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Sunday,
October
19, 2003,
Chandigarh, India
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Three
lakh expected at Mother’s beatification
Putin to
discuss Kashmir with US
Muslim group funded Al-Qaida
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Brief
filed for Bhopal victims Encroachments
on Indian mission razed Pakistan today said the provincial sindh government had removed encroachments from the disused India Consulate building in Karachi and posted guards there and at five other properties belonging to India to protect them from potential intruders.
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Three lakh expected at Mother’s beatification
Vatican City, October 18 Thousands of Roman Catholic pilgrims from around the world are in Rome for the biggest single event on the Church calendar this year. “She was such a wonderful person, a gift from God. She cared only for other people. Soon, she will be a saint,” said one follower in St Peter’s Square, where the ceremony to put Mother Teresa on the path to sainthood would be held tomorrow. Pilgrims said the historic day — crowning the fastest-ever beatification, only six years after the nun’s death — would be met with not only celebration, but also reflection, as they remembered the nun they called the “Saint of the Gutters”. “It is a time of renewal and reflection. Mother Teresa was an apostle of love. She wanted to reach out to people in a simple way. She reached out to the poor,” said Indian-born Arul Raj, a priest living in Rome. Mr Syam Prasad Babu, a former Indian Railway worker who said he had been healed of a kidney disease after invoking Mother Teresa in a prayer — shortly after her death in 1997 at the age of 87 — travelled from Kolkata to give his thanks. Pope John Paul II, a close personal friend of the celebrated nun, born in Skopje to Albanian parents, is due to hold the solemn beatification ceremony, expected to last around three hours. Fittingly, pride of place for the ceremony will be given to Monica Basra, the 35-year-old woman whose claim that she was cured of stomach cancer by the intercession of Mother Teresa set in train the process of beatification. It was recognised as a miracle by Vatican investigators in 2002. Ms Basra is due to walk up to the giant altar during the ceremony and kiss the Pope’s hand. The best seats have been set aside for more than 3,000 poor and disabled persons, representing those to whom the nun dedicated her life. In a key part of tomorrow’s ceremony, the Pope will receive a reliquary containing drops of Mother Teresa’s blood from Sister Nirmala, who succeeded her as head of the Missionaries of Charity.
— AFP |
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Putin to discuss Kashmir with Vajpayee: Pervez Islamabad, October 18 Mr Putin promised to discuss the issues with Mr Vajpayee when the two meet during the Indian Prime Minister’s visit to Moscow next month, General Musharraf told mediapersons on his return from the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC). General Musharraf met Mr Putin on the sidelines of the just concluded OIC summit meeting at Putra Jaya in Malayasia. Asked about the OIC support to the Kashmir issue he said the OIC Contact Group gave a unanimous support to Kashmiris cause adding that Pakistan would certainly like more overt support from the member countries. On the OIC conference, he said the establishment of a commission to restructure and revitalise the OIC was a great achievement and victory for the Muslim world. “The establishment of the commission is the most concrete step of the OIC as 57 member countries must act in unison through an institutional arrangement with dynamism and authority”. General Musharraf said in his address at the summit, he made it very clear that there was no other way to move forward. “Individual ideas can be implemented through putting them together by institutions and I am glad that this was realised by the leaders of the Muslim countries”, he said.
— PTI |
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US Muslim group funded Al-Qaida Washington, October 18 The Safa Group of charities in Herndon, Virginia, in the Greater Washington area, had sent more than $26 million in untraceable money overseas, an affidavit from Homeland Security Agent David Kane said, adding that group leaders “committed and conspired to...providing material support to foreign terrorist organisations.” The report was unsealed yesterday in response to a request by The Wall Street Journal under the Freedom of Information Statute. The 101-page affidavit charges that overlapping companies in the Safa Group were deliberately set up to “layer” or obscure the final destination of millions of dollars that moved in complicated transactions among organisations led by a small group of people. From 1996 to 2000, it says, charities in the group raised $54 million and that a sum of $26 million was sent to the Isle of Man, known tax haven where bank secrecy laws have made it impossible to trace the final destination of the money. The purpose of all transactions, Mr Kane said, is “to route money through hidden paths to terrorists, and to defraud the USA by impeding, impairing, obstructing and defeating the lawful government functions of the Internal Revenue Service. The initial money to set up the Safa Group was $3.4 million, hand-carried in 1980 from Saudi Arabia by Ibrahim Hassaballa, Mr Kane said.
