Yevgeni Primakov

Russia oppose NATO’s
eastwards enlargement

MOSCOW, Dec 23: Russian Prime Minister Yevgeni Primakov, during a visit to Kazakhstan...more

Bin Laden associate
charged in new york

NEW YORK, Dec 23: A suspected financier to the international terrorist group led by the exiled Saudi Osama Bin Laden was charged....more

Pakistan to set up
bomb-proof bunkers
along LoC in PoK

ISLAMABAD, Dec 23: Pakistan will set up bomb-proof bunkers along the Line of Control (LoC) in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK)....more

Pak N-test pulls Sharif
Govt into trouble with court

ISLAMABAD, Dec 23: The Lahore High Court has pulled Nawaz Sharif Government for failing to foresee the consequences..more

ISLAMABAD, Dec 23: A senior United Nations official has said Islam was not against womens’ rights and hoped a .....more

Sharif Govt furious
at US-based Pak
journalists

ISLAMABAD, Dec 23: Key ministers of the Sharif Government are furious at Washington-based Pakistani journalists, who, they ....more

Prime accused in Rajiv assassination case
committ suicide

COLOMBO, Dec 23: One of the prime accused in Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, who headed the LTTE’s women’s wing. ...more

Attack on Iraq against
Annan’s wishes: Report

LONDON, Dec 23: The aerial blitz by United States and Britain on Iraq was against the wishes of ...more

Construction of Ram-Sita temple opposed by Budhists in Lanka

COLOMBO, Dec 23 : The proposed move to construct a religious tourist complex having temples ..more

Bin Laden associate charged in new york

NEW YORK, Dec 23: A suspected financier to the international terrorist group led by the exiled Saudi Osama Bin Laden was charged as an accomplice in the East African U.S. embassy bombings in August, reports said yesterday.

Mamdouh Mahmud Salim, 40, was charged with conspiring to kill Americans abroad by a brooklyn judge and ordered to remain in custody pending trial by a brooklyn judge. Salim is the fifth man to be held in the United States on murder charges related to the August 7 bombings in Nairobi and Dar Es Salaam that killed more than 250.

Salim is believed to play a central role in Bin Laden’s organization as a manager of finances. U.S. authorities also suspect Salim served as an intermediary in the group’s efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear technology, the New York Times reported.

Salim has denied the charges against him.

The suspect was arrested in Munich in September by a special German police unit but he fought extradition to the United States on the grounds that American authorities could impose the death penalty. U.S. officials gave a commitment that Salim would not face the death penalty.

That promise could complicate the trial of two other men currently held in New York since prosecutors led by federal district attorney Mary Jo White have said the death penalty would be "seriously considered" in their cases. Those men are believed to have played a less important role in the bombing plot than Salim.

U.S. authorities have indicted 14 men, including Bin Laden, for activities related to the bombing plot in East Africa. One man has been arrested in London and is awaiting extradition to the United states. (DPA)

Pakistan to set up bomb-proof bunkers along LoC in PoK

ISLAMABAD, Dec 23: Pakistan will set up bomb-proof bunkers along the Line of Control (LoC) in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) to provide shelter to inhabitants of the area in the event of crossborder firing.

Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs Majeed Malik said here today that the Government had decided to construct the bunkers after a large number of villagers along the LoC were forced to leave their houses in the wake of unabated firing and unprovoked shelling by Indian forces in recent times.

The minister, while speaking to a Kashmiri delegation from Britain, said the Government after consultations with the Army had already sanctioned a sum of Rs 7.6 million towards building these bunkers.

Heavy exchange of shelling between Indian and Pakistani troops along the LoC were witnessed in early July and a large number of people in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir were reportedly killed.

The minister told the Kashmiri delegation that the climate was conducive for making investments in Pakistan and PoK, particularly in hydro-power projects. (PTI)

Pak N-test pulls Sharif Govt into trouble with court

ISLAMABAD, Dec 23: The Lahore High Court has pulled Nawaz Sharif Government for failing to foresee the consequences of the nuclear tests conducted earlier this year as the Government lawyer conceded before the court that the economic crises was the result of the economic sanctions.

While hearing the freezing of the Foreign Currency Account case, the full bench of the Lahore High Court on Monday observed, it seemed that the Government went for the tests without considering the repercussions when the Deputy Attorney General (DAG) Sher Zaman said that the economic crunch was due to the nuclear tests.

