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Israel seizes top Hamas official
Fuel price hike sparks protest in Nepal
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10 immigrants die as boat sinks in Sicily
40 students in US plagiarism scandal
Lankan town cut off by war
Zawahiri’s son-in-law behind plot to blow up US planes
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Israel seizes top Hamas official
Ramallah (West Bank), August 19 Hours later, a Palestinian gunman killed an Israeli soldier near the West Bank city of Nablus and was then shot dead by troops, the army and medics said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. Israel has more than two dozen Hamas lawmakers and several other cabinet ministers in custody since late June, after it launched an offensive in response to the kidnapping of a soldier in a cross-border raid from the Gaza Strip. Violence has continued in the West Bank and Gaza Strip since war broke out with Lebanese Hizbollah guerrillas on Israel's northern border after two soldiers were abducted on July 12 in a cross-border raid. A ceasefire came into effect on Monday. An Israeli army spokesman confirmed troops had taken al-Shaer into custody, saying it was "due to his membership in a terrorist organisation." "Israel's aims to undermine the Palestinian political system and to put obstacles before the government and the people ... This is blackmail but we are determined to continue our march," Haniyeh said. Huda al-Shaer, the official's wife, said he was picked up at their home in the West Bank town of Ramallah. She told Reuters that "several jeeps circled the house before dawn" then troops came to the door. An officer told her after checking their identity documents, "'sorry madame, but your husband has to come with us'. He let him first say goodbye to our four children," al-Shaer said. Two lawmakers from Hamas, a militant group that seeks Israel's destruction and swept to power in the Palestinian Authority in March elections, also confirmed al-Shaer had been seized by Israeli forces. Saeb Erekat, the top Palestinian negotiator, condemned the arrest and said "this complicates" a recent bid by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to forge a Palestinian unity government, to ease a Western aid embargo against the Hamas government. The boycott is designed to push the militant group to recognise Israel's right to exist, renounce violence and accept past peace accords. Israel seized dozens of Hamas cabinet ministers and lawmakers after militants abducted Corporal Gilad Shalit on June 25. Many were later freed. Al-Shaer had been on the wanted list but had not been found, Palestinian sources said.
— Reuters
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Fuel price hike sparks protest in Nepal
Kathmandu, August 19 Protesters belonging to Nepal Students Union, All-Nepal National Free Students Union and Maoist-affiliated ANNFSU-Revolutionary took out rallies in Kalimati, Kalanki, Teku, Lainchaur, Sorakhutte, Gaushala, Chabahil, Maharajgunj and many other places, shouting anti-government slogans. Demonstrators in Kalimati hurled stones at a taxi, a microbus and a garbage collection truck, damaging the vehicles. Some 15 vehicles were damaged during demonstrations in various parts of Kathmandu, eyewitnesses said. Angry protesters also burnt tyres in various places blocking roads. Traffic was disrupted in different parts of the capital for hours. The student groups warned that they would call for strong nationwide protests if the government did not withdraw the decision to hike fuel prices immediately. The government said it was necessary to increase the price of petroleum products to make up for losses incurred by the state-run Nepal Oil Corporation.
— PTI
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10 immigrants die as boat sinks in Sicily
Rome, August 19 ‘’What happened today is not only a tragedy but nothing less than a crime,’’ Interior Minister Giuliano Amato said in a statement. ‘’And if we don’t manage to punish crimes they repeat themselves and tragedies repeat themselves too.’’ Coast Guard officials said 70 persons had been rescued and 10 bodies, including those of four women, had been recovered. Survivors reported there had been up to 120 immigrants on board. Such estimates could be inexact so it was difficult to estimate how many were missing, officials said. Lampedusa, between Sicily and Libya, has become a gateway for illegal immigrants and refugees who leave north Africa in an attempt to enter the European Union. One Navy ship had been following the immigrant boat and was able to start the rescue quickly, hence the high number of survivors, the coastguard said. Survivors said the boat turned over when the immigrants saw the Navy vessel and many of them moved abruptly to one side. Amato called for more cooperation to ‘’dismantle once and for all the criminal organisations that daily put the lives of so many as risk in a Mediterranean crossing’’. The growing number of illegal migrants seeking to escape poverty has become one of Europe’s biggest political issues.
— Reuters
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40 students in US plagiarism scandal
Washington, August 19 About three dozen students from India, China, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Saudi Arabia and Thailand — some even from the USA — have been accused of plagiarism at the Engineering School of Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. But they are not being accused of stealing or manipulating data. They have been told that proper attributions have not been made in the sections dealing with review of literature leaving the door open to questions if they were intentional or an issue of foreign students not being aware of procedures in writing master’s and doctoral theses and dissertations. Vipul Ranatunga, a former student of engineering at Ohio University and currently a faculty member at Miami University of Ohio, has been accused of no quotation marks or footnotes to indicate that he referred to some seven pages of a Chinese student who got his master’s degree at the Athens campus. Ranatunga has acknowledged that he took the material but said he did not think he was doing anything wrong as attribution had been given for the author in the text and the bibliography.
— PTI
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Lankan town cut off by war
Colombo, August 19 One city resident told Reuters by telephone that prices for staples were up more than three-fold, with petrol selling for more than four times the going price before the latest fighting began three weeks ago. A cash shortage also hit the city, with people rushing to withdraw money from local banks in anticipation of a possible evacuation, he said. Witnesses and aid workers said gunfire and artillery shelling could be heard throughout the night and into the morning, but authorities eased recent curfew restrictions somewhat. The Sri Lankan military said it had attacked Tiger naval units from the air along the Jaffna peninsula late yesterday.
— Reuters
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Zawahiri’s son-in-law behind plot to blow up US planes
Islamabad, August 19 “The mastermind in the planes bombing plot is Zawahiri’s son-in-law. He is the guy being looked for,” Dawn newspaper quoted an unnamed intelligence official as saying. Osama bin Laden’s top lieutenant is known to have several sons-in-law. One of them is reported to have been killed in a bombing run at an Al- Qaida hideout in Tora Bora following the US attack in 2001, the second is said to be in Iranian custody while a third one is in an Egyptian prison. One report said that one of Zawahiri’s daughters had married a son of Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden’s two sons, Mohammad bin Laden and Saad bin Laden, are reported to be in Iranian custody. Saiful Adil and Abu Mohammad Al Misri are wanted for their role in the 1998 East African embassy bombings, while Islamboli is brother of Capt Khalid Islamboli who assassinated Egyptian president Anwar Sadaat on October 6, 1981.
— PTI |
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