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Arafat urges Israel to resume peace talks GAZA, Mar 11: Palestinian President Yasser Arafat called on Israel’s new Government yesterday to resume peace talks on the basis ...more China
reacts cautiously BEIJING, Mar 11: China has reacted cautiously to India’s decision to induct Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM)...more Indian
American to be WASHINGTON, Mar 11: An Indian American, Bobby P Jindal is likely to be appointed as Assistant Secretary of Health and.....more Taliban
say UN talks too KABUL, Mar 11: Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban announced they had almost completed destruction of two ancient statues of the....more |
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Chinese sleepwalker
survives jump from BEIJING, Mar 11: A woman sleepwalker in southwest China survived a 20-metre fall and escaped with only minor injuries after she jumped from a ..more Discovery docks at space station, new crew arrives CAPE CANAVERAL, (FLA), Mar 11: The space shuttle discovery arrived at the international space station yesterday, but a communications problem .......more
Dalai
Lama to visit TAIPEI, Mar 11: The Dalai Lama will visit taiwan on march 31 despite possible protests from beijing, it was reported today. .......more LTTE
willing to extend COLOMBO, Mar 11: The LTTE has expressed willingness to extend its unilateral ceasefire by yet another month after March 24 and open.....more |
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Arafat urges Israel to resume peace talks GAZA, Mar 11: Palestinian President Yasser Arafat called on Israel’s new Government yesterday to resume peace talks on the basis of understandings reached with its predecessor. "We are ready to immediately resume the negotiations which we had started with the previous Government," Arafat said in a speech to the Palestinian Legislative Council. "Let the negotiations over the permanent status (peace agreement) be resumed from the point they had left off," he said. "This is the only efficient and logical way to reach a clear security formula and a strong basis for coming agreements." There was no immediate reaction to Arafat’s call from the Government of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who has insisted that the five-month-old Palestinian uprising end before peace talks resume. Sharon has rejected proposals discussed between the Palestinians and his predecessor, Ehud Barak, from whom he took the reins of power on Wednesday after defeating him in an election last month. Several rounds of Israeli-Palestinian talks last year ended in deadlock, which fuelled the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation, in which at least 343 Palestinians, 65 Israelis and 13 Israeli Arabs have been killed. The Palestinians say the fighting was triggered by Sharon’s visit in late September to a site in Jerusalem holy to both Muslims and Jews. A senior Palestinian official said efforts were under way to arrange a meeting between Arafat and Sharon before Sharon goes to Washington for meetings beginning on March 19. Israeli Communications Minister Reuven Rivlin said Sharon wanted to meet Arafat "to talk about a new beginning". But he added: "As long as there is terror in the field, as long as the terror activities aren’t prevented, as long as there is no declaration of an end to terror, there won’t be a meeting." Nabil Amr, a Palestinian Cabinet Minister, said several attempts were being made to organise a meeting. "I don’t think we need a third party as long as there is direct and open contact," Amr told Reuters in Gaza. "We cannot set a date for that meeting but there is a possibility." Sharon is due in Washington on March 19 to speak at the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and President George W Bush has invited him for talks at the White House the next day. The overtures followed an exchange of messages between Arafat and Sharon but took place amidst scattered violence. Palestinian police said on Saturday that Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian man, Ziyad Ayyad, in the Gaza Strip. An Israeli military source confirmed that troops shot at what they said was a suspicious figure. Two Palestinians were seriously wounded from Israeli fire during a gun battle near the West Bank town of Nablus. In the divided West Bank city of Hebron, dozens of Jewish settlers clashed with Palestinians and during the confrontation attacked journalists covering the incident. Reuters cameramen Nael Shyoukhi and Mazen Dana were filming the confrontation when a group of settlers surrounded Dana and beat him. Shyoukhi was hit by a stone thrown by settlers and a photographer for the French agency agence France Presse, Hosam Abu Alam, was also attacked. Israeli troops intervened and escorted the journalists to an ambulance, which took them to a hospital from which they were later released. Palestinians and Israeli troops later exchanged fire and the Army said an Israeli was slightly wounded. Palestinian hospital sources said two Palestinians were wounded by rubber bullets in a clash with Israeli troops at the entrance to the West Bank town of Qalqilya. An Israeli Army spokesman said the Army demolished a Palestinian post near the Israel-Gaza border which it said was used as a lookout point to lay a large bomb detonated early in the day against a military convoy, causing no injuries or damage. Izz El-Deen Al-Qassam, the military wing of the Islamic Hamas Movement, said in a statement it laid the explosive near two Israeli tanks. "Our hearts are open" Arafat won lengthy applause after his