Pakistan Information & News

Feisty 88-Pounder is “Incredibly Brave”

July 5, 2007
Associated Press

HANOI, Vietnam — Most Vietnamese cower when a cop squeezes them for a bribe. Le Hien Duc, a 75-year-old grandmother, fights back.Four-foot-nine and weighing just 88 pounds, she’ll take on anyone, from lowly bureaucrats to high-level officials. She e-mails, phones, tracks them down at their offices, confronts them at their homes.

”Corruption is definitely an evil, and it is ruining my beloved country,” said Duc, a former school teacher.

Corruption is perhaps the most vulnerable spot in the country’s single-party Communist state — from the traffic cops who pull drivers over for $3 bribes to the officials accused of gambling $13 million in public money on British soccer matches.

In Vietnam, where people respect authority, few dare challenge the system. But many turn to Duc.

”Most of us tremble when we have to deal with police,” said Doan Van Hung, a delivery man. ”She is incredibly brave.”

Hung’s ordeal was typical — a policeman stopped him for speeding and threatened to seize his motorbike unless he paid a $3 bribe.

Duc tracked down the officer who harassed Hung and filed a complaint with the Hanoi chief of police. The officer was promptly demoted.

By Hilmar Schmundt
der Spiegel
June 28, 2007

Is Beijing dangerous to athletes’ health? With the prospect of athletes running marathons and cycling in Beijing’s smog and pollution-laden air, environmentalists and experts in sports medicine are concerned about the health risks associated with the Olympic Games in China.

The Beijing smog feeds on itself. Whenever the city periodically disappears into a brownish-yellow haze, the traffic only gets worse. Those who are fortunate enough to own a car leave their bicycles at home, choosing air-conditioning over the unfiltered cocktail of coal smoke, particulate matter and ozone in the air.

But escaping to the relative comfort of a car’s interior won’t be an option for those traveling to Beijing in August 2008, when more than 10,000 athletes will compete in the Olympic Games in one of the world’s dirtiest cities. China has promised what it calls “Green Games,” but its pollution figures suggest the more grayish hue of smog and pollution. “The athletes could be exposed to unhealthy air pollution unless there is a substantial reduction in emissions,” warns David Streets of the Argonne National Laboratory in the United States, the principal author of an article on the subject in the professional journal Atmospheric Environment.

The air is often thick with pollution in Beijing, a city of 11 million. When there is no rain or wind, ozone and fine dust accumulate, often to a rate that is two or three times the maximum levels recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).

The fine dust stems mainly from coal power plants and factories, while vehicle exhaust gases are responsible for the ozone. The city’s constant traffic jams have reduced the average speed of the cars on its streets from 45 kilometers per hour (28 miles per hour) in the past to only 12 today. Adding to the problem, more than 1,000 new cars are registered each day.

Even healthy visitors often complain of sore throats, allergic reactions and asthma. In China’s 14 largest cities alone, air pollution is responsible for the deaths of 50,000 newborns each year, writes the Shanghai Star newspaper. “If you exercise,” advises Ibrahim Salahat of the International Medical Center in Beijing, “you should do it inside.”

Trouble for Runners, Cyclists

Children, the chronically ill, the elderly and endurance athletes like marathon runners and cyclists face the greatest risk. Endurance athletes spend hours performing at peak levels in the open air, inhaling up to 150 liters of air a minute — more than 10 times as much as a sedentary office worker. Ozone and fine dust can cause inflammation that requires treatment with asthma and anti-inflammatory drugs. “Most symptoms subside after 24 hours,” says Frank Kelly, an environmental scientist at King’s College in London, “but the long-term consequential damage is still poorly researched.”

“I wouldn’t expect a world record in the marathon in Beijing,” says Marco Cardinale, a doctor who advises the British Olympic Committee. “The issue isn’t just air quality, but the combination of heat, humidity and bad air.” Jacques Rogge, the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), does his best to downplay the problem. He argues that Beijing isn’t the first Olympic host city with environmental problems. Athens (2004), Los Angeles (1984) and Mexico City (1968) aren’t exactly known for their pristine air.

But information about which athletes will end up gasping for air at which pollution levels seems to be a carefully guarded secret. Neither trainers nor officials are especially interested in divulging the details, and much of the available information is anecdotal.

