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Balloonists
in bid to ISLAMABAD, Oct 4: Seven Japanese will attempt to soar over Pakistan’s Nanga Parbat peak in a hot air balloon next week in the first attempt of its...more
Al Gore-Bush debate WASHINGTON, Oct 4: Two main rivals for the US Presidency, democrat Vice President Al Gore and Republican Texas Governor George Bush,......more Sri Lanka’s communists
GALLE, SRI LANKA, Oct 4: Sri Lanka’s communists, crushed with great loss of life in two failed rebellions over the past 30 years.....more |
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Pak bans
onion ISLAMABAD, Oct 4: Pakistan has banned the import of onion from India to safeguard the interest of its local growers, a newspaper reported today. ....more Gandhi Global Peace LONDON, Oct 4: The Gandhi International Peace Award for 2000 was presented to Adam Curle, Emeritus Professor of Peace Studies at Bradford.....more ISLAMABAD, Oct 4: A day after Russia made it clear that President Vladimir Putin would not visit Pakistan, the media here today reported that ......more Albright to meet Barak, PARIS, Oct 4: Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat today said that he wanted guarantees of protection for ...more |
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Balloonists in bid to clear Nanga Parbat ISLAMABAD, Oct 4: Seven Japanese will attempt to soar over Pakistan’s Nanga Parbat peak in a hot air balloon next week in the first attempt of its kind, the team’s Pakistani backers announced yesterday. Their balloon will reach up to 10,000 mts above sea level in the frigid airs of the Himalayas in Pakistan’s extreme north, the Indus World Tour operating firm said. Provided "westerly winds are available", the balloon will take off from chilas and land at Deosai plains across Nanga Parbat, 8,125 metres high. The attempt to fly over the world’s third and Pakistan’s second highest peak is expected to last from next Monday, October 9, to Friday, October 13. Among the Japanese team are Micho Kanda, the chief pilot and a world record holder in distance and altitude, and his co-pilot Hirosuke Takezawa, a record holder in duration. Maco Oiwa, chairman of Balloon Federation of Japan, will be accompanying them as balloon master. (DPA) |
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Al Gore-Bush debate brings no surprises WASHINGTON, Oct 4: Two main rivals for the US Presidency, democrat Vice President Al Gore and Republican Texas Governor George Bush, engaged in the first of three nationally televised heated debates last night in Boston with both holding their ground on wide-ranging issues. Both spelt out their known positions on education, social security, tax cuts and other economic issues as well as a couple of foreign policy issues like Yugoslavia’s Milosevic and when America should engage in war. The consensus among observers seems to be that Bush gained more than gore in the debate because, while Gore’s long experience in Government and institutions like the senate prepared the public for a confident performance, they had not been so sure about Bush who is better known only in Texas. By demonstrating that he too has a grasp of major national issues like tax reform, social security, education and other issues, he proved his capacity for leadership of the nation, analysts noted. The next presidential debates scheduled to be held on October 11 and October 17. The debate turned somewhat nasty when, in response to a question by the moderator, Bush attacked Gore’s character, speaking about the time when gore went to a Buddhist temple where nuns allegedly gave several cheques for Gore’s campaign. Gore, however, said that he would not engage in personal attacks but would stick to policy. On Yugoslavia or Serbia, both were against Milosevic but gore would invite the russians to persuade Milosevic to step down while gore felt that it would be a mistake to bring the russians in because they appear to favour a run-off, which is also Milosevic’s goal. Bush emphasized that he would work for all american while Gore focused on the core supporters of the Democratic Party, like senior Americans, labour and the poor and middle class. He charged that Bush’s tax cut proposals would favour the rich. Bush replied that, naturally, those who pay taxes would get more relief but, under his plan, he claimed, the poor would pay no tax at all. What they said did not seem to matter as much as the impact of their words on the country. Both camps are eagerly awaiting to see how their man did in the eyes of the American voters. The first debate was so structured as to make each candidate reply to the moderator and not challenge each other directly, though they were standing on the same platform. The rules will change in the next two debates. It could be said at the end of the first debate that neither candidate lost. Whether Bush was a gainer from the debate would be known when the next polls come in. (PTI) |
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Sri Lanka’s communists seek to become political force GALLE, SRI LANKA, Oct 4: Sri Lanka’s communists, crushed with great loss of life in two failed rebellions over the past 30 years, now seek to become a political force through the ballot box. The Janata Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), or the People’s Liberation Front, has put the ghosts of its tormented past to rest and hopes Parliamentary elections on October 10 will leave it as the biggest player after the country’s two main political parties. "We have a plan to rebuild this country which has been destroyed by the wealthy class," said Mr Chandrasena Wijesinghe, party leader in Galle district in Southern Sri Lanka where the group has its base. A portrait of Lenin looked down from behind him in a dimly-lit room, while outside red flags fluttered over the seaside resort town. Groups of party workers, including young girls and a Buddhist monk, knocked on village doors to spread the party message. "Your vote is a chance to save this country," one young female canvasser told the women in one house. Although the JVP has little support elsewhere in the country, analysts say it should win around eight seats and hold the balance in a Parliament widely expected to be hung. More blood was shed in Sri Lanka’s Communist revolts of 1971 and 1987 than in the on-going Tamil separatist war that has been waged since 1983. Yet in its