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Iraq’s aggrieved KUWAIT, Dec 18: Countries around the middle east lined up to sue Saddam Hussein for crimes he allegedly committed against them while he . ....more 70
stories of New York NEW YORK, Dec 18: The skyscraper that will replace the destroyed 110-story twin towers will have just 70 .....more WELLINGTON, Dec 18: A 19-year-old youth was arrested after the car he was driving crashed into another vehicle, killing three people, following an early morning .....more 16
dead in tour bus KIEV, Dec 18: At least 16 people were killed and 20 injured late last night when the.....more |
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Israeli troops kill 5 Palestinian gunmen JERUSALEM, Dec 18: Israeli soldiers killed five armed Palestinian militants in gun battles that erupted during a raid in the west bank city of Nablus early ....more PAF
gets bombs ISLAMABAD, Dec 18: Pakistan’s air force has been equipped with a new bomb for hitting targets beyond the visual range, a news report said today. ....more Singapore arrests future Muslim militant leaders SINGAPORE, Dec 18: Singapore has arrested two Muslims trained in Pakistan .. ....more US
soldier killed in BAGHDAD, Dec 18: A US soldier was killed in an overnight attack in central Baghdad, a....more |
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Iraq’s aggrieved neighbours line up to sue Saddam KUWAIT, Dec 18: Countries around the middle east lined up to sue Saddam Hussein for crimes he allegedly committed against them while he was leader of Iraq. Kuwait, invaded by Iraq in 1990, became the latest of several countries, including Iran and Israel, to say it was preparing a file on alleged crimes and wanted to take part in any trial. The Kuwait news agency quoted Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah as saying yesterday the Foreign and Justice Ministries had been instructed "to prepare a complete file on the crimes committed by Saddam Hussein against Kuwait and its people". Saddam is in us custody after his capture on Saturday by US forces from a pit hideout near his home town of Tikrit. The US-backed governing council said he was being held in the Baghdad area and would face a public trial in Iraq. Washington has said it would help ensure the court meets international standards. After Saddam’s capture, Iran said it was preparing a criminal complaint to present to any international Court that might try Saddam over the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, in which about 300,000 Iranians were killed, many in chemical weapons attacks. "The Foreign Ministry has taken some measures on this issue and has collected the necessary documents. I hope we can defend Iranians’ rightful demands at a proper place," Government Spokesman Abdollah Ramazanzadeh said on Monday. Ramazanzadeh said that while the Iraqi people have priority in trying Saddam, "that doesn’t negate the rights of others for filing a suit at international circles against him". Israel, which came under Iraqi scud missile attack in the 1991 Gulf war, has said it wants Saddam prosecuted for crimes it says he committed against the Jewish state. Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz told lawmakers during a closed-door session of Parliament’s security committee on Monday that Israel wanted Saddam to stand trial for the missile attacks and for funding Palestinian suicide bombers. On Wednesday, a group of Lebanese clerics said they planned to sue Saddam for torture and imprisonment they said they endured while studying Shi’ite Islam in Iraq, home to some of the holiest Shi’ite centres. "Lebanese clerics who were harmed by Saddam Hussein’s crimes have decided to file a lawsuit against the deposed Iraqi President and demand the fate of missing Lebanese clerics and other innocent people be revealed," leading Lebanese cleric Sheikh Afif Al-Nabulsi said in a statement. "In a personal capacity, we also decided to sue the deposed Iraqi President...For what he committed in torture and imprisonment without charge against us," said Nabulsi, without saying how many clerics planned to sue. A senior official of the US State department said after Saddam’s capture that Washington reserved the right to bring its own charges against the man US-led forces ousted in April. The official, who asked not to be named, declined to say whether the United States might seek to prosecute Saddam for an alleged 1993 Iraqi assassination attempt against former US President George Bush. In Iraq itself, the governing council has said that charges against Saddam could focus on the campaign against the Kurds in the 1980s, the suppression of the Kurdish and Shi’ite uprisings after the Gulf war, and the punishment of the marsh Arabs. (AGENCIES) |
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70 stories of New York WTC tower to be occupied NEW YORK, Dec 18: The skyscraper that will replace the destroyed 110-story twin towers will have just 70 stories of occupied space but will still be the world’s tallest structure, the leaseholder said, two days before the official unveiling of the so-called "freedom tower." Developer Larry Silverstein said in a speech to building industry leaders yesterday that an unoccupied section of the tower would support TV antenna on top and push the height to 1,776 feet (541 metres), symbolic of the date of US independence. Seventy floors were intended for offices, the 71st and 72nd levels would contain restaurants and the 73rd level would be a viewing floor, Silverstein said of the tower, about which only a few details were known. "It will be both magnificent and practical. It will be a soaring new landmark. It will define the skyline of New York," Silverstein told the New York