Suspects may have been tortured abroad: UK

LONDON: Senior British ministers said on Sunday they could not rule out that vital anti-terror information had been obtained through the torture of suspects abroad.

But Foreign Secretary David Miliband and Home Secretary Alan Johnson strongly denied allegations of British collusion in the abuse of terror suspects overseas.

However, it was impossible to eradicate all risk, they wrote in The Sunday Telegraph newspaper, as a panel of lawmakers warned the government that regularly using information gained through torture could be legally construed as complicity.

The article comes as British intelligence agencies face allegations of involvement in the questioning of terror suspects in countries such as Pakistan, including supplying questions for interrogators.

‘The UK firmly opposes torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment. This is not just about legal obligations. It is about our values as a nation,’ Miliband and Johnson wrote.

‘But there are difficult judgments and hard choices, and they need to be better understood.’ 

They said all the most serious plots and attacks in Britain had links abroad, so ‘intelligence from overseas is critical’. While the government could be sure how detainees held by British authorities had been treated, ‘we cannot have the same level of assurance when they are held by foreign governments, whose obligations may differ from our own.’ 

In its annual human rights report, the Commons’ Foreign Affairs Committee (FAC) said it was ‘imperative’ that the government fulfilled its legal obligations to prevent torture and probe alleged incidents.

‘We further conclude that there is a risk that use of evidence which may have been obtained under torture on a regular basis, especially where it is not clear that protestations about mistreatment have elicited any change in behaviour by foreign intelligence services, could be construed as complicity in such behaviour,’ they said.

The committee acknowledged that using intelligence supplied by other countries which could avert a devastating terror attack but which may have been obtained through torture ‘raises profoundly difficult moral questions.’  

Lawmakers on the FAC singled out Britain’s close links with Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Agency (ISI) as a special worry in the report. ‘While the UK must, by necessity, maintain its relationship with Pakistani intelligence, we are very concerned by allegations that the nature of the relationship UK officials have with the ISI may have led them to be complicit in torture,’ the legislators said in their report.—Agencies

Typhoon triggers massive evacuation in China

BEIJING: A typhoon pummelled China’s eastern coast on Sunday, toppling houses, flooding villages and forcing nearly a million people to flee to safety. Officials rode bicycles to distribute food to residents trapped by rising waters.

Typhoon Morakot struck after triggering the worst flooding in Taiwan for 50 years, leaving dozens missing and feared dead and toppling a six-storey hotel. It earlier lashed the Philippines, killing at least 21 people.

Morakot, which means ‘emerald’ in Thai, made landfall in China’s eastern Fujian province, carrying heavy rain and winds of 119 kilometres per hour, according to the China Meteorological Administration. At least one child died after a house collapsed on him in Zhejiang province.

People stumbled with flashlights as the storm enveloped the town of Beibi in Fujian in darkness, the official Xinhua News Agency said. Strong winds uprooted trees, while farmers tried to catch fish swept out of fish farms by high waves.

Village officials in Zhejiang rode bicycles to hand out drinking water and instant noodles to residents stranded by deep floods, while rescuers tried to reach eight sailors on a cargo ship blown onto a reef off Fujian, Xinhua reported.

Morakot was expected to weaken as it travelled north at about 10 kilometres per hour, but still bring strong winds and heavy rains to Shanghai, the meteorological administration said.

Officials in Shanghai released water stored in inland rivers to reduce levels in preparation, Xinhua said.

About one million people were evacuated from China’s eastern coastal provinces — more than 490,000 in Zhejiang and 505,000 in neighbouring Fujian. Authorities in Fujian called 48,000 boats back to harbour.

Five houses were destroyed by heavy rain ahead of the typhoon’s landfall, burying four adults and a four-year-old boy in debris, Xinhua said. The child died after emergency treatment failed, it said.—AP

Evidence ‘pretty conclusive’, says top US official

WASHINGTON: US National Security Adviser Jim Jones said on Sunday he had seen ‘pretty conclusive’ evidence that Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud had died in a drone attack.

‘We think so. We put it in the 90 per cent category,’ Gen Jones told NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ when asked if Baitullah had been killed in a US missile strike on Wednesday. 
Pakistan, he said, also had confirmed the death. 

