M A I N   N E W S

USA cautions against fresh terrorist attacks

Washington/Kabul, October 30
The USA has warned that militants may be plotting new attacks on US targets at home and abroad against a background of international unease about civilian deaths in its attacks on Afghanistan.

US air raids on the Afghan Capital, Kabul, now in their fourth week, paused through the night but persisted apace on the southern Taliban stronghold of Kandahar today, witnesses and reports from Kandahar said.

UN special envoy for Afghanistan Lakhdar Brahimi today met Pakistani ruler General Pervez Musharraf to discuss how to form a broad-based government to replace the Taliban, Islamic fundamentalists who have ruled Afghanistan since 1996.

He earlier pointed to the Taliban’s sheltering of Osama bin Laden as demonstrating the danger of failed states becoming havens in which extreme groups can plot attacks.

“It’s a wake-up call, and many people realise that even small countries far away like Afghanistan cannot be left to sink to the depths to which Afghanistan has sunk,” Mr Brahimi told CNN.

The Taliban have refused to hand over Saudi-born Bin Laden, the prime suspect in the September 11 attacks on the USA that killed some 4,800 persons. The USA started its attacks Afghanistan on October 7 to flush him out.

But a growing number of civilian casualties in the air war has put US allies in the region on edge and appeared to be hurting public support elsewhere.

In the USA, nerves were jangled by the spread of anthrax bacteria sent by an unknown force through the post and a warning from US Attorney-General John Ashcroft that new attacks may be imminent.

He said intelligence sources had warned of possible attacks against the USA and its interests over the next week.

He said he had no details, but another US official, speaking on condition he was not identified, said the threat was “most likely’’ linked to Bin Laden’s Al-Qaida network.

Venezuela President Hugo Chavez, during a live TV broadcast, displayed photographs of Afghan children reported to be bombing victims and pleaded for an end to “the killing of innocents”.

“Let’s seek solutions to the problem of terrorism, yes, let’s seek out the terrorists...but not like this,” he said.

In Britain, the strongest ally in the US war on terror, a poll published by the ‘Guardian’ newspaper showed 54 per cent of respondents wanted the bombing to stop for humanitarian reasons.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair was to try to wrestle back the initiative in the West’s propaganda war with Bin Laden, offering an emotional tribute to the victims of last month’s suicide hijackings.

Saudi Arabia yesterday said it hoped for a quick end to the strikes because they were hurting civilians while Canada said it was extremely worried about how the seven million Afghans who need humanitarian aid would cope with the coming winter.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld sought to defuse criticism of the strikes by saying that some Taliban and Al-Qaida leaders may have been killed in the bombing and insisting that the air campaign would continue.

The bombing would not be suspended for the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, beginning in mid-November, he said.

The US task of getting at Bin Laden and the Taliban has been complicated by a honeycomb of caves that permeate mountainous Afghanistan and have provided shelter against foreign invaders for hundreds of years. US bombs have been unable to blast the forces from their underground strongholds. Reuters

Anthrax scare in Indian consulate

New York, October 30
The anthrax jitter gripped the Indian consulate here when its mailroom received an envelope containing white powder, prompting the authorities to seal the room.

The powder covered the face and hands of a mailroom assistant when she opened the envelope. She was rushed for a medical check-up.

The consulate was sealed last evening after the local authorities took samples of the powder for chemical examination whose results are expected to be available in 72 hours. PTI

USA for anti-terrorist funding norms

Washington, October 30
The US, battling the threat of terrorism, has proposed to set international standards to combat terrorist financing.

US Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill yesterday asked the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an independent international body devoted to fighting money laundering, to adopt new anti-money laundering recommendations for the purpose.

He urged the three-day special emergency session of FATF, which began yesterday, to specifically address the financing of terrorism.

In his remarks to the opening plenary, O’Neill urged FATF to ensure that all countries “swiftly” start complying with new money laundering recommendations. “I urge this group by the next plenary to have in hand self-assessments and action plans for every country in the world,” he said.

The US is leading what it sees is a global coalition against terrorism since the September 11 terror strikes and has also proscribed and frozen the assets of several individuals and organisations to check funding for terrorists. O’Neill called for regular public reporting on successes in identifying and taking action against terrorist financing. “Taking action, in and of itself, is not a measure of success,” O’Neill said. “It’s the results we achieve that will prevent future acts of terrorism.”

The FATF secretariat is housed at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and its members include 29 countries, the European Commission and the Gulf Cooperation Council.

Without the force of law or treaty, he pointed out, the organisation had convinced other nations to adopt laws and implement enforcement regimes to bar the access of criminals to the international banking system.

“Today, I ask you to devote your considerable experience to disrupt the misuse of the international financial system by terrorists and those who channel funds to them,” he added. IANS

Pak arrests 13 for killing Christians

Islamabad, October 31
The police arrested 13 Islamic militants today, following the killing of 15 Christians during a Sunday service in the central Pakistani city of Bahawalpur, a senior police officer said.

"We are sure we will break the network of terrorists,’’ Mr Arif Ikram, Senior Superintendent of the Bahawalpur Police force told Reuters. He said more arrests could follow.

The police did not reveal the details of those detained or of what crimes they might be suspected.

Six masked men gunned down the worshippers and a police guard on Sunday with assault rifles at saint dominic’s, a Catholic Church in Bahawalpur in central Punjab province, and wounded at least five others. Reuters