|
|
‘Dead or alive’
Laden WASHINGTON, Oct 5: Unlike other economic sectors, the T-shirt industry in Washington DC is booming - especially with a hot item bearing a .......more Italian
woman to ROME, Oct 5: An Italian woman due to give birth to a baby girl within the next few days will return to hospital in December to deliver....more ‘Bounding
Frag,’ WASHINGTON, Oct 5: Among the myriad threats that lurk in Afghanistan’s blasted landscape, one of the most frightening is the ....more Osama
"arch enemy" UNITED NATIONS, Oct 5: The Rabbani regime in Afghanistan has described terrorist mastermind Osama Bin Laden.......more |
|
US prepares 320 mln WASHINGTON, Oct 5: President George W Bush has announced that the United States will give 320 million to help Afghans survive severe drought,........more Hungry
Afghan SUPA REFUGEE CAMP, AFGHANISTAN, Oct 5: Refugees living in desperate conditions on a parched patch of land in northern Afghanistan say .....more Yemen
caught between SANAA, Oct 5: Yemen, seen in the west as a haven for Muslim militants, is a prime example of the political and economic minefields Arab states.......more FBI,
CIA see high WASHINGTON, Oct 5: US intelligence officials have warned members of Congress it is highly probable that militants linked to extremist Osama Bin .......more |
 |
 |
‘Dead or alive’ Laden T-shirts hot item WASHINGTON, Oct 5: Unlike other economic sectors, the T-shirt industry in Washington DC is booming - especially with a hot item bearing a likeness of suspected terrorist mastermind Osama Bin Laden. In a play on comments by President George Bush, the words "dead or alive" march across Bin Laden’s face. The shirts sell for 2 dollars at kiosks near the White House. Days after the attacks, US President George W Bush said he wanted Bin Laden "dead or alive", a reference to "wanted" posters seeking criminals during the settling of the US western frontier in the late 1800s. Rewards were offered for people who turned in the culprits. Other T-shirts garnering attention say "FBI" or "god bless America". One features a picture of the World Trade Center and a quote from bush on the day of the attacks: "Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America." "They’re going like hot cakes," said one of the merchants, who was charging 10 dollars per shirt. (DPA) |
|
Italian woman to deliver 4 babies within 3 months ROME, Oct 5: An Italian woman due to give birth to a baby girl within the next few days will return to hospital in December to deliver three more babies, reports said. The extraordinary event is due to the fact that Flavia, a 20-year-old from Ascoli, remained fertile after becoming pregnant with the girl. Flavia, who has been identified by her first name only, continued to ovulate and conceived three more times. The case is extremely rare but not unique. According to reports yesterday, it is the second time ever that this has happened in Italy. The mother-to-be says she has made no use of fertility treatments - often a cause of multiple births - but said there was a history of multiple births in her husband’s family. She asked to be able to continue her pregnancy in peace. (DPA) |
|
‘Bounding Frag,’ other landmines litter Afghanistan WASHINGTON, Oct 5: Among the myriad threats that lurk in Afghanistan’s blasted landscape, one of the most frightening is the "bounding frag." Smaller than a lunchbox and weighing less than a watermelon, the bounding frag is capable of delivering agonizing death — spitting jagged shards of shrapnel in a scattershot swathe. The frag, or more properly the "bounding fragmentation mine", is just one of the countless types of explosives that litter Afghanistan, albeit one of the most fiendish. Designed to "bound" up into the air immediately before exploding, the mine sends its deadly projectiles shooting out at the level of an adult’s waist, causing severe injuries. A child would be hit in the face. After more than two decades of conflict, Afghanistan is one of the most heavily mined countries in the world. And as the US military gears up for a possible strike against the country in its pursuit of Islamic extremist Osama Bin Laden, US landmine experts say the deadly detritus will prove a harrowing test for both soldiers and civilians alike. "Men, women and children live in fear of the footpaths and fields around them," the United Nations Afghan mine action program says in its introduction to the country. The United Nations has estimated that from five to 10 million landmines remain in Afghanistan. Other groups, such as the British-based landmine action, say the figure is lower, but still numbers close to one million. Spread widely across the country, but concentrated most heavily around the capital Kabul and in the south and southwestern provinces, Afghanistan’s landmines come in all shapes and sizes. They range from buried anti-tank explosives to anti-personnel mines no bigger than a hockey puck. One sinister explosive — spread in the thousands by soviet helicopter crews during their decade-long occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s — was known as the "butterfly" mine because it resembled a butterfly or a toy. After fluttering