People were under the impression that the country would be stronger after the nuclear explosions, the bench observed.

The ongoing Foreign Currency Accounts case has pushed the Sharif Government in a difficult position as a number of account holders have moved the court for restoration of their frozen accounts.

The Government had frozen all foreign currency accounts with an estimated value of about 11 billion us dollars amidst fears that people would rush to withdraw foreign currency when the Government had less than one billion dollar in its kitty.

The court refused to accept any of the arguments put forward by the dag in defence of the move by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to freeze all foreign currency accounts in the court immediately after the nuclear blasts on May 28. (PTI)

Islam not against women’s right, says UN official

ISLAMABAD, Dec 23: A senior United Nations official has said Islam was not against womens’ rights and hoped a new controversial Islamic Law would not affect Pakistani women.

"Islam is neither against womens’ rights nor against family planning, and this is a view of noted muslim scholars from Egypt and other countries," said Dr Nafis Sadik, a UN under-secretary-general, at a press conference in Islamabad yesterday.

Ms Sadik, who also heads the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), hoped that new legislation which Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is trying to push through the upper house of the Parliament - the Senate -would not affect the status of women in the 132-million inhabitant Muslim country.

"I hope the Prime Minister agrees with what we think in terms of rights and welfare of the women, " said Dr Sadik, who will meets Sharif today.

Advocating a continuous fight against obscurantist groups opposed to family planning, the UN official underlined that the views of a few cannot dictate the needs of the majority.

"We should all confront such sloganeering, and the political parties should unanimously undertake not to turn family planning into a "political football", she said in an appeal to all.

Population planning programme in Pakistan began in early 1960s, but its population growth - almost three per cent per annum - still rates as one of the highest among the developing countries.

Ignorance, orthodoxy and religious opposition, experts say, are among the major factors. (DPA)

Sharif Govt furious at US-based Pak journalists

ISLAMABAD, Dec 23: Key ministers of the Sharif Government are furious at Washington-based Pakistani journalists, who, they say, caused the crash of the Karachi Stock Exchange by filing ‘negative’ reports about the results of the Prime Minister’s visit to the United States early this month.

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, who accompanied Mr Sharif to the United States, has reportedly threatened to sue Washington-based Pakistani journalists especially ‘dawn’ and its correspondent ‘Shaheen Sehbal’ for describing the visit as a failure and a massive waste of the Pakistani tax-payers’ money.

The dawn of Karachi carried on Shaheen Sehbal’s reply to the ongoing campaign against a Washington-based journalists by Mr Dar, Foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz, Information Minister Mushahid Hussain and others. These ministers have challenged these journalists’ professional competence and credibility and their patriotism.

Replying to such charges, Shaheen Sehbal writes that the ministers’ anger was apparently caused by the journalists’ refusal to toe the official line on the achievements of Mr Sharif’s visit. Mr Sehbal was particularly picked up for attacks because he had asked certain searching questions when official spokesmen made statements about the visit.

Mr Dar says the Karachi Stock Exchange crashed due to the negative reporting in dawn of Assistant Secretary of State Karl Inderfurth’s briefing to the press on December 3 after the Nawaz-Clinton talks.

Foreign Minister Mr Aziz dismissed the briefing as of no consequence. But Mr Sehbal asks why the "positive" reporting of 29 journalists whom Mr Sharif had taken along did not help the Karachi Stock Exchange to stand up to one paper’s (dawn’s) reporting. (UNI)

Prime accused in Rajiv assassination
case committ suicide

COLOMBO, Dec 23: One of the prime accused in Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, who headed the LTTE’s women’s wing, committed suicide two-and-half years ago when about to be caught by Sri Lankan Security Forces, President Chandrika Kumaratunga has said.

Akila, the number three accused in the case, next only to LTTE supremo V Prabhakaran and LTTE Intelligence Wing leader Pottu Amman, swallowed cyanide and died after an attack by the group’s women cadre on an Army camp was repulsed by the troops, Kumaratunga said in a recent interview to frontline.

After the attack failed, Akila ordered all her cadres to take cyanide but the two small girls refuse to swalow the poison. They, however, pretended as if they bit the cyanide, Kumaratunga said, adding after ensuring that every one swallowed the poison, Akila too bit it and died.

