India attributes attack to Pakistani militants

India attributes attackto Pakistani militants
NEW DELHI, India -- Relations between India and Pakistan were already dismal before the terrorist attack on India's Parliament building. Now they are in a downward spiral.
India blamed a Pakistan-based Islamic militant group today for the suicide attack that claimed 12 lives a day earlier. Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh called on Pakistan to jail the group's leaders and prove to the world it does not sponsor or harbor terrorists.
"Pakistan has asserted that it is with the rest of the international community in combatting terrorism and that it does not promote terrorism," Singh said. "We expect that Pakistan will abide with what it says itself."
Observers on both sides of the South Asian border were grim.
"It can't get worse, short of war," said K.P.S. Gill, one of India's leading anti-terrorism experts.
"Relations between the two countries will nosedive further," said Riffat Hussain, chairman of defense and strategic studies at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad.
Gunmen with explosives stormed the red sandstone complex and began firing in what has been called the worst breach of state security since the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1984.
Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee vowed revenge. "Now the fight against terrorism has reached its last phase. We will fight a decisive battle to the end," Vajpayee told the nation.
Powell: Breaking treatywon't spur arms race
WASHINGTON -- President Bush's decision to abandon a major weapons control agreement with Moscow will not spur a new nuclear arms race, Secretary of State Colin Powell says.
But Russian President Vladimir Putin said Bush's announcement Thursday that he will scrap the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty is a mistake. Several senior members of Congress agreed.
"It's a mistake to withdraw from a treaty before you have something to replace it with," Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said Thursday after Bush made public his long-anticipated decision. "I would be very concerned that withdrawal from the treaty does fuel an arms race."
Amtrak's future
WASHINGTON -- Amtrak's three-decade monopoly of intercity passenger trains would end under a set of proposals being considered by a congressionally appointed oversight panel.
The Amtrak Reform Council meets today to begin work on a restructured national rail system. For now, nine alternatives are on the table, most of which would shift Amtrak's duties to states and, where feasible, private companies.
The alternatives were drawn up by the council's staff based on ideas from the 11 panel members. The Associated Press obtained a summary on Thursday.
Under the least drastic options, Amtrak would continue to operate passenger trains but could face competition from private companies or regional authorities.
The most drastic option has the private sector taking over train operations from Amtrak and, likely, eliminating politically popular but unprofitable long-distance routes.
Piercing causes abscess
NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- Yale medical officials say they have linked a woman's brain abscess to her tongue piercing.
The woman, in her mid-20s, developed symptoms of a brain abscess 18 months ago after removing a stud from her infected tongue. She had difficulty walking and showed signs of clumsiness.
Brain abscesses are usually caused by ear or sinus infections, and had not previously been linked to tongue piercing, said Dr. Richard Martinello, an infectious disease specialist at Yale-New Haven Hospital.
"The bacteria that caused the abscess in this patient were those typically found in persons' mouths," he said.
The woman had brain surgery and recovered after being treated with antibiotics.
AbioCor recipient dies
LOS ANGELES -- A 74-year-old man who was the world's fourth person to receive a fully self-contained artificial heart died after suffering multiple organ system failure.
The man, whose identity was kept confidential at the request of his family, died Wednesday, doctors at UCLA Medical Center said. He had been living with the AbioCor heart since Oct. 17 -- 56 days -- but had never been well enough to leave the hospital.
During the clinical trial phase under way, the only patients who qualify are those with end-stage heart failure, who are too ill to qualify for a heart transplant and who have a less than 30 percent chance of surviving longer than a month without the mechanical heart.
Three of the six recipients have died, two of organ failure and one of massive bleeding during surgery.
Associated Press