gently to the ground, the butterfly mine often proved irresistible to children — but was designed to ignite and explode on contact, blowing off the hands. Officials estimated that last year an average of 88 Afghans were hurt or killed each month by landmines or unexploded bombs. As people flee Afghanistan’s cities in expectation of possible US strikes, landmine experts expect those numbers to rise sharply as urban dwellers wander through unfamiliar and potentially deadly territory. "There is a rhyme and reason why every mine or minefield was put in place, but collectively — year after year — it does get ambiguous. Now you do just see massive areas of contamination," said Richard Kidd, who works for the vietnam veterans of American foundation on humanitarian land mine projects. He was previously planning and operations manager of the UN mine action program in Afghanistan. Analysts say landmines are a real — but expected — threat for soldiers operating in Afghanistan. "It is safe to say that in any operation that takes place in Afghanistan there are going to be casualties. Even the capital, Kabul, is heavily mined," Steve Goose, Arms Division Program Director of Human Rights Watch, said in a recent presentation in Geneva. But with training programs in place to help soldiers identify hazardous areas and defuse mines, and Washington’s allies in Afghanistan’s anti-Taliban Northern Alliance aware of many of the existing fields, military casualties are not expected to be severe. The mines pose a far greater danger for Afghanistan’s own people — whose central Asian homeland is already one of the poorest countries in the world. With food supplies running short, refugees on the move and the world’s most powerful military force massing just beyond its borders, Afghanistan is already struggling to cope with what the United Nations calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. The UN de-mining program has been put on hold, and some analysts fear that the delay could spell more death and destruction for Afghanistan’s beleaguered people. "Its getting cold so they are going to have to collect firewood, and that’s where you see a lot of mine injuries," said Sarah Warren, another VVAF Staffer who previously worked in Kabul on landmine education for save the children. "And people are trying to get to the borders, to the villages ... This is where you tend to run into a lot of problems, when people move around areas they are not familiar with." Anti-landmine activists say the threat of new, widespread mine injuries underlines the need for increased medical assistance to Afghanistan, and renewed commitment by the United States and other nations to help the country revive its de-mining program in future. "People know about the risk of landmines, but they are so desperate and poor that they have no choice but to take the risk and go," Kidd said. "If your choice is to starve or to freeze or be shot or bombed, you take the risk." (REUTERS) |
|
Osama "arch enemy" of Islam: Rabbani regime UNITED NATIONS, Oct 5: The Rabbani regime in Afghanistan has described terrorist mastermind Osama Bin Laden as the "arch enemy" of Islam and said the Pakistan Government and its intelligence agency, ISI, must be considered as "criminals" for encouraging his activities. "The Pakistani Government, and especially the ISI policy-makers and high-ranking military officers, who are behind the alliance between Bin Laden, the Taliban and other extremist religious groups of Pakistan, must be considered criminals", representative of the Rabbani regime in the United Nations, Ravan Farhadi, said. Describing Bin Laden as the "arch enemy" of Islam, Farhadi criticised Taliban for providing shelter to the Saudi dissident. Despite several attempts by Pakistan, the United Nations does not recognise the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and the country is still represented by the Burhanuddin Rabbani Government. Farhadi said the Taliban did not represent Afghanistan, nor did they represent the Pashtuns of Afghanistan. Rather, they had been "imposed" by a foreign country, he said. "There is no absolute ethnic majority in Afghanistan. Ethnic groups are relative minorities. However, all Afghans are extremely patriotic and do not tolerate foreign domination, even if it is disguised as religion. The Afghan patriotic resistance, comprising all ethnic groups, could never be suppressed", he said. Farhadi cautioned that no political system could be maintained in Afghanistan unless it is broad-based, multi-ethnic and fully representative, as called for by numerous United Nations resolutions. Stating that an independent, peaceful and stable Afghanistan would serve the legitimate interests of all neighbouring countries, including Pakistan, Farhadi appealed to all member states to help the "weary" people of the country in their battle against terrorism. (PTI) |
|
