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News from India
Six killed in fresh communal violence in Ahmedabad
Ahmedabad, Mar 31 (ANI):
Fresh Hindu-Muslim clashes claimed at
least six lives in two separate incidents here early on Sunday,
according to police.
In the first incident,
two people were killed in police firing
and the third succumbed to injuries from a sharp weapon
at
Gomtipur area of Ahmedabad, a senior police official said.
Three people were killed
in another clash between members of the
two communities in Kambhat, a small town in Anand district, about
80 kms from the state capital.
The official said police
opened fire to disperse large groups of
Hindus and Muslims who pelted stones at each and also set ablaze
three houses of Muslims in the area.
Twelve people, including
two police officials, were also injured.
A curfew has been imposed in Gomtipur. Army and paramilitary
forces are patrolling the streets.
On Saturday night,
fifty houses, belonging to Muslims were set
on fire by Hindu mobs in Adudhragam in Mehsana district.
Incidents of stone
throwing and blazing of houses were also
reported from several other parts of the state.
Ahmedabad bore the
brunt of religious violence that rocked the
state last month. More than 750 people died in a wave of revenge
killings and sporadic clashes continue to be reported from across
the state. (ANI)
JKLF protest against arrest of Yasin Malik in Islamabad
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Islamabad, Mar 31
(ANI): Activists of Jammu and Kashmir
Liberation Front (JKLF) staged a demonstration outside Indian
High Commission in Islamabad on Saturday.
They protested against
the arrest of JKLF leader Yasin Malik
under the Prevention Of Terrorism Act (POTA).
Protestors held pictures
of Yasin Malik and shouted slogans
condemning India and demanded his immediate release. They
also
shouted slogans demanding freedom for Kashmir.
Addressing the protestors,
General Secretary of JKLF (Islamabad),
Mohammed Farooq said that Kashmiris are peace-loving people
and
want peace in the region.
Police arrested Yasin
Malik on Monday after arresting a woman
with 100,000 dollars who informed them that the money was meant
for the separatist leader.
However, Malik denied
any links with the arrested woman. (ANI)
Musharraf to unveil referendum plan next week
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Islamabad, Mar 31 (ANI):
President Pervez Musharraf will make
public his verdict on the referendum issue early next week,
saying the "referendum will tell the world that Pakistanis
need
me". He made it clear the time had come that people should
decide
if they wanted continuity of the present regime's reforms.
The president was
informally talking to the editors of national
print and electronic media, senior column writers and his policy-
makers at the President's Secretariat here on Saturday. Musharraf
said he would put a direct question before the people: "Do
you
want me to continue as president for five years or not?"
He said
he would not ask a vague question. "I will not follow Ayub
or Zia
models," he added.
"The Supreme
Court has given me the mandate to exercise the
option of holding referendum." The president pledged
complete
transparency in holding referendum, saying that he would ensure
that this constitutional exercise was held in a fair and
free
manner and its credibility was maintained. When asked
if
different options were reviewed before taking the decision
to
hold referendum, Musharraf said: "I was told to
issue a
Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO), but we have set aside
all
such options."
Replying to a question,
Musharraf said after winning the people's
vote for his presidency, he would continue to hold the office
of
the Chief of the Army Staff. He told another questioner that
all
fellow army generals were with him in decision making. "I
am a
democrat and in the army policies are made with consensus. If
I
am a commander then I am a commander and nobody can challenge
my
command," he went on to say.
Musharraf said that
majority of the political parties with whom
he held consultations on the referendum have supported him.
He
categorically denied having joined any political party at
this
stage nor would he accept heading a specific political entity.
When asked how would he ensure ground support for ensuring
respectable turn-out in the proposed referendum, the General
said: "Nazims and union councils will bring voters."
The president said
any constitutional amendment would be made
strictly in the light of Supreme Court's verdict, adding: "If
we
touch the 1973 Constitution, we will never be able to make a
new
Constitution." He said that even the SC mandate did not
allow him
to change the Constitution. "When I say I am the president,
I
know it is undemocratic", he asserted. He said he believed
that
the constitutional issues should be left to the parliamentarians.
