 |
Sunday,
October
5, 2003,
Chandigarh, India  
|
Suicide
bomber kills 18 in Israel
Captured Al-Qaida militants are Pakistanis, Afghans Window on Pakistan |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Avoid provocation, USA tells India, Pak
North Korea fleeced Saddam of $10m: Kay
2 Iraqi scientists killed for helping USA: Kay
Iraqi governance soon: Bush White House deadline for
leak probe records
NASA delays shuttle flight till Sept 2004 EU leaders
square off as talks open Oman’s
first free elections
Maria Shriver, wife of Republican gubernatorial candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger, speaks at the California Women Excellence in Leadership Awards at the Balboa Bay Club
and Resort in Newport Beach, Calif.,
on Friday.
Tibetan monk ‘dies after brutal beating’
|
|
Suicide bomber kills 18 in Israel
Jerusalem, October 4 The police said a gunman was also involved in the attack, but the circumstances were not immediately clear. The attack targeted the popular Maxim restaurant on Haifa’s beach promenade on the southern edge of the city. On Saturdays, the promenade is packed with people. The police said the blast was set off by a suicide bomber, who had explosives strapped to his body. The police said 18 persons were killed and 51 wounded. The attack came despite a blanket closure Israel had imposed on the West Bank and Gaza Strip ahead of the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, or Day of Atonement, which begins at sundown Sunday and ends at sundown Monday. Such closures are generally imposed during Jewish holidays because of increased concerns about attacks by Palestinian militants during such periods. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, the first suicide bombing since the twin attacks killed 15 persons on September 9 near an Army base outside Tel Aviv and at a Jerusalem coffee shop. Islamic militant group Hamas had yesterday said a barrier Israel was building in the West Bank would not prevent attacks on Israelis and that the U.S.-backed peace ‘’road map’’ was doomed to failure. The Hamas statement stepped up a Palestinian campaign against the barrier, which Israel decided on Wednesday to extend deeper into Palestinian territory to enclose some big Jewish settlements. A Palestinian diplomat unveiled plans at the United Nations yesterday to ask the U.N. Security Council to adopt a resolution demanding that Israel should reverse Wednesday’s decision.
— Reuters/AP |
|
Extremists may pull Pak down: Pervez Islamabad, October 4 “There is no external threat which can do any harm to us. We are capable of handling any external threat. The enemy lies within and this element of religious and sectarianism which may pull us down”, General Musharraf said in a hard-hitting speech last night at an annual dinner of All-Pakistan Textile Mills Association here. His remarks came after seven minority Shia Muslims were killed and several injured when gunmen fired at their bus in Karachi yesterday while they were on their way to Friday prayers. The police believes that the attack was carried out by banned Sunni extremist outfit, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. Stating that religious extremists posed a serious threat to Pakistan, he said as their acts “impact on us internally and impact our reputation externally. That is the area which we have to guard against. “We have been hijacked by unenlightened exponents of the religion. We will not allow this country to be used and misused by extremists — international extremists”. His criticism of religious extremists also came a day before the arrival of US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca to Pakistan. Hinting at a major crackdown, similar to the one carried out by large contingents of the Pakistan army against Al-Qaida militants in a tribal area bordering Afghanistan two days ago, General Musharraf said such raids would continue in every two-three days. Eight Al-Qaida militants were killed and 18 captured in the raids. “We have created an intelligence set up and there is a special operations task force on ground. You have seen what they did. This is first action they did and I will make sure that every second or third day we will do the same.
— PTI |
|
Captured Al-Qaida militants are Pakistanis, Afghans
Islamabad, October 4 Most of the captured Al-Qaida suspects in “Operation Mizan”, launched by the Pakistan armed forces in South Waziristan on Thursday, were Pakistanis and Afghans, a media report said today. Eight militants and two Pakistani soldiers were killed and 18 militants were captured in the raid. Five among the dead were Chechens while one of them has been identified as an Algerian and another as Turkish. The identity of the remaining who were killed in the day-long operation could not be ascertained, “The News” reported quoting sources from Wana, headquarters of South Waziristan tribal agency. Pakistan officials yesterday described the arrests as a mixed bag. “There are Chechens, Uzbeks, an Algerian and some Arab-speaking nationals. We are trying to determine their exact nationalities.” The report said only two of the 18 captured persons were believed to be Arabs while the rest were either from Pakistan’s Punjab and South Waziristan Agency or Afghanistan. The arrested persons have been shifted out of the agency in military helicopters and were in the custody of the joint interrogation team. Pakistan’s military spokesman Major-Gen Shaukat Sultan said the identity of the suspects was being ascertained but could not be disclosed, “because it could influence the investigations”. Another daily `Dawn’ said the Pakistani army had given three days time to tribal chiefs to hand over any militant hiding in their areas. “We are going to give three days to produce Al-Qaida militants and take punitive action against those who harbour or shelter terrorists,” Azam Khan, political agent of the area said. General Sultan said the possibility of operations like in South Waziristan could not be ruled out in the future as the war against terrorism continues. “The war on terror goes on as it had been in the past, it will continue in future also. Such operations’ possibility cannot be ruled out,” he told CNN.
