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Sharon holds
talks on amending Gaza plan Teenaged bomb despatcher indicted 80 killed as Christians attack Muslim group Indian origin family of 4 dies in mishap
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Journalist persecuted on Press Freedom Day Pro-Georgia rally crushed 2 killed in Indonesia blast Breakthrough in treatment of
liver cancer
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Sharon holds talks on amending Gaza plan Jerusalem, May 4 Mr Sharon met Justice Minister Yosef Lapid, a senior coalition partner with 15 seats in the 120-member parliament. He kept pressure on Mr Sharon, threatening to take his Shinui Party out of the government if the plan was scratched from the agenda. The Prime Minister said on Monday he would amend the proposal, which Likud rank-and-file voted down by a 60-40 per cent margin in a referendum on Sunday. Newspapers reported that would mean scaling back the original plan to evacuate all 21 Gaza settlements and four in the West Bank. Instead, the reports said, three Gaza settlements and two in the West Bank would go. There was no immediate official comment on the reports. Mr Shimon Peres, head of the main Opposition Labour Party, urged Mr Sharon not to water down the plan, predicting the Likud would oppose any ceding of land to the Palestinians. “They won’t let Sharon push through anything serious, even a more limited plan,” said Mr Peres, calling for a General Election. Palestinians say the Gaza plan is a ploy by Israel to retain large swathes of the West Bank and any alternative by Mr Sharon will be more of the same. “This is a new manoeuvre to extract more concessions from Americans and taking this course will mean expanding settlements in the Gaza Strip,” said Mr Yasser Abed Rabbo, a senior Palestinian official. US President George W Bush drew Arab rage when, in backing the plan, he said Israel could not be expected to give up all land it captured in the 1967 Middle-East war. Mr Sharon, who promised after his referendum defeat to consult ministers before making any crucial decision, met Mr Lapid at his ranch in southern Israel. He was also due to hold talks with Likud Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, a reluctant supporter of the pullout. “We cannot let the political process disengage because of the referendum. We are not in the government to protect a stalemate,” Lapid said on Army Radio. In Washington, a senior US official said the United States hope the Gaza withdrawal plan would be carried out “in some form”. The official called the proposal “a courageous and historic idea”.
— Reuters |
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Teenaged
bomb despatcher indicted Jerusalem, May 4 Nasser Oartanni, 16, was indicted at the Samaria military court for recruiting suicide bombers for the Al-Aksa Martyr’s Brigades, including 14-year-old Husam Abdu, who was apprehended last month at the Hawara roadblock strapped with explosives to his waist, reports said here today. Abdu had then revealed to security officials that he decided to carry out the suicide attack because he “was sick of being made fun of by his schoolmates due to his small stature”.
— PTI |
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80 killed as Christians attack Muslim group Abuja, May 4 The ethnic Tarok assailants, armed with machetes, British colonial-era muskets and homemade guns, attacked the predominantly Hausa town of Yelwa, 350 km east of the capital of Abuja, yesterday, said Mr Raymond Nyama, a police officer who visited the scene. The police counted 80 bodies littering the otherwise abandoned streets, Mr Nyama added. An unknown number of mosques were burned. Nigeria’s ThisDay newspaper put the death toll at 100 or more, with three mosques and more than 1,000 homes destroyed. Tens of thousands of residents were fleeing the area on foot, carrying whatever possessions they could carry, the police said. Although motives were unclear, the attack happened a week after Hausas launched an attack on the Tarok village of Kawo, burning churches and inflicting an unknown number of casualties. The Christian Tarok farmers and predominantly Muslim Hausa traders and cattle herdsmen have launched back-and-forth raids since an outbreak of religious violence in the regional city of Jos left more than 1,000 persons dead in September 2001. Since January, violence has surged, killing hundreds in the region of fertile farms and pastures, the police and civic groups say.
— AP |
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Indian origin family of 4 dies in mishap Durban, May 4 Premnath Ramchunder, his wife Shanti, their 25-year-old daughter Surakha and her son Yuvir were killed on the spot when their car collided with another car coming from the opposite direction on the national road between the town of Scottburgh and Durban. Inspector Rani John said the car in which the family was travelling was engulfed in flames after the
impact. Ramchunders were accompanying their daughter to attend a family function in Durban while their son-in-law, Sanjay
Gunpath, could not travel with them because of work commitments. — PTI |
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China to build N-plant in Pak Islamabad, May 4 Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali and senior Chinese officials were present at the signing of the agreement between the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) and the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) in Islamabad. The agreement came a day after a car bomb killed three Chinese engineers working at the Gwadar fish harbour in southwestern Pakistan. Mr Raiz Khan, Pakistani Envoy to China, said the project will help meet Pakistan’s energy requirement. The $ 600-million project is set to be completed in six years at Chasma, some 250 km south of Islamabad, where the first 300-km reactor went into production in March, 2001. The Chasma-1 was a turnkey project completely built in China. The PAEC, with its developed infrastructure, would be able to enhance local contribution in Chasma-2. Pakistan is the only country to receive the pressure-water reactor from China which, despite US pressure, has agreed to sell the second plant to Pakistan to underscore its strong bonds of friendship with Islamabad. The US intelligence report had in the past alleged that China helped Pakistan in its clandestine nuclear programme.
