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Thursday,
September 4, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Murdered NRI hoteliers fought drug menace UN orders probe into Baghdad blast UK Embassy in Teheran closed after gunfire
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Musharraf rules out
rollback of nuclear arms Pak, India urged to stop arms race Sino-Pak fighter plane test-flown India, Pak join USA in increased productivity |
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3 Afghan soldiers detained by Pak Torrential rains claim 28 lives in China Smoking banned at UN Headquarters
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Murdered NRI hoteliers fought drug menace London, September 3 Amarjit Singh, 52, and his 35-year-old nephew Raginder had become well-known for trying to banish drug pushers operating around their hotel in Forest Gate, the sources said. Scotland Yard detectives are trying to establish whether their killers were drug dealers seeking revenge. The police is hunting three Asian men in their twenties with whom the victims had an argument when they found them parked illegally in spaces reserved for the hotel. The gang drove off, after a sharp exchange in which Amarjit Singh ordered them to leave, only to return on foot 15 minutes later when they started smashing the windows of a van belonging to the hotelier. He and his nephew emerged from the back of the hotel when they heard the commotion, only to be shot in front of Amarjit Singh’s 26-year-old daughter. The daughter dived for cover as the killers opened fire and escaped unharmed. She is under police protection as the only witness and has provided officers with valuable evidence, despite the trauma that she has endured. Detectives from Scotland Yard’s Serious Crime Directorate said 10 spent shell cases fired from a machine pistol had been recovered from the scene. Detective Inspector Ian Stevenson said the two Punjabi hoteliers, who had a variety of other business interests, including property development, had died from multiple gunshot wounds. Stevenson said, “The whole family is deeply shocked. I must say the daughter has been very strong and given us some very good information. It was a horrific thing for her to witness and she, as well as the rest of the family, have counselling available to them from a trained family liaison officer.” He said officers investigating the “cold-blooded murder” were aware that the area was used for drugs and prostitution. —
PTI |
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UN orders probe into Baghdad blast United Nations, September 3 The report of the internal inquiry is expected within a week or two, but it is not clear whether it would be made public. No one has yet been named to hold the independent inquiry. There was no formal announcement but in an e-mail sent to the employees, Under Secretary-General for Management Catherine Bertini said: “An independent inquiry will be conducted to investigate our security arrangements in the run-up of the bombing.” But she gave no details. Twenty-two
people, including United Nations top envoy in Iraq Sergio Vieira de Mello, were killed and more than 150 injured when a truck bomb exploded just below the office of de Mello in Baghdad. The independent inquiry is likely to settle the controversy whether the US-led coalition did not provide enough security or the United Nations rejected a US offer for security as it did not want to appear to be working out of a fortress and wanted to provide easy access to Iraqis. UN chief spokesman Fred Eckhard said the world body was re-assessing security since “we became vulnerable.” At the time of the bomb explosion, the USA was putting up a 12-foot concrete wall in response to an increased security threat “that they perceived and we acknowledged.” The security committee of the staff union had been agitating for an independent inquiry.
— PTI |
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UK Embassy in Teheran closed after gunfire Teheran, September 3 An embassy spokesman said five shots hit the main office building just before midday. They were fired from a nearby street but there were no casualties reported. The Iranian police surrounded the building, according to eyewitnesses, who added that the building had been damaged and windows broken. On Monday, hundreds of students staged a gathering in front of the British Embassy in protest against the arrest of Iran’s former Ambassador to Argentina Hadi Soleimanpour in connection with the 1994 attack on the AMIA Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires. Mr Soleimanpour’s extradition is being sought by Argentina in connection with the bombing while he was Iranian Ambassador there. The embassy had been on a heightened state of alert since the diplomatic crisis with Iran erupted. —
DPA |
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Musharraf rules out
rollback of nuclear arms Islamabad, September 3 He dismissed any speculation that Pakistan planned to freeze or rollback its nuclear assets, while addressing a meeting of the National Command Authority (NCA), the high level body that controls the country’s nuclear weapons. “Such speculation was irrelevant, outdated and totally false,” he told the meeting, held close on the heels of the meeting of the India’s National Command and Control Authority (NCCA) on Monday. The NCA meeting, which was attended by the country’s top military brass, Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali and Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri, reviewed the progress of the Pakistan’s strategic programme, operational readiness of strategic forces and approved a number of recommendations put forward by its secretariate, the Strategic Plans Division. An official press note here also quoted General
