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Cyber footprints of terror
Bush nod to counter-terrorism centre 300 perish in Paraguay fire Website shows execution of Turkish hostage
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Somali truck driver may be released 3 Palestinians shot in Gaza
Four soldiers killed in Nepal, journalist abducted Rains ravage
North Korea Baluchistan CM escapes bid on life IFJ condemns harassment of Pak journalist Women find Vatican in time warp
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Cyber footprints of terror Islamabad, August 2 The plans were found in e-mails on the computer of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian arrested July 25 after a 12-hour gunbattle in the eastern city of Gujrat, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told Associated Press today. “We got a few e-mails from Ghailani’s computer about (plans for) attacks in the USA and the UK,” he said, adding that the information has been shared with Pakistan’s allies — a reference to the USA. Ahmed said authorities had also arrested another top suspect believed to be a computer and communications expert, and that that man was cooperating with investigators. “He is a very wanted man, but I cannot say his name now,” Ahmed said. He said the man was a militant, but refused to say if he was part of Al-Qaida. Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayyat confirmed that Ghailani was sharing “vital” information, but he would not comment on what it was. “He has given us vital information, but we cannot share specifics,” Hayyat said. An intelligence official said the information about a US attack appeared to be centered on New York. He spoke on condition of anonymity. Hayyat said Ghailani remains in Pakistani custody. Two AK-47 rifles, plastic chemicals, two computers, computer diskettes, and a “large amount” of foreign currency were recovered from the home in Gujrat where Ghailani was seized. More than a dozen others, including his wife and several children, were also arrested in that raid. Officials believe the group was making plans to flee Pakistan on false passports. Gujrat is a center for document forgers and human smugglers in Pakistan. The intelligence official also confirmed the arrest of a computer engineer who would send messages using code words to Al-Qaida suspects. Pakistani television reported that his name was Noor Mohammed, but the official said that was just an alias. |
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Bush nod to counter-terrorism centre
Washington, August 2 “The national director of intelligence will serve as the President’s principal intelligence adviser and will oversee and coordinate the foreign and domestic activities of the intelligence community,” he told reporters at the White House Rose Garden. He also called for the creation of a national counter-terrorism centre that would serve as a “knowledge bank” for information about known and suspected terrorists. — PTI |
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300 perish in Paraguay fire Asuncion, August 2 The toll of yesterday’s blaze was especially high because security personnel at the shopping centre locked the main doors to prevent customers from fleeing without first paying. Firefighters believe the fire was ignited by a spark in an industrial-sized propane gas tank in the food court. National police spokesman Santiago Velazco said early today that at least 296 persons were killed, and more than 300 were injured. “It is possible that there are more bodies,” Velazco said. “We are still removing bodies, though in a cautious, slow manner,” he said, referring to fears that the whole building may collapse due to structural damage. The blaze consumed a significant part of a supermarket within the shopping complex, which also houses offices and a parking garage. Witnesses said that in the chaos that ensued they heard several explosions. Officials said the fire had likely been sparked by gas canisters that subsequently ignited. Prosecutor Edgar Sanchez, in charge of investigating the blaze, said that shopping centre owner Juan Pio Paiva would be charged with homicide for blocking the doors. Paiva surrendered to the authorities, but denied ordering workers to close the shopping centre doors.
— AFP |
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Website
shows execution of Turkish hostage
Dubai, August 2 The tape, carried by several Islamist sites today, showed a masked man shooting the hostage while he was seated in a chair. When he fell to the ground, the gunman shot him twice more with a pistol while shouting “God is Greatest”. The hostage, dressed in a shirt and trousers, was earlier shown on the tape urging the Turkish companies to pull out of Iraq and criticising the presence of the US forces in the country.
“My name is Murat Yuce. I am from Corum. I live in Ankara. My company Bilimtur sent me to Iraq,’’ he said in Turkish. His firm worked on a US base with another Turkish company and a Jordanian one, providing cleaning and other services,
he added. It was not clear when or where Yuce was kidnapped. — Reuters |
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Somali truck driver may be released
Baghdad, August 2 Militants have shot dead a Turkish hostage kidnapped in Iraq, according to a video posted on the Internet. The video shows a man identified as a Turk kneeling in front of three armed men. After reading a statement in Turkish, identifying himself and his employer, the leader of the three presumed kidnappers takes out a pistol and shoots him in the side of the head. A Turkish truck driver has gone missing in Iraq after reportedly coming under an armed attack on a road linking Baghdad and Tikrit, his brother told Anatolia news agency today. A US soldier died of wounds suffered in a roadside bomb attack northwest of the Iraqi capital, a US military spokesman said today. The bomb exploded today near Samarra, 100 kms northwest of here, as a US patrol passed. The blast initially killed one 1st Infantry Division soldier and a second died of his wounds, spokesman Maj. Neal O'Brien said. The car bomb attacks near four Christian churches in the Iraqi capital Baghdad yesterday evening killed 10 people and wounded more than 40, the U.S. military said in a statement today. Witnesses and officials had said earlier that as many as 15 people had been killed in the apparently coordinated attacks on the churches, including at least one person killed by a bomb at a church in the northern city of Mosul US forces arrested the son of the president of the country's influential Committee of Muslim Scholars today morning, said a member of the organisation. In a video aired July 29, Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's terrorist group Tawhid and Jihad threatened to behead Ali Ahmed Moussa within 48 hours if his company failed to leave the volatile country. Moussa appeared kneeling before three black-clad, masked militants armed with assault rifles in the latest video broadcast today on the Arabic-language network. One of the militants read a statement, which was inaudible. The news-reader said the group was releasing Moussa "in appreciation of the attitudes of the Somali government and people toward Iraq and the Kuwaiti company's commitment to stop doing business in Iraq."
