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Kurds take Kirkuk; looting on in Baghdad, Basra

          Baghdad, Apr 10: US-backed Kurdish forces on Thursday occupied the centre of the northern city of Kirkuk, a day after the regime of Saddam Hussein collapsed in Baghdad. A BBC correspondent travelling with the troops said "I am surrounded by crowds of people. They're celebrating what appears to be the fall of Kirkuk." Neighbouring Turkey - hostile to any Kurdish independence moves - has voiced concern, saying ...  (Contd)

Animal syndrome causes SARS, say scientists

          Sydney, Apr 10: The culprit behind the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) has been caught. It is a novel coronavirus that jumps from animals to human beings. Hong Kong scientists have published the first hard and important evidence in this regard. The detection, medical virologist Dominic Dwyer of the Institute of Clinical Pathology and Medical Research at Sydney's Westmead Hospital has been quoted as saying by News24, will speed up the development of fast and accurate diagnostic tests, proven treatments and vaccines for the killer disease.

           Coronaviruse, it is being said, causes common colds and occasionally pneumonia. But they trigger severe illnesses in animals. They were found in samples from some patients with the deadly virus, but until now there has been no evidence they are widespread in people with SARS.

INSAT-3A launched successfully (Go To Top)

          Bangalore, Apr 10: After a delay of a day, INSAT-3A was successfully launced on board the European Ariane-5 rocket from the French Guyanese spaceport of Kourou in South America on Thursday morning. The European consortium rocket lifted off according to launch window schedule, carrying INSAT-3A and an American satellite and injecting them into space. The launch was delayed by a day after a minor anomaly was noticed in the satellite on Wednesday.

          ISRO Chairman Dr K Kasturirangan and other top space scientists, including Project Director R K Rajangam were present at Kourou during the launch. Indigenously built ISRO's biggest satellite, INSAT-3A, the third satellite in the INSAT-3 series, would provide telecommunication, television broadcasting, meteorology and satellite-aided search and rescue services.

28 killed in Russian school fire (Go To Top)

          Moscow, Apr 10: Twenty-eight people died Thursday in a fire at a boarding school for the deaf in southern Russia, according to an Echo of Moscow radio report. Some 100 others were injured in the fire in the city of Makhachkala, the radio reported. It was not clear how many of the casualties were children. The fire came on the heels of a deadly school blaze in northern Siberia earlier this week. The two-story, old-wooden school in a village in the republic of Yakutia was completely destroyed in the fire on Monday, which killed 22 students between the ages of 11 and 18 and injured at least 10. Russia's Izvestia newspaper reported that last year, 700 fires damaged school buldings across Russia.

Blast at Srinagar's Nishat Garden, gate damaged (Go To Top)

          Srinagar, Apr 10: A powerful explosion rocked in Srinagar on Thursday but none was injured, police said. The blast took place early on Thursday at the entrance of famous Nishat Garden in the heart of the city. The explosives concealed in a wooden box completely damaged the front gate of the garden, a major tourist attraction in the city.

Britain threatens pre-emptive attacks (Go To Top)

          London, Apr 10: British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon has said that pre-emptive strikes can be launched in future on the countries anywhere in the world and those governments which possess weapons of mass destruction and are playing a key role in global terrorism can be toppled.

          He gave this warning on Wednesday in his address at the Danish Institute of International Studies in Copenhagen, reports the Nation. The British Defence Secretary further said that global terrorism and weapons of mass destruction are a real threat to the security of the entire world. He said that some countries which do not have weapons of mass destruction intend to acquire them. These countries may succeed in acquiring such deadly weapons in future, he apprehended.

           He called on the international community to frame more strict laws and create political obstacles in order to arrest the spread of weapons of mass destruction. "We should pinpoint such matters which can turn into major threats to global security and we have to move decisively to stop such dangers from developing into disputes," he stated. Hoon, however, said that the use of military force is not absolutely imperative in this regard. "Other tactics can be considered to topple such governments so that governments of choice are installed there," he added.

Kurds take Kirkuk; looting on in Baghdad, Basra (Go To Top)

          (Contd) ... it is sending military observers to Kirkuk. There were still pockets of Iraqi resistance, but the army appeared to have fled the city, which controls the oilfields of northern Iraq. Kurds later went on a looting spree in the city and coalition forces also witnessed widespread looting in Baghdad and the southern city of Basra.

          The BBC said civil order in Baghdad collapsed with many Iraqis barricading themselves in their homes for fear of looters, hospitals in a dire state and other essential services crippled. Looters sacked the German embassy and a French cultural centre in Baghdad. Baghdad's al-Kindi hospital was also ransacked by looters and others closed their doors because of the chaos, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said. US troops came under fire in several parts of the city.

           US Central Command said fighting raged for four hours around the Imam al-Adham mosque in northern Baghdad, before US marines crushed the Iraqi resistance. At one point the US military believed that senior Iraqi leaders might be holed up there. A US marine was killed when Iraqi troops - thought to be members of the elite Republican Guard - opened fire with machine-guns and rocket-propelled grenades at a marine convoy in the area. US warplanes attacked targets on the west bank of the Tigris, where non-Iraqi Arab fighters appeared to be in control of several districts.

           Kurdish commanders told the BBC that their fighters had entered Kirkuk in disguise overnight and started an uprising. The Kurdish capture of Iraq's fourth-largest city could have major ramifications as different groups positioned themselves for power in post-war Iraq. Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said "everything is being followed very closely," adding that the issue of sending military observers had been agreed with US Secretary of State Colin Powell on Thursday.

          Gul said Powell assured Turkey that the Kurdish fighters would not retain control of Kirkuk and that extra US troops would arrive there soon.