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Tuesday,
October
14, 2003,
Chandigarh, India  
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Maoist violence
claims 51 lives Doctors separate
conjoined twins
OIC has no locus
standi to discuss Kashmir,
says India China asks EU to
handle Taiwan, Tibet
issues prudently |
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China on alert
against SARS Window
on Pakistan Suspected
terrorist shot
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Maoist violence claims 51 lives in Nepal Kathmandu, October 13 Twentyfive Maoists and 13 personnel of the Armed Police Force were killed in the late night attack on the Armed Police Force Training in Bhaluwang of Dang district, Radio Nepal announced. A large number of Maoists armed with sophisticated weapons swooped on the training centre, 390 km west of Kathmandu, and started firing from all sides. The gunbattle continued till the morning, sources said, adding that the attackers fled after an aerial attack was launched on them with two helicopters from Nepalgunj and Pokhara. Six cops who were injured in the attack were airlifted to Kathmandu. Another Defence Ministry statement said 13 Maoists were killed in seven other gunbattles across the Kingdom. Maoists exploded a pressure cooker bomb in the Bhaktapur’s Chapaho area in Kathmandu valley early this morning. However, no one was injured in the explosion. The rebels planted the bombs in a Madhyapur Thimi Municipality ward office by overpowering the guards, a police official said, adding that a second bomb planted in another municipality was detected and defused in time. The insurgents destroyed buildings of village development committees in three places yesterday by exploding bombs. But there were no casualties, sources said.
— PTI |
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Doctors separate conjoined twins Dallas, October 13 Ahmed and Mohamed Ibrahim, given a chance at independent lives after a smooth surgery involving 18 doctors, were separated yesterday at Children’s Medical Center of Dallas about 27 hours after the procedure began. The twins were in stable condition, bringing relief to a medical team that had prepared for more than a year for the intricate operation. When news of the separation reached the parents, the boys’ father jumped for joy and fainted, while their mother wept with joy, an Egyptian doctor who came from Cairo to be with the family said. “At this point, their vital signs are stable and we don’t see any signs that there have been any medical problems,” said Dr Kenneth Shapiro, one of the five neurosurgeons in a medical team of around 60 members. Neurosurgeons completed the most difficult and dangerous part of the operation on last morning — separating the shared brain material and the shared circulatory systems that feed blood to their brains. The surgery was the first such procedure since twin Iranian women joined at the head died in July at a Singapore hospital from blood loss and other complications from the neurosurgical stage of their operation. Doctors said if the boys were not separated, they would likely never walk without help and faced a lifetime of medical problems. The estimated $ 2 million cost of the surgery was expected to be paid by charity. Even with the separation, they still face years of reconstructive surgery to repair the places where their skulls had been fused together, doctors said. The boys have spent almost all their lives on their backs, leaving the back of their skulls flat. The boys could not stand on their own because of the way they were joined. They were more than 6 feet (1.8 metres) long from the toes of one twin to the toes of the other.
— Reuters |
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OIC has no locus standi to discuss Kashmir, Putrajaya (Malaysia), October 13 India’s High Commissioner to Malaysia Veena Sikri said New Delhi and Islamabad had agreed to solve the problem bilaterally as stated in the 1972 Simla Agreement and the 1999 Lahore Declaration. “We would like Pakistan to respect this. So, there is absolutely no locus standi for the OIC to comment,” said Sikri, who was invited to attend the opening session of the OIC Foreign Ministers meeting ahead of the summit. When it was pointed out that the Kashmir issue had been discussed and resolutions passed in the past by the 57-member grouping, Sikri told Malaysia’s official Bernama news agency that it was up to Malaysia, as the chairman of the 10th summit, to decide. The Kashmir issue would be discussed by the Foreign Ministers during a session on ‘Political, Muslim minorities, communities, legal and information affairs.’
— PTI |
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China asks EU to
handle Taiwan, Tibet Beijing, October 13 In its first-ever strategic position paper on the EU, released here today, the Chinese government requested the 15-members of the group not to have any contact with the “Tibetan government-in-exile” or provide facilities to the separatist activities of the “Dalai Clique.” The paper, titled ‘China’s EU Policy Paper’, said the Chinese Government encouraged personages of various circles in the EU to visit Tibet and welcomes the support of the EU and its members to Tibet’s economic, cultural, educational and social development and their cooperation with the autonomous region “subject to full respect of China’s laws and regulations”. The paper also called upon the EU to prudently handle Taiwan-related issues. While appreciating EU and its members’ commitment to the “One China” principle, Beijing hoped that the group will continue to respect China’s major concerns over the Taiwan question, guard against Taipei’s attempt to create “two Chinas” or “one China, one Taiwan”. The Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, has very strong links with many EU member nations and has also addressed the European parliament in the past, angering China, which view him as a ‘splittist’ attired in a monk’s robe. The Nobel laureate, who escaped from Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule, maintains that he is seeking “genuine autonomy” and not “Tibetan independence”. China appealed to the EU to lift its ban on arms sales, remove “irrational” technical barriers and ease restrictions on high-tech exports citing the booming bilateral trade and investment scenario. The Chinese Government said the EU should lift its ban on arms sales to China at an early date so as to “remove barriers to greater bilateral cooperation on defence industry and technologies”. The EU’s ban on arms sales to Beijing is linked to the Chinese Government’s crackdown on pro-democracy activists here at Tiananmen Square in 1989.
