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Updated on October 25, 2002 |
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clips are sponsored by the Indian American Center for Political Awareness (www.)
--- South Asian News, August 18, 2002 ---
Pakistan is seeking the release of dozens of its nationals held at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay. India plans to start production of an intermediate-range missile capable of carrying nuclear weapons. Pakistani police arrest five Somali nationals with possible links to al-Qaida. Kashmiri separatists say they are willing to talk with the Indian Prime Minister. In the editorial: President Pervez Musharraf is moving Pakistan back to the brink with India to secure his political postion. Coca-Cola India plans to sell 49 percent of its equity in its wholly owned Indian subsidiary.
Top Stories
* Pakistan seeks release of dozens held by US in Cuba (Wall Street Journal) (Washington Post) (Boston Globe) (SF Gate)
* Christian school in Pakistan closes after attack (Wall Street Journal) (NY Times) (Washington Post) (SF Gate)
* Production to start on two Indian missiles (NY Times)
* Indian Cabinet sets up Election Commission clash on Gujarat (Wall Street Journal)
* First private mediation in Kashmir reports some success (Wall Street Journal)
* Kashmiri separatists say will talk with Indian Prime Minister (Wall Street Journal) (NY Times) (Washington Post) (Las Vegas Sun) (Voice of America)
* Indian citizen group talks to Kashmiri separatists (Washington Post)
* India forces claim 6 Islamic rebels killed in Kashmir (Wall Street Journal) (NY Times)
* WSJ reporter Pearl slain after trying to escape (Wall Street Journal) (USA Today) (Washington Post) (Boston Globe) (SF Gate)
* Pakistan arrests Somalis; looking into al-Qaida links (Wall Street Journal) (NY Times) (Washington Post)
* Tamil rebel group takes sea passage to their homes in Sri Lanka (Wall Street Journal)
* Pakistani group said to plan attacks (Washington Post) (Boston Herald)
* Kashmir leader condemns India, Pakistan (Washington Times)
* Sri Lankan PM urges patience on road to peace (NY Times)
* Pakistan gang-rape trial proceeds (Washington Post)
* Corrupt tax and revenue officials detained in Nepal (Wall Street Journal)
Editorial/Op-Ed
* Deadly minuet (Washington Post)
* Islamic schools create Pakistani dilemma (Washington Times)
* Himalayan crossroads (Washington Times)
* Indian starts a campaign against cash for Hindu militants (NY Times)
Business/Technology
* Coca-Cola India to sell equity (Washington Post)
* Does corporate India doctor its books? (Washington Times)
Other Stories
* Mother Teresa sainthood moves along (NY Times) (Washington Post) (Boston Globe) (SF Gate)
* Shyamalan succeeds with populist touch (Houston Chronicle)
Top Stories
* Pakistan seeks release of dozens held by US in Cuba
August 17, Islamabad -- Pakistan is seeking the release of dozens of its nationals held at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba because of alleged links to Osama bin Laden's terror network, Pakistani officials said Saturday. A team of Pakistan anti-terrorism experts visited Guantanamo recently to interrogate Pakistanis and others held there. Most of the 40 to 45 Pakistani prisoners there were not hard-core al-Qaida members but simply ordinary people who went to Afghanistan to fight for the Taliban during last year's U.S. military campaign, an Interior Ministry official said on condition of anonymity.
(Subscription Required)
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,BT_CO_20020817_000029,00.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/AAug17.html
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/230/nation/Pakistan_calls_on_US_to_free_some_inmates+.shtml
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2002/08/17/international0754EDT0497.DTL
* Christian school in Pakistan closes after attack
August 17, Islamabad -- A Christian school attacked last week by Islamic militants has closed its doors for the rest of the year, the school board announced. The decision, posted on the Murree Christian School's Web site, comes at a time when many Western governments are urging their nationals to leave Pakistan amid fears of a renewed wave of terrorism. Authorities believe the extremists are targeting Christians and Westerners in Pakistan in retaliation for the government's support for the U.S.-led war on terrorism.
