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Thursday,
May 8, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Kanishka flight ‘had’ extra engine Amarjit Chohan was ‘strangled’ USA cautions against too much optimism Bush appoints Jerry Bremer
as envoy to Iraq Saddam ordered withdrawal of $ 1 bn
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EU gets go-ahead to impose curbs on USA
Bush loses Budget chief WHO to send experts to SARS-hit China
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Kanishka flight ‘had’ extra engine Vancouver, May 7| The Air-India aircraft was carrying an extra engine called a fifth pod underneath a wing. “A fifth pod would move the centre of gravity forward, so this means we would have to load more (luggage) on the back” of the aircraft to balance it, Byron Graham, an Air Canada loading agent working at Toronto’s International Airport on June 22, 1985, told the British Colombia Supreme Court hearing the case yesterday. The Boeing 747 jumbo jet’s engine had broken down a couple of weeks earlier and was being transferred to Mumbai for repairs, Graham, now retired, told the court under questioning by crown prosecutor Gordon Matei. The baggage included pieces that had been loaded in Frankfurt. More luggage would be transferred and unloaded in Montreal, London, New Delhi and Mumbai, the flight’s final destination. But the delayed Flight 182 crashed about 45 minutes before reaching London. The Crown is trying to connect “itty bitty dots” in what is believed to be the most complex criminal case in Canadian history, Geoffrey Gaul, spokesman for the team of Air-India prosecutors, hearing the trial of the two British Columbia men, said outside the court. Ripudaman Singh Malik, (56) and Ajaib Singh Bagri, (53), face trial on eight counts, including first-degree murder, attempted murder and conspiracy in the bombing of Flight 182. Michael Docherty, who worked in a baggage handling area at the Toronto airport where the Canadian Pacific Airlines luggage from Vancouver arrived, told the court yesterday that there was a high volume of luggage to be transported to an Air India flight bound for Montreal on the afternoon of June 22, 1985. It took 55 to 65 minutes for the baggage to be unloaded from one terminal and transferred to the second terminal before it could be sent to an X-ray area, he said. A former Canadian Pacific Airlines employee Ross McLean told Justice Ian Donaldson that the Toronto baggage area, which received luggage originating in Vancouver, was restricted to employees. However, Richard Peck, a Defence lawyer for Bagri, quoted a December 1999 police interview in which McLean said anybody could have put a bag in the area and it wasn’t secure. McLean replied that the area was secure and that he would have noticed someone without an airline uniform. “It would be highly unlikely that somebody put a bag there that shouldn’t be there,” he told the court. Earlier, the testimony had focused on details of baggage handling. A former Canadian Airlines clerk had testified that a man had insisted on checking in a suitcase on the Air-India plane despite the fact that he did not have a confirmed ticket on the flight. Jeanne Bakermans told the Supreme Court here she remembers checking in the man, whose ticket identified him as M Singh, because he made such a fuss about the luggage as about 30 persons waited in line at her wicket at Vancouver International Airport on the morning of June 22, 1985.
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Amarjit Chohan was ‘strangled’ London, May 7 Three suspects have been named in connection with the disappearance of 46-year-old Chohan, his wife Nancy (25), their two infant sons, Devinder and Ravinder, and Nancy’s mother, Charanjit Kaur, from their home in Hounslow in Middlesex. The Scotland Yard has launched an international investigation into the suspected murder of Chohan, owner of a freight company with a turnover of four million pounds Interpol has been brought in to trace lorry driver Ken Regan, alias Ken Avery (54), from Salisbury, Wiltshire, who worked for Chohan, and William Horncy, travelling under the name William Smith (51), from Bournemouth. Chohan’s body was found in the sea near Bournemouth pier last month after he and his family disappeared from their home in mid-February. There is no trace of Chohan’s family members. The police believe his death might be linked to criminal activity run in parallel with his legitimate business, possibly involving smuggling of the stimulant drug into America, where it is illegal.
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USA cautions against too much optimism Washington, May 7 Replying to a correspondent’s suggestion that India and Pakistan “have settled these long squabbles and they are opening borders” and so on, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said, “Let’s not go too far ahead of ourselves.” “Certainly there are a lot of good things going on and the USA welcomes that, it has encouraged that and it is working with them on that. But there certainly are more things to do and more things that we will be talking to them about,” he said at his daily press briefing yesterday. He, however, assured that Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage will do what the USA can to promote peace and stability in South Asia. In South Asia, Mr Armitage will have discussions with senior officials in each country. He will meet with Embassy staff and will continue to express “our strong interest in strong relationships with the South Asian countries and do what we can to promote peace and stability in the region,” he said. Mr Boucher said Mr Armitage, who left on May 5, will be back on the 11th. Mr Armitage visits Islamabad, then Kabul and then New Delhi. He has been in London for meetings with British officials and with the Indian National Security Adviser, Mr Brajesh Mishra, who is travelling in Europe and will be in the USA when Mr Armitage is in South Asia. UNITED NATIONS: United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has “warmly” welcomed the offer by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to normalise relations with Pakistan and Islamabad’s “positive response” to it. “He looks forward to the peaceful resolutions of differences between India and Pakistan, including over Kashmir,” chief United Nations spokesman Fred Eckhard said. Mr Annan expressed the hope that the series of reciprocal steps being taken by the two countries would ease tensions and improve bilateral relations as also lead to strengthening of peace and stability in the entire South Asia region.
