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Monday,
October
13, 2003,
Chandigarh, India  
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Indo-China study group on economic cooperation soon 6 killed in car blasts at Baghdad hotel 6 Christians killed in Indonesia Pervez completes 4
yrs in power
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UK police to open station in Srinagar Half of US voters want Bush out: poll
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Indo-China study group on economic cooperation soon Chiang Mai (Thailand), October 12 In a statement at the conclusion of an eight-day South-East Asian tour, Mr Vajpayee said at his meeting with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in Bali it was agreed upon to expedite the establishment of the study group. Earlier on Wednesday, at the second India-ASEAN summit in Bali, Mr Vajpayee had sealed historic counter-terrorism, free trade area (FTA) and cooperation and amity pacts with the 10-nation group. Later, during a four-day visit to Thailand, Mr Vajpayee and Mr Thaksin Shinawatra had signed an agreement to set up a FTA between the two countries. He had also received a firm assurance that Thailand would not allow terrorist groups to carry out anti-India activities from its soil. Special representatives of the two countries — National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra and Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo — will have their first meeting in New Delhi on October 23 for finding a solution to the boundary dispute, Mr Vajpayee added. The Prime Minister also said his meeting with Mr Jiabao in Beijing had made a good beginning towards strengthening bilateral ties and the Chinese Premier would visit India as early as possible. Expressing satisfaction over his talks with other ASEAN leaders on the sidelines of the second India-ASEAN summit, Mr Vajpayee said Thailand had agreed to reciprocate India’s offer of increased air services by offering daily flights to Bangkok and the freedom of operations to other Thai cities. India and Thailand have also agreed to set up a linking arrangement between Port Blair and Phuket and develop joint tourism packages, according to the statement. Mr Vajpayee said he had proposed to the ASEAN that the 10-member group should be more closely integrated with India, China, Japan and South Korea so that its economic community could efficiently exploit the synergies of the region. The Joint Declaration on Combating International Terrorism signed by India and ASEAN was another important step in promoting cooperation to eliminate the bane from the region. On the Framework Agreement on Free Trade Area signed with Thailand, the Prime Minister said the two countries were determined to expedite the implementation of the accord for the elimination of tariff and non-tariff barriers for the free movement of goods, capital and services within an agreed time-frame. He also spoke about his cordial meeting with Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri in Bali and said the two countries have agreed to cooperate in combating terrorism. ‘’Ways of increasing trade were also discussed,’’ he said. Earlier, External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha said a super highway linking India with Thailand via Myanmar may now get a kickstart. After many delays, the foreign ministers of India, Myanmar and Thailand are set to meet in New Delhi in December to give finishing touches to the proposed highway that will originate in Manipur and run into Thailand through Myanmar. India has also decided to set up a rail link between New Delhi and Hanoi.
— UNI |
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6
killed in car blasts at Baghdad hotel Baghdad, October 12 Paul Bremer, the top US official in Iraq, denounced the attack, the latest in what have become daily strikes against coalition forces and the Iraqi police. Body parts could be seen near a burning white car at the scene of the explosion, as ambulances rushed off and US armoured vehicles sealed off the area. The suicide bomber and six others were killed, and 11 more were wounded, including a US soldier. A car driven by a suicide bomber, and another packed with explosives that was parked outside the hotel blew up simultaneously, a police officer at the scene said.
— AFP |
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6 Christians killed in Indonesia
Jakarta, October 12 The attacks, near the town of Poso, about 1,600 km northeast of Jakarta on Saturday night, come a day after the killing of two Christians and the burning of a church and about 30 houses in another village by gunmen. The latest attacks on mostly Christian villages near Poso have raised fears of a resurgence of religious violence in the region where around 2,000 persons have died in clashes since 1999. About 85 per cent of Indonesia’s 210 million population are Muslim. The attacks have come after months of relative calm in Sulawesi. The area witnessed violence in 2001 and 2002 and became a training ground for many Muslim militants. “There were six persons killed and nine injured in three villages...all of them Christians,” Rudy Tranggono, deputy Poso police chief, said. “There was no damage to houses or churches in the villages,” he said. But an official at Poso District Hospital said he had received at least 14 injured persons from the attacks yesterday.
— Reuters |
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Pervez
completes 4 yrs in power Islamabad, October 12 Four years after he seized power in a bloodless coup toppling Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who sought to talk peace with Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Mr Musharraf is yet to convince that his administration was doing everything to curb cross-border terrorism in India. Contrary to high popularity enjoyed by him in the international community for his commitments to crackdown on the Al-Qaida, Taliban and other Jehadi groups at home after September 11 attacks, Musharraf now appears to be coming under increasing pressure to crackdown hard on the resurgence of the Taliban at the Pak-Afghan borders and jehadi groups on the Line of Control between India and Pakistan. Unlike last year, Pakistan has now been accused of encouraging cross-border terrorism both by India and Afghanistan this year. Mr Musharraf, who had two crucial meetings with US President George W. Bush in less than four months, also faced pressure to send his troops to Iraq to help the US forces to stabilise the volatile political and military situation there. Despite the defection of 30 members of former Premier Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party to the ruling ranks and other efforts, the government has failed to acquire two-third majority in Parliament and four provincial Assemblies to enable the passage of his controversial amendments. Mr Musharraf now appears to have been effectively checkmated as six-party Islamist alliance Muthahida Majlis Amal (MMA), hitherto considered as friend of the military, has demanded that Mr Musharraf quit as the Chief of the Army by December, 2004.
— PTI |
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UK police to open
station in Srinagar London, October 12 Under the West Midland force’s plan, up to 28 officers will be stationed in a Srinagar the first overseas station for a British force- about half of whom will be British and the Indians constituting the remaining, media report said here. Shah said one detective from the West Midlands had already been to Kashmir three or four times this year. He said David Blunkett, Home Secretary, had expressed support for the scheme when informed of it at the National Black Police Association conference in Cardiff last month. The idea, the ‘Sunday Telegraph’ says, has received backing elsewhere, including from the Hampshire detective leading the hunt for the murderer of Hannah Foster, a student from Southampton, whose killer is believed to be Indian. Detective Supt Alan Betts, of the Hampshire police said he had been to Kashmir twice on the trail of Maninder Pal Singh Kholi, who is wanted for the alleged murder on March 14 this year of 17-year-old Hannah.
— PTI |
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Half of US voters want Bush out: poll New York, October 12 Fifty per cent of voters would replace Mr Bush, according to the Newsweek poll yesterday, up three percentage points from 47 per cent in a similar poll conducted between September 25 and 26. Clark was preferred by 44 per cent of registered voters and Bush by 47 per cent — a dead heat in a poll with a three-percentage-point margin of error.
— AFP |
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Baghdad, October 12
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