building Congress, a policy group in the design, construction and real estate industry. Officials were scheduled to unveil the design of the World Trade Center site’s signature skyscraper on Friday, two years and three months after the Sept 11 attacks destroyed the buildings and killed nearly 2,800 people. Architects have put a premium on safety and an environmentally friendly structure for what would be the world’s tallest, officials said. The buildings regarded as the world’s highest are the petronas towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, at 452 metres. The lower Manhattan Development Corporation said architects David Childs and Daniel Libeskind had reached a compromise over the design. They said it included Libeskind’s concept of a spire evoking the statue of liberty and childs’ idea of electricity-generating wind turbines. Silverstein, 72, gave the industry group an outline of the 6.4-hectare site’s rebuilding process. He put the cost at up to 12 billion over 10 years. Previous estimates had put the cost at between 4 billion dollars and 7 billion dollars. Silverstein said he expected 7 billion dollars to come from insurance proceeds — an amount that is the subject of a bitter lawsuit between the leaseholder and insurance companies. He said 5 billion dollars would come from Government sources. A cornerstone would be laid on the "freedom tower" by Sept 11, 2004 and it would be finished by the end of 2008 or the beginning of 2009, he said. New York Govt George Pataki, who has final authority over the land owned by the port authority of New York and New Jersey, has set 2015 as the completion date of the project. It will include a memorial to the 2,752 victims, a transportation hub, commercial and residential space, a museum and other cultural facilities. (AGENCIES) |
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WELLINGTON, Dec 18: A 19-year-old youth was arrested after the car he was driving crashed into another vehicle, killing three people, following an early morning police chase in Auckland today. Police said he could face homicide charges. Police said they had abandoned their pursuit of a car containing four people, who were suspected of drinking alcohol, as too dangerous only seconds before it crashed into another vehicle, killing the two occupants immediately. A male passenger in the car being chased died and another was seriously injured, but the driver, who was later arrested, escaped with only moderate injuries. The crash came only hours after a coroner had called for big changes to the police policy on pursuits. The coroner called for the changes following an inquest into the death of a teenager whose car was hit by a motorcyclist being chased at speeds of up to 190 kilometres an hour. The motorcyclists also died in that crash. (DPA) |
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16 dead in tour bus accident on Black Sea KIEV, Dec 18: At least 16 people were killed and 20 injured late last night when the tour bus they were travelling in slid into a ditch on a mountain road heading to the Black Sea. It is unknown why the tour bus fell from the roadway on the peninsula of Crimea, reported officials. (DPA) |
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Israeli troops kill 5 Palestinian gunmen JERUSALEM, Dec 18: Israeli soldiers killed five armed Palestinian militants in gun battles that erupted during a raid in the west bank city of Nablus early today, Palestinian sources said. All of the men were shot dead in fighting in the city’s old quarter, the sources said. Israeli military sources said they were only aware of troops having killed four Palestinian gunmen, including one who tried to plant a bomb against Israeli forces. (AGENCIES) |
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PAF gets bombs for "beyond visual range’’ targets ISLAMABAD, Dec 18: Pakistan’s air force has been equipped with a new bomb for hitting targets beyond the visual range, a news report said today. The H-4 bomb gives PAF the capability to evade enemy radar and hit an out-of-sight target from a distance of 120 kilometres, the daily newspaper Dawn reported, quoting official sources. "It is a step towards adding the BVR (Beyond Visual Range) missiles to our arsenal for defensive purposes and to address the strategic imbalance in the region," the sources said. A lighter version of the bomb, the H-2, can hit out-of-sight targets from a distance of 60 kilometres, the report said. According to the newspaper the bombs have been produced by the national engineering and scientific commission, the Pakistan missile organization and the air weapons complex by modifying the design of the South African T-darter BVR missiles. (DPA) |
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Singapore arrests future Muslim militant leaders SINGAPORE, Dec 18: Singapore has arrested two Muslims trained in Pakistan and Afghanistan to eventually lead the Al-Qaeda-linked militant group Jemaah Islamiah, the Government of the city state said today. It said the two men were groomed by the brother of Hambali, a militant accused of masterminding bombings in southeast Asia, in handling weapons, explosives and carrying out espionage and urban warfare. (AGENCIES) |
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US soldier killed in Baghdad ambush BAGHDAD, Dec 18: A US soldier was killed in an overnight attack in central Baghdad, a US military spokeswoman said today. The death to hostile fire was the first combat fatality suffered by US troops since the announcement on Sunday of the capture of ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. The spokeswoman said a patrol from the first armored division was attacked in Al-Karradah neighbourhood of Baghdad at local time 10:30 PM (1930 GMT) last evening. She did not give further details on the ambush. Four hours later, an explosive device blow up near a US patrol in another district of Baghdad, wounding a soldier and an Iraqi translator, she said. The latest casualty brought to 199 the number of soldiers killed in Iraq by hostile fire since Washington declared major combat over on May 1. (AGENCIES) |
