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| China refrains from commenting on tripartite talks BEIJING, Dec 7: China today refrained from commenting on India’s rejection of holding tripartite talks involving Pakistan on the Kashmir issue but said it supported all efforts aimed at improving Indo-Pak relations and easing of tension in the region......more Australia’s richest SYDNEY, Dec 7: SYDNEY, Dec 7: Australia’s richest man Kerry Packer, who underwent a kidney transplant 15 days ago, was back in hospital today recovering from what his son said was minor surgery....more Quake claims 11 lives in BEIJING, Dec 7: An earthquake measuring 7.4 on the richter scale killed 11 people and injured.....more My escape was handled by professional group: Rajan NEW DELHI, Dec 7: Underworld don Chhota Rajan has said his escape from a Thailand hospital...more Pak singer wants NEW DELHI, Dec 7: Famous sufi singer Abida Parveen believes that current efforts at bridging.....more |
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Blair to press for release LONDON, Dec 7: British Prime Minister Tony Blair will personally try to secure the release of arms dealer Peter Bleach jailed. ...more
Fiji set to drop treason charges against Speight AUCKLAND, Dec 7: Treason charges against Fiji coup leader George Speight and his co-conspirators are likely to be dropped soon, political and ....more Dalai Lama is not sincere to resolve Tibet issue: China BEIJING, Dec 7: China today blamed the Dalai Lama for the impasse in resolving the Tibet issue saying the exiled Tibetan leader was not sincere for.....more |
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China refrains from commenting on tripartite talks BEIJING, Dec 7: China today refrained from commenting on India’s rejection of holding tripartite talks involving Pakistan on the Kashmir issue but said it supported all efforts aimed at improving Indo-Pak relations and easing of tension in the region. "We don’t have a new stand on that," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said when asked to comment on India’s rejection of tripartite talks on the Kashmir issue. Zhang said China had already welcomed and supported the unilateral ceasefire announced by India in Jammu and Kashmir as well as Pakistani announcement Islamabad will exercise "maximum restraint" along the Line of Control (LOC). She said that the Chinese Government has pursued a "consistent and clear-cut" stance on the Kashmir issue. "We welcome and support all the efforts conducive to improving India-Pakistan relations and easing regional intense situation," she added. This, Zhang said "conforms to the fundamental interests and common aspiration of the peoples of both India and Pakistan and also benefits peace, stability and development in South Asia." (PTI) |
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Australia’s richest man back in hospital SYDNEY, Dec 7: Australia’s richest man Kerry Packer, who underwent a kidney transplant 15 days ago, was back in hospital today recovering from what his son said was minor surgery. His son James Packer, who is also executive chairman of the Packer Media Empire Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd (PBL), said his father was in hospital for minor surgery and quashed speculation the recent kidney transplant had been rejected. "Mr Packer is well, has a normally functioning transplant kidney and is free of rejection," said James Packer said in a rare media statement by PBL. "The medical staff caring for him are very pleased with his progress since transplantation," he said, but he did not detail what minor surgery his 62-year-old father had undergone. Kerry Packer’s long-standing helicopter pilot Nicholas Ross donated a kidney to his boss on November 22 in a life-saving operation to replace Packer’s remaining kidney. (REUTERS) |
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Quake claims 11 lives in Turkmenistan BEIJING, Dec 7: An earthquake measuring 7.4 on the richter scale killed 11 people and injured five in the Central Asian nation of Turkmenistan late last night Chinese State Television reported. The epicentre of the earthquake, which also shook parts of neighbouring Iran, was about 400 km Northwest of the Turkmeni capital Ashgabat, State Television said today. Earlier, an official with the China seismological bureau told Reuters the earthquake struck at 2249 hrs ist last night with the epicentre at 39.3 degrees North latitude and 54.6 degrees East longitude. A resident of Ashgabat told reuters there was no immediate evidence of a big earthquake or damage in the capital. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Geological Survey in Golden, Colorado, which measured the earthquake at a magnitude of 7.2, said no reports of damage or casualties had been received yet. But she added: "this earthquake may have caused substantial damage and casualties due to its location and size." The China seismological bureau also recorded several mild aftershocks, but the official said it had not been informed by Turkmeni counterparts about damage or casualties. (REUTERS) |
