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fighting kills 19 rebels, 2 soldiers BOGOTA, COLOMBIA, May 13: At least 19 leftist rebels and two soldiers were killed in combat in ........more
Border clashes not to affect LONDON, May 13: Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said the recent border clashes with .......more High divorce rate for SAN FRANCISCO, May 13: Men are more likely than women to leave spouses with......more |
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Oklahoma
memorial crowds expect McVeigh execution OKLAHOMA CITY, May 13: Visitors at the Oklahoma bombing memorial and blast victims were confident that bomber Timothy McVeigh would be executed and split over whether to blame the FBI for forcing a one-month delay.......more Afganistan’s Taliban ISLAMABAD, May 13: Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities have said they arrested an Iranian spy in the western city of Herat, the scene of anti-Iranian riots last week after an Iranian dissident was assassinated there, the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) .......more GOI-UN emphasises NEW DELHI, May 13: A joint study by various UN organisations and the Indian Government has.....more |
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Colombia fighting kills 19 rebels, 2 soldiers BOGOTA, COLOMBIA, May 13: At least 19 leftist rebels and two soldiers were killed in combat in three different parts of colombia and a small town mayor was murdered, the police and Army said. It was a worse-than-average day of violence in the war-torn country, where President Andres Pastrana is betting on peace talks with the two main leftist rebel groups to end a 37-year old conflict which claimed 40,000 lives in the past decade. Eight Farc guerrillas and one soldier were killed in clashes yesterday with military patrols carrying out "Operation Hurricane" in mountains in the northeastern province of Santander, the Army said. Military patrols overran and destroyed seven camps built by the 17,000-member Farc — the Spanish initials for revolutionary armed forces of Colombia. Soldiers killed six guerrillas from a smaller rebel force, the Cuban-inspired Eln, in a firefight outside the town of falan in the central Colombian province of Tolima. One soldier was also killed, the Army said. Guerrillas from the Eln, or National Liberation Army, had kidnapped seven civilians and were spiriting them away into nearby mountains when they were intercepted by the Army. The hostages were freed. The Eln and the Farc, which say they are fighting to end extreme inequality and to construct a socialist state, earn much of their money by demanding ransom for kidnap victims. Colombia had almost 4,000 kidnappings in 2000 — by far the highest total in the world. Another five Farc rebels were killed by the Army in a mountain region of the northwestern province of Antioquia. Two armed men killed the mayor of the town of Gonzalez, in cesar province near the border with Venezuela, along with his driver, the police said. Colombian mayors are often killed if they irritate the local illegal armed groups. Both leftist rebels and outlawed right-wing paramilitaries have a presence in Gonzalez. The police claimed a victory against the paramilitaries in the eastern province of Meta, where they captured Nelson Rodriguez — known as "dago." they believe Rodriguez was responsible for paramilitary finances in the area. Funded by cattle ranchers and money from Colombia’s massive cocaine trade, paramilitary numbers are believed to have rocketed to 8,000 fighters. They target suspected guerrilla sympathizers, and have been responsible for hundreds of killings of civilians this year. Human rights groups and the United Nations say sectors of Colombia’s military maintains links with the paramilitaries. Drug money has fueled an upsurge in Colombia’s conflict in the last 10 years. The United States — the world’s largest cocaine importer — is providing 1 billion in mainly military aid to pastrana’s "Plan Colombia" attack on drug production, but says that US forces will stay out of the anti-insurgent struggle. The Army and US officials believe the Farc controls most of Colombia’s cocaine business, and that the paramilitaries run most of the rest. Pastrana launched peace negotiations with the Farc 2-1/2 years ago — controversially granting them a demilitarized enclave in southern colombia that is as big as Switzerland. But so far talks have failed to reduce violence. (REUTERS) |
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Border clashes not to affect relation with India: Hasina LONDON, May 13: Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said the recent border clashes with India will not affect bilateral relations, which are "very good." "Border clashes some times happen and it can be solved. I believe that the clashes can not affect our bilateral relationship," Hasina, who arrived here on her way to Brussels to join the third Least Developed Countries (LDC) conference, told reporters yesterday. To a question on the recent border clashes, which left 16 bsf men and three Bangladesh Border Guards dead, Hasina said Dhaka always gave importance to good relationship with neighbouring countries and hoped to solve the problem "very quickly". "We believe friendship between neighbouring countries should exist and should improve. And we want to solve this problem (border clashes) very quickly. We can solve them because we have a very good relationship," she said. Hasina said the opposition party in Bangladesh tried to capitalise on the situation but did not succeed. Asked about the problems faced in guarding country’s long borders, she said there was Indira-Mujib agreement on the 4,000 km border but the previous Government did not implement it. "We will try to solve all problems on the basis of the agreement," she said. Hasina said a task force has been set up to tackle the (border) problem and it would meet very soon. The Bangladesh Prime Minister noted that UK played a vital role in 1971 during "our great war of liberation against the Pakistani Occupation Army". She said the British press also extended its cooperation to the oppressed people of Bangladesh. "The brutality of the Pakistani Army, its crime against humanity and the untold sufferings and agony of the people were extensively covered in the British media and it helped form international opinion in favour of the war of liberation." (PTI) |
