|
|
Kumaratunga to retain presidency for next 6 yrs COLOMBO, Feb 13: Though Sri Lankan President, Chandrika Kumaratunga......more
Iran reformers put TEHRAN, Feb 13: Iranian reformers have included on their....more ‘Dr Zorro’s’
victim NEW YORK, Feb 13: A young mother has been awarded.....more Love letters from New HAMBURG, Feb 13: If one of cupid’s arrows pricks you this Valentine’s Day, you might....more |
|
Moscow seeks halt to reactor conversion report WASHINGTON, Feb 13: Moscow has told the Clinton administration it wants to drop a joint project to convert its remaining military nuclear reactors to purely civilian use, the Washington Post reported in today’s editions. Russia now proposes to shut down the reactors entirely because of delays in implementing the joint project, cost overruns and warnings by nuclear experts of a possible chernobyl-type nuclear catastrophe, the paper said. ......more Activist rubs cream pie BANGKOK, Feb 13: An activist rubbed a cream pie into the face of IMF chief Michel.....more
Pre-advance team from NEW DELHI, Feb 13: A pre-advance team from the US is expected to visit India soon to finalise......more Major Indian initiative BERLIN, Feb 13: India should take a major initiative to improve its image as a tourist destination.....more |
 |
Kumaratunga to retain presidency for next 6 yrs COLOMBO, Feb 13: Though Sri Lankan President, Chandrika Kumaratunga has proposed to abolish the country’s executive presidency in her draft constitutional proposals, she will continue to hold the office of President until her term ends in 2006, political sources said here today. Some moderate Tamil leaders, who had talks with Chandrika this week on a draft constitution proposed by her Government, confirmed reports that she would also enjoy all powers vested in the Prime Minister in the new set up in the interim. Extracts of transitional provisions, published in the sunday leader paper said ‘notwithstanding the promulgation and coming into force of this constitution the person elected to the executive presidency in December 1999 and in the office at the commencement of this Constitution will continue in the office for the full term of six years, unless such person resigns for the office, dies or otherwise vacates office. The President will for this period continue to exercise all the powers of Prime Minister under this Constitution in addition to exercise all the powers, functions and discharge of duties of the President under the Constitution notwithstanding existence in office of the Prime Minister. Confirming the report, leaders of three Tamil parties said Chandrika would like retain her present authority on the basis of her fresh mandate. Chandrika was re-elected in the Presidential polls held on Dec 21, last year. (PTI) |
|
Iran reformers
put women’s rights firmly TEHRAN, Feb 13: Iranian reformers have included on their list of candidates for next Friday’s key parliamentary polls five women who are putting political equality with their male counterparts firmly on the Islamic Republic’s agenda. The five, on the list of the Islamic Iran participation front, the main faction supporting reformist president Mohammad Khatami, hope to secure a parliamentary platform for the social and legal reforms they have long championed. We want an end to current discrimination and a lifting of the obstacles which have prevented women’s participation in the country’s political decision-making since the revolution, said one of the five candidates, Fatemeh Haqiqat-Jou. Khatami’s three-year old reform commitments must be supported and this is the only way to ensure the future of our young people and the country, she said, saying that she herself supported real equality between men and women. Our society amd women must be freed from cultural and social burdens, such as imposed marriages or inequalities in Islamic laws, said Haqiqat-Jou, adding Islam sees women and men equally. In order to alter things in Iran, we need national mobilisation, said Fatemeh Rakei, a poet and writer. Until now, women’s rights and sensitivities were derided in Iran and it is now our role and our obligation to restore these rights, said Vahideh Talaqani, daughter of the late Ayatollah Mahmud Talaqani, one of the most popular religious figures in Iran. I am not a member of any party but I believe it is time that women’s most fundamental rights, derided until now, be restored, Talaqani said. (AFP) |
|
‘Dr Zorro’s’ victim awarded 1.75 million dollars in damages NEW YORK, Feb 13: A young mother has been awarded 1.75 million dollars after a US gynaecologist dubbed "Dr Zorro" carved his initials into her stomach during surgery, the New York television channel reported. Doctor Allan Zarkin, 61, in separate criminal procedings, also faces up to 25 years’ jail for "signing" his patient last September to celebrate a successful cesarean delivery. Zarkin, whose medical license has been revoked, admitted to the act but blamed a disturbance of his frontal brain lobe. The patient, a 31-year-old New York dentist, initially demanded 5.5 million dollars from him and the beth Israel hospital, saying the letters A and Z became infected and made her feel like livestock. (DPA) |
|
Love letters from New York: Send
