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Tuesday,
August 12, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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 Laloo pays surprise visit to Lal HaveliIslamabad, August 11 As he did his “roadshow” in Islamabad, RJD leader Laloo Prasad Yadav paid a surprise visit to the residence of Pakistani Information Minister Sheikh Rashid and literally scared him saying he looked like Saddam Hussein. US soldiers shoot two Iraqi cops
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| Bali bomber appeals against death penalty Bali, Indonesia, August 11 An Indonesian Muslim militant sentenced to death for last year’s Bali bombings lodged an appeal against his conviction today despite saying during his trial that he wanted to die a martyr. Britons accuse Saudis of torture
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Pak against conflict, says Musharraf Islamabad, August 11 “Peace is in the interest of the entire region and especially for Pakistan and India. Pakistan is against conflict which is unthinkable in the conventional sense and would be disastrous for the two countries and the region,” General Musharraf told the inaugural session of a three-day international seminar on ‘Major Powers and South Asia’ organised by the Institute of Regional Studies here. He said Pakistan desired peace and would do its utmost to follow the track of negotiated settlement of all issues, including Kashmir, with India. Demanding modification in the SAARC charter to address regional disputes, including Kashmir problem, he said bilateralism had become disfunctional. He was addressing the seminar at the same hotel where a peace conference of politicians and journalists from both countries was taking place. “I am extremely happy that Indian delegates are in Pakistan,” he said referring to the peace conference which began yesterday with a message by Mr Vajpayee saying “Violence and bloodshed can’t provide any solutions” to the problems. Observing that the solution of inequalities, regional mistrust and conflicts lies in the modification of the SAARC charter to settle regional disputes in preference over bilateralism, General Musharraf said, “In the present day world bilateralism has become disfunctional”. “It is the India-Pakistan disputes, which have very adverse impact on the collective relationship of the entire South Asian region,” he said. He said the worst of all these disputes was the Kashmir dispute, which had become a flashpoint for the world. Demanding that SAARC become an effective institution to bring peace, harmony and progress in the region, he said, “Both countries owe this to the poverty stricken, deprived and ill-educated people to resolve their problems through dialogue”. He said the USA was “balancing” its bilateral relationship with India and Pakistan and Islamabad had come of age to realise that bilateral relations should not be affected by a country’s relations with others. —
PTI |
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Laloo pays surprise visit to Lal Haveli Islamabad, August 11 “Your features, height and moustache are just like that of Saddam Hussein, and you are really Pakistani Saddam Hussein”, Laloo remarked looking at Rashid’s portrait in his residence Lal Haveli, last evening. The minister jocularly said, “Lalooji, you would just get me killed.” Yadav, who is part of an Indian parliamentary delegation here, on reaching Lal Haveli enquired about Sheikh Rashid who at that time was at a gym. The minister cut short his stay there and drove back to his house to meet Yadav. Both leaders hugged each other and exchanged pleasantries, media reports said. The former Chief Minister of Bihar said politicians of India and Pakistan should sit together to resolve mutual differences as other powers were taking advantage of tension between them. He called for more efforts for a peaceful atmosphere in South Asia and maintained that with the beginning of talks, the Kashmir issue would also be resolved. Rashid said both countries wanted to settle disputes but the Kashmir issue was a matter of national honour for the Pakistanis and bilateral relations could not become normal without its resolution. He maintained the Kashmir issue would always be on top of the agenda of any level of talks. Hundreds of people gathered at Lal Haveli hearing the news about Yadav’s arrival. Traffic in the area came to a standstill. The Pakistani minister said the visit of the Indian delegation was reflective of improvement in relations between the two neighbours. —
PTI |