US prepares 320 mln relief operation for Afghans WASHINGTON, Oct 5: President George W Bush has announced that the United States will give 320 million to help Afghans survive severe drought, bypassing the ruling Taliban who shelter wanted militant Osama Bin Laden. The US military expects to parachute food supplies to thousands of hungry Afghans, even as it builds up forces for a possible attack on Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda organization and the Taliban, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld added. "This is our way of saying that while we firmly and strongly oppose the Taliban regime, we are friends of the Afghan people," bush said in a speech yesterday at the State Department. "We will work the UN agencies such as the world food program and work with private volunteer organizations to make sure this assistance gets to the people. "We will make sure that not only the folks in Afghanistan that need help get help, but we will help those who have fled to neighboring countries to get help as well," he added. The United Nations estimates that up to 1.5 million Afghans might flee the country if the United States and its allies attack the country in their campaign to get Bin Laden, prime suspect for the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington. The rugged Central Asian country of some 23 million people has suffered 22 years of war and four years of drought. As the bitter winter approaches, the need to bring in food is acute. "They’re not in good shape. They’re very tough people, but to go through four years of drought where the crops fail one year after another makes them extremely vulnerable to what now is happening," Andrew Natsios, administrator of the US agency for international development, told a briefing. The massive US contribution should remind the Afghans that the Taliban and Bin Laden, a Saudi-born multimillionaire, have done nothing to help them overcome hardship, he said. "There’s no program by Bin Laden. There’s no program by the Taliban. We’re the program, and the Afghan people know that. The relief workers you talk to will all tell you that." Afghanistan will need every month about 50,000 tons of food —wheat, rice, beans and oil, about twice as much as it was receiving before September, Natsios added. The United States, already by far the largest source of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, will probably have to buy between 300,000 and 400,000 tons of food over the current fiscal year to supply the operation, he said. It already has 45,000 tons of food in Pakistan and bought 65,000 tons three weeks ago and 100,000 tons last Thursday. The 65,000 tons are en route across the pacific and the 100,000 will be at sea shortly, he added. The United States will distribute the food mainly through relief organizations which maintain Afghan staff or through sales to Afghan merchants who can cross the borders into neighboring countries. Most international staff of relief organizations have left the country for their safety. The idea of selling to merchants is to bring down the price of grain in Afghan towns by flooding the market, so that people with some money can buy what they need at reasonable prices. Natsios said the air drops of food were only one option and no decision had been taken to choose this method. But Rumsfeld said: "There’s no doubt in my mind but that there will be some food drops ... Over a period of time." "The food drops will be done only in the event that it’s very clear that the sam (surface-to-air missile) sites and .... The rather larger number of stinger missiles that are still in the country would not pose a problem," he added. One feature of the relief operation is that food will enter afghanistan from every direction — Iran, Pakistan and the Central Asian republics to the north — to minimize the distance it has to travel to reach its destination. "It reduces the incidence of diversion and the risk to the food shipments," Natsios said. To help with transport in remote mountain areas impassable to vehicles even in summer, a convoy of 4,000 donkeys is on its way into Afghanistan from Tajikistan. (REUTERS) |
|
Hungry Afghan refugees await US strike SUPA REFUGEE CAMP, AFGHANISTAN, Oct 5: Refugees living in desperate conditions on a parched patch of land in northern Afghanistan say they are comforted by just one thought — a US strike on the Taliban regime. Around 10,000 people who have fled Taliban rule for territory controlled by the opposition Northern Alliance live in mud houses or stick huts on a sun-scorched strip of land just a few kilometres from Tajikistan’s southern border. Hungry eyes follow every step of foreigners here and children hold out their hands begging for something to eat. But amid all the hardships, some find consolation in the prospect of US military action. "We are waiting for a strike by the United States," said Shoran Eskolaisal, a 47-year-old former Professor of Electrical Engineering. "It would be great if the americans came — they would shoot the Taliban." The United States is expected to launch a retaliatory attack on the Taliban, who they accuse of sheltering Osama Bin Laden, Washington’s prime suspect in the September 11 airliner attacks in New York and Washington. Shoran’s family of four children is one of about 650 living in Supa, sandwiched between the Pyandzh river and Tajikistan just five km (three miles) away from the nearest Taliban positions. Shoran, who