theSun | TUESDAY JANUARY 6 2009
news without borders
briefs
Humanitarian aid allowed
into affected areas
JERUSALEM: Israel allowed a convoy of
humanitarian aid to enter the Gaza Strip
yesterday, the army said.
“A convoy of 80 trucks transporting hu-
manitarian aid has started to pass through
the Kerem Shalom crossing” in the south,
a military spokesman said.
The aid included medicine and food
which was sent from Egypt, Jordan, Greece
and UN aid agencies, he said.
The Nahal Oz terminal in the north
was also opened yesterday to allow the
transfer of 200,000 litres of fuel for Gaza’s
electricity station as well as 120 tonnes of
cooking gas, he said. – AFP
Thais protest outside
Israeli embassy
BANGKOK: About 200 demonstrators
burnt an Israeli flag and staged a rally
outside Israel’s embassy in Bangkok
yesterday to protest the military of-
fensive in Gaza, witnesses said.
The demonstrators, most of them
Thai Muslims dressed in black, held
posters denouncing the incursion.
“In the name of Thais who love
justice and peace, we would like to
denounce the massacre, which has
severely destroyed the dignity of hu-
man beings,” the protesters said in a
statement. – AFP
S. Lanka troops keep up
assault on Tamil Tigers
COLOMBO: Sri Lankan troops backed
by tanks and helicopter gunships moved
against the remaining Tamil Tiger jungle
strongholds after taking their political
headquarters, the army said yesterday.
Soldiers were fanning out from posi-
tions in the north of the island and heading
towards remaining rebel pockets after
seizing the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
(LTTE) capital of Kilinochchi on Friday, the
army said.
On Sunday, troops also captured the
town of Oddusuddan, just south-west of
Mullaittivu, the last remaining town in the
hands of the LTTE.
For their part, the pro-rebel Tamilnet
website said Tigers were putting up stiff
resistance to the military advance and
said they killed 53 soldiers and wounded
another 80. The claims could not be inde-
pendently verified. – AFP
China targets big
websites in internet raid
BEIJING: China has launched a crack-
down against major websites that of-
ficials accused of threatening morals by
spreading pornography and vulgarity,
including the dominant search engines
Google and Baidu.
China’s Ministry of Public Security
and six other government agencies an-
nounced the campaign at a meeting yes-
terday, state television reported, show-
ing officials hauling digital equipment
away from one unidentified office.
The meeting “decided to launch
a nationwide campaign to clean up
a vulgar current on the Internet and
named and exposed a large number of
violating public morality and harming
the physical and mental health of youth
and young people,” the report said.
The 19 Internet operators and web-
sites named had failed to swiftly cut
“vulgar” content and had not heeded
warnings from censors, it said.
Baidu dominates the Chinese web
search and advertising market with an
estimated two-thirds of the audience.
Google Inc, the global market leader, is
a number two in China. – Reuters
India hands evidence on
Mumbai attacks to Pakistan
NEW DELHI: India yesterday handed to
Pakistan what it said was evidence linking
the country to the Islamic militants who
attacked Mumbai in November, India’s
foreign minister said.
The government also said it was launch-
ing a major diplomatic offensive to maintain
international pressure on Islamabad, which
has so far rejected New Delhi’s demands to
hand over a list of terror suspects.
“We have today handed over to Paki-
stan evidence of the links with elements
in Pakistan of the terrorists who attacked
Mumbai on Nov 26,” Pranab Mukherjee
told reporters.
France “What happened in Mumbai was an un-
foils two pardonable crime. As far as the government
Somali
of Pakistan is concerned, we ask only that it
implement the bilateral commitments that
pirate it has made at the highest levels to India,
and practises her international obligations.
attacks These are clear,” he added.
pg 11 India’s foreign secretary, Shivshankar
Menon, handed over the evidence to Paki-
stan’s high commissioner in New Delhi.
Islamabad confirmed that it had re-
ceived the dossier and was reviewing its
contents.
The material includes details of inter-
rogation of Mohammed Ajmal Amir Iman
– also known as Mohammed Ajmal Kasab
– who was the lone surviving gunman and
who India says is a Pakistani national.
It also details the militants’ communica-
tions with “elements” in Pakistan during
the attack, recovered weapons and other
equipment and data retrieved from recov-
ered global positioning system data and
satellite phones.
“It is our expectation that the govern-
ment of Pakistan will promptly undertake
further investigations in Pakistan and share
7
the results with us so as to bring the perpe-
trators to justice,” Mukherjee said.
New Delhi has also shared the evidence
with foreign ministers around the world,
will brief foreign ambassadors in New Delhi
and Indian ambassadors in other countries
will do the same, the minister said.
The Nov 26 to 29 assault on India’s fi-
nancial capital left 172 dead, including nine
attackers.
Indian officials say the banned Pakistan-
based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba
trained and equipped the 10 militants who
stormed Mumbai.
Pakistan’s government has so far said
that New Delhi has provided no proof of a
Pakistani link to the strikes.
But Indian Home Minister Palaniappan
Chidambaram said over the weekend that
the proof against Pakistan was “overwhelm-
ing” and “unanswerable” and indicated that
the attackers were backed by the Pakistani
authorities.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari,
however, has described the attackers as
“stateless” actors.
In Islamabad, a foreign ministry spokes-
man said Pakistan’s High Commissioner to
India received the file yesterday and had
sent it to authorities back home.
“The material has been received in
Pakistan now and is being examined by
concerned authorities,” the spokesman
added.
Chidambaram is expected to travel to
Washington this week to present the evi-
dence to the United States.
As tensions simmer between the nuclear-
armed South Asian rivals, Richard Boucher,
the top US diplomat for South Asia, arrived
in Pakistan for talks on ties between the two
countries. – AFP