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Wednesday,
April 16, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Veiled US threat to Syria continues
US assurance to Kuwait on PoWs West Asia violence claims 6 lives SARS claims 9 more lives Embracing Pervez was mistake: Senator G-8 summit to discuss Indo-Pak standoff |
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Blair lauds Sikhs’ contribution Afghan commander killed Three die in northwester Lawyer gunned down in court
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Veiled US threat to Syria continues Washington, April 15 “Syria needs to broadly assess what role it wants to play, cooperatively with the rest of the world and with its neighbours — and now, with a newly-liberated neighbourhood, newly-liberated Iraqi people, where the Iraqi people, themselves, have a strong message to Syria: Don’t harbour these people who oppressed the Iraqi people,” White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said. “So, most importantly, the President wants Syria to get the message that they need to re-examine themselves; they need to examine their ties to terrorists, their harbouring of terrorists and their development of weapons of mass destruction,” he said. Hinting that if Syria did not change, it might share the fate of Iraq, Mr Fleischer said “President Bashar Assad is a young leader. He is an untested leader. He has his chance to be a leader who makes the right decisions. We hope he does.” Asked whether the USA was contemplating sanctions, he said “well, there are a variety of levers that are available in diplomacy. We are working bilaterally, multilaterally. It is too soon to say what the final outcome will be, but for the cause of peace, it is important for Syria to re-examine its role in the region.” Asked whether the USA ruled out military action as part of the consequences if Syria did not change its policies, Mr Fleischer said “as we have always said, every region of the world is treated uniquely. Every nation is treated uniquely.” “There are a variety of different levers that apply to different regions. I will make a blanket statement as overall policy around the world, and that is a statement that we don’t make anywhere. We always leave options on tables,” Mr Fleischer said. He noted that in addition to harbouring Iraqi leaders, President Bush had noted that Syria had chemical weapons, according to a report just released by the CIA to the Congress. Asked whether the American military success in Iraq sent a message to the Israelis as well as the Arabs, Mr Fleischer said “I think it sends a message to nations that engage in terror, and nations that engage in tyranny, and nations that engage in the pursuit of weapons of mass destruction that is a route that does not lead to a good future.” DAMASCUS: Syria on Tuesday branded as “threats and “falsifications’’ US accusations that Damascus was developing chemical weapons. The Cabinet said in a statement the “escalated language of threats and accusations by some American officials against Syria are aimed at damaging its steadfastness and influencing its national decisions and (Arab) national stances’’. CAIRO: Arabs are unnerved and insulted by US accusations that Syria is a “rogue nation’’ developing chemical weapons and fear Washington’s stream of broadsides mean the war on Iraq could extend to other Arab states. “Who the hell do the Americans think they are? They are so predictable. Before the war, we all said the US would start in Iraq and then target other Arabs. And here we have it,’’ Egyptian doctor Noha said. Damascus has vehemently denied charges that it is harbouring Iraqi leaders, seeking chemical weapons and sponsoring terrorism. Syria’s ambassador to Spain on Tuesday said the claims were a baseless insult and blackmail.
PTI, Reuters |
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Iraqis protest
Baghdad, April 15 |
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US assurance to Kuwait on PoWs Washington, April 15 US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sabah al Ahmed al Sabah discussed the issue at the Pentagon yesterday. Mr Rumsfeld assured Mr Sabah that the USA was working to “pursue every conceivable lead” to trace the PoWs as it was one issue that Kuwait and the USA shared as a deep concern and an abiding interest. Now that the Saddam Hussein regime was deposed, Iraqi citizens may come forward with information, he said. Kuwait maintains that Iraq still holds 600 Kuwaiti prisoners of war. One US navy pilot Michael Scott Speicher is also still unaccounted for from since 1991 war. Mr Rumsfeld said Kuwait had worked with Britain to build a pipeline into Iraq, which now delivered two million litres of fresh water a day. Kuwaiti relief organisations were also providing food and medicine in several Iraqi cities, he said. Describing Iraq as a country “kidnapped” for 15 years, Mr Sabah thanked the Bush administration for its efforts to “deliver the Iraqis from bondage.” It was now for the Iraqis to settle down and form their own government, he said. Under Saddam Hussein, “decent people have been tortured, killed and exiled. It would take a long time, I think some time, for the healing process to take hold in Iraq,” he said.
