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Wickremesinghe accepts President’s talks offer Al-Qaida claims responsibility
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One hurt in Kandahar blast Pak sends team to debug Embassy 13 students detained Death by stoning for 4 Iranians
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Wickremesinghe accepts President’s talks offer Colombo, November 11 Mr Wickremsinghe, the President’s political arch rival, said the talks would not involve her proposal to form a grand alliance of a national government for reconciliation. Government spokesman and Minister of Constitutional Affairs G.L. Peiris said that the Prime Minister would meet the President tomorrow and his principal concern would be to reduce the “enormous damage” done to the ongoing peace process and finding ways to salvage it. Restoration of portfolios was his secondary consideration, Prof Peiris said. He said there was a fundamental change in the situation after what he called “the President’s bid to grab power’’ and the political situation in the South had to be resolved before resuming the talks with the Tamil rebels. The government spokesman also reiterated the position of the United National Front (UNF) government that there was no necessity for the formation of the national government now as the incumbent government was commanding an absolute majority in the 225-seat Parliament and the Cabinet of Ministers had full confidence in the Prime Minister. “There was no threat to the national security or a law and order problem whatsoever. It was an attempted power grab on the part of the President,’’ he said, adding “the President created a crisis of this magnitude and used it deliberately for her own making.’’ President Kumaratunga invited the Prime Minister last evening to discuss the present situation and her offer for a ‘’grand alliance of a national government for reconstruction and reconciliation’’. The President in her written invitation to the Prime Minister also stated yesterday that he could consider bringing a small delegation of his senior party members. |
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Al-Qaida claims responsibility Riyadh, November 11 “We struck Muhaya compound,” the London-based weekly Al-Majalla quoted an e-mail from a purported al-Qaida operative identified as Abu Mohammed al-Ablaj as saying, referring to the residential compound attacked on Saturday. It was the first claim of responsibility for the bombing. The magazine, which appears on Fridays, said the e-mail was first seen late yesterday and released a statement about it to The Associated Press today. Saudi and US officials already had blamed the attack on al-Qaida, which opposes the USA and the Saudi ruling family. The attack, the officials say, was similar to previous al-Qaida strikes. Al-Majalla magazine began receiving e-mails from al-Ablaj earlier this year. A US counter-terrorism official has said al-Ablaj was believed to be a leading al-Qaida figure also known as Abu Bakr. The latest al-Ablaj e-mail addressed criticism that Saturday’s strike hurt Arabs and Muslims, not Americans, saying al-Qaida also believed “working with Americans and mixing with them” was forbidden. Meanwhile, security forces arrested several people suspected of involvement in a suicide bombing, a newspaper reported today. “Several suspects have been arrested during the course of the past two days,” said Al-Hayat daily, without giving any numbers. “The security authorities are said to have important information on the basis of which they are looking for suspects,” said the Saudi-owned paper published in London. King Fahd warned overnight of “stiff retaliation” after a devastating suicide attack blamed on al-Qaida militants that killed 17 people and wounded 122 at a Riyadh housing compound on Saturday night. —
AP, AFP |
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One hurt in Kandahar blast Kabul, November 11 A UN source said one person was hurt in the explosion, which took place at around 4 pm outside a building belonging to the UN Assistance Mission to Afghanistan. |
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Pak sends team to debug Embassy Islamabad, November 11 Mr Kasuri told reporters today on return from a European tour that he raised the issue with British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw but he said British laws prevented him from making any comment. Both then agreed that the Pakistani Embassy and the British Foreign Office officials should meet ‘to find a method to restore confidence without breaking any British law’, he said. “It (debugging) costs a lot of money,” Mr Kasuri said. Last week, The Sunday Times of London reported that Britain’s MI5 security service penetrated the Embassy while it was being renovated, stole codes it used to send secret messages and copied or removed its sensitive documents. However, a plan by the MI5 to bug the Embassy ran into difficulties when the contractor doing the renovation and who gained them entry developed cold feet and quit, the newspaper said. Ironically, the contractor had to turn to the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) with his offer of taking them to the treasure trove inside the Embassy after he was ignored by MI5 initially.
— DPA |
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13 students detained Kuala Lumpur, November 11 Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi on Tuesday defended their detention without trial under the tough Internal Security Act.
— PTI |
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Death by stoning for 4 Iranians Teheran, November 11 Nine members of the gang have already been executed by hanging, one of them publicly.
— AFP |
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