Later, in an interview to CBS Face the Nation, Gen Jones said Baitullah’s death was a very important development. 

‘First of all, it’s important because this is Pakistan’s public enemy number one,’ he said.

‘He controlled a very violent aspect of the insurgent problems on the Pakistani side of the border. And this would be — this is a big deal.’ 

A Pentagon official, Bryan Whitman, however, warned that Baitullah’s death had not diminished the threat of the Taliban. 

‘I don’t want to make more than one should of a single individual,’ he said. 

Meanwhile, US counter-terrorism experts noted that American and Pakistani commanders had been working together more closely in recent months and Baitullah’s death proved that this cooperation was effective. 

‘This is an important step for the US-Pakistani relations,’ said Juan Zarate, a senior adviser at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies and a top counter-terrorism official under Bush. 

The experts predicted that the two countries would now increase their focus on other insurgent leaders, such as Sirajuddin Haqqani and Mullah Omar. 

Mr Haqqani and his family form the Haqqani network, a group based in North Waziristan. 

The CIA has accused Pakistan of maintaining close ties with the group, which is also linked to Al Qaeda and sometimes operates in concert with the Taliban. 

The Haqqani network has masterminded some of the deadliest terror attacks in Afghanistan. 

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton, a Missouri Democrat, called reports of Baitullah’s death ‘a sign that our joint efforts with Pakistan’s military’ were working. 

‘The most helpful thing of all may be that Pakistani public opinion will be very pleased, and that gives the Pakistani government a benefit to show for cooperating with the United States,’ said John Nagl, president of the Centre for a New American Security in Washington.
 
‘This is the first time I feel that there’s a realistic chance that Osama bin Laden himself might be found at some point,’ said Ken Katzman, a senior Afghanistan analyst with the Congressional Research Service in Washington.

Thirty-seven die in Baghdad as bombs target Shia pilgrims

BAGHDAD: A suicide car bomb devastated a Shia mosque in northern Iraq, one of a series of attacks Friday that killed at least 37 Shia pilgrims and worshippers, police and medical officials said.

The incidents are the latest in a series that have targeted Shias, raising concerns that insurgents are stepping up attacks, hoping to re-ignite sectarian violence that nearly tore the country apart in 2006 and 2007.

Though violence has dramatically declined in Iraq in the past two years, US officials have repeatedly called the security gains fragile and cautioned that a waning insurgency still has the ability to pull off sporadic, high profile attacks.

The deadliest blast occurred in Rasheediyah, north of Mosul, when a suicide car bomb struck a mosque, killing at least 30 people and trapping dozens more underneath the rubble, said a police official in Ninevah operations command.

The official said at least 88 were injured in the blast. Bodies were still being pulled from the rubble, the official said.

The attack occurred shortly after one p.m. as worshippers were leaving Friday prayers. The blast also severely damaged a dozen other buildings near the mosque, the official said.

In Baghdad, roadside bombs targeted Shia pilgrims returning from the southern holy city of Karbala.

The first of three bombs exploded at about 9:10 a.m., targeting a minibus with pilgrims as it entered the Shia slum of Sadr City, a police official said. The blast killed four pilgrims and wounded eight others, the official said. The causalities were confirmed by a medical official.

A short time later, two near simultaneous explosions near the Shaab football stadium in eastern Baghdad killed three pilgrims as they were walking home to Sadr City, said another police official.

Thirteen pilgrims also were wounded in the two blasts, which occurred less than half a mile apart, the official said.

All the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release information to the media.

The blasts came a day after a roadside bomb targeted pilgrims on their way to Karbala, killing one and wounding four others. Last Friday, a string of bombings targeted Shia worshippers in the Baghdad area during Friday prayers, killing at least 29 people.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks. Attacks on Shia civilians — particularly during pilgrimages — have been the hallmark of Sunni extremists, including al-Qaida in Iraq.

