3 dead, 13 injured as plane crashes into July 4 crowd

NEW YORK, July 5: A small private plane crashed into a crowd celebrating the fourth of July holiday in a park in sub-urban Los Angeles killing at least three people and injuring 13, including several children, authorities said.

The plane’s pilot and a 12-year-old girl were among those killed.

The twin-engined Cessna 310 crashed into the picnic area of Frank Bonelli park around 12.35 pm yesterday (0205 Ist today) shortly after taking off from a nearby airport. It hit a tree and then broke in two after it crashed, witnesses said.

The pilot and the girl, who was trapped under a wing of the plane, died in hospital while another person was killed at the accident site.

Several of those injured were in critical condition, Fire Department spokesman Capt Mark Savage said.

A passenger on the four-seater plane survived, authorities said adding scuba divers were searching water bodies to search for other possible victims.

FAA officials said the plane never gained altitude after taking off from the brackett field airport and added the crash "looked like an accident".

Earlier, CNN reported that the pilot said he had trouble climbing and issued a mayday distress call.

The incident happened about an hour after a shootout at nearby Los Angeles International Airport, in which three people were killed.

The Bonnelli Park, about 48 kms east of Los Angeles, is a favourite picnic destination. (PTI)

Workers desperate after giant Bangladesh mill closes

DHAKA, July 5: A siren wailed over the small Adamjeenagar township near Dhaka hours before midnight, piercing the hearts of thousands of mill-workers.

"It used to tell us that the gates at the Adamjee jute mills were opening for the night shift," worker Aminul Islam said. "This time it told us the gates are closing, permanently."

The Bangladeshi Government shut the plant on Sunday, making 19,000 workers redundant and depriving families of their company housing.

They now join the country’s growing army of jobless workers and some will be forced into crime and prostitution to survive.

The decision came like a thunderclap to the workers who had been seeking job security in the face of cumulative operating losses which exceeded 172.7 million dollars in June.

The Government declared that it could no longer accept the losses or incur any more debt to keep the machines running. So it had decided to close the world’s biggest jute mills — long a symbol of national pride — forever.

Dhaka plans to turn the 300 acre mill complex into a high-tech industrial zone but has made no promise of new jobs for the sacked jute workers.

"Uncertainties have taken over my life," said Sujat Ali, 55, who worked at the Adamjee Mills, 20 km from Dhaka, for over 25 years.

His son Kabir Ali joined him in the factory 15 years ago and his grandson Shahid Ali recently followed suit.

"But now hell has broken loose on us," one of the broken-heart alis said.

Officials blamed Adamjee’s demise mainly on dwindling global demand for jute, the natural fibre that earns Bangladesh around 300 million dollar a year in foreign exchange — just one-third of the export income 20 years ago.

But the workers said management inefficiency, the "politicising" of trade unions to serve the interests of successive Governments and failure to modernise equipment had forced the mills’ closure after 51 years in operation.

More than half of Bangladesh’s nearly 70 million workers are unemployed, according to official estimates. And some fear the nation’s economy might collapse altogether if the number of jobless continues to rise at the current pace.

Trying to offset such fears, the Government said after the Adamjee shutdown it had no plans to close any more jute mills. But things could change if overseas jute demand fell further and the Government failed to diversify the use of jute at home. Jute, derived from reed-like plants and once called the "golden fibre", is the country’s principal cash crop.

Following the Adamjee shutdown, Bangladesh has 102 jute mills, 24 of them Government-run.

The garment sector is the country’s second biggest employer after agriculture, giving jobs to some two million people, about 90 per cent of them women.

But around 200,000 garment workers have lost their jobs over the past 10 months and more may be forced out if Bangladesh fails to increase exports of ready-to-wear garments to the United States and Europe.

"Chances of an immediate rebound of exports are slim," said an executive of the Bangladesh garments manufacturers and exporters association.

He said Bangladesh faced stiff competition from dozens of countries enjoying quota-free, duty-free export facilities around the world.

Nearly half of Bangladesh’s 130 million people live in poverty. The jobless jute and garment workers join an ever-growing army of unemployed men, women and children, many of whom have been forced into a life of crime and degradation.

Some have become prostitutes, many more have taken up robbery, some have become drug sellers and the rest beggars, the police and various rights groups said.

Hounded by police and money-lenders, many people step into traps laid by human traffickers who lure helpless Bangladeshis into a worse living abroad.

Young Bangladeshi women work in crowded brothels in India, tiny boys are made camel jockeys in the West Asia and Gulf states while many become bonded labourers in alien lands, said Salma Ali of the Bangladesh National Women Lawyers Association.

