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Beslan mourns as Putin vows tough response
4,000 stage peace rally against killings in Iraq
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15 insurgents arrested in Iraq
Two killed, 10 injured in Naipaul accuses Saudi Arabia
of funding terrorism
Strong quake in Japan
Bush leads over Kerry in opinion polls
Gaza Governor’s office seized
Prince Philip had ‘intense friendship’ with woman
Equatorial Guinea seeks extradition of Mark Thatcher
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Russia school toll 335; 260 missing
Moscow, September 5 The number of dead hostages in Beslan has reached 335, ITAR-TASS quoted the North Ossetian Public Health Ministry as saying. Three children died in hospital last night, it added. The ministry earlier noted that the bodies of 323 persons were carried out by rescuers from the school building while another seven victims died in hospitals. Parents and relatives of 260 hostages of the bloody drama in Beslan school are still unable to trace their dear ones. However, reports quoting morgue officials said the toll climbed to at least 394. In a parallel development North Ossetia’s Interior Minister Kazbek Dzantiyev has resigned accepting the responsibility for flaws in security leading to the school siege. In all there were 1,184 hostages inside the school. 448 are still in hospitals of which 69 were in critical condition, Official spokesman for the North Ossetian administration Lev Dzugayev said. Dzugayev did not rule out that many injured were still unconscious and they could not be identified. Scores of dead bodies, taken away to nearby regional capital Vladikavkaz for forensic analysis are also yet to be identified. Meanwhile, first hostage victims are to be buried in Beslan today. President Vladimir Putin has declared national mourning on Monday and Tuesday, when most of the terror victims would be buried. Meanwhile, the authorities have nabbed three suspected accomplices of the hostage-takers in Beslan, including a woman. One of them was wanted in connection with two terror blasts in North Ossetia earlier this year and a daring militant raid on the capital of neighbouring Ingushtia’s capital Nazran on June 22. — PTI
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School to be turned into memorial
Moscow, September 5 The building would be turned into a memorial and a new school “will be shortly built at a different site,” North Ossetian government spokesman Lev Dzugayev told Rossia TV channel. After clearing of mines and booby traps planted by the terrorists, the devastated school building was opened today for the relatives to pay homage to their loved ones, who died there in the three-day long siege. Russian TV channels showed many parents and relatives of the hostages placing flowers and open plastic water bottles on what used to be floor the school gym, where 1184 children and adults were kept in hot and stuffy atmosphere without water, forcing many to drink their own urine to quench their thirst. In all, 32 militants were involved in the school siege. The authorities have found 30 bodies of the militants and search for the remaining two is on, Rossia channel reported quoting investigation sources. “Many of the militants were under the influence of narcotics, which explains their unprecedentally brutal behaviour,” the channel said. The school’s 74-year-old PT teacher Yannis
Kanidis, an ethnic Greek, was shot dead minutes before the unfolding of the bloody drama on Friday, when he tried to persuade militants not to trigger the bombs inside the gym with over 1,000 adult hostages, ITAR-TASS reported. In early 1990s
Beslan-born Kanidis had migrated to Greece. However, after living there for two years, he returned to his native town in Russia and to his job of PT teacher. Shortly after the school siege the militants had offered to release
Kanidis, who was the oldest hostage, but he refused to go and stayed with the kids of the school, where he worked whole of his life.
— PTI |
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Beslan mourns as Putin vows tough response
Beslan, September 5 A shaken President Vladimir Putin went on national television yesterday to make a rare admission of Russian weakness in the face of an “all-out war” by terrorists. He told the Russian people that they must mobilise against terrorism and promised wide-ranging reforms to toughen security forces and purge corruption. “We showed weakness, and weak people are beaten,” he said in an address aimed at addressing the grief, shock and anger felt by many after a string of terrorist attacks that have killed some 480 persons in the past two weeks, apparently in connection with the war in Chechnya. Dozens of men dug graves in a football field-sized tract next to the Beslan cemetery this morning, while surveyors across the road marked out new plots with wooden stakes and string. Coffin lids stood outside the entrances to apartment buildings, along with wooden planks bearing the names of victims who were to be buried in funerals beginning later today, and wailing could be heard from courtyards where families were cutting up meat for ritual meals. The regional health ministry said 180 persons were missing after the three-day hostage crisis, which ended in a bloody wave of explosions and gunfire on Friday when militants set off bombs rigged in the school gymnasium and commandos stormed the building.
