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Hunger
still haunts BANGKOK, Nov 29: The number of undernourished in the developing world is falling but hunger, fuelled by war and weather, still stalks some Asian nations, a senior Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) official said........more UN outlines route to UNITED NATIONS, Nov 29: The United Nations expects East Timor to declare independence at the "tail-end" of next year, the chief U.N. administrator for the territory said ......more Japan’s industrial
output TOKYO, Nov 29: Output at Japan’s mines, factories and utilities grew by a slower than expected.......more LOS ANGELES, Nov 29: A woman whose 42-year-old husband was among 83 people killed.........more |
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PM expresses concern DUBAI, Nov 29: Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has expressed India’s "deep concern".....more Pak’s militants
inspired PESHAWAR, Nov 29: The black-bearded Mullah complained that exhorting Pakistanis to reject cable television and its contaminating western .........more US election remains WASHINGTON, Nov 29: The US Presidential election remained mired in legal wrangling today....more |
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Hunger still haunts Asia despite progress BANGKOK, Nov 29: The number of undernourished in the developing world is falling but hunger, fuelled by war and weather, still stalks some Asian nations, a senior Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) official said. "In Asia, home to three-fifths of the world’s population, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, North Korea and Mongolia are the most severely malnourished in the region," R B Singh, Assistant Director-General and regional representative of the FAO in Bangkok, told Reuters in an interview. "Elsewhere, hunger is still there in terms of the number of people who do not have adequate food, but deaths of hungry people are not as high as in those four countries." Singh said there would be 576 million undernourished people in the developing world by 2015, of which 53 percent would be Asians. This compares with nearly 800 million undernourished in 2000, of which more than 500 million are Asians. He said India and China were making progress in the fight against hunger. "The most populous nations of the world — China and India —that once experienced periodic famine...Are now virtually self-sufficient in food production," Singh said. Weather is one factor that has contributed to severe food insecurity in Bangladesh, Mongolia and North Korea, Singh said. Bangladesh has suffered from floods and drought, while Mongolia has faced harsh cold weather, he said. Singh said about 35-40 percent of Mongolia’s animals died in 1999 because of the cold weather. "So you can obviously see the devastation on its economy because Mongolia depends largely on its livestock sector," he said. It was not yet known how much global warming was to blame for destructive weather, he said. "Global warming is taking place. It is a reality. However, we do not know how much it is already impacting floods and drought. But there are some indications and it gives you some signals, and we have to be careful about (the climate change)," Singh said. By contrast, Afghanistan’s food insecurity stemmed mainly from the man-made problem of civil war, he said. Unfavourable weather had hit North Korean grain production, Singh said. Pyongyang’s grain production in the 2000/01 year is forecast at around 2.92 million tonnes, while its domestic grain demand is estimated at 4.79 million tonnes. Commercial imports were expected to cover 200,000 tonnes, and an additional 500,000 tonnes was expected in the form of bilateral concession imports, he said. "Taking these into account the uncovered import requirement is estimated at 1.17 million tonnes. The country still needs assistance to meet minimum food needs," Singh told Reuters. "They have suffered from the devastation of drought, also severe cold...As well as the lack of fertilisers, fuel, electricity." Singh said as much as half of North Korea’s population of 22 million lived in hunger, according to 1997 FAO estimates. The number would not change considerably in 2000, because of a combination of factors like drought at critical stages in the crop cycle and the cumulative effect of underlying problems in agriculture, Singh added. (REUTERS) |
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UN outlines route to E Timor independence UNITED NATIONS, Nov 29: The United Nations expects East Timor to declare independence at the "tail-end" of next year, the chief U.N. administrator for the territory said yesterday in outlining a road map to sovereignty. The key event ahead of independence will be an election for a constituent assembly, which is to draft and adopt a constitution for East Timor, Sergio Vieira De Mello told the 15-member U.N. Security Council at a public meeting. His steps toward a U.N. handover of power was the most detailed presented to the Council since East Timor’s overwhelming vote for independence in a U.N.