W O R L D

IRA announces end to armed struggle
Dublin, July 28
The Irish Republican Army announced an end to its armed campaign against British rule in Northern Ireland today, in a move British leader Tony Blair said could mark the day “politics replaces terror” there.

9 more arrested in London
London, July 28
Intensifying probe into the two waves of terror strikes in London, the police today arrested nine persons for suspected involvement in the July 21 failed attacks as it questioned one of the bombing suspects and made the “largest ever” security deployment on the rail system.

Discovery docks with International Space Station
Houston, July 28
Shuttle Discovery today docked flawlessly with the International Space Station for an eight-day stay after performing an unprecedented back flip exposing its underlying thermal shield to be photographed by those aboard the outpost for signs of damage.

Women student activists from the Padmakanya Campus throw stones and bricks at the police, while shouting anti-monarch slogans against the Nepal King, in Kathmandu on Thursday. — Reuters photo

Islamabad, Delhi agree to expand protocol on visits
Islamabad, July 28
Pakistan and India on Wednesday agreed in principle to expand the 1974 bilateral protocol on visits to religious shrines to increase the number of shrines to visit and pilgrims in both countries.

Chinese girl locked up for 15 years doing fine
Beijing, July 28
A teenage girl, who was locked up in her home for almost 15 years by her mentally-challenged mother, is doing well after being rescued by the police.

IRA announces end to armed struggle
Jodie Ginsberg

Dublin, July 28
The Irish Republican Army announced an end to its armed campaign against British rule in Northern Ireland today, in a move British leader Tony Blair said could mark the day “politics replaces terror” there.

But the province’s main Protestant party poured cold water on the keenly awaited statement by the Catholic guerrilla group, saying it failed to forswear acts of crime or to inspire confidence that guns had been set aside for ever.

The IRA said in a statement it would cease all armed activity and pursue its aims through politics — a crucial move to kick-start talks on a lasting political settlement in the violence-torn province. It said its units must “dump arms”.

But it made no explicit reference to ending criminal activity — a major stumbling block to the peace process — nor did it promise to disband, a move the group that has fought for decades for a united Ireland sees as akin to surrender.

The statement read in part: “The leadership of Oglaigh na hEireann (IRA) has formally ordered an end to the armed campaign.

“This will take effect from 4 pm this afternoon. All IRA units have been ordered to dump arms. All volunteers have been instructed to assist the development of purely political and democratic programmes through exclusively peaceful means.”

In London, Prime Minister Blair welcomed the statement as “a step of unparalleled magnitude”. — Reuters

9 more arrested in London
H.S. Rao

London, July 28
Intensifying probe into the two waves of terror strikes in London, the police today arrested nine persons for suspected involvement in the July 21 failed attacks as it questioned one of the bombing suspects and made the “largest ever” security deployment on the rail system.

Six of the suspects were arrested at one property in Tooting and three at another in the same area in south London in pre-dawn raids by the anti-terror police.

It is not thought any of those held are the three bombers still on the run after last Thursday’s failed attacks in the city, the police said.

Scotland Yard said the suspects, arrested under the Terrorism Act, 2000, had been taken to a central London police station for questioning. A spokesman said the search of the addresses was going on.

The arrests came as detectives questioned one of the would-be London bombers, Somali-born Yasin Hassan Omar (24), captured during a dramatic day of raids and arrests across the country yesterday.

A hunt for three other bombers was continuing as a new picture of one of the men — suspected Shepherd’s Bush attacker — was released. The police hoped the new picture which is clearer than the previous one will help identify him.

Last night, three women were arrested after a raid in a flat at Blair House, close to Stockwell station in south London, on suspicion of harbouring offenders, a Scotland Yard spokeswoman said.

The three women remained in custody overnight at a central London police station. The suspected Shepherd’s Bush attacker is thought to have lived in the Blair House flat.

A major police operation was under way on the UK’s transport system, with officers on a precautionary high alert, BBC reported.

The effort to reassure the public and deter would-be attackers saw the rail system’s “largest ever deployment”, it quoted British Transport Police as saying.

Stations and trains were being patrolled by officers, although the transport police would not say how many officers were involved.

The transport police, however, said the high alert was not in response to specific information.

