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Islamic extremists to attack civilians LONDON, Nov 24: A message, believed to have been sent by terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden......more Hospital
confirms first LONDON, Nov 24: A Scotsman was today diagnosed with rabies, the first case of the illness in Britain in 100 years. ...more Assasination
bid WASHINGTON, Nov 24: A plot to assasinate Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai and Defence ......more 215 dead in religious rampage sparked by Miss World debate LAGOS, Nov 24: The death toll after four days of riots pitting Muslims and Christians in the Northern Nigerian city of Kaduna ....more |
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Maoist leader in Nepal accuses king of absolute monarchy KATHMANDU, Nov 24: The leader of the Maoist rebels in Nepal today accused King Gyanendra of trying to impose authoritarian rule in the Himalayan Kingdom. .......more World powers urge Iraq to comply with arms inspections BAGHDAD, Nov 24: World powers France, Russia and China urged Iraq to comply with UN weapons inspections ahead of the start on Wednesday of an 18-strong team’s make-or-break search for weapons of mass destruction. .....more Kumaratunga
asks PM COLOMBO, Nov 24: Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga has asked Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to bring up the issue of alleged attacks by Tamil tiger rebels on a rival Tamil political group at talks with the rebels in Oslo, offficials said today. .....more |
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LONDON, Nov 24: A message, believed to have been sent by terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden, asked British Islamic extremists to launch an attack on civilians even as Britain issued its strongest warning against Al-Qaeda attacks. The 4000-word letter from the Osama being circulated among the Muslim fundamentalists, claimed the ‘Islamic nation’ was ‘eager for martyrdom’, a media report said today. Foreign Office Minister Mike O’brien said, "we face an enemy who will attack us in Britain as well as overseas... British workers in New York or tourists in Bali or residents of London or Birmingham." There was a threat of "well planned attacks" on British national institutions, commercial and financial infrastructure and on many aspects of our everyday life, he added. Osama has issued a direct threat to the West, the Sunday Observer said. "Anyone who tries to destroy our villages and cities, then we are going to destroy their villages and cities. Anyone who steals our fortunes, then we must destroy their economy. Anyone who kills our civilians, then we are going to kill their civilians," the letter said. A major part of his letter comprises a lengthy list of grievances against the West. The fugitive terrorist, who is believed to be hiding either in the Afghan-Pakistan border or in Yemen mounted a sustained attack on the "immorality" of Western society. The letter has been posted on a number of Islamist websites, one of which carried bomb-making information and another offered a link to a site with information on chemical and biological weapons, the report said. Though there is no way to confirm the authenticity of the letter, senior Arab journalists in the Middle Eastern media believe the letter is from bin Laden, it said. Security authorities in Europe and US are concerned that Al-Qaeda is planning a major strike, it added. A fortnight ago, bin Laden issued a message on an audio cassette, proving he was alive and raising fears it presaged new attacks. Britain, with its close support for America in the war on terror and Iraq, is a prime target and analysts believe any military action against Saddam Hussein would provoke a spate of revenge attacks by Islamic militants. The translated letter was originally posted in Arabic on a Saudi Arabian website previously used by Al-Qaeda to disseminate messages. Within the last two weeks, British Islamists have translated the letter, the most comprehensive explanation of bin Laden’s ideology to be issued for several years, and posted it on English-language websites run from the UK. The letter was sent to hundreds of subscribers through an email list run by Mohammed Al-Massari, the UK-based Saudi Arabian dissident whose committee for the defence of legitimate rights has been opposing the Al-Saud regime. According to the report, yesterday Al-Massari denied he supported terrorism in any way. Al-Massari has recently been granted permanent residence in Britain, a move which angered foreign Governments who claim that the UK is still a haven for extremists. (PTI) |
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Hospital confirms first case of rabies in 100 years in Britain LONDON, Nov 24: A Scotsman was today diagnosed with rabies, the first case of the illness in Britain in 100 years. A hospital in the Scottish city of Dundee confirmed that 56-year-old David Mcrae was quarantined and in a critical but stable condition with the illness. He had been infected with the European Bat Lyssa Virus (EBL), which was rare but occurred in several northern European countries, the hospital said. The disease is known to be almost always fatal. Mcrae, a conservationist and painter, caught the virus after being bitten by a bat. He had worked for the protection of the species for a number of years and could have been infected for as much as two years, British media reported. The painter was a close friend of the mountaineer Doug Scott, who was renowned for climbing Mount Everest, it was reported. In 1995 Mcrae accompanied Scott on an expedition to Papua New Guinea, where he painted landscapes. (DPA) |
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Assasination bid on Karzai, Fahim foiled WASHINGTON, Nov 24: A plot to assasinate Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai and Defence Minister Mohammed Fahim was foiled after security forces in Kabul arrested a 22-year-old Iraqi Kurd trained in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir with a large amount of explosives strapped to his body, a report said today here. The militant — Bokan Akram Khorani — had 18 pounds of explosives taped under his vest and "had been trained and assigned to carry out a suicide mission," said Amrullah Salihi, spokesman for Afghan National Directorate of Security. Khorani had been sent to assassinate Karzai on his return from a trip to the US last week, but he reached too late to ambush Karzai and switched to a plan to kill Fahim, Salihi said adding he volunteered numerous details about himself and his suicide mission after his arrest on Friday. He had been "casing" the neibhourhood where Fahim lived when he was captured, and that police had been watching him since he arrived in Kabul from Pakistan several days ago, the post said quoting the Afghan official. Khorani had been trained in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir for the last four months before crossing the border into Afghanistan, he said. Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, the paper noted, "has long been a training base for terrorist groups fighting in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Afghan officials recently warned that fugitive Taliban officials, possibly working with Pakistani inteligence agencies, may be joining forces with violent Islamic groups in Pakistan that are hostile to the Karzai Goverment and its US backers." Both Karzai and Fahim have been trgets of previous attacks. (PTI) |
