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No more talks on Korean hostages: Taliban
Hasina challenges govt over extortion case
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‘PPP in talks with Mush govt’
Benazir asked for details of meeting
Constitution to be amended for Bhutto’s return
Japan PM suffers poll drubbing
Nepal’s Maoist cadres thrash govt official
Phillips is first of young royals to
wed
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Kanishka Bombings
Toronto, July 29 Ceperley playground in Stanley Park was refurbished with new play equipment in memory of the 82 children who perished in the terrorist act. A new memorial wall inscribed with the names of the victims was built in the shape of an arc, meant to represent the trajectory of the doomed flight - from the point where it left Vancouver to the crash site just off the coast of Ireland. At the end of the wall is a single stone from a memorial for the crash erected in Ahakista, Ireland, near where the plane went down. Three dove trees were also planted near a quiet space for contemplation. “This memorial acknowledges the bombing of Air India Flight 182 as one of Canada’s worst tragedies,” said Jayashree Thampi of the Air India Flight 182 Victims’ Families organisation at the unveiling yesterday. As federal public safety minister Stockwell Day stood by, other family members of victims lamented that it took 20 years for the Canadian government to recognise the bombing of Air India Flight 182 as a Canadian tragedy. The relatives of the victims, however, said they did take great comfort in the memorial, and hoped it would remind everyone who comes to see it of the futility and pointlessness of terrorism. “The tragic loss of 331 lives was felt around the world, but it was of particular significance here in British Columbia where many victims were family members, friends and neighbours,” said B.C. premier Gordon Campbell. The cost of the project was shared by the governments of Canada and British Columbia, and is built on land provided by the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation. The unveiling of the memorial and commemorative playground followed a June ceremony dedicating a memorial in Toronto to the victims of the bombing. There would also be a memorial built in Montreal and a renovation of the existing memorial in Ottawa. — PTI
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No more talks on Korean hostages: Taliban
Kabul, July 29 An Afghan team that was supposed to have held more talks with the Taliban yesterday could not reach the group because of security concerns in Ghazni province, provincial sources said. The team hoped to persuade the insurgents to free the Christian volunteers they kidnapped from a bus 10 days ago in Ghazni, south of Kabul, without any conditions. A deputy interior minister yesterday told Reuters that force might be used if talks fail. Qari Mohammad Yousuf, a Taliban spokesman, today warned against use of force and pressed for the freedom of the rebel prisoners as the main condition for the release of the Koreans. ''There is no need for further talks. We have given the government a list of Taliban prisoners who should be released and that is our main demand,'' he told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location. ''The government needs to deliberate on it and if it wants to use force, then it will jeopardise the lives of the hostages and the Taliban will resist till the last gasp of their breath,'' he added, but did not issue any new deadline. The kidnappers killed the leader of the group on Wednesday, but several Taliban deadlines have passed without the rebels carrying out their threat to kill the rest of the hostages. Eighteen of the remaining hostages are women and are being held in small groups at different locations. Yousuf said some of the hostages were sick. Ghazni's governor, Mirajuddin Pathan, said medicines the Korean government had wanted to send for them could not be delivered because the Afghan team could not establish contact with the Taliban. Pathan said the government did not want to use force to rescue the hostages. In addition to Afghan forces, foreign troops are also stationed in Ghazni. A South Korean special envoy was expected to hold talks with President Hamid Karzai to try to speed up the hostages' release. After coming under harsh criticism for freeing five Taliban prisoners in exchange for the release of an Italian hostage in March, Karzai ruled out any deal with the Taliban. The Taliban are still holding one German and four of his Afghan colleagues who were abducted from a neighbouring province a day before the Koreans.
— Reuters
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Hasina challenges govt over extortion case
Dhaka, July 29 They said Hasina's lawyers filed a petition signed by her with the High Court today. “We have lots of grounds to challenge the government and we hope we will win,” Sahara Khatun, a lawyer for Hasina, told mediapersons before filing the petition. Hasina, leader of the Awami League, was arrested on July 16 and sent to a house converted into a prison inside Dhaka's sprawling parliament compound. Charges of extorting money from a businessman were formally filed against her a week later. “The court has accepted the petition, and it is likely to fix a time for hearing it soon,” a court registrar said. Bangladesh has been under a state of emergency imposed by the army-backed interim administration, which took over in January and launched a crackdown on corruption ahead of elections planned for late next year. More than 170 political figures, including former ministers in both the governments of Hasina and her arch rival Begum Khaleda Zia, leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, have been detained for graft and abuse of power. The detainees included Tareque Rahman, Khaleda's elder son and presumed political heir. The extortion charges against Hasina date back to 1998, during her last spell in office from 1996 to 2001. The authorities have put the case under emergency power rules, which means the prosecution will be completed within 45 days. Her lawyers are challenging whether the emergency powers imposed in January can be used to try a case relating to offences allegedly committed in 1998. Hasina denies the charges, which she says are being used to try and force her out of politics ahead of the elections. If convicted of extortion, she could face from three to ten years in jail, lawyers said.