speech to the Gaza session of the 88-member Palestinian Legislative Council, its first since the uprising flared in September and Israel barred Palestinians from travel between the West Bank and Gaza. "I say to the Israeli people and to its elected Government confirming that we understand their need for security and for safety," Arafat said. "But they have to understand our needs and the rights of the Palestinian people and of the Arab nations and to respect our holy Islamic and Christian sites." Palestinians seek to establish a state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, captured by Israel during the 1967 Middle East war, and claim Arab East Jerusalem for their capital. Echoing remarks made by Sharon at his inauguration, Arafat said: "Our hearts are open and our hands are extended to achieve the peace of the brave." (REUTERS) |
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China reacts cautiously to India’s decision on Agni induction BEIJING, Mar 11: China has reacted cautiously to India’s decision to induct Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM) Agni-II while expressing Beijing’s concerns on an arms race in South Asia. "China as well as the whole international community hopes to maintain peace and stability in the region of South Asia," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao said. "We do not wish to see any kind of arms race in this region," Zhu said when asked to comment on India’s decision to deploy the Agni missile. Zhu declined to comment when asked whether China was concerned with Agni-II’s induction since the intermediate range ballistic missile had the capability to hit many Chinese cities. Defence Minister George Fernandes told the Rajya Sabha on March seven that the Government has decided. Agni-II intermediate range ballistic missile had achieved operationalisation stage with its successful second test on January 17, the same day when senior Chinese leader Li Peng concluded his official goodwill visit to India. Meanwhile, Chinese President Jiang Zemin has urged the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to speed up defence combat effectiveness under high-tech conditions. Jiang, also general secretary of the ruling Communist Party, made the remarks on Friday at a panel discussion of PLA deputies to the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s Parliament, which is in session here. (PTI) |
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Indian American to be Asst
Secretary of WASHINGTON, Mar 11: An Indian American, Bobby P Jindal is likely to be appointed as Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services for Planning and Evaluation in the US administration. The White House has said that "President George W Bush intends to nominate Jindal as Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services for Planning and Evaluaton". Jindal is currently the University of Louisiana System President and has served as Professor of Management at the Louisiana State University. He has also served as the Executive Director of the National Bipartisan Commission on the future of medicare from 1998 to 1999 and as Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals from 1996 to 1998. (PTI) |
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Taliban say UN talks too late to save Buddhas KABUL, Mar 11: Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban announced they had almost completed destruction of two ancient statues of the Buddha, pre-empting talks today with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. The report by the Taliban — confirmed by a western source with first-hand knowledge — came before Annan arrived in neighbouring Pakistan yesterday evening expressing dismay at the Taliban campaign to destroy all statues in Afghanistan. Annan expressed deep concern over the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, where drought and war have driven hundreds of thousands of people from their homes in the past year. But he also noted international anger at the destruction of Afghanistan’s pre-Islamic heritage. The UN General Assembly on Friday condemned the Taliban decision to destroy what they see as idols. Standing at Islamabad airport, Annan described as "lamentable" the order by the head of the Austere Islamic movement, Mullah Mohammad Omar. "There is also enormous international concern over the Taliban leadership’s decision to destroy historical relics in Afghanistan," Annan said. In India, where the destruction of the statues threatens to re-ignite Hindu-Muslim conflict, Hindu activists burned an effigy of the country’s most prominent Muslim cleric on Wednesday. Taliban spokesman Abdul Hayee Mutmaeen told Reuters by telephone from the southern city of Kandahar, the Taliban headquarters, that most of the two historic Buddhas had already been blasted away. "They have been destroyed up to 80 percent. The work will be completed soon," he said of Afghanistan’s most famous archaeological treasure. The statues, which had towered 53 metres (175 feet) and 38 metres (120 feet), respectively, were hewn out of sandstone cliffs almost 2,000 years ago. A western source confirmed the destruction of the world’s largest statues of the Buddha, in the central province of Bamiyan, and said the operation had been supervised by Defence Minister Mullah Obaidullah who had flown in the explosives from Kabul. "Following some initial shelling, the Taliban finally managed to cut the major portion of the statues by dynamiting them from the top and lower parts," a western source with first-hand information told Reuters. "The difficult job is done. Most parts have gone