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Friday,
July 11, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Rumsfeld links Iraq war with September 11 2 US soldiers killed in Iraq
Lahore-Delhi bus from today
Guatemalan twin
suffers setback |
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Twins’ coffins reach Teheran 21 killed in Hong Kong bus mishap Dar faction splits from Hizb 1 million copies of Hillary’s memoir sold
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Rumsfeld
links Iraq war with September 11 Washington, July 10 “The coalition did not act in Iraq because we had discovered dramatic new evidence of Iraq’s pursuit of weapons of mass destruction. We acted because we saw the existing evidence in a new light, through the prism of our experience on September 11,” US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday. “On that day, we saw thousands of innocent men, women and children killed by terrorists, and that experience changed our appreciation of our vulnerability and the risks the US faces from terrorist states and terrorist networks armed with powerful weapons,” he said. The objective in the global war on terror was to prevent another attack like September 11 or a biological, nuclear or chemical attack. “We can say with confidence that the world is a better place today because the USA led a coalition of forces into action in Iraq,” he said. On the recent attacks on coalition forces in Iraq, Rumsfeld dismissed the “widely-held impression” that Saddam Hussein’s loyalists were operating freely throughout the country. “That is clearly not the case. While there have been isolated incidents in other parts of the country, most of the recent attacks have been concentrated in Baghdad and in the three corridors that reach to the West, the North and East out of the Iraqi capital,” he said.
— PTI |
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2 US soldiers killed in Iraq
Baghdad, July 10 One soldier was killed when his convoy came under small arms fire near Al Mahmudiyah, about 40 km south of Baghdad, at around 2000 hrs IST on Wednesday, the military said. Around four hours later, assailants fired rocket-propelled grenades at a convoy North of Baghdad, killing a soldier from the US Army’s Fourth Infantry Division and wounding another, US Central Command said in a statement. US officials have blamed isolated remnants of Saddam Hussein’s security forces for the attacks on their troops. But some Iraqis say the attacks reflect more widespread opposition to the US-led occupation of their country. The Arabic satellite channel Al-Jazeera reported on Thursday that it had received a message claiming responsibility for attacks on US forces from a group called the Iraqi National Islamic Resistance which said it had no ties to Saddam. Two audio tapes purportedly recorded by Saddam have called on Iraqis to fight the occupation. US officials have said the tapes may encourage Saddam loyalists to carry out attacks but they insist Iraqis will realise over time Saddam is finished. —Reuters
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Lahore-Delhi bus from today Islamabad, July 10 The brand new buses, fondly termed by people here as “dosti” buses, will leave from Lahore and New Delhi tomorrow morning. Both buses will be flagged off by senior ministers on both sides. The Pakistan bus will be flagged off by Pakistan’s Minister for Tourism and Culture Rai Reeas Munir around 6 a.m. (IST) from Lahore tomorrow. The first batch of the buses will be carrying more journalists and officials from both sides than eagerly awaiting passengers. Over 15 Pakistani journalists, some officials and private TV channels’ staff planned to travel and return by the same buses. The resumption of the bus service set off a scramble here for visas. People from different parts of the country were contacting the Indian High Commission here to get visas. Moreover, those who obtained visas have to rush all to Lahore with their stamped passports to buy the tickets. Media reports here said very few tickets have so far been issued for passengers. The Lahore-New Delhi bus would run four times a week. The bus services would be resumed tomorrow with expectations that the air and rail links which were simultaneously snapped from January, 2002 are resumed soon. As the buses were being donned up to make these more colourful, Pakistan Minister for Railways Ghaus Bux Mehar said his ministry had made all arrangements to resume the rail link with India, which included plans to resume Samjhauta Express. Besides running a passenger train, the two countries used to have freight services before the transport links were snapped due to tensions following the attack on the Indian Parliament House. The resumption of Lahore-New Delhi and Karachi-Mumbai air services appears to be unlikely in the immediate future as Pakistan was still considering Indian invitation to send a team of civil aviation officials to New Delhi to discuss the technical details to resume air services. Pakistan’s Foreign Office said it would insist on India signing a new agreement giving an undertaking not to ban over-flights. All these issues were expected to come up for consideration when the Indian High Commissioner-designate, Mr Shiv Shankar Menon, arrives here early next week.