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My escape was handled by professional group: Rajan NEW DELHI, Dec 7: Underworld don Chhota Rajan has said his escape from a Thailand hospital last month was handled by a thoroughly professional mercernary group and no Thai national was involved in the operation. "I had no alternative but to escape as I had received intelligence reports about my rival (Dawood Ibrahim) camp making another attempt on my life," Rajan said in a statement faxed to PTI from an undisclosed place. "As there was grave and imminent danger to my life, I had to use this route," Rajan said in the statement signed as Vijay Kadam, the name he used to enter Thailand. "The escape was handled by a thoroughly professional mercenary group with commandos trained for this kind of job who have been paid very handsomely for this service," said Rajan, who mysteriously fled on November 24 from hospital in Bangkok where he was undergoing treatment for gunshot wounds sustained during a murderous attack by Dawood Ibrahim gang members on September 15. "I alone with my friends had planned and masterminded the escape and the whole operation was handled and coordinated by my close associates in which no police or immigration officials were involved," claimed Rajan who is reported to have said that he was somewhere in Europe. The Mumbai underworld don said he used professional rock climbing equipment to descend from his fourth floor room. "The veracity of my claim may be confirmed by cross-checking with detectives investigating the case as I had left the rope, pulley, hooks, etc used at the ground where I had descended," "With the help of professional mountain climbers, my descent was like a child’s play," he said. After climbing down, he said, he was driven away by a friend in a Mercedes Benz Limousine to a destination which "I cannot disclose, where my private yacht was moored. "On this yacht, we went to another destination from where we flew by a private jet to another destination. There we stayed for a day and flew by the same jet to my current destination." Rajan’s lawyer in Thailand Srichai Piapichetkul had earlier claimed that the don escaped after paying thai police major general Kriekphong Phukprayoon 25 million baht (Rs 25 million). "This is a lie.... He (lawyer) was the one who suggested that I should escape before I discontinued his services and even went to the extent of telling me that he could arrange for my escape for a certain price," Rajan said. Meanwhile, Thailand news Agency (TNA) today quoted Srichai as saying in Bangkok that he had anticipated such a denial. (PTI) |
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Pak singer wants India, Pak to bridge differences NEW DELHI, Dec 7: Famous sufi singer Abida Parveen believes that current efforts at bridging the differences between India and Pakistan are bound to succeed. Abida, who considers music as a mystical journey through life, says that artistes and their creativity know no geographical boundaries and are the common property of the peoples. Through her music she wishes to bring the two countries together, specially because she feels for the families which were separated at the time of the partition. "Not for a second did I feel any tension in the relations between the two countries," says Abida of her stay in India. Abida is here to participate in a music concert of Indian and Pakistani singers. She says the peoples of the two countries which share a common heritage and culture crave to live in peace and harmony and hopes that efforts being made by the two Governments to ease the tension will be fruitful. Abida says music as a medium has always brought people together because music transcends boundaries. "This is what I wish to achieve through my music." (UNI) |
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Blair to press for release of Peter bleach LONDON, Dec 7: British Prime Minister Tony Blair will personally try to secure the release of arms dealer Peter Bleach jailed for life in the Purulia Arms Drop case, media reports said today. "Blair is using the prospect of an official visit to India, loosley scheduled for the new year, to try to secure the release of the british arms dealer," The Daily Telegraph said. British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook had taken up the issue during a recent visit of External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh who had assured him that India would "re-examine" the case and see that Bleach’s mercy petition is expedited and he is granted presidential pardon. Quoting diplomatic sources, the report said negotiations are underway to secure the release of 48-year old Bleach who says he was working with the full knowledge of the British intelligence services when he dropped a large cache of arms over Purulia in West Bengal in December 1995. "We didn’t look very strong. The Russians managed to get all their people out, but our man was left on inside. We weren’t seen to be very successful at campaigning for justice on behalf of British citizens," a diplomatic source, quoted in the report, said. Five Latvian crewmen who were sentenced to life imprisonment with Bleach in the case were granted Presidential pardon and released after the Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened to cancel a state visit to India, during which he signed a series of lucrative arms deals. (PTI) |