and the rest is easy to get rid of." The two Buddha statues are the best known of the relics the Taliban aim to smash — most dating from the pre-Islamic period when Afghanistan was a centre of Buddhist culture. Taliban Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil, who is to meet Annan in Islamabad later yesterday at an undisclosed location, made clear he wanted talks to focus on UN sanctions on Afghanistan instead of the statues. "The statues issue will also come up in the agenda of the talks and I will say to him that this is an internal and religious issue and it is not intended to confront the world," Muttawakil said by telephone from the southern city of Kandahar. The order to destroy the statues was issued a month after the United Nations imposed new sanctions against the Taliban, aimed mainly at forcing Afghanistan to hand over Saudi militant Osama Bin Laden, accused of blowing up two US Embassies. Relations between the United Nations and the Taliban, made worse by the statues issue, are complicated by the UN refusal to recognise the Taliban as the Government. Their rivals, now confined to northeast Afghanistan, hold the UN seat for Afghanistan. About 600,000 Afghans have been driven from their homes by the worst drought in 30 years and a civil war. The Taliban, who control about 90 percent of the country, have been widely criticised for severe restrictions on women, public executions, alleged support for islamic militants abroad and focusing on war during a humanitarian crisis. "I am personally extremely worried about the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan," Annan said. "It is causing immense suffering among the population which has already experienced decades of deprivation caused by war." (REUTERS) |
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Chinese sleepwalker survives jump from 7th floor BEIJING, Mar 11: A woman sleepwalker in southwest China survived a 20-metre fall and escaped with only minor injuries after she jumped from a seventh-floor balcony, state media said yesterday. He deying, 32, sleepwalked onto her balcony after dreaming that someone was calling her, the Beijing youth daily said. Neighbours in Puyang Town, Sichuan Province, found he below the balcony in the early hours of Wednesday morning, the newspaper quoted local reports as saying. Medical staff were surprised to find she had minor fractures and bruising, but no serious injury, it said. (DPA) |
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Discovery docks at space station, new crew arrives CAPE CANAVERAL, (FLA), Mar 11: The space shuttle discovery arrived at the international space station yesterday, but a communications problem temporarily choked off voice and data relays with mission control in Houston, enveloping the orbiter in silence. The final moments of the docking, in which the shuttle was secured to the station, were completed without any direct communication between the ship and ground control. It was left to space-station commander William Shepherd, using a small radio from the other side of several closed hatches, to relay messages to the seven discovery astronauts. Direct communications between the shuttle and Houston were reestablished after about an hour. "Sounds like we have a comm problem on the flight deck," said shuttle commander James Wetherbee, after finally establishing a link using a radio on the shuttle’s mid-deck. NASA said the problem was not on the orbiter itself but at a relay station in White Sands, New Mexico. A space-agency official said the problem posed no continued threat to the orbiter or its mission. Apart from delivering a new crew to the space station, discovery is also dropping off several tons of supplies. Shepherd and his two crewmates, Russians Sergei Krikalyov and Yuri Gidzenko, who have lived aboard the station since Nov. 2, will return to earth on the discovery. It is the first crew exchange on the space station, which will be staffed by rotating Russian-American crews throughout its construction, expected to last until 2006. The shuttle’s docking was delayed for an hour by problems with a set of solar-paneled wings on the station. The wings, which turn sunlight into electricity, are supposed to pivot so they face the shuttle edge-on during dockings, minimizing the chances of damage from the shuttle’s maneuvering jets. One wing failed to lock into place. Despite the glitches, the docking process, which began when the discovery was some 40 miles from the station, went well. "You have a great-looking ship there Captain Shepherd," said Wetherbee, as he made his approach. The first of the expedition two crew members took his place on the station once the hatches between shuttle and station were opened. Russian Yury Usachev, who will become the new space-station commander, took Gidzenko’s place. Usachev will be able to work side-by-side with Shepherd for several days before assuming his command. All of the discovery astronauts were greeted by handshakes and hugs as they entered the station. Shepherd, following naval traditions, rang a ship’s bell. The astronauts of both countries have dubbed the space station Alpha, the first letter of the Greek alphabet, which often refers often refers to a starting point. The other expedition two members, Americans Susan Helms and James Voss, will not join the station crew until they have completed their work during two planned spacewalks. Helms and Voss are expected to start the first spacewalk later saturday night. They will help remove a portable docking port from the end of the destiny science module, making room for a temporary cargo module, the Italian-built Leonardo. After Leonardo is emptied of its cargo of hardware and supplies, it will be returned to the shuttle’s payload bay for the return flight. Although the astronauts are free to come and go between shuttle and station, the designation of the crew members of each craft is specific and somewhat formal. Should an accident force an evacuation, seven people are assigned to the shuttle, which has seven seats, and three are assigned to the Russian Soyuz Spacecraft docked to the station. The other members of discovery’s crew are pilot James Kelly and a second pair of spacewalkers, Paul Richards and Australian-born Andrew Thomas. The space station is a partnership between the United States, Russia, Japan, Europe and Canada. NASA plans to spend 95 billion to build and operate the station for a decade or more. (REUTERS) |
