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US steps up security NEW YORK, Nov 16: The United States has stepped up security, particularly in "critical infrastructure", as the Federal Bureau of Investigation .....more US
captures senior WASHINGTON, Nov 16: A high-ranking Al Qaeda leader sought by the United States in its war on terrorism was captured recently and is in ....more Canadian Consul being CHANDIGARH, Nov 16: The Canadian Consulate General here, which will cater to the states ..........more Pro-Musharraf party ISLAMABAD, Nov 16: Amidst reports of heavy horse-trading to win over the newly elected members .....more |
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Security forces kill 27 Maoists in latest operations KATHMANDU, Nov 16: Security forces in Nepal have gunned down 27 Maoist rebels in the past 24 ........more PPP flays swearing ISLAMABAD, Nov 16: Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan Peoples Party today questioned ......more Iraq has no weapons BAGHDAD, Nov 16: Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction, President Saddam Hussein announced.....more Saddam says Iraq accepted UN resolution to avoid war BAGHDAD, Nov 16: President Saddam Hussan said today that Iraq accepted the UN Security Council .......more |
NEW YORK, Nov 16: The United States has stepped up security, particularly in "critical infrastructure", as the Federal Bureau of Investigation warned that Al-Qaeda might be planning "spectacular attacks" in the country with mass casualties or severe damage to its economy. "A lot is being done to bring additional protective measures, particularly to critical infrastructure," President George W Bush’s national security adviser Condoleezza Rice told reporters yesterday in Washington. Security has been stepped up in nuclear plants, oil refineries, airports, railways and bridges following the FBI warning. The warning comes amidst criticism by democrats that the Bush administration’s focus on war against Iraq is distracting it from the war against terrorism which, they say, is important in view of the tape containing message said to be from Osama bin Laden released last week by an Arab television channel. Officials say that the new alert is based on events of last few days including the tape, increased "chatter" among potential terrorists and assessment that it might be time for Al-Qaeda to strike again. But there seems nothing specific about the possible targets. The White House asked people to remain vigilant but it left national alert status unchanged. FBI has issued warnings about possible attacks on US railroads and on the energy industry, as well as a more general warning about heightened risk during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Meanwhile, reports quoting American intelligence sources said that a little known senior Al-Qaeda operative has been captured and is now in the American custody. But he was not identified and media reports said he was not one of the top dozen Al-Qaeda operatives who include bin Laden’s senior deputy Ayman Al-Zawhiri. Rice also said the FBI alert that went out to state and local law enforcement agencies on Thursday night was "a summary of intelligence, not a new warning." The alert said in part that Al-qQeda "may favour spectacular attacks that meet several criteria: high symbolic value, mass casualties, severe damage to the American economy and maximum psychological trauma." Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the White House office of homeland security, said that in recent weeks, since other FBI terrorist warnings on Oct 9 and 23, the administration had been in touch with State and local Governments as well as private companies to make suggestions on adding security at power plants and transportation centres. But the New York Times reported that despite the recommendations, however, homeland security chiefs from several states said they had done little more this week than pass the warning on to local law enforcement agencies. They said that the latest alert, though frightening, lacked specificity, leaving state officials with little direction as to how to respond. (PTI) |
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US captures senior Al Qaeda leader WASHINGTON, Nov 16: A high-ranking Al Qaeda leader sought by the United States in its war on terrorism was captured recently and is in American custody, US Government sources have said. The sources declined to name the operative for Osama bin Laden’s network, caught in the past week or so, but said he was in the top dozen and ranked him similar to Abu Zubaydah who is one of the most senior members of Al Qaeda in US custody. The captured Al Qaeda leader was not as high-ranking as those in bin Laden’s most inner circle, such as top lieutenant Ayman Al-Zawahri and operational leader Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who have not been found. He also was not bin Laden’s son Saad, sought by US authorities who say he is active in Al Qaeda, they said. The United States has vowed to destroy bin Laden and his Al Qaeda network in retaliation for the September. 11, 2001, attacks on America that killed about 3,000 people. Roughly half of the top two-dozen Al Qaeda leaders have either been killed or captured since the united states started hunting them down after the september. 