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Pak accuses MI5
of spying in High Commission A-I witness fears
for her life UK: Al-Qaida
picking recruits from J&K Indian Consulate
building owned by India, says court MP of Asian
origin creates waves in UK Sobhraj seeks
release from Nepal jail
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Nobel laureate
gets bodyguard ‘Matrix’
dodges critics’ bullets
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Pak accuses MI5 of spying in High Commission
London, November 6 The Sunday Times yesterday reported that the MI5 carried out a bugging operation against an unidentified embassy. Pakistan has asked Britain to give an assurance that it did not breach the Vienna Convention and wanted to know if the operation had the support of the Blair government. The Sunday Times report did not name Pakistan, but said MI5 had carried out a bugging operation against an embassy that was recently refurbished and is situated near departmental stores and parks, which drew attention to the Pakistan High Commission. The report said a contractor working for the embassy became an MI5 agent, called Notation and allowed security service officers to have unrestricted access to the building. The paper quoted a senior Pakistani official as saying, ‘’Pakistan is insisting on a categorical assurance from the highest level of the British Government that it did not authorise any activity in the Pakistan High Commission in London which is inconsistent with the Vienna Convention.’’ He said the matter has been raised with 10 Downing Street. The British High Commissioner in Islamabad, Mark Lyall Grant, was also given a demarche. However, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Home Office and Downing Street, are yet to confirm the allegation.
— UNI |
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A-I witness fears for her life Vancouver, November 6 She received death threats at a shopping mall and public transit before entering Canada’s witness protection programme in 1998, she said in an emotional address to the court yesterday. The woman, who shared a relationship with the Vancouver-based businessman Malik, is the star prosecution witness in bombing of the Air-India flight 182 which went down off Irish Coast on June 23, 1985 killing all 329 persons on board. She received phone calls, her son’s bedroom window was pelted with eggs at midnights. At the request of the police, the family moved five times to temporary quarters, living out of suitcases, before being relocated permanently, she said. Even then she was recognised in her new neighbourhood and had to move again. The witness protection programme has not made her feel secure, she said. “The protection programme is not easy”. “You lose everything. You have no background. You have no records. You lose touch with your friends and family. You are constantly watching your back,” the Globe and Mail quoted her as saying to the court. The 43-year-old woman, who is under police protection and cannot be identified, said she remains terrified of being killed.
— PTI |
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UK: Al-Qaida picking recruits from J&K
London, November 6 British officials said they had reasons to believe that at least 1,000 Al-Qaida elements and its sympathisers had already moved into Iraq and were helping out supporters of ousted President Saddam Hussein in fighting the US-led forces. “Though still indigenously driven, insurgency in Iraq is gaining momentum,” warned a senior British Government officials, adding mainly it was being pursued by Saddam loyalists. The Al-Qaida militants were being joined by ‘foreign jehadis’ in Iraq, the official told a group of visiting Indian journalists. Though the Pakistani regime under President Pervez Musharraf was taking steps to round up such elements, many had succeeded in re-grouping in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, he said. With the coalition forces on their lookout, Al-Qaida was left with no option, but to be selective in its attacks, he said. “Kashmir has become another terrific recruiting force for Al-Qaida,” an official dealing with counter-terrorism said: “some have been re-located from Afghanistan to that part of the world,” he said.
— PTI |
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Indian Consulate building
owned by India, says court
Islamabad, November 6 Informing the local High Court on the matter, the Sindh Government noted that the property was still in the name of the Indian Government and all documents presented in the court relating to its sale were fabricated, media reports said. Home Secretary of the Sind Government S. Anwar Haider in his counter-affidavit filed in the Sind High Court yesterday rebutted the averments made by local Pakistani Karim H. Jiva that he was the rightful owner of the building and had sold it to another Pakistani. The property belonged to the Indian Government and the documents submitted by the plaintiff and the builder were fabricated, Mr Haider said in his affidavit, Pakistan daily Dawn reported from Karachi. Mr Haider said Jiva was in collusion with Syed Ali Baqar Naqvi, who claims to be the current owner of the property after purchasing it from Jiva for Rs 40 million.
