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Israelis want diplomatic JERUSALEM, May 4: A majority of Israelis believe Israel should try to end the confrontations.......more Journalist
group lists ‘10 NEW YORK, May 4: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) listed presidents Jiang Zemin......more India,
China to be source WASHINGTON, May 4: Populous countries such as India and China will be the source of growing regional and global migration flows, which could .....more Musharraf
confesses DUBAI, May 4: Pakistan military ruler Gen Pervez Musharraf has confessed that he might have lied on a few occasions in......more |
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Women score victory TOKYO, May 4: Stickers plastered on the train coach on a city railway line say "women only", defining the new service ....more
Musharraf
don’t like DUBAI, May 4: Pakistan military ruler Gen Pervez Musharraf does not ........more UNITED NATIONS, May 4: India has been elected to the International Narcotics.......more |
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Israelis want diplomatic solution to crisis with Palestinians JERUSALEM, May 4: A majority of Israelis believe Israel should try to end the confrontations with the Palestinians through diplomatic means, and should freeze settlement construction in exchange for a ceasefire, according to a poll published today. The Dahaf Institute Poll published in the Yediot Aharanot Daily found 53 per cent of respondents favoured a diplomatic solution to the confrontations, as opposed to only 25 per cent who supported increased Israeli Army pressure and 17 per cent who said Israel should deport Palestinian leaders leading the violence. Three per cent chose the extreme option of Israel’s reconquering Palestinian-controlled territory as means of ending the more than seven months of Israeli-Palestinian confrontations. According to the poll 62 per cent said Israel should agree to freezing settlement construction in return for a ceasefire, while 36 per cent opposed this option. The poll’s finding on this question, Yediot pointed out, is at variance with the official Israeli Government position, which says only that Israel will not build new settlements, but will continue construction in the existing settlements "according to their natural growth". However, 49 per cent said Israel should not evacuate isolated settlements, as opposed to 44 per cent who thought these settlements should be disbanded. Despite bellicose statements by hardline members of the Israeli cabinet, 46 per cent thought Palestinian President Yassir Arafat was a partner for peace, while 49 per cent thought Israeli should "wait for another Palestinian leader" to emerge. Some 15 per cent did not reply to this question. An unprecedented 70 per cent thought premier Ariel Sharon was a trustworthy leader, as opposed to 27 per cent who disagreed with this evaluation and three per cent who had no answer. Some 65 per cent thought Sharon, whose February election on a platform of restoring security to Israelis has been followed by an escalation in the confrontations, was dealing well with the situation, as opposed to 33 per cent who disagreed. Slightly less - 62 per cent - thought Sharon was a successful Prime Minister, while 37 per cent thought he was not. Prior to the premiership election campaign Sharon had been widely regarded as unelectable, because of his hardline image and controversial past, which included masterminding Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon when Defence Minister in 1982. But the Israeli-Palestinian violence, which generated an overwhelming sense of uncertainty and insecurity among Israelis, undermined support for incumbent Premier Ehud Barak, and Sharon, who promised to use his experience to restore security, won the election in a landslide. The midweek poll was conducted among 501 representative Israelis adults, and had a margin of error of 4.5 per cent. (DPA) |
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Journalist group lists ‘10 worst enemies of press’ NEW YORK, May 4: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) listed presidents Jiang Zemin of China and Charles Taylor of Liberia and Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamanei among its "10 worst enemies of the press." New York-based CPJ accused the 10 Government and military leaders of being "responsible for the world’s worst abuses against the media". The list is published on the organization’s annual World Press Freedom Day, which fell on May 3. The other seven "worst enemies" are presidents Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Cladimir Putin of Russia, Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine, Fidel Castro of Cuba and Zine Al-Abdine Ben Ali of Tunisia, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad of Malaysia and paramilitary death squad leader Carlos Castano of the United Self-defence Forces of Colombia. Some of those leaders have been on the list for several years, including Jiang for five years and Castro for seven years. The new names on this year’s list are Mugabe, Putin and Castano. CPJ said Putin would repeatedly pay "lip service to press freedom in Russia, then manoeuvre in the shadows to centralize control of the media, stifle criticism and destroy the independent press." Mahathir is among the leaders who don’t "even bother to try to hide their abuses behind a screen of empty rhetoric," CPJ said. "We hope that by naming these 10 press tyrants, we can focus world attention on their deeds and, by exposing them, bring about change," said CPJ president ann Cooper. (DPA) |
