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Qadeer Khan’s movement restricted Three Iraqi scientists held
French scribes on fast in Pak jail
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2 Pak-origin men to face trial Landslides’ toll 87 in Philippines Amnesty barred from visiting
Suu Kyi
10 students hurt in Nepal Rebel Israeli commandos may face the music
GRAPHIC: Taliban demands release of 50 militants from prison in exchange for the 2 Indian engineers
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Qadeer Khan’s movement restricted Islamabad, December 22 Pakistan’s The Daily Times reported today that the government had imposed “certain unspecified restrictions” on Dr Khan, who established Khan Research Laboratories at Kahuta, following the earlier detention and debriefing of two nuclear scientists under investigation for their alleged links with Iran. Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman Masood Khan told the newspaper that “in-house investigations have been going on and some scientists have participated in debriefing sessions. These are continuing and relevant departments will make a definitive determination upon the conclusion of this process.” The spokesman reiterated that the Pakistan Government had never authorised any transfers of sensitive nuclear technology to other countries. Dr Khan, known as the ‘architect of Pakistan’s nuclear programme’, is also the ‘father of Pakistan’s medium-range Ghauri missile’. Quoting high-level sources, the Daily Times said “there is no question of sparing anyone if he is found to have leaked any information in any manner”. The sources said Iran had told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that a couple of top Pakistani nuclear scientists gave nuclear-related know-how and information to Tehran. “The President was shattered when Iran named some Pakistani scientists,” the sources said, adding that a detailed investigation was ordered by no less a person than General Pervez Musharraf himself. The sources said these scientists were alleged to have passed on highly restricted information for “material gains”. “The details of these scientists’ properties and assets are being gathered to determine whether they had really compromised the national interest for personal gains,” they added. The newspaper said Iran gave the names of these Pakistani scientists to the International Atomic Energy Agency when its inspectors found the level of uranium enrichment at its facilities to be much beyond what Tehran had claimed. “Since the United States has tightened its noose around Iran it had no option but to share this information with the IAEA after conveying it to President Musharraf at a time when he was on a foreign tour a couple of months ago,” the sources said. The Daily Times said besides some Pakistani scientists, three German businessmen and a Sri Lankan Muslim were also named for leaking secret nuclear information to Iran. ‘’All these names were disclosed to the IAEA by Iran,” they added.
— UNI |
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Three Iraqi scientists held Baghdad, December 22 “The three scientists who are teachers at Baghdad’s technology university were arrested last week,” the minister told the Kurdish daily Al-Taakhi. The ministry had sent a message to the interim Governing Council to register a “protest” over the arrest and to demand the government declare an amnesty for teachers. A large number of Iraqi scientists who were employed on the programmes have returned to teaching. UN weapons inspectors visited Iraqi universities on numerous occasions seeking information on the allegedly hidden weapons.
— AFP |
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French scribes on fast in Pak jail Karachi, December 22 “We are hereby announcing that we are going on hunger strike for an indefinite period. We are professional journalists, but we don’t know why we are being treated as criminals,” lawyer Nafees Siddiqui quoted them as saying. “We will only take water,” he quoted L’Express magazine reporter and photographer Marc Epstein and Jean Paul Guilloteau. The pair were arrested last week by Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) for violating their visas by visiting the southwestern city of Quetta near the Afghanistan border. Siddiqui filed an appeal in the Sindh High Court today after a lower court rejected their bail application last week. “I have moved the bail application in the high court, asking for their release on the ground that investigations against them have been completed,” Siddiqui told AFP. The court had not fixed a date, but the appeal could come up for hearing tomorrow or Wednesday, he added. An official from the FIA, which deals with the immigration matters, had said the pair could face three years’ jail. The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists in a statement yesterday demanded the immediate release of French journalists and expressed concern over the whereabouts of their local colleague Khawar Mehdi Rizvi.
— AFP |
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2 Pak-origin men to face trial Moscow, December 22 Pakistan-born brothers Maqsood Ahmad and Halid Nadeem Bhut, produced before the Kuzminki district court in Moscow, could face up to 12 years of imprisonment if convicted in the abduction case. The Russian security service sleuths, on January 20 last, freed the Indians from the rented house of Bhut brothers in the nearby town of Tula. For over a month, the Indians were kept on a lean diet and were forced to make calls to India to pay $ 3,200 per person for their release. According to FSB press office, the Pakistani brothers, who took Russian citizenship sometime back, were linked to an international racket operating in Pakistan, India and Bangladesh for transshipping illegal immigrants to the West through Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. International warrants have been issued to nab other members of the group.
— PTI |
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Landslides’ toll 87 in Philippines Liloan (Philippines), December 22 |
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Amnesty barred from visiting Suu Kyi Bangkok, December 22 Two Amnesty representatives who recently returned from a visit to Myanmar said they were forbidden from meeting everyone they had travelled to the reclusive country to see. “Specifically, we were not permitted to visit Daw Aung San Suu Kyi ... currently under de facto house arrest,” said mission leader Catherine Baber, deputy director of Amnesty’s Asia-Pacific regional programme.
— AFP |
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Anish Kapoor to create 9/11 memorial London, December 22 Although an official announcement is yet to be made, reports here said Kapoor’s design for the Unity Sculpture, chosen from among 11 other competitors, would form the centrepiece of a British-themed garden at Hanover Square, near the site of the old twin towers in south Manhattan. Its exact form is still not known but it has been described as “large, stone and featuring reflective surfaces”. A spokeswoman at the artist’s studio in London said, “We are very pleased to have been selected. But he does not want to comment until there is an official announcement.” Kapoor, in London since the early 1970s, is well-known in contemporary art circles. His works feature in private and public collections internationally. His most recent creation was a giant, worm-like installation Marsyas, which filled the huge turbine hall at London’s Tate Modern gallery last year. Dubbed “a gift from the British community in New York to the people of New York City”, the project organisers invited 12 British sculptors to submit designs that symbolised the bond between the USA and the UK. The others in the competition included artists like Sir Anthony Caro, Julian Opie, Antony Gormley and Richard Deacon. The judging panel comprising American and British art experts, selected Kapoor’s work.
— UNI |
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10 students hurt in Nepal Kathmandu, December 22 |
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Rebel Israeli commandos may face the music Jerusalem, December 22 “These soldiers should be stripped of their uniform and face judgement for their disobedience and rebellion, regardless of the unit in which they serve, whether they be pilots, cooks or mechanics,” Mr Boim told public radio. His comments came after 13 reservists, including 10 soldiers and three officers, from the elite Sayeret Matkal unit wrote a letter to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon saying they would no longer participate in a “rule of oppression” and the defence of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
— AFP |
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Islamabad, December 22