11 hijacked-plane attacks. Earlier this month an unmanned cia drone fired a missile at a car in Yemen and killed six suspected Al Qaeda members. Al Qaeda leaders Zubaydah and Ramzi Binalshibh were caught in separate operations in Pakistan earlier this year. They are being interrogated at an undisclosed location. Zubaydah was a top bin Laden deputy who officials say recruited Al Qaeda members and coordinated their travels in and out of Afghan training camps. US officials have said he has provided important information during interrogations. The recently captured Al Qaeda leader, who has not been identified, is considered a prize catch for US authorities similar to Zubaydah. But bin Laden has still not been found and apparently survived the US-led bombing on Afghanistan. US officials believe an audiotape broadcast earlier this week on the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television channel is bin Laden praising recent attacks and making fresh threats. The US military and intelligence agencies have scoured areas near the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan for signs of bin Laden and his followers. "There have been a number of — numerous senior leaders of Al Qaeda that have either been eliminated, incarcerated or detained someplace," US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said without elaborating. US authorities have been concerned this week that Al Qaeda was planning new violence. The FBI said the network may favor "spectacular attacks" that result in mass casualties and severe damage to the US economy. The audiotape contributed to that concern. Past bin Laden tapes have sometimes been followed by attacks. Authorities have also noted an increased level of "chatter," or communications between Al Qaeda operatives picked up by intelligence agencies, as in the months before Sept 11, 2001. (AGENCIES) |
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Canadian Consul being established in Chandigarh CHANDIGARH, Nov 16: The Canadian Consulate General here, which will cater to the states including Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, will start start functioning by November next year, Canadian Minister of Natural Resources Har Dhaliwal said today. After making a formal announcement of establishment of a Canadian Consulate General here, Dhaliwal said this enhanced representation will permit the expansion of immigration and visa services including interviews of permanent resident applicants. He said once operational, the office will also issue visas, but processing will be done at Delhi. "There was a great demand from the people of this region that they should be saved frequent trips to Delhi. After some initial bottlenecks, our Prime Minister himself gave green signal to its opening and it also got clearance from the Indian Government," he said. Dhaliwal, who was elected for the first time in 1993, said the office would employ between 35 to 40 people and his Government would spend between 23 to 25 million dollars on it over the next five years. Speaking at the end of his week-long trip, the second one in this year, Dhaliwal said India is the second largest source of immigrants for Canada after China. "We need immigrants. From Punjab we get a large number of immigrants every year, around 45 to 50 per cent of which are family reunifications," he said. Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said the Punjabi community had excelled and made significant contributions in the countries they were currently residing. "Like India, in Canada, too, our presence is two per cent and we are doing well in every field there also," he said. Among others present on the occasion included Canadian High Commissioner Peter Sutherland, Canadian MP of Indian origin, Gurbax Singh Malhi, Punjab Chief Secretary Y S Ratra and Advisor to the UT Administrator, Neeru Nanda.(PTI) |
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Pro-Musharraf party claims enough number to form Govt ISLAMABAD, Nov 16: Amidst reports of heavy horse-trading to win over the newly elected members of Pakistan’s National Assembly, the pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) has claimed it has acquired necessary numbers to form the Government. Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, the Prime Ministerial candidate of PML-Q told reporters here today that his party would form the Government at the centre with comfortable majority, with the support of other parties despite opposition from the six religious party alliance Muthahida Majlis e-Amal (MMA) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. His claims followed defection of 10 members from PPP to support him. More defections in favour of PML-Q were expected as President Pervez Musharraf has declared the anti-defection law in-operational. The PML-Q required 168 members in the 335-member house to form a Government with simple majority. Jamali said his party desires to form consensus Government with the inclusion of big parties, besides the support of smaller ones in order form a strong and stable Government which could complete its five-year term. Meanwhile the MMA, which has rejected Musahrraf’s presidency and his constitutional amendments has said that there was no compromise on the issues. "Mma wants the constitution that would be acceptable to all the political groups. The thing which makes it controversial is not acceptable to us", pro-Taliban MMA leader and its Prime Ministerial candidate Maulana Fazalur Rehman told the media after the Parliament session. Rehman said the Legal Framework Order (LFO) incorporating Musharraf’s amendments should be discussed and approved by the Parliament as it is the supreme body, adding that there is no flexibility about his candidature for premiership and MMA’s condition to get National Assembly Speaker. He said negotiations with PML (Q) are in progress and urged all the political forces to work unitedly in order to steer the country out of a constitutional crisis. Another MMA leader, Hafiz Hussain Ahmad, asked the Government to discuss the LFO in the Parliament, adding the MMA would support the clauses that were needed in the larger interest of the country. Ahmad demanded that issues like Musharraf’s powers to dismiss the Parliament should be discussed in detail. He said the President should be empowered to dissolve Cabinet and Prime Minister, not the whole Assembly. It was a good sign that the first session of the Assembly has started. This would help strengthen democratic process for the development of the country under the supervision of the Parliament, he said. (PTI) |