Asked if he enjoyed
support of the international community on
holding referendum, Musharraf replied in the affirmative, saying:
"No foreign country is against me. They are all with
me on
whatever I am doing." Asked while trying to safeguard the
reforms
introduced by his regime, he should keep in mind that Ayub undid
his own system and then Gen Zia followed it, Musharraf said
he
intervened at a critical juncture when the future of the country
was at stake.
Musharraf said a complete
system of checks and balances is being
worked out to ensure complete harmony among the president, prime
minister and the Army. To achieve this objective, the role
of
National Security Council is being revised so that it could
oversee the working of these institutions. He said: "Take
the
example of last president (Farooq Leghari) who wanted to oust
an
elected prime minister on his whims alone." He added that
he was
against the idea of power sharing. "It is the prime minister
who
has to run the affairs of the federation. But system of checks
and balances should be there and for this army's role is there",
he argued.
Musharraf said the
Pakistan People's Party is a national party
and he wanted it to stay on the national political scene.
However, he said its leader Benazir Bhutto and Asif Zardari would
not be allowed to contest election because they plundered
the
national wealth. He said he has been meeting leaders of the
PPP
and the process of consultations is continuing. He said he would
be meeting more leaders of this party in the near future on
the
issue of referendum.
As far as Nawaz Sharif
is concerned, he said there was no room
for him to play any role in the national politics for the
time
being. Similarly, he did not see any role for the PML-N, saying
that Nawaz means PML. He said he met Raja Zafarul Haq as
a
political leader and not as the Chairman of the PML-N. Musharraf
said that it was a painful fact that well over 23 billion dollars
were borrowed from international financial institutions during
the past 12 years and questioned the editors where has that money
disappeared? He said the national economy was out of difficult
phase and with the restoration of democratic order, it would
further flourish.
Musharraf said that
after having fulfilled its commitment of
implementing devolution plan, the maximum powers have been given
to local bodies institutions and provinces while the rest
will
stay with the Centre. "Now is the phase of rectifying
democracy
in the country. We want institutionalisation so that democracy
can never be hampered," he added.
In view of this, Musharraf
said, his government was working on
four essentials namely, checks and balances among the president,
prime minister and the chief of the army staff; so that no
one
overstepped authority; ensuring provincial autonomy; upholding
national interest and making arrangements that no one could
reverse the reforms agenda. For these essentials, he said
he
would do everything possible to achieve them. He informed
a
questioner that general election would be held according to
the
schedule and the mandate of the Supreme Court.(ANI)
Campus ban on kissing
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Pune, March 31 (ANI):
Authorities at the Pune University have
banned kissing and holding of hands by lovers inside
the
University Campus spread over 411 acres.
Vice-Chancellor of
the University Ashok Kolaskar said students
who show "affection" in public damage the reputation
of the
university. He also threatened strict action against those
who
defy the orders.
"Nothing of that
sort will be tolerated inside the campus", he
specified.
According to university
sources, many couples from outside the
university also use its green areas to kiss and cuddle.
A university official
said the measure was being adopted as
people were making use of the trees, lawns and lonely spots,
especially after the sunset. (ANI)
Shootout continues outside Arafat HQ
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Nicosia, Mar 31 (ANI):
Israeli troops and Yasser Arafat's guards
continued to trade fire near the Palestinian leader's
headquarters in Ramallah on Sunday in which, witnesses said,
two
people were killed and six injured.
The latest exchange
of fire took place despite the UN call on
Israel to pull out their troops from West Bank and an Easter
appeal for peace by Pope John Paul
The Israel cabinet
was due to convene later for a meeting which a
source said would focus on possible further military thrusts
into
Palestinian-held areas of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Arafat, in an interview
on Saturday, asked the world to end what
he called Israel's assault on his people.