For example, says Randy Wilber, a manager of the US Olympic team, more than 20 percent of US athletes reacted to the smog in Athens with breathing difficulties. In Los Angeles, British runner Steve Ovett collapsed with respiratory problems after the 800-meter race. Ovett is convinced that pollution was the culprit. “Many suffered from the bad air, but hardly anyone said anything,” Ovett complained in an article in the scientific journal Nature.

The notion that bad air is harmful to athletes’ lungs was demonstrated as far back as 1904 during the Olympic marathon in St. Louis. Only 14 of 32 competitors were able to complete the course through the city’s dusty streets, running between cars and horse-drawn carriages. Thirteen kilometers (eight miles) shy of the finish line, American runner William Garcia collapsed and almost died of a gastric hemorrhage — he had swallowed too much road dust.

The ‘Green Games’

Nevertheless, Beijing’s city government steadfastly believes in its “Green Games.” It plans to invest €2.5 billion ($3.36 billion) in improving the city’s air by the time the Olympic games begin. Heating in many households has already been converted from coal to natural gas, and a Beijing steel mill is currently being relocated to an outlying area.

Still, experts remain skeptical. They believe that even if Beijing were able to take all cars off the road and shut down its factories and air-conditioners for the duration of the Olympics, it wouldn’t be enough. Depending on the wind direction, between 50 and 70 percent of the city’s dangerous fine dust isn’t generated in Beijing itself but in neighboring provinces, especially Hebei. When it comes to ozone levels, outside areas are responsible for 30 percent of the pollution in the Chinese capital. These are the numbers Argonne scientist Streets has come up with in a simulation. He sees an “urgent need” for new strategies to control emissions.

And yet the city government remains confident, even issuing periodic progress reports on its supposed successes. For example, Beijing’s government claims, it has managed to increase the number of “blue sky days” — when smog levels are lower than normal — to about 240 a year.

Of course, many Beijing residents can only chuckle asthmatically when confronted with such figures.

 By Alexa Oleson
The Associated Press
Thursday, July 5, 2007

BEIJING — China said Thursday it would bar bank loans to companies that violate environmental rules, an apparent effort to target firms that find it cheaper to pay fines or bribes than help reduce the country’s worsening pollution.

The initiative is part of efforts to enforce frequently ignored environmental rules amid increasing concerns about pollution that has left millions without access to clean water and made China’s cities some of the world’s dirtiest.

The deputy director of China’s environmental agency said that companies that did not follow environmental protection regulations would be disqualified from getting loans from any bank or financial institution, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.

The report gave no indication how the new policy would be enforced. Regulators already have difficulty enforcing environmental rules because local leaders are reluctant to take steps that might hurt industry or reduce jobs or tax revenues.

Heavily polluting factories frequently bribe officials to look the other way or pay cursory fines, rather than take concrete steps to reduce toxic emissions.

The environmental official, Pan Yue, also said the government will raise sewage fees charged to polluting and energy-intensive companies to pay for better water treatment, Xinhua reported.

The announcement came after the head of the State Environmental Protection Administration said that worsening pollution is increasingly sparking protests among the Chinese public.

The public refuses to accept increasing degradation of the environment, sparking a growing number of “mass incidents,” Zhou Shengxian said late Wednesday, according to Xinhua.

Zhou did not give figures or examples, but said the number of petitions his administration received this year is up 8 percent from a year ago, the report said.

A quarter of the length of China’s seven main river systems are so toxic that any human contact is harmful, the agency says. Contamination by chemicals is frequent, causing taps to run dry earlier this week in the eastern city Shuyang.

In one of the worst cases, a 2005 spill forced the city of Harbin to cut water to 3.8 million people for five days and strained relations with Russia, into which the poisoned waters flowed.

A Cabinet meeting led by Premier Wen Jiabao on Wednesday approved a draft amendment to the existing water pollution law, calling for more testing, licensing and stiffer penalties, Xinhua reported.

The Financial Times reported Monday that Beijing had persuaded the World Bank to cut findings from a draft of an environmental report that allegedly found that pollution caused about 750,000 premature deaths nationwide annually.