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High divorce rate for women with brain tumors found SAN FRANCISCO, May 13: Men are more likely than women to leave spouses with cancerous brain tumors, a stressful diagnosis that has led to a surprisingly high divorce rate for female patients, a US researcher has said. Dr. Michael Glantz yesterday said a study of 214 patients with brain tumors showed women were eight times more likely than men to experience a marital separation or divorce and that men were initiating the split. Divorce occurred in an "extraordinarily high" 10 percent of brain-tumor patients over a little more than a year, glantz said. In the general population, about 3 to 4 percent of marriages end over a comparable period. Glantz, a neuro-oncologist at the University of Massachusetts, said it was "very alarming" to find that men were leaving their wives at a time when they needed support to cope with a deadly illness. Patients with the type of brain tumor studied are likely to live only about a year after diagnosis. Glantz said he had not yet evaluated the reasons behind the marital break-ups, but he gave most men the benefit of the doubt that "it’s not because they are nasty people." "Women seem to be more willing or more adept at nurturing their husbands through an illness, while men are not as skilled at doing the same for their wives," he said. Marriages were more likely to end when patients’ tumors caused frontal lobe disease, a condition that causes people to lose motivation and attentiveness. "It’s really hard to put up with," Glantz told reporters attending a meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. A marital split "really changes your ability to treat a patient," Glantz added. Patients living on their own may not have transportation to an appointment or might fear undergoing treatment that would make them too tired to run their households alone. Glantz also studied divorce rates among patients with other illnesses. In 107 patients with multiple sclerosis, women were nearly seven times more likely than men to become divorced or separated. Among 193 patients with other cancers, women were 12 times more likely to have that outcome. Additional studies are underway to see whether counseling or something else might help marriages endure in the face of serious illnesses. "We don’t think this has to be set in stone. We are going to see if we can intervene early to prevent that," Glantz said. (REUTERS) |
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Oklahoma memorial crowds expect McVeigh execution OKLAHOMA CITY, May 13: Visitors at the Oklahoma bombing memorial and blast victims were confident that bomber Timothy McVeigh would be executed and split over whether to blame the FBI for forcing a one-month delay. "He’ll be executed. He deserves to, and he admitted the bombing," said Kim Ann, a visitor from Kingfisher, Oklahoma, who was among the crowds at the Oklahoma City National Memorial yesterday, a park-like square on the site where the April 1995 truck bomb killed 168 people. Mcveigh, 33, had been due to die by lethal injection on wednesday. But last-minute revelations by the FBI that it had failed to provide some investigation records to McVeigh’s trial lawyers prompted the Justice Department to postpone the execution until June 11. Opinions were split over how much to blame the FBI, reflecting a national trend in a newsweek opinion poll. Newsweek’s survey found that 40 percent of 1,065 people questioned said they thought the FBI mistake was an accident or bureaucratic error, while 43 percent said it was an attempt to conceal something. "This is just what happens in the system. With lawyers always seeking appeals or stays, it doesn’t surprise me that the papers turned up," said Lloyd Erwin, visiting the memorial from Cleburne, Texas. "They’ll get him in the end," Erwin said. Peggy Broxterman, whose son Paul was a federal employee killed in the bombing, said she trusts the fbi completely and does not hold the records scandal against them. "They are just men. They aren’t gods. They make mistakes. I don’t think anything important was really overlooked. They were too careful and wanted to put McVeigh away. I don’t blame the FBI for anything," she said from her home in Las Vegas, Navada. But others were more critical of the Government’s handling of the case. "It’s like, you know, wake up out there. People are losing trust," Sherita Bell, who lost a granddaughter in the blast, told the daily Oklahoman newspaper. Jannie Coverdale, who lost two grandchildren, said reports that the uncovered documents dealt with the initial FBI search for a second bomber reinforced her belief that the agency covered up a wider conspiracy. The Government maintains mcveigh was the lone bomber and that an initial search for "John Doe No. 2" was based on a mistake. "A few of us have been mad at the FBI a long time. All the people who saw Tim McVeigh with another man that morning and reported it to the fbi and they were ignored. I don’t think we’ve been told all of the truth. We’ve been told part of the truth but not all of it," Coverdale said. "I don’t know what is on these pages and pages of stuff, but I hope it answers some of our questions." "I think they should make him suffer each day," Lloyd Erwin said on the sunny, quiet memorial plaza. "Tell him each day is his last and then, 10 minutes before execution, tell him it’s been delayed another day," (REUTERS) |
