Dhaka, November 14
Two judges were killed when activists of a banned Islamic group hurled a bomb on their car today in Bangladesh’s Jhalokathi town, 120 km from here.

The attack was carried out by Jamatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) which had triggered a series of blasts in August and October targeting courts and government offices, State Minister for Home Lutfozzaman Babar said.

While Senior Sub-Judge Shaeed Sohail died on the spot Sub-Judge Jagannath Pandey succumbed to his injuries on way to the hospital, he said, adding two persons, including an assailant, were also injured in the explosion.

Two persons who carried out the attack have been arrested, Babar said adding the police recovered a bomb from the injured extremist while a Jamtul Mujahideen leaflet was found from the other, who was arrested soon after the blast.

The judges were travelling by a car to the court when the bomb was hurled at their vehicle, the police said.

A red alert has been sounded in the district and lawyers across the country did not resume work today after the attack.

The banned militant Jamatul Mujaheedin Bangladesh had carried out attacks on courts on August 17 and October 3, calling for the establishment of Islamic rule in the country. — PTI

Washington, November 14
The US was "wrong" about presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, a top White House aide has admitted while maintaining that President George W. Bush did not manipulate intelligence and mislead the American people to justify the invasion of Baghdad.

"Turns out we were wrong," said Stephen Hadley, Bush's National Security Advisor.

"But I think the point that needs to be emphasised... allegations now that the President somehow manipulated intelligence, somehow misled the American people, are flat wrong," Hadley said yesterday at a television talk show.

But Democrats remained unimpressed by the tough talk of both the President on Veterans Day and now his senior aide.

The Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Howard Dean, rejected what Hadley had to say stressing "The truth is, the President misled America when he sent us to war".

Dean went one step ahead and said that this Bush

administration has a "fundamental problem" in telling the truth.

The respected Republican Senator from Arizona, John McCain argued that while the Democrats had the right to criticise the Iraq war it was disingenuous to say that the President lied about the intelligence in order to make the case for going to war.

Every intelligence agency in the world, including the Russians, the French... all reached the same conclusions", the Senator remarked. The failed intelligence on Iraq is leading to new questions about how accurate Washington's assertions could be about North Korea and especially Iran. — PTI

New York, November 14
Two Indians among the 13 South Asian candidates have emerged winners in the elections to the State Legislatures.

Democratic Party candidate Upendra J. Chivukula was elected to the New Jersey state assembly while Republican Satish Mohan captured the post of supervisor in Amherst Town, New York state.

Democrat Jay Aiyer, will face a run-off election as none of the candidates for Houston City Council-at-large Position 2, collected 50 per cent of the votes.

Aiyer won 25 per cent of the votes versus his opponent’s 32 per cent. The run-off is scheduled for December 10.

Chivukula, who was elected to the New Jersey state assembly for the third straight time last week on the Democratic Party ticket, is a native of Nellore in Andhra Pradesh. He defeated his Republican Party opponent Salim Nathoo, who is also an Indian-American, with nearly 33 per cent votes in his re-election bid in the 17th district.

He is the first first-generation Indian-American to have become a lawmaker in a US state.

He was first elected in 2001 to the assembly, whose members have two-year terms.

Indian-American Satish Mohan, who won in Amherst Town, which has a population of 1,20,000 said, ‘’I am a people’s man.’’

Mohan (70) told reporters after the results were out, ‘’I was not endorsed by the Republican Party, but I am a Republican. I believe in less government, fewer taxes and being pro-business.’’

A graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, West Bengal, the Uttar Pradesh native earned his master’s from Kansas State University and his doctorate from Purdue University. He immigrated to the United States about 30 years ago. Currently a civil engineering professor at the University of Buffalo, Mohan said he would take a four-year leave of absence from the university and focus on his elected job. — UNI

Muzaffarabad, November 14
The United Nations will this week launch a major air operation to ferry food and other supplies to earthquake survivors high in Pakistan's mountains in frantic bid to beat the problems of winter.

Britain has supplied three Chinook transport helicopters that will fly up to 200 tonnes of supplies a day into the mountains from Tuesday for five days, said senior UN official Pat Duggan.

"The deliveries are really gearing up now," Duggan told Reuters in Muzaffarabad on Monday.

"The real priority is the highlands. The aim is to get their food and shelter needs in as fast as we possibly can before winter sets in and then avoid a flow of people down the hill."

The October 8 quake killed more than 73,000 persons in Pakistan, most of them in Pakistani Kashmir. About 30 lakh persons were affected and many of them are still in need of emergency assistance.

The United Nations and other relief agencies say

communities need shelter and food supplies to get them through the winter by the start of December when winter weather is expected to close in, severely hampering both road and air transport.

The most pressing problem area is the Neelum Valley, to the northeast of Muzaffarabad, where the sole road up the steep-sided valley has been swept away by landslides triggered by the quake. It is not expected to be rebuilt before winter.

The valley, with a population of about 1,50,000 persons, will be the focus of this week's airlift, being organised with the help of the Pakistani military, which Duggan said would give the aid effort a big boost.

"We've got an extra resource. We've got the Chinooks from the British government to work solid while the rest of the operation is still going on.

"It's a huge acceleration in our ability to cover the needs in these areas. It gives us a great boost to meet this end of November, beginning of December time frame," she said.

"The idea is to have pre-positioning of food as close as possible to them and pre-position some shelter as well. That will keep them more or less in their area and stop a flow down to Muzaffarabad," she said.

The other big worry is sickness spreading in crowded tent settlements that have sprung up in the weeks following the quake. Doctors in Kashmir have begun a campaign to immunise 8 lakh children against measles, tetanus, whooping cough, diphtheria and polio before the winter bites. An immunisation drive was also launched in North West Frontier Province, another badly hit area in Pakistan.

Children living in remote mountain villages, cut off by landslides, were particularly vulnerable due to malnutrition.

"The target is to immunise 8 lakh children. We want to vaccinate them in the next two weeks', weather permitting, before people get into close quarters in camps," Dr Tamur Mueenuddin, in charge of health issues for UNICEF in Muzaffarabad, said.

One camp in Muzaffarabad has had more than 500 cases of acute diarrhea and aid workers are struggling to improve water and sanitation facilities.

"We're up to just over 500 cases. Fortunately, fingers crossed, we haven't had any fatalities yet but still we have severely dehydrated patients coming in," said John Watson, a communicable disease expert with the World Health Organisation.

The Pakistani Ministry of Health has denied reports the sickness is cholera and Watson said the WHO had no laboratory facilities and he had not seen any official test results from Pakistani facilities.

Whether or not it was cholera was to some extent academic, Watson said. It did not affect how teams were dealing with it. "We just have to keep on addressing the problem, as the water and sanitation issues are addressed, transmission will stop." — Reuters