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General Niazi dead S. Arabia to revamp holy sites after stampede
3 more Thais die of suspected bird flu Temple in Australia consecrated NRI doc kills wife, leaps to death
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Sri Lankan unity talks resume today Columbia victims remembered Israeli troops kill 4 Palestinians 12 injured in Nepal clashes
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General Niazi dead Islamabad, February 2 Born in 1915 in Mianwali, he was commissioned in the united Indian Army in 1942 and later opted to join the Pakistan army in 1947. He was one of Pakistan's most decorated officers. Niazi was the commander of Pakistan troops who were overwhelmed by Bangladesh's Mukthi Bahini and the Indian Army in 1971. He surrendered to Indian Commander Gen J.S. Arora along with his troops. Niazi's surrender was considered a national humiliation as it resulted in the division of Pakistan and the birth of Bangladesh. He returned home from captivity in 1974 and was held in detention by the army for about a year. After his release, Niazi became a critic of the policies of the Pakistan army and made an unsuccessful bid to enter politics. After his retirement, he published a book, "Betrayal of East Pakistan", in 1998 in which he outlined his version of events that lead to the division of Pakistan. NEW DELHI: The Indian Army officer who told Pakistan’s Gen Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi to give up during the 1971 Bangladesh war on Monday remembered his former collegemate as “a man of few words”. “I am sad. I came to know him first when we were together at a college in Quetta and after that I met him during the Bangladesh war. He has been a quiet chap,” Lt-Gen Jagjit Singh Aurora (retd), the GOC-in-C (Eastern Command), said in his reaction to the death of the Pakistani General who died following a heart attack.
— PTI, UNI |
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S. Arabia to revamp holy sites after stampede Mena (Saudi Arabia), February 2 The Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported today that King Fahd had issued a decree ordering formation of the Committee for the Development of Mecca and Medina, adding it would be headed by senior ministers and princes from the birthplace of Islam. The 244 victims, mainly from Indonesia, Pakistan and other Asian nations, were trampled to death yesterday at the climax of the Haj during a devil-stoning ritual that has in the past witnessed similar disasters. The tragedy occurred after some people collapsed as a two-million strong crowd surged towards the Jamarat Bridge in Mena to throw stones at pillars representing the devil. The crush occurred on the first day of the Id-ul-Adha, a Muslim feast to commemorate Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son Ismail at God's command. The SPA said the committee would draft a new layout for Mena and other holy sites. It would be funded and supported by all kingdom's ministries. The authorities said they had tried to avert stampedes this year by urging people to perform the ritual at different times.
— Reuters |
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3 more Thais die of suspected bird flu
Bangkok, February 2 “We have found another five suspected cases which raises the figure from 14 on Saturday to 19 today,” disease control department director Charal Trinvuthipong said. “Three of the five new suspected cases have died, which raises the death toll of suspected cases to 10. Nine are still alive,” Charal said. The three persons who died were men, a 38-year-old from northeastern Khon Kaen province, a 21-year-old from northeastern Uttaradit province and a 42-year-old from central Lop Buri province. The other two new suspected cases were boys aged one and five years from Khon Kaen. The two confirmed deaths from the disease here were two boys. Both of them were six years old. They died on January 25 and 27. Meanwhile, Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra on Monday criticised the World Health Organisation (WHO) for raising the prospect that bird flu may have made the leap to human-to-human transmission in Vietnam. After the WHO said it was a “possible explanation” for the deaths of two sisters, Thaksin said researchers should only make their theories public if there was a good prospect of them being confirmed. “Normally the ethics of researchers is such that if there is only a slight possibility of something happening, they will discuss it among themselves, they will not say anything to the public to raise concern,” he told reporters. “The investigation has not been able to conclusively identify the source of infection for the two sisters,” it said. “However, WHO considers that limited human-to-human transmission, from the brother to his sisters, is one possible explanation.” The WHO has already warned that the H5N1 strain detected in eight Asian nations could combine with a human influenza virus to create a new pathogen that could kill millions through human-to-human transmission. HANOI: An 18-year-old boy passed away at a hospital in Ho Chi Minh City, on Monday. He became the ninth person to die of bird flu in Vietnam, a medical official said. The boy from the Koho ethnic minority group in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong died in the early hours on Monday said Tran Tinh Hien, deputy director of the city’s Tropical Disease Hospital. BEIJING: China now has three confirmed and nine suspected cases of bird flu — all in poultry — in 10 far-flung regions. It has reported no human infections. The newest cases, reported by the government late on Sunday night, were in the far northwestern region of Xinjiang; the eastern province of Zhejiang, just south of Shanghai; the southwestern province of Yunnan, which borders Vietnam; and the central province of Henan, a key farming region. A fifth new suspected case was in Hubei province, which also has a previously confirmed outbreak, Xinhua News Agency said. China has no reported cases of bird flu in humans.
