 |
|
|
Twenty dead as Israel attacks aid ships A demonstrator shouts anti-Israel slogans from the Ataturk memorial at Taksim square in Istanbul on Monday. — Reuters |
|
|
Quit in 48 hrs: Maoists to Nepal
Malik hints at army action in Punjab
German Prez quits over Afghan remark
12 killed as militants storm Lahore hospital
|
|
Twenty dead as Israel attacks aid ships
Jerusalem, May 31
Its navy stopped six ships ferrying 700 people and 10,000 tonnes of supplies toward the Islamist-run Palestinian enclave. The United States, Israel’s key ally, said only that it regretted the loss of life and was looking into the “tragedy”. As the captured foreign vessels were escorted into Israel’s port of Ashdod, accounts remained sketchy of the pre-dawn interception out in the Mediterranean, in which marines stormed aboard from dinghies and rappelled down from helicopters. Senior Israeli defence officials said 10 activists died on the Mavi Marmara, a Turkish cruise ship carrying 581 people, after commandos came under fire, including with weapons that the activists had snatched from the boarding party. Seven troops and “numerous” protesters were injured, the military said. Israel imposed a communications blackout on those aboard the convoy and other accounts of the incident were not available. Earlier, the military said “more than 10 demonstrators” were killed, while Israeli media had briefly spoken of up to 19 dead. It was unclear where the dead and wounded came from. Many were likely to be Turks, but the convoy also featured Americans, Israelis, Palestinians and many Europeans. The bloodshed sparked street protests and government ire in Turkey, long Israel’s lone Muslim ally in the region, which had backed the convoy. Ankara cancelled joint military exercises and recalled its ambassador. Turkish President Abdullah Gul demanded the troops be punished. Israel said they fired in self-defence. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, whose Islamist views and outreach to Iran and other Israeli enemies is blamed by many in Israel for souring relations, cut short a trip to Latin America. Israel told its tourists in Turkey to stay in their hotels. A minister admitted that plans to maintain its blockade on Hamas while avoiding an international incident had backfired in spectacular fashion: “It’s going to be a big scandal, no doubt about it,” Trade Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer told Reuters. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said: “What Israel has committed on board the Freedom Flotilla was a massacre.” He declared three days of official mourning for the dead. Israel’s deputy foreign minister, Danny Ayalon, blamed the activists for the violence and branded them allies of Israel’s Islamist enemies Hamas and al Qaeda. Had they got through, he said, they would have opened an arms smuggling route to Gaza. — Reuters
|
|
Quit in 48 hrs: Maoists to Nepal
Kathmandu, May 31 The Prime Minister had agreed to step down to secure the support of United CPN-Maoist party, which has nearly 40 per cent of the seats in the Parliament, to extend by one year the Constituent Assembly’s term that was to expire on May 28. Narayankaji Shrestha, a top Maoist leader, accused the 22-party ruling coalition of trying to deceive his party by misinterpreting the crux of the agreement. Shrestha warned that the Prime Minister’s failure to resign within five days of the deal would result in serious crisis. “Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal must resign by Tuesday evening,” he was quoted as saying by the Himalayan Times daily today. Hardline Maoist leader Mohan Vaidya “Kiran” said the Prime Minister has given verbal assurance to resign within five days while signing the three-point agreement to extend the term of the Constituent Assembly on May 28. A situation of mistrust will prevail if they fail to stick to the three-point agreement, Vaidya warned. The Maoists daily, Janadisha, quoted Vaidya as saying that the failure of the prime minister to step down within five days of the deal would result in “serious crisis.” “We must not let that happen,” he told the paper. “The prime minister’s resignation has to come in five days.” Maoist spokesman Dinanath Sharma in a statement today said the party now “appeals to the PM and the political parties to remain true to their commitments... and to create a conducive environment for consensus”. Leaders of the three major political parties-the main Opposition CPN-Maoist, the Nepali Congress and the prime minister’s Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist Leninist) - met today but failed to reach an agreement to put into practice the May 28 deal. The ruling alliance has so far refused to a give a time frame for the PM’s resignation, angering Maoist leaders, who accuse them of “betrayal”. It denies having agreed to any such deal, saying the Prime Minister is in no hurry to resign. He has not given any time bound assurance for resignation, said Nepali Congress leader Bimalendra Nidhi. He will resign only in two conditions: if consensus is reached to move forward the peace process and complete the drafting of the constitution and when all parties agree to form a national consensus government, Nidhi said. — PTI
|
|
Malik hints at army action in Punjab
Fearing that religious and sectarian outfits may have aligned with tribal militants, Interior Minister Rehman Malik has hinted at launching an operation in parts of Punjab on the pattern of the operation carried out in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata).
The Punjab government, which has earlier stalled demands for action against Hafiz Saeed, chief of banned Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), however, reacted to Malik’s statement saying no operation is needed in the province. Malik told journalists that 726 of the 1,764 members of banned organisations like Lakhkar-i-Jhangvi and Jaish-i-Mohammad belonged to south Punjab. The region, he said, also had about 44 per cent of the country’s religious seminaries. Jaish-i-Mohammad is implicated in attacks in India-held Kashmir while Lakhkar-i-Jhangvi has been named in several terrorist acts in Pakistani cities. Both organisations are believed to have established close links with Taliban and Al-Qaida in the tribal areas where they send young boys for terrorist training. The interior minister was talking to the local C-42 TV channel where he had gone to offer condolences over the death of its technician who was covering the Friday’s terror attack on an Ahmadi place of worship in Garhi Shahu. The brutal attacks on two mosques killed 95 and injured 150. “There will be an operation in south Punjab on the pattern of tribal areas,” the channel quoted the minister as saying.
|
|
German Prez quits over Afghan remark
Berlin, May 31 Koehler, 67, is the first president to resign before completing his term in Germany's post-war history and his decision took the country's political leadership, parliamentarians and the public by surprise. At a hurriedly convened news conference, a visibly moved Koehler said he took the decision because criticisms in the past days about a comment he made in a radio interview about Germany's military engagement in Afghanistan "went too far" and he viewed them as a disrespect for his office. "The criticism lacks any kind of justification and takes away the necessary respect for my office. I hereby declare my resignation from the office of the president with immediate effect," he said. Koehler was re-elected for a second four-year term in May last year and he enjoyed great respect across the nation as a "people's president". — PTI
|
|
12 killed as militants storm Lahore hospital Lahore, May 31 Four to six militants entered the emergency ward of the Jinnah Hospital shortly before midnight and fired indiscriminately, officials said. Javed Akram, chief executive of the hospital, said a dozen people were killed and several others injured in the attack. "There was indiscriminate firing by the terrorists. They were trying to free the injured terrorist,” Akram said. — PTI
|
||
|
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
Jerusalem, May 31