The data cut from the draft showed that air pollution levels in Chinese cities cause 350,000 to 400,000 premature deaths each year, the newspaper said Monday. Another 300,000 people die from exposure to poor air indoors, and more than 60,000 die due to poor quality water, the report said.

Produced with the cooperation of Chinese government ministries over several years, the report found the deaths took place mainly from air pollution in large cities, the Financial Times reported, citing unnamed bank advisers and Chinese officials.

A draft of the report was released at a conference in Beijing in March. The final version will be released as a series of papers, the World Bank statement said without giving details.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang denied the newspaper report Thursday.

“The report you mentioned has not concluded yet and has not been released,” Qin said at a regular briefing. “There was no issue of the deletion of relevant data requested by China.”

A World Bank spokeswoman in Beijing, Li Li, would not say whether China had pressured the bank to omit data. “There are discussions of the findings,” Li said by telephone.

A World Bank statement released Tuesday said some subjects such as economic cost calculations were left out of a preliminary version of the report because of “some uncertainties about calculation methods and its application.”

The State Environmental Protection Administration did not respond to a faxed request for comment Thursday.

China’s business center of Shanghai, meanwhile, was preparing to host one of seven concerts being held worldwide Saturday with the goal of raising awareness about climate change.

China, by some reports the world’s largest carbon dioxide emitter, is a “crucial target” of the Live Earth concerts’ anti-global warning message, said Khalid Malik, the U.N. representative in Beijing.

The Live Earth concert series _ backed by former Vice President Al Gore _ is expected to draw a worldwide audience of 2 billion with more than 150 headliners performing in seven cities: Hamburg, Germany; Johannesburg, South Africa; London; New York; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Shanghai, China; Sydney, Australia; and Tokyo.
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Chinese Children Being Poisoned By Lead In The Air

By Kenny Luna
Business & Politics
May 23, 2007

A survey of 15 Chinese Cities revealed that 7 percent of kids under the age of 6 living in Beijing have lead levels in their blood that exceed the national standard. That’s obviously not good, but also not too surprising given the fact that in China virtually anything goes environmentally as long as it adds to the economic growth that keeps the Communist Party in power. Of course, that’s unless there’s a major international convention going on, and then cars miraculously disappear from the roads. As you might expect the three-year study blames rising emission levels from cars for the trend, and notes that children who live near heavily trafficked roads or in lower-level apartments are much more likely to have high blood lead levels than those who do not. Of course lead poisoning can cause developmental problems for children in critical areas such as intelligence, speaking, learning, and memorization so the damage is very real to those affected most.

A pedestrian stands near heavy traffic flow during a day foggy from air pollution in Beijing, China, Tuesday, July 3, 2007. China’s efforts to clear Beijing’s notoriously polluted air ahead of the 2008 Summer Olympics include a test to pull 1 million cars from the streets, the International Olympic Committee reported Monday. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan) (Ng Han Guan - AP)
*******************************
Now in related news, an estimated 23.3 percent of all suspended air particles in Beijing are particulate emissions from automobiles. And how they are going to deal with this issue while car ownership rates increase at approximately 14 percent a year should be quite interesting to watch. I’m wondering if they’ll make a decree like they did with swimming caps in public pools throughout China to prevent hair from getting in the pools. Now everyone has to wear one to swim whether they like it or not, and they’ve made a real dent in the problem. But what will be the “swimming cap” for autos in a country where there are over a billion new capitalists literally walking around? I guess we’ll have to wait to find out.

By Hilmar Schmundt
der Spiegel
June 28, 2007

Is Beijing dangerous to athletes’ health? With the prospect of athletes running marathons and cycling in Beijing’s smog and pollution-laden air, environmentalists and experts in sports medicine are concerned about the health risks associated with the Olympic Games in China.

The Beijing smog feeds on itself. Whenever the city periodically disappears into a brownish-yellow haze, the traffic only gets worse. Those who are fortunate enough to own a car leave their bicycles at home, choosing air-conditioning over the unfiltered cocktail of coal smoke, particulate matter and ozone in the air.