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Bush appoints Jerry Bremer
as envoy to Iraq
Washington, May 7 Describing Bremer as a man of enormous experience, Bush said, “Bremer, is a person who knows how to get things done; who shares the same values as most Americans share, and it is our deep desire to have an orderly country in Iraq that is free and at peace where an average citizen has a chance to achieve his or her dreams.”According to analysts, Bremer is expected to bring order into the Iraqi civilian administration. Though called Presidential envoy, he would gradually take charge of Iraq until Iraq has its own government. Bush made this announcement after holding a meeting with Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. During a meeting, US Secretary of State Colin Powell expressed confidence regarding the recovery of the lab which was included in the list of weapons of “mass destruction and facilities to make them. PTI  |
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Saddam ordered withdrawal of $ 1 bn before war New York, May 7 The removal of the money was done under the direct orders of Saddam Hussein as the duo carried a letter from the President, bearing his signature, authorising the removal of the money, an Iraqi official, who held a senior position in a bank under the Hussein’s government, was quoted as saying by The New York Times. The official, who had asked not to be identified, said no financial rationale had been offered for withdrawing the money from the bank’s vaults, and that no one had been told where the money would be taken. “When you get an order from Saddam Hussein, you do not discuss it,” he said. He had been told about the seizure of the cash by the Iraqi financial officials who had turned over the money to Hussein’s son and the adviser, he said.
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EU gets go-ahead to impose curbs on USA
Brussels/Geneva, May 7 The long-running row over an export scheme for US majors such as Boeing and Microsoft is one of a series of EU-US trade spats. It re-emerges days after the two pledged to work together to boost stalled global trade talks. “The commission will review the situation in the autumn,” said European Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy after the Geneva-based World Trade Organisation (WTO) gave the EU the go-ahead to impose the sanctions. “If there is no sign that compliance is on the way at that time, the commission would then start the legislative procedure for the adoption of counter-measures by January 1, 2004,” he added in a statement. The USA has been discussing ways in which it can comply with the WTO rulings against the system of tax breaks, known as the Foreign Sales Corporation (FSC), and two bills have been introduced in Congress in recent months. Mr Lamy said the EU was encouraged by the determination of Congress and the US administration to change the law and hoped that any solution would be fully in line with WTO rules. The row over the FSC goes back to 1998 and the level of the punitive duties was set according to the annual loss in earnings claimed by EU companies. The sum of $ 4.04 billion set by the WTO was a record for retaliation allowed by the trade body. The ruling means that the EU can set duties up to 100 per cent on hundreds of US imports, including live animals, aluminium and copper goods, cereals like buckwheat and nuclear reactor parts. The tax dispute is one of a number of spats involving the world’s two biggest economic blocs and both Brussels and Washington are anxious not to stoke tensions, particularly as key WTO talks to free up global commerce have run into trouble.
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Bush loses Budget chief Washington, May 7 “Mitch told me that he wants to go back home to Indiana and perhaps pursue a run for political office,” Bush told reporters yesterday. “This administration’s loss is the gain of the people of Indiana,” he added. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer informed that Daniels would serve as director of the Office of Management and Budget another 30 days, but refused to confirm that Clay Johnson, might replace him. Over the past six months, former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill alongwith chief White House economic advisers Larry Lindsey and Glenn Hubbard have left the Bush team.
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WHO to send experts to SARS-hit China Beijing, May 7 “The WHO experts will visit Hebei province as part of a joint Ministry of Health-WHO team to assess the SARS situation and the capacity to cope with an outbreak,” WHO said in a statement. It said that four WHO and China’s Ministry of Health experts would leave tomorrow for Hebei, which surrounds Beijing and is home to some of the capital’s “floating population” of migrant workers. The number of probable severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) cases in Hebei had risen sharply in the past few days to a total of 113 yesterday. In just five days between April 30 and May 4, the numbers doubled to 98. There were also 110 suspect SARS cases in the province, the WHO said.
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