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Fiji set to drop treason charges against Speight AUCKLAND, Dec 7: Treason charges against Fiji coup leader George Speight and his co-conspirators are likely to be dropped soon, political and diplomatic sources said today. Their impending release on bail on minor charges could follow the failure of the state’s public prosecution office and the police to gain adequate evidence for the capital treason charges, sources told AFP. Their release would outrage an international community already irritated at the slow return to democracy in Fiji and open new tensions between the interim government and the Fiji Military Forces (FMF), the sources say. The latest developments were revealed as further charges of treason were brought against an ex-civil servant. Simione Drole, a former Public Works Department employee who was alongside Speight during the storming of Parliament, was remanded until Dec 20. In another development, treason charges were withdrawn yesterday from four other conspirators. Sources have blamed the moves on lack of legal talent and despondency rather than a conspiracy to avoid justice. Unrelated sources confirmed that there were high-level fears Fiji would fail to prosecute the plotters. However another official said his did not apply to Speight who would "be made an example of". On May 19 Speight and others attacked Parliament and held ethnic Indian Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry and his Government hostage for 56 days. On May 29 the FMF dumped the constitution and declared martial law. Later it appointed an interim government led by Laisenia Garase, which made no secret of its support for the reasoning, if not the methods, behind the coup. (AFP) |
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Dalai Lama is not sincere to resolve Tibet issue: China BEIJING, Dec 7: China today blamed the Dalai Lama for the impasse in resolving the Tibet issue saying the exiled Tibetan leader was not sincere for a compromise and was always trying to split China and ‘mislead’ the international community. "Facts have shown that the Dalai Lama has never acknowledged Tibet a part of China to show his sincerity in this regard," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhang Qiyue told reporters. Reeling out the pre-conditions for resumption of talks between the Chinese Government and the Dalai Lama, she said the Dalai has never acknowledged China’s sovereignty over Tibet and other principles. "Indeed, the Dalai Lama has advocated that he is not seeking Tibetan independence. However, facts have shown that he has never stopped activities aiming at splitting China," Zhang said. "He has used contacts with the (Chinese) Central Government to mislead world opinion and engage in splittist activities," Zhang said when asked whether China was satisfied with the Dalai’s repeated statements that he was not seeking an independent Tibet. "So, we think that we have not seen sincerity from his side," she said. She reiterated that "doors are open" for communication between China and the Dalai Lama. The Chinese pre-conditions for the resumption of talks between Beijing and the Dalai calls for the latter to truly give up Tibetan independence, stop activities aiming at splitting China, openly declare that Tibet is an inalienable part of Chinese territory and that Taiwan is a part of China and the Government of the People’s Republic of China is the sole legal Government representing all China, Zhang said. "If the Dalai Lama can accept all these conditions, the Central Government is willing to have contacts with him and open negotiations with him," Zhang had said. At a press conference in Dharmsala on Monday, the Dalai Lama said his brother, Gyalo Thondup, visited Beijing in October at the invitation of the Chinese side and brought back a message for him. However, the Chinese Foreign Ministry did not confirm Gyalo Thondup’s secret visit to Beijing. The Dalai announcement Monday came during celebrations to mark the 50th anniversary of the day he took political office in Tibet, at the age of 16, before its annexation by China. A failed 1959 armed uprising against Chinese Communist rule led to his flight to India, where he established the Government-in-exile. Talks between the Dalai and China in the 1980s collapsed in the wake of a 1989 declaration of martial law in Tibet. Contacts between the Dalai and Beijing have been completely stalled since 1998. (PTI) |
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