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Thursday,
August 21, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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20 die in
Jerusalem bus blast World
leaders condemn Baghdad bombing UN to
continue work in Iraq Pervez to
face joint session of House |
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| Pak
raising hi-tech anti-terror force Peshawar, August 20 Pakistan is raising a new force with the help of the USA to intensify its war against terrorists, a senior government official said today. Report mentions Sikkim as country King Gyanendra in eye
of storm
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20 die in Jerusalem bus blast
Jerusalem, August 20 The hardline Palestinian factions Hamas and Islamic Jihad both claimed responsibility for the massive blast aboard the No. 2 bus. The bus exploded as it was winding its way through an ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighbourhood in central Jerusalem that also takes in the famed Western Wall. Avi Zohar, Director-General of the Magen David Adom rescue service told reporters that 20 persons were killed and 105 injured, as he stood close to the scene of the blast. Fourteen persons were seriously injured. Hospital sources said many of the victims were young children. Police spokesman Gil Kleiman said many of the victims had been hit as they returned from praying at the nearby Western Wall when the blast went off. The police was also investigating reports the bomber might have been disguised as an ultra-Orthodox Jew. The armed wing Islamic Jihad first said that it was behind the bombing, in an apparent breach of a unilateral three-month ceasefire which major Palestinian factions called on June 29. “We take responsibility for this attack,” a member of the Al-Quds Brigade said in an anonymous telephone call to AFP in the West Bank town of Jenin. The larger Islamic group Hamas also claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement faxed to AFP in Jenin. Hamas named the bomber as Raed Abdel Hamid Mesk, a 25-year-old teacher from the southern West Bank town of Hebron and said the attack was in revenge for the killing of two Hamas leaders in Nablus in early August and the killing last week of an Islamic Jihad leader in Hebron. The bombing led Israel to freeze all moves to transfer security responsibility for two West Bank towns to the Palestinians, a Palestinian official said. “Israel has cancelled the talks and frozen all moves to withdraw from Qalqilya and Jericho,” said Elias Zananieri, spokesman for Palestinian security chief Mohammed Dahlan. Israeli Government spokesman Jonathan Peled said: “We are obviously putting everything on hold until we evaluate the situation. “It’s a clear sign from the other side that they (Palestinians) are not ready to accept any concessions.” Palestinian prime minister Mahmud Abbas condemned the “terrible” attack on Israeli civilians and said he had ordered Mohammad Dahlan to investigate the incident.
— AFP |
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World leaders condemn Baghdad bombing
Sydney, August 20 “This is a criminal attack, clearly carried out by forces that do not want the rebuilding of Iraq to take place in peace and freedom,” said Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder of Germany, which joined Russia and France in opposing the invasion of Iraq. Australia, which sent troops to help oust President Saddam Hussein, said the bombing “shows there are some people on earth who are so wicked and evil that nothing can be done but to confront them.” “What was the UN doing in Iraq? It was providing food, it was providing shelter, it was providing humanitarian assistance,” Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said today. The victims came from around the world — including the USA, the Philippines, Egypt, the UK and Canada. Sergio Vieira de Mello of Brazil, the chief UN official in Iraq was among those who died. “Those who killed him have committed a crime, not only against the United Nations but against Iraq itself,” UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a statement, calling Vieira de Mello “an outstanding servant of humanity.” US President George W. Bush, whose troops are struggling to put down armed opposition in Iraq, vowed: “The civilised world will not be intimidated.” Britain’s Prime Minister Tony Blair, facing criticism at home for supporting the war, said, “We will not allow terrorists to weaken our resolve in bringing about a better Iraq.” France, which pledged its full support for the United Nations in Iraq, vigorously condemned the attack. “Acts as odious as this can only prompt indignation and unreserved condemnation,” President Jacques Chirac said. “China condemns the violent attack,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan told the official Xinhua News Agency. Pope John Paul II sent his condolences to the United Nations and relatives of the victims and called for all those engaged in violence to “abandon the ways of hatred.” Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said de Mello was a “victim of the insanity of terrorism,” and decreed three days of official mourning for a man who was the country’s most prominent international diplomat in decades. Russia called the attack a “barbaric act” that was “aimed at undermining the already difficult process of postwar stabilisation in Iraq.”
— AP |
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UN to continue work in Iraq
Stockholm, August 20 “We will carry on our mandate that has been given to us by the Security Council,” he said at a news conference at the Stockholm airport shortly before he was due to board a flight to New York. “We will not be deterred or distracted by this senseless act of terrorism,” he said. “Yesterday was a dark Tuesday for the UN, Iraq and international solidarity. On that day the United Nations lost some of its most outstanding public servants, including Sergio Vieira de Mello,” said Mr Annan, with tears in his eyes.
— AFP |
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Pervez to face joint session of House Islamabad, August 20 General Musharraf, who had earlier said that he would not like to face an “uncivilised” parliament, has changed his mind and asked Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali to work out a strategy for him to address a joint sitting of Parliament, local daily ‘The News’ reported today. The opposition, protesting against General Musharraf holding two posts, has blocked parliamentary proceedings for the past 10 months. So far, General Musharraf has been
putting off his mandatory address to the joint session to avoid a direct confrontation with the opposition. The country’s main political parties, which were agitating to end the military stranglehold and re-establish democratic rule, want General Musharraf to take back his Legal Framework Order (LFO), an administrative order issued by him before last year’s referendum to legalise his election as President, and constitutional amendments brought in by him to vest himself with powers to dissolve Parliament.
— PTI |
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Pak raising hi-tech anti-terror force
Peshawar, August 20 A first batch of more than 40 officers from the new ‘’Special Investigation Group’’ (SIG) will graduate next month after a three months of training. ‘’This is going to be a highly specialised and hi-tech force to track down terrorists and investigate acts of terrorism’’, the official said. The official said the FBI was closely associated in the creation of the special force. Pakistan saw a string of attacks on Western and Christian targets after it threw its weight behind the US-led war on terror that toppled the Taliban. The official said the force would also specialise in identifying and investigating money laundering activities used to finance terror groups and have access to extensive computer databases.
— Reuters |
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Report mentions Sikkim as country
Beijing, August 20 “Sharing long borders with a number of neighbouring Asian countries like Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan and Myanmar, Tibet boasts geographical advantages in expanding border trade,” it said in a report from Tibet’s capital on the Himalayan region’s foreign trade performance in recent years.
— PTI |
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King Gyanendra in eye of storm Kathmandu, August 20 King Gyanendra, who took the throne after a palace massacre that wiped out most of the royal family in June 2001, has come under unprecedented political attack in the Himalayan nation racked by a deadly Maoist revolt. Nepalis say they cannot recall such demonstrations against a monarch, who has the status of a god in this Hindu country, since street protests in 1990 obliged then King Birendra to concede multi-party democracy. Gyanendra, Birendra’s brother, triggered the crisis last October when he fired an elected Prime Minister, accusing him of incompetence in fighting the revolt by Maoists seeking a Communist republic. “He has overstepped his role as constitutional monarch,’’ said Arjun Narsingh, spokesman of the Nepali Congress, the largest party. After dismissing Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, Gyanendra picked a loyalist replacement. Then, as political wrath mounted over the king’s actions, he named another pro-royalist, Surya Bahadur Thapa, as the new Prime Minister, ignoring Opposition party calls to let them choose the country’s leader. Thapa is the nation’s 13th Prime Minister in as many years. With all sides saying it would be difficult to hold new elections because of the Maoist revolt — analysts say the rebels control about two-thirds of the country — and major parties refusing to join the government, the stalemate looks set to drag
on. — Reuters |
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