US President Bush,
spending Easter weekend at his Texas ranch,
blamed Palestinians for the latest violence but made no call
for
troops to withdraw from Arafat's compound.
Palestinian officials
alleged Israel was trying to storm the
building where Arafat is holed up but Israel denied the charge.
"It seems that
war has been declared on peace," Pope said in his
Easter Sunday message to the world, calling for an end to
the
"dramatic spiral of abuse of power and killings that bloody
the
Holy Land".
The U.N. Security Council
urged Israel on Saturday to pull out of
Ramallah and other Palestinian cities. The resolution
was
supported by Israel's key ally, the United States, but Bush later
said he understood Israel's actions.
Arafat has said he
would rather die than surrender.
Blast in Israeli
restaurant kills 12
Nicosia, Mar 31
(ANI): A huge explosion ripped through a
restaurant in the northern Israeli coastal city of Haifa
on
Sunday. The restaurant was crowded at the time of the attack,
according to a BBC report.
Reports from the scene
said that at least 12 people were killed
and more than 30 wounded. Several of the injured were in
a
critical condition.
The force of the blast
blew a hole through the retaurant roof.
"We are talking
about a suicide bomber," northern Israeli police
commander Yaakov Borovsky told reporters at the scene.
"The place was
filled with a large number of people, so we have
many casualties."
This is the fourth
such attack since the start of the current
Jewish Passover holiday.
The blast happened
on Sunday afternoon in the Matza restaurant,
near a petrol station and just outside a shopping mall.
A witness told Israeli
Radio: "Watching people on fire is just
horrible. I heard an explosion, I went into the gas station and
I
started to deal with the injured people.
"I couldn't deal
with the critical injuries so I tried to put
out the fire."
On Saturday, a suicide
bombing in a Tel Aviv restaurant injured
30 Israelis.
The latest attack
came as Israeli troops fought a fierce gun
battle with the bodyguards of besieged Palestinian leader Yasser
Arafat near his West Bank office in Ramallah.
Elsewhere in Ramallah,
the Palestinians reported mass arrests as
the Israelis used loudspeakers to summon all males between 16
and
50 for questioning. (ANI)
Hyderabad all set to launch netphone Go
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Hyderabad, Mar 31 (ANI):
Hyderabad city is all set to launch
country's first Netphone or Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP)
which would drastically slash the prices of international calls.
Hyderabad-based Internet
Service Provider, Surana Telecom
Limited, is the company behind the launch.
Narender Surana,
Managing Director of Surana Telecom Limited,
said they are all geared up to introduce the facility in India.
"We will be the
first one to launch these services from April 1.
We have already tied up for the instrument which is set up
here
which works like a computer to access internet. We have tied
up
with the gateways to give us the prepaid cards and we have
ISP
(Internet Service Provider) which has applied for VOIP (Voice
Over Internet Protocol) services to government of India. So
we
are fully prepared and we are just raring to go," said Surana.
Surana said to avail
the facility, users did not require any STD
(Subscriber Trunk Dialling) or ISD (International Subscriber
Dialling) connections, it just requires an ordinary telephone
line for the Internet connection.
Basic infrastructure
required by the user is a customer Premises
Equipment which is a telephone like equipment with an inbuilt
computer, an internet connection and a prepaid gateway card.
A customer Premises
equipment's costs around Rs.12,000.
Surana said Netphone
will definitely prove to be a "boon" for the
owners of PCO's (Public Call Office) and Multinational companies.
"It will be
a boon to PCO's (Public Call Office) and
multinational companies also who have multilocation offices.
PCO's can also offer these services to less than 10 rupees
per
minute to customers who could not afford to have customer
Premises equipment costing 10000-12,000 rupees. So from
that
point also its a boon to ordinary citizens who can make
an
international call today at less than 10 rupees a minute. I think
that will be a wonderful thing to offer to the people of India,"
said Surana.
VOIP allows the user
to make international calls at unbelievably
low prices ranging from 5-10 rupees per minute for a call which
otherwise costs around 40-50 rupees. (ANI)
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