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Harare, March 11  The Zimbabwe riot police arrested the country’s top opposition leader today as it suppressed a planned prayer rally in a crackdown on protests against President Robert
Mugabe.
Opposition activists in police custody at Highfields in Harare on Sunday. — AFP
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Anomaly halts INSAT-4B launch
New military equipment for Pak
Iran Issue
22 dead, 7 missing in China mine flood
Mauritanians vote to restore civilian rule
COMMONWEALTH DAY
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Crackdown on
anti-Mugabe protests in Zimbabwe
Harare, March 11 Witnesses said heavily armed police fought skirmishes with rock-throwing opposition supporters in the Harare township of Highfield, where the opposition-aligned Save Zimbabwe Coalition had called for a Sunday prayer rally. The police arrested Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai and other opposition officials after blocking their motor convoy from driving to the stadium where the rally was to have been held. “Mr Tsvangirai has also been arrested. He was arrested as he was driving out of Highfield,” MDC information officer Luke Tamborinyoka said. “We don’t know where he is being held at the moment.” Officials had earlier said Arthur Mutambara, who leads another faction of the MDC, and Lovemore Madhuku of the pressure group National Constitutional Assembly were also detained. The riot police moved in force early today to head off the prayer rally, which the police had said would violate a ban on political protests imposed after opposition supporters clashed with the police in Highfield last month. Organisers had argued that the ban should not apply to a prayer vigil. Shop owners in the area shuttered stores, while hundreds of people wandered the streets under the gaze of police units. Witnesses said later in the day policemen had fired teargas at youths who were throwing stones at their patrols, taunting them and defying orders of not to move around in large numbers. “There have been several skirmishes between the police and some youths, people throwing stones, and the police firing teargas,” a Zimbabwean journalist who lives in Highfield told a Reuters correspondent by phone. The riot police mounted road blocks on major highways into the township and was searching vehicles for arms and questioning motorists where they were going.
— Reuters
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Anomaly halts INSAT-4B launch
Bangalore, March 11 Arianespace said the mission was postponed to validate the proper operation of the launchpad water deluge system at the spaceport’s ELA-3 launch site. “This deluge system provides a high-volume flow of water for launch pad acoustic damping during Ariane 5’s engine ignition and liftoff,” the European space consortium said. The countdown was stopped to verify sensor readings concerning the deluge system’s operational sequence. Ariane 5 and its dual-satellite payload were immediately placed in the safe mode. Arianespace CEO Jean-Yves Le Gall said the launch was expected to be rescheduled for tomorrow.
ISRO said, “The health of both satellites and the launch vehicle is normal and they have been put in safe mode.” Designed for a mission life of 12 years, the 3,025 kg INSAT-4B is equipped with 24 communication transponders to augment DTH services.
— PTI
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New military equipment for Pak
Islamabad, March 11 The two forces as well as the army, which suffered a great deal in the wake of sanctions imposed on Pakistan by George Bush Sr, in the late 1990s, are now reaping dividends of Islamabad’s contribution in the war on terror through the induction of latest weaponry, including the long-range maritime patrol aircraft P-3C Orions, F-16s and Cobra gunship helicopters. However, a recent legislation by the new US House of Representatives recommended to the Bush administration to link the country’s military aid with its efforts to halt Taliban’s insurgency. But experts believe since the Bush administration still needs Pakistan’s cooperation to curb militancy and hunt down Taliban and al-Qaeda fugitives in Afghanistan as well as in the regions bordering the two countries, the US will not resort to any harsh action, enabling Pakistan armed forces to receive military equipment. Of the eight P-3C Orion aircraft, which the US had announced to deliver to Pakistan free of cost some three years ago, two have already arrived and have been inducted into the navy while the third plane is due in August, a Pakistan navy official told. The official said the expenses for modification of avionics systems in the planes would be met mostly from the US military aid to Pakistan. US President Bush had unveiled a 3-billion-dollar economic and military aid package for Pakistan in July 2003 in acknowledgement of Islamabad’s role as the frontline state in the ongoing war against terror. Widely known as the airborne destroyer, the P-3 C Orion is a four engine, highly manoeuverable, all-weather aircraft primarily designed for reconnaissance, anti-submarine and anti-surface vessel operations. Following the induction of the P-3Cs, the US has also gifted eight Cobra gunship helicopters on gratis (free of charge) basis, which are part of a package envisaging delivery of 40 such helicopters. The US will soon deliver 18 brand new and 26 used F-16s to Pakistan, which officials believe will be inducted in the air force over a period of the next four to five years.
