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wednesday, 15 February, 2012
Foreign News 17
israel diplomat attack by ‘well-trained’ operative: india NEW DELHI AFP
A bomb blast that badly wounded an Israeli diplomat in New Delhi was a terrorist attack by a highly-trained operative, the Indian government said Tuesday, as Israel accused Iran of being responsible. The injured female diplomat was described by doctors as stable following overnight surgery to remove shrapnel from her spine after the attack, in which a motorcyclist planted a suspected magnetic bomb on her car. “The explosion according to eyewitnesses happened within seconds of the device being planted,” Home Minister P. Chidambaram told reporters in Delhi. “It is quite clear that a very well-trained person carried out this attack.” “One has to progress on the basis that it was a terrorist attack,” he said, adding “we are not pointing our finger at any group or organisation.” In Washington, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemned Monday’s attack in India and an attempted bombing in Georgia in the “strongest possible terms” but the White House reserved judgment on who was responsible. Israel said it was in no doubt about whom to blame after the embassy car in New Delhi exploded in a ball of flames, while police defused an explosive fixed to another Israeli embassy vehicle in the Georgian capital Tbilisi.
Bahrain police disperse protests on uprising anniversary DUBAI AFP
Bahraini police dispersed protesters who made several attempts Tuesday to mark the anniversary of last year’s uprising by marching to the site of the protest that was brutally crushed, witnesses said. Several protests took off from Shiite villages on the outskirts of Manama, with youth trying to reach the capital’s former Pearl Square, where democracy demonstrators camped for a month last year before being forcefully driven out. Protesters marched from Sanabis, Deih and Jidhafs, which lie few kilometres (miles) west of Manama, despite police warning that protests would be dispersed, witnesses said. “Down with (King) Hamad!” they chanted, referring to the Sunni monarch whose Al-Khalifa has ruled the Shiite-majority Gulf kingdom since the 18th century. The Coalition of the Youth of February 14th Revolution, a hardline group that operates apart from the political opposition led by Al-Wefaq, declared Tuesday the day to return to the square that was razed after the mid-March crackdown. “All of us are returning” to the square, read a call for protest posted on its Facebook page, designating 6:40 am (0340 GMT) as the starting time. The coalition posted footage of youth dressed in white Islamic death shrouds running through some alleys claiming they were heading to the square that is heavily protected by security forces.
CAIRO: An egyptian lies in a mock grave dug in Tahrir square which are symbolically intended for former President hosni Mubarak and members of the ruling military council on Tuesday. AfP
Iran to unveil nuclear ‘achievements’ today TEHRAN
I
AFP
RANIAN President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is to unveil several unspecified nuclear “achievements” on Wednesday, his government’s website said. “Several completed nuclear projects will be unveiled tomorrow in the presence of the president,” the official website said on Tuesday. “Experts believe these achievements will show the world the extraordinary capability and knowledge of Iranians.” It added that the progress will underline Iran’s scientific adherence to “nuclear power for all and nuclear weapons for none,” the website said. The announcement confirmed a vow made by Ahmadinejad on Saturday to inaugurate “important nuclear projects” within “days,” in a speech marking the anniversary of Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution. Iran’s progress in its nuclear programme has deeply unsettled the West and Israel, which see it masking a drive for atomic weapons. A report by the UN nuclear watchdog in November also expressed strong suspicions in that sense. Tehran, though, has repeatedly said its nuclear activities are exclusively peaceful in nature. The international showdown over Iran’s nuclear programme has deepened in recent months, with the United States and the European Union slapping unprecedentedly tough economic sanctions on the Islamic republic to pressure it to halt its activities.
