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Updated on February 25, 2003 |
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SOUTH ASIA NEWS |
STRING |
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US NEWS SOURCES -
February 8&9, 2003 (Weekend) |
| EDITORIALS / OP-ED |
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Vote France off the island (New York
Times-Registration
required) |
| BUSINESS / TECHNOLOGY |
|
Jardine Fleming India fund says evaluated various
options (Wall Street Journal-Subscription
required) |
| OTHER STORIES |
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'Abandon': magical mystery tour (New York
Times-Registration required) |
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After moon, no giant leaps in space allure (New
York Times-Registration required) |
|
2
killed in separate robberies in stores in Brooklyn and
Queens (New York Times-Registration required) |
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Punjab Engineering College honors first Indian female
astronaut (Voice of America) |
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Ferry with cows sinks in Bangladesh (Seattle Post
Intelligencer) |
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Pakistan air force jet crashes; pilot killed (Wall
Street Journal-Subscription required) |
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Muslim pilgrimage can be used to cover militant
movements (Wall Street Journal-Subscription
required) |
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| TOP
STORIES |
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Expelled
Indian diplomats heading home |
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Islamabad -- Five
Indian diplomats left Pakistan's capital on Monday, heading home after
being ordered out of the country last week in a retaliatory expulsion.
Sudhir Vyas, the acting ambassador of the Indian embassy, and four other
Indian embassy employees left on an arduous 12-hour land journey on
Monday. Earlier, India had expelled five Pakistani diplomats it accused of
funneling money to separatists in Kashmir. |
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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-pakistan-india-expulsions0210feb09,1,3042381.story |
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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-pakistan-india-expulsions0210feb09,1,3042381.story |
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http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=A78F2B8D-F777-47DE-813C83F0A2F78CC4 |
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http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apasia_story.asp?category=1104&slug=Pakistan%20India%20Expulsions |
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http://www.austin360.com/aas/news/ap/ap_story.html/Intl/AP.V1560.AP-Pakistan-India-.html |
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http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20030210_54.html |
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http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dallas/world/stories/020903dnintindopak.184df.html |
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http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/wire/sns-ap-pakistan-india-expulsions0210feb09,0,7828594.story |
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http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/news/world/5145242.htm |
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http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/5145242.htm |
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Rebels in
Nepal drive down tourism |
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Kathmandu, Nepal
-- A half-century after this Himalayan kingdom captured the world's
attention in May 1953 with the bulletin that Sir Edmund Hillary had
conquered Mount Everest, the news is mostly grim for a nation that still
depends on mountaineers and other travelers from abroad for its economic
vitality. The tourism industry in Nepal, a nation towered over by some of
the world's highest mountains and revered as the birthplace of Buddha, has
virtually collapsed as a result of the Maoist insurgency that now controls
more than a third of the countryside and is seeking to abolish the
monarchy. |
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http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/09/travel/09rep.html |
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India says
extremist forces growing in Pakistan |
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Munich, Germany
-- India's national security adviser said Sunday that `religious extremist
forces' were growing in Pakistan's government, a day after the tit-for-tat
expulsions of the South Asian rivals' top diplomats. In a thinly veiled
reference to India's neighbor, Brajesh Mishra said the international
coalition against terrorism `contains members who are part of the problem'
and could not be long-term allies in the battle. |
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http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-india-pakistan.html |
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/AFeb9.html |
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Blast at
Pakistan nuclear research site kills one |
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Islamabad -- One
man was killed and another injured Sunday in a blast at a liquid nitrogen
plant which is part of a nuclear research facility at Nilore, 16 miles
from the Pakistani capital, the state-run news agency said. The Associated
Press of Pakistan (APP) said the explosion occurred at the Pakistan
Institute of Engineering and Applied Sciences, an educational wing of the
Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission. |
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http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-pakistan-explosion.html |
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Pakistan
struggles with FBI presence |
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Islamabad --
Hard-line Islamic clerics say American agents swooped in on three Islamic
schools in the capital last month, breaking down doors, blindfolding a
cook and peppering him with questions about alleged terror links, then
disappeared as quickly as they came. U.S. Embassy and Pakistani law
enforcement officials insist the raid never happened. Still, the claims
sparked a new wave of anger at the presence of FBI agents in Pakistan and
a vow by radical religious leaders to kick American soldiers and agents
out of the country. |
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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-fbi-in-pakistan0209feb09,1,1494898.story |
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http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-FBI-in-Pakistan.html |
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http://www.boston.com/dailynews/041/world/Working_with_the_FBI_Pakistan_:.shtml |
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http://www.cleveland.com/world/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/.xml |
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http://www.dailyherald.com/news/national_story.asp?intID=3766273 |
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http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,BT_CO_20030209_000617,00.html |
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http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/wire/sns-ap-fbi-in-pakistan0209feb09,0,4680754.story> |
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http://newsobserver.com/24hour/world/story/757492p-5471775c.html |
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http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/news/world/5147381.htm |
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Sri Lanka
rebels, government end Berlin talks |
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Negotiators for
Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels and government have ended another round of
peace talks with commitments to resolve the country's political future.