(Subscription Required)
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,BT_CO_20020817_000012,00.html
(Registration Required)
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Pakistan-Christian-School.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/AAug17.html
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2002/08/17/international0345EDT0454.DTL
* Production to start on two Indian missiles
August 16, New Delhi -- India plans to start production of an intermediate-range missile that is capable of carrying nuclear weapons, government officials said today. The Agni missile, which is now in field trials, has a range of 1,500 miles, sufficient to hit most targets in neighboring Pakistan and deep into China. The government also announced that it would begin production of a short-range, supersonic cruise missile called the Brahmos, which can be launched from ships, submarines and planes and has a range of 185 miles.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/17/international/asia/17INDI.html
* Indian Cabinet sets up Election Commission clash on Gujarat
New Delhi -- India's Cabinet on Sunday refused to immediately accept a decision by election officials to defer voting in the western state of Gujarat, where more than 1,000 people were killed early this year in the nation's worst Hindu-Muslim rioting in a decade.
Information and Broadcasting Minister Sushma Swaraj was speaking two days after the independent Election Commission rejected a recommendation by the government that elections for Gujarat's state legislature be held immediately.
(Subscription Required)
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,BT_CO_20020818_000084-search,00.html
* First private mediation in Kashmir reports some success
Srinagar, India -- Private mediators wrapped up a three-day visit to the troubled province of Kashmir on Sunday after successfully persuading separatist groups to meet with the Indian prime minister to discuss a political settlement of the Kashmir dispute. But the Kashmir Committee, headed by former law minister Ram Jethmalani, failed to persuade the separatists to take part in upcoming local elections seen as important for the stability of India's only majority Muslim state.
(Subscription Required)
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,BT_CO_20020818_000083-search,00.html
* Kashmiri separatists say will talk with Indian Prime Minister
August 17, Srinagar, India -- The main separatist organization in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir is refusing to participate in elections seen as key for the troubled region's stability but said Saturday it has accepted an offer to hold talks with India's prime minister. Abdul Ghani Bhat spoke after leaders of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, an alliance of 23 political and religious groups, met with a mediator trying to persuade separatists in India's only majority Muslim state to field candidates in legislative elections that start next month.
(Subscription Required)
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,BT_CO_20020817_000072-search,00.html
(Registration Required)
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Kashmir-Elections.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/AAug18.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/AAug17.html
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/w-asia/2002/aug/18/081807147.html
http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=BF47A0AD-ACF9-4C7D-846C4E83786650DA
* Indian citizen group talks to Kashmiri separatists
August 17, Srinagar, India -- A group of Indian academics and journalists met Kashmir's main separatist alliance on Saturday and agreed to meet again in the hope of promoting a negotiated settlement in the troubled Himalayan region. The Kashmir Committee, headed by former federal law minister Ram Jethmalani, was set up last month to work for peace in the region at the heart of a military standoff between nuclear-armed neighbors India and Pakistan.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/AAug17.html
* India forces claim 6 Islamic rebels killed in Kashmir
Srinagar, India -- The bodies of three more suspected Islamic guerrillas were recovered Sunday near a border village in the disputed province of Kashmir, bringing the death toll from an overnight gun battle to six, security forces said. Indian Army and Border Security Force soldiers fought the alleged Pakistan-based militants after they crossed into Indian-controlled Kashmir on Saturday near the village of Wandihopar, force spokesman Tirath Acharya said.
(Subscription Required)
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,BT_CO_20020818_000049-search,00.html
(Registration Required)
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-kashmir-guerrillas.html
* WSJ reporter Pearl slain after trying to escape
Karachi, Pakistan -- Wall Street Journal correspondent Daniel Pearl was slain by an Arab after he tried to escape from kidnappers who had seized him eight days earlier, police investigators said Sunday. Two investigators, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the information was gleaned from three men who led police in May to a dismembered body that was identified by DNA tests as Pearl.
(Subscription Required)
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,BT_CO_20020818_000046-search,00.html
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/-pearl_x.htm
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/AAug18.html
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/231/nation/Militants_say_Pearl_killed_after_escape_try+.shtml
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2002/08/18/international1344EDT0461.DTL
* Pakistan arrests Somalis; looking into al-Qaida links
Peshawar, Pakistan -- Special Pakistani police forces said Sunday that they had arrested five Somali nationals with possible links to al-Qaida. The men were detained during a raid of their house about 2:00 a.m. local time in University Town, a new section of Peshawar, said a police official speaking on customary condition of anonymity. The detainees, all of whose visas had expired, were in the custody of investigators.
