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31 perish in Egypt blasts bearing Qaida footprints
Rocket attack near US Embassy in Kabul
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British hostage beheaded in Iraq
Intelligence on Iraq was wrong: Bush
Panel to probe Sudan genocide
US “handling” India’s
plea to lift curbs
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31 perish in Egypt blasts bearing Qaida footprints
Jerusalem, October 8 Two bombs exploded one after another at the luxury Hilton Hotel, a favourite holiday destination for Israelis, in the Egyptian resort town of Taba late last night, killing at least 23 persons, Israel Defence Forces Home Front Commander Major-General Yair Nave said. The deceased were vacationing at the close of Jewish holiday, he added. However, the toll was expected to rise as more than 38 persons were still missing after the devastating twin blasts. 29 bodies have been recovered so far from the hotel, Mr Naiv added. According to sources, a car laden with explosives crashed into the lobby of the hotel and exploded, bringing down a 10-storey structure, while a suicide bomber blew himself up seconds later near the hotel swimming pool. Two other blasts also occurred about two hours later in nearby resort towns of Ras Shitan and Nueiba, killing at least two persons, they said. The Egyptian Interior Ministry had confirmed 12 deaths around dawn, instead of 35 that officials had earlier claimed hours after the blast, local media reported. "According to our first information, it appears to be an international terror attack with the hallmarks of Al-Qaida," said Israel's Deputy Defence Minister Zeev Boim.
— PTI |
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Rocket attack near US Embassy in Kabul
Kabul, October 8 The rocket hit a parking lot near a media accreditation centre for the elections, causing no damage or casualties, said Lt Commander Ken MacKillop, a spokesman for international peacekeepers. He said peacekeepers suspected a second rocket may have hit nearby, but no impact site was found. “We are alert and investigating,’’ he said. Heavily armed US and Afghan troops sealed off the roads leading to the diplomatic area. A spokeswoman for the US Embassy said as a precaution, all staff had been ordered to take cover in an underground bunker. A senior US official in Washington said embassy staff were allowed out of the bunkers a short time later. The blast shattered a relatively calm lead-up to tomorrow’s vote, at least in the capital. It was loud enough to shake windows and rouse people from their beds. The headquarters for the 9,000-strong NATO-led International Security Assistance Force is also close to the US Embassy, as are the German and Pakistani missions. WASHINGTON:
US Ambassador to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad has said he is confident of President Hamid Karzai’s victory in the presidential elections. “I expect President Hamid Karzai to be elected in the forthcoming Presidential elections in Afghanistan, either in the first round or in the second,” he said addressing a press conference at the Foreign Press Centre of the State Department. According to Afghan election rules, if a candidate gets more than 50 per cent of the votes, he is elected straightaway. If not, the two candidates who are first and second contest in the “runoff” or second round. The envoy said the timeline for the election had nothing to do with the presidential elections in the US. It was selected in Bonn when the Afghan interim authority after the fall of the Taliban, was being put together.
— PTI, AP |
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British hostage beheaded in Iraq
Baghdad, October 8 Guerrilla sources in the rebel-held city of Falluja said earlier that Bigley, who was being held by a militant group led by alleged Al Qaida ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was killed yesterday afternoon in Latifiya, southwest of Baghdad. In the video, seen by a Reuters witness in the office of a foreign news organisation in Baghdad, the 62-year-old engineer was shown making a statement as six militants stood behind him, before one cut his head off with a knife. The tape showed Bigley wearing an orange jump suit of the type worn by detainees in US prisons, including the detention centre at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Commenting on earlier reports of Bigley’s death, a British Foreign Office spokesman told Reuters in London: “We cannot corroborate the reports ... We are in close touch with Mr Bigley’s family at this difficult time.” Britain’s Sky TV, however, quoted British government sources as saying Bigley had been killed. Bigley was kidnapped in Baghdad on September 16 by the Tawhid and Jihad group, along with two Americans who were beheaded afterwards. — Reuters
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Intelligence on Iraq was wrong: Bush
President George W. Bush on Thursday conceded that much of the intelligence on Iraq’s weapons programme was “wrong.” Nevertheless he defended his decision to invade the sovereign nation.
