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Over 40 pc married LONDON, Mar 7: More than 40 per cent of married women in India are tortured by their husbands for silly reasons, the Amnesty International said today on the eve of International Women’s Day......more School
building collapse, BEIJING, Mar 7: At least 41 people including children and teachers were killed and 27 injured when a two-storey school......more China
makes mute BEIJING, Mar 7: Ending a week-long silence, China today half-heartedly joined the growing international condemnation of Afghanistan’s ruling....more Taliban
defiance to PESHAWAR (PAKISTAN), Mar 7: Afghanistan’s puritanical Islamic militia has shown again that it cares little for world opinion, but it is the people of...more |
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Destruction- a crime WASHINGTON, Mar 7: US Secretary of State Colin Powell has deplored the destruction...more
Ariel
Sharon set to take JERUSALEM, Mar 7: Ariel Sharon was poised to take office today as Prime Minister.....more UN
asks Taliban to UNITED NATIONS, Mar 7: Criticising as "incomprehensible and wanton" the destruction......more DUBAI, Mar 7: Two Indian women Haj pilgrims killed on Monday in an stampede during.....more |
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Over 40 pc married Indian women tortured by husbands LONDON, Mar 7: More than 40 per cent of married women in India are tortured by their husbands for silly reasons, the Amnesty International said today on the eve of International Women’s Day. Stating that torture of women and girls persists on a daily basis across the globe, the organisation said "in India more than 40 per cent of married women reported being kicked, slapped or abused for reasons such as their husbands’ dissatisfaction with their cooking or cleaning, jealousy or other motives." Official reports in the US say a woman is battered every 15 seconds and 700,000 are raped each year. In Egypt, 35 per cent of women reported being beaten by their husbands. In a new report on the torture of women worldwide —broken bodies, shattered minds — the Amnesty said "torture is fed by a global culture which denies women equal rights with men, and which legitimises violence against women." Citing several individual cases, the report said "the perpetrators are agents of the state and armed groups, but most often they are members of their own family, community or employers. For many women, their home is a place of terror." The report is part of Amnesty International’s global campaign against torture and urge Governments to commit themselves to protecting women and girls from torture. "States have a duty under international law to prohibit and prevent torture and to respond to instances of torture in all circumstances," it said. "However, all too often, far from providing adequate protection to women, Governments have connived in these abuses, have covered them up, have acquiesced in them and have allowed them to continue unchecked," the report said. Stating that violence in the home is truly universal, it quoted a World Bank figure to say that at least 20 per cent of women have been physically or sexually assaulted. Many domestic workers who are foreign nationals, are frequently ill-treated by their employers. They are unlikely to be able to obtain redress because of their immigration status, the report said. "Honour crimes" such as torture and killing, are reported from several countries including Pakistan, Iraq, Jordan and Turkey. Girls and women of all ages are accused of bringing shame on their families and their communities by their behaviour — ranging from chatting to a male neighbour to sexual relations outside marriage. "Trafficked women are particularly vulnerable to physical violence, including rape, unlawful confinement, confiscation of identity papers and enslavement," the report said. (PTI) |
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School building collapse, kills 41 in East China BEIJING, Mar 7: At least 41 people including children and teachers were killed and 27 injured when a two-storey school building collapsed after an explosion in East China’s Jiangxi province, an official report said today. The collapse was caused by an explosion at 0840 hrs Ist yesterday, the report said. However, the cause of the blast was unknown. So far, 29 bodies had been found but it was not clear how many of the dead were children, Xinhua news agency said adding most of those in the building were third and fourth grade students. Rescuers combed through the wreckage of collapsed school house were searching for clues of explosion. There were about 190 people in the two-story building at the time of the blast in the village of Fang Lin, a member of the rescue team, Xu said. "The reason for the blast is still under investigation. The local police are still searching for clues into its cause," he said, adding everyone else had been rescued, and there was no one still missing. However, the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said the explosion was caused by firecrackers which were stored illegally inside the school. But a spokesman for the local police in Tanbu township, an impoverished rural region some 400 kilometres north of Hong Kong, flatly denied to AFP that the blast was caused by firecrackers. (PTI) |
