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Friday,
November 2, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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France,
Russia back India Anthrax
death: groping in the dark |
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‘2
truckloads’ of gold found in WTC ruins 3 Arabs
held for black Tuesday attacks 9 Abu
Sayyaf men die in clashes LTTE
kills 11 cops
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1,000
Pak ‘jehadis’ cross Afghan border Islamabad, November 1 According to AFP, monitored in Peshawar, about 1,000 armed tribesmen entered Afghanistan. They crossed the border at Bajaur agency in North-West Frontier Province on 50 vehicles, witnesses said. Taliban vehicles were waiting on the other side in Afghanistan’s Kunar province, to receive them. The jehadis were led by Maulana Mohammad Ismail, leader of the radical Tehreek Nifaz-e-Sharia Mohammadi. “Six hundred people have crossed the border and there is a possibility that more will go tomorrow,” said Ehsanullah, son of firebrand radical Islamic leader Maulana Sufi Mohammad who entered Afghanistan several days ago to persuade the Taliban to let his activists cross the border. “There was no move by the the Pakistani authorities to stop these people,” Haji Rehmatullah Jan, a local reporter, told newsmen by telephone from the Bajaur tribal agency that borders Afghanistan. “They started crossing the border at 2 p.m. (9 a.m. GMT),” he said. The armed volunteers had been waiting for nearly a week in Lagahray village for the green light from Sufi Mohammad. Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, Taliban’s ambassador in Pakistan, told a news conference that the Taliban had allowed the would-be Pakistani fighters to join their anti-U.S. jehad. Meanwhile, the police detained an opposition political leader early today after he announced plans to join radical religious parties in a nationwide anti-US protest, officials said. Mr Javed Hashmi, acting president of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML) of exiled and ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, was taken into custody from a home here early this morning, Interior Ministry officials said. He is the first secular politician to be arrested since Pakistan announced its controversial decision to support the US-led war against terrorism, although several religious leaders have been detained. The charges against Mr Hashmi were not disclosed but preventive detention laws allow the government to detain any person considered a threat to law and order. Mr Hashmi said yesterday his party would join a strike called by a coalition of religious parties agitating against Pakistan’s support for the US-led military strikes on the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. His detention signals a hardening of the military government’s line against protests and threats to topple President Pervez Musharraf. Washington: The CIA flatly denied that one of its agents had contact with Osama bin Laden in July while the suspected terrorist was allegedly being treated in a Dubai hospital, as reported by two French media outlets. CIA spokeswoman Anya Guelsher yesterday called the report “complete nonsense”. Le Figaro and Radio France International reported that a CIA representative met the man suspected by the USA of being behind the September 11 terrorist attacks while he was undergoing kidney treatment at the American hospital in Dubai.
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France, Russia back India United Nations, November 1 It is the first time that France and Armenia have come out with open and firm support for the India’s candidature. Addressing the General Assembly yesterday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey A Ordzhonikidze described India as a “strong and worthy” candidate from Asia for the permanent membership of the council. There are also other strong candidates in other regions, he said, but he did not name them. Expressing similar views, French Ambassador Jean-David Levitte strongly supported India’s candidature, along with that of Japan, for the permanent membership of the council. He also supported India’s stand against any piecemeal expansion of the council as suggested by some developed nations. The developing nations fear that in case of a piecemeal approach, Japan and Germany may join the council while the representation of other regions is put on the backburner. Armenian representative Arman Akopian said India deserved to be seriously considered as a candidate for permanent membership of the council. Calling for expansion of both permanent and non-permanent categories on the council, Vietnamese Ambassador Nguyen Thanh Chau strongly supported candidatures of India, Japan and Germany for the permanent membership. The Vietnamese Ambassador said as most of the cases under the review of the council were concerning developing nations, it was essential that developing countries from Asia, Africa, Latin America and Caribbean should be represented on the council. “It is reasonable that new permanent seats should be allocated to industrialised countries that are willing to undertake greater commitment to the work of the United Nations,” he said. He also supported abolition of veto and said till that happened, it should be used with restraint. Mr Ordzhonikidze rejected the suggestion by some member states that the power of veto — which permanent members China, France, Great Britain, Russia and the USA enjoy — should be diluted. “There should be no deviation from prerogatives and powers of the current permanent members of the council, including the right to veto. The unjustified criticism of the institution of veto only stirs up unnecessary emotions but in no way facilitates the achievement of the desired agreement on the parameters on the reform of the council,” he said.
