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11 die in Baghdad blast
India asked
to give impetus to SAARC process Sikhs seek steps against race crimes India’s role vital for Lanka peace, says Tamil Tiger ‘Peeping
Tom’ sparks riot |
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Journalism becoming dangerous in Bangladesh
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11 die in Baghdad blast Baghdad, July 14 Hours earlier, the Philippines said it had begun withdrawing its troops from Iraq, an apparent bid to placate militants who threatened to kill a Filipino hostage if the tiny contingent was not out by July 20. Underscoring the urgency of the Philippines’ predicament, militants in Iraq said they had killed a captive Bulgarian truck driver and threatened to put another Bulgarian hostage to death in 24 hours, Al-Jazeera television reported today. The explosion shook buildings throughout central Baghdad about 9.15 a.m. when a suicide bomber detonated a car packed with 450 kg of explosives. The bomb killed four Iraqi national guardsmen and seven Iraqi civilians, the US military said. Many of the civilians were waiting in line to apply for jobs, presumably with the new Iraqi government or multinational forces. Black and gray smoke billowed from the site of the blast, which left a crater two metres wide and one metre deep in the road. The charred remains of five cars stood by a protective blast wall that had been partially destroyed. Two other trucks and a car lay smouldering nearby. Police cars and ambulances raced to the scene, and US helicopters hovered overhead. The attack was the worst in the Capital since the USA transferred sovereignty to the interim Iraqi government on June 28. It targeted a checkpoint leading to a parking lot in the area formerly known as the “Green Zone,” the heavily protected Baghdad neighbourhood housing government offices and the US and British embassies, Iraqi police Col. Tawfeeq Sayer said. Interim Prime Minister Tyad Allawi said the attack was retaliation to the government’s arrest of suspected terrorists, though he offered no details on suspects. The government said Tuesday it had arrested more than 500 suspects in a police sweep of militants in Baghdad. The blast occurred on a national holiday marking the 46th anniversary of the bloody nationalist coup that killed Iraq’s last king, Faisal II. One US soldier was slightly wounded, said Col. Mike Murray of the 1st Cavalry Division. A Reuters driver suffered a shrapnel wound in the leg, agency spokeswoman Susan Allsopp said from London. The driver’s condition was not considered serious. Kidnappers holding the Filipino, Angelo dela Cruz, said they would treat him like a prisoner of war if Manila made a good-faith move toward withdrawing its 51 troops early and would free him if the pullout was complete by July 20. The government statement today did not clarify when the pullout would be finished but appeared directed toward that demand.
— AP |
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India asked
to give impetus to SAARC process Dhaka, July 14 Speakers, including ministers, politicians, academicians and bureaucrats, at the two-day conference titled “The 12th SAARC Summit: Sustaining the momentum for regional cooperation and development in South Asia” asked India to change its attitude towards SAARC. The conference, which began yesterday, heard speakers calling upon India to change its “mindset of dominant psyche” towards small neighbours and give new impetus to the SAARC process. “In a friendly way, I will blame India for being dominant and not playing a leading role in developing a growth model for itself or its neighbours,” Bangladesh Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Moudud Ahmed said, alleging that India’s “failure” prevented SAARC from tapping its potential. He also suggested that bilateral issues should not be brought to the SAARC for discussion as, he said, it might throw the future of the grouping’s ideals in serious doubt.
— PTI |
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India’s role vital for Lanka peace, says Tamil Tiger New Delhi, July 14 “India has to be involved,” Vinayagamurthy Muraleedharan alias Karuna told IANS in a telephonic interview from an undisclosed location in Sri Lanka. “We need India’s support. We strongly believe that without India’s support, nothing is possible; peace won’t come in Sri Lanka,” he said. “We want to have good relations with India, this is the desire of our people. India should support the Tamil people,” Karuna added, in his first interaction with an Indian media organisation. Karuna, who broke away from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in March-April, said LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran had committed a blunder by ordering the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. “The killing of Rajiv Gandhi killed the Tamil Eelam struggle,” he said. “It has ensured that an independent Tamil state will never be possible”. India has been kept informed of the developments related to the Norway-brokered peace process that led to a truce between Colombo and LTTE in February 2002. But New Delhi has avoided taking any active role in Sri Lankan affairs since an LTTE suicide bomber blew up Rajiv Gandhi in May 1991.
— IANS |
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‘Peeping Tom’ sparks riot Beit Sahour, West Bank, July 14 At the height of the hours-long riot, hundreds of Muslims and Christians fought each other with metal rods and stones overnight in the streets of the West Bank town of Beit Sahour, adjacent to Bethlehem, revered as the birthplace of Jesus. The Palestinian police tried to quell the fighting by firing volleys in the air with automatic rifles, but the fighting only died down when the Bethlehem district Governor imposed a curfew on the predominantly Christian town. “It was like a war,” said Nahle, a Beit Sahour resident. It was the first time in years that tension between
Muslims and Christians in the Bethlehem area had exploded into a
large-scale violence, residents said. — Reuters |
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Journalism becoming dangerous in Bangladesh Dhaka, July 14 Over the past four years, 13 newsmen have been killed in the country’s crime-ridden southwest, assassinated by crime gangs some the police believe are linked to political groups. Dozens have been harassed. In the latest attack, newspaper Editor Humayun Kabir Balu was murdered in late June in the southern city of Khulna. Balu was killed in a bomb attack by a group of unidentified men outside his office in the city, 350 km from Dhaka. His son, a journalism student, and another man were wounded in the attack. Six months previously another senior Khulna journalist, Manik Saha, was killed in a bomb blast. “Journalists become the targets because they write against lawlessness and crime, especially in the southwest while the police seem to be helpless,’’ Hasan Shahriar, president of the Commonwealth Journalists Association, said. The police say they have had little success in capturing the killers of the 13 newsmen. Privately, they blame the murders and subsequent protection of the killers on rival political groups. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said in a recent report: ‘’Bangladesh is one of the most violent countries in Asia for journalists’’. Bangladeshi journalists face harassment for reporting on issues that expose corruption or other misdeeds, said another senior newsmen.
— Reuters |
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