Musharraf reiterating Pakistan’s resolve not to enter into arms race with anyone while ensuring consolidation of Pakistan’s minimum deterrence needs. General Musharraf also condemned the “inspired and malicious” campaign by sections of the international media by carrying reports of Pakistan’s alleged assistance to Iran. He said Pakistan had a strong non-proliferation record and reaffirmed commitments to universal non-proliferation goals. In his address, General Musharraf spoke of ensuring “qualitative upgrades” in the country’s nuclear programme to fortify national security. The nuclear programme has matured over the years and would continue to receive top national priority, he said. —
PTI |
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Pak, India urged to stop arms race Islamabad, September 3 The call has been made in the Karachi declaration adopted by the South Asia Labour Conference for Peace at the conclusion of its two-day session in Karachi yesterday, Pakistan newspaper Dawn reported today. The conference was attended by delegates from India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. The declaration stressed the need for adopting a South Asian charter of labour rights as well as a SAARC code of conduct for transnational corporations. It called upon the people and governments of the region to press forward for peace and reduction of tension of all kinds by initiating a process of demilitarisation and moving towards global and regional denuclearisation and elimination of weapons of mass destruction. It also stressed the need for increasing people-to-people contacts through political, economic and cultural events to promote friendship and reduce prejudices, making travel facilities friendly and faster. The declaration said developments since 1996 had added urgency to the need for adopting a South Asian charter of labour rights as well as a SAARC code of conduct for transnational corporations based on the ILO’s tripartite declaration. Proclaiming the right of the people to move freely across the region to earn livelihood through a system of work permits for immigrant labour, the conference emphasised the need to ensure non-discrimination between national and immigrant workers and national legislation for special protection of women workers. —
UNI |
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Sino-Pak fighter plane test-flown Beijing, September 3 “The recent maiden flight of the plane, named Xiaolong/FC-1, or Fierce Dragon, proved successful at the Wenjiang airport in Chengdu, capital of southwest China’s Sichuan province,” the official Xinhua news agency quoted a state-run newspaper as saying. “During the show, the plane demonstrated its outstanding mobility, good interception and ground attack capability,” a report in the economic daily newspaper said without giving the exact date of the test flight. Interestingly, the report was silent about China’s “all-weather” friend Pakistan’s role in the development of the fighter plane. Islamabad has reportedly invested some $ 75 million in the venture. Pakistani defence officials say the FC-1’s performance matches that of the US-made F-16. —
PTI |
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India, Pak join USA in increased productivity United Nations, September 3 While India, China, Pakistan and Thailand in Asia registered slight increase, productivity of the USA accelerated in 2002, surpassing Europe and Japan in terms of annual output per worker for the first time since World War II, the study says. In Key Indicators of the Labour Market (KILM), the ILO notes that part of the difference in output per worker was due to the fact that Americans worked longer hours than their European counterparts. —PTI |
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3 Afghan soldiers detained by Pak Quetta, September 3 Col. Abdul Basit Rana also claimed that the Afghan forces fired a rocket that landed east of Chaman, which is about 150 kilometres northwest of Quetta. It was impossible to determine what prompted the Afghan forces to fire the rocket or verify Rana’s claim that the Afghan soldiers had crossed into Pakistan. The border between the two countries is not clearly marked at places. Colonel Rana said the rocket exploded in an unpopulated area, causing no injuries or damages. “We strongly protested to the Afghan authorities. They expressed regrets over the incidents,” Colonel Rana said. The Afghan soldiers were spotted inside Pakistani territory by a patrol of paramilitary troops guarding the border, Rana said. “The Afghan soldiers just had their identity cards and nothing else,” he said. “We have brought the matter into the notice of the Afghan authorities.” He would not give further details. —
AP |
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Torrential rains claim 28 lives in China Beijing, September 3 Sixteen of the fatalities were reported when a workers’ dormitory collapsed in the city, considered a show-case for China’s economic leapfrog. At least 20 others were also injured in the accident. Two persons were missing in the typhoon, which caused the most serious damage of all similar meteorological phenomena to hit the southern city and south the Pearl river delta since 1979, Xinhua news agency said.
— PTI |
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Smoking banned at UN Headquarters United Nations, September 3 In banning smoking, the United Nations was following the stiff anti-smoking law in New York which prohibits smoking in all offices, indoor public places, including restaurants, bars, shopping malls, bus terminals, theatres and cinema houses. The head of the UN office of Human Resources Management warned the employees that “disciplinary action” could be taken against them if they were caught smoking inside the building. Annan’s order said, “No smoking shall be permitted in any of the United Nations premises at headquarters” from September 1 to “eliminate the risk associated with second-hand smoke.” But diplomats, who follow the ban elsewhere in the city, seem to be in no mood to abide by the rule at the UN headquarters. Officials acknowledged that the UN just could not force diplomats to comply with the order, but feel that over a period of time, the resistance to the ban would wane. —
PTI |
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8 OF FAMILY KILLED IN PAK TALIBAN ULTRAS BURN SCHOOL 5 KILLED IN TRAIN BLAST TALIBAN ULTRAS BURN SCHOOL 5 KILLED IN TRAIN BALST |
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