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215 dead in religious rampage sparked by Miss World debate LAGOS, Nov 24: The death toll after four days of riots pitting Muslims and Christians in the Northern Nigerian city of Kaduna jumped to more than 200, a senior red cross official said today, more than double previous estimates. The fighting was touched off by a newspaper article about the Miss World pageant. The contest, to be held in Nigeria next month, has been moved to London. Emmanuel Ijewere, President of the Nigerian Red Cross, told the Associated Press the relief organisation had by yesterday counted 215 bodies on the streets and in mortuaries throughout the city. Previous estimates had put the death toll at about 100. An unknown number of others who died in the riots were believed to have been buried individually by family members, Ijewere said. By today, a tense calm was reported in Kaduna. The fighting, which began Wednesday and continued until yesterday, resulted in about 500 people injured and left 4,500 people home less, Ijewere said. At least 22 churches and 8 mosques were destroyed in the rampage, said Shehu Sani of the Kaduna-based civil rights congress. Ten hotels were also badly damaged, said Sani, whose group estimated that "well over 200 people" had been killed. Families were timidly venturing out of their homes today to attend church and replenish food stocks with whatever they could find in local marketplaces, where a few roadside meat and vegetable stalls reopened. (AP) |
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Maoist leader in Nepal accuses king of absolute monarchy KATHMANDU, Nov 24: The leader of the Maoist rebels in Nepal today accused King Gyanendra of trying to impose authoritarian rule in the Himalayan Kingdom. "The Royal Palace has tried to reimpose authoritarian rule through the appointment of the new Government," Pushpa Kamal Dahal, alias Prachand, said in a statement to the Nepali language daily, "Rajdhani" (capital). Last month the king sacked Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, accusing him of "incompetence" and took power for a week before installing an interim Government headed by staunch royalist Lokendra Bahadur Chand. At the same time he postponed parliamentary elections which were due to take place in November and no new date has yet been set for polls. "Instead of rectifying its wrong steps and creating an atmosphere of positive politics, the royal palace has been trying to go against the gains of the 1990 popular movement," the statement said. Popular protests in 1990 led to the then King Birendra giving up many of his powers and the introduction of a constitutional monarchy. Birendra was killed along with ten other members of the royal family in June 2001 and his brother Gyanendra took the throne. "Only an all-party round table conference, formation of an all-party Government and the calling of constitutent assembly will help the country in resolving its current problems," the Maoist leader said. "Therefore, we appeal to all the political parties and political forces to embark on a joint movement to achieve these goals." (AFP) |
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World powers urge Iraq to comply with arms inspections BAGHDAD, Nov 24: World powers France, Russia and China urged Iraq to comply with UN weapons inspections ahead of the start on Wednesday of an 18-strong team’s make-or-break search for weapons of mass destruction. Western warplanes hammered targets in Southern Iraq while in Bucharest US President George W. Bush kept up the war of words by comparing Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to Romanian communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. A UN aircraft carrying equipment for the inspectors flew into Baghdad, to be followed on monday by the inspectors themselves who start their search for any weapons of mass destruction on Wednesday. In Paris, French President Jacques Chirac said the UN inspections were essential to clear up any doubt over whether Saddam was still harbouring weapons of mass destruction. He told a news conference war would be in no one’s interest. "I hope that everyone is aware that war is always the worst of solutions, and that it is in nobody’s interest," he said. Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, sitting beside Chirac, said a peaceful solution looked more likely than war in Iraq. "I think we are much further down the road to peace than the road to war at the moment," he said. Chirac’s call was reinforced by the Russian and Chinese Foreign Ministers, who said after a meeting in Moscow that Iraq must fulfill its commitments to allow UN Inspectors to search for any banned weapons. Iraq insists it has no biolgical, chemical or nuclear arms. In washington, the US military said western planes bombed a mobile radar system south of Al Amarah, some 165 miles (265 km) southeast of Baghdad, yesterday. Iraq had moved the radar into the southern no-fly zone imposed after the 1991 Gulf war, the US Central Command said in a statement, adding the radar provided tracking and guidance for surface-to-air missile systems. It did not say whether Iraqi forces had fired at western aircraft patrolling the zone. In Bucharest, Bush told tens of thousands of Romanians their misery under communist leader Nicolae Ceausescu showed that aggressive dictators like Saddam must be stopped. (AGENCIES) ==== |
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Kumaratunga asks PM to take up Tamil harassment at Oslo COLOMBO, Nov 24: Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga has asked Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to bring up the issue of alleged attacks by Tamil tiger rebels on a rival Tamil political group at talks with the rebels in Oslo, offficials said today. Kumaratunga’s spokesman, Janadasa Peiris, said the President had written to Wickremesinghe just before he left Colombo for the peace support meeting to be held tomorrow in Norway. The Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) has alleged that the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has carried out several attacks on their offices in the delft island in the northern Jaffna Peninsular, causing injuries and damage to property. Kumaratunga’s letter to Wickremesinghe said his delegation should take up the matter with the LTTE, which is currently engaged in a peace process with the Government. The LTTE and the EPDP, a former militant group, are bitter enemies and there have been violent clashes between them over the years. "The LTTE wants us out of the delft island so they can have their own illegal armoury and given its closeness to India’s southern-most tip they could keep an eye on developments in India," said EPDP leader Douglas Devananda. The EPDP was an ally of the Kumaratunga Government which was ousted from office in December last year. It now has two seats in Sri Lanka’s 225-member Parliament, which is controlled by Wickremesinghe’s party. Kumaratunga has objected to the Prime Minister’s handling of the peace process. (AFP) |
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