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Manmohan Singh, Bush deplore hostages’ killings
Pak arrests 3 Indian intelligence agents
Suicide bomb kills 17 in Iraq
Kerry lambasts Bush, Cheney over Vietnam
Man ‘crushes’ Indian wife to death
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Manmohan Singh, Bush deplore hostages’ killings
Moscow, September 4 Arab world condemned the hostage-taking with Egypt’s top cleric Grand Sheikh Muhammed Sayed Tantawi describing as “criminal acts” the kidnapping of foreigners and children in both Russia and Iraq. Ten Arabs were among the 27 terrorists killed during the commando operation to end the school siege yesterday in the southern Russian city of
Beslan. Over 250 persons, mostly school children, were killed by the terrorists and nearly 700 injured. “This is yet another grim reminder of the lengths to which the terrorists will go to threaten the civilised world,” Mr Bush said as messages of solidarity poured in from worldwide. “We stand with the people of Russia, we send them our prayers for this terrible situation,” he said. The State Department said, “there is no cause that can justify these kinds of terrorist acts... this was a particularly barbaric act of terrorism that put at risk the lives of children, parents and teachers.” Conveying India’s sympathy to the families of the victims of the tragedy, Dr Manmohan Singh in a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin said, “it is most unfortunate that some of the defenceless hostages, including children, have been killed and others injured.” British Prime Minister Tony Blair condemned the “inhumanity” of the terrorists who seized the school in southern Russian city of Beslan for three days since Wednesday and Queen Elizabeth II offered her condolences to the victims in separate personal messages to Mr Putin. German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder called the school hostage-taking “a new dimension of terrorism” while China said it supported the Russian Government’s handling of the crisis. “China supports the Russian
Government's efforts in fighting against terrorism and is willing to join hands with the international community to fight resolutely against terrorism and to maintain justice and peace,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan said in a statement. The Foreign Ministry of France, which is itself caught in a hostage drama with two French journalists held in Iraq, called for “everyone to mobilise in fight against terrorism.” While Israeli Foreign Ministry said Israelis “identify with the Russian people and government in these difficult hours,” the European Union regretted the violence and the bloodshed that ended the hostage crisis. Australian Prime Minister John Howard said the school siege demonstrated “the evil heart and the evil mind” of terrorists. “No political grievance can justify such behaviour.” Philippines President Gloria Arroyo said her country shared Russia’s “pain and anguish” over the bloody end to the hostage drama. Egypt’s President Hosni
Mubarak, during a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in the sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, expressed “sympathy with the Russian people” over the hostage crisis.
— PTI |
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Pak arrests 3 Indian intelligence agents
Lahore, September 4 The arrests were made in Rasoolpur Tarar, a village about 170 km northwest of Lahore, capital of Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province, said Imran Mahmood, a police official in the area. He said agents from Pakistan’s main military-run spy agency, ISI, accompanied the police in the early morning raid, and took the three Pakistani men, identified as Mubashir Ahmed, Mohammed Zulfikar and Zakaullah into
custody. The final suspect was identified by only one name. Mahmood said they seized two grenades and two AK-47 rifles in the raid. An intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said authorities also found inside the house a map of the army garrison in Rawalpindi — a city near Islamabad where Pakistan’s army has its headquarters. The three men could not be reached for comment, and the police wouldn’t say where they were being held. The men have yet to be charged with any offense.
— AP |
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Suicide bomb kills 17 in Iraq
Kirkuk, Iraq, September 4 The police said the head of the bomber was found among the debris scattered by the blast around 150 m from the police building. Four civilian vehicles and one police car were destroyed. Kirkuk police chief Turhan Mustafa said the blast killed at least 14 policemen and three civilians. Elsewhere in northern Iraq, US-led forces backed by warplanes battled insurgents west of the city of Mosul. At least 13 persons were killed and 52 wounded in the clashes in the town of Tallafar, doctors and the US military said. Fighting erupted in the town after US forces moved in to “capture or kill members of a known terrorist cell”, a military statement said. It said two guerrillas were killed and one captured during the initial clashes. A US Stryker vehicle securing the site of the downed helicopter was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade, disabling the vehicle, the military said. It said soldiers returned fire, killing two more
guerrillas. Doctors said nine civilians were killed, and many of the wounded were women and children.
