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2 killed in suicide car bombing near Allawi’s party offices
Fear shrouds Iraq’s elections in secrecy
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Bush aides rush to assure Pakistan
WB considering Pak’s plea on Baglihar
Rights casualty in Nepal
civil war
Nominations for Oscar today
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2 killed in suicide car bombing near Allawi’s party offices
Baghdad, January 24 "Around 8:45 (local time), a man driving an explosives-laden vehicle rammed into the checkpoint guarding the entrance of the street and blew himself up," a policeman said. "We have received two dead and 10 wounded, seven of them policemen and the other three civilians," a medical source at Yarmuk hospital said, adding that he could not immediately identify the dead nor specify whether the bomber was among them. Yesterday, Al-Qaida frontman Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi claimed in a purported statement that his movement had kidnapped and killed a candidate on Allawi's list for the January 30 general elections. An INA official confirmed that Salem Jaafar al-Kanani had been abducted last Wednesday. Zarqawi has issued several statements over the past few days vowing to wreck the landmark polls. DUBAI: A militant group led by Al-Qaida ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi said it had carried out today's suicide car bombing near Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's party office, according to an Internet statement. "A lion from the martyrdom squad of Al-Qaida Organisation for Holy War in Iraq attacked the headquarters of the doomed party of that agent of the Jews and Christians, Iyad Allawi," a statement from the group
said. — AFP, Reuters |
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Baghdad, January 24 Sami Mohammed al-Jafi, known as Abu Omar al-Kurdi, was accused of being behind some 32 car bombings since the US-led invasion of Iraq, he said. Kurdi was arrested on January 15 but his capture was announced now, just a week before Iraq's landmark elections in which Prime Minister Iyad Allawi was running on a list that promised to bring security to beleaguered Iraqis. "Kurdi has confessed to some 75 per cent of the car bombs that were used for attacks in Baghdad since March, 2003, and to making the explosives used in the attack on the Jordanian Embassy in August, 2003," spokesman Thair al-Naqib said. "Kurdi also confirmed he was responsible for some of the bloody attacks on the police." The Iraqi forces said they also captured another insurgent earlier this month, Nayef Abbas al-Zubaydi, who headed the Abu Talha group linked to the Jordanian militant Zarqawi in the lawless northern city of Mosul, Naqib said. Zubaydi, known as Abu Moawiya, was captured barely two weeks after the arrest of the previous leader of the group, Zain Abdallah Salah Khalaf al-Jib, or Abu Karam. — Reuters
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Fear shrouds Iraq’s elections in secrecy
Baghdad, January 24 Some Iraqis don’t know who to vote for as most candidates keep their identities hidden, fearing for their lives. Those who’ve made up their minds don’t know where to cast their ballots, since the location of polling stations is being hushed up until the last minute to thwart election day attacks. “We don’t know these candidates, not their names, not their programmes, not where they’ve come from. I will not vote for people I don’t know,” said Hussein Ali, a handyman in Baghdad. “Until now, we don’t know how to vote. I know there is an election centre nearby, but I’m not sure exactly where it is.” Iraq’s first national election since Saddam Hussein’s fall will select a 275-seat National Assembly and 18 provincial Assemblies. But even Iraqis willing to brave bombs and bullets to vote may have little clue who they are electing until after the event, prompting veteran Iraqi politician Naseer Chaderji to label the January 30 poll the first “secret elections” in history. Voters will not be choosing individual politicians, but a list of candidates representing a party or coalition. However threats mean most of the 7,500 candidates shy away from rallies. Only leading politicians dare appear on the television. In Iraq’s third city of Mosul, the entire election staff resigned amid intimidation. Election officials in other cities have stepped down too. Seven have been killed, some dragged from their car in Baghdad in broad daylight and shot. Salama al-Khafaji, openly running on the United Iraqi Alliance list, has survived three attempts on her life, the latest last week.