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Security forces kill 27 Maoists in latest operations KATHMANDU, Nov 16: Security forces in Nepal have gunned down 27 Maoist rebels in the past 24 hours as they continued anti-terror operations across the country, official sources said today. Eleven armed rebels were shot dead in Jumla, Bara and Kailali districts during separate encounters, a Defence Ministry official said today. Sixteen more Maoists were killed as the security forces launched blocking and search operations to hunt the rebels after Thursday’s massive terror attack in Jumla district, radio Nepal said quoting local security sources. Nine of them were killed in Tamti area and seven killed in Kudari area of the district, the radio said. The security forces have recovered guns, pistols, socket bombs and explosive materials from these sites. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Lokendra Bahadur Chand’s Cabinet, which was appointed on October 11 by King Gyanendra after the Monarch dismissed the elected Government, met in an emergency session. Yesterday, a top rebel negotiator Krishna Bahadur Mahara said in an interview with CNN that talks with the Government would come soon on the Maoists’ terms and that "the king’s Army will not fight for very long." (PTI) |
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PPP flays swearing in, suspension of anti-defection laws ISLAMABAD, Nov 16: Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan Peoples Party today questioned the legality of Pervezf Musharraf getting himself sworn in for another five years as President and termed his decision to keep the country’s anti-defection laws in abeyance as a step to "encourage defections". "It was absolutely wrong on the part of musharraf to assume fresh term when the legality of the referendum under which he was elected itself was in doubt," PPP spokesman Faratullah Babar told PTI reacting to Musharraf’s decision to take oath for a five year term. "The referendum under which he was elected was itself unconstitutional and his presidency carried a big question mark", he said pointing out that Musharraf had taken several oaths during the past three years- as Chief of Army, Chief Executive, President and now as an elected President. Earlier, the PPP issued a strong statement criticising Musharraf for keeping the anti-defection laws in abeyance, while partially restoring the constitution. "The revival of the constitution by Musharraf and at same time keeping the article dealing with the floor crossing in abeyance is a shameful invitation to the politicians to change loyalties" the party said. "It is a bid to deliberately encourage horse trading and further break major political parties to aid the king’s party," it added. Already 10 elected members have defected from PPP in order to support the PML-Q. Referring to the move by Musharraf to suspend the anti-defection laws, party’s acting general secretary Rabbani said "the unethical move could have come only from diseased minds and sickly souls even as they wore glittering medallions or flaunted so-called acumen in legal profession.. Accusing Musharraf of going back on its promise to end the scourge of horse trading from national politics, Rabbani said, "today on the eve of so-called revival of democracy, it has suspended the operation of that very constitutional provision". "It is a day of mourning for the whole nation, which has been hijacked by a bunch of pirates. It is a day on which all those who uphold democracy should shed tears. (PTI) |
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Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction, says Saddam BAGHDAD, Nov 16: Iraq has no weapons of mass destruction, President Saddam Hussein announced today, 48 hours before UN disarmament inspectors are due to arrive in Baghdad. The statement came in a letter addressed to Parliament to explain that he had accepted the stringent terms of UN resolution 1441 on Wednesday to avoid giving the United States a pretext to attack, even though the National Assembly had urged rejection. "Your enemy has again tried to push its plans through under the cover of the Security Council ... We hope that the method we have chosen will result in the truth coming out, which is that Iraq is free of weapons of mass destruction," said the letter released to the press. Chief UN Weapons Inspector Hans Blix is to lead an advance party to Baghdad on Monday, four years after the last inspection took place. (AFP) |
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Saddam says Iraq accepted UN resolution to avoid war BAGHDAD, Nov 16: President Saddam Hussan said today that Iraq accepted the UN Security Council arms resolution to head off a war that the United States and Israel had declared unilaterally against the Iraqi people. In an open letter to members of Iraq’s Parliament, he said he hoped returning UN Weapons Inspectors to the country would allow the Security Council "to see the truth as it really is about Iraq being completely free of weapons of mass destruction." The Revolutionary Command Council headed by Saddam decided on Wednesday to accept the resolution after the Parliament had recommended against doing so, but said it would leave the final decision to the Iraqi leader. Iraq accepted the resolution "because your enemy, the alliance between zionism and the American administration, has this time, after showing its claws and teeth, decided to wage war unilaterally against our people," Saddam said in the letter. Addressing the legislators as "esteemed brothers and comrades," he also warned that Iraq could still be subjected to a US-led attack but said the country would withstand such an assault. "If the unjust persist in their wrongdoing, then you know that the potentials and obligations that we carry from our revolution to withstand all injustice will ensure their defeat," he said. The advance team of about 25 arms experts is to arrive in Baghdad on Monday after an absence of nearly four years. The team will begin preliminary inspections of suspected weapons sites on November 