— Reuters
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‘PPP in talks with Mush govt’
Islamabad, July 29 Bhutto told Pakistani TV channels that she believes in dialogue to restore democracy in Pakistan and confirmed that her party was negotiating with President Musharraf’s government. Bhutto said issues being discussed with the government during contacts were related to the restoration of democracy. About strong reaction by the opposition including her party’s ally the Nawaz Sharif faction of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N), Bhutto said it was “an open secret that the government is talking to other parties as well”.
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Benazir asked for details of meeting
The Nawaz Sharif faction of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) on Saturday asked it all in the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) to divulge the details of the Musharraf-Benazir meeting.
“People have the right to know what transpired at the Musharraf-Benazir meeting in Abu Dhabi”, PML-N parliamentary president in the national assembly Chaudhary Nisar Ali Khan said at a news conference here. Nisar said the joint action committee of the newly formed All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM) would meet here within the next few days to discuss implications of the meeting. He said Nawaz Sharif would never cut a deal with the dictators. The reports regarding Shebaz Sharif’s possible meeting with Musharraf in Jeddah were baseless, he added. Information minister Mohammad Ali Durrani again denied that any meeting took place and referred to statements made on Friday by Pakistani envoy in the UAE and statement by Musharraf’s spokesman Gen Rashid’s contradiction. But federal minister Shaikh Rashid Ahmed insisted that the meeting did take place and described it productive and successful. He said it had been agreed that Musharraf would be re-elected by the present assemblies.
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Constitution to be amended for Bhutto’s return
The government will make amendments to the Constitution to facilitate Benazir Bhutto become Prime Minister for the third time, federal parliamentary affairs minister Dr. Sher Afgan Khan Niazi has said.
He told Geo News via the telephone that Friday's talks between President Pervez Musharraf and Pakistan People's Party chairperson Benazir Bhutto were successful. Both leaders openly expressed their reservations before each other, he added. He said Musharraf and Bhutto also discussed the appointment of a new army chief, as Musharraf might shed his uniform for the next presidential term. Pakistan Muslim League leader Hamid Nasir Chattha might become the next caretaker Prime Minister, he said. "There is a dire need for national unity to overcome the menace of terrorism and an understanding between the PPP and the government would be a good omen for the nation," he said, adding that the PPP was a mainstream political party and could play its role in safeguarding national interests.
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Japan PM suffers poll drubbing Tokyo, July 29 Voters, angry over a string of government scandals and gaffes and government bungling of pension records, stripped Abe's coalition of its upper House majority in his first big electoral test since taking office 10 months ago. Abe's coalition will not be ousted from government by a loss in the upper House, since it has a huge majority in the more powerful lower chamber, but Kyodo news agency reported that he would reshuffle his Cabinet, possibly in late August. — Reuters
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Nepal’s Maoist cadres thrash govt official
The cadres of Young Communist League (YCL), a youth wing of Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist, and its activists beat up Chief District Officer (CDO) of Dolakha Uddav Bahadur Thapa after barging into District Administration Office (DAO) at Charikot, Sunday.
Over two dozen Maoist cadres and six policemen were injured as the two sides engaged in clashes when the policemen were preventing the mob from breaking into the office. Police fired over a dozen rounds into the air and dozens of tear gas shells to disperse the angry mob of YCL cadres, who had showed up at the DAO demanding release of their local leader Bishal Khadka. CDO Thapa has received injuries on his right eye. After the YCL cadres began punching Thapa indiscriminately, district in-charge of Maoists Bishwa and another district committee member had intervened and stopped the YCL cadres. Situation in Charikot bazaar remained tense till late evening as the two sides engaged in the clashes at other places too. Following the incident, the local administration office of Dolakha district has clamped indefinite curfew order from 5 pm Sunday in the district headquarters Charikot. The berserk group of the Maoist cadres, after taking out a motorcycle rally here at the district headquarters, reached the DAO gate and began hurling stones at the office. Later, the group asked the CDO to withdraw the case filed against Khdaka and beat him up there. Acting upon a complaint, police had filed a case against Khadka on charge of being involved in tarring the face of one Sundar Prakash Khadka a week ago, who was nominated as the president of District Development Committee by the king’s regime.
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Phillips is first of young royals to
wed
London, July 29 Phillips, 29, has been engaged to his girl friend, 31-year-old Autumn Kelly, a former management consultant from Canada. The couple met at the Canadian Grand Prix in her native Montreal in 2003, and Kelly soon moved to Britain to be closer to the royal. Despite being quoted as saying he would marry a British woman, royal watchers predicted Phillips would tie the knot before his sister, Zara, and cousins, Princes William and Harry.
— PTI |
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