-organized ballot on Aug. 30, 1999. The former Portuguese colony was invaded by Indonesia in 1975 and subsequently annexed as its 27th province until the vote, when it was placed under U.N. administration until independence. To protest the vote, armed gangs with Indonesian army support laid waste to the territory, killing and burning buildings to the ground. Vieira De Mello said the creation of a transitional cabinet in July and the appointment of a 36-member all-Timorese National Council in October represented a "significant new phase in the transition toward East Timorese rule" by handing over authority to local leaders. "It is my firm view that a successful transition requires that we gradually put executive and legislative power into the hands of the East Timorese, so that the day of independence marks the culmination of a smooth transition, and not the point of a sudden transfer of power," he said. The political calendar for the final phase of the transition, he said, had been the subject of intense debate among members of the Cabinet, the National Council and other East Timorese leaders, resulting in "a number of common understandings." "It is not, however, possible to give precise dates at this time, save that we are likely looking toward East Timor declaring its independence in the tail-end of 2001," Vieira De Mello said. The general election for constituent assembly is expected to take place in the middle of next year for the purpose of adopting a constitution. Once the constitution is adopted the constituent assembly would be sworn in as the first parliament, he said. "Depending on the process set out in the constitution, elections for a president (assuming a presidential system is chosen), the appointment of a government, and the declaration of independence would all take place in the last quarter of 2001," Vieira De Mello said. Xanana Gusmao, who led the country’s guerrilla forces in the 1980s and spent seven years in an Indonesian jail until 1999, is expected to become the territory’s first democratically elected president next year. Vieira De Mello warned that the United Nations would continue to play a role after independence. "We will clearly be required well into the future, in a supporting capacity for technical and security matters, but also in many areas of public administration," he said. Many of the problems that have plagued the United Nations from the start of its administration remain. Pro-Jakarta militia still control more than 100,000 East Timorese refugees in Indonesian West Timor and bureaucracies within the United Nations and other institutions delay funds for promised projects. Vieira De Mello said he would go to Brussels next week for meetings with European Union and World Bank officials to get further financial support. The U.N. transitional administration in East Timor, known as Untaet, has an annual budget of some 344 million, which it cannot use to support many East Timorese ventures, although key diplomats are pushing for flexibility. "It is frankly absurd, as a transitional administrator, to preside over a UN mission that spends 10 assessed dollars on itself for every voluntary dollar spent administering the country for which the council made us responsible," he said. (REUTERS) |
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Japan’s industrial output growth slows in October TOKYO, Nov 29: Output at Japan’s mines, factories and utilities grew by a slower than expected 1.5 percent in October, Government data showed on Wednesday, adding to signs the economy is running out of steam as exports begin to trail off. "The output data confirmed that the economy has slowed, albeit temporarily," said Yasunari Ueno, chief market economist at Mizuho Securities Co. The rise in industrial production after a 3.4 percent fall in the previous month was far below an average forecast for a 2.6 percent gain in a reuters poll of 10 economists. Their forecasts had ranged from increases of 1.4 percent to 3.4 percent. "The result was much weaker than our expectation," said Kazuhiko Ogata, economist at HSBC securities in Tokyo. "I feel the pace of recovery in industrial production is now slowing." Industrial activity, the principal bright spot this year in Japan’s economy as it struggles to emerge from its worst slump in the postwar era, has been fuelled mainly by strong export markets and a domestic boom in information technology-related goods. But exports have shown signs of slowing in recent months, a trend that the economic planning agency highlighted this month when it downgraded its official assessment of the economy for the first time in two years. "This is certainly going to cause a few concerns in some areas, obviously given the focus on the slowing global tech demand at the moment," said Richard Jerram, economist at Ing Baring Securities. Asia factor. The Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) said September’s output was led by gains at electrical machinery companies, up 3.6 percent, and transport machinery, up 2.3 percent, reflecting the introduction of new car models. The biggest drags were production lapses in petroleum and coal products, down 2.9 percent, and iron and steel, down 1.7 percent. "If you look at the projections for the next couple of months, you still have a quarter-on-quarter annualised growth rate of about three percent if those projections are right," Jerram