Human rights issues and some economic matters have been addressed. A joint
statement released after two days of talks in Berlin says the sides have
agreed to discuss the economic aspects of a federal structure at the next
round of talks. |
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http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=06A7BEDD-F4E8-4F86-9CA50720E6A8A282 |
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http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,BT_CO_20030209_000096,00.html |
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India frees
Kashmiri separatist Syed Ali Shah Geelani |
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India has
released a senior Kashmiri separatist leader who was detained eight months
ago under a tough anti-terrorism law. Officials in Indian Kashmir say Syed
Ali Shah Geelani was paroled late Saturday for health reasons. Authorities
arrested him last June on charges of raising funds for militant groups in
Kashmir. Meanwhile, police officials in the divided Himalayan region say
at least one person was killed and at least six others injured as Indian
and Pakistani forces traded fire across the Line of Control separating
Kashmir. |
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http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=3DDC194A-3C48-4C5B-921366EA2A43BABF |
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http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,BT_CO_20030209_000014,00.html |
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France, India
call on Iraq to cooperate with UN |
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The French and
Indian prime ministers have called on Iraq to cooperate with U.N. weapons
inspectors, and disarm to avoid war. French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre
Raffarin is in India on a three-day visit that focuses on strengthening
bilateral cooperation and trade ties. The French prime minister told
reporters in New Delhi that the Iraq crisis is "not a game, and it's not
over." The French leader was responding to Thursday's remarks by President
Bush that the "game is over" for Iraqi leader Saddam
Hussein. |
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http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=067025A2-C01B-C8BB9B77DEB |
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/AFeb7.html |
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* |
Pakistan:
Islamic militants' trial postponed |
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A Pakistani judge
has postponed the trial of two Islamic militants accused of plotting a
suicide bomb attack that killed 11 French naval engineers nine months ago.
The trial was postponed Friday, after prosecutors requested court
proceedings be held inside a jail for security reasons. The presiding
judge said he will issue ruling on the petition on February
15. |
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http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=0EA70187-68E5-4D2B-909DCE1E5469C6B0 |
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Raffarin to
Bush 'it's not a game, it's not over' |
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New Delhi --
French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin on Friday sent a message to
President Bush on Iraq: "It's not a game, it's not over." The comment,
made by Raffarin during a visit to India, was in response to Bush's remark
on Thursday that "the game is over" for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
France is one of the strongest anti-war voices among the five permanent
members of the United Nations Security Council. |
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/AFeb7.html |
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* |
Pakistan
denies passed funds to Kashmir separatists |
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Islamabad --
Pakistan said on Friday it had protested to India over Indian accusations
that its acting ambassador in New Delhi gave money to Kashmiri
separatists. The foreign ministry said in a statement the allegations
"accusing Acting High Commissioner of Pakistan Mr. Jalil Abbas Jilani of
providing money to representatives of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference"
were "ridiculous and baseless." |
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/AFeb7.html |
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* |
Asian workers'
families worry about war |
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New Delhi -- As
war with Iraq approached in late 1990, hundreds of thousands of Asians - a
crucial part of the immigrant workforce in the Middle East - fled the
threat of violence. Nearly thirteen years later, millions of Asian workers
are back in the region, and again must decide whether they should flee to
safety and risk losing their livelihoods, or stay behind. Overseas workers
send billions of dollars a year back to cash-hungry economies and support
families, and no Asian nation wants to rush its nationals out
prematurely. |
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http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apasia_story.asp?category=1104&slug=War%20and%20Workers |
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http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/news/world/5142928.htm |
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Troops fear
Afghan militants still hiding |
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Bagram,
Afghanistan -- Militants are probably still hiding in a mountainous area
where U.S. forces searched dozens of caves for enemy holdouts, troops who
took part in the operation said.Adi Ghar and the nearby Towr Ghar
mountains sit on the Pakistani border. "We believe they still want this
area because it's important to them, because of the proximity to the
Pakistan border, and this road is one of the few working channels of
communication in the country," Lt. Col. Charlie Flynn, battalion commander
for the operation. |
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http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apasia_story.asp?category=1104&slug=Afghan%20Cave%20Search |
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Gunmen kill
four Hindu men in Pakistan |
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Quetta, Pakistan
-- Gunmen shot and killed four Hindus who were legally selling liquor in
this deeply Muslim corner of southwestern Pakistan, police said Sunday.
