US justifies sponsoring a seminar on Kashmir in Washington

NEW DELHI, July 5: The United States today justified its State department sponsoring a seminar on Kashmir earlier this week in Washington but made it clear that this did not signal any "intent" or "attempt" to mediate.

"Sponsoring a discussion on the Kashmir issue does not signal any intent or attempt to mediate between the parties," a US embassy spokesman told PTI.

He was asked about a news report which said the External Affairs Ministry had expressed its disapproval to the US Deputy Chief of Mission Al Thibault over the holding of such a seminar as also extending invitation to Mehbooba Mufti, Chief of the People’s Democratic Party and daugther of J and K Chief Minister, to attend the State department-sponsored seminar.

It was reportedly conveyed that it was a sensitive issue between India and Pakistan and Washington should not intervene.

The US Embassy Spokesman said "routine internal conferences take place all the time" on being asked whether mea made out a Demarche to Thibault and did not wish to go beyond his response.

Mehbooba, chief of the People’s Democratic Party, did not attend the conference entitled "Kashmir re-visited" held on July 1 and organised by the Bureau of Intelligence and Research of the State Department.

"As many foreign affairs’ issues are exceedingly complex, it is both prudent and appropriate to supplement our information by seeking additional information and insight from experts in academia, business, non-Governmental organisations, journalism and elsewhere," the US Embassy Spokesman said.

The US Embassy Spokesman said "one way we do this is through conferences and seminar organised by the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research. The Bureau organises more than 100 conferences and seminars for the department".

Confirming that the conference ‘Kashmir-re-visited’ was held in Washington earlier this month, he said "a variety of panelists spoke about the current situation and prospects for resolution (of the Kashmir issue). The Bureau hosted a similar Conference in April, 2001."

He emphatically stated that "neither the topics nor the participants are selected with an eye toward making a political settlement". (PTI)

US neurosurgeon urges Iranian conjoined twins to stay positive

SINGAPORE, July 5: Conjoined Iranian twins were urged to "stay positive" today before the unprecedented separation operation that could cost them their lives, Raffles hospital said.

Dr Ben Carson, a renowned neurosurgeon from the United States participating in tomorrow’s surgery on the sisters joined at the head, said he was optimistic.

"Rest assured, we’re all here to help you," Carson told Ladan and Laleh Bijani hopeful of a successful outcome enabling them to lead separate lives.

"Please stay positive," said Carson, Director of Paediatric Neurosurgery at the John Hopkins Medical Institutions in Baltimore, Maryland. Carson has successfully separated three sets of infant twins joined at the head.

Ladan and Laleh, 29, are the first conjoined adults to undergo the surgery, undeterred by the risks of death to one or both or severe disabilities.

The physicians believe in the success of the operation because the twins have anatomically intact and individual brains contained in a single skull case.

But the risks lie largely in their shared major vein draining blood from the brain.

"Visibly nervous as the big day approaches," the sisters said they were reassured by Carson’s "calming presence," according to a hospital update.

Dr Keith Goh is leading the 28-member operating team including Carson and experts from the France, Japan and Switzerland in addition to Singapore. As the operation is expected to last at least 48 hours, the doctors will work in shifts.

What the hospital described at "stage one" started on Saturday with the physicians carrying out final radiologic tests to map out the pattern of blood flow in the brain.

Led by French Neuro-Radiologist Dr Pierre Lasjaunias, the team planned to repeat detailed scans of the brain to reconfirm the vascular anatomy of the head and neck.

"The team will also carry out an endovascular balloon occlusion test to identify alternative blood channels to determine if a bypass is necessary," the hospital statement said.

After nearly three decades of sacrifices to accommodate each other, the women say they can no longer bear to continue life conjoined.

Although both are Law Graduates from Teheran University, Laleh wants to become a journalist in Tehran and Laden wants to practice in her home town of Shiraz.

German doctors turned the Bijanis away in 1996, deeming the operation too dangerous.

The blood bank here said it has enough supplies for the Bijanis after members of the Iranian community here responded to the hospital’s call for donors.

Ladan and Laleh also donated their own blood in case it is needed for the surgery or during recovery.