Hundreds of thousands of devout Shias have been traveling by foot or by vehicle to Karbala, 50 miles south of Baghdad, to celebrate the birth of Mohammed al-Mahdi, the 12th Shia imam. — AP

Thirteen killed in fresh Afghan violence

KANDAHAR: Fresh Afghan violence left 13 people dead, including wedding-goers and a US soldier in new attacks ahead of elections, as the Nato chief on Thursday visited militants’ hotspots in the south.

A wave of Taliban attacks has raised fears that violence will mar presidential and provincial council elections on August 20 and damage the credibility of the polls.
A bomb ripped through a trailer taking villagers to a wedding and towed by a farm tractor — a common mode of transport in rural Afghanistan — in the southern province of Helmand on Wednesday, authorities said.
Several officials initially said 21 people were killed, including children and women, and five others wounded.
But by Thursday evening provincial police chief Assadullah Shairzad had reduced the death toll to five, saying the initial information was incorrect.
‘Now we have more accurate and fresh information and that is five civilians were killed and five were wounded,’ he said of the blast in the southern province’s troubled Garmsir district.
Provincial government spokesman Daud Ahmadi said the dead were two women, two children and one man.
The Taliban refused to accept responsibility for the blast, instead accusing US forces of killing civilians to ‘defame’ the militants.
Police bombed
A similar bomb in the same province on Thursday killed five policemen and wounded three, the interior ministry said.
The US soldier was killed in another roadside bombing, in western Afghanistan on Wednesday, Nato’s International Security Assistance Force said.
In another attack on Thursday, militants in eastern Afghanistan ambushed a convoy of tankers transporting fuel to international forces, killing two drivers and wounding a third, the interior ministry said.
Nato chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Thursday continued his maiden visit to Afghanistan, which he has declared a priority since taking office, with a visit to Helmand.
He met troops and government officials for talks focussed on the international effort to end the violence.

Around 100 on trial after Iran post-election riots

This photo, taken by an individual not employed by the Associated Press and obtained by the Associated Press outside Iran shows an Iranian anti-riot police raising his baton to disperse protestors at an opposition rally at the Behesht-i-Zahra cemetery, just outside Tehran, Iran, July 30, 2009. photo by (News Alart)

TEHRAN: Around 100 people accused of rioting after the disputed re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad were put on trial in a Tehran revolutionary court on Saturday, the Fars news agency said.

Among those in the dock were prominent reformists and supporters of opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi and aides of former reformist president Mohammad Khatami.

The leading reformists on trial were Behzad Nabavi, a top member of the Islamic Republic Mujahedeen Organisation, Mohammad Atrianfar, prominent member of Executives of Construction, and Mohammad Ali Abtahi, a member of the Assembly of Combatant Clerics.

Nabavi was also the deputy speaker of parliament during the Khatami government, while Abtahi was vice president in charge of parliamentary affairs during Khatami's tenure.

Another top accused was Abdollah Ramezanzadeh, Khatami's former spokesman from 1997 to 2005.

Former Philippines president Corazon Aquino dead

‘Cory’ Aquino was propelled into the political spotlight in 1986, leading millions of Filipinos in protests against the corrupt regime of Marcos, who jailed thousands of dissidents during his brutal 20-year regime_ (Photo by News Alart)

MANILA: Former Philippines president Corazon Aquino, whose ‘People Power’ revolution toppled dictator Ferdinand Marcos and restored democracy to the nation, died Saturday after a battle with colon cancer.

‘Cory’ Aquino was propelled into the political spotlight in 1986, leading millions of Filipinos in protests against the corrupt regime of Marcos, who jailed thousands of dissidents during his brutal 20-year regime.

As people across the Catholic nation woke to the news, President Gloria Arroyo declared a 10-day period of mourning and ordered a state funeral for Aquino, whom she praised as a ‘national treasure.’

Aquino’s family announced her death early Saturday.
‘Our mother peacefully passed away at 3:18 am, August 1, 2009 of cardio-respiratory arrest,’ Senator Benigno Aquino Jr, said in a statement outside the Makati Medical Centre in Manila, where his mother had been hospitalised.

‘She would have wanted us to thank each and every one of you for all the prayers and the continuous love and support,’ he said.

