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Compiled from Times wires
© St. Petersburg Times, published September 24, 2001
Pakistan: lifting of sanctions 'important'
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistan and India welcomed on Sunday the lifting of U.S. sanctions, a move taken by Washington to shore up support in key South Asian nations for President Bush's war against terrorism.
Bush lifted all military and economic restrictions on India, and he also removed restrictions barring Pakistan from economic assistance, which prevented it from making commercial military purchases from U.S. companies.
Pakistan's ambassador to Washington, Maleeha Lodhi, said that the removal of the U.S. restrictions will enable Pakistan to get economic aid, a development she called "very important."
India also welcomed the U.S. decision.
"With the removal of sanctions, we can strengthen a broad-base, forward-looking and mutually beneficial relationship with the U.S.," said a spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry, Nirupama Rao.
The sanctions were imposed in response to Indian and Pakistani nuclear weapons programs. But the Bush administration needs the two countries' support for its campaign against Osama bin Laden.
"This will be of great assistance to the common man," said Shaukat Aziz, Pakistan's finance minister. By one recent estimate, for every job that becomes available in Pakistan, there are 2,000 people awaiting work.
Pakistan and India both have backed the American campaign.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- John Mercer and Deborah Oddy watched the World Trade Center collapse on television while in Afghanistan to visit their jailed daughter, who was arrested on charges of preaching Christianity.
"We knew right then that things were going to go downhill from there," Mercer said.
Now in neighboring Pakistan while their daughter remains in an Afghan detention facility, Mercer and Oddy spoke about their anguish at having to leave their 24-year-old daughter behind.
Mercer and Oddy, who are divorced, said they were confident that Afghanistan's Taliban rulers would not use their daughter as a "pawn" in the high stakes brinkmanship following terror attacks.
They said they think the United States will not indiscriminately bomb Kabul, endangering the lives of Heather and seven other foreign aid workers who were arrested last month and accused of proselytizing, a serious offense in the Muslim country.
ROME -- Afghanistan's exiled king stands ready to help his country form a transitional government if the Taliban is overthrown, a U.N. envoy said after meeting the ousted monarch.
Former King Mohammad Zahir Shah, 86, has no ambitions to return as monarch, but "could play an important role in the future of Afghanistan," said Francesc Vendrell, the U.N. chief's personal representative for Afghanistan. "He has told me of his wish to be of help to the Afghan people."
Vendrell and Zahir met privately for nearly an hour at the royal exile's luxurious villa in a high-security gated community on the northern edge of Rome.
YEMEN ARREST: Yemeni authorities have arrested a man carrying three forms of identification with different names, one of at least 21 people arrested in a security crackdown following the terrorist attacks in the United States. The man, whose documents identified him as a Syrian citizen, was arrested at a checkpoint north of the port city of Aden on Saturday after police searched his belongings because he seemed nervous.
PUTIN CALLS LEADERS: Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke with the leaders of the former Soviet republics in Central Asia on Sunday to discuss coordinating actions following the attacks in the United States. Putin spoke with the presidents of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakstan and Kyrgyzstan "to discuss the coordination of actions in dealing with the current situation in the region," deputy chief of staff Sergei Prikhodko said. He did not give details.