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Three US troops, 14 Iraqis killed
UN anti-corruption treaty
adopted 40 die in Afghan
clash Man of Indian origin held for sending parts for N-plant
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Tigers end boycott of talks
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Three US troops, 14 Iraqis killed Mosul, Iraq, November 1 The police said four US soldiers had been driving past in two civilian vehicles when the bomb was detonated. “There was a huge blast. The two drivers of the vehicles were definitely killed,” said policeman Abdul-Rahman Fawaz, who witnessed the explosion, his face spattered with blood. Other police officers said they believed three US soldiers had been killed. Today’s bombing raised to at least 120 the number of US soldiers killed in Iraq since major combat was declared over on May 1 — more than the 114 killed in action in the war in March and April. BAGHDAD: United Nations international staff left the world body’s bomb-scarred Baghdad headquarters, heading to the airport from where they will fly to Cyprus for talks on whether they can operate in Iraq. Almost all international staff had already been evacuated from Baghdad following a suicide truck bomb attack in August that devastated the UN headquarters and killed 22 persons. — Reuters DPA adds: Fourteen Iraqis Iraqis were killed on Friday in clashes with US soldiers in a western suburb of Baghdad. On the same day, a US soldier was killed in an explosion in Kalidija, about 85 km west of the capital, the US military said on Saturday in Baghdad. Back in Baghdad, a crowd of hundreds gathered to protest the incarceration of their fellow Iraqis by occupation forces, a resident told CNN. Some people carried posters of ousted president Saddam Hussein and others, carried religious banners on the first Friday prayers of Ramzan. Some of the Iraqis began throwing stones at a military patrol and setting tyres on fire. Mortars were fired at a police station, and US forces called in tanks and aircraft. The clashes lasted seven and a half hours. |
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UN anti-corruption treaty adopted United Nations, November 1 The treaty, which was adopted by the 191-member Assembly by consensus, asks the parties to the treaty to cooperate in investigation into corruption charges and prosecution of the culprits. It also details measures to prevent corruption in both private and public sectors. The treaty will open for signature at a high-level political conference in Merid, Mexico, and come into force and become part of international law 90 days after 30th country deposits it instruments of ratification. Secretary- General Kofi Annan said the provision that enjoins governments to return stolen assets to the countries that owned them, if fully enforced, would remove one of the biggest obstacles to development. “Corrupt officials will, in the future, find fewer ways to hide their illicit gains. This is a particularly important issue for many developing countries, where corrupt officials have plundered the national wealth, and where new governments badly need resources to reconstruct and rehabilitate their societies,” he said. The convention would give a major boost to efforts to fight corruption and provision requiring that stolen and illegally acquired assets taken out of the country be returned is a major breakthrough that would deter potential perpetrators, said Ambassador Muhyieddeen Tough, chairperson of the ad hoc committee that negotiated it. —
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40 die in Afghan clash Kabul, November 1 The clash erupted yesterday afternoon in Gereshek district when the police stopped a convoy of vehicles belonging to former military commander Haji Idrees for a routine check and the commander resisted. Bakhtar said Idrees and his deputy were among those killed in the fighting, as well as three women and 12 other civilians were caught in the crossfire. Earlier, the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press said the fighting involved two pro-government militia groups and put the death toll at 25. Bakhtar said several shops were damaged and many civilians were also injured. Greshek is 480 km southwest of Kabul. AIP said an Afghan traveller, who arrived in Pakistani city of Quetta in southwestern Baluchistan province bordering Afghanistan told the news agency he had heard that 45 persons might have been killed. The agency quoted local sources as saying that US troops were seen heading towards scene. —
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Man of Indian origin held for sending parts for N-plant New York, November 1 In a complaint filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan, US District Attorney said that Sitaram Rai Mahadevan, 40, shipped the blue prints to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in New York, one of the contractors involved in the construction of the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organisation’s nuclear plant in Yongbyon in North Korea. Mahadevan, who is a Canadian citizen with permanent residency status in the United States, was arrested yesterday. He was subsequently released on a bail of $ 750,000 and could get up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $ 250,000 if convicted. The prosecution said his application for a licence for export of similar valves along with documentation to India was rejected last year. The deal would have been worth $ 3.2 million. The criminal complaint said the blueprints could be used to produce valves that are critical in the operation of a nuclear plant. Mahadevan had shipped the blueprints to Mitsubishi on October 17. But agents of the United States Commerce Department seized them before they could be sent out of the country. The US laws prohibit sending materials that could be used in nuclear plants to countries which have not ratified the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty. Such shipments to North Korea have been blocked since December 2002. —
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Tigers end boycott of talks Colombo, November 1 The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) also asked peace-broker Norway to arrange a meeting with Colombo to discuss the landmark power-sharing plan they publicly announced today, a day after handing it over to the government. “We have asked the Royal Norwegian Government to arrange for a meeting at which we can discuss this proposal, in their presence, with the representatives of the GOSL at a mutually convenient time and venue,” LTTE’s political wing leader S.P. Thamilselvan told reporters in the northern rebel-held town of Kilinochchi today. “Peace to the Tamil people should be translated as peace and prosperity to the entire country,” he said. The Tigers had been boycotting talks since the last round of talks in March at Hakone, Japan. Earlier, the Sri Lankan Government today called for fresh talks in response to the Tamil Tiger rebels unveiling a federal plan seeking sweeping powers in their landmark power-sharing plan aimed at ending three decades of ethnic violence, official sources said. The rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) called for an Interim Self-Governing Authority (ISGA) in their first-ever blueprint for a political settlement short of a separate state. —
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