— PTI |
|
Window on Pakistan Back from the USA, Pakistan’s self proclaimed President, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, has woken up to the threat from Al Qaida. The result, his police and army were engaged in a bloody gun battle for two days in South Waziristan area bordering Afghanistan. Twelve suspected Taliban and Al Qaida fighters were killed and 18
arrested. Two policemen and a number of civilians too were killed what the military touted as a demonstration of commitment to the war on terror. According to Daily Times gunship helicopters pounded suspected Al-Qaida hideouts while Pakistani troops blocked their escape routes. The killed were not identified, but most of them appeared to be foreigners. This area has remained nearly out of bound for the British and the Pakistani forces for long. How would the gun loving and independent minded tribals react to this is anyone’s guess. No one is going to accept the death of 30 tribesmen. The Army which has some presence since 2001, took foreign reporters from Islamabad with it as “embedded journalists” to cover the operation. At the same time, in Nesh district of Afghanistan, Afghan government troops and Special Forces of the USA were battling the Taliban. One Taliban, two children and 10 soldiers were killed. One wounded Taliban was captured close to Dara-I-Noor, 70 km from Kandhar, where fighting was had raged for hours. What do these otherwise unrelated fights show. The Taliban and Al-Qaida fighters, once the right arm of the USA and Pakistan are neither down nor out. An editorial in Dawn succinctly summed up: “The two clashes make it obvious that Al Qaida and Taliban are far from being vanquished as they were supposed to have been in December, 2001 when Kandhar, the last of the Taliban bastions, fell. The militants are now on both sides of the border.” The Taliban are to be found all over Afghanistan. They may be lying low, but they are quite capable of mounting offensives against Afghan security forces when and where they choose. In fact, at places the Taliban are strong enough to claim that they have control over some areas of Afghan territory: the Barmal district, 15 miles from Pakistan, is in their control. The fight against Al Qaida is compounded by the kind of terrain and tribal culture the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area has. “The situation in entire Afghanistan continues to be chaotic. The writ of the Karzai government is confined to Kabul, and the international security assistance force refuses to venture out of the capital city. A professional Afghan army which the Karzai government was to raise is nowhere near its planned strength, thus encouraging the warlords in their defiance of Kabul.” Dawn added with dismay. Dawn also suggested:
''Both Islamabad and Kabul should know that the issue needs political handling more than resort to force. The two governments should also better coordinate their efforts against Al-Qaida and the Taliban. The misunderstandings between the two have often enabled the Taliban to exploit these differences to their advantage.” Nation’s editorial was more critical. “It said,” It is an irony that the jihadis being hunted down at the behest of the US were initially inducted in the tribal areas at the instance of the superpower itself. It is equally ironical that those who provided them safe havens in these sensitive areas are currently involved in dislodging and even killing them. There are many who think that, as before, the administration is going too far to please the US. Apprehensions are also being expressed that while the US would easily walk out of the area once its objective had been achieved Pakistan would be left alone to deal with the consequences of the military action for years to come.” Pakistan is under pressure from the US to help finish the Taliban leadership, but with Osama bin Laden still in the area, and Pakistan’s own ambivalent altitude, and the strong opposition from within, it can at best fight small battles. |
|
Avoid provocation, USA tells India, Pak
Washington, October 4 Renewing its appeal to both India and Pakistan to start a dialogue, U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said both countries needed to put a cap on their respective nuclear weapons and missiles build-up. “Meanwhile, Joseph Cirincione, Director of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Project at the Carnegie Endowment, has categorically stated that the international community should view Pakistan as a “serious threat” to peace and stability in the wake of the latest missile test. Pakistan, he asserted, was guilty of “nuclear misconduct” and it was the Bush Administration’s responsibility to use its “diplomatic muscle” to halt the spread of these deadly arsenals.