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India, China to be source of regional, global migration WASHINGTON, May 4: Populous countries such as India and China will be the source of growing regional and global migration flows, which could contribute to demographic and economic dynamism in developed countries, a US National Intelligence Council report has said. High-tech workers and entrepreneurs will be increasingly prepared to emigrate from countries like India provided immigration laws in industrialised countries become sufficiently flexible to permit their entry, the Council, a representative body of US intelligence agencies, said. "During the next 15 years, globalisation, demographic imbalances between OECD and developing countries, interstate and civil conflicts will fuel increasing international migration, much of it illegal," the report titled `growing migration and its implications for the United States’ said. On intra-regional migration and its consequences, it said countries such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Thailand and China account for growing migrant flows in the region and potential for continued emigration and potentially unsettling regional and global ramifications are substantial. "Today, over 140 million people live outside their countries of birth and migrants comprise more than 15 per cent of the population in over 50 countries. Their numbers will grow as demographic push-and-pull factors intensify." The report was prepared by Dr David F Gordon, National Intelligence Officer for Economics and Global Issues, with inputs from experts and think tanks, including the Rand Corporation, Carnegie Endowment and Alfred P Sloan Foundation. The report said migration had "positive and negative consequences" for the sender and receiver countries alike. "Other countries’ responses to migration issues will affect migration pressure on the US and a broad range of US economic and security interests." Foreign-born residents now comprise nearly 11 per cent of the US population, up from six per cent in 1980, and immigration will continue to climb during the next 15 years. Immigration will enable the US to maintain a more balanced demographic profile than most EU states and Japan which have an aging population. "For aging developed countries, migration will offer economic dynamism that will expand shrinking labour and military recruitment pools," it said. It will also contribute significantly to sUStained, non-inflationary economic growth, despite some initially higher welfare costs and some downward pressure on wages. For sender countries, emigration will relieve pressures from their unemployed youth, generate substantial remittances, and often provide them with leverage in receiver countries. Returning immigrants often will be agents of economic modernisation and political liberalisation, it said. The report suggested that restrictive migration policies, by limiting economic growth in Europe and Japan, may undermine efforts to overcome the imbalances among advanced economies. "On a broader level, the reluctance of key US economic partners and allies to substantially liberalise migration policies will place them at a competitive disadvantage, especially in important sectors such as it," it said. (PTI) |
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Musharraf confesses he may
have lied on DUBAI, May 4: Pakistan military ruler Gen Pervez Musharraf has confessed that he might have lied on a few occasions in life but only in national interest even as he admitted that diplomacy did not come to him naturally. "In national interest, sometimes we have to tell a lie, and maybe I have told lies here and there in national interest, but it must have been apparent from my face (that I was lying)", he said in an interview to `Khaleej Times’ weekend. Gen Musharraf, who is considered a straight-forward person in pakistan said, "I don’t think I can tell a lie. I don’t think diplomacy, which here means distortion of facts, comes naturally to me at all. Certainly this is not what I understand of diplomacy". "In my book, it (diplomacy) means putting things politely and palatably. It doesn’t mean telling lies, covering up and distorting facts. Certainly, this is not what i understand of diplomacy", he said. In a frank and candid interview, the military ruler talked about various facets of his life, including his love for the Army, his philosophy of courage, his family and certainly his concern for out-of-control waistline, without touching on any political matters, like India-Pakistan relations. He said he was concerned about his expanding midriff and pointed out that the business of running the country since the military coup in October 1999 did not provide him the luxury of indulging in much physical activity. "Before the coup, I was regular on physical activity and socialising. Now there is much more official work and much more socialising (of an official nature)", Gen Musharraf said. Earlier he would indulge in a lot of sports and play golf, badminton and squash but the coup changed all that, he noted with a sense of regret. The slump in physical fitness had left its mark on his midriff. "I have put on a lot of weight", the general said, looking down with momentary concern towards the girth which had expanded. Gen Musharraf also admitted that another reason for his putting on weight could be that his sweet tooth always got the better of him. "I have a very sweet tooth", he said. He said his schedule, however, was lightening up now because "my involvement (in the affairs of the state) has reduced because we are through with the planning and the strategies part and now the implementation part is in progress". Tennis had, therefore, become a more or less regular activity although there were interruptions. Gen Musharraf, known for playing his cards close to his chest, said he was not very secretive earlier. "I think I was not very secretive before 1993 when I became Director General Military Operations. I used to share my ideas and thoughts. Then I realised I couldn’t do that anymore ...So one learnt to be discreet. Absorb and and keep quiet". Gen Musharraf said, he had always been natural in life without sounding boastful. "I think my natural self is the best. I am comfortable with myself. I just behave normally, whatever I like, I like. Whatever I don’t like, I don’t like. I act as I please. I am being absolutely normal and natural". This tendency of being natural had often put his staff in a quandary. "My security staff gets quite flustered. I don’t feel like a head of state. So I don’t act like a head of state. The secret of my natural behaviour is that I actually forget being at the helm of affairs. I am never actually in the chief executive mode. I will even chat with my peon",he said. The General admitted that he had never been an avid reader. "I have never been a great reader. But in the Army, I started reading military books. That