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China makes mute response to Taliban’s acts of vandalism BEIJING, Mar 7: Ending a week-long silence, China today half-heartedly joined the growing international condemnation of Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban’s wanton destruction of priceless Buddhist statues in the name of Islam. "We have taken note of the relevant reports," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao said while taking refuge under an earlier statement made by the state-run Buddhist Association of China (BAC). "The Buddhist culture is an important part of world culture. The Buddha statues in Afghanistan are world renowned, especially the Buddhas in Bamiyan have been listed as a world cultural heritage site to be protected and they are common asset of the people all over the world," Zhu told PTI here. "China’s Buddhist Association has made a statement concerning it and expressed it’s grave concern over such conduct that hurts the feelings of those people who believe in Buddhism," a Foreign Ministry statement said without condemning the acts of vandalism by the ruling Taliban. Taliban’s supreme leader, Mullah Omar dismissed critisicm of his destruction call and said Afghan Muslims should be proud of smashing the Buddhist statues. Taliban, which controls over 90 per cent of Afghanistan, has vowed to destroy all statues in the country, including two massive and ancient Buddhas in Bamiyan, towering 53 metres and 36.5 metres and carved into sandstone cliffs. (PTI) |
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Taliban defiance to hurt country’s people PESHAWAR (PAKISTAN), Mar 7: Afghanistan’s puritanical Islamic militia has shown again that it cares little for world opinion, but it is the people of the drought and war-ravaged nation who will pay the price for the latest act of defiance. The little international goodwill that the Taliban had earned by banning poppy cultivation, has now been forfeited by their decision to demolish the giant ancient Buddha statues in Bamiyan, 130 km west of Kabul. The miseries of common afghans are expected to worsen as the international community penalises the Taliban. According to an Afghan news agency report, Japan has already warned that aid to the country could be affected because of the Taliban’s refusal to listen to the world’s pleas not to destroy the Bamiyan statues. Political observers here say that this time the Taliban may even have alienated their steadfast supporters in Pakistan. Maulana Samiul Haq, leading Taliban supporter in Pakistan, had advised the Taliban to seek the opinion of top Islamic scholars before taking a decision on destroying the statues. Haq, who heads Pakistan’s biggest Islamic seminary in Akora Khattak near Peshawar, said the Bamiyan relics could be sold to help Afghanistan’s shattered economy. Pakistan’s leading daily, ‘The Dawn’ said: "...It would appear that the Taliban are cutting at their own roots." "Islam is a religion of harmony and peaceful coexistence...Buddha was an apostle of peace and non-violence. Certainly he deserves better treatment than what he has hitherto received at the hands of the blind zealots in Afghanistan," it added in an editorial. Pakistan — one of three countries to recognise the Taliban after it overran Kabul over four years ago — pleaded in vain with the Taliban. "We hope that the Afghan Government will show the spirit of tolerance enjoined upon by Islam as well as respect for international sentiment in this egard," said a foreign office spokesman in Islamabad. Media in neighbouring Iran came down heavily on the Taliban’s decision. "Islam has never preached the destruction of objects that embody the belief and history of millions of people throughout the world," said the newspaper ‘Iran News’. The Taliban’s decision to destroy the Bamiyan relics came at a time when thousands of Afghans are desperate for international assistance in the wake of drought and war. The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has warned of starvation deaths as drought and war give rise to near famine conditions in the country. The 23-year-old conflict in Afghanistan has devastated the farming-based economy and uprooted millions of people from their homes. A series of UN sanctions have added to the miseries of the people. Before the UN sanctions were slapped, Afghanistan’s major source of revenue was the customs duties on goods airlifted into the country. The ban on ariana flights put an end to this. The ban on poppy cultivation and the drought has now severely affected the income from farming. The order to destroy all statues in the country is now robbing Afghanistan of its glorious cultural past that could have been