The Bijanis arrived in the city-State last November, inspired by the success of the Singapore team in separating 10-month-old Nepalese twins in April 2001. (DPA)

Pak police arrest leading Islamic militant

LAHORE, Pakistan, July 5: Pakistani police have arrested a prominent Islamic militant belonging a group which has been blamed for many sectarian killings and has been linked to the murder of US reporter Daniel Pearl, officials said today.

Allah Wasaya was detained in Lahore. Police did not say which crimes the militant was wanted for, but a senior police official told Reuters: "He was one of the most wanted members of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi."

Lashkar-e-Jhangvi was declared a terrorist organisation by the United States earlier this year.

The authorities had a one million rupee (17,300 dollars) price tag on Wasaya’s head.

The arrest was not believed to be directly linked to a sectarian attack on a Shi’ite Muslim mosque in Quetta on Friday in which 47 people were killed and 65 injured.

But security sources have named Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a Sunni Muslim group, as one of the prime suspects in the suicide attack, Pakistan’s worst in several years.

Pakistan officials say the group had close ties to Afghanistan’s former Taliban regime and forged links with Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network, which is blamed for the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

In Pakistan, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi is blamed for dozens of deadly attacks on the minority Shi’ite community since the mid-1990s.

Police have also linked the group to attacks on western targets in Karachi in 2002 — the kidnap and murder of US reporter Pearl and a car bomb killing 14 people including 11 Frenchmen. It is also accused of the massacre of 17 Christians in October 2001. (AGENCIES)

8 killed in clashes in North Afghanistan

MAZAR-I-SHARIF, AFGHANISTAN, July 5: Eight people have been killed in the latest clashes between factions in Northern Afghanistan where british forces are heading this month to help the Government tackle lawlessness.

The violence came after the Afghan Government said it had worked out a plan to ease tension in the volatile north and the two main factions had agreed to demilitarise its main city, Mazar-i-Sharif.

Fighters from the two main rival factions, both of whose leaders are members of the transitional Government, have clashed repeatedly in Mazar-i-Sharif and surrounding areas since the Taliban regime was ousted in 2001.

In the latest fighting, two people were killed and one wounded last night in a battle between the forces of ethnic Uzbek warlord General Abdul Rashid Dostum and ethnic Tajik Commander Ustad Atta Mohammad, a senior official in Atta’s force said today.

But an official in Dostum’s faction said his men were not involved in the fighting and it was an internal clash among Atta’s men.

In a separate incident, four civilians and two fighters were killed in a battle between Dostum’s and Atta’s fighters in Mazar’s Sholgara district late on Thursday, said the Atta faction official, General Abdul Saboor.

The clashes in the north, which have continued despite repeated efforts to broker a truce, have disrupted operations by aid agencies and cast into question the ability of President Hamid Karzai’s Government to impose its authority.

Afghanistan has a 5,000-strong force of peacekeepers in Kabul but western powers have turned down Government requests to expand the force into the provinces where warlords and commanders rule with their personal militias.

Britain has said it is sending what is known as a provincial reconstruction team of about 50 troops and civilian staff to Mazar-i-Sharif this month to help improve dialogue between warlords and politicians.

Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali said on Thursday the factions had supported a plan to withdraw their forces from Mazar-i-Sharif city.

Jalali also said faction authorities in Mazar had asked for at least 200 British troops for the reconstruction team. (AGENCIES)

Security beefed up in Irish

DRUMCREE, NORTHERN IRELAND, July 5: Security forces in Northern Ireland put up barricades and barbed wire next to a rural church today as they prepared for the most contentious protestant parade of the province’s "marching season".

Around 2,000 police and troops will be on duty tomorrow, equipped with guns firing plastic baton rounds and water cannon in case of violence at the Drumcree Parade, which marks the start of a tense week in the British ruled province.

Five years ago a decision to ban protestant marchers on the parade from a Catholic area sparked widespread violence.

But there remains optimism the province’s most bitter sectarian dispute may be drawing to a close.

"This may be the last time we have to mount a blockade, that’s a possibility rather than a probability," Assistant Chief Constable Stephen White, in charge of security at tomorrow’s parade, told Reuters.

