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Wednesday,
July 16, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Bush
agrees to send troops to Liberia
Indian
decision
not to affect ties: USA A US Army soldier, whose
company had been told that their deployment was to be extended indefinitely, awaits the visit of the Third Infantry Division's commander Major-General Buford Blount to their base in the Iraqi resort area of Habbaniyah, 60 miles west of Baghdad,
on Tuesday. Facing mounting security threats in Iraq, the US military said on Monday thousands of soldiers from the 3rd Infantry Division (Mechanised) would stay in the country despite previous plans to send them home in July and August.
— Reuters photo |
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Pak frees
269 Indian fishermen Bangladesh
ferry toll 182 Iraqi
women live in fear 5 Afghan
cops killed in Taliban attack Police
blamed for Shipman’s last 3 murders
US Marine Lance Corporal Toby Studabaker makes a phone call as he waits to embark a helicopter at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, in this September 20, 2001, file photo.
The British police and Interpol launched a manhunt on Monday for Studabaker and a 12-year-old British schoolgirl, Shevaun Pennington, who ran off to France together after meeting on the Internet. Israeli
succumbs to stab injuries
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Bush agrees to send troops to Liberia
Washington, July 15 US President George W Bush, emerging from a meeting with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan at the White House, said any deployment of US forces to Liberia would be limited in size and duration and would depend on Liberian President Charles Taylor stepping down and leaving the country. The USA wants to enable the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to “get in and help create the conditions necessary for the ceasefire to hold, that Mr (Charles) Taylor (the Liberian President) must leave, that we will participate with the troops,” Bush told reporters yesterday. He pointed out that the USA, which has sent an assessment team to Liberia, is still in the process of determining what is necessary, “what ECOWAS can bring to the table, when they can bring it to the table, what is the timetable, and be able to match the necessary US help to expediting the ECOWAS participation. “I told the Secretary General that we want to help, that there must be a UN presence, quickly, into Liberia,” said Bush. “He and I discussed how fast it would take to blue-helmet (all UN forces wear blue helmets) whatever forces arrived, other than our own, of course. We would not be blue-helmeted. We would be there to facilitate and then to leave.” Bush said that he and Annan also had a good discussion on the subject. “And I think we had a meeting of minds on that subject.”
— PTI |
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Indian decision not to affect ties: USA
Washington, July 15 “We would have hoped that India would have made a different choice, that they would be there, but I think at the same time (I) need to reiterate that India remains an important strategic partner for the USA and that the continuation of the transformation of Indo-US relations is something that is important to us and that we expect to see,” he said yesterday. “I would expect us to continue to work with India as a matter of strategic partnership,” he said. He, however, declined to comment on whether the remark that the USA “would have hoped that they would have made a different decision” fit on the scale of “disappointed,” “regret.” “I am not going to try to play games with words here,” he said. Asserting that each country was free to decide whether it wanted to participate in peacekeeping in Iraq, Boucher said “it is a decision that each country needs to make on its own depending on its interests and concerns about the situation in Iraq.” Asked whether he expects any problems because of this decision by India, Boucher repeated: “I would expect us to continue to work with India as a matter of strategic partnership. I am not predicting any particular problem.” Asked whether India’s rejection sends a bad signal to other countries that may be considering participating, Boucher said: “I don’t know that any other country is waiting on India’s decision to make their own decision. Many other countries have already made their decision in order to move forward and help stabilise Iraq.”
— PTI |
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Pak frees 269 Indian fishermen
Islamabad, July 15 The Indian fishermen are expected to leave for India next week after the repair of all boats, The Dawn said today. A spokesman for the Fishermen Cooperative Society in Karachi said out of 269 fishermen 50 had been allowed to repair their boats. “They have completed the repair of six boats,” he added. The spokesman said 23 boats were in Karachi while one each at Gadani and Sonmiyani, which would also be brought here to complete the fleet.
— UNI |
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Bangladesh
ferry toll 182 Dhaka, July 15 A Bangladeshi navy ship used sonar to find the M.V. Nasreen 37 m under the Meghna river, media reports said adding divers could not reach there due to strong river current. The ferry was probably lying at depth of 120 feet, but strong river current prevented divers from reaching the depths, a private television channel reported this morning. Officials said salvaging the ferry might not be possible due to inclement weather conditions and bodies, if trapped, could be recovered by cutting the wreckage. Meanwhile, 182 bodies have so far been recovered and another 350 persons, whose bodies have yet to be found, died, reports quoting rescue officials said. The bodies were found, washed ashore a few kilometres downstream from south-east Chandpur where the ferry sank. The double-deck ferry sank in the turbulent waters of Meghna on Tuesday last near Chandpur, 43 km from here.
