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China gives Pak list of terror outfits Bush may change Iraq handover plan Five US soldiers killed in Iraq
Robot Spirit studies Mars surface |
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Israeli envoy kicked out of Swedish museum Lakshmi to act in Rushdie’s ‘The Firebird’s Nest’
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China gives Pak list of terror outfits Islamabad, January 17 The Chinese Government has sent Islamabad a list and profile of terrorists and terrorist organisations of concern to the Government of China and wants them investigated by Pakistan, local newspaper Daily Times quoted Pakistan officials as saying. “The list of the first batch of identified East Turkistan’s terrorist organisations and profiles of terrorists compiled by the Ministry of Public Security, China, on December 15, 2003, has been sent through diplomatic channels to Pakistan, with a request to forward the list to the departments concerned for investigation,” the officials said. The Chinese concerns are focussed more on two militant outfits, Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) and Eastern Turkistan Liberation Organization (ETLO), as well as militants attached to these organisations, who operate in the Chinese Muslim-dominated Xinjiang province bordering, Afghanistan and Pakistan. China also alleged these organisations and terrorists were well-connected to Osama bin Laden’s Al- Qaida outfits and received training as well as funding.
— PTI |
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Bush may change Iraq handover plan Washington, January 17 After talks at the White House with US President George W Bush, the US Administrator of Iraq, Mr Paul Bremer, said the administration may alter the way a transitional assembly is selected and make other “clarifications.” While he expressed “doubts” about Iraqi Shi’ite demands for direct elections before the transfer of power on June 30, Mr Bremer said: “These are questions that obviously, need to be looked at.” He said he planned to return to private life on July 1. President Bush is eager for the United Nations to return to Iraq to help with the transition — a shift in strategy that reflects U S concerns about growing Iraqi opposition to its plan. Mr Bremer will meet UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Monday and is expected to press him to send a UN team to Iraq to convince Shi’ites that direct elections are unfeasible or suggest a workable compromise. After excluding the UN from Iraq, the US plans to ask the world body to play an active role in virtually every aspect of the political transition process from overseeing the selection of an Iraqi Government and writing new laws to the transfer of power, the Washington Post reported in its latest edition.
— Reuters |
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Five US soldiers killed in Iraq Baghdad, January 17 The blast happened west of Taji, about 30 km north of Baghdad, the broadcaster quoted sources in the US 4th Infantry Division as saying. The vehicle’s gunner and commander escaped with injuries while the four persons in the back and the driver were killed, the sources were quoted as saying. The Bradley, the US army’s main infantry fighting vehicle, overturned and caught fire, its gun turret ripped apart.
— Reuters |
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Robot Spirit studies Mars surface Washington, January 17 Scientists were awaiting arrival of the first images taken by the robot’s microscopic imager, a camera coupled to a microscope and mounted on Spirit’s robotic arm. Atop the arm, another camera has already transmitted back to Earth spectacular high — resolution panoramic images of the Martian landscape. The explorer, controlled by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, lowered its robotic arm yesterday and “we took the first microscopic images of the surface of another planet,” said mission controller Mark Alden. The soil analysis is scheduled to continue for two more days, during which time Spirit will venture a few metres from the landing package.— AFP |
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After court, it’s party for Jackson Neverland Ranch (California), January 17 The surprise gesture yesterday, signalled with invitation cards handed out freely outside the court house, in nearby Santa Maria where Jackson was arraigned, attracted a huge response, with several thousand people leaping at the chance to tour the superstar’s fabled home. Access to Neverland is normally restricted to specially invited groups of children. The invitation was offered in “the spirit of love and togetherness” and addressed to all Jackson’s “fans and supporters,” although the turnout far exceeded the hundreds of diehard followers, who stood outside the court house in the morning in support of their idol. The gates of Neverland were opened and within an hour the single-lane mountain road, leading to the heavily guarded ranch was boasting a two-mile, bumper-to-bumper tailback of cars. Vehicles were subjected to a series of security checks by smartly dressed members of the radical black Muslim group, the Nation of Islam, who screened every occupant with hand-held metal detectors and handed out coloured, hospital-style wrist bracelets to be worn “at all times.” Once inside, however, guests were free to wander around the grounds of the vast estate, with its mock road signs that read “Caution: Children At Play.”
— AFP |
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Israeli envoy kicked out of Swedish museum
Stockholm, January 17 The incident, widely reported in the Swedish media, occurred at the opening yesterday of the “Making Differences” exhibit, part of an upcoming international conference on genocide hosted by the Swedish Government and in which Israel is scheduled to participate. “I was really looking forward to seeing what the artists had done. Instead, I was met by a picture of a smiling suicide bomber, the woman who killed 21 persons in Haifa a few months ago,” Ambassador Zvi Mazel told Swedish news agency TT. The art installation, located in the museum’s courtyard, featured a fountain filled with red water, designed to look like blood. A sailboat with the name Snow White floated on the water, and on it was a photo of a smiling Hanadi Jaradat, the female lawyer who blew herself up in the Haifa suicide bombing attack in October which killed 21 Israelis. According to museum director Kristian Berg, the Ambassador went berserk when he saw the piece. “He pulled out the plugs and threw one of the spotlights into the fountain which caused the entire installation to short-circuit and made it totally life-threatening,” he told TT. One of the two artists who created the work, Dror Feiler, was to perform a piece of music but refused to do so as long as the Ambassador remained at the scene. “Ultimately we had to escort the Ambassador out of the museum,” Berg said, adding that he did not consider the artwork to be a provocation. “It is rather an invitation to think about why such things happen in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” he said.
— AFP |
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Lakshmi to act in Rushdie’s ‘The Firebird’s Nest’ London, January 17 The labour of love for the Booker prize-winner has become the buzz of Mumbai where the couple recently met their chosen director, Apoorva Lakhia, The Guardian reported today. Lakhia confirmed that the project was under way but denied emphatically that it would in any way be a Bollywood film or based on the couple’s relationship. ‘The Firebird’s Nest,’ which explores a relationship between a younger, Indian-born woman and an older man, was written several years before Rushdie met Chennai-born Lakshmi, who is in her early 30s. “I am definitely making the movie,” said Lakhia, one of India’s newer directors. “We are still in the process of finalising the screenplay. I had a meeting with Rushdie in Mumbai and before that in New York and we discussed the story, and there were certain changes which I thought would be better for a feature film. He is working on that and I’m meeting him again in New York on February 19. “It was written long before Padma met Rushdie. It is a very interesting story about an Indian woman who lives abroad and her experiences with a man she meets. It is a story of a woman growing.” Lakhia was reportedly chosen by the couple after they saw his debut feature film ‘Mumbai Se Aaya Mera Dost.’ He had also worked with Lakshmi on the ill-fated Bollywood thriller ‘Boom’ in which she played a supermodel-turned-diamond thief. Lakhia admitted he was nervous about working with Rushdie and worried that his dense text and highbrow style might not translate to the big screen. “I was really scared,” he said. “He is like Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Their work is very difficult to transfer into a feature film. But when he told me it was a short story he had written, and I read it, I relaxed. I don’t think there should be any problem as far as their relationship is concerned. He is very open.” Lakhia said the project would be filmed in New York and in India and would not be a traditional Bollywood offering. “It is nothing like the Indian film,” he said. “It is more of a universal film. We are going to make it like a normal feature film, around 90-100 minutes long.” Rushdie could not be reached for comment. The office of his London agent said it knew nothing of the project and could not comment.
— PTI |
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