27. (AP) Decision in larger interest of Pakistan: Musharraf ISLAMABAD, Nov 16: Pakistan military ruler Pervez Musharraf, who took oath for a five year term as President today, said that he has taken the decision in the larger interest of the country and for its economic and political stability. Presiding over what was officially termed as the last cabinet and National Security Council meeting, Musharraf did not directly refer to his new term of office but said that he has taken certain difficult decisions in the larger and long term interest of the country and particularly in the interest of its economic and political stability. An official press release quoted him as saying that Pakistan cannot afford "further disruption and mis-governance" and it was of this he emphasised the need for continuity of the reforms initiated by him during the past three years. The next five years, he said, were very important for Pakistan and he was confident that the new Government would take advantage of the sound marco-economic policies that have been set by his Government. If Pakistan followed the course and employed right tactics to implement the strategy, the country would receive rich dividends. Musharraf, who took over power three years ago in a military coup has said that his Government is concluding its three year tenure on a note of satisfaction that it pulled a "rudderless ship" out of the "storm and set it on full sail". He claimed that in the last three years his Government introduced merit and transparency-based governance and succeeded in running a corruption-free administration. The service chiefs, the provincial Governors and members of the Cabinet paid glowing tributes to the leadership of President Pervez Musharraf who, they said, is leaving behind "an enviable legacy of efficient and honest governance", the release added. The meeting was attended by Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee, Gen. Muhammad Aziz Khan, Vice Chief of Army Staff General Muhammad Yousaf Khan, Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Mushaf Ali Mir, Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Shahid Karimullah and the four provincial Governors. (PTI) Denial of access by Iraq would
be "very PARIS, Nov 16: Any attempt by Iraq to hinder or delay UN Weapons Inspectors in their work would be "very serious", UN’s Chief Inspector Hans Blix said today in Paris. "A denial of access, or delayed access, or an attempt to put something off-bounds — this would be very serious", said Blix, speaking after talks with French Foreign Minister Dominique De Villepin. Blix stopped in Paris for talks with French leaders on his way to re-open inspections operations in Iraq. Confirming that the first inspections should take place on November 27, Blix said that after arriving in Baghdad on Monday his first task would be to meet Iraqi officials and leave behind teams to prepare transport and communications. Under UN Security Resolution 1441, adopted unanimously eight days ago and since accepted by Iraq, Iraq must submit to an enhanced regime of weapons inspections and faces "serious consequences" if obstructs them. Asked what would constitute an obstruction, Blix said "the simplest is the (question) of access ... Immediate access is valuable because the Iraqis could hide documents or smaller things. It’s not important for big weapons or machinery, but nevertheless small things are also important." Blix also conceded that that the previous UN Arms Inspection Mission UNSCOM, which was withdrawn in 1998, had been compromised by being "too closely associated with intelligence and with western states," but he could give no assurance that the new teams would not also contain spies. "To people who ask me are you absolutely sure you will have no spies, I say no. Neither the KGB nor the CIA can give that absolute assurance. All I can tell you is that if I see someone with two hats, I’ll ask them to walk out," he said. (AFP) 3 seriously burned in light aircraft crash in S Africa JOHANNESBURG, Nov 16: Three men were seriously injured when their light aircraft crashed near a horse racing track in east of Johannesburg today. The Piper Cherokee burst into flames as it hit the ground near the Gosforth Park Complex after take off from the Rand Airport in the suburb of germiston. Its occupants, aged between 33 and 37, were admitted to a nearby hospital with severe burns, the agency said. (DPA) President Bush greets Sikhs on
Guru WASHINGTON, Nov 16: US President George W Bush today sent his warm greetings to Sikhs across America on the occasion of 533rd birth-anniversary of Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism. "I send greetings to those celebrating the 533rd anniversary of the birth of Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism," Bush said in a message. "America is strengthened by the rich cultural and religious diversity of its people. By preserving your customs and sharing loving and compassionate faith, Sikhs contribute to America’s vibrant spiritual foundation." He added. Commending Sikhs for their "commitment to making a difference" in the hearts and souls of their community, Bush wished the celebration will be a time to recognise the values "that bind us together as a nation and a global community." The Sikh community is celebrating Guru Nanak’s birth anniversay from today till November 24. Thanking Bush for the message, Chairman of Washington-based Sikh Council on religion and education Dr. Rajwant Singh said, "the Sikh community in the United States is extremely pleased with president Bush’s statement recognising the birth-anniversary of Guru Nanak. "The President’s message is recognition, once again, that the highest levels of the American Government regard Sikhs as part and parcel of the American community". He said Bush’s message at this occasion certainly is very "assuring and healing particularly when many Sikhs have felt insecure in the aftermath of September 11th tragedy". (PTI) |
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