— PTI |
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MP of Asian origin creates waves in UK London, November 6 The struggle in the formative years of his life left a deep impact on their son Parmjit
Dhanda. Most of what they earned went towards education of their three children. Parmjit passed out of Mellow Lane School before going on to study engineering at Nottingham University and later completed
MSc, Information Technology. A year after leaving the university, he was appointed as one of the Labour Party’s organisers. At 30, he became one of the youngest-ever MPs of Asian origin to enter the House of Commons. “My mum was a cleaner in a hospital, a job many were reluctant to do,” he says with pride about his mother’s working class background. Fighting for her rights, his mother got involved in trade union activity. And this led to his interest in the trade union affairs. “I too worked in the trade union movement,” Mr Parmjit, now 32, told a group of visiting Indian journalists. Confident and articulate, the Labour MP said after spending seven years campaigning for the local Labour Party branch, he led a successful campaign in the London borough of Ealing in 1998. He was soon elected as a councillor for the London borough of
Hillingdon, role he was asked to continue, albeit in diminished capacity, till the term ended in May last. He was an ‘outsider’ when he decided to contest from Gloucester, facing an array of strong candidates and the odds heavily stacked against him. Mr Parmjit, who succeeded Tess Kingham as MP, says his candidacy, speech tilted the pendulum in his favour. In a House of 650, he is one of the 12 ‘non-white’ MPs of whom six are of Asian origin.
— PTI |
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Sobhraj seeks release from Nepal jail Kathmandu, November 6 The Vietnamese-born French national filed a petition against his October 20 remand by the Kathmandu district court, arguing his detention violated citizens’ rights granted by Nepalese law, his lawyer told AFP. “I have the right to fight this case from outside jail,” lawyer Sanjiv Ghimere quoted his petition as saying.
— AFP |
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Schwarzenegger appoints women on key posts San Francisco, November 6 In announcing the latest appointments yesterday, his office confirmed that Mr Schwarzenegger, elected in a recall vote on October 7, would take office on November 17, with a swearing-in before an invited audience of 7,500 people. The former Mr Universe and Hollywood star has already named women among his administration’s top appointments. Healthcare executive Patricia Clarey will be chief of staff and Ms Donna Arduin, a Florida official known for her budget-cutting prowess, will be his finance chief. “We just happen to have a lot of very talented women that are well qualified for these posts that have been chosen,’’ said spokesman Rob Stutzman. “Nothing should be read into that.”
— Reuters |
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Teheran, November 6 The Interior Ministry has provided Ms Shirin Ebadi with a car and a bodyguard who also drives her around,” said Mohammed Ali Dadkhah, spokesman for the Human Rights Defenders Circle. He said the circle had sent a letter to the Interior Ministry, asking it to organise protection for Ms Ebadi after she received death threat letters, most of them anonymous. “We won’t let you enjoy this prize,” and “this prize is against Islam,” read some of the letters. Mr Dadkhah also said torn photographs of Ms Ebadi had been found outside her organisation’s headquarters and that people had malevolently tampered with a flower crown and stolen a welcome banner made for the Nobel Prize winner.
— AFP |
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‘Matrix’ dodges critics’ bullets
Los Angeles, November 6 “We’ve had tremendous crowds and early (box office) numbers are very strong,” said Dick Westerling, spokesman for the No. 1 US theatre chain Regal Entertainment Group yesterday. Dan Fellman, film distribution chief for Warner Bros. studio, the unit of Time Warner Inc. that makes and markets the “Matrix” movies, said his phone had been ringing off the hook since the curtain rose on “Revolutions” at 9 a.m. local time with tales of sold-out crowds.
— Reuters |
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