— AP |
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4,000 stage peace rally against killings in Iraq
Kathmandu, September 5 The curfew was relaxed from 4 a.m. to 2 p.m. and again from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. for the convenience of the general public, a government notice said. The notice said curfew in Kathmandu and Lalitpur municipalities was relaxed due to improvement in the law and order situation. Business activity has almost returned to normal, transport services have resumed and many offices have opened. However, schools and colleges remain closed due to the curfew. Around 4,000 persons belonging to various religious groups in Nepal took part in a peace rally in Kathmandu this morning to denounce the killing of the 12 Nepalese in Iraq. Demonstrators, including persons from the World Hindu Federation and Nepal Muslim Ittehad Organisation, carried banners and called for maintaining religious harmony and unity among different communities. Meanwhile, a delegation comprising various manpower recruiting agencies met Nepalese Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and asked for compensation for the losses suffered during Wednesday’s clashes when an angry mob vandalised their offices.
— PTI |
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15 insurgents arrested in Iraq
Baghdad, September 5 One soldier was slightly injured in the assault. “The troops “conducted a successful assault on a known terrorist safehouse in the vicinity of Qala
Hamidi, southwest of Baghdad,” it said. “The mission, conducted in coordination with the Iraqi government as part of ongoing security operations, was successfully executed and resulted in the capture of 15 Iraqi extremists and criminals.”
— AFP |
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Two killed, 10 injured in Sylhet blast
Dhaka, September 5 It said the explosion occurred in a house next to the cinema hall apparently when some people were making a bomb. Reports had earlier said the explosion took place in Jalalabad cantonment area’s cinema hall in Sylhet. The injured were rushed to hospital and some were in serious condition, it said. The last bomb blast had ripped Sylhet city on August 7 in which a leader of opposition party Awami League was killed and 30 others were injured.
— PTI |
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Naipaul accuses Saudi Arabia of funding terrorism
London, September 5 The 72-year-old author of ‘A House for Mr Biswas’ and ‘A Bend in the River’, condemned terrorism before squarely blaming Saudi Arabia of funding it. “All this comes from Saudi Arabian money,” he said in an interview to ‘Tatler’ magazine adding “I don’t know who we are kidding. Here is this war on terror and it is being subsidised by an ally. “It (Saudi Arabia) has contributed nothing to the world - it has just filled the gambling dens and brothels. They are not fine people, actually,” he alleged. Naipaul, who was born in Trinidad to Indian parents but who now lives as a semi-recluse in Wiltshire in the UK, described multiculturalism in the British society as “absurd” and a “racket,” arguing that immigrants must seek to assimilate into their host country. “What do they call it? Multi-culti... It’s all absurd, you know. I think if a man picks himself up and comes to another country he must meet it halfway.” “He can’t say, ‘I want the country, I want the laws and the protection, but I want to live in my own way’. It’s wrong. It’s become a kind of racket, this multiculturalism. Jobs for the boys,” Naipaul said. Accusing the welfare state of “creating a monster”, Naipaul said “today’s benefits society, with all the handouts for children, is creating a new kind of monster. You see these children that have been littered only for the money that the benefits bring.” Known for his controversial statements, Naipaul called the Taliban “vermin” when he backed the war in Afghanistan to oust the fundamentalist regime three years ago. In the wake of the September 11 attacks, he argued that Islam destroyed the cultures of peoples who converted to it, comparing its “calamitous effect” on the world with colonialism.
— PTI
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Strong quake in Japan
Tokyo, September 5 A tsunami measuring 50 cm had reached the Wakayama region, south of Osaka, and people were being warned to stay away from coastal areas. There were no immediate reports of damage from the quake, which occurred at 3:37 p.m. IST . The strongest tremors were felt near Nara, the ancient capital of Japan.
— Reuters |
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Bush leads over Kerry in opinion polls
New York, September 5 But analysts downplayed the significance of big lead, saying the polls were taken during the Republican convention when the candidate automatically gets boost and they would like to wait for a few more days to see if Bush is able to maintain the lead. A ‘Newsweek’ poll conducted on Thursday and Friday and released yesterday indicated Bush leading Kerry by 52 per cent to 41 per cent among registered voters, with independent Ralph Nader at 3 per cent. However, leading Democratic leaders including Governors, Senators, fund-raisers and veteran strategists told The ‘New York Times’ that they were pressing Kerry to torque up a “wandering and low energy” campaign. They are urging Kerry’s aides to concentrate almost exclusively on challenging Bush on domestic issues, saying he has spend too much summer on national security. Kerry appears to be already changing his style, attacking Bush’s economic policies but Democrats are urging him to be more and more forceful if he is to win the elections. Other media reports said that Kerry would need to hit Bush where is he vulnerable - his advocacy for a constitutional amendment to outlaw gay marriages and stem cell research, among others. These two issues could get him block votes, they say. Besides, loss of jobs, they expect, to pay in smaller states which have seen heavy job loss. “He’s got to become more engaged,” Harold Ickes, a former political lieutenant to President Bill Clinton, who is now running an independent Democratic organisation that has spent millions of dollars on advertisements attacking President Bush, was quoted as saying. “Kerry is by nature a cautious politician, but he’s got to throw caution to the wind.” Senator Bob Graham of Florida, a former rival of Kerry for the Democratic nomination, told the Times that Kerry still had not settled on defining theme to counter what Democrats called the compelling theme of security hammered into viewers of the Republican Convention.