But escaping to the relative comfort of a car’s interior won’t be an option for those traveling to Beijing in August 2008, when more than 10,000 athletes will compete in the Olympic Games in one of the world’s dirtiest cities. China has promised what it calls “Green Games,” but its pollution figures suggest the more grayish hue of smog and pollution. “The athletes could be exposed to unhealthy air pollution unless there is a substantial reduction in emissions,” warns David Streets of the Argonne National Laboratory in the United States, the principal author of an article on the subject in the professional journal Atmospheric Environment.

The air is often thick with pollution in Beijing, a city of 11 million. When there is no rain or wind, ozone and fine dust accumulate, often to a rate that is two or three times the maximum levels recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).

The fine dust stems mainly from coal power plants and factories, while vehicle exhaust gases are responsible for the ozone. The city’s constant traffic jams have reduced the average speed of the cars on its streets from 45 kilometers per hour (28 miles per hour) in the past to only 12 today. Adding to the problem, more than 1,000 new cars are registered each day.

Even healthy visitors often complain of sore throats, allergic reactions and asthma. In China’s 14 largest cities alone, air pollution is responsible for the deaths of 50,000 newborns each year, writes the Shanghai Star newspaper. “If you exercise,” advises Ibrahim Salahat of the International Medical Center in Beijing, “you should do it inside.”

Trouble for Runners, Cyclists

Children, the chronically ill, the elderly and endurance athletes like marathon runners and cyclists face the greatest risk. Endurance athletes spend hours performing at peak levels in the open air, inhaling up to 150 liters of air a minute — more than 10 times as much as a sedentary office worker. Ozone and fine dust can cause inflammation that requires treatment with asthma and anti-inflammatory drugs. “Most symptoms subside after 24 hours,” says Frank Kelly, an environmental scientist at King’s College in London, “but the long-term consequential damage is still poorly researched.”

“I wouldn’t expect a world record in the marathon in Beijing,” says Marco Cardinale, a doctor who advises the British Olympic Committee. “The issue isn’t just air quality, but the combination of heat, humidity and bad air.” Jacques Rogge, the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), does his best to downplay the problem. He argues that Beijing isn’t the first Olympic host city with environmental problems. Athens (2004), Los Angeles (1984) and Mexico City (1968) aren’t exactly known for their pristine air.

But information about which athletes will end up gasping for air at which pollution levels seems to be a carefully guarded secret. Neither trainers nor officials are especially interested in divulging the details, and much of the available information is anecdotal.

For example, says Randy Wilber, a manager of the US Olympic team, more than 20 percent of US athletes reacted to the smog in Athens with breathing difficulties. In Los Angeles, British runner Steve Ovett collapsed with respiratory problems after the 800-meter race. Ovett is convinced that pollution was the culprit. “Many suffered from the bad air, but hardly anyone said anything,” Ovett complained in an article in the scientific journal Nature.

The notion that bad air is harmful to athletes’ lungs was demonstrated as far back as 1904 during the Olympic marathon in St. Louis. Only 14 of 32 competitors were able to complete the course through the city’s dusty streets, running between cars and horse-drawn carriages. Thirteen kilometers (eight miles) shy of the finish line, American runner William Garcia collapsed and almost died of a gastric hemorrhage — he had swallowed too much road dust.

The ‘Green Games’

Nevertheless, Beijing’s city government steadfastly believes in its “Green Games.” It plans to invest €2.5 billion ($3.36 billion) in improving the city’s air by the time the Olympic games begin. Heating in many households has already been converted from coal to natural gas, and a Beijing steel mill is currently being relocated to an outlying area.

Still, experts remain skeptical. They believe that even if Beijing were able to take all cars off the road and shut down its factories and air-conditioners for the duration of the Olympics, it wouldn’t be enough. Depending on the wind direction, between 50 and 70 percent of the city’s dangerous fine dust isn’t generated in Beijing itself but in neighboring provinces, especially Hebei. When it comes to ozone levels, outside areas are responsible for 30 percent of the pollution in the Chinese capital. These are the numbers Argonne scientist Streets has come up with in a simulation. He sees an “urgent need” for new strategies to control emissions.

And yet the city government remains confident, even issuing periodic progress reports on its supposed successes. For example, Beijing’s government claims, it has managed to increase the number of “blue sky days” — when smog levels are lower than normal — to about 240 a year.

Of course, many Beijing residents can only chuckle asthmatically when confronted with such figures.

