Xueyuan Lu, Haidian district. Beijing’s fire department sent fire engines to the scene immediately after being alerted and the blaze was put out by 3:30 hrs, Xinhua news agency reported.
PTI |
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