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‘Terrorists’ trying to sabotage peace process in Afghanistan KABUL, Dec 18: Afghan authorities said today they had received reports indicating that "terrorist" groups are planning to sabotage activities against the peace process in war-ravaged Afghanistan. But Afghan Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali told a news briefing in the capital Kabul that despite warnings by ousted Taliban loyalists to disrupt the country’s grand assembly (loya Jirga), no major incidents have occurred. "We have received reports indicating that the terrorist groups are endeavouring to perform sabotaging activities against the peace process in Afghanistan," Jalali said. "By creating fear among people, distributing leaflets and exploding mines, they (terrorists) want to bring an atmosphere of insecurity to the war-torn country," he added. However, he said Afghan security forces have neutralized the terrorist activities so far. He revealed that since last week, several mines were neutralized across the country, including one in front of a Chinese restaurant in Kabul last night. Jalali also said the security forces have discovered 80 rockets and some other ammunition from surrounding areas of kabul. ‘’these rockets could target Afghan capital,’’ Jalali said. Jalali’s comments came as more than 500 Afghan delegates are gathered in Kabul, under a giant German-donated tent, to debate a draft constitution proposed by US-backed President Hamid Karzai. Remnants of the Taliban, toppled by a US-led military coalition in late 2001, have warned Afghans to disrupt the proceedings and said that delegates deserve to die. Earlier Tuesday, two explosions exploded within minutes of each other in Kabul, several kilometers from the meeting site, but caused no casualties. Jalali said those who fired the rockets will be arrested soon, but provided no detailed information. (DPA) China appoints envoy for Korean nuclear issues BEIJING, Dec 18: China has appointed an Ambassador for nuclear issues on the Korean peninsula, consolidating Beijing’s widely applauded efforts to end the crisis over North Korea’s weapons plans. Ambassador Ning Fukui is a long-time Foreign Ministry official who last served as Ambassador to Cambodia and previously worked on east Asian affairs, ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told reporters. "He will broadly have contact and consult with all the parties concerned in nuclear issues on the Korean peninsula and at the same time help with coordination," Liu said, without giving details. China has played an active role in trying to end the current crisis, which erupted in October 2002 when US officials said Pyongyang had admitted to a covert weapons programme. Beijing hosted a round of inconclusive talks with the United States, North Korea, South Korea, Japan and Russia in August, and has been trying to bring the parties together for a second round. Much of the Chinese diplomacy both before the first six-way talks and since has been in the hands of vice foreign ministers. (AGENCIES) US moves to reduce diplomatic presence in Saudi WASHINGTON, Dec 18: The United States moved to reduce its diplomatic presence in Saudi Arabia by offering free flights home to nonessential diplomats and to all embassy dependents because of "ongoing security concerns." The state department also advised private US citizens to consider leaving the country, standard advice that it gives whenever it makes the offer to pay for nonessential diplomats and dependents who wish to leave. While the offer falls short of ordering diplomats out, it reflects the acute US security worries in the kingdom, which has seen several residential compounds for expatriates attacked this year. On May 12, suicide bombers killed about 35 people, including nine Americans, at housing compounds in Riyadh. "The decision to authorize voluntary departure is based on the reality that the terrorist threat in Saudi Arabia remains at a critical level," said state department spokesman Lou Fintor, adding that several dozen people were eligible for the flights out. The decision to offer free flights home to nonessential diplomats and embassy dependents was announced in a state department travel warning that largely echoed previous statements about threats in Saudi Arabia. "Due to ongoing security concerns ... The department of state authorized the departure, on a voluntary basis, of family members and nonemergency personnel of the US embassy and consulates in Saudi Arabia," the travel warning said. "Private American citizens should evaluate their own security situations and should consider departing the country." "The US Government continues to receive indications of terrorist threats aimed at American and western interests, including the targeting of transportation and civil aviation," it added in language identical to its last warning on Dec 8. "Credible information indicates that terrorists continue to target residential compounds in Saudi Arabia, particularly in the Riyadh area, but also compounds throughout the country." Earlier this month the US embassy said it had confined US diplomats and their families to the diplomatic quarter of Riyadh because of security concerns and it urged americans to defer nonessential travel to the kingdom. (AGENCIES) |
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