PTI |
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West Asia violence claims 6 lives Gaza, April 15 The surge in violence cast a new shadow on US efforts to press ahead with a peacemaking “road map” that calls for end to the Israeli-Palestinian fighting and the creation of a Palestinian state by 2005. In what the militant Islamic group Hamas called revenge for Israel’s killing of one of its top commanders, a gunman hurled hand grenades and sprayed automatic weapons fire in the Karni terminal where goods are transported between Israel and the Gaza Strip. Two Israeli workers were killed and three wounded before soldiers and armed guards shot the attacker dead, the army said. Earlier, Israeli soldiers yesterday killed a Hamas gunman who shot at troops who came to arrest him and two other militants holed up in an apartment building in the West Bank city of Nablus. An army lieutenant was shot dead in the incident and another soldier was wounded and two of the wanted men were taken into custody, the army said. The Hamas said it launched the Karni assault to avenge an Israeli air strike that killed senior Hamas leader Sa’ad al-Arbeed, one of his deputies and five other Palestinians a week ago in Gaza City. In more violence, a militant from the Islamic Jehad group was killed by rockets fired from an Israeli army watchtower in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah, witnesssaid. The Islamic Jehad said Abdel-Hamid Abu el-Eish was one of its field commanders. In the West Bank city of Hebron, the army demolished the home of a Hamas militant. An army statement said he had tried to carry out an attack in the nearby Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba on April 5.
Reuters |
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SARS claims 9 more lives Hong Kong, April 15 The latest figures bring the local death toll to 56 and a total of 1,232 cases, a government state said. BEIJING: Health officials in the USA said the cracked genetic code of the agent cannot explain how the disease started or how to stop SARS. Hong Kong’s Department of Health said the deceased include four men and one woman, aged between 45 and 84. The remaining are a 45-year-old man and three women, aged 32, 34 and 37, the department said in a press note. PTI, Reuters |
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Embracing Pervez was mistake: Senator Washington, April 15 Dubbing the US-India relationship as a “win-win-situation,” Senator Joseph Biden, a ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, warned that “dictators cannot protect the interests of the USA.” The sentiments were echoed by several legislators at a “breakfast on the hill” event sponsored by the US-India Political Action Committee. “The USA made a mistake in hastily embracing General Musharraf after September 11. It would perhaps have been better to have used NATO to crush the Taliban and the Al-Qaida rather than to make a bargain with Pakistan, Mr Biden said. “There would not be any genuine pressure on Pakistan as long as the war on Iraq was prosecuted,” Mr Biden said, adding that the US Government should find ways to cut the incursions of terrorists from Pakistan into India to enable Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to take calculated chances in improving India’s relationship with Pakistan. PTI |
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G-8 summit to discuss Indo-Pak standoff Moscow, April 15 The G-8, a grouping of world’s eight most industrialised democracies — the USA, the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia, will discuss Indo-Pakistan standoff at the summit in Evian (France) in June, according to a statement from the ministry. This was conveyed to the Indian Ambassador K. Raghunath today by Russian Deputy Foreign Ministry Georgy Mamedov who briefed him on the agenda of the Evian summit. Mr Mamedov is Russia’s pointman in the body preparing for the G-8 summit.
PTI |
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Blair lauds Sikhs’ contribution London, April 15 “I know that British Sikhs have made a great contribution to the economic, cultural and political life of the United Kingdom and I firmly believe that your faith and culture have brought tremendous strengths and benefits to our society,” Blair said in his message. He said the festival of Baisakhi demonstrated the enduring values of the Sikh community their belief in equality, social justice, tolerance and respect for other religions and faiths. “These are values shared by the wider British community and I am delighted to have this opportunity to send you my best wishes at this special time,” the British Prime Minister said. PTI |
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Afghan commander killed Mazar-i-Sharif, April 15 Commander Shahi was driving to the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif when his car was ambushed in the Char Bolak area about 30 km to the west, one of Dostum’s deputies, Gen Majid Roozi, said. The identity of Shahi’s assailants was not known, but Dostum’s faction has a tense rivalry with the Jamiat-e-Islami group led by ethnic Tajik Ustad Atta Mohammad. Shahi, who led about 300 fighters, served for more than 15 years as a commander for Dostum.
Reuters |
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Three die in northwester Dhaka, April 15 The three died when a boundary wall fell on their thatched house in the Kafrul area in the city during the storm last night, the police said today. Bengali new-year day celebrations came to an abrupt halt as revellers on the streets scrambled for cover with the 100 km/hr wind uprooting trees and damaging houses. Electric and telephone lines were snapped and large areas went without power for long hours.
PTI |
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Lawyer gunned down in court Karachi, April 15 Ashraf Ali, 35, was waiting for the judge inside a courtroom when a junior police officer and another man walked up to him and opened fire, Mr Asad Ashraf Malik, the police chief of Karachi, said. Ali was taken to a government hospital in critical condition where he later died.
AP |
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