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-- South Asian News, September 29, 2002 --- (US - Weekend)


Military aid to Pakistan to be restored by the US administration to strengthen Pakistan's military capabilities. In India, 16 people are killed as a result of a stampede at the end of a political rally in Lucknow. And in Bangladesh 10 people are killed and 200 others injured when four bombs explode inside a packed movie house and a crowded circus show.

Top Stories

* Bush administration will soon restore military aid to Pakistan, U.S. defense official says (Wall Street Journal) (NY Times) (LA Times) (MSNBC)
* Hundreds rally over Pakistan Christian deaths (NY Times) (MSNBC)
* Pakistan wants conventional weapons to match India (MSNBC)
* Survivor describes killers of Christian charity workers : Pakistan says India could be to blame (LA Times) (MSNBC)
* U.S. official Rocca in Karachi, Pakistan (MSNBC)
* Pakistani Christians worship under heavy guard (NY Times) (LA Times) (MSNBC)
* Election candidate's car blown up in Kashmir; 4 killed (Wall Street Journal) (Washington Post) (Boston Globe)
* Hindu nationalists to resume Indian political march (MSNBC)
* At least 16 die in stampede at Indian station (Wall Street Journal) (Houston Chronicle) (NY Times) (LA Times) (Washington Post) (MSNBC) (Las Vegas Sun) (Boston.com) (Sunspot.net) (Arizona Daily Sun)
* Kashmir paramilitary patrol attacked (CNN.com)
* Bombs rock Bangladesh fair, 25 wounded (MSNBC)
* Bangladeshi police hold six over bomb attacks (MSNBC)
* 10 killed, 200 injured by bomb blasts at cinema, circus in Bangladesh (Wall Street Journal) (Houston Chronicle) (NY Times) (LA Times) (Washington Post) (MSNBC) (Fox News) (Boston.com) (Dallas News) (Star Tribune) (Burlington County Times) (Herald Sun)
* Nepal rebels blamed for bombing school, none hurt (NY Times) (MSNBC)
* Nepal's king approves law legalizing abortion (NY Times) (LA Times) (MSNBC)
* Nepal parliamentary elections to be held in six phases (Wall Street Journal) (MSNBC)
* Sri Lankan government and Tiger rebels swap POWs (Wall Street Journal) (MSNBC)

Editorial/Op-Ed

N/A

Business/Technology

N/A


Top Stories


* Bush administration will soon restore military aid to Pakistan, U.S. defense official says

Islamabad -- A top U.S. defense official said Friday that the Bush administration will soon restore military aid to Pakistan to bolster the country's military capabilities - a deal Islamabad hopes will include new F-16 fighter jets. ''The United States has an interest in having Pakistan's capabilities enhanced,'' U.S. Undersecretary of Defense Douglas J. Feith said. ''We have an interest in working together with the Pakistani armed forces on common security issues.''

http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,BT_CO_20020927_002836-search,00.html
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Pakistan-US-Defense.html
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-pakistan-us-defense0927sep27,0,3225236.story
http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/ap.asp?reg=ASIA


* Hundreds rally over Pakistan Christian deaths

Karachi, Pakistan -- Hundreds of Christians staged demonstrations in Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi on Friday, the second day of protests against the killing of seven charity workers earlier in the week. About 100 people staged a sit-in outside the Karachi Press Club on the second day of a three-day period of mourning for the dead Christian workers which began on Thursday, the day after the attack.

