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Dieting women run GRANADA, May 23: Older women who diet run a higher risk of suffering from....more
WASHINGTON, May 23: Washington opened its doors to Tibet’s spiritual leader....more
Sonia
to visit UK, LONDON, May 23: Congress president Sonia Gandhi plans to visit the UK and the US....more |
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Taliban defend KABUL, May 23: Afghanistan’s Taliban on today defended a decree requiring non-Muslims to wear yellow ........more UN
looking into reports UNITED NATIONS, May 23: The United Nations is investigating reports that Afghanistan’s Taliban has ordered Hindus to adopt a separate dress code ........more Dalai
Lama to meet WASHINGTON, May 22: In a move that could renew tensions between the United States and.......more 17 Lankan navy men COOMBOo, May 23: Seventeen Sri Lankan naval personnel were killed and 27 others were injured in .........more Fearing Tehelka, Pak ISLAMABAD, May 23: Fearing a Tehelka like scandal, the Pakistan navy has recommended an....more |
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Dieting women run a higher risk of osteoporosis GRANADA, May 23: Older women who diet run a higher risk of suffering from osteoporosis, the hispanic foundation for osteoporosis said in the Southern Spanish city of Granada Tuesday. Half of Spanish women aged over 50 do not take enough calcium, which prevents bones from becoming fragile from age 40 onwards. Older women need from 1,000 to 1,500 milligrammes of calcium a day, experts said. A glass of milk, for instance, contains 240 milligrammes of calcium. Calcium is also present in other milk products as well as vegetables and dried fruit. Yet many women avoid such foods for fear of gaining weight, specialists added. (DPA) |
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WASHINGTON, May 23: Washington opened its doors to Tibet’s spiritual leader at the highest levels while another of China’s political enemies, Taiwanese President Chen Shui-Bian, was being hosted in New York in a confluence of events that has roiled Beijing. But while Beijing railed against the visits as "Rude interference" in its domestic affairs, a senior US official sought to portray US-China relations on the whole as stable and positive. "Relations with China, I would say, are stable and more positive than not," said a senior Bush administration official who asked not to be identified. "Stable in that they’re dealing with somebody who’s not going to shift policy," he said. "Positive because I know that our interface with the country is substantial, not only in trade but in cultural exchanges and educational exchanges." Senior US officials said the Dalai Lama was being welcomed "in his capacity as a respected religious figure." but he is also a vocal proponent of Tibetan rights. Although he does not seek separation of the Himalayan territory from China, he does argue for greater cultural and religious autonomy. The nobel laureate arrived in Washington yesterday — his eighth stop in a nine-city US tour — and was greeted at his hotel by dozens of local Tibetans in traditional dress. Later he met Secretary of State Colin Powell, who was about to leave for Africa, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and Paula Dobriansky, an undersecretary of state who is the newly appointed special coordinator for Tibetan issues. He told reporters Powell had shown "genuine, human, warm feeling," like his predecessor Madeleine Albright. The Dalai Lama, expressing deep concern for the gap between rich and poor, piled praise on Powell for traveling to Africa — a continent he said had great potential. "This gap must be reduced, so his visit — and taking more care about that continent — eventually I think can be a very big contribution regarding reducing the gap." Asked if he thought Powell would be a good human rights defender, he replied, "I hope so, but it’s too early to say." The Dalai Lama was scheduled to meet President George W Bush today, the day Beijing marks the 50th anniversary of what it calls the "peaceful liberation" of Tibet. The international campaign for Tibet said Vice President Dick Cheney and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice would also attend. The Charismatic Monk, whose status has been enhanced by the support of such famous figures as actor Richard Gere, is also due to be interviewed during his stay by influential television talk show host oprah winfrey for her "O" magazine. (REUTERS) |
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Sonia to visit UK, US next month LONDON, May 23: Congress president Sonia Gandhi plans to visit the UK and the US by the end of next month to revitalise and consolidate overseas congress. Gandhi will be the guest of the Indian Overseas Congress (IOC) during her two-day visit here from June 22, IOC President Balwant Kapoor told PTI here today. She will address a public meeting during the visit besides interacting with the media, Kapoor said, adding her other engagements were being worked out. Gandhi will leave for New York on June 24 and fly to washington the next day. She will proceed to iceland thereafter where she will spend four days as the guest of the president of iceland before returning home, he said. Congress leader and former External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid, who was here, said "Mrs Gandhi wants the Congress party to reach out to its counterparts in different countries." As part of the effort, she had earlier deputed delegations to China, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Iraq and she herself had visited Hong Kong recently, he said. He said unlike BJP, which was confined to domestic affairs, the Congress had a global vision and as leader of the party and the opposition, Gandhi would like to maintain the party’s global links. Khurshid, before arriving here, had visited Germany along with Congress leader Jairam Ramesh and held discussions with the Christian Democratic Union and Socialist Party. (PTI) |
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Taliban defend yellow badges for non-Muslim Afghans KABUL, May 23: Afghanistan’s Taliban on today defended a decree requiring non-Muslims to wear yellow badges, a move that has triggered international outrage and evoked memories of Jews forced to wear yellow stars in Nazi Germany. Senior Taliban Information Ministry official mullah Abdulhanan Himat told the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press that the ruling aimed to protect Hindus and other minorities from the demands of religious police enforcing Muslim rules. "The Ulema (religious scholars) have issued a decree that the non-Muslims in Afghanistan should have a mark of distinction," he said. "Under the decree the ministry of vice and virtue has made it mandatory for the Hindus to wear a yellow badge on their chests," he added. Himat said the order came in response to demands from Afghan Hindus. There are around 1,700 Sikhs and Hindus living in Afghanistan. "This order was issued on the demand of hindus who were concerned all the time because the workers of the ministry for the promotion of virtue and prevention of vice