— ANI |
|
North Korea fleeced Saddam of $10m: Kay
Washington, October 4 David Kay, who heads the Iraqi Survey Group (ISG) hunting for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, said yesterday that Saddam’s regime handed over $ 10 million to North Korea for missile technology that was never delivered. “The Iraqis actually advanced the North Koreans $ 10 million. In late 2002, the North Koreans came to the Iraqis as a result of the Iraqis’ inquiry: ‘Where is the stuff we paid for?’” The North Koreans said “‘Sorry, there’s so much US attention on us, that we cannot deliver it,’” Kay added. “The Iraqis said ‘well, we don’t like this, but give us our $ 10 million back.’” When the US-led invasion of Iraq started on March 19, the North Koreans were still refusing to return the $ 10 million, Kay said. “It’s a lesson of negotiating with the North Koreans,” Kay joked on a telephone conference call with reporters. He said Saddam Hussein had attempted several times to get the money back.
— AFP |
|
2 Iraqi scientists killed for helping USA: Kay
Washington, October 4 Mr Kay, who is directing the WMD hunt as an adviser to the CIA, presented an interim report to US lawmakers this week that said no banned weapons had yet been found. Some Iraqi scientists had sought relocation in the USA out of fear for the safety of their families, and others who wanted to stay in Iraq sought security guarantees, Mr Kay told reporters on a conference call. “They believe they are in genuine danger ... if they collaborate with us,’’ he said yesterday. One scientist was “assassinated literally hours after meeting’’ with a member of the WMD-hunting team, killed by a single shot to the back of his head outside his apartment, Mr Kay said. There were no signs of robbery. Another scientist, who was “really golden for us,’’ was shot six times but survived, he said. Mr Kay declined to name them. “The scientist who took six bullets was ... key to starting our understanding of the biological weapons programme and pointing us in the direction of others,’’ he said. His nephew was also shot in the incident a month and a half ago, Mr Kay said. “We engaged in a lot of conversations with him. We perhaps were not as sensitive to his security needs as now in retrospect we realise we should have been,’’ he said. “It’s very difficult to conduct clandestine meetings in Iraq when you have to go pick people up because ... transport was hard to come by.’’ But Mr Kay said cooperation from Iraqis, inside and outside detention, has increased. “This is an intelligence-led operation, we are absolutely dependent on the cooperation of Iraqis to help us discover the complete truth about the WMD programmes,’’ he noted. During the war launched in March, Mr Kay said he had feared that the Iraqi military would use chemical weapons on US-led forces and was surprised that no such weapons were found soon afterward. “I think all of us who entered Iraq expected the job of actually discovering deployed weapons to be easier than it has turned out to be,’’ he said. Mr Kay was also surprised by an extensive laboratory network found embedded in the Iraqi Intelligence Service, which was not declared to UN inspectors and the extent to which Iraq had moved ahead in its missile programme.
— Reuters |
|
Iraqi governance soon: Bush
Washington, October 4 Warning that transition to self-government is a “complicated process, because it takes time to build trust and hope after decades of oppression and fear,” he said “yet we are making steady progress.”
— PTI |
|
White House deadline for
leak probe records
Washington, October 3 White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales said all employees had until 2.30 am
(IST) on October 7 to hand deliver to his office documents for the investigation into who disclosed the identity of a CIA officer whose husband had challenged President George W. Bush’s claims about Iraq’s weapons threat. Meanwhile, the State Department and the Pentagon confirmed they had received requests to preserve all records in the Justice Department’s expanding criminal investigation. “We have been asked to take a look at our calendars and documents to see if we have any information that is relevant to this inquiry. And we obviously will cooperate fully with the Department of Justice in getting the answers that they seek,’’ Secretary of State Colin Powell told reporters. The State Department began drafting a notice to all its employees, including a cable to its embassies overseas, describing the request and instructing them to comply, spokesman Richard Boucher said. A Justice Department official called the requests to the State and Defence Departments standard in the initial phase of an investigation. A similar one went to the CIA earlier this week.
