The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Iran won’t yield to foreign pressure: Ahmadinejad
Slams US, Israel on 33rd anniversary of Islamic Revolution

Tehran, February 11
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said today that the Islamic Republic, targeted by tougher Western sanctions, would soon announce advances in its nuclear programme.

He was speaking on the 33rd anniversary of the Islamic revolution that toppled the US-backed Shah. Tens of thousands of Iranians joined state-organised rallies to mark the occasion.

“In the coming days the world will witness Iran’s announcement of its very important and very major nuclear achievements,” Ahmadinejad told a crowd at Tehran’s Azadi (Freedom) Square in a speech relayed live on state television.

Demonstrators carrying Iranian flags and pictures of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei chanted “Death to Israel” and “Death to America”. Ismail Haniya, who heads the Islamist Hamas administration in the Gaza Strip, also attended the ceremony.

Ahmadinejad gave no details of how Iran’s nuclear work, which Tehran says has only peaceful purposes, has progressed.

The United States and Israel, a country which Iran does not recognise, have not ruled out military action if sanctions fail. Iran has warned of a “painful” answer, saying it would hit Israel and US bases in the Gulf as well as block the vital Gulf oil shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz.

“If attacked by the Zionist regime (Israel), we will turn it to dust,” said a Revolutionary Guards commander, Mohammad Shirdel, semi-official Fars news agency reported on Saturday. “Thousands of our missiles will target Israel and the 40 bases of America in the region,” he added.

The nuclear dispute has fuelled tension as the West tightens sanctions. The European Union has agreed to ban Iranian oil imports by July and to freeze the assets of Iran’s central bank.

Its measures reinforce those imposed by the United States as the West tries to force Tehran to return to talks before it produces enough nuclear material for an atomic bomb.

Neither side has shown much appetite for compromise. Iran says it will fight EU sanctions with counter-measures and its Parliament plans legislation to ban oil exports to the EU.

Iranian officials brush off the impact of sanctions, while also proclaiming that Iranians will endure any hardship in support of their country’s right to nuclear technology.

“I am saying openly that if you (the West) continue to use the language of force and threat, our nation will never succumb to your pressure,” Ahmadinejad said.

Industry analysts say sanctions are hitting Iran’s vital oil sector and say falls in crude output and exports will speed up. Global oil flows are realigning even though the EU ban on imports from Iran only takes effect in July, the International Energy Agency said in its monthly Oil Market Report on Friday. — Reuters

Gunmen assassinate army General in Damascus

Beirut, February 11
Gunmen assassinated an army General in Damascus today in the first killing of a high ranking military officer in the Syrian capital since the uprising against President Bashar Assad's regime began in March, the state-run news agency said.

The attack is a sign that violence in Syria is reaching the tightly controlled capital, which has been relatively quiet compared to other cities.

Though there was no immediate claim of responsibility, it could also indicate that rebel soldiers who have risen up in numerous cities and towns are trying to step up action in Damascus.

SANA news agency said three gunmen opened fire at Brigadier General Issa al-Khouli in the morning as he left his home in the Damascus neighbourhood of Rukn-Eddine. Al-Khouli was a doctor and the chief of a military hospital in the capital.

Such assassinations are not uncommon outside Damascus and army officers have been killed in the past, mostly in the restive provinces of Homs and Idlib.

Violence in other parts of the country left at least 11 people dead as regime troops pushed into rebel-held neighbourhoods in the restive central city of Homs and shelled the mountain town of Zabadani, north of Damascus.

The UN estimates that 5,400 people have been killed in Syria since the uprising began in March. But that figure is from January, when the UN stopped counting because the chaos in the country has made it all but impossible to check the figures.

The Assad regime says terrorists acting out a foreign conspiracy to destabilise the country are behind the uprising, not people seeking to transform the authoritarian regime. — AP

Libya wants Gaddafi’s son Saadi extradited; Niger says no

Tripoli, February 11
Libya urged Niger on Saturday to extradite Muammar Gaddafi’s son Saadi, saying his call for Libyans to prepare for a “coming uprising” threatened bilateral ties.

In response, Niger pledged to tighten house surveillance of Saadi, who fled south to the West African state in September as Libyan rebels gained the upper hand over Gaddafi’s forces. But it reiterated that Saadi could not be handed over to a state where he could face execution.

In a telephone call to Al Arabiya television late on Friday, Saadi said that he was in regular contact with people in Libya who were unhappy with the authorities put in place after the ousting and killing of his father.

“The council demands that the Niger government extradite Saadi and those who are with him to the Libyan authorities as soon as possible to maintain the relationship with the Libyan people,” National Transitional Council spokesman Mohammed al-Harizy said, reading out a statement to reporters.