‘Decision’ on iran imminent, says Russian army chief MOSCOW AFP
The head of Russia’s army said Tuesday he expected a “decision” on Iran to be taken by Western powers this summer in response to Tehran’s disputed nuclear programme. “Iran, of course, is a sore spot. Some sort of decision on it should be taken soon. It will probably be taken closer to the summer,” Chief of Staff General Nikolai Makarov was quoted as saying by the RIA Novosti news agency. Makarov provided no further comment
and it was not immediately clear if he was referring to possible military action or future sanctions. Russia has backed four rounds of United Nations sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme amid growing international concern that it was pursuing military aims. But Moscow has sternly warned against using military action. Russia last month accused Western powers of trying to “suffocate” the Iranian economy and incite popular discontent with new sanctions such as the impending oil embargo by EU states.
man killed planting bomb in Yemen polling booth ADEN AFP
A man was killed Tuesday when a bomb exploded as he was planting it in a polling booth in Yemen’s southern city of Aden, a security official said, amid rising tension ahead of presidential elections next week. “An unknown man trying to plant an explosive device in a polling booth in the neighbourhood of Crater... was killed when it exploded,” the official said, requesting anonymity. Security forces were swiftly de-
ployed across Crater, especially near election committees’ headquarters, the official told AFP. “We cannot accuse anyone yet but the extremist factions of the (separatist) Southern Movement led by (Yemen Socialist Party’s former leader) Ali Salem al-Baidh are trying to hamper the elections,” he said. Further east, anti-election gunmen from the Southern Movement besieged a polling booth in the town of Mayfaa in the southeastern province of Shabwa, local officials there told AFP. The gunmen demanded that members of the elec-
toral committee, who are supported by armed tribesmen, leave the polling booth, the officials said, adding that negotiations to resolve the situation were continuing Tuesday afternoon. Activists from the Southern Movement who say the February 21 election fails to meet their aspirations for autonomy or southern independence, have been campaigning for a boycott of the election, while Baidh’s followers openly call for actions to prevent the poll from taking place at all. The elections are taking place under
a Gulf-brokered power transfer deal under which President Ali Abdullah Saleh agreed to hand power to his deputy, Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi, in return for immunity from prosecution for himself and his aides. Activists have posted banners across Aden reading: “To all free southerners: The polls must not take place.” Late on Monday, members of the Southern Movement erected the flag of the formerly independent South Yemen and tore down Hadi’s pictures in Khor Maksar in Aden, an AFP correspondent reported.
India won’t censor social media: minister MUMBAI AFP
India does not intend to censor online social networks such as Facebook, a minister said Tuesday, but he demanded that they obey the same rules governing the press and other media. “I want to say once and for all, without any obfuscation, no government in India will ever censor social media,” Telecoms Minister Kapil Sibal said at an IT summit in Mumbai. “I never wanted to censor social media and no government wants to do so. But like the print and electronic media, they have to obey the laws of the country,” Sibal told the gathering. Sibal held a number of meetings with leading Internet companies late last year in which he asked about the possibility of checking content before it is posted online by users. The minister was said to have shown Internet executives examples of obscene images found on the Internet that risked offending Muslims or defaming politicians, including the boss of the ruling Congress party, Sonia Gandhi. “The media reported that I had said I wanted to prescreen the content on social media. I have never even heard the word pre-screen,” he said at the summit. Since these meetings, 19 Internet firms including Google, Yahoo! and Facebook have been targeted in criminal and civil cases lodged in lower New Delhi courts, holding them responsible for content posted by users of their platforms.
S. Korean woman commits suicide after dog’s death SEOUL AFP
A South Korean woman apparently mourning the death of her pet dog has committed suicide after leaving a note requesting she be buried with the animal, police said Tuesday. The 25-year-old surnamed Kim was found dead at her home in the southern city of Busan on Monday after apparently burning coal briquettes in the bathroom, a Busan police official told AFP on condition of anonymity. Kim was clutching the dead dog when a co-worker found her body in the bathroom, whose windows and door were sealed with tape, he said, adding the cause of death was likely carbon monoxide poisoning. Kim, who had owned the dog for the past four years, had not been to work since Thursday. The police official said she left a suicide note saying she wanted to be with the dog and to be buried with it.