The huge deployment of officers came exactly one week after the failed July 21 attacks and three weeks after the July 7 bombings that left 56 people dead.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair warned it was possible “that those at large will strike again”, or that another cell could do so.

“It does remain possible that those at large will strike again. It does also remain possible that there are other cells who are capable and intent on striking again,” he told a meeting of the Metropolitan Police authority.

Blair said he was confident the bombers would be caught, but the failure of the July 21 attacks did not mean a weakening of their capability or resolve.

“This is not the B team, these were not the amateurs, they only made one mistake and we’re very, very lucky,” he said. — PTI

Discovery docks with International Space Station
Seema Hakhu Kachru

Houston, July 28
Shuttle Discovery today docked flawlessly with the International Space Station (ISS) for an eight-day stay after performing an unprecedented back flip exposing its underlying thermal shield to be photographed by those aboard the outpost for signs of damage.

The docking at 7.18 am EDT (1648 IST) came a day after NASA grounded its other shuttles following breaking off a large piece of insulating foam from the external fuel tank of Discovery shortly after its liftoff, the same problem that doomed Columbia shuttle killing seven astronauts.

Discovery’s docking marked the first shuttle arrival at the ISS since November 25, 2002, when Endeavour docked at the orbital facility during NASA’s STS-114 mission.

During the approach to the ISS, the Shuttle crew performed a maneuver to allow the station crewmembers to take more images.

“We see the space station out of the window and it looks beautiful,” said veteran astronaut Eileen Collins, commander of Discovery’s STS-114 mission, as the shuttle approached the station.

The astronauts performed an unprecedented back flip to allow those aboard the outpost to photograph the shuttle’s belly with digital cameras for signs of damage.

“Everything that we see at this point says that the orbiter is in fact a clean bird,” NASA Administrator Michael Griffin told ABC’s Good Morning America after shutle’s flip. — PTI

Editors Guild asks Nepal to stop gagging Press
Tribune News Service

The situation of the media in Nepal, which was gagged in the wake of the proclamation of a three-month state of emergency in the Himalayan Kingdom on February 1, 2005, has not improved even after the King’s decision to lift the emergency on April 30, 2005, two days before the expiry of the executive order.

Coercive methods are being used to suppress media, from the Press to the FM radio (which has expanded its coverage phenomenally over the years). Media professionals are defying with courage, resilience and fortitude the authoritarian proclivities of the state.

About a month ago nearly 100 journalists were arrested in Kathmandu while protesting their continued intimidation and coercion. Even without the umbrella of an emergency the Palace has several intimidating legal instruments in place to employ against the media, among these is the terrorist and Disruptive Acts (Control and Punishment) Act brought in as an ordinance in 2001 and now turned into law. The Royal Proclamation of February 1, 2005 had clearly equated “terror” with general public anger against the Palace and decreed that any dissemination of such anger would be tantamount to abetment of terror. Through such draconian decrees that would not stand judicial scrutiny under any democratic dispensation the Press and media in Nepal continue to be strangulated and there are no signs as yet of discontinuance of the assault on press freedom on the part of those in power.

In the circumstances the Editors Guild of India, which has for several years had fraternal relations with the Editors Guild of Nepal (with which body it had organised fruitful and productive media-related activities in the past), conveys its solidarity with the editors and journalists of the Himalayan Kingdom who are boldly carrying out their professional duties by exploring diverse ways of protecting the flame of press freedom in the face of heavy odds.

We urge upon currently in power in Nepal, including King Gyanendra, to urgently revoke the coercive measures against the media so as to guarantee the operation of a free and vibrant media, the true manifestation of democracy, in our neighbouring state. We simultaneously urge upon those engaged in insurgency to allow the media to function in Nepal without let or hindrance.

Islamabad, Delhi agree to expand protocol on visits
Qudssia Akhlaque
By arrangement with The Dawn

Chinese girl locked up for 15 years doing fine

Beijing, July 28
A teenage girl, who was locked up in her home for almost 15 years by her mentally-challenged mother, is doing well after being rescued by the police.

Shortly after Jiang Wei’s parents were divorced, her mother locked the doors of her house for 15 years.

She was rescued by the police when relatives and neighbours eventually spoke up about the situation earlier this month, China Daily reported. — PTI