Responding to a report by US Chief Weapons Inspector Charles A. Duelfer that confirmed an earlier conclusion by Mr Duelfer’s predecessor David Kay that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction, Mr Bush admitted “much of the accumulated body of 12 years of our intelligence and that of our allies was wrong.” Mr Bush, however, justified his decision to invade Iraq saying: “Based on all the information we have today, I believe we were right to take action, and America is safer today with Saddam Hussein in prison.” “He retained the knowledge, the materials, the means, and the intent to produce weapons of mass destruction. And he could have passed that knowledge on to our terrorist enemies,” Mr Bush insisted. “Saddam Hussein was a unique threat, a sworn enemy of our country, a state sponsor of terror, operating in the world’s most volatile region. In a world after September the 11th, he was a threat we had to confront. And America and the world are safer for our actions.” Despite growing skepticism, the Bush administration has stubbornly maintained Saddam Hussein was developing and stockpiling weapons of mass destruction. In August 2002, Vice-President Dick Cheney said: “Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt he is amassing them to use against our friends, our allies, and against us.” Mr Bush asserted on September 26, 2002, that, “the Iraqi regime possesses biological and chemical weapons.” In his March 17, 2003 speech to the nation on the eve of the war, Mr Bush said: “The danger is clear: using chemical, biological or, one day, nuclear weapons obtained with the help of Iraq, the terrorists could fulfill their stated ambitions and kill thousands or hundreds of thousands of innocent people in our country or any other.” On the campaign trail, Mr Bush’s Democratic opponents Mr Kerry said: “The President of the United States and the vice-president of the United States may well be the last two people on the planet who won’t face the truth about Iraq.” In testimony on Capitol Hill, Mr
Duelfer, who heads the Iraq Survey Group, said: “Saddam Hussein ended his nuclear programme in 1991, after the Gulf War, and there was no evidence to suggest concerted efforts to restart it. Senior Iraqi officials believed Saddam Hussein would restart a nuclear programme if U.N. sanctions imposed after the end of the Gulf War were halted”. “What is clear is that Saddam retained his notions of the use of force and had experience that demonstrated the utility of
WMD,” Mr Duelfer told members of Congress on Wednesday. Responding to a question from Michigan Democrat Sen. Carl Levin on whether Iraq had a nuclear weapons reconstitution programme before the war, Mr Duelfer replied: “What we said was there was an attempt to sustain the intellectual capability and to sustain some elements of the programme, particularly before 1995. But an active nuclear weapons programme, no. We found no evidence, nor do we judge that there was one.” Noting that the Duelfer report raised “important new information about Saddam Hussein’s defiance of the world and his intent and capability to develop weapons,” Mr Bush said: “The Duelfer report showed that Saddam was systematically gaming the system, using the UN oil-for-food programme to try to influence countries and companies in an effort to undermine sanctions. He was doing so with the intent of restarting his weapons programme, once the world looked away.” |
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Panel to probe Sudan genocide
United Nations, October 8 Headed by first President of the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia, Prof Antonio Cassese of Italy, it will have Hina Jilani of Pakistan, Diego Garcia-sayan of Peru, Mohammed Fayek of Egypt and Therese Striggner Scott of Ghana as members. The panel, appointed under a Security Council resolution, is expected to submit its report within three months. Jilani has been the Secretary-General’s special representative on human rights defenders since August 2000. She has a long record as a human rights lawyer and activist in Pakistan and started the country’s first firm of women lawyers in 1980. Garcia-Sayan is a former Foreign Affairs and Justice Minister of Peru, a legal professor for nearly 20 years and a UN negotiator during the Guatemalan peace talks in the early 1990s.
— PTI |
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US “handling” India’s
plea to lift curbs
Washington, October 8 The US is handling “privately” the issue of sanctions imposed on two of India’s atomic scientists, Mr Y.S. R. Prasad and Ch Surender, both of whom had headed the Nuclear Power Corporation of India, State Department Deputy Spokesman Adam Ereli told mediapersons here yesterday. The Ministry of External Affairs had earlier this month, rejected the US charge against the two Indian scientists and urged Washington to withdraw sanctions imposed on them. “No sale of materials, equipment and technologies was involved. No transfer of sensitive technology has taken place...the US Government has been requested to review the issue and to withdraw the sanctions imposed,” it had said. “The Government of India’s commitment to prevent onward proliferation is second to none and our track record in this regard is well-known.” It had said the scientists had nothing whatever to do with Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons programme. One of them had gone on a UN assignment and the other had not visited Iran at all. On September 29, the US slapped sanctions on the two Indians, seven Chinese firms as also companies from Belarus, North Korea, Russia, Spain and Ukraine for allegedly selling weapons or cruise and ballistic missile technology and equipment to Iran.
— PTI |
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Indian gets legal right to sleep in train
Chicago, October 8 The case got international attention after Bhatia (25) refused to pay the $50 fine for sleeping in the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) train. The police had alleged that Bhatia was sprawled out on the train in a way that could have posed a threat to other passengers. Bhatia called the charges ridiculous and vowed to fight it. The hearing was something of an anti-climax. It lasted for barely 45 seconds. “First they gave me a ticket for sleeping dangerously on the CTA. They said they would fight. Then they dropped the case. Do you think they were embarrassed? I happen to think so,” Bhatia said. Senior Counsel James McIsaac of the city’s Law Department, announcing the dropping of the case, said: “At this time, the city makes a motion to non suit this matter.” A recent opinion poll showed that 92.8 per cent of subway commuters polled in Chicago felt that sleeping on the subway trains should not be a crime.
— IANS |
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Girl convicted
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Jerusalem, October 8
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