a major source of income. The Bamiyan Buddha statues were one of Afghanistan’s main tourist attractions till the December 1979 Soviet invasion and the subsequent civil war. Even as the world is at a loss to understand why the Taliban turned a dear ear to the pleas of the international community, some think that the decision was driven more by political than religious considerations. Hamid Mir, editor of leading Pakistani urdu daily ‘Ausaf’ and an expert on Afghan affairs, believes that the Taliban got angered by the world’s offers to save the relics instead of helping the Afghan people who are dying of hunger. The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) offered 100 million US dollars to look after the monuments and relics in Afghanistan. The Taliban were also reportedly trying to ‘avenge’ the December 1992 demolition of the Medieval Babri mosque in the northern Indian town of Ayodhya by Hindu zealots. In a Feb. 26 decree, Taliban supreme leader Mulla Mohammad Omar declared: "All statues remaining in various parts of the country must be broken...Because they represent gods of infidels." The Islamic emirate of Afghanistan — the name given to the country by the Taliban — has enjoyed a unique cultural heritage reflecting influences of Persia, Greece, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism. Statues have been destroyed in several cities besides the capital city. Among the prime targets is the Kabul museum, which has a treasure trove of an estimated 6,000 pieces of Buddhist art. Several priceless Afghan antiquities were smuggled out of the country in the past two decades. A large number of rare pieces of stolen Afghan statues found their way into bordering Pakistan. Peshawar became a major market for such pieces. The two Bamiyan Buddha statues stood 53 and 38 meters tall and were hewn from cliffs in the heart of the Hindukush mountains in the central town of Bamiyan. The world’s tallest Buddha statues, these were carved centuries before the arrival of Islam to the country, when Afghanistan was a centre of Buddhist learning and pilgrimage. One of the Bamiyan statues was damaged when the Taliban captured bamiyan in the year 1998. (IPS) |
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Destruction- a crime against humankind: Powell WASHINGTON, Mar 7: US Secretary of State Colin Powell has deplored the destruction of ancient Buddhist and other statues by the Taliban in Afghanistan calling it a "horrible act", "a tragedy" and "a crime against humankind". "It’s horrible; It is a tragedy. It is a crime against humankind, and I deplore it," he said at joint press conference with Swedish Foreign Minister and President of the European Union here yesterday. He said that he did not know the extent of the damage at that time and so he did not know whether the two major Buddhas had been taken down totally. Since the Taliban’s supreme leader Mullah Mohammed Omar ordered all statues in the country destroyed, there have been conflicting reports about the conditions of the two towering Buddhas, standing 52.5 and 36 meters. The demolition of two giant stone Monoliths Od Buddha was stopped yesterday during the Muslim festival of Eid Al-Adha, but a Taliban official said their destruction was a certainty. "Because of Eid the work of destroying the Buddhas has stopped, but it will be done after Eid," the Taliban’s Ambassador to neighboring Pakistan Abdul Salam Zaeef told reporters in Islamabad yesterday. (PTI) |
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Ariel Sharon set to take office as Israeli PM JERUSALEM, Mar 7: Ariel Sharon was poised to take office today as Prime Minister in a unity Government he formed to confront a Palestinian revolt against Israeli occupation that has shaken the Jewish state to the core. The right-wing Likud Party leader will be sworn in along with a cabinet of at least 26 ministers after Parliament votes confidence in his seven-party alliance in an expected three-hour-long session starting at 4:45 p.m. (2015 Ist). Sharon, 73, has sewn together a coalition controlling at least 73 seats in the 120-member Knesset, mixing the centre-left Labour Party with ultra-nationalist blocs. Labour’s elder statesman Shimon Peres, an architect of interim peace deals with the Palestinians, will be foreign minister in a Government which he said would adhere to a principle territorial compromise in future negotiations. But Israeli left-wingers have called into question the peacemaking ability of a coalition uniting advocates of a state for Palestinians with politicians who want to expel them from the West Bank and Gaza. "The way I see it, the unity of the people is more important than anything else," Sharon said yesterday. Sharon, a former general, assumes the reins of power at a time when many Israelis feel powerless in the face of a five-month-old Palestinian uprising for independence and mounting attacks inside the Jewish state itself. At least 342 Palestinians, 65 Israelis and 13 Israeli Arabs have been killed since the violence