colourful campaign the JVP makes scarcely a mention of its blood-stained history. The JVP, comprising mostly unemployed youth from the majority Sinhalese community, first took up arms in 1971 when Sirimavo Bandaranaike, the mother of current President Chandrika Kumaratunga, was Prime Minister. That rebellion was crushed with the loss of an estimated 20,000 lives, but peace in the south was short-lived. The JVP rose in revolt again in 1987, aiming to establish a marxist state. The campaign was partly triggered by public anger over the arrival of troops from neighbouring India to enforce a peace pact with Tamil separatists in the island’s north. Leftist rebels are thought to have killed 5,000 politicians and officials, and destroyed millions of dollars worth of Government property. The Government cracked down and troops in shadowy death squads went on the prowl, killing thousands of JVP supporters. Their bodies were left on burning tyres by the roadsides or near rivers. Human rights groups estimate that 60,000 people, many of them innocent, died on both sides. "I am not angry, only sad. It was such a waste," said Y H Saman, who lost two brothers, both left-wing activists, in the crackdown. J W Peiris, a farmer, lost his son who worked in a Government department and had little to do with politics. People in a neighbouring village later told the family the army had picked up the young man. Peiris wrote to a Presidential Commission looking into disappearances, and was given 25,000 rupees (315 dollars) as compensation. The left has let sleeping dogs lie, but political analysts said voters were still haunted by the party’s troubled past. "They are now very much part of the democratic mainstream, but they have to constantly struggle with the people’s perception of a violent, ruthless group," said Pakiasothy Saravanamuttu, head of the Colombo-based Centre for Policy Alternatives. The JVP has instead sought to focus on the ethnic conflict raging in the island’s north and said devolving powers to the regions, including one administered by minority Tamils, could ultimately divide the country. JVP leaders said the underlying cause of the separatist conflict was the unequal treatment of Tamils and this was the issue that must be addressed, instead of devolving power. "They are getting ready to give the country to Prabhakaran, you must stop that," a JVP Speaker told a public meeting in a reference to the chief of the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Vellupillai Prabhakaran. Sri Lanka’s ruling People’s Alliance last month presented to Parliament constitutional reforms that spell more political powers for Tamils in the north and east so as to wean them away from the LTTE, but opposition groups and buddhist monks united against the package, and it fell through. President Chandrika Kumaratunga has since said she will convert the new chamber into a constituent assembly and get the radical reforms passed by a simple majority. (REUTERS) |
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Pak bans onion import from India ISLAMABAD, Oct 4: Pakistan has banned the import of onion from India to safeguard the interest of its local growers, a newspaper reported today. The decision has been taken in the light of the expected surplus onion crop from Balochistan and Sindh, which has started reaching market, The News quoting an official, reported. During the current month, 130,000 tonnes of onions are expected to reach the local market of which 120,000 tonnes will come from Balochistan and 10,000 from Sindh. In november the same quantity of onion is expected to reach the local market from Balochistan and Sindh while 240,000 tonnes of onion will reach market in December from Sindh, which will further reduce its prices. (PTI) |
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Gandhi Global Peace Award presented to Adam Curle LONDON, Oct 4: The Gandhi International Peace Award for 2000 was presented to Adam Curle, Emeritus Professor of Peace Studies at Bradford University here for his outstanding contribution to reconciliation work in war zones of Africa, Asia and Europe. Surur Hoda, Secretary General of the Gandhi Foundation, handed over the award consisting of a bronze statuette of Mahatma Gandhi, fitted on a globe at a function at the Nehra Centre here last night. In his acceptance speech, Curle who had spent five years as a soldier during World War-II, described Mahatma Gandhi as the "great soul of the century, a man to whom we owe so much for his example, a man whose teaching offers a way through the maze of contemporary violence and confusion, both political and moral." The two previous recipients of the award were Brig Michael Harbottle, UN Commander for Peace Forces in Cyprus and Nicholas Hillett, a great peace maker. Delivering the Gandhi Foundation Lecture-2000, Curle said "Gandhi knew and had shown the truth that violence can solve problems, instead, it creates and intensifies them, it doesn’t work." Curle said the Mahatma believed in non-violence not just as a moral principle but because he knew it was the most effective way, the only way, to achieve goals consistent with the truth-such as the independence of India. "Most of us would follow him in believing that non-violence is a nice thing, a good thing. But at the same time tell each other that in the real world we have to be tough to defend ourselves and protect our country and of course ourselves," the Emeritus Professor who has written many books on conflict resolution said. Curle’s adult life has been divided in equal parts between teaching research and reflection on violence and conflict, and practical mediation and reconciliation work in the war zones of Africa, Asia and Europe. Hoda in his address said "in times such as ours when conflict of all kinds racial, religious, cultural, national and communal is the order of the day, there is no doubt that the tireless work of Adam Curle gives us hope that one day Mahatma Gandhi’s message of Satyagraha, that is resolution of conflict on the basis of truth and non-violence, will be universally accepted." "Gandhi was never tired of emphasising that right means are essential to achieve end goal. He challenged the mistaken belief that through violent means one can bring lasting peace," he said. (PTI) |