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US soldiers shoot two Iraqi cops Baghdad, August 11 The Iraqi officers were firing from their unmarked car at a suspect vehicle they were chasing on Saturday when the Americans opened fire on them in a western suburb of the capital, Sergeant Hamza Hilal Nahi, who said he was driving the car, said. Lieut-Col Muayad Farhan, deputy head of Al-Yarmuk police station, said two of his officers had been shot by coalition forces. The US military said it was aware of an incident but unable to provide information. But army spokesman Staff Sergeant J.J. Johnson said yesterday that there had been a case of “blue on blue” on Saturday, a term for an incident where friendly forces fire on one another. As the Al-Yarmuk deputy police chief spoke to AFP today, two US military police officers came to offer their condolences to him. They asked not to be named but said they believed the two officers had been shot by US troops after being mistaken for attackers. —
AFP |
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Shah Rukh may lead I-Day parade in New York New York, August 11 “Shah Rukh Khan has formally accepted our invitation. He is very eager to participate in the parade and the subsequent banquet,” FIA president Jagdish D. Patel told newspersons. Actress Sonali Bendre, former cricket captain Kapil Dev and magician P.C. Sorcar Jr are also likely to
participate in the parade. Kiran Bedi, currently with the United Nations, and Indo-US astronaut-in-waiting Sunita Pandya Williams will march in their uniforms, Mr Patel said. The parade leader, known as the grand marshal, is usually present throughout the parade that goes through 14 blocks on New York’s Madison Avenue. FIA comprises, through its constituent bodies, nearly 3,50,000 Indian-Americans in the tri-state area of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. The parade, the 23rd organised by the association set up in 1970, is always held on the next Sunday after August 15. A food festival also forms part of the six-hour event. “A couple of slogans like Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Isai, saare hai bhai bhai and peace and globalisation will be highlighted,” Mr Patel said. About 30 floats will showcase India’s achievements in various spheres and progress of Indo-Americans over the years. The Empire State building, currently the tallest structure in New York after World Trade Center was destroyed in the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, will be illuminated in the colours of India’s National Flag during the next weekend. The first parade was held in 1981 and actor Raj Kapoor had led that march. The New York parade is considered the largest Independence Day march held outside India. —
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Bali bomber appeals against death penalty Bali, Indonesia, August 11 Lawyers for Amrozi, dubbed the ‘’smiling bomber’’ for his chilling grin and expressions of delight at the Bali carnage, said they had filed the appeal on their client’s instructions. Chief lawyer Wirawan Adnan did not explain why Amrozi wanted to appeal after saying that he wanted to die a martyr’s death. “We explained to him that the understanding of a martyr’s death for us is to avoid death as much as possible. If you run toward a bullet, that is not a martyr’s death to us,’’ Adnan said. A Bali court sentenced the 41-year-old mechanic to death last week for his part in planning and carrying out the bombing of two nightclubs on the resort island in October, 2002. The attack killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists. Adnan said his client would not try to argue that he was innocent, but that the trial had not followed a fair process. He said any execution could be delayed for a long time.
—Reuters |
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Britons accuse Saudis of torture London, August 11 Gillian Barton, whose boyfriend Jimmy Lee was held in a Riyadh prison for over two years until he was freed on Friday, said he and four other Britons granted clemency and released at the same time had endured “unbelievable” levels of abuse and torture. A spokesman for the Saudi Embassy in London rejected any suggestion that Lee and his fellow prisoners had been tortured, saying that they had been “well treated”. She told Reuters in a telephone interview: “They were all tortured — both mentally and physically. Every one of their stories is as horrendous as the other.” “And it lasted for the whole time...it was from the beginning to the end,” she said. “What Jimmy has told me is worse than I could ever have imagined. It is just absolutely unbelievable.” The five Britons, a Canadian and a Belgian had been convicted of carrying out a wave of bombings in Saudi Arabia in 2000 and early 2001. —
Reuters |
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Kelly death probe begins London, August 11 Over the next two months, a long series of witnesses will be called to a bland-looking room attached to the Royal Courts of Justice in central London to give evidence that could potentially damage Blair’s reputation beyond repair. —
AFP |
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