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Afganistan’s Taliban claims arrest of Iranian spy ISLAMABAD, May 13: Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities have said they arrested an Iranian spy in the western city of Herat, the scene of anti-Iranian riots last week after an Iranian dissident was assassinated there, the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) agency reported. AIP quoted Herat’s Governor Mullah Khairullah Khairkhwa as saying that the alleged spy, Payam Razai alias Abdul Majid, confessed that he was sent on a mission to "eliminate" the dissident, Molvi Mohammad Moosa. His two attempts on Moosa’s life in 1999 failed. Moosa was killed in a bomb explosion on may four, igniting attacks on the Iranian consulate in Herat which was subsequently closed. Razai visited Moosa on may one and was arrested after Moosa informed the Taliban that the man looked suspicious. A Sunni Moslem cleric, Moosa was said to have fled Shiite Iran after his mosque in Meshed was demolished and re-established himself in Herat, according to the Pakistan-based private news agency. (DPA) |
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GOI-UN emphasises educating adolescent girls NEW DELHI, May 13: A joint study by various UN organisations and the Indian Government has emphasised the need to target adolescent girls and marginalised children in selected areas to achieve universal elementary education. The recently concluded study, "educating adolescent girls-opening windows," documents successful experiences in educating adolescent girls through non-formal systems in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. "The challenge is to get out-of-school girls back into the folds of the school system," says Programme Director Feodor Starcevic. The study, conducted by Janshala Programme, the first joint initiative of five UN agencies— UNICEF, UNDP, UNESCO, UNFPA and ILO—covered 110 rural and urban blocks where female literacy is low and there is a high population of scheduled castes and tribes. The Janshala programme interventions aim to mobilise communities and empower them to manage existing schools for primary education and demand alternate arrangements for education where schools don’t exist. However, there are certain common factors that constitute the necessary and facilitating conditions for a successful education programme, the study pointed out. The common factors which link various programmes are community mobilisation and creation of a facilitating milieu for girls’ education, imparting meaningful and enjoyable education, and supporting linkages and structures that sustain the education process. Case studies from the five states show that facilitators play a significant role in changing despair and cynicism into confidence and trust. Most of the programmes that were studied adopted a two-pronged strategy of developing facilitators from within the community, supported by grassroots project personnel. Empowerment of women through formation of women’s groups at the community level or gender sensitisation and training of teachers and project personnel at the programme level had ensured a facilitating environment. It had also presented alternative role models to the girls, while at the same time reassuring the parents that educated girls were no threat to family honour and tradition. The role of mothers and family, motivators and strengthening grassroots structures was also explored. There was a need to understand adolescence in the Indian context, and imparting enjoyable and meaningful education was an important aspect of that, the report said. For most girls who enrolled, it was likely to be the only chance of contact with an education programme. Therefore, a curriculum needed to be designed to impart relevant education which would be meaningful and responsive to the needs of the pupils, it said. The question of sustaining the process once the programme was over was addressed in two aspects— the opportunities available and the manner in which the pupils reconciled the experience in the centres with their life situation. The programmes deemed successful were those that made a marked difference in women’s lives. Indicators of success included literary skills, life skills, individual growth and social consciousness. It also incorporated the needs of the community, The Andhra Pradesh study looked into imparting vocational skills, life skills and traditional skills valued by the community as desirable education. The importance of evolving self-correcting evaluation systems in the programmes to retain their dynamism and relevance was highlighted by the Bihar case study. In Uttar Pradesh, non-residential education centres for adolescent girls through NGOs were studied. In Delhi, the study adopted a two-pronged strategy to tackle various approaches to education of girls through empowerment and education by creativity. The emphasis in Rajasthan was socially and educationally backward areas creating favourable atmosphere for educating girls. The study was undertaken because efforts to bring adolescent girls into formal schooling had not met with the desired level of success and there existed a need to identify strategies and learn from success stories. Only success stories were documented because they revealed what factors could or could not lead to failure. These case studies were used to inspire changes at the policy-level, planning activities for alternative education especially for adolescent girls, and preparing advocacy papers for policy makers, the study added. (UNI) |
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