 |
|
Saturday,
July 5, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
|
Pak forces intrude into Afghanistan Six Al-Qaida suspects
arrested Chinese aid for Pak N-plant
US F-18 jets violate Indonesian
airspace Israel listing prisoners
for release $ 7.5 m grant for Nepal to fight corruption |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Bollywood magic comes to Wales
|
|
Pak forces intrude into Afghanistan Islamabad, July 4 The Pakistanis had intruded 45 km into the frontier areas and were occupying Afghan territory, Nangarhar's provincial military commander General Ali was quoted as saying by the Kabul correspondent of Iran's state-run radio, Voice of Islamic Republic of Iran. President Karzai had asked him to fight and stop the further advance of the Pakistani forces, General Ali said. Despite claims of operations against Al-Qaida terrorists by Pakistan, the USA and the Afghan Government, no Al-Qaida activist had been arrested in the province in the past 18 months, he said. A Pakistani newspaper, Daily Times, carried a similar report quoting a tribal leader from the region. Mohammad Anwar Sultani, a Loya Jirga (Council of Elders) representative from Jalalabad, told a meeting of tribal leaders that Pakistani troops had violated the border in Nangarhar and Kunar provinces, and intruded 40 km inside the Afghan territory. "We are here in this hall discussing and making plans for tomorrow, but no one is talking about the present invasion of Pakistani militias inside the Afghan territory," he told an audience of around 1,000 Loya Jirga representatives and guests in Nagarhar. "It is not a misunderstanding over the border by one or two kilometres, but a solid 40 km invasion along Nangarhar and some parts of Kunar province," he said. Sultani, who said he was speaking on behalf of 20 Loya Jirga representatives from Nangarhar, said the Pakistani forces had crossed into eight areas near the border. A spokesman for President Karzai said the government was "extremely concerned" about the reported incursions by Pakistanis and was verifying these reports. Afghan Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali, however, denied there was any border violation. "Pakistan was conducting a number of operations against terrorists in the area, as they announced, so their military forces moved into the tribal areas," he said. "Therefore, the operations against terrorism in the area caused the impression that in some places the Pakistani forces actually violated the border, which other sources and people who came from the area did not confirm." Kunar Governor Sayeed Fazel Akbar, too, denied there had been any incursion in his province. A top Pakistani army official also rejected the Afghan claim, the Daily Times said. "We did not cross even an inch across the Afghan border," Ali Mohammed Jan Orakzai, the Pakistani corps Commander in Peshawar, told tribal elders in Mohmand region that borders Afghanistan. —
IANS |
|
Six Al-Qaida suspects arrested Karachi, July 4 Pakistan has arrested nearly 500 Al-Qaida and Taliban suspects, who fled neighbouring Afghanistan since the US-led coalition launched its war on terror there in 2001 in response to the September 11 terrorist attacks on the USA. Washington: Despite repeated Pakistani denials, US intelligence agency CIA has said the Al-Qaida was working with two former Pakistani scientists and is currently capable of conducting attacks with chemical, biological, radiological or even nuclear weapons. The CIA in a May 2003 report entitled ‘Terrorist CBRN: Materials and Effects’ named former scientists of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission as Bashir Ud-din Mahmood and Abdul Majeed saying that the Al-Qaida was working with them. These charges had been denied by Pakistani officials. Handwritten documents uncovered in Afghanistan suggested that Al-Qaida’s specialists did have nuclear physics and weaponisation knowledge that exceeded the type of information available via open and declassified sources, the study reported in ‘Jane’s Intelligence Digest’ said. The report said the Al-Qaida, and to a lesser extent other terrorist groups, were currently capable of conducting attacks with biological or even nuclear weapons and that it was "a high probability" that it would be in the next two years. —
AP, PTI |
|
|
Chinese aid for Pak N-plant
Islamabad, July 4
China has already helped Pakistan set up its second nuclear power plant at Chashma after Karachi and the PAEC officials said
Chashma-II would be completed by 2010. — PTI |
|
|
China bows before Indian sadhu Kathmandu, July 4 An Indian holyman from Rishikesh has been able to persuade Beijing to allow him build a rest house in the once forbidden land of Tibet. Swami Chidanand Saraswati, 51-year-old head of the Parmarth Niketan ashram in Rishikesh, will lead nearly 200 pilgrims from 13 countries as diverse as Canada, Fiji, Portugal and India to Mansarovar, the holy lake near Mount Kailash in Tibet, to inaugurate the rest house for tourists and pilgrims. The project, funded by the Rishikesh-based India Heritage Research Foundation (IHRF), also includes running a clinic and cleaning up the area near the lake. The flagging off of the group from Kathmandu for Lhasa on Saturday will be the climax to an effort that can be traced back to 1998. That was the time the Delhi-born sadhu first went on a pilgrimage of Kailash, which Hindus consider a sacred mountain for being the abode of Lord Shiv. “I was moved by the desperate situation of the people there,” the eloquent Saraswati, fluent in both English and Hindi, told IANS here. “There was no medical facility for hundreds of kilometres and people died of treatable ailments. There was no running water and no place for tourists and pilgrims to stay. They had to put up in tents. “I vowed I would do something for the people who lived there and those who travelled there.” Saraswati set up a one-man bureau in Kathmandu that spent two years negotiating with Beijing to get permission for the project, which he plans to expand later by starting schools and vocational training programmes. The saffron-clad, long-bearded sadhu’s negotiating skills would put many a seasoned diplomat to shame. According to the agreement signed between him, sponsor IHRF and Chinese and Tibetan senior officials in Kathmandu on December 15, 2000, for “all future projects in the region, including schools, hospitals, rest houses, sanitation programmes, the government of Tibet/China will give first priority to the IHRF to sponsor the project”.—
