|
|
Human rights abuses LONDON, Oct 10: In a damning condemnation, Human Rights Watch, a global human rights body today accused Pakistan’s military rulers of committing "widespread abuses" in the name of political "reform" and called......more Britain’s iron lady
still LONDON, Oct 10: Of all her sobriquets, the iron lady is the one that has stuck to Margaret Hilda Thatcher, British Prime Minister from May 1979 to....more
Clinton views his handling WASHINGTON, Oct 10: US President Bill Clinton has said that his handling of impeachment after covering up his affair with former White House intern....more Scientists share STOCKHOLM, Oct 10: Zhores I Alferov of Russia, Herbert Kroemer, a German-born American and Jack Kilby of Taxes today won the Nobel Prize....more |
|
First woman Prime COLOMBO, Oct 10: World’s first elected woman Prime Minister and Sri Lanka’s.....more
Central Asian MOSCOW, Oct 10: The Heads of States of Central Asian Republics and Russia.....more
Israel says ready to JERUSALEM, Oct 10: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak today said he was willing to give...more W Asian tourists want KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 9: Hotels in Malaysia’s Penang resort island have been urged to build......more |
 |
 |
Human rights abuses rampant in Pakistan LONDON, Oct 10: In a damning condemnation, Human Rights Watch, a global human rights body today accused Pakistan’s military rulers of committing "widespread abuses" in the name of political "reform" and called on Gen Pervez Musharraf to immediately return the country to constitutional rule. In a 22-page report, "reform or repression? post-coup abuses in Pakistan," the Human Rights Watch said the Musharraf regime had detained opponents and former officials without charge, removed independent judges from the higher courts, banned public rallies and demonstrations, and rendered political parties all but powerlellows a long line of generals in Pakistan who have claimed that a period of military rule is the path in true democracy," said Sidney Jones, Asia director of Human Rights Watch. He said bilateral donors and international lending agencies, including the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, should insist that the Government of Pakistan commit itself to an acnance and constitutional rule to Pakistan before they agree to provide any new loans. The Human Rights Watch asked the Musharraf Government to immediately lift the state of emergency imposed in October 1999, set a clear and reasonable timetable for holding national and provincial elections and revoke the provisional constitution order that suspended the constitution and undermined the independence of the judiciary. It also asked the military regime to amend the November 1999 national accountability ordinance, ostensibly designed to punish corrupt officials, because it denied detainees due process of law and invited politically-motivated prosecutions. It said the Government should cease using the army to monitor civilian institutions and hold judicial inquiries into allegations of custodial torture and prosecute those responsible. (PTI) |
|
Britain’s iron lady still capable of showing her mettle LONDON, Oct 10: Of all her sobriquets, the iron lady is the one that has stuck to Margaret Hilda Thatcher, British Prime Minister from May 1979 to the end of 1990. The conservative party leader changed the face of Britain more than virtually any other post-war Prime Minister, and although she is no longer as often in the public eye as in the days when she made life difficult for her conservative successor, John Major, she is still capable of showing her steely side. A brief address at the party’s annual conference at Bournemouth, just ten days before her 75th birthday on Friday (October 13) brought delegates to their feet for an ovation of several minutes. Thatcher remains a powerful speechmaker capable of destroying most who dare get in her way. She showed her toughness most recently with her indefatigable attempts to secure the release of former Chilean Augusto Pinochet after he was arrested in England last year, despite finding little support from anyone else in British politics. Thatcher was not interested in the human rights aspect of the case, preferring to point to chilean support for Britain during the 1982 falklands war. Her loyalty to old friends is matched by implacability towards her old enemies. She remains dismissive of the European Union, where she is recalled for her strident performances at EU summits. Handbag on conference table and index finger raised she got her way with the simple and oft-repeated sentence: "I want my money back," giving rise to the verb "to handbag". Her fellow EU leaders acquiesced and the capitulation still rankles in European capitals. Thatcher was never afraid to take on what she saw as an enemy, as shown by her taking Britain into war against Argentina over the Falklands and her willingness to face down the mighty trade union movement. The electorate rewarded her determination, and the Falklands war saw the high point of her popularity. She is famously quoted as saying there was "no such thing as society", bringer her the reputation of callousness towards the poor, although the quote was taken largely out of context. Rising dissatisfaction over inflation rising once more, along with high interest rates contributed to her fall, but her personality and the enemies she had made within the party were also important factors that led to her resignation as party leader in November 1990. In 1992 she was made baroness. In comments at party conferences and elsewhere she has unequivocally placed herself on the right of the party, which continues to hold her in a mixture of nervous affection, awe and fear. (DPA) |
|
Clinton views his handling
