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Advani Asks State Govts to Deport Over-staying Pakistanis NEW DELHI: The Sate Governments must identify and deport over 11,500 Pakistanis overstaying in the country, Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani said on Tuesday at a conference of chief secretaries and police chiefs called to discuss India's internal security. Efforts were on, he added, to mobilise international opinion in favour of India in fighting cross-border terrorism and urged the States to identify the internal elements which make the nation "vulnerable" to such terrorist attacks. "I referred", the deputy premier remarked, "to the 11,500 Pakistanis who have come into the country with regular papers and passports and visas but who have overstayed. There is no reason why our States should be soft towards them. Immediate steps have to be taken to identify them, locate them and throw them out," he added. India has set up, he said, joint working groups on terrorism with several countries and signed extradition treaties to check terrorist activities. Jammu and Kashmir, Central provinces and several north-eastern States are plagued by militancy. On Sunday, Advani criticised Western nations for sparing Pakistan in the war against terrorism, and urged businessmen to lobby Governments to put more pressure on Islamabad. New Delhi believes that the West has adopted a soft stand on violence by Muslim separatists in Kashmir, which India says amounts to cross-border terrorism fomented by Pakistan. Lunawada Town Again Under Curfew (Go To Top) LUNAWADA (Gujarat): Mobs threw stones and tried to set afire a house as fresh religious violence erupted in Lunawada town, prompting the authorities to reimpose indefinite curfew. Curfew had been imposed in the town last week after a mob torched an autorickshaw and beat up the driver, leading to widespread riots. Police say intense combing operations have been initiated to catch the trouble-makers. On Tuesday, barely a day after curfew was relaxed in the town, mobs again took to the streets throwing petrol and acid bombs and resorting to heavy brick-batting. In response, the police burst teargas shells. Forty-four persons were arrested on rioting charges and several weapons seized. Lunawada District Collector Manoj Agarwal said the authorities were maintaining a constant vigil on the situation. "Police are continuously patrolling the streets. As of now, there is peace in the town," he stated. Pakistan Denies 'Hot Pursuit' Accord (Go To Top) ISLAMABAD: Presidential spokesman Major General Rashid Qureshi has denied reports that Pakistan and the United States agreed that 'hot pursuit' of Taliban and Al-Qaeda fugitives across the Pak-Afghan border could continue but quietly, according to a report in the Nation. The report was 'totally baseless and misleading,' the spokesman said in a statement on Monday. 'There has never been any agreement or discussion, or ambiguity in anyone's mind, that there will be no foreign troops deployed or in action on Pakistani soil,' said Major General Rashid Qureshi. Pakistan's military has withdrawn its earlier statement that a US bomb landed in its territory. 'That's an area which hasn't been clarified,' Qureshi said. 'It may be that the impact area straddled the border. It could be on the Afghan side. We're waiting for further confirmation.' The conflicting claims over hot pursuit rights and the bombing of a religious school would have no impact on Pakistan's cooperation with US forces in the border area, where hundreds of Al-Qaeda activists are believed to be hiding, the statement added. Australia Warns Against Mid-east Travel (Go To Top) SYDNEY: Australia reissued warnings to its nationals on Tuesday over travelling in the Middle East, citing the continuing possibility of extremist attacks against Westerners. The foreign office said that, given ongoing heightened tensions in the Middle East, Australians should exercise care and maintain a high level of personal security awareness in Iran, Kuwait, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt and Algeria. "There is a continuing possibility of terrorist activity, particularly against Western targets," the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said in its latest travel advisories for Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Egypt. It urged Australians not to go to the West Bank or the Gaza Strip, leave there if possible, and carefully reconsider any need to travel to Israel. The reissued travel advisories contained new generic terrorist warnings but overall the level of advice was unchanged. Pak 'N-button' with NCA (Go To Top) RAWALPINDI: The National Command Authority headed by President Pervez Musharraf is authorized to take a "unanimous decision" for using nuclear weapons unlike India where the prime minister has been given powers to take similar decisions. Official sources said that Prime Minister Jamali on Monday attended a special session of the NCA where he was informed that the Authority was empowered to take a joint decision to use nuclear weapons and not any individual, including the President. The PM, who is also a member of the NCA, said that Pakistan's nuclear programme under President Musharraf was very much safe and that there should be no confusion about that. Jamali expressed satisfaction over the effectiveness of the Command and Control Structures of the country's nuclear capability. He said the structures, which had been in place for the last four years, were well-conceived and elaborated, and had matured. Jamali said the retention of "minimum nuclear deterrence" was the "cornerstone" of our national security policy. Without naming India, Jamali said, "We are not in arms race with anyone." India was quoted as saying last week it would use nuclear weapons if attacked with biological and chemical weapons. "This is a futher evidence that nuclear weapons and their use is very much a part of India's