— Reuters |
|
NASA delays shuttle flight till Sept 2004
Washington, October 4 This is at least the third postponement of the shuttle fleet’s estimated return to flight since shuttle Columbia broke up over Texas during re-entry on February 1, killing all seven astronauts. The three remaining shuttles have been grounded since then. The new launch window is from September 12 to October 10, 2004, said William Readdy, NASA’s associate administrator for space flight, in a telephone news conference yesterday. Another shuttle could launch by November 15, 2004. “I can almost guarantee that this is going to be a long uphill climb back to flight,’’ Readdy said. “But I’ll also guarantee you that we’re getting an awful lot smarter about this and we’re going to come back stronger and safer as a result.’’ Soon after the accident, NASA geared up for a possible launch as early as September 2003, later moving that to a window from March 11 to April 6 of next year, driven in part by a decision to launch only during daylight hours to ease the taking of high-resolution pictures of the liftoff. Last month, Bill Parsons, the shuttle programme manager, acknowledged that changes recommended by the independent Columbia Accident Investigation Board would be so challenging that the March 2004 date would slip until July. On yesterday’s call, Parsons said, “There are a certain number of things that we know we need to do that are just going to take time. Because of that we felt like we wouldn’t get there by March or even the July time frame.’’
— Reuters |
|
EU leaders square off as talks open
Rome, October 4 The birth of the European Economic Community in Rome in 1957 had been an act of faith over the ruins of what he called the worst civil war in Europe’s history. “Today we need more than an act of faith, we need an act of will power,” Mr Berlusconi said. But the goodwill engendered by the ambitious project to write a first constitution for an expanded union of 450 million citizens rapidly gave way to tough talking as many states sought assertively to defend their interests.
— Reuters |
|
Oman’s first free elections Muscat, October 4 Sultan Qaboos bin Said extended voting rights to all citizens aged 21 or over last year to end restrictions which had allowed only a quarter of the 1.8 million population to vote for the 83-member consultative Shura Council. Voters were previously selected by the government from among tribal leaders, intellectuals and prominent businessmen. The council has no legislative powers and mainly advises the government on economic matters. It has no say on issues relating to defence, security or foreign affairs. Omani women turned up in large numbers at polling stations, hoping for better representation in the council which currently has only two women members. ‘’This time, we have a true election, which has encouraged many women voters to come forward to try and elect as many women as possible,’’ Khadija Alawi, a college lecturer, said. There are 15 women candidates versus 21 in the last poll. Results are expected to be announced later on Saturday.
— Reuters |
|
Wife defends Arnold
Los Angeles, October 4 Shriver, a member of the Democratic Kennedy dynasty, came to the aid of her Republican husband of 17 years after he was accused of groping and humiliating women over his 30-year career as an actor and bodybuilder. While refusing to be drawn on the allegations, which she said she was aware of but described as a “family matter,” Shriver said her husband’s apology on Thursday for “behaving badly” towards women was courageous. “Nothing hurts because I know the man I’m married to,” the television journalist told reporters at a Republican women’s event in Los Angeles where she was campaigning for Schwarzenegger’s bid to become governor in Tuesday’s polls. “I think his statement speaks for itself and I am not going to go down this road, because I don’t believe in gutter politics and I don’t believe in gutter journalism. “He’s apologised and that’s courageous,” she said.
— AFP |
|
Tibetan monk ‘dies after brutal beating’
Beijing, October 4 Nyima Drapka, who was jailed for nine years in 2002 and is in his twenties, died in southwestern China after being hospitalised for 10 days, two different sources said. “The lama (monk) died the day before yesterday (Thursday) afternoon,” a nurse in Dawu district, in a Tibetan region of Sichuan province, told AFP. She said the monk was treated by an intern doctor but did not know his complaint. A source cited by Radio Free Asia said the monk was brutally beaten up in the prison for refusing to recant his separatist beliefs. Drapka had lived for several years in exile in India and had returned to Dawu in 1994, where he began putting up posters on government buildings calling for Tibetan independence, the American-funded radio said. “After his death, his body was handed over to our monastery in Dawu where Buddhist rituals were performed,” another source told Radio Free Asia.
— AFP |
 |
| Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir | Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs | Nation | Editorial | | Business | Sport | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh Tribune | Ludhiana Tribune 50 years of Independence | Tercentenary Celebrations | | 123 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
Washington, October 4
Video