PTI |
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Anthrax
death: groping in the dark Washington, November 1 The authorities were mystified yesterday by the death of Kathy Nguyen (61), and lamented that she perished without being able to tell investigators how she might have encountered the germ warfare agent. All three prior deaths can be attributed to letters laced with anthrax spores, but investigators were at a loss to explain Nguyen’s case. “What we’re trying to do is backtrack in this woman’s life to see who her friends were, who she associated with, who knows where she’s been,’’ New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik said at a news conference. “So far, we have not been able to trace it to any specific thing that leads us to her contact with anthrax.’’ Meanwhile, a special US commission on terrorism was expected to unveil today a report urging the creation of a national laboratory to devise vaccines to combat threats posed by biological weapons, which use pathogenic bacteria and viruses to sicken and kill victims. In New Jersey, another postal worker was suspected of having skin anthrax, raising concerns that anthrax had spread to a second regional mail facility in the state. In Kansas City, a mail facility was closed yesterday and its 200 staff members urged to take antibiotics after preliminary tests showed anthrax contamination, officials said. Nguyen, who in 1977 fled war-torn vietnam for a new life in America with little more than the clothes on her back, worked in the supply room in the Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital. Investigators searched her home and the hospital where she worked. Hospital officials said 1,116 employees, patients and visitors were being given antibiotics as a precaution. Dr Jeffrey Koplan, Director of the center for Disease Control and Prevention, said investigators ‘’are considering every possibility for what’s going on, trying to interview as many people around, to do environmental samples in the workplace and the home and any other place she may have been.’’ New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said clothing in Nguyen’s apartment showed “indications’’ of anthrax, but the presence of the bacteria had not been confirmed. A second worker at the same hospital had reported a skin lesion and was being tested for cutaneous anthrax and given an antibiotic. Virginia Governor James Gilmore, who heads the panel, said a national laboratory to create vaccines was needed ‘’because of concern on whether or not the free-market system is really able to deal with that kind of surge capacity’’ in the event of a major germ warfare attack.
Reuters |
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Megawati calls for pause in Kabul bombing Jakarta, November 1 In a scheduled report on her rule to the top legislature, Ms Megawati stressed her opposition to terrorism, but said prolonged military action could weaken global support for a war on terror. Ms Megawati did not specifically mention the USA or the strikes against Islamic-ruled Afghanistan, but her message was clear. She urged military action be suspended for the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan from mid-November and for Christmas. “We urge military action... to find the suspected terrorists... not be continued during Ramadan and Christmas,” she said in a prepared speech to the 700-member People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR). “Prolonged military action is not only counterproductive, but also can weaken the global coalition’s joint effort to combat terrorism,” she said. “... we call for the need for a humanitarian pause to provide an opportunity to handle humanitarian aspects, and to find a way to find a solution via political and diplomatic means,” she said. Meanwhile, dozens of Indonesian legislators fought and threw punches during a nationally televised brawl that forced a temporary suspension of the annual session of the country’s top Assembly today. The fracas, the first ever in what was once a powerless, rubber-stamp institution, forced a 15-minute suspension of the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) shortly before President Megawati Sukarnoputri was due to present her first accountability speech. The trouble erupted after a group of regional appointees to the 700-member chamber demanded the right to deliver a speech and to set up their own faction, but were refused by MPR Speaker Amien Rais.
Reuters |
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‘2 truckloads’ of gold found in WTC ruins New York, November 1 The paper, quoting unidentified sources and workers at the site, said the gold was found in a delivery tunnel under the complex that was destroyed on September 11. Financial officers with the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) said last month that there was some $ 240 million in gold and silver bars backing up contracts trading on the market in the rubble of the twin towers. The Toronto-based Bank of Nova Scotia, whose Scotia Mocatta Depository Corp operates the vaults and guarantees their safety, assured NYMEX earlier this month that the piles of precious metals were in good hands. Construction workers had dug for the gold for the past few days, the paper said, adding that when they approached their goal, FBI and secret service agents closed in and restricted access to the area.
AFP |
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3 Arabs
held for black Tuesday attacks New York, November 1 The Times quoted Ashcroft as saying that three Arabs who lived in Michigan were “suspected of having knowledge of the black Tuesday attacks” on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Some senior law enforcement officials had said that they believe the three men to be connected in some way to the attacks, but Ashcroft’s remarks are the first by a senior government official publicly acknowledging those suspicions, the newspaper said. Ashcroft said the suspects had been found in possession of airport diagrams, false immigration forms, a fraudulent American visa and a false alien identification card, the report said. He did not name them, but other law enforcement officials have identified them as Karim Koubriti (23), Ahmen Hannan (33), and Youssef Hmimssa, The Times said. They said that Ashcroft was apparently referring to a diagram for an airport in Amman, (Jordan) in his remarks yesterday, the daily reported.
Reuters |
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9 Abu Sayyaf men die in clashes Isabela, November 1 The government success forced the Abu Sayyaf onto the defensive, with rebel spokesman Abu Sabaya sending word he wanted to negotiate to stop the offensives, said the military, which also rejected any chance of talks.
AFP |
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LTTE kills 11 cops Colombo, November 1 The attack took place at a police post, 3 km south of Muttur in Trincomalee district, Mr Sanath Karunaratne said. Five policemen and as many soldiers were wounded in the ensuing gun battle. The army rushed in troops from other places to repulse the onslaught.
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