The gunmen rode up to the victims' store in the city of Quetta on a
motorcycle late Saturday, spraying the area with bullets. A Muslim man was
also killed and another Hindu was wounded. |
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http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,BT_CO_20030208_000173,00.html |
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http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apasia_story.asp?category=1104&slug=Pakistan%20Hindus%20Killed |
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http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB-search,00.html |
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One dead in
blast at Pakistan nuclear center |
| |
One person was
killed and another critically injured in an explosion near a Pakistani
nuclear facility, the BBC reported on its Web site Sunday. The blast
occurred at a gas plant on the premises of the Pakistan Institute of
Nuclear Technology in Nilore, about 25 kilometers from Islamabad, the
report said. |
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http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,BT_CO_20030209_000871,00.html |
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* |
Sri Lanka
tamil rebels: peace monitors mishandled standoff |
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Colombo -- Sri
Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels have blamed European peace monitors of
mishandling a standoff between rebels and the navy on Friday, which
resulted in three rebels committing suicide by setting fire to their boat.
"Our position is that the whole episode was a result of peace monitors
mishandling the problem. We can't accept their report on the incident,"
rebels' chief peace negotiator Anton Balasingham told Uthayan Tamil
newspaper Saturday. |
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http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,BT_CO_20030208_000043,00.html |
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* |
India kills 4
suspected militants in Kashmir |
| |
Jammu, India --
Indian soldiers shot and killed four suspected Islamic militants after
they crossed into Indian-controlled Kashmir from Pakistan, an army
spokesman said Saturday. The shootout occurred Friday along the Line of
Control that divides Kashmir between the nuclear-armed rivals, army
spokesman Col. Bhanwar Rathore said. |
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http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,BT_CO_20030208_000004,00.html |
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* |
Bangladesh
foreign minister to hold talks in India February
14-15 |
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Dhaka --
Bangladesh Foreign Minister M. Morshed Khan will visit India later this
week to meet his Indian counterpart and discuss a range of bilateral
issues, including a deportation dispute that has heightened border
tensions between the neighbors over the past two weeks, a Bangladesh
Foreign Ministry spokesman said Saturday. Khan will leave Thursday for New
Delhi, where he will meet Indian External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha
for official talks scheduled for Feb. 14-15, the spokesman, Zahirul Haque,
said. |
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http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,BT_CO_20030208_000018,00.html |
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* |
Pakistan
agents suspected of helping Taliban regroup |
| |
Members of
Pakistan's intelligence organization are helping remnants of the Taliban
to regroup, the Financial Times reported Friday, citing senior Afghan
officials and diplomats in Kabul. The officials and diplomats say their
intelligence indicates the regrouping forces, hiding near the border
between Afghanistan and Pakistan, are getting logistical and financial
backing from members - past or present - of the Pakistani InterServices
Intelligence Agency, the Financial Times reported. |
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http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,BT_CO_20030207_006403,00.html |
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* |
Putin briefs
Indian PM on Musharraf's Russian visit |
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Moscow -- Russian
President Vladimir Putin spoke by telephone Friday with Indian Prime
Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, briefing him on this week's visit to Moscow
by the leader of India's nuclear-armed rival, the presidential press
service said. Putin and Vajpayee discussed "the situation in South Asia
and perspectives for its development," and Putin briefed Vajpayee on his
talks Wednesday with Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, the
Kremlin said. Musharraf's three-day trip to Moscow was the first visit by
a Pakistani leader to Russia in more than three
decades. |
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http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,BT_CO_20030207_004809,00.html |
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* |
Strike over
cleric's arrest continues in Indian town |
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Ahmedabad, India
-- Schools and shops closed and traffic was snarled Friday in a western
Indian town, as Muslims held a strike protesting the arrest of a popular
cleric accused of planning a train attack that caused India's worst
sectarian violence in a decade. The strike in Godhra, 170 kilometers west
of Gujarat state's capital, Ahmadabad, began Thursday, hours after police
arrested Hussain Umarji. |
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http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,BT_CO_20030207_000851,00.html |
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Trial of 2
Islamic militants in Pakistan postponed again |
