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Thursday,
October
16, 2003,
Chandigarh, India
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4 convoy guards
die in Gaza blast
USA freezes
assets of Pak charity group France backs
India’s bid for UN seat |
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Kanishka trial
delayed yet again 200 Indian
workers detained in Four to die for
killing Sharad Shetty
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4 convoy guards die in Gaza blast Gaza, October 15 The convoy included officials from US West Asia envoy John Wolf’s office and from the CIA, the radio said, but added that Mr Wolf was not in the convoy at the time of the blast. A silver Cherokee jeep used by American diplomats was completely destroyed in the blast, which left a crater from what appeared to be a roadside bomb that sprayed blood and wreckage metres away. ‘’I was standing by the side of the road when a convoy, led by a Palestinian police car, drove by. It was followed by two foreign jeeps and at the back there was another Palestinian police car,’’ a witness said. ‘’There was an explosion and one of the two jeeps blew up and was torn apart. We saw on the ground three people dead. They looked like they were foreigners....a fourth was badly wounded.’’ He said US officials whisked the dead and the wounded person away, presumably to Israel. Israel Radio and security officials said four persons were killed. Their nationalities were not immediately known though the radio said they were security guards working for the Americans. The incident occurred in the Gaza Strip about 2 km south of the Erez Crossing to Israel. A US Embassy spokesman confirmed that a US vehicle had been hit by an explosion in the Gaza Strip. He said the car was ‘’a security contractors car, it was not an Embassy vehicle per se’’.
— Reuters |
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USA freezes assets of Pak charity group
Washington, October 15 Al Akhtar Trust was providing a wide range of support to Al-Qaida and Pakistani-based sectarian and jihadi groups, specifically the Lashkar-e-Toiba, the Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, and the Jaish-e-Mohammed, according to a fact sheet issued by the Treasury Department. These efforts included providing financial and logistical support as well as arranging travel for Islamic extremists. The “designation strikes at the life blood of terrorists — the money that funds them,” Treasury Secretary John Snow said in a statement. “Shutting down this organisation will cripple yet another source of support for terrorists and possibly help undermine the financial backing of terrorists staging attacks against American troops and Iraqi civilians in Iraq”. Al Akhtar, said the Treasury, is registered as a humanitarian aid agency, but evidence presented by the Treasury indicates numerous links between Al Akhtar and other organisations and individuals on the list of groups supporting terrorist activities, including Al-Qaida and the Taliban. “The activities of the Al Akhtar Trust demonstrate the dangerous alliance between corrupted charities and terrorists. There is little more despicable than raising money under the guise of doing good and instead diverting the resources of often well-intentioned donors to supporting acts of terror,” he said. The action, undertaken under an executive order signed by President George W Bush bars US nationals from engaging in any transaction with Al Akhtar Trust. Al Akhtar is carrying on the activities of the previously designated Al Rashid Trust.
— PTI |
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France backs India’s bid for UN seat Paris, October 15 “I am convinced that India has a growing international role to play, a role on the scale of the world’s largest democracy,” Mr Chirac said in a speech to the Franco-Indian Initiatives Forum. “That is why France has for a long time backed India’s candidacy for a seat as a permanent member of the Security Council,” he told the audience of about 30 diplomats and businessman.
— AFP |
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Booker for reformed Aussie drug addict
London, October 15 Pierre (42) who lives in Ireland with a British passport, bagged the prize last night for ‘Vernon God Little,’ a satire on American low culture inspired by the recent spate of high-school massacres. In one of the shortest judging sessions in the prize’s history, under one hour, four of the five judges gave unqualified to the novel. “Everybody thought that it was the most imaginative, unusual, exciting and extraordinary book for a British person to have written. It is a coruscating black comedy,” Prof Carety said. The prize’s administrator, Martyn Goff, said the judges had voted him the winner in record time, with only one of the five voting for another book. He dismissed the suggestion that the Booker’s reputation would be tainted by an author with a shady past. DBC Pierre, which stands for “Dirty But Clean Peter” had confessed last weekend to having betrayed friends in his former life as a drug addict and gambler. He is the first author to win Booker with a debut novel since Arundhati Roy, in 1997. The other short-listed books for this year’s prize were: Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood, the former Booker winner; The Good Doctor by Damon Galgut; Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller, a columnist with The Daily Telegraph and Astonishing Splashes of Colour by Clare Morrall. Pierre told last night’s Booker ceremony at the British Museum that he had only been inspired to write as a way of repaying the money he owed. “My youth was an incredibly deviating and mis-energetic affair. To be honest, if there was a single pressure that has brought me to writing, it’s regrets. That’s like rocket fuel. I’ve got regrets for the rest of my life. “I was compelled to write or to take a length of rope to hang myself in the forest,” he said. “I am not touching a penny of it (his winner’s cheque). It isn’t coming to me, but it’s only about a third of what I owe in the world. I am going to pay some debts to see if I can sleep slightly better tonight.”
— PTI |
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Kanishka trial delayed yet again Vancouver, October 15 “The presence of counsel will bring many time-saving efficiencies,” Judge Ian Bruce Josephson said yesterday as he gave Ripudaman Singh Malik until tomorrow to arrange payment for his 11 lawyers. Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri are each charged with murder and conspiracy in the June 23, 1985, bombing of Air India flight 182 that killed 329 persons and a related bombing in a Japanese airport that killed two baggage handlers. Their trial has repeatedly been delayed by the controversy over legal fees for Malik, who claims he cannot afford them. All lawyers involved and the judge had earlier vowed to resume the trial yesterday regardless of whether Malik had legal help, forcing him to defend himself in what has become one of the world’s largest terrorism trials.
— AFP |
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200 Indian workers detained in Kuala Lumpur Kuala Lumpur, October 15 The workers, who had paid Rs 80,000 each to the travel agent to secure jobs here, refused to work alleging poor medical facilities, bad food and living conditions. The workers decided to approach the Indian mission to present their grievances but were detained by the Immigration authorities, for not having travel documents, before they could reach the mission. On hearing the news of their detention, Indian High Commissioner Veena Sikri rushed senior officials to ascertain the fact of the matter. The High Commissioner said a delegation of the workers would come to the Indian mission tomorrow to present their case. Meanwhile, Director of the Immigration Department Mohib Mohammed said the employees would be released once their passports were verified.
— UNI |
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Four to die for killing Sharad Shetty Dubai, October 15 Karan Singh Mansingh, Manoj Mudanna Kotian, Amar Bahadur Ram and Vimal Kumar Ram were given capital punishment yesterday for premeditated murder and complicity. Vasa Kiwat Buhamen was sentenced to three years, imprisonment followed by deportation for abetment to the crime, while Abdul Majid Sayyed Khan has been acquitted for lack of evidence. Forty-seven year old Indian businessman and alleged mafia don Shetty, who owned a chain of hotels in the UAE, was shot dead in broad daylight in the heart of Dubai in January.
— PTI |
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