strategic policy," the spokesman said. US Has No Intention of Attacking N Korea: Bush (Go To Top) WASHINGTON: US President George W Bush said he hoped to resolve a standoff with North Korea over its nuclear programme peacefully and reiterated the United States has no plans to invade the Stalinist nation. "We have no intention of invading North Korea. I believe this will be resolved peacefully and I believe it can be resolved diplomatically," he said. On the other hand, North Korea maintained that the United States had embarked on a strategy of using sanctions to isolate Pyongyang and this represented a declaration of war. "The strategy means total economic sanctions aimed at isolating and stifling the DPRK (North Korea)," the official Korean Central News Agency said. "Sanctions mean a war and the war knows no mercy. The US should opt for dialogue with the DPRK, not for war, clearly aware that it will have to pay a very high price for such reckless acts." The comments came in an official response to the seizing of a ship bound for Yemen last month which was carrying missiles made in North Korea. NDA, Left Parties Stage Dharna Against Rabri Govt (Go To Top) PATNA: In protest against the killing of three innocent persons by the police in a fake encounter on December 28, NDA and Left parties sat on dharna here on Tuesday and said the Rabri Government had totally failed in maintaining law and order in the State. Hence she has no moral right to continue in the office, they maintained. The main dharna was organized at the income tax office where top NDA leaders, including State BJP president Nand Kishore Yadav, JD(U)'s Vijendra Prasad Yadav and Samata leader PK Sinha, launched a vitriolic attack on the Laloo-Rabri regime for allegedly unleashing a reign of terror, corruption, anarchy and chaos. They urged the Centre to impose President's rule in the State if the chief minister did not resign. Among the Left parties which participated in the dharna were CPI, CPI(M) and CPI (ML). Cold Wave Toll Is 180 (Go To Top) PATNA: Northern and eastern India's spell of bitterly two-week cold wave has killed 180 people in the past two weeks. The toll in eastern Bihar has doubled in the past 24 hours. Temperature in the State dropped to 6.5 degrees Celcius (44 Farenheit) in some parts including Patna, East Champaran, Muzaffarpur and Nevada districts. Worst hit are the poor pavement dwellers who have little resources to keep themselves safe from the vagaries of the weather. (Details) BSNL, MTNL Slash Long Distance Mobile Rates(Go To Top) NEW DELHI: State-run telecoms giants slashed on Tuesday (January 7) their national mobile-to-mobile long-distance call rates in a move to match tariffs offered by private cellular service providers.(Details) Plane With Haj Pilgrims to Mecca 'Hijacked' (Go To Top) KABUL: An Afghan airline plane carrying Muslim pilgrims was hijacked on Tuesday, but the incident ended after the plane landed in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, and all aboard were reportedly safe, the president of the Afghan airline said. All the hijackers were removed from the plane after it touched down in Dubai, said Khalil Ahmad Najimyar, president of Ariana Airlines, the Afghan national carrier. The plane, an Airbus 300, was carrying 150 pilgrims on their way to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, with a scheduled stop-over in Dubai. The official characterized the incident as a bomb scare rather than a hijacking and said the plane landed at a military air base. No bomb was found, the official said, and the plane was due to take off again later in the day. Bin Laden's Deputy Calls for Attacks on 'All Americans' (Go To Top) CAIRO: Osama bin Laden's Egyptian lieutenant, Ayman al-Zawahri, has called for attacks on "all Americans", in a message attributed to him and sent to Cairo lawyer Montasser al-Zayyat. "By God, do not prevent new Muslim souls from taking part in the Jihad (holy war), which consists of killing all Americans, just like they kill us all," Zawahri purportedly said in an e-mail, the lawyer told a news agency. "The Jihad against the enemies of God who kill us all over the world surely comes at a price. This price is minimal, whatever it is, since it is a matter of satisfying God and reaching paradise," he wrote in the message. If Smokers Eat Fish Daily, Their Arteries Won't Harden: Study(Go To Top) LONDON: Researchers at the Beaumont Hospital in Dublin have found that consuming fish daily may help to reduce hardening of arteries in smokers. The condition, known as endothelial dysfunction, means the arteries are not able to dilate as they should, leading to atherosclerosis, the narrowing of the arteries that increases the risk of heart attacks. For the study, published in the Circulation, the researchers who gave supplements of taurine, an amino acid present in oily and white fish, to 30 smokers and non-smokers found it reduced the hardening of the arteries caused by smoking. The researchers tied tourniquets round the arms of smokers and non-smokers and measured the change in blood vessel size by ultrasound, reports Independent.co.uk The findings showed dilation of the blood vessels in non-smokers but not in the smokers. But when the smokers were given a dose of 1.5 grams of taurine a day, the amount found in one serving of fish, the difference between the groups disappeared. Professor David Bouchier-Hayes, who led the research said: "When blood vessels are exposed to cigarette smoke it causes the vessels to behave like a rigid pipe rather than a flexible tube, so the vessels can't dilate in response to increased blood flow. "We are not trying to find a therapeutic treatment for smoking because we believe the best therapy for smokers is to stop smoking. None the less, smokers provide a good clinical model for treatment of endothelial dysfunction." The researchers found that vitamin C had a similar though less pronounced effect on the blood vessels of smokers. -ANI |