 By Alexa Oleson
The Associated Press
Thursday, July 5, 2007

BEIJING — China said Thursday it would bar bank loans to companies that violate environmental rules, an apparent effort to target firms that find it cheaper to pay fines or bribes than help reduce the country’s worsening pollution.

The initiative is part of efforts to enforce frequently ignored environmental rules amid increasing concerns about pollution that has left millions without access to clean water and made China’s cities some of the world’s dirtiest.

The deputy director of China’s environmental agency said that companies that did not follow environmental protection regulations would be disqualified from getting loans from any bank or financial institution, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.

The report gave no indication how the new policy would be enforced. Regulators already have difficulty enforcing environmental rules because local leaders are reluctant to take steps that might hurt industry or reduce jobs or tax revenues.

Heavily polluting factories frequently bribe officials to look the other way or pay cursory fines, rather than take concrete steps to reduce toxic emissions.

The environmental official, Pan Yue, also said the government will raise sewage fees charged to polluting and energy-intensive companies to pay for better water treatment, Xinhua reported.

The announcement came after the head of the State Environmental Protection Administration said that worsening pollution is increasingly sparking protests among the Chinese public.

The public refuses to accept increasing degradation of the environment, sparking a growing number of “mass incidents,” Zhou Shengxian said late Wednesday, according to Xinhua.

Zhou did not give figures or examples, but said the number of petitions his administration received this year is up 8 percent from a year ago, the report said.

A quarter of the length of China’s seven main river systems are so toxic that any human contact is harmful, the agency says. Contamination by chemicals is frequent, causing taps to run dry earlier this week in the eastern city Shuyang.

In one of the worst cases, a 2005 spill forced the city of Harbin to cut water to 3.8 million people for five days and strained relations with Russia, into which the poisoned waters flowed.

A Cabinet meeting led by Premier Wen Jiabao on Wednesday approved a draft amendment to the existing water pollution law, calling for more testing, licensing and stiffer penalties, Xinhua reported.

The Financial Times reported Monday that Beijing had persuaded the World Bank to cut findings from a draft of an environmental report that allegedly found that pollution caused about 750,000 premature deaths nationwide annually.

The data cut from the draft showed that air pollution levels in Chinese cities cause 350,000 to 400,000 premature deaths each year, the newspaper said Monday. Another 300,000 people die from exposure to poor air indoors, and more than 60,000 die due to poor quality water, the report said.

Produced with the cooperation of Chinese government ministries over several years, the report found the deaths took place mainly from air pollution in large cities, the Financial Times reported, citing unnamed bank advisers and Chinese officials.

A draft of the report was released at a conference in Beijing in March. The final version will be released as a series of papers, the World Bank statement said without giving details.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang denied the newspaper report Thursday.

“The report you mentioned has not concluded yet and has not been released,” Qin said at a regular briefing. “There was no issue of the deletion of relevant data requested by China.”

A World Bank spokeswoman in Beijing, Li Li, would not say whether China had pressured the bank to omit data. “There are discussions of the findings,” Li said by telephone.

A World Bank statement released Tuesday said some subjects such as economic cost calculations were left out of a preliminary version of the report because of “some uncertainties about calculation methods and its application.”

The State Environmental Protection Administration did not respond to a faxed request for comment Thursday.

China’s business center of Shanghai, meanwhile, was preparing to host one of seven concerts being held worldwide Saturday with the goal of raising awareness about climate change.

China, by some reports the world’s largest carbon dioxide emitter, is a “crucial target” of the Live Earth concerts’ anti-global warning message, said Khalid Malik, the U.N. representative in Beijing.

The Live Earth concert series _ backed by former Vice President Al Gore _ is expected to draw a worldwide audience of 2 billion with more than 150 headliners performing in seven cities: Hamburg, Germany; Johannesburg, South Africa; London; New York; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Shanghai, China; Sydney, Australia; and Tokyo.
**************************

Chinese Children Being Poisoned By Lead In The Air

By Kenny Luna
Business & Politics
May 23, 2007

A survey of 15 Chinese Cities revealed that 7 percent of kids under the age of 6 living in Beijing have lead levels in their blood that exceed the national standard. That’s obviously not good, but also not too surprising given the fact that in China virtually anything goes environmentally as long as it adds to the economic growth that keeps the Communist Party in power. Of course, that’s unless there’s a major international convention going on, and then cars miraculously disappear from the roads. As you might expect the three-year study blames rising emission levels from cars for the trend, and notes that children who live near heavily trafficked roads or in lower-level apartments are much more likely to have high blood lead levels than those who do not. Of course lead poisoning can cause developmental problems for children in critical areas such as intelligence, speaking, learning, and memorization so the damage is very real to those affected most.