of impeachment WASHINGTON, Oct 10: US President Bill Clinton has said that his handling of impeachment after covering up his affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky was one of the "great achievements" of his presidency. Clinton told Joe Klein of New Yorker magazine that his another great achievement was being facing down the Government shutdowns by the Republican majority led by Speaker Newt Gingrich, The Washington Times reports. "I still believe that two of the great achievements of my administration was facing down the Government shutdowns in 1995 and 1996, and then facing down the impeachment," he said. Klein is the author of "primary colors," a thinly veiled novel on the Clinton presidency. Klein wrote the novel anonymously. Eventually he owned up authorship. "I had made a terrible personal mistake which I didn’t try to correct until almost a year later and I had to live with it, and it caused an enormous amount of pain to my administration, to the country. And then I had to deal with what the Republicans wanted to do with it. I really believed I was defending the constitution," Clinton said. Those two things together, said Clinton, essentially ended the most overt and extreme manifestations of the "gingrich revolution." (PTI) |
|
Scientists share Nobel Prize in Physics STOCKHOLM, Oct 10: Zhores I Alferov of Russia, Herbert Kroemer, a German-born American and Jack Kilby of Taxes today won the Nobel Prize in Physics for "basic work on information and communication technology" Alferov of the A F Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute in St Petersburg, Russia and Kroemer of the University of California at Santa Barbara will share half the nine million Kronor (915,000 dollars) prize for their work in developing technology used in satellite communications and cellular phones. Kilby of Texas instruments will get the other half for his part in the invention and development of the integrated circuits and as a co-inventor of the pocket calculator. "Though their inventions, this yes have laid a stable foundation for modern information technology," the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in its citation. (AP) |
|
First woman Prime Minister of the world dies COLOMBO, Oct 10: World’s first elected woman Prime Minister and Sri Lanka’s octogenarian leader Sirimavo Bandaranaike died today after a heart attack, the Government said. Three-time Prime Minister Bandaranaike, 84, mother of President Chandrika Kumaratunga, suffered the attack while returning home after casting her vote in the Parliament elections at suburban Attanagalle this morning, an official statement said. She died in a private hospital, the statement said adding details of the funeral arrangements would be notified later. She is survived by another daughter and a son, Anura Bandaranaike, who broke away from her ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and joined the opposition United National Party (UNP) after losing succession battle to his sister Chandrika in 1993. Anura said Sirimavo suffered the attack in the car. She went this morning to her home town Attanagalle, about 20 km from here, to cast her vote from where Anura is contesting as an UNP candidate. Her staff immediately rushed her to a private nursing home on the way back when she complained of heavy chest pain. But she was later declared dead at the hospital, he said. The news of Sirimavo’s death spread like wild fire all over the country as it is currently undergoing pollings for the crucial Parliament elections in which her ruling People’s Alliance (PA) is locked in close contest with the UNP. PA sources said that her death in the midst of the polls is expected to bring in a heavy sympathy wave in favour of the party. The state Radio and TV immediately started airing programmes praising her statesmanship. Thrice Prime Minister since 1960, Sirimavo resigned from the post on August 10 this year stating that she was too old and exhausted to lead the party. Explaining her reasons for resignation in a letter to Chandrika, Sirimavo said her state of health does not permit her to be active in the party and in the Government. "I believe it is time for me to quietly withdraw from the humdrum of busy political life to a more tranquil and quiet environment," she said. Considered by her followers as person destined to lead the country, Sirimavo, plunged into politics after the assassination of her husband S W R D Badaranaike by a Buddhist monk in 1959. Since then she was elected to the office of Prime Minister in 1960, 1970 and 1994. She entered the Guiness Book of World Records as world’s first elected Prime Minister, when she swept to power in 1960. Though Sirimavo took over as the Prime Minister for a third time in 1994, she hardly attended the office due to old age and ill health. She virtually retired from politics after choosing Chandrika as the leader to succeed her. This had angered her son Anura, who since then joined the UNP, the party she hated the most and fought throughout her political life.(PTI) |
|
Central Asian Heads meet on Taliban MOSCOW, Oct 10: The Heads of States of Central Asian Republics and Russia will hold a summit in Kyrgyz capital Bishek tomorrow to discuss the increasing threat of religious extremism and expansion of Taliban in the region. Russian President Vladimir Putin, who reached Kazakhstan yesterday held talks with President Nursultan Nazarbayev. Security concerns figured prominently in the talks, ‘Voice of Russia’ said. Russian troops are face-to-face with advancing Taliban military in Pyandz river Valley on Tajik-Afghanistan border. Russia has taken direct responsibility of defending the territorial integrity of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Some of the members of the Commonwealth of Independent States are bound by a security pact. Uzbekistan had pulled out of the treaty. The summit will also focus on a ‘Euroasian Union’ on the pattern of the 15-member European Union. However, Russia had indicated that it would prefer first to consolidate the ‘Customs Union’ formed a few years ago with Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Chechenya’s dreaded warlord Baudi Bakuyev was killed in an encounter with Russian troops in the rural settlement Gui on Sunday, President Putin’s aide Sergie Yastrzhembsky told ‘Novosti’. Bukayev was the mastermind in kidnapping former President Boris Yeltsin’s personal envoy to Chechenya, General Valentin Vlasov. There have been heavy casualties on the Chechen militants during military operations by Russian troops during the last 48 hours, Yastrzhembsky said.(UNI) |