HAMBURG, Feb 13: If one of cupid’s arrows pricks you this Valentine’s Day, you might want to head directly to the internet. That’s where you can express yourself by sending your plugged-in loved one an electronic Valentine’s Card by E-mail. At the non-stop New York Valentines Web Site (http://members.Aol.Com/nonstopny/valentin.Htm), lovers can E-mail each other Valentine’s Day greetings free of charge. Users can specify when the message will be sent to ensure that the greetings reach recipients around the world on February 14. The site, in English, is maintained in New York. In addition to the Valentine’s Day card feature, it entices visitors with informational titbits on the theme of love. Did you know, for example, that the words "Sheth Shen Zhon" are an apache declaration of love - or that giving flowers with a bow indicates indifference? Other areas of the site feature locations in New York for those who like to flirt, as well as historic information about the Valentine’s Day tradition. (DPA) |
|
Moscow seeks halt to reactor conversion report WASHINGTON, Feb 13: Moscow has told the Clinton administration it wants to drop a joint project to convert its remaining military nuclear reactors to purely civilian use, the Washington Post reported in today’s editions. Russia now proposes to shut down the reactors entirely because of delays in implementing the joint project, cost overruns and warnings by nuclear experts of a possible chernobyl-type nuclear catastrophe, the paper said. The project was described as an "historic" achievement in 1997 when it was negotiated and has formed a centrepiece of the Clinton administration’s arms control effort. The agreement committed Russia to halting the output of weapons-grade plutonium by the end of this year, ridding the world of enough fissile material for nearly 400 new nuclear weapons every year. But two weeks ago, with costs spiraling and an increasingly unrealistic deadline approaching, Russian atomic energy officials told a visiting US team "of a surprising change in their position," the Post reported. The new Russian proposal would shut down the reactors altogether in favour of alternative conventional sources, the paper said. It said the Russians put the total cost of their new plan at 230 million dollars, the bulk of which would be paid by the United States under the Russian plan. Clinton administration officials were not immediately available for comment. But the post cited them as voicing scepticism about the projected cost, which it said was significantly lower than previous estimates. The Clinton administration officials were said by the paper to acknowledge that the timetable for Russia’s joining a moratorium on weapons-grade plutonium production had slipped to at least 2004, regardless of whether Moscow’s latest plan is accepted by the United States. (REUTERS) |
|
Activist rubs cream pie on face of IMF chief BANGKOK, Feb 13: An activist rubbed a cream pie into the face of IMF chief Michel Camdessus as he was preparing to give his last official speech as the agency’s Managing Director today at a UN meeting here. Mr Camdessus, who was not injured, wiped the cream from his face, regained his composure and proceeded into the meeting room and made his keynote speech to the conference. The activist from a US based Non-Governmental Organisation attacked Mr Camdessus as he was chatting to delegates at a summit of the UN conference on trade and development, witnesses said. The assailant was quickly grabbed and escorted out of the lobby by security personnel. In brief comments to reporters before leaving, he identified himself as Robert Nainan from Washington DC he had registered for the summit as a delegate of the "fifty years is enough network", conference officials told reporters. Mr Camdessus declined to comment on the pie attack, but urged tighter security arrangements at the venue, they said. Mr Nainan said his group objected to the IMF’s policies for developing nations, which he claimed had forced them to cut spending on health care and education. "We wanted to send Mr Camdessus a message that we did not appreciate his 13 years of leadership of the IMF," he said. "We wanted to give him a friendly reminder of what people think of his policies. We also wanted to give a little warning to his successor that we expect different policies." A group based in Belgium called patissiers San Frontieres said in a faxed statement to reuters that the cream pie was thrown at Mr Camdessus in solidarity with people in Thailand, Southeast Asia, South America, Africa and the former Soviet Union who had been hit by IMF’s policies. Human rights groups and activists have been protesting on the fringes of the summit against free trade and its impact on poorer developing countries. They accuse agencies like the IMF of widening the gap between rich and poor and catering only to the needs of giant Western corporations. (REUTERS) |
|