A pedestrian stands near heavy traffic flow during a day foggy from air pollution in Beijing, China, Tuesday, July 3, 2007. China’s efforts to clear Beijing’s notoriously polluted air ahead of the 2008 Summer Olympics include a test to pull 1 million cars from the streets, the International Olympic Committee reported Monday. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan) (Ng Han Guan - AP)
*******************************
Now in related news, an estimated 23.3 percent of all suspended air particles in Beijing are particulate emissions from automobiles. And how they are going to deal with this issue while car ownership rates increase at approximately 14 percent a year should be quite interesting to watch. I’m wondering if they’ll make a decree like they did with swimming caps in public pools throughout China to prevent hair from getting in the pools. Now everyone has to wear one to swim whether they like it or not, and they’ve made a real dent in the problem. But what will be the “swimming cap” for autos in a country where there are over a billion new capitalists literally walking around? I guess we’ll have to wait to find out.

By DENIS D. GRAY, Associated Press Writer

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Gunfire and explosions rocked a besieged radical mosque in Pakistan’s capital Thursday as Islamic militants holed up in the complex snubbed a plea from their captured leader to surrender.

Pakistani religious students surrender outside the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque in Islamabad wldThursday, July 5, 2007. Several explosions rang out near a radical mosque besieged by security forces, hours after its top cleric was captured trying to sneak out of the complex under a woman’s burqa. (AP Photo/B.K.Bangash)
******************************

The leader of the holdouts said they would consider leaving but only if authorities promised not to arrest anyone and met other demands. The government answered that the militants must surrender without conditions, and outbursts of gunfire erupted periodically during the night.

The army seemed to be holding back from a large-scale assault. The government was keen to avoid a bloodbath that would further damage President Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s embattled administration and said troops would not storm the mosque while women and children were inside.

Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said soldiers were trying to blast holes in the walls of the fortress-like compound of the mosque and an adjoining seminary for girls, seeking to wear down the defenders’ resolve and force a surrender without a bloody battle.

It wasn’t clear how many people were holed up in the compound. The Interior Ministry said about 30 die-hard extremists were inside, while intelligence officials said there could be as many as 100. The military said several hundred students also might be in the compound.

Soldiers backed by armored vehicles and helicopters surrounded the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, before dawn Wednesday, a day after the start of clashes between security forces and radical followers of the mosque that have killed at least 19 people.

The violence brought to a head a six-month standoff between Pakistan’s U.S.-backed government and its top cleric, Maulana Abdul Aziz, who challenged Musharraf with a drive to impose Taliban-style Islamic law in Islamabad.

Journalists were barred from the area around the mosque, but several explosions were heard during a period of intense gunfire before dusk Thursday, sending a plume of black smoke into the sky.

A leader inside the mosque accused troops of firing several mortar rounds that killed 27 female students.

“A large section of the mosque is damaged and fires have broken out in the Jamia Hafsa (seminary),” Abdul Qayyum told The Associated Press by telephone, coughing repeatedly. “It’s total chaos here. There is smoke everywhere and a fire in the room where we were keeping dead bodies” from earlier skirmishes.

Sherpao insisted no mortars were fired and said the alleged casualties were “just their claims.”

The shooting later eased and the smoke cleared.

Officials said they were using helicopters and explosions in hopes of breaking the nerve of the mosque defenders and inducing a surrender. “We are using restraint on instructions from the president so that people surrender voluntarily,” Sherpao said.

Aziz, who was captured Wednesday evening as he tried to slip through the army cordon disguised in a woman’s burqa and high heels, said on state television that as many as 700 women and about 250 men remained inside the complex, armed with more than a dozen AK-47 assault rifles.

