 |
Tuesday,
December 31, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
|
Pak to
continue on security-risk Osama
contacted Pak scientist for N-bomb No tit for
tat on visa policy: Pak British TV
to show ‘man eating baby’ |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
Pak to continue on security-risk list: USA
Washington, December 30 This follows the US Government’s rejection of appeals by Pakistan Ambassador Ashraf Jehangir Qazi that his country be removed from the list of nations whose citizens are considered a security risk. “We are allies in the war against terrorism. We do not belong to this list,” he told reporters here. But the US authorities were unmoved by the argument that one of its closest allies should not be placed on the list. Mr Qazi said he had apprised senior US officials of the difficulties the Pakistan Government would face in explaining to the Pakistani public the rationale behind the US move to include the country in the list of nations whose visiting citizens pose a security threat. While US officials declined to take Pakistan off the list, Mr Qazi was assured that the list was not Pakistan-specific and that it would eventually require visitors from all countries to register with the INS. According to media reports, the State Department and the National Security Council had voiced opposition to the proposal to include Pakistan in the list, but fell in line once Attorney-General John Ashcroft went ahead with the decision to name Pakistan and Saudi Arabia security-risk countries. In the face of pressure from the Pakistani community in the USA, Mr Qazi intends to take up the issue with US officials again after the Christmas holiday break, the reports said. Meanwhile, a group of two influential senators and a Congressman have urged the US Government to suspend the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System until Congress and the Department of Justice and INS conducts a thorough review of the programme.
UNI |
|
Osama contacted Pak scientist for N-bomb
Islamabad, December 30 “My father said, ‘No, and secondly you must understand it is not child’s play for you to build a nuclear bomb.’ “ The scientist, Sultan Bashiruddin Mahmood, is under a gag order from Pakistani intelligence officials, but his conversations with Bin Laden in 2000 and as late as July, 2001, were reconstructed by his son. The conversations as described by the son clearly show Bin Laden was interested in developing nuclear weapons. They don’t, however, shed any light on whether the Al-Qaida leader had taken even the first steps along that complex technological road. The US Embassy declined to discuss Mahmood’s story. US officials in Washington also would not comment. There has been previous evidence of the Al-Qaida’s interest in nuclear weapons. Computers found by journalists and US troops at a variety of facilities in Afghanistan indicated that the Al- Qaida had sought to obtain and develop nuclear and other potent weapons. During a New York trial two years ago stemming from bombings at two US embassies in Africa, a former Bin Laden aide testified he was ordered in 1993 to try to buy uranium on the black market to develop a nuclear weapon. Jamal Ahmed Al-Fadl said the Al-Qaida was prepared to spend $ 1.5 million, but he did not know if a purchase was ever made. In addition, US officials have said captured Al-Qaida lieutenant Abu Zubaydah told US interrogators that the terrorist network was working on a “dirty bomb,” a conventional bomb that would scatter radioactive material. Such a radiological weapon would be far less deadly and damaging than a nuclear explosion. A United Nations report issued by experts monitoring Al-Qaida movements warned that the Al-Qaida had the potential to obtain nuclear material and build “some kind of dirty bomb.” The conversations related by Azim Mahmood confirm Bin Laden’s nuclear ambitions. They also offer a glimpse at the nexus of science and conservative Islam at a high level in Pakistan, one of the world’s newest nuclear powers along with neighbouring India. Mahmood first met Bin Laden in 2000 while visiting Afghanistan to build a school, the son said. He wanted to help the Taliban, because he was angry at the international criticism of the regime’s brand of Islam, the son recalled. When Bin Laden learned a nuclear scientist was in Kabul, he sent an Al-Qaida operative, Abu Bilal, to Pakistani’s hotel to arrange a meeting, the son said. “My father went to meet him and he said, ‘Why don’t you come and help us build these things?’ “ Azim Mahmood said, adding that the two men met several times in the Afghan capital and the discussion invariably returned to nuclear weapons.
ANI |
|
No tit for tat on visa policy: Pak Islamabad, December 30 “We have seen these reports,” but at this point no reciprocal response is being planned, said Interior Ministry spokesman Iftikar Ahmed. Mr Ahmed said Pakistan would return Indians who had overstayed their visas, many of whom were stuck here because of shut down in rail, road and air links between the two South Asian neighbours following an upsurge in tensions last December. Currently, Indians travelling to Pakistan have to specify which cities they wish to visit. Mr Ahmed said this process would continue, but there were no plans to restrict the number of cities.
AP |
|
British
TV to show ‘man eating baby’ London, December 30 The bizarre act will be shown in a documentary called “Beijing Swings”, which looks at extreme practices of Chinese artists. The programme, to be shown on British screens late Thursday, also shows a man drinking wine that has had an amputated penis marinaded in it. “The programme will be controversial and will shock some viewers but a warning will be given before it goes out on air,” a Channel 4 spokesman said.
AFP |
|
Cloned baby claim draws flak
London, December 30 Besides almost universal condemnation across the globe on ethical grounds, many experts doubted whether the world’s first cloned baby had been born at all as the cult had given no proof. The White House said U S President George W. Bush was “deeply troubled” by the human cloning issue, while French President Jacques Chirac called on all governments to outlaw the practice and punish anyone attempting to create a clone. The world’s three main monotheistic religions were at one in denouncing the claim. The announcement of the cloning was made on Friday by a French scientist who belongs to the cult, called the Raelians, which believes human life was begun by aliens who arrived 25,000 years ago and created humans through cloning. Brigitte Boisselier, chief executive of the cult’s biotech company, Clonaid, told a news conference in Hollywood, Florida, the baby girl, called Eve, was born to a 31-year-old woman after being cloned from cells taken from the mother. She said the parents, who had been infertile, did not wish to show off the baby and declined to disclose who they were or where the child had been born.
Reuters |
 |
| Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir | Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs | Nation | Editorial | | Business | Sport | World | Mailbag | In Spotlight | Chandigarh Tribune | Ludhiana Tribune 50 years of Independence | Tercentenary Celebrations | | 122 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