For many, Drumcree has become a symbol of the wider dispute between catholics, who mostly want an end to British rule in Northern Ireland, and protestants committed to preserving it.

This year the marching season takes on extra significance, with politicians on both sides warning a troubled summer could harm efforts in the autumn to revive the stalled powersharing Government.

Direct rule from London was reimposed last October when the protestant/catholic administration broke down in a row over allegations of spying by the Irish Republican Army.

The protestant marching season celebrates the victory of King William of orange over the deposed Catholic Monarch James II at the battle of the Boyne in 1690.

Most parades pass off peacefully, but those like Drumcree which go through or near catholic districts have often provoked violence.

The steel barricade across the road beneath Drumcree Parish Church will prevent the orangemen passing along the overwhelming Catholic Garvaghy road. They have been barred from the road since 1998.

The orangemen say their parades, in which members Don Bowler hats and orange sashes and march to drum and flute bands, are part of their protestant cultural tradition. (AGENCIES)

Islamic militants in Pak file appeal against death sentence

KARACHI, July 5: Two Islamic militants sentenced to death by an anti-terrorism court in Karachi today moved an appeal against the verdict, their lawyer said.

Asif Zaheer and Mohammad Bashir were sentenced to death Monday after a special court found them guilty of terrorism, murder and the use of explosives in a May 8, 2002 suicide bomb attack on a Pakistan Navy bus which killed 13, including 11 French Naval Engineers.

"I have filed the appeal on behalf of my clients Zaheer and Bashir and prayed for their acquittal at the Sindh High Court," lawyer M R Syed said.

The convicts had seven days to file an appeal under Pakistan’s anti-terrorism laws.

An appeal for the third convict Mohammad Sohail, who was tried and sentenced to death in absentia, was not yet filed.

"Since he is an absconder and the court itself had arranged the lawyer for Sohail on state expense, I cannot file appeal on his behalf," Syed said.

He said there was no case against his clients: "There was no eye witness, no credible evidence, and even their confessional statements were not recorded according to the legal requirements."

Five suspects in the attack are still at large, although one of them, Adnan Qamar, was also tried in absentia and acquitted. Three other fugitives could not be tried for lack of documentation. (DPA)

US Pentagon sends military assessment team to Liberia

WASHINGTON, July 5: A team of 10 to 15 US military experts are to be sent to Liberia in the coming days to assess the possibilities of a US military deployment in the West African nation, US media reports said today.

The assessment team, who were ordered to the region by US President George W Bush yesterday, is to arrive this weekend in the country’s capital of Monrovia.

The team will to report to general James Jones, who leads United States European command in Stuttgart, Germany. Jones is in charge of preparing for a possible US deployment.

Although the White House stressed that a decision to deploy troops to Liberia has not been decided, the New York Times reported that the action is practically settled.

According to the US newspaper, the Pentagon is considering between 500 and 2000 troops for a deployment of up to three months.

Afterwards, peacekeeping duties are to be taken over by a United Nations Force or Peacekeepers of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) who on Friday in Ghana announced the availability of 3,000 troops for that purpose. (DPA)

Musharraf believes Osama could be in Pakistan

PARIS, July 5: Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden could be hiding in Pakistan protected by a small group, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said in a interview published here today.

"If he is protected by a big group, I think that Bin Laden is on the Afghan side of the border (with Pakistan).... If the group has less than 10 people, he could be in Pakistan," Musharraf told Le Monde newspaper.

A big group could not hide the Saudi-born dissident because Pakistan had deployed 6,000 soldiers to the border area with Afghanistan, supported by a rapid reaction force and technology paid for with foreign aid, the President explained.

"The problem is in Afghanistan, where there is a total power vacuum. The weight of the Government does not go beyond the capital (Kabul)," he said.

The President called on the Afghan Government, the multinational peacekeeping force in Kabul and US troops to move into rural Afghan areas to prevent them from being dominated by individual warlords.

Musharraf also told the daily that he would not step down as President and head of the armed forces until a long-lasting, stable democracy had taken root in the Asia nation.

"I have made my choice. I will not take off my uniform until democracy is stabilised in Pakistan. I know that I will have to take off this uniform one day but I will decide when the time is right," he said. (AFP)

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