“If they can get out quietly they should go, or they can surrender if they want to,” Aziz said. “I saw after coming out that the siege is very intense. … Our companions will not be able to stay for long.”

His comments raised the prospect of a swift resolution and a victory for Musharraf, who is under growing pressure at home and abroad over spreading religious extremism and his botched attempt to fire Pakistan’s chief justice.

But the cleric’s brother, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, remained inside the mosque with their die-hard followers and rejected the government’s call for an unconditional surrender.

Speaking by phone to Pakistan’s Geo news channel, Ghazi demanded a guarantee they would not be arrested and said authorities must let him move his mother and sister-in-law out of the complex to safety.

He denied claims by officials that he was using young students as human shields. “The charges against me are forged and fabricated,” he said. “The government has been reduced to callousness.”

Qayyum, Ghazi’s aide, declined to comment on the statement from Aziz or to describe living conditions in the compound, where power and water had been cut off for days.

Deputy Information Minister Tariq Azim said earlier that some of the 1,100 supporters who had fled the mosque and seminary told officials that Ghazi retreated to a cellar along with 20 female “hostages” and that the holdouts had “large quantities of automatic weapons.” Officials said the militants also had hand grenades, explosives and homemade gasoline bombs.

Azim said there would be no more negotiations.

“Enough time has already been wasted. It has to be total, unconditional surrender,” he said, but added: “As long as there are women and children inside, I don’t think that we will go in.”

On Thursday, seven men jumped over the mosque wall and tried to escape through a storm drain, but were caught by troops, said Col. Mohammed Ali, a military spokesman. He said the seven were “part of the hard core,” but provided no other details.

Since January, the clerics have defied the government by sending students to occupy a library, intimidate shopkeepers selling Western music and films and kidnap alleged prostitutes and police officers as part of a Taliban-style anti-vice campaign.

In his TV interview, the gray-bearded Aziz, still dressed in a burqa, said that his mosque has “a relationship of love and affection with all jihadist organizations” but that it maintains no actual links with such groups.

“We have no militants; we only had students. If somebody came from outside, I have no information on that,” he said. He denied responsibility for calls Tuesday from the mosque’s loudspeakers for suicide attacks.

Officials said Aziz and Ghazi would be put on trial on more than 25 charges including kidnapping, incitement to murder and arms offenses, while women, children and males not involved in crimes were being granted amnesty.

Students emerging from the mosque Thursday said the morale of those who remained was good, and many stressed that they left only at the insistence of worried parents.

“They are in high spirits,” Mehboob Waly said after exiting to meet his waiting father.

Mohammed Naveed, a teenager who responded to his mother’s pleas for him to leave, said: “I came out with a heavy heart. I was scared to be inside, but I was also scared to come out.”

Like many of the mosque’s students, both are from northwestern Pakistan, an impoverished region where radical Islam is strong.

By DENIS D. GRAY, Associated Press Writer

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Gunfire and explosions rocked a besieged radical mosque in Pakistan’s capital Thursday as Islamic militants holed up in the complex snubbed a plea from their captured leader to surrender.

Pakistani religious students surrender outside the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque in Islamabad wldThursday, July 5, 2007. Several explosions rang out near a radical mosque besieged by security forces, hours after its top cleric was captured trying to sneak out of the complex under a woman’s burqa. (AP Photo/B.K.Bangash)
******************************

The leader of the holdouts said they would consider leaving but only if authorities promised not to arrest anyone and met other demands. The government answered that the militants must surrender without conditions, and outbursts of gunfire erupted periodically during the night.

The army seemed to be holding back from a large-scale assault. The government was keen to avoid a bloodbath that would further damage President Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s embattled administration and said troops would not storm the mosque while women and children were inside.

Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said soldiers were trying to blast holes in the walls of the fortress-like compound of the mosque and an adjoining seminary for girls, seeking to wear down the defenders’ resolve and force a surrender without a bloody battle.

It wasn’t clear how many people were holed up in the compound. The Interior Ministry said about 30 die-hard extremists were inside, while intelligence officials said there could be as many as 100. The military said several hundred students also might be in the compound.

Soldiers backed by armored vehicles and helicopters surrounded the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, before dawn Wednesday, a day after the start of clashes between security forces and radical followers of the mosque that have killed at least 19 people.

