W O R L D

No evidence of Saddam’s hand in Sept 11 attacks, says Bush
Washington, September 18
US President George W. Bush has said there was no evidence to suggest that the Saddam’s Hussein regime was involved in the September 11 attacks, but there was a link between the deposed Iraqi leader and Al-Qaida, the outfit that allegedly carried out the attacks.

Pak cooperating against Al-Qaida, says USA
Washington, September 18
Pakistan is fully cooperating with the USA against Al-Qaida and Taliban operating from Pakistani territory across the Afghan border, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan has said.

Gunman shoots at 2 hostages, kills self
Nashville, September 18
A gunman claiming to be a member of Al-Qaida, who held nearly 16 persons hostage at a community, college, shot and wounded two of his captives before shooting himself, the police said.

Palestinian girls recover their belongings from their house after it was destroyed during an Israeli raid at Noserat refugee camp in the Gaza Strip on Thursday. — Reuters

Life term for man behind Bali bombing
Bali, September 18
Ali Imron, one of the few defendants to express remorse over the terrorist attacks on Indonesia’s Bali island, was today sentenced to life in prison for his role in the bombings that killed 202 persons.


Ali Imron is escorted by police officers as he arrives at a courtroom in Denpasar, Bali, on Thursday. — Reuters photo

BRIEFLY

North Carolina State Troopers closely follow an unidentified pedestrian as he crosses the Atlantic Beach-Morehead City Bridge in high winds from Hurricane Isabel in Morehead City, North Carolina, on Thursday. The Atlantic Beach is under a mandatory evacuation order. — Reuters

	USA blocks UN bid to shield Arafat September 18, 2003
	40 UN members flay Israel September 17, 2003
	SARS scare grips Singapore economy again September 16, 2003
	Israel may eliminate Arafat September 15, 2003
	UN postpones debate on Arafat September 14, 2003
	Indo-Israel friendship dangerous, says Pak September 13, 2003
	World remembers September 11 dead September 12, 2003
	Terrorism greatest challenge, says Shekhawat September 11, 2003
	7 killed in blast near Israeli base September 10, 2003
	Bush seeks troops, money for Iraq September 9, 2003

No evidence of Saddam’s hand in Sept 11 attacks,
says Bush
T.V. Parasuram

Washington, September 18
US President George W. Bush has said there was no evidence to suggest that the Saddam’s Hussein regime was involved in the September 11 attacks, but there was a link between the deposed Iraqi leader and Al-Qaida, the outfit that allegedly carried out the attacks.

“There’s no question that Saddam Hussein had al-Qaida ties,” Mr Bush told reporters, yesterday. But he also said, “We have no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with the September 11 (attacks)”.

The US President’s comment goes against a belief held by many Americans that Saddam Hussein had a role in perpetration of 9/11 attacks. An opinion poll last week found that nearly 70 per cent of Americans believed that the Iraqi leader probably was personally involved in the attacks.

The US administration has argued that the Saddam’s government had close links with the Al-Qaida. Vice-President Dick Cheney said, for instance, that success in stabilizing and democratising Iraq would strike a major blow at the “the geographic base of the terrorists, who have had us under assault for many years, but most especially on 9/11.”

And on Tuesday, in an interview on ABC’s “Nightline,” White House National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said one of the reasons Mr Bush went to war against Saddam was because he posed a threat in “a region from which the 9/11 threat emerged.”

In an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Mr Cheney was asked whether he was surprised that more than two-thirds of Americans in a Washington Post poll would express a belief that Iraq was behind the attacks. “No, I think it’s not surprising that people make that connection,” he replied. — PTI

Pak cooperating against Al-Qaida, says USA

Washington, September 18
Pakistan is fully cooperating with the USA against Al-Qaida and Taliban operating from Pakistani territory across the Afghan border, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan has said.

“Pakistan is a strong ally in the war on terrorism. They have been working closely with us to go after terrorists who may be crossing the border. They are a close ally in the war on terrorism, working with us to go after these threats,” McClellan said yesterday. — PTI

Gunman shoots at 2 hostages, kills self

Nashville, September 18
A gunman claiming to be a member of Al-Qaida, who held nearly 16 persons hostage at a community, college, shot and wounded two of his captives before shooting himself, the police said.

Harold Kilpatrick, 26, held nearly 16 students and their teacher at gunpoint for more than nine hours yesterday. The police stormed the building after the shots were heard and found the hostage-taker dead, said Dyersburg police chief Bobby Williamson. — AFP

Life term for man behind Bali bombing

Bali, September 18
Ali Imron, one of the few defendants to express remorse over the terrorist attacks on Indonesia’s Bali island, was today sentenced to life in prison for his role in the bombings that killed 202 persons.

“Ali Imron has been found guilty in a legal and convincing manner of terrorism,” said Judge Mulyani, who read out the verdict.

He could have been sentenced to death. But the five-judge panel earlier said a lighter sentence was justified, given his expressions of remorse and his testimony against other defendants on trial.

Imron’s older brother Amrozi bin Nurhasyim and the mastermind of the Bali attack, Imam Samudra, have already been sentenced to death. Both defiantly defended the bombings as necessary to avenge the treatment of Muslims at the hands of the USA and Israel.

Imron, a 33-year-old Islamic boarding school teacher, was arrested in January. — AP

Charles Sobhraj seen in Nepal

Kathmandu, September 18
The police has raided some hotels in the tourist centre Thamel near here following reports that notorious criminal Charles Sobhraj was seen on Tuesday.

