Qaeda suspect tips Saudis about more attacks:Time

DUBAI, Aug 4: A senior Al-Qaeda suspect held in Saudi Arabia was the source for a tip Osama Bin Laden’s militant group was "Attempting to mount another multi-pronged airliner hijacking attack", Time magazine on-line edition reported.

It said Ali Abdulrahman Saeed Al-Faqa’Asi Al-Ghamdi was providing intelligence about potential Al-Qaeda plots against the United States, Saudi Arabia and Western Governments.

US President George W Bush said last week he would thwart a "real threat" of new Al-Qaeda attacks, and the US homeland security department warned airlines that Al-Qaeda was planning suicide hijackings and bombings in the United States or abroad.

Al-Ghamdi, also known as Abu Bakr Al-Azdi, is being held by Saudi authorities as a suspect in suicide bombings in Riyadh on May 12 which killed 35 people, including nine Americans.

Ghamdi, in his late 20s, is believed to have fought with Bin Laden’s followers in Afghanistan. A US official said he was captured but Saudi sources said he surrendered.

Time said, quoting two official sources, said Ssaudi Aarabia passed Al-Ghamdi’s "allegations about what could be multiple airline hijackings to the CIA, which then briefed President Bush and also provided them to the department of homeland security".

Saudi officials were not available for comment.

Yesterday, US officials said they were braced for possible attacks on US soil after an Arab television station aired an audio tape purportedly from Al-Qaeda official Ayman Al-Zawahri warning Washington it would pay if it harmed Islamic detainees at a US base in Cuba.

The United States blames Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network for the September 11, 2001, suicide hijacking attacks that killed about 3,000 people.

Since May, Saudi Arabia has stepped up its crackdown on Islamic militants, arresting some 240 suspects. (AGENCIES)

Alexander’s reputed kin cling on in mountain Idyll

KALASHA VALLEYS, PAKISTAN, Aug 4: High in the Hindu Kush, in a land that time forgot, live remnants of a tribe some believe descends from the ancient armies of Alexander the Great.

The Kalasha, who number only about 3,500 in all, are the last survivors of Kafiristan, a land that once extended from eastern Afghanistan into present-day Pakistan’s northern Chitral region.

In the 19th century British empire, Kafiristan was thought so remote and mysterious rudyard kipling chose it as the setting for his adventure story "the man who would be king", which became an film starring Michael Caine and sean connery in the 1970s.

Today the land of the Kalasha is confined to three Valleys —Birir, Bumburet and Rumbur — hidden up steep mountain tracks southwest of the town of Chitral.

To outsiders, it’s a paradise of Turquoise rivers and Verdant valleys overlooked by snow-capped peaks, for all the world like a latter-day garden of Eden.

But the tranquility and beauty mask pressing problems of a tribe fighting for survival.

The Kalasha are non-Muslims in an Islamic State and last year, the province in which they live — North West frontier — came under the control of hardline Muslim groups accused of trying to emulate the intolerant Taliban who ruled Afghanistan.

The intricately embroidered, rainbow-coloured costumes and head-dresses of the Kalasha women set them apart from the majority.

The women, some with fair hair and blue eyes, forgo the veils worn by Muslims and even draw attention to their faces with blue tattoos made from mulberry juice and eyeliner made from crushed goat’s horn.

The former Kalasha State, Kafiristan, meant literally "land of the infidels", and the tribe suffered severe persecution in the past at the hands of the Muslim majority.

In more recent years, they lived largely undisturbed in a traditional, self-sufficient Agrarian society operating on age-old collectivist principles with virtually no need for money.

That started to change in the late 1970s when new roads made the valleys more accessible to outsiders and enabled the tribal people to travel into Chitral to market crops like maize and wheat, walnuts, apricots and mulberries.

At the same time, better communications have made the tribe vulnerable to energetic efforts by muslim extremists, as well as Christian Missionaries, to convert them from traditional beliefs.

As non-Muslims, Kalasha face discrimination when it comes to finding jobs, so many find life easier if they convert. If they do, they are no longer considered members of the tribe.

Activists say that while the population is rising, conversions mean the size of the tribe has stayed static and Kalasha are now outnumbered by Muslims in their valleys.

Twenty-five-year-old Lakshan Bibi is one of the few Kalasha who has managed to break out of a cycle of poverty and discrimination that has made the tribe second-class citizens in the land they used to rule.

The daughter of a local politician, she persevered with her education and eventually became the first female member of a minority group to qualify as a pilot. But she gave up the prospect of a lucrative career to fight for Kalasha rights.