— Reuters |
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Kerry lambasts Bush, Cheney over Vietnam
WITH the final echoes of the Republican convention having barely faded, George Bush and John Kerry traded fierce blows in a neck-and-neck battle set to continue at fever pitch until election day on November 2.
An hour after the President had wrapped up his acceptance speech in Madison Square Garden on Thursday, his Democratic challenger angrily hit back at a midnight rally in the crucial state of Ohio, rebutting Republican charges that he was unfit to be commander-in-chief. Breaking with the tradition - and with his own restraint on the war service issue - Mr Kerry lashed out at Mr Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney for their attacks on his military qualifications, having avoided going to Vietnam themselves. Banishing all doubt that this will be an uncommonly nasty campaign, the Massachusetts senator, five times decorated in Vietnam, told supporters that he would not have “my commitment to defend this country questioned by those who refused to serve when they could have, and who misled America into Iraq.” “The Vice-President called me unfit for office last night,” Mr Kerry told the rally in Springfield, Ohio, with his running mate, John Edwards, beside him. “I’m going to leave it up to the voters to decide whether five deferments (obtained by Mr Cheney over Vietnam) make someone more qualified than two tours of duty.” Mr Bush, who himself went straight from the cheers in New York to the battleground state of Pennsylvania, received some welcome good news on the economic front yesterday, with a fall in the unemployment rate and a solid increase in the number of new jobs in August. According to the Labour Department, the overall unemployment rate dipped to 5.4 per cent from 5.5 per cent, while the economy created 1,44,000 new jobs last month - a vast improvement from the anaemic 32,000 generated in July. Mr Bush seized on the figures, boasting that the economy had added 17 lakh jobs since August 2003, and arguing that the economy was back on track after faltering earlier in the summer. But the Massachusetts senator was unimpressed. Ten lakh jobs had been lost under Mr Bush, he asserted. “This President is now certain to be the first since the Great Depression to face re-election without creating a single job. If lost jobs mean that America is heading in the right direction, you should support George Bush and his policies of failure.” Yesterday, the two candidates criss-crossed some of the handful of battleground states that are likely to decide the election. After a boisterous appearance in Pennsylvania, the President travelled on to Iowa and Wisconsin, both states won by Al Gore in 2000 but which are a dead heat this time around. The focus now will be on the three scheduled presidential debates, the first of them to be held in Florida on September 30. The conventional wisdom is that without Florida, which he won by 537 votes four years ago, Mr Bush will lose. Conversely, unless Mr Kerry hangs on to Pennsylvania with its 23 electoral votes, he will be unable to win.
— By Arrangement with The Independent, London. |
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Man ‘crushes’ Indian wife to death
South Brunswick (New Jersey), September 4 Then, less than a month after the 20-year-old’s arrival in the USA, prosecutors say her spouse, Samander Dabas, ran her down with the family minivan in the parking lot of a strip mall. She died days later in an area hospital, more than 11,200 km from her family. Little is known about Renu’s life in Haryana, before she arrived in South Brunswick in late July, and the authorities are trying to determine whether there was any history of violence in her marriage. A divorce filing by Samander Dabas’ first wife in 2000 details a history of abuse allegations against him that resulted in a final restraining order being granted by a judge. On the night of August 24 when Renu was struck, she and her husband were leaving his relatives’ dollar store after helping them close for the night. The authorities say as they were driving out of the parking lot, he hit a tree, she got out their minivan and began to walk away. “At some point she ran and he drove after her, driving over a cement island that separates the parking lot from the service road and struck her, knocked her down,” said Middlesex County Assistant Prosecutor Nicholas Sewitch. Renu died of head injuries, said Sewitch, who did not believe she had any relatives in the USA other than her new husband and in-laws. Samander Dabas, (37) has pleaded not guilty to the murder charge. His attorney, Middlesex County First Assistant Deputy Public Defender Richard “Red” Barker, warned against a rush to judgement.
— AP |
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US President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today joined the world leaders in deploring the horrific killing of the hostages in a Russian school, saying there was no cause that could justify these kinds of terrorist acts.
Pakistani activists of Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), an alliance of six hardline Islamic parties, protest against the ban on headscarves in French schools during a demonstration in Islamabad
on Saturday.