— PTI |
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Brief filed for Bhopal victims
Washington, October 18 In the 23-page brief to the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, the New Jersey Congressman and his colleagues urged the court to hold Dow Chemical responsible for the environmental disaster. The brief, initiated by Mr Pallone, comes in response to a March decision by a US District Judge in New York, dismissing all claims against the company. Victims then appealed that decision to the Second Circuit court of appeals. “There is a strong support in Congress for holding those responsible for this horrific tragedy accountable for their actions,” Mr Pallone said. “It is unacceptable to allow an American company not only the opportunity to exploit international borders and legal jurisdictions but also the ability to evade civil and criminal liability for environmental pollution and abuses committed overseas.” Dow Chemical acquired Union Carbide Corporation in February 2001 and has yet to accept responsibility or to address the liabilities it inherited from the 1984 Bhopal disaster. Over the past 19 years, victims have filed numerous lawsuits against the company in an attempt to address health concerns and the tremendous environmental injustices that resulted from the disaster, but to date their claims have remained unanswered.
— UNI |
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Encroachments on Indian mission razed
Islamabad, October 18 Commenting on reports which appeared in the media about the alleged sale and purchase of the Indian Consulate building in Karachi, a statement issued by Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman here said the federal government had taken up the issue with the sindh government. “The sindh government has today removed the encroachment from the said premises and posted guards there. Guards have also been posted at other five properties in Karachi belonging to the Government of india”, the spokesman said. Today’s statement followed a Karachi resident Ali Baqir Naqvi’s claim that he had bought the property and filed a petition in the Karachi High Court to permit him to take over. The court issued a stay order and fixed the next hearing on October 22. The encroachment was noticed by an Indian Airlines official in Karachi Rama Krishna two weeks ago and the Indian High Commission had subsequently complained to Pakistan Foreign Office, asking the government to clear the illegal encroachments. The Indian Consulate was closed in 1992 and since then the building was kept under lock and key of the Indian High Commission in Islamabad.
— PTI |
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Baikonur (Kazakhstan), October 18 The launch came three days after China became the world’s third spacefaring nation, joining the ranks of the Soviet Union - now Russia - and the USA. It was the second manned space launch from Baikonur since space shuttle Columbia disintegrated in February. The Soyuz-FG rocket, fueled by liquid oxygen and nitrogen, rose flawlessly into clear skies over the barren Central Asian Steppes, hurling its human cargo into space at speeds of 6,000 metres per second. Since the Columbia disaster, the US space agency has been dependent on the Russians to keep its astronaut corps flying. The European Space Agency, lack its own means to launch astronauts, also regularly buys seats on the non-reusable Russian spacecraft. — AP |
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‘Pavitra Paapi’ out in English London, October 18 Aptly titled ‘Saintly Sinner’, a story about the celebration of love, the book launched yesterday reflects Suri’s flair for literature and regard for his late grandfather who is hailed as the father of that Punjabi novel. Noted film director Shekhar Kapur read out the salient features from the book. Kapur touchingly spoke about Nanak Singh who, he said, belonged to his parents’ generation who were “undoubtedly more intellectually accomplished than us.” The audience got a perspective of the book through the clippings of the 1968 film “Pavitra Paapi” based on it. Kapur said the actor who played a stellar role in the film was none other than his own brother-in-law. Nanak Singh died at the age of 74 in 1971. His first publication, a set of hymns written in 1918, sold over a hundred thousand copies before he turned 21. In next 47 years, he wrote 40,000 pages in handwritten Gurmukhi (Punjabi) script. Winner of a host of honours, including Punjab’s highest literary award, Nanak Singh was conferred the Sahitya Akademi award in 1962. I.K. Gujral, the then Prime Minister, accorded him the singular honour of releasing a postage stamp and a first day cover on him in 1997. Published by Delhi-based A’N’B publishers, the print version of ‘Saintly Sinner’ is accompanied by an audio book, a 4-CD set with a narrative by theatre personality Barry John. Suri, a career diplomat heading the press office of the Indian High Commission in London, spoke emotionally about his grandfather whom he described as a “living legend in our time who retained his simplicity till his end.” ‘Pavitra Paapi’, written in 1942, immediately won popular and literary acclaim as a genuine Nanak Singh classic. It was translated into Hindi and several Indian languages. Amit Bhatia, chief of A’N’B Publishers Pvt. Ltd., the publisher of the 216-page book said tears started trickling down his right eye when he started reading the manuscripts.
— PTI |
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In video: Musharraf praises Vajpayee.
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