She has campaigned to rescue Bangladeshi girls from foreign brothels, bringing several hundred back in the past five years.

Police said they feared many Adamjee girls might be forced into prostitution or slavery now that their fathers had lost their jobs and their families had been evicted from mill housing.

"They will become part of Bangladesh’s unending woes while politicians quarrel for power and take not the least interest in other people’s life-and-death situation," said Shahadat Hossain, an Adamjee Trade Union leader, (AGENCIES)

LONDON, July 5: Afghan officials have dug in their heels in the face of push from the US and its European allies for greater co-operation between Afghanistan and Pakistan in the war against terrorism as they fear that they might be led into a formal treaty with Islamabad.

Mohammad Fahim, the Afghan Defence Minister, told ‘The Times’ that his understanding was that Washington would like Afghanistan to sign a pact with Pakistan.

"I can tell you for the record that this will not work because terrorism and terrorists are being accommodated by Pakistan. Terrorists are trained there in that country," Mr Fahim said.

The minister said that he and Ahmed Shah Masood, the late commander of the Northern Alliance, believed that they had been marked for assassination by Pakistan, which continued to be a haven for terrorists trained by its intelligence services.

"Any move for a joint security pact could only be purely symbolic. Anything else would not be practical because we are not able to trust Pakistan," he said.

"How could a pact with Pakistan work when terrorists are living in Pakistan, when they are trained and supported by Pakistan?"

Ahmad Wali Masood, the Afghan Ambassador to Britain said, "there has been some sort of persuading or pushing the Government to forge a special friendship with Pakistan. But we said this idea was not good. Let the representative Parliament decide with whom they are going to form a strategic friendship.

"If someone pushes the Government, or makes use of this Government to form this kind of alliance, it will be dangerous for Afghanistan. Some sort of polarisation will start and Afghanistan will be divided. That’s not a good idea. Let’s get the people of Afghanistan together in peace and prosperity and let them decide on their own political destiny."

The diplomatic move for closer cooperation between Afghanistan and Pakistan have been initiated following the failure of US-led coalition forces to capture top Taleban and Al-Qaeda leaders, including Mullah Muhammad Omar and Osama bin Laden. Capturing them remains a US priority. (UNI)

New rules bars over pol parties from criticising
foreign Govt

ISLAMABAD, July 5: In yet another move aimed at restricting political freedom ahead of the October polls, Pakistan’s Election Commission has proposed a new code of conduct barring political parties from criticising foreign countries during their poll campaign.

"No one will create hatred against a foreign country, its leaders and policies, which ultimately affect Pakistan’s relations with that country," a senior Government official was quoted as saying by the local daily `The News’ today.

The new rule further outraged political parties who charged that the latest step was aimed at barring hardline religious parties from campaigning against the US, specially for its military campaign against Islamic militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Media reports quoting Pakistan officials said that over 80 per cent of the lawmakers elected to Parliament and four Provincial Assemblies during the past 15 years would not be eligible this year due to new rule announced by Musharraf Government.

"Over 80 per cent of those elected to the federal and provincial legislatures will not make it this time round because they have not repaid bank loans, have had them written off or have defaulted on their utility bills," reports said. Besides a new rule that all the contestants should have bachelor degrees, the new rules brought in by Musharraf Government disqualifies anyone who have not repaid a loan of Rs 2 million and above from any bank or financial institutions.

It also disqualifies any such persons and their dependants that have defaulted in payment of Government dues such as phone, gas, power and water for over six months.

"If these proposed criteria are implemented, we estimate that over 80 per cent of the national and provincial legislators elected since 1985 will be automatically disqualified, thereby ensuring that we get a totally new leadership comprising new faces," the official told The News.

In another development the controversial Election Commission, which came under strong criticism for its role in the recent referendum proposed a new code of conduct for the contesting political parties.

The proposed code of conduct for political parties and contesting candidates forbids hoisting of party flag on private houses and Government building, bringing out big rallies choking traffic and use of microphones and promote sectarianism.

The conduct rules would be formally promulgated after August 5 after receiving suggestions from the public.

The new rule also bars candidates contesting for 350 Member Parliament and to spend not more than Rs one million on their election campaign and those running for a provincial Assembly seat not more than Rs 0.6 million. (PTI)

Burned-out shops only link in Muslim-Tamil town

VALAICHCHENAI, SRI LANKA, July 5: A dusty road lined with burned-out shops is the only thing that connects the Muslim and Tamil parts of Valaichchenai.