went to university in then Soviet Ukraine, says intellectual endeavour is stifled under the Taliban’s puritanical interpretation of Islam. "There is no place for the intellectuals under the Taliban — they ban listening to the music, watching television and make you either fight for them or use you as a workhorse in the field," he said. Until last year, Mohammad Daud, 40 and a father of six, had worked as a teacher in the nearby town of Imam Saheeb. He now teaches at the camp, his "school" just a wind-blown canopy of woven reeds. The side of an empty ammunition box serves as a blackboard. "The Taliban themselves trade drugs, but you can be severely punished if your beard is not long enough," Daud said. "There must be an end to the Taliban rule." The fate of those stranded in the refugee camp is unclear. Tajik President Imomali Rakhmonov has said he has no intention of letting the refugees in, saying there may be armed men among them who could destabilise the ex-soviet state’s fragile peace. The 1,000 mile (1,600 km) frontier is patrolled by Russian border guards. Tajikistan, which lived through a civil war in 1992-97 and where 80 percent of the six million population live in poverty, has been hit by two years of severe drought. United Nations experts say up to one million Tajiks may be in need of humanitarian aid in the months to come Some food aid occasionally trickles across the border into the supa camp with UN convoys, but it is not enough. Several skinny cows, a herd of camels and a few wells of muddy water appear to be the main sustenance for those living there. "At times we receive some flour, but when it finishes we starve for two days. There are no medical services available here," Shoran said. Many families have lost children over the last year, and hard times may be ahead in the coming winter. But hope survives. "I study because I want to be an engineer," said 12-year-old Mohammad, sitting on a straw mattress in the improvised classroom, painstakingly taking down the teacher’s farsi dictation on his slate. "We are studying to build and do good to our motherland." (REUTERS) |
|
Yemen caught between militants, Washington SANAA, Oct 5: Yemen, seen in the west as a haven for Muslim militants, is a prime example of the political and economic minefields Arab states must navigate to join the US war on terrorism, western diplomats said. They said yesterday the impoverished Arabian Peninsula country was eager to show Washington it is not soft on militants as President George W Bush forges an international coalition to hunt those responsible for last month’s suicide plane attacks. But it fears strong backing of America, hated across the arab world for its perceived blind support of Israel, could unleash rage from Sanaa to mountain villages, home to some of Osama Bin Laden’s sympathisers and other die-hard militants. "The problem is Yemenis will react strongly to any deaths of fellow Muslims in Afghanistan. Basic sentiments here are already hot. These guys (militants) are well organised. We are vulnerable," a senior western diplomat told Reuters. The only thing yemen can do is walk a high tightrope — hoping to contain militants, while showing enough support for Washington to keep investors interested in a country with one of the world’s lowest per capita incomes. "The yemenis know they could pay a very high price in terms of the impact on tourism and investment. It hurts," said another western diplomat. Sanaa does not have much time to come up with a safe strategy. The United States has massed military forces within striking distance of Afghanistan and told the ruling Taliban to surrender Bin Laden, prime suspect in the September 11 attacks on Washington and New York, or face the consequences. US strikes could come soon, raising fears that US missiles could kill civilians, enrage Muslims and create instability in potential powderkegs like Yemen, neighbour to US allies in the strategic oil-rich Gulf region. "God’s willing, Bin Laden will be victorious," said trader Saleh Al-Khawary, highlighting sentiment of many Yemenis. Keeping control of the streets and quelling protests will not be difficult for Yemen’s pervasive security forces, western diplomats say. But making sure that militants do not respond to US strikes by attacking western targets is the biggest challenge. The country is still reeling from last October’s suicide attack on the US destroyer cole in Aden Harbour that killed 17 US soldiers. Washington suspects Bin Laden was linked to that attack. He has denied any role. The cole incident and a grenade attack on the British Embassy in Sanaa shortly afterwards are still fresh in the minds of Yemeni officials, eager to show the outside world that their country is a safe place to invest. No one was injured in the embassy bombing, but the senior western diplomat said it was sophisticated enough to prove that militants in yemen have the expertise to do considerable damage. The US Embassy has urged Americans to take extra security precautions and the State Department has approved the voluntary evacuation of some personnel and relatives of diplomats. "There is still a node of Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda group in Yemen," said a western diplomat. Like Bin Laden, many militants in this land of jagged, dirt-coloured mountains, where many people carry AK-47 assault rifles, are Arab Afghans — those who fought Soviet occupation troops in Afghanistan in the 1980s and early 1990s. They returned home and took up another cause with a vengeance —toppling Arab Governments they regard as infidel puppets of Washington. Yemen was quick to make arrests of people with possible links to bin laden after the attacks, including "any Yemeni who had visited Afghanistan at any given time". Sanaa says that there are about 400 Arab Afghans living in Yemen, but western diplomats say the number is higher. Yemen’s awareness of its sensitive position after the bloodshed in New York and Washington was recently apparent in its dealings with FBI agents investigating the cole attack. Western diplomats say authorities are working more closely with the FBI in the probe now that bush has told countries they are either with the United States or against it in the hunt for Bin Laden and the US campaign against "terrorism". (REUTERS) |
|
FBI, CIA see high probability of new attacks, says report WASHINGTON, Oct 5: US intelligence officials have warned members of Congress it is highly probable that militants linked to extremist Osama Bin Laden will attempt another major attack on American targets at home or abroad in the near future, the Washington Post reported today. The threat assessment, based on what officials described as credible new information, was presented at a classified briefing Tuesday by officials from the FBI, the CIA and the defense intelligence agency, the post said. One official said there was a "100 percent chance" of an attack should the United States strike Afghanistan, which has repeatedly rejected US demands to hand over Bin Laden — the man Washington blames for the September 11 hijack attacks on New York and Washington. One senior official said some of the new information is "very real," but also cautioned that some may be braggadocio or intentional disinformation designed to discourage the United States from retaliating, the post said. The United States has been massing military forces in the Gulf region and has warned Afghanistan it faces possible strikes if Bin Laden is not turned over. The new information comes from sources in England, Germany, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and officials believe Egyptian, Somali and Pakistani elements of Bin Laden’s Al Qaeda extremist network may be involved, the newspaper said. Members of congressional intelligence committees declined to comment on the briefings, which are classified. But the post reported that officials at the White House, the Justice Department and State Department have been discussing the best way to convey the new concern to the public. Attorney General John Ashcroft said on Sunday the Government foresaw "substantial risks" of further attacks on the United States after the Sept. 11 strikes on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, which left more than 5,700 people reported dead or missing. Still, senior US officials led by President George W Bush have also repeatedly urged Americans to resume normal activities such as air travel, which was virtually brought to a halt following the Sept. 11 attacks. "We have to believe there will be another attempt by a terrorist group to hit us again," Sen Richard Shelby of Alabama, the ranking Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, told The Post. "You can just about bet on it. That’s just something you have to believe will happen." The Post said officials were concerned about potential attacks at any of hundreds or even thousands of locations including "symbols of American power and culture" such as Government buildings or entertainment centers. They are concerned about car bombs or truck bombs exploding near natural gas lines or power plants, as well as possible chemical or biological attacks, the post said. But US intelligence and law enforcement agencies do not have specific information on the nature of future attack threats, it said. The FBI has found no links between any of the 19 alleged hijackers involved in the Sept. 11 attacks or their possible accomplices and any of the 1,000 to 2,000 suspected extremist sympathizers in the United States, including known Al Qaeda supporters, the post reported — raising the possibility that more such "closed cells" of militants may be operating undetected in the country. To head off any future attacks, the FBI has plans to go "full tilt" for 72 hours whenever the United States makes a move against Bin Laden, Al Qaeda, or Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban, the post reported, citing a senior law enforcement official. A senior Government official told the post that, if Al Qaeda follows its normal pattern, further attacks were in various stages of planning and were likely to "mix tactics and targets." Under that theory, aircraft hijackings were seen as less likely because security has been increased, while ground-based operations were seen as more probable, the post said. (REUTERS) |
|
|