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Karachi, Pakistan
-- The trial of two Islamic militants accused of helping orchestrate a
suicide bombing that left 14 people dead in this southern port city was
postponed Friday after prosecutors requested the proceedings be moved to a
jail for security reasons, officials said. Anti-terrorism judge Feroz
Mahmood Bhatti, who is in charge of the case, said he would rule on the
request on Feb. 15, investigating officer Muhammad Tariq
said. |
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http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,BT_CO_20030207_001177,00.html |
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India says
Pakistan financing Kashmir separatists |
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New Delhi --
Indian police on Friday accused a senior Pakistani diplomat in New Delhi
of funneling money to separatists for subversive activities in India's
disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir. Pakistan immediately denied the
allegations, calling them part of India's "systematic campaign of
disinformation against Pakistan." The accusation is certain to inflame
tensions between nuclear-armed rivals India and
Pakistan. |
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http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,BT_CO_20030207_001347,00.html |
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Pakistani
prosecutors seek to hold two trials in jails |
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Karachi, Pakistan
-- Citing security concerns, Pakistani prosecutors on Friday applied for
court permission to hold two terrorism-related trials in heavily fortified
jails, officials said. One trial is of two Islamic militants for allegedly
helping orchestrate the suicide bombing that killed 11 French engineers
outside a hotel in southern Karachi; the other case involves five men to
go on trial in the eastern city of Lahore for allegedly harboring members
of the al-Qaida terror network. |
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http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,BT_CO_20030207_002974,00.html |
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* |
Pakistan
seizes 11 Indian fishermen on Arabian sea |
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Karachi, Pakistan
-- Pakistan's coast guard arrested 11 Indian fishermen, alleging they
illegally entered Pakistani waters in the Arabian Sea, officials said
Friday. The fishermen and their two boats were seized Thursday about 100
kilometers from the southern port city of Karachi, police inspector Shahid
Abbas said. The men were to appear in a Karachi court on
Saturday. |
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http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,BT_CO_20030207_003231,00.html |
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Official says
allies are chasing ghosts |
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Peshawar,
Pakistan -- The chief minister in charge of Pakistan's border regions
insisted Thursday there are no al-Qaida or Taliban terrorists in the area
and the U.S.-led coalition must wind down its war on terrorism. "We don't
have any al-Qaida or Taliban here," Akram Durrani, who heads a
conservative Islamic coalition that won power in the North West Frontier
Province, said in a rare interview with a foreign journalist. "Absolutely
there is nothing here." |
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http://www.bergen.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkyJmZnYmVsN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk2MzM4NjAy |
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| EDITORIALS / OP-ED |
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Vote France
off the island |
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Why replace
France with India? Because India is the world's biggest democracy, the
world's largest Hindu nation and the world's second-largest Muslim nation,
and, quite frankly, India is just so much more serious than France these
days. France is so caught up with its need to differentiate itself from
America to feel important, it's become silly. India has grown out of that
game. India may be ambivalent about war in Iraq, but it comes to its
ambivalence honestly. Also, France can't see how the world has changed
since the end of the cold war. India can. Oh, France's prime minister was
on the road last week. He was out drumming up business for French
companies in the world's biggest emerging computer society. He was in
India. |
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http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/09/opinion/09FRIE.html |
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| BUSINESS / TECHNOLOGY |
|
* |
Jardine
Fleming India fund says evaluated various options |
| |
Jardine Fleming
India Fund Inc. is exploring options that include terminating its current
investment advisory contract and liquidating the fund, though the company
doesn't consider liquidation the best option. In a press release Friday,
Jardine Fleming said if the fund liquidated, it would be required to
retain a "very significant amount" from the proceeds of pending litigation
in India. |
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http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,BT_CO_20030207_003469,00.html |
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target=_new> |
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| OTHER STORIES |
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'Abandon':
magical mystery tour |
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In Pico Iyer's
new novel, 'Abandon,' John Macmillan, an English graduate student of
Islamic mystical poetry, is determined to 'see the world in a Sufi light.'