“They should follow the Algerian government which prevented Gaddafi’s daughter from making statements or causing any trouble from their land,” he said, adding that NTC Chairman Mustafa Abdel Jalil had called Niger’s president to discuss Saadi. Algeria ordered members of Gaddafi’s family in exile on its territory to stay out of politics, after Gaddafi’s daughter Aisha angered the Libyan government by telling the media her father was still fighting to hold onto power.

The Libyan News Agency LANA earlier said Niger’s Foreign Minister Bazoum Mohamed and his Libyan counterpart Ashour Bin Hayal had spoken by telephone. It quoted Bin Hayal as saying Saadi’s comments “threaten the bilateral relationship between the two countries”. — Reuters

Crowds greet Suu Kyi on campaign trail

Kawhmu, February 11
Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was greeted by cheering crowds today as she hit the campaign trail in the constituency where she is standing for parliament for the first time.

Thousands of excited supporters lined the roads to greet her convoy, waving flags of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party and photos of Suu Kyi and her father, Myanmar's independence hero Aung San.

The democracy icon has already made two campaign trips outside the city ahead of April's by-elections, but this is her first day taking to the streets of the rural township of Kawhmu, where she is contesting the vote. Shouts of "We warmly welcome mother Suu!" and "Long live Daw (Aunt) Aung San Suu Kyi!" rang out amid the cheers.

The NLD cannot threaten the army-backed party's ruling majority even if it wins all 48 available seats, but the vote has important symbolic value as the first time Suu Kyi has been able to directly participate in a Myanmar election. — AFP

Indian found murdered in Singapore

Singapore, February 11
An Indian national was found murdered near a flyover in Singapore.

Raju Arivazhagan, from Tiruchirappalli in Tamil Nadu, who has been working in construction sector here for the past six years, went missing on Tuesday after celebrating the South Indian Hindu festival of Thaipusam in the Little India precinct, reported The Straits Times. The police recovered the body of the 32-year old Arivazhagan yesterday and said he was murdered.

Arivazhagan’s elder brother, Raju Anbalagan, would visit the mortuary on Monday to identify the body as he could not do so yesterday due to the deceased’s swollen face and decomposed state. — PTI

Phone-hacking
Sun tabloid staff among 8 held in UK

London, February 11
Eight persons, including five employees of The Sun tabloid, were arrested here today for alleged bribes paid to police and defence officials, under an operation instituted in the wake of the UK phone-hacking scandal at the News of the World.

A serving police officer, a member of Britain’s armed forces, an employee of the Ministry of Defence and five employees of The Sun tabloid are among eight people arrested under Operation Elveden, which is probing corrupt payments to police and public officials for information to be used in sensational news stories.

The operation is among many being conducted at various levels into unethical news-gathering practices in the British news media.

Apart from the five employees of the The Sun, Scotland Yard said those arrested included a 39-year-old serving officer with the Surrey police, a 39-year-old employee of the Ministry of Defence and a 36-year-old member of the armed forces.

All eight were arrested under the Prevention of Corruption Act 1906. They were being questioned at various police stations, Scotland Yard said. — PTI

India, Pak doctors perform joint liver transplant in Lahore

Indian and Pakistani doctors address a press conference in Lahore. — PTI

Lahore, February 11
A group Indian and Pakistani doctors today jointly performed a complicated liver transplant procedure at a hospital here, the first time such a procedure was conducted in Pakistan.

The living donor liver transplantations (LDLT) were performed at Lahore's Shiekh Zayed Hospital yesterday by a team of Indian and Pakistani surgeons, officials said today.

LDLTs are "highly sensitive and complicated" surgical procedures as two lives - the donor and recipient - are at risk, doctors said.

The joint operations were done by Indian surgeon Subash Gupta, a senior transplant doctor of Apollo Hospital in Delhi, and three of his colleagues and the three-member Pakistani team of Tariq Bangash, Khawar Shahzad and Umer Ali.

"The joint venture of leading Indian and Pakistani transplant surgeons has made history by opening a new era of living-relative liver transplants in Pakistan," Bangish said. The first liver transplant was performed on Khanum Maula and the liver was donated by his close relative Irshad Bibi. The second surgery was conducted on 45-year-old Abida Parveen and the liver was donated by her 19-year-old son.

It took 12 hours for the surgeons to complete each sensitive procedure. Both recipients were brought to Shaikh Zayed Hospital with complete liver failures.

The Indian doctors visited Pakistan to perform the transplants at the request of the Pakistani surgeons.

Before their arrival, surgeons at Shaikh Zayed Hospital finalised arrangements for the sensitive operations and prepared the donors and recipients.

The condition of all recipients and donors was stable and they were kept under observation in intensive care for 24 hours. Consultants were put on high alert for post-operative care of the patients for 24 hours, a highly sensitive period for all who undergo hours-long surgeries. — PTI