— UNI
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Pak not to provide military bases to US
Islamabad, March 11 He said an attack on Iran would leave negative impacts politically and economically not only on Pakistan but in the region as well. “Iran is Pakistan’s friend and neighbouring country. Pakistan has been actively engaged with Iran, US and European Union to resolve the conflict. Our stance is very much clear on Iran-Pakistan-India gas-pipeline. Pakistan’s stance was also clear during voting in Vienna, (during IAEA debate on Iran’s nuclear programme), Pakistan’s stance on US-Iran conflict is very much clear.” “Pakistan is against military action and wants to resolve the conflict through dialogue,” he told reporters in Lahore yesterday. He said Pakistan’s foreign policy was aimed at promoting peace and security at global and regional level. On Indo-Pak relations, he said the two countries have come a long way from the tense period in 2001 and 2002 when there was tension on the border. “Since the peace process started in January 2004, Pakistan and India resumed the composite dialogue process which encompasses talks on peace and security, including Jammu and Kashmir and CBMs in nuclear and conventional fields, Siachen, Sir Creek, terrorism and drug-trafficking, economic and commercial cooperation, promotion of friendly exchanges and Wullar Barrage,” he said. On the US Congress legislation linking Pakistan’s defence aid with terrorism, Kasuri said Pakistan had serious reservations on the legislation. “The matter would also be taken up in the National Assembly Defence Committee,” Kasuri said, adding Pakistani mission in the US was active in this regard. He said it would be in interest of the US that anti-American feelings are not strengthened in Pakistan. Now the legislation has been sent to the US Senate for approval and it is expected that the clauses against Pakistan would be removed, he said. — PTI
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22 dead, 7 missing in China mine flood
Beijing, March 11 Rescuers found two more bodies in the pit of the Fushun Mining Group, a state-owned company in Fushun, a major industrial city in Liaoning Province.
By evening, officials had recovered 22 bodies and were searching for seven others who are still missing.
Twenty-nine miners were working on a platform of the Laohutai Mine when it was flooded last night.
“The flood was followed by a gas leak and the platform was blacked out after the gas density hit 1.76 per cent,” a manager of the mine said. The gas density fell below the 1.5 per cent danger level by today afternoon after the rescuers restored the ventilation system, he said. Seventy-two rescuers in six teams are on a rescue mission that started at 9:30 (local time) last night. The ill-fated mine had been closed for a safety overhaul. Laohutai, which translates into “tiger’s platform”, is a 100-year-old mine with 160 million tons of remaining coal reserves. It is also one of the country’s 45 most dangerous coal mines because of the high risk of flooding, fire and gas leaks.
— PTI
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Mauritanians vote to restore civilian rule
Nouakchott, March 11 Voters and international observers hope the poll can establish a multi-party democracy in the largely desert former French colony, which has experienced several coups and years of authoritarian rule since its independence in 1960. Candidates include a veteran opposition figure, a former military ruler, an ex-central bank governor and a descendant of black slaves in the racially diverse nation, which has traditionally been ruled by a white Moorish elite.
— Reuters
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COMMONWEALTH
DAY
London, March 11 At the celebrations, Shetty, winner of the Celebrity Big Brother TV show recently, will give a “personal testimony” in which she will talk about her experience of coping with ethnic differences. Apart from the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, she will have in her audience Tory leader David Cameron and Liberal Democrats leader Sir Menzies Campbell.
— UNI
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