Illegal
liquor kills at least 55 in Mumbai
Mumbai:
At least 55 persons were killed in Mumbai after they
consumed illicit liquor over the weekend. Some are still
struggling for life in several hospitals. The first victim
appeared early on Monday morning, complaining of dizziness
and vomiting after drinking at an illicit bar in a slum
near Vikhroli, district officials said. As many as 55 out
of the 128 men admitted to a local hospital had since died.
All the dead at Rajawadi were from a neighbouring slum,
and victims were also taken to other hospitals. "We have
so far 103 admissions and 28 patients have died after admission
and five were brought dead on arrival. The critically ill
people are being treated in Intensive Care unit," VD Shukla,
medical superintendent at the Rajawadi hospital said. The
exact composition of the liquor was unclear, but doctors
suspect methyl alcohol and deadly chemicals were mixed in,
he added. Meanwhile, the state government, facing criticism
from residents, has suspended several police officers and
announced a compensation package of 50,000 rupees for each
of the victim's families, said an official.
Underworld
Don Shoaib Khan arrested from Lahore (Go
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Karachi:
Suspected Don and owner of several rummy clubs Shoaib
Khan has been arrested from Lahore. According to The News,
the Karachi police after receiving information about the
whereabouts of Shoaib Khan went to Lahore and detained him
there. Shoaib Khan was involved in several cases and was
wanted by the Karachi police. Governor Sindh Dr. Eshratul
Ebad has appreciated the arrest of Shoaib Khan by the Karachi
police.
Indo-Pak
FS talks end on positive note (Go
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by N Bhadran Nair
Islamabad:
The fourth round of talks between the foreign secretaries
of India and Pakistan this year ended on a positive note
on Tuesday with India proposing to Pakistan five designated
places along the border for interaction between divided
families on both sides of Kashmir during specified periods.
Concluding the two-day talks at the Pakistan Foreign Office
here, Foreign Secretaries Riaz Khokhar (Pakistan) and Shyam
Saran (India) and their respective teams came up with several
measures to facilitate greater people-to-people contact,
including ways to end the sufferings of apprehended fishermen,
civilian prisoners and missing defence personnel. This would
include immediate notification to respective high commissions,
consular access within three months of apprehension, repatriation
after completion of sentence and nationality verification,
a mechanism for early repatriation and a mechanism for the
early release of apprehended people aged 16 and under. Khokhar
and Saran also decided that Directors General of Military
Operations (DGMOs) would promote regular contacts at Mendhar,
Poonch, Suchetgarh, Uri and Tangdhar. It was also decided
that further Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) along the
international boundary and Line of Control (LoC) would be
explored.
A
joint statement issued by both sides after Tuesday's deliberations
said that the two-day talks were held in a "frank, cordial
and constructive atmosphere," and it was decided to carry
the process forward. Both sides also agreed to to discuss
the Kashmir issue on the lines reflected in the joint statement
issued by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Pervez
Musharraf on September 24, 2004. It was also decided that
the six other subjects under the Composite Dialogue -- Siachen,
Wullar Barrage/Tulbul Navigation Project, Sir Creek, Terrorism
and Drug Trafficking, Economic and Commercial Cooperation
and Promotion of Friendly exchnages in Various Fields would
be held on mutually agreed dates between April and June
2005. It was also agreed that technical meetings would be
initiated between the two sides on trade, coast guards,
border forces, besides expert-level talks on nuclear and
conventional CBMs and the bus service between Amritsar and
Lahore. Talks between the Narcotics Control Authorities
of the two countries would be held between January and June
2005, the joint statement said. The next meeting of the
foreign secretaries would take place in July-August 2005,
but would be preceded by a meeting of the foreign ministers
and prime ministers of the two countries on the sidelines
of the forthcoming 13th SAARC summit to be held in Dhaka.
This would be followed by a visit to Islamabad by India's
External Affairs Minister K.Natwar Singh in February 2005.
Jinnah
was tortured to death: Altaf Hussain (Go
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Karachi:
The leader of the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM), Altaf
Hussain, has claimed that Pakistan's Founder and a strong
advocate of the two nation theory, Muhammad Ali Jinnah was
tortured to death. Hussain was quoted by the Dawn as saying
in a statement from London that not only was Jinnah tortured
to death, but his sister Fatima Jinnah was poisoned at a
wedding party the same night and tortured to death after
which the Mohatta Palace (Qasr-i-Fatima) was sealed off.
Claiming to have access to some of the eyewitness to the
massacre, he said that he would produce them in Pakistan
only if the government guaranteed their protection. He further
added that Jinnah and his sister were in fact tortured to
death by those very people who had proclaimed themselves
as his true followers.
AQ
Khan sold 10 kiloton nuke blueprints to Libya (Go
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Washington:
Pakistan's incarcerated nuclear scientist, Dr. Abdul
Qadeer Khan not only sold 100 million dollars worth of nuclear
gear to Libya, but also offered blueprints for a 10-kiloton
nuclear bomb. Quoting from a New York Times report, the
Daily Times, described Khan's offer as a "Sweetner" to the
overall deal that was under the watch of intelligence officials
"for years" before it was exposed. According to the NYT,
however, US experts are still unsure about who else besides
Libya was handed the designs. Experts from the US and the
IAEA are said to have quarrelled over who should have control
over the blueprints and after, "hours of tense negotiation,
agreement was reached to keep it in a vault at the Energy
Department in Washington, but under IAEA seal." According
to the newspaper, nearly a year after Dr Khan's arrest,
"secrets of his nuclear black market continue to uncoil,
revealing a vast global enterprise." "The breadth of the
operation was particularly surprising to some American intelligence
officials because they had had Dr Khan under surveillance
for nearly three decades, since he began assembling components
for Pakistan's bomb, but apparently missed crucial transactions
with countries like Iran and North Korea," added the report.
The report alleges that the Dutch company where Dr Khan
worked, as well as Dutch intelligence, were suspicious of
Dr Khan and saw him as "a potential danger." It repeats
the discredited allegation that when he left Holland for
Pakistan, he took away centrifuge blueprints with him. Dr
Khan returned several times to Holland. "The Dutch wanted
to arrest him," a diplomat said. "But they were told by
the American CIA, 'Leave him so we can follow his trail.'
Intelligence experts believe that Dr Khan also traded his
centrifuge technology to the Chinese for their bomb design,
and the NYT report adds that Dr Khan knew he was under surveillance.
France
hold India 3-3, win series (Go
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New
Delhi: India blew away a three-goal advantage as France
rallied to force a 3-3 draw in the second and final hockey
Test match here on Tuesday. The European minnows, playing
a Test series outside their continent for the first time,
took the series 1-0 having won the first Test 3-1 yesterday.
The eight-time Olympic winners had themselves to blame for
wasting the golden opportunity to level the series and salvage
some pride which was severely dented following the loss
yesterday. They simply could not maintain the 3-0 lead they
had taken by the 38th minute and wilted under pressure towards
the close of the match. The home side showed some good attacking
skills in the first half, but could hardly do anything to
stop the rampaging Frenchmen after the break. Freddric Soyez
emerged the hero for the visitors with a hat-trick of goals
(42nd minute, 60th, 63rd), all of which came from penalty
corners. Earlier, Arjun Halappa scored twice (11th and 26th)
as India went to the half time with a 2-0 lead. Tushar Khandekar's
strike three minutes into the second half further swelled
India's lead. But that was all the home side could do as
they watched helplessly with the visitors slamming home
at regular intervals to draw level.