"I wanted to get an education and to educate people in the area and tell them that if you get an education then you will have power so that you can speak for your rights without being pressurised by society or Government agencies," she says.

"If I had left, people would have thought that ‘she has left us and forgotten our existence, so why should we bother sending our children to school?’."

She said she was concerned that the hardliners in the new provincial Government might step up the conversion drive.

"It really becomes a problem for the Kalasha people to survive. I am concerned and worried. They should accept the Kalasha as human beings and not interrupt their religion."

Bibi has found standing up for tribal rights a risky business: earlier this year, six armed men attacked the guard at her home in an apparent attempt at intimidation.

Another Kalasha representative, Saifullah Jan, said resisting conversion was difficult for many.

"We are in a minority here and there are less opportunities for many things, whether it’s a Government job or in business."

The Kalasha used to make some money from tourism, but that dried up when foreigners stopped coming to Pakistan after the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001.

The Kalasha were a popular draw, given their colourful clothes, love of festivals and reputed ancestry to Alexander’s invading armies of more than 2,000 years ago, even if the reality might be more prosaic, with some anthropologists suggesting a Central Asian origin.

In any case, the Kalasha complain that little of the income that did come in from tourism actually found its way to the tribe, staying instead in the hands of lowland tour operators.

To reduce an unemployment problem forcing many members of the tribe to leave the valleys to seek work in big cities, the Kalasha want to see the Government offer them job quotas.

There is little optimism these will come about.

"We are just unbelievers — we are kaffirs," said Saifullah. "So who is going to pay us attention? you know the majority always try to eat the minority everywhere."

But Saifullah said the Kalasha would survive, one way or another. "Nobody can impose anything new on us, we have our own way of life," he said. (AGENCIES)

South Korean business leader for Hyundai
commits suicide

SEOUL, Aug 4: The head of South Korea’s Hyundai business group’s inter-Korean Operator jumped from the 12th floor of his office building in Seoul on Monday, police said.

Chung Mong Hun, 55, the most favoured son of Chung Ju Young, the late founder of the Hyundai Group, was to carry out his father’s unfinished task of promoting inter-Korean tourism and building an industrial complex on the border with North Korea.

Chung left a suicide note, which was partly revealed to local media, asking that inter-Korean projects continue and that he be buried at Mt. Kumgang in the North.

Chung has been at the center of a scandal in which prosecutors accuse Hyundai of paying 15 billion won to North Korea in exchange for their appearance at the 2000 Summit meeting between former South Korean President Kim Dae Jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

Former President Jung was shocked to hear of the suicide and was quoted as saying, "history will pass a fair recognition of what Chung has done for the inter-Korean cooperation."

Chung led on-going projects to connect the divided Koreas by railroad and the construction of an industrial complex at the border city of Gaesung, where South Korean companies will be located and hire North Korean workers at the monthly wage of 65 US dollars.

South Korean Unification Ministry officials denied that his death would have an impact on the projects.

The local stock market responded by starting slightly bearish at the news.(DPA)

Pak says Blackwill is ill-informed, prejudiced

ISLAMABAD, Aug 4: Pakistan today launched a blistering attack on former US Ambassador to India Robert Blackwill for his comment that terrorists incursions in Jammu and Kashmir were still continuing, saying he seemed to be "ill-informed" and "prejudiced". "Blackwill seems to be ill-informed, he is prejudiced and I think he is heartless because he is condoning the atrocities being committed by Indian troops on innocent Kashmiri civilians," Foreign office spokesman Masood Khan told reporters here. "He is suffering from localities," he said commenting on Blackwill’s remarks to an Indian TV channel that terrorist were still crossing over the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir. "The problems persist, there are still terrorists coming across the LoC," Blackwill had said four days before he left Delhi after his two year stint. The spokesman said there was no terrorist camp on the Pakistani side of the LoC.

"There is no substance to the allegations made by Indian Defence Minister and no terrorists are being trained on Pakistani soil," Khan said while replying to a question about the allegation by George Fernandes that 3000 terrorists are present in Pakistani side of Kashmir.

"It has become usual for the Indian leadership to fabricate such stories... Indian Ministers are competing with each other in demonising Pakistan," he said.

Asked about Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s recent statement on the Ayodhya issue, the spokesman said Pakistan regretted it. "It is the responsibility of the Indian Government to protect the places of worship of Muslims and not incite communal violence," he said.