— Reuters |
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Bush aides rush to assure Pakistan
Washington, January 24 In his inaugural speech delivered on Thursday, President Bush vowed to set the United States on a new course in foreign policy, linking relations with America to practising freedom and democracy. "We will persistently clarify the choice before every ruler and every nation: The moral choice between oppression, which is always wrong, and freedom, which is eternally right", he declared. "It is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world," he added. Soon after Mr Bush finished his speech, observers warned that the policies he outlined for his second term could cause more upheavals in the already volatile regions of the Middle-East and the rest of the Islamic world, if implemented. This was so far the strongest declaration of America's intention to remove governments it sees as tyrannical and oppressive, said David Gergen, a former adviser to Presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Clinton. "No other American President has ever committed himself in an inaugural as fully as this to that kind of aggressive foreign policy". Former White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, who served in Mr Bush's first term, said that the President's speech was not aimed at "a foreign leader or foreign government," he was telling all autocratic leaders "you must learn to serve your people". On Saturday, US newspapers reported that Mr Bush's inaugural speech was listened with "alarm and concern" in the Middle-East and the Islamic world where many nations allied with America have non-elected and autocratic rulers. Diplomatic circles in Washington told Dawn that Middle Eastern and Muslim missions in the US capital also spent an uneasy weekend, trying to figure out how serious the Bush administration was in taking "the fire of freedom to the darkest corners of our world," as President Bush vowed to do in his inaugural speech. By Sunday evening, the Bush administration had fully realised the intended and unintended consequences of the speech and was busy assuring America's allies that this change would not affect them. At a series of background briefings for American and foreign journalists, senior Bush officials made it clear that the speech will not lead to "any shift in Washington's strategy for dealing with countries like Pakistan, Egypt, China and Russia". A senior Bush administration official said that although the records of these countries on human rights and democracy fell well short of the values, Mr Bush expressed in his speech, Washington would not forget that they were "key US allies in the fight against terrorism". At the State Department, which is responsible for implementing America's foreign policies, spokesman Richard Boucher said: "It doesn't mean we abandon our friends, but many of our friends realise it's time for them to change anyway, and they are, indeed, looking at making change within their own societies. "We intend to stand on the side of change and try to help people move it along," he added, giving an explanation more acceptable to America's non-democratic allies. Another official said the United States could not ignore "unique histories, cultures and traditions" of other nations while trying to push for democratic changes. One senior official spoke specifically on Pakistan. Recalling that President Musharraf too "took power in a bloodless coup in 1999," the official said that since then Pakistan had already taken some steps towards restoring democracy, such as allowing "discussions on opening the political process and holding elections in 2007." |
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WB considering Pak’s plea on Baglihar
Washington, January 24 The bank, said in a statement, it would take up Pakistan’s request for arbitration on the Baglihar dam and try to resolve the issue in line with the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty. But the issue could be referred to an impartial international expert if resolution was not possible, it added. Another way was for India and Pakistan to appoint a technical expert through a mutual agreement. The decision of the technical expert would be binding on the parties and they would have to accept his decision, it said. A trust fund could be established to bear the expenses likely to be incurred on appointment of the expert. India has denied Pakistan’s claim that the Baglihar dam being built by India over the Chenab in Jammu and Kashmir would affect the flow of river waters to its territories.
— UNI |
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Rights casualty in Nepal
civil war
Kathmandu, January 24 She has not seen him since. “My children are asking where is our papa,” she said, giving way to tears at a public forum last month. Nepal is best known as home to the world’s highest mountain, but the Himalayan kingdom now has a darker claim to fame. More people “disappear” every year here than anywhere else in the world, according to the United Nations, the country even eclipsing notorious trouble spots like Colombia. One of the world’s most beautiful countries is locked in one of its ugliest civil wars. More than 11,000 people have died since Maoist rebels launched an insurgency in 1996 to topple the monarchy and set up a communist republic. The Maoists, who control much of the countryside, are accused of executing and torturing critics and opponents, and abducting and recruiting children to work for their cause. But Nepal’s ill-trained army and security forces are playing almost as dirty, international and local human rights group say. Rajmati called her husband that night on his mobile phone. “He said he had been detained by security forces, and I shouldn’t worry,” she told Reuters in the privacy of a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Kathmandu. She phoned him again a few more times in the next few days, only to hear silence at the other end of the line. Since then the phone has been dead.
— Reuters |
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Nominations for Oscar today
Los Angeles, January 24 In an annual ritual that has the media hordes descending bleary-eyed on the headquarters of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the names of the nominees are read out for television cameras at 5:30 am local time. Jamie Foxx's electric performance as soul singer Ray Charles in''Ray'' and films about an ambitious female boxer, two losers looking for love in California wine country and a billionaire aviationvisionary with a passion for movie stars and washing his hands all loom large in Oscar nominations. The guessing around town is that the Martin Scorsese epic biography about Howard Hughes, ''The Aviator,'' Clint Eastwood's dark and tear-stained boxing drama ''Million Dollar Baby'' and Alexander Payne's heartbreaking comedy ''Sideways'' will lead the pack in nominations, with each expected to win six or more nominations in the major categories.
— Reuters |
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In video: People
in Nepal wary of violence, as government pushes through with
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