A local newspaper had published a photograph purportedly showing Sobhraj in the Thamel area yesterday.

So far, we have not found any clue about the presence of Sobhraj in Kathmandu except the newspaper report with a photograph published by The Himalayan Times, said Deputy Superintendent of Police in Kathmandu District Police Office Ganesh K.C.

The police had conducted a search in a few hotels in Thamel to hunt him, but of no use, he added.

“There has been a murder case pending for 25 years against Sobhraj at the Kathmandu District Court”, he said, adding he had been charged with the murder of a Canadian woman at the Koteshwor area of Kathmandu in 1975 and a search for Shobraj was still going on. — PTI

Maoist-sponsored strike hits life in Kathmandu

Kathmandu, September 18
Maoists attacked a royal property and set ablaze Premier Surya Bahadur Thapa’s farmhouse in Nepal as normal life came to a standstill in the Capital on the first day of the rebel-sponsored strike.

The rebels set ablaze the farmhouse at Birtababiya village of Morang district yesterday and looted property worth Rs 10 lakh.

They also destroyed a house at the royal garden at Thansing village in Nuwakot, Radio Nepal said. However, no one was injured in these attacks.

Maoists also set ablaze a school building in Dhading district, neighbouring Kathmandu last night.

Life was paralysed and tourism was affected on the otherwise peaceful first day of the strike called by the rebels to press for their demands for a constitutional overhaul and abolition of the monarchy.

Schools and colleges were shut down and vehicles remained off the roads. — PTI

No Coca Cola for Indian MPs
Vinay Shukla

Moscow, September 18
The customary bottles of Coca Cola were conspicuously missing on the long white ornate table in the Hall of Coat of Arms in Russian State Duma when the seven-member Lok Sabha delegation arrived for the 2nd session of the Indo-Russian Inter-Parliamentary Commission.

Generally, three bottles of soft drinks per four persons are placed in a row on the white negotiations table, including a bottle of Coca Cola or Pepsi, which have long become a sort of national drink in post-Communist Russia.

However, for the meeting with the Indian MPs yesterday, Coca Cola was conspicuously missing and only the bottles of local mineral water and lemonades of old Soviet brands were served.

“We also read newspapers,” a Duma staff said in an obvious reference to a ban on the sale of colas in Indian Parliament. — PTI 

Renditions by Penaz enthral Germans
Sumir Kaul

Berlin, September 18
A slice of India transcended the cultural barriers as scores of Germans listened to noted ghazal singer Penaz Masani with rapt attention singing famous numbers of Raj Kapoor and Kishore Kumar at an Indian theme party as part of the ongoing Asian Pacific meet being held here.

“Mera Juta Hai Japani” and “Mein Hun Jhum Jhum Jhumroo” hardly made any sense to most people. Yet they were clearly enthralled by the renditions rich with Indian flavour thanks to the Tagore Centre of the Indian Embassy here which had sponsored the Penaz programme.

Penaz began the evening with a traditional ghazal, which was followed by a famous number filmed on the queen of Indian silver screen Madhubala ‘Aaaye Meherban’ followed by “Mera Juta hai Japani.”

To her pleasant surprise and to a small crowd that had been flown to Berlin especially for the festival, quite a few Germans and other nationals settled in this city started singing in a chorus with her.

The response indicated there are lovers of traditional Indian music in this distant land. “I love Raj Kapoor and I had seen several of his movies including “Shri 420,” “Awara” and “Mera Naam Joker”,” says Raby Mermer, an Israeli settled in Germany, who sang the famous number of Raj Kapoor more prominently than the others in the crowd.

Penaz continued the programme with “Main Hun Jhum Jhum Jhumroo” of legendary Kishore Kumar and again the chorus to this song was heard from several corners of the crowd while others, who obviously did not understand it, participated by clapping to the rhythm. — PTI

BRIEFLY

Hollywood stars Michelle Pfeiffer (L), Al Pacino and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio arrive for a screening of their 1983 film Scarface in New York on Wednesday. in New York. The screening celebrated the movie's 20th anniversary. — AP/PTI

LindH murder suspect pleads not guilty
STOCKHOLM: The man arrested by the Swedish police in connection with the last week’s murder of Foreign Minister Anna Lindh says he is not the man who attacked Anna with a knife, the suspect’s defence lawyer has said. “I just met my client and during the hearings he said he had nothing to do with the murder of Anna Lindh,’’ Gunnar Falk, suspect’s court-appointed legal counsel, told reporters on Wednesday after his first meeting with the man arrested by the police on Tuesday. — Reuters

New galaxy discovered
CLEVELAND: Astronomers at Case Western Reserve University have said they have discovered a new galaxy orbiting the well- known galaxy Andromeda. The new galaxy, Andromeda VIII, is so widespread and transparent that astronomers did not suspect its existence until they mapped the velocity of stars thought to belong to Andromeda and found they moved independent of that spiral galaxy. — DPA

Monkeys aware of injustice
PARIS: Monkeys, like humans, are acutely aware of injustice, which suggests that a sense of equality is an ancestral trait among primates, a study says. In an unusual two-year experiment, animal behaviourists Sarah Brosnan and Frans de Waal of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, taught brown capuchin monkeys to receive tokens as a reward, and to barter them for food. The monkeys were usually quite content to swap the tokens for cucumber, but if the researchers gave one of the monkeys a grape, a more eagerly-sought food, the other animals would become jealous. — AFP