IANS |
|
US F-18 jets violate Indonesian airspace Jakarta, July 4 Rear Air Marshal Wresnowiro said the Air Force radar detected the F-18 Hornet planes manoeuvering over Bawean Island off the northern coast of Java island yesterday. Two Indonesian F-16 fighter jets intercepted the US planes and notified them on the emergency frequency that they were in Indonesian airspace, he said. “It was tense as the F-18 planes went into attack positions,” said Wresnowiro, who goes by a single name. “They adopted an attack manoeuvre and had their missiles locked on our planes, ready to fire.” The US planes were spotted flying for more than two hours above the islands, 800 km East of Jakarta. Wresnowiro said the US planes were guarding an aircraft carrier, two frigates and a tanker, which were travelling east. They were last seen in Lombok islands. The naval convoy was not in an international sea lane and had sought permission from the Indonesian Government, he said, “but our bureaucracy is too slow to pass the security clearance.” —
AP |
|
Israel listing prisoners
for release Jerusalem, July 4 The Shin Bet is also drawing up a list of prisoners, whose release it opposes. Both lists will be handed to the premier at Sunday’s Cabinet meeting. Palestinians are also drawing up a list of detainees it wants to be freed. Most of them are serving long sentences in Israeli jails. Israel freed 53 detainees yesterday, including a senior Palestinian security official arrested on the suspicion of involvement in attack on Israelis. According to the Israeli daily, several hundred prisoners are slated for release next week. The Shin Bet has reportedly recommended Israel to free prisoners, who were not jailed for attacks on Israelis. —
DPA |
|
$ 7.5 m grant for Nepal to fight corruption Kathmandu, July 4 The grant will be used to improve Nepal’s court system and “increase access to justice for the poor and disenfranchised,” a statement by the US Embassy said. It said the money would try to build “more transparent, accountable and effective governance” in Nepal and bolster institutions, including the finance ministry and the anti-corruption Commission for the Investigation and Abuse of Authority. A finance ministry official said the agreement was signed yesterday by Madhav Prasad Ghimire, joint secretary in the finance ministry who leads its foreign aid division, and Wendy Chamberlin, who heads the Asia and Near East section of the US Agency for International Development. International donors have complained in the past that aid delivery has been impeded by corruption and a shaky administrative structure in rural stretches of the Himalayan state. —
AFP |
|
|
Bollywood magic comes to Wales Snowdonia (Wales), July 4 The quintessential Welsh backdrop, glistening in the late evening sun, has been chosen for a dream scene in “Kyon! Ho Gaya Na Pyaar”, a romantic comedy to be released next year. Directed by Sameer Karnik and produced by Boney Kapoor, it is the latest high-profile international film to be shot in Wales, which is staking its claim as a global moviemakers’ mecca. “Tomb Raider II” was made in the midst of Snowdonia in late 2002, while the most recent James Bond thriller “Die Another Day” was shot in part on Penbryn beach, on Wales’ west coast. “Our marketing is focused on trying to increase awareness of what Wales has to offer — convincing people that Wales has the range of fantastic locations that they need,” Mike Wallwork, national coordinator of the Wales Screen Commission (WSC), said. Rai’s co-star and Bollywood heartthrob Vivek Oberoi was certainly enjoying the views on his first visit to Wales. “Absolutely gorgeous, breathtakingly beautiful,” he raved as filming began last weekend in Dolbadarn Castle — now just a single tower after years of wear and tear. No doubt he was thinking the same about Aishwariya Rai, the former Miss World of 1994, stunning in a flowing burgundy robe in the midst of the highest peak in Wales and the national park that surrounds it. Karnik and Kapoor picked Snowdonia and the forests in South Wales for their latest Bollywood offering after being enticed by the WSC to come to Wales following a trade fair in Mumbai, in November. That was the same month in which the WSC was formed, after the Welsh Assembly in Cardiff decided to improve on what had been a trio of rival regional film commissions. “The assembly decided it will be sensible to have one organisation in terms of external marketing of Wales as a location rather than three separate bodies that are competing against each other,” Wallwork said. “Wales is a relatively small country and we need to promote Wales to the outside world as a single entity.” Attracting even bigger film producers than those behind “Tomb Raider” and James Bond can become a reality sooner rather than later, if ambitious plans to build Britain’s biggest studios in South Wales bear fruit. Dubbed “Valleywood”, the $ 582 million project is being steered by the celebrated British actor and movie director Richard Attenborough. Planning permission for a 160 acre site was granted last December, and building work on the project could begin at an opencast mine before the end of the year. —
AFP |
 |
| Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir | Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs | Nation | Editorial | | Business | Sport | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh Tribune | Ludhiana Tribune 50 years of Independence | Tercentenary Celebrations | | 123 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
Video
