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US Governor
admits to gay affair, resigns Over 4,000 gay marriages annuled Kashmir core issue, says Pakistan Indian aide of militant leader held in Pak
British scribe kidnapped, freed |
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Israeli forces detain 3 BBC journalists Wounded Sadr urges ‘jehad’
to continue 38 outfits on US terror list
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Ashish
Kumar Sen writes from Washington New Jersey Governor James McGreevey announced his resignation on Thursday after revealing he was gay and that he had an adulterous relationship with a man. “My truth is that I am a gay American,” the Democrat and father of two told a packed news conference in the Statehouse in Trenton, New Jersey. With his wife Dina and parents by his side, Mr McGreevey confessed his struggle with his sexuality. “Throughout my life, I have grappled with my own identity, who I am. As a young child, I often felt ambivalent about myself, in fact, confused.” Admitting to the affair, Mr McGreevey asked for his family’s forgiveness. “It was wrong. It was foolish. It was inexcusable,” he said. While the governor did not disclose the identity of the man he had the affair with, his aides were reported as saying it was with a former aide. Golan Cipel, who Mr McGreevey hired in 2002 as an adviser to the State Office of Homeland Security, resigned eight months later as a special adviser to the Governor, at a salary of $110,000. The aides said Mr Cipel had threatened to file a lawsuit accusing the Governor of sexual harassment. The New York Times reported a federal law enforcement official saying Mr McGreevey’s office had called the Federal Bureau of Investigation in New Jersey on Thursday and complained that Mr. Cipel had requested $5 million to quash the suit, which assistants to the Governor saw as extortion. Mr McGreevey said his affair and sexuality, “If kept a secret” would leave the Governor’s office “vulnerable to rumours, false allegations and threats of disclosure.” Noting that it “makes little difference that as a Governor I am gay,” he said: “Given the circumstances surrounding the affair and its likely impact upon my family and my ability to govern, I have decided the right course of action is to resign,” he said. Twice married, Mr McGreevey said he married his first wife, Kari, “out of respect and love.” She left him and returned to British Columbia, Canada. He then married Dina, “whose love and joy for life has been an incredible source of strength for me. And together, we have the most beautiful daughter.” His resignation will take effect on November 15, and State Senate President Richard Codey, who is also a Democrat, will serve the remainder of his term, which ends in January 2006. |
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Over 4,000 gay marriages annuled San Francisco, August 13 Mayor of the liberal city Gavin Newsom ignited a passionate nationwide debate in February by allowing 4,037 same-sex couples to wed over a four-week period before the California high court
halted them. A state law backed by a voter referendum defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman, and polls show most Californians oppose gay marriage. |
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Kashmir
core issue, says Pakistan
Islamabad, August 13 A meeting of Pakistan's parliamentary committee on Kashmir attended, among others, by Prime Minister Shujaat Hussain and Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri adopted a resolution endorsing its stated position that Kashmir was a core issue and its resolution would "resolve all other minor issues". "The committee endorses the stand taken by the government of Pakistan that the Jammu and Kashmir dispute is the core issue between India and Pakistan and its lasting and just resolution will pave the way for the resolution of other minor issues and removal of irritants," it said. "We also call upon the Government of India to take urgent steps to stop forthwith human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir, eliminate repression, release political prisoners, drastically reduce the Indian forces in the state, repeal Kashmir-specific draconian laws and permit genuine political activities," it said.
— PTI |
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Indian aide of militant leader held in Pak Lahore, August 13 The man, identified as Maqsood Ansari, was picked up yesterday in the eastern city of Lahore, an intelligence official, who asked not to be named, said today. Ansari was arrested on information from Rao Khalid, a senior figure in Jundallah, a militant group believed to be linked with Al-Qaida. Khalid was arrested yesterday in the southern city of Karachi. Khalid is suspected of taking part in an ambush against the top general in Karachi, Lt-Gen Ahsan Saleem Hayat. The army officer escaped unharmed but 10 other persons were killed in the shooting and bombing attack on June 10. The police described Khalid, alias Haris, as the No. 3 leader in Jundallah, or Allah’s Brigade. The intelligence official said Ansari was arrested in a raid on his home in Ghaziabad, an eastern residential suburb of Lahore. Ansari came to Pakistan nine years ago and later married a Pakistani woman and had been living in Lahore and Karachi, working closely with Khalid. Ansari had allegedly trained in Afghanistan and had been a member of the Tableeghi Jamaat, a non-political group of Islamic missionaries. Ansari was not believed to have a direct role in any terrorist
attack but he acted as a facilitator in Jundallah, relaying messages
and money among members of the group, the intelligence official said.
— AP |
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British
scribe kidnapped, freed
Baghdad, August 13 The journalist, James Brandon, was brought to Al-Sadr’s local office and freed. “I’m OK, I’m recovering,” he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. “I’ve been released thanks to (Al-Sadr’s) Mahdi Army, because they intervened and negotiated with the kidnappers.” Earlier, militants had kidnapped the British journalist and threatened to kill him if the US forces did not leave the holy city of Najaf within 24 hours, according to the police and a video released today. In the video, the journalist,
bare-chested and with a bandage on his head, identified himself as James Brandon (23), a reporter for The Sunday Telegraph. The militants said they had taken Brandon hostage in protest of the US military presence in Najaf, one of the holiest cities for Shiite Muslims. The US military and Iraqi forces began a major offensive in the city yesterday designed to rout a rebel militia they had been battling there for more than a week. Brandon was kidnapped yesterday when about 30 gunmen, some dressed as the police, stormed into the Diafa Hotel in Basra, said police Capt Hashem
Abdullah. |
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Israeli forces detain 3 BBC journalists Jerusalem, August 13 The journalists, a television crew from the BBC, were accompanying the doctor, Ghassan Hamdan, as he visited an 80-year-old woman living in an apartment that had been commandeered by the army, they said. An army spokesperson said the military is investigating the incident expressing “regret at the incident”. The journalists were not aware that troops were in the apartment until they entered, said Nick Springate, the BBC’s acting bureau chief in Jerusalem. “The BBC condemns the detention of journalists,” he said.
— PTI |
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Wounded
Sadr urges ‘jehad’ to continue Najaf, Iraq,
August 13 Yet despite his
call to arms, the militia leader also said talks to defuse a standoff
between his militia and the joint Iraq-US force would continue,
although they have “achieved no solution” till date, said Sheikh
Ahmed al-Shaibani at the Imam Ali shrine, a stronghold of the militia
since its spring uprising against the US-led occupation of Iraq. —
AFP |
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38 outfits on US terror list Washington, August 13 “The FTO designations play a critical role in our fight against terrorism and are an effective means of curtailing support for terrorist activities and pressuring groups to get out of the terrorism business,” the office of the coordinator for Counterrorism in the State Department noted in a fact sheet yesterday. The division continually monitors the activities of terrorist groups active across the world to identify potential targets for designations. The 38 organisations on the list of Foreign Terrorist Organisations include, HUM,
JEM, LET, Lashkar-i Jhangvi, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Al-Qaida, Abu Sayyaf Group,
Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, Ansar al-Islam, Hamas, Palestine Liberation Front
(PLF), among others. It is illegal for anyone in the USA to provide material support to the designated
FTOs. The designation also means that the USA financial institutions must freeze the groups’ assets.
— PTI |
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