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Rocket attacks in Mosul, 4 killed
EU seeks information on Pak N-test Window on Pakistan Pakistan
frees 50 tribesmen China faces renewed SARS attack |
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Greek Cypriots reject reunification Nicosia (Cyprus), April 25 Cypriots threw out a UN plan to reunify their war-divided island when in separate referendums Greek Cypriots massively rejected the proposal and Turkish Cypriots endorsed it.
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Rocket attacks in Mosul, 4 killed
Mosul, April 25 A rocket hit the parking lot of the Ashoor hotel in the centre of the city at about 10:10 am local time, according to Major Hisham Ahmed. He said the parking lot attendant was killed as well as an operator of the generator supplying power to the hotel, which suffered external damage. Separately, two police officers were wounded when a Russian-made Katyusha rocket hit a police building housing a vehicle repair unit north of the city at about 9:45 am local time, according to Major Muthana Abdul Razzak. He said one of the policemen lost a leg and an arm in the attack. Another rocket targeted a local television and radio station, according to the station’s head Ghazi Faisal. It was not immediately clear if there were any casualties from this attack. The first rocket hit Al-Salam hospital, in the eastern part of the city, at about 9:30 am local time killing two medicos who worked in the laboratory and injuring 10 other employees, according to Major Salam Mohammed Amin of the Iraqi police. Baghdad: Suicide attackers detonated explosive-laden boats against oil terminals off southern Iraq, killing two US Navy sailors, in a new tactic against the country’s vital oil industry. It was the first such maritime attack against oil facilities since US troops invaded Iraq more than a year ago. But the blasts resembled attacks in 2000 and 2002 against the USS Cole and a French oil tanker off the coast of Yemen that killed 17 American sailors and a tanker crewman. Three small boats yesterday drew close to two major oil terminals in Gulf waters about 160 km from Iraq’s main port Umm Qasr, then exploded when craft tried to intercept them. A US navy craft was flipped by the blast, killing two US sailors and injuring five others, the US military said. Initial reports said there was no damage to the terminals, the military said, and Iraq’s main southern oil outlet, Umm Qasr, remained open, a British spokesman said. The first blast came when a dhow small boat was sighted near the Khawr al-Amaya oil terminal, the Bahrain-based US V Fleet said. When an eight-person US navy team tried to board, the dhow exploded, flipping the interception craft. Lt. Cmdr. Lisa Brackenbury identified the dead as navy sailors. About 20 minutes later, two more dhows were spotted near the al-Basra oil terminal. They too exploded when security teams approached, but there were no casualties among the security teams, the V Fleet said.
— AFP, AP |
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EU seeks information on Pak N-test
Islamabad, April 25 “(The European Parliament) urgently requests further information from Pakistan regarding the nuclear test from May 30 1998 in Baluchistan which showed traces of plutonium and which is thought by some to have been a joint test for a North Korean nuclear weapons,” the amendment, passed by the EU Parliament in Brussels, this week said. Elaborating further, it said “(The House) draws attention to serious concerns of the international community about Pakistan’s role in the proliferation of nuclear weapons, with the allegations and evidence against Pakistan hardening day by day; while acknowledging that President (Pervez) Musharraf has been right to insist upon a detailed investigation and that he is right when he claims that the Dr Khan “incident” happened because of the secretive nature of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons programme.” The amendment was passed after the EU Parliament voted in favour of a resolution approving a new generation trade agreement with Pakistan.