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ISLAMABAD, Oct 4: A day after Russia made it clear that President Vladimir Putin would not visit Pakistan, the media here today reported that his Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov would be coming to Islamabad by the end of the year. Ivanov yesterday was quoted by Russia’s main TV channel ‘ORT’ as saying in New Delhi that neither he nor Putin, who is currently on a four-day visit to India, planned to visit Pakistan. "Putin has no plans to visit Pakistan and I also have no intention" to go there, the TV channel quoted Ivanov as telling Russian journalists accompanying the President on his visit to India. Pakistan Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar extended an invitation to his Russian counterpart to visit Pakistan, during their meeting in New York on the sidelines of UN General Assembly session, media here quoting Pakistani officials said. The Russian Foreign Minister accepted the invitation and the dates in this regard are being finalised, the officials were quoted as saying. Ivanov’s visit would further improve the relations between the two countries, the officials said. As a continuation of recently initiated high-level contacts between Pakistan and Russia, officials in Islamabad attach great importance to Ivanov’s visit to boost Pak-Russian ties, the reports said. (PTI) |
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Albright to meet
Barak, Arafat in search PARIS, Oct 4: Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat today said that he wanted guarantees of protection for his people and an inquiry into the causes of violence that has swept the West Bank and Gaza before he would agree to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak. Arafat told reporters after a one-hour meeting with France President Jacques Chirac that a trilateral meeting with US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Barak, that had been announced in Paris, was not a sure thing. "The meeting (with Barak) will depend on the one I will have with Albright," said Arafat, adding that a trilateral meeting was not yet on the agenda. Asked what his conditions were, he said, "protection and an international inquiry commission." A senior Palestinian official has said an international inquiry into Israel’s actions would be a condition of reviving the peace talks. But Barak’s office has said he "totally rejected the call for an international investigation." Justice Minister Yossi Beilin today told Israel Radio that Israel did not agree "to put our fate in the hands of the world." "I think that, if there are questions and if there are queries, we can answer them ourselves. We don’t need a committee biased against Israel to investigate things," Beilin said. Albright, followed by Barak, arrived at the US Ambassador’s residence in Paris today to start the talks aimed at stopping six days of violence, that have left at least 58 people dead in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank, and salvage the already-stalled West Asia peace process. She was to meet Arafat separately today. Chirac was also due to meet Barak. Fighting broke out last week after an Israeli hard-line leader, Ariel Sharon, visited one of Jerusalem’s most hotly contested holy sites, which is revered by both Jews and Muslims. State Department spokesman Philip Reeker, speaking in Washington, said CIA Director George Tenet planned to join Albright in Paris. Reeker said Tenet will take part in discussions on security issues. Arafat thanked France for "the great efforts they are making to stop the massacre, the serious massacre, which is being perpetrated against the Palestinian people and to save the peace process." The Palestinian leader said he planned to meet again later today with Chirac. "I stressed to the President the importance of the French role to us, a role exercised with the United States and Egypt with the aim of stopping the virulent attacks against our people," he said. France, which holds the European Union’s six-month rotating presidency, has long sought a major role in the volatile region, where it once was a great colonial power. As a day of frenetic diplomacy kicked off in Paris, there were no signs of the violence abating. Two more Palestinians were fatally shot before dawn today near the West Bank town of Ramallah, according to Nasser Atiya , a hospital nurse in Ramallah. Three Israeli military outposts in the Gaza Strip came under attack overnight, and stonethrowing clashes were reported in the West Bank this morning. And in northern Israel, a large forest fire raged today, one of more than 100 blazes that police believe have been set by Arab arsonists. Most have been extinguished. Both sides have traded bitter accusations of blame for the worst violence to hit the region in four years, with Palestinians saying Sharon’s visit was responsible and Israelis blaming an orchestrated Palestinian campaign to win concessions in peace talks.(AP) |
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Mullah influence in Pak comes under fire WASHINGTON, Oct 3: Pakistan has been least successful in family planning among south Asians nations because political commitment is low and religious leaders have too much influence in such matters, head of the UN Population Fund Dr Nafis Sadik was quoted by the New York Times. "Mullahs (religious leaders) often sway public opinion by speaking of using contraceptives as a sin or even by claiming that soap given to women to keep their bodies clean is laced with a sterilisation agent", Dr Sadik said. The fund’s annual report stresses the need for empowering women, saying: "If women had the power to make decisions about sexual activity and its consequences, they could avoid many of the 80 million unwanted pregnancies each year, 20 million unsafe abortions, some 750,000 maternal deaths and many times that number of infectons and injuries. They could also avoid many of the 333 million sexually transmitted infections contracted each year". The report says the needs of women are often "invisible to men" and women are also often the most oppressed, cannot develop to their potential. It also condemns the genital mutilation of women in some of African countries. An estimated two-thirds of 300 million children without access to education are girls and two-thirds of the 880 million illiterate adults are women; And 90 percent of the approximately half a million maternal deaths each year are in developing countries, it said. (PTI) |
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