The spokesman also said that Pakistan has conveyed its concern over the activities of Indian consulates in Kandahar, Jalalabad and other Afghan cities. Pakistan has alleged that Indian consulates in Afghanistan were indulging in anti-Pakistan activities, acharge denied by both India and Afghanistan. Pakistan has shared the information about Indian consulates with Afghan Government and our perceptions with leaders there, he said adding President Pervez Musharraf discussed this issue with the Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

To a question, the spokesman said the activities of Indian consulates will have no impact on the process of engagement between Pakistan and India. He hoped that India would come to the negotiating table soon.(PTI)

Japan says preparatory talks to be held on North Korea

SAITAMA, JAPAN, Aug 4: Preparatory discussions will be held ahead of six-country talks in Beijing on North Korea’s nuclear programme, Japan’s top Government spokesman said today.

Earlier North Korea said the multilateral talks would begin in Beijing soon, but no date has yet been announced. These will involve the United States, Russia, China, South Korea and Japan.

"There will of course be some form of preliminary discussions ahead of the six-way talks," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda told journalists in the city of Saitama, north of Tokyo, where he had been speaking at a public meeting.

"I don’t think it has been decided where or when, but this is something we must decide very quickly," he added.

Fukuda has said he will visit China from Saturday through Monday and hold talks with the Chinese leadership on the North Korean nuclear crisis. (AGENCIES)

Hyundai chief facing trial commits suicide

SEOUL, Aug 4: A top Hyundai group executive, enmeshed in a payments scandal over a landmark summit between North and South Korea, leapt to his death from his high-rise office building on Monday, police said.

Chung Mong-Hun, 54, jumped from the 12th floor of the Hyundai building in Central Seoul some time after midnight and died at around 2:00 AM local time (1700 gmt, Sunday), police told reporters.

"I ask you all to forgive me for doing this foolish thing," Chung said in one of several suicide notes found in his office from where he is believed to have jumped, domestic media said.

The fifth son of the late Chung Ju-Yung, who founded what was once South Korea’s largest business conglomerate, Chung had been facing trial on charges linked to the secret transfer of 500 million to the communist north before a historic June 2000 summit between the south’s then-President Kim Dae-Jung and the north’s reclusive leader, Kim Jong-Il.

President Roh Moo-Hyun, who five months ago took over a country faced with a slowing economy and an escalating crisis over North Korea’s nuclear ambitions, vowed to push ahead with Chung’s work as chairman of unlisted Hyundai Asan Co in promoting ties with North Korea.

"Regardless of his death, I will try my best to advance current North-South Korea business projects, which must go forward without interruption," Roh said in a statement.

Chung’s company issued a statement saying: "He apologised to the Korean people because of the allegations related to the payment of funds from the company to North Korea."

Chung had been questioned three times by prosecutors in the last two weeks and was also accused of embezzling 15 billion won ( 12.7 million) in company funds.

A frequent visitor to North Korea, he had requested his ashes be scattered at Mount Kumgang, a scenic resort in the north where Hyundai operated ferry tours offering south koreans a rare chance to visit the communist state, the media said.

The "cash-for-summit" scandal, which broke in February, ensnared not only Chung but several top aides to former President Kim Dae-Jung.

Kim Dae-Jung won the nobel peace prize in 2000 for his "sunshine policy" of reconciliation with the north, but the business deals and other exchanges with the north envisioned at the Pyongyang summit floundered amid diplomatic disputes with Seoul’s ally, Washington.

Hyundai Asan did break ground in June on a long-delayed 180 million industrial park in the North Korean city of Kaesong.

However, Government investigators said 500 million in secret payments were funnelled to North Korea from Hyundai Asan with the help of Kim’s aides before the June 2000 summit.

At the time, the opposition was in control of Parliament and a reconciliation with North Korea — which remains technically at war with the south — was controversial.

Hyundai and Government officials said 400 million was used for the company to secure monopoly rights for business and tourism ventures in North Korea. But 100 million was sent just days before Kim Dae-Jung’s landmark handshake with Kim Jong-Il.

Share prices of Hyundai companies fell on the news of Chung’s death, though analysts differed over the impact with some saying his demise could disrupt inter-Korea cooperation while others saw scant effect because much business with the north has been transferred to state-run firms.

Hyundai merchant and marine and four other listed firms that were under Chung’s control fell on average six percent while the broad market finished down one percent.

They are among a small group of former Hyundai group companies that Chung had headed since the conglomerate was split into smaller groups after the 1997 Asian financial crisis. (AGENCIES)

6-month-old Pakistan boy found alive after blast

GAYAL DAREL, PAKISTAN, Aug 4: A six-month-old boy was pulled alive today from the rubble of homes flattened by a huge accidental explosion that killed 47 in a remote village in northern Pakistan, state-run PTV television reported.