— DPA |
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North Korea building new ballistic missile bases Seoul, May 4 The Stalinist country has completed 80 per cent of work on the bases, indicating deployment of the new missiles was imminent, according to Chosun Ilbo newspaper. The daily quoted an unnamed South Korean intelligence official as saying North Korea was building one of the new bases in Yangdok, 80 km east of Pyongyang, and the other in Hochon in South Hamgyong province.
— AFP |
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Journalist persecuted on Press Freedom Day Colombo, May 4 The raid on the Colombo home of Sivaram Dharmeratnam, a columnist for several English and Tamil newspapers, was carried out yesterday while he was in the eastern district of Batticaloa attending the Press Freedom Day celebrations, pro-rebel Tamilnet.com website reported today. “The journalist’s family said that the raid was intimidating,” Tamilnet said. “Dharmeratnam was threatened and intimidated several times in the past for his comments and reporting on Tamil issues.” Journalists condemned the raid on the home of Dharmeratnam who had received death threats in 2000 and 2001 from elements close to government security forces and an extremist group, Tamilnet said. WASHINGTON: American TV network CBS News delayed broadcasting for two weeks a report on US soldiers’ abuse of Iraqi prisoners after a personal request from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen Richard Myers who thought it would be “particularly inflammatory” when a battle was going on in full swing in Fallujah. General Myers called CBS anchor Dan Rather eight days before the report was to be aired and asked for extra time, said Mr Jeff Fager, executive producer of CBS TV’s “60 Minutes II” programme, which showed on Wednesday last the atrocities on detainees in Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison. General Myers, who had argued that it would create problems if the programme was aired while the battle of Fallujah was in full swing, confirmed that he made such a request. The programme, that included images taken last year allegedly showing Iraqis stripped naked, hooded and being tortured by US captors, provoked a worldwide outrage.
— PTI |
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Pro-Georgia rally crushed Tbilisi, May 4 Adzharan leader Aslan Abashidze has declared a state of emergency in the Black Sea region, which includes the important oil shipping port of Batumi, and Georgia's Rustavi-2 television said he had taken all Tbilisi-based channels off the air. Tbilisi has given him time till May 12 to submit to its authority, but the police ruthlessly broke up a demonstration which was being held in support of President Mikhail Saakashvili today. Mr Saakashvili has called an emergency meeting of his Security Council in response. President Saakashvili (37) and former Soviet official Abashidze have been at daggers drawn since the November revolution that the U.S.-trained lawyer led. Mr Saakashvili calls the white-haired and diminutive Adzharan leader a relic of the past, while Abashidze calls the president a dangerous nationalist.— Reuters |
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2 killed in Indonesia blast Jakarta, May 4 “We estimate the blast came from a high explosive bomb which killed two persons. It also injured four others and damaged two buildings,” said the Riau police spokesman. Residues of C4, a common military plastic explosive, were found in the rubble after the dawn blast in a commercial area in Riau’s provincial capital of Pekanbaru, almost 1,000 km northwest of Jakarta, Pandiangan said.
— Reuters |
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Breakthrough in treatment of liver cancer Singapore, May 4 Singapore General Hospital is looking for terminally ill patients, who cannot undergo normal procedures because of their harsh effects to trial the new treatment, the Straits Times said. The new treatment uses the same drugs as existing medication but is administered via a different method — injecting silicon chips into the tumour with a syringe. The hospital’s director of experimental surgery, Pierce Chow, told that the paper tests carried out on mice and pigs showed the new treatment to be highly effective. The biodegradable chips were inserted into the patient’s body in the form of a coarse powder that dissolved within a few weeks. Each chip held radioactive isotopes that destroyed cells within 8 mm, minimising the extent of collateral damage to healthy cells around the tumour, the paper said. Mr Chow said if human trials proved successful, the treatment would be available in the market in three years. It could later be developed to treat all solid cancers, such as breast, pancreatic, ovarian, cervical and lung.
— AFP |
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‘Kal Ho Na Ho’ bags 6 film awards New York, May 4 Yash Johar’s ‘Kal Ho Na Ho’ was adjudged the best movie and Hritik Roshan won two awards for his sterling performance in ‘Koi Mil Gaya.’ He was adjudged best actor in the general category and has distinction of being judged best actor by critics also. Urmila Matondkar cornered the Best Actress award for her performance in ‘Bhoot’ and Raju Hirani for best direction in ‘Munnabhai MBBS,’ but critics chose Kareena Kapoor as best actress for her performance in ‘Chameli.’ The awards were presented at a glittering function, held in Trump Taj Mahal at Atlantic City in New Jersey on Saturday. The winners are chosen by non-resident Indians, in a poll conducted by the Bollywood Awards Committee over a period of more than three months. Heart throb of yesteryears Rajesh Khanna was given Lifetime Achievement award. For more than 20 minutes, he regaled the audience with dialogues from his popular movies. One of the leading ladies of Hollywood and Oscar nominee, Sharon Stone, was given special “Woman of Conscience Award,” which not only recognised her talent as a leading actress but also her work for the Tibetan people.
— PTI |
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Jerusalem, May 4