In much contemporary European and American fiction, the Westerner looking
for consolation in the religions of the East usually invites a sententious
kind of irony: wisdom can't be had, or so the message goes, for the price
of an airline ticket to India or a weekend at a meditation retreat in the
Catskills. But Iyer treats Macmillan's spiritual confusion and hunger with
sympathy, even tenderness. |
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http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/09/books/review/09MISHRAT.html |
|
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After moon, no
giant leaps in space allure |
| |
In a provincial
city in India, a girl dreamed of space, and last weekend she died on the
way home to earth. In a year or two, the Chinese expect to have a human in
orbit. Two years ago, an American businessman paid the Russians $20
million to let him go on a Soyuz spacecraft for a six-day mission to the
International Space Station. "I speak to thousands of schoolchildren,"
said Donna L. Shirley, an instructor of aerospace mechanical engineering
at the University of Oklahoma who managed the Mars exploration program at
the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. |
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http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/09/national/nationalspecial/09AGEN.html |
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2 killed in
separate robberies in stores in Brooklyn and
Queens |
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Within less than
two hours yesterday morning, two men were killed in separate shootings in
Queens and Brooklyn, one at a bodega and the other at a deli. In a third
shooting, an employee of a Brooklyn supermarket was shot to death last
night by a fellow employe, the police said. John Freddy, 43, was shot at 7
a.m. at the Central Mini Market, at 77-20 Liberty Avenue in Ozone Park.
The other victim, identified by the police as Sukhjit Khajala, 50, was
shot at 8:50 a.m. during a robbery at the Around the Clock Mini Mart, a
deli he owned at 5803 Avenue N in Mill Basin. |
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http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/09/nyregion/09DELI.html |
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Punjab
Engineering College honors first Indian female
astronaut |
| |
About 400
students and teachers at space shuttle astronaut Kalpana Chawla's former
college in India, observed two minutes of silence on Monday to honor the
memory of the aerospace engineer. Ms. Chawla, who was born in northern
India and attended Punjab Engineering College at Chandigar for four years,
was one of seven astronauts killed when the Space Shuttle Columbia
disintegrated during re-entry into the earth's atmosphere on Saturday
after 16 days in space. |
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http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=5BA0-B0180B1A0B3DB01A |
|
* |
Ferry with
cows sinks in Bangladesh |
| |
Dhaka -- A ferry
carrying 336 sacrificial cattle and goats to market for the upcoming
Muslim festival sank Saturday after running aground in central Bangladesh.
At least one cattle trader was reported missing and feared drowned along
with 260 cows and goats, police said. The two-story ferry hit a mud flat
and sank in the Dhaleswari River 35 miles south of Dhaka, the national
capital. |
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http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apasia_story.asp?category=1104&slug=Bangladesh%20Cows%20Drowned |
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Pakistan air
force jet crashes; pilot killed |
| |
Islamabad -- A
Pakistan Air Force A-5 jet crashed Saturday while on a training mission
killing the pilot, a statement said. The plane crashed near Chakwal, about
28 miles southeast of the federal capital of Islamabad. There was no
immediate cause of the crash and the air force statement said an inquiry
has been ordered. |
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http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,BT_CO_20030208_000012,00.html |
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Muslim
pilgrimage can be used to cover militant movements |
| |
Islamabad --
Increased U.S. fears of terror attacks may not be unfounded. The Hajj, the
huge annual Muslim pilgrimage to Islam's holy city of Mecca, can provide
cover for militant organizations attempting to secretly place operatives
around the globe to stage attacks. Four years ago, Osama bin Laden's
relatives, worried about his ill health, tried to use the pilgrimage as a
cover to visit the Saudi-born terrorist while he was holed up in
Afghanistan, says a former Afghan airline official who was approached by
the fugitive terrorist's family. |
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http://newsobserver.com/24hour/world/story/757107p-5469350c.html |
|
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--- South Asian News,
February 8&9, 2003 (Weekend) --- |
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These links are provided for informational purposes only and no
representation is made for the accuracy of information posted on other
websites. Kapil Sharma manages, edits and distributes the list. E-mail
Kapil Sharma at kap if you have any
questions. For information on Madison Government Affairs, please visit http://www.madisongov.net/.
String
Information Services is a provider of secondary research, data
harvesting and data conversion services and assists in the preparation of
these links. For additional information, please contact (http://www.stringinfo.com/ or
Prashant Kothari at ppkothari.) |
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Copyright © 2001, Indian American Center for
Political Awareness. All rights reserved.
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