 |
Thursday,
July 10, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
|
Ferry
sinks in Bangladesh, 400
Palestine PM threatens to quit Twins’ father blames doctors |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Sibal
rules out talks, but Riaz says he’s ready Pak
not to send troops to Iraq
|
|
Ferry sinks in
Bangladesh, 400 feared dead
Dhaka, July 9 Yesterday’s disaster was the latest in a series of ferry accidents that plague the impoverished nation with tragic frequency. The double-decker M.V. Nasreen was on its way to the southern town of Barisal from Dhaka when it nose-dived into the Meghna river at Chandpur, 170 km (106 miles) southeast of the capital. One survivor said he was travelling on the roof of the vessel and dived off when it began to sink. “The ferry turned aside suddenly. Within moments it started nose-diving and I jumped into the river,’’ Samir Chandra Adhikari said. He said he swam for over 100 metres to reach the river bank. Baktiar Alam, Police Superintendent of Chandpur district, told Reuters on telephone that the ferry sank at 10.30 p.m. IST last night with more than 600 persons on board and that according to survivors, only 200 swam to safety or were rescued. The rest sank with the ferry. Officials said the spot was notorious for accidents. It marks the confluence of three rivers — the Meghna, the Padma and the Dakatia — and the converging currents create a whirlpool effect, especially when the waters are high. Rivers in the low-lying nation have swollen in recent weeks with the onset of the monsoon. At least 450 persons were killed in a similar accident in May last year at almost the same spot, officials said. By midday today, three bodies had been recovered from the river and one of the survivors died in a hospital, the police said. At least 19 persons were being treated for injuries. A rescue ship was at the site and hundreds of people were crowding river banks for news of loved ones, witnesses said. Officials said the river was about 200 feet deep at the site of the accident. With strong and unpredictable currents, finding bodies or remnants of the ferry could take days. “We reached the spot at 7.30 a.m. IST, but are yet to start searching for the sunken ferry due to strong currents,’’ a diver on board the rescue ship M.V. Rustam told reporters.
— Reuters  |
|
Palestine PM threatens to quit
Jenin (West Bank), July 9 The crisis confronting Mr Abbas arose largely from his failure to persuade Israel to free thousands of Palestinian prisoners to bolster a peace plan unveiled by Washington on June 4, two and a half years into a Palestinian uprising for statehood. Mr Abbas submitted his resignation from Fatah’s Central Committee, policymaking backbone of the Palestinian Authority, after hardliners asked him to step down as premier. His office made clear he was not leaving Fatah which he co-founded in 1959. Palestinian legislator Saeb Erekat told CNN, “President Arafat said he and the Central Committee rejected (Abbas’s) resignation and will do everything in their power to support him.
— Reuters |
|
Twins’ father blames doctors Tehran, July 9 “We shared a house for 27 years and I feel a great emptiness,’’ said Alireza Safaian, who adopted twins Ladan and Laleh Bijani, as children. A doctor himself, Safaian wept as he spoke at his home in southwestern Tehran of his grief and distress at the decision of his daughters and the Singapore doctors to go ahead with an operation other surgeons had deemed simply too risky. “When they took them to Singapore, I knew they would bring back their bodies. They took them there and killed them,’’ he said, re-playing home videos of the twins playing as youngsters. “Me and my brother, who is a doctor in Germany, told everyone that this separation surgery was impossible, but nobody would listen to us.’’
— Reuters |
|
Twins’ death: docs differ on surgery
Singapore, July 9 Nearly 50 members of the tiny Iranian expatriate community and other Muslims who had kept a vigil at Raffles Hospital during the sisters’ 52-hour operation arrived at the Imambada worship centre, still deep in mourning. The women, their faces covered in black veils, sobbed throughout the 90-minute ceremony as they listened to preacher Mohammad Rosli Hassan talk of the sisters’ determination to live independent lives. “The prayers were about the love of the twins, the faith they have and the wishes they have,” one of the mourners, Ameer Jumabhoy, said. Mr Jumabhoy said the emotion and support that the Bijani twins invoked, not — just in Singapore and Iran but across the world — was an inspiration for people of all religions. “Their deaths were mourned by the whole world and across different faiths. Fourteen-year-old Iranian Elham Konjkav, who struck up a friendship with the twins during their nine-month stay in Singapore, took the day off from school today to say goodbye to the twins. TEHRAN: The man who brought up the two Iranian sisters who died during a marathon surgery in Singapore to separate their fused heads told of his deep sadness, besides bitterness and anger, at their deaths. “We shared a house for 27 years and I feel a great emptiness,’’ said Alireza Safaian, who adopted twins Ladan and Laleh Bijani, as children. A doctor himself, Safaian wept as he spoke at his home in southwestern Tehran of his grief and distress at the decision of his daughters and the Singapore doctors to go ahead with an operation other surgeons had deemed simply too risky. “When they took them to Singapore, I knew they would bring back their bodies. They took them there and killed them,’’ he said, re-playing home videos of the twins playing as youngsters. “Me and my brother, who is a doctor in Germany, told everyone that this separation surgery was impossible, but nobody would listen to us.’’ But the twins, who had not been in contact with their adoptive family for 18 months, always said they knew the risk involved. Last month, the pair, both law graduates with career ambitions, said they were willing to face death for the chance to live separately after years of compromise and sacrifice. SYDNEY: An Australian neurosurgeon, who has separated two sets of conjoined twins, said on Wednesday that he would not have operated on the Bijani sisters who died during surgery in Singapore. Brisbane neurosurgeon Scott Campbell said he would have had reservations about conducting the surgery. “In hindsight, they obviously should not have done the operation, but hindsight is a wonder thing,” he said. KATHMANDU: Nepali twins Ganga and Jamuna Shreshtha, once joined at the head, are stable two years after surgeons in Singapore separated their fused skulls but neither can walk yet, a doctor and family members said. The twins, now three years old, are recuperating in Kathmandu since their surgery in 2001. SINGAPORE: Members of the Iranian community prayed at a mosque on Wednesday for the Iranian twins who died after separation surgery in a Singapore hospital. Friends of 29-year-old Ladan and Laleh Bijoni said they collected their bodies in separate coffins from the morgue for embalming. The home of an Iranian expatriate was devoted to a prayer session earlier in the day for the women who died on Tuesday, after the world’s first surgery separating conjoined twins as adults. Dr Keith Goh, the neurosurgeon who led the team of 29 specialists, acknowledged debate over whether the surgery should have been done would surface. “Having seen and understood how these girls have suffered over the last 29 years, I think that together with me, many world renowned experts decided to contribute their time and skills to try to give these girls a decent, normal life as we know it. “They gambled and have lost,” The Straits Times said of Ladan and Laleh in an editorial on Wednesday.
— Agencies |
|
Probe on into Sudan air crash
Khartoum (Sudan), July 9 The Sudan Airways plane, headed from Port Sudan on the northeastern coast to the capital, crashed before dawn yesterday in a wooded area just after takeoff. The Boeing 737 wreckage was badly burnt and authorities decided to rapidly bury all bodies, including those of eight foreigners. “The bodies were buried in a mass grave after performing the Muslim prayer because the conditions of the bodies would not allow transporting and delivering them to the relatives,” Red Sea State Governor Hatem el-Wassila told the official Sudan News Agency. The sole survivor, 3-year-old Mohammed el-Fateh Osman, was admitted to the intensive care unit at Port Sudan hospital and later transferred to a hospital in Khartoum. Surgeons said Osman’s condition was stable, but he would undergo two surgeries this evening. “His kidneys were not functioning well. He had suffered dehydration and burning, but now he is doing well,” Dr Omer el Amin said. State television broadcast pictures of the boy early today showing he had lost the lower part of his right leg and suffered burns on the face, neck, back and one of his hands. The boy’s mother died in the crash. His father and elder sister live in Omdurman, the twin city of Khartoum.
— AP |
|
Sibal rules out
talks, but Riaz
says he’s ready Kathmandu, July 9 “Neither can there be any formal talks nor informal talks. India has asked Pakistan to take certain steps and talks are not possible unless Pakistan convinces India on that,” Mr Sibal said on being asked about the possibility of his meeting with Mr Khokar. He said India would present its views on convening the postponed SAARC summit in Islamabad when the matter comes up for discussions during the meeting. Besides India and Pakistan, Foreign Secretaries of Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka are participating in the fourth session of SAARC Standing Committee meeting. Earlier, Pakistan Foreign Secretary had said he was open for a dialogue with Mr Sibal on the sidelines of the meeting. On the first day of their deliberations, the Foreign Secretaries discussed the budget for the SAARC regional centres, reports presented by technical committees on various topics, South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA), South Asian Technical Fund and social development. “The door is open and I am in town,” Khokar told PTI when asked whether there is any possibility of his holding talks with Sibal on the sidelines of the two-day meeting. “Our intension is very clear and I don’t want to say more about it,” he said without elaborating. Finalising the SAARC Summit date is one of the agendas of this meeting and “we will be working on that,” he said. Pakistan is fully prepared to host the postponed summit. “There is no delay on our part,” he said. During the
preparatory committee meeting yesterday, Joint Secretary in the External Affairs Ministry R O Wallang shook hands with his Pakistani counterpart. Earlier today, Nepalese Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa inaugurated the fourth Special session of the SAARC Standing Committee. He said there was an urgent need to negotiate the framework of SAFTA before the next summit.
— PTI |
|
Pak not to send troops to Iraq Islamabad, July 9 Pakistan has been considering US and British requests to send troops for peacekeeping operations in Iraq, but recent consultations at the highest level have led to the conclusion that it is not a favourable time to do so, the Dawn reported today, quoting highly placed defence sources. The government is open to the possibility of Pakistan contributing to the stabilisation forces, but only when the Iraqi people wish for such a move. “Given the uprising against the US-led coalition forces in Iraq and the internal anarchy there, sending our troops at this time would be like jumping into fire,” an official involved in the consultative process said.
— UNI |
 |
| 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 | |