said. "That’s certainly a fair slowdown from the previous couple of quarters." MITI forecast that manufacturer output — the core of production — would expand by only 0.1 percent in November, downgrading its earlier forecast by a 0.4 percentage point. But it sees some strength returning with a 1.0 percent rise in December and repeated its assessment that production remains on an "upward trend". Analysts said much of the slowdown in export demand appears to be from Asia, where many economies are cooling after a sharp rebound, and which now takes about six percent of total industrial output. "The Government is forecasting production will grow for the next two months, but I would say that growth is weak compared to the past," said Shinichi Sato, manager of market research at Tokyo-Mitsubishi Securities. "Declining demand from asia is a key factor behind the slower growth," he added. Japan’s economy grew by an annual 4.2 percent in the three months to June, after a blistering 10.3 percent the previous quarter — a dramatic six-month turnaround from a slip into a technical recession in the second half of last year. But pessimism has been growing that a spirited expansion in the January to June half year — driven largely by exports and rebounding corporate profits — began to stall in the July to September and October to Decermber quarters. Japan’s recovery has also been held back by weakness in personal consumption, the lion’s share of the economy but one that has failed to bounce back convincingly as households remain tightfisted amid high unemployment and corporate cost-cutting. Gross domestic product data for the July to September quarter is due on Monday. (REUTERS) |
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LOS ANGELES, Nov 29: A woman whose 42-year-old husband was among 83 people killed in the crash last month of a Singapore Airlines in taiwan sued the airline in federal court yesterday, blaming pilot error for the crash. Johnna Renee Thomas filed a wrongful death lawsuit in U.S. district court in Los Angeles, seeking an unspecified amount of money for economic and property losses and punitive damages, over the death of her husband Philip, a Motorola inc. engineer who was in Taipei on business. A spokesman for Singapore Airlines said the airline does not comment on pending litigation. The airline has offered family members of the deceased 400,000 dollars each in compensation and is considering compensation for survivors. It was the first wrongful death lawsuit filed in connection with the flight sq 006, which was bound for Los Angeles when it crashed on take-off from Taipei’s Chiang Kai-Shek airport on Oct. 31, killing 83 of the 179 people on board. Earlier this month a survivor of the crash, John Diaz, sued the airline in U.S. district court in Los Angeles, claiming negligence. The plane went down during a typhoon after the aircraft apparently used a partially closed runway to try to take off. Singapore Airlines has accepted responsibility for the crash —the first deadly accident in its 28-year history — citing pilot error. (REUTERS) |
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PM expresses concern over
violence between DUBAI, Nov 29: Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has expressed India’s "deep concern" over the ongoing violence between Israelis and Palestinians and appealed to the two sides to exercise restraint in the overall interest of peace in the Middle East. Expressing sympathy for the families of those killed in the two-month-old renewed violence, he said ‘the overriding need now is for restraint, avoidance of provocation and shunning all such acts that have the potential to destabilise the (peace) process." In an interview to "Oman Observer", Mr Vajpayee regretted that violence was continuing unabated in Jerusalem, West Bank, Gaza Strip and other parts of Palestine and Israel. This violence, he noted, had led to the tragic loss of life and even vitiated the prospects for peace. The issues involved in the Middle East peace process are of immense complexity, he observed. The newspaper has been running a series of interviews with world leaders to coincide with Oman’s 30th renaissance day celebrations. On age-old Indo-Oman relations, the Prime Minister said geographical proximity and historical links had provided the background for the "intensive and vibrant interaction" between the two countries. "Our multifaceted ties have been rapid expansion in recent years, most significantly in economic and commercial content. There exists a strong institutional framework to give shape to our common desire to further enhance the goodwill and warmth in our bilateral relationship", he said. Mr Vajpayee described king of Oman Sultan Qaboos Bin said as the "prime mover" behind the expansion of bilateral ties in recent years. He also stressed the similarity of views between India and Oman on different issues and expressed his admiration for Sultan Qaboos "global vision", which, he said, had enhanced the Sultanate’s international reputation. (UNI) |