would always ask them to grow a beard or go and offer prayers in the mosque," he said. The decision — which himat said did not apply to visitors to Afghanistan — has produced outrage in the west. Washington has condemned the move as "the latest in a long list of outrageous repressions". "...Forcing social groups to wear distinctive clothing or identifying marks stigmatises and isolates those groups and can never, never be justified," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told a news conference. The move also produced anger in India, where a hardline Hindu group said a dress code for non-Muslims could inflame passions there. Himat said a formal order to enforce the decree had not yet been issued and other Taliban sources said privately they hoped implementation would be stopped. But the Taliban-controlled voice of Shariat radio yesterday quoted religious police chief Maulawi Abdul Wali as saying the order was based on Islamic law. "This decision is in accordance with the Sharia (Islamic law)," said Wali, head of the religious police who work directly under orders of the Taliban leader. The decree was the latest sign of an increasingly hard line by the Taliban inside the 90 percent of Afghanistan they claim to control. (REUTERS) |
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UN looking into reports on dress code for Hindus UNITED NATIONS, May 23: The United Nations is investigating reports that Afghanistan’s Taliban has ordered Hindus to adopt a separate dress code to identify themselves in public but has not been able to confirm them, spokesman Fred Eckhard has said. "The UN office in Afghanistan is looking into it," he told reporters here yesterday. The Taliban said last night it had specified distinctive clothing for Hindus and other minorities which was in line with Islam. It is for the "sake of easy identification" by the militia’s police, it said. "A decision has been taken to order people from Hindus and other minority communities to wear a piece of cloth with a specified colour in order to avoid harassment during police raids," the militia’s official news agency Bakthar quoted Taliban’s Minister for Fostering Virtue and suppressing vice Mullah Abdul Wali as saying. (PTI) |
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Dalai Lama to meet with Bush today WASHINGTON, May 22: In a move that could renew tensions between the United States and China, Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama is scheduled to meet with President George W Bush and his entire foreign policy team during his three-day visit to the US commencing tomorrow. A State Department official told UNI that the Dalai Lama would also meet with US Secretary of State Colin Powell and Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage. He, however, clarified they were meeting him in his capacity as a spiritual leader. A Tibetan official said the Dalai Lama, who has been in the US for a week now, will arrive here tomorrow on the last leg of his visit for a meeting with Mr Bush. He is also slated to address the John Hopkins University on Thursday. The Bush administration had appointed a senior State Department official as coordinator for Tibet last week, while the US Congress has introduced a bill seeking to legitimise the Dalai Lama as the leader of tibet. It says China should hold talks with him to arrive at a negotiated settlement of the tibetan issue. (UNI) |
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17 Lankan navy men killed in landmine blast COOMBOo, May 23: Seventeen Sri Lankan naval personnel were killed and 27 others were injured in a powerful landmine blast suspected to be triggered by LTTE rebels in Trincomalee district in eastern Sri Lanka today, military and hospital sources said. The incident took place when a bus carrying the naval personnel, who were going home on leave, hit a landmine hidden in a culvert at Thamabalakamam, 40 km from Trincomalee on the road to Habarana. Seven of the injured were in a critical condition and are being treated in hospitals at Anuradhapura and Trincomalee, officials said. The blast came within 10 days of three deadly attacks by the LTTE in and around Vavuniya in the north, killing 13 security personnel. The last few days have been marked by an escalation of ground fighting in the north, with the army claiming to have killed over a dozen LTTE cadres on Monday. A bomb also went off at the Trincomalee district headquarters on Monday, wounding three. Meanwhile, a military situation report said five LTTE men were killed by the security forces in different incidents yesterday. Among these, four were killed in an ambush by Government troops, followed by a confrontation with a Tiger party in Welikanda sector. (PTI) |
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Fearing Tehelka, Pak navy wants in-camera trial for Mirza ISLAMABAD, May 23: Fearing a Tehelka like scandal, the Pakistan navy has recommended an ‘in-camera’ trial of its former Chief Admiral Abdul Aziz Mirza, who is being extradited here tomorrow from US, for allegedly receiving kickbacks in the 1.5 billion dollar purchase of French nuclear Agosta-B submarines. Making the recommendation, Pakistan navy has cautioned the military regime that public disclosures which were expected to surface in a big way during the trial could ruin the reputation of the navy and undermine the contractual obligations of manufacturers of Agosta-B submarine, media reports said here today. Admiral Haq was expected to be flown here from Austin in Texas where he settled after he fled the country in 1997 following allegations of payment of kickbacks for the Agosta deal. He was sacked by deposed Premier Nawaz Sharif. Haq is the first highest defence official ever to be tried in the history of military dominated Pakistan. He was being brought here after he voluntarily agreed for extradtion sparing both Pakistan and US Government of a prolonged legal wrangle. His determination to return home to face open trial raised more fears as it is expected to open a pandora box over hitherto talked about allegations of kickbacks about costly deals to purchase military equipment for the three armed services. While the armed forces fearing a Tehelka in the offing pleaded for a close door trial, Gen Musharraf led military administration hoped to improve its sagging ratings by conducting a public trial of the top military official. Gen Musharraf has been accused of conducting public trials of politicians while studiously sparing the men in the uniform. "Haq’s open trial — if ever held — may dramatically improve Gen Musharraf’s ratings in his crusade against corruption in Pakistan," daily News said in a report today. The prospects for such a public trial, however, are fading fast as Pakistan Navy informed the Government that the project regarding the acquisition of three French submarine and the related upgradation to prepare them for any nuclear confrontation could be affected by the expected exposures. "The navy can hardly afford actions that may embarrass the French Government and its defence contractors at this crucial stage of the project," the report said. (PTI) |
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