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Wednesday,
February 12, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Reyat pleads guilty, gets five years Haj stampede claims 14 lives Bomb suspect sorry for victims Coalition forces bomb Afghanistan area
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Reyat pleads guilty, gets five years Toronto, February 11 In a previously unscheduled court appearance in Vancouver, British Columbia, yesterday Reyat pleaded guilty for 329 counts of manslaughter, Canada’s public broadcaster CBC reported. Originally charged with 329 counts of first-degree murder, Reyat pleaded guilty to the same amount of charges of manslaughter. Reyat was sentenced to five years in jail, CBC said. Reyat, 51, along with Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri, were charged with conspiracy and murder in the worst case of mass murder in Canada’s history, Canadian Television (CTV) reported. Reyat has already served 10 years in a British prison for his role in a blast at Tokyo’s Narita Airport killing two baggage handlers, that occurred an hour before the Air India flight 182 went down. He was sent to Canada upon his release in 2001 to face the charges from the flight bombing. His plea raised speculation that Reyat would testify against the other two suspects, CTV said. ‘Kanishka’, the Air India flight 182 from Montreal to New Delhi exploded off the coast of Ireland over the Atlantic Ocean near Britain in June, 1985. All 329 persons aboard, most of them Canadians, were killed. Reyat also pleaded guilty to aiding in the construction of the bomb that was planted in Kanishka, CBC reported. Under the plea bargain, Reyat is expected to testify against Bagri and Malik, who have been jailed since 2000, it added. The three have been awaiting trial for more than two years. The trial is one of the most long-drawn and high-profile in Canada’s legal history, for what was termed Canada’s biggest mass murder case. A special basement courtroom, in which Reyat pleaded guilty yesterday, was fortified for the trial at a cost of more than $ 4.6 million. Bulletproof glass separated the judge, court officers, lawyers and defendants from the gallery, and Reyat sat in a special defendants’ box also encased in bulletproof glass. Reyat holds both British and Canadian citizenship.
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Haj stampede claims 14 lives Mina (Saudi Arabia), February 11 “Fourteen pilgrims died and others were injured following a huge crowd rush in Mina,” said General Abdul Aziz bin Mohammed bin Said, commander of security forces in Mecca, cited by the official SPA news agency. “The stampede took place while pilgrims returning to their camps at 10:30 am (0100 IST) met pilgrims coming the other way”, he said. The dead included six women and nationals from Pakistan, India, Egypt, Iran and Yemen. The three-day stoning ritual, which marks the first day of Id and the last stage of the annual Haj, has been flashpoint for stampedes over the past few years. Last year’s pilgrimage passed off without a major incident.
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Bomb suspect sorry for victims
Bali, February 11 Ali Imron, one of the main suspects held by the Indonesian police investigating the October 12 bombings, told a news conference that while the majority of victims had been Australian tourists, the real target had been the USA. “Our target is the USA and its allies because they are the international terrorists,” Imron told mediapersons at which he also showed reporters how one of the bombs was assembled. Unlike judicial systems in the West, the Indonesian authorities often give media or members of the public considerable access to suspects. The police has linked the Bali attack to Southeast Asia’s Jemaah Islamiah Muslim militant group, which several countries have in turn tied to the Al-Qaida.
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Coalition forces bomb Afghanistan area Bagram, Afghanistan, February 11 The planes targeted three caves and at least five armed men in the Baghran valley after the soldiers were attacked yesterday morning, US spokesman Col Roger King said at the US headquarters at Bagram, north of Kabul. “Close air support was requested and coalition F-16s dropped 5 GBU-12s (bombs) and fired more than 100 rounds of ammunition,” he told a news briefing. He said no US soldiers were hurt. The Dutch defence ministry said the attackers fled after a pair of Dutch F-16s bombed the area, which is in the central province of
Uruzgan. A report said US A-10 aircraft were called in to help a U S convoy after it came under attack from heavy machine-gun fire and grenades.
Reuters |
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‘Devdas’ fails to
garner Oscar nomination Los Angeles, February 11 The musical extravaganza starring the best of Bollywood with Shah Rukh Khan, Madhuri Dixit, Aishwarya Rai and Jackie Shroff in the lead, lost out to “Crime of Father Amaro” from Mexico, “Hero” from China, “Man without a Past” from Finland, “Nowhere in Africa” from Germany and “Zus and Zo” from The Netherlands.
PTI BEVERLY HILLS: Veteran filmmakers Martin Scorsese and Roman Polanski today won nominations for the best director Oscar for their movies “Gangs of New York” and “The Pianist.”
AFP |
MADONNA TO GIVE ANTI-WAR MESSAGE BABY DELIVERED AFTER MOTHER’S DEATH ASIA’S LARGEST BOOK FAIR OPENS EASY ACCESS TO SHIVA FOR RICH |
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Toronto, February 11