The violence brought to a head a six-month standoff between Pakistan’s U.S.-backed government and its top cleric, Maulana Abdul Aziz, who challenged Musharraf with a drive to impose Taliban-style Islamic law in Islamabad.

Journalists were barred from the area around the mosque, but several explosions were heard during a period of intense gunfire before dusk Thursday, sending a plume of black smoke into the sky.

A leader inside the mosque accused troops of firing several mortar rounds that killed 27 female students.

“A large section of the mosque is damaged and fires have broken out in the Jamia Hafsa (seminary),” Abdul Qayyum told The Associated Press by telephone, coughing repeatedly. “It’s total chaos here. There is smoke everywhere and a fire in the room where we were keeping dead bodies” from earlier skirmishes.

Sherpao insisted no mortars were fired and said the alleged casualties were “just their claims.”

The shooting later eased and the smoke cleared.

Officials said they were using helicopters and explosions in hopes of breaking the nerve of the mosque defenders and inducing a surrender. “We are using restraint on instructions from the president so that people surrender voluntarily,” Sherpao said.

Aziz, who was captured Wednesday evening as he tried to slip through the army cordon disguised in a woman’s burqa and high heels, said on state television that as many as 700 women and about 250 men remained inside the complex, armed with more than a dozen AK-47 assault rifles.

“If they can get out quietly they should go, or they can surrender if they want to,” Aziz said. “I saw after coming out that the siege is very intense. … Our companions will not be able to stay for long.”

His comments raised the prospect of a swift resolution and a victory for Musharraf, who is under growing pressure at home and abroad over spreading religious extremism and his botched attempt to fire Pakistan’s chief justice.

But the cleric’s brother, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, remained inside the mosque with their die-hard followers and rejected the government’s call for an unconditional surrender.

Speaking by phone to Pakistan’s Geo news channel, Ghazi demanded a guarantee they would not be arrested and said authorities must let him move his mother and sister-in-law out of the complex to safety.

He denied claims by officials that he was using young students as human shields. “The charges against me are forged and fabricated,” he said. “The government has been reduced to callousness.”

Qayyum, Ghazi’s aide, declined to comment on the statement from Aziz or to describe living conditions in the compound, where power and water had been cut off for days.

Deputy Information Minister Tariq Azim said earlier that some of the 1,100 supporters who had fled the mosque and seminary told officials that Ghazi retreated to a cellar along with 20 female “hostages” and that the holdouts had “large quantities of automatic weapons.” Officials said the militants also had hand grenades, explosives and homemade gasoline bombs.

Azim said there would be no more negotiations.

“Enough time has already been wasted. It has to be total, unconditional surrender,” he said, but added: “As long as there are women and children inside, I don’t think that we will go in.”

On Thursday, seven men jumped over the mosque wall and tried to escape through a storm drain, but were caught by troops, said Col. Mohammed Ali, a military spokesman. He said the seven were “part of the hard core,” but provided no other details.

Since January, the clerics have defied the government by sending students to occupy a library, intimidate shopkeepers selling Western music and films and kidnap alleged prostitutes and police officers as part of a Taliban-style anti-vice campaign.

In his TV interview, the gray-bearded Aziz, still dressed in a burqa, said that his mosque has “a relationship of love and affection with all jihadist organizations” but that it maintains no actual links with such groups.

“We have no militants; we only had students. If somebody came from outside, I have no information on that,” he said. He denied responsibility for calls Tuesday from the mosque’s loudspeakers for suicide attacks.

Officials said Aziz and Ghazi would be put on trial on more than 25 charges including kidnapping, incitement to murder and arms offenses, while women, children and males not involved in crimes were being granted amnesty.

Students emerging from the mosque Thursday said the morale of those who remained was good, and many stressed that they left only at the insistence of worried parents.

“They are in high spirits,” Mehboob Waly said after exiting to meet his waiting father.

Mohammed Naveed, a teenager who responded to his mother’s pleas for him to leave, said: “I came out with a heavy heart. I was scared to be inside, but I was also scared to come out.”

Like many of the mosque’s students, both are from northwestern Pakistan, an impoverished region where radical Islam is strong.