(Subscription Required)
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,BT_CO_20020818_000040-search,00.html
(Registration Required)
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Pakistan-Somalis-Arrested.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/AAug18.html
* Tamil rebel group takes sea passage to their homes in Sri Lanka
A group of Tamil Tiger rebels set off Sunday on their first sea voyage to their homes in the nation's east using a sea route that had until last week been blocked by security forces, a top official said. About 170 Tamil Tigers left for Vakari, a rebel-held area in the east, in four vessels following a government decision last week to allow the rebels access to sea passage from the country's north to the east, said Hagrup Haukland, the deputy head of the Scandinavian mission.
(Subscription Required)
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,BT_CO_20020818_000015-search,00.html
* Pakistani group said to plan attacks
Islamabad -- The head of a gang of pro-al-Qaida Islamic militants claimed responsibility for two recent deadly attacks on Christian churches and said the group had planned to blow up at least six churches, high-ranking officials said Sunday. Saifu-ur-Rehman, alleged leader of the outlawed Lashkar-e-Jhangvi movement, told investigators that the group was planning to blow up at least six churches in cities throughout Pakistan's eastern Punjab province, senior police and Interior Ministry officials told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/AAug18.html
http://www2.bostonherald.com/news/international/ap_paki08182002.htm
* Kashmir leader condemns India, Pakistan
August 16, Islamabad -- Kashmiri separatist leader Amanullah Khan termed both India and Pakistan as real enemies of the Kashmiri people. Khan, who is the chairman of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front, also said both governments were depriving their own people through huge defense expenditures. He said the common "rhetoric of 'integral part' and 'jugular vein' by the two countries, and of readiness to teach a lesson to each other, instead of talking of peace and friendship, harmed one-fifth of humanity, putting it in danger of a nuclear war."
http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/r.htm
* Sri Lankan PM urges patience on road to peace
August 17, Trinconmalee, Sri Lanka -- Sri Lanka's prime minister appealed for patience Saturday in his first public statement since the government and Tamil Tiger rebels agreed a timeframe for the start of peace talks. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said it would take time to end the 19-year conflict, which has cost more than 64,000 lives and stifled economic development in the Indian Ocean island. ``Going with a fixed plan is like trying to remove a land mine in one go,'' Wickremesinghe told his ruling United National Party's convention in the northeastern port city of Trincomalee, speaking in Sinhala.
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http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-srilanka-peace.html
* Pakistan gang-rape trial proceeds
August 17, Dera Ghazi Khan, Pakistan -- A woman who accused four men of raping her as tribal punishment is married to one of her alleged attackers, a defense witness said Saturday in surprise testimony that could exonerate the accused if the court accepts it. However, the special prosecutor claimed the witness was lying to protect his son, who is accused of sodomizing the victim's brother.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/AAug17.html
* Corrupt tax and revenue officials detained in Nepal
Kathmandu -- Anti-corruption authorities in Nepal detained at least 17 tax officials after discovering unaccounted wealth during a weekend raid on their houses. Investigators found property, cash and jewelry, which these people could have never acquired through legal means, said Surya Nath Upadhaya, the chief of the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority.
(Subscription Required)
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,BT_CO_20020818_000011-search,00.html
Editorial/Op-Ed
* Deadly minuet
Pushed back from impending military conflict in June by forceful U.S. diplomatic intervention, India and Pakistan have resumed their deadly minuet of threat and counterthreat. Iraq is not the only locale that war threatens to visit and devastate this winter. On present trends the end of 2002 will be a season of widespread conflict: American troops will still be in Afghanistan hunting al Qaeda; Israelis and Palestinians locked in a seemingly unbreakable cycle of terror and retaliation may fight on; the U.S. campaign for regime change in Iraq will be approaching its military go-or-no-go point. You can now add to that bleak picture the news that President Pervez Musharraf is moving Pakistan back to the brink with India to secure his increasingly shaky grip on power at home.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/AAug16.html
* Islamic schools create Pakistani dilemma
August 17, Washington -- In Pakistan, more than 1.5 million children attend religious schools called madrasas, producing thousands of eager volunteers for Muslim causes every year, says the country's Ministry for Religious Affairs. The ministry says that there are at least 10,000 madrasas in the country, but private sources say it may be as high as 25,000. According to a Brussels-based think-tank, International Crisis Group, nearly one-third of school-going children in Pakistan go to the religious schools.