— PTI |
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Beijing, October 13 The sudden and sharp plunge in temperature in most areas of China has sparked fears of a possible return of severe acute respiratory syndrome and the country has mobilised to prepare for another outbreak, official Xinhua news agency reported. Zhong Nanshan, a prominent respiratory disease expert said SARS would return this winter. Speaking at a seminar on respiratory diseases and SARS here, Zhong, however, said that with the strict reporting mechanism and experience from the last SARS crisis, the epidemic would not cause serious damage again. A leading Chinese epidemiologist has also warned of the resurgence of SARS, but predicted no widespread epidemic outbreak this time, Xinhua news agency said. It was unlikely the SARS virus would die out naturally and it would definitely come back, said Zeng Guang with the China disease control centre. North China’s Tianjin port has already resumed a temperature reporting system yesterday. Any passengers through the port with a temperature above 38 degrees celsius would be provided medical observation and reported to relevant authorities.
— PTI |
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Window on Pakistan It is easy for the Pakistani leadership to gloat over the export of “freedom fighters” and the consequent violence in the neighbourhood. But when it happens in Islamabad, the national capital, it fumbles for words. Four masked gunmen sprayed 90 bullets, killing in broad daylight Maulana Azam Tariq, the chief of defunct Sipah-e-Sabah Pakistan and four others, including his bodyguards and driver. The gunmen fled after the crime. As a Shia leader, Tariq was close to those who rule Pakistan, including President Pervez Musharraf. But what followed on the next day October 8 — was still hideous. “For three hours, so-called mourners rampaged through the federal capital — freely firing in the air, torching buildings, attacking a shrine and destroying property worth millions of rupees. Even the ISI building was not spared. An innocent person died when a cinema in the city centre was set ablaze. Others barely escaped with their lives. There was no resistance by the police, except the token firing of a few teargas shells where after the capital cops are reported to have taken to their heels.” This is how News International and Jang put it. There was similar violence in several other cities, including Jhang, where the Maulana was buried. There could be more violence as the deadline set to nab the culprits is over. The government’s declaration of an award of Rs 25 lakh is of little help. The police admits that it is clueless and it is not its job to prevent or fight terrorism. “It seems that Hayat (Interior Minister) had also added his 10 cents to the general administrative paralysis. Thus, even while promising to act against the negligent police officials, he simultaneously admitted directing the police to avoid a clash with the protesters. Armed with this ministerial directive, it is not difficult to see why the police was happy to stand benignly as the mob blazed a trail of destruction through Islamabad’s commercial heart. If he does not deserve the sack for the undeniable negligence which had led to the murder of Maulana Tariq, the worthy minister certainly deserves the door for this priceless administrative gem which is directly responsible for police inaction and the unchecked rampage.” The News demanded. The Dawn, however, went further in identifying the cause and the effect. “The truth is every Pakistani crowd of this kind is now violence-prone. Burning cars and buses, vandalising public and private property, and blocking roads and highways have now become the standard form of protest. Whether it is students waiting for marksheets or an Eid-eve rush at railway stations, people resort to violence on the slightest pretext or provocation. One is tempted here to ask many of those behind the National Assembly resolution what role they have played or are playing in checking the trend toward violence.” Violence, which Pakistani leadership loves to export to Kashmir or Afghanistan, has now entered the mainstream of Pakistani politics, and all leaders — religious and secular — consider resorting to mob force a legitimate form of political assertion. |
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Manila, October 13 If confirmed, the killing of Fathur al-Ghozi, a suspected bomb maker for the Al-Qaida-linked terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah, ends an embarrassing episode for President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. It also gives her a victory in the war against terrorism just days before close ally US President George W. Bush visits. The police said the alleged demolitions expert was killed yesterday in a shootout with a joint police-military team. The military said it was trying to confirm the identity of the body recovered from the clash. Al-Ghozi (32) was serving a 12-year prison sentence when he slipped out of the heavily secured police intelligence command building in July with two suspected members of Abu
Sayyaf, another Al-Qaida linked terrorist group, setting off fears of new attacks.
— AP |
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