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Dalai Lama to visit Taipei late March TAIPEI, Mar 11: The Dalai Lama will visit taiwan on march 31 despite possible protests from beijing, it was reported today. "Dalai Lama will not cancel his trip because of pressure from China," an official of the Tibet Religious Foundation, the Taipei office of the exiled Tibetan Government, was quoted as saying by the United Daily News. "Protests from China are unavoidable no matter when the visit will take place," the official told the newspaper. But politics would not stop the 1989 nobel prize winner’s visit, which has been postponed since late 2000, the paper said. The Dalai Lama’s trip to Taiwan at the invitation of local Buddhist groups was purely religious in response to local people’s longing to learn more about Buddhism, the paper added. It was not clear whether the Dalai Lama would meet with President Chen Shui-Bian and former President Lee Teng-Hui during his trip. The Dalai Lama turned down an invitation to attend Chen’s May 20 inauguration last year to avoid annoying Beijing, which has accused leaders of the two Governments of trying to split their territories from the "motherland". The Tibetan leader met Lee during his first visit to Taiwan in March 1997. A second trip planned for 1998 was called off due to strong opposition from Beijing. The Chinese Communist Government seized control of Tibet in 1950. The Dalai Lama fled in 1959 and set up a Government in exile at Dharamsala in India. (AFP) |
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LTTE willing to extend truce by another month COLOMBO, Mar 11: The LTTE has expressed willingness to extend its unilateral ceasefire by yet another month after March 24 and open negotiations with the Sri Lankan Government, a state-owned newspaper reported today. This was conveyed by LTTE spokesman Anton Balasingham in London recently to Norwegian Special Envoy Erik Solheim who is engaged in shuttle diplomacy between London and Colombo. Solheim is expected to return to Sri Lanka shortly to continue the process, The Sunday Observer said. The LTTE announced a unilateral ceasefire on December 24 and has been extending it every month, but the Sri Lankan Government has not responded to it, calling it a ploy to gain international sympathy. Meanwhile, another newspaper reported that Sri Lanka is set to jettison a draft preliminary understanding prepared by Norway to facilitate de-escalation of hostilities ahead of possible peace talks between the Government and the LTTE. Instead of agreeing to Norway’s draft that envisages lifting of an alleged economic embargo on LTTE-controlled territory in the country’s north and east, the Government would allow more essential items to be transported to the region on its own, the ‘Sunday Leader’ said. The Government does not acknowledge the existence of an economic embargo and, therefore, cannot accept a ‘memorandum of understanding’ that contemplates lifting the ban in exchange for the LTTE announcing a moratorium on attacks in Colombo and rest of the country’s Sinhalese-majority south, the report said. President Chandrika Kumaratunga and Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar have denied the existence of any MoU, but acknowledged that talks were on through Solheim or some sort of preliminary understanding prior to talks that may get underway in a couple of months. Meanwhile, the LTTE has decided not to allow another personal meeting between Solheim and its supremo V Prabhakaran, unless the Government announced a formal ceasefire in response to their own unilateral ceasefire that is into its third month now, the report said. Solheim’s meeting with Prabhakaran in the latter’s well-guarded operational headquarters in Vanni in November last kickstarted a peace process to which Norway had been invited as a facilitator by Sri Lanka. The reason for not allowing another personal meeting, the report said, was the alleged attempt by the Army to ambush the LTTE’s political wing leader Tamilchelvan last month after a rebel delegation had held talks with an inter-faith peace group. The incident, confirmed by bishops who had joined the peace initiative, happened while the LTTE men were returning to their base after the discussions with the peace group at Madhu in Mannar district, but there were no casualties. Tamilchevlan had not made it to the meeting. As the meeting between the inter-religious group and the LTTE had been cleared by the Defence Ministry, the alleged ambush of the vehicle that came for talks had made the LTTE wary of attempts to use such occasions to attack its leadership. Therefore, it was circumspect about arranging any Solheim-Prabhakaran meeting in future without a formal ceasefire, the report added. (PTI) |
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