— PTI
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Gaza Governor’s office seized
Gaza, September 5 The territory has been gripped by unprecedented turmoil amid demands for Palestinian President Yasser Arafat to enact anti-corruption reforms and a tussle for control ahead of an Israeli plan to quit the occupied Gaza Strip. Gunmen took over the governor’s office in Khan Younis to demand compensation from Arafat’s Palestinian Authority for destruction caused by Israeli raids. They left about an hour later after the authorities promised to set up a mechanism to compensate the Palestinian homeless.
— Reuters |
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Prince Philip had ‘intense friendship’ with woman
London, September 5 Sacha Hamilton, the Duchess of Abercorn, 58, was quoted as saying she had an intense friendship with Philip, 83, from the late 1960s through the late 1980s. “Our friendship was very close,” she was quoted as saying in excerpts carried by The Sunday Telegraph newspaper of the forthcoming book “Philip & Elizabeth: Portrait of a Marriage”, by Gyles Brandreth. “The heart came into it in a big way. There’s a hugely potent chemical reaction in him. It’s a highly charged chemistry. We were close because we understood one another,” the Duchess reportedly said. “It was a passionate friendship, but the passion was in the ideas. It was certainly not a full relationship. I did not go to bed with him. It probably looked like that to the world. I can understand why people might have thought it, but it didn’t happen. ... he isn’t like that,” she said. The Duchess, the daughter of Lady Kennard, reportedly one of the queen’s closest friends, married her husband, James, the Duke of Abercorn, in 1966. Buckingham Palace declined to comment on the report. A spokesman said Brandreth’s book was not officially sanctioned and that he had been given no special access to the royal household and did not interview Philip. The two have been married for 56 years. Brandreth quotes the Duchess as saying that she is no longer in contact with Philip.
— AP
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Equatorial Guinea seeks extradition of Mark Thatcher
EQUATORIAL Guinea is willing to guarantee that it would not use the death penalty if it were allowed to extradite Sir Mark Thatcher and other British citizens it accuses of involvement in a coup plot, the country’s Attorney-General, Jose Olo Obono, told The Independent on Sunday.
Sir Mark, freed from house arrest in Cape Town on Friday, after his mother, Baroness Thatcher, put up (pounds sterling) £ 165,000 bail money, is being investigated under South Africa’s Foreign Military Assistance Act for his alleged part in financing a botched coup against President Teodoro Obiang Nguema’s regime in March. Equatorial Guinea officials are due to arrive in South Africa on Sunday. and may be allowed to question him, but the west African nation wants Sir Mark and other Britons, including Simon Mann, an ex-SAS officer facing sentence in Zimbabwe on arms charges, Greg Wales, a British businessman, and Ely Calil, a London-based oil trader accused of masterminding the plot, to face its own justice. Sir Mark’s alleged fellow conspirators have more reason to fear a request for them to face charges there. Apart from President Obiang’s dismal human rights record, British and South African law prevents extradition to countries that have capital punishment, and Mr Obono has demanded the death sentence for Nick du Toit, one of eight South Africans on trial in Malabo on charges of abetting the coup attempt. But the Attorney-General said: “South Africa would simply try them [the British residents] in connection with illegal arms trading. We accuse them of crimes against the life of our head of state, of compromising the peace and independence of our country. We have a better claim. If we give an undertaking to the British Government that they will not be executed, then Britain should be willing to extradite them here.” He dismissed allegations that some of the accused in Malabo had been tortured, saying: “At this stage they will say anything to get sympathy. Their defence counsel are free to say what they want, but they have not raised the matter.” Amnesty International said a German suspect who died soon after his arrest was tortured, and defence lawyers have complained of intimidation and lack of access to their clients. The trial was suspended for a month last week to allow fresh evidence about the abortive coup to emerge from proceedings abroad, and Mr Obono said it could be delayed further. But President Obiang left little doubt about the outcome when he said: “It is up to the court to decide what condemnation they will set.” Previous coup attempts against the President, who overthrew and executed his uncle in 1979, were small, domestic
affairs. By arrangement with The Independent, London. |
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