The East Coast Sri Lankan town, the scene of clashes between the two groups over the past week in which at least 11 died, is almost completely divided. The Tamil community lives on one side of the road and the Muslims on the other.

The only place where the two sides mixed was a bazaar along the main street. This is now a deserted string of blackened shops watched over by dozens of heavily armed Sri Lankan soldiers.

Muslims blamed the clashes on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), saying they had pushed Tamils, who are mostly Hindu, to attack Muslim shops that refused to pay taxes to the guerrillas, fighting for a separate state in the north and east.

"The tigers came and asked for tax money. The tigers were behind the burning," said Mohammed Jifry Al Fatha after he finished his afternoon prayers at a local mosque.

The Muslims also speak Tamil but view themselves as not only a religious but also a separate ethnic group.

The pro-rebel Tamilnet Web Site blamed "Islamic extremists" for the violence that police said destroyed 61 Muslim and 35 Tamil businesses in Valaichchenai, just north of the major city of Batticaloa, about 220 km east of Colombo.

At least nine Muslims and two Tamils were killed in the clashes that threw further into doubt how the two groups will live together under a ceasefire signed by the Government and Tamil tiger rebels in February.

The clashes came as the LTTE and Government try to hammer out details for direct peace talks — due to start this summer in Thailand — to end a two-decade civil war that has claimed more than 64,000 lives.

Government offices were also attacked, with just a bank and buildings that Muslims said were owned by Tamils spared.

"It is very sad to see this. We have to re-establish peace and the people must learn to live in peace again," said village Council Administrator P Kirupananthathasan, standing outside her ransacked office.

The split in the town is so pronounced that two district secretariats have been set up to handle the two sides, said c. Punniyamoorthy, head of the secretariat on the Tamil side. He said there were about 24,000 Tamils in his district and 40,000 Muslims across the road.

Overall Tamils make up about 18 per cent of Sri Lanka’s 19 million people while Muslims number about eight per cent, but the two groups are about equal in the east of the island.

"The curfew has been lifted in the day but people are staying home because of the fear," he said.

One end of the street was strewn with black video tape, left over from the looting of a video rental store.

Furniture stores, liquor shops and beauty salons were among the businesses ravaged, with some burned so badly that all that remained were two brick walls. The road is such a dividing line that the town’s small community of 20 burgher families — Sri Lankans of Dutch and Portuguese decent — live along it instead of in the Tamil or Muslim areas.

"We are neutral, we don’t know who started all of this," said one burgher, clad in a sarong, the traditional village attire. Because of the violence, changes may be needed to the truce agreement to protect Muslims, said minister of Muslim religious affairs Rauf Hakeem. The tigers, accused of ethnic cleansing in the past for such things as evicting about 100,000 Muslims from northern Jaffna Peninsula 10 years ago, apologised in April for the mistreatment.

Hakeem signed an agreement with the LTTE less than three months ago to hammer out safeguards for Muslims. After the latest clashes began he said the rebels’ credibility was now at stake. (AGENCIES)

US planning offenisve against Iraq

NEW YORK, July 5: The US military is reportedly planning a major offenisve on Iraq to topple President Saddam Hussein, perhaps "early next year", by pressing into service thousands of marines hundreds of its warplanes based in eight countries.

A central command planning document "envisons tens of thousands of marines and soldiers probably invading from kuwait. Hundreds of warplanes based in as many as eight countries, possibly including Turkey and Qatar, would unleash a huge air assault against thousands of (Iraqi) targets, including airfields, roadways and fiber-optics communications sites", the New York Times reported today quoting an unidentified person "familiar" with the highly classified document.

Special operations forces or covert CIA operatives, it said, would strike at depots or laboratories storing or manufacturing Iraq’s suspected weapons of mass destruction and the missiles to launch them.

None of the countries identified in the document as possible staging areas have been formally consulted about playing such a role, officials were quoted as saying underscoring the preliminary nature of the planning.

The existence of the document that outlined significant aspects of a "concept" for a war against iraq as it stood about two months ago indicates an advanced state of planning in the military even though President Bush continues to state in public and to his allies that he has no "fine-grain" war plan on his desk for the invasion of Iraq, The Times said. "Yet the concept for such a plan is now highly evolved and is apparently working its way through military channels. Once a consensus is reached on the concept, the steps toward assembling a final war plan and, most importantly, the element of timing for ground deployments and commencement of an air war, represent the final sequencing that bus the document or in interviews with senior officials suggested that an attack on iraq was imminent. "Senior administration officials continue to say that any offensive would probably be delayed until early next year, allowing time to create the right military economic and diplomatic conditions." (PTI)

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