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Friday,
August 8, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Death for key man in Bali
bombings 12 killed in Baghdad blast
Saddam moving every few hours, says US General Britain asks Pak to fulfil pledge on
infiltration European Union urged to play role in Indo-Pak talks Menon to present credentials in Pak |
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Death for key man in Bali
bombings
Bali, August 7 Amrozi, the first of nearly 36 suspects to go to trial, burst into a grin when a five-judge panel found him guilty of planning and helping execute the bombings. His lawyers said they would appeal against the death sentence. “The accused is found guilty in a legal and convincing manner of carrying out an act of terrorism,” said judge I. Made Karna. After the verdict was delivered, Amrozi took off his Islamic skull cap, raised his arms and gave his lawyers the thumbs-up sign. Hundreds of people, including survivors of the bombings, cheered when the judge delivered the verdict. Amrozi, a 41-year-old mechanic from the island of Java, has been called the “smiling bomber” because of his jocular manner and lack of remorse after his arrest last year. As he was being led out of the courtroom, Amrozi smiled broadly at Australian survivors, some of whom shouted back angrily. Australia lost 88 persons in the attack. The verdict came two days after another blast at the J.W. Marriott Hotel in Jakarta, killing at least 10 persons and wounding nearly 150. Both attacks — car bombs detonated by mobile phones — have been linked with Jemaah Islamiyah, a shadowy Al-Qaida-linked terrorist group believed to be operating in South-East Asia. The Indonesian government, which had been accused of being soft on terrorists before the Bali blasts, has been eager to show the world that it is committed to bringing the perpetrators of terrorist acts to justice. Australian Prime Minister John Howard welcomed the verdict and said it would offer some comfort to the bereaved. “I’m sure I speak for all Australians in welcoming the guilty verdict,” Mr Howard said in Canberra. Three other suspects are currently facing the court in Denpasar, the capital of Bali island. At least 30 other suspects, apprehended after a massive manhunt, are to face justice soon. The judge said Amrozi has seven days to appeal his sentence, something his lawyers said they would do. “We are appealing not because we believe he is innocent but because he was mistreated and had not been given a fair trial,” attorney Wirawan Adnan said. Prosecutors said while Amrozi did not take part in the actual attack, he purchased a van and explosives used in the car bomb that flattened the crowded Sari Club and nearby Paddy’s Bar. —
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12 killed in Baghdad blast Baghdad, August 7 Iraqi men stormed the embassy gate and began destroying pictures of Jordanian King Abdullah II and his late father, King Hussein. They were raising anti-Jordanian slogans, but were quickly dispersed by American forces and the Iraqi police. The bomb was believed to have been planted in a minibus parked outside the walled embassy compound and detonated remotely. —
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Saddam moving every few hours, says US General Tikrit (Iraq), August 7 Major-Gen Ray Odierno, Commander of the US 4th Infantry Division, said he could not be certain how close his troops had come to capturing Saddam or that he was definitely in the area. But he had regular intelligence that he was. “He’s on the run. He’s moving every three to four hours,” Odierno told a news conference at his headquarters in one of the grand marble halls of Saddam’s main palace in Tikrit. “Every day we get four or five reports that he could be anywhere from Kirkuk to Baquba to Tikrit.” Citing intelligence data, Odierno said: “He is clearly moving three to four times every single day... On some of the raids we’ve done there are indications that somebody’s been moving through there. And somebody extremely important.” Asked how Saddam was eluding the tens of thousands of US troops seeking him in north-central Iraq, he said he imagined the support network was similar to those exposed after the capture near Tikrit of Saddam’s private secretary and the killing of his sons, Uday and Qusay, in Mosul last month. “There’s tribal support that he gets,” Odierno said. “There’s family support and there’s loyalists that are around him that probably enable to move around the area.”—
Reuters |