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Pak’s militants inspired by Taleban success PESHAWAR, Nov 29: The black-bearded Mullah complained that exhorting Pakistanis to reject cable television and its contaminating western programmes had failed, so the time was near for Muslim militants to take matters into their own hands. "We have been telling people to stop watching for six months but we don’t seem to have had much effect," said Ahsan-ul-Haq, head of the hardline Jamiat Ulma-e-Islam party in Peshawar on the Pakistani frontier. "The next step is to use force." "One way is to run electricity into the cable, which will destroy all the equipment attached to it," he said, listing his alternatives. "We have been able so far to restrain our taliban (students) but they could ransack the cable offices one night." While the threat to distributors of foreign television signals and to private organisations promoting social change is clear, there is no agreement in or outside Pakistan on the extent of the danger to Pakistan’s largely secular Government. Those close to the state play down "Talibanisation" while human rights activists echo foreign warnings about a drift to intolerance. What is not in dispute is that militant Muslims, reinforced by an expanding system of religious schools and inspired by the easy victory of their colleagues in the Taliban movement in neighbouring Afghanistan, are increasingly outspoken. "It’s Afghanistan, it’s the collapse of a state system," was the gloomy prognosis of Afrasiab Khattak, head of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. "We have a very grave crisis in our country, a crisis of governance. The state here is almost totally alienated from society. "This crisis is creating a vacuum and the vacuum is being filled by extremist religious forces," he told Reuters at his home in Peshawar, capital of the North West Frontier Province. "There are new fascist forces who want to impose their values with the gun. They are against all forms of modernity, especially in women’s rights." The ideology of the militant Islamists parallels that in neighbouring Afghanistan. There the Taliban has imposed a radical version of Islam that has halted the education of women, banned television and aims to root out anything seen as western. The similarity is no coincidence. Afghanistan’s Taliban sprang in 1994 from the religious schools - the Madrasas - of Pakistan, sweeping from obscurity to capture the capital kabul from the feuding warlords in only a couple of years. Today those schools have about a million students studying a curriculum unchanged in 600 years. Graduates are qualified for few jobs outside of switching from student to teacher at the same institutions - or starting their own Madrasas. Naturally the number of institutions, now totalling about 6,500 nationwide and offering free board and education in a land where many cannot afford alternatives, continues to rise. "In the last election in pakistan, the results showed clearly that they have no majority," said Fakhr-ul-Islam, an expert in constitutional history at the University of Peshawar who has been trying to get Madrasas to modernise. But, unlike officials who cite low vote totals to foreigners asking about "Talibanisation," he is not convinced that means Islamic parties are weak. "They have seen the taliban taking power so easily in Afghanistan," Islam, a devout Muslim intent on modern education, said in his university office. "They have been inspired by that. The trend is upward, they are gaining in strength." The Government’s attitude has been ambiguous. While there must be sympathisers inside the inner circles of the Army which seized power a year ago, military ruler General Pervez Musharraf has clear secular tendencies. His islamic critics are well aware he continues in the tradition of those previous rulers who liked to sip whisky in the evening. But Musharraf backed down from plans to weaken a blasphemy law that was widely condemned by human rights advocates. That pleased religious activists and whetted their appetite for more. Demands now range from the minor, like moving the weekly day off from Sunday to Friday, to full imposition of Islamic Sharia Law. Some even reject "unislamic" economic reforms such as better tax collection prescribed by the international monetary fund. They have also started to impose their views. Militants have gone through villages confiscating television sets and fining those who won’t cooperate. Ul-Haq said he expected to receive a fatwa, a religious ruling, from other religious leaders in the country after the current holy month of Ramadan to justify attacks on cable television. The groups have also threatened private groups advocating social reform, furious at them for giving shelter to women involved in love affairs that would normally have meant quick death for violating their families’ honour. "This is unacceptable," Ul-Haq said, describing the protection of a girl who had run off with an Army officer. The Mullah was incensed by what he considered an attack on tradition rather than by her subsequent murder. But the larger goal is overall power. Ul-Haq says his group, one of the more radical, is holding talks with others to unite in a campaign for a new Islamic Pakistan. The vehemently anti-western Mullah, noting that the Taliban were welcomed by an Afghan population weary of war and chaos, is encouraged by the political disarray in his own country. "God almighty has prepared the ground for the religious parties to come to the forefront," he told Reuters, calling for Taliban-style Government in Pakistan. "This will be the solution. We can’t solve all these problems without a Government like they have in Afghanistan." (REUTERS) |