|
Israel says ready to give peace a chance JERUSALEM, Oct 10: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak today said he was willing to give international mediators more time to try to end the cycle of Israeli-Palestinian violence and revive middle east peacemaking. After a five-hour Cabinet meeting that ended before dawn, Mr Barak said he was prepared to attend a summit with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat provided it would ensure an end to nearly two weeks of bloodshed. "If we find ourselves in a long, painful, difficult confrontation of many long months, there’ll be no importance to our having held on for another 72 or 96 hours," Barak told Israel’s Army radio, extending a previous 48-hour deadline. His office said in a statement that appeals by world leaders had prompted the Government to allow more time to end the violence "with the feeling that this is, indeed, the last chance." "If there should be a summit, its purpose must be a complete halt to the violence...Should there be an attempt such as this, there’s no logic from the standpoint of Israel not to come and realise it," he told Israel Radio. U.S. President Bill Clinton has been trying to arrange a summit between Barak and Arafat. Barak said any summit must also set in motion a U.S.-led inquiry into clashes, and schedule a swift resumption of peace negotiations. "If there won’t be a halt to violence, it will mean the Palestinian authority and Arafat in fact chose to cease the negotiations and we will know how to act in this situation," Barak said. The Palestinians say it is up to Israel, deemed by the U.N. Security Council to have used excessive force, to end the violence. At least 90 people have been killed in the clashes, mostly Palestinians and Israeli Arabs. Barak said the 48-hour deadline he had set on Saturday to end the violence had brought world statesmen to the region, including U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and European Union envoy Javier Solana. At the end of the Cabinet meeting, an official statement said Israeli security forces had been ordered to "step up and widen the scope of their activities to protect Israel’s citizens and its soldiers using all the appropriate measures". But the statement also left the door open for mediation on stopping the violence. Issuing his ultimatum on Saturday, Barak had said Israel would respond to Palestinian violence with "all means" and consider peacemaking at an end if violence did not end by Monday evening, after the Yom Kippur holiday yesterday. Clinton yesterday held off a decision on whether to convene an emergency summit to quell the violence. U.S. Officials said Washington had failed so far to get the necessary assurances that a visit to the region by Clinton or Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to meet Israeli and Palestinian leaders would yield a deal to stop the bloodshed. "Time is short and the stakes are high and the price of failure is more than any of us wants to pay," Annan told a news conference after meeting Arafat in Gaza late last night. Annan was to see Barak today. Israeli soldiers and Palestinians clashed yesterday in several towns across the West Bank, including Hebron — where helicopter gunships went into action — and in Ramallah and Nablus. At least 14 people were hurt, witnesses said. Each side accused the other of firing live rounds on the 12th day of clashes that have left peacemaking in tatters. Among the recent victims was Jewish settler Hillel Lieberman, whose body was found near the Palestinian-ruled city of Nablus, the Army confirmed. Stepping up the pressure on the Palestinians, the Israeli Army announced late the closure it imposed on the West Bank and Gaza strip before the Yom Kippur holiday would continue, a move Palestinian officials had predicted. The fighting erupted after Israeli right-wing politician Ariel Sharon visited a bitterly contested Jerusalem shrine on September 28 that is holy to Muslims and Jews. Palestinians say Israel is to blame for the bloodshed and demand an international inquiry. Late yesterday, violence raged in the Israeli Arab town of Umm el-Fahm and in Nazareth, where two Israeli Arabs were killed in clashes with Israeli Jewish crowds during Yom Kippur. Several Arab-owned homes were torched in Tel Aviv as Israel’s national mood darkened. On the Israel-Lebanon frontier, Israeli and Lebanese soldiers were on alert after Hizbollah guerrillas seized three Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on Saturday. The Israeli Army yesterday said bloodstains found at the scene showed the soldiers had been wounded in the incident. Tensions have been high with Syria and Lebanon since the three soldiers were captured and Hizbollah rained mortar bombs across the border on Saturday. It was the most serious violence on the Israel-Lebanon frontier since Israel pulled its Army out of South Lebanon in May, ending 22 years of occupation. Diplomatic efforts are under way to resolve the soldiers’ fate. Hizbollah wants to exchange them for scores of Lebanese and Arab prisoners in Israeli detention.(REUTERS) |
|
W Asian tourists want women-only pools in hotels KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 9: Hotels in Malaysia’s Penang resort island have been urged to build swimming pools for women only, following requests by Muslim tourists from West Asia, a news report said today. A Penang tourism official said the women-only pools, which should also be covered, would provide privacy for conservative Muslim women tourists who wanted to swim while on holiday. "Travel agents in Dubai have rated Penang as the top destination in Malaysia," said Kee Phaik Cheen, who is a state councillor for tourism affairs. Muslim tourists from West Asia felt comfortable travelling in Moslem Malaysia because most food served is "halal" or prepared according to Muslim requirements, while hotel rooms have indicators showing the direction of mecca for prayer time, she said. "But they also requested separate sheltered swimming pools for Muslim women," Kee was quoted as saying by the star daily. (DPA) |
|
|
