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200 hurt in
Bangladesh
US soldier killed
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USA steps up
security assistance to Musharraf US army orders
for anthrax shots, despite ban
An Iranian woman, Shahrbanoo Mazandarani,
who was pulled alive and unscathed from the rubble in Bam on
Saturday, more than eight full days after an earthquake destroyed the city,
in a field hospital. The woman, believed to be in her 90s was found in good condition despite
all odds. She was located first by sniffer dogs on Saturday afternoon,
more than eight days after the quake buried her under a building.
— Reuters photo ‘Dead’ man
comes back to life
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200 hurt in Bangladesh Oppn-led strike
Dhaka, January 3 The demonstrators clashed with the police near the Awami League central office in central Dhaka. About 30 persons were injured and six of them have been admitted to hospitals. More than 40 activists were arrested, the police said. The Opposition Awami League has called the strike, first in the New Year, to protest the alleged “political killing, kidnapping, extortion, murder, public insecurity and unusual price-hike of essentials”. Reports of clashes were also received from Chittagong, Rangamati and Lalmonirhat where at least 60 persons were injured during clashes with the police. About half-a-dozen vehicles, including state-owned buses were damaged in Dhaka city during the shut down. Schools, private offices and business centres remained closed and only a few vehicles appeared on the streets of Dhaka. Meanwhile Awami League President and opposition leader Sheikh Hasina thanked the people for cooperating in the strike ignoring what she called attacks by the police and armed terrorists of ruling BNP-Jamaat activists. “The people expressed no confidence in the government through this hartal,” she said, adding that the government had lost the moral right to stay in power. Ms Hasina claimed that more than 200 persons were injured and more than 100 arrested by the police. She urged the people to join her party’s grand rally in Dhaka on January 10 to “turn the current agitation into a mass upsurge and ensure the fall of the government.”
— UNI |
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US soldier killed in mortar attack
Tikrit (Iraq), January 3 “A soldier was killed yesterday at a forward operating base near Balad,” Sergeant Robert Cargie, a spokesman for the 4th Infantry Division, said. “The base came under mortar attack and one soldier was killed by shrapnel, while two others were wounded.” Sergeant Cargie said US forces had detained six persons in connection with the attack, but gave no further details. The US 4th Infantry is using Balad, site of a military airport complex built during Saddam Hussein’s rule, as a base of operations. It lies about 80 km outside Baghdad. The death of the soldier raises to 329 the number of US troops killed in action since Washington launched the war to overthrow Saddam in March. Of those, 214 have been killed by guerrilla attacks since major combat was declared over in May. THE HAGUE: A Dutch soldier stationed in Iraq was arrested and sent home for shooting to death an Iraqi civilian, a spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said today. Media reports said the 43-year-old was part of a military patrol in southern Iraq when the incident occurred on December 27. The newspaper de Volkskrant said the soldiers opened fire on a group of about 70 Iraqis looting a container. The victim received bullet wounds to his back and died later in hospital. The report said the ministry was investigating whether the soldier should face charges of causing death by negligence, manslaughter or even murder.
— Reuters, DPA |
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USA steps up security assistance to Musharraf
Washington, January 3 Mr Musharraf’s longevity and the stability and cooperation of Pakistan, “the world’s most politically fragile nuclear power,” are critical to the US campaign to capture or kill Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaida operatives, The Washington Post said, quoting US military and intelligence officials. They believe Laden and other Al-Qaida members are hiding along the Afghan-Pakistan border. Since the attacks, US officials have increased intelligence-sharing and other efforts to help Mr Musharraf’s security forces, although the USA is not providing bodyguards as they have done to protect Afghan President Hamid Karzai. FBI officials in Pakistan are helping to investigate the December 14 and 25 attacks on Mr Musharraf, the daily said, adding that the USA had provided electronic jamming devices that helped foil the first attempt on the Pakistan President by interfering with the detonation of explosives.
— PTI |
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US army orders for anthrax shots, despite ban
Washington, January 3 Privately held BioPort Corp of Lansing, Michigan, was awarded the army order on Wednesday as part of a $ 245.6 million contract, the Pentagon said. The move demonstrates confidence “we will resume the anthrax vaccination programme as it existed before the judge’s order,” said Bryan Whitman, a Defense Department spokesman. On December 22 US District Judge Emmet Sullivan barred the Pentagon from “inoculating service members without their consent.” In a preliminary injunction, he ruled the vaccine used in the Pentagon’s mandatory programme was an “investigational drug” being used for what was an unapproved purpose. The Pentagon said the next day it would administer the vaccine only on a voluntary basis until the legal issues were sorted out.
— Reuters |
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Woman in Bam rubble alive after 8 days BAM, (Iran), January 3 The woman was found in good condition despite the long odds of surviving so long after the quake. She was located first by sniffer dogs. Rescue workers then spent three hours freeing her from the rubble. The quake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale killed at least 30,000 people.
— Reuters |
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‘Dead’ man comes back to life SANTA FE (INew Mexico), January 3 Russell Muffley, the owner of Muffley Funeral Home in Clovis, New Mexico, said he noticed Felipe Padilla breathing when the man pronounced dead at a hospital was being transferred to his facility on Wednesday. Padilla, 94, was rushed back to the same hospital, but did not recover. He was declared dead for a second time. “When we were getting ready to move him from the stretcher to the embalming table, we noticed signs of life,” Muffley said.
— Reuters |
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