The two girls later told the Army that they were forcibly recruited by the LTTE from a school in Northern Jaffna when they were 11 and 13. (PTI)

Attack on Iraq against Annan’s wishes: Report

LONDON, Dec 23: The aerial blitz by United States and Britain on Iraq was against the wishes of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan who wanted to give Baghdad more time before any military action is initiated, the observer has said.

When a major divergence occurred between Annan and anglo-American coalition leaders on their approach to tackle the Iraqi crisis, an American Security Council delegate reportedly tore up Annan’s letter suggesting Iraq be given more time before any military action, the paper said.

Annan had also suggested involving Iraq in more detailed negotiations on the UN Weapons Inspectors issue.

It was not what Britain and United States wanted to hear. They were aware of growing opposition to military action among the French, the Russians and the Chinese, the paper said.

It quoted a senior American UN diplomat as claiming that when the US delegate received Annan’s letter we tore it up.

It alleged that Clinton and Blair had taken a secret decision to hit Iraq as far back as December 11 and said that when Annan suggested further negotiations after going through the report of UNSCOM Chief Richard Butler, the two superpowers had shown scant regard to it.

Observer said the anglo-American officials feared that besides French, Russia and Chinese, three other members of the Security Council might act to clip the wings of the UNSCOM.

For quite some time many in the United States, including some in the United Nations had long felt that UNSCOM — a multinational army of biologists, computer experts, soldiers, chemists and rocket scientists — had increasingly been acting as more of a US agent and adopting tactics that were too confrontational, the paper said.

It said that Annan, significantly, favoured a phased lifting of santions, probably through a comprehensive review of the Iraqi regime at the end of this year.

Faced with the prospects of gradual erosion of the power of UNSCOM Clinton and Blair had decided to act, the observer said.

The paper said at by the time the British and American Governments got Annan’s letter, the two leaders had already decided to take military action thus showing scant regard for the feelings of the Secretary General.

The report also said that it was not the United Nations Secretary General’s office, but United States Ambassador to the United Nations Peter Burleigh who had called Richard Butler and directed him to pull out all his inspectors from Iraq. (PTI)

Construction of Ram-Sita temple opposed by
Budhists in Lanka

COLOMBO, Dec 23 : The proposed move to construct a religious tourist complex having temples of Rama, Sita and Hanuman in the central hills of Sri Lanka has been vehemently opposed by some Buddhist organisations.

The Buddhist associations for the prevention of invasion by mosques and kovils (temples) recently held a protest meeting in which the speakers charged that such moves were ‘detrimental to the culture and Buddha sasana of the country. They also accused the government of giving some 35 acres of land in the Sita Eliya area to the construction of a Rama kovil.

Secretary of the All Ceylon Buddhist Congress Jagathseela Kulanthilaka said that throughout the history those in want of power have continued to betray the rights of the Sinhala Buddhist people of the country. "This handover of land is such a betrayal of the rights of the future generations of the country. We have continued to sell the rights of the Sinhala Buddhists for the sake of more votes. This violation continue today and the Sinhala people are lift helpless at the hands of these power hungry politicians", the speakers said.

The legend has it that Ravana brought Sita to Sri Lanka and the place where she was kept is known as Sita eliya. However, historians may dispute and the argument is that Ravana never crossed the sea and the Lanka in the epic Ramayana is a place in Madhya Pradesh.

Sita eliya is a place in Nuwara eliya in the central hills where a large number of Indian tea plantation workers, who has been brought by the Britishers some 150 years ago, reside. Mr. Thondaman, who has been fighting for their legitimate rights and aspirations had recently stated that a religious tourist complex called ‘Ramapuram’ with temples of Rama, Sita and Ravana. Would be constructed near Sita eliya. Since then the place has become a centre of controversy.

The Sinhalese and Buddhists counter the move mainly on two accounts. Firstly, the proposed complex will disturb the very nature and character of the area which has been declared by the UNDP as an environmental zone. Secondly, it will bring very low budget tourists to the area and the government is not going to earn good foreign exchange.

The most important, of course, the place may ultimately turn into an Indian dominated "Malayanadu", a concept Mr Thondaman envisages. (UNI)