— PTI |
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Iraqi women live in fear New York, July 15 Expressing concern at the rising rate of crime against women and police inaction in this regard, the 17-paged report, “Climate of fear: sexual violence and abduction of women and girls in Baghdad”, said the inadequate functioning of Iraqi and US-led occupation authorities in Iraq’s capital was at the root of a widespread fear of rape and abduction among women and their families. “Women and girls today in Baghdad are scared and many are not going to schools or jobs or looking for work,” said Ms Hanny
Megally, Executive Director of the Middle-East and North Africa division of Human Rights Watch. “If Iraqi women are to participate in postwar society, their physical security needs to be an urgent priority.” The Watch said it interviewed rape and abduction victims and witnesses, Iraqi police and health professionals, and U.S. military police and civil affairs officers and learned of 25 “credible allegations” of rape or abduction. The report said the police gave low priority to allegations of sexual violence and abduction, that the police were under-resourced and that victims of sexual violence confronted indifference and sexism from Iraqi law enforcement personnel. The report also said US military police were not filling the gap when Iraqi police were unwilling or unable to conduct serious investigations of sexual violence and abduction. This inadequate attention to the needs of women and girls had led to inability, and in some cases an unwillingness, by the police to conduct serious investigations.
— PTI |
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5 Afghan cops killed in Taliban attack Kandahar, July 15 Two other police officers were wounded in the attack yesterday in Ghorak district, 120 km north west of Kandahar, said Mohammed Salim, deputy police chief in Kandahar. About 12 suspected Taliban men drove up to the district police headquarters in two cars and a pickup truck. They stormed the police station killing police chief Sakza Mama and his men. No one took responsibility for the attack. KABUL: More than 200 Afghans took to the streets of Kabul on Tuesday to show their unhappiness with the government and to attack Pakistan’s ‘’interventionism’’. The protesters demanded democratic reforms and condemned the government of Hamid Karzai for rise in Islamic fundamentalism, non-prosecution of war criminals and lack of freedom of the press in Afghanistan.
— AP, DPA |
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Police blamed for Shipman’s last 3 murders
London, July 15 The inquiry report into how the general practitioner managed to kill 215 patients over a period of 23 years also raised the possibility that Shipman could have been exposed as a killer as early as 1985 perhaps saving 100 lives, but for the combined failings of a coroner, a pathologist and doctors, who missed vital clues pointing to his guilt. Shipman was given 15 life sentences in 2000 for the murder of 15 women, including the three Dame Janet said might have escaped death at Shipman’s hands. One of the two detectives blamed for a series of blunders lied to cover up for his many mistakes, the report said. The officer, facing disciplinary action, failed to make basic inquiries, such as discovering that Shipman had a criminal record for drug offences. The 618-page report, released last evening, followed an investigation of the original police inquiry that cleared Shipman of any wrongdoing and a separate report into the coroner system, which was found to be deeply flawed and in need of reform. Shipman’s last three victims, Winifred Mellor and Joan Melia, both 73, and Kathleen Grundy, 81, might have been saved if a proper investigation had taken place, Dame Janet concluded. Janet said detective inspector David Smith was “out of his depth” in an investigation which he began in March, 1998. Janet criticised detective superintendent David Sykes of the Greater Manchester police for putting Smith in charge of the investigation. A spokeswoman for the Greater Manchester police said the force would examine the report’s recommendations.
— PTI |
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12-year-old girl elopes with US ex-Marine London, July 15 Schoolgirl Shevaun Pennington left home on Saturday to meet Toby Studabaker, (31), who had flown to Britain from the USA. Police say the pair met online and had been in contact for some time via e-mail and letters. British police said the couple flew to Paris at the weekend. “It’s now known she took a flight to Paris with a former US Marine who she met over the internet,’’ they said in a statement. In France, television stations flashed up pictures of the pair in an effort to find witnesses who might have spotted them, but French police cast doubt on whether the pair had ever actually arrived in Paris. “At this time, we can’t say they are on French soil. They were not on board the flight they were supposed to have taken,’’ said a French police spokeswoman. “All flights arriving from Britain between July 12 and 14 were checked. They were not on board.’’ British police said they were also working closely with US authorities and the cross-border police agency, Interpol, as well as their colleagues in France.
— Reuters |
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Israeli
succumbs to stab injuries
Jerusalem, July 15 Two other persons were injured in the attack, which ended with the assailant being shot in the leg. The attacker tried to enter a seaside nightclub. He stabbed a doorman at the Tarabin Club in the neck before fleeing along the promenade. He then attacked a woman as well as a security guard at a nearby restaurant, who was less seriously injured, the police source said. According to Israeli public radio, an Israeli lawyer at the scene seized a gun from one of the injured guards, gave chase and shot the Palestinian assailant in the leg. According to investigators, the Palestinian attacker was a member of the militant Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed group linked to Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement. The attack constitutes a violation of a conditional truce announced by Palestinian militant groups last month.
— AFP |
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Jerusalem, July 15