http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/r.htm
* Himalayan crossroads
August 17 -- Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba's decision to dissolve Nepal's parliament and elect a new one Nov. 13 amid a Maoist guerrilla war has split the ruling party. But many who are skeptical about a wartime vote see a worse alternative: Rule by royal decree. Nepal's Supreme Court last week upheld Mr. Deuba's decisions, terming them a political matter. The court's 11-member special bench said in its Aug. 6 opinion that dissolving parliament is the prime minister's prerogative and rejected the petitioners' claim that he could not order fresh elections during the state of emergency imposed last November to fight a Maoist insurgency.
http://washingtontimes.com/world/.htm
* Indian starts a campaign against cash for Hindu militants
Shabnam Hashmi never imagined herself leading an international campaign until she came from New Delhi to New York in July to implore Indian-Americans not to send money to militant Hindu organizations in India that she says are leading the country away from secularism into Hindu nationalism and religious violence. What put Ms. Hashmi on the road with her one-woman tour - she spoke in a telephone interview from Atlanta after stops in the Midwest, Texas, California and Seattle - were the Hindu attacks on Muslims in the state of Gujarat beginning in late February that left hundreds dead, according to Indian government figures. Independent Indian and international human rights groups have estimated that at least 1,000 people were killed, possibly 2,000 or more.
(Registration Required)
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/18/international/asia/18HIND.html
Business/Technology
* Coca-Cola India to sell equity
August 16, New Delhi -- The Indian arm of Coca-Cola Co. said Friday it plans to sell 49 percent of its equity in its wholly owned Indian subsidiary. Coca-Cola India will sell up to 39 percent of its stake in Hindustan Coca-Cola Holdings to private investors and business partners including bottlers and suppliers, a company statement said. The remaining 10 percent will be sold to welfare and stock option trusts of Indian employees.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/AAug16.html
* Does corporate India doctor its books?
August 17, Calcutta, India -- Accounting has never been so exciting. The implosion of Enron, WorldCom and Global Crossing, and accounting problems at other U.S. companies, have transformed a corporate function once viewed as tedious and obscure into the stuff of high financial drama. But not in India -- until now. A street-smart analyst and India's top corporate monitoring authority -- the Department of Company Affairs -- discovered during mid-July that two blue-chip companies had done a little creative accounting of their own. The two were Rolta India Ltd., a software major, and Reliance Petroleum Ltd., a petroleum giant and part of the famed Reliance Industries Group. Rolta inflated its revenue by about $15 million by including an inter-departmental sale. Reliance Petroleum, "as a result of an unfortunate printing error," somehow "omitted to include" in its annual report the trading of $200 million worth of shares of its group companies.
http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/r.htm
Other Stories
* Mother Teresa sainthood moves along
August 17, Vatican City -- The Vatican denied a report Saturday that the beatification of Mother Teresa would take place in October, but said the process for her possible sainthood was progressing well. Mother Teresa, the nun who dedicated her life to caring for the outcasts in India, died in 1997 at 87. But Pope John Paul II waived the customary five-year waiting period to start the procedures that can lead to sainthood.
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http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Vatican-Mother-Teresa.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/AAug17.html
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/230/nation/Mother_Teresa_report_denied_at_the_Vatican+.shtml
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2002/08/17/international0724EDT0488.DTL
* Shyamalan succeeds with populist touch
M. Night Shyamalan likes Coke, Michael Jordan and McDonald's. New Delhi -- It took a sputtering start in filmmaking for him to realize he had popular tastes. But once he did, the writer-director of Signs rode his curiosity about the unseen to a booming career. "I stopped trying to make arty films," he said in a recent interview. "I stopped trying to make a film that would do too much and say too much." The Sixth Sense, his twist-filled ghost story with Bruce Willis, grossed more than $600 million worldwide.. It had talk-show hosts wrapping their nightly monologues around the words uttered by Haley Joel Osment, "I see dead people."
(Subscription Required)
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/headline/entertainment/1539456
================================================================================================
--- South Asian News, August 18, 2002 ---
The Indian American Center for Political Awareness (IACPA) is a national non-profit organization committed to the political empowerment of the Indian American community. For additional information on IACPA, please visit www. <> .
These links are provided for informational purposes only and no representation is made for the accuracy of information posted on other people's websites. String Information Services (www.stringinfo.com , contact: Prashant Kothari at ppkothari), a provider of secondary research, data harvesting and data conversion services prepares these links and the KS group manages, edits and distributes the list. E-mail Kapil Sharma at information if you have any questions.
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