Late on Saturday a massive explosion rocked the village of Gayal Darel, not far from the northern Pakistani town of Chilas which lies 200 km north of the capital Islamabad.

Local police said an electrical fault caused a fire in a house, and as villagers crowded around to help put out the flames explosives used for construction work stored in a nearby building went off.

"Six-month-old boy Mehboob-ur-Rahman, buried under the rubble, was rescued this morning," a PTV journalist reported from the village, adding his mother had been killed in the accident.

"He spent over 36 hours without any food and milk. He was smiling while sitting on his grandfather’s lap," he added.

Villagers are still in a state of shock over the tragedy.

Yesterday, thousands of people from surrounding towns and settlements descended on Gayal Darel to offer condolences and help dig the graves of the 47 people confirmed killed.

A solemn funeral service was held on a hilltop close to the site of the blast in the evening. (AGENCIES)

Iran closes in on building nuke bomb: Report

LOS ANGELES, Aug 4: Iran appears to be in the late stages of building a nuclear bomb and has sought help from scientists in Russia, China, North Korea and Pakistan, the Los Angeles Times reported today.

Citing its own three-month investigation into Iran’s clandestine nuclear capacity, The Times said it had strong evidence Iran’s commercial program masked a plan to become the world’s next nuclear power and it was "much closer to producing a bomb than Iraq ever was."

Iran has consistently denied it has plans to build nuclear weapons and has said its program is for peaceful civilian use.

The Times, in the story from Vienna, said it was unclear when Iran might produce its first atomic weapons. Some experts thought two to three years was likely while others believed the Iranian Government had probably not given a final go-ahead.

In Vienna, a spokesman for the International Atomic Energy Agency declined to comment on the story. "We do not comment on media reports," spokesman lothar wedekind told Reuters.

The story cited a confidential report by the French Government in may it said concluded Iran was "surprisingly close" to having enriched uranium or plutonium for a bomb.

Reuters last month reported that UN nuclear inspectors found traces of enriched uranium in environmental samples taken during recent inspections in Iran.

Foreign intelligence officials told The Times the CIA had briefed them on a contingency plan for US air and missile attacks against Iranian nuclear installations.

"It would be foolish not to present the commander in chief with all of the options, including that one," one of the officials was quoted as saying. The CIA declined comment on such a plan to the paper.

The newspaper said North Korean military scientists were recently monitored entering Iranian nuclear facilities and were assisting in the design of a nuclear warhead.

A West Asian intelligence official was also quoted as saying Pakistan’s role in helping iran develop a nuclear program was "bigger from the beginning than we thought."

Russian scientists, sometimes traveling to Iran under false identities and working without their Government’s approval, were also helping to complete a special reactor that could produce weapons-grade plutonium, the paper said.

Tehran has also imported 1.8 tons of nuclear material from China in 1991 and processed some of it to manufacture uranium metal, the report said.

Another indicator Iran was in the late stages of weapons development was the fact that tehran recently approached European companies to buy devices that could manipulate large volumes of radio-active material, technology to forge uranium metal and plutonium and switches that could trigger a nuclear weapon. (AGENCIES)

Palestinian militants threaten new attacks

RAMALLAH, WEST BANK, Aug 4: A local branch of the Al-Aqsa martyrs brigades, a Palestinian militant group, today threatened to break out of a three-month ceasefire to avenge the killing of one of its members by Israel.

The leader of the brigades in the West Bank city of Tulkarm said his group planned revenge for the killing of a man who the army said had been planting a bomb by a road near Tulkarm, but would otherwise stick to the truce.

Branches of the brigades in other parts of the West Bank said they would continue to abide by the ceasefire, announced on June 29 by militant groups leading the almost three-year-old uprising for an independent Palestinian state.

"We in the Al-Aqsa martyrs brigades announce our withdrawal from the ceasefire," the Tulkarm branch said in a statement.

Asked to clarify the statement, Saleh Nassar, the leader of the brigades in Tulkarm, said by telephone: "We are still committed to the truce, but every time they carry out an attack we will respond to that particular attack."

The brigades are armed groups within Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s mainstream Fatah Movement who have carried out suicide bombings and other attacks on Israelis as part of the uprising that began in September 2000.

Khalid Shawish, a brigades leader who has taken refuge in Arafat’s presidential compound in the west bank city of Ramallah, said: "We remain committed to the truce despite the daily Israeli violations."

Brigades leaders in Nablus in the northern West Bank said they would still abide by the truce. (AGENCIES)

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