10  theSun | TUESDAY DECEMBER 2 2008

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PNG women killed baby
boys to stop tribal fights
SYDNEY: Women in a remote area of Papua New Guinea
killed their baby boys over a decade-long period to stop
breeding males who would continue long-running tribal
fighting, a report said. The tribal feud, which has carried on
for more than 20 years, has left many women in the Gimi
area of Okapa, in the Eastern Highlands, struggling to feed
their children after their men went off to fight, The National People
newspaper said. Two women, Rona Luke and Kipiyona Belas, gather to pay
revealed the infanticide during a peace and reconciliation respects in
training session in Goroka last week, it said. They told the front of the
paper that the women in their community decided to stop garlanded
producing sons in the hope that they could reduce their portraits of
tribe’s male stock to the point where the men would have the dead
to withdraw from fighting. – AFP policemen
during a
Bangladesh cracks down condolence
meeting
after sculpture attacked organised by
DHAKA: Police in Bangladesh have launched a crack- the Mumbai

EPAPIX
down on a radical Islamic group after hundreds of police.
activists attacked a landmark sculpture in the capital at
the weekend, authorities said yesterday. At least eight
members of the hardline Islamic group Al Baiyeniat
were in custody after they were caught attacking the
11m sculpture with hammers, shovels and machetes,
said police sub-inspector Ali Haider. Cases have been
filed against 400 others police allege were involved in
the attack. The sculpture of six storks in the centre of
a roundabout in the commercial quarter of Dhaka was
built in 1989 and is a landmark in the city. “It is the
India demands swift Pakistan
action over Mumbai attacks
responsibility of every Muslim to demolish idols,” one of
those arrested told TV station Channel I. – AFP

S. Korea officially ends

military mission in Iraq
SEOUL: South Korea yesterday officially ended its four-year MUMBAI: India said yesterday it had
military mission in Iraq and plans to bring back all remaining called Pakistan’s envoy and informed
troops before Christmas, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said. It said him that deadly attacks in Mumbai
a ceremony hosted by US commander General Raymond were carried out by militants from
Odierno would be held in the northern Iraqi city of Arbil to Pakistan and demanded swift action
mark the termination of operations. The unit would start against those responsible.
pulling out tomorrow, along with troops from an air sup- Investigators said the gunmen
port unit based in neighbouring Kuwait, the joint chiefs’ who launched the attacks on India’s
office said in a statement. The withdrawal will be completed financial capital, killing 183 people
before Dec 20. – AFP in a three-day siege, had months of
commando training in Pakistan.
The fallout prompted a second
top politician from the ruling
Congress party to resign, amid
growing fury among many Indians
at apparent intelligence lapses.
The attacks against Mumbai’s
two best-known luxury hotels and
other landmarks in the city of 18
million are a major setback for
improving ties between nuclear-
armed India and Pakistan.
India fired the first formal
diplomatic salvo late yesterday after
days of fingerpointing, releasing
a foreign ministry statement
describing the actions it expects
Islamabad to take.
“It was conveyed to the
Pakistan high commissioner that
Pakistan’s actions needed to match
the sentiments expressed by its
leadership that it wishes to have a
qualitatively new relationship with
India,” the statement said.
“He was informed that the
recent terrorist attack on Mumbai
was carried out by elements from
Pakistan. Government expects that
strong action would be taken against
those elements, whosoever they may
be, responsible for this outrage.”
The White House said US
Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice would visit India tomorrow,
underscoring the seriousness with
which Washington viewed the
attacks.
Rice played down the threat of
conflict between two countries,
which almost came to war in 2002
after an earlier attack on India’s
parliament which also was blamed
on Pakistani militants.
“This is a different relationship
than it was a number of years ago.
Obviously they share a common
enemy because extremists in any
form are a threat to the Pakistanis as
well as the Indians,” she said.
The White House said it had
heard nothing from investigations
so far to suggest Pakistani
government involvement.
Two senior Indian investigators
said on condition of anonymity that
evidence from the interrogation of
Azam Amir Kasav, the only gunmen
of the 10 not killed by commandos,
clearly showed that Pakistani
militants had a hand in the attack.
The clean-shaven, 21-
year-old with fluent English
was photographed during the
attack wearing a black tee-shirt
emblazoned with the Versace logo.
He has said his team took orders
from “their command in Pakistan”,
police officials said.
The training was organised by
the Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group,
and conducted by a former member
of the Pakistani army, a police officer
close to the interrogation told Reuters
on condition of anonymity because
he was not authorised to speak.
“They underwent training in
several phases, which included
training in handling weapons, bomb
making, survival strategies, survival
in a marine environment and even
dietary habits,” another senior
officer told Reuters.
The Pakistani-based Lashkar-e-
Taiba made its name fighting Indian
rule in Kashmir. It had close links to
Pakistan’s military spy agency in the
past, security experts said.
India has said it has raised
security to a “war level” and has no
doubt of a Pakistani link.
Days before militants struck
Mumbai, Indian authorities were
warned of an imminent attack by
Islamist gunmen who would arrive
by sea, according to a senior coast
guard source.
Vilasrao Deshmukh, the chief
minister of Maharashtra state and
a member of the ruling Congress
party, had offered to resign. – Reuters

Russia issues warrant for

suspect in journalist’s murder
MOSCOW: Russia has asked Interpol to
detain a suspect over the 2006 murder
of journalist Anna Politkovskaya, the
country’s general prosecutor told Rus-
sian television on Sunday.
“We know who carried out this crime
and he is now the subject of an interna-
tional arrest warrant,” general prosecu-
tor Yuri Chayka said in an interview with
state television.
He added that Russian authorities
were working with the international
police agency, Interpol.
“I was at Interpol recently and
discussed the question during meeting
with the secretary-general of Interpol.
Now we are working actively on this,”
the Russian official said.
Politkovskaya, whose articles in the
Novaya Gazeta newspaper were deeply
critical of the Kremlin’s actions in war-
torn Chechnya, was shot dead outside
her Moscow home on Oct 7, 2006 in an
apparent contract killing.
Four of her killer’s accomplices
are currently on trial in Moscow – but
whoever ultimately ordered her murder
has never been identified and the killer
is believed to be on the run.
Of the four suspects on trial, one is a
former agent of the FSB security service,
the successor to the Soviet-era KGB.
Pavel Ryaguzov is suspected of pro-
viding Politkovskaya’s home address to
the killer.
Two of the other defendants,
Dzhabrail and Ibragim Makhmudov, are
Chechen brothers accused of following
her in her last weeks.
The fourth defendant is Sergei
Khadzhikurbanov, a former police in-
vestigator from the Moscow police’s
organised crime unit.
All the defendants have entered not
guilty pleas. – AFP