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Britain asks Pak to fulfil pledge on infiltration London, August 7 “Pending a resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir issue, the Line of Control should be strictly respected and Pakistan should fulfil its commitment to stop infiltration across it,” a spokesman of the British Foreign Office said last night. Commenting on a report in a Pakistani newspaper, The News, that an international mechanism to check infiltration from across the LoC by deputing an international helicopter-borne force is under “active consideration” in European capitals, the spokesman said: “We are not aware of any proposal for monitoring the LoC being actively considered in the European capital, Brussels. “Secondly, verification across the LoC will be a vital element in defusing the regional tension over Kashmir and some form of monitoring along the LoC could be a part of the long-term solution but that would be for the parties themselves to decide and there is no agreement yet on the way ahead. “If the UK was asked to assist with the verification process, we would, of course, consider the request but any arrangement would have to be acceptable to both India and Pakistan. We received no such request from either party.” —
PTI |
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European Union urged to play role in Indo-Pak talks Islamabad, August 7 “Pakistan has made another request to the international community to play its facilitation role in persuading India for an early resumption of foreign secretaries’ talks,” a diplomat of the European Union, who did not want to be identified, was quoted as saying by The News here today. “Pakistan may suggest, shortly, two or three dates to India for a round of Indo-Pakistan foreign secretaries’ dialogue which diplomats expect to be resumed after the UN General Assembly session,” the daily reported. —
PTI |
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Menon to present credentials in Pak on Aug 9 Islamabad, August 7 “Mr Menon will present his credentials on Saturday,” Foreign Office spokesman Masood Khan told AFP. A senior Foreign Ministry official said the formal ceremony had been delayed due to President Musharraf’s other engagements, including his tour of north Africa. —
AFP
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Arnold joins race for Governor’s post California, August 7 Terminating weeks of speculation about his political intentions, Schwarzenegger said on NBC’s “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” yesterday that California’s politicians are “failing the people, and the man who is failing the people more than anyone is Gray Davis.” “He is failing them terribly and this is why he needs to be recalled, and this is why I’m going to run for governor.” The star of the “Terminator” series of films said he would submit papers to become a candidate in the recall election. Despite his lack of political experience, the Austrian-born former bodybuilder is widely seen as having the name recognition and personal wealth to mount a quick, credible campaign against Davis. In a ballot initiative last November widely regarded as a dry run for a potential gubernatorial bid, Schwarzenegger spearheaded a successful referendum to establish new after-school programmes for California children. The former Mr Universe, one of the highest-paid actors in Hollywood, is currently appearing in “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines,” reprising his role as the virtually indestructible, gun-slinging cyborg from the future. —
Reuters |
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Smaller babies born after 9/11 tragedy New York, August 7 The study, published yesterday, by researchers from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York found that the women bore babies smaller than those of mothers in other parts of New York city on September 11, 2001. All the babies were at weights in the bottom 10 per cent for their gestational age. Researchers suggested that air pollution from pulverised and smouldering construction materials was the most likely cause of the differences in the size of the babies. But New York health officials said the study “found no increase in infant mortality, premature births or low birth weights” and warned that the study had limited implications because it relied on recollections on a small number of women. A total of 182 women were studied, 12 of whom were pregnant and inside the centre’s twin towers on that fateful day. The study said 8 per cent of babies born to 182 women who were pregnant and were in or near the centre’s wreckage were small for the length of their gestation compared with less than 4 per cent of more than 2,300 babies born to women in New York city. Researchers said the condition of those babies is called intrauterine growth restriction, which is caused by pollution. It said the babies born to women who were at or near the centre weighed no less than 2.4 kg, which is the threshold for low birth weight used to measure the quality of a pregnancy. Frankfurt: One of Germany’s most respected publishing houses has announced it was withdrawing a controversial book about the September 11 attacks which has come in for accusations of anti-Semitism. Suhrkamp Verlag yesterday said the German-language edition of the book “After The Terror” by Anglo-Canadian political philosopher Ted Honderich would no longer be in its catalogue offerings. —
DPA |
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