erupted in late September after peace negotiations stalled and Sharon visited a Jerusalem site holy to both Muslims and Jews. Israel is on high alert for suicide bombings after a Palestinian blew himself up and killed three Israelis in the seaside city of Netanya on Sunday. The militant Muslim group hamas claimed responsibility for the attack. It has threatened to unleash 10 volunteers on suicide missions as soon as Sharon takes power. It took Sharon only a month — by law he had until the end of March — to put together the broad coalition he promised to form after his landslide victory over the Labour Party’s Ehud Bark in the February 6 Prime Ministerial election. One notable holdout: The National Religious Party, a champion of Jewish settlement on lands occupied in the 1967 Middle East war. The party, which has five legislators, and Sharon could not agree on cabinet posts. The spectacle of Parliament largely uniting around Sharon will cap a remarkable political comeback by the man long regarded with suspicion by many Israelis and reviled by arabs as a warmonger with the blood of innocents on his hands. Eighteen years ago — an eternity in the ever-changing Israeli political scene — Sharon was forced to resign as Defence Minister after an Israeli inquiry found him indirectly responsible for a 1982 massacre of Palestinians in Beirut. Israel’s Lebanese Christian allies slaughtered hundreds at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps, surrounded by an Israeli invasion Army whose path to Beirut, in an avowed war to drive Palestinian guerrillas from Lebanon, was charted by Sharon. Sharon spent the eve of his premiership handing out cabinet posts to Likud members, naming one of its leading lights, Silvan Shalom, as Finance Minister. Financial analysts expect Shalom, 42, to seek a looser monetary policy as Israel struggles with an economic slowdown. "We still have a long way to go to restore security to our homes," Sharon said in a speech yesterday. "But it is important to remember that Israel is the only place in the world in which jews have the right and the ability to defend themselves by themselves," he said. As Sharon prepared to govern israel, the man he crushed at the polls paid farewell to politics — for now. "After more than 41 years in public service, I’m retiring from diplomatic and security activities for a period of time," Barak, a soldier-turned-politician, told staff at the Prime Minister’s Office on Tuesday, fulfilling a post-election pledge. Voted out of office by Israelis alarmed by the Palestinian Intifada and what they viewed as Barak’s overly generous peace proposals, the caretaker leader painted a vision of better days on his last full day as Prime Minister. "Peace will come, even if it takes a while," he said. (REUTERS) |
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UN asks Taliban to stop destruction of Bhuddhist statues UNITED NATIONS, Mar 7: Criticising as "incomprehensible and wanton" the destruction of Bhuddhist statues by the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, the UN Security Council has asked the Islamic militia to stop the campaign. In a statement, the Council said the United Nations has not given up the hope of saving the priceless statues. It said the Taliban’s edict had led to "incomprehensible and wanton acts of violence on the cultural heritage of Afghanistan." Taliban, who control around 90 per cent of the country, have threatened to destroy all relics which belong to pre-Islamic era. They had started shelling the Buddha statues but suspended the operation for the festival of Id-ul-Azha. Meanwhile, metropolitan museum of New York has reportedly offered to remove the statues from Afghanistan at its own cost but so far the Taliban have not reacted positively. But attempt is being made through intermediaries to persuade the Taliban to allow the statues removal. (PTI) |
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DUBAI, Mar 7: Two Indian women Haj pilgrims killed on Monday in an stampede during the devil-stoning ritual have been buried in Makkah. The bodies of Jameela Bi (55) and Shabnoor Bi (62), both from Jalgaon in Maharastra, were buried at the Jannat-ul-Maala cemetary in accordance with the wishes of their relatives, Indian Consul General in Jeddah Syed Akbaruddin told PTI today. Most Muslims wish to be buried in the holy city in the event of their death during Haj pilgrimage. Meanwhile, a Saudi newspaper reported that the death toll in the stampede has risen to around 40. "The number of pilgrims killed in the incident was around 40," Akaz Arabic daily quoting Interior Minister Prince Nayef Bin Abdul Aziz said. Out of 168 pilgrims injured, 25 were still in hospitals recovering of their injuries, Saudi Health Minister Osama Shubokshi was quoted as saying. He said the injured included Indians, Bangladeshis, Pakistanis, Egyptians and Turks. However, Indian Ambassador Talmiz Ahmed said there were no Indians in the hospital.(PTI) |
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