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-pakistan-shooting.html
http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/reuters.asp?reg=ASIA


* Pakistan wants conventional weapons to match India

Rawalpindi, Pakistan -- Pakistan asked the United States to provide military hardware, including F-16 fighter jets, to balance its conventional defence capability with India, officials from the two countries said on Friday. ''India is getting (military) equipment from all over so we have to do something to improve our conventional capability,'' Pakistan's Defence Secretary Hamid Nawaz told reporters at the end of a U.S.-Pakistan Defence Consultative Group meeting in Rawalpindi near Islamabad.

http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/reuters.asp?reg=ASIA


* Survivor describes killers of Christian charity workers : Pakistan says India could be to blame

Karachi, Pakistan -- An office assistant who survived the killing of seven Christian charity workers has given police a description of three suspects in the slayings, changing his original claim that two attackers were involved, police said Friday. The assistant, who was beaten but not shot when he apparently stumbled upon the killings Wednesday, had said two men were involved, then changed that to four, and finally settled on three attackers, Police Chief Kamal Shah said.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-pakistan-christian-attack0927sep27,0,4610651.story
http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/ap.asp?reg=ASIA


* U.S. official Rocca in Karachi, Pakistan

Karachi, Pakistan -- U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Christina Rocca arrived in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi on Sunday to discuss issues including consular security. A U.S. consulate official in Karachi said Rocca would be looking at possible new sites for a consulate building in the city.

http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/reuters.asp?reg=ASIA


* Pakistani Christians worship under heavy guard

Islamabad -- Pakistan's Christians walked past rows of police to get to church on Sunday as security was stepped up after the massacre of seven Christian charity workers last week. Wednesday's execution style killings in the southern city of Karachi sent fresh shockwaves through the country's small Christian community, still reeling from a series of attacks that have left more than 40 dead so far this year.

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-pakistan-shootings-christians.html
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-pakistan-christian-attack0929sep29,0,5790303.story
http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/reuters.asp?reg=ASIA


* Election candidate's car blown up in Kashmir; 4 killed

Srinagar, India -- Suspected Islamic militants Saturday blew up the vehicle of a candidate in state assembly elections in Indian-controlled Kashmir, killing three of her supporters and one armed police escort, police said. Khaleda Mustafa, a member of the opposition Nationalist Congress Party, was seriously wounded in the attack as she campaigned in her constituency in Anantnag district, 70 kilometers (45 miles) south of Srinagar, a police officer said on condition of anonymity.

http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,BT_CO_20020928_000080-search,00.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/ASep28.html
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/272/nation/Indian_candidate_attacked+.shtml


* Hindu nationalists to resume Indian political march

Ahmedabad, India -- Hindu nationalists said on Saturday they would resume a controversial political march deferred earlier this week after a deadly attack on a Hindu temple in India's western Gujarat state. The ''Gaurav Yatra'' (Pride March), which was launched by state Chief Minister Narendra Modi, has rolled peacefully through Gujarat's villages the past three weekends despite fears it might incite a fresh round of communal violence in the sensitive state.

http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/reuters.asp?reg=ASIA


* At least 16 die in stampede at Indian station

Lucknow, India -- At least 16 people died and over a dozen were injured as the result of a stampede on Saturday after a mammoth political rally ended in the northern Indian city of Lucknow, police said. The stampede at the railway station at Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh state, India's most populous, followed a rally by the low-caste Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), senior partner in the state's coalition government.

http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,BT_CO_20020928_000175,00.html
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/world/1595561
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-India-Stampede-Deaths.html
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-india-stampede-deaths0929sep29,0,7540246.story
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/ASep29.html
http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/reuters.asp?reg=ASIA
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/w-asia/2002/sep/29/092900244.html
http://www.boston.com/dailynews/271/world/Fourteen_killed_in_stampede_af%3A.shtml
http:///www.sunspot.net/news/nationworld/sns-ap-india-stampede-deaths0928sep28%2C0%2C7874938.story
http://www.azdailysun.com/non_sec/nav_includes/story.cfm%3FstoryID%3D49699


* Kashmir paramilitary patrol attacked

Pulwama, Kashmir -- Suspected militants have attacked an Indian paramilitary patrol killing a passerby and injuring 12 others, police sources say. The attack came at the beginning of the third stage of Kashmiri election campaigning on Sunday in Pulwama district -- about 20 km from the town of Pulwama.