— PTI |
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Guatemalan twin suffers setback
Los Angeles, July 10 Maria Toresa Quiej-Alvarez was about to be released from UCLA’s Mattol Children’s hospital last Thursday when she showed signs of fever and doctors decided to keep her for observation. Dr Jorge Lazaroff, director of peadiatric neurosurgery at the hospital, yesterday attributed the twin’s setback in developing cognitive and motor abilities to severe meningitis, an infection of the brain, which she contracted in Guatemalan in April, eight months after the surgery. “I remain hopeful that she will recover from this setback,” he said. Neurological development involves the Central nervous system, including the brain and the spinal cord function. The other twin, Maria de Jesus was discharged from the UCLA hospital earlier this month after the treatment for a surgery-related head wound and is doing “remarkably well,” the physician said. She is being cared for by a foster family in Los Angeles. Born in a poor Guatemalan village with the tops of their heads fused, the twin sisters were separated at UCLA last August in a complicated and dangerous 22-hour operation. They had returned in January to their native country but were flown back to the USA in May for follow-up care. A new discharge date for Maria Toresa had not been determined, the hospital spokeswoman said. “Her vital signs are stable, but she has suffered developmental delays that have become more apparent.” She was not aware of any plans for the girls’ parents, who remained in Guatemala city, to come to Los Angeles. — Reuters
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Twins’ coffins reach Teheran
Teheran, July 10 Friends wept quietly and a military band played solemn music as the coffins of Ladan and Laleh Bijani were carried off a plane that had flown from Singapore, where they died on Tuesday after a three-day operation to separate their heads and brains. Some 60 friends and government officials, led by the head of the State Welfare Organisation, Mohammad Reza Rahchamani, were at the airport to receive them. The coffins of the 29-year-old twins, who realised their ambition to be separated only in death, were taken to Tehran’s Grand Mosque. Hundreds of residents were expected to pay their respects to the twins in the mosque before the coffins are flown to Shiraz, southern Iran, early tomorrow morning. They are scheduled to be buried in Lohrasb, the village where they were born in southwestern Iran, later tomorrow. Their parents, Dadollah Bijani and Maryam Safariwere, were said to be in Firouzabad, a town close to Lohrasb, today. The twins, who spent years looking for surgeons who would try to separate them, left Iran seven months ago to prepare for the operation. They made many friends in Singapore, where more than 400 persons said prayers for them in a mosque last evening. — AP
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21 killed in Hong Kong bus mishap
Beijing, July 10 The injured, some of them critical have been rushed to four hospitals for treatment, Xinhua news agency reported from the Chinese territory. The driver of the bus, which belonged to the KMB group was killed in the accident, officials from the company said. The lorry driver was detained by police for questioning. — PTI
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Dar faction splits from Hizb
Islamabad, July 10 “After the meetings during the past one month failed to reunite the group, the splinter group decided to join the Hizb-e-Islami led by Masood Sarfraz,” the report quoted sources as saying. Sources said efforts for reunification by the two factions of the outfit, prominent Kashmiri leadership and the Jamaat-e-Islami had failed to unite the organisation. “All top commanders of the Dar group and majority of its mujahideen joined the Hizb-e-Islami, but some mujahideen refused to work under the new leadership and returned to their parent organisation,” the report said. — PTI
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1 million copies of Hillary’s memoir sold
New York, July 10 “Given the quality of “Living History”, we knew it would find a large audience; what has been particularly exciting is the speed with which it has achieved such unprecedented sales levels,” Carolyn Reidy, president of the Simon and Schuster Adult Publishing Group, said yesterday. — AFP
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