was my job and I enjoyed reading about strategies and famous campaigns, though I still wouldn’t call myself an expert on the issue. Now I enjoy reading about geo-politics and current affairs in newspapers and magazines". He said he was a firm believer in justice. "I receive a lot of letters and sometimes I act upon the requests of people I don’t even know. If the person has been wronged, one should do justice, whether I know him or not is immaterial". He said he kept telling his armed forces that there was a very thin line between courage and cowardice whenever. "When you are faced with a situation where your life is in danger, it is the first few seconds or maybe half a minute that divides courage from cowardice". And added that, "the first natural urge is self-protection and if you act immediately you can do a cowardly act. But if you curb that natural urge during that half minute, you will come up with a very balanced response to what is happening, and you can shift to being courageous". (UNI) |
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Women score victory with launch of females-only coach TOKYO, May 4: Stickers plastered on the train coach on a city railway line say "women only", defining the new service which one rail company in Japan launched last month. Responding to growing complaints by women fed up with groping in Japan’s commuter trains, Keio Teito Electric Railway Co launched the first females-only car in April. Eight trains on the Keio line have set aside a coach for women on the midnight run between 11 p.m. and 12:40 a.m. Railway officials report the new service is well patronized. "The train is packed each night. Women want to avoid drunken men who can get aggressive," says Hideaki Watanabe, a spokesman. Women activists say groping is rampant in Japan’s over-packed commuter trains that ferry millions of Japanese from the suburbs and within the cities to work and back. During the morning and evening rush hour, each train car carries almost 200 people, double or treble its capacity, report Japanese rail authorities. "Everybody uses the commuter trains to work in the big cities," points out Kazue Takahashi, of the new Japan women’s association, an Non-Government Organisation dealing with women issues. "Women want to able to travel in peace." A Government survey on the issue taken last year showed that 47 per cent of the respondents have experienced rail molestation. In another survey taken seven years ago by the organization to prevent sexual violence, a women’s group based in Osaka, many respondents expressed fear and depression after being groped. Young victims replied they could not trust men after their experience. Some said they had to give up their jobs because they developed an extreme fear of riding trains. The survey also revealed only two per cent of molested women sought justice by taking their molesters to court. Most of the time, the victims just kept quiet because they were frightened or ashamed. Others noted that their fellow commuters offered no help. The national police agency reports around 1,000 gropers or "Chikan" arrested in 2000. This is double the number recorded in 1995 when police began compiling statistics on gropers. Penalties are usually a 50,000 yen (about 400 US dollars) fine. But activists are fighting for higher penalties and want groping included as a crime listed under sexual violence against women. "Paying a fine is getting off too easily. We are also against identifying groping as an "act causing public inconvenience" as it is in Japan," says Yumiko Hayashi of just, a women’s group. (IPS) |
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Musharraf don’t like new Indian songs DUBAI, May 4: Pakistan military ruler Gen Pervez Musharraf does not like new Indian songs and finds them "very stupid and silly" but is very fond of the old ones. "I don’t like english music at all. And I don’t like (the) new Indian songs. I find them very stupid and silly. But I like the old songs very much," he said in an interview to weekend ‘Khaleej Times’ magazine. The military ruler, known for his love of music, said "I like Pakistani songs,but not the senseless ones. I prefer ghazals. Even though I may understand about 50-75 per cent of them, I still enjoy them. And I don’t like pop music at all, other than the one by junoon. They are different." He said he loved sufi music right from his childhood days. It is a passion he inherited from his mother. While his mother sang and played the harmonium, his father accompanied her on the tabla and family get-togethers would invariably turn into musical evenings where the entire family participated. (UNI) |
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UNITED NATIONS, May 4: India has been elected to the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) and coordination board of the joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS. Pakistan, a nominee of the World Health Organisation for INCB, suffered a defeat. India has been made member of the prestigious bodies even though it is not a member of the 54-strong United Nations Economic and Social Council which elects the two bodies. India, along with seven other countries, was elected as programme coordinators to the UN AIDS programme uncontested. The election to INCB are fought by individual candidates nominated by the Governments and Madan Mohan Bhatnagar was the successful Indian candidate. The first round of secret ballot saw the victory of Austrian Rainer Wolfgang Schmid and Robert Lousberg of the Netherlands. In the second round Jacques Franquet of France and Rosa Masriadel Castillo of Peru were elected. Bhatnagar was elected in the third round defeating Germany’s nominee. Among the candidates nominated by the World Health Organisation, Hamid A Ghodse of Iran, was declared elected. In the second round, Brazil’s Elisaldo Carlini won, defeating nominees of Pakistan and the joint candidate of Canada and Chile. Others were Burundi and Kenya from Africa, the Philippines from Asia, Russia from Eastern Europe, and Brazil from Latin America and Caribbean group and Germany and Spain from western Europe and others groups. Norway was elected to complete Finland’s term ending December 31 next year. (PTI) |
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