http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/south/09/29/kashmir.militants/index.html


* Bombs rock Bangladesh fair, 25 wounded

Satkhira, Bangladesh -- At least 25 people were injured on Saturday when unidentified attackers threw two or three home-made bombs at a town fair in Bangladesh, police said. The bombs exploded during one of the fair's circus acts which drew hundreds of people to a stadium in Satkhira, about 115 miles (185 km) south of the capital Dhaka.

http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/reuters.asp?reg=ASIA


* Bangladeshi police hold six over bomb attacks

Satkhira, Bangladesh -- Bangladeshi police said on Sunday they had detained six people in connection with bomb attacks on a fair that wounded about 30 people. Attackers threw two crude bombs at a fair in Satkhira town, 185 km (115 miles) south of the capital Dhaka, on Saturday night.

http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/reuters.asp?reg=ASIA


* 10 killed, 200 injured by bomb blasts at cinema, circus in Bangladesh

Dhaka -- At least four bombs exploded inside a packed movie house and a crowded circus show Saturday in southwestern Bangladesh, killing at least 10 people and injuring another 200, local police said. The death toll was expected to increase, a Satkhira police official said on condition of anonymity.

http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,BT_CO_20020928_000140,00.html
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/world/1595551
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/29/international/asia/29BANG.html
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-bangladesh-bomb-explosion0929sep29,0,649753.story
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/ASep29.html
http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/ap.asp?reg=ASIA
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,64377,00.html
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/272/nation/Bangladesh+.shtml
http://www.dallasnews.com/latestnews/stories/092902dnintbangladesh.599fb.html
http://www.startribune.com/stories/484/3333054.html
http://www.phillyburbs.com/%2E%2E/apNews/apstory.asp%3FArticleNo%3D69181
http://www.herald-sun.com/nationworld/14-271558.html


* Nepal rebels blamed for bombing school, none hurt

Kathmandu -- About 20 suspected supporters of Maoist rebels forced their way into a school in the Nepali capital on Sunday and set off a bomb but no one was hurt, police said. Meanwhile, the Nepali Defence Ministry said soldiers killed nine guerrillas on Saturday in west Nepal. State-run Nepal Television said rebels set an airport tower on fire in the Mount Everest region in east Nepal also on Saturday.

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-nepal-bomb.html
http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/reuters.asp?reg=ASIA


* Nepal's king approves law legalizing abortion

Kathmandu -- A groundbreaking law approved by King Gyanendra legalizes most abortions in Nepal, where women who terminated their pregnancies formerly could have faced a prison term. The law also makes pedophilia a crime and allows women to inherit property from their parents. Previously, there was no law against sexual abuse of children in Nepal; the new statute makes pedophilia punishable by up to 16 years in prison.

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/28/international/asia/28NEPA.html
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-nepal-abortion-law0927sep27,0,3150504.story
http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/ap.asp?reg=ASIA


* Nepal parliamentary elections to be held in six phases

Kathmandu -- Nepali authorities announced Saturday that national elections would be held in six stages starting in mid-November to enable troops to better protect voters and candidates from rebels who have threatened to disrupt voting. The first balloting will be on Nov. 13 in 15 of Nepal's 75 districts including the capital Katmandu, the election commission said. The last phase the parliamentary elections will be held Jan. 10, it said.

http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,BT_CO_20020928_000180,00.html
http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/ap.asp?reg=ASIA


* Sri Lankan government and Tiger rebels swap POWs

Omanthai, Sri Lanka -- The Sri Lankan government and Tamil Tiger rebels swapped prisoners-of-war in an ceremony on Saturday in the latest move to raise confidence in the island's peace process. Seven Sri Lankan military personnel were handed over to the government side by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), who got 13 rebels back in exchange.

http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,BT_CO_20020928_000059-search,00.html
http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/reuters.asp?reg=ASIA


Editorial/Op-Ed

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Business/Technology

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