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US election remains mired in legal battles WASHINGTON, Nov 29: The US Presidential election remained mired in legal wrangling today after Democrat Al Gore’s yet another appeal for a statewide vote recount was rebuffed by Republican George W Bush, who forged ahead with transition plans. Gore fired off a new demand for a vote recount as Bush aides insisted that the contested White House race was over and legal guns for both sides clashed in Tallahassee, the capital of Florida. In the first good news for the Democratic Vice President since Bush was certified winner in Florida on Sunday, a circuit judge ordered Florida ballot boxes to be delivered under police guard to his court. Leon County Circuit Court Judge Sanders Sauls said the ballots from Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties, as well as a voting machine, must arrive at his court by 5:00 pm on Friday (0330 hrs Ist). He scheduled a hearing for Saturday, on Gore’s core argument that he was robbed of nearly 2,000 votes that would have guaranteed him victory over bush in Florida. Earlier, shrugging off polls suggesting the public may be tiring of the fight, Gore offered a way out of the legal morass, saying a quick and painless recount would resolve all disputes. "Seven days, starting tomorrow, for a full and accurate count of all the votes," Gore said. Bush’s team turned gore down flat. Speaking in Austin, Texas, where Bush pressed ahead with plans for his presidential transition, spokeswoman Karen Hughes charged: Gore "wants to go back and change the rules after the counting is over." Texas Governor’s running mate, Richard Cheney, said he did not think the democrats’ decision to contest the election results in Florida were appropriate. Cheney said he would concede the election, if he were in Gore’s shoes. "If I were in his position that’s what I’d do," Cheney said, appearing on CNN’s "Larry King Live" programme. Must-win Florida declared Bush the winner of its election by 537 votes on Sunday, with two hand recounts incomplete, giving the Texas Governor its 25 electoral votes and the keys to the White House. With legal battle intensifying, Bush’s lawyers blasted a challenge by Gore’s lawyers to the disputed Florida vote. "We believe that the election contest is without legal substance," senior Bush lawyer Barry Richard said in Tallahassee, where he is opposing Gore’s legal challenges to the vote tally. Circuit Judge Sauls, however, hearing the challenge to results in three counties, gave Gore a partial victory by ordering thousands of disputed ballots be brought to his court. He, however, refused a request from the Gore camp that the ballots - about 10,000 from Miami-Dade and 3,300 from Palm Beach - be counted. The Bush side is opposed to counting the ballots, all of which are of infamous "dimpled chad" nature, arguing they have already been counted twice by machines that rejected them. Gore’s top lawyer David Boies maintained that the disputed ballots had to be counted as quickly as possible and told reporters after Sauls’ ruling that he would likely appeal it, asking for a hearing tomorrow to decide whether the ballots should be tallied. He also said he would be asking the Florida Supreme Court to issue instructions on how to count the disputed ballots. "The court is moving faster than the defendants would like it but slower than we would like it," Boies said, noting importance of concluding the case by a December 12 deadline for Florida’s electoral college members to be picked. Separately, both sides filed final papers yesterday ahead of Friday’s Federal Supreme Court hearing on the case. The nation’s highest court will hear Bush lawyers argue that the Florida Supreme Court overstepped its authority in extending a deadline for hand recounts in the state. And in other court action, another Tallahassee judge was considering whether absentee ballots counted in seminole county be thrown out, a result that would be fatal to Bush. Circuit Judge Nikki Clark set a one-day trial date for December six to determine whether 15,000 absentee ballots be invalidated, as requested by the democrats. Democratic lawyer Harry Jacobs contends that Republican party officials tampered with applications for some of these ballots, and therefore all of them should be discarded. Some 10,000 of those ballots went to Bush and 5,209 to gore. In Austin, meanwhile, Bush moved ahead with his transition, as his chief of staff-designate Andrew Card discussed cooperation with the Clinton White House. Cheney, who has been placed in charge of Bush’s presidential transition team, said he was in the process of assembling a transition team using private funds. Cheney said he expected that members of "the other political faith" would be invited to join a future bush administration but did not say how many and what departments they could possibly be place in charge of. (AFP) |
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