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Thursday,
April 10, 2003, Chandigarh, India   |
Putin invites Chirac, Schroeder for talks
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Red Cross suspends Baghdad operations Arabs ask for UN session
US bombing kills 11 Afghans |
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‘Crorepati’ convicted, jailed for cheating London, April 9 Three persons, including an Army Major and his wife, have been found guilty of cheating their way to the top prize on the popular TV quiz, “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?” Charles Ingram, 39, used coded coughs given by his college lecturer accomplice to help select answers, Judge Geoffrey Rivlin QC ruled in London’s Southwark Crown Court. 
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Putin invites Chirac, Schroeder for talks Moscow, April 9 Interestingly, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is due to visit St Petersburg on the same days. The three countries have emerged as vocal opponents of the US-led attack on Iraq. United Nations Secretary General, Mr Kofi Annan, will attend the European Union conference to be held in Greece next week to discuss post-war Iraq. Mr Putin has also been invited to the Athens. The meeting will begin on April 16, but Mr Annan is expected to attend only on April 17. A UN spokesman said Annan has declined to attend a weekend meeting Putin is hosting in St Petersburg. France is satisfied and Japan has welcomed the statement in which US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair said the United Nations should play a vital role in a post-war Iraq. “France is of course pleased at the stance that has been taken by President Bush and Prime Minister Blair,” de Villepin, French Foreign Minister told reporters after talks here with his Kuwaiti opposite number, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah in Paris Tuesday. “We praise (the talks) as they mentioned an important role by the United Nations and expressed support for an early establishment of the government by Iraqi people,” Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda told a news conference in Tokyo. Britain has appealed for closer defence ties with Germany. British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon told this to journalists after talks with German counterpart Peter Struck Tuesday. Germany, is scheduled to attend a Brussels defence summit later this month of European Union opponents of the US-led Iraq war, including France, Belgium and Luxembourg.
Agencies |
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Red Cross suspends Baghdad operations Geneva, April 9 The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in a statement from its Geneva headquarters said a Canadian aid worker was missing and was feared seriously injured following the incident today, when his car was either attacked or caught in crossfire. A spokesman in Jordan said the ICRC, one of the only international organisations working in the Iraqi capital, was suspending its activities in Baghdad because of the fighting. “The precarious and dangerous situation and the chaos which reigns in Baghdad obliges the ICRC, with regret, to suspend its activities temporarily in the city,” ICRC spokesman Moin Kassis said. “We regret we cannot give help to those who need it in these circumstances,” he added. The Canadian staffer, Vatche Arslanian, was missing and was feared seriously injured after two vehicles clearly marked with the Red Cross were either attacked or caught in crossfire, the ICRC said in Geneva. Two other staff members who were in the cars managed to escape and raise the alarm, it said. But fellow aid workers who returned to the area to try to rescue the 48-year-old Canadian logistics expert were forced to turn back because of the fighting.
AFP |
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Arabs ask for UN session United Nations, April 9 The Arabs sent in their request yesterday after a closed-door meeting of 116-member Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) failed to develop a consensus on seeking the session. The Assembly’s 28-member General Committee is scheduled to consider the request on Friday and there could also be procedural wrangle in the Assembly itself, diplomats say. Arab Group’s Chairman Ambassador Abdullah Alsaidi of Yemen said they were moving the Assembly as there was no chance of such a resolution being adopted by the 15-member Council.
PTI |
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US bombing kills 11 Afghans Bagram (Afghanistan), April 9 “Eleven Afghan civilians were killed and one was wounded early this morning when a bomb dropped by coalition aircraft landed in a house on the outskirts of Shkin near the Pakistan border,” said Mr Douglas
Lefforge, US military spokesman at the Bagram air base north of Kabul. “The tragic incident occurred when enemy forces attacked an Afghan military post checkpoint that was providing security near the Shkin firebase just before midnight last night,” he said. There are 11,500 US and allied troops in Afghanistan.
Reuters |
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‘Crorepati’ convicted, jailed for cheating London, April 9 Charles
Ingram, 39, used coded coughs given by his college lecturer accomplice
to help select answers, Judge Geoffrey Rivlin QC ruled in London’s
Southwark Crown Court. Ingram’s wife Diana, a nursery nurse, and Tecwen Whittock, 53, head of business studies at Pontypridd College, South Wales, were among the three convicted after almost 14 hours of deliberations over three days. Diana, also 39, was found guilty of helping to “set up” the scam. The Ingrams were sentenced to 18 months in prison, suspended for two years, and each fined £ 15,000 and ordered to pay £ 10,000 in costs. Whittock was sentenced to 12 months in prison, also suspended for two years, and was fined £ 10,000 pounds and ordered to pay £ 7,500 in costs. The court heard that the Ingrams and Whittock had been in contact by phone on a regular basis for several months before Ingram’s winning show. But they ignored each other at the studio. Whittock admitted that he had a cough at the time and a number of people in the audience noticed it. But he insisted that he had not coughed to help Ingram with the answers. A ministry of Defence spokesman said Ingram’s conviction did not mean automatic expulsion from the Army. An internal investigation would be carried out. The Ingrams of Easterton, Wiltshire and Whittock of Whitchurch, Cardiff, were each found guilty of one count of “procuring a valuable security by deception” on September 10, 2001, when Charles Ingram accepted the £ 1-million cheque from TV host Chris Tarrant — which was later cancelled.
PTI |
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