— Agencies |
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3 Palestinians shot in Gaza Gaza City, August 2 A Palestinian policeman hurled two hand grenades today into a jail cell in Gaza City holding prisoners accused of collaborating with Israel, wounding seven, Palestinian security sources said. Ambulance teams had been sent to the scene of the shootings on the edge of the Eli Sinai settlements and were awaiting clearance to gather the bodies which could be seen lying between Israeli tanks, the sources said. An Israeli military source had earlier said that troops opened fire on three Palestinian gunmen who had entered an unauthorised area and were approaching a security fence which surrounds the three Israeli settlements in northern Gaza at around 11:30pm Sunday night (0200 IST, Monday). The assault appeared to be an attempt to assassinate Walid Hamdiya, accused of helping Israel target and kill leaders of the Palestinian uprising, the sources said. He was among two of the prisoners whose injuries, medics said, were serious. The jail is inside a Palestinian security compound in Gaza City. The police refused to let reporters inside.
— Agencies |
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Four soldiers killed in Nepal, journalist abducted Kathmandu, August 2 Ten Indians have been detained by the police in Siraha district in east Nepal for illegally possessing Rs.500 and Rs.1,000 notes in Indian currency. An ace Sherpa guide was detained by soldiers over the weekend and freed today after questioning, but it was unclear why, a mountaineering official said. The army said it had no knowledge of the incident. Three army personnel were killed in a landmine explosion triggered by the Maoists in Tansen Municipality of Palpa district in western Nepal yesterday, state-run Radio Nepal said quoting local security sources. A soldier, abducted by the rebels, was killed in Dang district yesterday, security sources said. Maoists rebels kidnapped a local reporter of daily Nepal Samacharpatra from Ranibas village in Surkhet district yesterday, the newspaper report said. The Maoists reportedly accused the journalist for working against their organisation, it said. "The Siraha district police has detained 10 Indian fishermen in Makhana Tole village since yesterday and seized from them Rs.2,57,500 in Indian currency in denomination of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes (banned in Nepal)," Superintendent of Police Meen Prasad Pandey told PTI by the phone from Siraha. All the fishermen hail from Darbhanga in Bihar, he said. Mingma Chhiri, 34, was taken into custody Saturday night by six soldiers who barged into his house on the outskirts of Kathmandu, said Bhoomi Lama of the Nepal Mountaineering Association. The soldiers were not in uniform and it wasn't clear why they wanted to question Chhiri, who is among only a handful of climbers to scale the 8,850-metre summit of Mount Everest 10 times. He was released today, the official said.
— Agencies |
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Rains ravage
North Korea Seoul, August 2 Rains since early July have caused widespread damage, cutting off rail services in many areas of the centre and south, the official KCNA news agency said. The damages were mentioned in a rare report on a natural disaster in the impoverished and reclusive state.
— Reuters |
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Baluchistan
CM escapes bid on life
Islamabad, August 2 In retaliatory fire, one of the assailants was killed, while the other was arrested, reports reaching here said. The attack took place near Surag, Baluchistan, while Yousuf was on his way back to provincial capital Quetta from Gulzar town, where five soldiers and a civilian were killed when their vehicle was fired upon by unidentified gunmen yesterday. — PTI |
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IFJ condemns harassment of Pak journalist The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the global organisation representing over 500,000 journalists worldwide, on Monday expressed its outrage over the harassment and victimisation of Pakistani journalist Makhdoom Bilal Aamir by his employer News Network International (NNI) because of his union activities. “It is a disgrace that our colleague in Pakistan has been victimised for defending the basic social and economic rights of his co-workers,” said IFJ President Christopher Warren today. According to information from the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), the IFJ’s affiliate in Pakistan, Makhdoom Bilal Aamir has been victimised by NNI for his membership of both the PFUJ and the NNI Workers’ Union; for the key role he has played in the campaign to implement the 7th Wage Board Decision; and his efforts to ensure that his employer provides better working conditions and economic rights to his fellow workers. The IFJ condemns the actions taken by the NNI and welcomes the Lahore Labour Court’s temporary order restraining the NNI from dismissing Mr Bilal based on his union activities. The IFJ in a letter to the Prime Minister has asked the Government of Pakistan to intervene in the case and defend Mr Bilal’s right to carry out union activities. The IFJ has reminded the Government of Pakistan of its international obligations to protect workers’ rights to organise and freedom of association as enshrined by the ILO Convention C87 ratified by Pakistan in 1951. “Journalists like Bilal, who continue to fight for the betterment of their profession, cannot continue to become the target of their employer’s wrath. It will only lead to a media entrenched with fear and self-censorship,” said Warren.
— IFJ |
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Women find Vatican in time warp Vatican City, August 2 The document, issued on Saturday, said modern feminism’s fight for power and gender equality was undermining the traditional concept of family and creating a climate where gay marriages are seen as acceptable. Frances Kissling, president of the US-based Catholics for a Free Choice, said she thought she had “passed through a time warp” when she read the document. “I thought for sure I was the 1960s and Archie Bunker had been appointed theologian to the Pope,” she said, referring to the character in an old American TV series whose bigoted views included opposition to any form of women’s rights. In a 37-page document “On the Collaboration of Men and Women in the Church and in the World”, the Vatican said women should be respected and have equal rights in the workplace, but differences between the sexes must be recognised and exalted. The document, which re-stated Catholic Church positions, including the ban on female priests, said that many women felt they had to be “adversaries of men” in order to be themselves.
— Reuters |
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