‘It was her wish for all of us to pray for one another and for the country,’ Aquino said.
Arroyo, in the United States on an official visit, said: ‘Aquino led a revolution that restored democracy and the rule of law to our nation at a time of great peril.’
Former aide and press secretary Teodoro Locsin, who is also a close family friend, openly wept on television.

‘The purity, the nobility, never failed. She never asked for anything,’ in return, Locsin said.
He said more than anything else, Aquino removed the ‘centre of corruption in government, because she would not be corrupt.’

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hailed Aquino as an inspiration who helped restore democracy to her country.

‘Cory Aquino was beloved by her nation and admired by the world for her extraordinary courage after the assassination of her husband, and later, during her service as president,’ she said.
The widow of assassinated opposition leader Benigno ‘Ninoy’ Aquino, Cory Aquino, dressed in her trademark yellow outfits, led millions onto the streets to stop Marcos’s tanks from crushing a military faction that had turned against him.

Marcos and his family fled into exile in Hawaii, where he died three years later.
The family of Aquino, who was 76, said funeral arrangements would be announced later Saturday.

Friends and political opponents offered their condolences to the family, while the influential Roman Catholic church held special requiem masses.

A former housewife who reluctantly became president, the soft-spoken Aquino rewrote the country’s constitution, freed all political dissidents jailed by Marcos, and launched peace talks with communist and Muslim insurgents.

‘I realised that I could have made things easier for myself if I had done the popular things rather than the painful but better ones in the long run.
After all, in the long run, I wouldn’t be around to be blamed,’ Aquino once said while reflecting on her presidency.

Until March last year, when she withdrew from public life after being diagnosed with colon cancer, she had been active in street protests denouncing corruption in the government.
She had also repeatedly demanded that Arroyo, a former protege, whose nine-year presidency has been marred by scandals, step down.

A humble moral crusader, Aquino once famously rejected an offer for a presidential limousine to the inauguration of her successor, Fidel Ramos.

Aquino later joined the church in rallying the public in a military-backed peaceful revolt that ousted president Joseph Estrada, a self-proclaimed womaniser and former action movie star whose regime was also rife with corruption.

Prior to her death, Aquino was reconciled with Estrada and allowed him to visit her bedside last week.

‘She was a woman of both strength and graciousness,’ an emotional Estrada said Saturday. ‘Today, our country has lost a mother.’

Jakarta hotel blasts kill nine, wound 50

JAKARTA: A pair of powerful explosions killed nine and wounded at least 50 people in an upscale Jakarta neighborhood Friday morning, sending debris and glass flying onto the streets.


Anti-terror forces were at the scenes of both blasts, but did not yet want to speculate about the possibility of an attack by militants.

'There were bodies on the ground, one of them had no stomach,' said a man who lives near the hotels and who arrived at the Marriott before emergency services. 'It was terrible.'

Alex Asmasubrata, who was jogging by the hotels, said he first heard a loud explosion at the Marriott. Five minutes later, a bomb followed at the Ritz.

The blasts were caused by 'high explosives,' Security Minister Widodo Adi Sucipto told reporters at the scene, without elaborating. He said they exploded two minutes apart.

He said a New Zealander was among those killed, and that thirteen other foreigners were among the injured.

The police operational chief Arief Wahyunadi said the bombs were planted in the Ritz-Carlton's Air Langga restaurant and the basement of the Marriott, which was attacked in 2003. Twelve people died in that assault, which was blamed on Southeast Asian terror network Jemaah Islamiyah.

There has been a massive crackdown by anti-terror officials since then, and it has been more than three years since a major terrorist attack in Indonesia.

The Manchester United football team was scheduled to stay at the Ritz on Saturday and Sunday nights for a friendly match against the Indonesian All Stars, the Indonesian Football association said.
Because of past attacks, most major hotels in Jakarta take security precautions, such as checking incoming vehicles and requiring visitors to pass through metal detectors. Still, international hotels make attractive targets, since the nature of their business requires them to be relatively open and accessible.-AP

India agrees to delink dialogue from anti-terror fight

SHARM EL SHEIKH: In a major retreat from its hard-line position on resumption of peace talks, India on Thursday agreed to de-link ‘Composite Dialogue’ from action against terrorism and hold talks with Pakistan on all outstanding issues.