Pre-advance team from US to visit India soon NEW DELHI, Feb 13: A pre-advance team from the US is expected to visit India soon to finalise arrangements for President Bill Clinton’s trip here even as the Home Ministry is busy chalking out security steps to be followed during his stay. The pre-advance team would be visiting Delhi later this month and also other cities which Clinton is likely to visit during his five-day tour of the country in March. The team would go further into the recommendations made by the prelimenary team the site survey team which visited several hotels in the capital and in Agra, Jaipur, Udaipur, Mumbai, Panaji and Hyderabad before leaving India on February nine. The team, after making further investigations, will also submit its recommendations to the white house and finally an advance team, which will come 10 days ahead of Clinton’s visit, will make final scrutiny of places. Meanwhile, the Home Ministry is making preparations for a fool-proof security arrangement during Clinton’s visit. Official sources said the hotel where he would be staying will be properly checked and its staff thoroughly scrutinised. The background of hotel staff would be checked and anyone having a shady past will be kept away from the venue, they said, adding nothing would be left to chance. A thick cover of security would be thrown around Clinton where ever he would be visiting. Security personnel from Central Reserve Police Force and National Security Guards are likely to be pressed in service during his five-day visit, the sources said. They said the inner ring of security around Clinton would be his own. A set of limousines of Clinton are also likely to be flown in to the places he is scheduled to visit. Special pass will be issued for all functions of the US President and scribes attending his press conferences will have to reach the venue at least two hours in advance. The vehicles accompanying Clinton’s entourage also include special communication cars. For this visit by a US President to India after more than two-decades, the entourage is expected to be more than 1000, which includes at least 100 members of press corps of the White Gouse. US Secretary of State Madeline Albright is also expected to accompany Clinton. The first lady of US, Hillary Clinton, had stayed in Maurya Sherton during her visit to India in 1995. (PTI) |
|
Major Indian initiative needed to attract German tourists BERLIN, Feb 13: India should take a major initiative to improve its image as a tourist destination to attract tourists from Germany, a leading German tourism expert has said in the backdrop of a fall in such traffic to the country. Calling for a new joint marketing and communication initiative to be channelised through an all India action group, P M Geissler, Managing Director of Pr Partner cautioned India’s position as a tourist destination might become precarious without such an initiative. His comments came in the backdrop of the fall in flow of the German tourists to India in the first half of 1999. An estimated one lakh German tourists visit India each year. Germany is one of the world’s most important but also most sensitive markets, said Geissler, actively associated with the Government of India tourist office in Frankfurt for the past seven years in promoting India. He suggested that next month’s international tourism bourse, the world’s biggest tourist trade fair here and the World Expo 2000 starting in hannover in June were an ideal platform for India to launch fresh strategies to woo tourists. Meanwhile, the Indian Government’s tourist office in Frankfurt, admitted it is becoming difficult for India to maintain its market share in tourism in this part. India is facing ‘tough competition’ to have its market share of German tourists during the last few years, the Regional Director of the office Suman Sharma said. Studies commissioned by British American Tobacco (BAT) showed clearly that travellers’ desires in German speaking parts of Europe have changed, he added. Raising the question is India really a choice destination in the new millennium?, Geissler cited the BAT studies to show that India has lost its attractiveness and market share, especially in Germany. India’s ranking has also dropped in other European countries like Sweden and Switzerland and was ‘far behind’ the nature destinations like Australia, Canada and beach destinations like the Carribean and Maldives, he noted. The wind of change Is attributed to a number of reasons with a multiple holiday pattern and fewer days for their main holiday, he said. He said the changing trends should be taken as opportunities and India palace hotels, wildlife park lodges and golden beaches could be as much a honeymooner’s destination as Egypt, Kenya or Bali. India must publicise in a big way its relaxing rural beaches, charming hotels, country and ayurveda resorts for catering to trendy relaxation and wellness seekers, he said. Stressing that India must closely monitor changing consumer desires, he said another survey by Lufthansa and Air India had shown India would be able to attract 140,000 more visitors from Germany alone if continuity is maintained in projecting India as a destination that boasts of clean natural environment and a wide range of health care facilities. The number of individuals’ travel and tour packages have increased while group tours, that are so vital for the survival of many Indian tour operators, are down as a result of change in German tourist trends, he added. (PTI) |
|
|