— PTI |
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Window on Pakistan Whether it is the question of sending troops to Iraq or to end the role of corrupt politicians, newspapers broadly do not understand the game that President Pervez Musharraf plays. They find the arguments queer. Leading daily Dawn was surprised at the statement of Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri that Pakistan was “considering” sending troops to Iraq at the request of America to guard the UN buildings. “This way, according to Mr Kasuri, Pakistani troops will not be there as peacekeepers. This is hair splitting. No matter in what capacity Pakistani troops go there, they will be seen as forming part of the US-led occupation forces,” Dawn noted with dismay. Dawn added: “Let us note here that Spain has decided to withdraw its troops. That Pakistan should send in its troops is indeed a serious misjudgement. Washington has given no indication of when American forces will be withdrawn. The level of violence has gone up from bomb blasts and sniping to pitched street battles between the occupation forces and Iraqi resistance groups. For that reason, many people doubt whether power can be transferred to a new provisional government on June 30 as promised.” Dawn advised: “If Islamabad sends troops to Iraq under the present circumstances, it would be seen by most Arab and Muslim people as collaborating with the occupation regime. Pakistan should send troops to Iraq for peacekeeping only, and that too only when the UN is in full control of that unfortunate country.” Jang and Nawa-e-Waqt, the two leading Urdu dailies were equally opposed. But Daily Times found President Musharraf’s remarks about corruption strange. “He has delivered the first public indictment of the very system he sought to put in place after the 1999 coup,” it said. “In his remarks, General Musharraf conceded that ‘corrupt’ politicians had managed to get elected in the 2002 general elections and were now part of the ‘governance’ system. “We wanted total honesty, but it proved impossible because of “environmental contradictions”. In other words, President Musharraf failed to put his ideals into practice. While he defended the performance of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), calling much of the criticism directed against it unfair, he did admit that some of it might be correct.” So what went wrong? Daily Times answered, “ Nothing really. Modern societies are complex entities. There are many theories about how to reform societies and states. One favourite theory of the elite, especially interventionist militaries and revolutionaries, is to take the top-down reforms approach. But history proves that all such efforts peter out after the initial high tide in the face of multiple and conflicting realities. Let us be more specific. Having cast aside the two national-level leaders and their parties, General Musharraf needed other political leaders who could help him create a new system. Since there were no clean Martians available, he had to pick and choose from the available pool. Most were corrupt. So pragmatism took over and deals were struck courtesy NAB and an appropriately “pragmatic” system put in place. Daily Times also offered advice by saying: “But there is a lesson here and we hope General Musharraf will heed it. Politics can never be a clean business — simply because it is the art of the possible. Since he now knows it, he also needs to realise another thing: ‘corruption’ per se is not the issue. Yes, it is important to keep fighting it and not allow it to become institutionalised above a certain level, but to look at it in terms of zero tolerance is as absurd as the pious wish to eradicate prostitution. |
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Pakistan
frees 50 tribesmen Islamabad, April 25 Five wanted pro-Taliban tribesmen, accused of sheltering Al-Qaida
members in South Waziristan tribal belt bordering Afghanistan, were
given amnesty by the army yesterday after they surrendered before a
tribal assembly called Jirga.
As part of the amnesty deal, the military agreed to free 50
tribesmen. In return, the tribesmen agreed not to participate in
anti-state activities, military officials here said.
More than 150 tribesmen were arrested during the military’s
counter-terrorism operation in tribal areas bordering Afghanistan last
month and the authorities say more will be freed in the days to come.
Defence spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan said the government
would provide transport to the tribesmen released today to take them
to Wana, the centre of South Waziristan.
Also, the tribesmen surrendered heavy weapons, including
surface-to-air missiles and anti-aircraft rockets, before military
officials today, Commandant of the Frontier Corps Colonel Riaz Shahid
told a press conference in Peshawar.
The tribesmen handed over the weapons to the Frontier Corps in a
campaign launched on the directives of provincial Governor. — PTI
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China faces renewed SARS attack Beijing, April 25 With this, China has two confirmed cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome and six suspected cases nationwide. Every new case reported has been traced to a single patient, the ministry said. The ministry said the four suspected SARS patients were in close contact with a patient Li, a nurse who was diagnosed with SARS. The people who have been diagnosed with the disease are Li’s parents, aunt and a female patient surnamed Xu who once lived in the same ward with Li. So far no patients who were in contact with the four have complained of fever, the ministry said.
— PTI |
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Greek Cypriots reject reunification Nicosia (Cyprus), April 25 The result means that Cyprus will not join the European Union on May 1 as a united state, and EU laws and benefits will apply to Greek Cypriots. Cyprus has been split into a Greek Cypriot-controlled South and a Turkish-occupied North since Turkey invaded in 1974 after a coup by supporters of Union with Greece. Cypriot President Tassos Papadopoulos went on television to declare that the rejection of the plan, which had to be approved by both communities, “does not mean that the Greek Cypriots have rejected a solution of the Cyprus problem”.
— AP |
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