The breakthrough at this Egyptian resort was achieved during a meeting between Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the sidelines of NAM summit. Pakistani officials here described this as a major diplomatic success.

‘Both Prime Ministers recognised that dialogue is the only way forward. Action on terrorism should not be linked to the Composite Dialogue process and these should not be bracketed.

Prime Minister Singh said that India was ready to discuss all issues with Pakistan, including all outstanding issues,’ said a joint statement issued after the meeting which lasted close to three hours, including a 40-minute one-to-one session.

Talks between foreign secretaries of the two countries that preceded Thursday’s top-level interaction had failed to make any progress, apart from threadbare discussions on issues straining bilateral ties.

In their speeches at the NAM summit on Wednesday, the prime ministers had stuck to their stated positions and even when their meeting got under way on Thursday there was little hope that a joint statement would be issued.

However, the prime ministers proved that they had the courage to rise to the occasion and chart the way to improve their relations.

Since the 26/11 Mumbai attacks India had been insisting that the Composite Dialogue, which was started in 2004 and completed four rounds, could not be resumed without Pakistan taking credible action against terrorism and prosecuting the perpetrators of the attacks.

Pakistan has been consistently saying that all problems can be solved through dialogue.

It was not immediately clear what motivated India to change its position on the issue of resumption of peace talks.

One apparent reason is the forthcoming visit of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to New Delhi and the Indian desire to avoid being seen as unreasonable and inflexible.

Talking to media personnel after the meeting, Dr Singh said: ‘We have obligation to talk to Pakistan.’

This was a changed Dr Singh, who had snubbed President Asif Ali Zardari in Yekaterinburg last month by telling him that his mandate was limited to just telling Pakistan that it should not allow its territory to be used for terrorist attacks against India.

Although no timeline or mechanism has been decided for resumption of dialogue, diplomatic sources said that details would be worked out by the foreign secretaries between now and the UN General Assembly session in September when the foreign ministers of both countries would meet.

Dr Singh and Mr Gilani agreed during their meeting that foreign secretaries should meet ‘as often as necessary and report to the two foreign ministers, who will be meeting on the sidelines of the forthcoming UN General Assembly’.

But, more important was India’s acceptance to hold discussions on all eight segments of the Composite Dialogue, casting away apprehensions in Islamabad that New Delhi wanted recasting of the dialogue, which would have nullified the progress made so far, particularly on Sir Creek, Siachen and Kashmir confidence-building measures.

Mr Gilani reassured Dr Singh that Pakistan would make all possible efforts to bring the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks to justice. ‘Prime Minister Singh reiterated the need to bring the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks to justice.

Prime Minister Gilani assured that Pakistan will do everything in its power in this regard,’ the statement said.

After the meeting, Prime Minister Gilani told media persons that his counterpart was satisfied with his commitment.

Another major development of immense importance is Indian willingness to discuss allegations that its consulates in Afghanistan were involved in subversive activities on Pakistani soil, particularly in Balochistan.

The joint statement states that ‘Prime Minister Gilani mentioned that Pakistan has some information on threats in Balochistan and other areas,’ and Mr Singh in his media conversation conceded that India had agreed to discuss the issue.

‘I told him the consulates are not of recent origin and we have deep ties with Afghanistan but will discuss the issue in detail if Pakistan wanted,’ Dr Singh said.

Mr Gilani told journalists that India was ready to discuss its alleged involvement in Balochistan unrest.

Both the countries also agreed to share intelligence relating to future terrorist threats. ‘Both leaders agreed that the two countries will share real time, credible and actionable information on any future terrorist threats,’ the two-page statement said.

Pakistan and India already have a Joint Anti-Terrorism Mechanism, which is currently dysfunctional, which has a similar provision for intelligence cooperation.

The agreement at Sharm El Sheikh to create an atmosphere of ‘mutual trust and confidence’ is likely to help the two countries make the intelligence-sharing agreement workable this time.

The two leaders committed themselves to promoting regional cooperation and acknowledged that the real challenge was elimination of poverty that restrained their countries and their people from realising their full potential.