— Agencies |
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Temple in Australia consecrated
Sydney, February 2 A number of Hindu priests performed the sacred rituals at a ceremony attended by over 5000 Hindus from across Australia and neighbouring countries. Built in the south Indian temple architectural style as laid in the Agama Sastras, the foundation for the temple was laid in 1978 when 17 Hindus together formed the Sri Venkateswara Temple Association. The original temple was completed and consecrated in June 1985 and soon after work was started on the Shiva Temple complex, which was completed and consecrated in January 1994. Work on the mandapams (halls) and rajagopurams (towers) was interrupted following a work visa and pay controversy involving the stone masons from India. In February 2001, the Construction Forestry and Mining Energy Union raided the temple, accusing its management of underpaying workers. “All that is behind us and the Sri Venkateswara temple complex now has a rajagopuram at its entrance and the Sri Shiva temple complex has two rajagopurams. It is a milestone for the many Hindus, who have made Australia their home,” says Dr A. Balasubramanian, one of the founder-members and current president of the Temple Association.
— PTI |
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NRI doc kills wife, leaps to death with son London, February 2 Dr Jayaprakash Chiti is believed to have stabbed Anupama Damera (36), a breast cancer consultant, at their home before jumping off the bridge with his two-year-old son, Pranau, in Ipswich yesterday, the police said. The bodies of Chiti and the boy were recovered from the Orwell river near the bridge. Another boy, aged 11, was found alive in the family home. It is thought that he was probably asleep in the house at the time of the
murder. The couple had an arranged marriage in India, where Damera did her medical studies before coming to England, and she trained as a radiologist in Nottingham.
— PTI |
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Sri
Lankan unity talks resume today Colombo, February 2 A four-member panel will meet after a week's delay and look at fresh proposals made by the Prime Minister about sharing defence ministry responsibilities, the officials said. The
talks are being resumed in the backdrop of Kumaratunga's party
strengthening its ties with the radical leftist JVP, or People's
Liberation Party. Four minor parties, which are already in the larger People's Alliance coalition led by Kumaratunga, joined the new alliance with the JVP while the traditional leftist parties, the Communist Party and the
LSSP, or the Equal Society Party, stayed away. The traditional
Leftists accuse Kumaratunga's new alliance of being hard-line
nationalists and lacking a coherent policy to end the island's drawn
out Tamil separatist conflict. — PTI |
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Columbia victims remembered Washington, February 2 Ceremonies were held at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, where Columbia was launched, and at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. In numerous communities across the state, where debris from the shuttle rained down, church bells rang at the exact time Columbia had been scheduled to land at Cape Canaveral, 8:16 a.m. Parts of the shuttle were found in eastern Texas even months after the accident. The disaster changed everyone in Nacogdoches County, Sheriff Thomas Keras yesterday told television station WFAA. In Hemphill, where the nose of the spaceship was found, officials broke ground yesterday where a memorial and museum are to be built. Astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) orbiting the Earth also paid tribute to the dead astronauts with a video message in which they honoured the memory of their colleges, a NASA spokesman in Moscow said. An investigation by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board found that the seeds for the space shuttle's destruction were planted when it blasted off. A suitcase-sized piece of insulating foam broke off shortly after takeoff, causing a breach in the shuttle's left wing. The foam ripped a hole in the Columbia's heat shield that allowed in 2000° gasses during the
fiery atmospheric re-entry, triggering the explosion. — DPA |
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Israeli troops kill 4 Palestinians Jerusalem, February 2 Palestinian sources reportedly said a fourth man, a Palestinian civilian, was also killed. An Israeli soldier was also wounded during the operation.
— UNI |
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12 injured in Nepal clashes Kathmandu, February 2 Supporters of the strike, called by five major parties of Nepal to oppose last week’s police intervention during their peaceful programme to pay homage to the Martyrs’ Gate here, took out a rally through the centre of Kathmandu. The police lathi-charged protesters in different parts of Kathmandu and arrested about 35 persons. At least 12 persons were injured, including Communist Party of
Nepal-UML leader Pradip Gyawali, party sources said. Meanwhile, Kathmandu wore a deserted look as schools, colleges and markets remained closed. Transport service halted in the three cities of the Kathmandu valley, including Kathmandu, Lalitpur and
Bhaktapur. Factories and business establishments witnessed low attendance and government employees were seen walking to their offices.
— PTI |
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Islamabad, February 2
