UN official denies allegations
UN official denies allegations
EAST TIMOR: The deputy head of the United Nations mission in East Timor on Thursday strongly rejected criticism of his work from a fellow senior staffer, describing the complaints as "completely unfounded."
"The allegations by Mr Parameswaran are completely unfounded and without any merit as far as I'm concerned," said Dennis McNamara, the deputy administrator of the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET).
N. Parameswaran, a Malaysian, said on Tuesday that he had quit as UNTAET's Chief of Staff and would leave his post on Sunday.
In his resignation letter to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, Parameswaran complained of poor morale, interference in management and a lack of senior Asians in the UN administration.
Parameswaran also alleged that his efforts to promote refugee returns and reconciliation were hampered by McNamara and others. --AFP
;REUTERS;KOD; ANPAu..r.. ATW-Australia-bullet Australian girl carries bullet in arm for 10 days JP/9/ATW
Aussie girl carries bullet in arm
AUSTRALIA: A wounded nine-year-old Australian girl hit by a stray bullet during a Sydney New Year's Eve fireworks display unknowingly carried it for 10 days.
The girl suffered an apparent fireworks wound in her right arm while she watched the display with her family in the Sydney suburb of Belfield, police said.
Police said it appeared a gun had probably been fired in the air during New Year's Eve celebrations and the girl, whose name has not been released, was hit by the bullet on its way down.
While common in some countries, firing guns into the air during celebrations and other public events is virtually unheard of in Australia. --Reuters
;DPA;KOD; ANPAu..r.. ATW-India-Maoists Police kill five Maoist insurgents in eastern India JP/9/ATW
Police kill five Maoist insurgents
INDIA: Police in the eastern Indian state of Bihar shot dead five Maoists in an encounter on Thursday, the United News of India reported.
The agency said quoting state police chief R.R. Prasad as saying that a large quantity of arms and ammunition and police uniforms were seized from the insurgents after the encounter in Kyambari Prasadi village of Arwal district.
Police said the Maoists belonged to the People's War Group (PWG), one of the most radical leftwing militias operating in the country.
Prasad said a police party raided the village on receiving a tipoff that armed insurgents were hiding there.
The extremists on seeing the police opened fire. In the ensuing encounter five Maoists were killed and two policemen were seriously injured, he said. --DPA
;DPA;KOD; ANPAi..r.. ATW-US-Terror-entertain TV film planned on Sept. 11 hijacking JP/9/ATW
TV film planned on Sep. 11 hijacking
USA: A television network is planning a movie about the Sept. 11 hijacking and crash of United Airlines Flight 93, the Hollywood Reporter in Los Angeles said on Wednesday.
CBS, one of the four major television networks in the United States, plans to make The Real Story of Flight 93. The film would be produced from the point of view not of passengers but their families and rescue workers.
The flight, with 43 people on board, took off from Newark, New Jersey, for San Francisco and crashed near Pittsburgh in western Pennsylvania.
U.S. security officials suspect that hijackers planned to crash the jet into the White House or the U.S. Capitol building in Washington. Passengers apparently stopped the terrorists after learning via cellphone of similar airliner attacks on the World Trade Center towers in New York and the Pentagon near Washington. --DPA